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Speaker 1: Where it's at the Rocket to take on the Hawks.

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Speaker 2: Let's spend a few minutes right now with the head

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football coach of your Cougar's, My Cougar's, America's Cougar's very

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impressive win against Oklahoma State back home for a Saturday

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tilt with Arizona eleven o'clock.

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Speaker 1: Start time at TDCU Stadium. Willie Fritz is with us

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on the show. Willy. First of all, congratulations seven to nothing.

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Oklahoma State started off a lot of trick plays early on.

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Once things got settled down, you guys took over. Were

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you surprised at the amount of trickery that Oklahoma State

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tried to throw at you guys, especially in that first half.

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Speaker 3: Well, they've been doing it, you know, the last couple

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of ball games again, the interim head coach really, you know,

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all their play callers, you know, why not? You know,

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I told our kids throw the kitchen sink at us,

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and we got to do a great job of having

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good eyes on every single play. And you know, for

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the most part we did. But early the ball game,

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they we're in a little double pass and sent it

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back up a shoot. Unfortunately, we rallied for the first

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throw and they had two throws involved in the play.

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But after that we settled down and played pretty darn

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good and I don't think we gave up another trick

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play after that.

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Speaker 1: You settled down. Your offense was great. You got a

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lot of different receivers involved. That had to be pleasing,

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especially for guys that are running those routes and practicing

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hard during the week. To finally see their name being

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called in a plane to reach the end zone and

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have the big numbers they had had to be very

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pleasing to that group.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I really did. We threw for over three hundred

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and rushed for almost two hundred yards. Harvey Bruce Sard,

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who's done a great job in practice, kind of like

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you were saying, and because this hasn't had a chance

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to get much action in the game, he had some

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really big time catches for us and also forced, you know,

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a big fifteen yard penalty sometimes that you know and

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it doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but you know,

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you're throwing the ball deep and you beat the defender

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and he has to go in and int it here

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with you. That's still a huge play for you. But

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we were glad to see Horvey get going.

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Speaker 1: Was there a part of you that had to have

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gotten the guys on the bus and the pregame hype

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and at the stadium and say, look, we had a

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disappointing loss against Texas Tech. Oklahoma State's going through transition.

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Let's get out to a fast start, because you don't

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want a team like that who's all fighting for positions

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in their future, to make this a ball game. And really,

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after that first touchdown they scored, it really wasn't much

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of a ball game.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we kind of took care of all

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that on the Monday, you know, after the previous game.

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And I always talk about, you know, every week is

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its own season, and I'm flushing the previous game, whether

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you won or lost, down the toilet and doing everything

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you can to play better and keep proving every single week.

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And that's what lead people do, Elite teams do. They're

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able to focus and concentrate day after day after day

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after day, and he's stacking up good days on top

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of each other. Can improve and be the very best

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you could possibly be. So the guys, I thought we

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had a good week of practice, and you know, in

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this big twelve, you got to do that every single week.

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It's everybody's pretty gone good, and you know, we just

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want to keep striving to play that, you know, that

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perfect game.

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Speaker 1: Willie, you were talking about getting some different guys involved

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when you were coaching and managing a roster. You were

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thinking about some red shirts and whatnot, and getting guys

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in and maybe burning them. I don't know if that's

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even a possibility much anymore because of the portal and

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guys moving left and right. But do you especially for

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the kids you have recruited that you said, maybe they're

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not ready to go just yet, but we can sneak

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them in. Are you spending as much time you and

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your staff about who's playing red shirts? Or is that

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just the kind of a thing in the past.

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Speaker 3: Now, No, we do talk about that, you know. I

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but you know, I tell all our guys all hands

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on deck. At the beginning of the year, I said,

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anybody who's I wanted to play just four games and

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then decide to red shirt, you know, just go ahead

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and head on out the door. I want everybody all

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in for the Coogs, you know. But when you start

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getting to this point of the year and the guys

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only played a little bit, that does come into your

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thought your thought process. So there's a few guys that

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will end up being red shirted. But you know, I

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don't have a crystal ball. I don't know. You know

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what's cot We're gonna be ad in two, three, four weeks,

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you know, So we just want everybody all in on

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the twenty twenty five Cougs.

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Speaker 1: Well, you got an Arizona team coming in a double

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overtime loss to b YU. As you looked at that

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game tape, they played a late night game. A thought

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or two about what they did well and do you

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anticipate another game like that where they could come down

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to a final possession late in the contest.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know it possibly could. You know, they

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had a long game, they had a rain delay. I

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think the game actually lasted, you know, over five hours

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from the beginning to the very end. You know, they

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were up and by you did a great job of

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get in the field goal. I think it was five

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minutes to go and then score with just a few

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seconds left to send it into overtime. But this is

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a very talented Arizona team. The quarterback probably gonna end

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up being their all time leading passer and school history.

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They've had a lot of great quarterbacks out there at

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Arizona and good a good receiving corps. They've run the

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ball very successfully. Defensively, they really throw a lot at

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you there. You know, three manion front, four man in front.

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They'll bring guys from the second level, a blitz, a drop,

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you know, defensive lineman at times. So you know, it's

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a team we've really had to study early in the week,

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you know, just with our scout team to make sure

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those guys line up properly and give our guys a

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good look.

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Speaker 1: And the kids now acclimated of this early start time.

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We had the eleven o'clock kickoff last week and still water.

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No plane trip this time around, but still a fairly

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early wake up call for the boys.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we talked to us every morning, so

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we start our meetings at seven am, so tell our

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guys we can sleep in a little bit. So I

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think they're excited about it.

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Speaker 1: Willie, thank you for the time. By the way, a

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sixth win gets his Cougar football program back to the

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bulls and that's something we need to be on a

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regular basis. I don't know if that's a huge thing

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for your kids, that are in that locker room now,

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but for an alumni base that has seen some leaner times,

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it's a pretty big accomplishment. You could be getting a

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here on this game against the Wildcats.

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Speaker 3: Well, our big goal obviously is to win this week.

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We just want to do that every single week. You

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do the very best. We can't keep improving and good

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things will happen for Houston.

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Speaker 1: I will leave it that coach, Thank you for the

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time as always, really appreciate it, and best of luck

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on that midday Saturday.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on, Go Koobs.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Willie Fritz with us here on Sports Talk

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seven ninety