Sark's Red River Takeaways, Franklin Fired at Penn State, MLB Playoff Picks

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It is the one one hundred and twenty first meeting
of the two rivals on opposite sides of the Red
River back.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
The throat blits his coming mateer.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Lets him fly across the middle and it is intercepting
picked up by Malik Bahammad. Welcome back, Manny. It's a pickoff.
The Longgorns will have it.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
On their own.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Forty two.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
John Mattire from the gun, looks over the defense, clap
of the hands and has the snap, looks under some pressure,
rolls right, looks again, wrapped up down he goes Longhorns
second Colin Simmons, the local product out of Duncan Belle High,
drops him for a loss of six. Wis Gonna shifts
out on the backfield of notion, creating an empty set
shotgun stamp. The arch man Manning looking steps up tires

(00:44):
over the middle.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
It's caught touchdown Texas DeAndre Moore in.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
The back of the end zone.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
What a dry to start the second half.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
A twelve yard touchdown pass and the Longhorns had their first.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Lead in the All state Red River rivalry.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Calling third and seven, shotgun staff Manning swings it down
right side to Wiser's gotta make a man miss, Dust
turns it upfield. Here goes Trade to the forty. Wisner
to the forty five to midfield. Kind of first down
in Oklahoma territory at the forty nine yard line when
Travian Wister caught the ball and then Trey had to
make a man miss.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
He did and then.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Turned on his moods for a catching run of nineteen
yards on coup from the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
But Tier hasn't fact to throw.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
On third down, fires hovel the middle ball ten intercepting
picked off at midfield. It's Grayson Lyttleton Littleton, the freshman
picks off his second pass of the year, and the
Longhorns have the third interception of the ball game against
John Mattier.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Has the staff to keep his away.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
A good punt.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Niblet settles under in protections twenty five, turns up till
the third to the forty.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Bryan Niblet to midfield.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Nibblet down the sidelines from the forty to the thirty,
saying good things of this rue Brian Nibblin a seventy con.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yard cluck return for a Longhorn touch down.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Three receivers on wide left rocklawn shotgun stamp back of
a tier now under pressure log ORNs happened and the ball.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Came loose, but he's down.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Frankel tap and hero On canoe team up on a
sack of a ross at ten four down a twenty
two for oklawm with the Texas thirty seven shotgun stamp
the Matier back to throw scrambles to the left. Beat
takes my brat skins hit as he throws. It's it complete.
The log Horns take over. Tray More and Brad Stins
come in. The log Horns takeover on downs with five

(02:34):
thirty six to go.

Speaker 6 (02:35):
In the game.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
On third down, a wrong two needed for the first
manning a pistol as the snaff turns keeps it himself.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Here goes arch pass. The first half has more manning.
Dalla sidelines the thirty and slides down.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Arch manning a big run takes it to the twenty six.
I'm twenty nine yard gallup. Mason Chimley on for a
thirty nine yard field. Good snap and hold Shipley's kick
on the way and it is good. When the long
Warns would appear to have an insurmountable lead, They're up
seventeen Warriers with.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Two fifty nine remaining in the ball game. It's down
twenty three to six.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Long War On second down and ten shotgun snap back
to John Mytteer steps up, scrambles to the right heat
chakes by Colett Simmons having Boston no matter, Brad Spence
finishes the job of the sack. Simmons tracked him down
as he turned back around the opposite way, Spence dropped
him for Wallson twelve. Marche Banning puts down the knee

(03:39):
hands are celebrating from the Texas Long Warns with a
dominant defensive effort and a very efficient game from arch Banning.
When trav and Weisterer and the rest of the Long
Horn offense roll back and beat the Oklahoma Sooners for
the third time in the last four seasons, the Texas

(04:03):
Lord Warns beat the Oklahoma Sitters and hold them without
a touchdown in all three matchups. The final score from
the Cotton Bowl of Dallas the Texas Longhorns twenty three
the Oklahoma Sooners six.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
And with that.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
It's a very pleasant Longhorns Monday. Welcome to the program
here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred the Zone here
on the Long Orange Monday. My name is Craig Wait,
thanks very much for joining us. Producer of the program
who put together that fine montage is Jake Harmon. Glad
to have you with us here on what we call
Longhorns Monday. Because of our coverage from the UT campus

(04:45):
which began at eleven o'clock this morning leading in to
long worn head coach Steve Sarkesian's weekly news conference, we
bring you that news conference live in its entirety on
Monday mornings at eleven thirty. Had that we will bring
you the highlight comments from that news conference coming up
during today's program. Also a lot of other college football

(05:07):
to discuss or coaching moves, the biggest one obviously coming
at Penn State with the decision to not retain James
Franklin as head coach. More on that, while that NFL
another coaching change in the National Football League. The coaching
change did not happen in Dallas, but the Cowboy did
not come up with a win as they fell yesterday

(05:29):
to the Carolina Panthers on a walk off field goal.
So we've got a lot to get to on the show.
Always glad to have your conversation. Your submissions via text
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(05:50):
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Speaker 5 (05:53):
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(06:16):
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(06:36):
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(07:21):
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Speaker 5 (07:40):
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Speaker 1 (07:42):
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do that through the iHeartRadio app. Jake Carmon, our producer.
You had parents in town of the weekend, did you not?

Speaker 7 (08:04):
I did.

Speaker 8 (08:04):
Parents and my younger sister were here. They they got
to come here for every big Texas game. Now, because
I might have brought some good luck to the Longhorns
and certainly a nice little boost to get get them here.

Speaker 7 (08:15):
And I had a lot of fun.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
How old is your younger sister.

Speaker 7 (08:18):
She is three years younger than me, just graduated college.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
Okay, so she's not she's not an annoyance or anything.

Speaker 8 (08:25):
Well that is a separate matter of time, Okay, okay, No, No,
it was amazing.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
To here, Okay, all right. And your folks had a
good time.

Speaker 7 (08:33):
They did, they did.

Speaker 8 (08:34):
We got some good barbecue, watched the game and in
a ruckous environment and in a sports bar got them,
got to get them around some of the some of
the Longhorn energy, and yeah, we just really enjoyed the
time together.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
Well that's good, all right. You had high school football, right.

Speaker 7 (08:50):
I did. I had a game at the field on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Now.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
No, no, if you're gonna do what you gotta do it right,
you have to say the field at Flugerville, you know,
because it's spelled The field is pell with a P,
just like Flugerville P. Yeah, so we always joke about that,
we say the field at Flugerville.

Speaker 8 (09:05):
And when I drove in the side told me to
have a fantastic day.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
There you go, there you go. So you had that
everything go all right with that.

Speaker 8 (09:13):
On Thursday, it did and Bastrop able to beat Connolly.

Speaker 7 (09:17):
I think it was final of sixty two to.

Speaker 8 (09:19):
Eighteen, but it was twenty eight eighteen at the half wow,
and there was a scary injury situation. Bastrop lost their
best receiver and they were able to come out and
really really dial it and focus well in the second half.
But the celebrations a little a little subdued because I
think it was it was tough on those kids there
for a minute.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Okay, well, hopeful the best for that young man as well.
Did you get watch any pro football yesterday?

Speaker 8 (09:45):
Less than usual, especially with my commanders because of family
in town, especially with my commanders on the Monday nights late,
But I did.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Folks who don't know, Jake hales from the greater Washington,
DC area, hence the affinity for the Washington Commanders.

Speaker 7 (10:00):
Hales is a good word. We're going to the commander's tays.

Speaker 8 (10:03):
Yes, yeah, I thought less than usual, but I I
did a little whip around of the highlights. I caught
caught the Witching hour on red Zone. Yeah, and uh,
I've read up on on some of the big some
of the big standout results, including that of Cameron Parker's
favorite team.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, yeah, the self loathing that he has for the
Dallas Cowboys. We're going to hear from UH Cowboys head
coach Brian Schottenheimer a little later on as well, So
we'll do that and and tell you about the other
news that is going on in college football.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
The big the big news.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Was the fact, UH from yesterday that James Franklin was
relieved of his duties. The athletic director Pat Kraft acknowledged
what a lot of folks always said about James Franklin,
and their biggest criticism of it was that he couldn't

(10:58):
win the big games, the real big matchup. So if
that was one thing, even though they got into the
semifinals of the College Football Playoff last year and had
a shot even to get to the national championship after
the loss to Oregon, which was so close to go
back to back in losses to Ucla.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
By the way, that loss is aging a little better,
by the.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Way, since UCLA beat Michigan State and it looked like
they're kind of waking up a little bit. But the
loss there and then the home loss to Northwestern that
was the final nail in the coffin.

Speaker 8 (11:29):
Kind of unbelievable though, and I know we'll hear Steve
Sarkisian talk about it later. It is not easy to
get a program to the level that James Franklin had
Penn State, even without clearing those final couple of hurdles
to get from maybe a top ten team to a
top five team. He's going to be successful somewhere else.
In my opinion, where that is remains to be seen,

(11:51):
and whether I'm right about that remains to be seen.
But I was very, very surprised to hear this news.
It is a fickle, fickle sport right now. Of what
schools are willing to pay for these coach buyouts.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
I think it's maybe a little more surprising to me
that it's happening as early in the season as it's
happening at the collegiate level.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
NFL.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
You know you're on borrow time anyway.

Speaker 7 (12:19):
Well, Brian Callahan's out today exactly, so.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
You know you're on borrow time as an NFL head coach.
And like you mentioned, Sark has a pretty interesting thought
and comment about the James Franklin dismissal today. Their athletic
director Pat Kraft acknowledged that the record that Franklin had
in the Big Games played a role in this. His
quote was, I'm here to win a national championship, and

(12:42):
I believe our fans deserve that. Twelve seasons for Franklin there,
but I know when three started in the Big Ten.
They opened the year rank number two in the polls
off the appearance in the College Football playoff semifinals. In fact,
when they lost to UCLA the week after lose in Oregon,

(13:04):
they fell out of the rankings. On the same weekend
the Texas fell out of the rankings with the Long
Orange loss of Florida. They said it was the first time, well,
it was the earliest in ap POLE history that the
preseason number one and two teams in the country fell
out of the rankings, the earliest that that had ever happened.

Speaker 7 (13:25):
Whether they should have is a different matter.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Entirely right, all right, So then you know they had
lost to at the time winless Ucla, and then this
past Saturday they lost to Northwestern, And with the two losses,
Penn State became the first team since the FBS and
FCS split in nineteen seventy eight to lose consecutive games

(13:49):
while being favored by twenty or more points in each game.

Speaker 7 (13:54):
That's astounding, it.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Is so they but as we mentioned, the record that
Franklin had in the big games is the thing that
certainly plagued him. You know, they lost that double overtime
game at home to Oregon. It dropped Franklin to four
and twenty one at Penn State against AP Top ten opponents,

(14:19):
including one and eighteen against top ten ranked Big Ten
teams in conference games. The winning percentage against AP Top
ten teams of one sixty is tied for the third
worst record by a coach with a minimum of twenty
five games in a single school. Since the Pole era
began in nineteen thirty six, Penn State has not defeated

(14:41):
a Top ten opponent since beating Ohio State in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 7 (14:45):
Wow, it's not a small sample size.

Speaker 8 (14:47):
They haven't had a Ton not a bolt load of
chances per season. They've had a couple of times every
year where it was like, is this going to be
the one right?

Speaker 1 (14:57):
And Pat Kraft the ad said, this is not a
three game thing because a lot of folks as they
got fired after just three games. He goes, this is
not a three game thing. This is really diving where
we are as a program. What is the trajectory of
this program. Here's what's going to cost him the athletic department.
According to Paccraft, the av will cover the forty nine

(15:20):
million dollar.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
Buyout that Franklin is o.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
That's the second biggest buyout in history, behind only Jimbo
Fisher's seventy six million dollar buyout from Texas A and m.

Speaker 7 (15:29):
Not being covered by Adidas like some people a.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Report, Yeah, but it's it's being covered. And despite that
figure in the ongoing seven hundred million dollar renovation at
Beaver Stadium, Crafts at Penn Stable aim high in hiring
its next coach. The quote was, we want someone who
will attract the elite talent, retain players in the nil era,
and make Penn State a destination. Our goal needs to

(15:54):
be able to maximize elite level resources, attack the transfer
portal and develop at the highest level. Franklin did reach
double digit wins in six of his eleventh full seasons,
but the last Penn State national championship came thirty nine
years ago, So.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
Uh, we'll see where it goes.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
You know, we're not that many years removed away from
Penn State being in serious financial difficulty because of the
Jerry Sandusky seeandle and and the lawsuits and all they
had to pay out from there. But apparently they've recovered
from that financially anyway, and now they're ready to move
on and try to find another coach. And we'll see,

(16:34):
I think, and you'll hear Sarks say this later. I
think James Franklin will re emerge someone whire.

Speaker 8 (16:41):
Yeah, Now, where does Penn State go next? Because they're
you know, they said we're going to aim high. Well,
I've never heard of a school say they're going to
aim low. It doesn't mean that you're going to get
the guy you want or that guy is going to
be the right higher.

Speaker 7 (16:54):
And then what.

Speaker 8 (16:55):
Happens when recruits transfer success doesn't happen right away. It's
just tough, like you're looking at the possibility of not
only the rest of this season. Kind of spiraling down
the drain a little bit, but a one to two
year process.

Speaker 7 (17:10):
That's kind of all the time people get nowadays.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, yeah, they start getting antsy if you don't start
to have a pretty quick ROI. So we'll see about
that return on investment.

Speaker 5 (17:20):
All right.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Up next, Well, you're from long Horns head coach Steve
Sarkisian on a Longhorns Monday.

Speaker 5 (17:24):
You're on thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
It's one of the lesser known Billy Joel tracks. Tall
Glass House is all for Lena. It's just about a
young man's obsession with a young lady that he had
to bring time with and just yeah, I got to
get back to her and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
It was this a little bit autobiographical for you or something.

Speaker 8 (17:44):
No, My parents were in town and they love Billy Joel,
and I just remember last week when we came back
with one of his cuts that that I discovered you
were a fan, so we that.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
Yeah, let's see how many times have I seen him? Eh,
four or five?

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Let's see twice at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Fenway Park
in Boston. Wow, my wife gave me the tickets as
a Christmas gift, and I said, Wow, two tickets for
Billy Joel.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
Can I take anybody? She was like, as long as
I'm the other one. We went.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
I also took my son to see him at lambeau Field.

Speaker 6 (18:24):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
The only time I've been in lambeau Field for a
football game, but for Billy Joel concerts.

Speaker 8 (18:29):
I've been there bunch calling baseball right next door with
the Green Bay Rockers Northwoods League team play Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Well, and then and I had tickets to see him
along with Stevie Nicks at Jerry World, And the concert
got postponed for a year because Stevie's band or most
of the band got COVID, So he got postponed for
like a year. And when it was rescheduled, I couldn't
go because it was right during Big twelve basketball tournament.

(18:57):
And so Linda went and took a friend of hers
and they went and had a great time. Oh yeah,
big big fan of Billy Joel.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
All right.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Lots of Texas fans had to be happy with what
they heard and saw from the Loghorns on Saturday in
the win twenty three six over Oklahoma.

Speaker 5 (19:14):
Dominant defensive effort.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
In the three wins that sark has over the Oklahma
Sooners in all three On all three occasions, Oklahoma did
not score a touchdown forty nine nothing three years ago
and then last year thirty four to three, and this
year twenty three six, even though they had the six
nothing lead and let six three and a half, but
Texas with twenty three unanswered points to get the win.

(19:37):
Here's the opening statement from this morning's press conference, and
we brought to you live right here on thirteen hundred
the Ozone with head coach Steve Sarkisian.

Speaker 9 (19:45):
As far as the game goes, you know, I really
commend our players for showing some mental toughness. You know
that early in the game, it didn't go the way
we wanted it to go. You know, obviously we were
stubbing our toe a little bit off offensively with with
some penalties which we cleaned up later on.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
You know, they get a field goal early on in
the game.

Speaker 9 (20:07):
But then we started to settle in and you know, offensively,
I think our final six drives excluding kneeling down at
the end of the half and kneeling down at the
end of the game, you know, we had six drives
where we had opportunities to score points, whether it was
kicking field goals, scoring a touchdown. We missed a couple
of field goals in there, but I thought we effectively
moved the ball and managed the game and controlled the

(20:28):
game and controlled the line of scrimmage that way against
a very good defense, you know, to only give up
one sack. They had been leading everything in sacks, our
ability to run the ball, our ability to change tempos,
and then they were the number one third down defense,
and our ability to convert third downs. And that was
all a byproduct of us playing pretty well on first
and second down where we got into more manageable third downs.

(20:49):
We're able to convert those things to give us opportunity
to score points. I thought defensively, you know, the line
of scrimmage was was a very key factor in the
game and minimizing the quarterbacks legs, but also being sticky
and coverage, and so we were able to win on
first and second down on defense as well, which then
in turn gave us some opportunities to rush the passer,

(21:10):
to get some sacks, to get some hits on the quarterback,
to force a few errant throws, and to create some
turnovers and so three to nothing of the turnover margin,
and then again obviously special teams and you know, there's
some some really critical pet plays there. Obviously the punt
return is an easy one to see a lot of
great blocks there and nibble at scoring, but huge punt
early in the game by by Jack, you know, flipping

(21:31):
the field on the second punt, you know, we got
no return and great coverage by those guys, and so
you know, all in all, it was a really good
game for our guys, and it started throughout the week.
I thought we had a great sense of urgency and practice.
I thought we were very intentional in our practice habits,
and I thought we went into the game and matured
as the game went on. And early on, like I said,

(21:53):
it wasn't it wasn't very pretty, but I thought we
showed a lot of maturity and mental toughness and resolve
and then ultimately imposing our will as the game went on.
So fantastic game for us that way, and now we
got to show more maturity. Now, who are we going
to be when when we when we played the way
we wanted to play, And that's the challenge that we
posed to the team this morning. You know that that

(22:15):
this is the sign of a team that's mature of
do we get right back to those same habits that
we had last week with the intent, with the sense
of urgency, making every rep count and practice, and then
playing a brand and a style of football that that
we're very proud of, which.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Is a physical one.

Speaker 9 (22:31):
The Kentucky Wildcats Mark Stoops a ton of ton of
respect for for coach Stoops and the job that he's done,
not only at Kentucky for thirteen years, but his job
as a defensive coordinator at Arizona with his brother Mike.
Have gone against these guys for a long time. This
is a They've got a real style and how they
want to play the game. They want to play great defense,

(22:52):
they want to minimize the explosive plays. They want to
run the football and then create explosives off of the
run game, and they do a very good job of that.
They've play very good defense all year. They run the
football really well. And as we know, playing on the
road in the SEC at night, it's going to be
a tough environment. And and so we've got to buckle up,
We got to be ready to go.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
This is a This is a tough challenge.

Speaker 9 (23:14):
You know that the one sec home game they've had,
I believe was was Old Miss at home and that
was a one score game down to the end. And
they're they're a top five team in the country. So
we know we got to work cut out for us.
A ton of respect for that program, but we gotta
we gotta be focused on us. We got to be
enamored with us and what we need to do to
get ourselves prepared to play.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Then to the Q and A part, and he was
asked about is there a fine line between playing with
confidence as he wants him to do and then playing
with a nasty edge. It's really toward that edge, whether
you get flagged or playing out of control.

Speaker 5 (23:47):
How fine is that line.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
I don't think it's a line.

Speaker 9 (23:50):
I think we keep we keep pushing towards that, you know,
I think we keep pushing towards towards playing with that edge,
playing with that sense of physicality, but gaining I think
when you have confidence, you're more apt to play that way,
and so we've got to continue to instill confidence. But
you gain confidence throughout the week by knowing what to do,

(24:11):
and that allows you to go cut it loose and
play a little bit more freely in all facets of
the game. Well, that's offense, defense, special teams, line of scrimmage,
our perimeter players, and I thought we grew as the
game went on that way.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
In facing the Kentucky Wildcats, they're taking on a team
that's coming off of bye weeks at an open date,
and Sark was asked, what are some of the keys
to success against a team that you're facing that's had
a week of rest and chance to heal up, that's
coming off of.

Speaker 9 (24:37):
Bye One is knowing what we're what we're trying to
do in the game, you know, and again every game
is different. You know, how we attacked ou on offense, defense,
special teams is going to be different of how we're
going to try to attack Kentucky. They've had some extended
time to look at what we do. You know, we
have to do a good job of scouting ourselves. I'm
sure they're going to do some things that our opponents

(24:58):
have done in previous weeks that cause problems, and so
we have to kind of, you know, see the forest
through the trees here a little bit and not just
get so focused on what's right in front of us.
But hey, all right, what has happened in the past
that was issues in any phase of the game, whether
it was the block punt, whether it was some of
the pressures that have gotten to arch, you know, whether

(25:19):
it's some of the schemes on offense that hurt us,
and prep for things that maybe Kentucky hasn't shown yet,
but they clearly could do with some extended time to
prepare for us.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
All Right, we'll hear more from Sart coming up next
hour and in the four o'clock hour as well. Up
next inconceivable for a Monday 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 alongside the producer Jay Carman. Hey,

(25:51):
one thing I want to do right now is to
give you a chance to win a pair of tickets
to see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest on the twenty
fifth of this month at the Jermaine Insurance Amphitheater. So
that's coming up on the twenty fifth and the Germani
Insurance Amphitheater out of codein So if you're interested in

(26:13):
trying to win a pair of tickets to see Alice
Cooper and Judice Priest. You download the iHeartRadio app, you
tap the red microphone a little button there. You search
AM thirteen under the zone if you haven't already downloaded
the app, and once you get a download, you search
AM thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
It pops up.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Then you tap that little red button with a white
microphone and you leave us a message with the keyword
that you heard on this program.

Speaker 5 (26:36):
The keyword today. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
It's pretty easy for you because it's you, as in
yo you. That's the keyword for today. You'll figure out
why is the week progress? It's why it's you. So anyway,
just want to let you know that, all right. Coming
up in a few minutes, Gene Watson our Major League
Baseball Insider to talk about the American League Championship Series.

(26:58):
In the National League Championship Series ALCS got underway last night.
What a turnaround for the Seattle Mariners. Spotted a home
run on the first pitch to George Springer in the
bottom of the first, but that was it. That's all
they had, and the Mariners got a home run from
the big dumper, Cal Rawley and came back and won

(27:18):
Game one three to one. So Game two getting ready
to start right now. Tonight is Game one of the
Nationally Championship Series. The Dodgers played the Brewers in Milwaukee
game one. So anyway, Gene Watson will joined us in
a few minutes to talk about all of that. All right,
let's hear from Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer on their
thirty twenty seven walk off loss to the Carolina Panthers

(27:39):
yesterday in Charlotte.

Speaker 10 (27:40):
They controlled the game, you know, on both sides, and
you got to give them credit for that. We knew
they were physical football team. We weren't surprised by that,
but they were able to.

Speaker 11 (27:50):
Run it and we weren't. And you know, this is
a thank you.

Speaker 10 (27:53):
This is a game where you know, you gotta win
the line of scrimmage, and we didn't win the line
of scrimmage today.

Speaker 11 (27:59):
I told the team that it's disappointing.

Speaker 10 (28:01):
But you know, I got to give them a lot
of credit, you know, and they ran hard, they blocked well,
and you know, we have to be better and we'll
look at it and we'll get it fixed.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Obviously, what they really need to fix is what's happening
on defense or not happening.

Speaker 5 (28:14):
And they've not been effective enough on defense.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
And we know that Maddyberflus has a really good defensive scheme,
but shot Nambers has Does he have the person that
will run it?

Speaker 10 (28:22):
Yeah, absolutely, no question about it. We got to coach better,
We got to play better. The physicality of it all.
You know, we're a physical football team. We didn't show
it today. Give them credit, and we have to We
have to be better. And it's not just the defense,
it's the offense. Yeah, we threw the ball all over
the yard and that was great, but at the end

(28:43):
of the day, we want to be balanced and we
weren't able to do that today. And we got to
look at that as an offensive staff and see what
they did to stop the run.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
All right, It's one thing to have the personnel to
run that defensive scheme. It's another if they believe they
can be successful. So shot Nambers has to do Is
players believe even this defensive scheme?

Speaker 11 (29:01):
Oh, that's the bigger question, I would think, So, I
would hope. So, I mean, we're what are we in?
Six games in? Is that right? We six games in? Yeah?

Speaker 10 (29:09):
I would think so, you know, we plugged one hole
in the passing game a couple of weeks ago. Right, Certainly,
we've shown the ability to run the football. We've shown
the ability to stop the run. But there's a consistency
that's not showing up. And we got to be better.
And that starts with me, that starts with the coaching
staff putting these guys in the right position. But again,

(29:29):
give Carolina credit. They were the more physical team today.
We knew that it was going to be a physical game.
And I'm man enough to stand up here in front
of you guys and say that.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
And I don't like it.

Speaker 10 (29:38):
I don't like saying it to our team, but when
you turn on the film, that's what you're going to see.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
So then he was asked if he has any doubts
that Eberflush can get this thing turned around.

Speaker 11 (29:50):
That's a great coach. I mean, that's a great coach.

Speaker 10 (29:52):
He's been around everybody's everybody's had good defenses, you know,
and it's not just Matt by himself.

Speaker 11 (29:56):
You know, Matt's trying. You know, the players are trying.

Speaker 10 (29:59):
This is not a lack of it effort, This is
not that it's again, we have to be able to
play more complimentary defense. And you know, early in the
season we were getting hurt throwing the football. Then you know,
this this game, we got hurt run on the football.
We were not surprised, and we got to tackle better.
You know, our gap control is not very good right now.
That's the big thing I'd say to you. Our gap

(30:20):
control is not where it needs to be. We're not
fitting gaps right shoot. I think you know, first half
it seemed like there was you know, almost probably seventy
five eighty percent of their runs the guy was four
or five yards before you know we had contact on him.
That's not good enough and we know that and we're
going to address.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
It, all right, So what about the offense? Now, you know,
the offense has been really, really good. This is one
of those deals everybody always has. If the defense is struggling,
does the offense get ticked off? If the offense is struggling,
does the defense get out of sorts? And so that
question was asked to shottheimers the offense getting frustrated with
the cowboy defense.

Speaker 11 (30:56):
Absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
No.

Speaker 10 (30:58):
Our offensive guys cheer for our defensive guys, as our
defensive guys cheer for our offensive guys.

Speaker 11 (31:02):
I mean, you know that's.

Speaker 10 (31:03):
Again people want to talk about the culture and the
connection piece, right, and that's where it comes in.

Speaker 11 (31:10):
It comes in for moments like this. You know that
locker room's hurting. I'm hurting.

Speaker 10 (31:15):
Why because we let an opportunity slip to win another
championship opportunity And it's frustrating as hell. But you don't
point fingers. You know, you look at the film. We're
going to see it. It's going to jump off the
film at us the things that we didn't do well
and and we'll get them fixed. And I don't worry
about this team, uh starting to point fingers in any way,

(31:36):
shape or for him.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
And then finally Sean Emmer was asked about this relationship
that's continuing to develop and it looks good between Dak
Prescott and George.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
Pickens and what they've been able to do. Yeah, unbelievable.

Speaker 10 (31:51):
You know again, when we got GP, everybody wanted to
talk about you know, you know him and his story
and his background and all that stuff. That guy has
been truly a pleasure to coach. And you talk about
a talented young man that loves to play the game
of football.

Speaker 11 (32:08):
But he and dak Man, you.

Speaker 10 (32:10):
Guys see a little bit of it, but then you
guys have to leave, and it sucks. I'm not changing
it so you guys can't stay and watch. But I
mean they work NonStop and they're talking NonStop. And that's
a relationship that you love to see because two talented
players working together as a coach, that's what you.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
All right, So there it is some some good, good
connection there between those two.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
All right.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Up next, we'll talk some baseball with Geene Watson coming
up here on thirteen out of the Zone.

Speaker 12 (32:50):
Kind it's the big Mars Newt and Mos.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Are you welcome you back to our program here on
thirteen hundred the zone. As we continue here on this,
I say long Oorts money is and we'll hear more
from long Ortons head coach Steve Sarcasian coming up. But
I mentioned we're going to talk to baseball. We haven't
had a chance to visit with Gene Watson since prior
to the start of the Wildcard Series, so that has

(33:27):
coming gone and the Division Series has coming gone, and
now we're up to the ALCS and the NLCS and
one game in the books in the American League Championship
Series and Game one of the NLCS coming up tonight.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
So Gene Watson joins us.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Not now you're out in Arizona with the developmental stuff
going on with the White Sox organization, Is that the deal?

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Yeah, We've got some stuff going on in our complex
with our performance camps, and then the Arizona Fall League
is going on.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
We had a Mexican League.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Tournament, the Fiesta Mexicana, which is always a great event.
And also Major League Baseball has their Young Executive pipe
playing event going on, which I'm gonna speak at in
about forty five minutes. So it's a lot happening and
it's a great time of year.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
I mean I think about all the traditions and stuff
in Texas, so you obviously we just come off that
being a tradition, and there's other football traditions, but for you,
one of your traditions is being in Arizona every autumn,
isn't it?

Speaker 6 (34:27):
It really is.

Speaker 11 (34:28):
It's a it's a great time.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
We've had a lot of flooding here the last four
days and more expected to come later tonight, so we
haven't been on the field in about four days. For games,
But no, it's a wonderful time of year. You just
hit the reset button. You begin your off season planning.
I literally reached out to all twenty nine other clubs
today to talk about where they were moving into the

(34:51):
off season. So you start gathering that information, and some
clubs are ahead of others with you know, what their
plans are. But you know, you begin to have the
conversations of what you want to accomplish this winner, and
how you match up with other teams and trades, and
certainly how you match up with free agents.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Before we get to talking about the two series that
are going on this week, the ALCS and the NLCS.
I'm always interested in getting your thoughts on the constant
moving and shaking that goes on major League Baseball, with
the front offices and with the field manager positions as well.
Today we hear Mike shult Is retiring as the manager

(35:30):
of the San Diego Padres. He had two years left
on his deal, but he said, and here was the quote,
the grind of the baseball season has taken a severe
toll on me mentally, physically and emotionally. He's fifty seven
years of age, and on Saturday he was when he
apparently he informed the team of his his impending retirement.

(35:52):
And I know this goes beyond Mike Shult deciding that
he had and he's an outstanding manager, deciding that he
was going to retire.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
I mean, this.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Game, even if you're a lifer, it can it can
take a toll long you can it, Craig.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
There's no question.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
I mean I'm fifty seven years old as well. And
you begin to start to think about, Okay, you know,
the trip that used to be nothing to you four
or five, six years ago becomes a lot to you
when you start to measure it versus you know, seeing
your grandkids play baseball or being with your family at
a certain event. And you know, this is twenty four seven,

(36:30):
three sixty five.

Speaker 6 (36:31):
Your time is not of your own.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Even when you're saying a Longhorn game or a Notre
Dame game, you know, you're you're on the phone with agents,
You're on the phone with players trying to recruit them
to your organization.

Speaker 6 (36:43):
It never ever ends. And you know, my wife could
write a.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Book on the stories of things that I've had to do,
you know, while we're on family trips, and so for.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
Some it just becomes a real reflective time in.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Their life where they feel like, you know what, I've
had enough, and they move forward with their lives and
there's keep going. But it is a taxing It's literally
the conversation I'm about to have with these young executives
about getting in the game for the right reasons and
understanding the toll it takes on you mentally and physically.

(37:17):
More importantly, what it does to your families. And it
is a lot every day.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Talking baseball with team Watson from the Chicago White Sox
front office here on thirteen hundreds. All right, let's shift
our attention to the playoff series. Let's start in the
American League. One game is already in the books. I
remember asking you several weeks ago about the Seattle Mariners,
and you said, they're coming, They're coming, They're coming, They're
coming on. You weren't surprised when they won the American
League West, and has anything not necessarily just about the Mariners.

(37:45):
But is anything in the al right now in the
American League playoffs surprised you to this point to where
we see right now Seattle and Toronto in any ALCS.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
I don't think so, because I mean Seattle's been my
pick since really, you know, late July, early August. I
think the one thing that you could kind of see
is the momentum of the Toronto Blue Jays coming losing, losing, Moba. Shit,
it's just just it's just enormous for them, you know.
I know he was running the basis yesterday, maybe reaggravated

(38:19):
some things, uh, but that.

Speaker 6 (38:21):
That's just a huge blow.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
And and you know you're gonna get a treat tonight.
They have a young man named Trey Yesovich that's gonna
throw tonight. That was their first round pick out of
East Carolina, that started the year at a ball and
he's worked his way all the way up and just
a tremendous talent. He's already a fan favorite Toronto off
his last start, So for for baseball fans that may

(38:43):
not be familiar with the name, this is one of
the best young pitchers in the game of baseball.

Speaker 6 (38:48):
And he's gonna have a lot on his shoulders.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Tonight, being down to one to oh and and having
to go back to Seattle.

Speaker 6 (38:54):
He's he's got a lot of pressure. But he certainly
entered the bell last time. But I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
I think that that we're right where you know, we
felt like we would be. And Seattle proved in the
last series in that fifteen inning game what starting pitching
depth does to a team. And then you know, to
be able to bring out Luis Castillo out of the
pen and Logan Gilbert out of the pen, and just
the starters that they have.

Speaker 6 (39:20):
That's kind of what it gets down to. Now. Your
your pen days are out the window, and you're trying
to figure out, you know, when.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Can when you use these guys in high leverage situations
in the series to get more workload out of them,
more impact out of them. And that's where for me,
the Dodgers and the Mariners really really hold the panel
right now.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Okay, so you know, Mariners were really impressive to me
last night, Geno, where they could be in as tired
as they were, having to go fifteen innings and spend
all that pitching to grind out that win in Game
five against Detroit. Get on the plane the next day,
fly across the country and cross an internation old border
by the way, and get to Toronto and on Saturday

(40:04):
and then play last night and George Springer Homer's on
the first pitch he sees in the bottom of the
first I'm sure everybody's thinking, yeah, they don't have it tonight.
And boy did they stem the tide and turn it around.
And then and then some of their best players really
became clutch. Obviously, cal Rawley's playing really well in the postseason.
He's did in the regular season. Julio Rodriguez as well,

(40:26):
and Horiy Plonko, what more can you say about what
he's done in this postseason.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Yeah, and Leo Reebas, who had you know, nine hundred
that bats nine hundred games in the minor leagues, comes
up and gets a big hit. Eugenio Suarez, who can
be a streaky hitter, you know, hits a big home run.
That's that's kind of what they're about. It's it's somebody
different every night, uh, pulling the rope. And you know,
Josh Naylor hasn't really, you know, completely taken.

Speaker 6 (40:53):
Off what he's capable of doing. So it's just a.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Really dangerous team. And you know, I know you know this,
but Battle travels more miles than anybody any professional sports team.
And you know, Jerry Depoto, their president, a very close
friend of mine years ago.

Speaker 6 (41:10):
Began him and Andy McKay.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Andy McKay started doing studies on sports science and the
travel effects, and they felt like.

Speaker 6 (41:17):
After that fifteen inning game, it was.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Better for guys to go home and get a good
night's sleep and then fly that day rather than you know,
you do, you do your celebration, you got press conference interviews.
Now you've got to get on a plane in flack
cross country and land at six seven o'clock in the
morning and play.

Speaker 6 (41:35):
It just didn't make a lot of sense.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
So they did a great thing, and they've done a
lot of study on that and it's certainly paying off
for them. But this is a very dangerous team because
of their pitching and because it's it's some of all
of its parts and not you know, two or three superstars.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
So safe to say you're sticking with your pick of Seattle,
who you landed on a few weeks ago and said,
this is a dangerous team. You're picking Seattle to knock
out the one seed to to win the American League.

Speaker 6 (42:03):
I do.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
I think it could take six games, but I think
they're pitching and just the way they can work around
the pitching is just the biggest strength.

Speaker 5 (42:11):
That they have.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
We're talking Baseball, Gene Watson, our MLB inside. All right,
let's jump to the National League. I'm gonna give you
credit for something. Even though even though you thought the
Phillies were the best team in the National League, you said,
the one thing that they wind up playing the Dodgers,
and you thought they would. You thought LA would go
ahead and beat Cincinnati, and this is the last time
we visited. And then you said the one thing LA's
got going for him the experience and the starting pitching.

(42:35):
And how big was the starting pitching for Los Angeles
in that series with the Phillies. And I know you've
played enough baseball and coached enough baseball and seen enough
baseball to feel just feel horrible for Oriyan Kirkering and
the way that Division series ended on the throat of
the plate. But it really started, certainly with the starting
pitching and then Roki Sasaki really emerging. Now it's a

(42:57):
true closer for Los Angeles. Let's talk a little bit
about them, and then we're going to talk about the
one seed overall Milwaukee.

Speaker 6 (43:05):
Well, it's what a great series.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
And Kirkering with the throw, I mean, geez, he just
feels so terrible for the player and he really is
one of the most talented relievers in the game. And
he's young man, he's he's got a bright future for them.

Speaker 6 (43:19):
But what a weapon Sosaki has been.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
And again, much like Yesovich with Toronto, this is a
guy that was really really struggling early in the season
and you know, they had to send them back to
Triple A and it wasn't going great then and they
kind of got him going again and then just kind
of chteam back in and for him to be that
weapon out of the bullpen, just another weapon for them
to have, is enormous.

Speaker 6 (43:43):
But for me, it begins and ends with starting pitching.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
And when you look at the Dodgers, I mean, if
the Dodgers play the Maritters, which is.

Speaker 6 (43:52):
What I expect it to be, it is going to be.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
I mean, offense is going to be at a premium
And watch it, like early in the playoffs, watch how
teams change their game plan to try to play for
every run. When you look at Seattle with Josh Naylor
stealing third, you look at guys that wouldn't normally try
to steal bases stealing bases. They've done all the work
on the situations in which they can do that to

(44:16):
try to create just the opportunity to pick up one run.
I talked to aj Inch yesterday morning, and that was
the one thing he said is they had so many
opportunities to inch out a run and they just couldn't
get the big hit to do it.

Speaker 6 (44:30):
And that was the difference in that series.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
But I just think that the Dodgers are so strong
and so powerful with that pitching and the star power,
and you get them in Dodger Stadium in October, they're
really tough to be.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
When the Dodgers and Brewers fashioned their twenty six man rosters,
the's a couple of different changes from what each had
in the Division Series. The Dodgers have had Ben Casaparius,
who gave the Dodgers some good innings during the course
of you. They set him down to Oklahoma City late
in the season. Now they brought him back. He's on
the roster. They sent Dalton Rushing. He's not on the

(45:04):
roster because Ben Rourtvett has done a tremendous job catching
while Will Smith was healing up. Now Will Smith is
healthy again, and they got rpt Vett as a left
handed bat off the bench that they need.

Speaker 5 (45:16):
Plus he's an outstanding defensive catcher.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
And then they've got Kaspirius and they added Justin Rableski,
who got added to the NLDS roster because Tanner Scott
had that indominal infection, so he's had to go off
and not eligible for this. So there's that, and then
Milwaukee leaving Nick Neer's off the roster for the NLCS

(45:40):
and they're gonna have a right hand or Tobias Myers
who was not on the roster in the division series
against the Cubs. How about your thoughts on the Brewers
and what they had to do to tough out that
series win over Chicago.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Well, the Dodgers are the most talented team. The Brewers
are the best baseball team. They play really clean baseball,
and it's really a testimony to Matt Arnold in the
way that they go about their minor league system and
the operations, in the detail and the little things in
winning a baseball game, which Pat Murphy certainly resonates coming
from the college game, and they just have such an

(46:17):
attention to detail and doing all the whole things right,
running the bases, hitting the cutoff men, you know, all
those little things that help getting a bunt down, when
you have to hitting behind runners, all the little things
that come with winning baseball games. They are They're not
that They've got a lot of young Tallis South Frelich,

(46:38):
Brice Terrain, and what they did with Andrew Vaughn coming
over from US and rejuvenating his career.

Speaker 6 (46:44):
They just have a way of going around.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
The league and finding guys that may be underachieving, bringing
them in Milwaukee, fixing them, and them being a part
of the twenty six man roster. It's for me, two
completely different styles of play. And when you talk about
the Dodgers, Likelton Rushing is going to be one of
the best offensive catchers in the game of baseball. But
if you have Will Smith, and Will Smith is ready
to go, and Yor did what he did, you got

(47:09):
to spend that roster spot on something, and they spend
it on pitching linked with Casparrek, who's going to give
you linked in the middle, and power with Robleski, who
is arguably one of the best young left handed pitching
prospects of the game.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
And so that's where Rushing kind of gets pushed off.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
But I just think that in this matchup, like Milwaukee's
gonna have to pitch flawlessly out of their rotation. They
can't afford crooked numbers early in the game because once
the Dodgers get rolling, they're tough to beat, and they're
starting pitching is just so tough that Milwaukee has the
ability to do it. But they got to play really

(47:47):
clean baseball.

Speaker 5 (47:47):
For pitch one.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
All right, So your pick for the National League is.

Speaker 6 (47:52):
I would take the Dodgers in six.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Okay, all right, Hey, appreciate as always. I know you
got to get to the speaking and age. We'll check
again next week and we'll see if we're still talking
League Championship Series or for previewing the World Series. But
I appreciate the time as always, Gino. And by the way,
your Notre Dame Fighting Iris are surging. Big game with
USC this week.

Speaker 6 (48:16):
I'm headed to South ben Thursday afternoon.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Okay, all right, have a good one.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
Actually, Actually, Aaron Boone, Jim Tolmy Ray Montgomery, Phil Nevin,
we're all meeting in Chicago Thursday and we're rolling over
to South Bend Friday morning. So it's going to be
a big baseball weekend for us in South Bend.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
I know you're also very pleased for your second favorite team,
because you texted me right after the Long Horns BT
Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday.

Speaker 6 (48:41):
Oh, I've had so much fun with my friends north
of the Red River. It's it's been a great week.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
All right, Gino, thanks, travel safe.

Speaker 6 (48:49):
Okay, y'all take care.

Speaker 5 (48:50):
All right.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
That's Geene Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office,
and Gino knows his baseball inside out, so he likes
the Mariners in the to be in the World Series.

Speaker 5 (49:02):
You'll get no argument for me. I hope it works
if it works out that way.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
As a Dodger Van, I'm happy because the Dodgers would
have home field advantage if that happens in the World Series.

Speaker 8 (49:10):
Right, And you know that the topic I brought up
last week the Dodgers and Brewers kind of as a
proxy for can the Dodgers make history rite and repeat
for the first time in over twenty five years? And
what does that mean for where baseball is coming into

(49:30):
the next CBA. That article just came out earlier today
from Jeff Pass and it's very interesting. But like Jean
brought up, the Brewers and Dodgers both built their roster
mostly through trading it's not as if you can oversimplify it. Well,
one team has homegrown talent and the other doesn't. It
kind of cuts both ways the way those rosters came

(49:50):
to be.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Yeah, yeah, it did, and it'll be interesting to see
how that all plays out. All right, Up next, we'll
hear from long Word, said coach Steve Sarkisian.

Speaker 5 (49:59):
We can and you on thirteen under the.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Zone here on a long orange Monday on thirteen hundred zone.
By the way, on the text line, this tells me
about somebody who hasn't been listening to the program.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
I think it's our resident guardians Vanish.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Can you ask mister Watson how he can explain Josh
Naylor's stealing thirty plus bases at having a three percent speed?

Speaker 5 (50:20):
That is pretty funny?

Speaker 1 (50:21):
And he did talk about that catch up by surprise,
but then he followed up with, hey, where's Cameron? Did
he joined the corn Ferry Tour? Cameron would like to
think that his game was good enough to join the
corn Faery Tour?

Speaker 7 (50:31):
Sure, don't we all?

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Cam?

Speaker 1 (50:33):
He is still with us, He's still around, and he's
he's kind of been like promoted upstairs, so to speak,
but he still does on there. He still does our
pregame and post game or our pregame long WRN game
day stuff and pops in will have him pop in
the bar and talk some cowboys as always. But Jake
Carmon the producer of the program, and Cameron is still

(50:54):
very much alive and well and he is around the premises.
If you want to text the program, you text the
word texas followed by your question and comment to eight
one five three zero.

Speaker 5 (51:04):
Standard messaging and data rates may apply.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Let's here's some more from Longworin's head coach, Steve Sarkeshan
asked about Arch manning the progress and what has been
most notable to him as a head coach about Arch's improvement.

Speaker 9 (51:19):
I think one thing that Arch has done, he's been
very even keeled in. You know, he continued to work
at his craft and I think that you know, last
week he had a ton of third down conversions and
he used his legs on one. I think he had
seven other completions on third downs for conversions to a
variety of different people. None of them were not all

(51:40):
of them were on schedule. There were some off schedule,
and that's a strength of his, you know, his ability
to use his feet, use his.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
Legs and still throw well on the run.

Speaker 9 (51:50):
I thought, what he's doing better is keeping his eyes
up and keeping his vision up. And it's hard as
a quarterback when you're getting hit, it's hard to not
look at who might be coming to hit you. But
I think he has really improved at that. And you know,
there was a play that stood out. You know, there
was a conversion to Parker backed up on third down
where you know there was some pressure internally up inside

(52:12):
a week ago, two weeks ago, Arche may have looked
at the guy that's rushing. I think he felt the rush,
flushed the pocket, kept his eyes up and might have
arguably been the best pass he's.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
Thrown all year.

Speaker 9 (52:22):
And what a critical play that was, hitting Parker on
the sideline. So I think it's his comfort in the pocket,
feeling the rush, not looking at the rush, and extending plays.
I mean, you know the third down conversion to Ryan
Wingo the third down, there's a conversion to DeAndre more
on our sidelines. There's another, you know, big play to
to DeAndre early in the game where he gets flushed

(52:43):
to his left and finds DeAndre over the over the
middle of the field. So I think it's him keeping
his eyes up, feeling the rush. I think there's growth there.
And I feel like he's throwing the ball. I like
to call it, he's throwing catchable passes. You know that
there's there's a nice touch now coming on on the ball.
Is not does it feel so anxious? And I think

(53:05):
there's some growth.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Right, And then also was asked about areas on the
offensive front, the performance of the offensive line and what
he's seeing there.

Speaker 9 (53:15):
I thought the offensive line did a really good job.
You know, that's a tough front. Oeu's got a very
good front, and they've got some very talented players. They've
got a really good scheme. We we knew that they
were going to cause us issues. We just tried to
minimize the negative plays, which is an area where they
have thrived, and for the most part we did. We've

(53:37):
got to improve on some things and we will, but
going up against that front and then playing the way
they played, you know, we were definitely pleased, all right.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
He was also asked about areas that he has liked
and the areas that still need work. Now that the
Longhorns are at the numerical halfway point, of the regular
season six games in First of.

Speaker 9 (53:56):
All, psychologically, I like the resolve and in that I
think that that's something that is important, that the resolve
of the team. I like the fact that we played
as a team Saturday and we were very connected. That's
a powerful thing it was, you know, and again that
that game provides some of that. But the engagement on

(54:17):
the sideline, you know, both sides of the ball. Once
we made our adjustments, everybody was up, everybody was into
the game.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
And that's what it takes. You got, We got into.

Speaker 9 (54:25):
Play as a team, and so I'm really pleased with
that gross side of it. I like the fact on
offense that multiple players are making plays at critical moments.
You know, obviously Trey being back was huge for us.
But you know, there's there's third down conversions here to
I'm trying to find this here. I don't I know
I have this note on here, but there's you know,
DeAndre Moore's got two third down conversions, Parker has two

(54:48):
third down conversions, Trey Wisener has two third down conversions.
Ryan Wingo has a third down conversion. That we're not
stuck just forcing the ball to people. That a variety
of people are making plays and there's more there where.
We got to get Emitt more involved, Jack more involved.
So spurting the ball around I think is important to us.
I feel like, you know, from one week to next.

(55:09):
I know one game doesn't define it, but I think
we're finding a little continuity on the offensive line. With
Nick getting another game under his belt. You know, he's young,
He's going to make some mistakes, but I think he
provides kind of what DJ provided a couple of years
for us. There's some energy, there's some attitude which is
good for us, and some rhythm in the run game.

(55:29):
You know, I think defensively, you know, the depth we
have up front, I think is starting to show. And
this is about the time when depth should start to
show itself. And so as much as Colin had two
and a half, Sacks had a great game, boy, Brad
Spence had a really good game, Lace Jackson had a
really good game. And so that depth is starting to
show up for us. At the line of scrimmage, and

(55:50):
I thought, what was good for us? You know, we
got banged up at corner there where Manny was down
for a minute, Jalen Gilbert was down for a minute,
we saw growth in Warren roverson getting put in, you know,
in the fourth corners in the game and playing in
a game like that.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
So our depth on defense is starting to show up.

Speaker 9 (56:06):
And again when we can, when we can you know,
win at the line of scrimmage and eliminate the explosive
plays that offenses have down the field and force them
to earn the ball and make them earn it down
the field. And and we can be physical and put
hats on people and affect the quarterback. That's a winning
formula for us. And and you know, I was saying
this a few weeks ago. I felt like our punt

(56:27):
return unit had a chance to be really explosive. And
Ryan had some long returns and hadn't scored. But for
that aspect of the game to be to be a
positive one for us was big. I think our ability
to control vertical field position with our kickoffs and our
punt game has been very good to us. And and
again with Mason, you know, he's three for five Saturday.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
I mean the two.

Speaker 9 (56:49):
Misses, once for fifty five, once for fifty six, and
the fifty five he hit it really well, and I
mean it's coming back in he clips the inside of
the upright. That was why I tried the fifth six
and he didn't hit it great. I hate that for
him because I think he's more than capable, But it
changes our perspective on maybe how we're going to play.
You know, you know, I'd probably be a really apt

(57:11):
to go for it in that situation on a fourth
and three, But know when I have him in my
back pocket there to kick those field goals shifts the
changes the math some on how we can play the game.
And so we're evolving as a team. We're learning this
team as we go, and we're in a very good position.
As I said, we're one and one in conference play,

(57:32):
and you know, like moving on and moving forward, like
this is an SEC championship game for us. You know,
you guys are seeing the records in our conference and
there's a lot that's going to happen, and you know
a lot of people are going to eat each other
here as we go, and we got to.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
Control our own our own business.

Speaker 9 (57:47):
But I think we're learning our team and our style
of playing how we can play moving forward, and so
a lot of positives there that you know, we can
build on and some things that we need to improve upon.
For sure, We're not a finished product, all right.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
He was talking a little bit about the offensive line
earlier and Nick Brooks has kind of been inserted into
that rotation, is working a lot at the guard spot,
and he was asked about the improvement. Where has he
improved and how has he helped the offensive line overall?

Speaker 9 (58:14):
I think a couple of things he's done. He's in
the best shape that he's been in since he got here.
You know, this guy arrived he was over three hundred
and sixty pounds. You know, we were in training camp.
He was in the three fifties. You know, this weekend
he was at Shade over three point thirty. So he's
getting in better shape, he's better conditioned. I think his
practice habits, the intent in which he's practicing. He's working

(58:36):
at his craft, I think has been helpful. And I
think his trust is better. He's playing in between two
really you know, smart players in Trevor and Cole, and
if he trusts those guys to make the calls, he's
got the ability to go do it.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
Now. Hey, he wasn't.

Speaker 9 (58:50):
Perfect Saturday, but he's definitely a heck of a lot
better this Saturday than he was a week ago, and
so hopefully we can continue on that trajectory.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Next up is question about the progression of the freshmen
and the younger players and those younger receivers as well,
and what they all still need to do.

Speaker 9 (59:08):
I think that classes is been productive. You know, Grayson
Littleton with a with another interception. I think he played
forty something snaps in the game, you know, for Ust
and obviously Lance and and Nick. You know, James Simon
is coming along at running back. You know, Trey was
just so hot, but James really was a guy who
was trying to get the ball to He got a

(59:29):
couple of carries, but it just didn't come to fruition.
But he's he's working and he's getting better. Kate Phillips
is getting better, Jonahs getting better, and a lot of
guys are getting better. The tough part with the with
the young whiteoutse who are you gonna play him.

Speaker 4 (59:42):
Over right now?

Speaker 9 (59:43):
You know, I mean we we've got a good group now.
They're they're improving, and Klick and Jamie have really they're
coming along, but so are I think our older players
are getting better too. I think we're getting the best
version of Ryan Wingo, DeAndre Moore and Moseley Parker so
uh and and Dade McCutcheon is you know when hit
the ops he got he did what he was supposed
to do. So again, it's not anything to take away

(01:00:05):
from those guys, but I think it's kind of hard
to go in a game thinking you're gonna play eight
wideouts in one game, and especially a critical one score
game like the way that one was going A Sark
likes to.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Say, it's champagne problems, you know, nice problems to have.
There By the way, the text line our guy was
asking about Cam said, hey, they're grooming him for the top.
Like William Hurt in the movie Broadcast News. If you've
ever seen that movie, that'll bring a smile to your face.
There's two lines that really come to come to mind
out of that movie. One is when Albert Brooks is

(01:00:38):
feeding all that information from his phone and then the
producer sending it to William Hurt's earpiece because he really
doesn't know anything, and he's asking these questions and it's
a listening good responses and Albert Brooks is, it's amazing.
I say it here and it comes out there. So
there's that and then the other one is the question

(01:00:59):
is what happens when your wildest dreams come true? So
if you keep it to yourself, that's kid. Yeah, all right,
we'll be back to wrap by Bower number two of
thirteen under the zone. It is the one one hundred
and twenty first meeting of the two rivals on opposite
sides of the Red River. Back the throat blitz his

(01:01:22):
coming Mateer lets it fly across the middle and it
is intercepting picked up by Malik Muhammad.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Welcome back, Manny. It's a pickoff. The Longborns will have
it on their own.

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
Forty two.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
John Mattire from the gun, looks over to the fens,
clap of the hands and has the snap, looks under
some pressure, rolls right, looks again, wrapped up down he
goes long worn. Second Colin Simmons, the local product out
of Duncan Bell hide drops him for a loss of six.
Meisner shifts out of the backfield in motion, creating an
empty set. Shotgun snap to arch Manning. Manning looking steps up,

(01:01:55):
fires over the middle. It's caught touchdown Texas Deandrey Moore
in the back of the end zone.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
What a dry to start the.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Second half a twelve yard touchdown pass and the long
Horns had their first lead in the all state record
River rivalry. Calling third and seven shotgun staff Manny swings
it out right side of Wiser's got to make a
man miss.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Dust turns it up Tield.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Here goes Tray to the forty Leisner to the forty
five to midfield. Kind of first down in Oklahoma territory
the forty nine yard line when Travan Weleister caught the
ball and then Trey had to make a man miss.
He did and then turned on his boots for a
catch and run of nineteen yards.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Long camp from the quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
My Tier has it back to throwing third down fires
over the middle, ball ten intercepting picked off at midfield.
It's Grayson Lyttleton Littleton, the freshman picks off his second
pass of the year and the Longhorns have the third
interception of the ball game against John Mattier has the
staff to kick.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
His away a good punt.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Nimblet settles under at the Texas twenty five turns upfield
of the third to the forty Bryan Yiblin to midfield,
nibbling down the sidelines from the forty to the thirty,
saying good night to this one.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Brian Neblin a seventy five.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
Yard cut return for a Longhorns buck's down.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Three receivers on wide left, Rod Clamba shotgun.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Stamp back of a tier now under pressure log ORNs
happened and the ball came loose, but he's down. Michael
tam and hero On canoe team up on a sack
of a ross of ten. Four down on twenty two
for Oklahoma to Texas thirty seven shotgun stamp the Matier
back to throw scrambles to the left bea takes by
Brad Spence in as he throws it's it complete. The

(01:03:38):
log Horns take over. Tray More and Bradstens come in.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
The log Horns takeover on downs with five thirty six
to go in the game.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
On third down, a long two needed for the first
manning out disco ass the snaff turns keeps it himself.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Here goes arge pass.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
The first down has four manning down the sidelines the
thirty and.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Slides down arch Fanning a big run takes it to
the twenty six. A twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Yard gallup Mason Chipley on for a thirty nine yard
field goal. Good snap and hold Shipley's kick on the
way and it is good. When the Long Warns would
appear to have an insurmountable lead, They're up seventeen boys
with two fifty nine remaining in the ball game, It's
down twenty three to six. Long Warm one second down

(01:04:31):
and ten shotgun snap back the job. A Tier steps up,
scrambles to the right. He chased by Colline Simmons, having
Loston no matter.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Brad Spence finishes the job of the sack.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
Simmons tracked him down as he turned back around the
opposite way, Spence dropped him for walls A twelve arch
Banning puts down the knee. Hands are celebrating the Texas
Long Worns with a dominant defensive effort and a very
efficient game.

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
From arch Banning.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
When tra V and Weisner and the rest of the
long wing offense roll back and beat the Oklahoma Sooners
for the third time in the last four seasons, the
Texas LOLd Warns beat the Oklahoma Suoners and hold them
without a touchdown in all three matchups.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
The final score from the Cotton Bowl in.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Dallas, the Texas Long Warns twenty three the Oklahoma Sooners six,
and with that so much of the long warn football
season was put back on the track. Now still a
long way to go and a lot to accomplish, and
still an uphill climb to try to contend in the
Southeastern Conference, to reach the SEC Championship game, to reach

(01:05:48):
the college football playoffs. Those are things that are still
out there. Though a lost to Oklahoma might have derailed
all of that, good chance. It probably would have a
second consecutive SEC loss, but a win and win over
a ranked opponent, an unbeaten sixth ranked opponent at the time,
it's a big part of Texas trying to turn things

(01:06:09):
back around. We welcome you back here to the program
on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone. Greg Way,
alongside the producer and Jay Herman, our producer, did an
excellent job in fashioning there the highlight montage of the
long Range twenty three to six win over the Oklahoma Sooners.
Texas now leads the overall series sixty five fifty.

Speaker 5 (01:06:29):
One and five. But who's counting?

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Yeah, well, Oklahoma fans like to count the recent ones.
They said, yeah, you know, going into last Saturday, it
was seventeen to nine, they one to seventeen, the last
twenty six, now at seventeen, last twenty seven, or whatever.
So but what's more important is not even that the
historical perspective of the series or whatever, or even having

(01:06:55):
won three of the past four game teams in the
series and having shut out Oklahoma or at least kept
them out of the end.

Speaker 5 (01:07:04):
Zone in three of the last four.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Remember three years ago to beat them forty nine nothing,
then after a loss to them in twenty twenty three,
they came back in twenty twenty four with a thirty
four to three win and now twenty three to six,
and so eight quarters of football without Oklahoma scoring a touchdown.
So that was a big, big part of it. And

(01:07:31):
Texas with the win, now runs its record of four
and two overall, but still having to climb a bit.
They're up back in the poll with number twenty one
in the AP. They're number seventeen in the coaches. Oklahoma
fell eight spots in the AP from number six to
number fourteen. And I know, I know there'll be those
who are going to, well, how could they still be
ranked head of Texas when Texas beat them? They had

(01:07:51):
a long, long way that we're going to have to drop,
which again, I know some folks will say, well, that
only says that they shouldn't have been ranked that high
in the first place. If you say that, then you
also kind of devalue a bit what Texis did it.
Just like when Rick Barnes as a basketball coach, he
used to say he never agreed with, never understood, never

(01:08:12):
liked the chant of overrated. He said, if you're saying
the other team's overrated, that means it devalues what your
team did and beating.

Speaker 5 (01:08:22):
That team if they're not as good as they were
supposed to be.

Speaker 8 (01:08:25):
I don't know if you saw college game day you
probably didn't. You're walking through the State Fair getting ready
for the call. But Eugene, Oregon became I think the
fourth different college game day city. The gant overrated when
Arch Banding and the Longhorns were brought up, I was
catching on game day.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Okay, all right, yeah, well that's going to happen on
some of that. And yet they turned around and went
and by the way, Oregon's got its own issues after
losing it home to Indiana, they do and Beana proving
that it is a major contender now for the playoff
on the national scene, and yes, in the Big Ten
where they don't play Ohio State during the regular season,

(01:09:02):
but all signs are pointing to Indianapolis and a meeting
with the Buckeyes for the Big Ten championship game.

Speaker 8 (01:09:08):
Well, hey, that last big hurdle when I talked about,
you know, they've got a difficult schedule this year. It's
not going to be a repeat of last year. They're
going to get battle tested before going to the postseason.
That last big hurdle that I kind of drew up
for them a few weeks ago, Yeah, it was Penn State.

Speaker 7 (01:09:23):
So I'm not sure that is anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Yeah, you're right, And and in looking at what's still
left on the schedule for them and the teams that
are still there, the teams that they have to beat,
you know, it's it's interesting that the Penn State game
was looked at as being bigger and Penn State, by
the way, was to pick of many to win the
Big Ten and maybe even win the national title. And

(01:09:47):
we know what's happened since about three consecutive losses there,
including losing to Northwestern and Home over the weekend, and
that ended up costing change Franklin his job, so he's
gone now. But then as we mentioned about Indiana, Yeah,
they beat Old Dominion in Kennesas State in Indiana State obenen,

(01:10:09):
but they have come back with wins of Iowa over
Illinois at Iowa and then at Oregon. So what's left well,
Michigan State at home, Michigan State team that fired its
head coach, Jonathan Smith, the guy who left Oregon State.
Oh just now this morning. Okay, all right, So there's
that UCLA, which already changed out its head coach at Maryland.

Speaker 7 (01:10:35):
Airs out of that balloon.

Speaker 8 (01:10:36):
I'm follow along with the Maryland program well because of
my friends there, and they have had two winnable games
at home slipped through their fingers in a row that's
tough to come back from.

Speaker 7 (01:10:46):
Yeah, Washington and Nebraska beat them in College Park yep.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
And then they have Wisconsin, who's really falling off the
rails now, and then the China is kind of worn off
Luke fickle now they're terrible and and got blown out
by Iowa. And then they finished at Perdue for the
old Oak and Bucket. So that's what they have left
before a probable matchup with Ohio State. Update by the way,

(01:11:10):
Julio Rodriguez with a three run homer in the top
of the first off of Treya Savage and the Mariners
have jumped to a three to nothing lead on the
Blue Jays in the top of the first inning. Wow,
and you Savage first three men reach, including the home
run by Rodriguez. He has yet to record it out.

Speaker 8 (01:11:29):
Yeah, Rosarena got hit by a three to two pitch.
Then he kind of pitched around Raleigh, so that that
costs you against a team like Seattle with big boppers
kind of spread out up and down the lineup.

Speaker 5 (01:11:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
So but to go back to what we were saying about, Uh,
to go back to what we were saying about about Indiana.

Speaker 7 (01:11:50):
That's a playoff team, Craig.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Yeah, and they were last year. And I know, I
know by the way I said that John Smith was
let go. That was the thing. Somebody was reporting that
he was going to be let go. But that is
not the case. He has not been let go. Okay,
I was going to say I hadn't heard that yet. No,
it was somebody was talking about on the on the

(01:12:13):
air coming in. But he was asked about it his
job security, and he really said he couldn't worry about
that kind of thing. He was asked about it and
said he understands the fans desire for immediate gratification, believes
the team took a step in the right direction on Sunday.

Speaker 8 (01:12:32):
You know how you keep that job, put up in
good fight against Indiana and then beat Michigan when they
come to East Lansing on October twenty fifth.

Speaker 5 (01:12:41):
Yeah, that's probably what it would take you.

Speaker 8 (01:12:43):
Probably, And it's a winnable game. I mean Bryce Underwood
in two true road games has not been able to it.
Just it hasn't looked the same for him on the
road as it has at home, no doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
So anyway, there's that's a college football I be the
big game in the Big Ten this week.

Speaker 5 (01:13:00):
It's a non conference game. It's USC at Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
That's a huge go because we find out more about
both as Notre Dame completely gotten off the mat after
they go and to start they won four in a row.
They're now number thirteen in the country. Are they back
totally or is USC quote unquote back or getting back
there under Lincoln Riley now at five and one.

Speaker 7 (01:13:20):
Yeah, and this is huge.

Speaker 8 (01:13:22):
I mean both of these teams at large cases for
the college football Playoff. I know it's early to put
everything in that lens, but they hinge a lot on
this particular game for both teams. I won't go as
far as saying it's a loser leaves town, but loser
will be on the ropes in that one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
Yeah, and USC still has to go to Nebraska Research
in Nebraska in a northwestern home, Iowa at home, then
they have to go to Oregon, and then they have
UCLA at home to close the regular season. So they're
far from done with the challenges of their schedule.

Speaker 8 (01:13:52):
Right they look good And for Notre Dame, this is
kind of that last chance to make a big statement.
They'd have three losses if they drop this game. I
don't know if they're is that opportunity left on their schedule.
I mean, I know pitt is remaining for Notre Dame,
but they don't have that big time, you know, hat
to hang on their resume if they don't take care
of the Trojans.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
And speaking of Pitt boy, it was just a few
weeks ago when everybody was talking about Florida State's completely
back now under Mike Norvelle and now everything's great, and
now all of a sudden, they're owen three in the
ACC Can you believe that? Oh and three in the
after a win over Alabama.

Speaker 8 (01:14:27):
I saw every snap of that Alabama game is unrecognizable
from the team that's played since.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
It's college football, because because there are people who would
say that that Texas looks completely different than the one
that lost to Florida, and they did because they played better.
They were they were definitely, you know, more into it.
We had somebody on the text line and said, oh,
you never crossed the twenty yard line. Texas only did
twice defensive fight. All of that part is true. It

(01:14:55):
was six to three at the half, but remember what
Texas dead. They had a seven minute, eleven second drive
to open the second half that took almost half of
the third quarter. On that drive, during which time they
converted seven third douns. It wound up with a touchdown.
Then they got a three and out. Then they had

(01:15:17):
a six minute plus drive that ended in a field goal.
And so they had the ball for thirteen minutes, I
believe in and twenty six seconds in the third quarter
compared to a minute thirty four and for Okloma.

Speaker 8 (01:15:30):
And from its tier, playing through pain in that hand,
that gave him no chance to get any kind of
second half rid of them back. And then you saw
things kind of unravel for him in their old line
in the fourth quarter because of what Texas did. And
that's why Sark talks about complimentary football all the time.

Speaker 7 (01:15:44):
It's it's not just coach speak. Your offense helps your defense.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Yeah, no doubt about it, and the other way around.
Certainly the defense definitely helped the offense. And then here's
the other reason in the texta put up defensive fight.
And I agree with you certainly on the first part
of that. But Texas dominated a time of possession in
the third quarter. And then the other thing is and
this is why I say red zone possessions are a

(01:16:10):
bit overrated because a lot of touchdowns are scored outside
of the red zone. The touchdown pass to DeAndre BOMs
at twenty two yards that's outside the red zone. Seventy
five yard pump return for a touchdown, that's a special
team's touchdown outside the red zone. Long Horns did not
have a red zone touchdown, but they had two touchdowns.

(01:16:32):
That's why I say that that number can be can
be not always but can be misleading about red zone
possessions and red zone touchdowns because a lot of touchdowns
are done through big plays made or maybe just outside
the red zone.

Speaker 8 (01:16:48):
Right, And what about the Longhorn defense in the first
half kind of straightening its back right outside the red
zone to hold all you to those field goals.

Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
Yep, it definitely made a big difference for sure. All right,
coming up, we'll hear more from longrn's head coach Steve
Sarkicheon when we continue on thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 13 (01:17:06):
Here's his one two marigaz one of the air down
the line of Allas s It's gone Noriaz with a
two run shot of the first city.

Speaker 4 (01:17:25):
We're back.

Speaker 13 (01:17:26):
It's the craig Way Show with Hall of Fame broadcaster
and voice of the Texas Longbuards Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
Yeah, you heard Joe Davis is on Fox or FS
one call a three run homer by Julio Rodriguez that
was in the top of the first inning. They're just
now in the bottom of the first It is three nothing,
the Mariners leading the Blue Jays with Logan Gilbert on
the mound for Seattle. After the Mariner struck for three
in the top half of the first inning. You know,

(01:17:56):
maybe when I was hearing on the radio and they're
talking about Jonathan Smith, maybe what they were doing was
expounding on the firing of the guy who replaced Smith
at Oregon State.

Speaker 5 (01:18:05):
Because that has happened.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
Oh, Trent Bray fired in the wake of the oh
to seven start, sure to school for worst start for.

Speaker 5 (01:18:14):
The Beaver since nineteen ninety one.

Speaker 8 (01:18:16):
When they started to ten, they saw their fellow pack
two alums in Wazoo gave Ole miss a real run
for its money. And now that might have been a
little bit of the fomo that broke the camel's back.

Speaker 5 (01:18:28):
Yeah, the.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Uh Bray was an Oregon State alum who got promoted
to the head coaching job after Jonathan Smith left for
Michigan State finishes with a five and fourteen record after
taking over in twenty twenty four. Rob Acki, who was
in his first year as a special assistant to the
head coach, has been named the interim head coach for
the rest of the season. The guy was the defensive

(01:18:52):
coordinator at Michigan State. No excuse me, It's Central Michigan
from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty four. So it's funny, Bray,
we're talking about the fact that it was a forty
nine million dollar buyout for James Franklin, forty nine million
for Oregon State for Bray four million, okay, four million,

(01:19:16):
second year of a five year deal.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
School said the buyout.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
Will come from donor generated funds that can make that
happen in court ballas as a result of that. All right,
let's hear some more from Logorn's head coach Steve Sarkisian
and from the press conference that we brought you live
in its entirety here on the zone. But he was
asked about the luxury of the defensive line room, the

(01:19:39):
depth they have there and Brad Spence's progression the Arkansas
transfer at linebacker.

Speaker 9 (01:19:45):
That room has been has been one that you know,
we felt like coming into the season could be a
real strength of our team. It's a very versatile room
and that was kind of intentional of how we recruited it.
You know, when you've got when you got Ethan and
his style of play, and Zena and their style of
play with with the length of physicality they have, and

(01:20:06):
then Lance being in kind of that same role. Then
to go along with where Collin's at, where Colton's at,
where Brad is at. It's a very versatile room that way,
and I and I credit the defensive staff for being
creative to find more ways. And we got into a
little different scheme Saturday where we were able to get
Brad on the field and put him at a little

(01:20:27):
different spot to where he could impact the game. And
so again we we we have to continue to grow
as a staff too. Is where we have the depth
of those players, how can we utilize all that we
have and and put him in position to have some success.
And you know, I credit Brad. He's been working, He's
been working hard. He had a tough week a couple

(01:20:47):
of weeks ago, and continue to you know, get back
to the grind. He had a much better week of
preparation last week, found a role and made some plays
and again Lance, same thing, you know, and and he's
growing from where you know, we can become more accountable
to to what he can do. So we just got
to keep playing all those players, you know, and we're
fortunate that way.

Speaker 1 (01:21:07):
All right, now comes the another one of those how
long have you when did you stop beating your wife questions?
This is you can always count on Kirk Bowles to
come up with something that will kind of make you.

Speaker 7 (01:21:17):
Furrow the brow.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
And he was asked, if anything, I kind of grimaced
a little bit at this and the end. The only
reason why I say that. The reason why I say
that is because when Sark was asked on our postgame
show the other day, Oh, I heard this live yeah
about the noise outside.

Speaker 7 (01:21:39):
And I heard all of it live, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Yeah, yeah, And Sark said, I don't give a bleep
about what's in and he didn't say bleep.

Speaker 7 (01:21:47):
I was laughing, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
And so we just kind of went on from there.
You know, I said, Okay, that pretty much says but I.

Speaker 7 (01:21:55):
Can only imagine the look on Will's face.

Speaker 1 (01:21:56):
Yeah at the time he said so, and Kirk bowls
ass Sark if he felt like anything written about his
team was justified. In other words, all arch banning is
a flop, this team is overrated, they're not doing blah
blah blah, those kinds of things. He didn't say those
things in specific, but he said, anything written about your

(01:22:20):
team was it justified?

Speaker 9 (01:22:21):
I really don't care if it was justified or not.
It's irrelevant.

Speaker 3 (01:22:25):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:22:25):
It's like this week.

Speaker 9 (01:22:27):
I was telling the team today, So last week, everybody's
gonna write how we stink, we're no good. You know,
let's look at twenty twenty, twenty sixteen, and what are
they going to look like. This week, everybody's gonna go
back to writing how great we are again. It doesn't
matter what people write or say or it's about what
we do. And I think that's a lesson learned for

(01:22:47):
us about and that's where I talk about the maturity
of our team. This is a great week for us
to show the maturity of how far we've come as
a team. And that's that's you know, what kind of
leadership do we have, How do we bring these young
guys along, How do we not ride the emotional roller
coaster of the opinions of others and focus on what
we need to do. But for me, I'm always going

(01:23:09):
to defend our guys because I know how they work
every single day, and I think that's important that they
know that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Okay, there was that, and then he was asked of
his offenses. If his offense was continuing to gain confidence
on first down. You know, we talked to Sarcus, talked
repeatedly about you got to do better on first and
second down to avoid the negative placement. I want to
said last week about a hat a statistician ones who
had that number average yards needed on third down. It's

(01:23:37):
a telling stat well Sarks said. How they do on
first and second down tells an awful lot about what
they can and should and occasionally might have difficulty trying
to do on third down depending on what they're doing
on first down and second down. So is his offense
gaining confidence on those downs?

Speaker 9 (01:23:55):
I think so, you know, I think that was probably
what was so frustrating early in the game, was like
we were doing it to ourselves, you know, we were
causing it to ourselves. Even on the third drive, we're
first and ten on the twenty two yard line going in,
we get a holding penalty, we throw a I think
we throw a screen to Weisner that loses yards. We

(01:24:16):
throw something else and we lose. Just like guys, can
we just execute a little bit and move forward and
then third and six is a heck of a lot
better than third and twelve, or third and twenty three,
or in third and whatever, like, just give ourselves a chance.

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
And then when they start to.

Speaker 9 (01:24:32):
Figure out, like, hey, this is a lot easier, and
arches like, wait, this is a lot easier that, Hey,
everybody just settle down, and then what happened? The penalties
all of a sudden went away. We're more productive. We
have a twelve play drive, a four team play drive,
a ten play drive. We're controlling the ball, the defense
is getting their rest, they're playing with a little bit

(01:24:53):
more energy on defense, and so that's where the complimentary
football thing, you know, peace comes to play. And so
again in like I talked to him today about we
have to be able to take the things throughout the
week and then on Friday that we say, hey, these
are going to be things we're going to open the
game with and we've got to execute those things with confidence.

Speaker 4 (01:25:12):
But we did it better later in the game.

Speaker 9 (01:25:14):
They actually did earlier in the game, and so we've
got to do a better job as a staff to
instill that in them, to them to understand this is
what's going to get called.

Speaker 4 (01:25:22):
We don't need to have any anxiety.

Speaker 9 (01:25:23):
And we had too many breakdowns early in the game
for my liking, And so that's an area where we
have to improve, Like we should be starting games better
than we have in and we need to do that,
and so we we've got to as a staff find
a better way to instill that in those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
In his opening statements, so I talked about Kentucky being
a dangerous opponent going into their house in it for
a night game, conference game, that kind of thing. So
always asked, why is Kentucky a dangerous They're own three
in the SEC, either two and three overall, And do
you dive into those close SEC games?

Speaker 4 (01:25:55):
You know that's this conference? You know.

Speaker 9 (01:25:59):
That wasn't the only game, you know, I mean there
there was a ton of one score games in our conference,
and and probably games that were closer than the final
score indicated. And so even games these guys have been
sometimes the scorers look a little different late of what happens,
but early on, you know, I just don't think the

(01:26:21):
in the SEC. When you go on the road, you
play at night, in some of these environments, you better
buckle up.

Speaker 4 (01:26:28):
And and they've got.

Speaker 9 (01:26:30):
Too good a players. They've knocked off too many teams
that we all know this. I mean that this is
the same team that went to Old Miss and won
last year, probably cost Old Miss a playoff bid, and
so the same team that had the ball at the
end of the game against Old Miss this year. And
so it's just there's too many good players, the coaching

(01:26:50):
is too good that you better treat every game like
it's a championship game and you have to give each
game the credit deserves. And these guys are Mark Stoop's
been doing it too long, and he's going to have
them ready to play. They've had two weeks to get
ready to play. We've got to be prepared for for
a war like this is because it's going to be one.

(01:27:12):
I'm just going to tell you that right now. That's
the way this game is going to go.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
All right, updating Alcs and Toronto bounce right back with
two in the bottom of the first.

Speaker 5 (01:27:22):
Just a three to two ball games.

Speaker 1 (01:27:23):
See, I'll score three in the top of the first
on Julio rod Ragus three run homer, but Toronto's come
back with two in the bottom of the first. So
they're going to the top of the second Game two
of that series with Seattle leading Toronto three to two. Tonight,
Game one in LCS Dodgers play the Brewers in Milwaukee.

Speaker 7 (01:27:40):
You a superstitious guy when you watch your Dodger baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
Cright, No, no, I learned a long time ago that
what I do think or say has no impact on
that game at all. There you go, if I wear
a hat or a shirt or something like that is
just support for the team because I think this is
my lucky hat or shirt or anything like that.

Speaker 5 (01:28:01):
I don't. I gave up on that a long time ago.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
I have a brother who still believes he was a
Pittsburgh Steeler fan at the time that the Steelers would
not have won Super Bowl fourteen had he not gone
and hidden.

Speaker 5 (01:28:11):
In the bathroom when the Rams led in the fourth quarter.
So that taught me. He's mentioned it now.

Speaker 1 (01:28:17):
We have nothing to do with that, and announcers have
no jinx on no hitters either. So I called a
no hitter for Adrian Alleni's I mentioned it several times
during the game.

Speaker 5 (01:28:27):
You know, we have no control over that.

Speaker 8 (01:28:31):
I don't think I gave up superstitions until my team's
finally broke through and won some championships.

Speaker 1 (01:28:36):
I think the Lake Vinscully called like twenty seven no hitters,
and he mentioned it every time he mentioned the no
hitter going on time.

Speaker 7 (01:28:44):
Did he ever get hate mail for it?

Speaker 1 (01:28:46):
If he did, it stopped because he became one of
the most beloved broadcasters of all time. So all right,
we'll hear more from logrn's head coach Steve Sarkichi coming
up on thirteen under.

Speaker 5 (01:28:56):
The zone with a nod.

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
Just Stevie wonder, I am not superstitious. They do not
have a superstition work in there. We continue on thirteen
hundred zone. It's still three too. Seeat on top of
Toronto that go to the bottom of the second inning
at Rogers Center in Toronto. Today is Canadian Thanksgiving Day.
By the way, they have a holiday.

Speaker 5 (01:29:21):
On right now.

Speaker 7 (01:29:22):
Is that what it's called? Just Canadian Thanksgiving?

Speaker 5 (01:29:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:29:24):
I have family in Canada. Thank you, Craig. You just
really bailed me out.

Speaker 5 (01:29:28):
There you go.

Speaker 7 (01:29:28):
I've got text to send when we're done here.

Speaker 5 (01:29:30):
There you go, Happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (01:29:31):
Right, all right, let's hear some more from Long Worn's
head coach Steve Sarkisian. If you were listening either the
game on Saturday or post game show or this morning
in our run up to the sark press conference, you
heard this really engaging, intriguing conversation with Ryan Niblett. The

(01:29:53):
Long Worns pupperturn within seventy five yards for the touchdown.
But he's kind of been an all purpose man, slot receiver,
running back, wide out, kick returner, pump returner, a special
teams guy. And Nibblett had this great thing and Sart
talked about him being a great teammate and all of
those things. But Niblett revealed to us on Saturday that

(01:30:14):
he very nearly entered the transfer portal. He was getting
frustrated and wasn't having the success he wanted to have.
He said, but I believed in Sart. Sart talked to me,
and I believed in him, and it's it's paid off.
So you'll hear kind of some of those comments echoed
from the other side from the head coach when he
was asked, how did Ryan Niblett stay engaged and grow

(01:30:37):
through the process.

Speaker 4 (01:30:38):
A ton of credit to Ryan.

Speaker 9 (01:30:39):
You know, like a lot of these guys, so they
all when they get here, they all want to be
that freshman that's starting, and they've all got a bunch
of stars, and they've all been the best players in
the Little league and in high school and all that,
and you get here and you get into our locker room,
they're all really good players. And you know, he was
a really kind of versatile player. In high school, he

(01:31:00):
played running back, he played wildcat quarterback, he played receiver,
and so when we got him here, it was like
we just got to try to figure out.

Speaker 4 (01:31:08):
What is his role.

Speaker 9 (01:31:09):
And he went from receiver to running back to defense
in spring, back to receiver. Now he's now he's dueling
running back and receiver. He's returning punts, he's returning kickoffs.
He's an elite special teams player. On kickoff coverage, he's
probably the best kickoff cover guy we have. But I
think it's the selfless nature that he has. He's an

(01:31:32):
awesome teammate, and I credit him because there was moments
when he was thinking about leaving this place, and I, shoot,
I didn't let him leave, you know, I fought to
keep him here because of one the player that he is.
But too, I think he's a glue guy when it
comes to our culture. And you know, as I tell you,
culture wins. You know, as much as talented people matter,

(01:31:52):
culture matters more. And you know, he's one of those
guys that is true to our culture. And for him
to have some of the success having this year is
really cool to see for him, but also for other
players on our team, some of these young freshmen we're
talking about that it's not always about are you a
frontline starter on offense or defense? Can you find a
way and find a role on special teams and then

(01:32:14):
grow into that role. No different than Trey Wisner a
couple of years ago what he was doing on special teams,
And I could name a bunch of guys like that,
but I think he's a great model to younger players
of just sticking and staying the course and working and
you'll find a role on this team where you can
really contribute.

Speaker 1 (01:32:29):
Contributing to the point where he was named Special Teams
co Player of the Week in addition to the Defensive
Player of the Week honors going to Malie Mohammad with
his two interceptions and the co Defensive Lineman of the
Week honors going to Colin Simmons. Kentucky's we pointed out

(01:32:49):
comes in to this game at two and three, they
are zero to three in the SEC, the air two
wins or non conference wins over Toledo and Eastern Michigan.
So Sark was asked if this team is good, what
are they doing that that they've done well this year?

Speaker 4 (01:33:08):
Well, they're running the heck out of the ball.

Speaker 9 (01:33:10):
And they've got two very good runners, dynamic players, you know,
they've got they've got a guy in Kendrick Law who's
a problem on the perimeter who we recruited as well.
And yeah, there's some aspects of what they do that
that's familiar. But I think it stems back to coach Stoops.
They have a formula for success that they want to
play with. They want to run the ball, they want

(01:33:31):
to play defense, and and that's what Bush is doing
for them. And then you know, it's unfortunate they're finally
now they've got some continuity at quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:33:39):
They've had a little bit of.

Speaker 9 (01:33:40):
Revolving door there, but they're they're finding ways to create
some plays and they've been close on some others and
so they're a dangerous team that way.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
Okay, he was asked here was the question about the
coach firings that are going on across the country. I
just mentioned Trent Bray of Oregon State. Obviously, the biggest
headline was James Franklin at Penn State being dismissed of
the weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:34:04):
There have been other coaches that have.

Speaker 1 (01:34:05):
Been let go here early in the season, and his
thoughts on where are we in the state of college
football today with these early season coach dismissals.

Speaker 4 (01:34:15):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 9 (01:34:16):
I mean, obviously it's a business, right, and we all
understand that, we all know what we sign up for.
The biggest thing I think about when I see coaches
getting fired during the season, I think about the players,
you know, because they signed up to play for a
coach and they you know, it's kind of like, well,
are you doing that because you think we can be

(01:34:36):
better now? Or are you doing that because you're thinking
about next year? And so where are we and all that?
So that's the first thing I think about. The same
thing I think about it's like, you know, I'll use
Penn State as an example, and I got a ton
of respect for James Franklin. He's a great coach, and
he'll he's going to land somewhere and they'll be good
again wherever he goes. A year ago, they're a Final
four team and they're in a dogfight to go play

(01:34:58):
for a national championship. Three weeks ago, fifteen days ago,
they're a play away from being a top two team,
arguably the number one team in the country. And today
he's no longer the head coach, So that should just
tell you about the business that we're in and understanding
the business aspect of it. I hate it for him,
I hate it for those players, but that's just the

(01:35:19):
reality of the situation that we're in right now. But
he's a good coach. Somebody's gonna hire that guy. You know,
He's won everywhere he's been, so he'll be okay.

Speaker 5 (01:35:26):
And finally, one other thing from Sark.

Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
He was asked about what growth has he seen from
arch Manning, not just in the overall overview of things,
but in specific what he's done in the off schedule
place when he's had to sprint out, when he's had
to evade the rush, when he's had to step away
from sack to be able to throw on the run,

(01:35:49):
his footwork, his eye work, all of those kinds of things.
He was asked about Arch in his work off schedule.

Speaker 9 (01:35:57):
You know, and I know there's a lot of ways
to skin cat. I don't over coach that aspect of
the game. You know, you'll hear the players talk about
Sonny Glenn Park. That's the park that's down the street
from my house off of Red Beam Avenue in tourres California.
That you know, when you're at the park, it's like me,
you and a couple other guys and it's like, Okay,
get open, I'm all time quarterback and you and and

(01:36:19):
so when you go to scramble, Yeah, there's some parameters
that you put around it, which we do, but at
the end of the day, you got to play and
that we're now you're playing the game of football, and
part of that comes from playing together too. And now
these guys have six games under their belt and they
have a little better feel for Arch of where he's

(01:36:39):
moving and when he's moving and where that ball can go.
But that's where you recruit football IQ as well. And
I think Deandre's got a great one. Deandre's touchdown that
wasn't the route he was supposed to run. You know,
he was on a different route, but when the coverage busted,
the feel from DeAndre and then Arch to recognize it
to make the throw. And that's no different than some

(01:37:00):
of the third down things that are happening there as well.
And so Emmittt's got a great feel. Ryan's got a
great feel, But.

Speaker 4 (01:37:07):
At that point you need to play football. And but
then for the quarterback.

Speaker 9 (01:37:10):
It comes down to decision making, right when it becomes
you know, you're you're playing, and when it can become reckless.
And we never want to be reckless in those situations
with the ball because the ball's paramount in the program.

Speaker 4 (01:37:21):
And so but our ch has the ability to do that.

Speaker 9 (01:37:24):
And I'm sure he and his uncles and his brother
have been in the backyard messing around, playing and that's
that's what those moments become. And and he, you know,
he definitely has been doing that. And in the last
two weeks we're really starting to see more of that
and it's become it's become a weapon for us.

Speaker 5 (01:37:41):
All right.

Speaker 6 (01:37:42):
There.

Speaker 1 (01:37:42):
It is stuff from start today, and of course we
bring you the news conference live every Monday morning. We
begin our coverage at eleven am with our long Orange
Monday Conversation and the press conference at eleven thirty from
the UT campus. We'll be back to wrap up today's
edition of the program about thirteen under the Zone

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Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark