What to Expect in Starkville, World Series Preview, NBA's Gambling Scandal

Craig Way and Jake Herman have you covered as Texas prepares to travel for the fourth consecutive week. Hear highlights from Steve Sarkisian's press conference before the Longhorns take on Mississippi State. Roger Wallace joins the show to discuss the imminent return of CJ Baxter and several key high school football matchups around the area. Plus, Gene Watson previews the World Series, beginning Friday night between the Dodgers and Blue Jays.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
The Thursday afternoon edition of the program, that much closer
to the weekend, that much closer to a cow Bell weekend.
Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to the program on Sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
My name is Craig Way. I do thank you very
much for joining us.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
We're with you each and every weekday afternoon, Monday to
Friday from two to five pm. And we have another
obviously fully loaded show this afternoon coming.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Up in a few minutes.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
We're gonna hear from long Orange Head coach Steve Sarkeshan
start from his final media availability of the week prior
to the game Saturday and starting the Mississippi against Mississippi State.
Sark from that weekly Thursday media zoom, he does, and
we'll hear that. As we pointed out, he has the

(01:14):
three main media availabilities during a given game week. The
Monday Press Conference, which we bring you live here on
the Zone each Monday morning at eleven thirty, with our
coverage beginning at eleven on our Longhorns Monday Presentation.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
From the UT campus. We do that live every Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
On Wednesday, he participates in the SEC teleconference, which is
really done by Zoom, even though they call it the teleconference,
going back to the days when the coaches were on
the telephone, and we brought you some of the sound
from that. We'll get an updated edition of Sark today
because with the SEC Student Athlete Availability Report out, he

(01:56):
can discuss in greater detail where he is with CJ
back next, the Lord's running back listed is probable, and
of course Michael taff out for this week, so we'll
hear that and more coming up from Coach Sark, and
that's coming up in just a few minutes. We have
Inconceivable a little later on this hour, and plenty of
things to talk about, including another fast food junk food

(02:18):
update in the Inconceivable Realm, so that's coming up later
this hour. Three o'clock hour, we'll get a preview of
the World Series. Our good friend Geene Watson, who is
the man in the front office with the Chicago White Sox,
they're a director of player personnel, joins us. He's our
MLB insider, and we'll talk with Gino not only about

(02:43):
previewing the World Series and what he sees out of
both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers were flying to Toronto today and had to
work out, and they had the pre World Series news conference.
Of course it begins tomorrow night, so we'll have Geene
Watson on, and not only will he preview all of that,

(03:04):
we'll ask him about some of the offseason moves that
have already happened, especially in the managerial changes. The Tony
Vtello to San Francisco hire has really taken kind of
the MLB world by surprise. So we had Geno's thoughts
on that coming up. Jay Kerman is the producer of
the program This aftern He, like the rest of us,
was surprised by the Bitello hiring, were you not?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
I was, And I'm equally surprised that most of the Nationals,
well all of the National's managerial staff are still employed.
There's been a huge front office shakeup, and yet the
entire staff is still there from the Mike Rizzo Dave
Martinez era.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
It's interesting now they're all there except for Mike Zoo
and Dave Martinez right right.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
And there's an article from Keith Law today basically explaining
how the National's minor league staff were ruining the Swings
of their prospects. So that's just what I want to
read to start a Thursday morning.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, I think, in all honesty, I think what management,
higher management and ownership of the Nationals are wanting to
do is get the new GM in, get the field manager.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
And then let them go through.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
And at that point, that's probably where pink slips go
out to a lot of the staff that's still employed
right now, saying we're going to bring in whole new
staff for the front office, whole new field staff and
all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
I think National fans are kind of hoping and expecting
for that.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
They are, they are, They're ready for top to bottom change.
But enough about them, Well, a bunch more interesting things
to discuss with the World Series coming up that is
going to be must see TV. And I've got to say, Craig,
I've had a sympathetic rooting for the Dodgers a little
bit as they've taken out some former Natz nemesis here
along the way, But this is where the buck stops.

(04:48):
I've got family in Toronto and this half of the
desk is a Blue Jays desk this week.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
That's quite all right.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
I did listen, there are times when I thought I
was the only Dodger fan in the Greater Austin I've
since found out that's not true. Uh, there are there
are quite a few Dodger fans. But uh, you know
a lot of people are going to root for the
Blue Jays because even though they had a better record,
even though they have home field advantage, they're still perceived
as being the underdog. And by the way, uh, and

(05:14):
Geene sent this to me the other day, I think
it's happened four other times where one team has swept
the league championship series and the other team had to
go to seven games. In every single case, the team
that won it in seven games went on to win
the World Series. So history is not on the Dodger side.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
There's something to that.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, So we'll we'll we'll talk with them about that.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
And then of course we have our contesting that that
goes on. And so there's there's a couple of things
in play where you might be able to win something.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
One of the somethings is tickets to see the Texas
Stars with a four pack of tickets to see the
Stars take on the Iowa Wild on Saturday night, and
so here's your chance to see them this Saturday, the
Stars against the Iowa Wild at the ATB Center in

(06:11):
Cedar Park. And then of course we have the cow
Bell Contest, where the fact that Texas will be playing
in a stadium that has lots of ringing cowbells. You're
gonna hear Sark talk about that coming up in the
comments from him that we decided what is the best

(06:33):
song that employs use of the cowbell? Not named Don't
Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. That one's removed
from consideration simply because of the publicity promotion that it
received through the SNL skit I.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Got a fever and the only prescription is mark cow Bell.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, you remember that one there with Christopher Walking and
that that whole skin is great skin, and it really
drew more attention back to that song into the band
after it, So we removed that from the equation and
we asked you what is the best song that uses
cow bell? Now, to try to help you out, we said,
do not submit these songs because they've already been submitted.

(07:18):
And the way this works is whatever song is selected
as the best song that uses the cow bell, whoever
submitted that title first is going to win. So I
would tell you do not submit Mississippi Queen by Mountain,
do not submit Honky Tonk Woman by the Rolling Stones,

(07:40):
do not submit Good Times Bad Times by led Zeppelin,
and do not submit what's the other one?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
We're all low writer for war.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
Those four were.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
A lot of choices on that, but there were other
ones as well. But if you submit one of those four,
you know you can't possibly win because whoever submitted it
first is going to get it. So we would say
think outside the box, get creative. There's lots of songs
out there that use the cowbell, and so submit that.
The way you win on either of these contests the

(08:12):
Texas Stars tickets or this contest with the Cowboy, and
the price for that is a pair of tickets for
the Longhorns football game at home against Vanderbilt a week
from this Saturday.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
Shaping up to be a good one.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
It is.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
So whether it's tickets for Texas Stars or tickets for
the Vanderbilt game, you do it the same way. You
access us via the iHeartRadio app. You download it if
you haven't already done it. It's real easy, it's free,
no problem. Then you search AM thirteen under the zone
in your little magnifying glass, search window or search bar whatever.

(08:48):
It'll pop straight up. It'll be real easy. Then when
it pops up, we then suggest you use this as
a preset. It'll help circument some of the traffic there
on that getting into the content testing. But you'll see
two buttons. One's a little white button that's like the
shape of a triangle. There's another button that's a red button,

(09:08):
has a little white microphone in it. That's the one
you want. That's our talkback microphone, and you press that
and then leave us a message can be up to
thirty seconds. So, for example, if you want the Texas
Stars tickets, you got to know the the keyword that
you heard on this program, and today's keyword is slap.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
As it shot as in slap the base.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, no, no, no, we got a hockey theme going.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yes, it's it's slap like slap shot.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
So if you want the Texas Stars tickets, if you
want to be in the drawing for that, download the
iHeartRadio app. Search AM thirteen under the zone. You press
the red button with a white microphone and you leave
us a message up to thirty seconds it.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Ain't have to be that long. I have to say.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Is I like to win the Texas Stars tickets. The
keyword is slap. That's all you have to do. If
you want to win the Texas long Worn football tickets.
You what you do is download the iHeartRadio app, search
AM thirteen under the zone, press the red button with
a white microphone and tell us what you think is

(10:13):
the best song that invokes Cawbo. In fact, you can
do them both at the same time if you want.
Now you're only going to be able eligible to win
one or the other. But you can do on the
talk back and say, hey, the Texas Stars tickets.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
A keyword is slap.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
And by the way, Texas women's basketball does play here
tonight on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone as
the Texas Women will be taking on the Lady Shaps
from Lubbock Christian, who were an Elite eight team at

(10:56):
NCAA Division two. The way it works with the exhibition games,
unless you have one designated game, you're allowed to have
one designated game against a Division one school that can
count as an exhibition if it's all for a charitable cause.
This started I think back whatever two thousand and twelve

(11:19):
or no later than that, whenever. It was maybe sixteen
when Hurricane Harvey swept through the area and Texas played
Texas A and M in a benefit exhibition game at
Tudor field House on the Rice campus. Was the heck
of a ball game. It went down the last seconds
of the game. Texas ended up winning that game, but

(11:41):
it went down the last seconds. Otherwise, you're allowed to
play Division two or Division three or INNAI schools in
free exhibition games for the fans, and that's what the
Longhorn women are doing.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Tonight.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
They'll play Love at Christians Night, and then on Monday
it'll be Texas Women's University two teams that went deep
into the NCAA Division two playoffs a year ago, Love
It Christian, which defeated the one seed Texas Women's who
I think went to the National Championship game the prior year.
So it'll be Love a Christian tonight seven o'clock. It'll

(12:16):
be preceded at six o'clock six o'clock by Long Worn
Weekly with Coach Sark. Normally we bring a Sark Show
seven o'clock on Thursday, but because of the game, we'll
bring you the show at six followed by the Texas
women's game at seven o'clock.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
So we'll do that, all right.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Let's move forward to long worn head coach Steve Sarkeesian
and the media zoom that he had this morning. Like
I said, it is the final media opportunity of the
week up until I do the pregame interview with him
about an hour and forty five minutes prior to kick

(12:55):
on Saturday. So this is the last chance. It was
the media zoom today and it starts off with his
opening statement, what.

Speaker 6 (13:00):
A great opportunity for our team. You know this this
group is a very resilient group and and they have
really grown.

Speaker 7 (13:08):
Together as a team.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
And so for us for the four straight week to
get on an airplane, stay in a stay in a
not our team hotel, I think one it's it's brought
us closer than we were at the start of the season,
and that's what's going to be needed. You know, this
is a little bit unprecedented to go on the road

(13:30):
for a four straight week into a hostile environment, and
we're gonna need to stay really well connected as a
football team. And I credit our guys for doing that
because that's what it's gonna take. This is gonna be
a heck of a game. This is a good football team.
The record could be much better than it is. They
lost two heartbreakers. Uh so we know this is gonna
be a big challenge and we're gonna need all seventy

(13:50):
four guys that make this trip to contribute to our success.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
It was a pretty interesting question, uh, as we know
the long Wornes are spending the entire month of October
away from dk R Texas Memorial Stadium. Technically it's three
away games and one home game because Texas was the
designated home team for the Red River Rivalry.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
But we know, of course that game's in Dallas.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
So it's four consecutive games being played away from Austin.
Had the one at Florida, then the Red River Rivalry,
then the trip to Kentucky, and now to be the
trip to Mississippi State. Sark was asked for his memories
of his longest NFL road trip when he was with

(14:35):
the Atlanta Falcons, which was three consecutive weeks.

Speaker 7 (14:38):
I don't remember as much.

Speaker 6 (14:39):
I do recall with Dan Quim as our head coach,
he liked to go two nights in advance and so
that felt really long because we were in hotels, you know,
two nights instead of one. I remember the Jets it
was pouring rain. I remember in New England. Tom Brady
got the better of us that night. Remember playing a

(15:00):
pretty competitive game at Carolina. I can't recall if we
won that one. I feel like we did, but I
can't really recall. But you know, those are the those
are the challenges of you know, every year, every schedule
is different, and we don't we don't get to control that.
All we can do is play the hands you're dealt
and then embrace the hand that you're dealt. And this
was our schedule. And I think our players, to their credit,

(15:22):
have done a tremendous job, and our staff has done
a great job of embracing this challenge. And and I
think it's showing, you know, again, if we can get
out of this thing three and one and that that
that's great, especially when we dropped the first one and
then and then to be able to bounce back. So
but again, it takes connectivity. It takes your ability and

(15:42):
focus throughout the week to get your rest. And we've
all we all fly on planes. That takes this toll
on you. You get back late at night, you got
to go back to work, and so I think getting
your rest is vitally important.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (15:53):
And then leaning into the guy next to you, that
that that you know he he's got your back, and
that you're accountable to him, because, like I said, you
need everybody when you go on the road.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Okay, Uh. CJ. Baxter list is probable.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
And so he was asked how C four is some
call him or CJ or Cedric Baxter has looked in
practice and is he on uh to use the baseball
parlance a pitch counter or in this case, a snap count.

Speaker 6 (16:22):
Yeah, I thought he's good in practice, and I thought
he's gotten better and stronger as the week's gone on.
You know, the soft tissue injuries are, to your point,
are tricky because the player coming off of him, they're
they're trying to figure out can they really push it right?
And so and I and I credit our our medical
staff and and the rehab process because we pushed him

(16:43):
really good over the last week and a half before
this week and to get him his confidence right to
where he felt like he could go.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (16:52):
And I felt like from Monday, Tuesday to Wednesday, to
today his comfort level of pushing that to to where
he felt comfortable that he could really play at a
high level, which was important. You know, we're we're obviously
fortunate to have Trey to combo with with Cedric. And then,
like I said, Christian Clark's really been coming on. And

(17:13):
so again I don't envision C four walking out of
there with twenty something carries. Okay, but but if he could,
but if he can play in this game and be
effective and be an integral part in some critical situations
on regular downs, but especially in some special situations, I
think that would be really beneficial for our team. I
think it would be beneficial for Trey to take some

(17:34):
of the load off of him and keep him fresh
for four quarters. But also from a leadership standpoint, you know,
Cedric is a great leader and the guys really respond
to him. And so the fact that he gets to
put his uniform on this Saturday and play with those
guys I think is going to mean a lot to him.
That he's not going to be a street clothes on
the sidelines.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, that's that's a very hopeful and helpful sign there.
The fact that he'll be able to compete and get
back on it. Starkoff and mentioned and not only the
culture thing, but how his team becomes close knit and
the culture win last Saturday Night at Kentucky is a
byproduct of that, a direct result of that and how
close knit the team is. So he was asked, how

(18:14):
do you get a team to be so close knit?

Speaker 6 (18:16):
I think a lot of that process begins in the summer, right,
we do a lot of that culture Wednesday work throughout
the summer. I think that process builds throughout training camp
and a little that is kind of the family tough
love because there's no opponent, so there's some friction there,
and then when the season begins you start to grow
them back together again. And you know, part of the

(18:37):
things we do exercises every Friday before we go to
our team hotel or before we go on the road,
and we do culture activities and we do things that
should naturally pull them closer together, where they're writing note
cards of appreciation to somebody or inspirational note cards to
another guy on the team. We try to get out
of ourselves and we try to serve others in return,

(18:59):
you get what you're supposed to get, you know, and.

Speaker 7 (19:02):
We really preach.

Speaker 6 (19:02):
You know, through team's success is when the individual accolades,
awards and honors come from. And so the better the
team does, the more recognition our guys get, you know,
we win, there's more sec Players of the week.

Speaker 7 (19:15):
We're doing well as a team.

Speaker 6 (19:16):
Trey Moore is nominated for for the for the Campbell Award,
and so so on and so forth. It's like, pour
into the team, you'll get what you want in the
back end. But but I do think some of the
exercises that we do throughout throughout the weeks as we go,
I think are helpful as well.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
The next thing he was asked about.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Remember, Mississippi State was one of the two games that
Arch Manning started last season when Quinn Yours was out,
and he really looked good in that game. So Sark
was asked, what is the differences he notices with Arch
in that game a year ago with the way Arch
is playing now.

Speaker 6 (19:54):
Well, we had a lot of different faces last year
as opposed to this year. You know, there's this different
This is a different group and just in general, you
know a lot of a lot of like I said,
a lot of new faces. You know, I think I
think for them They've evolved as a defense too.

Speaker 7 (20:09):
You know, from where they were a year ago.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
They're a much deeper defense that they're playing a lot
of players, especially in the front. They've evolved schematically. Uh,
they're they're They're not, you know, playing the same exact style.
They have some principles that remain the same from a
year ago, but they've evolved. They're playing a lot more confidently,
especially in the back end. You know, their ability to
attack the football Mississippi State Uh definitely jumps off the tape,

(20:34):
They create interceptions, they they they attacked the ball, and
so from from our end, I think, you know, one
of the things that set out I thought, I thought,
you know, the protection for Arch was really what the
guys did a great job at your ago. We ran
the ball effectively, and we're able to utilize the passing
game off of those two things. But I also think
Arch made a couple of critical plays. I mean, there's
a throw we're an empty formation, they zero blitz them

(20:56):
and and he throws an absolute strike to DeAndre Moore,
And so you can into some of those connections from
last year where he hits DeAndre on that he is
DeAndre on another touchdown earlier in the game or later
in the game. So there's some things to lean into.
There's some looks that we can we can hold on
too from a year ago. But then there's some newness, right,
we have new faces, we have new people up front,

(21:17):
and there's some newness to some of the schemes and
the personnel that they have on defense, especially on the front.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
All right.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Next up for Sark, he was asked about the points
of emphasis for his offensive line and what kind of
impact CJ. Baxter's were turning the lineup could have in
terms of past protection see four.

Speaker 6 (21:38):
Obviously he's got he's a very smart player, he's very cerebral,
but he's also very calming. I think he's actually calming
for Trey Wisner as well. Just he sees the game,
he understands the protections, he can talk through things, and
so whether it's he or Trey, I think there is
a there's a calming effect that he provides, you know.

Speaker 7 (21:59):
I think for the.

Speaker 6 (22:00):
Offensive line is is trust you know, you know, and
not writing the emotional you know, human nature is I
had one good play, Okay, I'm gonna have another good play,
another good play, another good play. Football doesn't always work
like that. You know, we're gonna make some mistakes. We'd
all love to play a perfect game. You're gonna make
a mistake, Well, that doesn't mean you have to make
another mistake. And so the ability to move on to

(22:22):
the next play, be clear minded, focus on the task
at hand, I think is something for the offensive line.
But I think two, we got to get movement at
the line of scrimmage in the run game. You know,
I think those two things go hand in hand for us.
In particular, we got to have the ability to run
the ball. We got to move people at the line
of scrimmage. We've got to create running lanes that allows
us to utilize some of the play action pass because

(22:44):
now you know, the d linemen aren't pinning their ears back,
the linebackers aren't blitzing quite as hard because they know
they got to fit their runs.

Speaker 7 (22:51):
And then we need to make people pay when they
do do that.

Speaker 6 (22:53):
You know, when we're getting some of these safety blitzes
and things, we got to block them up and then
we need to make them pay with some explosive plays
down the field.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Okay, all right, so there are some comments from Sark.
We'll hear more from head coach Steve Sarkisian coming up
next hour. Also want to let you know, like I said,
next hour, Geene Watson joins us from the Chicago White
Sox front office. A preview of the World Series and
the off off the field goings on in baseball.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
That's next hour, four o'clock hour.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
We'll visit with Roger Wallace, my broadcast partner in long
War and football, talk a little bit about the Texas game,
and also it's a very big weekend of high school football.
It's always going to be like that, especially down the
stretch of the regular season, unless you're the Bass Drop
Bears and you're just blowing everybody out of the water
like they seemingly continue to do.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Play by play voice Jake Herman.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yes, six straight quarters without allowing a point seventy one
to nothing victory last week, and they roll into Elgin
tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
All right, your time is coming, my friend.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
With matchups with Flugerville and especially Liberty Hill the final
two weeks of the regular season.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
I'm pumped up. I'm pumped up for those.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, those will be fun.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
But anyway, there's some big high school football games this weekend.
As we know, Lake Travis, Westlake Battle of the Lakes.
Obviously that's tomorrow night, and there's a couple of crucial
ones tonight. One is right in town in Austin. One
is down in Hayes County. So Roger Wallas will joined

(24:23):
us in the three o'clock hour and will excuse me,
the four o'clock hour, and we'll hear from Brian Schottenheimer,
the Cowboys head coach.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
So that's coming up on the four o'clock hour.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
Next hour, more from Sark and then obviously our conversation
with Gene Watson.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
Hour number two of.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
The program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred is
So I'm glad to have you with us on a
Thursday afternoon. Craig Way my name, Glad to have you
with us, joined by the producer Jay Carmer. With you
up till five o'clock.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Try to have a little fun on this program. We've
been doing that.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
With this cow Bell contest and all that sort of stuff.
Coming up with a few minutes, we'll talk some baseball.
Geene Watson, who of course is in the front office
of the Chicago White Sox, does a tremendous job in
terms of his evaluation of things. So toward that end,

(25:24):
we wanted to get his thoughts on the upcoming World
Series and the off season moves for Major League Baseball,
So that's coming up here in just a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
We'll do that.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Also, we'll have some more from Long Wart's head coach
Steve Sarkisian, but I want to play one bite from
him right now, because this rolls back to the item
that we had in inconceivable about this gambling probe that

(26:00):
involves it's more than just the NBA, but it does
involve some you know, other key had some key people
in the NBA like Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billips and
Miami Heat guard Terry Rose here, both of whom were
arrested today as part of this operation.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
When we say thirty.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
Four rest made in this deal and counting.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, and counting right now on this FBI.

Speaker 4 (26:24):
Probe, it's really starting to snowball.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
So it's gonna be interesting to see how widespread this becomes.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Meanwhile, not thirty four athletes, thirty one defenders.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, I just said thirty four arrests. Yeah, it was
not not athletes, but Longhorn's head coach Steve Sarkeisham was
asked about this. I wanted to I wanted to play
this one for you, and we'll get to some more
sark sound a little later on this hour, but he
was asked if he had any thoughts on in light

(26:58):
of this NBA scandal the NCAA recently legalizing gambling on
pro sports for student athletes. He was asked for his
thoughts on this in light of the NBA scan we
sark to say pretty strong words.

Speaker 6 (27:13):
I didn't see all from the NBA perspective, so that's
a little bit difficult for me to answer.

Speaker 7 (27:18):
I can touch on our stuff.

Speaker 6 (27:20):
I totally disagree with the NCAA on this, and I've
I was very vocal about it. You know, here we
are in an era where we have revenue sharing, nil
publicity rights, and so the players now have money. So
now let's give them the freedom to take that money
and gamble it away. That makes no sense to me
when we're when we're in a space of educating young people,

(27:42):
and part of educating young people is what to do
with their money. And to say, okay, now you can
gamble on pro sports. Like to me, that does not
make any sense, like from a logical standpoint. And again,
this isn't something that I've been shy about. I've been
I've been very supportive of the other.

Speaker 7 (28:01):
Side of it.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
It was a lot easier before for us when they
couldn't gamble at all, because that was an easy way
for us to educate them, and that was easy way
for us to penalize them and do the things that
we need to do.

Speaker 7 (28:11):
Now we do have to put guardrails up.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
Now, we do have to manage this from a from
a simple standpoint of well, I'm allowed to, so how
can you tell me I can't? And so now it's
more about education, uh, even more education than we were
doing before. But I'm disappointed, uh in this ruling that
this is what we decided to do with with our
young people when they could be doing something really substantial

(28:38):
in their life for their for their own life and
for their families' lives.

Speaker 8 (28:41):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (28:42):
And we're giving some not all of them are gonna gamble, Okay,
so let's be clear about that. They're not all going
to gamble, but some are.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (28:48):
And is that what we were trying to accomplish with this?
And I get it, it was probably hard to hard
to police before. I think they just just made it
even harder for all of us to police now that well,
he's on DraftKings.

Speaker 7 (28:59):
Well what was he gambling on?

Speaker 6 (29:00):
Well if they just can't be on DraftKings at all,
then we don't have to worry about it. But now
it's now we have to dig deeper to figure out
what is somebody gambling on?

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, and adding to it, here's here's something else him.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Dave mc menaman, who covers the NBA for ESPN, wrote
that former eleven year NBA player Damon Jones was arrested
today as well. He was one of the arrest His
arrest comes amid charges that he disclosed privileged injury information
about a quote unquote prominent basketball player to facilitate a

(29:33):
legal sports betting. You know who the prominent player was,
Lebron James.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
Oh, this is in twenty twenty four. I haven't read
that far yet.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Twenty twenty two.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
Oh wow, this goes way back.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
It's the twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three season.
Lebron knows nothing about this. He has not been accused
of anything that there. But Jones wasn't an unofficial, unpaid
part of former Lakers coach Darvin Ham's staff. He's not
with the team anymore, and you know which is under

(30:10):
JJ Reddick, the current team. Ham invited Jones to be
a part of team activities after Jones spent the summer
of twenty two after Lebron spent the summer of twenty
two with Jones present for many of his offseason workouts.
So Lebron apparently was unaware the Jones, his former teammate

(30:31):
and assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, was involved in
gambling activity when Jones spent time around Lebron and the
Lakers during the twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three season.
According to the source, this federal indictment alleges that before
a Lakers game against the Milwaukee Bucks on February ninth,
twenty twenty three, Damon Jones texted a co conspirator to

(30:55):
quote get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight end quote
because Ron was going to be out. So and remember
Lebron had passed Kareem as the all time League's Corps
two nights prior on February seventh, and he would go
on to miss three straight games because the soreness that
has left ankle. Jones allegedly added via text, bad enough,

(31:17):
so D Jones can eat two now? Oh gosh yeah,
m Milwaukee beat the Lakers by nine one fifteen six. Additionally,
this indictment alleges that the following season, Jones provided non
public information to a co conspirator in connection to a
Lakers game against the Oklahoma City thunder Lakers. With no

(31:40):
comment on this when they were reached, but apparently, yeah,
the former player on this, Damon Jones, arrested as well.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
So and then you got somebody that matches Chauncey billups
in the description saying, Hey, the Trailblazers are going to
sit several of their best play at a particular game
that was against the Bulls in twenty twenty three, turned
out four starters, sack load management quote unquote, and what
was really seen as a tanking season or a tanking

(32:09):
game at least for the Blazers. They lose by twenty eight,
and this activity ends up getting flagged too.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Yep, it's gonna be interesting to follow this to see
where this continues. All right, Up next, we shift to
baseball and we'll preview the World Series with Gene Watson
from the Chicago White Soux front office, our MLB insider.
When we continue on this Thursday afternoon on sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone in the iHeartRadio Am.

Speaker 7 (32:38):
Care cooms for three to two.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the voice
of the Longhorns, Craig Weck.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
Follow Craig on social media, Horn Boys.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Now, folks who watched the FS one telecast the other
night of Game seven of the Blue Jays and Mariners
heard Joe Davis's call.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
That was Dan Schilman, the great Dan Schilman. He does
a lot on ESPN, but that.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Was on what's it called on sports Net?

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Sports Net, which is, you know, Toronto's version of Canada's
version there of ESPN, and so their call of that
final strike in the ALCS, so it means it's onto
the World Series. Where our good friend, our MLB insider, uh,
the man from the Chicago White Sox front office, Gene Watson,

(33:50):
joins us. Now before we get to previewing the World
Series itself, how exciting was that was?

Speaker 2 (33:57):
That series?

Speaker 1 (33:58):
That ALCS that went the full ride on seven when
juxtaposed against what we talked about on Monday, that incredible
one man show that showe Aotani put on. But this
all the pathos, all the drama there of a seven
game series, Gino.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Well, it was just an amazing and it's one of
those series and you hear it all the time. You
hate to see anybody lose. And I was texting with
Mariners president Jerry Depoto at two o'clock in the morning
after it happened, and it's just it's such a fine
line between winning and losing in October, and you know,
I believe a lot of that fine lines at the
trade deadline, and Toronto did an unbelievable job of trading

(34:38):
for Shane Bieber at the eleventh hour coming back from injury.
Was still on the sixty day I l and had
some rehab remaining, and he ends up pitching Game seven
and winning it for him and you know, keeping them
in that game, and it just talks about it speaks
to the little margins that take place throughout a season

(34:58):
that ended up coming up big and October and they
gave up a second round pick for him and it
ended up playing big for them. But you know, I
feel so bad. I had Seattle, really, you know, starting
in July, you could start to see that they were
going to be the team, and Toronto just did a
tremendous job of getting the big hits and keeping themselves
in the game with good pitching.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Okay, I'll come back to the World Series and we'll
get a preview and break it down here in just
a few moments. But I want to go to the
managerial hirings right now. Let me start with the Angels.
They give Kurt Suzuki a one year deal. On that
what do you make of the Angels decision there was Suzuki.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
I'm just so elated, not only for perryman Assian, but
Kurt Suzuki, one of the all time great human beings,
first and foremost, just a tremendous baseball mind. You know,
the day he stepped out of the uniform, he was
ready to manage in the big leagues. He's just a
man of high character and I'm super excited. I've texted

(35:57):
with him a number of times since the hiring was made,
and that's one of those hires that everybody in the
game celebrates because he's such a great human being. And
I told Perry this this morning. This is a pivotal
turn for your organization because he's got somebody that loves
working with, that is eager for the job, ready for

(36:18):
the job, and he's going to hire a tremendous staff
around him. And I truly believe that this is going
to be something that turns the Angels organization around. In
twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
You do realize Gino that long Corn fans are happy
for him in his professional career, but they're still having
PTSD from the two thousand and four National Championship Series
at the College World Series in Omaha, when Suzuki led
Cal State Fullerton to a two game sweep of Texas
and the National had a monster cwas that year, as
well as Ricky Romero and Jason Windsor, and what those

(36:49):
two guys did on the mound, it was absolutely amazing.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
And Sazuki he's a.

Speaker 5 (36:53):
Money player, man. He loved the big moments. And what's
really going to make him great is he was such
a grinder and a self made player that the county piece,
the accountability piece with the players, is going to be
big for where they are as an organization. And I
just couldn't be happier for Kurt and for Perrymanascia.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Okay, now let's go to the real headline, grabber, Tony Vaytello.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
You've known Tony Vitello.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
I followed his career when he was an assistant at TCU,
when he was an assistant at Missouri, and then obviously
at Arkansas, and then doing landmark work at Tennessee, which
had not had much success on the college baseball front,
get them to the College World Series three consecutive years,
and then of course winning the national Championship in twenty

(37:38):
twenty four. But I have to say it flat out
has shocked what I've read a lot of the baseball
world that the Giants wanted to hire him since he
becomes the first ever college head coach to go to
the major leagues without a day of major league service time.

(38:00):
If he will not even talking about a player, I'm
just saying as a coach, and so I know that
surprised a lot of people. What what do you know
about how this thing kind of germinated and how they
landed on Vytello to be the guy.

Speaker 5 (38:15):
I'm going to speak to the personal side first, Craig.
Tony Bytello called me in September of twenty ten, to
recruit my son to TCU, And as you know, at
the time, my wife was going through a really difficult
time been heavily diagnosed with cancer. It was a really
dark time in our family's lives. And when Tony Bytello

(38:36):
called me, we spent thirty minutes talking about my wife
before we even got to baseball. And he is just
an incredible human being. First of all, he takes so
much care, takes so much care in detail and organization.
And I think about Ron Polk a lot like Ron
Polk prided himself on communication with his ex players, with

(38:59):
his alumni, communication with friends that are close to him,
and Tony Bytello is no different. He's an unbelievable communicator,
an incredible person of integrity. And you know another story,
you know, my son gets out of pro ball, he
sends an email to every college coach in the country.
One college coach responded, it was Tony by Tello. So

(39:20):
that just speaks to who he is as a person.
The baseball side, you know, I applaud Buster Posey who
you know, you could say, you know, Hall of Fame career,
multiple World championships, played for Bruce Bochie. It would have
been easy for him to go to the traditional route.
But I applaud him and Zach Manascion for being a

(39:42):
little bit forward thinking and understanding that, hey, look we
need a leader of men first, detail an organization second,
and somebody that can bring a group together. And so
that's what they believe in him. Is it certainly outside
the box one hundred percent, But when you talk, when
you go around the game and you talk of people
that know Tony, they certainly all believe that he's capable

(40:04):
of it. You know, I talked to Zach about this
three weeks ago. I said, you know, the most important
thing is going to be that you surround him with
a very good staff, because you know, facing Yamamoto on
a Tuesday night's a little different than facing Middle Tennessee State.
And so those are the things the grind of one
hundred and sixty two games, those are the things that
are that are going to have to He's gonna have

(40:25):
to get up to speed with. But they certainly believe
in him. He's certainly qualified for and I would say
that this won't be the last I think that you're
going to start. You know, Tim Corbin is certainly qualified
to be a major league manager. John Savage at UCLA
tremendously qualified to be a major league manager, and there
are others around the country. So I don't think this

(40:45):
is going to be the last of it.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
I think this is just the very beginning well played
with the yato versus Middle Tennessee. Let me ask you
one thing, because this is another thing that seems to
pop up, and you can tell me if you've heard this.
The number one concern for a lot of folks about
Vitello stepping into this major leaguerole is how he could

(41:09):
relate to, like, say, established major league veterans. I'll throw
Raphael Devers out there for example. Uh, that kind of thing,
because as we know about Vitello, his his fuse runs hot,
and but he's very he's very inspirational to his guys.
His players absolutely love him.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
Uh but uh.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
Ryan McGee wrote a great piece on him for ESPN
dot com where it was entitled basically I Am not
for everyone was.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
The way he put it.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
So how do you see that whole dynamic play out
with how he is able to be relatable to you know,
veterans with years of service time and you know, in
addition to the youngsters coming up.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
I think it's going to come down to one thing.
He's a great leader. I think it's going to come
down to earning players trusts. There's certainly going to be
an element of, you know, you know, earning the trust
of the players when you haven't been there and done that.
But I think as you look over time, you've seen,
you know. I think the first example of it was
when you started to see major league pitching coaches come

(42:15):
out of the college ranks and they're like, Oh, there's
no way Garrett Cole is going to listen to this guy,
or there's no way Max Scherzer is going to listen
to the guy.

Speaker 7 (42:23):
And they did.

Speaker 5 (42:24):
As long as you work hard at respecting the player
and earning the trust of the player and and hold
being able to hold them accountable, I don't I don't
care if it's college baseball, major League baseball, or you know,
a corporate entity. Like if you're a leader, you're a leader,
if you're a manager or a manager, and great leaders
know how to interact with people, uh and give them respect,

(42:46):
and give them trust and and hold them accountable when
they need to be held accountable. And I think that
that Tony Tony certainly does a great job of that,
but there will be a little bit of, you know,
earning trust early on. But again, you surround him with
the right people around him and his staff, and you
put your head down and you go to work, and
it's all going to work itself out.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
By the way, A producer, Jay Kerrman, lifetime Nationals fan
growing up in the DC here is starting to get
a little lancey wondering what's going on with the Nationals,
both with filling the Mike Rizzo role, the GM role,
as well as the Deve Martinez manager role, and it's
been kind of quiet over there inside the Beltway.

Speaker 8 (43:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (43:24):
John Tamboni, who did a tremendous job in boston's going
to take over the baseball operations. You know, he's a
part of drafting Roman Anthony and Marcelo Meyer and so
many of those great draft picks they've had the last
few years, and certainly involved internationally, and he's going to
take over the baseball operations. They've made a number of

(43:44):
changes already in their front office and their player development scouting,
so you know, in that division, it's going to take
a little bit of time, but John certainly has the
track record of evaluing players, and he'll do well.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Toalking baseball with Team Watson here on thirteen under the
all right, let's shift to the World starting pictures have
been announced. It'll be Trey Savage going for the Blue
Jays and the Dodgers. You know, they've had Blake Snell
rested and ready to go. Snell will go game one,
Yammoto game two. Dave Roberts has not decided upon that.

(44:16):
I read another piece you know about how these teams
are similarly constructed through the farm system and adding key
pieces when they've had to. The one difference, one difference
that I do see is what you spoke to earlier.
The Jays were very active at the trade deadline. The
Dodgers were not. They believed once their guys got healthy,

(44:38):
they would be the guys that we need, and that's
been able to bear out the truth as well as
what the Jay's route's going. So it's two different ways
to go about it, and both have worked.

Speaker 5 (44:48):
They really have. And what's most exciting about this World
Series is it is truly going to be a global event.
You've got thirteen international players from eight countries, You've go
two countries playing and you know, you're gonna have upwards
of fifteen million people in Canada watching. You're gonna have

(45:08):
fifteen million people in Japan watching. And I think from
a growth standpoint, growth of the game standpoint, Major League
Baseball couldn't have asked for a better matchup because this
is truly gonna be a global event. We spoke about
Trey Yesovich last week, and you know, he's gonna be
the second youngest starter to ever make a start. I

(45:31):
was shocked at this. I thought Josh Beckett was younger.
But he's gonna be the second youngest starter to make
a start in the Major League. Ralph Bronca back in
nineteen forty seven is still the youngest. Bronco of course,
gave up the Bobby Thompson home run in the fifty
one World Series and is the father in law of
Bobby Valentine. But this, to me, you've got the second

(45:52):
most productive offense in the game of baseball versus the
fourth most productive offense in the game of baseball. But this,
to me still comes down to pitching. And anytime you
can roll you know, Yamamoto snell Otani that group out
for two starts, I mean it's gonna be really difficult,

(46:13):
uh for Toronto to try to match up. You know,
expecting Yesovich to win two games and Bassett to win
two games, uh, and or Gosman to win two games
is really gonna be a tough tast It's gonna be
a lot of split fingers. A lot of these pitchers, Uh,
their their repertoire is built around the split fingers. So

(46:34):
you know, look for that picture to make a mistake
early in the split finger and it can maybe swing
a game. Uh. But but when you look at these rosters, uh,
certain things are going to have to go, uh, extremely
perfect for Toronto to win this series. But I think
it's gonna be a great series and global and great
for the game of baseball.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
In addition to the ones you mentioned snell Yamamoto, Otani,
I kind of look at Tyler Glass now as being
an X factor on this deal if he's able to go,
because I think everybody's expecting the other three to be
able to go five to six innings, maybe even longer exactly.

Speaker 5 (47:10):
And and and this this thing, I talk about this
all the time in October baseball. This doesn't even get
into you know, if you get into a game six,
or you get into a game seven, how you can
use you know, Yamamoto and Snell out of the pin
and leverage. And when you look at that game, you know,
I just think that Seattle never really covered from the

(47:32):
work recovered from the workload of the fifteen inning game
versus Detroit. And when you look at that game, the
game seven, in some ways, the difference of the game
was they had their third best reliever on the mound,
Their best reliever was in the bullpen, and truly Louis
Castile was sitting out there as a starter that could
come in and and and hold it down to get

(47:53):
to Munnos and Toronto went right to Bassett. And so
that in some ways was the difference of the game.
And one pitch and you know, the industry talks so
much about third time through the order for starting pitchers,
but we never talk about, you know, three appearances in
a row for a reliever with two pitches, and how
that looked looks to hitters.

Speaker 8 (48:13):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (48:14):
And so it was certainly the swing in Game seven.
But again going back to this series, I just think
that the Dodgers pitching is just it's too dominant and
and I mean Toronto's really going to have to jump
these starters and get leads early and put up crooked
numbers to have any kind of chance in it.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Gino, I would have told you two weeks ago, obviously
that the obvious and apparent underbelly for the Dodgers would
be the bullpen and maybe the bridge at the end
is but Roki Sasaki, of course, has now emerged as
the closer. If he's on task, is is it going
to be extremely difficult then to be able to beat
this pitching stad.

Speaker 5 (48:53):
One hundred percent? And and I mean, my gosh, Roki
Sasaki was in Oklahoma City and just trying to find
his way, and everybody viewed him as this high ceiling
starting when he came over and he's kind of found
his niche. But when But that's the thing, and you know,
I'm gonna say this. Everybody wants to talk about the
Dodgers and the money, and the money is great, But

(49:15):
the Dodgers are incredible in scouting. They're incredible in the draft.
They do a tremendous job of beating teams in the draft.
They're they're unbelievable in international. You go in and see
a minor league team play in September and their six
year free agents are still working extremely hard. So, I
mean a lot of teams over history have had a

(49:35):
lot of money. Uh but but the but the way
they operate and the way they do things, you have
to tip your cap to it. And you know, they
they take a lot of chrism criticism for the money
they spend, and they don't they don't, they don't apologize
for it. But they do a lot of grip things
the right way. And and there's certainly the model for
a lot of teams that maybe don't have the salary

(49:58):
structure that they have, but the they operated certainly a
model for the way a lot of teams should be
operating today.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Right. You have been largely spot on throughout these playoffs,
largely largely. You did ride with the Mariners, but you
were having your misgivings going into Game seven.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
Yeah, I didn't feel good about it that I've been there,
you know, Game five and twenty fifteen. The Rogers Center,
the only way I can put it is it's an
international melting pot of fans that are extremely passionate, extremely loud,

(50:34):
but they don't know a lot about the game of baseball.
The baseball fans there are great, but when you get
to this stage, it's a little bit of different crowd,
and when we were there, it felt more like an
international soccer game crowd than a baseball crowd. But it
is chaos for nine innings and so much fun. So
I just love that that, you know, after thirty two years,

(50:56):
they're getting to go back and this is just going
to be great for baseball. I hope it goes seven games.
I don't think it does. I think the Dodgers win
it in maybe five, probably six, But I just I
don't really see a pathway that gets Toronto to four
wins when you look at the Dodgers pitching.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
He's Geene Watson, and he's our MLB insider. So you
like the Dodgers in five and a half games, we'll
take it five? Yeah, okay, all right?

Speaker 2 (51:23):
That means they get a split in Toronto and win
the three at all. Maybe, I don't know. We'll see.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Hey. I appreciate it as always, Gina. We'll check back
in with you, all right, Craig, take care, Thanks so much.

Speaker 8 (51:34):
You bet.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
That's Gean Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office.

Speaker 5 (51:37):
There.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
He likes the Dodgers in five. We'll see all right
up next. More from Long Horne's head coach Steve Sarkisian
on thirteen under his own how you saw Ringo do this?

Speaker 2 (51:52):
What was it twelve days ago?

Speaker 8 (51:53):
No?

Speaker 2 (51:54):
I guess it would have been nineteen days ago, three
weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
I guess it was out there to see Ringo at
age eighty still able to crank it out there.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Our thanks again to Gene Watson joining us. By the way.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
We played, there was this submission for our cow bell contest,
for the song Little Sister by Who's again Queens of the.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Queens of the Right.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
And when you listen to the song you can understand
what the person who was submitting this was. So listen
to the first part of this. Okay, so we're trying
to get the best use of cow bell of the contest.
There's only one problem. That's not a cow bell. Oh

(52:45):
a scandal. It's not a scandal, but it's not a
cow bell. So what we did was we went to
our resonant drummer antone, our intern, and and I asked him,
I said, hey, listen, and he looked at it on
the video too and said, that's not a that's it's

(53:08):
not a cow bell. What it's called is a LP
jam block. It's a Latin percussion instrument, but it's not
a cow bell. So unfortunately that falls out of consideration there.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
But you still have time. If you want to submit something.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Else, you will give it. We'll give them a mulligan.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
All right, So let's hear more from logrn's head coach
Steve Sarkis. And we heard sark talking about that the
deal about the NCAA allowing players to bet on pro sports,
and then of course he heard this gambling probe coming
down on the NBA on all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
So back to the football stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
And by the way, speaking of cow bells, he was asked,
how annoying is that if you hear it in the stands?
And sark has has an assistant coach for Alabama the
one time he went to start bill and how much
did he use them in.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
For his team to hear?

Speaker 6 (54:02):
First of all, I think it's an awesome atmosphere, you know,
and every you know in the SEC. I think that's
one of the coolest things about this league is you
go on the road and everybody's got their own Niche right.
Everybody's got their their own thing that is unique to
their home game environment. And for Mississippi State to have
the cowbells, I think that that is a really cool

(54:23):
thing for college football and that our guys get to experience.

Speaker 7 (54:25):
Quite frankly, hopefully we can, you.

Speaker 6 (54:28):
Know, have a little less cow bell ringing going on Saturday,
but but we do pipe it in. We've got cow
bells ringing at practice and again, you you've got to
It tasks you to stay focused. To me, I think
that's more so than it's just the overbearing noise. It's
the focus of hearing those bells ringing. So you know,

(54:49):
we think we've addressed it. We've done a good job
this week of handling it from a pre snap perspective.
But stam focused is is one of the key ingredients
to this.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
What has he emerged over the past couple of weeks
as Ryan Niblett's had some major impact on the last
two Longhorn victories, the win of Oklahoma the win over
Kentucky's been his punk return. This is a guy who
went through his own personal adversity, considered leaving the program,
and then stayed around. And Sark was asked does he
have a specific stock message that he uses with young

(55:21):
players who have a lot of high expectations coming into
the program in dealing with adversity.

Speaker 6 (55:27):
I think the first thing we try to do is
a coach him really good in practice, right, and whether
that's in springball, training, camp, in season. You know, we
never stopped coaching, we never stopped trying to develop, and
nobody's a finished product, and so but also letting them
see living examples of other players who maybe had the

(55:50):
growing pains that were in the same stage that they
were maybe a year ago or two years ago.

Speaker 7 (55:55):
All right, well here I am now.

Speaker 6 (55:57):
But I think part of it is, you know, a
lot of the sign our high level players, but they
signed here as high level players because they also knew
we've been producing high level players and we've been winning
at a high level, and it's something Hey, I want
to go there. I want to compete for championships. I
want to know whether it's SEC or national championships. But

(56:18):
I also want an opportunity maybe fulfill my dreams of
playing in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (56:23):
I'm not a finished product. I've got work to do.

Speaker 6 (56:26):
Understandably, there's going to be frustrations along the way of
whether it's playing time, whether it's learning a system or
a certain player a scheme. But yet, man, that guy
who's maybe two years ahead of me, he's got it
figured out.

Speaker 7 (56:39):
What is he doing? How do I be more like him?

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Right?

Speaker 6 (56:42):
Am I one of the first guys in the building?
Or am I coming in right before the team meeting's
about to start? Am I staying late after practice to
work on something? Or am I running out of there
because I got somewhere to go?

Speaker 5 (56:52):
Right?

Speaker 6 (56:53):
Am I coming in extra meeting with my position coach?
Or am I never round upstairs in our building? But wait,
that guy who's an All American and an All Conference player,
that's what he does. So maybe we need to be
more like him. And so we try to use living
examples of guys on our team. But we never stopped developing,
We never stopped pushing, We never stopped coaching. It doesn't
matter if a guy is a frontline starter or a

(57:13):
developmental player, a scout team player. We're coaching these guys constantly.
And the beauty of it for us is we're seeing
a lot of growth and a lot of players, and
maybe we are going to reap the benefits of that
right now, but surely down the road we will because
a lot of our guys are improving.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Which brings us to the next thing. Much has been
made and said, obviously a lot about how Sark has
scripted out the first fifteen twenty plays whatever, and since
the long runs of late have not had much success
early in ball games in either of their two victories
of late, the last two Oklahoma and then also last

(57:54):
week against Kentucky. So he was asked, why did he
think it is that some of these opening up offensive
script plays are not working?

Speaker 6 (58:02):
You know, remember when you guys used to go to
your grandma's house at Christmas, Okay, and the Christmas tree
would light up. You plug it in, Graham would say,
plug it in, and all it would look beautiful, and
there'd be that one light that was blinking, the one
light that was out, and you're like, you can't get
your eyes off that one blinking light.

Speaker 7 (58:19):
I feel like that's been the issue.

Speaker 6 (58:20):
And then you replace the bulb and you fix it,
and then the next light starts blinking. I wish I
could say it's one thing or one group or one player,
which isn't the case. I feel like it's kind of
we're just we just haven't gotten all eleven to execute
it all exactly the way we want it. And part
of those blinking lights, I'll say, is me too, Like

(58:42):
I'm okay with that. I'm all right with that, But
I just want to plug in this Christmas tree Saturday
at three fifteen and all the lights come on and
none of them are blinking. And that's what it's gonna take.
It's gonna take execution from all eleven. It's gonna take
us as coaches making sure that we're calling things at
the timely fashion to put those guys in the best
position to be successful.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
One more from Sark asked about Blake Shaping the one
time Baylor Bear, now the quarterback of Mississippi State, and
what is he seen with his progress?

Speaker 7 (59:10):
Very efficient?

Speaker 6 (59:10):
You know, I think he's got a real comfort level
in in Coach Levy's offense. And you know that they've
they've grown into it where they've got two speed guys
on the perimeter. Okay with with with uh, you know
Brennan Thompson and Evans Uh. They got physical runners, uh,
And so it's a matchup driven offense. He operates the
temple really well, they're gonna go fast. You know, he

(59:32):
doesn't get out of sorts. He's very composed, uh, and
he finds completions and then he's got enough usage of
his legs to extend plays and to extend drives using
his legs.

Speaker 7 (59:41):
And so I just think he's a good fit.

Speaker 6 (59:44):
He's playing good football for them, he's operating at a
high level, and and that they're challenge offensively a because
of the splits and the temple that they operate in.

Speaker 7 (59:54):
But be his ability to distribute the ball.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
All right, there it is with long orange Head coach
Deve the way. It was our friend in Kylie Roger
Wallace who asked that question about Blake shape.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
And Roger will join us coming up in the four o'clock.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Hour a look at Texas Mississippi State in a preview
of the big high school football action as well, we'll
be back to wrap up hour number two on thirteen
Under the Zone, third and final hour of the program
here on sports Radio AM thirteen Under the Zone Craig
Way alongside the producer Jay Carmon.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Glad to have you with us.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Coming up in a few minutes, Roger Wallace, Sports Director
k X An and my broadcast partner, A long Corn
Football will join us. We'll look at the weekend ahead
for Texas. We will also look at the weekend of
high school football. They have a huge matchup tonight on KBVO,
a really outstanding five A Division one matchup featuring Anderson

(01:00:48):
and Hayes, so we'll get his thoughts on that. I
did want to get to a couple of things we didn't.
We didn't do too much on the NBA at the
start of the program. So how much of it did
you get to watch last night? Did you get to
see much NBA last night?

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
No, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
I didn't watch too much basketball last night. Okay, Well
I saw that expos documentary.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Oh did you see it? I have not seen it yet,
so I have to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
I know my cardball hards was all about it, so
since he was in the expots organization, so I will
take a look at that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
But I wanted to watch the debut of Cooper Flag and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
So he played and I think he put it best
when they asked him how he assessed his performance. Not great,
not great. Obviously didn't play incredibly well. But we've got
to move past and turn our focus and start looking
toward Friday, which would be tomorrow when they play your

(01:01:48):
Jay Carman Washington Wizards.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
By the way, how much are you into the Wizards?

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
I mean, I know you're on board with the Commanders,
the Capitals are close to your heart and and the Nationals.
So were you with the NBA club from your hometown.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
I'm a student of Wizard's history. I kind of brazenly
in the off season, after losing the Cooper Flag sweepstakes
you're after losing the Victor Webin Yama sweepstakes, declared that
I was quitting the Wizards, inspired by Larry David quitting
the Jets, as well as our conversation a couple of
months back about you know, have you ever distanced yourself

(01:02:25):
from your favorite sports team. I just don't think I
can do it night tonight anymore. I want the young
guys to succeed, I want the rebuild to progress, but
they're still two or three years away from a chance
at being good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Yeah. Yeah, and you got a long one on the
team now. I watched Tray Johnson a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
I watched a little bit of their game, but I
mainly watched the Mavericks in the Spurs and the Spurs
looked really impressive from about late first half to the
end of the game, and they just kind of they
just pushed the Mavericks aside and went on by and
one twenty five to ninety two, and it was a

(01:03:07):
it was about a I would say, nine point game,
I guess at the half, and then they just completely,
you know, blew them out from there that victor Winbinyama
is just bigger and better and greater all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
I did see some of those highlights, and it seems
like he's worked on his offensive game a little bit
in the offseason.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Yeah, forty points, fifteen rebounds, three blocks, I think at
one point. Tim Legler, who was the analyst working with
Mike Green, by the way, I liked that team though,
I thought they were really good. Last night, Legs as
they like to call him, said, you think about this,
this guy's played about a season and a half of basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Really all told.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
With the way they load managed his first season, and
then of course he had the blood pressure issue, the
blood clot issue, and so he had to cut his
season short. But he went through obviously all the treatments
he had to do. They showed how he went to
China to work with conditioning in the Far Eastern mindset

(01:04:18):
as well as what he was doing. He was a
guy who's a great student of the game at such
an early age, at age twenty one or twenty two,
just such a big time student. He could not help
but be impressed by how he played last night.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
And Craig not to pylon recommendations, but you have got
to give Court of Goal. To watch the Netflix series
following the Olympic basketball teams from France, the United States, Canada,
and Serbia.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
Oh wow, during the Paris Games.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
It has tremendous insight into Victor Webbin Yama behind the scenes.
Really came out of that as with a whole new
respect for him. Someone whose career I'm going to follow closely.
I don't know if I'll have much of a choice
based on the way he's going to take over a
lot of NBA storylines. Last night, he was plus thirty one.
That was best among Spurs. Cooper Flag though minus twenty
nine worst among maps.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
Yeah, in fact the number two pick behind Flag. Dylan
Harper had the more impressive debut, although he got off
to kind of a slow start, so did Flag. He
hit only one of his first nine shots in the ballgame.
But Harper scored fifteen points at seven to fourteen shooting
in twenty three minutes off the bench. He didn't start
and flag didn't score until he made a mid range

(01:05:26):
jumping or on the opening possession of the second half.
So it's gonna take a little while for him to
do it. And so he said his wasn't great, but
people could see flashes that shot. He made the up
and underthing from under the rim around kind of doctor.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
J stop that was. That was pretty cool to see.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
So I think it's gonna take a little time for him,
but I think in time, obviously he has a chance
to be just tremendous. But it's gonna it's probably gonna
take a little bit of time for him to get
really comfortable in the system and for the system to
get comfortable with him. The other impressive debut was VJ. Edgcombe,

(01:06:10):
who of course had played at Baylor last year. He
scored thirty four points. That is the most for a
rookie debut since Wilt Chamberlain did it when he had
forty three.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
In nineteen fifty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
Yeah, that Philadelphia Lawyers, by the way, he also had
twenty eight rebounds that night.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
Wilt did that guy's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Yeah, yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Anyway, Alan Iverson had held the Sixers record with thirty
points in the debut in ninety six.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
But VJ.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Edgecombe and I think everybody who watched him play last
year for Baylor said that guy's going to be a pro,
and he has a chance to be a really good pro.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
And so the Wizard's pass on him.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:06:53):
Yeah, I think so great.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
I think so great.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
Heydre Johnson made some made some good outside shots yes day.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Yeah, so we'll see on that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
So anyway, he was Big twelve Rookie of the Year
last year in his only season at Baylor, so it's
pretty good. He had a really good start. It's actually
the third best single game start.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
Debut for a rookie.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
Will Chamberlain nineteen fifty nine for Philadelphia for the Philadelphia
Warriors had forty three points. That was before Philadelphia moved
to San Francisco in the early sixties. Frank Selvy in
nineteen fifty four had thirty five points in his rookie debut.
That's number two all time, and that was for the
Milwaukee Hawks, who are now the Atlanta Hawks against Boston

(01:07:42):
in nineteen fifty four, and then you have VJ Edgcomb,
So that's pretty impressive stuff for him last night, all right,
just wanted to get a couple of those NBA notes done.

Speaker 7 (01:07:53):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Coming up next, we'll talk some football and some other
topics with Roger Wallace, sports director at k XA in
and of course my broadcast partner, long Warn Football will
take a look at this weekend's matchup between Texas and
Mississippi State, as well as the big weekend of high
school football's. We continue on this Thursday afternoon on sports
Radio AM thirteen under the Zone in the iHeartRadio app.

(01:08:20):
All Right, I am not the entertainer, Billy Joels the entertainer,
but we hope to bring you some entertaining sports radio
and that's why we have Roger Wallas, my broadcast partner
in Long Warn Football, and the sports director at k
x AN joining us. Now, how entertaining could Startville, Mississippi
be this Saturday?

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Roger, Well, we both.

Speaker 8 (01:08:40):
Went there for other sports and we couldn't get out,
so we improved that. No, gross, by the way, there,
let's hope we get out. But yeah, I mean it's
one of those where you get in, you get out.
We're not eve going to go there till the game.
You're going to be standing Elvis's birthplace on Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
Night, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
And by the way, because you and I are landing,
uh and the team is staying at Tupuloi, so they're
staying about an hour north. And because we're landing so late,
it's going to be dark and it would be too
difficult to get down there for you to do your
reporting standing up in front of Davis Waite Stadium. So
have you decided you want to do it in front
of Elvis's birthplace the house, because apparently it's set.

Speaker 8 (01:09:23):
Aside, we're work shopping it because our Levon Whittaker got
a little a little earlier flight out, he's actually going
to be there, so we might just turn him loose
and uh and start bill and let him let him
experience it tomorrow or trying to figure that out. But yeah,
that's uh kind of where we are with this travel schedule. Right,
We're not even going to get to the town where

(01:09:44):
the game is until game time.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Yeah, that's it's a little weird. And start told me
last night when we were Yeah, when we were recording
Loghorn Weekly. He wasn't incredibly impressed with the hotel where
we and the team will be staying. He wasn't incredibly
that he had been there one time before with Alabama,

(01:10:06):
and he said he was that close if you spread
your thumb and index finger a quarter inch apart to
having the team stay in Tuscaloosa because Tuscaloosa, by the way,
Alabama is the closest SEC school to Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
State, not on miss not anybody else. It's Alabama.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
It's about an hour and twenty minutes from Starkville to Tuscaloosa.
And I actually made that drive a few years ago
when the Texas women played Mississippi State when Vick Schaeffer
was coaching at Mississippi State and had a.

Speaker 8 (01:10:38):
Idea, yeah, idea, Yeah, yeah, you're going to see Vic tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
Right, what's that You're gonna see Vic tonight?

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
I'm going to see him. Yes.

Speaker 8 (01:10:47):
Albund tossed me the keys to his place in Starkville
that he took the team to before they played Misssippi State,
and we'll we'll just stay on the ranch.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Hey, I'd be all for that. I'll bring it up
to him, I'll see what I'll see what he thinks
about that. I know Holly Schafer's wife was giving restaurant
dining tips to different people who were asking. But you know,
it's tuscal Loose is an hour and twenty away, and
I drove through it on the way to Birmingham after
doing a game in Starkville. Or Vick's Mississippi State team

(01:11:19):
is one of the teams that went to the back
to back national championship games. They beat Texas on that
Sunday night when they had Tierra McCallan in the middle
and that outstanding team, and I remember driving through. You thing, Wow,
it's not that far away from there, whereas two plow
is a little closer. The question is is it is
it worth the twenty minutes closer for the hotel swap.

(01:11:42):
Sark says that's a big wolf see with regard to that,
but he said he was very very close to having
the team just stay in Tuscaloose and go over, but
he said it doesn't matter. And I think this is
why Roger on Monday at his news conference, I think
this is why he said the exact words were another

(01:12:03):
game on the road, staying at a hotel that's not
our own that on Monday. So it's probably in the
mindset that. The other thing that's got to be in
the mindset is the comings and goings of this football team, Rodge.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
You know, they get C. J. Baxter back this week,
but lose.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
Michael Taff and guys have been you know, coming and going.
It's hard to get the complete healthy roster on the
field at the same time.

Speaker 8 (01:12:28):
Yeah, and I did my pregame interview with him for
Texas game Day to Day and asked him about Taff
and he said, the one good thing about Michael Taff
is he's such a not only a good example, but
he affects the team in other ways off the field
and produces habits and things like that. And then he
you know, he said, what you what He's say, it's
an opportunity, Jolani McDonald. Derek Williams, who you know you

(01:12:53):
mentioned last year was in fact the starter until he
got injured. So, uh, they they have a you know,
they have a multitude of talent on that defensive side.
But obviously that's a big loss, especially in a road
game where I'm sure Michael Tapp is such a calming
influence on that defense.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
Yeah, and the defense has played so well.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
And last night we had Kenny Baker on with us,
and for folks who didn't hear, we were recording the
program last night.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
It's coming up at six tonight, six o'clock tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Long worn weekly with coach Sark because we have the
Texas women's game against Love at Christian at seven, the
exhibition game. But we had Kenny Baker on and he
was talking about you know, and he works with the
interior of the defensive line, and I asked him about
what Anthony Hill said the other day when Anthony Hill
was asked who is the scariest player on this football team,

(01:13:43):
And without hesitating a second, he said Colbervard.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
Colbervard, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
And Baker said, yeah, I understand that he's a pretty big,
imposing guy. And he said he's a wonderful teammateers, teammates
love him. And he said, but you don't want to
cross him. And it's guys Brevard and Marod Watson and
Travis Shaw of late and Alex January, those guys who
are really kind of filling in the gaps in the middle,

(01:14:10):
like we've seen the interior of Texas defensive lines do
the past few years.

Speaker 8 (01:14:15):
Yeah, and go back and watch the not only the
goal line stand in overtime, but the fourth down play
in the first quarter. And it's those guys in the
middle that get it all started, doing that dirty work
going down low and really allowing the linebackers and guys
to pinch in from the side. But they're the ones

(01:14:35):
that are absolutely submarining that offensive line to get it started.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, because I did
bring up that not only the goal line play, but
the fourth down play on the first drive, as you mentioned,
And he and Sark both pointed out, Yes, Cole Brevard
and Travis Shaw and Marod Watson and Hero Canoe and
Alex January, those guys.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
They go in and pinch in.

Speaker 1 (01:15:00):
And he said, but if you look at those other
key plays, looking at Brad Spence coming off the edge
and Leongo La Fowl over the top and Anthony Hill
kind of in between the two of them, you know,
that's everybody kind of knows that specific area. It's not
just about assignment football, but it's almost like geography about
the angle that you have to take in a given
area to.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Kind of plug it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
And Kenny Baker made a great point when he was
talking about he was actually on the staff of the
Miami Dolphins when they had to play the Eagles and
they had to try to defend the push push and
he said, and like everybody else, we didn't do a
good job with it all that, but it gave me
ideas about angles and how we can better angle to

(01:15:41):
cut off gaps to get across the goal line.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
And I think that's what we saw last Saturday.

Speaker 8 (01:15:46):
Yeah, it's fun because you can go look at that
and you can look at eleven different times and watch
eleven different players and what they did, and probably eight
at the eleven you could say, oh, they they had
a hand in on that play.

Speaker 5 (01:15:58):
It's really it's really.

Speaker 8 (01:15:59):
Fun to go back and forth, back and forth, especially
if you can, you know, get the high and goal
or the all twenty two or something like that, although
all twenty two were basically a tight shot on that play.

Speaker 5 (01:16:09):
But yeah, everybody, everybody certainly had their role.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
Do you remember much about Blake Shapin's time at Baylor,
in specific the game against Texas?

Speaker 8 (01:16:18):
I don't, I mean, you know, helped him win a
Big twelve championship, I know he's active. He's a guy
that can get out of the pocket and make things happen.
But yeah, you're pushing me a little bit. I assume
they won that game against Texas when they won the
Big Twelve Championship.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
It was one of those games, remember all those leads
that got away in the second half for the long
wards had a double digit lead on the Bears in
the second half and got away. But then you go
further and like you said, helped them win the Big
Twelve Championship. He set a Big Twelve record by completing
I think of what it was, sixteen or seventeen passes
at a point. And of course it came down to
that goal speak of the goal line stands. It came
down to the goal line stand that Baylor had against

(01:16:56):
Oklahoma State. But he's a guy that apparently has just
you know, made some very significant strides. And speaking of health,
if Mississippi State has both Fluff bothwell I love that
name for running back and de Von Booth and they
expect to have both of those guys on the field
and playing. That can make it difficult because of the

(01:17:18):
way they like to run the football and toured that
in Furthermore, you know when people think of that Art
Brile's offense when he was at Baylor, and going back
to when I was broadcasting high school games and saw
him doing it at Stevenville, his offense while it was
wide spread and those wide splits and all that other
kind of stuff, they were about running the football, and

(01:17:41):
Sark was saying, he believes that Jeff Levy, of course
Brill's son in law, and been on the Oklahoma step,
has gone back to the true Art Brill's offense now.

Speaker 8 (01:17:49):
Yeah, and especially they're so hard to defend when they
start to get some rhythm on offense, because that's where
they they really turn up the heat, going tempo, and
you know, think back to all those different offenses, Texas
Tech at times Oklahoma, they get a first down and
then it turns into a fire drill, and your defense
is really just fighting to get lined up, let alone.

Speaker 5 (01:18:11):
Defend the play.

Speaker 8 (01:18:11):
So that's a that's obviously a big key trying to
slow him down, you know, shape And I mean, he's
got to be so anxious with what happened at Florida
that pass it was picked off by the three hundred
and fifty pounds They were already in field goal range
against Florida, so he's got to be chomping at the
bit for a couple of reasons.

Speaker 5 (01:18:26):
Wasn't here last year to.

Speaker 8 (01:18:28):
Play against Texas re members of from Baylor, but then
that lost to Florida last week and kept him winless.
But the third, the third time they're going to play
an zero to three sec team.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
I think from Yeah, yeah, visiting with Roger Wallace here
on thirteen under the zone. All right, let's jump to
high school before we get to the game. You're calling
the night which is a big game, and then there's
another big game that's going on that I will get to. Uh,
But most folks, I think, would view the Battle of
the Lakes as being the biggest game, and folks can
watch that live on k Exam Plus tomorrow night.

Speaker 8 (01:19:01):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
Lake Travis at west Lake I was asked about this
about what really struck me about this game, and I said,
you know, what really strikes me about it is that,
with all due respect to the current players on each
of these teams, you don't necessarily have a Jaden Greathhouse
on one side and a Garrett Wilson on the other.

Speaker 5 (01:19:22):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
You do have talented players, Van Hopping the running back
for Lake Travis and then uh and then obviously reeche
Wise at quarterback for West Lake.

Speaker 7 (01:19:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
But but they just.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
Strike me as two very sound, solid, fundamentally sound, complimentary
football play insert your cliche, and obviously well coach football
teams that are going at each other tomorrow night.

Speaker 8 (01:19:44):
And what we think of when we think of these
two schools within a quarterbacks and offense, and they're both
primarily led by their defense, which is a topic we're
getting used to talking about around here. But yeah, and
and so you're exactly right. I think this is going
to be you know, so the Lake Travis Dripping Springs game.
How low scoring that was last week, but it should

(01:20:08):
be fun. Yeah, you mentioned kicks. And plus they've changed
the schedule. That game's gonna start at seven o'clock and
they're gonna do the Drew Brees jersey. I thought when
you said the most surprising thing about that is that
Drew Brees is coming back to Austin.

Speaker 5 (01:20:20):
That doesn't happen very often. But they're gonna have the.

Speaker 8 (01:20:25):
Jersey retirement ceremony at six point thirty now on Kangsan.
Plus then they'll kick it at seven. I know some
schools are making some adjustments because of what they think
will be some weather coming in later in the evening.
So yeah, you can watch all that on KYKSAM Plus.
And I'm old enough to remember not only Drew Brees'
state championship, but the year before when he broke his

(01:20:47):
leg in the playoffs in ninety five, or they might
have had a great chance of.

Speaker 5 (01:20:52):
Going back to back.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
No, you're right, You're right about that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
And I had the pleasure of call in that state
championship game when they beat Ablne Cooper at Texas Stateium
in ninety six.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
But yeah, it's a long time ago.

Speaker 7 (01:21:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
Probably the trivia question.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
The only former quarterback who played football here in the
Greater Austin area who comes back to Austin less frequently
than Drew Brees is Chris Simms, I would say, probably,
And and.

Speaker 8 (01:21:16):
Sim's good didn't grow up here, so uh yeah, and
that's cool that that he's coming back and he's going
to do the ceremony, and what a coincidence. He's probably
you know a lot to go into the Hall of Fame,
uh this coming summer next summer rather so uh yeah,
that's that's pretty cool that he's he's going to come
back and he's you know, he's the guy that that

(01:21:37):
you know, got all that quarterbacks like Lake Travis Todd
Reesing was kind of the first one and that.

Speaker 5 (01:21:43):
Long incredible line of quarterbacks.

Speaker 8 (01:21:45):
So, uh should be hopefully the weather will be at
least so they can you know, play the game without
without introduction tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
Well, you're right, there are there are schools that move.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
I know the Vista Ridge Maynor game is being moved
forward to six o'clock, so there there are a lot
of folks keeping guys on the weather.

Speaker 7 (01:21:59):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
The other two games of interest tonight for folks to
take note of, and I'm gonna get to your game
in a moment. Over at House Park at seven point thirty,
you have Eastside Early College playing Taylor, and I know
that's gonna fly under the radar for most people. LBJ
is obviously the team to beat in that district. Taylor
is unbeaten in the district. East Side is having this

(01:22:21):
incredibly unexpected landmark year where the Panthers are six and two.
They're three and one in the district, but they pretty
much have to win that game over Taylor if they're
gonna get in the playoffs because New Tech had beaten
east Side and they have the tiebreaker there and you
know east Side closes with LBJ, so that's gonna be
difficult after an open date next week. So that's one
of those playoffs to get into the playoffs types of game.

(01:22:43):
You always like having those. And then the other thing
is the game you have Rodger's and that's Anderson and Hayes.
And Anderson breaking into the top ten rankings this week
at number nine as they get ready to take on
Hayes on the road.

Speaker 5 (01:22:56):
Yeah, what a story. And Donald Hatcher.

Speaker 8 (01:22:59):
They've not only are undefeated, but they got some really
good district wins already under their belt.

Speaker 5 (01:23:03):
They've taken care of both the.

Speaker 8 (01:23:06):
A and M Consolidated in College Station, beat both of
those teams, and you know, they're given up just over
thirteen points per game, and that game against Adam Consolidated
was fifteen to forty two and five overtimes, so you
take that defensive number away and it's really incredible what
they've done. And Caleb Crenshaw's good chance he goes for

(01:23:26):
two thousand yards this season. And Coke Darbyshire replays as
Max Kurlik and you thought, wow, you lose a quarterback
to Utsa. But he's been really good and we saw
him on opening night against McCallum. So tough for Hayes.
They lost their quarterback to Coma Ames. He was really
exciting when that. We had that forty two to forty
one game when they lost to Hendrickson. So kind of

(01:23:48):
tough sledding lately for the Hayes Hawks and their coach
Mark torres Is.

Speaker 1 (01:23:55):
And obviously Hayes is really in must win territory now
trying to get the thick of the fight back into
that is your kick at seven tonight, seven thirty, seven thirty, okay,
all right, and then get down five.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
And then you have to.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
Slam bang games? Do you not to close out the
regular season coming up?

Speaker 8 (01:24:18):
Yeah? Well, vi to Huddo next week and Huddle of
course has got Vandergriff tomorrow night to try to stay
undefeated in district play and then we're gonna close it
out with Anderson and Weiss and great chance that's.

Speaker 5 (01:24:31):
For you know, a district championship in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 8 (01:24:34):
So we've taken on lumps the last couple of weeks
with one side of games. But hopefully tonight we should
have an exciting ball game down at Bob Shelton.

Speaker 5 (01:24:43):
And then however they turn.

Speaker 8 (01:24:45):
Out the next two weeks, we know what's on the
line in those games and that's always fun, especially on
Thursday when you know we don't have a run of
the schedule to pick from.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
Well, and I will say this for folks who say
I Anderson Weiss, is it just for a old bald No,
think about this. In five eighty one, that's going to
be for playoff seeding and a home playoff game in
the first round. So I think that's kind of important
there that whoever wins that district title, And even though
A and M Consolidated still has a mathematical shot, it's

(01:25:16):
really coming down to Anderson and Weiss, and whoever wins
that game the final week of the regular season, good
chance they're going to be at home hosting a by
district playoff game.

Speaker 8 (01:25:27):
Yeah, kind of a contrast and options there with Venerable
House Park in the field, I assume that's where Anderson
would host, would be at House Park.

Speaker 5 (01:25:37):
But yeah, and just what a story.

Speaker 8 (01:25:39):
I mean, you know, we latch onto these aisd stories
when they happened. We saw McCallum several years ago make
that run. Obviously, LBJ has had their turn. Boois, you know,
gotten into the playoffs a little bit. I can remember
way back Northeast College Prep when they were Reagan they
went to the Final four. And now it sure looks
like Anderson might have the a team that can do

(01:26:01):
a little bit of damage.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
No doubt about it. He's Roger Rawls.

Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
You can watch that telecast tonight with Roger and Keith
Morland is leaving on the sidelines for you tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:26:11):
Oh okay, first foray into Bob Shotton Stadium.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
There you go, there you go. That That is tonight
at seven thirty. So it'll be uh Anderson at Hayes. Hey, Roger,
appreciate the time. See on the plane tomorrow morning, right,
all right, that's Roger Wallace.

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
It's actually early more afternoon when we fly out to Tupelo.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
All right, coming up, we'll hear from Brian Schottenheim or
the Cowboys head coach.

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
Will we continue on thirteen underd.

Speaker 7 (01:26:40):
The zone hasn't loft that jamp scene?

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
Yes, Roger Rawson, I'll be flying to the Land of Elvis,
and I'm not talking Memphis and Graceland. I've been in
the Gray now, by the way before, I've been there. No,
his birthplace, Tupelo, Mississippi. That's where we're actually staying instead
of staying in Stargills, an hour north of Starfield.

Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
And so we'll be there tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
Let's hear from Brian Shott. I'm or the Law, the
head coach of your Dallas Cowboys. He was asked in
this coming in late yesterday afternoon about what are the
keys for a three three and one football team to
playing with more consistency as they go to a tough
environment there at Is it still called Invesco Field at

(01:27:24):
Mile High where the Denver Broncos play.

Speaker 4 (01:27:26):
That's a great question.

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
I think it's Invesco Field at mile High. It's something
at mile High. It started off being in Vesco Field
at my High. How about this Empower Field at mile High? Yeah,
that works just as well. Okay, Empower Field at mile High.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
So I will say the fifty two eighties on the helmet,
those are tough.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
Yeah, Yeah, that's that's there.

Speaker 1 (01:27:46):
So he was asked about the consistency to playing a
tough team in a tough environment.

Speaker 9 (01:27:50):
Well again, starts with today, good meetings, good energy this morning,
talk to the guys a little bit. I guess it
is more of the offensive guys just out there walk through.
But yeah, we've got to you know, sustaining success and
putting together a streak. It's like we've done with the
ball security and taking care of the football and you know,
four straight games without giving it away, well in three
straight games, I guess, are four straight games creating a takeaway?

(01:28:13):
You know, we have to do that with wins. You know,
you got to put together streaks of wins. You can't win, lose, win, lose, win, lose,
because what you're looking at when you do that is,
you know, eight and nine, nine and eight, whatever it was,
seventeen games. It's a little harder to do the math
for me. But it starts with today and the prep
for today. And I'm not surprised that you know, this
is a tough place to go and play. I mean,

(01:28:34):
it's a good football team. They're well coached, they're talented.
Shawn's obviously a champion ship coach and you know I've
played a number of games there and shoot, Denver haunts
the shotten himers in some regards. So I don't want
to go back to Hey, whatever it was, whatever year
it was, it was bad. But yeah, the old fumble

(01:28:56):
and Jeremiah can Steele. But yeah, it's tough place to play.
The fans are. But I told the guys that, I said, hey,
I love going there because it's going to be loud
and crazy and that's what you.

Speaker 2 (01:29:04):
Are, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:05):
So you're a young guy, I mean to ask you,
do you know what he was talking about there? No, sir, Okay,
I'm gonna tell you what he's talking about. He said,
it's a you know, kind of a house of hers
for the Schottenheimer family, his dad obviously, Marty Schottenheimer's.

Speaker 2 (01:29:18):
They head coach of the Browns.

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):
Twice they had the AFC championship in the palm of
their hand, and twice it slipped through their fingers, and
both times against the Denver Broncos nineteen eighty six in Cleveland,
everybody knows it. It's the drive John Elway ninety eight
yard drive. Cleveland's up by a touchdown and Elway drives
the Broncos ninety eight yards and they get a time

(01:29:45):
touchdown in the waiting seconds and they wind up winning
it in overtime. I think on a Rich Carless field goal.
I believe it was, so they win I think twenty
three twenty at overtime. That was in eighty six. The
next year they play in eighty seven and Denver had
had a substantial lead, but the Browns came back. They
got another touch hunt and they're about to score the

(01:30:06):
tying touchdown that game. If the one the year before
was known as the drive, this one known as the fumble.
Ernest Beiner fumbled. He mentioned Jeremiah Castill who recovered it,
and the Broncos won. They beat the Browns, and so yeah,
that's what he's talking about about the House of Horrors

(01:30:27):
and the Nightmare and all that other kind of stuff.
He also made me think of something else too, when
you talked about the up and down and you wind up,
he said, I don't know, a nine and eight eight nine.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
If they wind up.

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
Just winning and losing every game the rest of the way,
they will be the first team in NFL history to
have one tie in an odd numbered game season and
finish at level five hundred, because every other time it's
been even amounts of gainst fourteen sixteen whatever and there
might be teams that had two ties that that one

(01:31:00):
wound up, you know, at level five. The Oilers one
year went six six and two nineteen sixty nine in
the AFLF, if I remember correctly, six six and two,
But no team in an odd number game season has
had the same amount of wins and losses in one tie.
And that's what would happen if the Cowboys went win lost,
when lost the rest of the way anyway, to Marvin

(01:31:22):
Overshown was on with us a couple of weeks, oh,
last week on Long Worn Weekly with coach Sark, and
of course Overshown is the former Long Worn who's you know,
looks spectacular whatever. He's healthy with the Cowboys, but he's
had two major injuries, but he's been in rehab and
he was asked what did he see from Overshown's rehab
and his workout trying to get back.

Speaker 9 (01:31:44):
I just saw a guy that every day attacked the day,
worked his butt off. And they were doing something simple
last week with Britt where they were doing like single
leg jumps man, and like this guy was number one
the zero looks sweet but like he had the head
band around that look cool and like but like, honestly,
the explosive power that he can generate and where he's at.

(01:32:08):
You know, I just love the kid man his mindset.
You know, he's never had a bad day. He's been
dialed in on getting back. He's had a vision of
what it's going to look like, and he's just that
much closer to getting back out there and playing games.
But we'll see, you know, how he does today, and
there'll be a ramp up period. But like I said,
I'll keep saying, we're getting.

Speaker 2 (01:32:27):
Close, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
So taking into account the ramp up period as he
continues to rehab, what could the expectations have ever shown
be in his return.

Speaker 9 (01:32:37):
I don't put expectations on him that can come even
remotely close to the expectations he has for himself. He's
that type of young man. He lives his life that way.
It's not just football. He lives his life as a
dad like that. He does all that stuff, and I
just want him to focus on his preparation. I want
him to focus on having good practices, stacking good practices

(01:32:58):
because when you get out there, play man, he hasn't
forgotten how to tackle, he hasn't forgotten how to rush.
He hasn't forgotten how to cover. Those things are going
to happen. But for us to say that you watch
him today and some of the things that we do,
he's going to look like he maybe did when he
was starring at Texas or his first couple of years
with us, when he was playing great.

Speaker 4 (01:33:16):
You know, it is a process, and so we're there
to support him.

Speaker 9 (01:33:20):
And if he does have a not saying he's going
to a average or below average practice, there's no panic
on my face. I'm great, I can't wait. I just
happy to have you out here, and I think that's
what these guys want from us.

Speaker 1 (01:33:33):
Another wrinkle of this game is Javonte Williams returning to
Denver and Schottenheimers asked what did he see in him?
What he saw from Williams playing with the Broncos that
really kind of pushed him to target in him as
somebody they would want.

Speaker 9 (01:33:49):
Yeah, I mean just the suddenness, the ability to jump, cut,
the way he would run through contact, you know, yards
after contact.

Speaker 2 (01:33:57):
To me, is a big thing for running backs. I
like big big backs, you know, I really do.

Speaker 9 (01:34:02):
I think it's that type of league right now with
how everything is, you know, played and physical, and but
you do see a guy that creates explosives, you know,
and I think, uh, why does he do that?

Speaker 2 (01:34:15):
Because he doesn't hesitate? And uh, it jumped off the film.

Speaker 8 (01:34:19):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:34:19):
It wasn't again something that they felt like, but we
knew of something that we wanted to add to our
to our team.

Speaker 1 (01:34:25):
And finally he's going up against one of the you know,
coaching savants in the NFL, Sean Payton. Does he take
coaching against that guy on the opposite side of the
field is a personal challenge?

Speaker 9 (01:34:38):
Yeah, I don't think so. You know, Sean is a
guy I've spent a lot of time with. My relationship
with Drew Brees is kind of how I first was
actually got to know Sean when I was a coach
at Syracuse. He was the coordinator with the Giants and
our relationship just kind of grew. And you know, I think,
you know him signing Drew after Drew was with us

(01:34:58):
in San Diego. We had a lot of conversation and
I've been around you know him quite a bit. But no,
I'm not gonna compare myself to Sean. I mean, look
at what Shawn's done in this league and it's fun
to go and compete against a really good football team.
Now I'm gonna compete my ass off against Vance Joseph,
who I think is one of the best, if not
arguably the best defensive cord in the league the way

(01:35:19):
you look at that defense. I'm gonna have fun doing that.
But at the end of the day, it's the players,
and it's gonna be Tyler Geitton blocking, you know, Nick
Benita and George and CD going up against certain and
more than anything else, that's that's the battle.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
That should be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
All Right, We'll be back to wrap up today's edition
of the program here on sports Radio AM thirteen under
the zone of the iHeartRadio app.