WCWS Celebration Continues, College World Series, Top 25 College Football Stories

Craig Way interviews with Joley Mitchell of the Texas Softball team, Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball for the College World Series, and shares the top 25 college football stories of all time. It's all right here on The Craig Way Show!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Gisa, Texas legend, a Hall of Fame broadcaster, the voice
of the Texas Longhorns, and your host.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Of the Craigway Show.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Here he is now Craigway.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Into Tuesday afternoon we go and glad to have you
with us on the program this afternoon. Welcome to the
program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
My name is Craig Wait. Thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
We always value your listenership and your takes, your input,
and that's why we offer up the text line. We
had great input yesterday and would love to hear from
you again. All you have to do is text the
word Texas all by your question or comment to eight
one five three zero. So you text the word Texas

(01:06):
and then your question of comment to eight one five
three zero. Standard messaging and data rates may applied. Glad
to have you with us.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Produce.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
The producer of This Afternoon is Ronald Savage Junior, who
is our producer Cameron Parker with family in North Carolina.
He will be back on Friday tomorrow on the program.
I will be out tomorrow and you get the Zimmal
Hours tomorrow. You get our friend Andrew Zim will stepping
in from San Antonio, and Zim will be on the

(01:37):
show tomorrow, and then I'll be back on Thursday, well,
Thursday and Friday, and we'll have more of our offerings,
our weekly offerings coming up. Geene Watson a talk Major
League Baseball on Friday. Also Friday is the music Survey.
We cranked that up again last week for the first
time in three years. And Cameron did the music survey

(02:00):
last Friday, and our friend and broadcast colleague Roger Wallace
sports director k Exhan. We'll take the music survey on
air on this Friday, So that'll be coming up. But
let me tell you what we have coming up today.
Originally the operative word there. Originally we were due to
visit with Texas softball coach Mike White at two fifteen.

(02:23):
Coach White had to catch a plane, but we've rescheduled
him for Thursday. He will join us Thursday, but we
are still going to talk some saltball. Coming up in
a few minutes. Jolie Mitchell, the Loghorns grad student first
baseman who had three home runs in the women's College
World Series headed for that national championship for Texas. So
Joelie will visit with us coming up here in just

(02:45):
a few minutes to recap the national title series against
Texas Tech and to talk about being a national champion,
so we'll have that coming up in a few minutes.
We have Inconceivable coming up later on this hour as well,
which features a variety of things, our usual fast food
at junk Food update, but also something that has to

(03:08):
do with the US Open, the US Open Golf Championship
this week, and a couple other items and factors. One
that if it were Friday, you would you would swear
it was a Florida Man type story. It's not, and
it's not even a Florida man' storre, but it's that
kind of story. So we'll have that as part of

(03:29):
Inconceivable coming up this hour next hour.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
As we.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
Draw closer to the College World Series, all eight teams
are now officially in the field after last night's final
game three that needed to be played out of the
super Regionals for them with the max Florida North excuse me,

(03:57):
Arizona North Carolina there was in a winning that also
Florida Florida State, Oregon State with Oregon State.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Winning that, and Louisville Miami with Louisville winning that.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
Those were all Friday, Saturday Sunday superregionals. The one that
was Saturday, Sunday Monday that went to a decisive third
game and was decided last night took place in Durham,
North Carolina and Murray State becoming only the fourth number
four seeded team in a regional to win the regional

(04:31):
and a super regional to get to Omaha. So Murray
State becomes only the fourth one ever to do that.
Coming up in the three o'clock hour, Kendall Rogers a
d one baseball dot Com, of course covers the sport
like nobody else will join us and Kendall will discuss
this field of eight because it's not the field. I'm
sure that just about everybody you know how we do

(04:54):
an NCAA basketball tournament bracket, and folks talk about how
their bracket gets. But to after like the first weekend,
some after the first day even or you know, after
the first round is completed on Thursday and Friday, the
first thirty two games that are played, folks talk about that.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Safe to say.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
That after the regional round this weekend, there are a
great many baseball brackets that we're busted and certainly after
the Super Regional, so we'll visit with Kendall to talk
about that as well.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Also now to get into you.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Know, we'll talk about some NBA and the NFL and
things like that. There's a there's a story today and
you know, many of us are let me put it
this way, there are many in the sporting life who
follow pro and college sports.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
We consume it, we watch it, some still play it.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
You know, and and there are those who bet on
it as well.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
But there are.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
People who revolve a lot of what they do around
spectator sports and in so doing, many of us and
I'm probably guilty of it as well, although I know
some people, including one of my brothers, who lives to
do this and that's ranking and rating, rating and ranking

(06:17):
you know, the greatest, this list of that, and it
comes up every time we either get too a championship
series or we're getting ready to embark upon another season.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
And that's going to be the case again here.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Because as we draw closer to the college football season,
ESPN did a ranking of the top twenty five college
football plays of the millennium. So we're basically talking twenty
five seasons from the year two thousand, which was a
season up through twenty twenty four. That's twenty five seasons,

(07:04):
including the two thousand season itself, So they've ranked the
top twenty five. There are three plays in that top
twenty five that involve Texas long run football. Three one
you're almost sure to guess. The other two I don't know, maybe,

(07:27):
and if you're a long run Fano might not sit
that well with you. So we'll look over that. And
there's some other items that we'll get to as well.
So we had all that still to come. As I mentioned,
always welcome to take your take on the tax line.
Textall word Texas followed by your question or comment to
eight one five three zero. All right, up, Next, we'll
talk some softball with Julie Mitchell, national champion of that

(07:49):
Texas softball team when we continue on this Tuesday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
I'm thirteen under the zone here on a.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
Tuesday afternoon on the program. Glad to have you with
us here and with the up till five o'clock this
afternoon as always, so I'm happy to have you with
us this afternoon. Okay, as I mentioned, we will be
visiting with Texas softball head coach Mike White coming up
on Thursday on the program as he was en route.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Today in the air today.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
And the great thing about this gave us an opportunity
to have one more visit with one of our favorites
over the past couple of weeks, and that is to
visit with long Horn's grad student first baseman.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Let the record show that.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
This season Jolie Mitchell batted three seventy five, was seventeen
home run sixty three runs, batted in, drew thirty five walks,
got hit by a pitch three times, and had a
fielding percentage ninety two. She joins and also stole four
bases in five attempts, and she joins us now as
a national champion, a little bit different than when we

(08:57):
visit with her week ago. A little over we could go, Jolie,
I appreciate the time it is. It kind of just
trite for me to say that everybody's still soaking it
all in and enjoying this and letting and letting all
of this settle, because one thing I heard all the
players say is that it hadn't sunk in yet. It

(09:17):
hadn't sunk in yet, and of course it wouldn't right
in the immediacy of the moment, other than the jubilation.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Now, has it all sunk in for you?

Speaker 5 (09:27):
I would say yes, I mean, this is something that
we work for. And so when you finally get to
bring it back to Austin and had a great showing
of all of our fans here after we got back,
that was pretty awesome.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
So now and I'm just kind of hanging.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
Out driving in the car, I'm big and oh my goodness,
like we're a national champion.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
So I would say yes that it's kind of settled
in a little bit.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Okay, well that's good now.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
Everything I know folks described the way the whole National
Championship Series ultimately evolved was kind of bordering on the unreal.
And and I'll get back to that in a moment.
I want to go back to you know a lot
of folks that the eyebrows were raised when when after
you guys got the win over Tennessee and then after

(10:12):
Texas Tech had beat Oklahoma, and there was like when
somebody asked you would you rather played Oklahoma or Texas Tech?
And and I salute you, because you know a lot
of folks are going to go ahead and take the
diplomatic path and it doesn't matter. We're just glad to
be in the championship. And you said, no, I'd rather
been against Oklahoma to be the man. You got to
beat the man, the old Hult Cogan thing. I guess

(10:34):
that's a Rick Flair line. Did your teammates kind of
share that feeling or was it just, hey, look, we're
in the final. We're ready to go, no matter who
it's going to be.

Speaker 5 (10:45):
I think that everybody was just waiting to see who
it was going to be. I mean, I just said
I wanted it to be OU because I think that
that's a cool way to go out, and especially you know,
we just beat them, and I think that we had
a little bit of momentum. Then again, I think the
same thing happened last year when Florida forced them to
the double elimination game and the IF Games. Last year,
I even said, no, I still want to play OU,

(11:06):
and so I kind of take the route of like,
I want to make it really difficult on myself. But again,
I trust my team and I trust that regardless, we
would have done great against either team. But yeah, just
got to a point where we had to focus on
what was in front of us. But I don't think
that it should go unnoticed that you know, it doesn't
matter who it is, we were going to give up
a fight. And yeah, but again had to recognize that
we had a challenge right in front of us with

(11:27):
Tech and Nigerie Kennedy.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Okay, So you just made me laugh when you talked
about picking the more difficult route because when we had
the last time visit, we talked about your path and
everything you went through in the physical challenges and everything else.
So so just playing Oklahoma compared to everything else you've
been through, probably you felt you were you and your
teammates were going to be able to handle that based
on everything you personally had been through.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Right, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
I mean we've faced them plenty of times and they're
a great team and a great program and always will be.
But again it's like, hey, we had some momentum going
in to this after we beat them last week, so you.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Know, I was ready for it, but just didn't work
out that way.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
And that's okay, all right.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
I got to ask you this question because and rooted
in history like I like to do sometimes, you kind
of had a unique place in history. The other night,
whether anybody brought this up to you or not. At first,
I want to make sure I'm right about this. When
rees Hadwood's at the plate and on the three to

(12:29):
zero pitch he gets the base hit. You're in the
on deck circle, correct, You're the on deck batter.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
I just want to make sure I didn't go off
the tracks on that, because this is what goes through.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
My mind and stuff like this.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Somebod who follows the history of the game and the
history of all professional sports.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
And things like that.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
And I don't know if anybody said this to you,
But in nineteen fifty one, there's this famous baseball playoff
game between the Giants and Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Both were in New York at the time.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
The Giants were playing that upper part of Manhattan and
the Dodgers were in Brooklyn and they played at the
Holo Grounds. And the Dodgers are on the verge of
winning this final game of a best of three series
to decide the National League Pennant and Bobby Thompson hits
this game winning walk off home run. In the days
before the term walk off was even invented, he hits

(13:16):
this walk off home run the Giants win. There's this
famous announcement of Russ Hodges crying out over and over again,
the Giants win, the penn At, the Giants win, the
Pennate does it all over the point of all this
is that he hits this walk off home run. Waiting
in the on deck circle was Willie Mays, who was
a rookie that year and of course went on and
had this unbelievably incredible career. So here you were in

(13:37):
the on deck circle. And the reason I bring this up,
or you're the on deck batter, is Reese is at
the plate.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
When did it occur to you that what.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Was going to happen and might unfold, that she was
looking for a pitch to hit, and beyond that, what
was going through your mind, if you know, when it
looked like they were good, that Kennedy was going to
intentionally and that you would then walk to the to
the play with the bases loaded into outs.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
I think several times this year it's kind of been
the scenarios where even before I walk out of the dugout,
I'm like, oh, this is going to be an intentional
walk situation.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
I'm gonna have to be the person to do it.

Speaker 5 (14:14):
So Honestly, before I even set down on the field,
I knew that they were going to at least attempt
to intentionally walk her, which is fine. I mean, that's
no big deal, and I still have to go out
there and do what I'm supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
But I think it was pitched too, I believe for.

Speaker 5 (14:29):
The second ball, and it was actually we said it
was fat, that's what we were calling it. It was fat,
and coach saying, is in the cage over here in
the dugout, and he told Reese swing it. So I
think Reese was just kind of like I could even
see a change in her body language where she's like, Okay,
I'm going to take this next one, and then after that,
I'm just gonna hammer it if it's there, and she did.

(14:50):
I honestly was fully not paying attention because it was
fixing to be the fourth ball and.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
I'm walking and I looked down a little bit, and then.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
I hear the crack of the bat and I'm like
and I look up and the balls going past the shortstop,
and so it was like, oh my god, we're gonna
score two runs.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
And so that's what we needed.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
So I went to the plate and was just gonna
tell me if she needed to slide or not.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
But yeah, I think just the.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
Whole scenario, I was fully prepared to go up there,
and I mean I was gonna be the one to
hit the ball, so I was fully prepared to go
up there and do it. And I was pretty hot then, so,
like you know, I was, I was trusting myself. But
when we said that, I think it was just a
huge confidence boost for everybody. And even after the fact,
the whole night it was just totally insane. Twitter was
blowing up, so we were laughing about that on the
bus and TikTok.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Was going off.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
So it was just a really cool moment to see
us take a big risk like that and see it
work out for us, and that's what led us to
the championship at the end of the week.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
Okay, all right, So I want to make sure I
got this right, because I haven't heard anybody else tell
it to this point that that coach Singh was saying,
go ahead and do it again. And the plan was
to swing on three and oho, not two and oh.
When that second pitch was fat, was to let her

(16:04):
go ahead and try to get another one over there,
and I think all the replay showed that the third
pitch for ball three might have been a little further
out any way than that fourth pitch, So it was
perfect timing. Everything worked out obviously perfect, but for the
purposes of accuracy, so that that was the plan. What
you heard coach sing talking about was get ready to hit,
and then in everybody's mind it was going to be

(16:25):
on the fourth pitch.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
I think it just kind of worked out that way.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
I mean, I don't he was just telling her to swing,
and so when he said that, I was like, oh,
you know, I didn't know if Reese was going to
do it or not. And so yeah, the third the
three oh pitch was a little bit or the going
to be three oh pitch was a little bit further out,
but what was supposed to be ball four was actually
right there. And so I think Reese was just like seaball,
hit ball, and I mean, it just happened to work out,

(16:50):
and I think it just kind of caught the defense
off guard.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Just in general.

Speaker 5 (16:53):
You kind of watched the replay back and they're not
really like in their position ready to go, and source
off was kind of cheating.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
So it's just I think it just happened. It just
was so perfect.

Speaker 5 (17:02):
But he was telling her like, hey, if it's close,
you need to go ahead and swing, and then we
trust Reese and I don't restrust herself. So for her
that to be her first hit of the week, I
think it was probably the most legendary one of the weeks.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, no question about that.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Now you'll have to refresh my memory on this in
some other situations, on other occasions when that situation was
coming up, whether the bases would have been loaded or
not when they were when someone was in the process
of intentionally walking reece. Uh, did you have some good
at bats in some of those situations that you had

(17:35):
come up and make them pay for that decision that
they made?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
A few I could have done better, but a few.

Speaker 5 (17:42):
I think the big thing is when something like that's
going to happen, I have to take it as they
don't trust that I can do the job right.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
I am not able to you.

Speaker 5 (17:50):
Know, score a couple of runs here to tie the
game up or you know, jump ahead. But I think
it's just a matter of if I believe in myself.
I mean, I have to tell myself several times that
it's no different. The game's no different. The game doesn't know.
So I had to get up there, I have to
make contacts. She has to throw across the plate, And
just because there's a few runners on base doesn't make
the situation more intense. It might externally, but internally and

(18:13):
out there on the field, it's the same thing.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
So yeah, I was successful a couple of times.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
I wish I could have done better most times, but
you know, it just got to go up there and
do my job.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, and you were going to be ready regardless. I mean,
if the intentional walk had been properly executed on there,
you were going in standing in there knowing what you needed,
a good pitch to drive the ball and get runs home.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
Absolutely, you know.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
I mean there were two outs, so I mean it
was gonna come down to it where I had to
get the ball through the infield, and so yeah, just
make square contact, hit it hard, and good things are
going to happen.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Now.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
I did point out that you drew thirty five walks
as your second only to Rees who had forty one,
so obviously you have a good eye at the plate,
and even though you're going up there to hit a walk,
would have tied the score at somebody watch it or
as they did, and three other times hit you with
a pitch. By the way, those three times that you
were hit by a pitch this year, did any of
those like really give a good sting? Did they hit

(19:07):
you in the like, say whatever, a shin bone or
a place where it might hurt a little more than
say some other part.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
Funny thing is those were my only three career hit
by pitches.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
So the first time I was hit by pitch was
this year.

Speaker 5 (19:22):
It was middle of April. We played Texas stay at
Home and I kind of got hit right here in
the forearm, on my thirst arm. And we played Tennessee
that weekend and then Carlin Pickens, you know, throws gas
hits me in the same exact spot, and so that
was pretty tough and I'm still kind of recovering from it.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
I have like a little nott there.

Speaker 5 (19:38):
So but yeah, getting juiced at seventy five in the
same place, of course you're gonna have something. Yeah, So
I mean, yeah, but I've never really experienced it. But
it's kind of like, Okay, we get a free base
runner and I got hit in intense moments, So it's like, hey,
if we need a base runner, just take it.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
And so yeah, a couple of times it just happened.

Speaker 5 (19:56):
But I was, you know, kind of going through the
scenario too, where if I do walk, if I do
get hit by a pitch, then yeah, that's gonna score
run for our team.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
But I don't want to be super passive.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
I mean, I quite am passive just because I had
thirty five walks, but I like to take my time and.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I like getting deep accounts. It kind of just challenges
me personally.

Speaker 5 (20:14):
So if I can get too a three two count,
I'd rather do that than just kind of maybe hit
the first pitch. And that's what I did last week too.
It was just jumping ahead and not seeing as many pitches.
But yeah, I get a lot of walks because I
just trust myself in a deep count.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
Visiting with Jolie Mitchell here on thirteen under the zone
for a couple more minutes. All right, let me move
it forward to after Tech wins Game two, and you
guys had a really spirited effort in the final at
bat to pull in four three and had the time
run at third, and I thought I heard a couple
of played maybe it was you, maybe it was Reached,
maybe it was Katie Simms, somebody in the press conference

(20:50):
saying we had good momentum at the end of it.
So the conversation was what amongst the players about, let's
take this into the top of the first or the
bottom of the first of the final game. Is that
how all of that unfolded for you because of how
the final at bat for you, even in a loss,

(21:12):
produced some positivity.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
Absolutely, we always talk about that too. I mean we
jumped into the SEC this year. We were saying, hey,
conference is gonna be tough, and there's gonna be days
where you might lose the first game, second game or whatever,
but how can you take momentum into the next day.
And so clearly we had the momentum. I mean, yeah,
Nigera got the last strikeout, but Naja strikes everybody out,
so I mean.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
That's nothing new for her.

Speaker 5 (21:35):
And we were gonna have to go out there and
we knew we were gonna see her again. So our
biggest thing was that we just had to stick to
our plan. And I think it's great when we have
people going up there, they're finally chipping away. And it
was in a big moment. It didn't go our way
in the second game, but we walked into the meeting
room afterwards as a team and we said, we have
the momentum going into tomorrow, so let's not wait until
the seventh in need to do it. Let's do it

(21:57):
the first inning. And so I think that we all
into that. I mean, that was huge. That was huge
for us. I mean, jump out the first inning and
put up five. I mean the game was pretty much
going to be over at that point. We still had
to fight throughout the game. But in a tough situation
like that, in a tough series, Texas always comes out
in the third game. So we were super confident in
each other. And even that morning we gathered together, we

(22:19):
huddled up, and we were giving each other hugs, and
we were saying, we're gonna go win a national championship today.
Let's jump out in the first inning and let's just
put them away. Let's leave no doubt.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
When when you guys stepped to the plate there in
that first inning and you were you were getting good
hits obviously off nigeen Lee Andy hits, the three run
homer and.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
All of these other things.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
How much of it was maybe you guys could sense
a little bit of fatigue from her even in the
first inning, and how much of it was and I
think this was the vast majority of it.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Would you correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
You'd seen enough pitches from her during the course of
the season, and we're a lot more comfortable based on
what you'd seen on the first two games.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 5 (22:59):
I mean we saw a little bit of a speed
difference and some of her movement wasn't as movement as
it was the first day.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
But even then, I mean, I give a lot of
credit to her.

Speaker 5 (23:10):
I mean, she pretty much has to pitch every single
inning of the postseason, and I can't imagine, like I
can barely play defense and hit the ball without being
sore every single day, So I can't imagine what she
goes through.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
So I give her a lot of credit for that.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
And you know, I mean, she's a huge part of
that team, and so I think that she was given
her all anyway.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
But I just think that, you know, it gets to
a point.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
Even most of the girls that were on the team
on our team last year, we saw her when she
played for Stanford, and we saw them twice in the
World Series.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Last year, we saw her once here.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
And then we saw her again at the beginning of
this year, and it was even a tough game, but
it's the first time we had seen her in a while,
and that we didn't see her until now, So I
think it was just a culmination of we were watching
film from last year, we were watching film from the
first game we played them this year, and then watching
film from the series itself, so we knew what we
were going to get, we knew what we were successful at,
and we knew what was working for her. So I

(24:00):
also think that we just trust ourselves when hitting the ball,
So if she throws it up there, we're gonna put
up a good fight regardless. But I do think that
you know, Nija, she gets she gets the credit that
she deserves. But you know, you see somebody over and
over again, you're getting to the ninth tenth a bat,
You're going to be successful.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
Sure you are positioned when you were playing just a
few feet away from Tiguan, Kevan, did you sense from
Tiguan even though she's a pretty affable person and look
it seemingly you know, comes across as as you know,
kind of laid back and to join all, did you
sense a little.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
More fire in her?

Speaker 4 (24:36):
Not because of all the flowers that Nija was getting
and like you said, deservedly, so, just that she felt
the competitor in her as she was going into the
circle every time throughout the course of the tournament, when
she didn't allow a single learn run in what thirty
one and the third, So I mean, did you did
you get that kind of vibe from her as she

(24:57):
was going back into the circle, especially for the final game.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
Absolutely, I mean Teagan's just a competitor in general. She's
one of those quieter ones and sometimes you have to
get it out of her a little bit. But I
think going into the champ series, I think that people
were pressing as far as you know, like, oh, it's
Niga versus Teak and Kavan, but Nija this, and so
I think that it might have lit a little fire
in her. But Teagan is focused on Teagan. So Tigan's
gonna go out there and do what she needs to do.

(25:22):
And I think she did that all of the postseason,
where she's saying, I need to make one pitch, so
she's focused on each pitch. She's not focused on what
people are saying about her. Outside of that, I think
that she understands that the best thing for her is
her and us, and I think that we all bought
into the infield talking.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
To her and Leanne and Mia.

Speaker 5 (25:40):
They're kind of quiet sometimes, but we all came in
and we were just encouraging her the best that we could,
and she's encouraging us back. So I think that she
had a little motivation, maybe a little bit from all
the NYGA talk, But then again, she's one of those
humble people. She recognizes that Nija is a fierce competitor
as well, but that doesn't change anything that she's going
to do about her. So I think Teagan was just

(26:01):
focused on Teagan and doing what she could for our team.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
All right, now, before we let you go.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
When we visited with you last I was asking you
about the down the road planned for you, and you
talked about how being in the professional in the medical
field was going to be ultimately the destination. If you
were to have the opportunity to play professional for a
while or try to balance all that out, would that
be something consists you would consider or are you just

(26:27):
diving headlong into the next realm of your life professionally I.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Think I'll be a part of the game, just not
as a player.

Speaker 5 (26:36):
I want to be a coach and mentor just encourage
girls to chase their dreams. I mean, I'm a small
town kid from Rosebud, Arkansas, and I got to do
all the things that I dreamed of. I got to
go to Notre Dame, I got to come to UT
and I got to win a national championship.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
So as far as the player, I would say no.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
But as a professional in the sport, I would love
to be somebody that others look up to and encourage
them to do what they can do.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
But yeah, as far as the job.

Speaker 5 (27:03):
Part of it, yeah, I'm jumping all into the nursing
school and jumping into the medical field. So I'm really
excited about it, and I'm glad that I'm going to
have a good life balance of staying in soup on
also being a professional in the medical field.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
Here's the other reason why I'm asking this, Jolie. If
we were to, like, you know, offered to stick you
in the broadcast booth with Andrew Haynes, you know, in
given opportunities next year or something like that, is that
something you'd be interested in?

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (27:26):
I think that even like the last month or two,
just like media stuff, I'm like, wait, I kind of
like this, so yeah. I mean, if I can do
something and be a part of it and talk about it.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
I'm gonna talk. So I would love to. That'd be
really awesome.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
Hey, the media loves talkers. That's just it's just the
way we roll that. Hey, I appreciate the time that
we've had to visit with you. We congratulate you again
on everything that's happened, including the national championship, and we
look forward to visiting with you again down the road
and wish all the best in the next chapter.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
But appreciate the time. Jolie, thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Thank you guys.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
All Right, that is Julie Mitchell, Longhorns grad student, first
Basement and national champion. The second hour of the program. Here,
I'm thirteen under the zone. Glad to have you with us.
Craig Wavy with you alongside the producer Ronald Savage, and
we're with you up until five o'clock this afternoon. First
hour of the program, visited with Julie Mitchell from that
national champion softball team. Great conversation and coming up in

(28:24):
a few minutes to talk from College Baseball with Kenna
Rodgers d one baseball dot Com. Now that the field
of eight is set for the College World Series in Omaha,
will get Kendall's thoughts on the path to this point
for those eight schools and what to expect once they
arrive at Charles Schwab Field to have opening ceremonies on

(28:45):
Thursday night, and then of course the games begin on Friday.
There were a couple of items that wanted to get
to before we got to the break and then visit
with Kendall one. This, of course, is US Open week
for golf, and historically those who follow the game follow
golf whatever. Even if you just you know, follow the

(29:06):
major championships, you are well acquainted with the fact that
the US Open differs from the Masters, the PGA Championship,
and the Open Championship, which many know is the British
Open over in Great Britain. It differs from that in
several different ways. The US Open, most notably the first

(29:27):
thing that comes to mind for folks is the rough
US Open rough, how thick it is? Well apparently might
have got a little too thick, because yesterday USGA officials
went out and tried to thin it out a little bit.

(29:48):
Golf on CBS twitter site had tweeted out a photo
of one, two, three, four, five, six seven there were
like eight guys with pushing lawnmowers and said, we'll see
if this army of lawnmowers makes it difference. So there
were a lot of videos showing now they were trying
to thin out the ruff a little bit because there

(30:12):
were just so many golf balls that got lost there
at Oakmont there that's right outside Pittsburgh, and they said
it's gone viral for being even three US Open roff
being really deep and difficult as well. Former taxas loghorn
Jonathan Vegas, who led the PGA after thirty six holes

(30:33):
last month, chimed in on x and said, good news,
guys are cutting the rough, but it's still unplayable.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Have fun.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
So players were still struggling to chip the ball in
the practice rounds yesterday from the green side rough throughout
the course.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Of the day.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
So if the conditions yesterday were any indication, it could
be very very difficult throughout the course of the weekend.
But supposedly they're working on trying to thin out the
ruff a little bit. Make it a little bit easier
to deal with. We'll see if that happens. NCAA has

(31:13):
reported something that it's encouraging. I will say this, it's encouraging.
It doesn't mean it solves the problem, and obviously won't.
The further we go and the more that, let's just say,
the more that the restrictions are lessened on the wagering

(31:39):
side of things.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Will still have issues.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
You've probably seen the public service announcements and the other
spots for the NCAA about online social media abuse of
athletes as well of athletes due to sports betting.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
In an interview that happened yesterday or day before, the.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
NCAA says that online abuse related to sports betting actually
declined during March Madness. So, like I said, that's encouraging,
but that's one small sample size. People involved in the
competition in the NCAA tournament still received more than three

(32:29):
thousand threatening messages. The NCAA hired Signify group to monitor
messages directed at athletes, coaches, game officials, selection committee members,
and others with official roles in the tournament. Signify used
both AI and human analysts to confirm the threats and

(32:51):
when necessary report them to the law enforcement. Overall abuse
related the sports betting was down twenty three percent, said
the end a news release, and that could be in
large measure due to the fact there weren't many upsets.
Remember that there was a lot of chalk. In this
year's nc basketball tournament, all four number one seeds made

(33:13):
it to the final four. Florida was a popular pick
to win it all, and they did. They won the
national title. On the women's side, the top three seeds,
three number one seeds, including Texas, made the final four,
and the number two seed, Yukon, among the pre tournament favorites,
won the championship. The ncaaa's analysis found that overall abusive

(33:37):
statements directed at people involved in the men's tournament increased
by one hundred and forty percent, much of it directed
at the selection committee and coaches, while abuse related to
sports betting was actually down thirty six percent. In other words,
people were still getting really angry and just you know,

(33:59):
just spitting out, spewing venom at those involved, but it
wasn't necessarily related to sports betting. On those abuse was
down eighty three percent of the women's side, and betting
related abuse declined sixty six percent as well. Chandler Praider,
Mississippi State, was the one who was guarding Juju Watkins

(34:20):
a usc when she suffered the season ending knee injury.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Had nothing to.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
Do with Prader the way she guarded her, and she said,
I received all kinds of messages, so many of them
hateful and abusive. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before.
The AI portion of it from Signify Artificial Intelligence portion
FLAG more than fifty four thousand posts, and its human

(34:44):
analysts confirmed that three thousand, one hundred and sixty one
messages were abusive or threatening. But those messages were reported
to social media platforms and occasionally the law enforcement and
the reporting led to the removal of abusive posts and
restrictions on social media accounts. NCAA President Charlie Baker said
he's made curbing online harassment a top priority, and I

(35:06):
think you can see that in the commercials where they're
talking about don't be a jerk and blaming people just
because you lost money betting on sports and taking it
out on athletes or whatever. So with that in mind,
we're transitioning to the next major national championship event, the
College World series up next, we'll talk about the CWS

(35:27):
with Kendall Rodgers at D one baseball dot com when
we continue on thirteen under the Zone, Tuesday afternoon in
the sporting world, is we look around this? I just
finished reading this story about the survey from the NCAA
where they said the online abuse related to sports betting
declined during March Madness during the NCAA basketball trip. That's

(35:51):
a good thing, but they still receive more than three
people involved in the competition received more than three thousand
threatening message. I would submit to you that it's probably
that is just barely ahead of the amount of unpleasant
and threatening messages our next guest had during the course
of the college baseball scene. I kid a little bit,

(36:12):
but Kendall Rodgers a D one baseball dot com probably
takes as much grief as just about anybody from both
inside of SEC fan bases and beyond the boundaries of
the SECZ.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Says, how you doing, Kendall. I appreciate the time to day.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
I'm doing well. It's been a long past couple of weekends.
But we're at the cultural series. I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yeah, absolutely all right. If we were to.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
Remove Murray State from the field of eight that is
now qualified. If we were to remove them from it,
what would you say has been the biggest surprise to
you through the two weekends of Regionals and Super region
And maybe maybe Murray State wasn't the biggest surprise to you,
because I know you followed them all season long and

(37:00):
they're an outstanding team and all that. But I know
there were surprises a lot of folks coming out of
the Missouri Valley. So if we were to remove them
from it, what would be your biggest surprise?

Speaker 1 (37:12):
I think for me, given the way that North Carolina
played in the regionals, in frankly, the way it played
in the first game of the Super I would have
thought in North Carolina would have been in Omaha. You know,
give Arizona a lot of credit. You know, it's one
of those things where when you blow out a team
in the first game of a Super it's almost a
detriment because I feel like your team gets a little overconfident.
But you know, Chip Hell, you know, had the Arizona

(37:32):
ready role those last two games. So for me, just
North Carolina not being in Omaha's a little surprising because
I really thought in the Agency tournament and in the
Chapel Regional they were playing like a national champions in
the Caliber Club. You know. The other one for me
would probably be Louisville. You know, I think we all
saw them rially this year at Mini Made and there
was certainly some potential there. But for Louisville, you know,

(37:53):
after you know, it was several year hiatus. Getting back
to Omaha, I think it was you know, a little
bit of surprising, and they entered the season under ranked,
and so those would be the big ones for me.
Ucla would be another one. You know, we didn't have
them ranked in the preseason. We liked him on paper
coming in the year, but you know, after struggling last
season going to the Big Ten, you never really know
how that transition is gonna go when you're you know,

(38:15):
getting on a flight from Los Angeless Gataway and you know,
they did a tremendous job in the fir tree of
the Big Ten. And you know, the one thing I
love about John Savage's club is that they a vintage
John Savage club. At what I mean by that is,
you know, people want to talk about the Trevor Bauers
and the Garrett Coles. They've had in UCLA history. But really,
if you go back and look at the guys that

(38:35):
were most successful there during some of their biggest runs.
You know, you think about Adam Pluto, who was on
the Friday guy for the National Championship club. You think
of you know, you know, the pieces they've had in
the back in the bullpen at times. You know, they
they've they've always had guys that can really pitch, and
that's kind of the way this UCLA team is this year.
And of course they also have a guy in Rock

(38:56):
Chilowski who I think is the best hitter in college baseball.
But UCLA was another team's under rand coming into the season,
and now they've been They're ending their season in Omaha.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
Now, if I insert Murray State back into the conversation,
safety say, sans they're the on what only the fourth
number four seats in the region will get there, would
they be the biggest eye opener?

Speaker 1 (39:16):
They would be. I mean, I'll get Dan Stirk and
his staff out of credit. I mean, if you look
at what they've done this year, I mean, they dominated
the Missouri Valley Conference for the most part. Uh, you know,
I think they end up, you know, tying for the
regular season champions only because they got rained at the
rest of the weekend. But they blew out Missouri State,
and in one game they didn't they were able to play.

(39:36):
So you know, they are a surprise that they're definitely
not some team that I expect to show up and
look like they don't belong. I thought Sony Brick a
little bit the year they made it to Omaha looked
like they were a little bit out of place. I
don't think Missouri or Murray State looks like that. I
think anybody that watched their regional they could really hit. Uh.
I mean they are you know, Dustin Mercer's a doubles machine.

(39:58):
They've got some nice piece on the mouth. I think
they could be a little pesty in this bracket.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
Since we're talking about four seeds, I keep hearing the
name Frisner State in vogue from eight because of what
they did. Do you see any similarities at least in
terms of how this team sets itself up for Omaha?

Speaker 1 (40:19):
I do a little bit. Actually, I actually that's a
pretty good comp I mean that Fresne State team was
incredibly talented. I mean, you think about that team. You
know they didn't have Tanner Shepherd's pitching for him in Omaha,
and he was like one of their main arms. So
he gives you an idea how talent they were without him,
they were able to win that. But I do you

(40:40):
think we look at uh, you know, Murray State. They've
got enough arms. You know, they've got a couple of
weekend starters. They got to They've got you know, a
bullpen armor team. They can they can mow you down.
And as you all know, when you get to Omaha
and you have a day off in between, it really
kind of defeats the purpose of having an extremely deep
pitching step because frankly, you do not need a really

(41:02):
deep pitching step to win in Omaha. I always think
back to that year the Arizona wanted with Andy Lopez
when they use what was it four arms, They used
four pitchers. In Omaha, they use their three starters, they
use Matt Troop out of the bullpen. They did not
have to use a fifth picture. So it's just unbelievable
that you can do that. But that is the way
the Omaha setup is. If with a day off, you

(41:23):
have a lot of whiggle room, and that really benefits
a team likeke Murray who you know, they don't get
a little dicey until you get to like that fifth
game of a of a weekend like they were in Oxford.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
You mentioned Arizona.

Speaker 4 (41:34):
Arizona in twenty sixteen lost to Coastal Carolina, and Coastal
Carolina still raised as an eyebrow or two from folks
go here's at school from a mid major coming cubby
as they do. But I know you have liked them
all season long based on the you know, the things
I've read that you and the staff have written about
them online. You guys have liked to Shina Clears all

(41:57):
season long, haven't you?

Speaker 1 (41:59):
Well really have. And the and the reason is is
because historically you look at Coastal and you go, oh, offense, offense, offense,
Well not exactly, there's no doubt this team can hit.
But when you look at what they have on the
mound and Tam Flukey and you know, Jacob Morrison, Riley
Ikoff has done really well for them. They looked at
part of the weekend against a really good Auburn team.

(42:19):
You know, you see those guys up close are very
physical and so uh they did a nice job you
know on the mound. You know I think you know,
you know, we kind of saw the Longhorns this year.
You know, a team success really kind of starts with
what you get out of the catcher position. And they've
got one of the best in the business and kayt
and Bodine, who you know, by the way as of
finalists for the Johnny bench of galvaugh But uh, you know,

(42:40):
Kat and Bodine was awesome over the weekend. Offensively, he
hasn't really hit for a lot of power this year,
but did have a couple of home runs over the weekending.
It's Auburn, but he's an elite catcher, an elite leader.
And when you have those two things behind the plate
to go with those arms, I mean you you can
make some serious noise noise and them all, especially when
you have plenty of office to score some lines.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Coastals playing Arizona that first game you talked about Arizona
Prince Vini's front. Did you start to see things really
starting to piece itself together for Chip Hale's team during
that big twelve tournament in Arlington, which they ultimately were
able to go through and win. Was it there the
win some because they had moments during the year when
they looked really good and then they had moments like

(43:23):
losing two out of three at home to Baylor.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
During the course of the year.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, there's no doubt. I kind of feel like that's
the way the Big Twelve was as a whole. Like
even Baylor, I don't think it was a bad team,
it's just you know, they'd have one good weekend and
one really bad weekend. But Arizona is kind of the
same way, like they'd have a couple of really good
weekends and all of a sudden, they're getting like run
off the field by Utah at home. So they were
just a very strange club. But I will say this,
and I'll kind of point to two different weekends of
Arizona is being back to the weekend that you know,

(43:49):
we saw them up in Arlington. I mean, they did
not look very good. They struggled, they looked bad, and
at that point Chipell was just kind of like, hey,
like it was a bad weekend, but we're gonna move
on from here. But you know, you look back at
the minimated week was a three weeks player at the
MiniMed weekend, Yeah, and all of a sudden, they looked

(44:10):
the part, you know, they came back and beat the
A and M, and the night thing they beat Mississippi
State and then Smith Bailey or Sunday got almost beat
Tennessee in the final game of the weekend. So that
weekend in Houston, I thought gave us a glimpse of
a club they could really do some, you know, do
some you know down the stretch, you know who They
kind of remind me of. They remind me of that

(44:32):
Texas team that went to Global Life opening weekend. Remember
that bad weather weekend. I remember when Texas just got
wiped off the map, and that weekend, everybody in every
Texas fans like, oh God, this's gonna be a long season.
And I want to say that team ended up in Omaha.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Yeah, that's that was the one with Ivan. Yeah, that
was the one with Ivan Melndu's twenty twenty one.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, National semi finalists that year. And you know, that's
just kind of the same pathway that Arizona's gone. And
it hasn't always been pretty and they started off pretty bad,
but they're in a really good spy right now.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
We're visiting with Kenda Rogers. D one Baseball dot com.
If you want to subscribe, to that they're outstanding award there.
I want to h the one other team off of
that first day bracket. We've talked about Coastal against Arizona
and you brought up Louisville. The other is at Oregon State,
and uh, I you know, with what Mitch Canam has
done there, I think and I know you and the

(45:22):
staff really like the Beavers all season long.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Was every reason to do it, but there was.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
That big albatross, that big thing hanging over them, the
fact that they had to play as an independent and
go on the road and all this other kind of stuff,
and it just I think it's one of the more
remarkable stories about what they've had to overcome and what
was it, twenty three thousand miles worth of travel this
year and all this stuff to ultimately qualify.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
No, it is really neat. I mean it's kind of twofold.
I mean, one, you don't you don't like to travel
that much. But on the other hand, it kind of
proves that if you travel that much and you actually
win some of your games, your RPI is going to
be really good. And so I wasn't sure what's the
expect of Oregon State going into the tournament just because
you know, you know, is the RPI inflated a little bit?

(46:07):
Is it not inflated? You don't really know that. The
weekend I saw them around, right, they were just okay.
But I say, what when you look at this team overall,
I mean, they are sizzling hot offensively. You know, Trent
Carroway is a supremely talented prospect too. At one point
in the last week and a half, they had you know,
had a hitting in a night hole. I want to
say he let off or hitting the two hole in

(46:27):
the last game against Florida State. You know, Ivar Kent
will end up being a you know, a top five,
you know draft guy on on the first of the
MLB draft. He will be a top ten pick. He's
had a really nice year for them. They've got some
other really nice pieces, you know, Ericson Gura on the mound,
you know, the AJ singer kid who continues to get
big hits for him and clutch situations. They just got

(46:49):
a lot of balance and you know, Mitch Canum, there's
just something about that program. You know, I don't want
to compare it to Texas too much just because Texas,
you know, has what thirty six, thirty seven O my appearances.
But it does like Texas sometimes in the postseason, where
like it doesn't matter how the regular season went or
what you think about them, like you can just guarantee
you or going to play well in the postseason. And
that's just kind of how the how Oregon State roles.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
We've talked about three of these for these first and
second eight matchups. First a Coastal against Arizona and Oregon
State against Louisville, and then on Saturday, Ucla and Murray State.
Before I get to this last matchup, I want to
lead into it because it's it's Arkansas and LSU, and
I know you guys catch a lot of grief. A
lot of folks fan bases uh chied one another about

(47:33):
the end of the SEC. They didn't deserve thirteen bids.
They didn't deserve all the host sites. Look at them.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
The dust settles, the smokes, the smoke clears. UH. Two
are are in Omaha.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
And in addition to that, you had several teams still
hosting and playing in super regionals as well, and no
other conference had more than one involved in that. The
reason why I bring up kendle I grew up in
North Carolina, and during the height of the ACC in
the seventies, they had one national champion and that was

(48:07):
that NC State team that stopped the UCLA string.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Other than that, they did not win a.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
National championship throughout the course of the decade, and yet
it was still always viewed as the.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Best basketball conference.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
And my dad used to have a theory in others
that said, well, they kind of wore each other out
during the regular season in the ACC tournament. Are there
any light minded type things that happened because of the
grind in the SEC?

Speaker 2 (48:30):
And someone said, well, it should make a more battle
hardened and battle.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
Tested, but by you know, maybe whatever in this modern
day and age of all the video that's available in
things like that, that makes the SEC perhaps a little
more vulnerable when you get into postseason than you might
ordinarily think.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, I mean, I think there is a solidity to that.
I mean, I would say, I mean, let's use Texas
as a prime example. I mean I would argue that.
I mean Texas like just from a sheer energy level
after that first game, after that first game at UTSA,
I didn't plot the energy level was that great against
Kansas City and UTSA, And again, I don't know if
it's just you know, just one of those weekends or

(49:09):
you know, when you're when you're used to every single
weekend playing L s U A and M you know, Oklahoma, Arkansas,
Auburn at some point like in a way like playing
like UTSA is like a letdown, you know, because they're
sure he used to playing those type of teams weekend
and week out. And so I mean, that's the only

(49:30):
thing I can think of is that you're you're up,
you're up. You're up so much every single weekend in
that league, but all of a sudden the postseason, if
somebody kind of punches you in the gut a little bit,
like you don't really know how to respond. And so
I do think there is some validity to that that,
you know, the teams, some teams at least just tend
to get a little bit exhausted. I think, you know,
to you know, go back to the Texas example, was

(49:51):
kind of like once they lost Jared Spencer, I just
felt like that deflated them a little bit because it
just it made to wear and tear even more prov
on the other arms on my staff.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
I agree and with position players.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
I mean, you know, Slashnakle never said that much about it,
but everybody knew, or I think a lot of folks,
and I know you knew that Ethan Mendoza wasn't near
one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
And and same thing with a Rodriguez Earth in the.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Year galvanicit move his arm in the last game. There's
just a lot of things.

Speaker 4 (50:20):
Yeah, all right. So that that brings me to LSU
and Arkansas. And somebody asked me weeks ago, weeks ago,
asked me what the best team I thought was that
I had seen, and I said Arkansas.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
And I still kind of stand by that.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
I think there may be the most complete team, and
yet LSU may be just as explosive and dangerous. And
here they are meeting in the first game.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah, it certainly gives the validity to reseating the field
when you get because you get the two best remaining
teams playing each other in the first game. You know,
full transparency, I do have LSU playing for the national championship,
but you know, I do think with Arkansas. The thing
it'll be interesting to me is Zach Brude has pitched

(51:02):
really well as of late. You know, does that continue
in Omaha. I just have a little bit more faith
in Kate Anderson Anthony Hinson for LSU than I do
Arkansas's arms. But Zach Brud is the X factor for them.
I do think offensively, I do trust Arkansas a little
bit more. I think there's more balance. I think they
fit that ballpark a little better. Charles Davalon was really
good over the weekend as Tennessee and Brent Eyreydale's are

(51:25):
certainly a really nice hitter. Villoy, you know, continues just
to you know, have a great year, both defensively and offensively.
And so I do like the balance a little bit
more for Arkansas. But I will say this, you know,
we we all, we've all seen it. When the Tigers
get to Omaha, I feel like their most nerve wracking
moments and their year are over because it's just getting

(51:47):
Omaha as their ultimate goal. I think now they've gotten Omaha.
I do like the overall ceiling of their offense a
little bit more. I think, you know, Jared Jones, who
had just been okay over the last month and a
half two months of the season, you know, does he
have a big breakout weekend or a big breakout Omaha
you know, Monster Milam, Stephen Mylam, you know, had one

(52:08):
big hit over the weekend of Super but again he
has not been very consistent. So there are some pieces
of LSU's team that have not even been closed to
finish products. And yet they're still in Omaha and still
one of the betting favorites to win the national Championship.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Before I let you go, Kendall, I wanted to get
your your your thoughts on a I wouldn't say it's
a full on, full tilt coaching carousel, but there's been
enough movement obviously and going on back and your thoughts
about what you've seen so far, including that latest bit
that you reported on today where Virginia stays within the
ACC to find his new head coach.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Yeah, you know what, sometimes I like a busy carousel.
I'm kind of liking this carousel after last summer's carousel
at this point, but it has not had a ton
of drama. It has, you know, Brian O'Connor going to
Missippi State, certainly with eye opening. It is interesting that
they paid him two point nine million a year after
a season of not making NCAA tournament. But you know,

(53:07):
you know, if you look at his resume seven collegible
serious appearance as a national championship in twenty fifteen. The
proven's in the pudding, as they say, and he certainly
has a lot of that resume. That was a splash
hire for Zach sell in an MSU obviously making a
very strong commitment not only salaries, but you know Rev.
Shaer in Il, they're going all in there. They're pushing
all their chips in. They want to win another national championship.

(53:30):
But Duke or you know, Duke Chris Poler going to Virginia,
that was the most obvious higher for them. Jim Penders
from Yukon was another guy they would have taken a
very hard look at a Pollard said no. But you know,
Pollard has done an amazing job of turning Duke into
a perennial postseason team. They've got due to what four
super regionals, which is incredible considering the park they play in,

(53:51):
the teams around them, and you get NC State you
wouldn't see in East Carolina, all within an hour and
a half of that campus. So to turn that program
into what he he turned it into his mighty impressive.
And now we'll see the direction they go my feeling
will be Josh Johnson at LSU, but I'll also keep
an eye on Chrysala Monas, the former City state coach.
I think he's going to get himself in the mix two.

(54:12):
And if you're duked, there are a lot worse fiers
you can make than someone who has a national championship.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Career, no doubt about it.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
You can read Kendell's outstanding work and those of the
rest of the staff at D one baseball dot com.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Hey, it's always great to visit with you.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
I appreciate the time, and I always say to you
every year, enjoy Omaha because I.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Know you will.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
Right, you got it by all right, Thanks Kent'll take
care of safe travels too.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
All right.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
That's Kevin Rogers D one baseball dot Com and he
will be there for the run of it all there
with the College World Series at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
All right, we've got some other topics we're going to
get to. We'll jump to those up next when we
continue on thirteen. Under the zone to get into Kenn
Rodgers D one baseball dot Com join us for the

(54:55):
preview of the College World Series there in Omaha. Having
been to Omaha, now well I had the number in
my head. Now I've got to run about it too.
And then fourteen eighteen, twenty twelve times. Having been there

(55:25):
twelve times, it's pretty easy for me to say that
every year the locals who buy up everything else in
terms of the tickets that don't go to the individual
schools percession. If you're playing in a given game, whether

(55:47):
it's in the winner's bracket or the elimination games, you
know whatever, those seats are set aside for those participating teams.
There are some in those sections, like right behind their
dug outs and things like that. Everything else, especially in
the upper decks because it's a twenty five thousand seed ballpark,

(56:08):
and down the lines and in the outfield seating and
all that. All that is local purchasing or online purchasing,
and a lot of the locals are there from the
Omaha area.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
That's why I say that.

Speaker 4 (56:21):
The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament wraps its arms, or the
city of Dayton does to that first four in much
the same fashion that they do in Omaha as well.
For the College World Series, that's their event, big, big
event for them.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
So.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
They they but in so doing, the locals also tend to.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Adopt a team.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
Now they've got they've grown very accustomed seeing issue there
and they've always been pleasant in it, and they used
to be pleasant to Texas until until they wound up
leaving the Big twelve and Nebraska's I'm talking about it,
and they started booing Texas whenever they came through back
and there they used to. I remember even in the
O two season and Nebraska was in that College World Series,

(57:16):
but Nebraska fans were very welcoming and very very kind
to Texas. That all changed by five or whatever, but
they tend to adopt an underdog team anyway. In twenty sixteen,
it was clear it was Coastal Carolina, and they may
gravitate towards the Chanta Clears again this year. By the way,
if you don't know what a Chanta Clear is it,

(57:38):
it's like the lead rooster of the group. Because Coastal
Carolina was actually an offshoot university University of South Carolina,
which of course is the game cos as it's mascot,
so that's that's what it originally was. In fact, they
even had the same color as kind of the garnet
and Black, but they changed that in the nineties, establishing
their own identity as Coastal Carolina and won a national

(58:00):
championship in baseball. They won it in twenty sixteen in Omaha.
But uh, there'll be one of the teams that's adopted.
But I don't think there's any doubt in my mind
everybody's gonna you know, a lot of those people that
who adopt a team are gonna be rooting very, very
hard for Murray State.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
They're gonna they're gonna root for them as an underdog.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
To the text line where our man seatpalaces, I saw
the mowers. I was talking about the US Open and
are having to take those mowers out and try to
thin out the rough a little bit, and it said
I do lawns. Now, I don't see how that will
help a lot. It leaves rose or ridges. I may

(58:40):
be wronger, but well, I think you probably saw the
same photo that I did. And you're right seapile that
it would that it would do that. But I think
they have probably some other that's the best way to
describe this golf course related mowing and gardening power tools

(59:05):
and implements that can kind of work to thin out
that rough. But again, the golfers were kind of laughing
it off. San Yeah, like that's really going to do
that much good. And I'm a bit of a traditionalist
in some things. I'm very much a traditionalist, but I'm
not a traditionalist across the board. I think that times

(59:30):
change and circumstances change. Was it Sarked likes to say
about football, that's why the dinosaurs went extinct because they
couldn't evolve that kind of thing. I think a lot
of things have to evolve over time. And but one
of the things I have been a traditionalist about is
the way that the major golf championships are contested. And

(59:55):
they are different. Like we said, the Masters, it's so
much more floral in the way that that golf course
is set up, and it's the same course every year.
The PGA moves around to a select group of golf
courses that all pros are familiar with, you know, being

(01:00:20):
whether it's something like Valhalla or Quailhallow, or I think
next year it's at Aeronomy, which is outside of Philadelphia.
There's a lot of those that are very similar in
terms of the difficulty rating. The Open Championship in Great
Britain is different than all of them in that it's

(01:00:42):
almost always link style golf, and the wind plays the
biggest factor.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
And you have deep pop bunkers, and you have the.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
Gorse which is kind of like the US Open rough
in a different way.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
You can get some sticker burrs on you on those.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Things, but you have all of that. Uh, But the
US opened the rough at the US Open. It has
been one of those traditional things. Now, having said all
of that, I do think you can go too far,
and it appears that maybe they have gone a little
bit far with this and now at they're trying to
see LinkedIn it out a little bit, So you know,

(01:01:19):
that's that's where you. I think you could probably take
a lesson or two and maybe maybe try to modify
it just a little bit. But like I said, I
am a traditionalist about a lot of things with sports.
But I also understand that sports, depending on the league,

(01:01:44):
depending on the sport, canon must continue to evolve. I love,
absolutely love Major League Baseball, I have since I was
a little kid, and baseball may be the most tradition
bound of all the sports. Having said that, they had
to evolve when the pandemic arrived, and that's when they added,

(01:02:08):
obviously the ghost runner or the free runner for tenth inning,
and that's when the National League permanently went to the DH.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Eyeb Lie, I was one of those oddballs.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
I liked having the DH in the American League and
not having a Nationalague guy. I think you got to
see both sides of it that way. But things can
and must evolve, and so I didn't have a problem
with the nationallygue going full time DHM. This surprised me.
I didn't think it would, but it did kind of
grow on me that the free runner, the ghost runner, whatever,

(01:02:41):
put a second base. I know a lot of baseball
traditionals think it's belowney that you shouldn't do that. It's
as it really wrecks the stats. All you do is
it affects team er but not individual era is how
baseball chose to go to. But you could wind up
having games and went all that. I sat up pretty
late last night. Of course, the team I root for

(01:03:02):
is on the West Coast, so the Dodgers playing in
San Diego, that thing goes ten innings, but it was
done after ten because LA scored two and the top
of the tenth and San Diego scored one in the
bottom of the tenth, and that was that is that
there's a different kind of strategy now with that, with
that ghost runner. You'll hear most baseball experts say this
that you pretty much have to score two runs when

(01:03:23):
you start the ending with a runner at second base,
because it's almost not one hundred percent of given, but
almost too easy to.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Get one run. So you kind of at that point
need to kind of get two.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
And it makes it a little more like a traditional
baseball game in that thing, but it does compartmentalize it
a little bit. A couple of other CB put in
a couple of texts when I was reading about the candies.
He said, I love raisinettes and yogurt covered raisins. Also,
I'm sure you saw what happened to the actor who
voiced John Redcorn and King of the Hill. I believe

(01:03:59):
he had recorded dialogue for the new episode. Yes, we
did that story in Inconceivable last week that he was
murdered and what body left in the next door neighbors yard.
I think he had recorded dialogue for four episodes, but
I don't know that they're going to continue with the character.
They said they had decided on that they decided we

(01:04:20):
were talking about the reconstituted King of the Hill in
the reups again went to ten new episodes fourteen years
later that lew Anne Platter that character his niece and
whose voice was whose character was voiced by Britney Murphy,

(01:04:41):
who tragically passed away, and then her boyfriend Lucky, whose
voice was voiced by Tom Petty, who of course is
no longer with us. I think they wrote them out
of the series, that they moved away to another city
or something like that. I think that's how they were
dealing with that. I don't know how they're going to
deal with the John redcoord thing or whatever else. And
then CB I also pointed out that when I was

(01:05:01):
doing that story about the broken heart syndrome, said that
Debbie Reynolds died of a broken heart. They say a
day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher passed away in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
Certainly, and Debbie Reynolds was elevated in her age as well,
so that may have had something to do with it. Also.

Speaker 4 (01:05:22):
All right, we'll be back to wrap up hour number
two coming up here on thirteen under the Zone. Third
and final hour of the program here on thirteen hundred
of the zone. Craig Waite with you here on this
Tuesday afternoon. Glad to have you with us. Hey, a
couple of programming reminders tomorrow. Andrew Zimmel will handle the rains.
He'll handle the program tomorrow. Be out tomorrow. I'll be

(01:05:42):
back on Thursday, and then on Friday. Cameron Parker will
be back as well. Cameron in North Carolina visiting family.
So that's why we have Ronald Savage expertly.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Twisting and tweaking the dials.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
As he is there. Do we have any dials? It's
all buttons and slides now and stuff in modern radio.
But actually we do have a point out. We do
have some Yeah, there are some some dials that do
a couple of different things up there.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
But Cam will be in. He'll be back on Friday. Friday.

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
We have Gene Watson to talk Major League Baseball on
with us. Also Friday, the Music Survey. We brought it
back after a three year hiatus, and Cameron did the
music survey last week. Roger Wallace Okay XA and broadcast
partner on the Longhorn Games, will be participating in the
music survey this Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
A couple other things said.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
And also on Thursday, Mike White, Texas softball coach will
He was due originally to be on with us day
but had to catch a different flight and so we
rescheduled him for Thursday. But we were able to have
a great conversation with Jolie Mitchell long Corn's First Basement,
and that'll be on the podcast page if you missed it,
about winning the national championship, what she was expecting in

(01:07:04):
the on deck circle or as the on deck hitter,
when Reesap was at that plate, with that attempt at
an intentional walk from Nigerie Kennedy at Texas Tech, and
then Reese sticking the bat out there and dropping a
single in to give Texas the boy had.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Runs to win Game one.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
All of that and a lot more in that conversation
with Jolie Mitchell, and that'll be on our podcast page later. Okay,
there are a couple of really cool stories and they're related,
but they're not. They're related by the sport. But one
was pinned I was reading it this morning by ESPN

(01:07:44):
dot com, and then the other, which I also read
a little bit later, was from the Athletic and I
really enjoyed the work that the athletic has as well.
The relationship has to deal with college football, and I
mentioned at the start of the program that quite often,

(01:08:05):
not always, and don't throw a blanket over everything anyway, shouldn't.
But we as sports fans are fond of ranking things.
We have top twenty five rankings in college football and
basketball and baseball. Actually even the NCBWA Poles at top thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
We rate. We have the college Football Playoff rankings.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
That's important to determine the twelve that are going to
go into the college football playoff itself. So we do
all of these rankings and things, and that's just beyond
the that's just within the framework of college athletics. We
do have Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL whatever. These two

(01:08:53):
stories happen to pop up on the same day from
two completely different independent outlets, and they were ranking things,
but it had to do with two different elements of
college football. One of those is a little more of
the along the serious line, the other a little more

(01:09:16):
of the recreational line, but they both bear repetition and
reading and things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
So this is why I wanted to bring this up.

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
One of those is a piece that Scott Doctorman wrote
today in The Athletic. Now, we all have our prioritization
of certain things within the watching spectator sports, in this
case college football, the teams we like, the players, we like,

(01:09:51):
the great games, all of those types of things. We
rank them, we rate them. It's kind of what we do,
or a lot of us. What Scott Doctrman wrote today
was and this has to do with the fact that
we've had twenty five. In both cases, both this piece

(01:10:11):
and the one on ESPN dot com, the common thread
other than college football, is that we now have twenty
five college football seasons in the books in this millennium,
because that includes the two thousand season. I know there
were a lot of people I remember this back of
the turn of century. I don't know how many people

(01:10:32):
remember this. There was this debate going on about the
twenty first century has not started yet when we get
to Y two k. It doesn't actually start until January first,
two thousand and one, not two thousand, two thousand is
completing the twentieth century. So there's that debate. But no

(01:10:53):
matter how you choose to categorize it, there have been
inclusive of the year two thousand, when the calendar flip
from nineteen's to twenties, two thousand and whatever. We've had
twenty five seasons of college football two thousand up through
twenty twenty four, and both of these outlets came up

(01:11:15):
with pieces that are different but yet are related to
the fact that it was college football through the first
twenty five seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
The one that was a little more serious and a
little more.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
Details the one on the athletic, which was the twenty
five Stories that Changed College Football since two thousand now.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
And also they did the.

Speaker 4 (01:11:37):
Top twenty five teams, top twenty five players, coaches, and games.
They did the athletic because that's what they do, you know,
they crank that stuff out. But this one I thought
was perhaps as compelling as any of them, and it
was the twenty five Stories that Changed college Football since
two thousand now. Let me say this before I read
these to you.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
I'm not.

Speaker 4 (01:12:00):
I'm not of the opinion that this should be the
be all end all in terms of their importance of
their rankings. They do rank them, and I am in
complete agreement that these twenty five are probably as important
as any twenty five stories. Twenty five things that happen
over the first twenty five seasons of this new millennium.

(01:12:21):
I just don't know that that necessarily rank them in
the order that they did, but I don't have any
problem with the way they did. So here they were
in ascending order, starting at number twenty five. Johnny Football
Johnny Benzel talking about capturing the nation's attention as a
thrill seeking red shirt freshman in twenty twelve, but his

(01:12:43):
celebrity status hit a level rarely seen even Friesman Trophy
Winters thinks in part to a brush with the NCAA
investigation and allegations he was paid to sign memorabilia sidetrack
the celebratory post Heisman offseason led to a half game suspension.
Still became a husband finalist in thirteen, but he entered
the NFL draft the following spring. His professional falls a

(01:13:06):
story for a different list, no doubt. Okay, that was
number twenty five, all right, So they have like these
paragraphicsho on each ones. I'm not going to read every
word of everyone, just to kind of skim across it
for you. Number twenty four is food deregulation, and this
part is worth reading. It says the NCAA This is

(01:13:27):
absolutely the truth. Once micromanaged how much food its member
institutions could serve on campus outside of competitions, schools were
allowed to provide one meal per day athletes. A cracker
was considered a snack. A cracker with cream cheese was
considered a meal. The rules were so rigid that Oklahoma

(01:13:49):
once self reported violations When three football players ate too
much pasta at a graduation buffet in early twenty fourteen,
the school forced to pay it players to pay three
dollars and eighty three cents apiece for the extra food
or face ineligibility. That's how crazy that was. And then
they add under increased scrutiny to loosen the grip on

(01:14:10):
the benefits permitted for college athletes. The NCAA lifted all
food restrictions on August first, twenty fourteen. I remember my
friend Rod Baber's I'm talking.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
About unlimited snacks. That was the deal.

Speaker 4 (01:14:21):
The unlimited snacks at all hours of the morning. Number
twenty three. Rise of the recruiting websites, no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:32):
Rivals debuted in nineteen ninety eight. My friend Bobby Burton
was at the forefront of a lot of this then
then it you had Scout and you had Rivals and
two four seven and on three in on Texas Football
and all of these and Orange Blood and all of
the fan centric sites there. So that was that was

(01:14:54):
a story obviously of the past twenty five seasons. Number
twenty two bowled over talk about adding the twenty one
bowl games, and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
There have been over you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
Know, forty something bowl games as well now, and the
bowl sponsorships have become really big thing now, like pop
Tarts and Duke's Mayo and things like that. Number twenty
one to twelfth game that started in two thousand and six.
They were able to add a twelfth game to the
regular season schedule, and we talked about this because Texas

(01:15:29):
is going to play Sam Houston this fall. It's going
to be the first time that Texas well played Sam
Houston State since two thousand and six. It was an
add on the twelfth game because then I'm pretty sure
this it was Minnesota that dropped out.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
They were supposed to play in the regular season.

Speaker 4 (01:15:44):
They had to pull out of that and Texas had
to kind of scramble on short notice to add that
twelfth game, and it was Sam Houston that's the last
time Texas played an FCS opponent. You know what we
used to call one double a Sam Houston Choruses now FBS.
In fact, they went to and won their first ball
game last year. But Texas will play Sam this year.
But a twelfth game is Number twenty one. Number twenty

(01:16:05):
quarterbacks in nil collide talking about Matthew Sluca leaving UNLV
and then suing the school and things of that nature.
Number nineteen Big East acc War in two thousand and
three with the departing Big East schools. Number eighteen Northwestern's

(01:16:26):
unionization movement. We had guys unionizing there at Northwestern. Number
seventeen Rocky Mountain Prime talking about Dion Sanders and what
he's done to build up the program of Colorado.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
Sixteen. T Bomania, Tim Tebow.

Speaker 4 (01:16:43):
And the back to back years for the Gators in
those national championships and t Bow winning a Heisman. Number
fifteen College Football's video game lost and resurrected the EA
sports game when the NC rules preventing players from profiting
off of the video games. Now the Back and College
Football twenty five has become the best selling sports video

(01:17:04):
game of all time in total dollars. Number fourteen Cam Newton.
Cam Newton led the Tigers to the BCS National Championship
in twenty ten and then went on from there. There
were a lot of questions about Auburn and Newton then
later being declared it eligible just days before the SEC

(01:17:24):
Championship game, then immediately request as reinstatement and all that
weird stuff that happened, and he moved on from there.
Number thirteen Connor Stallions. We're just talked about him last fall,
the sign stealing scandal for Michigan that is prompted an
NCAA investigation. Sharon Moore will serve a two game suspension

(01:17:45):
this fall for deleting text with Stallions that were sought
by investigators. So they're still kind of get digged through
all of that. Number twelve Reggie Bush has lost trophy
after the NCAA opened the investigation to Bush twenty one
in two thousand and five, accused of receiving improper benefits.

(01:18:05):
There was a house for his family and all this
Today it'd be much more operating procedure and Bush had
his trophy returned.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
After that.

Speaker 4 (01:18:15):
Number eleven the twelve team playoff, I would have thought
that might have been a little bit higher on that,
but now it's twelve teams. Number ten Meyer versus Harball,
the Ohio State Michigan feud eh. I might have that
a little further down the list. Number nine expansion Chahos,
I think that needs to be definitely well up in
the top ten. About what has happened with the Big

(01:18:36):
twelve and then the Pac twelve, and then obviously Texas
and Texas, A and M moving or Tech first A
and M in Oklahoma, A and M Missouri and then
Texas and Oklahoma moving into the SEC. Number eight college
football's first playoff. Yeah, so that I think deserves its
placement the top ten. Number seven was Big ten network.

Speaker 2 (01:19:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:19:05):
For sure about that because you had SEC network obviously,
long were network, all of those things, and that kind
of followed up on those Number six twenty twenty the pandemic,
how it changed a lot of college football and several
bowl games were canceled and a lot of other schools
just stopped playing that year. Number five Alabama hiring Nick
Saban that definitely I think it is a top five

(01:19:28):
as well. Number four expansion and the alliance of the
SEC and the Alliance and the Big ten PAC twelve
and ACC their alliance.

Speaker 2 (01:19:40):
Number three, the.

Speaker 4 (01:19:41):
PAC twelve's demise the Conference of Champions going to I
heard Roxy Bernstein wrapping up that Oregon State Super Regional
win over Florida's. They talked about the last standing member
of the Conference of Champions. Number two wide open transfers
opening that up without restriction. And number one, the NCAAA

(01:20:02):
is not above the law, meaning no matter how much
revenue the NCAA and Memory Institution's game from TV contracts,
the entity stood firm on their bedrock principle of amateurism.
And then eventually they lose out the Supreme Court's opinion
nine to zero that the NCAA couldnt cap education related
financial benefits, and so it opened up eventually the NCAA

(01:20:27):
versus House settlement, which just got finalized the other day.
So there were the top twenty five stories according to
The Athletic in the first quarter century college football. Up next,
take a look at the top twenty five moments involving
college football since two thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
When we continue on thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 4 (01:20:47):
If you're one of the people who is fired up
about Aaron Rodgers signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then you
may enjoy this story, or it might not. It might
make you a little uncomfortable. If you're one of the
people who wants to see Aaron Rodgers brought down a
peg or two or whatever, then you're probably gonna enjoy

(01:21:08):
this story. Many camps turned away NFL mini camps and
in Burreal, Ohio with the Cleveland Browns have theirs going
on and Miles Garrett just got through his much ballyhooed
contract kerfuffle with Cleveland and got things done. And over

(01:21:28):
the years Garrett has decorated his front yard when it
got to Halloween with tombstones featuring the names of every
quarterback he has sacked. Now I find that a little much.
I mean, he's not actually committing murder. So but in

(01:21:53):
any event, he was asked about Rogers signing that one
year thirteen million, six hundred and fifty five or six
hundred and fifty thousand dollars deal with the Steelers. He
did pass his physical at the Steelers facility on Saturday morning.

(01:22:14):
So Miles Garrett of course back with Cleveland and was
asked about it. You know, what do you think about
You're now going to have Aaron Rodgers in your division.
It's quote, I think it's a good opportunity to put
him in the graveyard. So he's had all these tombstones

(01:22:36):
of all these guys that he sacked in the past,
and they've only played one time against one. Of course,
you know, Rogers spending the vast majority of his career
with Green Bay and then you know, most recently with
the Jets. But Garrett did go up against green Bay.

(01:23:01):
The Browns played the Packers in Week sixteen of the
twenty twenty one season. Green Bay won the game, and
Rogers was not sacked into that in that game. However,
the next opportunity is coming up. The Steelers will host
the Browns on October twelfth, So keep in mind of that,

(01:23:22):
all right, I want to go back to the college
football thing. I just finished going through what were the
top stories of the past twenty five seasons of college
football from the season two thousand all the way up
through twenty twenty four, twenty five seasons of college football,

(01:23:45):
and the top stories in college football for that Okay, additionally, and.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
That was in the piece done by the Athletic.

Speaker 4 (01:23:58):
ESPN did apiece.

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
Where they had a panel.

Speaker 4 (01:24:07):
ESPN's College Football Writers, and they did a lot of
different things like national titles and bragging rights and all
this other kind of stuff, but they came up with
the top twenty five plays since two thousand one single play,
just one single play in the top twenty five. So

(01:24:31):
again this was voted on by ESPN's college football writers.
Not all of them decided national titles, although some did,
Some were bragging rights, and some are just very very memorable.
So in ascending order, Starting with number twenty five was

(01:24:51):
the Lamar Leap. I don't know if you remember this
Louisville against Syracuse back in twenty sixteen. Lamar Jackson had
a thirteen yard touchdown run and he just hurdled over
Syracuse defender Cordell Hudson and it went viral.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
He went on to win the Heisman. He was way
way up in the air. Number twenty four what they
call the Cam.

Speaker 4 (01:25:11):
Can and that was Cam Newton, a forty nine yard
touchdown run the third quarter against LSU that's been looked
at as the Heisman moment when they just couldn't bring
him down. Number twenty three the Nonsense masterpiece in twenty
fifteen between Ole Miss and Arkansas and Hunter Henry caught

(01:25:38):
a pass behind the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
He was hemmed in. He lobbed it behind him.

Speaker 4 (01:25:43):
It took a bounce Alex Collins cost the ball the
almost forty two room to spare, and he went for
a first down and.

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
Then they went on and got the game winner. Arkansas
didn't win the game.

Speaker 4 (01:25:54):
Number twenty two, the sixty one second miracle. I don't
know if you saw this. I'm sure that if you
were a college football fan and watching whatever college game
day or sports center you would have seen.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Otherwise you might not.

Speaker 4 (01:26:08):
Because it was Division III Trinity University from San Antonio
playing millsaps fifteen laterals or backward.

Speaker 2 (01:26:18):
Passes, if you will.

Speaker 4 (01:26:20):
In the minds of officials, they say there's no such
thing as a lateral on college football. It's actually a
backward pass. Can't be lateral. It either has to be
forward or backward or whatever. But there were fifteen of
those laterals, sixty one yards and sixty one seconds. Longest
play on this list started the Trinity thirty nine, It

(01:26:40):
got to the Millsaps forty two, then were treated to
the Trinity forty five, then moved back to the millsaps
forty one, then were treated to the trinity forty one,
and then it was going right, the left, back and forth,
and after more than forty five seconds the ball hit
the ground a couple of times.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
The laterals grew less accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:26:59):
Riley Curly, who caught the first seventh and eleventh laterals,
picked up a bouncing ball and went thirty four yards
for maybe the least likely touchdown of the two thousands,
So that was crazy. That's one of those ones that worked.
Number twenty one is black forty one flash reverse pass.

(01:27:22):
That's Eric Krautz, the Nebraska quarterback did this against Oklahoma.
Handed off the ball, peeled out to the flat, went
up the field as a receiver. The original ballcar was
Thunder Collins, handed to Mike Stunts on a reverse and
then he hit crowds for a sixty three yard touchdown
pass so clinched the way for Nebraska for Oklahoma that year.
Number twenty Gravedigger. That's the Alabama Auburn Iron Bowl game

(01:27:48):
with the Jylen Milroe touchdown passed Isaiah Bond, remember before
he became a long warn on fourth and goal from
the thirty one, known as Gravedigger number nineteen read wrestles
it away.

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
That's from two thousand and one. That's Ed Reed. That's
how long ago. This was when he was playing college
football at Miami.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
And that's the one that ricocheted off the Miami cornerback
Ed Rumps left his knee. Matt Walters, the defensive tackle,
grabbed it. Rumbleton more yards, Red took the ball from
him and outraced a BC defender eighty yards to the ins.
Number eighteen is I guess, let's see it says nineteen

(01:28:32):
read wrestles it away. Eighteen. Oh, there's a tie for
seventeen eight laterals at Chaos. That was that crazy Duke
Miami game with all the laterals.

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
That went back and forth.

Speaker 4 (01:28:45):
Officials picked up a flag that had been thrown earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:28:49):
The touchdown stood from Miami got the win.

Speaker 4 (01:28:52):
The ACC announced the following day the officials botched the play.
It should not have counted and there were officials suspended
for that. The other one that was tied for seventeen
is the Bluegrass Miracle. That was the LSU Kentucky Hail
Mary in two thousand and two. That's when Will Mushchamp
was the LSU defensive coordinator, but LSU wont at thirty

(01:29:16):
three thirty over Kentucky Deverie Henderson from Marcus Randall on
that hail Mary. Number fifteen or number sixteen is the
jump pass that was Tim Tebow and he did that
as a freshman against LSU, one yard touchdown pass to

(01:29:36):
take Casey. And that one number fifteen Reggie and the
fog from two thousand and four Reggie Bush against Oregon
State at Research Stadium there in Corvallis. And number fourteen
was the Bush push against Notre Dame, which wasn't legal
back then, but it happened when he got pushed into

(01:29:56):
the end zone on that. And Matt Brown always to
the story that the players were watching them. They wanted
USC to win because they wanted to play USC for
the national championship, not Penn State, not somebody else.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
They wanted to that again, and that's that to be
the man, you got to beat the man.

Speaker 4 (01:30:13):
Type mentality that we heard Jolie Mitchell talking about with
Texas Softball Aisle. She was hoping it would have been
against Oklahoma. The Championship Series. Number thirteen was called Orange Crush.
It was Hunter Renfro appened to wear number thirteen for
the winning score to beat Alabama for the national championship.
Number twelve, the famously uttered line, Oh, my gracious Verne

(01:30:40):
Lunquiz saying with the Johnny Manziel Texas A and M
and then found Ryan Swope back at the end zone.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
Oh no they didn't, he said, got it, No they did.

Speaker 4 (01:30:54):
No, my gracious Number eleven, the Geddevian Clowney car wreck
that was in the bowl game against Michigan in the
Outback Bowl when he just absolutely blasted the Vincent Smith,
the running back and it was called like a car wreck.

(01:31:16):
Number ten champions in two thousand and three, that was
the most questionable pass interference call in college football history
on Glenn Sharp in overtime in the Fiesta Bowl. With
that so the past fell incomplete and Terry Porter the

(01:31:37):
field judge through the flag and it was past interference.
Fresh set of downs Ohio State since the game the
second overtime and they went thirty one to twenty four.
Number nine. This is the first of three with Texas involved,
and it will not be a pleasant memory for long
worn fans.

Speaker 2 (01:31:53):
It's simply entitled Superman October six, two thousand and one.
That's the Superman play.

Speaker 4 (01:31:57):
Roy Williams of the top hitting Chris Sims, pops out,
goes right into the arms of Teddy Layman his course
a touchdown to seal the fourteen to three victory. Number
eight was the surrender Cobra that was the block punt
for Michigan State to beat Michigan in twenty fifteen, with
Jaylen watched Jackson scooping it up and in for the touchdown.

(01:32:20):
Number seven the prayer at Jordan Hare in twenty thirteen
Nick Marshall down the middle of the field that was
against Georgia in that and number six again this was
one that will not be a pleasant memory for long
worn fans. Michael Crabtree's catch simply called six because everybody's

(01:32:44):
going for six when he managed to make the catch.

Speaker 2 (01:32:46):
Are around the two long worn defensive.

Speaker 4 (01:32:53):
Backs there on the corner, Earl Thomas being one of those,
Curtis Brown the other one, and the end for the touchdown.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
Number six.

Speaker 4 (01:33:03):
Number five the horror This was called September first, two
thousand and seven. That was applates in State shocking up
set of Michigan on the block field goal in the
final play. Number four to his toss the touchdown passed,
the walk off touchdown passed the Devonte Smith to be
Georgia in twenty eighteen. Number three in Vinci Bowl, that's

(01:33:25):
the Vince Young four thousand and five run.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
I know that play when.

Speaker 4 (01:33:30):
We went in there and scored the game winning touchdown
January four, two thousand and six.

Speaker 2 (01:33:34):
That's number three.

Speaker 4 (01:33:35):
Number two is the Boise State trickeration there on that
statue of liberty play, and then Ian Johnson ended up
proposing to his girlfriend, Chrissy Papadikas. Afterwards they got married
and they've been happily married and children ever since. Statue
of liberty play there to win the Fiesta Bowl. And

(01:33:59):
number one kick six that's the Alabama Auburn Rod Bramlett,
the late Rod Bramlet screaming Auburn's gonna win the football game.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
You know that kind of thing. So anyway, there they are.

Speaker 4 (01:34:10):
You may dispute on the placement of them where they
should be, or maybe even if some other ones should
be involved with that, but that's a pretty good cross section.
I think of the top twenty five college football place
since two thousand, that's about twenty five seasons are in
the books for that all right, We'll have more coming

(01:34:31):
up as we continue here on thirteen Under the Zone.
I mentioned yesterday about Dylan Milantis being named the first
Team Freshman All America that was by the National Collegiate
Baseball Writers Association. The honors continue to come in, not
only four of Valantis, but for another Longhorn, Perfect Game,
which is not one of those ranking services. Obviously, in
addition to what they do in terms of the recruiting

(01:34:52):
side of things with regard to baseball, Perfect Game has
announced it's Freshman All American team and there are two.

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
Longhorns who are on that.

Speaker 4 (01:35:03):
In addition to Dylan Valantis, Adrian Rodriguez, with Rodriguez and
Atlantis making the Longhorns one of three programs with multiple
selections on the twenty two player first team for that
and both had outstanding freshman campaign, so they both were
named Perfect Game First Team All Americans.

Speaker 2 (01:35:25):
They so congratulations to those two guys.

Speaker 4 (01:35:28):
Bizarre story, and this one also from collegiate athletics, because
you don't often hear this kind of thing attributed to
an athletic.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
Director to school.

Speaker 4 (01:35:38):
Although athletic directors have had their share of crossed swords
with athletic departments, with football head coaches, with the media,
so on and so forth, but nothing that common like this.
The athletic director of Florida A and M University, Angelus Suggs,

(01:36:00):
was arrested yesterday on fraud and theft charges for allegedly
using a corporate credit card for personal use, totaling more
than twenty four thousand dollars at her former job. She
turned herself in, booked at the Leon County Jail, later
released on a thirteen thousand, five hundred dollars bond. She

(01:36:22):
was charged with two felonies grand theft and schemed to defraud.
She also was charged with four misdemeanor counts of false
claims on travel vouchers. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement
said Suggs made wire transfers, cash withdrawals, and personal purchases
at casinos during business trips while she was the CEO

(01:36:46):
of the Florida Sports Foundation. The investigation began last November
after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement received a criminal
referral from the Florida Department of Commerces Inspector General, who
audited Sugg's business credit card purchases and corresponding travel reimbursements

(01:37:08):
at the FSF, and that's a direct support organization operating
under the Florida Department of Commerce. The audit revealed that
she falsified travel vouchers by coding the unauthorized charges as meals.
When asked about the unauthorized charges, Suggs claimed some were

(01:37:31):
for business meals and others were accidentally charged to the
business card. She failed to fully repay FSF for her
personal expenditures. The interim president at Florida A and M,
Timothy Beards, in the statement of university, is aware the
allegations connected to work with a former employee. While the
matter is unrelated to her duties as an employee at

(01:37:51):
Florida A and M. We are monitoring the situation or
responding the future as appropriate.

Speaker 2 (01:37:57):
So there was.

Speaker 4 (01:38:01):
She, by the way, in nineteen ninety three, Well, she
hired nineteen ninety three Heisman Trophy and Charlie Wards Schools
men's basketball coach at Florida A and M.

Speaker 2 (01:38:15):
But now she is out on bond after being arrested
on that charge. A couple other.

Speaker 4 (01:38:27):
Notes to point out one, and I've gotten quite a
few questions about this.

Speaker 2 (01:38:36):
Folks had asked me.

Speaker 4 (01:38:39):
And The questions had also come up on the text
line as well about the future, both immediate and long
term future of the UIL State High School football Championship
games and where they might wind up wind up and

(01:39:02):
under what platform they might show up. This coming off
of last season when the games aired on what was
called Fan Duel Sports Network. It's a label that was
put on it by its parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, which
the year before had called it it had been Bally
Sports Southwest, but it was basically operating with the same

(01:39:26):
people the same platform, if you will, to televise the
state championship games. However, those were of course done through
regional sports network programming, the old Fox Sports Southwest, and
of course there was a lot of unhappiness because folks

(01:39:46):
couldn't could not find those games, or the cable or
satellite provider that they were that they were debscribing to
did not carry this. Well, they have gone a different
direction and there is now a new rights holder for

(01:40:09):
these Victory Plus. If you don't know what Victory Plus is,
you should know first and foremost it is a streaming service.
This is the group that has televised the Dallas Stars
and they have reached agreement announced this morning, a five
year agreement with the UIL to become the exclusive streaming

(01:40:30):
home of the UIL football State Championships. Partnership was broken
by Dave Campbell's Texas Sports, which of course puts together
Dave Campbells Texas Football Magazine and the Texan live streaming
events that you see. Grant's Victory Plus exclusive rights to
stream all twelve UIL State Football Championship games and up

(01:40:51):
to twenty additional UIL Texas High School Football playoff matchups
annually beginning this fall.

Speaker 2 (01:40:59):
It's five year.

Speaker 4 (01:40:59):
D Here's the good part for those who are going,
oh great, just when I need another subscription service. Nice
thing about it is Victory Plus is free. It's kind
of like what we say with our iHeart radio app.
It's free, available for no charge across major connected and
TV streaming devices including Android, Google tv iOS, Roku.

Speaker 2 (01:41:22):
Amazon Fire and more.

Speaker 4 (01:41:24):
Now, it does not say whether there will ultimately be
a linear like over the air television partner, but Victory
Plus of course did it with the Dallas Stars. It
would be streaming, but unlike the NFHS platforms, this one
would be a free streaming platform and one final thing
here before we get to the last break, to give

(01:41:47):
you an opportunity if you are interested in being registered
with a pair of tickets to see Coheed and Camber
on September ninth the Moody Center. You download the iHeartRadio app.
Once you have it downloaded, you search AM thirteen under
the zone, tap on the red button with the white
microphone and leave us a message on our talkback feature
with the keyword you heard today. You can leave that

(01:42:09):
message up to thirty seconds. The keyword today I as
in your left or right I E Y E I.
We'll be back on thirteen under the zone