Horns Report, Aug. 26

lot of cool things happening Saturday um but the coolest thing is we get to play football again and um we're excited for it we've got a a very tough opponent um coach norell has done a really good job of building that program back up at Colorado State um they were they were you know I know they five and seven last year but there was a lot of close games that could have went either way um they've got a very explosive offense that likes to throw the ball around a dynamic receiver uh in in Tory Horton as well as him being a kick returner of of veteran offensive line with a couple grad transfers a very veteran uh defense uh with two really good safeties you know all conference safeties that have played a lot of football um and a very intricate special teams unit U very well coached team uh they tax you uh mentally as well as tax you physically uh and this is going to take a great week of uh preparation from our players not only physically but mentally uh because they're going to get challenged uh in all three phases an exciting time indeed for Longhorns fans are going to play football finally uh they're going to kick off the season at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday against the C State Rams here at home at DKR Tex Memorial Stadium thank you so much for joining us I'm Billy Gates and this is the horns report and here to talk about the SE the season opener uh for the Longhorns is sports director Roger Wallace Roger thanks so much for joining us appreciate you and so I mean Steve just kind of told us how how pumped he was to get this season finally started it seems like you know training camp started years ago um from how much we've been covering it but what what's exciting about this season to you like kind of kind of what kind of feel does this season have for you well we haven't had this this feel in in a long time you have to think back to 08 and 09 that stretch when uh so much was expected of Texas so I guess now uh to see what it looks like compared to what people uh think it's going to look like and a lot of that is what happened last year not just winning the Big 12 but getting into the college football playoffs so yeah Sark sat down this morning with a huge grin on his face and he's a self-proclaimed college football junkie and loves everything about it and he he joked that players might be more excited than the fans quite frankly that might be 5050 I think the fans are are pretty excited but you you certainly understand what he means because they've been grinding it out uh for not just a month of training camp let's be honest this all started as soon as they got back uh from the break after the loss to Washington so uh yeah certainly they're fired up about it but fans as well college football's here they get to play on Saturday and he loves to remind you like every coach you only get so many of these chances and we spend more time talking about it from Sunday through Friday and then finally game day comes and you feel like it's a holiday every Saturday I know this year I mean especially for us here at KX uh we're entering a new partnership with University with the football program uh giving them all kinds of coverage on our family of stations uh KX kbvo in CW Austin Roger you had a chance to sit down with coach sarkeesian for an exclusive interview that aired I believe on Saturday after the Cowboys Chargers preseason game um I mean just from from that interview like like like what kind of I guess what kind of sense did you get from from Steve you know talking about everything he talked about yeah and the first is just kind of his comfort level with with something that uh you know he was hoping he could get to when he took this job coming from Alabama he's seen it that's as big as a gets the run that uh he was part of the tail end with Nick Savin but getting Texas back to the point where not only are they the expectations because that comes every year regardless of what happens but now nationally uh they are considered one of the top programs uh in the nation so he kind of built that and now in year four see if he can maintain it take another step uh and get to the point where uh this a team they're talking about for a national championship I think people are talking about it obviously uh a lot of questions but just the fact that he's comfortable and being able to build it 11 draft picks see Xavier worthy right there so that's something he wanted and and that's something we forget a little bit uh Billy how important that is to a head coach because that's such a great recruiting cell because all these kids want to play at the next level now you're seeing 11 guys uh off last year's roster he said we probably should have 10 as an average number every year some years it might you know increase a little some it might dip a little depending on circumstances so it's kind of twofold winning turning out NFL players you're going to attract better talent but just how comfortable I think he is with what he has built here and the expectations and he doesn't shy away from talking about reminds me a lot of Augie gito uh he always was was more than happy to talk about the expectations yeah and we all know how how good of a coach a he was right exactly for real so uh before we can even you know get to that point they got to take care of business Saturday um against the Colorado State team finished 5 and seven last year in the Mountain West you know just kind of you know ho hum a little bit pedestrian like but uh taresian stressed that that this this team is a good team under under coach coach Mike norell that that's recently moved over there I mean they're they're a good team that's going to present some issues I mean I know we're going to get into kind of the X's and O's here later in the week but just sort of like a high level sort of expectation CAU State I mean what do you think the Rams are going to come out and do yeah well first of all they've got an All-American receiver and Tory Horton so right there they've got some high level Talent with the transfer portal Billy it's hard to judge on on what they did last year because Sark talked today about they picked up uh some interior lineman uh out of the porter they a young freshman from Alo at quarterback Braden Nicoli uh who threw for over 3,000 yards so now he's going to be uh more comfortable uh Jay norell has a little history at Texas just one year but he was here in 2015 uh and he recruits Texas hard he was a longtime assistant at okoklahoma you can see his roster starting to take shape uh with some Texas transfers bringing some from Nevada where he coached before Colorado State yeah I think I don't think this is even though it's a 32 and a half Point uh spread as of Monday yeah I think there's a lot of reasons that sark's concerned the other one is simply mistakes and you know they don't get a preseason uh everything they do is against each other so what kind of mistakes are they going to make are they going to put the ball on the ground uh turnovers at the wrong time special teams so they have a lot to worry about and I think in the opener it's heightened uh regardless of you know funny today Billy there was not question one question about what's going to happen a week from Saturday and I think that's where we are in college football now I think that's kind of an older attitude about about looking ahead MH yeah speaking of Michigan of course right right of course talking about Michigan that week to Showdown that's going to be uh the biggest game in college football for the for that for that week absolutely um we've been talking with with Steve and some of the coach is you know leading up to here U Colorado State's air rate offense it's kind of sort of like shades of like Texas Tech Mike Leech a little bit I mean is that that kind of fair they're going to spread teams out they're going to try to whip the ball around the field and we have talked about how Texas needs to improve their P defense over the over you know season's past especially last year where they got gashed quite a bit uh through the year I mean is this sort of like that sort of like early early Benchmark for them to try to hold down this this offense that's GNA throw it you know maybe 40 times I I don't think that that's there's any way Jay Norville thinks he's gonna come in here and win unless he does uh just that and spread them out hope they can get some bad matchups hope Texas misses some tackles and they take care of the ball I can't imagine they think they can win it consistently uh between the tackles and the trenches so sure I think that's what's going to happen there was a lot of questions last year as you mentioned secondary then uh one of the big concerns for coaches is tackling uh in that first game so now get some high quality uh special or rather Specialists and and skill players you get them in space and see what happens flip side is Colorado State's got to defend Texas's skill guys and and Quinn ERS and and that new receiving core along with some guys that have have been around and Jaden blue is going to be so explosive I think if he can stay healthy so yeah I think that's the KE key and I'm sure Jay norell saying we got to get some we got to get some you know free possessions we got to take it away we got to do something on special teams to create a few more possessions you mentioned those receivers that Texas got through the transfer portal isah Bond Silas Balden and Matthew golden um they also grabbed a running back from the transfer portal just recently to help kind of rebuild depth after the injuries to CJ Baxter Christian Clark a guy from SMU who who they kind of they kind of added on like very recently like four days ago yeah Vin Gardner was a guy that uh they were waiting to see if he took care of his graduation so he could be also a grad transfer uh but he's a veteran I can't imagine you'll see much of him on Saturday but the bottom line is if they lose another running back then all of a sudden that becomes a bigger concern Ryan niblets played some uh running back in practice Colin Paige is a kid from Anderson High a walk- on uh that you know has gotten a lot of snaps in practice but yeah Sark joked about the transfer portal and a lot of complaining but they were able to essentially go out and get a free agent uh at the last minute to to help that running back room uh but I think you're going to see you still have three backs that they really like and again as long as they stay healthy I think you know there's uh three backs that can share the snaps I think blue is going to be the feature guy uh and then you have Jerick Gibson and Trey Weisner uh but yeah nice luxury to be able to go get somebody and maybe uh in a pinch they would need some help yeah and so as we kind of get going through this week um Roger I mean let's just kind of go through like what kind of new programming we're going to have um on our broadcast channels obviously we've been doing this horns report for the past year now this will be year two of of us doing uh this little this little dog and pony show on Facebook and online but what can fans expect from us um regarding uh the Longhorns on KX and on the CW on kbvo this this fall yeah the the big one is the Texas game day and that's the official uh UT pregame show and that's primarily going to be on uh kbvo and that's 1 hour before kick it will be live it will be from right here at our Studios and it will feature a couple of Longhorn Legends in Alex Okafor All-American defensive lineman from fluger high uh played from 09 to 12 has a Super Bowl ring with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs and Dan Neil who's got two Super Bowl rings with the Broncos not pton Manning Johan Elway so Dan M goes back to when they went from the south West Conference to the Big 12 so he was there uh for that transition from Southwest Conference to winning the first ever uh Big 12 championship and I think it's interesting a couple of interior guys uh Billy that you know the linemen usually are very in tune to everything uh that's going on and I think it's going to be some great perspective so uh that's one hour before kick so the showtime varies depending on kickoff 1:30 Saturday on kbvo Mondays at 11:30 coach SARS news conference that will be on kbvo and then Friday nights at 9: on kbvo that will be Longhorn weekly a lot of fans know it as the flagship radio networks uh show with Coach Sark and Craig way uh we'll have that from 9: to 10 on Friday night so a lot of chances to get some unique content on UT football that obviously we're really fired up about and then uh Friday night my interview with Coach Sark it did run after the Cowboys game on Saturday but we're going to run it again Friday at 7:00 and at 7:30 Alex Okafor and Dan Neil will join me in studio we'll talk about that get their perspective uh on Steve sarkeesian always interesting to hear what players and then kind of get into the season and what they like and again we talked so much about the guys with the ball but this Texas offensive line appears to be one of the better uh units and nobody better than Dan Neil to talk about it and then what did they lose big on defense well that interior uh defensive uh you know with Byron Murphy and tandre sweat so Alex can get into the details on what he sees and and if you're a longor fan you're hoping that yeah those were big names in their NFL but there were potential big names waiting we just haven't called their name as often and that's what the you know the best programs do so hopefully all that will get you fired up and ready to go yeah I know we've got you covered online on air we've got everything and we'll also be uh picking back up our Thursday High School football stream here uh coming up this this Thursday we've got two games regional coverage bil regional coverage Regional never happened on our on our channels two games two games on Thursday uh the Taco Shack Bowl between Anderson and mallum that game is going to be on kbv is that the CW CW that's the that's the one on the CW I know it's alphabet suit that's strange a little bit um and then we have West Lake and prosper from Mary Harden Baylor's Crusader Stadium on kbvo typically we'll have one game on Thursday over the air and then we'll have the Friday Westlake game be streamed however since they're both opening the season on Thursday we're gonna put them both on TV two games is better than one what's what's better than one game it's two that's right it's two all right well we're going to leave it here for now uh for this episode of the horns report thank you so much for watching for Roger Wallace I'm Billy Gates and we'll talk to you again very soon