Thursday: Texas and Oklahoma Facing Must Win Games

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk Texas and Georgia.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I don't know whether this Georgia team is as good
as they've been in the past or not, but they
are playing between the hedges at home in Athens, and
that's a pretty good home field advantage for them. I
think Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, and Clemson are the fourth
schools that have a better home field advantage than UTSA does,
and UTSA may be a little bit lower than that

(00:23):
now that they lost the game earlier in the year
to Texas State, but over going into the season UTSA
was it was Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, UTSA, and Oregon,
and those were the schools that were in the mix.
I think the long Orange is going to have a
hard time winning there. But this is a must must
game for Texas. Texas loses this game, it doesn't matter

(00:44):
what they do the rest of the year, They're not
going to ce FP. What and Texas losing this game
and oh using the same boat with Alabama that we'll
get to in a second, neither one can lose the
rest of the way. They both have two losses. Texas
A and M's got a mulligan. But I don't think
they're losing the South Carolina and I don't think they're
losing to Sanford. But the Georgia Texas game, to me,
is really interesting because Texas has had some close calls

(01:07):
at Kentucky and at Mississippi State, and Georgia is way
better than both of those teams. It's really really hard
to win college football games. It's even harder to win
college football games on the road unless you are just
so much more athletically superior than the other team. And
I think that the Longhorns are going to have a
hard time Saturday night in Athens.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
They need this win.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Georgia's only got one loss, so Georgia still has a mulligan,
but the Longhorns don't.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, I think the I think there are some ut
some percentage of ut fans that are thinking, well, maybe
this isn't a full elimination game for us, because one
of our losses is to number one Ohio State in
Week one and they've stayed number one all season, So

(01:56):
maybe if some other cards fall our way, we could
end up getting in as a three loss team over
say a two loss team from the Big Twelve, or
if Utah were to slide ahead. Maybe by the last rankings,
Texas could climb back, but I completely agree with you.
I think it's I think it's an elimination game for
Texas and an elimination game for ou And really, you know,

(02:22):
even though Texas has turned things around in the win
column since the Florida game, it's been a near escape
in overtime versus Kentucky, it's been a hold on for
dear life against Vanderbilt there in the fourth quarter, and
the Mississippi State game was a pretty tall task to

(02:45):
come back and win that one as well. So I
think if you're just looking, I think this is my
favorite thing about this college football season is you can
talk me into any team not named Ohio State beating
anybody else out of the top fourteen, top sixteen teams.
I think the parody is something unlike we've seen yet

(03:09):
under this playoff format, which is going to make for
potential chaos by the time we get to the final ranking.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, I saw this stat and I'm going to look
it up here as we go just to confirm it.
But it was on one of the ESPN shows a
little while ago. Texas is the ninety fifth best rushing
team in the nation out of one hundred and thirty
four schools.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
That's not good. That's not good.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
UTSA is ahead of them, Texas State's ahead of them.
Those schools all run the ball better.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
And that's two. That's a combination of three things.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Really, it's we don't think that Arch can beat us throwing,
you don't have a very good offensive line, and your running.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Backs are average.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
A combination or all of those three is what that
says about Texas offense.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
The only thing I would say is the running backs.
Maybe it's more it's been more health related, certainly, definitely,
and being average skill wise, I think they're you know,
their top two backs haven't been better than eighty eighty
five percent for the big chunk of this SEC Conference
portion of the schedule. And I think I think the

(04:14):
biggest the biggest one you pointed out there is the
lack of consistency among the offensive line. And we did
see last week they changed, they shuffled the order, shuffled
the position of guys through a new center in there,
and against Vanderbilt it did show that it had some

(04:34):
significant impact towards their run game success in the first
three quarters of that game. Now, Granted, they all of
a sudden couldn't put the game away behind the dominant
offensive line that they had had for the first three
quarters of that game. But I think there are at
least some signs of life if you're a Texas fan
where you can look and say, I feel better about

(04:56):
this offensive line going up against Georgia's front. I feel
way better about it now than I did three four
weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, and anytime you have injuries to your starters and
you're playing guys that aren't quite ready, it's very rare
that a running back unless he is like you know,
Adrian Peterson type, just you know herschel Walker back in
the day, Pedric Benson, guys that are just amazingly built
better and are bigger and stronger and faster than anyone else.

(05:26):
It's really rare that they make an impact. This freshman
and sophomores. The game is way more physical than it
was in high school. They they don't necessarily do things fundamentally.
When UTSA hosted a Quarterback Club San Antonio Quarterback Club
a couple of years ago, and Jeff was talking, was
showing there was a film, the film was already up

(05:49):
in the room and somebody said, hey, can you show
us this play that you've been watching, and so they
can rewind the play back and forth, and so there was.
It was one and I don't know what place called,
but the wing back goes in motion left to right,
and the garden the center blocked to the left, and
the tackle blocks to the right to open up a hole.

(06:10):
And the wing back is the one that's leading the
rusher to wherever he needs to go.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
And I don't even remember who the participants were, who
the players were, but.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
The tight end that was in motion should have blocked
in and he blocked out and the running back and
it was a six yard gain, but it could have
been a fifty yard gain had they done what they
should have done. And so the running back should have
waited another split second for the tight end to make
the right block so that he would have an easier lane.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
And this happened.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
You can go back and forth with the toggle switch
on the film, and you can slow it down at
whatever speeds you want, but this is happening in thousands
of seconds, and you've got a split decision to read
the defense as a tight end and as a running back,
And say, I got to block this guy or that guy?
Which one do I do? And as a running back
when you're in high school, you just go. You don't

(07:08):
even care if the guy blocks you or not, because
you're so much athletically superior than your tight end and
the guy guarding you that you just need an inch
and you're gonna be past him before he knows that
you're there. But in college it's a different animal because
that guy guarding you and defending you and trying to
tackle you.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Is just as good.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
So if the tight end or that wing bag doesn't
make the right block and you're not patient enough to
get the hole correctly, that's where you're going to have
a negative or not as big of a.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Play as you could.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
So when Robert Henry was having the success he had
this year at UTSA, I've never seen him do this,
but he get the handoff and he kind of just
like stutterstep towards the line then boom, there he goes.
And in the past he get the handoff and just go.
And so there's a learning curve that you get as
you grow up. So Sara McCormick was a great freshman,

(07:55):
he was a way better sophomore In junior and so
the same thing you can say about the Texas back
or any other backs. When you're a freshman, your instinct
is get the ball and go because that's what I've
always done. And now there's a coaching process that the
patients has to be follow your block, find the right hole,
otherwise you're going to have a three yard gain instead
of a thirty yard game.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, and I think, you know, along those same lines,
you're seeing more. You know, Texas was starting a true
freshman and eighteen year old offensive lineman going up against
SEC defensive fronts, and I think the game was probably
moving a little faster than he was ready for at
the beginning of their conference schedule, and like you pointed,

(08:35):
you know, missing some of those uh you know, split
second keys, those split second reads he has to make,
and not understanding. I mean, that was why we were
seeing Art having no time in the pocket. You know
that the blitz pick up was was not well communicated
amongst the unit. The you know, even when it wasn't blitz,

(08:55):
when it was just four man five man fronts, they
were still able to find a way to get into
the backfield. And I think that is right along with
what you're saying, where if you if you make that
right key. It's the difference between arch running you know,
a bootleg to evade pressure that is a seven yard

(09:16):
gain versus having you know, a couple seconds in the
pocket to make a seventy yard touchdown path one.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
It's stat of the day here on UTSA and Charlotte.
Absolutely so.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Robert Henry is the sixth leading rusher in the nation.
And I just pulled this up here. He has a
nine hundred and eighty two yards Cam Cook from Jacksonville State,
which is I guess there's I guess they're Division one.
I think they're in the other and I think they're
in Conference USA. Now, Nebraska's Emmitt Johnson's at eleven thirty one,

(09:47):
so Robert's basically about one hundred and forty.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yards behind him.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Charlotte is the one hundred and thirtieth best rush defense. Oh,
they give up two hundred and five a game. Well,
Robert be an in store for a big game this week.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, I would think.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I mean, I'm gonna hand him the ball till he
gets against yards. He could have a three hundred yard
day and catch all those guys.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Well, it's a great Uh, you know, that's a great
stat for Jeff to have in his back pocket as
you're trying to win a conference road game. Nothing no
better way to do that than rind it out, lean
on your heavies, and hand the ball off exactly.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
The weakness their weakness is definitely rushing defense.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
They're amongst the worst in the country.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
And to me, if you can just go down and
methodically beat them up and get three or four scores, uh,
and then get ahead of him, like Matt was telling
us in last hour, they got down to North Texas
twenty eight to or no, North Texas one of the
one of the teams they played twenty eight to nothing
in the first quarter. That's gonna be hard to do
on the road, but maybe we can see that happen.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, real quick.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
On the Robert Henry stats, so he's you know, sixth
in the rankings right now. But if you look at
all of the guys ahead of him, the highest average
carry amongst any of them is Jeremiah Love, the Notre
Dame running back. He's averaging six point four yards of carry.
Robert Henry's averaging seven point six yards of carry on

(11:11):
nine hundred and eighty two yards.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
And had a twenty seven yard game last week against
South Florida. I mean, he just gets like eighty, which
would be way below he's number. He'd even be closer. Yeah,
that's crazy. And he's a perfect example of having a
running back that grew up. He didn't play that way
when he was a freshman of sophomore last year and
this year he's that guy that can wait and be
patient hit the holes. The other game, obviously is OU Alabama,

(11:36):
and Alabama is a slight favorite. In this game, I
want to see which John Mattier plays. I don't think
John Mattier as good as he was before the season began,
but before he got hurt. But I think that he's
playing better competition because even the wins against Auburn and Michigan,
those teams aren't as good as Ole miss and obviously
Texas and now Alabama, and they still have Missouri and

(11:59):
LSU finish up the season after this one. So if
John Mattier plays well, I think, oh, you can go
to Tescaloocid win. If he plays like he did against
the Longhorns, it's going to be a similar day that
we saw in Dallas.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yeah, and you know from the from the perspective of
the two teams playing in the first game, we talked
about if OU can go in and get the win
over Bama, that all of a sudden creates a potential
three way tie amongst ole Miss, Alabama, and the winner
of Georgia Texas As only one loss in the SEC.

(12:34):
So you're opening, ironically the if Texas beats Georgia and
OU beats Alabama, that could ironically be oh you opening
the door for Texas to sneak into a SEC championship
game appearance if they can end up beating A and M.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Because they'd have the tiebreaker with the win over OU.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Right, Yeah, so then and the same thing too is
if if they beat Alabama, now you're looking at a
potential maybe oh you Georgia or OHU Texas A and
M game in the championship game.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
The only problem is OU already has the two conference losses.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
They're Adam mulligans.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
They they got they gotta go that got to run
the table and to be in any of that.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's the only reason I say it might not. It's
going It's as close as it can be to an
elimination game. For Texas, but it might not be as
drastic of a loss because they still only have the
one loss in the SEC.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, and so it We still have a month to
go before we sort all this out and get who
the participants are. But I still think there's going to
be four SEC teams in the OH at least in
the SWEE sit in that sixteen or twelve team.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Playoffs at least. I'm just rooting for chaos. Just give
me chaos is good. I want to shows. I want
a different Top twelve every Tuesday night we see those
rankings release