Bi-District Round Begins, Sark Looks Ahead to Georgia

A top ten showdown between Texas and Georgia is just two days away, meanwhile Texas Men's Basketball picked up a home win over FDU. Hear from Steve Sarkisian and Sean Miller on this edition of the program -- Plus, KXAN's Roger Wallace previews some of the area's best matchups in high school football.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
On the Thursday and on the downhill run to the weekend.
Isn't that a good thing? Glad to have you with us.
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome for the program here on Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred zone. My name is Craig Way.
Glad to have you with us, and glad to get
you to the weekend. A lot of football, basketball conversation,

(00:33):
some bizarre things, some of which will land in inconceivable
some will just be outside of that window as well.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
We also have a guest coming.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Your way, Roger Wallace, my broadcast partner long Worn Football,
who will separate himself from us this weekend. He won't
be in the booth with me in Athens, Georgia, because
we got a home long Worn.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Basketball game that needs broadcasting.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
So Roger will stay back and broadcast the Texas Kansas
City game on Saturday afternoon Saturday at noon, and then
after that it'll be Keith Morland joining me on the
Long Worn Football broadcast, along of course with Will Matthews,
and we'll bring you that contest with our coverage beginning

(01:18):
at two thirty. Okay, so topics to get to first
of all, Long Worn men's basketball defeated Fairleigh Dickinson University
last night ninety three point fifty eight and Tremon mark
nine of thirteen from the floor game high twenty points
as well.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Since he has.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Moved from off the point from the Duke game to
back to the two guard spot, he seems pretty comfortable
in that.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
We'll ask him about that.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
And they also got another big effort as well inside
from Modus Poka Titus who had nineteen points despite playing
less than half of the ball game due to foul difficulty.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
So Texas got the win.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
And after the game, it was visiting with Long Warren's
assistant coach, Can you hunter about the performance? Let me
get your overview overall, what you thought about the team's
effort and execution today.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
I thought tonight we came out with the right mindset.
You know, the first four minutes, they scored quick points.
They got ten in the first four minutes, and then
I think our got settled in. They were cutting harder
in the offense, and it's surprised us a little bit.
But I thought after that the first four minutes, I
thought we got comfortable. Same thing to start in the
second half, I thought they got the ten quick points

(02:31):
and then our guys adjusted to it. But overall, I
thought we competed well and we executed on both sides
of the ball.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
What's the message to the guys when you see that happen,
maybe a little bit unexpecting, the guys are cutting hard
and all of that, and you speak to the guys.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
What's the message to them in those moments?

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Well, just the discipline of how we have been teaching
them what to expect, you know, with their team that
was cutting, so just staying underneath for the back cuts,
and we tried to get better at that. And I thought,
you know, especially later on in that first sab, I
thought we did a great job of contestant shots and
getting to these shooters.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
You work for your bigs in sibs and now you
had fifty points inside.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
Talk you about your playing side and.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Scoring well Modis and Lasina Lasina rebound of the ball.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
Modis was eight for eight today.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Getting the ball to those guys is important, I think,
especially Matis, you know, scoring around the basket.

Speaker 5 (03:24):
He's done a very good job of that.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Do you see even more comfort coming for Tremont since
you guys moved him more off the ball and into
that two.

Speaker 5 (03:32):
Slides I think so. And for him feeling comfortable.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
We need him to score the ball, and I think
him feeling comfortable and Coach really reienterating that message to
him to be that guy.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
In the last two games he's done.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
That and seeing Jordan and sim and the other guys
get in.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Also, sim had seven rebounds defensive rebounds, which is good.
And I thought he pushed the pace as well on
offense and was able to get a couple of layups
in transition.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Is Lacina gonna be come a rebounding monster house.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
So we need him too, both him and mont Is
on both sides of the ball. Us being able to
rebound them by nineteen is good and we got to
continue that.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
The reference there was to Lasina Trerio, who had ten
rebounds for Texas. He mentioned Simmey and Wilter Sim as
he likes to call him, had seven defensive rebounds in
the ballgame and monos phocotitis you know's going to hit
the board. So the long wards have been a good
job of rebounding early in basketball games. Their next action
comes up on Saturday against Kansas City. You can hear

(04:34):
it here on thirteen under the zone eleven thirty Saturday
morning with the airtime. The tip off is at noon
and Roger Wallis will join Eddie Oornt for the call
of that as I'll be in Athens, Georgia, as I mentioned,
with Keith Morland stepping in for Roger on the football
broadcast with US on Saturday, and Will Matthews on the sidelines.
All right, we're gonna hear later on in the program

(04:56):
that was assistant coach Kenya Hunter. We will hear from
Sean Miller, the head coach, from his press conference. We
will hear from Long Oorne head football coach Steve Sarkisian.
Sart had his final weekly media availability today. He makes
himself available three times during the week, the Monday press conference,
then on Wednesday in the SEC teleconference, and then on

(05:17):
Thursday is his last visit with the media before the weekend,
and that is his media zoom. And we'll hear from
Sart coming up a little later on in the program
as well, so we'll hear those comments. Also a visit
with Tremon Mark who had the twenty point game last night.
So we've got all of that to get to and

(05:39):
as I mentioned, we'll HAVEVI in conceivable this hour and
we'll visit with Roger Wallace coming up here in a
few moments. We do have a full show and we're
more than happy also to entertain your questions, your thoughts,
your comments. You need only textus. You text the word
Texas follow by your question or comment to eight one
five three zero. So text the word Texas follow by

(06:01):
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Standard messaging and data rates may apply, and you can
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Speaker 2 (06:21):
It'll pop right up.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
We suggest you make it a preset there to help
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message up to thirty seconds. So it's a couple of
different ways you can go with that. Before we get

(06:45):
to the break, This just came down a while ago,
and it's pretty important stuff. We've been talking a lot
about the College Football Playoff and we had a lot
of sound bites from Mac Rhodes, the Baylor University president
and athletics director, who also is the chairman of the
College Football Playoff Committee.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
So he's been giving all of these comments and.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Comes word late this morning that Mac Rhodes is stepping
away from both his Baylor athletic director position and the
College Football Playoff chairman position for personal reasons. Rich Clark,
the CFP executive director, told ESPN today that Rhodes will
step down from his role with the committee at this

(07:31):
time for personal reasons. The CFP likely will try to
replace Rhodes and will work on naming a new chair.
Rhodes told ESPN he initiated to lead from his Baylor role,
but declined to explain why. There's been a couple of
different guesses toward it. Baylor told ESPNS Adam Rittenberg that
the university received allegations involving roads on Monday, but these

(07:54):
allegations do not involve Title nine student welfare or in
CAAA rules, and they don't involve the football program. Indicating
it's a separate incident from rhodes alleged altercation with a
football player back in September against Arizona State. The College
Football Playoff Committee typically requires athletic directors on the selection

(08:17):
committee to be active sitting athletic directors, so it's a
twelve person group already one member short this season. Committee
member Random McDaniel also stepped away last month for personal reasons.
Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurchik has been nominated as the
new CFP Committee chair, while Utah athletic director Mark Harlan

(08:38):
has been nominated to replace Rhodes on the committee.

Speaker 6 (08:41):
And he's been on the committee before.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Craig, Yeah, so I don't know where all this is
going to go, but it is odd and strange that
it happens at this point. Two committee rankings have come
out and they're just really getting deep into the into
the weeds on all of this. So now this gets
thrown in, so we'll we'll take a closer look at

(09:05):
it as he goes all right. Up next, Roger Wallace
joins us UH to talk some log worn football and
big big high school football weekend.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's round one of the I don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Okay, so our producer Jay Herman was obviously bumping back
with Jimmy Buffett, but given the musical taste and interest
of our first guest, uh, but I think it goes
deeper than that. Roger Wallis, of course sports director k
X and I'm a broadcast partner, A log worn football
joins me. Now he selected volcano there, Roger, And given

(09:41):
what's happened with the college football Playoff committee, with the
news coming down about Mac road stepping away, maybe it's
kind of volcanic.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
After all.

Speaker 7 (09:49):
I'm glad Jake got the memo, finally got some buffet
leading ned.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
I always wait for that music winner. Okay, where are
we going here? But yeah, how about that? I mean
mean that is that is uh.

Speaker 7 (10:02):
Not what that committee needed right now to uh to
have to be dealing with it. Not to mention obviously
Bayard University and their their athletic department, but that's that's
pretty wild that he's out there in front of everybody
on Tuesday night about the about the latest rankings and
then this happens.

Speaker 5 (10:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
And one thing I've noticed about Mac Rhodes, uh, in
the first two rankings, he's been very very direct about
why they do what they do and how they watch games.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
He's been very firm and talking about that.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Where in the past we've seen some other Kudys going, well,
you know where where this and there might have been
a little bit of perceived equivocation.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Not with him.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
He's been pretty direct on all of this. So I
guess it's pretty direct and blunt that he's having a
step away, as it's called for personal reasons. Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
I know.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
There was a separate thing that happened at with the
Arizona State game, although Baylor says it has nothing to
do with that. That was when he had the confrontation
with the tight end Michael Trigg about the color of
the suret he was wearing during the Baylor game with
Arizona State. The school had issue to release saying the
incident was thoroughly reviewed and investigating in the coccordance with

(11:09):
the university policies, appropriate actions were taken and the matter
is now close.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
So it was that, But.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
You know, so they said that it has nothing to
do with it, So naturally everybody's going to wonder two things. One,
what's he done or why is this happening? But more
importantly with Randall McDaniel now stepping away. Really the committee
was at the moment down the ten players on it,
but it looks like they've made the choice nominating Hunter
Yurchek the Arkansas AD and the Utah I D Mark

(11:39):
Harlan nominated to replace Roads on the committee. So it's
a big twelve guy replacing a big twelve guy. And
then you've got Hunter Yurrocheck coming in as the committee
chairman and an SEC guy.

Speaker 7 (11:51):
Yeah, of course, kind of a big twelve guy right
at Utah.

Speaker 6 (11:54):
I mean he's in that many.

Speaker 7 (11:56):
Big twelve routes as far as when you know, names
like text has come up in those committee meetings, which
I always find interesting because how can you one hundred
percent check your any kind of feelings at the door
in a sport that has been so contentious over the
last two decades with the movement and the conference shakeups

(12:19):
and schools feeling like they might be in peril with
their standing because of what other schools do. So yeah,
it's it's interesting and not a great time considering what's
going on this time of year, and obviously there's going
to be a mad dash for those last few I
guess we call them a large spots in the final twelve,

(12:41):
which I think Texas has got a path there even
if they don't win all these three, and that will
certainly come down.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
To that room.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
By the way, the one thing I noticed when I
was up for the Cotton Bowl semifinal against Ohio State
last year and staying at the Gaylord, that's where the
committee meets and all that.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
One thing I noticed about that big place.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
There's lots of hallways and corridors, so if there's some
side campaigning on, there's plenty of room for it if
it were to happen there.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
So yeah, we like to.

Speaker 7 (13:12):
Call that, you know, getaway places in these hotels.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
You brought up the point, and we heard and we're
going to hear from start from the media zoom this morning.
We'll hear from him a little later on, but he
was pretty much dialed in and focused on his team
and where they were in Georgia. There. I have noticed
you probably have as well that as the season has progressed,
there have been more and more questions about the opponent

(13:38):
than early in the See, nobody wanted to talk about
San Jose State or Sam Houston or you know whatever
U tap and you really can't. I guess can't blame
me too much about this, but I thought you brought
up a good point here, because there are people who
are examining all of this with a fine tooth come
saying what happens if Texas splits the two games against
the top five opponents, sat whiched around a win over

(14:01):
Arkansas and they're sitting at nine and three outside the
SEC championship game, and the knee jerk reactions say, oh,
you mean Alabama last year nine and three and outside
the SEC championship.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Game and they got nosed.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Doubt they didn't get it, But there seems to be
more of a feel for how Texas might have a
better shot. If nothing else, a win would give them
against either of those teams a third win over a
top ten team. So it might be a little bit
different than the situation Alabama.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Had last year.

Speaker 7 (14:32):
Yeah, and you know, you think about they go on
the road as number one, but an underdog to Ohio State.
You can hardly hold that one against them. So basically
it comes down to Florida, right, I.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Mean, you know, because Georgia or A and M.

Speaker 7 (14:47):
That's a top five, maybe a top two, depending on
what happens.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
In the rankings with A and M.

Speaker 7 (14:53):
So I just think with that body of work, and
I think that there will be a three lost team.
And obviously Notre Dame plays a role if they get
beat one of these games, and that really opens the
door for a three loss team.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
But yeah, I think so.

Speaker 7 (15:10):
Just logic tells me unless they plumb it, say they
lose Saturday and plummet, I think they can certainly climb
their way back in.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, Roger Wallace joining us here on thirteen hundred the
zone with regard to basketball, long Waran basketball. You'll step
in from me on Saturday against Kansas City. But one
thing that I continue to say this early on now,
the rank and file fan doesn't see this because the
regular fan isn't at the practice floor. You've been to

(15:38):
the practice floor, You've seen it. And I continue to
be impressed with how Sean Miller is really teaching these guys.
He and his staff coaching these guys up. But a
lot of teaching going on which can't be anything but
good down the road, even as they still have to
stumble upon some lessons along the way.

Speaker 7 (15:58):
Yeah, and I think that was one of the reputations
that when CDC hired him was that you're getting a teacher,
a mind, a basketball mind. And yes, you've got to
be able to recruit, you've got to do all those things.
You've got to be out in front of the program,
be the face of the program.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
But you know, I think I think you're right.

Speaker 7 (16:15):
I think if you go to a practice, you see
exactly what he's doing behind closed doors. And I think
we saw it even last night with some guys. We
saw some some differences. And I'm saying it's about teaching,
but just becoming a little bit more comfortable and playing
game three and in game four. And that's one of
the things I asked him earlier in the week was
about these games. You know, you don't really think much

(16:37):
of FDU or U MKC or some of the other schools.
I guess now it's just Kansas City. But it's the
first time, second time, third time he's sees guys in
a game, how they respond, how they respond to him,
to the assistant coaches, to the refereeing, and the moments,
and I think those are very important in November and December,
and I think we're seeing that here early on.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, and then after Kansas City on said they have
writer and that's the last game before heading them out.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
He's that four game stand into the questions.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
You asked him about the difference between practice and games,
and he talked about how critical it is that they
continue to ramp the performance up, taking what they're learning
in practice onto the floor, no matter the opponent, and
for being completely honest, these are four teams that the
log warns should be able to beat and beat Handley,
and they've done that so far, but they have two

(17:28):
to go off of that. But he wants to see
the improvement not necessarily just reflective in the score. Although
when somebody asked him what are you looking to see
from these four games, he said, first and foremost wins
got to have wins.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 7 (17:42):
And I look at a guy like we's seen the
trai and the difference how he's looked till last night's game,
and the boy looked a lot more comfortable offensively. And
they're going to have to have a lot from him,
because you know, he and Vokatidis are kind of holding
it down on the block. They're gonna both have to
play significant minutes Bokatitis is a very unique talent to
me in this day and age of college basketball. He

(18:04):
can play with his back to the basket, which you
don't see quite as often as we used to, kind
of a true center, but also certainly has enough offensive
skills and weapons. He gets a little bit out of control,
but you know, he's young and he's at a different level.
But man, he's his upside, as they love to say,
seems seems pretty high.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
The way that Sean likes to describe him as occasionally
bull in a China shop in terms of how he
can kind of get like that a little bit. But
I think folks will get excited to see what he's
capable of doing. Okay, I want to move on to
high school football because this is round one.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
It's always a big, big week, and we had that.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
We had that final kind of climactic week a week
ago with Dripping Springs beating West Leg and it was
great to see you guys had a really good sound
bites and good footage on East Side getting into the
playoffs for the first time in school history. I mean,
I look at you know, those are into the Yang
type stories on one end of the spectrum, to the
other along with that ride down the stretch at twenty

(19:07):
five six A to see where it's kind of like
the high school football version of the ACC's Wheel of Destiny,
isn't it? To see who's got ultimately going to emerge
from that? And it wound up being Huddo, Vista Ridge,
and Round Rock, which took Vandergrift overtime, and now they
get to play. It's kind of a weird deal, isn't
Rogers here? They are playing Lake Travis State, ranked higher

(19:30):
seed and it's going to be the Round rock Ist
athletic facility.

Speaker 8 (19:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (19:35):
And I asked, thank Carrett Carter about that. We'll have
that one tomorrow night on KBVO and.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
He said, he's a twenty five six A.

Speaker 7 (19:42):
So hard to prepare for when you're trying to get
matchup set because you know it's going to not just
come down to the final Friday, but ten o'clock on
the final Friday. And sure enough, he couldn't have been
more right. How about those finishes in those ball games?
I mean Round Rock has a field goal attempt blocked
for a while off over time touchdown.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
Uh, but then Vis Ridge, as you know, they kind of.

Speaker 7 (20:06):
Struggled early on, but but pulled away from Westwood so
that they did them the favor they had to do,
and and so Around Rock gets in. But he said,
we just had to we had to make a commitment,
and we we don't really care that it's a Round
Rock is st Stadium. It's not it's not Dragon Stadium.
And then it's a good stadium. So you know, they're
they're the team without a country right now, without a
home field. So they had to do what they had

(20:27):
to do. And so they'll they'll play up there, and
you know, they'll take a ton of people up there.
And I'm sure Round Rock clock nice crowd as well.
But that should be that should be a lot of
fun tomorrow night at Kelly Reeves.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, and and uh, you're right. I mean, look, it
all pretty much goes neutral after the first round anyway.
And the reason why I say pretty much is if
if I were if I were a coach of a
team that's going to play Lake Travis after this weekend
and you're gonna play them, I think I would do
the old Odessa Permian trick. And what Permian used to

(20:58):
do was they would flip Ratlifte Stadium in Odessa. Let's
say they were playing Arlington Lamar, because I did a
game between these two. They would flip Ratliffe Stadium in
Odessa to Texas Stadium because all the metro pleg schools
like playing at Texas Stadium. But Permian didn't mind the
three hundred and thirty five mile drive going in there
because it was a big venue. Kind of what Hank

(21:21):
Carter's talking about there. Finally it took Eddie Peach at
Arlington Lamar. No, no, no, we're gonna flip Craven's Field, their
small little stadium for your place, or we're gonna go
Texas Stadium neutral. That's what we're gonna do. You know
that kind of thing. And I think other schools might say,
you know, let's say on down the road, they're playing
Brennan or somebody, and they said, oh no, no, we'll flip

(21:43):
We'll flip the rock pile, We'll flip our home stadium
against where are you going to play dripping springs? Okay,
you know that kind of thing. And there's a lot
of machinations that go into all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
This time of year, I think.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
We had a Lake Travis Brennan game at Dripping Springs
a quarterfinal games that sound right, Yeah, and I think
Brent came in undefeated. Yeah, and Lake Travis just undressed him.
And I'm pretty sure that was at Drip. But yeah,
I mean, they're a really good team. And I asked Hank,
I said, you know, is this one of these teams?
I mean, anybody knows how to make a run and

(22:17):
what it takes to make a run. He goes, yeah,
We're We're pretty good, especially that defense. So I'm not
sure if it's going to matter who's going to play,
especially if they get by that second round, then things
change a little bit with the matchups all the way
to the semi final.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
And by the way, the computer likes the Cavaliers by
twenty six points. The computer likes Huddle against Bowie, but
only by two points.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Rogers.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
The computer thinks this thing is going to be really,
really tight at Huddo Memorial Stadium on Friday.

Speaker 7 (22:48):
You know, I've started to believe you because how many
games have I texted you during our game thing?

Speaker 4 (22:54):
I guess the computer knows it's weird.

Speaker 7 (22:57):
It's been it has been some one that have been
surprisingly accurate. So yeah, and you know Round Rocks had
a weird season because they've they've played a lot of
really close games.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
And they've been on the wrong end of them.

Speaker 7 (23:09):
Going back to Week two, lost by a touchdown to Temple.
Other than the Shoemaker game where they got beat pretty bad,
it's all been one score games where they've lost. And
they had a weird Stony Point game. They're tied at
thirty eight at the half and they win sixty six
thirty eight.

Speaker 9 (23:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (23:27):
Yeah, They've got their quarterback back Apple, so you've got
two quarterback system now they're playing.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
So that adds a.

Speaker 7 (23:34):
Little bit of preparation for Lake Travis. But but again,
Lake Travis has been so good this year, especially on
the defensive end.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
That's gonna be that's gonna be a tough, tough one
for Round Rock.

Speaker 7 (23:46):
They only scored seventeen against against Vandergriff and Lake Travis
probably a better defense, I would think than vander Griff.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Could be a tough dive as well. For Vista Ridge.
You've got that game against Drew pingk Springs Tonight's over
and drip. By the way, the computer like Stroping Springs
by thirty. I don't know that the margin necessarily is
gonna be that wide, but obviously just a Ridge is
going to have a tands full with a really good
dripping springs team.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Boy, aren't they.

Speaker 7 (24:08):
How about that that win against Westlake on the road,
And talked to Galen Zimmerman, and I know you have
as well, but.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
Very you know, very business like. I said, how tough
was it to come back to practice.

Speaker 7 (24:20):
After that win? Short week? And you gave us the
old twenty four hour rule. So I asked some about
the guts to call that field goal a forty four
yard field goal to put it to ten. You don't
make it give you give Westlake the ball back on
pretty good field position down a touchdown. And Ian French

(24:40):
is the kickers name he goes, I'm full confidence in him,
and I mean he just banged it home.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
So they're pretty impressive.

Speaker 7 (24:46):
They've got they've got some big receivers, and they've got
a junior quarterback that's really good, completing seventy percent of
his passes named Chase Ames.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
What do you make of the Westlake of vandergrid by
disacream which, by the way, for folks wanting to they've
been used to seeing it on KXA and Plus ing
West like this week Tomorrow night, it's going to be
live on Victory Plus.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I normally call it games on Victory Plus.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
I won't be calling tomorrow obviously, I'll be in Athens,
but it'll be on Victory Plus tomorrow night. But uh
this in the computer, by the way, likes Westlake by
a touchdown in this But what a what a unique matchup.
This is between a six A Division two defending state
champ and a six A Division one state finalist a
year ago. And they're amazing what about maybe six miles

(25:32):
apart as the crow flies.

Speaker 7 (25:34):
Amazing that that we get this first round matchup. And
uh uh, you know, I think Vanders a little nicked
up at quarterback, so you know that's that's not good.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Deck is such a good quarterback.

Speaker 7 (25:46):
For them, but I you know, west Lake is just
not quite I think what we thought. And again, Craig,
you know as well as anyone, if you can get by.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
This first one, you can make a run.

Speaker 7 (25:59):
Oh yeah, And so you know this might be both
of those tough. Whoever comes out ahead, that might be
their toughest game.

Speaker 10 (26:07):
For a while.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Five a's always interesting, Roger, and especially in division one now.
Anderson had the disappointing end of the regular season with
the loss last week, as they lost in the season
finale to Weiss, but they're still picked. Went at home
at House Park on Saturday afternoon. The computer likes him
by ten against Friends with and the computer likes.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
WWISE by two.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
On the road playing at Laporte. A really good Laporte team.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
This Wise team.

Speaker 7 (26:40):
I mean, not only are they extremely talented, they're so young.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
They had a freshman running.

Speaker 7 (26:48):
Back, Jasper that you know, he stole the show from
Caleb Crenshaw who was trying to break the AIST record
last Thursday, and it was the freshman who's kind of
climbed the depth chart because of a sinjure. But they
are they are wildly talented. I imagine Laport's going, we
are playing this team in the first round. This is
the number four team coming out of that district. So yeah,

(27:09):
I think they're dangerous. But weren't they top ten They
were absolutely yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean they're loaded.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (27:18):
And then that team was on visits.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
So the weekend I was reading on social media.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
There is some of that.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
The other thing that is so weird about five A
division one is that you have a Greater Austin Central
Texas UH area district in Region two, which means they
push north. So that's how we get matchups like Georgetown
against Burlison Centennial. It'll be at Birkelbach UH tomorrow night,
and and UH. Then you have Cedar Park playing Tyler

(27:46):
in the by district round playing Tyler at Cumpton tomorrow night,
and then Eastview has to travel up to mid Lothian
and UH, and then Lake Belton is playing at Highland Park.
But it's it's unique anytime you get those CUSP match
upstairs that cross regional boundaries even though they're in the
same region.

Speaker 7 (28:04):
Yeah, I about what Cedar Park did with Georgetown Friday
to kind of throw that that district a little bit
on its ear. East You lost out on a home
game because of that. It would have been the two seed.
They would have had back to back games at Berkelbach
on Thursday and Friday. But what a great, great win
for Cedar. But you know, the first time I'd ever
heard of I was in Tyler working in the eighties,

(28:27):
and the first time I ever heard of round Rock
was when playoffs would roll around and inevitably an East
Texas team would end up playing Round Rock. What's Round Rock?
And then I, you know, that was like nineteen eighty seven. Obviously,
now I've been living there for over three decades.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
There it is.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
It'll be on KBVO tonight.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
It is tonight at seven. They're at Drips.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Both games are at seven.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yep, okay, both games at seven tonight Dripping Springs hosting
Vista Ridge seven o'clock on KBVO, and then tomorrow Lake
Travis and Round Rock at the Palace at Kelly Reads
Athletics Complex. Hey, I appreciate you stepping in for me
on basketball. And I know you've got a very busy weekend,
a full week and people say that to me a lot,
but got nothing on you this weekend, So enjoy.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
It, looking forward to it.

Speaker 7 (29:16):
And I think Keith will go right from Tiger Stadium
to the airport after this one tonight and.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
With our five thirty am departure tomorrow, that makes sense.
Thanks Roger, good luck man all right, fire That is
Roger Wallace from KBV, Keith Morland and Will Matthews all
were flying out at five thirty tomorrow morning.

Speaker 11 (29:32):
Yeah to Atlanta, yes early, Yeah, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
It was a change of flight schedules out of fear
of flights being delayed or canceled due to the shutdown,
which is a shutdown no more, although flights aren't completely
back invo that's part of inconceivable up next on thirteen
under the zone. So anyway, there's that, and then the
Texas women are back in action on Sunday at four

(29:59):
in the afternoon. Will be on your three forty five
with that as Texas will take on Texas Southern.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
So we'll have that to look forward to.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
All right, the we mentioned this kind of bizarre story
that's going on right now that mac Rhodes is stepping down.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
No, he is stepping aside.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Put it that way, as the chairman of the College
Football Playoff Committee and taking a leave of absence from
Baylor University.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Where's the athletic director. It's called personal reasons.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
There's been speculations to what this is all about, but
in any event, the Playoff Committee has to move on,
and so they have. They've named this is official now.
They have named Arkansas Athletic Director. Hunter Eurochek is the
selection committee chairman. Rich Clark, the executive director, made that announcement.
You're a check replacing mac Road. He stepped down completely

(31:01):
from the committee for personal reasons. He's taken a leave
of absence from his duties as Baylor's athletic director. In addition,
Mark Harlan, the athletics director of the University of Utah,
was appointed to the committee to replace Rhodes. And if
somebody who's done it before, as Jake was pointing out,
he returns to the committee having previously served a one
year term during the twenty twenty three season. So those

(31:24):
things have happened, and over time, I guess we'll find
out a little more about why this is all happening.
Although in Waco, Baylor University is saying this is not
related to the incident with the with the with the

(31:45):
Arizona State game, and there was an investigation about that
and then they said that's it. We've we've completed investigation.
Nothing to see here that went on. So we'll find
out about that. Let's see to the text line, Carrie says, eggnog.

(32:06):
Good me, there's somebody else who likes eggnog.

Speaker 6 (32:09):
Should I've never had eggnog?

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Well you can't that, No, it's dairy, Okay, I can
if I if I pay the pied Piper later. Okay,
all right, uh all right, yeah, yeah, I have not.
You know, it just depends on how much you really
want to. There might. I don't know if there's a

(32:33):
lactose free eggnog that doesn't even sound good. The whole
point about the eggnog is the egg and the noogh,
that part of it.

Speaker 6 (32:43):
So I gotta say.

Speaker 12 (32:44):
There's a delicious lactose free ice cream from Ben and
Jerry's that I had, there's I mean, Craig, you might
have to open your mind to just give it a try.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
I think ice cream, yes, I get it. That's been
around a while. Lactose free eggnog not so much. The
blind taste tests are coming for you, whether you like
it or not.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
I have to be blind to taste it. Text line.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
There were a couple of things that didn't get to yesterday.
Somebody said, do you call a sixteen point lead a
two score game or a two possession game? It's really
four scores, right, could be, but it could be a
two score game. It's two touchdowns and to two point conversions,
so it could be. I always feel the need to

(33:25):
clarify that. When I do that, I say they're going
to go for two here to try to cut the
margin the sixteen and make it a two score game,
needing then two touchdowns and two two point conversions.

Speaker 12 (33:36):
Yeah, that's kind of the way I map it out, too,
And as I'm sort of thinking about coach decisions, I
never try to speculate a coach's decision too much, but
I'll sometimes say, well, a field goal here, just you know,
it's still a two score game if it goes from
thirteen to sixteen.

Speaker 6 (33:51):
So so they're going to go for it.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Are you a big coach second guesser?

Speaker 6 (33:54):
No, No, I just like to talk about the situation.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, what what they're dealing with? What they're looking at there?

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Somebody else said, was there ever a reasoning from the
switch to red zone to red area? I heard Tom
Brady still say red zone the other day, and if
it's good enough for Braddy, she would be good enough
for the rest of it. I haven't heard people really
say red area that much occasionally, but it still looked
as being.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
As the red zone.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
If you're inside the twenty, it's the NFL red zone channel.
It's not the NFL Red area channel. I call it
the red zone, and everybody else calls it the red zone.
I've heard it a couple of times, a couple of times,
but it's almost like they were saying it quickly. Yeah,
they're here in the red area. They got to do that,
you know, something like that. I think it's still predominantly

(34:39):
referred to as red zone. Somebody else had saw the
picks that Dave Campbell's Texas High school football staff made.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around Greg Tepper
picking San Antonio Johnson to win the six A Division
one Regional championship.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
I watched twenty seven to six A. It's weak.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Johnson overcame a late ten point deficit to beat six
and four Reagan at overtime.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, I know. I called that game for victory.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Plus would they won in the last week of district
over San Antonio Clark has expected to give up thirty points.
Lake Travis should win the region. San Antonio Johnson will
not get pass Steel in the third round.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
You might be right.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
I think Johnson's better than you're giving them credit for.
They won all their games, But I don't know. And
that Reagan thing. Reagan played an excruciating non district schedule
with a coaching change and all that kind of stuff
to start, and they've gotten a little bit better.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
I would pick Lake Travis to win the region over Johnson,
but I wouldn't be shocked if Johnson ended up winning it,
and I think it'd be a really good matchup. Our man,
CB wishes me a happy tenth anniversary. It was always
the plan to call the basketball game in Shanghai from
a booth in Morgantown. Also thought some prayers to lifetime
long worn Tony Jeffrey. Yes, Tony suffering a stroke and

(35:58):
we hope that he.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Is on the improve.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
It was ten years ago today, Texas was to have
played the first game in the Shaka Smart era in
Shanghai against Washington, and the then Athletics director during his
fourteen month stint as the idea of Texas, Steve Patterson,
really really impressed upon me the need for us to

(36:27):
broadcast that game in Shanghai. He really wanted me to
go there, and football had a game that weekend scheduled
against West Virginia and Morgantown, and he was he was like,
I really need you, and that's what I said, Steve
will go wherever you think I can serve the best
whatever you think. Well, we want to get Shakas and

(36:50):
we want to get his era all to a good start.
He was besides, did you know that UCLA or that
Nike has seventy five stores in China that have UCLA product?

Speaker 2 (37:06):
So we got it. I'm like, look, I'll do whatever.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Well, it wasn't long after that that Steve Patterson was
dismissed as athletic director. My parent, the interim ed called
me right after that and said, do you really really
want to go to China? And it was this big
hassle we were going through to get J nine work
visas and all this other kind of stuff. And I said,
not really, I'm just going because Ozanna he goes. He said,

(37:29):
would you would you be okay going to Morgantown instead
of Shanghai, And I said, Mike, they're both foreign countries,
so I'm good with going to either one. You know.
He said okay. He said, our football coach needs he's
all the sport he can get. Charlie Stronger's football coach
at the time. So I said okay, And so I
went to Morgantown and as it turned out, they denied

(37:52):
us the opportunity to go because they wouldn't to China anyway.
They weren't going to grant J nine work visas. The
Washington people got caught up in that trap and it
really messed them up and they were very unhappy about that.
We were able to prepare enough for in advance. So
it ended up being Roger Wallace calling it with me
awful monitor, a five year precursor to the to the

(38:16):
COVID era, and calling an awful monitor in the football
broadcast booth in Morgantown. That's where we called it the
season opener there in Shanghai.

Speaker 6 (38:26):
In an empty football stadium.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yep, yep, at night in the dark. I mean our
booth was lit and everything. Yeah, we called it there
and they did a great job. They had all the
audio piped in in real time, like I'm hearing the music,
I'm hearing Bruno Mars, you know, before the game started
and everything. They had the effects feed sound effects. It
all sounded really really authentic. The one thing they forgot

(38:49):
to do in setting this up was they didn't give
us an HD monitor.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
At one well, fifteen inch non HD monitor.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
It was difficult to see some of those guys, but
we called it anyway, and then the next day were
calling the football game and all these people went, how
did Craig get f I mean, and we know he
gets around a lot, but to get from Shanghai with
time frame to get to Morgantown. No, No, that was done,
is what they say in the business a remy ten
years ago today. Thank you, ce B, appreciate that. All right,

(39:17):
coming up, we're gonna hear from Shawn Miller and from
longwrt's head coach Teve Sarkisian when we continue on thirteen
under the zone in the iHeartRadio app. Maybe that's what
mac Rohades is saying right now.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Don't ask me why, but he.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Is stepping down as college Football Playoff Committee chairman and
taking a leave of absence from Baylor University.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
He says, some personal reasons.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
There's a lot of speculation about what this wraps around.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
We are not here to speculate.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
We are merely just to inform and give you the
comments of others like long wrt's head coach Seawan Miller.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Texas with win last night.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
And one ninety three fifty eight and as they've won
that game by thirty five points, coach Miller's asked for
a his thoughts on how the game went well.

Speaker 10 (40:03):
First, I would like to thank our students for showing
up on a Wednesday night at seven o'clock and know
that we're not the only thing that's happening here in
November on their schedule, and a know our football team
has a huge game here on Saturday that everybody's looking
forward to, and women's basketball and volleyball are going so
totally respected, And just wanted to make sure that you know,

(40:23):
the people that came to the game tonight, how much
it means us to have you there and protect in
particular the student section surrounding the court. It's just, you know,
to me, part of us building a great basketball program
here at the University of Texas is to build Moody

(40:45):
Center into an incredible place, a fun place. It's a
beautiful arena and it's filled with excitement for our games,
and that's our responsibility. But here at the beginning, just
wanted to make sure that you know, I I start
off with a thank you to everybody who's here tonight,
really really appreciated. The second part is I thought FDU

(41:09):
came out really playing fast and cutting hard. Number seven.
Eric Parnell is an excellent shooter. We knew that coming in,
and man, he got off to a hot start. I
thought they got our attention at the first media time out,
but Tremond, Mark and Modice on our end, they combined

(41:31):
to be too much for FDU. And when you look
at those two guys, what they did. You know, Tremont
was nine for thirteen from the floor and Modese was
eight for eight. So that's that's what seventeen for twenty
one from the field. You know, you add that up,
that's thirty nine points and a high efficiency. I thought

(41:53):
both of those guys on our end were really terrific,
and they ended up being the difference. If I had
one thing to harp on, it's very difficult to shoot
thirty four free throws and make nineteen.

Speaker 9 (42:06):
We left a lot of points on the board.

Speaker 10 (42:08):
We have been able to get to the free throw
line even in our two closed scrimmages, and we've been
able to convert.

Speaker 9 (42:16):
Tonight.

Speaker 10 (42:17):
You know, we finished with ninety three points, but just
consider that nineteen of thirty four from the free throw line.
That was part of the storyline in the game for us.
I got to convert at a better rate than that,
and I certainly think we're capable.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yeah, that was one thing Eddie Or and I had
talked about because the team went in shooting seventy five
percent from the foul line, So it was mysterious to
see guys, good free throw shooters missing free throws. Hopefully
it's a one game aberration and they get right back
to it. After that, he was asked how he compares
what he saw from his team against FDU versus what

(42:52):
he's been seeing from them on the practice floor.

Speaker 10 (42:54):
Well, I think every time that we play a game,
it's a golden opportunity to accomplish so many things. One
just remember this college basketball, in many ways is upside down.
When you look in March and the words March madness
are on everybody's mind, and people are talking about what seed,

(43:17):
who's the number one seed?

Speaker 9 (43:19):
Are you going to make the tournament?

Speaker 10 (43:20):
Where are you're going to go? Which is everybody's goal.
When they show the resume and they talk about what happened,
most of the time they talk about November and December
because those are the games that we scheduled, And then
it becomes who did you play, who did you bet?
Where was the game played at so first things first,

(43:42):
adjusting to that mindset and understanding that the score of
the game, the readiness being able to grow and learn,
conquer every opponent, defend the home court. There's not a
big difference between any team we play. One thing that
I've said to our guys. Every team I've coached plays
in and around seventeen home games a year. They go

(44:03):
by so fast. Cherish every one of them. Be the
most ready you can be in every circumstance. And then
when those that come our way that are very very
meaningful in terms of stiff competition, maybe we're the underdog
that will allow us to grow and rise and be
the best we can under those circumstances. You have to

(44:25):
respect the game. You can't cut a corner. Always compete,
whether it be in practice, whether it be the last
eight minutes of this game or the first four.

Speaker 9 (44:34):
Minutes of the game.

Speaker 10 (44:35):
We have to be a team who roughly looks the
same when it comes to our effort. That's not easy
to do. I think our depth can help us do that.
But when you start to see consistent effort regardless of
the circumstances, then I think you have other things going
for you, culture, work ethic, a commitment to something bigger
than yourself. So right now in November, we're trying to

(44:58):
build all of that, not just every day, but regardless
of the games that we play. Pretty soon we're going
to be in Maui and everyone's going to understand these
are three tough games in three days. How do we
best get ready for that challenge? Making sure that we're
the most ready we can be for FDU tonight. So
from that perspective, I was happy. I thought we played

(45:20):
with effort. We were far from perfect, but I thought
we had the right mindset for the game here tonight.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
One thing that Sean Miller has said is that Modus
Fokatitis is far from perfect and at times he can
resemble us.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
He says a bull in a china shop.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
But Manas plays fearlessly, and he had nineteen points and
six rebounds. And he was able to do that the
nineteen points and six boards in just nineteen minutes of
action because he had a couple of early fouls in
the ballgame, but still affected the game. And so coach
Miller's asked about the offensive development that Monus Pocatitis has displayed,

(45:56):
especially since that Duke contest, we were at.

Speaker 10 (45:59):
A point with ma Is and that's really a great
observation that we just have to do the best job
we can of getting him the ball in scoring position.
You know, the thing that I was aware of against
Duke number one, Duke is an outstanding defensive team, very
difficult to score on, especially around the basket. And Madis,

(46:21):
who basically had practiced a limited amount of time in
the three weeks leading up to the game and playing
for Texas for the first time ever. You know, he
went out there and he fought, and he did a
good job. He was far from perfect, but he made
some plays that I don't know if a lot of
big guys can make. Since we've left that game, and
as he's healthier in practicing every day, I think his touch,

(46:45):
his scoring ability is really starting to stand out. So
I think for us recognizing how important it is to
get a big man like him the ball and to
put him in a position, because the other gift he
gives our team is the other team fouls him and
he not only gets to the free throw line, but
he can start wearing down the other team's front line.

Speaker 9 (47:08):
So I'm really pleased with Manus.

Speaker 10 (47:10):
We knew we had something special just watching him develop
this summer. He loves the game. He's one of our
team's hardest workers. And Bill Walton used to always say
to me when I was around him a lot at Arizona.
One thing, Coach, you got to remember us big guys.
We are in one of two categories. We either play

(47:31):
the game because we're taller than everybody and people told
us that's what we should do, or we play the
game because we love it. So I ask you, you're
big man, does he love the game or does he
play because he's big? And what I would say with
Madus if he were six foot two, he would play
basketball like he loves it. And that's a real gift
for a seven footer. And you could see it in

(47:52):
his work ethic every day.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
You know, I hadn't heard Bill Walt say that. I
heard Bill Walt say a lot of things. Good to
see you again, Craig. He was a great dude. I
never heard him say that, but it is true. I've
known a lot of guys who were tall guys and
played basketball only because they were tall. One had a
former brother in law years ago, six or five, and
he played didn't really enjoy it much, and there have

(48:15):
been others who have not enjoyed it, and then there's
guys who really love it. Let's hear from Longhorn's head
football coach, Steve Sarkeagian. First of all, this is from
the media Zoom this morning, the last media opportunity of
the week, and then he starts off with some opening thoughts.

Speaker 9 (48:30):
You know, I think for us this week has been
one very focused, very intentional by the players. I think
that our guys really understand kind of where we're at
in the season that it wouldn't matter who the opponent is,
that how important this game is when you look at
the grand scheme of things, and so when they can

(48:51):
do that, then you just focus on the game and
you focus on the opponent, and then you reconnize, Okay,
this is Georgia. They're a very good football team, top
five football team in the country. They garner even more
attention that way, and so from a player's perspective and
a staffs perspective, I think has been very intentional. I
think that our guys approach has been has been really good.

(49:11):
It hasn't been about the hoopla, it hasn't about last
year's games. It's been about what do we need to
do in the next five six days, starting earlier in
the week, to get ourselves in the best position to
perform against the quality football team in a tough environment.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
First off, he was asked about how much of a
challenge it'll be to defend Zachariah Brand. He's the junior
transfer receiver from Las Vegas, transferred in from USC and
all he's done is catch fifty three passes for five
hundred and forty two yards and three touchdowns, And Sark
was asked about the challenge that Branch presents.

Speaker 9 (49:45):
Yeah. No, he's an electric player and he's got elite speed,
elite change of direction. You know, they do a really
nice job of getting him the ball on advantage throws,
bubble screens, hit screens, you know, receiver screens. They utilize
them down the field. But then I think they do
a nice job of complimenting plays off of those screens,
and the and goes to the tight ends in different players,

(50:05):
and so you've got to be mindful of it's all
about him, and then they hurt you with the tight
ends or the other receivers in behind him. He's also
a factor in the return game, punt return game, kick
return game. He's electric there as well, so definitely has
garnered a ton of attention from us.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
The Longhorns right now are plus eight in the turnover category.
They have come up with nine interceptions this season and
they've done a heck of a job in terms of
getting turnovers. So against a really good Georgia team that
doesn't normally turn the ball over, they don't gain a

(50:42):
lot of turnovers either, but they don't really give up
the ball very much. So when the importance of forcing turnovers,
who really leads the charge on that front?

Speaker 9 (50:51):
No, I think that we've got a really good core
of players that that's really innate in the way they play.
You know, Anthony Hill's definitely got a nose for the
football to Anthony Smith, Jolan A McDonald, Michael taff Leong Lafowl,
I mean, and Colin now is emerging that way. I mean,
they've got a real knack for whether it's forcing fumbles,

(51:11):
getting interceptions, recovering those fumbles. We always say, the ball
finds you when you play the game the right way,
and you know, we've got a nice core of players
that does that. But I think that has spread amongst
the defense and they know the value of the ball
in this game. I think the offense, you know, on
the other side, they know the value of the ball
as well, and so we put in a lot of
extra work on ball security drills, tackling drills to make

(51:36):
sure that we're prepared for that on both sides.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
By the way, just for the record, Georgia is minus
two in the turnover category as well, so they've overcome
some turnovers and mistakes. Okay, so if the long run's
getting turnovers quite often, at least certainly before the injury,
Michael Taff was definitely involved. Taff had to miss two
ball games. He's back now, and Sark was asking, what's
the importance of having tap back in terms of leading

(52:01):
this defense to create turnovers and get stopped.

Speaker 9 (52:03):
Michael's a pro, you know. I mean, he was very
engaged even when he wasn't able to play, you know,
the first week or so, he wasn't even really able
to practice. You know, he practiced leading up to the
Vanderbilt week, just wasn't able to go. But I think
there's been a gradual progression for him. He's he's ready
to go, locked in. You know, he's obviously you know,

(52:23):
plays with a great deal of confidence. He's a high
level communicator for us, and I think that those two
things are are calming for the other guys around him.
When there's a high level of confidence in the communication,
there's a high level of confidence and style of play.
I think that that spreads to the guys around him,
and you can feel their confidence level, you know, shift

(52:44):
and adjust. They're communicating with more confidence as well.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
This next question asked of Sark a question that I
asked last night when we were recording Longhorn Weekly, which
you can hear tonight at seven o'clock here on thirteen
under the Zone and if you can't catch it tonight,
it'll be on the night at seven. And I asked
him about his tight ends, and I said at the time,
all five of them, because he is using five, He's

(53:09):
using Jack Hendrys and Jordan Washington and Spencer Shannon and
Nick Townsend and Amari Winston. So I asked him about that,
and he was very complimentary of what those tight ends
have done and what they can do to impact the game.
And he was asked a similar question in the media
Zoom today about what he's seen from his tight ends

(53:29):
in practice, and how might they impact this one.

Speaker 9 (53:32):
No, those guys of all, in my opinion, that entire
room has progressively gotten better throughout the season, you know,
in their own ways. You know, whether it's been blocking,
run blocking, past blocking, you know, route running, you know,
playing with speed, being being effective in the red area.
And so I'm proud of that entire room. And there's
some there's some young guys in that room, and so

(53:53):
they've they've definitely evolved. You know, they're going to have
a role in the game, no question. They all got
different parts of the game that we're going to try
to feature and get them involved in. But you never know,
you know, every game takes on a life and a
shape of its own. And we'll see, you know, how
involved they get, see how the game goes well.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
I here's some more from Sark, as well as from
Sean Miller coming up next hour. More college football notes
just around the corner here. I'm thirteen under the zone.
There are many of those, many folks who feel this
is the greatest Beatles song of all time.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
A day in the.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Life, I used to think that I'm not sure it is.
Maybe that's because when I got remarried, we had in
my life. Play is one of these wedding I don't know,
I don't know, but it is a great one. Obviously,
the last cut on Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band LP.

(54:50):
Here on this Thursday afternoon, it is time for a
DJC Law injury update, brought to you by DJC Law,
and that goes to the SEC's Student Athlete Availability Report.
That's what they call it. They don't call it an
injury report or anything. It's a student athlete available report. Well,

(55:12):
here for the first time throughout this entire season and
maybe all of last season. In fact, maybe for the
first time since Steve Sarkeshan took the head coaching range
in twenty twenty one, the Texas long RNs have zero nobody,
nobody on that SEC student Athlete Availability Report wow, in

(55:37):
any kind of injury status oh nion none. In fact,
when we recorded Long Worn Weekly last night again you
can hear it tonight at seven o'clock here on the zone. Sorry,
was talking about how the open date, the bye week
on the schedule really helped because he was getting guys healthy,
and he said, he said, in fact, We're about to

(55:58):
release the student athlete availability report and there's nobody on it,
and there isn't. Now George's got a bunch of guys
on it, but the ones who've been out have been
out for a while. It's the two probables tight end
Loss and Lucky and defensive tackle Josh Horton to pay
attention to, but nobody. Nobody on it, says none to report.

(56:21):
On the Texas side, it's the first time I could
ever remember seeing any kind of injury report going back
to the Big twelve Days for Texas where there wasn't
at least one guy that was listed as probable sore
ankle or you know, knee or spring tow or something
zero nada.

Speaker 12 (56:42):
Yeah, and that buy was well timed, like we talked about,
because they came out of that Vanderbilt game a little
banged up.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Yeah, they needed they needed to help, obviously. Jelina McDonald
went into the portal. Michael taff was, you know, still
recovering from that thumb surgery, but he's back. And there
was one point in that fourth quarter, and it was
when Vanderbilt was making his charge where four of their
five starting defensive backs when they play Nickel when they

(57:10):
have the star in there. The other four were out
either before the game, Michael taff or during the game.
Jelani McDonald, who went into protocol and then Malik Muhammad
went out for a little bit, came back in.

Speaker 12 (57:26):
I'm gonna say, I thought you meant the protocol. You
said the portal. I was like, wait, what sorry, protocol?
Few wrong pe words.

Speaker 6 (57:34):
And goodness, he didn't go in the portal.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
No, he didn't protocol And so Jelania McDonald was in that.
And then the two corners Malik Mohammad and Jalen Gilbert
had to come out of the ball game for a bit.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
They both went back in later.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
But it was during that time that Vanderbilt began its
push only true freshman Grace and Littleton when they start
with five, and they frequently start with five in the secondary,
and he was at the star back when they do that.
That's he was the only regular starter that was still
out there. So hurt a couple of other college football notes.

(58:08):
We knew this was probably coming. It became official. Michigan
State was placed on three years of probation for violations
that occurred during Milt Tucker's tenure as coach. The violations
occurred due to the participation of three ineligible players. The
Spartans have to vacate all fourteen wins from the past
three seasons. That includes all five wins last year during

(58:31):
Jonathan Smith's first year as head coach. The three players
went along with the program. They also are penalized thirty
thousand dollars plus one point five percent of the football
program's budget for the twenty twenty four season. That budget
was fifty eight point six million dollars, So they will
also face restrictions on official and unofficial visits, recruiting communications,

(58:53):
recruiting person days and off campus recruiting contacts, and the
evaluations of the probation area period. So it was it's
been a rough go for Michigan State. Recently, Bill Belichick's
name has been linked, as it invariably is, to coaching vacancies,
especially late with the New York Giants, and uh.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (59:17):
It's it's is it Matt Kafka who is the interim.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Coach right now?

Speaker 1 (59:22):
He's Mike Mike Koka is the interim coach. Belichick's thing
has been linked to it. He said, we're on the
wake Forest, on the Wake Forest.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
That's it. It's about all he's saying.

Speaker 12 (59:33):
Do you see the post game speech, the postgame locker
room speech. You know nowadays everyone's got to be great.
He was still just.

Speaker 11 (59:40):
Bill get on the Wake Forest.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
He said, this is this is was his quote.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
He was asked what his message was to the team,
given the speculation about this job.

Speaker 11 (59:51):
Quote, getting ready for wake Forest. It's all I got
this week. I love you some Bill check is somewhere else.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
They're under those demon deacons of wake Forest, and they
better be. We've seen what Wake Forest can do. We've
seen them pull upsets here. All right, we'll be back
to wrap up our number two on thirteen Under the Zone,
third and final hour of the program here on Sports
Radio AM thirteen Under the Zone. Flad to have you
with us on Thursday afternoon Craig Way alongside the producer

(01:00:27):
Jay Kerman, with you up till four o'clock. Don't forget
tonight seven o'clock Longborn Weekly with Coach Sark coming away
seven o'clock here on the Zone. I had somebody ask
on the text line the other day said I really
enjoy your work, but I have to ask you do
you think that that coach, that Kyle Flood has turned

(01:00:54):
this offensive line around. That the better question really is
has the offensive line itself turned around with Flood's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Help and direction and things of that nature.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Well, you can hear Kyle Flood himself talk about it tonight.
He'll be one of our guests. And then the other guest,
Lifetime Longhorn All American College Football Hall of Famer Longhorn
Hall of Honor member, fourteen year NFL veteran with the
Kansas City Chiefs. Derek Johnson will be with us as

(01:01:29):
well tonight on the program.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
A lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
I hope you'll tune in, and that's at seven o'clock tonight.
It re airs tomorrow night at seven In case you
can't make it to the program tonight at seven o'clock. Okay, man,
CB said, I really missed the HB eggnog. Was talking
about the eggnog. He said, I've tried multiple eggnogs up
here that's in the Pacific Northwest. Nothing compares to H

(01:01:51):
E B eggnog. It's pretty good. It was just a
little bit too early for me to sample it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
CB.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Right now, I mean it's what is today November thirteenth,
thirteenth of the month.

Speaker 6 (01:02:05):
That Charlie Brown Thanksgiving has not aired yet.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Yeah, so that's why I couldn't quite go there. But
I'll get on it soon enough, that's for sure. I
liked it. I always have liked it. It just wasn't
quite mentally there. Eggnog you kind of have to be
in that mental state of mind because it means one thing.
Holiday season, That's what it means now for a lot
of people, they look at eggnog is merely opening the

(01:02:30):
door to all kinds of extra ad ins.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
On the eggnog, you.

Speaker 12 (01:02:38):
Know, you might as well put on It's a wonderful life,
decorate the living room.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Stop it. They can't get there right now.

Speaker 6 (01:02:46):
No, it's not time yet.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Now in season. I love it. It's a wonderful life. Love
Jimmy story. You're crazy. You're set here in your little
world and you think it all revolves around you and
your your I'll tell you something here, you're nothing but
a scurvy little spider you crawl around and that goes
for you too.

Speaker 6 (01:03:08):
Yeah, but I meat old miss the bottom.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Yeah that's right, pea me. It was not a business man.
That was his downfall. Anyway, loved it, loved.

Speaker 6 (01:03:19):
Put that in black and white. Later, Yeah, throw it
on social media.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
So anyway, in its time, in its season, that's when
I like, it's a wonderful walk.

Speaker 6 (01:03:30):
That's good.

Speaker 12 (01:03:31):
We have to take a principled stand against speeding through
holiday season or jumping the gun.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
You can't convince my daughters of that, and you really
can't really can't really convince my wife of it either.
She's on board with that. I told you this when
we were when we were dating, and this was about
seven years ago, when we started dating.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
We got to the holiday season.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
And my daughters were talking about the holiday thing and
putting the trees up and all that stuff before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
I was kind of doing the eye roll thing about.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
It, and Lindon turned around and looked at them both
and said, I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. My
daughter later said it said to the other one, she's
one of us. That kind of thing is. I was like, Hey,
it keeps peace in the valley, that's fine. But anyway,
they like, our house lights are already up, they're just

(01:04:28):
not illuminated. Our friends at ABC Home and Commercial Services,
they were doing this deal where if you got your
lights up by Halloween. You got like ten percent discount
timbercent off. And of course we have the lights of
the house. We purchased them originally and then they come
and they put them up every year for a fee.

(01:04:49):
And so it was like, okay, and I told Linda,
but I don't think we're ready to illuminate them yet,
and so we have it. Other than we've had a
couple of backyard ball sessions with the dogs that we
could see in the evening and she could see well enough.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
But other than that, no, not yet.

Speaker 6 (01:05:06):
Anyway, you get up there on a ladder like Clark Griswold.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
I did one time. The last time I got up
on a ladder like that. It was the day of
Super Bowl thirty five. Giants are playing the Ravens. Were
you even alive, that would have been the two thousand
season January of one, or even on this earth.

Speaker 6 (01:05:26):
Yet I was.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
I wasn't walking, Okay, all right, So the Giants are
playing the Ravens and the Super Bowl, And at that
time I had two satellite dishes because one was set
up through direct TV and two of the rooms they
had this deal, and then I had another one set
up for two of the rooms upstairs, and that one
was off kilter for some reason.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
That's the way. He just needs to move a little
bit of that. So I climb up the ladder.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
I get up there, start to move the dish, lose
my ballot, slide right off for a pretty steep roof too,
slide right off the roof and land in a huge shrub.
And I hear my daughter, Hayley, who is about eight
or nine at the time, my mom Dad fell off
the roof.

Speaker 6 (01:06:09):
Hey, at least it's not Dad fell off the roof again.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Yeah, right, And I actually exprained to ankle, wasn't badly,
but I did it another.

Speaker 12 (01:06:16):
Did the shrub? Were you grateful for the shrub?

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Kind of?

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
I mean, I was scratched all over, you know, but
it did break the fall for the most part. So
I thought, I'm not doing this anymore. So I don't
haven't gone up on the roof since.

Speaker 6 (01:06:31):
That's scary stuff. But also, and that was a quarter century.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
Ago, and I'm like, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm
just not going to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
So anyway, let's hear from Longhorn's guard to my mark,
he had twenty points last night and a guy's used
to scoring. As we counted up in the interview about
the number of times he scored twenty or more points
in his career, your nineteenth career game of twenty or
more points.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
You even keep track of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 13 (01:07:00):
I don't, but you know, it's nice to It's nice
to hear those numbers and hear those stats when I'm
just out there focusing on winning the game and doing
the best I can for the team.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Let me get your thoughts on I know Coach has
talked about it quite a bit. Coach Hunter just talked
about a little bit about how much more comfortable you
look when they moved you off the ball. Now you
made it, made some big place and at big moments
when you were on the ball. I think of the
SEC Tournament last year, those those kinds of things. But
is it is it a true fact that you're a

(01:07:29):
lot more comfortable off of that ball and being able
to get to your shot.

Speaker 13 (01:07:32):
Quicker, I wouldn't say that, but I would say it's
I guess it's best for the team as a as
of now that you move me off the ball and
just have me be more aggressive. And I'm loving this
so far. So it's just I got just gotta stay
with it, and.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
We're playing well.

Speaker 5 (01:07:48):
We just got to keep getting better and.

Speaker 13 (01:07:49):
By the time March comes around and the tournament comes around,
we'll just be trying to be the best team.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
We can be.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
And it also looks like between you and Jordan and saying,
everybody's getting really really comfortable around one another and understanding
of one another's roles.

Speaker 13 (01:08:06):
Yeah, we're all definitely comfortable arounding, so we all know
our roles. We all just have to keep putting it
together and practice every day and just all come together.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
Last year, I had to ask you over and over again,
like everybody else did, how you felt because of everything
you had to go through with the injuries and all
of that. So I think I asked it in a
good time. Right now, you're feeling pretty good physically.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
I'm feeling great.

Speaker 13 (01:08:29):
Probably this is my sixteen college probably the best I
ever felt in terms of just physically mentally. So I
think my coaches, I think my teammates and the auto
hard work that we put in.

Speaker 5 (01:08:40):
It's just been great so far. Just got to stay
with it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
Now he belongs on that SEC Student Athlete Availability Report.
Nothing to report he's good. He's in good shape. He's
had shoulder issues and knee injury issues and ankle issue.
So you read him say it's his sixth year in
college basketball, and it's good that he's finally healthy. And
when he's healthy, he can be a weapon. Coming up,

(01:09:04):
we'll hear some more from Sean Miller, the head coach,
but also more from Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkeesian leading
into this Saturday night's matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs right
here on sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone of
the iHeartRadio app Pagambob. You're talking about something you can't
get your fingers on, and that's gone.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
You know, that's what you're talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:09:24):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
I've said too much.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
You're the board here.

Speaker 9 (01:09:29):
You do what you want with this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
There's just one thing more though.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
This town needs this measly one horse institution, if only
to have someplace where people can come without crawling the potter.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Tomorrow, I see trees so great.

Speaker 9 (01:09:45):
Back to the Craig Way Show.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Connect with Craig through the text line by text team zone.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
To a zero followed by your message.

Speaker 9 (01:09:53):
Standard message and data rates may apply.

Speaker 8 (01:09:56):
And I think to myself, what wander. You know it's
in the very next scene when they come out and
they say, George, you really did it. You did it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
You know they agreed, Uh, they agreed not to go
with Potter. There's just one condition, you stay and take
your father's power. I told you I can't do it. Said,
this is my last chance. But George, if you don't
vote with Potter.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
And I was in the hear the angel. Yes, yes,
I know. He didn't go. He stayed.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Not only that, he gave his college money to his
brother so he could go to school. Made All American,
some of the second third team All America, became a
football star.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
All of that. Somebody texted him because I had quoted.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
It's a wonderful life, the whole thing about your shit
hare and you spend your little web anyway, and somebody
had said coming soon Craig's one man played performance of
It's a Wonderful Life.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
No not doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Love the movie, but no, no, not doing that.

Speaker 6 (01:10:56):
A one way shell.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Uh yeah, let's uh here from Long Wrens head coach
Steve Sarkishan in talking about getting Michael Taff back and
what he means to this team being in the mixed
We brought that to you earlier and now, as well
as what he sees about from his tight ends and how.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
Important that they're going to be.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
And then they turned their attention to Georgia, and it's
a pretty interesting question. This is Georgia's final SEC game
of the season because they go don conference after that,
including that big matchup with George Tech at the end
of the year. And Sark was asked, is he comfortable

(01:11:44):
with the SEC schedule structure, with the front loading of
the non conference games for Texas and going down the
stretch with a couple of big rivalry games obviously against
Arkansas and.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
A and M.

Speaker 9 (01:11:56):
I am not comfortable. I don't think there's enough continuity
from a scheduling standpoint in the SEC. And I understand
with us being new to the conference and how how
schedules get set earlier, you know, years in advance, But
I just think there's some distinct advantages that some people
have where they spread out their non conference games throughout

(01:12:18):
the season and they play non conference games, you know,
the second last game of the season, and we're playing
all of ours in the front end. They're playing conference
games earlier in the year when they're teams one hundred
percent healthy, And so I don't. I don't love our schedule,
but it's our schedule, you know, And so I do
love it in the same breath because it is what
it is. You play the schedule, you play the hands
you're dealt. But but I just don't think there's a

(01:12:41):
lot of parody from a scheduling standpoint of who's getting
non conference games when and who's getting what level of
non conference opponents because of the impact that it has
down the road when you start talking about the.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
Playoffs, pretty widely shared opinion that the offensive line has
had gradual improvement, gotten better, and really kind of hit
a peak or at least a higher point in the
game against Vanderbilt. So you know, how is it going
to be for this offensive line dealing with a Georgia
defense that doesn't get many sacks, but they get a

(01:13:15):
lot of pressure on the quarterback.

Speaker 9 (01:13:16):
Continue growth, you know, I think individual growth and development
is important for all those guys up front. Continuity growth
I think is important, you know, of the communication and
working together is an important factor of that. Confidence is
an important factor in that. So all those things I
think play into the continued growth and development leading into

(01:13:38):
this game. You know, Georgia has really good players, all right,
So just and I know a lot of times we
want to stare at the stats, and that's like the
most important thing, especially in y'all's world.

Speaker 5 (01:13:48):
We watched the tape.

Speaker 9 (01:13:50):
Okay, they got really good players, and those three linebackers
can all rush and they're all really good players. They
have nine sacks between them, but they got really big
interior players who are very athletic. I think that Georgia
does a fantastic job of what we would refer to
as cage rushing, and they don't give quarterbacks a lot
of opportunities to escape the pocket, and the pocket just

(01:14:11):
kind of shrinks on the quarterback and then make it
difficult to make those throws. And so there's a lot
of different ways to skin a cat to try to
get to a quarterback. Georgie's way is a high level
way of doing that and they're very good at it.
And I know we want to look at sack numbers,
but their ability to affect the quarterback, I think they
do it at an extremely high level.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
You know, Kirby Smart may have had the best quote
of the year from an SEC coach. That's saying a
lot because as a lot of guys, you know, dropping
some knowledge and some quotes.

Speaker 12 (01:14:41):
And what about the champagne problems from our lost friend
Brian Kelly.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
Yeah, yeah, there's that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
But but Kirby said we're tough to kill. Yeah, when
they were down against Florida, and so Sark was asked,
what makes Georgia tough to kill?

Speaker 9 (01:15:02):
I think it's all of it, you know. I think
that they've got a culture in place. They've won a
lot of games for a long time, and they've won
a lot of games where they've come back. And I
think one thing that happens is, you know, when you
come back in a game at Tennessee when you're dead
and gone and you come back and win in overtime,
When you come back in a game against Old miss

(01:15:24):
when you couldn't stop them and then you find a
way to get a couple stops in the fourth quarter,
When you come back in a game against Alabama even
though they didn't win, it's like they believe that they
can come back. And I think sometimes you have to
get in those positions to find out if that's truly
who we are. No different than us. I think we
needed to that. We needed that Mississippi State game to

(01:15:45):
come back and win so that we can instill that
belief in us too. Now. I think we fought hard
all year. We came back in Ohio State had the
ball at the end. We fought hard at Florida, came back,
we had the ball at the end. But when you
finally get over the hump one time, that instills belief
in everybody in the organization. And I think Georgia believes
that it doesn't matter what the score is or how

(01:16:06):
much times left on the clock. They got a chance
and they're they're not going to go away. And again
they ask credit to a lot of people in the organization,
and year and year out, you know, recreating that I
think is vitally important as well, and they've created that
this season.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
I've often said, you know, even as.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
We're looking at Major League Baseball players being indicted for gambling,
NBA players being arrested and indicted for gambling, other football
oriented people being questioned or indicted for gambling. Having said
all of that, you can take it to the bank,

(01:16:47):
you can lay money on it, you can bet that
in a Steve Sarcasian Prescotforence. Somebody's gonna ask him a
question about recruiting. You can make a book on that.
It's just going to happen. So Sark was asked, how
important are you like this on the road in somebody
else's backyard for recruiting.

Speaker 9 (01:17:05):
I think it's pretty overblown, you know. I think at
the end of the day, you know, we've got a
great product here at the University of Texas. We've got
a fantastic university, a great football program, a wonderful city
in the city of Austin, a different city, a different
college town than the majority of the towns in the
Southeastern Conference, a lot of small college towns. You know,
we've got more of a city atmosphere that is appealing

(01:17:29):
to different two different players in a different families, and so,
you know, I don't think planning a flag is what
we're trying to do. I think it's an opportunity for
them to understand that we're going to play in and
around there, and that families can drive and get to games,
and a lot more difficult to recruit Florida and Georgia
when we were in the Big Twelve. You know, we
just weren't ever playing there, And now with the opportunities

(01:17:51):
to play in Alabama, in Georgia, in Florida, it's a
little easier for those kids to say, hey, all right,
I can go there, but I'm still gonna have opportunities
to play at home and play in the footprint in
the best the best conference in college football, to play
in the best conference in college football that produces NFL talent.
And so you that's when you start looking at long

(01:18:13):
term things of what you're looking for, and you push
nil out of the way and say, okay, big picture,
what's best for me? You know, I do think we've
got a great product, and that product is elevated because
of the South Southeastern Conference, especially in those reasons, in
those regions, and so I do think it's it's been
good for us, and we'll continue to recruit those areas,

(01:18:35):
just like other schools in the SEC are going to
recruit Texas, right and so just the way it is
right now. So but it's been very good for us,
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
This is always kind of fun, how I used to
say this with tongue in cheek.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
Media interviewing media, you know, is one of the last
bestiges of intelligence sports talk. And I say that, And
of course I have media on all the time doing
and I get interviewed. I was on Serious XM this
morning doing the thing I was on with our brother
and our iHeart brethren in Houston this morning as well.
But the point of what I'm about to say is that,

(01:19:11):
and then this especially applies to beat writers and fan
site reporters more so I think than radi or television reporters.
The whole thing of picking up the germination of an
idea of something and running with it and doing your
own take on it, your own version of it. Kirby

(01:19:33):
Smart was asked yesterday on the SEC teleconference, what was
Billy Napier doing in his practice? Napier, of course, the
fired coach from Florida. Now, if you know anything about
college football coaches, you know, you know, when they're kind
of wandering in the wilderness, when they're in between jobs,
they go watch other coaches, especially once they're friends. And

(01:19:55):
Billy Napier is a very good friend of Kirby Smart.
He's also a close friend of Steve Sarcasian. So just
as Smart was asked in the news conference, any significance
of billion Napier being at your practice. Yesterday, Sark was
asked the same thing. I think it was our friend
Kirk Bowles with the Houston Chronicle ask, you know, Billion

(01:20:17):
Napier was at your practice. Is that a concern of
any kind.

Speaker 9 (01:20:20):
I billy thing doesn't matter. I'm a billy, a good
friend of mine too. You know, it just is what
it is. I think that just speaks to the camaraderie
and the coaching profession. You know. I remember, you know
when Lane, when Lane got let go against USC, or
excuse me, he got let go at USC. He was
at the University of Washington with me Thursday through Saturday

(01:20:42):
and we were getting ready to play Oregon, you know,
and so it just happens, you know, you just it's
it's never fun to get fired. Guys put in a
lot of time and effort work. You know, you got
families involved, You got coaches, families involved, and so uh,
sometimes you can get somebody who can empathize with you
a little bit and understand what you've been through. I
think that that's so, you know, it's good good for
Kirby to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
It was the first of a couple of questions at
Kirk Bowles asked start the other one was going back
to that business about the back end of the Texas
schedule being loaded with conference games, including two rival games
including their our trival at the end.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
Of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
Uh, would he consider speaking to Chrystalcanzi, the athletic director,
about moving a non conference game the later in the year.

Speaker 9 (01:21:29):
It's hard to all of a sudden just change your
schedules because, as I touched on, schedules are made years
in advance, and so yeah, we're looking way down the
road at what we can do from a scheduling standpoint,
but but it's hard just to change it, you know,
because people are you know, there's a lot that goes
into that, and so it's just been one of the

(01:21:50):
unintended consequences when you when you know, make a change
and go into a new conference. You know, one of
those unintended consequences is the scheduling factor and what that
looks like.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
Then Sark was asked about Colin Simmons. He's really come
on down the stretch of the regular season here early
in the year, he wasn't getting his sacks and he
had some penalties called on as well. So the question was,
how does he tell Simmons that he can really affect
the game, impact the game without necessarily coming up with
the quarterback sack.

Speaker 9 (01:22:21):
Well, I think that's what we had to do with
him earlier in the year. You know, I think he
was in such search of getting sacks that he wasn't
playing his best football early and I think that he
made a change. And I would really say in the
Florida game, he stopped the run against Florida. You know,
he was an impactful run defender in that game. And

(01:22:44):
when you just start playing, he start being the best
player that you can be. Next thing, you know, now
the sack numbers start to grow and they start to
happen for you. And so it's being the best player
that you can be and you don't have to chase sacks.
The sacks will find you, right if you just keep
doing and playing the way you're supposed to play. And
it's a credit to Calin. I think he's playing at
a very high level right now. And it's not just

(01:23:04):
sacking the quarterback he is. He's stopping the run very well,
he's playing with fantastic effort, He's he's creating opportunities for
other players. Because of the relentless effort that he is
playing with right now, and so really credit to him.
I think he's playing at a very high level.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
And finally question answers Sark, what's going to go through
his mind? As our friend Roger Wallas asked this question
when you walk onto the field, because if you've watched
Sark and you know what he does. When the team
arrives two hours before, Sark will walk on the field
and he'll take one lap around the field, all the
way around, and he's, you know, he's got his security

(01:23:43):
with him, and he walks around. When he gets about
halfway around, sometimes even three quarters the way around, he'll
stop and he'll call his parents and he's got his
earbuds in and he's talking, you know, and he's talking
to his parents. Then when he finishes, and then he
walks on around and when he finishes the inner you
he greets a couple of people in green, then he
does the pregame interview with me and he goes on

(01:24:03):
into the locker room.

Speaker 2 (01:24:05):
So Roger asked him, what is.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
Going to go through your mind as a big fan,
And he is a self proclaimed huge college football fan
independent of you know what he does as a coach,
but what would go through his mind as a college
football fan when he walks between the hedges and goes
on to the field in Athens.

Speaker 9 (01:24:27):
How awesome is this? You know, We're going to be
playing at seven point thirty at Sanfords Stadium in a
Top ten matchup against Georgia in front of ninety some
one thousand people, and they'll probably be another seventeen to
eighteen million people watching it on TV. I mean, how
lucky are we? So that's what I'll be thinking about.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
Yeah, it's good talk. It's going to be be quite
the night Saturday night in Athens. We have more coming
up here on a Thursday afternoon on sports Radio AM
thirteen under the zone of the iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 2 (01:24:56):
And this part always meants me out a Brady.

Speaker 1 (01:25:03):
For great E l O Drake, Jeff Lynn, mister Blue Scott.
We're gonna have some blue guys next several days and
warm temperatures of a sly There was wonder when it
was the last time this calendar year I might wear shorts.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
Maybe it's today, I don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:25:24):
I broke out the shorts today. It was it was
cold over the weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:25:27):
Yep, it was, and then it warmed up.

Speaker 6 (01:25:30):
I left a plan outside and it almost died.

Speaker 2 (01:25:32):
Oh that's not good.

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
So yeah, I decided that I would, you know, go
ahead and do it today. The weather forecast, by the way,
for Athens where right now at sixty degrees tomorrow and
to fly in it'll be forty in the morning high
as seventy high have seventy two on Saturday, and Saturday
night temperature will drop like into the upper fifties. I

(01:25:56):
think it will be very pleasant football conditions on Saturday
night between the hedges, as they say.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
In Atlanta, Georgia.

Speaker 1 (01:26:03):
Back to Longworren Basketball and the head coach Sean Miller,
coming off last night's ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
Three fifty eight win over FDU.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
They have two games remaining on this four game homestand
Saturday against Kansas City the following Tuesday against Writer, and
they'll be coming off of a game where Tremont Mark
had his nineteenth game of his career scoring twenty or
more points. And coach Miller's asks, is this what he
envisioned from Tremon Mark when he took the job.

Speaker 10 (01:26:33):
Yes, and again, just to bring you into the world
that we've been in you know, we had Lesina and
Modes go down at a bizarre time right before the
start of our season leading up to it, which no
coach really wants.

Speaker 9 (01:26:47):
To have happened.

Speaker 10 (01:26:49):
But Tremon, you know, he had shoulder surgery in the spring,
so just remember the months of May and June. Nothing
July and August was cleared for non contact. September would
have been the first time he did anything competitively. And
now here he is at the beginning of the season.
So me learning him, our staff learning him him, learning

(01:27:11):
a new system.

Speaker 9 (01:27:13):
I took my hat to Tremon.

Speaker 10 (01:27:15):
He's he kind of took the Duke game, learned from it,
and he's really settled in. But the last two games
I thought he's been outstanding and I think it would
be a terrific player for us this season.

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
There was also during that big surge and eleven I
run in another big run and Miller was asked about
what they did in terms of wearing down fdu because
of the up tempo thing, and they wound up having
a four point play where Jordan Pope was fouled shooting
a three.

Speaker 10 (01:27:45):
Yeah, the thing about tempo, you know, when you look
at those programs that you admire when it comes to
pushing the pace for forty minutes, they always seem to
have that surge at some point in the game. You know,
I'll use Gonzaga as the example. You know, year in
year out, faces and names change, but when you really
watch them closely, the game is going along and it's

(01:28:08):
going along, and all of a sudden, there's like this
big spurt and a lot of times it's a reflection
not of just what happened during that period, but what's
happened from the opening tip. They can really wear you down,
and that's what Pace does. We aspire to be better
in that area. I think we're learning and growing. We
are not there yet, but trust me, we're working hard

(01:28:30):
on it every day to continue to develop that part
of our game. However, I also point something out that
we've done a good job of taking care of the ball.
You know, in the month of November, oftentimes you turn
it over more. We've really done a good job of
taking care of it even against Duke. Remember Lesina and
modest I think they combining for nine turnovers, the rest

(01:28:54):
of the team at seven. So I think taking care
of the ball is something that that's part of our
goods identity moving forward.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
Yeah, okay, And so he was asked where they can
even get better offensively?

Speaker 10 (01:29:08):
Well, we were six for twenty three from three tonight,
so you know, you don't say that we only missed
open shots, but I do think of the twenty three,
there were a number of shots we created that were
really good threes for us. For example, Jordan Bope, he
missed a couple that he's that we know he's going
to make. Right, He's our team's best three point shooter,

(01:29:28):
and I thought he had two or three that man,
I just don't see him miss that happens.

Speaker 9 (01:29:33):
The key is that we took good.

Speaker 10 (01:29:34):
Ones, but we also went nineteen to thirty four from
the freedro line. So when you do those two things,
you can run into rough patches and looking at ninety
three points for the game, if we could have been
better in those two areas tonight, you know we would
have pushed one hundred point mark, and I think you
know we all would have taken that. The other part

(01:29:55):
is both of the teams that we played here at
Moody have mixed in quite a bit of zwe So
we're bouncing back and forth between attacking a man and
his zone. That's a good experience for us. But I
think that sometimes our choppy play, we have to learn
to be better in that area of recognizing and being
a little bit smoother going against either of those defenses.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
Back to Tremon Mark and what Tremon did with a
twenty point effort, does he think that Mark can be
a guy that on a ninety and night out basis
can be their leading score.

Speaker 10 (01:30:26):
He's definitely a score. It was great to see him
shoot the ball with so much confidence tonight. You know,
he's two for six from three, but yet you had
the feeling that, like any of the six threes he
took were about ready to go in. He's really attacking
the basket. I think he's in tremendous shape right now.
And you know, to the earlier observation, Tremon's been around
the block.

Speaker 9 (01:30:47):
It's kind of like me.

Speaker 10 (01:30:48):
You know. It's just you don't just show up here
and trying to figure it out. You've seen things before
as you're an older person or guy, and you're an
experienced player. And I think one thing I will say
about Tamar where we're lying on his leadership, where we're
lying on his play, and he's certainly going to be
a double figure scorer for US.

Speaker 1 (01:31:09):
He was also pretty proud of Jordan Pope. Pope had
that four point play and some big buckets and then
they had the limp off in the first half that
came back to play in the second.

Speaker 10 (01:31:19):
Yeah, you know, he Jordan is a wonderful young man.
He's a leader. He is very smart both on and
off the court, and sometimes when he gets nicked up,
you know, everybody can see it, you know, So I
didn't know what happened to him. I'm glad that he's okay,
that's for sure. But that shot that he made before
the half was one of my favorite plays in the

(01:31:42):
game because if you remember cam Heid, he basically dove
on the floor for a loose ball. It was like
a scrum there that anybody could have gotten it. We
got it, got rid of the ball and that led
to the three point shot. So it was like great
hustle first to the floor and the recipient was Jordan
and there from three. So those are the plays that

(01:32:02):
you love to see from a team, especially in November.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
Okay, all right, next, you heard last hour when he
was talking about this four game homestand they've played the
first two games, they beat Lafayette and then they won
last night over FDU. They have two games remaining on
this four game homestand Saturday at noon against Kansas City
and then next Tuesday night against Wryter four game homestand

(01:32:27):
before they go to Mali where they'll first matchup with
Arizona State and then who knows with the other teams
in the field beyond that in the Mali Invitational. So
he was asked, are there adjustments he needs to make?
Are there goals there for this team for these next
two home games before they head for Mali?

Speaker 10 (01:32:45):
Yes?

Speaker 9 (01:32:45):
I think right.

Speaker 10 (01:32:46):
Now it's so much about just getting more comfortable and
better at the things that we do. You know, It's like,
what are the things you did well? What are the
things that you know we need to get better at,
and what are some real problem areas, you know, solution
driven of how can we fix that? And that's what

(01:33:06):
playing games does. It allows you to see yourself clearly,
whether it's Dooke where it didn't go well or the
last two games where it did. You know, you certainly
can put things in each of those three games in
those categories, and we want to win and we want
to get better, win and get better and still be
on that quest. You know, for us, we have so
many new faces and moving parts that we have a

(01:33:29):
big ceiling to get to and it's a matter of
us each week making a lot of progress. So my
hope is at noon on Saturday and hopefully we can
get everybody here for our game and then we can
all go watch the football game on TV or be
there in Georgia. But that we're better, that we build

(01:33:50):
on what we've done, and then we keep moving in
the right direction.

Speaker 6 (01:33:55):
Hop on the plane after yeah, get out there right.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
And then finally.

Speaker 1 (01:34:00):
A little bit outside the normal realm of questions, he
was asked if there was any consideration being given to
having open scrimmages in front of the fans in the field.

Speaker 12 (01:34:12):
Right, because he talked about Duke really benefited from that
they got to play Tennessee right right.

Speaker 1 (01:34:17):
And of course that that well, what that is. That's
not a real scrimmage. That's an exhibition game where the
money is dedicated to a charitable cause and you're allowed
to do one of those. So so he was asked about
some sort of an open type thing to the fans.

Speaker 10 (01:34:34):
Yes, it was more a matter of circumstances, and we decided,
especially again everything being so new, when you schedule those scrimmages,
it's more in the late spring, if not earlier. One
of the two is already scheduled, so we've fulfilled our obligation.
But I think moving forward, it's very helpful to play

(01:34:55):
in front of a crowd home or away, and we'll
look to incorporate that before our season begins. And yeah,
so I think we've already thought about it, talked about it,
and those are the things that are hard in your
first year, difficult in your first year, you know. But
I think learning what makes Texas Texas? How can we

(01:35:16):
be better, that's one of the things that I think
can help us earlier.

Speaker 9 (01:35:19):
In the year.

Speaker 1 (01:35:20):
And there's a couple of different ways to do it.
Either play a Division two or Division three or NAI
school like the Texas women did. I would do D
school D two schools in an exhibition game. Or if
you play you're allowed one exhibition game against another Division
one opponent if the game, if the proceeds go to charity.
And so that's like Texas and A and M did

(01:35:40):
in that Hurricane Harvey relief game. So it's there, but,
like he made a very good point, first year, you're
just trying to get everything up and running from here.

Speaker 5 (01:35:48):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
We'll be back to wrap up today's edition of the
show here on thirteen under the Zone.