This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagan zale Sound Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions, Kati
z R Two SAD and iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera, He's Jagan Zalaz and today we have one and today Survival of the
plane. Right plane jump. He jumped out of a plane, Steve,
Uh, for fun, for fun. Yeah, he didn't have to,
he didn't get he didn't get thrown out like that guy in scarface or anything.
I mean, he just jumped from a plank. He paid someone to
do that. Yeah, it was great, and you got down. I
was gonna strive into the studio today. Yeah, well we didn't know you
were coming in today. Well we're starting. We're at about eight minutes.
Tell him like, I think I killed and nobody told us mister survived.
Yeah, be good today, Good for you, Good for you. Uh
super and maybe you'll do it again soon. And now we'll just skydive our
way into Friday. We have a pretty good show. I don't know if
you knew that. But we have pretty good shot. Three good guests.
Yes, our usual guy, Jake Fisher. Early in the first hour,
he's excited. We haven't had him on in a couple of weeks, and
the big twelve is first thing. His name was mentioned yesterday. I'm gonna
tell him why. Uh. And then in the the second second guy is
gonna be your a d asue a d No. The second guy is Brian
Howe. No, no, no, that's right. Oh I put the
wrong time in our in our social media. He's at three forty five,
not bad, so, so we have a issue. Fix that right now.
We have a issue a d uh Graham Rosini. Uh, he's not
even been there two months, maybe a couple of months. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, So we'll break down his situation, invite him to come and
visit us anytime and Tuesday tuson when he has a chance. Oh, but
sure, he'll be for a basketball game or two. And then the third
hour we have Brian Howe from the Colorado newspaper that covers uh dion, So
we'll have him on to see how the year has been for him, and
then how he's kind of handled or how they've handled each other. Yes,
uh, because there's still a lot of stuff going on now with Dion.
Yeah, yeah, you know. Yeah, look, there's always gonna be
stuff going on with Dion, right, so, uh, you know it's
it's got to be I don't know if you call it as it's just got
to be interesting to be covering him, whether it's fun or not. You
know, it might not be fun, it might be something else. It
might be a lot of work, it might be challenging, it might be
a lot of things, but it's probably for sure interesting. Yeah, right,
and then and then you know, as a reporter, that's kind of
what you know, you're always hoping for. You know, you want your
teams to win because they're more interesting. You want your h you know,
you want your coaches to you know, not be dry because it makes them
more interesting. So probably you know, probably good. Yeah, okay,
no, cool. So this should be a nice way to the week.
It's been a pretty good week. Yesterday show is very fun and uh,
and we'll wrap it up now. Did JB send you some stuff? Yes,
I'm pointing it up as we speak because I completely forgot about it.
Okay, so we'll do that. He did send it to me and we'll
help him out. I know he's trying to get some publicity through the papers
and locals for his basketball camp. If you have any questions just about the
camp, just send us to send it to us, yeah, or we'll
we'll pass it up. We're gonna put this stuff up up on Facebook and
Twitter right now because I completely forgot to do that, and we promised him
we would and I'm just a big giant turn for not doing it. But
here we go. I'm getting it up there. Okay, Okay, it
sounds like you're the one that jumped off the plane. Dude. You know
what, I don't know what it is. It's been about these last twenty
four hours, but you know, I'm staying. You know, I'm going.
I'm going to a meeting and beyond Brad, I've got a guy with
me that I'm meeting with, and I'm on the phone with somebody else.
It's like, it's just the nuts. It's just been crazy. So here
I am. But I'm here. I'm here, Okay, and so is
and so is. Uh. It was one because we were concerned about whether
or not he would be I appreciate that we at all points but yeah,
we were so concerned. He was ready to do the the the breaking news,
that's all he was concerned about that. Yeah, I thought he's not
coming. I got to go up breaking news and find that word of his
parents. Yeah, I was. Yeah. My first worry was not where
are they going to put him? My first worry was, oh, no,
I got breaking news to do well. And the first even that not
where he landed, not where we're gonna put him. It's not where he
landed. We didn't care about that, right, and not where they're gonna
put you. Well, it's too late for that, and now breaking news,
so you're like third string, third stow, third string. No,
we're happy to have you. I'm taking that starting spot. Thank you very
much. Well, good to have you again again. Today is Friday,
big show. Obviously not a whole lot after the big twelve press conference,
right, yeah, stuff, I think things have quieted down. Uh you
know, it's it's we're kind of going into this time now where everybody's kind
of gathering themselves, getting ready for fall practices to start, maybe taking some
vacations that kind of stuff to get ready because then now you know, once
it gets busy, it gets busy, and it's days busy, you know,
for till May. Right, Oh yeah, yeah, we we right.
It starts in mid August, doesn't until like mid April unless the teams
go deep into the tournament right in in May. Yeah, so so it's
going to be busy for a while. So I think, you know,
people kind of kind of gather themselves, you know, right now as we
need to. I kind of need to gather myself right now too, but
you know, you know, so, yeah, so it kind of like
everything now. There's gonna be some more media days next week, right,
yeah, You've got I think, well, who's left the SEC, the
Big ten and the a CEC. I don't know who. I think I'm
gonna say that SEC is next week, followed by the ACC and the Big
Ten the week after. So, you know, I thought that I thought
the Big twelve was very smart on what they did in going first. Everybody
talked about them all this week. You know, there were a lot of
stories that came out of there, the Mike Goudney story for better for worse
in the national media. The national media was there break your mark talking about
we're still open for business, you know, the four Pac twelve schools were
now in the Big ten, got a lot of got a lot of play.
You know, there was the media poll. It was just a lot
of stuff that came out about the Big twelve, and it was, you
know, all all the college football talk was about the Big twelve because the
SEC and the other schools were not doing their media day. So I thought
it was very smart of them to do that. Again, probably another thing
that was just what your mark is creating over there, guys, we need
to be out of front on sure, very he's very impressive. I know.
I think you hit it on the head the way you described her yesterday.
Uh, cocky, a little arrogant, very very fourth rightI ish uh
And it came off a little whatever. But now he's your whatever and you
like it right right. We thought he was a kind of an arrogant jerk
when when he was when he was battling the Pack twelve, and now that
he's not battling the Pac twelve, we're one of him where you know,
he's our arrogant. You want that guy, Yeah, we want that guy.
It's like we haven't had that guy. It's like you have there.
You hiring an attorney and I'll say, a divorce attorney you have and your
ex has that attorney. Yeah, he says, how come I didn't get
her, right, or I didn't get him, and now you have him
and you think there's go after that, you know. I mean, look,
look, I know Larry Scott wasn't from California, but he was very
California like, laid back, you know, l a kind of guy,
la San Francisco kind of guy, just throwing money all over the place,
arrogant from the standpoint of things like having an entourage, spending you know,
three thousand dollars a night for his hotel rooms, those kind things. Where
he was he just he just tried to have an aura about him without really
doing anything. And then George laugh didn't have the aura, but also very
low key and passive and all that got the packed. The funny thing about
with the playoff, Cough is very low key passive. Yet I guess behind
the scenes when he was getting offered this money and he was saying, no,
we could do better, getting screwed by himself because he was over stating
himself or overstayed in the product. Well, everybody, yeah, the whole,
the whole, the whole pack twelve was doing that. And and you
know, whether it was the the the President's residents or whoever, they were
all doing that. Yeah. Okay, so we'll get to some of that
with the A s U A d uh later this this hour. Right in
a few few minutes, get to Jake and talk about what's going on.
I mentioned his name was thrown out there yesterday. I'm curious what his thoughts
are anything else. Soccer starts here pretty soon, right about a month the
season starts. Yeah, less than a month weeks away. Yeah, you
got to get her cab. I'm sorry. And I actually looked this up
and said, I'm gonna ask you. Have you looked up when you have
a football practice start. No, no, I'm assuming it's like the twenty
sixth or something like that, or even before that. Okay, No,
I haven't. I haven't received it anything. I don't think. Well,
first off, they got practice and this is damn high. Now was that
the okay you we went home at the same time. Was that the hardest
rain last night that you've ever driven in? No? No, there's been
worse. I think, uh ten years ago if I can remember correctly.
But but it wasn't as bad as you probably had it because I was going
into it a lighter rain. You went up northwest, right northwest. Yeah,
but it did hit me as hard as I think I saw back where
you're I go home. It was dark. I go home by way of
Fort loll Swan River Road over Topino Canyon Road down. So I'm going up
Swan and I can't see. I literally there's a car in front of me,
okay, you know, And I could see his lights also in that
car was gone and I was still there, but I couldn't see it anymore.
You No, I didn't get and I was gonna I thought, are
you supposed to pull over here or not? If I pull over, nobody's
gonna see me. So I just kind of kept going. I slowed down.
I was probably going fifteen miles an hour going up Swan. Yeah,
I could not see. And then I turned on the river road. I
thought, wait a minute, why are you going on this road in this
storm? But you know what, it's a pretty good shape as far as
drainage goes. There weren't any big big I could not the river. I
couldn't see the river. I was seriously That's when That's when I could.
As I was coming up to the bridge to go over the river, that's
when I couldn't see. So I couldn't see the river. Yeah, I
was going away from I was going away from it. So Steve, I've
been here, Okay, I've been driving fifty years in this town close to
it, and I've never ever in this town driven in rain like that as
I did yesterday in that stretch from Fort Lowe, from Fort Lowell to River
Road on Swam, I could not purposely or were you in nineteen eighty four,
We'll see that that was a hard rain, but it wasn't blowing,
and it wasn't so hard that you couldn't see. It just rained a long,
long, long time. In four eighty three, eighty three fled I
covered a lot of that. I was working cops at that time, so
I covered a lot of that and I was out in it because I was
working for the newspaper. And that was different than that was different. That
was a different rain. That was just like a hard winter rain, but
not not where you get out of the car and you drench. I mean,
it just rained for a long time, is what it'd been. And
it rained steady for a long time without stopping. That's why we fled.
The thing that hit me was the last week when the and you saw this
probably on the news, the down power lines on Aina. It was like
a big thunder boom and it just knocked like the house and knocked off its
foundation. But all the wiring on Aina was knocked down. The so like
a few poles. They closed down the streets. Yeaha yahda And I hadn't.
I hadn't been through that in my time here where it was just crazy.
They were just kind of like the sticks, little small sticks. So
you know it's not the world is changing, yeah yeah this none, this
none, Yeah, global work is effectiveness. Okay, before we go political
exactly, but you know it was. It was crazy. I've never been
anything like it. But where this is? That's I mean. I was
happy, right, I got to turn off my sprinklers again. Dame in
the and so needs water? Yeah so drenching. Yeah, okay again if
you want to call, we have no time right now. But before we
get to to Jake, but five to four forty we had a good show,
I thought yesterday with the with the rafts. Some conversations after with other
people that I spoke to a good call or two about it. So you
know that was a good off topic, off off our usual topics. Yes,
yeah, uh, you know, I think people appreciate again that we
do that. You know, it's good for the community, good for uh
local stuff and and and you know people kind of need to know what's going
on. You know that call. You know, we've got a caller who
had never called before, right right and comment. He was really good about
you know, situation with that, and so you know it's good to it
was good to uh to get into that. And you know, if you're
out there and you you can be a ref. You have time to be
a ref. And it's just something that you want to do. You gotta
do it, you gotta do it right. Okay, Hey, let's just
go to a breakdow because we're down a steam here. Get a hold of
Jake and then we can because we're gonna be really with a lot of guests
and not a lot of calls with people. Yeah, all right, stick
around, we'll be back with Jake Fisher. The window Depot has everything you
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Steve Rivera and Jagen Saliz they have their eye on the ball on Tucson's sport
stage. Yet Fox Sports fourteen Dreamy Live, I mean iHeartRadio. At Hey,
welcome back to the ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
Diez Jacobs Sauce. Now on the phone, we have Jake Fisher for
were you a football player? How you doing, Jake? No, fantastic,
It's Friday. How are you guys? We're doing well. Glad that
you're not in the mountains or wherever you go because there's no phone service.
Seriously, I bet you wish you were, though, don't you. Yeah,
it's one hundred and thirteen up here right now. We'll get used to
it. Get used to it. Hey, So, I'm sure you kept
abreast of what was going on in the Big Twelve and you read everything on
your Twitter thing. Any surprises some of the first second team, you know,
the all Big twelve teams, you know, I'm surprised, Actually,
I'm not surprised. They have Dura as the number one quarterback. I knew
they were going to do that. I don't know what it is with their
fascination with Colorado and Dion and all those guys, but I definitely thought that
Noah deserved to get the nod to get number one. At least the publication
I read they had Shader's number one, and then you know the EA Sports
stuff, the fact that you have Travis Hunter as the number one rated receiver
in the conference as a joke. I mean, there's so much stuff.
And the fact is, you know a lot of these guys they don't you
know, they might favor one conference over the other. You know, they
did their homework on one and they didn't really look into another guy. But
I mean, if you're going to be doing these ratings, you got to
do them fair. And that might just be you know, hometown biased.
But the fact that you don't have Tmac is the number one receiver, that
just blows my mind. Yeah, no, I think you know, and
I've been saying from eleventh, yeah exactly. You know, they've got these
two first run NFL Draft picks, but you think they're they're the two best
players. But yeah, you're picking them to finish eleventh in the league.
So what are you doing? And yeah, who picked them eleven? The
media? The media, Well, the media doesn't know what the hell they're
talking about now, you guys. But I was talking about the media poll
had had Colorado in eleventh and Arizona in fifth, and I'm like, Okay,
so how good of a coach are you or do they think you are?
If you've got a first round NFL quarterback and a first round NFL wide
receiver or cornerback and you're still picking him to finish, you know, they
still think you're the eleventh place team in the league. I don't know.
I just know they're going to finish above ASU everyone else. It doesn't really
matter to me. I know Arizona's going to be higher than five. I
know that Colorado and ASU are going to be towards the bottom, you know,
in order for you to have two potential first rounders. And like on
Twitter, I see a bunch of stuff saying like, hey guys, it's
time for you to start tanking because Shadur is coming and all this other stuff.
It's like, and your pick to be eleventh in the league, and
the league is like, you know, it's not top heavy, but it's
not like you know, you don't have a bunch of bottom feeters, but
still you shouldn't be picked eleven if you got the much talent on your roster.
Yeah, and especially if beyond's this like you know this this heralded coach
and you know you're supposed to have like a top two class in terms of
you know, transfers and whatnot. The fact that you get chosen eleven,
that's just a joke. And you know you have all these ratings and you
have the first teamers and all this stuff. It just blows my mind.
Yah, what did you make of the event Gandhi or the the Gundhi stuff
with Oklahoma State and they're running back? Well, I think it was stupid
what he said. I mean, keep that crap to yourself. You don't
want people thinking that it's okay to drink and drive and do all that crap.
I mean, you know, you have a ton of these coaches who
literally work tirelessly and it's like every now and then they like to grab a
beer. But don't say it's what you guys do. You know, don't
the fact that you literally just basically gave the kid a pass. You know,
I understand having a couple of beers, But the one thing is what
you got to remember is there's no easier way to get home. Now.
You got you know, you got uber, you got Lyft, you got
all this stuff. So don't send a dumb mess message like that. I
mean that was just stupid for him to utter. Well, and you think
about this. You know Andy Reid's kid, right, the Kansas City coach.
You killed a kid or not. I didn't almost killed a kid.
You aimed a kid because he was drunk going home from work. Not even
just out, you know, at a bar. He was going home from
work, hammered. And so you have that happening in football. And yet
you you come out of your mic gun and you say that, I mean,
I just thought, man, and I'll tell you what he's really being
ripped. But the point I was making, Yes says he doesn't give a
crap what anybody thinks about that. Oh no, you can tell he doesn't.
And he's got such good job security. I mean, he probably just
says crap like that all the time and he gets away with it. He's
a hell of a coach. But I mean, you got to set an
example for these guys. And you know, a lot of the times when
you're recruiting some of these folks, they don't come from the best homes.
They don't come from you know, families that you know they have the whole
nucleus there. And you know, some of these guys, it doesn't matter
where they're from. They might not have a father figure. And when you
do that he was the head coach or he was a position coach. You
come out and you say something stupid like that, it's not going to reflect
well on you. Yeah. Yeah, so let me ask you to tell
you this. We had some guys who referee football games here in town,
have been doing it for a long time, and I asked him, do
you guys you know, you guys are human. Do you guys watch the
plays in addition to cover the plays in terms of what they're what they have
to do as a job. He says, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, how could you not watch a lot of Falcon's South Point?
Guy? Uh? And then then you mentioned Jake Fisher. I think Jake
Fisher's in the sentence with yea with Roberts, I'm thinking you were a stunt.
There is no way in hell I should be mentioned that kid. That
kid is freaking all world. I made it to college just by working hard
with that dude. He worked his tail off. He's got all the guy
given talent, and I mean he's as a first rounder and then he looked
that good as a rookie even though he was hurt most of the year.
But oh, man, I mean, keep my name out of your mouth.
Ja. No, man, you need to ride that one for as
long as you possibly can. He literally said, you know, I guess
that's fraulent. I can't do that. You might be related to you.
But let me say this. I said, because we know you were good,
how many how many Division one teams were coming after you one and and
this is another point I made, you could be You could be Jake Fisher
and be overlooked by so many and have all this time. You know it's
the two star Scoobs and all that stuff. Yeah, I mean two star
Scoob. That was a that was a whole different animal. I mean the
fact that that dude reached the heights that he did. And I think Arizona
was his only major Division on offer. No. I had all the schools
coming after me at the beginning, and then a lot of schools ended up
visiting. It was at the same time that Adam Hall was getting recruited,
and every single time after they left my school, they said I was too
small to be, you know, a linebacker Division one. So I only
ended up getting offers like legit offers in terms of like Power five schools by
Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. And then I had all those you know,
other you know, smaller Mountain West schools and stuff like that, kind
of waiting to see if those guys were not going to allow me to commit,
you know, if the offers were not committable anymore. So, you
know, I had all those schools. You know, I got everyone that
is a Division one player gets random mail. That doesn't you know, it
doesn't really mean anything, right, I learned that, but I mean,
yeah, those three schools were the only Power of five schools. And then
at the last second, Utah called my coach and said that my offer is
uncommittable because they filled up their linebacker class essentially when they offered me. It
was kind of like, hey, you're either committing now or we're going to
you know, drop your scholarship. So really it came down Arizona Colorado guys.
Well, okay, well I'm still proud of you. Go on,
Jake, I'm you know what I let you know, we thought cool,
he mentioned a guest on our show with b John Robinson. That's how we
took that. So we were you know we're we're happy to hear your name
in there. Well, you know what your guys show is going to make
it if you guys can get bees on on. We tried, tried,
We have tried to believe it or not. Hey. So you know one
of the things that that you know, we talked about and that I talked
about we've been talked about again today is you know when when we were kind
of when PAC twelve was going through its stuff and the Big twelve was stepping
on the PAC twelve's neck and the Big everybody and then and we thought what
a jerk Brent Brett Yormark is. And then now that he's our commissioner,
we're like, Okay, he's our jerk, and we're happy to have him
because I feel like we've got a commissioner that's fighting for the conference and trying
to do things as opposed to what we've had before. How do you feel
about that? I like it. I like it. The media day,
he said Arizona was the top priority of the four corner schools because you know,
it's a college town, which damn near every single Big twelve school is
a college town. You don't have professional sports there. You got to you
know, a community that's proud of the university. Obviously, it's the best
basketball league in the entire country bar none. There's literally no competition when it
comes to that. And the fact that we had a hell of a football
team last year, so you know, I know that he I know that
football drives in most of the revenue, but you know, it says something
to have the best basketball league. And then the fact that he's being aggressive
going out and trying to get even bigger brands to bring into the Big twelve
family. You know, he's a businessman, he's not you know, he's
basically not taking any days off. You know. Obviously the last to Pack
twelve commissioners basically it was almost like they were just you know, part of
a you know, part of the country club and they didn't want to go
out, get dirty and work and this dude. You know, it's nice
feeling wanted, right, especially when stuff like this happens. For us to
be in a position to be one of the top dogs to get you know,
basically to move over into a new conference. You know, it just
goes to show that we set ourselves up to you know, because there's going
to be more expansion. There's going to be you know, the acc is
plug gonna end up blowing up. I'm just happy that we're set for that
next round of movement because we're gonna be you know, we're gonna get more
money. You know, we're still going to be attractive to players in the
state of Texas, probably even further east now. And basketball is going to
continue doing what it does. And you know, I think coach Brennan and
those guys are set up to take a football program into kind of a you
know, a new level, completely off the wall. I just thought of
this. It just came to me. I get ideas like this all the
time. Would you like to see Nebraska get back into the Big twelve.
I would like to see Nebraska just have a freaking winning season at this point.
I know Matt Rules a hell of a coach. If they had a
decent quarterback last year, they probably would have won seven or eight games.
Like that's how insane it was. Like, I think they were second in
entire country in terms of turnovers and their quarterbacks were absolutely awful. You know,
every now and then they'd get a deep ball because the defense would get
sucked up because they didn't think we could throw it, and then our receiver
was just fast enough to run under it and catch it. But you know,
the fact of the matters, I'd like to see them get to a
couple of bowl games because, I mean, they're set up for the future
really nice. They got a couple of really good recruiting classes going, They
have a lot of good players. They've been able to attract a lot of
really good transfers, and I think, not ruling those guys are going to
turn it around. But I'd just like to see them have a couple of
winning seasons. Obviously them being in the Big twelve. Getting to see my
school and then obviously the school that my entire family roots for play against each
other, that would be pretty cool, though, Yeah, no question.
I I don't know, I felt I needed to ask you that, but
I just, you know, it's just it hasn't gone well for Nebraska since
they went to the Big Ten. You know, we talked about, you
know, getting a little too big for good. The first few years were
good, and then they'd win ten games and then Nebraska fans would be like,
well, this isn't Nebraska football. We're supposed to be competing for Natties
and then the next two coaches they brought in kind of just ran it into
the Yeah. Yeah, so we've talked about this. I think maybe a
time or two with you before. Fifth place in the Big twelve probably better
than that, don't you think. Yeah. I think we're you know,
at least top three, and I think we're one of the only two or
three that actually have a legit chance to win the league because because you've got
the quarterback that's been there, you've got the offensive line that's been there,
with the exception of obviously one of those starting five, you've got a really
solid running back room. Other than Temac. The receivers, you know,
they got to step up. But I think the I think this new coaching
staff is going to find a way to do it. And then look on
the defensive side of the ball, as long as that defensive line you know,
can rush the passer, which, by the way, Dwaynea Keina is
one of those guys that knows how to use the safeties to you know,
throw in the blitz packages and get to the quarterback. But you got probably
the best linebacker in the entire conference. I think the best secondary in the
conference. You know, aside from maybe Kansas by if we can fill that
one corner slot and we can put a composite linebacker there next to Jacob Manu,
you know, I don't see a reason why we couldn't have just as
good of a defense, and then I think our offense is going to be
the exact same. Yeah, I mean why not. Yeah, we're talking
to Arizona line former Arizona linebacker Jake Fisher. What did you think of Jacob
Manu by the end of the year, right, I mean he just came
on. I mean by the end of the year he was like a great
linebacker, not just a really good linebacker. Yeah, I said it.
There's been three, you know, a couple of different tiers, but there's
been three linebackers since my senior year in college that I've seen that can walk
in as a freshman and play right away. Obviously Scooby, who I ended
up playing with, and then the next year he just kind of took off
of the life of his own. It was just ridiculous how crazy he went.
Then you had Colin Schooler, and then you have Jacob Manu. I
think Manu and Scooby are kind of in a tier by themselves. You know,
I think Schooler basically didn't have the defensive line to keep him, you
know, clean. But I mean those two are unbelievable. I mean,
he scrapes off of off of, you know, the line really well.
He knows how to get off blocks. He can do better, which he
said in his interview, But you know, he sticks you. He's very
instinctual. He just kind of is always around the ball. And you know,
as an inside linebacker kind of the leader of that defense, if you
don't see him around the ball, there's something wrong. Yeah, So the
fact that he's always there, he hits you, and you know he kind
of knows what he's doing. And the fact is, you know, towards
the end of the year and some of those blitz packages, i mean,
he looked awesome. So I'm excited to see him and we might have two
more years of him, So you know, that's awesome. Do you zero
in on him? Do you watch him when you're watching the game, Yeah,
of course, I mean you know that. I mean imagine just going
through five years of doing nothing but watching you know yourself on film and watching
whoever the hell you're back BI is or whoever's in front of you. I
mean that's kind of you know where you gravitate towards. I mean, you
talk to anybody else. I'm that played and you know, played a lot
at the college level. That's probably the first thing they look at. You
know, you watch a game and it's like, all right, well what
is he doing? And then if you watch a replay, then you watch
other things. But yeah, ike and on the linebackers. Okay, so
we were ending our time with you. Now what's going out with your with
your job, with your business. Yeah, Arizona Health Insider Guys, if
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Great, thank you, Jacok, thanks so much, man, appreciate it.
All right, guys, see it he will guys. Jack Fisher,
Hey, we'll take the break because we've got to take some time and then
get come back talk and then we're gonna get right. We're gonna get Graham
Rosini, the athletic director at ACE. You had three forty five. He's
gonna call in. So I had to correct that on social media. I
butchered that again. So anyways, we'll have a chat with the ACU athletic
directors. I'll stick around. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you
know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at
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two zero four, nine, two zero seven or eight Chicksucks, pulling and
plumbing. Dreamy Live, I mean, iHeartRadio WAF. This is I on
the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey,
welcome back to One in the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve, He's Jay. We have one with us. We have sixteen
minutes. We actually have might maybe four. We're expecting a call from the
A D. Right from the A C A D. Graham Rosini's supposed to
call in here in the next five minutes. Or so, you know,
they're going through a lot of the stuff that is going through. They're going
through the transition going to the Big twelve. They've got their own financial challenges
going on, a lot of things. You know. Look, you know
it's very similar to what what we're going through down here. So be interesting
to see new a d right. I mean there's two new athletic directors.
That's the two at the at the these two Arizona schools, right right,
Well, we'll see kind of what his message is and hoping to move forward
as the boss. Yeah, Now he's a guy who's been in the department
for a while, right, He's he's you know, hired from within.
So but you know what, what are the challenges he's facing. I guess
what, you know, what we're able to talk about. We're only gonna
have about ten minutes with him, so it's kind of going to kind of
go fast. But we'll see what what we can we can get from from
that. You know, I'm most interested in kind of the logistics of what
are going through. You know, all these schools are going through to move
to the Big twelve, right, they got to do everything. I gotta
put new logos on everything, logos, on the fields, logos, on
the courts, logos, on the letterhead. You know, I mean just
the massive amount of stuff that's got to be done to make this transition.
Yeah, you know that that's a I mean, there's a lot of work
that takes place, and it's just for survival, right, just to stay
where you are, right, just to stay where you are. Yeah.
No, it's tough. You know, it's like a middle class family who's
trying to get by but save a little money. Yeah, good luck with
that, because you're just trying to survive day to day exactly, and you're
buying new houses all the time, right, right, right, I mean
they're having to put into you know, everybody's having to put stuff into facilities.
They just redid their stadium. There's just a lot of stuff. And
I don't know these jobs, Steve, you know, these ad jobs aren't
what they used to do. No, of course, you're not what you
signed up, right, You're not just managing the sport now, You're you're
managing you know, the facility of war. You're managing you know, situation
where you've got to start paying players. You gotta set you gotta set money
aside to do that, and that means you got to go raise more money.
And and you know they talk about how you know, head coaches,
particularly head football coaches and basketball coaches, you know, they spend as much
time you know, on the outside stuff as they do, you know,
on the court. Yeah, you know, yeah, no, no,
it's they get paid pretty handsomely to do this job, right, But it
ain't a fun job. It's not easy. That's job it used to be.
Maybe I don't even know. I don't think it was ever easy,
you know, but it's just different. But there's just more to so much
more to it anymore. And I don't know, we'll see, I guess,
you know, if you're a new if you're a new a d like
he is, Yeah, this is what you signed up for. But you
know, if you were alive and good, right and had been in the
business for you know, so many years, and all of a sudden it
becomes this, that's not what you signed up for, right, And we'll
talk about that too, hopefully you have some time, you know, ten
minutes. Yeah, So you know, it's a I don't know, man,
it's it's it's such a whole different world. And for us too,
Steven more than here talking about study. What the hell do we know about
the finances of athletic department? Right right? No, I remember back in
the day, you know, they had this budget of what twenty five million
through that basketball only, But now it's it's all these sports that you have
to survive. They just added triathlon right US ago, and now we wonder
how long is that going to be, right and other sports along with it,
because how are you going to come up with paying these these these moneys
and maybe scholarship reductions in football because now you don't have to worry about title
nine or you know what I'm saying this the the back and forth or the
or the the waging weighing of events. You've got to be really smart to
be in one of these jobs. Uh and uh you know, I mean,
you know grammar scene, he's got a you know, business degree,
he's got an MBA. You know, I mean you you can't just go
in there and wing these jobs anymore, because there's one there's a lot at
stake. Let's see if the bone's ringing? U see if that's him?
Hi? This is iron? The ball? Is this Graham? Yes,
it is Hi? Graham. How are you doing? This is Jay Gonzales.
I got my partner Steve Rivera here. Thank you for calling me in.
We appreciate it. Oh my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Just
one quick question. How is it being in the Big twelve like everybody else?
Yeah, we're excited. It was it felt real this week when we're
up in Vegas and you kind of saw these logos around us that we're we're
right around the corner. So it'll be it'll be fun. I know that
the ad from here Desiree, and we haven't been spoken to her a bunch
of this since she arrived. Were you busy giving the rounds and giving the
interviews, the kind of explaining your process or what you're going to be dealing
with. Yeah, it was great to just be, you know, right
alongside our head coach and the four football players we had there. Got a
chance to interact with a lot of media and just for me to meet a
lot of the national coverage. Yeah, and you know, put faces with
names and go those relationships. Was wonderful. And then yeah, I get
a chance to talk a lot about the exciting things happening all of our issue.
So we got to squeeze in a lot here because we know we've got
to get off the air at the top here in about ten minutes. But
the first thing I want to ask you was, you know you're new in
this job. I know you've been in the department for a long time at
a high level, but stepping into the number one position, what was the
first thing you felt you needed to do or needed to accomplish to really kind
of get the ball rolling on everything else that's coming your way now. It
was really important, you know, right after the announcement, we had a
chance to get a decent amount of our team together, you know, summertime
and so not everybody was in the building, but we had a already scheduled
departmental outing and just got to get the group together and talk about doing this
together. It's not about for the adeas, It's about how do we use
our collective talents as an athletics department to go really energize our fan base,
fire up our community, and go represent a issue in a fine fashion.
And so, you know, we had a six or seven months going through
the interim period and wanted to get everybody back together and focused on where we
go next and I'm just a big believer that it's not anyone person's responsibility.
It's our entire collective effort that's going to help this thing turn around and continue
to improve. How much does it help that you were inside the building to
start with? I think it helps a lot. You know, I've came
out to ASU when I was eighteen, and I've never left the market,
So you know, it was a two time Alumita issue. Was a member
of our baseball program. Was gone for thirteen years while I was with the
Diamondbacks, but I was still in the community building relationships that are maintained today.
And you know, much like Tucson, Phoenix is a close knit business
community and people can be Assu fans and Sun fans and Dbacks fans, and
so having twenty five years of history not only an a issue, but also
in the valley, in this incredible metro market, I think all that's a
huge advantage. Okay, so you're going to the Big twelve. There's all
these things, you know, flying around, You've got nil to deal with,
You've got you know, your your teams have transfer portal deal with and
all the issues that come with that. You're going to have to start paying
players very soon and setting revenue aside. And then and then at the same
you got this transition to a whole new league that comes with a whole bunch
of logistical stuff. How was you're going to make him resign from his posession
with all that play? You know what comes first? Right? I mean,
it's really I mean, how how how does all this come together?
How do you not lose your mind trying to get your arms around all of
it? You know, in some ways, I think ignorance is bliss and
and this is the version of college sports that I know, you know,
I was. I've been away from it for thirteen years and coming back in
at the beginning of the transfer portal era and nil and just you know,
being a part of this constant state of change. And then certainly over the
last year, as we were navigating conference realignment going into we've joined a new
hockey conference as well. So we're not only going in the Big twelve,
but we're going into a brand new conference for exciting hockey program and leadership changes
and and class action settlements. I mean, we're navigating change all around us.
And where it's a benefit, in my opinion, is that we've been
under the hood on all of it. We haven't had to be episodic or
one change after another, or one year it's the move in the Big twelve,
and the next year it's the leadership transition. We're able to really look
at it across the board and say, how do we make the best decision
that puts us in the best position for success across all the change around us,
and just embrace it. It's evolving. I don't see as challenges.
I do think that there's new new doors opening as a result of all this
change, and we just want to be able to maximize the moment. I
remember back in the day when we covered the news sports in the newspapers were
talking to Jim Livgod. I think some of the worries the AD's had back
Daniel was worrying about the kids, the five hundred and some student athletes not
getting into trouble doing some crazy things. That's just a side thing. Now
you have money issues. I'm sure you're a dad. You know, sorry,
son, I can buy this because we don't have it. It's almost
like that's the case every day in athletics today. Yeah, i'd said the
environment of the business of college sports. Its certainly changed, but the focus
is still our student athletes, and that's got to be the driving force and
everything that we're doing, where despite how the environment around them is changing,
we're still here to resource our head coaches, to put our young people who
they're with every single day and the best position for success, not only for
the sport, but also as a young person in the world, finding their
way through young adulthood, academically, pursuing their passions, their hobbies, et
cetera. You know, Commissioner your Mark has said this a lot lately,
that there's no better time to be a student athlete. I tend to agree.
I just think that they've got new doors open to them that we didn't
have when I was in this environment, and so we need to be mindful
of how do we help them utilize the tools that are available to them.
And that is a you know, certainly a huge departmental focus that they issue
is making sure that we don't lose sight of their students before their student athletes.
And they're also young people that are navigating a very complicated world around them,
and that's got to be the north star and everything that we put in
front of them. Yes, how we how we get to Saturday may change,
but Saturday is still Saturday. And there's nothing more special than college athletics
and the dollars that we raise and the dollars that we put into it are
benefiting young people. And I just feel like there's not a better time in
the world to be putting more productive young people out into society. So with
so much stuff, so much of this stuff, you know, so up
in the air, particularly this whole issue of the revenue sharing piece, how
hard is it to kind of figure out what directions you got to be going
on some stuff? Right, You're going to have to at some point.
The numbers are something like twenty million dollars you're gonna have to be sharing with
athletes and that kind of stuff. How can you look ahead and how can
you plan for the future when you've got something like that looming in front of
you, Well, it's ironically helpful to know what it's going to look like
moving forward, and you can really start to build a plan on how we're
going to get there. And we're prepared to compete. We're prepared to be
in every conversation with what we can provide for our student athletes to enrich their
experience, and even as compensation enters the conversation, we're going to be prepared
to meet that moment. And you know, we've got the luxury of time,
but it's not a lot of time, and so there's a lot of
planful decisions that we need to make. It may make the budgeting process and
how we financially forecast look a little differently, and we really need to challenge
ourselves across every decision we make of how is this dollar spent benefiting a young
person in their journey through sport, How does this allow us to showcase what's
happening at ASU, and just redirect how we're spending dollars to be in alignment
with the goals and objectives of what we're here to do. And so,
yes, it may cost more money, but you know that's where I feel
like being in a major research university in a major metropolitan market is a really
really important advantage as we move forward, and it's all about resource generation and
we're lucky to be an incredible market as a part of an incredible state.
We have people move into Arizona and ways that most other parts of the country
aren't enjoying, and that's just a chance for us to connect, build more
fans, sell more tickets, energize our fan base, and reinvest all those
dollars into what college sports is going to look like moving forward. So,
Grem I've been here thirty some years, covered a little issue, but a
lot of Arizona. Jay has been here for all his life. And the
phrase we use, and we've used probably too much, is a issue is
a sleeping giant. We've said that for years and years. Do you still
feel that and is it maybe overused? And you guys use a different term.
Well, I mean, if that's the case, we want to be
the group that wakes up a sleeping giant. I'm very bullish on the opportunity
in front of us. I think we're part of an incredible community of a
issue fans and again, having that combination of enormous university that's contributing in all
levels of society, that's in the backdrop of a growing, incredible metropolitan market
like we have in Phoenix. That's a really important advantage for a issue and
we'd be foolish if we don't lean into that. And you know, Michael
Crow, our president, has made the full strength of the issue behind what
we're doing in athletics. It's a really important investment into the work that we're
doing. And you know, I'm excited about everything that's coming at us and
how do we just fully utilize the strength of the issue in the athletic space
we're moving forward and so yeah, I think there's tremendous opportunity and there's tremendous
upside. We've got a great trend line from many of our sports having a
lot of success, and many of them already and certainly getting football, mental,
women's basketball, baseball on track and not looking back is a huge focus
of ours right now. Well, let me follo up a little bit on
that. We're talking to Graham Rosini, athletic director at Arizona State. Graham,
what's got you most fired up about moving this first season in the Big
twelve for all your teams? And then what's got you sort of maybe a
little worried, I'm say worried, but just you know something that you feel
like, Okay, we've really got to pay attention to this. Yeah,
we just really need to embrace the change and this is the direction that we're
moving. We're fully embracing it as we get ready for Haugust second and entering
the Big twelve. I do think it's really important that we're maintaining the rivalry
with University of Arizona. I just could never imagine a world where the two
of us weren't together. There's just too much history. This rivalry is really
important, as obviously your listeners know, and you know, I grew up
in the southeast around Alabama Auburn. That's a well documented, famous rivalry.
I really put the asu U of a rivalry right alongside it. I just
think that there's an intensity and a passion across each fan base that's really unique.
It's a lot of fun, it gets emotional at times, as it
should, but it's a really meaningful rivalry. And the fact that we maintain
the part that is most important as we move forward is intact and that's a
really good benefit. And then you know, we get the benefit of going
into the Big twelve alongside U of A and Colorado and Utah and having that
connection with those universities. That's been a really unique and valuable part of our
Pact twelve experience. And then understanding that there's twelve universities that are willing to
welcome us with open arms, and it'll be different. Admittedly, it'll be
different ways that we can't get no until we experience the first cycle of it.
But I'm really excited for these campuses that will visit. We've we've been
lucky. You know, Desiree has been in a lot of the meetings alongside
us, and to a person, the Big twelve room has been very welcoming.
They're excited about what ASU and U of A bring into this conference.
You know, certainly athletically, but academically and our society impact. All those
things are positive attributes. But there's some great universities that will compete against and
we'll build new traditions and new rivalries, and we'll experience new parts of the
country as a result of it. And uh and again, we're just excited
to get any other eye into the transition and start life in the Big twelve.
We only got about fifteen seconds. G I please tell me you were
a short stop or second basement, because you were a smart man. I
was a catcher, but I'm sick five, so I should have been a
picture that would have been maybe the better long term decision but yeah, I
was so good I ended up behind the desk. That's all you need to
Thanks you, thanks for joining us. N we appreciated best, best eluct
this season. Thank you, Thank you. Look forward to seeing you.
Great, great, great timing, awesome good stuff. All right, we'll
be right back. We'll be here at the top of the hour with breaking
news with one stick around