CFP First Round Recap, NFL Playoff Picture, "Malfunction" at Michigan

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
We welcome you to Monday. We're in on Monday here
on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone. This is
the Craigway Show. My name is Craig Waite. So so
here's what happened. You know, it started to come up.
The computer is conditioned to, you know, just peel off
the regular open. So we had this thing planned where

(00:27):
we were going with holiday music. I mentioned that the
other day when I was on the program and I
dropped in when Jake was stepping in the computer with
a mind of its own just said oh no, no, no, no,
we're going standard open.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
So that's why I was firing it off, and.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Then producer Jake Herman and I were saying no, no, no, no no.
This is our show, not the computers show. So you
can play him and it's front of all you want.
But we're coming back with Mannheim Steamrollers deck the halls,
because that's how we're getting this holiday edition program underway.
So hope you understand that. We welcome you to the

(01:02):
show and welcome Jay Carman.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
The producer.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
How you doing, I'm doing great. I love us, I
love us turning this into a principled stand against the computer.
That's that's one way to spend it.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Rage against the machine.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Okay, that's on my Christmas playlist.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, so anyway, so that, yeah, we do have a
Christmas playlist today on the program this afternoon. All of
our music, our bump backs Hourly opens in spite of
what the computer tried to do to us, all of
that is holiday based, Christmas based, holiday based music for
that because we're here only a couple more days today

(01:37):
and tomorrow, and then we're off on Christmas, even Christmas Day,
and then the day after, which is Friday, and then
on Monday, the twenty ninth, I'll actually be down in Orlando.
U and Jake will be in here and I will
check in when we get in you know, get into.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Orlando and do that and the.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Head coach's press conferences on Tuesday the thirtieth, when check
can and do all that stuff leading up to, of course,
the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Eve afternoon two o'clock kickoff.
I got some good news today, Jake. The actual kickoff
for the Citrus Bowl is two o six pm our time.

(02:20):
That's what we're told. No slide two o six. Wow.
I think that's because the relya Quest Bowl is on
ESPN and the Citrus is on ABC. I think, I
think they're all different, different things. So anyway, it's at
two o six. So in other words, it's not gonna
be one of those hour and twenty minute network pregame shows.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
I mean, they're gonna kick it and run at twenty after.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
I wouldn't worry about an Iowa game going over slide.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, well that's true too, but that's all on ESPN,
right That.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Relya question that'll be on ESPN and yep, Texas Michigan
ABC exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
So I found that out today. I was told it's
gonna be an no kickoff, so that's good.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
That's good.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
So in any event, I'll be down there for that obviously,
starting off next week. But today we're here to review
the college football playoff results of the weekend, the NFL
of the weekend. There's one more game tonight forty nine
Ers Colts, and then of course there's two weeks to

(03:23):
go in the regular season, and the headlines of it,
at least from the perspective of the state of Texas,
you can finally put those cowboy playoff hopes to bed.
They were officially eliminated. They were eliminated before they even
took the field yesterday against the Chargers. The Eagles win
of the Commanders on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
And did you watch any of that.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
The first half?

Speaker 4 (03:45):
Did you?

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Okay, that's all right, you know, you got the frisky
quarter and a half out of the way, had another
quarterback go down with an injury.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
It was you know what?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
At least they called the false start on the touch push.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, there you go. Press.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
So the Cowboys were even eliminated before they took the
field against the Chargers and then proceeded to play like it.
And but the Chargers are also pushing for a playoff spot,
possibly even the division title after the Jaguars won in
Denver yesterday.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
So we'll break down the NFL.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
We'll look at the college football playoffs.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Sooners than Aggies are both gone. Wow.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
And of course what I was doing is you know,
I was doing the high school state championships and I
had games on while both of those games were either
going on or finishing.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
I saw most of those games. Did you pretty I
watch almost every step?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Oh wow? Okay, the two playoff.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Games, the playoffs, Yeah, well, Friday night when I was
doing the five A Division one game, between Smithson Valley.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
And UH and Frisco.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Lonstarn Congratulations Larry Hill and Smithson Valley back to back
state championships. While that was going on, was watching the
oaklumb But we had it up at this very iPad.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
I had it up and I had it on the side.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Okay, so he's looking at it over on the side,
And every time I looked up early on, Oklahoma was
scoring and I said, we're up seventeen nothing. And Isaiah
Stanback was working the telecast wing to break, and he
wanted he wanted Oklahoma to win because he is an
embittered Washington Husky. You know, he's a former Washington Husky quarterback.

(05:29):
So he became a little embittered when Caitlyn de Boor
left Washington for Alabama, so he wanted him to go down.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
So he was chortling. He was happy about that at first,
and then when it all changed, he was like.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
So, and you know, but I was in grocer and
calling the game. But then you know, I started looking.
Then I saw seventeen seven, Then I saw seventeen ten,
then I saw the pick six, and at seventeen seven,
what the world's going on? And that game actually finished
right before the high school game ended, and so I

(06:00):
was able to keep enough track on that and see
what happened where Oklahoma ran into a lot of the
same problems with Oklahoma has run into, you know, throughout
the course of the season, and that is a veritable
lack of offense, especially in the second half. They struggled
to move the ball in the red zone. They had

(06:21):
some moves really between the thirties and then struggled.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
But that's what happened with that, so they'd get knocked out.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Although I don't think there were a lot of folks
particularly stunned or surprised by that. I think Alabama learned
from its earlier lost to Oklahoma because remember the game
that the Sooners won in Tuscaloosa, Alabama outgained them and
largely outplayed them, but for turnovers. This time, Alabama stayed
largely away from the turnovers and they were able to

(06:51):
get some of their own, especially the Big six, and
so they got to win. So Alabama's onto the Rose
Bowl to play Indiana.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
How about that first time ever?

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Alabama and Indiana will meet in football, first time ever,
and it'll be at the Rose.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Ball and Indiana it'll be favored who to thunket, Yeah,
but no, I mean you got that off perfectly. I
think Alabama had the type of win that Oklahoma had.
It's Uscaloosa the first time, and I did think I
did think that Ben Rbuckle and Brent Vennables got uber conservative,
especially once the Sooners got down. It's almost like they

(07:25):
didn't trust the downfield passing game when I think some
of the players were there to be made, they just
didn't execute in the first half. So I thought that
was curious. I thought Alabama adjusted better in the ballgame.
And yeah, we'll see what kind of test they can
pose for an Indiana team that looks very strong on
all sides.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
That's true. That was on Friday.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Then on Saturday, first of all, the two results everybody
expected did happen. I actually thought James Madison gave a
better account of themselves than Tulane did. Delane got whacked
around again a second time this season by Ole Miss
and jmu Yeah, they were going to give up, you know,

(08:04):
gallons of points to Organ, but they scored some on
their own. You know, they managed to get twenty six
points of their own there, so at least they were
able to say Hey, look, we were able to you know,
be on the field and show some life on that.
Still in all that's going to be is you know,
food for the masses who are against having the G
fives even represented it. And again this goes back to

(08:26):
the you can bang your head against the wall argument,
but it's still not going to change things. And and
this goes across many platforms at the NFL. Jerry Jones
for those who harangue against the Cowboys and say they
got to get Jerry out of there, this thing is
not gonna They're not getting Jerry out.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
He's there, he owns the team. He's going to keep
being who he is.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
And we'll hear some from Jerry tomorrow, but you know,
his whole thing, he that's just Jerry, and he's in
charge and that ain't changing. And even when the day
comes when he's too old and infirm, and you know
he looks like the crypt keeper as it is now,
but I mean when when he's when when the day
comes when he can't do it anymore, Steven's going to

(09:13):
take over. So you're a Cowboy fan, you can choose
one of two directions on this. You can either do
like Cameron Parkers and divorce yourself from the team because
of the Jones family and just kind of go neutral
and not even adopted. Now, my son was a Cowboy fan,
he dropped him and adopted the Dolphins, although that hadn't

(09:35):
really helped him that much.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
How about their QB this weekend.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, yeah, he at least got his feet wet.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, it didn't go the way I think he hoped
it would, but it's a start.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's good good for Quinn to get out there and
get get an opportunity. So you can either adopt that
or you can be a long suffering fan and have
to deal with the consequences of the Cowboys. I understand
it completely that I was that way as a Rams fan,
certainly in the nineties, all the way up to when
they finally, you know, broke through. But they had bad ownership,

(10:06):
bad coaching, all that other kind of stuff until they
were able to break through.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
But so there's that.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
So that's one element of what I'm talking about here
with regard to the college football fan. The other thing
would be for those and we've had the the the
friendly and the less than friendly, give and take on
our text line with a couple of folks, one in
specific who is absolutely one hundred percent certainness that the

(10:33):
Texas team is not going to go any further unless
and until Steve Sarkisian hires an offensive play caller. And
I said, I respect his opinion on that.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
I do. I understand.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
I don't necessarily agree with it, because I think Sark
does know what he's doing in terms of calling plays.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
But I respect his opinion.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
But whether I did or not doesn't matter, because it's
not going to happen. Sark's calling the place. And that's
been my point all along, really, no matter how you
feel about that, he is the play caller on this Now,
he's got a new running backs coach coming in. We
had the news conference the other day, the big changes
he's made on defense. So he says he's been able
to step back his words the other day and take

(11:11):
a ten thousand foot view of it all and see
the cracks and the where things need to be addressed.
But my point all along is for those who are,
you know, screaming and hollering all those those guy he's
got to hire an offensive but you're wasting your breath.
It's not going to happen any more than Jerry Jones
leaving the Cowboys. It's not going to happen. And and this

(11:31):
brings it full circle. It's not going to happen in
the College Football Playoff. The only reason it got to
twelve is because of G five inclusion. The only way
that he gets to sixteen is G five inclusion. You
have to have it in there, and so getting upset
about it isn't going to change it's that's not going

(11:52):
to change that G five inclusion has to happen in there,
otherwise it doesn't get voted.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yet, how about the pushback of this. G five schools
should absolutely have a path to inclusion, but how do
we do a better job of separating the G five
teams who are worthy of inclusion.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
To maybe those who aren't.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
And just you can't use the result to prove that
the team is less worthy of inclusion. But you could
have looked at the Tulane resume, they already played All
miss they lost by thirty five. You could have looked
at the James Madison resume. Oh Louisville ran ran them
off the field. Yeah, and you could have seen this
coming looking at those resumes. Where was last year Boise
State heck, they could have made a run.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
My answer to that is you put that in the
hands of the conference commissioners. They want their conference represented.
That's what it means so much to them. So in
order to have their conference represented, they're going to take
their conference champion they play they players championship games. Now
this this goes in an entirely different direction for those

(12:57):
and again completely understand this perspective. There are folks that
are saying, get rid of the conference championship games. Start
the playoffs a week early. You can even do it
with twenty four or whatever. My answer, like those other three,
it will not happen. Why television revenue, Plain and simple.
ESPN wants that TV revenue. They want those games, and

(13:21):
those conferences want the revenue coming from ESPN. So that's
not going to change. It's still going to be. Conference
championships will be played no matter how.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Some might say irrelevant or insignificant. They might come ask
your job. I don't think it's irrelevant, insigna. That's how
they got to buy ask Indiana. Yeah, that's how they
got to be the one seed.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
So I mean, let alone the fact that winning a
conference still means something, right, Indiana hadn't done it since the.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Sixties well, and it certainly means it in the case
of the G fives. The way the system is set
up now, and this is the way those conference commissioners
want it. They want their conference represented with their best program.
We hear about this with the NCAA basketball tournament every
year during championship week, conference tournament week, you'll get some outliers.

(14:11):
You'll get some teams run through and get through with
like twelve wins or fourteen, might even have a losing
record or barely at five hundred or nineteen and eighteen
or whatever, and get in and they represent the conference
because they won that conference tournament. But that's catching lightning
in a bottle over three or maybe four days. When
was the Big East one five in a row twice?
Yukon did it? Syracuse did it? I think ACC did

(14:33):
in Virginia Tech do that?

Speaker 5 (14:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:34):
And the ACI how was a student for that? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Beat that duke team, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
And that's a great moment. And and it is a
little bit apples to Orange is comparison. I understand that.
Just say that with conference tournaments as opposed to one
singular game in winning your conference during the course of
the regular season. But when the networks want those conference
championship games to be televised and they're willing to pay

(15:00):
those conferences handsomely to do that, that won't change. That
dynamic won't change. So how do you fix it? So
may not agree with this, this is my perspective. You
expand the field. You have to expand the field, and
then you can still get your quote unquote deserving Power
four teams in have some G five inclusion. And if

(15:22):
you say, yeah, that's ridiculous to let them in there, Hey,
listen with the nca basketball tournament. One's play sixteens, and
every now and then a sixteen beats one. It's happened twice,
but most of the time it doesn't, and the kream
rises to the top.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, and I'm not oversimplifying this to oh, lopsided result
means bad system, good playoff result. Good playoffs often have
bad games in them.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
That's okay, Yeah, it's part of what happens on this.
You know, the Texas high school football state Championship system
playoff system I think is really well done. It's sixty
fourteen brackets in all the eleven man divisions, it's a
thirty two team bracket in the two six man visions,
and occasionally you'll get some surprise teams kind of wriggled
their way up, swim upstream and pull some upsets. It's

(16:06):
rare that you get a team there that has absolutely
no business being in that championship game.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
There's like, there's a couple of weird things though with this,
and that is Georgia basically got an extra week to
prepare for Ole Mess, Texas Tech got an extra week
to prepare for Oregon, and the one in two seeds
didn't have that luxury because they were playing kind of
a toss up opponent. That's a weird quirk that they
got to figure out.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, but a lot of coaches, I bet you, if
you ask Joey McGuire, he doesn't mind his team healing
some bumps and bruises and getting ready for this thing.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
I don't think he really minds that much.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Georgia had already played a thirteenth game as a conference champion.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
They probably didn't mind having a little extra time off. No,
I'm saying it's a great advantage for those teams. Yeah,
Number one and two should be getting the advantages, not
three and four.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Well, and in the case of one and two, you
have you know, Indiana and Ohio State, they played their
thirteenth game and then there's a little extra time off
I guess to rest or whatever. But the system has
worked that way well for Alabama and Georgia in the past,
where they've done that, it had a little more time.
So we'll see how it goes from there. All right,

(17:16):
We've got a lot of other things to get to
the NFL. We also have tickets to give away to tonight.
You have to move quickly on this, but we have
tickets for tonight's men's basketball game Texas plays Maryland Eastern Shore.
If you want a pair, just you know, let us know,
and while they last, we'll give them to you. You

(17:38):
do it by our talkback microphone. The talkback feature, so
you download the free iHeartRadio app if you haven't already
done that. Then you do a search on AM thirteen
under the zone. It pops straight up. You'll see a
little red button with a white microphone. You tap that
and then you can leave us a message up to
thirty seconds.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
But really, truly, all I have to do is give
your name and number.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Say hey, I'm so and so, and i've you know,
it's my number, and i'd like to I'd like tickets
to tonight's game, And while they last, we'll give them
away to each and every person who wants to go.
All right, is he Monday? A lot more to come
right here. Oh and one other thing too, a little
bit different. Take on inconceivable today because it is the holiday.
I'll explain when it comes up. I'm thirteen under the zone.

(18:29):
In case you didn't know, one of the greatest guitarists
who ever lived was Chet Adds.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
He was tremendous. You go google him and listen to
some of his catalogs.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
This he did a Christmas album too, obviously, And like
I said, most big rock stars and Chet Adkins was
a guitarist.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
He fit a variety of genres.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Uh, But those who are the big stars had like,
you know, one big.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Holiday hit.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, they're known for you know. John Lennon was no
you know, Happy Christmas war is over?

Speaker 2 (19:10):
You know that one.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
There's some other ones like it, and we'll hear some
other ones over the course of today and tomorrow. Texas
women have a break for the holidays. Now they won yesterday,
went up to Brooking, South Dakota, flew up there on Saturday,
played yesterday and he won seventy fifty one over South
Dakota State.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
And it was the first real true.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Road court environment because even the game a couple of
weeks ago down in the Valley against ut RGV, there
were two things that kind of worked in the long
Orangs favorite addition to the fact that they were a
far better basketball team, but.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
One was.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
The fact that they weren't playing in utrgv's true home arena,
the UTRGV Fieldhouse. They're playing in the Burt Ogden Arena,
which is kind of like the ATV Center in Cedar Park,
about an eight thousand seed arena. It's a home to
the Rockets G League team, the Rio Grand Valley Vipers,
and so that enabled a lot more fans to buy tickets,

(20:19):
including a lot of Texas fans who lived down in
the valley. So while there was it was a UTRGV
home game, and their music and their band and.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
All that other kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
When the log Worns would score a basket, when they
would hit a shot, you'd hear a pretty lusty roar
coming up from Texas fans on that So it wasn't
as true a home court environment as you might otherwise think.
Not some in the case from yesterday, it was truly
South Dakota State's home court environment.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
I've been there. I could tell you they love their
basketball in that part of the country. Craig, Yeah, they
really do. Yeah, basketball and hockey.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, exactly, so, you know, and they hung with Texas
for a while and then the long runs ended up
pushing away and pulling away and they get to win.
H After the game, Roger Waller stepped in for me
to h call the game, and he got a chance
to catch up with Vic Schaeffer after the game to
visit with him about this trip and getting the win

(21:21):
and then the holiday break for the players.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Well, I'll let you describe this one.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
What did what did you see in this one?

Speaker 6 (21:29):
Yeah, I you know, tough place to play, great crowd,
really good team.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (21:36):
He's got some injuries too, like we do, and has
two starters out.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
You know, I thought we were a little sleepy, be
honest with you.

Speaker 6 (21:45):
Shoot around wasn't great this morning, and I thought that's
how kind of how we played.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
But you know, life on the road.

Speaker 6 (21:51):
It's this is part of the education and the lesson
with my players is that you know, when you go
to different places, you play different teams. It's called the
road for a reason. And so to get out of
here with a win, I'm happy. I'm proud of our kids,
as I said in there, Rory, Jordan and Madison, what

(22:14):
they have helped us navigate with no subs for the
most part, to have to play forty minutes against the
schedule we've played, and to navigate that schedule to be
fourteen and oero right now is really special. And certainly
the fours and fives. We had two fours and two fives,
but really we were really thin at one, two and three,

(22:37):
and those kids, they've probably earned the right to maybe
have an off day, I thought, Rory. I thought all
of them played hard defensively, especially in the press. I
just was disappointing our shot selection today probably more than anything.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
But other than that, I thought.

Speaker 6 (22:52):
Our kids, really, you know, they found a way to
win on the road, and sometimes it didn't pretty.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
On the road.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
You saying this brick comes at a good time for sure.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
I mean, these kids have earned it, they deserve it.

Speaker 6 (23:03):
They have again navigated a very difficult non conference schedule,
the hardst one I've ever had, and uh man, I
want them to go home and enjoy time with their family.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
They have absolutely earned it.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
I know how you grind. Are you able to shut
it down for a few days?

Speaker 4 (23:16):
I will, I will, I've uh, I'm gonna. I'm gonna
be in the woods a little bit.

Speaker 6 (23:21):
I'm gonna be in some water up to my knees
chasing a trout and redfish a couple of days. So
I'm going to try to get away and enjoy a
little bit. Doctor says I need to.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
So I'm going to finally, what does bring our energy today?

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Man, you saw it. That's what we missed.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
I mean we we really missed that explosiveness and uh,
you know, her juice is just infectious. So I'm excited
to get her back and get her into the fold.

Speaker 4 (23:49):
And we need to get you know, we need to get.

Speaker 6 (23:51):
Ashton back with some chemistry with our team and get
Taya healthy. Taya has played on one leg pretty much
the entire and that kid is tough. She is gutsy
and I really appreciate her. And we'll get at Aliah
back and we'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
There are a couple of things that really start. First,
I loved the question Roger asked him about can you
shut it down for a few days and water up
to my knees. He means like in some waiters, you know,
doing some fishing and doing some money and stuff like that,
getting away, the doctor says, I need to, So it's
probably a good idea.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
And then if and then if the doctor doesn't like
what he hears from Vic, he'll rip his jacket off.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah, right, right exactly. And then to get Breonna Preston
back on the floor. Yeah, you could see what they
had missed there, even though they're unbeaten.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
It's hard to do.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
But it also spells Rory Harmon saves a little wear
and tear, so she didn't have to go thirty seven,
thirty eight to forty minutes a game, So I think
that helps as well. Their next action comes up Sunday
against Southeast from Louisiana. Then a week from Thursday, on
New Year's Night, they open conference play in the SEC

(25:07):
on the road in Columbia, Missouri against the Missouri Tigers.
So but they're fourteen and oh going in number two
in the country.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
All right.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Up next, we have inconceivable, but it's a different kind
of inconceivable because we're in a different kind of year,
the holiday.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Here.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
I'll explain why coming up here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app nour number
two of the program here on thirteen under you like
this the ventures here, Yeah, get a little drum solo

(25:45):
right here coming up. I think it's said, oh.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
Show me some fills and.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
It's and that opening rift there is from their hit
walk On't Run, Walk Run, So you got.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
A little taste of there.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Tomorrow for are inconceivable, we're gonna have kind of the
difference between the hit song from an artist and how
they kind of did a makeover of the song in
a different way for a Christmas song. So we've got
a few examples of that we're gonna do tomorrow within conceivable.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Today's in conceivble is.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Simply what it costs to deal with the twelve days
of Christmas, you know. So it's you know, with my
with my kids, I used to say, you know, my
kids don't want anything. They just they just want you know,
three things, you know, gold frankincense and mrr you know,
I figure that's all of it you might ever buy murr.
You know, it's it's a pretty heavy thing, I guess,

(26:41):
frankn sense is more of an incense kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
And gold is gold, so you know.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
But my kids are all grown now, so my daughter's
having to deal with with her four kids right now,
and they're all little, so there's lots of that stuff.
But even you know, what we used to get is
kids is different than what kids are getting today or
what they're asking for anybody.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, today, speaking of grandkids, how was how was Willy Wonka?

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Willie Walker was great? My my oldest grandchild. Theo, who
just turned ten, played the role of Willy Wonka in
a production of I think it was called Trying to
Remember What's called Actors Conservatory Theater in Louisville. Act Louisville.

(27:30):
He played Willi Wonk in a in a version of
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He did well, he did well.
He's got a little performer in him, one of our chafe.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
So anyway, there's that.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
But they're all excited and obviously getting ready for the holidays,
as all of us are. We're here today and we're
here tomorrow, uh, and then we're off the rest of
the weekend, the rest of the week, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day,
and then on Friday, the day after Christmas, and then
I'll be off to Orlando on Monday morning flying out.

(28:06):
I'll try to check in when I hit the ground
there in Orlando on Monday, and there'll be a press
conference on Tuesday in advance of the Cheese At Center
spol Texas and Michigan, and then the game itself, of course,
is on Wednesday, the thirty first, So Jake will be
at the control and we'll check in on that. Both

(28:29):
head coaches. We'll have a well it be a news
conference with the two head coaches down there in Florida,
and we'll have some sound from that. But Biff Pog
and that's how it's pronounced, it's Pog p O g
g I. He's the interim head coach at Michigan and
he did a news conference today, so we're gonna have

(28:49):
some sound from him coming up. We'll let you hear
from Pog as he addresses the current climate of things
in ann Arbor and what with Charon Moore's firing and

(29:11):
the police activity that happened after that and his arrest
and all that other kind of stuff. Well here, but
it's not just about Charon Moore. There were other things
that have gone wrong over the past several months. The
Connor Stallion's thing with the signs stealing, there's that. You know,
this goes all the way back to when Jim Harbaugh
was coaching and improper benefits. He bought Hamburgers for a

(29:33):
bunch of students or a bunch of student athletes.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
And the issue was, yeah, recruits. It was a dead period.
You couldn't you couldn't have any contact with them. It
wasn't even about the exchange of goods.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
No, it's about, you know, being involved with that. It's
interesting you bring that up, about the dead period. And
here's where I'm going with this. I just finished calling
seven of the twelve of high school football state championships
for television over the week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

(30:04):
I had a great time doing As always, it's a grind,
but it's.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
One that I truly enjoy and.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Cherish every I think Saturday was my one hundred and
sixty fourth state championship game football state championship game to call.
And calling basketball and baseball as well, in excess of
two hundreds of approaching three hundred. But anyway, it's something
like one hundred and sixty four of the football championship games.
The reason why bring this up. One of the five
games that I did not work was the first game

(30:33):
on Saturday, because I did the last two.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
I did both of the six A games. The six
A Division one.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Duncanville Goalana Park North Shore meeting for the sixth time
in the last eight years, and North Shore won the
first three, the first one of course on the Hail Mary,
and then they'd won two other and then Duncanville had
won the prior to meetings in twenty twenty two and
twenty twenty three, they didn't neither made the championship last
year in twenty twenty four when North Crowley beat Westlake

(31:01):
to win it. And so here they were back again,
meeting finals and it was a defensive uh, just a
slog all the way through and Northshore ended up winning
ten to seven.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
But he got pretty exciting there in the fourth quarter
of the game.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
That was the first game it did, and then the
second one was De Soto claiming its third state title
in the four years prior, and they won fifty five
to twenty seven. They won handily, beating ce King, the
team that had knocked out Vandigriff in the semifinal round.
Of course, the SOTA had come off that crazy win
over South Lake Carroll in the semi final round and
SOA won the state title.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
So it worked both of those six A games.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
It did not work the first game of the day,
which was five A Division two and that was South
o'kcliff and they were in the finals. Sock was against
Richmond Randall, the defending state champ. It was a rematch
of the game the year before that Random won and
Sock largely dominated the game. He won thirty five to nineteen,

(32:01):
which kind of surprised me. I thought that might be
one that might go down to the wire and be close.
I mean, you saw Randall up close. You saw how
good they were.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Physical. Yeah, physical team that plays with an edge. Yeah,
and Sock matched and exceeded that. And I think they
were also motivated to having lost to him the year before. Anyway,
South Olcliffe wins the state championship and Jason Todd, who's
quite well celebrated now, the head coach at Southolcliffe has
had his team in the state championship round five consecutive years.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
They won the first two beating.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Liberty Hill, and then they beat Port hus Groves. Then
they lost to PNG as P ANDNG got some revenge
in twenty twenty three, and then last year Randall beat them.
So they've been in four straight. Won the first two,
lost the next two, and then they bounce back and
they win this one. So five consecutive appearances in the
title round and they won.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Three state championships.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yesterday morning, the day after the game, Jason Todd, the
head coach at Southolk Cliff, tweeted out basically an open
message to college football recruiters at reminding them of.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
The rules and also.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Advising them against annoying him during all of this. The
reminding of the rules was plain and simple to no
contact period coming up that you just spoke of with
regard to Michigan.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
And then the other thing is and don't be blowing
up my phone.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Want to do this, and then when you come in
my office, don't look for a chair to sit down.
You come in and you stand and speak to speak
to my players and things like that. He laid it
out pretty plain and simple, and it's like, you follow
the rules, you know, whatever, if you want, if you
want access to my kids and my program, you know,
follow the rules of engagement. Off of that, but the

(33:49):
main thing he was pointing out was the no contact period.
Don't be calling my players and don't be calling me
during the no contact period, which is going on right
now during this Christmas holiday break. I think his point
was they have all, not just himself and his coaching
type of the players, they've all earned that break, and
so he was making sure everybody was well aware of

(34:12):
the rules involved.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
I don't need new friends, and I don't like answering
numbers that's not locked in my phone, and don't have
people calling to say you coming. Hell, the door open,
but reminder some of y'all better bring your own seat.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, so he said, don't come in here, look at it,
just sit down and make yourself at homie. You're coming
to do a job to come and recruit the kids
within the parameters when you're supposed to do it. Don't
be calling and knocking on doors when it's a non
contact period.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
That was his point.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, And there was another tweet, there's some ballers at
SC looking for a home when you come to school
with no offers, don't sit down, stand up when you're
recruiting at SC. Sorry, I'm going to keep it real.
Chairs are limited.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, that's insane. And that's the other point.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Don't just come to chat if you're coming to make
an offer at SOCK, but you know, be genuine, be
authentic about it. So that's why he said, because his
office has been besieged by it. I mean, you think
the talent of those kids has gone out. Look, there's
a starting cornerback for the University of Texas who played
on the state championship team, Elige Mohammad. So that's that's

(35:20):
the whole point of it. But to get back to
what you were saying and your point about this, Jim
Harball got in trouble for buying a bunch of hamburgers
for guys during a non contact period. Follow the rules,
and it's kind of like, Eh, it's no big deal, bye,
blah blah blah. You're not following the rules that are
in place for everybody else. So it started with that,

(35:41):
and then it goes to things like the Connor Stallions
thing and the science stealing and Sean Moore deleting what
was it, fifty one texts that were recovered through digital technology,
so the NCAA were able to find that, and that's
why earlier he had been suspended for games, just like

(36:05):
Harball was suspended and didn't coach that Big ten championship game.
But then they won the national championship and then Jim
Harball was off to the NFL.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
And don't forget their oc was also fired for hacking
into computer accounts of college athletes to access their photos
and videos.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
So for all of that, that's what miff Pog was
talking a little bit about today, and we'll hear him
address that coming up. We'll hear his thoughts on that
coming up. Also, we'll hear from Breonna Preston, Texas women's
guard back on the floor coming off injury. You can
tell that she can definitely make a difference in an

(36:44):
impact in contributing. And there's the NFL to get to
as well. We'll do we'll go pretty NFL heavy in
the four o'clock hour as well as we hear from
Demico Ryans, the Texans head coach, and Brian Shottenheimer, the
Cowboys head coach. But we'll get some other NFL notes
we'll get to as well, So stay with us here
on this Monday afternoon, here headlong into a holiday week

(37:07):
on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone and the
IR radio.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
Apps exactly dot.

Speaker 7 (37:18):
Wat Low Cot Club.

Speaker 8 (37:28):
If you were a college student in the eighties as
I was, if you really like rockabilly and hot rock,
you probably went for stray cats.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
I saw straight cats with the Bronco Bowl in Dallas,
little little theater there at small venue. Brian Setzer of
course there later on Brian Setzer's Big Orchestra, and that's
dig that crazy Santa Claus there for that. But getting
into that holiday spirit of things here, so too are
the long runs of the Michigan Wolverines. There is practice

(38:03):
going on for both teams, and we heard from Sark
late last week talking about the practice they were doing
and how they're down to as he pointed, right at
the moment, in terms of players who are eligible to
play in the Bowl game, sixty five scholarship players. Okay,

(38:25):
sixty five, not eighty five. Sixty five that's a chunk.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, I'm just thinking through, Well, you know what hell
it means. It means you're thin at a lot of
positions exactly.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
In fact, I was joking with Roger Wallace.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
We were talking about as we get ready, obviously we'll
be calling the game on New Year's Eve alongside Will Matthews,
and both of us, we're talking about having to recompletely
reconfigure our broadcast boards are broadcast charts, yes, right right,
once we get an updated exam amination of what this

(39:01):
offense and defense will look like.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
And Rogers said, yeah, it may be pretty thin.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
I said, it might resemble the one and a half
deep I got from Shiner last week before I did
the two A Division two championship game between Munster and
Shiner last Thursday morning at eleven o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Munster, they were, they were pretty deep. They were.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
I had a solid too deep at every line position.
That's normally where you see it the thinning out as
with the backup linemen, because guys wind up swinging over
the backup the backup right tackles, also the backup left
guard or whatever, or center.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
But you see that even at the five A and
six A levels, coaches will give you the two deep
for the line, but they'll tell you, well, if we
lose anybody, this person will be the one who comes
in and will shuffle the rush hour cars.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Accordingly, that happened.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
I think with the five A D one both with
Frisco Lone Star and with Smithson Valley they had some
of that, and.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
And even Duncan Bill had some of that.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
But I already miss I already miss covering that bass
drop team A.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, you get away from it if you think about it.
It's fun, you know, you get to know the coaches,
get to know some of the kids, and it's it's
a lot of fun. But I was making that joke
about that. I said, yeah, it's about one and a
half deep about like what I got from Shiner last week.
Now I had all the key personnel who were gonna
you know, Clayton Fritz spelled f.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
R ic pronounced fritz no z no t just f
r C.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
That's a new one.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Well, you get down in that German uh Polish and check.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Quadrant of south central Texas where you'd find Shiner, Hallettsville,
Yokum who won the three Division one title, Schulenberg, you
have a lot of that. And so that's that's why
it's always important when we do the conference calls in
the zooms with the coaches the week of the of

(41:00):
the games, and I was on every single one of those,
and I had, like I said, fourteen teams to deal with,
you know, seven games. But in fact I was doing
zooms on Friday morning with the head coaches at Duncanville
North Shore and C. E. King Claude Matthis had soided.

(41:20):
We'd done a couple of days earlier, but those three
so I mean, it went down to the wire on
those as we you know, as I've prepared, everything was preparing,
you know, for the information for the call. But and some,
like you said, had more at certain positions than others.
And that was the case with Shiner. And then, like
I say, with Texas, we'll find out who's filling in

(41:45):
which players who saw very little action in protecting a
red shirt will now be employed in that because the
ball game doesn't count against the four game limit anyway,
and in many cases a lot of those guys hadn't
played four games anyway, hadn't appeared in four and even

(42:05):
if they had, the ball game doesn't count against that.
So we're liable to see some other guys. Now, I
will tell you that Sark is not going to just
throw guys into it. And with Pete quick Kowski gone
and Duaynea Keina gone from the defensive side, Johnny Nansen
will be calling the signals. As Sart pointed out the

(42:25):
other day, he'll be calling out the defense as the
linebackers coach. And so there's a you know, there's a
coalescing of the group that they have left, both as
the coaching staff and with the scholarship players. And Sart
pointed out on a couple of case you got sixty
five players, so there'll be some filling in.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
On some slots and all that sort of thing. Michigan
is dealing with something different.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Now, yes, there are opt outs, and there are players
who are going to go to the NFL, and there
are players who are entering the portal. That's happening in
Texas and it's happening at Michigan as well. But Michigan
course dealing with that big shadow hanging over the program
over what happened with Sharon Moore and his UH and
and his dismissal from the program and and some of

(43:06):
the other issues as well. So into this is thrust
bif Pogi, the UH, the interim head coach, and Pogi
had to run the team.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
What was it the second game of the year, Nebraska
game as well, and I just that was the memorable
one where he ran. Uh he was the head coach.
Throe Moore was suspended and they escaped. There was some
there was some iffy clock management, but they got the win.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Yeah, they won that one by three, that's right.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
And I think he also was wondering for the Central
Michigan game when it was a two games Wisharon more.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Well, Central Michigan stands out because that's where Connor Stallion's
was on the sideline.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, you're thinking about that.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Well, uh so anyway there they're thinking the Central Michigan
when they're talking about is one a Central Michigan Michigan
state game the year before? That's right, That's that's what
that was. But but Central Michigan brings that to mine
as a result of that.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
So there was a there was a Maryland game last
year that Jim Harball was suspended for, right right exactly
this year it was a Central Michigan game and they
won sixty three to three.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Yeah, yeah, right, and then the Nebraska game seven Yeah,
So so bit Pogi had to run the team in
the app So it's not like he hasn't done that before.
But this is a different environment, a different type of situation,
and you know, with with the bad things that have
happened with the program and how they're trying to pick
themselves off the deck. They've got an interim head coach.

(44:34):
There's no specific that we know of online Heavy Dewey
favorite to be the head coach in Anna Arbor for
twenty twenty six. Maybe they stick with Pog and go
on from there, who knows, or if they bring in
somebody else. All of that is in the uncertain category.
All of that right now is uncertain. And then you

(44:56):
against that backdrop, Yeah, a bowl game, it's it's a
bowl game. And so they're getting ready to play Texas
and Pogi was talking about all of this. This is
from his news conference earlier today when he was talking
about the things that they're having to encounter and that
they're trying to get past, and that what they're working

(45:17):
toward to get ready for the bowl game and for
the future.

Speaker 9 (45:20):
First of all, the entire everything that happens in this
building has to be reevaluated quite frankly.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Because it's it is.

Speaker 9 (45:29):
It is not up the standard. The staff has to
be reevaluated, and I don't I mean the coaches, I
mean the you know, the analysts, I mean everybody.

Speaker 10 (45:40):
In the building except Dave, but has to be evaluated.

Speaker 9 (45:45):
Our strength and condition, our nutrition, are are are are
medical everything, because obviously.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
It has been five years of you know what.

Speaker 9 (46:00):
As it's called, is a malfunctioning organization where there's something
every year and I know that, I know.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
With the athletic director has made very clear he doesn't
want any more of that.

Speaker 9 (46:11):
And so if I am a man to coach, which
again I don't know if I am, but there will
be a massive self examination for what happens in this
building and you can expect a lot of changes. These

(46:33):
are hard talks, Okay, these are hard talks to have these.
One thing you have to do with players and their families.
The minute they think you're lying to it's over. And
I believe that's why the portal is so big, and
it's getting bigger every year, and it will be bigger
next year and the year after that year after that.

(46:54):
Because kids are told things and their families are told
things that aren't true.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
So if I don't don't know.

Speaker 9 (47:00):
An answer that has asked me from a kid or
a parent, I'll tell them I don't know, and I'll
do my best to find out. If I do know,
I tell it to them whether I think they want
to hear it or not. And you know, look, let's
face it, the kids that have been here four in
five years with their families, there's been something kind of
every year that's been you know, a messy and that

(47:24):
I didn't think of that, and then one of the
moms brought that up. You know, like every year there's
been some issue. What are you gonna say? No, They
say yeah, and we're gonna fix it. Whoever the next
guy in this seat does is his mandate is gonna
be fixing. And and you know, I feel very strongly

(47:48):
about that. You gotta be honest with them, and you
can't you if you discount what they say to you.
This recruiting class and the kids that are on the
team will be playing someplace.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
And the way we've kept it together.

Speaker 10 (48:02):
Is contact and calling the kids, the recruits, comments, calling them,
zooming with their parents, texting them, and the players I
spend the current players.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
On the roster.

Speaker 9 (48:17):
I spent an enormous amount of time with them in
their parents as far as teams, but the kids in
personal parents and sims.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Yeah, he's had to spend a lot of time trying
to put out fires or at least quell uneasiness on
the part of parents of Michigan football players because you
do feel for those guys and giving themselves and work
so hard. And I'm talking about the players and the coaches,
and then this happens, and so a lot of negative

(48:50):
light cast on Big Blue and now trying to dig
out of it and through it and to go on
to the next next just happens to be the cheese
at Centrus Bowl and getting ready for the Texas Longhorns,
who have their own issues. It's like my dad used
to always say to me, you know, every man has
his own sack of rocks to tote.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
I mean, you get your own baggage, your own your
own your own.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Responsibilities and U and Texas has its right now with scholarships.
With the scholarship amount of scholarship players available for this
Bowl game down about sixty five because of opt outs
guys going on to the NFL and the transfer portal.
But that's to be expected now in the current state

(49:37):
of college football, if you are not in the playoff,
and even if you are in the playoff, it doesn't
guarantee your staying Lane kiffn whether your coaches or players.
It's rare that you're a player opt out for a
playoff team has happened, but very briefly, very very small number.

(49:57):
But if you're you know, if you're not in the playoff,
if you're in a bowl game. And this bowl game
that Texas is playing in, whether you want to believe
it or not, it is it's the highest tiered bowl
game that is not part of the playoff for the
new Year six. It's the highest tier the Citrus Bawl.
That is the ball game that gets the first pick

(50:21):
of SEC teams, and Texas was the first choice of
the Citrus. It is. Having said that, there are some
players and the representatives and family members of some.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Of those players that say, you know what, it's not
worth the risk. We want to be.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Preparing for the NFL, or some deciding I got to
jump in the portal. I got to get my information
out there so that places where I could possibly land
would know of my availability, and I need to do
it before January second, when the portal actually opens, So
that's you know, that's that's the reality of the way

(51:02):
things are. I see the future of this being if
there is expansion in the playoff, which I think would
be a good thing for those who get in the
bull system outside of the playoffs, would be for you know, yes,
some of the lower tier power for schools, and then
the G five's that's where I see the bowl structure,

(51:23):
you know, transitioning into those that aren't a part of
the playoff system. And you know, if it expands to sixteen,
it won't be expansion of the bowls into the playoff.
It'll be expansion of home games. Yeah, it'd be four
more teams, it'd be nobody getting a buy in. The
top eight seeds would get home games, which I also

(51:43):
think is a good thing. Have those conference have those
campus games. You know, as disappointing as it was for
Oklahoma and Texas A and M to lose those games,
it was said there was electric environment at both of
those games, and it was last year when Texas hosted Clemson,
it was it was really cool. So that part I
think is really good to have as part of the playoff,

(52:05):
and hopefully it expands. I would like to see it
expand the sixteen to expand that, but it wouldn't be
the bulls of doing. You'd still have a cheese at
Citrus Bowl or a Relaquest Bowl or a Gator Ball.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
It would just have a different role remembers.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
I know we have a lot to get to. Did
you were you surprised by the Texas a and in
Miami game.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
We'll get to that when we come back. Sounds good,
all right? This is thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
You know, the actual Christmas Carol Santa Claus coming to
town is probably not one of my favorite ones. I mean,
I've heard you know whatever, Frank Sina, I've heard of
the Jackson five different ones legs, but if it was
to pick aller, it would probably this one because I
liked Bruce Springsteen's music so much of his version. Also,

(52:55):
A Merry Christmas Baby is a really good one as well.
Continuing here on this Monday afternoon, we have somebody on
the talkback feature not going for the tickets, but just
had a question, and here it is.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
Why was the state.

Speaker 6 (53:19):
Football playoffs not broadcast on TV and only stream?

Speaker 5 (53:24):
It?

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Is this a one time deal?

Speaker 4 (53:28):
It was extremely disappointing.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Let me know your thoughts, sure, glad to let you know.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
In short, if it had not been picked up by
Victory Plus, the state championship games would not have been
televised at all by anyone. And I know this because
I've been calling play by playing on the State Championship
since nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
You know, when it was Fox Southwest, I had it
for years.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
When Fox divested itself of its regional networks and was
picked up by a group in California, Sinclair Broadcasting, and
they rebranded. At first it was called Bally Sports and
then after that it was called Fan Duel. That company
was in the process of their Diamond Sports Group, which
was a subheaded company underneath of losing tens of million dollars.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
No, not Don only high school football.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
High school football is a moneymaker for him, but they
were losing tens of millions of dollars on rights fees
to the Rangers, the Mavericks, the Stars and in other markets.
So they all these teams all started pulling out from
that organization. The Diamondbacks I think were the first to
do it. The pod or maybe the Padres, and then
the Diamondbacks, Minnesota has done it, Minnesota has done it. Uh,

(54:36):
there's there's several other The whole group is down to
I think there's like four or five Cleveland that are
still with them. Yeah, and the Rangers obviously, and the
Mavericks pulled out eventually bankruptcy was declared and uh, they
were able to make some payments, but they defaulted on
recently on tens of millions. They oh the Cardinals, so

(54:57):
they're probably going to be out. So in other words,
and so they were in such financial straits they gave
up on high school football, which is ironic because that
was the one thing that didn't make them money. It did,
and I think I was told it was somewhere in
the neighborhood a clear profit at the end of like
four million dollars, which in tens of millions.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
But it wasn't a lost lead or anything like that.
It was a money man.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
It was great programming with the scoreboard show that we
had and all that, and then in all the games.
But they pulled out and nobody, nobody would was willing
to pony up the rights fee money that it was
going to take to be able to televise the games
until victory plus stepped in. Now folks were saying, well,

(55:40):
it was only streamed. A, yes, but b the streaming
made it very easy, you know, in the last three
four years especially, but even going back further than that,
when it was on the regional sports network be at
Fox south West, Bally, you know whatever, a FanDuel, their
penetration was somewhere between twenty two and thirty percent, and

(56:02):
so they weren't reaching everybody and they were charging for it.
So to the caller says, I'm it was very disappointing
the numbers showed otherwise because it was available to everyone everywhere.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
I found it easy.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, it was as simple as and some people. I
understand that some people thought, oh, I'd have to watch
it on my phone.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
You could watch it on the phone, but you don't
have to.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
It's just like if you're pulling down Netflix or Hulu
through your Roku device or whatever, your Apple TV or
any of your streaming platforms. All you did was in
our victory plus click it, Boom, you're in, and you're
watching it on television for free.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
I've worked in places where everything is paywalled, and this
is Texas.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
High school football.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
I was like, I couldn't believe my luck.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Yeah, no paywall at all. Was completely free. That's what
they do with the Dallas Stars. For those who are
into the hockey thing, you know, the Dallas Stars games
are all free. They had to by contract with with
the Rangers where they had to charge, they weren't allowed
to offer for free. So it's one hundred bucks for
the entire season to watch the Rangers. So yeah, less
than a dollar a game.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
So they did a heck of a job with that
and the leadership. I'm not talking about myself or the
other people who were announcing. We obviously enjoyed ourselves calling
and everything. I'm talking about the leadership of the company.
They had been involved with Fox Sports Southwest when we
were doing these, and so they knew how to do it,

(57:32):
and they put people directors, producers, by camera people, and
they put resources into it with the skycam and everything else.
And then and so people started watching. Here's another example
again for the caller talked about it being disappointed. The
last year that eleven AM six man game through five
thousand viewers, five thousand that was it using the app

(57:57):
with we're just really getting out on it. The eleven
Am game this year in six Man drew fifty eight thousand,
and then it went to eighty one thousand in the afternoon.
The Duncanville North Shore game was over two hundred thousand,
and for the week, over two million people watched the games,
and they watched in places like Ecuador and Germany and

(58:21):
Granger Huntress, the six Man analyst said they got a
he got an email from guy in Qatar watching it
in Japan. It's available worldwide, so the UIL was not disappointed.
They were extremely pleased. Victory Plus was extremely pleased. So
all I would say to the caller is it's the

(58:42):
way of a lot of how it's going, and I
don't think it's going to be a one year deal
because everybody was very very happy with it. So if
you say, well, I don't I saw somebody on Twitter,
well I don't stream and I don't do that, I
get it. But that's not going to solve your problem
because the vast majority, you know that the needs of
the many outwegh the needs of the fewis box said.

(59:02):
You know, they and sports bars had it on too.
They had it on there. So there were some alternative things.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
I thought about asking for it where I was watching
the Alabama game.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Yeah, my brother was did not know how to bring
it in. He was down at his son my nephew's.
How my nephews, oh yeah, boom, pop it up. They
watched the two six A games. It's not hard and
it's free. So don't know how else to position it
to you, but to say it's not hard and it's free,
which was in the past. It was difficult.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
You had to be in an.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Area that you could get it through a subscription to
either DirecTV or some cable service that had it, and
you had to pay for it.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Not to pay for it now.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
And I think that's a big reason why the money
was the way it was too, I mean, why the
viewership is the way it was because the price was right.
As Isaiah stand back, my analyst kept saying free ninety nine.
So it was good stuff, all right. I appreciate the call.
Hopefully that explains it to some fun. We'll be back
to wrap up hour number two on thirteen under the
zone in any language, right, wishing young merry Christmas and

(01:00:20):
I have the holiday season. Height were three days out
from it, and that's why we went all holiday today.
Third hour of the program here on Sports Radio A
and thirteen hunderd Zone. Craig Waye joined by the producer
Jay Kerman.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Happy to have you with us.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
We've talked quite a bit of football, college football, high
school football, Texas women's basketball. We'll hear some more from
Vick Schaeffer coming up this hour as well, but I
wanted to jump into specifically the two NFL teams from
the lone Star State, the Texans and the Collage sot's
start on the good side.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
We'll start with the start with the Texans.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Demiko Ryans is always fun to listen to, with the
postgame locker room conversation and slash celebration and after that
grinded out win. They had the Raiders yesterday, which was
not easy against the ball club that went into NRG
Stadium having won only two games, and they pushed Ashton Genty,
pushed the Raiders, pushed the Texans to the wire, but

(01:01:16):
they didn't get to win. And so here was Demko's
conversation with the team afterwards.

Speaker 11 (01:01:23):
Man, yeah, y'all like when and gratulations on the win? Man,
they all hard to come by.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
We knew, I knew what.

Speaker 11 (01:01:33):
That was gonna be like. All week, all right, I
knew it was gonna be a challenge.

Speaker 12 (01:01:36):
That's a really good football team, right, get those guys
credited a good football team.

Speaker 13 (01:01:40):
They came, they battled, But the way you guys finished, like,
that's what it's all about. Man, No matter what it took,
everybody stepped up and fit is the right way.

Speaker 9 (01:01:48):
All right.

Speaker 13 (01:01:48):
All we talked about during the week, you know, talking
about man, we need to pomp it off early, so fast.
We hadn't had a turnover in the first corn all year.
I mean, and by the way, y'all, first thing, that's
his first pig six high.

Speaker 11 (01:02:10):
School, high school, inside and down.

Speaker 13 (01:02:15):
My interview offense, Man, the way you guys, I know
it didn't go the way we liked it, right, but
it's all about your finish.

Speaker 11 (01:02:21):
Man to five minute drives in it in the fourth
quarter to close the game out, Nico, outstanding.

Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
Job right now.

Speaker 11 (01:02:28):
See day outside was all like you was, but one
more game ball all right?

Speaker 7 (01:02:34):
This guy he eclipsed one thousand points, right, worst than
Texas history.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
How you can do it?

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
Amy?

Speaker 11 (01:02:42):
Where you are?

Speaker 5 (01:02:43):
Man?

Speaker 10 (01:02:43):
An?

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
Wow? Right here?

Speaker 11 (01:02:49):
All right?

Speaker 13 (01:02:50):
Hit three of them right, fifty five, fifty and forty
nine again the winness head three times.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Tommy brink o'lin couldn't do.

Speaker 7 (01:03:07):
I mean out standing to win by everybody in here.
It took everybody, great job of everybody. All right, we
got a short week. No, we go to LA game
on Saturday, all right, so we'll be out tomorrow, but
Tuesday will be our Wednesday, and then we start the weekend.
We're off and rolling. Man.

Speaker 13 (01:03:20):
Everything you want, everything you play this game for the
reason why you suit up. Everything is in front of us.
Keep attacking it the right way, taking care of every
single day, operating the best you can operate every single day.
That's all that's on your mind. Dominate that day. Dominate
your job one day at a time, all right, and

(01:03:41):
we'll be where we gotta be, all right. Special special team, man,
I keep saying, this special team. We can win any
given way no matter where we play. When we play
like we.

Speaker 11 (01:03:51):
Got the guys to go get it done, it don't
matter what, no matter how we look. All right, keep
our eyes in front. Let's keep hunting bag one time time.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
So the Texans are one seven a row, but they've
had a lot of close games along the way, and
Ryans was has is winning this many close games sustainable.

Speaker 12 (01:04:15):
Everything's about winning and you win no matter how it looks,
and you finished the right way.

Speaker 11 (01:04:20):
It doesn't matter. You want to finish with the win.
That's what we did today as first.

Speaker 12 (01:04:24):
I mean, I really got to give credit to the Raiders, right,
this is a really good team, well coached team. Their defense,
they played outstanding offense. Jent T made some huge plays
on us. Hey got good players. It's like everybody does
around the league. But this team, they're prepared, just like
they were on film all week. We knew this was
going to be a tough one going into this game,

(01:04:46):
and they showed up. They played really with great effort.
They played a great game, and credit to those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
If you've watched the game, you saw how the Texai
were listening to it here as well. You notice that
at the offense was a bit more sluggish. They had
more difficulty finding their footing. And Ryan's was asked why
he thought that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Was the case.

Speaker 12 (01:05:09):
Yeah, the main thing is we couldn't run the football right,
We didn't control the line of scrimmage. How we needed
to control the line of scrimmage. They were they got
a lot of negative a lot of tackles for losses
right knocked us back a few times, and you know,
we didn't run the ball well, and flip on the
flip side.

Speaker 11 (01:05:25):
Of that, they were able to run the ball effectively,
and that was the difference.

Speaker 5 (01:05:29):
You know, in the game.

Speaker 12 (01:05:30):
We control the line of scrimmage better and we can
sustain drives a little bit better.

Speaker 11 (01:05:35):
To be in better control of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Helps when you have big plays made by guys like
Nico Collins.

Speaker 12 (01:05:41):
Nico showed up big time for us, and that's that's
who he is. That's the player he is. He's a
big time player, always seeking those big time moments. They
did a great job defensively of trying to take Nico
away at times, doubling, making sure they had you known
umbrella over the top of him.

Speaker 11 (01:05:56):
But he still fought right. We still tried to put
the ball up to him.

Speaker 12 (01:06:01):
He had a couple calls, a couple of pass interferences there,
But the biggest play is there at the end right
to steal the game. The ball goes up to him
for him to make the adjustment, find the ball and
stay in bounds. That's the player that Nico is. So
we love Nico for what he provides for our team.
He provided the big playability. Even though we know every
week teams are gonna try to take him away, we

(01:06:21):
can still find him, we can still make plays.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
So with his offense being held in check for different
parts of the game, the defense scorts had to make
big plays and did and Deviko has asked how this
defense continues to make big plays week after week.

Speaker 12 (01:06:37):
We challenged our team, our defense right to get them
turnover in the first quarter that hadn't happened for us
all year, and for Steam to show up how he did.

Speaker 11 (01:06:48):
And get not only a turnover, but to go score.

Speaker 12 (01:06:51):
We needed points bad and Stingley showed up and made
a huge play for our team like we needed that play.
Stingley did an outstanding awareness him to be able to
make that play not only just pick it off, but
to go score. Really proud of him. Right continue to
try and he continues to make plays, so great play
by him. Overall, the defensive performance, there's too many explosive plays.

(01:07:15):
That's that's not what we're about. We got to clean
up the communication. The tackling is not good. That that's
not the defensive performance that we look for. And so
we have to play better.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Kanyami Fairbairn continues to be an impact player for this
Texans team, and he did the manage to his one
thousandth career point in the game.

Speaker 12 (01:07:37):
I can't say enough about Emmy and the comfort level
that he provides for our entire team, Like those aren't
tough kicks to make, you know, two kicks over fifty
one forty nine and we needed every single point today.

Speaker 11 (01:07:51):
And he's done this throughout the year to.

Speaker 12 (01:07:54):
Keep us in games when we haven't scored in the
red zone like we wanted to score right to send
Emy out, don't have a second guess about sending him
out because I'm confident.

Speaker 11 (01:08:04):
And what he's able to do.

Speaker 12 (01:08:05):
And it's just a huge, huge honor for Eming today
is for him being able to eclipse one thousand points
in his career. He's done an outstanding job and I'm
happy he's on our side being able to get us
the points whenever we can.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
So now seven straight wins for the Texans, ten and
five and very much in the thick of a fight
at the very least for a wild card spot, and
still only one game back of those white hot Jacksonville Jaguars.
So Demico was asked to reflect on the seven straight
of victory and what it might mean to him even personally.

Speaker 12 (01:08:39):
I'm really proud of our team right for the adversity
we faced at the beginning of the year. A lot
of teams could have folded, but our guys didn't. Our
guys stayed the course. Our coaches stayed the course, and
we even tussed some things, tweak some things we need
to tweak.

Speaker 11 (01:08:54):
That's what you have to do.

Speaker 12 (01:08:55):
Right when our team has always believed, no matter how
looked at the beginning of the season, They've always believed.

Speaker 11 (01:09:02):
And today when I would just show if.

Speaker 12 (01:09:05):
You play the right way, you play with the proper
effort right, you do the things necessary right, it's just
all about.

Speaker 4 (01:09:10):
Getting to win.

Speaker 12 (01:09:11):
Really, it doesn't matter how it looks. It's beautiful to
get the win. I'm proud of our team for continuing
to find ways to win. That's always our goal.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
And then when it comes to picking up that third
consecutive ten win season, as Ryan's continues to say, they're
not done, They're not done.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
They still have things to accomplish there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
There's still only one game back of Jacksonville in the
AFC South, but they're in good position to make the
playoffs if they handle their business. But what about that
third consecutive ten win season for.

Speaker 12 (01:09:44):
Us to be at ten wins now for the third
season in a row. I'm thankful. I'm grateful for It's
not about me, but I'm thankful for my staff, thankful
for the players for allowing us to be in a
position that we're in. And you just getting ten is
that's okay, not always the goal. The goal is to
get into the playoffs and make a run and winning

(01:10:04):
it all. And you off, our guys, keep our eyes forward,
we keep believing, we keep playing finishing the right way.
We have everything we want in front of us.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
So there it is, the Houston Texans, clearly in the
thick of the fight. We'll run down some more of
the NFL playoffs scenarios coming up. Then there's the other side,
and we'll take a look at the Cowboys and now
it's six eight and one and they were actually mathematically
eliminated before the game began against the Chargers yesterday. But

(01:10:38):
we'll hear more about that coming up. And we're gonna
hear from Brian Schottenheimer next here on a Monday afternoon
on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
App Christmas Tree Less.

Speaker 9 (01:11:01):
Stop.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
Well, maybe the Houston Saxons don't feel like feeling a
little bit of carolling.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
Not such of the Cowboys.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
They were actually eliminated before they took the field, or
they because of the Eagles win of the Commanders on
Saturday night, So they were already eliminated, and then they
proceeded to go out and play like a team that
was eliminated. They lost six They lost to the Chargers
thirty four to seventeen, so now six eight and one.

(01:11:29):
After the game, head coach Brian Schottenhammer asked what his
perspective is his point of view on what he saw
from this one.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
Oh, I think when you look at the game, complimentary football.
We did not have that. You know.

Speaker 14 (01:11:41):
Offensively, I thought in the first half we were terrific.
They really struggled to stop us, and thought we were
kind of having our way. And then defensively, obviously we
had our struggles in the first half. This team, you know,
talking about the Chargers, of course they do a great
job of possessing the football and you know, got to
be able to get off a field on third down,
and we weren't able to do that. And at the

(01:12:03):
end of the day, I thought there's some untimely penalties,
you know, got touchdown came off the board, and some
third downs became third and long. So disappointed, but we
have no you know, no time to worry about it.
Got a game here in another couple a couple of days,
there was.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
A change with Matt Eberfleus, the defensive coordinator, being up
in the press box instead of all in the field
and shot.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
He was asked how he thought that all went down?
That was okay? Thought, I thought it was fine. Again.
I think, you know, we'll watch the film and see,
you know, how everything went.

Speaker 14 (01:12:35):
I know, we uh, you know, need to get more
pressure on the guy, and didn't do a great job
getting pressure on him. And I thought both quarterbacks played
great today and unfortunately their guy got the win.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
Yeah, and that inability to get pressure on the quarterbacks
is beginning to get a little frustrating.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
And he's slippery. I mean, he's big, he's athletic.

Speaker 14 (01:12:57):
You know, you stand out there next to the guy
and you watch immedia see what a big, tall athlete
he is.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
And but absolutely, you know, we need to.

Speaker 14 (01:13:05):
We need to affect the passer, especially when you're playing
tight man to man and there's guys running across the field,
you got to effect him and make him make some
you know, off target throws.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
And we didn't do a very good job of that today.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
Okay, how about the overview overall of the struggles the
defense encountered.

Speaker 14 (01:13:20):
Yeah, again, I want to watch the film. I think,
you know, we certainly didn't get the stops we needed
to in the first half. I don't think we did
a great job getting off the field on third down.
They certainly ran the ball really well. You know, I
think that they were kind of you know, they were
they were hurting.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
Us with the run. Herbert hurt us with his legs
a little bit.

Speaker 14 (01:13:38):
But again, like we talked about this week, with these
guys ended up doing certainly in the second half, and
I think it started in the second quarter. But you know,
they possessed the ball and I think the time of
possession was like thirty five to twenty five. So you know,
we have to help ourselves with not you know, having
penalties on third down. You know, we shot ourselves offensively
in the foot on third down and some third and manageables,

(01:13:59):
went to third line and they kind of were making
us check it down underneath and rallying and tackling. So
at the end of the day, we didn't play good
enough to win on in really any phase.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
So it was it fair to say that he and
Matty Eberflush tried a lot of different things and a
lot of it just flat out didn't work.

Speaker 5 (01:14:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:14:21):
Again, you know, he completed a bunch of balls almost Mickey.
You know, they ran the ball pretty well. He extended
some plays, So certainly it's you know, things that we
have to look at. But you know, again, at the
end of the day, when you give up, you know
that many yards and u there's things that you didn't
do well enough. I thought they you know, he made
some great throws early in the game, and uh again

(01:14:41):
I thought we were better in the red zone, you know,
but unfortunately hit some big plays.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
He hit the big you know touchdown to.

Speaker 14 (01:14:47):
You know, lad over there on our boundary and the
big play in the first half, you know, or the
start of the second half wed I'm holding new field
goal there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
But that's what this game is going to be.

Speaker 14 (01:14:56):
But you know, we'll look at the film and like
we said, we'll make quick adjustments get ready for Washington.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
So did he address this whole thing about the team
being eliminated before the game even started.

Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
I addressed it with him yesterday.

Speaker 14 (01:15:11):
I told the guys after the walk through yesterday morning,
I said, Hey, just so you guys know, there's a
chance that we come to meetings tonight we will have
been eliminated from the postseason. I just wanted them to
know that. I think most of them probably did. And
then of course I addressed it last night, you know,
and what I told him was this, I said, Hey,
you know, in life, you're going to be given bad news,
and when given bad news or any news, you're given

(01:15:34):
a choice of how you respond. And again, you can't
watch this film and say our guys didn't play hard.
You know, they did play hard. They just we didn't
execute very well, didn't coach on well enough to win.
And it's a good football team over there that we played.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
So now they get ready to play on Christmas. It's
a quote unquote lane duck game for both teams. By
the way, both the Cowboys and Commanders are out and
they have to turn around on short rests. So how
does he get the guys marshalled back together to give
him the effort they need on Christmas Day.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
Yeah, well, let me say this.

Speaker 14 (01:16:10):
You know, I think at the end of the day,
I'm really proud of how physical our guys played. And
I'll use this example, uh, Donovan Wilson Man. I mean,
what a stud you know, splits his eye open, goes in,
gets stitches and I think he misses, you know, a
couple of plays. I mean, so you can't tell me
our guys didn't play hard. You can't tell me our
guys didn't play physical.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
We did that. I'm proud of them for that.

Speaker 14 (01:16:31):
At the end of the day, I just didn't think
that we played very good, complimentary football, and you know,
some untimely penalties kind of limited our ability to do
what we needed to do and you know, limited ops
for us offensively in the second half. And again, big
swing in the game was the fourth down stop that
they got down there in the red zone.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
So now the playoff picture, while not being completely clear,
is getting a little clearer, especially in the NFC. The
AFC's kind of interesting when you talk about the one seed.
But first of all, the teams that have definitely already

(01:17:12):
clinched playoff spots in the NFC, the Seahawks, the Bears,
the Eagles, the forty nine Ers, the Rams, and the
Packers right now, they have all clinched spots right now
in the postseason the.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Odds to win the division.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
Interestingly enough, the Buccaneers, while still trailing the Panthers, have
a higher percentage chance to win the division fifty two
percent to forty eight percent for the Panthers. Same thing
on the making the playoffs, that and the division most
fifty two because that's the only way either of those
teams are getting in is to win the division.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
I'm not I'm not sure the Packers are on hundred
percent clinched yet, right they could go Nope.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
They've clinched.

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
Ho's it shows it as having no you're right, ninety
three percent. It's close, Yeah, they would if they lost out.
If they lost out, they would be what nine seven
and one, right, and the Lions could pass them, could
pass them.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
You're right.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
They the Lions could wind up being ten and seven
if they do win their last two games. So the
Packers are not completely in. It's a ninety three percent
chance that are in, but they're not completely in. Yet
and they only have eleven percent chance to win the division.
The Bears an eighty nine percent chance to win the division,
the Lions at seven percent their chance to get in
the get into the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
So that's the NFC playoff picture.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Now the AFC thing gets a little murkier because in
the NFC, the odds to get the number one seed.
Right now, the Seahawks have the best shot, is it
forty eight percent because the forty nine ers on the
Rams each at about twenty twenty one percent.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Off of that, the Bears eleven percent, Eagles just zero
point two to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
So really it's like we were saying the other night,
whoever was gonna win the game in Seattle between the
Rams and the Seahawks is probably gonna wind up as
the number one seed. And the Seahawks have the best
shot now, they do have to play Carolina and then
they close with San Francisco. That's why it's only listed
at forty eight percent right now. Because of that, here
are the forty nine ers right now sitting in the

(01:19:27):
five seed. The Rams, by the way, have dropped depending
on what happens to not if the forty nine ers
beat the Colts, then they're ahead of the Rams on
the tie break for the moment. The Rams could have
slid all the way from the one to the six
by losing that game by one point or one point
in overtime the.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
Other night, So it could happened that way.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
But the forty nine Ers of the five seed and
the Rams at the sixth seed even still have a
chance to earn the one seed.

Speaker 2 (01:19:56):
The only way it's happening for the Rams.

Speaker 1 (01:19:58):
They've got two winnable games, the foul Belkins and the Cardinals,
but they would have to hope for things like the
forty nine Ers to lose to the Colts or Bears,
and preferably the Bears because they'd be a conference loss,
and then beat the Seahawks, And they even need the
Seahawks to lose out pretty much to lose to the
Panthers and then the So it's probably not gonna happen

(01:20:19):
Seahawks or in the driver's seat for that in the NFC,
AFC a little more up in the air right now now.
Having said that the playoffs, only two teams have Clint
spots in the playoffs right now, Broncos and Patriots by
virtue of their win last night over the Ravens. But

(01:20:42):
the Jaguars are ninety nine point eight percent. They're going
to get in the Steelers ninety two and a half.
After that crazy game that we talked about earlier with
the winner of the Lions, Bill's ninety nine point nine,
Chargers ninety eight point nine, Texans ninety six point two.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
Changes a little bit with the division.

Speaker 1 (01:20:59):
Even though the Broncos have already cleansed the playoffs by
only sixty six percent to win the division, that's because
of the Chargers, who have a thirty four percent. Chans
are only one game back, and they do have to
play Boy that's got flex written all over it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
Didn't you just see that game? I could see it
being flexed for Sunday Night Football.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
I bet you the NFL wishes they could flex their
Christmas slate.

Speaker 1 (01:21:22):
Yeah, that's that's the kind of thing where you're hanging
out at the relatives' house for the Holidays and the
TV's on in the background, but they're not gathered around
hunkering down to watch Cowboys Commanders.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
With the other two games that are ugly Lions Vikings. Yeah,
JJ McCarthy can cussed. Yeah, it'll win over the Giants.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
And the Lions.

Speaker 1 (01:21:47):
Like we said, they're kind of only a seven percent
chance to get in now, and then what's the other one.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
It's another one, right, the.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Other one would have been fantastic most seasons, but it's
Broncos at Chiefs, and the Chiefs are going to be
on their third Street quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
Yeah, yeah, So that Broncos Chargers game is the last
game that's gonna be the one that's got flex written
all over it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
You can tell for sure, right, because it might not
because they got to put teams that have results depended
on one another at the same time. Those two teams
are already going to be in, right, so you can
flex it without messing up the schedule.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
From a competitive standpoint, you could flex that, and you
could probably flex Seahawks forty nine Ers depending on what happens.
You know, if the forty nine ers should happen to
lose tonight to the Colts, and I don't see that
happening in Santa Clara, but if they do and then
lose to the Bears, then maybe they back out of that.
But probably, like you said, it's that's a very important

(01:22:41):
consideration that it has to be.

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
You know factored into that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:45):
But the playoff picture in the AFC, I mentioned the
teams that you know can get in, and the Broncos
and Patriots are the only ones who have clinched. But
the Texans of a ninety six percent chance to get
in there right now, they're sitting on the seven seed,
the Ravens seven point five percent, of the Colts even
worse five point two. The only way the Colts are

(01:23:07):
getting in I mean, mathematically they could still get in
as a wild card, but I.

Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
Mean you're really stretching the math on that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
Their only prayer right now is to try to win
the division, went out and hope for collapses by the
Texans and Jaguars in order to get in.

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
So it doesn't look good for the Colts.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
They can certainly help themselves quite a bit if they
could win tonight against San Francisco.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
I feel for the Colts. I mean, they took the
available information they had right an eight and two team,
a quarterback that seemed to finally be discovering his untapped potential.
They go out and trade to address their biggest weakness
at corner. Two weeks, two injuries, two blown leads later,
they're eight and four without those two guys, Daniel Jones
and Sauce Gardner, and it's all kind of spiraled from there.

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
Yeah, now eight and six and they've dropped four in
a row. You know, we mentioned the Texans have won
seven or Jaguars have won six, right, and there are
a game up on that and Jacksonville in control of
its destiny certainly, and of course that's on Sunday is
Jags Colts. So if the Colts win the night, they
got a little bit of life and then they're at

(01:24:14):
home against the Jags, and then the Jaguars are at home.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
Against the Titans the last week.

Speaker 1 (01:24:19):
You figured they're going to handle their business on that
one there, But the Colts are in desperate straits right now.
They've got to win the night and then and then
they would be back home with an opportunity to beat
the Jaguars, and all of a sudden they're right back
in the thick of the fight.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
But like you said, it's all snowball. It hasn't gone
well for them.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
So and the Jags, I mean, they were my last pick,
the last overall pick, the mister irrelevant if you will,
of our playoffs. So your playoff draft, and but look,
nobody picked the Bears. So if they win, the whole
exercise needs to be blown up and we need a
hard look in the mirror.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
Yeah, and you look at the Bears. Now what a
win that was of the Packers in overtime and what
a way to win it. And the Bears have I
think I heard this, how many how many games that
they have they won this season in the final minute?

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
Washington?

Speaker 4 (01:25:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
Six, you've got well, the Raiders game was won early
that that was one.

Speaker 1 (01:25:21):
Then yeah, then Washington, then Cincinnati, then the Giants, the Vikings, uh, and.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
The Bears and the Packers, I mean the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
In the Packers, ESPN says the Bears have six comeback
wins after trailing in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
That's just crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:25:44):
And and you know, we we had that sound bite
when they were asking Demiko Ryans, is it sustainable to
have all these close games? You know, as been Johnson
that look at the Bears and say is that sustainable?
And he would say, well, worked, Okay, They'd rather not
have it that way. It's a huge game next week
in Santa Clara when they play the forty nine Ers.
Then they close with the Lions and the Lions seven

(01:26:05):
percentile means they're all but out of it.

Speaker 3 (01:26:09):
Do you see the end of that game against Pittsburgh,
Oh yeah, oh yeah, the nuts and you know, just
it's crazy the way that thing went down.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
And then now you know, like you said on Christmas,
it's a Netflix game by the way, that game of
the Vikings, So it's probably just as well that's not
on network television. You're probably a fan of either team
if you've got that one on and then the Bears
and it's got TBD on that because all those games
on that final weekend, all the ones that have any
kind of impact whatsoever, are going to be TVD.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
And Bucks Panthers might be a primetime game as well.

Speaker 1 (01:26:46):
Sure, like we said, Bucks Panthers, Broncos, Chargers forty nine
or Seahawks, those three I think would factor in to
be the biggest favorites to possibly be flexed or figured
out for the late afternoon start time or whatever. All right,
we've got more coming up. We'll continue here on this
Monday afternoon on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone

(01:27:06):
of the iHeartRadio app. Sir Elp and John to you
and I there with a step into Christmas, there's one
big Christmas tune to day. I'm always amused I see,
you know, the rock Stars, if they've done Christmas, usually

(01:27:31):
have like one one big Christmas tune. And we'll hear
a couple more of those tomorrow since we're just bumping
with the holiday stuff. Vick Schaeffer we heard from in
the two o'clock hour his conversation with Roger Wallace after
the Texas women advanced the record of fourteen and oh
with that seventy fifty one win at South Dakota State yesterday,

(01:27:54):
and then he went into the press conference and hears
some thoughts from coach Schaeffer starting his opening comments.

Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
Well, first, just obviously, when not your best night, you're
always glad to win.

Speaker 6 (01:28:08):
And certainly it was probably the worst we've played, and
you have to give us South Coast State all the
credit in the world.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
They they did a great job.

Speaker 6 (01:28:16):
I thought coach did a great job, had a great plan.
We did not play well obviously for most of the night.
I thought Breed really came in and gave us a
big spark there in the fourth quarter. But we just
you know, it's been a gauntlet, you know, these non

(01:28:36):
conference games that we've had and this one included.

Speaker 4 (01:28:39):
It's it's been a really tough gauntlet for us.

Speaker 6 (01:28:42):
And uh, you know, we've we've we've been on the
road some, We've played a lot of really good teams,
a lot of ranked teams, and so our kids need
some time off, so I glad to get it. We're
still trying to get healthy. We gained two back and
lost one more with Justice not playing today, So just
still trying to develop chemistry with kids that haven't played

(01:29:04):
in a while, and then trying to get some kids
healthy too.

Speaker 4 (01:29:07):
Taya has been really banged up, playing through an injury, and.

Speaker 6 (01:29:12):
So again not our best night. Plenty to work on,
plenty to get better at, but found a way to win.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
You know, last year when the Longhorns played South Dakota State,
they blew them out at Moody Center. Now, I had
three or four people ask me. I heard a local
TV sports anchor say when the world they do and
played up in Brooking, South Dakota. And again, this is
about being able to get a representative non conference schedule.

(01:29:42):
Now it hasn't been as big a problem this year
for the Longhorns because of the Vegas Tournament, the Players
Era Championship, getting those two big wins out there, playing
North Carolina at home and beating them in the acc
SEC Challenge. But the other games, like for example, Richmond,
that's a good win. It was over a ranked team,
but that was actually the back half of a home
and home where they had to play at Richmond last year.

(01:30:05):
Same thing with James Madison. They had to play at
James Madison last year because there were several teams. Vic
had some teams drop out on him, so he had
to scramble to get some games. And there was those
two that were home and home, and so too was
this now they were able to play South Dakota State
at home last year blew them out. This was definitely
a much more competitive game, well into the third quarter
before they finally pulled away, and Coach Schaeffer was asked

(01:30:27):
of his impressions of South Dakota State in this contest
as opposed to last year's game in Austin.

Speaker 5 (01:30:33):
Well, again, I know what I'm getting into when I
scheduled them. It's not like I'm don't know what I'm doing.
Coach is a great coach. He's always got a team
print in a top twenty five. They're always in the
NCAA tournament. So I scheduled it on purpose.

Speaker 6 (01:30:51):
He was nice enough to come to our place first
a year ago, and then we had to return at
a time of year, y'all where.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
You know, if you look in my conference today, who's
playing who?

Speaker 6 (01:31:05):
Here's not anybody playing anybody on the road like I
am at South Dakota State. It's a bunch of three
named directional schools and nobody's But that's what you do
at Christmas, right you send everybody home at Christmas. It's
all hunky dory, everybody's happy. Everybody got to play when
you come up here on the first of December. By
the way, it's a little colder here that.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
It was in Texas right now, that's what they were saying.

Speaker 4 (01:31:29):
I was like, we didn't feel that until we were
in here getting cooked. You know, it just.

Speaker 6 (01:31:36):
I did it on purpose, because again, I think you
find out a little bit about your team when you
come up here.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
Number one, come up here to play this team in
this environment, and then at this time of year.

Speaker 6 (01:31:49):
Hey, my kids, if anybody deserves a merry Christmas, they do.
They have had the gauntlet of a non conference schedule
with the injuries that we've had. I mean we've had
a seven player rotation for the last eight games, three
guards for three positions.

Speaker 4 (01:32:05):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (01:32:06):
Jordan, Rory and Booker have played every game, meaningful game,
every minute, while these kids have been injured. And so
it's it's that's that's hard enough to win our schedule
with a healthy team. We've done it with a banged
up team. So we're a little broadbeat right now, you know,

(01:32:30):
as far as just tired. Broadbeat maybe not be the word,
but just we're tired, you know, we're just we're a
little And then to put them on a plane and
fly up here and you know, it's it's different. So again,
I I do it for a reason. I found out
a little bit about my team, and you know, we'll
go back watch the film. Uh there's plenty to learn

(01:32:51):
on that f on that film, you know. And and
so it's it's I want.

Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
Them today the next five days and enjoy with himself.
They've earned it.

Speaker 6 (01:33:01):
I mean, they have absolutely been through the gauntlet, played
their hearts out, and today I knew wasn't gonna be easy,
and it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
So there are the thoughts from logrn's head coach Vick Shaffern. Again,
they're off until the twenty eighth, this coming Sunday, when
Little host Southeast and Louisiana.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
There were a couple of players.

Speaker 1 (01:33:25):
Who actually left from South Dakota and went home from there,
did not come back with the team, for example Eliah
Crumbs from Minnesota, So you know that made sense. Most
everybody else came back and then they scattered for a
few days. And I thought it was interesting what Vick
had said. He was ready for a break. Players are
ready for a break, and yet here they are at

(01:33:48):
fourteen and oher So that's important to keep in mind.
I tell you what, just they're not on Texas schedule,
but two teams that are blowing away the opposition in
state schools from Power five conferences TCU and Texas Tech.
And Tech stunned everybody by winning in Waco over Baylor.

(01:34:12):
I think they'd lost twenty two in a row to
the Lady Bears before they won yesterday in Waco. So
Christ Gerlick maybe finally getting a foothold out there on
the South planes trying to get it going there. And
we mentioned what Mark Campbell's doing at TCU, and of
course Texas played them in the Elite eight last year,
so just just bringing that up.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Keep it, keep it, keeping your rear view mirror.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
Anyway, This TCU defense right now number one in the
country in lowest effective field goal percentage. Some of the
analytics on them really like the way that the horn
Frogs are defending to start the year.

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
They can guard you, no doubt about it. We'll be
back to wrap up today's edition of the program here
on thirteen hunderd The Zone

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