This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just Surgeery I
on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to I the Ball here Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Jagan Zawis, and I'm hoping you
have some breaking news. This is I on the Ball Breaking news on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. Well, I don't have anything as earth shattering. It
is what we've had the last few days, last couple of days, you
know, Belichick and Saban and whatnot. But the rumor, miil or call
it, the speculation is churning like crazy on particularly on the Alabama job.
Caitlin de boor Washington is a name that's popping up on everybody's list, as
is Mike Norbel at Florida State. So let me ask you something. In
a job like this high profile, as it is probably the most high profile
job, do you need a guy who's dynamic, dynamic in a personality dynamic
way or you need to do because the board doesn't have that personality. Did
you consider Nick Saban dynamic? He had he had bags that made him dynamic.
I think you didn't know what I'm saying. He's he's kind a name
to him. The board, you didn't know who he wasn't he didn't have
it when he got there, did he? I don't know. I think
they over time he became AFRAC, you know, I know he had won
an after championship, then he went and did that NFL thing came back.
It took him a while to get good. That they got good, So
it took a while for him to become I don't know what Nick Saban is
today. I don't know because I wasn't paying attention enough back in the day.
Right well, I mean either. But that's how I remember it,
because I don't feel like when they hired him, I didn't go, oh,
no college foot pollit in trouble because he's gonna be so good. That's
why I would think that. Uh. And and he probably he said he's
not gonna do it. Is the Kiffin situation where he's that guy, you
know, the prodigal son comes home. His name isn't opping up a bunch.
Uh. Mike Norvell is an interesting one because you got all this stuff
going on, you know, as John Willard, you know, said on
the show a little bit ago, the ACC may be disbanding and Florida State's
in the middle of that, and there's a lot of uncertainty is what Florida
State might be down the road. Steve Sarkisian another another name because he coached
you know, UH under under under UH saving and you know, look,
here's the here's the thing about the Alabama job. It's the top job.
It's even above Georgia, it's above Michigan, it's above a hostain. Yeah,
you know, you can go. You can be looking for a coach
at Alabama and you can look at any school you want, right, and
nobody's gonna say, oh, he would never leave Georgia for Alabama. He
would never leave Michigan for Alabama. He would never leave Ohio State. From
Alabama's you know, is the top, so it can it can go.
Everything else is below them from from a job standpoint, so they can go
after whoever they want. Sure, it's it's whether the guy decides, Okay,
I want to stay or not go or go? Right, But it
was two four seven Sports is reporting that the Football Scoop is reporting that that
de boor Mike Norval and Tommy Rees, who is the the offensive coordinator who
came over from Notre Dame this last year, are actually getting interviews. So
who knows what's going there, but we're gonna use that anyways. And that
sources have said that Greg byrne It says Burne has told the program and others
within the athletics department that he intends the name Saban's replacement by the end of
this week. Wow, you know when that is tomorrow or Saturday? Yeah,
Sunday. Just for just for say purposes. On kind of a funny
note, Uh, there's there's pictures circulating of the of the Nick Sabans statue
outside the stadium. You'd think he died. The flowers, yeah, and
candy and coke coke cans, because you know he's a cold guy. I
see ducks out there. I see a bag of ice. I guess that
means he's the ice man, and flag ducks, pictures, pom poms,
a big sign that says goat some balloons. I get, well, balloon,
I mean he's not sick. Well he actually said that to me.
Hes got some healthy but you know, he's fun. He's he's not dying.
Again again, this is this. I will ask any of this a
question that we continue to ask in fun. How old is old? Yeah?
When he was talking today and I saw the quick clip with with three
Davis, I'm thinking seventy two. He won, he doesn't look seventy two.
Uh and uh isn't seventy two the new sixty two? Yeah? Yeah,
I guess I know. Even to me, the new sixty for me
is sixty for me. Well, okay, So anyways, next up,
Dave. He sat on his Wildcat Wednesday yesterday, and I read the first
two sections, but then I didn't go next down to the financial plan.
Did he bury the league? He buried the league because he talked about how
great football Yeah, sure of course, talking about how bikes basketball is doing.
Then he went into financial stuff and in bold letters, and Justin Spears
just posted a story on this, which is how I found it because I
didn't read. I get the Wildcat wednes and I didn't read it. He
says. Athletics. Arizona Athletics has no immediate plans to eliminate sports. The
Athletics department will continue the hiring freezer instituted this fall. All new major construction
projects will be paused after after the completion of the William M. Bill Clements
Golf Center. Yeah right, so did you. I'm sure you saw this.
And this is not sports related, but it's it was all related with
the present with the CFO, the CFO salary familion, and and didn't he
resigned her position but has moved somewhere else. What do you think that tells
me that the whole thing wasn't entirely her fault, but maybe certainly as a
CFO, you gotta be a lot to blame for what happened. I don't
know, shouldn't shouldn't they have said that this is what was happening? Full
disclosure? Well, sure, of course. How do you think the president
looks at her? He's a friend of ours. Yeah, I don't know.
He's got to be upset, doesn't he? Yeah? He but him
she either he knew or didn't know, But he had to have known,
shouldn't you if they were just moving her? Oh yeah, yeah, I
mean he would have had Okay that, yeah, he would have had Okay
that you're being coy with me. No, I don't know nothing, no,
no, no, no, I just I'm just saying, you know,
having been in the corporate world and seeing people come and go and do
things. You know, you know, she might have been sent off to
go work in some other area. Do you give her time to find a
job and get out. Okay, okay, Well that that's they said.
We're not gonna fire you. We don't want to wreck your career because he's
still pretty young, you know, we don't want to wreck everything for you.
You've mostly have done a good job. You screwed this up. We're
gonna ship you over here. But it might be a good idea for you
to start looking for one another job with the responsibility you had. It might
be a good idea start. That's that's a way of doing that, you
know. So maybe that's you know, maybe that's a good way of doing
that. I don't know, I don't know, all right, Okay,
so I got that. Oh here, well, no, I'll use that
one in any minute. In the Tommy Land on his radio show, Now,
did he mention that, did you mention Henry Vasar yesterday? Possible?
Today? Just saying that he's likely to read sure he is available, right,
It's it's yeah, he's exactly. That's all he said to again today
if something were to come up for blah blah blah, he'll come out.
But he's likely the red shirt. Yeah, they don't know. They don't
know now until until it happens. Where it doesn't happen. Yeah, uh,
which of course that's they got two big men that are pretty dorn good.
You know, I waste a year so some Arizona guys that jumped into
the transfer portal landing in a bunch of different places. Isaiah Taylor, I
was gonna bring that up. He is at Miami, big, big,
Where's where's dad played? Right? Is that his dad was at Miami and
played for the Dolphins as well, Jason Taylor. Jason Harris, Uh is
going to Marshall. Jason Harris. He was a younger brother, the younger
brother. We didn't find him on the roster. Is that the gift?
Yeah, well that's that's a late news. He's going to Marshall. This
is all on the on the Transfer Portal zone and Zallas website. Jacob we
know Jacob guy could dummy went to a s U and at Canyon, Moses
landed at naut Has landed at the Dune, Cookman and Amon Allen also at
an Au. There's some guys who all found the level of participation. Here's
an interesting one. You remember Trey Griffy, Right, Yeah, he has
a brother who's really good. No, he's got a brother named Kevin Griffy,
Kevin Tevin. Tevin Kevin is a TV Yeah, Tevin Tevin defensive back
and he has h committed to Oh no, he's joint. He's at Boise.
Wow. Yeah, because of the name, you think he'd be better.
I guess. I don't know. But uh Griffy here was kind of
nondescript. Yeah, he had his career and then just released it. Yeah,
but he was he wasn't spectaclic. I think he was with our guy.
Uh our guy, Oh god, the guy who only scored touchdowns.
A freaking guess of mine from from previous to you, I want to say
it's no, he was a defensive guy. I know. Yeah, I
got got the big fro. Yeah, he's all over my Facebook stuff.
It'll come to me. Steve uh pin point Dexter. All right, Okay,
so that running back from from Mississippi. Remember he was their top running
back. He was the top running back, and yes, he sophomore decided
to jump into the transfer portal, even though Mississippi is considered the top ten
team. You three guesses as to where he's landed. Whose landed. Yeah,
he's going to he's already determined. He's already said yes. Oho stated
yes. Wow, that was just a gest. I'm the nice guest.
I would have said that in Michigan. But yeah, okay, very good
guess that was. That was lucky, good guess, Very good guess.
We did have Brian Peabody on the show the other day. They got beat
last night by by Chandler Gilberte. You can start the river death, ye,
Steve was a kiss of death. That was coming off a nice win
against coachies. Was always really good. But they got beat eighty to seventy
one, two games in a row where they didn't get to their one hundred
mark, but they scored one fifty Phoenix College a while back. Gary,
dude, it's Gary stuff. The PEMA women did win. They did beat
General Gilbert, so nice, a nice win for them. Let's see what
else. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said said they're still gonna They're gonna do the
in season tournament again next year. They liked it. They liked what went
on with it. They said it will no doubt be back with only a
few changes, said we were happy with the success after the first season.
Did you see did you see when I went to our guy Steve Kerr got
his butt kicked by the Pelicans and he looked like a defeated man in explaining
that his team just doesn't have it after they got beatn last second. But
denver of a week so ago, they haven't recovered. They've lost six of
eight. I'm sure Draymond comes by back with a big deal. Uh,
they're aging, man, They're they're not playing with their aging. The game
has caught up with them. Everybody, you know, it's playing the same
way. Yeah, going younger, we'll see. I still have I still
have faith. But but yeah, but DoD DoD dot Yeah, yeah,
tough on Steve. That's I guess that's what I have, Steve. Okay,
Yeah, the only thing I really had was the uh the Isaiah Taylor
going to Miami. In his tweet he said I'm home and he is home.
I guess we thought he was real. Yeah, he's felt like home.
I love the family. Everybody says that. Okay, who did do
you have? Who do you have money on for this to win the Super
Bowl? Uh, Baltimore got I got four teams at the beginning. My
dead my dead money is Cincinnati. My survived money is Casey, because I
would do that Casey. My other one was I didn't. I stayed up
Buffalo this year because because Baltimore is my biggest number. I think it was
at ten to one, So I went like six hundred and some of that.
Uh. And I have a third. Who would be the other one?
Off San Francisco? You No, I have to think of the other
one. I gotta tell you. Buffalo is to me right now. Of
course, is as good of a team to beat as there is, of
course, but let me let me say this. And I thought, that's
the morning because they're good and I like them. I like them a lot.
But seven weeks ago, eight weeks ago, they were dead. They
were they were dead. And it tells you, however, these shows like
ours and other shows, well, they're not going to do this. We're
not going to come back. They have no weapons, yeta, yeaha,
and here they are. It tells you how long the season is. It's
like college basketball. They lose to Stanford and all the world is ending,
and it's still only January December. Relax, in time, it'll get better,
yeah, or it'll get worse. I think on the Bills because what
the I don't even know by fourteen, they're that team right now that as
they say nobody wants to play Philadelphia, it was Philadelphia, yeah, and
that was everybody wants to play Philadelphia. Yeah, and they're not playing very
well. So I'm banking on the Baltimore Ravens. Okay, uh, super
Bowl champion. Here are the odds, forty nine Ers at plus two,
twenty Ravens at plus three ten, you got them at what six six center,
then the Bills at six fifty. Yeah, how are you? That's
the number one would go after. In fact, I should go on it
too, because six fifty is pretty good. The Chiefs are going to lose
this weekend. No, No Eagles are going to lose this week No Chiefs.
I'll get you know, we have enough money exchange between you and me
that we have to square up, you know. But but I would take
Kansas City. Miami doesn't play well in tip increasing temperatures, yeah, but
Kansas City is just they're just terrible. You also like to turn it on
at the right time. But I don't know if they're going to be able
to just like that. I don't know, Man, we'll see. I
just don't know. Don't talk about the defending champions like Okay, let's tick
our next break Ween be back. Andy Lopez will be joining us. We'll
talk about how it is to retire and when you know to reach stick her
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have their eye on the ball. On Tucson's sports station, chet Fox Sports
fourteen fifty Hey, welcome back to one in the Budge on Fox Sports Fortune
fifty. I'm Steve rivera pas Jigensaus Noonophone. I have my favorite storyteller coach
and Elope, how are you, coach? That's the hard thing that was
up to that's the hard building. Come on, you're the best storyteller ever
somewhere America and someone's telling stories either water or two. You need to get
out more. Well, I'll agree with you on that. Yeah, he
definitely act. Actually, curiousity, where are you what lounger are you on
watching some sports? Yeah? Exactly. You know, I got a hooded
sweatshirt on. I was outside. I covered these plants for the hard freeze
and the cactuses. It's blowing like crazy out here, so I'm trying to
cover these plants with this this, uh this this these uh freeze plants or
whatever. So I'm out there wrestling. Man, I'm out there wrestling.
I feel like I'm in a I feel like I'm in a double header and
I've lost all my pists. Well, let's go good thinking. You don't
have to deal with that stuff anymore. So I give you pen and paper.
You have a little note to write. What are you going to write
to saying, hey, welcome to retire and enjoy it. That's amazing.
What a phenomenal record though, My goodness. I mean, you know,
I had a little insight information not on his retirement, but I've stayed in
contact with Greg Byrns since he went over there, the ath leg director.
Greg. You know, Greg and I have a good relationship, so we
stayed in contact. And Chris Mortensen and I grew up is you know Chris
Morrison from ESPN. We grew up together in Los Angeles. And I've known
Christian Soul my god, since nineteen seventy four seventy five. And his son
Alex, who's now at UA B as the offensive coordinator, was on Coach
Staban's staff for about ten years. So I've got a little information about Coach
Staban and how he goes about his business and what he did and all the
rest. And I'm a big fan. You know, I've never met the
gentleman, but you know, he just he's one of those old school coaches
that I'm not sure there are going to be many of those guys around when
you know, before we know it. But know, hey, I wish
nothing but the best. He's got a little bit of a bank account more
so than I do. Probably will do more options, you know, Andy.
One one of the things that gets talked about when a when a coach
like like a Saban or even a Bill Belichick who you know annown it was
announced today. They leave, they think, Okay, this guy's been doing
this for so long. You know, what do they do next? How
do they handle this? You know? Yeah? And you know, for
you, you you know, you did it a long time, and uh,
you know what in your mind are the things that these guys who've competed
at the highest level in any sport ever. You know what do they gotta
keep an eye out for? And how do they deal with this? Yeah?
You know, and it is an amazing thing. Like I have.
My wife and I we had it. Even after the twenty twelve National championship.
I came back and Greg Burwin was the athletic director and he, you
know, hey, we're going to tear up your contract. And I said,
no, no, no, no, no, just keep it right
where it's at. I was. My contract was going to go until I
was sixty five, so I had three years left on it, you know,
Graig, Greg keep it right ware at that and he goes what I
said, Greg, I'm not going to be here that long. I really
really want to spend some time with my wife and kids. And you know,
I've been doing it for thirty eight years. I mean, I know,
my thirty eight years I was coaching, and I was a head coach
for thirty eight years, right, So it was never never an assistant where
you go, man, hey, we're having a bad street share. Too
bad for the head coach. You know. It was like it was my
it was my you know, my name on the job and and he looked
at me. I said, no, Greg, no, no, hey
man, I'm happy here. I'm going to give you a good three years
out of that. Well, little did I know that, you know,
four months later I'd have open art surgery, and so that sped up the
process of me getting out. Obviously, I got out, you know,
the very next year. I will admit the first two years of retirement were
really challenging for me. I was a you know, a type a personality.
I was a very hands on coach. I was you know, I
was very demonstrative. Some people would call me a ell than a screamer.
I say, I was demonstrative, but uh but it was. It was
challenging, man, it was really challenging because at least me, I got
up every morning feeling like I should be going somewhere, like I should be
doing something. I should be going somewhere. Now, I was mentoring two
days a week some high risk kids here in town, which was a real
blessing. And then I was doing television work. But I'm not gonna lie
to you guys. You know, no disrespect to you guys in the media.
You guys do a marvelous job. But you know, I was like,
what am I doing up here? You know I should be on the
field. You know, I should be on the field. So it took
me a couple of years to really kind of uh well, the term my
wife used, it took me two years to get out of that state of
life where I was in full blown rage all the time. Yeah, I
can, I can. I can see that because I mean at such a
level, and oh, man, you know, whether whether whether it's real
pressure or not, you know, people say, well, it's just it's
pressure. It's pressure on your job. You got your job real well,
because everybody's watching and so all of a sudden, you don't have to do
that anymore, you know, how do you? How do you? Billy
Donovan and Billy Donovan and I were good friend. We were both together at
Florida and Billy and you know, our kids played basketball on the same team,
so our families got together quite a bit. And one day we're at
Billy's house and we're talking about our jobs. You know, we're talking about
our jobs. And he said the funniest thing, but boy, it was
so true. He goes, hey, what other jobs? And he and
he he came from Wall Street. He went from playing in the NBA to
Wall Street and then he went and then he got into coaching with coach Patino
as an assistant. But we were sitting around and uh, he said,
who else does this for a living? Wait? We talked about basically,
he goes, who goes to someone's job? How many people go to a
doctor's job? How many people go to those deals with the job? Every
time we go to work, there's like ten thousand people watching us. And
I said, I said, yeah, there's probably ten thousand opinions and how
horrible we're doing or whatever, you know. So yeah, and I never
forgot that I never got that effect. It's funny because when we were in
the National Championship tournament. But in twenty twelve he shot me at text.
I shot him at therey. I said, yeah, Billy, I've only
got twenty five thousand people watching me at my job today, right right,
Just win baby, that'll keep people away. Just keep people away. People
happy, man, keep me happy. So if you remember this, and
I think we've talked about this before on the show, you were sixty two
sixty three when you retired, you said you had had you know, you
were time to go. You had time on this stuff. You talked about
the flipping and the flopping, and you just didn't want to deal with that
anymore. Look at today, it's the nil, the portal bridge. You
know you want to go, go, you know, don't let the door
enter the ass. I mean, it's a different world, even from ten
years ago. I yeah, I know. These guys are getting paid really
good money. And there's almost a part of me that said, hey,
more power to you now, because I mean, I mean, my god,
I just saw the kid from UNLV, the quarterback he committed on Monday
to Georgia, right he went to s C. Yeah, yep. The
next day, so Kirby smart its bed Monday night. Okay, well we
got our quarterback set up now, and he wakes up Tuesday morning, hopefully
he got a phone call. Who knows, in this day and age,
you may have just got a text message and all of a sudden he's not
here. Well and what ten twelve hours? I mean, well, you
know what what what? So? Yeah, I mean, I know it's
a wild, wild left man. It's it's it's yeah, right, Hey,
I can't I can't expect. In my opinion is it's broken. And
I don't know if they're going to fix it. I mean, can you
fix it? How about this one? I don't know. How about how
about having a guy who was a part of your team, a key part
of your defense. You know, your defense did so well? And right
transfers and goes to Asu. I saw that later earlier. Was it last
week or the week before? I've lost track, but yeah, I did
see that. And in fact, it's funny, Steve, you know this
because you've met and then a few times my agent, my wife my agent
too. But anyway, I turned to her. You know, she'd been
marrying me for forty years. So she's been with me through this whole madness
of thirty eight years as a head coach. And I said, hey,
babe, check this one out because she saw, you know, my son,
Michael's the base pitching coach at the University of Mexico and he's been here
for two weeks before he went back home, so she knows. She sees
them walking around with his cell phone taped to his ear for recruiting, and
she knows that that's what I did all those years. And so I said,
hey, babe, how about this one a guy from Arizona. And
Arizona had a really bad year this year, didn't they. And she goes,
oh, they had a great year. I said, I had had
a fantastic year. Jed doing a great job. Fantastic job. I said,
yeah, one of their players. She goes, well, you knew
that was gonna happen. Say, yeah, that's going to happen no matter
who program here. It doesn't matter, Arizona, Alabama, don matter.
Guys are gonna go to poor I go, but how about this. Guess
where he's going. Then she goes where Arizona State? And she looked at
me like I was on drugs. Yeah, she went, what way what
I said, Yeah, he's going there and to State. So yeah,
I mean, yeah, there's no parameters there are. There aren't even rival
parameters anymore. Right, it's like I don't know, man, whatever,
I don't know. Like I said, I'm not a part of it anymore.
Uh, my son is at New Mexico, so he's not really a
part of it either. You know, they don't have nil money or anything
of that nature. Uh, they're a mid major school. And and you
know what, I'll be honest with you guys. I've told him on a
couple of occasions. In fact, I just told him a couple weeks ago.
I said, hey, Mike, you know you might just keep your
ear zone for a really solid mid major job. He could take your You
know, he's not married, I have a girlfriend yet, but you know,
looking down the road, Hey, you were going to take care of
your family and maybe not want to get into that manness. I know you're
gonna get a lot of money. They're gonna pay you a lot of money,
but what a life, man, Yeah, you have to think if
it's worth it. So let me ask your coach. Let me ask your
coach, because we talk about this philosophically every now and again. How old
is old? I think you're you're seventy one? Saving is seventy two?
Right? He just said, you know, I'm tired of kind of going
to work these days. You know what. I did read something earlier in
the day and my wife. I read it to my wife and she went,
oh, I remember someone saying that, right he said where he said,
I'm just getting tired of recruiting. You know, I'm just getting tired
of recruiting. Hey to me, I'll be okay, I'm going to be
totally transparent with you guys. My last five to six eight years or so,
it took everything in my in my body, in my mind to get
on a phone with a fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year old kid, bet
and try to have a conversation. I bet. Oh my god, you
guys have no idea how many times I was to sit here right where I'm
talking to you right now in this show. I'm in my bedroom, right
on this chair. I sit here and I stare at my phone and I
say, okay, Andy, you've got to do this, and then I
start making my calls. Yeah, well, you know what I mean.
It's like, Wow, it's different. So you know what he's gonna do
in three years you can say, you know how much effort it was to
talk to Jay and Steve god I did. It's like you guys like catching
up with old friends. Well, you know, but it's fine you bring
that up too, because Steve and I have mentioned the number of times that
the thing that we hated covering more than any corports writers with recruiting, you
know, you know, having to chase his kids around town and call them
up, and you know, trying to find out what they're doing and where
they're going. You know, I chased Michael Bates's brother Mario all over Ramphi's
campus trying to get him to tell me where Michael was. You know.
I mean, it's like, and like, what am I doing here?
You know, it's it's it's kind of crazy and here and here's what people
don't realize. Well again, all the people that show up to you and
watch you perform. But here's what I'll leave his name out. But I'm
at the University of Florida. My second year there, I recruited kid from
Pennsylvania who's going to be a second round draft pick. And he's popped in
the second round by the Baltimoreals. Back then, they could sign unless they
stepped into a class, unless they stepped in the right Now now there's a
deadline, But back then they could sign him in their dorm room. They
could sign him in the night before the classes started. My wife and I
entertained this young man while he was six foot four. He's a right hand
pitcher that through ninety two miles an hour. Back then, that was a
lot and I'm breaking ball. He was everything you want, everything you want.
So we bring him in weekend before classes start because I know he can
sign before he first steps in the first day of class. My wife and
we took him to two movies, him, his mom, and his little
sister. We had him at our house till like midnight both nights, and
we thought, oh my god, this okay. We got him. Nobody's
touching, We got him playing for me. And he was horrible. In
fact, he was he was wait, let's go deeper in the alphabet.
He wasn't horrible. He was asorable. Wow, absolutely, you know,
uh and oh what a headache, and oh my god, nothing was ever
good enough. And I remember, I remember that was the first time my
life, in my professional life, I looked in the mirror one that I
said, Wow, you don't even know who you're recruiting, you know.
And then and here's the beauty of it. Before that, I had a
young guy that I was gonna cut, David Eckstein. Wow, he's a
walk on. He's a walk on. And I'm looking at him physically,
I'm going, oh my god, he can't throw across the endfield. What
my dude, this guy's not gonna make the team. And at the end
of the year, I'm begging him not to leave. I'll get your money,
I'll get your scholarship money. I'll get your scholarship money. And and
uh so you know it's it's it's a I don't know. Hey, I'll
admit to anybody out there, every time we recruit someone, I hoped and
prayed it was gonna work out. So let me let me ask you one
last question before we go. At what point after saying goodbye, did you
realize, Okay, I made the right decision. Oh man, about two
and a half years into it. Yeah, about two and a half years
while because I felt good, see if I really did, Yeah, I
try to take care of myself and I I feel really good. But you
know, I had to earn his pop during the surgery, and I never
got them fixed, so I really couldn't move around like I used to because
I used to banning practice every day and show them how to do base running
and all the rest of them things like that. And I didn't even go
out and take some grand balls every now and then. So I knew that
was a restriction. But yeah, mentally, about two and a half years
after it, about two and a half years after it, and now you're
just enjoying life covering. Oh yeah, okay, let me let me finish
that question. I ask you this now. Now, why did I wait
till I was sixty two? Well, now now you have to cover plants
and you know, get the dogs in from the code. My biggest yeah,
my biggest thing is watching now when I take my golden tree for a
walk in the morning, having to street watching out for hapolinas. That's my
biggest job right now. Well, that's cool, that's cool. Coaches always,
thank you very much, all right, man, keep up the good
work fellows. Hey, Happy New Years to both you guys. Man,
Yeah, bless you guys. Thank you, thanks very much, one of
the great guys. I love his stories. Yeah, oh yeah, great,
great storyteller. But you know again, and you know what, he
retired at a young age. Yeah, he was sixty you're talking about.
That's you, you two years ago. Yeah, and I found you off
the car on the concrete sidewalk. You want to come and join me?
Sure, here you are, I know, you know. All right,
that was great, So we'll be back. We'll wrap it up if you
want to give us a call five two zero four one six seventy four forty.
We'll be here for about another uh, twenty minutes or so, so
come on back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's
been successful for nearly forty years. Now. Take a look back at the
Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a
labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and
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program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety
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a team security dot net. Steve Rivera and jag and Salez they have their
eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Big Jeft, Fox Sports fourteen to fifty,
streaming live, I mean iHeartRadio. Wapp Hey, welcome back joining the
ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's JAVM. About thirteen
minutes, so if you want to give us a quick call, we'll see
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okay, all right. You know I've been looking at you know,
sleep and talk talking. You spend so much time talking about sabing. You
know. The Belichick retirement's a big deal, no question, it's a huge
deal. And you know, the New England folks have to they've had to
tread carefully on what they say, you know, because he's still built Belichick,
He's seven super Bowls, he's still the guy. But you also needed
to do something because it wasn't working there, sure, and then't worked since
mister magic Man left. Yeah. Yeah. Robert Crafton's press conference was quoted
in saying, what's going on here in the last three or four years isn't
what we want. We have a responsibility to do what we can to fix
it. At the same time, in talking about Brady and Belichick, he
said they were both the best at their professions and we were lucky to have
them together for two decades. I mean, you gotta be careful. There's
gotta be careful. I was gonna talk to you about here. We gotta
call. I'm gonna call hi. You're on the R and I on the
ball. Hey, guys, what's up? Is vic Hey? Vic vic
Hey? I wanted to tell you a real quick Andy Lopez story of my
own because then that that guy is often. But in nineteen eighty nine,
I went to a clinic at cal State, LA and a bunch of high
school coaches and stuff, and we're in the gym and he tells opens the
clinic with his story that him and Rick Dempsey are going to Dodger Stadium and
they get lost. They get and jay and you know, illision and every
once in a while it can be kind of tricky. So he says they
can see the light and they're like, how the heck do you turn for
the street to get into the into the to the stadium. So he sees
a bunch of kids out playing with football and he pulls up next to him
and he tells one of the kids, hey, kid, He says,
how do you get to Dodger Stadium? And the kid turns around and tells
him your practice, man, your practice. You know that's a great answer.
That's a great answer. So so real quick. So this past year,
me and actually you know, I'm jays Chardy re going that bunch from
nineteenth Street where the guys are at the Arizona game, and we're outside the
game ends and Andy and his daughter walk by and say, hey, coach,
what's up? And we stayed out there talking baseball for over half an
hour, just bullshit, like at a bar. So I tell him that
I went to that clinic and he says, oh, he says, He
says, are you kidding me? He says, I remember that like it
was yesterday. And he goes, can I tell you a little PostScript to
that story? And I said yeah. He says that the next day,
him and his wife are Long Beach, that's where they lived, and that
they're going to dinner, and he says he takes a couple of turns down
Second Street, armb be there, his wife goes, where the heck are
you going. He says, I promised the kids or the team. He
was at Pepperdine. Then he says, I promised the team that I was
going to take a drive to the neighborhood and if I saw kids playing with
football, you guys didn't have to do audition. So he says, I
drove up and down Long Beach for half an hour and read me and Chargie
said, well, did you find any kids playing with the ball? He
says no, but I conditioned the shit out of him next day. Well,
okay, let's review what you just told us. We had to we
had to try. I doubt if we got to bleep you twice, we
probably didn't bleep you twice. I think we got the second one. Okay,
Okay, Uh, for that, you're gonna get a participation trophy.
Exact guy exactly. But remember that was and fucking not me. Okay,
so you quoted direct context context Okay, Okay, that that was just a
He's just a great guy, and I love when you guys have him on.
I've heard him a couple of times. Real quick, tell me,
tell me what Tell Jay what you told me about the Washington quarterback? Oh?
Jay, you got your vote? Man, that was a bad performance.
You could go get a kid from on high to go make those paths.
You know how many bad games did Jadan Jayden Uh Daniels whole bunch.
They lost three. So I no, no, I'm standing by I'm standing
by my vote. That's another participation trophy. J He was bad. He
was bad. No, he was bad. He was bad. For loud,
he was bad. But his line was bad. Michigan. You know,
Michigan made him bad. And that's why I I gave in and admitted
that Michigan was, you know, hands down the best team in the country
and they deserve to win the championship. Yeah, they sure, all right?
Vick? Hey, thanks about right. I appreciate it. Cares Man,
we got vic, we got Howard, we got we got Nico.
Who else Hammerschmid? Yeah, you know, put him Hall of fame,
Hall of fame for cussing on the show. Seriously. Uh, this is
our last show of the year for us. Hey, and again for those
of you who if you're listening now and we're trying to hear us. In
the first the first segment of the show, which was preempted by the National
the National feed, I believe we'll get that on the podcast tonight. We
spent that first segment really talking about about and and Belichick and the meaning of
some of that. Let me let me ask you, maybe anybody can call
we hel about Simmons. What makes a good coach? You know, it's
funny because there have been great coaches who've been just ogres right that you go,
how did that guy do that? How did he get his guys to
play for? Right, That's part of it. And and and to me,
a good coach is a coach who in the end the players love the
guy, would walk through the walls respect and respect him, have no harsh
feelings about him. At the end of it, they don't have to say
it was all worth it. Right, Bobby Knight comes to mind, right,
you know, I mean, I know Bobby Knight's players allowed to say,
you know what, I loved him. He did a lot for me.
But man, he was hard to play for. To me, it's
a guy like uh, like Andy Lopez, Right, but he admitted he
was hard on the guys. But you know, but you know, he
won and the players ended up loving him. You know, Jed Fish looks
like one of those guys. You know, will he ultimately be a great
coach? I don't know. But when you look at Belichick and you know,
I'm reading the statement that Tom Brady put out about it, because you
know, in the end, you know, when Brady left, it sounded
like there was some fu two guys. You don't Brady it at the end
of his at the end of his statement, he said, I could never
have been the player I was without you, Coach Belichick, I'm forever grateful
and I wish you the best, lucky and whatever you choose next. You
know, when a guy will come back and say that to you, you
know that's meant those are the great coaches. Well, the less they win,
It's like it's like a student going back to his teacher when he's older,
and you know that wouldn't be doing what I'm doing before you. Now
I agree. So you have to be you have to be a pain in
the ass you do to a degree. You have to be. You can't
be their friend. You can't be their friend. Did you listen to our
Peabody interview and he talked about that you always had to have a RaSE,
right, you had to have a ras and a bird song and those guys
to be the buffer between you and Luke our guy like you like you because
because you because you're gonna get yelled at, or you're gonna be scolded,
are you're gonna be whatever. But you have some you need somebody to go
and vent to, right. If it wasn't Bobby, it was Ross or
somebody else, you know, or in the early days, you know,
you had you know Kevin O'Neil, Ricky bird Song, Where the where the
guys when they were first coming to uh, you know, the into the
national right right, So you need that. But a coach, a good
coach needs to be respected to no question. They need to play for you.
Want to play for you, Saban, you have to you have to
have a big paint of the butt. You have to be a big painted
the But you know, if you ever listen to interviews of Saban's old players,
they love the guy. Yeah, you know, they love the guy.
And what's not to love. Yeah, you're gonna win a lot.
Yeah, if you're good enough, you're gonna play a lot. You know,
uh, you know, and you know, you meant there's a lot
of guys who came through there. Look at a guy like Levi Wallace from
right walk On went over there. But whatever expectations he had, maybe you
know, we need to get him run on the sholf and guys in the
NFL. You know how much did Nick did Nick Saban have to do with
that? A lot of it was within Levi Wallace to have the the competitiveness
to wherewithal the dedication to do that, to bet on himself. But he
also had to help from had to have help from Nick Saban and the coaching
staff over there to achieve the dream that he's achieved. And you know the
guys in the NFL out of nowhere. You know a kid who didn't even
get recruited to Arizona. So you know, it's it's a work of art
to be that. Look, you know who the great coaches are. A
long ago I read the book Jerry Kramer, The Lion the Linement for the
Packers during the sixties, and he spent time talking about Vince Lombardi, right,
and Vince Lombardi was I mean, he would crack your skull, but
there was a respect, there was an understanding that he had their best interests
in mind, and that's why those guys were great for him. It was
a different times. That was a very different different You could get away with
a whole lot more stuff than you could now, right Well, but yeah,
no, now you know they're no you couldn't get you know. Now
it's like you can talk back to your coach, right, well, hey,
I'm making more money than you, coach. I heard a great story,
I'll tell you on the way and I heard a great story on the
radio talk. It was to a tongue of my law. When he throws
that touchdown pass in the overtime game to win the national championship, remember that
he took a sack and then they were second and twenty six throws a touchdown
pass. They win the national championship, and they're celebrating on the field,
and Tua goes to it told the story somewhere, goes On gives Nick Saban
a hug, and Nick Saban goes goes I thought I told you not to
take a sack on first down. And Tua said, coach, I just
thought we needed some more room to to, you know, to maneuver.
Kind of cracking a joke about it, and he said that. Sabing,
in all serious, said to him, that wasn't funny there in the middle
of celebrating the national championship. And Saban was still coaching right there in that
I don't know about that. Thought, that's that's a cute story, but
that's uncomfortable, coach, What else can I do for you? Well,
that was here, and that's the thing to it, thought he was,
you know, it was time to make the joke a little levity and and
Saban was still being very serious to me. It's kind of like a Bette
Davidson doing his hair and Loot saying, don't touch my hair. Don't whatever
you do, don't touch more. Get off me. I told you never
touched my hair. You know what I'm saying. I think that's one of
the funniest things that happened at the end of that you know, well,
the loots thing. Yeah, yeah, well because he was not Luke like
you know, it was the non loot thing. Okay, now, good
show today, welcome back. He got you off your death. Bet.
Well, I'm not sure I'm happy to be back. Well, we'll have
sid in today. Okay, tomorrow, we'll say, I mean, I'll
try and commit tomorrow. It's always better to be here and we can talk
to each other face to face. Yeah, yeah, tomorrow. I don't
know anybody's had bronchitis. Man, this is the first time I ever had
man. Oh man, maybe it's maybe it's worse because I'm old. But
you're old. You need to retire. Okay, I've pulled rib muscles,
my throat hurts. I expect a Twitter release saying that I've had enough.
My wife has had enough. Of me because she says the worst person in
the world to be sick. Well, no, dude, she hasn't met
me. I'm ai't have a room at my place. You're gonna have to
move over to the northwest side, all right. So we will be back
tomorrow. We'll more great guests, and we'll talk some more and we'll see
if any other coaches like this uh quits by tomorrow, right, who knows
where we're at. We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for being here. Don't
believe, Just don't believe. Just La