Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Saturday ten o'clock Sports Talk seven on You will
be your home for Texas football Longhorns taken out on
the Ohio State Buck Guys and Columbus. A man that
will call it longtime voice of the Longhorns and a
great host and a great broadcaster, Craig Way, the voice
of Kingwood Baseball and softball championships. Is that right, Craig Way?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, that was a moment of pride for me, Maddie.
Glad that Glad I didn't do the softball but I
did do the baseball championships. Yeah, I guess I do that.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yes, they were very very happy to have the local
school taking care of it. Hey, let me ask you
your philosophy. You've called a lot of season openers in
all your years of college football. What's it like to
have this sort of I mean prime time number one
kind of showdown so early? This is something we didn't
see a whole lot of fifteen or twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah. I think I can count the number of times
where you had a game even approaching this magnitude on
one hand and probably use less than three fingers to
do it. Remember, the Charlie Strong debut was in South
Ben but everybody was kind of expecting it to not
go well, and it did not go well. It was
(01:10):
like a thirty eight to three Notre Dame winning that.
There's been a couple other high profile games like that.
In twenty sixteen, they had that Sunday night over Labor
Day weekend, that crazy double overtime win over Notre Dame.
That's when Joe Tessitur uttered the famous ugly words Texas
is back, and the long runs never stopped hearing that
(01:31):
for the next several years. So you had that. But
I don't think anything quite approaches this, Matt. It's in
the whatever thirty eight years I've been on the network
and this week my twenty fifth season in the play
by play chair, this is the most excited, highly anticipated
height matchup I think that I've ever seen for a
(01:53):
Texas season opener. And yes, some of it has to
do with the new guy taking snaps under center. There's
a lot of attention and excitement around that, but I
just think overall, there's a great deal of anticipation based
on what sarked is built over the last two years,
going twenty five and five and back to back trips
to the college football playoffs. There's a lot of things
built into the excitement of this upcoming season opener.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And I apologize Craig for so much future arch manning conversation,
but the reality is the quarterback in college football is
such a pivotal part of things. You know, he showed
some great scrambling ability during the course of last year's
the limited time that he plays forgetting about what coach
sark wants. When Craig Way is calling the game, how
much do you anticipate him using his legs to get
(02:37):
some first downs, get those extra yards.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Oh, I think he'll do it, depending on, you know,
the type of protection he has, and also with the
play calls that sarked has because they plan to use
his what does it coaches like to say functional mobility.
I think they plan to use his legs and ways
that they could not do with Quinn Ewers. Quinn was
a little more that a lot of folks wanted to
(03:01):
give him credit for. But Arche I think takes it
to a different level. We saw that on that long
touchdown run against UTSA. We saw it on running around
the corner against Texas A and M to score the touchdown.
You know, he's a big guy and he's a fast guy,
and I think they plan to use that part of
him as one of one of the things in his toolkit,
so to speak, to make him more effective on the field.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Matthew Golden hurt my feelings when he left my school
to go to yours, and obviously he was a big
impactful part of last year's team. How's the receiving core overall?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, what a great guy and an outstanding receiver as well,
and I hope it goes well for him in Green Bay.
I do think that while he moves on to the NFL,
they do have plenty of dangers receivers. Ryan Wingo I
think could wind up being the top receiving target. He's
got great wheels and good hands and that escapability you
(03:55):
have that. DeAndre Moore is a veteran guy. I'll tell
you another guy, Parker living Stone is a guy who
could surprise some folks say he catches about everything thrown
his way. And then from the tight end spot, even
though they lost, you know, an outstanding tied end, they
come back with another one in the col trans for
Jack Indreys. So I think all of that makes them,
(04:20):
if not every bit the equal receiving threats they had
last year, darned close to it. I would imagine going
into the opener.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Craig, will the portal be a huge part long term?
And look, we're balancing anil money with portal money, with
the fact that it's the University of Texas and the
great national brand that it has. How much is this
year's roster put together because of the portal? And do
you anticipate and how does Sark feel about the next
five years would he like to have? You know, look,
you're going to have money, You're going to have an
(04:49):
opportunity for some kids to really do well with now
the twenty point five million dollars, new adjustments and all
that can Can you go back to not having to
spend a lot of time grabbing kids from other schools
or do you think it's going to be a part
of colleg football for the foreseeable future?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I think it's here to stay now. With regard
to Texas, Matt, you know, Sark likes to use it.
I think more as a supplemental piece. And again, picking
up a guy like Jack Injury's to step in to
the tight end spot I think is important. But They're
still going to cast their lot with the high school
(05:22):
talent predominantly in the state of Texas, and as Sark
likes to say, roster retention being able to take care
of those guys who are coming back through the expanded
NIL universe as it is, so, I think that it'll
be a part of it. But you know what it
reminds me of, Matt. It reminds me of that what
was that famous quote from Ben Scully about use of
(05:42):
statistics by broadcasters. They should be used like a lamppost,
unlike a drunk. They should use the lamp post for illumination,
not for support. And I think that in this case,
you would be looking at Texas wanting to add a
piece here at a piece there, but not to make
(06:03):
up the bulk of the roster or even the most
key spots in large number of the roster. It's to supplement,
not necessarily to build a roster.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Greig Wave Voice and the Longhorns with us on our
sister station kve ET in Austin. Of course, you'll have
the game right here on seven y beginning at ten o'clock.
If I looked at the Ohio state practices and which
you're not allowed to, and very few people are compared
to the last time they took the field winning a
national championship. How'm different on the Buckeyes from year to year.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, there's some differences and there's a similarity in the differences,
if that can be said between these two teams. And
here's what I'm talking about. Texas of course, is replacing
as starters all of their offensive lineman except DJ Campbell.
But the guys who are going to be playing have
a lot of experience. They were in the rotation. Trevor
(06:53):
Gooseby will start at left tackle. He had to start
a couple of games, including the game the SEC Championship
game because of the ankle injury to Calvin Banks, so
he had to step in and do that. So there's
a lot of guys with skins on the wall who
played quite a bit in the rotation even if they
(07:13):
weren't starters. That's on the Texas offensive front. The Ohio
State defensive front is in a similar situation. Their four
down linemen are all gone, but the guys who are
stepping into play are all veteran, experienced guys who drew
a lot of snaps. And I think you know with
the larger power for programs, especially the ones near the
(07:34):
top of their leagues like these two are, You're going
to see that be the regular thing because the depth
has built in, and the depth is such that they
can rotate a lot of guys in to keep their
starters fresh, and so by the time those guys who
are rotating in become starters, they've had enough experience where
they can step in without it being too much of
a learning curve.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
As a voice the team, Craig, you get a chance
to go to a few practices. What the squad that
you are covering. What was the one group position group
that perhaps surprised you. Not necessarily there was poor going in,
but man exceeded what you saw when the limited time
you were able to check out the team practice wise.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, I do think like I said, I thought the
offensive line performed well. I was also really curious to
see Matt how the running backs would do, because remember CJ.
Baxer a really good freshman season and then had the
knee injury in fall camp last year, had to miss
all of last year. But what happens is Trey Wisman
rushes for over one thousand yards. Well to see how
(08:33):
those two will work together in combination, and there will
be times where they'll be on the field together. Even
I was very curious to see how that would take
and how that would work, and it seemed to work
out really, really well, So I was quite impressed with that.
The way the secondary has become multifaceted, where a guy
like Jalen Gilbo, who has played the starback that's the
(08:55):
nickel position or safety, and he's set to be a
starting corner, and all of these eyes have cross trained
and a lot of those are same thing with the linebackers.
Anthony Hill has played in the middle, he's played on
the edge, and he's a preseason All American. So the
cross training of those guys I think is really really
important and that was one thing that was impressive in
the Paul Camp work out.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Last question, which moment will be hopefully not too big,
and I'm meaning in terms of, look, your squad has
played in national semifinal games and have been in the
tournament and done all these types of things the last
couple of years, but still going to the horseshoe is
going to be big for some young men. So are
there one or two guys that are kind of curious
about whether they're transfers, whether they're true freshmen that are
(09:35):
getting rotation time in the depth chart that you're kind
of curious to see how they handle being in front
of one hundred and five thousand people that are they
gonna hate you?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, I think there's always that curiosity. You know, the
question has come up the last few years about, you know,
how the Texas defensive front perform, and that question comes
up every single year because of the guys that moved
on to the NFL. But the guys who are stepping
in I think are ready for that challenge. And then
obviously everybody's going to be watching Arch to see how
(10:05):
he is in the moment. But he's got a great
calm demeanor about him. He's very laid back, but he's
very much a competitor and he's dialed into being prepared
for this thing. So I'm looking forward to watching him
like everybody else.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Is how many games have you done at Ohio Stateium?
For how many over your career?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Who know? Just that one? And it was pretty dog
one memorable? Five?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
How does this happen? How do these two I mean
franchise type schools only play each other once every twenty years.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And when they played in two thousand and five, it
was the first time they'd ever met, and then of
course he had the rematch here in six. Ohio State
won that one. Then they played in the Fiesta Bowl
in January of nine, had an incredible performance by Colt
McCoy in that one, and then they didn't play again
until the Cotton Bowl last year. And so they have
(10:58):
this home and home. They'll play this year in Columbus,
and they'll play next year in Austin. In fact, that
the non conference schedule for Texas pretty impressive when you
look at it coming because it's Ohio State will be
here next year, then Michigan for the return game an
arbor from last year. Michigan will be here in twenty
(11:18):
twenty seven. Then they have a home and home of
Notre Dame in twenty twenty eight and twenty twenty nine,
and then after that, I think they've got a home
and home with Arizona State and of course the SEC.
When they announced last week that they were going to
a nine game conference schedule, they wanted also to mandate
that all of their schools play at least one power
for opponent per season. Well, Texas already has that taken
(11:41):
care of with their schedule through the end of the decade.