Friday Night Lights are Texas Sized | Greg Tepper

Show Notes

What makes Texas high school football unlike anything else in the country? In this episode of Your Dark Companion, Mike Rhyner sits down with Greg Tepper, Editor-in-Chief of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football—the man at the center of the sport’s most beloved publication.

From covering more than 1,500 high school teams across the state to chronicling the stories that fuel Friday night lights, Tepper opens the playbook on what it takes to keep this legendary magazine alive. He shares how he went from a young journalist to becoming the voice of Texas football, balancing the tradition of Dave Campbell’s with the modern realities of recruiting, transfers, and the ever-changing college football landscape.

Along the way, you’ll hear about the rise of powerhouse programs, the challenges facing high school coaches, and even the possibility of a 7A division. Tepper also breaks down the quirks that make Texas football culture truly one-of-a-kind—from six-man ball to the intensity of rivalries that can divide entire towns.

If you’ve ever wondered why football in Texas feels bigger, louder, and more personal, this conversation explains it all.

⏱️ Chapters

0:00 – Football Season Excitement and Craft Beer Discussions
3:41 – The Legacy and Passion of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football
9:24 – Why Texas High School Football is Truly Different
13:39 – From Journalism Graduate to TV Host for Friday Nights
15:09 – The Massive Undertaking of Creating the Annual Magazine
23:21 – Transfers, Recruiting, and UIL Rules Shaping the Game
26:01 – How High School Coaching in Texas Has Evolved
32:07 – Mid-Show Reads and Sponsor Breaks
33:45 – Finding Natural Relief Through CBD at a Women-Owned Boutique
36:06 – Fantasy Football Draft Night at the Sunset Lounge
36:13 – The Electric Impact of Mike Rhyner’s Live Reads
37:53 – Powerhouse Programs and Rising Texas Stars to Watch
42:01 – Six-Man Football and New Wearable Tech Rules
45:28 – UIL Realignment: Challenges and Controversy
47:12 – The Passion and Culture Driving Texas High School Football
52:55 – Championship Trends Across Texas Metro Areas
53:55 – Greg Tepper Teases Upcoming High School Football Broadcast News

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Creators and Guests

Host

Mike Rhyner

Mike Rhyner… "a little on the bumpy side, but rather likable"…so stated famously by a grade school teacher in Oak Cliff, where Mike grew up. A complicated guy, yet a guy who can do long division and remember call strike three to A Rod. Probably best left unattended. Don't expect assistance from him if a medical situation arises.

What is Your Dark Companion Podcast?

"Whatever I want it to be about on a given day; is what it is." Your Dark Companion couples your familiar friends from radio, Mike and Grubes! Mike brings his classic interviews that draw you in, and Grubes—The Devil—drops…well the drops, and throws the occasional grenade. Mike likes to draw on his fascinating acquaintances and friends allowing them to tell their stories as you've never heard them. But he also goes outside his network, sharing Grubes' network, and often outside of both, to bring you those they don't know, but believe have a story that will make you laugh, make you think, think differently, or just entertain you…"that's what we are trying to do here."

0:00:00 - (Greg Tepper): Foreign.
0:00:02 - (Mike Reiner): Don't forget to check out the Sunset Lounge. Check out patreon.com sunsetlounge DFW. There you will find, among other things, Beer 30, Sports O'. Clock. This is your favorite go to for discussing craft beer and breweries. All things sports, but mainly college football. Ziggy is the host. He gives you real barbershop sports talk and gives you the tips you need before you lay down those bets. So check out Beer 30, Sports O' Clock and all the great stuff we have for you here at the Sunset Lounge.
0:00:40 - (Mike Reiner): Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Reiner. Sports talk. Baseball, Baseball. Baseball, baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little light right outside the window. All right, all right. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams.
0:01:13 - (Greg Tepper): Don't. Wait, you said tip.
0:01:14 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, okay. With a P. Keep jamming the ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off. Say, is this a cool night or what? Although somebody would hear that. Go. Oh, I'm back. Yeah, you're gonna have to wait till next time for that. Hey, everybody, it's another episode of your Dark companion coming at you today. This is the 20th of August. We are live at 5 on Patreon today. I like to shout out all of you by the channel there.
0:01:57 - (Mike Reiner): And for everyone who's going to be watching this later on down the line, no matter when, no matter where, anything like that, shout out to you too. It is your dark Companion. I'm Mike Reiner. We are here inside the nurturing biosphere of the mothership today and we're going to talk a little football because it is nigh upon us. We can't get out of it. The time to bypass it has long since passed us. We cannot do it. We are in.
0:02:32 - (Mike Reiner): We are all in. We will be until the end of the year at the very least, and probably a good bit later than that. And I can scarcely think of anybody better to talk football with than the guy who was in here today. He is Greg Tepper.
0:02:49 - (Greg Tepper): Wow. Hi. How you doing, Mr. Reiner? It is a pleasure to be in the nurturing biosphere of the mothership.
0:02:56 - (Mike Reiner): It's a pleasure to have you here.
0:02:58 - (Greg Tepper): This is. As a longtime fan and admirer of the Mike Reiner experience. This is a real thrill.
0:03:06 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, you haven't seen the Experience until you've been in here for this. How you doing?
0:03:11 - (Greg Tepper): I'm good, I'm good. You know, you're Your intro is both exciting and terrifying because you're right. Football. There are real live football games starting a week from tomorrow.
0:03:24 - (Mike Reiner): Yes, there are.
0:03:25 - (Greg Tepper): And. And then it is a, you know, five month sprint.
0:03:29 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:03:30 - (Greg Tepper): And so it's going to be busy time.
0:03:31 - (Mike Reiner): And on the one hand, I look at that and I'm very excited about it, very excited for it to be here. On the other hand, there's a part of me that goes really?
0:03:41 - (Greg Tepper): Already. Yeah.
0:03:42 - (Mike Reiner): Is that. I would imagine that's what. That's your experience with it too, because you live in it.
0:03:47 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah. I mean, this is, you know, football, and especially high school and college football across Texas is. Is what we do at Dave Campbell's. And. And for us, this is the. You think about the season all year long. You're like, all right, can't wait for it to get here. Can't wait for it to get here. And then you look up and suddenly you're like, I should probably figure out what we're doing and probably figure out exactly how we're going to attack this because it's a big state and there's a lot of football out there and there's a lot of football fans out there to cater to and, you know, we're going to try to do our best to cater to them.
0:04:19 - (Mike Reiner): Now, how long have you been at Dave Campbell's Texas Football?
0:04:22 - (Greg Tepper): Let's see. I've been there since 2011, so 14, almost 15 years now.
0:04:29 - (Mike Reiner): I can't tell you, I can't put a number on how many years I've been reading or at least been aware of Dave Campbell's Texas Football. But I can tell you this. On the COVID of the first issue that I ever bought is Scott Appleton.
0:04:47 - (Greg Tepper): Okay. So that is. Oh, you're gonna test me. It's in the 70s sometime.
0:04:56 - (Mike Reiner): No, no, that's the 60s of 60s.
0:04:58 - (Greg Tepper): So. Oh, Scott Appleton, that might be 63.
0:05:00 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, that's. He was an offensive tackle.
0:05:02 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, for Texas. For Texas. So Scott. I think it was Scott Appleton. Yeah. I think that might be 63.
0:05:11 - (Mike Reiner): It hadn't been out that long. Like that was just what, the second or third year, something like that.
0:05:16 - (Greg Tepper): So we started in 1960. Dave Campbell, real person. Yeah. Not just.
0:05:21 - (Mike Reiner): Right. Not just a made up name.
0:05:22 - (Greg Tepper): Not like Chef Boyardee. You know, he.
0:05:25 - (Michael Gruber): The sports Chef o' erd is real too, though.
0:05:28 - (Mike Reiner): How do you know?
0:05:29 - (Greg Tepper): It's real to me, damn it.
0:05:30 - (Michael Gruber): It's. I've seen videos.
0:05:32 - (Greg Tepper): The. But Dave Campbell, the sports editor of the Waco Tribune, had an idea because essentially his beloved Baylor Bears got left out of one of the national preview magazines. And he said, well, that's not. I'm not gonna stand for that. And so he went to start a magazine about the Southwest Conference and about the schoolboy teams across the state of Texas. And so he did. And it was born on his kitchen table in 1960, and he lost $5,000 the first year, but then kind of something was born and. And now it's, you know, it's, it's one of those things where it's become such a touchstone in, in the football ecosystem in this state and such an integral part of it. And so for us at Dave Campbell's, like, our job is just to not screw it up. Yeah. You know, he said he set the foundation. We just have to, to make sure we're not ruining everything.
0:06:22 - (Michael Gruber): Scott Appleton, 1963, plotting the executioner with Darrell Royal.
0:06:27 - (Mike Reiner): See, it's masterful bon mots like that that have put him where he is.
0:06:31 - (Michael Gruber): I literally just googled.
0:06:33 - (Greg Tepper): That's, that's, that's, that's why he's the shoopy.
0:06:35 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:06:35 - (Michael Gruber): Scott Appleton. Dave can't. Campbell Texas football.
0:06:38 - (Greg Tepper): Okay, good.
0:06:38 - (Michael Gruber): That's all I did. Well, we didn't do it, but hey, like, it impressed the hell out of Norm enough to keep me around as an intern, so it still works.
0:06:46 - (Mike Reiner): And Scott Appleton was like a. Something like a 240 pound offensive tackle, I believe, and six, three, two.
0:06:55 - (Michael Gruber): 60, apparently.
0:06:56 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, 260, yeah.
0:06:57 - (Greg Tepper): Boy, in the 60s, that was big. That's big. That's. Yeah. No wonder he was on the COVID That's. If you're that big, you can just be on the COVID just for eating that much.
0:07:07 - (Michael Gruber): He looks large on the COVID Yeah, he does.
0:07:09 - (Greg Tepper): Him and Darrell Roy's got the rolled up piece of paper and he's, he's pointing at the. He's pointing out and leading the charge, Leading his boys in the battle in 1963.
0:07:17 - (Mike Reiner): And the thing about it back then was that if it was football and it was Texas, it was in the magazine. They did Southwest Conference. They did all the other colleges that were not in the Southwest Conference. Like, I don't know, West Texas State.
0:07:37 - (Greg Tepper): Maybe A and M. Kingsville.
0:07:38 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, Kingsville. If it was football and it was Texas, they covered it. But wait, they didn't just stop at college. I mean, I believe there was also an article or two on the Cowboys in there at the time and the Houston Oilers, and then they got into high school and nobody did high school football back then. Like Dave Campbell's. Texas football.
0:08:04 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, that's. That's our bread and butter. Right. Because it's the. The holistic version of it. And, you know, now that first. That first edition in 1960 had 566 or 576 teams. We're well over 1500 now in the state of Texas, and we cover every one of them. And then the colleges, by the way, there's 49 college football teams in the state of Texas. It's not just the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A and M Aggies, it's the Southwestern Assemblies of God Lions and it's the Trinity Valley to Community College Cardinals. And, you know, we kind of COVID it tip to tail, from Rooter to Tudor, if you will.
0:08:41 - (Mike Reiner): If you will.
0:08:41 - (Greg Tepper): If you will.
0:08:42 - (Michael Gruber): I will.
0:08:44 - (Greg Tepper): But it's a lot. It's a labor of love. And the good thing is that in this state, this is the only state that this place, this thing can happen.
0:08:53 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, you.
0:08:54 - (Greg Tepper): There's not a Dave Campbell's California football or a Dave Campbell's Ohio football, because there's just not the breadth of. I would say there's not just the breadth of teams, but also you don't have the kind of passion that's in the season.
0:09:07 - (Mike Reiner): You don't have the kind of interest in it.
0:09:08 - (Greg Tepper): Exactly. Right. Absolutely. And, you know, the. The complaints I get on a Friday night about saying something about a team is it's just proof that people are paying attention and people care about, you know, the. The Meridian Yellow Jackets at one time.
0:09:24 - (D): Called the Long View. Whatever they are. I call them the Zebras. And I. The Lobos. Thank you. And I got. I still get crap for it to today. That was grand views.
0:09:34 - (Greg Tepper): The Zebras.
0:09:35 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, it was.
0:09:36 - (D): I said, oh, the Long View Zebras with Matt Diggs and I. And I still haven't lived it down.
0:09:43 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, that's. That's tough. That's. You can't. Well, so I was my. When I first came out at Dave Campbell's, you want to talk about throwing into the fire? They said, hey, on Friday nights, we need you to go and co host the Texas State Network's statewide radio show, where I was on KRLD here locally, and then Texas State Networks with Roger Emmerich and. Okay, scrub, why don't you get in there and be with one of the greatest broadcasters of all time?
0:10:12 - (Greg Tepper): And it was one of the first shows, and I. We had a score from down on the coast on the Coastal Bend, and it's the Refugio Bobcats, but it's with A G. And so I pronounce it Refugio on the air to a statewide audience. And Roger Emmerich, in one of the kindest moments that anybody's ever shown to a cub reporter was like, well, well, partner, that's, that's Refurio, but it's okay, we're going to get there and stuff like that. And it was so everybody starts somewhere, nothing less. It was, it was the most gentle, like easing back on in between the lines here. Hey, buddy, it's okay.
0:10:48 - (Greg Tepper): You went into the ditch. But we're all, we're all learning here.
0:10:51 - (Michael Gruber): So that has been the impressive thing and I figure we'll get into it. Some of when you did start working with Fox Sports Southwest and doing the high school football shows there, like the ability you have apparently to name off any team, pretty much any player, without a whole lot of info on the shot sheet and stuff like that, from what I can tell is very, it's always impressed me how quick you and Craggers have been able to pick up just how, just all the players, all the names.
0:11:22 - (Greg Tepper): Our brains are broken in a very specific way.
0:11:25 - (Michael Gruber): I believe it.
0:11:26 - (Greg Tepper): And yeah, you know, Craig Way is obviously a guy who's been, had an enormous impact on me. I mean, he's the king of Texas high school football, plain and simple.
0:11:35 - (Michael Gruber): And he joins on September 24th, by the way.
0:11:38 - (Greg Tepper): Oh, wow. Okay. I'm just the warm up act then.
0:11:42 - (Mike Reiner): You are.
0:11:44 - (Greg Tepper): And he is something special.
0:11:50 - (Mike Reiner): I've seen him in action before.
0:11:51 - (Greg Tepper): He's unbelievable. And the recall he has from games that he called 35 years ago, he'll tell you where he ate on the way to a game that he called 35 years ago. But he also has that kind of that knowledge base and that, that passion for high school football that like, if you immerse yourself into it. The crazy thing is that, you know, I've been asked before, oh, you want to go cover college, you want to go cover the NFL, you know, move up in the world. And part of me is like, well, why?
0:12:19 - (Greg Tepper): Because, like, there's such a rich amount of stories and a rich amount of teams to cover here in the state of Texas.
0:12:26 - (Mike Reiner): It's not like here you're going to run out of stuff or anything.
0:12:29 - (Greg Tepper): It's endless. It's endless. And if there's, you know, there's always going to be stories because there's 1500 teams. And yeah, it may be that a team made the playoffs for the first time in, you know, 50 something years, which happened in Fort Worth, Pascal, last Year, you know, they made the playoffs for the first time and snapped one of the state's longest playoff droughts. That's just a great story.
0:12:50 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah. Did they win the state championship? No, but it means a lot to that community. Yeah, they were able to do it. And people have that buy in in their community that you don't necessarily get with the Tennessee Titans or the, you know, or any of these teams.
0:13:03 - (Mike Reiner): So how did you come up to this position? I mean, what's your path been?
0:13:09 - (Greg Tepper): So I'm out of the Metroplex. Originally I went to Coppell, and after high school I went to the University of Missouri, studied journalism. I like to tell people I got the last newspaper journalism degree. They were just like, we don't need any more of these guys after this. That's fine. But bounced around a couple places. Worked at the Tulsa World, worked at the Dallas Maury News briefly for a couple of years. And then in 2011, position at Dave Campbell's came open.
0:13:39 - (Greg Tepper): I applied and got hired on as associate editor. Kind of hung around for a couple years. I'd always liked in working at the Dallas Morning News. I loved high school football. So, hey, here's an opportunity to really immerse myself in it. After a couple years, the gentleman who was the managing editor ahead of me left for another position. And my boss came. This was in July, you know, a month before high school football starts.
0:14:05 - (Greg Tepper): And the president of our company came to me and said, hey, we want to promote you to managing editor. And I said, well, that's great, and I want to let you promote me in a managing editor. He goes, there is one small thing. We're going to need you to host a four hour live television show on statewide television every. Every Friday night. Do you think you could do that? And I'm like, sure, just say yes, and we'll figure it out from there.
0:14:31 - (Greg Tepper): And that was my first time on television, was going out there and doing that first Friday night show. I'd never done, I'd never trained for tv. I want to. I wanted to write. I wanted to be Kevin Sherrington. Yeah, I want to be a columnist for the Dallas Morning News. That to me was the pinnacle of journalism. And so then suddenly I'm being thrown on the television for high school football. I figured it out, figured my way through it. And it's been a dream there as far as the TV side, and then just growing what we've done at Dave Campbell's and keeping that, keeping that thing rolling.
0:15:09 - (Greg Tepper): You know, it really is the brand of Dave Campbell's resonates so much in the state that as long as you just keep the train on the tracks, like, people. People want to be associated. People want to help out with it.
0:15:21 - (Mike Reiner): I mean, I can't imagine football in the state without it.
0:15:24 - (Greg Tepper): It's. It is. We. We've. We've told people that, like, that Our magazine kind of starts football season when it shows up at Kroger or Brookshire's or at B or Walmart. That's when football season starts.
0:15:37 - (Mike Reiner): That's a good way to put it.
0:15:38 - (Greg Tepper): And because you dig in and, yeah, you want to see what do we think of the Texas Longhorns. But then you also want to see. Well, I want to see what they think of, you know, I went to Cleaver and. Or something. I want to see what they think of Cleburne this year, those types of things. It is a resource material. I think it's on the back of more toilets in Texas than any other. Any other publication, I would guess, because it's so. It's 400.
0:16:02 - (Greg Tepper): It's 400 pages.
0:16:04 - (Mike Reiner): You realize. You just opened the gate for that, didn't you?
0:16:06 - (Greg Tepper): Listen, listen, I'm well aware of his.
0:16:10 - (Mike Reiner): All right. Okay.
0:16:11 - (Greg Tepper): Don't you worry.
0:16:11 - (Michael Gruber): We met before.
0:16:12 - (Greg Tepper): I do think we do get a lot of orders for Dave Campbell's from prisons, which makes sense because all you got is time and 400 pages. And, you know, people say that, oh, I love your magazine. I read it cover to cover, and I want to tell them, like, no, you don't. You don't read the index. You don't read this anymore. I would bet that there are some. Some. Some folks in Huntsville who maybe. Who maybe do read a cover to cover. We get a fair amount from.
0:16:42 - (Greg Tepper): From the. The incarcerated fans of our magazine, man. It is.
0:16:47 - (Mike Reiner): And it always has been, even in the Scott Appleton years, just a massive, massive undertaking.
0:16:55 - (Greg Tepper): It is. It's. You know, it's. And we've grown, obviously, with all the. All the schools we have and then with colleges, all the different conferences now they're aligned in with Dave. When Dave was running the magazine, it obviously a lot of work. At least the colleges that they were covered were largely based in the Southwest Conference.
0:17:13 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:17:13 - (Greg Tepper): You know, you go on the Southwest Conference tour, we'll go to Arkansas. Yeah. We'll go to, you know, we'll go to Rice. We'll go to all these. These teams. But they were all there. Now they're scattered across, I think, six different conferences, the 13 FBS teams, and not to mention all the Division 2, you know, the FCS Division 2 division. There's three teams and there's high school. And with the high school, we start the process in about February.
0:17:34 - (Greg Tepper): We send a questionnaire to every coach in the state. We get a lot of the nitty gritty information like that. How many starters you have coming back on offense, what's the name of your quarterback, you think you're going to be better or worse than you were last year. A lot of that stuff, like to follow up with a lot of them. But then it's just a matter of taking all that information, kind of synthesizing it, giving it to our writers, who then write the team previews and then stacking all the teams up and saying who. Which of these teams we think are going to be best. And, um, it's. It's.
0:18:02 - (Greg Tepper): It's a lot. It's the putting together that. That magazine is a full. At least four months of work just. Just grinding away every day on these little things.
0:18:11 - (Mike Reiner): You know, there was a time when high school coaches were not terribly familiar with or cooperative with the media. That's changed quite a bit.
0:18:22 - (Greg Tepper): Right? Yeah. Yeah. Coaches. Coaches, I think, understand now that their high school, their programs are a brand unto themselves. Right. And they want to promote their brand. So you see, I mean, some of the videos and stuff that these high school football teams are putting out there are outrageous. And the social media followings they have are outrageous. The graphic design they have is incredible. And these coaches now, I think they realize, hey, I'm promoting our team.
0:18:51 - (Greg Tepper): I'm getting a little FaceTime myself. And. And they know that that's ultimately good for what they're doing. Now, look, it also helps, I think, that high school football coverage tends to skew pretty positive in the sense that, you know, if Dak Prescott throws four interceptions, I know exactly what the Dallas Maury News is going to look like the next day. But if the quarterback at Coppell throws four interceptions, what's going to end up happening is saying that the Louisville defense stepped up in a big way and came up with big plays.
0:19:24 - (Greg Tepper): So it skews positive. And I. Now there's a little more. I think coaches understand that largely people who cover high school football are not out to make guys look bad. They're not out to, you know, run run down kids, especially. And they just, you know, cover the sport in the way that is ultimately going to reflect pretty positively on their program.
0:19:47 - (Michael Gruber): But if someone thinks that you hate their team, which you absolutely do.
0:19:51 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, they know what they did. You know, What? I mean, they, they, they, they. They've asked for it. At this point, they deserve it. It is. Dave Campbell used to say he had been accused of being an alumnus of every school in the Southwest Conference. And I'm just trying to live up to that, you know, trying to be.
0:20:06 - (Michael Gruber): An alumnus of all 1500s.
0:20:09 - (Greg Tepper): Oh, you must have went to. Yeah, you know, you're like, you must have went to Strake Jesuit. That's why, that's why they're, you know, you're, you're talking the way that you do. You almost got a Conroe.
0:20:19 - (Michael Gruber): Refugio.
0:20:20 - (Greg Tepper): Refugio. That's the one. If I'm I glad that there's probably not tape of that. That was probably right. Like 2011, 2012. It might exist somewhere, but I think we might have duck.
0:20:32 - (Michael Gruber): I'm gonna find it.
0:20:32 - (Greg Tepper): We might have ducked it.
0:20:34 - (Mike Reiner): So what is the hardest thing about putting out the magazine every year? You know, is it just the mass of the undertaking or the massiveness of it all or what?
0:20:48 - (Greg Tepper): I think that's part of it. The massiveness of it all is a lot, because there's a lot of. It's essentially a collection of 10 million little things to put together and make sure they're in the. And at this point, this was my 15th summer magazine. And so we've got a process down that I feel pretty good about, and we've got a staff that I really love, that they do good work and I trust them, but there is still just a ton of work to do. And look, we send out the questionnaire to every coach. We got to get a questionnaire back from every coach.
0:21:17 - (Greg Tepper): And so, you know, 95% of those coaches may need a little extra prodding at the end, but we're going to get them. There are 5% that there's a little pulling teeth to get it. It's also, you know, but for the.
0:21:29 - (Mike Reiner): Most part, they're pretty good about it.
0:21:30 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah. Oh, overwhelmingly, coaches are willing and excited to send in information because they know it's going to be to the benefit of their program. You know, there's some. There's pulling teeth. There's also just covering the comings and goings of all things football, whether it's coaching changes in the high school ranks. There are more than 220something in high school football in this off season.
0:21:54 - (Greg Tepper): Coaching programs that'll have new coaches. There's also. At the college ranks, the transfer portal has made things remarkably difficult to keep track of simply because the guys can enter the portal essentially whenever and then you've got to rewrite your entire preview. You know, those types of things. We actually pushed our press date back about 10 days this year just to give us a little bit more wiggle room because we want to move it behind or after move in day for these colleges because if you show up on campus, you're probably going to suit up on Saturday.
0:22:29 - (Greg Tepper): But we wanted to move it back because we're trying to track all those things. It's, it's just keeping as as tight a grip as you can on a really big unwieldy thing like high school football and like college football.
0:22:43 - (Mike Reiner): Texas is there in high, in the high school ranks. Something akin to the transfer portal.
0:22:51 - (Greg Tepper): No, no. There are players who will move around and the official UIL rule is that you cannot transfer for athletic purposes. Now, that doesn't stop people from transferring for any number of other reasons that are not necessarily athletic purposes. Now there's the, there are the, the moves around the state that are entirely innocent, which is that star quarterback Michael Gruber.
0:23:21 - (Michael Gruber): Thank you.
0:23:22 - (Greg Tepper): His family moves from Dallas and they move to Waco. Okay, he's going to play at Waco. He's not moved for athletic purposes move because that got a job. But then there's various other sundry reasons that players may move that, you know, they say, well, we're doing it for this or I'm going to live with uncle. I'm going to do it. Is. There is. There are certainly, there are certainly some players that are moving around and they're playing a little fast and loose with the rules.
0:23:52 - (Greg Tepper): The UIL tries as best they can to keep it, but they keep it under, under control as much as they can. But there's also, you know, you kind of got to take guys words at some point. You got to take guys word for it.
0:24:03 - (Mike Reiner): I would say now more than ever, there's only so much the UIL can do.
0:24:06 - (Greg Tepper): Absolutely. And it all starts. I think one of the common misconceptions, it's all local control, that if you're, if, if Michael Gruber is moving from, from Dallas to Waco and the coach of the team he's leaving suspects that he's leaving for athletic purposes. He can mark a form that will start a hearing and stuff like that. If the coach doesn't mark that form, it's good. Like the coach that he's leaving is ultimately going to be on, on, on, on able to sign off on that. The UIL doesn't get involved until it gets escalated to them.
0:24:39 - (Mike Reiner): In a situation like do Most coaches seem to find that more trouble than it's worth.
0:24:44 - (Greg Tepper): Or I think there's, I think there's part of that. I think there is also. I think some coaches would view it as kind of an honor code thing of just like, hey, we're going to be cool. I'm not going to, you know, there may come a time, there may come a time where a player moves to me and I don't want you to, to, to raise the flag on me. And so there's a certain level of like, you know, camaraderie among coaches. Be like, hey, let's all be cool. Yeah, we're not gonna, we're not gonna go out there and snitch on anybody in that instance. So there is a certain level of like politicking behind the scenes. I think that goes on with high school football coaches, but I also think that this is less than a half of a 1% of players and stuff. That things are like that. There's some high profile ones that'll happen every year.
0:25:31 - (Greg Tepper): But you know, that's, that's, that's something. One thing that you are seeing more and more, you are seeing players leave the state because there are nil opportunities outside the state. There are a couple of players, high profile players who have left the state just this off season to move, to move to elsewhere that they may have opportunities to cash in on. Name, image and likeness. In the state of Texas right now, you cannot profit on your name, image and likeness. If you're a high school player, how.
0:26:01 - (D): Many are going to img?
0:26:04 - (Greg Tepper): So that was, yeah, IMG Academy in Florida was a boy. Now I'm feeling old. It was probably like 12, 13 years ago. It started and there was a real panic in Texas high school football because a couple of big time players went to IMG and there's still a handful every year, you know, two to three. There was a big campaign kind of launched by the Texas High School Coaches association and by the UIL to like keep kids at home and just make sure that, that, that was, that they wanted that to be the better option for them.
0:26:35 - (Greg Tepper): I think that died down a little bit.
0:26:37 - (D): But usually just basketball players, but a.
0:26:40 - (Greg Tepper): Lot of basketball, basketball, football's kind of died off a little bit. There will still be one or two every, every once in a while, but it's not as, it's not as widespread necessarily as, as, as I think was originally feared. I think the big fear back in like 2013 when it was first cropping up was, oh my gosh, they're going to come in, they're going to get the 10 best players every year from, From Texas and bring them to Florida and build this.
0:27:01 - (D): They don't want to play against each other at that point in time.
0:27:03 - (Greg Tepper): I think that's the biggest thing with each other.
0:27:05 - (D): They'll play against each other.
0:27:06 - (Greg Tepper): And I also think, now, this is me being a homer here. I think you want to play Texas high school football. I think you look around, you look around other places and you're like, okay, would you like to play at Prosper or at Allen or McKinney or some of these giant stadiums?
0:27:21 - (D): A really weird schedule.
0:27:22 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah. Or would you like to go play, you know, a bunch of. A bunch of teams you've never heard of in front of almost nobody? And, and, and for what? So you can get recruited a little bit more than you would have. I think the biggest thing is that, you know, I think. I don't want to speak for players who have gone to img, but I think that at least part of it is, oh, I can get more exposure by going to IMG academy or a program like that.
0:27:44 - (D): I was gonna say, I think it's always been the training aspect of it. Just because you're going for the training, you're not going for the schooling. Yeah, but it's. I know it's really big in the basketball scene. And we did a couple of stories at Sports Arts of tomorrow about a couple football players, but not typically from Texas.
0:28:00 - (Greg Tepper): And I think that there is now. The recruiting world is now widespread enough that you'll get noticed if you can play. It's hard to hide now in the age of the air, in the era of the Internet. If you can play, you. You'll get noticed. And I think that's kind of won out more and probably kept from high school football, mass exodus, these other programs.
0:28:21 - (Mike Reiner): What kind of guy is a high school coach these days? Have you noticed a significant change over the years and the type of personality that gets drawn into the. Into the game?
0:28:34 - (Greg Tepper): It is. There's a few different kinds, and obviously there's 1500 of them. But one of the things is, I think right now you are getting this influx of, like, the next generation of coaches. You've got a number of coaches who are under 40, you know, even under 30, who are now head football coaches. And these are guys who have been watching coaches their entire lives, and they are really squared away. Like, they are very.
0:29:05 - (Greg Tepper): Like, they are very. They're media trained. They are. They understand. They. They talk a lot about big picture. They talk A lot about culture. They talk about those types of things, right? And then you've also got these guys who are, they are, I don't want to put this. X's and O's. Wizards, right? And they are. Because there is a real trickle up effect, I think, of, of schemes that I think a lot of stuff. You know, the spread offense essentially started in high school football with Art Briles and the spread at Stephenville. It started in high school football and it trickled its way up.
0:29:44 - (Greg Tepper): And so you see coaches in the high school ranks who are willing to be a little bit weird and willing to be a little bit experimental and try things. But I think that you have this new generation of coaches who are very sharp. They were, they grew up online in a lot of ways. They have been watching film for a lot of, you know, a lot of their life. They are football geeks, right? They love the game and now they get an opportunity to go out there and build that program the way that they want.
0:30:11 - (Greg Tepper): You've still got a lot of the, you've still got the old school guys, you've still got the, the rough and tumble, you know, you know, my way or the highway. My way or the highway guys. But I think more and more you're seeing guys who have grown up just watching so much and understanding what they want and thinking what they want their programs to look like and now they get an opportunity to implement it.
0:30:32 - (Greg Tepper): You got, I mean the great thing about high school football, you got wild ass stuff going on as far as schemes is concerned, okay, You've got teams that won't punt, that will onside kick every, every, every play. You've got teams that'll run the ball. They're still running old school offenses like the wing tee and the slot tee and you know, the pistol option offense. And then you've also got guys who are like, we're going to get 5 wide, we're going to stretch the field and we're going to run the craziest stuff you've ever seen and everything in between.
0:31:04 - (Greg Tepper): And so high school football is in a lot of ways a playground for that kind of stuff because, you know, the, the, the, the stakes are lower than in college. You're probably not gonna get fired if you, if I didn't work, sure, you might hear about at the diner on Saturday, but Saturday morning, but you're not going to get fired. And also you are playing the quality of play in the state of Texas and the quality of coaching is so high that like, if you can make it here, you can make it other places. There's a reason Joey McGuire at Texas Tech and was a former state champion at Cedar Hill.
0:31:35 - (Mike Reiner): Right?
0:31:36 - (Greg Tepper): Jeff Traylor, UTSA, former state champion of Gilmer. G.J. kinney was a really, really good quarterback when he was out at Gilmer as well as Canton. Out there in East Texas, these Texas high school football guys who are like coaches or coaches, kids in the high school ranks, it trickles up and I think people are catching on that these guys know what they're doing and that kind of being willing to take a little bit of a risk I think gives them a little upward mobility that other coaches and other times of, of our history may not have had.
0:32:07 - (Mike Reiner): This is Greg Tepper. He is the editor in chief of.
0:32:12 - (Michael Gruber): I just like this little eyebrow raise. Like, what's up?
0:32:14 - (Greg Tepper): Like, yeah, it is me.
0:32:16 - (Michael Gruber): It's Tep.
0:32:17 - (Mike Reiner): I mean, did I not get that?
0:32:18 - (Greg Tepper): No, you nailed it.
0:32:19 - (Mike Reiner): Okay, you're right. All right, take two. Three, two, one.
0:32:24 - (D): We're so live, it's not even funny.
0:32:26 - (Greg Tepper): Okay.
0:32:28 - (Mike Reiner): You be your live, I'll be mine. Okay. This is Greg Tepper, the editor in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas Football.
0:32:37 - (D): He does this just to irritate me. I know it.
0:32:39 - (Michael Gruber): And it works.
0:32:40 - (Mike Reiner): Every time, it works. And you know what else? It's time for the dreaded and feared mid show read.
0:32:50 - (Michael Gruber): Prepare yourself.
0:32:53 - (Mike Reiner): It's a highlight of every episode of your dark companion.
0:32:56 - (Michael Gruber): Besides the interview portion, just sit there.
0:32:59 - (Mike Reiner): In awe of what you're about to see here.
0:33:01 - (Greg Tepper): A master of his craft.
0:33:03 - (Mike Reiner): Because this is what put me where I am.
0:33:06 - (Michael Gruber): No, it's not.
0:33:09 - (Mike Reiner): Let's talk about you and the pain that you were in. And what if I told you you could free yourself from this pain that you walk around, this anxiety that you have, the sleepless nights, the discomfort of just existing and being you. And what if I told you you could do it naturally? Well, let me tell you about the CBD House of healing. Because they can make all of this and so very much more happened.
0:33:45 - (Mike Reiner): They are a women owned CBD boutique. They can help. They would like to help. They carry only products from their lab made to meet the highest quality and purity standards. Their owner, also an rn, emphasizes building trusted relationships through education. In other words, they're going to give you knowledge to care for yourself. That's their ultimate goal. If you go in there and tell them that something's hurting, that you got to pain in your back or a pain in your neck or anything like that, they're not just gonna chew their gum and Walk around behind the counter and give you a couple of gummy bears and tell you to go on your way. No, it's not the way they roll. They're going to ask you questions.
0:34:29 - (Mike Reiner): They're gonna find out what's going on, and they are going to figure out something that they think will work for you. And you know what? There's a greater than zero chance that it will. How do I know? Because it did for me. Not too long ago, I had a pinched nerve in my neck. I went to them and they gave me something that made it better. And now these days, it's really not bothering me at all. Giving you knowledge to care for yourself is their ultimate goal.
0:34:57 - (Mike Reiner): Find your relief from the aches and pains, the emotional stress, and drain and sleep again. Find them at cbddallas.com there at 8550 Plano Road, Suite 101 in Dallas at the northeast quadrant of the Burger, intersection of Plano Road at Northwest Highway. Begin your healing at the house of healing. Is that all for right now?
0:35:23 - (D): We got one more.
0:35:24 - (Michael Gruber): Halfway through, baby.
0:35:26 - (Mike Reiner): Okay, here's spot number two. In three, two, one. Thirsty. Thursday 28th August is Rough Riders Fantasy Football Draft Night and YDC and the whole Sunset Lounge gang is going to be out there holding their draft party. You can catch our draft live at 3:30 and then come on out to the game. Use our special code. Let's ride 25, get a ticket preloaded with $6 good. Toward your first Thirsty Thursday drink or at concessions. And remember, every Thursday the Lazy river is 21 and up.
0:36:06 - (Mike Reiner): So come out there on that night and hang with your pals here at ydc. That's it.
0:36:13 - (D): Yeah. But I actually have a question. You said the reeds were what got you to where you are. I thought it was measuring boobs.
0:36:20 - (Mike Reiner): A little of both.
0:36:22 - (Greg Tepper): Let me just tell you because. Because not everybody gets to sit in this chair and. And watch that happen. As somebody who has heard Mike Reiner do 20 years of live reads, let me tell you. Electric. It's an electric factory in here. You can feel the current going through. It's.
0:36:41 - (Michael Gruber): You can feel it in your plums.
0:36:42 - (Greg Tepper): I. Yeah, you know what? I wasn't gonna say it, but yes, I can feel it in my plums. Remarkable. I can see. I can see why.
0:36:52 - (Mike Reiner): Why, you know, that's what made me me.
0:36:54 - (Greg Tepper): I'm telling you, that's it.
0:36:57 - (Michael Gruber): At the end of it, like you.
0:36:59 - (Greg Tepper): You do. You. You feel like the air changed.
0:37:02 - (Michael Gruber): We feel his power.
0:37:03 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, I know. I mean, I Can't believe, like, I'm just glad that you, after all this time, still appreciate.
0:37:08 - (Michael Gruber): Oh, absolutely.
0:37:09 - (Greg Tepper): You know, watching. Watching Barry Bonds take baddie practice.
0:37:11 - (Michael Gruber): You know, it's like the first time every time.
0:37:18 - (Mike Reiner): All right, I suppose we've got to talk about this, although. What?
0:37:24 - (D): No, talk about what? You grabbed your. You grabbed your dial. We're done.
0:37:29 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, I know.
0:37:30 - (D): Okay.
0:37:30 - (Mike Reiner): I know that. I'm just trying to make it be still, that's all.
0:37:34 - (D): I'll fix it.
0:37:35 - (Mike Reiner): Okay.
0:37:36 - (Michael Gruber): We're talking about the prompter, by the way.
0:37:37 - (Greg Tepper): The what?
0:37:38 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, the prompter.
0:37:39 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, that's something else. There's a prompter.
0:37:42 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, yeah.
0:37:42 - (Michael Gruber): Oh, I'm sorry.
0:37:43 - (Greg Tepper): I thought he did that now.
0:37:45 - (Mike Reiner): You think a whole lot less of it, don't you?
0:37:47 - (Michael Gruber): No, no, he couldn't see the word scrolling.
0:37:49 - (Greg Tepper): Still amazing.
0:37:51 - (Mike Reiner): All right, so.
0:37:53 - (D): He scared me.
0:37:53 - (Mike Reiner): Given all this, given this massive business that is high school football here in the state of Texas, who's going to be good this year?
0:38:06 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, so it kind of depends on. The great thing is that because there's. They hand out 12 state championships there at AT&T Stadium in December at the Lark. You can kind of go every which way and it really is. You can choose your own flavor of what you want. If you want small school football and you want to talk and you want to go out to, like a small town on a Friday night and watch some good football, drive up to Munster.
0:38:33 - (Greg Tepper): Munster, the Hornets, the defending state champs and 2A Division 2 have one of the best quarterbacks in the state and Casen Carney, the coach's kid, who led them to a state championship over Shiner last year. You know, that's real small school football. You can get that. You also by being in virtue in here in the bustling Metropolis Metroplex. You can go to 6, 8 South Lake Carroll. It's going to be really good this year. They've got 19 starters back from last year's team.
0:39:00 - (Greg Tepper): Their coach, Riley Dodge, who is a Carroll legend himself, led them to a state championship as a player. He's the son of Todd Dodge, the legendary head coach who's now the coach at Lovejoy. They're going to be excellent. They have a Ohio State committed at wide receiver and Brock Boyd, an incredible quarterback in Angelo Renda. They are loaded defensively. They look really, really good. North Crowley here in the DFW metroplex as well, the reigning 6A Division 1 state champs. It's the largest classification hit hard by graduation.
0:39:32 - (Greg Tepper): They sent, I think, eight different players to FBS schools last year, which is insane. Including Quentin Gibson who is the all everything receiver who went off to Colorado. They may be in a little bit of a rebuild, but they've got plenty of big time playmakers and their coach Ray Gates is one of the best out there. Duncanville will be really good again. They graduate heavy. It's not many high school football teams in America that can say they sent a quarterback to Alabama and a receiver to Oregon. But that's what, that's what they did last year.
0:40:03 - (Greg Tepper): They need to find. They need to figure out exactly what they're going to look like offensively. But they got great defense led by KJ Ford. They'll be excellent there at the 5A level. Alito is going to be good again per usual. Always, always a factory. What Robbie Jones has continued out there, you know they will be excellent. So will I think Denton Ryan at the, at the 5A Division 1 level. South Oak Cliff, you're a product of Dallas ISD.
0:40:28 - (Greg Tepper): You're Kimball, man. This is South. South Oak Cliff has been in four consecutive state championship games like that. That is insane for a Dallas ISD school. They've been a four straight state championship games. They can make it a fifth again this year. They're going to be really, really good again. Their defense is going to be one of the best in 5A Division 2. They're going to be excellent and then trickle on down. Salina here in the DFW Metroplex, the number one team in four Division one. They have an Oklahoma committed quarterback in Bo Bentley who is box office. He is remarkable.
0:41:04 - (Greg Tepper): It's also, it's also one of the final years. I think this is. They're actually on the secondary cover of the magazine. The growth out there in Salina is outrageous. They just passed a $2 billion bond to build another high school and to build a ton of infrastructure out there. It's one of the fastest growing cities in America and so their time as a one school town may be coming to an end. And so this is kind of their golden hour where they've got one last real good run at it.
0:41:35 - (Greg Tepper): At least this year. They're going to be excellent. 3A Division 2, you've got the two time or the three time defending state champs up the road. And Gunner, they are going to be exceptional. They run one of the most fun offenses in Texas like a pistol option where it's just impossible to defend in a lot of ways. A lot of fun out there. So it really depends on what level you're looking for. You can also Mike, you ever been to a six man football game.
0:42:01 - (Mike Reiner): As a matter of fact, I have.
0:42:03 - (Greg Tepper): Okay, six man football around. It's. You got to get out as you know, you got to get to the nether region.
0:42:08 - (Mike Reiner): Right, right.
0:42:09 - (Greg Tepper): To find. It's real small school football. But six man football is wild. If you can find a game around here, it's, it's worth your time.
0:42:16 - (Mike Reiner): I mean it's, it's the closest thing there is to get your friends on the lawn of the high school and playing all pass.
0:42:24 - (Greg Tepper): You know, it is, it is wild. Like when you watch really high level six man football, they are like. Because the funny thing is like you think about the offense and obviously there's big. I mean you got games getting in the hundreds sometimes in six man football, but also the tackling because there's so much open space. I mean they're just, they're basically just like roping cattle out there and stuff like that to sling them to the ground.
0:42:47 - (Greg Tepper): It's, it's fun to watch. So, you know, there's, there's good football at every level around here. That's the good thing about living in DFW is that you never have to worry if there's going to be good football around on a Friday night.
0:42:57 - (Mike Reiner): Now I'm in awe of him because all of that just came to him.
0:43:03 - (Greg Tepper): I.
0:43:03 - (Mike Reiner): As easily as, as easily as, I don't know, reciting the pledge of allegiance or something like that.
0:43:10 - (Michael Gruber): Like I said, this is the tepper that I've gotten to see the last, you know, since 2012. You know, working most of the high school football broadcasts at Fox Bally, whatever you want to call them now. Like, he just knows this stuff.
0:43:23 - (Mike Reiner): And the only other guy, yeah, the only other guy I've ever seen that was able to do it like that is Craig Wayne.
0:43:31 - (Michael Gruber): That's insane.
0:43:31 - (Greg Tepper): Well, I, I take that as a high, as a high. You should, you should because he's, he's, he's the goat. And, and, but you get us two together and it's, it's a, it's a problem. It's a nerd off between us. You know what I mean? Because he's.
0:43:45 - (Mike Reiner): I bet it's amazing.
0:43:46 - (Greg Tepper): Well, and it's, it's fun because like the, like I remember the first time I met Craig. Like they say, don't meet your heroes. You know what I mean? But it's like, it's like being friends with your hero is awesome. Like, it's really cool. Like, I gotta be honest, if you can do it, you should do it because he's, he just has that passion for it too, and he knows it inside and out, which is, you know, I just gotta keep up with him. You know what I mean? That's what I'm trying to do. It's like a nice competition between the two of us.
0:44:11 - (Mike Reiner): Oh, man. It's amazing what you do.
0:44:13 - (Greg Tepper): Thank you.
0:44:14 - (Mike Reiner): What both of you guys do. Is there anything else about the season we need to know about any new rules or anything like that coming down?
0:44:22 - (Greg Tepper): You know, for the first time, there will be. The players will be able to wear like, wearables, so they'll be able to have like a watch on for the quarterback. He may be able to look and like, look at the play call in there. That's one thing that, that we're keeping an eye on and how it's going to look. And then next year, like an electronic watch. Like. Electronic. Yeah, like an Apple watch type thing, like wearable technology that coaches can signal in the play call on their technology now, which is something that, that's going to be new.
0:44:49 - (Michael Gruber): I was just imagining like the beating of like, you know, they log in too many times and they have to remember their passcode.
0:44:55 - (Greg Tepper): Geez.
0:44:55 - (Michael Gruber): Like, gosh.
0:44:56 - (Greg Tepper): Oh, man. Is it 147 or what is your. Remember your birthday?
0:45:02 - (Michael Gruber): Yeah.
0:45:04 - (Greg Tepper): Between that and then next February, I'll skip ahead a little bit. Next February is a big day. It's. It's every two years the UIL shifts up the districts, UIL realignment, and they, they redo everything. And that's when you could see some teams moving up, classifications, moving down. We're keeping an eye on teams like Alito, which has been a long time, 5A powerhouse. This might be the year they move up to 6A, which would be very, very big news.
0:45:28 - (Greg Tepper): So those are some of the things that we're keeping an eye on as there's more than 8,000 football games that kick off starting next week.
0:45:35 - (D): Are we getting a 7A district soon?
0:45:37 - (Greg Tepper): Ah, so class 7A is on the tip of everybody's tongue. Everyone talking with folks at the uil, I don't think it's imminent because one of the things about that is I think everybody looks at a school like Allen and they say, okay, They've got almost 7,000 students in their. On in their school. How are they playing with a team against a team with 2,500 students in their school? And that point is well taken.
0:45:59 - (Greg Tepper): But when you, if you were to split off another classification, you run into some big problems from travel perspective, because a lot of these Teams are in DFW in Houston, maybe one in Austin. I think there's one. And maybe one in Waco and then also Odessa Permian, and they are not near any other team their size.
0:46:19 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:46:20 - (Greg Tepper): And so you run into these travel problems where it's like, okay, well, are you gonna put Odessa Permian in a district with Plano East?
0:46:26 - (D): Wait, but they already do stuff like that with the schools out west. Yeah, like the Weatherford Alita or. Yeah, Weatherford Keller district. Yeah, like Saginaw. They send them out to Abilene and to Odessa.
0:46:38 - (Greg Tepper): Sometimes. Sometimes they do.
0:46:39 - (D): Depending on what. Realignment.
0:46:41 - (Greg Tepper): Exactly. Right.
0:46:41 - (Mike Reiner): Depending what West Texas. Don't some of those schools have, like, a pretty long trip every night, every week, every time they go on the road.
0:46:48 - (Greg Tepper): Some. Some of them do. Some of them are driving 200 miles for a district game. You know, and I think that that's. But the. I think what the UIL wants to do is make sure they don't exacerbate that problem beyond what it is.
0:46:59 - (D): Tyler in with.
0:47:01 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, they're in with Longview. They're in a DFW district.
0:47:04 - (D): That one.
0:47:04 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, they're in a DFW district. And so, yeah, it's.
0:47:07 - (D): It's been a long time, y'.
0:47:08 - (Greg Tepper): All. It's not going to be. You're doing. This is impressive. I didn't know any of this here for a while.
0:47:12 - (D): Like, do. I could do this pretty right. I can't.
0:47:14 - (Greg Tepper): It's. It's a. Your brain gets broken in a very specific way. And like, it's. It's. It's like an illness. You. You attract, and then, like, suddenly you. You just have all this high school football knowledge.
0:47:22 - (D): There's not as many on. In mine as yours. Only. Only DFW and Houston. That's the only two we had to worry about.
0:47:28 - (Greg Tepper): That's. That's most of them, though. Most of them.
0:47:30 - (Mike Reiner): And you and Craig Way are very specific people.
0:47:33 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah. What? Like. Like my job is one of one. You know, we were talking about how there's no Dave Campbell's California football. Yeah. Basically nobody else in the world who gets paid to, you know, think about high school football year round and do that kind of stuff. And it's. It's fun. It's. It's wild. It's.
0:47:50 - (Mike Reiner): Is there not anything like it in Pennsylvania that's supposed to be a pretty. Usually high school football hotbed.
0:47:57 - (D): The kisses.
0:47:58 - (Greg Tepper): It's. It's. There. There are good. There's good talent up there, but, like, it's not. It's not the same. I'd like there's. You actually had, I think you had Rick Renner in this scene. Yeah, the great Rick Renner.
0:48:10 - (Mike Reiner): Yes, the great Rick Renner.
0:48:12 - (Greg Tepper): I will just say this to anybody who will listen. Rick Renner. Your immediate thought is it's an act, right? Oh, this is a lot. And I thought, I thought the same thing. I mean this is a high compliment. Rick Renner might be the most genuine person I've ever met. Like, that's just who he is.
0:48:28 - (Mike Reiner): I remember when Rick first came into the market and I saw him on TV for the first time, I thought, man, is this what this is turning into? Is this where it's all going? And then over time and it. I was so off put by him that this took a lot of time. But over time I did get to know him. And yes, he is. I mean he is. Number one, he's a great guy. Great dude. Number two, he's real. You know, and the, there's, there's nothing about him that's an act.
0:49:01 - (Michael Gruber): Yeah. And the work ethic and everything. I think, you know, just thinking about all the, especially during football season.
0:49:07 - (Greg Tepper): Yes.
0:49:08 - (Michael Gruber): The stuff that he was doing Friday nights, he was still doing spurs, he was maybe still finishing up Ranger season. You know, the player of the week. The, you know, all these other little tapings that we were doing throughout the week. Just the dude worked.
0:49:21 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah. I mean whatever you see him doing, he's into it.
0:49:24 - (Greg Tepper): He's in full.
0:49:24 - (Mike Reiner): He is all in.
0:49:26 - (Greg Tepper): Absolutely. And he's. When he was doing high school football with us at Fox, I mean he was way into it and really into the high school football side of it. And I think he really relished the stories you get to tell because this doesn't happen in other sports. You know what I mean? And yeah, and it's one of his favorite things is talking about how like you look at the attendance for the Florida state championship games and like the combined attendance is less than like one of, one of the games. Like they'll put close to quarter million people at AT&T Stadium for stage guys. That's not normal.
0:49:58 - (Greg Tepper): That doesn't happen in California.
0:50:00 - (Mike Reiner): Everywhere. No.
0:50:01 - (Greg Tepper): And you'll go out to a Friday night in, you know, one of these big mega stadiums and there'll just be 9,000 people at a state at a game. And like I think growing up in Texas you might take it for granted and then you go somewhere else, you're like, oh, oh, where is everybody? Like, why A dollar saw is Friday night. That's what that's what makes it fun. People are into it. You know, I wouldn't do it if people weren't into it.
0:50:24 - (D): Texas high school football is king in Texas. Like, you can say the Cowboys, you can say everything else, but it's Texas high school football. It's what pays the bills for a lot of people at Inside High School Sports. I mean, that's what they capitalized on 37 years ago and I mean, they're still making money on it today.
0:50:38 - (Greg Tepper): And there are, there are. I think that's one of the other things you mentioned. Inside High School Sports. There are so many great outlets like that that are doing great work to help elevate the sport.
0:50:46 - (D): Well, and I'll say this, and it's a credit to y' all too, but like the talent, the people who actually do high school sports in Texas genuinely do love it and care about it. Like you guys, Neil Beasley, Ted Madden, I mean, my guys at Inside High School Sports, like there's Kenny and all these other people who, it might not be their full time job. Like Matt Diggs. It's not his full time job. He's a professor, but he loves it.
0:51:09 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah.
0:51:09 - (D): So much that he spends all of his extra time doing it. Like, it's a passion for people and it's crazy.
0:51:15 - (Michael Gruber): And the high school football assignment, like, you're not slumming it, right?
0:51:20 - (D): You know, like it depends on where you go.
0:51:22 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah.
0:51:23 - (Michael Gruber): To be fair. Yeah.
0:51:24 - (Greg Tepper): But overall, hang out with me. You're slumming it. But, like, that's fine. It is, but your point is well taken. Like I've, I've been in this industry, I think, long enough that I can, I can sniff out if somebody's in it for a paycheck. And hey, I'm in favor of people getting paid, plain and simple. But like the folks who stick around and the folks who have done this for a while, like, you can tell, it's like, oh, this is great. This is fun. And it shines through in their work and they give it the seriousness that it, that, that, that it matters because, you know, you can only talk about the Cowboys for so long.
0:51:54 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah.
0:51:54 - (Greg Tepper): You know what I mean?
0:51:56 - (Mike Reiner): Yeah, I do know what you mean.
0:51:58 - (Greg Tepper): If anybody knows what I mean, it's you, it's me.
0:52:03 - (Mike Reiner): All right, what is. And we'll wrap things up, but I want to hit you with this. What is what.
0:52:10 - (D): Ask him who, his favorite coaches.
0:52:11 - (Greg Tepper): I can't. I cannot answer that. Sorry.
0:52:13 - (Mike Reiner): That's putting him on the spot. Yeah, I don't want to do that what is the one thing about high school football that you're going to be looking at this year more than anything else?
0:52:24 - (Greg Tepper): I am going to be looking at whether or not there is more regional balance as far as the great. As far as the top end is concerned. So last year there at the 6A and 5A lever, there were four state champions. North Crowley out of the DFW metroplex, there was Austin Vandegrift out of the Austin area. And 5A Division 1 was Smithson Valley out of San Antonio. And then in 5A Division 2 was Richmond Randall out of the Houston area.
0:52:55 - (Greg Tepper): So all four major metro areas in the state were represented as far as champions are concerned.
0:53:00 - (D): Which isn't normal.
0:53:01 - (Greg Tepper): That's pretty rare. Yeah. Because normally it's a DFW year and there's a lot of great talent. Dfw, DFW in Houston can. Is there. Does that. Is that a sign of the future? Are we spreading the talent out more where you can get these state champions elsewhere. Right. One of the best games in state championship history was back in 2018. Longview played Beaumont Westbrook 2 in 6A, 2 non major metro areas teams coming, coming to town.
0:53:31 - (Greg Tepper): Let me tell you, that crowd was wild. That was one of the wildest crowds we've had a state championship game. Can we kind of capture that? Or is it going to be more Metroplex heavy or is it going to be really big year for. For Houston? Those are tend to be the areas that dominate. And so I'm interested to see is there more kind of. Of spreading the wealth around the state like we had last year? That's one thing I'm keeping an eye on.
0:53:55 - (Mike Reiner): Well, thank you for doing this, man. It's really been great having you in here. And man, I gotta tell you, you got me fired up for this.
0:54:03 - (Greg Tepper): Can I tell you one of one part of my job is to get people into high school football because like, I get it, there's a lot of options you have on a Friday night. My challenge to your listeners, just find a game on a Friday night. Just go out there, hang out. It's cheap to get into. Go buy a hot dog and support the, support the band. Right. You know, hang out, get the halftime show and you'll see some good football.
0:54:29 - (Greg Tepper): We're spoiled around here.
0:54:30 - (D): Or just turn on your TV because CW has a game. Yeah, on Thursdays there's, there's games on Fridays and Saturdays.
0:54:37 - (Greg Tepper): So many games you can watch streaming elsewhere like the.
0:54:41 - (D): Now that UIL can stream, almost everybody has one.
0:54:43 - (Greg Tepper): The World is getting smaller and it's easier to, easier to watch games. So if you, if, if give high school football a try, if you think, like, I'm not into that, I promise you it's fun. It's wild ass. It's. It's a lot of fun.
0:54:56 - (D): Crazy.
0:54:57 - (Michael Gruber): And I was going to say, I.
0:54:58 - (Mike Reiner): Love having guys in here who are into what they're doing.
0:55:00 - (Michael Gruber): Oh, he's into it.
0:55:01 - (Greg Tepper): I am into it.
0:55:03 - (Michael Gruber): And I was going to say, I believe, I'm not going to make you spill the beans on anything, but I believe that we're the last media outlet that you're going to be on before announcing TV news.
0:55:12 - (Greg Tepper): That's right. There's some, there's some broadcast news coming.
0:55:15 - (Michael Gruber): Down the pike where you did, you did acknowledge that you won't be with Fox slash Bally slash fanduel because pretty much nothing is anymore.
0:55:23 - (Greg Tepper): There were so. It was so funny because I put out some tweet. I was like, hey, you know, my time.
0:55:26 - (D): I didn't know that wasn't news yet.
0:55:28 - (Greg Tepper): My time at Bally fanduel Fox has come to an end. I was there for 11 years. Great years, you know, love the people up there. But, like, people were like, oh, my gosh, they finally fired Tepper. Finally. They finally got my letters and I just had to feel. No, like, they're just, they're not doing high school football anymore.
0:55:47 - (Michael Gruber): There's literally. The studios, literally are barren.
0:55:50 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah.
0:55:50 - (Michael Gruber): So, like, I was there working a couple high school football games in December and January. Like, in the studios. No, like, they still carry, I think some stuff. Like, I think they still have the Thunder and the Spurs.
0:56:04 - (D): They have like a master control operation in there and that's it.
0:56:07 - (Michael Gruber): Like, literally in that. In the Los Clenas building. There's nothing.
0:56:13 - (Greg Tepper): Remember when we doing it.
0:56:15 - (Mike Reiner): Who is.
0:56:16 - (D): We can't tell you.
0:56:16 - (Michael Gruber): It's all.
0:56:17 - (Greg Tepper): There's some news coming down the pike.
0:56:19 - (Michael Gruber): Yeah.
0:56:19 - (Greg Tepper): I will tell you. The state championship games are going to be on. Victory. Plus they announced that the state championship games are going to be there. And then Dave Campbell's will have some, some good stuff to announce on texas football.com if I can buzz the lens.
0:56:32 - (D): Not gonna lie. I feel like I'm in the. No, because I know what's going on. Oh, I spoke to Rudy the other day.
0:56:37 - (Greg Tepper): Oh, my good friend, I love him.
0:56:39 - (D): He was at TCU and I was at tcu.
0:56:41 - (Greg Tepper): Yeah, he's. He's a horned frog.
0:56:42 - (D): Yeah. I was like, oh, hey, yada yada. And he told me and now I feel like now. I feel like an insider.
0:56:47 - (Michael Gruber): You know more than.
0:56:48 - (Greg Tepper): We've got a. We've got a whole announcement tomorrow. So tune in to texas football.com tomorrow and you can. And you can know what she knows.
0:56:55 - (Mike Reiner): Yes, yes. You can also know what Greg Tepper knows. No, you can't, because he knows too much. You will never know that much about anything. Thanks for doing this, man. Really nice to talk to you and really admire your work.
0:57:09 - (Greg Tepper): Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you welcoming into the biosphere.
0:57:13 - (Mike Reiner): He is Greg Tepper. Now, remember, you can find all.
0:57:35 - (Greg Tepper): Of that.
0:57:44 - (Mike Reiner): By the channel on Spotify or Apple podcasts. You can help others find us by leaving a review. So do that to us. You will help us keep little YDC afloat for as long as we possibly can. It's been another episode. Thank you very much for watching. Goodbye. All right, I'm gonna go take pants off. Your Dark companion is a stolen water media presentation.