This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagan Zalaz Sound Fox Sports
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two SAG and iHeartRadio Station at Hey. Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to
Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
he's Jagansaus. Got our guy Kevin back in studio. Man, have you
been keeping your eye on the ball when it was back in Arizona court.
I took a nap this afternoon and all hell broke loose. Don't take anyboard
naps. I'm not allowed. Don't take any board naps. But it took
less than forty eight hours to get their guide. They probaby had their guy
yesterday right, and just kind of had to get the p's and q right
and dotted. Blah blah blah. Yeah, it sound like they had him
last night. Yeah. You know, we're getting a lot of a lot
of reports that the deal was done. It just had to you know,
as you said, you know, you got to write up contracts and stuff
like that. Yeah. Have you heard anything about details and money? Yeah,
no, you have a five year deal though, and they've got a
guy that could have easily hired three years ago, but for whatever reason,
maybe a president or so well that a lot of fans thought they should have
hired three years ago. But you know what, and we'll talk about a
lot of things today. I will talk about the Twitter world that you've lived
in the last few Yeah, but we'll get to that later. I saw
we talked about Jed yesterday, all of us, right, I don't I
don't don't like Jed. I don't know Jed in fact coming in for three
years because we don't get clost to the guys. I like him. You
know, he did what he had to do. Good luck to you.
I'm you know, I'm not bemoaning him the fact that he took the job.
I don't have problem with him tiking the job. It's the how and
and and and the things that he did and said while he was here about
that. You know, if he had if he had said what he said
in his press conference today, right right, if he had what he said
his press conference today about whether he's at his destination, if he had said
that three years ago and he left today, no problem. What he did
was he came and he and he got this community to buy into him and
his family making twos on their home. We're here, we want to be
here, we can we can build this thing here and then leaving at the
first great job that came his way. That's the problem that people have with
it. Yeah, and that's fine. I mean, come on, I'm
sure you've you've looked at a girl or something before you were married. He
said, oh wow, and then oh wow, but yeah you ended up
being married. Uh, more power to more power to him. Good luck
with that. Look, I had something to say, but just us,
Well, look, you know, certainly you know, based on who he's
been, all right, And he said it today, said every job I've
taken was intended to get me in a better place towards winning the National championship
or winning a Super Bowl. Sure, I got no problem with that.
We all took jobs to get the next great job. Sure you know.
Now I personally decided to stay in Tucson. You know, you've got some
great jobs. But I've had some great jobs locally, and I did take
better jobs or took other I took a job from there. Something I wanted
to be a reporter for life. But I did. I didn't feel like
I was getting paid well enough, and a job came up right where I
got a fifty percent raise in my salary. I had no idea if I
could do that job, but I took it right, and we and the
rest is history. And my point is I would rather have loved than never
have loved before because he got the fans, not me, fans to a
great place today. Now they know they're capable, but to a point that
we've talked about at nauseum. You have to sustain that consistency and we'll see
if he does. And seeing that's the thing that people are upset there.
Well, he he had this great team that he was going to have next
year. Okay, he did, but you know this other program came along
that just went you know, played for a national championship and they wanted him
and they wanted him bad, so he took it. So no problem with
that. So, kid, Kevin, you're at a parking parking spot and
you have I can't don't know what kind of car you have. A nice
car, right, a nice car, up to date car, and a
nice red Mercedes drives up next to you. You're thinking, I love to
drive that car. It happened yesterday. Actually, yeah, literally happened yesterday.
And wouldn't you love to drive that car if you had the opportunity?
Possibly? Yeah, it was a sports car. I'm a taller guy,
So I was like, you understand my point, Given the chance, you're
jumping on that bend way, you're jumping in that car. Yeah, And
I do think that it is what Jay was saying earlier about how not many
Arizona fans are upset that he took the job for the more money. They're
upset that the video, you know, was released in the way that it
was, that the statement seemed you know, maybe AI generated even Yeah,
it just heartless. It was. So now you're San Jose fan, right,
and you're seeing that another your coach has been poached from somewhere else.
How do you feel, Well, they know more than Arizona fan knows that
they're a stepping stone place they should they should and you know, uh,
they and the minute the minute Jetfish became a candidate at Washington, they had
to know that that's where Arizona was coming. So so Jay, are giving
you one hundred fans UA fans that you sit next to or are in the
football stadium. Of those hundred fans, how many believe that they're a stepping
stone program m maybe half so fIF So you're still telling you fifty percent of
them. Yeah, don't think they think this is the destination place? Oh
yeah, what do they think? Because because they love the place and they
think anybody who comes here, how could they ever want to leave? I
know those people, right, how could you ever want to leave Tucson?
Why would you want to go live in Seattle? It rains all the time?
Why would you want to go live in the Bay Area? They're living
on top of each other. Why would you go live want to live in
La They have horrible traffic. Tucson is better than all those places. People
in say that will say, you know why? They have no snakes,
they have no scorpions, There's there's water in the rivers. You can't fry
on your car in April. No, no, I think, I say,
And that's and it's and And to me, that's the essence of why
people are so offended that Jed would leave is because they're like, he came
here, he saw how cool this place is and how pretty it is,
and what a great place to live is and yet he got word away by
money. Well, of course he did. Not a bad place. It's
it's place. Okay, So enough about Jed. Let's move on to to
to the guy they hired, Brenton Brennant. They had a chance to get
him three years ago. I think that we're gonna kind of return to some
normalcy. If we didn't have it with Jed, I think we quite did.
But now we've got to see how he rebuilds who he brings on.
Uh. There reports about some people coming back maybe, which is fantastic news
if they you know, and what's become a key to all of these higher
right is how much how much of your roster? You know? Jed fish
talked about that in his press conference. You know they're got, you know
they've got He said, they've got something like seventeen players in the portal,
and then another another ten have declared for the NFL. That's twenty seven guys,
he said, you know, a key because of the environment that we're
in now. When the coach gets hired, now, the question is how
many of your players can you keep? You know, I've seen a couple
of guys that jumped in Feesian's price. Sock jumped in today, Jonah Coleman
jumped in yesterday, but nobody else has the other quarterback, the other quarterback,
oh, the other court right, but but the other quarterback said,
you know, I could come back. I just you know, it was
one of those things where he's just who which the quarterback, the backup,
the dormant, Yeah, dormant. He said that. Okay, Okay,
yeah, he said that. In his statement he said, I'm not I'm
not something like, you know, I'm not ruling out coming back. Okay.
Cool. And then we hear from and I take this seriously because we've
had him on the show. I think the world of Dennis Todd, a
reputable guy who knows what he's doing. That he says, there's a possibility
that he's hearing, Yeah, he's hearing. That's a good way that Fafida
and the McMillan will come back, right, And and you know, and
look, I am I'm so glad, okay, after what happened that we
got stuck with Kevin Sumlin, that Dave Heikey did not let players' opinions,
your player's choice, yeah, get in the way of hiring a guy that
you know they want, they wanted to hire for the long term. I
mean, yes, if you bring in Johnny Nansen and the players stay okay,
those players are gone in two years or less, and then what if
he's not a good coach, We're back where we were. He had to
go get the best coach, the guy he thought was the best fit for
this job. And you know, again, we thought Brent Brandon was the
guy two years ago. Let him come here. You know, as we
were saying, you know, off air, you know, no off of
FIDA and the all the survey guys and a whole bunch of other guys took
a chance on Arizona. Yes, they took a chance on Jetfish, but
they also took a chance on Arizona. They're the kind of if they're the
kind of guys who would do that, I would think they're the kind of
guys who would take a look before jumping automatic. You know, if they're
gonna they're gonna want to meet Brannan, want to see what this is gonna
be like. And you know what, if it doesn't look like it's a
good fit for them, then go well, I think let's assume for a
second, everybody wants to be happy. The place that they're gonna be Seattle.
They go to Seattle. I think it's safe to see that Washington's gonna
struggle next year in their conference. Arizona if they stay, if they stay,
should be another favorite. Pretty good and still pretty good and still catch
balls, throw balls, passes. They're not gonna be any different. Brent
Brannan can coach. You know, uh, you know, uh, you
know, I've been hearing different different things from different people. You know,
is he good enough? Is he the guy? He said? Well,
I know, I know one thing. You want two conference championships at San
Jose Stay easy. Name the last Arizona football coach to win the conference championship?
Wait? That was That was my biggest thing last night. I read
the athletics piece about Brent Brennan and I was like, wait, this is
the guy that had the fundraise to get his athlete's breakfast at the facility,
and you think he can't do better, even better than what he did to
San Jose State, with more to focused on just coaching, more focus on
just development. That's the thing about people. If you've been in a smaller
place and when how are you going to move up? People do? People
do? People are throwing out Brendan's seven year record, which is a losing
record. Have you checked Jed Fish's winning, winning record, one last record?
And like we said yesterday, and it was pointed out, Washington's taking
a big leap on him for that huge season, for that one season address
because we don't even know if Jed was going to be able to win here
next year to sustain this, and now they've taken him and like, all
right, man, you know, let the buyer beware. No, exactly
exactly. I think it's the perfect hire for the situation. Wation Uh Now,
he just those two guys have to stay. Those two guys have to
stay, and the other guys stay around him. I think they're gonna be
okay, They're gonna be okay. Right then, another a big piece of
why you know Jed, you know, was able to get the community behind
him, was what he did with the alumni, right right right? Well
isn't that a no brainer? Though? Yeah? I mean, you know,
Brandon has been here, I went, you know, his his his
his talk at Dick Tomy's memorial came up on social media and I watched it.
I got goose bumps. Yeah, well, I had my story and
we're gonna have him on the show. Artiez Jenkins called check with him yesterday.
He's glad to be on the show. He was made a tweet.
I put it in my story that he was here when Brendan was fast as
as as a coach, he's all in. We're gonna have Lomont and as
well to talk about what the situation is from older the older crowd. So
I'm looking forward to the ex guys because we had a lot of X guys
had a lot of coming right. Yeah, So I think it's gonna be
all positive. I think so. I think I think people will be happy
with the hire. You've got people out there saying one saying he hasn't won
enough, so we shouldn't be at Arizona. Well who the hell do you
think? Yeah? Not him? Who? Right? And then and then
and then uh you know second, well, they've hired Brent Brand and everybody's
leaving. I don't hear the door slamming. Who's Who's Just on social media
it's like people I said this on Twitter or Twitter or Facebook today, these
are fans, right, yeah, come up posting either you're a financial fan
buying tickets, giving money, yea, yea, or you're just a verbal
dude saying that I don't like to hire. Well, why don't you well
not even go to the games. If you don't go to games, what
the hell? Yeah? Look, and knowing our fans, knowing the fans
here here in Tucson, Yeah, they're they're gonna go back into a wait
and see mo Right. I think I too, right. I think I
think Arizona was poised to have a you know, a good uh year of
you know, tickets and attendant and so like that next year, assuming the
program you know, kept going to the shot. But now it's kind of
like, okay, let's take a step back. I'm gonna wait a couple
of years to see if he can do this or maybe by the end of
next season. Right, if they're if we're doing well, they're gonna wait
and see again. Sure, and that's unfortunate, but that's who the fans
are here in TUSA. Who's you know. I don't fault them for that.
But I also think that it's like the guys who who on Twitter or
whatever four years ago say well, I'm not gonna start watching sports. I'm
not a sports fan anymore because all the politics is going on. I guess
what, they were still watching you, They were still watching them, paying
attention. I'm not gonna go to you with a football caps. You don't
what dell bey there. I saw you on TikTok throwing your TV's out the
backyard at the Cowboys a lot, right, you could talk all the crap
you want. I guess what did you just say? I even tell those
guys that are my friends. I thought you weren't paying attention to the Raiders
or the Cowboys. I was sorry. I wasn't. I couldn't watch on
account of me throwing my team across the room. You're right, Can I
come up to the house? No, No, you can't. No TVs
so no, But I think it's a good day. It was a you
know, quick day. They needed to get this done quickly, right and
and and and and give it and give it to Dave He can I assume
you presume, Robbie Robbins, that they acted quickly, they acted decisively,
and to give them the best chance of holding this thing together. Okay,
so we're gonna have Laman Hunley here in about ten five minutes like that,
We're gonna go to some things on Twitter. You use trouble maker you but
I wanted to get to before this first minute. We'll get it to the
after the hother thing, and we'll talk a little about that, and we'll
take your call. See you all around you good loving a man, and
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Rivera and Jacin Salez they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stay
shaft, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to you on the
ball here on Fox. What's fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Riverta. He's Jaginsaus.
Now on the phone. We have Lamont Hundley, former ua A football
player, one of our great sponsors. Lamont, how are you? I'm
good? Get them? I how you guys? And I know everybody got
to hit. They're falled out in wonder room. What what's up? At
least we kind of know not that the chapter, or the chapter has closed,
or we're moving on. But a lot of things have happened. Let's
start. Let's start at at the most recent right, Brendan's coming in.
What do you think? You know? I got very little little bit of
true history in regards to him as a coach, you know, I know,
history him in regards relationship of traditions with with coach Tony and maybe some
of the guys that was here at the time when he was a GA here
on the staff. Those things that I'm aware of. But but as far
as exit and those I really I really don't know much about Brent. I'm
Brenton is Brent Brent. I'm sorry, don't much much about him. But
outside looking in, you know, the things that I see as far as
you know, dealing with kids, dealing with community, you know, I
think he kind of hit that mark as far as a coach per se that's
needed at this point in this time. I think I think he's still a
guy that's probably gonna need and want some support around him that's here in the
community, be it the alumni or be it you know, past football coaches
and player that has been here. When you know, when you knew that
the jetfish was gone, you know, and names started going out right away,
and of course his name came up right away. But did you spend
any time thinking about, Okay, the type of guy we need is acts
or you know, a coach that can do these things? What are some
of what are some of those things to you? Well, you know,
Jay, Honestly, when I first saw it take place in happening, my
first instinct, my first reaction is Arizona need Rica Hundley right now, Arizona
you know. And and again that's me being his his little brother, but
also being you know, a football guy, being around the game of football
and being around people, and and they need a personality lack of rick of
Hundley in regards to knowing how to keep kids together, how to also talk
to the parents of these kids as well as also now to talk to the
people in the community at that point in time. That's the first thing that
really came to my faults in my mind is that, you know what,
he'd be the perfect person to be able to sit right in and keep this
thing going. I don't think think a lot of those kids would been thought.
I'm thinking about transferring this and that if immediately they knew that Ricky would
maybe be the guy, you know, because I think he's a he's a
leader of men, he's a leader of of of communities. He's when it
comes to gathering people and getting people go in the right direction. I mean,
that's what he stands for. That's his pedigree, right and again,
selfishly or unselfish, whatever you want to say, he was the person that
I had in mind. And you know, hopefully this next coach has those
same characteristics. So uh you probably I don't know. I know you can't
speak for him, and I don't want you to, but how much influence
do you think he'll have on the kids to stay both on the offensive side
and the defensive side. You know, I can't I can honestly speak on
that, behalf Steve. The last last three four days, Ricky Huntley is
the one that's been over there at that at that office talking to these kids,
letting these kids know that you know, you know, you need to
do this great your own legacy here. You know, here's your opportunity to
have a long legacy at a university versus you know, having a year here,
year there, and year there. Here's your opportunity to put your mark
on something, to make yourself and your family prow And I know personally that
he has been speaking to a lot of these kids in that vein in regards
to letting them know that, you know what, I'm a wildcat. I'm
a true wildcat. And in order for you to you know, be able
to say the same things I'm saying as as a as a as a wildcat,
you know, you need to be here for a while and create that
legacy and let this community you know, embrace you and love you for four
year versus of one year here and there. Yeah, good point. I
was going to say that that really, you know, makes as a fan,
makes me feel better that you know, somebody like Reggy, you know,
presumably presumably Chuck are guys who are here doing that because you need to
have those guys, uh, you know, to stick around and do that
right exactly. You know, when you got a person you know what you
know and talk to it what personality wise, you got those guys that whose
name is in that in that stadium and these guys are are are there twenty
four seven, and and and and and letting you know that you know I'm
here for you. Even if I'm not on the staff, you know,
I'm here for you and and and this university means something to me. So
I need you guys to really take this thing out so you know, this
ball can keep rolling versus you know, you letting it explode this way right
right. And he's a guy I think, well, I'm saying, Brendan's
a guy who I'm sure will keep the doors uh moving with the X guys.
Uh. And obviously you're your brother and Chuck and some of these guys
are X guys. But you know, do you open the doors and continue
to have the doors open for the X guys coming through to observe? I
mean, all I can do is I can hope. So I can tell
you one thing, that philosophy in that plane plan did work under Jed,
So it's it's a working plan. So why break something? Why try to
fit? I'm saying something that doesn't need to be fixed. You know,
I think you do work with that. You keep that going. If anything,
you know, Dave Heikey and and doctor Robbins, they saw you know,
the actual you know plan work, and they saw guys coming back and
guys and break being embrace or wanted to be embraced and also giving back to
to the actual program itself in some for fashion or not. So I hope
that that formula has work and the new coach that comes in he sees that
and embraced that as foremost is keeping Ricky as well as Dwayne A Keena around
and you know, any other coach that can bring some value, you know,
to that coaching staff into this community. Did you did you go through
any coaching changes in anywhere in your your football career? Uh? Yeah,
when I was in the NFL, I went through three coaches. Okay,
what's that? But you know what y I was getting pased. I was
like different, right, I don't give ahead? Yeah, but still don't.
Don't you get attached to coaches, whether they're assistant coaches or head coaches?
And and how hard how hard is that when all that changes, like
in a heartbeat, well as far as on the college level, I mean,
I wholly believe that that is the case. A kid come here based
on the relationship that he has had with his coach. You know, I
can honestly say this. You know, I'll say this out loud, I'll
said public a shame on Jed to say that these are kids that are coming
here for him. Those kids was not coming here for Jed. The kids
came here because each coach that went out there recruited them. That's to why
those kids came out here. You might have one or two kids that came
out here because you know, Jed might have a particular offense or philosophy or
thinking and those kids are well, that fits it for me. But majority
of the kids they come here because of the relationships they had with their recruiting
coach, the relationship that the coach had with their parents. That's the reason
why they're coming. And again I said this because I've seen it firsthand.
And when I had twenty kids over my house for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and
these kids coming over there because of the relationship they had with Rick and you
know, and that's that's that's right. There has value within itself and means
a lot. And uh, you know, and if a coaching staff or
coach can't see that, you know, hey, I think you know he's
living on the rock by himself. So let's kind of go there. That's
kind of good. I don't know if you saw you saw my column that
I wrote yesterday or sorry, two days ago, whatever it was. When
this doesn't shock me. He goes and he comes, he comes and he
goes, blah blah blah. So three years is not a shock to me.
Did you deep down think it's it's only a matter of time? Oh
yeah, I mean I I I played it year by year and know in
regards to that, you know what, and right now I'm looking at what
what may about to happen with the Philadelphia Eagles. You know, hell,
it might be opportunity that Eagles may fire their coach. You know, you
don't think Jay mister j gonna have his eyes open for that, you know.
And I'm saying this because you know, he has a relationship with the
general manager. Him and the general the best of friends. And you don't
think if Lorie want to get Jed out there, Jed, He's gonna pay
whatever he needs to pay money to the Washington Hooks Huskies and to get him
to come through the Eagles, and he would go, No doubt in my
mind, he would go. He would go, and he's he's he is,
he's looking for that next opportunity, you know, to to make his
resume look bigger and faster and as well as his stay check. And but
if that's your think in here, philosophy's great, be that way. And
I think we knew that going into it three years ago when when he signed
up as being our coach here. Right, Well, that's pretty strong.
But you're I think you're well again. What you know, what I've been
saying to people is that as much as every fans in this community wanted to
believe that he was here for the long haul, he turned out to be
the guy that we all thought he was when he got here, exactly And
then I'm not saying that as a bad thing. It's just like you are
who you are, yeah, exactly right, And you know what, and
the coach that's coming here, I mean, we might see who he are
and and to me, that's being transparent is better than not and so so
hopefully we can see who we is and and maybe he's a long term guy
for sure. That that's that believe in, you know, building from the
from you know, from what he what he has and and within the community
and making these you know, people understand, feel proud of of of the
uh of the teams he's putting out on that field, and be and the
on get back to being proud of the block A. You know, I
mean, I'm at this point in life right now, or at this point
in general that we as a community per se, I mean we we we
got to stand behind the block. We can't be standing behind a coach.
We can't even stand behind players no more right because the fact that they're all
coming and going and that's the way that that's the mood right now, that's
the feel in the landscape of college football. So now we we we as
a community got to learn to stand behind the block A and uh and and
and embrace whatever is there is given to us, good or bad, but
knowing that you know, it's our a. It doesn't belong to anybody else.
Those guys are coming up. We talked about this a couple of days
ago. Judge uh, Jay and the much so Smith you played for cot
Smith and I brought this He left under weird conditions or I don't know what
the word is, sudden And here we are again. Did you did you
find any correlation between the two? No? No, no, I mean
I think coach Smith, Well, the only correlation is the weird conditions.
That's it. You know, as far as far as type of coaches and
people, they are night and day, night and day, and I mean
Coach Smith mean the world to me and always meant the world to me.
And I think that there was some people that felt Cole Smith may have done
to Son wrong. But and again that was a different time and era where
Cole Smith can only get what he could get at this the university per se
and and and there was no upwards opportunity for him. I mean, you
know, there was upward opportunity for Jed here. There was things that was
being opened up that no coach he ever had an opportunity to be open use.
He got here, he changed the whole mackup of the north end zone
in regards to the football locker room, the football offices, the actual weight
room, every aspect of that whatever that man asked. So he pretty much
a guy, you know, so he did change that. Coach Smith couldn't
do that. So what Coach Smith all the choices, was that I gotta
find a place to go who could do this for me? You know.
So so but you know, in the eyes of Tucson, maybe Coach Smith
did go out like the Indianapolis coach in the middle of the night. But
but but but I think I think again, Jed, he did it a
little more, you know, a little less classic, I think than what
Coach Smith is. I mean, I'll tell you, man, when I
saw that ad in his house here in Tucson signing a contract, and he
embraced this man like it was his greatest friend. He embraced him in his
house here in Tucson in the middle of the day, in the middle of
the day when it was recorded, and they gonna put that out way before
anybody here in Tucson. I really know that this man is gone, what
a flapp in our face. That's the thing. You know. Every man
is out to get what they need to get in life, and I you
know, and I want them to do that. But there's a there's a
way of doing it, you know, there's a way of doing it.
And he's now he's gonna go to create this, you know, new,
a new velocity of of of of of of what he's gonna do with Washington
is not going to be personal. Now it's going to be something else.
Because he left personal in Tucsa, you know, you know, so so
now he got to come up with some other you know Clogan, you know,
to embrace the people up there and then up there and Washington stuff,
and you know, and and me, honestly, if I was a player
and I see that man walking into that room, and I'm like, what
lie you gonna tell me? Because you just told these guys and is going
to something totally different and left him, you know, so so me as
a player that that, you know, That's how I would be feeling in
regard to that. Well, Okay, if you aren't into Brent Brannan tonight
at a restaurant Twitter, what's your first piece of advice for you to Brent
Brennan? Yeah, you mean, but in the new coach? Yeah,
the new coach. What what's the first thing? What's your first if I
ran into him tonight, you know, first thing, I well, first
thing, I would say, you know what, you got one of the
best coaches opportunities on your staff, and as regardedly, you know, give
him a chance. Give him that opportunity, you know, because you're not
gonna find a final man or a final coach to be able to do the
right things for your kids. Your kids gonna listen to him, period.
Okay, that's the first thing I'm gonna say, you know, because I
truthfully feel that, and I know that in my heart of heart, and
I know it's in here. And the other thing I will, I will
let him know that, you know what, I'm here. I'm alumnus.
You know, I'm a season ticket holder. I mean I I do.
I can do everything I can do to embrace your program. If you're willing
to open up off that aspect of it, I'm here for you. And
there's quite a few other guys like myself that's here in this commuter and elsewhere
would do the same thing, because the fact is I have the block A
in my heart, and the block A is always going to be here.
Great to put it, you're kind of smart. You kind of smart there.
Hey, hey, Steve, you ain't got to worry about your job.
I don't know how to ask questions on the fly, by the way
your check cast and of course, and I know that thanks a bunch as
always appreciate God bless great stuff, great stuff and very honest, honest.
You could tell that he was a little pissed. Yeah, little pissed.
I think a lot of people same temperament. Again, well, guys,
when who who are like lamone. He says he's got the block A in
his heart. They feel right, betrayed to a degree, and I think
this is his love for the A. Right is where it all starts.
Right for guys like you, Right, you know, people come and go,
but you're always with you, Right, guys like you. I've got
gear. Yeah, I've got gear. All right. Thank you Lemon for
being here. We appreciate it. We'll be back. Take your calls five
Q zero four, one sixty. We'll be right back. 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 the Ludolsen era. In my new book,
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at a teamsecurity dot net. Steve Bravera and Gonzalez they have their eye on
the ball on Tucson's sports Big yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live, I
mean iHeart Radio WAM Hey We're back, We're back. Yes, say,
welcome back to Eyeing the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Si
Rivero, you're Ja Gonzales. A lot of things going on, very very
candid, very thoughtful of Lamont, to be honest, and how he felt,
Well, I'll tell you what. And you know, you talk about
pieces of advice, both from the aspect of having a good coach on your
staff, but also the aspect of getting the fans behind you. You know,
keeping Huntley and Cecil would be huge. And then if he could get
Dwayne Aquina back here, if he's got an opening for Aquina, I think
that would immediately get him a lot of get Brandon a lot of fans support.
I'm not telling him what to do, just saying, yeah, let's
take this call. Hi, you're on the air and I on the ball.
Hey you guys, guest calling. Let me tell you, Hey,
Gabe, let me tell you something. Someone sent me a text late last
night and said, you know who you know who got this right all along?
It was Gabe. It was Gave who said that that guy was gonna
leave at some point and gave congratulations. But now, how do you feel?
Listen, you guys, when the when it actually happened. I was
really pissed off. And let me say this, after the on Saturday,
after Arizona loss to washing Day, I just thought, how could this get
even worse? Well, it just got, well it did. On my
My thoughts about this is that I was I was okay with him going to
Florida next year. But but I don't know, I don't know. The
way that Jeffish did Arizona duty kind of really pisses me off. Yeah,
but by the way, don't cut still. But we hear you. I
mean, you're not alone. Well that's the thing that see most people are
talking about right in terms of what they talk about Jed leave. Now we're
moving on to Brent Brandon, you know, being the guy, a guy
who a lot of people that should have gotten this job three years ago.
What do you think I'd like to hire? They just need to fire.
They just need to hire Johnny Nansen as the head defensive coronator and get other
coaching coaching, and get other coaches that are really good in recruiting, mainly
the Polynesians. And I think Oregon has a good offensive coordinator, so try
to get him, but try to try to limit the amount of players transferring
out of Arizona and just stop the bleeding, just in general, and let
me just get let let me just talk more about this just I don't know,
just with Stave Hackey being a pullman, I just kind of think,
dude, come on, you just shouldn't be just on top of this.
Just have any contingency plans instead of being in pullman Washington. Come on it
also, I really, I really now, I really despise Nick Staven at
Alabama. I just screw them. Can have nice things because because s Obs
had to threw everything up. So let me get let's let me go and
Jay maybe help me here. So you're talking about Nance, that's a stretch
because he's at Texas. Are you gonna leave that job in Texas to come
here to do the same job, probably at a lower rate. I don't
know, I don't know what the ring would be unlikely? And then you
threw who's the other one, uh, the Oregon guy? Remember where Oregon
is? Yeah, they're in the Big ten. There's a there's a reason
that there's that's one of the big reasons Jed Fish left left Azona. Here
here's the thing, Gabe and I hope, you you'll, you'll, you'll
take this? Is that to me? Players need to stay because players want
to be here, not because Johnny Nansen is here or this guy is here
or that guy's here, because they want to be as Lamont was saying,
they got to stay here because they want to be at Arizona create and create
their own legacy. And I agree with a whole lot with that. On
what on what Lamont Hunley said about that, I think that's gonna be really
important. And you know, and if a guy wants to leave, if
Team AC wants to leave, if Afida wants to leave, or anybody else
wants to leave because they don't think Arizona's good enough place for them, then
go. I don't have a problem with them leaving. And if that means
that you start from scratch here and twoson, well, then you do.
In regards to men's basketball, I think Tommy A. Lloyd needs to change
up the lineup the the players who are starting like Boswell is just stat I'm
sorry, I'm sorry for being a drunk, but he's right now. He's
just stop. Yeah, stuff has a hotel, pillows something like that.
He can't make any any three any three three stars to Stafans his own life,
Tommy Lloyd needs to change his lineup and and back to Arizona football.
I don't know, just Jeffish just kind of did pull the the whole Arizona
fan face dirty. I mean, why would you go to Washington? They're
still gonna dog a against Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and your
usual Oregon USC and you see, like, why why why are you gonna
go there? Oh yeah, sure, you're gonna have a lot of money,
You're not gonna you're not gonna be on top of the conference. Just
I don't know, because I'm really kind of still pissed off about it.
I know Jason Sheer and his wife Shelby shere kind of wet off. And
I'm pretty sure Jason Spears, I mean, he's a fan, he's an
Arizona fan, but he likes to play. He's a journalist, and I
think all these kind of piss off. But I don't know, just the
whole Arizona community is pissed off. Well, it'll all be fine, Gabe,
It'll all be fine. I think they got a good coach and we'll
see how this plays out. I think we'll be happy with with what happens
here. So hey, thanks a bunch of always gaye appreciate it. You're
welcome. As long as they beat the dumbasses in tempees, that's all it
counts. We know that's all that matters, all right, Gate, Thanks
thanks again. So he used the word pissed a couple of types. Would
this happen? What was your level? One to ten? Additionally, I
wasn't as pissed because I kind of wasn't shocked, okay, So it was
more of like, I'm just like, come on, Jed. You know
you told he sold all these people on this pilot goods and you crapped on
them. Let's take this call. How you're on the air and I on
the ball. How's it going today? What's up right? I'm doing better
today? Oh yeah, I don't know what you Okay? You know people
have to realize, okay, Dave Peky, he is the athletic director for
the whole program, all the programs, not just football, right and yav
you know he was there for the foot for the men's basketball game. I
don't know if he went to the women's game on Friday night. I'm not
too sure, but you know, he has to make his appearances where he's
at. And I'm sure when he left town, you know, even though
there was talk about the Fish leaving, he's still he still has to do
his job for all the other sports too. If he's not going to have
any control over the almost eight million dollars at Fish, at God, this
whole thing. Yeah, you're right, and once they offered him the money,
he's gone, you know. And like I know, I know Gabe
says they're not going to do as well in the in the Big ten,
but give me, there's twelve teams to get into this playoff now, and
you don't have to win your conference, especially in the big dinner of the
SEC, they're going to take more of those teams. Yeah, okay,
I got And I also think also to the coach is fine. I have
no problem with the coach, you know. And I'm like, Jay,
if you don't want to be here, leave Ryan. Do you have tickets
to have season tickets? Yeah? You have season two? You have season
ticket? Yes? Okay, so so does this. This is probably not
going to deter you from repurchasing, right, but what about the increases?
What about the increasing price? The price of the tickets. Nothing. What
else am I going to do on Saturday night? We'll hang out with Jay.
He does hang out with Jay other people. Right, there's a price
of admission, you know, just to watch him walk around there and have
a few beers. It's worth the time. Thank you, Hey, Brian,
thanks a much. Man. Okay, so let me let me start.
We only have four minutes, so we can talk about it later.
You created quite a story with a few people on face on Twitter. Well
again, and I said this before Saturday Sadly, I agree with you.
I said this before I saw you know what what Greg Hanson posts. I
said, the contract had nothing to do with it. I agree, And
I tweeted, I said, if if, if, if dad Fish had
signed the contracts, the Arizona contract Saturday morning or Sunday morning, jed he
was still gonna be the coach at Washington Sunday night, no question, you
know, no matter what. Or a month ago, right, a week
ago. So I just completely disagreed with Greg. And you know, look,
Greg's one of my I think, one of my best friends. You
know. I love the guy and I and I agree agree with him a
lot on a lot of what he says, and I get to disagree with
him on stuff that he says, and I just completely disagreed with him,
saying that had Arizona gotten the contract done, that Jetfish would have stayed totally,
and that that him leaving was avoidable. No, it was not totally
agree with you. Let'sten, did they go five point one or whatever?
They could do the max and money's maybe not even it. I think what
he said today is to go into a place that has a chance to win
it all. You're not gonna do that here, at least not yet.
Yeah, not yet. And he's a guy who moves. I mean,
come on, you could have this contract a year ago, month ago,
a week ago. Sunday. You know, a bunch of people said,
in response to some other stuff that Arizona should have given him seven million.
Really do you think do you think Arizona is a seven million dollars a year
job. It is not right. It is not stretching to be a five
right, It is not a seven million dollars a year job. And to
your and to your point, if they give them the seven million and then
a Florida comes along in two years, anyway, it's you want to fit
people talking about on Twitter overreaction is exactly that they're spending other people's money.
They don't even know how much they have, you know, oh they could
have raised it from where? From where? This will give a lesson to
the fans that speak out help. We talk about this with Branil. Guess
what help? Right? Right? And you see you see the the juve,
the collective, the collectives out there on social media like guys, we
need your help, right, we need your help. And you and you
do you know, uh buy and if the minimum you do is buy football
tickets and buy football tickets, but do something, do something or don't complain?
Right, you see that on Twitter? Now, I guess they're gonna
have a team meeting here any moment if they're not. Now, I saw
Chuck Cecil going into a into the Uve. The band is ready for the
for the Brendon entrance. So so the new era was gonna officially start.
Yeah here, look, you know, look, let's get it going.
You know, I like there was a scene in a movie I saw a
long time, a long time ago, like a seventies movie, like a
car racing movie, and and the guy grabs the rearview mirror off the car
and he throws it behind it, and he says, he says, what
is behind me does not matter. And that's kind of where Arizona needs to
be. Arizona fans need to be. Turn the freaking page. Let's let's
get Brent Brandon introduced tomorrow and let's let's move on. Let me remind you,
fans, four years ago, you were a bunch of poop. You
were a bunch of poop, and the one thing you needed to happen was
get rid of the coach. And it happened, and it happened. And
in between this you a person comes in. I was saying this do gre
girl comes into town, has a little struggle the first two years, makes
sense, and then put you on a party ride that you enjoyed. Yes,
enjoy the moment. The same Yeah, the same thing could happen again.
Arizona might go five and seven it next year. But you know what,
you don't put up with it. This is too This is Arizona.
This is not you know, Michigan. This is not right, not an
eight million dollars stop. All right, we're gonna be back breaking news.
We've got some other stuff going on. So we'll cover some of that.
We'll be right back to turn it all down.