HSFB Matchups, Sark on San Jose State, MLB Playoff Picture

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How about NFL football? Would that kickstart your weekend? It's
about to kickstart for the Dallas Cowboys tonight. Hopefully they're
not kicked around, but we'll certainly find out. Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. My name is Craig Way. Glad to
have you with us this afternoon. The producer is Jay Herman,

(00:23):
who hails from Washington, d C. But is a University
of Texas graduate, but is a Washington Commander's fan, but
really doesn't have a rooting interest in tonight's game. Am
I right? Or are you rooting for the Cowboys today
simply because the Eagles are the defending Super Bowl champions
and are going to be the most difficult team to
contend with, one would think in the NFC East.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
That's right, you nailed it, every last detail of that.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Okay, It's not that you have any great lover affinity
for the Cowboys. It's just that you need the Eagles
to lose more than you than you're expecting than the lose,
or is the Cowboys will probably lose at least lose
at least as often as you're expecting them to lose.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm rooting for content because I know I've got some
time with Cameron Parker here in studio tomorrow. Yeah, I'm
rooting for, you know, something, for him to talk about,
whether that's amazing to where I can tell him, hey,
pump the brakes yeah, or whether it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
I have a feeling Cameron kind of pumps his home
breaks when it comes to his team, that comes to
the Cowboys's and sometimes I try to pump him up
a little bit and he's like he's not having it.
He's So we'll see. Cameron will begin with Jake tomorrow.
I am out tomorrow with some personal family business, and
then and then and then of course we've got the

(01:39):
Long Run game on Saturday, and Texas will play San
Jose State. Our coverage begins at eight am right here
on thirteen hundred. The zone from the wind Ship circled
down at Bevo Boulevard. So Cam will be there along
with my Cardgoal hard and in addition to and Hardball,

(02:01):
the world's strongest band, Mark Henry will be with them.
So they started eight. We have our network pregame at
ten am, the kickoff at eleven as. Texas looks to
bounce back against San Jose State. Hey promotion for tonight
the this week's episode of Longhorn Weekly with Coach Sark
coming your way. It's a fun show. We recorded on

(02:24):
Wednesdays and airs on Thursday. We had a good time
yesterday evening. Our guests were the Longhorns tight ends coach
and special teams coach. Jeff Banks, assistant head coach, was
with us and we had a good good chat with
Jeff talking about Jack Bowmeaster and Mason Shipley and punt
return and punt block and all that stuff. And obviously

(02:47):
Jack Hendry's the tight end since he's the tight ends
coach as well, so all that conversation happens tonight. And
then also Cole McCoy joins us, so we'll visit with
the guy I used to call the kid from Buffalo Gap.
His Buffalo Cap Gap was south of Abilene where the
family ranch was. He went to jim Ned High in Tuscola,

(03:10):
which was the closest high school a few miles away,
but he was from Buffalo Gap. Anyway, Colt will join
us as well, and he's got some unique perspective as
well on Arch banning and the progress and the slings
and arrows that go with being the quarterback of the
University of Texas. So Jeff Banks and Colt McCoy our

(03:32):
guest tonight on Longhorn Weekly with Coach Sark, comes you
away at six o'clock tonight, six o'clock tonight with the
Round Rock Express game at seven twenty. That's why at
six o'clock. Normally when we get well on into the
fallow'll be seven o'clock here, But at six o'clock tonight,
so we have that all right. What we have on
the program coming up in a few minutes. Roger Wallace,

(03:53):
my broadcast partner on Longhorn Football and who of course
is a partner with me on Long Corn Bay baseball
games and is always at the ready and steps in
for me if I've got a schedule conflict with Texas
women's or men's basketball. So Roger will join us, and
we're going. And what we did this last year, and

(04:15):
we didn't get to do it last Thursday, when the
first high school football games of the season in the
state of Texas, we're kicking off, and that included what
now is known as the Shoal Creek Showdown. For years
it was the Taco Shack Bowl Anderson and McCallum, and

(04:37):
they televised that for I think he said the twelfth
straight years something like that. Tonight, Roger and the crew
are televising Mister Ridget Bowie Good non district matchup, and
I'm stepping in for Keith Morland, who normally works with

(04:59):
Roger on the Thursday night high school games. Keys is
on a I believe it's a fiftieth wedding anniversary trip.
I know it's a milestone anniversary trip. He and his
wife Cindy are out West, and so I'm gonna step
in a little bit of role reversal Roger on the
play by play as he is for the kbv O

(05:22):
Big Game of the Week, and I'll step in as
the analyst. So it's a lot of fun and I
do that on occasion, and I'll step in with him
of that for Vista, Ridge and Bowie tonight at Burger Stadium,
but Roger will join us not only to talk about that,
but we'll talk about the Longhorns, we'll talk about the Cowboys.
His station will be airing the Cowboys game tonight. So

(05:43):
it's the Sunday Night Football crew there with NBC doing
that Thursday night season opener the Cowboys at the Eagles,
and then tomorrow's game if I'm in Jay, correct me
if I'm wrong. Tomorrow's game between the Eves and the
Chargers is in so Palla, Brazil, and it's televised YouTube TV.

(06:09):
But isn't it also made available NFL network at A
couple of people say they thought it was also going
to be made available on NFL Network tomorrow night that
Chargers Chiefs matchup. But I know what's on YouTube TV
that one that I know for sure?

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, I know it'll be the rich eyes in broadcast crew.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, which is NFL Network crew right.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Right, just like you'd see on a game in London
or Germany? Right YouTube, NFL Plus.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
NFL Network Plus interesting okay.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Completely free on YouTube, also on NFL Plus. But I
don't think it's going out on the living your NFL network, Okay,
at least according to NFL dot Com.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
All right, it sounds like it's just going to be
streaming only, albeit free on being streamed. Okay, all right,
So that's good to know. And so the NFL season
gets going in full bore, and we'll take a look
at some of that. Also today, Long Worn's head coach
Steve Sarkisian did his Thursday media zoom availability with the

(07:16):
credential assembled media and we'll hear the comments from sark
about his team and getting ready for this matchup with
San Jose State. So we got all of that in
store today and as always, we're more than happy, more
than willing, more than receptive to taking your thoughts, your questions,

(07:37):
your comments via the text line. And this is how
it works. It's very very simple. All you have to
do is text the word Texas. It can be all caps,
it can be just a capital team with a little
EXAs afterwards. But you text the word Texas followed by
your question or comment to eight one five three zero.

(08:00):
The word Texas followed by your question or comment to
eight one five three zero. Standard messaging and data rates
may apply. Perfect example, this is our friend Chuck in Houston,
who texted the word Texas followed by the words die,
Eagles Die. It's me nowhere where Tuck is coming?

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Is that the NFC East horns down?

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Uh yeah, yeah, I suppose, I don't know, you know,
wanting the Eagles to die. Now it's a play on words,
you know, that stupid song that fly Eagles Fly yep,
and and I have no access to grind against Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah,
I wish the Rams had beating them in the playoff
last year, but they didn't. They came the closest to
anybody did of beating them, including in the Super Bowl.

(08:43):
The Rams played them very very well. But I don't.
I don't have any access to grind against Philadelphia Eagles
like Cowboys Fansh's or Washington fans, or Giants fans or
even Steelers fans. I don't. I don't have that kind
of axe to grind against them. But I do think
the song is rather ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, speaking of songs, you know the old Hail to
the Redskins that they would play at Northwest Stadium formerly
known as FedEx Field. They've got a bit of a problem.
Commanders is an extra syllable. Yeah, and they've they've taken
out some different lyrics.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
They take out the word the and just go hail
to Commanders. They just do that.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
I think I think they could, but fans are just
so used to hail to the there's even the hashtag
htt yeah yeah, yeah, See it's a it's a bit
of a mess that song.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Now, I've got another story about that song to tell
a little bit later, but we need a break. When
we come back. Roger Wallace joins us from k x
a N, and we'll get to a very busy Thursday
afternoon right here on thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
Texas Longhorns and Hall of Fame broadcaster Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Happy to have you with us on a Thursday afternoon,
Happy as always to visit women broadcast partner on Longhorn
football and baseball, and also, like I said in the rotation,
with our men's and women's basketball broadcast as well. Day job, however,
is the sports director k XA N, and they're play

(10:21):
by play voice for their high school football game of
the week coverage, which is underway again. Roger Wallace joins
us underway, which sea is it? Seventeen seasons now?

Speaker 4 (10:30):
For you?

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Sixteen sixteen? And how many? How many years? How many
what used to be Taco Shack Bowl now Show Creek showdowns?
Have you done?

Speaker 5 (10:45):
How many have we done?

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah? How many? What is it?

Speaker 5 (10:48):
All but one?

Speaker 6 (10:49):
Because the COVID year they didn't remember the bigger schools
open later, yeah, in the season, So we opened at
Wimberley I believe it was Canyon Lake Wimberley and the
COVID season and did not do Taco Shack, So all
but one had been that opener at House Park.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Now and this is not in any way shape or
for meant to take a poke at our good friends
from the AISD, because we appreciate their their cooperation. But
what would you say, it was probably a little bit
out of the ordinary. You're broadcast set up last Thursday night.

Speaker 6 (11:24):
We're going with the fact that we struggled through this
year to get to next year's payoff. And if you've
driven down Lamar and you've seen on the east side
of the stadium there's no secondary press box, but there
is a big concrete shaft which tells me there's gonna
be an elevator, and we hear there's gonna be a
press box, there's gonna be much better internet capabilities and

(11:46):
things like that. So we feel like we did our
part this year. The payoff will be next year and beyond.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, you guys were basically working outside, right, It.

Speaker 5 (11:56):
Wasn't terrible, Craig.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
We were on the west side, so we didn't have this,
and there was a little bit of breeze.

Speaker 5 (12:02):
And as you know, you've done enough high school games outside.

Speaker 6 (12:05):
There is a different feel, even compared to open windows,
there is a different feel in the stands. You're a
little bit closer, sidelines are a little bit clear. No
nobody stood in front of us. So I didn't mind it. Now,
I would mind it less in mid October than late August.
But you and I did a game in fact same

(12:26):
place we're going to be tonight in the stands because
of COVID protocol as well, and that wasn't terrible.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
You're right, what was that? Bowie and Sam Marcus? I
think yeah, a few years ago and I mentioned I'm
gonna be joining Roger for the call tonight out at
Burger and over the years, and I on our conference
call with coach Ables a couple of days ago, I
joked with him being the dean of high school football

(12:53):
coaches in the area in the Greater Austin area something
like thirty two years or some thirty four years. I
guess he's been doing it about as long as he's
been the head coach, as long as I've been doing
the play by played for Texas or our numbers matched
up on that, and he said what I've always said
it It only means he's old, is the way he
describes it. But he's been effective and he's he's been

(13:15):
a pillar, i would say, in the high school football
community in the greater Austin area for sure.

Speaker 6 (13:20):
Yeah, what's struck me, Craig is when he talked about
how long he'd been a boot he said, we opened
thirty eight years ago and he's been there the entire time.
So yeah, as you mentioned, twenty fourth year as head coach,
they're you know, they're in a tough spot, as we
all know, because of the district they're in. And the
realistic part about that district is West Lake and Lake

(13:41):
Travis usually mean you're playing for two playoff spots. That's
just kind of the way it is. Because they are
perennial playoff teams, and you throw in dripping springs and
what they've done lately, and last year they missed out,
lost that Austin High game, missed out, But yeah, perennial
playoff team, always competitive, always big and strong. In any
you talk to, including Chad Scott, you know that they're

(14:02):
going to talk about how well coach Booi is.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
You know, the interesting thing we talk about that is
that Booi would still obviously pop into the Division one bracket,
assuming in the playoffs, unless Del Valley were to make it.
In addition, obviously to Lake Travis, who has the largest
enrollment in the district, Del Valley is second, and then
Bowie is third and Westlake not that far behind. But

(14:27):
there is that difference there between going Division one and
Division two. And you know, I'm not sure when you're
talking about matching up with twenty five six A, I'm
not sure which is the better bracket you want to
be in anyway, given the fact that vander griff is
in the D two bracket. But Round Rock has proven

(14:48):
to be tough when they've gone into the D one
bracket in the past. And of course that district always
seems to come down to the final Friday night of
the regular season, not only to decide one, maybe even
two playoffs pot, but also who's going to slide up
to D one and who's going to be down in
D two.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
Well, and you know, nine teams, So this is it
for Visita tonight. This is their tune up.

Speaker 6 (15:09):
And then they get after it against Round Rock next
week in the district opener, whereas twenty six is eight
or seven teams, so you only have the six six
game schedule.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
But yeah, that's I mean, you talk about earning it.

Speaker 6 (15:22):
You get through your top four in a nine team
district and you've earned that playoff spot, and I think Vista,
don't you will be one of those teams fighting for
three to four playoff spot and then trying to avoid
that dreaded five.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right. And they've been able
to get it under Chad Scott past couple of years,
and so looking at it, I think they're in a
battle with McNeil, maybe Huddo in that I think Vandergriff
and Round Rock are probably almost given commodities. Even the
Vandergrift comes off that surprising loss to Dripping Spring surprising

(15:57):
only in the way that Dripping Springs kind of dominated
the game, because we both know Galan Zimmerman's done an
outstanding job at Drip. It's just that we're not used
to seeing vander Riff take one on the chin by
that account that early, and they got to pick themselves
up and dust themselves off to get ready for Cedar Park,
which is doing the same thing after losing a Harker
last week.

Speaker 6 (16:17):
Well, I it was Cedar Park last year the Vandergrip
and then Vanderript didn't lose again. Round Rock also lost
their opener up at Shoemaker last Thursday night. So yeah,
as far as the perennial powers in that district, and
again when you're playing district opener next weekend, you a
little more urgency.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
This weekend, I wanted to get to one more high
school note. Then we'll move on to the log Horns,
and then in CENTURR stations carrying the Cowboys game tonight
will get to them as well. But I wanted to
give you a chance and tell folks a little bit
about Anybody that's watched k x and News or the
programming has seen the promos for the streaming platform that

(16:58):
k x A has now k X and Loss, and
there's a lot of great news and weather content and
features and all that other stuff. But you guys are
also availing yourselves of it in terms of the high
school football picture.

Speaker 6 (17:11):
Yeah, I mean that's that's a great platform for for
high school sports. And tonight's game will not be on
Plus but tomorrow's Westlake San Benino game will be on
k SAM Plus.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
Again, it's a.

Speaker 6 (17:22):
Free app and you can download it, uh and not
only watch those games, but the plan is to archive
our Thursday games. We've never been able to do that before.
So if you don't see tonight, hopefully by sometime this
weekend or early next week, the game will be archive.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
We've got a lot of other content we do.

Speaker 6 (17:38):
Throughout the week with with UT football coverage and like
you guys, we've partnered with Third and Monghorn, uh.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
So we do some some stuff.

Speaker 6 (17:46):
Yeah, but it's it's tailor made for high school sports
because you know the hard part about televising high school sports,
and we're we're lucky we have three stations here. We're
going to be competing with ourselves tonight, as you mentioned,
because we got The Cowboy is on KAX and and
we've got high School on KBBO. But when you have
that plus channel, that's a different outlet where you don't

(18:06):
have to preempt any programming or build in any program
on TV. Now, it's great that we can do it,
and we've been doing it for a long time and
I think people enjoy having that option of just.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
You know, clicking the dial.

Speaker 6 (18:18):
But yeah, the KSA and plus app is going to
be a great tool for all of the sports coverage.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Rodger rollers joining us here on thirteen Under the Zone.
Let's move to the Loghorns. And I was asked earlier
today on the program about what the mood was like,
and I said, you know, for fans, and I said,
obviously there was going to be quite a bit of
being glum after the first game, I said, some of
that melts away, but there's also going to be this

(18:45):
deal and it just kind of hangs over a program.
Is it not the loss so much? But and even
if they had one, this would have been less of
an effect. But certainly the loss is that the next
three weeks to a lot of log Hoorn fans really
aren't going to matter to them that much, you know,
playing San Jose State and UTAP and Sam Houston, three

(19:06):
teams they should defeat. And then there's an open date.
And I don't know how many times you heard it,
but I've certainly heard it and read it about well,
we really won't know how good this team might be
until October fourth, when they go to Gainesville.

Speaker 6 (19:20):
Yeah, and then that was like you said that was
gonna be the reality no matter what happened on Saturday,
and I think that also kind of adds to the
disappointment of having to have that loss.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
Hang now. I think if.

Speaker 6 (19:31):
They lost that game twenty seven to twenty, there might
be a little different feeling because first of all, they
were the.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
Underdog in Ohio State.

Speaker 6 (19:38):
But it's the fact that the concern about the offense
after one game is what everybody is talking about, and
that's where you get into these next three weeks, and
whatever they do, I'm not so sure it's going to
really swing the pendulum other than if they struggle, but
I don't anticipate that happen.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
But you're right, it's a strange schedule.

Speaker 6 (19:57):
Three straight non conference, a week off, and then they
don't play on their home turf until November.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
Just kind of the way it is. And I always say,
you know, the fans have to sit on it.

Speaker 6 (20:05):
And talk about it and do all that for a week,
and you hear about it, and I hear about it.
The team went back to work on Sunday and Monday,
and yeah, sure it's done.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
They don't have time to worry about it.

Speaker 6 (20:15):
They all those players are just playing for jobs and
trying to stay afloat make sure they do what the
coaching staff asks of them.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Let me ask you a question from the positive perspective,
was there a specific player offensively or defensively who I
hesitate to use the word surprised, but I'll go ahead
and say it's somebody that kind of stuck out to you,
stood out, maybe surprised you a little bit by his

(20:43):
performance last Saturday offense or defense offense.

Speaker 6 (20:48):
It didn't surprise me, but people saw it. And that's
tied end Jack Andres. I think he's gonna have a
big year. I think if you're the tight end in
a Sark offense, you're set up for a big year.
And I think he showed especially that played down the
sideline arch put it.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
I mean, you know a lot of criticism of Ars.

Speaker 6 (21:06):
I mean, he put that ball the only place he
could put it with two defenders, and Andres had to
make a play.

Speaker 5 (21:11):
No, he's going to take a big hit.

Speaker 6 (21:12):
And also they run that little screen where he splits
off from his tight end spot and then we saw
he can run without after the catch. So it wasn't
a surprise, but just you know, wanted to see it
in a Longhorn uniform, and I think he's going to
be a big weapon all season. On Grayson Littleton, that's
where you start, just because he's a freshman, just because
it was his first game and he made plays, and well,

(21:32):
that's what you want on the secondary is you want
guys that can make plays and knock balls away.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
And I think he's going to only get better.

Speaker 6 (21:39):
So I guess off the top of my head, those
are be Lelando La foul.

Speaker 5 (21:43):
We saw him last year, so that wasn't a big surprise,
but you know he was. He was in on so
many plays as well.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Were you amused as I was on that media? Zoom
was starked this morning when he was asked about Grayson Littleton.
In his response was along the lines, I've been trying
to tell you guys about this guy. Do you guys
keep asking could be about other guys that keep coming
back to Grace and Littleton, I guess because people maybe
don't expect a true freshman to have an impact on

(22:12):
the game, and he did have an impact on the
game last week.

Speaker 5 (22:14):
Yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 6 (22:15):
You know, Sark is very aware and he not only
answers the question, but he remembers the topics and the storylines,
and so yeah, I thought that was that was pretty funny.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
That Okay, let's kind of put that to bed. We
expect him to be a big time player.

Speaker 6 (22:30):
Sure he wanted to see it under the you know,
in a Saturday afternoon game of all places at Ohio State.
But yeah, I think that's the thing. These guys have
a pretty good idea of what they have. They just
want to see it live. And I think they saw
it with a few guys on on Saturday. I did
think it was interesting. Also on Monday, Craig when he
talked about that receiver room and he said, oh, than

(22:52):
Dylan mccutche and the freshman weren't ready, and the next
one would be Ryan Nibble. I think that might have
surprised some TAP people because we've heard so much about
Colique Lockett and French and some of the other guys
that Sarks like our slow roll on that.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, another guy that he continues to tell me now
he didn't get in, didn't get on the field last
week that I saw, but and certainly didn't make a catch.
But Sark is really high on that red shirt freshman
Aaron Butler and said, watch him. He said that to
me again last night when we were talking, as they
like to say, offline before we got on the air,

(23:28):
and he was looking over my notes and my broadcast charts,
and he pointed to Aaron Butler and said, he's coming,
He's coming, He's getting there. And then we had Jeff
Banks on with us as our guest, and he said,
and I couldn't agree with more about this. It probably
escaped the notice of not just long worn fans, but

(23:50):
people watching the game last Saturday. But he was praising
Ryan Tiblett for the way he handled the punts, the
situation of the the breeze and the changing breeze, and
how he made sure nobody was going to try to
field it in a way they should. He did feel
that one on one hot that had a good little
kickstart when he did, but the rest of the time

(24:12):
he's having to chase that ball sideline the sideline. They
were really impressed with what he did.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
Yeah, that's tough. I mean, that's a part of the game.
We don't really think about that much until something either
goes really bad or really good. But it's the stuff
in the middle that I'm sure the coaches are much
more concerned about and yeah, and they were making a
concerted effort to try to keep it away from him,
yet he had to track it down and see if
he could avoid losing any more field positions. So yeah,

(24:40):
that's a part of the game that sometimes, as you said,
goes relatively unnoticed that you know, that's that hitting yardage
you talk about.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Let me get your thoughts on the Cowboys. Your station's
carrying it tonight, which is a relief. Right at this
time last year, it was kind of up in the
air as to whether you guys were even going to
be able to carry the game.

Speaker 6 (25:00):
Yeah, the fortunately there's no retransmission agreements to deal with.
I know last week a different company could have affected
a different network, but they got things worked out. But yeah,
obviously this is gonna be huge Cowboys Eagles opener.

Speaker 5 (25:18):
The curiosity after the trade of Michael.

Speaker 6 (25:22):
Parsons and and just this rivalry without the fact that
it's opening night and the Eagles are going to hang
their banner, and I mean, it's going to be a
massive number. But you know, Craig, we love those surfers,
So keep that remote handy, and you know, you just
bounce back and forth between us and the Cowboys. We'll
start at seven point thirty pregame show. Oh, by the way,

(25:43):
mention KAXAM plus. So Football Night in America is at
six o'clock. So we're actually going to be on our
six o'clock newscast on KICKSAM plus because of Football Night
in America. So that's another tool that is available to
us rather than just wipe out the newscast. You get
your news, your weather, your sports at six and then
at six point thirty, you know, if you want to

(26:05):
go back to the pregame show.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
I'm trying to sell it as hard as I can here.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, I started to say, so, you still have to
put in a full day's work regardless. I do.

Speaker 6 (26:12):
I do. I'll head down to Berger in just a
little bit and we'll take care of that and then
we'll see it up.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
For the game. All right, Hey, I'll see you down there.
I appreciate it and look forward to working with you
to night. It'll be a lot of fun.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
All right, Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
You bet. That's Roger Wallace k XA in and again, Yeah,
we'll be on the call for Vista. Ridget Bowie from
Burger stateiuments to seven thirty kickoff. They're on KBVO channel
fifty one there and as he points out, it's a
busy night well with the Cowboys game on k x AN,
they'll actually do their six o'clock six pm newscast on

(26:48):
k x and. Plus they've got that extra streaming platform
and there's going to be, like he said, archived high
school football games on there Tomorrow night West Lakes game,
And let me tell you, that's a relief for a
lot of folks who weren't you know, who might be
Westlake fans, who might be interested in Westlake but weren't
necessarily interested in a drive to the valley to see

(27:11):
them place at San Benito tomorrow night. So it'll be
on the streaming. The streaming platform thing has really come
a long way with high school football. I'm calling Vandergriff
Cedar Park tomorrow night on the Victory Plus Sports app,
the one that televises the Dallas Stars game. They're doing
a high school game of the week on Friday night

(27:32):
through their streaming platform leading into playoffs, and then they
will be the group that televises all the high school
football state championships of Texas so it's kind of the
way it's going with the streaming services and the streaming platforms.
All right, up deck, we'll bring you today's edition of
Inconceivable when we continue here, I'm thirteen under the Zone,

(27:55):
second hour of the program here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the Zone, way with you alongside the producer
Jay Carman. Glad to have you with us as well.
If you want to text the program, it's right there
for you. All you have to do is text the
word Texas follow by your question or comment to eight

(28:15):
one five three zero. So text your question or comment
after you text the word Texas. You can be at
capital all caps or just regular Texas. Howeveryone do it?
Just text the word Texas, follow out your question or
comment to eight one five three zero, and standard messaging

(28:35):
and data rates may apply for example, and we'll try
to get to all of your questions. In the first
hour of the program, I made reference to excuse me
to Chucks text where he said die Eagles Die, an
obvious play on words to for fly Eagles Fly. That

(28:56):
song that they played there, you know, and it's a
lot like the one the Cubs play that Go Cubs Go.
It's a it's a lot like that. But you mentioned
that that was his way of if people outside the
Austin Ay would do horns down, right, Is that you
said that his version of horns down to Eagle fans

(29:19):
would be die Eagles dogs.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, it's the it's the it's the lazy layup put.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Down right there.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, okay, all right, it's more creative than buck eye tears.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yes, yeah, exactly. That was in the part of our
inconceivable thing. That look that the little Brown jug is
gonna get sued or at least given a cease and
desist to stop serving a drink they call buck eye tears.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
So that's a win. That's a win for the Brown Jug.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, yeah, true. Our man seat pal said that. With
regard to your reference about the horns down, he said,
ESPN showed the Ou crowd last week, and of course
there's horns down. That's true. They were playing uh, Illinois State,
and there are people doing horns down. It's it happens.
They're gonna be doing it. They've got a big game
this week. One of the few high profile games on

(30:07):
an otherwise pretty mundane college football weekend schedule is Oklahoma
hosting Michigan, and uh they there will be sooner fans
there as they play. I think is I think, I
know they are the winningest program in all of college

(30:27):
football is Michigan, and and so here they are at
home against the winning his program and in all of
college football. But if cameras are on sooner fans, they'll
be doing horns down.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
You see Wetzel's piece though about the thousand wins for Michigan.
They're counting wins over you know, the local four eight
and the firefighters, and it's it's really I mean, it's
a good deep dive.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah. Yeah, So there's that. Then, now this is a
nice Somebody said, die Jerry die. Some of the Cowboys
owner he said a fly Eagles fly, or die Eagles die.
And somebody said, die Jerry died. That you don't want
to wish death on people. I think a lot of

(31:12):
Cowboy fans who are fed up with him probably don't
wish death on They probably wish mental incapacitation.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
What about resign Jerry resigned?

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, yeah, because I think a lot of them think
that he's been mentally incapacitated since he took over the team. Anyway,
in nineteen eighty nine. I don't know one thing you
cannot deny about Jerry Jones. He is a businessman, and
you know he's had to make that. When he bought
that team for one hundred and fifty five million, I
think it was he really mortgaged himself to the hilt,
and now that team is worth and then they were

(31:46):
a thirteen billion dollars. I believe something like that. But
his football GM acumen may leave something to be desired.
Time will tell. With regard to the Micah Parsons trade
as well, somebody said, can we trade Jerry Jones to
the Packers? No, because Jerry owns the team. He's here,

(32:08):
and it's what I tell everybody. You know, it's I understand.
It's a very difficult thing to justify and rationalize in
your heart as a fan that the team you root
for is owned and or operated by someone whom you

(32:35):
just can't get with. You're just opposed to everything that
you were like that with Dan Snyder owning Washington right,
absolutely idea with that. How'd you deal with that?

Speaker 2 (32:47):
I became a huge just NFL fan in general. I mean,
I follow.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
I think that's where Camerons hitted.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, I mean, I would follow my favorite Longhorns or
growing up an Alabama fan, favorite Alabama players, and honestly
it's what push me, along with my parents and grandparents
into being a much bigger college football fan than an
NFL fan growing up just that withdraw away from from
the Dan Snyder owned Redskins because even at the time
the Wizards were relevant.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah right right, but in the Capitols obviously were big.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
They've been good most of my childhood.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
So so anyway, I understand that. Listen, there was a
time the team I rooted for, the Rams, had just messy, messy,
not good ownership with Georgia Frontier. They did win a
Super Bowl with her as the owner, but she had
inherited the team after Carol Rosenbloom had passed away. But

(33:44):
it was It's weird, and I understand. There's there's the frustration.
Somebody said, resign Jerry Reside as much more appropriate. There
you go, there's some taste Michigan Van would go blue
off of that, or maybe just stand I O you fan,
I get that. Somebody else asking me, can we get
victory plus online with regard to the fact as mentioning

(34:07):
they're going to do the high school football games. They
started last week with the Alito det and Geyer game,
and I'll be calling the game tomorrow night between Vandergriff
and Cedar Park and Isaiah Stanback will join me. Works
on the Cowboys pregame TV show and was the analyst
on their preseason games. He's done a couple of state
championship games with me as well, and he's good dude

(34:28):
and a really talented guy. So I'm looking at it
all right. The question to your the answer to your
question about the Victory Plus if you look up what
and Dallas Stars fans, I'm sure found this out when
they were, you know, being launched the Stars telecast on
Victory Plus if you like google it. For example, there's

(34:53):
a question here that says how do I watch streaming
on TV? Now, that's not what the fan asked, but
it's gonna lead to it, and the Google answer was
your streaming device connects connects to the Internet through Ether
through either an Ethernet cable or Wi Fi. It connects

(35:14):
to your television through the HDMI port. Connect your device
to a power source and the HDMI port on your television,
then use the TV remote to change the source or
input to the corresponding HDMI port because that's that's how
most people are going to consume it. They're going to
stream it right, you know, through their through their TV,

(35:36):
and they're gonna use Roku, They're gonna use what Apple
TV away a vehicle to strategy, right yep, okay, But
the first part of it when it says your streaming
device connects to the Internet through either an Ethernet cable

(35:57):
or Wi Fi, So that would lead me to believe, yeah,
you could watch it online, right, yes, yeah, So there
you are with the questions. So yes, it is available
to watch online. Most of people want to take it
the extra step instead of just watching it on the laptop,
you know. And that's what I do with Like if

(36:18):
I'm on the road, and when I had an NFL
Sunday ticket, if I was on the road, I could
flip open my laptop on a Sunday afternoon waiting out
a flight delay in the airport. That commercial you see
about that that's real. That's a real thing. That's happened
to me several times. So I'm just now I didn't

(36:39):
have a whole bunch of people gathering around and cheering
and all that when the flight was further delayed. I
wouldn't have done that either. I wanted to get on
the plane and go home. But if I was coming
back from doing a long horn game and it was on
a Sunday afternoon, and I got stuck somewhere, be it
Atlanta or DFW or wherever, had a flight canceled or delayed.
When I was a like I said, when I was

(36:59):
an NFL sen ticket subscriber, flip open my laptop and
go into my Direct TV account whatever and pull it
up and then I could watch, you know, whatever games
I was wanting to watch. Did the same thing if
I was calling an early season Sunday men's or women's
basketball game and would have the laptop open beside me

(37:19):
while I'm calling the football game, and I would only
look over I mean the basketball game. I will only
look over at the football game, like breaking the action
or whatever, but just to have it where I can
keep and also to give scores even in a say
a women's basketball broadcast. Hey we'll update the NFL scoreboard
for you on a Sunday afternoon. So yes, you can
do it that way. And that's how I used to

(37:40):
do it. On the road, but obviously in the comfort
of your own home, if you can stream it in
to your television, you're going to be better off. And
that's why I say and when I do those endorsements
for audio visual consultations that Tom McKay and staff can
help you with that can guide you through and help
set up how it's all streamed through into your device.

(38:02):
It's all you have to do is just you know,
turn on your remote.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Yeah, it looks like all you need is an account.
You can download it on the app store like you
talked about, and some smart TVs you can download directly
to the TV.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Right and it's free. That's that's the great thing about
the Victory plus app. It's free, absolutely free, So that's
pretty cool. They Now for watching the Rangers, I think
there is like a one hundred dollars fee for the season.
That's really pretty economical by compared to I have the
MLB package, so I can watch Dodgers or watch lots
of baseball games. I watch lots of different ones as well,

(38:35):
and that's three sixty ninety years or something like that.
So really to get an entire season a Ranger, telec
has for one hundred bucks, pretty good.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
I've got the audio pass I can listen to radio
around the league.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeah yeah, what do you pay for that?

Speaker 2 (38:48):
I think it's something like seven or eight bucks a
month when it comes out to it.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Yeah yeah, okay, all right. Up next, we're gonna hear
from Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkisian, start talking about is
football team's readiness and getting ready for the home opener
on Saturday against San Jose State. Of course, our coverage
begins at eight o'clock Saturday morning with Long Orange Game
Day from Bevo Boulevard with Cameron Parker and Mike Hardball

(39:13):
Harje and also Mark Henry. The network pregame at ten
o'clock the kickoff at eleven Texas and San Jose State,
and we will hear talk about San Jose State coming
up when we continue. I'm thirteen under the Zone in
the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns. Craig wa follow Craig on social media
at Horn Voice here.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
On Thursday afternoon on the tex Line, somebody said, you
know a good portion of Michigan's titles, and you've made
reference to this Jay and wins came when they played
in suspenders and knee heis is the way he described it.
This is why it's an inexact science on wins and
stuff like that, because of the various schedules and club

(39:59):
team and things like that that were played. If you
go into quote unquote modern era football, like AP era
starting in nineteen thirty six, it straightens out a little bit.
I would say, actually it straightens out significantly, not completely,
but I mean, you know, remember the teams that played

(40:23):
during World War Two. There were military teams like Randolph
Field from San Antonio. They played Texas and a Cotton
Bowl Southwestern University where Jake Herman is set to call
some soccer play by play for them. They played in
the Sun Bowl in UH I think in the mid forties.
So things changed over time, and the classifications weren't as

(40:48):
defined as they are now. They used to call like
what is now FCS. Before it was one double A,
they used to call it college division College division, and
a lot of those teams then ultimately kind of settled
into D two status Division two. So that's why there's
a lot of inexact stuff there. And talking about Eagles

(41:11):
fans somebody said Eagles fans are the worst in the league.
They cheered back in the day when Michael Irvin got injured.
They are trash. I'm always reluctant to throw a blanket
over an entire group of people, But the point was,
and you're right. I can remember that vividly when Michael
Irvin went down with that injury and had that spinal

(41:32):
stenosis thing and it temporarily paralyzed when we laid him
on the field, they had to immobilize him and take
him on the board. The fans were at Veteran Stadium
cheering as he was taken off the field. Yeah, that's true.
It's the same group of the Boots Santa Claus. Remember,
and I've heard people say, you know that Santa was drunk,
showed up, he deserved to get booed. They were like

(41:53):
pelting him with snowballs. Philadelphia the city of brotherly shove,
the city of grease polls and Super Bowl parades. Yeah, yeah,
all of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
And Texas Craig is guilty of this too. Texas has
counted wins in the past against vaunted opponents, including Galveson
High School, the Austin YMC Edver program, does it yep.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Yep, Yeah, they did that in the first year. The
Galveston Ball team that they played, which is now the
modern day Galveston Ball the Golden Tornadoes, who are an
actual six A high school program in the state.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Michigan's counted a win over the ann Arbor High school team.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. There were collections of teams
back then, and college football had not progressed to the
point that it is now. He said. For the purpose
of our current center, Ohio State is the highest winning percentage,
and it's not particularly close. And again, it depends on
the date that you're identifying. You know. Now, if you

(42:56):
said our current century, yeah, in the twenty first century,
I get you. I understand what you're saying there. All right,
let's hear from Long Worn's head coach Steve Sarkisian getting
his team ready for this matchup on Saturday against the
Santasy State Spartans. And so he had his weekly Thursday
media zoom that started with his opening comments.

Speaker 7 (43:21):
All righty forty eight hours from kickoff here at DKR,
and we're fired up about that. You know, we work
really hard all year for very few opportunities to play
at home, and so we want to maximize this opportunity.
We're looking forward to being with our fans, to being
with our students.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
We want to make sure that we're putting a.

Speaker 7 (43:42):
Product on the field that they're proud of and the
way that we play the game of football. I know
we're looking forward to a rocket students section and in
a great environment at DKR Saturday. So should be a
fun day for college football, all right.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
And then into the questions and you're going to have
to help me on this slug here, Jake. Defenders with
t qualities.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, so Sark was asked, you know, in the past,
there were certain defenders that you could pick out right
away and have the qualities to be disruptors, be difference
makers who can go take the ball away. Obviously, texts
didn't have a takeaway last week, didn't have a lot
of turnover quality, That's right.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
So I'm trying to read I'm trying to read your
mind on.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
That, and I'm trying to get it to fit on
one line.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
No, I understand, I understand completely. And it's a great
point because and Sark said this when we recorded Longhorn
Weekly last night, and you'll hear it. If you're listening
to the program tonight at six o'clock, you'll hear Sark say,
we didn't get any turnovers and that's unlike us. It
was his quote, he said, we've got to get more turnovers.

(44:44):
So he was asked, who might some of those defenders
in addition to the usual suspects of Michael taff you know,
Anthony Hill, you know those guys, who else might emerge
as guys who can help turn a game with turnovers. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (45:04):
I think Leon Lafal has got a definite knack for
getting the football off of people. He did that for
US a year ago, and I expect him to do
that for us this year.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
He's a guy that jumps out right away.

Speaker 6 (45:17):
You know.

Speaker 7 (45:17):
I think both Burke and Colin Simmons have a knack
of getting the ball off the quarterback, rushing the passer.
I think Jolan and McDonald is a guy in the
secondary who's had a knack for creating turnovers. Does a
great job in zone coverage of feeling quarterbacks. And I
think Manny Mohammad has done a great job throughout his
career with communication, the alerting guys of things that can

(45:39):
come so that guys can be a little bit more
aggressive to specific plays, especially in critical moments.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Did it had a.

Speaker 7 (45:45):
Great play last year against Vanderbilt on a fourth down
that we got an interception by lafoul On.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
So you know, a lot of those guys have a.

Speaker 7 (45:52):
Ton of experience at doing it, and then they need
to be the catalysts as other guys continue to come
along to getting the ball off of people.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Now that the offensive side of the football. And I
think it was our friend Thomas Jones from the Austin
American Statesman who asked Sark about using Arch manning under
center as much as they did last Saturday, as opposed
to quinn Ewers almost exclusively in the shotgun, except like
in short yard dig your goal line situations or things
like that, and he wanted to know what the thought

(46:20):
process was behind that.

Speaker 7 (46:23):
Again, I think we try to do things to play
to the strengths of, you know, the people that we have,
and in this instance we're talking about the quarterback. I
think Arch has a natural feel under center, and when
you can get under center, the run game hits a
little bit differently. You can get the running back, you know,
seven and a half hours behind the quarterback, you can
run a little bit more downhill. I think that in

(46:44):
turn helps your play action pass game. And so, you know,
I don't think that was a one off for Ohio State.
I think that's going to be part of our offense
moving forward throughout the season.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Okay, all right, something else came up and Ark has
made reference to this. He did it during the summer,
but it kind of drew a little more conversation, not
just not necessarily related to the fact that the Long
Runs lost the football game last Saturday at Ohio State,

(47:15):
just more about a grand overview of the culture of
the program. What I'm referring to is players writing notes
to one another on Fridays day before games. Some of
the things are, you know, inspirational or motivational, summer reminders,

(47:35):
things of that nature. And Sark was asked about those
notes that players are writing on Fridays.

Speaker 7 (47:43):
Yeah, you know, I think, you know, culture to me
is the you know, outside of acquiring talented people as
coaches and players, is our culture. And you know, it's
one thing to bring really good people into your organization,
it's another to make sure that they really well can
and that we're all on the same accord. And to

(48:03):
do that, you need to be vulnerable, you need to
be honest, you need to be transparent, and so I
try to, you know, I don't try to be the
guy that does a culture exercise, you know, a couple
of times in the summer, and then you forget about
it in season. And so we try to do a
weekly culture exercise that keeps us connected, where guys can
share thoughts and feelings, and where their teammates can hold

(48:25):
them accountable to and just different different activities because I
do think, you know, culture wins. You know, I've always
said this culture beats talent. Culture and talent together is
really deadly. And I think we've created that, and I
just want to make sure that we don't just maintain it,
that we continue to help that thing grow and manifest
itself into into something that's uniquely special.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
A question asked by Kirk Bowles of the Houston Chronicle.
Of course, Kirk, for I think over forty years writing
for the Austin American Statesman but now writing for the
Houston Chronicle, and Kirk asking Sark about that O word,
the over confidence, where now normally it's kind of a
weird dynamic if somebody asked that question to a head

(49:10):
coach of a team coming off a loss. But if
we're being real about it, I mean they played the
defending national champions, number three team in the country at
the time, the number one now on their home field.
They move from that into a three week block of
playing G five or G six. It'll become opponents and

(49:35):
starting with San Jose State from the Mount West Conference,
and then you tap and then after that Sam Houston.
So you've got a couple of Mount West opponents, then
you've got Sam Houston, a Conference USA G five soon
to be G six once the Pac twelve is reconstitute,

(49:57):
because I don't think they'll be in that power bracket
yet for a bit. But in any event, they play
those three teams in a row after playing this mammoth
road game in Ohio State, now they're at home for
the next three weeks against those teams, follow by an
open date before they open conference play on October fourth

(50:18):
in Gainesville. So Sark was asked, does he worry about
an overconfidence issue for his team with those next three
games against those three opponents at home.

Speaker 7 (50:31):
I don't worry about it because of the outside noise.
You know, I worry about it because I think that's
human nature, right, And so as a coach, you know,
how do you combat that? What do we do on
Monday morning to get ourselves prepared for a ballgame? What
do we do to try to minimize players looking too
far down the road and focus on the task at

(50:52):
hand of what's right in front of them. And so
it's not so much about what anybody outside the building
thinks or doesn't think.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
It's it's truly what I believe.

Speaker 7 (51:01):
And you I've been doing this long enough to know
that human nature is human nature, and we can get
caught in that trap. And so sometimes you coach them harder.
Sometimes you you point out the slightest of details that
could be off to to make sure that the screws
are tightened up really tight and that we're ready to play.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Okay. And one more during this segment from Sark, it
was asked about perimeter blocking out on the edge, not
only from his offensive lineman but also tight ends wide
receivers the blocking on the edge, and he's asked what

(51:43):
he thought of that interview of the game one loss
at Ohio State.

Speaker 7 (51:48):
Our perimeter blocking was good and it was really good
at times, but I thought, for my liking, was probably
too inconsistent.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
And we have we have.

Speaker 7 (51:57):
Players on the perimeter that that are very good perimeter
blockers that that I think we expect a high level
of blocking on the perimeter. You know, when I think
perimeter blocking, in my mind, I think run game first, right,
and the run game to me takes all eleven you know,
it's everybody doing their job, and a lot of that
for receiver is you know, blocking safeties, blocking corners, things

(52:20):
of that nature. But also think of a lot of
the perimeter plays the ball on the edge, bubble screen,
so on, and so forth, advantage throws where you know,
we didn't have a ton of those obviously in the
first game, but we know was a part of our offense.
And so that aspect of it is playing to our standard,
playing to our capability, and I think we got we're
more than capable of doing that.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
All right, there's some sound from Steve Sarkis. We'll hear
more from sark coming up. We've got some other topics
to get to up next here on thirteen under the zone, Coach.

Speaker 7 (52:51):
Stark Kid, stay connected to the lawhorns on the free iHeartRadio.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Apps fair with regard to college football, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna hold off on that for a moment because this,
this could be pretty significant. Uh. This this news coming
down just a little while ago that Max Olsen, the
guy we've known a long time who writes for ESPN,

(53:16):
has written a piece, uh, citing sources that says the
NCAA apparently is ready to vote for one single transfer
portal window. I know everybody's applauding right now, I certainly am,
But according to his art, he says major changes are

(53:39):
coming to the transfer portal in college football after the
NCAA Football Oversight Committee voted today to move to a
January transfer window and eliminate the spring window. Now, this
transfer window would be a ten day period that would
open on January second, one day after the college football

(54:03):
playoff quarterfinals are completed. FBS coaches voted unanimously to support
the January portal proposal during their American Football Coach Association
convention earlier this year, saying it will give players and
coaches more time to focus on finishing their season while

(54:24):
preserving the opportunity for players to transfer to their new
school for the spring semester. In recent years, the portal
is open for underclassmen transfers in early December, immediately following
conference championship games and bowl selections. This past winter, the
transfer window was December ninth through the twenty eighth, and

(54:46):
the spring portal window was April sixteenth through the twenty fifth,
and a lot of coaches and I heard Steve Sarkishon
talk about this as well, say this really puts it
makes for a punitive situation for teams that are good
enough to make the college football Playoff because now they

(55:07):
can't work on the retention of players or look for
others because they're busy getting ready for playoff games while
other schools are swooping in and doing things like that.
And then if you're a player on a roster of
a team that is going to the college football playoff,
but you're not playing or not playing much, you're a backup,

(55:28):
or maybe you're injured. You know, quite often right out
from under the nose of the head coach, someone will
transfer right in the middle of the postseason while the
postseason is still going on. So this collision of transfer
transactions coaching changes. High school signing day in December and

(55:49):
college football playoff and bowl games in December has been
a major source of frustration for coaching staffs. Last year,
Penn State and SMU both lost backup quarterbacks to the
poor while they were still competing in the playoff. So
Preston Stone was the quarterback at SMU. He had been
at Preston Wood Christian Academy. Was really good quarterback, called

(56:11):
a game against LBJ when he kind of lit him
up one night over at Nelson Field on a Thursday night,
and he left and SMU was still preparing for its
playoff game. Marshall opted out of the Independence Bowl after
determining they didn't have enough players to compete due to
the departures brought on by a coaching change. So the

(56:34):
elimination of the spring window, if approved, will generally be
welcomed by coaches. It would probably come under some scrutiny
and perhaps some legal challenges for restricting the transfer movement
of athletes. The FBS and FCS oversight Committees recommended eliminating

(56:55):
the spring window last August, citing their importance of roster
stability for football programs, but did not move forward with
pursuing that change. While the schools were reckoning with the
implications of the House settlement, revenue sharing, and the new
roster limits in college athletics. Last year, the NCAA had
to abandon the one time transfer rule amid legal challenges,

(57:17):
and they had to pass emergency legislation to permit unlimited
transfers for athletes who are academically eligible and meeting their
progress to degree requirements. Wasn't that always a challenge for us?
Is the academic progress towards your degree? You probably never
had that issue, Jake. You were probably always making great

(57:38):
progress towards your degree.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
It was just trying to piece together the right classes
because I was in a very specific track within the
journalism school to get my Sports Media certificate. But I
was also in Plan two, which had a huge backup
for registration every semester after COVID because these upper division
classes you had kids taking semesters off, and then you

(58:03):
had my class, which was very large for the program
I was in. So it wasn't keeping up the grades
so much as keeping up filling my schedule because there
weren't a ton of overlaps between my two programs.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yeah, can you imagine doing that while being a college
football player? Going through some of that. So the spring
portal window window traditionally has been the final opportunity for
players to make moves ahead of the coming season, and
some coaches had taken advantage of it to cut players
from the roster and then sign additional transfer so it

(58:36):
can work both ways. Others viewed the spring portal period
is giving players and the representatives too much leverage to
seek more money through NIL from deals with schools that
were previously signed into summer in January. One of those
examples Nico Iamaliava, a quarterback from Tennessee who transferred to UCLA.

(58:57):
He opted to enter the portal and transfer to UCLA
after a falling out with a coaching staff over NIL
contract discussions. That's right, it really happened. So in twenty
twenty four to twenty five, the NCAA's Division One Council
voted to reduce the total number of days that players

(59:18):
in FBS and FCS can be entered into the portal.
They went from a forty five day period to a
thirty day period. Dropping it to ten would represent another
significant reduction that results in a frenzy period with thousands
of players becoming available at the same time. I think
they said somewhere around ten thousand players are in the
transfer portal.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
January second is when that window would be opening.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
Why then, because, well, because it would give student athletes
a chance to enroll at new schools for the spring.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Right, it's based on academic reasons, and not the college
football playoffs.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Right right, exactly because it would come after the quarterfinal round,
so it would have come after the Peach Bowl for
Texas last year. So this is going to be interesting
to see. I think they said coaches unanimously voted for
it because they're tired of the poaching that could go
on in the spring, not just the poaching that would
go on for the team, for the coaches of teams

(01:00:15):
in bowls and the playoffs. And it's not just the
playoff the college footbablah, those who are trying to prepare
teams for bulls. Look at what happened to Marshall, as
they said, when the coach got let go, it was
this just exodus of players, and Marshall ended up opting
out of the ball game.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
And then you have this madness of not wanting to
show anything or put anything together for a spring game
because all you're doing is giving film to coaches to
prepare the lineup the highest bidder.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
That's why Sark wanted to get dump the spring game
this year.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Yeah, and that's not a sustainable system.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Right, So this may be a step in that right
direction to go to a January transfer window and eliminate
the spring window, get rid of the December window, and
it would just go that ten day period January second
to I guess through the eleventh. The second to the

(01:01:10):
twelfth is the way it would go down one day
after the quarterfinals are wrapped up in college football, because
that point you're down to four schools anyway in the
college football play if you have to send a fun
around anyway, and it still leaves time enough for student
athletes to transfer to get into a school for spring,
the spring semester and yes, spring practice for those who

(01:01:34):
are transferring in and get into the rhythm of the spring. Great.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Now fix this issue for basketball where you have coaches
trying to keep their roster together from mid majors as
they prepare for the biggest game of their program's history
in a March Madness game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right, So there's some thoughts on
that we'll be back to wrap up Hour number two
here on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone and
the iHeartRadio app. Third and final hour of the program
here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of the Zone.
This is the Craig Way Show. I'm glad to be
with you this afternoon. Hopefully you're headed toward that weekend. Hey, great,

(01:02:10):
start with it tonight. Dallas Cowboys playing season opener, Philadelphia Eagles. No,
not up for that. Okay, there's college football. There's high
school football tonight around the Greater Austin and Central Texas area,
So yeah, there's there are other avenues. There's also baseball.

(01:02:34):
And Gene Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office
will join us. Coming up in a few minutes. We'll
talk about the Major League Pennant races. The text line
where I was just talking about some of the things
that were going on that upsets some people, and somebody said,

(01:02:55):
it reminds me of a neighbor my brother had years ago,
and they would have an arguments and the guy would
yell out out of control, out of control. It makes
me think of the skit on Saturday Night Live when
Dana Carvey would do Regis Filman. You're out of control,
you know, he would say that, because Regis did say

(01:03:16):
that from time to time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
So I'm so young for that one.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Yeah, yeah you are. You'd have to you'd have to
YouTube that one to look that one up. I mentioned
the the bottom ten, and it's something that Ryan McGee does.

Speaker 5 (01:03:30):
It.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
This has been around actually before it predated uh Ryan McGee. Uh.
It was done years and years ago as a syndicated
column in newspapers and so uh it would be teams
that well they were in the bottom ten of the country,
and it was always doing tongue in cheek with nicknames

(01:03:53):
ascribed to the team, either the school or the city
of the mascot. So this week's bottom ten, going in
reverse order from ten to number one. Number ten is
called unc Chapel Bill because of Bill Belichick, he said,
And Ryan McGee said, when I was a kid growing
up in the nineteen eighties, Duke and NC State fans
would put bumper stickers on their cars with the Carolina

(01:04:17):
blue footprint logo, the one with the black circle on
the heel and the words it Ain't Tar. I once
saw one of those stickers on a DeLorean. So was
that actually a message from the future from Doc Brown
or Mac Brown. So listen, I grew up in that
state too, and I remember them. They used they used
to have the bumper stickers that said, if God is

(01:04:38):
not a tar heel, why is the sky Carolina blue?
Just like the ones down here say if God is
If God is not a long horn whine says, why
is the sunset burnt orange? So there's you know, incorporated,
how you want off that on the waiting list? In
other words, others receiving votes. He has acrimonious for Akron

(01:04:59):
Southern miss because Southern miscut beat Kennesaw, mountain landis state
which took compounding muddled Tennessee and no coach Corso it's
it's there all right. Number nine Charlotte Owen winners because
they're the forty nine ers, the Charlotte Owen winners. The

(01:05:19):
Niners score eleven points in their season opening loss to
Appalachian State, setting up our first and unlikeliest pillar fight
of the week of the year against they play Carolina
and Apple Bill. Yeah they do. Number eight is baller
state instead of ball state. September means maction paycheck season

(01:05:42):
see the Cardinals. That's from Ball State, who are receiving
gift cards one point two million and one point three
million from Purdue and Auburn, respectively for their first two games.
Judging from their thirty one to nothing lost to the
boiler Makers, that should be just about enough to cover
the costs of ivy, propeen and bandages. Number seven is
FA not I you, FAU the Florida Atlantic, not Florida International.

(01:06:07):
FA not I you. The Owls of South Florida traveled
to play the Eastern Seaboard Terrapins New Maryland, where they
were chomped thirty nine to seven. Now they host the
Florida A and M Rattlers before games with the Panthers, Tiglers,
other Owls and Dragons. I am assuming this is all
a part of that GEO documentary soon to be streaming

(01:06:28):
on Disney Plus.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
I read that like David Attenborough next time.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Yeah. Really. Number six Misery State, Missouri State, which this
year is Division one FBS. For the first time in
Ancient Rome, they would bring in bears to attack convicted
criminals on the Florida Coliseum. Last week it was a
group of bears that was mauled seventy three to thirteen.
By a bunch of trojans.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Number five, Lincoln Riley is still running up the score.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
Yeah, number five, Wow, round the bowl and down a
whole roll, tide roll. He's got Alabama in his top
five of the bottom ten, the coven a fifth spot
is bottom ten. Holy ground. When you walk into this room,
you do so by strolling pass paper macheped busts of

(01:07:16):
Randy Edsel and Jeremy Preuit. If you've ever been to
the Alabama football facility, then you know that when Kaylen
de Bor goes to work, he walks past the giant
bronze heads of Wallace Wade, Bear Bryant, Jeans Stallings, and
Nick Saban. I wonder, after you lose to Florida State
thirty one to seventeen, do those busts make scary faces

(01:07:36):
and sing spooky songs like the ones on the Haunted
Mansion Ride.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
This is the type of season I already can tell
I'm going to be checking on my dad regularly, just
making sure he's okay, he is not happy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
Number four would be the UCLA Bruins, or, as Ryan
McGee calls him, UCLA boo Ins, the bad news UCLA
and it's new former balls quarterback lost to former Pac
twelve foes Utah forty three to ten. The good news
their TV ratings in Tennessee were the highest for a
SoCal team since Lane Kiffin's first game at USC. Sources

(01:08:11):
tell Bottom ten Georts Center as he says that Knoxville
Walmart sold out of wind decks because of quote all
of the Nacho Cheese and Jack Daniels thrown the TVs
when UCLA had the ball, having that former tenn free
quarterback there. Number three State of Kent, Kent State. They won,

(01:08:33):
so that I hate stop celebration the big win by
moving the flashes up only two spots. But reminder, I
had to search high and low to find out about
the team that lost to them. Number two, as he
calls it, Sam Houston, we have a problem row and two.
The Bearcats can't claim and he's got Kent and claimed

(01:08:54):
with k's because Bearcat spells the Kys. They cohabitated with
the K in our preseason. But considering with a K,
they're the only zero to two team in the country. Consequently,
with the K, we currently with the K have them
included with a K. Remember Sam Houston will be here
on September twentieth and number one in the bottom ten

(01:09:16):
is you mess, as they call it, a you Mass.
They're owing one from Amherst, Massachusetts, Ryan McGee Wrights. The
Amherst Amblers are back in a familiar spot aftery're losing
to bottom ten Waiting Listers Temple of Doom forty two
to ten. Losing to Temple, let's call it a homecoming,
and not just because they've returned to mactionin, but because

(01:09:39):
they're scheduled as the homecoming opponent for four different teams
this year. I don't want to tell the U mass
Sports marketing department how to do its job, but shouldn't
it sell a forest sponsorship and have the team work
corsages for homecomings? Time to talk baseball with our good
friend Geene Watson from the Chicago White Talks front office. Gino,

(01:09:59):
I need, I need you to explain something to me.
You've been in the business with Major League Baseball? What
forty years? Forty plus years now?

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Is that right?

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Thirty six years? Thirty six years? Okay, all right, so
explain this to me. The Padres get swept at home
by the Orioles. The Dodgers have dropped the first two
games in Pittsburgh probably gonna get swept because Schemes is
pitching tonight for the Pirates. The Mariners have been on

(01:10:29):
the skids of late. Some of the other teams around
baseball also have been skidding. As I thought we were
past the dog days. Explain this time of year, first
week in September and how teams are trying to fight
through all this to push through that wall and get

(01:10:49):
to the finish line. The Blue Jays are another team
we can throw in there that's been kind of up
and down of late.

Speaker 4 (01:10:55):
You know, Craig, it's really it's not who you play,
it's when you play them and every team, and these
are major league players they've got they're very talented players,
they've got great coaching staffs, they've got tremendous game planning
and of a twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Six man roster.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
There are times where teams are just not clicking on
all cylinders, be it injuries, performance, there could be things
going on in the clubhouse, it could be travel, and
it's just it's a unique sport.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
It's not like any other sport, and.

Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
That there is a psychology to it, and there's a
rhythm to the season and you know, I give two
instances in two thousand and one when I was advancing
the Yankees and they were getting crushed in September and
won the World Series. And in two thousand and three
when we had a horrific August and early September in Miami.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
And we ended up winning the World Series.

Speaker 4 (01:11:45):
So you know, it's a race to the finish line,
and then once you get there, you take a breath,
you reset, and then you try to you know, get
your team in order to win eleven games and hopefully,
you know, these teams will get things in going. But
I'm with you, it's it's been crazy the way that
the season has gone this year.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Yeah, I give you no. And Tigers have dropped seven
of their last ten. Now they still have a comfortable
lead in the division. They're up ten on Kansas City,
but with regard to the wild card, and that's where
I wanted to go next with this. So the Yankees
and Red Sox are in pretty solid shape right now.
The Mariners, who have skidded of late, still have a
game and a half edge on the Rangers, who had

(01:12:23):
won six in a row, but now they've dropped two
in a row. And the Royals are two and a
half back, and all of a sudden, the Rays who've
won six in a row in nine of ten are
two and a half back, and even the Guardians are
three back. It sounds like this thing is still up
for grabs, at least for the number three wildcard spot.

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
Well, and when you get into the final seven games,
the things that you have to do, let's just start
with Cleveland, Tampa and Kansas City. You know, when you
get into two or die in those final seven games
and say you're two or three out, you've got to
manage every inning of every game a little bit differently.
You've got to think about bringing uh starters out of
the bullpen on their pen days. You've got to think about,

(01:13:04):
you know, guys that you maybe strong side of platoons
or or guys maybe playing with injuries that they wouldn't
normally play. Now they've got to play, and that ends
up taxing you once you get into the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
And so uh, it's just, uh, it's going to be
a dogfight.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
And I would say, you know, it's probably gonna end
up like it is right now if you if you
put a.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
Gun to my head. But but but anything can happen to.

Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
Schedules are not easy for any of these teams down
the stretch, and so it's going to be really interesting
to see how it plays out.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
What's going on with the Rangers. You uh, when you
were on last week with Cam when I was making
my securities route to UH to Columbus, UH, you mentioned,
you know, obviously because of the injuries were one thing,
and losing Nathan Vivaldi was it was another thing, and
that you just weren't hitting all of a sudden, the
kind of hitting again. It looks like Jock Peterson got
a wake up call, and if they had won those

(01:13:57):
last two games against the Diamondbacks, they would actually be
sitting in the third wild card spot now.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
But what are you seeing from the Rangers here late
in the season again, I just think it's a sense
of urgency. I think they realize that, you know, they've
got arguably the best manager in the history of the
game of baseball leading the way they've they've kind of
underachieved to this point throughout the season, and they're just
clicking on all cylinders. When you've got Cody Freeman, who
was called up from Round Rock, getting game winning hits,

(01:14:24):
you know, you're you're playing at a different level, and
they've just I think they felt like, you know, we've
kind of underperformed to this point. But the sense of
urgency is there because they're making such a strong push.
But again, you know, the injuries have really taken their toll,
and you know, I do they get to growing back,
who knows?

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
Do they get seeker back? Who knows?

Speaker 4 (01:14:44):
If they could get those guys back, they got a
chance to be, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
There to the end.

Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
But I really with the schedules the way they are,
I think it's going to be difficult for there to
be a swing from where the wild Cards are right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
Now, talking baseball with Geene Watson here on thirteen hundred
of the Zone, we bring up another team, another team
that you are really well acquainted with with the front office.
You know their front officer, you know all the front offices,
but you know this front office very very well. And
I'm talking about the Giants. The Giants were long considered

(01:15:16):
to be dead and dead in the water. They've won
nine of ten their back above five hundred. They look
like they've gotten pretty feisty. They were kind of mixing
it up there with the Rockies, but there are four
back of the Mets. Now, it would take a push
for them to try to reach that wildcard spot there,
but they they've hopped past Cincinnati and some of those

(01:15:38):
younger guys because everybody thought the Giants had waved the
white flag when they made all those trades at the
deadline and unloaded a lot of players. But all of
a sudden, several other younger guys are starting to hit,
and Endeavors is playing well. I think it speaks to
two things.

Speaker 4 (01:15:54):
When they got to the deadline, and this is where
the teams that do what they did then make the
right decision at the right time. I know it's not,
you know, popular to the fans, and it's not popular
in the media, but when you've got great baseball people
like Buster Posey and Zach Man asking Junior and John
Barr at the home of the Giants, these guys have

(01:16:15):
just been around the block so many times that they
that they're they're just gonna make the right decision. And
I think that what they believed at the deadline when
they made those deals is.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
Look, do we have a team that can hang in
this thing?

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
Absolutely, but but are we gonna beat you know, the
Padres in October? Are we gonna beat the Dodgers in October?
Who are in our division? Do we have a chance
to beat the Phillies in our division? You know, if
we win all of those, can we beat the Red Sox,
the Blue Jays or Yankees? And I think that they
look at themselves in the mirror and said no. And
so they looked at their team, and they look at
the youth of the team and the core of their team,

(01:16:50):
and they said, here's an opportunity to take our pieces
and go multiply and get more impact, to blend in
with these younger players. And look what it's doing. They're
playing great as the team right now, and that ceiling
of that roster is only going to get better in
twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven. And so it's
a very very difficult decision to make to the fans

(01:17:11):
and to the media, but they certainly did the right
thing and it's playing out on the field.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
Answer this question for me, and I think I know
the answer to it. But if you had to pick
between one of these two concerns, and I'll tell you
why I'm asking you this question here in a couple
of minutes. But if you had to pick between one
of two concerns, one of the concerns being shaky starting
pitching at this time of year, the other being wildly inconsistent.

(01:17:40):
One night, the pitching's good and the hitting is completely absent.
The next night, the hitting's good and the pitchers can't
get anybody out. Which is the bigger concern for your team.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
It's definitely the pitching, because you can't you can't fake it.
You can't fake it in September, and you certainly can't.
You cannot keep taxing your bullpens. And I don't think
I've ever seen a season where where bullpens have been
taxed the way they are this year, and and we'll
see the residual of that next year. I mean, there's
gonna be a lot of relievers that get sixty five

(01:18:13):
seventy plus appearances this year on winning teams, and and
you see the residual of that in their performance the
following season. And I just don't think one you can
do that to your bullpen for a long period of time,
which is where I believe the industry is missing the
psychology of the way we're we're focusing on starting pitching

(01:18:34):
and just saying, oh, just you know, look at starting
pitching dimmerently. I don't believe that at all, but but
I just think you tax your pin too many times.
It's just going to catch up with you over time,
and and your your rotation is not going to be
ready to go in October when you need it the most.
Whereas if you're not hitting, you know, it's heart hitting
October anyway. And if you look at October baseball and

(01:18:56):
I would, I would, I would challenge fans to like
start tonight on September third, and watch the remaining games,
and then watch how it goes in October. You know,
first and second nobody out last night in our game
versus the Twins. They don't bunt, They're bunning in October.
Every time you see more hitting runs, you don't see
runners trying to score from second base on a ball

(01:19:18):
to left field down three runs, because that run means
so much more in October. And so October baseball is
just a different brand of baseball. So the hitting aspect
of you can maneuver, you can't maneuver around bat starting pitching.

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
Here's the reason why I'm asking it. I looked at
that National League West race between the Dodgers and the Padres.
The Dodgers had been the ones that had been wildly inconsistent.
They're starting pitching. It had a streak of I think
eleven straight games of going at least five innings until
last night when em at Chian, who was pressed to
the service because show Ay with Tony wasn't feeling well.

(01:19:51):
He's well enough to swing the bat, but not to
go out and take a mountain turn, and they get
shut out by the Pirates. And Skemes wasn't pitching last night.
He's pitching tonight. So they've had trouble scoring. But the
night before they scored six runs, but they gave up
nine off of that. Then I contrast that team like

(01:20:12):
the Padres, who have been struggling with mound performances at
the start last night, they yesterday afternoon, that last night
Jackson holiday at a home run. Colin Cowser, Kobe Mayo,
and Alex Jackson all hit home runs. And now the Padres,
I would think, and you correct me if I'm wrong,

(01:20:33):
are better suited to have to deal with the struggles
of a starting rotation, because clearly they've got the best
bullpen in all of baseball. But still I would imagine
has to be a concern of late NESSA Cortez has
looked great on some nights and then he didn't have
it last night.

Speaker 4 (01:20:48):
Yeah, but what you can't do is you can't go
into October and be down for nothing in the third.

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
It doesn't matter how good your bullpen is.

Speaker 4 (01:20:56):
Like when you're matching up against the rotation that the
Dodgers bring out, you have to be your starter has
to be on his game from pitch one. And the
other thing is is like when you when you're facing
a rotation like that, the offense knows, hey, it's got
to we gotta get runs when we can get them,
and so it begins to put a lot of pressure
on the offense as well. But you know, I will

(01:21:19):
forever say there's no substitute for good starting pitching. If
you can acquire, you know, three starting pitchers that are
you know, stuff is stuff is an indication of success.

Speaker 1 (01:21:30):
Success is an indication of innings.

Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
And if you can get three starting pitchers with two
hundred plus innings and a lock down bullpen, you can
beat anybody. And I think when you look at those giants,
teams in ten, twelve, and fourteen.

Speaker 1 (01:21:43):
I think if you look at those teams, that would
speak to that.

Speaker 4 (01:21:45):
So I just I truly believe that it begins and
ends with starting pitching in a rotation.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
There are some folks who don't realize the rare nature
of certain elements in a game, like, for example, a
lot of folks don't, you know, don't realize that there
have been far more no hitters pitched in baseball than
guys who have hit for the cycle. So that's that's
a rarity. Another rarity was last night Mason Miller had

(01:22:11):
an immaculate inning when he struck out Jeremiah Jackson, Ryan
Mountcastle and Emmanuel Revere on nine pitches in the eighth
But Gino every one of those pitches, all nine were sliders.
As a hitter, you've seen him do that with sliders.
You know, the regular fans going to say, won't they

(01:22:32):
know it's coming. It's one thing to know it, it's
another thing to be able to be able to hit
it if it's in the zone or lay off of
it if it looks like it's going to be in
the zone and drops.

Speaker 4 (01:22:40):
Out of the zone right well, and what you begin
to do is you know, coming into the game, Mason
Miller is going to use his slider. I mean, like
when you show up, you know he's using it forty
four percent of the time. And so now when he
starts off with it, and I mean it's it's the
top of the scale slider. And so when he starts
off with it, he gets ahead. Now you're thinking, okay,

(01:23:02):
now is he going to throw it again? And you
know you start you know, because the mantra in the
major leagues sit on the heater, sit on the fastball.
But when you have a guy that throws his slider
almost to get equally as much.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
As a sports teamer, now now you start to outthink yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
And when when it works like it did for him
last night, it's an unhittable pitch. And and those are
so so rare not to have a pitch fouled off
or our a guy go up and take two.

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
Pitches that are balls.

Speaker 4 (01:23:30):
But certainly one of the true talents at the major
league level for the closer position. And that's why you
know the Padres paid such a price for him.

Speaker 1 (01:23:40):
I've got the monitor on the Brewers in the Phillies
and they've split two games. They have the two best
records in the National League. Are A, I know the
record might say that, are they the two best teams
in the National League? B? Are they the two best
teams in Major League Baseball right now?

Speaker 4 (01:23:59):
I think there's some think there's some benefit uh to
being in that division and and the rest of the divisions.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
Not being as good.

Speaker 4 (01:24:07):
I mean, what Atlanta has done this year struggled, and
where Miami's at uh and their they're rebuild right now.
I think lends to the Phillies having a little bit
of advantage. They're both very, very talent teams. They play
the game a little bit differently, where Milwaukee's you know,
bunts still hit and run, put the game in motion,
kind of an old school approach that has become. They're

(01:24:28):
kind of America's team right now. Everybody loves them, where
the Phillies are kind of you know, mashers.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Uh, they're going to hit the home runs. Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:24:37):
Are they the two best motown of the team in October?
I mean, I've got the Phillies, you know, winning the
World Series and getting to the World Series, so uh,
their their roster certainly speaks to being good in October.

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
But but the but the National League West will have
something to say about it when October. I want to
ask you one other thing and and get your philosophy
on this, because you've seen guys with careers that then
start to wane and then they fight to try to
get back the guy I'm referring to his Billy Hamilton
last played with your ball club was a White Sox

(01:25:08):
a couple of years ago. Cubs signed him today. How
difficult is it for a guy who's got all that
service time, who's played really well at a high level,
but in recent years, between the injuries and other elements,
wound up being out of the game, and now he's
back in there for him to be effected, to be
able to be a contributor to a Cubs team that's

(01:25:30):
leading the wild card picture in the National League, I
think that's what it is.

Speaker 4 (01:25:35):
I think that they're looking at their roster saying, you know,
because Billy's he's never.

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
Been able to hit. I mean, it's been a twenty
bat thirty bat his entire career.

Speaker 4 (01:25:45):
He's always been a very good defender, more recovery speed
than pure instincts and actions and breaks and routes in
the outfield.

Speaker 1 (01:25:54):
But you know it's a weapon.

Speaker 4 (01:25:56):
You know, you get up a base hit in the
eighth and you need somebody's a bag. And they may
believe that this is a guy that can help him,
you know, get to the finish line. I don't believe
he'd be eligible for the playoffs at this point, but
in order to help you get to the finish line,
I think it's something that they're considering. And he's a wonderful,
wonderful guy, and so you know he's going to be

(01:26:17):
glued to any team that in October that let's trying
to win.

Speaker 1 (01:26:20):
Hey, a bonus questioning here only because I know this
is another organization you know very well. And following out
you have a lot of admiration for him. The race,
they were left for dead and now all of a sudden,
look at him. Here here they come, and they've got
they've won eight of their last ten and they're you know,
trying to get there within two and a half games

(01:26:40):
of being able to get that third wildcard spot. Do
they have a legitimate shot to get there? Yes they do.

Speaker 4 (01:26:47):
And what I would say is I just left there
after three days and I had no idea what an
amazing atmosphere venue that that that Steinbernner Field for the
Tampa Bay Rays is an absolute perfect fit. Their end
game is as good as anybody in baseball, and it's

(01:27:08):
a completely different dynamic than Sacramento. They've got really, really good, young,
talented players that are trying to play for some things
for next year. Junior Caminaro is arguably one of the
best third basement in the game. Carson Williams is one
of the best defensive sharp stops in the game. Chandler
Simpson is Kenny Lofton, a bigger, stronger, and probably faster

(01:27:30):
than Kenny Lofton. And so they've got young guys they
play great in that ballpark. And Kevin Cash is one
of the best managers in the game of baseball, and
he's got these guys believing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
That they have a chance to do this.

Speaker 4 (01:27:43):
And just for the fans, keep an eye on a
right hander named Shane boss Baz out.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Of the Houston area. It looks like Darryl Kyle.

Speaker 4 (01:27:52):
I mean, this guy has got elite, elite stuff, top
of the rotation stuff and he's going to be a
mainstay at the top of that rotation for a long time.
And so Adrian Houser's been outstanding for them since he
came over from US at the deadline. So they've got
everything clicking right now. They've got Cleveland coming in this weekend.
If they could pull two, up three out of Cleveland

(01:28:13):
in that ballpark, they're going to be in business and
be in this thing down the stretch and really a
fun team to watch in a fun environment.

Speaker 1 (01:28:19):
Can you imagine Gino if they get into that wildcard
spot and they're say, hosting the Astroids in a wildcard
game at Steinbrenner Field. It's it's unique.

Speaker 4 (01:28:31):
I mean, it's not the Steinberner Field that was there
when I covered the Florida State League for ten years
back in the late nineties early two thousands. They've done
a tremendous job of building decks and sky clubs, and
they pretents outside and the music and the end game
and the way they go about during the game. It's
a very very close venue where the fans can really

(01:28:52):
get on the players and everybody can hear it, and
they that plays to their advantage. I would say in
twenty twenty six, if you can get to Steinberger Field
to see a raise games, it's kind of a unique
setting and they've made the most of it, but you know,
I think it'd be a tremendous environment for a playoff game.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
Where are you this weekend, Atlanta?

Speaker 4 (01:29:15):
And I'm headed back to Houston Sunday in Chicago Wednesday
to go see the.

Speaker 1 (01:29:19):
Fighting Irish and the Texas A and m Aggie. Okay,
that answered. My next question is when's the next Notre
Dame game you got on the schedule? Okay, very good, Hey, listen,
enjoy the weekend. I appreciate the conversation again, and we'll
look forward to next week. Oh, Greig, thanks so much.
All right. That is Geene Watson from the Chicago White
Sox front office. And by the way, Geno's from Temple

(01:29:40):
and he's a huge Texas high school football fan, and
he's a huge Longhorn fan, but the love of his
life is Notre Dame. All right, We have more coming
up when we're going to hear more from Steve Sarkeishan
when we continue on thirteen under.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
The zone that to the Craig Way Show. Connect with
Craig through the text line by text team zone to
age one five three zero, followed by your message.

Speaker 1 (01:30:05):
Standard message and data rates may apply, all right, thanks
to Gene Watson. Always fabulous baseball insight from him as
it heads down the home stretch, and he will be
with us all the way through the Fall Classic this
year as he is every year. Been having Geno on
the program for years and years and it's always good

(01:30:25):
to hear from him. All right, let's go back to
hearing some more from Long Warren's head coach Steve Sarkisian
Sart was asked and this was something Roger Wallis and
I were talking about in the first hour of the program.
Grayson Littleton is that freshman and sark used Grayson a
lot in that starback position, that nickel position, and Littleton,

(01:30:49):
of course, true freshman from Tampa, Florida, had that big
pass breakup, had a big tackle as well. And somebody
asks about it and said, you know, you know, Grayson
Littleton was a guy you'd kind of mentioned, you know,
how about about your thoughts of that? Were you surprised
to see who it was? And sark was certainly not pleased.

(01:31:11):
Are not surprised one bit and was very pleased with
what he saw from his freshman, Grayson Lyttleton. Grayson, you know,
I think to everybody else.

Speaker 7 (01:31:21):
This was a surprise, But I don't know how many
more times I could have come on a press conference
with you guys and referenced Grayson Littleton throughout springball, throughout
training camp of a guy who'd been performing at a
really high level for us. You kept wanting to ask
me about other people, and I kept bringing up Grayson Lilton,
and so it was great to see that he actually

(01:31:41):
got a chance to go out there and show what
he was capable of. And there's definitely room for improvement
for him. But boy, for that guy in that environment
in his first game to play, the amount of snaps
he played at critical moments, you know, some critical third
down plays, third down stops, tackles. Very impressed by him,
and you know he's got to do. But definitely the
futures bright.

Speaker 1 (01:32:02):
You might have seen where Wardell Mac was a restaurant
a DWI charge the other night, Mac reserved defensive back
back to had an interception last year in the season opener,
and he ends on to preserve the shutout for Texas
over Colorado State, And Sark was asked, is there any
further clarification or an update on the situation where Wardeal Mac.

Speaker 7 (01:32:24):
You know, Wardell, obviously we're aware of the situation that occurred.
We're obviously monitoring the authorities and where they stand on it,
and then anything that happens beyond that will handle internally.

Speaker 1 (01:32:37):
So that's that all right. Next Sark has said he
said it going into Game one, and he said it
again this week in the news conference. He said it
on Long Horn Weekly, which is coming your way tonight
at six o'clock when we recorded the program last night.
He wants and needs to get more younger players experience,

(01:33:00):
wanted to do more. They played fifty guys last week,
but he wants more, especially over the course of these
next three weeks. So who might some of those young
players be that could be ready to step in.

Speaker 7 (01:33:11):
As far as other guys that I think are ready
to kind of step into a fold. I love where
Dayla McCutchen is at. You know, I'm excited about him.
I'm excited about Nick Townsend and Amari Winston. A couple
other true freshmen that I think are are have made
you know, great strides for us. Lance Jackson as a
guy who stepped in and got some opportunities last game.

(01:33:34):
Looking forward to seeing him more with some of the
opportunities that he gets, you know, and then some other
names that maybe aren't true freshmen, but guys that I'm
looking forward to playing. I'm looking forward to seeing more
of Exavier Philsomy. I'm looking forward to seeing more of
Christian Clark and Jared Gibson. I'm looking forward to seeing

(01:33:55):
more of Kobe Black. You know, he had had some ops,
but seeing more of him. So we got plenty of
guys that we're looking forward to, and I think the
weather's gonna gonna dictate to us that we're gonna have
to play more of these guys on Saturday as warm
as it can get, obviously with the eleven am kick
at d KR.

Speaker 1 (01:34:12):
Yeah, it's gonna be hot. We know that he was
asked about his trust factor for a veteran corner like
Malik Mohammad, who also is one of you know, the
ones we were talking about earlier, that that wiiight notes
the teammates and things like that. Uh, Malik going back
to was high school days at Southolkcliff. I know this
because it called his state championship game. Nickname was Manny.

(01:34:32):
Now he prefers Malik, but still a lot of folks
call him Manny, including his head coach. But he was
asked why he trusts Malik Muhammad. Yeah, you know, I
really challenged Manny. I call Manny. You guys call Malik.
I call him Manny.

Speaker 7 (01:34:46):
But but I challenged him this summer about his level
of focus, his intent him becoming the bell cow back.
There something that we had talked about way back in
recruiting that this day would come, uh and to do that,
he had to handle his own business first. He had
to mow his lawn first before he could start to
help others and talk to others. And I thought he

(01:35:08):
had a great summer and that carried right over into
training camp where he really focused on what he needed
to do to play a consistent brand of football for Manny.
You know, I felt like at the end of last
year there was a few lapses, you know, some guys
double moved him some different things, and I thought that
carried over into Week one. He played a highly competitive
football game and I praised him Monday morning. That was

(01:35:30):
a tall task. You know, Jeremiah Smith's a heck of
a player, and the competitive spirit that he played that
game with his ability to verbalize.

Speaker 1 (01:35:39):
And communicate in that environment.

Speaker 7 (01:35:41):
His ability to play sound football and critical moments I
thought was tremendous and so I'm really proud of him
for that and the fact that he wanted to give
me his note card. He was the one guy that
gave me a note card Friday, was from Manny Muhammad,
and so I thought that said a lot just about
you know, his mindset where he at, you know, the
work that he's put in, and the fact that he

(01:36:02):
went out and played the way that he did, I
thought was pretty neat.

Speaker 1 (01:36:06):
Now, in preparation for San Jose State, what is Sark
expecting to see from Ken Neo mante Lolo's offense since
it's wide open and more run and shoot, certainly vastly
different than what coaching h about to Lolo ran at
Navy with triple option and wishbone principles. Yeah, you know,
I think it's a credit to Ken.

Speaker 7 (01:36:27):
You know, he you know obviously at the academy and
the option game and the success that he had at
Navy for so many years was just tremendous. And he's
he's a good friend that way of just getting to
know one another over the years, and then you know,
they decided to go in a different direction. He goes
on to San Jose State, and for him to make

(01:36:48):
the change philosophically, to go from the option game to
the run and shoot game, I think speaks a lot
to his trust and his coaches. The one thing that
holds true is their style isle of play, and it
is fast, and it is physical, and and that starts
on the defensive side of the ball. It carries over
into special teams. And I know you think you know

(01:37:09):
run and shoot. They're throwing it. They're throwing it. They are,
but man, they're they're physical and they're nasty up front.
The run of shoot is a very difficult offense to defend.
And coach Stutsman, who played in it in Hawaii under
June Jones, He's got a he got a wealth of
knowledge in it, so different different tasks that way, We're
still got to stop the run. But man, you better

(01:37:30):
be on your stuff. Coverage wise, you better be on
your stuff and your pass rushes. You let them stand
back there and throw the ball. It can make for
a long day.

Speaker 1 (01:37:37):
And finally he was asked about the type of example
that Parker Livingstone, who scored the long orange touchdown a
red shirt freshman uh, wasn't as heralded as some of
the other receivers coming in when he came in last year.
But what kind of example does he set by his
work ethic and his performance.

Speaker 7 (01:37:54):
Well, I think I think it serves I think it
goes back even a year. You know, Cedric, Like, here's
a guy that comes into our program and he's not
the highest rated recruit. There's probably there was probably fifteen
twenty guys rated higher than him that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:09):
Came into our program with him.

Speaker 7 (01:38:11):
But he didn't let his ranking or how many stars
he had dictate how he worked. And all he did
his freshman year is work his tailoff. All he did
was seize the opportunity in spring, you know when Ryan
and DeAndre were down because of the work he put
in in fall camp, his understanding of our offense. He
can play multiple positions, We could move him around. I

(01:38:34):
think the one thing he has, which we saw Saturday,
is he is a real deep ball threat and he's
got great ball skills.

Speaker 1 (01:38:41):
He's got a really.

Speaker 7 (01:38:42):
Good catch radius, he's tough, So all those things add
up to he's got a really significant role on this team.
And you can see it again now with with Dyala McCutcheon.
Here he comes in, and again he wasn't the highest
rated receiver we sign. But all he's done is work
really hard and earn his opportunity. I think he gets
a credit to our coaches, all right, and it speaks

(01:39:02):
to we're gonna play the players that give us the
best chance to be successful.

Speaker 1 (01:39:07):
And it's not always about how many stars you have
when you get here.

Speaker 7 (01:39:09):
We tell all the players all the time, leave your
stars at home, leave it on the mantle at your house,
put them up on the wall. I don't care when
you come here. Everybody's got a clean slate and you're
gonna earn what you get. And so Parker has done
that for us and has earned everything that he's gotten,
and he's got a really significant role on our team.

Speaker 1 (01:39:25):
All Right, there's sort We'll be back to wrap up
today's program on thirteen under the Zone.

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