November 13, 2025 • 11 mins
Approaching the start of the season with big expectations for their football program, Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns begin to shape into the initial powerhouse team many expected them to be. Rolling into Week 12, the Longhorns stand at 7-2 and are set to kick off against the Georgia Bulldogs, 8-1, for a highly anticipated Saturday evening showdown. With both teams ranked in the top 10 and strafing off consecutive wins, play-by-play voice and announcer for the Longhorns, Craig Way, joins ahead of Saturday's kickoff, talking and hashing out a few keys each side should be mindful of.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
That game this weekend in the Classic City. Let's catch
up now with the voice of the Long Horns. You
can hear him right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
He is Craig Way. Craig appreciate the time with me,
Dan Matthews and Chris Gordy this morning. Let's just go
ahead and get it started. The last few weeks Arch Manning,
have we seen a corner turned with the Texas quarterback
(00:20):
in terms of how he is operating this offense?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Morning morning, all you guys, And I think the answer
is yes. But no man is an island, right. He
certainly needed help from the offensive front, and I think
they have turned a corner as well. Some of it
had to do with just getting guys healthy. I mean,
Cole Hudson was an anchor a rocket center. He'd been
(00:44):
banged up and out for a few weeks, so Connor Robertson,
a guy with least experience, kind of got thrust into
the center thing. There were some growing pains for him
as well as for the tackles Trevor Goosby and Brandon Baker,
and then Hudson comes back and they slide him in
at left guard and along with the play with their
one returning starter at right guard, DJ Campbell, the senior,
they became more effective. That helped keep Arch upright, that
(01:08):
in the short passing game and turning into some explosive
big plays like I am Wingo has had of late
and m At Moseley, the Stanford transfer who had not
even been available throughout fall camp and the first half
of the season, all of a sudden becoming a weapon,
had the big touchdown catch and overtime in Starkville. So
I think all of it adds up. Now they're still
trying to get the run piece a little better, and
(01:31):
what a time for it, because it's a tough defense
to try to run against. This week.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah, maybe that that bye week will help them get
healthy there in the backfield the Horns I'm talking about Craig.
I heard Miszook coach Eli Drake would say this week
that you know, or maybe getting into a dangerous territory
with all the fan bases going out. It's playoffs are bus.
Playoffs are bus and look, only twelve teams are gonna
make the playoffs, so you can have a lot of
disappointed teams out there. If that's the mindset that said
(01:57):
I've talked to so many Longhorn fans of Sweet Craig
you have said, have we win this one. We're still
alive for the playoffs. So what's the mentality been like
there in Austin this week? Are people talking about that?
Because it just you hate to be that mentality? Is
they if they lose on the road to a tough
Georgia team, that suddenly the thought is all, well, season's over,
let's back it in.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, you know it's fans are always on an emotional
roller coaster ride. We all know that. And uh, you know,
the Heights thing was really rolling with the preseason number
one ranking and that stuff, and it only got slightly
dented with the lost to Ohio State. Like al, it's
on the road, that's number one. The loss to Florida
just cast a pall of the fan base and it
(02:37):
was like, oh, now this season is shot. Starget. The
players said, hey, go back to work, we'll get it
figured out. And that was at the time when they
were dealing with the injuries and trying to get some
guys more comfortable, and they didn't make any excuses about it.
He went back back to work and they have since
one four in a row and have kind of put
things back in order. So yeah, it's got fans excited again,
(02:58):
if only because now we're into the season and you
guys know all this that you know, we're watching on
Tuesday nights, these college football playoffs rankings and you see
in Texas bump up and bump bump, bump bump, And
then not only that that old clicheed phrase that cheer
coaches and players say about how everything all their goals
are still in front. Well they are. You got to
(03:18):
beat two top five schools along the way, but the
goals are still there. So I think that's where fans
start to feed in it. And I know, you guys
know this living down in h Town, which is not
only a big Texas alumni fan base, but a huge
Texas A and M fan base, And we know what's
coming at the end of the month, and we're seeing
the Aggies at number three in the country. So all
(03:39):
of that I think just feeding into where Texas is
and what they're trying to get to.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Ginny is the voice of that Texas Longhorns. You hear
them right here on Sports Talk seven ninety as Craig
just mentioned the Houston home for Texas Long Horns football
and men's basketball. Sports Talks seven ninety previewing Texas and
Georgia this weekend in Athens, and some good news injury wise.
I know you touched on a little bit and one
of your answers of getting a couple of really crucial
(04:06):
guys back, but I want to focus on Michael Taff
in what he means in that back end of this
Texas defense. I mean a guy that you know, Craig
been sorely missed these last few weeks, and maybe even
really sorely missed at the end of that Vanderbilt game.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
No doubt about it, and between him and Jolani McDonald
had to go out due to concussion protocol, and there
were a couple of sequences there in that fourth quarter
where they're starting two corners got banged up. They eventually
came back in the game, but Malik Mahinda was out
Jaylen Gilba, so their top four guys were out for
(04:42):
stretches in that fourth quarter of that game, And of
course Taff was out for the entire game as well,
and McDonald's out for virtually all of the second half.
And give Diego Pavia credit and they went to work
and hit one big long play and there were a
couple of squirrely calls. I think that just didn't Texas way,
So all that stuff steam rolls and Texas had to
(05:03):
hold on and you know, we're covering on side kick
to preserve the win. But they felt good about how
they dominated a lot of that game for the better
part of three quarters plus. So they take that and
then file it in with what sarg does on Monday mornings,
with his good bad, the good, the bad, and the
ugly the plays that he shows to the guys, and
(05:25):
and then try to you know, meld it in through
a bye week, getting Michael Tapp back, who's the unquestioned
leader in the secondary, getting Jolani McDonald back, getting some
other guys who've been nicked up just healthy because they
need all hands on deck for this game. There's there's
no doubting that Craig.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Sticking with the defense. I'm a voter and a lot
of these postseason awards and and you know, voting for
a lot of different players, and I'm starting to sift
through the numbers and it's hard not to acknowledge what
an impact Colin Simmons has been as a true sophomore. Mean,
it's crazy they're going to get another year of this
guy in college. But his impact on Anthony Hill, I
know they were the most important pieces coming into the
(06:03):
season on the defensive side, but I mean, here we are,
you know, near in the back end of the season,
and still both those guys have been such impact players
for them all season long.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You're spot on and and Colin had a little bit
of a sluggish start to it, wasn't quietly on track
and had had a couple of penalties early on, and
he's just kind of, you know, relaxed a little more
and allow his teammates to help him. Ethan Burke on
the opposite end, has been really good of late with
three sacks and a block field goal attempt, So that
stuff all helps. And then you talk about Anthony Hill,
(06:35):
who is playing I think about as well as any
linebacker in the country right now. So he's a Buckets
semifinalist and all of the other, you know, all of
the other awards we had. You guys, remember Derek Johnson
won a great player. He was at Texas and then
played for fourteen years in the NFL. We had him
on our show last night, and he said, when I
look at Anthony Hill, he said, I kind of see
(06:57):
how far he has come. And he said, and I
do see some of them myself and how he plays. We
were both inside linebackers. So that's a pretty supreme compliment
for a guy who's really come on and progressed throughout
the course of his three years at Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Again, Craig Way, join us here on the seven ninety
Morning Show. It's going to be the Horns and Georgia
Bulldogs this weekend in Athens, and Craig, Roger Wallace, Will
Matthews and the crew going to be on the call
of that one. With this Georgia program heading into this,
I mean, is this a situation where Texas looks at
him and says, you win a game like this, you're
(07:30):
getting on their level or do you feel like they
believe that they're already at George's level in terms of
just programs as a whole.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, I think this they know obviously, they were the
only program in the country the last two years to
make it into the college football playoffs. So getting into
the playoff in back to back seasons was something that
no other program had done. Now in both cases they
lost in the semifinal round. So it's unfinished business. But
they understand that they that they're up there playing at
(08:02):
that level with a lot of those programs. During that time.
They went to Tuscaloos and they beat Alabama and they've
you know, they've had some other wins, but that one
tough nut to crack is Georgia losing to them twice,
you know, in overtime on the on the field goal
in the SEC Championship and losing it home to them.
So that's that's the more unfinished business, I think, even
(08:23):
though a lot of folks are pointing to the A
and M game down in the road and said, well,
you know, maybe if they split those two games, win
the home game against Arkansas, then they're probably getting the playoffs.
Let me tell you, if they do that and they
finished nine and three and they're outside of the SEC Championship,
they're in the exact same spot Alabama was last year
at nine and three, outside the championship game and maybe
(08:44):
outside the playoffs. So you know, it's it's really really
tight that those margins with the other possible playoff teams
in Texas knows they can really help themselves take a
step forward if they win this one on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Final one for you, Craig, forgive me if you've talked
about it thus before, but all the hopes, all the dreams,
the fourth and five back at the Rose Bowl years ago.
Did that just come to you in the moment or
did you kind of mentally prepare yourself for if you
were in a spot like that.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Listen, I have difficulty mentally preparing on a daily basis,
So I'm here to tell you that had to be.
It was going to be organic. And really the genesis
of that goes back three years prior to two when
the long run baseball team was about to win the
national title and I couldn't and people were asking me
(09:33):
that morning, hey, what are you gonna say? When they
went like, I don't know, I just I'll just figure
it out. And all I could think of was my
broadcast partner, Keith Morland, who, by the way, will join
me on the football broadcast. Roger Wallas is going to
hang back and handle the basketball broadcast on Saturday. And
Keith was talking about when he was on the seventy
five national championship team and they remember seeing the tower
(09:55):
lit orange when they flew in. So when they got
the final out in O two, it was like tower
Orange because that's all that could come to mind for me. Well,
same thing in five. It was like just whatever, you know,
And as Vince went to the line of scrimmage, it
just kind of rolled into my mind that everything that
this program had worked for, not only that year, but
the two years prior in the build up was leading
(10:17):
to that moment. All the dreams and all the hopes
and you know that sort of thing. So it's I listen.
I've often said if I try to plan something out,
I'd screw it up. So it just has to come
to the moment and you hope you say the right thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well you definitely nailed it right there, and you do
it every single week, as you heard Craig mention right there.
Keith Morland back in the booth with Craig this weekend,
So look forward to hearing both of you guys on
the call and of course Will Matthews on the sidelines.
Big fans here, Craig, we really appreciate it again, And
speaking of some of those guys, just did an event
a couple of weeks ago with Vince Young, shockey Brown
(10:54):
and also Selvin Young were out there, so some of
the guys that were parts of what you were mentioning
there five So it's good to see those guys. But hey,
have a great call this weekend, Craig. We really appreciate
your time whenever you join us.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Thank Chris. And that's some h town legends you just
described right there. Part of that. So in Texas being
the huge alumni fan base and the huge recruiting base,
it's always important to.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Ut absolutely Craig, appreciate it. Have a great call this weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Thank Chris. Appreciate it, guys,
That game this weekend in the Classic City. Let's catch
up now with the voice of the Long Horns. You
can hear him right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
He is Craig Way. Craig appreciate the time with me,
Dan Matthews and Chris Gordy this morning. Let's just go
ahead and get it started. The last few weeks Arch Manning,
have we seen a corner turned with the Texas quarterback
(00:20):
in terms of how he is operating this offense?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Morning morning, all you guys, And I think the answer
is yes. But no man is an island, right. He
certainly needed help from the offensive front, and I think
they have turned a corner as well. Some of it
had to do with just getting guys healthy. I mean,
Cole Hudson was an anchor a rocket center. He'd been
(00:44):
banged up and out for a few weeks, so Connor Robertson,
a guy with least experience, kind of got thrust into
the center thing. There were some growing pains for him
as well as for the tackles Trevor Goosby and Brandon Baker,
and then Hudson comes back and they slide him in
at left guard and along with the play with their
one returning starter at right guard, DJ Campbell, the senior,
they became more effective. That helped keep Arch upright, that
(01:08):
in the short passing game and turning into some explosive
big plays like I am Wingo has had of late
and m At Moseley, the Stanford transfer who had not
even been available throughout fall camp and the first half
of the season, all of a sudden becoming a weapon,
had the big touchdown catch and overtime in Starkville. So
I think all of it adds up. Now they're still
trying to get the run piece a little better, and
(01:31):
what a time for it, because it's a tough defense
to try to run against. This week.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah, maybe that that bye week will help them get
healthy there in the backfield the Horns I'm talking about Craig.
I heard Miszook coach Eli Drake would say this week
that you know, or maybe getting into a dangerous territory
with all the fan bases going out. It's playoffs are bus.
Playoffs are bus and look, only twelve teams are gonna
make the playoffs, so you can have a lot of
disappointed teams out there. If that's the mindset that said
(01:57):
I've talked to so many Longhorn fans of Sweet Craig
you have said, have we win this one. We're still
alive for the playoffs. So what's the mentality been like
there in Austin this week? Are people talking about that?
Because it just you hate to be that mentality? Is
they if they lose on the road to a tough
Georgia team, that suddenly the thought is all, well, season's over,
let's back it in.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, you know it's fans are always on an emotional
roller coaster ride. We all know that. And uh, you know,
the Heights thing was really rolling with the preseason number
one ranking and that stuff, and it only got slightly
dented with the lost to Ohio State. Like al, it's
on the road, that's number one. The loss to Florida
just cast a pall of the fan base and it
(02:37):
was like, oh, now this season is shot. Starget. The
players said, hey, go back to work, we'll get it
figured out. And that was at the time when they
were dealing with the injuries and trying to get some
guys more comfortable, and they didn't make any excuses about it.
He went back back to work and they have since
one four in a row and have kind of put
things back in order. So yeah, it's got fans excited again,
(02:58):
if only because now we're into the season and you
guys know all this that you know, we're watching on
Tuesday nights, these college football playoffs rankings and you see
in Texas bump up and bump bump, bump bump, And
then not only that that old clicheed phrase that cheer
coaches and players say about how everything all their goals
are still in front. Well they are. You got to
(03:18):
beat two top five schools along the way, but the
goals are still there. So I think that's where fans
start to feed in it. And I know, you guys
know this living down in h Town, which is not
only a big Texas alumni fan base, but a huge
Texas A and M fan base, And we know what's
coming at the end of the month, and we're seeing
the Aggies at number three in the country. So all
(03:39):
of that I think just feeding into where Texas is
and what they're trying to get to.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Ginny is the voice of that Texas Longhorns. You hear
them right here on Sports Talk seven ninety as Craig
just mentioned the Houston home for Texas Long Horns football
and men's basketball. Sports Talks seven ninety previewing Texas and
Georgia this weekend in Athens, and some good news injury wise.
I know you touched on a little bit and one
of your answers of getting a couple of really crucial
(04:06):
guys back, but I want to focus on Michael Taff
in what he means in that back end of this
Texas defense. I mean a guy that you know, Craig
been sorely missed these last few weeks, and maybe even
really sorely missed at the end of that Vanderbilt game.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
No doubt about it, and between him and Jolani McDonald
had to go out due to concussion protocol, and there
were a couple of sequences there in that fourth quarter
where they're starting two corners got banged up. They eventually
came back in the game, but Malik Mahinda was out
Jaylen Gilba, so their top four guys were out for
(04:42):
stretches in that fourth quarter of that game, And of
course Taff was out for the entire game as well,
and McDonald's out for virtually all of the second half.
And give Diego Pavia credit and they went to work
and hit one big long play and there were a
couple of squirrely calls. I think that just didn't Texas way,
So all that stuff steam rolls and Texas had to
(05:03):
hold on and you know, we're covering on side kick
to preserve the win. But they felt good about how
they dominated a lot of that game for the better
part of three quarters plus. So they take that and
then file it in with what sarg does on Monday mornings,
with his good bad, the good, the bad, and the
ugly the plays that he shows to the guys, and
(05:25):
and then try to you know, meld it in through
a bye week, getting Michael Tapp back, who's the unquestioned
leader in the secondary, getting Jolani McDonald back, getting some
other guys who've been nicked up just healthy because they
need all hands on deck for this game. There's there's
no doubting that Craig.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Sticking with the defense. I'm a voter and a lot
of these postseason awards and and you know, voting for
a lot of different players, and I'm starting to sift
through the numbers and it's hard not to acknowledge what
an impact Colin Simmons has been as a true sophomore. Mean,
it's crazy they're going to get another year of this
guy in college. But his impact on Anthony Hill, I
know they were the most important pieces coming into the
(06:03):
season on the defensive side, but I mean, here we are,
you know, near in the back end of the season,
and still both those guys have been such impact players
for them all season long.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You're spot on and and Colin had a little bit
of a sluggish start to it, wasn't quietly on track
and had had a couple of penalties early on, and
he's just kind of, you know, relaxed a little more
and allow his teammates to help him. Ethan Burke on
the opposite end, has been really good of late with
three sacks and a block field goal attempt, So that
stuff all helps. And then you talk about Anthony Hill,
(06:35):
who is playing I think about as well as any
linebacker in the country right now. So he's a Buckets
semifinalist and all of the other, you know, all of
the other awards we had. You guys, remember Derek Johnson
won a great player. He was at Texas and then
played for fourteen years in the NFL. We had him
on our show last night, and he said, when I
look at Anthony Hill, he said, I kind of see
(06:57):
how far he has come. And he said, and I
do see some of them myself and how he plays. We
were both inside linebackers. So that's a pretty supreme compliment
for a guy who's really come on and progressed throughout
the course of his three years at Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Again, Craig Way, join us here on the seven ninety
Morning Show. It's going to be the Horns and Georgia
Bulldogs this weekend in Athens, and Craig, Roger Wallace, Will
Matthews and the crew going to be on the call
of that one. With this Georgia program heading into this,
I mean, is this a situation where Texas looks at
him and says, you win a game like this, you're
(07:30):
getting on their level or do you feel like they
believe that they're already at George's level in terms of
just programs as a whole.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, I think this they know obviously, they were the
only program in the country the last two years to
make it into the college football playoffs. So getting into
the playoff in back to back seasons was something that
no other program had done. Now in both cases they
lost in the semifinal round. So it's unfinished business. But
they understand that they that they're up there playing at
(08:02):
that level with a lot of those programs. During that time.
They went to Tuscaloos and they beat Alabama and they've
you know, they've had some other wins, but that one
tough nut to crack is Georgia losing to them twice,
you know, in overtime on the on the field goal
in the SEC Championship and losing it home to them.
So that's that's the more unfinished business, I think, even
(08:23):
though a lot of folks are pointing to the A
and M game down in the road and said, well,
you know, maybe if they split those two games, win
the home game against Arkansas, then they're probably getting the playoffs.
Let me tell you, if they do that and they
finished nine and three and they're outside of the SEC Championship,
they're in the exact same spot Alabama was last year
at nine and three, outside the championship game and maybe
(08:44):
outside the playoffs. So you know, it's it's really really
tight that those margins with the other possible playoff teams
in Texas knows they can really help themselves take a
step forward if they win this one on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Final one for you, Craig, forgive me if you've talked
about it thus before, but all the hopes, all the dreams,
the fourth and five back at the Rose Bowl years ago.
Did that just come to you in the moment or
did you kind of mentally prepare yourself for if you
were in a spot like that.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Listen, I have difficulty mentally preparing on a daily basis,
So I'm here to tell you that had to be.
It was going to be organic. And really the genesis
of that goes back three years prior to two when
the long run baseball team was about to win the
national title and I couldn't and people were asking me
(09:33):
that morning, hey, what are you gonna say? When they
went like, I don't know, I just I'll just figure
it out. And all I could think of was my
broadcast partner, Keith Morland, who, by the way, will join
me on the football broadcast. Roger Wallas is going to
hang back and handle the basketball broadcast on Saturday. And
Keith was talking about when he was on the seventy
five national championship team and they remember seeing the tower
(09:55):
lit orange when they flew in. So when they got
the final out in O two, it was like tower
Orange because that's all that could come to mind for me. Well,
same thing in five. It was like just whatever, you know,
And as Vince went to the line of scrimmage, it
just kind of rolled into my mind that everything that
this program had worked for, not only that year, but
the two years prior in the build up was leading
(10:17):
to that moment. All the dreams and all the hopes
and you know that sort of thing. So it's I listen.
I've often said if I try to plan something out,
I'd screw it up. So it just has to come
to the moment and you hope you say the right thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Well you definitely nailed it right there, and you do
it every single week, as you heard Craig mention right there.
Keith Morland back in the booth with Craig this weekend,
So look forward to hearing both of you guys on
the call and of course Will Matthews on the sidelines.
Big fans here, Craig, we really appreciate it again, And
speaking of some of those guys, just did an event
a couple of weeks ago with Vince Young, shockey Brown
(10:54):
and also Selvin Young were out there, so some of
the guys that were parts of what you were mentioning
there five So it's good to see those guys. But hey,
have a great call this weekend, Craig. We really appreciate
your time whenever you join us.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Thank Chris. And that's some h town legends you just
described right there. Part of that. So in Texas being
the huge alumni fan base and the huge recruiting base,
it's always important to.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Ut absolutely Craig, appreciate it. Have a great call this weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Thank Chris. Appreciate it, guys,
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