This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and jagon Zalis on Fox Sports
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Eye on the Ball here on Fox Watch fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera here,
jagon Zalis. Welcome to Monday's show. How about them Cowboys? About
the cowboys? How about them buffalos? How about them wild cats. We're
gonna get to all of it today. Uh, let's start with Let's start
with the cowboys. Gonna be a quick conversation. What the hell? This
is why I think every game is a season. Jay, They come in
as twelve point favors to going to Phoenix, a horrible team, right,
or two Phoenix to the Cardinals, horrible team, and they get their butt
beat. It made zero sense, Yeah, right, exactly, made zero
sense. It made no sense whatsoever. Zero sense is so accurate. Yeah,
you think, okay, they're gonna you know, lolly gang for a
while and then they'll put them away. Well they didn't them along with the
Ravens. The Ravens, you know, before you picked it and we picked
on Fridays sometimes earlier they were missing a lot of people. Wow. Yeah,
but the cults were missing their quarterback. Oh you over talked that overreaction
Monday terms into over reaction the Sunday. The cults were missing their quarterback.
And who is your who's your quarterback? Who will end up being Gardner?
Minshew? Oh you never the must dash man the master. They beat the
Baltimore is good when the heather be really good, when the heather people and
they started out good, they went out right. I thought they were gonna
run all over these guys. Happened to them? Yeah, Boom and Dallas
Jouse looked bad. Whatever everybody anointing them. Yet yet enough two games,
two games once again proven you can't ever annoyt Okay, now let's go to
the Buffaloes. Although we'll talk about this, a lot, uh got humbled,
not just a little, but a lot. They were like And this
is my problem with the whole situation with Dion and whoever. And I don't
have very many, but it seems like it's only one sided where you can
talk a lot of crap. And if you get a lot of crap talked
about you, you keep your receipts. Jay, there's a lot of places
where don't take receipts after ninety days. Yeah, you know, you can
have receipts, but it don't matter if you don't have any place to take
him exactly. And you know, and you know, Dan's been doing a
lot of talking, because that's who understandable, that nanable. But you know
he can't. He can't take offense when somebody talks. And I thought,
and in this particular case, he just got his ask. And I thought
that the landing stuff before the game was fan fantastic. You know why we
know about that because it showed us if do you remember the Rich Rod when
they played in the bull game way out wherever. It was his last,
his last ball game, and he talked a lot of crap, and it
was you He probably didn't know it was his last game. He was a
pretty good speech. It almost seemed like he cussed a lot in that thing,
which was not a surprise. But he got them fired up. What's
your job as a coach, You get your team fired up. However,
means possible, means possible. Well, like you said, the surprising thing
though, the thing that's unusual is that they're showing that the right. They
showed us Dan Landing's pregame speech where you know, they're after clicks, were
after wins, right, you know, and and that kind of stuff.
And so the fact that we're seeing all that there was there's been a lot
of conversation about that social media podcasts and stuff like that, where you know,
these coaches are it's it's sort of a different breed of coach, right,
they're younger, they're more aware, they follow social media. They watched
TV. You had you had a Ryan Day going off on on Blue Holes,
you had fantastic. They had Jake dickerd at Washington State going off on
lead course So because he watched Game Day, which he got it all wrong.
Lead Corso didn't say what what Dicker thought? He said, Dicker thought
he said the no one's gonna watch ball. What he said was the no
one wants us ball, which is true. Okay, all right, And
he went off on course I'll say nobody's gonna watch your game. That's not
what course I said. Okay, you know, and then he even went
so far as to say, well we all know that, you know,
Leaves an old guy. And they put notes in front of him and he
just reads them. I'm like, well you can't. You know, you
can't go on, you can't go after the old guy. So let's say
this, let's say this. Uh, we're living a time where let me
say this, we're living at a time where we can't say anything or it's
going to be attached to something, right and it comes back to bite you
or not? Then why now, how are we on the show? Exactly?
Why is anybody having a show because you well, you remember when you
said black and yes, because it's what we do. That's what coaches do
exactly and for and for Ryan Day in the in the immediacy after the game,
instead of just talking about how great his team played when it was,
he goes off on Lou Holtz. I'm like, dude, did you know
what he was talking about before? You actually said? I had to google
and Lou Holtz you know he's a good old boy, YadA YadA, and
he was just whatever an Order Dame coach who just said this is why I
think Notre Dame's gonna win. What is wrong with that? Now? Again,
guys can use that for however they want. You know, we all
remember the old the one when Arizona in the eighty eight uh uh basketball tournament
before the Seaton Hall game. Uh, Dicky Teal or somebody I think was
Dick Vitale said that was behem. No, no, no, Dick Vitell
said that he thought he thought Seaton Hall would be at Arizona, and and
and and he even said he just thought Seaton Hall. Would you know,
give Arizona a tough time. They were in the Big East. It was
the Big East, and I guess some one of the guys came running out
of the lock out of their hotel room saying, Dick Bytell said, all's
gonna kick our asses. And then they want to be true? The hell
what you heard? What you? Well, didn't Beeheim say this at the
beginning of year. They're not gonna get any They're not gonna get any better.
They're as good as they're gonna get. They're all seniors. But every
they're entitled to. Let's say whatever they want to say. Again, if
you want to use that to motivate your team, fine, But well,
R Ryan Day looked stupid. Okay, I thought I thought he looked dumb.
I the whole world is against Ohio. Come on. I thought it
was fantastic because I didn't know the context. Whatever you need to get motivated,
Okay, more power to you. We hear it all the time.
But if you're gonna talk a lot of crap, and I wish I could
use the right word, you better expect crap to be thrown back at because
it's the way it is, exactly exactly. Okay. Now we have a
lot of time now Arizona, and let me set this up this way,
Jay, and you can answer it. However, we've played four games,
or they played four games. We watched four games. What have you really
learned about Arizona to this point? To this point, I think I've learned
that they've got a pretty good defense. Okay, okay, And in fact,
I think I think unless something dramatic happens, right and in the next
few games with Washington and USC coming up, I don't know how much they
can they can do, how much you're gonna be able to do against it.
The offense isn't with the offense was right right, and I don't know
how much of it is just attributed to Jane Dolora. They seemingly have a
good offensive line. We already got a call. Oh, let's take this
right, let's take this. Hi are on the RNA on the ball.
So, uh, how are you guys doing Gabriel, We're doing good?
How are you? Is this upset Gabriel or happy Gabriel? Medium? Till
like Gabriel? Go ahead? Wait, I wanted to talk about Arizona's when
on Saturday. So why I basically take from it was when I was watching
the game, I was I was really concerned that it was like this.
It was the cow game from last year. But luckily Arizona got a important,
big important when. But let me address Uh, there's still the elephant
in the room. It's still Jaden, little Laura struggled. Was the offense
and there is a couple of plays that that he could have easily got a
first down. And and let me ask you this question. Has an offense
gone down here points compared to last year? So you don't have to go
see it again you broke up ale of bits. Let's say that again.
Well, what that was? Has the offense, uh costensuscy rate went down
compared to last year? No question? Yeah, I mean you just look
at the points they're scoring, right, Yeah, they're not even exciting.
Yeah, they're not. They're they're just yeah. I mean, he's just
they're just not making the making plays that that you know that they were making
last year. And and I think get at this point it is I don't
know if you call it a concern, but you know, they don't have
enough offense to be Washington. No, what they're gonna tell you, Jay
is that they're three and one. That's all that happens, and that's all
that matters, is it? Really? I don't know, can I can
I add on to what you guys are saying. Yes, So I think
the situation going in Hawaii has has made him, has made Jaden de Laura
very distracted because because Hawaiian scene hasn't gone away, he shows keep keep coming
back, keep coming back, And I think for him, he's he's he's
focusing on that he's not basically, he's not last year's Jayson de Laura and
so a fish, I would kind of explore explore Noah Fatidas as Eric Pennant
as apparent to the offense, even he did a pretty good job on Saturday.
So and more. Unfortunately, Arizona is a calm out swing against Washington,
USC and the seventh seven other Patrol games that Arizona have Yeah, obviously
the obviously thanks to the dumb asses who run the past twelve, Arizona got
a heart heartest schedule, even though the last year of the Patrol so takes
a lot. Takes a lot the PAC twelve. So hopefully Arizona can stack
some wins, but I'm very I hope as a quarterback, but I don't
know. What do you guys think? Well, we'll talk. We'll talk
about that here, just sinking. So, okay, thank you for calling
Gabe. We're about to address that. Go cap. So we did get
happy game and unhappy game. There's a lot a lot there. I think
that he's reading too much in the into the Dolora thing my thing, and
I wanted to ask this, he's just not playing well, he's just not
No, He's as simple as that, right, Jake. You can overthink
things, and maybe the Hawaii than Yeta yet, I'll think one thing.
And I wanted to ask this question, but I didn't because he already said
he may not. We don't know that his interviews, so there's no point
in asking until we get to Thursday. Maybe, but maybe that he's trying
too hard to do too much because he's not doing stuff that he used to
do, right, he's not. And that's and that's one of the things
that that you know, Jed Jed was asked, you know what what is
I don't remember what the exact question is. Basically, Michael, that's what's
going on with Jade Delora and and he had you know, he had he
never he didn't ever say he's playing poorly, but he just talked about how
he's doing some of the things that he did in the game on Saturday he
shouldn't be doing. Here. You know. The beautiful thing about Noah is
here we go. Yeah, I talked to him about the same thing.
You know, we just can't hold the ball, don't We don't need to
do that. We need to trust our reads. We need to get the
ball out there quicker. There's plenty of opportunities to not hold the ball and
not have to. Now there's a couple of times that he did have to
for one reason or another. But uh, you know, I think there's
part of the game as you've got to play with great rhythm and timing,
and if you're not playing with great rhythm and timing, and you're late,
or you're holding the ball, you're waiting for things to happen. You're gonna
miss things. It's gonna feel like it's lasting forever. Obviously, you know,
there's no excuse forever drifting back thirty yards to throw the ball away on
a third and ten on the plus thirty six yard line and risk the possibility
of a major negative play. We wound up throwing it away, but that's
nothing that we would ever coached nor permit. But otherwise I would say,
you know, I think that there are probably some plays that he would like
to have back. I think there were some plays that I would like to
have back that probably didn't give him the best possible a play to be successful.
On the plays that he was successful on, we were able to get
the ball out of our hands quickly. The ones that we were able to
get it out, you know, I think maybe we had a chance of
cowing on the sideline on the second third down play probably just went off his
fingertips. That was a heck of a throw. We hit that first.
The next third down to Jacob on a short yardage we hit Tanner over the
middle. But for the most part, I thought we were not as Christmas
as we normally are. And he said normally are right right? Doesn't make
any sense. I think when he says normally are I think he's thinking about
last year, right right, And we're four games in right right, I
think, And this is me just observing. He's overthrowing. He's throwing the
hell out of the ball, throwing hard and trying to do too much when
he used to just do things last year, right, just trying to do
too much. And I don't know if it's is he projected to leave this
year no matter what. I don't know if they say no matter what.
But he can leave, he can't leap. So the thought is if he
has a good year, he would leave. Well what I him to a
little take when he started to get this grand gild, I don't know.
That's the thing. You can start doing things, that's something that's gotten into
it. Maybe, well, you know you're talking about trying to do too
much. I rewatched some of the game today and there was a play where
he kind of scrambled around. Then he got he got loose he was and
he was he moved up in the pocket. All of a sudden, he
had all kinds of time, and instead of just finding a guy over the
middle or something like that, he throws a ball deep into the end and
almost throws it out of the no, because I think I don't think it
would have been a first down run. But all of a sudden he had
time somebody, you know, and and he just launches one and he almost
throws it out of the stage and stuff like that. I remember, that's
the stuff that that that's happening that we're seeing. That that's not that's not
the guy that that we've been we've been seeing. So all right, hey
do we want to keep doing this? For sure? We got into Tommy
Lloyd. We told we told our listeners we're going to do Tommy Lloyd at
three fifteen. Tom look as well always come back. Okay, so we're
gonna go. We're gonna come back here in a second. There was a
Tommy Lloyd Press confervorce. He had some really interesting stuff to say. He's
just kind of from the hard kind of stuff, right, Yeah, Yeah,
I have two questions I wanted to ask, gonna ask those my stories
already up. Yeah. Well, so we're gonna we're gonna play with the
Tommy Lloyd Press conference stuff. Then we'll comea because we're gonna be probably talking
about this game the rest of the day. Uh yeah, because it was
too close of a call for a lot of people. Sure, Hey,
stick around, we'll be back with Tommy Lloyd Press conference highlights. For more
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and os. It's Steve Romera and Jagen Summits. This is I on the
Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty Hey, welcome back to twenty of the Ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Come Steve Romeo, here, Jakin's awesome.
Get about fifteen minutes for this segment. Here, A lot of fun,
a lot of nice comments. Yeah, opening cover, very candid candidate
can comments from Tommy Lloyd to day at his press conference, the first practice
of the season. It's only September, right, you know, Steve,
there's a Red and Blue game on Friday. Table talks about this. Yeah,
but uh, you know Tommy, you're just talking about getting ready and
what you know this day means to him in the program. Yeah, we're
excited. I mean, it's the first day of practice. I know,
maybe you know it's kind of lost a little bit of its luster, you
know, because back in the day, you know, October fifteenth was such
a date that was you know, burned and fixed in everybody's mind and and
now it's it's a little more fluid. So yeah, what it means to
me is it's the first day of our journey, you know, of our
new journey. I think we've laid the foundation to you set the table pretty
good. And uh, it means that we're forty two days away from our
first game. I think, is that's how the formula works. I mean,
I honestly don't think it. It means maybe what it used to you
know now, I mean there's the ENCLA has really grown, you know,
with how you know, they've let players and coaches interact in the off season
and so you know where we're allound around our players a lot more than we
used to be, and you know we're able to you know, you know
basically practice. You can have you know, eight weeks of stuff you can
do in the off season, and that's quite a bit, you know.
So yeah, okay, so he just kind of you know, sets it
up. He sets it up, and so you know, right out of
the box, asked him because he talked a bit a little bit about their
their their their overseas trip and a whole bit. So you know, the
question to you know, obvious question to me was did you learn anything that
you was unexpected? Was kind of surprising at about you know, about your
guys having you know, ten full practices and then the games that you had
here was the answer. I mean, I don't know if anything unexpected,
you know. I mean, obviously you learned a lot, you know,
and and uh, you know, but the one thing that you know,
I'm really being mindful of is you know, not you know, not you
know, putting people in boxes or a corner in them or anything like that
and kind of you know, letting their development and evolution as a players show
and you know, and then from there, you know, we'll start making
decisions how we're going to mix and match lineups and things like that. But
what I tried not to do is get ahead of myself, you know,
because I think these these these boys are working really hard and I think they're
making great progress. So you know, I want to I want them to
continue on that path, and I don't want to be the one to stunt
their growth, right, Yeah, which he's very careful and when he says
about people right when he don't. When he went down the list of rosters
without going through the roster, he wanted to make sure, he listed everybody
or talked about it everybody, which which learns that he has a lot of
people to talk about death. Well, let's let's go to the depth because
you ask this question about it depth and you know, he said the good
news you said your question. The good news is you got a lot of
depth. But is it also a dilemma? And uh, and which is
an interesting because again, ten guys that look like they can all play,
and who's gonna get And it's not so much about keeping them happy, it's
just keeping them. It's about keeping them. Yeah, there's not even a
word for it. It's about keeping them you know, the guys get get
to play enough, get the ball enough that should say okay, I'm gonna
keep doing to be here. Yeah, here's what he said. Well,
it's not a dilemma, you know. I mean, I feel like last
year, you know, when I kind of you know, I mean,
you know, self assess. You know, maybe maybe I sliced the roster
a little too thin last year, and you know, which which can work?
And it certainly has worked for others. And you know, I've been
on teams where it has worked. But you know it maybe last year it
was a little bit. Okay, it kind of showed itself at the end,
and I thought, I felt, like, you know, he just
I owed it to the program to increase our margin for air, and you
know, saying one of the ways was, you know, adding more depth.
And I'm excited. I mean, I think we have great guys that
are, you know, about the right thing. And you know, I
mean, you know, managing you know, a lot of good players is
a good thing. But but but more importantly, you're managing great people.
And you know, I mean great people that are part of a great organization.
Understand they'll probably be some sacrifices to come along the way. But getting
back to the response I had earlier, I'm not like overthinking that too much
right now, because I don't want to, like, I don't want to
like predetermine or you know, kind of slice people off a little bit just
to make my job easier. My job doesn't need to be easy. The
players are ultimately going to get what they deserve opportunity wise, in front of
their teammates and what they're going to earn, and and and they're aware of
that, and and so I know, I'm excited. I'm excited. I
think it. I think it definitely is the deepest team, you know,
in my three years here. But saying it and utilizing it and having that
showing the quarter or different things so that they know that's going to be my
job, in the player's job, to to utilize it and take advantage of
it. Yeah, he said some things in there that we're very interesting.
He said lt year he may have sliced the roster tin last year, No
coach, I will admit that, right, because you know, Sean had
his talent, you know his talent, right, and then he went to
seven, who went to eight? Maybe a little, but he played very
few guys even though we thought we had we thought they had pretty good talent.
Yea, every every every coach does that. I don't think he'll have
that luxury this year because he's got talent. He's got guys. Yeah,
yeah, I know, he's got guys and and and you know, and
then and and well this next this next response talks about that about having guys
that you're good. You're gonna have enough guys, you know, if somebody's
not playing well, you got another because he is that My depth question was
this was this was a follow up question I remember if you asked it,
But here's what he said. Well, they're good basketball players, and you
know, I mean we we like I said, I mean, you know,
one of the you know, I was had a lot of great experiences
this offseason, you know, personally, and you know, one of them
was being able to you know, be around Steve Kerr and USA basketball some
and he just you know, he said something to me in one of his
first meetings with the team that really struck me. And it's just really simple
but profound. It's talent makes talent better. And you know, I think
when you get talented guys that want to play with other talented guys, I
want to make each other better. It's a powerful thing. And so you
know that that's what I think we have in those guards, and you know,
I'm excited to watch it play out over the course of the season.
That that was where he was asked, Okay, how the guards the front
court? I know who's the one coming back? I mean buzwe Kylin Boswell,
Yeah, and saying how how you know how he kind of messed with
all these new guards shore here. Sure that that was the initial response,
but there was just time bout you got good guys, they should make other
guys better. It was choice question and how simple he's fantastic because he quoted
Steve who's fantastic, And it's simple, right, he said, Boy,
once he said that, I said, that's lout. Let's lute. When
when Gilbert Arenas is facing Ruben Douglas and Richards facing Luke and and all these
guys, you're facing a guy that's gonna be better than the guy you're gonna
play in the game exactly. You're playing against guys that are better in practice
that's to be facing later in the week. Yeah, all right, So
you got into the schedule a little bit, which is we've been talking about
the schedule for a while and what a great schedule it is. It's gonna
be obviously a very tough schedule. They're playing a bunch of games that nobody
else is playing I think, as many great games as Arizonians. But it
was asked about how that whole thing came together. Well, you know,
I mean, I don't want to act like there's some crazy master plan,
you know, or anything like that. Obviously, the schedule, you know,
when when when you kind of you know, drill it down, it
looks daunting, you know, but but I think it's something this team is
going to be prepared to do, and it's a challenge I feel like we
need as a program. And you know, a lot of these were just
maybe opportunities that came up, and you know, as we as we you
know, I spent a lot of time with TJ, you know, kind
of talking about this stuff, and as we kind of you know, slice
and dice the schedule, we just felt like these were the right moves.
And I'm excited about it. You know. Maybe it's you know, got
a maybe a little heavy lean to some of the neutral games, but I
think if you think about, you know, you play your Maui, you
play your Bahamas. So those are three neutral games, and so we're kind
of doing that, you know, but all the games are one offs,
and you know, and so I mean if you looked at a field where
you you know, at any neutral tournament where you played you know, Purdue,
Alabama and in FAU and yeah, in Michigan, Stay, I mean
as the fourth one, I mean that that that would be a pretty awesome
draw. So I mean we're just separating those games kind of out a little
bit. So I'm excited. I'm excited. Yeah, as it should be.
I you know, if you if I was a ticket holder like some
of the people I know, I would be thrilled to be going to games.
I mean, come, it hasn't been like this in a long,
long, long, long And if you're spending good money on this, you're
gonna get your money right. You know, you get Duke here again next
year. You know, some of these games are gonna they're the what you
what we have to feel is that there's a really good future for the schedules
coming up because he's doing this right. I mean, we don't know what
the whole non conference schedule is for next year, you know, the season,
but what we do know is that he's not going to be afraid to
schedule great games, whether the home and homes or you know, playing in
Phoenix or Vegas or wherever. They're gonna play all these games. And that's
what he's doing. World Red clip that we really need to play a couple
more, but that we really need to play was he was talking. He
was asked about how he You asked him it this lot, you know,
the six months since I went going in this is the question I want to
ask, because it's one hundred and ninety four days really three days from the
since the last time we saw him a podium. We've seen him on a
podium, but it's like a new game. Yeah, and I wonder how
he feels and go ahead, Yeah, here's uh, well we'll just play.
It's been an awesome long six months for me, and you know where
I was able really able to you know, you you experience highs, you
experience lows and and and the lows sometimes can be your greatest teaching tool.
And and so that's how I took this offseason. And I feel like I've
you know, worked as hard as I've ever worked at trying to grow as
a coach and and and and help and you know, make impactful changes to
our program. And so I really rolled my sleeves up and put a ton
of time in. Like I said, I've had a lot of great experiences,
and a lot of the experiences are centered around trying to grow as a
coach, you know, taking numerous trips, you know, whether it's to
be with other coaches, have other opportunities, or family vacations, or to
hang out with Bruce in the Middle East. So I mean I've done a
lot. Yeah, I mean, obviously we've had lots of conversations about that
stuff, and and and at the end of the day, we own it.
I mean, I think I think the only way you can truly write
the next chapter to your story is if you own own everything that came before
it. And and that's good things and bad things. And there's no excuses.
I mean, we we just you know, I mean it comes down
to our culture probably wasn't strong enough, and and our our effort wasn't good
enough, you know when we needed it most. And and you know,
for whatever reason, you know, I mean those two things were kind of
where I've came down to. So, you know, my immediate thought after
we lost that game, you know what was, you know, I've got
to increase our margin for air and how do I do that? And so
that that's the mission I've been on this offseason. He was very candidate,
in fact, one of the most candid answers I've ever heard. Well,
give you some insight real quick, Jake. When we were in Sacramento watching
the game, and there he kind of hinted to that, you know,
it's on me. I need to be better he said, this than the
Pudium when they lost I know perfect. He said, this is a few
places over the summer to two groups that he speaks to. I've owned,
I'm gonna own this. I'm gonna make sure that it doesn't happen again or
whatever. You know, you can't promise that, but you you're hoping it
doesn't happen. And then he went again today. So I was hoping he'd
said that, hoping so he could make my story, and he did,
and he went beyond that. You know how the last year's culture was not.
Culture was not there. The effort was not the effort was not.
Okay, the games they lost were exactly the same. They had leads and
then we'll except for the watching the Stead game. They had these leads and
then they lost them. Yeah, they kind of quit playing. It was
who they were kind of yeah, and that that was the culture that team,
right right, like we didn't have to finish or something whatever. I
don't know. It was just a weird situation when I went back and I
think think about Princeton game. They were the number two seed in the country.
We've been here before, we've been here before, right, Yeah,
it wasn't It wasn't good. It did ye no, no, and fans
weren't happy. Fans weren't happy, you know, questioned him. How many
people said, Tommy lays not the guy for the first for the first two
months, and he's not gonna get any guys, you know, But come
on, that's over action, Monday, serious overreaction, all right. So
that's our tom Lloyd stuff Red the Red Showcase. He is on Friday night.
Tickets are still out there. Well, if we get a chance later,
we'll play this clip that you talked about. You know, this is
a really meaningful thing to him, the Red and Blue game. A lot
of people it's it's kind of a throwaway kind of thing, the scrimmage.
Let's have fun, let's not be serious. He it's a serious thing to
him, and it means a lot to him. So we'll play. We'll
try and play that clip a little later, maybe during breaking news or something
like that. But we gotta reminder, but Keith Heath Bray is coming on
at four fifteen. We're gonna get a start to the Washington game coming up
on Saturday. Heath was in the ninety two game when when Washing number one
Washington game down here and got beat, So we'll talk to him about Washington
Week that week, and as we get started on Washington Week here or their
prayer zone. So stick around. We'll be right back with some more Jetfish
comments from his preschool today. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you
know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at
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Wham, This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on
Fox Sports fourteen Fiftay, Hey, welcome back to What the Ball you know,
Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve, You're Jay gotta buy eleven minutes.
If you guys want to join us on the conversation, go ahead, five
two O four one six seventy four forty. In the meantime, we're gonna
go to some jet clips, right. So obviously, the quarterback situation Arizona
is yeah, a little bit of blux Delora came out of the game,
Fafita came in, saved the day, had a nice drive for a touchdown,
but the winning touchdown. So you saw the game, you see the
complete game. Again, I don't watch the okay, So and what I
liked and I don't like anything, was that Laura was plugging and congratulating Fafita
at the end. You know, he was he was happy for he was
happening, engaged from right. Yeah, sometimes you don't see that well.
And you know, and and Fafita was interviewed right after the game, he
said the same thing about Laura. So that's you know, it's great that
you feel like, Okay, these two guys are rooting for a sch other
instead of one hoping the other gets hurt or whatever. But so just basically,
uh Jed would just ask basically, okay, what are you thinking,
no Fafita, what you saw on Saturday? You know. The beautiful thing
about Noah is we've had him for the same amount of time as we've had
Jaden. They both got on campus the exact same day, which would have
been January of a year ago. They've learned the offense the exact same way.
They've been in the exact same meetings, and they have very similar skill
sets in a lot of ways, so nothing changes, And the only thing
that would potentially change would be practice reps based upon Jaden's health. So if
the practice reps go more to Noah and less to Jaden because he's unable to
go, that would be the only difference. But in regards to game planning,
regards to preparation, regards to what we would do, zero difference.
I don't even flinch with Noah. Noah has never once given us any reason
to not call the what we want to call, execute we want to execute.
He's an extremely talented player, He's extremely confident and poised. So we
wound up I think, handing the ball off on second down and then breaking
off a good run, you know, or first down, second down,
and then he wound up doing a beautiful job on a little naked bootleg hit
the over route, and then had two passes there in the final series on
second and long and third and short to secure the win. So Noah did
a great job, great job handling everything, and I would have no concern
whatsoever if if he is starting for us on Saturday night, but really waiting
to seeing how Jaden's ankles. So, Jay, we've been to practices before
the when they allowed us to go, right, we didn't go a whole
hit a while, but we went to a few. We were pretty impressed.
We've always been impressed. Right, nothing's waver even last year. That's
when it started because he was mobile. And what's the only concern that we
have. He's not tall enough. But you don't really have to be tall
enough, right right, which is still we can still be concerned. Yeah,
but he's delivered. Yeah, Well, he came in and he immediately
throws a complete path. You go, okay, everything's gonna be just fine.
Right now. They had to go down and score because they were behind
when he when he came in, but he just took him down and it
was like nothing. Did you get a sense and this happens all the time
or a lot, Jay, and you guys comes in and the team seems
energized. Did you keep that feeling? I know I did that. You
played they played harder. I don't know if I saw that go back and
be what. Yeah, I haven't like what I was watching. I watched,
I was watched it up until like right, I hadn't gotten to the
point where the lord got hurt. Okay, I when I watched the rest,
watch the rest, and we'll talk about it tomorrow. But I got
a sense that they was just it might be just where they got in and
this new guy, and they had some added life to themselves. Well they
needed that though they well or it also just maybe as simple as Okay,
guys, we got the backup quarterback in. We gotta be gotta be a
little better. Could be that. Let's take this call. All right on
the air and I on the ball. How's it going today? What's up
Ryan? Well, I've had some really terrible things happened to me Saturday night,
Like besides, that's barely winning and not covering at eighteen points. I
thought we'd get I became Steve on Saturday night. Congratulations, Congratulations, I
almost did. I almost didn't get out of bed Sunday. You can't handle
the climb or what was it? Oh man, I'll sit in there going.
Don't tell me Steve can be right about something. That was the worst
part. I've been right more often you've been in denial. Their son right,
obviously, No, it was It's like these teams have forced the Laura
into making decisions and he just can't make that decision past him. Good quest,
good point, good point. Yeah, you know, I think the
defense said, Okay, we're not going to give the big play away,
so we're gonna make him beat us by having to think. And that's where
we're in trouble. So I asked Jay this question to begin the session.
Through four games, Brian, what have you learned? We're not as good
as offensively we thought we were. And do you see anything do you see
any hope of that in the future. Nope? And unfortunately, you know,
I'm sitting there, I'm looking at the schedule. I'm trying to figure
out what we're going to get three more wins. You are turning into me.
I thought you've got never called. I may never call the show again.
I thought Steve had got in your phone Brian when you texted me at
the end of the game. But all honestly, I said this during the
game that if they lose this game, there's no way they're going to win.
Right, Okay, but even now, even now, let's not forget.
But the thing is, you have to look at unless this offense figures
out a way to improve me in our defense, is fine? You know,
and it's going to be it's gonna be a tough game Saturday night,
no matter whether Delora is playing great or not. We understand that, but
we don't know who the quarterback is. And one thing that Washington is going
to be able to do now is work on their defense as if we have
the other I can't remember his name, the second screen quarterback. Yeah,
yeah, so you know Stanford winningto that game, thinking which Delora. So
Delora gets hurt and all of a sudden the feat that comes in and they
have no idea how to play him the same way. I think they have
a lot of the same qualities that you don't scramble. I don't I don't
know what's going to happen, but enjoy enjoy being me, Brian. And
the next three weeks are not going to be easy. Oh I know,
it's you know, what do you mean three weeks? I think the next
night. I don't know. If you watch any of the AU game,
Luckily the luckily USC does not look at impressively impressive defensively at all. Yeah,
okay, you know, and and then that that could be our benefit.
I guess, I don't know. It's hard to figure out, so
well, again, we just don't know from one week to the next what
they have and that's it. And yeah, all right, Brian, Hey,
thanks about man. Okay, talk to you later. Well, you
know he makes a point right that you know, who do you prepare for
and all that kind of stuff because we didn't play this clip right the comparison,
no, no, okay. So Jed was asked to compare his two
quarterbacks. I depend on what happens going into going into Saturday. Well,
I mean, the simple answer would be experienced. Jaden started thirty two games
in college football already this year, where this would, if Noah happens to
be starting, would be his first. So experience wise, what they've seen
over time, what he's seen regarding let's call it, all the different looks
that he's had to deal with, and where he is able to kind of
pull back from the memory banks of this is where I would have gone versus
this defense. That makes a difference. I would say, I don't think
anybody that I've ever coached has the unique ability to make some of the splash
plays that Jaden can make, where he is avoiding sacks, getting out of
bad situations using his to his advantage and then keeping his eyes down field to
hit an explosive play. But we haven't seen that from Noah yet. He
hasn't had those opportunities yet where you know. But for the most part,
when you look at both the players, they both, you know, are
able to control the huddle. They're both able to control line of the screamage.
They both have understanding of the offense. They both can make all the
throws on the field. You know, you don't have to worry about is
that too far of a throw? Is that something that we don't feel comfortable
throwing outside the numbers? You know, all the things for our offense.
Both of those guys can execute. So Jake, is it? Yeah?
So let me ask you a question. Okay, if you were to pull
the fans of too Soon the rezone the Wildcats, where would they lean for
the next starter? Oh? They went Fafita exactly exactly. Okay, if
you pulled the jet Fish, who would he start. He's gonna look at
the film and he's gonna start jading. He's gonna experience. He's still believes
in it. He's got his bias to Jaden, right, don't you think?
Well, he still believes in him. Steve, Sure, Well,
what we're seeing is doesn't look good from where we sit. Sure he,
You know, none of us analyze film the way. Sure of course.
Let me this is where I want to go with it. So you have
a few kids, You have a couple of kids through kids, right do
you some of your kids say you favor one over the other. They say
favor one over the other. My point is, because you have right,
they see you have a bias. Everyone thinks one of the other ones in
the favorite. So would you think that coach Fish has a bias with what
it is with his quarterbacks? Yeah, but I think it's more based on
long term. We've already said that. You've already said that Jaden's his right
or die. Yeah, it was takes to the detriment of Lloyd with Kerr,
Yeah, because but it's like he's come this far with Jane Delory.
He's not going to kick him to the curb this quickly. Right it not.
Look, here's the hypothetically we're run out of time. Go ahead,
let's say no, if Fita comes out, it has to has to play
Streday and Jane Delord doesn't play at all. Let's say they win. Yeah,
you go with it. Man, this is the Clinton Longley of the
Dallas Cowboys. You remember that. You don't what I refer yea? Yeah,
absolutely, you go with the guy that beat Washington or even played well
against him. Jam. It's a tough decision fight. And as that,
you know in the oak cliches that you know who's the most popular guy on
the on a football team, the second string quarterback when the first string quarterbacks
playing like crap? And then and then look, James Delord's not played like
the Jamee Delard we were all expecting to see through four games. Four games.
I mean, he played pretty good against you, Tepp didn't do anything
stupid. He was awful against Mississippi State for a quarter. He was so
bad in a quarter it wrecked three quarters of good football that he played.
He didn't look that great against the NAU you know, and and now he
did. He wasn't looking good on Saturday. How many near him? How
many games you do you give him? Right? Yeah, Okay, we
just gonna take the break. All right, let's get out here. We're
gonna take a break. We'll be back there. Some breaking news and they
don't have heathy to talk about Washington Week. Uh so stick around