Speaker 1: Twelve thirty two. It is a Matt Thomas show with Ross.
We take this program until two o'clock. Coming up Saturday night,
six o'clock TDECU Stadium. Are Cougar's Your cougars, America's Cougars
are going to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders
and for a few minutes on the hopefully excitening celebration
that will happen on the campus. Eddie Nunez, Athletic Director
of University of Houston, joining us here on the show, Eddie,
good afternoon, just how we wanted it. Four and oh
versus four and Oh ESPN six o'clock the national stage
for two pretty good college football teams.
Speaker 2: That's a great opportunity that's in front of us right
now for us to continue to show America who the
coops are. And so, no, you couldn't ask for anymore.
This is a great setup for a great weekend.
Speaker 1: Do you ever get any editorial say so in times
of starts? I know when games are not on linear,
when they're on the plus app, you get a little
bit of an opportunity to kind of pick and choose.
But did the league basically say we'll give you the
time and you'll be ready to play it.
Speaker 2: Only only only chance we ever have is typically before
the season, if it's one of the networks reached out saying, hey, listen,
we like to put you on this time. Would you
be interested or would you want to stay where we
have you? Where we have you? And so some of
that plays out this time of year. No, when it
comes to ESPN and Fox, we don't is whatever we
are given that time slot, T and T is a
little bit different. We're on TBS, T and T with
that new partnership, we have a little bit of flexibility,
but it's still not perfectly in our hands.
Speaker 1: You know what, though, I'll take this six o'clock kickoff
for sure. And look, we're going to hopefully have a
lot of Houston fans there. Texas Tech fans are behind
the fact they're going to be at this game. What's
it been like talking with ithletic officials about all the
Red Raiders that may be in the building on Saturday night?
Speaker 2: We anticipated, We know that they have a strong following
here in Houston, and some of our fans are our
dual fans. We know that, and so we're gonna we're
gonna see probably more Texas Tech fans than what typically
travel for them here at our place. It's just a fact,
and it's not because of any other reason, just because
there's a strong fan base of theirs here, so we
anticipate having more than a usual visiting team fan base
that attends our games. But we're doing our part. This
is this is all about what we can do for
our experience for our fans. They'll be there and you know,
we look forward to having them be in the venue,
but we're looking at a sellout right now. Everything is
is trending. Hopefully by today, if not first in the morning,
everything will get to that point. So everything is moving
in the right direction. I can't thank our fans enough
to with their commitment to going out getting tickets. Our
students are coming in droves, which has been phenomenal to
see over the last several weeks at our home game.
So right now we're excited where it's going and we're
just trying to alleviate all the concerns and the congestions. Now,
before the weekend, you had.
Speaker 1: An opportunity to have Colorado in a few weeks ago,
and look, the school is going through some construction things,
so as people approach this game. What are some bits
of advice you would give to anybody beyond the obligatory
get there as early as you can.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would tell you, tell them. We've been working
with this. So what people need to understand is, as
much as it is our event, we work with a
lot of different agencies. When it comes to traffic, when
it comes to parking, when it comes to security, a
lot of that falls within the purview of University's police farming.
We work with them, and that's part of this. For
the last couple weeks, we've been working with them, working
with the city, with Metro, trying to make sure we
do everything we can to help the situation. The fact
goes back to our infrastructure is what it is. We're
not adding an express lane all the way to the interstate.
If we could, heck, and we would have done that
by now. So the couple things that I'll tell our
fans is an any fan, buy your ticket for your
parking pass, tickets or your parking pass, excuse me, buy
them today, buy them tomorrow, try to get them beforehand
on game day. Most of our lots, if not every
one of them, will be just passes only, so we
are trending right now to have every one of our
typical parking lots that people would have the ability to
buy game day parking to be sold out from a
so we have other lots. So we urge everybody right
now to buy those parking passes today. Try to get
them in advance, understand the ins and outs of how
to get to those lots if it's a different lot
than you've been used to. And then the second part
is simple. We always say come early. You're right, come early,
But just like anything else, when you go to the airport,
you know you got to come two hours before. That's
the kind of standard people always tell you. But what
does that mean for us? I tell my wife, I
tell our fans. What would that mean? Well, come earlier
than but you would typically would come. Why Because traffic
is going to be a lot more challenging. We're going
to expect the sold out crowd. Everybody wants to get
here at the last minute and wanted to get into
the stadium at the last minute. So you know, if
you can get here a couple hours in advance, do so,
come tailgate, Come enjoy the experience, because we're gonna have
a lot of things happening in and around the stadium
so people can have a great time. So again, don't
don't come thirty minutes in advance because you usually come
ten minutes and thinking thirty minutes will be better. Understand,
give yourself as much time as possible. We are going
to be doing everything. We can't help you get in
the stadium. But it will be a challenging day just
because this is a lot of people in a confined space,
and we'll but we're going to make it work and
we're going to make it the best experience we can.
Speaker 1: A few more minutes here with Eddie Unia as a
thoughtic director at the University of Houston. So the SEC
recently at a went to this annual opponent's thing for
a three or four year stretch. Look selfishly, and I
have been a Cougar student alum for a long time.
I didn't like Conference USA because so other myst didn't
bring people. East Carolina didn't bring people when they were
in the American I don't mind Better and tex Attack
and TCU and all the regionals coming in. So if
the more, the merrier for me at TDCU Stadium. But
let me ask you about is there been any conversation
about the Big Twelve going to this annual opponent format.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're still all trying to figure out
what those annual opponents would be, who best fits us.
We're looking at it all sports, as we look at
maximizing schedules for basketball and football. Really those two are
the ones that you that people see them the most.
We have to find some of those common opponents as
people like to call them, and you know, just to
say we're going to be playing everybody that's going to
be around Robin. There's some good to that, but there's
also we want our fan base to expect to see
some teams consistently. And the other side of it is
I don't want to go play some team and then
never never have the opportunity to come host them here.
So I was in the SEC when the first conversation
started years ago, when Texas A and M and Missouri
came in the league and everybody started figuring out, Okay,
we got to we gotta have some opponents. Those conversations
have been continual, They've been having them for years, and
they've changed in the and they've adapted a little bit.
So there there's there's there's a good reason for doing it.
Does it change some of the dynamics of your fan
base and seeing who comes in? Absolutely, we're we're having
them in the Big twelve. I don't I would tell
you today. There's no end insight as far as like
we're gonna have something done by next month or something.
I think it's just conversation that we need to have
so that if and when the time comes, we're better,
you know, informed, and better able to make decisions that
are necessary.
Speaker 1: Parlotte your run. Let's go back to last week Oregon State.
Did you find a different spot to stand or sit?
Maybe like mid fourth quarter? Because that was I'll be
honest with you, Eddie, and I wanted to make the trip,
but I had family obligations and I fell asleep and
when I woke up, I was so happy because I
had DVR ed, But my gosh, the team coming back
the way that it did. And then I got to
ask you too. On top of it, how is it
landing at Hobby Airport eight fifteen the following morning.
Speaker 2: So a couple of things first, So I'm not going
to give you as much of leeway than our fan base.
Fawnesty me come on. Now you got to stay awake
and watch it through and through.
Speaker 1: But I'm a fraud. I flat out a minute. And
that's why I'm so excited. I'm going to Oklahoma State
next week. The game is at eleven o'clock. I've been
in bed by eight thirty. I'll be just fine.
Speaker 2: But that's right now. Now we had I did. I
did find a spot and it started. It came the
fourth quarter. Like people know me sometimes, I find a
spot and that spot worked. Dave, my senior deputy, walked
up to me at at the end of the game
and said overtime was moving to the other side of
the field. He goes, hey, let's walk down to the
other side. I said, not a chance, see you later.
I'm staying right here. So needless to say, I'm not
saying I had anything to do with it, but I
liked we're all standing. It worked. I didn't move. And
then coming home, God, it was such a hard flight.
It was great that we won, but to know that
you're basically landing at eight thirty in the morning and
then by the time everybody gets home it's gonna be
nine am, nine to fifteen in the morning. Nobody really
sleeps great on a plane, so the four and a
half hour flight back felt like an eternity. I might
have slept maybe forty five minutes to an hour somehow
on that plane, right, But it was. It was a
tough Saturday, and my daughter's had homecoming dances, and so
it wasn't I didn't have the chance to just PLoP
down and say I'm gonna take a power nap. It
was we got to keep going. I got events to
go to with them, and so it didn't stop. It
was great, but you and I will hopefully get to
enjoy a better time next week when we come back
from Oklahoma State and it's not you know, the next morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't mind these eleven o'clock kicks. I'll be
brutally honest with you, but yeah, I can't. I can
certainly imagine any of you going to your wife and saying, hey,
I need to sleep all day, and she says, here,
take this violin with us as we go watch our
daughters of their dances. Was my guess, right, Well, the.
Speaker 2: Best part was she's like, well, I'm going to go
with one of my one of our boughters. You're going
to go with the other and uh, I'll see you
later on tonight. I'm thinking, well, what time does this
thing over? That's ten o'clock eleven. I'm thinking, wow, I've
been I needed so needless. When I went to bed,
I was out, I cocked out. It was a long
but it was a great day, hey, to come back
from the way we did, and to win on the road.
It's never it's never easy to win the road. You
know this. So any w get especially on the road,
is a great one.
Speaker 1: Well, my family is divided. I've got a Texas Tech son.
Myself is University of Houston grad. My wife is a
Universe Houston grad. So I'll just tell you selfishly. I
know this. The regional scheduling is not always in play.
But if I can play texta Tech every year, whether
it's in Lubbock or in Houston, I think it's gonna
a great atmosphere on Saturday. And I hope a lot
of folks get out there and like I said, get
there early because you don't want to be stuck a
kickoff still trying to find your parking spot.
Speaker 2: It's going to be electric. It's gonna and but that's
that's that's what makes the Big twelve so great. If
we have these opportunities to play the Baylor's, the TCUs,
the Text Tech. Why because we're all in the same
state wall fighting for the same kids. And the reality
is this is where you're gonna get the best football
in this state, and so why not. Why not have
these these electric games that people can see and our
fan base is going to get energized. So again, I
look forward to see everybody there. Come early, enjoy yourselves.
Let's have a great time. Understand it. Please be patient
with us. There's going to be a lot of people
out there. We're gonna do everything we can to get
you in and get you out of the stadium, hopefully
after a great win.
Speaker 1: Eddie, thanks for the visit. We'll see you on Saturday,
and best of luck this week.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, Have a great one.
Speaker 1: Eddie Nunez, Vice President, inter College Athletics,