Craig Way talks with Texas kicker Bert Auburn about his 2024 season

Hour 2 begins with Craig's sitdown with Texas kicker Bert Auburn.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kevin Parker filling in for mister Craig Way, who is
down or out east of us in Atlanta, Georgia's Texas
takes on Arizona State in the college football quarterfinal at
the Peach Bowl. Our local coverage begins nine am Wednesday,
Network cover to eleven am kickoff noon Central Time. Texas
and Arizona State winner takes on the winner of Oregon

(00:23):
and Ohio State. I mentioned this we begin this second
hour some notes from Cam Skataboo, the Arizona State leading rusher.
I would say, the second best running back in college football.
If you listen to Craig you mentioned you're Craig say
he believes this is the best running back Texas has
faced all season. Well, he's certainly not lacking any confidence.

(00:43):
He might be the most confident running back that Texas
has faced this season. Talking today at the media availability
at the College Football Hall of Fame, Skataboo said quote,
there's nobody out there that can stop me. Skataboo finished
fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting this season. I was
asked again about facing the number one defense in the

(01:04):
country statistically and the Longhorns and how they plan to
stop them, they say, Sattaboo said quote. They continue to
keep saying that people are going to try and stop me.
There's nobody out there that can stop me. We played
in thirteen games and I've been the target on each one.
So I'm not too worried. We're going to play our
game and playball and see what happens there. If they're
starting hard, there's a reason I have full respect for

(01:25):
them because they understand what they're playing against. And that's
why I love playing games like this, because they constantly
look at me as a threat, and that's something I've
always wanted to be. And if I'm a threat in
the football field against an SEC team that was a
runner up to win their conference, and I think I'm
in a pretty good position. We got bigger plans. There's
still more goals to achieve. A little upset, but not

(01:47):
too worried. When he was asked, When he was not
asked to attend the Heisman ceremony in New York, it's
got to do. The season. Fifteen hundred rushing yards, nineteen touchdowns,
thirty one receptions, over five hundred receiving yards, three touchdowns,
over two thousand yards at scrimmage wise ran for one
hundred and seventy against Arizona or sorry, against Iowa State.

(02:09):
He had two runs where it felt like he broke
maybe seven tackles each. Awful tackling display from Iowa State.
Wrapping up will be key for Texas in this game.
But to say nobody stopped him this year, not sure.
Arizona State has two losses this year, Texas Tech and Cincinnati,

(02:32):
two teams who I do not think kept two world
beater defenses. In those two Losseskattaboo ran for seventy five
yards against Texas Tech ran for sixty. He's had a
couple of games this year. He averaged two point six
yards per rush against Texas State, only sixty two yards now.
He had a couple of touchdowns in those games. Against
Texas Tech. He did have one hundred and seventeen receiving yards,

(02:54):
so he does have that backfield threat to be able
to catch the ball. But to say, you know, he
has not been stopped this year, eh, we'll see now
he is not faced. Is not faced a Texas run
defense like this, and neither has sam Levitt. Sam Levitt
has not faced the Texas pass defense yet this year,

(03:16):
so again and Katy Dillingham to this today. He wants
his guys to be confident, and I agree. I don't
think there's anything wrong with Skottaboo and Levitt saying they
want to prove themselves to be the best quarterback on
the field, or nobody can stop me.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Now.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
The thing is, though, you gotta be able to back
it up. You gotta be able to back it up
because come Wednesday, if both guys struggle against that game,
they will be asked about a post game and Texas
players are taking note of it. Colin Simmons will repost
it on Instagram of the quote of Sam Levitt saying

(03:51):
he wants to prove he's a better quarterback. They're taking
events to that. Colin Simmons a freshman, quin yours a junior,
and that kind of shows a little insight and how
this team, you know, it is so tight and so close,
and we'll hear soalck talk about the maturity of this team,
but I you know, I think they love to hear
these quotes from Skataboo and from Sam Levitt. And again,

(04:13):
I don't think there's nothing wrong with being confident in
yourself because if you're if Gataboo said, ah, you know,
I'm not the best running back out there, and then
you're worried about his confidence. But to see these two
guys and their confidence, there's nothing wrong with that. But
at the same time, you gotta be ready to back
it up when it comes down to the trenches. From
what I've seen against from Arizona State, I think Texas

(04:35):
will be able to win the battle the line of
scrimmage against Clemson, give up seventy five total rushing yards,
maybe seventy six forty one of those team from one run.
The team from one run, Adam Randall, the receiver, had
a forty one yard rush. So outside of that one rush,
take that away, Clemson only had thirty five rushing yards. Now,
I know Phil Maffa was banged up. No no Jay Haynes,

(04:59):
so they're down their two running backs. But for Arizona State,
remember no Jordan Tyson the number one receiver. So their
number two receiver, by the way, is cam Skataboo, the
number one running back. So if you're PK, there's one guy,
there's one guy. And this goes back to Bill Belichick
and Bill Belichick's philosophy on how the defense teams who

(05:23):
have that one player is you take away that one
guy and you force someone else to beat you. And
a lot of times when the team is heliocentric, like
Arizona State, who relies on one player to carry the
ball and catch the ball, and that guy's taking out
of the equation, what happens the offense falls apart. The
offense is not as efficient and does not execute and

(05:45):
does not do as much damage as they have been
when they're one guy is lining it up. And that's
what we're gonna see from PK defensively on Wednesday. They're
gonna lock in on Cam Skataboo. So to say, you
know he's no one's gonna try and stop them. I
guarantee you Pete Wakowski is going to do everything in
his power defensively to scheme something up to make sure
Cam Skataboo does not beat Texas because the two games

(06:07):
where he did not know there's been a couple games
where he's not rushed for one hundred yards, but there
are two losses this season. Guys, it's when Cam Skataboo
has rushed for less than one hundred yards on the ground,
Texas has not given up a lot of one hundred yard
rushers this season. They've had two games where they were
not great and run defense, and that was Georgia. George
is a completely different animal. Arizona State is not Georgia.

(06:29):
Let's hear some some media availabilities today. Craig Way mentioned
he has sat down with Burt Auburn. We're gonna start
with Bert Auburn, the Texas kicker, the junior who did
say today that he will be back for his senior season.
Or Jeff Banks said so I believe. Let's hear from
Craig Way and Burt Auburn at the Peach Bowl media day.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I'm curious to get your thoughts on what everybody talks
about when you get to this time of the year
and now all these extra added games and stuff like that.
Folks talk about, you know, the toll it takes, but
the excitements and how how have you processed all of that.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
I mean, this is this is why you, I guess,
play college football come to Texas is to play these
extra games. So obviously the excitements there definitely, I would
say probably more so other positions toll on on their body.
But we've definitely had lighter practices and and things like that.
But I mean, this is why you come to Texas

(07:30):
to have all this extra excitement.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I've been meaning to ask you about the team work
and the synergy that has gone between you and Michael
and Lance with regard to snap and spot and placement
and everything and the rhythm and the timing of all that.
How how I don't know if intense is the right world,
but how intricate is the process of making sure you
guys are able to repeat it and repeat it and

(07:52):
repeat it.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, I mean it's it's everything. Obviously we're super close
special teams unit, but I guess just walking through the process,
it all starts with Lance having good snap, good laces,
and then you know, if something's a little off, it's
on Kern to make it right, and if Kern doesn't
make it right, it's on me to make it right.

(08:15):
And just we're all a very very close group of guys.
And yeah, it's I guess, super intricate process that not
many people would I guess know about or dig dig
deeper into. But there's a lot to it.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Here's your garden variety indoor outdoor kicking question. Much prefer indoors.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
It's comforting knowing you know there's gonna be no wind,
you don't have to worry about the weather, you know,
being cold. I do like kicking on grass. I love
grass fields. I just feel like my cleat digs through
it a little better. But definitely, I mean, I can't
complain of being indoors.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
With regard to getting another opportunity in this building. Is
there a familiarity thing that that kicks in when you
would walk in to Mercedes Benz itself to kick knowing
you've already kicked in this building.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, we'll see, we'll see. We practiced there later today.
But I'm sure just flying back here brought back, I
guess memories from a couple of weeks ago, So it's
definitely going to be super familiar. I'm sure we're probably
probably have the same exact locker we did, you know
at the championship game.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
So Bert was for six against Georgia in the SEC
Championship game, long of forty two, one of one of
the extra points. He did make the game tying field
goal to end the regulation to send the game in
the overtime. That was a thirty seven yarder he did
have two miss field golds, still missed the fifty one yarder.
I believe he's two on fifty yards or plus this season.

(09:45):
He also missed a forty two yarder in the first half.
I believe from the right hash mark. Outside of forty yards,
Bert has really struggled this season. Inside of forty I
don't know if he has a missed field goal yet.
His twenty twenty three season was fantastic. This year not
having a great year. I believe he's let's see, he

(10:08):
was one of one from what twenty two yards against Clemson,
so I think he was about sixty six percent on
the season. Yeah, sixty eight percent this season, down from
eighty two percent last year. Inside of forty yards, he's
a perfect nine to nine. Outside of forty yards, he's
six to thirteen, and that did hurt Texas against Georgia.

(10:29):
You know, he also did make the game winner. But
for Texas to be able to win a national championship,
I think we need to see special teams play up
to the potential because outside of maybe kickoff return coverage,
I think Jeff Banks would admit that there's some work
to be done. Right. There's been a couple of punt
blocks this year and not having Keten Crawford and Khian

(10:50):
Robinson has hurt the Texas punt defense and their ability
to block punts. I don't think they've blocked the punt
this year. Maybe they have, it's been won. Correct me
if I'm wrong. On the text line, they've given up
a couple of punt blocks in field, goldwise has not
been great. I mean bert Auburn in twenty twenty three
was eleven of sixteen from beyond forty yards, but this

(11:13):
year eight to thirteen, so that number is down just
a bit from twenty twenty three. But Jet Banks did
say today at media Day that Auburn is going to
return in twenty twenty five. The staff won to upgrade
at punter. That's where they went out and got Jack
Bowmeister from Utah. But they want to be able to
keep Michael Kern so that bo Meister can mentor Kern.

(11:36):
So we'll see about that. Obviously, Michael Kern has not
entered the transfer portal. He is the Texas long corn
starting punter against Arizona State, or Auburn is the starting
kicker for Textas against Arizona States. But the Longhorns to
make a run, probably need to see more out of
their special teams. More to come from Media day at
the Peach Bowl. We're gonna hear from Texas up as

(11:56):
a coordinator Kyle Flood up next. As the Craigway continues
on this Monday afternoon