we go behind enemy lines with houston! ace summer school. listen to boscoe's boys
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Boscoe’s Boys
Summer School Behind Enemy Lines: Houston
I'm Miriam Sandler, founder of Mother Good. Play at Home Activities often require those coin-shaped lithium batteries, and I never realize how many until I started replacing them. Now, I only use the world's first three-in-one child shield by Energizer. It's the coin lithium battery I trust to help keep my kids safe. With child-resistant packaging, a bitter taste deters swallowing, and their exclusive color alert technology that turns mouths blue when it touches saliva. To learn more, visit Energizer.com. As a veteran, I live with health impacts from my service. VA health care means you're in 100% control of your own medical care, your own benefits, and it only takes minutes to set up. A veteran should enroll in VA health care because it ensures that they get quality, high-level care for the rest of their lives. My service was then, my benefits are now. It will you earn, visit chews.va.gov. Not all veterans are eligible for the type or amount of benefits mentioned here. Shipt knows I'm not just a parent during the school year. I'm a chauffeur, a tutor, a problem solver, and so many other things. That's why I love same-day delivery with Shipt. I don't also have to be a grocery shopper. A personal shopper handpicks my order, then delivers it right to my door. Meanwhile, I can focus on being the parent my kids need me to be. And honestly, that's my favorite role. For more at shipt.com/high, that's shypt.com/hi. It's the moment of the evening, everyone can stay fen and joys. Little down and board a whiskey, crack open a liqueur, please put your hands together and make a little noise for your favorite wildcatters, the handsome Bosco boys. Boom, the boys are back and it is time for another summer school behind enemy lines episode. We are talking Houston, one of the two cougars, and you're going to have to give me a little bit of advice how to handle being in a conference with multiple mascots, you know, now that we've got two wildcats, so we might have to talk off air. We've got one of the main guys over at the Scott & Holman podcast, that is P-A-W-C-S-T, because they are super cool. Before we get into it and look, I want to talk football, but in case people didn't know, you and your cohorts over at the podcast kind of broke some crazy news and really might have had some real earthshaking stuff in the University of Houston world. So first of all, welcome to the show, but why don't you tell our listeners, you uncovering some of the stuff that was going on in Houston Athletics, specifically your guys' softball program? Yeah, first of all, thanks for having me, Scott. Well, I think my co-host Bobby did the preview of a very ill-fated list on our side football game during the fall. So, happy I could have turned the favor that you did for us last summer. So, not a topic that can be summarized easily in a few minutes, but I will try and summarize it easily in a few minutes, really at the end of the season, you know, it's kind of has just been an unfortunate four-year slide for the program, which seemed like prior to COVID. Had some momentum. They've been to a couple of postseason in a row. Took the Longhorns to the championship game of their regional in 2019. It felt like a program that was in good shape, and just for, at the time, whatever reason that we didn't know just really seemed to backslide, even before the Big 12 move. One of those programs that just seemed to struggle in the American conference and the step-up-and-weight class to what was a very, very good softball conference didn't seem to have any other pre-determined outcome than what actually happened. The team finished at last, but we just took it as, you know, a usual on-field problems, any number of reasons why a program goes from winning to not winning, and many of them do so in ways that aren't nefarious. We'd heard whispers, but you hear whispers about a lot of stuff and you don't necessarily put stock in whispers, and then, you know, it turned from whispers to, I think, in a space of a weekend, a floodgate of people that we could first hand verify, you know, people who were former staff members, people who had played for the program, and what was really striking is these people told a very similar story of Kristen Vessley, the now long-time head coach, just not treating players. Just one, not treating players well, mentally and physically, doing things like making players didn't pass the conditioning test, the conditioning test that didn't, like, didn't vary based on, you know, position or size or anything like that, made them leave their stuff on the floor during the season, just really restrictive rules on when players could eat, things like that. I think it was, unfortunately, the more mild stuff and the more serious stuff is, potentially university over, basically covering up or dancing up to the line of a player on this past year's team, having a handgun player saying that they weren't comfortable with that, a fight with that player and other players before the Oklahoma series, just a lot of really bad stuff. And myself, nor my two co whose Bobby and Dustin are another journalist by trade, but I think we did those episodes, two journalists standard, didn't talk about anything, it wasn't verified by the multiple people, talked to really, really, really wide. I think by the end, by our second episode, we had talked to 19 different former players and staff members spanning a number of years in the program, and I think what was so striking about all of it was a pretty similar picture, you know, obviously people have different pieces of the picture, but really similar picture I painted, and I think the on field is the least important, but kind of tied all back, you kind of absorb all this information by perspective, and you're just like, yeah, it kind of tracks that this team wasn't playing well. Division one sports are really hard. If you're not fully bought in on the person who's coaching you, if you're not fully just fully feeling comfortable in your skin as an athlete, like this is, this is too high of level, whether it's the American or the big 12 certainly the big 12 that that level is going to expose that kind of just lack of, I guess, lack of faith in your leadership, and also I think a through line that the people or the mechanisms in place to hold, you know, you had just head coach accountable just didn't have any interest in acting, you know, buried from didn't have any interest in acting to actively sabotage those that had concerns. So those episodes 946 and 950 on our feed, wherever you listen to podcasts, Apple Spotify would encourage you, K state fan, U of H fan, interested big 12 fan listening to check those out because I'm not happy about what we talked about, but I'm proud of how we talked about. So that's my best effort, Scott, to, you know, give a give a topic that you can't submit five minutes and five minutes. I hope I hope I. No, definitely. And I think it's important because again, you said that you guys didn't seek out to be journalists. You guys didn't seek out to be newsbreakers. It just kind of came to you guys and it was something very important. And look, I don't think I don't think that will ever come my way. We had an interesting couple interviews that shine to light on some crazy stuff going on in the Ron Prince era, but you know, it was former players who spoke about it before in our platform just kind of amplified it. You guys seriously broke news and hopefully what comes from it is everyone, you know, year two kind of looks and says, all right, that positive change with U of H athletics started with your guys's podcast. And I think I listened to both the episodes I listened. I can't remember which one of you guys went on with Phillips, leaving on the 10 12 network, but you guys should be very proud of what you put out there, not just because it was good content, but because you guys went every single step safely and correctly for a story that was this important. Thank you. I really appreciate that. All right, we will, we will get into football. Hopefully a little bit more light hearted. I want to go back before we have to go forward at risk of sounding like a bad Matthew McConaughey car commercial. But when you look back at that first year with Houston in the big 12, did you guys come in expecting that? Okay, this might be a little rough and this might be the end of the Dana Holgerson era. Was it a three month long cold shower until you got to the time where you could fire Dana and then try to take a step forward in year two. It was a lot of it was cold shower. There was the occasional bright spot there. Like the, the team was far more competitive with the best Texas Longhorn team of the last 15 years than I believe they had any business being. I mean, I, I live a good distance from the university now, but I obviously went out there in person for the Texas game. And the first quarter and a half of that was just U of H game beat merciless. And it's all right. Like, all right, cool. I, I traveled over a thousand miles to watch us lose 56 to seven where the seven was scored like at the most meaningless juncture. And then something, something clicked and they just, you know, woke up and you saw a team for about two and a half quarters there play at a level and play with an enthusiasm that you really didn't see much of before that game. And certainly, I mean, I was gonna say the, the strongest evidence that being the case day came in the media aftermath certainly didn't see afterward. So I think it's something that was, it was brought to me on other big 12 fans. I remember the TCU opener and just, it was better than average for U of H, which the average wasn't great. So, uh, not really a great comparison there, but people being surprised that the crowd wasn't that great for the, you know, the big football ball but against TCU. And I just, my response was just, this is this fan base is voted on Dana Holgers and this fan base. I think this fan base made their feelings on him pretty loud and clear the season before when U of H was expected to be around at least the top of the American and sputtered to a seven and five season way wasted the last season of two very good college players and Clayton tuned and tanked down among others and just kind of felt like that season was fit a complete. You did have again flashes like beating less Virginia's best team post Dana. I mean, there was a Hail Mary there, but there was also like four quarters of Compton offense, which was I think not super common last year. So that that was, you know, that was better than expected, but I mean, you know, low points like not the fact that you lost a case day. Case day was drastically better than U of H last year. That was going to be a multi multi touchdown defeat whether it happened in Houston, Manhattan, whatever the circumstances, but to get shut up for the first time since I was in six Scott, I have white hairs in my beard as the visual is just going to see. And we got shut out for the against case eight for the first time since I was in sixth grade. Like that's that's how long that's how long that streak of a going got shut out. It wasn't even like a oh, yeah, like three or four possessions. Like I know it was like it was a shut out. And I think if you'd given you of age seven quarters or eight quarters to try to do in Manhattan that day, I don't think they would have would have gotten that that's how bad it was losing to rice for the first time since 2010. It was it was beyond time and I will give the brain try. I will give you a just brain trust credit for a ton necessarily in the last year. So I think there's a reason why our athletic director from the past year. So it's now looking for work, but I have an authority. He was a big part of the push to make the move because we had heard in the weeks prior to just the abysmal end of the season that and that's all right, man, they're committed to data for 2024. They're just gonna just gonna ride it out. And then I think you're pleasantly surprised after Thanksgiving when they actually did came and after the UCF game. So I think we were happy that happened. And obviously very happy with William Fritz, which I'm sure we're gonna get to. But yeah, just it kind of felt like a 23 with a season where the program was just playing out the string and you had glimpses of hope, but everything I think the majority of U of H fans expected to happen. The biggest picture happened as a veteran. I live with health impacts from my service. VA health care means you're in 100% control of your own medical care, your own benefits, and it only takes minutes to set up. A veteran should enroll in VA health care because it ensures that they get quality high level care for the rest of their lives. My service was then my benefits are now get what you are. Visit choose.va.gov not all veterans are eligible for the type or amount of benefits mentioned here. So he does get fired going back to the coaching search. How long did it take Houston to zero in on Willie Fritz? Was he one of the favorites beginning to end? What word did his name come into it? You know, right when Dana did get fired. I think he was pretty rich in UTSA is Jeff trailer or basically the one A one B for the job, not that there were other candidates interviewed, not that there were other candidates I think would have been I think good hires for the job for his Bass Holgerson did. This is still is still a big 12 program big 12 pro awards, but big 12 program in Texas in an area where there's a lot of division one talents. There's going to be interest. And I mean, and it's sort of bad because as as an alumnus and fan of a school that is spent up until last year, the last couple decades in the group of five, you've had just very much been two different times that I can remember on the other side of this equation. Kevin someone in 2011 before the conference USA championship where it was just incredibly strong rumor that Hey, am is looking for him to replace Mike Sherman. And then four years later, it felt like the final half of Tom Herman's last or five years later, the final half of Tom Herman's final season was just open speculation slash his agent clums legal leaking where he was going to go. And I don't think Tulane fans got that bad, but they did get it was that Saturday that they played SMU in the American championship. It was like, come on, well, for instance, gonna be here for this job. So he was, I would say linked to the job with credible reporting from basically the moment people were linking coaches to the job. And I think it was almost a week to the day from when Holgerson was fired for Brits getting reported to accept the job and being on a plane and, you know, being introduced, I think the following Monday and all that stuff. So I think it was about a week time, which pretty, pretty quick, but not unusually so for for these kind of searches. Yeah. So Casey, it's playing Tulane. And I talked to a gentleman who just got his undergrad at Tulane. And then he's getting a master's program in statistics way smarter than me. And he recalled going into the stadium and checking his phone. And the report came out that Willie Fritz would be the Houston head coach, you know, an hour before the kickoff versus SMU. So I think they have some hard feelings towards Willie. But again, you know, you have to take that jump up to the power of four now when you get the chance. So I think after time that they'll learn to forgive them. And if they don't, well, whatever, they're lost. But what is the temperature check on Willie Fritz? Are Houston fans excited for them? Were they excited from the jump? Or did it take time to build up to it? What was the temper temperature check when it was announced? And then now as we're a month and a half away from the season starting. Yeah, I think we're still to answer against the last part first. We're still very much in the honeymoon phase. But I think very much in favor of Willie Fritz, just I think if nothing else, because he's very much the opposite of his predecessor. And you know, it's it's the opposite of your ex or something like that. But he is. And I think he's about like give or take 10 years older than Dana, but we became so obvious the last two years that Dana was here. He just didn't look like a guy that enjoyed his job very much. He just didn't look like a guy who was having very much fun, whether he kind of expected to be a low pressure group of five gig and realize, Oh man, I'm about to have to make this thing competitive in a much better conference when he has at least some passing familiarity with like, I don't think he enjoyed any of that stuff. And Willie Fritz, yeah, I don't know how this is going to translate to wins in the coming season. The man loves coaching football, like, you know, the big thing with data, Dana has a rich private life. Willie Fritz, man, it is it is football and his family, like the man like, believe what you have as ability as a football coach or anything like that. The man loves coaching football. The man is the man's getting coached football until he can't coach football anymore. It doesn't work. We're not going to hear stories about, Oh, Willie Fritz was out until two a.m. partying with this Houston talk radio personality that this man, this man loves football and like, this something that's really like stood out to me from kind of this first off season is people talking about like, yeah, for like the first, the first time they had a Texas power five coach, like come visit them and not just have to be a photo op that like Fritz would show up to a high school and talk ball with the coaches for hours. Like he's a very engaging person. I think the fan base likes that. And I would say to the higher, I would say very positive UH fans got to see one that he turned to Lane because he has a good amount of history, not ever really a rivalry. But we shared a comment with them from like the mid 90s until two years ago. So a lot of head to head a number of times seeing them. And quite honestly, from late 90s until about five, six years ago, Tulane was an easy penciled in win and a free trip to, you know, New Orleans every other year. Like that was, that was what Tulane was. And Willie Fritz, I remember when they be us in 2017, it was just like, Oh man, this isn't going to be a fun, easy, free trip to New Orleans anymore. I think we only won one of the last three or four trips to New Orleans against like, he made them respectable pretty quickly. And I think just the fact they got Tulane to like a six seven, because comfortable to say to American was at least a step up for the group of five. And that this guy got them to at least respectable in the American that already I think kind of opened eyes in this fan base like, wow, two lanes no longer a pushover. And that the last two years he had there to win double digit games two times at Tulane from this fan base, largely seeing Tulane be a joke up in prior, you know, prior to him taking over. I think that made a strong impression. And I think the reception was pretty universally positive. I think they're, I'm sure there were fans that had Jeff trailers, kind of their one A to one B, but you can, you can scour the internet and find lots of bad opinions. And I think you might be able to scour there and find one or two fans didn't like this, but I think you'd struggle to find a more universally liked hire since Tom Herman, like major app white has distract detractors. I think rightfully so Daniel Holgerson has detractors at the time proves that had to be rightfully so. I don't think way for instance, very major tractors here doesn't predict, you know, guaranteed future wins, but I think universally positive higher upon reception. And I think everything he's done since then has been, I think, greeted in a positive way by the fan base. So final question on Willie Fritz before we move into talking about this upcoming season specifically, was there any sort of hang up or trepidation about him not being a quote unquote Texan? I know that any time a big Texas job and hell, not even a big Texas job, you know, any of the Texas jobs. It's all about, hey, is this a Texan? Is this someone who can get in those high schools? He played and started his coaching career, not even a mile from where I sit right here. How's he figuring out the words? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I live in Shawnee, the school he went to and then the school he came back to and got his coaching start Shawnee Mission Northwest, the Cougars, not even a mile from where I sit right here at my house right now. So was there any hang up, you know, being like, Oh, we're going to to lane to get a coach who is a cans in in his heart? You know, is there any sort of, Oh man, you know, a Texan can't, a non Texan can't get the job done down here. Because I know Matt Wells, who's a quarterback coach at K said, I know that's part of why he was hard done and pretty quick trigger at Texas Tech. So is there any of a, okay, he's not one of us, he better went faster. You know, our Houston fans a little bit more level headed than some of their brethren in the state. I think a little bit more of that because we've got people from all over that have done well, like, yeah, I mean, I know he recruited Texas. I know he has started there, but like Tom Herman was very successful for two years and you know, did had decent ties to Texas, but that wasn't from Texas hadn't hadn't coached in Texas as previous two stops. So, but I think also like to your initial question, like he's not a tech, he's he has a cans in and he did coach for a good chunks of his career in Missouri, Georgia, Louisiana. He's passed seven, eight years at Tulane, but he was someone who always had a good amount of time. I mean, I think a big part of why he took the job at U of H is his daughter, Laney, Fritz, who was a long time. I think she did some kind of sports anchoring in Houston, some TV journalism stuff. I don't think she's in that anymore, but she still lives in the area. And I think another daughter of his lives there. So you always had those ties to Houston. He also had a really successful run. I think it was four years at same Houston state, which is an FCS program about an hour and some change north of Houston did very well there. What a national title with a K state legend, Michael Bishop at a Blinginger College, about an hour and a half Northwest right by A&M in that part of the state too. He always was someone like Tulane, obviously recruited, he smiled, Louisiana recruited a decent amount of the the Gulf Coast was there, but always maintained a good amount of Texas ties, always had at least some Texas kids on his roster. So what if it wasn't a new face to the high school coaches? He's been in the area of Fairmount. I think he had assistant stints as a high school coach in the Houston area. It was an assistant Sam Houston, I think, sometime earlier in his career as well. So always kept a fair amount of Texas ties. And if there was any doubt about his Texas butterflies, I think he's really gone above and beyond. I think I alluded to an earlier question at like meeting the high school coaches and like taking high school recruiting seriously and really just going above and beyond to get his face and U of H out there, which I don't think the last coach the last coach notably went on his show. I think on Halloween and just said, yeah, high school recruiting is done for 2024 and so like that the contrast of that to coaches saying, man, this guy met with me longer than any power head coach has ever done. I think it's pretty stark there. So any, any lack of texts and bonafides there, I think he's really worked to make up for. And I also don't know if this is a fan base that is as hung up on that. It's it's just when baby if you're, you know, whether you come from Texas or come from Mars, like if you could, if you can win football games here, I think I think it'll very much be overlooked if you don't, if you came from a Shawnee or wherever or wherever. Oh boy, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm just, I'm just messing with you. Before we keep going, I want to give a shout out to our friends over at Charlie Hustle. This podcast is brought to you by our friends at Charlie Hustle. Charlie Hustle, clothing company specializes in vintage inspired hometown and collegiate gear, which produces some of the best case state and you of each gear in the game. Shop Charlie Hustle, their case state or their Houston collection and show off your purple or red pride in style and comfort shop online at charlie hustle.com or at one of their store locations here in the Kansas City Metro, Charlie Hustle, vintage made fresh. I saw you were flashing your five slam a jammer shirt. I have something from their Kansas City baseball collection as Bobby what juniors in the home run derby. I don't really care about the home run derby. So that's why I was cool recording this. I don't really care about any all star games to be quite frank. But I am happy that that Bobby isn't all star and I'm happy that the the Royals have a winning record. We won't talk about sporting Kansas City though. But if you want cool sporting stuff, they also have that at Charlie Hustle. All sorts of great stuff. And then you know what shout out to the newcomers. They finally got their first Charlie Hustle collection as well Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado had some stuff and Utah got their debut range as well. So Charlie Hustle really is the best, don't you think? Absolutely. All right. So we're, I mean, gosh, so when I started this, this series started in June and the question I had, hey, we're about a month and a half from spring ball ending. Well, no, we are much farther than a month and a half away from spring ball. But we are what two weeks away from preseason camp opening. So what are the expectations on Willie Fritz's first year for the Cougars? Is it hey, let's get to a bowl game? Is it hey, let's just not be embarrassed? Is it hey, Willie Fritz? You know, he beat K state at two lane. Let's go 10 and two. What, what is the expectations for year one? I think a lot closer than not be embarrassed. What else? If this man gets six wins, he won't be big 12 coach here because somebody who you know is in the upper part of the standings will I think rightfully get that award. But I think he should be if he gets his team to six wins, I think he should be in the conversation. You didn't didn't get a break to the big 12 schedule. I don't think you've got the hardest one, but you didn't get any breaks certainly. I think it's like, statistically, I think the number four toughest, yeah, I know it's not the toughest, but I know it's like it's rough. Yeah, you get that you get for your non-conference OU at OU and two group of five teams that went bowling last year in UNLV who like had their best season at ages and rice who I think you should be. But that's one game out of 12 that I've said that you as a team you should be. So it's, it is, it is very difficult. I think I, I know I personally, I think I would say I speak for the famous at large here. I just want to see this team have an identity. I want to see something that is clearly being built towards like Don Smith can do some things well as a quarterback. I don't think he's the top half of the big 12 quarterback, but I think he's a big 12 caliber starting quarterback. I want to see an offense that makes sense for him. He clearly does some things well. It really just seemed almost coincidental whenever last year's offense did that. I want to see a defense for the first time in a couple of years that looks like a nose had tackle. And just again, looks like there's some identity really on both sides of the ball team that competes hard, doesn't beat itself and has a clear identity they're building towards like the earlier terms from the high school recruiting have been good. But this, this wasn't necessarily a balanced roster that got left. I think a number, a number of like, I think key guys stuck around, but a number of key guys also are Matthew Golden's playing Texas, Jamari Caldwell, who had a really awesome breakout season interior lineman is playing Oregon, Sam Brown, who I would say was probably your best receiver last year over Golden is playing at Miami now. So like key guys out of here. And it was key guys off the team that just wasn't very good. I think it's been well established by us here in this podcast and by the 2023 results. So I think just a team that competes hard and a team that looks better in late November than the start of the year. Like, I really do think honestly, if this team beats you and I'll be rising, it's cold, big 12 wins. I'm not going to be jumping for joining the streets of the team goes four and eight. But if this team is more competitive, goes picks off a couple of big 12 teams, goes four and eight, doesn't lose to you and I'll be your rice. I don't feel terrible without seasons. God, honestly, I know it's that's low expectations, but yeah, you're one of a rebuild that I don't think any of us here expected to be a quick rebuild. No, I, and I think you got the right coach for that rebuild. So you are talking about it being rebuilding season. Where on the field do you and most U of H fans have the most confidence and as we're sitting here in the middle of July. Running back, the, I think it's not quits down at all those guys who I think at least a couple of them could have gotten, I think, onto a team at least in this coming season that probably has better projections than U of H guys like Parker Jenkins and, um, and, um, Stacy Snead, like, especially Parker Jenkins had a really strong freshman season for the cougs. It was a really good bright spot there. Um, Rashawn Sanford, it was a really promising freshman that came in. I remember kind of noting it when the last half was really disappointing towards ACL and spring ball or not spring when summer ball last year because they, I think they thought he'd be at least some level contributor. So I think that'll be an interesting group. I don't, I don't think it'll be like top three or four in the big 12, but I could see it if, if this O line can run block and that is a big F Scott, if this O line can run block periodically, I think this is going to be a good running back group. But I think Jenkins driving it, I think is why this fan base would probably be reasonably confident in the running back group. All right. So we'll, we'll go to the opposite side. What are the biggest questions that you want to see answered before things kick off in late August, uh, right in front of the running backs, uh, offensive line, unfortunately, it's a bad combo. You can't be like running backs. I feel promising about offensive line. It's really, it's an unknown. Like this, this hasn't been, this hasn't been a good rushing offense since the year before Dana got here in 2018. And even that was kind of an outlier. I think really, yeah, like 2015 before that, the year six bowl season was the last time this team really had a strong consistent running game, really doomed Tom Herman's last team here. And it just never happened to their Dana. And I think some of it was like the kind of guys they recruited and, you know, you lost a lot to graduation. Patrick Paul was a, uh, I believe a second round pick in this most recent draft. He, he was very good. You lose multi year starting center, Jack Freeman as well. Just one returning starter from a group that wasn't that great last year. And you brought in some guys that could contribute, but you didn't bring in any transfers where I was like, Oh yeah, this guy is going to be, you know, this guy locked on going to be on an all big 12 team once all said and done. I mean, maybe, maybe you strike golden one of those guys, but I think I think that's the biggest question mark right now. And I do think like the staff has a good idea of what they want to do. Like I do think they want to be kind of run first and RPO centric with Donovan Smith, a guy who I think can take a lot of pounding in the run game more than you may be your average college quarterback. But I mean, kind of the old line to do it. And I think that's, that's the big question mark right now on July 15th. Before we wrap up with the last couple of questions, I'm going to give a shout to our friends at Manhattan Brewing Company. Again, folks, it'll be tailgating time before you know it in the official tailgate beer, Bosco's boys is the towny wheat beer. Make sure that you are stocked up before that first game. And anytime you're visiting the happiest place in America, Manhattan, Kansas, be sure to stop and they got fun events going on every single night of the week. They got some great food trucks going on. They got beers in the alley on Friday. Anything you could want, you can find over at Manhattan Brewing Company. If you haven't listened, folks, again, this will be the last week I talked about it. Go back to last Wednesday, my episode with Jake from Manhattan Brewing Company. So many fun stories about the creation of their business. So many fun beers and events that they teased for this football season. So go over, check it out. And of course, who doesn't want to listen to guys just drinking a couple beers in a brewery on a Tuesday. Because that's what we did. And it's in our feed from last Wednesday. All right, we got a couple questions to end it. But I am going to change it up a little bit. I am adding this extra one for you guys specifically, because one of the fun things about college sports, one of the fun things about college football, are some of the obscure stories that come out of Luffield that it could only be college football. And I'm referring to the University of Houston fighting with the Tennessee Titans over a certain uniform. I believe I saw earlier in the spring that that uniform, I think it's the we love you blue. I don't know. Yeah, love you blue uniform that it's coming back. A, is that true? And B, how petty can a team that left Houston be that that a color scheme is still being used in the city that they departed? Yeah, I don't have a law degree, but it feels kind of dubious to me to be like, Oh, yeah, we have this shade. Like you cannot use this shade of blue, which at the time they did it. Like everyone's like, Oh, these uniforms are awesome. I agree. Like they were awesome. Like really cool. Just really well executed. Something I'm not used to saying is you have age fan, but there was this information back. Everyone's like, okay, well, why can't we buy that? We're loved for you. They should time to just be like, Hey, we're not short legal standing. We have here on this. So it's just going to be the guy's wearing them for now, but in class, give age fashion. They let, you know, they let the information vacuum get out there, whatever, not the main point of your question. But like, yeah, just if the Tennessee Titans couldn't be more hated just like trying to do cease and desist. And also one little nugget in there rice. I don't know if they were able to sell them necessary. I don't know all that. But rice was able to get by without without such a rep, you know, this, you know, you're some letter from the toasty Titans because because they hosted the Oilers for the first couple years of existence, like 60 years ago or so like that's just also like that rice isn't really a hateful rivalry, but the loss of them last year and them getting somehow exempted from the Tennessee Titans BS, I think magnified that. But yeah, just really, insane stuff and also just like you're an NFL team. Like it is losing PR thing to go after a popular college uniform because it shares a similar color. Like, come on, like it just real, real insane stuff there. Yes. And is it coming back? Did I remember that correctly? From what I saw? Yeah. Like I think they'll they now now recently departed athletic director at an event. I think May or June said, well, it didn't mean fruit to get out, but it's, I think he confirmed it. So I would imagine we see it at some point in the coming season and we'll see it week one like we did last year, but imagine we see it for some for some big football game of the coming season. Well, speaking of big football games, hopefully you guys were in versus K state. One of the questions I like to ask because I think K state fans, it became a joke last year because seemingly every game we played in, there was a blackout or a red all this sort of color coordinated stuff and there was a lot of sellouts. So we started making jokes about, oh, you know, if K state comes down to the biggest game around. So in honor of that kind of ingest, I've been asking where does K state land in the most anticipated games? But we talked about the schedule that Houston has earlier. You know, you're going to Oklahoma. You have Baylor, Utah, and I believe Iowa state as well as Rice, you mentioned all coming to your stadium playing a road game at the defending Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs, where you play KU. I hope the red team wins and I'm talking about Houston and that one for sure. But but where does that case a game? Does it move the needle for you guys? Or is this kind of a, Hey, keep your head down. It'll be fun to play some of these other schools. Does it register at all? Just where does that game, you know, rank in the hierarchy for you guys? I would say K states in that I would say I would put kind of for me, K state and Utah kind of a group of like teams were expecting to be playing against the among the very best in the big 12. That's all said and done. Like I'm not saying K state or Utah's, I don't know who I'd pick to be the champion. Quite honest right now, but for me, I put K state in that tier with Utah. I think if there was any, there's any information vacuum about K state's football ability, and I don't think I don't think there was a lot of like U of H fans be believing last year's team was going to go into Manhattan at win. But I would say the 2023 on field results, I think bridging information gap about the level of program case data is right now in the level of program U of H is right now. So I would say the expectations is going to be one of the best games in terms of a crowd. I would just say it's how the team is doing. Like if this, if this team's one or two and whatever at that point in the season, entirely possible, I will, I will be out there as I only make a couple of games from, from the west coast out to there in a given year. That one's when I have circled in the calendar be out there, just because I want to see U of H play one of the better teams in the conference. So I think, I think if the team is doing slightly better than expected and I fully expect K state to be some level of top 25 team at that point this season, I think it'll draw a decent crowd at it, especially with like a little more enthusiasm behind Willie Fritz versus boy wasn't or Dana, but I think it's just context driven of how the team's doing. And I would say the fan base at large, I think the knowledge is there generally, this could be one of the better teams that, if not the best team that's got to come into TDCU stadium this year. All right. And then the final question before I'll let you plug away, if you were going to be talking directly to K state fans, which, hey, this is a K state show. So you definitely are. And they're getting their own kind of cheat sheet ready. They're doing their own research on the big 12 this year. What would you tell them to spend a little bit of extra time with Houston? What do you want them to take away that they should continue to dive in on when you're looking into the coverage? I don't want to set that. I don't want to set the expectations too low, but I would open by saying it will probably look better in a year or two. I think the interesting thing to watch this team is does this team develop, you know, by the end of the season a passable to good run game like a lot of Willie Fritz's teams have done over the years. And like, I think he's pretty publicly signaled that he would like this team's identity to be. I think that's the interesting thing to watch this team. And I haven't mentioned him yet, but I think I should the DC hiring made child would is a guy who's literally not had a bad defense at a number of different group of five schools step up and weight class, the big 12, but hard to have a better resume for someone who hasn't been a DC the power five level than shall would did did a great job with two lanes defense last year. I think we'll get more out of that unit than what you've H's last DC and last staff did more out of it, you know, it might be being the 80th best defense instead of like the 110th or whatever awful number you had to finish with last year. So I would say it'll look it'll look better in a year to like the off field indicators are pointing the right way about the school's about to open a nice new facility in one of the end zones like it'll happen like before you're just like, Oh my God, this team's a football albatross. Like, why do we why do we invite these guys to win one to three big 12 games every year? I think it will get better. And I think we'll I think we'll hold our way basketball season. I want to knock on knock on wood here on that. But I think we'll we'll make up for any any shortfall in the next year to avoid Fritz getting things right at a on the hard way. But I think the run game and improve defense. And I think a coach who actually wants to be here and might have the tools to make use to actually a solid to good big 12 team was all said and done. You mentioned basketball. I'm pumped that Houston is coming to Bramledge this upcoming year. I have that one scheduled. I'll be I'll be awaiting the full schedule release. But I know I'm getting my value in season tickets when it comes to basketball because the big 12 got like continues to be a gauntlet. But we'll talk basketball in November and December. There will be time for that. Please plug all the great stuff you guys got going on over at the podcast and any other special projects that might be under your guys's banner. Yeah, we're the Scott and Holm podcast. Like Scott said, the top PAWD cast, Scott and Holm. It's an intersection near near the school where all the athletic stuff is every so often early on, we'd be like, which, you know, me and my original cohost, we were like, which one are you Scott, which one's Holm is like trick questions and intersection of a street. But we were on Apple spotify YouTube music wherever you get podcasts, Scott and Holm podcast. We've been a little like this past month. But like I said, the top we really proud of the investigative thing we did on Houston softball and we've got a couple episodes coming later this month. And of course, we're going to be doing a ton of preview stuff in August talking about Cougar football and our big 12 thoughts as well. So really excited for y'all to hear that. Really excited for well, hopefully say a very low bar here, be a more competitive U of H K state game here and in about three and a half months and all those can't not be Scott. So I guess I'm not saying myself up for failure there. Well, I think it will be and again, I think you guys have a great program builder. I will say this because I said it on the Tulane show back on a K state online when it was on the rivals network, when case it was playing Tulane. And there was a poster who was saying, man, you know, Willie Fritz, he's good. We're all we need to be focusing more on this game. And I decided to go on a long dive tribe about Willie Fritz and pointed out his losing conference record in the American and tried to poo poo his record, especially coming off of that hurricane displacement season. They looked us and I can't remember the name of that poster. But he sure made sure he made me know every single time I posted for a while that Willie Fritz is the real deal. So I became a believer that day and I was happy he wasn't going to be with Tulane. Not real happy he's now with Houston, but I think he's going to get you guys up and running. And yeah, that's all I have. I do thank you for spending part of your evening with me to talk big 12 and Houston football. Thanks for having us. I really appreciate it. All right. Well, that's all we have folks we will be back behind enemy lines tomorrow talking Arizona state. So until then, my name is Scott McFarland. We love you guys and go cats. Wildcat in spirit. Wildcat in fight. Hail Alma Mater. From sea to sea. Onward forever. We will victory. Fight. You can stay wildcats for Alma Mater. Fight. Glory in the combat for the purple and the white faithful to our colors. We will ever be a fighting and a fighting for a wildcat. Victory. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. You can stay wildcats for Alma Mater. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Glory in the combat for the purple and the white faithful to our colors. We will ever be a fighting for a wildcat. Victory. Go state. One, two. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]