Brett Yormark proclaims Big 12 the "deepest conference", Sark speaks on the Josh Pate Show, and Texas Baseball retains key pitchers

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brand new Wednesday, and glad to have you with us
here on the Craigways Show. Cameron Parker filling in for
Craigway here on thirteen hundred the Zone as we help
you get over that mid week hump July ninth, and
now we will be closer and closer to college football
by the time this day ends, we'll be closer to

(00:20):
the SEC Football Media Days next week in Atlanta, Georgia.
Super excited for that next week. Super excited that brings
you a lot of great coverage. Myself, Craigway, Mike Harge
and even Mark Henry will be down at the College
Football Hall of Fame, Atlanta, Georgia, Monday through Wednesday. And
now we do know who Texas will be bringing alongside

(00:44):
Steve starkejan when they attend on Tuesday of the four
day event. We'll get into all that and more here
on today's program. First, I'll welcome in glad to have
you with us. Of course, if you want to be
a part of the show, we welcome it. That's texta
where Texas to eight zero followed by your message. Of course,
you can listen to this show on your radio. DOWT

(01:06):
thirteen hundred the Zone, but also on the free iHeartRadio app.
Go ahead and download it. It's free, and go ahead
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social media pages on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. We
got all of it and we will be posting a

(01:27):
lot of content this football season, a lot of content.
A lot of content next week at the SEC Media Day.
So excited for that. What's to come here on today's
show here as we are deep in the midst of
the offseason, but we'll continue our Texas football preview. Have
some sound from Steve Starakeghan. He appeared on Josh Pate

(01:51):
and the Pate State Speaker series a little while ago.
Do not think we actually brought that to you here
on today's program, on this program at all, So got
to get into that as well. Big twelve Media Days
are underway in Frisco, Texas. Hey, I remember when we
used to go to the Big twelve Media Days and
brett Or Mark is saying brett Or Mark things. So

(02:11):
we're going to get to that here throughout the show,
his comments on the college fotball playoff expansion where the
Big Twelve stands, and apparently Texas Tech billionaire booster Cole
Chamberlain Cold Chamberlain is actually in Frisco making the rounds. Sorry,
Cody Campbell, I think Cold Chamberlain was a Texas pitcher.
Cody Campbell making the rounds at the Big twelve media

(02:34):
Days and love this tweet from Joe Cook it inside
Texas and he said, can you envision Bred McCombs on
Serious XM at the Big twelve media Days in years past?
That would have produced a lot of content and a
lot of social media quotes and a lot of probably backtracking.
I can't imagine what Cody Campbell's saying, but hey, when
you helped sign Felixsojo, shoot, go on every talk show

(02:57):
you want to go on and talk, and hey, drive
up the hype at this point, lean into it. If
you're Texas Tech, lean into it. So Cody Campbell making
the round to the Big Twelve media days. I cannot
imagine Crystalcante or Steve Sarksan being okay with the Texas
booster making the rounds at the SEC media days. You
just can't imagine all of that happening, but we'll hear

(03:19):
from Bretty Yormark. On today's show, Mike Gundy had some
interesting quotes on the college football playoff model. Well, we're
gonna hear all that next week, Sanki, Kirby, Smart, Lane Kiff,
and Steve sar occasion. No doubt, the College Football Playoff
expansion talk will be a big topic, as will the
eight or nine game SEC schedule. What will the SEC

(03:40):
do when the College Football Playoff does expand to sixteen teams?
Of course, the deadline is December first this year, I believe,
for Sakie and the committee to make the decision. Of course,
the chairman of the committee Mac Rhodes, the Baylor athletic director,
so of course he's not the only one making the
decision there. So there'll be a lot of thought that

(04:00):
goes into this process. Whether it's gonna be the five
plus eleven model, maybe it will be four automatic bids
for the SEC and Big ten, two for the ACC,
two for the Big twelve. Curious to see what'll end
up looking like. But there will be a lot of
college Football Playoff expansion talks over the next few weeks
I want to begin today's show, however, with some good

(04:22):
news on the Texas baseball front. Of course, at MLB
drafts not too far away. Texas losing some key contributors
off this past year's team, but we'll be gaining regaining
a couple big ones as it has announced that Texas
baseball pitchers Luke Harrison, Max Grubbs, in Ruger Riojas will

(04:43):
for go the MLB draft and we'll return to Texas
in the twenty twenty six season. Those three guys, Harrison,
Grubs ROAs combined for twenty wins in twenty twenty five.
Of course, Bluke Harrison, the satary starter Rio you know,
keeping out of the bullpen. He would start Sundays, even
started some Fridays after Jarreed Spencer's injury, and of course

(05:05):
Max Scrubbs fantastic out of the bullpen. Those three guys
for going the NFL and NFL Draft, for going to
the NFL and the MLB draft next week and coming
back to Texas and Jim Sloshnengles staff in twenty twenty six.
Those three guys combined to throw almost two hundred innings
for Texas this past year. One hundred and ninety six
and two thirds. That's thirty eight percent of the innings

(05:27):
pitch for Texas. Last season. Of course, long Corns went
forty four and fourteen, won the SEC regular season championship
in their first every year in the conference, ended up
being eliminated at home at the dish to Utsa in
the regional. Luke Harrison will be a red shirt senior
in twenty twenty six. Last year was five and one,
three points zero six ERA fifteen starts, seventy two strikeouts

(05:51):
to twenty four walks pitched seventy and two thirds. He
was mainstay in that Saturday spot. He was fantastic. Expect
to see him return as one of the starters. Max
Scrubbs also a starter this past year, probably the team's
best middle reliever, twenty two appearances, six and two, record
of two point eight four ERA five saves, struck out

(06:14):
sixty one batters, only walked fourteen in through fifty seven
innings and then Riojas, of course came over as a
transfer nine to three this past year five point six
to one ERA let the team actually in victories. Began
last season as a middle middle reliever, then became a
starter mid April after, of course, the Jared Spencer injury.

(06:36):
Made eighteen appearances, ten starts, struck out sixty two, walk
twenty one in sixty nine innings. Pitch so huge for
Jim Slashnagel Max Winner to return those three guys. Of course,
Texas losing eighteen players to transfer portal this season, including
some key outfielders, but that's because Slash and the staff
were super busy out of the transfer portal, of course.

(06:59):
Added Carson need the catcher six three from Notre Dame.
Added he'll be rising junior. Added a couple lefties, including
Hayden Lafew the six foot one lefty from Wake Forest,
Timo O. Pasera, the shortstop from Stanford, Cal Higgins six
foot four lefty from Western Kentucky, Aiden Robbins, the senior
from Seaton Hall who will start in the outfield, Luke Dotson,

(07:21):
lefty from Mississippi State, Josh Livingston, the infielder from Wichita State,
and then Jack Moroneck, the Butler outfielder who likely will
be in the outfield as well. And then Georgia's State
rising senior Caleb Freeman, who played outfield for Georgia State.
He can kind of play anywhere over the field. But
Schlosh adding, you know, three outfielders, adding a handful of

(07:42):
left handed pitchers in you know, we understand, you know,
his philosophy. He wants to bring in as many lefty
arms in lefty bats as possible. That was his staple
at A and M his staple at TCU. And you
know in is really his first true offseason here. We've
seen what he's been able to do in the tran
for portal adding three left handed pitchers and I believe

(08:04):
three lefty at bats, including the switch hitting Caleb Freeman
if I remember correctly, Luke Dotson and Hayden the few.
By the way, those two guys could end up starting Higgins.
You might think we'll end up replacing Dylan Falantis, who
was the starter last season for Textas. But got to
imagine Palantis will be starting for Texas in the weekend

(08:26):
rotation in twenty twenty six, So Higgins, he may end
up the Cal Higgins man, up coming into Falantis's role
as a closer. Carstontenan Notre Dame batted three forty eight
seventeen home runs fifty three runs batted in No Dame
did miss the postseason, but Tinney told Horns two for

(08:46):
seven that he entered the portal seeking for a team
that can give him a chance to win a national championship.
Few sophomore wake Force has passed year four and one
a four point four six ERA and four saves, twenty
seven appearances, struck out fifty nine with eighteen walks in
thirty four innings pitched. Timo Basera, the shortstop from Stanford,

(09:07):
bat over three hundred this past year, one home run,
thirty seven runs, batting in fifty one starts at shortstop
for a Cardinal team that finished just above five hundred,
and then Higgins twenty two games on the mount of
three and two record one point eight seven ER, eight in,
six saves, fifty two strikeouts, and opposing batting average of
one to ninety. So that's why Higgins may end up

(09:29):
being in that closer role if Atlantis does move into
a starting spot and then Aiden Robbins from Seaton all
batted four to twenty two in the Big East six
home runs thirty eight runs batted in, started all fifty
three games the sophomore and earned first team All Big
Eiast honors, and Luke Dotson, who did pitch against Texas
as the Long Courts opened their SEC Conference season in Starkfield,

(09:53):
one and two the season a three point zero nine
ERA in twenty three to a thirty innings pitch across
eighteen appearances for the Bulldogs. So the good news here, guys,
Jim Slashnangle has options entering twenty twenty six for a
Texas baseball team that will have even bigger expectations heading
into this next season than they did last year. You know,

(10:14):
they were kind of ranked middle of the pack in
the top twenty five, went out and won the SEC,
earned top one of the top national seats, but just
ran out of steam towards the end of the year
and in ultimately losing in the regional round. But a
lot of depth, a lot of pitching options for Jim
Slashnegle as the enters year two on the forty Acres.

(10:34):
So that's your Texas baseball talk here. On the day's
program mentioned we're gonna get some c. Starkesian quotes. He
appeared on the Josh Pate Pete State Speaker series Say
That five Times Fast and talked about his coaching philosophy
and a lot of good stuff on recruiting. It's very
timely considering what happened with Felix Ojo, what happened with

(10:57):
Brydon Rouse yesterday the four Star committing the ten to
see over Texas. So hear all of that from Steve
Sarrakesian up next year on the Wednesday edition of The
Craigway Show. Texas taking the football field in Columbus, Ohio
at the Shoe August thirtieth, eleven am kickoff, big noon

(11:17):
kickoff between Texas and Ohio State. And as we get
closer to kickoff, of course next week the SEC Media Days,
we continue to preview that with some more audio from
Steve Sarkesian here on today's program. And this comes away
of the Josh Peyt State Speaker series. Who got through
that one? Okay, any went on this This is not

(11:39):
brand new, but he had not played it out in
this program, And of course you know Stark talking about
how he has built this program up, which I really
enjoy I really like to hear his thoughts. He's a
fantastic interview He's a fantastic, fantastic speaker, really goes deep
in the process and loves to talk about his craft
of course, you know, he's obviously a heck of a

(12:01):
football coach, heck of a brilliant mind, has been through
a lot in his life and always really enjoy hearing
his perspective on life and his perspective on football because
the landscape has changed so much. So today we're going
to hear and if we don't get it all in,
we'll get to it on Friday as well. But today
we're going to hear about him talking about his expectations
of the job versus what it was when he came

(12:23):
to Austin, how the regular season has changed with the
college Football Playoff, his thoughts on recruiting nil. This is
very timely considering what happened with Fluxojo this past week.
Of course, Brayden Rouse committing the Tennessee over Texas last night,
a couple's losses for Texas or the recruiting trail, but
you know that has all been impacted by NFL. And

(12:44):
also here start talking about how he evaluates himself, his staff,
the team, and how he deals with players who you know,
or might be sitting in the long jam logjam at
a certain position, who want to play and have you
not earned that yet? So we'll get to all of that,
but we'll begin here with the beginning part of this
conversation between Josh Pate and Texas head coach Steve Sarcasian.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
So when I was growing up in like the two thousands,
when people talked about elite teams of college football, they
would just say, like, for example, the USC's, and then
it was the Florida's, and then saving it's to Alabama.
But there are always these two or three teams that
you just rattle off as an example of the top
level of college football. You haven't won a national title

(13:28):
here yet, you haven't won an SEC title here yet,
but yet that conversation's Texas.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
Now. I don't know how rewarding that is.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
And it's got to be at least a little validating
to know when people are rattling off the examples of
what it's supposed to look like, they don't get too
far down the list before there it is Texas right
back in the combo.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
Well, I'd like to validate it, maybe with a couple
of still, yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
That would be nice.

Speaker 5 (13:51):
You know, I think that we've worked really hard. Obviously
we got here. I think I say this all the
time when you take on a job like this. One
of the keys to this is understanding what you sign
up for. And there's clearly a standard at the University
of Texas about competing and winning championships. And that's not

(14:12):
just in football, it's across the board, you know, and
you think about we've won three of the last four
Directors Cups.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
We have twenty one sports here.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
Nine of them have been ranked number one in the
country in their respective sports this year.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
That's almost half yeah, right, And.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
So when you when you think about it that way,
there's a standard of excellence that that we have to
strive for here that we're held accountable to. But that's
what you have to know, that's what you sign up for.
And so going into year five, it's been a lot
of work. There's been a lot of work, you know,
on the field on the grass with the players. Been
a lot of work behind the scenes, recruiting players, developing

(14:50):
players in the program, producing NFL talent, been a lot
of been a lot of work with with stuff that's
going on facility wise and what we've been doing. And
so much credit goes to the administration and at chrys
del Connie and the support he's given us to our
donors to want to make this thing grow and build
into something where year in and year out we can't

(15:11):
compete for championships.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
Now, ultimately the onus.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Is on us.

Speaker 5 (15:16):
We have to try to go and do this and
get it done. But at the end of the day,
we've put ourselves in a good position to where maybe
people do talk about us in that light. But at
the end of the day, I'm kind of about the
reward at the end rather than what other people think.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
I'd rather actually have something to show for it.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Okay, Sark entering now a year five here at Texas,
I believe it's already been This will be his fifth
season in Austin, back to back college football playoff appearances,
reached the SEC Championship in their first year, won the
Big Twelve, and their last year in the Big Twelve conference.
So Sark was asked about we hit this sometimes, you know,

(15:57):
expectation first reality. What was Sark's expectation of taking the
job back in twenty twenty one, firstus? What is the
reality of his expectations of it now? But I've been
thinking about this quite a bit.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
You know, we.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
I got here in January of twenty one coming out
of that COVID football season, which was like one of
the oddest years whatever, and we had a great team
at Bama.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
The congrats on the Iron Bowl win. By the way, Yeah,
how about that?

Speaker 2 (16:23):
I was the interim head coach of the Wikipedia page
just like people don't even know.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Is this a typo?

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (16:27):
No, you head coached Alabama.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
And I tried to talk coach saban and an on
site kicking to start the game. He didn't want to
do it, but but anyhow, we want so it worked out.
And then you know, at the end of that spring semester,
you know, our your athletic department always gives you accumulative
team GPA for the year fall spring semesters, and we
had a two point three to three team GPA, and
I thought, that's not very good. Granted, University of Texas,

(16:51):
great institution, top five public university in the country, two
three three is not great. Then the season rolls around
and we go five and seven and we have blown
six straight second half leads. Not very good. We have
no draft picks. So what was the problem. What was
our issue? I said, we have a culture issue. We

(17:11):
lack accountability. We're entitled Okay, we don't serve others.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
You know, it's about me.

Speaker 5 (17:19):
And in that moment, I know we've touched on this before,
but in that moment, it was like, that's the real
issue going on. I granted, we want talent, right, and
we want to acquire talent, we want to retain our talent,
and we put an emphasis on the line of scrimmage
and those types of things. But at the end of
the day, it wasn't a talent issue that we had

(17:39):
that year.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
It was it was a culture issue.

Speaker 5 (17:42):
And so now fast forward going into year five, is
what has come out of this is we have a
group of players on our team now that they're.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
The ones we recruited.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
They're the ones that have grown up with us, right
our fourth year seniors have been with us now for
four straight years. Our third year players, you know that
that arch, that Anthony Hill, the Cedric Baxter's, the Manny Mohammads,
the Derek Williams, that group of guys.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
They don't know any different than what we do.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
And so I think about my time at Bama, and
granted it was it was closing in on the end
for coach Saban's run there, but how that was ran,
how the older players educated the younger players on what
was acceptable, what was not. How we went about our
business at Bama has now started to come to fruition here.
And I think about what Kirby's been able to do

(18:33):
at Georgia, or what Dabo's been able to do at Clemson,
or what Ryan's been able to do out Ohio State.
They're they're kind of in front of us in that cycle,
but their cycle has really well underway. Our cycle really
now has just begun because now we've got nothing but
players that don't know any different than what we do
and why those things are important. And to watch them

(18:56):
lead in a way differently now than maybe we did
the past couple years is is really fun to be
part of now and and it's exciting to be exciting
to see. It's exciting to watch it kind of come
to life.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
You know.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
It kind of took two years, I think, in totality,
for start to get the culture to where he wanted
it to be at obviously year one, Year five and seven.
The second half of the year Texas led but in
every game, and it led in the second half for
most of them, and then end up would end up
losing the game at some point, and to his point,

(19:31):
you know, it wasn't a talent issue, was a culture issue.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
You know this.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
You know, a lot of guys went up just kind
of quit mid third fourth quarter, and then you know,
through year two and then obviously what he did in
years three and four college football playoff quite a turnaround,
quite the turnaround.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
So speak of the playoff here.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
And we'll discuss you know, the expanded playoff here and
later on to day's show, as we will go from
four teams to twelve to sixteen after this past season.
And there's a he's been the discussion that Okay, well
now the regular season really has no meaning. Week one
Ohio State Texas doesn't really mean that much anymore. I
think there's you know, two sides to the argument. Yes,

(20:13):
Texas could lose to Ohio State in Week one and
still make the playoff. Whereas under the BCS, if they
lose that game, do they make the national Championship? Well
probably not, especially if two other teams run the table
and go twelve to zero. Even with four teams, your
chance is still hurt a little bit. But here's Sark's

(20:34):
argument as to why he believes The regular season still matters,
even in this new era of the expanded college football playoff,
isn't it awesome?

Speaker 4 (20:43):
Awesome?

Speaker 5 (20:44):
That's why we love college football, you know, so different
than the NFL and some of which I think we're
gravitating a little bit more towards because of the expanded playoffs.
But in college football, the regular season matters, and it
matters immensely. You know that the game in Columbus we
have in week one is going to matter. When we

(21:05):
go to Florida there. You know in for game five,
that game's going to matter. When we go to Athens, Georgia,
that game is gonna matter. Right, The last regular season
game here against A and M is gonna matter, and
we go to Dallas against OU. Those games are going
to matter this season just so that we can get
a chance to get into the playoff, to do what

(21:25):
you're talking about, what you're mentioning. So that's the beauty
of our sport, though, that week in and week out,
every game matters. In the NFL, you can get into
the playoffs at nine and eight, right, You can get
in the playoffs at ten and seven. You know, you
can almost lose every other game and have an opportunity
to go compete for a championship. We don't have that
luxury in college football, and so I think that's the

(21:48):
beauty of it. And I'd say for our guys, it's
been a pretty good trajectory, right, It's been a pretty
good climb from five and seven to eight and five
to our final year in the Big Twelve, going twelve
and two and winning a Big Twelve conference championship our
last year and getting into the CFP, getting into the
semi finals against Washington and then transitioning to the SEC

(22:08):
when it was like, hey, you need to you know,
you know, take your time, wait your turn, and getting
into the SEC championship game and going into overtime with
Georgia and then going back to the CFP. Of the
four teams from the year before, we were the only
one that.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
Made it back last year.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
And to get back to the semis and to be
on the brink against the national champion Ohio State, I
think gives us a lot of confidence in knowing that
the seat at the table that we've earned were at
the right place at the right time. Now we all
want to go finish the deal. We all want it
to your point, be the team at the end of
the year that's hoisting the trophy. But it's been it's

(22:45):
been a steady climb, and it's been a consistent climb,
and I've never felt like we've been on a roller
coaster ride here. It's been very consistent. And that's a
credit to our players, that's a credit to our staff,
that's a credit to our administration that everybody's, you know,
kind of you, I'll row in this boat in the
same direction, and everybody's on board with their commitment level
to try to get this done.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Recruiting Phelix Sojo, of course hot topic conversation this last week,
commits to Texas Tech over Texas and Ohio State, reportedly
agreeing to a five point one million dollar contract over
three years, fully guaranteed. And there's been a handful of
other recruitments in the past couple of weeks where the

(23:29):
recruit looks like we'll be going to one or two
schools and then the third school comes completely out of
nowhere thanks to the NIL so sark was asked about
how he's adjusted the way he recruits now in this
ever changing landscape of the NL and the transfer portal
and trying the balance bring it in the best players,

(23:50):
but bringing in the best players who have the right mindset.

Speaker 5 (23:53):
Well, I think that's that's this day and age to
some degree, right of where we're at. Right we're talking
about nil, we're talking about transfer portal, we're talking about
conference realignment, all the things that are you know, the
college football play, all the things that are going on
in college football. But we live in an instant gratification
world in general. Right, how quickly can I get it?
And and and then how am I going to get it?

(24:15):
And I think at the end of the day, hard
work works, right, and when we can recognize the hard work,
and when we can show in real time why somebody
else is earning more playing time than somebody else in
that moment, that it's not you know, we say it
all the time. We're capable of anything around here. We're

(24:38):
entitled to nothing, and entitlement is a really scary thing
in college football right now that we have to fight against.
We have to be we have to monitor really closely
because the moment you feel entitled, that hard work doesn't
doesn't quite kind of match up with what the expectations
might be. Right, because the worst word in sports is potential.

(24:59):
That is the worst word you never tell our players
lost them. You never want to be label a guy
with great potential because that means you're not hitting right.
That means you aren't living up to what you're capable
of being. And so we tend not to shy away
from it. We talk to it, we embrace it. Expectations
are what they are for the program, but expectations are

(25:20):
what they are for the individual players too. Right, nobody
came to Texas just to put on on a T
shirt anymore. That says Texas football guys are coming here
with the right things in mind.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
Right, get a great degree, compete.

Speaker 5 (25:31):
For championships, get developed, and then have an opportunity to
fulfill their dreams.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Of playing in the NFL. This past season, there was
a Texas receiver five star Holly Tyler prospect comes in,
doesn't get the reps that he wanted or thought that
he deserved, ends up leaving the team. This is probably
going to happen more than once, especially at a program

(25:59):
like Texas where there's going to be such a backlog
of depth and key players, good players, good talent at
certain positions. I mean, you can only feel you know,
eleven guys.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
At one time.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Right, there's gonna be guys who aren't going to get
the amount of reps that you want, and not everyone's
going to believe in the bigger picture of hey, what's
best for the team. So Sark was asked about, you know,
how does he handle players who believe, hey, you know
I should be starting, but yet to Sark's viewpoint, hey,
they aren't ready yet.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
Well let's here's one example.

Speaker 5 (26:33):
Let's go with spring balls done, okay, and we have
a really simple form that gets filled out by our
academic department on every player.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Yeah, he's got a form. Here.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
Here's Josh Pate boom. Here, here's how he's doing academically.
Here's our strength and conditioning coach, Tory Beck is going
to fill out how he's doing in the weight room.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Boom.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
Here's his position coach. Here's his strengths, weaknesses, things to
work on.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
Boom.

Speaker 5 (26:56):
Here's the training room. Here's how he's taking care of
his body. Here's where you're at, boom. Here's coach Sark's
comments about any issues that he may have had off
the field. Okay, that's a snapshot of where you're at.
And then I sit down with each player and say, hey,
here's where you're at. Okay, here's where you can improve.
Even a guy who's got man, this is he's straight,
a's he's at all conference, he's this, he's that.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
Well, how are we going to get better?

Speaker 5 (27:18):
How we're going to improve And when you can be
honest with them and you can show it to them.
Now there's not well but this but that. No, no, no,
this is this is exactly where you sit and this
is exactly where you stand.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
That's the first part.

Speaker 5 (27:30):
The second part, now, where we've gotten to. When we
got here in twenty twenty one, that my first season
as the head coach, we have thirty two players in
the NFL from the University of Texas playing in the NFL.
In the last three drafts alone, we've had twenty eight
players drafted, and so they all have dreams and aspirations.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
We were all kids right.

Speaker 5 (27:51):
Laying on our bed throwing the ball up in the air,
dreaming of putting on that Dallas Cowboy helmet or the
forty nine ers helmet.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
Right.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
Well, now those things are reality in our building. And
the fact that they can look to their peers who
they watch develop and watch grow and now having that
opportunity to say, hey, you know what, this is kind
of the blueprint, and I may not be where I'm
supposed to be right now, but if I keep working,
if I keep doing things the right way, that can
become a reality for me down the road.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
We'll hear more from Steve Sarksian next hour from his
conversation with Josh Bate Josh Pate, as we continue to
get ready for the football season.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Fifty two days.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Away from Texas and Ohio State, We're only about three
days away from the four days away from the SEC
Media Days in Atlanta, Georgia, and two.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
Days away from Florida. Man Inconceivable.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
We have Inconceivable up next here on The Craigway Show
and on the Free iHeartRadio app. Second hour of today's
program here on The Craigway Show, Cameron Parker filling in
for Craigway here on the Free iHeartRadio app. And on
thirteen hundred The Zone Craig wrapping up his final week
of facation out in the East Coach East Coast, where

(29:08):
he'll return next Monday live from the SEC Football Media Days.
The whole thirteen hundred The Zone Gang will be out there,
Me and Craig Monday through Wednesday. Of course Mike carg
and Mark Henry as well, who'll be broadcasting Monday through
Wednesday out there and looking forward to having on some

(29:29):
exclusive guests and being able to visit with Steve Sarkisian
arch Manning, Anthony Hill, and Michael Tad throughout the week.
And of course all sixteen SEC teams will be there,
so other coaches and players will be around too, so
hopefully we'll be able to chat and visit with them,
pick their brains out on, pick their brains on a
lot of different topics, including the college football playoff, expansion,

(29:52):
transfer portal, all of that good stuff. Right now is
the Big twelve Media Days, and next we're gonna hear
from Brett yor Mark but today Colorado at the podium
and that means Deon Sanders and of course coach Prime
always good for a couple of quotes. How about this
He brought both his quarterbacks Julian Lewis and Kayden Salter

(30:15):
to the media days because quote, he doesn't know who's
going to be their starter. That's always a risky move
bringing your two quarterbacks, I think, to media days.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Something like that.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Hopefully those two, you know, lewis of course true freshman,
believe it's a five star coming in. Hopefully those guys
are mature enough to be able to handle something like that,
because that's a real, real tough spot to be in,
especially when you don't know if you're gonna be the
starting quarterback.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Now lewis the four star quarterback, by the way.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
But here's Dion Sanders, you know, asked about Texas Tech
and how Joey McGuire and how they and Cody Campbell
the billionaire and I L. Donor have attacked the recruiting
landscape here recently.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Coach Brian, how are you how you doing, sir? I'm good.
I'm Jared Ramirez with redditorsports dot com. Uh, you talked
a lot about Media Day last year about your relationship
with Joey McGuire. Yeah, I'm just.

Speaker 6 (31:18):
Curious if you paid attention at all to what they've
been doing in the portal.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Especially.

Speaker 6 (31:21):
Yeah, you Joey got some money, joy baby, you spending
that money.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 6 (31:29):
Once upon a time, you guys was talking junk about
me going in that portal. Now when everybody going to
port it's okay. It's cool when they do it. There's
a problem when I do it.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Ain't done a rap.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
So John, first of all, let's get this straight. I
love me some Joey McGuire and uh, one of the
best coaches in our conference. I've seen him excel from
from from high school all.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
The way to where he is now.

Speaker 6 (31:53):
And uh, he's a winner and I absolutely love it.
And you know, I love him because he's a man
of standard. We there last year and we was getting
bombarded about him. Totilo's I don't know how to say it.
Somebody said Tortillas, who was getting bmbarded about that, enjoy
grabbing the microphone and told him to stop throwing at us.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Or it's gonna be some consequences. And I love that.
And I love George.

Speaker 6 (32:15):
Joe I know you had there, baby, I love you, man,
I appreciate you. Can you send him, you know, a
few of those dollars to us so we could get
some of those players.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Too, center or left in the back.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
What did he say, Tortilla or he didn't say Tortillas tortous.

Speaker 7 (32:31):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Here here's more from Deon Sanders being asked about nil
and the current current landscape of college football and prime.

Speaker 8 (32:41):
You were talking about it during your presser, about NIL
and what these players deserve and how the game is
modified to that point. From where you sit doing at
the highest level in the NFL, how do you believe
NIL should be guard railed now, especially with the revenue shearing.

Speaker 6 (32:57):
I wish it was a cat, you know, like the
top of line player makes this, and if you're not
that type of guy, you know you're not gonna make that.
That's what the NFL does. So the problem is you
got a guy that's not that during good but he
could go to another school and they give him a
half a million dollars and you can't.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
You can't compete with that. That don't make sense.

Speaker 6 (33:15):
And you're talking about equality, not equality like equal I
think to equality. And all you have to do is
look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent.
And you understand, during their white they end the playoffs.
It's kind of hard to compete with somebody who's giving
twenty five thirty million dollars during freshman class.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
It's crazy.

Speaker 6 (33:36):
We're not complaining because all these coaches up here and
can coach at busts off and given the right opportunity
with the right players and play here and there, you'll
be there. But it's what's going on right now don't
make sense, And we want to say stuff, but we're
trying to be professional. But you're going to see the
same teams during that at the end and with somebody
who sneaks up in there.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
But the team that pays the more, pays the most
is gonna be then it.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
On the other side of that, we're seeing, you know,
what what Texas Tech is doing with the portal and
what they're doing and spending wise here. I didn't see
them the College Football Playoff this past year. Now the
amount of money in the Texas and Georgia spent. Yeah,
but also you know kind of what Dion said there,
there's part of developing and coaching that goes into it.

Speaker 6 (34:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
You can spend all the money you want, but if
you don't have the coaching and the development there and
the culture there at the place you spent on the money,
then you know, what good is it?

Speaker 6 (34:32):
Right?

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Look, A lot of this is being compared now to
professional sports. You know, we talked about baseball in this program.
A lot there's a lot of you know, baseball teams
that put a lot of money uh into their team
and does it get them a World Series? Now, a
lot of times it does end up failing them. Right
on the college football side, it only works if you

(34:55):
have the coaching and the development in place to be
able to spend that money and bring guys in and
then developed them. So yeah, of course Georgia in Texas
are always going to be at the top of the
NFL and in terms of nil spending. But there's a
lot of other teams out there that spend a considerable
amount of money and do not have the same success

(35:15):
as Texas and as Georgia. So some quotes there from
Deon Sanders at the Big twelve media days, of course
at Frisco Texas right now. He was asked about his health,
by the way, and for those who are interested in
how Dion is doing. His response was, I'm not here

(35:36):
to talk about my health. I'm here to talk about
my football team. I'm living good, I'm living lovely, not
a care in the world. Of course, Dion has been
undergoing a lot of health issues the last couple of years.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
We hope he's okay. It seems to be in good
spirits out in Frisco, Texas.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
He also told the Report of the Athletic refusing to
answer a question saying, quote, you're going to be on
that bull junk unquote. I think we all expected Dean
Sanders to say bull junk at the Big Twelve Media Days,
that's on all going. I believe a lot that coverage
will be found also on ESPN Plus if you're interested

(36:14):
in seeing it, and believe Michael Irvin's out there right
now for ESPN alongside coach Brian, a couple of former
Cowboys together at the Big Twelve Media Days. SEC Media
Days will be next week in Atlanta, Georgia, and thirteen
hundred Zone will have all of your coverage from the
College Football Hall of Fame Monday through Thursday, and the

(36:38):
attendees have been announced. We encourage you may have heard
me talk about from the Texas side. Of course, every
head coach will be there, but Steve Sarkisian will be
bringing arch Manning, Anthony Hill, and Michael Taff with him
and going to go ahead and assume that there will
not be as much hypher on any other player besides

(36:58):
arch Man. We had Chris core Aready on from Sports
talkdown in Houston on this program a week or so ago,
and he said that it's going to be pretty similar
to Johnny Manzil, and I think so it's going to
be a media frenzy with Arch Manning, and then it'll
be a lot for the sophomore quarterback to handle and
so excited to be able to visit with him other
attendees from other schools, and we'll just go ahead and

(37:19):
run this down from Alabama side, of course, killing the
Bowl will be out there, but Cayden Proctor junior offensive lineman,
Deontay Lawson the senior linebacker, and then Tim Keenan the third,
the senior defensive lineman, will be in attendance for the
Crimson Tide for Arkansas. Taylor Green senior quarterback, camp Ball

(37:40):
defensive lineman senior and Exhaveing Sorry junior linebackers senior Arkansas.
We'll be playing in Austin later this year November twenty second,
the penultimate game on the season, and then a week
later Longhorns will host A and M so the end
of the year with Arkansas and A and M for Auburn.

(38:02):
Junior quarterback and former Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold Keldrick Falk,
junior defensive lineman, and Connor lou junior offensive lineman. Texas
has not played Auburn yet in the SEC. For Florida,
Wan Gordon's will open up their SEC campaign at Florida
will be sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway, Jake Slaughter, the senior

(38:23):
offensive lineman, and Caleb Banks, the senior defensive lineman for
the Georgia Bulldogs who also will be appearing on Tuesday
alongside Texas Gunner Stockton, the junior quarterback, Dylan Everett the
senior defensive back, and c J. Allen, the junior linebacker.
Kentucky will bring Jordan Lovett, the senior dB, Alex Safari
the senior linebacker, and Josh Katis the senior tit In.

(38:45):
Kentucky and Texas will play middle of October. That'll be
in the midst of that four week stretch where Texas
will play outside of Austin. Technically they have a home
game against Oklahoma and the Red River Rovaly, but four
weeks outside of Austin with four games all in a row.

(39:06):
In fact that it's a stretch of five straight weeks,
the first four away from Austin before returning home with
a game against Vanderbilt and then that bye week in
between Vanderbilt in Georgia for LSU Garrett Nussmeyer, senior quarterback,
what weeks junior linebacker and senior wide out, Chris Hilton Jr.
Ole miss will be bringing Austin Simmons, a sophomore quarterback,

(39:28):
Kitt and Lee the junior wide out, and TJ. Dotttery
the junior linebacker, and of course Lane Kiffin. I think
if you're ranking in terms of coaches, you're excited to
hear from Won the sixteen, Lane Kiffin probably number one,
just because he's gonna say something outrageous, you would think so.
For the Bulldogs of Mississippi State, Blake Shapen, former Baylor quarterback,

(39:48):
grad student, Isaac Smith, junior safety. And how about this
Brennan Thompson, the senior wide out. How many of you
guys knew that Brennan Thompson, the former Longhorn, would be
playing for Mississippi State this year. He'll be in Atlanta
for Missouri. Dylan Carnell this graduate senior our graduate safety,
Connor Tolsten, graduate center, and Zion Young senior defensive end

(40:11):
for ELI Drinkwitz for Oklahoma transfer quarterback from Washington State,
John Mattier the junior quarterback, Robert Spears Jennings the dB
senior dB, and then Mason Thomas, the senior defensive lineman.
South Carolina will bring standout sophomore quarterback Lenora Sellers, d
Q Smith the senior dB, and Nick Barrett the senior

(40:32):
defensive tackle. Tennessee will be bringing Bryson Easton, the senior
defensive tackle, Miles Kitzelman the senior tight end, and Aaron
Carter their junior linebacker. Of course, Tennessee without niko olmet
im Aliaba who is now at UCLA, A and M
will be bringing Tory in York junior linebacker, Homage Reed

(40:52):
Adams the graduate offensive lineman and will lead the senior dB.
Surprise no Marshall read especially after prophesying He's gonna win
the Heisman, and then Vanderbilt grad student grad quarterback Diego Pavia,
junior defensive back, Martel Heitt and Randon Fontinet their senior
or sorry, their junior linebacker and safety. So all that

(41:14):
coming up next week at the twenty twenty five SEC
Media Days. Up next, we're going to hear from Steve
sar Keshan speaking out on the upcoming season as The
Greg Way Show continues on the Free iHeartRadio app as
we get closer and closer fifty two days away from kickoff. Okay,
I'm going to continue to hear from Steve sar Keshan

(41:34):
here on today's program from his conversation with Josh Pate
in the Pate State Speaker Series.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
First hour, we heard from Sark talking about.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Is so far his first couple of years here in Austin,
the expectation first, the reality of the job, what he
thought it was when he took it, what it is now,
why the regular season still matters to him, and how
he's handled recruiting now in the nil error, the transfer
portal error, and how he handles players who you know,
make him in and expect to be able to start

(42:10):
day one and don't take it so kindly. So all
that's in an hour one. If you missed it, go
out and check our podcast in the Free iHeart Radio app.
We'll begin this segment here and start talk about how
he handles self evaluation. I think you know throughout anytime
Sark will talk with his Monday press conferences or after whatever.

(42:30):
He always talks about self evaluation going back reviewing the
film on Sunday, So Josh Paid asks him about how
he handles the self evaluation process throughout the season.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
Well, what, I'm probably my toughest critic. I hate admit not.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
Chairs in the room. Yeah, and then you just go
from here. Yeah, man, And and you know, I do
it every game. I do it every week. I do
it every Sunday. You know, I look at you know
that we may throw a forty yard touchdown pass and
I'm thinking, God, that was a terrible call.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
They just blew the coverage.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
But you know, everyone said, what what, what a great
deal of this and that? Or man, I didn't I
did that kid a disservice. I shouldn't have put him
in that position.

Speaker 4 (43:10):
You know.

Speaker 5 (43:10):
He he's catching some heat for some blame on maybe
the way he played, but that was really a disservice,
you know, of some of the stuff we called in
that situation, or how much he practiced that week, so
on and so forth. So I'm probably my toughest critic.
And then I, you know, I just try to lean
into the guys on the staff that I know we're
gonna be honest with me, you know, and and in

(43:32):
certain particular areas, and I'll ask in a way that
they may not know how I'm asking, but I'm really
trying to get the feedback knowing, Okay, they agreed with
what we're doing, or maybe they have a better way
that we can do something, or they disagreed with what
we did, and that's okay for them to disagree with.
I think that's a sign of a healthy organization. That

(43:54):
confrontation is a good thing, because that means if I
surround myself with a bunch of yees people right that
just tell me what I want to hear, we're not
going to grow as a program. And the fact that
we've got people in an organization who are confident enough
in their own abilities to speak their mind, and that
I'll praise those that when we change something, I praise
those people whose idea it was.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
But I don't always have to agree.

Speaker 5 (44:17):
They may come with me to me with an idea
and I may say, you know, I like the idea,
I'm just not ready to do that yet. That nobody
feels offended that way too, And so there's a way
to push people and to give them a seat at
the table to voice their opinion, but never demean them
in a way when you don't.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Go with their idea.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Okay, So you heard him talk about voice at the
table there important for Sark and how he handles that
and how his staff feels like their voice is.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Heard in these staff meetings.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
You heard talk about the process and going back, you
actually swap the quotes there that kind ties in his
talk about self evaluation.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
Well, let's here's one example.

Speaker 5 (45:04):
Let's go with spring balls done okay, and we have
a really simple form.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Sorry, this goes back to the staff challenging Sark in
these meetings. So actually I play the right clip the
first time, so good start here now or two. We
hear him talk about self evaluation and how he handles
how he wants the staff to be able to feel
like their voice is heard during these meetings. So payt
fallows up. Well, okay, so does this lead to you know,

(45:30):
fiery team meetings where Sark and the OC are going,
you know, at each other atage there's an extra throats
that's not really the case in time to time.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
I don't know if it necessarily gets fiery, but it's
definitely real. It's authentic you know, you know, I like,
like I said, when we meet as a staff, I
have everybody in there. I don't you know, I don't say, hey,
this is just the full time coaches. I mean it is.
There's way too many people in this room. But part
of that is is for a reason, I want everybody

(45:59):
on this same accord. So for example, you know, when
we do everybody does that first meeting with their team,
right the philosophy meeting.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Or the goals and the head.

Speaker 5 (46:11):
Coaches up there for two hours and they take a
break and he goes again, Well, I do that meeting
with our staff first, and I'm talking to everybody, everybody
in the recruiting department, everybody in academics. You know that
the whole anybody that's touching our players is I want
everybody speaking the same language.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
I want everybody on the same accord.

Speaker 5 (46:32):
And then I ask, you know, what'd you think of
this slide or what about the way I said this?
And I'll go around with the guys so it will
give me honest feedback and then I'll tweak some things.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
Then I'll go present it to the team.

Speaker 5 (46:42):
And I think that that's important that the staff's going
to hear it twice now, because I want our players
that anybody that's touching them to be speaking the same language.
I think that that's one of the issues a lot
of organizations have, that the that the the person at
top has an idea and a philosophy and a goal.
But if those goals aren't resonating with everybody in the building,

(47:03):
if they're not reciprocated in the various departments within your
organization somewhere in there, that's going to break down and
the players are going to hear start to hear conflicting messaging.
And that's all players and as humans we want because
that gives us an excuse, sure, right, But when it
remains consistent, I think that that's healthy for the players.

(47:24):
That men time and time again that they're getting they're
getting a consistent message, whether that's broad based for the
year or whether that's the weekly message from game to game.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
I think that that's really important.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
But to your point on something you were saying earlier
about that you just do it again, right, what's the
what's the you know, yes, men, and we just do it,
and you wonder why the results aren't good. Well, that's
the definition of insanity. You know, keep doing the same
things expecting a different result. When you're going to have
to make some changes along the way, you're going to
have to adapt. And we talked about that a year ago, right,

(47:56):
adapt or die, And we're in a landscape of collegeotball
right now. Well, we have to be adaptable, man. We
got to be light on our feet. We got to
be able to move and adjust to the things that
are happening right now in college football. I'd love to
say on a yearly basis, I'd love to say on
a monthly basis, it feels like on a weekly basis,
something news coming, a rule change, it's this, it's that,
and if you don't adapt to it, the game will

(48:18):
pass us by. And I think that that's something we've
really been really proud of around here, that we've adapted
to the changes of college football that have allowed us
to grow the way that we have.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
As a program.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
So what those changes you might lead to programs becoming
a little bit uncomfortable. Football is such a routine oriented
sport right the way you recruit and develop in your
off season, everything is routine based. Now with the portal
and the NL in the new college Football Playoff in

(48:53):
conference expansions and everybody changing conferences. All as we've seen
an unprecedented amount of change, right it leads to, you know, teams,
coaches become a little bit more uncomfortable. Stark has embraced
that during his time in Texas. All love routine. Yes,
routine is comfortable, it's safe. But we try to pre

(49:16):
round here is we need to be comfortable being uncomfortable,
because it's gonna be uncomfortable.

Speaker 5 (49:22):
A season is going to be uncomfortable. I can't tell
you what the weather's going to be in Week one
in Columbus. I can't tell you what the weather's going
to be here Week two against San Jose State, I
don't know what time the kickoff times half the times,
I don't know what time we're kicking off till six
days before the game.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
Is that a day game is a night game? You know.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
Some some cities you go to, they got great hotels.
Some places go to they got small hotels. Those are
what they are. But if they might make us uncomfortable,
the plane might.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
Have an issue.

Speaker 5 (49:49):
We got to take off three hours of what we're
gonna do. They're not going to call off the game,
so we better get comfortable being uncomfortable, and that's in
college football in general right now. To sit around and
complain about rule changes and things and settlements that are
coming down the pipe, that does us no good. Let's
look at the situation we're in, and then how can
we make the best of the situation that we're in

(50:10):
and look at it from an open mind. And you know,
one of the worst answers that anybody can ever can
ever give me in any space is well, that's just
what we've always done there, or we've never done it
that way before. I don't want to hear that. I
want to hear about what's best for the situation and
think about our players first and then worry about us.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
And so if we.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
Can go into every situation with that kind of mindset,
generally we're going to try to get to a resolution
that is pretty good. Not summer better than others, I
understand that, but for the most.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
Part pretty good.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
This past season, we've seen Taxes replace a couple key
spots on the staff, including running back coach but Chad
Scott Deshar Choice leaving the co join Dan Campbell up
in Detroit. Awesome move for the Charrette. Choice sucks to
see him leave Austin for the NFL and leave a

(51:02):
hole on the staff. Sark went ahead and filled it
by bringing in Chad Scott the running back position. And
we've seen this course happened a couple of times. You know,
Kenny Baker replacing Bo Davis two years ago as a
defensive line coach and that worked out pretty well. Good
question here from Josh Pate. What does Sark look for
when hiring a coach on his staff?

Speaker 5 (51:26):
Well, I think when you I like to talk to
people that you've worked with, and how do they talk
about you? You know, what are some of the first
things that come out of the mouth.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Do they pause? Why did they pause?

Speaker 5 (51:38):
That means they're trying to decipher through some information, right,
you know what do they reference? Do they reference how
great of a coach you are? Do they reference how
great of a guy you are?

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (51:48):
Do they reference that the players like you? Do they
reference that?

Speaker 4 (51:52):
You know?

Speaker 5 (51:52):
He has friction with his players, but they perform good.
None of it's bad, good and different. But I'm taking
in information of who you are, right of how people
perceive you. And again, how people perceive you does not
always define us. But at least gives me a little
bit of a snapshot. Then when I get to talking
to you, a lot of what I do is get
to know you. Right, You wouldn't have got to this

(52:15):
level to where you're getting recommended for a job at
the University of Texas if you didn't know some level
of football.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Right, But what kind of person are you?

Speaker 3 (52:25):
Right?

Speaker 5 (52:25):
Are you going to enhance this building? Because we've got
a great thing going. We've got a great building here,
and the last thing, as I want to infect this
building was something that could really hinder us on the
journey that we're on. So the person matters for the
coaches that we hire here, and that's on office, defense,
special teams, that's in our scouting and recruiting department, that's

(52:46):
in every aspect of our organization. I think if anybody
you talk to anybody around here, is what we have going?
Is the people right? Because hey, let me tell you something.
Everybody's got great facilities nowadays, and if they don't have
in their building, new ones, Okay, everybody's got a great stadium,
all right. Everybody's got nineteen uniforms that they put on
week in and week out. So what's gonna make us different, Okay,

(53:08):
the people. And so if all I'm worried about is
how smart you are as a coach and neglect and
maybe who you are as a person, sooner or later,
I'm gonna fail in that hiring process.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
And so I try to.

Speaker 5 (53:19):
Learn you as a person to make sure that you
can align with or where we're headed as a program
from a mentality standpoint.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
And the final thing we'll get to here is how
open is Sark with this players. And of course we
all know the story of Sark. You know what happened
at USC and Washington, the time off between him returning
to coaching, joining Saban staff at Alabama, rejoining it, and
then coming to Texas. Sark has been so open about that,

(53:49):
not only with the media but also with his players,
and he talks about it, you know, you know, at
least a couple of times a year he's asked about it,
whether it's Monday press conference or even something like this,
and it always appreciate the honesty from Sark. He has
such a unique perspective on life, and he's not afraid

(54:10):
to shy from it, shy away from it.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
He's open about it.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
And so Josh Pate, you know asked him about how
open he is with his players about his past and
the impact it's had in his life.

Speaker 5 (54:22):
I'm very open, you know, because they all have an idea,
and now especially some of the players that are in
year three, right, they had a pretty good idea of
the life that I've lived. And I wouldn't change my
life for anything. If it weren't my life, I wouldn't
be here today. But I want them to know what

(54:42):
shaped me and how I got here, and so to
do that, I have to be really honest with them.

Speaker 4 (54:47):
I have to be open. I have to share.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
I have to talk about the adversity in my life,
some self inflicted wounds, some not self inflicted wounds. But
the reality of it is when they can actually get
to know my story. And then why now I think
I'm relatively successful, especially in this job, because I do
believe this.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
I believe the really.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
Good teams, to your point, do take on somewhat the
personality of the head coach.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
And I think about those years at Bama, Coach.

Speaker 5 (55:18):
Saban's most disciplined human being I've ever been around in
my life. I could tell you what the guy's gonna
eat for breakfast every day. I can almost predict what
he's gonna wear to work on a Wednesday in season,
what he's gonna have for lunch that day, what time
he's watching third downs like he lives a regimented discipline life.
What is Everyone's one of the first things that come
out of your mouth, and you reference those Alabama football

(55:39):
teams when when that played for Nick Saban discipline. And
so the point being is, Okay, hey, I need them
to know who I am and what I've been through,
and because that's what I'm trying to instill into them.
This level of grit, this this level of resiliency, this

(55:59):
level of mental and physical toughness, the ability to respond
to the adversity that gets thrown at us, not only
in real life but on the football field. That's kind
of who I am, right, That's been my story, That's
been what I've had to do. And so how do
I what's my best way to instill that into our team?
Get to know me, get to know what I'm about,
all right, and then let me get to know you,

(56:20):
and then let's work on some of those things, and
let's create an avenue between each and every player that
they can share with me. They can get close to
me in a way where maybe it's unique, maybe it's not,
I don't know. It feels unique to me. I feel
like we have something special here that way that allows
me to tap into them in a way that's differently
than than maybe any other coach tapped into me. That

(56:43):
I can help them on this journey. When adversity does strike,
their response can be maybe a little different, maybe a
little better than before. That can help them not only
on the football field.

Speaker 4 (56:52):
But in real life.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Great perspective there from Steve Sarkisian and really enjoyed that
as well. We'll hear more of it on Friday, as
we will continue the Josh pat Speaker series interview with
Steve Sarkashan, and then hey, next Tuesday, we'll be able
to visit with Steve Sarkasan live be able to play
his press conference. I do not think he'll be screaming

(57:16):
out asking where Joey Maguire's at, like Deon Sanders. I
don't believe he'll use the phrase bull junk like Deon Sanders.
I don't think he'll call Brett you or Mark the
best commissioner in college football like Mike Gundy did. But
you are gonna hear about him talking about arch Manning,
that's for sure. And he'll talk about this upcoming season
and playing Ohio State week one.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
So looking forward to that.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
We'll be back to continue hour two of today's program
here on the Craig Wave showing on the free iHeartRadio app.
Our next shot Rock Wednesday, we'll be broadcasting from the
College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia for the
SEC Media Days. Looking forward to that again. If you
don't follow us on social media, go ahead and make

(57:59):
sure you follow thirty teen hundred the zone subscribed to
our YouTube channel. Make sure you have the iHeart Radio
app Brady, because we're gonna bring us some content.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
Baby.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
We are going to bring you so much content you
will not be able to watch it. All super excited
for we got Steve Sarkisian will be out there, Arch Manning,
Anthony Hill, Michael Tap It's going to be a lot
of fun. Mark Henry and Michael Harte will be joining
us from the morning kickoff. They'll be broadcasting seven to
nine am and then of course me and Craig wait
two to five pm Central Time the College Football Hall

(58:27):
of Fame we've been working on guests, been working on
bring on some insiders, so it should be a bleast okay.
Next hour, we'll continue our college football discourse with brett
Or Mark. Texas Basketball, by the way, has signed two
more players through twenty twenty five teams, so I'll break
down the two new editions for Sean Miller in his

(58:49):
first year in Austin. But wanted to hit some NBA
notes involving Miles Turner. Of course, Indiana Pacers, losing to
OKC in Game seven, Miles Turner, big part of their
run this past season, ended up signing a deal with
the Milwaukee Bucks four years, one hundred and seven million
dollar contract. The Bucks had the wave and stretched Damian

(59:13):
Lillard two years and one hundred and thirteen million dollars
over the nextally five years. That'll be waived as Milwaukee
trying to gear up with giannistin the Kumpo and for
Indiana a year without Tyrese Halliburton, who's going to be
rehabbing an achilles injury. Did not want to pay Miles
Turner with the Milwaukee Bucks for giving him well. Kevin Pritchard,

(59:35):
the team's GM I, met with the media today to
discuss the Halliburton injury the off season, and discussed the
Miles Turner signing with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Speaker 9 (59:47):
Now, I don't want to get into the specifics of
Miles because the truth is he gave ten great years here.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
I loved having him be here.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
I hope I'm friends with them for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
I know this that.

Speaker 9 (01:00:05):
Herb Simon and Steven Rails and the Simon family were
fully prepared to go deep into the tax to keep him,
and we really wanted to do that, and we were
negotiating and good faith. But what happens in this league
is sometimes you're negotiating, but because a guy is unrestricted,

(01:00:27):
he has the right to say that's the all for
I want, I'm going to take it, and and that's
best for my family. And again we were in good
faith negotiations. It was a little surprising that, you know,
how Milwaukee created that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
I don't know if you know.

Speaker 9 (01:00:47):
We always say in our conference room, there's there's cap
there's cap teams that have cap space, and there's shadow
teams that have cap.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
Space you can go get.

Speaker 9 (01:01:00):
It becomes very challenging by buying out or making trades
and and you know, hat tip to Milwaukee to do that.
So I think the most important thing is we were
deep in in conversations with Miles and then and then
we saw that that he'd accepted an.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
Offer with Milwaukee.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
And again.

Speaker 9 (01:01:23):
That's part of this business that is challenging. I can
tell you this also that there are two kinds of
things that I believe that it is kind of fundamental
to the to the league right now, and that is
change is inevitable and expect the unexpected. And I can't
tell you that you know, we were fully expected for that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
So that sounds like Milwaukee or sorry, Indiana was offering
to about three years and about four or five million
dollars less average annual salary than what Milwaukee was able
to offer him, and of course you heard them saying
that they were surprised. Runaway Richard found out through Twitter
that Turner has signed with Milwaukee over Indiana. And of

(01:02:06):
course Miles Turner was an unresearched creation, but negotiations probably went.
Turner wanted something a little bit longer, four years, one
hundred and was a seven million dollars. Indiana was not
willing to give him four years, so you know, not
not surprised that Turner decided, Hey, okay, I want to
go where I'm gonna have a little bit more. I

(01:02:27):
have a longer contract, a little bit more, not not guaranteed,
but now I have four years here versus possibly three
years in Indiana. And Indiana you know, we're not offering
the max contract there. They obviously would like to have
kept their cap space, especially for a year in which
will be a bridge year with Tyre's Halliburton out for

(01:02:49):
the entire season rehabbing Achilles injury. You know, you signed
Miles Turner, and hey, I love Miles Turner, fantastic basketball player,
but he is going to be thirty years old this
next season, thirty one by the time that Haliburton comes back,
and within then that time, Indiana may be able to

(01:03:09):
find a stretch five center like Miles turn they like.
And of course, with all this first Apron and Second
Apron decisions, it's really changed the way these gms work.
Heard about Brad Stevens, you know, he was asked about
trading away Drew Holiday and Christops Persingis. He said, it's
because of the second Apron. We're afraid of what will
happen with the second apron. If your team gets hard

(01:03:31):
capped in the first and second apron, you cannot make
any moves, you can't make any trades, you can't make
any signings. It completely will put wrist, will put handcuffs
around your wrist and prevent you from making any more moves.
And this new CBA with the first and second apron
have really scared GMS and we're seeing it this offseason.
I mean, that's that's exactly why the Pacers would not

(01:03:53):
offer a longer deal to Miles Turner. Along with you know,
the injury, the tires Haliburton, that's kind of really screwed
up other next couple years. Speaking of getting paid, congrats
to chet Holgren a five year, fully guaranteed max rookie
contract extension that could reach up to two hundred and
fifty million dollars with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
Holgrom twenty three years old. I'm signing this deal.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Minimumount will be two hundred and thirty nine million dollars,
but could reach two hundred and fifty dollars based on
some other parts in this contract. So chet Holgrin has
been locked up. Of course, OKC locked up. Shay Gildes
Alex Sander to a four year, two hundred and eighty
five million dollar contract extension to the twenty thirty thirty
one season. And now we'll be working on the contract

(01:04:43):
extension for Jill and Williams, who, by the way, did
you guys see you know, hit that risk injury? Apparently
took at least thirty injection's worth of painkillers to his
wrists throughout the playoffs to deal with the injury and
the nagging pain. And hey, he played phenomenal and let
it helped lead OKAC to an OKC championship. That's your

(01:05:05):
NBA talk Here, we'll be back to wrap up our
two of today's program. Up next to the gregt Way Show.
The final hour of today's program here on thirteen hundred
The Zone. Cameron Parker with you here as we are
now an hour three of today's program. Craig Wave will
be back Monday, and he'll be live from the SEC
Media Days along with myself, my Cargs, and Mark Henry

(01:05:27):
from the College Football Hall of Fame, broadcasting Monday through
Wednesday at the SEC Media Days. We get closer and
closer to college football kickoff. Big twelve Media Days are
underway right now, and we're gonna hear a little bit
from everybody's second favorite, Commissioner Brett or Mark. His thoughts
on where the Big twelve stands. He had some he's

(01:05:50):
just firing off the quotes today, he's just letting them rip.
And also his thoughts on the expanded College Football Playoff
what he believes the CFP should adapt adopt rather when
it heads to sixteen teams next season. So we're going
to hear from that. We might hear from Mike Gundy
as well. But one to begin this hour, the little

(01:06:10):
house cleaning, looking at what's coming up this week, Andrew
Simmol in the Marrow. All be here Friday to wrap
up the week, I'm going to talk about Texas football,
so Major League Baseball, and of course we're going to
conduct the music survey with Andrew Simile. Before we get
into Texas football talk, a couple of Texas basketball recruiting

(01:06:31):
notes coming down, as two signees have been made official.
We'll begin with Declan Durou, who played for Real Madrid
senior team this past season. The native German won the
silver medal at the FOBA Under nineteen World Cup and
has signed to play with the University of Texas this

(01:06:52):
next season. On Wednesday, Duro, who's been the last five
years with Real Madrid in the program's youth development system
in Spain, will join Texas as a true freshman for
the upcoming twenty twenty five twenty twenty six season. Duro,
six foot nine, two hundred and twenty five pound forward
originally from Munich, played for the Real Madrid B team

(01:07:14):
in the Real Madrid Under nineteen team this past season.
Played in seven contests for Real Madrid, an average twelve
points per game, five point four rebounds in twenty five
minutes per game, shooting forty nine percent from the floor
in forty one percent from three point range. Duro also
saw action in seventeen games for Real Madrid B team,

(01:07:34):
average seven and a half points in five and a
half rebounds in twenty eight minutes per contest. Duro helped
his native German team post a six to one record
in earnest silver medal at the FIBA Under nineteen World
Cup in the Saint Switzerland this past week. He reached
double figures and scoring in six to seven games, average
eleven point four points per game, five point one rebounds

(01:07:56):
in twenty eight point six minutes per contest. He shot
fifty two percent from the floor. The previous summer, Duu
pace Germany to a seven and o mark in the
gold medal at the twenty twenty four fee but Under
eighteen euro Basketball Championship in Finland. The twenty three to
twenty four season, Duro helped Real Madrid the under eighteen team,

(01:08:18):
win the EuroLeague Basketball Next Generation Tournament. He also played
on the Real Madrid under sixteen team and led him
to a pair of Spanish championships in twenty twenty two
and helped the Real Madrid under fourteen team claim the
Spanish championship in two thousand and twenty one. So two
way forward, providing a little bit more forward depth for Texas.

(01:08:39):
At six foot nine Sean Miller adding a little bit
more height to this roster. Now, Duro isn't the only
signee from today, as Texas added another one, officially signing
Lewis Obiarra, who earned finals MVP honors when leading Barkley

(01:09:00):
Abbey to the ELBA Championship. His last season scenario starting
to get a theme here and Hal Shotler likes to recruit.
Ovi Ara signed a scholarship agreement to play at Texas
for the twenty twenty five twenty six season. It's been
the last year playing at the Barking Abbey Basketball Academy
in London. Will be joined Texas as a true freshman.

(01:09:21):
Obi Arera seven two hundred and forty one pounds, a
center from London, England, played in the Elite Academy Basketball League,
which features the top under nineteen players in the country.
He actually earned Championship Finals MVP honors in the ELBA
L this last season. Average ten point seven points per game,
nine point six rebounds in three point seven blocks per

(01:09:43):
game in the twenty twenty For twenty twenty five season,
so seven foot one, two hundred and forty five pounds,
believe he will be the tallest player on the team.
In fact, I've seen some list him as actually seven
foot two, allegedly a seven to five wing span. It's

(01:10:03):
only nineteen years old, so we're seeing Sean Miller really
hit the recruiting trail hard outside the States, and that's
been kind of his mo even going back to his
time at Xavier in Arizona. You know, kind of reminds
us of how Rick Barnes used to recruit, right. Rick
always would go outside the country and nab. I mean,

(01:10:25):
remember how you recruited Canada, right with Tristan Thompson, uh
and Corey Joseph. So with the way the current college
basketball recruiting landscape is set up, NL is not going
to favor Texas and basketball like it does in football.
You know, Texas mild the pack in the SEC in
terms in terms of nil. So what is Sean Miller
gonna do. It's gonna go out and it's gonna recruit

(01:10:47):
and bring in guys from outside the States who aren't
going to command the high dollar deals that we're going
to see from other you know, five and four star
kids in the country. So uh, so far, we'll see
what this recruiting cycle looked like in three four years.
But he's adding a lot of pieces so far. Of course,
bringing over from Xaviers Dylan Swain, who I'm excited about,

(01:11:10):
just a defensive menace predue forward, Camden Heidi Fau, center
Matis Vokitatis. We'll see if I can get that perfected.
Towards end of the year, Saint John's guard sing and
Walter added Xavior center Lacina Treiri, who did not play
this past year. With a season ending injury, and then

(01:11:31):
of course Declan Duru and those guys will be joining
returning players like Tremont Mark, Jordan Pope, Kendall Weaver, Nick
Cody and then twenty twenty four star center John Clark
who was signed to RT Rodney Terry and is coming
over with Sean Miller. So we'll see what this staff,
this team will look like. You're looking at, you know,

(01:11:52):
projecting starting lineups for this next season. I think you're
gonna get You're gonna see probably Pope, Mark, maybe Dyalen sorry,
Simon Wolcher, and Dalen Swain.

Speaker 3 (01:12:05):
Well, we'll see. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
That's that's honestly right there. That's more of a four
guard lineup, a pretty small lineup. You know, who will
be the true center? Will it be Foky Tatis the
f AU center? Will he be the starting guy? I'm
not sure where Obiar is at in terms of development,
but it seems like more of a long term project there.
But Mark, for sure, we'll start. Can't imagine Jordan Pope

(01:12:28):
not starting. Can't imagine Wolter not starting. Will kenn the
Weaver come off the bench and be that sixth man?
We'll see, But in terms of where this roster is
a pretty optimistic. You know, I'm excited for this next season.
In Shawn Miller's first year, his style basketball should be
a lot of fun. He likes to play quick, he
likes to play fast, and in the terms of guys

(01:12:50):
he's he's recruited and signed from the Portal and has
brought in this recruiting class all fit that model.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
Kenda Weaver, Pope like to play quick. Really excited about
what Simon and Walcher can bring. And then Dalan Swayne too. Defensively,
he had some great moments against Texas in that first
four game back in day and then Ken and Heidi
as well, the six foot seven Purdue forward. So a
lot to look forward to. Texas will open up their

(01:13:17):
season against Duke actually November fourth at the Spectrum Center
in Charlotte, and then will begin their home slate against
Louisiana Lafayette later in the season at Moody Center. Miller,
you know, in this press conference when he signed with Texas,
he said, quote, I believe in up Temple style playing.

(01:13:39):
That's something that I've really changed on over the last
four years. Playing fast doesn't mean playing reckless. When you
look at college basketball, you can be exciting and play fast,
but you can also play smart. I will tell you
that in terms of pacing Temple, I promise I will
deliver on not only an exciting style, but I think
a style that people and players love to watch in person,
on TV and most importantly to be a part of.

(01:14:02):
So looking forward to that last season. Of course, Texas
losing to Savior in the first four game against John Miller,
who had ironically become the next Texas basketball head coach.
As we get closer to the twenty twenty five season
should be a real fund new year. Texas will be
traveling to Maui for the Maui Invitational Thanksgiving week, same

(01:14:27):
week as the Texas Texas A and M game. Also
will be playing Virginia hosting Virginia in the acc SEC
Challenge later in December. So the full schedule has not
been released, we do know who Texas will be playing
home and away in the conference season.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
Throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Texas will host Florida, Georgia, lsu Ole, miss Mississippi State, Oklahoma,
South Carolina, Texas A and M, and Vanderbilt. On the road,
We'll play at Alabama at Arkansas, at Auburn, at Georgia,
at Kentucky, at Missouri, at Oklahoma, at Tennessee and at
Texas A and M. So the home and aways Oklahoma

(01:15:09):
and A and M. And then that third team that
they will be playing both home and away, actually is
I thought it would be. It's not Arkansas. It was
Arkansas this past season. I will not be Arkansas this
next year. Actually be Georgia. Georgia. So Texas will be

(01:15:31):
playing Georgia both home in a way this next season.
So looking forward to the twenty twenty. Of course, the
SCC defending national champions in I believe the deepest basketball
conference in the country. Someone who may not agree with
that statement and has actually said much differently is the
Big Twelve commissioner Brett your Mark. He's actually spoken this

(01:15:53):
week at the Big twelve Media days up in Frisco,
Texas in your Mark as It's been putting on a
show as he likes to do at the media days,
offering up some hilarious comments taking him of the college
football playoff and taking game at the college football landscape.
We'll get to those you're gonna hear from Brett Ormark

(01:16:14):
coming up next you're gonna hear from him on the
college football Playoff expansion, what format he believes the committee
should take, even though it may not be the best
for the Big twelve. And we're gonna hear from Mike
Gundy himself all that more of the final hour of
the day's program. Just getting started here on the Wednesday
edition a Yacht Rock Wednesday, on The Craigway Show, and

(01:16:35):
on the free iHeartRadio app. Creig will be back next
Monday because we'll be back in Atlanta, Georgia, Hotlanta for
the SEC Media Days twoenty twenty five Football Kickoff. Folks,
We're getting closer and closer to kickoff here, almost fifty
days away from Texas football returning to the grid art

(01:16:58):
in Columbus, Ohio, Texas Ohio State that will begin the
Longhorns twenty twenty five campaign. Of course, last time Texas
played in the Shoe two thousand and four Texas Ohio State,
that back and forth affair. And of course, who could
forget Vince Young to lineas swede in the corner of

(01:17:22):
the end zone as Texas knocked off Troy Smith in
the buck Guys, that was one of my one of
the first games I really remembered as a kid, remember
the hype surrounding it. Of course, I believe it was
ESPN Saturday Night College Football, Brent Musburger, No, sorry, that
would have been I'm sorry. Keith Jackson and Dan Fouts,

(01:17:45):
I believe, right, Yeah. I think Keith Jackson and Dan
Fouts one of my favorite broadcasting crews. And I think
after that win, after that victory, I think Texas fans knew, okay,
this team is special. To go in and knock off
Ohio State life that what a fun game. Of Course,
at the last time Texas had played Ohio State met
the year after Colt McCoy's first year as a starter

(01:18:09):
did not go the way the Longhorns, as Texas fell
to Ohio State, a much more experience Ohio State team
and DQR. And then a few years later, McCoy would
get his revenge in the Fiesta Bowl. Of course, who
could forget Colte McCoy the Kwan Cosby to win the
Fiesta Bowl a year that Texas probably should have been
playing the national championship, But I digress. And then, of course,
last season's meeting in the College Football Playoffs semi finally,

(01:18:30):
at the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State holding off Texas on
their way to clinching a national championship, as they would
defeat Notre Dame. So a lot of fun back and
forth affairs between Texas and Ohio State, and should be
yet another fun game come August thirty first as Texas
and the Buck guys will meet and what should be

(01:18:53):
a top five meeting. I would think at least the
top ten. Phil Still came on in the morning Kickoff
believe on on Tuesday morning. In fact, please go ahead
and check out that interview if you have not already
done so on our YouTube page and on our podcast page.
He has Texas at number four in terms of rankings,

(01:19:15):
and man, I don't know. I feel like that's a
little bit low. There's three other teams that are better
than Texas. I understand. If you have Georgia up there
because they're returning every four and five star imaginable. But
you have an Alabama team with a lot of questions.
Ohio State's replacing a lot of key players, just like Texas.

(01:19:37):
If you want to say Notre Dame, sure, Oregon, sure,
but hey, Oregon in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State,
did those two teams look like they belonged on the
same level. No Ohio State took Oregon to the woodshed
and took them to the woodshed early on. So you know,

(01:19:59):
Homer alert here, sure should should? I believe Texas is
the top three team. Yeah, if they were number one,
I would not bat deny. I would say number one,
number two, number four, Not so sure about that. Currently
number one in ESPN's College Football Power Index for twenty
twenty five. Speaking of number one, of course, next week

(01:20:20):
the SEC media Days. This week is the Big Twelve
Media Days, eh, I remember when we used to go
to those and Brett yor Mark who I think a
lot of Texas fans and a lot of Oklahoma fans
are just really sick of Zika. And I'll say this,
I think he's a fantastic businessman. I think what he's
done to keep the Big twelve afloat is incredible because

(01:20:41):
I think there's a lot of outcomes where what happened
to the PAC twelve could have been the Big twelve
if not.

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
For brett yor Mark.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
But brett yor Mark, who likes to save things and
likes to say a lot of things, said this in
his media day press conference at the Big Twelve Media
Days in buckle up.

Speaker 10 (01:21:02):
Looking ahead, our focus remains on thriving in this new
era of college athletics. Strengthening our football product remains essential.
We are committed to continued investment and growth. Every school
in our league has committed to providing the highest level
of benefits to our student athletes, and once again, I

(01:21:26):
believe we will be the deepest football conference in America.
No league offers the competitive balance that we do.

Speaker 3 (01:21:37):
Last season, the Big Twelve.

Speaker 10 (01:21:38):
Led the nation in fourth quarter lead changes and go
ahead scores in the final minute of conference games, and
this year our star power, especially a quarterback, will be
on fuld display. The Big Twelve returns nine starting quarterbacks
who threw for over twenty four hundred yards last season,

(01:22:00):
so the power for combined just eleven. We also boast
one of the nation's top coaching lineups, from Hall of
famers to rising stars. I fully expect the Big Twelve
to earn multiple college football playoff bids this year and

(01:22:20):
to show once again that we can compete with anyone.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
Did he just use fourth quarter league changes in his
argument that the Big Twelve is the deepest league in
the country. Okay, who are those fourth quarter league changes against?
It's Big twelve teams against Big twelve teams, right, And
I'm missing something there? And he said once again as well,

(01:22:52):
raise of hands. Who thought the Big twelve was the
deepest conference this past season? Oh? Nobody. I think it's
pretty obvious it was the SEC. You look at the
FPI number two team, Texas number four and five, Bama, Ole,
miss number seven, Georgia, Tennessee number nine. In fact, you

(01:23:15):
could argue that maybe the ACC was a bit deeper
in terms of Clemson, SMU, Louisville, Miami. Then the Big Twelve,
I mean, by far the Big ten in the SEC
or deeper.

Speaker 3 (01:23:33):
But the Big Twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
If you want to say, okay, well we had you know,
three ten win teams. Sure, but deepest conference in the league.
And once again it will be the deepest conference in
the league. I'm not so sure about that. He also
claims that a Big twelve team can win the national championship.

(01:23:59):
Of course, sure was Texas a play away from losing
to Arizona State, Sure would they at the Vietna Ohio
State I don't think so. I think Ohio State would
have wiped the floor against Arizona State. I understand now
that the path to making the national championship is easier
under the expanded format for the Big Twelve, but I

(01:24:21):
do not agree with the assumption or the belief that
the Big Twelve now has a better chance of winning
the national championship than it did two, three, four years
ago when it had Oklahoma in Texas. It wasn't just
football your mark was talking about. He said that the
Big Twelve is the best basketball conference in the last

(01:24:44):
ten years and is the best basketball conference in the country.
Just curious who won the national championship this past year
college basketball?

Speaker 3 (01:24:53):
Was it the Florida Gators?

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
Okay, okay, just double checking, you know, credit Houston, but
you know Houston kind of you know, just joined the
Big Twelve. So you can't see the last ten years
with the Big Twelve now Kansas, Iowa State, Texas Tech
under Chris Beard.

Speaker 3 (01:25:13):
There's an argument there.

Speaker 1 (01:25:14):
But what your market is doing here and you got
to you gotta tip the hat to him because he
is playing to the crowd.

Speaker 3 (01:25:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:25:21):
It's it's just like a general giving a speech to
his army. Right, We're gonna go out and we're gonna win.
He's not gonna go out there and say, yeah, you know,
we're like the third fourth best conference, you know in football,
you know we've been alright the last ten years. No,
but it's it's very performative. But you got to give
him credit where credit is due, because he is a
fantastic showman.

Speaker 3 (01:25:42):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
Every time he's taking the States so far, the big
twelve media days, he's always let at least one or
two quotes that will get us in the media here talking.
Usually it does somehow involve Texas or Oklahoma. And I'll
tell you what, it makes me even more excited and
interested to see how Greg Zanke will respond at the

(01:26:06):
SEC media Days this next week, because no doubt he
will be asked about Brett or Mark's remarks, and no
doubt Greg Sanki will probably say something similar as in
the SEC is the deepest league in football, in probably basketball,
in probably baseball. We'll also probably hear Greg Sanki ask
and talk about the expanded college football Playoff what that

(01:26:29):
format will look like. Well, we'll come back and play
Brett your marks thoughts on what the college football Playoff
expansion should look like up next year on the Craig
Way Show Tojo where he gets to some more Brett
yormark comments from the Big Twelve media days, and we
will do that here as Brett Yormark discussed the upcoming

(01:26:49):
change with the College Football Playoff model. Of course we'll
be expanding to twelve teams. There's a December first deadline
for the CFP commit to figure out what the form
will be. There's kind of a couple ideas, but the
crux of it is there seems to be two main ideas.
There's the five plus eleven format, which is five spots

(01:27:13):
for the five highest ranked conference champions plus eleven other bids.
Or there's what the SEC in the Big Ten has discussed,
which is four automatic qualifiers from the SEC, four from
the Big Ten and then two from the Big Twelve,

(01:27:38):
two from the ACC and then one for the fifth
conference champion, and then the rest would be filled out
by the committee. Well you would think, okay, two automatic bids.
You would think the Big twelve and Brett or Mark
would be all over that. Well, not so much. Here's
Brett Yormark actually doubling down on the need for a

(01:27:59):
five plus it's eleven format.

Speaker 10 (01:28:01):
I fully expect the Big Twelve to earn multiple college
football playoff bids this year and to show once again
that we can compete with anyone. Speaking of the CFP,
we continue to believe the five to eleven model proposed
by the Big Twelve and the ACC is the right

(01:28:23):
playoff format for college football.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
We want to earn it on the field.

Speaker 10 (01:28:30):
We do not need a professional model because we are
not the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:28:36):
We are college football and we must act like it.

Speaker 10 (01:28:41):
There is nothing in sports like college football, and we
must protect what makes it special and do what's right
for the fans and the game. They are doing a
full audit of the selection process to figure out how
they can modernize and contemporize, and how they use data
and how certain metrics can be more heavily weighted. Most importantly,

(01:29:04):
they have a great leader. Mac Rod's a bailor, and
I have a lot of faith in mac Rhodes and
the work he's doing with this election committee. So I
have a lot of faith in what they're doing, and
five eleven is fair.

Speaker 3 (01:29:19):
We want to earn it on the field.

Speaker 10 (01:29:21):
It might not be the best solution today for the
Big Twelve, given your comments about AQS, but long term
knowing the progress we're making, the investments we're making, It's
the right format for us. And I'm doubling down today
on five to eleven. And I know Jim Phillips will,
and I'm sure some of the other conference commissioners will

(01:29:41):
as well.

Speaker 3 (01:29:42):
And you know what else we need.

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
We need Mike Gundy's thoughts on this as well, because
nothing goes better with brett Or Marked, and a little
side of Mike Gundy agreeing with brett Or Mark on
this format.

Speaker 7 (01:29:54):
So I read most of the Commissioner's remarks from yesterday,
and I've said this before and I'll say it again.
The Big twelve as the best commission in all sports
in my opinion. He's energetic, he thinks out of the box,
he's motivated. But as I spend time with him, what

(01:30:15):
I learned, maybe more than anything about him, is he
has a way of getting a group together, having a
discussion and then coming up with a plan, and having
a plan gives us the best chance. And so when
you talk about the five eleven, is that what you're
referring to.

Speaker 3 (01:30:35):
I listened to.

Speaker 7 (01:30:36):
It, read about it when the discussions first started in
Orlando a few weeks ago. I really didn't have much
input because they start talking about a lot of numbers
and that was over my head. But then as I
listened to it and heard from all the other coaches,
it made a lot of sense from the standpoint of

(01:30:59):
don't we all want to play the game and decide
who should get in in the end, and not just
set it up to where certain conferences get in whether
they don't play as well as other schools. Because ultimately
we're trying to find the best teams, whatever that number is,
to get in a playoff, seed them appropriately, and.

Speaker 3 (01:31:22):
Then let them play for a championship.

Speaker 7 (01:31:24):
And so I'm in agreement with the commissioner and it's by.

Speaker 3 (01:31:27):
Far the best way.

Speaker 7 (01:31:30):
I understand the backlash, Well, what if you only get
one team in, Well, then the other teams need to
play better. That's what I would say to Oklahoma State.
That's what I would say to me as a head coach.
So I like the Big Twelve Conference. I like the
future of this league, and I put my name behind

(01:31:51):
the agreement that we made that that standard, that five
to eleven is the way it should be.

Speaker 3 (01:31:58):
And if you play well, you deserve.

Speaker 7 (01:32:00):
It, you earn it, you get in if you don't,
then you try again next year.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
And I think the flip side from the SEC standpoint,
and we've heard this from Kirby Smart, they're going to
want to have as much SEC teams in.

Speaker 3 (01:32:13):
The playoff as possible.

Speaker 1 (01:32:14):
If you're an SEC fan, if they those exist, then yeah,
you want to have four automatic qualifiers. But in terms
of being a college football fan, I like the five
plus eleven format because I do agree with your marks
thoughts there is that let the best sixteen teams be
in Lank Kiffin is in favor of just no automatic qualifiers,
just the sixteen best teams. Lane Kiffin also lives on

(01:32:36):
a different planet than most people, but I like having
Do you want to give the five give five bids
to the conference champions? Sure, but I do not believe
they should be rated or ranked one through five. I
think the ranking should be based on the sixteen best teams.
If you want to give an automatic qualifier because you
won the Big twelve for the SEC, I'm okay with that.

(01:32:56):
But let's get the best teams and there's possible because
there's gonna be some year where you're gonna have more
SEC teams that are better than Big ten teams and
vice versa, and there might be some years like last year,
where there's better ACC teams than Big twelve teams. But
we'll see Greg Sinki's thoughts on this next week, as
probably some other college football coaches at the SEC Media

(01:33:18):
Days in Atlanta, Georgia,

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