September 11, 2026 • 9 mins
AM 1300 The Zone’s Mike Hardge joined The Dan Mathews Show to share his takeaways from the Longhorns’ blowout victory over Texas State, preview Texas’ massive matchup with Ohio State, and explain how he sees the game ultimately shaking out.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A huge game tomorrow night in Austin between number one
and number four. It is going to be the Longhorns
taking on Ohio State there at DKR Memorial Stadium.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And a man who I know is going to be
there watching it all.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Part of the morning kickoff with Mark Henry over on
our sister station in Austin, AM 1300 The Zone. He's
also an all-around great guy. He's Mike Hardball Harge. Harge,
great to hear from you again, man. Hopefully everything's awesome
up there. I know that probably the buildup has been great.
You got all those damn Ohio State fans up there
this weekend too, don't you?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, they are infiltrating Austin, Texas, and they're doing it
only the way the Buckeyes can. They're trying to take
over the city, but those Austinites are not letting that
happen too easily.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So it's going to be a fun time, ESPN game day.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Y'all will be watching it and you'll get a chance
to see Austin, Texas at its finest. It's an exciting
time because when you look at the matchup and We
can go back to last year. It was the first
game of the year. Nobody understood what either one of
these teams were going to be. The hype was around
Arch Manning, and everybody frowned him before he even took
(01:07):
a snap.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
And now he's got a year under his belt.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's a different team that got a chance to play
a warm-up game. No disrespect to the teams that they
played before, but both teams came in and did exactly
what a team that wants to play or be considered
a national title contender, they did what they needed to do.
So it's going to be a lot of fun tomorrow
night at DKR.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And I mean, you touched on it too.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I mean, last year, obviously they opened against each other,
but this year they both got a warmup game to
come into this one where, I mean, the horns handled
Texas state last weekend, Ohio state handles ball state. But
I mean, I'm guessing that probably what people want to
see out of Arch Manning is him have that game.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And this would be the one that they want to
see it in.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
No doubt. No doubt.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
They want to see him go out there and perform
because let's think about it. When you have these two
prideful and historical teams playing each other, there's going to
be a lot of talent on the field. And this
is one of those games where everybody is the same.
But the cool part about this is Arch Manning goes
(02:17):
up against a top defense every single day in practice.
So he's seen this before. He's looking at the intensity
of this game. And of course he's, he's got the
revenge factor. He'll never say it, but you know, deep
down after that first game last year, there was an
article that came out, call them a flop and all
this other stuff. But now he's got an opportunity to
(02:39):
write a ship that a lot of people truly weren't
on the bandwagon, so to speak, unless you're here and
watched his progression, every single game, people are going to
be looking at arch in a light. Now that I
think is going to be pretty favorable for him.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Again, he's Mike Hardball Harge, and he is part of
the morning kickoff with Mark Henry on our Austin sister station,
AM 1300 The Zone, talking Longhorns and Ohio State. Coming
up tomorrow night, and again, you can listen to that
game over on NewsRadio 740 KTRH. Defensively, though, I mean,
it's not much that you can tell from that first
game against Texas State, but I mean, through the 60
(03:18):
minutes of that game, I mean, could you already see
kind of Will Muschamp's fingerprints all over this defense?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, I think what we saw from Will Muschamp's defense
was an intensity factor, the takeaway factor, the ability to
dislodge the football, make people feel uncomfortable. And that was
with a base defense. We didn't get to see any exotics.
We didn't get to see Colin Simmons move around or
come off the edge. But what we did see is
(03:45):
a fundamentally sound football team making tackles in the open field.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yes, they gave up some rushing yards and And maybe that's.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
A little disheartening, but you also look at this team
and you can see a little bit of the blueprint.
For example, you look at Raheem Biles, the middle linebacker,
the linebacker that can move around and is fast. He
forced a fumble while playing outstanding. Then you look at
what Grayson Littleton has been able to do as a sophomore,
(04:15):
true sophomore, after his freshman All-American campaign.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
He was a playmaker.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So there's going to be some moments in this game
that we're going to see Will Muschamp's blueprint. But don't
get it mistaken. PK's defense was not bad. They held
Ohio State to 14 points. They didn't outrush Texas last year.
Texas made a costly turnover, and that was the difference
in the game, and they won 14-7. This is a
(04:43):
new team, new faces, and a new coordinator on the
defensive side.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
But again.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
You look at Ohio State, they've got a new offensive
play caller in Arthur Smith, but Ryan Day's offense is
Ryan Day's offense. There may be some nuances in it,
but Will Muschamp will have an imprint on the game
tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Offensively, too, I know a lot of people are going
to talk about Arch Manning and also talking about Wingo
and Coleman as well, but the run game, that was
something that they didn't really use a ton of. Smothers
had 10 carries, Relique Brown with 11. If they need
to run the football, if that is something that, you know,
(05:23):
kill the clock, whatever it is, do they feel like
they have the ability to be able to do that
with a lot more regularity than they have the last
couple of years?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I think that there is some hidden yards that we're
missing in there, too, and that's Arch Manning's legs.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
He didn't use his legs last week. He didn't have to.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It looked like he was doing everything possible, and it
seemed like Sark was like, I don't care what you do,
don't run.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
But this week his legs are going to be a
part of that.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
But to your point, Relique Brown and Hollywood Smothers, I
think that these are two backs that are electric, and
the difference from the years past to where we are now,
those guys.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Can hit a home run.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
And what I mean by that, they can put their
foot in the ground and get north and south and
take it 70 yards.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
So that's going to help with those explosive plays.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
But I think the running game, when it's time to
end the game and be able to run the clock,
I think that offensive line with Trevor Goosby and Melvin
Ciani on the outside and then Brandon Baker on the
inside with Connor Robinson.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I think this team is going to end.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh, and Lawrence Seymour, the transfer from Western Kentucky, who's
played a lot of football. This is the first time
that they're really going to be tested because don't forget,
Goosby was out for a little bit with training when
he had the bone bruise. And Seymour was out as
well with a raw bum ankle. So that last week
was the first time that they really had everybody together
(06:52):
and they did a great job.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Hardball.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I mean, it clearly Texas is a program. You go there,
you know, the expectations are they expect you to win,
but let's say they come out of Saturday night. They
have a really nice performance against Ohio state.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
They win.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I mean, how quickly does that attention have to turn to, Oh,
you got to go to Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You got red river. You got Florida. You got Ole Miss.
You've got LSU later on in the season.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I mean, is that going to be one of those
that probably the first thing that Steve Sarkeesian says afterwards?
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
You know, this isn't a national championship game. It does
put you in the conversation and change the narrative of
what people think of you. And last year, as soon
as they lost that game, they were like, oh, they
can't lose anymore. Well, it's a little bit different now.
But I do believe and I know I've known Sark
enough that I understand that he's always on to the
next game after that. But if they can win that
(07:45):
game tomorrow night, which I think they will, I don't
see Sark letting them party like it's 1999, if you
know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
He's got to get them.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Back focused because that's just one part of this, the
Ohio State game. But that's not the biggest part because
you do want to play for an SEC title.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
And I think that's his main goal right now.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Well, I think you just gave my producer Joshua Jordan
an idea for a bump back for one of our
segments here remaining on the show today.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So good on you, hardball. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Again, he's Mike Hardball Harch with AM 1300 The Zone
in Austin. Clearly a huge game coming up tomorrow night,
number one against number four. And we've been talking some
longhorns with them. Do you guys, even before Craig and
the guys hit the air, is there any local programming
you guys going to be due leading up to the game?
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
We'll start the pregame show at 3.30. We'll be down
at DKR. We're right outside Winship Circle and the Hook'Em Hangout.
You'll see the big Bevo, blown up Bevo, and just
walk through him.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
And we'll be right there doing that. We'll go to 5.30.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Then we turn it over to Craig, Roger Wallace, and
Will Matthews, former Longhorn player.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
As they bring you the game on.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
AM 1300 The Zone in Austin, Texas, or free on
that iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
You know how that goes. Oh, yeah. No, always.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
The iHeartRadio app is always your friend, Hardball.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
It's always there for you. It never lets you down. So, no, absolutely.
Looking forward to it. And anybody from here heading out
to Austin, go out there, see Hardball and the crew
before you head on into DKR Memorial Stadium tomorrow night.
It's going to be a fun one, Mike. Really looking
forward to it. And always great to catch up with you.
And we'll do so again here very soon.
A huge game tomorrow night in Austin between number one
and number four. It is going to be the Longhorns
taking on Ohio State there at DKR Memorial Stadium.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
And a man who I know is going to be
there watching it all.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Part of the morning kickoff with Mark Henry over on
our sister station in Austin, AM 1300 The Zone. He's
also an all-around great guy. He's Mike Hardball Harge. Harge,
great to hear from you again, man. Hopefully everything's awesome
up there. I know that probably the buildup has been great.
You got all those damn Ohio State fans up there
this weekend too, don't you?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yeah, they are infiltrating Austin, Texas, and they're doing it
only the way the Buckeyes can. They're trying to take
over the city, but those Austinites are not letting that
happen too easily.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
So it's going to be a fun time, ESPN game day.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Y'all will be watching it and you'll get a chance
to see Austin, Texas at its finest. It's an exciting
time because when you look at the matchup and We
can go back to last year. It was the first
game of the year. Nobody understood what either one of
these teams were going to be. The hype was around
Arch Manning, and everybody frowned him before he even took
(01:07):
a snap.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
And now he's got a year under his belt.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's a different team that got a chance to play
a warm-up game. No disrespect to the teams that they
played before, but both teams came in and did exactly
what a team that wants to play or be considered
a national title contender, they did what they needed to do.
So it's going to be a lot of fun tomorrow
night at DKR.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And I mean, you touched on it too.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I mean, last year, obviously they opened against each other,
but this year they both got a warmup game to
come into this one where, I mean, the horns handled
Texas state last weekend, Ohio state handles ball state. But
I mean, I'm guessing that probably what people want to
see out of Arch Manning is him have that game.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And this would be the one that they want to
see it in.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
No doubt. No doubt.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
They want to see him go out there and perform
because let's think about it. When you have these two
prideful and historical teams playing each other, there's going to
be a lot of talent on the field. And this
is one of those games where everybody is the same.
But the cool part about this is Arch Manning goes
(02:17):
up against a top defense every single day in practice.
So he's seen this before. He's looking at the intensity
of this game. And of course he's, he's got the
revenge factor. He'll never say it, but you know, deep
down after that first game last year, there was an
article that came out, call them a flop and all
this other stuff. But now he's got an opportunity to
(02:39):
write a ship that a lot of people truly weren't
on the bandwagon, so to speak, unless you're here and
watched his progression, every single game, people are going to
be looking at arch in a light. Now that I
think is going to be pretty favorable for him.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Again, he's Mike Hardball Harge, and he is part of
the morning kickoff with Mark Henry on our Austin sister station,
AM 1300 The Zone, talking Longhorns and Ohio State. Coming
up tomorrow night, and again, you can listen to that
game over on NewsRadio 740 KTRH. Defensively, though, I mean,
it's not much that you can tell from that first
game against Texas State, but I mean, through the 60
(03:18):
minutes of that game, I mean, could you already see
kind of Will Muschamp's fingerprints all over this defense?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, I think what we saw from Will Muschamp's defense
was an intensity factor, the takeaway factor, the ability to
dislodge the football, make people feel uncomfortable. And that was
with a base defense. We didn't get to see any exotics.
We didn't get to see Colin Simmons move around or
come off the edge. But what we did see is
(03:45):
a fundamentally sound football team making tackles in the open field.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yes, they gave up some rushing yards and And maybe that's.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
A little disheartening, but you also look at this team
and you can see a little bit of the blueprint.
For example, you look at Raheem Biles, the middle linebacker,
the linebacker that can move around and is fast. He
forced a fumble while playing outstanding. Then you look at
what Grayson Littleton has been able to do as a sophomore,
(04:15):
true sophomore, after his freshman All-American campaign.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
He was a playmaker.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So there's going to be some moments in this game
that we're going to see Will Muschamp's blueprint. But don't
get it mistaken. PK's defense was not bad. They held
Ohio State to 14 points. They didn't outrush Texas last year.
Texas made a costly turnover, and that was the difference
in the game, and they won 14-7. This is a
(04:43):
new team, new faces, and a new coordinator on the
defensive side.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
But again.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
You look at Ohio State, they've got a new offensive
play caller in Arthur Smith, but Ryan Day's offense is
Ryan Day's offense. There may be some nuances in it,
but Will Muschamp will have an imprint on the game
tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Offensively, too, I know a lot of people are going
to talk about Arch Manning and also talking about Wingo
and Coleman as well, but the run game, that was
something that they didn't really use a ton of. Smothers
had 10 carries, Relique Brown with 11. If they need
to run the football, if that is something that, you know,
(05:23):
kill the clock, whatever it is, do they feel like
they have the ability to be able to do that
with a lot more regularity than they have the last
couple of years?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I think that there is some hidden yards that we're
missing in there, too, and that's Arch Manning's legs.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
He didn't use his legs last week. He didn't have to.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It looked like he was doing everything possible, and it
seemed like Sark was like, I don't care what you do,
don't run.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
But this week his legs are going to be a
part of that.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
But to your point, Relique Brown and Hollywood Smothers, I
think that these are two backs that are electric, and
the difference from the years past to where we are now,
those guys.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Can hit a home run.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
And what I mean by that, they can put their
foot in the ground and get north and south and
take it 70 yards.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
So that's going to help with those explosive plays.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
But I think the running game, when it's time to
end the game and be able to run the clock,
I think that offensive line with Trevor Goosby and Melvin
Ciani on the outside and then Brandon Baker on the
inside with Connor Robinson.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I think this team is going to end.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh, and Lawrence Seymour, the transfer from Western Kentucky, who's
played a lot of football. This is the first time
that they're really going to be tested because don't forget,
Goosby was out for a little bit with training when
he had the bone bruise. And Seymour was out as
well with a raw bum ankle. So that last week
was the first time that they really had everybody together
(06:52):
and they did a great job.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Hardball.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I mean, it clearly Texas is a program. You go there,
you know, the expectations are they expect you to win,
but let's say they come out of Saturday night. They
have a really nice performance against Ohio state.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
They win.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I mean, how quickly does that attention have to turn to, Oh,
you got to go to Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You got red river. You got Florida. You got Ole Miss.
You've got LSU later on in the season.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I mean, is that going to be one of those
that probably the first thing that Steve Sarkeesian says afterwards?
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
You know, this isn't a national championship game. It does
put you in the conversation and change the narrative of
what people think of you. And last year, as soon
as they lost that game, they were like, oh, they
can't lose anymore. Well, it's a little bit different now.
But I do believe and I know I've known Sark
enough that I understand that he's always on to the
next game after that. But if they can win that
(07:45):
game tomorrow night, which I think they will, I don't
see Sark letting them party like it's 1999, if you
know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
He's got to get them.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Back focused because that's just one part of this, the
Ohio State game. But that's not the biggest part because
you do want to play for an SEC title.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
And I think that's his main goal right now.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Well, I think you just gave my producer Joshua Jordan
an idea for a bump back for one of our
segments here remaining on the show today.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So good on you, hardball. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Again, he's Mike Hardball Harch with AM 1300 The Zone
in Austin. Clearly a huge game coming up tomorrow night,
number one against number four. And we've been talking some
longhorns with them. Do you guys, even before Craig and
the guys hit the air, is there any local programming
you guys going to be due leading up to the game?
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
We'll start the pregame show at 3.30. We'll be down
at DKR. We're right outside Winship Circle and the Hook'Em Hangout.
You'll see the big Bevo, blown up Bevo, and just
walk through him.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
And we'll be right there doing that. We'll go to 5.30.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Then we turn it over to Craig, Roger Wallace, and
Will Matthews, former Longhorn player.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
As they bring you the game on.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
AM 1300 The Zone in Austin, Texas, or free on
that iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
You know how that goes. Oh, yeah. No, always.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
The iHeartRadio app is always your friend, Hardball.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
It's always there for you. It never lets you down. So, no, absolutely.
Looking forward to it. And anybody from here heading out
to Austin, go out there, see Hardball and the crew
before you head on into DKR Memorial Stadium tomorrow night.
It's going to be a fun one, Mike. Really looking
forward to it. And always great to catch up with you.
And we'll do so again here very soon.
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