Voice Of The Texas Longhorns Craig Way Joins The Show!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
By thirty year on the A team, Adam Wexler, Adam
Plant here with you, and a real pleasure to be
joined by the Voice of Texas Longhorn Football and Athletics,
Greg Way at Horn Voice on the X platform and
Craig We've had a chance to chat many times over
the years. I don't know with as much excitement or
hype as we head into this Saturday's season opener, not

(00:26):
just for the player that's going to be quarterback, but
for the team in general. What has it been like
in the middle of it all, with the players speaking
again earlier this week, and the hype about all of it,
and now the football has almost arrived.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, Adam, I think you're spot on with the direction
it's heading, because this is my thirty eighth year on
the network and my twenty fifth and the play by
play chair, and I can tell you, honestly, I've never
seen this much anticipation, excitement and yes, hype for a
coming football season as I've seen this one. And maybe

(01:01):
that makes sense since this is the first time that
Texas has been a preseason number one in school history,
so maybe it all aligns properly. Now we'll see how
the season plays out. Well.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
It's interesting because the last time Ohio State was on
the calendar, yeah, at the Horseshoe this early in the year.
We know how that season wound up, and I felt
like I remember that vividly. But coming off that win
over Michigan, you know, the Vince Young led squad was
so hyped, but USC was overshadowing all that. So I

(01:31):
guess to lend itself to your point, this probably is
a coupled with the number one ranking. I just don't
I don't know if you're wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
A great point, and I remember somebody else had asked
me about this about, you know, similarities and differences between
then and now twenty years ago. In two thousand and five,
there are similarities. Texas was number two that night in
Columbus and Ohio State was number four. This time, it's
one in three in the eighth heat poll. But a

(02:01):
lot of the similarities in there because the fact that
Ohio State is a defending national champion, and back then
five with USC being a defending national champion and number one,
everybody was zeroed in on USC and their win streak,
and it was kind of like, who's going to be
the battle for number two. Would it be Ohio State,

(02:23):
would it be Penn State, or would it be Texas?
And it was a real proving ground that night in
the Horseshoe to the log Warns and getting the late
touchdown passed the line of Swede and secure of the win.
From that point on. It was kind of almost like
as they say in Nascar, when you get ahead of
the pack, you're running in clean air. So at that
point the only car in front of them was USC

(02:45):
and they just had to run them down at the
end at the rose ball. So it was a big thing. Now,
the difference, clearly, as we know, is in this day
and age of the twelve team playoff, a loss is
not going to wreck the season for either side. Whoever
loses the game do they take a dan guess, But
whoever wins this will be kind of out in that

(03:05):
clean air and a chance to really run hard and
have a chance to be not only in the playoff,
but get the all important first round by at least
in this twelve teen version of the playoff, and worked
from there.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yes, Adam mentioned Craig, the Longhorns have been to the
Shoe before, but only once before. Thus undefeated in Columbus
against the Ohio State Buckeyes is the element of the
Texas defense returning as much strength as they do, plus
their coordinator versus the Ohio State offense with a new
coordinator and a new quarterback, an area where people believe

(03:40):
is a decided potential advantage for Texas.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well, that's going to be interesting to see as well,
because and I think Sark made a good point of
this yesterdays news conference. He said, yes, Ryan Hartline is
the OC, and of course he's an Ohio State hero
from the receiving end of things. And and Matt Patricia
who has an NFL pedigree of course, and as a

(04:05):
coordinator and had a short time as a head coach,
he's the new defensive coordinator. But in the final analysis,
he said, Ryan Day's got his fingerprints all over this thing,
and especially on the offensive side. I do think to
your point, Adam, that having the personnel that they have
back defensively three preseason all Americans are all on the

(04:25):
defensive side of the football, with Colin Simmons coming off
the edge and Anthony Hillett linebacker and Michael taff coordinating
the secondary. Their strengths all the way down that central
nervous system of the defense. So I think all of
that is really important, and I think that's going to
be a crucial edge for Ohio State with what they've
done and what they are anticipating in what they are

(04:47):
hoping they'll see out of Julian Saying at quarterback.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
We were talking to Craig Way, the voice of the
Longhorns here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. We asked
Mike Craven earlier of Dave Campbell's Texas Football about the
hype about the team but also about Arch Manning individually.
And I know you are all too aware of that
scenario going into this game. Forget that for a second.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
If your Arch, how.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Do you block all of that out and just try
and do your best with what you I mean because
there's so many predictions about what he's going to be
and all this kind of stuff in his last name
plays into it clearly, But how do you I guess
he's gotten used to that by now just being in
a family that he's in. How do you block all
that out, especially in such a huge matchup like this
your first time out there.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, that is the million dollar question, or in his case,
for nil purposes the six million dollar question. But you know,
I do think to your last part of that, the
family has prepared him well for this. He's been around it.
So I pointed out, this is a guy who's been
president at Super Bowls, he's been president at yellow jackets

(05:57):
being draped on Hall of Famers, So he's been around
the high environment, the atmosphere that it's around, but it's
never centralized him. Now he also has a really good
handle on a lot of that stuff. Funny guy, low
key guy, laid back guy, and doesn't seem to let

(06:20):
anything excite him too much or get him down too much.
He runs at a great even keel. Having said that,
his teammates will I'll tell you he's one heck of
a competitor and he's not above in a respectful and
good nature way. Give it a little trash talk to
a guy like Michael taff A preseason All Americans and
the secondary and stuff like that. He condition out and

(06:42):
he can take it as well. And I think that's
a good approach and atmosphere for him to have going
into the microscope that is playing quarterback for the University
of Texas.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Billion different ways to analyze this game, And that's why
it is kind of fun that it is the first game,
because it's all everybody's been talking about for such a
long period of time. The rest of the roster for
the Longhorns, I've said pretty much the entire offseason. I
think they have the best roster in college football. And
then we'll find out how good their quarterback is. Running
Back depth, wide receiver depth. Clearly the offensive line having

(07:16):
so many changes a point of concern, But do you
believe that their roster as a whole, maybe not considering
the quarterback is as good as the number one ranking suggests.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
I think it's about as good as anybody's that you
mentioned the questions autam and they're there. DJ Campbell is
the only returning starter on the offensive line, But I
think it's important to point out that even though Campbell's
the only returning starter, the guys who are going to
play along that offensive front, the guys who are going
to start, had a lot of snaps quality snaps last year.

(07:49):
Trevor Gooseby had to start at left tackle in the
SEC Championship game against Georgia because Kelvin Banks was out
with that sore hank when he had to play a
lot in the Peach Bowl Game as well, so you know,
there are questions with regard to that. There's a couple
other spots, and then of course everybody has zeroed in

(08:10):
on Arch and the whole quarterback piece of it. I'm
also curious to see how CJ. Baxter does. We're turning
it running back. He had a great freshman year and
then of course had the knee injury in fall camp
last year, so he couldn't play. Now, you know, Trey
Wisler promptly rushers for a thousand yards. But I do
think they've got a two headed monster there. I think

(08:30):
they've got excellent receivers. Even though they graduated guys like
Matthew Golden, they do have a Ryan Wingo who's a
real weapon there. And also DeAndre Moore is a veteran there.
And they added through the portal an outstanding tight end
and Jack Hendries who came in from Cow So they
filled spots. Other guys have grown into the positions. Now

(08:52):
we'll see how it all congeals as they take the
field Saturday morning.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
We're talking to Craig Way here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Before we let you go this has nothing to do
with this upcoming season. I just I've always wanted to
ask you this question, how the hell did you not
lose your mind when Vince crossed the goal line in
the Rose Bowl? I mean, I know you did, but
how did you even get the words out of your mouth?
That was the greatest college football game I've ever seen?

Speaker 2 (09:18):
It was It was a fabulous game, wasn't it. I'll
tell you a couple of things. There's a couple of
things that I've only spoken about on a couple of
occasions with regard to that call the fourth and five.
First off, I had the advantage of seeing him make
some spectacular plays over the course of really two and

(09:39):
a half years. So, and Keith Moorland was working the
broadcast with me when when they scored after they were
down thirty eight twenty six, when they got it to
thirty eight thirty three, Keith and I said to each
other during the break, if they get a stop, they'll
win this football game, because usc is running out of

(10:00):
ways to try to stop Vince. And then obviously they
had the fourth and two stop, and so we turned
and looked at each other and we just kind of
had a and I've never had that feeling about any
other time in my twenty five years of doing the
play by play that it was going to happen. But
I just had a feeling. Now they had a convert
a fourth down prior to that along the way with
the pass, but you just kind of had a feeling

(10:21):
he would find a way to do it. Here's the
other thing, Adam. When I called that game, where the
broadcast booths at the Rose Bowl, they had us all
the way down at the very end, at the opposite
end of the field, the other end zone from where
event scored the winning touchdown. I was in the last booth. Now,

(10:46):
let me tell you, I'd worked out of that booth
before the prior year for the Rose Bowl against Michigan
and also doing Major League Soccer when I was doing
Dallas in there. They bumped us down there and put
Russian radio toward midfield. I never understood that, so they did,
and so I was used to that thing. But I
had to stick my neck pretty far out of that

(11:06):
window to see it, to be able to see for
sure where he was. So I was kind of in
the same boat with everybody else. I'm just kind of
following along and hoping he'd find a way to do it.
And as you know, at that point, you let the
organics of the moment take the moment. Try not to
contrive anything. Always said, I if I made up a

(11:28):
call or something or try to do something, I would
mess it up. I would really mess it up. So
you just let it roll to you and roll with it.
And that's what happened.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Well, you didn't disappoint with the answer. I actually got
two for the price of one, Craig, I hope you're
calling something like that similar. I don't know how you
would top that, but something similar to that at the
end of this upcoming season. And we're looking forward to
hearing each and every call right here on our network.
But thanks for the time and good luck this season
up there in Austin.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Hey, if it only happens once every twenty year, that
means they're due again, right, So absolutely, I'll go along
with that. I appreciate being along with you guys, and
appreciate you guys carrying us all season long. The a
t on Sports Talk seven, nineteen