The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Anything Goes Friday! Saying Goodbye to The Midday... Eddie Nuñez Joins the Show

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Anything Goes Friday! Saying Goodbye to The Midday... Eddie Nuñez Joins the Show

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And welcome to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Or you are getting or you're putting your hands behind your back. If you can't handle that, then you don't get to sit in the first row. Brow, there's responsibilities. He paid for a ticket. He said where the heck he was.

Yeah, but he's not a lot to interfere. When you pay for a ticket, what the hell am I talking? you know honestly the game went a bit more if there was some interference with some fans what a sports night what a sports night I was really worried that you're going to not come up

with material but Jonathan you've come through that was good you found some stuff you found Gordy basically insulting every female in the Seattle metropolitan area that's always good I'm always on the lookout I'm always on look up by way Gordy's going to come hang out with us for a while

today. He was here. I didn't, you know, he was hanging out with Lane Kiff in the last couple days in Baton Rouge and he's like, ah, come in for a couple hours. So he's going to come hang out with this for a little bit. Okay. We've got a fun show for you today. Good morning, everybody. It is 10.05 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with

Ross for the final time. We are going to change the name of the show. Not a whole lot, but we're going to change it enough. It's Matt Ross in the morning starting Monday at 6 o'clock, so looking forward to that. And just to peel the curtain back, I have a second alarm clock that I bought yesterday and put that in there in the room and I you know the key to that Jonathan is to actually put the clock far away so when the alarm goes off you have to get out of your bed to

go turn it off oh you got a physical a physical alarm I know with a battery backup too so I can't even blame if electricity goes out oh that's kind of smart I'm just saying I've done this morning thing before I know these things way back in the day Jonathan when you were a youngster I used to do sports updates on KTRH we used to do them twice an hour and the first first report was at 5.15 in the morning. And there was no King One Home Studio back then, way back in the day. And I've been, I was late. I wouldn't say every month, but once every two or three months. Yeah. And that's a major market 50,000 watt radio station that's like, makes millions and millions of dollars. I mean, we do a waffle for ourself here, but not like the blowtorch does. And so

you get that phone call from, you know, late, the news anchors of the editor, Matt, it's 5019. I'm like, I live in Kingwood. The quick math says, it's going to be about 55 minutes by the time I get dressed, swear at my wife from missing my alarm, driving like a bat out of hell about 90 miles an hour. Yeah, it wasn't great. And then when you go into like that 615 newscast because you miss the first two and your, and your anchors are like going to look at you with a dirty scowl, like, we got here early enough. where the hell are you?

These things will not be an issue because we're going to cross-check each other. We've decided that on Monday morning. So it is a final midday edition. And anything goes Friday. That will also be the case every Friday on the Madden Ross in the morning show, starting Monday at 6 o'clock on Sports Talk 70. So last night, I had no a had no Astros responsibilities. Adam Wexler actually did the on deck in the 10th inning show.

Clanton couldn't be caught dead doing it. But Wexer did it once. And he's done it like three times this year. And they've played about 140 games. So thanks to Wex for stepping in on that. So I watched a little bit of the Astros game. I knew that C.J. Stry was going to play a little bit. So I wanted to see him.

I knew there were going to be no defensive starters, essentially, playing for the Texans. And so I said, I'll give that bed boy a quarter and a half, something like that. By about 9 o'clock last night, I had, I went and took one of my 45-minute showers and just listen. and the music yacht rock for 45 minutes because I didn't care about the Astros because they were getting their ass kicked. The most intriguing thing about me and the Astros after 9.30 last time was hearing that Lamont Wade

was on the mountain pitching, which you know is a terrible thing. Texans did fine for a while. I was stunned that the Texans came back or the Raiders came back to lose the game because if you all watched the first half of that game yesterday, the Raiders looked like a team that may not win three games this year. that's all I watched and I'm surprised.

I woke up today and surprised they didn't even lost. Isn't that crazy that the, that's why you shouldn't bet on preseason football. You're a true degenerate if you're betting on preseason football because it's really not the players that you should be predicting, should be thinking about. In fact, if I've learned anything next year, if I ever go to Vegas for a preseason weekend, I'm going to bet all of the underdogs to win the game. Because so far, I mean, you wouldn't think that the. Chargers would ever come to Houston and win a game. No. You wouldn't think that the sucky Las Vegas Raiders would come in here and win a game. No, but they did.

And it just proves to you that it's just the preseason and it really doesn't matter. It just doesn't. But there was some good signs. You did see Woody Marks do his thing. You did see CJ Stroud with a nice mix of run and pass. It was run heavy early than pass heavy down the stretch. I thought the offensive line was interesting with a line. that was put out there. Now, I'm going to be brutally honest with you.

Brutely honest with you. I don't, and look, I don't think I know everything about y'all, but I know enough about you. Does that make sense? I don't think you guys care who's on the offensive line. All you care about is that the offensive line does its job. Is that a fair assessment. If I'm wrong, you tell me. Because I can't imagine there being a more of a boring deep dive than coming on a radio show and breaking down, oh my God, did you believe who played at this spot or who played at this spot? I think when it comes down to it, you want to make sure the five guys, if you use a tight end obviously, the six guys are protecting your quarterback. That's who you care about. That's who you care about, is the six guys, regardless of their names are Joe,

Greg, Don. I mean, it could be Ursary, Ingram Rutledge, Teller, Brown, Smith. Am I forgetting anybody? I don't think you care. So I will not go into a deep dive on that, only to say the following. You did spend some pretty good money in the offseason trying to add to your your offensive line. You did spend Brayden Smith two years $20 million. You did sign Wyatt Teller two years at $16 million.

And those guys do not have solidified spots yet. Am I concerned? No. Am I worried? Not particularly. I don't care. And you shouldn't care.

Just make sure the five guys in front are the ones that are protecting CJ, who you should care about. So we'll get to that on the radio program today a little bit. Again, I'm not going to deep dive into Wyatt. You don't, if I went to, we went to a sports bar, Jonathan. You and me, we had a couple of pops.

Or in our case, some mimosas at Monday at 10.30 in the morning. Okay. You're all right? We went in and we said, hey, what do you all think about Wyatt Teller? What do you think the average person would say about Wyatt Teller? He's a dog. No, they would not say that. That's a funny line, by the way.

They would not say that. they'd go Wyatt teller is that a new show on Netflix how about this what do you all think about Braden Smith Braden is he a nine-year-old that plays with my son in the Cyprus of the league and household names Astro's first round pick right Braden Smith

Oh there's Gordy by the way It's so happy to see you how are you how was your trip It's good Got to see Lane Did you talk to him? I did You break bread? No Is you going to autograph?

No. Selfie? Nope. Interview? Nope. Just a question at the press conference. That's all I got. All right.

We'll get to your LSU Escapade shortly. All right. So we will get to that. But we have to get into what the hell was the Astros game last night. Now, were you in your car driving back? Listen to the game?

No, we were back home by six. So I had the two TVs going. I had Astros. I had Texans. I was locked in. I had both going. And then which one did you turn off first? Well, I kept them both on.

But I really stopped kind of paying attention. to the Astros when it became 10-2. Your wife's like, come in the room with me and watch them Lifetime. No, I kept watching Texans, although as riveting as Brett Rippin's play is, he was terrible. Yeah.

But third-string quarterback's supposed to be terrible, right? He's fine. You just picked him up off the scrap heap. I was laughing, though. I mean, look, look, the first quarter was great. CJ goes down, the leads a scoring drive, you get the pick six from Woodaz. Yep. Yep. Or Wood is,

whatever they're pronouncing it. Woodass, yeah. I'll go a woodass. So all that was great. But then I saw some dumbass Texas fans on social media going, I don't like that we're 0 and 2. I'm like, bro. No, nobody should care.

It's just the preseason. Come on. It means nothing. Weren't the cults during the Peyton Manning years synonymous with going like 0 and 4 in the preseason? Oh my gosh. It never mattered. Who cares?

What are those, do we lose those? sound bites of people. Jonathan, you don't know this, but many years ago, we had the listeners would call us and would do their impersonations of it. Oh, it's just the preseason. I wonder if we have them in, let's see, in Ross's personal file. This is terrible. We lost all of our good stuff. We moved from one station the other.

A lot of Jack Easterby cuts in there, by the way. I don't know why that's happening. Oh, well. All right. It is that anything goes Friday, and Gordy's hero makes it anything goes LSU-related Friday. 7-1. S-C. You don't, we're not talking Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

College game day just announced, first three weeks of the season. All SEC, right? SEC campuses. If you of H gets good, maybe they'll come back here. What I mean gets good? We're going to be good. Carl Lewis will drop another explosive. Oh, kidding.

Ah, you need to calm down and it's just a pre-season. Oh, that's all the good. It's all the thing we got? That's long like it fine. Oh, you'll find some more. By the way, do we need to give shout out to Gordy for getting those AI songs about our shows are ready to go? I already knew that we had them.

You should shout about you like them. I didn't like him. I loved him. You're playing them on Monday? Absolutely. And by the way, Javier, those of you listen to the show that's called the show from Laredo, he and I have been texting back and forth. He's going to do some liners for us, and we want all of you to do some liners for us, too. So if you have any sort of musical ability, I'll tell you the person to my left, Jonathan, Gordy's got music ability. I know you guys, ever since I got here, you guys have been talking about his, like, you know, Hall of Fame parodies. Hall of Fame parodies. Well, she's giving up because he's too busy doing Lack than SEC, which is fine.

but his Shaggy is legendary I've never seen a bar in the French quarter give a standing ovation to anybody Gordy got one

many years ago so maybe if we can't get Gordy to do parodies Well remember in Minneapolis I whipped out the guitar and did a performance up there I don't I want to forget that trip

You introed me How did I do What did I say about you? I have it on video somewhere It's on YouTube Ooh Yeah If there's anybody like

Now, remember, I earned the equivalent of 16 letter jackets in high school, but Gordy's a singing star of our station, for sure. Anything goes Friday, 713, 212, 5, 790. Do we have to have a deep sit-down conversation about our local nine? We'll do that next here on 790. 1022 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Ross is back with us Monday when we all get together at 6 o'clock in the morning. Please join us for that.

Gordy's going to hang out with us for a couple of hours. And then we're really going to get an upgrade. I thought you were going to say Gordy's going to hang out with this Monday morning at 6. No, I mean, you can if you want to. You know what? It'd be nice if you brought us breakfast. Okay, that's a no. Very busy.

Okay, and not really. You shouldn't be. Anything goes Friday. You're not that busy at 6th. Oh, then-mo, Jonathan. He can pick you guys up. Oh, that nice, Jonathan. I will be sleeping.

No, you're not. You're going to be up at 6 o'clock in the morning. That's true. I'll wake up. High energy. High energy, fun, interesting sports conversation. We're not going to bore you to death with crap you don't care about. I said, you know, you get a.

You make a change. You get a mix of negative and positive. Yes, I've been told I suck on variety of cases. Yes, thank you. One listener of feedback was, man, all Matt and Ross do is goof around and have fun. Is that going to work in the morning?

I'm like, what do you want in the morning? What? I'm sorry, you want us to read stats all morning? I was reading our Instagram. It was like, you know, morning drive is more meat potatoes. That's not a strength of Matt and Rosses.

I'm like, you know what? I'm happy. Monday morning, I want you to read the stats. Just read stats. Let's get into the box score. Last night, Toronto beat Tampa Bay 6 to 3. I'm not doing that. Okay, so I'm going to put things in perspective for the 26 guys that wear Astros uniforms.

Some of them don't speak English, so I have no relationship with them at all. And it's okay. I mean, it is what it is. They're all pleasant. The 26 guys that wear the Astros gear, and it's been a different group of people, again, I've never said it wore the Tatsu Emi. he wouldn't understand it and know what I understand him. That's fine too, right?

But there are the guys that do speak English, you hear them and you understand what they're saying and you can relate to them. You've even interviewed them on these radio station airwaves. But, Cordy, I'm over Brian King. I can't watch him pitch anymore. It hurts me. It was like, please, and I know why Joe did it because the game was, look, by the way, Peter Lambert's running on a gas. I don't want to say. that, but it's just the truth.

Look, both Hayden Wisniewski and and Peter Lambert had their worst starts of the year this week. I think it's just a bump in the road. I don't think this is a sign of things to come. I know Lambert's getting built up. But Dana said, that's not he said it with Dan the other day. He doesn't think it's a big concern. If it was,

they would have been skipping him starts and all this. I think they're going to have to. I think Lambert has not looked the same in about three to four weeks. Here's what I was encouraged by, at least, that he was given up hits what I get frustrated is when it's losing control and your walk, walk, walk, grand slam.

So it was, look, it was a night where they were, he didn't have, his stuff wasn't sharp, and they were hitting it. I can live with that. I think he bounces back. Next outing, probably six innings, two runs. He's been too consistent for you all year. I hope you're right.

I don't think that was a sign of running out of gas. I think he just had an off night. Okay, I'm going to do this real quick. I don't, Ross is better looking at stats as mid-broadcast. I usually could stop myself. I don't think the game log is going to look very good for him in the last month, to be honest with you. Matter of fact, let me look right now. His month of August.

No, he's been fine. His three previous starts were all fine. Five innings two runs against Seattle. Five innings two earned against San Diego. Five or two-thirds, two runs against Texas. He has been Mr. Steady. He has been five to six innings two runs every time out. He has given you a chance to win.

I saw some guy tweeted he's just not a big league starter. I said, brother, he has been your best starting picture. You call him, brother. That was nice. starting pitcher all year. No offense, Hunter Brown. No offense anybody else. Peter Lambert has been a godsend for you. If this team didn't have Peter Lambert this year, they wouldn't even be in the playoff race. No argument at all. But he has not given you more than six innings in a start since July the 22nd. And for a bullpen that has been taxed, that hurts. Yeah. And he's not by himself,

by the way. Pitch count got a little high against Seattle got 96. San Diego was 97. They were falling pitches off and all that. So again, I can live five innings two-run bowl that's giving you a chance. How about three and two-thirds, eight hits, nine runs? That was his worst start of the year. Yeah. Brian King,

Emi. Oh, Mike Burroughs. Encouraging second start, AAA last night. Well, he's going to get into a look. There's no a fan's about it. He's going to come back. Hopefully he's figured his stuff out. That'd be great. You need somebody. Because Lamont Wade, Jr., you don't want him pitching ever again.

Well, I mean, that was by design. Did you see him throw yesterday? I saw him. I'm thinking whether or not I could hit a pitch off of Lamont Wade. Now, I'm not saying I would get a hit. I'm saying, could I make contact with it? Yeah. Because he was throwing, like, left-handed Ephus.

That's what I heard. We had Tyler White on the station last week. I forgot. He pitched that last season he was here. They used him in some innings. Chas McCormick, they used them on the map. Oh, yeah. Every team's got their designated, get your ass kick pitcher,

and I just don't want to see him do it anymore. 713-212-5-7-98. And is it a bigger? I guess the question is this. Was last night a one-off, or was that just a, oh, my God, what are we doing now? This is a homestand that has gone south very quickly. We'll get to some of that coming up in a little bit. Plus, again, the Texans and the Raiders from yesterday.

Right now, Mike is in Jersey Village at 1020. Mike, good morning to you. Good morning, guys. All right, Matt, I got a complaint. I mean, first of all, you're moving to 6 a.m. Yes, sir. I've worked my ass off to not have to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and go to work. And so one of the best things about all your programs is your opening,

especially when the Astros are doing so well or so poorly. But you have to say that you'll wait until 8 a.m. to do all the shenanigan stuff. You and Ross can just sleep your way through six to eight, but give us something at eight o'clock. What do you think? I'm going to, would you like a little background of what a morning show should do,

especially for sports radio? Because Mike, you and I are best friends. I've never met you, but I feel like we can be. No, I agree. We're going to give you between six and eight will be a lot of headlines, a lot of what happened last night, because a lot of the audience,

even though you think you watch everything, a lot of most people don't watch everything most people don't watch a full astros game most people don't watch a full game uh game that involves maybe a great opponent or a monday night game or a thursday night game or some cases of texans game people so there will be more of between six and eight more of the recap and review and then we'll start we'll incorporate some of our stuff in the midday starting around eight o'clock in the morning because that's what a successful radio show does i'm not going to beat you over the head reading box scores at nine 15 in the morning but I think for between six and eight, especially when people have to go to bed early, and thankfully you don't have to, they don't get to stay up late and watch games.

So that's what we're going to do is we're going to give you a little bit more, not necessarily lose our sense of entertainment value, hopefully, but we'll be a little more newsier between six and eight that we would be between eight and ten o'clock. All right, that works for me as long as you and Ross can be your silly selves at eight o'clock. Trust me, I will be my silly self at six o'clock in the morning. Thank you for the phone call. I'll be silly at six. No, there's been a mandate for management that you'd be super serious. No way, Gordy. You're managing. You tell them they'd be serious six o'clock in the morning? This is Big Boy Radio. You've got to come and bring stats and knowledge and, you know, open up the fridge looking for some hot sports topics.

We are going to start something Monday at 630, for those of you that are 6 o'clockers. It's going to be called the sounds at 630. That's something that happened yesterday in the previous day that's the most interesting thing that we thought of. and it's going to be probably 99% of it was sports. I'll have something at the sound of the 630. Ross will have something and John will have something. So it'll be something that you've heard or didn't get a chance to hear and we'll have that every morning at 630.

But all of our favorites, the shut your ball ass up, ain't nobody got time for that. We'll still bash on Gordy as much as we can as long as it within shining distance. We'll still complain about the fact that Wexstone Clanton aren't pulling their weight in terms of helping out the station. And we'll have I'm sorry's every week. No, wait. You're doing a signature segment at 630.

That gives Ross 30 minutes to try to find something. So, that's tough. If he was here, he'd hit you. He knows it. He waits until the last 15 minutes sometimes, the right, believe it or not. You know, I would pay for $790 boxing, like, I'll gamble on that.

And by the way, I'd be the announcer. I would not be involved in the thing with the boxing. No, you're supposed to, no. That's shoulder. What? No, you're going to be the headliner. Oh, no, God, no. Maybe you versus Wex.

That'd be a, oh, okay. No, no, no. I'm the announcer and who'd be our ring girl. That's what I want to know. Let me bring Shahati in for the weekend? Go to break. All right. Unibro.

Who? Shahati. Unabrow. Oof. By the way, you're going to apologize to Seattle female fan at 1130 this morning. Do you know this? No chance. They're goblins.

It's like the hills have eyes. Created a city in Seattle. So you're telling me the ugliest girls in America live in Seattle. Not the ugliest. but some of the ugliest. Hmm. Well, who's your second ugliest spot? Who are the ugliest girls in the SEC?

That's an easy, right? I don't know. That's not easy. What would be yours? I would probably think Mississippi State? No. Oh, well. Vanderbilt's going to. Nobody's from Nashville that goes to Vanderbilt. Everybody's from somewhere else.

That's even a hard. Yeah, probably never seen any Vanderbilt. But, yeah, you might be honest with Mississippi State because they all go to Oxford, Mississippi. be Ole Miss. That is where the beautiful ones are. Yeah. Athens, I've heard, is number one. I've never been to Athens. I can't speak to that. But I've been to, I've been to Oxford before. Baton Rouge up there. Baton Rouge is up there. Auburn, I've only driven by it. I don't know what that's like.

Yeah, they're good. Okay. A&M, underrated. Texas. Let me tell you, A&M is improved. If there was a most improved category, it'd be Texas A&M. So you Aggie girls, you're doing okay for yourselves. 1032 on Sports Talk 790. If you want to join us on anything goes Friday. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-21-2-5-790. 1037, Sports Talk, 7-90. Gordy is a good bouncing spot for a couple of topics that, you know,

I think I kind of have a feel of things, but not always, I'm not always right. So yesterday, the Texans went with a different offensive line than people anticipated. Now, Keelan Rutledge has been the star of training camp. First round pick. He wants to fight everybody. apparently his girlfriend is taking snaps from him during offseason. She was in the crowd last night. Do you see that segment on Lauren Rutledge and Laura Rutledge?

His wife's name is Lauren Rutledge. She was in the crowd. And Laura Rutledge was down on the field reporting for the broadcast. That sounds very confusing. I don't think they're of relation. No, I don't think so either. But point being is this is the starting offensive line yesterday for the Texans. And again, this is the second.

pre-season, so let's not overly read into something, but we'll at least discuss it. You had on the left, you went Ersery, Rutledge, Brown at Center, Ingram and the other Brown at right tackle. My contention was, before you joined the show a few minutes ago, is that I don't think the general public particularly, you're not going to get, you're not in a sports bar hanging out with your bros talking about whether or not a particular player is going to be in the starting lineup on the offensive line. You just want the five guys in front to protect your quarterback.

Yeah, you want to play well, and didn't they play well? I mean, they went right down the field. And to me, I don't necessarily believe it was the, let's see who this five does against competition, and we've now got our five. I think it's a very fluid situation. I don't think the Texans have hid the fact that they are trying to move different people around and seeing who works best. I do believe that the workouts with the Oakland, with the Las Vegas Raiders went into the judgment of who, started this past week. I think there'll be an opportunity for them to discuss this next week when they go play the Panthers in practice and they're not going to play, but the practice may

mean something. I just want the best five. I think CJ wants the best five. The only thing that's going to look a little dicey is that the two guys that I brought up earlier today on the show with the money that was being spent, we're talking about Braden Smith, a two-year deal, good money, and Wyatt Teller with a two-year deal, good money. If those guys don't wind up starting, does that mean that those two guys were disappointments? Is it because they were injury prone coming in? Or did the two young guys or other veterans that are making less money and have less guarantee came in and said, you know what? I don't care who you guys are. I don't care that you're free agents. I'm coming to take your spot. Yeah, I think it's a good battle going on a right tackle between

Braden Smith and Tred Brown. We know Ed Ingram was here last year. He's, he's pretty damn solid at right guard. It's funny. I was at LSU yesterday and they had the Joe Moore Award there in their trophy case. And in 2019, they won the Joe Moore Award for Best Old Line. I forgot Ed Engram played left guard at LSU, but right guard here for the Texans and doing a pretty damn good job. I mean, look at the first play of the game, Matt. They hand off to Woody Mark's right side,

goes right guard for nine yards. I mean, that, to me, speaks highly of Ed Ingram and Trent Brown who were on the right side of that line. Ingram, I mean, so, again, to me, just protect him. I don't care. If Jake Andrews, if Rutledge is playing so good at left guard,

and he's the guy there and Jake Andrews winds up being the center. Okay, fine. To me, that is not an issue. What is an issue for me, I know they want to really hope that Xavier Hutchison's a wide receiver too. I don't think that's going to be the case. I think they're going to have to go get somebody else, at least to push the competition that no one should hand Xavier Hutchison the wide receiver spot.

But here's the thing with him, is he was a sixth round pick of you three years ago, 2023. So he's been in the system. He knows the playbook. He knows the offense. He knows C.J. Stroud. You just got to go consistently prove it. I think he's had a nice preseason so far.

Nice camp, I guess, I'm saying. Here's the problem, though, Gordy. There's nobody in the NFL that wants to help the Texans, unless the Texans overpay. Yeah. Well, and here's, and I heard Aaron Wilson talking about this morning, he threw out some names of people that they've at least called around. on and stuff like that. We'll get to that

in a second. Kesham Butte, your buddy, seems like it would be a perfect mix for this team. Yeah, and he's made it known he's unhappy there in New England and he's looking for some stability, a contract, if he's going to stay there. But yeah, I'll take another LSU guy on this team.

But the interesting part though is what happens every year in two weeks, Matt? When rosters get trimmed, there's always surprise cuts. There's going to be somebody out there, a veteran wide receiver that fit this team that I think you can get. Now, the timing is tough because you're talking about going into week one,

having to get this guy in and acclimate and all that. But if it's a veteran that's been around a while, they shouldn't have any problem in catching up on the terminology and all that stuff. And again, I would be more inclined to that as opposed to making a trade and giving up future assets to get in a... Especially because Casario loves the whole lot of his draft picks. Yeah, and to get in a guy who would be, basically, you're talking about your number three receiver

because I think... Unless they believe Bouté is of tremendous value that he's being underserved in New England. He's really good. I just, again, like Aaron said this morning with Dan, teams know they're desperate, and that's never a good move. Because if you're called, they're going to go, yeah, second round pick for Booty.

And because Sarah's going to go, no, we're not doing that. Too high an asking price. Because if I'm on the other side of it, whether I'm New England or anybody that's got an extra receiver, and I think Dallas has got a bunch of receivers, Why would I want to cut the Texans a deal? Especially New England, who you're going to be going mono-a-mono with to try to win the EFC

this year. Here was Aaron's article that's up at Sports790.com right now. Texas have made exploratory trade calls according to league sources. Among their targets, Kisham Buttee from the Patriots and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Rashad Bateman. The Texans are not expected

to have a reunion with DeAndre Hopkins, who's now assistant coach at Georgia Tech. And then Jared Wayne has come on, and he's had some nice grabs throughout these first couple preseason games. He also mentions Tank Dell is not ready yet for full practices. I think he even said he doesn't, like, almost like it sounded like Aaron was intimating. The first few weeks of the season is when they'll start getting him into practices.

Oh, Jonathan, come on now. Take the L. This feels like. He's getting into practice, though. It feels like tank's going to play, but this is going to be a ramp up to return to play, from what I'm reading. All he needs is 10 catches. Hash brown right now. Surrender for the hash brown.

Never. 1040, 40 is the time. Is anything going Friday? 1130, we've got I'm sorry he's to get to. Patrick will start with you on the phones. If you want to jump in and say hello to us, and anything goes Friday. 713-213-212-5-790.

7-1-3-2-2-7-90. Astros on our brain. Texans on our brain. Do you know the Astros lost by... They lost by two touchdowns last night, right? Is that what the final was? I don't even remember. Astros last night?

Yeah. It was 18 to... three. So that would be what? 15. I know, but how would you do that in, how do you get to 18 in football? Oh,

touchdown makes it 7. Touchdown again, 14. Oh, you have two safeties. And how often does that happen? It was a double safety game. It was a score gami. Yeah. 10.45 on Sports Talk 790. It's our final day of

10 to 2 here on 790. Ross and I start Monday at 6 o'clock, and I want to shout out to Gordy for finding those AIs. Are you going to do those a lot for us? Or we're just going to get those once in a while? There's a lot of work to get those? It's hard to find, because so many of these websites,

they want you to sign up for stuff and all this stuff. Well, how much to cost? I'll get Ross to pay for it. Well, these are free, but then it's like any additional you want to make, you must pay. It's AI. It's not even real artists. Who am I paying?

Some processing computer out in the desert? That's what I'm paying? If you've not heard, how many do we have so far? How many, how many do we have? Four? Jonathan, how many have we played so far? Two of them, I think? We played two.

Oh, you've played them already. Let's play. Let's play on one here. Though we have not played so far, this is what you're going to get Monday morning, starting at 6 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Let's see. He's looking. All right.

So, here's the problem. That is AI. But she sounds hot. Does she? Do you think, doesn't she think, doesn't she sound like a late 80s pop singer? Like Wilson Phillips or something? No, like, um, it would be a good cop. She wouldn't be Ariana Grande.

Cindy Lauper? No, no, no, no, no. That's just, that's early 80s. There was a, there was a singer called Stacey Q back in the late 80s. If you all know, she just has a song called We Connect. Two Hearts Beat is one, for those of you that are OGs. But that's, that, she sounds, again, I'm not going to stop what I'm saying here. No, I should not say AI sounds hot.

It was cute. Patrick, and anything goes Friday at 1053. Patrick, good morning to you. I've been with you for a long time. I still remember when you called in from Minnesota, when you first got the job, so not to go all the way down memory lane. But I hope this adoration goes better than the good old proper gentleman

and the Jay Moore experiment and all that kind of crap. But ideally, you and Ross and all the mere. Marietta producers have helped me deliver quite a bit of mail over the years. Thank you. So I will definitely miss y'all in the morning. But here am I, anything goes Friday questions since I, you know, won't be able to get in. So first of all, will your daughter play a lot as a freshman? Here's the thing, Patrick.

I cannot tell you because I've been told not to jinx it. Can I, can you just read into that? Is that okay? Yeah, no, that's good. Again, I do know. She would get super mad at me, so I'm just going to tell you, I cannot say anything, Jinks. Go ahead. I gotcha.

Well, we both watched it up sports, that you're always like, oh, you go from this to that. And so, you know, as a freshman or, you know, new, you know, new in the any whatever sport, you're always like, oh, I don't know how it'll. Anyway, okay, my second question, we know. Why is he stinky Pete Unger? And also along, along those lines, when you're in the different cities, Yeah. Do you have to actually tip any of the statisticians or any of those people out of your own dime?

I don't know if you're like the guy in Milwaukee is great. I always give them a 100 or the guy in Utah sucks and, you know, or just curious. Wow. Patrick, you are so deep in the weeds. This is so inside baseball. I don't know. Where do you deliver mail, by the way? I'll put it to you this way. I deliver in a pretty fancy part of the city.

Oh. Like fancy Matt They live in this part of the city How about this, Patrick? Do you deliver to C. McNair and H. McNair? Pretty doggone close. Oh. I would say one below that.

Oh, okay. I got you. Thank you, Patrick, for the kind words. And we're going to be with you every morning at 6 o'clock. Thank you. To answer questions. It's a rice village. What is the second?

I would say Tanglewood. Really? I would say Tanglewood. River O'clock. one. Yes, Tanglewood, too. Out Rice Village. You've been to some of those houses? I'm going to go to... Former GMs

used to live in that area. Former coaches used to live in Tanglewood. Okay. You know what? Yeah, I'm gonna fall on my sort of this. I think Tanglewood is probably the second most affluent area. You're talking about Rice Military area, Rice Village, that area? In West You probably, Fort. Yeah, West you kind of as well. Yeah, oh yeah, I'm going Tanglewood over over West you.

Okay, so back to what I was saying. Oh, to the question. I can't tell you how much Cardley's going to play, jinks. Number two, Stinky Pete is my sad decision for Rockets games. Pete Unger is a good friend of mine. He's been doing the stats for me for 10 years. He was given that nickname by somebody else. Because Craig used to call him that too. Yes, and people before that used to call him that.

So I don't know, he must have had B.O. at some point in his life. Like all of us have it, you know? Not a great nickname. But he likes it. He didn't get mad at me. Pete Unger would say, Matt, please stop calling me that. He doesn't mind it at all. Oh, you're working with stinky Matt Thomas.

Yeah. Great guy. You like that nickname? Bad breath Thomas calling the game. Halotosis Thomas. Don't stand too close. No, that's horrible. Okay.

And then number three, oh, we pay the statisticians on the road. Now, some statisticians are terrible on the road. So there's like a list of five or six cities, Gordy, that I won't even ask for a stat man because they're so bad. Wow. And then some cities don't say. Can they not add? Like, what's the problem?

It's not a hard job to do, right? They're not giving me wrong numbers. They just don't know what to give me. Does that make sense to you? I guess. Like, if good people are, like, I have about the 30, 29 places that I go to, I have about 15 that are excellent. And then I got about 10 that are mid, and then I got four or five that I just will not go to all.

a monitor that keeps all the life stats? Yeah, but they don't know how to do it properly. And you tell them, hey, I like runs, I like percentages and quarters, you tell them this over and over again, and they still don't tell them. So like, rockets are on a 16-2 run right now.

They give you that kind. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I don't need no shooting percentages, because I can look at the stat monitor myself. It's just they, it's trends that I'm looking for. Like, for instance, maybe Alperin Shangoon has scored 11 in the last 13 points. And you're saying, well, Matt, how do you not know that?

Well, I'm calling the game so things could slip through my brain because I'm calling back and forth so much that I don't remember these things. And so when a stat person hands me run says jazz aren't an 11 to 3 run, you know, that helps. Many moons ago when I did high school football play by play. You know what I always struggled with? Yes. The freaking field goal attempts. Because you're adding the yards. Yeah, yeah.

All right. He's setting up for a adding, adding, adding, 47 yard attempt here. You're supposed to add. I think you're supposed to add 17 yards because the, because the end. 7 yard and 10 for the end zone. Yeah. The only cities that I do not, first of all,

the clippers and the Lakers don't supply me one because apparently they're too busy to do that. Shame on the city of L.A. for that. Indiana, I've had a terrible problem with. San Antonio can run up and down. Who else? I'm just saying, like, don't the monitors in front of you have the stat. Like, do you really need one?

No, there are some cities I don't have them because they're not good. New Orleans, sorry, Gordy. Stat people, there suck. Well, we're probably drunk. Probably drunk. You are drunk. Chris, Chuck and Keith will get to you to start the second hour. The Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790.

We've got, I'm sorry, it's coming up in 30 minutes from now. And again, Gordy's going to apologize to every woman north of, say, Portland. They're pretty ugly out there. Oh, and I have two wide receiver names of interest. Maybe the Texans could have interest. Now, is this from you or reported? These are two guys that are pretty good names that have been working out for some teams. I'd make a call on.

That's a professional t. You'll hear those names and we'll get to your phone calls next. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Three on Sports Talk 790. It is Matt and Ross. Ross is back with us at Monday at 6 o'clock. Gordy's going to hang out with us on their hour or so.

I always appreciate him stopping by. And he, me and Gordy, to my left, has two receivers that, now again, before you give these names out, are they legitimate, tall, 50-50 jump in the air, going to be tall? I don't want more tank dells. We already got enough of that.

You need short hands is what you need. I don't need any more Justin Watson's. So go ahead. All right. The first name is the name Aaron mentioned this morning. Oh, so you're bit stealing. Okay. Well, no, but I saw his name out there.

Okay. He worked out for the Saints a few days ago. He is from, plays college ball, at Texas A&M. It's from San Antonio. He was a fourth round pick in 2017. Ooh. Okay. Josh Reynolds. If you remember, spent

the first four years of his career with the Rams, then was with Detroit for a couple years, and then kind of bounced around. He didn't, he played in five games for the Jets last year. 11 catches 101 yards. And why is he, oh, I was only

five games, I'm assuming injury? I think that. And maybe it's you know, last, last leg of his career kind of thing. It's not that old. Like I said, 2017 draft, but... And why is he available right now? Well, because, you know, there's teams

kicking the tires on him. The Saints tried him out the other day. He's a nine-year vet. Okay. This other guy, it's a former second round pick in 2020. Ooh. So he's a little bit younger. Okay. And I like this guy a lot when he came in the league. He had

two really strong. wrong seasons out of the gate in Pittsburgh. And then kind of fell off. Got traded to Chicago in a big trade. I think it was a trade deadline deal. And then just kind of was average in Chicago and then played Miami. And he has not played in a NFL game since 2023. But the name is Chase Claypool.

And again, had 11 touchdowns as a rookie in Pittsburgh. But by 2022, the Steelers decided to move on from him. They got a second round pick from Chicago for them. Again, injuries with both these guys throughout their career, but the Saints just worked both of them out. I would give them a look. Again, names. Chase Claypool and Josh Reynolds,

two guys who've played a lot of NFL football. We don't do gut feelings until Tuesday. They're going to go get somebody, first and foremost. They're not going to just stamp hat. I think the waiver wire, when the cuts come in, will be the word they'll do most of their heavy lifting. but I think it'd be safe for us to say there's it's going to be nobody's going to come in here and it's going to go wow

boy the Texans sneakily got this guy in here or nobody knew where this player was I mean this guy is going to have either tread or injury or dropsies or something you need bodies and honestly if Xavier Hutchison becomes that number two guy that's a really good thing gordon for the scene

because they have been patient with him They've, you know, he's made rosters. He's had some big moments, but not enough to be in their lineup, getting the majority of snaps at the two receiver spots. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, that's the battle between, is he ready to take the next step if all he needs is an opportunity? Or is it, you know what, let's go get a guy that's, you know, off the scrap heap that.

I just can't make any decisions. Make me, myself, and I about what they're doing, except the fact that if you just watch the guy, game yesterday. Boy, you know what, see even, you know, maybe I should

shut my own bum ass up on this. It was the second preseason game. It was the first, the first team played for a series. Yeah, and they

looked damn good doing it. But you weren't going, were you watching that first round series going, oh, receiving corset? You know, the reality is this,

and I brought this up on the show yesterday, man, we'll go to the phones after this. There's a lot of tight ends on this football team, Gordy. And Colin Klein,

not Colin Klein. What's the client's first name? I'm dropping a drawing a blank here. Marlon Klein. He was brought in to be a pass catcher. Dalton Schultz was legitimately your number two receiving threat last year. Foster Moreau was brought in and made some catches even in yesterday's game. You still got Brevin Jordan and Cates over.

I mean, I don't know how many tight ends you're going to carry, but it almost feels like those tight ends are de facto slot receivers. Let me give you a few other names of vets. Now, Tyree Kill is available. I don't want that. He's headcase, very expensive. No, no, no, no, no. That is so anti-Demico.

No chance. But some of the other names, Curtis Samuel, 30 years old, mentioned Josh Reynolds. He's fourth on this list. Zay Jones, Hunter Renfro, Sterling Shepard, Brandon Cooks. I think Aaron kind of poo-pooed the Brandon Cook's thing. They're not looking for a reunion. nasty exit from here? Yeah, he wasn't down

with the rebuild that was going on. But who could blame? I mean, David Cully, come on. And then, you know, Gabriel Davis who had some nice years in Buffalo. How about the Tyler Lockett? I mean, Lockett's, I mean, it's at least a name. Yeah. So it's not anybody that's going to

wow you, but I mean, Curtis Samuel's a guy who's at least been productive in recent years. Hunter Renfrews is fine. But honestly, Matt, whoever they're looking to sign, like this is a third guy that you're probably looking at the end of the day would have 300, 400, 400 yards this year? I mean, it's... Well, but here's the problem. If you anticipated Higgins to be your number two to get into the 7, 800-yard range, does somebody on that team have the capability of doing that? See, this is where I'm more inclined.

And Bouté, or Bouti, whatever you want to pronounce it, he's the one that I think has the experience. and is you young enough and is not overly pleased his punch about his contract situation. New England, if you were going to make a deal that would be a... To me, Kisham Bouti is the only one that is the splash deal because you'd have to go trade for him. Right. And it would cost you something to give up to get him. But I mean, look, I'm willing to have those conversations with New England. As long as you don't have to give up a ton, I say you're all with Nico Collins, Jalen, Noel, Xavier Hutchinson, Jared Wayne, and hope the tank get Dell gets back sooner rather than later. And you can roll with that. But let me ask you this, though, if this defense, which we know is Super Bowl caliber, correct?

Yep. And if the worry is that what's going to happen offensively, wouldn't you want to give C.J. Stroud, the best opportunity to thrive in an offense, even though it's not expected to do as much as what the defense is supposed to do, wouldn't you say giving up a third or a fourth round pick to go get a proven receiver who's got a lot left in the tank, wouldn't that be worth doing it in a season where you are expected to be a legitimate contender for the championship? I would say yes, but again, what's that price? Who knows? New England could be going, oh, you're desperate.

Three second round picks. You know what I mean? Like it could be, they. No, yeah, that's right. It takes two to tangle because if they start asking for the world for a guy who is unhappy, that's going to be difficult. He's in a contract year. So he's a free agent after this year, Kishon Booty. So New England may just be saying he's a nice piece for us.

We're just going to ride this thing out. We're not going to give him a long-term break. I just think a splash kind of move would really invigorate this team. I just don't think that's in Nick Asario's DNA. Chuck is with us on 790 to 11-11. Chuck, good morning to you. Hey, this is Uber Chuck from Baytown, and I want to tell you all some,

it doesn't matter where they move y'all to. They can move you from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., and I'll just have to adjust my schedule accordingly, man. Y'all are it. Thank you very much. And by the way, if I have to work 1 to 5 a, I'm going to retire. But thank you for saying that, Chuck. No, it's the facts, though, man.

Thank you. Just real quick on the Astros, man, they are what they are. I'm not going to get all stripped out like everybody. They're mid at best. And I was really looking, I listen or watch every night. And we don't have, I think half our lineups sitting 240 or under. and you can't that's not enough punch i don't care who you're playing uh pitch you can be good all at once but if you're not if if after after three hitters we have we've got nothing let me give you

let me give you this chuck last night's lineup i had to double check this because my buddy sent it to me goes gross when he saw the lineup half your lineup last night was batting sub 230 now again i know it's 2026 well batting average is everything, it's on base. What more do you do with the bat? I'm OPS guy. But I also need hits. I need hits to win games. And half your lineup yesterday was batting sub

2.30. What are we doing here? Has Taylor Tremel had to hit this homestand? I'm... He strikes out every time he comes up. He's had two more strikeouts yesterday. He went 0 for 4. Lordy. I mean,

Tanner Tremel is your Astros. Remember that last road trip in San Diego? He hit the ball. Remember that game, those games in San Francisco, he hit the ball. You don't hit the ball in Houston, apparently. At least this week he hasn't. Taylor Tremant, the Houston Astros in a nutshell,

and Taylor Jermal is a super dude. Matter of fact, he's going to be a broadcaster when I think he's all a sudden. He's very eloquent, great interview. Rout and hard for the guy. But my God, another 0-4 for him. By the way, since August 8th, it's August 21st, so we're going back two weeks, yeah. Two weeks.

Christian Walker has two hits, and they both came in the same game. Oh, that was the home run was one of them. That was the Seattle game. That was the game that you wanted extra innings. But my God, has he been atrocious? It's got like two walks in there, but a whole lot of strikeouts. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight. By the way, I need to give a shout out to Brian McTaggart, who texted me during the break.

We were talking about that 80s girl that sounds like our AI song there. Debbie Gibson. That was Debbie Gibson singing there. That was the definitive. I think we're alone now. Is that Tiffany? That was Tiffany. There you go.

That's not bad either. All right, I'm going to the Astro Game Notes from yesterday. This is before the game. Taylor Tremel on this homestand. This is going to be painful. Oh, my God. Taylor Tremel on this homestand is O for 19. Well, I feel like you could do that with anybody.

How about this? Taylor Tremel. Good dude. O for 19. with 12 strikeouts. He's not even advancing runners. He's a platoon guy. He shouldn't be starting every day.

Neither should Lamont Wade for that matter. Three strikeouts for him last night. He gave you an inning. Oh, you're talking about it on the mound. Yeah, great. I mean, he gave you an inning defensively. He had three strikeouts at the plate, not on the mound. Tatsu Emi, three innings, two hits, two runs, two runs.

three K's, two walks. That's fine. You were asking him to eat up. He threw 57 fish. He was in anything, Zeta. That's right. Keith and Chris, Hank Todd, we'll get to you guys

in a minute. 1114 is our time. I'm sorry, he's coming up at the bottom of the hour, and in 45 minutes, we're going to wake the strippers up for the last time on Friday. By the way, people have been asking

about what we're going to do with the strippers. Jonathan, we're going to put them to bed 8 o'clock on Friday mornings. Okay. Because they're rolling in, right? because they're working until three. Then they're going to go home and take a shower and get the glitter off. They're going to get them.

They got to watch the money. They got to count the money. They got to get their breakfast. They're at the Rosser-Rise and a little breakfast. And by the time, they're closing their eyes. Doing the laundry from last night. Yeah, 8 o'clock Friday mornings starting next week. We'll wait.

We'll put them to bed. 1115 on Sports Talk 790. 1120 on Sports Talk 790. It is Matt and Ross. Ross off today back with us on Monday. Gordy's kind enough to join us for a little bit. Real quick before we go to the phones, and we got a lot of folks that want to say hello. You were at LSU for a couple days.

You were invited by the LSU Radio Network, which we are the home of LSU football, here when Texas is not playing. So, you know, our IHeart media stations, like the Cougars are always going to be on 950. That's a guarantee. And then Texas and LSU spent some time with us here on the station occasionally as well. So what did you, how long, what did they invite you to sit in with Lane? or he came over and say hello and then leave? What was the exact situation?

No, since I was going there for the luncheon, I said, let me, they're practicing that day, let me get a credential and they took care of me. Oh, nice. So I got to go watch. They listen for about 15 minutes of practice. And let me tell you, like, when the Texans, when they let you in for practice and, you know,

they let you like take pictures and stuff. A lot of times it's during the stretching period. And that's it. All you get to see is, yeah, I got some great pictures of Dave Montgomery stretching. But for LSU, give them credit. And I think this is the lane thing is I've never seen. haven't seen us at college. In those 15

minutes we were there, they did a ton. Like we saw Sam Levin the quarterbacks work on handoffs with the running backs. Then they blow the whistle, they're moving, they're throwing the tight ends. Then they blow the whistle, they're throwing in drills with the receivers. Like, it was a lot they accomplished in that. And so,

I don't know. Look, Lane is a good coach. For all the crap people give him and all the off the field stuff and all that. It deserves it. But X's and O's in game? And he a pretty damn good coach? You're going to like Sam Leavitt. You're not going to love him. I'm going to like it. You're not going to love it. But you're giving

that opinion based off Sam Levitt at Arizona State. I am. For sure, I am. Go look at Lane's track record with quarterbacks the last several. I mean, he gets the, him and Charlie Weiss Jr., his play caller, get the most, they elevate quarterbacks. A year ago, Matt, did we know the name Trinidad Chambliss at all? No. He was a Division

2, Ferris State quarterback. Right now, people are pinning him as the number one quarter. It's a debate between him and Arch on who's the best quarterback in college football. It's crazy. Why are we saying that? Because of what Lane and Charlie Weiss did with Trinidad. When Trinidad just took the league by storm, they created that monster.

So I think they're going to do the same thing with Sam Leavitt. By the way, he's fully healthy. Running around, looks good. Like, he's going to throw for a ton of guards. As long as he stays healthy. You know, he'll beat him up, don't you? Mm-hmm. Go Coogs.

We got him. We brought him down. Was that last year? Yes, I was there. He played hurt last year. Yeah, we just made his life more miserable. Mississippi State beat him, too, and they were terrible. Hey, I'm going to give us some props.

Well, win some games. We did. Our last game we played, we beat. Period. Schedule is very favorable for the coogs. It's amazing. And by the way, I've seen some experts out there.

Who was? Stuart Mandel picked Texas Tech to go nine and three this year. And one of the losses, too. I would assume it's got to be Houston, right? Yes, duh. Their schedule sucks. So if they got three losses, one of them's got to be Houston. Yep.

Friday night, national TV. That's going to be tough, though. You saw they're doing the blackout. They're going to go like all black uniforms. It's going to be 140. 14 degrees. I hope they are going to fry. I'm going for that game. And so I hope it's really hot. Who's got to start 1.0? You get Oregon State 11 a.m. Got to start 1. Yep. Then we have Southern. Marshal Falk.

Marshall Falk. Luckily, he cannot suit up. He will be coaching. He may be the best player on that side. Chris is with us on 790. Hi, Chris. Good morning, Matt. I'm good to hear your voice this morning. You know, I only listen to one radio show. You're the best. And I've been a lunchtime for so long. I've only heard you in the mornings when you were producing. And a couple of those times, you were not eat your best. That's an understatement.

Like maybe in June of 1994, maybe. Yeah, exactly what I'm talking about. So have you ever done a morning show other than producing that? I have. I have done, we did the proper gentleman of sports here on Sports Talk 790. What was that about eight or nine years? ago. Yeah, it was some guy named Rantz Rurline and I did a show for a couple of years together.

NFL.com. I remember that. NFL.com's Ransorlein. Yes, yes. Yeah, I remember that. So I don't know. It's going to be tough not being a lunchtimeer again. But, hey, I thought of one person that she worked with years ago, because I'd asked you a question about a tribute question.

I remembered who it was. Chris Baker. Yeah, Chris Baker is. is I believe still in the industry. Yeah. I want to say he, maybe in Omaha. He was starting in Omaha, and he may be back to, I don't know. I've not talked to Chris Baker in 20 years.

I know he was good friends with Larry, the cable guy. Once a week, Larry would come on your show for and stuff. But that's the guy who did trivia things and gave stuff away. Yeah. Actually, back one time in a game, and I thought it was sports time. But we're going to miss you at lunchtime, and I'll have to just get up a little earlier, man. A little earlier. How's this going to work after Rockets games?

It seems like it takes you half a day to recover. The reality is this, and thank you, Chris, for the phone call, the nice words. There are going to be some days that I will be on at 7 just because of travel and late-night games. But the plan is to work as many 6 o'clock as possible. So, and once in all, and Ross knows that and we'll have things, but don't worry about me. What we'll do is for those late-night games after, whether it's a rocket's win or rockets loss, We'll have you record 20 seconds your take on last night. The Rockets won.

Last night, the Rockets lost. How about this? I could just do some bunch of lines like, shut up, Ross. You're an idiot, Ross. Or Ross, I'm writing you're wrong. And how about this one, Jonathan? Joe Mixon shot himself in the foot. Bang!

Oh, that's horrible. No, it's not. That's great. Well, we'll just have two takes of you going, you're right, Ross. The Rockets were really good last night. Yeah. You're right, Ross.

The Rockets were really bad last night. Well, how about this one. Man, what a night for Alper Nangoon. What a night for a man, Thompson. Man, Katie's awesome. I'll just have that over and over again. You're right. Changoon did struggle last night.

You're right. Katie did struggle last night. I hope I don't say that very much, but it's possible. Let's go to, we're going to Tennessee. Jason on 790. Jason, good morning to you. How are you doing, Mr. Texas? I'm well.

What are you calling us from, Jason? I'm actually, I call you a lot. I'm in Kingsport, Tennessee. Kingsport, Tennessee. Tennessee. I always forget about that King's Board. Shout out to you, Jason. Thank you, sir. Have you tried the unsweet tea with orange juice yet? Not yet.

Dude, I'm trying to keep my sugars down. That's gross. I got you. I got you. And I got to say one thing real quick. I miss the old morning shows so bad sometimes and Stan North Fleet that I will kiss myself just going Gaudy! Let's tell him a gaudy! Anyway,

Stan used to be so tickled doing that. Gaudy! God! I just find myself driving another road to go, Gaudy! him on last week and he did it he did it he's a good man we love we love Stan norfley good good people and i got i would get so tickled at the two of them it was just he would he get fired up gaudy anyway now we're gonna have to get serious matt thomas oh we're we're serious about the astros we're gonna have to cubs and buzz about them

astros smell like you go get in your rig and get in there on them 10 oh sorry. You see it's your fall. I'm putting you in the tip jar. Thank you, Jason, for the phone call. I appreciate it. I cannot cuss and discuss at 6 o'clock in the morning. I will have thoughtful conversation. Jonathan is okay with you? Thoughtful conversation. It's okay with me.

Shee! Wee, man. Look at him there. Re-blank and shit, man. Okay. Stop it, Matt. Tip jar. Keith and Jimmy on anything goes Friday plus it is time for you, Houston, Texas, to apologize for the things you said and done this week.

Look, I've talked to you. I've met some of you. It's time for you to do this right now. Call this show and say these very simple, simple words. I'm sorry. So sorry. Yep. I've been a fool this week.

Jonathan's been a fool daily. Not true. It's funny. where's Gordy? He's supposed to apologize to the people of Pacific Northwest, and he's nowhere to be found. It's a busy man. What the hell's he doing?

It's Friday. Nobody's here in the office anyway. All right, let's do it. Let's apologize. Jonathan, where are you going to go first? I'll let you go first. I think I've been basically a saint this week. That's why I'm trying to think up something I've done.

You know, I'm basically a saint every week. You know, we ought to do. We ought to have your girl call the show one week and say, What does Jonathan need to apologize for? Wouldn't that be fun? Well, I guess I could apologize because I forgot to take out the trash yesterday. Oh. I could.

I could. I could. But I mean, as guys, we know, sometimes, you know, it's going to get done. I would like to apologize. How about this one, Jonathan? This is a rare one. I would like to apologize to part of my lawn.

We were watering an area and we were only watering one part of our lawn. sprinkler systems and the other area was getting really grassy. So my son, my oldest was at the house last night and he calls Kim, who's up in Rhode Island and says, mom, this part of this grass looks terrible. What are I supposed to do? So she got on me. She's like, why aren't you watering the grass? I'm like, I am watering the grass.

But I didn't have the zones properly done. So I would say to the grass on the side of my house near the driveway, I say, I'm sorry. And now you're being refreshed every morning and 5 a.m. How does it look? Nothing looked great. But I'm in the rest of you on. Look, we're in heat advisory till 7 o'clock tomorrow night.

What's it supposed to look like? I'm not going to spend $50 a day on watering my grass. Come on. Be a man. You've got to be prideful about Shalong, your territory. I don't disagree. I thought I was doing the right thing. But the side of my yard said otherwise.

Looks like a hayfield in Iowa, but that's not here nor there. All right, Gordy. Now, your wife allows you to run on these little gauntlets all over the southeast. Uh-huh. So you must have done something to piss her off. What are you going to apologize to her for? I know. She came with me yesterday.

So you did nothing wrong? No. It's a quick trip. I do want to apologize to, went to a fancy dinner the other night. Yes? You're a bad tipper, aren't you? No. Oh, no, no.

You know what I do? She's a good tipper. Every time we get a bill, I push the check to her, and she tips. So she figures out Wait a minute Because you can't figure it out Or you don't want to pay I'm always bad at that stuff

Wow Okay I mean if the bill's $100 I'll tip 20 And that's okay It's easy That's right Yeah yeah yeah

But when it gets really convoluted and complicated I don't know It's you know Fair or whatever But she overtip She's an overtip her But

we've had to A place for you to valet the car And they have You know You have to pay It's like 20 bucks For the valet and I didn't have any cash.

Oh, you know, you're that guy? But it was mandatory valet. There was no other options. But doesn't it feel like in 2026, you should have a QR code if you're a valet guy? Who has cash anymore? You need to. Venmo. Zell.

Stop. No, grandpa. Get with Zell. I'm not asking you to carry $100 in singles. I'm asking you to carry $10 to $15 with you. I have a Vennmo or Venmo. Or Venmo. At SportsMT.

I have a Venmo. Who's going to say? you money. You never know. No to ask people to send you money. I didn't ask. I'm just putting it out there. I'm just saying, if you run any kind of service that you would like to be compensated for in 2026? Yeah. Don't expect people to have cash.

No. Get out of the damn bank. It's not going to hurt you. Does the cash weigh down your wallet? No, but then carry some cash. John, what's the last time you get cash? No, I'm going to agree with Gordon on this one, especially if it's mandatory valet. Look, if you don't go out there, I'm not tip of it. Put the damn QR code on the front. Do you know how much cash I have in my wallet right now? Because you're like an old man.

Shut, no. No, shut up on that side, man. If you're going to mug somebody, mug an older guy. Because they're always going to have cash. $22 in cash. That's not $100. That's not $75. That's not $146.

That's not going to give you change. You got to give a whole $22. No. Then you go to the convenience store, buy some lotteries and get the difference. I'm not doing all that before I go to dinner. See, I'm going on this. No, no, no. You've got to carry some cash. Now, again, I'm not asking you to carry

ones, five, tens, and twenties, but damn, I have $5 or $6. Man, shut you up. Man, say you're sorry to the valet. It was a mandatory $20. What's $5 going to get you? Then guess what? Twenty-two right there. 20 plus $2 tip. You're good.

$2 tip. Oh, that's horrible. Better than nothing. You know what? You credit card didn't give me anything. So you're worse. At least I'm giving two bucks. They got to go to times. But that QR code.

right in front of that little valet stand and we've got to. Also, what are they doing mandatory valet? I don't even, I don't even have an option to park on my own. Have you been to a stadium before in your life? A stadium? A stadium. Yeah. Do you ever get to park for free stadiums? Nope. Yeah, street parking. Outside Diken. Get there early.

You're not, nobody's doing that. Oh, like five people are doing that. I can fit about 22 cars there right there. Okay, so 22 cars out of 24,000 people get free parking. Yeah. Better than the $30 are charging them all. See? As I'm saying, they're charging. all right we got a lot of phone calls to get to we got a lot of i'm sorrys i got a little mix of anything goes this is going to be good we got a lot of get to foie uh let's go with uh first up casso caseo what do you

start chile can sorry for first of all jonathan you cannot be calling mr texas old man that was out of line brother yeah say you're sorry let's go wasn't funny nobody's laughing at that you know what cases for you i'm sorry bat no you guys are good All right, quickly, I want to apologize to my work here at the wonderful University of Houston. I was in a meeting, and the guy was talking and couldn't really understand them. I thought there was a bad connection on Zoom. And I kind of laughed a little bit, and I said, hey, you kind of sound like connection is loose. We're like kind of got like a robot voice.

And then the guy adjusted his camera. I realized there's a giant hole in his throat. And he has to put up one of those voice box things to his throat. And then he said, can you hear me now? I felt really bad. And I want to apologize. That's actually a double sorry. Good job by you, Jonathan.

So you're just a bad human being in that particular situation. I've got to be honest with you. Have you ever seen a guy with that? Yes, I see him all the time. Absolutely. Yes. And it's very awkward. So you just don't ask for anything.

I couldn't see. I couldn't see. Oh, now we're blaming Zoom. Okay, we'll say Zoom says sorry too. Thank you very much. I'm sorry.

Take care. That's you. God, that's an awful situation. I'm feeling bad for the both of them. Usually if you had that voice back issues because of some sort of cancer, correct? Yeah, it's usually from cigarettes.

Yeah, cigarettes too. Is anybody smoking, by the way, in 2026? Just not cigarettes. So I was in, Lincoln, Rhode Island gambling. And I walked into the

Raleys Casino, and it was smoke all over the place. I'm like, what the hell? I can't be going to this place. I'm going to gamble when I'm watching my daughter play. So I go to get some money. I change out my $100 bill. And they're like, yeah, we're going smoke-free December 31st. So

that's great news. But come on, cigarette smoking, say you're sorry. First of all, it's unhealthy. Second of all, it stinks. Can I tell you, we got in a Baton Rouge the other night. We went to one of the famous joints down there to grab dinner, and it was college night, packed with college kids, back to school. And they had drink specials, like $5.00 beers, $5 margaritas, $5.00 everything. Sat next to a table about 12 college kids all next to us, all of them drinking water or soda.

College kids aren't drinking these days. That's good. Why? You don't need to have you ruin your liver that early in life. Party. Go have a good time. What if they're in school, trying to study, going to grab a quick dinner. They said this generation, like, the college kids, like, they don't go out anymore.

They don't party. They don't drink. Have you noticed things are a little more expensive than they were back in the day? Okay, but you got a parent, give you some money, go out party. Oh, basically, we're asking the parents to take care of our alcoholism. Get a flat of 90, Natty Light, 20 bucks. Okay. But like, what's the deal?

They literally said this. Like, the bar owners were like, yeah, our alcohol sales are down significantly the last five years. Kids aren't drinking anymore. College kids. They're home playing Xbox. So you're telling me that people, college kids, under the age of drinking ages, are drinking less. Well, but you know, going back to your days, people always have fake IDs. There's ways around it.

Or you got the one friend who's 21 and he orders for everybody. But they're not drinking. They're sitting in there. They're not even socializing. They don't go out. They sit in their apartments. Play Fortnite. Well, that's ridiculous.

But not drinking. Your kids go out, right? Unfortunately, can I, I'm going to peel the curtain back. I shouldn't say this because Carla doesn't get mad. I mean, who cares? I found out she had a fake ID. I wasn't happy about that. Part of being a kid.

But that's right, because I had a fake ID. Say, so why are you going to get mad at her? I couldn't get mad at her. She said it, and she's like, Dad, what do you think? I'm like, not thrilled. I said, just don't drive. Yeah.

Well, she doesn't have a car up there anyway, so that sounds like. All right. Let me get to Jamal and Midtown. Jamal, what are you sorry for, Jamal? Hey, man, I'm sorry, but I apologize. but I think if you insert Jalen Milro into the Texas offense with his instincts, it'll be better off than with C.J. Strauchess just wanted to make a great throw. All right. He's sorry. He wants Jalen Milro.

Sorry. Jalen Milro. That's the name I wasn't thinking about. Thank you, J. Ball. He's the backup in Seattle. Maybe he wants to move him here instead of paying C.J. Stride, $50 million. He underwhelmed at Alabama. You want him, you think he's better than C.J. Stride. Isn't he just a less talented Bryce Young?

He's a little bit more of a runner. Really good runner. Inconsistent passer. All right. That'll conclude Jail and Monroe talk on the show today. 1145, Keith, Vince, Brian, Jimmy. Hang tight. We'll get to you for friends next here on Sports Talk 790s.

There it is. All right, let's go. On the phones, we go. Brian and Pearland. Brian, what are you apologizing for? First of all, I went up. I apologize to Gordy because, Matt, you are right. Now, I'm a Gen Xer.

You should carry at least a 10 or 20. There you carry. In your car or on your wallet. No longer 20, you don't need more. I mean, if you're Gordon and you're going to these high-falutin places and like River Oaks all the time, hobnobbing it with the big wigs. Yeah, you probably need $40.50. But for us, Tom and Falk, you know, 10 or 20 bucks should work just fine.

Thank you. I always keep. I realize I wear a T-shirt jeans to the office every day? I get berated because I don't like, I hate dressing up. Yeah. I hate going to those kinds of places. He never wears collared shirts. I'd rather go sit at a sports bar with the common folk.

You know, when you're the APD and you set the rules, you can do whatever you want. Hey, he's not the APD. He's the PD. He's the head honcho. He loves him to my heart. When you're the PV, you can definitely do it. You know, if Erickson and them don't have an issue with it, who cares? You're not on Space City anyway.

So, you know, that's only reserved for the big time guys. That's right. You know, three hours a week. You got that right. But I want to apologize publicly to Jonathan for last week. I was trying to call him, but I was in East Texas driving and had a horrible phone signal, and I kept calling, and he couldn't hear me. So Jonathan, I'm sorry for my poor cell phone reception.

And then to Gil, I'm sorry for yesterday calling you an idiot about the guy reaching over the wall. It was just an idiotic take, but you were not an idiot, Gil. but that was an idiotic take about the guy reaching over the wall and interfering with the game. So, I'm sorry for calling you an idiot. Thank you, Brian.

Yeah, I want to apologize to that guy for absolutely nothing. Do not put your mitts over that yellow line. I don't care if you're from Australia or Ecuador or South San Antonio. Stop it. You sit in the outfield or in the left or right field, you have to know the rules.

That yellow line means stay away, period. ridiculous. Let's go to Jimmy and Tom Ballets as anything goes Friday, but I'm sure Jimmy will give us something here. Jimmy, what do you got today? Hey,

sorry, I was in an office. First off, be a man, have a $20 bill folded up in your phone case or something. I mean, be a man,

Gordy. Be a man. I mean, yeah. Who keeps $20 rolled up in your phone case? Like, oh, that's horrible. Well,

I'm just saying if you want to be electronic and paypeckless, not carry a wallet, whatever. You got that little floppy driver's license to have a $20 bill behind. Nobody carries money anymore, Jimmy. This is 2026. No, no. It's not it. No, that's ridiculous. It's not a,

it's, look. What are you going to the bank too and make a deposit? With grandma able in the line? Just carry a little bit of cash. We're not asking you to carry $1,000 and not ask you to put the money underneath your mattress. You get robbed. Carry some singles. You get robbed.

Jesus. You hear about all the time. People following people leaving the ATM. They went to the ATM at 2 p.m. And a dark car followed him and took them for everything. Hey, Houston, I apologize for Gordy. Continue on, Jimmy. When, you know, Grandma gives you that $20 or $40,000, don't go to the bank with it.

Just put it at your phone case. Can you get for a year? Tell Grandma sign up for Venmo and Zell. That's how we do things today. I was calling to congratulate Matt on the morning show and all that. But since I ended up in the middle of the apologies, I've definitely got two people I need to reach out to. Yes.

Number one, Nita apologize to the lady. After being nice and patient with her, she got $7,000 behind on rent, and I had to do a bit during court this morning. And number two, I'm out of town all week and made arrangements for the chickens, the ducks, bought a swimming pool for the dog, had people checking on them, got the automatic feeder for my girls' aquarium. But I need to apologize to the cat. I forgot to make arrangements for her.

So, anyway. He's still alive. What are you living in? Jimmy, do you live in a zoo? What the hell's going on over there? I got a bunch of kids, and we had to do the chicken experiment, and then my boy needed a duck for his birthday. Of course, we got to have a dog just to kids need a dog,

and my girl collects turtles. So it's a whole thing. Okay. Oh, sorry. And how do you get $7,000 behind in rent? My God. months behind is that? I mean, $2,100 a month.

You miss a month. You got some late fees. And I'm always nice, guys. Second month comes along. Okay, let's start the whole process. By the time you get the court, it's pretty much behind. And I've lost way more than that before. Where's your property?

Where's your property for $2,100 a month? Over in pre-Tomba. Presby-Poor, Harris County. Wait a minute. Thank you for the phone call. You got to spend $2,100 a month to live in Tomball? That's what I'm saying. Look, I'd buy a house for that.

James being trying to tell y'all this is how it looks. That's a mortgage payment. I mean, nothing against Tomball, but 20, what do you have like a 6,000 square foot apartment? Good Lord. $2,100 a month. I used to have an apartment. That was a studio apartment. It was old.

Over there kind of near Montrose off Westheimer. Paid $6.75 a month. So there is an apartment. That was just a couple years ago. There's an apartment complex at I-10 and I want to say like Taylor Street that looks pretty nice. And I wouldn't mind living there. But there's a freeway expansion of I-10 that's going to cover up the entire view of what you would see as downtown. And they were asking for like $2,000 a month a lot.

I'm like, I'm not paying $2,000 to have an outdoor look of I-10 in Studea-Mont. Yeah, I think every apartment in the loop starts at $2,000 a month. weekday six to ten here on sports talk 790 Raymond what are you sorry for Raymond? Man I tell you right now I'm going to be I'm going to apologize I'm sorry to Cordia ahead of time since he travels all over the southeast

you know for all these Southeast Conference schools and stuff but I tell you what when you get stuck over here off in the country somewhere and you know what Bubba don't take no cards buddy you either cash or ass buddy cash your ass about a trainment. It's either cash or ass. What am I stuck? Like a flat tire

or something? I've got AAA. 3 o'clock in the morning. Uh-huh. You're stuck. You flat tire, you have engine troubles. First I would never be traveling solo in the country side at 3 a.m. You don't know that. You're traveling. You went to your SEC media days. You got to get back from quickly from Nashville. 3 o'clock. He said it. It's either cash or ass.

Yeah. I would never be in that situation. All right. Yankees Keith and Jamal. You guys get a little more breathing room. We're going to take a quick time out. We'll go to your phone calls starting at the noon and hour. We have another cell of an NBA team. One of these NBA teams and they're selling like every other day. What the hell's going on with that?

We'll get to that. Are you staying, Gordy, you leaving me? I've got to go. All right, Gordy's leaving. Say goodbye to Gordy, everybody. Cash your ass with Gordy. Oh, that's horrible. We need Robert Ford to do some more liners for us.

Because it was just, so anytime you hear you. hear something in an Astros broadcast, we should clip, let us know. You can clip Rockets broadcast. I don't care. 1158, we're going to wake the strippers up for one final time in the midday next here on Sports Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1202 in H-Town.

Hour three in the Matt Thomas show at Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. The Raiders in the 780. Second half beat the Texans? What was that all about? That's not good. It's all right. Not the other world.

12.05 on Sports Talk 790. We've got athletic director Eddie Nunez. Going to hang out with us for the final hour of the show today. As we talk all things. Now, we're going to talk some U of H, clearly, because I'm a U.S. Homer. But big picture stuff, too, at college athletics. So we'll do that coming up with Eddie. In about 55 minutes here on Sports.

Sports Talk 790. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-79. Let's get to our last news at noon. So the Texans yesterday lost to the Las Vegas rate is 22 to 20. The most important thing is how do the guys that we actually care about do? Woody Marks, four carries, 37 yards and a touchdown. Also, we had C.J. Stroud, four of six, 27 yards. Did okay. Marlon Klein, three for 31. Morrow, two for

23. Woody Marks, one catch for six. Nico Collins did not play. Meanwhile, Fernando Mendoza is the number one overall pick in the NFL draft for the rate is eight of 15 for 86 yards. Took one sack. did have one interception. What has took it to the house for a touchdown. Texans back on the practice field tomorrow. Going to Charlotte next week to get ready for the Panthers. They're going to have an open practice or a mixed practice on Tuesday, I think. And then Thursday they'll finish up the preseason against the Panthers

where no one's expected to be of any consequence in the lineup. Meanwhile, Dike and Park, 18 to 3. Jonathan, did we not predict the Astros we're going to go six and three in this homestand? They are now two and four. Peter Lambert got toasted yesterday. Brian King got crushed yet again. Is there anybody that said a worse second half of the year than Brian King in baseball? Five runs allowed and over an inning in a third.

Lambert, nine runs allowed. Eight hits over three and two thirds. Astros lead over the Rangers is one. and still four over the Mariners in the American League West. Astros opened up a series with the hapless A's. Seriously, they've got to sweep the A's. As the Astros through 128 games are 64 and 64. One other note in the NBA, not involving the rockets,

but involving an ownership change again. Are you ready for this? So we saw the Lakers got traded for the sold for the second time in two years. Some dude named Mark Stad is now the controlling owner and the largest shareholder of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He bought the majority of the team at $4.5 billion. This dude lore is going to keep a minority interest. Co-owner Alex Rodriguez has decided to increase his equity percentage. We don't know what that means.

But Stad is the founder and an image managing partner of drive. Maganeer Investment Group, and he will now be the majority of stockholder for the Minnesota Timberwolves. We're seeing these teams that are being held by these families for like a year, year and a half. But another sale. So two sales of two NBA teams. I think the Lakers went for $12 million on that part of the sale. The wolf sale is $4.5 million on that. And that is your news at noon.

By the way, I didn't think I had it in me. That was 20 seconds. It was good. I did all right. 20. That would bad. Oh, Pedro got me at 21.89.

I'll take the, I'll go round up on that. That's good. Of course, I'm not going to be able to breathe the rest of the day, but that's on here and there. By the way, tonight,

I'm going, you know, you know what you do, Jonathan, when you say goodbye to one thing and you welcome something and you have to go do something to celebrate.

Tonight, Dube Brothers and Santana. So Astros, I'm not watching you. You're on a one-day probation. One day's suspension because Nobody's going to blame you either. You're asking about the Angels.

I'm serious. I'm going to check my phone during the game. And if they're losing, I mean, I love the Astros. You guys know them. I love them. 64 and 64. Taylor Chamele's not how to hit this homestand. He plays every day.

And by way, this homestine is six games deep. Not a single hit in 12 strikeouts. 713-212-5-790 Eddie Nunez again going to join us in 50 minutes go to the phones and talk to some people. Keith has been patiently waiting. Yankees Keith on 790. What do you got, YK?

Man, I don't understand what's going on, Matt. I hope they gave you a hell of a lot more money to work from 6 to 10. Hello? Keith, nobody should be pocket-watching me, but I'm just going to say I get paid a lot of money. way. Okay. You know, I don't even normally get up until 10 o'clock anymore. I'm going to be missing you. But that's good because you're old. That's why. You don't have anywhere to go.

What are you going to do when you're all, when you're broadcasting out in L.A. and Portland, are you not just going to go to bed at all? I mean, the thoughts crossed my mind. I mean, I could, I could stay up all night and then do the show and then go to sleep after that. I mean, that, that has, that is a possibility for sure. It'll sound like a crazy-ass show. I can tell you that for sure. Man, it's like my girlfriend moved out of town. I'm not going to see her anymore. Let me tell you something. I'll always be. That's what it feels like. You and I will always be. You got the number one. You got the number one radio show in sports talk. Who the hell is going to take your place? Dan Matthews will be on 10 to 2 starting on Monday.

Oh my goodness You gotta be kids Who did you piss off man I didn't piss anybody off They asked Let me tell you Keith you and I are friends right I can tell you

Yes we are They said Matt You and Ross We'd like to move you in the mornings Will you do it And see Keith I got a little secret for you I make a lot of money

And so when the bosses Tell me to do something I tend to do it And I because I like making a lot of money They gave you I know they had to give you a big raise to do that. What time are you going to go to bed, man?

Let me see. Probably 9 o'clock, except on game nights. Like on non-game nights? Like last night? I'd be in bed by... I'd have been bed by 9 o'clock. I'm going to miss it, man. That kind of break my heart.

You are going to still call the show, Keith. You know you always got a spot for my on my show. You know that. Well, I might have to get up earlier, and I'm not used to doing that. Yeah, but you got a young, You got a young hot wife that will help you out with that. Oh, that's true.

See? What if I have to stay up with her taking care of business, then I really ain't going to get up. Well, you know what? Let me tell you something, Keith. Just take two or three more of those pills you've been taking, Lily. You'll be just fine. All right, man, let's say it. One, two, three.

Go Yankee. How about this? One, two, three. Yankees suck. There it is. That's much better. Thank you, Keith, for the phone call. 12-13 is our time.

Jamal Felipe and Vince, hang tight. We'll get to all of you. It's an anything goes Friday here on Sports Talk 790. 713-213-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. So excited about tonight. This is old-school dubious too. This is Michael McDonald. I've asked you about dubious, haven't I, Jonathan?

Yes or no on that? I feel like they're a classics so you really can't hate on it. I know. You know, so I just get up in there. I'll listen to it when it starts playing, you know. Okay. Turn this up. This is a jam.

The problem is I'm going with three 20s-year-olds tonight to this. They're going to be the ones drinking. I'm going to have to be the DD. And I got Santana before this. It better be a long concert. It better be. I told the boys, I said, we better be there at 7 o'clock because, you know, at 11 they close that bad boy off.

Right. I guess of the curfew violations. Plus, all those dudes are 80s. You're going to have to get to bed at a normal time. Dude, say I'm sorry. That was true. That was rude. I don't even know how old Michael McDonald is.

Let me look. All right, play this for a few more seconds. I'll look up and see how old Macon McDonald is. He can still sing, too. Oh, he's 74. One more time. Singing Timmy Doobies. Oh, such good stuff.

All right, let's go on the phone. Let's talk to the great folks. We've got Eddie Nunez. I thought I director of University of Houston. Going to join us in about 40 minutes. Jamal is with us on 7-08. Hi, Jamal. Hey, man, what's going on?

You tell us. First and foremost, I was trying to catch Gordy before he left, but I'm seeing Gordy on this one, man. It's 2026. I don't even remember the last time I spent cash on anything. I'm actually to the point where I'm one, I can't wait for the state of Texas or Apple Pay to ask where you can't picture driver license on ApplePace. Because it's passport, I mean, everything crypto wanted, everything is in the phone now.

So I'm team type as you go. QR code. We ain't got time for that. Look, I love Apple Pay. I love Venmo. I don't do Zell, but I appreciate it. I'm just saying carry a little cash. That's all I'm saying, man. That's it.

I feel you. I feel you. But especially if you're if you're an establishment, like if you're a business and, you know, you're trying to get, you know, business. I'm like, man, you got to have, you got to have a susceptibility all our ways. But anywho, man, the takings last night, first before you're getting into the game last night, you got an inside scoop on these rivalry jerseys that's supposed to be a, you know what? They're going to be announced next week.

It looks like it's got a good amount of light blue in it, like Columbia blue. Now, if there's anybody that's going to piss off the Texans, it's going to. will be Hannah, the Titans going to be Hannah, and I'm all for that, by the way. Yeah, that's cool to hear, because I wasn't, not going to lie, I wasn't a big fan of the H-town, other, like, H-town jerseys when they revealed them. I mean, I like all the merch, like, the merch is fire, all the hoodies, hat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But as far as the, like, uniform, I didn't really, I didn't think they went well.

But anywho, that's good to hear. But on the game last night, man, I just wanted to say, you know, it was good to see Clownie out He had some good plays inside Russia, you know, kind of collapsed the pocket a little bit. Cedray, looked at calm, Woody Marks, and I just, I really think we're looking forward to a big year and just wanted to get you guys to take on that. Thanks for the phone call, Jamal. I have a good weekend. I appreciate you listening. Yeah.

You know, and it's funny, and I might, I got to be honest with you, I think I've undersold Judevian Clownie being with his team this year. He had a chance to choose three or four different teams. He was not looking for a long-term deal. That's what the guys do when they're in the back third of their career. But I think that's going to be a really sneaky addition. Look, I am nervous as hell about the Texans offense. I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I am still very, very unsure of what they're going to do.

I'm unsure of C.J. I'm unsure of what David Montgomery has left in the tank. It's in terms of a primary running back. I'm not sure of what he marks is the main go-to second back. Although they looked good yesterday. I'm unsure about the receiving core. There is something I am not unsure of. They're going to have, at worst case, a top three defense in the NFL this year,

unless again, injuries play a part. And they might, at the end of the day, and I'm not trying to be hot-taking machine here, as you guys know, they might have a top 10 defense of all time. If everybody stays healthy, which again, no one's going to stay healthy, somebody's going to get hurt. You don't wish that about it, but that's just the realization of playing football. But if everybody primarily stays healthy like they primarily stayed healthy last year, top three for sure, and maybe a top 10 of all time.

And just adding insurance like Judevian Clonnie, what an awesome situation that is. And that's why to me, if the Texans really believe a guy like Kisham Booty, that who is the third receiver in New England, who is not hidden the fact he's not overly pleased that he's not getting a new deal in the Patriots. If he really wants to test the waters somewhere else and the Texans want to commit

something to their offense, like they have certainly committed to their defense, I think that's the guy that moves the needle more than any other roster of the waiver claims you might have once guys start getting cut. But I'm not in control of that draft. I'm not control of those draft picks. Nick Casario is.

But the evaluation is going to be, is Bouté a guy that really moves the needle? Or do you say, Xavier Hutchinson is the guy that we're going to give him every opportunity to be the number two guy? And maybe we use the extra tight ends we've got on this squad to become even bigger part of the offense when it comes to receiving. Those are all internal conversations going on right now. You don't even internally discuss what's going on Texans defensive-wise because they've got deeper, adding blankenship, they got deeper with adding Clowny, and they've already were an elite defense to begin with. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach the show.

Let's go to Vince on 790 at 1226. Vince, what do you have this afternoon? Good afternoon to you. Hey, man, I am in mourning, no pun intended. Man, I really enjoy y'all. You and Ross's show. And I just don't, between 6 and 10, I'm in bed sleeping. I actually did up.

Well, I won't be. I actually get up right before 10 so I can tune into the show. Well, thank you. I've been doing that for the last couple years. And it's really not, I don't know. Let me tell you something. I don't want you to, I want you to still sleep as light as you can. I don't know what you're doing your life.

But just put your phone, get your phone, get the I Heart Radio app and just listen to us that way. And it's, it will be the best way you can, it'll be the, let me tell you this way, Vince, it'll be the second. The second best way you can wake up in a morning. How about that? Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. We'll see what happens with that. But I do want to ask something as far as that shift change for you guys. Is it like a promotion for you? Is it like more of like the network decided, oh, this will be better over here, this will be better over here. Do they just change stuff just to be changing? No, you don't typically change things to change things. There is, I mean, morning drive and afternoon drive are the preferred spots in music formats, in talk formats, in sports.

I've just been able to carve out a midday spot because I've lived this life for most of the last 16 years. So people are just acclimated to it. I think I've, and I don't want to brag, but I think I've been able to carve a nice niche in the midday squad and spot. But when the company comes to you and says, hey, we would like to change a few things, maybe make the station stronger in some areas and strong in other areas. And, you know, and my partner Ross, who I, We're great friends, and we've been together for a long time. Ross has always dreamt of going to morning drive. So when the company says it and you have a partner who is gung-ho on it,

I really couldn't have said no. I just can't. So it's going to be some adjustment, but I promise you the same energy, the same amount of things that you may love the show and you may hate the show are going to be the exact same thing. We're not changing who we are, I promise you. It'll just be a little bit earlier in the day. I got you.

Well, I mean, there'll be sometimes when I'm up that early. so I'll give you, I'll still be calling and I really wish you all the best. I really wish all the best of luck. Appreciate it. Thank you very much for the phone call. Look, again, it is an adjustment, but it's okay. Things are just, and look, people don't like change. We as human beings don't love change.

We like, things are comfortable. But as I said this yesterday when I brought up the show announcement, in radio, especially in 2006. If you don't if you don't embrace change, you're going to be on the outside looking in. And that's the reality.

If I went to my company and then my company said, please go to morning drive, which they did. And I said, no, I'm good. I wouldn't be nearly as highly thought of this company as I am now. And I think I heart.

And my boss is here in town and the people that run our company for thinking what they think of me. So when they asked me to do it, I'm going to do it. Now, if they said, Matt, we want you to do 2 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. I'd probably say, you know, shut your ball, my ass up. But this is not. This is a good thing. We're going to bring the energy in the morning.

You're going to be entertained. And the number one thing is, and that's a lot of responsibility on Ross and myself and Jonathan as well. We are here to entertain you. We're going to give you sports. We're going to entertain you. That's the most important. thing we as a show can do is to entertain you. You don't need me reading box scores. You don't need to be going through depth charts. You don't need me running through what's happening at Fresno State.

You don't need to be meaning for me telling you what's going on with the Carolina Panthers or the Detroit Lions. We are going to talk Houston sports 95% of the time. We'll goof off. We'll be serious. We'll do both. We've been doing this for a long time. You've got to trust me, friends. We're going to be fine. 1230. Back on the phones in a minute and also coming up at 1 o'clock. Eddie Nunez, athletic director of University of Houston here on Sports Talk 790. Hurry out to the mattress mac, mega mattress, super store with the biggest savings of year right now. Save up to $700 on Select Beauty Rest Black mattresses. Up to $2,000 on Select Beauty Rest Black Adjustable Sleep Sets.

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We're doing the work to get you up to date. Just download the free IHard radio app and search NFL. Real takes. Real reaction. Real Houston. Sports Talk 790. Guaranteed human. John, then it's a white person married dance during this song tonight.

I'm going to need you to hit this, Namedis salsa with the hips. You got to go. Left right. There you go. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. As a white guy, I can dance. All right. This is going to be a good concert. I better do this. It might last night out for a while.

Yeah. Make one of your kids be D-D. You need to get loose. I, Kim, if you're listening, you're D-D tonight. You're like a rock-paper scissors in the car. You think so? What if I, you know what I'll do? I'll say, I'll drive and you drive back.

Yeah, okay. Let me see he can start early and he has a sober up. Okay. Yeah, he's got a sober up at like 915 times. Yeah, y'all can do that. Because we are going to go to Ben and about after. Oh, perfect. Mm-hmm.

713-1-2-1-2-5790. Let's continue on the phones. Let's go to a GEO-17. Geo, what's going on, friend? Matt, Matt, Matt, man. Great show as usual. since this is the last Friday you know I mean the last you know noon

noon show I had to call in man I've been listening to you guys ever since I got my CDO started driving trucks man when I was 23 I started listening to you guys 10 years ago and you guys you you Ross you know all the producers that you had man you guys have literally been a part of my day every single day even when I go on vacation man like when I went to Disney a month ago I'll turn on the I-Hart app

and I'll see you guys in. And it's bittersweet, man. I'm happy that you guys are getting a great new opportunity. It sounds like Ross is pretty stoked about it because, you know, from what you've been saying, he's been wanting to do more in the shows and that's a great man.

But, you know, to not have you guys in that midday spot where is the crucial for me because that's, you know, that's when I'm mostly listening to you guys. It sucks not to have you guys there anymore, man. But I'll definitely get in where I get in. We got a podcast. Don't forget the podcast. podcast, my friend.

I know it, man. I know it, but I just wanted to, you know, say, I love the show, man. I've been listening to you guys literally forever, man. I've taken my son to numerous events from being a prize hoard and winning tickets, man. So it's been great. You are an OG prize horde, Gio. You know that, right? And I'm not ashamed of that.

Talk to you soon. We'll be, come join us in the morning. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. You a good friend of the show. And a clock. Who's our prize horror hall of fame? We got Gio.

We got, what's our other buddy's name that always calls it? Roger. Roger. Bill. Roger hasn't been calling in. Yeah, Roger called the other day. And we're not doing Believe it or not today because we got Eddie with us here. So Believe it or not, returns Monday.

It's 9.50. Oh, Kevin. Akin. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin, yeah. You all been telling me he's been calling a lot longer than I've been here. Yep, yep, yep. Boy, it's, can be weird because I always have these things in my mind,

like we do gut feelings at 1130 to tell the truth. And now we're pushing everything around. So, I'm going to probably mispronounce the name of the show. It's Matt and Ross in the morning, by the way, starting Monday. And then we're going to do, believe it or not, at 950. And then we're going to do, like, shut your bum ass up at 8.30. You know what?

It's actually going to be like a little bit of a public service to be able to tell some people to shut their bum asses up a little earlier than normal. Think about that. Oh, yeah. And maybe a little more people are angry in the morning. Oh, sure. Traffic? You know what? One more thing I got as a bit if I didn't think about this?

Guess it's not going to be cranky coming to work in the morning driving. Me. I hope. I'm praying. I know. You catch the wrath of that sometimes. Sorry. Easy.

On 790 and anything goes Friday. Easy. What do you got today? Matt, the Astro's lost last night. Now you dropped this on me today, man. Come on, sir. Hey, I dropped that on you yesterday, by the way. Go ahead.

Yeah, the Astros sucked yesterday. I'm going to be honest with you. They were terrible. So, first of all, this is a selfish decision, because who's going to wake up the strippers now? We're waking them up every Friday morning at 8 o'clock. We're going to put them to bed, as we're going to do. Also, how is this going to affect the 10th inning shows and the postgame shows when you're on the road or doing the Rockets games?

Rockets games, less sleep. 10th inning shows will be largely not done anymore. No way. Oh, man, I used to love those. I know you do. You like when I get in fights with people on the 10th inning show. I know how you roll. I live for that.

But, man, great opportunity, guys. I surely will be listening. I get up pretty early in the morning. Good. It's just going to be a big hole left in the middle of the day where, you know, at 2 o'clock, I know only got three hours left to work now. Once I'm finished with you guys in the morning, hopefully, hopefully Matthews pulls off, you know, something good. Is you going to get somebody new with him?

Josh Jordan's going to be with him. So he'll be with him in the middle of the day. And by the way, we're going to be the second best way you can wake up in the morning. You understand that, right, Easy? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah, unless you all guys come over. See you later, Easy.

Appreciate you listening. 713-212-5-790. Ryan and Montgomery on anything goes Friday. Ryan, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon, Matt. The last time we'll say good afternoon to each other. I'm very excited. I'm not going to lie.

Everybody's calling in, talking about how much they're going to miss you. I'm firing up the truck to drive to work at $5.50 in the morning. I am excited. I'm not sure if Ross is excited. He hated it. We all moved to 10. No, no, no, no. I'll make sure and tell you this.

Ross is beyond elated. And if anybody has no excuse under any circumstance to be late, it's him. He lives five minutes from here. If he's the first one of us out of three, Jonathan and Ron, buying this late. He's got to pay a double fine. You know he's going to do? He's going to admit that Joe Mixon got shot in the foot. That should be his punishment. No, I'm excited. So you said you're putting the strict-up bed at 8 o'clock. You're going to wish him good night? Good night at Friday's o'clock. You got that right. I love it. I'm excited.

I'll see you all Monday. All right, buddy. Thanks for the phone call. Who's going to be the very first call to the show on Monday at 6 o'clock? Starting out there. Young be what you want. 5-790. Oh, our buddy L.J. Cohn from New Zealand. Now, how is this going to affect your time, my friend? What time is it when it's 6 o'clock in Houston? What time is it in New Zealand?

It'll probably be around 11 p.m. Oh, so a little night talk with MT. I like that. Yeah, it affects me now. You know, when the daylight saving, sometimes it'll be 11, sometimes it'll be like even 1 a.m. So it'll be more overnight for me.

for you guys. Perfect. When I wake up early in the morning, I get to hear you guys. And yeah, so I really like that. Good, good. I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad that you guys aren't like lost going to the morning.

And you guys are perfect together. It would have really been a big thing. And I'm glad to be able to just keep listening to you guys. Keep it up, man. All right. Thank you, LJ. You got anything on the rocket you want to get in? Because you're my rocket guy.

man the Rock is I think they're going to be ready to go I think everybody needs a whole pack when uh friend then bleat and Steve adams come back and all these extra guards we got we're going to be ready so I'm going to be all right thank you for the phone call me next week all right LJ good to hear from you my friend LJ we are international this show goes to New Zealand back and forth and uh thanks LJ for calling 11 imagine me Jonathan 11 o'clock Matt Thomas in rossfield are at 11 o'clock in night Little night moves on the quiet storm. 713, 212, 5790.

You're getting a lot of love. No, nobody, no, the, you, when you hate someone, you go to Twitter, when you hate someone, you go to Instagram. When you like somebody, you call the show. All right, I want someone who hates Matt Thomas. No, no, no, I don't want that. I need my friend, need my ego taken care of. What are you talking about? It's ego going down a little bit before it comes in.

No, no, no. Don't listen to Jonathan. Don't listen, Jonathan. All right, Eddie Nunez in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk, 7-9. Oh, my gosh. Tonight, I love that you're playing all this stuff. If you see a ball white man walking around the night at Cynthia Woods dancing to this song, it's me. See, people that are mad about the dubies that don't like it, they don't like

pre-Michael McDonald's, they don't like it when Michael McDonald was there. I love it all. Eddie Nunez is going to. to join us, Athletic Director of University of Houston at the top of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. We're going to talk some big picture college athletics. As I've told him this many times, and I'll say this again when he joins us, people always ask about my career. I always like to ask about other people's careers.

Like I live in Kingwood. I got pilots around me all over around that. I'm bugging them about what do you do with 31,000 feet? And they're like, well, what do you think about the Texans or the Rockets? So we'll talk to Eddie about what it's like to be an athletic director in, I believe, year number three at the University of Houston. Let's go to the phones and continue on. Robert on 7908, 1249.

Robert, good afternoon to you. Hey, Matt. You know, my career, I'm a home inspector, and I just did a home for a former Pittsburgh pirate, and he had a golden glove trophy room. Really? Now, yeah. Wait a minute. Can I guess who this, can I guess who this pirate is?

I really don't want to say his name. I don't want to get in trouble or anything. But, yeah. But, yeah, he had a trophy. a room and then several golden gloves on shelves. Did this?

All right, I'm going to try it. Did this Pittsburgh Pirate go to the University of Houston? I believe so. And I can tell you, Liz and Tomball. I know who it is. Go on. Say what you got to say.

But hey, Robert, do you earn a lot of celebrities when you do this? Or is this just a one-off here? I've done a couple of homes. All right. Very good. But anyway, I just want to call and tell you,

I ain't going nowhere. Good. I've been following you. I followed you from the afternoon to the mid-show, and now I guess I'm following you to the morning. Yeah, I'm just a nomad. I just can't sit still anywhere for any length of time. Yeah, I just want to let you know that, you know,

no matter where you go, I'll be there. All right. Thank you, Robert, for the phone call. And tell that former Cougar pitcher, I said hello. Let's go to Larry on 790 and 1250. Larry, good afternoon to you. What's on your mind? Hey, how you doing, I'm too.

Good, Larry. Hey, man, you know, all my radio will stay on 790. That's nice, you thank you. I'm really glad that you all moving to the mornings because that's my most quiet time. My wife hasn't got up yet, so I don't have to be running around in here. Really? So you basically value when your wife doesn't speak to you? No, no, no, no.

Oh, that's horrible. She's good, they're not what I see. She's good. I'll say that. Okay. There's monthly times. You know, I'm outside and my garden and everything, and it's quiet and everything.

Yeah. I can really concentrate and listen, you know. Well, good. And, you know, I've been listening to you forever. Well, thank you. Hey, when does Jonathan go get his shot? Jonathan, when are you going to get your shot, Jonathan? Ah, Larry, you got to be waiting for a minute, man.

Don't worry. We're going to make Jonathan a star. He's already star as it is. His egos is out of control as we speak. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, he sounded pretty good on a 10th inning show last week. Jonathan, you were on the 10th inning show last week? No, that was me.

That was me fighting with people. Remember that? That was me. Somebody different. Thanks, Larry, for the phone call. I appreciate the kind of words. And tell your wife you should speak to her more often. Could you imagine ever calling a radio show and talking about how you look forward and not speaking to your wife?

Well, mine's 800 miles away at this point. So what are you going to do? Let's go to Larry and Galveston. Hi, Larry. How you doing, Matt? Good. I tell you what, I was listening to your show yesterday, and I heard that you're going to be going to the morning drive.

Yes. And, you know, one thing that I have to say about that is, thank God that you're still going to be with the radio, you and Ross, because you guys have an outstanding, outstanding radio program for everybody in Houston and everybody that listens to you every day.

Well, thank you. It's nice you to say that. I appreciate that very much. And I got I got to ask you one thing. When Ross gets back, when Ross gets back on Monday, with you and Ross and Jonathan

and anybody else that you can drum up, please start a revival for the Houston Astros because God only knows right now, buddy, we need it. After that 18 to 3 yesterday, you know, I am not going to give up. I'm still going to tell Houston to relax, but it's tough watching the boys go out there and do what they did yesterday. Well, as I've said, Larry, and thank you for the phone call, when you are an excellent in whatever sport you're in, whether it's professional basketball, baseball, football, college, when you are 12 and 3 or in baseball, let's say you're 70 and 57,

an 18 to 3 is not a big deal. When you are really bad, if you are a basketball team, it's 25 and 50. When I was calling the Rockets games and they were losing 60 games a year, and the Rockets get blown out by the Sixers or somebody, nobody cared. It's when you're in the middle, when you are average, I mean, the Astros remain 500. They are ridiculously average and have been that way the entire season. And that's when the elevation levels go crazy.

The highs get too high. The lows get too lows. This homestands been terrible. I mean, there's no other way to say it. And it pains me to say that, but you can't lose two or three of the angels. You can't lose two or three of the Mariners. And that's why this sweep against the A's has to happen because you want to hold on in the first place. And thank the Lord, this American League is in bad shape.

Not only just the American League West is in bad shape, but the entire American League is. Now the White Sox are playing a little bit better as you're late. The Yankees and Rays are the elite teams. And guess what you got coming up in the month of September? Or you got the Yankees and Astros next week, as a matter of fact. And then in September you go to Tampa Bay. So I'm right there with you, Larry. I'm not going to give up on them.

But, boy, it does cause some irritation. That is for sure. Let's go to Sheridan on 790 and 1255. Sheridan wants on your mind today. Hey, man. How you doing? Good. How are you?

to say that I'm good. I just wanted to say, man, I love the show. I've been tuned in the $7.90 for a while. In fact, I even had my alarm sit at 6. I used to listen to the Sean Salsbury show, but then they took him out. And then there was a morning drive. No offense to the morning drive, guys, but they don't do it for me. But Matt's on the show.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And we're not going to change the thing. That's going to be the same show. A little more sportsy in the early morning, but we'll have some

times as well in the afternoon or later in the morning as well thank you shared in for the phone call nice you to say that lastly before we get to any newne yes i thought i thought of director at the university houston we say hello to christian lamar christian you're on 790 what's going on you're okay and jonathan oh and jonathan sorry i'm sorry man i had to do it quick because i know you got eddie newnaz coming up but still like everybody has been saying, I'm glad you're going back to the morning drive, even though it'll suck that you will no longer have the opportunity to do the noon shows, especially after Rockets games after you have that trip in China in October.

But still, though, man, it's just crazy to think that you've been radio for 30 years, and you've been damn good just about every single one of them. Just about every, wait a minute, you said I was good just about every, one of those years, did I suck in your 17 or something? What's the problem here? Oh, no, MT. I'm just saying. I'm just kidding you.

Especially because of that waking up the strippers call, I just put that on my Instagram story at Christian Gary 1992. Look at you dropping it. What do you drop on Instagram on me here? Oh, that's horrible. Hey, man. I'm just saying you are. I'm just kidding with you.

You deserve your flowers, man. One thing I want to get off the line and get to break is when it comes down to the upcoming teams that Houston will probably get the NHL team and obviously the comets coming up next summer, do you think that will do a couple more tenants on the I-Heart radio family or just one? That's outside my pay grade, my friend. I don't know what we're going to do on that. We got a lot of sports. We got rockets, Astros, Cougars, Longhorns, Tigers. What else? We got to have some other things on besides the games itself, right?

Understood. And that's why y'all got sports radio, unfortunately. But other than that, thanks for having me on. I can't wait to hear y'all on Monday. And I will talk to you on social media until then. All right, thank you, Christian. All right. We're going to talk to Eddie Nunez for our visit,

Athletic Director of University of Houston next, 1257. This is Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It's our final hour of the midday version. Monday will be with you at 6 o'clock in the morning. And I had scheduled our next guest probably two months ago because he's so busy. Chasing championships and chasing dollars. That's what AD is doing in 2026.

And so, Eddie, you are the last guest and the last hour of the midday version. Thanks for coming into the Matt Thomas Love Fest. I really appreciate that. Let's turn his microphone on. If you wouldn't join anything for me. There we're going to try to get. I'm honored, man. This is big time.

I know. We get a lot of responsibility here. Don't crush the show here in the next hour. And congrats and good luck to you. And I know you're going to kill it. Yeah, we're going to be fine. It's just some of those nights are going to be tough after Rocket Games. But you know what?

Nobody's crying for me. It'll be all right. It'll be fine. Boy, you know, as I was telling you before, the audience, I could ask you five million questions. I could sit here and talk. So let's just do, we're going to talk as much macro as we can. Yep. this is year number three for you correct starting year number three so first year you are jumping in

and you're just trying to look at the lay of the land i think i asked you a year ago you've got some decisions to make good coaches and you've done a little bit of that now year three your basketball coach is a rock star your football coach just beat ls u and we're going to be a top 25 team this year i'm so excited about that so just in a nutshell what have you done that people would not have normally seen you do in a nine to five situation yeah so this this when i arrived here of many know, we embarked on a new era of college athletics. It was refs, it was NILs, a lot of things. More importantly, it was us in the Big 12 for really just understanding what that takes. So I, for a lot for for that first year and a half really was changing the structure of our

entire department, not just going through the motions and keeping it going. We had to recreate right size and level set the whole department from an external side, pushing more marketing, pushing more internal, but also taking what we've done and making it better. So sent for now, this point, and we're talking quickly before this, but at this point last year, we've added 50 new people to our department. We've added 30 in the last, and just since 33 since the spring, um, four new coaches, seven total in the last year. And I don't want to make changes, but changes were necessary. And I, and I do believe that. I think it's everybody that we've added, just going to improve the value of who we are as a department.

But it's going to help us achieve things that we've never done before. I know it because it's already happening underneath. So it's that structure that we had to get right first and foremost. It is crazy, though, because no two athletic departments are the same because you may spend more on marketing or less on facilities and maybe the school down the street or down the, in the conference may do just the opposite. So are you, did it take you a long time to say, all right, I've got to put some people in these positions over here and eliminate some spots here. But what is it like creating a pie chart,

so to speak? Yeah, it's not as easy just to sit down and say, okay, we're going to just start filling the holes. Because the fact is we had people that were really good, but maybe they weren't in the right position. So we've had to reprioritize who goes and where. More importantly than anything else for me was understanding where can we make the most impact. And if you think about our teams. First, we have to make sure that we provide our student athletes and our teams with every resource available to compete. If we're going to be in this Big 12, let's do

everything we have to not just be a part of it, but excel. And so what we did is from there we started looking at all the things that people like to ask about and complain about or give their thoughts about, which is the game experience or parking or this or that. Looking

at every aspect of how we can generate new revenue or even improve the atmosphere, the game experience, everything else you have. So it's been a lot, and we still got a lot to go. I tell people, we had a very good year last year. I could sit here and tell you our successes, fundraising, another record year. Academics, another record year. I mean, we have more corporate partnerships now than ever. Our brand, our licensing, our merchandise, everywhere you go, you're seeing it firsthand. But that doesn't happen overnight. That's all great. But I'm also still here because I'm not

content. There's still so much more that we can do. and we're going to do. What we need is our fan base and we need the city of Houston to keep doing what it's been doing. It's not just embracing us, but now start coming to those games. Start coming and impacting our student athletes.

Give them the chance that, not just to be very good, but to be excellent. All right, we're going to give some non-breaking news to you, folks. The Oregon State game was not scheduled at 11 a.m. Because Eddie Nunez has got to get a 4 o'clock tea time in. Correct? Absolutely correct.

It's not sexy, but I'm going to tell you this right now. On kookfans.com, don't get mad at me. In Alabama, at Tennessee, at other big-time places across this country, and we're going to act like we're big-time around here, okay? I'm just going to tell you that right now. They played 11 o'clock, the building is full. And so it's going to take some work, Eddie, and you and I are, I'm an alum. You've been around a few years now.

So the reality is it's going to take some work. If you love the football team, and what I've seen so far, I was in a couple of practices, including one this week. There's a lot to love. It's a top 25 team. It's a top four ranked team in the Big 12 preseason. Not that it means everything, but I love the fact that I'm getting a lot of positive national publicity

about what this Cougar football team can do this year. Yeah, there's over 130 programs in FBS. And to be a top 25 program, it's not easy. It takes a lot to build it. And what Coach Fritz and his staff have done with everything else, to build it to the level it is today. and where we're going. This is just the next step.

So you're right, though. The 11 o'clock game is a tough one. It's a tough one for all of us. We want fans to come out and tailgate. We want our fans to enjoy the whole atmosphere. We want to be able to create an atmosphere with fireworks or lighting or everything else. But we also have, we live in a conference, just like every other Power 4 conference. And sometimes television, the majority of time, if not all, dictates the time,

especially when it's a game that's attractive to them. this is filling a slot for them. We understand it. It's part of it. But it's also where we get our revenue for our conference. So as much we don't like it, what I ask our fans always is, if you're truly a Kook fan, understand some of these challenges are going to happen. Like in life, we all hit a hurdle that sometimes we don't want to deal with. But this is one of those that we still have to come out and support the kids.

Support this team. You want to have a special year. It starts in that first game. Come on out. Do your part. Don't make the excuse about 11 o'clock game. We understand that. and we're sorry, but we're going to make it great,

and let's go out there and showcase America what the Houston Coogs are about. All right, I'm going to sell it. 7-13-go Coogs. Call the number. Get your tickets for that, 11 o'clock start. And I think I've asked you this a couple of things about television. Is there any point where you can just call the commission

or call your television friends and say, hey, we really would like to be at this particular time because I can tell you, our friends in Lubbock, and we're going to be up there for that Friday game in September. They don't love playing Friday at football. It's not just the University of Houston that maybe I'd be going, hey, can you help us out with the time? Everybody has to basically acquiesce to the television networks because they're the ones financing a lot of what you're doing on these campuses. Yeah, look, last year we had, I think it was three or four Friday night games.

And on the road, I'm not opposed to it because honestly get home on Saturday. But I also understand why the Friday night games are interesting or actually a good window for our conference. You've got to think about the opportunity that you're watching football. You're one of the only games being played that night at that. And so to be on that channel on ESPN or Fox or whatever it is on that Friday night, it's big. Now, yes, I also do understand where it conflicts with high school football and everything else. It's a hard balancing act, but we have to do what we can. And when we have those games, we have to do our part.

Speaking of scheduling, I brought this up really during basketball. season, but I guess it could also go applicable towards football. And we're NIL still role in this world. In fact, my daughter will like some NIL if you don't mind North Island, but that's a different issue, a different time. I've suggested playing one or two

basketball games like the players era thing in Las Vegas, where the money goes to the kids. Could you see college football going to a 13th game where a significant chunk of the proceeds or guarantees go to the kids? Could you see basketball inflating their schedule to say, this particular game is an NIL game

because to have to come to you every single time or your benefactors that do supply your NLI money to keep going to them over and over again that can cause them fatigue. Yeah, there's a balancing act. The players here is a great opportunity. That's the first one to really come out of the gates with NIL.

We're playing three other games this year at neutral sites, partly because we're playing high-level competition. That's the only way we're going to be able to get them. But also there's an NIL factor to it. So that is what's driving the

the end of the day of the train. We've got some other things. We still have to have enough home games for our fans to be able to come and join. We still have to try to bring in high quality opponents and it's not easy. I'm going to tell you right now, especially when you have a basketball program as successful as what Coach Samson has built here, it makes it hard to get

those high quality opponents to come in here. They'd rather play you at NeutroSight. To answer your question about football, it's already in conversation regarding the possibility of playing games that may support NIL, but it's probably going to be a neutral side game like next year we're playing LSU at NRG. In the future, I think you're going to see some of those games have a connection with NIL, a component of some sort that whatever the guarantee is,

you're going to get a percentage that goes to NIL. So we need both sides to be supported. We need both sides to be successful because the NIL side plus generating revenue for our department is important. We've got to be able to still run the department the way we need to. Your thoughts about international play, I'm not huge on it to be brutally honest with you. I don't know the huge value

and I know TCU will be there in week zero. Now that'll be a great trip for the kids and the staff and the broadcasters, but does it move the needle in your mind? And is the University of Houston any conversations about that? So I'll say, first of all, I know you're saying this because you just talked about going over to Asia or something

with the Rockets and so coming home it's going to be a fun one for you. I would tell you it does. If it's the right team, the right market, the right situation, it does benefit the program. But it has to work across the board. So when you think about TCU or Arizona State and Kansas that are both going this year, they're going to Wembley or England or London, I think. 102, yes.

I don't know where they're from. I think they're TCU's at Ireland, I think. Yeah, somebody's going to Ireland. Yeah. And so both of them are all three of those teams are going to benefit. in their own way differently. I know one of the things with Arizona State, why they're going when they're going

is because they're opening up a college campus, a satellite campus in London. So there's a benefit with them. For others, maybe other things. So I do see the benefit. I do see the possibility and the opportunity of Houston playing in one of those here in the near future. We have been an active conversation since the day I got here

with several of those promoters that are doing that, everywhere from Europe to South America and Central America. So I believe that that's going to happen, but it has to be the right time, the right opponent, because the other thing is when you go play there, understand you have to return and finish the season. So it's not like a one-off. You're going over there and then taking a whole week off and relaxing.

So making sure that all those factors play into it. But we're definitely excited if the finances work and everything else works, we would do it. Any questions for athletic director Eddie Nunez? Do me one of two things. You can shoot me a tweet at SportsMT, and I will get that question to him, or you can send me an email at mT at Sports790.com. And it's not, obviously, we're vested because we're University of Houston here, but if you have some big picture questions about college athletics, because it's a very fascinating industry, you can let us know. MT at Sports790.com or on Twitter at SportsMT.

All right, questions are coming in for Eddie Nune. I've got about $9 million, but I thought I'll get a couple in here from the audience. Grant asked about giveaways and promotions for attending the events. Now, if you love the Cougars like we all do, and you, first of all, you get Willie Fritz on the phone, he can, that's a promotion in itself. Maybe you should do a day of talking to people because he can get, he can fill a building up. John, then we got his microphone on. No, we tried again. There we go.

There we go. It's okay. He's trying to silence me back there. He's like, no. Have we ever silence Eddie before? Other 80s we have. We should, we should. No, no, no, no.

I would say there's plenty going to be give it away this year. That's one of the things our team is doing, and they're trying to, they have all those ideas. They're ordering them anything else, but I'm definitely not going to sit here and start naming them right now because I'd like some of those to be surprises and everything else. So, yes, we're looking, we're doing everything we've done and more. We've got a great team.

We've got a new individual that's actually overall the game experience. he's been with us now came in here at the beginning of the summer so he is a Lundice Pledge, he's been doing a great job and so we've got several in that area that are excited about where we're going with the marketing promotions and all that area. Can I say

H-town Blue? Is that okay to say that? I want to make sure I'm not getting in trouble by anybody. Yeah, we've kind of changed, we're changing the the, I don't want to say the nomenclature and how we talk about it, but it's really, it's our it goes back to it's just our our love support for Houston. It's our built by Houston campaign that you're seeing around the city.

Built by Houston is all about our tribute back to the city of Houston. That Houston blue, for many people just would, you know, again, to keep forgetting it, they think it's just the blue game or this. No, it's our tribute to Houston and the city. But yes, it is, for most people's knowledge, it is the Houston blue. Just like two years ago, I said H-Town-Blue, I'm going to cease and assist from the Tennessee Titans, so I want to make sure I'm okay. One of the things you dig is you are very active on social media, Eddie Nunez-A-D.

Maybe sometimes you may be too active for your own choice. I try not too, but you do respond, and that's good. As people ask about apparel and buying gear, and you have made a concerted effort in the last year or so to get those shops up and running them more. Yeah, it's been one of my own little ventures that I wanted to make sure. something that I noticed when I first came here. And I've said this time and time again, going through the airport, going through other areas, seeing I've posted some things out there that I've seen by myself, but I've also had people send me at the rallies. And it's not just, yes, they had it before. Now it's two or three times the size of merchandise they had to know that when you think of Roebuck or you think of Peter Millar, you think about all these other companies, callers and company, all these brands that are international that are now carrying. collegiate apparel and we are one of those schools. Part of that effort is not just making the conscious effort to go out there and find companies that don't have our brand and making sure

our brand gets on there is making sure we have a licensing company that understands what we're trying to do. And we've restructured that in the spring. The new company that is now helping us, the LC has been unbelievable and kind of really pushing the needle with a lot of these merchandise companies. Speaking of uniforms, the Big 12 signed a league-wide deal. Lapelle, correct? Is it with Monster? Correct. Am I right about that? Jersey Patch. Jersey Patch. Okay. Jersey Patch. Does that, that leaves you some other opportunities, correct? Okay. Let me say this, because I'm in the NBA world. When the NBA announced it many years ago, Eddie, people were like, oh, these NBA teams are going to get fat and happy off of this.

It's been more difficult, I think, than NBA teams thought it would be. So let me ask you from your perspective. You don't want to just put any Tom Dick and Harry on there, but you're also looking to put a value on it as well. So I'm sure you're having to kind of navigate through those waters too. I would say that it is the first time, you only have one first time. And so for me, if we're going to do this right, we want to try to make sure that we hit every one of our principles. And one of them is we want to look at finding someone that match our values and vision of what we're trying to do because this is not just going to be a one year, hey, rip and replace, rip and replace. We want it to have a true value. So we're not going to undersell ourselves. We will also

would like to have somebody who is a Houston-based company. Now, if you look at 90% or more probably, but 90% of the Jersey patches that have signed with collegiate deals have a pre-existing relationship with those schools and longstanding, most of them, this was just a continuation of what they've done. So we've had some of those, but we've got to be better because some of the ones that we've had,

we haven't done a great job as an athletic department to strengthen those relationships over the years. And so we've been doing that over the last. year and a half, two years, for me right now, it's finding that right partner. And when the time comes, if we've checked all those boxes, great. If one or two are not there and we have to go with a national company, but they meet everything else that we're trying to do, then we do it. But I definitely don't want to just do it just to do it. And that's why, I mean, everybody thinks everybody's done it. There's a lot more schools that don't have Jersey patches right now. And to go back to

the monster question, just to answer that quickly. That is basically replacing where people saw the Big 12 logo on our jerseys, that's just replacing that logo. So we still have the ability on the other side to put what we need to do. And I know people will say this looks like, may look like NASCAR, this and that. The reality is we have to find ways to create and generate new revenue. And this is one of those possibilities. There are some great stadiums in a state of Texas with new marketing deals that are going to have everything plastered. It's just the reality.

And is there anything that's not, I mean, yard lines could, you have Andre at the 11. It's not going to be touched, but we're going to see logos on field, right? I mean, as long as it's not obnoxious, you know. No, no, you're going to see it. We're looking at everywhere from the red zone to, so we have a little bit of a challenge at our stadium. We have the Big 12 logo, you know, basically on each of the sides of the field. And then above them we have, on the other side, we have TDUC Stadium. And then we have the John M. O. Quinn Stadium.

So what we're looking at doing is, or field, excuse me, and what we're doing is we're, looking at moving one of those to another location to give ourselves space to be able to have inventory availability. Not getting rid of those names. They're going to be on the field. But for us, it's trying to maximize that opportunity. And same thing at basketball, we're not going to go. We've already have several things on the court. So we're looking at repositioning this.

This will probably be happening more next year for men's basketball and women's basketball. But we are looking at the front of the benches. We're looking at on the court, different locations. you see at the NBA games already. You're seeing it. The challenge with what we're trying to do and how we're trying to do it is what you see in the NBA, a lot of it is driven through the NBA television contract, which is one contract for all the teams, basic in a nutshell, and unless it's outside of that contract, they can put, with their television partner, impose camera, you know, logos on the court that are not really there in place, but they're on there through television. And so they generate revenue that way as well. So that may be something down the road that we're, also look at investigating as a conference. And these big deals come through televisions and eyes in 11 a.m. on the first Saturday of college football. I mean, again, say what you will about. It's going to be hot as you know what, but that's a great spot. People all across this country that will not have any affinity to Oregon State or Houston are going to want to be on that 11 o'clock game, whatever it may be.

For all the businesses out there, and we've said this to many that we're talking to, the eyes that are on the University of Houston right now are bigger than they've ever been. the Big 12 conference in basketball is the highest viewed basketball conference this past year. Football, we led in many categories. We had several games that were not just the highest of highs. You go back even a year before our national championship game, and the game before that were the highest viewed basketball games. So you take those into consideration from a business side to know that that many views, that many opportunities are being seen on a jersey, on the court or whatever,

really resonates with many companies and how do they, can generate not just exposure for their companies, but also revenue as well. Eddie Nunez, with us under half an hour here on Sports Talk 790. If you have a question, you will like me to ask the AD. You can do so by sending me an email at mT at sports 790.com. M.T. at Sports 790. We're giving us a shot to your Twitter at SportsMT. More with Eddie coming up in a minute.

You ride some macro stuff from our friend Eddie Nunez. I've had to work at the University of Houston. You can take the AD if you want. You're a football fan. You're involved in this. Thanks. What's your thoughts? I do not like, I love the 12.

Yeah. I mean, I just do. I can live with 16. You can probably try to sell me on 20. 24 feels like it's going to be two months of battle there. Yeah. What's your general thoughts? And do you share your thoughts personally with others in the league?

I think everybody in the league feels like more opportunities better. The magical number, I can tell you positive as negatives to every one of them. I think as you grow the number, get closer. or the 24 or whatever, you want to provide opportunity. What's going to happen is you've got the negatives that the bowl games are going to become even more. It's going to be less of an impact.

So all those other bowl games outside of the CFP become lesser and lesser, the more games you add to the CFP. So those traditional games sometimes may lose the value. And so as a team, if you're not in the CFP, does it still have that same impact to go to a bowl game? So that's something we need to consider. The other side is if you're playing that many games,

you're probably having to reconsider a conference championship game or does that conference championship game become a part of the CFP. So adding more weeks and continuing to play into basketball season is not something what TV wants either. So they've got to figure out between the NFL, college basketball and everything else. They've got to find that happy balance, which is it's not perfect. And also playing that many games is it is it the right number one? when you think about our student athletes and how many games and everything else associated with it. Or how many that don't play because they're worried about the draft status too. Yeah. You're going to have, there's going to be a lot of factors that are involved.

I think the dollars today, because NIL may offset some of those a little bit. But I definitely think more is better than where we are today. Now, what that number is, we can sit here and continue to go back and forth on positive and negative on each one of those. I think 24, yeah, sure, I would have liked 24 last year because we would have probably been in it. You got that right. It's funny because in our Cougar broadcasting chat, we always like to play guess what bowl game we're going to. Oh, yeah.

I think I figured it out. The closer to home, the better. And it's not just the University of Houston. It's a lot. And I know that Orlando was in the mix last year, and Tampa's always in there. And there's always maybe Birmingham or Nashville or Shreveport. I thought, and I wasn't there, unfortunately,

because I had a Rockets game. But tell me LSU versus Houston inside it, Reliance City and was on a joy for you not only to win the game, but to have the home kids and have moms and dads, there and Houston fans in that stadium. So there's, again, there's both sides of this. As we were going through this process, we wanted to be at a place that wanted us.

That was one of the things. And the Texas Bowl from day one was, hey, we want you guys. Now, a lot of things had to work out. Everybody had to get to that place at the end of the day. What was more intriguing, but what made more sense was

not just playing at home, but an ability to be able to play an SEC team, and the timing of the game and everything else just made total sense. So when we were selected to play there, it was a no-brainer for us. Financially, sure, that's a huge benefit. First year in a bowl game, less cost on travel and other things. Our student athletes were able to, the Texas Bowl did a great job making that experience,

something unique for our kids, which that's the other side of this. You've got to remember, we want to give them the opportunity to go to a bowl game so they have a unique experience. Right. It's something different, something new, and the Texas Bowl did everything and more. So coming out with a win, it even better. When you looked at the stadium and looked around and saw half of that stadium filled with red, I don't know if every one of them were Koo fans or just Houstonians wearing red,

or maybe people that other SEC opponents to LSU. Anti-LSU? Yeah, that they just wanted to wear red. We have it here at the station. I like that. And I'll take those fans. us at any time. If their team is not playing, come watch us. So we're going to look at the macro view of a college athlete.

When you and I were going to school or even going to 20 to 25 years ago, in no particular order, we cared about, can this coach get me to the pros? Can the stadium be filled? Can I get on TV? Do I have a cool locker room? Do I get to go to a cool bowl game? I never said NIL. So let's put NIL in that mix of five. Where is it for the average kid right now? Top? The average kid or just... The elite.

I would tell you the elite kids that we're looking at, at least especially in many of the sports like football and basketball, the elite of the elite NIL is higher up. Of course, it's probably maybe in most the driving factor. I will say, though... I forgot education, by the way. It's in there because I just met with the recruit right now for one of our sports before I came,

and he was in the academic center, sitting down with the academic advisor. So it's still a part, and it's still important. The other side of this is what you said. I think they're seeing it more and more. You want a coach that could help develop you to that next phase of your life.

If it's playing the pros or whatever it is, you want a coach that you can trust that's going to give you a chance. And look, all our coaches are phenomenal, but let's just take football and basketball, Willie and Coach Samson. Those guys have not just shown it, they've shown that they can do it,

but they're also, every year they're investing more and more back into those kids and give them a chance. So I do believe N.I.L. is important. I do believe culture is important. I believe giving them a chance to compete at the highest level they can compete. But also when you think facilities, you think about community. We're in the city of Houston with all the business leaders and everything else. One of the biggest efforts we're doing right now is trying to make sure our student athletes get in front of all these businesses from the energy sector to the bank sector, to the real estate, to the hospitality, you name it. I mean, we said this earlier, you got Landry's right across street. Yes, Tom Furtita is, it owns Landry's and Furtia Entertainment. But the reality is that is a industry that they are the lead in when you think about restaurants and everything else.

Having the ability to have our student athletes have that work experience or even just the students on campus, those connections are invaluable. So I would tell you it's all a part of the whole ecosystem of recruiting. but yes, NIL now has been taking more of the lead of it. It is crazy because I don't know when you signed up to be an 80 for the very first time where we're working in the athletic department said Vanderbilt on LSU, you were going to be money managing. I mean, you had to manage it anyway because you had a budget to worry about,

but you're now managing, like the general manager tag. I mean, we talked about this a year ago. More schools and not are hiring people, hiring very well-known people to be general managers, basically Saturday Cap monitors so you can let the coach is coach and not to worry about what's in the fund. This is truly become a CEO role. This is not just the old athletic director. Every day I am meeting with leaders, industry leaders, not just in mind, but business leaders in our community.

It is also a legal, you have to have a legal mindset because the amount of court cases that are going on today, there's been three or four different changes that are happening. We have to understand the legal side, the business side, the money, revenue, the sales, the customer service. So add all that on top in top of what a traditional ADs because we still have to be there. And we still have to make sure our student athletes represent this institution, graduate and continue to do everything that we've always wanted them to do. But yes, it has morphed. And what we do today does not look like what it did when I was going through this business in the beginning stages.

Should I be paying attention to this College Sports Act? Because it feels like it has been in a lot of meetings and Congress and let us. legislature and frankly, Eddie confuses me. It confuses all. That's because every day they changes. And even today, there's conversations about that if it's going to get to where we needed to get to, hopefully the finish line, it's going to still have variations different from where it is today. So everything from who can leave a conference or when they can leave and transfer, the transfer one's important. I think everybody across the board understands that.

Having endless transfer opportunities for our students is not benefited. to anybody and the students as well academically and in more ways than you we can say but allowing them to transfer and if it's one time that gives coaches the ability to understand how they can manage your team I would I've said this many times to those that I've talked to it's not perfect but it's the best we have to give us a chance to be to get some our arms around this this world that we live in right now nobody likes it now everybody keeps complaining there's too many out there always looking for Polson, that will always happen, but we have to have a federal structure of some sort that allows us to move with some direction. And I think that's what the Protect College Sports Act has given us a chance to.

Will we see any of that? Because the kids will say, if I'm under these requirements and I can't move as much as I want, but my coach can, why does he have the ability to do that or she had the ability and I can't do it? What do you? So there's other pieces to that puzzle. Coaches can do that, but they also under a contract. And for them to leave, requires somebody to pay a buyout. So if the student athletes want that same ability, then we have to start thinking differently and making them employees and giving them a contract. And somebody ultimately is going to have to pay a buyout contract because if we're going to do that, that's going to be more litigation possibly or more attorney to have to. So I am all about giving students the ability to move. This is an, this,

at the end of the day, it is, there's money that we're talking about. This is a business. But there's also an educational component to it, which makes it still a little bit different than the pro game. And so I want people to understand that there's still that we are under a university, we're under an educational mission. And so for us to do that, it's not going to be perfect science. There's going to be, but if you want that same thing,

somebody will have to pay a buyout. And if I want to leave tomorrow, somebody offers me, either somebody's paying for it or I have to out of my pocket, but either way, which I can, but either way, and I won't. Are you cash bragging there for me? No, no, I'm not. Those are the only two options I have. And so, but for me to be able to do that, somebody's going to have to do that if I want to.

If not, I'm here. Yeah. And then at that point, if they know I'm trying to leave, they're probably going to say bye. And then I'm gone for real. And then I'm, so I think the contractual obligations make it possible for them if you want to do multiple transfers, but since that's still way down the road, restricting this to a number, whatever it is,

gives us a chance to have some success in the future. All right, final something with Eddie coming up in a minute. 146 is our time. We take the program until 2 o'clock, 18 after that, and it wraps up the midday portion of this radio show Monday. We'll start at 6 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 790 with

a message for you after this. All right, Eddie Nunez with us for one more segment here on the program. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Back with you Monday at 6 o'clock. Somebody asking about the renovations to TDUCU Stadium, construction in around the area. It wasn't fun last year, but I think if we all left 15 minutes early, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. So where are we now construction-wise? There's still some construction on campus, actually, quite a bit. And it's a testament to the university's growth and the centennial plan. Campus is going through a overhaul in many areas. One is right across the street from TDCU State.

stadium, they're adding a new residential area there, housing. And so it's moving. It's still under construction. Some of that will be in place. But overall, around the actual stadium, we don't have anything that's going to make it difficult. But I will add to what you said, yes, come early for multiple reasons, not just because, you know, it's a little bit challenging at times to get around the city. So just give yourself time so you're not rushing. We'll have parking, but I know everybody's always asking what we're doing with parking.

We're going to be coming out with our parking plan here very soon with everything. That's just the changes and what do we have in store. All that is coming. I just ask people to be patient while we do that because I want to make sure we roll it out properly. Email in about congratulations the new hire the baseball coach. Any renovations to that facility, Cougar Field? We're doing little things. We have to replace the field here soon around later.

so that is something that we're actively pursuing right now and seeing what we're going to do or how we're going to do it. It can last another year, but we'd like to try to get it done when we can that turf. The other side is that we've got several things within the venue that we want to improve. It's not that it needs to be fixed. It just needs to be improved.

So we're looking at, but I'm excited what Coach Davis has done already in his short time here, building that team. Yes, he had to go to the transfer portal probably much more than he ever wanted to. And I know it's top five, top 10 portal class, however you want to look at it. What he is going to continue to do this is the same thing. He's done everywhere he's been.

He's going to build this program, just like we've talked about football, basketball, everybody else. If you look at the coaches that we've brought in, they're great people, great high character. And those that we're here, we're also. But these coaches are going to have a real strong focus on building it and developing and trying to do what we need to move forward. So you've replaced the basketball coach. You've got a new baseball coach. This is their, I don't think I've done with softball, too, correct? softball, both golf programs, tennis, and missing one.

Women's soccer. Is there any Nunez's plan of how I like to talk to my guys or ladies and review resumes? Word of mouth. How does a Matt Thomas or anybody get on the top of your list besides winning? You better win a lot more games. Yeah, that's right. Winning is always important. No, look, winning's a big piece of it.

I also, one of the things that I pride myself on doing is making sure I watch coaches and I stay up to date as much I can with as many coaches and many sports. Maybe I've been around them, but it's also the network, is making sure that we connect and talking to people. I've always said this, it starts off with high character, high character, integrity. Those two pieces are critical. Winning's going to be a part of it because if you're not winning, I'm not interested. But more importantly, I need to know that you're a good person to understand what we're trying to do. and I can trust you that we're going to do this together. When I look for coach, you know, Coach Skip Burtman, who unfortunately passed away this past week,

he was a mentor of mine. He's somebody who taught me how, you know, he used to always say coaching coaches is a very important trait. But how do you do that and do it well. So that's one of the things that I learned very quickly is how to just talk to coaches, not just coach them because they're there. They don't need somebody to coach them. They just need somebody to be there when they need to, when they need someone. September 4th, right?

You got it. 11 a.m. 11 a.m. Come on. Not 1.15. Not it's too hot. Let's go. No, I need, we need everybody out there. Let's not, let's put those excuses to bed.

Coach Fritz and that team deserves everybody to come out, support. Again, it's a national televised game. Let's do it and do it right. There it is. That's Eddie Nunez. Thank you for coming by. But really appreciate it as always. Always appreciate you.

And best of luck. in the new time slot. Yeah, up next, two guys that are dramatically going to miss me. Oh, look at our Wex. We're in the U of H gear. Look a sucking up. I love it for you, Wex. Unbelievable.

Up next, the A team on Sports Talks. I'm talking to you Monday at 6.