This is I on the Wall with Steve Rivera and Jagonzale Sound Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kt z R
two SAD and iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to
I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's jagins As. All we have is each other. Jay, It's a
couple of sleepy guys in here. Man, you guys, we could have
just taken the week off. Some quick turnarounds over the weekend. Yes,
a lot of games you went too a few, yeah, you know,
went too well. Had the nine o'clock Friday night game. Saw Dave Heiky
after the game, and I asked him if I could just put my car
on the lawn and spend the night there on the tailgate lawn. He politely
said no. So I went home and I was back at seven o'clock in
the morning, and you know, we tailgated and did the game, and
then another game yesterday afternoon at four o'clock. Long weekends for bost of us,
you know what, let's say, you know, for for you know,
you go to those events. You see all the same people right the
staff, you know, all the same people were all doing the work.
You know, Mike Hargrove, who's the you know, the facilities guy,
you know at the at the arena. You know, my poor my poor
daughter had to work a volleyball game on Friday, then the Friday night game,
then the football game Saturday, a volleyball game on Sunday, and then
the Sunday game. All those people worked all those games and and it was
you know, there's a lot of stuff going on over They don't talk about
the glamour's part of it. It's not, it's not. That's the hard
part of it. You got to sit on the sidelines. How cool.
And the guys are great, aren't except the fact that you know, some
of those folks got there at you know, nine o'clock in the morning on
on on Friday, on Friday, and didn't leave until midnight. Quit your
bitching, man, quit your bitching. You got it easy dream job.
People are going to school for this job. But what a weekend, right,
one of the better weekends in the weekend. Friday night, they went
big. Yeah, okay, I'm gonna give you a platform here Okay,
so you could do whatever you I'm gonna let you bitch a little bit more.
Well, you know, I've been thinking about that. I've got a
fan rant. I mean, what the hell is up with the with fans?
Tommy Lloyd called him out, Yeah, Dave, he called him out
during during the during the during the football game. Where are you going get
back here? It's a great game. What are you doing? Why didn't
you show up in the first place? And that was my deal? Right
once again? Once again, Steve. You know these people bitch, bitch,
bitch, bitch about these night games. Bitch bitch. Oh it's too
late. I get home too late. You know they're on. I'm just
gonna say, I'm watching you give him a twelve thirty game. A beautiful
day. I get it. A storm came in and the but you didn't
know that when the game started it was beautiful. It was seventy degrees,
the sun was out. They said it was a sellout, and the place
was half empty. I took a picture five minutes before the game when the
team's about to come out on the field and the upper deck was half empty.
Where what you like our side was? Okay, I did see I
see our I saw on our side during the you know, I watched the
games. Side the east side it was full, west side, the west
side it was full. Okay, it was pretty full. But the east
and the end zones. Where the f were you? Okay, you got
a winner, you got a ranked team playing another ranked team that you never
beat. You're favored. Okay, you're going for your eighth win unexpectedly,
a team that comes out of order to do this. Where the f were
you? Now? Okay, here's the here's the here's the the crux of
my bitch. If Jedfish takes another right, there's only there's go. This
is one of the reasons he encourages it. Every He starts every press conference
selling tickets, buy tickets, get out there. You're missing something he doesn't
beg but he sells every press conference, every single press conference, and people
say, well, we'll come when you start winning. They're freaking winning.
Well, I've said there there. I've written this story a few times fickle
Arizona fans, and it's hard to make them happy. It's just what it
is. What do you think that what do you think that bottom line is
with them? Because you've seen it you've seen it forever. The bottom line,
Steve, is our fans suck. They just suck. That's how you
start. They're never going to be happy. That's how you start the story.
They just suck. And then you just bullet point the rest of it.
Right, and then again, you know this happened a couple of years
ago. You know, they they were bitching about all the night games.
Then they're a great day game and the play nobody came. Well, it's
funny because I didn't know this. I was too busy with my weekend stuff
with a tour, but I didn't know that Tommy had called out the fans
on Friday, right, and then Friday night the places the place is half
ampy. So this is this is what I'm not surprised because he did this
last year or the year before and he says, well, you guys,
consider yourselves college basketball fans. Where are you? And then fans freak out?
He called what what somebody's calling us out? Yeah for a reason,
Steve, yesterday the zonus Zo was half full, Yeah, half full.
The upper deck was empty and it was about ten or twelve rows into.
The lower deck was empty. So how many times I've been here thirty five
years, You've been here all your life, and all you hear is,
Okay, the blue hairs blah blah blah. Well the blue hairs are passed.
The new blue hairs are there because we're the blue hairs now. Okay,
So they want to move the kids on the side sideline blah blah blah.
Where are the kids gonna go there? They ain't gonna show up for
them either, Right, It's just it's frustrating because we talked talk about how
this team, Okay, you win, you'll you win, will show you
win, will show you start winning, I'll start coming. Well, where
the hell were you? Right? There was no reason to not be at
the Utah game zero, you know, I get it. El Tour was
going on and maybe that you know, that's not that's a different crowd,
totally different on it. There's no way, okay, there was no traffic
issues, right, No, you know, you know two weeks ago or
the the U c l A game, I got, you know, I
got. I got to the tailgate area half hour after the open. I
barely got on the lawn. I barely got on the makaylon. I showed
up at the same thing. You know, half hour after the open,
I was in the third row. You know, nobody was there, Like,
where the hell were you again? It just it just drives me nuts.
It just drives me nuts. You know, Tucson wants a winner.
They give you a winner, and you say, well maybe next year.
Yeah I got too much to do. Yeah maybe next year. Yeah.
Not. I hear you, I hear you, And well I applaud you
because you're ripping your own people. And let's not forget. And let's not
forget as mt as the place was. They gave away a bunch of tickets,
right, they gave away they every season ticket holder had an opportunity to
get two free tickets. All right, I got two tickets and you know
we brought some people to the game. What the hell is going on?
Well? I think that was part of Tommy's thing too. It's just if
you have tickets and aren't using them, give them to give them to somebody
else who wants to go to the game. Exactly. But the thing about
is, you know this, I mean, it's a it's a it's a
strong voice on Twitter and Facebook and blah blah blah. A lot of the
bitching and complaining and and the loud voices. But they don't go. They
don't go. Don't Oh no, we were big fans, but you don't
go. But here's the tickets are too tough. Well, there's tickets.
Both Tommy and and Jed are doing their part. They're doing their party.
You know, let's say Jed's built the winner. It's unbelievable, it's done.
They're they're you know, they're winning programs now and they're gonna be one
of the favorites. And Jay, whether he's here or not, he's proven
it can be to look at how fast it is, right right, look
at how fast this happened. There is proof of your resume shows it.
Uh this year, no one thought it, but it's here, maybe Jake
Fisher, but it's it's happened, and now we'll see what happens from it.
Remember my eight what is that now? For ten wins? It looks
pretty about seventy five percent? It's what are they ad now? Wins?
He win's yepp. But to get away to yeah, so Sam, I
want to know it depends what they played the bully so but yeah, but
you're you're getting closer your probability of getting it. It's pretty good. Look
if ten wins, Steve, it's only been done four times. It's hey,
he should run for mayor, he could run for Southern Arizona whatever.
If you who's going to vote for because nobody knows who the hell he is
or where what is? No, it's it's very they want but they don't
know they want, but they don't know. Come on, that's the world,
man, I would I would live it started the game. Well,
you know, I will say this because you know everyone knows I'll tour and
uh this weekend. Uh. We we do it every year, right,
same time. You would understand because we talked about on the radio, right
yeah. Uh, And and people can understand it's one year and one one
day of a year, but they don't know until it happened, until it
affects them, right and the other pist kind it doesn't work that way.
But we tell them, come to the game. We're good. Come to
the game, we're good. I'm talking to know that bad. Come to
the game. Maybe I'll come next year. Yeah, did you have a
problem with them storty to story the field again? I kind of wish they
hadn't, But what the hell right, what the hell? You know?
Three times? Three times? Okay, okay, next year when again,
when whenever's win some games, let's not from the field like you've been there,
right, act like you've been there. I'm kind of one of those
believers in that, right, you know. But you know, you know
it's the same, it's the same mentality of trashing the downtown area after journeying
over of cars, Right, why do you do that? But I you
know, I was okay, it's fine, but you know what, it
was cold and it was starting to raising. It wasn't good. It was
the wind was howling inside your in sheer area, right, yeah, because
of the win, but yeah, because when it was raining. Okay,
I you know, I had a ring pointer, so I wasn't getting wet,
but I had the puntra but it was cold because it was it was
so windy. But we haven't even talked about the game. Yeah, we
haven't talked about the game. We have a good show, though, yeah,
we do. We do. What do we have a Bear Baker?
He was the special teams captain on that ninety eight twelve and one team.
Yeah, we'll talk to him a little bit about getting ready for this a
SU game and just what what that was like? You still that team still
stands as the best team ever. We'll talk about that period. You turn,
you turn a couple of games in the in this season around in this
team is right up there, right up there with that team. And then
uh, man, we're talking him about Hell, he was on the call
last night. Uh he's been twice now, twelve networks. You want to
get his impression of of uh, you know what he's seen from from the
Cats, Steve, They're good. There's no question. Did you read me
today? Yeah? And I went to the talk to the car. I
was the only one that went to talked to. I went to because I
knew. I knew I was gonna be the only one one, and I
knew what he was gonna say given his back right and now, had he
played that at Chapman College or whatever, I would never would have done that.
But he he was at Kentucky before he got here, and I'm thinking
this guy might say something, and he did, and he did, and
he did and he's right. I mean, I'm not sure if he's right
for the five four, but it has every ingredient you want. They got
all the bases covered. Yeah, even the bench of the bench yeah covered.
Yeah, yeah, you know, you know, you bring in Moroscos
and Borovich for for right a couple of minutes, three for minutes, and
then they go, you know stuff right. No, This the thing about
it, Jay, is there's the problem because I hear this every time time
again, I'm sure you have to. Well, Lout had some pretty good
teams out coming, didn't win more championships. Guess what other teams. Duke's
pretty good, Kentucky's pretty good, Kansas is pretty good. They have things
to do to you. You get up there and you gotta you gotta get
lucky and good and be good on that, on that and not get hurt.
Everyone talks about Ashley, right, stuff happened to right, you know,
Gilbert Arena skating hurt, writing hurt, Gilbert Rena skating hurt, turned
the uh you know during that final four, you know, just stuff like
that, right, So, you know, but they're really good. But
you know what it the Arizona football team. I'm gonna you know, I'm
gonna say it, Steve, I think I people might people might disagree with
me or Mike or as you often say, I might be overstating things,
overacting things. Arizona's the top ten teams in the country right now. Yeah,
I don't know, because it's hard to measure them. But let me
tell you something. Even Mikey me, I mean Mikey likes it because that
Washing USC game kind of said. Okay, and then the Washington States of
God, these guys are good. You know. Yeah, you know,
I'm sitting here thinking, if I'm Washington, I don't want Arizona to have
another shot at me. No, no, right, and I backf championship
game. No, and then uh, and I don't think he's I think
that's very capable of winning that game. Okay, let's go down the list.
Okay, these are these are the real quest got a minute. I
don't know if I've seen enough of a one one through one through for Georgia,
Ohio State, Michigan, Washington. Okay, a Zon's not better than
any of those. Florida State, especially with the quarterback. Certain Arizona can
beat the Oregon probably not, but you know they'd give him a hell of
a game. Texas Arizona can beat them, Alabama, probably not. Louisville
Arizona can beat them, Missouri Arizona can beat them. I'd be put them
up against Penn State. Then you go after that old miss O or or
Oklahoma l s U. You know, I'll put it. I don't know
that there's going to beat all of them, but I think they can.
This has to be in your your mind because I don't even been here and
I don't follow football like I did a new for basketball. The most surprising
seasons you've ever witnessed? Yeah, could you even think about the first one?
I don't know how many of us saw the twelve and one ninety eighteen
coming. You know, remember ninety seven they'd gone like six and five and
they need ASU and snuck into a bolt predict this, Yeah, I don't
remember. You know, they started winning game. But you know, this
team didn't look all that great at the start of the season, you know,
And I tried to ask Jed then. I don't think he liked what
I asked him about the slow starts and stuff. But you know, they
didn't look all that great. And they were they were, you know,
they were what they thought where we thought they were going to be on after
the first six games, come on, they were three and three. I
was thinking about this today. The circumstances of events de Laura getting hurt,
Flafida coming in right, uh, the Wiley getting her, Jonah coming in
and playing more. These little things that happened, that just happened. Sometimes
you take a ride at Albuquerque and you end up in the right place exactly,
I mean, just because it was a roadblock somewhere. Yeah, exactly.
And that's what they've done, which is just crazy. Yes, I
don't know that there's been a bigger surprise in Arizona football. You have to
reduce some research. But I don't know my time here because this was totally
unexpected. And he should if if anybody's paying well, we smoked him today,
right, excuse we spoke to him today. He hit something on the
top of the head with a question about Arizona. No one's, no one's
everyone's not paying attention or whatever. Welcome to Arizona, bast Arizona football.
Right, all right, let's take our break. We're gonna come back.
Barrett Baker, who was on that ninety eight twelve and one team, he
was the special teams captain of that that year. We'll talk to him about,
you know, finish shaving off ninety seven and then going into ninety eight
and when he thought that was gonna happen. So stick around for all that.
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Streamy Live, I Mean iHeartRadio WAPP. This is I on the Ball
with Steve Brabera and Jacin Salez. Sports fourteenth Fiftay, Hey, welcome back
to Ian the Ball Here. Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Stive Rivera,
He's Jagins Aws. Now on the phone, we have Baker from the ninety
seven ninety eight football team at Juba, probably one of the better ones that
we've seen in a long time. Barrett, how are you doing, oh
Man? Just excited that obviously had a great win Saturday, a lot of
momentum coming into the big game on the upcoming Saturday, So great time to
be a Wildcat. You know, a lot of people in town and obviously
a lot of people know that you played for that team. Do you get
into a lot of conversations from there and about about this team being compared to
that team? You know, I would say that you get into a little
bit of a recency bias and where anything today is better than it was in
yesteryear, if that makes sense. And I'm all for that, because at
the end of the day, when you wore the uniform, you just want
success for it. And to watch those kids be able to sing bear down
in a winning locker room, I wish they could do that every week.
So I'm excited about the fact that at some point we are now actually talking
about this version of the Arizona Wildcats compared to some of the better teams that
we've had specifically ninety three and ninety eight. So for them to actually be
relevant, that's what's exciting I think as a fan. You know that after
twenty years of we had some decent teams in there with the twenty fourteen squad
obviously, but we are trending in the right direction, and the fact that
Arizona football seems to be relevant again. As an alum, that's exciting for
us part. Just you know, in terms of comparing, right, you
know, you guys decent season in ninety seventy one, seven and five,
but the big thing was you beat ASU, you know in that you know,
the year after getting born after you know, ACU came in and blasted
air Zone on their way to the Rose Bowl. Then, so leading into
the ninety eight season, how much did that help you guys in the off
season to kind of get have being a say, a better frame of mind
went into ninety eight And how much do you think that had to do with
what you guys did eight? And did you see this see did you see
this coming exactly? Well, I think going back to that nineties, I'll
go ahead, Steve, no, no, did you see that coming?
Like just I think when we lost in overtime to Washington State in ninety seven
on the road, and that was Washington State's rose bull team. But we
gave them everything and more, and we probably should have won that game if
we If we scored on our two point conversion, that changed things for us.
At that point. We barely lost to Ohio State played them very tough,
so we had some building blocks in ninety seven and it seemed like we
were holding ourselves back a little bit. I'll never forget going into Sun Devil
Stadium on Friday night and excuse me on Thanksgiving night and basically coach told me,
telling us this is where it's going to happen then, and they had
a good team. They were supposed to be going on a Fiesta Bowl and
we knocked them off, and that momentum carried out through the inside dot Com
Bow and I think we finished with four wins in a row, and we
knew that we had the building box there. We worked our butts off that
summer and we had the pieces in place and it was just a matter of
pushing the right buttons. And there are similarities with this team. To go
from one to eleven to five and seven to I won't jinx it. But
what should we be at the end of the season, right, we should
be nine and three going into a bowl game that they can feel it.
The one thing I would caution everybody about is that each team is a team
in and of itself, and it's so difficult to forecast next year's success based
off this year because we just don't know the chemistry, the moving parts,
if everyone's coming back, if they're injury free. You know, there's so
much that goes into that. But yeah, we knew we had something special.
I think this team has a great chemistry and they've got something special in
that locker room, and I think we're seeing that every Saturday. Yeah,
so when you're on the sidelines, what do you see? Can you see
the chemistry, see the just the unbelievable things that we probably don't see.
Ye. I think I'll give coach Fish credit. I mean, he's just
an open book when it comes to making the alumni feel part of the program.
And so you know, we've got to give a twenty four hour notice,
I'll say, but he is so awesome about letting us go and watch
practice. So when I've gone to practice, you know, and you hear
coach Akina yelling and everybody in a positive way. And you see guys ten
weeks or eleven weeks or twelve weeks into a season that are still running around
and having fun at practice. That says a lot because practice is tough.
You're physically beat up. You've been doing this since August, and how do
you keep pushing through that and putting your best effort into the field on Saturdays?
But man, we do it. We show up and we are ready
to go every Saturday. So they're doing something I think you know in Canner
McLaughlan, I wouldn't say that we lucked into finding that kid, but obviously,
you know, coming from Southern Utah transferring in rehabbing from a knee injury.
Would we have forecasted him a year and a half ago that he was
going to be the VIP or MVP type of player that he's been. And
yet he's a great teammate, you know, Anthony Ward busting his butt year
in or week in and week out on special teams and then boom making a
play that has such a huge impact. Right if we pulled one hundred percent
of our fan base, and that's not a shot at him. But ninety
seven percent aren't going to know who after they award is. A three percent
might know, oh, that's Isaiah Ward's brother, right, They don't even
know if there's a connection there. But we know who number fifty seven is
today because he had such a huge impact on the outcome of last Saturday's game.
And for a kid like that to be rewarded and getting a scholarship,
you know, those are the program building chemistry things that you have to have
and coach Fish and his staff have done a great job doing that. So
that we Steve and I have talked about often is this whole idea of chemistry,
and you talked a lot about that that you know there there have been
teams in any sport at any level that have great talent, you just incredible
rosters, and have no chemistry and they don't farewell, whereas a team that
does have great chemistry doesn't even have to have the best players on the field
every every game, and yet they can do things. I mean, how
you know you were in the locker room, what you know what makes great
chemistry? And how is that more important than almost anything that you know?
It starts with unselfishness and there's twenty two kids on the team that are starters
and happy and about eighty that have to push right because they're practicing just as
hard they're doing the scout team. They're the backup that's waiting for their chance.
So you have to buy into the team, the team, the team.
And that's what coach told me was so great about, right, we
don't know where, we don't know who, we don't know when, but
some wildcat's going to make a play. And this team, I feel like
they echo that same thing because when these backups have gotten a chance to step
in and take care of business, there's no drop off. They're ready to
seize the moment. And so it really starts with that unselfishness and then the
fact that you just love it when another teammate does something good. Right,
When you see a teammate that has individual success but that individual success helps the
team, then it's just a wildfire that spreads the right way. And so
I think when you see that on the sidelines, you know somebody makes it
play man, that sideline is jacked up. They are excited, And I
keep going back to that unselfishness, But like if you take a look at
I hate to use myself as an example, but I was a walk on.
They had two years of eligibility and after getting a scholarship from coach Tolmy,
which is awesome. My teammates said, that's a kid that we want
to be our team captain. Well, who in the world would have a
walk on become a team captain. That says everything about the ninety seven guys
that pick them right, because now it's not what you were, it's what
you are and what do you bring every day to the table to help your
team. And this team does the same thing. They don't care if you
were a walk on from this or a transfer from that, or a two
star kid or a five star kid. You're all wildcats one to one hundred.
And when you see the same thing Nos Bombada going in and reaking havoc,
you know, and getting praised by his teammates for a guy that you
know, DJ Warnell, There's just you could go down that roster and find
guys that aren't necessarily t MAC, but man, they have a huge impact
on the program behind the scenes as well. And that's what it takes,
is that just one hundred from one to one hundred, rowing in the same
direction, putting in that effort, and then obviously, yes, you do
have t Mac, you do have Jonah Coleman, you do have fufet it.
You know, you got all those guys that when the game needs to
have an impact play, they step up and they do it. And that's
that's obviously very necessary as well. Do you can we get you for one
more minute? Yeah? Sure, so okay, because it's three thirty and
I need to go. But when did you when did you see this team
become this team? There had to be a point how would I describe this?
I talked to a teammate earlier this year, one of the kids on
the team earlier this year. When you are coming off of one and eleven
season and then you're five and seven, do you truly know how to win
games yet? Right? And the answer is no. But when you battle
and you go on the road against Mississippi State and unfortunately, you know,
we weren't able to pull that game off, But then you punch USC in
the mouth and you know that was just a fluke that we didn't come out
of that game with a win. But when you're going toe to toe with
these teams and you're saying, Yep, we can do this, and then
all of a sudden, you get that victory, and then you get that
next victory. Now you know that you are legitimate. And so I think
we had to convince ourselves that we were the big dogs and that we were
the ones that if Oregon State comes into our house, that we're going to
beat them, and we're not going to think that we can beat them.
We're going to know that we can beat them. So looking in the mirror
one to one hundred and realizing that every guy said we're the Arizona Wildcats and
it's twenty twenty three and this is our team, and every time we take
the field, we are going to win. That expectation of winning you have
to grow into that twenty five years ago. Jay, to your point,
I think that we found that late in the season and it carried on to
the next season, and I think mid season, right all of a sudden,
it's like, no, we're the guys. They're going to try to
beat us, but it's not going to happen. We're going to beat them,
and when we take the field, we knew that we were going to
beat them. And I think that you see that now that we go out
there and to jump on Utah, who is an established program for the last
fifteen years, and man, they didn't know what happened to them. And
that just shows a growth in the program of believing in ourselves and knowing to
expect, expect to win, not think you can win, expect to win.
Well. Well, thank you Brett for coming on today. You sharing
me a lot of Thank you so much. Hey, bear down on Saturday,
guys, I've finished this thing out. Get to nine and three and
then go get a great ball. Great, great, great to hear from
you, Barrett, Thank you, thanks a un all right, bear down,
guys, good stuff, good stuff. The funny thing about it,
Barrett's you know, former walk on scholarship guy. How many of those dudes
are like him on this team, right, there's a bunch of them,
a bunch of those dudes that you say, what that dude, but he's
kicking your ass and they did. Man, that was something on Saturday.
Okay, let's take our break. We'll come back talk more about the game
on Saturday, and then Jed clips. We got some Jeed clips from the
press conference today. Talked about a lot of that stuff. So stick around
for that. We'll be right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan,
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the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen to fifteen.
Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgeon I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to Why the Ball Here Fox Sports fortune and fifty.
I'm Steve, he's Jay. You have about fifteen minutes left. I
will talk up to each other. Maybe take a call. We would love
to take your call to each other. That would be a first and then
take your calls and we're gonna listen to Jed. Today. We spent a
few minutes right. Well, there's so much going on, Steve, especially
with what's happening with football and basketball. So yeah, I've had my fan
rand I'm done with that. So no one called you, but they're gonna
yell at me. I'm gonna yell that at home for being no. But
that's it's true, Jay, I mean, how do you the thing?
The thing I like about it because just because Tommy has done this before,
he called them out, and because everyone thinks they're the poop for the poop,
we're the poop. We're Wildcats basketball program. Well show up. You
can say all you want about yourself, but show up up, show up.
Yeah. All right, So a lot of a lot of different things
in the press conference today, one of them being just Jed was asked out,
you know, how do you keep your team from being over confident in
this game against a su You know, as you've got slaughtered over the weekend
again, Arizona's beating the hell out of everybody, and how do you how
do you fight that off headed into this game? And here's what you had
to say about that. Oh, there, there's no overconfidence with this team.
This team I've you know, I've shared with them, like we you
know, there's not a lot of people out there that talk about our program,
a lot a lot of people out there that talk about our team.
Our guys are just you know, scrappy and hard nosed and passed over by
a lot of programs to come here, and we like it that way.
So we're going to continue to live in that world, remind ourselves of that
and you know, do everything we can to get to this next win.
But if we can get there, you know, on Saturday, to get
to no, that's great. But for us, it's just a matter of
always remembering where we came from. So so when he said that, I
kind of picked my eyes up and that said that describes Arizona football to a
team not today all the time, what this team has And correct me if
I'm wrong, Jake, because you know this better than me. They've had
the scrappy dudes forever. Right now they have some guys who are very good
sprinkled in. So those sprinkled in dudes are making the other dudes play hard
and play tough because they don't they don't want to disappoint each other, right,
so they play as a team. And that's this team. That's this
team. Well, like bart Baker said, you know our guests. You
know, last segment he said, you know, Arizona's always had those blue
collars, but now Jed is gone out and gotten you know all you know
North Jonah Coleman, who those guys are really really good college football players.
They're not and they're not the blue collar underdog kind of guys. Those are
guys. Those are top of the line players. Say, No, fa
Ft has proven that you know that he's well, well he's short, he's
really really good college quarterback. He's a college good college quarterback. No,
he is. You know what two is. I think they've built the program
here that's worthy of staying. You know, the Dorian singers are gonna leave.
The scooter spots are not gonna leave because they see bigger, brighter lights
somewhere else. I'm not saying that's gonna not gonna happen. But you like
this situation? Now, how do those three USC guys who transferred from here
at field today? Someone said, we tell them their coach is going to
be on the hot seat. Dorian Singer cut thirteen passes this year. Now
he's a junior. He's gonna be back next year. And maybe he's you
know, more a piece of it and whatever it is, maybe it's all
worth whatever nil money they got. But those three guys are on seven and
five team Arizona. They could be in the New Year six Bowl if they
get themselves into the Pac twelve championship game, which is not out of the
realm of possibility. You know, I don't think it's gonna happen, but
it can. But either even so, Arizona could be nine to three and
everybody's talking about and the only the people that are talking about USC are talking
about what a crappy season, right right? Be careful what you wish for.
Sometimes it doesn't work out. You know, how does Dorian Singer feel
about playing in a bowl game without the quarter heisom Trophy winning quarterback that he
went to play for. Because again I say, there's no way in hell,
KILEB. Williams is gonna play another game. I don't know this problem.
I'll never know this problem. But more money, more problems. Us.
See, you do you have the wealth of wealth, of talent and
all that. Now guess what you got to live up to it. And
if you don't, people people will say, what the hell happened? You
do? I brought up I brought up the issue of Arizona slow starts,
you know, early in the year, which they did they have slow starts,
you know, Jed, Well, I'll just say we'll play what Jed
said, because since the USC game and then all the way up to what
happened on Saturday, the blitz that they put on Utah. Yeah, I
mean, we just don't see. You've just not seen anything like that,
right against a team of that quality. They've done that to NAU and Idaho
State whatever, but a team of Utah's quality to do what they did,
to go up twenty eight to nothing in no time flat, that was crazy.
And I just thought, did something change about what you guys were doing?
What he said? Now, I think you guys were more focusing on
the slow starts than I was. Really. I know that there was a
couple of games that we only had two possessions in the quarter, and then
we scored the first possession of the second quarter, and we scored against NAU.
I know we all talk about the Mississippi State game, you know that
we wound up going down fourteen to nothing there and then utap. I think
we had a chance to score in the second I think with the second drive
and then we fumbled the ball. So I don't know, I just think
it kind of happened that way. I think it was kind of meant to
just as the year went on. I think we were just going to get
to a spot where we don't punt a lot. We try not to pun
a lot, and I think we just early on maybe we didn't hit on
a couple of things. But I never really saw it as big of a
problem. As kind of got addressed. But I don't think it's a big
deal. Well, of course now things are going well, No, it
give may have been, but they've solved it. We talked about this in
basketball all the time to remember when they slow started and blah blah blah.
Yeah, I know what you're going with it. Well, again, what
they were talking about that though, you know, they just didn't get off,
They didn't get out of the out of the out of the gate those
first few games. You know, well, who's the quarterback? Yeah,
I mean honestly, yeah, you switched. You switched a few things,
putting you spark plugs in the car and maybe a little bit maybe he thought
that's what I was fishing for, and I wasn't at all. It was
just like, well, you know what happened that Maybe he was, but
it was wasn't. He doesn't know. Well I just thought of that just
now. Yeah, because because there was a change. Yeah, and and
and and who do who gave me some old Lamont gave me grief about they
played harder for Whether whether it's true or not, there was some change that
happened. Something something something, something got different. Yes, what was it?
Yes? All right? Jed was asked, you know, how how
long did it take for somebody to tell you how important the game is?
And he had he had an interesting answer to that. I mean, it
was a huge part really, even early on when I met with the I
think that first day I did a zoom call with former athletes that coach Sanders
headed up before he was on the staff. Dave got me in touch with
I think it was with Brandon Sanders, and had about seventy five but football
alumni on and I was, you know, my job was to introduce myself
to them, and I think their job was to kind of inform me a
little bit about the history of Arizona football. And clearly the game itself of
the Territorial Cup is one of the most important parts of Arizona football. So
probably that day, day one, it was brought to my attention. And
then Teddy came to breakfast, as you guys all know that story the next
day, and I talked to him a little bit about the importance of the
game, and we've not we certainly I recognize the importance of the game because
I know that I was hired after it. So is that that's it?
Right? So? So are you surprised about the spread? Oh, I
mean it was ten yesterday. I I'm surprised it's that low. Me too,
Yeah, me too, unless, of course, you know, it's
a rivalry game and blah blah blah, But me too, Yeah, I
you know, yeah, I'm surprised that's that, love, because I think
that the the disparity between the two teams is very apparent. Yeah, well,
hey, look as she played. They played a nice game against Washington,
right, remember that game, close game, but Utah beat the hell
out of them, or can beat the hell out of them, and they're
depleted, you know, and they're depleted. You know, they had a
running back, you know, taking snaps at quarterback last week. I mean
it's just you know, there, there's so much there. We only had
fourteen minutes with him. We could have spent a half hour. I know
we could have. Because I'm assuming, I'm assuming that Jed ces a issue
a lot like U of A was two years ago. Yeah, near the
bottom, near the bottom, trying to work itself out and with a young
with a young coach with the who's inspiring or whatever word that is all right,
and I think he expects as to come out like his team came out.
Yeah, you know, not just last not just you know, his
first year, but last year too. Now, his first year they were
helpless, right, they didn't have guys. But last year they came out
and you know, they won that game. And get to the point that
I made you try to make with with with Barrett Baker and how much momentum
did they get from that win, Yeah, to go into this season and
kind of believing themselves. And then here's the second thing, or maybe thirteen
I felt there was interesting the billboard or and he didn't say much. Uh,
he didn't even he didn't say much about it. All he had to
do was say the billboard the billboard. I don't remember. I'm not sure
where he said that, but he did the reminder. I think it might
have been Jenny's uh yeah, yeah, I think's question. I think could
have been, but he did. He did talk about the fact that there
are some guys on who are on that twenty twenty team they got beat seventy
to seven. Who are there? He he he's not unhappy that they're that
they're thinking about that. Well, what did you think about what he did
to Utah Saturday? I initally thought it was kind of from me, but
then he almost immediately thought, wait a minute. He did that for jayde
and de Laura. He wants Jaden de Laura to have something. When did
you realize that or think probably about when you were just no, no,
no, just a couple of minutes after the play, Okay, I thought,
I thought, wait a minute he did, you know, he wanted
he wanted to Laura and I and I listened to the postgame show to see
if he said that infect it so so that brings me to my point.
He's not a guy who will not do that, right, you know what
I'm saying, right, and you know, and I liked, I liked
how how the Utah you know coaches responded to it. Waitningham basically said,
hey, you know, Jed gets to do what he gets to do,
and we had it's up to us to defend it. And then there was
a lot of things because if you saw him on the team coach broadcast,
the defensive coordner just kind of walked by Jed. He said, I didn't
see him. He said, I would have. The coach said, the
defensive corder, okay, because somebody tweeted, I saw somebody tweeted. There
was a blow by head and then he came back and he responded to that
guy and he said, look, I respected, but I didn't see Jed
fish. If I had seen him, i'd have shaken shig his hand.
And I congratulated. That makes sense, and he said I had no problem
with that makes sense. And like I always say to you. And then
the Sean Miller rule of if you don't want the court stormed, what do
you do? You don't let him storm the court. You don't let him
beat him, you don't let him know that. The Utah coaches handled it
exactly like they did. It was the fans were upset, and and then
some of our some of airs, the fans were upset saying it was you
know, it was low. He should have done that. I knew.
I thought that shortly after the past and then I listened to the pro postgame
press conference to see was Jed gonna say that? And he infected it makes
sense, totally makes sense. He did say that. Here's here's this tennis
player being the love forty love, fifty love. You know. And again,
you know, people pointed out that, uh, Utah did that Tarrizona
a few years ago, you know, ran a fake punch when they were
up by thirty five points or something like that. Look, you know,
the guys gonna do what they're gonna do, and they have their keep receipts.
Man, this is the Steven Elphins, Steve Alfred, Sean Miller time
out thing. All right, Again, Jed talked about there's thirteen guys who
are on the team in twenty twenty who are dealing who are uh uh playing
in this game, And he said he's sure they remembered, including Michael Wiley
and Jordan Morgan. Yeah, brought to their attention that there was I think
thirteen players total that were Arizona Wildcats when the game occurred here in twenty twenty.
Of the starters you're talking about, Jordan Morgan, Mike Wiley, Trading
Stokes, and I guess Kyle Austendorp. I think we're the guys that are
right now off the top of my head that may not have played in the
game in twenty twenty, but are now starting in the game here in twenty
twenty three. It means a ton to them. It's a huge part of
their legacy. It's a huge part of what they want to get accomplished here
before they leave. They do not want to leave here one in three or
one and four, whatever it might have been. They want to make sure
they leave here two and two and do everything they possibly can get that done.
Yeah. I you know, there's a little piece of me that says
they should try and beat in seventy seven to seven. But I don't.
Well, you know, the players are gonna do as much as they can
to make something like that happen. To make man. But but okay,
here's your here's your thing. Because you've seen quirky things throughout the whole thing.
You never know, you never because the gods sometimes show up and say,
uh, the underdog, so I'll have the power. And you know,
you turn the ball over a few times, you let them be in
the game, and then all of a sudden you get to the fourth quarter
they're still in the game, and it's like, who's panicking, Sure you
are, And some of the freakiest things happens in the game. Right yeah,
No, I'm look I to me, it's a just win the game.
I don't care how you win it. To win it, I don't
care what the score is. Win the game. They're gonna know. They're
gonna know Saturday what happened Friday night with Oregon and Oregon Space. And if
they're playing to get in the back Culp Championship game, you know, do
you have that clip or done no that they'll pay attention or they're aware or
whenever, you probably didn't because you have a minute I think yeah, I
think I do. I think I do. Well, you know, we
don't have time to play it all. Look play it on the backside.
We've got breaking news coming up. It's uh a lot of stuff going on
went over the weekend and we've got you know, we're gonna cover some of
that. It some things going on right now and uh there's been a women's
basketball game today and all kinds of so stick around for that. We'll be
right back crowd street, talking down down, saying bottles this and that,
how much you down spare, I swearsh must believe it's all head of SI's
better way to check around to the sad