MLB Power Rankings, Sarkisian on Practice Standouts

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy, happy Thursday to you Thursday, getting very close to
the weekend, at least to the vast majority of us,
and hope your Thursday's off to a good start. Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
under the Zone. By name is Craig Way. Glad to
have you with us this afternoon. We run it from
two to five each and every weekday afternoon Monday through Friday,

(00:22):
so we're glad to have you with us this afternoon. Us,
of course includes the producer Jay Carman. How did you
spend your Wednesday evening last day?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, just cooked a little dinner, the little meal prep
for the rest of the busy weekends.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Are you Are you a good cook? Can you cook?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
You know there's memes out there. Women will say that
that's a boy meal, that's a boy kitchen. Really, I'm
good for a boys chef.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Give me, give me an examples a what's a boy meal? Well?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I make a couple of staples from what my parents
made growing up, some Swedish meatballs, some spaghetti bowlines. Last
night I made some tacos and had a taco for lunch.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm resourceful, Okay, yeah, I like it. Okay, Yeah, it
might be boy meals, but it's okay, Yeah they're boy meals.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well take it.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
That's right, fits your gender, so that's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
There's enough variety and they're enough vegetables.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Okay, all right. Coming up on the program, we're gonna
hear from Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkisian here in just
a moment a couple of things, and we'll hear from
sark throughout the course of the program. He and and
you've heard me mention this. He has three regular media

(01:35):
opportunities during the course of the week. There's the main
news conference on Monday, which reviews the weekend's game and
preview in previews the week to come. We bring that
to you live every Monday here on thirteen under the Zone.
Our coverage begins from campus at eleven am and it
starts with Sark at eleven thirty. That's on Mondays. On Wednesdays,
there is the SEC teleconference, where he's on with you know,

(01:58):
supposedly ostensibly all the SEC media, which is it's a
zoom as part of They call it teleconference because it
used to be get dialed into a number and you
did all that sort of thing, but now you know
it's a media zoom, and then he does one more
media zoom with basically the local media. There's some others
from out of town are on it, but largely the

(02:18):
local media. And that's on Thursdays, and it happened just
a little while ago, and we always bring that to you,
bring it to you in segments and comments and things
like that, so we're gonna hear some of those comments
here momentarily. Also a reminder, Long Worn Weekly, the show
that sarkas that I sit down and co host with
him every Thursday, is coming up tonight here at seven

(02:41):
o'clock on the Zone. With the Round Rock Express season
ending this weekend and with him ending with later start times,
we're reverting back into the seven o'clock start time for
Long Worn Weekly. So we have the show for you tonight,
but bring a little preview, a little snippet it today,

(03:01):
and then like we always do on Friday, we'll bring
you the matchup segment, so to speak, a look at
the opponent. We'll do that tomorrow afternoon on the show.
The show also will re air tomorrow night at seven o'clock,
So if you miss it tonight, you can catch it
again tomorrow on the Zone at seven o'clock. So all
that coming up. Also coming up here in just a

(03:22):
few minutes. Roger Wallace, my broadcast partner in long Horn
football games, will join me and we'll talk some long Horns,
but also high school football. He has his KBV big
game of the week tonight, Liberty Hill at Conley at
the Field in Flugerville. So, Craig, you wiped that off.
I'll always say that. Yeah, I always say that, I

(03:43):
always put the p on there, but I probably should
just kind of wipe that off there, all right. So anyway,
he'll join us to talk about all that coming up.
We do have inconceivable this hour, and we got some
other topics that we'll get to as well in the
three o'clock in four o'clock, but let's jump right in
with some things from Long One, said coach Steve Sarkashian.

(04:04):
These were his opening comments from today's media Zoom, which
is the final media opportunity he has during the week
before before my pregame interview with him on Saturday, which
in this case will be probably around five fifteen or
so before the seven o'clock kickoff between Texas and Sam Houston.

(04:25):
But here's start from this morning's media availability.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
You know, this is for our players and our team
right now. This is an exciting week. You know, we're
going into week four and this is our first NI game,
and you know, for the bulk of our players, you know,
growing up in the state of Texas, Friday night lights
are such a big part of their experience of playing football,
and so the opportunity to be under lights at seven
o'clock at DKR Saturday night, I know one is that

(04:52):
our players are looking forward to. I know our fans
are looking forward to, so pumped about that. Also excited
for our team. I mean, these guys, these guys have
really been practicing their asses off.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
And it's not just.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
The frontline units, it's all the way down through through
our scout teams. And it's been a couple of weeks
now them practicing that way, and I've been I'm really
proud of them that they just come right back to work,
they stay connected, they continue to push one another.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
Uh, And that's what it takes, you know.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
And nobody said any of these things that we're that
we're doing would be easy, but in the end would
be worth it. If we continue to put forth the effort,
and so you know, the goal for me this week
is that they take practice to the game and they
trust their training and just go cut it loose and
play the game of football the way I know they're
capable playing.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
All right, now, a couple of questions from as the
questions began. One, with the defense playing as well as
it has been playing, is it the d line that's
really setting the pace, setting the tone? Is the leaders
of this defensive unit? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (05:51):
I would say anytime you play really good defense, it
starts up front, you know, when you you know, I
just I haven't around very many really good defenses that
weren't really good upfront.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
I think it always starts up front.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
And that's something that that we've been preaching since the
day we arrived of We've got to be a dominant front,
and that that starts with your interior defensive line. That
that goes to your edge play, that goes to your linebackers.
Because when you can really minimize the run game and
start forcing people to be one dimensional, now you can
really start to tie in, you know, the back end

(06:27):
to the front end and disguising coverages and rushing the
passer and affecting the quarterback and creating turnovers and speeding
up the quarterbacks process and things of that nature. But
it starts with the way you play and your ability
to take on blocks defeat blocks, have great gap integrity,
having the right amount of depth where you can roll
players through, and feel very comfortable with the amount of
players that we want to play up front. So all

(06:49):
in all, it's a versatile group upfront for us. There's
a lot of different packages that we have from our
base to our Nickel to our NASCAR, you know, and
a lot of different people playing those spots that we're
fortunate that they can do that. And PK has done
a great job, you know, of tying that group together
with Kenny Baker and Lee Alan Clark and Johnny Nansen
to go along with what we're doing in the back end.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
All right, And then one update, he was asked for
a health update on Trey Weisner, who of course has
been held out last couple of games till trying to
nurse through that hamstring.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
Trey is making really good progress right now. I would
say he's doubtful for Saturday, but but I've been impressed
with the progress that he's making again, this provides another
opportunity for you know, these other three backs of you know,
kind of their growth. And again we're seeing some really
positive signs out of these guys. We're seeing plenty of

(07:40):
room for improvement. And then this is the goal for them,
is from one week to the next to continue to
improve in all facets of their game.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
All right, So there's the start of that media availability
with Stark. We'll hear more comments from Steve Sarkasian throughout
the course of the afternoon. Up next, we visit with
Roger Wild's my broadcast partner in Longhorn Football. We'll talk
about his high school telecast tonight, all that and more
when we continue on a Thursday afternoon here on your
Longhorn station, Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone, where you

(08:08):
always listen to us for free on the iHeartRadio app
Thursday afternoon edition of the program right here at through
fifteen on thirteen hundred thats I'm glad to have you
with us. Craig Way alongside, and each week we check
in with my broadcast partner Long Worn Football and who
of course the day Job sports director Kate Xam where
they also on kbvo Kerry a high school football game

(08:30):
of the week telecast. We'll get to that in a moment.
Roger Wallace joins me. Right now, Roger's first thing I
wanted to get you and I haven't had a chance
really to talk that much about except on the air.
And it seems to be and this is going into
the broadcast open by the way, for Saturday night. It
seems to be the fitting topic for everyone to discuss.

(08:52):
Is Arch, whether he's okay, whether something's wrong, what the
whether it's mental physical, Arts in the press conference the
other day said it's just a mental thing. It's kind
of like I got to get out of my own head.
What's your take on how he has tried to navigate
all this and what sark has said in support of him.
Should we try to spend fun? Hey, there you are.

Speaker 6 (09:17):
It's like the old time radio, right you just call
people live.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, that's it, just call hey, you're on the air.
You're on the air, okay, yeah. Yeah. So here's so
again to rewrack that question in terms of what Arch's
own evaluation of himself, what Sarka said to say, never
mind what outside media fans will say. What's your take
on the way he's processing all of this, and also

(09:45):
the support that Sark obviously he's going to give him
as his head coach. But overall, your take on all this.

Speaker 6 (09:52):
Yeah, I mean, I go back to this summer and
the unprecedented microscope on a guy that had made two
starts and putting him on all American teams and things
like that. And then of course you start with Ohio State,
tough place to play, tough defense, He's okay, had a
chance to get that drive, and then all of a

(10:13):
sudden San Jose State, Okay, we saw some splash plays,
but then you go, okay, they scored twenty eight points
in five minutes a game time. The rest of the time,
the offense was a little bit inconsistent. Then obviously last
week and he's stepped up every time he's been asked.
He's been available after every game, before every game on Monday,
hasn't dodged anything, and said, I'm a little frustrated.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
I've got to be better.

Speaker 6 (10:35):
I got to get out of my own head. Start
talked about it today. He said, we see him on
the practice field, and he admitted he has not brought
what we see on the practice field to the game
so far this year, nobody's dodged anything, and everybody's breaking
it down. I heard Chase Daniel breaking it down, Jesse
Palmer's breaking it down. Everybody's got an opinion.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Arch Manning.

Speaker 6 (10:55):
I think all that combined, Craig is just it's just
unprecedented for for still a young college football starter.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
You know who else broke it down. I'm gonna have
Jake read it to you the tweet that Jake just
read to me. Remember a quarterback by the name of
David Ash. I saw that. Did you see that tweet?

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Jake?

Speaker 1 (11:14):
For those who did not see the tweet, you have
it in front of you there, go ahead and tell
people exactly what David Ash had to say about all this.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
He said, I typically keep a pretty low profile, but
I watched a great quarterback get booed off a field
about fourteen years ago. He left ut went on to
have a five plus year NFL career. Last year, I
watched arch man income off the sidelines, gets Mississippi State
and as per get a zero pressure almost immediately with
a free rusher in his face, he planted his back

(11:42):
leg through a blind faith high ball for over fifty
yards for a tuddy and then took one on the
chin from the oncoming blitzer. He was probably nineteen. That
play requires intelligence, accuracy, instincts, and athletic ability most of all, toughness.
I've seen everything I need to see, so on and
so forth.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, so I got to chuckle all this. You probably
did as well, Roger that David ass said he remembers
a guy fourteen years of getting booed off the field.
We all remember that.

Speaker 6 (12:13):
But to date myself a little with David ash Craig,
he's kind of like the old Ef Hutton. He didn't
say a lot, but when he did you tended to
listen to him because he didn't say a lot and
he was pretty thoughtful guy. So yeah, I was interested
when I saw that that it was like it was
like he's sitting there going all right, I've had enough,
and he started pounding away on his keyboard.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. I'm curious, and asked Sark about
this last night on the show. I'm curious to see
how the other running backs are going to do, because
clearly I think you know, Sark said today in the
media zoom that and we just aired it the part
where he said that he's got Trey Wisner listed as doubtful.
I doubt to use that word that we'll see him

(12:52):
on the field, and I know we're not going to
see CJ. Baxter. So those other three guys, and I
think Sark makes a good point about those other three
guys show things when they're young and they're talented. We
just need to see more growth and development of things
like hitting the hole properly, the run fit where you
go here, being able to see it, to run block,
to pass block, things like that. And in a game

(13:13):
like this, I think offers that opportunity for James Simon
and Christian Clark, you know, that's to see those guys
get an opportunity to to at Jared Gibson to have
an opportunity to show some improvement.

Speaker 6 (13:28):
Yeah, and we saw how about James Simon, he goes
from you know, zero to sixty with no carries to
seventeen in his first ever game. And we've seen Bert
and I think Christian Clark has the most wiggle, kind
of the most explosiveness. I think Simon is more in
between the two. Gibson's a power guy, but we've seen
it already. These guys and they've got to, you know,

(13:49):
start talking about it. You got to set up your blocks.
You can't just get to the edge and outrun everybody.
And so that's a that's a trait that you know,
the great running backs. I always think of Cedric Benson
with with you know, just kind of meandering through and
waiting for a hole, waiting for a block, being patient,
and then hitting the hole. And I think that's what
these guys are learning. So yeah, I think I think

(14:09):
they'll probably pretty equal on the touches on Saturday. Again,
if this game goes kind of the way we think
it is. If it doesn't, then all bets are off
and you just got to figure things out.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah. Absolutely busy with Roger Wallace here on thirteen hundred
and Okay, let me get your thoughts on this. There
was a piece in The Athletic Today entitled Welcome the
dark Horse weekend of college football, And you're a perfect
guy to ask about this because they mentioned the dark
horse of dark horses last year was Indiana, and they

(14:42):
said one reason that twenty twenty four is eleven and two,
Indiana was such a surprise. The Hoosiers had never won
double digit games before, so said With that in mind,
according to Austin Box's updated playoff projections, here are the
best twenty twenty five college football playoff odds among Power
conference teams. To get this that last had a ten

(15:05):
win or more season fourteen or more years ago, and
he lists these five schools Texas Tech, n C State, Vanderbilt,
Cal and Arkansas. Last time Tech had a ten win
year was two thousand and eight under Micha Leach. We
know about that year. They have a thirty three percent
chance to make the playoff. But Tech, Inc, State, Vanderbilt,

(15:27):
Cal in Arkansas, and he said, you could also extend
that list all the way down to three and zero,
Rutgers under one percent, or if you lowered the threshold
from fourteen years to thirteen years, you get Nebraska in Texas,
A and M at forty two percent, he said. But
those aren't exactly upstarts as well. So that with that
in mind early since we're only you know, really coming

(15:50):
up on the first quarter to one third of the
regular season, which out all those groups, all those teams
in that group would be in your estimation, the most
likely to reach the playoff.

Speaker 6 (16:03):
Well, I think it's tough for the the SEC schools
just because of what's ahead of them. So to me,
that's you know, if you're just picking one. I mean
I'm looking at I'm looking at Tech schedule. They've got
obviously a big one on Saturday, but maybe that's the biggest,
right if they win at Utah, you look at the
rest of the schedule and and where their games are

(16:24):
They've got to go to I mean, they're all tough Houston, UH, Manhattan, Kansas.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Uh, they've got to go to.

Speaker 6 (16:31):
Temp and they've got to go to Morgantown. But none
of those would if they beat Utah in Salt Lake,
none of those games would scare you to the point
where you think, you know, they have no shot and
they're you know, they get get their fourth to Utah
and they've got, you know, a game to play with
to get UH at least one to get to the
Big twelve championships. So I guess my first off the
top of my head, I would say, uh, Tech Rutgers.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Got what Iowa tomorrow?

Speaker 6 (16:55):
Yeah, so uh, you know they've got to go on
the road to UH to Iowa City to start Big
ten play.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
But I guess top of my head, without.

Speaker 6 (17:04):
Thinking about it, that much just because of the way
the schedule lines up. I think Texas Tech's in pretty
good shape.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, I agree with you on that. And then they said,
here's another list. Now, now get this, among powers that
have not finished in the AP top five in the
last sixty years, he's a teas from Power five conferences
or Power four conferences, Ole miss forty seven percent chance
to make the playoff, Iowa State forty five percent, and
there's Texas Tech, Louisville seventeen percent, and the Illinois twelve percent.

(17:35):
And then he mentions Indiana and eighteen percent just missed
the Cup by having finished number five in nineteen sixty seven,
so he said, you can include the Hoosiers two. Honestly,
Indiana making both of the first two two twelve teen
playoff fields would be as big a shock as anything else.
I guess we find out more about that this weekend,
because it isn't in Indiana Illinois this weekend.

Speaker 6 (17:57):
Yeah, and that's in Bloomington, So that's the top ten game.
Then they turn around and go to Iowa and go
to Oregon, so it might be a vastly different looking
resume here by the middle of October.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
They also have to go to state college. Okay, as
I look at this, I go, I don't see this happening. Yeah, yeah, understandable.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
All right.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Let me shift to high school, and you have a
game tonight that features something that does not often. It's
it's not completely uncommon, but it's not the most common
thing on the planet. You have a one and two
Liberty Hill playing at a two and one Conley, and
I'll let you know, the computer likes the one and
two team to win by twenty or more points. Half

(18:42):
of that, you know, and who the one and two
is played, Yeah, yeah, I mean that's they explains attle,
doesn't it though? With regard to Liberty Hill, even with
the coaching change and everything and what they're doing going
through right now.

Speaker 6 (18:54):
Yeah they I mean they're one and two with losses
to Steal and a wild one to Rouse.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
In overtime.

Speaker 6 (19:02):
We had a great Liberty Hill Rouse playoff game. I
think it was the COVID year at the Palace, and
it was about what it looked like it was on
September fifth, forty nine, forty three and overtime. Then they went,
I mean they went to al Passo and beat East
Lake Conley. On the other hand, and hey, Charles Burton's
got I think he's got a pretty dynamic quarterback. His
name is Chase Watkins, and he's to do everything. He's

(19:23):
already responsible for over eight hundred and fifty yards in
three games. He's pretty equal running and passing. But yeah,
they went to Rutter and won, and then you know
they they beat Taylor, which is not a surprise, lost
to Rouse by twenty two. So there's your common opponent.
Liberty Hill beat Rouse in overtime. Conley lost by three touchdowns.
But I think it'll be a fun ball game tonight

(19:44):
because I think Watkins is pretty dynamic, and you know,
David Seborne tol is a little wild. It takes a
little while to get this this slot tea and everybody
comfortable with it, and so you know, once they do,
it's such a hard, hard offense.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
To defend Ryan, that's true. And on a short week,
and knowing coach Seaborn, he'd also say, uh that it's
takes everybody a while to get used to, including the
coaches in terms of what Yeah, they'll say that, and
now you know, it's funny.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
As soon as he got the job, first question everybody
thought of, probably you know, the only coach that would
take a new job where there was only one singular question,
are you gonna.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Still run the slot team? I mean, of course I am.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah. It's funny because yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh and and uh,
I've got one of those games myself tomorrow night. Pleasant
Grove Hive, Texas canis really really good. Lance Jackson plays
for Texas. Of courses from Pleasant Grove, they got a
couple other lean, mean and hungry defensive ends that I
think everybody's recruiting as well. But they just moved away

(20:48):
from Slot Tea also. And uh, you know when a
team moves into slot tea and we've seen it from
Liberty Hill or in past seasons and Marvel Falls or
Lockhart or some of the other places that they've run it. Yeah,
there's that adjustment phase for the opponent when they get
on the field against those teams having to go up
against them. But as you point out, when you either

(21:10):
transition the coach or you transition into that system, there's
going to be more even more of an adjustment there
for the team trying to operate it, for everybody to
get comfortable with it. Even if you're maintaining the same
slot tea from the year before. There's going to be
wrinkles with a new head coach and a new coaching
staff anyway, isn't there.

Speaker 6 (21:27):
Yeah, no doubt and the other the other element for
a TV game, you know, there's Craig Fallow the ball, Yeah,
to talk to us, just to talk to our camera
guys about be sure you know where the ball is
coming out of all those fakes.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Not to tell anyway, do not fall for the fake.
You're operating camera too. You stay on the play, stay
on the play as well. All right, Hey, one other
thing I wanted to ask me to get your thoughts
on west Lake that was that was an impressive win
for them at a task of seed that it's out
of the frying pan in the fire because even though
they go home, they play a really good similar Steel

(22:03):
team tomorrow night, which folks can can view on KXAM plus.

Speaker 6 (22:08):
Yeah, and they did an impressive fashion with a late
drive and a tie ball game as you mentioned third third.
Not just road game, but you know they've had some trips.
When Belton's your closest road game, you've been spending some
time on the bus. But yeah, impressive to go on
the road get a late drive, late touchdown drive and
a stop and now one more before they open up

(22:29):
district play. And like you said, they're happy, they're excited
to be at Chaparral Stadium for the first time this season,
no doubt. And we'll have it on KXA and plus
KX dot com tomorrow night at seven o'clock.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
All right, final thing here, complete this sentence for me.
The best six eighteen in the greater as Starry right
now is I'll still go Westlake. Okay, okay, yeah, what's
your answer? It's either them or it's Lake Travis.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
I think Lake Travis has kind of proved its metal
against some good opponents, but Westlake has played a tougher
schedule and has been on the road. So that's why
if it goes between. Now, having said all that, Dripping
Springs looks good, Vandergriff looks like it's bounced back after
the loss to Drip. But yeah, yeah, I think it's
probably Westlake Lake Travis. And by the way, for folks

(23:25):
who want to know, it's October twenty fourth is when
they play, so it's on down the road. But I
think it's really really close and we're finding out more
about this Lake Travis team on a week by week basement,
and I guess we're gonna find out even more. Rogersons
they don't have a true home stadium anymore now the
rest of this year.

Speaker 6 (23:41):
Yeah, I love that they're gonna call Dripping Springs home.
They'll be there at Sam Marcus tomorrow, but then they
start next Thursday district play as the home team against
Bowie at Tiger Stadium and Dripping Springs so certainly a
challenge there to know you're having to get on a
bus every day. I mean, you know a lot of
veryhigh school teams get on a bus because of the

(24:02):
stadium situation, but they don't have the luxury of walking
to their stadium again.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
The season absolutely be interesting to see. All right, have
a good call, ton I look forward to seeing you
on Hey, it's good to say. I don't have to
say see you Saturday morning.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
Uh No, I know we get to watch a little
football fir.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
That'll be good. All right, have a good one, thanks Roger,
all right, thanks Craig. All right, that's Roger Wallace sports
director Kate x and he does have tonight Connolly Liberty
Hill from the field in Flugerville.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
Uh so have some eyes on that one in Bassdrop too.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, said the voice of the bass Drop Bears,
because they're out of that same district there with those teams,
so it'll be good. And uh what bas Drop opens
district play tomorrow as well, right.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yeah, they'll host the Crockett Cougars.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Okay, all right, so there it is, all right. Up next,
we bring you Inconceivable for a Thursday afternoon right here
on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone in the
iHeartRadio app second hour of the program here on Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred the Zone. Craig Way would be
glad to have you along as well here on a
Thursday afternoon. I'm going to get to some of your

(25:10):
texts here in a moment, but I do want to
update the Baseball Pennant Race and playoff Chase scoreboard for you. Now.
In the eighth inning, Seattle is now up to nothing
on Kansas City, and if the Mariners win that game,
they'll be tied in a flat footed tie with the

(25:33):
Astros for first place in the American League West. Astros
sweeping the Rangers, taking the silver Boot along with them
and perhaps ending the fading hopes the Rangers have had
of making the postseason. They'd have to finish really strong
and get some help. At this point elsewhere, Guardians who

(25:54):
were tied with Texas coming into it now have won.
They've beaten the Tigers three to one was the final,
Tampa Bay beat Toronto four to nothing, and the Red
Sox trail the Athletics five to three in the bottom
of the night. So if that stands, then Seattle for
the moment would have sole possession of second place in

(26:19):
the Wildcard. And truth of the matter is, it would
have to put Houston in that because Seattle owns a
tiebreaker on Houston, and because Seattle would then be put
in inserted at least for the moment as the representative
for the American League West, because they would be tied
with Houston on that one. So that's where it is there.
In the National League, the Mets, in need of wins

(26:42):
to hold on to the number three wildcard spot, beat
the Podrass afternoon six to one, so they take two
out of three in that series from San Diego. And
so as it stands in the standings right now in
the National League, the Mets in that wildcard are holding
on to that third spot by two games on Arizona,

(27:06):
two and a half on the Reds and Giants.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, let's give Gino some flowers.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Two pitchers he told us about last week both really
shoved today. Jonah Thong gets the win for the Mets,
allowing only one run to that potent Padre team, and
then Shane Boz gets win number ten of the year
in a game that Tampa pretty much had to have.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
They might be too far behind.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Them, Yeah, I think so. And then out west, the
Dodgers now up two and a half on San Diego.
Penning the outcome of tonight's game, Dodgers and Giants open
a four game series in LA. Dodgers took two or
three and sent Franchisoga last weekend. LA avoided being swept
by the Phillies by winning last night. They actually shut
out Philadelphia five to nothing, but it was a much

(27:47):
more tense game than that. Blake Snell had a great
outing and he tested the patients and also the confidence
of his manager or when he had I think it
was eleven strikeouts or ten strikeouts, but had two runners

(28:07):
on in the seventh when it was just three nothing
ballgame and Dave Roberts walks out as if to change
out pitchers, and you see there's a tight camera shot
on Blake's now's face and he's going no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. He said, I got this, I got this.
Let me get one more, one more, one more, and
Roberts talked to him and said, okay, let him do it.
He actually even fell behind in the count but came
back to get a strikeout to end the inning. Eleven

(28:30):
strikeouts over seven innings got the win. Dodgers avoided the sweep,
and by virtue winning last night, remained two games up
on San Diego, who had beaten the Mets. But now
that the Potteries have lost this afternoon of New York,
if the Dodgers would to beat the Johns, he'd be
up three games. Right now, it stands at two and
a half. San Diego at the moment would be holding
down the number two wildcard spot in the Nation League.

(28:52):
As we mentioned, there's that Matt scramble for that third
spot between the Mets, Diamondbacks, Reds, and Giants. With the
Mets getting a huge win today, as you pointed out
over San Diego.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
And Craig Blake Snell is doing that thing again where
he just becomes unhittable for long stretches of time. His
last two starts thirteen thirteen innings, no runs, four hits,
twenty three strikeouts.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Well, Dodger fan has been waiting for it all year long.
He was he spent, he was on the sixty day
injured list before the season. Right, you would have signed
up for a little bit of an up and down year.
But Blake Snell firing when you need him clutch down
me and Glass now is getting that way down too,
So they need that, and they got Yamamoto going to
the mountain. Dodgers' problems are bullpen. It's not the starter.
Starter's been really good. Their bullpen has just been awful.

(29:40):
Got awful, sou But they got out of it last night.
So anyway, there's there's the baseball scoreboard for you. And again,
Seattle right now bottom of the eighth in Kansas City,
up to nothing on the Royals. If that lead holds
for the Mariners, they would be tied for first in
the West with the asterism. Okay to the tech again,

(30:01):
somebody asked clarifies the game on the ESPN plus or
SEC network Plus or both. I hate apps. I got you.
I understand where you are with it, and it's listed
in the Texas game notes as being on both. I
think it's like this. If you have SEC Network Plus,
you automatically have ESPN Plus or vice versa. So I

(30:24):
think you're in good shape e the way. So you'd
have to stream it through your TV. It's just like
when we're telling folks these games that I'm doing on
Victory Plus. It's a free app. It's free to download,
but you run it through like your Roku or you
know whatever other your Apple TV app, whatever, you run
it through whatever engine powers powers the apps. If that

(30:44):
makes sense. Yep, yeah, so you're right. The app itself
is free. Same thing with our high school football telecast
on that and that's where the state championships will be
as well. But that's where they do the Dallas Stars.
That's where they do Texas Rangers. For those who don't
already have the MLB you know, extra innings package, you
can stream that for that fee. I think it's one
hundred bucks for the season for the Rangers on that.

(31:05):
So that's how that is. And then I recognize this
from our texter who yesterday I want to make sure
give him, give him his due. I didn't have a
chance to get to his gripe yesterday, but I know
it's the same guy because the phone number is exactly
the same. And that's okay. It said. Only one college

(31:27):
coach in the past twenty five years has won a
national championship while also calling offensive play, Jimbo Fisher. When
you are not able to score a touchdown from the
one yard line of multiple games, and it's time to
hire a true offensive coordinator, that was the one complaint.
And then his complaint today was guys, David ash can
try and spin this debackle of a start for Texas

(31:47):
Holygue wants, but here are the facts. Texas red zone
scoring percentage is ranked one sixteen behind Acron, James Madison
and Miam of Ohio. Those are numbers when it. Mark
Twain likes to say there's lies d and license statistics,
but stats do bear some things out. I hear you.
I know what you're saying on this. I don't think
David Ash, however, is trying to spin anything. He lived it,

(32:08):
He's been it. He has been He's been a quarterback
when they had some good moments and when they didn't
have good moments and when he got booed, and that
was the reference he was making. He himself got booed
fourteen years ago. That's that's a fact that happened. I
think fans are getting Nancy totally totally understand that. I think,

(32:29):
you know, Sark even kind of made reference to it,
and you'll hear it tonight on Long Worn Weekly about
they're all a little bit antsy about it. Doesn't mean
they're not out there trying different things and grinding through it.
And then somebody else said, what have you heard? Do
you think Archie is just pressing and that in a
couple of games he can solve the problem of accuracy
and connection with his receivers. That is what he is saying.

(32:53):
That's what Sark is saying, and other teammates say. And
I thought it was really interesting. You're gonna hear it
because we're bringing you the comments that Sark made in
his media zoom today. And the question was put to him,

(33:13):
is the David ash.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
He's taking over there?

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Right?

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yeah? Exactly? Is the arch manning that you're seeing on
the practice field different than the arch manning that you're
seeing in the game. So you have it ready. Let's
hear this one right now and then we'll hear some
more from Sark coming up. But here's the question that
comes to him about that very topic.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
No, I would say, no, I would say, we get
a little different version in practice, you know, and so
naturally is That's kind of what I'm talking about, is
that ability to take Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and play
with that same kind of confidence and intent on Saturday.
And so that's the part for us is that we
see and we know what it looks like. My goal

(33:59):
is that that you all to see that, and that's
that's what we're striving for.

Speaker 5 (34:03):
Is that a great week? So I'm in proud of
them for that.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Okay, So there it is. He said, no, it's not
it's not been the same guy, and and that's what
I said to people ask me, because I've seen him
in practice and it looks a little different. So to
the Texter's question is do you think arts are just
pressing and then a couple of games he can solve

(34:27):
the accuracy and connection with his receivers, so Art seems
to think. So Art seems to think, so I know,
some of it is the mechanics of footwork and foot placement,
but those mechanics are also affected by the pressure of
the rush and whether he's stepping up in the pocket
and getting as you said, just pressing or getting a

(34:49):
little antsy. I think it's all interconnected. There's some of
that that affects the mechanics of stepping up and not
having proper body positioning on release of the football and
sometimes feeling like he's got to hustle the release, and
that's when it comes out a little more side armed
on that. So I understand that there's a million different

(35:11):
analyzes of all of this, and the only thing that's
going to answer the question time is how he ultimately
does in games. But I get what everybody's asking and saying,
and that that goes with the media as well as
also you know, with Arch himself and Sark and obviously

(35:33):
what fans who are like posting on our page are
also saying.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
So and speaking of games, we got another big one
coming up this weekend, Nebraska taking on Michigan, and Packston
was wondering back with our conversation with Roger Wallace about
some of the dark horse teams and who might kind
of emerge into that playoff pack. Does he do you
think maybe Nebraska joins that conversation with a win on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Well, that's that's the big if, isn't it. If the
Huskers are able to get that win over the Wolverines
and it is a home game, then all of a sudden, yeah,
I'd say the percentage goes up and they're you know,
they're less of a dark horse and more people have
them in mind. Now. Two of their wins are over

(36:19):
Akron and Houston Christian to be certain, but one was
over Cincinnati and it was a good one in Kansas City.
This is going to be a prove it to me
weekend for Matt ruling for the Huskers.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yep oh to six against ranked teams during his Nebraska tenure.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, so we're gonna find out more about Big Red
this weekend. Absolutely. By the way, somebody had said, sorry,
I gave bad information about pet terris HiT's two cheeseburgers
for six dollars. Still a good deal, great deal National
Cheeseburger Day. It's still a good deal there. So we're
happy to impart that information to you. We're going to
hear more from long Horn's head coach Steve Sarkaisian coming up.

(36:55):
When we continue, I'm thirteen under the zone of the
iHeartRadio app. We'll get back to more from head coach
Steve Sarkashan. In a moment, we were just talking about
the Baseball Pennant races and I mentioned that the Dodgers
are two and a half up on San Diego penning
the outcome up tonight's game for LA and San Francisco.
But it has just been announced Clayton Kershaw is going

(37:17):
to retire at the end of the season. No kidding, yep,
he said. He said retirement had crossed his mind a
few times going into this year, but he lost a
lot of this season injury, and he wanted to go
out under his own terms. Well, he's come back and
he's been really good since he's come back, and he

(37:39):
decided he's he wanted to retire with the team he
started with. There was a lot of rumor over the
past few years that he, you know, he was assigning
these one year contracts that he might go to the
Rangers because he had He's from Highland Park. He has
a home still in Highland Park. He and Ellen lived
there a lot of the off season. But they do

(38:02):
a lot of their charitable work in the LA area
as well, and he decided that this is going to
be it. So he announced, or the Dodgers announced, he
will retire after the twenty twenty five season. He's only
got one more regular season start left tomorrow night against

(38:24):
the Giants at home. At home.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
It's very kershaw like to not want to hold the cant.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
He didn't want all that. But I've got some career
highlight for him. If you want him, we'll get to that.
But he did announce he will announce that. I did
announce that he will retire as a player at the
end of the twenty twenty five season. He'll make his
final Dodger Stadium regular season start tomorrow night, final home start.
Now they finish on the road. They play at Arizona

(38:54):
and then Seattle next weekend is where they've finished the Raider,
So you'll have another start in the regular season, and
they're gonna be cow him in the postseason to be
in that rotated. They've been running a six man rotation,
but that's if you include Shoe a Otani, and I
don't know where they are with that. Even though he
was great the other night, Uh Emmett. She might be
long relief coming out of the pen. H. But I

(39:16):
think Kershaw will be in the rotation there in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Oh, I didn't think about that. I know she was
kind of a bulk relief guy in his last outing.
That's was that postseason prep.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
You think they did it that way because no, it
was one time through the lineup with the Phillies left
handed hitters Wish, Swarber and Harper got it, and so
they decided to let Uh uh Bonda go out there
and it backfired. He gave up a home run the Schwarber,
so it didn't and then she and it's great. After

(39:46):
he came in, he struck out Swarbur and Uh and
Uh and Harper I think a couple of times after that.
But anyway, that's it. That's why they did that. But
I think she will be long relief probably when they
get into postseason or a spot start. Kershaw spending his
entire eighteen career eighteen year career with the Dodgers, thirty

(40:09):
seven years of age, certainly going to be a Hall
of Famer, Folks many feel will be a first Batowin
won two World Series three, Cy Young Awards and the
twenty fourteen Nationallygue MVP Award. He's also received the Roberto
Clemeny Award. That's happenings considered one of the highest individual
honers in baseball career era of two point five four

(40:31):
that would rank twenty fifth among qualified pitchers on the
all time list, pending the outcome in his final two starts.
And he's also one of only three active pitchers to
have two hundred career wins, the others being Justin ber
Lander Max Schurzer. And he became just the twentieth pitcher
and just the fourth left hander to reach three thousand strikeouts.
So he's going to call it a career after this.

(40:52):
All right, let's go back to hearing some more from
Long Worn's head coach Steve Sarkisian, And he was asked
about the position groups that he's gonna be watching carefully
in the game on Saturday night, and who would he
like to see get more snaps.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
You know, naturally, you know, we're seeing the running backs obviously,
and I'd like to see a little bit more of
some of the younger receivers obviously. You know, Dala McCutcheon's
been out there and colleak a little bit. But the
more we can get those guys going, I'd like to
see a few more of these young old linemen. You know,
I think Nate Kibble's coming along, Nick Brooks is coming along,
you know, maybe a Danny Cruz, things of that nature.

(41:35):
I think defensively, you know, we saw a short glimpse
of you know, Jordan Johnson rebel last week and Wardale
Mack and getting their footing underneath them. I think now
having the availability of Jonah Williams of getting him out there,
Kate Phillips at corner, another guy who you know, if
we can get more reps at more looks at there

(41:56):
so and then you know we've been we've been spot
playing some of these young defensive lineman but then getting
their feet wet and playing more football. So I don't
know if it's just you know, one group in particular, again,
it's all these guys because we don't know, you know,
come October, November, December, whatever, this looks like.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
What position group could get hit knock on wood.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
You know, we play a violent sport and injuries happen,
and so the more exposure we can get these guys now,
I think will service well down the road.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Next, he was asked about his tying ends and wide receivers,
because there's abundance of those, even with DeAndre more being
banged up, although Sark would say that DeAndre Moore will
be returning this week. But you consider that just that
slot position itself with more Dylan mccutch and Ryan Niblett,

(42:47):
there Wingle on the opposite side, a couple of freshmen,
and Callik Locking and Aaron Butler, and then on the
olipsit side Parker Livingston with Jamie Frinch and Met Mosley
still banged up. And then you got the tight ends,
and there's five of those, and he got all five
into the ballgame in the first half last week. Jack endries,
of course, the lead pass receiving target out of those

(43:10):
tight ends. The others Spencer Shannon, Jordan Washington, Nick Townsend,
Amari Winston also factor in it. So as a result
of having those specific targets to work with and who
he thinks he'd liked to see step up and do
a little more. He was asked about the position groups

(43:31):
and in specific the mantra that he has about the
tight ends and the wide receiver.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
Wide receiver one is being where you're supposed to be
when you're supposed to be there, right. That's the first
part of it all, especially when you're playing zone zone coverage.
You know, the spacing is so important to be where
you're supposed to be, at the right depth at the
right time.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
The second is having.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
The ability to win your one on one when it
is man coverage and so that you can escape man
coverage and in versus man coverage.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
And third, make a play.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
You know, I mean, I think you know, everybody wants
the perfect pass. You know, everybody wants to catch the
perfect pass. But time and time again, we see so
many players making plays on the ball, and our and
our guys have more than enough ability to make plays
on the football. I just think that that's, like I said,
carrying over practice to the game and that that belief
and that confidence that they can and they will. And

(44:25):
we've really been been celebrating that with them this week,
you know, of going and making plays and then celebrating
that play making ability. You know, I likened it to
kind of our defense right now. I would say our
defense is having a little more fun than our offense
right now.

Speaker 5 (44:39):
They're playing with a.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
Little more energy, they're playing a little more excitement, they're
playing with more confidence. Well, all that stems from playing well.
You know, they're getting the benefit of playing well. They're
building their confidence or having more fun. But as you
as you're having fun playing, you play a little bit
more loose, you play a little bit more free, you
play with a little bit more confidence. And so we
can get our offensive players starting to feel and and

(45:02):
and and play more like that. I think we'll see
more playmaking from those guys when the balls in the air.
But we've got to build that confidence through execution. And
that's the whole idea of taking practice to the game.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, well that also applies on the defense and with
your defensive playmakers. Colin Simmons certainly was considered to be
one of those. He's been a little sidetracked with some
of the penalties and and not quite as effective as
a question for or a good friend. Cedar Goldan, the
Austin American statesman who asks Sart about how Colin simmons
approach has been on the practice field leading up to
this game.

Speaker 5 (45:33):
I mean, he practices ass off yesterday.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
I haven't watched the TAPA today yet, but man, he
practiced so well yesterday. He practiced hard, he practiced physical. Uh,
he was running our games really well up front. You know,
he he affected the quarterback. I mean he was he
was really good. And you know, I think I think
as you go throughout the season and and sometimes when
you when you play in games like we've played the

(45:56):
last couple of weeks where sometimes you it may feel
like the offensive line might be a little bit outmanned
versus your defensive front. There's there's thoughts and ideas of
how do we neutralize a pass rush, and whether that's
running the ball, whether that's moving the pocket, whether that's
using varying cadences, whether that's getting the ball out quickly.

(46:17):
And like we've tried to explain to call and when
you're good, people are going to try to neutralize you,
and so you have to have a plan to beat
how they're trying to neutralize you. And part of that
is having that poison composure to stay on side. Part
of that is to not to get frustrated if when
you're not getting home and stay disciplined within the defense.
And then part of that is maximizing your opportunities when

(46:38):
you do get them. And so getting getting the half
a sack last week I think was important at once
he got going. We we all know as we start
to move into the season here down the road in
a couple of weeks, people are gonna they're going to
try to play a little bit more traditionally and take
their shots and do their things, and we've got to
be ready to execute at a high level when that comes.

(46:59):
But right now, it's about, Hey, am I playing with
maximum effort?

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Right?

Speaker 4 (47:03):
Am I prepared really well mentally, physically, emotionally. Am I
playing within the scheme of the defense with with all
eleven guys? And then have faith that when my opportunities
don't do come, I'm gonna be in the right spot
to go make my plays. And so hey, the flow
of the season is what it is. We got a
long way to go. Colin is more than equipped to

(47:23):
have a great season for us, not a good one,
a great one. And looking forward to him, you know,
kind of getting ready to take it to another level.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
All right. Earlier we heard Sark say that Trey Wisner
was probably gonna be doubtful for this this week's game
against Sam Houston, although he has made a lot of
progress and getting closer and with the open date following,
you would expect it. Even if he doesn't play this week,
he should be good to go in the Conference oper
in Gainesville in a couple of weeks. Now with regard

(47:50):
to DeAndre Moore and it mostly of course mostly hasn't
been able to suit up for any game since transferring
from Stanford as he's dealt with his injury. And then
DeAndre Moore has been had the nagging injury and he's
been out last couple of weeks. So what about an
update on More and Moseley.

Speaker 5 (48:04):
Uh, Demo is good to go.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
He'll he'll be rolling Saturday, which is really great to
have him back. You know, I know that he and
Arch have a nice connection. Emmitt Mosley is still limited,
but man, he's making a lot of progress. You know,
we're we're kind of on on course for where we
wanted to be coming into coming into the season, and
so you know, all signs are pointing up for him.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
All right. And and with that being the case, uh
Sark was asked to follow up about Ryan Niblett because Niblett,
of course has been punt returner, had a big punt
return last week. But he's a guy that can obviously
set the pace in the slot as well as DeAndre
Moore or Dylon McCutcheon. He's he is a guy who

(48:48):
can be pretty slippery out there and a guy who
can make some big plays for them in the passing game.
And Sark has been impressed with what he's seen on
the practice field from Niblet.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Moving forward, I would say Ryan Niblett has a guy
that I'm being really proud of but also impressed with.
You know, he was he was a slot receiver two
years ago that essentially moved to running back, that then
moved to star during spring, then came back to receiver,

(49:19):
then became our punt returner and our kickoff returner. And
all he does is practice his butt off. All he
does is continue to work. And I think we saw
the explosiveness of the player that he is on the
punt returns last week. It's unfortunate he's had a couple
opportunities on kickoff return and we're just not making that
one block and he's having an avoided guy late. I

(49:41):
wish we could block a kickoff return cleanly and to
see what he looks like there. But he's a real
Swiss army knife for us on offense, and I think
us continually trying to find ways to your point to
move him around to try to get the ball in
his hands, I think would be beneficial for us.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
All right. And another question about that tight end position too,
that backup spot and when they go to two tight
ends and thoughts on that spot.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
Yeah, I think they all have their own unique skill
set of the things that they do well. We've tried
through these first three games to try to put them
in position to do the things that they do well,
and then kind of especially the two young kids, of
like getting them acclimated to playing as well as Jordan
really getting them acclimated to playing. Jordan has been out

(50:30):
all obviously all the spring, and I like the growth
that they're all making, you know, as much as we're
trying to get them in position to do the things
that they do well, we're also trying to expand their
toolbox so they're not just one dimensional players on those things.
And so again we're fortunate it's a deep room. We've
got a lot of trust in those guys to do

(50:51):
different things, but we are constantly trying to expand their
toolbox that they can continue to grow as players.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
All right, So there's from Sark. We'll hear more start
coming up the next hour, and also a preview will
drop in portion of tonight's edition of Longhorn Weekly with
coach Sark. We'll have that coming up next hour as well.
We've got more coming up as we continue right here
on thirteen under the Zone. We continue on this Thursday afternoon,

(51:21):
and just to updated a couple of things. Seattle did
hold on and they did have to hold on the
Royals at the tying runs on base in the ninth
but Seattle defeated Kansas City at Coppin Stadium two to nothing.
That puts the Royals the Mariners in a flat footed
tie for first with the Astros with nine games to go.

(51:43):
Both teams are eighty four and sixty nine.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
So who saw that coming about a month ago?

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yeah, right, and they and they both have been through
their slumps and they both have been up and down
and they're now hitting stride late, whereas the Rangers, who
had a hot streak a little over a week ago,
now have hit the wall and they're five games back
in the division race and then in the wildcard race
where they have only the faintest of hope to try

(52:14):
to get something there. They're four and a half back,
so it doesn't look like the Rangers are going to
wind up in the postseason now.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
And the Rangers away from home this year fourteen games
under five hundred, which is the worst record in the
Al West away from home.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Yep. And by the way, the Guardians, who are making
a late push, beat the Tigers today in Detroit three
to one, and the Red Sox lost at home to
the Athletics five to three.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, red Sox offense really in a rut right now.
Losing Roman Anthony turned out to be a really big
deal for.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
Them exactly, And so their lead on the Guardians for
the final wildcard spot is down to a game and
a half. So Cleveland is still in the thick of
the fight there. And just as I thought, the standings
automatically flipped to put Houston in the wildcard column and
put Seattle in the division race column because the Maritors

(53:09):
won the regular season series with the Astros, so if
they finish in a tie after nine more games, Seattle
gets the division title and Houston winds up as wildcard.
And the way it's going, there's a decent chance that
they could wind up being the five seed not the
four seed.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Do you remember like a month and a half ago,
the Guardians came to Houston swept the Astros. Yeah, they
were really struggling to win games. I think that series
started the beginnings of a little turnaround we've seen from
Cleveland who have been really impressive for about a month.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
And they've had to do it with guys being out
injured too. It's a big part of that. So anyway,
that's that's where it is right now. The Rangers are
four back in the wildcard race, four back of Boston
for that final wildcard spot. Texas seventy nine to seventy four,
Red Sox eighty three and seventy. That was after the
Red Sox just lost few minutes ago to the Athletics.

(54:01):
So to update the standings, Texas four back in the
Wildcard and they have nine games to go. That's why
it's going to be really tough for them to get there.
Four back with nine to go, trailing Boston Cleveland game
and a half back, and they now Cleveland has twelve
games left after winning today. Ten excuse me, ten left,

(54:26):
not nine. They have ten left. The Red Sox and
Rangers each have nine to go, and the Guardians have
ten remaining. There and then in the Nation League wildcard
race again it's the Mets who beat San Diego today,
who have a two game edge on the Diamondbacks for
the final wildcard spot. The Reds and Giants both two

(54:49):
and a half back. So that's that's where that is
right now.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
I'll tell you, Craig, the Athletics since the All Star
Break have been mighty impressive. It might slip under the radar,
but I really like that that they've been the last
couple months.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Well to your point there, ESPN did its MLB Power rankings,
So if we were just start at the bottom, go up.
You know who number thirty is.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
That'll be Colorado.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
They're a cool seventy below five hundred at forty one
and one eleven. But they're not going to have the
record that the White Sox had last year. That the
one hundred and twenty one losses. That'll stand not quite
rocky bottom. No, their slug line was what should Rockies
fans watch the rest of the way With the one
word answer, Broncos. All right, number twenty nine, that would

(55:33):
be your Washington Nationals YEP accurate sixty two to ninety
one says the Nationals are going to need to complete
overhaul in the offseason as they inch closer to one
hundred losses. Even James Woodhe Mackenzie Goreff struggled in the
second half with two hundred and nine strikeouts, would as
a shot to break Mark Reynolds major league record of
two hundred and twenty three set in two thousand and nine.

(55:55):
And the rotation era has increased from four point seven
to seven in the first half to five nine in
the second half.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
There is one bright spot on the Nationals right now.
His name is Dalen Lyle. They're left fielder. Other than that,
it's been a rough.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Go White Sox. At twenty eighth, it's said it's possible
but unlikely that the White Sox will avoid one hundred losses.
They would have to win six of their final ten
games in order to make that happen. Either way, it's
been a season of laying foundational pieces, none more important
than shortstop Colson Montgomery, who had eighteen homers in his

(56:30):
first sixty one games in the majors in counting and
we've heard Gene talk about that let Gino on to
talk more about that tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
And they've got two guys I cover the north Woods League,
Kyle Seal Chase my draft having good seasons, Okay.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Pirates at twenty seven, Angels twenty six, Twins at twenty five,
Marlin's twenty four, Braves at twenty three. Who would have
thought they'd be as bad as they've been this year?

Speaker 3 (56:52):
Certainly not me.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Yeah, and the injuries have had something to do with it,
but about everybody's been affected by injuries Orioles at twenty two.
There's the Athletics. You mentioned a number twenty one, ten
below five hundred now, so there's that, Cardinals at number twenty,
Rays at nineteen, Royals at eighteen, Reds at seventeen at

(57:17):
level five hundred said, for now, Reds fans can continue
to fixate on the wild card standings. That's more to
the largest of the Mets, whose stubborn lead refused to
put a hammer lock on the National Leeds six seed
than anything Cincinnati has done. Although the Mets didn't win today,
so they get close to that. Giants at sixteen, it said,

(57:38):
a tough series at Arizona, they dropped to a three.
There probably saped the Giant's second win playoff chase, though
all is not yet technically lost, so that's at sixteen
Arizona at fifteen said. Arizona's playoff odds dropped precariously close
to zero near the end of August given the Diamondbacks
deadline related activity, which included trading a corner end field

(58:00):
Combo and Josh Naylor and Juhenio Suarez, who combined for
forty seven homers in one hundred and forty six RBIs
before being dealt. That was no surprise. What's happened since
is Arizona's climbed back to the outer perimeter of the
wildcard race. Howel the sagging mets which meant that a
red hot offense and the amazing Heraldo Perdomo, Yes, very

(58:24):
make a solid case is the number two pick on
the MVP ballot behind shoe Ao Chini. Yeah, he's been good.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
The Diamondbacks had been very, very good down the stretch.
I'm very surprised they actually their GM came out and said, well, yeah,
of course I regret some of those cells, but not
based on what happened at the.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Time, right exactly, Guardians, they have fourteen mets at thirteen,
Rangers at twelve, even though their odds of getting into
the postseason are less than the Mets Astros at eleven.
So just when you thought the injury list couldn't get
along for the Astros, Jordan Alvarez sprained his ankle while
scoring a run on Mondays when the Rangers and Will

(59:00):
miss significant time. So there's that. Number ten would be
the Red Sox Number nine, the Podres said. Will the
padres vaunted bullpen hold up over the stretch running into
the playoffs. The rotation has been hit and miss for
over a month now. Mariners number eight, Number seven is

(59:21):
the Yankees, Number six is the Tigers, Number five is
the Cubs. Number four is the Dodgers, number three the
Blue Jays, number two the Phillies, and number one is
the Brewers. So that's where it is in the power rankings.
As those chases continue for division titles, higher seeds and postseason.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
Spots should be wide wide open.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Yeah, true enough. We'll be back to wrap up hour
number two here on thirteen under the Zone. Third and
final hour of the program here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the Zone, Craig Way alongside the producer Jay Carman,
coming up in a few minutes, we'll hear more from Loggorn,
head coach, the Sarkisian's Thursday media availability, and then later

(01:00:04):
this hour a little sneak listen. I guess sneak peak
would not be the proper phraseology because you're listening to it,
not watching it, but a little preview of tonight's Longhorn
Weekly Program with Sarka. And by the way, the program's
a lot of fun. It can be pretty educational because

(01:00:26):
tonight our guests are Brandon Harris. Now, if you don't
know who Brandon Harris is, that's perfectly understand what he's
not on the coaching staff. He is the program's general manager.
And that's a relatively new term lately in college athletics

(01:00:47):
and football and basketball, the GM. And so what I
what I got to do is ask the question that
a lot of folks would ask. And this rolls all
the way back to the summer when I was moderating

(01:01:07):
the panel discussion for the Division one FBS coaches And
this was at the Texas High School Coaches Association's Annual
Coaching School Convention, San Antonio. So all thirteen Division one
FBS coaches were up on one stage, all thirteen of
them from see if I can name them. Every time

(01:01:27):
I do this I always leave out one or two.
So I want to try this. You have Texas, you
have Texas A and M. You have SMU, you have TCU,
you have Baylor. You have Rice Houston, North Texas UTSA,
Texas State UTEP, Sam Houston. He's the one. I believe

(01:01:48):
it out. There's always one. There's always one Texas Tech.
There it is all right. So there it is all thirteen.
So the head coaches of all thirteen Division one FBA
asked schools and the state of taxes are up on
the stage one time, and I'm moderating this panel discussion.
And it's a for want of a better term, random

(01:02:10):
draw a lottery, if you will, as to these questions
that are provided by the High School Coach Association. I'm
not written, I'm not making these up. These questions are
provided to me, so I'm just moderating and asking the questions.
But it's done like at random ass to which coach
gets which question. And the question for Sark had to

(01:02:31):
be about the general manager. This is become a coming
thing in college football, and it was like, what exactly
does a general manager do and how instrumental is he
with the football program. That's it. That's how it was.
Now last night I got to have the fun of saying,
if it's like the scene and office space where Gary
Cole was, what exactly is it that you would say?

(01:02:53):
You do know that? Not a fig so you go here,
you know? Hear the response from Brandon Harris. Pretty impressive
young man. And we always have a long worn hero
of the past whenever possible, Kwan Cosby and Kwan. The
show takes on a little different formatics normally, what we

(01:03:16):
do since the show has moved back on campus, what
we do is the opening, say ten twelve minutes of
the show is me and Sart just talking about the team,
reviewing the prior game, a little bit about the game
to come, but mainly just about the team and performance
and things like that. It's kind of a review. Then
we have two segments with a member of the staff

(01:03:37):
or coaching staff in this case it'd be Brandon Harris.
Then comes two segments with the former player. Then we
have one segment where we talk about the opponent scouting
report thing. That's the segment we always present you on
Friday and then we re er it and then the
last show is just some few final thoughts and stuff.

(01:03:59):
Last segment show, well, Kwan got hung up in traffic,
traffic that was on its way to Moody Center to
see Lord in concert. Yeah, there are a lot of
people said the Lord, not the Lord, just Lord as
in with an E. She's pretty entertaining, you know. But

(01:04:19):
he got hung up in traffic trying to get there.
So we had to push the segments back, so we did.
We did two other segments while waiting on Kwan to
get there, and then we did the last two segments
of the show with Kwan so in so doing. One
of those was the opposing team segment, which again we'll
reair that for you tomorrow. The other one was basically

(01:04:46):
one question and it had to do with a question
that that Sark addressed at the news conference on Monday,
So we'll play that for you coming up a little
bit later on. So we did all that, but the
Lord concert got in the way, right, and we'll never
be Yeah, that's right answer, Yeah for people who they'll
know if you know that song, then you know all right.

(01:05:07):
A couple of pro football notes. First of all, a
grand jury in Montgomery County. That's over by Houston has
decided not to indict Houston Texans safety Jimmy Ward. That's
months after he was arrested of suspicion of third degree
felony domestic violence. The grand jury did not find probable

(01:05:32):
cause that Ward committed these alleged crimes against the woman
involved in the incident. He said, today I can finally
move forward. Ward is currently on the NFL Commissioner's exempt
list stemming from his arrest in Montgomery County that was
back on June twelfth for the alleged family violence in
his Magnolia home. Ward may not practice or attend games

(01:05:52):
while on that list. Brian McCarthy, the NFL spokesman, wrote
in an email to KPRCTV, we continue to monitor all
developed of the matter, which remained in a review. The
woman alleged on the morning of the arrest that she
was violently assaulted multiple times, both sexually and physically, by
Ward in the presence of their three year old child.
She eventually got away, ran out of the house in

(01:06:12):
the street called police. He was also arrested on August
seventh for violating his previous release conditions, which included no
drinking of alcohol, which he claimed he didn't know he
tested positive for alcohol he had spend the night in jail.
The woman file a lawsuit against Warton Harris County District
Court on August twenty first, sinking damages of more than
twenty million dollars. Now, the thing that you need to

(01:06:34):
know about this, if you don't already, and I've imagine
most people followed the football into things, understand this that
you do not have to be guilty of a crime
in order to be guilty in the eyes of the NFL,
not of the crime, but as they say, conduct detrimental

(01:06:58):
to the team, getting arrest stood for that, being sued
for that. So in other words, Jimmy Ward is not
necessarily out of the woods in terms of things like
suspensions and stuff like that. He's on the suspended list
right now, but that even though the grand jury declined
to indict him, it doesn't necessarily mean that he's free

(01:07:19):
to go and that he'll be fine and you know,
can go on from there. That I have a feeling
there's going to be because there's other more elements to that
story that there may we may you know, see other
disciplinary action coming to him. The forty nine Ers say
that brock Perty has a good chance to play this
week against the Cardinals. He missed last week's went against

(01:07:40):
the Saints because of the toe injury. Kyle Shanahan, the
coach lifetime Longhorn, called Purty a long shot to play
against the Saints last week, all but ruling him out
five days before the game. But yesterday he said Perdy
will be a limited participant in practice yesterday and today,
and was asked he could be under center from the

(01:08:01):
home opener on Sunday, said he wasn't limited last week.
He does have a chance to play, and he did
do some throwing during the individual drills in the early
open portion of the practice that was open to the media.
So there's that he may be back and the forty
nine ers could use it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Yeah, a couple teams that are two to no, but
maybe haven't faced that bone of five playoff contender yet
and we'll learn a lot about both. I know, when
we talked about the NFL power rankings a couple of
days ago, you've been impressed with the Cardinals. I was
sort of pumping the brakes, thinking let's see it against
the better offense.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
First, Yeah, impressed with the Cardinals, less impressed with Kyler Murray,
and here's the Latters. He apologized yesterday for a social
media post that included a photo of him wearing a
retro Virginia Tech Michael Vick jersey while posing with one
of his two bulldogs, oh Context Kyler context on Tech.

(01:09:00):
He took down the post. It was on Instagram. He
took it down after seeing blowback online. He expressed empathy
to those who took offense to the post. Of course,
remember Vic spent twenty one months in federal prison after
he pleaded guilty in two thousand and seven operating that
dog fighting ring. He's now the head coach at Norfolk State.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
Yep, some people at Virginia Tech already want him to
come on up the highway.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
And be the new head coach of the Hokies. Uh,
Murray said. Quote. In no way, shape or form do
I condone animal cruelty or dog fighting. He said. He
wore the jersey which he sported before there went over
the Carolina Panthers because he grew up in admiring Vic Murray.
Of course, his two American bulldogs named Swoosh and Trunks.

(01:09:44):
He posed with trunks for the Instagram post, he said,
they both get treated like king. So it's not like,
in no way, shape or form am I condoning that.
But yes, I saw how it affected people and decided
to take it down. So I apologize to anybody and
whoever I affected with that. Like you said, context.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
The context.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
It's better than what the Kansas City chiefs wore during
warm ups on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
Yeah, yeah, you know, And I think that's I think
all of these teams a lot of case they come
across read the room moments, you know, and maybe they
do and maybe they don't. Hey, in good news for
your team. The commanders returned to Washington, finally official as

(01:10:29):
the District of Columbia Council. I guess that's what the
city council for DC.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
That's the one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:34):
Okay, they voted in favor of the measure, once more,
an expected outcome given its vote more than a month ago.
The council voted yesterday eleven or two to approve the
RFK Stadium project. He was wait a minute, they don't
play at RFK Stadium. That's it's a choice of words.
It allows the team to return to the site that

(01:10:54):
it called home for more than three decades. That's where
RFK Stadium was already completely demolished, is completely gone, no RK.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
Okay No, it's kind of sitting there rotting in the moment,
like the astrodom.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
Yeah, yeah, okay. So supposedly they're going what they're supposed to,
tear it down and then build a new place.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Not only the new place, but lots of new commercial
development will happen there kind of around that area. There
were a couple of loud opponents because you know, eminent
domain is going. It's going to force some people to
move out of that area, but it will ultimately bring
a lot of economic growth to that area. And they're
going to have to bring the metro to that area too.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
Yeah. Commanders are going to invest two point seven billion
dollars and cover the cost overruns to build a sixty
five thousand seat stadium. The district will contribute one billion.
They have really targeted twenty thirty as the year they
want to open in large parts so they can host
big events like Women's World Come in twenty thirty one.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Yeah, and if the Olympics ever come back, I mean
they're thinking about they're thinking really big with this.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah, on down the road, Yeah, no doubt about it. Okay,
all right, there's some pro football notes for you coming up.
We'll hear more from coach Sart when we continue on thirteen.
Under the Zone bomb some kind of say it all together.
Not succhini, fetichini or bulgar wheat, but a big warm
bun and a huge honk of meat, cheese, burger, cheeseburger

(01:12:29):
and paradise by the immortal Jimmy buffet heaven on Earth
with an onion slice worth every damn bit of sacrifice. Yeah,
get a good one and then the refrain in the bridge.
I like mine with lettuce and tomatoes.

Speaker 3 (01:12:42):
That's for you. You love your burgers, loaded.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
Up Heine's fifty seven and French fried potato, big kosher
pickle and a cold draft beer. Good God Almighty, which
way do I steer? Anyway? Yeah? Today is National Cheeseburger Day,
So if you're into them, enjoy one mess you Jimmy Yeah, uh,

(01:13:04):
all time musical hero Roger Wallace really oh yeah, that's
his guy. That's his guy. One of my faves too,
really was and his band, the quarter Reef for Band,
is still touring. They tour and do all this stuff,
and that's good to see. But anyway, Yeah, Cheezburger in
Paradise and and of course Jimmy. When I hear that
song now, and of course I first heard it like

(01:13:25):
when I was in high school. But when it but uh,
when I hear it now, you don't want to think
of what's that Maui. And the reason why I think
of out there was a he had. You know, there's
the Jimmy Buffett. They had the Margaritaville restaurant franchises. There's
one in Atlanta right near the near the team hotels

(01:13:45):
and the College Football Hall of Fame. There was the
spin off restaurants Lulu's. That's his sister operated those. It
was one of those age. Yeah. And there was the
Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain too, and he offer a
pretty good burger. First time I ever ate it one

(01:14:06):
was in Lahina, Maui. Was out there for the Maui Invitational,
where the Long Ones will return to play this year.
I don't think that restaurant is still around there unless
it was rebuilt. I think it was one of the
ones that was engulfed in all in all, the because
it happened right there in the village. We're always like

(01:14:26):
my favorite one of my favorite restaurants in the United
States of America was Long Ease Seafood Place in Maui.
Wonderful place. That's where I first got to meet Bill
Raftery and talked to college basketball. I was eating with.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
See you get your burger with a double.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
But if you go to Loongest you have and seafood
cheeseburger and Paradise, you got to. But I remember sitting
on a balcony overlooking looking there da looking overlooking the
water was great.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Get organized, it's right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
So anyway, uh, cheezburger in Paradise turned the cuntry mind.
Let's hear some more from Sark. He was asked with
regard to DeAndre Moore, DeAndre Moore is coming back. Uh,
and we'll be playing this week in arches. I mean
Sark has often talked about what DeAndre Moore does in

(01:15:18):
terms of his leadership element, so he was asked, what
does he bring to the team behind the scenes.

Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
Oh, he definitely brings the juice. He's an energizer, bunny.
You know, he's one of the few guys.

Speaker 5 (01:15:30):
Really. That was a mainstay starter for us a year ago.

Speaker 4 (01:15:33):
You know that that play has played a lot of
football and has a lot of confidence and UH can
fix things on the field when maybe something's a little
bit off because of his experience of lining a guy
up or making sure a certain guy's running a certain route,
or you know, recognition of coverages, you know when the
ball snapped, and so you know his experience is invaluable.

Speaker 5 (01:15:54):
Obviously you know his confidence.

Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
I think uplifts a lot of confidence and other players
that are on the field with him, and not only
on game by game day, but to your point, in
practice and in the meeting room.

Speaker 5 (01:16:05):
So I do think it'll be great to have him back.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
Okay, the next question came, I believe from h and
Mark Richardson, who asked start other than the win, of course,
that's the obvious. Doesn't matter who you're playing, whatever, John
number one get the win. Other than a win, what
is it that he wants to see out of his

(01:16:28):
team on Saturday night?

Speaker 4 (01:16:29):
I think, as always, you know, we hold our guys
to some some simple things, and one is our brand
or our style of football.

Speaker 1 (01:16:36):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
That's fast, that's physical, that's tough, and that's smart and
and and that encompasses a lot. Don't get me wrong,
but I think when you're playing fast, you have a
you know what to do and you can go cut
it loose because we should be a fast team. I
think the physicality in which we want to play the
game in all three phases I think is very clear.

(01:16:57):
And that's not just at the line of scrimmage. I'm
talking on the perimeter. That's perimeter blocking, that's tackling, that's
the way we cover kicks. I think the toughness piece
is the ability to persevere and overcome. Everybody thinks toughness
is physical. I'm thinking a lot about the mental toughness
because the game's not going to go perfect, and how
do we respond to adversity in game? And then smart
We're playing smart football, and I think that's where some

(01:17:21):
of our penalties have stemmed from. I think some of
our penalties are not very smart plays. And we prod
ourselves on being a smart football team, and so we
got to get back to that. And then naturally, the ball.
You know, I always look at the ball, like are
we taking care of the ball? And one thing I
was really proud of last week all those carries a
by those young backs. They held onto the ball, they
took care of the ball. Obviously, defensively, we've created six

(01:17:43):
turnovers the last two games. So I would love to
come out of here with no turnovers on offense Saturday.
I'd love to create a couple or a few on defense.
I'd love to play fast, physical, you know, tough, smart football.
And if we can do all those things, we're probably
playing a brand and a style of football that is
that we're accustomed to around here.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
Well, that's certainly what he wants to see. He also
wants to see those three young running backs will be
out there because again he mentioned earlier in the Zoom
availability and we brought that to you in the first
hour of the program that Trey Weisnemer still lists as
doubtful of the game. So if you're using that phraseology,
I think we can all doubt that he'll see the

(01:18:22):
field on Saturday night. C J. Baxter out as well
with the hamstring injury, so that leaves those other three guys,
Christian Clark, Jared Gibson, James Simon, those three guys, and
those three guys will get the carries. And Sark was
asked when it comes to those three guys, what's he

(01:18:46):
going through right now? With the evaluation of those three
as they get opportunities.

Speaker 4 (01:18:50):
I think that they've all done well. You know, they're
all kind of in a different phase, and they've all
got their own unique style to the way that they
play the game. I think the one thing that we're
really trying to impress upon them is to not just
take the ball and run and because that's easy on
the running back, he just gets the ball and run,
but understanding the blocking schemes, understanding the defenses and how

(01:19:16):
the blocking schemes fit with defenses, so that they can
set runs up and hit runs you know where they're
supposed to go with the right timing. And that's always
with young backs, you know that that's always one of
the challenges is they can get they can go too fast,
they can go too slow, they can look to cut
back too much, they can just try to run around everybody.

Speaker 5 (01:19:35):
You know, we're this isn't high school anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:19:37):
You just don't run around everybody anymore like like they
do in high school all the time. Like you have
to set blocks, you got to run through arm tackles,
you got to have great ball security. You got to
use your weapons, your stiff arms, your speed, all those things,
your jump cuts, and you've got to apply all those
things on top of you got to pass protect and
you've got to understand pass protection and what that looks
like mentally, but then using the physicality to block people

(01:20:00):
and not get knocked back into the quarterback. So there's
layers to the position that that is not always easy
for young runners.

Speaker 5 (01:20:08):
But I've been impressed with these three.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
You know, I think coach Scott's done a great job
of developing these guys and this is an awesome opportunity
for them like that that this couldn't be a better
two week run for these guys of getting this valuable
experience that is going to not only help them but help.

Speaker 5 (01:20:23):
Us as a team down the road.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
Okay, beyond that, he was asked an interesting question with
regard to the portal and offensive line, and as was
brought up, he has not taken an offensive lineman through
the portal since he's been in. They said, I I
think that's the case, and just wanted to know his

(01:20:44):
philosophy on it, and Sark said, there's no hard and
fast rule about any of that. There's just different reasons
why it hasn't happened.

Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
I think how we've done it is one, we've made
an emphasis on high school recruiting. Years ago, you know,
we had the one class I think we signed seven
players in it, and then you know, and I think that,
you know, the smallest class might have been like a
three or four class. But but really we've accumulated a
lot of offensive linemen and then we haven't lost a
ton to the Portal.

Speaker 5 (01:21:10):
And so because of that our.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
Numbers, we were in a good spot moving forward the
last couple of years, and we thought the development of
the players was good. You know, we didn't feel like
bringing in a guy from another school, you know, where
would he fall in the pecking order of the guys
that we had. And so many guys going to the
Portal thinking I want to go there to start, and

(01:21:33):
then they look at our depth chart and it's kind
of like, well, I'm probably not going to start, so
I don't really want to go there. And and so
that I think that's a little bit of a catch
twenty two there. I never say never, you know, I
always say, you know, when every year the portal rolls around,
and this year the portal now is a smaller window,
which we found out yesterday January twod to I think
the eleventh or twelfth. You know, we'll do our due

(01:21:56):
diligence on our by them, we'll have a pretty good
understanding of our roster and how we're playing and the
development of some of our players, and then and then
what are our needs on our roster moving forward, and
is it viable for us to go into the portal
for for an offensive lineman or not. But that won't
just be unique to the O line, you know, We'll
look at every position across the board, and like, I
don't think anybody thought we'd go take a quarterback this year,

(01:22:17):
and we did, you know, And that's that that's bode
well for so you know, we'll we'll evaluate it all
and then we'll try to make the best decisions for
our roster the best way that we can. You know,
we still we still only have eighty five scholarships. It's
not like I can just create more spots, you know.
And and that's a little bit different than maybe a
couple of the other conferences around the country. The SEC
has remained at eighty five scholarships for football, so we

(01:22:39):
have to work within the confines of that because we
still want to sign a great high school class with
those players. We don't know exactly who's leaving our team,
whether it's to transfer or to go to the NFL,
and so you're you're playing that game of trying to
balance your roster out to get your numbers right.

Speaker 1 (01:22:57):
And then one more thing from Sark. He was asked
about something that came down yesterday. In fact, it came
down when we were The word came down when we
were recording the show that the NCAA and we talked
about this last week. But the NCAA did approve. It
was approved just going with one portal window from about

(01:23:20):
January second to the eleventh or twelve, something like that,
one ten day period there one and eliminating that spring
portal window. And so I think it was Kirk Bowles
who asked him, would he favor just eliminating red shirting
all together and just grant everybody the unilateral five year eligibility.
That's been well a lot of folks have suggested get

(01:23:41):
rid of the red shirting so you don't have all
that murkiness and just go to you got five years,
five years to play, you can play five years.

Speaker 4 (01:23:49):
I would at this point, with the length of our season,
you know, the way they set it up. Now, you
get to play four games in the regular season, and
then once postseason play began, and that postseason play includes
your conference championship game, those games don't count. So you
can play four in the regular season and then you
can play the entire postseason and still have a red

(01:24:10):
shirt eligible. To me, why not just give them the
whole year and let these guys play, because who knows
at week eight, Now you've got a kid who could
be a backup defensive end who's already played in four games,
and you're trying to balance out should we play them
or should be not because a guy got an ankle
sprain that might be out a week. I mean to me,
because of the length of the season, I would just

(01:24:31):
go ahead and you know, eliminate the red shirt and
just let them have five years to play. Okay, And
on the other side of that, just to peggyback that
I think that will eliminate what's about to happen around
the country, because what's about to happen around the country
is players holding out and players not wanting to play
to preserve their red shirt knowing they're going to transfer

(01:24:54):
at the end of the year.

Speaker 5 (01:24:54):
And so you're going to.

Speaker 4 (01:24:55):
See this come up here pretty soon too, and hopefully
not on our roster. You never know, but I think
you're going to see this around the country. Who saw
it last year with a quarterback at UNLV where guys
opt out to preserve their resher ear. I think that
when you do that, no redsher ear, you eliminate that
and you're just giving everybody five years. And now guys,
when they're on a team, they go play. When the

(01:25:15):
season is done, if they want to transfer, they can transfer.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
All right. So there it is, Sarks in favor of it.
Just five straight years. It's what you got, No red shirting,
no medical hardship stuff, you got five years from the
time you set foot on campus. We're going to hear
more from Sark in a different context, but it is
more from the business side of college football about scheduling,

(01:25:42):
and we'll do that when we come back here on
thirteen under the zone. Always like Joe Walsh, both with
the Eagles and independent of them, always think of this
song in the city. Always think of that movie The Warriors,
because it was a part of.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
That oh, I haven't seen that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
Nineteen seventy nine about a gang thing and trying to
get back through the city back to their neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
I came back with a little Steve Earl earlier, little
feel all right from the famous closing montage season two
with the wire.

Speaker 1 (01:26:14):
Absolutely absolutely all right. We continue here on this Thursday afternoon,
drawing closer, definitely closer to the weekend, and glad to
have you with us, Glad you get made this afternoon.
We just got through hearing start from this morning's media

(01:26:34):
zoom available and he was talking about current situations as
it surrounds his football team and affects his football team, health, purposes, performance,
what he's looking for this weekend against Sam Houston, those
kinds of things. When we were recording Longhorn Weekly last night,

(01:26:59):
and you're going to it's available for you to hear
tonight at seven o'clock here on the Zone and it
will re air tomorrow night at seven just in case
you miss it tonight, it'll reair tomorrow night at seven,
and that's where you hear it the rest of the
season Thursday nights seven o'clock here on the Zone and
then Friday night the reairing at seven, and I mentioned

(01:27:25):
we were at a point in the show where normally
we have like a former player join us and Kwan
Cosby was scheduled to join us. Kwan, however, was tied
up in traffic because of the concert Lord was performing
last night at Moody Center, so it was tough for

(01:27:46):
him to get in. So what we did was we
just shifted the two segments that he was due to
be on to the back end of the show and
we were still able to get into full segments with
him and it all worked out fine. In place of
the two segments where the guest normally goes, we did
two things. One was our segment where we preview the

(01:28:08):
matchup with the opponent. We always bring you that segment
as a re air on Friday afternoon during the show,
and we will do so again, but again it'll be
part of the show tonight. The other thing was we
had another segment we had to cover and there was
something that crossed my mind. It was a question that

(01:28:29):
Sark was asked at his news conference on Monday about
not playing FCS opponents. Football Championship Subdivision what we used
to call one double A University of Texas hasn't played
one since two thousand and six. Ironically, it was the

(01:28:50):
opponent they faced this weekend, Sam Houston back then, and
they were known fully as sam Houston State. They were FCS.
They were in the Southland Conference with schools like Steven F.
Austin in Texas State at the time. It's the first
year I think of being known as Texas State, and
they were all FCS teams. Nowadays, ui w's in IT,

(01:29:14):
Lamar back playing football is in IT. Meannie State has
always been in IT. That was in the Southland Conference
and Texas even then only played that FCS opponent because
the twelfth game was added to the regular season schedule
in two thousand and six. That's one thing, and then

(01:29:35):
the other thing was I think they had Minnesota lined
up to be that opponent and they asked out of it,
so Mac Brown and company they had to scramble to
get an opponent, so it was Sam Houston and Texas.
Handley won the game, but that's the last time Texas
has played an FCS opponent. So Sark was asked on
Monday about the philosophy of playing FCS opponents and why

(01:30:00):
Texas didn't do it. And it was something I brought
back up because he had pretty interesting response on Monday,
so I brought it back up on the show last
night so that the whole audience listening to that could
hear that. And here was Sart's response when I asked
him about what goes into the mindset of who they're
scheduling a non conference given the fact they haven't played

(01:30:20):
an FCS opponent in nineteen years and probably won't play
one for the foreseeable future. You got a question about
this the other day, about the philosophy of programs who
play FCS opponents and those who don't play FCS opponents,
And some say, well, what's the difference really if you're
playing a G five school, And there really is a

(01:30:41):
difference in terms of scholarships obviously, but how about your
overall perspective on that?

Speaker 4 (01:30:47):
Yeah, I know I didn't think about it prior to
that because around here we just don't play him right, right,
And then I started as I got asked that question,
it made me think and you could probably hear it
in my answer. Thinking my way through it, everything has changed,
you know, a lot has changed. You know, we're we're
now obviously playing twelve regular season games. We're playing nine

(01:31:10):
conference games now in the SEC next year, which is
already the most daunting schedule in the country. If you
just look at the top ten most difficult schedules in
the country, I think nine of them were in the
SEC this year. And now we're going to add a
conference game, so I don't know, it's probably gonna be
ten out of ten or twelve out of twelve, whatever
that is. On top of that, we're still playing a
conference championship game. On top of that, you know, back

(01:31:33):
in the day, there was no college football playoff and
we went to four teams. Now we're at twelve, and
now there's all this talk of going to sixteen, and
so the requirement with all of that, though, we didn't
increase scholarship numbers, and so we're all still sitting at
eighty five. But we're requiring more of our players physically
for a longer duration of time. And we started in

(01:31:55):
August this year first game, and we're all hoping to
play January nineteenth. We're going to play more games against
better opponents, which is going to be more physically taxing,
and so I know the idea is, like everybody wants
to play these top echelon non conference games and that
and that sounds great, and we will do that every year.
We will always have that. Yeah, we'll always have that

(01:32:17):
premier non conference game. But I think to be fair
to our players and to be fair to our younger
players to help in development, we we have to find
a way to balance the schedule so that we can
develop some players so that we can take a little
bit of the pounding off of them. Knowing what we're
all trying to do and how long of a season

(01:32:37):
this is. To preserve your roster, to preserve your team,
to get them ready to play. We are different than
the NFL, you know. In the NFL, you know, I
think that they have what is it, a fifty three
man active game day roster, and with the then they
have another five or six I think, which gets them
to you know, fifty eight, fifty nine to sixty something
like that. Then their practice squad I think now is

(01:32:58):
up to fourteen or fifteen. So there's sitting in about
seventy five. But when you think about the seventy five players,
they got their pros right. They wouldn't be in the
NFL if they weren't quality players that know how to play,
and some of them are journeymen. Some of the might
be younger players, but they already know what they're doing.
You look at our roster, seventy five of our eighty
five scholarship players are in either year one, two, or

(01:33:21):
three of college football, and the bulk of those are
actually in years one and year two. So we are
a developmental stage of their career in college football. So
I think we need to be mindful and cautious just
to say we should never do that. And I don't
think we have any scheduled out. I have no idea
what our schedule looks like moving forward. You got SCDC
or sean ichors those guys. But the point of it is,

(01:33:42):
I just think saying FCS or not, or why are
we playing this.

Speaker 5 (01:33:45):
School not that school?

Speaker 4 (01:33:47):
We got to think about the big picture here and
the development of our players. How taxing it is to
play into December and January, which we learned last year.
You know, it's different than it ever was before. And
you you gotta worry about physical fatigue, you gotta worry
about mental fatigue. Our guys are going to class. Our
guys just broke meetings they're going to study Hall right now,

(01:34:08):
they're not. You know, this is not the NFL, at
least not yet. We're not there yet, and so we
got to be mindful of all those things. And when
we look from a scheduling perspective and what that looks like.

Speaker 1 (01:34:18):
All right, it's some interesting perspective there from Sark. By
the way, for those of you who really bang the
gong on this thing and say, hey, I got play
at FCS, you got play at FCS. Relax, there's no
FCS opponents scheduled currently all the way through the end
of this decade. By looking at the non conference schedule,

(01:34:39):
and I remember the non conference schedule will shake up a
little bit in the future because of the additional ninth
conference game in SEC play, but they've got like for example,
UTSA is on the schedule and even number of years
all the way through the rest of the decade. Texas
State is coming in next year two in additional Ohio State.

(01:35:01):
And you heard Sart say they're going to have marquee
opponent every year in non conference and they do. I
think Notre Dame is the next two years after that,
and I think Arizona State is on after that so,
but it is an interesting philosophy given the grind that
college football is having to go to. Now, is that
harmful if you play one fcscho Well, whether whether you

(01:35:24):
think it is or not, it doesn't really matter right
now because there isn't any plan like that on the
schedule for Texas. But it's an interesting perspective from Sart.
All right, we'll be back to wrap up today's edition
in the program on thirteen under the Zone

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