This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports
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R two Son and iHeartRadio Station. Yet. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera, he's jagan zaus robari oselves So. We hope to make this
a good show. I'm sure we will. Hey, everyone, it was
a bunch of winners this weekend, you know, A bunch of winners,
A whole bunch of them, you know. I I'm not sure which is
harder, the hangover after a loss or the hangover after a win, because
I did not feel very good all day yesterday. Although it felt good,
did not feel good because I knew it was because it was such a It
was a long day. It was exciting they won the game. I didn't
get to bed. I didn't get to sleep till three o'clock in the morning
on Sunday. Wait a second, you need to feel the same with what
the hell you're talking of Arizona Wildcat. Oh, so you celebrated their victory
or you celebrate a pre victory. Well, I did some pre celebration that
you need to be not witnessed to. The have nothing to do with anything
other than there was stuff at the tailgate party, and it was there and
I partook, So that's all it takes. It had nothing to do with
that's anything other than you know, we were having fun at our tailgate party
and I went a little deeper than I normally do. Well, you and
everybody else, the Arizona pulled this baby off. It was a good game,
I wrote, and I think it was confirmed by Jed and and other
people to me, that was the most complete game they've had all year.
Yeah, and name it, name it. They played well in it,
right well. And he talked about that because he talked about you know,
yeah, the offense played great, the defense played great. Right at the
top of his press conference, they talked about special special teams and how many
times does that happen? Right, and and you know it was a big
deal. You know, those last two drives that won the game were set
up by by K punt returns by by uh Jacob Cowing. They had a
fifty one yard field goal. Uh. They had a couple of punts that
pinned a pinned Oregon State down, including a quick kick by by Fifita.
So those are all very important plays in the game yesterday on Saturday. And
you know at what point Steve did, because I look, I'm you know,
being the fan. It's never over till it's over. At what point
did you think, did you really think Arizona's gonna win the game or did
you ever think that until it? I no, no, no, I
did, I did, And it was exactly. Uh, it was.
That's a good question because the last three weeks have been just strange to me.
That's my question to him earlier. But to your question, Uh,
it was right in that moment of the final two minutes or whatever it was,
when they were pounding them, pounding them, and they were patting him
things. They're not losing this game, yeah, because they were pounding them,
but they were pounding them and they hadn't pounded them the whole game like
that. Yeah, it's not the I ever thought. Well, first of
all, they had to pull it, pull it out right, and that
was a great play. But to your question, and to your point,
it was during your question of the last few minutes when they were pounding him
in Orgust. They couldn't do any Yeah, but you know what, you
know what, and to my questions and we'll get to those, right,
do you have your question? And my question to that point. One of
my questions was confidence, and we'll play that. But and I can't remember
if it was USC. I don't think it was US. It was it
was Washington State. And you may be you may sound make this weird,
because to me, the m v P right now is not a guy named
Noah, although he's been fantastic. It is Jonah because they can't stop him.
They give him the ball and he's just a bullyball going downhill. He
crushed some people. Yeah, go to DJ William, but Jonah's been doing
it more consistently. And t Ma's been great. All these guys would be
great, but Jonah, you give him the ball, you're gonna get yards
and you're not gonna You're gonna get yards and you're not gonna be disappointed.
Whatever you do. You're gonna convert third and one and fourth and ones and
stuff like that. I don't know if that's a wide, wide ranging or
reaching guy from my MVP, but he's been so good. He has been
just that guy that just goes about out there and does the business. Sometimes
it's with flash. You know that he had that seventy yard pass play against
Washington State. He had a couple of nice runs on Saturday night against Oregon
State. But he does he does things that it's been a Haston Arizona's had
that running right, you give the ball to get those yards hard? He
runs hard runs like that. He just runs over guys, right, which
is great. Just we'll go to those clips in a second. But congrats
to the Cats. Obviously a lot of people thought they might win, they
could win, and they did it. They did. But but you know
the Dytamins. Let's stop, let's stop right now. Who said who said
at the end of the talk at the end of our show Friday, I
remember Cats by a field goal. I don't remember who said that you did,
but that's what you one for ten the week the weekend. No,
no, we'll get we'll give you that. We'll give you there, all
right. I just want that. We won't we won't talk about the other
stuff. So so the diamond Back Diamondbacks man Hue one, Arizona one,
I mean, come on, break out the state it's done very well all
the Diamondbacks. So we're gonna have Jack mcgruderron again. He's been he covers
the Diamondbacks for Forbes, the Sports Money, their sports page online. Uh.
Funny story, he's not covering the game tonight because he didn't get a
credential. Uh, and so he's covering hockey tonight. But he'll he's been
even covering all the Diamondback stuff, so he'll he has playing and we had
him before the Sea before there the series started, so we'll get get his,
uh kind of his update on what he's seen, and then he'll be
on the first in the first hour with the Lamont Love It to talk more
about the Rogan state. Right right, we'll talk What time is it?
He got two incent up the time, so it's fine. We got about
ten minutes, so let's get to that. Uh. I thought day's press
conference was pretty good. Jeed has obviously done very well and and he was
obviously jet fish today well. And he was and and again, you know,
to make the point his for comments, which which this is this is
vintage Jed. You wanted to make sure people knew what the special teams were
doing. Oh. I thought you say Halloween, and well, no,
we did talk. I cut that out, though his favorite Halloween candy is
followed by Peanut Eminem's in case you need to know that, but you're you
know. In his introduction, you talked a bit about special teams and what
a big deal that was to the game on Saturday night, and so this
is what he said. A lot of good stuff to look at. I'd
say the one thing that we didn't necessarily hit on enough after the game was
what a great job our special teams did in that game. If you look
at the two punt returns, those were critical to the success of the team.
Do you look at the two punts we only punted the ball a couple
of times, the one that changed field position both times, that long,
long punt by Kyle and then the punt that backed them up by Noah.
Both those were huge plays. The outside kid that we were able to knock
out of bounds by Jacob was a big time play in a very tight,
tight game. And then a fifty one yard field goal by Tyler Lout.
So when you look at we talked so much about offensive defense, I think
it's really important just to talk in that past game I talked to the team
about that yesterday. What a great job our special teams did. Additionally,
we got the big offensively and defensively, we did a nice job moving the
ball and did a nice job stopping him when we needed to, and that
was a critical part of it. It was a three and out in the
most critical time of the game. It was a five and a half minute
drive in the most critical part of the game. So on, all excited
about to win against Oregon State and now it's time to move on and get
ready for our next opponent. They played well, I mean all around.
Yeah, and Fafida obviously doing very well. Again, nothing flashy, just
getting the job done. Don't you want that in your court of that's you
know, that's all you're looking for, and that's that's have been great,
fantastic, has been great, and he's been steady. He doesn't rattle.
He threw a pick and it was just a bad throw into you. He
was throwing it to you know, his favorite guy and and uh and and
somebody was there. Yeah, right, but you know, I know you
won't like this. I don't know you won't like this. But he's five
foot whatever. Yeah to me, he's a guy you think somebody else like
I don't know, but there has to be somebody else who's short out there.
He's a lot like Jiggins all though, no so, but he's a
guy that Yeah, you think, how does this guy pull this off?
And then he does it. I'm sure Kyler Murdy was that guy because he
won. He was good. But you think undersized guy does these special things,
but nothing really special. He just gets the job done. And Alt
was just like, dude, he is, how is he probably whatever?
How does he do this? And he does it? Yeah, you know
exactly what I say. Absolutely cheap. Okay, okay, I'm just talking
you physically analytical. I get it. I get it. I know what
you're trying to say, and I'll think of somebody else before the end of
the show. I'm gonna go into google the short guys who were good.
But all right, I did ask Jed about that last drive and when did
he see that they could just run the ball down their throats the way they
did, and because that's exactly what the exactly what they did and it did
seal the deal. Here's what he said. Yeah, well, you know,
the first half we had twenty seven plays. I think it was we
had eighteen passes and nine rounds and got ourselves up. You know, they
played us a little differently than we expected him to the first st half defensively,
so we had to adjust to that. It was a the way they
they played their bigs against our twelve person on group, so we had to
change some of our runs at halftime. We had to make some adjustments at
halftime, and then on the third quarter we wound up having just a couple
of drives. But we felt like the adjustments we were going to make we're
going to you know, come in handy at the right time. And then
I felt as if we got to a point that our runners we were able
to substitute four different runners constantly, and when you can, when you can
give Speedy a couple of carries and give Mic some carries, you got to
defend Mic out of the backfield and you give DJ and Jonah, I think
the defensive line can get worn down a little bit. And that's kind of
what we felt. And we felt as if as we kept being patient when
the opportunity to present itself, that it was going to come, and it
did. Okay, we want to get this last last one in it's like
a three and a half minute monologue on Steve's question about when did you see
the culture change? And then when did you see the confidence in this team?
And then there was another piece on the end that Damon Damien Elema ask
about culture change as well. So let's let's take this slip. It's a
long clip, and then we'll go right to the break after that. Yeah,
well, when it comes to culture change, I mean it starts when
you walk in the door and you decide what you want the culture to be
like. And then it's a matter of how many players can buy into your
culture right away to leave into your culture. And then you know, you've
got some attrition that occurs, and sometimes you have a dish advice attraction.
Other times you have you have big losses and you have to be able to
overcome those losses. In terms of players, what we needed to do is
we need to get younger players older. When you get younger players older than
they could start getting the younger players behind them to understand the culture better.
We needed people to be a part of You know, this is two or
three springs prior to the season versus just one three training camps rather than just
one. All of those things going into it, then you get as are
our players continue to improve improve on their fundamentals. A lot of our culture
has to do with being fundamentally sound, trusting the process, embracing the grind.
That's a lot of what our culture is. Loving your teammates, and
for that to be the case, that takes time. That doesn't just happen
overnight. You have to the grind is a long period of time loving your
teammates. You just don't love everybody right away. So we've invested a lot
into that. I think that as we continue to grow, it also comes
down to how good can we be schematically? Can we continue to improve there?
I think we've made a great focus in in terms of what we do
on offense. We're a good offensive football team and we're a good defensive football
team, and that's part of our culture being good, just not just in
one phase. So I would say that's really started to happen this year where
we believe that we're a full team rather than just stats team, you know,
where you're just trying to be good in statistics or good in a certain
area. You've got to be a good team. To be able to overall
win and then I would just as we continue to grow, I think we'll
get better and better and better and more. Players will then tell the younger
players, this is how we do things, this is how we act,
this is how we talk, this is how we practice. And we we
got to continue that consistent message. Confidence. You get confidence by numerous things.
You get confidence by being successful doing things. You know, there was
a you know, early on, early on, we had to you know,
believe without necessarily have great confidence, right, we had to actually work.
We had to have confidence without evidence. Is what we told our team
a year ago. Now, I believe that they see the evidence. They
see that we've won two out of the last three last year, we've won,
you know, five out of eight this year, so we're sitting here
at seven and four in the last eleven games. And when you start seeing
those fruits of your labor, that's how they get confidence. You know,
it's not easy, but it's one in which that we worked. We believed
one hundred percent and what this program was going to become. We believed in
the Tucson community. We believed in the University of Arizona. As a coaching
staff, and we believed and we saw a vision of what we wanted it
to look like. And we spent all of our time selling our vision.
And when you sell your vision and you talk through what you wanted to look
like and what you believe it looking like, you know, we're just getting
started. And I know it sounds that it feels like we've been around for
a while, but not really. We're not even you know, we're barely
into two and a half years. And I think that if we can continue
to improve and get better, it's not going to be as hard to sell.
Yeah, good, good answers. I guess a lot, but yeah,
yeah, yeah, no, I don't know. We'll talk more about
this. One goes back to the ideas though Steve that you know, he's
thought about this for a long time before he got there, and he was
going to put this in place wherever he ended up, right, whether he
was at Florida or Kansa or you Tap or wherever he got his first job,
he had this was all mapped out. Selvision's right, Selvisions, You're
right, you're right. Let's go. We got to go. All right,
let's start, take a break where to come back. We'll be Jack
McGruder, We're gonna talk some Diamondbacks. They got their game three tonight uh
at uh at the ballpark up in Phoenix at Chase Field. So stick around
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free evaluation Today Dream Live onney iHeartRadio WAP. This is I on the Ball
with Steve Bravera and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome
back to Wire on the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen. Cookie, I'm Stuve
Rivera. You're Jacob Saws, Bonophoneia, Jack McGruder from s Forbes Sports Money
doing check good. See how you doing. We're doing fine. Great to
have you to preview game three of tonight's game. It'll be a lot of
fun. Let me ask you. And after that first game, you know,
because we saw, i mean, they kind of compared it to you
know, the Kurk Gibson walk off against against the A's and we all saw
what happened that the A's just went into the toilet and and the Dodgers won
that series with a far, far less superior team than the A's had that
time. Did you think at all about that when the Diamondbacks the way they
lost that game in Game one, it's sort of it vaguely crossed my mind.
But then you look back to the Milwaukee series when they i mean,
they didn't lose any games, but they're down three to nothing in the fourth
inning and Corbyn Carroll hits a big home run. They were down. The
thing, you know, they were down the first two games of the Phillies.
And the thing I've been impressed with watching them in the playoffs is they
don't seem to at all be affected by them. And this is a bunch
of young guys who would have every reason to think, oh gosh, I'm
in the World Series, maybe I should be nervous. It seems like just
the opposite. They seem like they're calm and controlled and understand what they need
to do, and then they get it done. They've they've done this all
year. I mean, they surprised you to begin the year right doing what
they've done. Then they went into the tank and you death you're surprised because
they were doing so well, and then they re found themself. Who find
themselves and you think, how did this happen? They're just a team that
defies themselves to me, and yeah, and to me, they they're not
one of these big home runblicit publicity, you know those everybody loves the home
run ball, right, but they do the smart things they and they were
definitely benefited by the real teams this year with their because they have an incredible
amount of speed and the stolen bases have really helped their game and their approach
at the plate. I mean, you watch Martelle Batt, you watch Corbyn
Carroll Batt, you watch Moreno Bat. They use the whole field. They
don't try to do too much at the plate. If they need a single,
they just try to hit a single. Gouriel is the same way.
They just know what they need to do and they have a very good knack
of getting a dunce. Is there an obvious I don't know if you say
leader or MVP or somebody that is the guy that they lean on on this
team. Is there an obvious one there? Kind of isn't. I mean,
Larry Christian Walker has been around a long time. He's a steady guy.
He's a veteran guy. Evan Longoria helped. I think when they brought
him over. He's a veteran guy. Tommy Sam has helped in that regard.
But throughout the year, I don't know that they had really a guy
that they could rally around more than an ethic that they rallied around. Tory
has got that thing instilled where play hard, do the right thing and it
pays off. And then you know in June and July when it was paying
off and they started to believe it. And I think, I certainly think,
and you guys know, sports is momentum. Every year. Things change
every year. You know, maybe this won't happen next year, but this
year they gained momentum. They figured they saw how to win, and they
just kept winning. Oh, we've done with him today, Steve. Steve's
going to hang up on you because they used the M word momentum. So
let me ask you. That's okay, Jack, I'll forgive you. So
twenty some years ago, we were a lot with thinner, We were having
fun being dinner. Jack, does this remind you of those days of twenty
twenty one, two thousand and one. Yeah, the pomp and circumstance certainly
is the same, but that sure was a far different team. You know,
they went out and bought Randy Johnson two years before, they bought Shilling
the year before. They had a host of stars Matt Williams, Luis Gonzales
that you know, national names that everybody knew. So in one way,
in one way, it does it. In another way, it seems like
a different sort of team for sure. You know, they're not going to
beat with the home runs, although they've done that, but they'll uh and
they're not gonna Merril Kelly and Zach Galla are good starters. They've got Randy
Johnson and Kirk Shilling. But it's just so so not really, I guess
it is the answer. Yeah, but there again, you know, to
me, it's a team that's just gotten hot and it's playing goat has played
all year long right now, but sort of the Rangers. So you know,
what did you see in the first two games? You know, I
mean, you know it's the best three out of five now, Yeah,
any sign of anything in the first two games that can tell you of what
might happen down you know, down the road. Yeah, it's it's a
pretty Ballad series. It looks like, right, Texas can really hit.
I mean, you've always got to be scared of their hittings. Corey Seeger
is a terrific player. I mean, he's a tremendous player out at least
Garcia has been the player of the player of the postseason right so far with
what he did against Houston, at all the stuff he's done. But good
pitching will always win. You know. It's today is the matchup Max Scherzer
against Brandon Bock. Now you look at those names and you think, well,
you know, Texas has to win this game. Texas won't win this
game. Arizona's gonna win tonight. Foughts pitching, flots pitching very well.
And this is not the Max Scherzer that the Diamondbacks had or the Tigers had
or the National Dad. He's coming back off an arm injury and he's had
He's given up five or six runs in six and two thirds in there's in
the postseason so far. So I think, you know, you take it
one game at a time, and I like the Diamondbacks chances. I'll tell
you that, Yeah, well, there's nothing that's they We've seen nothing that
says they can't win it. You know again, it's going to be,
you know, a game to game, right, because I agree with you.
This isn't this isn't your dad's Max sures. This is I mean,
he was what fot was born when Susy was already playing and playing baseball,
you know, and it was a prose or close to it. You know.
Five, he pitched a great game against Dodgers that in the game that
I saw, you know, game three of the Division Series. You know,
he got those four homers and then he just shut the Dodgers down and
made him I mean he he not only beat him, he made them look
bad. And that's that's what I saw from him. He throws a lot
of strikes. I mean he's he's pitched fourteen innings the last three games,
giving up two runs, and he's only walked to So I don't know what
his ball does exactly. He's got that sweeper and he's got a fastball that
he rides in on you. It must be hard to pick up because like
you said, you had, the Dodgers are not the only team that struggled
against him. Shuley's had a lot of trouble putting the ball and playing against
him, so anything can happen. Should we all be running around trying to
get the Corbyn Carroll rookie rookie card. He's gonna be the He's gonna be
the rookie, you know that. And he's such a solid guy. He's
such a solid, hard working guy. It's hard not to admire what he's
doing because he doesn't let it go to his head and he doesn't play to
the crowd or to anybody. He's like a lot of stars, like Paul
Goldsmid. He he kind of can take the media or leave it right.
I mean he'll he'll deal with us, but he it's it's not a primary
focus. And he doesn't really embrace that whole culture of you know, stardom
and hero is and all that stuff. He's just a hard nosed guy that
plays baseball and you kind of like that. Someone might want to check his
driver's license because he might not beat twenty whatever it is. That's old school
stuff. That's what's great. I mean, that's but he makes himutty who
he is. His his hero growing up was Chiro Suzuki, and he got
a picture of Hitch and Row back when he was in high school or whatever,
and that's his role model and he kind of plays the same way,
just quiet, deadly nice. Jack mcgridor from Forbes The Sports Money. You
can catch see his stuff online on the on the Forbes website. Again,
I think we talked about this and and you you've written about this, but
this is been. This isn't just this didn't just start this year. They've
been They've been building towards this for a little while, and it seems to
be here for They may be here for a while, don't you think?
It sure looks like it. And like we were talking about, you know,
you can never project one year to the next, but they sure are
built. They're built on youth with Corbyn, Alec Thomas fot Kapel Marte is
only thirty years old. He's not an old man. And they are built
with team friendly contracts throughout the throughout the group, every one of their starters
except Longoria is under contract next year. I take that back, Lord scar
lordis Curiel Junior is not and Tommy fam is not either. I guess those
are kind of two players for one starting position, but they've got the group
coming back. Paul Seawall is still under arbitration eligibility. Zach Gillan, Gallon
and Merrill Kelly have at least one more year, So gosh, you can
you can see the going on for a while. Yeah, I said,
Then they have the apparently the manager of the ages for them, because he
manages them very well, perfectly in fact, you know, get some in
and out of jams that he believes in them, things like that. Yeah,
and it is a little bit of a different style, right. Yes,
he takes Kelly out of games early. He takes fot out of games
early, something that starting pitchers really aren't used to. But they've got a
they've got a program, they've got a situation. They go, they got
their relievers lined up for this. These three guys in the order, those
three guys in the order, those three guys in the order, And it's
worked so far. Tampa Bay kind of does that, right, Yeah,
they don't. They limit their starters, or they have in the past,
limited their starters and try to get their relievers in high leverage, positive situations.
And you're right, it's worked so far. Merrill was pretty bad the
other night when they took him out after five innings. So Jack, I'm
not one to follow what Jack mcgoda or Jade Gonzols predicts. I've seen the
results. I've seen the results. But apparently you're you're picking. You're picking
the Diamondbacks to night, which of course would gives them a great advantage being
with the next three at home, the next two at home. What do
you think overall? I don't see any reason not to back the Diamondbacks.
I mean, I know it's uh, it sounds a little homeless, I
know, but just the way they've been playing, they're not too they're not
too overwhelmed by the moment. They're doing all the little things. You know,
they could continue to run wild. On the basis as they have the
last three games or two against the Phillies and once against Texas, I see
no reason that they can't keep it up, even though Texas is terrific.
Texas has a great team. It could it could be a classic series.
I'd love for it to go down to seven and we'll see what happens.
Are the Diamondbacks, you know, you're talking about the youth and the way
this you feel is this like a year early? I mean, they got
hot, you know, at the end of this season, maybe they're a
year early early that maybe this might have been something that you would have expected
next year after a bunch of these guys like Corbyn, Carroll and those guys
had another year under their belt. Yeah, I think you can. I
think you can say that nobody knew exactly how good Corbyn was going to be.
Well, the Diamondbacks thought they did, and he's lived up to exactly
what he's done. And nobody knew exactly how you know, Marte kind of
bounced back this year. He struggled with injuries the last couple of years.
Nobody knew how Mareno would play. I mean, he's been a fine he's
been He's been a star behind the plate and at the bat. So ahead
of the game maybe, but the talent sure is there. The talent is
where it should be, right, They've got the talent to be at this
point in the season. It's crazy that they didn't qualify for the playoffs until
Game one sixty one, right, but they sure don't look like that now.
Yeah, no question to your point with the momentum, real real quick,
because you brought it up while we were off air, your thoughts on
the Cats and Saturday night, Man, they look good. They look well
coached, and they look solid. And I love that that new quarterback.
I think he's really uh solidified that spot and seems like he doesn't do much
wrong. You know, he he doesn't do bad things, and that that's
the key, and you know, eliminating mistakes as the kid at winning anything
right, no question, no question. We'll see what happens. I mean,
they've survived this point, so we'll see what moves forward with big Possibly
it would be everybody predicting it. Jay is setting it up to feel it
gold Jack. All right, Jack, I'm gonna go throw a hundred bucks
down on the Diamondbacks tonight because you said so that's okay, and fifty other
Good luck with that. Thanks about Jack, appreciated, Thanks for having well
Jack. Jacksonmeter is just very calm. Go ahead and do it, Jack,
go into June. Jay. That's not my money. You know what
I would get in big, big bad trouble over if I did that.
My wife go, what did this hundred bucks to draftings go? That wasn't
me, That wasn't mean. All right, we're gonna take a break.
We'll be back. We'll take your call. Calls five to zero four one
sixty. Want to talk about the Arizona game on Saturday night. Gonna talk
about the Diamondbacks getting ready hit the field in the world, Stace Tonack,
give us a buck. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know
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exes at OHS. It's Steve Levera and Jacin Salvez. This is I on
the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen differ. Hey, welcome back to you wanting
the bault here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. You're Jacob Jowes. I probably
saw more mumble than a U mouthful of chip chips in the snack room.
All right, all right, so anybody want to call please do yeah,
TI five two zero four one six seventy, give us a buzz. You
know that we have some more time to talk to. Good fun, had
good fun with always. I don't know enough to bet on any either way,
but more power to the Diamondbacks. Well baseball is really uh you could
You can analyze all you want, lineups and pictures, None of that matters.
It's like you're guessing who's gonna who's gonna play better tonight when it comes
to base When it comes to baseball, you're guess. You're guessing. What
are you doing in football? Guessing? Guessing badly, guessing badly. It
got off to decent, well, not a great start, because I had
Oklahoma, which over the weekend had Oklahoma who lost to Kansas for the first
time since before you and I were born. I busted that streak by taking
Oklahoma. If you don't, I know you embraced this because you're you're a
killer. We'll get to that. I had the Chiefs, which we'll talk
about their. So let's take this call. How you're on the air and
eye the ball. Fellow, it's Jim, Hey, Jim, what's up?
Well? I wanted to Magruder on a couple of points. Okay,
you're breaking up a little bit, so hold the phone close to where we
can hear you. Okay, well that's better. Anyway, Macgruder talked about
how cool and calm and collected the guys are on the team and how they
play the game and how they don't try to do too much. They hit
the ball where it's pitched. And the message is the reason the fundamentals are
fundamental is that if you will overcome those you can play winning baseball. And
I think the one person on that team that makes the difference for them is
the coach to the manager, right, I think he stold them on letting
the fundamentals work for them. And you know, all you have to do
these days is win about fifty five sixty percent of your games and you're in,
right, And we did that and then get hot at the end,
and then a hot streaker too and here in the World Series. Yeah,
yeah, because that's what I talked this one up to. I tuk up
this World Series, not to the fact that, yeah, I mean they
snuck in, but they got hot at the exact right time that And it's
particularly other teams that did you know what, you kind of lost it ran
out of gas or whatever you want to say. Well, that happened to
somebody every year, just almost every year, somebody gets hot, and that's
it. Yep, No, I agree, I agree. I think the
Labello, though, deserves a lot of credit. One other thing to be
in on the Corey Seeger is a great player, and you know Adolas Garcia
got all the credit for winning that game the other nine, but without without
Seager's ninth y home run, they wouldn't have been in that position. Correct,
all right, Jim text about that. Thanks. You know, I
really wish Cory Seger Dodgers, but he went when he went yard in that
game on on on Friday night. Immediately my phone buzz It was a text
from from my son Adam says, I miss him. Dude, smooth man,
dude, smooth you have another color Hi and the air and eye on
the ball. This is Freddy like this. All right, Frank, how
you doing? I mean, when you're ready? You're ready. Yeah,
you're on the air, So go ahead. I yeah, I wanted to
come in on a couple of things. Number one, Uh, you know,
Michael Love does a great job of covering the Wellcats football in a Star
on Mondays. You know, he runs the report card. But I got
to take issue with them giving a bee to the quarterback to Fita. He
says that Thefita only completed one of three passes over twenty yards. To me,
he's over rating that statistic. If you give our receivers eight yard,
ten yard, twelve yard pass, they run like hack. So they're making
that plus twenty plus twenty yard games. So I mean, Fefeita is a
triple threat. He completed more than seventy five percent of his passes. He
ran for a critical first down close to a touchdown, and then he punted
it surprised everybody. He punted over forty yards to get the Wildcats out of
trouble. Uh one fourth down, So I definitely think he rather than name.
Yeah, I disagree with the B. I mean he's a minus at
the worst because one because they won the game. Du yeah, he had
he threw he threw that pick. But he made a lot of plays for
them. You know, I would just watch they're showing his highlight from uh
because he won he won pack Plaut freshman the week. He you know,
they were at the four yard or the six yard line and the first play
out of the box, he hits a long past that gets into midfield.
Those kinds of plays are that's how you win games. Yeah. And one
other thing, Steve, I'm going to take a gentle issue with you saying
that Jonah Coleman should be the MVP at this point. Oh. I agree
that Jonah is fantastic. I love him. I'm glad he's coming back.
Uh. But I think the feeda is really opens up the running lanes.
I think without the THETA, you know, uh, they would not have
the wins that they do. So that's my take. Frank, I figured
you might be salty today. It's okay, it's okay, but let me
be Frank with Frank. So Fafina didn't play the first few games, so
he's gotten more more uh sample size for me. But I don't I don't
mind your pick. I don't mind your pick. Well, I know that
you guys are abdicious and you know everything, so I'm not saying you're wrong.
I'm right. This is my Frank. You need to buy my I
love I love how the Walckats are playing with diamondbacks. So like the show
of the show. So thank you, Frank appreciated Frank, thanks for college
checks in the mail. Frank exactly, Yeah, no, I I like
I say I create controversial. Well, you know, Coleman is sort of
a maybe an underappreciated piece of what they're doing right, because yeah, I
mean he's giving him this. Has he fumbled? Probably not think? I
mean, come on, and then I mentioned everybody else because everyone else has
been fantastic. Do I'm just trying to find out a gym. In my
view, if if he hey, come on, they wouldn't be where they're
at without Although although who knows what Jaden would have done, I don't think
he would have done the same thing. But you could go to a number
on defense. Come on, who pick a gun defense? There's ten of
them, right, you know, I mean it's this, This is happening
because everyone's playing so well. Well. Speaking of nor he did as mentioned,
he did win backed well Freshman of the Week for the third time.
He's won at the last three times. Compare him to anything else won at
the last three times he's played. I'm not I know exactly what you're talking
about. This is freshman a week, it's posted a player of the week.
But obviously, you know, Jed was asked just you know, tell
us again what you think we got to call? Hold that all right,
let's get this call. Hi, you're on the air and I on the
ball. How's it going Today's man? I'm done fine, I'm I'm over
my post post Saturday night hangover so good. Yeah, you were you were
doing you were doing pretty well Saturday there. Do you have to tell me
the real story? Bright? Yeah, you know it's it's it's you know,
it's he was like the oldest guy there and he was kind of you
know, it's kind of embarrassing, but you know he got to the game,
all right. See what I lived with. See what I live with?
Go ahead, go ahead, what do you got? Well, I
was just kind of you know, everybody's talking about you know, the m
v P and stuff, and you know it's really easy to name the FETA
and whatever all the players. But you know, I got to think it's
jet Fish. What he's done with that team yea, and convinced those players
into his system is just incredible in the three year period. Yeah, two
and a half. That's why I asked that question, Jake, because two
and a half years he had he had poop to start with worst against and
that was not his fault. He had like hoop on fire, right,
it was. It was embarrassing, Yeah, you know, and and that
we can now we can go to the games and you know, I mean
that was that was an unbelievable game, and uh, you know to watch
you know, to watch them and and really you know, basically you know,
hang on at the end because I mean they gave up that last touchdown
and about what five plays four plays, but Brenton, I was just shocked
the guy got behind them and you know, in the end zone. But
that was a great pass though. Overall though, overall, wasn't Saturday night
just fun. I mean just the tailgate on it was just fun. Yeah.
And if you're not going out there, you're missing because it it was
our best tailgate of the of the year and night just because we were all
in a good mood. Remember we were well what I remember of it.
Yeah, we were having fun. And it wasn't just because I drank a
lot. I mean, it was a fun tailgate. And and everybody's in.
When you're winning games and you and you're going to a game thinking you
can win a game, you're gonna have fun. And then the game was
fun because it was a great game. Even even if you know aar Zona
loses. You're going into the fourth quarter and Arizona was losing, I'm thinking,
this is still a great game, whatever happens here. And and then
they won the game, which made it even more fun. And you know,
I think people better wake up and be out there Saturday night. Yeah.
Yeah, that's the one thing. It was still only forty crowd,
man crowd everyginner it was, you know, because and people were leaving too.
I was shocked. No, come on, you've been here long enough
to know they're definitely gonna leave. Yeah, yeah, you know, there
was a lot there. I know the students war on the field, but
there was a lot of students that have left before that fourth quarter. Right,
Well we got to two left homecoming coming up, so hopefully they they
filled it up. All right, Brian, thanks so much. Man.
Next week, So what was the last time you were told? Steve?
Well, well, you know what the what what the difference was? My
wife wasn't there? Oh yeah, she was on the trip. Okay,
yeah, I saw those picture. Yeah did she knows? She must have.
We've found you. You heard somebody center a picture. It wasn't that
bad. It was just different. Okay, it was just shifferent. I
just don't honestly, I'll have a beer or two at a tailgate party and
that's it, and that it was just different. Okay, do you have
time for this one? Yeah? I was gonna say, let let's let's
play this clip on North Fafida because he has such a big part of the
conversation and and to what's been happening again? Pack twelve. Freshman of the
Week for the third week and third week in a row for Arizona. They
had an off week, so three of the last four in the Pac twelve.
But the only one they didn't win or he didn't win, was when
they were off. Here's what Jed had to say about Fafida and Saturday Night.
Yeah, the last three starts that he's had, he's won it,
which is a pretty cool stat in itself that he's continued to go out there
and impress. You look at his numbers. I was just looking at him.
You know, he's played nineteen quarters of football, He's seventy six percent
as a passer, he's starting eleven touchdowns, three interceptions, and you know
those are those are really good numbers, and I think he's being rewarded for
that. You know, you look at as I've said, you look at
the two quarterbacks combined, they're sitting there at twenty touchdown passes, seventy three
percent completion, eight interceptions, and you know over one hundred and you know,
Jaden's run for one hundred and sixty three yards and so two hundred and
twenty five yards rushing. So I think both of them have done great this
season. Noah certainly has gotten accolades the last three weeks, and that's fantastic
for Noah rightfully, so he deserves it. He's completed over seventy percent of
his passes in each game, and I expect him to continue to get better.
So, you know, Jay, the one question that will not come
up anymore, what about your starty who's starting at quarterbacks? That's over with.
He didn't answer the question on Saturday night. He went with him.
He kind of just didn't even gloss over. He just didn't answer it.
Not purposely. Maybe he forgot, but there's only evidence shows that he doesn't
have to. He doesn't have to anymore. I mean, it's not there's
no question about it anymore, you know. And at the end of the
at the end of the season, the question will become, Okay, now,
now what day la next for laws because clearly you know no Ifafia not
only is the quarterback now, but quarterback for the let's talk about something on
the other side or later. Is the the sacks? He kind of put
that on Noah, which I guess is maybe the problem. But the dudes
have to do so well. There were a couple where he had no chance,
Yeah, exactly. So it's not always on the quarterback, not always
on him, but there were a couple, you know, So yeah,
he's he's gotta you know. He says he's got to do better. Four
sacks they had Saturday night with too Bad. All right, we're gonna take
our break. We're gonna be back. Breaking news coming up.