The guys from Dawgman.com - Chris Fetters and Scott Eklund in Seattle and Kim Grinolds down in New Orleans - go through Day 3 of Dawgman being in the Big Easy for the Sugar Bowl, but the reality is that it's really Day One of both Washington and Texas settling into their game preparations. And that includes their media responsibilities.

So today the Texas Longhorns practiced early and the Washington Huskies practiced later in the day. And some defensive coaches and players from Texas were made available to the media, as well as some of Washington's offensive players and coaches.

To start today's podcast out, Kim set the scene in terms of what it's like to meet with the players and coaches, what restrictions - if any - there might be in terms of who they can talk to and how long they can talk, and the general feeling he got from both teams.

First up, the Texas defensive players and coaches, with an emphasis on Longhorns Defensive Coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, who manned the same post at Washington under former UW Head Coach Chris Petersen.

Then the talk turned to who was made available to the media on Washington's end, which was offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, as well as QB Michael Penix Jr, RB Dillon Johnson, WR Rome Odunze, Tight End Jack Westover, and LT Troy Fautanu.

After a quick break the guys talk about the improvement of the offensive line and the difficult task ahead of them dealing with Texas's imposing defensive line. There's also talk of how both teams are generating their own sense of disrespect - whether that's Texas and talk of avenging their 2022 Alamo Bowl loss at the hands of the Huskies, or whether it's UW and a general feeling of disrespect after being considered underdogs in most of their high-profile matchups this season.

The guys finish up the podcast with Kim's interactions so far with the Texas media, as well as the national media that has descended upon New Orleans ahead of the Sugar Bowl. There has certainly been two schools of thought so far; those who are tired of picking against Washington because they've been proven wrong at every turn, or those who have picked against Washington all season and continue to do so for this CFP semifinal game because they believe they'll be proven right about the Huskies at some point.

Which way do you feel?

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