The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Longhorns Outlast Sun Devils, Ohio State Dominates Oregon, Bregman To Detroit Talk Intensifies

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" recap the Texas Longhorns defeating the Arizona State Sun Devils in overtime and the Ohio State Buckeyes dominating the Oregon Ducks in the second round of the College Football Playoff. Matt and Ross also:reflect on the terror attack in New Orleansdiscuss the matchup between Georgia and Notre Dame with Chris Gordytalk with Rockets head coach Ime Udoka about Wednesday's win over the Maverickscomment on the latest rumors surrounding free agent Alex Bregmanreview the NFL's worst teams in "Ross' Rotten Five"tell people to "Shut Yo Bum Ass Up, Ain't Nobody Got Time" and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 102 at H-Town. Good morning. Happy New Year. And welcome to a Thursday edition. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790.

Four-yard reception on the first play of the game. Ewers wide open touchdown. D'Andre Moore. Texas strikes with a two-step of two big plays. Silas Bolden with a chance. is a return man to set up Texas in good field position as he returns it from the 25 and he breaks through look at silas bold it third and goal he's pressured looking to extend the play directing traffic now he's going to run it himself and queen ewers goes in for the rushing touchdown texas must

convert fourth and 13 it's a blitz look here when he was trying to audible to stay alive. Players, Joe, they have to touch the ball when the game is on the line. This is a really nice double move by Matthew Golden. Lining up in the slot, faking like he's going to run to the corner,

putting his foot in the ground, going to the post, and Quinn Ewers lays it over top of the safety for a score. Second over time, and Gunner Helm opens it up that way. Texas's first play they take the country

Leap it. No sports Harvey. It's in the state, baby. And by the way, your team's going to need some fan support because Ohio State was Woo! Very good. Very good. They bitch slapped Oregon.

Oregon came back. Kind of. Kind of. I don't think anybody watched it because we were done at the end of half time. Oh my gosh. Okay. You're buying my tickets? Have you even checked? Did you even check? I'm going to inquire with people around here. Oh, I see what you're doing.

You're going for the freebie. No, I'm not going for freebies. I had to pay from last year. We got a, we got a deal. Oh, you did? Yeah. Okay. I had to pay for them.

I'm more worried about... My brother did, actually. Yeah, I'm more worried about your hotel than I would be probably your... I'm not that worried about it. I'll stay with Aunt Janet and Corsicana. What's up, Aunt Janet? Is Aunt Janet know you're going to drive from Arlington to Corsicana? She doesn't know.

She didn't know she's dropping me off. Family Uber. It works. It works. Good morning, everyone. Happy New Year. 106 is our time. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

We are with you today until 2 o'clock. Very busy show coming up today. We got shut your bum ass up at 1130. Wow. The news at noon. Can we do like a year in retrospective, shut your bum ass up? I think so.

I think for the 1130 to 12 segment, it can be anything this past year. It's like D of the year, but shut your bum ass up. It's shut your bum ass up of the year? Anybody. Okay. If there's anybody, like somebody,

Somebody in February pissed you off. Let us know. Okay. We're here for that. E. May I'm going to join us at 1 o'clock. Rockets last night with a win over Dallas. Wonderful. Much you needed win over the Dallas. You had calls last night. I listened. I did. Yeah, it was nice.

I'm going to be honest. I was a little surprised. But there was some call activity. I love you guys. Yeah. So we'll have that. We got the second to last edition of the Rotten 5 coming up today at 1.30. I said second to last week and that was wrong. But I think I took the cues from you. So I'm going to blame you.

But now it's the. Penultimate edition. Because we have to, next Thursday you have to ultimately name the five words. Season wrap, yeah, for sure. And then we got believe it or not today at 150. So we will be with you today. Being completely transparent yesterday, and I'm not trying to get a hokey on anybody, but watching everything, New Orleans, 100% was beyond sad.

You know, it's funny, when we do New Year, I don't mean open the show on a somber note, but I just want to get this off my chest. When we always, happy New Year, may good things be for all of you. May we have a, may 2024 be in the rearview mirror. May 2025 bring better health and better wellness and excitement and fun and hope and happiness. And to have that happen. And then the, not incredible, the incredulous videos that are coming out by the hour of people having to dive to save their lives and to see the carnage and wreckage.

And that's exactly what they're discussing there. And for you and I especially, because we go to New Orleans. I mean, we go on average about three times a year. I do twice the Rockets and usually sometimes a fun trip on a side where I've walked those streets hundreds of times in my life. Yeah. I mean, I was on Bourbon Street literally under two weeks ago. I was in New Orleans less than two weeks ago with the Rockets after Christmas. I mean, it is.

And so, and no disrespect to the Sugar Bowl coming up. But if you needed to lead the thing three or four days, I don't care. And people are, there are some very inconvenienced about flights and hotels and game tickets. And I understand those are all valid. And they want the players to be on regular rest relative to whoever advances. Correct. I mean, I understand only things, but 15 people died. Yes.

I mean, everything trumps all that. I mean, just an absolutely horrific experience. Gordy was in New Orleans. I don't know if he was there or not, but he's been in the New Orleans area. Of course, he's from there. But they're reopening Bourbon Street today. The game between Georgia and Notre Dame is going to go on as now scheduled for, I believe, 3 o'clock. So if anybody knows anybody that's been affected by this, and I mention this on the Rockets broadcasts. You know, we as media are flippant about thoughts and prayers.

About how everybody throws thoughts and prayers out is just a generic. line. It meant something to me yesterday. I really thought about people. I really prayed about the awfulness that was what we saw. I mean, I lost it. We literally woke up. All of us did. No matter what time you woke up from your New Year's Eve celebration, you woke up, you turned the TV on, and it was on everywhere. It was just, it was the anti-happy New Year. It was, what an awful way to start a new year. Yeah. And in a city itself that it's been through so much over the years with Katrina and all that. I mean, other things going on there.

Oh, absolutely. It's just, it really wouldn't matter. Obviously, where it happens. Yeah, but it's, you know, and again, I don't, I don't want to open somber because we are, we're supposed to be the lighthearted world of sports and we're going to continue to be that, especially when we talk about how we're going to get scatibu into a verb eventually. But, man, I just, just want to say, I feel absolutely terrible, terrible, terrible about what happened.

And I'm so sorry for the people that go to New Orleans to go to New Orleans to go. drink and have a good time and walk the streets and think they're just going to be enjoying the new year and for that to happen was just, just terrifying and so full of sorrow. And I really hope that everybody can get some sort of closure, but it feels like to me that, and this is my last thought about this. I don't know if Bourbon Street will ever be the same again, to be quite honest. There may be, there's going to be some new barricades. There'll be some additional security. there may be probably some streets that will be closed off for driving, but I don't think we'll ever walk it again and not think about what happened January 1st, 2025.

So that's all I want to say. And again, I'm sorry for opening up that way, but I just wanted to. Because, you know, we make fun of New Orleans for a variety of things, and the language and the hey, baby, and all that. So it's still a wonderful city with really nice people, and people are just not having a good time. sucks. Just sucks.

All right. What didn't suck is your beloved Texas Longhorns, Ed Vancey. Oh, they kind of suck. What's the kicker's name, Bert? What is it? Bert. Burt.

Auburn. Okay, Bert, first of all, it's got to be a family name, right? I would imagine. Because how many 20-year-olds are named Bert? Not a lot. And poor Sark goes out there, tries to motivate the kid.

He dungs the field goal. Yeah, whatever you said to him, Sark, don't ever say. Say it again. Kickers just suck in general. And I did put in all caps on social media. You cannot trust college kickers. You're supposed to trust him, Ross.

It was indoors. There was no wind. There wasn't a grass surface. The ball was set up in the middle of the field. You didn't have to hook it to a different direction. That thing caught a south-by-southeast wind of some sort. I don't want to tell you, though, 100 out of 100 Longhorn fans weren't that surprised.

Bert Auburn was really good last year, and he's been extremely shaky this year. I mean, he can't go to a Cameron Dicker party. He can't hang out with Justin Tucker. Who else? Who else? Who is that one for the Niners? His name was something with a P. Something with a P.

Okay, that'll narrow it down a little bit. I'll find him. Pat Phil Dawson. Oh, that's good. Cleveland Brown, Phil Dawson, too. Yeah. He moved, yeah. I mean, your school's put up some kickers.

Is Texas kicker you? Eusty Mangum, shout out. Yeah? But your boy, Quinn Ewers, came to the rescue. Quinn Ewers. By the way, is not America's quarterback. Consensus.

On Twitter. If there is really $6 million for Ewers in a portal somewhere next year, the transfer NIL, go take the money. He did nothing, frankly, yesterday to improve his draft stock. He was great in Overton. He was. And he also had a rushing touchdown, too. I would like to personally apologize for doubting Quinn Ewers.

Fourth and 13, he makes the check at the line of scrimmage. And throws a... Touchdown! Thanks to Matthew Golden for getting called up to the big leagues from the University of Houston Cougars, making big catches in the playoff. I hate you. Rather than toiling at the bottom of the Big 12, he came to the big leagues and he's performing in the playoffs. So we do appreciate him for that.

Absolutely despise you. But Longhorns got issues. I mean, as you mentioned, Cam Scadibaut was all over the place. Scatibu was all over the place. Texas run game is horrible. The offense, really, the defense, I'm giving them. a pass. They got completely worn down by, I mean, number one, a

return kick, and the number two, the offense just not moving the chains consistently enough. And how many minutes were they out there? What was time of possession that game? I'll pull it up for you. Time of possession, 37, 54 to 22. So I was even saying that to people I was watching the game with, including

Dan Matthews, who came by where I was watching with some family. Did he invite himself or did you invite him? No, he just asked what I was doing, and I told him to come on by. This is where I'm going to be. That was nice. You guys had a little bro time? Yeah. Hugh and Dan of Brose.

He was hanging out with my nephews and nieces and everybody. It was a good time. And yeah, I was saying at that time, like, this defense is going to get worn down because they've just been out there so much. And then they made a fourth downstop. Literally one play later, there's a safety. So they go back out on the field. So I understand the defense gave up 500 total yards.

But in terms of yard per play, Texas outperformed Arizona State in that. that metric. And Camp Scada but he was great, but he was under five yards per carry. The guy, the guy sleptballed tonight last night because, I mean, he's throwing the ball. He's rushing. He's their leading receiver. He's yacking on the field. His dad's getting a lot of air time.

He got more as much airtime as what's his face, your former Texas quarterback that was getting all the dad time. What was that guy's name? Got hurt in 2011. I'm not helping you make fun of the long. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. You're going to help me. I'll figure out who it is. Sam Leavitt was under five yards an attempt.

I mean, I think the defense for the most part did pretty well, considering the circumstances, holding them to, what was it, 22 points, two touchdowns and two field goals throughout the fourth quarter, considering how much that they were on the field. It was the offense. It just wasn't carrying the day. And, of course, we do have to get to the target. When we come back, 1015 on Sports Talk 790, 713, 212, 570.

Matt Thomas, Ross, via, It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. 1020, Sports Talk 790. All right. Not that I think this is going to generate a lot of conversation, but for you and I, we're just talking. We don't know if anybody's out there driving around today. If you are, happy New Year.

It's hard that you're working. I believe our sales staff is still off. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. You can put your hands up in the air for it. No, it wasn't. All right. What's the rule, by the way, on Happy New Year?

Until at least late February. No. There isn't a rule. I just made that up. Okay. Well, what was the curb your enthusiasm? Oh, I think it's two weeks, basically. Okay.

Okay, I thought it would be even under that. I want y'all at some point, if you see me in public in February to wish me happy New Year. Because it still gives us 10 months. Happy New Year, Matt. Happy New Year to you as well. Thank you. All right.

Who has the better? NFL career. A. Ashton Genty. A. B. Cam Scataboo. C. Both A and B. D. Neither one. I'm going to go with A. Ashton Jenty. Oh, look, I like Cam Scadaboo, but I just don't know. Of course, it was the Christian McCaffrey references because they're white. That's the lowest of the hanging fruit. No, but nobody was being serious with that. I don't think so. If you went to... He's nothing, unless you watch football for literally five minutes, there's no way you would make the Christian McCaffrey, Cam Scadaboo.

Yeah, Cam Scadaboo is, I mean, Cam Scadaboo. Cam Scadaboo is just a bulldozer, hardworking guy that was left for nobody cared about. Yeah. Hard to take down and sometimes gets carried into the end zone illegally by his offensive linemen. Hmm. Okay. They didn't feel like there was a bias there.

By the way, that's legal. There actually is a name. No, it's not. And the pros is legal, right? No, I don't know about that. No, they've gotten rid of the rule. They've gotten rid of the push in the back rule, but he was literally lifted up by his offensive lineman and thrown into the end zone. His love lifted him into the end zone, and that was illegal.

That was going to be a stop by the more. As compared to the non-targeting calls over. Of course, we can talk about that. We're all leaving on that. Oh, you mean the non-targeting that wasn't called on Texas? Is that what you're talking about? Maybe. I don't know.

For Texas. I don't know. There is a name that came to mind when I was watching the game yesterday. This is on Scataboo? Mm-hmm. And the name is? Jerome Bettis. if Cam Scaddaway was Jerome Bettis,

first of all, great for the not worrying about the color of the man's skin. Second, well, he's going to the Hall of Fame. Yeah, well, I don't put him in the Hall of Fame yet. There are certain, you know, NFL networks, Lance Zerline has him as possibly a third, fourth round pick. But there have been running backs who are third fourth round picks. And which Jentis are really good. I believe people have him possibly as a first rounder.

Is that right? Okay. Now, I almost got a double gut-feeling hit. He did get a 26-yard run. that eventually got him to 103 yards. And I could be that guy, take the way the big run and then took his average rush away. But I'm not going to do that. 100 yards and you take away Scadabotabot's big run and he was well under like four yards of carry. He had a 33 yard run and then outside of that he had 29 carries for 110.

All I can tell you was and I don't want you get mad at my family because my family does love you. But it was a full on go devils in the house yesterday. I know. Yeah, a bunch of haters. Because you had an A&M kid in the house? Hators. You had a Texas Tech kid in the house? You had a U of H.

You had two U of H people in the house. Exactly. What's what we're supposed to do? That's what life is like is a longhorned football fan, baby. Come on, root against us. That's how it is. I'm used to it. So everybody hates Texas, and that's okay. Because you get away with stuff.

It's like everybody hates the Yankees. Yeah. It is what it is, you know? Yeah. And you got kickers name Bert. Now, of course, Texas only has one championship in the last 50 years, but. You're on the way to reach a second. Well, well, hopefully.

we'll see Ohio State's the best team in the country, I would say right now. God, they, they, I'll be honest, I was working rockets. I didn't get to see much of it and didn't need to, but E. May Doca is a huge Oregon fan. Now, he went to Portland State, but he's an Oregon fan because he grew up in Portland area. That is funny to me. Your house was united with three different people, for their own reasons, rooting against the Longhorns. That is accurate. And that's actually, after the game was over, I was actually pissed. And part of me, and I'm going to be honest, and this is not a lot.

lie. I wasn't rooting for Arizona State to beat Texas because of you. I don't want to give you that kind of that kind of fame. I love underdogs beating favorites. Oh, okay. Like, how many times I mean, I would root for Grand Canyon

University versus... You were rooting for Boise State? I didn't care. I didn't have rooting interest. Okay. I know you're rooting for... You were rooting to get certain parts of Boise State. No, I think I think I said Texas was going to beat by double digits, so I don't win that. But I had, you know, I don't think I mean that it's a gut feeling. But I did tell you that Penn State was going to be Boise by more than 10 points.

I got that one part. After the game, I was upset and I thought, you know, they underperform. I wish Burb or Robin would have made his kicks. And it was one of those things like, man, they should have played better. But at the end of the day, they won. And it actually occurred to me. I was like, you know what? All these fan bases are mad that the Longhorns won.

And that made me happy. It's like when... You don't mind being the enemy? What do you mean? I root for the Astros. The entire country Your whole life is rooting for the enemy I've been rooting for the Longhorns my entire life

I root for Manchester City in the primary league All my friend, we have like a soccer group text, everyone roots against Manchester City. This is what I'm used to You're in a soccer group text? Why not? Sorry, that's got to be a fun group. It is a fun group.

You see that game we played? Zero, zero. What was your game? Zero. Zero. Here we go with the archaic soccer take still. It's 2025, Matt. Nope. Can you get into it? It's never going to change. No, you don't have to, I mean, you don't have to embarrass yourself.

It's the beautiful game, man. It's the world's game. You just sound like a... A hater? A crotchety old fogey. From the lawn. Get off my lawn. Let me tell you something.

There are 25-year-olds that despise soccer, too. It's not about a younger age. I think you think the average 50-year-old or the average 25-year-old who likes soccer more? Oh, the average 25-year-old likes it. Yeah. Yeah. But that's okay. You can do it.

Oh, I've tried. I draped the flag at a bar during. the World Cup many moons ago. Is that when Alexei Lawless and the boys were going after? I think they lost and didn't even make the qualifying tournament, but that's a different issue. America's not great. Yeah, all right. All right, we're going to get to the referee, the targeting stuff.

Because what I decided, and I told you this before the show, I think I'm going to, I've stopped in my Rockets broadcast determining whether or not a foul is a flagrant. Oh, okay. And I think I've decided to, after yesterday, I've decided to not worry about whether or not it's a targeting call or not, because I just can't figure it out. We'll read you from the rulebook, but you probably want to take notes. It's a lot of words. And I'm going to read you what Dusty Dworkich said when he talked to an ESPN ABC analyst who's like the referee consultant.

Yeah, the ESPN analyst said it was targeting. I think the NBC analyst said it was targeting. We're talking about the late one, not the earlier one that wasn't called on Texas. Yeah, the second one, the two. We're going to check in with Gordy as well. We've got to get his college football football report. You know, his beloved LSU Tigers beat that. And by the way, he hit the over and he said first to 40 was going to win.

Yeah, he was right. That's why the Gordy Insights. 1028, Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. 1032, Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We have shut your bum ass up today at 1130.

And it can be about anything in the last 12 months or the future 12 months. I've already got somebody in mind. You're not looking at me for a particular reason, aren't you? No. Oh, okay. might rhyme with ref rassin he disappointed me again it's the same thing we didn't get to him for it i don't think didn't that happen earlier this week we uh was about the dodger love yeah we can no no we did it we definitely did it no he did i thought he did that a couple days ago it's 12 months it's it's the it's

it's a retrospective of 2024 yeah exactly 713212 570 gorty he's our man he's a locked on cc he's locked on gordy he's locked on lSU he's locked on the beat of college football ball. By the way, congratulations, Gordy, on giving us the over and the LSU win in that beloved Texas poll that you attended. Oh, yeah, it was, I didn't know. Baylor fans were talking a little trash. We had to settle them down. Bailer fans. How was the crowd, by the way? Was there a good crowd? It was a really good crowd, actually. Yeah, they cut off the end zone upper deck. But that was it. Everything else was pretty filled. It was a good crowd. All right. And the tailgating scene was good, I'm assuming, or was people just walking? walking in and walking out. I didn't get out there.

I was inside giving you a live report. Yeah, but you could also exit and go back out there and party with your brethren. Eh, it was a little sketchy with the credential. I had to fight them. They didn't give me field access at first. I had to go back and fight them. Wait a minute.

You're freaking Chris Gordy. You are not some YouTube host that had a failed miserable career. You have a successful radio career. You should deserve a regular, regular old credential. Well, four straight years, I'd go on the field pregame and take pictures and stuff, and they were telling me I didn't have access.

And then they told me I had to call the team. They're like, oh, the team decides that. So I'd call my guy at LSU. I'm like, bro, can you look me up here? And so he did. You went bro on him? That's nice. That's the kind of relationships that Gordy has around these people.

Well, he was like, tell them who you are. I said, I told them who I am. They're not enough. We don't know. They're like, yeah, bro, we don't know who that is. That's rude. I just, I'm not happy about this because there's nobody in this town that pumps SEC and college football in this market more than you do

and you deserve your flowers on that. The problem is you get new people. You know what I mean? Like new media, like for the long time, like all the Texans people we dealt with, like they move on other opportunities and new people come up and they don't know us as well. So, you know, you just got to let him know. And then you also

have started the Garrett Nussmeyer Heisman campaign I saw. The better, what is it? Betel lines got him second best odds behind one Arch Manning heading into Texas. Oh my God. I'm going to go I'm going to short both of those. Can I bet against both? Oh, how about a Texas LSU National Championship next year? How about that?

That'd be great. I'm focused on this one this year, though. Hopefully Ohio State doesn't crush Texas. I got a Houston in the playoff next year, by the way. Houston, what? Cougars. 12th team playoff. Yeah. FCS? At large. They can bust down to FCS or something? No, no, no, no. Division two? You see all the recruits we're getting in? We're getting all the Kremdala cross this country. Were they in the top 50? Yeah, I believe they were. I believe they were top 19. you, Matt. If Connor Wigman lives up to the hype, 10 and 2 is doable.

That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, college expert. Yeah, he had a great year this year. Three touchdowns, five picks. Don't listen to him. All right, Gorda, your town is suffering, New Orleans. Give us what you know about your brethren, who you know down there, and what's happening with the Crescent City right now. Yeah, so it was kind of interesting. I spent New Year's here because we went to the Texas Bowl and then woke up early yesterday morning, hop on a flight to New Orleans, and we wake up. to this news and I'm like, what do I do? Do I still go to the game? And I talked to my person at the Sugar Bowl. He said, yes. As of now, the game is on. So hopped on a plane, got to New Orleans, got down there, literally stay at the Sheraton, two blocks down from Bourbon Street. So I got there amidst all

this. I mean, literally, I walked up and was taking some pictures and FBI people are walking, like, they're just getting into town too. And they're walking past me to go investigate the scene and all that. So crazy, surreal, being around all these. Georgia and Notre Dame fans. Then suddenly the news comes up. My buddy texted me and said, hey, it's sounding like they're going to postpone this. And I'm like, well, hell. I'm like, I only have a hotel for a night.

I can't stay another night. And so, yeah, so all these Georgia and Notre Dame fans are scrambling, trying to get their travel rebooked and all this kind of stuff. So it was while being down there. One of the victims was actually Jack Bash, who played wide receiver at LSU, his little brother, who played football at Princeton, was one of the victims. So just like I said, really surreal, really odd on a day where normally, you know, everybody would be up and down Bourbon Street celebrating and kind of tailgating, getting ready for the Sugar Bowl. It was all just kind of put on hold.

And weird to see that area of New Orleans just completely dead and, you know, nothing happening. So the weirdest thing for me was, yeah, there is there's a Walgreens, which is not far from Bourbon Street that I've gone to 10 times in my life. I mean, yeah. So that's where. the guy, if you watch the videos that have come out there, the cop car was blocking the street. He cut in front of that and got up on the sidewalk and drove down there. And I saw some folks at CNN, they're like, well, can't you put a blockade there? I'm like, well, then how do people get on Bourbon Street?

If you're going to have blockades, like, you have to allow foot traffic in and out of there. You can't just put barriers across the whole entrance to Bourbon Street. So I don't know. They'll look at how they'll fix this thing moving forward, but was encouraging to hear that they are planning to reopen, at least to foot traffic. Yeah. There's a lot of businesses that are hurting. Like, they thrive on this kind of business, and if they can't be open, they're losing

a lot of money. So I wonder, how are people that were staying in French Quarter hotels? How are they getting, were they able to get to their hotels, I'm assuming? So, yeah. So at least on Canal Street, you could. But yeah, like, I was on the flight from Houston yesterday. There was a ton of Notre Dame people on our plane. I guess they flew down from, I don't know, South Bend or whatever.

and connected through Houston. And they were telling, like, one of the guys was telling me, he's like, yeah, I'm booked at the Royal Senesta. I said, bro, that's right in front of where the truck crashed. Like, I don't think you're going to be able to get there. And apparently they evacuated the people that were staying at the Royal Sinester around 4 a.m. They told them they had to get out.

There were some people who left in their pajamas and couldn't go back to their room. Like, you're stuck in downtown New Orleans in pajamas, and you can't get back to your hotel room. So, yeah, it's just, it's craziness going on there right now. But like I said, hopefully they get back to a little bit of normal. Well, the reality is this, I was selling this of my wife yesterday, people were scrambling for hotels. If you were going to the game last night, you were checking out today. That's just generally speaking.

So what you could do, since the game is at 3 o'clock, you can check out like you normally would. So I think the hotels are frankly the least of the issues. It's the flights. Because that's where you have no flexibility. The hotel is you pack up your bags like you normally were going to, leave them at your hotel, go to the Sugar Bowl, watch the game, go back to your hotel, pick up your bags and go to the airport. Well, now you've got thousands of people trying to find flights that were supposed to leave today that are going to try to leave tomorrow. So that, to me, is where the biggest logistical headache is.

It's not at the hotels, but it's more like trying to get out of New Orleans. Yeah, and I heard rental cars. I mean, they were getting barred. I will say credit to the Sheridan down there in New Orleans. Well, the Sugar Bowl staff first. They reached out and said, hey, we've already talked to the hotels for all the media, like, tell them you need to stay an extra night. And I think they're either, they're either comping people another night or giving you a really

discounted rate to stay another night. And the same thing, like, they were accommodating the Georgia and, and Notre Dame. I talked to a couple Georgia parents, like parents of players that were there. They're like, what do we do? But yeah, kudos to the hotels. It sounded like they were doing everything they could to accommodate people to either

comp them an extra night or work out whatever they needed to do. Well, last thing, and I don't mean to put you on the spot when it comes to logistics because none of us are logistics experts. And frankly, just because something happens doesn't mean it has to be closed down forever. Because, look, if you were to close down bourbon to commercial traffic and just make it strictly a foot area,

like frankly Beale Street is in Memphis, where it's just strictly by foot, violence could still happen in another block. Or if somebody had this kind of hate in their heart, they would do it again. But I'm just curious, would you suggest being a New Orleans lifer reducing severely the amount of commercial auto traffic in that area and make it just a foot

area for people to go and do their thing and not have to worry about potential something like this ever happening again? Well, it kind of already is. I mean, so many of those side streets are blocked off. There are a few that allow you to cross and there's heavy police presence where those are, but there's blockades up on Bourbon Street.

Like, that's what most of my friends Texas. Like, wait, how do you drive on Burma Street? Well, he entered from Canal Street and came up those first two blocks where there really is nothing. So that's how he was able to get in there. But the problem is, you've got to allow for deliveries. Like beer truck deliveries and all that, because these bars, they don't have back entrances. The front entrance is how they get most of their stuff in. So you've got to still allow for deliveries and all that. But yeah, I mean, I think they're certainly going to look at some more permanent, you know, barricades and all that moving forward.

And I've talked to some people who were down there yesterday, they said they are going to get all this fixed in time for Mardi Gras, the Super Bowl, all that. Like there will be, there will be no safer place in America than New Orleans, I think, during the Super Bowl. Like, they're going to be on high alert, do everything they need to do to make precautions.

But you're right. I mean, it's, it's, it's, they're going to find some permanent pictures, but I just don't know if you could permanently say no cars can drive on Bourbon Street ever during the day because you've got to have shipments coming in. I've been reading that there's these things called ballards there. They steal columns that can, they're basically retractable. And apparently New Orleans does have a lot of those, but some of them were either not functioning or under repair in preparation for Super

Bowl. That's what I read. Yeah, the main four right there on Canal Street, it was installed years ago. They were redoing them or like working on them to be ready for Super Bowl. So and again, people are like, well, you should not. I'm ready for the Sugar Bowl. The problem is, When do you do it? There's stuff going on in New Orleans all the time. Polboy fast, French Quarter Fest, jazz fast. I mean, there's something year-round. So there is no right time to try to do this.

But, I mean, look, if you look where that cop car was positioned, they were in a position to block the street. I mean, the guy just, he drove up on the sidewalk, knocked down a trash can, and that's how he got over there. So to your point, like, bad people are going to do bad things, but we shouldn't live our loss and fear of, you know, not be able to enjoy things. That's what I was thinking? So what if he closed Burmins Street down? Do they go three streets down? Do they go two blocks? You just can't close everything.

All right. Lastly, let's get back to you are locked on SEC, which means you definitely have Georgia beating Notre Dame. Is that correct today? I think so. I got to talk with some of the players last week. And man, they are all. There's almost a sentiment, Matt.

They have more faith in Gunner Stockton, a young quarterback over Carson Beck. Because remember Carson Beck had a stretch this season. What was it? Like six games or through 10 interceptions? Like, I think they trust this kid more. He's got more of an armed talent. I think there's a possibility that, you know, they might be even better.

If Gunnors Stockton doesn't turn the ball over today, Georgia's winning the football game. There it is. The last inside he gave us was first to 40 wins in the bad our LSU game. It's all he does. You know, are you on a recorded line or are you always live with us? I like this. This is good stuff here. Yeah, I'm just, I'm available, wherever you name me.

Just hop on and we'll talk about Texas getting lucky. hell with no targeting call. It's all good. Or you mean Arizona State getting lucky that Bert Auburn sucks and also not getting a targeting call and also not getting a penalty call when Scadabo was carried into the end? You will not denigrate Scataboo. I'm not blame Arizona State for your kicker sucking.

I'm not blaming them. I'm saying they got lucky. Burr Auburn usually can make a 38-yarder. Usually. Gordy, we got to run. We hit our breaks on time. Thank you very much. That's the one only Chris Gord. Let's back into Detroit. Talk to you guys later. Ooh. See, that was my gut feeling moons ago, and I should have stayed with it.

You didn't? Why, is there traction there? No, no. What did I miss? He is, there is traction. When do we come back? If he signs a deal similar to what the Astros offered, who's got a egg on their face? Anybody?

I don't think it's going to be that close. The Astros have way moved on. Doesn't that tell you that they weren't close? But if he signs for 6-156 or come. There's no way. No way. No how. Okay, keep going.

All right, I'm going to hear us real quick. Don't give me the answer yet. I'm setting the over under. I will personally guarantee the deal will be over 650-156. I'm setting the over-under. Okay. At $176 million. Okay.

Don't get the answer yet. When do we come back? When we come back? trained professional over here. Uptown appliance repair. You know, Brayman can't leave town because he can't get great appliance repair in Detroit. There's no...

He hurt your knee again. You do this like three times a week. Poor kid. Uptownappliancerepair.com is the site you need to go to if you are worried about any of your household items not performing up to expectations. You then call the group over at Uptown Appliance Repair, and they're going to fix your refrigerator.

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What can you do for me? 281-758-9978. Uptown Appliance Repair.com. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Coming up at the top of the hour, the biggest joke in Paul Provolveau. Pro bowl, he said easily, pro bowl announcements. I mean, an absolutely disgraceful selection. Hmm.

Top of the hour. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, am I, my overselling it, yes. We'll discuss. All right.

Real quick, because we've been teasing this for a few minutes. We have... We didn't really talk about the referees. We tease that. We're doing that right now. Okay. Well, and the Bregman thing we tease, too. So we have a lot of teases me.

Oh, okay. $150 million. Oh, excuse me, $176 million. I have the under on that. You'll make another bet? I'll go over $1.76. It's almost like they're together. So, no, we're not going to make a bet on this.

Okay. The only bet we have is that six years is a Dutch lunch, five years or less, I win. You get seven or more. Okay. As the days go on, your odds go up. What do you got? So what do you think?

176, 175 or higher you go over? Okay. It's because, I mean, that's about the halfway point between 156, which was floated and 200 plus is what he wants. You're talking about total money regardless of years. All right. So last night, by the way, Scott Van Pelt is probably the best thing going for ESPN. I mean, among the, if you said the five best things about ESPN, let me tell you what they are. Game day.

Game coverage, yeah. Game coverage. Scott Van Pelt. 30 for 30s are pretty good if you're into those kind of sort of thing. Literally having the games. If the games weren't on there, I don't really watch any of their program. But I mean, I don't, the sports center is, eh. All the talk shows are more than, are way below average.

Maybe that can't give you five. But point being Scott Van Pelt's great. Scott Van Pelt last night was saying, I don't care who it is. I'm reading verbatim off of a CFB King's Twitter account. I don't care who it is. That's targeting 100 times out of 100. it wasn't called in this case. Dusty Dvorchik, who does a lot of game coverage for them, says, I thought it was targeting in the moment. I picked up the phone, made a few phone calls. I talked to

Bill Lemonayer, who is one of the absolute best, works for us at ESPN, ABC as a rules expert. He said verbatim. It's a defenseless player. There was an upwards thrust indicator, forcible contact of the head or neck area. It's targeting. Now, as you and I have discussed, if they throw the flag, it doesn't mean less than the these things are going to happen. We're seeing targeting happening in every college football game. We were hoping the penalties would curtail the amount of these, but it really isn't. We're still seeing these once or twice per game. And I guess you're supposed to say, oh, our guy got destroyed.

We got 15 yards out of it. That's great. So not only did you not get the 15 yards you were rooting for, the guy was laid out. I will also throw in. It's a kind of ancillary after the fact penalty that doesn't necessarily, necessarily affect the actual play. For example, pass interference. If a receiver gets mugged down the field and can't catch the ball, that affects what happened in that play.

Michael Taft going to the receiver and hitting him with his face mask, by the way, not the crown of his helmet. It was just a football play. I'm going to tell you, in that moment, I saw the replay and I was like, man, that was just a football play. But by the letter of the law, with the helmet-to-helmet contact, I figured it was, I thought it was going to be a targeting call, and I wouldn't have argued that it was a targeting call.

See, this is a case, and again, what we have to do, maybe what I have to do a better job of is, I have to get past a seeing eye test. And I think if you took the top sports officials 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and said, let's go sit in a room and let's figure out, we've got to punish teams that go to these types of moves. if we would have put up the video of that play yesterday, that room unanimously would have said that's targeting.

But that wasn't some malicious play where he launched himself out. It wasn't malicious. And the ball was tipped, by the way. So I don't know how that factors with defenseless receivers or whatever. I'm just telling you that the seeing-eye test for me, Ross, and life's not built on seeing-eye, but in my mind, that was a targeting penalty. Yeah, here's the rule.

A player takes aim at an opponent for the purposes of attacking with forcible contact with the crown of the helmet. That did not happen. But there's all, there's two, basically two parts to it. There's that rule, and then there's a defensive, defenseless opponent. A player takes aim at a defensive opponent for the purposes of

attacking with forcible contact to the head or neck area. It didn't seem to me that by the rule of that, that Taff attack, the purposes of attacking with forcible contact to the head or neck area. There was

contact, but it was, was it attacking a defenseless opponent? He was trying to make a play on a tipped ball. So to me, by the letter of those laws of the rule, I can see where it didn't get called targeting. We're in the room. Guys, we are the

overseers of college football. We've got to penalize vicious hits. That was a vicious hit. That was something that the college sports world does not want to see. that that's where you throw the flag. And again, that's, that's way too simplified.

And I apologize for that, Ross. That to me is the epitome of showing a video of, we don't want this. Whatever, what, you and you described it beautifully. Yeah. But I've also got Dussie Vortchek calling me. I mean, everybody's got their own argument for it. I'm very biased on this.

So I'm asking you, did this happen? A player takes aim at a defenseless opponent for the purposes of attacking with forcible contact to the head or neck area. You know what you just described? hard hit. I didn't mean to go at him, but I still did it. That's how it sounds like to me. No, I didn't mean it. It says purpose for the purposes of attacking.

I know. I thought a targeting was going to be called, and I wouldn't have argued with it. I'm trying to see the other side because it has to be. Otherwise, if it was that obvious, it would have been called, you know what I'm saying? Put it this way. You're right. But let's take that play and take it to the college football coaches convention. And what were they all saying? That probably would all say everybody in the mother would they would say that. All right.

A complete joke of the Pro Bowl. You know, we are your unofficial Pro Bowl station. There's not even a Pro Bowl anymore. It's a Skills Challenge. It's flag football and it's throwing the javelin toss. That's good. There are some Texans that are on the Pro Bowl list that deserve it. There's one that doesn't.

He should be ashamed of himself. 1059. Matt Thomas Hill at Ross. Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. 1102, Sports Talk 790 hour number two of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. We are very happy that you're with us here today. 713-212-5-790. If you want to chime in on the conversation at 7-13-212-5-790.

If you're on Twitter, I want to follow us there. You may do that at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Connor D. McGuverd. Congratulations to Dylan Horton. voted the Ed Block Courage Award winner. That's good. Wonderful. And congratulations to Joe Mixon for being named to the Pro Bowl. Deserved.

Congratulations to Derek Stanley for being named to the Pro Bowl. Did Soft Gardner make it? I don't know. I'm just asking. I don't know. My guess is no, and you would have... No, I really actually don't know. I really honestly don't know.

But I'm just asking. I mean, all pros is Derek Stingley. That would be zero. I mean, is all pro does Soss Garner have. He's got to have at least one. I think it might be two. Look, they're both good. I don't think either team is regretting their decisions.

I'm going to taking sauce because Thomas Sports Enterprises was all over sauce. By the way, Thomas Sports Enterprises is going to take Cam Scataboo as a client. Oh, really? Not going to be an impactful NFL player, but he's going to be. He's going to be. He's going to play. Fourth round running backs. He's going to be a goal line guy.

He's going to be in there. As long as his offensive linemen are carrying him in. He's going to be. I'm just kidding. No congratulations to the next person that made the Pro Bowl. Two-time first-team all-pro, Soss Gardner, by the way. Ooh, Lorde. And a defensive rookie of the year.

Oh, Lorde. But you know what? To be fair and balanced, as we are here on the show. Derek had a better ear than Soss did. Yes, he did. I agree. So there you go. I'm proud of you, Matt.

People can be fair and balance. Meanwhile, Laramie Tunsel got named to the Pro Bowl. What a joke. And now. And now and now. And now. The obligatory Laramie Tunsel Ball Start Call.

What a reputation call that is. I don't care how good of a pass blocker he is. I don't care that he somewhat tries on run blocking. Rossi, is he top five still in pre-snap penalties in the NFL this year? I can look.

I'm sure he might be in top one. God bless it. How do you lead and be in the top of the category of pre-snap penalties and everyone sniff and all whatever team? He should have been ninth alternate. Let's see.

He's still number one. Number one. Fifteen penalties. How do you have 15 pre-snap penalties and name anything all anything. Ten fall starts, three illegal formations, two holdings, one unnecessary roughness, and one ineligible downfield. Now, to his credit, because we are fair and balance here on the show, he has been better the last month. Yeah, he started, he had like 12 in the first few weeks. Yeah.

So he has improved a lot from that standpoint, Matt. The bar was extremely low, but at least he got over that bar. Just crazy. Thankfully, it means absolutely nothing. You know, the only, and I know that some people would make a four-hour show at a Pro Bowl selections, we're not going to do that here. But point being is that the only votes that really matter is when you get named all pro, and the difference between Pro Bowl and all pro. Being selected to a Pro Bowl is good, I think. Selected.

I don't mean like you're the 57th alternate because everybody quit on the game and doesn't care. When you get selected to a Pro Bowl, which Daniel Hunter didn't, by the way, that cost him a million dollars, even if he's an alternate. Will Anderson, by the way, did not hear it. And neither did Will Anderson. Why do you think that is? I would have to look at the list of the guys in front of them, but they were deserving, to be sure.

But are good friends at Pro Football Focus, Matt? Oh, yeah, we love them. And remember, I know they don't get laid. I know they've got no friends, but they do provide good information. They, as far as pass blocking, they have Laramie Tunsell as the fourth best in football. Tristan Wirthes won Jordan Mayelata, and then Rashon Slater and then Laramie Tunsell.

Other than the top 10, I mean, Lane Johnson, Jake Matthews, Trent Williams, there's a lot of the usual suspects at the time. What do they have even run blocking? Overall... Uh-oh, here comes, here it comes. Here's the big part. He is the 18th tackle, strictly on tackles

as far as run blocking. I can't even scroll and find him. He's like 30th or something. I would say, man, I'm going to make a guess this stab. He's like 27th-ish, because it's not listed. It's just, it's listed by grade and it doesn't have a column with a rank. Okay. With run blocking.

So by him making a Pro Bowl, it downgrades the award itself. Overall, they have him the 18th best tackle. But also one metric, not in all, be all. And I'm sure, as you mentioned, a lot of times with Pro Bowl selections, there is a reputational element to it. It's like Gold Globs, basically. You win one, you're going to win a bunch of them. Well, at least back of the day. These days, it's a little bit.

more metric base than it used to be, I think. Right. In the formula. But there's some to that too. Yeah. Derek Jeter was winning gold gloves when he didn't deserve him. I'll give you another one. Kobe Bryant was making first, second team all defenses when he shouldn't have been at the end of his career. There it is.

That's the insight that we get on this show that no other show gives you. But remember, the Pro Bowl means nothing in the day except probably some bonuses. And frankly, Will Anderson, uh, will, uh, will, uh, Will Anderson should be more upset than anybody else. Because that guy has been a menace for the last two months. Yeah. He has. To the phones we go, 713-212-5-790. You're laughing at line three, aren't you?

I am. Stay tuned, folks. We have time. We'll go to him now. Line three is Philip and Pearland, and it says on the subject line, nerds get laid. Philip, please explain. Oh, I'm so happy. I'm lying three. Thank you, Ross.

You know, some do. I mean, a lot of them do. Nerds have any love, too. His nerd love in the world, Matt. I believe it. Trust me, I married a woman, and I was a nerd when I married her. So I'm case number one of that. Yeah, I hear you.

Yeah, I'm totally agreeing with that. But I just, I tease pro football focus because they just get into such the weeds on things, but they still do a nice job. So, you know, I've come a little bit. Again, they don't have many friends. I don't think they get laid regularly, but they do get laid, and they go out good information. No friends? No friends. That's a bigger concern.

Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. But I get it, though. They're all shut in. They're all new. You make a good point. It's hilarious, Matt. Don't suck.

Okay, I just want to make sure. You know, and it was kind of a backhanded compliment. But, yeah, love you guys. Happy New Year. So it is not too late to say. say happy new year. Yeah, February 15th. February 20th, February 25th, whatever.

Yeah, whatever. We do as long as you want to. Thank you, Philip, for the phone call. Appreciate it. Do it all year. Remind me in July 1st to wish somebody a happy new year. It'll throw, it'll throw people off.

Okay, I will. By the way, I got very few Happy New Year texts this year. I'm very pleased about that. Oh, really? Yeah. Don't go to your phone. Don't do it.

Oh, here it comes. What's the one you said you hated? You don't want Merry Christmas. You don't want. I forgot. You know what? Send me a damn card. I forgot.

If you care about, really give me a Merry Christmas, then put the envelope out there, go get your card at the local store, put a stamp on it, and give me like 10 minutes that you cared about me. Are all your wrong and horrible takes? This might be your longest and most horrible. Somebody can text. People are busy. Except the Merry Christmas text. They at least thought of you.

That counts for something. Especially in 2020. I was on a Merry Christmas. I was on a Merry Christmas text chain of people. None of the people in that text chain were on my phone address book. Okay. Now that's lazy for sure. The individual text.

And they're all 281s and 713. It's on a Merry Christmas, Matt. Hope you guys have a happy New Year. You know what? I'm doing it right now. I will absolutely accept that. If you include my name, that means you actually cared to put me on a separate one. But to put me in a generic text chain with 50 any other bros that I didn't.

know any of those people? Don't text me any. I don't want you. You know, I'm going to block you. I don't want any of your text at all. First of all, you're a D-minus text. That's your new resolution for 2025, Ross. You could be a better, you get be a better returner text. Your text game is horrific.

Have you seen it improve? No, it's been bad. It's like Jalen Green's three-point shooting. We just got to give up at some point. James and Klein on 7-90. Hello James. Hey, how you guys are doing? Listen, the thing that bothered me the most was Arizona State had a safety

over the top, and they still let the guy get behind him in the end zone. That's what cost in the game. I'm sorry, James. I know you're rooting against the longhorns. I'm sorry you were disappointed. Well, we had four Cougars, a bobcat, an Aggie, and a longhorn, I think, watching the game together.

So I had that longhorn in my ear all the time, but it was a good game. It was a great game. It was a great game. I really, honestly, thanks for the phone call, James. It was the best part of it was a great game. It was a great game. Because I thought it was over. What was it?

Let's see, they had an odd score. It was, they had scored the safety. By the way, you're lucky that it was only a safety. Which, by the way, I was yelling for Sark. When they went up 24, I was yelling, go for two. Why didn't they go for two to go up 17? Yeah, that was. Three scores.

Either 15 and 16, what's the difference? There is no difference. I mean, you have to make them go for two, but I was saying, go for two and try to make it a three-score game at that moment. Sark? The Sark moment of yesterday was talking to Burton. I'm going to have to talk about that either. Yeah, great job. This is why everybody talks about pregame speeches and motivating all that stuff.

And it's like, you just got to go out there and play. You've got to go out there and execute. But look, to his credit, it was better than him going out and saying don't screw it up. You think Bill Parcells would have done that? Leave him alone, Sark. It's not your moment. It's Bert Auburn's moment. Well, he screwed it up.

but at least they won. He kicked the extra point in the overtime. Fourth and 13, I thought it was way, way, way over. All right. And then Quinn Ewers. America's quarterback. By the way, rumor is, declare, man. The rumor is Notre Dame.

He should pull out of the rest of the season and just declare out for that performance. You mean that's it? Yeah. That's as high as it's going to get his crescendo his college career. That's it. That's it for me. Leave on a high note. Leave him want more.

Because if he goes out and throws three picks against Ohio State. There's draft stocks going back down. So you think he's going to go to the draft. I do. I'm telling if, again, whether that there's six million dollars out there for him or not, who knows? Some joker with 4,000 followers. I'm just not buying it. Let me put it this way.

What if there's three million available to him? Would you do it? I don't think he would. $3 million for one year. His pro contract may not be $3 million. You and I don't think that he's going to be a good NFL quarterback. I think Quinn Ewers thinks he's going to be a good NFL quarterback. But he can say, I can go.

work on my rookie deal, be a starter somewhere, and I'll get my riches a lot sooner. Or, yeah, that's what I think. And now is it's a gut feeling. We're gut feeling. Right, right, right. I have no idea. He could very well transfer somewhere else and take a big picture.

I would still lean towards him probably going to the NFL because I don't know if I believe there's $6 million out there. First of all, what school is so cash flush that they think it would take $6 million to go grab Quinn for one more year? That's the mind point. The talent doesn't match the amount of money it would take. Is there a college coach in this country going, man, we are a Quinn-Uers away from being a national title contender? Willie Fritz.

We already got our guy. We're happy. Connor Wedman. Wishing him the best. I'm glad you are. Go cooks. Get you turned around. I like this.

This is a new fresher 20-25 Rossville or yeah. I'm not Washington State. Oh, my God. 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212. 5.7.90. It is 1115. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got shut your bum ass up. Anything 2024 or you want a future 2025. We'll let you do that at 713-212-5-790. If you are concerned about your testosterone levels, getting them tested for free is what you should do with Game Day Men's Health. The website, Gamedaymen's Health.com slash Houston. locations throughout the Houston area

are opening up by the month. It's a national company that has had so much success around the world and around the US of A that they're not coming to the Houston area. Get your T-levels check to make sure that you are feeling your absolute best, that you're sleeping better, that you're not groggy, that you're, you know, brain fog or you're grumpy.

You're not able to run and lift and do whatever you like to normally do. Maybe your sex drive is done. Maybe you're not performing in the bedroom. These things can be fixed largely with testosterone levels that are in check. Houston, check them out right now. Gameday, men'shealth.com slash Houston. Game day, men'shealth.com slash Houston.

Get a hold of them right now. Find a location near you and get that free T-level check at game day, men's health.com slash Houston. Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. All right, a friend of mine just texting me. And he says this, and Ross, we might need video evidence of such event. You got to talk about the two ASU co-eds who walked in, who walked on in front of Bert before his kick.

Incredible strategy. Oh, yeah, he was doing his practice kick. And I thought it was just one. It might have been two. But it was, I don't think they're co-eds. They weren't just like ladies in bikinis or something like that. they were student trainers or something like that. And they stepped in front of Bert when he was doing his kick, yeah.

So we don't know. Was that gamesmanship? Did somebody send them over there? I would guess yes. Oh my gosh, absolutely, 100%. By the way. Whatever. Make your kick, Bert.

I'm not using that as an excuse. There's no way. ASU, an incredible campus. What's your favorite feature? I don't know, but I've been to ASU's campus probably two or three times of my life and I've never been disappointed. Maybe some of the best once around you'll find in America.

What does that mean? Once around, what? The campus. Hmm. You get in your car and you're doing once around campus. Kind of look, let's see what's out there. Beautiful buildings, structures. Oh, okay. And so I'll say, what was the structures?

Was there a certain building or a statue you saw that you really was impressive? No, I thought they were all great. Oh, okay. The two best once arounds in America, at least that I've been the last 10 years for me, Rossi. Okay. State and Arizona State. Okay. Send your kids to Arizona State.

They'll party hearty. Phoenix, great city. Tempe, great little town. 713-212-5-7-90. Shut your bum ass up coming up at the bottom of the hour. John and pass a get down, Dina. Hi, John. Hey, guys, what's going on?

Happy New Year. Same to you. Hey, I appreciate it. Hey, I appreciate it. A couple things. One, not very personal. If you're in a group text for New Year's or Christmas, send me something personal. I'll send you something personal back.

Bless you. Yes. Okay. Texas, Arizona State. One thing I haven't really heard too many people talk about. First of all, Texas will not be Ohio State plan like they've been planned, no doubt. Ohio State is rumbling right now. But let skateboard.

Is he the next Taysam Hill, number one? And next, there was some serious separation he made and no call on that 60-something-yard, that he caught late in the game that was no cost. So I don't want to hear about the targeting and all that kind of stuff because he got away with his fair share of stuff. But he is a gamer. I'll say that. He's going to make

somebody's roster at the next level. But I don't know that he'll be that big of an impact player. Thanks, John. The reference I got on Twitter a minute ago was Peyton Hillis, former Cleveland Brown. Okay. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, let's just find a white guy and say

every white guy that was a running back and let's That's what we do. That's why I'm going with Jerome Bettis. That was the first name that came to mind, really, literally. I wasn't trying to search or trying to be different. Tason Hill's body type is not even close to his. Well, end of his courage. Younger Jerome Bettis.

No, no, no, I'm talking about Scataboo. I'm sorry. I'm not talking about Jerome Bettis and Camp Scataboo. Is it Scatibu? It says Scataboo, but everybody says Scataboo. So I guess it's a scatibou. I love it. I love a scatibu now.

Hold on. Hey, from Tipa, don't live. Oh, yeah. Hit the music. Hit it. You did it. You started it. Cam Scataboo. This one? Yeah, we go to this one. Welcome this week in the LSU Sports. We're looking for a transfer out of them boys to stay, boys.

It's Cam Scataboo getting himself a ninth year eligibility. Welcome to Baton Rouge. Oh, hi. You see that Cam Scatabu run on a pieceball now, baby. He was struck. I'm off of them like it was a possums holding their babies. Get some N-I-L money for Cam Scataboo. We're going to spell his name,

B-E-A-U-S-Cataboo. Then we'll get him some cracklings on the I-10 at Lafayette. And we'll get his dad in there too because his dad gets as much shine as that quarterback in Texas. That was a backup. It sucked and couldn't do anything to go into Alabama, but his daddy got a lot of playing time. He was stirring up that Texas defense like a pop.

the gumbo, baby. The cams, the Cambs Caddy movie show. Is this going to become a thing now? Yeah. I'm okay with it. Well, Matt Rooge sports leader. Instead of Old West names or doing Cajun sounding names. WLSU. Ah, ooh.

Yeah, we'll get rid of the Old West. We'll take it even with the Cajun names. You should have went to LSU, baby. Why didn't he recruit him? Somebody said he's had a hand injury back in the day. Is that true? I don't know about his history. People were talking about him vomiting and twitching on the, like if he had a head injured. He's a concussed man. ASU people,

folks were saying that he's always twitchy. So I don't know if that means. Let me tell you something. If you're twitched ASU, that's a good thing. If he's got the Tourette's or if he does not have Tourette's. You don't know that. But what an assumption on your part? That was horrific.

I'm not an assumption. I'm telling you what I read on Twitter. Tourettez is about twitching and swearing at large amounts of people. Matt, that's from movies. You don't have Tourette's people don't. They're normally you just be twitchy and have Tourette's. So if you don't have Tourette, you don't swear as much? That's the thing that the movies have done this and make it all about just screaming.

See, you know what? I'm all about Tourette's awareness here on this show, Matt. That's why I'm glad you brought this to the table. No, you can just be like twitching and, yeah, uncontrollable noises or sounds or whatever. It's not necessarily what you saw a deuce Bigelow male jiggolo with Amy Poller screaming obscenities. Yes, that's more of an exaggeration to be a Hollywood, Matt. It's not the... Actually what happens medically.

There's a show called Boston Legal that had an attorney that was like a clerical helper that had Tourette's as well and he was sworn a lot too. Okay. All right. Well, now you've just... I didn't say he has Tourette's. People on Twitter did. You just did. You just wanted a major market radio show.

You carry a lot... Even though you're mid, you definitely... Mid market. You definitely put it out there now. Hi, my name is Ross and I did not say the Cam Scataboo or Bo, or Bo, whatever. It's Cammes Cadaboo B-E-E-E. A-U-S-A-U-S-A-U-S. That was Matt Thomas diagnosed him with Tourette's.

No, you're the one that mentioned Tourette's for I did. I just said he swears a lot. It wasn't me. All right. So you gotta shut your bum-ass up or it locked and loaded, don't you? I got a certain baseball writer. Sure. All right.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the way we, normally we're doing on Wednesdays, but because we were working yesterday, or we were not working yesterday, we have a chance here for you to spout off about someone that's really irritated you. Someone has irritated you. Someone is making you mad. and you can tell them right here on this radio show to shut their bumasses up. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790.

If there's something that's going on in your life that's causing delays or you don't have time for you, simply say anybody got time for that. We got that coming up as well. Next half hour is yours to spout off. What's the matter with you? Let's find out right now. 7-13-212-5-790. for day.

This is our favorite part of the week. It really is. I don't care if we're doing on Wednesday or Thursday. I'm going to move it around. We just need a half hour for us just to vent. And that's what this show does. I mean, other people who aren't breaking through Pro Bowl debt charts. Other people discussing exhausting long segments of what Texans should play this Sunday against Tennessee.

I can give two craps about the game on Sunday. It's all about who they're going to play in the playoffs. Right? Don't you think? I think you care. You give a little bit of a crap about the, the results. result. I got a steak dinner on. No big Wop. Not a big deal.

I don't have a high end steak dinner now. Money Mills. Money Mills is going to lead us to victory in the hour of nine and a half. Okay. I got you. Tennessee Titans putting out the order logo is on their Twitter account. I'm over

it. Shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. They're weirdly obsessed. And by the way, to douchebags out there on Twitter that say, well, they got what they accomplished. You're retweeing them. Shut your bum ass up.

I'm allowed to comment on people on stuff on Twitter, especially when it's stupid. Your team's 3 and 13. Put the logo out there, though. Good for you. It's so weird. They're 3 and 13. They're using it for the last week of the season.

I'm with you. Ain't nobody got time for the Tennessee Titans to try to act like they're really Tennessee Oilers history. Yeah. I mean, the Houston Oilers. Pro Bowl voting. Laramie Tensel, ain't nobody got time for him being on the Pro Bowl roster.

It's ridiculous. What do you mean? Top five pass blocker in the country. Number one penalty, a crore. Is that number one of a crore? Yes. Okay. I guess.

I like it for the sake of the argument. 713212. We need a sour for when you make up a word. Oh, I've done a lot of that. 713, 212. But I always always purpose by saying, is that a word? You know what? We appreciate you for that.

Like half the time it is a word. Yeah, I just don't use it. 713, 212, 5, 790. 13212-1-2-5-7-9. Ross, what's the matter with you? Yeah, I actually did some research, Matt. It was last week, but it was Friday when Jeff Passon did it. So you know what? Jeff Passon, we're still putting you up here.

I have defended you for years on this program and this station against people who hate you like Matt Thomas and Adam. I absolutely hate him. This is indefensible. Not only do you put out one tweet defending the Dodgers saying, well, other teams can go out and spin just like the Dodgers. No, they can't. and you know that.

But then you follow it up and compound the issue. When people point out that there's over a billion dollars in deferrals, and you try to act like that's unprecedented, that is disingenuous. I'm disappointed to see you carry the water for the Dodgers. You tiny, little, insecure, nerd, shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. And wear some suits that fit, rage against a machine dork.

Anybody got time for you wearing shmediums? Well, actually, in your case, would be, what's the mix between extra small and small? I don't know. Extra small. Dork. Anybody got time for that? It always looks like a ring bearer. And a wedding.

He's got that ring bear suit on. Does anybody that grew up with Jeff passing? Oh, man, Jeff passing back in the day was such a cool dude. No, he's not. But he's got a lot of money and he breaks news. Good for him. Thank God. Damn, B, I didn't choose him.

I feel again, smokescreen. There's no way. All right. Connor, what's the matter with you? I had friends go to Nashville for the Music City Bowl, Missouri Beat, Iowa for Back to Back 10 minutes. Congratulations. Games on Monday.

I was invited, but declined because it was too expensive, and I agreed to cover for the afternoon producership that day. So I was glad my friends were able to go and have a good time, but anybody got time for pictures and videos being sent to me of them partying and saying, I wish that I should be there. Instead, while I'm stuck here in the studio of a closet, or a closet of a studio, I had major fomo.

Ain't nobody got time for that. Hey, nobody got time for a freezing closet. If you go, I got one free, if you go out on New Year's Eve and you dress up and then send me photos of how y'all, how snap you are looking, but you don't invite me to go hang out with you. Ain't anybody got time for that either.

You were going to say no anyways, Matt. That's exactly right. You just want to be invited. That's right. But don't not invite me and then still send me pictures. All right. I'm sorry. Am I right about that? I guess. I don't know. I don't get people sending me pictures of their outfits.

Because let me tell you something. I made a terrible, terrible mistake this year. Who were these people sending you pictures of their outfits, Matt? It's not of your concern at this point. See, what is happening here? So, save you. So I made a major mistake. I'm going to tell myself, to shut my bummed up on this. I was supposed to take my middle son, Peyton, to go see Barry Mantolo this summer at

the smart financial. If he makes it. No, he knows this is this past summer. No, Barry makes it. Oh, okay, this past summer. Well, the concert, he got COVID and had to reschedule. Yeah. So his mother took his spot. Mm-hmm. Oh, right.

And we sent photos of us singing Barry Manilow to Payton. He was pissed. Yeah, he wasn't happy with you folks. He's like, not only did I not go, you're sending me photos of you enjoying yourself. Dad and mom, shut your bum. ass up. That is correct. Shit your bum ass up. So I made up for it. He and I this June are going to Vegas to see Barry

in his residency show in Las Vegas. It's wonderful. So good for me. Good for him. Yes, he is. They both of them down to the Orleans. No, he's in Westgate. Okay. He's got a lifetime residency there now. Lifetime. Whatever is lifetime is love. I was going to say. Whatever's left. So I made

amends. But just, again, if you go somewhere and don't invite somebody, don't send pictures to us. We don't care. especially we don't get the invite her feelings I will say in general nobody wants to watch your two minute

concert video anyways ain't nobody got time for that now I put the eagles out there because I thought the sphere was amazing sphere sphere sphere was amazing and I put that out there because I wanted to show everybody

how great it is no you just wanted to flex that everybody that you were at the sphere that's okay and I okay social media is for I got 75,000 views on that. Man, we're so proud of you, Matt. How did it happen? I didn't tag anybody.

I don't know. It has the Eagles, and it got picked up in the algorithms, Matt. God, that's crazy. We were all slaves to the algorithm. That is actually true. 713-212-5-790. Joe, Northwest Houston. Joe, what's the matter with you?

Yeah, hey, happy New Year's, guys. Thank you. You, too. Hey, what's the matter with me? Okay, on the Longhorn game. The defender, if you look at the last minute, he kind of flattened himself out. And he was not at all trying to hit him in the helmet. He was trying to avoid going head first.

He was almost going in standing up. And the catch, the receiver just, you know, ducked down a little bit and their helmets touched. And decide, as Ross said, on their touchdown, that was illegal. You can't pick a guy up and sling him. him into the end zone. You can't, and you can't do that. So that's, it's all the people are complaining about that call. Shut your bum ass up.

And secondly, yes, nobody's got time for that. And secondly, I once worked this guy with Tourette. And he was really cool. And he did like occasionally like every 15 or 20 minutes, blurt out a few words or something. but he was a good looking guy and dude we were both young we used to go out

to clubs together and women loved him so anyhow and friends of people Tourette you guys go all right no it was the opposite of those like keep talking rather than shut your bum ass up

so you're saying fake Tourette's works no the guy had Tourette's Matt and he was blurting out words and women thought it was hot he just said he was a good looking dude so if he was ugly in the words have been spouting out. No, probably, yeah. Okay, so basically it was because he was good looking out and make his age of trents.

I mean, that's, you know, that's how life works. Sometimes it's harder. The road is harder for the ugly people. Yeah, did you see on, uh, Kerber enthusiasm where he went to, uh, where Larry went to a restaurant where there was a section of good looking people and there was a section of ugly people? Yeah, you don't get into the clubs. Uh, I mean, really, job interviews don't go as well. Nope.

Everybody is about how you look. you don't get on television. Shout out to the ugly people. You don't get. How many legitimately ugly silent reporters are there in sports? Couple. Go ahead and name them. I'm waiting.

We're waiting. Go ahead. You opened this up. I did not open it out. I said how many. I answered your question. You should have said zero. You should have said, no, there's no ugly people at all.

I'm being honest. Well, then name them. You ask me how I can. No names are coming to the top of them. You don't want to name names. No names are coming to the top of my head. I'll talk. Okay.

If you give me a couple of it, I'll tell you. we go to the break you're going to tell us but you're a silent reporter you've got some attractiveness to you yeah for the most part and that's primarily women but there are also some male reporters too they look in themselves in the mirror and go you know what we're good looking people yeah Tom Rinaldi good looking dude

I mean I don't think he's ugly I don't know y'all need to text Ross and see who he thinks are ugly silent reporters because I really would like to hear this oh my god he could have said zero and been really safe and instead he said oh there's a couple. There are. Am I wrong? And none of them come to mind. No, I can't think I don't think I don't know a

broadcasting nerd like you. I don't know who everybody's, I don't know who's on the six crew on FS1 like you do. That is accurate. But I think all of them have inner beauty. Yeah, they might have some inter beauty. It's outer, not theirs. 713, 212, 570. If you've got somebody that's irritating you, making you mad, making you sad, tell them to shut their bumasses up. 713-212-5-7-90. More of this to the top of the hour.

News at noon. E-Mead, don't get 1 o'clock. This is Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas, Ross Villariel. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross. On Sports Talk 790. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-79.

And I wish... Spam risk. Sorry about that. I was about to say, I wish we could tell you what we talk about during breaks. I don't. Why do you wish? Because it's so juicy. No, it's not that juicy.

I like it. But you just told me 20 seconds ago it cracks me up. Okay. 713212-570. 713-212-5-79. Look who's on line three there, Rossi. Who we got over there? Happy New Year, James and Garden Oaks.

Likewise, man. Likewise, Governor Thomas. And thank you, Mr. G for taking my call. and happy need a to you to RV. Listen, I just got two quick things. Number one, that guy, Jeff Passon, he is the dweed of the year for sure because he's trying to sell that, you know, that concept that, you know, everybody can, you know, they know about the concept to do, get their players and defer their contract.

Now, that's, that's a conspiracy theory and that's complete bogus. But I'll bypass that. That thing that bugs me is this thing I heard just yesterday about. the coach of the eagles, whoever this pineapple is, saying that they thought it was in the best interest to say, San Juan Barker. First of all,

that's sending a very poor message to the fans, people, no matter what fan base you are and everything, you want to see somebody succeed and set a benchmark. And if he's able to succeed it, it don't matter who held the record.

It should be, it should be given that guy an opportunity to take that record. But, you know, I'm confused with that and I'm just you know like I don't have time for all that and I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way and thank you Governor Thomas for taking my call

Hey nobody got time for that New York I don't think we're going to get a single San Juan Barclay should play this week call this week between now and tomorrow right Fantasy's done no Eagles have to play opening weekend

Sey Juan Barclay shouldn't be playing sorry apparently his father was disappointed because he wanted the family name on the rushing record, which would be cool. Charles? I don't think, I don't believe that Sequan's father is Charles. Okay. I guess he's old enough to be.

Oh, absolutely he is. I think Charles is like 60-something now. Yeah, which makes me feel kind of old. Because he went to he, I think he finished Auburn in 84, somewhere in that range. We would put him about 14 years old. Yeah. He's got to be in his 60s. By the way, Charles Barkley is very funny to me.

All he did six months ago was tell us how he was going to retire. Yes. And how he was not going to work anymore in television than if he wasn't going to work with these boys. So TNT sets up a side deal with ESPN and says, we'll take the inside the NBA show. We'll let you produce it out of Atlanta and we'll just stick it on ESPN. It will be you four bros just doing it. Not only does he say, that sounds cool, but then he's like, well, I'm still talking to Amazon. I'm still talking to NBC.

And I'm not completely sure what I'm going to do. He's negotiating still? He's negotiating. when he told us six months ago he was retiring. He's got more retirement talk than Sugar Ray Leonard used to talk when he used to talk about retirements. I like that. For those of you who used to care about boxing, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Go with Mike Tyson too.

He's retired a few times now. But he made good money, though. Came back and got, well, yeah, but he squandered it all. He talked about being broke. But I mean, he got it back now, right? I hope so. He's cash rich again. I hope he's keeping that cash.

He got from the Jake Paul sham of a fight. Yeah. Thank God I was on Netflix I'll tell you this I wouldn't have paid for it No I would have illegal streamed it Oh at your house absolutely Put a big screen in front of the house Against a garage door

Mm-hmm Cook some weanies Weenie what? Yeah look like a hot dog roast I'm not eight Yeah but don't do a hot dog roast Didn't you put movies against a projector Of your garage door?

Do you want to make s'mores too? Yeah why not Actually I like making s'mores Hot dogs Hot dogs are for children Matt have some sausage. No, you can like it all. You can like sausage, you can like the dog.

You know what? I'm not talking food with you. You know what, that's my 2025 New Year's Resolution. Oh, so you're saying that you're anti-hot dog. If you, I'm not saying... So you're saying that millions of people that go to sporting events are bad people because they like hot dogs. Yeah, there's a time and a place, but I'm not inviting you over to watch a fight and

have a weenie roast. You've invited me over a period. What's the difference? You're not coming over for a weenie roast as much as you want to, Matt. I don't know. No. We don't need, no. What do you want to do a lobster ball instead?

Yeah. We can do that. You can do a clam bake? Clam bake would be really delicious. Oh, yeah, I'll smoke a prime rib. Oh, excellent. Now you're talking my language. Prime rip.

I would say not underrated as everybody likes it, but as a home food, it's not a difficult. As a kid, as a younger adult, I like the N-cut, because I always thought it was too rare, but now I'm off the N-cut. The N-Cut's got all the crust on it, though. But it's too overdone. Right in the heart of it, a good prime rib where it's medium right in the middle, medium rare. I love this show. A little horse rash. What were we talking about two minutes ago?

We were talking about the Jake Paul fight in prime rib. We were talking. We were talking. We were from Charles Barkley to prime rib somehow, some way. That's how we do it here on Sports Talk 790. Last call. If you got anything else you want to get off your chest, anybody got time for that, shut your bow mess up. 713-2-1-790.

713-212-5-7-90. Oh, I got one for you from last week. The NFL did a terrible job of scheduling their games. You had the two games on Christmas. You had then three more on Saturday. The Sunday slate of NFL games this past week was terrible. It was so bad that I couldn't even enjoy it on the Red Zone because they were going from one second game to the next.

At 3 o'clock, there was only two games on, right? Yes. It was Miami Cleveland, which meant nothing to anybody. I mean, I think technically Miami was still eligible for the playoffs, and they still are. And then you had the Green Bay, Minnesota. But, man, if you're just relaxing on a Sunday and you don't have a dog in a fight like Houston didn't because the Texans already played, give us a bunch of game to choose from. There was nothing intriguing about Sunday. So anybody got time for bad NFL weekday games, especially the noon slot, because it felt like it was plethora of them.

Let's because they took all those Christmas checks, and they're not regretting that, and they're not going to stop. $150 million. Is that sick? By the way, Netflix is beyond happy. No streaming issues. Had worldwide, halaciously big numbers. Right. NFL got its money.

Huge numbers. No snafews, as you mentioned. And they were dog games, and they still had huge numbers. Dog games, and people watched. Mm-hmm. Which I think it just shows you how powerful Netflix is. Well, the NFL. Both.

What do you think? How many? Out of every 10 households you go to, how many people have Netflix? Was these three? At a 10? What do you think? I don't know.

It feels like at least half. It feels like it, but it probably is. We can probably Google that. But the viewership for these dog games was incredible. I don't know how they count them as to a number of people in the house. If they had to guess on that, or they strictly said these number of households were watching it. But man,

as of the third quarter of 24, 85 million paid subscribers in the United States and Canada, and what there's 400 people, million people in America, plus shared with shared passwords? Because they don't even know the shared password. They just know simply number of people that logged in and said, I want to hit that game, right?

Yeah, but I think they're cracking down on the shared password thing. Well, at least Netflix did. Last one, Frank 790. What's the matter with you, Frank? Well, I want to know it's your fault, man, that we can't see U of H on television. Why is it my fault?

because we because we just got to have somebody to blame so it might well blame you Matt that feels accurate that's nice thank you Frank hey hey and and and uh

tell the hell it's you got shed his bum ass we don't want to hear nothing crap shit your bum ass up man you hear that gordy shut your bum ass up gordon shit your bum ass up man that's rude

by the way christie on Twitter giving me an ugly sports dude on television oh okay who'd she say I'll let you check it out. I saw it. I was trying to make you say it. You can say it. Rhymes with Mick Mite. She said it, not us.

What do you think it is? Do you think it's his hair? I'm not answering these questions. You want me to go further? Not until the next brutal honest segment with Ross. Who wins that? I'll do one a year. No, how about one a month? All the say, I all,

10 of the questions that we got were all about ranking the 790 talent so I feel like I'm over that right well we can we can find some new things like who do you truly despise in houston media like I don't truly despise any which sports members of the media do you like not any how is this guy legitimate sports media numbers I don't truly despise are the non-legit's yeah but I don't you want to mention them because I don't want to they don't need to shine up exactly exactly all right the news at noon is up in just two minutes here on sports talk 790 lunch timers This is the Matt Thomas show.

1202 on Sports Talk 790. We are halfway done with the show. What's happened to lunch timers. Hope you guys are having, and ladies are having a great new year. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Coming up in one hour,

we'll hear from Rockets Head Coach Eme Adoka. Rockets winning last night. I'm sure details coming up on that on. We'd like to call the News at noon. And with that, we go to the sports desk. All right, Matt. Gonna be here. Happy New Year, by the way. News and dude.

You already equipped all those New Year's resolutions? I haven't made any. Do you make any? Not yet. Would you like to make one? We can do one live on the air right now. Yeah, I'm going to lose weight. Hmm.

That's a little standby. That took no originality whatsoever. That's not about originality. It's about getting better and being healthier in my life. 12.20, we're going to make some New Year's resolutions. Real legit ones. I told you. I'm going to stop.

arguing food with you. That's my New Year's resolution. Because you are the food God and everything you say, I'm always wrong, but I mean, at least I can argue with somebody who doesn't love to make rib. We had McRibs on New Year's Eve. Did you seriously? Yeah, like I said.

I'll argue with somebody else. It is America's sandwich. It is a disgusting piece of pig tripe. Move on to the news and we'll go back on. On to the news at Nudebad, we're talking about, well, last, yesterday in the college football, playoff. You had the Texas Longhorns defeating the Arizona State Sun Devils in a thriller.

In double overtime, a lot of controversy over the late call that was not. Should there have been targeting? Of course, my counter to that is maybe there should have been targeting, but by the rule of the law, I could see where it was ruled not a targeting, but also Cam Scadaboo, who had a great game overall, accumulated a lot of big numbers, 143 yards on a 3rd. 30 carries. A couple of touchdowns as well. Did have the big 62-yard catch, which led to a day of eight catches for 99 yards. Also, through a touchdown, a lame duck that was vastly underthrown and then ran to the end zone. But also at the end of the day, a great performance from Cam Scataboo.

39 to 31, though. Quinn Ewers comes up clutch in overtime, and the Longhorns advanced the final four of the college football playoff. Unbelievable. Great interception to end the game. Great last second performance for Quinn Ewers, the fourth and 13 big stones on that bad boy. We were in the car listen to Craig Way and I think he was about to have a heart attack. He was losing his mind. He was losing his mind for sure.

Yes. And elsewhere in the college football playoff, Ohio State trouncing Oregon, getting up 31 to zero going on to win 41 to 21. The first person I thought of Matt when I saw this game, poor Phil Knight. 86 years old All he wants to do is he's basically said blank check And well The Oregon Ducks are going to have to settle for

Not being a team that was worthy of the Playoff according to the logic of Kirk Herbstre When you see a blowout In the playoff Then you say that team wasn't deserving of the spot Right? That's how it works So Oregon not deserving of the spot Is that where we're going with?

Kirk Kirk is Kirk's had a better month in terms of reputation as he? He's had better times than what he's getting dragged on these social media streets. I mean, he trotted out his dead dog and got sympathy from everyone and he's still getting crushed. That's how bad it's going for him. You bring the fresh dog out and it hasn't helped. I think somebody was saying like next dog up, next dog up.

Which was kind of rude. Kind of rude. It was 100% rude. I didn't say it. You were thinking of though. No, I didn't think it. All right. I'm sorry for his loss of whatever that dog's name was, the first one that died. Also in the news at noon, Matt, the Houston Rockets with a 1-10-99 win over the Dallas Mavericks on this five-game homestand

against five straight playoff teams, dropping the first two in disappointing fashion. It was nice to see a win for the Rockets last night. Yes, did so without Luca Donchich, who by the way, Dallas looks disoriented without him out there. Kyrie was just a guy out there yesterday

when Quentin Grimes, shout out to the University of Houston Cougars, was one of your go-to threats offensively. Dallas is in trouble. Alperin Schengun had a great second half. Rockets couldn't find the three-ball much in the first half got better as the game progressed a little bit. Cam Whitmore was very impressive yesterday coming off the bench as once again no Tarisen and you had unfortunately a man Thompson serving the first of his two-game suspension. Also Jalen Green scoring 20 plus points without making a three-pointer. The Sports Talk 790 research team has dug into the archives. Is that Wexler?

No, it was me. Oh, okay. I was doing it during the post game while Ime Adoku was playing. Okay. Jalen Green has not done that all year, 20 plus points without making a three, because he's very three-point dependent when it goes to his point production, in my mind. And he had only done it twice previously in his career. That was in his second year in the league.

So good to see him getting aggressive, getting to the basket, only put up three-threes. Normally, he's like, if he has a bad shooting at one for eight, one for nine, something like that. Getting to the basket, able to score 22 points on 21 shots. Grand Ville did not shoot well yesterday, but did distribute the ball nicely. Got a couple of blocks. Rockets got a bunch of steals in the game. And more importantly, separated themselves between the third and the fourth spot on the Western Conference. Also, Matt, 18 points from Cam Whitmore, 7 and 9 from the field in 24 minutes.

You would have thought he would have been really happy post-game, but a bizarre interview from Cam Whitmore after the game sounded like he's either frustrated. frustrated or unhappy here with the Houston Rockets right now. How did it feel just to, you know, get consistent minutes there in that second quarter, but also in that fourth quarter to close the game? I don't think it was consistent minutes. I don't, I really don't know or think that. I mean, I can contribute a little bit, but I mean, it doesn't really, you know,

affect anything. It doesn't really, you know, can't get me nowhere, but, you will see what happens. But, I mean, I'm sorry, we got to win. You don't feel good about how you played tonight? I mean, I do, but, I mean, it's nothing. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. What is Cam Whitmore talking about?

What is happening here, Matt? I really don't know. I was really shocked at the end of the night, listening to that interview. And it goes on, and it gets weirder and weirder. Yeah, it was, it was, maybe it was, I've done this all long, and I'm not given the chance,

or no matter what I do, nobody's mad, nobody's happy with me or maybe he's a big powder. I don't know. Maybe he feels like he should be starting. I don't Cam and I have no relationship whatsoever so I can't really speak to what he could be thinking. Guys aren't broskeys?

No. But yeah, it has been making waves throughout certainly Rockets Twitter and a little bit in the NBA sphere, the great game from Cam Boynton. What? Sphere. Nice. I didn't even know what you're doing there. I was like

did they say it wrong? I mean, he's been good since he's been back. I mean, he spent a month in the G-League. Maybe he's just bent about being in the G-League for a month. Yeah, I don't know. It was weird stuff from Cam Wittmore. And, well, Coach Udoka, heaping praise on him last night.

Yeah, I mean, coach was loving on the guy. I don't know. I really don't mean to be perplexed by something, but I was certainly perplexed by that. And also, Matt, elsewhere, keeping with the college football bracket that we were talking about earlier, of course, with the tragedy in New Orleans.

You had the Sugar Bowl postponed by a day. It will be a 3 p.m. kick, Notre Dame versus Georgia. I saw prospective lines. We should carry the game so we can give the 18 another day off. Well, yeah, we don't want to overtax them. I mean, it's the start of the year. We don't want those guys working too hard. At the moment, Notre Dame, a one-point favorite.

And no matter what happens, as of now, the prospective line would be either the Notre Dame Fighting Irish or the Georgia Bulldogs, two-point favorites over Pennston. Although Penn State is playing very atypical. Now, granted, they had Boise State and they had SMU, so it wasn't like one juggerna after the other for the first two playoff games. But they've been playing well. By the way, that Penn State quarterback, not very good.

throws a deep ball very inaccurately. There's no zip on the football. They moved down the field beautifully, but I was number 50 on what his name is, but I just wasn't very impressed. And then also one more college football note Speaking of prospective lines There is a line out on Texas versus Ohio State At least according to ESB

And how do you feel about it now? OSU sitting at minus six Does that feel fair? I think so I mean look if the Longhorns aren't going to They've had no run game In the last couple of games So if you're not going to be able to run the ball

Which they weren't against Arizona State and Clemson Now I mean Arizona State Really good run defense there But I mean I was really confused why we're continuing not to see Jaden Blu. Quintraveen Wisner is a good running back, but 18 carries for 45 yards is not going to get it done. And putting it all on Quinn U.S.,

don't even get me started on that. He came through in a big way. And I should have put a shut, your old bum ass up on myself for saying he doesn't go out there and win you games. He went out and won the Longhorns. He ran you to a victory. He ran in one.

He threw for three. He was huge, and he was big part of it. But that's also not something that you're going to need to, you're going to continue to count on if you're the longhorns. You're going to need sustained drives. You're going to need to keep your defense off the field. I think it was 97 plays. 97 plays by Arizona State Sun Devils

to 60 for the Texas Longhorns. And it with double overtime, but still, defense is great and possibly the best unit in the country, but they got to get off the field. They need some sustained offensive drives if they're going to win games. All right. Somebody on Twitter, Joe just said, is this Cam one out of Houston? Does that what it sound like to you or to sound like he was just mad because he's just not getting...

I mean, he's been playing the last seven games. It's not like he's not playing. As you said, gut feeling, don't know anything. Seems like he wants to be. He thinks he should be a starter. That's what it sounded like to me. That he deserves more minutes. Yeah. Because, I mean, the very first beginning, the question was asked, getting more consistent minutes in the second and fourth, and he was like, I don't think I'm getting consistent minutes at all. How did it feel just to, you know, get consistent minutes there in that second quarter, but also in that fourth quarter to close the game? I don't think it was consistent minutes.

He doesn't think it's consistent minutes. He was also asked later, or do you think you need a bigger role? And he said, no. But I don't know if that's... Maybe trying to catch himself. Yeah. Because sometimes you get in front of a microphone

and you say something like, oh, did I really say that? I better backtrack here. Yeah. All right. We'll see what Coach Adoka has to say about performance of cam. Again, everything that he said yesterday was effusive, right?

It was... He was very... He mentioned missing one defense assignment and then outside of that he'd been great defensively and he also said I'm not coach you doka saying I'm not nitpicking on that guys miss assignments it's team basketball but he really he had been really impressed with his defense

and his offense yeah sounds good to me 1213 sports talk 790 we'll talk to you next 713 212 5790 713 719 719 lunch timers it's the Matt Thomas show with Ross

on Sports Talk 790 I just scroll on Twitter about the Cam Whitmore stuff and Sam Bassini, who I've sent multiple emails to to come on the show, has never even responded. I can't do it. It just won't come on at all. Kind of gives you the Sam Amic treatment. Said, I kind of took this audio as Whitmore being hard on himself and not real interested in doing media obligations and anything specifically about how Maddie is that is rolling on the team. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

I think Cam just. I mean, there are defensive liabilities. There isn't a lot of play design. It's into the hand. Now, it is the step back three, the step back mid-range. He will attack the glass did so last night.

I mean, well, I don't know. We'll have to see what exactly, Cam says, if he visits with the media tomorrow or the day after Rockets, by the way, take on the Celtics and the Lakers in back-to-back games. Friday and Sunday. That is a heavy hitter lineup right there. It's

a heavy hitter weekend for Tillman for Tina. She'll make some cash. The crowd's been people in the building. Crowds been really good. We've had the last couple of games. People getting there sort of on time, which has been kind of nice too. Yes. Look what happens. You win some B-ball games and people show up. People calling the Rockets ride.

I know. I mean, Rome won Bill today, but we're getting there. Appreciate you folks. I know what Men Thompson is going to hurt. So that was another reason why it was very important to get that win against a short-handed Mavericks team. Noam in Thompson.

So they did get that. Celtics going to be tough. Jalen Brown playing? What's he listed? A game time decision? No, I'm just saying it in general. He may be completely healthy. I don't know.

This says game time decision for Christops and Jalen Brown, but that's on the ESPN. I can pull up the official. Jason Dan, I'm going to play? I think so. Can we get them suspended for something? For what? Maybe it being really rude? Maybe they could fight each other? Yes.

It's suspended for violation of team rules and practice? Inter-team squabble? Maybe the fly will be delayed. Can't play the game. Got a forfeit you can't get here in time? Yeah. You're trying a little bit too hard. Yeah, Chris Stops and Jalen Brown listed as questionable.

And Baylor Shireman is out on G-Leak assignment. Who? Was I supposed to know who that is? Baylor Shaman. Mm-mm. You can try bang. It'll work. Biscuit, happy New Year to you, friend.

Happy New Year, my brothers. Happy New Year. Big Ross. I think it was a couple months ago, and I called in, and I said, hey, man, listen. The coach in Cam Whitmore and saying, out of eye, man. And Matt's like, no, he was saying. I said, Matt, listen. Yeah, Matt.

Did you say Matt listen to me? And I said, I will not listen to you. Is that what it is? I think you're creating new storylines, but I'll listen to you now. How about that? You was like, well, they said his knee was hurt. I said, May, just came up from the G-League. It's going 30 points.

He's not heard. You know what? I'm going to start writing down all the crazy things Biscuit says if he's going to call back and then call back with the I'm right call all the time. Yeah, you are the king of I'm right calls. Biscuit, I'm going to start recording you every night. In basketball, you got to listen to me, man. Listen.

All right. Cam Whitmore coach comes from that Larry Brown treat, man. Popovich Larry Brown. They believe in playing basketball the right way. Okay, what's the right way? You share the ball, you play defense. and then if you score, that's cool. Camdenmore, I think he's better than Sheper,

a man, and Ethan. He feel like he should be playing the front of all three of them. And the coach's like, I'm the coach, I'll tell you what to do. You can't do what I tell you do. We'll have a seat. Well, Reed Sheper is not playing anymore. I mean, he's got a bunch of DMPDs as of late. Tari's hurt and a men's out, but I mean,

a men's a more complete player than Cam Wittmore. And that's why Whitmore know that's why he's playing. When those guys come back, with Murr knows, he's going back to the bench. So that's why he's not happy with it. He's like, yeah, I'm playing now, but that's only because they hurt. He wants to play when they're healthy. Well, then we should use the Will C card, right? We should see what he may does when everybody's healthy.

But right now, Tar is on 100%. He shouldn't be playing more minutes than a man Thompson. A man Thompson is one of the best bench players in the NBA this season. I'm not, I agree with you, Matt. I'm telling me what Whitmore is thinking. Oh, okay. This is what he's thinking. Okay.

This is from his point of view. I'm better than these guys. I'm saying, afraid from the field. They can't do, I'm dunking on people. They can't hit three. And the coach is like, yeah, but what about that man that just went back door and you didn't cover it? What about that fact that you don't even pass the ball? You're like a black hole.

When the ball gets to, it sticks. Yeah. Biscuit, I'm just telling you, and I have been around some amazing coaches in my life. I mean, A. Medi Adoka is the king of respect what I need you to do, and I will give you the respect back. And that's how I kind of get to feel it. You know? Exactly. And the respect is get back on defense, hold your man, share the ball. If you don't do those things, I don't even flip about the jumpers you hit and all that. If you don't do these things, your time is going to be limited. Thanks, Ms. Kevin. And Whitmore got to come around on that. I hope he does, because there's a lot of part. There's a lot of things about Ken Whitmore I like, right? I mean, there's, he can, he's got some, he's got great leaping ability.

He can knock down a three. He goes and goes for offensive rebounds. There's a lot of parts of his game I do like. And Coach Yudoka was talking about this literally last night. Like he's really, he's always been a strong physical one-on-one defender, but sometimes the team defense is lacking and he's been really great at that. He's getting better. I mean, I was, there are two people in this world that I'm scared if I was a player and I didn't play,

defense to face their wrath. One would be Kelvin Samson, one will be Amy Adoka. You don't play defense for those guys. I don't care if they built the logo of the NBA around you. You're not going to play serious minutes. The Rockets, Rossi, have to play great defense

because they're not a great shooting team. Their third fewest points all out of the NBA. Third fewest points allowed for a basketball team that shoots about 32% from three-point range, which is, I think it's 29th out of 30 coming into last night.

Correct. It still is 29th. And you are about 26, 27, 28. You've been all year in field goal percentage overall. So how are you 12 games above 500 or 11 games? You have to do the little things. And in in EMA's mind, it's defense.

Yes. And I'm not saying that Cam's the only guilty party of this. Also, it is possible to play good offense and good defense. The Rockets don't have the shooter to do it. Yeah. So if you're going to hold if you're going to hold opponents

100,304 points a game, you go win your share games, even if you're not shooting great. And the shooting will come around. It's going to, it needs to. Fred's going to get better. And Fred is yo-yoing this year. And he'd be the first to tell you that, too.

Yeah. Career 37% shooter, he's well under that right now. Yeah. It feels, you know, it feels like to me, maybe the numbers don't back that up. Probably Dylan Brooks is probably your most consistent guy as of like. Dylan Brooks, I think he, I would have to go pull up all the numbers,

but yeah, he's been shooting like 37, 38% from three. I don't understand how the Rockets are so bad. They get open looks. They're not like they're not a whole lot of contestant ones. It's not like a man. Thompson's taking five a game to bring you down that much. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what?

I'm like in the Rocket Cheddar. It makes me feel good. That's all for you. No, I mean, it makes me feel like we have a team. Because look, the Texans are probably going to be one and done or two and done at the very most. The Astros, well, it's going to be interesting. Certainly a change. now to me

I'm feeling better with Issock Paredes and Christian Walker in the infield. I feel fantastic about those guys. I feel good about the infield. Starting pitching. It's Jake Myers season, baby. He's ready to make the leap into the elite. Defensive. You've lived off that month of May for a long time.

What do you mean? The fan club was founded long before that month of May. The fan club was like, we're going to be able to raise our enrollment rates. You know, the induction fees. No, we don't do that. we're static we don't pray on the people we welcome everyone with open arms you were charging premium rates to join the fan club that's not true in may and then all

a sudden in august you were like a buy one get one buy a B OGO no that's not true you went on you went on the uh what was the website it's discount of gift cards you know that's what you were for a while I don't know chas McCormick and write yeah Myers and Center Oh, Marisha Dubon slash Jordan Alvarez slash Jacob Mel. Jacob. Zach DeZzo? Zach, yeah.

That's right, because Zach's got to play somewhere now that first is taking care of. Yeah, he's got some pop. All right. I like it. 1228, Sports Talk, 7. I mean, we got EMA and don't can come up in one half hour. What is the today's edition of believe it or not? I have no clue.

And the fantasy, I would say the rotten five is already. Is that today? Yes. What time? 130. Oh, my. I sent the tweet. Let me...

Hey, Connor, do you get a tweet from me this morning? Connor? I have you muted. You posted one, right? Yeah. No, I sent a tweet this morning, or a text to you boys at 810 this morning. Oh, that wasn't up? Yeah.

Yeah, the show schedule. I read those. At least one of us does. 1229, sports talk 790. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross. on Sports Talk 790. 1232.

Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We look forward to having you with us because Ross has been busily working on the Rotten 5, which is in one hour from now. Believe it or not, is in 80 minutes from now. Oh, my God. Many prizes. The prize vault back to being flush. Do you even have anything in there?

Yeah, let's skip it again. Which one of the dead people are we doing? We got a 790 T-shirts. Is it, we're doing Jimmy Carter? Where did Jimmy Carter? Oh, who was it? If you want to go backtrack, it's Greg Gumbull's dead. Who were we supposed to do?

Linda Laban is dead. We were supposed to do best of. Oh, it's who best of? Yes. But we have no prizes, though. Oh, no prizes? Well, let's wait, I guess. Do we get some?

Can we get some prizes? Please. Please. I mean, this show's been around. Tomorrow's our 15th anniversary. Are you serious? Yeah. Man.

You were with me that day one? I was there the first day. was not the full-time producer day one. But you did hit the buttons? But I was there the first day. Yes. Okay. And then the next day it was somebody else.

It might have been like, I don't know, Patrick Osborne or somebody. And then within a couple of weeks, I became full-time. And then I was your full-time producer. Okay. Beginning of February, I became a full-time producer. So we're also hitting, was that February of 10? Yeah, because I started January 3rd, 2010. Yeah, I'll be 15 years full-time here.

loving every minute of it. That's good. I don't think people want to quite understand the emotions that are running through your body right now. I couldn't be happier, Matt. That's what I like to hear. That's what I like to hear. 713-212-5-790. You're okay?

Yeah, I'm great. Gagging over there or something. What the hell is going on? Excuse me? All right. 3 o'clock we've got the Sugar Bowl finally going to be played today between Notre Dame and Georgia. Texans wins.

Texans are on the practice field. Oh, they are? Yes. Okay, great. They're in normal work week. They didn't play. They're not playing on Saturday. Not playing Monday.

They're not playing the late Sunday game. They're right in the old 12 o'clock normal Sunday spot. Yeah, where they belong. And then the next week, they'll be what, Saturday 3.30? Now, this year, I think, remember last year, Peacock? got a playoff game. This year, I believe it's Amazon Prime gets a playoff game. They did a Monday night football playoff game last year too, right? That's on the schedule as well. Yeah. Which, by the way, that's, that's a sham.

What do you say that? When's that really gets hosed? They have a short week. Mm-hmm. A short week in the playoffs? That's getting hosed. Well, my guess is, and I know how it worked out last year, but my guess is if you play the Monday night game, you probably play the late Sunday game. Still, you're still getting hosed. You're still, yeah, especially if it's travel. Mm-hmm. So there you have it on that Let's see what else is going on here

Headlines say New Orleans Security and hundreds for Sugar Bowl That makes a lot of sense Yeah Do you think this hurts Super Bowl-wise? People saying, you know, I'm going to give New Orleans a break

See, the problem for me is And again, we don't mean to get off of the lighthearted sports that we do every day here But this could have happened anywhere This was not, I think, him, the terrorist, choosing

Bourbon Street, New Orleans. He just wanted to find a congested street. Yeah, he wanted to find somewhere there was going to be a lot of people. A lot of people. Yeah, you moved the Super Bowl to Indianapolis. You could do it to Nashville on, you know,

on that area where they have all the bars and stuff, right? I mean, you could pick and choose wherever you want to go. Without knowing more about the situation. Yeah. I don't think he necessarily said, hey, I got to drive the two New Orleans to do it. I want to, if I'm going to cause. From Houston. Yeah.

I guess, grew up in Beaumont. is what I understand. Hmm. So, but yeah, it almost feels like, and this is I was watching a security expert yesterday when this stuff was going down, that maybe the best place to be, if you're going to New Orleans, would be inside the dome because at least there is a, there's enclosure to it. There's only certain ways in and out of the stadium, certain in and out of the ways of the parking lot area. Whereas the bourbon street, if you're trying to cover an entire area, there's going to be some areas that are going to be some spots open.

But, well, you know, the number one thing. I continue here is you can't leave your life always being afraid, but you can always be on heightened alert. Yes. But I'll say this. It just makes you want to just not go out and do a lot of stuff extra. I mean, I'm not going to stop doing things, but it's going to make you think about what I want to be at certain times of the day, certain areas. Who knows? Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't mean to just, I have thoughts, but I don't know how much of them I'm going to say on air. Okay. You know, I don't have to just, I don't know, society is just, everything's messed up. That's all. I'll just leave it at that. Yeah.

It just feels like it's worse and worse and worse. I don't know. Was this happening as much 50 years ago? 30 years ago, 20 years ago, these mass shooting events and mass murder events and all these things? It's just... Well, I mean, I guess you... It's just very disheartening.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think we're in a better place for it. That's why I decided... Oh, we were in New York's resolutions here. I'm going to less Twitter fight with people. That's good. Somebody sent me on Facebook Messenger. You know, the guy that calls me a Cougar, want to be. Yeah, Christian or Chris? Yeah, Christian. Just a complete utter douchebag.

You're friends with him on Facebook, by the way. Okay, you're going to unfriend him? I don't even know. Yeah, you are. I generally have been just accepting every friend. He got me mixed up with somebody else and just ripped me a hole on a, on a messenger. And I'm like, I don't need this person in my life. First of all, how I friended you on Facebook is mistake number one. And number two, I'm not going to let you go in and say what you said about me. So I blocked him, you know what, I cleansed him, got rid of him. And I'm like, you know what? I cleansed. I'm good. I'm happy. What's his name? Christian Marquez Vasquez?

Peralta. That's it. Christian Veralta? Yeah, I'm unfriending him right now, man. Good for you. It's just a bad guy. So I'm going to let less bad people into our lives and more good people. Okay, good. That's a great New Year's resolution, Matt. And you know what? I would say for the new year, mute button is your friend. Yeah. I think I'm up to like 2,200 accounts muted.

Yeah. You're either trolling or you're an idiot. I got time for neither. You're muted. That's basically what I do every day on Twitter. I'm going to, and I don't like to ever take advice from you because normally it's bad, but I'm going to take your advice this time. I give great advice. I gave you one bit of advice many years ago and you didn't take it. That's not true. You're making that up.

Oh, I remember one thing I told you. Yeah, you're making that up. That's just not the you're misremembering, but I'm used to that from you. Okay. I'm just not going to argue with people on Twitter anymore. That's good. Leave them alone. Leave them be.

I say one, one tweet, two tweet max. Yeah. I'm not going to fight with you on Texas anymore. I'm rooting for you. What do you mean? Oh, please. No, you're not. You're such a fraud and liar.

I'm openly. I can live through your success and enjoy it. Don't make me ask your son. Oh, we were, the house was pro-ears on a state, but I was different. I see, I don't believe that. I'm going to get the inside dirt. You can do all you want, call them. I don't care.

I've got sources inside the time of his family. I know you do. I was rooting for the underdog The old I was heard for the underdog Texas tech guy wants your longhorns to lose That's correct And the guy definitely wanted you Your longhorns to lose

That's okay And Kim Who doesn't just Go along with her sons Because she loves her kids And if her kids are supporting something They want to she wants to support too You don't have a household

A household full of five different colleges represented Routing against New Mexico State Nope So you know Nope Because we weren't playing the school, the underdog wasn't playing the Mexico State. The Mexico State wasn't the heavy favorite.

You guys were two touchdown favorites. I'm happy with the state of the Longhorn program. I don't think they're going to win at all. I said this last week. Why not? What's holding them back? The run game's not good enough. The offense isn't good enough. But if I said to you,

Quinn Ewers are not consistent enough. If I said to you, Quinn Ewers can rescue you, he exactly, that's what he did. Fourth and 13 was amazing. Okay, one time. That's all you need. It's all you need it. No, you need two more times.

Okay, so you can't tell me he can't do it two more times. Who's better? Ohio State or Texas? Ohio State? Right now Ohio State's playing about. Yeah. But Michigan, but Michigan. They almost lost to Arizona State. But Michigan was better than Ohio State three weeks ago and people in like Kirk

Curbster's like, oh, yeah. They can win, but I don't think they're the best team in the country. That's all I'm saying. And I said that before the Arizona State game. I don't think we have to do the best team. You just do the best team that one particular day. Yeah. Oh, thank you, Matt.

It's not a best of seven. Oh, okay. Hold on. Okay, well, this is the same. guy that told me the Texan season is done and it's over and they have no shot at anything, right? They're not going to advance past the first round. Oh, they could, Matt.

All it takes is one game. That's right. They're in it. But I have to make a stand because, unfortunately, I'm the only person on the show that does. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. I just made a stand. I said the long they're going to win the championship. If the Texas play the Pittsburgh, if the Texas play the Pittsburgh Steelers, they can beat the Steelers. Yes. They can

beat, uh, they can beat Denver. They cannot beat the Chargers and they cannot beat the Ravens. Okay. And can't beat the Bengals and can't beat, well, they can beat Miami. They can't beat the Bengals? They did beat Miami. They did beat Buffalo. Yeah. You, everybody knows. Even, even the people that have at Houston, Texans.com on their, on their email address, know it. This team, this team is not prepared for a long run.

Buffalo is stepping their game up. Kansas City has sustained success. Baltimore came in here and proved a point. those are the three teams that scare you. The other three, anybody else in the EFC doesn't scare me, but I'm scared of three teams. This is a reality. You should be scared of them, Matt. They're better than you.

And especially with Diggs and Dell down. But when I watch Ohio- And look, and I'm not watching college football nearly as patently as as much as I am with the NFL. But my point is, I looked at Ohio State yesterday. If Texas plays their better game, they can beat Ohio State. I don't know if they're significantly better than your squad. I mean, Ohio State's put together two very impressive wins in back-to-back weeks,

and the Oregon game was very, very impressive yesterday. If the run game is as bad as it has been the last couple of weeks, the Longhorns do not have a chance. Has a Texas running game ever been good this year? It just hasn't been great ever since CJ. I mean, CJ Baxter got hurt in the preseason. In the crazy, yeah. You've had some good games.

I just think your defense, when not overworked like it was yesterday, is the best defense out there in college football. Yeah, they're in the final four. They have a shot. I don't know if, I mean, they're just not favorites. But it's not like people, there's nobody in America going, like for instance, when the Texans play Baltimore, when the Texans play the Chiefs,

when the Texans could potentially play the, who am I forgetting, Ravens, Chiefs, Bills. Is anybody out there going, I like the Texans in this game? I think it'd be, you would, now it doesn't mean that just because somebody doesn't predict you you can't win, because everybody can win no matter what it's being played. But there would be, there's no one in America that's going to take the Texans

to be any of those three teams. I mean people in across this country are going to say, look, Quinny Ewers put together an amazing fourth quarter, overtime, defense stepped up. I can see Texas one in that game. Longhorns are six-point dogs to Ohio State. What were the Texans dogs to the Chiefs? Three? Mm-hmm. Yep. What was the Baltimore line?

Six and a half? Yeah. Some, I don't know. Maybe do the NFL and the college point spreads differing at a lot of things? I don't know. Okay. I just think that optimism should be significantly higher for Texas beating Ohio State than the Texans beating one of those three teams in the playoffs. That's your opinion. That's what I'm here for, 10 to 2. Thank you, Matt. 1245 on Sports Talk 790. 7.1.3.212.5.7. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross via real

On Sports Talk 790 EMA Duk is going to join us to 10 minutes here on the program Rockets and Boston Celtics tomorrow Wonderful Danle Lakers Okay And then a week road trip to Washington Memphis and Atlanta

Win We'll see and win That's the NBA insight of One Sports RV. Trying to be positive. You didn't bring up the two home games. Oh, these, the, especially with Noman Thompson. Well, we'll see what happens. You got some questionable guys right now with Jalen Brown and Porzingis.

Somebody on Twitter just asked, which of the three teams in town are closest to winning a championship right this second? Rockets, Astros, or Texans? Um, Astros, Texans, Rockets. The Rockets in your mind need to make a trade of some sort? That's something that gets brought up a lot. It is so tough because I believe the current culture, maybe Cam went more disagree, but the current culture is, man, we are a bunch of young guys getting better every single year. Look at the massive increase we've made just from year to year so far.

You don't want to rock the boat. But I don't think when you are a coach or an organization that you just want to be a 48 win team every year and just be happy to make the playoffs. That the grand aspirations are to win a championship. And the question would be at that point right now is a year from now, are these players that are moving incrementally up their talent level going to be the next to be the alpha dogs to be a championship team? Because when you, Boston's coming in as champions. Boston has legitimately, you know, Persingus is never healthy for a long period of time. But when he's, when he's available, he's about as good of a big manager and find the NBA. And they have two top 20 players.

15? 15, yeah, that's fine. Whatever you want to go with. And good deep bench. So it's, you want to get to where the Celtics are, but how much longer will it take? And are you going to be patient enough to do that? or does if Devin Booker all of a sudden says, I want to get out of Phoenix,

if De Aaron Fox says he doesn't want to play in Sacramento anymore, are those the missing pieces, and at what levels do you have to give up? Now, if you're giving up draft picks, Rossi, I'm a dozen. I am so anti-NBA draft now. It's crazy. Yeah, I mean, well, especially with last year, suppose,

unless you're getting the number one-dash-one. Even then. How's that Zachary or Isha Shea doing? I'll find out a week from Saturday. Okay, well, I can find out now. I think he's not doing well. But, I mean, it's been Victor Wimbunyama, right? Yeah, he was the generational talent.

Or some people call him a bum, but... Who calls him a bum? Who would do that? I don't know. I don't know. People. Zachary Ulrich Sauchee shooting 28% from 3, 11 points per game. Things aren't going so hot for him in Atlanta right now.

Now, is that part of it because Atlanta's not very good, or it's just the kid's just young and... Well, I will tell. He's only 19. But yeah, the drought is an extremely inexact science. And the problem, the thing that worries me about, you know, I think the Rockets with this formula the way that they are, absolutely, they're a playoff team. I think they are going to finish top six, and they're good enough. When everything is on schedule, when everything is going, you're playing good defense, you're making enough shots, they're going to win games. And they can beat anybody.

That's the beauty of it right now. Two years ago, if we said Boston's coming into town, what we said, we had no shot, no shot. We don't feel that way right now. That's right. Well, the thing that I keep reading, and maybe I'm guilty of it because I like to peruse social media, just because I do like there's more uptick on rocket conversation than there has been the last five years. Will that be safe to say right? Not even close.

Yes, I've been on the post game shows. Everybody loves to bring the Rockets up and trade conversation because of the draft picks they have. And the fact that, but if we don't love the draft, why does everybody else think that every other team in the NBA loves the draft? You know how I love the draft If you required everybody to play three years of college Back to an age limit Now wasn't that I mean but the age limit was challenged in court

Isn't that why it went away? No, I think the NBA loosened the rules It's in theory there's There's really nothing that could preclude someone From a high school The NFL's the rules about the three years out of high school No no court case made that happen NFL's like we don't want 18 year olds

that are not physically and mentally strong enough to compete in the NFL, we need you to be out of high school three years before you decide to come play in our league. Because what other industry doesn't allow you to go from high school to your profession? That's, I mean, that was always the argument for it. Yeah. So that's why there's really nobody except those league governing bodies that said, you know what, we need you to be away for a year. Yeah, but then teams were taking a bunch of guys early picks that didn't work out.

I don't know, Sebastian's tell fairs, the Robert Swift, the whoever else is those high school phenoms that didn't work out. And really, teams did this to protect themselves. So teams also do that with a max contract. They're trying to protect themselves from doing, I'm making stupid mistakes. Yeah. My argument, again, is I love that the Rockets have a plethora of draft picks.

But just because you've got it, doesn't necessarily mean everybody else wants them as too, especially if you're going to give up what you think would be to get a player that's going to be the difference maker. I mean, if you're going to go get, and I'm just throwing names out, just to throw names out, if you're going to get Devin Booker away from Phoenix, or even Kevin Durand, or, or, Deerran Fox or who else is unhappy these days or proceed to be unhappy. Cam Johnson out of Brooklyn.

You're going to have to give up something and my guess is... Cam Thomas, excuse me. It's an easy one for you to remember. I don't know. I would want real live bodies that I know are good. Wouldn't you? Yes. But, I mean,

who's going back? You can't even trade Jalen Green in Upper and Chingon right now. You can't. They have a poison pill. which if you need to go look at poison pill that gives explanation on that. It's when the contract goes way up and so it'll be a massive, massive cap hit, correct? Yeah, you have to wait a certain length of time

for that to not be in the case. Right. I don't know. It's, I could really, if the Rockets came to me and said, hey, Matt, we're going to make a move. I don't know what we're going to do, but we're going to do it. I'd be all for it. And if they came to me and said, hey, Matt,

we're going to kind of stay a status quo. I'd be cool with that, too. because this is a basketball team, it's 11 games above 500. The defense has remained pretty much consistently good all season long. And could you go get a jump shooter in the off season? Legitimate knockdown three-point threat with free agent money that you would spend as compared to trying to mortgage things just to get somebody that's unhappy somewhere else? I could, I could see that wait and see you approach being okay.

Or do you continue to wait and see? Or do you say, you know what, we're pretty damn good now. There's a young man that's out there that's playing basketball that's unhappy. He's the missing piece for us getting into the top two and maybe dethroning Oklahoma City. She'll Gilgis, Alexander is 26. He's in his seventh NBA season. I mean, now we'll see what happens with Jalen Green. He's 22 years old.

Alperin Schingwood, was he 21 or 22? In that range. Jbarry Smith Jr. Do we say, rather than rocking the boat and trying to make this leap into the upper echelon, stay the course. The rockets are on course right now. Nobody said they're going to be a championship contender this year was not in the plans. Their win total was what, like 41 and a half games or whatever.

So they're actually on pace moving faster than people thought they were going to. So what point do you say, rather than asking for more, be happy with what we got and hope it continues to grow? Yeah. Eme Adoka, we'll discuss some Rockets basketball next. One o'clock coming up here on Sports Talk 790. launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 103, Sports Talk 790.

It is the Matt Thomas show. Time for us to spend 10 quality minutes with the head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets winning last night over the Dallas Mavericks. You may docket with us here. Happy New York, Coach. How are things? Good. How are you guys doing?

Yeah, no complaints, no complaints. Congrats on a win last night. It feels like we've left a couple of victories on the floor. The aggravation of those first two in the fourth quarter and the ability of last night to not let Dallas get back in the ball again. That would be much more of a reassuring feeling for you and your staff. Yeah, obviously the Minnesota-M Miami games,

we played well enough to win. You know, went on a drought offensively at the end of, specifically Minnesota and defensively. They didn't guard up to our potential and kind of felt like we gave those away and wanted to improve down the stretch in the game last night and did that on both ends. Guarded well enough.

Got some big basketball. baskets and held on to the win. Is there a direct correlation to a missed basket on one end to the other side going, all right, now you had a defensive lapse? I mean, do you even measure that kind of metric? Or if you're a dog defensively, you've got it no matter what's happening for you on the offensive side of the floor? Yeah, you'd like to say that, but there's some human nature to it.

Obviously, you know, some players get fueled by their offense and we try to fight against that, but it's natural at times. but obviously when you miss some easy looks or some really good looks like we did against Minnesota and Miami, and there are some cross matches going back in transition. Obviously, it's harder to get matched up. And we gave up some three-point plays, three-pointers and three-point plays in those games. And conversely, when you get the stops, we get out and run as well and don't have to play against a set defense. So it works both ways.

And as much as we harp on, you know, not letting other parts of your game impact the defense, assuming nature at times. and that's what happened in those two games. You are very demonstrative when it comes to defense. When plays are well-run, you high-five and add-a-boy, and then sometimes you've called timeouts just to talk about defensive lapses. Where did you get that from? Was that your game?

Was that your style as an assistant coach? Because your intensity, to me, is double-triple when you're watching your team play defensively. Yeah, I mean, that's who I was as a player. So that side is second nature for me. I also understand the importance of that to winning basketball, winning championships. And so being that I was at as a player, and then obviously my time in San Antonio, I guess Pop kind of stressed that. It went with who I was. And yeah, so for me, it's always going to be not brushing under the rug, just address it immediately.

And let's get on to the next play. And so for me, guys know what to expect. And I think you can only be yourself. I'm not a coach that's going to, you know, sit there and hope guys do well. I'm going to let them know if they do or don't. And so just being myself as far as that. And something that the guys really asked for and enjoy from me is honesty and the upfrontness about certain things.

And we address it, try to move on and have less of mistakes than the other team in the game. You did not have a man because of the suspension. Tari remains out. Cam came through and helped you out yesterday on the offensive side of things. And he has played a lot since his return from the G League. Your thoughts about his return since coming back? and how he may feel about where he is right now in your rotation, even if you get those guys back.

And obviously you'll get a men back, but whenever Tari comes back, is there room for Cam to get the kind of minutes that you need from him? He wants from himself and to help this rocket team, especially get some extra punch off the bench. Well, yeah, first of all, he's improved greatly. You know, the shot selection and the defensive focus are all the things. We really harped on going into sitting down a real,

grand and I think he took best of the heart focused on that area just as preparation in general shootarounds and all those things that's really improved and then that's translated to the game where you know he's locked in on certain coverages and schemes and communication all the things that sometimes young guys struggle with you know some of our guys did as well last year as we were kind of implementing everything the scoring is his natural ability and he does that you know regardless of anything else going on and so for him being one of our best catch and shoot players a guy that can get downhill and it's very dynamic in transition. Obviously, that's welcome for us offensively.

It was more of the other things and continue to make the right play if he's not shooting the ball and then defensively locking in. He's really improving those areas. Regarding the minutes when guys come back, you know, we have a deep team with a lot of guys that are deserving and a big thing we talked about this year going into the season with sacrifice. It's not going to be your night every night. And guys understanding that.

And so you've seen throughout the season. Guys that play well are going to finish, and so it's pretty much equal opportunity as far as that. The rotations are the rotations, and we do have real depth at the wing, and he adds that. So he adds another dynamic as well, and so finding the right combinations that work together is a big thing, giving guys opportunities. And guys have had them this year, whether it's Reed early on getting a look, and then Aaron playing last year and this year when the opportunity is there. Tate, now the guys are out and Cam as well. And so there are 30 games in, and, you know, you've got to be. 50 plus to go and you want to find out the best

rotations going forward and he's a part of that and brings another dynamic and so when we get everybody back it's a good problem to have. Did you hear his comments after the game last night and how much discussion have you two had about his role? Yeah, I heard about him and I'm totally fine with people

expressing whatever they need to express. We've had a ton of meetings and one-on-one, myself and him and other coaches and so there's an understanding of what's expected and what's going to help you get on the floor as far as growth. And so, you know, if you know me, you know I am not a sensitive person at all. Guys can express what they need to. We'll have those discussions. And so I'm totally fine with

what he said, the part that I will reiterate to him, like everything I say publicly, I've said times 10 behind the closed doors to our guys. And so getting across those points and he understands what he needs to do to be on the floor and improve as far as that. And I think he's taking those steps and done that. Would you like to have some open communication about the Oregon Duck football performance yesterday. No, no, thank you. Okay, that's fine. I think they scored

two touchdowns where you and I were talking last night before the game. I was focused on the Maverick, so I got you. Coach Udoka with us here on a Sports Talk 790. You mentioned Reed Shepard's name hasn't played in the last couple of games. Has there been any discussion about his role as well, possible

G-League assignment, and just in general, the benefits of him being up at the NBA level, with you guys as opposed to the G league. Yeah, we're looking at everything, honestly. You know, and then what I talked about this year to our team with us at sacrifice and consistency in those things, a big part of our progress as a team is going to be the growth of our young guys. And so we're at a different stage in a lot of teams where obviously some teams are just playing all the young guys and whatever results happen, happened.

And we kind of went through that over the last few years and obviously somewhat last year. But we're at the stage of development at the same time as we're trying to win. So we want to get guys to look, get their feet when the NBA, and then see how they do after a certain amount of games. And so for Reed, has ups and downs, no doubt, has gotten more comfortable as the games gone on, and the minutes have increased at times. And then, you know, it looks like a rookie at times.

And so for him, it's really trying to figure out what's best for him, whether it's up here with us getting some time in live action similar to what Cam did or just being around the NBA game in general and getting the work in and the film sessions and everything with the coaches. So looking at everything right now, but, you know, is a rookie that's going through his ups and downs like a lot do. And even our second, third, fourth year guys last year with the new staff had their ups and down, so it's not unexpected.

You are a guy that's told me on many occasions that you look at things in 10-game spaces, and we're at 33, so we're the midst of the fourth round of things. Even to this point, any surprises? I mean, I think the record has been fantastic. I think the development is good. I think even when nights with the team's not shooting while, the defense has been really good. And what does that say about a team that, you know, the shooting percentages haven't been probably what you want are the three point numbers, but the defense, third fewest points allowed per game. That has remained remarkably consistent, even in games like a Minnesota or Miami where you're not scoring as much as you'd like.

Yeah, so the identity we've taken pride in. I think our guys understand the importance of that, and it's something we can do on every night basis, regardless if shots are falling or not, we can always give ourselves a chance. We've had winning games and streaks when we shot under 40% or haven't made a ton of threes. We can still rely on that. And so the positives and you look at it perspective-wise is that you look at teams giving up 140 across the league nowadays. And you see teams losing by 2025 regardless of made shots, missed shots, whatever with us, we can still win the game or right in the game. And that's the positive you take away from Minnesota and Miami is that we really had some uncharacteristic letdowns on both ends of the floor in the fourth quarter.

when we built 16-point leads and 12-point leads, and that gives us a chance every night. So we should be positive about that, looking at that. Now it's taking the next step in finishing offensively and guarding the way we are capable of defensively, similar to what we did last night. And so from there, you extend the 15-point lead instead of letting it dissipate. Last question.

I know you won't have amend tomorrow night for Boston, but I don't know who the leader in the club has is for six-man of the year, but I think Amen Thompson has been just your super sub-off. the bench. You've had him start it occasionally when necessary. What's the number one thing? I mean, obviously the shot percentage is a lot better than it was last year. But is there anything beyond that that a man has done this year that maybe you didn't even see in his rookie campaign? I would simply put it to health and availability. And, you know, he rolled his ankle pretty bad in summer league and early in the preseason. He was a little hampered last year. And then he missed the

games, you know, with the early, early season ankle sprain as well, missed 20 plus games. And so he's a guy that's going to take leaps. as much as he can just by being out on the floor and playing. And so even he had a two, three games stint in the G League last year to get his feet under him, you know, coming off the injury. And so took advantage of that, came on the floor. And then obviously starting late in the season when Alperin went down was big for him and the carryover for this year.

And so I think health and availability is the main thing with him because when he's on the floor, he's one of the most impactful players in the league on both ends. One man fast break, obviously one of the top defenders. And he can do so many things, different things offensively, at different positions. I just love I may his IQ. I feel like when he is on the floor for as young as he is, there's very few, oh, I should

have done that. I feel like he's just got fantastic core awareness. And look, there are a lot of great players in NBA as you've coached and been around, but man, I just, I'm a big believer of high IQ basketball players, and I think he's got it, especially for as young as he is. Yeah, he sees something and learns it and

applies it immediately. And so for him, that's a good trade obviously to have, especially with the physical instinct. and traits that he has. And so that's where you become a complete player. You have all these God-gifted tools that he has. He's starting to pick things up IQ-wise. Very instinctual, like I said, anyway.

And so you're seeing those rewards on the court, on both ends of court every night. All right. Thanks for the visitors. Always good stuff from you as per usual. Talk again tomorrow night. Good luck against the Celtics and the Lakers this week. Thank you.

You got it. You may have doka with us here on Sports Talk 7.9. Our time is 114. If you want to chime in anything the coach had to say, you're more than welcome to do that. We have the rotten five coming up at the bottom of the hour. Ross has been, I mean, he woke up this morning at 730 and said, I got to get to the rotten five. Because there's something special. The audience has to hear.

Wait, when is it? It's in 15 minutes. Oh, yeah. Okay. 713-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. On Sports Talk, 790.

All right, Ross. I need a ruling here from you because I have an initial thought on this, but I don't know if it's going to match what you had to say. Brett, Your Mark, is the Big 12 Commissioner, and he just put out a statement. Friend of the show. Never been out of this.

Oh, never mind. It goes as follows. I'm incredibly proud of how Arizona State represented the Big 12 in the CFP quarterfinals. While the outcome didn't go our way, the Sun Devils proved they are one of the most talented teams in college football this season. reason. Harmless, right? Sure. Let's continue.

As a member of the college football playoff management committee, I have had multiple discussions seeking clarity surrounding the targeting call on Arizona State's final drive of the fourth quarter with Richard Clark. Moving forward, we need to address CFP officiating to ensure national standards are developed.

These standards will be crucial in the CFP's future, and I look forward to discussing them with my fellow committee members when we meet next. He was talking about the ASU player running their shoulder into Isaiah Bond's head. Is that what he was? No, no, he was bringing up the targeting call.

Oh, he wasn't talking about that. Yeah, it was a targeting non-call. All right, so let me give you scenarios. And some of these things could be true. They could be all true, none of them true. All right. Number one, it's a pure case of sour grapes, okay? We'll fill that in there as a possibility. Okay.

Number two, he is on the CFP Competition Committee. It's his responsibility to say things when he thinks things are not being judged properly. Number three, he has to do it because he's a commissioner of a team that, in some respects, people think they got screwed out of the call. Or number four, he just has intense hatred for University of Texas and they get all the calls in the world.

I mean, he's stumping for his guys. It was a questionable call. It was a call that a lot of rules in. As Lh Sev said that they thought should have been a target. Let me ask you this, though. If he would have said nothing, would we have been, where's Brett Yormark on this? I don't, I don't, I don't, commissioners, to me, what kind of weight do they carry? Does this all a sudden go, oh, Brett, your mark stepped in on this, big 12 commissioner, man, this has got to be

something we got to address now that the commissioner's involved, or is this just something you have to do because that's what the commissioner's creed is. You got to defend all your schools equally. Yeah, I think he has to, he has to stump for his guys. Yeah. It certainly wasn't a question, it was a questionable call, but I'm also going to say, I'm in, I mentioned there was a, there was a touchdown that Arizona State scored with multiple illegal linemen downfield. There was the scatibu getting

carried into the end zone. That is illegal. You can push in the back, but you cannot pick up and carry someone into the end zone. That is illegal. And that was allowed on a touchdown play. There was the questionable Isaiah Bond targeting play. A caller brought up earlier, did Scataboo push off

on that 60-yard catch? So yeah, was that a targeting? I would say probably yes. Yeah. By the way, that was a big 10 officiated crew yesterday that worked that game. So let me ask you this. I'll tell you one thing you can do right away. And maybe it's because there's too many schools. You can't do it.

But why are we separating officials by conference? Hmm. Why don't we just make them a general league of, now, in the NFL, there's 32 teams. Power four. I mean, or working all the way down to FCS or working all the way down to, I mean, yeah, where do you, where do you end it? You probably can't do it because these,

there's this sheer number of schools that are playing are absolutely astronomical or in the NFL there's only 32 teams and you only need in theory 16 crews college football if you were to do that and had everybody working for under one union you'd have what 64 crews yeah and and how it works now is is that officials in college football will start out working lesser leagues in order to go to the higher leagues like for instance You may start out as a line judge working a Sun Belt, and then you work up to a referee. A referee from the Sun Belt might take a umpire's job in the American conference because they're moving up conferences. An American umpire might be able to take a field judge role in the Big 12.

So in theory, if you're working your way up to a Power 4 conference, that's ACC, Big 10, Big 12, or SEC, you're probably getting what you would think to be the creme de la creme of college officials. Then on top of that, if you're working national semi-final games, you would think you're getting the best of that crew. So, again, I don't, you know, to me, you probably had some of the best people in America officiating that game yesterday. But even the best officials, Rossi, make mistakes. The targeting, in my opinion, should have been called. But as you said, there's, and this is not just yesterday's game, this is every game, four or five things that were, were. either

turned a blind eye to or they missed whether intentional or not or there was subjectivity there was a holding Quinn Ewer's when he ran in his touchdown

there was absolutely a holding I think it was on the center or the guard I can't remember so what are you doing? So you know what you do? You do like I do in the NBA when I watch it

you hope to get as much as you can write either that or you just use insert replay for every single play and you spend five minutes look at every play

they've reviewed this they reviewed it I'm talking about it in everything. Yeah, the targeting play. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like even then, we want more reviews, but even then, that's like when they added the past interference review, they're like, yeah, let's do it. Let's get this right. And then even then we throw, as you do what they're flag and we're like, we're throwing our hands up.

I don't know what this is. Yeah. Again, honestly, if you ever listen to Ross to a Rockets game, I don't try to do it very often. I try to stand back and not try to guess. But I saw what I'm guessing because we're having to fill time. Yeah. So just to stand there and go, well, we're still waiting. We're still waiting.

right we yeah it's um i mean these are people that spend hours and hours and months and months looking at this and here we are as radio host and sports fans think that we can judge these things better than the guys have been trained to do it but we've all of us i think collectively watching a football ago what we saw yesterday was targeting again i use the seeing i test maybe i'm wrong about it maybe i should stop using CI and things because there's a lot of times I'm calling a Rockets game, and I see like, you know, like Alpern yesterday got

really hit hard across the face. And I thought to me, it was absolutely no doubt about a flagrant one. And they kept looking at it over and over and over again. Like, they may not do anything about this. Now, ultimately, they did call a flagrant one. But it feels like to me,

the longer they're looking at, they're trying to figure out is this, is there any form of, well, it was just a common foul, or it was how long do they take a look at the target? It felt like a few minutes, and it wasn't they just looked at at one glance, and they looked at it from a variety of different angles.

Yeah, I'm just going to guess that, like I said, the way that it turned out, like I said, if I was the referee, it looks like a targeting to me as well. But it was not the crown of the helmet. It was face mask to face fast. To me, it was incidental. And perhaps with the ball being tipped and Taff making a play on the ball,

they didn't deem that he was defensive. That's where it all lays. It all lays on defenseless receiver. How defenseless did they deem he was at that point? Yeah. I wonder if you did this. If you took 10 officials that were games, you put them in a room and you put that video up,

and they had a card that said, targeting, non-targeting. How many of them would say non-targeting? Just about every rules analyst has talked about it. That's the thing that I've seen. Yeah, and again, they're not the end-all because they're not the ones actively involved in fish. He was on too much titos and soda or something.

He did? I don't know. I'm just kidding. So you're telling me, officials, reviewers are drunk during broadcast? Mike Pereira was always tweeting about Tito's. Maybe it's a good tequila. Is that a good tequila? It's a vodka. Oh, which one's a tequila?

Titos is vodka. Which one is the... Tito's hand... Oh, sorry, no plugs. Yeah, no plugs. That blew up, by the way. When I was in college, it was like the... It was under the radar.

That was many moons ago, man. I know. Many, many moons ago. for you, even for you. The Rotten 5 is up next plus your phone calls. No, believe it or not today, we're not going to do it. We've got a best to believe or not from 2020. We're going to do

and we have some decent prizes. We'll do it next week. So, maybe in February. Well, I'll still wish you happy new year. 713-213-2-790. Your calls on the Rotten 5 are up next. It's 129. This is Sports Talk 790. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas show

with Ross. Talk 790. Let's talk to Colby and Baytown at 133 on the Matt Thomas show. Ross Colby, happy new year. What's going on? Hey, Matt, thanks for taking my call on a good happy new year to you and everyone in Houston. I just wanted to say one thing today. Dylan Gabriel, yes, did he tie Case Keenum's record for passing touchdowns?

Sure. But he's no Case Keenom. Case Keenom is one of the greatest quarterbacks in college football history that does not get talked about a whole lot, statistically. He has the most passing touchdowns, and he played seven less games than Dylan Gabriel did in his career. So I'm tired of people saying that Dylan Gabriel is probably, you know, one of the best touchdown passers to ever do it.

It's the case King of the Houston Cougar. Okay. I mean, we've not brought it up, and I don't know if people on the Twitter streets are upset about these things, but I've never heard much of a Dylan Gabriel. versus Case Keenham Convo, but you brought it to the attention, and we thank you for that. Yeah, of course.

He's been playing since 2019. Jesus. You get kids? Thanks, Kobe, for the phone call. Yeah, I think he's trying to be the first father-son duo in college football following in the footsteps of LeBron James. One, two, three, four, five,

six full seasons in college football. And as a caller brought up, seven fewer games. Or seven more games, I guess. Yeah, but that's not like Case didn't get it. extra time. I believe he did get his PhD at U of H. Yeah, it says I'm looking at his bio. Dylan Gabriel, 6 foot, 200 pounds.

Father of three has also two grandchildren. Wow. Wonderful. It's been married since for 31 years. Phil Knight wrote him a blank check to come to Oregon. And they didn't win the playoffs. Went to high school with Phil Knight, actually. Oh, really?

Yeah. No? Yeah, he dated one of his. girlfriends. It was the whole thing. Is that what it is? Yeah. Okay. My Eskimo brothers. What's the female version of that?

I don't know. Not salad sisters, is it? What? Eskimo. Maybe they're Eskimo sisters. Yeah. Sure, why not? I know a few of those. Can we get risk? 713-212-5-790. Paul is with us on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Paul. Good afternoon.

Hey, thanks for the show, guys. Happy New Year to everybody. Same to you. Yeah, thank you. So I'm thinking Rockets. I am a big Rockets fan. I love the team. I love the players.

But it seems, I mean, I know this has been hashed out. They've got a lot of sort of complimentary type, you know, A minus type players. It feels to me they're showcasing Cam Whitmore now. Maybe they just start planning to get more scoring, which I really like Cam Whitmore. But, you know, he and Jaylen Green, you're not going to keep both of those guys. long term. So if you could see the Rockets making a trade and who would trade and who would they try to target what style of player, not like specific player. Well, I want to correct you on one thing, Paul. Not that you're not 100, you couldn't be ultimately correct. The reason why Cam Whitmore

is playing is because Tari Easton and I meant, Tari Easton primarily is out. And you need some scoring punch off the bench. And with Tari not playing the last seven games, that's a roster spot. And And as good as effort-wise, Jay-Shon Tate is as a forward. You're not putting Landell or Adams at the at the four.

You don't, you know, Jabari's a lean four. So you've already built yourself as a team that doesn't have a back-to-the-basket guy. That's why Cam Wormt's playing right now. And especially with a man, Thompson, missing the next game after missing yesterday, too, with the suspension. So, Cam's here because Cam's got a roster spot in any minutes off the bench. because Reed Shepherd isn't getting him right now.

Jack Landel is your third center, so that ultimately knocks him out of the list. Aaron Holliday's playing basically for Reed Shepherd a little bit in the backup point. Yeah, you need a point guard and Taris and Men Thompson. I mean, Amendom's a good point guard, basically, but he also doesn't run a lot of offense through him. But you're missing two guys that are on in your quote unquote front court. That's why Cam's getting the time right now. And those are two really good guys as well. Stephen Adams has been great.

Cam Whitmore deserves time. And then I'm in Thompson and Tarisen. And then your starters. Yeah. To Paul's question, though, if they're looking for somebody, it's a legitimate permanent threat. What, Rossi? In place of whom?

Well, it depends on what the asking price is, clearly. I would think you'd load up on draft picks. But there's got to be a live body going back. Or do IMAID DOCA and Raphael Stone, as we talked about earlier, to say we're ahead of schedule. We can trust this process. Yeah, and maybe there's, maybe there is complete untouchables.

If you move Shangoon right now, it's not good for the rockets from a salary camp. You'd have to give up. You'd have to have somebody find a lot more money than you're bringing back. Yeah, you really can't, I don't think, and I got to do a little homework on this, I don't think you can really move them until, I think February,

without it being a severe salary. cap hit to you. Again, don't hold me to it. Was it Thursday? No gut feelings today? I think with all that, it just feels like there's not going to be an earth-shaking. I don't feel it either. Because I've been around teams, the rockets that have said, yeah, we're thinking about something, but don't know what it is.

I don't get a lot of that. I don't get that. I'm not that, Rafael and I are texting about these things, but I don't get that vibe. I think they're thinking this is a really nice core, but I will say this. You mark this. you put your name out. I think the Rockets are going to be one of the most active offseason teams in the league. Yeah, off season.

But in season, trade deadline, I don't expect a lot. Yeah. But to answer Paul's question, you have to do it based off of what you have a major need. And that is getting somebody from the perimeter. I would agree. All right. Ladies gentlemen, it takes absolutely zero ability whatsoever to give you the five best teams in NFL. That is as low of hanging through as you'll find in sports today.

Who absolutely does a fantastic job of giving you the worst five teams? Yeah. The man of my right. They've gone bad if they draw flies. Ooh, it's Ross's Rotten Five. This don't smell quite right. All right, folks. I don't know why last week I said it was the penultimate edition.

This is actually the penultimate edition of the Rotten Five. And we have a team that has not been in here, I don't think, all year long. So many bad teams this year, it's been tough to include the Chicago. Bears. Man, have they earned it now? Ten losses in a row for the Chicago Bears, the latest of which coming against the Seahawks where they mustered. Three, three points in a six to three dog game on Thursday night a week ago. Caleb Williams has been decent, as has the defense. Caleb Williams 19 touchdown, six interceptions, but overall, Bears 29th in a passing yards,

and 29th in points scored all season, and they have lost 10 games in a row. That's enough to earn them a spot as the fifth worst team in the NFL. The Bears. The Bears. Glad to bring that one back. All right, let's keep rolling. It's a shock to absolutely no one that the Cleveland Browns have turned to Dorian Thompson Robinson as their starting quarterback. And, well, they have continued to lose games.

Back-to-back games started for Dorian Thompson Robinson, six points, and then three against the Bengals and Dolphins, respectively. but things really going according to plan. We know what you're doing, Cleveland Browns. You are looking to go in the tank and continue to lose games, as they have now lost five in a row and seven of their last eight. So the Cleveland Browns are as bad as they want to be, and well, they're really bad because they are the fourth worst team in the NFL. You are a factory of sadness.

I know, I know. That poor Browns guy keeps getting worse and worse for the Cleveland Browns. Let's move on to the New England Patriots. They have lost now six games in a row. They are three and 13 on the season. The latest loss, a complete drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers. Drake May briefly leaving the game with a head injury. Also had a concussion earlier in the year.

So certainly something to keep an eye on for him going forward. But the New England Patriots have been horrible all season long. And oh, by the way, as your reward, you get to take on the Buffalo Bills of the last game of the season, although the bills don't have anything to play for. Speaking of bad offenses, 32nd in passing yards per game are the New England Patriots, and 30 in points scored. Man, the Patriots suck.

They are the third worst team in the NFL. We're getting ready for Cincinnati. No, you're playing Buffalo. You're at UNC now, Bill, come on. All right, what the heck was that last week from the New York football Giants out of nowhere? The team sprang to life. They scored a whopping 45 points.

against the Colts to notch their third win of the year. Against all odds, the Giants defeating Joe Flacco and the Indianapolis Colts. Drew Locke, actually looking decent, throwing for over 300 yards, also throwing for four touchdowns, first time hitting both of those marks in his NFL career. I actually meant to fact that checked that and forgot, but let's go ahead and roll with it. The Giants didn't really do anything but blow their shot at a number one overall pick. I mean, you want to go out there, you play to win the game. and all that type of stuff, but at the end of the day,

Giants not doing themselves any favors draft-wise, because they are horrible. They are the second worst team in the NFL. Oh, no, it's bad. It's real bad. All right, that brings us to the absolute worst team in the NFL right now. It is your Tennessee Titans. And I'm not even doing this because they're going with the Oilers stuff this weekend.

My God, get over at Tennessee. There's no Houston Oilers history in Nashville, but the Titans are terrible. They've lost five games in a row. We don't have to mention that their last win was against the Houston Texans. And they play the Texans again this weekend. It is a winnable game for them with the Texans not playing their starters. Tennessee coming in as a two-point favorite right now, but they've turned to Mason Rudolph over Will Levis. It doesn't matter.

The team is horrible. They're going to be wearing Oilers gear, so I hope they get their ass kick because they are the absolute worst team. in the NFL. It's like deja vu. It's a lot twice in a row, shooting ourselves in the foot. I know. I know, well. And there's your rod in five, Matthew.

Did you see the Ohio State Buckeyes tweet of a few minutes ago? No. It says, let me see when this was put. This actually was last night. It's 753. On to the next challenge. See y'all real soon. Okay.

Is it the Cotton Bowl? Mm-hmm. Ohio State helmet with all the Buckeyes on the helmet, the little stickers. Wonderful. Got a cowboy hat on. Okay. They're playing in Texas. Let's go with the cliches.

And a cacti. I don't know if there's any cacti in Arlington, Texas. I've been to Arlington, Texas, 125 times. One of the nicest dollar trees you'll ever see. There's no cacti in Arlington. Zilch. Maybe they thought they were going to the Fiesta Bowl or the Sun Bowl. That would have made a lot more sense.

Hashtag do better. I hate that. but come. Hey, look. Far be it for us for us for any, to question anybody for using cliches, man. We are the only station in town,

the only show in town that doesn't use cliches. We don't stereotype and we don't use cliches. We are anti-stereotype, anti-clices. We hate Texas people. 146, back to wrap up. We would do them, believe it or not, we have no prizes. And if we're going to do best believe it or not, you got to earn it, right?

We've got to give some tickets to some 80s fan that with one hand. Some years we would do, you have to get three right best of. Well, we're going to make sure we get a price first. We don't have any prizes. Let me tell you about the Shell Federal Credit Union here. People are calling it for, believe it or not, we have no prizes, so we're not going to doing it. But you can call it anyway. Shell Federal Credit Union would like for you to get an auto loan for 3.99% APR, 3.99% APR, up to 36 months with Skipapay's, deferred payments, and the ability to get $250 in cash back.

I love the people at Shell FCU. I refinanced a vehicle of mine through them. and you can do the exact same thing by going to shellfc u.org. Shellfcuh.org. There are locations all around town. You can join the Shell FCU with initial $5 deposit. If you live, work, conduct business, do anything in Harris County. You could join the Shell FCU family.

I love the experience. I love the cash back. I love the skip of pay as the deferred payments and the low interest. All that can be yours with an auto loan today from the Shell Federal Credit Union. Shellfccccccc.org for auto loans on new, used or refinance vehicles. from the Shell Federal Credit Union. Houston's Sports Talk for lunch. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790.

152 Sports Talk 790. Tomorrow on the radio program, we will have non-Florida stories. We have, what else I got Friday? Fridays. Anything goes Friday? Wake the strippers up at 12 noon. It's Friday tomorrow?

God, it's such a just joint-a-week. The last couple of weeks, yeah. Even last week with the Christmas on Wednesday. Yeah. And I was still on vacation Monday, Christmas Wednesday. And you're still not over jet lag, which is our surprise. No, I'm been fine. I'm over, well, different kind of jet lag.

Jet like you speaking of. Just adjusting to the new times. Because I'm not a no morning person, but I'll be fine. Yeah. Or 2025. Bigger and better. Stronger, faster. Tomorrow, 15th year anniversary of the show.

Wow. I'm not getting you anything. I already bought you something. No, thank you. You're welcome. 15 years of me? I do deserve an award. Second longest tenure next to me. You know what?

Now that you mention it, who's been longer? Oh, you're told me your wife. I thought you've been professionally. No, you're the longest professional I've been with. Oh, Lord. I deserve awards, plaudits, days off, cash rewards, presents. You hear that, Connor? hear how

how miserable his life is? A Rolex? My God. God is, it's just awful. Just terrible, terrible life you live. Coming in talking sports with someone. Granted, I guess it's tough when you always lose battles with me

when it comes to pop culture, food, sports takes. You know what, you're right. It has been a cakewalk. Love you, Matt. I don't even know. What is the oldest piece of sound we have of the show? We have some of the O.G. Liner's with the Craig Bigio. Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences right now.

Those were like original lines. I'm talking about us talking. I'll have to find. You know what I'm going to go through some of the archives? Well, tomorrow. We'll do it tomorrow. I think this one was from the first day of the show. The guy squirted at my mouth who that was a weird part of it all. That's not actually true. That's not. That was, you know what that was from? That was when we were in Denver. That was recent. We had sake at

a, and then what? The guy squirted at my mouth who that was a weird part of it all. I will try. This one's pretty old. I'm shaking my head. The wife's kind of nibbling on me. Come on, honey. I'm like, no, no, no. I just can't. What year is that?

Does it say what year? And I don't because I, so because they have to resave. Yeah, yeah. I have to resave them. So it says 2022, but that's obviously. This, this was when I believe, I believe Vince wasn't in the NFL. I want me some Vince Young sausage. Oh, yeah. Yes, that's got to be 13, 14 years, right? That's got to be close, yeah.

Now, I didn't get here in time for Vince to beat the Texans on the overtime. Vince left the NFL in 2011. That's got to be maybe the oldest piece of sound from the show, for sure. Say the rest is for tomorrow. I want me some Vince Young sausage. That's what tomorrow is going to be, just far as a blurbs of me saying strange things to put me in a compromising position. This has got to be a good one.

I've been teased by Colt McCoy. That's got to be old. Colts? That's got to be 2011. Why don't we bring up Colt McCoy? I don't know. It wasn't for his NFL career. No, he wasn't.

And maybe we'll have some prizes for, believe it or not, tomorrow. You never know these things. Maybe some, he'll drop some things in. Okay. We'll find out. All right. I got some, I got Coob's drops. What are those from?

Things is Al Far, we've got to be in there that are old. Maybe. Because Gordy's been here over 10 years. That's sad. When did Coves leave? Got to be 13, right? Isn't that somewhere in that range? So, yeah, we've got some old stuff.

Yeah, okay. I like it. All right, that's it for the show today. Tomorrow, four hours, anything goes Friday. 15th anniversary show. Yeah, he left at 13. So that clip is probably from 11 or 12. Andre Johnson.

We did some old spoofs of him, save Andre when he was hurt, remember? Save Andre. I don't know if I have that. You got to find it. Mr. Farb should. Up next, Clinton. Waxler. They're one team.

I know, it's stunning. They're off for like a 2.30, though. Talk to you tomorrow at 10. Waits the strippers up at noon on 790.