College Game Day Hour 1

0:00College Game Day on Sport 3810WHB is brought to you by DM injury law. Have you or loved one been in a wreck? Contact DM injury law today and get the money you deserve. Remember Mike's got this. By Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance, whatever you do, if you're a Missouri and we're for you, we are Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance and we've got you covered. And by Twin Peaks, your spot for Game Day, Twin Peaks, eats, drinks, and seen it views. Okay, college football fans, your time is now. Sports 8810WHB now presents College Game Day with Danny Cleanscale and Stan Lumber. Good morning and welcome into College Football Game Day on this beautiful Saturday here in the Midwest Todd Lebow. Now, I'm not Danny Cleansield. Todd Lebow in for Danny Cleanscale in my late to the show. Is it round table time already? Not round table time Stan. We have a fun day of football around these

1:02parts and we'll talk about a lot of it right here on College Game Day. Missouri is at home. It's a beautiful day, like I said, and case dates at home. Kansas, it's going to be way, it will be tomorrow when this game is over because they're playing Utah on the road. But what a glorious football Saturday we've got to talk about today. And we've got a couple of guests already lined up. So we will talk to Willie Fritz, his Houston Cougars, or in Manhattan, they will be facing case date today. And we will talk to the head coach of Kansas State, Colin Klein, who is coming off his first ever loss as a college coach. He's got a biweek. How do you prepare? How do you get all that stuff done? So some for it'll all be a lot of first for Colin Klein as this season goes along. And why are you here hosting the show so early? I mean, well, Danny, you're wondering what the heck's going on? Whereas Danny Cleanscale, he's off on another trip. He's always gone. He's always gone somewhere. Is this Europe or US trip in the United States? It's not far. It's not far. It's a big day for me. We get a whole two hours. And we get Todd Livo for the whole two hours. We do later today. My son is getting married. So it's a big day in our family. So we've

2:04got that going on today. We wanted nice weather for this. And we got nice weather. It's a little hotter than I really wanted in October. But it is what it is. And it's a wonderful day. So we're very excited for my son and Robin to get married and start their lives together. So we've got a lot of stuff going on. I will be watching college football, not during this ceremony. But in and around, I'll be involved. This is the biggest day for boomer sooner. It used to be we're not we're not going to spend a lot of time talking about local. It's a national game, though. It is a national game. It's a it's a big grand. It's Texas has been a big part of my football life. My whole life. It's been a big part of my life too. I'm not super confident about anything today. Sometimes that's how that game works. A lot of team teams. You never know when your team turns it on as we don't know to talking about Missouri and Kansas. That's right. That's right. I mean, there were a lot of trepidation for a lot of Missouri folks last week when they were at home against Florida and Florida all of a sudden looked like this real team. And I don't know Missouri had some success against Florida in the past. But Florida looked really good. And I for one was dead

3:06wrong. I've talked about this on on sports radio. 10 this week. I was wrong. I just thought Florida was going to be able to move the ball on Missouri. Missouri had not shown me much on defense. But they were unbelievable on defense. They stopped Florida's running game. Austin Simmons has been great. He's been a wonderkin for them at quarterback. I did not think they were going to play that well defensively. They took it to Florida and Eli Drinkwood's got a signature win. This is in my opinion, a bigger this is bigger than winning a cotton bowl against Ohio State when half the team didn't play. You know what I mean, this is a SEC game and he had this thing over his head that he hadn't beaten teams that were ranked or that finished in the top, you know, finished over 500 in the SEC. This was dominant, Stan, pretty much from start to finish. Definitely the second half was unbelievable. All mz. Wow, that performance was incredible. And when you think about Eli Drinkwood's will this vault him into another arena? You know, I go back and think about when K state was playing at Missouri and there are questions about Eli Drinkwood's a few years ago and then they

4:09beat K state nice game, nice win. And Missouri didn't look back. I mean, they took off from right there and answered every question you could imagine and 10 win team football is like, forget what you were thinking yesterday. Is this going to happen again? You think about being at that game? What a beautiful day was for the fans that went there and they did an outstanding job of making that place rock. But that's only the sixth time they've won against the top 10 team at home in the history of their program. First time they've done it since 2010. It was a big day. But when you get down to the football playing last week, you know, we're in a hurry. We only have half hour show and I go, I just can't figure out this. Missouri team. I mean, some of their best play when they outrun Mississippi state 24 to 3 during a period of time in the middle of the game on the road in a tough situation. You're like, wow, this team really is doing great things. But then not stopping the run as efficiently as you think, not running the ball as officially. All these on offense, all this stuff. penalties and and then suddenly you lose the game in the Mississippi state. You played Kansas evenly in the first half. You messed around with Troy. I just couldn't figure them out.

5:11I'll tell you what, my eyes have been opened up and I don't know if they will be able to replicate that day again. But in my opinion, Todd, what I saw of Missouri in that 60 minutes is the best team in football, all college football. I've not seen anybody play that well, starting with stuffing the run like it was like Steve's Magnolo was calling the defense like every blitzing guy came to the right spot, but the physicality less in a yard of tournaments, everything. And you know Florida comes in with the best running back in the country. And there's a their first drive was excellent, right? I mean, Florida's I guess takes taking us a while, but we're going to score touchdown. We got control. We're Florida, we're top 10. We just beat Mississippi and John Stunner also legitimate coach, by the way. Yeah. So that's why I started buying into Florida a little bit more than I should have. But forget Florida. This is not about Florida. It's not about them being overrated or us extending them too quickly. No, Missouri's play is the best I've seen all year better than Texas has shown in any time. Remember they came back and beat Ohio State. They did not dominate that whole game. Missouri played

6:16that game at a national championship level from start to finish. The running game, you don't talk about a mod hearty wasn't there. You know, you don't Jamal Roberts is just fine running the football too long wins. It's going to help you a lot. He had a great, great day. I know. And Austin Simmons is so good. And he's carried the team so well. So I just wonder, will you like drink with be able to say I've got a fifth gear in my program? Forget all those negative stats. We're going to play to a whole another level. It'll be interesting to see if they do that. Because Texas A name is a legitimate physical opponent that was a college football playoff team. Last year, Mike Elko has a lot of pride. Marcel reads a returning starting quarterback. But A&M is not playing the way that they did last year. No, maybe they got themselves a little bit right. They lost the game a few weeks ago to Kentucky at home turnover game. We talk about turnover so often. They were minus two didn't turn Kentucky over. They were still I mean, Kentucky was not happy with that game till the zeroes are on the clock. And they were awful against LSU. LSU was getting in the way down the road at a hard place to play.

7:18Because LSU was coming off the old miss game and all that stuff. They did what they're supposed to do against Arkansas. Arkansas is not very good. So what are we going to see? We're going to see a team that was a college football playoff team last year. Are we going to see the team that gives Missouri fits constantly gives Missouri fits like they do? I don't know. So that's the hard part about the SEC and it just means more whatever blah blah blah. This SEC nine game schedule, no matter who you are, is a bear because hey, good job. You beat Florida. All right. We'll go beat A&M now. Right. And you know what's next? Old miss. I mean, it's just constant like that. So you cannot. There is no second to rest on your laurels and patch yourself on the back and say, look, we just beat Florida. There's no breather for them right now. This is a real football team coming in an A&M. They have not played great. Their former offensive coordinator is now head coach at K state and their offense has has sputtered this year. All of the peripheral efficiency numbers are not good for A&M. They're missing that part of it. Marcel Reed can be a dangerous player, but he

8:19doesn't scare me anymore. He was a little scary last year. But I think kind of Miami put it on him in that playoff game, held him the three points or whatever. And he does not look like a scary early last year. And then Colin kind of somehow brought something out and really well done. And then now he doesn't seem to have it. The co-offensive coordinator from last year who was with Colin Klein, Holman Wiggins at Alabama wide receiver coach, you went to A&M with Mike Elko. He's got his offense running it now under 98 in the country. So this A&M team has a lot of questions to answer. You know, Missouri, we can't forget how important it is when you talk about that hard SEC schedule to say the food chain disaster was lurking last week if they would have lost to Florida. Yeah, they've been too long to row because then you got A&M next. And then they got some really hard teams come up. And suddenly go, is this Missouri team only a six and 16? They look like they had a talent to be nine and three just against a normal, reasonable eight game SEC schedule. Whatever you want to say, this team should win nine, maybe eight. And suddenly they were

9:22looking at losing a game and the faithful jumping and saying, Eli Drinkwood says not win any of these games. We aren't in the upper tier. And now you turn around and say, I don't know if we can replicate this performance. We've got two home games in a row. The crowd's going to have confidence. I don't think that there's any reason why they shouldn't believe that Austin Simmons isn't going to show up and play that well again. And the receivers are starting to play good. But if the defense becomes a little more reliable, what why why should Missouri not think about great things? But I don't want to overlook the fact that they had no momentum after losing the Mississippi state. And everyone was on the circle. That was unbelievable to avoid the negative great coach, even if they lose today, they've avoided the negativity they got through the super hard part of the schedule. If they were to lost A&M today after losing the Florida last week, that had been three losses in a row. And you know, the confidence level would be very low. So today, I'm not as nervous about Missouri. If they happen to lose a close game to A&M, I'm going to they're fine. They're settled. They know what they are. But I do think

10:23they're the favorite in this game. I think it would have set up well. A&M came here last year. It's weird how A&M had to go to LSU two years in a row. It's kind of mixed up. Can A&M's got to go to Missouri two years in a row? You're pod now. Yeah, they finally got their I like their scheduling that they went going forward. It makes sense to me. But we're coming off the period of time where I hadn't made sense for how many years 50? Yes, the CC schedule. You could give us all kinds of trivia about who hasn't played whoever and put all these years. They've been in the league with 80 years. They played 14 times. Oh, it's really the thing the A&M will have is a physicality. They will probably have a good third down plan. That's what Mike Elko's specialty is that if he can get you in third and five or more, they win most of those battles and could cause some trouble. Can they cause a turnover? I was there he's not been turning over the football in the passing game at all. And if they are going to win the game if Texas A&M is going to win this game, I think that they're going to have to win the turnover battle. Give themselves a slight advantage because if they do get something going, if A&M starts having things go well, that

11:24Arkansas win in their back pocket is going to help. And getting away from college stations actually in the van he's right now. Man, when the toxic down some of these SEC sites, we talked about Missouri fans being a little nervous last week. That's nothing like an LSU group of fans or an Alabama or a Texas A&M Todd. It's it's nothing. And even those long horns, you don't like they're not that crazy about football to cause havoc. But A&M it's life and death. And right now they thought they had Mike Elko was on to be the next next statement. They thought they had everything going after last year's movement and 10 win season and everything else. So the my point today is if A&M can win the turnover battle and establish some things and get some third down stops to let their offense breathe a little bit. Then A&M's a real team. I mean, they could be really hard to beat today. But I think coming north, Missouri's got a little revenge factor from last year. And I don't know why wouldn't be a confidence in Missouri because every question I had last week was answered, not just with an answer, but in

12:25spades. Why would I doubt their run defense right now? What I doubt what Missouri would do. And I was not a fan of the early running game. There was some big runs like a big running against KU made the yardage look a lot better. But down after down KU really slowed Missouri's running game. They had a real on a pass pass pass. Well, after this week when they came out the ball against Florida, I'm very impressed. And the passing comes game still strength. I'm not saying I buy into Missouri. It's not like Florida beat Mississippi and now we're over hyping them. Missouri beat Florida. And I'm over hyping him. No, I'm just saying I expect a tough game today. But I do think Missouri's better than A&M. And I don't think they're going to let this go to their head. I think this is going to be a real focused football team. And Eli drink what's I believe when things go his his way kind of like Lane Kiffin. You know, when things go Lane Kiffin's way when he's pumping his fist on the sideline. It creates momentum and swagger. You know what Barry Switzer back in the day. He used to do that. Think about Tom Osborne in Nebraska back when OU Nebraska was the biggest thing. He didn't do that. He's very

13:27steady. Yeah. Stoic. I think you like drink. It's can play into this. Keep him humble but excited. I'm not going to be bummed if Missouri loses today. They did their work in this two week period. But if they win this game, the SEC better look around. Because instead of writing off, oh, Missouri's going to lose to Georgia and those kind of things. That was the best team I've seen all year long for 60 minutes. I've not seen anybody play as well as Missouri did last week. I was a dominant win and they have done a great job of protecting the ball. They haven't turned the ball over. They turned it over once against Kansas. They put the ball on the ground a bunch against Kansas. Only turned over once but three straight games without a turnover. They haven't been getting a lot either. They got one against Mississippi State. It was it was a no turnover game last week. But that's what's awesome is no turn no interceptions. That's even what's better about the game. It was a dominant win and it was a zero to zero turnover game. They didn't do it with smoke and mirrors. They just did it by kick kicking their butt 11 o'clock. That's on ABC. A and M at Missouri. All right. We're going to talk K state with Willie Fritz and Colin Klein a little bit later as well. But let's talk some Jay Hawks here first. They don't play until 915 the night. Everyone

14:30you know, leading into the game last week. Everyone's like, well, you know, they're going to win the game. They're going to beat middle Tennessee State. But it was the betting line was like 19 and a half 20 points. And I was like, well, we're not picking Kansas to beat me one by 20 points. Complete dominance. Which is what you want have to have in that game. Lance Leipold, they came back from London. They had an extra week. It was a really horrible beginning of the schedule with the travel and all the stuff they had to go do. And now they came back home and they just whip middle Tennessee 55 to nothing dominant from start to finish, which is exactly what you want to have happen. Now reward. Let's give you another weird scheduling thing. Let's play at 915 at night against the Utah team that's undefeated. What did you like about Kansas this past week? And then what do you expect tonight? Well, first of all, what I liked about Kansas is the defense. Middle Tennessee's quarterback was playing fine. The running backs were legitimate backs in the power for level. If you block them up a little bit, they could hurt you. They had a multitude of

15:33guys and they came in with a very good plan. They tried to call their best players on the first drive of the game. I mean, they had the misdirection and faking to the left and throwing the ball down the line to the right and trying to give every advantage to their players to get something going against Kansas. And it seemed like there were 15 players on Kansas defense. No one was out of position. The physicality that tackling was incredible. The speed and the fact that they held middle Tennessee to 136 yards and watching the game. I'm going like, I don't remember the 136 yards. I mean, it's like the place where it's just as much negative to the fourth quarter as a couple of five. Yeah. And a shut out the first time they've had one since 2008. I was very impressed with the defense offensively. How can you not be impressed with the most total yards in the history of KU football? Now it's against middle Tennessee, but they just never let up. They continued to push and push and push. And I think Isaiah Marshall has not lost his confidence. That's a big step because he's probably the player on the team that's

16:35not reached full potential. The quarterback. That's about, you know, what a place to start. He had made mistakes against Missouri that probably cost him any chance of winning the game. Then they go to London and you look up and go, how do we lose that game? Well, we've done that a lot the last two years where you three years. Yeah. Like how did they lose that Illinois game three years ago? How did they lose that game in UNLV at the soccer stadium? You just look like another one of the here we go. And so how can Isaiah Marshall have confidence? But he seemed to just let that all go, which is what you've got to do as a young player and say, I'm going to do my thing and believe the fact that Dylan Edwards is playing his best football because I thought Willis would really hurt people, the transfer in from Syracuse, the physical back. I really thought he'd be the guy that's going to be the thousand yard back and Dylan Edwards would be the spice, you know, makes them big plays here there, getting the past receiving game. And then Willis gets injured. And the running back position looks like a question, but Dylan Edwards carried the ball more than he has in his whole career. He did all the things that he has done as his best at Colorado or

17:37K state, showing speed and maneuverability, running up the middle is just fine. The receiving core got cam pick it back. And they just kept rolling all game along with 700 plus yards for the first time ever in KU history. Now, this is not the same as Missouri beating Florida. But it's the little brother to the same thing. Right. Yeah. Confidence boost. They played perfectly was needed. Yeah. Because I think there's a lot lingering, especially when you go on these trips overseas, what we've seen of TCU this year, just not quite hitting on all cylinders. Same thing we saw K state last year, Iowa state and teams have gone to Ireland have not come here and performed throughout the year. Well, I don't know how it is. Maybe it's only Ireland. Maybe it's not London, you know, who knows. But I was worried about Kansas coming back or where they would be. And they cleared all those things. It said, we got Andy Koldelnicki as the offensive coordinator. Watch out. Here we go. I think physically, anytime that you move Missouri up the ladder. And I just moved them up tremendously. The pollsters

18:37moved them up like nine or 10 spots. Kansas was not that much different than Missouri for a half. Yeah. So don't act like Kansas is a low level team and Missouri is a great team. Kansas is a good football team. And I only thought the schedule would bear on them so much that it would cause us to miss the true value of KU football. I feel a little bit better about them being their true self now. But the big test starts tonight. Because Utah has played it. A lot of people don't talk about it. There's a couple undefeated teams out west that, you know, I know you mentioned UCLA when we were talking earlier this week. No one knows what Utah's been doing. Yeah, they've been lighting it up. No one scored C team. No one scored 20 points against them. We're on the road and beat Iowa State. I mean, they've got a couple nice wins already. Yeah. So this is a really big challenge. The only good news I think about KU is late night on the road to Utah. Last time they did it, they went and played one of the best games I've seen in the Lance Light pole era when they went and beat BYU. That was impressive. Yeah. So can they do it again? The

19:38main thing for Kansas right now is just keep your head up and keep playing because you might knock off one of these next two teams, either Utah or K state, but this is the meat of the hard schedule after all the junk and bad scheduling earlier in a year, then you run into these two games on the road. And finally, you can get your head above water. I think this last game against middle Tennessee might have given them the breath of fresh air to really be the team they should. There's no doubt they should win six games this year. They should win six to eight. If given a fair chance, they've not been given a fair chance. But can they get something done in the next two weeks and win? I don't think they have to. They just don't need to don't lose your confidence. But don't write KU off the more I study him, the more impressed I am with them for K state fans. I know they're starting to get the concern level going with the rivalry game next Saturday, Todd. At 11 o'clock. We only have a half hour show again next week time. How I'm going to fit you and Danny in and everything in a half hour. Probably won't be in then. Okay. Well, we're going to enjoy these two hours we have today. But both Missouri and Kansas, I think exploded into a positive room at a

20:40great time of year. I don't like doing it mid November because it's almost too late. Everyone wants to tell you how great it's going to be next year. And I go, doesn't work that way. But when you do it now, not early season, because I can be fake news. Right now to really have confidence makes you feel good about both these teams. Yeah, you will hear that Kansas game here on Sports Radio 8 10 tonight starts at 915. It's a late one. Don't know if you'll be up for all this. I know you will be stand never sleeps on the college football Saturday. We're going to take a quick break here. Come back and we will hear from Willie Fritz, the head coach of the Houston Cougars, whose his team is going to face K state today at 230 out in man hat. College game day is presented by Twin Peaks. Happy hour baseball football UFC and made from scratch menu. All of that with the best scenic views. The best seats are at Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks eats drinks scenic views. College game day is presented by DM injury law. Have you ever loved one been in a car wreck? Contact DM injury law today and get the money you deserve. Car wreck. Remember Mike Scott this.

21:46Welcome back to college football game day on Sports Radio 8 10 W H B another Saturday with a lot of football going on stand Weber here as you know Danny clink scale is on assignment or on vacation, whatever you want to say. He's not here, so it'll be me myself and I talking to the head coach of the Houston Cougars as he gets ready to come back home and play the K state Wildcats. It's Willie Fritz in his 33rd year of being a head coach. Willie, thanks for joining me. First of all, it's great to have followed your career for these 33 years, but you get a coach back in your home state. What does it feel like as you get to come back to this part of the country where you grew up? Well, I think it's even more than that. I think you're not counting my Juco years, but as a head coach, but uh, we're all excited about it. I was know my wife and I are both from Kansas City area and and uh, and a lot of friends who went to Kansas State and got out and I have some kids who played for me JC wise who went and played for coach

22:46Snyder years and years ago. So I got a lot of respect for him. I was a coach Snyder day coach climbing and they they hired a great guy here with a coach climb and uh, so we're looking forward to today. You know, you grew up around here and you took a great notice like I did loving sports. Heck, you played at Pittsburgh State basketball and football just and all around athlete. And I know you probably loved watching those big eight football days. Here you are coaching in the same difference at the University of Houston. Does it seem like you're in the same conference as the local teams here? Uh, now that you're at Houston and what does it mean to you to kind of live a dream? At least I think it would be a dream. If I were you, uh, I'm living vicariously through you. Well, what is it like to be a head coach at this level? That was great. You know, we've, uh, you know, I never got into it to necessarily be at the power for a level. But uh, yeah, I really enjoyed Houston's a great place. I've been down in Texas quite a bit. My

23:47career, uh, we love it down here in Texas and the big 12 is just such a big league, you know, with 16 teams. Uh, the one thing and I was talking to coach Frost, uh, before our game last week, just scheduled for everybody's good. You know, I stepped. I've been in a lot of different leagues and, you know, usually you're, you play three, four teams and if you're, you're pretty good, you're going to win. You know, even if you, you know, have your big game or see game or something like that. And big 12, you don't play well weekend, week out, you're going to get beat. So it's a very, very balanced league. You know, that's the thing that I've been saying all your long as I look at the big 12 like the NFL where, you know, there are certain teams that are going to have great records and be the best in the league, etc. But every game is going to be a battle. And it is impressive that you talk about not having your A game and being able to survive. But you were able to do that in your last game

24:50against UCF. They did everything right and every ball bounced against you and you trailed by double digits and still just kept driving ahead with the process that you have in place and end up winning the game and winning the game going away. It seems like that is something that is a reputation that you're getting from what we know about Tulane, Georgia Southern, etc., etc. What is it that you've instilled into your football team or what is it about this team that allows them to be able to bounce back like that and find a way to win? Well, you know, 60 minutes, you know, I went through all the things that we did wrong. First half at half time. I said there's only one bright spot. We get 30 more minutes to play and the guys played much better in the second half. Yeah, unfortunately I got good coaches, soft and Steve's times kicking game. You know, we've done a good job, you know, getting the right guys in here that fit our culture. You know, you get the combinations, good coaches, good players, you got a chance. So, you know, we're fortunate we're at right now and

25:54you know, but like I said before, you've got to play well every single week. You know, play well for 30 minutes and the majority of the time you're you're going to, you know, it's going to be an L for you. So, we got to make sure we play a full 60 minutes today. You know, you have coached at Georgia Southern and people around here may not realize that because they think of you popping onto the scene and doing such great things at Tulane, including coming in and being K-State in 2022 and Manhattan, both very good teams. But you did something that is really interesting. You took your Houston team on the road and actually played at Georgia Southern. And I just, I wonder what kind of memories that brought back to you because I think of coaches today at the big power four level. Your job at Houston and Man, it's, you got so many resources that it's almost overwhelming. Like, how do you allocate all these great coaches and what their assignment is? What kind of memories did it bring back when you were taking your team to Georgia Southern and part of your history? Well, it was interesting. You know, I hadn't been back since we'd left, but we had great memories, you know. We, we helped

26:56transition the team from 1.008 to FBS football. And I guess that was the season of 14 and 15. And it just saw a ton of people that I knew there. It's, you know, a tradition rich program. I think we're one of a few power four programs that have gone and played a group of six, that had a group of six venues. So that was unique. The data, data full crowd. Luckily, we played well enough to win. And, you know, so it was strange. I hadn't done that before. I guess the last time I did that was when I was a blend, we played coffee zone in another school that I was at. And you go down and stop these dances for the national championship. I guess it was 96. Some like a gold mineral water bowl. You ever heard that one? Absolutely. I know all about the junior colleges and the state of Kansas. Absolutely. You and I. That was a little strange, but otherwise, I've never really played.

27:59You know, that team that coach before. We're talking to Willie Fritz. He's the head coach of the Houston Cougars as they play K-State today. But the long history you and I had was really when I was doing a lot of TV games and you're at Central Missouri and the MIAA, the best football playing league in division two. And then I got to know your family so well. And, gosh, we've known each other for so long. It's great to have you on the show here and and be able to talk to you to the hometown people. But one of the things that I'm interested in, you've had such great experience that I think about you. And I go, yeah, yeah, he coaches offense. Well, well, well, no, he coaches defense to wait. He's a special team's guy. You've been all of those things. But now you're a big time head coach. And I almost wonder how that almost seems like a burden to me. I mean, the money's good, the prestige, whatever. I'm but but just organizing your time. What does it like with all the resources and analysts and assistants to the assistants like the NFL with Andy Reed? How do you allocate your time and not get in there and what a call plays all the time? Well, you know, that's one of the things

29:01that I've learned. You know, my path has probably helped me, you know, more than other people because I didn't just, you know, arrive here and start coaching with, you know, 20 assistants and all those kind of different things that started off my first day of coaching job and, uh, when junior college and I texted, so it was me and two other guys ran the whole team. And we did everything. We were the academic people. We were the strength coaches with, where, you know, super office defense kicking game, the whole works we did it all. And, you know, I think that helped, you know, my perspective on everybody's job and what they're trying to do. I guess I know just enough to be dangerous. Everybody's a job title here, but, uh, yes, it's, uh, I enjoy it. You know, it's one of the things that we, I try to do, just keep everybody organized and see the big picture and really look at who should be playing and how much and what they do well, what they don't do well. You know, I question the coaches quite a bit on, on those types of things.

30:04And, and, uh, you know, but I'm really blessed. I got a great group of coaches and they do the fantastic job. Well, a couple of things are consistent between Blin and the university Houston. They're in Texas, okay? And also that you found that having a good quarterback, uh, it might help a little bit because if people don't realize you actually coached Michael Bishop, the superstar at K-State in 97 and 98. And when others didn't think that he could be a quarterback, you're like, oh, wait, he's a quarterback. And there was one coach in the country that agreed with you when you presented it. Uh, it's a great story about Michael Bishop coming to K-State and Bill Snyder saying, yeah, we're going to let this guy quarterback instead of shoving him on defense like others thought. What about those days? Well, you know, Michael's on my staff here at, uh, University of Houston and, you know, he and I have been close since I coached him in 95, 96 at Blin. You know, I was actually coached at Willis High School and I taught elementary Pee. He and Michael was one of my students.

31:08Many of those years and years before that, I guess, 86, something like that. So I actually know them a long time and, you know, the guy that I, you know, deserves a lot of credit for the recruitment of Michael's, uh, Moe Atomore. You know, Moe is just driving me crazy calling me at home, calling me at the office and back before cell phones. And you know, I could tell that Coach Snyder and Kansas State was, you know, generally interested in Michael playing quarterback and, you know, obviously, he made a great decision, you know, going to Kansas State and that quickly Morgan rented up going to, uh, Kansas State, he was one of my games here a few weeks ago and he lived here at Kansas State and was a great wide receiver. He stayed and played me NFL quite a while and another young man named Keith Black. It was a, a DB at Kansas State who played for me at Blin as well. So, you know, had a, had a history with some guy, you know, kind of a pipeline for, for Coach for a few years there. Those are big names right there, especially Michael Bishop, uh, when you think about

32:11him and before I go further, I got to say to everyone out there, Moe Atomore played for K-State, coached at K-State back when I played and we went to the first bowl game ever and then he also coached under Bill Snyder. You talk about a legend that people probably don't know a lot about. That's Moe Atomore. I'm glad you brought up his name, but I was kind of making the sequence and I got off on a tangent there with Michael Bishop because I just got so excited. I know how big a history you have with him and he's there as a coach, but the consistency with Houston and Blin as you know about having a good quarterback. When I saw you down at Dallas in the big 12 media days, it was great to see you as usual, but the twinkle in your eye when you talked about the Houston quarterback, Connor Wigman, really made an impression on me. I know you well enough and boy, it seems like you have the right quarterback and a lot of confidence in this young man. What kind of things does he bring to the table that people are going to see today with your football team? Just an amazing player and part of that stability. Come back like you did against

33:12UCF last week. Yeah, he really is a smart guy. Football has gotten very, very complicated in a quarterback position as you well know is the most complicated position by far and he just a really smart guy. He's able to get us into the right place and get us out of the bad plays and you know, and he runs probably better than people giving credit for. I think he's a good runner and he just does a great job of seeing the field, understanding coverage is you know, progressing the right side, correct side of field, going to swipe in the field quickly, getting rid of the ball quickly. It's a really good quarterback. I've had great year for some this whole season and I think he's one of the better quarterbacks in the country in my opinion, but he's really had an outstanding year for us. Came on towards the end of last year, Rihona on pole game against LSU. He really played well. I don't know if you made a mistake in the ball game and he's kind of carried that on this season.

34:17You know, that's my next question really is your team won 10 games last year. You're in your third year at the University of Houston. Had that first transition year and you immediately jumped like you did at Tulane and other places in your career to make that big step and you went all the way to 10 wins. So when you think about that team fully developed, it was a very good football team that beat LSU coming into this season and what you've seen so far. Do you think this team is at that level? Is it better? Where do they compare when you look about the potential of the team you have right now versus that 10 win team you had last year? Oh, I don't know. I think there's some areas where better at and there's some areas that we got to keep improving to be that kind of team. You know, like I told you earlier, it's just you know, everybody in the league is good. You know, we're getting ready to hit the meat of our schedule right now. We got to play great weekend and week out in order to have success. You know, one of the things I've done that I think has helped is I don't look too far ahead. We're trying to go one and all every single week and

35:18that's kind of cliche, but that's what we do. I talk about our guy. I do the very best at 15 every single day. And you know, if you do that, you stack those days together, you know, in game time, you know, the ball's kicked off. You got an opportunity to win if you're able to prepare all week and then also, you know, try to lose, you know, physically, mentally, I'd kick off. So I don't look too far ahead. I never have and never will. The stand-webber talking to Willie for it. And if we went back and review the tape, I just threw an incompletion or maybe an exception because as I'm asking the question, I go, that is a question I'm interested in. I know better. This guy's not going to answer that question for me because he doesn't think that way. That's why you continue to win. But I apologize for making that mistake and asking about that. I know you're one game at a time. So let's go this way. What do you think about your team? Where do you think a real strength lies? Because the thing that I see in your teams over, you know, since I really studied you when you're at

36:18Tulane and getting ready to play K-State and your whole career, Central Missouri, but especially here at Houston, it is about being good at everything and make the opponent beat you in every way. And wherever they stub their toe, you take advantage of it. Do you feel like a part of your team is a strength? Your defense, your special team? What do you think about this team? Much better than it did. You know, when I first got here, we were not real good at front. Much, much better in the offensive line. We've done a good job recruiting high school guys developing them. A lot of those guys are either starting or a back quality backup force or playing a lot in the kicking game. And then we've done a really nice job in the portal, you know, making sure we get the guys that come in here and you'll fit our culture and are able to start and play a lot for us. You know, it's so, that's a hard thing to do, you know, with finding the guy and playing someplace else and making sure he's able to come in and play power for football.

37:21But we've done a really good job of that here and I think that's reason why we've had some success. Well, you're ranked. You've been ranked all year long and you're the number 19 team in a country coming off a 10 win season. Ready to play K-State before I let you go. Just a quick comment on what you think you see in the Wildcats. This version under new head coach Colin Klein, new coordinators, etc. But still, Avery Johnson is there. You've played against him a couple years ago in Houston. Just what are your quick bullet points when you think about this K-State football team you're playing today? Well, I think it's really hard. You know, I can kind of watch films for about 15 minutes and I can see, you know, guys finishing offensively defensively. As I mentioned before, I'm not trying to let smoke up you, but they did great job in kicking game too. And K-State has always been good in the kicking game forever and I'm continuing to do that right now. So just a really good overall squad.

38:26You know, they play extremely hard. You know, when you play real hard and you're lined up correctly, you got to change every single play. That's one of the things that I, that's one of my best compliments. I get, yes, I can give it to you when I watch them on film. Just how hard they play and that they're in position. Not to give up big place. Okay. Well, don't bring your special teams magic too much today. Remember, I know you know my son, Stanton's a special teams coordinator. I don't want you to teach him any lessons. Maybe in the off season, you can teach him a few, but hopefully be easy on him today. So it's so fun. It's so much fun to talk to you. I won't keep you any longer, but all the best, man. I know everyone here in Kansas City that's familiar with your family and your story are so proud of you the way you represent doing the right thing and taking it one game at a time. And everything you stand for is the right way. We talk a lot about the other things going on in college football. You're bringing it the old fashioned way and doing it at a high level. So congratulations and thanks for spending the time. Thank you, Stan. Appreciate you.

39:27That's Willie Fritz head coach of the Houston Cougars. As they get ready to play the case date Wildcats today, you're listening to sports radio 810 W H B. College Game Day is brought to you by Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance. Whatever you do, if you're a Missouri and we're for you, we are Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance and we've got you covered. College Game Day is presented by Twin Peaks. Happy hour baseball football UFC and made from scratch menu. All of that with the best scenic views. The best seats are at Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks eats drinks scenic views. Welcome back into college game day on this beautiful Saturday around the Midwest. Just heard from Willie Fritz, their head coach of the Houston Cougars. He's doing a nice job down there, Stan. You'll be on the call today for case date and Houston. You obviously we're not going to ask coach Fritz to hand to cap the game. You know, you're talking about other things, but what do you think about this? I think Houston has played very well at times as sure. They were with two point

40:29conversion from Thai and Texas Tech on the road on a Friday night. They were a little ugly last week early, but that's a pretty good team coming in and case date, as we said, coming off their first loss and they've had a bite to kind of get ready for this one. What do you think's going to happen today out, Manhattan? Well, it's giant questions because we just really don't know where case date's going to go with this. When you get physically beaten at the line of scrimmage and give up 270 yards rushing to Cincinnati and basically allow them to get out of the game without throwing the ball. They got to throw in their terms and hit a couple of nice passes that makes their passing game be legitimate and hurt you, but there were like five explosive plays, including two passes against K state that racked up most of the yardage the wall cats gave up. Offensively, case date probably did fine, except for how about turnovers? We spoke earlier in a show of Simmons not throwing inner interceptions for Missouri and how important it is to not turn over the football. K state had the lead in the ball in the third quarter on the first possession,

41:31had double digit yards on a completion when a young player gets the ball knocked away in a turnover and Cincinnati just jumps all over the momentum and case date did not respond by turning the momentum back around. Suddenly, it was Cincinnati who controlled the game and case date lost at the end. Then they had to have a week off. So one of the questions is how good is case date? How well they handle this? You wish you could paint a scenario that we spoke about in the first segment. How did Missouri answer the questions that we had for them last week when they're getting ready to play a really good team in Florida? You're like, it's not a good time to be playing Florida, even though it's at home. And I don't think any of us felt great about what Missouri was going to face. And in Kansas with what they've done, you knew they're going to win against middle Tennessee, but you didn't expect an explosion of confidence. Does case date have that in them? Will we be thinking completely differently about case date? If they beat Houston, this will be a big deal. Houston's been ranked all year long. They're one of the four teams to be ranked in the preseason. Top 25. Willie Fritz is a known commodity as a coach. He took Tulane to unbelievable heights.

42:37And now in his second year, he had a 10 win team last year that finished ranked for Houston. And they come back with a better offensive team. Connor Wigman is a quarterback. He was a starter for them last year. He actually had been at Texas A&M under Colin Klein. We'll talk a little bit about that with Colin Klein asking about that. Maybe we get a chance to talk to him in the next hour. But Connor Wigman's grown up, for instance, Todd, let me give you an example of Houston football. Very steady mistake free football, physical football. Last year, they get 348 yards of game this year. They're giving up 327. So basically, I'm going to say defense is still really good. So we know we're getting, you know, it's different and scary in this game for case date is last year, they average only 395 yards a game on offense. So they won close games. They were able to go on the road. They went six and 0 on the road and one and one and 0 in the bowl game. Every time they left Houston, they don't have a very good home crowd, by the way. Probably the worst in the country for a big time program. So they don't mind going on the road and fighting it out. So here they go.

43:41But they did it. This year, they're averaging 483 yards. Oh, that is the best offensive performance per game in the big 12 and they played five games. So this is not a little two game subset. This is legitimate football. They have one game against the like I know, buddy, but they put the Oregon state, right? They put Oregon state. They went to Georgia, southern. Yeah. And they played UCF and were behind 17 and nothing. No points in the first half. And then Wigman ran for three touchdowns. There's a little quarterback run in this thing as well. Yeah, absolutely. And so what are they? This is almost like when we get into the world of AI Todd, there's going to be a day and age here with robots or whatever it is simulation where there's going to be a generic team that teams practice against somehow some way. And you're going to see what you're good at and what you're below average at because they are a model of being pretty good at everything. Yeah, great at nothing. Houston is that team for your AI study level. I don't know how it's going to go for today for K state. And there's such a big difference. If they win, you just take a deep breath and go,

44:43hey, the big game at kids, K use it home. Here we go. Who would have thrown away a start at five and one? I think most people would take that. You just beat Houston, the toughest opponent. You're supposed to play in the first half of the season. Yeah, you wish you didn't lose with your five and one. If you lose, you're like, I can't remember winning a game that high week becomes like three losses. Everyone's wondering how you're going to what's going to happen against an improved Kansas team. There's a lot of stake. But here's what we will know about today, getting back to that AI example. You'll know where K state's good and bad. There will be no faults information. If you see tonight in an evaluation, Todd, and you get to see some of this game in UC K state, do something. Well, you go, that's deserving that will happen against anybody in the big 12 because this team will make you make plays in every aspect. But if there's any weakness, they are going to take advantage of it. UCF had everything go right. And Houston would go for fourth down inside the five and miss it. Then drop a ball at the 15 going in. They had a shut out, but nothing was going right. There was no emotion in the building. And Houston was on their way to losing to a UCF team that was

45:47fired up and ready to go under Scott Frost. And all Houston did is turn them on and around a second half slowly and surely went away and scored the next 27 points and would have beat UCF for the next 15 quarters. Right. So they are physical and stop the run on defense and on offense. They're going to pound the football. They include quarterback run. They're going to run the ball inside the tackles. They're going to play action and throw the ball. No player on this team scares you. Probably the best player is Ray Sean Sanford at running back that might do some things, but there are no bad players. The offensive line. Here's the thing that back to my example. In this day and age of all the transfer portal and everything else, Houston used it some, but here's the amazing stat Todd of the 22 starters on offense and defense. 19 of Houston's 22 starters are seniors. And of that nine of those 19 are fifth or six year players. These are grown up men. Yeah. Who are coached by a coach. You heard Willie Fritz in the last segment when I accidentally asked

46:47him a question like where does this team compare to last year and what do you expect from this team? And he's like, oh, I just think one game at a time. You know, the great coaches do that. Sure. He's going to take one quarter to time just like he did against UCF. And when they upset K state in 22 and he's a Tulane coach, you could have turned the game on at any time, even in a third quarter. And you start K state was going to win. Yeah. Tulane just kind of just stay it around and let K state make mistakes and win the game. This is a scary game, but the opportunities there. This is not playing a championship level team in Houston. They're just really good, not scared to be on the road. We're going to learn about K state today. And if it's positive, we'll be talking about K state next week. Locked him in talking about Missouri and Kansas today. Yeah. You can it's a big opportunity for both of them. Houston's really good on the road. Yeah, they don't want to lose two games because they've lost a tech already. Everyone thinks, you know, it's tech and BYU are going to play for the title or something, but Houston can get back in that mix. They've already lost, but they're not playing BYU. You have to go win these games like this in the road. K state's got one loss. They got a lot of games ahead of them. This, the, we get to this part of the year. These are kind of many elimination games though. You don't want to have two losses because there's a ton of

47:51pressure. Let me say it's about K state real quick. There's a ton of pressure in every Johnson. That's how I started the year. He has to throw the ball well. I know he threw it 50 times last week and no against Cincinnati, but I'm gonna tell you what, he's got the run and past K state past Houston. He's the one guy who could separate and say we can count on him. He's going to be good enough to do that. He wasn't in 24 against Houston and K state lost. 230. That's going to be a fun one. Stand will be on the call on the K state network. We will hear from Colin Klein later on on college football game day on a game day Saturday right here on sports radio 810. College game day is presented by DM injury law. Have you ever loved one been in a car wreck? Contact DM injury law today and get the money you deserve. Car wreck. Remember Mike Scott this.