This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Ja Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services. Make sure your most prized possessions katz
R two side at iHeart Radio Station. They good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
Pease Jakinsons got Jason in the house today fifteen minutes. If you guys
want to give us a quick call, please do. Jason Feeling begger Man,
Yes, sir, all right, yep, good. It's probably the
heat. Yeah, that was a big part of the quick went in doubt
blame the heat. Yeah, of course, man, you gotta hydrate,
dude, you gotta hydrate. Yeah, I try. I mean, I
have my water bottle with me at all time. You do, I do.
I can give you that. And that's a big as water bottle,
Yeah it is. Can I say that? You just did? I just
did. Yeah, that's a big barter bottle. You got there? Yes,
trying to say hydrate as much as possible, but yeah, yeah,
no, it's crazy out there, crazy out there. Hey, welcome to
Friday Show. If you guys want to call in please do five two zero
four one six seventy forty. Uh. If someone tried to call in yesterday
didn't get through, um for whatever reason, call us back. I was
banning the phones and I wasn't so good at it yesterday. Okay, well
yeah it was you know, I left, I left one call. I
didn't end a call, so we called you got a busy signal. Then
there might have been one. Well, there was one that called right before
a break. We couldn't answer, right, I just I think they called
back. Richard called. Didn't do Phil? Phil? Richard? Phil called
in a but Oklahoma or whatever it was. Yeah, okay, cool for
you guys. Want to call in again? Just please do. We've been
a nice show today. Yeah, you know, we've got um Ari Wasserman
a national college football rid mostly covers recruiting, but it just you know,
covers all national college football issues with the Athletic so national publication. And we
just saw earlier this week that the Athletics Sorted is going to become the New
York Times Right sports section. But uh Ari is an Arizona guy, but
he works out of Dallas, and it's covering uh recruiting. He did the
story that we we talked a lot about about the jet fish and the and
the coaching staff making the inroad over at south Point and it led to getting
Elijah rushing and um and uh, Keona will heighten and so kind of how
that's open the doors and we'll talk to Ari about that article and just his
thoughts on, you know, on there's stuff that's going on here Arizona.
Interesting questions that we'll be asking him just about, you know, why he
did it's why he came to the story. Hopefully we'll at least right and
then at at four fifteen. Jake Fisher, we haven't had him in here
for a couple of weeks and uh, you know, we'll ask him afe.
You know, we'll pick his brain on a few things that have been
been happening. You know, there's the the hazing stuff going on up in
Northwestern there's a new uh interim baseball coach up there because because their head coach
got fired because he's a bully. Um and the and the interim coach is
the u of a guy we can save a little bit after breaking news.
Um, but uh, you know, then we're sitting here on Friday and
we still don't have a TV deal. No, we'll have one point some
point. Your hair might get a little greyer mine too, I can't get
a lot great han, Yeah you have some darkest spots. Yeah, it's
gonna happen. I mean, didn't they say it like end of July.
Well, everybody thought by by the twenty first. I packed twelve med today,
which is next Friday. So they got another week to beat that deadline.
But it's not really a deadline. It's just somebody that said they need
to have it done by then. Sure, I know that. On his
on his podcast, John Wilmer, our buddy at the Santose Mercury News Pack
twelve Hotline, he thought it would be this week. So the week before
Pack twelve media day, we talked about where here we are. On Friday
we talked about this a little about the uh, I don't know, I
don't want to. I know it's not this, but I'll just use it
a trial balloon with CW right with acc and how people are kind of uh
embracing that. Yeah, that's a possibility. Still probably people here we talked
about this yesterday, how to pack twelve. People pooh pooed it. They're
laughed at it. Yeah, well not just packed national media laughter. They
all they're gonna be on the CW. And now, like I said yesterday,
now the c is gonna be on the CW and everything. But everybody
thinks it's cool. When you were younger, Jay, this is a stump
question, but I'll ask you to do it. And it was one thirty
in the morning, you had had one or two, you were probably nineteen
twenty years old, and you were lonely. Did you ask that one girl
just to go home one day one night because you had no other choice.
This is your CWO, that's the CW. Yeah, no, no,
but but in a good way. I understand what you're saying. You know.
Look, um, look, if if, if, if a network
wants to enter the sports market then and they they're willing to take you and
pay you for that, then why the hell not? Yeah, right now,
if the CW is the only place that the PAC twelve is going to
be, now that's a problem. But if it's an additional network and now
that they've entured, you know, into the market with the ACC and if
they become part of the PAC twelves U a TV package, then great,
that's another place that they're gonna be on. Yeah, yeah, we'll soon
see, We'll soon see. I'm sure it's gonna be able to talk at
next week's meeting whether they get it done or not, right right, it's
gonna be a topic of conversation. Well, I see. And that's one
of the things that that that you know, people are saying, is that
they if they don't want Pack twelve media, they to be all about the
Pack two TV deal. They need to get you you know, maybe get
it done early next week, get all the conversation over with so they can
focus on football when when the coaches and players show up in Vegas. Right.
So that's the thing about it's not a deadline, it's just a would
you rather kind of thing? Yeah, And I would think that the PAC
twelve would rather have the conversation next Friday be all about all about the football
and not about the TV deal and why it has or hasn't happened. Yeah.
Right. I can't remember if the PAC twelve sends reporters votes or is
it the coaches a preseason there's a media pole, but I don't I don't
know if the PAC twelve does the media pole or the coaches do the media
pole. Yeah, I don't remember. I'll look it up. Yeah,
because that should be coming out, Well, that'll come out Friday. But
uh, I would assume that Utah and USC are going to be the or
USC probably will be favor you. I want to think US in Washington two
biggest things. I would think USC in Washington would be the famous Washington Yeah.
Well yeah, well Oregon up there. I never count out Washington or
no Utah given what they've done in the last few years, come out of
nowhere and become this power. Yeah, but you know, you know,
it's it's hard to it's it's hard to say. Utah's not sexy, right,
No, of course they don't have they don't have the tribe Michael Pennocks
and Heisman Trophy candidate. They don't have him, you know, somebody like
that return. So it's not sexy to pick Utah to in the league,
even though they've won the two years in row, right, and you've been
if you hadn't picked him the last two years, you were wrong, right
exactly? Yeah, Okay, what else is going on? Basketball players back?
Uh? Have we checked into maybe you could put this for breaking news?
Uh, the UA guys in Europe doing the league's with Henry and Crevous
is right. Yeah, I think Crevous is still playing and he yea yeah,
okay, I think he had a monster game last game out. Yeah.
I don't think we mentioned that last time. Um. Okay, so
they sent the media not in football basketball, but not not non football.
Uh. And I'm sure you know. The guy that can't really come on.
Wish we could have him on is Um who ran easy deserts Horn before.
Um. Yeah, now he's packed twelve. He's doing the media,
right Caliparipar Yeah, yeah, so he can't come on because it's Favors one
school, but I think he's part of that, part of that group.
Okay, yeah, so we'll see, we'll see what happens. What else.
Baseball starts again tonight. Baseball picks up again tonight. Uh, everybody's
playing. Um for those of you who care. The Dodgers are at the
Mets starting at four o'clock in the afternoon. Four dead Bill following that Bill's
cringing rail. Yeah, Bill's yelling at me. Um, Zach, I
will I'll throw Bill bone here. Zach Gallen is the favorite. Who's the
Diamondbacks ace pitchers, the favorite to win the Cy Young in the National League.
He happens to be on my fantasy baseball team. He haven't messed that
up. He's been steady all year long. My three Diamondbacks that I have
are all really good. Uh can tell Marte and uh and uh um Christian
Christian, Christian Christian something or other Christian, that guy, you know some
of you'll get a first baseman. Come on, Steve, come on,
I don't pitt. I don't even know, you know. I saw I
saw graphic today. It was one of those things on you know, one
of the memes on Facebook, and it said my ability something like my ability
to remember um lyrics from songs in the fifties, sixties and seventies. It's
far better than my ability to remember why I walked into. That happens all
the time. It hasn't happened to you yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
luckily. You know, you know when it starts when you have kids.
Okay, when your kids and then you start calling your kids all the
same name, yeah all together, you know, Fred, me, Bobby,
Yeah, yeah. Here the exact words of that, my ability to
remember song lyrics from the sixties seventies, and eighties far exceeds my ability to
remember why I walked into the kitchen. Yeah, that's true, pretty much
true. You know, I'm sitting there on the on the couch this morning,
and you know, I'm looking through, you know, all stuff,
and I sent my iPad down. Then I thought, oh, I got
to do this, and I picked up my iPad. For the three seconds
from the time I thought I got to do this to the time I picked
up my iPad forgot whatever when I picked it up for it happens to me
again to this moment, I don't remember why. You never realized I never
figured it out. Eventually, the other my senses, I think it'll come
to me. It'll come to me. It eventually comes to me. But
you know, I don't thinking how did that happen. I still don't know
how I picked up my iPad at that moment and it two and a half
seconds. Maybe, wow, to forget why I picked it up? Yeah,
that's crazy. I know what to say. Brothers, sister, Yeah,
I'll bet you your dad your mom do the same thing. Yeah,
my dad does. Yeah, like he walks to forget your name. No,
he doesn't do that, because my name is pretty easy to remember.
But he both places and he forgets, like why he's going to places,
and then he walks back into his room. Then he yells at us to
go do what he was supposed to do initially because he forgot. So I
have called my daughters yeah, Adam, I've called them by their brothers first,
by their brother's name, wow, my daughter, and vice versa.
I've called Adam okay, but by my daughter's names. Yeah, because my
dad has messed up my two younger brothers names because their names are Richard and
James. Yeah, so he's like all James, Richard, Richard, James.
I just covered mine, say they both stay both at the same time.
That way I get both their attention. Say like my like my mom,
there were four boys. Yeah, so you know they should have should
have to go down the list. Before she got to me, she was
looking at Michelle, Yeah, Ricardo, Eduardo you yeah, yeah, she's
got them all covered. But hey, what, I'm the only one living
here, mom. The other guys all moved out. Have you always just
hoping the others? The other three were back, they're god, they're in
college and stuff. I'm the only one of those four living here and welcome
to the sports show here. It was a sports show at least, So
looking forward to talking to to Ari about a lot of different things local.
Um, see what he's up to. First time talking to Arie. Yeah,
um, yeah, you know, I've been wanting to get him on
for a while because, you know, again, come out a couple of
weeks of recruiting stuff. You know, he did that. He did that
article. Um, you know that came out right around the right before Elijah
Rushing uh announced, and we made we made a lot of hay of it,
you know what a big deal. And he says in there in the
article, he says that it's unforgivable that, you know, Kevin Sumlin's administration
didn't even try to recruit at South Point those three guys that came out all
in the same year, and even if he knew he wasn't gonna get him,
to not even try, it was unforgivable. I think that was the
word he used. And and and it was and it remains and and it's
it's it's his legacy right now, right if if he has a legacy,
the legacy is that he didn't give one crap about football and at the university
of Arizona and there, and it showed him that he didn't even recruit the
guys who were down the street. I think, of anything, that's the
top of the list. The second it would be the losing streak of when
he was but I got to twenty games. It wasn't twenty when he left.
It was it eight, you know, it was a fifteen, sixteen
something like whatever it was, it was usual. And then there's the seventy
to seven thing. Yeah, those three, those three that that will never
fix. Those three right as you will always have that ever and all those
three, who's who's the top? Which is the one at the top.
I just think him, right, the most unforgivable is that he didn't give
a crap about the job from the minute he got That's that's the four,
all right, four all right? And then and then I think, I
think it's the seventy to seven thing. And then I think it's the fact
that he didn't even recruit the local schools and that there were there were there
were big time football players coming out of Tusun, Arizona, from where they
hardly ever come out of and he didn't even try. That's to me,
that's the unforgivable aspect of what he did. And you know, I hope
he never shows his face and two side again like this. I think he's
come back. I think people have spotted him a couple of times. Right,
Well, is his kids to know? Was his kid living with him?
Yeah, but he's in Oklahoma. No, I think he's playing ball.
I think so because he was on the side point. Yeah. I
mean the Summlan name, whether you're his kid or whether you're the guy,
is not a name that you want to have around here. Say well,
he's spending his money wisely, nothing against the kid other than his dad.
All right, let's take a break. All right, Okay, we're gonna
come back Ari Wasserman from the Athletic. We'll talk about some national recruiting stuff
and we'll see what he's got to say about this story he did on South
Point a couple weeks ago. So stick around. Don't believe they just laugh.
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We'll put the work in for you. Dreaming live on the My Heart
Radio Whip. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacob Silence
on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to On the Ball hero
Puck Sports fourteen fifty I Steve Rivera, he's Jacome's OUs. Now on the
phone. We have Alre Washerman from the Athletic How you doing? Are I'm
doing a while? Then d having me up. Great to have you on.
Talk a little about you a football. As we start to begin,
I'm hearing about two or three, oh well two weeks and that maybe on
your story you did not too long ago, a very intriguing, very good
story. You had a lot of access or what made you come down or
do the story on UI? Well? I a few years ago when I
was covering Ohio State, they were recruiting Bijan Robinson out of stal Point and
Ohio State was playing Rutgers one week and my editor and I decided that it
was pointless to go to that game because the spread was like forty two points
or something. It was going to be a fifty five nothing, you know,
typical Ohio State Rutgers results. So we decided, hey, you should
go to Tucson and visit with Bijan Robinson to write a profile on him since
he was Ohio States number one target at that time. And I grew up
in Phoenix and Steve I went to u of A and I graduated No.
Nine and back when I was a student reporter there, you know, I
think you were still working for the Tucson Citizen, and you know, we
all looked up to you guys, and it was a nice little trip home.
So I went over to stal Point and I talked to coach Dennis Bennet,
who was there before, just trying to get a profile done on Bijon,
and it kind of turned into a discussion about the current coaching staff at
that time, and you know, the lack of commitments of recruiting that high
school when they had three power of five talents on that roster. Another one
was Lathan Ransom and I think the other kids name was Bruno Fina who went
to UCLA and I think was an U of A legacy, and then I
were to call him a few years ago writing about how it was unacceptable for
the coaching staff at you you of A, to kind of punt on those
recruitments and just you know, admit defeat by not trying. I think they
make too much money and there's you know, too much at stake being the
head coach and a staff member of the Power five programs to not try.
So that's how that started my interest in that topic. And then as you
know, Jet Fish got into town. You know, I noticed that they
got Team AC last year or two years ago, and that was the highest
rated player in the history of Arizona football, you know, recruiting. And
then now with Elijah, you know, I knew that the U of A
was going to be in the hunt at the same high school, same rating
as Bijon, and a completely different temperament as if obtained to recruiting that high
school. And that's kind of how the genesis of that story began, and
in my interest in that, you know, based on a story that I
wrote I think three or four years ago leading up to this point. You
when you came in to do this this last story, and you know you
interviewed Derek Rodgers. Did you have a sense that it had turned that much
to the point where the staff was there, the whole staff was there at
six o'clock in the morning on the first day they could be there. Did
you know it had gone that far from where it was before. Well,
I didn't come to Tucson for this last story, so I just did the
reporting over the phone, and I called Eric Rodgers just to kind of get
an idea of where it was, because I had an idea that you know,
I was like, Hey, you know, Arizona is probably not going
to get this kid, because five star prospects from two sons typically go to
Texas, Ohio State, or somewhere else. And I can't blame Arizona's staff
for not being able to retain them if big time programs with NFL drafts laundry
lists come in and try to take that kid. But I was going to
write a column complimenting jet Fishing as staff about just going after him full bore
and not taking no for an answer, because I think that's the attitude that
you need to have. And if it's not Elijah rushing. It could have
been you know, another prospect who inevitably comes through South Point down the line
that may views it differently. And when I was on the phone with him,
you know, that's kind of when I got an idea that Arizona was
going to close this thing. And the column kind of you know, grew
from there. Of like, not only did they try and relentlessly recruiting kid
and sell him the right way, they actually finished the job, you know,
four years after Arizona staff previously didn't bother trying to do the same thing.
Yeah, well, no, he's a great stuff. Enjoyed the story.
Could you go back real quick and talk about what Benet said about them
never or hardly recruiting Arizona Arizona recruits from the guys he had. It was
to us and we talked about it to this day. How they dropped the
ball or didn't care. Yeah, I can't remember exactly what he said because
it was a it was an off the record conversation at the time. It
was four years ago, but basically the main tenor of the discussion was we
have players here, Arizona isn't here enough, and considering the fact that it's
a two mile drive from Tucson or from you of A, and the head
coach at the time was driving a course Shine eleven and they have a helicopter
at their disposal for you know, getting to campus as quicker and his kid
was on the team. I find it excusable that they weren't there. And
the thing is that Jon might not have ever gone to you of A.
It might not have ever happened, but Arizona just accepted that. And if
you're the head coach at you have a making thirteen million dollars over a five
year period, you have a responsibility to your fans, to your program,
into your administration to give it every single ounce of energy that you have to
try to close a kid because if Elijah Rushing grew up in Tampa or Cleveland
or Sacramento, he wouldn't be at Arizona right now. But he is now
because he's from to Sony has a personal connection there. They did a good
job of using nil as a as a way to you know, you know,
support local and all that stuff, and they closed the deal. And
it's crazy what happens with a little effort, isn't it right? Absolutely so,
when you in talking to Eric Rodgers obviously, aside from the fact that
they were there, what how is he looking at this relationship now between South
Point and even some of the other big high schools here because we talked to
him about, you know, the recruitment and Arizona and how you know,
I mean, what does he think of this relationship? How did it get
to where it got to that Elijah Rushing came to Arizona. Yeah, well,
you know, I think it's a it's a from what I understand,
a very good relationship between coach and high school coach. And the reason why
it's so interesting is because in the age of Twitter, you know, and
I do a lot of recruiting um coverage at the athletic Twitter has allowed us
to bypass or to sidestep head coaches when trying to communicate with a prospect.
You don't no longer the days where you have to call a head coach at
his office, leave a message and hope that they gets back to you so
that he can give you a time as a kid, you literally can just
text him and get to his phone directly. So I think, as a
as a by product of that, a lot of coaches in college football at
every level have kind of circumvented the process and have gone directly to the source.
And there are a lot of high school coaches out there that resent that,
and rightfully, so this doesn't seem to be the case here. I
think they've had their ups, they've had their downs, they've had their highs
and lows. But I think that they have a good working relationship between two
people who care about the young people of Tucson, and that is all you
can really ask for. Are they going to get every single four or five
star prospect that comes through South Point, No, they're not going to.
But as you talk about what the main ten poles are of being Arizona's head
coach and what's how pending up in Arizona State with Kenny Dillingham, you know,
activate the valley and talking about how important it is to keep kids home,
both of these programs have been awful at it. And if you want
to know why both of these teams have stunk, it's because not only do
they, you know, struggle on a national perspective of getting elite level players
like some of the other premier programs in the PAC twelve have done, they're
generally awful or have been awfulick keeping the good players in Arizona home in Arizona
is a very quickly growing situation here for high school talent. It's it's a
very important place. I mean, I think my colleague or former colleague,
Andy Staples wrote a story about called Valley of the Quarterbacks and kind of detailed
of all the the elite level NFL Draft caliber quarterbacks that have come through Phoenix
and none of them went to you of a none of them went to Arizona
State. So I think that right now Arizona and Arizona State have two coaches
that seem to understand the importance of that and are going to do their due
diligence and try really hard to create connections with coaches like this in order to
put an end to the Texas and the USC's and you know, Ohio states
from coming into their state and pillaging all their talent. Well, since you
were here in the late two thousands, before the twenty what was the perception
of football then? We were We lived it, so we kind of know.
But I want to get your perception as a student and then now naturally
what you're doing, what's the perception now? Yeah, Well, when I
was a student. Mike Students was the head coach, and you know,
it seemed to be a very fun program. Like my freshman year coincided with
Willie Twoey Thomas freshman year, and back in the day, you know,
it wasn't the best football team in the world, but it was good enough
to go to a bowl game and definitely good enough to upset some top ten
teams at home. And having experienced Arizona as a student myself, I know
it's a wonderful place to go to college. You know, I lived that.
That was my experience, and when I look at it now, or
at least before the jet fish era began, there's no reason why from a
national perspective, in all the places that I've been too and all the things
that I've written and covered, that you have a should have the worst football
program at the PALA five. I mean, even Washington State, which is
on on Mars was in the College Football Playoff poll a few times and Mike
Leach was there. You know, if not a team that I think should
go win the national championship. You know, I think that's a far cry
from reality right now, but it's certainly not a joke and shouldn't be a
joke. There's a lot of wonderful places about it. So my perspective as
a student was, this is a punchy team with some good players. I
mean, Gronkowski was there at the time. You know, Mike Adams was
there, like they had They've had some dudes come through there, you know,
Robert Golden and it's just like, in the last ten years, how
many players, for the most part, have they had. From a draft
perspective, I mean, I don't know the numbers off the top of my
head, but college football is very simple. It's teams with the best players
win the most. And you know that's the thing that you know you have
a has struggled with. And from a national perspective, I kind of view
it. It's an afterthought. I don't write about it, I don't think
about them. And jet Fish has finally given us a reason to do so.
Well. Let me let me ask you about this because you know when
Jeed Fish, when they named Jetfish the head coach, this town lost its
mind because here's a guy who nobody had ever even heard of. There was
a guy named hum of the same as the state coach of Brent Brennan,
you know, was somebody that I think it is his name right, that
everybody thought should have been the guy because he was a Dick Tomy disciple all
this kind of stuff. And yet Jed just come in here and said,
I'm gonna forget about all that. I'm just gonna come in and do the
work. He's raised the profile not only are the program, but of himself.
How do people see Jed fish out there and you know, people like
you, coaches, whatever, you his profile and what he's done just to
elevate himself as somebody that they kind of got to deal with because he's getting
guys. Yeah. Well, my number one thing when I'm an analyzing college
football isn't oh he's just wins and losses. You know, I cover recruiting
on a national level as well as the sport, and I'm very plugged in
and under standing of which head coaches are recruiting well, because if you can't
recruit well, you can't do anything. And if you're recruiting terribly, like
the last sumbling class I think had one top one thousand player in it overall,
and I think that's like the worst thing I've ever seen in my entire
life. In this profession, you have to not try to get results that
bad. So like now, when you look at the jet Fish situation,
you have a coach who wasn't a retread higher. He was somebody that you
know, seemed hungry to come in and do the right way. He sells
Tucson for what it is, and I think that he is somebody who just
gets it. And by getting it, that means that the talent profile of
Arizona's rosters increased dramatically in the last two years. And when that happens,
you win more. And when you win more, your profiling creases. And
then when you win more, your profiling creases, you get more good players.
And that's how you build a program. And I think he's done that
now. The thing that I think that U of A has done, Arizona
State has done it. You know, teams in this in this kind of
purgatory that you know are you know, trying to be you know, better
than they are, but kind of in this like never ending cycle of mediocriy
is they go hire these name brand coaches that people have heard of but aren't
very good hires. Like I'm sure people in Tucson didn't freak out in the
negative when Kevin Someone got hired because he coached Johnny football, and I'm sure
they didn't. They didn't freak out in Phoenix when they hired HERM Edwards because
he said, you know, uh, you play to win the game.
But does that mean that they're actually qualified to be the job or at the
point in their careers where they're going to be hungry enough to attack it every
day like it's like their life depends on it. Like I'm a likely tread
hires. I like hires of young, hungry people that want to do the
job the right way. And I wrote a column about Kenny Dillingham before Arizona
State hired him about how I think he would be a slam dunk hire and
they went out and didn't you know, And people might not have heard of
Kenny Dillingham either. And I think that he understands what needs to be done
in temp ME in order to be better. So my anticipation for both of
these programs is that they're going to be much better than that's three to five
years, just because they understand there's a direct correlation between the talents that comes
in and the winds that you produce. So maybe that's a question here,
what about a guy named coach trying this way? Yeah, well, you
know that's gonna be that's gonna be something that these are going to be that
tremendous success or an epic failure because of the hype is just outweighed and check
it out. The rational fuck, you know, because it's like it's like
I think I saw something that like that MGM or Caesar because like seven,
eight million or ten million dollars of future beets for them to win the national
championship this year, I think it's possible they might be lucky to win four
kind of thought because deon standards isn't a very good coach or or can't do
it. It's because of the talent level. And if you go back and
you look at the players that were on that roster a year ago, and
how long it's going to take to flip that roster. Maybe shorter now when
you can cut seventy of the eighty five players that were on the season,
But how much can you actually build through the portal in a given year in
order to win ten games. It's a process. It's going to take time.
So my thing with coach crime isn't you know how good is the Colorado
going to be this year? Or you know, are they going to be
able to recruit better? Because I'm sure, I'm sure they are. They'll
get four stars and five stars potentially that they wouldn't have gotten an elsewhere.
But will he have the temperament and the ability from a long term build perspective
to continually bring in better players and actually win at a high level in year
three or four? You know that the livement that he does that I think
that he is canceled the paradigm of how he coaches is qualified for those jobs.
Really, I think what you're going to find out is, you know,
being a head coach a symbol is how many good players you can get.
The Colorado goes out and get a bunch of really good players, and
they shore up the lines and they get some depths, and you know,
they convinced them of these players that would be going to Offer or Florida Zay
or LSU or Bammer or State to go there. And of course they're going
to be more successful in the pack twelve because that's how that's how work.
For my cautionary tale with this is if you're intercipating Colorado being kind of know
this year and in the playoff discussion, you're out of your mind. Maybe
last name can because everyone here is getting and you know you'd be in a
u a grat there's always fo you can never live without hope. And everyone
we talked to you, Oh, they're gonna win six, You're gonna win
seven. What are you drinking for Colorado wherever? Yeah, I mean,
I don't know, you don't you never know. They've got a good quarterbacks,
they've got one of the best receivers in the in the Pac twelve and
maybe the country. You know, I'm not an expert in terms of house
and talented their lines are, but that's certainly gonna matter when they play teams.
But if they can get six wins this year, which would be a
forward I think from where they were two years ago, or the seven wins
and potentially get into a Bowl game, it's um, you know, I
think that that's possible, you know, and also too like that the Trunker
portal is gonna be a huge thing for you, of a because you're gonna
have a lot of people who might not be open to going to Tucson from
out of state at other places at the beginning, but it seems like a
hell of a place to land for your second time around, if you want
to go to a place that's fun and inviting and beautiful and all the things
that you have A has to offer. I can understand why a player who
goes to LSU and sits for a few years and realizes, hey, I
might not be good enough to play against Alabama and Georgia, but I'm still
a really good player, might want to go start a corner at U of
A and do his career there. And I think that there's a lot of
upward potential because now in this day and age, you can assemble a roster
much differently than the twenty five to thirty guys you can sign through the high
school range. You know, if you've learned anything from Dion, you can
flip a roster very quickly. So like, I don't know, I don't
even know what they're over under is for and their win totals this year five
and a half, Like, I think that the over would probably be a
pretty good play, you know, looking at their schedule and stuff. I
think that it seems like that's rational. I mean, they were pretty tough
out in the Pac twelve and a lot of games last year. Jay is
logging on as we speak with DraftKings. Hey, a, we really appreciate
it. Hey, congratulation, congratulations on your success the the UA journalism program.
She'd be very proud of you. Yeah, wild cat alumni here.
All right, great, ally, thanks the whole bunch. Appreciate the time,
and we'll get back with you again sometime. Thank you. Yeah,
Hey, sorry about that. Hey, well, good to talk to Ari.
But we had some issues and I'm not sure what happened there, but
we don't we don't want to break into it because of the commercials. We
might have lost her. Yeah, well he was, he was on a
roll. He's talking about some good stuff. I don't think he heard it
on his end, so that's what, right, Yeah, he just kept
going. So yeah, all right, Well, well let's take the break
and let's see those ads play all over again. But uh, we'll come
back and we'll kick some of that around if you want. Okay, if
you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty
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Breaking down all the excess it knows. It's Steve Romera and Jacien Summits.
This is I Am the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen. Hey, welcome back
to on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. You know about fifteen
minutes if you guys want to give us a quick call talking about football,
like already was talking about Sorry again, what the hell happened there? And
it wasn't art commercials, right, And that's just all of a sudden,
I was just kind of hoping, Okay, they're gonna go off, and
so I didn't want to interrupt a conversation or end the conversation because it was
such a good conversation. Yeah we would have lost him. Yeah okay,
yeah, sorry about that, but good conversations. Um really liked to talk
to him. I didn't realize this, and I don't know if it's correct
he said it. I'm sure it is. That he has recruited in the
final year was one in one thousand and one out of the top one thousand
play I saw that maybe. I think it was in his article that I
saw, Steve, that's how bad if I remember, that's not bad.
Every every guy that that Arizona got under someone. Over the last couple of
years, they were beating you know, southern Utah Valley, Uh, you
know, northern Arizona, Uh, New Mexico State. I'm gonna throw that
in there, Portland's state. They were beating you know, uh FCS teams.
They weren't beating Oregon State, and uh you know, and even BYU
or any of those they were, they were beating FCS teams for guys,
and it was noticeable, Yeah, very much. Look at the record,
there's your proof. Yeah, there was. And again, you know,
we've seen coaches who don't always get the best talent but make something out of
the Dictomy comes to mind right away. Larry Smith did that as well.
Pretty much anybody who's coach at Arizona and had success, they've had to They've
had to do that by getting players that fit into what they do and then
you know, winning as much as they can. You know, Arizona probably
maybe during with with some of their good teams, maybe had the best guys
on the field half the time, right, yea, And but anytime they
played USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington those four for sure, and then
other times they didn't have the best players on the field. Yeah, you
know, and in someone's time, they never had the best players on them.
Well that kind of not kind of explains that. There's the first game
of the year, they faced NAU right right, and they get their buttbeat
and I can I'll never forget. No, it was no it was.
It was the third game, third game already. Yeah, they had remember
they had lost, they had no when they lost NAU. Yeah, because
remember they had they had lost their opener. Then they got they they had
gone to by You lost it lost, lost in the veggat game. Game
came back in San Diego State kicked their asses and then they lost to NAU.
No, I no, I can barely remember that, but I remember
those things. I can't remember how I went into the kitchen, but I
remember those things. You would pretty much for burrito or something. Uh no,
no, okay, So but I do remember Fish how he looked after
that game, said to the stomach. He looked like he had just been
just beaten up. But I'm thinking, I'm not sure this is the guy.
But that makes sense because they had no talent, right they had.
It turned out they it turned out that any You had the better players.
That can remember remember how much better we thought their quarterback was than Arizona's quarterback.
Remember, because they started Gunner Gunner Cruise and then and then they put
um um um will Plummer in there, and neither of those quarterbacks were as
good as the NAU quarterback. Man. Again, I'm not just trying to
disparage those two guys. They were giving it all they had. But those
are the quarterbacks that that that they got recruiting, and they weren't they weren't
very good. Yeah makes sense. It makes sense now, Yeah, it
makes all the sense of the world. And the things that already said about
how you know, look, he said all the things that we've been saying,
you know, those of us who were here that it just didn't look
like like Kevin Summlin was given even an effort. And you know, and
when you compound that on top of the effort that rich Rod was making towards
the end of his administration, man it piled up and they had they were
out of players. Yeah, yeah, totally makes sense now now right years
you know, a couple of years later, when you realize when Jed Fish
was here, Now you understand when we realized that he had a pretty good
coaching staff that they could coach and yet that team went one and eleven,
including a loss to NAU, you realize how bad it god, And now
you know, they're getting guys right right much to his credit, however,
he's getting him a ton of credit. And now the question becomes ken they
coach, you know, can the coaching continue to improve so that as they're
coaching better guys, they're they're becoming better coaches right now? We touched about
it. We joked about that last year, remember when they were getting well,
now you've become a better coach, at least you hope you think you
are. It didn't, It didn't. Didn't. Brandon Carroll specifically say it's
Brandon, you know what's the area we got better players? Right well?
We asked him that thing. I asked him, how you know, how
have you guys become better coaches? We got better players? Yeah? Better?
Yeah? You know, this is year three now, and it'll be
interesting to see what kind of a jump they make, not if they make
a jump, just what kind of a jump. I think we can pretty
confidently say they're gonna make some kind of a jump. Now they could make
a jump and still go five and seven. Sure, sure, Like I
always say, Jay, and you're pretty tired of hear be hearing this saying
this um is that they're gonna get better. But a lot of teams are
too, right, and then and then again, you look at the schedule,
you don't pick out six wins. You just think that they're in there
somewhere in the game, somewhere in there somewhere. But what do we decide
to bet on that? Oh? We did? We I don't bet something,
right, we bet something on the on the over under five and a
half to six. I don't know. I said they would get to six.
You said they wouldn't. Okay, let's six. We bet that,
I mean, but I don't know how we bet it could possibly be.
Well, I just took you to lunch, now, let's do it.
Well, that was paying for the your your crapass padres from last season.
No, I didn't better. That isn't what it was. No, No,
No, we have something this year, which is it was probably something
with with football or anyway. Well, you did only lunch, Yeah,
for a long time, not that I was. I wasn't complaining. I
just knew it was out there. And then Jason showed up on the right
day and he got lunch too. But do you think, Jason you like
that stuff very good? You whoffed that breed that one of the biggest burriedos
I've ever seen in my life, and Jason just took it. Jason just
wrestled it to the mat and took it down too. No, no,
close to the Rostico. If you haven't been to Rostico, great tacos over
there. I just went light. I went to a couple of media tacos
and beans and Rice and Jason got this, got this breed of the size
of his forearm, and just whoofed it down and I touched it maybe twice.
Yeah, you took a couple of bites and put years away. You
got lunch for the weekend. Go to the fridge now. Yeah, hey,
well again, we still have to take your calls. Five two zero
four one six seventy four forty. We're talking about how just the recruiting has
flipped over for Arizona, not just that they're getting better players, but that
there's a better image of Arizona out there. Um, you know among coaches,
among riders like National Riders like Are Wasserman. Um. You know,
I hear the podcast that I listened to with Dan Wetzel, Pad forty and
Ross Dollondre spending good five minutes talking about Arizona and getting and getting a better
Elijah Rushing, getting a Keona will Hide, and the fact that everybody thinks
they're going to get this quarterback or decommitted out of out of Mississippi. I
mean they did. They weren't talking about college football in general. They just
brought that up and said, we got to talk about this. You know,
Jet Fishes turned things around already, right, No, the good thing
is they've they've made their mark or making their mark unnaturally with the guys who
didn't pay attention before are really paying attention now now they just kinda win games.
I mean that's at the end of the day. That's what you're measured
by, right exactly. Yeah, when when some games beat some teams that
you're not supposed to beat, you know, and don't do whatever, don't
do the don't lose to the bad one, don't get any of you right
up at the third opening game. In fact, if they play in a
close that's not good. They gotta beat They got to put a forty spot
on them. You're like a forty to seven or something like that. And
until they're looking for two years it was a flute guys get away. Yeah,
because if I recall, like like one of my stoops teams only beat
an au by like two touchdowns or something, and you thought, yeah,
I remember, something's wrong. Yeah, yeah, twenty seven to eleven or
whatever it was something like that. But um, you know, they gotta
they gotta be convincing against an Au. Then they go to Mississippi State.
See what happens, right, Yeah, the Mississippi State game. I think
we'll tell us. Yeah, that's what game two, the second game on
the road. So they'll have September one, uh, September ten. Okay,
what's Liberty the week? Sevember third week? The week before the Saturday
before September third, okay, sure, yeah, yeah, okay, is
that when the season opens. Yeah, that's the Liberty weekend. Yeah,
Libertary weekend. Okay, Yeah, there's some games the week before, but
actually it's September second, not third. Third is the Sunday. So in
September second, uh, because the thirty first, August thirty first, that
thursdays when the games start. There's some games the week before. Nothing really,
there's like six FBS games the week before, and then then the schedule
gets going on Thursday, the thirty first. Arizona plays on the second.
So the ninth, which is my wife's birthday, is the day that they
go to Mississippi State. Okay, so you ought to be uh, if
nothing else, man, it's gonna be intriguing at least those first three games.
See what happens, because then they come back here and have um U
tep you know if they I mean, you'd expect they're gonna come out of
that two and one if they can somehow come out of that three and oz.
Now all bets are off and you've got three games towards your towards your
over under, and you got to figure there's at least three games in the
Pac twelve. Yeah, it's gonna be tough. I know Jake, we're
gonna have We're gonna have Jake on in the second half. He's the one
that's kind of thinking seven or eight seven maybe well he says seven plus win
the ball game and that gets you eight wins. But he's he's he's delusional.
You don't call him names. He's one of my buddies and a sponsor.
I'm better retreating from mister mister Fisher. Better. I just said,
Jake, he called you delusional. He does like get on him, you
bet. I hope he's not. He doesn't start listening as long as I
don't have to go up against him. Yeah, you know, he'll pretty
hard, without question. I've been in the fetal position before, everybody.
I didn't call you that name, but I pologized. Okay, cool,
let's go, all right, let's let's hit the road. We're gonna take
our break, uh breaking news coming here at the top of the hour with
Jason and then Jake Fisher will join us, and we'll close out the week
taking your calls. In the last segment five two zero four, one,
six, seventy four forty stick around looking back on pain night, but below
that behead though the