Turn the Page Tuesday: Longhorns’ CFP Case, NFL Contenders, NBA Risers & Texans Win Breakdown

Episode Transcript
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Texas finds out where.

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They sit in the college football rankings A little bit
later tonight. Who are the true NFL contenders? As the
Patriots win ten straight? Are they for real? Joe Cook
of Inside Texas breaks down Texas's chances and also recaps
the Texas Texas A and M matchup from last Friday.

(01:13):
The NBA Pretenders and Contenders, Mark Vandermere of the Texans
joins us at eight seventeen, and you know he is
going to be fired up.

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And Coach Miller previews the.

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Acc SEC challenge as Texas gets ready to play Virginia.

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(02:24):
a pair of tickets as well. Well, let's get into it,
because the conversations you're still running around.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
There's still a lot.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
That is being digested when it comes to this Texas
Longhorn playoff implications.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Are they in? Are they out?

Speaker 1 (02:42):
People are saying they're in, people are saying they're out.
But no matter what, you can always go back to
last Friday when Texas beat Texas A and M. And
one of the things that happened during that conversation was
Sart asked about that tough first half and what did
he say to his team that led him out at halftime?

Speaker 4 (03:03):
I just I just challenged him on it was about
pride for the next thirty minutes. You know, it was
about Texas fight. You know, how much were you or
how much fight do we have left in us in
the tank to fight for and with one another? And
and it was just we got we had to dig deep,
and we felt like we could control the game, but
everybody had to give more. Everybody had a drill deeper.

(03:26):
Everybody had to give more, and you know they felt it.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
I felt it. I felt it in the locker room.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
It was it was a real moment, and you know,
you have moments like that as a coach.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
And as a team, and you never know.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
I mean, I've given a lot of great speeches and
that the result wasn't what you're looking for, but that
one resonated for whatever it was.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
I thought our guys played with.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
A ton of pride, a ton of fight, and they
made plays in critical moments. And that's that's what games
like this require, when when two good teams meet, can
you make the play when the play needs to be made?
And I think more times than not tonight we were
able to do that.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
And that's why when you look at this team and
the ability to come out in the second half and
play the way that they did, you look at what
happened against Georgia and how in that fourth quarter it
kind of got away from them. And I believe Sark
told those guys, y'all got to lock in because this
will be the last time. Number one, a lot of
you will be on this field, and number two, some

(04:23):
of you this is your last game as the Texas Longhorn.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
What do you have to bring to the table.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
And Sark talked to Taff and what Taff said about
Sark and how the team brought it in at the
end of the game.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
I don't I don't recall that terry, you know. But
you know, I just think that.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
I've got a very you know, I'm very honest with
our team, and I'm I'm open with them, I'm transparent
with them. I'm vulnerable with them. But they know my
honesty is real because of all those things that that
we're able to get you to this point. And when
I tell I really believe in them, and when I
tell them, I do believe we're a really good football team,

(05:04):
and I tell them I think we're the better team
going into this game.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
I think they do believe.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
Me because I've told them other times when we weren't
where we were supposed to be. So I think there's
a level of honesty and transparency that I have with
our guys to where they do believe my messaging and
they do trust in what is needed to get the
job done. And so, you know, I think they trusted
me this week. You know, so much of when you
get into rivalry games, you can get focused into the

(05:30):
atmosphere of the game the other team. You can get
focused on senior day, and I just challenged them this
week to focus on each other, stay enamored with us,
Just stay connected. It's not about them, it's not about
senior Night. It's not about it being a night game.
We don't need to make it bigger than it is.
Let's focus on one day at a time. Today's the
most important day. Let's be really good today. We'll focus

(05:50):
on tomorrow when it shows up. And they did that
this week. It was a short week. We had a
pretty elaborate game plan. They executed it in all three phases,
and I'm proud of them for that.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, you talk about somebody that is very transparent. I
love that because I don't want anything to be left
to have to think about it wondering. And coach sark
he does that. He takes that out of the equation
for his team. I remember hearing Bobby Bowden give a

(06:22):
speech one time in saying that I would not trade
mine for theirs.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yes, they have about three all Americans.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Those guys are gonna play on Sunday, but I would
not trade them for you. We're gonna go out and
not play them today because we play together. Like those
great motivators find a way to get their team to
rise to the occasion. I think that's one of sark superpowers.

(06:56):
You look at years ago was two years now they
go Alabama. Alabama had lost the game at home in
five years? What did Sark do? Hung a loss on him?

Speaker 5 (07:09):
He did.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
He's done it like every year since. Every year there's
a moment where he swept two years in a row
the rivals Arkansas, Texas A and m oh.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
You the sweep three years in a row. Come on, man,
how many coaches have done it?

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Three years in a row, two two, two years in
a row, two years in a row.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, it's shot down. Yeah he did. He did.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
But one of the things that I wanted to talk
about is, you know, Sark was on the car wash
tour yesterday. He was talking to everybody that had a
microphone that was gonna give him a.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Chance to politic.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
And this was one of those moments when he was
on sec UH in the morning and he was talking
about how good his football team is and he believes
they should be in the college football playoff.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
Think about a lot of different things throughout the season,
and you know, I think there's there's part of you know,
as you grow throughout a season, and and and we
had a very unique one when you think about we
played five we played five top ten ranked teams this season.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
But beyond that, we go on, we go on.

Speaker 4 (08:26):
We go six and one at the second half of
our season, and after after starting off three and two,
and of those seven games, four of those teams were
ranked in the top ten, and we went three and
one in those games. And when you when you think about, hey,
I know everyone wants to point to the Florida game
where we didn't play great against Mississippi State and in Kentucky, well,

(08:48):
we also didn't play at home for forty two straight
days either, And and when when you look at it
on that front, I thought, if a lot of teams
were put in our shoes, what type of resiliency would
they show? Uh, to play the schedule that we played,
to beat the teams that we beat, I think is
obviously extremely impressive to, like I said, to go three

(09:09):
and one in the second half of our season against
against four top ten ranked opponents, and to go three
and two on the season with the only other loss
coming to Ohio State, when we lose fourteen to seven
the first game of the year, when we allegedly played terrible.
When I did realistically, we outgain them by over one
hundred and fifty yards and we get stopped twice inside

(09:30):
the ten and still have the ball at the end
of the game to try to go tie it or
win it. When nobody else has played Ohio State within
within three scores, I think speaks to that as well.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
And so you know, ultimately I'm proud of our team.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
I think these guys have showed a lot of grit,
a lot of resiliency.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
They've responded, you know, game in and game out.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
And the point being is this, Hey, again, we can
say we shouldn't have played that game, or we shouldn't
have lost that game. Teams are gonna lose tough games
throughout the season, but I I think we can all
agree we've gotten better as the season's gone on, and
we've grown and we've become a better football team than
we were at the start of the season. We've played
five top ten ranked teams and we've beaten three of them.

(10:13):
There's teams that are ranked in front of us that
haven't played any top ten ranked teams. And so my
point to everybody is, is this about what your record
is at the end, or is this about beating quality teams?
And showing how good of a team you really are
by beating quality teams on the field, or is it

(10:33):
don't play good teams, put up a bunch of yards,
put up a bunch of points, and make it look good.
You know, throw fade route touchdowns with thirty eight seconds
to go when you're head thirty one to seven, so
that the score looks better. So is the committee really
watching the games or are they just looking at a
stat sheet at the end of the game to say, oh, well,
they won by this many points.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
They must have played really good. Whoa well sides fire? Well.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
The thing about it is, we've been telling you the
entire time. All gas no breaks needs to mean that
you need to not let up. You need to not
let teams get close to you. You need to keep
your foot on their throat and let it ride out.
And so, yeah, he might've taken a shot, but some
of that has some validity to it because I feel

(11:18):
the same way. There should have been times that you
if you can put up half a hunter, put up
half a hunter and make them stop you. That's not
your job to play down and let them hang around,
because put your foot on their throat.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Because if that's what.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
The committee is asking for it, that's what you delivered.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
You got you gotta get the people what they want,
and that is something that I will never apologize for.

Speaker 6 (11:41):
It.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
You got a chance to destroy them, destroy them. We're
just getting started here on a turn the page Tuesday
edition of the Morning Kickoff the NFL. Who's for real
and who is not? There's a lot of pretenders out there,
but I want to know who are the true contenders.
And we got Joe Cook of Inside Texas joining us

(12:02):
at seven thirty four right here on sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone and always free on the iHeartRadio app.
Welcome back to the Morning Kickoff right here on sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone, and say turn the
page Tuesday edition of the Morning Kickoff right here on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. My man, Chain,

(12:23):
I know you've probably been hitting us up on the
text line. I got to get my update on my
text line. That's the problem. That's why I haven't been
able to answer because something's wrong with the text line.
So I apologize for those that have been hitting us
up on the text line, but we'll give you a
chance to win a pair of tickets today, hang around.
Hang around. By the end of hour number one, I'll

(12:44):
give you a chance to win a pair of tickets.
I'm not going to tell you where and what you're
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some tickets. I got some stuff for you. And shout
out to my god foss Man. He's picking his son
to school and he's like put Texas in the college
football playoffs. So we'll find out a little bit more
about that tonight as the committee meets and releases their

(13:07):
playoff rankings. But right now, I want to get into
the NFL and who's real and who is fake. And
the two teams that I really want to talk about
right now are the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos.
The New England Patriots win their tenth straight game yesterday
as they defeated the Giants thirty three to fifteen, and

(13:30):
the Giants are just playing through the season and trying
to figure out what's next for them. Jackson Dark, I
don't know about that old school leather jacket. He looked
like he should have been in that movie Hammer, Like,
I mean, it's like, what are we doing? But you know,
the Patriots continue to roll on the I remember at
the beginning of the season, I was talking about Jim

(13:52):
Harbaugh possibly being the coach of the year.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
The coach of the year is Mike.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Vrabel by far, by far, watching what he's been able
to do with his team and put them at eleven
and two, found their quarterback did everything he needed to do,
and then you look at what Tennessee has become.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
They're one and eleven.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
They just lost to the Jaguars twenty five to three.
They are a team in turmoil. And the Patriots are
a team that's ascending in the right way. They play football,
and people are gonna say their schedule, their schedule, their schedule,
their schedule is set up nicely for them, but they

(14:35):
have to go out there and win those games. And
for the NFL, for a team to go out and
win ten straight games, I don't care who you're playing,
that is tough to do. And so the Patriots are
a team that I am looking at very closely now.
I don't know if they're going to go on a
run in the playoffs or anything like that, but that
is a team that I know that a lot of

(14:57):
New England fans are just enjoying the right now.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
They're in joy. I know a few of them. Unfortunately
they're gloating. Sall yeah, they fall uh. But Tennessee has
got to look at themselves in the mirror. The ownership,
the coaching, the general managers, everybody that has.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
A dog in a fight.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
They need to look themselves in the mirror and realize
that the problem was not the coach, The problem was them.
And that's been a lot of in a lot of
cases throughout the years, but I don't know if there's
been a more blatant here take this than this situation

(15:41):
right now. Coach Abriel leaving and going to the Patriots
and in one year, in one year, turning that team
into the number one team in the league. Right now,
and yes, I said it, they're the number one team.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
I would put them above Broncos right now.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well they I mean they're eleven and two and the
Broncos are ten and to so and the Patriots are
now on The Patriots are now on a bye week,
so they got some time to rest and recruit. But
you look at the Broncos, Broncos being tended to. They
beat the Commanders in overtime, the running back RJ. Harvey

(16:24):
continues to play well for them, especially with JK.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
Dobbins being out.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Then you look at what their defense has been able
to do.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
John A.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Barron, Brandon Jones, Malcolm Roach just got an extension from
the Broncos and they're just finding ways to get it
done too. They're sitting at ten and two and they're
gonna be tough down to stretch as well. Look bow Knicks,
he plays ugly half the game, but when the game

(16:54):
is on the line, he finds a way to get
it done. He's a game that's all that really truly
matters victories, and that's how you're going to be judged
all the time anyway as a quarterback. So I look
at the Broncos as another team because of their defense
and how well they played. They got Patrick certain the
second on the outside, as I said, Ja Day and

(17:16):
Riley Moss Moss got He got Moss the other day.
But you know, he's a guy that they feel comfortable with,
and so there's some things that are happening there. Another
team that I said was gonna win the NFC West
was the Los Angeles Rams. They came up short against
the Panthers. Do we need to start putting some respect
on the Panthers as well. They benched Bryce Young last year.

(17:39):
He came back, played well at the end of the season.
Now they've won seven games and they are in the
hunt for the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
He's looked dramatically better at these last three games than
he did at the beginning of the season.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
I don't know if he was if he.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Was physically one hundred or mentally one hundred, but whatever
it is, Uh, he's been playing good football the last
three weeks, and I didn't think that he was going
to be able to do it harde Like when we
saw him in Texas Alabama game, he looked very slight,

(18:13):
you know, one hundred and eighty five pounds.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
It's kind of uncommon now in these.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Modern I guess Drew Brees was the last small quarterback,
right that was that was elite Kyler, Mary Russ Kyler.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
I mean, look, I said this when people started questioning him.
I'm like that dude has been the sized all his life.
Dude has found a way, he has found a way
to get it done. He's always been the smallest dude
on the football field, for sure, and he did it
in high school he did it at Alabama, he won
the Heisman Trophy, and here he is right now in

(18:51):
the NFL, and they were like, man, he just doesn't
I'm like, dude, is a winner. Like give him time
and hear that coach decided, hey, it was time to
give him back the reins. And he's played really, really well.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
You're that time.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
But you also have to look at the pretenders. And
you start to look at are the you talked about
the Kansas City Chiefs have they become the pretenders? Are
the Carolina Panthers? Not to excuse me, not the Carolina Panthers.
Are the Baltimore Ravens pretenders? You start to look at

(19:28):
the Miami Dolphins. They playing really, they've been playing better.
They're five and seven right now. But I mean that's
not putting them at the top of the food chain,
but from where they were, and the we.

Speaker 7 (19:40):
Haven't even had to have Yeah, that's why I was
just about to say, they haven't even given us any
good Mike.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Mcday winning because they've been winning. So you start to
look at them. Another team, are you ready to put
dirt on them? Is the Pittsburgh Steelers a team that
they just can't seem to get out the way they're
pointing fingers, the fans in the stands or screen, even
fire Mike Tomlin, I mean the whole thing. Another team
that was a pretender this year is the Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
They were dirt on I mean get a back home
and and there's that word stopping.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
And pull dirt on to them. They're wrecked. We need
to start making it called the lane Kiffin. We're gonna
get the back Lane Kiffin because they were calling him
that word, the back. So we we you're sitting here
and looking at these teams that coming into the season
that the Minnesota Vikings had Sam Donald. Sam Donald as

(20:40):
their starting quir who was up. I think he won
the comeback Player of the Year. If I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 6 (20:47):
He over got it.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
That that's true.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
It came back and you decided I'm gonna go with
JJ McCarthy. Not only did you decide to go with
JJ McCarthy, you didn't even have a good cup playing you.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Have we ever done a segment called boy was I wrong?
Because I don't remember that when it comes to JJ McCarthy,
boy was I wrong? I thought he was gonna be
the guy. No sir, I missed. I'm just letting everybody know. Yeah,
I remember what I said. Yeah, JJ McCarthy's athletic. He's
gonna be a good quarterback. You know he's got Justin Jefferson.

(21:26):
Justin Jefferson had two catches for eighteen yards.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Justin Jefferson want to fight everybody in Minnesota right now.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
I don't know why you bragging about Sam Donner.

Speaker 7 (21:34):
Ain't like he tied with the best record in the
nfcol Yeah exactly, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
And putting up the numbers that he's putting up, and
being the quarterback of a team in Seattle that has
turned their season around as well by getting themselves the
quarterback that they were.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Justin Jefferson may not go to the Pro Bowl.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Justin Jefferson may not show up to the game next
week because he don't know who's gonna throw him the ball.
They can't get the.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
Ball to him. That is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
You have the best, one of the best wide receivers
in football and you can't find a way to get no.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Plays to just get him the ball. Get him.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
I don't mind if he goes straight Keyshawn Johnson on him.
Throw me the damn ball. That's all I care about. Hard, Yes,
I'm talking about I'm open. I'm open. Coming up next,
we're gonna talk to our guy Joe Cook of Inside
Texas as he lets us know his thoughts on this
playoff implication, and of course I've got to get what

(22:34):
he thought about the Texas Longhorns defeating the Aggies last Friday,
right here on the morning kickoff on Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred, The Zone and always.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Free on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
It's a Tuesday, so that can only mean one thing.
Our guy Joe Cook of Inside Texas. You can follow
him at Joseph Cook eighty nine. He joins us and
Joe as a former Texas Longhorn someone who graduated from
the university that matchup on Friday. It kind of made

(23:10):
you feel real good about your alma mater, did it?

Speaker 8 (23:14):
Man?

Speaker 9 (23:14):
That must have been a fun one to be actually
in the stands for. You know, I hadn't realized what
Sark said that there's been only a handful of like
true night games since they've been to the SEC. All
those two thirty games kind of start running into the night,
and I think that's about the same. But no, you
could tell there was a real difference, and you know
all the the one hundred two thousand there, the Longhorns

(23:37):
were pretty active.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
You could tell the Aggies were active early.

Speaker 9 (23:40):
It made for a great atmosphere, and then the team
on the field made it better and better and better.

Speaker 5 (23:45):
It was.

Speaker 9 (23:45):
It was a whole lot of fun to watch and
definitely was just you know, one of those wins that
you think about no matter what happens with the playoffs,
no matter what and enes, no matter where Texas goes.
It's that's one of those wins that you think about
for a long time time.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Joe, it was. It was a team effort.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
The offense played well, the defense played well, special teams.
Cole Sark always talks about complimentary football. Uh, was there
a part of the game that you thought excelled more
than others?

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, that I'm.

Speaker 9 (24:18):
Pretty sure that third quarter may have been the best
quarter of football that we've seen from from Texas all year.
You know, you get the uh, that first offensive drive
for Texas it only ends in a field goal and
they Mason Chippley got some some props from the program
for doing his job, but there was some pretty intriguing
play calling that you could tell where Sarkisian is kind

(24:41):
of feeling things out against Mike Elko's defense and he
finds some some sequences at work.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (24:47):
I know, that was obviously huge. You know, you get
yourself into scoring position, you make another stop, and then
you had that long drive that I think that's the
one that concluded with Ryan Wingo's touchdown cat from.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
From Arch Manning.

Speaker 9 (25:01):
And then you get another touchdown right on the other
side of the break in the fourth quarter from Nick
Towns and thanks to Jack Injury's long catching run on
a coverage bus.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
So you get a little bit of everything in that quarter.

Speaker 9 (25:13):
The crowd gets energized, the shape of the game changes,
and although A and M was able to, you know,
get that E. J.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Smith run, you know, it was kind of like last year.

Speaker 9 (25:22):
You're like, these ten points is just something that A
and M is not gonna be able to get passed.
Then you get Kobe Black and Michael taff turning the
ball over, and that fourth quarter don't don't don't short
change in it was pretty darn good too. But that
that third quarter of football, I feel like was the
best quarter of football Texas has played all year.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
And they had to do that.

Speaker 9 (25:41):
Against the best team maybe, you know, maybe the second
best team that they faced all year.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Don't you don't you think that that Texas had a
different mentality. Uh, they were flying around and hitting people
every now and then. I mean almost every series you
will see an A and M player lamp off the
fel what what what is? What is that we can't
what can we hang our hat on about that?

Speaker 3 (26:07):
With the with this team?

Speaker 9 (26:10):
Well, there's that guy who is number one. Uh, he's
pretty good on defense. So that's that's somebody that is
able to, you know, really alter the shape of a.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Game throughout the you know, entire course of it.

Speaker 9 (26:22):
He's someone that with Colin Simmons that you know, creates
those sacks, creates those opportunities, and it is just the
first guy that deep that offensive coordinators have to account for.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
And that still opens up things for other players.

Speaker 9 (26:35):
You know, even without Anthony Hill, you have Ethan Burke
stepping up.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Again against Texas A and M.

Speaker 9 (26:41):
You have you know, Kobe Black, who had kind of
fallen down the depth chart come in and makes several
big plays opposite Elik Mahobbits. So you just get contributions
from everybody, but you're always gonna be able to hang
your hat.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
On what Colin Simmons is doing there against.

Speaker 9 (26:59):
Offensive tack offensive lineman had ended up talking a lot
of mess and you know that halftime. Coming out of halftime,
some of the players after the game talked about, I mean,
I'm not sure how how much a halftime speech always helps,
but this one sounded like it helped a lot. Like
it sounded like Sark said something that got the team charged.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Up and ready to go in the second half.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
We're talking to Joe cookop inside Texas. You can follow
them at Joseph Cook eighty nine. Obviously, one of the
biggest stories of the season has been the play of
arch Manning. His last five starts, he's played some unbelievable football.
Do you think this is why coach Sark and the
way that this team is playing has been politicking the

(27:40):
way that he has here lately, because this is legitimately
probably the best football that we've seen Texas play in
the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 9 (27:51):
Yeah, I mean, if you're my guys an inside Texas
always talking about how this is a TV product and
you're gonna leave Arch Manning out of the TV product
you're gonna leave the guy who's been playing as well
as anybody else has in the SEC over the past
few weeks out of this. And you know, it took
him a half to get going, but once he got going,
it was it was something special. Uh And even sa

(28:13):
Stark breakup tendency a little bit. He's talked plenty about
how quarterback run and designed run isn't something that he
always puts into his playbook or is used a whole
lot in his career. And he comes out and you know,
draws up a zone play from an empty formation, and
that A and M just was not prepared for. So
uh Man Harts has I think evolved the right way

(28:37):
over the course of the year. And I always go
back to this. You know, you think of all the
different quarterbacks in that preseason conversation uh club, Nick Sellers, Lagway,
nuss Meyer. You know, Pavia was in there, and Pavia
has definitely lived up to the expectations. And Stockton's kind
of entered his name into there as well. But like
all those quarterbacks that we were hyping up at the

(28:58):
beginning of the year, well, the only one left standing
is Arch and I think that speaks to someone who
had his you know, his EBB. His flows went through
the you know, the silliness of the national media earlier
in the season that's kind of deriding him, call on
a flop and then all he's done since being called
that is just played really good football and be the

(29:20):
reason why Texas is in so many games.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
I'm I'm, I'm just kind of blown away at the
fact that Archer's numbers stand up to everybody in the
top five as far as the quarterbacks are concerned. And
the narrative is still that, you know what it was
in against Sam Houston. Like, now we're at the end
of the season, do you think that this is this

(29:45):
is why you get all those reps and and tried
different things, is to make sure that your.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Team is at the winning at the end.

Speaker 9 (29:55):
Yeah, and you know, all this reps are so valuable,
you know. And one of my my takeaways after the
game on on sat on Friday, and I guess what
my takeaway ended up being posted on Saturday was that,
you know, Arch is not this He's not a first
year starter anymore.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
And I guess that may be easy to.

Speaker 9 (30:12):
Say when you know you've played twelve regular season games
and you're approaching whatever the postseason is.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
But you know that that's not a.

Speaker 9 (30:19):
Player who looks like a first year starter. And I
know he's a third year player. He's been in the system,
he got starts last year, all that stuff. But we
we saw how valuable experience was at the beginning of
the year and what it's like to know how what
it is like to know how to enter a game
week after week after week. Because last year Arch knew,

(30:40):
you know, his his time as the starter was probably
going to be limited to two and three games at
the most. And I think he you know, he basically
was the guy for three games the end of the UTSA,
U l M Mississippi State. But you know, having to
do that every single week against you know, the best teams,
that's an a just for anybody.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
And and so you saw him, you know, not only go.

Speaker 9 (31:04):
Through and show some first year jitters, just despite you know,
everything that in his you know, family history and his
pedigree and stuff like that. But you've seen him then
be able to overcome those things. And then he goes
and is able to win away from Austin for the
first time against Oklahoma, and then he does it against
you know, in a kind of shoddy way against Kentucky,

(31:25):
and then he's the reason why against Mississippi State, and
the reason why against Arkansas, you know, and then the
reason why against you know are uh, Vanderbilt in Texas,
A and M. So he's gone from someone who the
offense kind of had to work around a little bit
early on to someone the offenses is truly centered around,

(31:46):
and someone that just you know, shows why he is,
you know, one of the best players in the country
at this point.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
How intent are you going to be tonight when the
committee comes out with their rankings before the championship weekend.

Speaker 9 (32:03):
Yeah, this is gonna be the ranking show that I
think is going to be the most tuned in for
Texas fans because, you know, aside from the last one,
just because none of the help that Texas really wanted,
aside from Michigan losing, showed up on Saturdays.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Vanderbilt one, Miami one, Notre Dame.

Speaker 9 (32:25):
One, Oh you won, Alabama one. Just everybody that Texas
would have liked to have lost didn't except for Michigan.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
And you know, maybe that only bumps ab up one spot.

Speaker 9 (32:36):
But we'll see how much this A and M win
helps them in their pursuit and we'll see what happens
with some other schools. What some of the shifting around
does I think you know, you've seen, you know, people
from Florida and people around the Hurricanes program really politicking
about Notre Dame, and a part of me wonders if
they have to maybe start politicking about Texas.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
And you know, the the.

Speaker 9 (32:59):
Other thing is that the ACC being this conference that
has a seven and five overall team and their conference
championship is really gonna mess with a lot of things
because what happens with you know, if Duke wins, there's
this chance that you know, maybe I guess it'd be
Tulane or South Florida or even James Madison, two of

(33:20):
those three teams hop in. And I know that's if
if that happens in Texas has left out, you're gonna
see a lot of Texans fans clamor for another change.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
To the playoff.

Speaker 9 (33:30):
But the system was five highest rated conference champions and
who would have thought that in these first two years
of the twelve team playoffs that the ACC would be
number five and then even possibly number six over the course.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Of these two years.

Speaker 9 (33:46):
And yeah, you know, James Madison isn't beating Texas on
a neutral field. You know, I'm gonna doubt Tulane in
South Florida. They may have better chances, but they're not
beating Texas on a neutral field. But you know, this
is the system we agreed to. And I kind of
wonder what Texas will want from the ACC considering Miami's
not playing Virginia and Duke Carr and you know some

(34:09):
of the other teams ahead of them are playing. They
can't take a loss this weekend. How much it'll help
Texas's overall resume.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
It's funny because I walked in here this morning and
our producer Marcus said, wait a minute, Duke is playing
for the ACC championship. What happens if they win? Yeah,
that was our discussion early this morning. So you hit
the nail on the head. We should see straight chaos
if some of this stuff starts to play out. As always,

(34:36):
Joe Man, we appreciate you. We appreciate you all year,
and we look forward to it again next week.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Bro. Absolutely, guys, thank you.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
There is Joe Cook of inside Texas. There's so many possibilities.
I cannot wait to see what we get tonight on
the College Football Rankings Show. Coming up next, we're gonna
talk NBA Detroit and OKC.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
Wow is serious?

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Oh yeah, and we'll see how soon will winby be
back right here on the morning kickoff on Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred the Zone and always free on the
iHeartRadio app. Great stuff from our guy Joe Cook of
Inside Texas. Make sure you follow them at Joseph Cook
eighty nine or get over to Inside Texas on three.

(35:26):
They do great work over there along with all the
people that cover the University of Texas. Right now is
an opportunity for you to win a pair of tickets.
That's right, folks, I've been talking to you about these tickets,
and guess what they are. They are a pair of
tickets to go see Chicago in Stix August the nineteenth
at the Moody Center. All you got to do is

(35:48):
get over to the iHeartRadio app search AM thirteen hundred
the Zone and leave the keyword of the day time
time is your keyword of the day to win a
pair of tickets to go see Chicago and Sticks on
August the nineteenth. Make sure you tuned into the Craig
Way Show. This afternoon from two to five, Craig Way,

(36:08):
the voice of the Texas Longhorns, as he gives you
an opportunity to win a pair of tickets as well.
I want to do this real quick, Mark, because you
love the NBA and your thoughts about the NBA, you're
always dialed into it. Two teams that have been standing
out all season long are, believe it or not, the
Detroit Pistons, who are seventeen and four and eight and

(36:32):
two in their last ten games, and the OKC Thunder,
the champion of last year. They are twenty and one
and the winners of twelve straight games.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Man, I watched a few of these games hard, and
I'm gonna tell you right now. Oklahoma City they have
so many weapons. And Jaln Williams just started playing. He's
only four games. So all the rest of the games
that they've played like they've they've won those games handicapped

(37:09):
without their second best score.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
So how good are they going to be going forward?

Speaker 2 (37:14):
The other thing is Detroit, and I brought this up
to you last week. Kate Cunningham is a monster. He
went from good player.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
To spectacular player in just a matter of a year.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
And yes, they made the playoffs last year, and I
forgot that they made the playoffs. They kind of eat
eaked in, if you would, But there's no eking now,
like they're playing really solid basketball and it's that aggressive,
overly aggressive, old school Detroit type of play.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Well, Kate Cunningham was the number one overall pick coming
out of Oklahoma State. He's a problem and he knows
it now. He's gotten to that point where he understands
his role on this team and the expectations coming into it.
You look at the East, you got Detroit, New York, Miami, Toronto, Orlando, Cleveland, Atlanta,

(38:20):
and the Celtics and the seventy six ers, all teams
that are above five hundred. You look at the West
and you got pretty much the same thing. You got
the Thunder, the Lakers. Lakers lost last night to the Suns.
The Rockets, the Nuggets, the Spurs, the Timberwolves, and the

(38:40):
Suns are all above five hundred, along with the Golden
State Warriors as they sit in the number eight position.
So basketball season is upon us now. We ain't diving
all the way into it because we still got a
lot of football, but it is going to be fun
to watch what ends up happening as we get closer

(39:02):
and closer, because everybody says NBA season starts on Christmas Day.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
That's that's when everybody.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Starts paying attention.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
So right moving on, coming up our number two, we
got Mark VanderMeer, voice of the Houston Texans at eight seventeen.
But coming up next, we'll hear from the head men's
basketball coach Sean Miller about his team and the expectations
of this sec ACC challenge as they take on Virginia

(39:32):
right here on the morning Kickoff on Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone and always free on the iHeartRadio app.
Welcome back to our number two of the morning kickoff
right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Mike harballharts w W Hall of Famer and World Strongest
Man d Mark Henry, And of course we got our
guy Marcus behind the boards, and our number one, we

(39:53):
got a chance to hear from coach Sarcus.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
He is politicking to.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Make sure that his team gets a good no tonight
in the college football rankings. We also talked about the
pretenders and the contenders in the NFL, and one of
the teams that we forgot to mention as a contender
is the Chicago Bears. The Chicago Bears and the Green
Bay Packers have a huge matchup this weekend, and we'll

(40:18):
talk about a little bit later in the week. We
also heard from Joe Cook of Inside Texas talking about
Texas and their possibilities of getting in and of course
the pretenders and contenders of the NBA coming up. In
the next segment, we'll hear from the voice of the
Houston Texans, Mark Vandermere as the Texans got that win

(40:39):
against the Colts and it changes the dynamic in the
AFC South. But right now, let's hear from coach Miller
as Coach Miller gets back from Maui. His team played well,
went two and one over there, played a great game
against NC State, played okay against Arizona State.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
They should have.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Won that game, ended up turning it over at the end.
But he's glad to be back and getting ready to
play Virginia in the acc SEC Challenge and of course
at the Moody Center.

Speaker 8 (41:15):
Well, first of all, we're excited to be back here
in Austin, Texas. You know, I think the Maui Invitational
has you know, a lot of great lessons to be learned,
very competitive three games in three days type of challenge,
and I don't think you can underestimate the you know,
thirteen and a half hour trip up and back through

(41:36):
different time changes, all within a framework of about five
or six days. So I'm glad we've had the opportunity
to recover and rest. I think we know a lot
more about our team. I thought the third the third
game against NC State was clearly our best performance, and
I was very proud of our group. It's not easy

(41:58):
to lose a heartbreaker game one, get through the second
day against Shamanad, and then on the third game in
three days play against a very good team before you
leave and be at your best. So it gives us
some confidence coming out of that trip, and the most importantly,
the opportunity to grow learn develop as we enter the

(42:21):
month of November of December.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Now, yeah, they're definitely gonna have to play a lot
better as we get closer and closer. Not only do
they have a game against Virginia, they also have a
game against Connecticut that is coming up, so they're gonna
have to be on their p's and q's. But one
of the things coach Miller talked about was Kendall weaver
and is improved shooting and your boy Nick Cody, he's

(42:47):
got to go through some things and Coach kind of
touched on that as well.

Speaker 8 (42:51):
Yeah, you know, first Kendall, Kendall is just a pleasure
to coach. His attitude and his effort is unselfish nature
really in everything that we've done from our weight room
to the summer workouts and obviously now we've gotten through
a lion's share of our non conference season. You know,
he's the same every day and that consistency, that work

(43:14):
ethic that wins out. And you mentioned rebounding. You know,
Kendle at his size, may be the best rebounder that
I've seen. You know, his ability to get a defensive
rebound in traffic, big rebounds ones that our team needs
and then take that rebound and convert it into transition opportunity,
whether it be for him or our team, is I

(43:36):
think one of the one of the several or many
things that I think our team is doing well right now.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
But you know, his.

Speaker 8 (43:42):
Defense to offense, but his ability to rebound as a guard,
and you know, all all teams love guards who defensive rebound.
It's that hidden stat sometimes that you know, really just
it goes towards winning. You know, it's being a playmaker,
not a not just a player or not somebody who
just scor worse points but does everything. And you know

(44:02):
Kendall is certainly that type of player for our team.
You know, Nick Cody is a young player that we
believe in. His effort level, his attitude, his daily disposition,
his competitive spirit all have to improve.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Yeah, he's got some things he needs to work on.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, you know, and and buying into what's going on
around him is the most important part. You went from
starting to not even playing, So that tells you a
little bit about Okay, I got to grow up a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Sometimes you got to believe in yourself. Sometimes I see
Nick play and he'll do stuff and he'll clap his
hands like dang, and I missed that. You listen, you
make your mistakes, make your mistakes, going one hundred miles
an hour, and then you got.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
To keep going. You can't.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
You don't have time to clap your hands and get shake,
put your head down. You got to keep going and
and play yourself into do and better. Like once you
drop your head your opponent knows he's got you beat,
you know, so a lot of stuff is psychological, especially
in basketball. It's like baseball, you get the yips, you

(45:14):
get down on yourself or something, and then it affects
your play like it's just the same in basketball. Football
you can play through it because it's so physical, but
like basketball baseball, you need to really focus.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
And one of the things that coach Miller had talked
about as well was the ability to play three games
and three nights, kind of like the NCAA tournament. And
how does this help your team jail?

Speaker 8 (45:39):
Yeah, no, some great questions, Eric, you know, I'll start
with you know, the challenge of three games in three
days is the trip itself.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
You know, it's.

Speaker 8 (45:49):
Judging the maturity of your group. Can you handle practicing
here at Austin knowing you have a long trip ahead
and do a great job in that practice and then
you know the trip.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
It's from the film.

Speaker 8 (46:01):
You know, everybody focuses on the three games, but just
think about the preparation in between leaving a game that
you have a heartbreaking loss, learning from it, growing and
being equally ready the next afternoon, and then doing it
again a third time. So I think you learn a
lot about the growth and the maturity of your group,
the leadership of your group, who can handle not playing well,

(46:23):
who can handle not playing as much as they want?

Speaker 3 (46:26):
You know, who can handle playing really well?

Speaker 8 (46:28):
But yet your team lost, right, So there's a lot
of factors that I think allows us to grow and
learn about each other. We certainly know a lot more
about our team eric today than we did before we left.
And I do think that our win against NC State
was a big moment for us because they're a very
good team. They're going to win a lot of games,

(46:48):
and just to be able to play them in that
third game, I think says a lot about our character
and our resiliency to be ready for that game. In
terms of Virginia, they're freshman is You're right. You could
see that he's not a seventeen or eighteen year old
young guy. He's experienced, he seasoned, plays the right way,

(47:09):
very smart, and I believe this. I think he's one
of the best freshmen that's playing in college basketball, and
he makes Virginia a lot better as a team. We're
playing a very good team, We're playing him at home.
It's a big game for our season and for our team.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Big challenge in the expectations is for Texas to go
out there and fight on Wednesday night. But one of
the things that I asked coach yesterday when we got
the chance to talk to him, I asked him about
his guard play and of course his bench, because as
the season goes on, it's important to understand that you

(47:49):
have to have great guard play in a strong bench
in the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 8 (47:54):
Right So, Mike, first question, part of the question of
our guard play. You know, we have great experience in
our in our guard play.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
I thought that helped us in Maui, you know.

Speaker 8 (48:04):
Playing three games in three days, knowing that the third
game was probably the biggest challenge that we faced in Maui.
NC State a good team playing for the same prizes
that we're playing for here at Texas. Jordan Pope rose
to the challenge, right Well, you know, he's been there before,
he's played in tournaments. He's you know, this isn't his

(48:25):
first big game that he's played in, and I think
we felt that ditto for Kendall Weaver. You know, Tremond
may not have played as well in that particular game,
but if you look at our collective experience between those
three guys playing at the University of Texas, playing in
the SEC where they're atting there each of their respective careers.
You know, I think you feel that I'll add Dalen

(48:47):
Swain and Cam Heidi and Sim Wilcher to that mix.
And if you look at those three guys, you know,
Cam playing at Purdue, He's played in the National Championship game,
He's played in the Big Ten. Dalen's played for two
years for me as a head coach, played in the
Big East, right, played in the NCAA tournament. And ditto
for Sim Wilt you're playing for coach Patino playing at

(49:08):
Saint John's. He was on a two seed last year.
So I think that winning experience collective experience. I like
the experience of our of our guard play and uh
and we we have to lean on that. And just
because you have it doesn't mean they're gonna play well.
But for us to be the best that we can be,
we have to look back and say, the experience and

(49:29):
depth of our guards won out for us. So we
talk about that a lot as a coaching staff. And
I hope that you and everybody who watches us starts
to see that as a strength of our team. In
terms of our bench, you know, we played eight guys
against NC State. I feel like right now we'll be
at our best if we could develop a ninth player.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
You know, we believe in Nick Cody. Uh. He has
to come our way a little bit more.

Speaker 8 (49:55):
He gives us size and athleticism and depth up front
that I think over the long cour of a season
that we need and UH. And I think that individually
he has some real talent. We have to get that
out of him and UH, and then just continuing to
develop guys that don't start the game impact winning Lacina

(50:15):
Tree or Simeon Wilcher, you know those two guys. You
look at those guys right there, like Kendall Weaver didn't start.
They really helped us against NC State. So I think
that we have depth off the bench. I would like
to keep developing it. And I agree with you. You know,
we don't have an iron five. We have to do

(50:36):
it as a group of eight or nine. And I
think the stronger that we are off the bench, and
I think the more we can lean into that experience
in our guards, I think that'll be the best that
we can be at Texas.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
This year, Texas scored thirty one points off the bench
against NC State.

Speaker 7 (50:55):
Man coaches dealing with him. Man, he goes from the
sixty five to seventy. Agree, well to this forty five?
He catching it or he need.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Some clarity or yeah, I was trying to say, Or
he might have caught some allergies on the way back,
because you go from one place and come back to Austin, Texas,
allergies will catch you and punch you in your face.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
And they also been traveling a lot, so you know
your immune system can break down when you're tired.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
So coach is getting ready for their matchup against Virginia.
You can hear it all right here on sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone and always free on the
iHeartRadio app. But coming up next, we have our guy
Mark Vandermere. Oh, put on your seatbelts, folks. They went
to Indy and handle business and I.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Know that he is going to be expired.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Make sure you lock it in right here on the
morning kick off on Sports Radio AM thirteen.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Hundred The Zone.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
It's a Tuesday, It's a Texans Tuesday, especially when we
get a chance to talk to our guy, Mark Vandermere,
the voice of the Houston Texans, where you can hear
them right here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The
Zone and Mark, this was the week that I was
waiting on in Texas. The Texans did not let you down,

(52:12):
did not let the fans down, and they secured a
twenty to sixteen victory over the Indianapolis Colts and now
they're right back in the race.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
Absolutely, guys, this was so satisfying to beat those guys
up there, to do that to them in their building
and make the fans leave early.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
It was joyous.

Speaker 6 (52:34):
What a great holiday festive occasion, the Texans beating the
Colts who are in first place and that tied with Jacksonville.

Speaker 5 (52:41):
For the lead in the AFC South Texans.

Speaker 6 (52:43):
Just to game back and just a great performance all around.
When you look at the defense, j coming back throwing
for two seventy six. It wasn't perfect, but it was good,
and they ran the ball well enough over one hundred
yards total, got the dub and now you have a
monster game with the Chiefs coming up Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
I'm not gonna lie. I picked Andy. How did they
how did they beat him?

Speaker 6 (53:08):
Well, they got after Jonathan Taylor, and Taylor got his
sort of he got a little over eighty yards okay,
fine yard per carry average, okay, But they just went
after him. I mean, he's the head of the snake.
They had to go after him, had to slow him
down at least. And then they were really good on
third down. They forced a lot of third medium long situations.

(53:29):
The Texans were in dynamite on third down. On defense,
this is the number one defense in the league. The
Colts had scored twenty or more in all of their
games except for this one. And you're just looking at
one of the best defenses in the NFL. Maybe in
a while, not just this year, but in a while.
But we can debate that later when it's all said
and done. Right now, it's a defense that nobody wants
to play. They get after the passer. Now, they only

(53:51):
had one sack, but they had numerous pressures. They made
the pocket uncomfortable for Daniel Jones.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
He made some good throws. Daniel Jones is.

Speaker 6 (53:57):
A lot better than the New York Giants. Daniel Jones,
but he's got that injury and I think he's not
as mobile, so he couldn't escape trouble as well, and
again it wasn't a barrage of sacks, but they just
slowed them down, got off the field on third down,
and did an enough on offense, and at the end
of the day, that's it. They just ran out the
clock at the end of the game.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Mark, you mentioned that last week that you believe that
they would have to stop Jonathan Taylor and make Daniel
Jones beat you through the air.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
So you were spot on.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
He still got to eighty five yards, but you only
held them to four yards per carry.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
But you also mentioned CJ.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Stroud coming back and being poised in that situation of
coming back and kind of controlling this team.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
He did have the I int.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
But overall, I think he played a complete football game.

Speaker 6 (54:44):
Yeah, and I think it was such a welcome sight,
right because I'm not so sure they win that game.
If Davis Mill starts now, I want to be fair
to Davis, will never know. But CJ coming back, I
know the pick was bad, but the throws he made
in that game, some of those throws.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
Davis Mills is not making those throats.

Speaker 6 (55:01):
I mean, some of those throats are virtuoso quarterback throws
that CJ. Stroud makes when he's on his game, and
he was rusty, he admitted that. But it's the first
game back, it's on the road. It's a huge game
that the Colts absolutely had to have. They had lost
two of three. Now they've lost three of four, and
the Texans had to have it too. I mean, these
are kind of the playoffs now right as you're heading

(55:22):
down the stretch these games. It's not single elimination, but
you're in a mini tournament right now to get in,
and the competition is really hot and heavy, and both
teams were really you know, after it. But the Texans
just have that D that does so well in these situations.
So here we are. It's seven and five after starting
zero to three.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Well we're down to five, And.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
How do you feel like the Texans in the next
five games fair against his NFL opponents?

Speaker 6 (55:54):
Well, look, Indy's got a really tough stretch run here.
Schedule wise, The Jags kind of as much. All right,
they have the Colts twice, but they've got some a
couple of I'm not gonna call anything in the NFL
a layup, but they don't have the Indianapolis schedule. The
Texans have a schedule that features the Chiefs Sunday. We'll
get to that. But then you got Arizona and the
Raiders at home. So even though the schedule was so

(56:16):
front loaded, now you're able to capitalize a bit perhaps
down the stretch. Then you have the Chargers there. I
don't even know what they're gonna be by the time
you get there, as Herbert playing or not, what are
they playing even with Herbert? What are they playing like?
And then the finales with the Colts again at NRG Stadium.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
That thing could be for the division.

Speaker 6 (56:34):
You never know.

Speaker 5 (56:34):
Although the Jags are more than.

Speaker 6 (56:36):
Sneaky hot right now. I thought they would lose their
souls after the Texans came back on them, but they've
been winning since that game, so you got to give
them credit. We'll see Jags and Coats this week and
is one to watch. But Texans and Chiefs that's the
big one Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Maybe it could be they've.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
Got some defense.

Speaker 6 (56:59):
Yeah, you might have brought something out of them.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
We're talking to the voice of the Houston Texans, Mark
vandermir and Mark, let's get into it, and you talked
about it. The Texans will get on the road play
Sunday night national audience against the Kansas City Chiefs, who
are staggering right now to try to get to this
finish line. But they're five and one at home. It's
going to be cold as you watch these Chiefs. You

(57:24):
think the Texans still match up well right now?

Speaker 5 (57:28):
I think they do with this.

Speaker 6 (57:30):
Version of the Chiefs. The Chiefs are not as good
on defense as they have been. They still have some
formidable players. They still have Chris Jones. When Chris Jones
is on his game, he's a major disruptor in the
middle of George Carloftis. I mean, I can go on
you know who they have on offense with Kelsey and
Mahomes and everybody else. Rashie Rice is really making a
big difference for them. But you can apparently get to

(57:53):
Mahomes a bit, and by that I mean put pressure
on him, get him uncomfortable. Now, Mahomes off his launching
point might be better than any quarterback in the league
other than Josh Allen. Right, he's incredible when he gets
outside the pocket or even you think most quarterbacks you
move them a little bit, they're not going to be
as good. But he doesn't even have to be planted

(58:13):
properly to throw an out standing pass. It appears, you know,
it's kind of like Steph Curry playing quarterback. It's amazing
to watch, and now you've got to deal with it
in their building on a cold night.

Speaker 5 (58:24):
And I just think it's.

Speaker 6 (58:25):
One of the biggest games I can remember for this franchise.
In the context of the Texans, the Chiefs have been
sort of a white whale. They cannot conquer them. They
beat him at twenty nineteen in the regular season with
Watson and Hopkins and they possessed the ball to win
that game. But then in the playoffs that year, we
all know what happened. They blew up twenty four to
zhering lead. They lost in the playoffs last year. They
lost December last year. It is excruciating to watch Mahomes

(58:49):
and its band of pass catchers do damage when you're
trying to get off the field. So here we go.
It's a huge one, and you know it's the next
big game.

Speaker 5 (58:58):
But I got to say it's much bigger than.

Speaker 6 (58:59):
The Colts game. It feels that way right now. Is
the week starts to get going.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Mark, I'm optimistic that the Texans with the defense like
they have defense carries when you get the later you
get in the season, the more you're gonna have to
rely on your defense. And I think that the Texas
defense is much better than the Cowboys defense. If they

(59:27):
apply the same type outside pressure that the Cowboys did,
I feel like it's going to be the same outcome.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
We'll say you, well, I like that formula.

Speaker 6 (59:37):
I think you got to find a way to play
offense as well as the Cowboys did at times in
that game. And by that I mean run the football. Look,
I don't think you have to run it crazy like
over one point fifty, which in the NFL is a
lot over and twenty five I think does it. But
you got to be good on third down. CJ's gonna
have to be sharp. This is a tough environment. They're
gonna come after him. We all know it. And last

(01:00:00):
year he had two really tough losses. The December loss.
You left Tank Dell in that game to the brutal injury,
and the Texans weren't the same for weeks after that game.
And in December it was close. But you know, you
complain about not the Texans, but a lot of the
fans media complained about the officials or whatever. You've got
to beat them. You might have to beat the guys

(01:00:21):
in stripes too, whatever the case is. You can't worry
about bad calls or whatever. Look, the Texans were said
to benefit from the yellow flags on Sunday against the Colts.
I have my own opinions on that, but you just
got to deal with the environment. I like that the
Texans played there twice late last year. It's a lot
of the same guys. They're familiar with the environment.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
Let's go get them an arrowhead.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
We're talking to Mark VanderMeer.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Mark, big matchup, big game, and we expect to hear
from you on Tuesday with another Texans victory. Enjoy the
rest of the week, and we look forward to next week.

Speaker 5 (01:00:56):
We get that one.

Speaker 6 (01:00:56):
I won't need any coffee next week, guys.

Speaker 5 (01:00:58):
That's gonna be huge.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
I didn't think you needed any today. I was looking
forward to this. As I was watching that game and
that clock rolling down, I was like, Oh, he is
going to be excited on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
As always. We appreciate you. We appreciate you.

Speaker 6 (01:01:13):
All right, Thanks a lot, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
There he is Mark vandermir the voice of the Houston Texans,
which you can hear right here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone. Coming up next, we get to
hear from the world's strongest man as he brings you
his world's strongest take right here on the morning kickoff
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone and always free
on the iHeartRadio Appum, you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Heard the be dropped.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
That can only mean one thing, wwe Hall of Famery.
World's Strongest Man, d Mark Henry brings you his world's
strongest take. Take it away, big fellow, harje Yes, you
know what time it is, Well, Thomas.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
It's time for the world's strongest take.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
By the world's strongest man. My guess back then they didn't.
Now I'm hot, they all on me. Well, yesterday I
had a good talk with a big time Dallas Cowboys
fan friend of mine, and he said, Man, I'm just

(01:02:16):
so optimistic, he said. I love the way things are
going right now. He said, but Mark, think about the future,
think about next year. And I said, well, this year
is not over with man. He said, yeah, but it's
hard to not see the Cowboys advancing to a point

(01:02:41):
to where everything makes sense. Now you get a running game,
you get a passing game, that is effective. The special
teams always have always been on point.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
They just needed to put everything together. He said, Mark,
I think everything is together. God job. I looked at it,
and I think Don's right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
The Cowboys have two first round picks in this upcoming
draft right now, it's potentially fifteen and twenty five. They
have a fourth round pick. They have three fifth round
picks and two seventh round picks. The thing that's impressive

(01:03:28):
about the Cowboys is they're already under the salary cap
at this point in the Cowboys history, They've always been
strapped paying penalties and so forth, And potentially they can
unload a eighteen million dollar salary and still who is

(01:03:52):
the second highest paid.

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
Player on the team.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Still, I mean, he's not deserving of being the second
highest paid player on the Dallas over Ceedee Lamb, over
George Pickens, Kenny Clark. Like, there's no way in no
universe that that contract should stay. They have to get

(01:04:19):
rid of that contract. And I've been trying to get
rid of him for two years. Diggs, he's going to
count as thirteen or fourteen million against the cap right now.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
He's on it on the ir but he's off of it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Now he's in a twenty one day window to play,
so he can play. He can play some, he can
play Thursday. So like you have to, you have to
just go ahead and eat that. If you can get
some picks for those guys, great, do what you gotta do.

(01:04:59):
But even if you have to package those two first
round picks and move all the way up, they need
to get up safety.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
They need to get another corner and they'll be cheap
if they do so.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
Or they can pick where they are middle of the
field with where their Cowboys always pick fifteen. They're eight
and eighteen most years, and then you get a late
round pick and you get somebody that slips, you use
all of those fifth round picks. Cowboys are a team
that's effective. Now Dak needs help. Now they have to

(01:05:39):
get another wide receiver because you don't know if they're
gonna be able to keep for NOI. So, like all
of these moves be made. But the whole point of
this conversation is my take is the optimism of being
a Cowboys fan. For the first time in a long time,

(01:05:59):
I actually have hope. And we talked about that. At
the beginning of the season. We didn't know what coach
Seattenheimen was going to be. But he has proved to
me that he has a plan and he knows how
to lead men. We talked about them not having an identity.

(01:06:20):
They have an identity.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
They throw the ball, play action, they run the ball,
and they play hardcore defense. And that is hilarious from
where they were the first five games of the season
when they were allowing teams almost in excess of one
hundred and fifty to two hundred yards rushing and now

(01:06:46):
teams can bear good teams. Good running teams over the
last three weeks are averaging seventy yards seventy so somebody
had to run for like thirty yards forty yards. But
we'll find out where the time needs to road this

(01:07:07):
week against the Detroit Lions, who run the ball in
access of one hundred and fifty yards against good defenses.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
What say you, well, the one thing about Detroit, the
reason why they have those numbers is because job Jamero Chase,
Jamiir Gibbs can hit a home run at any time.
He'll hit a seventy yarder and won't think twice about it.
That's because that changes the dynamic of the rushing because
of his ability to do that. You talked about the

(01:07:38):
cap space, and next year it's gonna be a little
bit different. Obviously, Dak will be the highest paid player
on the team, but Cede Lamb will be the second highest,
Tyler Smith will be the third to highest, Quinn Smith,
Kenn and Clark will be the fourth and fifth highest,
so the money is being balanced out. Trayvon Diggs is

(01:07:58):
a little bit further down. He'll be like the seventh
or the eighth highest, with Terrence Steele being a little
bit later when you start to look at that. So
the financial obligations of the Dallas Cowboys are gonna be
a little bit different than.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
What they were this past year.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
But I look at the Cowboys and you know, I've
never left My optimism has always been there. I haven't
left them at all because of what I've seen from
Dak Prescott as a starting quarterback. And you're right, we
did not know what we were gonna get from Schottenheimer,
but he's proven to be a leader of ben as
you said, and these guys seem to play hard for him.

(01:08:35):
But again, it's all good because the Cowboys are winning
right now, so we're all looking at it optimistically if
they were losing, this will be a totally different conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
Yes, it would be if you had one player in
this upcoming draft, you had two picks and you can
move up and say, you know, I'm trying to get
this guy.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Who would that guy be? I have no clue.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
I haven't even looked at it like that yet, but
I will. I mean, I'll dive into it because we
don't know who's gonna be coming out and who's not.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
You know, you're a Dak Prescott guy, So do you
want do you think that you maximize the help Dak
right now or you try to expand on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
The help of that defense. Well, you need to make
sure your defense. You just said it earlier, defense wins championship.
So if you're gonna be in that particular.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
Can I give you mine? Who's yours?

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
I say, move up and get downs? You get a
safety to go with those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
He may not even be that high on the list
when it comes out. That's the other part of this,
like we can make some moves and why are you
gonna move up? You're gonna have you got a bunch
of I think down downs is gonna be ten to fifteen.
Now are number sixteen. They are at number sixteen in
the draft.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
If you falls, that'd be great, But I don't think
he's gonna last.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
I think the Cowboys have done a really good.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Job of drafting here. They have, so I'm gonna trust
what Will McLay and all those people are doing in
Dallas when it comes to of the drafting.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
It's the free agency that I have problems with.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Coming up next, we're gonna close out the show and
send you to Dan Patrick. But of course we gotta
talk Lane Kiffin and let you hear from Lane as
he had his open impressor yesterday n l ash you
right here on the morning kickoff on Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred to Zone and always free on the iHeartRadio app.

(01:10:23):
A lot of fun today going down right here on
the morning kickoff. We got a chance to hear from
coach Sorry, we got a chance to hear from our guy,
Joe Cook of Inside Texas and Mark VanderMeer, the voice
of the Houston Texans, joined us and he was fired
up because he hates the Colts, and of course the
Texans get that dub against the Colts. And if you

(01:10:46):
missed any parts of our show. Get over to the
podcast page wherever you get your podcast, but of course
you can find it all on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
It is free and it is for you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Football is turned upside down at this particular point. We
know at the end of the season, a lot of
teams played their final game last week. We got championship
games happening this week, and of course tonight we have
the College Football Selection Show, college Football Playoffs Selection Show,
and you get to hear about all the rankings.

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
And this will probably be the.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Most viewed college football ranking show in its history because
of the fact of all the things that have happened
with coaches changing, and of course they tried not to
affect you that way, but I've seen some other things
that get you that way.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
But I want you to hear.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
From Lane Kiff. And Lane Kiffin left Old miss and
tried to kind of turn it upside down. But when
he got to New Orleans or excuse me, bat On Rouge,
he decided that he wanted to change his voice a
little bit too.

Speaker 3 (01:11:55):
That he had to call on an old friend. Actually
we're going back tire stadium. I called one person, I
called ed Ozon, and I.

Speaker 10 (01:12:03):
Said, hey, man, all I can do is man, this
place just makes me want to talk like you right now.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
I did.

Speaker 9 (01:12:10):
I was like, we were in the car and the
kids were in there, and I was like and I
was like, and the coaches and they're like, what are
you doing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:16):
I'm like, I don't know. I'm like channeling head right now.
I was like, I'm feeling him.

Speaker 9 (01:12:19):
Like I rolled down the window and I was like,
go tige us to the fans, and I'm like, so
I called it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
Said, I don't know what's going on, man, but I'm
feeling you right now.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
And he's like coaching at the best place in America.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
So I feel out, so as I thought I would do.
I have no idea what your question was.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Lane Kiffin is somebody that he's a good salesman, that's
for sure. Do you realize that at one point on
U see, I mean USC's roster of coaches, it was
Pete Carroll, Steve Sarkezian, Lane Kiffin, and ed Orgeron. They
were all on the staff together with Pete Carroll. It's

(01:13:04):
an amazing, amazing story, but some people don't agree with it.
And one of those guys just happens to be Bill Cower,
a former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he's
not necessarily mad at him for taking the opportunity.

Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
To go coach at a place like LSU.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
And I've seen a lot of LSU fans and players
that are real excited about him. But the one thing
that you can't do is burned down the place that
you left.

Speaker 10 (01:13:32):
Do you even ask that question, why would an ad
a coach who made a decision and he wanted to
go to LSU, and I stay at all miss coach
my players and use my coaches and tell them for
the next month why they should be joining him at LSU.
Totally understand. I would just say thank you, Lane and goodbye.
And that being said, if indeed he decides to take
other coaches with him, I would just say any player

(01:13:54):
that goes to play for Lane Kiffin, just to understand
one thing, it's not about the program. It's about Lane
Kiffin because he don't care about the players. If he
just went through a season with a special season playoffs
he's had for four years, with an opportunity to go
to the playoffs, he's decided to take him and only
leave that which I get Okay, if you want to
do that, but now you're gonna take offensive coaches with
you and destroy the program.

Speaker 3 (01:14:14):
And deplete the program.

Speaker 10 (01:14:15):
Deplete the program and the dreams of these young men
who you said that you want to be there and
you want to do it with. If I can't do it,
I'm not gonna let you do it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
WHOA just cut off?

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
Cut him out? Yeah, yeah, he said, I'm not gonna
let you do it either. So it is. It is
an interesting time in college athletics and what we're starting
to see with all the coaches, with all the different people,
and and the moves that are being made across the land.
If you remember a few years ago, Florida State was

(01:14:48):
not a team that should have They should have been in.
They got left out because they lost their quarterback and
a lot of folks.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
Then five of the people opt out too.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
After they found out that they wasn't getting in. Once
they didn't get in, that's when everybody decided, Okay, well
I'm done, I'm not gonna do this. The thing that
I question is are they going to penalize these teams
because of the moves that are being made. That number
twelve right now going into this weekend's game is North

(01:15:22):
Tech not North tex excuse me Tulane? If Tulane is
not gonna have their coach, are they gonna look at
them this weekend or when they vote and say that
this is not gonna be good because they may not
have the best team. Are they gonna penalize Ole Miss
because Lane Kiffin left and it's gone and it's not

(01:15:43):
gonna be able.

Speaker 3 (01:15:44):
To coach coach and took some coaches.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
Are they going to penalize Ole Miss because they're not
going to have their head coach. They're not playing for
an SEC championship and their coach just left. Are they
gonna penolize them for that? Are they gonna penalize James Madison,
who is part of the group of five because their

(01:16:08):
coach took another job to go elsewhere. This is the
craziest part about all of this is because of the
fact that you look at college athletics and this is
going to be the most telling part of the committee
and what they have to do to make sure that

(01:16:30):
the college football playoffs actually have the best teams in it.
So it's gonna be interesting to see what happens toime.

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
Wow, that must see TV.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
Right there, no doubt, so you know you expect the
call because I'm gonna be sitting there rocking in my
chair and I'm gonna if you're gonna.

Speaker 3 (01:16:51):
Be my first call hard. I need a lifeline.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
If Texas don't make it hard, somebody need to college
check on me.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
You'll still have one more week of it. You'll still
have until this Sunday. Sunday is the final final college
football playoff rankings, but Tuesday night must see TV. I
want to thank Mark Henry, I want to thank Marcus.
I want to thank Joe Cook and of course the
voice of the Houston Texas Texan. Excuse me, Mark Vandermere

(01:17:22):
for hopping on with us.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
Tomorrow be even better, folks. We got Danny Davis of
the Austin American station.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
I can't wait and Mark can't wait to talk about Waring.

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
But I also want you to remember this.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
Tune into The Craig Way Show this afternoon from two
to five as.

Speaker 3 (01:17:37):
Creg breaks it down as always.

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
And also, don't believe everything you see, because even Sault
looks like sugary.

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
Peace

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