The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Juan Soto Signs MAJOR Deal, Bregman Next? UT Loses SEC Championship, CFP Is Set

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross," Adam Wexler of "The A-Team" and Chris Gordy react to outfielder Juan Soto agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets. It is the largest deal in professional sports history. With Soto off the board, where will Alex Bregman end up as one of the top remaining free agents? Ross, Adam and Chris also:review the college football playoff following the conclusion of conference championship weekendrecap the Rockets defeating the Los Angeles Clippers 117-106play "To Tell the Truth" and more.

Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10 o'clock straight up in the AM here on Sports Talk 790. Hello. To a Monday edition of The Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Soto! Right Center. See you later. Gotta be one of the longest homers at Yankee Stadium this year.

And the kids got a couple twice in either of the Yankee stadiums in the same night. That ball was touched, folks. My goodness. Now 21-year-old Juan Soto. That is hitting the air to right and way out of here. Now Soto carries his bat down to the first base coach Tim Bogart. And Juan Soto has just gone deep and the Nationals take the lead, 3-2 and the fifth. Driven deep to right field.

There is. Your two-run, home run. And the Yankees have come back to take a six-five lead. Michael, I don't know what to say, but this gets to be a little bit more fun every single day. The Yankees are doing everything. And Juan Soto has done everything all year. What a huge home run. Gattice Steele, Soto, a high fly ball to center.

Thomas backing up. Thomas at the tracks. Living up to their nickname right now. 15 years, 765 amillies. I say again, 15 years, $765 million to one soda. We don't normally open up the show with New York Mets News. New York Mets News. on WFAN 66.

But we had to do it today. Juan Soto, oh my gosh, what a deal. He'll be one of the many things we cover on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out again, traveling late last night with the Rockets as they, well, you know, got a win against the Los Angeles Clippers, snap their two game losing streak. That's a big win. It was huge.

I mean, massive. It was a must-win game, some we're saying. And every time the clippers tried to, like, cut in, like, the rockets kept at about 10. Like, I kept watching. I'm like, all right, they're keeping this thing at 10. All right. You were the one. I appreciate you.

Appreciate you watching. And listening here. I listened to your post-scale. You did? Okay, you definitely were the one. You and Gerard. I appreciate that. I had to go pick up my wife at the airport.

Oh, okay. That's fine. The old, hey, can you pick you up from the airport? Sure. What time you land? You're not going to like it. What time do you land? 1130.

You landed 1130 at night. Oh, that's fine. I've done to take me to the airport, and then it's a 5 a.m. flight. So then you got to, that means you got to be there at like 3 a.m. So at least you didn't have to do that. All right. So Chris Cordy is here.

I am Ross v. Real. You can get in anything you want to get to. 713, 212, 5790. 713, 212 5790. But as I said, don't normally start with Mets news. But, I mean, your first reaction when you saw it, I think Jeff Passon, officially, I was the.

second person, okay, now probably not due to the latency of the website or something, but it said when I retweeted Jeff Pass and I was retweet number two. So it's now over 28,000. So you're welcome, Jeff. I amplified your message and now all

these people hear it. But at 9, 10 p.m. last night breaking superstar outfielder, Juan Soto and the New York Mets are in agreement on a 15-year $765 million contract sources. ESPN. It is the largest deal

in professional sports history. Your initial reaction, Gordy, was what? 765, you said? $765, $51 million per year. Yeah, I laughed because somebody tweeted out. They said, do you know how much Jim Crane bought the Astros for 13 years ago?

Was it around 400? 680. Okay, it was 680? 680 million. The Mets just paid Juan Soto more than what Jim Crane bought the Astros for. Like, that is... I saw, now that was two, when did he buy the Astros? It was around 2011.

2011, okay. So I also saw that the Finway group purchased the Red Sox for like 700-something million. So he's more, his contract is worth more than the Red Sox franchise 22 years ago, not adjusted for inflation. So, yes, it's a huge albatross of the contract. And my first reaction was just, wow, I was floored. Now, we knew it was going to be big money for one. We know that he's a young star. He's 26 years old. And one of the reasons he's been passed around from team to team to team. Nationals didn't want to sign him to this huge type of deal. They wanted to get some value from him as far as prospects. So they traded him away. Same thing with San Diego Padres. They're like, all right, we're probably not going to be able to afford to give $500 million or whatever it's going to be to Juan Soto. So we're going to trade him away to the Yankees, get some prospects. And that bore fruit for the San Diego Padres.

And then the Yankees who were going all in and trying to win the World Series. And, oh, Spaghetti-O, poor New York Yankees didn't win the World Series. They were obviously in the sweepstakes for Juan Soto. So I knew it was going to be a big deal. I knew it was going to be around like $500,000, $600,000, but $765 million from Steve Cohen in the New York Mets. That's just more than I could have anticipated. Apparently, it got really close to the Yankees. All the reports from the New York reporters are that it was close to,

Soto was close to signing a 16-year, $760 million deal from the New York Yankees. But 15-765, he can opt out after the first five years, as this just continues to get more and more wacky. He could opt out after the first five years unless the New York Mets guarantee him 55 million, per year. Right now the AAV, average annual value is $51 million per year. If they up that to 55, they guarantee the last 10 years of that contract, which it'll essentially then become a 10-year $550 million contract from there. It'll be up to the Mets to decide if they want to up the any. So it has been playing well. If he's been healthy, et cetera, you'll have five more years of sample size of him at the plate. We know him at the field's not very good. So he's going to

to have to be very good at the plate and then some to live up to this deal. I mean, just blockbuster doesn't even begin to describe this. I was completely floored. And then so now that it has happened and the dust is going to settle, that begs the question. Where do other teams go from there? And as far as position players, the number two prospect as far as free agents on everyone's board, Alex Bregman. and now, of course, Alex Bregman is not one Soto.

He's older. He's not as good at the plate anywhere near. But isn't it funny? We were talking about the $156 million deal from the Astros, and that's what they offered Alex Bregman to go to $765 is what Juan Soto got. So we'll see what happens, but I don't think, well, I already know, that deal that was offered by the Astros is not going to be accepted by Alex Breggman. He's going to want something closer to $200 million.

Willie Adamas and the deal that he got from the Padres over $180 million is something that they're going to try to target and get closer to. Scott Boris has this domino fallen. This is the Scott Boris client, as is Alex Breggman. Juan Soto is always going to be the first domino to fall. Now the next question is, where does the next domino, that being Alex Breggman, fall and into which hands. According to MLB, trade rumors, Red Sox and Yankees, both teams that are going to be in on Alex Breggman. And this is exactly what we've been talking about and what I and many people predicted, not like I'm some kind of genius, but that Juan Soto is going to sign a big deal.

And then the teams that missed out, whether it be the Dodgers, well, I don't think they're going to be interested. But the Yankees apparently are reportedly interested in retaining the services of Alex Breggman, according to Bob Nightingale. And those teams that were thinking about ponying up all this money for Juan Soto. $765 million for Soto? That sounds like a lot. Then $185, $200 million for Alex Bregman? Maybe that sounds like a good deal.

Once you're shopping around for anything or a car or whatever or a house and you see this dream big house and you swing and miss or it's just not in the budget, something that maybe was even over budget before. But compared to what was way over budget, it looks a little bit more palatable. It's an easier pill to swallow. And I think that is going to be the case with Alex Bregman and the contract that Scott Boris is going to want for him. So that is something we need to discuss as we go along and we will as we go along. Where will Alex Bregman land? Who is going to sign him? As I mentioned, apparently Red Sox, Yankees, other teams going to be interested in the services of Alex Bregman.

As are the Astros, as Dana Brown has said, that's their number one priority. for the off season. So we'll pick up the pieces from there. How do you feel about this Juan Soto deal? Is he overpaid? Is it way too much money? Or you say, you know what? Hey, the young man got what he was offered and he signed the contract. I'm okay with it. So many different implications with this. Does Major League Baseball need a salary cap? Has Stephen Cohen gone rogue? Or is this something where we're going to see trending in this direction these types of deals in the future? I don't know. A lot to discuss. 713.21, 2.12. 5779 the phone number and where do you think Alex Bregman lands 713212 5790 still a lot of stuff to get to here

on the program we'll have to tell the truth we will have some college football playoff talk we have some NFL stuff to get to the rockets one last night against the los angeles clippers and then won sodo's huge deal and what it means for Alex Bregman at 713212 5790 more matt thomas now Sports Talk 790. Welcome back. I swear it wasn't me that brought up playing some Kendrick on the show. It was Connor McGovern. Welcome back to 937 The Beat.

Oh, yeah. What's your 937 The Beat DJ name? I don't know. When I was in college, I went by DJ Conductor Connor. Conductor Connor. It was a musical roller coaster. That's a little wordy. Well, I just, I would say DJCC.

Okay, DJCC. That's kind of boring. actually. That sounds like huge cillators, a sports RV. Oh, well, let's find me on Twitter. That's not on the beat. You're right. Raps RV. Oh, okay, that's pretty good. I don't know.

All right, welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas. We've already played Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar on this show. So, yes, Matt Thomas is out. He will be back tomorrow, I believe, as he's very sleepy. and I don't know what time he got in from the Rockets game against the Los Angeles Clippers last night, but they won 117 and 106 over the clips improving to 16 and 8. But around 9 o'clock, as I said, the sports world was buzzing with the news of Juan Soto and his new deal. He's going to be in New York, Matt, at least for the next five years, Gordy.

Can I give you the vibe that, like just my gut feeling right now? Yes. It feels like the Yankees are going to overreact. to this because oh my god we lost Juan Soto. Yes. They get they by the way their offer was very good. They offered 16-760. Yeah, 760 but it was over 16.

Yeah. But I'm like one son is not going to be playing baseball 15 years from now. He's just not. He's not going to he's not going to do it so like 15, 16 you can make it 25 years. He's not going to be playing on the back end of this contract. So this seems like a spiteful thing. Somebody wrote something about he got angry because the

Yankees wouldn't let his driver or relative into the clubhouse. And so they said when Cohen with the Mets met with him, he brought his family relations person with to explain all the things that they're going to take care of his family with and all that. Oh, wow. There's a little bit of spiteful stuff here

it sounds like, but doesn't us feel like the Yankees now they feel like, oh, we got to do something? Yes. And they're going to go, Alex Breggman, 200 million. Yes, yes. I was mentioning that in the last segment. I mean, and this is, also, don't you think that was Scott Boris's plan? That's something we've been talking about. That the first one

come off the board is going to be Juan Soto. Then, and I made the analogy, like, let's say you're looking for a house and it's way out of your budget. And then it gets sold. And you're like, all right, fine. You might be willing to go a little bit above your original budget because it's still lower than that big way overpriced house that you couldn't afford. And the same thing with a car or anything else, some big purchase.

It kind of impales in comparison, $200 million from Alex Bregman, even though, of course, he is not the player that Juan Soto is. I don't think he's 33% of the player that Juan Soto is and that total money is well below 33% of the total contract, Juan Soto to Alex Bregman. Yeah. It just, I don't know.

It sucks because you just have, you have dumb teams with dumb money and it's like none of this makes sense. Like, this contract for the Mets doesn't make sense at all. Wonsodo is a great player, but no players worth that much money. That's silly. And then

turn, we have to respond and go, well, just the price of playing poker. It is the price of playing poker. Because some idiot gave out some stupid number. I mean, I have to be an idiot, too. No, you don't. But if you want to keep up with those Jones, this is not necessarily the Mets because they're in the National League. But if the Yankees are going to be spending that type of money and those are the

teams you're going to have to be keeping up with, I mean, it begs the question. Does Jim Crane have to change his philosophy of this hard-lined idea? had, I don't want to go over five years for any contract. But if people are handing out these kind of deals, do you say to yourself, all right, this is a one-off, Juan Soto is a once-in-a-generation,

Shoha-Otani is a once-in-a-generation. These types of guys, the Astros can still win without handing out these kinds of deals. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I agree with the Astros plan, how they've done this, remaining flexible, not handcuffing yourself to any high dollar contract that limits future opportunities or possibilities. But again, I've said if you want to keep Bregman and you want to do it, okay, if you can make it work.

But it sounds, it just feels like with all these other sharks in the water, it's not going to happen. Yeah, it's interesting because we've already seen this from the Mets, right? A couple of years ago, they had like a $300 million plus payroll. It was Max Scherze. It was Justin Verlander. It was, of course, Lindor was underperforming at that time. and it wasn't working. They shed payroll. They got rid of Justin Verlander.

They got rid of Max Scherzer. They weren't doing it the right way. So you can't just blindly spend money and then everything is just going to work out. Stephen Cohen already knows that as the owner of the Mets. The question is if he's spending his money smarter, which I don't know we can argue how smart this deal is, but at least for the immediate part of this for the first couple of years,

Yeah, is he going to be broken down and not worth $50 million when he's 41 years old? Certainly he's not going to be. But for right now, for buying Juan Soto's Prime, the Mets got significantly better, and there's no arguing that. Yeah, I mean, and it sucks. I got a buddy who's a big diehard Braves fan. He's like, this sucks. The Mets and the Dodgers have just made this not fun. He goes, we're going to go into the season knowing the Atlanta Braves cannot win a World Series.

That's not true. They can win a World Series. The Mets didn't win the World Series. Now the Dodgers did win the World Series, but they hadn't won one outside of the year of COVID since the 1980s, and they've been spending a ton of money for decades. Place the odds right now on potential Mets, Dodgers, NLCS. Do you feel pretty good about that one?

That's probably the favorite, but we'll see. I mean, that's the beauty of baseball, isn't anything can happen in a seven-game series. And people have brought that up. They're like, the best thing about it, like you can get mad at the Astros, they're not overspending and all this. But the one thing baseball has showed us is

anything can have. happen. And I mean, the frigging guardians were this close to making a run this postseason. Right. And then, well, the Big Dollar Yankees made the World Series and the Big Dollar Dodgers was their opponent. This is the first time the Yankees have gotten there since 2009. And they still lost. Okay. So that to me is kind of the counter argument. But you're just going to have to, if you can't spin with the big boys, you're going to just have to do that much more, that much better. Finding shrewd moves, finding smaller deals that guys can out-performed. form and then having prospects come up and outperform their contracts.

That's how you win. Because Juan Soto can live up to that contract. We've talked about this on the show for years with the deals by Carlos Correa or Garrett Cole. Garrett Cole can live up to his contract. He cannot surpass the value of his contract. So what you're having right now is you're going to have to win with guys that you have. Yonair Diaz is outperforming his contract because he's on a rookie deal. He hasn't hit free agency.

Yordon Alvarez is outperforming his contract. because you locked him up early. All praise B to James Click, and you have him locked up for several years of his prime. So you're going to have to make moves like that. But then the problem becomes, the Dodgers have been really good building their farm system. The Yankees have been pretty good.

Stocking up their farm system as well. So if they're going to do that and spend money, the road ahead gets even tougher. As good as Jordan Alvers last year, I mean, and the numbers are great. 3-08 batting average, 35 home runs. Didn't it feel like he didn't come through in the clutch, though, left? No, no, it didn't.

The postseason definitely did not come through in the clutch. Well, there was two games. There was a two-game sample. Two-for-seven. Yeah, two-for-seven. Hey, that's better than what did Kyle Tucker do? No home runs, one walk, one strikeout. Okay, so in two, you're going to tell me, in two games, he got two hits.

Oh, no, he's terrible. He's a disaster. I need my star to come through. It's baseball, man. nobody hits 162 home runs. You can't sit your watch to it. Kyle Tucker went, oh for seven. Kyle for seven. Yeah, there you go.

Kyle Tucker is the one we need to be focusing on. He's had two bad post seasons in a row. Just remember that crap when I hear the pay the man. Yeah. How about tell the man to hit the postseason. He's had some good runs in the postseason as well. Has he? Yes, 21, I think, or something like.

I want to say 21 or 22. He was really good in the post season. But that's just how it goes. It's short sample size. He was like he hit big home runs in losses. Oh, stop. All right. It's like he came through in the losses.

Is Jose Altovae Clutch? Yes. What was his, go look up his 2022 playoffs when they won the World Series. He hit under 200 in those playoffs. He was terrible. He started off like one for 26 or whatever. Tucker has been multiple posts.

What I'm trying to tell you is that the sample sizes are just, they're so small and then we have them under a microscope in the playoffs. A good player, generally over time is still going to hit well in the playoff. And I have confidence in Yorda and Alvarez, who's come up clutch many times in the playoffs. Long term, I think Kyle Tucker is going to be okay. But, I mean, speaking of that, we got to get to a break here. But this Soto deal, what does it mean for Alex Bregman we're talking about? But as you mentioned, Gordy, what does that mean for Kyle Tucker?

I mean, he plays way better right field than Juan Soto does. And he's not the hitter that Juan Soto is. But Soto's OPS last year was 989. Kyle Tucker wasn't far off of that. I'll go look it up, but it was pretty close. So it just feels like not only this is Bregman gone, it's already been feeling like Kyle Tucker is gone, but now it feels like way gone going in the future for the Houston Astros.

How do you feel about this Juan Soto deal and how it impacts the Houston Astros going forward? Does this make you feel even more strongly than Kyle Tucker and Alex Breggman are gone? Does Jim Crane need to change his philosophy? Does he need to stop with the five-year, limits on contract. 713 212-5-790. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790.

Continuing along here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, but without Matt Thomas. He is out sleeping. Chris Gordy is here, going to be hanging out with me. We'll have to tell the truth coming up at 1130 and we're also talking some Juan Soto. We'll be talking some college football playoffs, some good stuff there. Although I don't really want to talk about it after that game this weekend

with the Longhorns and the Georgia Bulldogs. Connor McGovern is here as well. And you at 713-212-5-790. The phone number, 7-13-212-5-790. T tweets to at SportsRV and at Chris Gordy and Connor D. McGovern as well. So I pose the question to you. What does this mean for Jim Crane? Does it feel like the five-year rule has to go away with these contracts with Juan Soto?

Or is he just a unicorn, once-in-a-generation player? You can continue passing on those types of guys and then go about your business the way you normally do. Well, we already know they went against that rule because wasn't the report they offered Gregman 6. Yes, but I feel like that's like one year. One year for a guy who's been here in the heart of the soul of the team who is a silver-slugging third base. It feels like going over for one year on that, it makes sense. Over 30, we'll turn 31 when the season begins. But you're only paying him to 37.

At least it's not like Soto, you're paying him to 41. How many great hitting 37-year-olds are there in baseball right now? In baseball right now, I don't know. Nelson Cruz was good until like his 40s. He's the first one that pops off the top of my mind. as far as other guys around baseball right now, and I can't think of anybody off the top of my head. I'm sure there's got to be some old guy who's doing pretty well at the plate.

I'm just pointing out. It's not. Not Jose Abraeu. It's not the best bet to say, yeah, 36, 37. He's going to be crushing it. Let's see. I'm going to like the OPS leaders, which, by the way, Kyle Tucker, oh, no, Kyle Tucker didn't end up qualifying, so it doesn't matter.

Marcel Ozone is 34. He had a nice season for the other. He wasn't great. That 3-02. Okay. Atlanta. He's solid. I think he's the only one I'm looking at like the top 15 hitters in baseball that is that old.

Yeah. So, he bets is 32. Okay. He's not 37. He's a generational. Jose L Tuvae's 34. Again, generational. He hasn't been a great hitter.

Price Harbor 32, generational. Yeah. So, well, you're thinking Juan Soto is generational. Even when he's 40 years old, he should be able to draw. 100 walks. He's got such great plus. He's only 26. He's 26 years old. You think he's going to be playing at 41?

I don't think he's going to play. He started when he's 19. He should be going he should be coming for Pete Rose at that point. There's some rumor that is it in the contract that after five years he can opt out and then we'll go up to like an $800 million contract. He no, he has the ability to opt out

after five years but if the Mets up the average annual value to $55 million a year. So basically, if they guarantee him 10 years, $550 million, which at that point in five years, who knows what's happening with revenues or whatever, but if they've gone up enough, the Mets will like lightning fast do that, sign him up, and then he will be locked in. Freddie Freeman is 35. So he's the closest to, you know. Yeah. He's also an all-time great.

If you had to make a bet, would you bet that Bregman is Freddie Freeman-esque over the next five years? No, we've seen slippage in Bregman's bat in the last couple of years. That's what concerns me. See, that can concern you, but that's also not exactly what you're paying for. You're overpaying for his prime. And then you're saying at the back end of this contract, yes, I'm going to take an L. Yes, it's going to be a Jose Abra, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Poole hole's situation. But I'm paying the premium for his prime right now to where I am trying to pry open my window of the World Series as much as possible. But you said the words, bad deal. Like, when you're a business owner like Jim Crane and you have your very successful businessman with all these different ventures, he doesn't do bad deals. So why would you knowingly go into this to go, well, if I get two good more years out of Brighman, it'll cost me on the back end and it'll cost you dearly.

Yeah, exactly. No, you're saying you can make that money back in revenues and playoff tickets and all that type of stuff, and interest and having a gate over 3 million people, which they hadn't had before winning the world. series in 2022. You say, you know what? Yes, 36, 37 years old. I'm going to be losing on this deal. But I need to win on this deal right now because he's not going to be paid. What is it going to do? I don't know, $30 million a year or whatever to him living up to that and then capitalizing financially. And then, yes, on the back end, it's going to be a problem. And you kind of worry about that later. Maybe it's robbing Peter to pay Paul type of situation.

Like your car payment stays the same when you buy a. car no matter what, right? But a seven years into your car payment, it's not what it was at the beginning. The minute you drive off the law, that's true. That's true. Right. But it's the same payment, but it's also, and the car is worse, but you got it some good

years out of it. That's not the greatest analogy ever. I'm learning for Matt Thomas, but you get what I'm saying. You're paying for a 31 to 33, 34 year old who is going to play gold glove caliber third base, who is going to basically be like having another pitching

coach and who is a heart and soul in a clubhouse, tone setter and leader, and then, oh, by the way, hit you 25 home runs and get on base at a decent clip. That's what you're paying for. Look, if I'm Dana Brown and Jim Crane, I'll make a counteroffer to Bregman. But again, I just feel like

at this point, the desperate ass Yankees are going to say, we need to make a splash. Yes. Let's go pay Bregman the $200 million. And if I'm Bregman, I tell Scott Borenz, I don't want to be a Yankee, but if I'm being a Yankee, make them go up more. Make them pay the most big premium ever. If I got to go play my ass in New York, make it even higher. It's a pinstripe premium. That's my favorite. As all these Yankees

fans on Twitter, like, oh, it's time to get Bregman. Oh, my God. You were screaming cheater at this guy. You were like throwing beers at people wearing his jersey the last several years. The hypocrisy, which I don't want to see him sign with the Yankees, but at least the silver lining will be seeing all the hypocrisy from these Yankees fans, celebrating them signing Alex Bregman after booing him for all these years. that will make me feel a little bit better. Well, I just, I don't want to play them. If he's in pinstereps, I don't want to play them.

Well, we're going to see, you might not have, you don't really have a choice. And this is what, the way that I felt like it was going to play out the entire time. Now it hasn't happened. He could still sign with the Astros, but it's going to be somebody with, in the Soto sweepstakes, which the Yankees obviously there, USA Today's Bob Nightingale reporting this morning that the Yankees are expected to make a run at Alex Bregman. Rob Bradford of W.E.I saying that the Red Sox

are going to be immediately prioritizing a pursuit of Bregman. So you just lost a bidding war with the Mets? You think the Yankees want to lose another bidding war with the Red Sox? I would rather him in a Red Sox uniform. I would too. I hate to see him either, but I'd rather

him as a Red Sox than the Yankee. Yeah. Well, Devers is there with the Red Sox, but they either Breggman, who has expressed a willingness via Scott Boris to play second base. Somebody's going to move. I don't know who it's going to be. But yeah, this is just

it's kind of playing out the way that we all thought, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it. Alex Bregman is going to be gone, and then you're going to be scrambling for whatever plan B is. As Brian McTaggart mentioned, Christian Walker, other guys where you don't necessarily have somebody at third base, which you make up an aggregate. Jorge Polanco, who just came off

like his worst year. Yeah, about 213 last year. Is that bad? this is pretty bad oh well this is the look this is the stance that Jim Crane has made

this is the sword he has lived by and it's been very successful and this is maybe the sword that this era of the asteros is going to die by I agree I don't think you I'm with you spend stupid you spend smart

yeah but at the same time I ain't my money I need my money keep spending it maybe let's go but if you're a fan of this team you know you're going to be crap five six years from now

they're going to be crap six years from now anyways not necessarily I think so. I don't think so. I mean, like, if you keep developing in-house talent, where's Shay Whitcomb becomes something? What does Zach DeSanzo becomes something?

I don't know right now you say that. Hey, yeah, right now I do. You'd be waiting on Bryce Matthews and a couple of other. I think we're talking three, four years. What if Jake Myers takes off this year? All right. Now you're getting rid. Now you're high.

I thought you were drunk before. Now I know you're high. All right. It's a show. Again. All right. We're going to take a break on that note here on Sports Talk 790. is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas is out today. Chris Gordy in. You can get in at 713-212-5-790. The phone number.

7-13-213-2-5-790. We got, what is it called the segment? It's called, to tell the truth. Yeah, that's coming up at 1130. That'll be fun with Chris Gordy. We also have some college football playoff talk coming up and your calls as well here on the Matt Thomas show with you until 2 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas Now On Sports Talk 790 We continue along here on the Matt Thomas show With Ross I'm Ross, Matt Thomas is out Connemar Governor is here

Chris Gordia is here somewhere Coming up at 1130 We will have The signature segment we call it To Tell the Truth Where I will give four opinions I only believe one of them. Chris Gordy and Connemaghan will have to guess which one. In the meantime, we've been talking a lot

about this Juan Soto deal and what it means as far as its impact for the Houston Astros. Does Jim Crane need to relax his restraints that he puts on contracts as far as not wanting deals over five years? For the most part, mega deals have been kind of up and down. I mean, Garrett Coles is working out right now. Francisco Lindor had a bounceback year for the Mets. Bryce Harper has been very good in a long-term deal for the Phillies. Fernando Tartiz Jr., Julio Rodriguez, it's been a bit of a mixed bag. So I definitely understand where Jim Crane is coming from, not wanting to hand out these big multimillion dollar and lengthy deals

because generally teams lose on the back end of them. What you have to say to yourself is, is it worth buying a player's prime to lose on the back end of the deal. Steve Cohen and the Mets say yes because they signed a 26-year-old to a 15-year deal. Now, it's five years they can opt out. Juan Soto can opt out. But at that moment, also, the Mets can up the annual value to $55 million, at which point it will guarantee the final 10 years of that deal.

What say you? 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-21-5-790. in Memorial has rung in here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. What's up, Jim? Hey, how are you doing? Can you hear me all right? I can hear you just fine. Go ahead. Okay. I, you know, I think everything you both said is correct. It's, I don't want to sound like an old fogey, but you did say that, you know, we can't just audit, you can't spend the win. But Jim Crane's proven to kind of be right. These long-term contracts don't.

work. I can see spending it on pitching, okay? Because pitching will keep you in and then developing your own hitters or making a trade here and there. I don't know what you think. But the Dodgers in this deferred money, that just doesn't seem fair. Does it to you? No, I think it's ridiculous, and I think it needs to be addressed because as of this moment, I think it's like a billion dollars that the Dodgers have deferred over the next several years. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm all about capitalism. I think living in America we all are. But, you know, Scott Boris, whenever I see he's involved

with one of our players, I'm just like this guy has no loyalty to anything. I mean, Jose Al Tuve Tuve, God bless him. I mean, he took a special deal and Craig Beggio did a while ago. But, you know,

this guy is out, he's just going to use Tucker to get whatever he can. Like you said, I don't see Tucker coming back. No, I don't think so. No, no, I don't think so. I think it's going to be, this is the thing. And when it is, it is the freest market in major American sports, at least the big three sports, is major league baseball.

And if one team, and there happens to be a lot of teams from New York, a lot of teams from Los Angeles want to spend as much as they can, then they will. And the Players Association has fought against a salary cap, tooth and nail. And this is for exactly these types of reasons to where Juan Soto gets this type of deal, three quarter of a billion dollars. And there's no way it's worth it. I mean, he's a great player, but I mean, and it's all about TV deals. So you got, you got cities that have enormous TV deals, and hopefully the game stays competitive, but they're on thin ice anyway. People don't watch baseball. I mean,

I'm an old guy, so I watch it, but younger guys, younger guys and girls do not watch baseball. They don't watch it like football. They don't want, they're now watching soccer more. They don't, they don't watch baseball. I don't know what they think they're doing here. I mean, maybe it's going to be the gambling thing. I don't know. I'll hang up and listen, but I just don't see the market for it in 10 years. Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, yeah. I hope I'm wrong. We'll see, Jim. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you getting in. And it'll be interesting to see what happens, because, yeah, the landscape of sports can change in 10 years, as you mentioned. Soccer has been more popular.

The NBA, the ratings have been way down the last couple of years. NFL just continues to be a juggernaut and go up and up. But MLB revenues have continued to go up the last several years, and we have been seeing a coming back of younger people because of things like the pitch clock, because I do think gambling and home run props and parlays and all that type of stuff, has people interested in major league baseball for all the talk of it being a dying sport and young people not interested and all this other stuff. And I feel like several years ago we're wondering how much longer is baseball going to be America's pastime?

And it's not anymore. CNFL is America's pastime at this moment. But the revenues keep going up. The contracts keep going up. These TV deals keep going up. Now, some of that, of course, is getting juiced by recent changes. How long will that continue to last? adding extra playoff games,

adding these extra wild cards. I mean, how many more wild cards can you actually add to the playoffs? So that keeps revenues up. It makes a jump for a year, but how long does that last over several years?

Can you continue the arrow pointing upward? That's Rob Manfred's job. That's why he's trying to come up with all these crazy gimmicks of a golden bat stuff and the extra runner and whatever, and maybe we'll get some automatic balls and strikes, and that'll tighten up games at some point as well.

But Rob Manfred and the owners, our tasks would keep trying to invent the wheel to keep trying to get revenues up and up and up. It is, you mean you mentioned capitalism. That is the capitalist way. We made $10 billion last year. Well, we need to make $11 billion this year. Oh, we made $11 billion this year. We made $12 million in the next year. $12 billion.

It has to keep going up and up and up and up and up and up and the disease of more can sometimes make the product suffer. I think we're seeing that in the NBA right now. So we'll see what happens. But yeah, if you sign a 15-year deal and 15 years from now, revenues have crashed for Major League Baseball and you have to, I don't know, default on payment. I don't think it's going to come to anything like that. It's a very well-oiled, well-run organization is Major League Baseball.

So I don't think the owners will be foolhardy enough to be, to get to the point where they can't make payments on paychecks. That's something that has not happened for, I don't know, 100 years or whatever. But it is interesting to see where it continues to trend. But, yeah, even on the first part of what you were talking about there, Jim, as far as signing pitchers and these long-term deals, I mean, I mentioned a lot of these long-term deals are working out.

I mean, we'll see what happens with Juan Soto, at least the first several years it's going to work out. In 10 years, I don't know. Bobby Witt Jr. signed to a huge deal by the Royals. I don't think they're regretting that just yet. Joey Otani signed to a huge deal with the Dodgers. I don't think they're regretting that just yet. Bryce Harper has been very good in a long-term deal.

Lendor has been kind of up and down, but he was back to close to an MVP level this last year. He had more war than Shoha O'Hatani, wins above replacement. That's also because he played the field, and Shoeh Tani's just a DH. When Shoea Tani gets back pitching, that will be a different story. But he led the National League in wins above replacement,

did Francisco Lendor. So that's not the Mets losing on that deal. but it's easy these are these long-term deals it's not about winning the first three or four years it's about winning in the first 10 and it's about getting a championship in that window then that will be worth it if the Mets over these these next five years win a couple of pennants and win a couple of world series they're not going to care Steve Cohen's not going to care if that franchise is going to skyrocket they're going to get a lot more money revenues gate all that type of stuff So that's the dice that is being rolled.

And we'll see if it continues. We'll see if it works out. And if it continues from other owners or are people going to get burned on these deals and learn that they are not a good deal long term. All right, quick break here, top of the hour here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. That is hour number one in the books. Hour number two is coming up. We've got, I keep wanting to say I just don't get it.

And I know I just don't get it isn't coming up. So that's why I keep pausing. We've got to tell the truth coming up at 1130. We're also going to talk some college football as well. And anything you want to get into as well, talking about baseball and this huge Soto deal, 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Lunch timers.

This is the Matt Thomas show. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show. Well, I hope you never left. Our number two is here with me. and Chris Gordy. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. One part of it is here, Ross. Now, of course, I was out for like two plus weeks. So far be it to me, make fun of Matt for being out, but I'm still going to do it because he's very tired. He's very sweepy. So coming back with the Rockets as they beat the Los Angeles Clippers last night and improved to 16 and 8 on the year. So Matt calling the game flying back late. So he is out. In the meantime, Chris Gordia has been hanging out. Adam Wexer will be coming up at noon here on the program. And you're going to You can get in at 713212-5-790. We've been talking a lot about this Juan Soto deal. What does it mean for Bregman?

What does it mean for Kyle Tucker as well? What does it mean for the state of baseball as a whole? 7-13-212-5-7-90, but also over the weekend, a big news item, Chris Gordy. And dare I say, your wheelhouse, the top 12 field has been set for the college football playoff. What was your initial reaction to the rankings that were put out? Yeah, look, everybody knows I'm Mr. SEC, but I think they got it right. I mean, I know a lot of people portioned for Alabama because of their strength of schedule and, you know, their marquee wins. But to me, marquee wins are great, but marquee wins can be negated by bad losses.

Yeah. And the best way I heard somebody put it the other day, they said, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt are both bowl eligible. because they beat Alabama. If they hadn't beat Alabama, they would both be five and seven and not be in ball games right now. So I was like, that's the best way to put that. That's pretty good. Those teams were not even going to be bowl eligible, but they beat Alabama and became bowl eligible.

So I, yeah, I just, but here's what's stupid is this is delve now into a lot of SEC people and Alabama people saying, well, we're just going to not schedule any tough non-conference games anymore. Because, and this is, to a certain extent, I agree. The committee has sent a message that the Indiana's and the SMUs and those teams who played nobody good out of conference, it doesn't matter. The committee just goes, we just reward you as long as you win. So if you're an SEC team saying, our schedule's already brutal, why would we hurt ourselves even more by playing a tough non-conference? Now, Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, requires every SEC school to play a power for team non-conference. Now, Texas went out and scheduled a road trip at Michigan this year.

Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin scheduled Wake Forest. So not all power four teams are created equal, but I think there's going to be a big push from these 80s to Greg Sanky going, remove that rule. Remove that rule because it used to be you would, when the BCS computers were alive, if you played a tough non-conference game and beat them, you got extra bonus points at the end of the year because it was like, hey, you scheduled this. The playoff committee this year and last year put no stock in that. Georgia opened with Clemson this year and it wasn't even a topic of conversation at the end of the year. Yeah, I know it wasn't a topic of conversation at the end of the year, but don't you think that helps make Georgia case for being the number two seed with those two losses that they... I think it does make their schedule.

Notre Dame beat A&M week one. They came to college station. Yes. If Notre Dame had played the Citadel and beat them, they'd still be exactly where they are right now. It did them no favors. It didn't give them anything. I wonder how much it would factor into the final seating. Because all the committee looked at was 11 and 1.

That's all they looked at. They don't care who you beat. But I think with Georgia having two losses, I do think the Clemson win is a big feather in their cap. And of course, the two wins over the Texas long ones. Georgia only got in because they won the SEC, but if they lost, they were going to put them in because they made this arbitrary rule kind of that they were like,

well, the loser of the SEC championship, you still get in because they're technically the second best team in the conference. Well, I would say it all depends on how the game looked as well. I mean, it was an overtime game. I think that's one of the reasons. One of the reasons to me that SMU hung on is because they did make that game close. And they did come back and fight against Clemson. And what was it like a last second field goal by Clemson that the game?

I think they could have been blown out in that game and then been left out of the playoff in Alabama. And I think that is a distinct possibility. But yeah, on the Alabama thing you mentioned, the Alabama AD. What's his name? Greg Byrne. Greg Byrne. Greg Byrne, the Alabama Athletic Director. Talking about, like, we're not going to schedule tough non-conference games anymore. Like, did he not look at his own non-conference schedule before he made that statement? Yeah, well, and they did win. They won their all their non-conference games. That's where people are bringing out. But I do think there's something to the wear and tear of like, put it this way.

LSU opened with USC. One of their better run back is John Emery. got hurt after that game. If you opened with, I don't know, the Citadel. It's an easy win. You don't lose John Emery. Maybe you have him the whole year. Maybe you beat A&M because you have one of your better. You know what I mean? So it's like a chain reaction of like, why put that strain on yourself when the committee is showing they don't care if you schedule tough knockout?

They're just looking at if you're 11 and 1 or 10 and 2, that's all we care about. I think we're also looking at a one-year sample size though. I think over the next couple of years, every year is, as you know, in the playoff and there's going to be more one-lossed teams, are going to be more two or three lost teams. I think it could come down to deciding between two teams, maybe two SEC teams who have similar records, similar losses, and then you would look at a non-conference game, at a tough non-conference game. I think it would matter. Georgia opened last season. Or no, it wasn't Georgia. Who am I thinking of?

Florida State opened with LSU last year. At the end of the year, they didn't care that they'd be both LSU and Florida to SEC teams, they went, well, your quarterback got hurt. And I know you're undefeated and ACC champs. First of all, Florida State got hosed in that situation. It's silly. It's so stupid. For sure. And Georgia was number one in the country all year,

lost by three to Bama in the SEC title game and dropped from one to six. Yeah, but Texas wouldn't have been in the playoff last year if they didn't go to Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama out of conference. So that did matter there. But Bama lost to Texas and they didn't even fault them for that. They're like, well, you get it.

You get in over Georgia. But Texas wouldn't have been in if they didn't have that win, in my opinion. So I think, like I said, it can go both ways. Every year is different. There needs to be a discussion with the committee that they have. Like, I think the basketball selection committee does it right now. Granted out's a fill of 64 versus the field of 12. But there are discussions about early season where you go, well, they lost to Gonzaga,

but that's a good early season loss. So they weigh straight to schedule. That's why Ken Palm's a thing. Ken Palm takes into, it takes into consideration, tough opponents, great quality tough wins versus quality losses. But Warren Manuel, the bunch of dumbasses who sit in the hotel room in Dallas, well, 11 is bigger than 10. So we're going to put the 11 win team in.

Hey, who'd they play? I don't know. Yeah, it's like you didn't even put any critical thought into who these teams played. So who do you think, so do you think you said, but you said the committee got it right. It was your first statement. Right. I think based off of where they were coming into this weekend. Like, I think SMU, and I, I said to my buddy, I said, SMU coming back into that game, bought them their spot.

Because if they were blown out by Clemson, they were going to be out. But I don't think Bama deserved to be in. But I think the problem was you had this big middle pack of a bunch of 10 and 2, 9 and 3 teams that, you know, you really get into a debate over, Bama's win over Georgia becomes one of the best wins in the country. You know, do you reward them for that? It becomes tough. That's what I'm saying. I think you're going to end up with some outliers from this.

year to where you had way more three-loss teams in the conversation than maybe you normally would. I mean, we all talked about it all year long how this was just a wild, wacky, weird year in college football with Alabama and the losses that they had with, I mean, Georgia losing to Ole Miss isn't that crazy, but Ole Miss losing to Florida. This was a year of wacky upsets that might not happen year after year. Did you look at Indiana's schedule? It's not great. They didn't beat a right team all year. They played one right team and they lost to them. Hey, I got no problem with teams that don't beat ranked teams getting into the playoff. That's not an issue for me.

Who was it? Somebody said, I think it was Penn State, Alabama, and Texas all are in the playoffs and none of them beat a top 25. Hey, well, Texas is undefeated. Outside of one team. That's my counter argument. They didn't lose a game

except for to Georgia. The number two said, they lost them twice. And I was not with Texas fans. I was like, if you would have played in Knoxville, Tennessee, maybe that's a loss. If you'd play that South Carolina, maybe it's a loss. Well, we'll see. Now they got, hey, they got Clemson coming up. And they got Arizona. You should have seen the OU people already. Look at the path. The playoff gave them.

They get Clemson with their two touchdown favorites over and they get Boise. The easiest path. Did you see Tennessee? Tennessee's going to go on the road out of Ohio State and if you beat them guess what? You get Oregon the next round. Like, good God. Yeah. It's going to be crazy, but I think at the end of the day

it used to be two teams. Where Indiana didn't beat anybody but they're 11 and 1. I like, you know what, when we come back, I have two solutions that I like as far as what we can fix with the college football bracket. You want to get in, talk some college football. We've been talking Soto. We've been talking Astros.

We've got some NFL stuff to get to. Anything you want to get to, 713-21-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. But before we do get to that break, how are you feeling? How's your energy? How's your weight loss? You've been thinking about muscle tone? You've been thinking about improving your day-to-day life?

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CinergenicsHealth.com. That's S-Y-N-E-R-GenXhealth.com. CinergenicsHealth.com. More Matt Thomas. Now on Sports Talk 790. To tell the truth, coming up in about 10 minutes here on Sports Talk 790

on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out sleeping. It'll be back tomorrow on the program. Connor McGovern is here for the duration. Actually, I think he's doing double duty. Connor McGovern's pulling the

extra overtime. That's okay. He is quite well compensated. Chris Gordy here as well. 713-212-5. 790 is the phone number if you would like to get in. 7-13. 212-5-7-90 talking some about the college football playoff. We'll get a little bit more into it, but Steve has been waiting patiently,

so let's go ahead and get Steve in to talk some college ball. What's up, Steve? I hope you guys are having a great day today. I've got two things. I'd like to hear you comment on, and I'll lay it out for you, and they just listen. So the first one is relating to the college football playoffs. It's interesting to talk about who should be in and who shouldn't be in. But here's the great thing about having a 12-team playoff.

Who do you think should be in that could actually win the national championship? And if there is nobody that fits in that category, it doesn't really matter. That's what's great about having a 12-team playoff. The other is, does Texas beat Georgia if they have a dual-threat quarterback? And if you think so, what the hell is Stark thinking? Okay. All right. Thank you, Steve.

You know, we were talking about this off-air, Gordy, about the Quinny. Gordy about the Quinn Ewers archmanning debate. And in some ways, you know what you have with Quinn Ewers and it's safe and you can win games with Quinn Ewers. But for the most part, you're not going to win games because of Quinn Ewers. And Steve Sarkesian has chosen to go that avenue to where he's going to go with the more safe option, win with defense, try to his. somewhat of a running game,

run a bunch of tunnel screens and short passing stuff and some easier, you know, pump and go stuff where you're pump faking the screen and then you're throwing it deep and they get a lot of touchdowns and big plays off that. And overall, the Texas offense has been pretty solid. But then if you run up against an elite defense, which Georgia is, you have issues scoring consistently to where you scored

just 15 points in the first game and then 16 points in regulation in the next game. I thought he made some nice throws early on. He did. He played extremely well overall. And I called it too. I knew Kelvin Banks wasn't going to go. When they said he was questionable, I'm like, they're not going to.

Especially because if you win and get the buy, and even with the loss, you still have two more weeks before you play games. So I figured he was not going to go. But I thought at least the first half, that old line was protected, man. They were giving him time. That pocket was clean. And then what happened in the second half was, it was like Georgia was overpursuing.

They were coming on the backside. So it would force him to step up into the pocket. And then they have somebody cutting in from the interior when he stepped up into the pocket. And that's when they started racking up the sacks. What they sack up? Six times. It was seven times in the first meeting, six times in the second meeting. I mean, yeah, I just, that's where you really could use the legs of an arch manning

to be able to use some boot. like action, get some rollouts, get him out in space, because Georgia lives for that. Georgia lives for collapsing the pocket on you. Yeah, I think Sarkesian is more apt to go with somebody who plays within the structure of his offense. He's a structured guy, and I think a lot of college coordinators and they just want guys who are going to, in a sense, be robots. They're going to look for read one, read two, they're going to throw the screen, they're going

to do what I say, they're not going to go a lot off schedule, they're not going to improvise a bunch. And what we've seen from Arch is a lot of times his strength is with that improvisation. So I totally understand why Steve Sarkeesian is going and continuing to go with Quinn Ewers. But I just haven't seen, we saw it in the Washington game last year in the playoff where Quinn Ewers could have stepped up and won that game. We saw it in this game. We've seen it in other games that they've lost where Quinn Ewers can step up and be great and make the spectacular play and make everybody say, wow. And he consistently has fallen short in those moments. Yeah.

He's good Sam Mellinger. That's what he is. Oh. You're so right. It hurts me. You're so right. It hurts me on that. All right.

713, 212-5-790. The phone number. Rodney. Next up. Talking some college football. What's up, Rodney? How you doing today?

Doing great. What you got? I have a subject with regards to the playoffs. out of the three teams from each Power 4 Conference you take two teams

from the group of five and then you have two at large and you go by the record You have 16 teams? Yes, 16 teams I think they're going to 16 teams anyway but it's like

the way we do it now is as an eye test and that doesn't really get it for me I mean it's like well so-and-so beat this person or they lost to this person, that's a better team, so that loss is better. College football, I think, and I'm not sure, is the only major sport where it does not go by wins and losses totally. It's an eye test.

So they start comparing how good a loss is or how good a win is when it should be line up and play the games. Can you imagine if the NFL actually did that with an eye test? and certainly in situations that I can understand sometimes conferences are down or sometimes the conference are up but I'm old enough to recall when the Oakland Raiders were a wildcard team

and won the Super Bowl I'm old enough to remember when what is it at Seattle I think if I'm not mistaken had an 8-8 record or something like that and went to a playoff and went pretty deep they were 7 and 9 and then they beat the wasn't that the Beast quake against the Saints

Yeah something like I'm not sure about that but I know that they had a horrible record. But if you win your division, you win your division because you lined up and you play in front of you. No, I don't think I think auto bids are not a good idea. Yeah, here's the problem with that. Not all conferences are created equal. Look at the Big 12. Arizona State won it this year. I mean, like, you're going to have some years where you have a four, you have a four lost conference champion and you might have six teams in the SEC that are 10 and two and better. You think that four lost conference champ deserves a spot and everybody else? Like, I think who you play matters.

Yeah, I think, I mean, if you're capping it at three per major conference is what he was talking about, then that means the Ohio State buckouts, Buckeyes would have been left out of the playoff this year. In lieu of like BYU or some other team, like Alabama, now you did only get three teams in the South Eastern Conference, but you got four from the Big Ten. It just throws the things too off with the imbalance of the conferences as well. I think we may head to a point where the Mountain West and some of those teams, go create your own thing. Because again, like, they're allowing you a little bit of a window here to get a team in.

But it feels like you're never going to have a Boise or somebody like that win at all. Well, they're probably not, but they're in there. And then the Big Ten and SEC expanding with more big dogs, like it's just going to become like they don't, the powers that be in college football don't want all those big dogs left out. Yeah. I was talking about this going into the break. To me, I think Joel Clett floated the idea of. reseeding. I think they need to

reseed to every round. They reseed in the NFL. Now they don't re-seed in the NCAA tournament. That's also, you have teams and regions and they're in different cities. You have a week. Why is Ohio State hosting over Tennessee?

Like, I didn't understand that thought process, because they're 8 and 9, right? And Ohio State just had a miserable loss to Michigan, at home, right? Yeah, I mean, I guess because they're ranked higher in the playoff rankings, right? What have they done?

Oh, okay, you're talking like, what is the committee? Why have they judged that Ohio State is better than Tennessee? I don't know. Let's see, Tennessee has lost to Georgia and then to Arkansas. Yeah. Ohio State lost to Michigan and Oregon? Oregon. And like a really close game.

So each of them have one bad loss and one. But doesn't, I feel like timing matters on it. And maybe it shouldn't, but like Tennessee's early. early season night loss at Arkansas when they came up just short. Ohio States just happened. Yeah. But they like look past it.

It's a rivalry game. You throw out the record books in a rivalry game. They didn't drop them much. You know, it's like, I don't know. I don't have your answer to that. But I think they should reseed. Number one, one I think they should do that they're not going to do.

They need to get rid of the top four for conference champions. They should just do the top four is the top four. That would be like the college basketball tournament saying, you won the ACC championship. So you are a one seed. Yeah, no, you don't move to the front of the line. They need to get rid of that. That needs to go.

And at the very least, they need to reseed. That way you do have. Somebody brought up, they said if they were just doing it on the, like one through, they just ranked one through 25, right? Yeah. One through 12 should be it. Whatever you ranked one through 12 should be the 12 best teams, right? Yes, exactly.

So that should be your field. It should be the 12 best teams, but I understand where the big 12 and the, and the ACC are going to feel left out. So I think that kind of, you're, you're never going to iron that. out of it, but I think at the very least they should recede, but what they really should do is just go one through 12, no matter what. If Arizona State and Clemson both get their butts kicked, you're going to see a push for stopping the conference champions automatically get it. Because Clemson would not have gotten in had they not eat us in. Right. Right. Okay. So you're saying it's up to the Texas Longhorns to destroy the Clemson Tigers.

14 and a half point home favorites, Ross. It got up to 14. I thought it 11. It's up to 14 and a half. It was yesterday unless it moved. He had 11 right now, but it depends. It might be moving around. Action. Brett McMurphy had it at 14. Oh, Brett McMurphy. Oh, Pete Tamill doesn't like him. 14 and a half. It's pretty big. Pretty big.

Y'all are at home, DKR. Come on. All right. We're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out. I am here, but we're still going to do the signature Monday segment. We call it to tell the truth. I will give four opinions and only believe one. We'll do that next here on the. program after this short break. I can. Welcome in to the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Matt is up, but we're still going to do this segment where I give four opinions. Now I have bolded. Now, I was thought about sending an email. I don't know. You're just going to have to trust me. All right. I know which one I am not going to touch my. You're going to not see me touch my laptop.

And then I will show it to Chris Gordy, which one I have bolded and picked. Of these four opinions, I will give four. Only one of them, I believe to be true, and it is up to Chris Gordy and Connemoghoun to discern which of these opinions I actually believe. Let's actually go ahead and get it started. All right, number one, Jim Crane, much to his chagrin, is going to have to change his old ways. You have Shoy Otani signing huge deals. You have Willie Adamas signing a seven-year deal. and that's not even a marquee free agent,

Juan Soto signing the deal that he has. Over the next five years, whether it be with Bregman, whether it be with Tucker, whether it be with someone else, we will see Jim Crane break his old axiom that he has sold, held himself to,

and he's going to have to get with the times. He's not going to like it, but he is going to have to do it. To keep up with the Joneses, he will sign a long-term deal over six, years, within the next five years, Jim Crane will do it. Okay.

Okay. That's your first. That's my first opinion. Opinion number two. This Chiefs Voodoo Magic that we've been seeing week after week in the NFL, they're winning because of doinks, they're having other teams lose because of doinks. Their doinks are going in, other doinks are going out, they're blocking kicks. It will not stand.

I am guaranteeing you the Kansas City Chiefs will not win the Super Bowl because there are too many other strong teams. They can't keep getting away with this. The Buffalo Bills are really strong. The Ravens, other teams in the AFC, who do have some losses on their ledger but are still better than the Chiefs. Not only will the Chiefs not win the Super Bowl, they will not win the AFC because they're playing by the skin of their teeth too often, which tells me they are not good enough, the cheese voodoo magic will end, and they will not win the AFC.

Hmm, okay. All right, there you go. Opinion number two. Opinion number three. Major League Baseball and the other owners have had enough. Sure, the Yankees, the Mets, and the Dodgers can spend and spend and spend, but what about the Guardians? What about the Astros?

What about the A's? What about the Mariners? What about the Tampa Bay raise? There will be a meeting of the minds with the owners. And within the next several years, heavier luxury tax penalties are imminent with Major League Baseball. And not only that, all these deferred payment loopholes,

you Dodgers with a billion dollars in deferred payments, that's it. That's enough. That's going away. Luxury taxes are going up. They're not going to have a salary cap because the players would never agree with that. But more severe luxury tax penalties will be in place soon in Major League Baseball. Okay, so those are your three statements.

I got one more. Oh, you got another one. I got one more. That's up to three. It's four. Okay. You got to pick one. That's how it goes.

And what am I looking for again? I only believe one. Okay. Go ahead. Fourth and final opinion. there will be a major change in the college football playoff within the next two years. Too much upheaval. Nobody's happy.

Everyone's complaining. At some point, they will either go to reseeding or to no automatic top four or some other major change. The way that it is now, we will not see it the same way in two years talking about the college football playoff and the 12 teams. Going to 16 would also count as a year. a major change in the college football playoffs. I am saying we are going to see it within the next two years. So to recap, Jim Crane will change his stance with the times. He is going to sign in the next few years, a deal over six years, the next five years.

Number two, the Chief Voodoo Magic will end. They will not win the Super Bowl. They will not even win the AFC. Number three, heavier luxury tax penalties are imminent in Major League Baseball. the deferment loopholes will also be closed. And number four, major change in the college football playoff, whether it be receding, no automatic top four, expansion to 16, something will be changing in a major way in the college football playoff in the next two years. Which of those lads is an opinion, I actually believe.

So, Connor, I'll go first. I mean, I think all of these are, Jim Crane must sign a deal over six years. We kind of already talked about that in the first segment of the show. But I think I remember you saying you agreed with me that they shouldn't do that. The Chiefs won in the Super Bowl, I think is as hot takey, Stephen A, Skip Bayliss as you could get. Had they been lucky, yes. But like, that's something Stephen A would be like, I got to tell you, Skip. The Chiefs are not winning in a Super Bowl this year.

It's preposterous. The MLB meeting in the minds, I think that's going to happen. I think there will be more luxury tax penalties. I think there will be no more deferred contracts. I think that'll come. And it's a lock that the major change of college football is coming. They are going to go to at least a 14-teed playoff. That's a fact.

Now, whether you believe these or not is the question. That is the question. Connor, while I'm a little over, give me what you think. I don't think he believes number four. I mean, I guess it's a fact that it is going to change. but maybe the luxury tax one. I'm just trying to think about what Ross is. So he only believes one is true.

Yes. For example, I'm always like, man, that's a terrible take. Matt wouldn't believe that. But then he believes it. So, I mean, it's up to what I believe, not what will happen. I think I might go with number three about the luxury tax penalties. There's going to be put in place. I'll go with the playoff because I think that's the most likely that is going to happen.

Gordy, what number are my folded X's? Four. Number four. You are correct. Now, I actually, you know what? I really did try to throw you off, Connor, because I do believe that the deferment loopholes will be closed. That's the second part of it. I don't believe heavier luxury tax penalties are imminent.

So I kind of, I threw some disguise over that one, so it's not your fault. I'm very sorry. That was very devious of me to do. That's okay. I was thinking more about the conference champions getting the buy. Was it going to change? I think that has to change within the next couple of years. I mean, I think it will happen.

I think there's been enough outcry. I think they can get together and fix us a little bit. And we've seen precedent for them to kind of change the rules, whether it be the BCS or the playoff or now into this playoff and the committee and making different rules. So I do think it will happen within the next couple of years. Lads, thank you for playing. To tell the truth.

And congratulations, Chris Gordy, on winning the segment. Whatever. We're so proud of you. You're great. I'm going to join the FBI. Spotted liar. Connor McGovern is very upset. So this is making me very happy.

All right. Time for a quick break here. I also fooled some people on Twitter. Sorry, you're terrible. All right. We're going to take a quick break here. We've got Adam Wexler coming up at noon. In the meantime, we've been talking soda.

We've been talking college football. How do you feel about that? Do there need to be changes? What else is going on in sports? Anything you want to get to? 713. 212. 5 a 790. 713, 212.5.790. More Matt Thomas.

Now on Sports Talk 790. We're along here, Matt Thomas show. Sports Talk 790. Matt's out today. Chris Gordy sitting in with Ross. Adam Lex was going to come jump in a little bit. They want to pass along some news to you guys who've been long-time listeners of Sports Talk 790. or Astros postgame shows. Our own Brian Lillima tweeted a little bit of a while ago.

He said, if you listen to us on 790, you know the voice of a loyal listener and caller named Miss Carol. Diehard Astros fan brought passion and energy every time she called our shows.

According to reports, she lost her battle with cancer just a couple of weeks ago. She was 71 years old. So, yeah, look, we loved Miss Carol. she called in for shoot closing in on a decade to all of our postgame shows and was a big part of that Astros, you know, World Series run in, what year was it?

17. They all mesh into one another now. But she was even so much so she was featured in the documentary they did commemorating the season. And she was calling in one of our shows talking about them Astros. And so, yeah, she called in some of the games. this season and I know she wasn't doing too well but she called in with her same positivity and that's what we loved about her was even after a loss

she would call in and be like you know Mr. Gordy I gotta tell you Bregman is bringing it these boys are not gonna lose and it was just she always broke that positive spirit when every other caller was like you gotta fire Jim Crate you're gonna fire the GM you gotta cut this guy like God trade Jose L too they it was always nice to get her positive call in the midst of everything. Yeah, especially after losses.

In a world where there's a lot of dark, she was always bright light. She was always positive. She was always fun. It always put a smile on my face when we put her on air. And she will be missed. Miss Carroll losing the battle with cancer, as you said, on November 16th, 71 years old, gone too soon. Yeah. It's, but, you know, Sean tweeted out, Wex tweeted out, seen several of them.

I'm going to put up a little tribute to, her on our website here on Sports 790.com. We have some pictures when Michael Connor and Matt Thomas kind of coordinated with I think Mattress Mac to get her to a game got her some really good seats and Connor taking some videos with her

and yeah, they even brought her up to the booth to meet Robert Ford and Steve Sparks. She was blind, so she listened to every game on the radio on 790. So, you know, but shout up Mattress Mac helped her. Got her to a couple games over the years too and Yeah, it just was, she was a super fan.

It was good to have her positivity and she'll be missed. Yeah, a lot of fans that we have that are blind do end up listening to the games on the radio, of course, more descriptive with Robert Ford and Steve Sparks, and she was one of them. And I think she was also displaced from New Orleans, I believe, or at least originally from New Orleans. Yeah, she was a big Saints fan. Yeah, but Katrina moved her here to Houston, and she took on the Astros, and she followed every game, became a big fan. Yeah, one of the biggest Astros.

fans. Miss Carol, rest in peace. RIP. All right, no easy way to segue out of that here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross, Chris Cordy, in here as well. We got Adam Wexer coming up in a few moments. We've been talking about a lot of different stuff going on in baseball. In the last segment now, we did do to tell the truth. And I would say, kind of halfway believe some of these opinions, but I'm with you as far as the Jim Crane thing, you snuff that one out. part of me says he has to get with the times

he has to sign someone to a long-term deal I just don't know that we're going to see it but how do the Astros keep this window open how do they keep going? If you tell me it's going to be Zach DeZenzo at first base and Shea Wickham at third base next year I'm going to tell you that they're not World Series contenders

they're not going to compete with the likes of the Orioles and the Yankees and some of those other teams in the American League Well, the only one I'll give you is if they do, if they do give out a big fat contract, I think it would be Kyle Tucker. But certainly that market has shifted with what Juan Soto has gotten. Is it Willie, is it Adamas or Adams? Yeah, Adamas, I believe. All these pronunciations. I'm sorry.

What's the one with the guy where he says, it was with the Rangers? Oh, it kills me. The name, they had two guys with the same last name, but one was pronounced differently. Oh, Lao and Low? Yeah, Lao and Low. It's the Daniel Lowe and Brandon Lowe. Get out of here with your low. Hey, your names pronounce how it's pronounced, man.

L-O-W-E is low. Rob Lowe, not Rob Lowe. Nobody says let's all go to Lows. Yeah. Let's go to Lows and pick up a circular stall. I guess it doesn't normally happen that way. Yeah, we'll see what happens with Kyle Tucker. Oh, I meant to bring it up earlier because we were talking about it with now.

Of course, Kyle Tucker didn't play a full 162 game season. and more games played by Juan Soto, only 78 by Kyle Tucker. But he had an higher OPS this year than Juan Soda did. And Juan Soto is a butcher out there in the field, quite honestly. I mean, out there in right field, he's not good. And now he gets on base like crazy, but a 993 OPS from Kyle Tucker, again, in a small sample size. And we look at both of their careers, Juan Soto is the better hitter. but a 989 OPS from Soto this past year.

And you're talking about a gold glove for Kyle Tucker. And he's going to be, what is he going to be when it's a free agency? 27, 28? He's going to be, I mean, not that much older than Juan Soto. Right now at this moment, Kyle Tucker is 27 years old. Okay, so I guess he'll be 28. If you want to give out the big fat contract, he's the one to do it. I would be fine.

And if you want to give out a 10-year deal with Kyle Tucker, I'd be fine with that. But six, if we're getting above six years on Bregman, and I love Bregman. I mean, he's an LSU guy and I've watched him all through college, getting drafted by the Astros, and I mean, everything. I hate to see him go, but it's the business. Yeah, I do as well, but you're going to have to figure something out. If, if, now you have to have, are these two things going to be true? Jim Crane has a very hard-line stance. He doesn't like signing deals over five years.

looks like six years maybe his maximum but also he has also said has come out of his mouth as long as i am owner the window is open now how do those two statements jack yeah i i don't know i i also think when you say he drives a hard line it sounds like he's being uh i don't know mean tyrant about it like it's the smart business thing is to not sign it is the very massive long-term deals with people the smart business thing and may not now we'll see now the Mets as we mentioned have been spending a ton of money they haven't won a world series but the two teams that were in the

World Series last year are two huge spenders Astros really can't keep up with those Joneses so they are going to have to have some element of building from within and then picking and choosing when it comes to free agents or free agency or their own free agents and

if is some of that picking and choosing going to be either of Alex Breggman or Kyle Tucker that's what remains to be seen probably not an Alex Bregman. And like I said, the market for Kyle Tucker just went up huge with what he provides in the field over one Soto.

Yeah, but he's not the... I mean, Soto had every big hit for the Yankees this year. And Kyle Tucker has had some postseason, swoons, we'll call it, the last couple of years. Yeah. But we'll see. Certainly, it remains to be seen.

Gordy, thanks for hanging out for a couple hours. Appreciate you. Matt Thomas is out. Gordy has been in, but now it's going to be Adam Wexler. It's also you if you'd like to get in at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790 tweets to at SportsRV and at Connor D. McGovern. Our number three of the program with Adam Wexler starts next year on Sports Talk 790. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-2-H-down. What's happening, lunch timers?

Hello and welcome into a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. We've already been going for two hours. We've got two more to go. Thanks to Chris Gordy for hanging out in the first two hours. Who do we have now? I'll tell you when we get to the news at noon. All right, truth be told, I forgot that we did this segment on Friday. I've just been getting back from out of the country, so I forgot.

Adam Wexler is here. Adam, thank you for hanging out. How are things? we don't have to talk about the Longhorns in these two hours, do we? How disappointed are we here? I don't want to talk about it. The home game they get? I would have rather them won.

And then, I mean, the Georgia path, it's not easy as people are saying, but what is it? The winner of Indiana, Notre Dame, and then probably Penn State. The path not too difficult for the Longhorns, but you have to win four games. Got to win four games. So, yeah, like you said, we're not going to talk about it as we head our way into it. You know, not a bad thing to open at home against a team that earned their way in with a win on Saturday. A pathway that takes you through Arizona State, potentially through a home game at the Cotton Bowl after that. Yes.

And then the national title game. Got to get three wins to make it all the way to the national title game. We'll see. We'll see. All right, anyways, all the top sports news items of the day. We're going to Connemoghvern. What is the news at noon? outfielder Juan Soto and the New York Mets agreeing to a 15-year $765 million contract.

And with that signing, we also get new trade rumors on Alex Bregman with the Red Sox and the Yankees reportedly interested in the third baseman. Yeah, so first of all, what was your reaction when you saw 15? I had to like triple check. That was the real Jeff Passett on Twitter. 15 years, $765 million. Yeah, first thing was, okay, he's how old now? So he's going to be getting paid. to at this level to what age and he's 26 he'll be 27 late next season so through age 41 figured

it was headed this way when people are saying what might get to 500 million he was offered over 400 million by three teams ago when he was with the national so I knew it would be well over that knowing both new york franchises were in on it but it's still an alarming figure no deferrals more than show hey and the possibility that the option that turns it into an even bigger deal my second thought was okay the I want to spend money Yankees just didn't spend any money on Juan Soto so now they have money to spend on any of the other

remaining top tier free agents whatever their names and positions might be yes yeah I mean how can you like it might be an Alex Breggman if you don't think that then you're just hoping and wishing that how could they not be interested it feels like this is going to according to plan

whose plan that would be Scott Boris's plan to where you have the biggest domino fall as he is Juan Soto's agent and well, Scott Boris also very happy with his 15-year $765 million deal. Yeah, I would wonder one other thing that maybe is in the Astros favor. He wants to break record. He, Scott Boris, wants his players to get the most they can, wants to reset the market, wants to do well by all of his other clients. Because of that, he now put this unbelievable deal together.

Is there some benchmark that Alex now has to reach? Or is that now kind of out the window because he's done this already? If Alex wants to play for 180 and Scott's trying to get him that magical 200 figure, is it that big of a deal now? To Scott, he always wants the most money for his player. I think yes. But I wonder if this allows for a different figure to be the end figure, a lower figure, for Alex, wherever he goes.

I think, of course we talked about it when it happened. The Matt Chapman deal was probably a benchmark. And now the Willie Adamas deal, although he's a shortstop with, with the Giants for $182 million there. Obviously, what is it that leaked out six years, $156 million? Right. That the Astros have offered Alex Breggman. I don't think that's anywhere close.

And I think you are going to have, the analogy I was making earlier in the show, was let's say you're shopping for a house. That house being Juan Soto. And it's well, well, well above what you really want to pay, but you're willing to do it, but you missed out, you being the Yankees. Well, you went that far over budget before, So maybe you're still willing to go over budget, maybe to a lesser extent for Alex Bregman to miss out. Because in comparison, now your mind is just, it's up in the clouds.

It's up in the $765 million clouds. $200 million doesn't sound so bad in comparison. It doesn't sound so bad. You could also spread it over multiple players to help you win, you know, a $200 million pitch or a $150 million pitcher, or $90 million dollar Christian Walker. And all of a sudden, maybe you've actually made your team even better than with just, one guy. The Adamas deal is interesting in that it's basically

Breggman's deal with one more year. It's $26 million a year for seven years. Breggman's offer from the Astros was $26 million a year for six years. That, like you said, I don't know that the Breggman offer is that far out of whack. Yeah.

So I just wonder where it is where it's going to go from here. Of course, we have much to discuss with a couple hours with you, Wex. But it's news at noon. Let's get focused on the news. What else is going on, Kana? Aaron Wilson tweeting out that the Texans have designated Christian Harris and Kenyon Green to return to practice. Yeah, surprise on one and no surprise on the other. D'Amico Rines will be hearing from shortly.

I'm sure we'll acknowledge the same. Figured as the reports from Aaron were coming the last couple of weeks, it was all trending towards Christian Harris being available to practice this week with the practice window open and hopefully being available beginning Sunday in the first of the three games Aziz al-Shayir will miss. Devin White, Neville Hewitt, Henry Toa Toa, Toa, and hopefully Christian Harris. I'm not as good as probably you are, Ross, even though it's gone now and reading into social media posts. Christian Harris is not super active on his Instagram account, but during the off week, he posted a story that made it seem like he was returning. A picture of, I think he was maybe walking down the hall or he was in the hall, in his uniform of the Texans facility.

Not a recent picture, him in uniform. Like, all right, my time to come back is there. The other part of it is rather surprising is really good news for the individual Kenyon that the opportunity for him to return before the end of the season is there. But I sure hope the Texans

don't intend on putting him on the field. You can dislike the play of Drew Scruggs all you want but you can't possibly analyze his poor play at Guard and say, yeah, it's worse than Kenyon get him back out there because it just isn't. No, I don't think so, but I mean is that what the Texans belief?

They continue to put him out there. They did. They benched him and then returned him to the game when his replacement. Right. Patterson got hurt. Then he started the next game, which happened to be on a Thursday. So a little bit of understanding there. But his play, he wasn't playing well. The interior of the line has gotten marginally better. I think the only real upgrade is Patterson's outplayed Scruggs at center.

Scruggs hasn't been great at Guard and Shaq is the same as he's been all year. It's still the weakness of this team. an additional body on game days in uniform, shouldn't be more than that if he's healthy. There is one of the fantasy writers I follow. They do a lot of data and they put a frequency of blown blocks and pressures allowed in football. Kenyon Green, the third worst in football,

6% of the time he's giving up either a blown block or a pressure. Yeah, his blown block number was out of control. The only reason he wasn't number one overall because somehow the pressure number was much lower. But yeah, the blown block number, lock number was through the roof. Yeah, and Titus Howard actually on the list of worst in football as well. Unfortunately, around 4.67% on these data points. So, Kenyon Green, we welcome you back. Maybe you need some depth if somebody gets hurt,

so that's why he's activated, but I would be upset. Designated to return. Designated to return, right? Doesn't have to, we got three weeks to decide. I said, yeah, 21-day practice window opened up, so we don't know if he'll exactly he'll be back, but we shall see. What else is in the news? Kana McGovern. Jalen Green had three. 31 points. Matt Thompson had 22 last night and when the Rockets to eat the Los Angeles Clippers 117 to 106.

Rockets were able to handle the the wall. The former Houston Rockets left-handed point guard last night. Yes, they did do that. Kevin Porter Jr. And I like the men Thompson now jokingly in the post game. Like, we're not scared on a wall. I went eight for eight from the free throw line. We ain't scared in a wall.

Rocket shot 84.6% from the free throw line. If you're not aware, the Intuit dome has this steep. I don't even what you would call it. A steep standing that has been throwing players off. They're very rowdy fans. Rockets didn't seem to mind. They got the win. And well, it was

an up and down Jalen Green game in the middle of one game because he had 31 points. He started 8 of 15 as they had to lead most of the night, finished one for five. So overall he was nine for 20. It was only his third 30 plus point game of the season. His allotment for the month is now used.

He has one a month. Is this just who he is? He's just the guy that's to have some bad games. He's going to make us believe and then he's going to go have some more bad games. As long as the basketball, he play, I'm totally fine with how he plays. I've said this many times and I know his turnover numbers aren't always great. He still drives in the lane

and doesn't finish when he gets hammered and they don't call it. But he doesn't make enough shots and that doesn't look like through three plus seasons, we're ready to see that consistently changed. October, he was unbelievable, November, a huge downturn and he's leveled a little bit here in December, but it certainly hasn't come

back up. One thing note about that game last night. They were no Fred. They had 15 turnovers in the first 28 minutes of the game. And then they didn't have another one in the final 20 minutes. That was very nice. That was very nice for them. The turnovers were a concern. I believe on the launch pad, the key to a victory

was limiting a turnovers if memory serves correct. All right, we're going to take quick break. That's Adam Wexler. I am Ross v. Rale. Matt Thomas is out. Connor McGovern is in. You want to get in. You can. Didn't even get to the college football playoff. A lot to discuss with Mr. Wexler. What is going on with the

Astros after this huge Soto deal. What's the fallout from that? Other stuff to get to as well. And you at 713, 21, 212, 790. 719. More Matt Thomas. Now on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out sleeping, or I don't know. I imagine he's awakened by now. Who knows? Adam Wexler is here. Connor McGovern is here as well. You can get in if you'd like. It's 713.

212-213-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. So I was talking about this a little bit with Gordy. That's why I like that. You know, I think two co-hosts is the move, by the way, on this four-hour show, just between you and me. Now I can talk about it with you, Wex, get a fresh perspective on the matter. We kind of talked about this as far as where it lands the Astros with Alex Bregman and possibly in the future with Kyle Tucker.

How much do these types of deals that have been made now with Shohei Otani, with Juan Soto, with some other players in the long-term deals and stuff like that? Does this affect the thinking of Jim Crane in the stance that he's had on not signing these long-term deals? Or do you think he kind of stays dead fast or maybe somewhere in between? I think a little bit depends on the players. I mean, if you were unwilling to go past five for such a long period of time and now you're willing to give Alex six and you watch Adamas get set,

those are still think are properly termed long-term deals. 15 years is not a long-term deal. That's out of control. That's not a deal. That's a marriage. Yeah, that's not something that I really think is a part of the conversation. Kyle Tucker's name came up almost immediately because I think he's viewed by some as the next great free agent outfielder,

not this marketplace, but potentially next year when his last year of control is up if there is no extension to remain. I'm not sure that the wide view, the Major League Baseball view, the general manager's view, the team owner and president's view of Kyle's Tucker is quite that high. I think he's really, really good. I think he might be the best player available in any said outfield free agent market, but I don't anticipate him getting some unbelievable deal. If he was there when like Trey Turner and Corey Seeger and Marcus Simeon got ridiculous money, yeah, he was probably in the Turner Simeon category. And I just don't

think anybody that signed any of those deals is like, yeah, we need to do that again. And I know Bryce Harper and Manny Machado got crazy big deals, Tatis as well. I'm not, I don't, my guess is he's not viewed quite like that, although the next 162 might change

that. He was really good last year. He just missed half the season. Yeah. I mean, last year, OPS Plus of Juan Soto 178. OPS Plus of Kyle Tucker 181. And we're talking about Gold Glove right field. Of course I'm not saying 15 years, $700 plus million for Kyle Tucker.

But what is it? I mean, tell me what I'm not necessarily what I'm missing. But if we go to career numbers, I think it's 160 for Soto and 139 for... Big difference. Big difference. Career-wise. Yeah. But what Kyle Tucker can also bring in the field, I just, maybe I'm just getting worried,

maybe I'm just getting scared. I don't think it's going to be 15 years anywhere near 700 million or anything like that. You're also talking about a bidding war. between two New York teams. That's not going to happen. In this case, I don't think either. But, I mean, is it crazy to think now that maybe some sort of 10-year deal for Kyle? If he follows up last year, his best career year at the plate with something similar, he's going to be two years older. But, I mean, is some kind of 10-year, $400 million deal? Is that going to be the craziest thing ever? The way that the market looks like it's going?

I think it is, but what it does probably do is ensure what we already knew, what would possess Kyle Tucker to stay in this next year. I mean, he might stay after the year. He might sign with the Astros after he hits the market, after he sees what he can get, and they go above and beyond to keep him. But he sees what money is out there. I'm sure he has a pretty good idea of what players might be out there,

which won't include Juan Soto, which won't include Shohay Otani, but will likely, if he wants to include him. I think that's what it really tells me. It tells me that he's going to want to get to the market. He probably already did. I think he and his agency probably already did. Their dealings with the Astros might have also sent him in that direction, because I don't think he's been too pleased with how each of the one-year deals, whether it's through arbitration or however they've gotten there each of these last few years, has been too pleasing to him.

But you do have to, on the other side of it, those numbers are great in all last year in 78 games. Has he not had another 78 game stretch in the middle of one of these other seasons where he was really, really good or the opposite? it, they were pretty far above and beyond for a 130. His OPS Plus, I imagine, heading into last year, it was probably like 136, it's 139 now, and he went to 181.

His career OPS was in the 860s. Last year it was 993. Those are pretty big leaps. Those are $400 million numbers. If he had done it more often, and that's the difference between him and Soto. Every single season of Soto's career has been incredible from the moment

he got here. And last year, even better as he had the best possible offensive protection ever, or certainly in the last 20 years, hitting in front of Aaron Judge, the kind of year Aaron Judge had was incredible, and he took advantage of it. Well, first of all, I'm going to agree with you, Juan Soto's better than Kyle Tucker. But I'm just saying the way that he played, and it also was two different stints, because he got that, he was still really good at the plate when he got back from that injury. It's not like he completely fell off a cliff. he was keeping up to that numbers that he did early on in the season. So we're going to get a whole other year of sample size. It's also going to be another year that he's going to have to stay healthy.

Not that it's ever really been a question mark, but to me, I mean, I've argued ad nauseum with Matt about the injury prone thing and how much that factors and that could if he suffers another major injury and he misses a significant time next year. So the time will tell. But, I mean, you just put it all together that he's young. He's under 30. He's got a gold glove. he is, I mean, has shown the capability to be one of the plus plus hitters on the planet.

Obviously, he's hitting the free market and we'll see what happens. But I'm just thinking even more so that he was gone. It feels like after this deal, it's even more in my mind further away that there's any opportunity where the Astros entertain keeping Kyle Tucker, which also says, what does this team look like in a couple of years with no Alex Bregman and with no. Kyle Tucker. You should be saying that in an office next to Jim Crane because he has to see that too. Like this window that he claims is always going to be open. Yes, he said it. His words. Right. So, okay, don't spend $180 to $200 million on Alex Breggman. Don't spend $300 million on Kyle Tucker. If you don't spend significant money because we know what the system is like or make some significant

trades because Kyle Tucker obviously could be a trade chip if you so choose, how is that window going to even remain slightly ajar. You're not even going to have the strength to pick up a rock and break the window if those two players aren't teammates with Jose Altuva and Yordon Alvarez and nobody of significance becomes a teammate. That's just why I'm glad you brought this up because I had this epiphany. I was out of the country for a couple of weeks and one of the people that I was traveling with is a Houston sports fan and we just ended up talking a lot of Houston sports and that's kind of this, I don't know to say realization. It wasn't necessarily an epiphany, but it's It's like, I think they should be looking to move Kyle Tucker this offseason.

I think they should be looking to move Framber Valdez this off. Rip the Band-Aid off, get a couple of prospects. If you're not going to sign Alex Breggman, if you're not going to re-sign Kyle Tucker anyways, sure, you can maybe make one last dance next year, but Jose L Tuvae is getting older and older. You're missing out all in all these guys. You do have some young pitchers who are still going to be under control in a couple years, but if you can get some fruit born from those two marquee players to where

two impact players from those trades. If you're lucky three, and then you still have Yordon Alvarez's prime. Some of the young pitching will be coming into its own. Then in a couple of years, you can talk about prying another window open with Yordaun Alvarez as the marquee name on that. Jose Altuva being at the end of his career, that's kind of the only path I can think of to where the window closes for a couple of years, but then you can try and pry it back open in a couple of more years if you get the right prospect.

Yeah, that's a tough one in Fromber's case, to me, maybe more so than Tucker, even though I like the idea of moving on from him just not in the super short term this last year. If you move on from him now, I'm not sure what you're getting in terms of 26-man help for 2025, who's going to actually be on this year's team that can help you in the fact that he's gone, and you're one couple, you know, if one of your starters has a two-month injury, I'm not even trying to say something crazy. you're in awful, awful shape from a pitching standpoint. If you're trading Frumber, you're counting on Hunter Brown to be an ace immediately. Right now, right out of the gate. He's your opening day starter and has to give you 30 plus starts at the level he pitched last year. You're counting on Luis Garcia to come back. You're counting on the good Spencer Arrigetti from late in the season to be there with you all year after he just threw a career high innings by a lot.

You're counting on Ronell Blanco repeating his first ever strong major league season. as much as it might make sense for the long term with Frumber, I don't know how you could have 20, 25 Houston Astros starting pitching and feel good about it if he's not in it. You're not going to feel good about it. You're not going to win next year. You're probably not winning next year anyways. Even if you sign Alex Pregman. Can you win the Division?

Yeah, probably. And if you can do that, isn't the baseball playoff makeup just a little bit different? Yeah, you're looking to roll the dice and get lucky rather than be a favorite. I would rather, you know, we're use in the years past for the Astros being a favorite, not one of the, of the plucky underdogs that we're the Cleveland Guardians and we're looking to surprise some people in a seven game series. So I'm saying if you could take that now

to where you trade both of them away and then in a couple of years, it's all in exact science, right? But if you can do that, you putt, basically punt on the next couple of years and then by the end of Yordawn's prime, that's when you're hopefully back in it with some of these draft picks with some of the prospects that you've traded for. It's tough, considering what Altuve said the day he signed his extension, what he said all year about Bregman staying.

And you're getting the five worst years of Jose Altuve's career, probably over the course of his contract, just for where he is. You've got four more years of Josh Hater, none of which look like elite Josh Hater. Very good Josh Hater, but not elite Josh Hater. And then there's Jordan. I mean, these guys are going to be out there making their money on a team that's winning 83. games? I mean, they could, if they lose out on Breggman, how many games are going to win next year anyways?

That's what I'm saying. You go from Lou, you're hoping to win 90 games to just going to 80, 75 games and then hopefully you can kind of hit the reset button. Rather than a full five-year rebuild, you try to you try to just

shored up for a couple of years. Kind of it's like a soft take. Like what Darrell Mori did with the Rockets when they were going like 40 and 42 for a couple years. All that sounds not so awful, but why couldn't you envision the Astros basically doing a Rangers? Rangers won 90 games in 2023 in the World Series.

Last year, they won 78 games without trying to do a soft... We're talking about the Astros winning 85, why wouldn't they fall to 75 or 76 or 3rd or 4th place? And that's okay. It's going to hurt. We're going to take a lot of Fire Joe Espada calls here on Sports Talk 790, but if

if you're going to get prospects in the pipeline from it, I just don't know what the their solution is. They have to be at the top of the pipeline and with very as close to being obviously stars as you can be. If you haven't played any major league baseball, nobody's a given. They're not going to get anybody at that level, but you've got to get players that you don't have any question about. They're going to be major leaguers for you almost as soon as possible. All right. We've got to talk about this more, but it's time for a break here on the Matt Thomas

show with Ross. That's Adam Wexler. I'm Ross. Vioriel. How hairbrained is my idea? just trade away Tucker and Valdez, rip the Band-Aid off, and hopefully contend in a couple more years. 7-13-213-21-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90, of course. Still have to get into college football. Playoff stuff. We got NFL stuff.

A ton of stuff to get to here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, with you until 2 o'clock. The most awkward nooner you'll ever be a part of. This is the Matt Thomas show. Rolling along here on. Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Adam Wexler.

Wow, that's the longest show name I think in the history of sports radio. Connor McGuteron here as well. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. 7-13-212-5-790 from our friends at MLB Trade Rumors.com, the latest on Alex Bregman. Rob Bradford of W.EEI reporting last night that the Red Sox, quote, may immediately be prioritizing, end quote, a pursuit of Bregman in the aftermath of Soto's signing as they look to use those funds to sign other top free agents. And Bob Nightingale reporting this morning, the Yankees are expected to make a run at free agency's top infielder as well. Yeah, I mean, there's maybe four or five, Anthony Santander, Christian Walker, Pete Alonzo,

Willie Adamas, Juan Soto, Alex Breggen. These are the top free agents available, offensively speaking. Two of them are off the board, Adamas and Juan Soto. Any team that was interested in them is probably interested in the ones that remain. While they are all essentially corner infielers, Bregman might give you a touch of positional flexibility if he's willing and you have any reason to. But bottom line is these teams that were willing to spend on those other two players, Okay, well, if they didn't get them, they're going to be willing to spend on them. I think Bradford's one of the things he said, you think he did a radio interview this morning,

speaking on that or earlier today, speaking about the Red Sox, whom he covers, I think what they are focused on is Alex Bregman, and I wouldn't have said that 24 hours ago. It checks off a lot of boxes from what I hear. This is a very, very real thing. This is the master plan, Scott Boris. You're going to have people scrambling to spend some money. They're going to swing and miss on Wonsoto. And then that means you're going to go after the bridesmaid.

You're going to scramble for something else. And you're going to still want to make a splash in $200 million or whatever it's going to end up being. It's going to pale in comparison to $765 million. I think this is just, I think everything's going according to plan for this offseason for Alex Bregman and Scott Boris. You know, six years 156. The Astros offer $26 million a year. Six years, 180. That's $30 million.

a year. Six years to 100. Well, now you're in 13 change per year, which is nothing compared to what was just signed by Juan Soto. It's nothing compared to show, hey, I don't think Alex Bregman is on either one of their levels. It shouldn't be anywhere close to that. But it also, very quickly

from 26 per year to 30 per year to 33 per year, just going from 156 to 180 to 200, those sound like the figures that have the Astros looking elsewhere and knowing this is not an area they want to go. I mean, I mean, I could be wrong, but that's what it sounds like if it gets to that point.

Yeah, it feels like it's going to be long gone for the Astros. I just think they're not going to be able to keep up with the bidding from these other teams. And I'm starting to lean, the Yankees just lost out for Juan Soto to the New York Mets. Do you think they're going to want to lose out on Alex Bregman to the Boston Red Sox? I mean, how much does that factor in, do you think? Well, it probably does, but you also have to consider just their own. They should be worried about themselves, and they never seem to be. They were worried about everybody else.

Brian Cashman is worried about everyone else. Come on, man. Everybody. Like, I know the Astros live rent-free in his head, but I feel like everybody does. Like, you went to the World Series finally after what clearly was the best external move he's ever made. Adding Juan Soto, better than Garrett Cole, better than anything else he's ever done, to put a player that wasn't a Yankee to begin with on his team. And because Aaron Judge is so awful in the playoffs, one of the reasons,

They still came up short. How far short are they going to be without Juan Soto? Alex Bregman's not going to put them in the same position they were in a year ago. It's going to take much more than that. I go back to what I said earlier this. The Yankees without Soto need three or four major signings, I think, to put them where they were, just where they were a year ago. Right now, they're just another American League team. There's five or six teams that fancied themselves as World Series contenders.

Maybe the Astros are part of that. The Yankees are no better than any of them. Today, without Juan Soto. Well, their defenses get a lot better if they sign Bregman. Sure. Maybe their base running to get better, too. Hopefully, it could get much worse. I mean, that's the other part.

That's so funny about the Yankees and all their spending and all their talent and all their millionaires and billionaires. They play baseball so badly. Like, they can hit gargantuan homers and they can throw 99 mile an hour strikes, and they've got all these guys who throw nothing but gas coming out of their bullpen. But then the game itself, the part of the game that 10-year-olds know how to play, they can't do it. Well, a lot of the defense and positioning and base running and stuff like that, I think a lot of that is intertwined with analytics. And, you know, Brian Cashman always brags about how little they spend or how little their staff is with analytics.

And that's a huge part of that. It's awesome. They are making it easier for teams who have less money and arguably less talent. But, you know, I was looking at their roster without, just look at what they had last year. And there's a few other free agents that might not be back. Rizzo and Glebert Torres, obviously now Juan Soto. they literally have one good hitter. It's Aaron Judge. They don't have any other good...

They don't have any plus hitters. Austin Wells is close because he's a catcher who's to say what he'll do in year two. But everybody else is a below average hitter, below average OPS, below average OPS plus. They don't have good plate discipline. They're miserable base runners if they even have any speed and they're not awesome defensive.

I mean, it's not a great roster now. It was made to look great when the two... I mean, outside of Bobby Witt, the two of the top three hitters in the American League, and they were healthy. They had four guys play 150 plus games last year. You think it's going to happen again?

Probably not. Probably not. And what do you make of, I always talk about short sample sizes in the playoffs and maybe we're under the microscope and we make too much of it, for example, Kyle Tucker is bad in the playoffs the last couple of years. And Jose Al-Tuvae had a horrible 2022,

but the Astros still won the World Series, but he's obviously come up clutch in big situations. Is Aaron Judge just a, bad playoff hitter because of his style or is he having some bad luck? That's what I wonder. Bad luck is tough, man. It sure hasn't seem like bad luck. He's been terrible for a lot. He's facing different teams, different pitchers with different arsenals. His book remains the same.

They're studying the same hitter. They're pitching coaches and their catchers and their department is saying this is what works against him. Do we have the pitchers to throw these pitches? And the answer is always yes. And they keep making him look back. His strikeout numbers aren't accidental. They're astrifice. They're always like that, right. And in the postseason, they just do nothing but get worse. I mean, the Higoshiyaka signing earlier this offseason, someone's like, oh, who's this guy? The Rangers added him as their backup catcher, I guess, said, well, he's one of the many players who had the same number of postseason home runs as Aaron Judge did last year.

Three, he only played in a couple series. Aaron Judge played all the way through to the World Series. He just has been so under, and the Astros have had firsthand knowledge of it. It's, you know, the Astros, if the Astros had less talent, then Kyle Tucker's postseason issues would be glaring. But they have Alex Breggman and they have Jose Altuve and they have Yordaun Alvarez. These are all plus postseason performers. These two of them are historical postseason performers. Before that, they had George Springer winning MVP.

They had Jeremy Pena winning a pair of MVPs. And of course, Correa. The Yankees don't have that. I mean, Stanton's a better postseason hitter than Judge. He has been. But it also is so bad at everything else. Can't move, can't run, can't feel the position. Drop the ball in the World Series.

Yeah, this is, even though it might end up hurting the Astros in a different way, because he went to a National League team, Juan Soto. So all these American League teams that need to get better, including the Yankees, well, they might be willing to spend more money on Alonzo, on Bregman, on Christian Walker. Because now, well, the Yankees window is no more open than our. The Oriol, anyone could think we can get past them. Well, the good thing is, though, is that Aaron Judge, he's a bargain now. $40 million a year?

I mean, that's a steal. Hey, Aaron, how fast are you going to go to Brian's door and knock and say, hey, man, can I get a raise? You got nine years, $360 million of $40 million a year. And apparently that's a bargain now in today's Major League Baseball with that deal from Soto. Okay, time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas with Adam Wexler. You want to talk to some baseball? We're doing that now at 713.

212 570. 713, 212 5790. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV at Adam J. Wexler as well with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas Life Goals. Watch, cheer, win, repeat. Oh, you thought I was talking about sports? Hell no. Matt has serious prices, right dreams.

How he has time for sports in between reruns Just boggles the mind Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross A lot of stuff to get to here until 2 o'clock At which point it'll be Adam Wexler who is with me now Put in six hours, I'm proud of you And you were working late last night too Sunday night NBA basketball

It was good night for the Rockets to get back home you know, to play on the West Coast for the week, not be very happy with the way they played in Golden State, not winning in Sacramento, and then taking care of a team that was beyond wounded. They barely had any available players by the end of the game, talking about the clippers. So just take care of it.

Take care of business. You've won 16 of your first 24 games. You've had a lot of impressive wins there. You're winning on the road, which they could not do a year ago. And they're able to do that on any given night because they play defense every single night. Yes, some nights they don't make three. what happened in that game against Golden State where it was a 99 to 93 in 2024 an NBA basketball game.

I couldn't believe it, except I could because, well, sometimes the rockets don't shoot so well from three. They are in the bottom five in the NBA and three-point shooting. They were 26 last night, and then they had a little bit better night. They might have moved to 25 or 24. Let's hope they could get in the top 25, baby. That's what I'm hoping for. One of the things I mentioned before tip-off, 37 percent, if you shoot 37 percent for three, you'd be 13th in the NBA.

So it's not overwhelming. It's the middle of the pack. It's good, but it's not unbelievable. The Rockets have shot 37% on threes in seven of their 24 games. They're undefeated in those games. Okay. If they shoot a reasonable number, which is more than what you'd expect for the players that they have, they win. If they can just make a few more, and they're getting wide open looks, that's what is both unfortunate and worrisome at the same time. There are shots that you would expect most teams.

to have players that can hit. And there's a little balance of, well, we're putting out a team that's going to stop the other team. But it's not an ideal lineup of, or roster maybe even of three-point shooters. 33% on the season, which is still good for 26. So you brought up the 37 number. When is the last time you think they shot at or above that number? Like 2018, maybe? Oh, for a season.

Yeah. Like a team, as a team, the Houston Rockets. because Darryl Morey brought the three-ball revolution here to Houston, and it feels like you've just not had any sharpshooters this entire run, except for like Ryan Anderson. Yeah, and the group they have on the road should be a little, like, you should be able to get Dylan Brooks to 36%. He's getting nothing but wide-open looks.

Fred Van Bleep probably shoots more than he could to reach that number because he isn't wide open nearly as often as everybody else. A lot of them are off the dribble, a lot of them are off of stepbacks. Same thing for Jalen Green. I wonder what his numbers look like. There's probably a tiny sample size. What he shoots when he's catch and shoot or coming off a Stephen Adams screen.

And there was one game where it was just like five or six trips over a one quarter period. He got five great three-point looks just because he was playing two-man game with Stephen Adams. They made three out of those shots. But they've had year, like you brought up more, and everybody should be thinking of how awful it was then. awful in a bad way because the green light was so bright for Corey Brewer and Josh Smith,

some of the all-time, literally all-time worst three-pointers in NBA history that shoot it at their volume. Guys that are Russell Westbrook. Terrible. These guys are good basketball players. They help the Rockets do some of the things they wanted to do. But he didn't. Donatus, you want to shoot a three? Go right ahead.

Terrence Jones, fire away. I don't care if they go in was their attitude, which, you. clearly was maddening because you certainly could have gotten better shots, but threes, dunks, and layups. That's our end-down free throws. Threes, shots at the rim and free throws, it was clearly followed by a lot of NBA teams. And now there's a little bit of a shift in the other direction. Mid-range shots aren't taboo.

Amend Thompson is working on having a mid-range game. He needs to stop working on that. It's too flat. Yeah, but you can't not do it. Yeah. Jabari Smith, Jr., same thing. If you eliminate it from these young players arsenal, they're not going to get any good looks ever. I do want to commend amend for where he's shooting his threes from.

He made that corner three last night. That made him 9 of 20 on the season on corner threes. He's awful everywhere else, pretty much unmacable from everywhere else. So just shoot corner threes. You keep getting in the corner and they keep leaving you. Well, teammates go find him there. Well, hopefully they are going to go find him. All right, I think I found it.

I went back into the archives. They've been 36.6 and 36.7 recently. But to go back to 37% from 3, 2007 Houston Rockets. Do you know where that ranked them league-wide? I think 5th. And again, 36.8% now is probably 15th or 16th. Yeah, 5th. That's pretty good.

I mean, that's maybe what you should be looking at. You need to be one of the... 15th. I mean, 15th would be great. great from 26th. The last time they were in the top 15 and three point percentage was 2019 they were 12th.

And it just sounds like there's a little give and take. There's a little balancing act. They are elite defensively. They're one of the five best defensive teams in the NBA pretty much by anything you want to look at. They're one of the best rebounding teams in the NBA. Another reason why they won last night, they hammered the

clippers on the boards at 21 second chance points. It does come at the expense of apparently guys that can't shoot quite as well. Fill in the blank for me. If Jalen Green could consistently shoot 38% from 3,

he would be a top blank player in the league. No worse than the top 30. I'm thinking it's like top 15. I'm wondering if that would be enough to get him top 15 because when we start walking through the best 15 players in the league, it's going to sound pretty awesome. But yeah,

that's true. I think that's probably what you would have because it would be with ease. from averaging 19 points a game to 24 points a game. It's going to make his drives to the basket that much easier because they have to close out on you a little bit harder. They're not going to go under screens as much. All those things come into play when you shoot at that.

It's not even that 38's such a crazy number. It is when you compare to where he is now in 32 or 33 range. That's a huge jump. Yes. And he's a high volume shooter. Very high volume. Maybe a little too high volume. But I mean, his 30, I think he's right around 33%, which is basically what the average.

average for the team is. So you go under when you're talking about guys like I'm in Thompson overall who's been making the corner threes but Alpern Shinkoon, Fred Van Fleet's numbers I do expect to go up at some point. So it will go up, it will get better. But I think, of course, limiting the ceiling of where this rocket's

team can do go is their lack of three point shooting. And we mentioned Jalen Green. He clearly shoots more than anybody else on this team. It's far from a man, Jalen can't shoot, but everybody else can't. It's the opposite. Nobody on this team is

on the plus side. It's been a very tough start. In rotation minutes, Reed Shepard, he's not done anything that wows you yet as a shooter. He's missed far more often than I think people expected. You've got Jabari Smith Jr.'s in a nice little groove right now. He's

up his season numbers to 35. I mentioned Dylan Brooks. He's up at 38 plus. But everybody else is at 33% or worse. All of them. Not good. That's why the team is at 33%. I don't want to talk about it. All right, quick break here on the Mad Thomas show with Ross. That is Adam Wexer. When we come back, what, if anything, needs to be changed with the college football playoff? And did the committee get it right? I will ask Adam Wexer when we come back. Also, I want your thoughts at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross is next. Timers. This is the Matt Thomas show.

Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out on a travel day back from Los Angeles. As the Rockets defeat the Los Angeles Clippers last night, he will be back tomorrow in his stead. Well, for the first couple hours, we had Chris Gordy talking a lot of college football with him. About to talk some college football with Adam Wexler, and you can get him at 713-21. 5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. So let's just go ahead and get this out of the way, Wex. Now, I think you were a little bit busy during some of the Longhorns SEC championship game for a. I really wanted them to win, not necessarily because of the playoffs or the buy or anything,

just so that you could say, oh, winning the SEC is hard. What do you mean? Texas did it in their first year, but they didn't. I also like the opportunity to say, well, Texas is, beat every team on their schedule this year. Yes, exactly. They'd be cool. You can still say they're undefeated against anybody not named Georgia. They are, but it also gives everyone the ammunition if they don't respect Texas A&M of saying, yeah, but who did they beat?

Texas A&M obviously was a respectable team late in the season. They certainly weren't playing their best and obviously suffered most, if not all, of their losses. There were so many teams that were just like Texas from a scheduling standpoint, though. Indiana is probably the biggest case. you have these bloated conferences and they put out the schedule. Indiana had a cakewalk of a big 10 schedule. If you sucked, you were on Indiana schedule.

Oh, and then they played Ohio State and lost. And in Texas' case, if you were in the lower tier of the SEC, well, then you were on Texas' schedule this year and they beat them all. I mean, that's just the way it was. Oh, and they played Georgia and they lost. I mean, Penn State was in a similar situation. Oregon was in a similar situation. Oregon happened to win that one game against somebody, but so many teams just didn't play the top tier.

I mean, even you could argue Clemson was similar to that. Miami, like these teams, Miami SMU Clemson, well, they didn't play each other. These are the three best teams in the conference. They never played each other until the conference title game. It's going to happen again and again and again if they don't change the way that these conferences operate. They certainly should. Hopefully the SEC is planning on going to a ninth. conference game after this upcoming season.

I think that would alleviate some of it, not all of it, but some of it. And it won't necessarily be Texas, Indiana, and any of these teams in a couple of years, it'll be some other team where you're trying to guess exactly how strong they are, knowing that it's clear other teams played a tougher schedule. All that being said, the 12 teams that are there, four auto bids plus Boise is essentially an auto bid. Notre Dame by winning. I didn't mention Notre Dame.

Nobody had an easier schedule than Notre Dame. And again, it's some years USC and the other teams on their schedule are reasonably good opponents. This year they weren't. Texas lined up Michigan early in the season, off a national title. Okay, Michigan wasn't very good. You know, it looked like Georgia did the same thing with their non-conference. Oh, great. They scheduled Clemson.

They're always good. Well, until this year, oh, wait, until the end of the year, when they are good because they just won the ACC. I do think, based on all the results and watching the team's play, these were the 12 teams that they should have placed in the field. I tend to agree with you. And I also think we kind of forget this year to year. It feels like there's something that happens. It's a wild year.

And this year, to me, wild more than others, with Alabama losing late in the season or losing to the Vanderbilt in Oklahoma, with Ole Miss losing to Florida. Like the water's got more muddy this year than maybe. I mean, we'll see. Going forward, I don't know that there'll be as many crazy. upsets as there were this year. And in a vacuum, you know, you have the Alabama A.D. talking about,

we're not going to schedule anybody in the Congress. You already didn't schedule anybody. They tried with Wisconsin, like Texas tried with Michigan. I don't even feel that's the same. Wisconsin's a reasonably good team. Michigan's playing for national titles. Right. But that was also, when did the Michigan home and home get scheduled, like six, seven years ago or whenever it was? And that's the thing with scheduling these non-cons. But at some point in the season, you have to turn your radar on to, here's how we make the playoffs. And I'm sure Alabama did and how easy would it have been to get there. Don't get embarrassed by Oklahoma. Embarrassed. Embarrassed Banderbilt. Earlier in the year, clearly. Vanderbilt played six teams with a winning record this year. They lost to all of them,

except for Alabama. Vanderbilt's not good. Oklahoma, not good. You lost to both of them. There's no argument left. And yet still you were rated above South Carolina and Ole Miss, who also didn't make it because of the same things. I think we put the exact same resume, and we call them Mississippi State. They're not anywhere to where they were, and the Alabama AD isn't whining. And as Gordy pointed out earlier in the show, put it a good way. If Oklahoma and Vandy don't beat Alabama, they're not bowl eligible this year. They were five wins.

They have five. Without their wins against Bama. So no argument for me with Bama, but what do you think? about going forward about the paths to the playoffs and especially the auto bids boise state being a top four seed a Arizona state being a top four seed do you think they should two questions should they change that and will they change that let me start with Arizona state Arizona state's four so you got eight teams seated behind them the five through 12s who do you think's better than Arizona state who do you feel supremely confident in that eight team group is better

better than Arizona State besides Texas? All of them? Okay, I'm curious. I don't know that everybody believes that. No, not Boise State, not Indiana, maybe. You really don't think Tennessee and Arizona State's close to an even matchup. SMU, Arizona State. Penn State is better.

They're close enough. Like, what did Penn State tell you about their team this year that makes you so confident? They're clearly better than Arizona State. I wouldn't say clearly, but I would say they would say, who would they be favored against in a, in a Vegas sense, in those teams? I would say they'd be favored against Boise State, probably Indiana, and then outside of that, I don't know. And Arizona State had a loss without their starting quarterback this year. That's true. They might have been 12 and 1, but they were 11 and 1 when their starter was out there.

And just to kind of... Wait, then why is Georgia number 2? What do you mean? Their starting quarterback is that. But he played. He played that game. Yeah, he handed the ball off. He played in the worst half.

Oh, my God. The good half was when he left. I still don't want to talk about this. Well, there is, there is, there are. are no confirmed reports, just because we're on it. Indications for those close to the program are that it is some sort of UCL injury for Beck, and he's probably unavailable for the Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl is Georgia's first game.

The first game for the four teams that are off, they don't happen until either December 31st or January 1st. So there's still three weeks between now and then. They have the last of the four quarterfinal games, the evening game on January 1st. Did you get some appreciation from Ohio State's? football social post about their game against Tennessee, a night game in Columbus on December 21st. No, I did not see it. It was a picture of a player basically breaking the shackles away from the noon kickoff

that they are saddled with all year long because of their Fox contract. The big game for Fox, they always want it to be at noon or 11 a.m. And that's where they've been playing all year. Now they get a primetime night game. That's what prime time is. against Tennessee. So they were celebrating that a little bit. I think it's because of the, it's almost like they were trying to be nice to the conferences. Look, we want you to be a part of it. You might not be as good as us. This is the SEC talking. So we'll give you an additional off week and you don't

have to win four times. You only have to win three. And it turned out that two of the four teams that got that are not anywhere near two of the four best teams. Yeah. I just, do you want to reseed another topic? I think reseed should be actually absolutely happen. reseeding rather than the bracket is and then but do you go on the seating based on the seating with the conference championships or do you go to the seating based on the playoff rankings after i think once you've set the one through 12 you reseed off of that you reseed yeah i think many people who favor that are looking at oregon is the number one team in the country they went undefeated they went to a new conference and won every game and should they win or should obviously they're waiting for an opponent they're going to have to beat ohio state for a second time or they're going to have to beat tennessee just to move on just to get a win in the playoffs. And Texas is on their side, but at some point, somebody has to be on your side. I don't think their path is hard,

per se. They also get to play in the Rose Bowl. They didn't send Arizona State to the Fiesta Bowl. They did send Georgia. I mean, there are some benefits to where these teams are. I don't know that it's a home game for Georgia at the Sugar Bowl, but it's probably pretty close. Yes.

And, you know. And they're taking on the winner of Indiana, Notre Dame. That's why I won a Texas. Texas should have won, man. if they had a won that game. It's not an easy path. Yeah. But it's only three games.

It's an easier path. If all you change is the outcome of the SEC title game and you put Georgia at five and Texas at two. Yes. Texas plays in the Sugar Bowl against the winner of Notre Dame, Indiana. Yes. Then they play the winner of Boise, Penn State, SMU. Now they would be going to the Orange Bowl instead of the Cotton Bowl. Okay.

Whatever. You're worried more about the opponent than how loud the fans are. Well, give me one second on that. win? At what point in the game did you feel confident, if at all, that the Longhorns were winning? I think when they were driving for a field goal, I said to myself, they're going to get a touchdown.

They're going to win this game. The last drive of the game where they're tied. And I was wrong. And I was let down by... So this is only five minutes of game time after the U.S. interception, but the defense stopped them. They were on the move. They got into great position to have opportunities to score the game winning touchdown. When it hit

overtime, as you would say, how we feeling? How are we feeling? I was actually feeling they were going to win in overtime. Did you like you got the backup quarterback. You've got this dominant defense. They're going to be just good enough. They just have to slightly edge over Georgia. They have to stop the run because I didn't think the backup quarterback was going to be able to do much of anything. And I thought they were going to win the game. I thought they were going to win the game. Bird Auburn connects and you're up 1916 in overtime. How are we feeling? I thought we were going to go to a second overtime. Okay. And then

Carson Beck, limp arm Carson Beck, hands off. And the whole, the whole, the whole. whole world knows that they're running and then they can't make a stop. It was quite deflating. Yeah. It was quite deflating. Well, then again, these are the end of the game scenarios we're pointing at. There were 55 other minutes of football that certainly could have provided for a very, very, very different outcome. Don't block the receiver when you should be getting a pick six.

Yes, I was, I was busy during most of the second half of that game. I was sitting courtside at U of H. Butler, little hoops, thanks to Bud Light. hooking me and some winners up to go see that. You need some budlights. But I will say, and I did enjoy some bud lights there, courtside. The people sitting to my left who are the winners and the people who have season tickets to my right, pretty much everybody was still keeping an eye on what was going on there. In fact, the person sitting next to me had it up on her phone. And I said, what's your interest in the Texas game? And she said, well, my husband played here at U of H, so we hate Texas. Their interest was in the Georgia game.

Don't get me. Don't even get me started on those coogs fans. I understand it. There's a lot of built-up frustration over the years of playing together and then not playing together. Yeah, seriously. You've been out of each other's conferences for what? 25 plus years now at this point? Weren't they in the same conference last year? Oh, yeah, I guess for one year. That doesn't count. Anyways, now I'm upset. Thank you, Wex. Good job. All right. We're going to take quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

My name is Ross. V. Real. Adam Wexler is here. Matt is out resting. Connemoguverns here. You can talk with us about anything. We've been talking about the Soto contract, what it means for Bregman and the Astros, what it means for Tucker and the Astros. Did the playoff committee get it right with their 12 teams? Anything you want to get to, 713-21-5-7-90. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90.

But before we do get to that break, I have an important question. How you feel about yourself in your day-to-day life? How did you feel when your alarm went off this morning? Did you want to hit snooze? you didn't want to get out of bed, or you're somebody that couldn't wait to tackle today. That's cool. That's you. But if you're somebody that's been feeling demotivated, it's been an issue with weight loss, muscle tone, with libido, with energy in general.

Maybe you should get your testosterone levels checked. Maybe you should go to the best place in town that is synergenics. Why are they the best? Because they have clinics all over town. Because you're going to get a personalized TRT plan that is going to be more advanced than the basic standard therapy. You're going to get with the other providers. and the professionals at Centrogenics are experts with G-L-P-1 weight loss. You can be evaluated for prescription weight loss medications.

So stop waiting. Don't even try to wait to the new year. Just get the ball rolling now to start looking and feeling your best. Book that appointment at Centrogenicshealth.com. That's S-Y-N-E-R-GenXHealth.com. CentrogenicsHealth.com for Centrogenics, testosterone, and weight loss. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. 120 in the p.m. here on Sports Talk 790.

It's the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas, with Ross, and with one of the Adams. Adam Wexler is here. Adam Clienton will join him 2 to 6 here on Sports Talk 790. Happy to be with you folks. Where the phone lines are open if you'd like to get in at 713-212-5-790. Talking a little bit of college football in the last segment about the brats. racket that was made. So you said you feel like they got the 12 teams in that needed to be in. Now, I don't necessarily, they're not going to change anything about the automatic bids, but do you think they change to reseating and or the not top four for conference champions?

I would like them just go one through 12 and then, okay, Arizona State gets in, that's fine. But whatever seed they are as deemed by the committee, that's where you are. Clemson 12, Arizona State would be 11, Boise State would be 10, and then everybody else probably in SMU maybe 9 or somewhere in that neighborhood, and everything kind of slots in place. Although, again, interestingly, SMU is 11th and Clemson is 12th, even though I think we know which team is better because they just played. So I could see that happening, and I wonder,

do you think there would be coaches pushback if they even had a voice to the reseeding? Like Georgia, for instance, I know Kirby Smart was at. asked about Indiana and Notre Dame, and he doesn't really know anything about them. So how many teams are going to be scouting? They have about 12 days between when the game was played and how much, then they know who they're there. Well, yeah, about 10 days to prepare.

That's more than enough time, right? I would say so. You have a huge staff, you're a billion-dollar organizations. Should they have any concern about having no knowledge at all who they're playing, basically, until all four of the quarterfinals have been played out. No, no, I mean, the NFL recedes every week, and yeah, you do a little bit of studying on both teams.

They have, God knows how many people are on the stabs of these college football teams with graduate assistants and all that type of stuff. I mean, no, I think reseeding to me would be the way to go. Yeah, you want, if you're, especially, I think if you do both, that makes the most sense. I mean, Oregon's the number one team, okay? it's a second bonus if you do re-seed because now any huge upset they're really benefiting from you think

they're catching a 12 seed or whatever seed, the worst seed that has advanced plus they've already gotten an additional week off plus they're playing most of the time in a reasonably regional helpful spot and they are there at the Rose Bowl I can see these things being discussed

and I would think that at least one of those things probably gets pushed forward. How loud is the ACC's voice? How loud is the Big 12's voice? Because I'm sure they're ecstatic that in Arizona State's case, we got a four-seat. We're definitely not the fourth best team in the country. He didn't play that way, but somebody, they're essentially five auto bids. And Boise State, this was probably unexpected.

The committee put this whole together, whole thing together. There's nobody in the room that ever said, well, what if this other team ends up as a three-seat? He would have been laughed out of the room. It's ridiculous. Or she. Anybody who be laughed at that. They, them, all of them, and I laughed out of them. And that's where Boise State is, the three seed.

That's what I'm saying. Like this, now again, we don't want to overreact to one year, and this could be an outlier year, and things could turn out a lot more normally in the next couple of years. But it's just absurd to say, Boise State is a number three seed in the college football playoff this year. If Boise State had lost to UNLV, UNLV would be 12. If Boise or, excuse me, UNLV would not even be in, it would be Army. I think. Okay.

And that's what I think they were really the most concerned about. Well, we're putting a 12-team field together, and we're welcoming the 20th best team in the country. I mean, Boise State is in the top 15 or the top 10, depending on how you... Okay, it's a 12-team playoff. They absolutely belong here. I don't think they envisioned most years

there being a team that played their way into that spot. Like if Boise State had nothing at stake, they weren't in this group of five. Yeah, they would have made the tournament. They played good enough football to make. it regardless. 713, 212.

5790, the phone number, Brian in Pearland, holding the longest here on the phones. What's up, Brian?

Hey, what's going on? Ross, welcome back from your world-wind journey all across Asia?

Yes, I've been back since Wednesday. It's my third day. Well, wait, last Wednesday. What's today? Monday, I think.

Okay. Yeah. No, real quick on Bregman, I think that price tag last night

from Soto, I think that granted different players, different situations, but I think that's going to put the Astros out of the market, unfortunately. They may have to get crafty with trading. I wouldn't have a problem with someone like Aeronado. If you can get the money

right, you know, maybe you trade a Frommer and get Aronado and a couple of pieces in there, you know, I don't know. But I think they'll have to do something. Maybe Polanco on a short-term deal until they determine the status of Bryce Matthews, but I really think what's going to determine on Tucker is what Jacob

Melton does this year. If Jacob Melton, I think, has a huge leap forward, that could help in terms of the Tucker P-7 going forward, but I'm not sure Crane is willing to go that far, but I agree with what you guys were saying earlier. He's the player you have to make that leap for. And on the college football playoff, I think overall they got it right, but I got to say, Ross, and I was there in College Station, awesome atmosphere. It's a shame you missed that game. But Texas has got to do something about their offense. They are not, they're moving the ball at a great clip, but they are not scoring the way they need to go deep in the playoffs. I don't think.

And this coming from a neutral observer, but you only put up 20 against a not great, well, my wife went to Texas. I got to be a little bit more diplomatic here and there. but you know they didn't they didn't beat a great Arkansas team you know you only score 20 there Kentucky was the outlier but A&M gave every opportunity to blow that game open and they just could not take advantage of it and then to only get 13 against granted george is a great team but only to put up 13 there 16 sorry with the overtime but I think they're going to live in they're going to live in they're going to live

and die by that defense. And unfortunately, you know, how much longer you could ask them to keep holding out is going to be tough in the long run. If that all been, they know the ball great, but when they get the 20s down in the red zone, for whatever reason, it just seems

from the games I've watched, they just kind of they can't capitalize when they absolutely need to. But good work without Matt, of course, the show flourishes when he's gone. So, you know, maybe the sports are, you're going to a sports RV show, with Matt is more so the appropriate name for it, but you'll have a good Monday, guys.

You're making a lot of good points, Brian. But yeah, I'm absolutely terrified. As a Longhorn fan, yeah, if you tell me the one, number one concern, it's the offense, it's moving the ball, it's getting threes. It's getting sevens instead of threes. They have a national championship winning defense. I just don't know that they have a national championship winning offense or quarterback. Yeah, we didn't really specifically shine the light on Quinn during this conversation. We certainly could moving forward.

If everything's perfect, Quinn's fine. You're going to win a national championship. If the running game is working well, if the pass pro is in line, he's going to find his open receivers. He's going to get the ball there. It's pretty unlikely you're going to play defenses that allow that to happen now at this point in the season. It's not going to happen against Georgia. It might not happen against Clemson or whomever else you might see. And that's where the issues come up.

I'm a little bit surprised they didn't run the ball a little bit better this time with the change at running back because he'd been playing so well and I thought that his style suited them a little bit better for their matchup against Georgia. I still think they run too many obvious pass plays and the ball's not getting there fast enough. If you don't get the ball there fast enough for your quote-unquote playmakers to make their plays, well, the ball gets there and there immediately hit. They can't even make the move that gets that. He got the ball to DeAndre more perfectly. Perfectly. On a play, they should be running way more often. Hits him on a slant, makes one move, it's 41-yard touchdown.

So many other plays that are sideways passes and behind the line of scrimmage passes, the ball is taking forever to get there, whether it's either the decision or the zip that's not on the ball. And by the time it does, they don't have the opportunity to make the play because the one defender that wasn't blocked or the defender that has that responsibility, they're already on top of the receiver. Yeah. And, I mean, they were driving the ball down the field to Matthew Golden, like, early in the game. And then that just completely went away. I don't know if it was protection or if that was just Sark trying to go with this is prize script.

And then going back to the gold old tried and true bunch of screen games, Greg Davis style. I don't know what was happening. The sideways passing game. The sideways passing game, whatever you want to call it. But it can be frustrating. Well, for me personally watching the offense, time and time again, just come up short. and Quinn Ewers not go out, as you were kind of alluding to, go out and put the team on his back and go win those games

that we've seen other quarterbacks do in the right moments. I think there is going to be a moment where Quinn Ewers is going to have to win the Longhorns again. Can he do it? So far, we've seen a lot of history that says he cannot, but we'll see going forward, of course. First matchup against Clemson on the 21st of December. Time for another break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. without Matt Thomas or as, you know what, Brian, you're right.

It's the sports RV show sometimes featuring Matt when he's not resting with the rockets. Adam Wexler is here. He's going to be here till six a freaking clock. Connor McGovern is here. You want to get in. You can as well at 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Coach Sark here.

Touchdown, Texas. You've got Sports Talk 790, Houston's home of Longhorn football. The Matt Thomas show continues now. Tomes Talk 790 with you until 2 o'clock. I don't know how this happened. I'm not that mad about it, but I'm not that happy about it.

I'm honestly not super confident. I don't know where you are. I would say in general, my fandom, when it comes to about any team, is I think of everything that can go wrong, and I think it's probably going to happen that way. I'm like, I guess I'm just like a scared more than confident

fan because of the years and years and disappointment. You know, if you set expectations low, Wex, you'll never be disappointed. It's definitely true, except I know you see what everybody else sees, and you said it last segment. When the defense is on the field, you're like, that looks like a national championship football team. Correct. When the offense is on the field, feel a little bit different.

I like Quinn Ewers. I think Sark, I understand why he sticks with him because he structures his offense, and Quinn Ewer stays within the structure of that offense. He's smart. He's a veteran. He's been through some wars, but, and I'm not even saying that Arch is actually a better option despite me tweeting hashtag free Archmanning over the weekend but

I just I can't get excited about Quinn Ewers at quarterback it's just he's just too much of a good not great he's like that he's like the Honda accord of quarterbacks he's solid it's going to get you where you need to go but no one is ever going to be looking

down the street like oh my gosh look at that that is nice even if you really detailed it up some rims oh put 10th put some uh put some 84s on it something. Okay, with some white walls? If it's bumping, you know? No, I don't think so. You can

put a mullet on it, you can put whatever you want. I'm still, you can put the forearm tattoos. Did you catch the picture of he and Cade Clubnick from their high school days? No, I didn't see that one. They played in the state championship game against each other here in Texas. One of the highlights

that's been floating around is Quinn Ewers, drops back, goes deep, intercepted by Michael Taff. Oh, wow. I did see the Michael Taff. They I think I did see that play, or maybe maybe last week. But, okay, well, who won that game? I believe Michael Taft's team, the Westlakers. I could be wrong.

Sorry, I know, I don't know. I'm just asking. All right, well, a couple of phone calls here. We'll get to some Domingo Ryan stuff in the next segment as he spoke to the media, but it's Horns Talk 790, so let's keep it going with Roy and Richmond. What's up? Yeah, guys, it is Horns Talk because we're all pissed off. Yes.

Let me ask you guys this. Let me ask you guys this. Is Manning not as advertised because I would assume if they're putting the bionic knee or the ankle on viewers, or is there something wrong with Manning? Is it not as good as advertised? That's the reason why they haven't gone to him? That's what I was thinking. You know, this is a national championship, not national championship, but it was for the SEC first time there.

you would assume they would like to win it as being the first time there. And they were just, they were, they were going with yours and it seems like, you can't say that, Roy? I mean, we let the, this. I was so close to putting him on hold. I'm like, he'll let him finish his sentence and then he did. Oh, Coquine. Can't trust those horns, fans.

What are we going to do? No class. Absolutely no class. The amount of time Arch got earlier this year because of the oblique injury, I don't think said, wow, look at what they could be. He had some moments against Mississippi State. He was obviously used in smaller spots in different games, very smartly used in the Texas A&M game. I thought these were perfect spots for his skills, and it obviously worked against A&M, certainly on that touchdown run. But there's no given.

I mean, you know what you have in yours, so you might be willing to say, I'm okay finding out what I have here with Arch. And he's probably still in the mode of he might make the spectacular scramble and pass. He might make the great deep throw. He's definitely going to try it a lot more often than yours. And he's going to put your team at risk more often, but you might get the reward off it.

I think that's what I've seen in the very brief, very brief playing time that he was out there. I was at the Mississippi State game. And there was never a threat. that they weren't going to win the game and his overall numbers look very, very good, very good. But I still thought some of the decisions he was making where he's putting the ball, what coverages he's throwing into instead of, look, this guy's wide open. Why are you trying to thread the needle here?

Or throw a bomb at 75 yards rather than taking the checkdown. There's even as a Ballyhooed prize recruit who you've seen on campus at practice for two years, that's the thing. We can talk about it all we want. I think there's some risk in putting him out there, but you might. might get the reward. He sees him every day. He doesn't get the kind of reps. Clearly, the number one guy does, but he also did get those reps for about a month because yours wasn't doing much practicing. He knows, he, Sark, they see him every day. And they still thought this

was the better, safer route. Yeah, that's what I think. I think especially on the safer part, is that Sark wants to stay in the structure of his offense. He knows he has a championship level defense so he needs a quarterback that is going to limit mistakes. He doesn't need somebody to go out there and be a hero and and throw for four touchdowns with two picks. So I think that's what's happening here. And then as you mentioned, he's in the meeting rooms. He's in practices.

He knows him. He's been around him for a couple of years. So if he's saying that the best chance for us to win on Saturdays is with Quinn Ewers, then I do have to put some level of trust in that. there also is an element of we always want the backup and when you know when when when when quen ewers looks good and he's making five six good throws in the first half kind of just let ourselves forget that or me personally let myself forget that when he's not making the plus throws late in the game so you probably would i bet you would have you'd have looked at these four games to close out

the siege you played arkansas kentucky texas a nm and georgia only one game was in austin one was a neutral site and two were on the road you scored 87 points and three of those points came in overtime. That is not a lot of offense. No, it's not. That's a lot less than you'd expect. And I was talking to someone specifically about the Georgia matchup, and you look at how Georgia got in trouble this year,

trouble with Georgia Tech, trouble with Old Miss, trouble with Alabama. Jalen Milrow, Jackson Dart, Haynes King. All three of them ran wild on the Georgia defense. Miller had three touchdowns, 100 plus. The three combined for five rushing touchdowns and 287 yards rushing. Ewers played them twice and combined he had minus 61 yards rushing. Again, in college football, your sack lost yardage goes into your rushing total, which is, of course, stupid, but that's what they do.

That's what makes Georgia's defense susceptible to losing and susceptible to having bad defensive days. Quarterbacks, who can move? The Texas Longhorns chose to not have one of those quarterbacks by playing Ewers. exclusively. Yeah, that's the thing though, too, is I thought we would at least saw him, saw more whatever package, you want to call it, the 18-wheeler package, I don't know, the whatever.

You only saw it a couple of times. One time they just faked a dive with him and snapped it and ran outside, and then the other time he ran for like five yards. I thought we would have, might have saw it a couple more times. All that being said, can we at least take a minute to recognize the play with Arch Manning, where they

snapped it through his legs to blue for the first down? I love it. The creativity. The Creativity was great and the execution was perfect. He's so smart. He's such a good play caller. He's such a good play designer. And then you know, score points. Well, how does this happen? How does this happen? All right, we've got to take another break here. One segment to go. Those of you on hold, I promise we'll get to you.

We also have some Demico Ryan stuff to get to as well here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Final segment coming up next here on Sports Talk 790. From H-down. This is H-time. Or H-H-down. Houston, Texas. This is Sports Talk 790. Because right now, you sit light on Houston right now.

Now, back to Matt Thomas. All right, quickly. Only a few minutes left in the show, a lot of stuff to get to. Horns Talk 790 continues. Matt Thomas out, Ross v. Real and Adam Wexler, and he will also be in with the A team from 2 to 6. Tito and Seabrook has been waiting patiently. What's up, Tito?

Yeah, I just wanted to talk about the, UT quarterbacks. The guy's already answered a couple of my questions, but I'll try to be a little nicer than Roy was. It seems that when Ewer's gets down around the 20 to 30 yard line,

his pants get a little tighter. Let's put it that way. But I don't know. I think Manning has an energy about him that Quinn, for some reason, just doesn't seem to have. I had a crazy idea. I don't know if

coach steve's ever thought about doing this maybe they should have a competition here in practice this week for a couple hours one day or two and whoever does the best gets the starting job this this week in the in the playoffs game what do you guys think about that i think it'd be awesome for him to go into the locker room or the team auditorium and get in front of the team as they get ready for their practices over the next two weeks before this game and say hey guys we are getting set for our first trip to this year's postseason. We're going to the playoffs and I don't know who I'm going to start a quarterback. Let's get out there and have some

fun. You have an orange and white game in December. I like this. I like this idea a lot. Everything on the line. No, I mean, he sees him in practice. He sees him in meeting rooms and film rooms and all that type of stuff. And he has chosen that made the decision that this is their best chance to win. Despite benching him in the first,

benching Quinn Ewers for Archmanning in the first matchup against Georgia, by the way. I put them up. Oh, well, I did not know that. It's okay. We had to... Sorry. Thank you, Tito.

I think that they're probably going to do exactly what they did for this last game. Quinn's going to be healthier in two weeks. Quinn's going to be the starter in this game. Hopefully Kelvin Banks is healthier. That's another thing. Star left tackle for the Longhorns. I'm sure there's no question it impacted the game. I don't think it didn't allow them to do things.

That's what I'm going with. They were able to do some of the things they want. Georgia happens to have... I mean, that's the other... There's no question about who's the best defense. they've played this year. It's not even really close, both times. That's far away the best defense they've played. And maybe that's a little ammo for, yeah, exactly. How good do you really think Texas is? Well, conversely, Georgia didn't do it and do a whole lot

offensively. Heck, Carson Beck's two games against Texas, an interception fest that they won because he had a billion short fields, and then a total disaster of a first half. They owned Georgia in the first half when their defense was on the field. They were awesome. They were unbelievable. They were overwhelming. Unfortunately, they were close, but not quite as overwhelming. In the second half, with a quarterback they didn't know much about, Georgia's clearly wasn't as confident in, and it does look like there will be counting on Stockton moving forward, but that's for somebody else to worry about.

Texas and George are not likely to see one another anytime soon. They could still play again. It's going to be way down the road. All these things being said, are there any other issues? Is there anything that you saw from this game or the Aggie game or the first George game that gives you any pause or they need to do this better or the receivers need to not do this or the penalties we haven't talked they had a billion penalties yes is what i was going to say and i was also going to say uh what is the right

cam williams what's the right tackles name that was racking up all the penalties well what about the receivers penalties cam williams penalties receivers holding but now one of those was ticky tack for sure um and probably shouldn't even been called you could argue both of them shouldn't have been called bad throw late throw too low or it was a bad throw he was a bad throw, he was under pressure. And it was also third and long. I mean, it didn't, to me, that didn't impact the game. They were like on the 40, I think, on a third and long, so they were probably going to

punt anyway. So if anything, that just cost you a little bit of field position, so I wasn't super worried about that. But I am worried about Cameron Williams. I felt like he was getting blown up a little bit. And the penalty is, I think he's like the Laramie Tunsoe, the Texas Longhorn's offensive line. The leader?

He's constantly getting called. The man? Yeah, well, no. He's constantly getting called for penalties. And, well, he's also probably not that good. But, okay, is Tito final word, if you'd like? I just want to thank you guys for your time. Let's say a prayer for the guys in the playoffs.

And if yours doesn't make it, put Arch in and let him go because of the energy that he brings. All right. Thanks a lot, Tito. Appreciate it. How about a both on the field play or two or three? Oh, both of them? I like that. I'm down.

Or how about just, yeah, are Arch Manning and you get into the red zone, you go to Arch Manning? Quinn yours hadn't getting done in the red zone? It's a weapon to be able to use. I mean, Josh Allen's the elite of the elite, Lamar Jackson, too, and I'm not putting Arch in their category, but the ability. That Josh Allen guy's pretty good. Ask your fantasy team. No question.

The ability to keep guys on their toes in the red zone can often create a wide-open receiver. Oh, my God, he's running. I'm leaving my man. I've got to cut him off before he gets the end zone. Absolutely. I mean, Travis Kelsey probably has 25 touchdowns that way, playing with that. Absolutely.

It's a dynamic element that I think you do need to help open up space in the red zone. And I think should be employed a little bit more by Steve Sarkisian. Will they even need that? I would say so. I mean, it's not like, they're 11-point favorites now against Clemson, but it's not like they're just going to be. The biggest favorite. The biggest favorite.

And it is a home game at DKR. But I think taking Clemson too likely would be a mistake. During the holidays, though, during the break, where are all the students? They'll make time. You think so? I think so. What about the student tickets? Where are they getting those from?

They don't get those? How does that work? I haven't been able to get that answer. Back in my day, it was the last, but the Longhorn All Sports package, God knows what they have these days. The big ticket, but I don't think it applies to this game. And I think it costs a lot more than it did in my days. Definitely. But anyways, all right, Adam Wexler, thank you for hanging out.

Oh, you got it. Appreciate the opportunity, as always. I appreciate you. Matt Thomas. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks to Chris Gordy for hanging out as well. Thanks to Connor McGovern for producing the show. Thanks to all of you for listening to the program here today. And, well, we'll be back tomorrow with Matt Thomas

and the Matt Thomas show with Ross with Matt Thomas because he will be done resting from his late night West Coast road trip. Right now, it's the guy you just heard, Adam Wexler. It is another Adam. His name is Adam Clanton. They call themselves the A team. They're coming up next 2 to 6 here on Sports Talk 7.