This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen, powered by Nova Insurance Services. Make sure your most prized possessions
kat z R two side in iHeart Radio station Yet. Hey, good afternoon,
everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball, you know, Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera here, Jakin Zass. Welcome to Thursday's show
and our final one of the week. It's actually our Friday. It's our
Friday. Yeah, we had no one day. We'll have no Friday.
I like these gigs well, you know, and for me, it's that
day, that day that you're trying to get up and get away up.
Yeah, it's busy, you know, it's it's busy. It's it's uh
it's uh so much going on, you know. I you don't have time
for anything, so but you know, just trying to get everything done to
get the heck out of dog yes, so that you won't be here.
And I don't know how to do these machines. I'm not I'm not coming
in. I'm ex used to the reason for that fun no show tomorrow,
Sorry about that, but which means we're doing our fab five Friday picks on
Thursday today, So you'll catch those in the last second, well at least
at least on my side, because I was one for five last week.
Awesome means Jake Fisher will be here today. I had three fifteen to talk
about last game and the game up this week. We've got some clips from
Jet Fish from his Thursday press. They head out to Mississippi State tomorrow,
and then we're gonna have David Adams. Yeah, we've had him. It's
been a while, we've since we've had David, you know, a little
little running back guy from them from the mid eighties who was just you know,
became one of the best running backs in the Pac twelve or pack den
back then. And despite his diminutive stature, he's still a short guy.
He just a little big or not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
we'll talk to him on the second hour, right, and then talk a
lot about Fish. I didn't go to Fish and day. What was he
liked today? He was jed, you know. And the thing is,
Steve, the way the way the way these press conferences are now, there's
no flow to the there's no flow to the press conference. Every you know,
everybody's got a different question for their story. So there's no continuity really
to any of the questions. You know, somebody asked a question, then
somebody asked a question on a completely different topic. Then the next question is
on another topic. And at the end of the day, everybody gets one
question and you don't have any there's no and everybody's got to pull whatever they
game. Did they have to identify themselves against No, No, it's no
identifying ourselves. We did get you know, we did get called on,
but we didn't identify ourselves. Even I asked a question, would you go,
let's start with that one, would you Well, I asked, you
know, I asked Jed. I said, is it is the the whole
reputation of the SEC because we're talking with of being of their alignment on both
sides of the line, being bigger, better, you know, more physical,
faster, you know, Is that a real thing or is it?
Uh? You know, is it? Is it a reputation? And he
did have he did have something to say to that. Well, first of
all, I think that these guys are in the top of the league.
They were nine in four last year. Ye they finished third in the SEC
West so I think they are on the upper echelon of SEC teams. I
think that there is something I made the comment a year or two ago about
how you grow up eating will determine the size that you are. And if
you're going to recruit a lot of California kids, they grow up with certain
nutritions there in the cafeteria that there's certain nutritional value of the vegetables and the
things that they eat. They're not eating the same type of foods as they're
eating in the South. And there's bigger guys in the South they're just this,
and there's bigger guys in the Midwest. So you have to be able
to recruit those areas. If you're gonna be able to be as big as
they are, you're gonna have to recruit, you know, some of those
guys in the Ohio Michigan area to be able to bring in the big guys
on your program. We have a really big team right now. We've recruited
Hawaii and brought in some big guys there. We've recruited Utah brought in some
big guys there. But if we're going to continue to be in that three
hundred and fifteen pound six foot four plus range of offensive and defensive lineman.
You can see Bill Norton, one of our bigger players was at Georgia and
he's from Tennessee. Uh so we brought him in, brought him over to
us. So we've got to just continue to recognize that there is a difference
in size. And I do think that you know, big players win.
So we're working very hard to become a big team. But we also recognize
that there's some skill that we have and there's some you got to play together
and see how good of a unit you can be. But when you when
you put Polito out there next to Jonah, next to Morgan, next whoe,
I mean, we're we're pretty big upfront as we are on the defensive
side. So he answered it by really not answering it right. Well,
he did say that they are bigger there. They are bigger in the you
know, in the South and in the Midwest specifically. What I didn't get
too was because you can't do a follow up question, right, was so
how much have you gained on them? But I think he kind of said
that they're they're much bigger than they were last year. Right, Well,
okay, they're bigger, they're bigger, stronger, who knows, but it's
always been the West coast a sleekness or stealth like against the bigger guys on
the East coast well. And another question to that end, he talked about
he was asked a question about how physical his safeties and defensive backs or and
was he was. He pleased with that, and so you know, again
a thing that he said was going to be important against Mississippi State was not
only being bigger, but also being physical. I want us to be as
physical as possible. We're gonna have to be extremely physical this week. UH
coach Nansen and coach Cecil, coach at Keena and coach Richardson have done a
remarkable job of changing the mentality in the mindset of the defensive backs that you
go in there and you hit, and you hit every play and you're not
afraid to trigger, and you're not afraid to be aggressive, and you get
you're the runner, you get after the ball carrier, you get closer in
coverage to be able to make those bang bang plays when it's when you're you
know, one on one situation. And I give the credit to those guys
in terms of really locking in that mindset of physicality, and the more physical
we can be as defensive backs, the better will be. That's a Seattle
Seahawk trait of years ago when they were the legion of boom, and we
would love to get to somewhere close to that mentality. So, you know,
it's and I guess this is from the travels that Jed Fish has been
on. He's seen at every you know, he's been every he's been in
the Big ten, he's been in the SEC, he's been at the next
level, and you get a sense that he really has a very good handle
of what you gotta have to be good, right, and not good just
in the Pac twelve, but just to be good you know on uh you
know across the board, Like he said, he wants bigger alignment because he
knows you got to have bigger You can't go play SEC teams and big ten
teams and now probably big twelve teams. You know, with quote unquote Pack
twelve alignment. You gotta have SEC line, big ten line, and then
you got to be physical. Let me ask you something. Uh so I've
been here since eighty seven, cupboard told me with you uh stoops came on
all the other coaches came on, and I asked him initially when he took
the job, you know, how is he going to handle this when other
guys before him couldn't do it right, couldn't recruit like? Has he done
that? Has he done this better than anybody before him, before Smith,
before Smith at Smith? Oh yeah, a lot. He's recruited way better
than anybody's ever recruited, by a lot, by a lot in a very
short time. The reason I asked his stoops, I don't snoops was probably
the second Stoop's got some really good players because you know he had the you
know, they went to Texas in Oklahoma and you know in Louisiana, and
they got guys from from there, but not not in the quantity. Yeah
see, And I know that was a naive question, but you're right,
it's more of a quantity. Will know about quality down the road. He's
getting some really good plays. His best players are better than anybody's best players.
But more than anything, he's got more real yea, yeah, No,
that was kind of naive question. But and I asked because stoops stoops
would in my wild garden, because I didn't really follow Stoops, so I
was too busy with Luke, so I know he has some pretty good talent
too. But think about it, Steve. It's it's changed though, because
you got guys available to you that you didn't have available to right. You
got a transfer or not a transfer. A guy who decommitted from Alabama because
he just you gotta transfer from Michigan, you gotta transfer from Georgia. You
got transfers from Oregon and Washington. Those guys are available because for whatever reason,
it wasn't a good fit for them where they were. Doesn't mean that
they're not good players or they aren't as good as people thought they were going
to be when they went to those schools. It didn't work out for him
there, and now you're getting the benefit of that because they're still good players.
But now they're here, or in some cases they're grad transfers and they've
had their careers and they want to go play somewhere else one season for whatever
reason, closer to home, whatever, or they want to be BMO you
know, BMOC big man on campus, so they come to Arizona. So
that's a big difference, right, So maybe comparing the thing would be app
not apples to apples, right, And we always ask this question publicly,
how would you handle the transferred or how would he would like the nil?
And he would have hated it? He would have hated it. What about
Dick, Dick would have done with Dick would have had to do to win,
So he would not have hated it. Yeah, I don't think he
would have hated it. He would have he would have embraced it. I
think he would have embraced it because because again I've told this right before,
I just remembered in ending in the parking garage talking to him because I was
asking him if if it was summertime, and I was asking, could I
go on a recruiting trip with one of your coaches? And I went on
just and it was an evaluation trip, so they weren't meeting with players.
They were just going visiting with coaches looking at film. And I went with
Larry McDuff to San Diego for a day and we went and did all the
and we're talking about that and I asked, I said, do you like
recruiting? Anybody said no, And he said, he said, what I
don't like looking across the field and the other team has better players than we
had. That's what I don't like. So if I have to recruit to
prevent that from happening, yeah, I don't mind recruiting. And that was
his answer. Yeah, and it didn't and they did. Okay, so
think on an occasionally a really good place. But that wasn't his market.
That wasn't tell me his mark. Did Dick ever have a team mac No,
no, no, he didn't know, but that's what was his market.
That was it. That waspecial actually coaching him up, making him play
or having them play. Seeing And what I'm saying is that jet Fish is
high school recruiting. Its foreign above anybody else that's high school recruiting. It's
never been here already. But he hasn't just hung his hat on that.
Yes, he says, I prefer high school recruits over getting transfers, but
we're gonna get transfers to fill needs because you need to, and any good
coach will see again, we were talking about this yesterday with with that Bo
Sweeney and the story. Yeah, he is stuck. He is sticking to
his philosophy and he's losing because of because of that, he's being hardheaded about
the whole thing and and there, and now he's losing. He's starting to
lose because of that. People are saying the Clemson, you know, the
Clemson, Uh, you don't call it a dynasty, but Clemson's place among
them, say, the top three or four teams in the country every year.
Not only that, I mean they're just saying it's over. It's over,
They're done. They're they're they're you know, regular team in the a
SEC that can get beat by a lot of other teams on Monday. Yeah.
Yeah, better to have loved than never loved before Jay, better to
have a crown for a while. But I get it, and it's just
a one off. We'll see if this went off for the duke thing.
But I think a lot of people are jumping to conclusions right away. Colorado,
Clemson. Uh, I look at what's going on at Stanford and cal
What do you mean that they can't get they get transfer? Well, they're
in a tough situation because they're not the point being, they're not getting transfers,
and their program is shaking to die and and and they're and they're saying
that you know other teams that do that, you know it's hurting them if
they're sticking to I don't want I don't want transfer. Yeah, you got.
You gotta play the game the way the game is the best way to
play. I think Dick would have seen that, would have recognized that,
and I think you'll give you a name right now. And he did that.
Anthony Smith, Yeah Smith for one year time for one year to come
here. Yeah. Yeah, So you know back then it was jac guys,
right, get college guys. And there were some junior college guys that
that that Dick brought in Donnie Salem, you know it was one right,
the guy from Iowa, A Paul Pulled Glanik, right, remember, brought
him in from my remember him. Well, you guys like that that were
you know, they were pretty damn good from your own right, Okay,
No, we had more, will more Jeff later, right yeah, yeah,
okay, all right before we bring in uh Jake Fisher. The best
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you. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio Whap, This is I on the Ball
with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen Fit Days. Hey,
welcome back to on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen. Cookie on Steve
Rivera, He's jakensos Now on the phone. We have a regular end of
the week guy. Jake Fisher, former Ubay football player Jake kiting. Oh
fantastic, you guys. Okay, how'd you hit this curve ball today?
Yeah? No, it's nothing on my schedule. And you know what's really
good about this is because I had to stop at a bar to talk to
you guys. I'm just going to take the rest of the day off.
There you go. We're good for something. Yes, no, but this
is moving all my work till tomorrow. Tomorrow's using my day where I can
just come aswell. You know, well, okay, well you can't have
everything, Jake can't everything. How you can watch the game tonight. Stay
at the bar. It's kind of far from the house. I might have
to pick one closer. Okay, you're gonna be with us for twelve minutes.
It's good. Hey, So what do you think of last week's game?
You know what, I think they're setting it up for this week.
I think they kind of kept things a little plain, you know, a
little close to the vest, and you know, I'm hoping that they come
out with a little bit more fire. But I mean from the start of
the game, obviously, you know, you got some jedders and make a
couple mistakes and then you can kind of to me it looked like we were
overlooking NAU and it looked like we might be looking forward a week, which
is never good. But you know, I'm just happy that we got out
of that. It's kind of a weird game. We still want thirty eight
three. You know, there's a couple of games I was involved in where
it was kind of the same thing, looking you know, might be have
a few people looking forward to the next week. It's an ago. So
you know, we got out of there with a dub. The clock thing
is still messing with me because a lot of these games, I mean,
in the first half it's slow because they're getting used to not stopping the clock
on first down and it's like, you know, it cuts down on the
drive and you know, it's just kind of weird when we end the first
quarter only up seven, and you're like, well, what the heck is
going on? So that's something we got to get used to. But you
know, we got out of there with a win. That's all we can
ask for. We we we talked a little bit today about you know,
because they're going to face an SEC team in Mississippi State this week. Jed
was careful because I want to ask him the question about you know, the
top lines in the in the league. I said, you know, I
mentioned, you know, Georgia, Alabama, lsu I did not mention Mississippi
State, but he made sure to mention that he considers Mississippi State to be
among among those guys in terms of the top echelne of the SCA. But
anyways, I asked, you know, is it a real thing that or
is the reputation that the SEC has bigger lineman, better faster, you're more
athletic, just across the board, better than most everywhere else. And he
said it is. He said, it is a thing. And uh,
you know you played football with some of these guys. Uh, you know,
what did you see out there? I mean, is it a thing?
And you know, you know how how are PAC twelve or PAC ten
lines different from the other leagues. Well, this is the way that I
always saw patsall they always have really really good offensive lineman. They get drafted
in the first round whatever, that's fine. Uh, you go to the
Big ten they have the big boys. They like to run it down your
throat. The SEC is a combination of the two where you got these athletic
guys that just you know, kind of run over people. I don't know
if it's something in the water. It might just be because you know,
the SEC, I mean just they pride themselves on their football and I think
are just kind of a level above everybody else. So if you combine you
know, a great left tackle that's awesome at pass blocking. Uh, you
know a big ten guy that just likes to get super physical. I mean
that's kind of where you have in the SEC. And it's all over the
place. Like I said, it must be something in the water down there.
I'm not quite sure, but I mean those guys, they always have
those monsters that you know, they end up playing ten to twelve years in
the NFL, and it's like, where did this guy come from? Oh,
Auburn of course SEC. So yeah, I mean we're gonna work hand
school. Thankfully we have a bigger D line than we've had. You know,
it's a challenge. Did you do you recall any Arizona alignment during your
time who you thought that guy would be? You know, can play anywhere,
complaining in the SEC, complaining the big ten wherever anybody. We come
bed a couple of guys in my freshman here, I think to have uh,
you know, Stoops actually did a good job, you know that regime
and recruiting offensive lineman and you know, I can't remember all their names,
but I mean I just remember as a freshman, I was going to too
deep and just you know, having to get teed off on while I'm coming
down to you know, think on a poller, and it's just like you
know, type of headache pretty much at the beginning of practice and it never
goes away. So given what happened last year, what did you think of
last year's game? Will it play a factor because we saw how good they
were under Mike Leach. Now it's a whole different situation. Yeah, I
mean from everything I'm hearing, I haven't been at just scat them all,
but I guess they're They're running the ball a lot more so it's going to
be a little bit slow over games. You're not going to have, you
know, probably the big plays that even normally have with you know, a
Leach offense. But I mean, like I said, it's a good challenge
for us. I think that last year was kind of an odd game.
You know, I kind of agree with some of the other guys that have
shows that I listened to you where you know, you never felt like we
were in the games, but it never felt like we were out of it,
if that makes sense. Like I mean, if we went on a
quick run, got a big touchdown and got a turnover, maybe, but
it was just weird. They kept us at arm's length the entire time.
Obviously they were much bigger and stronger than we were. Uh. You know,
this year, I think we have you know, the offensive line that
could keep in the lower from running around and you know, looking like you
know, he stole something last year. I mean I felt bad for the
man. He was just all over the place. So you know, if
he could be consistent, you know, limit the mistakes, and if we're
able to establish you know a little bit of a run game so that we're
not getting behind the sticks, I think we'll be fun. I think we've
asked you this before, but I'm gonna ask it again. You know,
this team underwent a change in coaches then, actually in a different way than
it happens with other and with other teams. You know, their coach passed
away, they got a new coach. They know the coach, but it's
still different. And they're, like you said, they're doing different stuff on
on offense, but a coaching transition, especially early in the season, how
much does that have an effect on how things go in terms of being organized,
everybody knowing where they're supposed to be, everybody knowing assignments, everybody knowing
how you get plays in and out. You know, how how really hard
is that? I mean, it's difficult, especially when you have an entirely
new staff. But I guarantee, even though they kind of changed up the
way that they're gonna move the ball and kind of how they're going to attack
different defenses, I've got a lot of the internal stuff that's still the same,
so you still have that familiarity there. There's a comfort level there.
Like I said, even though it's different system, I'm sure that you know,
they kept a lot of things to saying. They don't have to do
just a complete redo, So you know, I think they'll be on top
of their game. So let me ask you, it's gonna be tough to
play there, obviously, with all the Cowboys and all the stadium the way
it is. What was your toughest place to play and how big of a
factor is playing on the road like that? My tofice place to play.
Oregon was always tough because I mean, they're right on top of you.
Washington is probably the loudest. I didn't get to play at Oklahoma State,
but I went on the trip and that seemed to be pretty difficult. You
know, it's it's difficult. I mean when we were at Oklahoma State,
you have the guys you know, pounding against the wall the entire time,
and it, you know, kind of distracts you sometimes. Uh. You
know that could have been just me because I wasn't in the game. But
when it comes to Washington, I mean that place is louder than any place
that I've ever played at. Uh, it can make a difference. You
know, if we're if we're trying to get you know, some signals,
and if there's a miscommunication because it's too loud, well then you know you
got to go to hand signals to do it that way, I have to
go to a silent count. We just never know. It always changed the
complexity of the game. Did you ever play Did you play against either on
the road, either in the SEC or the Big Ten? Uh? We
played at Iowa, Okay, but I don't think we played any SEC teams.
If I remember correct, I've been hitting the head of lock guys.
But talk about the atmosphere that Iowa game. What was that like? Well,
that was kind of your prototypical Big ten. I mean they're they're exactly
like Nebraska fans, like, you know, you're you're leaving the field,
and they kind of cheer you on telling a good job even though you're just
lost. And I mean they're a loud obviously. I don't remember if we
were there when they had their children's hospital thing where you stop it right,
and I will be different because our entire locker room was pink. It was
really weird. So other than that, you know, the fans were great.
They were loud obviously, and that helps the home team, but you
know, we still had a chance to win at the end. Yeah,
I remember that one. Yeah, that was that Well, that was the
game I think. Wasn't that the game where Nick Foles first kind of hit
the scene, right he placed Matt Scott in the game and then uh yeah,
and then he never relinquished. Never David Position, let me ask you
a dumb question, because I'm the dumb question guy. How good was he
on when we played with him? Right, you were a team and it
was was it? Obviously did he have that talent to become who he became
Nick Foles? Yeah, of course. I mean he always had a big
arm, he had the best beat ball I've seen, you know, and
he was just a team first guy. So you know, him and Matt
were both you know, first team first guys. But you know, when
you have a guy transfer in and you have a guy that has a year
you know under his desk in the system, normally you're going to go towards
the guy that's been here. So I mean Nick had to go out and
earn it, and I think he did. Obviously Matt, you know,
under Rich Rocks system, he was perfectly built for that one. So I
mean everybody's kind of got their preferences on the type of scheme and uh,
you know, Nick Foles, in my opinion, got shafted in the NFL.
I think he should have been starting for the Eagles for a few years
and I think politics played a big deal there. But you know, he
got his you know, the Super Bowl MVP. He's gonna be able to
tell, you know, everybody down the you know lineage that he was able
to do that against Tom Brady of all people. So I'm just happy that
he ended up where he did. Wasn't through another quarterback to d from Rutgers
who transferred to Yeah, yeah, so he had At one point we had
four NFL quarterbacks on the roster. H don't quiz me on the names.
I'm terrible with names. If I see his face, obviously I'll know his
name. But we had Nick obviously, Matt had a brief stin, and
then two other guys that are like, you know, one of them still
a backup and one of them had to start a game for the Texans like
three years ago. This random, but yeah, it was. It was
pretty awesome. I mean, you get to see take your NFL quarterback,
even if you're like on the threes in practice. That was kind of cool.
Asking one more so, I asked Jay this because I'm not a historian
football more basketball so and Jake's and Jake, Jed has done a heck of
a job recruiting, obviously, probably better than all the coaches before him.
What's so, why did it take so long? I should say, although
Stoops did a fantastic job right, but probably not to the level that Jed
has. Well, I think Stoops got on to a great start because he
had you know, his brother, he had some many dikes, he had
Kish. I mean, he had all of these coaches that were always in
the top twenty five of the recruiters in college football. So if you take
a look at that, that's why they started so great. And then after
my freshman year, both of them are, you know, the two top
ones. His brother and Guy's both left, so you know, you kind
of bring in two new coaches and uh, you know, kind of from
there, you know, the recruitings fell off a little bit. But I
think Jed's just selling the direction of the program. He puts in the extra
work. I mean, the guy goes out and raises money, does all
that stuff. He could tell that he's genuine about his players. And then
he hired a bunch of guys that brought into you know, the vision,
that are willing to go and be the first ones to jump on a recruit.
You know, they're not afraid to run down the South Point. And
you know, I've heard on another show. You know, as soon as
they were able to make contact with the players, you know, the entire
staff showed up at six am for you know, the guy's workout. So
these guys they believe in recruiting. You have two at Arizona. You know,
you can't just wait for people to come there. It's not like you're
walking, you know, into La with an sc logo, uh, you
know on your sweater. So they're doing a good job. I just think
that somebody needed to really buy into the program. I have a family atmosphere,
and you know, it helps that we're if we're putting up numbers and
going that way. But you know, I think it's going to continue.
Hopefully he stays there for a long time. Okay, what kind of game
do you think we see on Saturday? Well, you guys know me,
on the Optimists, I'm going on Arizona winning. I don't care what the
score is. I'm not going to bet on it. Never bet on Arizona
or Nebraska because you lose every day time. But I think Arizona is gonna
win. All right. But but I mean, you know, Mississipioate ran
the hell out of the ball last week. Again, it was a not
a you know, it was an NAU type of opponents. Southeast Louisiana.
They're they're different. So what I mean are they gonna you expect to see
I'm trying to run it down the arizon his throat, and you think they
can. You know what, I don't know what their game plan is,
but I think that when you have these uh kind of pushover opponents in week
one and you know you're gonna be playing a viable opponent week two, you
save a lot, You keep a lot to the you know the best,
and I think that they may come out and do something completely different. You
never know. Uh, you know. The good thing is we probably have
a few things up our sleeve as well, so you know, it might
be a higher scoring game than we think. But I'm just hoping that we
can go ahead and stop the run and you know, keep them behind the
six on third down so that we can get off the field. Well,
Jake, thanks for joining us. Go have a beer on me, put
on my tab and it spend more time in the pull tomorrow since you won't
be on the show, you know, I'll go on Venmo and I'll ask
for fifteen dollars. It's fifteen bucks. Never mind, I'm kidding, guys.
Thank you for having me on. How do you get pick fifteen bucks
for a drink getting man right. That was fun. All right, Well,
appreciate Jake Fisher get getting in here a day early since we're not gonna
have a show to Mars and and that was fun. Yeah. Always the
optimists too, Like I was gonna tell him. I think it was Bill.
Was it Bill? Who's bills? Bills? Bill? He's on joy
He's on drugs, pic Win eight games. Hey, whatever, Man,
he's on those happy drus. He's on he's on he's you know, he's
on the right path so far. So we'll see what happened. I just
need seven more. All right, stick around, we'll take your calls.
We got more from Jet Fish's press conference today. You're an Arizona men's basketball
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is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio Whip Just Surgeon I on
the Ball. Hey, welcome back to ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Roberta here. Jakin's awesome. We got fourteen minutes. If
you guys want to give us a quick call. Somebody said to me,
we I talked too fast with the phone number five B four one six seventy
four. For everybody, get your pencil out so they're driving in the car,
So you two four one six seventy four forty give us a quick call.
If you are listening for the first time, give us a quick call.
Let us know how foolish we are. Yeah we are. Well,
wait till our wait till wait, till wait, wait till we get to
our five Friday picks on Thursday. Some tough games this week. I think
there's a bunch of easy games. But I'm gonna say that now, and
I'm gonna screw it up because go ahead, give yourself a ko D.
So I didn't really look. I told you some yesterday. We were talking
about a bunch of games, and a bunch of them sounded, you know,
yeah, hurt easy. Well that's that's the problem. You know that
there are two are not Yeah right, they're not, but they look they
look it, so you know, I don't know, we'll see. It
didn't take me long. You know. I got some picks. I like
them. But I always like my picks. I should say I always like
my picks. I usually like my picks I like my picks this week,
we'll see. Okay, it didn't go well last weekend. I'm upset get
it off to such a horrible I owe you, but you owe me.
So I saved five bucks for your trip. Save for your trip until you
come back. All right, that's right, we got we're also beating five
bucks a week. I forgot about that, so I some need to pay
for the thing. So we got a call. We got a call.
Right, let's take this calor. Hi, you're on the air and on
the ball. Yeah, this is Jeff. Hey, Jeff, how are
you doing pretty good? I'm just calling because I've got Steve's book from him
the other day. Oh yeah, and TI him a chance to read it.
But my wife read it and said it was fantastic. Well, thank
you, Jeff. I appreciate it. Your wife, Yeah, thank your
wife. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta do better than me. I've only
read about four chapters. So and I mean she didn't ride across from me
over here. Well, he reads it what we have the guests on right
to what is anybody out there that's thinking about it? And he had to
get it because it's it's a very good read. What would did your wife
give you some of the highlights. What does she tell you that you need?
What what does she tell you about it that makes you want need to
read it? Just just that that it was that it was very good all
the way through. She already finished it, so she said it was very
good all the way through. Yeah, well, thank you, Jeff.
It was obviously Ivan j J knows lou too, so that the guys played
hard for him, right, that was undeniable. And eventually when they left
the program, they really loved him. They found out why he was so
tough on them. You know, it's like a dad. Like a dad,
you don't know until you get older. You you know, you get
smarter as your dad gets older, saying we get all wish it were,
We get all wish they were all that good of a coach. Yah.
Right, well, thank you, Jeff. I remember that was just recently
that I sent you the book. Appreciate appreciate it. Thanks about that first
time calling, first time calling? Thank you cool, Thanks, thanks,
satisfied. And yesterday was read read a book day that it was I just
posted something that I pick up a book. No, no, you know
you've been reading a lot of stuff, so you've been reading a book.
Let's so much going on? Yeah around here, But I don't have tackle
books, right, no audio audio books exactly. Put them on in the
car books time ten minutes call us five, four, one, six,
seventy four forty. I'd like to hear from me. Are you do you
think Arizona's what's the spread? Ten? Nine and a half? Do you
think they're gonna cover? Not so much you. I've watching the callers.
That's a lot of points, but it's not I think that ten and a
half, nine and a half, ten a half plea be different things.
You know what, and you know what in the Vegas it's a huge difference.
Okay, let's say this. If Air's Onna loses bike ten, done
covers loses bike ten, is that a good showing? Yeah? Uh yeah,
yeah, you know, say say thirty five, twenty four, thirty
five, I'll go to your I'll go to your thing that you always go.
It depends what that ten but it looks like, Yeah, it depends
what the ten looks like, because they could be I think they're gonna be
in it for a while. Let's say let's say let's say they lose by
ten or maybe they were down three or seven going into the fourth quarter.
Oh no, and you think that's pretty good, right, they're down by
twenty one and then kind of catch up. Nuts not so much. So
You're right, it depends on what it looks, right. But I think
that I really liked this team, and even after last week's kind of like
mediocres out in that that they have a chance to to stay in games and
play well yeah, you know, yeah, no, I I because they
have people. They have they have people. I mean, what was the
last time you said that? Yeah, they have guys. They have guys,
and and you know, I I think the thing the thing that I
the thing that I think, right, I think I think I think you
know that I think I think this. You do feel that from even from
last year to this year, that they're in a much better position to compete
last year, going into that game, I thought, no way in how
they just don't have the guys, They're gonna get pushed around. And they
did. And when you saw them right and then and and Arizona hung you
know, as who was it uh that said was it was a Jake that
just said it? They? Oh yeah, it was Jake would just said
He said, they were in it, but they weren't. You never thought
they were going to win the game, but they weren't ever really getting Remember
the tall receiver, the dude was just picking up picking apples, kind of
just grabbing the ball and scoring. I think, you know, listen and
listen to January. He talked, talked about his line. You know,
I mentioned that that you know they've got you look at the offensive line you
got you know, Polido and Morgan and all these guys. Yeah, there
there sizewise at they fiddle, which brings me to ask USh of questions of
Polito. What's the situation? They don't know yet both him and uh and
more stukes stukes he said, he's still day to day. I think they'll
they'll make a decision tomorrows to whether or not they're taking him, taking him
with him. Yeah, all right, let's get more jets. So we
got about seven minutes left. Really interesting question came up today and it was
asked by Michael lev because remember when when when Dolora you try to run over
that guy fumbled the ball he had on collision with the guy he went into
the medical ted you know, you guys had to get checked over. He
came back out. He didn't miss any place. But the Jed was asked,
you know, how confident are you that norfa Fitte is ready to go
if Jaden does that again and has to come out of the game, good
us. Yeah. I would say every week my comfort level with Noah gets
greater and greater and greater and greater. Uh he is. You know he
can run a pri this no problem. If we have to give Jaden the
day off, no problem. He walks in there and he has incredible ability
to communicate the play. He has a great ability to get in and out
of a huddle. He could make all the throws. He knows exactly what
we're getting defensively, I would say where Noah's continuing to grow is when you
get into those scrimmage settings, you know, as what does he do in
training camp, scrimmages or some of those other ones that you know it's good
on good ones on ones. What does that look like where Jaden has so
much experience, Jaden can make plays outside the framework of the play better than
most. You know, Jaden was what one throw away from having his highest
career QBR. I think it was at like two twenty five until he threw
that one interception to end it still finished fourteenth in the nation. So I
would say I feel very comfortable with Noah. He knows the offense inside and
out. He's certainly the team feels very comfortable with Noah. He throws a
very good ball, as we know, and the team is excited that we
have both those quarterbacks at any given moment. Who else that question? It's
a good question, Michael, It's a good question. Levin Still levis still
reporting football, right. I know, he's a he's a senior writer,
he's a columnist. He's asking questions that beat writers at Yeah. Still,
but yeah, that was I thought that was a really good question. And
you know, Fafida looks the part. I mean, he looks like he
can do this. I mean he's not super tall, but he looks like
he can do this. The question is when, you know, when will
his time come to do this? And again, I think Jed's gotta,
you know, have a good feeling that if something does happen to Delora and
he does something dumb like that again and gets clawberd, that they've got somebody
who can step in and uh and and we've seen him. We've seen him
to the last couple of camps. Yeah, it looks done good. Yeah.
A lot of discussion about the new clock rule. You know, games
got short a little bit. Uh, you've Arizona didn't have as many possessions
they would normally have ran fifty something plays. He you know, Jake got
asked about what he thought about the whole clock situation at this game on Saturday.
Yeah. Well, you know, we had fifty three plays, but
we averaged nine yards of play, so we were I think fifth in the
country when it comes to yards per play where we are after the week one,
So I think we would have had more plays if we averaged less yards.
I'd prefer to average more yards and have less plays. I would prefer
to be explosive if we can be explosive and score fast, if we can
score fast. I don't know if you necessarily count on the quarterback having a
fifty yard run or I don't know if you count on some of the plays
that occurred in that game. A block field goal for a touchdown, took
away an offensive possession. You know, because you're going the defense is out,
then the offense is about to go out. But then you block up
field goal, you score, the offense doesn't go out again. So there
were some parts of the game, Michael that I think is just a rare.
It won't happen again. Then I think you'll get back up to that
sixty five to seventy play range. So I'm I'm on record of saying I
have no problem as long as the game was three hours and eleven minutes,
which it was, which it was. That's what an NFL game average is
about three fifteen, and I think that's what a college game should average as
well. Three eleven. That's still kind of long, and it's usually three
twenty five twenty. Well, well, I still say, okay, they
shortened it, but they didn't because of that. Upon further review, we'll
look at the clock and review this is it and hold on, they'll be
back right back. But the first quarter I thought went went really fast because
the clock ran the whole quarter. You know, uh, any of you
was running the ball. Half the first half, they were running the ball.
They were running it successfully. It just moved and moved and moved.
Sorry to tell you there's two halves. The second half didn't. Yeah,
well, I was having fun. It was nice out. Yeah I was,
you know, yeah it was some red vines. None of cheese,
and you're not. I wouldn't add enough cheese for my notches. We've got
too many. Okay, one more clip, just asking just oh wait,
let's let's let's play this. When he was asked about Mississippi State and what
they're doing offensively now because they ran the ball for three hundred yards last week,
so they were he was asking, how different is this? Well,
the first thing is you make a commitment to it. Right. They made
a commitment to being more balanced than a commitment to running the ball. More
like that's where it starts, right. Coach Leech did not have that same
commitment. His commitment was to move the ball. He used to always say
balance was getting the ball into all the playmaker's hands, not balance of run
pass. So that would be the first thing I would say. Second thing
is schematically they've changed from a year ago or the years ago for as long
as coach Leech was calling the games, was that they've decided that they were
going to be more two tight end sets. They were going to be more
pin and poll, they were going to be more gap scheme. They were
not afraid to run the football and bring guys across the formation and bring more
size onto the field, not just spread it out and have four receivers out
there with no tight ends. So I would just say, was it's more
of a concerted effort. Uh, they're gonna run the ball, and they
want to run the ball. They want to be more balanced than you could
see it from last week when they I think hit that three hundred yard rushing
mark. Okay, yeah, so yeah, you know I again and then
like Jake said, maybe they were you know, they didn't want to show
their passing game, you know as much because if you can run the ball,
you're gonna run the ball, right and any team that wants to run
the ball, if they're running it's successfully, they're just gonna keep running until
it's not working anymore. Let me ask you this, and maybe a coach
can cause after the break. So you you are who you are, and
we don't anaz want to move the ball passing and now running, right,
do you really need to see their plays because you already know what they're gonna
do right right right? Said well, they didn't show Jake kind of said,
they didn't show what they show well, you've seen it before. Yeah,
right, Well, except for in this case it is different. You
know there as he said, No, they're running tight ends out there,
Jack Buyers, are you know Mississippi state guy. Yes, they said that,
said Mike Leach never had a tight end. They're running a tight end
out there, so they schematically it is different. So you gotta prepare different.
Sure, I get it. You remember when I gotta go. Sup
was a coach and they had a spy on the sixth Street then and he
was concerned. I asked him, it's you against them? What the what
the kind of they know what you're gonna do. You're still gonna do something.
Yeah, maybe I'm wrong, but don't you Isn't that what it is?
I think you against me? And let's go. Yeah, let's line
up and play. Yeah exactly. All right, We're gonna take our break,
come back to the top of the hour. We do have some breaking
news for you. Then we're gonna have our guests. Our other guests,
David Adams will be in at a quarter after