Streaming live on the iHeart Radio Lamp. This is I on the Ball with
Steve Ribera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back
to on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm see Ribera. He's
Jakin's ass and we had better have some breaking news. This is I on
the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight. All right, so
a little bit of a controversy he's kind of broken out that came out of
the press conference today. I don't know if you saw the question to Jason
Cher asked about uh, one of one of Arizona's a lineman who's on the
starting on the depth chart, Tia Savella, who he was one of the
guys ejected at the end of the A s U game last year. Remember
the fracas after the I don't remember the Arizona intercepted the past that basically four
the game and when then when they ran and then there was a there was
a bunch of guys push around and two ways you guys got kicked out to
Arizona guys got kicked out. Savella was one of them. So he's listened
first one depth chart and Jason brought it to U Jed's attention in the press
conference. The Jed said, holy crap, you know, uh, I
wasn't aware or something. He just he didn't really realize that that. You
know, when you get kicked out of a game, you got to miss
the first half of the next game. Who's who's the buck up? So
I don't know. But but anyways, what's happened is that so ASU has
tweeted out or put on social media that yes, they didn't do. In
fact, have two guys that won't be able to play tonight when they take
on Southern Utah. But Christian Roland Wallace, who played for Arizona last year
and was the other Arizona guy kicked out of the game, he's a USC
now. Well, he played in the first half of the USC game last
week, So that the question becomes, what do you do with that?
Does does USC have to forfeit the game for playing an inaligiable fare and that
may be a big deal down the road. That's silly, but I get
it. They should have known. They should have known. It's funny because
I guess who didn't know. They didn't know ye and me, And it
sounds like as you didn't know either. And I don't know if I don't
know if Jason was the one who brought it attention of as you, but
he he brought it up at the press con. I think they I think
they had already known. I read something earlier. Uh and then and then
someone else confirmed it just been confirmed. Yeah. So anyways, but the
question now becomes with Christian Roland Wallace over there s you did he you know?
Did he know? And not saying it did you know? And not
say did they know? And not and think it didn't apply because he changed
schools or what. But in any in any event, Christian Roland Wallace was
not supposed to play last week? Did he have did he have it?
He started? Yeah? But what happened? Did he do anything? Yeah,
he did play. He did all kinds of stuff. I saw it.
We saw a bunch of him, We saw about We saw a bunch
of all the airs on the guys you know, you know in that the
former Arizona guys, I say, in that game. So anyways, interesting
thing. We'll see what happens with that. But give Jason share credit for
he's the guy who brought that up at at at the press conference today.
I'm gonna bring this up right now before I get in trouble because my my
my daughter was a volleyball player at the in high school. Told me that
I better report this today. But Nebraska volleyball they I know, we brought
up the thing that they were playing that the game in that match, and
that's in the stadiums, right. Did you ever see the pictures of any
of that? I mean, you got this volleyball courts in in the middle
of the field. It was kind of towards one end ninety two thousand and
three on the field as well. It was on the field. It was
sort of on a platform on the field, but the crowd didn't ever they
were sitting in the seats, but there were there were some there were some
people sitting around the court, around the court nine a little ninety two thousand
and three went to this event that the basically world record for a a woman's
sporting event the history of mankind. And I believe they do you think you
could pull that off here? Now? So so what's the what's the stadium
holdine? So it was the South for Nebraska football. Yeah, so that's
what they could get every game so this is what fifty six, fifty five
whatever it is, but plus people on the well, it could be about
sixty. Keeps saying thet maybe that's what he is with whatever changes they made.
But in anyway, I think you could get I bet you you could
get forty five or about well. No, it may be the way they
market it and the way they sell tickets for it. I bet you could
fill up the stadium for a basketball game for for the novelty of it.
You know how they do those hockey game hockey matches. Sure, you know
they would, people would go, people would go, they'd fill it up.
I bet you, I bet you that's special. It had to be
in October possibly, yeah, Okay, you could do in November early November.
Okay, you know, even if it's an exhibition, right, no
cruel. You know why we do the altur in November mid late Luke eighty
degrees Yeah, yeah, I mean it depend on new you would hope for.
You know, you're hoping for weather, right, you open that you're
getting the decent weather, but uh, you know it's uh, I think
I think you could do that with with the thing. But ninety two thousand
people for volleyball match, and there's some great photos. There's some aerial phote
you know, drone photos and stuff like that. That we're done, you
know, that very very cool, real cool thing they did last night.
So anyway, made some mystery, made some serious degree. All right,
Uh, well, what let's stay on on women's sports. John Court,
Uh, he's been a guest of the guest of the show, and uh,
he's uh the gymnastics coach, has been, has been with the has
been the head coach for six years, been the program for twenty. He
got a three year contract extension today. So it looks like Dave Hicks running
around, you know, getting signing up and trying to keep this uh,
this group of coaches that you know, we've we've said a lot of times
they you know, you just feel a vibe over there at McHale Center with
the coaches that they have and whether it's you know, the volleyball coach or
the beach volleyball coach or the you know, gymnastics coach or tennis coaches or
whatever, they're just sort of this vibe around McHale. Now. So John
Court gets a three year contract extension, so he has not signed through the
twenty twenty sixth season, so congratulations to him. All right, so we've
we're still waiting on the AEC stuff with cal Stanford and smu U. There
was a meeting that was supposed to have happened on Monday, I think it
was, and then there was a shooting on the North Carolina campus, so
I had to that they postponed the meeting. That meeting has now been scheduled
for tomorrow morning. There's various media people are saying they've got the votes to
get cal Stanford and smun there's others in that they're not sure and they got
to have a long discussion and nobody really knows what's going to happen. But
the belief is that something you're gonna have a sense of what's going to happen
with it, uh tomorrow, sometime tomorrow. But they're you know, they're
trying trying to meet before uh, you know, they get into the weekend
of a football games. So what happens, Okay, you know, just
find it. Just ran across a post by Michael lev on Christian Roland Wallace
back to the build things, he said. Christian Roland Wallace was USC's highest
graded defender in the game, so he wasn't just out there running around.
He actually you know, made a difference in the game. So it'll be
interesting to see how much of that enters into whether night they decide if he
if he gets suspended. Well interesting, all right, women's soccer Arizona Soccer
is, uh, they're in a in a brief tournament, I don't know
if you call it a tournament, but an event up at up at a
s U. They're playing Kent State in soccer today and they're in the sixty
second minute and they're up the ree zip on Kent State. Our our favorite
coach, yes, thank you, I know, and so uh so well
not our favorite one, but you know, she will love all of them,
but she's she's she's certainly one of the one of the you know,
on the impressive list up in the top top two or three over at McHale.
So anyways, that's kind of oh well, some some news of a
friend of ours, Anthony Jamino, joining the do we call it Phoenix Wildcats
or phn xh p h n X Wildcats. It's uh sort of a uh,
you'd call them an online media, not a fan site, not a
fan sact. But it's a little Mike Luke pictures of that side. But
I think it's it's just the other website that covers a team, and he'll
be writing about Arizona and so he'll be he'll be covering U Arizona, all
of Arizona athletics for them. Anthony's as right. Yeah, yeah, he's
gonna be doing columns, not often but sometimes. Yeah, so he'll be.
He'll be producing some stuff. So maybe he'll make himself available for a
show because he hasn't up. He says he's working, he's working. I
don't know, I don't know. Maybe he maybe he isn't. Did you
ever you ever tell you the story about Anthony with me? I probably have
it. It's kind of a self self serving story, but let me cannot
take me. So I was writing the last book before the Loop book,
and Arizona was going through there twenty fourteen. They were the number one team
before actually got hurt right there, and they asked me, can you do
a book just in case they win win it all? And I said sure,
of course, And I knew. It was like February and they were
undefeateddfeated, defeated and all that, and then they lost, and then things
kind of change and I'm thinking, oh, no, I have to change
this. He may not win it. I have to change the sale of
books. So we went with one hundred things, and he says, what's
gonna happen. I says, well, I'm gonna need to get a get
a helper because there's no way I'm gonna come up on a hundred things and
finished by my deadline of may or whatever it was. And it says who
can I get? Who can I get? And I said, I said,
well, he's not available, so I'll just ask Anthony. Who's the
best guy I could get? Well, I couldn't ask him, so I
asked Anthony, which was a joke because he he wasn't the best guy.
But first he wasn't my first choice, but obviously he was my first choice.
I was just saying that, Yeah, he gets a kick it out
of them all the time. Yeah, we love Anthony, known since forever
guy. Yeah wait a hundred years ago, so good, good on Anthony.
It'll be good to see his uh, some of his voice out there
for you know, covering Nars and it's clever. It's clever stuff, all
right, under the under the category of the hashtag kiss of death. Cooper
couple who happened would be my keeper, uh for for fantasy football. He's
he's, he's he's had an issue with a hamstring. He's had a setback,
and he's considered a day to day. But you get a hamstring,
man, it takes tis weeks, especially if you're running running all over the
pride, right and with what he does, a hamstring is a really bad
things. Yeah, I'm a little upset right now about that, about that
piece of it. So anyway, Oh and uh, Joe Burrow was back,
was back on the practice field today. The Browns have been kind of
I mean, the Bengals have been kind of non commental about whether he's going
to be ready for the first game. But he is back on the practice
field. After he had that, they just kept calling it the lower leg
issue whatever that was. Remember remember when it happened, a lot of people
thought he had blown his achilles or something. So anyway, but he was
back on the practice field, So we'll see, uh how how how he
goes It looks like Arizona Soccer just scored again. No, that's an all
look never Okay, So what else. That's it. Probably that's all I
got right now. Okay, I thought I had it in something, but
I don't think i'd do it. But I can't remember it. Uh some
signing. You got the court thing right, the court thing, volleyball,
I'll get all that stuff. I think that was it. I think that
was it. Yeah, and then I think, you know, we're gonna
get into the We're gonna get into the depth chart here with Brian Peterson.
Okay, you know these guys, I mean, they really dig into it.
Get some of his perspective on on what he saw. Again, I
think you know just that my my eye went straight to who started a linebacker
or justin broze position is And it isn't justin Flow. It's Dane Lym Mooley,
the guy from Washington. So you know, but there might be some
other stuff in there that, uh that Brian Peterson. We'll see. I
have one real quick. So Claikoff was at the meetings this week with the
college football playoffs, and I guess some someone of the ESPN reporters cornered him
and asked him about, you know what the future is, YadA YadA,
and he says, you know it was all good. You know what's happened.
It was nice to focus on everything in the future. Blah blah blah,
and he says, well, now my focus on this year, I'm
just focused on I was winning the National championship. What else is gonna good
luck with that? Yeah, what else is it gonna? Say? Yeah?
I you know, even though I think there are some National Championship worthy
team teams in the league, primarily USC and and and in Washington, I
have a hard time thinking that anybody's gonna get through this, you know,
with one loss with this league and be able to get you USC to your
point earlier they didn't look good enough to go and defeated in the league right
on Saturday. Just from week to week the week you know, I mean,
it's hard to go from week to week and not come out for one
game kind of battered, tired. You've gotten to help, you know,
you've gotten your wins, but you've gotten the hell beat out of you weekend
and week out. Having to play the way you got to play to win
a game and to get through that and not lose a game. Yeah,
I just don't see how they could do it. Yeah, Okay, let's
let's go so we can get to right. Okay, we're gonna, We're
gonna come back. We have Brian Peterson from Easy Desert Swarm dot com to
come talk to us about foot He season on the depth chart and into the
game on Saturday. So'll stick around. For more than twenty years, the
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in for you. 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 Surgery I on the Ball. Welcome back to it on the Ball Here,
I'll box. What's fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jakin's aus.
Just waiting for our next yuest Brian Peterson. We couldn't get hold of
him. He's called him. He just uses to Okay, Yeah, we
had to uh we had to uh stub from Rob Waldrop. Oh right now,
Brian, is you iss you? Yes? Sir? So identify who
you are and who you w This is Brian Peterson with aisy desert swarm.
Wait a minute, Wait a minute, I think I think our listeners are
waiting for rob Waldrop and uh, you're not where rob Waldrop? Are you?
No? I'm his understudy? Yeah you know, yeah, I told
I told Steve, I said, you know, if we're not going to
get the Hall of Fame football player, let's say if we can get the
Hall of Fame media guy. And we immediately went to the top of the
list and got Brian Peterson. So well, we probably weighed the same,
so that means anything, He's lost a lot of weight, so I'm not
sure. Okay, no, then they're not definitely wigh more than he probably
wears it a little different, but that's okay. Bright. We love you
anyways. So interesting discussions with you guys today with the depth chart. What
struck you the most? Probably the biggest surprise was was having Tsa listed as
the defensive tackle starter, considering he missed a lot of time during the training
camp, didn't play in the last scrimmage, seemed he seemed to have a
lot of injuries during his time at Arizona. I mean it limited it on
only seven games last year, but apparently he must have just done something in
this last week or so since Camp ended to really stand out from the pack.
So, I mean, who starts isn't really that bigg deal considering that
they're supposed to play eight nine guys on the defensive line, so it's more
of a ceremonial thing. Well, and Dad tried to you know, he
said that a bit that you know, they have trouble, keep changing and
all that stuff, But guys do want to start, you know, no
doubt, and anybody who played a sport, you know, wants to be
the starter. But is it is it? Do you really expect it to
be that fluid? Uh? You're predicted for Arizona. I think you've got
the two interior spots that they're going to want to try to rotate regularly because
of how much they're smashing into the offensive line and those guys are over three
hundred pounds. The edges I think might be more about matchups. That the
two starters Upshaw and Ward, will will play the most, but they're going
to need their breathers on that and you'll see other rotation elsewhere. A lot
of it will also dictate on that you is doing with uh its pace.
If they're playing fast, there's not going to be as much of an opportunity
to make subs unless the offense make subs, because then you're they stop it
until the defense has a chance to sub. But if you're trying to sub
in the middle of a fast drive, that can be a little chaotic.
And getting back to the stuff about starting and that it could just be ceremonial
if you've got it. Last year, the opener at San Diego State,
Tzo McMillan technically didn't start the game. He was back first punt return of
the game, play for punt coverage and off the field. He had to
wear a different number because Isaiah Taylor also worked for and he couldn't get that
jersey changed in time, so A. J. Jones ended up going out
and starting, playing the first snap. So technically he was the starter in
the season opener, But Temac is the one who had the bigger season.
So that's just how much being the starter really matter? Team thing. Yeah,
So so the one that caught me and I think we had gotten a
hint of it that justin flow might not actually be the starter, and you
know with a he's just a physical specimen that that that we uh you know
that we all saw. But uh, you know, Dani him Willie is
the guy who just beat who beat him out for the job. But I
mean you still expect to see both of those guys a lot, right,
certainly, certainly, And yeah, it's going to stand out that Flow is
not starting, especially considering the amount of hype around him, his background,
expectations and whatnot. And it's not that he did poorly in camp or anything.
I think it might be more of a matter of considering they talk so
much about his energy and his juice and his explosives and all that that they
may want him to be specialized in certain plays and like be a third down
guy where you know it's always going to be rushing the pass and whatnot.
Becaus Ago Bama, their guy who led the team in SAX, didn't play
on first and second down. He was pretty much just in on those obvious
passing downs. And he's in the NFL for that. I'm drawing a blank
on his name right now. So that you have those packages where you get
those guys. It's just kind of like in the NFL, you see a
lot of third down running backs and then they become just as important as the
guy who's who's out there taking the carries on first and second down. So
let me ask you, outside of the win, and that's obvious for Arizona
on Saturday's what's the most important thing to see on Saturday outside of a win?
I think just maximizing the opportunities when they get into the red zone.
They need to score touchdowns when they if they force turnovers, they need to
make the most of those. They need to show progress on defense. I
mean they were to shut out or shut an AU. That actually necessarily indicative
of how good they're going to be against better opponents. But you still want
to see if it's third and eight, you don't want to see them get
up an eleven yard game or you know, guys missing a tackle out in
open space and it leads to a big play. Teams are always going to
get their first downs and get their yards and get some scoring and whatnot.
It's just a matter of if you don't want to see where it's just a
given. Okay, Well, now in a use scores and Arizona scored now
and the UTH scores again, a couple of years. I think twenty nineteen
they beat an AU sixty five to forty one, and that was considered like
a poor performance because you're giving up forty one points to an FCS opponent.
So I think it's going to be you know, maybe not the final margin,
but just how impressive and how comprehensive they look in those you know,
we always talk about in games like this that, you know, because they've
got Mississippi State coming up right after that, how much they want to show
or don't want to show. Is Jed that kind of a coach or do
you think he just he needs to see a little bit of a little bit
of everything. I think you'll see a little trickeration maybe, but I don't
think that they want to do everything. They want to do what they know
is most effective in this game. I think also the game plan for facing
NAU is going to be a little different than facing Mississippi State of different types
of opponents, different quality opponents. But also they're actually going to have film
on this year's Mississippi State team to look at, whereas it's pretty much a
guestimate when you're facing NAU. Jed said that he watched their last six games,
and you know partically how those their defense did against those games. But
they have, like so many others, have new personnel. They've got a
new defensive coordinator, so it's really a guess what you're facing in this first
game. So I think for that first game, you want to make sure
your guys know how to do their play. What what do you expect from
Delora status quote. I think he showed towards the second half of last year
the willingness to take the yards rushing when they were there, to throw it
out of bounds when needed, to not always force everything, whereas in the
first half of the season. I mean remember that Mississippi State game where he
was running all over the field avoiding a fact, avoiding a sac avoiding fact,
and then throwing it down field into double coverage to an interception. Those
things really didn't happen late in the year, with the exception of maybe the
Washington State game, and there were there were other factors at play in that
one. I think just showing the further growth, maturity, and willingness to
play within the system and not try to feel like he has to freeland.
You know, we talked to him on Hunley last hour, and he said,
what he wants to see is Arizona run the hell out of the ball,
Punish him a little bit, push him around. What you know,
he hopes to see the line, you know, dominate. It has to
have sort of a dominating performance. It can't it can't be kind of I
don't know, uh, equal or whatever. And I mean they got pushed
around, let you know, two years ago. But that's what he wants
to see. Said, you know they can fling it around. We know
they can fling it around. I want to see the running backs run,
is what he said. Oh absolutely, and I think you will see that.
A good emphasis to do that and to try to get everybody involved.
But I mean Jet is Jet is a guy that likes to throw the ball,
and they're not going to completely abandon it. It could be a lot
like the ASU game where they ran the ball a lot in that one,
more than in any other game during the season. Because they knew that ASU
was not strong against the run, and they knew that they had at the
combination of the line and the backs, and they should have a distinct advantage
offensive line to defensive line, and why not take advantage of that? So
what are you going to make of Speedy Luca After watching USC last week and
their guy the guy who run thet puts back and the kickoffs back in Kariah
branch yestastic, it seems like Arizona has a threat like that if we get
to see him, Yeah, I mean, he would be a great option
for kickoff and put return in my opinion, but I think they they want
the guys that they know are most sure handed in those situations. And there's
been mentioned of that that Luke had had some some fumbling issues some ball protection
early in, like maybe in the spring, that caused them to be a
little concerned about that. That's why you would see a lot of Mike Wiley
and Jacob cowing back there because those they know, those guys are dependable with
the ball. Like Speedy is very athletic and very elusive, but he needs
to have that space. He's not the kind of guy that you're going to
hand off in the backfield. You're gonna want to either pitch to him or
you're gonna want to do a little swing passes whatnot and get him out into
the open field where he can dodge people and not have to go through piles
with punt and kick return, you have that potential to be able to work
up the speed and then find the angle. I think it'd be great for
him. Maybe this is when they give him that opportunity. I don't know.
Yeah, no, I that's that's the thing that we're all anxious to
see. I know, I know we got hurt in the San Diego State
game, and maybe that bugged him all year, But you know, you
just hope to see she said, if they got a guy like that,
I mean, they're really stacked up at running back. I mean, you
look at they got four guys there, and all four of those guys could
play anywhere pretty much if you look at him. Yeah, it's always good
to have options and and it's it's better to have it where you're like,
why isn't this guy playing as my as opposed to why is this guy playing
so much? Which has been the case in the past. Yeah, no
question anything else. So what's what's on your agenda to the next couple of
days to write? What are you writing about? I mean I just put
out a breakdown of the depth chart. Just what kind of stood out and
not the surprise It wasn't really too surprising the projections that I did maybe ten
days ago. I think I had twenty of the twenty two starters. Most
of them were pretty much pretty solid there. Beyond that, we'll have our
regular preview coming out tomorrow and our columnists will be doing some expectations to the
season. But I think it's just just like the team, those of us
who cover the team just want the season to begin so we can start writing
about actual results rather than what could happen and what might happen or what we
think will happen. Instead, we can actually say what did happen? What
do you expect to see? Blow out? I mean big blowout, many
all out, take a while to get a goal. Predicted was fifty one
to twenty four, And I mean that that could be a gradually pull away,
like they give up some scores early on, or it could be that
they give up some late to make it seem a little closer. But I
think they're they're really going to try to to as explosive or just as dominant
as possible offensively and play and fifty one point they haven't scored over and the
last time they scored over fifty was that sixty five to forty one game against
NAU in twenty nineteen. So getting the fifty point mark would be I think
a big step. If it's twenty four to ten at half time, our
Arizona fans gonna get edgy or what? Do you think? The ten?
Not so much the twenty four maybe, but you know it's to complain about
being up twenty four ten in your opener is not something that Arizona has really
had to worry about. So I guess that would be a good problem to
have. If it's thirteen to seven or twenty eight to twenty one, that's
a little different. Yeah, you know, a half times they're already a
bob dobs, they're already admitted. No, they stuck around a little more
last year, I will say that. I mean two years ago against an
AU, they were up thirteen nothing midway through the second quarter, and but
then through a pick six and pretty much everyone up there in the press box
like, oh, well, we see where this could be going. And
next thing you know, it's twenty one thirteen n AU. Yeah. So,
and people were talking about a completely different team, but people were talking
about basketball already. Basketball. It got to basketball season real fast that time.
Oh, yeah, well yeah, okay, Brian from ac Desert Swarm,
thanks for reporting in appreciate it man, hall of famer in our Hall
of Famer, in our book man, thank you, thank you, and
shooting for Rob Warldrip. We'll see if we get him tomorrow. We'll give
it a good stuff, good stuff we can do. No that was,
you know, and again you know those guys and we count on those guys
to you know, Justin and Levin to Phillis and Troy Hutchinson and Bran Peterson.
They're a good group of guys. They dig in, they get,
you know, they get they go dig out the knowledge and then we just
kind of run with it, which is kind of fun. It's a good
way to do it. I think. At least don't have to do the
work, so we don't have to do the work exactly all right. Well,
plus they're young, they got time to do all that stuff. I
gotta take a nap. We do all right, thanks uh for to Brian
Peterson. So let's stick around. We'll close out the show. Give us
a call five to zero, four one, six, seventy four forty we'll
be right back. Who's around 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
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Sports Station Chat Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to Ye in
the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera's Jacob's as fifteen
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com slash football terms. There you go. But yeah, man, it's
all it's all happening, Steve, It's all happening. Yeah, I'm wondering,
no, because I'm reading about saving bullying the locals local media for the
depth chart. Remember, I guess this week he did that. Maybe that
was Michael Lev's call him because he's one that started. Yeah. I don't
get I don't get it. And we've seen it here a time or two.
How the how the coaches, the big time coaches trying to bully the
locals, And I don't know what the purpose is. We see it's it's
power, Steve. You know, they make so much money and means so
much to their schools and their programs. They get all full of themselves and
they feel like they should get to make all the rules. Yeah, it's
it's a it's a power play. I'm I'm a Sean did that here here
I'm publicly saying that. But wow, the a D and I think it
was either it was a burn or whoever didn't kind of say enough. You
know, come on, it looks a bad look. It's just a bad
look. Don't give a crap, but it's a bad look. Who in
the entire state of Alabama? Oh, is gonna tell Nick Saban But that's
and that's exactly it, you know, or Jim Harbaugh or or the Georgia
coach's name I want to say to yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know that guy. You know. And it goes to pro you know,
professional coaches as well. They get full of themselves, Steve and and
you know that that's I mean, Jed, Look, I know, Jed
is you have to have a certain level of ego to to be confident enough
to go get a job like sure like that. Of course, that doesn't
mean have to be a turd about right, Jed Fish is not a turd.
Tommy Lloyd's not any right. We're lucky to have that, no question.
We also they are kind of first time coaches too. Uh. Success
has yet to happen. Not that they would change it, but you don't
know, you don't know. But you know, I didn't have to deal
with rich Rod in the media, but you did, right. He was
at turn every now and again. Yeah, he was a turn and I'm
you know, you would see comments from you know, writers because you know,
writers don't just write, they do stuff on social media, so you
hear other little bits of stuff and you would see that, you know,
rich Rod was a big baby after a press conference, you know, and
and and guys like and Kevin Sumlin was just you know, so I think
these guys, you know, and I'm not mister psychologists, but I do
think these guys get feel that, well, I make all this money and
I'm doing all this stuff, so I get to decide and everybody loves me.
Yeah. And then and then reporters who are just trying to do their
jobs, you know, you know, just get you get caught under the
wheels. In fact, it's it's one't a bad look. And then if
you're a columnists Gregg or somebody else who wants to kind of rip him,
you can't. Well that makes for a better copy. Yeah, but but
they okay, they you brought up Greig example. Think about Greg, Think
about the people, the perception people have of his relationship with Loot. Right,
Greg didn't hate Loot, but people thought he did because every once in
a while he would be critical of Loot. Correct, And people have crapped
on Greg to this day because they felt like he was not fair to Loot
when all he ever did was, you know, criticize him when he needed
to be criticized. And now there were times that things, you know,
different things happening with that whole, that whole feud that they had in the
whole bit. But the point being that, you know, you see somebody
like Nick Saban act like that, you think he's a big jerk, but
then you're on his side because people generally don't like they like the media less
than they like their Sure, but it's again one of those things where the
few good men. You don't you want me on that wall, right,
you want me on the wall, but you gotta do I won't talk about
it. Yeah exactly, Yeah, exactly no, and and and and that
that that's the unfortunate thing. And look, nobody asked, jed anything no
crazy today? No, I mean Jason Sheer asked, should this guy be
playing? No, But that's never been the case so far. It hasn't
been the case even with tom and Tommy after the first round loss took every
question. Uh it was, and he said, and he continued to say,
it was on him. He you know, and he's gonna get better
from it. YadA YadA. Uh, it's still fresh. This is all
still fresh. Uh. Dick Tommy never I don't did did did? Did
Greg get on and Tick Tommy? I can't not any more than he did
on with Luke. He would criticize Dick if he needed to, And I
can't remember. Dick was a different He was a different cat when it came
to that. There were a lot of times that he thought we were easy
on it. Oh sure. He actually said that to me one time.
It was after the Melvin Smith gunning. He said, I thought you were
going to rip me about that. And I said, why would I rip
you about that? Melvin Smith shot a gun at somebody? How are you
to blame for that? I mean, are you to blame for him being
here. Well, but did you know that he carried a gun and he
was going to shoot at somebody at skate Country, shot in the air.
Well he did, I know, but he shot, you know, but
he fired off some shots that skate country, you know. And and and
so Dick kind of he knew it was part of part of being a coach.
It's some some coaches think they're above criticism. Kirby Smart, the Georgia
coach, if it took a while to dive into my brain. But you
know, but you know, and that's how things are, you know.
Urban Meyer was another one of those guys. You know, he very little
patience with the media when all they're trying to do is there jos. They're
not trying to make you look bad. They're just trying to report on what's
going on, right right, No, And in fact, it's my thing
is with the locals. Right the locals are there pretty much every day.
They're chasing around trying to get a quote from you or the team or whomever.
And it's the national guys that they you know, kid gloves they don't.
And and let's say I talk about this a lot with Sean Sean,
he you know how we treated the locals, but he was kind of friendly
with some of the Nationals. Who's the one that screwed him in the end,
the Nationals, right big time. Yeah, be careful who you get
in bed with. Yep, you know, yeah, I'm not telling you
what you just have to say. I know, I know. It's it's
it's you're you're hard percent correct, Steve. I mean, it's just like
they feel like, Okay, if I'm getting national attention, then I need
to be this guy. Yea, But if it's just those guys, I'll
be whoever the hell I want to be, right right, Yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's flick flick you with like a bug. Yeah kind of
when in the end, those we got to call those guys are just trying
to do his report. What's going on? Yeah? Yeah, well all
right, you're on there are not on the ball all Jeff. I've called
a few times. I'm told you I'm big duck fan. Yes, sir,
Hey, Jay, you're going you're chugging this weekend. I'd like to
drop by and see us. Where'd you say you're sitting up? Well,
we usually try and sit up in the last row right by the Jefferson Gym.
They're on the mcail lawn, so kind of along the tree line there.
That's where we try to get So we kind of have to time it,
so you just kind of look for we we have we we always put
up three of those U of a U of a tense. I have a
light blue SUV, so uh, just just look for that and uh and
we just never know where we're gonna end up because it's the first come,
first serup kind of thing. All right, I'll find you. I'll be
wearing my duck swag. Well, if I see you'll probably be the only
one wearing duck swags. So if I see it, I'll stop you.
What do you think my wife will be wearing? She works with the you
of a Okay, and the more of those checks, the more of those
checks get deposited, the more I have. What do you? What do
you think of your what do you? What do you think of your ducks?
It looks like they're underplaying them a little bit, you know, maybe
the you know behind USC in Washington and maybe Utah? What do you think?
I mean? I'm a homer, I'll admitute, but I think that
you're gonna go eleven and one whin the back and get him the fourteen.
All right, I'd never think you'd be a homer by saying that they're lost
to Washington. Okay, all right, all right, okay, well good,
that's legit. I mean, you know, and there are some people,
I mean I saw some you know, one of the national guys put
put Oregon in the playoffs, so you know it's not out of the question,
that's for sure. Jeff, thanks for listening to us. Appreciate it,
man, I love you. Sure, guys. Okay, well I'll
look for you Saturday. Thank you appreciate it. Okay, yeah, okay,
So I got a little soapbox with them. I just felt. I
just felt because I found the question of the depth chart and then I just
read the savement stuff and really, can't we just all get along. We
asked questions to answer him, We asked questions, and what's so hard about?
What it's so hard about? Well, no, no, I'll revisit
and I'll bring you into the story. I'll bring you into the story because
and I don't like doing this, but I'll bring you into the story.
Twenty five years ago, Bobby Knight was here whatever, and you know,
cranky Bobby Knight was here and and you know, being cranky, and you
said, what did you ask him? I asked him why he came in
and he yelled at Bob Young for republic, for writing something. He didn't
do any interviews leading up to the NC Double A tournament. So so Bob
Young went and interviewed other people about him, and he said something in there
that that Knight didn't like. So he walks into the press conference. Before
the press conference starts, he calls out Bob Young and lights him up.
And so then he said, okay, now I'll take questions. I raised
my hand and I said, I asked, why are you so worried about
what was in the Arizona Republic When you've got an NC Double A tournament game,
you got a courage? He went off. Don't I remember that I
was on the road at the time. He made it on CBS, made
it on the pregame show. Remember that was like right before the right maybe
a year or two before we brought up brought up the whip. Remember he
brought up the whip and to motivation and he was obviously be facetious, but
he made news. So what did he say? He just you and he
well, he went off on the media. He sorry, the media does
this. They do that to make me look bad. They do things on
purpose. I hate the media, right yeah, and he goes, he
goes, you know, you know I hate the media. You guys are
and I actually got another question and I said, well, I said,
I said, coach, we ask you a question all we get our smart
ass answers from you. And he says, well, I'll tell you what.
You don't ask me any more questions and I want to give you any
more smart ass answers. And that's how it ended. At the end.
Well, guess didn't guess what at the end of his career. Guess what
he is smart as a media member. Oh yeah, he became a media
guy. Yeah, so you know again, you know what I'm I'm a
turn too. I didn't have to ask him, that could have gone,
but he could, you know, baba sitting right next to me, and
he was like, hell did I do? Yeah, you want to talk
about it, bully? I mean I sat. I sat next to him
at another you know, uh tournament here I was when he was a Texas
Tech that came here and I was the I was the press conference moderator.
I sat right next to him. He didn't remember me, but he again,
even in there, not always and not always as vicious as that.
I would say, vicious, yeah, but you know, always with some
sort of agenda crappy comment about somebody's question, right. You know. Well,
I ended up having to cover him that that year because I was eighty
nine and Arizona had hosted, so they were in the West Regional in Vegas,
and I was the backup guy. So I had to cover his game
the next week, you know, and I had to face some up at
the press conference the next week too. But he was fine, and actually,
let me say this because I know I got to complete the story the
next day. After their game. The next day, he pulled me aside
in a hallway. He didn't apologize, but I guess he would say.
He explained himself, you know, to me, what about what happened the
day before about Bob's comment, or to me you know, he he didn't
apologize for yelling at me, but he just said, look, you know,
I don't like the media. You guys get on on my nerves.
Sometimes I just want you to know, no hard feeling. Basically it was
about our age. Now I meant five sixty whatever it was, I don't
know, so I did have it. This is not brain surgery. This
is not brain surgery. I don't care what. Anybody on the radio doing
stories is not brain surgery, you know what. And doing that, being
the coach and dealing with the media is part of the job, without question,
you part of the job. You get paid a lot of money to
It's not an unnecessary evil without part of the job. If you're gonna give
you three and a half million dollars to get over it, do this part
too. By the way, if it brain surgery, don't have a few
dead pretties because I can't do brain surgery. All right, that was fun.
Hey, Lamont Hunley, thanks you for being here. Brian Pearson,
thanks for stepping in. Rob Waldrop, we hope we talked to you tomorrow.
We'll be back tomorrow justin spears, Jake Fisher coming on and maybe and
maybe Rob Waldrop, and we'll be ready for the any excuse me, we'll
be ready for and yes, first first week of our fab five Friday pick,
so be sure to come around. Lots to go, lots to go
through tomorrow, so thanks for being here.