The Craig Way Show
Kyle Flood previews Texas/Arizona State
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Of course, our local coverage begins at 9 a.m. myself, Mike Hardball-Harge in Mark Henry. We'll be out at Tonko Deli on Burnet Road. Come out, do us some breakfast tacos before Texas takes on Arizona State. Our coverage is until 11 a.m. And then Craigway, Roger Wallace in will Matthew's will take over with kickoff around noon. Glad you can hang with me on this Monday afternoon. Of course, always appreciate messages coming in the text line and on our talk back feature on the text line. And you can reach out to us by texting the word Texas to 81530, text the word Texas followed by your message. A few messages I got to catch up on so far from today's show, including from our good friend C-Pow in regards to Quinn Ewers' response to Sam Leavitt about Sam saying he wants to prove he's a better quarterback in this matchup and Quinn has taken the high road. Well, C-Pow said Quinn should have said he has to go against our Texas defense. We'll see who has the better defense. And you know what, C-Pow? I bet you Quinn Ewers is thinking that. And I'm sure a lot of the other offensive members on Texas think that is that he doesn't have to play us. He has to play the Texas secondary that has been lights out. This season, C-Pow also said that's got to be up. He has had some under 100 yard games. Do not let him get going. Pressure Levitt contain edges under control. Watch out for trick plays. Yeah, for Arizona State offensively, from what I've seen, they love love to run screenplays. They love to get quick passes to the outside, to the edges. You're not going to see a lot of slow developing plays like we see from Steve Sarkeesian and from Quinn Ewers. That's just not how Kenny Dillingham's offensive works. I mean, think back to his time at Oregon. You know, very quick, gets the ball out, right? And we're going to see that a lot. Especially now without Jordan Tyson, the number one receiver, a lot's going to have to rely on Cam Scadaboo, who not only is there number one running back, but with Tyson out, he's basically their number one receiver as well. So a lot of pressure will be on Sam Levitt and Cam Scadaboo to lift up this Arizona State offense. Steve Sarkeesian met with the media today. And we have a few song about it. I wanted to share from Sarkeesian with the media today, starting off with how him and his staff have tackled preparing for a second playoff game. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we've kind of been in playoff mode really since the first Georgia game. We had to kind of win out to get to the SEC Championship game. And then we kind of reset ourselves. And it said, hey, we're in a four game playoff, you know? And it was a great celebration at DKR to have that first home game in the CFP. It was an amazing environment. And with the extended time between games, we took a moment to celebrate that. And then it was back to work as usual, you know? Really wasn't very difficult. We've got a really mature team and older team that I think understands the task at hand. So how different is it preparing for a second playoff game and for a college football quarter? And then it is maybe preparing for a New Year's 6 ball, right? Because, you know, two years ago, this ball game would have just featured two teams in not in the college football playoff, right? So is it any similar? Is it any different in your SARCs thoughts? Well, I think, again, differently than before, if it's just your traditional New Year's Day ball game and you're at the bowl site for about a week or so, a little bit different challenge. This being a playoff, and we're only here for about three days with the goal to be back here January 20th, you know, you always have as a coach, you have your concerns. But like I said, we're a really mature team, you know, knock on wood, you know, we do it the right way. Obviously, we got curfew and all those things in place. But, you know, I think our guys understand, like I said, the task at hand, they're focused on that. First year in the SEC, obviously for Texas and Steve Sarcasian, how different was it this year in terms of the physicality level talent than it was in the Big 12 last year? Yeah, I think, you know, the natural thing to point out was the physical grind that the SEC puts on you, the body types, the speed, the physicality of which the game has played in the SEC. But the thing that we worked a lot on that I thought paid dividends for us was the mental intensity needed week in and week out in this conference. From top to bottom, if you don't show up and play well, you can get beat. And I think we saw that kind of across the board in the conference this year. I think a credit to our players, I thought they showed up every week ready to play. Naturally, we didn't win every game, but for the most part, whether it was at home or on the road, we showed up ready to play. And we didn't have those lapses, you know, that maybe some of the other teams had. And last thing from Sarc, you mentioned about how different it wasn't being the SEC this year, has he had to adjust the way he recruits? And by that, has he adjusted the type of athletes he recruits in terms of do they play other sports because Texas is playing in a different conference? - I think again, like we, I really value competitors. And a lot of times, you know, not every one of the guys we recruit as a multi-sport athlete, but we really look for that. We look for guys that compete, whether it's in track, whether it's in basketball, whether it's in baseball, whether it's in wrestling, whatever that can look like. We're looking for true competitors because this league challenges you that way. You just don't get to take a week off because the moment you do, you can get beat. And we've seen it, right? And we've seen it across the board. We got a lot of teams complaining that they didn't get into the college football playoff, but they stub their toe at some point along the way as well. - Thoughts from Steve Sarkeesian as Texas prepares for Arizona State. Let's go back to Kyle Flood. And we've played the first half of his media availability in the second hour. Here's the second half of it as we begin our three of the day's program. - Perry Middleton, go ahead. - Good afternoon. Be your career, you've coached a lot of great players. What is it about this group of guys that you'll remember most? - Well, I think the first thing is that I've had them for three and four years. You know, it's kind of unique. Nobody likes to move around, you know, as a coach. You know, I was in one place for 11 years. So I'm certainly, I've had that experience before this. Yeah, everybody likes to be in one place. You like your family to have kind of stability. All those things are good things. But things happen in the profession. You know, whether sometimes you get promoted to a job and it's a job, you know, that's a good job. And you move kind of like I did when I came here from Alabama to be the office coordinator at Texas. So those are all really good things. But now to have been here for four years and have guys like Jake and Hayden, who I've had for four years. And then that first recruiting class where we took seven and they're all still here. That's unique and you know, in this day and age, especially now with the portal and all the other stuff that's going on to recruit seven players in the same class and have them all still be here, that is really, really unique. So I've got a real connection with these guys. And I've had good connections with other players in the past. But when you say like, I would say, hey, the fact that I've had these guys for four years, three or four years, my connection to them and how much they like each other. Because I promise you, they wouldn't all state if they didn't like each other. And they get along, they kid each other, they push each other, they're not afraid to hold each other accountable. It's really a special kind of culture that they've created in this room, you know, kind of more specific even than what it is as a team. So all that stuff is really neat. And, you know, the other part of it for me is I had an older son who kind of grew up in a football building. And now I've got a younger son who's doing the same thing here and they were both out there at practice today. And that was kind of neat for me to see that and how comfortable my younger guy is now with these players. Kind of like my older guy was with a group of players that were at another place. So those things are all special and they're all kind of, they make this group a little bit unique. - Got time for the last few questions. And Q, Jeff, how we'll go ahead. - Hey, Kyle, I know Sark has talked about Isaiah Bond trying to get healthy and work his way back. When you've got IB healthy and a part of the plan, how much does that dynamic change what you guys can do offensively? Not just his ability to stretch the field, but also acting as an extensor, the run game on screens and jet sweeps and things like that. - Yeah, I don't know that it changes what we do on offense necessarily, but IB is a special kind of weapon. And you kind of answered the question with the question. Like his elite speed, it's just different. You know, he's got the ability to be explosive every time he touches the ball because of how well he runs. And he's been out there practicing all that Sark speaks to his availability. I don't know if he has yet or not, but I'll let him speak to that. But certainly we're all excited when he's out there. And I do think it just causes one more different kind of stress on the defense when you have somebody out there with that kind of speed. - DJ Vogel, go ahead. - Yeah, coach, I asked PK this yesterday, but wanted to get your take on it from an offensive side. These extra bull practices aren't really bull practices. Like they've been in the past where you've had two or three weeks building up for one game. What's that like for you to kind of utilize the young talents moving forward and what's expected to be, you know, extra practices or, you know, opportunities for development for these younger guys? - I kind of like it. And I like it for this reason. I think learning a game plan is a skill. And just like any other skill in life, the more you do it, the better you get at it. So even though some of these younger guys are playing on the scout team and they're maybe doing some different stuff, they're still in some of those game plan meetings and they're having to learn the game plan. And I think that's going to serve those guys really well going forward next year when they're a little closer to the top of the depth chart. So I think the idea of continuing to have to learn game plans in a game kind of game specific mode, I kind of like it. I think it's been good for these guests. - What I'm going to ask you about outside of Georgia, you found some real success in the run game the last back half of this season. What do you attribute to that success and what do you need to do moving forward to be playing on through January 20th? - Well, I think like you're a little bit, you're thinking a little bit more big picture, I think than coaches think. You know, we've had some success around the football. There've been a couple of games where we haven't. But regardless of any of that, we don't start the game with any rushing yards this week. So we've got to execute this game plan. You know, that's kind of, that's how I look at it from our perspective. You know, it was great to rush the ball the way we did in the last game, but we don't get any, we don't get any kudos for that. So we got to earn every yard that we rush for this week against a defense that presents a lot of challenges. So, you know, I'm not worried about January 20th right now. I'm not worried about the 10th or the 11th right now. You know, we're worried about the beach bowl and playing really well in this game. And I think the way you do that is to practice well. And I'm excited about how we practiced the last couple of days. - Last one for Coach Flood, Joe Cook. - Coach, sorry I talked a lot this year about how y'all got outside zone back on track. And he spoke some to the offensive line and what they did, how did Trey and Jaden as well, your running backs help outside zone also get back on track. - Yeah, there is no good running game if you're running backs aren't in sync with the offensive line. So I think the tracks, the reads, having their eyes in the right place. You know, when you watch running backs, the way you know you have a really good running back is when you see a change of speed as they go through the line of scrimmage. That means they're really seeing it. I've heard people say like, their feet are connected to their eyes. Well, that's kind of what they mean. Like there's an acceleration as they burst through the line. I think you saw that last week with Trey and with Jaden. So I think they've, the reps they've gotten this year have shown up and we're doing a better job of blocking it. I think they're doing a better job of reading it. And then when they do make their read, they're doing a great job of accelerating through the line. And every once in a while, they got to make a guy mess. And they've done that too. So we're fortunate even with the situation running in the running back room to have guys like Trey and Jaden and Jarrick who are doing a really nice job run the ball force. Hands up, who has Jaden Blue's 77 yard touchdown run as their favorite moment of the 2024 season? It might be up there, especially coming with all the injuries Texas had sustained in that game on the offensive line. I mean, you have Cam Williams leaves the game, Jake Majors leaves the game, Kelvin Banks on 100%. But the job that Hayden Conner and Cole Hudson, I think it was Hayden Conner and Cole Hudson on that play to open up the hole. And then Jaden freaking Blue 77 yards. If you stop that picture, and I think you've still frames can get us in trouble because a lot of people, they'll take a screen grab and they'll say, oh look, the receiver's wide open, but doesn't really account for the DB, just not being in the frame, but he's actually there. If you take a screenshot of when Blue right before he hits that hole, and you say he's gonna score 77, he's gonna go 77 yards untouched, I don't know. I don't know if I believe you, but that just attests to the speed that Jaden Blue has, but also to the level of confidence and trust that Sark and Kyle Flood have, 'cause obviously Jaden Blue has had his troubles following the football this year. Jaden Gibson as well, but it was Trey Wiesner, it was Jaden Blue that had a phenomenal game and helped push Texas over Clemson. I think we're gonna see something similar against Arizona State on Wednesday. Hour three, just getting started, and more than come here. As the crackaway show continues on AM 1300, the zone. Ranked number one in innovation, 10 consecutive years, Arizona State University isn't just ahead of the curve, it's creating new paths to success. Learn from notable clinical and research faculty online. That's a degree better. Explore programs at asuonline.asu.edu. - Your business needs AI solutions that are not only ambitious, but also practical and adaptable. That's where Domo's AI and data products platform comes in. With Domo, you can channel AI and data into innovative uses that deliver a measurable impact. Secure AI agents connect, prepare, and automate your data workflows, helping you gain insights, receive alerts, and act with ease through guided apps tailored to your role. Domo is built to meet the challenges of today's AI landscape with a robust all-in-one platform powered by trust, flexibility, and years of expertise in data and AI innovation. Data is hard. Domo is easy. Learn how Domo can help you unlock your data's full potential at ai.domo.com. That's ai.domo.com.