The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Houston Chronicle's Joesph Duarte Joins The Show Ahead Of The BIG 12/Houston Cougars Season

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Houston Chronicle's Joesph Duarte Joins The Show Ahead Of The BIG 12/Houston Cougars Season 

105 sports talk 790. Let's spend 10 quality minutes with our good friend Joseph Twarty. He is in Frisco, Texas at the Big 12 Media Days. Joseph, we were just talking about the big money man from Texas Tech making the radio rounds. Talking about how he's paying $5 million for Lyman. It must be a good life in the in Lubbock, Texas these days. Oh, what it is to be Cody Campbell these days. Yeah, they tech is certainly, you know, they went yesterday,

and the talk was a lot of the revenue share and sort of what they've done to kind of, I mean, they've been one of the stories of the off season. So, yeah, that's one of the big things. You know, I'm kind of honored because I'm on with drive time Thomas right now. We're about to go on with prime time, Vion, here at about 10 minutes. So that's the headliner, among other things. You of H. went first, and Dion will cap this thing off to end the day. All right.

Have they made the announcements of who's going to finish whom in the? preseason pull yet? Are they waiting for a couple of hours? They're not doing a preseason poll anymore. They basically ditched it. They ditched it. They felt like it was a, as Commissioner Brad Yor-Mark put it, it was a disadvantage to Arizona State last year. They were finished 16th dead last and they ended up winning it.

But he felt like because of that sort of hurt them late in the year with playoff seating and what the protection was. So they have completely ditched it. They'll do a basketball one. They'll do other sports, but they are no longer. doing a preseason poll, and they'll join the Big Ten as the only conferences not to do that. All right, so where does Joseph D'Worte have on top of the Big 12 poll this year if you were to do one? No, I like Kansas State, Arizona State, and then I think Tech and Baylor are going to be my guys that are,

or my teams that are under the radar. I think it's wide open, but, you know, Kansas, Arizona State returns its quarterback and some really good skill players. So, you know, I'm sort of the believer that if you're the defending champion, you stay there and tell somebody knocks you off. So I don't think there's a clear-cut team that's just going to run away with this, but I think you could certainly see some teams that are in the mix, a bunch of teams.

And then if you're Houston, I think you have a chance to bounce back from 4 and 8 in Willie Fritz's first year and be a bowl team on getting to that six wins. I think that's a realistic possibility for them this year. What's the buzz like for Colorado with their two All-Americans or two high prospects gone? and BYU losing the quarterback because of the honor code violation. He's like, I'm out of there. Yeah, first on BYU. That's kind of an ongoing situation.

They didn't want to say too much yesterday. He's still on the roster. I guess the expectation is that he'll eventually transfer. But there's a new rule in place that right now is proving him from doing that. So it'll be interested if does he stay there and do the lengthy suspension. But, you know, they basically yesterday said that they're moving forward having to get, you know, some young guys prepped and ready. And then basically the other team you mentioned was that Colorado was without the two stars. You know, they're the, they're sort of the unknown.

You know, they come to Houston to begin big to a play. It's a Friday night. That one could get interesting because, you know, you knew what you had last year with Colorado. You knew who the playmakers were with Shadour at quarter quarterback. and then the two-way player and Heisman winner, Travis Hunter, that could get interesting in Houston. And I have that being one of the games that Houston wins this year. So there's certainly going to be some things going on with the different teams.

And a player here and there, if you're BYU, could mean the difference between another 10-plus win season or being sort of middle of the pack. How much conversation was for Willie about Conner Wegman taking over the sent him calling for the Cougars this year? a lot of it you know Connor's not with with the group that came Willie went with the veteran returners but you know my conversation

Willie we talked about you know just the fact that it's this is a chance for a fresh start hit the reset button for for Wegman and he really thinks that that's going to do a lot for him coming over from Texas A&M now some little interesting part of it was you know Connor dealt with a shoulder injury while he was at A&M he still had some of that when he got to Houston late in the winter

and he went through spring and they said he's good to go and healthy so that's a positive but Willie just sung his praise and said that he called Jimbo Fisher and got kind of a little report on just the person that Weidman was he calls an old-fashioned throwback kind of quarterback

and if they can get anything out of him in that position this is a team that will be much much improved on offense and that was the focal point. They needed to start with the quarterback and they got it in the offseason and everything else sort of fell in place with the line, you know, some receivers and a good running back. A couple more minutes here, Joseph Torti from Frisco at the Big 12mita.

He's got to go talk to Neon in a few minutes. Hey, Brett, Your Mark made a lot of statements yesterday and he's obviously a very out-front, outgoing commissioner. He is big on this 5 plus 11 format. How much that is genuine and how much that is genuine and how much. of that is he's trying to posture because he doesn't like the fact that his conference would only get two guaranteed spots if the SEC and the Big Ten got four each. Yeah, I think that's the latter.

And I think that 5 plus 11 is the way that they eventually go. And he mentioned that, you know, the ACC is also on board. And I think at some point during the SEC spring meetings a few weeks ago or months ago, that that was kind of gaining a little bit of support. So, you know, yeah, I mean, everybody wants to make sure that there's some type of equal footing on it. And, you know, some of the early ones that we saw favored the SEC and the Big Ten who are considered the two top conferences. But, yeah, he certainly thinks that this is what will get past. And that's certainly, as he put it, he was doubling down on that model.

And it looks like that's going to be the way they go. They need to decide by December 1st for the 2026 season. But, yeah, he did a lot of preemptive stuff yesterday to let it be known and to reiterate where he stood and what he favored. Who ultimately decides that? And what if during the negotiation process, the Big 12 and the SEC and the Big Ten say, we don't care what you think, ACC, we don't care what you think, we think or we deserve four teams each? Why do the SEC and why do the Big Ten want to play nice? Well, I mean, at the end of the, yeah, those two are the movers and shakers, the power brokers,

but it comes down to the commissioners and it comes down to Loderdames involved as well. Now, there's two sides of it. Now, the playoff committee will sort of get into the, what new metrics will they use, what will the criteria be when they're evaluating who gets in? but from the standpoint of the model itself, they've got to reach some type of consensus or the agreement that's going to work for everyone. And I think as we see this thing move forward, and, you know, does it stay at 16 for long or do they continue to try to push how much they expand?

You're going to have to have some give or take. And while those two conferences do drive a lot of the discussion, I wouldn't say that the Big 12 and like the ACC won't have some type of say when it comes down to the end. Well, let you go say it had a prime time for us. Tell them we send our best. I look forward to seeing him in September at TDECU Stadium. Thank you for the visit, friend. I'll do, buddy.

Thank you. Joseph Torto, Houston Chronicle, joining us from the Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas.