Texas Comes Up Short in Columbus, MLB and NFL News & Notes

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Holiday. What a holiday is Monday. It's a football Monday.
It's a Longhorns Monday. So we're talking football and a
lot more. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the program here
on sports Radio AM thirteen hunder the Zone. By name
is Craig Way. Glad to have you with us. Yes,
it is a labor day holiday, get that. But coming
off of the long Horn season opening lost to Ohio State,

(00:24):
we brought you Steve Sarkeishan's weekly news conference live this
morning at eleven thirty as part of our Longhorns Monday presentation.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It comes your way each.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
And every Monday at eleven am, starting at eleven am
with Mike Hardball, Harge and yours truly, and then we
brought to the news conference at eleven thirty with coach Sark.
So we do that every Monday, even when the Monday
is Labor Day. In fact, I had somebody ask me
today when was the last time you had Labor Day off?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
And I had to think about it for a moment, and.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
The date that I settled on was Labor Day nineteen
ninety seven, because that was two weeks before I actually
took the job. To come down to what at the
time was called the AM thirteen hundred. It was a
news talk operation, but to come down to do a

(01:15):
sports radio show, a sports talk show with Bill Shooning
at the time was the play by Playvo Waste for
the Lorens and I was the color analyst. I was
in my It just started my sixth season as the
analyst on the broadcast, but I commuted. I lived in
Dallas Fort Worth and I commuted for all of the
games whome More away. So but when jeff Ward left

(01:38):
and he was our sideline report, we left to go
across town to work at another station. At that time,
I was offered the opportunity to come down and co
host with Bill, but that was two weeks after the
season began. So by the time I was offered that,
Texas had already opened the nineteen ninety seven season with
a winter for Rutgers, and I took the job. And

(02:04):
the very next came after that was the sixty sixty
three loss to UCLA. Afterwards, but I didn't actually start
at the radio station until September twenty fifth, nineteen ninety seven.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
That's when I started at this radio station.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Back when we were at seventh and Lamar and we
were there until two thousand and one.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
He had been there for years and years.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Then we moved down to penn Field down there on
South Congress, and the station was there for in the
neighborhood of about twenty years. I left after well, it
was January of twenty seventeen. I left to go across
town at the time the other place that had the
broadcast rights, and it went over there. And then sometime

(02:47):
between then and when I came back here, the radio
station and iHeart moved here a stride Lake Austin, hard
by the Colorado River, right down here in the shadow
of the Pennybacker Bridge. That happened, I believe about four
years ago. I just passed two years being back with

(03:10):
iHeart and glad to be back against So the point is,
in nineteen ninety seven, while I commuted for the games,
I didn't come down for the Monday news conferences.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So at the time was John mcmick, so I didn't.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
I had that labor day off in nineteen ninety seven.
It's the last time I had went off. But since then,
starting in nineteen ninety eight with Mac Brown, there was
a news conference every Monday, and I was here and
so it was coming off the first game of the year,
so he had Game one review and then Game two
to preview. And that's how it's been since nineteen ninety eight,
twenty eight consecutive years of doing that. So we were

(03:50):
over there today for Coat Sark's news conference, brought it
to you a live and you will hear comments from
that coming up. So if you're out riding around, just
to enjoin the after and glad that you're able to
take today off, recharge and get ready for the stretch
drive of the calendar year, final four months of this
calendar year. As we bring you the program on this
first day of the ninth month of the year, September,

(04:14):
glad to have you with us. US of course includes
the producer, that's Jay Carmon today. How are you, How
did you navigate the weekend? How did they go for you?

Speaker 3 (04:24):
You know, it was exciting being back. It brought back
all the feelings you love, all the feelings that you know,
you get a little familiar with some of these close
losses that have happened over the past few years start
to kind of run together because you feel the similarities
between them. But you know, it was great to be
a part of, you know, an Austin watch party atmosphere

(04:46):
for the game. After I helped out with Cam and
my carge over at Cover three to get the morning
started with their morning preview show. And yeah, it's just
it's just been tough to keep everything in perspective given
the fever.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Pitch.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
I was out actually just shopping some errands for my
new apartment. Texas had on and everybody wants to get
their little wise cracks in. So it definitely feels like
we're back in full football season.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, welcome back to the football season, right. Jake, of course,
for those who don't know, is from the Washington, DC area, however,
attended college at the University of Texas, so he's well
acquainted with the wants, the needs, the peccadillos of all
of the of Longhorn Faithful and their vocality after both

(05:31):
wins and losses, and then Jake went up and worked
in the Dakotas and worked back in d C. So
we're glad to have him on board on this. So
did it kind of feel almost like old times for
you now? Being back and down and back with a
long worn game and all the requisite grumbling that a
company's a disappointing loss.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, all we all we were missing was you know,
that exciting feeling you get walking into two dk R
And I know we're going to get that, you know,
over the next few weeks here. But yeah, just being
down on campus in the stadium, that's that's the next
step to feeling like we're fully back.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
How many of your college buddies, real buddies that you
hung with at the time back until you graduate. You
graduated twenty twenty two, is that right, Yes, okay, so
that was three years ago, a little over three, three
and a half years ago. How many of your close
friends that you have back then are still in the
Austin area.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
You know, It's funny. There was a bit of a
of a mass exodus last summer. Oh yeah, but this
year a few of us have come back. So we
had a good We have a good group of four
or five people that are that are still in Austin now,
a couple of which just returned, including me. So the
guys that have been here all along are like, well,
we got on the waiver wire. Jake's back, but a
couple other guys left. So we were all together for

(06:45):
the game and it was. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Do are all of them gainfully employed now here in
the Greater Austin area?

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Okay, well so that's good. That's good. All right.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
So this being a long worns Monday, what that means is,
obviously we review the tech contest and we'll hear the
comments from head coach Steve Sarkisian from the weekly news
conference that we brought to you this morning at eleven thirty,
but we'll talk about college football as a whole of
the weekend. First weekend of high school football is in
the books. Brand new polls are out for Texas high

(07:17):
school football. The college updated rankings won't come out until
tomorrow because there's one more college football game to be
played on this holiday weekend. And always on that first
full weekend, the Labor Day weekend, they wait all the
way through the Labor Day Night game because remember NFL Football,
No Monday Night football tonight, because the season doesn't beget
until Thursday night. And for those of you who are

(07:40):
Dallas Cowboys fans, you know what that means. Cowboys against
the Eagles on Thursday night, and then Monday Night football
really kicks in the gear starting next Monday. So always
on Labor Day night there's a college football game, and
tonight it's TCU in North Carolina. The debut of Bill
Belichick is coach of the North Carolina Tar Hills taking

(08:02):
on TCU, So that is tonight in Chapel Hill. So
the AP and the coaches pulled weight on all the
results through the Monday night game before they issued up
data rankings. Obviously Texas going to fall out of the
top spot. How far they fall, who knows, well, we'll see.
It depends some on what happens to night. But there

(08:23):
were other teams that lost. You had the fourth ranked
team in the country lose Clemson, the sixth ranked team
Notre Dame last night fell the eighth ranked team, Alabama lost.
You said that didn't go over well with your family.
Was at the Alabama's loss at Florida State.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
It was it was a tough opening weekend for the
Herman family. Yeah, my dad grew up in Birmingham and
his parents were you know, Alabama folks.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
So he was roll tiede.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, he was roll tied. I was raised and kind
of that house divided. I think he, you know, went
back to Alabama for a little bit after school. He
would probably still admit, even though he went to Texas,
that Alabama's his kind of one A in Texas his
one b okay, and so he he was not too pleased.
He saw things in that Alabama performance that he hadn't
seen since since the Mike Schule era.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Who did he root for in the head to head
games in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three?

Speaker 3 (09:12):
He was for Alabama, I was for Texas, Okay, Okay.
It was a house divided.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, yeah, I see okay.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
So we'll we'll find out about the the polls when
those come out tomorrow. Even though this is a holiday,
we do have the text line available for you. If
you'd like to chime in with your opinions or questions,
you're certainly welcome to do that. All you have to
do is text the word Texas followed by your question

(09:40):
or comment to eight one five three zero. So you
start with the word Texas could be all in caps
or just a capital T with little EXAs Texas, then
your question or comment and you text that to eight
one five three zero. Standard messaging and data rates may apply.
We're always happy to take your thoughts, your questions, your opinions,

(10:03):
and there's a lot of those obviously based on the loss,
but we're going to hear it from the head coach.
Coming up, we'll hear Steve Sarkishan his thoughts on this
season opening loss for the Loghorns to Ohio State and
getting ready for the home opener this Saturday. Another eleven
am kickoff this Saturday morning at eleven am against San
Jose State. So we'll hear from Steve Sarkisian coming up.

(10:25):
We'll get to your questions we have inconceivable this hour.
We have other things we get to. We'll take a
look at the baseball now that we're get into the
fine final month of the regular season, we'll take a
look at where baseball stands with one month to go
here and the rest of the regular season. There's NFL
football to digest as well, so we'll get to all

(10:46):
of that and more coming up. It's a Long Horns Monday.
Glad to have you with us right here on sports
Radio AM thirteen under the zone in the iHeartRadio app
here on a Long Horns Monday. And speaking of the
head coach, let's jump right into this. This is what
we brought you live this morning, and we do it
every Monday morning at eleven thirty.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
We bring it the news.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Conference in its entirety, and then of course we chop
it up, break it down and hear from Sarko and
the sound bites and talk about all this.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
So let's start with this opening statement.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
This is from the news conference brought to live this
morning on the Zone at around eleven thirty.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
But the head coach, Cheve Sarkisian.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
Obviously, what a great scene and what a great matchup
for college football. Those are two good teams battling and
out in a hard fought game. Obviously, it was great
to have an opportunity to honor coach Corso in college
game Day and all that he's meant. I think the
biggest thing coming out of it is lots to build
on from that game. And I thought we built on

(11:46):
a lot of things during the game. I thought that
we played a much better second half than we did
a first half. I thought all the way through our
guys played hard, they fought. I think that was obviously
evident there all the way into the fourth quarter at
the end of the ball game. But I do think
as we grow as a team, and I think really
good teams get better as the season goes on. And
that's been one of the challenges to the team this morning,

(12:09):
is that you know, who we were Saturday does not
does not have to be who we are this Saturday
in the coming weeks. And so I think the goal
is for each and every person in the organization to
get better, to learn from that game. There are plenty
of lessons learned, and there are plenty of positives that
came out of the game, and there were some negatives clearly,
I think from an experience standpoint, I think we played

(12:31):
fifty players in the game Saturday, which was fantastic. Seven
of those fifty made their first career starts for us.
We played four true freshmen, obviously had a new punter,
a new kicker, new punt returner, new kick returner, so
on and so forth. I thought defensively, we played a
very good football game, you know, to hold them to
three point eight yards per play. I think it was

(12:53):
two point three yards per rush, three to twelve on
third down, only two explosive plays which came on two
pass plays, one of which was the touchdown. You know,
the one thing that came out of it where there
was some disappointment was you know, we had a we
had a twenty four game streak of forcing a turnover,
which was the longest in the country, and our and
our inability to create a turnover or two in that

(13:15):
game I think affected us some. I thought offensively, you know,
we played much better in the second half. I think
we had just about two hundred and sixty yards in
the second half. I think our ability to run the
football was evident in the game. To go into that
environment against that defense, to rush for just about one
hundred and seventy yards, I thought was good for us.

(13:38):
I thought we started to make some plays in the
passing game as the game went on, which was a
good sign for us moving forward. But I do think
penalties were an issue because it wasn't so much the
amount of penalties, it was the timing of the penalties.
You think about, you know, we have a third and four,
we get a stop, they're probably in a in a

(13:58):
punt mode because of the nature of the game, and
we get a legal hands to the face or a
face mask on a pass rush, which extends the drive.
Then we get a defensive pass interference or a holding
penalty that extends the drive, and they ultimately score a touchdown,
So thirty yards and penalties on the one touchdown drive.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
Then we have we have.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
An opportunity to really pin them deep in their own
end and possibly get a safety, and we get another
hands to the face rushing rushing the quarterback, which negated
a safety. So ultimately, you know, the two fouls which
kind of equated to points in the game.

Speaker 6 (14:33):
And I thought, offensively, same thing.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
We have a false start on a third and five
which knocks us back to a third and ten, which
ultimately we have to punt and pin them deep again.
But I think ultimately what came out of it too
was we've got to be better at playing complimentary football.
I thought in the first half we had some really
good field position that we didn't capitalize on offensively that
the defensive special teams got us. Conversely, we had some

(14:58):
good field position on defense. You know, I think Jack
pins him three times inside the ten and we get
stopped on the one, so four times they had to
start drives inside their own ten. And I just didn't
think we did a good enough job of pinning him
deep and flipping the field back in our favor. So
something for us to work on of playing complimentary football
and then ultimately, you know, the fourth down conversions on offense,

(15:20):
you know, one for five. You know, we we were
aggressive initially obviously with the first fourth down sneak and
then the fourth and two which which we didn't convert,
and then a couple of the fourth downs late were
kind of because of the situation, we kind of had
to go for him.

Speaker 6 (15:34):
They were what they were.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
But all in all, you know, I was proud and
happy for Cedric Baxter. You know, I think he had
fifteen touches in the game, his first game back after
you know, not playing for year, you know, ten rushes,
five receptions. I thought Manny Muhammad competed his tailoff Saturday
against a great player in Jeremiah Smith. I think Jack
Bowmeister was fantastic. He's a weapon for us in the

(15:57):
punt game. I thought to have four full time first
starters on the offensive line and the way that they
performed was definitely encouraging. And I think Arch in the
second half, I thought, we start to see the glimp
the glimpses of what he's capable of. So a lot
to a lot to look forward to the season. I
think of where this team can go. We've got we've

(16:18):
got a ton of potential and now we've got to
make that come to life. But could be more excited
to get back to DKR This Saturday at eleven am
against San Jose State. Should be a great environment, great weather.
I think it's only gonna be eighty nine degrees Saturday
is the high and we've had a lot worse, you know,
day games in September, So we're looking forward to that.
Ton of respect for Kenny nea Motololo, the job that

(16:40):
he's done throughout his career, the job that he's done
at San Jose State. Just last season alone, they beat
Oregon State, they beat Washington State, they beat Stanford, and
they lose in five overtimes to South Florida in their
bowl game. So he's done a great job. They're gonna
throw the ball all over the yard. It's run to
shoot at its finest. They got a really good quarterback,
got a great linebacker, and ord and Pollard who's a

(17:01):
downhill player, run and hit guy. So good good challenge,
good opportunity for us. But but this week is really
about us.

Speaker 6 (17:08):
And what we do.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
UH and everybody in the organization being coachable, uh, and
striving to get better this week. So it's a it's
a lot of internal focus for.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Us, all right. And toward that internal focus.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
I don't know if you noticed it, if you follow
long Oorns closely and if you're if you're happen to uh,
let's just say, glance at social medium. You saw a
mixed bag after the game on Saturday. Now you saw
those who will always always preach the gloom and doom.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
That's it's what they do.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
And quite frank, a lot of folks are more in
a comfort zone when they're kind of like, oh my goodness,
the sky is falling.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
I get that, that's okay. Uh.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
There are those who will say, uh, I'm just here
reporting what I see and it might have a harsher
tone than you and what you.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Might have seen or something that's okay too.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Everybody's obviously excited, entitled to have their own opinion and everything.
Then you have another group who looks at it and says,
I find everything's cool, it's all right, there's no problems.
That's perhaps see that even a little more optimistically than.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Perhaps they should.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
And then you have a good group that's kind of
in the middle that sees the good things for what
they were and the not good things for what those were,
and sarka think laid out a lot of those things
now among those who follow in that category and even
some who shade to the heavy optimistic side, there were

(18:42):
posts on social media that were largely in defense of
Arch Manning of the difficult opening start for him as
the designated starter, because he was a backup filling in
the two starts he had last year when quinn Ewers
was out in so in his first real designated start
as the starting quarterback, there were a lot of you know,

(19:04):
it did not go well for him, and there were
those who.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Went and on.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Social media posted difficult debuts for people like Vince Young,
Peyton Manning and Steve Sarkisan himself at b YU and
sark could just transferred in from a junior college when
he played, and he had a rough opening day, and

(19:33):
sark was asked, uh, it's you know, somebody said, all
we have was the stats.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
There's no video of it, so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
It wasn't real impressive just judging for the numbers alone.
Do you remember much about it? And sark definitely remembered
about it. And how he had to respond to it.

Speaker 5 (19:51):
Yeah, it was not a great day and it was
an eleven am kick. I'll never forget that day they had.
They had a good team. But you know, I think
it's it's it's learning from the game, you know. And
you know, I think one thing that happened a little
bit to Arch is the game can mount on you
a little bit and you feel like, oh man, we're
not scoring, or I missed a read or I missed
a throw, when in reality you look at the scoreboard

(20:14):
it's still zero to zero, and then the game can
ount and you feel like you got to make a play,
but you look at the scoreboards seven to nothing. Right
that this game was it was a very tight game. Sorry,
it was a very tight game that I don't think
he needed to press. And I think he'll learn that
as we go. Especially, you know, he's fortunate right now.

(20:37):
He's got a great defense on the other side of
the ball. We were really good on special teams, and
he doesn't have to force some of those issues. But
I think also he looked at the game and thought
there were some easy things in that game where he
can let the easy things be easy, and he doesn't
have to press on that. So all in all, I
think he started to play football in the second half

(20:57):
the way he's capable playing. And I think the other
thing he learned in this game once we really got
going was he's probably a better athlete than he gave
himself credit for in the first half of the game,
and he started to use his legs a little bit more,
had a really nice scramble to get out of the
pocket for an explosive run. Obviously we utilized him a
little more in the quarterback run game, but I think
him trusting his athleticism can help him some too.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
I found that very interesting by the way the comments
about he pressed in some situations. You'll hear him talking
about arts needing to take the easy things that are
there for the taking, which weren't always there for the taking,
and about that business of complimentary football. And I know

(21:44):
there's some folks to say, what is actlete? Does that
mean complimentary football? It means if you're playing really good defense,
you get the ball back in the ends of your offense,
and your offense needs to respond as well, and vice versa.
If your offensive moved the ball up and down the field,
which you ideally want is your defense to respond by
getting your stops and getting your offense back on the
field to do more complimentary football. And he was asked,

(22:06):
how important is that right now?

Speaker 6 (22:07):
Yeah, I think you know, really good teams do that.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
And whether you have an experienced or an unexperienced quarterback
in an offense, you know, we have to play cohesively
as a team and tie it all together. And that's
the importance of generating turnovers to create short fields. It's
it's a lot easier to score touchdowns when you have
when when the drive distance is shorter, right, It's it's
just it just is, and you know, and so maximizing that,

(22:31):
maximizing field position when you get it in your favor,
utilizing the field position when you get it in your favor,
when you can pin people deep, all those things add
up to playing as a team and not focusing on
one aspect of the team compared to another. And and
I think you know, that was a lot of our
meeting this morning was about that, how we play complimentary
football together. And as a defense, it's like, man, you

(22:55):
we got to be chomping at the bit, you know,
And a team's got to start their drive inside their
own inside their own ten.

Speaker 6 (23:01):
It's a long way to go to that other end zone.

Speaker 5 (23:03):
Man, Let's keep them here and then let's let our
punt block team go to work. Let's force an eric
kick like we were able to do on one, create
some good field position, but then offensively, now capitalize on
those opportunities when they present themselves.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, you know, the complementary football piece may run a
little deeper than we all initially would examine it. For example,
it would be pretty easy to sit back and say
the defense played great. They held Ohio State to two
hundred and three yards of total offense. That's it, two

(23:39):
three and they had four drives in the second half
totally twenty nine yards, outside of the one touchdown drive,
of course, which involved the forty yard pass for the touchdown.
But by the same token, you can look at it
and say, there were two costly penalties talked about ends

(24:00):
opening comments. There were two costly penalties on defense that
kept that Ohio State first scoring drive alive. A defensive holding.
There was a hands to the face. It was there
even on a play. And this is kind of largely
at least mentally for many people swept under the rug.

(24:21):
There was a play in the third quarter where it
looked for sure like the long Warns, or in the
fourth quarter where the Long Wrns were going to have
a safety and there was going to be a holding
call in the end zone and holding was called. Unfortunately,
there was a penalty against Texas as well, for hands

(24:42):
to the face or a face mask, so that happened there.
So that's why when Ohio State finally got penalized in
the fourth quarter, at one point I said, that's their
first standalone penalty, different than the offsetting penalty, because even
though it didn't cost the long Orange yardage and they
did force a punt from Ohio State, the next positions

(25:06):
when the Long Wrens had the one turnover, they would
have had two points on the board and gotten the
ball to the offense off the free kickoff the safety
with the chance to come down and actually score and
take the lead. And because it was only a seven
to nothing, game would have been seven to two. So
those are little details that sometimes get lost in it
when we say if you get just as black and

(25:27):
white with no gray area, ands say defense played great,
offense was not good. There were moments on both sides
and lots of moments on the defensive side, but in
the second half the offense had a lot more yardage
fourth quarter. I believe one hundred and sixty seven total
yards of offense in the fourth quarter alone, moved the

(25:48):
ball a lot better, obviously scored the one touchdown they had,
but didn't play complimentary enough football in those key moments.
And the same thing with the defense too. And that's
a big part of what Sarks talking about there. All right,
we're gonna hear more from Steve Sarkashan coming up next hour.
But up next we bring you in Conceivable for a
Labor Day Monday.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
That's next. Glad to have you with us.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Tuned in here on a holiday Monday on AM thirteen
under the Zone Craig Way alongside the producer Jay Carmon.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Glad to have you with us as well. And we're
with you.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Up till five o'clock. Yeah sure, I know it's a holiday.
Why are we working on because we always do on
Labor Day anyway, because we're coming off the long worn
season opener. The Texas lost to Ohio State fourteen to
seven and Columbus on Saturday afternoon. And by the way,
let me throw in something else too, just as an

(26:42):
aside for those of you who are listening to the game,
and we greatly appreciate it as always, and for those
of you who are listening to the pregame, a little
bit of explanation is in order. There was a satellite
issue that happened on Saturday, and it happened to fall

(27:03):
just like right before airtime, and it calls a really scratchy,
squelchy blackout type response. It was coming to the on
air product and it took a little bit of time
for it to get straightened out. And what it was

(27:24):
was satellite interference, which happens quite frequently this time of year.
It's solar flares, sunspots, whole thing. I remember all the
way back to my studio anchor days on the old
Southwest Conference Radio network when I mentioned the other day
that I was beginning my thirty eighth year on the

(27:47):
long worn radio network. Technically it would be about the
thirty sixty year. And the reason why I say that
it's my first two seasons, it wasn't just the long
Worn radio network. It was the entire Southwest Conference Radio
network and the radio network and a lot of folks,

(28:09):
especially the ogs among you out there will recall a
time when the Southwest Conference in its you know, heyday
form of the sixties and seventies and eighties had a
radio network that broadcasts like.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
A game of the week and then they did other
games and things like that.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
But on that Southwest Conference radio network, it was constructed differently.
For example, let's say Texas was playing Ohio State, or
say they were playing a home game against North Texas
or a home game against Boston College or whatever, but
it's a non conference game. What you would have back

(28:58):
in the day is pretty much which what we have today.
There'd be a play by play broadcaster and there would
be an analyst. Now, there weren't too many who were
doing sideline reporters back in certainly in the sixties and seventies.
They first started to pop up in the eighties. But
you'd have a play by play broadcaster and you would

(29:20):
have an analyst or color analyst, whatever if it was
a non conference game. If it was a conference game,
say Baylor was playing Texas Tech, and Baylor had a
great Hall of Fame broadcaster back in the day's name
was Frank Fallon. I think he did the Bears like
fifty three years something like that. Texas Tech likewise had

(29:44):
a great, great broadcaster, gentleman by the name of Jack Dale,
also over fifty years broadcasting great man Frank and Jack
tremendous guys. Let's just say Baylor was playing Texas Tech
and the game was in Waco. Instead of a Baylor
broadcast with Frank Fallon. In later years, John Morris was

(30:04):
his analyst before John moved into the play by playrole,
and Jack Dale and John Harris worked for years and
years and years together. John Harris still the analyst now
I works with Brian Jensen on Texas Tech football. But
instead of two standalone broadcasts like you here today, there
would be one broadcast and since Baylor was the home

(30:25):
team in my example, Frank Fallon would do the play
by play and Jack Dale, Texas Tech's play by play guy,
was the analyst, and the same broadcast was sent to
both markets.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
So that's how it was back then.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Non conference games you had for broadcast crews but pay
but in conference games it was a split crew and
the exact same broadcast on the old Southwest Conference radio
network went to both markets.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Can you imagine that today?

Speaker 3 (30:52):
I really like that you get that now with some
of the Roku MLB broadcasts.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Shoot.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
As a DC area guy, you get that when the
Nationals and Orioles, who are owned by the same network
play one another.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
I liked seeing the split booth. Yeah, A lot of
fans didn't. They didn't like, they didn't like. For example,
Texas fans did not like hearing Dave South, the voice
of the Aggies on their network when say Texas is
playing at Texas A and M and Aggies did not
like hearing Ron Franklin in his pre ESPN days when
he was the voice of the Long.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Orange for about four years. They didn't like hearing Rod
in a game.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
And also with Dave South as the analyst college football
that tracks Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So there's a lot
of provinciality obviously. So so that's how that went back
in the day, well in the late eighties, in the
last couple of years of that, which were eighty eight
and eighty nine, I was the studio anchor on the

(31:47):
old Southwest Conference radio network. So I would throw it
out to the booth or whatever and that sort of thing.
But it was my responsibility. And this leads back to
the story where I was going to it it. It
was my responsibility if we had what just happened the
other day, sun spots, solar flares, things like that that

(32:09):
cost satellite interference with games. And I would say sometimes
it would have to come to me in the studio,
because he did dropped out and say, Craig way back
in the Southwest Conference Radio Network studios technical difficulties through
some satellite issues, sun spots, this come of here, let's
get you called up on some of the other scores,
and then it would do studio seting or whatever, and
it would do like that and then it would go

(32:30):
back to the place or whatever.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
So we'd work it out like that.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
So the other day, of course the entire broadcast is
put on an uplink by s the whole thing is
going to drop out or sound squelchy and scratchy and
that sort of thing. And we made reference to it later.
But that apparently wasn't good enough for some folks. There
were some folks on social media that said, you guys
messed it up, you stuck. Now, it was atmospheric conditions.

(32:55):
It was not the fault of iHeart. So I just
wanted to let you know because they had trouble with
that with several what we find out from the other
people at the Learfield Studios, which manages you know, well
over one hundred radio networks that I think it's like
one hundred and ten or something like that, that they had
satellite issues and dropouts, and it depends on what part

(33:18):
of the country you're in. In the South, it happened
more prevalent in the north than in the north. So
that was one thing I wanted to make sure to
get that out there and let folks know that.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
And I know it wasn't just that broadcast that was
having problems. Some of my North Dakota friends didn't have
cell service also.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
See, yeah, that happens. Stuff happens. So before those of
you leap to the conclusion that we quote unquote screwed it.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Up, yeah, blame the new guy, blame me.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Blame you right anyway. So that's that's just to let
folks know that was the deal. It Sometimes that stuff
happens and there's not much you can do. What is
it that Judd Nelson says as John Bender and the
Breakfast Club, it's an imperfect world. Screws fall out all
the time.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
So it happens. So Graig.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
We got a comment Phillip says he misses the old
Southwest Conference in the Raycom days.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Raycom of course had the syndicated TV package of Southwest
Conference football.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
They did that.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
My good friend Dave Barnett, who was the voice of
his and my alma mater, the University of North Texas
and the Mean Green he kind of came out of
a semi retirement to take over the play by play
for North Texas when they needed somebody, and he's doing
it and joining it. But he did a lot of
those Raycom telecasts back in the day. Dave did working
with Dave row on a lot of those. So that

(34:42):
was on those Raycom things in the Southwest Conference football.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
It was fun. I mean I did it.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Like I said, eighty eight eighty nine was all the
Southwest Conference games, and then the network split up after eight.
After nineteen eighty nine, Host Communications, the forerunner of basically
through merge, became what you hear on lar Field now.
Host Communications then acquired several other networks. Well, the studio

(35:07):
where I was doing it was in Dallas, so they
started bringing in other games by satellite. So I went
from being the Southwest Conference studio anchor in nineteen eighty
eight and eighty nine to being the studio anchor for Texas,
which with Houston at the time was the only Southwest
Conference schools that remained with host communications.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
And then I think Houston even went their own way.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Later Texas, Army, Navy, hit Florida State and Alabama.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
So I was the studio anchor for all of those networks.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
What if they played at the same time.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
What you would do is we would in the studio.
We would record one pregame segment, do the other one live,
or the producers would stagger the time as to when
they would cause it to me in the studio. So,
for example, this would be a typical Saturday in nineteen
ninety one, I would do a pre game for Texas.

(36:05):
Say they had a one o'clock kickoff, and I'm doing
a pre game for Texas at twelve forty five.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
The long worn says elsewhere around the Southwest commence Hey
had I gotta gotta We'll send you back out to
the stadium. When Texas long horn football continues in a moment,
it's a break. And then they got producer in my
headset in the studio, stand by, you got a halftime
for Navy coming up? Say no, I'm gonna do a
halftime segment for them to get done with that, and
say you got a post game for Army next because
they had the early kickoff. Now I got a pre

(36:32):
game for Pitt And then when we were doing Houston,
Houston played a lot of night games, and they played
one in Japan, they played one in Tokyo, so we
were on the air at three o'clock in the morning.
So there were those were interesting times. Alabama, Eli Gold,
it was the legendary played by play voice for Alabama
all those years up through a couple of years ago.

(36:53):
Eli and I when when in twenty twenty three, which
turned out to be his last year, when Texas went
to Alabama, Eli and I laughed a lot and I
was on his pregame with him. We reminisced about when
I was his studio anchor for him in nineteen ninety
and uh Alabama ninety or ninety one, I guess I

(37:15):
know when Alabama won a national championship and Geene Stallings
Jeene Stallings coach. I was a studio anchor on the
on the Crimson Tide Radio network, and but the studio
was in Dallas.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
It was coming in like that. So Eli would say, let's.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Go, let's check in with Craig Way and our Tide
Talk studio.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
So he would throw it to that's pretty good, Eli.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Yeah, well, so so we do that, and uh, we
were we were joking about that about one time. It
was an early season game, uh, and Alabama was just
beating the stuffing out of somebody. I mean it was
bad or Western Carolina or somebody was beating them really bad.
And so Eli wanted to come to me for some

(37:56):
more studio segments since the game was well out, so
I complied. I think it was a night game and
there were no other games I think on I think
that was the last game of the day. So I'm
doing more and more updates well. At the same time,
even though I was the studio anchor in Alabama, there
were two other broadcasts that came into the studio, but

(38:17):
I did not serve as studio anchor then because THEIRS
was self contain but it did come through for satellite uplink.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
One was Tennessee. One was Auburn.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Auburn's playing I think an early season games against Kentucky.
Jim Fife, longtime play by play voice for Auburn. He's
no longer with us, but Jim Fife had a signature
touchdown call, which described by many was he was outstanding
play by play guy. But his touchdown called touchdown Auburn,

(38:46):
sounded like he had just was in the process of
saying touchdown Auburn as somebody pushed him off a cliff
touchdown bubbers like that.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
There, admit, and we could pull their highlights, but I
wasn't in the studio anchor which we can pull their eyelights.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
So there was.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
A touchdown Auburn against Kentucky, and he pulled the highlight
of it. Well, Eli Gold throws it to me and says,
for another update, let's check in once again with Craig
Way and our tied Talk studios. And I said, Eli,
Auburn playing Kentucky tonight in Lexington, and the Tiger's off
to a good start, and you hear this highlight cah
blah blah blah blah touch that Auburn. I said, Tiger's

(39:30):
up in that one.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Seven.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
I think let's send you back to Tuscaloosa. And it
was just like dead air pause. You could hear the
crowd noise. At the time, ELI had two color analysts,
John Forney, who had been their play by play voice
I think back in the sixties or whatever, and Doug Layton,
and I think it was Doug Leeton who said, well,
I never thought i'd live to see the day when

(39:52):
I'd hear a touchdown old and on our network. So
Eli goes on the studio producer to me, We're like, wow, okay, didn't.

Speaker 6 (40:02):
Know sensitive spot.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
So Eli called me on Monday and because Craig, I
don't mind, even use fife all you want, he goes,
just use it. Make sure you use the other guys
to use John Ward use it. I said, oh yeah,
we'll do it. We had a big laugh about that
a couple of years ago. You remember that very very well.
So you know, certain dynamics change with certain radio networks
and things of that nature, but we all strive, obviously,

(40:25):
do the boot, do the best job you can. It's
funny in Columbus, we have a good view of the field,
but we are way way up as I had remembered
from twenty years ago, but it didn't seems as high
up to me then now as it did back then.
Some of that is from being in Major League ballparks.

(40:47):
For the press boxes way up there. The Big twelve
Tournament in Arlington, you're at Globe Life and you are
at altitude.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
You're up there.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
So we didn't seem as high up this time around
as it did twenty years ago. I was always telling
people it's the highest press box I've ever been in
the country. Still is, but it just didn't seem quite
a high up on them. All right, there's some football
reminiscences for you up next, more from coach start when
we continue on this Labor Day Monday, on thirteen.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Under the zone, Brandon innis back.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Keep receiving it fourth down and about two and a
half eat it for the first.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Bob Easter has it.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
You'll aim for the corner. Lunches it inside the twenty,
inside the ten, inside the five and flicked out of
ounds by Warren.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Roverson knocked it out of ounds.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Another excellent puff by Boney, so the balls down to
the foe yard line forty two yards on the plunt.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
Welcome back to the craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns. Craig Way follow Craig on social media
at Horn Voice.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Taking a look at some of the texts we get
on the text on like I said, I always glad
to have you join us. On the text line, somebody
said Saturday hurt, but in the big picture, maybe a
good thing. The preseason hype surrounding UT was way too loud.
Texas needed some adversity to jealousy team Now they should
be powed and have something to prove. I think a

(42:07):
lot of what you're saying there is true. That The
one thing that that I think is important to point out,
and this goes into another text where somebody said, was
Arch overhyped?

Speaker 2 (42:20):
You know that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
The other the important thing I think to point out
is the hyping that is done that goes into a
season really is generated from two sources, media and fans,
and not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily any
other or other order either. It's everybody feeds into and

(42:46):
off of it. The team itself isn't doing that much
hyping other stuff, but they get a lot of the
blame if they don't do perform to what that hype.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Was rejecting them to do.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
They're going about their business now Are they completely walled
in from them?

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Of course not.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
You can't ignore it, you do hear it. Is it
possible that some guys might feed into it. Yeah, probably
there's some who might feed into it. I don't think
Arche is one of those guys we've been saying for weeks.
He's a real laid back, self deprecating guy who prefers
not to be in the spotlight, but understands there's certain

(43:28):
responsibilities that go with what he's supposed to do. So
for media and or fans who were hyping him or
hyping the team, I don't think it's fair to blame
him for the hype that you created, media or fans
or whatever. I understand that the two kind of go

(43:50):
hand in hand with that sort of thing. And let
me also say this, and this is also true that
as the season goes fall, the team's publicity PR machines
and media relationshpeople. They're going to continue, obviously to promote
their players for postseason award honors and things like that.

(44:15):
But a lot of this stuff starts from the outside
at the beginning and continues to feed off of that.
So I think it's important to keep that in mind.
On that Bevo Lance Jason. Very nice of you talking
about my ability to remember names, events and impersonations.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Fascinating and fantastic.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Some would call it a sickness as well on affliction,
but I deal with it as best I can, thank
you very much.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Not like Ralfie with the aversion to running, aversion of running,
aversion to forgetting.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
That's right, that's right, then somebody else.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
The Vandergrift quarterback mess to make her at a pretty
good start, I'll say, Drew mess to make her twenty
four thirty two, three hundred and twenty nine yards and
three touchdowns and ran for thirty yards and had a
touchdo down run as well. The former Vandergrid Viper quarterback
Drew Mestamaker. It's the quarterback at North Texas. North Texas

(45:06):
posting its first shutout in twenty two years when they
beat Lamar fifty one to nothing. So yeah, it was
a nice, nice start for Drew Mestmaker and for them.
Not as nice as start for his alma mater, Vandergriff
was surprised and beaten by a good Dripping Springs team. Now,

(45:27):
Drip has had some good teams in recent years under
Galen Zimmerman and this one's another good one and they
did defeat Vandergriff pretty handily in the contest. On Friday night,
the brand new high school football Top ten polls are out.
It's a top twenty five and six A because they
don't split it up into Division one and Division two

(45:48):
for the playoffs until they get to the postseason. The
top three teams remain the same. South Lake Carol number one,
Alley number two, and Duncanville number three. Duncanville did not
play last week. They've got a game coming up with
Southolk Cliff that'll be pretty interesting. Then the team that

(46:12):
was number four was Westlake. Westlake was beaten by Prosper
and they dropped from four to fifteenth, so Allen took
their spot there at number four. Lake Travis moved up
four spots from number nine to number five after its
win of Arlington Martin. They'll play Rockwall this week. Then
it's Summer Creek High of Humble at number six. Fort

(46:33):
ben Ridge Point is seventh. The Task is Sea to eight,
US Trinity nine Dickinson rounds out the top ten. The
second ten is Longview Pairland the Woodlands Prosper, which went
from twenty two to fourteen after beating Westlake. Westlake is fifteen.
Dripping Springs went from being unranked to number sixteen in
the rankings. Then it's Katie Sibyl Osteel Waksahatchie bridge Land

(46:54):
from the Houston area that rounds out the top twenty
and then the final five in the pole. Katy Jordan's
twenty one Vandergriff falls from number six to number twenty
two and they placed here to Park this Friday. It's
the game that I'm going to be calling for victory.
Plus that's the sports app that you can get through
all your streaming devices for free that also streams the

(47:15):
Dallas Stars, also streaming the Texas Rangers. Brennan from San
Antonio's twenty three North forty number twenty four. Denton Geyer
fell ten spots after losing to Alita from fifteen to
twenty five. That rounds out the top twenty five and
six A five A Division one. Alitos till number one
following its win over Denton gey Er. Spencon Valley at

(47:36):
the Phoenix State Champion is number two. Lone Star from
Frisco moved up two spots number three. Dent Ryan moved
up to spot to number four, Laport moved up a
spot to five, Angleton moved up a spot to six.
Highland Park fell from four to seventh after losing the
rock Wall Heath Abilene is eighth, A m Consolidated is nine,
and San Antonio Piper is number ten. That's five A

(47:59):
Division one five AD two rankings. The new ones the
top three of the same Richmond Randall of defending champions
number one, Southolk Cliff number two, Brenham number three. Then
it is Iowa Colony, Texas, High of Texas, can of
Fort Men Marshall Port and hs Groves, Argyle, Anna and
Alamo Heights. For a Division one, the top ten exactly

(48:25):
the same. Everybody won. Nobody changed. Salina Canyan, West Plains,
kil Gore, Stephenville, Lavernia, Davenport Hide just north of San Antonio,
Frisco Panther Creek LBJ which did not play, is number eight,
Sulfur Springs nine and alvareto number ten. For a D two,
the top five remain the same. Carthage, Pleasant Grove, la Vega,

(48:48):
Brock and Sealy Sunnyvale up to six, West Star and
Stark seven. Gilmour's eight gram nine in Belleville fell from
number six to number ten after losing to Salina. Three
A Division one, it is Columbus one, Paradise two, Franklin, Jefferson,
Edna Malakoff, Atlanto up a spot at number seven. Hitchcock,

(49:10):
Winnsboro and shallow Water make up the top ten. Three
eight Division two, the top five still the same Gunner, Ty, Davin, Wall,
Lexington and Newton, followed by Holiday, Canadian, both Woodville and Dangerfield.
To A Division one it's Referrio, Gonado, Garrison, Panhand, Wascombe,

(49:31):
honey Grove, Post, Stamford, Marlin and Delyon two A D
two top five still the same Munster, Shiner, Bremont, Albany
and Groover, followed by Collinsville, Winthorst, wink Love, Lady and Ropes.
And finally the six man rankings and Division one it's Gordon,
may Water, Valley, Whiteface, Aquila, Union Hill, Abbot, Avalon, Bordon

(49:58):
County and Newcastle. And in one A six man Division
two it is Jayson, Klondike, Oglesby, Richland, Springs, Cherokee, Strown, Benjamin,
Motley County, Irodale and Oakwood. How many of those six
man towns had you heard of her? Knew about very
very very few.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
And by the way, Mike Blackwell joining us this Labor
Day afternoon says, dripping springs look good doing color for
the Tigers.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Yeah, way to go, Mike. Know Mike a long time
does a good job. Obviously.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
All right, let's get a couple more sound bites here
from coach Start. He made this comment in the postgame
press conference about it might have done arch A look
good to get popped a little bit earlier in the
ball game.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
So he was asked as he wished that he'd gotten
hit a little earlier.

Speaker 6 (50:46):
Yeah, I don't know if it's like.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Intentional, and I don't know if it's for every game,
but I feel like sometimes when you get hit, you realize,
oh man, we're playing, you know, and it's not I
don't want to say it's not a walkthrough, but but
it's like you have to.

Speaker 6 (51:02):
Play the game. And sometimes, you know, for a quarterback,
especially who.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
Goes all training camp long, you know, wearing a black jersey,
don't touch the quarterback. Don't touch the quarterback. And now
it's it's you know, you're going to get hit. Sometimes
it's a little easier to get hit when you're running
forward and take that hit rather than sitting and waiting
of what that hit might feel like. That's why we
intentionally kind of moved the pocket with him on the

(51:26):
first play of the game to kind of get him
on the move. But I think I could have incorporated
that a little bit earlier, just for him to get
that first hit out of the way. But again, it
will never never be a team that majors in running
the quarterback, but I do think it's an asset for
this team with the style of quarterback that we have
with Arch. I mean, maybe could have incorporated that a

(51:46):
little earlier. I think I didn't call a quarterback run
maybe until the start of the second quarter, and then
incorporated a few more into the second half when it
presented itself.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
To extrapolate further, Sark was asked about some of the
fun to then of lessons he thought that Arch learned
during the course.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Of this game.

Speaker 5 (52:03):
Yeah, there was a couple times where we had some
crossing routes where I didn't feel like he brought his
feet to where he wanted to throw the ball, which
in turn forced kind of a little bit more of
a side arm delivery, which isn't his style of throwing.
I think if he can get his feet aligned and
get his shoulders aligned, that can help with.

Speaker 6 (52:22):
Some of his accuracy that way.

Speaker 5 (52:24):
But I think it all started back to, you know,
when we throw crossers, we don't look for the crosser.
We read the defenders, trusting that the crosser is going
to come to the window he's supposed to be to.
And I felt like he looked back for the crosser,
which in turn brought his shoulders and feet and then
had to look back and forced a little bit of
an air and throw. So part of that is just
finding that comfort level of trust with receivers in real games, right,

(52:47):
not in practice, not against the scout team, but in
a real game against a good defense, you know, because
the windows get small against good defenses like that.

Speaker 6 (52:55):
So definitely lesson learned on that stuff.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
All right, Well, here's some more from Sar talking about
play calling in the offense and some defensive marks as well.
Here on a long worns Monday on sports Radio AM
thirteen under the Zone in the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
We're back. It's the Craig Way Show with Hall of
Fame broadcaster and voice of the Texas longheards. Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Had somebody on text time mentioned this, and this was
something that was announced last week that John King, the
long View head football coach, did announce he has cancer.
His offensive coordinator has become the interim head coach. John,
of course, a great guy, won a state championship few
years ago a Longview and his son Haynes was the

(53:45):
star quarterback of that team. Started off with Texas A
and m had some injuries, wound up transferring to Georgia Tech.
He played well in the winner of Colorado. So yes,
we do wish John King all the best. What a
great guy. I always enjoy working with and around him
as well. Somebody else had mentioned h talks about how

(54:05):
it said the offense wasn't ready on that. You're gonna
hear Sark talk a little bit about some of this
and mentioned the receivers running incorrect routes or something. Uh,
there was a there was definitely an out of scene
kind of rhythm element. You're gonna hear Sark talk about that.
Uh for example. Uh, in getting back to some of
his comments from the press conference. We brought to you
live this morning at eleven thirty, and we'll do so

(54:26):
every Monday morning at eleven thirty, he was asked what
did the film show him about play calling and how
it went uh in the dynamics of running the offense.

Speaker 5 (54:37):
Yeah, no, I think that we had some good things
dialed up. We had other plays that they guarded too.
I'll give them credit, you know, they they defended some
things pretty well, and you know, to to credit at
that juncture, that's when a guy's got to make a play.
And I thought that was evident on Parker's touchdown catch.
You know, it was very tight coverage. But but he
went and made a play on the ball, and some

(54:57):
other guys did too. Great catch by Jack Andrew in
the fourth quarter on the wheel route into tight coverage
took a big hit. So yeah, there's opportunities when guys
are open. There's opportunities when it's going to be tight
and we have to make some throws and make some
plays on the ball. I think in the end, it's like, hey,
we can practice a variety of looks and give a
variety of looks in practice of anticipation of what we

(55:20):
think we might get, especially in early in the season, especially.

Speaker 6 (55:24):
In Week one.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
I can't predict it all and you have to feel
some of these plays as they're happening in real time.
And I think that was a lesson learned for Arts
two that maybe it wasn't the exact look that we
gave in practice, but the route concepts still unfolded the
way maybe we would have liked them too, And so
let's have a little bit of trust in that. But
that's again, that's part of the growth. That's why I

(55:47):
was saying, you know, on Saturday, let's not judge this
book by chapter one, right there, We've got let's read
the whole book before we make an assessment and judgment
on this passing game, on him, on what this team
can be as this season unfolds.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
All right, so there's the pass game. What about the
run game? They ran for one hundred and sixty six
yards as a team. How about his thoughts on them?

Speaker 6 (56:08):
I was very pleased.

Speaker 5 (56:09):
You know, we felt like a year ago, for lack
of better terms, we were probably a little too cute
against those teams, and we wanted to get back to
a physical brand of football that we've kind of built
around here, and we went into that into this game
with that mentality.

Speaker 6 (56:28):
We ran the ball between the tackles. We wanted to
run the ball right at them.

Speaker 5 (56:31):
That we wanted to have a physical mentality, and I
think we can with the style of offensive line that
we have, And I thought we did that.

Speaker 6 (56:38):
But I think one thing we challenged the players on.

Speaker 5 (56:40):
I thought we had opportunities for even bigger runs, but
it takes all eleven. We need to block better on
the perimeter at white out. We need to strain a
little bit more on the backside of runs so that
that last defender can't make that tackle. But there's a
there's a commitment around here to run in the football.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
And I've said all along, like okay, all right, anyway, Yeah,
they do want to have a commitment to running the football. Well, now,
how about the focus of these next three ball games
coming up? Non conference games San Jose State, followed by
the game against UTEP and then the contests against Sam Houston.

(57:20):
Then they have the open day before opening conference play
at Florida. So I about his thoughts on what has
to happen over those next three weeks.

Speaker 5 (57:26):
First of all, we respect all these opponents that we
play in San Jose State. As I said, they're a
dangerous team. You know, they're going to throw the ball
over fifty times Saturday, and you got to keep the
ball in front.

Speaker 6 (57:36):
You got to tackle really well.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
They're attacking style defense, a lot of movement upfront, So
we have to assess an address and game plan for
the opponent that we have. But I think a lot
of what we do is internal, so each individual works
at his craft and gets better. Then you have to
be coachable to do that. You got to take the
coaching and then try to apply the things that we're
working on. There's a lot of guys that didn't play

(57:59):
Saturday that we're gonna need to play and they're gonna
need to grow and develop over this time. So they
need to work on their craft too over this next month.
And that started today and I thought we got off
to a good start with that. So I guess it's
probably twofold. But more importantly, it's the task at hand,
what's in front of us, and that's playing San Jose State.
To play good against Santjose State, we need to get

(58:21):
better internally so that we can play our best football
Saturday eleven o'clock.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
And again, there were times when they showed some things,
like for example, when they had Ohio.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
State, pin deep and a chance to take full advantage.

Speaker 6 (58:31):
Well, there were there were a real challenge.

Speaker 5 (58:33):
You know, Number four can hit a home run at
any time, you know, and so we had to be
very mindful of him. And I thought we did a
tremendous job of really keeping them in front.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
You know.

Speaker 6 (58:44):
I thought the one time we didn't was the fourth
and one. That was a little scary.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
You know, he got behind us and the quarterback you know,
through the crossing route and it landed out of bounds,
and so that you got to be mindful of playing
it the right way and playing stout. I thought we
did a good job situationally defense. He tried to hard
count us a couple times, backed up to get us
to jump.

Speaker 6 (59:03):
We didn't jump.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
We had an opportunity to safety. You know, we got
a hands to the face penalty in that juncture. But
more importantly, it's minimize and don't let them get a
first down. You know, there's a play there on third down,
the quarterback they run kind of a bootleg and the
quarterback is you know, we've got good pressure on them,
and makes a hell of a throw and the kid
toe taps and they get the first down. But if

(59:25):
we cannot let them out of the pocket, maybe he
can't make that throw or he has to throw it away.
Now they're punting out of their own end zone, and
no punter likes that. And so that's the key. It's
not always trying to get the two points or creating
a turnover. But if we cannot let them get the
first down, and now they got a punt out of
their own end zone, and even if we don't block it,
maybe you force an errant punt. Now you're getting that

(59:45):
ball there, maybe around the thirty yard line going in,
and that's almost as good or better than a turnover
in that juncture.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
All right, But they were unable, unfortunately to get turnovers.
And he was asked about the lack of takeaways since
they were so good at it a season ago.

Speaker 6 (59:59):
Well, I didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
I didn't think they gave us a whole lot of
opportunities in the past game. I thought it was a
very cautious pass game that they played with and to
their credit, it was effective enough.

Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
You know, they really didn't beat themselves in the game.

Speaker 5 (01:00:12):
Where I was the right challenge with the guys this
morning was you know, there was a lot of runs
internal and I felt like we weren't good enough with
the second tackler in at attacking the ball, you know,
when the first guy had him wrapped up. You know,
we really pride ourselves on the second guy in punching
and stripping that ball. I think we can be better there,

(01:00:32):
but we've got to practice that better in practice, and
so that'll be a mindset of ours. You know, we
attack the ball as good or better than anybody in
the country.

Speaker 6 (01:00:41):
We just need to do it in game.

Speaker 5 (01:00:42):
And if you want it to happen in game, as
you guys heard me say this before you get what
you emphasized, we got to emphasize that in practice more
than we have as a coaching staff and demand that
out of them on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday so they can
come to life on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
And then one more during this portion, asked about the
transfer tied him Jack Hendrys and what he saw from him.

Speaker 5 (01:01:02):
You know, I would say, first of all, I think
that he's I was impressed with his blocking.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
We utilized him in the run game and he did
a nice thing. We used him in some of the
counter game and he did a nice job. We inserted
him on some linebackers and they have a very good
linebacking corps.

Speaker 6 (01:01:19):
He was more than capable at that. I was very impressed.

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
You know, we threw him the screen, his ability to
be elusive in the open field to create an explosive
play there. But probably the biggest one there was the
wheel route that he caught late. You know, his ability
to go make a play on a ball down the
field and have the courage to catch it knowing he
was going to take that hit. So all things, I mean,
there's facets to his game that I was encouraged about.

(01:01:43):
And then he's a veteran player. The moment wasn't too
big for him. I think he was very comfortable in
that arena, you know, playing on that stage.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
More comments from coach Sark.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
We'll hear more coming up next hour and we'll be
back to wrap up hour number two here on thirteen
under the Zone. Craig Way with you alongside the producer
Jay Kerrman. Glad to have you with us as well
here on this Labor Day holiday Monday, and I hope
you're able to relax and enjoy it. We were on
the job because we always are on Labor Day because
it does come off of a long Horn football game,

(01:02:14):
usually the first football game of the year, and that's
exactly what it was, Texas falling to Ohio State fourteen
to seven. Back at work this week, back on the
practice field this morning, and playing San Jose State this
Saturday morning.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
It's an eleven am kickoff.

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
Our coverage begins with Long Orange Game Day at eight
am on Saturday morning with Cameron Parker, Mike Hardball, Harge,
and the world's strongest man, Mark Henry comes your way
this Saturday morning. So Long Worns will be looking to
bounce back and to level the record at five hundred

(01:02:53):
and we'll hear from head coach Steve Sarkeson coming up
in a few minutes. NFL notes the things you might say,
they are simmering a little bit. They cool off, just
ever so slightly with regard to the Dallas Cowboys following
the trade made on Thursday, with the Cowboys sending Micaeh
Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for two first round

(01:03:14):
draft picks, one in twenty twenty six and one in
twenty twenty seven, and also making the deal with him
and also Kenny Clark, defensive lineman going over to the Cowboys.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
From the Packers.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Now, there was a lot of speculations, you know, whether
Jerry Jones was making it personal, and whether he felt
vindictied and all that kind of stuff. He said that
wasn't the case at all. This is about what they
felt they could get in terms of the value. There
was also the rumors that had circulated about Parsons and

(01:03:52):
about his back, and he said he'd had a sore back.
Cowboy team doctors and medical personnelle said the MRIs they
had showed nothing out of ordinary, but upon arriving in
Green Bay, the verdict was is that he is dealing

(01:04:14):
with what's called an L four dash L five facet
joint spring, and that he might be able to play
in their opener against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, but
he might have to have an injection before that game.
Adam Sheffer reporting that for ESPN, before trading Parsons, the

(01:04:37):
Cowboys had prescribed him a five day course of Pregna
zone that's that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Anti inflammatory.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
Cortico steroid to help him recover from back tightness that
is not on the band list of substances it is approved.
They also had him on a physical therapy program Parsons
did practice with the Packers today for the first time,
and according to several players that practice, he was a
limited participant. He was out there, but did not practice

(01:05:06):
an awful lot. But he continues to say he'll be
ready to go. He's going to try to play that
season opener against the Lions of lambeau Field, although one
source told Adam Schefter it still is not certain if
he will play. If he does play, it would be,
you know, eight days after the trade with the Cowboys

(01:05:27):
and the Packers, who then signed Parsons to a four year,
one one hundred and eighty eight million dollar contract extension
that includes one hundred and twenty million fully guaranteed at
signing and one hundred and thirty six million in total guarantees.
That makes him the highest non paid quarterback in NFL history.
A lot of the rumor was that Jerry Jones several

(01:05:49):
months ago was willing to make him the highest paid
non quarterback back in April, and that it wound up
with the agent being involved.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
Into the negotiation. Jerry said, there's not going to be
any more negotiation. This is what the number is. This
is where we are. So anyway, that's where that was left.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Shortly after the trade news left, tackle Rashid Walker, a
college teammate with Parsons at Penn State, posted on social
media the Packers were going to win the Super Bowl
now as a result of the deal. His quote was,
I think get up to our chances by a lot.
We got a solid pass rush across the whole line.
I don't think no one's going to be able to
throw the ball like that on us. It's going to

(01:06:32):
open up opportunities for our dbs and our offense. So yeah,
I feel like Mike is going to have a good
presence in the field and it's going to really be
advantageous to us. Walker says he expects Mars Parsons to
increase the workload and practice this week as the game
goes on. The Cowboys, of course, their work week is

(01:06:52):
a little bit shorter now I say that. And of course,
there were no preseason games played this past weekend in
the NFL. Their preseason came to its conclusion, you know
a little over a.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Week ago with the game.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
With the games, I think the Cowboys it was ten
eleven days ago when they played their last one, that
one against Atlanta. So they'll open on Thursday night in
Philadelphia against the Eagles.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
So they'll have they'll have that, and.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
It'll be uh, it'll be interesting to see how the
Cowboys do with Kenny Clark in along the defensive front,
and not only Clark along the defensive front, but what
they're going to have to do without him. Other NFL notes,
the Los Angeles Rams say they do expect Matthew Stafford
to be able to start their season opener against the

(01:07:44):
Euston Texans on Sunday afternoon. Stafford missed time with an
aggravated disc in his back. He wasn't going to play
in any of the preseason games anyway. That's the way
of Sean McVay. He does not play virtually any of
his starters other than maybe a few specialists in the preseason,
and so Stafford missed nearly the first months of just

(01:08:05):
training camp while dealing with that back injury, but he's
been a full participant in practice after returning on August eighteenth.
McVeigh today said that Stafford will participate in the full
week of practice leading up to the Rams opener on
Sunday against the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
So that was one bit of NFL news, and there
were a couple other things as well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Brian Daboll, the head coach of the New York Giants,
has not said on who is going to be the
backup quarterback to Russell Wilson. Wilson will start against Jay
Herman's Washington Commanders on Sunday, so Russell Wilson will start,
but day Ball refused to say whether it's Jackson Dart

(01:08:56):
or Jamis Winston who will be the backup. They say
Dart is really impressed in camp, but Winston, of course
has one hundred games of NFL experience and was listed
second with Dark third on the first unofficial depth chart
that got released during camp. But day Ball said this morning,
any roster decisions on who's going to play or who's

(01:09:18):
going to be the backup, we'll have that out there
on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
Craig, I thought Dart looked really good in the preseason
as a commander fan. I would not want to face
him week one, which I'm surprised I'm saying here in September.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
Well, and he would again. He is going to be
the backup to to Wilson. You feel better about them
facing Russell Wilson.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
I'd rather have the known commodity. I think for Joe Wait,
junior defensive coordinator, to have all that tape out there on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Okay, all right, yeah, all right, so yeah he's going
to be starting. How you feeling about your commanders coming
off that trip to the NFC Championship?

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
You know, I think that it's a team that's kind
of an obvious regression candidate. Right, you think about all
the things that went so well last year and so
perfectly well to have the season that they did. Converted
an historically high amount of fourth downs, you won so
many close games, one of which was literally a Hail Mary.
The turnovers were so skew, your defense created so so

(01:10:16):
many turnovers. And yet we find out is Jaden Daniels
that good? Is he that good to where the team
will not regress by that much? Because to me, the
offseason went okay. I didn't I liked it. I didn't
love it, okay? And can Jayde and Daniels continue to
elevate what's around him?

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
That's a big question.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Can they get Pro Bowl level play out of Laramie
Tunsil it left tackle because former Longhorn Sam Cosmey, that's
one of their best no alignment in the last three years.
He's gonna miss most, if not all, of the season.
And what does Deebo Samuel have left as a weapon.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Yeah, boy, he was always a ram killer. That dude
could just, you know, just call some all kinds of problems.
They played them all right. Coming up next, we're gonna
hear more from long Horn's head coach, Tief Sarkesian from
the Monday press conference, heard this morning live as we
do every morning every Monday in our Longhorns Monday. We

(01:11:15):
brought it to you eleven thirty this morning, and we'll
do it every Monday. Right here on thirteen under the zone.
Man up the line of Scrimma freewaying play informations. Now
on the shotgun ours as the snap back. The drow

(01:11:35):
looks still looks, fires at feet downfield looking for Livingstone.

Speaker 6 (01:11:39):
He caught it in the head zone.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Touchdown Texas Parker Livingstone how Falk Jermaine Matthews for possession.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
It's a thirty two yard.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Catch and score and it's the first Texas touchdown of
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
We're back.

Speaker 4 (01:11:56):
It's the Craigway Show with Hall of Fame broadcaster and
voice the Texas Longheards Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
It was Parker Livingstone's first touchdown catch as a Longhorn
as well. The Red Yard freshman with the grab ata
Lucas Lovejoy unfortunately, is the only textas touchdown of the
ball game.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
As they fell.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
Let's hear some more from Longhorn's head coach Stieve Sarkisha.
He was asked what is his ideal vision that he
might have for his offense.

Speaker 5 (01:12:25):
We go down the field and we put it in
the end zone. I'm not that's kind of you know,
I mean, you want to be efficient. You know, there's
not negative plays in which we didn't have many of.
I think we had thirty some odd runs. It was
one negative run. I think we had one sack in
the game, So there weren't really negative plays. But you're
fishing on first down, you're fishing on second down. You

(01:12:47):
don't have quite as many third downs, and when you do,
there's there's very few third and long type situations. There's
there's timing and rhythm in the passing game. There's playmaking,
there's speed, there's explosive.

Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
Plays we did.

Speaker 5 (01:13:02):
We didn't have enough explosive plays Saturday, and I think
we were in sixty four plays and there was only
seven explosives. That's about eleven percent number. Our goal is
to be twenty percent or higher. So that means we
need to have about thirteen explosive plays in a game
like that, And I think we had chances to it
just didn't.

Speaker 6 (01:13:17):
It just didn't happen the way we would have liked.

Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
And so we've got to find ways to be efficient
but yet also be explosive, stay in manageable third downs
or don't have third downs, win on first and second down,
and then ultimately we've got to be more efficient in
the red area. And when we get our opportunities to score,
we got to score, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:36):
So keeping it with the offense, he was asked for
his thoughts on their gap blocking schemes and how it
worked with the running game.

Speaker 5 (01:13:44):
I thought that the gap scheme stuff was better early
early in the game.

Speaker 6 (01:13:49):
I thought our guard pools were a little better early.

Speaker 5 (01:13:52):
I felt like as the game wore on, we were
striking guys, we weren't bringing our feet the way I
would have liked. Him that we were kind of falling
off blocks and guys were falling back in and making
plays where we felt like we were going to have
runs for eight, ten, twelve yards. We were getting three,
four and five yards, and so we've got to finish
a little better from a gap skiing perspective. But I

(01:14:14):
thought we did a good job of building the wall.
I thought we did a good job of kicking. Now
we got it. We got a strain to finish so
that we could that run lane stays consistent for us.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
And some more on the offense was asked about Ryan
Wingo with some of the misfires on the connections that
arch Manning tried to have with his number one target,
Ryan Wingo.

Speaker 5 (01:14:32):
I thought Ryan had flashes where it looked like, man,
this guy is going to be the player that we
know he can be. I thought there was other moments
where I think he can be better, and I think
he would He would probably tell you the same thing.

Speaker 6 (01:14:44):
And some of that is playing.

Speaker 5 (01:14:46):
The amount of plays that he played the other night
or the other day. That was a lot of plays
that he played. And so from a conditioning standpoint, we've
got to take a little bit off his shoulders as
he builds to be in that guy.

Speaker 6 (01:14:57):
There was opportunities that the ball has thrown him to
make plays.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
There's other opportunities when maybe he didn't get the best
ball thrown his way, and there's other opportunities where maybe
the ball didn't get thrown. But he's going to be
a good weapon for us. He and DeAndre we already know.
But like I said, what an added bonus to have
Jack and Parker make their plays and then ultimately when
we can get em back going again. So we've got
plenty enough weapons that way where he doesn't feel like

(01:15:21):
he has to shoulder the burden.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
Arch made or excuse me, Sark made for a reference
to Jack Hendry's a tight end. We heard from him
and talk about that about him last hour, as well
as Parker Livingstone and saying it'll be good when they
get Emmett Mosley back from injury as well. Another thing
he was asked about his offense, and the way this

(01:15:43):
question was phrased is it's you're not really presented as
being a screamer who really gets on your guys and
hollers and yells a lot of that that type of
thing and gets angry and awful lot. So how would
do he describe how he has to do the tough
love moments with groups like his offense?

Speaker 5 (01:16:05):
I was pretty frustrated coming out at the first half,
you know, because I felt like we had a good
plan and I was, but I wasn't mad in a
sense of like I just felt like, man, if I
can just calm arched and get him into a space.
So that's why we met with him directly at halftime.

(01:16:25):
And like I said, I thought we played a really
good second half. I mean, if you would have told
me we were gonna go out and have just about
two hundred and sixty yards in the second half against
that defense but only score seven points, that's where the
disappointment came in that we weren't able to get more
points of our ability to move the football the way
that we did in the second half. I'm probably a
combination of both, and I think the players will tell

(01:16:48):
you that, you know, I'm hard on them. I'm very
hard on our players, you know, But I don't feel
like I'm hard in a way to where I'm hard
all the time and then they can't even hear my
message that they tuned me out when when I get
upset with them on things, they know I mean it,
and that's something that we need to fix.

Speaker 4 (01:17:05):
And so.

Speaker 5 (01:17:07):
You know, I think, hey, coming out of today, I
think they understand the expectation of the way we can
play offensive football, and we need to do that for
four quarters, and we need to do it on a
consistent basis. And when when we when we're running the
ball the way we want to run it, there's a
physicality in which we want to do it, and there's
a strain to a finish that we need to do
it when we're throwing the ball. Our ability to make

(01:17:31):
plays has got to be something that that that comes
to life.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:17:35):
I can design all the things that I want to do,
but at the end of the day, the players make
those things come to life. And then we've recruited high
caliber players who are highly competitive, who believe that they
can make those plays.

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
But we have to go do that.

Speaker 6 (01:17:47):
And it's it's kind of like, you know enough talk,
like we have to go do it right. We got
to make it come to life.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Same story for the defense as well. And Sark was
making reference to the adjustments that they may halftime and
that they will continue to make with the defense.

Speaker 5 (01:18:02):
Well, I think that's what we did at halftime, you know,
and I feel like we make this made some really
good adjustments to to combat kind of the style of
play that they were playing with. And a credit to
I think to our players. They adjusted with us, and
we knew we were gonna have to, Like you again,
predicting what a team's going to do in week one
with the new defensive coordinator and new new players, we

(01:18:24):
knew there was gonna be adjustments that we're going to
had to be made. We made them in the first half.
We just didn't adjust well enough collectively as a coaching
staff and from a player perspective, I thought we did
a much better job in the second half. But that's
that's part of what we do. You know, it's not
you just don't go into a game and everything that's

(01:18:44):
on a call sheet.

Speaker 6 (01:18:44):
That's what you do.

Speaker 5 (01:18:45):
You got to evolve and adjust and people are always
going to have new things and new things for us,
and that's part of the process and so that that's
not foreign to us.

Speaker 6 (01:18:53):
That way.

Speaker 1 (01:18:54):
Back to Barker Livingstone for a moment. Here's a guy
who was pretty well known but wasn't the highest of
the blue chip rated receivers in the country at the
time that Sark really took an interest in it. He
was asked about his thoughts on the evolution and the
continued progress at Livingstone.

Speaker 2 (01:19:13):
The red Shirt freshman is made.

Speaker 5 (01:19:15):
Yeah, I think Parker has been one of these guys.
When he came into the program, you know, he wasn't
the most heralded recruit. You know, he wasn't one that
everybody wrote about and talked about and things. But all
Parker did was coming and work, very similar to Trey
Wisner coming out of year one. You know, guys that
just came in and worked, found a niche in a role,
maybe on special teams, worked at their craft, put in

(01:19:37):
his time in the weight room, studied the offense, and
found a way to know every position at the receiver
position and it was an easy guy to throw in
because he knew what to do.

Speaker 6 (01:19:49):
But all along, the guy had a great spring.

Speaker 5 (01:19:51):
You know, when DeAndre and Ryan were out, he became
kind of a go to guy, and I think there
was rapport built between he and Arch and all he
did was continue to on that throughout Fall Camp and
I think that that he uh, you know, when his
opportunity presented itself Saturday on a couple of plays, he
made his plays. And I didn't expect anything less from
him because that's what he's been showing us all along.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
Of course, Livingstone is one of the group of young
wide receivers and during these next three ball.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
Games San Jose State, U TEP, Sam Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
Uh. You know, there are games that the long run
is obviously going to be expected to win. But also
I think folks look at as a chance for more
development on both the offense and the defense. And so
he was asked, you know, with some of those young
receivers who haven't really gotten into the mix yet, might
this be an auditioning opportunity for those guys.

Speaker 5 (01:20:46):
Yeah, No, definitely, And I think it's it's that room
in particular, because there's so many new faces. You know,
what the depth chart looks today might look different, tomorrow,
might look different the next day. We've got a hot
We got to make that room highly competitive, and to
your point, they have to earn our trust. After Dalen,
the next receiver to go in would have been Ryan Niblett.

(01:21:08):
I don't think any of those other guys were really
ready for that moment against that secondary. That doesn't mean
they won't be ready as we grow throughout the season,
but that's where the work has to go.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
In.

Speaker 5 (01:21:18):
That's where the commitment to doing things the right way
and to earn our trust Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
to say hey, this is this guy's ready to go play.
Just because you had a good day to day that
we don't anoint you the next guy in. You got
to do it again the next day and the next
day and the next day. And that's that's a process
for a young player, and we've had a lot of

(01:21:38):
young players. DeAndre Moore is very similar his freshman year
of what that looked like and he's gravitated to now.
We're utmost trust with that guy. Like I know, when
DeAndre Moore is in the game, he's gonna do what
he's supposed to do, and if he doesn't, it's just
because maybe he didn't know or or maybe it was
an adjustment that the defense did that that forced a mistake.

(01:21:58):
So they all canro into that. We're just trying to
get them to grow into that sooner rather than later.
And some guys are going to move ahead quicker than others,
and that's okay too. That doesn't mean we give up
on anybody. It's just their developmental process might be different
than the next guys, and.

Speaker 1 (01:22:13):
Then he was at a couple more with Sark from
the press conference today. He was asked about the player
development process all along, what it's like going through these
you know, coming off the disappointment and then going through
these next three weeks as they prepare for the advent
eventually of SEC play.

Speaker 5 (01:22:33):
Yeah, to your point, we do it all year round.
There's a developmental process for all of them. And to
your point, there's like, so in season we lift all
of our players, but there's a travel squad lift and
there's a developmental lift, and so what and Anthony Hill's
lift regiment looks like during the season is different than

(01:22:53):
a Bo Barnes's lifting regiment during a season. Right, one
guy's playing fifty five plays Saturday. Another guy didn't play,
and so his lift regiment and routine is different than
the guy that played. And so our developmental group is
a big component to what we do. And again, just
because you're part of the developmental group doesn't mean that

(01:23:14):
you're not going to play for us this year. It's
just we also think long term for you in your
development physically as well as it is mentally. With coach
Nansen and then his group of analysts and those guys
in developing our young players of learning the defense as well.

Speaker 6 (01:23:28):
And that's across the board.

Speaker 5 (01:23:29):
I'm using that as an example, but that's D line linebackers,
secondary receivers, young o'd lineman, young quarterbacks.

Speaker 6 (01:23:36):
So on and so forth.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
Sark was asked more about You heard Sark earlier mention
the conversation that he had with arch at halftime.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
He said, that's why we went directly to arch to
talk to him at halftime.

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
So then you know, toward the end of the press conference,
somebody said, you said you had a conversation with arch
there at half time.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
What did you say to him?

Speaker 5 (01:24:01):
Yeah, No, I think with Archie was just recognizing on
how we could identify their coverages a little bit better,
the plan of the things that we were going to
go to in the second half, and how we expected
to attack them. And like I said, I thought he understood,
took it really well, was really receptive to how we
were going to recognize their coverages and attack them a

(01:24:21):
little bit differently, and I thought he responded well to that.
I think offensively was just getting back to, you know,
not losing sight of the run game, which was effective early,
but utilizing some of the passing game and be more
effective in the passing game, to be a more efficient offense,
which I thought we were in the second half. Wasn't
where we want to be, but we were much better

(01:24:43):
in the second half than when we were in the
first half.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
One more from Sark and this roll is all the
way back to the initial points made in his opening
statement and then in the first few follow up questions.
Those two words, those two buzz words complementary football with
the defense helping the offense, the offense helping the defense,
and he was asked about how if the defense is

(01:25:06):
playing in an elevated level, how that might be able
to help a the offense in general and b Arch.

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
In specific continue to develop.

Speaker 6 (01:25:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:25:16):
No, I think the one thing about our defensive team,
we got a high football IQ defense. Whether it's Anthony Leonga,
you know Ty Anthony and Trey, you know Michael taff Jilani,
Manny Mohammad, the Grayson Littleton for a young player, Colin

(01:25:36):
hero Canoe.

Speaker 6 (01:25:37):
Ethan Burke. These guys have a high football IQ.

Speaker 5 (01:25:40):
So you can, like this morning, I can show them
examples of when there was opportunities to attack the ball
where they can then carry that.

Speaker 6 (01:25:49):
With them and apply it.

Speaker 5 (01:25:50):
And I think that's the key, is applying those things
with this group to put it into action. I think
there was such a physical game Saturday. I mean, both
teams were running the ball between the tackles and it
was almost like you can get into just get them
on the ground mode, when in reality, we're at our
best when we wrap and get the ball and get
them on the ground. And so we've got to make

(01:26:12):
sure we don't lose sight of what we're really good at.
And then with that, from a quarterbacks perspective, man like
I said, it's a lot easier when you're closer to
the end zone to feel like we got a chance
to score than to start way down here and know
it's going to take us eight plays to cross the fifty,
then another seven to get inside the five. I mean,
the one drive is a fifteen play drive down to

(01:26:34):
the one yard line. It's hard to string together fifteen
plays in a row without screwing something up. And that's
why you try to keep people pinning their own in.
That's why we try to create short fields for our
offense so that we don't have to try to score
in fifteen plays. You like to score in four or five, six,
seven plays. It's a lot easier to do it that way.

Speaker 1 (01:26:52):
All right, there it is from the weekly Monday news
conference long ONRNES head coach Steve Sarkisian. Of course, you
can hear the news conference in its entirety from start
the very starts very finish every Monday. Our coverage begins
eleven o'clock in the morning and Sarks speaks at eleven thirty,
so you can hear that news conference live every Monday

(01:27:14):
morning at eleven thirty as part of our Long Worn Mondays.
And then, of course we recap it for you here
during this program. We've got some other topics to get
to and we'll continue to do that when we roll
on here on a Labor Day Monday on thirteen under
the zone.

Speaker 4 (01:27:35):
Back to the Craig Way Show. Connect with Craig through
the text line by textem zone to eight one five
three zero followed by your message. Standard message and data
rates may apply.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
I don't know if this is doing this all around
the Greater roustin the Central Texas area, but it's raining
over here by the iHeart Compound here near the Pennybacker Bridge,
and rain still falling here. It has slackened a bit,
but it is still coming down on it. Hey, I

(01:28:09):
did want to get to a couple of other items.
One of those would be the Major League Baseball pen
of races. And I know I completely understand this, especially
in a area, in an area and a state that

(01:28:32):
prizes its football as much as Texas does. And I'm
right there with you on all of that. I do
realize that sometimes the baseball races can get a little
bit swept under the rug when you get on into
the advent and football season, which is interesting because the
start of a football season high school college pro is

(01:28:55):
directly juxtaposed against the stretch drive of Major League Baseball.
Were through the dog days of August literally and figuratively.
Now it gets into the cooler month of September, and
the Pennant races were on in baseball, and it's not
just to win the divisions. You know, it used to
be the old school thing was when you talk about
the Pennant races. You know, until nineteen sixty nine, the

(01:29:19):
Pennant races meant one winner in the American League and
one winner in the National League. Not to say that's
not the case today, but it was done differently. You
didn't have any you didn't have any playoffs. You just
had the World Series, the winner of the American League's
one hundred and fifty four game schedule up through nineteen

(01:29:40):
sixty and in sixty one when the Angels and the
replacement Washington Senators came in, with the original Centers moving
to Minnesota become the Twins. In nineteen sixty one, when
the American League expanded, and with the advent of what
was going to happen in nineteen sixty two, with the
then Houston Colt forty fives now of course known as

(01:30:03):
the Astros and the New York Mets coming in as
expansion teams, baseball saw the need to expand the regular
season schedule to one hundred and sixty two games that
started in nineteen sixty one. Well, you know, there was
only one winner in the American League and one winner
in the Nation League in those days, all the way

(01:30:23):
up through the sixty eight season. Sixty nine he went
to divisions, so you had a Nation League Championship Series,
American League Championship Series best of five for years and years,
then went to best of seven. Then they added wildcard teams.
Then they added second wildcard, so now and then a
third wildcard. So now you have this battle where you'd

(01:30:45):
have the sixth seed would be the worst, the third
wildcard the team that just gets in, and then you'd
have the four seed and the five seed the top
two wildcard teams who would play a best of three
wildcard series, with the winner then going to meet the
top seed, whereas the two seed, which got to buy
would take on the winner of the three seed, the

(01:31:08):
division winner with the worst record of the three taking
on that succeed. So it's incumbent upon teams if it
all possible, to be able to get that buy and
to skip that wildcard series if possible, since it's a
short best of three. So as the websites continue their

(01:31:32):
run up to the playoffs, we always, like I said,
I've said this before, we examine a lot of different ones,
the Athletic and CBS S boards and several other ones
MLB dot com and ESPN dot com. They rank what's
remaining of the playoff races for this final month. The

(01:31:55):
number one ranked race is the Nation League West. Right now,
the Dodgers lead the Padres by two games and in
their What's at State category. They say this is the
best rivalry going on in the majors right now. The
teams don't like each other, the fans don't like each other,
and there's still that element of David trying to knock
out Goliath as the Padres seek their first division title

(01:32:16):
since two thousand and six and their first World Series
title ever. The teams have met three times in the
Nation League Division Series since twenty twenty. The Dodgers won
in twenty twenty and twenty twenty four. The Padres were
victorious in twenty twenty two, and with another rematch, possible
home field advantage could be the key. So do the
Dodgers need to win the division Not necessarily. They'll still

(01:32:37):
be more focused on getting the pitchings to have healthy
and ready for the October push rather than just getting
consumed in the ranks. To win the division, it would
probably mean more to the Padres, who want to finally
beat their I five rivals and something besides that one
playoff series. On the other hand, San Diego is probably
a little better equipped for a short wildcard series as

(01:32:59):
it can its bullpen for those two or three games.

Speaker 2 (01:33:01):
I completely agree with that the series to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
He said, somehow the schedule makers thought it we would
be a good idea not to have the Dodgers playing
the Padres in September. Yea that it was kind of weird.
They had a home and home back a couple of
weeks agother it wrapped it up. The Dodgers finished with
a road trip to Arizona and Seattle, while the Podres
end up at a home against Milwaukee and Arizona. The
Dodgers won the series season series, so they owned the
tie breakers.

Speaker 2 (01:33:23):
So there's that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:25):
The number two rated one is American League East. Now
this involves three teams. The Blue Jays are up three
games on the Yankees, and they're up three and a
half on the Red Sox, and as they point out,
David Choenfield points out that this has been the wildest
division race all season. The Blue Jays were eight games
back in late May when they fell under five hundred,

(01:33:47):
but now they've held first play since July third. The
Yankees fell back by as many as six and a
half games in August before cleaning up against the Nationals
and the White Sox this past week to draw closer
the Red Sox. We're forty one and forty four on
June thirtieth, but only the Brewers have a better record
since that date. The Yankees have a plus one thirty

(01:34:09):
four run differential, whereas it's plus fifty six for the
Blue Jays and plus one oh two for the Red Sox,
so you wonder why they're even in this position. However,
New York has five and eight in extra inning games,
the Blue Jays are eight in four, and the Yankees
not played well against Toronto and Boston.

Speaker 2 (01:34:25):
The series to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:34:26):
Blue Jays at Yankees this week it's big, and then
the Red Sox at the Jays in a couple of weeks,
and then the Yankees at Red Sox next week. All
three season series have already been clinched. The Blue Jay's
over the Red Sox and the Yankees, and the Red
Sox over the Yankees. That will leave the Yankees on
the short end of any tiebreaker. The third one watch

(01:34:47):
is the race for the number two seed. Milwaukee is
the number one seed with a five and a half
game cushion, they're probably going to be the one seed.
Philadelphia is up one game on the Dodgers and three
on the Padres, so it's going to be interesting to
see that. The Phillies do play the Dodgers in the
middle of this month, and the Phillies finished with a
six game homestand against the Marlins and Twins. That looks

(01:35:09):
pretty favorable there. The fourth rated race is the top
two seeds in the American League. The Tigers currently hold
the one seed. They're up a half game on Toronto,
three and a half of the Yankees, four on the
Red Sox, four and a half on the Astros. Tigers
play the Yankees next week. Tigers play the Red Sox

(01:35:30):
at the end of the month. The Yankees play the
Astros next week, and then the Asteroids of the Blue Jays. Okay,
then they rate this as only the fifth highest rated series.
I think i'd put it higher is the American League West,
because the Asteroids are just two games up on the Mariners,
and the Rangers, thought to be left for dead, have

(01:35:51):
been on a roll. They won five in a row.
They're four and a half back in the division and
only two back in the wildcard race, so there's that.
It's going to be interesting to see the Mariners play
at the Astros later this month. The season series is
tied five to five, so the winner of the series will.

Speaker 2 (01:36:11):
Get the tiebreaker edge, so that's important.

Speaker 1 (01:36:15):
And then the final one is the American League wildcard race,
where the Mariners hold the third wildcard spot. Right now,
they're up two and a half games on the Royals,
three on the Rangers, and four in the Guardians, so
it says by no means are the Mariners out of
the American League West racing against Houston. But they also
haven't played well enough to pull away in the wild

(01:36:36):
card fight, even after everyone declared them a sure thing
playoff team following the acquisitions of Johannio Suarez and Josh
Naylor at the deadline. Mariners at Royals big series coming
up middle of the month, Royals at Guardians next week,
Rangers at Guardians into the month there as well, and
of course the Rangers are having to do without Nathan

(01:36:57):
Valdi who's out for the rest of the season, so
that's unfortunate. But in terms of the wild card picture,
the Rangers, as I mentioned, two and a half back
of Seattle with the Royals three back, so Texas still
in the fight right now, even though they were thought

(01:37:18):
to be dead a couple of weeks ago. They played
well late, and they've won.

Speaker 2 (01:37:22):
Five in a row. After dropping.

Speaker 1 (01:37:27):
After dropping a couple, they won five straight and they've
now won eight of their last ten. They have the
best record of the last ten games of anyone in
Major League Baseball, so they're not dead yet. We'll be
back to wrap up today's edition of the program here
on thirteen hunderd The Zone

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