Steve Raba and Jakin Sammans they have their eye on the ball on two Sons
Sports Station, Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to ours the
ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve Peace, Jake, that would
you have Noah with some breaking news as I on the ball breaking news on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Okay, so I want to get into the air
stuff first. Obviously it's more irrelevant. Jalen Harris was released by the Bears,
yep. And this is like because right around the time they're they're forced
to, you know, cut the rosters down in fifty three, which honestly,
it does not that's not really a lot obviously in an NFL season because
you have so many players and a lot of times if you if you make
it the last cut, then you get picked up, you know, for
the practice squad and stuff like that. But Jalen Harris apparently at least early
in the early in the preseason, had done a lot of stuff that caught
people's attention. It looked like he was he was doing really well. So
you know, he lasted till the last cut. But I know, we'll
see what happens with him. Probably he'll make his So I was surprised well
to hear that he was actually that was doing well and there's doing well.
He could probably land somewhere in the practice. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
You know, we practice that he might get you know, the Bears
might still you know, keep him, or he can land on somebody else's
practice squad. If he turned some heads at some point, then uh then
yeah, we haven't heard about his brother yet, I mean officially still nothing.
Yeah, still he still love a roster, I don't think. Yeah,
all right, and then Raymond Polito is starting at reich Car this weekend
for the wildcast. All right, but because he because his dad came on
the show. Yeah right, the second second freshman to do so in a
couple he lost two years. But obviously big imposing guy, big dude.
You know a lot of times a guy like that starts, you know,
when they start as a freshman man. By the time they were junior and
senior, they can just be beasts, you know that. I mean,
that's kind of what's happened with Jordan Morgan. Right. You know, guys,
you know, a projected first round draft pick, you start getting that
kind of playing tim that early you can you can go far and so good
on Raymond Polido. I'll tell you what I actually will be watching some of
the you know, the lying play on Saturday. See how Polido does.
You see how Jordan Morgan does, to see how Savenea does, you know,
just to get a sense of because that was the thing that was really
caught my eye last year in the NAU game, Arizona got pushed around by
Nau and that was just like, what the hell is going on out there?
And that's again when we reel and out last year two years ago,
when we realize how bad it really was. So it'll be something I'll be
watching. And then, as Steve told me, rob Waldrop is going to
be the honorary captain. He played in the nineties for Arizona. It wasn't
all American, so he is Desert swarm. He and Bruskie. Right,
when'd you say yeah, I mean, if you if you say desert swarm,
those are the two guys names come up first question. I know,
you go, you'll throw in Tony Bowie, You'll throw in Brandon Sanders.
But those are the two guys who were sort of the face of it,
and you talk about dudes that made it work. Were the four guys you
just mentioned Booie tough dude without really looking to Sanders, who's a tough dude.
I can use other words. You just have tough dude, Rob,
mean mean dude. Rob, who's who's just a normal dude, but he's
a mean dude. And Bruski who's a normal dude but he's a tough dude.
Yeah, you know, and it's all equals tough dude. All those
things added up to it. One of the greatest defenses you know ever,
just just missiles, just just dudes that didn't want to lose. Again,
who do we have on the show who was talking about thirty yards a game
rushings? Yeah, that will never happen. I can't remember. It's not
too long ago. Of course, there's something recently. Can't remember. Come
on, what's your name? He's on the show that would have talked about
that. Yeah, we'd have to go back on the list. Okay,
all right, and then some old be stuff. So there's an incident that
happened. It was yesterday, right, yea with last night basically like two
fans. It's kind of hard to happen, but two fans kind of rushed
the field. They gets around the quod junior. There's some secure or someone
like trying to stop it, and then he ends up just like getting tackled.
So he knocked down and PA is calling for players safety. So did
you hear what I could have said, why it happened or what? He
was kind of laughing afterwards, he was Okay, they said that all they
wanted was a selfie. It was that's the world we live in. But
what the hell? Wow, those guys got to spend the night in jail.
We know that they had to be, and to them it was kind
of like, Okay, that's the price I'm gonna pay. I'll do it,
but I'll tell you what you get in a situation like that, you
knock him down or whatever. The next thing you know, you're you know,
you're charged with a salt or anyone of a number of things. There's
something on the on the interweb again. Remember back in the day when the
two the son and the dad went on the field and beat up the first
baseman or the coach. Yes, yes, a few years ago, Yes,
Yes, what the hell, I know, I know, I know,
I know, it's it's it's scary too though, because I mean I
get you know, I know there's all the security and you're you're pretty confident
that nobody's brought a weapon into the you know, into the into the into
the game and stuff like that, but you just don't know, you know.
And people were comparing it. I was listening to they were talking about
this on Dan Patrick this morning. He said it was one thing like remember
back in the seventies, Uh Morgano would run on the field and run out
there, and she'd go, you know, just run out there, kiss
a player and and run. Said that that this is way different from that,
right, And you know, I get it. These guys wanted a
selfie and they're gonna, you know, whatever, do whatever they were gonna
do with that, but you can't do that. And then this day and
time, you can't do that. And uh, you know, there was
a long discussion of you know that they felt like the security guys got too
rough with these guys. I'm like, there's no such thing when that happened,
there's no such thing. Exactly. You do that, you pay,
you pay the price, good luck with that. Yeah, but it's find
because they said they put up a pole saying did they use too much force
or not? And at one point pretty far into the poll, it was
one hundred percent said they did not use too much force. I mean it's
basically like trespassing, So it really is plus on top of that, you're
talking about a guy who makes millions of millions of dollars. If you're putting
his health at risk by doing something stupid, what if what if they have
knocked him down, blew out his knee or whatever. Yeah, without questions
like well, like you were saying, yeah, like just because they don't
have weapons, you could you like can say you even guarantee there's no weapons,
doesn't mean he can't get hurt, right, Well, they knocked him.
I think he felt. Yeah, they knocked him down. Yeah,
even though it's kind of soft, but still, I mean it could have
twisted, yeah exactly. I mean, like the fact there's like three people,
his ankle could have easily gotten stuck like that. That's not any number
of things. Yeah. Absolutely, So the Colts have announced they're not trading
Jonathan Taylor. He's still in the pupulist because because nobody wants him, or
because he couldn't find a trade. I always get a trade that the Colts
mean, I always get confused because like he has Asian whatever's doing that.
But aren't the Colts kind of filtering? Like aren't they kind of coming up
with their own trades? And it's like these are kind of your options because
like he's trying to find something. Do they really trust that he's going to
find something that they haven't seen before? That's gonna like allow them? Right?
I mean, in the end, the Colts got to decide whether they
want to accept a trade for him or not. Yeah, and you see
that. I mean, like I don't know why they trade him, But
the Stack came out saying, like every single player in the Colts roster is
under the age of thirty, like they have Yeah, they're so they're super
young. So I don't know why they'd trade something like that anyway, you
kay, Bobby? Is he still? I don't know who should ask check
on him? I've got a cell phone number, all right? And then
the Patriots are releasing They've released both their backup quarterbacks, so Bailey's Appy and
Cunningham. So now Mac Jones right now, as of right now is the
only QB on the roster. What Yeah, So that's that's that's what are
they doing. There's so many people out there. Who's that one guy on
the Cowboys that they said they would release? Yeah? Whatever had you know,
he had, he had the best, he had the best camp of
anybody. And you got you gotta asks because they got the Cowboys went and
got trade Lance. So I mean, we'll there's plenty of guys out there
there. Yeah, but you gotta have Wow, they've got another week,
white White title, George Blanda. So the it is, I forgot the
deadline is today for fifty three men. I think it's yeah, four o'clock.
Yeah, yeah, four o'clock. Sometimes it's four o'clock somewhere. Yeah.
So that's that's that's that. That's kind of So I have one.
I have one. This quiz for both of you guys. If you guys
can so college basketball, college basketball, sports basketball. You know, one
of those big game boom stuff asked the question the best college basketball not to
make the Final four and basketball team to not make it? No, no,
no, best coach coach. Okay, So here's the here's I'm not
gonna hint or anything. Give me yours. Well for the longest time with
Sean Miller, right right right, I mean they still Sean Miller is still
Sean Miller. Oh. And I think this is a good choice because it's
still not shun because it's no longer or SNA. You'll kick yourself when I
tell you. Uh oh, Rick Rick Barnes, good choice, but no,
Matt Paynter, Okay, yeah, get your second. Yeah. Well,
I mean again, Sean never got to what three elite eights right two
away from from me? And then again I still I'm not gonna say,
have nightmares. But when I think of not getting in the final final four,
because I think of the one shot by yeah, the first one Connecticut.
Yeah, him, I see him because him and I didn't get I
mean, you remember the camera angle on the shot. It's perfect, It
looked like it was straight on. It looked like it was good. Nick
Johnson's was right there on the rim. Yeah. Uh. And then you
know that went awry. Yeah, I pulled that, you did, I
did, he did so. Yeah. But imagine had any one of those
balls fallen, how the trajectory of the everything were to change. Yeah,
everything, the career of Sean Miller, right, a couple of a couple
of basketball announcements. Evan Manning, who is the son of the world famous
Danny Manning nineteen eighty eight NC DOUBA champion in Kansas, is the new director
of basketball operations at Arizona. He was where he was a Kansas before he
was a Kansas station. There's ties to Kansas. He I think he was
one at Harvard for a bit, young man obviously. Yeah. And then
David Blatt, who has been a long time basketball guy. He's been hired
as a consultent. No, initially was reported that he was on the staff.
Now he's there's something that says he's been he's now as a consultant,
which is different or is that not true either? Well, I cheer tweeted
up that it's not something was not true about it. I think it's more
of a he and Lloyd or friends our friends. So it might be a
consultant or a information guy, you know. Yeah, I don't know what
the truth right In fact, what I'm looking as a couple of days old.
So maybe he maybe he hasn't been. Maybe I think he's just a
name came up. They're friends because of the international play stuff. Like that,
Okay. John Kanzano had Kirk Kirk Schultz, the Washington State President,
on his show today and then that he said that the plan a is still
to rebuild the PAC twelve, if you know, hopefully with the with the
four teams that are left, but could still be with with the two that
was that was two o'clock today. It was ever changing, but that they
still want to try and do that. And I think it goes back to
Steve we talked about. We're talking about the money that the PAC twelve has.
I heard the number now is that there's fifty five million dollars of NC
Double A tournament money that in the in the pack that the PAC twelve has,
and that if you leave the league but the league survives, you don't
get any of that money. That the new teams that come into the conference
get that money. But if the league dissolves, then those teams get the
money. Oh so there's some incentives. So there's some there's in fifty five
million bucks. Let's say you go get eight teams, say you go get
eight Let's say you go get eight teams and have a ten team league.
You can offer them all, you know, some of that money, you
know, to pay off whatever they got to pay off to payoff exit fees
or whatever. It'll be the Mountain West West, it would be. I
mean, look, there aren't there any teams that get it to the level
that it was, right, That's where the teams left, and that's and
that's what the conversation is going to be. Uh, what's today? Wednesday?
I think today? Tuesday? Today, Tuesday? God isn't It's not
Wednesday, Come on, Steve, but it's I've been up way too long.
But tomorrow is the meeting of the of the of Conference Commissioners talking about
the format for the twelve team conference and whether or not they're going to be
able to make that you know, five automatics and seven at larger or whatever
they're gonna do. You know you're talking about Yeah, you you mentioned that
at the beginning of the show, how they didn't have the other meeting because
of the uncle the uncreat right, So so anyway, so it's it's yeah,
but that that according to you know, Kenzano's tweeted this. He was
on the show is on around the same time as we're on, So he's
tweeted this out as what's what's going on over there? So I got a
text from one of our guys who calls Mike, who's you know, pretty
smart, level headed. But do you wonder if Dion took the University of
Colorado job just to get his kids in to start at the D one team
and then he'll leave once the team to to to your point, see what
happens, right, Yeah, but he's got four he's got two or three
years. Yeah, he's got to good for at least three years. Right,
And maybe you're right, ma, Look, I know that I stopped
coaching baseball at when when when my son graduated. Then I went over again
coach softball. And I stopped coaching softball when my daughter graduated, and then
I stopped being a PA announcer when my last kid graduated. You know,
yeah, I mean, and maybe you know, your record as a as
a baseball coach as a coach not great. We weren't very good the last
you know, our last two years. We we just we we couldn't get
guys to play. Wait, you didn't answer the question, sir, I
don't know the number under I was under five hundred, under four, because
you come, we didn't make the playoffs small school. Actually, I was
like, I was on the staff for for four years, made the playoffs
the first year. I was an assistant coach the first two years, then
the last two years, and said, who used to college? Jim used
to call us, what did you coach with him? And the coach?
Yeah? So I want to say, well, how could have a coach?
Was it? Jim? Yeah? That was all right? Okay,
this is fun. Let's take a break. You have John Fea coming in
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Jakin Salas they have their eye on the ball on two Sons Sports six chef
Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeart Radio. Wap Hey, welcome
back to win in the Marco Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's Jacob Sauce Now with us John Peanut Rummer. You a football player when
we were with him last week. Ye then your last week we had our
eye on the video I think at the tailgate party. Thanks for inviting us
for the food, brilliant. I love it, guys. Glad to be
here. Are you guys doing pretty well? We're doing well. We'll do
it well. We have to pick your brain about a lot of different things.
Uh, let's talk South Point too, because you're you're still connected.
You look good. He's like two forty good. Dude, looks like it's
you look good on Saturday on Friday. Damn you. You look like you're
in shape. Man. I'm in some kind of shape. I'm definitely not
fit, but uh, keeping the weight down, trying to eat right,
you know, get my steps in that kind of stuff. I eat a
lot of stress, so that helps. I need that. But John,
let me ask you, because I didn't follow you in high school, but
I saw you here because we covered you here both J and I in the
late eighties, how did you look physically compared to the big kid? Now
that coming, that's going to be coming to you. But he was impressive
physically, Uh, boy, which one Keona Elijah was just wow, Well
you got to coming fantastic players. They are miles and miles ahead of where
I was back in those days. I look at both these kids as being
possible contributors right out of the gate. They're they're diligent and their study,
their creative and their skill set. You know, they really they come off
the ball every time with a plan and as an offensive lineman, you just
hate that. You hate a guy that's going to bring one of his four
best moves every time. They don't take plays off. And they're really,
they're they're great kids. They're high level competitors, and I think the U
of A is so lucky to get them. Yeah, and and you know,
I mean we were there at the start of that, and I mean
you you knew which two guys we were looking for, right, compared to
compared to all the others, at least I did. I'm like, okay,
I don't even need to know their numbers. It's those two guys right
there. But you know, you have to look back at a lot of
things, right, you know, the strength and conditioning program they have with
with Carla Garrett and all that kind of stuff. You know, I mean,
there's really a lot of changes in the way they're doing things. Now
then, say when you were playing in high school. Uh, it's a
world apart from what we used to do. But I think the thing that
remains with South Point is a level of expectation you put on the kids.
We don't allow for a lot of excuses. We you know, we certainly
don't allow people to skip practice unless they have a qualified reason. You know,
there's a lot of pressure, not just from the coaches, not just
from the training staff, and not the tradition of South Point, but among
the players themselves. They hold each other to a very high standard. And
you know, there's a legacy of winning at South Point. Uh. You
know, you don't stack it up just by state championships, but you know,
I think the best the best football program in southern Arizona. And it'd
be hard to convince me otherwise. At least in the past thirty to forty
years. You've seen some point obviously for a while now having graduated from there,
can you can you put maybe a list and you don't need to put
them one through five or whatever, but you've see some very very good talent
they're coming out of their last five, six, seven years. A list
of the kids, I mean, you know, I would include my son
in that list. You got Lathan Ransom of course, incomparable Bijean Robinson and
Keona and Elijah I certainly belong on that list. But that's the fun thing
about it. When I talk to these kids, and you know, maybe
some of them aren't Power five kids, or maybe not even d one.
What I tell him is, you know, do you love football? I
ask him, do you love football? Do you want to keep playing?
And if you haven't gotten football out of your system, there is somewhere in
this country where there's a program for you. It's hard to see when you're
in Arizona because we have so few schools compared to the Midwest, in the
East and even California, But if you want to keep playing football, there's
a place for you. I mean, we've got kids in the Dakotas,
Missouri, California, Arizona. You know, we probably put out anywhere from
three to eight kids who play at the next level. They just they get
a little lost in the headlines of guys like Elijah and Kiona. But we
take great pride and every kid that moves on from South Point who continues his
football career well, and as you mentioned, one of those kids is your
kid. And we saw some good news come across on social media that Bruno
has been tabbed to start this weekend. How do you feel about that?
Well, I don't know if I saw that, but I'm in direct communication
with him since I am related that, I'm really excited for Bruno. He
has worked his butt off. He got to UCLA. I think he saw
the video up on social media. He was legitimately about two hundred and thirty
five pounds and he is now closing in or rate at three hundred. And
let's put that in perspective. When I got to the UFA, I was
about two ten. When I left, I was about two eighty five.
I didn't hit three hundred until it's twenty three or twenty. We'll shoot no
more like twenty four, twenty five years old, and he's doing it at
twenty one now. The scary thing is his kid brother is even bigger now.
The offensive line at South Point it's pretty well stacked, so Roman is
still trying to break his way into the lineup and get some reps. But
Roman is clocking in at about two thirty five right now as a junior,
So you know, nutrition and training, thinks to Carla Garrett and you know,
good cooking at home. These kids are getting bigger and stronger all over
the country really, so it's fun to watch. I'm super excited. We're
gonna go h South Point plays at Alamany Bishop on Friday night as one of
the kind of Catholic school I don't know, you don't call it an exchange
program, but competition program. So we'll be there and Friday night for Friday
Night Lights and South Point Catholic and then Saturday night at the at the Rose
Bowl to see UCLA host Coastal Carolina. Well, I hope, I hope
I didn't spoil a surprise that maybe Bruno was going to call you on later,
but that just came from the La Times Ben Bolt, and the depth
chart got posted with the Bruno as the starter at left tackle. Well,
you know what, I kind of figured it was gonna be so since he's
been working with the ones for the first and third group, with the other
guy working with the second group, so I'm not shocked. I assumed it
was upwards of, you know, two weeks ago, three weeks ago,
if he didn't lose his position earlier. And uh, fall camp then he
wasn't going to lose it, you know, the last two days. So
we talk about huge sports here all the time and talk about the league.
Obviously, I still think, and I don't know why this is, that
UCLA seems to be undersunderserved. Tell me convinced me. Did a top five
team in this league? Wow? And the Pack Pack something around the impact
whatever it is past whatever, you know. Look, you take two games
last year, the UCLA loss that they could have won, the Arizona game,
and the other one escapes to me at the moment, and they're a
top two team right right. So the competitive nature of i'll just call it
the West teams, that the Power five West teams is such that a single
loss really hurts you. So I think they finished five or six last year.
I don't. I try not to look backwards too much, guys.
I try to look forward. The big the big question marks for UCLA Ethan
Garber starting at quarterback right dtr for what seems like nine years starter, losing
that amazing running back in Charbonnet. So those are the two offensive positions that
really jump out at me. And then when you look at the other side
of the ball, you know that I've had concerns at the cornerback position,
a little bit at safety, but mostly corner. They've got a lot to
at linebacker position. And this guy's a monster. I mean, he's a
legitimate draft pick in the NFL. So I think it's their cohesive and if
they game plan right, you know, there isn't a team they cannot beat.
Typically, when I ask kids, I do it all the time,
who wins a who wins a football game? And they want to talk about
points and this and that, and I always say, you know what,
it's the team that makes the least number of mistakes. Right and early,
early in the Chip Kelly era, there were a lot of mistakes that cost
games or UCLA. But I think those have been eliminated piece by piece over
the years. And if Ethan Garbs can keep that tradition going, then I
think they have a chance to be a top three team. Speaking of Chip,
have you met him? I have met and tell us what you think
of him or what you what your impression of him? Well, so that's
the problem, right, You see somebody on TV, you see him in
an interview, and that's all you really get. So you have these preconceived
notions about people, and I won't lie, and I'll tell Chip to his
face. You know, watching him on TV, he always seemed a little
I don't know if disengaged or putting sort of aloof was the right expression.
But you sit down with that guy and he is the most engaging, interesting
person. And what you really tell when you've been around him enough, is
all he cares about is are the kids. I mean, he just loves
coaching. And I was completely flipped. You just can't know somebody until you
sit down and you know, have the proverbial cup of coffee, and I
think Chip really delivers. Yeah, okay, before we move on to the
next topic, I want you you look forward and I invest in rear view
mirrors, just so you know. That's fine. That's fine, that's what
you know. You you need that perspective for your job. I don't need
it for mine. I'm ever the optimist right in the new season A lot
of years gone. It's in the book to me. Yeah, I'm a
grumpy guy. So now you have the Arizona you're big Arizona fan as well.
What do you think about this this year one and two? How was
it preparing for the first game as a student athlete. All right, well,
let's unpack it first and foremost. Right, if you look at the
starting lineup, the depth chart for Arizona, you know, the thing that
pops out to you is they've really really tried to fortify the defense with with
transfers. And you know, in my opinion, defense you've got to have
defense in the coast D one teams. Arizona's struggled to get those big guys
in the front front six. Uh, it'll really depend on what they can
do in the trenches defensively if they're going to have success. I like what
they've done. I think Jetfish has done a marvelous job both with the transfer
portal and with recruiting. There's some names in here they are very impressive that
did well last year. And you know, I put them in the middle
of the pack with a chance to threaten if they can, if they can
find their groove, and if they can perform defensively. No, I think
that, you know, obviously, that's that was their priority, you know,
all year long. But it's just become that thing, right, it's
you know, it's it's not only who do you have coming back, but
who did you go get that's played somewhere else before, and that's become such
a big deal for college football, well in basketball too. You know all
the sports. Who'd you get out of the portal and what's that going to
do for you? Right? And you can argue all day long and twice
on Sunday what you think of the portal and whether it's good or whether it's
back. But it's here now, so you know, I think the coaches
have done a terrific job capitalizing on it. It's changed the way recruiting goes
obviously, right. You don't have to go out as a Power five school
all the time and get those freshmen coming in. You can look around at
maybe the MAC Conference or somebody that sticks out from another smaller conference or even
another power five school. If you've got a great graduate program that you can
pull somebody out of their for their final years. I can't imagine what it
takes to manage that and manage the gaps that you have and being able to
I guess self scout well enough to understand what your priority needs are. And
then it's another thing. You know, you're looking into the face of the
kids that you've recruited and said, we're bringing somebody in who's two years ahead
of you because we don't think you're there, And then that kid decides if
he wants to go in the portal. So I mean it's I'd say it's
like chess, but it's more like checkers. Right with gunfire. I mean
it's flying all around a million miles an hour. Yeah, no question,
changing times. Let me go back to your time back in the day.
You came in as a defensive lineman. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm
sure we've talked about this story before you came. And then Dick teld me
decided, hey, let's movie to the offense. Was there some resistance or
you just said whatever you want me to do? Well, I was a
little shocked getting flipped from d line to offensive line coming back from spring break.
You know, I really hadn't had any conversations about that, and all
of a sudden, I went from number ninety eight to number seventy. So
for me, I'm kind of a you know, I'll do what you ask
me kind of guy as long as you can convince me it makes a little
bit of sense. So my skill set I wasn't going to run run down
anybody from a distance as slow week and uncoordinated as I was, and apparently
in those days, that made you an offensive alignment and we'll look it's done
for you. Yeah, yeah, and that's fine. I'm a really I'm
really the type of person that wants to embrace what's in front of me.
And I didn't have any control either, so you know, there was no
transfer portal then I wasn't going to leave, so I just picked it up
and and said let's do it. And uh, you know, just strive
to learn and develop as much as you can. And you turned into the
guy you turned into. Thank you, John, you know, yes,
yes, the question earlier about you know your first start, right, and
I imagine what's going through Bruno's head right now, and that that that first
week and you know you're going to be a starter. Ye, your entire
playbook is going through your brain. All all of the fear, uncertainty is
and doubt is piling up right. And now, if you're prepared, if
you know what you're doing, you know, after the first few snaps,
it goes away. The adrenaline takes over, and it does get easier as
you go. But there's something incredible about that excitement of I'm suiting up for
the first time and on the first snap of the ball, I'm the guy,
and you know, and taking taking Steve's rear view mirrors into place.
Right, in order to build your own confidence, you got to look backwards
a little bit. How did I prepare? How ready am I? Can
I do this? I can do this. I'm working against high quality guys
every day. I just have to go out and hone my craft. That
said one more last question if I could. So, you're on the offensive
line playing for Arizona for all these years, and who's the guy that said,
oh, crap, I gotta face him? You mean defensively? Well,
I think Willie McGinnis at us SEE was probably the biggest challenge that I
faced. He was he was one hell of a player. Alonzo Spellman at
Ohio State, that was That was a big game for me. That really
really helped me a lot with recruiting and saying, wow, who's this guy
that neutralized a first round pick. There was a kid at Miami I can't
think of his name right now. We played against Miami and he was a
good football player, and that really helped quite a bit. But by and
large. You know, the difference now is everybody's a guy. Yeah.
When I played, you might have a couple or three weeks off with somebody
who's not really terrific. But when you get into Power five schools and add
the transfer portal, you cannot take a playoff. Everybody's a beast. Yeah
right, No, Like you mentioned at the beginning, how would you like
to go against a rushing every day and you're a kid, You're you're a
kid, You're you're like six foot and this guy's coming at you folding crap.
Well, you know, my son will go against Elijah and Keona in
practice every day and he gets a little frustrated, and I said, look,
it's not going to get any harder than this. So you've seen the
best of what's out there. Just remember, you know, focus on one
thing that you can do well on a play, whether it's your footwork or
your hand placement or something, because I promise you he's gonna beat you.
And you know what he ought to He ought to beat you every play.
I mean, that's why he's at a Power five school. He's going to
the University of Arizona. These guys are real deal. So don't get upset.
Just revert back to what does coach Alex Rios teach me? An individual
drill every day at south Point, and we are really lucky at south Point.
We have got a fantastic group of offensive line coaches between Alex Rios and
Chris Lundean. I mean, these guys are terrific. So just build build
on what you've worked on, take those individual drills and apply them. You're
not gonna win, but you want to do something a little bit better every
time. I want to pad up right now, dude, let's go,
Baby, let's go. I want to have a round it on. I
want to have a donut. Hey, thanks John. I was always good
to see you. We'll see you again at another south Point game. Appreciate
it, John, Hey, thanks, so it's always good to be with
you doing good fun, good fun. Thank you. Very smart dude.
I like having John on the show all the time. Let's go because we're
way over, yeah, yeah, and we'll come back. Take your calls
five to two, zero, four, one, six seventy. You're an
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the Ball with Steve Ribera and Jaken Salaz Sports fourteen fifteen and welcome back Joy
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again, thank you Draft Kings for helping us and led give giving us a
chance to talk about them. And that's a lot of fun. It's crazy
what this has become, right, Steve. I mean, it's just like
you think about. I mean, I was just watching a clip from h
during during the breakup. Somebody in Fenway Park hitting a home run and Draft
Kings is you know, is on the on the big green Monster then on
a big sign above above. I was at a store today and you store
today, and they knew I wasn't had the book above. So he said
to me, oh, man, you know what, I missed out on
a bet that would have paid him thirty seven thousand. The on the golf
some dude and I didn't ask who it was. He had like a ten
team party for ten and the one guy failed to make the top twenty by
he finished twenty first. I mean, come on, it was like one
of those three things. Yeah, that never happens to us. It never
helps because we don't do those But I don't do those bets. Yeah,
so I bet I bet ten dollars to win twenty yea. But but and
then you're pissed when it doesn't because exactly again, it's Steve. It's about
the juice. It's not it's not about the dollar amount. It's about the
juice. You've been juiced out. I have been squeezed as It's definitely about
the dollar. About when you're a kid, yeah yeah, when you're a
kid, well, well, when you when you're you and you're trying to
like, you know, eat later or whatever. I need. I need
this so I get what I'm saying. That's why I pretend i'm twenty one,
otherwise I can't do it. It's right for god sad, what are
you talking about? You don't even know what we're talking about. I don't
even know why I'm here because you're trying to build your resume. Son,
you might be the radio one day exactly, and you'll be able to support
us. Like it's right when I turned twenty one, I'm gonna have all
this like experience, and then I'm just gonna be like, I'm not gonna
be able to tell anyone works from No, You're gonna say, Jay,
twenty one day, what do you got today? Don't blame me for any
of it? Kay? What do you got today? So I can go
the other way exactly? Did you do? Not blame me for anything that
happens to you as a result of what you got here unless it's good.
Unless it's good all right, and then I'll give credits to Steve. Yes,
yeah, yes, thanks for thanks for bringing me on. Kid.
Hey that was fun with John Fina. Yeah. Well he's always good,
Yeah, always good. I can you know, I can see him,
you know, sitting down with his kid saying okay, you know here,
here it is, and maybe he will maybe he won't. I would imagine.
I mean, if I'm if I'm Bruno Fina, I'm calling my dad
saying, hey, okay, Dad, what's this gonna be like? Yeah,
but after you tell them that you're starting for the first time, Yeah,
I hope I didn't break the surprise, but you know he's gonna get
to home dad, guess what? And yeah, already guys on the radio,
J broke it to me. But that's very cool. You know.
Look, I mean he's done obviously, he's been there three years, right,
so you know, four four years, he's in his fourth year.
You know, he's obviously done the work. Ben Bolts wrote that it's kind
of a surprise that that PHENI pasta and he leaped over a senior. He's
and you know he's played, he's played played, so you know that he's
a starter. He called it a mild surprise, So I'm sure it wasn't
surprising to you when you asked him about Chip Kelly, because he's kind of
this figment of somebody's imagination where he's kind of different. Right, their public
persona is way different, and there's a lot of people like, oh,
I was just gonna go there because a lot of people are like that.
They said, well, you're not the guy I thought you were because you're
kind of cool. Yeah, you know the guy that we that I know
pretty well or you pretty well was. It was Luke. He was this
guy figure, right, can you talk to him, can you approach him?
Blah blah blah. He was just a dude who wanted to coach.
Yeah, all the other stuff he had to do because he had to do
it right. And and he turned up to he's a good guy. Yeah,
but you never really know because right, you know. And it's funny
because I I remember the first time I got that sense of him and seeing
him in a casual situation. Was that a dinner the first year I covered
basketball. And I've told the story about how the and we weren't supposed to
do this, right, but the lout would host a dinner for the media
on the last road trip, Okay, and yeah, and you know you're
not supposed to let them by dinner, but I wasn't gonna stop him,
right and uh and uh I didn't know this. Yeah, and so Jack
record and I. Jack was covering for the Citizen. I was covering it
for the Star, and I think I don't know if there were any TV
guys on it. I think whoever was covering for the Wildcat. We're in
LA and they were playing UCLA. You're selling in USC and we went to
Marina del Rey at a place called the warehouse that I've since, you know,
been to since, and it was just a casual dinner and it was
all the players and it was loot and it was Bobby. And I'm trying
to remember if who would have been the idea at that time, would it
have been? I don't I don't remember Cedric being there. Well, you
know, the coaching staff. It was a big group at this. Yeah,
a really nice restaurant and Maria del Ray and I saw him for the
first time. You know, he ordered some wine. I saw what he
liked to eat. He ordered a bunch of appetizers for everybody, and he
was like, he's kind of a regular, you know. And now he's
he's got he's got the credit card, right, so, you know,
and that and that that's kind of cool. But he just wanted everybody to
have a great time on this last road trip and it was fun and I
saw him completely differently at that time then I saw him other times. It's
funny because just people would find it chemistrange because he's just a regular. Yeah,
of course, he guess. I was in an elevator, had to
be early nineties and Bobby was in there and I came in there and he
was running behind him and are you doing okay? They were going to the
game. We're going to the game, and they said, you're doing okay.
He says, yeah, damn. Well he didn't say damn. He
said, those one year contracts, you gotta you gotta you know, as
good as you as good as you, right, you know how it was
because state law, you can only do one year contracts, right, right,
Yeah, of course he was. Who's you're not gonna say you're not
firing him, right, or you're not you're not not resigning him, right?
But that was he always had some kind of motivation. But you know,
but there's other guys like that. But you know the guy, well,
here's one. The persona of Dick Tommy off the field, it was
different on He was a hard guy on the field, Oh yeah, but
people didn't see that. They saw Dick Tommy the male manner kind of guy
who was very visible. But you didn't know how he could go after somebody
on the field. I'll tell you this because you know this. We've talked
about this a number of times. How opposite he was after wins in the
office. Oh yeah, yeah, because if he won, he didn't have
to explain anything to anybody. Right, he lost, he was you know,
he was apologized, he was he was totally different. The things,
you know, went went wrong, We just we got to do better.
So like that, he won a game, he was cranky, Yeah,
he went, he'd be cranky. He lost. He was sympathetic. Yeah,
which totally it made no sense. It made zero. It made zero
sense to me about how he would do that. I mean, he grabbed
a microphone. I was just thinking about that, you know, and it
was after an Oregon game. But the question was asked the question the first
you know, he he had done his radio show. So we all get
up there and the first question is, uh, it wasn't pretty, but
a win's a win. He grabbed the guy's microphone and told him to ask
the question over. I remember that very much. So he was fine with
it. But he did do that. He didn't do that. No,
he was yeah and uh, and it was a simple you knew where he
was going with a question. He just didn't want it. He didn't like
it, and he didn't like it that way because because that that's where I
heard for the first time, you have any idea how hard it is to
win a football game, and he talked about they said, you have no
idea, and that was his answer. Little little did we know? Those
games were common, right, those hard to win, hard to wins games,
and he he felt like they had achieved something by winning a game,
and because every game was hard to win, and if somebody took it kind
of lightly, he took offense to that. Then you have guys like Steve
Kerr who are who they are, Yeah, you know, just dudes who
kind of just happy to be here, but are very good at what they
did, very intense. Yeah, you know, I mean Steve was a
comparitor you talked about, you know that he was the kid next door and
all that kind of stuff. I'll tell you what, he had a competitive
streak on him that not a lot of other people have, so much so
that he stood up to Michael Jordan and said yeah and he got a fight.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Thanks to Pat Nugent over
mikel Mountain High School football coach. They've got another another big game up this
weekend. And then John Feeno, we appreciate that. Good good job,
Jay, You're paying for this show, so yeah, we better be there
and knowing nice job on the nice job on this on the staft. Welcome
back. You don't come back any any day of the weekend. How did
we manage without you? I don't know. That's a good question this year.
All right, let's get the heck out of here. We'll be back
tomorrow. We'll keep getting ready for Saturday's opener with n Au. So come
back tomorrow.