The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Cougar Sports Magazine With Matt Thomas 9/14

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

on the Houston Sports Network from Learfield, IMG College. This is Cougar Sports Magazine. Over the next hour, you'll hear great interviews and insights about all things University of Houston Athletics. Now, here's your host, Matt Thomas. Very pleasant, good evening, everyone. 7 o'clock on Sports Talk 790, and welcome to some new and additional Houston Cougar programming. Of course, you guys know that our sister station, 950 KPRC, carries all the play-by-play action of Houston Cougar football and basketball. Plus, it carries a Dana Holgerson radio show, which will be this Thursday coming up,

and Coach Sampson's show in the spring and winter. But we thought as part of our new association, additional association with the University of Houston, we would present a Cougar Sports Magazine show. Now, we'll do these primarily on Saturdays, leading up to a busy day of college football here on 790. Sometimes because of the awkward scheduling and Thursday games, Friday games, and what was originally supposed to be a Friday game with Memphis has now turned into a Saturday game. And the man who's largely responsible for that is our first guest here on Cougar Sports Magazine. He is the vice president of intercollegiate athletics for the University of Houston.

And I will say this, Paz, I've known you for a long time. This might be the most interesting six months of your entire professional sports career, having to navigate the COVID waters with athletics. And then, oh, by the way, having Memphis game postponed and then scheduling Baylor 24 hours later. First of all, good evening to you. And how crazy has your life been the last handful of months? Yeah. Well, my wife and kids are still talking to me, so I'll take that as a win.

But it doesn't go much further than that. It's been consuming. But, hey, real quick, before we get started, Matt, I want to thank you and Eddie Mark for our new partnership or extending our new partnership with IHeart. It's a big deal for us, and we're so pleased to be partners with y'all as we continue with the future Houston Cougar athletics and IHartMedia here in Houston. So thank you guys. Thank you very much for looking forward to it.

Obviously, with my U of H ties and with our station ties, it works out well. We'll be doing these Cougar Sports Magazine shows before game weeks, and obviously we'll have 10 of them at least for the college football season, and then we'll see where the college basketball season goes, and we'll talk more with Pez about that. Of course, Chris always joins me on our Cougar pregame shows prior to kickoff of games. And again, it's Baylor and Houston at 11 o'clock on 950 KPRC

with the 10 o'clock pregame show. So let's get to that right away, and then we can maybe bounce back to some earlier times. So the COVID outbreak hits Memphis, and obviously we're worried about kids, and that could be happening to any campus. Take us through the, hey, we need to postpone this. And oh, by the way, let's lob a phone call to Macon.

roads and get a game schedule for this Saturday? Yeah, so we're very fortunate, and I'm not saying this just because it's us, but our medical support within the league and specifically at the University of Houston is extraordinary. So what happens is we have several times a week our medical advisory group, which is all the medical professionals from each school get together and have complete transparency and visibility into each program so we know where everybody's standing. I want to say it was Wednesday. We heard through the conversation in those calls that Memphis was dealing with some issues.

And so, you know, we obviously start monitoring that right away because it just, there's so many things that are in flux. It really came into focus Friday after they, you know, had done some more testing and it wasn't looking great that we were going to be able to play off the game or play the game. And ironically, Friday was seven days out from our game with Memphis. So we were starting our seven-day testing protocol, which requires two PCR tests and an antigen test the day before the game. The two PCRs over the course of the seven days and the antigen the day before. So, you know, we were standing around. It was Friday afternoon.

And, you know, we were hearing some of the numbers that were coming back. You know, they were out there with Memphis. And, you know, it wasn't looking great. and Tyler Pig or SID comes by and he's like, hey, have you ever from Baylor yet? And I'm like, you know, my head's kind of in the sand a little bit because I'm worried about us and our next opponent. And I'm not realizing that Baylor had lost a game with law tech. And I'm like, no, I haven't. And Dorchester, the football ops guy standing right there who's been with Dana forever.

And I'm like, well, Dana's not going to want to do that. I mean, it's short week going to play a big 12 opponent on the road. And he goes, I wouldn't be so sure. you know, and so they were going out to practice. You know, I'm starting to do my deal still looking to see how things were going to play out. And Dana called me, I don't know, 830 and said, hey, if Baylor will play, we're in. We want to play. And I was like, okay, not the answer I was looking for or expecting, I should say.

And all right, let's go to work. And ironically right about that time, Mac Roads had called and asked if we were interested, we still needed to make sure that we were doing things properly through the conference. Did get a lot of sleep that night with anticipation of how this was all going to play out, the nuances of, you know, from how do we get a hotel, you know, all those things that go into normal way game activities to, you know, formalizing if we were going to postpone the Memphis game or not. And right about, I want to say, 2 o'clock on Saturday,

we came to a verbal agreement with Baylor, and by 6 o'clock the deal was signed. And the best part about it is we play this game, and then we get a home-at-home on the back end of it sometime in the next 6-8 or 10 years, hopefully sooner than later. That is crazy how it all came together. And not only did it all come together,

but Fox is like, yeah, we'll carry the game. We'll send Gus Johnson and my buddy Joel Clyde to broadcast. And so you will be the premier game on that network on Saturday. Of course, the game will be also a 950KPRC. So it feels like from your conversation here that there were some football operations internal conversations first. And then so when Matt calls you, you're not surprised. And I'm assuming that Mack wasn't completely surprised when the conversation became, hey, should we play the Houston Cougars this next Saturday?

Yeah. You know, one thing that Dana and I've talked about, our kids have done an incredible job of taking care of themselves and staying within our health and safety protocols. knock on wood. You know, with this virus, you know, anything can happen any time. So when you have a team that's prepared to play physically, go play, make the game,

figure out a way to make it happen. And I appreciate Mack and Baylor and Coach Randa's willingness to do this. You know, it's not easy on them either. But, you know, really the best part, the biggest win for this is obviously for us with our kids, all the work they put into it for the last, you know,

six months, you know, kind of muscling through a really fluid process and allowing us to be in a position where we can go play, you know, a great game on the road against Baylor. Chris Pezman, Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics joining us as we get ready for the matchup with the Baylor Bears. Were you concerned at all, Chris, that if there was no game this week, that it would have been extra hard for Dana and the kids? I mean, just naturally, getting amped up to play Memphis to have another cancellation to have. another week of postponements, to have another week of practices. Did that enter your mind at all when the Memphis story first came out? Yes, absolutely it did. You know, a mental fatigue as you

go through this and as you're going through your operational tempo, getting ready for a game, it's, you know, it's like anything. You start focusing the closer you get on every detail. And to have that potentially taken away from our kids, you know, choices. on a Saturday night, whether, you know, they're going to go out and have, you know, fun with their friends versus, you know, staying home and being in a more conducive environment to not exposing themselves to anything from the outside. It becomes a lot more difficult because, you know, 18 to 23-year-olds, I mean, they're, they're social creatures.

They want to be around other people. And, you know, as we continue to work through this, that, that discipline, is really, you know, it's fatiguing. And if you're not playing games, it's like, you know, what the hell are we doing this for? And fortunately, you know, this came together because, you know, for them, they deserve it.

They've earned it. And they're very, very, very excited about going, playing this game. Chris, what are the protocols this week in the Big 12 as compared to what you guys go through right now in the American Conference? We are, you know, we are at, we are a P-6 program. And I thought you'd like that plug.

But, no, we are, our testing protocols, our medical protocols are match everything that the P5 is doing. We made a very conscious decision as a conference with the leadership between our presidents and our athletic directors and the conference administration that whatever they did we were going to do. And there's some things actually that, you know, we feel really, really good about that, you know, they're looking at us to see how we're doing it. And so when Matt called me, he asked what we were doing. I'm like, all those boxes are checked. We're good to go. Any update on the Memphis rescheduling at this point? No, that will take place over the next couple days.

That becomes very, it's challenging because now you start having, it's like a Rubik's Q. Once you turn one dial, it affects, you know, six or five other sides. of the cube or however many sides are in the cube. You have five. It gets really difficult. So Scott Draper, who is our associate commissioner for football, he and I have been in constant communication on working through the options for rescheduling that game.

Obviously, we would prefer to get that game done sooner than later. The league is holding December 5th as a fallback date to make up games, but you don't want to use that so early in the season knowing that the possibility of this happening, again is real. So if there's other moves that we can make, which there are a few, those are the ones that we're working to get done. And I would expect that will happen in the next couple of days. It feels like the puzzle pieces fit with Baylor's game being postponed with Lotech, your game obviously with Memphis. What if this happens in the middle of the season? I would feel like,

it feels like that it might be a little bit more of a maze to get through this. So do you have everything on standby? Is everybody kind of watching what everybody's doing to say, all right, Well, if Houston and Baylor can do it, that's great. But what if this happened, say, a month from now when you're in the middle of a conference slate of games? Yeah, Matt, it won't be easy. I mean, you have to be prepared to be nimble as you work through this. And kind of like what I said a little bit earlier, if you've got a team that's healthy,

that it's in a good place, that can go play a game, and somebody else is available, and maybe you're moving the game up, then get the game in. because you don't know when or if, if or when somebody may be affected or the team could be affected and be taken offline. And just remember, you know, with the testing protocols and if somebody is a positive, if your contact tracing, you know,

if you're positive, you're in quarantine for 10 days, and if you're exposed during quarantine for 14 days. So it's not like you're going to pop out of isolation or quarantine and then go play a game that Saturday if you got cleared on a Friday. You know, that could take, you know, a week to 10 days on the back end to get back in the game shape or practice shape to be able to go play and do it safely. So it becomes very, very onerous if these things happen during the season. But again, we've got December 5th, the 12th, if necessary, to make up games. And there's been conversation that if necessary, we could push our conference championship game back.

if needed to accommodate games that would determine the race at the end of the season. We'll leave it at that. Pest, thank you very much. I know this has been a difficult procedure, but the most important thing is our audience tonight is knowing that hopefully everybody behaves themselves and there is no spread of any sort of virus that Saturday at 11 o'clock we will be at brand new McLean Stadium, which I think you and I are looking forward to because we were growing up, we would go to Baylor Stadium and watch games,

and it was not the most, well, luxurious facility, and I heard nothing but great things about the new building in Waco. You know, I have not been there, and so I'm looking forward to it. You know, I'm excited for our kids and especially our fans that have been around the program for a long time. It's been 25 years since we played Baylor. It's our former Southwest Conference opponents, these are such natural games for us, and especially in a time of uncertainty when you can jump on a bus and go

play somebody, it makes even more sense why this needs to happen on a more frequent basis for us. And we'll continue to push to get those rivals, those old rivals back on our schedule because everybody's so excited about it. We'll leave it that. Pes, thanks for the visit, as always. We appreciate you joining us and we'll look forward to hanging out with you Saturday in Waco. Matt, thank you very much. I appreciate you.

And unfortunately, I saw you when you came up to do testing and it looked like you've been in a bubble for the last six months and it'll be nice to get you outside in the sun a little bit. Sorry, I lost a connection with Pezman during that last 10 to 15 seconds. You have a good time. You won't get you back. It won't be, you won't know when it's coming, but I will be getting you back. Thank you, friend. We really appreciate it.

I appreciate you, brother. Go Coogs and look forward to a great week and a great Saturday. Absolutely. That's Chris Pezman, Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics. Joining us here on the inaugural edition of Cougar Sports Magazine. We go with a Cougar who knew a little bit about the U.H. Baylor series. We'll find out about that next 714 on Sports Talk 790.

Welcome back to Cougar Sports Magazine. Here again is your host, Matt Thomas. And this is our first edition on Sports Talk 790. Our next broadcast of Cougar Sports Magazine will be a week from Saturday when the Cougars open up their season against the North Texas Mean Green. We'll have it for you on Saturday midday here on Sports Talk 790. But because this whole week was in flux, and the game being maybe Friday against Memphis, we decided to do it tonight,

and it gives us a chance to say how to my good friend. And my traveling companion this weekend to Waco, Texas, it's Ted Pardee. Teddy, you've got to have a memory or two about U.H versus Baylor through the years with your dad and not only you, so give us one right up the top if you have one. I've got one of the greatest Baylor stories I could share with UMT. And by the way, thanks for having me on, buddy.

This is a lot of fun, and I couldn't be more hyped for a football season than this year. All right. Hey, lift it up. Put yourself in Baylor's old stadium, right? So we're talking 1989, 1990 timeline. I believe it was 89. And I'm standing on the sidelines. I was a special teams guy kickoff.

And I'm standing next to one of my good buddies. His name is Jay Jenkins. So the Baylor line, which is all those young students in yellow shirts, are standing right behind our bench screaming at Pardee and Jenkins. They think we're both coaches' kids, and they are just destroying us with every cuss word you might imagine. Yes, even those Baylor kids are doing it. Having the greatest time in the world giving me and my buddy Jay Jenkins a hard time because they thought we were both coaches' sons. Wow. You mean to tell me they're going to have, they have salty language in Waco, Texas, who would have known?

Well, listen, they are good kids from Baylor, but let me tell you, they get pretty feisty on game day. Well, I'll say this. if there's any program that got more grief about joining the Big 12, I think it would clearly be Baylor, and they have had a lot of ups, a few downs, and Teddy, they,

you know, the new stadium changes everything. You know, it's funny. Isn't it crazy, Ted, that facilities will change a program around, and Dave Miranda's going to coach his first game for the Bears, and he's got himself a relatively brand new stadium. They've got top-flight facilities.

They've got a commitment from the university. So, you know, as PES, just told us a couple minutes ago. This is a win-win on short notice that the fact that Cougars not only play there is Saturday, but we've got two more meetings with them over the next handful of years. Oh, listen, it's a great setup. And talk about doing something that should be done. And I agree with everything that Chris said, you know, this is a no-brainer. We can jump on a bus. You and I are going to jump in the car. We're going to drive over there. We're going to have a relaxing, easy drive to Baylor. This is an in-state game that should happen every year.

These are kids that played high school football against each other. They know each other. There's no reason not to have these guys play in college. I applaud Texas Tech for having the guts to play us through the years because pretty much out of that old Southwest Conference, other than SMU and Rice, tech's the only school that's even had the guts to play us. This shows we're playing against the Baylor team that was 11 and 2, went toe to toe with Texas, went toe to toe with Oklahoma and lost in the sugar bowl.

I'm sorry, and that was against Georgia. but, you know, a great Baylor football team, and this is a great time for the Houston Cougars to showcase what we are all about. So what is it like? You know, Dave Aranda's got a, you know, they're a defensive-minded team, obviously with the previous administration. The Cougars are all basically known. They've got a veteran quarterback in Baylor, so even those will be the first matchup. There is still plenty of tape for both of these teams to look at. And I would think, Ted, you'd correct me if I'm wrong, there shouldn't be a whole new set of a,

of plays and style and philosophy, it should be pretty much what these teams ended with last year, right? Listen, these two staff know each other incredibly well. You've got to dig a little bit deeper than just the surface. So Dave Irranda coached at the University of Houston quite a few years ago got it started to get the University of Houston. The offensive coordinator at Baylor is a guy named Larry Fedora. I think we all know who Larry is. He spent time as a spread offensive guru. He was at Oklahoma State.

He was against the Cougars multiple bloody battles when he was at Southern Miss. So let me tell you something. You don't have to go too far into the old tape room to find out what kind of offense that the Cougars are going to play against. And pay attention to what Larry Fedora did at North Carolina. I know Mack Brown's having a lot of great success, but let's just say that Larry planted some seeds over there to help him out. So I think that, look, Baylor's going to present problems because we haven't seen what this year's team is going to be all about. But let's not forget that the Couges are the team that's coming in with a year under their belt under a new offense.

and new defensive scheme. And by the way, don't forget that Baylor is losing seven defensive starters and four offensive starters. That's going to be interesting to watch. Visiting with Ted Party, he'll be on the call with Kevin Ashenfelder on our game on 950 KPRC coming up this Saturday. 11 o'clock will be the kick. I'll have the pregame show from McLean Stadium at 10 a.m.

So Clayton Toon doesn't have to worry about looking at the depth chart. He is the number one guy. What did you see from him last year that was encouraging? and how does he take the next step to get the Cougars back in bulk contention and also for conference leadership? What I like about Clayton, too, and he's just an awshucks kind of guy. I don't know how else to describe it. He's not the guy that walks in with the giant head. He's not the guy that thinks, you know, he walks on water.

He's just a good old-fashioned Texas high school quarterback who's now hit it pretty good in college. He was a heck of a high school football player, and now he's turned into one heck of a leader and football player for the Houston Cougars. you know, Clayton was highly sought after. People forget that he, you know, he had originally committed to Kansas. So he had big-time college football teams chasing him. TCU was after him. So, you know, we were fortunate to get, you know, to get Clayton to come to the University of Houston. And now there's no question, Matt.

All the stuff from last year and even in last year's off-season, you know, it was a little bit messy. And then we get into the season and we've got the Eric doing the red shirt and, you know, all that stuff. those distractions are gone. Now, we've had some other distractions. I mean, this whole COVID-19 thing's been a mess. And so what you've seen is you've seen leadership bubble to the surface. And you see guys like Clayton saying, hey, let's go throw. Let's go throw on our own.

We don't need the coaches to tell us when we're going to go hit the field. Maybe we'll go across the street and we'll go throw on another field off campus. That's what true leadership is. And that's why I think the Cougar offense is going to be hitting on all cylinders. defensively there were a couple of games that were the let's frank let's be honest it shook us a little bit the way the Tulane game ended you know just some late fourth quarters what's the biggest difference for young men between say sophomores and juniors juniors juniors to seniors to to you know make sure that it's a full 60 minutes defensively and not to allow big leads

or road late in games well listen the first thing that you need to understand is that of the Top nine tacklers last year on the University of Houston, they're all coming back. So that means there's no seniors that were just dominant out there that were just crushing people on defense. Okay. Our top tacklers, Grant Stewart, number zero, he's going to be coming back. He's going to be in the box this year. He's going to be a boxbacker that can play both coverage, but also he can jam the run. I expect a lot of big things out of Grant Stewart again this year.

But, you know, let's be honest. You know, it was a tough year defensively for the Couges, but I think that now that you look at the Couges are replacing, I've got up to, and I don't know the official death chart, Matt, you know, we haven't seen it yet, but I counted up to five guys that I think could be potentially new starters on this defense that the Couges haven't seen yet because they are transfers that had to sit out a year or their junior college transfers.

You know, I'm excited by that. Listen, I already know that the top nine, tacklers are coming back. So we got the good guys that we need to be back in place. Now we're going to reload with some new blood. I think we could be sitting on top of some special talent from some of these talented guys that transferred over. Last question for you, Ted, and you've been a part of many season openers. You've got a bunch of young men that are tired of hitting each other. You had a bunch of young men, frankly, Ted, that probably didn't think there was going to be a game once the Memphis story came out. How do you bottle that up and effectively

go against a veteran quarterback in which Baylor has, and at the same time, use that positive energy and not try to go, be too aggressive, not try to go for the takeaway when it allows a tackle that does not get taken care of. How do you effectively play smart football when there is so much emotion and so much testosterone built up with a bunch of young men playing their first game of the year? Well, I think we've got to be honest about it. I think what we've all seen, whether it's college or NFL, there's going to be some mistakes.

There's going to be some false starts. There's going to be some silly penalties. The key is, is this team, does it have the right kind of leadership from within? Does it have the right leaders offensively and Clayton Tune and Marquez Stevenson and guys that, you know, we have heard them, their names, Kyle Porter, you know, Christian Treyhan? These are guys that have been on this team for a couple years? Keith Corbyn, are they going to step up and make sure that the team, keeps it clean and does the right thing offensively. And then on defense, you know, are we going to see Grant Stewart emerge as that leader that he was last year?

Same thing with Peyton Turner. Leadership from within, those are the teams that do the best. And it's no surprise, right, that you see these guys when they make it to the NFL and then, you know, guys like Brady and everything. You know, how does a guy like Brady the way he looked at the combine? How does he become the greatest of all time? Well, because he's a leader. He's a great leader. I think that's the intangible that Coach Holgerson was looking for.

Who was going to emerge as the leader in order to guide this team down the path of success? That's the key. I think we'll, I'm excited to see what we got. I'm excited about what we're going to eat in Waco because I've not been there in probably a dozen years, so you have to find the definitive spot for out-of-town media to enjoy dinner. You all right with that? Yeah. You figure that out, buddy.

I trust you on that. All right, chillies it is. Hey, we'll see you on Friday, my friend. Thanks for the visit. All right, Matt. Thanks, buddy. We'll see you. Ted Party.

He's a color analyst on Cougar football games. And again, a reminder that we'll have it for you on our sister station, 950 KPRC, beginning at 10 a.m. with an 11 o'clock kick from McLean Stadium. Dana Hogerson had his press conference today. We'll let you hear some of what he had to say about this whole process and leading into the game and also some thoughts about his quarterback now that he is in charge. Our time is 729, and this is Cougar Sports Magazine on Sports Talk 790.

You're listening to Cougar Sports Magazine. Now, back to Matt Thomas. Dana Holgerson meets with the media every Monday of game week and opening up today. This is via Zoom, as things have changed, certainly with COVID and how press conferences are conducted. So Dana visited with members of the local media today and was asked how they prepared the team to play this offseason with everything going on. We've had about a two-month plan getting us ready to play. You know, I think we approached everything right. You know, we did a lot of strength and conditioning stuff early.

We did, you know, we started getting into, you know, some OTA-top practices and then some, you know, we went slow with helmets. We put on uppers. We went full a couple of times and had a mock game on Friday night. And I felt like our guys were ready to play. So, you know, when, you know, the Memphis stuff kind of broke a little bit. I was concerned a little bit and then, you know, had an opportunity to get this thing going and we jumped on it. You know, I think it's good for college football. We need games right now.

And we're ready and Baylor's ready. So let's line up and play. We obviously got history with them. Old Southwest Conference games, you know, there's a lot of familiarity with our staff and their staff and with our players and their players, you know, and with our fan base and their fan base as well. So it made sense to us and made sense to Baylor. So let's get a schedule to make it happen. And, you know, cooperation with coaches and administrators

that happened pretty quickly. I just want to kind of ask in terms of how quick this turnaround is in getting ready for Baylor, what was the schedule like this weekend once you did get the news and it was going to be Baylor? And just how many hours you think you guys would have to put in beginning this weekend in order to get ready in such a short time frame? You know, it's a normal game week. We've worked on so many short weeks around here in the short time.

that I've been here that a normal game week is like awesome. You know, so we practiced Friday night, had a heck of a mock game. I was happy with the work and planned on giving them Saturday off. So we took Saturday off. That was their one off week for that past week. And then we came in here on Sunday and we had a normal Sunday.

Usually Sundays are getting rid of the previous game. You know, so a lot of times I come in here on Monday morning And that's when I start preparing for our opponent. Now, there's a lot of things that need to happen with, you know, quality control and graduate assistants and stuff to do the, you know, to do the prep to get everything ready to figure out who they are and to figure out what games you're going to use and who the coaches are and what the schemes are, what the systems are.

There's a lot of that stuff. Well, those guys came in here Saturday. When I thought this was going to happen on Saturday, then I immediately got those guys in here and we started doing a lot of prep. you know, on what to expect. And then when I went in there on Sunday, we were able to work on exclusively Baylor all day yesterday. So I feel like we're ahead, to be honest with you,

than what it is sometimes on a game week. And I'm sure they're no different. I mean, they didn't play here this past weekend either. So when they figured it out on Saturday, I assume they started watching a bunch of our stuff. They probably got a little bit of an upper hand right now just based on knowing who we are and having a year to be able to look at us

where we don't have a year to be able to look at them. We got to go back to where their coordinators are at and what their history was and stuff, which took us probably a little bit longer than them. But feel good about where we're at. Dana, you touched on it a little bit. What are the challenges preparing for a first-year coach program like that, along with your traveling for the first time with all the protocols and everything that's going with that as well? What are the challenges there?

I mean, there's challenges every time you're playing, period. So, you know, is it better to not know a few things about them or is it better to have continuity for the last year and a half? You know, if I was the pick, I would pick continuity over the last year and a half, you know. So, you know, Dave Rand is a heck of a football coach. You know, I was with him at Texas Tech back 20 years ago. I've known him for a long time, followed his career. You know, one of the smartest guys that I've met and just his track record defensively is really obviously pretty good. just, you know, with what they've accomplished at LSU and his previous stops has been outstanding.

So, you know, he's going to get those guys going. You got Larry Fedora on the offense. You know, I've known Larry for a long time as well. His track record as a head coach and an offense coordinator is as good as anybody. So they'll be able to get those guys going pretty quick. If I had to choose, I would choose continuity and a lot of long reps. You know, we had a whole year, didn't change anything. and had a good spring practice and didn't change anything

and then have had a good couple of months as well. So I think we'll be ready to play. The challenges of traveling, you know, there's probably going to be some things that I'm not going to know about. And as the week goes on, you know, there's probably going to be some things that are going to come up that we're going to have to deal with.

The one thing that we've learned in 2020 is is you better be ready to deal with things. I mean, it's all we've done is deal with things and change schedules and learn how things work and deal with the pandemic and shut things down and start things up and learn how to operate. And I think we've done a really good job of it here over the last couple of months. So I anticipate no hiccups here moving forward this week. If there is, we'll deal with it.

Everybody's dealing with it, and we're no different. We're going to have to deal with it as well. Can you just talk to me a little bit about Clayton, too, what have you seen from him during practice and what do you expect from him to start this season? Well, he's finally starting the year as a starter. You know, that's first things first. You know, it's his team, you know, was named one of the early captains and is getting all the reps and not looking over his shoulder or anything like that. So, you know, I think Clayton's in a really good spot. He's an intelligent young man. His body feels really good to him.

His familiarity with the offense and the receivers is better than it's ever been. You know, I like what I see from a timing perspective out there. He's running things well, and he's got the ear of the team and he's got the respect of the team. So, you know, I think that's going to allow him to be able to be himself and continue to get better. Really excited about watching him play. Given that you guys have obviously had a lot of ups and downs in your early scheduling, how, you know, aware do you think, or how prepared do you think your guys are, or how much have they been preparing for this with all the sort of ifs and ends and will it happen and won't it happen? A lot of uncertainty, you know, and I just, I just told them, look, man, we, we just got to stay ready.

And when I was talking to them on Friday during our mock game and everything, I mean, there was a lot of, a lot of Memphis stuff floating around out there at that point. So I'm like, you know, guys, we just, we got to worry about us now. And no matter what happens, this next, you know, two, three hours is about us in game day preparation and sideline preparation and sideline substitutions and special team stuff. and all that stuff's going to be good for us when we play. And there's things that we can't control. I think the one thing that we've learned in this 2020 pandemic is, is you better be, you better be willing and able to change schedules and readjust and keep moving forward and keep working on yourself

and just staying ready to go, you know. And day later, you know, we're scheduling Baylor, you know. And then a day later, which was last night, I think was the first time that our play, players actually believed that we were going to go play a game. You know, and so I sensed, and that's why I said earlier, I would, if Memphis got canceled and I had to practice them for another week without playing a game, I didn't know how I was going to approach that yet based on,

I thought they were to kind of look at me and say, why do we got to do this again? So being able to schedule something that's going to happen, I think gave our team a little bit of juice. And I think last night for the first time was the first time that they thought I wouldn't just kind of fooling them, you know, so hopefully that puts us in a good spot to where we go out there and have a good week of preparation and go into play a, you know, a Baylor team that's coming off one of their best seasons in the history of their program. Yeah, that Baylor program has certainly turned things around, especially with the terrible,

terrible events on that campus just a handful of years ago. We go on the U of HB next to wrap up this first edition of Cougar Sports Magazine. Our time is 742, and you are listening. to Sports Talk 790. This is Cougar Sports Magazine. Here again is Matt Thomas. And we are fortunate to be joined. We're joining us quite frequently here on the Cougar Sports Magazine.

Our buddy Joseph Torte from the Houston Chronicle, who covers not only things with U of H, but also does a great job of the league as a whole. Take us through a little bit. We've heard from Dana. We've heard from Chris a little bit. Joseph, what's the league been thinking about dealing? with, especially when the news of the Memphis COVID outbreak hit, and how frantic were they thinking

about trying to get that Houston Memphis game going and how they're going to potentially reschedule it? Well, you know, this is something they've prepared for Matt for several months, and it was inevitable that there were going to be programs or a program right now that was going to experience something like this. So I wouldn't say it's panicked because, you know, they have their protocols in place. I would say, you know, if the really, for the outbreak is what it is in the whole celebration afterwards. You know, there's probably more disappointment because you set these protocols in place. These are college kids.

It is hard to sort of tell them not to have any personal life or not be around other people. But it's those rules are there. And, you know, you try to contain things as much as possible. But in the end, it happens. but that's why they have some options and dates, as Chris alluded to, and they'll reschedule it. Is it an inconvenience? Yes, but considering there's no serious right now among the COVID cases, you know, it's one of those worst case scenario, best case scenario, and it turned out, you know, fairly well for Memphis that there was no serious consequences.

So what have you heard from Memphis? I mean, how, what is the update on those kids? Have you heard anything about what's going on right now? right now with that program? Well, the school said today that the cases, and it's reportedly 20 that at least 20 that tested positive, another 20 with the contact tracing that are in quarantine. None of them are considered serious, and they pause practices for now in any kind of team activities. So based on the timetable, you know, their hope is that they go out and they can play their next game, which is the following week against

Texas San Antonio on the road. So right now, as of today, the report was that, you know, they're just following the guidelines in terms of isolation and stuff, and then they'll reevaluated in, you know, another few days. I'll be very curious. A very interesting weekend of college football. You know, the Big 12 got beat up pretty bad. Navy, of course, members of the American.

Basically, the Navy coaching staff said, we didn't do much hitting, if any, during the time and it showed. Ken, I always mispronounce his name. Nia Matalalo. See, that's why I brought you on the show for. You helped me out with that. That was not a good look, and I think a lot of coaches around the country said, you know what, if we're going to do this and we're going to play college football,

we got to treat this as much as we can like a regular football week, because if you don't prepare, BYU will come in and beat you, and any team could beat you, and they certainly did so against a midshipman. Well, I guess someone was going to have to be the guinea pig in this whole experiment in terms of what you did during the offseason or during that August period where you could resume practices and teams take different approaches. And after the game, he did mention that they did not do a lot or very little live tackling. So if you're watching that and you're not playing the opening weekend or you've had some cancellations, you know, at that. point, you probably know what you're going to do as a team, but it probably turns on the light bulb a little bit more about what you need to focus on. Because, you know, let's look at it. Houston got in about nine spring practices, which was nine more than a lot of schools around the country.

Baylor did not have a spring. So, you know, Dana Hoverson is in a good position. You know, he's, he got a lot done. And they have used their time wisely. So, you know, I think they're in good shape. but other teams and you look at Kansas State, you look at Iowa State, those teams didn't look prepared. They look like teams that would normally, under most circumstances, play a lightweight school from the Sunbelt and have an easy time. But it looks like those teams have done a lot more preparation and were a lot more ready. On the beat right now with Joseph Dorte from the Houston Chronicle. Charlie Brewer is a name that we all recognize because he's been there for the longest time.

I mean, he helped kind of rebuild the program after all the different problems and the allegations and the sexual charges were forced against Baylor. So he took a chance on Baylor and it certainly paid off. This is a football team that is very well respected and I guess getting some votes in the top 25 at this point. And in one poll, they're at number 24 entering this week's play. You know, you're right. And that was the big thing there around the time where Jim Grove took over for that one season and then they turned to Matt Roe. rule who's just a great guy did a lot at Temple and did the same thing at Baylor and was able to kind of lead the program through that scandal. But then you had your quarterback. You got to have

a quarterback. Charlie Brewer was a winner at Lake Travis. He comes in. He's already got close to 8,000 yards passing. And he's on the verge of breaking Robert Griffin's school record. And, you know, he won the Heisman Trophy for career yardage at Baylor. So you have that. I think what's going to be interesting, Matt, is that, you know, going into this game, you know, Baylor lost its top receiver to the NFL. Their offensive line was really, really struggled last year. They gave up the most sacks in the Big 12, I believe it was 38. So they've got their issues up there that, that I don't know with, without a spring and very limited, you know, instruction and practices, how much you can implement or how much you can take a look at if you're Dave Miranda.

the staff and Larry Fedora. And then on the other side, you know, they've got two starters back on D-Fact. So there's a lot of, you know, a lot of question marks on this Baylor team that under most circumstances, you probably wouldn't want to play a team like Houston to begin the year. But to get a game in and the familiarity, they wanted to play this. So, you know, it could be a really good game on Saturday. And Houston certainly would have a chance going into it.

There's got to be a huge sense of a. amazement, it isn't, for me at least, about how this all came together. From canceling a game, pushing the game, the opening of the seasons to North Texas next week, I think the kids would have really been bummed and maybe would have, I don't want to say checked out, but it would have been extra hard to motivate Dana's kids, and it would have been for anybody, to not only getting a game in, but a quality opponent and national television, I mean, the puzzle pieces I mentioned with Pez earlier could not have fit any better in the situation.

No, both programs and athletic officials deserve a lot of credit. I mean, you look at what's going on right now. You have a PAC-12 who's not playing at all. You have the roller coaster with emotions and the Big Ten. Will they play? Won't they play? Let us play going on. And then you have the other ones.

And there's teams that have lost entire schedules that they've had to replace like BYU. And then you have a team like Rice, who has shut it down practice-wise. until the end of this month and will not play until close to the end of October. So there's just so much going on in terms of when kids can safely get on the field and find games to play that, you know, you're right. Dana Hulgerson would have had a hard time for another week keeping the juice up and keeping these guys, you know, focus on the season. But to get this game played and it was a wild, a wild 24 hours,

my phone was just going, you know, blowing up for about two hours straight late Saturday afternoon when the reports started to come out. But I don't think with any other school, it works and it fits perfectly as Baylor because I think TCU was another option, but they're going through their own COVID situation. Baylor looked at Houston Baptist. I believe they looked at East Carolina and Virginia. And this one made the most sense. and Houston already was going through the testing, through all the protocols.

Mac Rhodes was the AD here, so everything lined up, but it just doesn't happen. Not only to get the game Saturday, but to also set up a two-game home and home in the future. So, I mean, we're talking three games between these two programs between now and, you know, 2030. So that's a lot to do in 24 hours because these things are planned out years in advance. No question about that. thought from you. How is the rest of the league? We obviously updated the folks on Memphis. Everybody behaving themselves, and it's not a question of behaving themselves, but everybody feeling like they've done everything in terms of protocols, Cincinnati, I'm thinking of

Central Florida, South Florida. How is the rest of the league in general handling all this right now? You know, that's the interesting thing. They want to be Power 6, and they've acted like it, you know, other than Memphis. But, you know, they've gone through it. We haven't heard any any huge spikes or outbreaks. And, you know, there's two programs in Florida, and that's been a hot spot. But, you know, on the field, you know, Tulane just locked up Willie Fritz. So that was a big, big deal for them. But, and then they had a couple of big wins over the weekend, you know, minus Navy's no-show against BYU.

So it could be an interesting year. A lot has to play out. But, you know, I still think, you know, there's probably four to five teams in the race that have a legitimate shot. and, you know, be interested to see how Houston does early on and where they factor because, you know, they've got all three of the main contenders on the schedule this year. I've got 30 seconds, Joseph. What's one thing you want to see from Saturday's game that you're the most curious about?

I want to see that secondary. You know, they've got about six newcomers in that secondary. That's going to be huge. And also the defensive front, can they get pressure, take advantage of that O-line and get to Brewer? because Baylor again is, I believe, a little suspect when it comes to pass protection. Joseph, Safe Travels, Awakeau. We'll see you for our pregame show on Saturday from McLean Stadium. Thanks for the visit, my friend.

Thanks a lot for having me on. You appreciate you joining us all throughout the season. You got it. Joseph D'Orte from the Houston Chronicle, and you can follow him and all things on the University. I want to remind you that the game with the Baylor Bears, and it's just so strange to say that, is going to be coming up on this Saturday. We'll have the broadcast for you on our sister station, 950 KPRC.

I will host the pregame show from Baylor and Waco at 10 o'clock. Kevin Ashenfelder and Ted Party and Jeremy Brannum will have the call for you beginning at 11 o'clock. And Joseph will give us the very latest on all things, Cougars and all things about the American as part of that pregame show. My thanks to Chris Pesman, Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics. My thanks to Joseph Dwarte and my buddy, Ted Party, for joining us on this inaugural edition of Cougars Sports Magazine. And our next show will be coming up a week from Saturday prior to the game against North Texas. Enjoy the rest of your night. I'll talk to you folks tomorrow at 12 noon right here on Sports Talk 7.9.

Good night, everyone. On the Houston Sports Network from Leerfield, IMG College, you've been listening to Cougar Sports Magazine. The preceding has been a presentation of Learfield, IMG College, and the Houston Sports Network.