College Football around Texas

Talking Red Raiders, Aggies and Longhorns. As the #CFB starts to heat up, the state of Texas has teams positioning themselves for the upcoming #CFP.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:30):
And we're back fan Pole Sports, a true tech sports podcast.
We're a true tech sports fan once again. I'm your host,
Ronnie Langford back addicts. Oh jeez, I'll tell you what.
The fact that I have to come in here and
start this show with the damn Texas Tech Red Raider

(00:52):
fight song, uh is a gut punch, Like very few
gut punches in my life. I would love to start
this episode with Texas fight. I would love to start
this episode with the eyes of Texas. However, I cannot
deny what the Red Raiders have done so far this

(01:14):
year and give them their props, so to speak, their credit.
Joey McGuire has this team playing at a high level,
and you know, I just figured it would be best
to acknowledge that, give them a little credit, give them
a little love, try to talk as much Texas football

(01:36):
as I can. And when I say Texas football, I
mean the state of Texas, not just my beloved Longhorns.
But we'll touch on them here in just a little bit.
But Texas Tech Man, you cannot deny the success that
this team is having. The things that they've done so
far this season, they have been impressive. To say the least, I,

(01:58):
like many college football fans, not only in the state
of Texas, but across the nation. You know, have my
have my reservations, have my doubts, have my cautions about
Texas Tech. But you can't deny what they've done this far,
coming off of back to back impressive road wins. You know,

(02:22):
punking Utah a few weeks ago, early in the morning,
they're in the state of Utah thirty I believe it
was thirty four eleven, thirty four to ten maybe. And
then this past weekend, big game in h Town, big team, big,
big time opportunity for both of those teams to step up,

(02:44):
because you know, I said it on the last episode,
you had a chance for one of these teams to
kind of take the driver's seat and possibly make their
push to securing their their bid for the Dirty Dozen,
the college football playoff there the end of the year,
and this last game was going to give them the
opportunity to get into position to vie for an opportunity

(03:08):
in the Big twelve title game. And Texas Tech steamrolled
the Houston Cougars thirty five to eleven. Houston just was
outmatched across the board. I watched probably the first half
of that game, and that score should have been worse

(03:31):
than what it was. Texas Tech just you know, I
don't know if it was just because it was a
night game. They were on prime time so to speak.
There was a lot of eyes on them. Maybe there
was a little bit of the the jitters. But their
offense got off to a slow start. They bogged down
a couple of times in the red zone, had to
settle for field goals instead of touchdowns. So you know,

(03:55):
it was one of those things where their defense stepped
up and kind of kept that you know, what many
considered a very powerful Houston offense kept them grounded, so
to speak. Connor Wigman never got comfortable in that game. Rodriguez,
the Big twelve Player of the Year, could be a

(04:16):
national player defensive player of the Year out of Tech.
I mean, just again, impressive, impressive win for the Red Raiders.
Shout out to my boy Marco Eskamia. I know he's
got some connections to the Red Raiders, so shout out
to you guys. Hopefully you guys can enjoy this run

(04:38):
and we'll see how far it'll take you in December
and into January. But again, another pretty good matchup this
weekend for them. They've got Kansas coming to Lubock. There
the Jones Stadium, you know, which is becoming one of
the tougher places to play in the nation, not just
in the Big Twelve, not just in Texas, but in

(04:59):
the nation, you know. And it's always been. Lubbock has
always been one of those how can I say slippery
when wet, so to speak, type of cautionary stadiums. They've
they've always had a pretty loyal fan base. They get
pretty rowdy, pretty raucous, you know, and it's it's one

(05:20):
of those things that, man, when that when that stadium
gets going, and I know they've they've made some adjustments,
they've done some remodeling the last few years, and I
can only imagine how much louder that place gets when
this team gets going. Uh So, so, big game against Kansas,
Kansas four and two coming in. At times they've looked

(05:42):
like a pretty dad gunn good team that at other
times they show that they're still Kansas and they suck.
So it'll be big, man, it'll be big for them
going into this game this weekend as they still Texas,
tex still still still has a lot to play for

(06:03):
and they still have a big matchup coming up in
about a week because they've got to go to Arizona State,
and that that's a whole other monster, a whole nother thing,
having to go out to the Valley of the Sun
and having to compete. But this week the focus is
squarely on Texas Tech. That's the game that you know,

(06:25):
the Red Raiders are concentrating on and getting ready to
get ready to play this coming Saturday. The other the
other big game that came across this past weekend, and
maybe not the matchup that you would have thought that
it would be, but the Texas A and m Aggie's

(06:48):
dominated the Mississippi State Bulldogs. And again another one of
those games where the Aggies couldn't get out of their
own way. They couldn't get going early, they couldn't do
anything to really get ahead get out ahead on Mississippi State,
and their offense struggled at times. I know, I was
texting my son in law during that game and he

(07:10):
was frustrated with Colin Klein and some of the play calling.
So it was very interesting how that game played out,
as the Aggi's had a big win, blackout game. If
you didn't see it. You know, a lot of maroon
and black there at Kyle Field as the Aggies pulled
away thirty one to nine versus the Mississippi State Bulldogs

(07:35):
and A and M. And they are just building momentum,
doing what they need to against the teams that they're
supposed to be and lining up and taking care of business.
And you cannot deny what Mike Elko and this team
is doing. Defensively, they looked much better this past Saturday.
I think they're getting a little healthier. They're getting some

(07:56):
guys back, so that's gonna help. That's gonna help on
a variety of levels because as we saw earlier this year, Man,
they've given up a lot of yards, a lot of points.
You know, the offenses look pretty stout, pretty good, Marcel
Reid leading that group, and the additions at wide receiver
that have really helped. You know, Costeano's doing his thing,

(08:18):
and then of course Moss in the backfield. But I
mean that defense they struggled, and Saturday night they seem
to start to put it together as they shut out
a very game Mississippi State Bulldog team. But they they weren't.
They weren't gonna be able to compete with A and

(08:38):
M and a shootout. A m's offense too strong, a
m's defense was just just smothering. I don't know. Again,
Kyle Field one of those atmospheres, man, that get a
lot of people in there, gets loud, it gets rackets,
they start doing the swaying thing and whatever, and then
of course on top of that the blackout. You know,

(08:59):
maybe it's a different environment. Mississippi State obviously looked overwhelmed
at times, they could not get going. So a lot
of good things happening. They're at college station. Gives the
Aggie's an opportunity to build momentum as they continue on
through this season. You know, believe they it's not Auburn

(09:22):
that they have because they just played Auburn. Let me
look this up. You know, bad sports guy can't look
up things and have things prepared before. But no, they
played Florida. They have Florida coming to Kyle Field Saturday night,
and we'll talk about the Gators here in just a bit.
But again, it's the sec man. I mean this, there's

(09:45):
there's some really good teams across the board, even some
of the ones that have struggled early in the season.
So this matchup, you know, A and M has had
some success historically against the Gators, So this matchup on
paper looks like a wash. Looks like, you know, the

(10:06):
Aggies could run away with this game and hide, so
to speak, but don't quite count out the fighting billion Napiers.
I saw a meme that said, uh, there's no more
dangerous team than a struggling billion napier Florida Gator team,
and the Longhorns found that out on this past Saturday.

(10:28):
How dangerous this billion napier uh desperation tour can be? Uh?
So and has got their work cut up for them.
Man DJ Lagway precise with his passing ball, a tremendous
running back. So the the Aggies, the Aggies are gonna
have some work cutout for them. And then of course

(10:48):
Florida has athletes, uh you know, cannot deny the skill
that's down there all throughout the state of Florida. Uh
and I mean they they are able to to get
some guys on that field do some things speed, uh
you know, and just dogs, I mean ferocious come after

(11:09):
you dogs. So A and M is gonna is gonna
have their hands full. I still see the Aggies winning
this one because they have the home field advantage and
because they're playing in the comforts of Kyle Field. But
I mean, don't think for one second that Florida ain't
gonna come in there and give them fits and give
them problems. So shout out to the Aggie. Shout out

(11:31):
to my son in law Cody. Also shout out to
his boy, the man himself, Manny and his his beautiful wife.
They they got married this past weekend. Uh So, congratulations
to them. Congratulations on that tremendous day that you guys

(11:51):
got to celebrate with your friends and family. Uh So,
shout out to the Aggis. Shout out to Michael, uh
my my man sweetness himself, Francis, and of course my boy,
my main man, fifty five grand Mark Ramirez. Shout out
to your Aggies. As these guys continue to roll and
build their momentum into what could possibly be the Dirty

(12:16):
Dozen the college football Playoff, A and M sitting at
number five. They haven't had that ranking in a long time.
Can they sustain it? That's gonna be the question. You know,
we talk about how great A and M has looked,
but here is where things begin to kind of make
you a little nervous if you're an Aggie fan, because historically,

(12:40):
somewhere in October going into November, the Aggie's always seem
historically over the last ten to fifteen years to struggle
and in some cases fall apart. So I'm not trying
to jink to you guys, even though you know the
thing would throw me more if they would fall fight

(13:00):
on their face. But I would be very cautious before
I get too excited about what A and M is
doing because of the fact that they have not proven
just yet that they can handle the bright lights the
big city, so to speak. And it'll be very interesting

(13:20):
to see how things progress from here. Big game against Florida,
trap game next week against Arkansas, and then a huge
matchup October twenty fifth against LSU and Death Valley, so
lots to play for, lots ahead for the Aggies. Concentrating
on Florida this week, It'll be very interesting to see

(13:41):
what they do and how that unfolds. And then there's
my long Horns. Oh my gosh, Okay, let me just
say this all right. I did not have the delusion
that many of my fellow Longhorns had. I did not

(14:03):
think number one, that arch Manning was gonna win the
Heisman Trophy this year. And I certainly didn't think that
this team was going to win a national title this year. Okay, Now,
did that mean that I didn't believe that they couldn't
make the playoff again? No? Did I believe that they
couldn't contend for the SEC again. No? Right like I

(14:28):
had them in the playoff, I had them competing for
the SEC championship. And actually, I'm pretty sure that I
went on record and said that number one, as long
as they were one of the top three teams in
the SEC, they would make the playoff. And I wasn't
gonna be surprised if we got to that last week

(14:50):
in November and all of it's on the line again
and it came down to A and M and Texas
playing for the opportunity to go to the SEC championship game.
I'm on record saying those things, Okay, But I was
not delusional enough to believe that everything was perfect and

(15:14):
laid out for Sark and the Longhorns the way some
people did. I was certainly not Paul Finebaum talking about
the greatness of arch Manning and how this guy was
the second coming of Tim Tebow and how he was
gonna win the Heisman and all this other hype that

(15:34):
fine Bomb proclaimed early on and before the season. However,
nothing would have told me that this team would struggle,
and specifically this quarterback, would struggle as much as they have.
And Saturday proved to me that there's a lot of

(15:59):
smoke and mirrors in Austin. Now, does that mean that
they can't right the ship this week playing the hated, disgusting,
grotesque Sooners and come out of Dallas with a win
and and that correct a lot of the wrongs. No,
because there's there's a lot of football still left to

(16:22):
be played, and and Texas still could possibly get on
a run and do some things and possibly still make
the playoffs. But they won't be favorite. They they won't.
They won't be, you know, one of those teams that
you're gonna be like, oh man, Texas is gonna come out.
They're gonna be the dark horse. They're gonna they're gonna
win this thing. I don't I don't see that, you know.

(16:44):
And this is this is why, this is why I
told the Broski what I told the Broski early on
when we did the first few episodes. You could not
just depend on this defense to carry this team to
a national championship. And what we have seen these first

(17:08):
five weeks, especially what we saw last week, just continues
to prove my point. The point being that this team,
especially along the offensive line, is average at best. Okay,

(17:29):
lot of talent, a lot of hype, a lot of
NIL money, a lot of recognitions and commercials, and like
all I mean, and I'm not mad at that, like
go make your money, go get go, get those those
dollar bills so to speak. Okay, not mad at that,
but the product on the field has to match the hype.

(17:51):
The product on the field has to be top tier.
Like you're saying that you should be paid, right, And
this is one of the reasons why NIL should be
more regulated, should be more restrictive, because people see dollars

(18:11):
sign It's just like NFL players, NBA players, Major League
Baseball players, any body in sports, excuse me, that are
getting paid. Okay, people expect you to match your pay,

(18:32):
and the Longhorns are not matching their pay. From the
coaches on down, they are not matching their pay. And
the first coach that I'm looking at is you Kyle Flood.
You've done a tremendous job of recruiting some guys. You've
turned some offensive linemen into some NFL prospects. Okay, but

(18:56):
it's not like the five guys you have up front
right now or a bunch of scrubs. It's not like
those guys came out of high school as two and
three stars and they were nobodies. You did a great
job of going into these living rooms, going into these
programs across the country and across the state to pull
some of the most talented and gifted players to be

(19:21):
part of the offensive line at the University of Texas.
But your job beguins when you're coaching these guys up
and getting them in position to do what they're supposed
to do. These big humans are supposed to be dominating
at times. Up front, I'm not saying dominate every down.
I'm not saying that they're supposed to beat down everybody

(19:42):
from the minute the game starts to the minute that
it ends. I know that that's not possible because of
the competition that you're playing on some of these saturdays,
even some of the competition on these lesser teams, there's
still some pretty good guys across those rosters that can
be solid defensive players are going up against these guys
on the offensive line. But for this offensive line to

(20:04):
struggle the way that it has, and I get it,
only one returning starter, but those other four guys had
playing time. Baker's the only one that didn't have significant
playing time before this year. He was in sporadically last
year as a freshman. Okay, I get that, But the
other guys had played forty plus games in some cases. Okay,

(20:30):
I mean, even if it was just spot duty, they
were in the game. And the fact that we can't
run the ball, we can't pass protect, we can't open holes,
we can't keep people out of Archer's face. Arch can't
step up into the to the pocket the way he
needs to to be able to effectively get the ball
down the field. And I mean just accurately throw a pass,

(20:53):
because his accuracy is awful right now. But there's two
reasons why. One he's getting hit. Two he's hearing voices
in his head. Okay, because even when there's guys not
around him, he's thinking there's guys around him. Because you
guys can't protect him. You guys can't keep people off
of him. You guys can't do what is necessary to

(21:14):
make sure your quarterback is clean. And I don't care
what level of football you're playing. If you can't protect
the quarterback, your team's not going to be very good
on the offensive side, and more than likely, it's not
going to be good across the board because you're dependent
on that offense to carry you at some point during
the game, and the guy that's gonna do that is

(21:34):
your quarterback. I understand Wisner's been hurt. I understand Baxter's
been hurt, but again, you have four and five star
talent in the running back room that should be able
to come in and get some holes opened up and
run the ball. Texas did not run the ball at
all effectively against Georgia. Their passing game looked good at

(21:56):
times on Saturday, but a lot of that had to
do with the fact that Arch was able to escape
the pocket and make some plays down the field, and
then of course the wide receivers when they got their
hands on the ball, they were able to make some
plays down the field, but they were so far in
and few in between that the Longhorns were ten points

(22:17):
down before you could blink and now they're playing uphill
the whole game. Everybody's like, oh, well, they came back.
They came back, and they had a chance to win,
and you know they if this happens or that happens,
they could have thrown that that last pass and maybe
they get it, maybe they tied the Look, man, I
know this is gonna sound gross, but if my aunt

(22:39):
had nuts, she'd be my uncle. Okay, so none of
that would it could have shot a shit means anything.
At this point, Texas is not a very good football team.
Texas is not playing up to their potential. Defensively, still
very solid, but you two pk what the hell happened

(23:02):
on Saturday that you couldn't stop the run? The run
that was going left all day long. The fat guy
on his couch watching that game from Stockdale, Texas saw
that they're running left all the time because they knew
that there was a weakness on that defensive side of
the Longhorns, and you did nothing to adjust to that

(23:23):
until late in that game, and you allowed not only
their starting running back to get off, but you also
allowed the backup running back to get off. And if
you couldn't stop the run, to save your life, on Saturday,
and that's what the difference of the game was. Florida

(23:43):
could run it, control the clock. Texas couldn't run it,
couldn't get any kind of sustained drives until late in
the game, right And even then, I mean, if you
look at it, Texas was down twenty nine to fourteen
with what four minutes to go, and then you know,
they have a couple of big plays on that next
drive and get down in about a minute and a

(24:03):
half and score that touchdown and get within you know,
twenty nine twenty one h and gave himself a chance
there at the end. Yes, but I shouldn't have even
come to that. And the fact that we could not
get pressure on DJ Lagway. The man was playing on
one leg, literally limping around, and you couldn't get pressure

(24:28):
on him. You know, I don't know. I don't know
that Texas had a sack this past weekend. And then
they bring that freshman that everybody at Florida had been
talking about, the wide receiver, and he's gonna do this,
He's gonna do that. Look, I know Mohammed was out. Okay,
hopefully he gets back this week. They're gonna need him
against ou right, But come on, man, I mean you

(24:52):
got no pressure. Colin Simmons did some great things against
the run once you finally got to make some adjustments,
but he got no no pressure on Lagway. Okay, where
is ninety one? And I suddenly I can't remember his name?
But he was a stud last year on that defensive line,

(25:14):
the defensive end, And now suddenly I can't even remember
the guy's name. I can't even tell you who he
is at this point because he's been a no show
this year. Where the hell is his Texas defense that's
supposed to be dominant and that's supposed to be making
plays and giving the opportunities to the offense to do

(25:35):
what they have to do, putting the offense in better
position to you know, win a game. And I mean
it's it's bad. It's bad. They gave up a block punt.
You know, if again, if if, if, if they blocked

(25:56):
the punt. If they don't block that punt, well, now
you're looking at twenty seven to twenty one with a
chance to win the game instead of having to try
to figure out chasing two points. If you score the
touchdown and try to tie the game. You know, so
Saturday was an ugly look for the Longhorns. Like I'm

(26:17):
not necessarily saying they got dominated, but they they were
pretty much allowing Florida to be in control of that
game the entire time. It was not a good game
to watch. It was not a fun game to watch.
It was very frustrating on a variety of levels, and
it was it sucked. It sucked. Now, I say all

(26:39):
of that to come to you, Arch Manning. Okay, people
are gonna question the competition you played against. People are
gonna question how talented you are. People are gonna say
you're a DEI higher. People are gonna say you're the
Brownie James of college football. People are now talking about
how much Texas can missus Quinn Hewers. All of those

(27:02):
things have been said, they're being said. Whatever the case
may be. Okay, talent wise, I believe you're talented. I
believe you're just as good as anybody else out there,
because I do believe that you can do some great
things on the football field. However, whatever's happening in your head,

(27:25):
you need to get that under control. You need to
improve whatever it is that you need to improve, whether
it's understanding the game plan, understanding, how to read the defenses,
the play call, whatever the case may be. You need
to get it under control because this Texas team is
only going to go as far as you take them.

(27:47):
And just like you were the savior at times last
year when you came in off the bench and everybody
loved the backup quarterback, the same thing's gonna happen with eighteen.
You know, he came in the other day, he made
that one big pass, gave everybody hope because holy crap,
he got the first down, and now we're in position
to maybe steal this game or at least go to overtime. Right,

(28:08):
Everyone was excited about it, and the message boards blew
up and talked about it's trying to bench arch and
it's trying to let him in and this that and
the other, and blah blah blah. Look, man, win go
out against Oklahoma. Nobody is expecting crap out of you.
No one thinks you're gonna be able to lead this
team to another win this season. No one feels that
you're anything more than a C plus what somebody even said.

(28:33):
Somebody even used the hardball line talking about you know
you were born on third base and you think you
hit a triple Okay, all of those things are being said.
You want to shut people up. You want to do something,
You want to make things right with the Longhorn fan base.
Go beat o. You go have a big game on
Saturday at the State Fair. They're in the historic Cotton Bowl.

(28:56):
Go do that. Go lead this team to a win,
and see the difference. See the difference in the way
people look at you, the way people you know talk
about you. Right, win that gold golden hat, Stick that
thing on your head, take some pictures with it, and
and everybody will look at you differently. Now, does that

(29:18):
mean that you're gonna win the Heisman after that game? No?
Does that mean that you're gonna be considered the all world,
all everything quarterback again? No? You know. And does that
mean after only seven starts you're gonna go off and
be the number one pick in the NFL Draft. No.
But if you can get everybody to just calm down
and quiet the hell down again and feel good about

(29:41):
Texas football, you go out and win this game. You
go out and have the damn game of your life.
That's the only way this thing is gonna turn around.
That's the only way that this thing is gonna improve.
So a lot a lot going on this weekend around
the state of Texas. Big games all the way across
the board for the three big programs in the state,

(30:03):
Texas Tech, A and M and the Longhorns. And you know,
when you look at when you look at this this
scope of the entire state, I mean, you've got some
really good teams playing some high level football. I mean TCU, TCU,

(30:28):
you know, beat Colorado this past weekend. TCU is still
kind of in the thick of things, you know. Don't
think that they're not waiting for you. Texas Tech. Okay,
they still got some things to play for up there.
Hey man, North Texas. North Texas is playing Friday night,
I believe against Southern Florida undefeated North Texas. Okay, So

(30:50):
so that one's kind of flying under the radar, so
to speak. That game could get good this weekend. UTSA,
what the hell? What the hell is that losing to Temple.
You know, look, man, I'm not questioning Jeff Trailer. He's
a winner. Okay, he's done some great things at UTSA.

(31:13):
But if he stays at UTSA, if he doesn't if
he doesn't go somewhere else and take one of these
other jobs, and there's a lot of different things that
could happen with that, right, He really does need to
figure out what he's gonna do on the coordinator side,
because both sides of the ball are struggling mightily, and

(31:35):
for them to lose to Temple that that's not a
good look at all. Texas State, They're still Texas State,
like they they They've done some things really well these
last few seasons. GJ. Kinney another one that could be
on the move at the end of the year, could
end up somewhere else next season. But in the meantime,

(31:57):
I mean, there there are nice story, maybe they make
a bowl game again, but they're still just Texas State.
All right. Baylor, You're Baylor. You know, four and two
so far this year. Big win against Kansas State, late
field goal, which, by the way, where the hell were
all of the Baylor fans towards the end of that game?

(32:20):
I mean, I didn't see anything but the end of
the game, but when the camera panned out for when
the kickers lining up for the the field goal attempt
and the stadium was damn near empty. Then he makes
the field goal and you see all these students and
stuff rushing back inside. What is going on at Baylor? Okay,

(32:42):
Dave Randa came in a lot of hype, a lot
of different things about this season and how things could be.
And you know four and two is where they sit.
Nothing wrong with that, Nothing wrong with that. Go get
your other two three wins whatever you're gonna need to
get into a bowl game, Go play in that bowl game.
But I mean, Baylor, that's not a good look, Bear Nation,

(33:06):
whatever you want to call yourselves, that is not a
good look for you guys to empty the stadium and
then come back because you know, he makes that game
winning field goal, and of course they had a big
block there at the end. They prevented Kansas State from winning.
You know, so again, man, there's so much football across

(33:26):
the state of Texas. You know, UT Premium Basin they're
they're apparently playing well. I don't know what division they're in,
but they're undefeated ut RGV down there in the valley.
You know, coming off a big loss last two weeks ago,
came back last week, had a big win. So I mean,

(33:49):
just football, football, football all across the state of Texas,
and it's It's great to see so many programs having success.
But the only team that I want to see have
any real success is my Texas Longhorns, and I need
them to get it together this weekend. I need them
to go in there and get the win against those

(34:10):
damn ou Sooners. Okay, so let's get it. Let's get
after it. Let's go get that win in Dallas. Let's
let's leave the State Fair with the golden hat one
more time, and let's let's party at the State Fair afterwards.
But that's all I got. Man, hook them, gig them

(34:31):
guns up. Go do your thing, man, go do your thing.
Get in position to possibly be there at the end.
And you know, I still hold out hope that the
state of Texas can get three teams in to the
college football playoffs. And if they can do that, man,
what does that stay about this state? I mean, that's

(34:55):
not already being said, because there's so much talent all
across the state and it's great to see the things
that are going on for the state of Texas and
the state of football in Texas. Fan Poll Sports a
true tech sports podcast with a true Texa sports fans.
Once again, this has been Ronnie and I'm out peace on.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
It in the back of my daddy's old car. I
was born beneath that old long star. I hit the
ground picking this old guitar. I was made in Texas,
like Bob Wills saw and on Santence rolls, chance, all rhythms,
all in my soul. Tell everybody where I go that
I was made in Texas. A long star yours. Tessa

(35:41):
has a Pernis tub. We trust you can always tell Texans. Oh,
but you can't tell him much. It's the biggest little
place in the USA. Everybody knows I'm here in the
state's home, sweet home, and I'm proud to say that
I was made in sit