Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to our number two of the morning kickoff
right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
It is game week, folks, and we are all excited.
We heard from coach Sark a little bit earlier, but
now we are about to flip the script because we
got a pre game and we got a post game,
(00:20):
and now is the time to understand exactly what we
are about to be doing.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So what do you do?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
You bring in my guy Nick Shuley and his producer
Mark Higgins of Third and Longhorns and I mean Third
and Longhorns, and now we figure out where are we
going after this? Brother man, thanks for having us. We're
excited to have you guys in here. It is is
big day for the iHeart Family, the AM thirteen hundred
(00:51):
The Zone family, because your brand and what you guys
have been able to create over at Third and Longhorn
with all the former players that are ready to take
that next step and bring some insight and talk truly
about what they see on the football field is something
that a lot of folks don't get that access to.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So talk about how that all came about as well? Man,
it was it was funny.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I was at collective for a meeting at Jeremy Hills
Jim and he was talking to a bunch of former
players and Mark and I back in the day, had
started help Lance Armstrong start his podcast, so we kind
of figured it out as we went and learn. And
I'm listening to Hills talk to these former players about
like whatever game was coming up that week, and I'm like, man,
I know there's a stupid sentence because everybody says this nowadays,
(01:38):
but I'm like, y'all need a podcast. And Hills was like,
we're in, let's go, and and so I said, okay, cool,
well let's start. He's like, cool, you're gonna run it.
I was like great, sounds good. And he's like no, no, no, no, no,
you're going to run it. And I'm like, hey, yeah,
I understand it. He'said, no, you're gonna host it. And
I was like, dude, Higgs and I our whole lives
have been the other side of the camera. So so
(01:59):
this this world is new for us, but it's it's
been fun.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's been a learning experience.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I respect the heck out of everything you guys do,
because it is it's not something you can just do.
You have to like get better and practice and learn.
And I remember we had like, we had Treyigman on
Lance's podcast once and he said he said that he prepared.
He felt like he prepared more to announce games than
he did to play in them back in the day,
which I thought was fascinating. And then he realized that
(02:24):
once you do it. So but it's been fun. But
so we started, it just kind of got a We
got a room at the Keller Williams building and where
nobody I knew nobody was because I knew there was
only meetings there like two times a month.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I was like, cool, I'm just gonna slide in there.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I told Gary's assistant, Gary Keller's assistant, It's like, we're
just going to slide in here and hopefully nobody notices.
And so we recorded a couple episodes. We're all sitting
at a conference table and it was going great. And
then I said, hey, Teresa, we're going to record this week.
And Teresa was like, Nick, Gary has a meeting in there,
and the guys were already on their way, and I
was like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do?
And She's like, well, why don't you just use our
(02:58):
TV studio here in the lobby. I was like, we
have a TV studio, and she was like yeah, and
so she sets us up and so we end up
in this TV studio. It's phenomenal and and you know,
everything else since that, it is just kind of taken off.
And you know, the world thinks we're in a huge
studio that we you know, we own. But you know
that's I guess I shouldn't have told that story. Hun,
we just gave away sauce.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I like to think, you can't you can't hit a
moving target, and they just give him here.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's why it's okay.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
I give up the ghosts all the time. I appreciate.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
I appreciate y'all keeping my seat warm over there. I
see y'all in my seat. They don't change my setting.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You're not touching anything, sir.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
That Harte was already changing everything. So he said, he
said he was messing with you exactly. I knew it
was him all along.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
You know, that's what happens when you're in no dugouts
for a long time. You start to understand how to
play them games on the road.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
But you brought up Yeah, I got.
Speaker 6 (03:55):
A question for you, what is the thing that you've
learned the most about the guys that you work with?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
A couple of them read the production notes, a couple
of them, don't. We will not name name. I told
him the old day. I said, I'm gonna do the
notes next week in Sanskrit to see if anybody even
opens the documents.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
And I spend you know, hours getting all the notes ready,
getting everything ready, And we won't name names.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
But we have one guy come in one time and
be like, who we got today?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Actually, to tell you the truth, I don't know anything
about this team.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
You know knows. Have y'all found out about his papers?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh? Rod has it all. It's the manifesto he's been
writing it. It's it's interesting to see him come in.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
It's like the kid in class who just had the
notes for the whole semester and it's all just about
to spill up.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, we clean up. His notebook crumbles every time he
leaves the studio. So, I mean, man, it is so
impressive to see the prep that Rod does on the
statistics he knows, and just the stuff he can pull out.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It's it's amazing. It's impressive.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yes, somebody who's worked with him, been in the studio
with him, and seeing his growth throughout this process is
it's been amazing to watch him and his knowledge is
second to none. And I'm sure that everybody's feeding off
of each other in that room because there's so much
talent in that room. When you got Derek Johnson, Alex Okafer,
(05:20):
Fozzy Whittaker, and you got Jeremy Hills yourself, that whole
crew always brings something different every single day. So Mark,
I wanted to ask you as far as the production
part of it, and like you said, you're writing the
notes and you're trying to hit those marks. How difficult
is it because each guy has something that they want
(05:40):
to say over the next guy in the next guy.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah, And it's actually it's a good problem because all
the guys have such an.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Amazing amount of ball knowledge, and you know.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
One guy can cook on an offensive thing and then
you flip it over to Derek or Alex on the
defensive side, and it's just we just have we have
so much talent that it makes our job easy and
we can just let these guys find them up and go.
And you spoke about Rod, I mean, there's nobody more
prepared on the show than Rod and probably Fozzy, and
it's just a good problem. I mean, Derek Johnson were
on a road show last week and Derek said, you know,
(06:10):
more people talked to me about this show than my
football career and he accomplished exactly.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Mark, you.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Just said that Fozzi and Rod are the guys that
are always prepared, so that only.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Leaves three other people, and you know what those three,
those three will own up to it.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
But but they also they do a great job, so
I'm not complaining it at all.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
No, I would say, yeah, we won't name names, but
there are a few others that there are a few
others that prepare, but yeah, we won't name the ones
that don't.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Tell us tell us about it.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
We're talking to the crew from A Third and Longhorn,
a new part of the iHeart family. They will be
hosting the post game wrap up as we'll want to
talk about it to get you the latest and hot
off the press, and that's when everybody's emotions are a
little bit hot. So you got to make sure you
got the right people in the right places for the
(07:04):
post game. But tell us what the format will be
one for people to tune in right after the ball game.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, so we'll generally go live about ten minutes after
the game, and I think it'll get picked up. I
think it'll get picked up right after Craig's after Craig's Show,
right after the game. But we generally start off with
a quick, you know, recap of the game, quick kind
of synopsis, and then we'll go into the offensive side,
the defensive side, and my favorite part, the special teams,
and then we after about thirty minutes, we open it
(07:32):
up to YouTube questions, et cetera. And so we get
we get a lot of interesting questions and comments and
it's actually pretty good stuff though it's not as bad
as you think it would be. But and also it's
cool because we've seen an influx of the other teams
fans come in and start watching and commenting and saying stuff,
and once again, it's not as bad as you think
some of them are, but it's you know, it's it's
(07:54):
been pretty cool to kind of get an instant reaction,
and we try to answer things as quick as possible
and get to as many as we possibly can. And
but yeah, it's just just kind of have a little
open format and we want the fans to feel part
of it as well.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And one of the things that I've always liked about,
you know, post game reaction is the calling aspect of it, right.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
But you don't have the dump button there quick enough to.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Be able to stop some of these people, which is
why we don't take a lot of calls in here.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
But I do appreciate the fact that you guys are
going to be able to.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I guess, anticipate or answer excuse me, answer the people's
calls and emails and things like that to get the
latest reaction from them as well.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
I think they're all sober too.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Depending on how that game is going, it will lead
in the right direction. Mark.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
You got a question, No, Ma, I have more of
a statement.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
You know, when you have people that have drink, you know,
frosty beers for four quarters, and what do you expect
them to say?
Speaker 5 (08:55):
They're going to be fired up with no filter.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, I'd say you know exactly how that goes. You've
been around some of those people while that thing is
going on.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Fortunately, and.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
They're passionate, man. That's that's that's what's important. So what
are some of the biggest things that you guys have seen.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Obviously you went on that road show and a lot
of good things have happened throughout that road show, but
what were some of the biggest moments in that whole thing.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It was cool to see how the show's connected, right,
we just we recorded, we see the YouTube comments those pieces.
But we don't get a chance to go out and
talk to people as much like DJ does. But I'm
not out there making appearances and that you can pick
me out of a lineup. But but like it's cool
to hear feedback, like, hey, I watch the show every week.
It's been so great. I was always wondering, you know
who David ash was or you know these things, And
(09:45):
so that's what we've tried to to kind of pick
through and and we want to have so many people.
We wanted to feel like kind of opening of the
family to to and and when guys come on, we
tell them you're welcome to come back anytime. And guys
like Adrian Phillips, Aaron Williams, all these guys have really
taken it up, taken us up on it, and there
there'll be a big part of the postgame show and
they come in a lot, and I think I think
(10:07):
that's been the coolest part. But the connection for me
was I was kind of wild, of like, wow, this
thing we all just kind of created in a conference
room is actually connecting with people.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So it was cool.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
We knew it it was taking off at least had
some potential. When we were at the Sugar Bowl and
people recognizing Nick in the bathroom and I.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Did my typical I was like, oh my gosh, please
meet Mark Higgins, produces the show, and then I just
snuck out of the bathroom as fast as I could.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
You did that at the baseball game to Mark's got guys.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
One of the things that I want to pay respect
to you guys on is, you know, when I've listened
to the show.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Y'all y'all argue.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
The guys argue amongst themselves, you know, about their points,
and it's the closest.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Thing that I've heard.
Speaker 6 (10:53):
How Hard and I we hardly ever agree, but when
we do is like a bro hug.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Moment, and just y'all have that every show. It's like,
I love that dynamic of the show. I'm glad that
y'all are on our heart now.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Well, man, we're excited to be here. We have strategically
separated the set. Now I sit in the middle, Hills
and Fazzier on the left the offensive players, and then
that Derek Oak and Rod are on the right side
the defense. Go. We got to separate Oak and Hills
because they just they get after It's the funniest dynamic
and they're like best friends, but they just argue with
(11:31):
each other about everything.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's phenomenal. That's awesome. How often do you guys take We.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Usually take once a week, but at once, generally with interviews.
But once the season starts, we'll do the preview show
and then we do the postgame show after. So yeah,
generally twice, but sometimes we'll add more depending on what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We had a heavy week last week, y'all were on
the road.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
That's why everybody's resting their voices this week to get
ready for the big week.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well, we're glad to have you in the family.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
We're excited to be a part of this and we
look forward to all the content that you guys are
going to be putting now. Because I've known you for
a while, Nick, you do great work. And what Third
and Longhorn has become is a phenomenon and everybody's all about.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
It, so keep up the great work man. Thank you, yeah,
thanks for having us man. We're excited to be a
part of the family and we're.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Definitely gonna have y'all on again.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Coming up newt