This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jaken Zalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z
R Tucsa at iHeartRadio STATIONIA. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to
I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Roberta,
He's Jagin Sauce, got it, Doug Henry and today to for this off
Wednesday, right, we're starting Wednesday? Yeah, yeah, middle of the
week. Man. A lot of stuff going on, especially in Vegas for
the Big twelve. Yeah, how many times you do your Pack twelve too?
Well? Our old friend Dave Hirsch who works for the Las Vegas Ball
so for some reason they got him to moderate Big Top Media Day and at
the end he thanked everybody for coming to packbub Media Day. So you're telling
me he blew his chance to get a job with a Big twelve. He
caught himself, but I gave him some crap over a text message and he
was he was funny. You know, hey, what are you gonna do?
Right? I you know, maybe thanks to you? Right, I
don't know if you would have you if you would want to do this,
or if we would have fun with it. A jar, a jar every
time we screw up and say pack twelve instead of big twelve. Okay,
like a buck okay, okay, a buck each time? Yeah, and
then you know, maybe maybe in December we'll take ourselves to Christmas lunch.
Okay, that's cool, all right, all right, so I'll bring in
it. I'll bring some kind of container, but that has to be in
context. Obviously you wouldn't say, you know, the former pack twelve,
and it has to be right. No, but if you if you mean,
if you mean to say big twelve and you say pack twelve, you,
oh, sounds good. We'll bring a little thing here somewhere, Yeah,
kitty, you know if it's safe in here? Do you think it's
safe in here? Leaving in here? I don't know. Maybe we're gonna
be leaving here sometimes, so okay, okay, we'll do that. We'll
do that, Okay, I know I did it yesterday. Anything to be
at a cockroach walking up a running up a wall, we'll do it.
Okay, that'd be cool. Cool. A lot of things going on to
all the rest of the pack. Pooh, there's one I didn't say packed
twelve. I said, yeah, that's one that count. That's fifty.
That's a dollar, fifty, that's a dollar. That's a dollar. That
just did we just say you were gonna say big twelve, and you said
pack twelve. So that's the fun Okay, Mark, what one and only?
Uh? The the big twelve? Uh. Went with the rest of
the coaches today included in Brennan, Right, Brennan is gonna do that?
He was last again, he was last. I listened to some of Deon
Sanders this morning and he was dion. It didn't really it kind of mixed
up. You know, it's hard to follow. He's hard to follow.
Sure, he starts talking about the time. I couldn't really tell you even
what he said. Uh. And but then you know, I got busy
doing stuff, but I did. Uh. I did listen to Brent Brennan
recorded it, so we're gonna play it here. Uh. And then in
the next segment he has he had some interesting things. They had some interesting
things to say. Uh. Afterwards, there was a side media said with
him as well. There were two things that I caught in there that that
he said that we're we're particularly interesting, but Uh. You know, it's
funny to hear the questions that the other media is asking, right that that
that the Big twelve media is asking, trying to get to know him like
that, how you know, how did you keep how did you keep you
know, no a fulfieda. Uh, you know, things like that like
that. We've all we've asked him, but you know, getting answers,
and you know there's some different stuff. You know, he was asked.
He was asked a bit about the you know, the connection of the Polynesian
community and husband. You know, he's been able to keep that. He
wore a lay that uh, I guess Tam Mac's mom brought lays for Brennan
and and the four players that were all there for me. It was Gunner,
Maldonado, Jacob Manu, t Mac and noh Afeeda. So all the
guys were wearing lace. You know what that's something like you don't you know,
you don't see that in the Big twelve, right, you got a
West Coast guy, he's there. You know that the connection of the Polynesian
community. I know you Tom b Y, you have that connection, but
you go east of that and they really don't. And so that was an
opportunity for I think for Brennan to show how important this is to his program.
Right right shows a family unity, shows up togetherness, which is important
here. You know, they everyone and I think that Noah said this today.
Everyone talks about it. Everyone, it's it's cliches. Family. They
treated my family. I felt like home blah blah blah. But it really
works when it works. When it works, yeah, and you can tell
it worked here again. I give Lamar a grief when when Noah came on
the scene and they played harder for him. I mean, yeah, you
know, and and and this is gonna be interesting because I think that what
Brennan said, and this was in the side conversation about the Polynesian community and
what what characterized he said? He said family, loyalty, and hard work.
And there were a couple of other things, but those were the things
that And and you wonder, and I don't mean, I don't want this
to be taken in any kind of a of a of a racial or cultural
context or you know, in a bad way, but you have to wonder
if the quarterback in this case, if the quarterback and the best and the
best players that Jed left behind were not Polynesian, Would they have stayed or
not? Would they would they have held the team together the way they did
or what that? Would it not have been part of their thinking, part
of their culture? And might they have followed jed or scattered? You know
that's a hypothetical. You probably won't get an answer. No, you won't
have the three things to tell me. Are you talking about their family,
their culture, their their loyalty and and their hard work? Well, Jay,
at the end of the day, whether you're politician, you're Hispanic,
you're whatever, don't you want those four You want those four things no matter
what. But Steve can say that those things are not embedded in certain cultures.
No, No, of course not right. Well it's no. You
like to think that they are, but they're not. They're not there.
When you think of a certain culture, you don't think of those things.
Think of some other things. And those might be in there somewhere in the
mix, but that's not what you know. Certain cultures are all about,
which it seems like that's what the Polynesian culture is all about. Sure,
sure, I'm not getting out of out of sorts on that, but that's
kind of what he said no, you're not. And you almost wonder if
you know, if no Fefita and team again, the leaders on this team
had not all been you know, Polynesian players who were going to stick together
no matter what that had they not been what, they have all scattered to
parts unknown, some to Washington, some to Florida wherever, all the places
they got offered because we heard that, you know, we heard the team
act that Alabama was the one that wanted team act more than anybody. Remember
that, so you know, you wonder what that would have been like.
So there was a lot of a lot of that. Uh and and again
the constant reminder of Brandon wearing this lay, you know, and his press
conference and his TV appearance and then the post press conference media session. Right.
No, there's a lot to all that, and we'll see what happens
with the success of it, because there was a lot of success. I
know he used the word momentum a time or two, and you're gonna give
me whether you use the word or now. But they have something that you
said it yesterday seven straight wins, the second longest streak in the in the
country. There's something to that. We'll see if they can continue, It's
gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun. We also you heard Justin who
we try to get on this on the on the show today, I talked
to Desiree, right princiois right, talked about the possibility or the influx of
tickets. Wow that she she said that there's a they've had a fort increase
in new season tickets. So tell me what what in your mind? Well,
that means that I'm not of that count. That means, you know,
when you're talking new season tickets last year versus new season tickets that they
sold this year increased year year. Okay, right, that they've already sold
forty have a forty percent increase in the number of new season tickets that they
sold. So that should be good though, right if you keep attendants,
should be more than forty forty five, Right, if you keep everybody that
had season tickets or most everybody that had season tickets, and then you're getting
a bunch an influx of new ones. Yeah, you know, they you
know, there's hope that there's that they're that they're going to have a you
know, uh, good attendance this year, right, which of course is
just and how do you do that. You gotta win. You gotta win,
you gotta win, you know, and and and you know both Brennan,
Uh, well, all the all the pack tuff coaches moving over there,
they all made comments about under understanding that you know, we're going to
places now right, there's not gonna be any empty stadiums. You know,
there's a passion for football that that didn't they should not exist among the fans
in in and then the PAC twel and that's what it's gonna make it special.
Well again, let's remember all the PAC twelve teams short of Tucson and
uh outside you and and then the and then Corvallis and Eugene and Pullman.
So eight of the pack, eight of the PAC twelve schools. We're in
big cities Phoenix, l A, you know, San Francisco, you know,
the Bay Area, Seattle, Salt Lake City, you know where you
know there's pro sports and stuff, so that the passion for those sports doesn't
exist like like it exists in Waco and still Water where that's all they've got.
You know, we're you know, we're like Tucson. Uh, you
know, college sports are king right, and we're and those are all the
places that that that Arizona is going to now and they're not going to go
go to an you know, three quarters empty Rose Bowl anymore because all those
fans of other stuff. Sure, sure, no, it's gonna be crazy.
And at the end of the day, if you're a competitor, you
want to play in those conditions. You know, more eyes on you,
the more attention you get it, right, yeah, no, you go.
It's like when Arizona went to Notre Dame back in the day, right
Oiowa State and they gave him good games, right, yeah, you you
remember those days, the full crowds, the loud noise, everything. You
know that you know that while it's hard to play in those places because you
know the the noise and you know everybody's against you and all that makes it
hard, but you got to get juiced up for that if you're if you're
a competitor, right, you gotta love to play in those things. I
mean, you know, you walking into as you said, Notre Dame Stadium
and the place is full and the band is there, yeah, the fight
song and all those things that's got juice you up and nobody giving you a
chance, yeah you know, and then you then you get a chance.
I mean you you went to that Oklahoma game at Oklahoma, right, remember
that? I mean, well, I don't. I was there. We
talked about that, but I remember going there thinking this is big time.
Yeah, this is cool, this is big time football. But they didn't
embarrass themselves. No, yeah, but you know, you thought, Okay,
this is Oklahoma. This is what we see on TV. We see
Oklahoma, Texas, we see Oklahoma, you know, and and all these
schools, and this is this is where we are. And I thought about
that when I got the night. I did think the stadium's kind of rinky
dink for being there was Oklahoma. But you still, once the game got
going and the place was full and you saw how great the crowd was,
you realize this was a different, different beast than going to even Sun Devil
Stadium or you know, Oregon State or all those other places. And that's
the funny thing about it, you know, you and I covered it at
the same time. I don't remember much about the stadium except for the Crown.
The Crown, And it was rainy and cold, right, rain and
cold, and and that wasn't the most impressive stadium I went to. In
fact, the Coliseum, of course was that. I'll say that Washington,
it was crazy, great view. Yeah, but I didn't cover football for
that long three years, you see, like even the couple of UCLA games
that I covered at the Rose Bowl. Yeah, there were fifty thousand people
there in the ninety thousand seats stadium, right, it was watered down a
little yeah, yeah, yeah, no question. Okay, so we'll have
that. We're gonna have We're gonna have Brennan, you said in the fresh
Brennon coming up after the break. In fact, we should we should bail
out a little early because it's about a sixteen minute clip, which is a
little longer than our segment is. But then we're gonna have your morales.
Who's there? Yeah, uh, this time, we got a guy there
and we'll talk to him about just again what the scene was, what the
scene was the wide you know, I saw sort of a long shot of
the setup, you know, in the stadium, and that didn't look anything
like Pack twelve media day. There's a lot of people there. Okay,
let's let's do that. Yeah, let's go and take our break. We're
gonna come back, and when we get back, Brent Brennan's press conference from
Packed. Yes a big twelve media day in full, So stick around.
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your free evaluation today breaking down all the excess at Oh, it's Deeve Rivera
and Jagin Salves. This is I Am a Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth.
Hey, welcome back to join the vault, you know Fox Sports Fortune fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jagan's us and now we're going to go to
today's pres cows with coach Brennan. After here's the press car at the Big
Talk Todays. Think that will take questions? All right, Hello, Really
excited to be here. What an incredible day this has been. I'm not
sure it's an advantage or a disadvantage being last, but I've I've been talking
a lot today, so I might need to hydrate here as we're going,
But could not be more excited to be at the University of Arizona. It's
an incredible opportunity, that something that I've thought about for a very very long
time, and I'm excited about everything that's happening there right now. We've got
great new leadership in our athletics department with Desiree read Francois. There is all
kinds of excitement about the football team we had a year ago, and so
there's a tremendous momentum and a lot of those players chose to stay together and
move forward together, which I think is rare and one of the best stories
in college football this season, which I think needs to be told more often.
And ticket sales and excitement for joining the Big Twelve conference is extremely high.
So we're fired up, can't wait to get this thing going. Bear
down. All right, we'll start with questions. We'll go to the left
side. About the fifth rowback. Yeah, brit you mentioned Barry Trammel from
the Tulsa World. You mentioned the guys who chose to stay and stick together.
Keeping Noah seemed really key, pretty common today. Guy who loses his
coach goes to a good school, he just goes with him. How were
you able to keep Noah and how key was that to keeping everybody together?
I would say t mac and Jacob Manu and Jonas Haavanea had more to do,
Gunner Maldonado more to do with keeping Noah Fafita there than I did.
The truth is these players really loved each other. Coach Fish and that staff
recruited a bunch of quality young men that were incredibly committed and connected, and
I think that's what contributed to them wanting to stay. Keith Burry Touchdowns and
Tangents coach. Last year a Mountain West media day, I talked to you
about just the walk on culture that you helped produce at San Jose State.
How are you planning on kind of carrying that over here at Arizona? And
secondly, how has just the process been transitioning to Arizona, especially with all
connects you have in the Bay area. All Right, those are two big
questions. I'll try and answer them both. The first one I would say
is that the walk on program is a critical part of college football. Frequently,
those guys are the heart and soul of your football team. They're the
scout teamers. They're the players that don't get the reward of either a scholarship
or playing on game day. Now sometimes they do, but you know,
I think they are just an absolute key component. And I was a walk
on, so those guys have a special place in my heart. And then
it's always one of the most rewarding things you get to do as a coach
when you get to put one of those players on scholarship, which we were
able to do a lot at San Jose and we've actually even done already at
Arizona. So that's a The walk on program is going to be a critical
part of how we build our roster every year. Uh. The second part
is hous a transition. Ben. It's been great. It's been fast and
furious, but it's been wonderful to be out of place that I thought highly
of and that I love and appreciate in the University of Arizona in Tucson,
Arizona. And so, you know, we're just trying to build a football
team and you know, keep moving forward every day. And it's been you
know, buying a house and getting acclimated and all that stuff. So,
uh, we're not quite done yet, but we're you know, we're kind
of getting focused on football now, so that's more important. Justin Spears for
the Arizon Daily Star, coach Noah said, you know when you first when
you were first hired, he got about twenty five guys to come talk to
you. What were those conversations? Like, what did you ask those guys?
I didn't ask them anything. I let them ask me. I thought
it was important. I gave them an opportunity to get to know me,
who I was, what I was going to be about, and it was
a it was a speed dating, you know, like it was. They
asked me a thousand questions in a two hour span, and at the end
of it, some of them were silly and fun and we were laughing and
smiling and joking, and some of them were serious. And it was a
really great kind of icebreaker for all of us to get to know each other.
And I think, you know, Noah spearheading, it was a huge
part of that. But then at the end of the conversation, I asked
the players if they wanted to do it again the next day, and they
all agreed, and so the next day, you know, the same group
plus or minus a few got together and we had another two hour conversation just
about my philosophy, how I coach, what I believe in, what my
family's like, what color cleats were gonna wear, you know, just all
it was all over the map. But it was a really great opportunity for
us to get to know each other and for them to have an understanding that
as a head coach, like they're gonna have a lot of input, Like
I'm the kind of coach that I want them to have input in what we're
doing right now. At the end of the day, I know those decisions,
you know, sit with me, but I want them to have input
into what kind of program, what kind of culture we're gonna build at the
of a they coach Brandon Alex Blackburn College Football Dogs. How have your roots
that you of a with your brother playing there inspired confidence, motivation, and
just overall excitement in your first year as head coach. Well, that part's
been really special. My wife also went to school there. Just there's a
lot of carryover for me. My mentor Dick Tomy, you know, was
there for a really long time, and so it's very very special for me
to come back there. It's also given me a really cool connection to kind
of that nineties generation that was either in school the same time I was,
you know, at EUCLA, or right after me when my brother was at
University of Arizona. So it's very special for me to be back there.
And I will say it's an incredible responsibility because of how much I know everyone
cares about Arizona football. Coach Jason Sheer wild Koint authority. I know there
is a lot to do when you were first hired. But are you able
to kind of take a dive into the big twelve? Do you look at
styles of play or anything like that or is it a kind of a week
to week basis as you're planning for teams. Okay, so I've gotten asked
this question a couple of times. I do think it's interesting. Right,
Obviously, we've already done preliminary scouting reports and all that kind of stuff.
But the truth of the matter is is that by the time we get into
big twelve play, we're going to have some film on everyone, right,
And so that part of it is I'm going to be when we get to
that point, I'm probably going to be a little bit more concerned with this
year than you know, twenty twenty four than I am from film from twenty
twenty three, especially in the Answer Portal era where rosters change so much,
you know, good players come and go that kind of thing. So by
the time we get into big twelve play, I'll be I'll be more focused
on what's you know, what have they been doing the few you know,
the two, three, four, five weeks before we play them? Hey,
coach Ryan Meyer's son Devil digests. Obviously, going now into a new
conference with a bunch of new teams as well, with Arizona State, Colorado
and Utah, is there any comfort in going to a new conference with a
bunch of schools that you were very familiar with in the past. I think
that helps. I think that helps, obviously, And maybe the simplest way
it helps is just that those venues are all places that I've coached games in
and and so that part of it. I think that's the unknown part for
you know, for us joining the Big Twelve, is the new venues that
we haven't played in yet that our players haven't felt the crowd. It's it's
some of these places and or you know what that feels like on game day,
because I think, you know, having a great home crowd can impat
the team. I'm also excited for all these teams to come to Arizona Stadium
and feel the Zona Zoo and feel our our crowd and our fans in the
city of Tucson and how they rally for the U of a time to talk
to us Chats Messman k y m a t V coach, how have you
tried to find balance between making changes and putting your own footprint on the program,
but also trying to continue a lot of the things that made the team
so successful down the stretch last season. You know, I would say the
easiest part of that is it just when we get when we like offensively,
when we started putting that scheme together, uh, you know, we let
the current players you know, noa FAFIDA team ac those those guys have a
lot of input in terms of keeping a lot of the verbiage the same.
So how we call plays. I put the onus on the on the coaches
to learn you know, what they tag plays or how they communicated that a
year ago. So then make that part of us which is that that way,
you know, only ten guys have to learn it and not seventy.
So that was the way we did that. Schematically and defensively. We're able
to retain Duyna Kina and Brett Rci and some other pieces there that they can
you know, the scheme will be the same or similar. And so I
would say that part of it. You always want to lean into the talent
you have. That That's just where I come from, and I think part
of that is making sure those players are comfortable in the in the schemes and
situations you put them in on game day. Justine Spears Air is a daily
Star coach. You know, tam Ac a great player, obviously, you
know, one of the top receivers in college football. What separates him from
some of the others, both as a player and person, Team Ac is
one of those rare people that is actually fiercely competitive, but like is having
fun during the competition, like almost the way Steph Curry plays basketball like he's
having so much he looks like he's having so much more fun than everybody else.
And then as a talent or as a receiver, I'm an old receiver
guy myself, not nearly as good as any of the guys that I'm coaching
right now. But team as body control, his ability to finish fifty to
fifty balls. I think so many games in college where the NFL come down
to a fifty to fifty throw on a short yardage play where you can't run
it because they have too many people in the box. And his ability to
finish those throws is to finish those catches and no's ability to throw them,
you know, makes Team AC extremely rare. Hey coach Chris Brown from Azy
bancat Sports, Arizona had five all Big Twelve selections. Curious does that give
the team a chip on their shoulder? Is that external motivation? Right?
Being second most of the conference behind Oklahoma State there, I would guess that
those players don't even know that happened, you know, like the and I
don't know who they are either, because I've been in this thing long enough
to know that those the only accolades that matter are the ones that come after
the season, and that's what we're striving for. And so however those things
are you know, stated now, like, Okay, that's kind of I
don't think that's where our focus should be. Our focus needs to be on
the process and the work we need to do this summer to play good football
in the fall. HI coach Javi or moreles all Sports Tucson. You talked
about the nineties generation. You have Duayne aquinas your defensive coordinator, Dino Babers
as your offensive coordinator. Can you talk about that dynamic of kind of bringing
that old school Arizona together. Well, I thought it was just important that
I had people on the staff that they love and care about the University of
Arizona and that's you know not. We also added Bobby Wade, who is
a great player there in the late nineties, early two thousands. You know,
I think that you know, Brandon Sanders is you know in the building,
Chuck Cecil's in the building. You know, Ricky Huntley's in the building,
right. So it's so important for me that that there's there's players that
played in the uniform that care deeply about the u of a touching our team
involved with our team. I really want that to be a part of it,
you know. I think that's that's one of those things that it's it's
hard to It's hard to have if you haven't lived it, and those guys
have lived it at such a high level, and I want to I want
our players to have that around them and to experience it. Kevin Turner,
Sun Devil Radio Network coach, you guys have had a great deal of success
as of late in Southern California, specifically in the Trinity League. And now
that you're a West Coast guy and coming to Arizona into a new conference,
will you expand that recruiting footprint? Are you going to stay true to the
roots and stay West Coast centric? No? I think that's one of the
really cool things about joining the Big twelve. Gives us a chance to get
into some new markets where we're going to play, you know, multiple games
a year, and because of our location, I think it does give us
unique access to California as as an Arizona school. But it also you know,
now there's we're you know, this year, we're playing two games in
Utah, and we're you know, we've got four opponents in Texas and Florida,
and you know, so I think that part of it is exciting,
you know, because it does open some new markets for you because you are
going to play games, and all the players want to know can their families
watch them play? You know, that's such a big question in the recruiting
process. So I think it's exciting for us. But I also think,
you know, the state of California has always been good at the University of
Arizona, and I think with our track record there and our coaching staffs relationships,
it will continue to be ken Berry touchdown as the Tangents coach. Obviously,
Jet coach Fish said before that Arizona is a California based recruiting school.
They have ton of talent so when you have guys coming in, you had
justin Flow come in, you know, previously, what does a guy like
that do, especially somebody who was like a five star recruit? How has
he developed? How is he kind of gelling and froinding his place in the
defense? And did you get a chance to bring any walk ons from San
Jose State with you? So Flows doing great, He had a great spring.
You know, I think it's going to be a lot of fun to
watch him to continue to develop and grow, like like all of our players,
you know, because obviously we have an incredible player at that position at
one of those inside linebacker spots in Jacob Manu, right, And so it's
gonna be a lot of fun to watch that, you know, battle out
during the fall, right because Jacob is what I would consider one of the
unquestioned leaders of our football team, let alone our defense. And he was
also an All Conference player a year ago, And so there's gonna be a
lot of fun at that linebacker position. Coach Gonzalez is obviously a VET and
one of the better coaches in the country. So I'm excited for him to
be able to coach those guys and and you know, continue to develop that
group, and then we had some players from San Jose State join us.
We had you know, we had a couple of guys transfer over who we
think who I think will be great additions to our program this year. Uh
coach Jack Bartlett Cronkite News Jetfish last season did a really strong job of implementing
Polynesian heritage within the culture and the program. And I'm just curious how you
will continue to implement that part into such a that has become so integral to
the culture of the program. So I think for for me, my experience
with that culture goes back to when I played in high school and college,
you know, so that that that runway has given me great insight into that
and uh, that will always be part of us, you know, Like
I think the beauty of the Polynesian culture is the family opponent, the component
of respect, the hard work like all those things, and then just the
natural talent that I think, you know, maybe the world is just starting
to see now, but that that talent has been obvious on the West Coast
and it and at the University of Arizona for years and so in San Jose
State, my last job, that was a huge part of who we were,
and that's going to continue to be a huge part of who we are
at the U of A. Okay, that'll do it, coach, thank
you for your time today. Bare down, what'd you get from the It's
gonna be funny and you're gonna you're probably gonna laugh about this. But you
know, I when did fish got here? And and even yeah, you
always had to consider where he was coming from. You know, he wasn't
a head coach. He was kind of a bagabond kind of guy, and
he never until he left, I just never felt like he was a natural
head football coach, right. It was kind of forced. Was a you
know, he didn't even look like one. He didn't look like when.
He was a kind of a car salesman kind of guy, a circus you
know, kind of a circus kind of guy, a circus promoter, you
know, that kind of guy, and that I always had. That's what
was always my feel about him. Brent Brannan looks and sounds like a football
coach. Yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, he's not a very
good quote, but he's good at what he's doing, right, and but
he's you know, he's kind of thoughtful in what he says, he's yes,
straightforward is a good word, and he thinks about things that you think
head coaches should think about. Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with
that. I agree with that. The thing I think you might think this
is funny outside of the very travel and Javier, I don't think anybody over
thirty asked the question. They were all young. This is from beaver Town.
This is from what got Doug come? Yeah, what the hell?
You know? And you know, in a press conference like that, maybe
got into try to get into some weeds a little bit that you know,
right in that Yeah, in that in that kind of a forum, you
want to ask sort of broader questions, right, you could ask those questions
on the side, right, And then he did ask questions. So a
couple of points that, well, you know what, let's go to break
and then we can break this down some more because there's some stuff that I
want to cover from his from his post press conference media session. So let's
take a break. We'll be back and we'll talk some more about Brent Brennan's
Big twelve media press conference. 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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Ball with Steve Robera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Heay,
welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Pie's Shake and we have Henry with us. Today fifteen minutes. What
were you gonna say? But well, there were a couple of things that
caught my eye, caught my ear, not my eye that brand Brandon said
in afterwards. There was a media session afterwards, then they had another breakout,
says, there's some stuff coming into that, but one of them was
that somebody asked him, what's the character of your team? You know,
who are you guys? And we've tried, you know, we asked that
all the time, right of coaches, you know, when when they've had
a great season or are looking at and right, what's your identity? And
he said, I don't know, he said, he said, remains to
be seen, he said, and that's a fair answer. I thought it
was a very fair answer because he said, we're going to find out.
He said, I couldn't tell you what it is today. You know,
I can tell you what I hope it is, but you know, I
don't know what it is today. We're not going to know that. Do
we start playing games, no question, I think that we see this all
the time all the time. You know, you have a new boss coming
in. Whether you like to play for him or her is a question.
Do you play as hard as you can with for him or her? Do
you like being there for him or her? And we'll see, right,
because it was very apparent after the first two years and and and Fish going
through what he went through, that the guys eventually cut on and started playing
hard for him. Not nothing, the didn't play hard before, but they
found their groove. Well, there was there was some sort of symmetry,
symmetry that's a that's a perfect word, that it all just kind of gelled
together. And I really feel like, and I think I think we asked
Jed, this didn't have mine when we asked him when he thought that that
happened, and he said it was the USC game, right, I asked
him because I asked the same questions as we watched watch him on the sidelines.
There was a point when I looked at you, Jed, and you
looked like a guy who liked what he saw and knew he had something.
And he said, yeah, it was there was that game, right,
even though in the loss, they found something. Right, there's something that
night came together and that the team sort of responded to it and said,
Okay, this is who we are, right and and and that that's who
they were the rest of the way out. Yeah, no question. They
only lost to Washington after that, and but played well throughout the whole season.
I mean they were beating people up right, and you're thinking, this
is not you know, we've come to grow and love's the when's the wagon
gonna lose the wheel? You're right? And they didn't. Then it never
did, even even in that Alamo Bowl when you thought it was over and
they're getting their butts get let me ask you this in hindsight, because that's
been what five six months removed already. Well, and we talk about this
game all the time, the Miami University of Arizona Miami game back in ninety
three, ninety four. Miami didn't want to be there. Miami didn't care
to be there, and then they showed it. Oklahoma want to be there.
That's why I thought Arizona would win going in right, But then you
know, they fell behind early, remember Arizona to the lead, and then
they came back on them and I thought somebody flipped a switch or something on
the on the Oklahoma sideline and they realized, wait a minute, we can't
we can't lose to these guys. This is Arizona you know, this is
not you know, Nebraska or Texas or whoever you know, any want of
their rives. This is freaking Arizona. Why are we losing to these guys?
And I felt like somebody flipped the switch. Now, I'll say also
that from the start of the game through the whole game, their defense was
dominating. There the Arizona's offensive line. Then they made remember they made a
switch and stuff, and then but you just felt like you just felt like
I did feel early on that Oklahoma like, Okay, they don't want to
be here. But somewhere along the line in the game they decided they wanted
to win the game. And then and they were winning the game and they
were gonna win the game until the interception return the destiny. I thought that
destiny came in for Arizona exactly. So yeah, you know, when I
you know, because because I'm really good at betting games, right, you
know, when I see the Bowl games, I look and see who wants
to be there and who doesn't, right, because there's a lot of those,
and this is one of those games where I thought, Oklahoma doesn't want
to be in the automobile, right, and Arizona's happy as hell. I
think he had declared right, right, right? They had to play with
a freshman, right, Drew freshman? If I if I'm because yeah,
I was just thinking, but that happens, you know, but but you
know, but the point being that, you know, he's right. He
doesn't know what he's got. He has a good idea, he knows what
the players he's got. He's got to put him on the field to have
a good sense of what the what this team, and he won't know for
the first through two three weeks. We might not know till they get to
Kansas State. After Kansas State, right, and we'll see. There's a
lot to like about this team, though, both sides of the ball.
That that Kansas State game is getting bigger and bigger every day, you know,
really bigger and bigger. I was, you know, driving in and
going through the season already and thinking, you know, if they win that
Kansas State game, and they could and they could, then that Utah game
becomes huge. Let's say they go up there and do something stupid and beat
Utah. Who's going to beat him after that? Right, they'll do They'll
lose a game. I'm not saying they're gon go and defeated, but you
can you look at the rest of the schedule after Utah, they should be
favored in every one of those games. Got to stay healthy, to be
healthy. That's some of the stuff coming out of the breakout sessions that he's
he's saying he's fine, Brent Brennan saying they're not going to take any chances,
uh, those kinds of things. The other thing that I got from
his thing this whole thing about the helmet stuff. So you know with the
with the new helmet, Brent Brennan said, he's a fan. Yeah,
I saw that multiple options for uniforms and stuff like that. So I know
Jed brought back the Navy blue uniform, but they did some different stuff,
right, They had an all red game and all that kind of stuff,
so they didn't just go strictly to that. But it looks like we're going
to see some more uniform stuff. He didn't want to go up to surprise,
right. Well, I saw some more stuff on on that thread with
your brother, Ricky. Ricky Lamont talked about the old school stuff. I
feel the same way. I talked to my boss at El Tour. He's
a merchandise guy. He liked it. I was a little shocked to be
liked this as well. He's a merchandise, a chance to sell some stuff,
and it looked cool. And he says, it's not about us,
it's about the kids who liked playing it. And I get that. I
totally get that. So I'm kind of neither here nor there. I'm on
it because you know how I feel about it. I'm neither here nor there.
But what's the big deal. It's a beautiful it's a helmet, you
know what I'm saying. I'm indifferent, except if I think it can be
an identity. It's an identity for Oregon, right, USC's uniform, that's
their identity, right the Oregon having multi multiple uniforms, that's their identity.
We do this. USC's identity is we have this uniform and that's it.
Penn State, remember when do you remember this? When Larry Smith went over
there, they changed the helmet logo, right because it had the little trojan
head that for the longest time, and he made it bigger and it was
a different look, and they lost their minds and that didn't like it.
They didn't like it. And then actually when they fired him, that was
one of the reasons they said they've wanted him fired is because he changed us,
he tradition and their helmet, you know. So so if he would
have wanted more, they wouldn't have, you know. And look, I
had I had lunch with the old my old guy's Wednesday lunch today. Right,
they're losing their minds about the helm. They don't they don't like it,
of course. Well my oldest brother Rick said he hated it all right.
My brother Bean said, well, as long as they don't use it
all the time, I'm okay with it. For the most part. They're
you know, they weren't. They're not happy with the helmet. I keep
explaining, you guys, it's not about us, right, No, it's
not one. It's not only it's not about us. It's it's not about
us at all. But we're not the fan that they're trying to, you
know, get interested in this. And then Brent Brannan said, it's fun
for the player, he said. They like having this stuff, he said,
And then he said, and he said, and it's fun for the
fans too, because you have some fans who hate it and some fans who
love it. And guess what they're talking about it. That's so what do
you think about it? When I heard that comment, I'm saying, he
knows exactly what he's hearing from both sides, right right, and he's going
and he right in the middle. Yeah, I get it. It's for
the kids, and the fans will like it. I get it. Yeah,
you know, he's I think the politician. But we all agreed that
the that that those those uniforms from the rich Rod days where the big the
big dark letters, and you couldn't be the numbers from anywhere horrible. We
hated them, horrible. Those are awful on whatever the blue number on the
red jersey or the red number on the blue jersey. You can see the
number, Yeah from that made the play. Yeah yeah, but uh but
yeah, so that that's gonna keep that's gonna keep going. So we'll see
what happens. Yeah, we'll see. And I'm sure you get the trends.
Oh there are two and one with the rhythm and just when the damn
game, just when the okay, fans love that stuff. They really do
in the end, in the end, you know, on Thursday or Friday
or whenever they do, you know, they'll put out on social media,
this is what we're wearing this week, you know, and the fans going,
oh, that's cool, you know, or that's not cool or whatever.
You know. Okay, I'm sure, I'm sure it's gonna be a
sale. And then you know there's they needed they need to sell things,
right right, I'm speaking of that. Uh. The thing that Desiree read
Francois said, uh is that they're they're they're actively trying to sell the naming
rights to the stadium and the field. According to UH Brian Peterson who's there.
He tweeted out that that it's an ongoing thing, but they don't expect
anything to happen probably for a year or so. That it's the slow process
to sell those sponsorships. Oh sure, and who's going to big money?
Yeah, of course, yeah, but that's that's a help. That's Oh,
and that that money will go directly into paying the players, paying the
athletes. That goes they will go directly into the pool of revenue that they
have to pay that they got to raise. So what port of the money
goes to the poor? The paying people back or whoever they need to be
back because they're debt. So you have a twenty two million dollar pool that
you have to you have to come up with, right because you have to
be the But you also have this thirty five million dollars debt. You've got
it right that I don't know. I'm a bad person to ask that.
No, But honestly, it's like it's like my house. It's a money
pit. I gotta pay my water. You gotta pay with this, But
I have a leak in the roof. For what the hell am I going
to do? I don't know, and I can't sell it exactly, exactly
exactly now. I'm in the same spot as you. You know. Oh,
man, I understand their problems. Yeah, I understand. No,
but but that that that's going on and they have to I mean that there's
no there's no getting around now, man. But you don't think about it.
If misery loves company, there's a lot of misery and company to go
all over the place. Yeah, all over the place, you know,
because yeah, I mean, because you still got to pay everybody. You
know, coaches salaries aren't aren't going to drop their in fact, continuing to
go up, go up, in spite of all the issues, with all
the complaints that they don't have any money. You know, there's still not
and that means admins aren't getting baid lightly either. Yeah, you know the
desert. He's getting paid a million. Coaches coaches, Idea Barnes pain a
million, you know. Yeah, where's my fiddle? Where's my little violin?
A little violin? And get my violin out exactly exactly. You know,
it's hard to it's hard to feel sorry for a bunch of people who
make a lot of money and have this dilemma because it's it's there. Yeah,
it's gonna be there for a while. It's gonna be there for months
for for we hold this radio. We gotta get him on one last time
to say goodbye. He'll come on, come on, come on this many
regrets doctor, Yeah, yeah, quarterback. Well, you know, and
then there's a phrase right in the doctor them, uh, the the the
patient died, but the surgery was successful whatever, something like that. I'm
sure somebody could call it, you know what, the surgery was successful,
but the patients still die. Yeah, it still die. There's nothing you
can do but that. Yeah, and again I'm curious how long he'll be
around, you know, are they actively looking for the president? Do you
think he's going to make it to the end of the year. I don't
know, because because that was a big deal. I want to move move
along. I've not heard one word about whether or looking for a president,
or they've hired a search firm or or anything like that. You know,
I guess somebody needs to ask. Back in the old days, there would
be a reporter who would be all, it's right. It is the summer
though too. Yeah, only one hundred and fifteen. Yes, I don't
know, but yeah, So anyways, it's been interesting. Here's what here's
the thing, you know, kind of a what takeaway from from Big twelve
media day. You got a sense that there were way more eyes on it
than the PAC club media right right. They were on ESPN, you know,
the National They had a show on ESPNU. All the you know,
all the press conferences are being streamed on the ESPN website. So you know,
we're in a relationship with ESPN now and not ridiculing the PAC twelve,
the PAC twelve networks. You know, you feel like anybody who wants to
see this can see it, and you got to think that there's some people
out there who are interested to see what. Okay, these were the first
this was these were the first media days of the four major conferences, right,
so kind of like people are probably checking this out to see, Okay,
what's going on over there? And Arizona's in, you know, a
prominent piece of this as one of the favorites in the league, and Brent
Brennan as a new coach of people trying to find out about him. So
I feel like there were a lot of eyes on Arizona that probably wouldn't have
been on Arizona if this was still the package. Yeah, no question,
no question, more visibility, more eyes, like you say on the price,
I mean the setup. There were more seats at the at the setup.
You know, if you if you saw the setup in the stadium there,
you know they were accommodating more. There was more media there, yeah,
right right, national and otherwise well media too from the dot commerce,
the NW dot com. I got a question. Yeah, and I'm giving
them grief because I worked for one too. But but that's what the world
is. And you know how many people did you wreckton justin who you know?
And you can't do your ears? Who's not a kid, but he's
us very fimill from the Oklude Telsa World News. I mean that was the
only guy. Stewart Mandel was there. Yeah, but he didn't ask him
the questions that we listened to right at the Arizona. He didn't ask any
questions in the Arizona press conference. But there's some guys and then, like
I said, our friend Dave Hershoe, Butcher put him on the list.
I already told him that because of him, we've got a we've got a
jar in the office. Now we're in the studio, Okay, all right,
we're on top of the hour. We're gonna take our break right now.
We're gonna come back, and Henry's gonna have breaking news.