This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeart Radio Whip just Surge on
the Ball. Hey, welcome back to II on the Back here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve, you're Jay. You hope you have some break
news. It caught me off Carse. This is High on the Ball breaking
news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight. So I guess, I guess this
has been kind of hinted around for a few weeks. I hadn't heard any
of this. I'm gonna have to hit you. I'm gonna have to I
don't remember talking about when it first came out about two months ago, and
then again I brought it up with you two weeks ago or something. Well,
it had and we're talking about Terry Francona is apparently going to retire.
It still hasn't been announced, but he did go on a rate on a
on a podcast I think it was this morning actually, and he kind of
talked and it was it became more it became more definite. Here here's what
he had to say on it was a podcast. One of you guys from
the athletic But here's what he had to say, and that's the good part.
It really hasn't been that hard. I think I'm looking forward to right
when the season's over, I'm gonna get another set of surgeries. I do
that every year, and it'll take me a while to kind of get healthy.
But I'm really looking forward to to seeing like what's next and what do
I miss? You know, how much do you miss it? Do you
miss it? You know? I thought when I got done playing, I
would be a typical because that's all I've ever done. And I put my
equipment bag away and never looked at it again. And you know, I
gave everything I had. It was time and I moved on. I'm kind
of looking forward to this now just to see how I do feel, and
I'm not worried about like, you know, there's no timetable for the first
time my life, and I can take a deep breath and and like I
said, get healthy and then we'll see what happens. Really, how old
is he he's my age sixty four, same class, so so let me
obviously seven fantastic calliphan crew. He's going to the Creed. Okay, so
let me ask you. Do you ask you this personal? And it's not
about you. I don't want to make anybody. Do you worry about your
retirement? You remember? You worry about what I'm gonna do? Yeah?
Yeah, like like what my life is going to be like I don't.
I don't because mine's way different from here. But yeah, for me,
I'm just gonna keep doing what what I like doing, what keeps me busy,
whether it's this radio show, writing for the writing for the magazine.
You know what this mean? Do you know what that means? I'm not
really going to retire. You retired now? Yeah, I'm retired now.
I don't consider myself retired, but but you but you are if you're going
to continue to do the same thing you're doing now. No, I'd like
to think that I'm just keeping I'm continuing to work. I don't consider myself
retired, you're you're But but if you retire, I just asked, I
just don't have a real job. This is and this is you know what
I'm saying, I do you're retired now because you'll be doing the same thing,
yeah, in retirement, Yeah, because I'm doing what I'm doing.
One because my family. You know, I need to, right. I
don't want my wife kicking me out of the house, you know, because
you know we need and want some income. But too, I don't want
to. I don't want to retire, Steve, I don't want I don't
want to not be doing anything. I think though that he's sixty four is
relatively young. Sixty four is still young people who don't want to retire because
they have nothing to do. They're afraid of nothing to do, right,
And that's kind of what he was saying. I want to see what this
feels like and then see what I'm gonna do, and then I'll figure it
out. We'll look at the roast. Is it Luisa who's one hundred years
old and and he's still managing? You know, some guys can't let it
go. Other guys can't. You know. That's the whole thing with the
tricky women, end men, endgames. What do you do with it at
the end of the game. I've seen I've seen too many people retire and
then just lose their mind exactly. And I'm not and I'm guarding against you.
And that's fine. If I forget my stuff every day, find as
long as I find it eventually and know where I'm supposed to be and know
what I'm supposed to be doing. To me, that that's all I'm looking
for. I feel like the things I'm doing, though, I can do
them until I kick right. They're not physically taxing, right, They're not
taxing. I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying writing for the for Business on magazine.
I'm enjoying doing this show. I'm enjoying the breakfast club that I work
with. And those are the three things that I do. If other things
come along, I'll do them. Terry Francona, he's gonna this is what
he does. He's you know, he's been doing baseball all this time,
but he's gonna walk away from it. And it sounds like he feels pretty
good about it and he's gonna figure it out once he maybe he will manage
again. He didn't say, you know, he kind of said that.
He said, I'll just see when it comes up, and if something comes
up, I'll go do that. So, you know, retirement in the
end has to be comfortable. It can't be forced, right. You can't
force yourself to stop doing things because you're only going to drive yourself crazy.
I mean, that's how that's how I look at it. I've known,
you know, I've known so many people who retired a lot of cops who
retire, your twenty years of this daily, daily stress and daily intensity that
they live with. Then they quit and then they lose their minds. Now,
my unfortunately, my two brothers who did that. I mean they when
they stopped working, stop being police officers, they stopped doing anything, and
you know, they just and they're they're okay, you know, but there's
a lot of them who are not because you can't they can't figure out what
You can't just turn it off. Some people can, some people can't.
I feel that I have to have something to be doing every day. Now.
It can't be golf seven days a week. Right. Your wife wouldn't
not allow that, you would if I did my chorders? Well, then
you go, you have chores to do? Good God do all right,
Okay, let's move on. For those of you who are trying to get
to get a bet down or something like that. Joe Burrow is going to
start for the Bengals tonight. He was he was questionable headed into this game
with due playing the Rams. They need to win. They need to win.
They definitely need to win, absolutely need to win. But you know,
he again he had been listening as questionable all along, he is,
in fact gonna start. There's two Monday night games tonight. You got the
you got the the the Bengals hosting the Rams. That starts at five fifteen
our time, and then uh, starting at about ten minutes, you've got
the Eagles at the Buccaneers. Eagles are giving four and a half. The
Bengals are giving the ree kind of not very sixty Monday night, kind of
like just a game. Yeah, but you know what, I'm gonna go
home. I'm of course, of course you gonna. I don't think I'm
gonna bet. I didn't. I didn't be well in the NFL this week.
I did great in college. I'm killing it in college. I'm just
not killing it in our in our picks, which I had another bedroom.
I know you are. Keep We talked a little bit about a bunch of
stuff that went on this weekend from from the games, but there were some
important games that were played. Obviously, the Ohio State coming back to beat
Notre Dame a great game, an intense game, got to the end you
know, wins it on the last play of the game. That that was
a great game. But Florida State Clemson game overtime game, that was a
great game. Uh yeah, that that's that storybook. Uh you know,
uh finished that they were hoping for with the kid who the guy who had
got called in off the street to kick in this game, and he missed
twenty nine yard or they would have won the game. That's too bad.
I didn't know that story. Yeah, that's too bad. You know,
Washington State beating up on Oregon State, and I told you Oregon State's not
thought I had Washington State. I had Washington State thinking that they would beat
him at home. Yeah, but they're still good. I mean they're still
pretty good. But there but you know, I'm sure you look okay,
they're not gonna win the league. No, no, but let me tell
yourself, because they've already got a lost. They haven't played any of these
tell you. Let me tell you something. Because another bit that we have
is the USC Washington. I'm becoming more like, yeah, and you should
because Washington is pretty good. Washington is very good. You see, USC
still has troubles on on on defense face you could hang with them the way
they did. Do they play each other Washington USC? I'm pretty sure they
did. And where is that game? I'm gonna look that up. I'm
pretty sure they do. Uh good, because it's I mean, it's it's
it's the game of the year, right, should be, should be And
so so that's I do. I'm getting more and more convinced about Washington.
Oregon looked fantastic. The Pac twelve continued to shine nationally November the fourth at
US So that should be a factor. Right, So we'll see, we'll
see what happened. I just think, uh, you know, and and
and and Michael Michael pannox is still he's very the guy, very good.
You know, we'll see what happens. And you're gonna see him this weekend.
Just see Williams get hitting in the arts. No, so, oh,
there's play. They're getting ready to snap a play. Then he's kind
of like tells trying to tell the center, okay, you know where he's
going to change a player or something in the center, and they call it
time out or whatever, and then the center snaps and hit him right in
the ashes. Credited. I think Bills did Bill Centis or Brian, she
looked, how boy decent? They look well? Either that or US's defense
is that bad? Oh yeah, okay maybe. And it's one game.
You can't really tell one thing well. And that's the thing about a lot
a lot of these games. It's people are going to try and set a
season long expectation from the games that happened this weekend, and you can't.
Right. That's why jay I asked you this at the beginning of the beginning
of this today. What have you learned from Arizona? This is what we
think, and they you not a very good team. They beat them.
Okay, second game they played well and didn't play well against the mediocre SEC
team in Mississippi States. Very good, right, Third game, you tap
is not very good and they they handled them, but they didn't overwhelm.
So you understand where I'm good. And in fourth game they play play the
worst, one of the worst teams in the league and they beat them by
one. Yeah, you would understand what I'm saying. It's not a good
litmus test, right. Well. And it's funny because you sit here and
you think, because you know, let's let's remember that we're gonna talk to
Heath pray about this. In nineteen ninety two, the week before Arizona went
and they had that game against Miami, but they could have beat them.
They lost for Oregon State the week before that, a bad an Organ State
team was it was the only win week the week. You just don't know.
So do I feel like I have nothing that leads me to believe that
Arizona can be Washington this weekend other than they get to play them, so
I used to. I know we're kind of tuition up the minutes. I
don't have a breaking Okay, So, so are you still confidence level top
ten? Being a ten one being not so confident they're winning six games?
Yeah, because I'm looking at the schedule now, Okay. I I think
they can beat Colorado because if Colorado can only score points, it can't stop
you from scoring. Arizone's got a good defense, you know, look at
look at what the Organ defense did to Colorado. I think Arizona can be
in Colorado. I feel I feel better about Arizona being in Colorado than they
did before the Organ. Okay, Okay, So there's one I watched a
lot of the UCLA Utah game. Zone will be UCLA. Okay, so
that's two. All right. So now I think they'll be at a s
U. So that's three plus. I think they can. I feel better
about whether or not they can beat Oregon State than I did before the weekend.
I think they can beat the Organ State here. Now I'm gonna say
they got no shot to win at Washington State. That was one of the
games. But see the two games now that I think where we talked,
we were saying Organ State, they were the two important games. It's not
Oregon State in Ucla. They've got to they they've got to get one of
those games. Then they got to take Colorado, and they got to take
AID. It's here, it's here. We'll get to that most. I
think there's three. I do think there's three games in there that's gonna be
tough. No it is. Let me tell you, I think it's gonna
doable. The way you presented it on I'm okay with that. There's there's
four games right there that I think are all winnable, and they need to
win three of them. Okay, Oregon State, Ucla, Colorado, and
ask you all winnable games. So if they yeah, Colorado is gonna be
tough, you know, Oh, of course it's gonna be tough. But
I don't think Oregon State is as tough as we thought it was going to
be. Now, I just don't think that he's not he's not that great.
I don't want to poop poo on your on your I don't disagree with
you, and I don't agree with you, but I can see three wins
out there. Yeah, that's why I don't can't agree with I can't disagree
with you. It's possible, It's pretty possible. And then if they do
the thing where they would beat somebody that they're not supposed to be, they
can afford to lose one they're not supposed to lose. Look, that could
be pivotal. Well, the Stanford game felt like a loss up until it
is. Yeah, it was that. It was that game that Arizona always
loses, that it shouldn't lose. It felt like a lot in the first
quarter, it felt like a lot like, oh, no, where was
the Oregon State game here? Okay, that's a factor. Yeah, but
the Stanford game felt like that loss that Arizona always get that shouldn't get.
And then and they want it. That's a game that in a game like
that that's a game that Arizona loses all the time. If you guys want
to call us after this, after heath break, give us a call.
Are you still high on six wins? Do you not feel that way?
Brian call Brian forget I don't. I'm I'm sure there's a lot of people
who don't. See So if they want to call usticking calls after the heath
break, let's go to that. Now. Part of it's can depend on
how they come out of that USC and Washington how healthy healthy exactly, That's
what I'm saying. All Right, we're gonna take our break, We're gonna
get Heath bray on and uh talk about some Washington stuff here. He was
on the ninety two team that beat the number one Washington team, and so
we'll see Whe's get his thoughts on it coming into this week. Let's stick
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in for you. Steve Ribera and Jakins Solace, they have their eye on
the board on two Sons Sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey,
welcome back to you on the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve
Roberta, you're Jakin's awesome. Now on the phone, we have heat free
break former U of a football player. How you doing, Heath d Well,
Steve, how you guys do? On Jay? We're doing fine.
Thank you, Heath. Good to talk to you. We have a lot
of things to get to with you. Jay wanted to have some questions about
the good old days. Yeah, you know as always. I mean,
you know that ninety two Washington game was like one of the you know,
great games ever. You know, so we're probably gonna want to talk to
you before every Washington game and just bring it up and rehash it every time.
So we'll do that today if you're okay with that, right, Well,
I think this I think this one's a good opportunity since we you know,
we're in a pretty good position. They're extremely good, and there's gonna
be a lot of people. They were wearing red evidently, apparently, let's
go back to that game first, nineteen ninety two, you guys had you
know, there's a swarm had started in the whole mystique of all that you
guys, it's Washington week, they're coming in number one in the country.
Was there think back? Was there something that that happened or was going on
it practiced that week in the locker room or whatever that led you to believe
that you guys were going to beat those guys Stamford The week before, we
had started the year pretty slow. I think we were four and two.
We went and played Stanford, I believe if I'm right, and uh we
had an opportunity to play, uh, the number one team in the country.
We had lost to Miami by one point when they were ranked number one
in the country earlier in the year. Right, we knew we had a
tremendous defense and if our offense didn't make mistakes, we were going to be
in a very good position. It was one of those things too, that
we had the back then ABC's a crew was Bob Greasy and Keith Jackson.
They were there, We saw them in McHale. It was just a big
deal. And I'll tell you it's uh. We knew we were gonna win
before we even left the locker room. And that's not a joke. I
mean, it was one of those things where we just knew that that they
were they were in trouble and we're and that's it's hard to believe since we
had lost them the previous two years by the combined score of one hundred and
eight to fourteen, and so it was one of those things. It was.
It was really great for me. It was my senior year, as
my seniors as a little bit anti climatic because I've broken my back and was
still being able to play a lot, but not notnywhere near what I had
done the previous two years. But the team at Arizona would vote for team
captains after the first half of the season, and they voted me and Ty
Parton and George Moolulu and Richard Maddox and we weren't warmed up and we went
back in the to the to the which would essentially be the West Side locker
room, then the northwest corners where a locker room used to be, and
when we were in in there, they it was very very quiet. It
was very very quiet. And as you guys know, Arizona Stadium would not
fill in, and even if even if it was a sellout, it wouldn't
start really getting full until midway through the first quarter on the Tachnic quarter.
Yeah, it's one of those things that's frustrating as a player, because you
know, you go to other places and they're full when they get go.
Well, the place in our locker room was silent. There was nobody's saying
word. The coaches weren't seeing a thing. They were just walking around as
a lot of wister as a lot of tense tenths waiting. And then the
when the referee stuck his head in and called for captains, that place went
absolutely bananas. I mean bananas that tape towels, stream and yelling and me
and Tie and and and George and Rich. We walked out and we got
to the northwest corner of that stadium and when we got there, we looked
up and that was an empty seat in that building, right, Every single
solitary person that was coming to that game seemed like they were already in their
seat, so when they saw us in the corner, it was it was
it was electric. It was just from the get go. It was electricity
I've never experienced before or since at Arizona Stadium ever. So let me ask
you one of the things that I think I'm pretty stable and saying this,
the only thing I've learned and covering you guys athletes, like your age,
your quality, you're you're how good you guys are? Is that how emotions
play? Affector. You talked about the game before right against Oregon stated or
staff or wherever it was, and you get beat and then you have you
come against the best team to cut Tree and then you played up to up
to their level or you played tough. Tell talk to me about the emotions
of a team or a player having to get up and you guys do and
then then the next week not doing the same thing. Well that that I
think that that happens a lot. I mean, my son plays on a
high school team, Sara up here in Skysdale, and we just got thumped
like you wouldn't believe. Last week. The team just came out completely flat
from the beginning of the game and they just I mean they got just shellac.
It was it was awful. But the point I'm making is, is
it exactly to your point, Steve. They they KEMP came out against the
rival earlier and was just you know, gang Busters. So in our case,
I don't. I mean we had a bunch of sickos. I mean
we had Rob Walter, we had Baron as Standards, we had Teddy Bruski,
we had me, we had Ty Parton, we had Jimmy Hopkins.
I mean, we had Jim Hoffman, Chuck Osbourne, Brand Boyer. I
mean we had some dudes that were absolutely nutballs. I mean when I say
that, I mean that in the most flouting way possible. These guys would
fly around. Now, Rob was a little different Rob Walter because he didn't
like, he didn't get emotional. We put a heart monitor on him and
he made a sack against Ash and his heart rate got up to ninety eight.
Teddy Bruski had a heart monitor and he got a sack. He has
went up to one sixty eight. Is that's the difference between you know,
the players. More people were like Teddy than like Rob. I was like
that I had to get really rolling and it wasn't hard for me to do.
And there were some tough, tough dudes, and that's one of the
things to keep in mind. Two guys, one of the things about the
ninety two teams that made them very good is they stayed healthy. We don't
have the depth at Arizona and still don't of other you know, Alabamas and
things like that. What we're dealing with now is we're dealing with a similar
deal that I experience. Ninety one was our best team. We went four
and seven that year, and the reason is is because we had seventeen of
our twenty two starters at some point miss games. And we don't have the
depth to do uh, we don't have the depth to do that. I'm
on the radio and son, what's up, and I'll call you. I
just had Tom Bobo come by the come by the UH car and see his
head and he was pretty safety after meet at VET, I recruited him.
We're both at the pediatrics office right now. My sons in are get his
foot looked at. He had banged up in California this sekend. So but
back to your point, Steed, that is extremely important and I do believe
it's It's also has a lot to say about the type of players you have,
because when you do have have those guys that are that are a little
bit off Tip Kilts. I mean, I'm gonna tell you what. You're
not gonna meet at Brandt Bowyer in the world. You're not gonna meet at
Chuck Osborne in the world. You're certainly not gonna meet another Teddy Bruskie.
You won't meet another type pardon, there ain't many and me walk in the
face the earth. Jimmie Hopkins has got to be one of the most unique
individuals I've ever met in my life. So that had a lot to do
it as well. So let me ask you this, and this is an
observation, oh, because you know what, you were a quarterback, so
you might be able to be able to feel this in So if Afitda comes
in for Dolora, right, and they need to they need to score because
otherwise they might lose where they could lose to me, and this is what
I saw, what I sensed. He came in and the team got some
energy, they played with more energy. I could be wrong, but that's
what it got to me. Does that happen. Yes, that happens all
of the time, and it's not always I wouldn't say even energy as much
as sometimes there's just there's just trends that that happened. And during the game,
now the Stanford game this weekend, when if the feeda came in,
I had a very good feeling about that. I just I liked the kid.
I've watched him practice. I mean not that I don't like Jade,
but but Fafita, there's something about him that is just a fireball. And
I mean one of the things I love about it in the most is I
stood next to him and his head doesn't come up to my armpits. I
mean, he is, he's a he's minuscule, and so there's something about
that. Having if there was a there was a shot on TV where he
was calling the play in the huddle and he's actually his head is back and
he's looking up at all of his teammates like my son looks at me or
used to when he was little. And so having that that, there's there's
just different there's different styles, and a lot of times what will happen is
is your style is not going to be be able to exploit defensive styles and
then when they come in they change a little bit of the style with Fafita,
and then that is able to Sanford doesn't have as good an answer for
it as they did with the offensive. The door was running, and because
Fafita was more mobile, he was getting out. He was definitely getting out
of the pocket, making really really good throws, doing things a little differently,
and that's that's that's that has a lot to do with it too,
and it causes the energy steve that you're witnessing. It causes that. And
there's the one of the biggest things that that people don't realize is the importance
of momentum. Momentum is huge. I can't tell you how many times we're
getting our bus kicked and we just get that first first down and then we
get another one, and then we get another one. Then we get a
touchdown, and then we start rolling. Then our defense wakes up and then
we start we block a punt and then the whole degon thing changes. Yeah,
I saw that too, you know, he said, you know,
we make a lot of the last result thinking about the next game, right,
you know, Arizona sneaks past what's been you know, unanimously considered the
worst team in the league. They beat him by a point at their place.
Yeah, there's you watch that game and there's nothing visibly that you see
that says they can be Washington this week, because why is you know,
so damn good. But something happens, right that happened to you, guys,
This happened to other teams. We've seen other teams be awful and then
be great. How does that happen? This isn't thing to keep in mind,
guys. Now, I don't go around quoting Dick told me a lot,
but I do a lot more since he passed because I don't want to
embarrass him in But I'll tell you what. One of the greatest things he
ever told us was in our room. We played awful in the road and
beat Oregon State and they were the doormats at that time, and he just
looked at us and we were all feeling like crap, we played bad,
and he just looks and he goes, you know what, There's one thing,
though, guys. He said, we just won a conference game on
the road. And he said, the hardest thing and the human being could
do on this planet is win a football game, and I was like,
all right, I'll take that. And so you got that mentality to Jay
where you got you know, it's an understanding that this is not an endeavor,
that it's just numbers on a paper. This isn't a mathematic equation.
This is a subjective interaction between two variables. And so you can't always always
think that it's just going to be crazy good. Because the team that beat
us this weekend in my son's high school game, for comparison, was nowhere
near as good as the score indicated. It was just one of the things.
And now, I mean, we look like we couldn't beat anybody,
but we're very good at the football team. When you're looking at Arizona,
I still think that they they're a very good football team. They showed me
a lot on defense, and I'll tell you we've got a heck of an
offensive line, and they're getting better than they have been. And I mean
we're sitting here picking picking stuff apart. What are they four and one?
Three and one? Excuse me? All right, yeah, they played one
lesson we did, so they're three and one. I mean that's if you
and I, if we're all sitting around having a beer in in July saying,
hey man, we get the September twenty fifth, and we're three and
one. I think we'd take that pretty much. And the only game we
lost was in overtime at miss Misissippi State, Right, I think we all
said that that was gonna happen. Yeah, Well this is weeah there what
we thought they were going to be. So let me ask you this.
If you got the call to come and talk to this team, this team
before the game on Saturday, what would what would you tell? You?
Know, I'm not a pregame stuff. I tell you I'm not a guy
that I'm a guy that just sits there and goes, get out, let's
get let's go. You said, you know, nothing's talk, let's go,
let's go. That's but that was my mentality all the time. Yeah.
But I'll tell you what I would tell them is that you've got an
opportunity on a national stage with a bunch of people that will come back and
see you next week. If you beat these guys today, and you can
beat them, and I still think we can, I mean, if you
fly around on defense, get in panaxy space. I've got a friend of
mine whose son is a starting uh center, They're they're very, very good.
They're probably I would say, I mean, no, no offense to
USC, but I still think Washington maybe the best team in the league,
including Oregon in the USC. Yeah, so you know, ay, you
know what if you're gonna do with Rod Rossby's it's about, you know,
hey, go out and bust your tail and play well, love you buddies
getting involved in it. And look what's gonna happen when you win this game.
I mean, you're gonna that's We're gonna have big Mow on our side.
So that's rolling downhill. So he's lastly one of the reasons why I
want to have you on to do a question I was gonna ask you.
We had this debate, well, we had this discussion last week because of
Hunter Colorado playing both ways, Truvis Hunter. So we were thinking who would
be the guy at Arizona that we covered or the last thirty years that would
go be able to go both ways. You played both ways, I think
for a hiccup, right, Yeah, I played well. I played I
played uh, free safety for my first three years and in my junior year
I played free safety, strong safety, middle linebacker, outside linebacker, and
I snapped for punts and heil for field goals. No, but you also
played. In my senior year, I played quarterback. Yeah, yeah,
yes, so could you think of anybody in a wide receiver so so,
could you have sustained it at wide receiver room defensive back? I don't know.
If I don't know with my style of defensive play because I was I
was a cannonball, and that's not that's not a compliment. I was a
guy that win one hundred and one hundred and ninety five miles an hour into
people and would spend the rest of the week in triage in the training room
trying to prepare for the next week. So I beat my body up a
lot more. Now, a guy like Darryl Lewis, Yeah, we said,
we said him, said him. Delu was Delu. Could I think
Delu could have done it? Plus he had the conditioning. I think Chuck
Levy, if he was good enough to play on defense, could have done
it. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think that there's guys I
love. I can't imagine what it would look like if you put Rob Gronkowski
at defensive end and say go get the quarterback. We talked about that,
right right, I mean now, and this man who's this, this McMillian
kid, the not t mac the tight end what's his name mcglocklan. Yeah,
I'm sorry. You mean to tell me that guy wouldn't be intimidating if
he had walked up you saw him cross the line if you're a quarterback.
Yeah, So yeah, you've got some guys and because we don't have the
one that used to be the big one that would that that everyone could do
and pull off, especially in high school, was fullback in linebacker, right
because you didn't run very far and you had they're exactly the same body types
and you just you know they're transitional or a cornerback and a wide receiver like
he got Hunter at Colorado. Now he is an alien. There is just
there's not many unicorns like him, so there's to make a comparison is kind
of like comparison. It's almost like comparing dionea deon standers. I mean,
think about how good he was on offense, how good he was on defense,
and how good he was at baseball. Yeah, yeah, all things.
And I'll tell you the one that the one player that I that I
saw when my had coach to Wake Forest. I was, I was,
I don't know, I was probably ten years old. We went to play
in Auburn and we had to play and as the first game of the year,
and they had this guy named Vincent Jackson at running back. Holy smokes,
I've never seen anything like that, even at ten years old, I
remember, or eleven, whatever it was. And then you see what he
was able to do. I guarantee you you can put that guy in pre
safety. He's gonna murder people. You put him at corner and no one's
gonna be able to complete the ball. You put him at linebacker, no
one's goill be able to run on you. You throw it to him at
wide receiver, he's gonna score. Every time you put him in running back,
he's gonna hell. He probably could throw it to you Vincent Jackson otherwise
than hey Bo Jackson. Yeah, well thanks a bunch of heat. This
was fun. Like I said, yeah, you can expect a call from
us every time he was going to place Washington. You got the guys.
That's fun to be with you. Guys. Your son's gonna be fine.
Thank you. All right, let's go, we're way over. But there
was a lot of flight was a lot of fun. Okay, let's take
a quick break. We'll give me back. Take your costs five two zero
four. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you'd know it's been successful
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San Miguel High dot org. Steve Ravera and Jaken Salaz they have their eye
on the ball on two Sons Sports Stage Chef, Fox Sports fourteen fifty,
Streamy Live. I mean I heart radio. Arm Hey, welcome back to
the ball here at Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, you're Jay.
You've got ten minutes that went well, got a little along with our guests
today. So I wanted to tell him he's wrong with the momentum. But
it's okay, dude, he played I didn't. You didn't. Momentum.
It's the thing. It's the thing. He was a nice run. That's
no one, hey. But you know, the good thing is he mentioned
the same guys we did, almost to the teeth of check Levy. Levy
dar lewis wrong said he mentioned the full back linebacker thing, which was Lance
Briggs, who who played both of those positions in Arizona. I'll be not
at the same time, but you know he was. He was both of
those things. He was so one more that you had said you had said
one guy, and you said, I can't remember who it was now,
but now he yeah, you know, well, and we mentioned him,
we mentioned he yeah, yeah. I don't think you're prepaying a quarterback or
anything those skill positions. Oh, man, the toll and we saw it
takes a toll on You know that that takes a tance on it. Okay,
So anybody want to call? We have like eight eight and a half
minutes. Uh do you think, Oh, where does Arizona stand in your
mind? The key question I asked you. I don't know, Jay,
I don't know. J If this was a race horse, and and and
and and and I'd like to think my analogies for this, or they beat
on not so good Northern Arizona. They lost to Mississippi State, they beat
okay, not so good, you tap, and then they struggle against Stafford.
Would you bet this horse? I don't feel great, you know,
yeah, would you bet this here? We got a call him. Yeah,
I don't. I don't feel great about their chances on Saturday, other
than like I said, they get to play the game. Let's take this
call. Hi, you're on the air and I on the ball. Hey,
man, I just want to say that last game was ugly, man,
Yeah it was. And I said, I remember I said that.
I said, whether if they win by a point or a touchdown or whatever,
you gotta you gotta be happy with the fact that they want to go
defend me on this because you would listen to the show. Jay is a
style points guy. It's how you look at the airport, how you walk
off the bus. I agree, But I did say if they don't beat
I did say, if Arizona doesn't beat Stanford handily, fans are gonna lose
their mind. Okay, And you have to just understand that. And Heath
Bray said it. Winning a conference game on the road is a hard thing.
But so what do you Yeah, I called you last week and I
agreed with you. You just have to win, just up. So what
So what did the game mean to you? And how they played? I
want to know if the fee to be the quarterback because I'm sick of jdl
man. I'm sick of him driving back twenty yards and throwing the ball sixty
yards for an incompletion. Well that was brought up today, that specific play
three years into this. Don't you think you know, Steve, he was
so good so many times last year. I mean, you could argue that
that the game he had against UCLA last year is one of the like,
maybe the top ten or fifteen games. Ever, he was so good in
that game, So you know he can't and you know he can't, and
you know he can't because you see what he did against Yeah, the thing
about the lower is it I don't think he's gotten better. No, I
think he's just the same guy. And I think last year he's playing for
Arizona, no one knew what he was going to be like, you know,
yeah, good point. He's a different player, there's no question about
that. Yeah, he's not been what we He certainly hasn't been what you
were expecting him to be, h exactly. And my last thing is this,
This goes out to two, so you better fill up that stadium,
man, I'll be there. Yeah, this is a huge game, whether
you like the team or not, that's a huge game. It's massive late
game. But it's gonna be time you see Saturday. Take it easy again.
There's nothing that tells me they should be able to handle Plush. So
damn good. They are really good. I mean you could you could argue,
you could argue for them to be number one in the country. Sure.
I think if somebody's put them there, there's something they're starting to get
vote, you know, because Georgia hasn't looked as dominating as right Alabama's nothing
they beat, I know, but but they're just they're they're malling people.
Yeah, and Michael Pennox is just like I told him, Michael Pennox,
he reminds me of of a left handed hitter who has a great swing.
Every ball Heat throws looks like a great ball. I really like him,
you know. You know, Arizona should have got h Delory wouldn't be played
exactly. Yeah, So I think the point of del delor not getting the
better That's all I was gonna bring up the So you have a bad game,
right, and what do they say everywhere? Well, at least she
learned, he learned from it. You don't learn from it all the time.
You wouldn't be in this situation that well, that's just it. He
just doesn't see he does. He hasn't seemed to grasp what they're trying to
do, which is very strange because he seemed to grasp it a lot last
year, right when we talked about we had bad Jade and good jade all
last year. But he had some really good games. He had some bad
games, but and he he's he had one horrible quarter, but otherwise he's
not been horrible. But not so much better than you still by yourself.
Your wife's gunn she gone, she's so. I was gonna say, if
you go back to do the game again, to watch, do me a
favor and see what I see in terms of the energy, and you can
see that, and just how he throws the ball. It seems like he's
he's trying to beat the crap out of receivers. It's just just throw it,
just throw it. No, I'm I'm gonna watch the fourth quarter again
because I want to see if I see what you saw. And he agreed,
right, because I saw enough of it to see he just wasn't He
looked lost. No, but I'm talking about Fafita. Jaden looked the Lord
looked lost the whole game, you know, And then Fafita came in.
He looked like he knew what the hell he was doing. And that's all
you need from your quarter, right, and that's all you want. I
think, I think, purty, think purty. He's not gonna do a
lot of great things, but he's gonna win you somena win some games.
Yeah, look at dak Pres Scott blah blah blah, YadA, YadA YadA.
What happened yesterday. Man, I mean, come on, it's how
you play that day. But you also have to be just the quarterback that
just be consistent. Yeah yeah, I mean so many, so many things
have to go right for Arizona to have any chance on Saturday. The defense
has to be great. They've got to hold Washington probably twenty eight points at
the most, right, and then whoever plays a quarterback just has to have
a great game. What was the well, I was gonna say it was
the biggest upset. You were just talking about Washington here, one of the
other big big boys here. That's an eighty two Arizona being in Asuka when
as he was gonna go to the Rose Bowl. Eighty six when Arizona bets
But see the eighty six. The difference here is the eighty six Arizona team
was really good, you know, with if you leave all the results the
same and just change their game against UCLA that where they had a like an
eighteen point lead in the second half of Blewett, Arizona goes to that Rose
Bowl, right. So, but the eighty two Arizona team was on its
way. I think they had a lot or was on its way to a
losing record, had they not beat an A su that was coming in getting
ready to go to the Rose Bowl. So that was a huge upset.
Uh. I go back to a nineteen eighty when they beat UCLA. Uh
look how far you're going? Look how far you're going? Well, no,
but let's let's okay. They beat the Oregon here remember in ten years
ago. Well, well there was Oregon in twenty fourteen. Right, that
was a huge upset Oregon in twenty thirteen when he came here with Washington State
one of those Yeah, it's one of the losing, horrible game. And
then and then they beat then they beat Oregon Oregon here there were a couple
of you know, uh, Oklahoma eighty nine. Uh but sure not to
be not as great an upset because that Oklahoma team should not be very good.
Sure, but it was. But there's been some Yeah there the state
game here, Ritrot's first year USC right, remember us he was coming in
Matt Uh what the quarterback name? No, it might not have been Matt
Barkley. Yeah, yeah, okay, Matt Matt Barkley. Remember, and
you know they come in here they ranked ninth in the country. You know,
Ritrot's first year, Matt Matt Scott. And remember the receiver had three
hundred yards. Yet Matt Scott goes out and uh and his receivers uh oh
god, b Hill, what's the name? But they go off here and
they beat it and they beat usc here. You know, not as meaningful,
but it was a big upset because it was Richrot's first year. Yeah,
okay, there's something happening here, you know. Ok So there's been
a lot of them years. When you talk about one that had a huge
impact that you have to go back there watch that game. Okay, sure
today, all right, this was fun, Heath, great, thanks so
much for being here. And we've got Justin Spears is going to come in
here tomorrow. We'll kick some things around in terms of what what what might
be going on on Saturday, So be sure to come back tomorrow. Thanks
for being here. We'll see you tomorrow.