Texas Beats A&M, Sark Lobbies for the Longhorns, Kiffin Lands at LSU

On this edition of The Craig Way Show, hear highlights and interviews with Texas players and coaches after the Longhorns' 27-17 win over Texas A&M! Plus, the Cowboys and Texans grab important victories, the CFB coaching carousel spins, and Texas Men's Basketball starts its prep for UVA on Wednesday.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
From Darrel Kay Royal Texas Memorials Stadium in Austin. It's
the Texas Long Warns against the Texas A and m
Aggies in the cotton holdings lone stars showed out, so
Jared Circle trying to get the Aggies on the board.
Here the snap and hold the kick on the way.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's blocked.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Love Warts block it and Michael taff And Locon tells
his teammates, nobody touch it and it'll roll out of
the dock in the end, so Long Hoards come up
with a block field goal. Aggie's come away with nothing.
Texas will take over on its own twenty yard line.
This will be a forty one yard try from the
right hatch out of the hold of.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
The punter Jack Bowmeaster.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
The snap from Land stain Lewis the kick on the way,
and the kick is good forty one yarder. The Mason
Chipley and the Long Warns rank first Long Orange first
play of the second half offensively as a handoff breaking
free his prize in a thirty five forty He's got
one man to beat a prosput field will of forty
thirty five run down from behind the best one of

(01:13):
the night for either side. Reisner takes it to the
Texas A and M thirty yard line.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Before it's Hyry Campbell can.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Run him down a forty eight yard road from the
left half forty six yard field goal drive for Mason Shipley.
The snap and hold the kick for Shipley is up
and the kick is good. Shipley knocks another one through
off the right hash of the aggie twenty nine.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
On second down, Manning with a snap.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Play action, looks pumps pressure coming, he can run and
he throws and Stiffanie it's a wide oat then put
touchdowns Texas Ryan Wing go Howney, you like that and
the long horns up back in front.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
March has it, turns and looks to throw.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
On second down, Manning, with some time, sends it over
the middle interrings that cats a DAGGI thirty five thirty.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Let's stiff for unto the twenty five for.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
The twenty go the gym two over five head inside
the ivy five timeline.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Jack Henry's down.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
To the Texas A and M food yard.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Line, fighting Golton rooks all the way down the boundary
for fifty forty yards. We'll take the stamp from under
center on first and goal, which Gray Wiser behind it.
Manny turns first down, pins the ball around the lap,
touchdown Nick Townsend, but freshman Nick Townsend a little tight

(02:32):
end around.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
In for the score.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
March has the snap design run, goes straight up the middle,
fours down a more.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
March wakes three. Say good night to this one.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Mark's Benning touchdowns tis plus second here in the row.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Manning has a rusty.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Touchdown against the Aggies first and ten at the longboard
eighteen were fires over in the middle intercept it picked
up Michael's haaf How about the senior intercepts inside the.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Five yard line. What a huge play to the senior.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Mike looks path and Texas takes over.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
Let Us owns two yall line.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Arshl Reid has the snap back to throw, looks still
look swings it.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Out left side. Paul intercept it.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Lovi Black, How about that.

Speaker 5 (03:21):
Coonby Black comes up with it.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Wister behind Manning's ross carry again cuts up Fieldy creaks
free thirty five. Here's Wisner forty forty five. Get Pelia
slide down, knowing the long Worns haven't locked up down
Trey Wister another big game, that one goes for thirty
and the long Horns are gonna win the Lone Star Showdown.

(03:44):
March has the snap, You'll put down the knee and
that's gonna do it. They don't have to snap it again.
What a response, What a way to end the regular season.
It's final Texas Hens, Texas A and M.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
It's first loss.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
The Lawns win the Cotton Holdings Lone Stars Showdown Finals,
scored it up Texas twenty seven, Texas A and M seventeen.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Quite the week, dinner.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
For a lot more football, and it is just now
getting real interesting with regard to what happens for the postseason.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, tune in, everybody.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Welcome to the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred,
The Zone and of course the iHeartRadio app. My name
is Craig Way. Glad so much to have you with us,
and hope your Thanksgiving holiday weekend was a good one.
Jay Carman's our producer. I trust your weekend, by and
large was a good holiday weekend.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
That it was, Craig, and same to you. It was.

Speaker 6 (04:50):
It was busy, it was full of back and forth
trips between Austin and Houston, but it was it was
a great time.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
I've thought about that because the playoff game that you
called on Saturday Bashtrop in Richmond, Randall was in Prairie View, right,
that's right.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
How was that stadium? I've never called a game there.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Our vantage point was excellent.

Speaker 6 (05:09):
Yeah, the turf was very slick in the rain though,
really so I'll say that.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
But the crowd that turned out was great.

Speaker 6 (05:15):
We had a long lightning delay at the half and
the game had been pretty much decided by the half.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Randall very impressive.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, defending state champ going to be difficult to beat
in five A Division two. But from where you were
doing the game to where you were kind of hanging
out a lot of Thanksgiving weekend with girlfriend's family stuff
like that. Right, How far a drive was that? Because
I know Praie Views northwest of Houston there on two ninety.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
Right, I was only about forty five to fifty minutes
outside of Houston.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
But I had come back to Austin on Friday.

Speaker 6 (05:45):
Right to work out on Bevo Boulevard and sit with
some of my friends in the stadium for the Lone
Star showdown. So I had gone to Houston on Wednesday,
back to Austin on Friday, then stayed in Houston Saturday,
came back here Sunday to be the studio anchor and
board off for women's basketball.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Nothing like the holiday week in Yo Yo. That's right.
They had done that a few times. Off of that, obviously.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
It came back after the Long Orange finished play at
the Maui Invitational late Wednesday night. We had a overnight
flight that did not leave Maui into one about one
am Maui time, it's about five am local time here.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Flew to Oakland, that's where they were refueling. That took a.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
While to get over there and then get down there.
Once we're on the ground, it wasn't too bad. It
was weird. They opened up the back door of the
airplane because they were doing a crew change and they
were having the They were having more food catered in
to feed the team and the everybody that was on
the flight. They were shifting to a breakfast thing. So
it was about like it is right now. It was

(06:58):
in the forties there when we landed in Oakland, opened
the door and yeah, it was a little chilly, but
it kind of felt a little bit refreshing as it
was sweeping out a lot of the you know whatever, stuffy,
acrid conditions inside the airplane, you know, from flying for
four and a half hours or something, four hours and
forty minutes, I think, just to get to Oakland. But

(07:19):
it kind of cleared it out and then give everybody
some breakfast and it took off. In the flight from
Oakland to back to Austin wasn't bad. We got off
the airplane about two thirty in the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day,
and as promised, Slash warned, And then I went to
loubis tat Thanksgiving dinner because my kids and grandkids were

(07:39):
all over at in laws and stuff, and so they
were doing your traditional Thanksgiving stuff. She went by the
lobes and a line out the door and a line
in the drive through to get the Loubies to go thing.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
But it was nice.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
We had, you know whatever, the turkey and dressing and
all that kind of stuff, and that went fine. We
went home and just kind of vegged out, you know
while they stuff was on Thanksgiving night, got a full
night sleep. I had a lot of people say, man,
you guys must speak Exaustina. I actually felt pretty good
on Friday. We've got a full night sleep Thursday night.
And then of course it's an all day sucker, as

(08:12):
they like to say, the whole day for the Cotton
Holdings lone Star showdown matchup with Texas A and M.
Obviously an exciting football game from the long run perspective.
And then I got done with that, I got home. Well,
well here's the other thing. You'll get an appreciation out
of this, and anybody who likes follows fan of whatever

(08:37):
high school football will appreciate this. So when the game
was ending there at DKR and we're getting ready to
do the post game, I'm seeing things come up on
Twitter x whatever. I'm seeing these tweets come up, and
I thought, well, there's going to be a lot of

(08:57):
them about Texas and Texas.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
A and M in somewhere.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
But there were these other ones about this game in
the Dallas Fort Worth area that had not yet started
due to lightning. So South Lay Carol was playing prosper
in a regional semifinals sweet sixteen in six eight Division two.
The game kicked off at eleven fifteen. We got off
the air a little after midnight, right around midnight, so

(09:24):
we walk out to the garage and get in the
truck to drive home, and I get in.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
The truck, turned it on.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
It's twelve twenty seven am, and that high school game
has just reached halftime, that South Lake Carrol and there
was quite been a scoring. It was at the half
it was like thirty five seventeen, but then it got
interested again. We're twenty eight seventeen. Then it got interesting again.
So I get home. It's now by the time I
get home, it's after one am Friday night. And then

(09:56):
I flip on the telecast because you could see it
through streaming, and the game ended a little after one
thirty in the morning.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Three I see it tweek for the final score.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, yeah, it was right around there. I think one forty.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
It actually ended a four hour lightning delay.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah, yeah, so it was.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
And they were playing that at Choctall Stadium, the old
Rangers Ballpark at Arlington outdoor facility, which is now an
Arlington ID football facility. And so I thought, yeah, well,
some people had it even longer day than I did.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
So then after that one's bad. Got a full night
sleep again, felt.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Good, a little bit draggy, tired from the effects of
the week and travel all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
But we just kind of hung out.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Saturday, watched a lot of football, watched all the stuff
that happened there, and again tried to get a good
night's sleep. And yesterday we had the Texas women's basketball
game as they went to eight anothery're now up to.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Number two in the national Poles. Did that.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
I finally got to see at least part one anyway
of the Ken Burns series The American Revolution. I really
wasn't that interested in your Commanders against the Broncos, although
I ended up by the time we ended part one.
I flipped over and saw the Commanders in time tied
up and get it to overtime.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Where it got away from them in the OT.

Speaker 6 (11:20):
Yeah, I think it was a good reminder to Commander
fans that this is a team that is really, really
banged up, and when you start bringing back a couple
of pieces, you can hang with almost anybody in the
way the NFL is kind of structured today. It's also
another reminder that this year's team is just not quite
in that tier where people thought it was going to be.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
But I would also say this, and this has nothing
to do necessarily with the Commanders. My brother and I
were taxed about this This is as unpredictable in an
NFL season as has ever been. I mean, there are
a lot of people didn't think the Rams would lose
to put to Carolina, but they proved their vulnerability and
they got the Panthers. That Washington could stand toe to

(12:00):
toe with Denver the way they did, that Jacksonville will
now be leading the AFC South. That Houston would completely
flip the script from being oen three to seven and five.
We'll hear from Demico Ryans today that even the Cowboys,
who look so awful for a while and now six
five in one and in the place that the Bears

(12:20):
basically would have the lead in the NFC at least
by tiebreakers, percentage points.

Speaker 6 (12:26):
Things like that right now, that the Bengals defense the
worst statistically across the AFC this year, besides Las Vegas
could come out and force all those turnovers on Thanksgiving
and beat the Ravens.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
And now they're four and eight, and yet they are
two games out of first in the AFC North because
of the Steelers and Ravens up and down situation.

Speaker 6 (12:49):
So people are allergic to the number one power ranking spot.
Craig I was just sneezing, just that I don't know.
I filled it on many of Friday's and said, you know,
I think this is my number one power ranked team.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, what is it that? Again?

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Lesson, he's dear, thank you that Chris Collins were said,
I'm through. What did he say hyping? It wasn't hyping.
Uh it maybe there was something he was talking about.
I'm through saying that this team is great and that
this team is not great, and so on and so forth.
Because every time they start really hyping up one team,

(13:24):
they lose. And the latest was the Rams. Obviously they
were doing it with the Eagles. I think the Lions
early in the year. Uh, the Bills, the Bills, the
Chiefs obviously from the start.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
And now.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
New England is the one that's drawing a lot of
hype and a lot of praise and Denver at ten
and two. So we'll see, we'll see how it goes.
Like I said, it's it's unpredictable. We'll talk about that.
But there's a lot of college football we got to
get to. We're gonna do a couple of things with
regard to the steep Sarcasian. Now, I know many of
you probably heard what he had to say in the

(14:03):
postgame press conference where he said it would be a
disservice if this team were left out of the college
football playoff. To give you a little more context, we're
going to bring to you for those of you didn't
hear it, and even for those who did it, again,
it was late late, It was almost midnight when when
we aired it.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
I heard it live.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Well, here's Sark our post game conversation with him about
the players and the way they played, but also about
this whole college football playoff thing. So we'll do that
a little later on in the program. What we have
some Sark soundbites from SEC programming.

Speaker 6 (14:35):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Is that correct?

Speaker 4 (14:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (14:36):
This morning, Sark didn't have his typical press conference with
the local media, right he was on SEC now doing
his best politician impersonation, trying to advocate for Texas a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
So we'll here's some of that.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
All right, So we'll here's some of that.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
The other big theme of the week, and other than
the playoff, clearly was Lane Kiffen and you know the
Lane Kiffin saga and when he was gonna leave and
Marty Smith of ESPN basically camping out over at Old
Miss something from Marty Smith talking about tracking down Lane
Kiffin after the announcement was made and after he was

(15:13):
headed for the Oxford airport and after he was getting
the plane and trying to find him. It's pretty entertaining stuff,
but Marty Smith's a pretty entertaining guy, so we'll hear
from him about that. Pro football guests, Demiko Ryans, we'll
hear from the Texans head coach, as well as Brian Schottenheimer,
the Cowboys head coach.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
And then there's basketball.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
We mentioned Long Worne come off winning two out of three,
and MAUI will hear just a little bit from Sean Miller.
We'll hear more from Shawn Tomorrow on Wednesday, but we'll
hear a little bit from him recapping that. And the
Texas women now eight and on them, we'll hear from
Justice Carleton, who's ten points in the second quarter helped
spark in eighteen oh run and helped the Long Orange

(15:55):
pull away from a stubborn pen Quaker team. So we
got all of that and more, and clearly, obviously we're
more than happy to take your questions, your thoughts, your comments.
All you have to do is text the word Texas
followed by your question of comment to eight one, five
three zero and.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
We've got one already v our YouTube stream Chuck is
this Chuck in Houston who says hook them? How about
them Cowboys? And also, Hey, Greg, what do you think
about Willis High School? I'm about thirty minutes away. I
watched them. That's the game I was watching on Saturday night.
I was watching Willis against forty and talented. They they

(16:32):
have the University of Texas commit on their team and
they really kind of should a run away from forty
and forty came back and made it a game.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
But it's a very talented Will's team. We'll see how
they do against De Soto this week rematch in their
quarter final a year ago, the Desta one, So we'll see.
We'll see how how it goes for them. But they've
been They're very talented and they've been a nice running
to this point.

Speaker 6 (16:59):
Talking about Jermain Bishop, yep, yep, huge, huge performance from him.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yep, absolutely so.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
He had a big longhorn sticker on the back of
his helmet on Saturday night when they won over forty
at Restar in Frisco. Three hundred and twenty eight yards yeah,
total offense fifteen catches. Yeah, yeah, he's he's he's pretty special.
So anyway, well, we're glad to take your questions, your thoughts,

(17:29):
are comments. All you have to do is text the
word Texas follow by your question or comment to eight
one five three zero.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Standard messaging and data rates may apply.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
We'll get to all of it coming up here on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone in the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
I remember down in here.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
All right, you're on a Monday. Glad to have you
with us here on thirteen hundred The Zone. As we mentioned,
the Longhorns certainly will be thinking about what the College
Football Playoff Committee will be announcing tomorrow and then of
course following.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
The conference championship games of this weekend.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
After the game on Friday night, we visited Long Orange
head coach Steve Sarkison to talk about the game as
a whole, in the season and of course the upcoming
decisions by the committee. The stat that matters most other
than the win is the effort that must have made
you proud to see what your guys did tonight.

Speaker 7 (18:23):
Ah man, I was so proud. I'm so proud of
this team, I said a few weeks back. I've never
been more proud of a football team. I'm more proud now. Okay,
so you know, I'm like a proud dad honestly, because
this was hard, and you know, they're a very good team.

Speaker 5 (18:38):
They're not undefeated on accident.

Speaker 7 (18:40):
And you know, we had a real moment at halftime
just about the second half was going to be about
pride and about fight and one play at a time
and do it for one another, for no other reason,
do it for one another for the next thirty minutes.
And they did, you know, and they did it in
all three phases. They really did. I mean there were
some really cool plays that happened on office. Defense has

(19:00):
special teams and and and honestly, what a moment. You know,
I've been here five years, you know now, and uh
DKR has never been better. I mean that was electric
tonight and our fans Longhorn Nation, that y'all were incredible.
You y'all played every play with us. You know, you
could you could feel it. Uh, I don't think people

(19:21):
sat down the whole game, and uh, we were all
fighting to go get this one tonight, and uh, just
proud of everybody involved.

Speaker 8 (19:27):
Sark so many moments, uh in this game. So I'm
just gonna go to the end and get your emotion
when you see Trey bust through and know that first
down is gonna ice the ball game.

Speaker 7 (19:38):
Well, you know the coaching me, if you want to
know the truth, I said, hey, we only need three yards,
and we have a term called no moss. Once you
get the three yards, go down, the game's over. And
he pops it. And then I was kind of like,
I can't blame him. He's still running.

Speaker 5 (19:52):
But then I was like, don't go out of bounds,
just go down. The game's over.

Speaker 9 (19:55):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
But he deserves it. Man, Trey Wiser, what a warrior.

Speaker 7 (19:59):
And and just gosh, the guy shows up every time.
You know, it's two years in a row in this game.
It's so you two years in a row now, and
think about this, guys, and I'm jumping all over the place.
I apologize.

Speaker 5 (20:11):
I got all sorts of stuff in my mind.

Speaker 7 (20:13):
First time since nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy seasons that
we've swept Ou, Arkansas and A and M and back
to back seasons, think about that for a second. With
this team just accomplished. You know, when you think about
the history and tradition of this place. And to go
do that in back to back seasons, and with with
OU and A and M both being top ten ranked
teams this year, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 10 (20:35):
Coach, what an incredible atmosphere. Talk about senior Day. You've
got some incredible players who will be transitioning on.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
But I know they've got a special part in this team.

Speaker 7 (20:45):
Yeah, I mean the seniors. You know, like I was
telling the team last night, you know, this program is
in the in the state and position that it's in
because of their commitment to the program, not only on
the field, but off the field. And when you see
guys like my taff get an interception tonight, when you
see a guy like Ethan Burke have nine tackles and
a blockfield goal.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
When you see DJ Campbell blocking you.

Speaker 7 (21:08):
Know guys and then he's blocking them through the echo
of the whistle.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Just think about Cole Hudson.

Speaker 7 (21:13):
You just think about these guys that are have given
their blood, sweat and tears to this place for the
last four and five years. That's what this that's why
this place is special, you know, And and and what
a model that they're serving as for these younger players.
Of what it takes and what it looks like, uh,
to to play and and and to be Longhorns and

(21:33):
what that looks like.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Uh. Here, here's your opportunity. And I know they're already
on social media.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
I'm seeing it.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
So oh they're just start campaigning first team to be
in the play well for I don't care, I should?

Speaker 3 (21:42):
Yeah, I say, what else would you?

Speaker 1 (21:44):
It makes me think about Mac back in two thousand
and four for the Rose Bowl as well. He said,
what am I supposed to do for my but campaign
for my team? But but I wanted to give you
an opportunity, uh to talk about this. With three top
ten wins and two of the three losses come the
top five ranked teams, both on the road and things
like that, that those numbers are going to be generated out.
But I'm wanting to give you an opportunity, especially our

(22:07):
broadcast is being heard nationally tonight of our serious XM
as well as on our long worn radio networks. Your
thoughts on why this team belongs in the college football playoffs.

Speaker 5 (22:16):
Well, I just think this, Okay.

Speaker 7 (22:19):
You know, we're a nine and three football team, and
we went three and two against the ten, the five
top ten ranked teams that.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
We played five of them.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
There's teams ranked in front of us that maybe have
played one, maybe maybe one. We played five, okay, And
at the end of the day, all right, we made
a decision to play Ohio State on the road first
game of the season this year. There's other teams ranked
in front of us that got out of non conference
games so that they could have a pretty record in

(22:50):
front of them after their name.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
We didn't.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
We chose to play that game.

Speaker 7 (22:55):
And everybody said, this is what college football needs is
to play these non conference games. We have not played
Ohio State, and we could be a ten and two
team right now and there'd be no discussion if we
would be in the playoff at all. And then you're
gonna have the one guy out there say, but you
lost to Florida. Well, you know what, Notre Dame lost
a Northern Illinois at home last year and.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
They played for the national championship.

Speaker 7 (23:14):
So don't give me that garbage excuse of why, all right,
you lose to Florida on the road in your SEC opener.
When Notre Dame played Northern Illinois at home and lost
last year, they didn't punish them. They got in the
playoffs and they played for a national championship, and I
think this team is worthy of playing for a national
championship as well.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
That said Sar.

Speaker 8 (23:34):
When you guys run to the southeast corner of the
stadium to celebrate, that moment will always be there, regardless
of what happens in the next nine days.

Speaker 7 (23:42):
That had to be right, And that's exactly what I
told the team Roger in the locker room. I said, hey,
we'll deal with the CFP when that time comes. What
I want you guys to do is enjoy this victory.
You earned it, you deserve it. That's a moment that's
gonna resonate and stick with these guys for a lifetime
and be proud, you know, and enjoy it. We'll figure

(24:03):
it out Monday and put a plan together, and you know,
I'll put my best, you know, you know, politician had On.
I'm gonna do everything I can to fight for our team,
and I think I should be because they deserve it.
So I'm gonna fight my tail off and we'll see
what happens.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
How about the end of the yang, you have a
youngster like Kobe Black make an incredibly acrobatic play for
the interception. Then you got the old krusty veteran back
there task who comes up with a pick as well.

Speaker 7 (24:26):
How about this, though, you guys hear me, and Roger
you do my interview throughout the week, and Craig you
do mine. You guys laugh at me when I what's
more important most and what I tell you? The ball
right and and and this game was no different. Coming
into the game, I think we were number ten in
the country and turnover margin at plus ten. They were
one hundred and ninth at minus five. I knew the

(24:48):
ball was going to be a factor. I didn't know when.
Sure enough, we get two interceptions in the fourth quarter,
and was that not the difference, you know, one of
the differences in the game. And so when you think
of it that way, like the value of the football
in the emphasis that we place on it around here
to be plus twelve and the turnover margin on the
season plus two on the game, that that's something, you know,

(25:09):
an underlining thing that I'm very proud of that our
guys did that. And I mean so much as Trey
ran great tonight, he took care of that ball as well.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Finally, here, so I tell everybody a little bit what
these next few days will be like obviously, uh, since
since you won't know until a week from Sunday about
what the postseason destination is, but just what will be
like with the guys and then the recovery and then
starting to work again.

Speaker 7 (25:34):
Well, the guys, first of all, I mean, we always
pray at the end of every game, and so I
prayed for them tonight because we got to we gotta
make choice, good choices and decisions.

Speaker 5 (25:42):
And I'm sure, I'm sure Austin's.

Speaker 7 (25:44):
Gonna be having a good time tonight and the forty
eight ers are going to be having a good time night.
So let's be smart tonight. Okay, I'm they are college kids,
so that that's the first part. But they're off until Monday,
and they need to be off. They deserve to be off.
I'm going to recruit here. We got some recruits, official visitors,
some unofficial visitors for the next couple of day. We'll
meet Monday, uh, and they'll have a week of working
out and and we'll take a week as a staff

(26:06):
of uh, you know, evaluating our team and evaluating our season,
evaluating our schemes.

Speaker 5 (26:12):
And we'll take the week to do that because.

Speaker 7 (26:14):
We don't know where we're playing next, we don't know
what we're doing next, and so they need to finish school.

Speaker 5 (26:18):
The end of the semester's coming up.

Speaker 7 (26:19):
We got these guys other you know, parts and facets
of being you know, student athletes here that they need
to work on, and we'll focus on that. So but
that all comes Monday. I want them to enjoy this one.
I know, Longhorn Nation. I want y'all to enjoy this one.
You all were tremendous tonight. What an environment. And how
about our students. I show up in the office this
morning at seven am. Okay, they're already lined up to

(26:41):
get into the stadium at seven am.

Speaker 5 (26:43):
That the officer said they were here last night.

Speaker 7 (26:45):
And so you just think about how much this game
means and what it meant and it's a very special rivalry.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
And all the credit to A and M. They've got
a very good football team.

Speaker 7 (26:54):
But to do it back to back years since this
thing's been renewed, to go to Kyle Field last year
this year at R We're gonna enjoy this one for sure.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Hey, listen, I say this only because this is my
thirty fourth season in the booth. I haven't seen the
way the fans and especially the students have reacted the
way they did until tonight. You and your staff put
together the program to make this environment different. It was
different for a long time and it's it's a place now.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
It really felt it tonight, man.

Speaker 7 (27:25):
You know, and you guys have heard me when I've
been talking about, Hey, the SEC environments you go on
the road and what these places are like. We got
an SEC environment here at DKR two.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
It was rocking. It was fantastic.

Speaker 7 (27:37):
It's only been our second SEC home night game in
two years. You know, So nobody, you gotta get Koch
Shanky on the phone here and figure out maybe we
can get a couple more of those, because that was
special tonight.

Speaker 5 (27:47):
It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
Get him on the phone first about the c We're working.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
On that too. I got all sorts of I'm calling
all my markers right now.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
So so what I could do? Yeah, you got you
bet he's doing all that.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
On the text line, somebody said, hey, politicking work for
Mac Brown in two thousand and four. It did a
different situation obviously to get to the Rose Bowl instead
of cal And you know, Max said back then pretty
much the same thing. Sark said, why wouldn't I campaign
for my team? Why wouldn't I Folks have like that.

(28:20):
It's a bad thing. Of course, you're gonna gonna fight
for your team, stump for your team, campaign, politic whatever
for your team. And Texas did get accepted to the
Rose Bowl, and Cal's quarterback, a guy by the name
of Aaron Rodgers, was really upset about it. Was calling
out Texas for politicking their way into it. I'll never

(28:43):
forget that, because you know, they had to settle, so
to speak, Cal for the Holiday Bowl, where they went
and got run off the field by a Texas Tech
team that Texas beat by thirty in Lubbock that year,
and then the long Worns went to Pasadena, had any
credible game against Michigan and Rosebull would set the stage
for what happened the next.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Year in the National Championship run of twenty years ago.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
So yeah, it did work back in two thousand wor all,
though the circumstances were a little bit different then. Somebody
said Arch is really looking comfortable.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
He does.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
He says, sky's the limit odds to make the CPP.
You're Alma Monter or your employer. Well, first of all,
Texas is not my employer. I broadcast the long on
games I worked for iHeartRadio. I'm not employed by the
University of Texas in any way, shape or for.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
But it's a good question.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
I would say this, you know, for North Texas, I
think it's pretty simple.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
If they win, they're in. At this point.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
What the bigger question a lot of folks are going
to have is now that Duke got to backdoor into
the a SEC Championship with that's some US lost to
cal the other night. If Duke wins to finish eight
and five, is that put two G five teams in?
If James Madison wins the Sun Belt and whoever wins

(30:03):
American whether it be two Lane or North Texas, is
to put two in and leave the ACC out because
the committee is only required to take the five highest
you know, regular five highest conference champions, highest rank conference champions.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
That I think is even the larger question there, all right.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Coming up next Inconceivable here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
under the Zonne. Second hour of the program Here on
Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone, glad Avu with
us on a Monday afternoon, Stay warm, out there, Craig
Way and alongside the producer Jay Herman, we're with the
uptil five o'clock this afternoon, each and every weekday afternoon,

(30:43):
Monday through Friday.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Later on in the hour, we'll hear from Michael Taff.
We'll hear.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Also from from Justice Carlton and the Texas women's basketball
team there win yesterday which has the number two in
the national rankings, and some other topics basketball and pro
football related as well. Back to college football and all

(31:12):
of the drama that is leading up to the release
of the penultimate college football playoff rankings. Of course, the
last ones will come up next Sunday, and so Bill Connley,
who covers college football very closely for ESPN, said it

(31:35):
wasn't the most ridiculous rivalry week we've ever seen. Thirteen
of the top fourteen teams in the playoff rankings, and
the one that didn't, Texas A and M, was already
guaranteed to see fpeace spot chalk is reign over the
past couple of weeks. But as with pizza among other things,
rivalry week is great even when it's not great, said,
we still got a dramatic Iron Bowl. We got one

(31:56):
last silly plot twist in the ACC title race, the
silliest yet perhaps, and we still got all the intense
environments we could possibly want, plus some snow, and still
got an all the time come back. In the smaller
school ranks, he said, we also got whatever continued to
go down in Oxford, Mississippi, which wasn't even slightly enjoyable,
but certainly created buzz. The conference title game pairings are

(32:21):
all set, and we'll soon known how a big load
of chalk might impact the CFP rankings.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
In the meantime, here's what they did learn, he said.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Uh, this is for ESPN's Marty Smith in particular, since
he was forced to spend most of Saturday doing live
reports about nothing happening in the ole miss football buildings
that are watching the games.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
And we'll hear from Marty Smith coming up in the
next segment.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
His points are Number one, Ohiowa State is the most
relaxed team on the planet because they you know, monkey
off their back, got you know, defeated the school of
from up north. They beat Michigan, soh they won that
and their number one, he said. In fact, he's kind
of he said, over the past few weeks, I found

(33:08):
myself thinking that this college football player might end up
being on Ohio State versus the field situation. Georgia looks
spectacular for a couple of weeks in November, but shifted
the cruise control against Charlotte last week and can never
get its offense humming against the weak Georgia Tech defense. Friday,
Kirby Smart's dogs are such brawlers that I was still
probably give them the best chance of getting the job done,

(33:30):
but there's still reason to wonder about their upside. Then
he talks about Indiana, and you know they're trying to
win their first league title since nineteen sixty seven. We'll
see as they play Ohio State this week. Texas Tech
has a relentless pass rush and even better run defense
and could put Julian Saying in increasingly uncomfortable situations. Alabama's

(33:52):
four and one and one score finishes in twenty twenty
five and with Saturday nights late fourth and two touchdown
against Auburn, has proved it as the boldness that might
be required to beat the buck Eyes. Notre Dame has
played like a top three or so team since its
two losses that began the year, and after last year's
national title game loss would bring a fun revenge storyline

(34:12):
to the table. Oregon is the only team not ning
Michigan to beat in Buckeyes in the past twenty three months,
So he said it's hard to pick anyone, but Ohio
State is a clear title favorite. And then you get
to the intricate tiebreakers and the ACCS eight and five
conference champion destiny. He said, it was John Isner week

(34:36):
in college football talk about extended tiebreakers.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
Are you familiar with.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
The Pat tip good reference there?

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Yeah, it really was.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Okay, So here's what he has started off with the ACC.
The ACC had five teams tied for second place at
six and two, Duke.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Georgia Tech, Miami, Pitt and SMU.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Those teams played exactly four games against each other and
they shared only one common opponent.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Syracuse.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Duke, with the worst overall record of the bunch, stolen
a SEC championship gip birth Championship game birth because of
its conference opponents win percentage, So you have that. Here's
the other thing that's weird. The Mountain West. I don't know,
have you heard about this. They had four teams tied

(35:29):
for first at six and two. Boise State, New Mexico,
San Diego State and UNLV. They almost played a complete
round robin. We were missing only SDSU UNLV, But because
it was incomplete, the conference had to break the tie
with a blend of computer rankings including sp plus that

(35:55):
gave the rebels at Boise State, even though UNLV was
zero and two against its six and two brethren. So yeah,
it's going to be UNLV at Boise. The deal with that,
I don't know if you saw it. There was a release.
Was it Saturday night or yesterday morning? Perhaps it was

(36:16):
with coming from New Mexico. They were very unhappy with
how this tie was broken, and there was this well
worded letter about it all, and it was signed by
the vice president and director of athletics in New Mexico,
Fernando Lovo. That name might ring a bell to some people.

(36:39):
Fernando Lovo was the chief of staff for Tom Herman
here at Texas Fern as we know him. After Herman
was relieved of his duties, Fern stayed on and was
working as a senior associate athletic director for facilities and

(37:01):
things like that. Nice guy, Fernando, and he got the
athletic director's job at New Mexico there he is in
New Mexico and they get nosed out on a tiebreaker
on the playoffs, so he was not happy about that
when they did that. The SEC, of course, ended up
with a four way tie for first at seven and
one among Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Texas, A and m.

(37:22):
They played just two games against each other, BAM over Georgia,
Georgia over ole Miss, and AM got to the finished
line without having played any of the other three. Alabama
and Georgia got in because the superior conference opponent win percentages.
The Mid America Conference, the MAC had three teams tied
for second at six and two, and while Miami lost

(37:44):
to both of the others, Ohio and Toledo, the RedHawks
got to the MAC championship bid because since there wasn't
a full round rob on between them, they won the
next tiebreaker, which was record against common opponents. The American
Conference ended up with three teams tied at seven and
one a conference play Navy, Nor Texas and Too Lane.
They shared only one common opponent, Temple, and there was

(38:06):
only one ahead the head matchup between the teams. Tulane
got in because of its college football playoff ranking or
twenty four or Texas got in because of they had
to head win a rarity in tiebreakers over Navy.

Speaker 6 (38:18):
So anyway, Craig, what would you think about going to
divisions in these supersized conferences as a way to avoid this,
Because it is one solution, it brings about other potential problems.
But I've been thinking about that this morning.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
You know what, you know what Bill Conley says about
that here It is granted, divisions stunk. There's a reason
conferences got rid of him in the first place, and
why I wanted them to. They were usually quite unbalanced
from a quality perspective, meaning we rarely got a conference's
to best teams playing for the crown. Plus with a
divisional structure, it would take forever to play all of

(38:55):
your conference mates in these enormous conferences. Classic example, A
and M has been in the SEC for fourteen seasons
and Georgia still hasn't played in College station as ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
So I think he had the answer there.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
He said, Obviously, conferences aren't looking to voluntarily get smaller.
So is there a solution here? It's either faulty divisions
or terrible tiebreakers. If someone's in the mood to get silly.
I certainly have ideas. What about two tiered conferences with
promotion and relegation between them That would ensure that the
team is most likely to make title runs for playing

(39:29):
each other, though it would prevent a sudden rise like
that of twenty twenty four Indiana, since the Hoosiers would
have most certainly started the year in the Big Ten
second tier. What about temporary divisions that are established based
solely on recent quality and are redrawn on every few
years to avoid permanent imbalance. Maybe it's as simple as
what the American Conference did, put highest CFP ranking pretty

(39:52):
high up the tiebreaker list and maybe shifting to the
ap polar computer averages. If no one is ranked by
the CFP committee, the ACC would probably love that. Right
about now, it's best team Miami will quite possibly missing
out on a college football playoff slot that goes to
a lesser ACC champion Virginia or of five duke up

(40:12):
sets Cavaliers.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Maybe a second group of five champion goes instance.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, you're looking at JMU or the Mountain West champion.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
YEP, possible. So anyway, he said.

Speaker 6 (40:23):
Promotion and relegation huh think, but think about that in
the in the era where you know LSGU is going
to be Oxford West next year and now and it
is you know, say they get quote unquote relegated. Now
they're going to get a schedule that includes Kentucky, Mississippi State,
South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Does give one pause, he said.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
In previous seasons, I shared a BCS like formula that
I maintain essentially half ap pole half computer rankings, mostly
resume ASP plus and drink the record that does a
decent job of approximating how the CFP committee will think
based on both that formula and who the committee has

(41:04):
to this point favored Texas, tack in Oklahoma and disfavored
Vanderbilt and any group of five team compared to the
formula this season, here's my best guess for what the
top twenty five will look like Tuesday night. Number one,
Ohire State, number two, Indiana number three, Georgia number four,
Texas Tech number five, Oregon number six, Old Miss number seven,
Texas A and M number eight, Oklahoma number nine, Notre

(41:26):
Dame number ten, Alabama eleven, BYU twelve, Miami thirteen, Vanderbilt fourteen,
Utah fifteen, Texas then USC Virginia, Michigan, Arizona, Tulane, Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri,
Georgia Tech and James Madison in there. We don't know
how far Texas A and M will fall, but my guess.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
Is that its resume doesn't quite stand up to those
of Oregon. Are all missed.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Those three teams are somewhat interchangeable, though, and at the
bottom of the list. The committee has been going out
of its way not to rank either James Madison seventeenth
to my formula or North Texas twentieth am. I continue
that over last week's nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two,
and twenty three teams losing, there is an open door.
Maybe the committee will deign to notice just how impress

(42:12):
of the Duke's hand or the mean Green had been
at some point. Yes, their schedules have been week. Yes
they would accept a Power Conference invitation I offered. Their
week schedules are not their fault. And then here he
says the most interesting rankings will be those in the
eight to fourteen range. If we just assume that any

(42:34):
two loss his SEC or Big ten team and any
one loss Big twelve or a CC team is in
we have more teams than we already have slots available,
and this extremely chalky weekend did nothing to help that.
The most interesting team, he says, is Texas. Granted, the
long run buzz grew quieter when all the favorites one Saturday,

(42:56):
but we'll see if Steve Sarkesian's campaigning after Friday nights
whenever Texas A and M moves the needle man. He
pointed out that had Texas scheduled a week non conference
opponents that of Ohio State, the Long Orange would quitly
quite likely be in the field of twelve.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
And that's fine.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
My counterpoint, however, simple, how many times did they actually
look like a playoff team this year? Three four they
needed over time to be Kentucky, barely got Passissippi State,
and their offense didn't really show up until late October.
And no one about in about the eleven to nineteen
range has suffered as a loss as egregious as Texas
twenty nine to twenty one defeated Florida. Their best wins

(43:32):
are strong, but they have both more losses than others
in this range and the worst loss of anyone in
this range that more than offsets wins of rou and Vandy.
My eyes, maybe the committee will spring to surprise, but
if the Horns don't make it, it's their own damn fault.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Now, this is where I will disagree with.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
Him on this.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
Why are closed losses? Why are closed wins only hurting Texas?

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Well, I I get where people mention that they had
to go over time to beat both Kentucky, Mississippi Mississippi
State both were on the road. I think that should
be a factored in it as well, But I understand
where they're saying it. The three wins over top ten
ranked schools has not happened in six years, so there

(44:14):
should be more value to that than punishment attached to
losing at Florida. Just my opinion on that, but we'll
see how the committee thinks about that.

Speaker 6 (44:28):
Fing a different perspective from the text line. Rude Wayne
on YouTube Okay prefers Texas not make the playoffs. He
says it let a fire under circle like we've never
seen Texas tech in Texas. A and M will force
Sark's hands, so he has no choice but to spend
in the portal.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Well, he did spend in the portal.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Yeah, all right, so what's he saying about the.

Speaker 6 (44:45):
First about fire sar no, no, no, let a fire
under Sark.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
You've got pretty good fire lit on her mind. Now
you listen to his what he's had to say about
He's had a pretty good fire lit under him on
all of that. So we'll see how of that goes.
It's uh, but that's that's another perspective coming from that.
I wanted to present different perspectives on all of this.
All right up next, uh, the Lane Kiffin saga and

(45:12):
how it occupied one guy's time throughout the entire weekend
on sports RADIOA of thirteen under the zone in the
iHeartRadio app except.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Here on a Monday, I'm rolling back.

Speaker 6 (45:26):
Well, we're leading into our Lane Kiffin saga story. So
how about a little Guarth Brooks calling baton Rouge.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Well he did do that, or bat Rouge called out
to him. Somebody asked me on the text line, did
you catch Cowherd today? Irvan Meyern and Colin agreed that
Texas ought to be in. Sark was on too.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
No, I didn't catch that either.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Uh, I was.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
I had a couple of meetings in a zoom and
stuff like that. Didn't get a chantants too. I'll go
back and listen to it, though, go back and listen
on our archives at AM thirteen under the Zone, so
I'll do that, or you can always listen to this
program also archives, so I will do that. I'm glad
you gave me the heads up on that. We'll hear
more from Sark about this coming up next hour. Keeping

(46:21):
it with college football in the strange week that happens.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
You know, here's here's.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Kiffen who kind of strugging along and strugging along and
said he's still at what after that win in the
Egg Bowl on Saturday, he had to pray about it
and talks or I saw somebody right who's he praying to?

Speaker 2 (46:47):
So with all of this, I just don't get it.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Meanwhile, Marty Smith was hanging out and hanging on every
time they kept going back to him. It was kind
of like if you were watching what's our guys with
the Weather Channel, Jim Ky, Jim Canty and Mike Sidel,
those guys, you know, just hanging out waiting for the
hurricane to head or whatever. But unlike those guys who

(47:14):
ultimately wound up in the middle of it, Marty kept
being on the periphery of it, but give him credit
for stick tuitiveness, and finally hearing that was gonna happen,
he was gonna leave.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
He was going to go to l s U.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
And that a lot of the argument, the reason for
the delays once o't over whether he was going to
stay or not. It was whether he was going to
be allowed to coach ole Miss in the playoff, which
he wanted to do. And what's the ole Miss athletic
Director's named Carter. He had said, can't do that. We

(47:52):
we just can't do that.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Keith Carter.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
Keith Carter, uh just kept saying we can't do that.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
So then there was all this space that Lane might
pull out of his assistance with him, but Keith Carter
kind of beat him to the punch, at least in
terms of having his defensive coordinator step in to take
over the head coaching reigns. And most of the staff
would stay, but some would leave, especially in the offensive side.

(48:21):
So all of that was up in the air as
to who would stay, who would go, and what kind
of impact it would have not only on the program
in the present, but also for the College Football Playoff Committee.

Speaker 6 (48:35):
The GM, the offensive coordinator, the tight ends, coach, the
receivers coach, the strength coach, and all sorts of other
analysts are going with him.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Okay, all right, mainly from the defensive side, their staying right.

Speaker 6 (48:52):
Well, they're bringing they're bringing his younger brother Chris with
him from the defensive side.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Okay, that was expected, right, But everybody, pretty much everybody
else on the defensive side of his remaining under Pete Golding. Yep,
who is the new head coach? Now, my son showed
me this and I'd seen it as well. I've never
seen this before in college football what I saw online.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
Then again, I.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Had never seen a coaching situation drag out the way
it did for the head coach of a team who
has a legitimate shot to win a national championship leave
the team before that season. Even Eric Morrison North Texas
worked it out with Oklahoma State that he could coach
the team throughout their conference championship season and if the

(49:42):
Mean Green reached the playoffs, he'd be able to do
that same thing with John summerl Tulane, who's going to
go to Florida, same deal to be able to coach
the team as long.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
As they were still a lot.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
They worked that out in advance, but almost Athletic department
was like, Nope, it doesn't work like that because you're
going over a rival conference school and probably going to
take players with him too, obviously going to take coaching
staff members. So I completely get Keith Carter's perspective on this,
and to his credit, Lane Kiffin took the high road

(50:14):
mostly on that. On the interviews that you saw when
Marty Smith finally got him, and how did Marty Smith
finally get to him? Well, listen to this saga, because
if you saw the interview, you saw him like out
near like the secured gate. It wasn't at the practice
practice facility. It wasn't in a place that was easily
public accessible.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
And he explains how that came to be.

Speaker 11 (50:36):
I knew they were going to drive him straight onto
the tarmac, so I'm trying to figure out how to
get on the tarmac when I know that's against the law.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
You can't just walk out there.

Speaker 11 (50:46):
So I'm like, dude, where are they taking you? So
he tells me this area right, not going to disclose
the area, but I did know that it wasn't where
I was, so I yell at my crew, I'm like.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
Come on, boys, let's go.

Speaker 11 (51:00):
And I had been given at the Birmingham Airport Thanksgiving
night this conversion van. Now, y'all, this ain't no mini van.
This is like a sixteen person. It's like driving a
loaf of bread. And I'm gonna tell you something. Now,
I've been getting my balls busted constantly about that by
everybody in the world for driving that loaf of bread.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
But you know what, God is so good. If I
didn't have.

Speaker 11 (51:27):
That van in that chaotic moment where we're running to
get Lane Kiffin, there's no way I can fit my
whole crew, all hammers, all the gear.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
In one vehicle.

Speaker 11 (51:37):
But I had the loaf of bread, all right, So
we all getting a loaf of bread. And Laying is
basically giving me the play by play on where he
is and wheeling this van.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
And we take a left.

Speaker 11 (51:50):
And when we take a left off this highway, there
is all these fire trucks that have blocked off the road.
There's fire in blocking the road. Well, I said, to
hell with it, we're bo duking this thing. So there's
a field that I drove around the barricade through all

(52:12):
of this farm equipment. The van's bottoming out we're bombing
this thing through ditches, over the hill and through the
woods to this road. And then I met this van
all the way up on top of the hill to
the to the tarmac area, and there he stood, laughing
his glasses. He saw the whole thing, and he's on

(52:35):
the phone and he's like, Bro, you really are Scooby dude.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen him.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
So he got there and he did the interview with
him afterwards. By the way, that was from Pat McAfee show.
And uh, to give Marty Smith credit. Hell, he also
went an Emmy for that. And you don't forgetting through
that and doing that.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
Uh, but he did.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
He did the interview, and uh and and and Kiffin
didn't give any real clear, decisive answers why I was taken,
why he was leaving the program that was about to
compete for a national championship to one that has the
potential to do it, other than to say it was
another challenge. I mean, if he had just gone ahead

(53:17):
and said it's a better job's one hundred thousands he
stayed even instead of sixty thousand. There's an endless supply
of money for.

Speaker 6 (53:25):
Nil access to better access to a more or two,
you know, more fertile recording.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Absolutely so.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
But they could have built a statue of him in
Oxford if he stayed.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yep, Yep.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
He's more interested in seeing if he have a statue
building him in bad Rouge. So we'll see, uh if
if all of that works out. But you know, there's
a I can't remember the name of the movie. There's
a movie with Richard Gear and Diane Lane where she's
like unfaithful to him. Maybe the name of it's Unfaithful,

(54:04):
I can't remember.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
And that's the one, Yeah, two thousand and two.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
And she's and she's in a conversation with other women
and they're talking about this, this affair going ending disastrously
and another one this, and she says, do they always
end and why does it have to end disasters? And
they look at her and they say, it always ends disastrously.
That's Nane Kiffen. It always ends disastrously. Look at every

(54:37):
one of his prior jobs fired on the tarmac there
in California. Just it's just a left, really ugly situation, Tennessee.
It just ends disastrously. Even when he has a team
in the college football playoff with one loss, it ends
disastrously because he leaves before the season's over.

Speaker 6 (54:56):
Or in the case of Alabama, he left before the
national championship game.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
That's exactly right. It ends disastrously where he is concerned.
So and again I don't blame him for one that
take another job. Is just the way it ended up
winding up. The way it was engineered was done poorly.
I certainly don't blame Keith Carter, the athletic director at
Ole Miss. You got to protect the brand and protect

(55:25):
the school and say I'm sorry, I can't allow you
to coach the team. You cannot have it both ways.
You cannot coach the team, hope to win a national
championship and be gone and we all know you're leaving.

Speaker 6 (55:35):
You cannot put on a great LSU advertisement for the
next three weeks.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, So that's the unfortunate thing about all of that.
All right, up next, we'll shift to some basketball. We'll
do that when we continue on thirteen. Under his own
carting still one way from the bucket on the right side,
works your way hid with the painting stuff, leans in
and scores again the glass that's street buckets here. Early

(56:02):
in the second quarter off the glass.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
For Justice Carleton.

Speaker 12 (56:06):
Welcome back to the craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns.

Speaker 5 (56:10):
Craig Way.

Speaker 12 (56:10):
Follow Craig on social media at porn Voice.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Continue on this Monday afternoon. It's not a Ya rock weinsday.
That's good to hear, Doubes anytime. You know, long train
running one of my favorites.

Speaker 6 (56:26):
I thought to go well under that highlight and a
long streak running thirty in a row at home for
the Texas Women.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Prety Home consecutive wins there at Moody there for the
Texas Women, So that is impressive. Justice Carlton came off
the band score ten in the second quarter. The Logornes
were just kind of, you know, plodding along, and you know,
folks were saying, I figured they do this coming off
those two huge wins in Las Vegas, beating previously unbranked,

(56:53):
undefeated and third ranked UCLA and previously number two ranks
South Carol.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
I know, Oh, did you wish you called that shot?

Speaker 3 (57:02):
What the one that Rory did.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Yeah, she's I mean fortunate, caught a lot of big
shots that she and Madison Booker made. So Roger Wawsis
had a great call of it, so it worked out well.
But she did she really did well. McCain UT's all
the time assist leader. But they were plotting along. They
were actually down early second quarter to Tulane eighteen fifteen,
and all of a sudden they peeled off, as they

(57:27):
are certainly capable of doing on a nightly basis, an
eighteen oh run and Justice Carlton had ten points in
the second quarter. We visited with her after the game
about it. Justice Carlton scored ten points in the midst
of that eighteen oh run. Do you guys just kind
of get a feel in a rhythm when you got to.

Speaker 4 (57:45):
Go on like that? Yeah?

Speaker 13 (57:46):
I think so absolutely. You know, we're always trying to
stack possessions and build on top of one another, so
I think that was important.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Yeah, you came off a big performance in the two games.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
Everybody did in Las Vegas.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
But given what the team is having a with now
with the injuries, knowing they're calling on you a lot more,
a lot more minutes, a lot more production. Ay, how
does that make you feel? And the responsibility accepting of
all of that.

Speaker 13 (58:10):
I mean, obviously it's a big responsibility but you know,
we just kind of have to do it. We want,
we have to do There's no there's no other like way.

Speaker 4 (58:18):
We have to do it.

Speaker 13 (58:19):
So, you know, just hoping that our teammates get back
healthy and they come back soon and stuff for SEC
and a conference place, so thinking sure everybody's staying healthy
and just continuing the sack.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Like I said, what helps.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
You flip the script when you guys were down free
and you go on an eighteen oh run to take
command of this game?

Speaker 13 (58:36):
Yeah, I think obviously coach Chefer giving us, you know, pointers,
he's watching the game. We're an in, so it's it's
nice to be able to listen to him and people
on the bench and they will tell us what they're
seeing and things like that we can adjust.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Did you get a real Thanksgiving dinner at any point
this weekend?

Speaker 3 (58:53):
No? No, we did not. You going to try to
dig one up somewhere.

Speaker 13 (58:57):
Yeah, maybe somewhere, you know, hopefully I'll get a frozen
play or something at Christmas.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
And she was deserving a much more than that, a
frozen plate or something like that. And by the way,
the team did eat very well out in Las Vegas.
I'm told it just didn't you didn't have they didn't
have their traditional Thanksgiving style meal. They had to play
South Carolina Thursday. I didn't want all that trip to
fan kick it in or whatever and you know, making
them sluggish for the game. They needed everything, all hands

(59:23):
on deck anyway to beat South Carolina, which they did
on Thursday, so that was pretty cool. Then they turn
around won that game, and then they got North Carolina
coming in on Thursday night in the acc SEC Challenge.
Prior to that Wednesday night, long one men will play
in the acc SEC Challenge. So the host, Virginia, Texas,
coming off the Mali Invitational, dropped that first game heartbreaker

(59:46):
Arizona State eighty seven eighty six, then destroyed Shamanad one
nineteen to seventy eight, but then beat twenty third rank
North Carolina State one two ninety seven. Impressive performance there
and head CoA which Sean Miller was talking about that
in the recap.

Speaker 9 (01:00:04):
First of all, we're excited to be back here in Austin, Texas.
You know, I think the Maui Invitational has, you know,
a lot of great lessons to be learned. Very competitive
three games in three days type of challenge and I
don't think you can underestimate the you know, thirteen and
a half hour trip up and back through different time changes,

(01:00:27):
all within a framework of about five or six days.
So I'm glad we've had the opportunity to recover and rest.
I think we know a lot more about our team.
I thought the third, the third game against NC State
was clearly our best performance, and I was very proud
of our group. It's not easy to lose a heartbreaker

(01:00:48):
game one, get through the second day against Shamanad, and
then on the third game in three days play against
a very good team before you leave and be at
your best. So it gives some confidence coming out of
that trip and most importantly, the opportunity to grow learn
develop as we enter the month of November of December now.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
So they now get ready to take on the Virginia Cavaliers,
and we'll have more on that coming up over the
next couple of days. With regard to the Texas match
up with Virginia in the acc SEC Challenge. That will
be as I mentioned, coming up on Wednesday night for
the men, and you can hear that here on AM

(01:01:37):
thirteen under the Zone and also on ninety eight point
one FMKVET. That's Wednesday night. That's a seven thirty year
time and about an eight point fifteen tip off we're
told for Texas and Virginia and the acc SEC Challenge
that's coming up on Wednesday. Then Thursday night, the Texas

(01:01:57):
women will play North Carolina and that'll be good to see.
In terms of the college women's college basketball rankings, as
we thought would happen, Texas did move up to number
two in the national rankings after beating number three UCLA

(01:02:22):
and number two South Carolina, and so the top five
got reshuffled a bit. Ucon's number one. Texas did move
up to number two. South Carolina fell to three, UCLA
fell to four, LSU number five, followed by Michigan Maryland
TCU up to number eight, Oklahoma's ninth, Iowa State ten
second ten. North Carolina will come in ranked eleventh. They

(01:02:45):
are eight and one. Their only loss was to UCLA
out in Las Vegas a week before Texas played UCLA
in Vegas. I was twelve, followed by Ole Miss Baylor,
who the Long Orange will play in Fort Worth on Sunday,
December fourteen, is ranked fourteen. Vanderbilt unbeaten there eight No
They're number fifteen, followed by USC, Kentucky, Notre Dame, Tennessee,

(01:03:09):
and Michigan State. In the final five in the women's
poll Washington, Louisville, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Eight secs and eight Big tens.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
Yeah, and those really have been the power conferences, no
question about that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
So there's a you know, you expected.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
That the SEC would be well represented, but in addition
to the SEC, as you pointed out, the Big ten
also very very well represented in that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
And then in the.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Men's top twenty five poll, number one in the AP
is still Purdue, Arizona still number two, Michigan up two
spots or up one spot, up four spots from number
seven to number three.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Yeah, they just absolutely splattered Gonzaga.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
Yeah, nobody expected that. That was quite surprising.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
Then is Duke Yukon, Louisville, Michigan State, Houston, b YU,
and i Aowa State for the top ten. Second ten
begins with Gonzaga, followed by Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Kentucky,
Texas Tech, and Auburn. In the final five in the
poll are Kansas, Indiana, Saint John's USC and Arkansas. So

(01:04:34):
there's your top twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
We'll be back to wrap up hour number two year
on thirteen under the Zone Texas twenty seven, Texas A
and M seventeen.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Ten.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
For those of you keep in count, and many are,
that now makes the series records seventy eight thirty seven
five favorite of Texas.

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
Not bad.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
You know, for over a decade hearing people in Texas
at A and M would start chirping at each other
back and forth. Fans long worn fans of VERIABLEY would
in the conversation or attempt to end the conversation by
mentioning seventy six thirty seven to five. Well, they've played
two times since then, since they've joined the SEC, and
now it's seventy eight thirty seven to five. And we

(01:05:19):
heard from Logorn's head coach, Steve Sarkisian from our postgame
conversation with him we rea aired at the first hour
of the program where he mentioned that, and it was
something we had mentioned as well on the air, because
it was not lost on us either that in sweeping

(01:05:40):
all three of the rivals Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A and
M for the second consecutive year. It's the first time
since nineteen sixty nine and seventy the Texas swept. It's
three YAR trivals in back to back years, and those
were both national championship seasons sixty nine and seventy. So

(01:06:00):
we begin the final hour here on the Zone talking
about Texas and where their place is going to be
for the upcoming college football postseason. We'll find out a
great deal tomorrow tomorrow night with the college football playoff
rankings at six o'clock to release time tomorrow night. In
the meantime, long Worn's certainly enjoying what they accomplished. Among

(01:06:22):
those Michael Taff, the senior of the veteran who'd been
here from the start, been a walk on, now a
Burlsword Trophy finalist, a guy who had been a former
walk on, who had a crucial interception when the Horns
were up ten and a and m was driving later
in the ball game, and Taff came up with a
big pick afterwards, and we saw him come out, and

(01:06:46):
you'll hear reference to this. We saw Michael Taff come out,
and this is why we were still in the air,
and we were I think we were in a studio
segment and we saw him walk out along with Marshall
Land where another former walk on the linebacker from My
Island Park and one or two others, and they came
out still in the uniform, came back out to the

(01:07:08):
field afterwards and took a couple of pictures and were
kind of taking it in and it made me think
of a time when another former Longhorn standout athlete did
the same. Anyway, it's part of the conversation we had
with Michael taff after the game. Can you take us
through first of all that play and then on a
larger scale, Art told us about what the conversation was

(01:07:29):
like in the locker room at halftime and what you
guys did defensively in the second half was.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
Was a clinic?

Speaker 14 (01:07:33):
Really yeah? I mean, first, God is good. I mean
God has to be real. Who would have wrote a
better story just for myself? I couldn't. I couldn't have
jown it up any better. Just to grow up loving
the burn orange, you know, cheering my my tail off,
losing my voice every Saturday as a kid, cheering for

(01:07:55):
Cole McCoy, Sam Ellinger, all those guys. Of course, uh
to walking on and and being able to play, and
the last game ever in DKR against Texaan and Maggie's
you got like that. I'm just I'm so happy and
so joyful, and man, I'm proud to be a damn Longhorn,

(01:08:17):
that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:08:18):
The interception was cool.

Speaker 14 (01:08:19):
I mean, it was a it was a great coverage
called by p K And what Sark told us at halftime,
he just said, you got thirty more minutes to show
the world who we are, so leave it all out
on the field.

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
And and I think that's what we did.

Speaker 8 (01:08:37):
Michael h. You didn't want to leave the field? Uh,
you and some of you boys were down there. Jack,
we saw and Marshall and and and the guys. What
what was that moment, like just kind of soaking it
all in.

Speaker 14 (01:08:49):
Yeah, for sure, it's it's a bittersweet moment knowing that,
you know, I don't get a run out of that
tunnel ever again, but.

Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Just cherishing at just knowing that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
I came to Texas.

Speaker 14 (01:09:01):
Realized when I was a sophomore in high school and
we walked on this field when they let us, and
it was like, oh my gosh, to play here would
be an absolute dream. And now I walked out one
last time knowing that I gave it everything I had
on this field.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
It was it was really special.

Speaker 14 (01:09:19):
And to be with those guys and to see how
much we've done on that field, how much throw up
has been on that field, some blood and.

Speaker 4 (01:09:26):
Definitely some bruises. You know, it makes it all.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Worth it, by the way, just you know what, it
reminded me of seeing you down there with Marshall and
and saying Jack and these other guys. It reminded me
of and I'm sure you'll probably remember this moment.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
This is back a few years ago when when the
Long Orange won won a super Regional in baseball, and
Cody Clemens after it was over kind of like what
you did, except he was bare chested and he had
a beer in his hand and went out and sat
at the top of the at the top there a
ufcud's fog field. So, I mean, you know, there's are
great singular moments where you kind of hate to take

(01:10:00):
these kinds of things in, aren't they.

Speaker 4 (01:10:02):
Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 14 (01:10:03):
I think life goes by fast and and you're realizing
that when you know, I know, I'm still young, but
you know, turning twenty three in February, and just knowing that,
you know, the fun it is right here in the moment,
and and man, I'm so blessed to be right where
I'm at. I know so many people would do anything

(01:10:25):
to be where I'm at, So I got to give
it everything I have, and I cannot do anything but
be grateful, because man, there's there's people finding for their
lives everywhere that you look in the world. And I
know a lot of people that would that would kill
just to be in my moment. So you definitely soaked
it in, but didn't have a beer in my hand.
Like Cody Michael.

Speaker 10 (01:10:46):
Today, I watched my senior year US playing A and
M and I looked back and I thought about those
guys in a couple of years when you look back
at this game, what are your memories going to be
about this team?

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
Oh?

Speaker 14 (01:10:59):
Man, you know, it was such a the regular seasons became,
it's been as such a roller coaster of emotions of
you know, just everything mentally physically for this team. But
the one thing that I would say about this team
is we have a lot of love for each other
and we're super coachable. Anything that the coaches want to

(01:11:19):
get fixed. We get that fixed. And I know that
starts with the leaders, but man, those young guys just
listen and they they're like sponges. They soak up all
the information. And so I'm real proud of this team.
I know that I'll never forget this team. And in
that moment and just hugging every single teammate on the
sideline and telling every single wonderful I love them and

(01:11:39):
so proud of them.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
It was really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Hey, you physically had to get fixed during the year,
and and the surgery thing in the season. I mean,
I know your spirit, so you weren't ever gonna cash
in the rest of the season. But did it ever
put the thoughts around like, oh my goodness, I hope
it doesn't end like this.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:11:59):
To be honest, real honest with you, it's been tough
the last couple of weeks because you know, I was
I was so bought into the approval of man, and
I was so you know, tempted by the approval of man.
Where you know, you come back and you're an All
American and you're playing well in the middle of the season,
and you get mid season All American and you know
everybody is just saying how good you are, right, and

(01:12:20):
and then you break your thumb and you gotta get surgery,
and you're out two weeks and you come back and
everybody's saying, oh my gosh, our defense is gonna be
so good because we got Michael Taff And just like that,
against Georgia and against Arkansas, I did not play good football.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Just call a spade a spade.

Speaker 14 (01:12:35):
And I had a long talk with my pastor uh
this week, and we went a long walk, and I
just spilt everything out, everything that I was going through
and everything that I truly wasn't trusting God. I was
trying to do it all on my own, and I
was pressing so hard to do good and to win,
and that's just not who I am. And so I

(01:12:56):
reput my identity in Christ this week. And that's not
the reason that I got to pick. But I knew
that when I was gonna make a mistake, that that
God's plan was way better than mine.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Michael or you you know, Sark told us, See, you
guys get the weekend off, So how you planning to
spend that?

Speaker 14 (01:13:13):
I think hopefully my buddy Charles Wright, who used to
play quarterback here, I hope that he put our name
down on the acc T sheet, because not that I
can play golf right now with my thumb, but.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
Wondered about that.

Speaker 14 (01:13:27):
I want to go just get out there, get off
my phone for four hours and just watch some some
ugly golf, but some pretty weather.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
That's what I hope to do, and watch them college football.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
And and and and then next week start getting back
to work and thinking about postseason.

Speaker 14 (01:13:41):
That's right, that's right. If anybody, if anybody can be
a politician, that's me. I think if you don't schedule
you know, Ohio State, which college football needed that game?
You need a non conference game like that, number one
versus number two in the country. If you don't schedule that,
then you schedule you know, some team that Texas probably
should win, you're tending to and nobody's even bleaking an

(01:14:01):
eye that you're in. But you schedule that and you
lose by seven, I guess, the number one team in
the country. So I don't think the Committee's gonna punish
us for making, you know, one of the biggest viewed
games in.

Speaker 4 (01:14:13):
All of college football this year. So I'm pretty confident.

Speaker 3 (01:14:16):
Well, listen, we appreciate you taking the time.

Speaker 1 (01:14:18):
As always, it would not have been complete this broadcast
of this ball game and this week pre without getting
a chance to visit with you, mokie. We appreciate the
time and congratulate with listen, enjoy that weekend. I hope
you're getting the golf cart and right around and point
out where the bunkers are and all that stuff, and
then we'll visit again soon.

Speaker 4 (01:14:34):
Thanks, Craig, Hook them forever, Gogglass.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
All right there it is Michael Taff. Always a lot
of fun to visit with. Good dude and fine football player.
Really has come a long, long long way in his career.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
A lot of the fans around me and it's not
that often these days that I get to enjoy a
game in the stands like that. A lot of fans
were quite emotional when he got the peck.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
Yeah, yeah, it's something very very fitting.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Uh. We know he's got at least one more game
left to play, maybe only one more, maybe more, who knows.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
We'll hear from Sark about that coming up here on
Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone in the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 11 (01:15:20):
Who's to see Watson boshy fuck?

Speaker 8 (01:15:27):
This will keeps spinning each new thing. I can feel
the change in there.

Speaker 5 (01:15:37):
And there's the surface makes reflect shots face.

Speaker 3 (01:15:40):
Why don't get the feeling there's some meaning behind this?

Speaker 6 (01:15:44):
Well, he could go a couple of ways with it,
Jack Johnson, he's got back from his home stage.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 6 (01:15:51):
And I know somebody that thinks the rankings are a
little upside down right now, that's.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
Where I thought you were going with this.

Speaker 6 (01:15:59):
Thought.

Speaker 3 (01:16:00):
I'd swear you might be headed with this.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Okay, Well, long Ones head coach Steve Circisian would believe
we'll get to him in a moment. Hey want to
remind you we've got a pair of tickets to give
away each day on the program to see Chicago and Sticks.
Now it's not till next August August nineteenth to twenty
twenty six at Moody.

Speaker 4 (01:16:21):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
Had I known we were talking about this, that could
have been.

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
A way right right exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
But it's a ways off.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
But we are going to give you an opportunity be
in the drawing for it to enter. What you do
is you download the iHeart radio app, You search AM
thirteen under the zone, You tap that little red button
with a white microphone on it. You've heard us tell
you that you talk back Mike the talk back feature,
and then you leave us a message with the key
word that you heard on this program. So again you

(01:16:49):
search AM thirteen under the zone that's after you. If
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(01:17:10):
and then you leave us a message with a keyword
you heard on the radio. Today's keyword is twenty. I
know it's a number, but it's today's keyword is twenty.
That said, and it'll kind of make sense as the
week goes forward, all right. The our man c palaces
Kiff in his meeting with the media now in Baton Rouge.

(01:17:33):
So we'll obviously have some comments about that tomorrow. Somebody
said from watching the game, it was so great and
moving to see the horns there for the eyes at Texas. Yeah,
when they all went up there. Roger kind of laughed
about it and said, yeah, I know, I had my direction.
Trong I said, the southeast corner of the end zone.
He was pointing to the southwest corner of the end zone.
He said, to the southeast. He meant the northeast corner

(01:17:55):
when they went up there where the band was and everything.
But that's that's where it was. A lot of folks
got there, so it was awesome. Point hey, the Texas
when we got ten number one, ten first place votes. True,
if we're being completely honest, they're probably not going to
move into number one spot unless and until they keep

(01:18:17):
winning and.

Speaker 3 (01:18:17):
Yukon loses a game. Because Yukon's are.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
Defending national champ so far, they look every bit the
part of it, so they probably won't get enough votes
to pass them. But we'll see how it is as
a time moves on. Okay, let's hear from Longhorn's head
coach Steve Sarkisian. Now, this particular thing was something that
he had said, uh and this was a part of

(01:18:43):
what the sec now appearance that he.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Had yeah, right, yeah, this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
Okay, all right, So.

Speaker 1 (01:18:52):
If you remember in his news conference after the game,
not the interview that he had with us, we we
aired that earlier, and he spoke eloquently and at length
about it, not that he didn't do it in the
press conference, but also in the press conference, he added
that he felt it would be a disservice to the
sport of college football of Texas was left out of

(01:19:14):
the playoffs. So he was asked, how does he feel
now about that comment the service to the sport if
Texas indeed winds up being left out of the playoff field.

Speaker 7 (01:19:24):
Think about a lot of different things throughout this season,
and you know, I think there's there's part of you know,
as you grow throughout a season, and and and we
had a very unique one when you think about we
played five we played five top ten ranked teams this season.
But beyond that, we go on, we go on. We

(01:19:44):
go six and one at the second half of our season,
and after after starting off three and two, and of
those seven games, four of those teams were ranked in
the top ten, and we went three and one in
those games. And when you when you think about, hey,
I know it, everyone wants to point to the Florida game,
or we didn't play great against Mississippi State and Kentucky. Well,

(01:20:05):
we also didn't play at home for forty two straight
days either, And when you look at it. On that front,
I thought, if a lot of teams were put in
our shoes, what type of resiliency would they show to
play the schedule that we played, to beat the teams
that we beat, I think is obviously extremely impressive. Like

(01:20:26):
I said, to go three and one in the second
half of our season against against four top ten ranked opponents,
and to go three and two on the season with
the only other loss coming to Ohio State when we
lose fourteen to seven the first game of the year,
when we allegedly played terrible, when I did realistically, we
outgain them by over one hundred and fifty yards and

(01:20:47):
we get stopped twice inside the ten and still have
the ball at the end of the game to try
to go tie it or win it. When nobody else
has played Ohio State within within three scores. I think
speaks to that as well. And so you know, ultimately
I'm proud of our team. I think these guys have
showed a lot of grit, a lot of resiliency.

Speaker 5 (01:21:04):
They've responded, you know, game in and game out.

Speaker 7 (01:21:08):
And the point being is this, Hey, again, we can
say we shouldn't have played that game, or we shouldn't
have lost that game. Teams are gonna lose tough games
throughout the season. But I think we can all agree
we've gotten better as the season's gone on, and we've
grown and we've become a better football team than we
were at the start of the season. We've played five
top ten ranked teams and we've beaten three of them.

(01:21:30):
There's teams that are ranked in front of us that
haven't played any top ten ranked teams. And so my
point to everybody is, is this about what your record
is at the end? Or is this about beating quality
teams and showing how how good of a team you
really are by beating quality teams on the field, Or
is it don't play good teams, put up a bunch

(01:21:52):
of yards, put up a bunch of points, and make
it look good, you know, throw throw fade route touchdowns
with thirty eight seconds to go when you're head thirty
one to Seve and said, the score looks better. So
is the committee really watching the games or are they
just looking at a stat sheet at the end of
the game to say, oh, well, they won by this
many points.

Speaker 5 (01:22:09):
They must have played really good.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
Yeah, that's one point he made there, and then he
was asked about this whole thing about scheduling tough non
conference games. I remember what they have on the future schedule,
and I feel compelled to add these words. For now
Ohio State to open the season next year at home,
Michigan at home the following year. They have notre Dame

(01:22:34):
on the future schedule a couple of times down the
road as well. So he was asked, will he take
a closer look at the out of conference scheduling differently
moving forward?

Speaker 5 (01:22:47):
Well, I think we have to. You know, at the
end of the day.

Speaker 7 (01:22:50):
You know, now we're going to nine conference games, and
now you're talking about, Okay, we want to play these
great games, and it's great for TV. I mean, how
many people watch this play off House State the first
game of the year. Fifteen millions some some crazy numbers.
Sixteen million people watch that game. Okay, but we've got
to be mindful of the fact that, you know, I

(01:23:14):
had a sheet you sent to me yesterday that we've
played five top ten ranked teams. I think the next
closest team that's ranked ahead of us has played two,
and then there's multiple teams in front of us that
have played none. But yet they've got a little better record.
They're ten and they're ten and two as opposed to
nine and three, and so at that point, if we're

(01:23:35):
just staring at a record, well, man, we got to
try to put ourselves in a little better position to
get a better record as opposed to playing really good
teams and then get better as the season goes on
and go six and two in the SEC against the
quality opponents we played. I just think that that's got
to be something that we need to be mindful of.
And that's not for everybody else to be concerned about.

(01:23:57):
That's more for us internally that we need to be
mindful of. If this is the way the Committee's going
to look at it, well, we got to to be
fair to our players and our team.

Speaker 5 (01:24:06):
We got to do our We got to do our
job to put.

Speaker 7 (01:24:08):
Our players and our team in the best position to
extend their season in the college football playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
And then what has become the eternal question playoff expansion
and does he think the college football playoffs should expand
beyond the current twelve team field.

Speaker 5 (01:24:24):
I don't know. Again, like that that's so hard to tell.

Speaker 7 (01:24:28):
All I care about is that we're just trying to
put the best teams in and not get caught up
in the record, because ultimately, if we just keep staring
at the record, then all we're going to try to
do is get a good record, when I don't think
that's what we want in college football. We want teams
competing against the best teams. That's what makes our sport great.
That's why the SEC is such an awesome conference because

(01:24:52):
of the quality of teams in this league from top
to bottom. And I just I'm concerned about the playoff
more so than and I am should we expand or not?
In that we are living in a world of, well,
this team only has two losses or that team only
has one, when if you really look at the rankings,

(01:25:13):
all we're doing is following records. What is the committee
doing different than what the AP's doing. All we're doing
is looking at records. Are we really looking at the
teams and the quality of teams that they play and
the style of play, how they play against the good teams.
I'm not so concerned about how people play against somebody

(01:25:33):
when you're favored by four touchdowns, how are you playing
when you're playing against the good teams? Because that's what
the playoffs are and I know that firsthand because we've
been in it the last two years. How do you
play against the good teams? Not necessarily, how did you
play when you were favored by four touchdowns? Like what
are you doing when you're playing in real games?

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
Yeah, it's valid question, valid point. We'll hear more from
Sark on this in the coming days, of course, leading
up to the selection. What he was on all fine
bomb today.

Speaker 6 (01:26:01):
Probably Yeah, a lot of the same thing he's We'll
be seeing a lot of sart.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
That's the campaign stops that are going on right now.
And for anybody that looks down their nose at that,
you're telling me that you wouldn't try to protect your
own interest, of course he's gonna do that. He's gonna
try to protect his own interest on that. Up next,
we'll shift to pro football, namely the two teams in
the state of Texas when we continue on thirteen under

(01:26:25):
the zone.

Speaker 15 (01:26:26):
Now standing the top.

Speaker 16 (01:26:32):
At the end of the day, man, we talked about
coming here taking what we wanted.

Speaker 15 (01:26:35):
Everybody. It took everybody get here, coaches.

Speaker 16 (01:26:38):
Players, every man in here stood up, made a player
we need to make a play. It took every second
on the cotton to finish this thing. But that's what
it's about. Coming in winning at the visital game is
a tough opponent and we got to see these guys again.

Speaker 15 (01:26:51):
Great talk right there, getting the first one. Now on
to the next one. Let's keep it going, everybody. Great talk,
couple of minute football all the way around. A lot
of great things. The most important thing what we come
here for. It do what up?

Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the voice
of the Longhorns.

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
Craig what follow Craig on social media?

Speaker 5 (01:27:15):
Horn boys.

Speaker 1 (01:27:17):
Always good to hear Deminico Ryans in the locker room.
After those Texans victories and now they continue to win
up to seven and five with that four in a
row now Jason started owing three and three and five
and now seven and five at least during that category
on the right columns is in the hunt.

Speaker 6 (01:27:35):
That's right, sixty two percent playoff probability.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
I remember we discussed it a few weeks ago, Craig.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
That was down in the teens, right, And they still
have another game of the Colts to come, as he mentioned,
so they've got important games still to come. Jacksonville in
front of the division race. But again things are not
yet decided. There other stuff from Deminico ryans what allowed
his team to finish straw in these late game situations and.

Speaker 5 (01:28:02):
We finished wrong. Man, it's our defense.

Speaker 12 (01:28:05):
They stood up, made a play and we were in
the same position last week. Fourth down, you know, you
got to make a play there, you know, in the
red zone, guys made a play. Offense had to go
close it out. Knew we had to run the football there.
They knew we were running the ball, and we did
we need to do. I thought Woody, you know, did
an exceptional job there at the end of the game,
closing it out, get the first down, and just the

(01:28:27):
way he turned out yards, the way he protected the football.

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
He did a great job all game.

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
So what's the biggest difference between starting going three and
meeting at three and five where they are now winners
of four in a row and up to seven and five.

Speaker 12 (01:28:39):
Yeah, it just goes to like how we finished. I
know I continue to say that, but that's the difference.
Like we you know, protected the ball. We had the
one turnover, nobody blinked, Like we came back the next drive.

Speaker 5 (01:28:50):
We were able to go down and score.

Speaker 12 (01:28:52):
So everybody sees our team like we have that true resolve,
like no one play is going to get us in
the tank and nobody's going down. Everybody understands it's a
sixty minute battle each and every time we step out there,
and we're playing full sixty minute games.

Speaker 3 (01:29:06):
Now that's a difference, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
CJ Stroud back from the concussion, How did he evaluate
his performance?

Speaker 12 (01:29:13):
I thought CJ did a really nice job coming back
or missing a lot of time. I know some throws
he would like to have back, but overall thought he
managed the drives really well.

Speaker 3 (01:29:23):
We drove down.

Speaker 12 (01:29:25):
Of course we want to score on some of those.
We get down, had kick field goals. But overall for
him coming back not having played in a few weeks here,
thought he did a really nice job of If this
is where he started, it's only up for him. So
I'm excited to see how he continues to progress.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
All right, there's some things there from demnko rans now
Lebrian Schottenheimer had a post game, not a post game,
he had a press conference Chester. Remember the Cowboys played,
of course on Thanksgiving, had that thrilling win of the
Kansas City Chiefs, and they've been really good on third
downs of late and what does Shoddy attribute this improvement to.

Speaker 3 (01:29:56):
Yeah, tighter coverage. I think that starts effect.

Speaker 17 (01:30:00):
Think the quarterback is a huge part of that, you know,
getting even if it's not sacks, it's hits, it's moving
him off the spot, it's you know, them feeling the
rush kind of in his face. But really a combination
of those. And you know, really, you know, when we've
struggled on third down, been really a lot of third
and longs, like we've struggled on third and long, which
is really you're trying to get people into third and

(01:30:20):
long like. And so I think that it's been more
of the first two things that we've made them have
to make tighter, more contested the rows one. And then
of course the quarterbacks have been you know, feeling the
pressure of our pass rush.

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
Okay, that's one thing.

Speaker 11 (01:30:34):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
He's been praising Donovan Azaraku a lot lately.

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
Why I think just.

Speaker 17 (01:30:40):
The consistency that he performs with every week is what
jumps off the film at me.

Speaker 3 (01:30:44):
I mean, he just you know, he he.

Speaker 17 (01:30:46):
Plays the run, he can affect the quarterback, he's disciplined,
he's calling things out, and you know, I'm excited about
him because I think, you know, I also know the
type of leader that he can be, and.

Speaker 3 (01:30:58):
I think I shared with you guys.

Speaker 17 (01:30:59):
I talked to both him and Tyler Booker, and you know,
talk to them about you know, adding you know their
voice and may we're deep into the season and you
guys are have earned the right to speak up, and
it's been fun for me to watch both those guys
kind of come out of their shell a little bit
and be comfortable speaking up in front of the guys
in meetings and things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:18):
He's also with this rotation going on late linebacker between
Kenneth Murray and Logan Wilson, does he prefer that one
of them just win the job outright?

Speaker 3 (01:31:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 17 (01:31:26):
Again, I think, you know, we're trying to do is
create competition every day, and I think both guys are
doing good things. I think in a perfect world, you know,
someone grabs it and it's like a no brainer. But
I think the good thing for us right now is
they're both doing really good things and so therefore it's like,
you know, let's find the rotation. They're both very different players,
which I kind of like because it's different for the defense,

(01:31:49):
you know, in terms of the way they function and
the way. You know, Logan's got strengths and Canine's got strengths,
and so I do think that that's harder on offenses
being an offensive guy. But again, I think we're comfortable
going into back with both those guys and until one
of them clearly shows, hey, I've taken this thing over
and it's my job, then we're comfortable playing on both.

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
Okay, this next question, Jake, uh you have your list
is DAK and golf. You're talking about Jared Goff on
this DAK and Golf both excel and play action. It's weird,
there's random somebody asking about Jared Goff. I mean, I
know they got the Lions coming up, but it's I

(01:32:28):
was thinking this was more about just coming back and
review of things.

Speaker 6 (01:32:32):
Well, so obviously they've got this game with the Lions
coming up and on Thursday night. The question was about
seeing things in practice and from your own offense that
can help your defense, then go out and play the Lions.

Speaker 3 (01:32:46):
Okay, all right, all right, I feel on you.

Speaker 1 (01:32:48):
Now, it's interesting that you both excelling and play action.
So does that help in the preparation leading up for
since he sees it obviously, from Dak.

Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
I think so.

Speaker 17 (01:32:58):
I think, you know, we both have identity where we
want to run the football. We want to obviously, you know,
use the play action passing him. I think it does.
I think when you look at some of the plays
that they run, I mean, it's not just the action passing,
it's the motions and things like that.

Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
They probably use more of the extra alignment than we do.
But I think so.

Speaker 17 (01:33:17):
Because a lot of times we can look at those
plays we translated into our verbage and so it's almost
like you're not even running a card. You're actually running
a play that we have and we can use our
terminology on it, and I think that makes the look
cleaner sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:33:30):
Well, one thing the Lions do well is run the ball.
Jamior Gibbs and David Montgomery, and he was asked about
this unique challenge of those two guys and how you
contain it.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
Both terrific players.

Speaker 17 (01:33:39):
Talk about Gibbs, I mean, the speed is just incredible.
You know, you give that guy space and he's just
you know, I don't think i've seen him get caught yet.
I loved him coming out. One of my favorite interviews
that I ever did at the combine. He was incredible,
and you compete against Montgomery number of times and the
physicality he plays with. So I think it's a really
cool balance that they have those two guys and not

(01:34:02):
knowing them and how they function, I would I would
imagine they're close friends and they want what's best for
each other, but they're a very dynamic one two punch.

Speaker 1 (01:34:10):
And then finally that mid season trade to bring in
Quinn Williams from the Jets. What a difference it's made.
How big a difference?

Speaker 17 (01:34:20):
I think it starts with just the way you have
to game plan him. You know, we've done that quite
a bit over the last couple of years, and I
mean you have to have a plan to neutralize him.
Him one on one is a very very tough assignment
for really any interior offensive lineman. But I do think
that he's exactly right. It's not just one guy, you know.

(01:34:41):
I mean we have Jenavian Clowney's affecting the quarterback as
much as anybody, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:34:46):
The coverage, you know, Revel is.

Speaker 17 (01:34:51):
Doing a great job of tying up receivers, which is
again tighter coverage. Now the pass rush gets home, and
I think what you hear Q say, is real. You know,
defense is about all eleven guys. But again, I'd be
lying if I said, when you open up the personnel
report and you see Quinn Williams name, you're like, uh,
what am I gonna do about this?

Speaker 3 (01:35:10):
You know?

Speaker 17 (01:35:10):
And so I think that's real. And when you pay
a lot of attention to him, it gives other guys
a lot of opportunities to showcase their talent.

Speaker 1 (01:35:17):
Oh blank, yeah, yeah, yeah right, meaning certainly take it
in from there. So big game they go from Thursday
to Thursday with the Lions coming in and both teams,
you know, the Cowboys on the rise and the Lion's
falling off. Of late the Lions are seven and five,
the Cowboys sixty five and one. So it's a big
one for both teams on Thursday night, and you'll hear

(01:35:39):
it on that eight point one FMK pet all right,
we'll be back to wrap up today's edition of the
program here on sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone
of the iHeartRadio app.