This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports
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z R two, SAD and iHeartRadio Station. Well, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera, he's Jacob Zaus, got a boys, Sammi in with us
today. Everyone's wearing the red and blue. All happy, Happy, Joy
Joy, You're all front right. I got my Pack twelve gear on,
and Sammy's got these cheerleading death Oh what are you talking about? You have
a pollover and I'm wearing Pack twelve gear because I don't wear my colors to
press conferences. Okay, that's done intentionally. Oh wow, the fan of
the room. I've never noticed. Now, I'm never gonna tell you what
underwear I have on. Sure it's gotta that's I don't wear Arizona gear to
press conferences. I'm young. Guy's a lesson. It's gotta be unlucky.
Well, congratulations, guys. What a weekend. It was Thursday night,
the Thursday day or whatever. That Michigan State game that was a huge game.
They won that own nicely and then Saturday just beat the crap out of
him. You read me right, Uh, And I'll admit to something later,
But I saw that coming. You did well, and I'm not and
I put a little money on it. I know I didn't sell my house
or whatever, but and I should have. But when when he was asked,
and I wrote this in the story Monday at the Press Coverence, if
he had any motivation to tell the guys and they said, he said,
Billboard, Yeah, I'm thinking this dude wants some revenge. And I'm thinking
I'm thinking if they don't beat the crap out of him, it'll be strange.
But I'm thinking he wants revenge. You were there, Yeah, what's
funny about that, Stevens That he wasn't even here for that? No,
I know, right, I know, but he but he feels it.
He felt it among his thirteen guys who were here for that. And I
think you know he's especially you know, a guy like Michael Wiley who's just
been sure a great soldier Fairizona. You know, he wanted it back for
him very much. So I wanted to get the question. But I thought
you know what, he's not going to answer this. I'm not even going
to ask you. I wanted to ask him when it was fifty two to
seven, were you thinking seventy to seven? So I'm thinking he was thinking
he had to be right. That's why I wrote the story. If they
would have been able to he was still passing with a lot of points left
on time. Well, and at fifty two to seven, it could have
been a sixty four sixty six to seven, he talked to me, because
of a drop, a drop touchdown pass and then a pick inside the He
talked about that today in the press coverage where he only saw two things that
went wrong with and go those two things because it would have been sixty sevens
whatever. They're on pace for seventy six. Well, I'll tell you what's
going on in my house, because both games, both Michigan State game and
then and then the Acuum had a house full of people at my house at
halftime. We were pissed that it wasn't, you know, already forty five
to seven. And then when when he threw that interception, you know,
it was going so well that we were mad that it wasn't worse. Yeah,
Yeah, well, and that first drive, I said, oh,
okay, that's not gonna be anything really well, I thought that. I
immediately thought, this is Washington State all over again. Yeah, it was
just and you just knew. I just knew from that Monday thinking he's gonna
beat the crap bottom he wants. He wanted, he wanted to, and
he didn't the gifts at all. He did not. How did you feel
as a student? Were you there? No, Me and my brother were
watching at home in Phoenix, in Phoenix, and we your traffic sucks.
It's the worst. Hey, there's way worse places than Phoenix traffic. To
come on, at least, at least the people in Phoenix know how to
drive, unlike the people in Tucson. That's just I'm going to give you
that don't know how to drive. But no, we I mean, we
could have gone to the game, but it was it was more just kind
of like we wanted to just be with each other watch the game, and
my parents weren't weren't around, so I mean we were going nuts, Like
I was getting up every single time we scored. It was one of those
where because I was year when it was seventy to seven, you know,
freshman year, no sophomore year. One of those two freshman sophomore year,
and when the program was lowest that I've seen it. I'm sure you guys
maybe have seen a lower but watching that happen, especially in a s U
was and you knew from the get go Jed was not gonna not gonna let
up at all. He was when he was passing and passing and passing,
they were swinging it. I was like, what are we doing? Man?
Like I loved it. There wasn't anybody in our house, no one
happy about that. It wasn't saying just pour it on. In fact,
we were disappointed at those last two ASU touched. I was like, what
the heck is very much? What are you doing? Finish? Exactly?
Yeah, exactly. It would have been one to fifteen, nine to twelve,
but in the ants, Steve Arizona could have set the score and they,
you know, they finished the game. They played. Guy. I'm
I'm a little surprised Jade de Laura didn't get in the game. I don't.
Yeah, okay, like in the fourth quarter, yeah, you know,
but none. In any event, Arizona had their way and we're going
to have their way. And fifty nine to twenty three is anything to you
know, be up, you know, have any issues with whatsoever. Yeah,
no, no, I don't disagree with you. I think he'll play
in the next game. I'm sure at the end with three minutes left.
You know, in the final game, he was They were laughing on the
side of you. You probably saw the TV. I just happened to see
the TV and they were laughing, and I'm thinking, it doesn't look like
he's gonna come in. And then they put the other guy in the final
thirty second, right, But yeah, congrats, it was It was it
was easy. It was fun for you fans. Yeah, we had a
blast. It was just you know what. And I remember at halftime,
uh, you know, I was just talking. We were just talking to
them, saying, you know what. The thing I like most about this
is that we're sitting here at halftime and we're comfortable. It's like it's like
the ASU has no chance. Yeah, there's no way in hell, and
that it's just a matter of okay, does air zone get to seventy or
not. They were halfway there. I have no idea what they're doing offensively
with those quarterbacks. It was well you know what. You know what Jaden
Reshota, I'm sorry, I don't know the kid from Schmoe. But you're
given an opportunity to start your your you know, the rivalry game after you
haven't played all year long. You say you're the starter, and the first
thing he does he misses a meeting. You know, I'm I don't know.
I you know, I don't know. I'm that I'm the guy.
I'm the coach who would say you're not playing. Yeah, yeah, I
gave you an opportunity and you screwed it up. You know what, we
may get beat seventy to seven, but you're not going to play. That's
what I would have done, because that that, to me, that was
a complete and total disrespect for the coach that he gave him the opportunity when
he hadn't played all year long, and he and he it was not of
necessity, right, you know, the coach had no other trace. He
said, Okay, you're going to play, and then he doesn't show up
for a meeting. He's not playing for me, He's not. And if
that's the guy that they're going to hang their head on next year, good
luck, good luck with that, because you know, what Arizona's got.
No Flafeita, the guy with all character, all class, uh, you
know, a trooper. I go back to I go back to the preseason
media day, you know, and and I, you know, asked Jimmy
Darty, the quarterback coach. He said, okay, so you've got Jade
Delora. I said, no, No, if he has already spent a
season on the bench, you know, what's his situation? How you know,
how's he going to handle another season on the bench. And he and
I remember his exact words, he said, No's in a good place.
And I'm like, okay, what the hell does that mean? But he
said that, he said, he said, No's in a good place.
And I'm like, okay, And look at what's happened, right, he
just waited his turn and it came, and it came a little earlier then
we thought, right because of the injury and blood. Did he jump on
it and grab onto it and he's just not let go. This is a
question I would ask today, and I didn't ask because it only it's it
wasn't my place today. It was all the guys who've been there forever.
But as it get ready to get to the to the to the to the
Bowl game. I think Justin, I think you have a queuede up was
kind of similar to what I asked, is I don't think I'm speaking out
of turn Jay and guys that this year was supposed to happen next year,
right, that that it's a year ahead of schedule, right, And I
would ask him, you know, is that the case one? And what
did you think coming in? But Justin asked him a similar question in terms
of from last year's game to this year's game, how did this this happened?
Yeah, let's go play that. It's yeah, lets let's play that
because this is sort of an explanation of what he thinks happened. Now.
We're in a good spot. You know, We've I would say we've won
eleven on the last fifteen games we played something like that, Uh eleven I
last fourteen games we played, we were two and one to end the year,
and then nine and three, so eleven eleven I the last fifty team.
I would say that we've found a way to continue to improve each week.
We improved in the off season, we proved in the winter, we
improved in the spring. We kept adding talent, we kept developing talent.
We kept getting bigger, stronger, faster, and then from all those areas,
you know, you wind up finding a spot where you've got a lot
of guys that can contribute, and the guys that left the program or couldn't
stay of the program, you know, opened up opportunities for others. And
during this time, I think that we've just gotten better, and I just
think we'll continue to get better. I think we'll be better next year than
we are this year. And I would hope that our team is just getting
started in this it's called winning ways, and that we can really go through
the off season and go through the bowl season, and go through the spring
and just see how good can we get and keep challenging our guys to see
that this past season is not our max, but it's pretty cool to end
the season with a six and zero record. So, Jay, a couple
of quick things I saw. I got a text this weekend or a thing
on my Facebook page after my story that do I finally believe? Well,
I think I've minted a few weeks ago that I started believing in Washington State
when I just saw it, I finally saw it. Of your ten friends
one hundred friends whatever, you want to give me a number of those friends,
how many thought this was possible. I think there were a couple who
said it was possible because they're fans, right, But I don't know that
in their harder hearts that anybody really truly believed nine and three? Right?
So no, so two, I'm gonna say zero, Okay, exactly,
So I don't think I'm wrong say that. What got me wrong, though,
What I'm definitely wrong is what was my theme for the whole thing.
Arizona's going to be better, right, of course, but everybody else is
going to be better. Arizona was much better than their better, right,
right. Arizona's better was better than everybody else. And that's what got me.
That's what got it. Yeah, Well, you know when you ran
through all the things, how they got better in the office, how they
got better in the spring, they got better at recruiting, how they got
brought in more personnel. All these things went just the way they wanted them
to to get to where they are. The circumstance, nothing nothing this way,
nothing went wrong to the point where you got your first string quarterback hurt,
and that turned out to be a good thing. No, No,
that's exactly it. The circumstances of events got them here. Come on,
we don't know how Jaden would have handled this year. It kind of started
bad for him already because of the off field stuff and that, not that
it carried over, but just the circumstances of events made this happen. Yeah,
And for whatever anybody might think of Jade and de Laura, you know,
he's been a pretty good trooper, but I don't envision that they would
be here with him as if I totally agree whole year. Let's take this
call. Hi, you're on the aaron I and the Ball. How's it
going today? Hey, Brian, great weekend. It was big weekend,
Just unbelievable. You guys were talking about anybody thought about nine and three,
you know, I said, six and six, that's the possibility, possibility
of seven five, that would be it. Yeah, and they've they've just
blown everybody's expect expectations out of the water. They did. And you know,
I also think they can just they can win the Bowl game and we'll
just see what happens next year because I worry only for the fact that teams
are going to come coaching and use that nil money that they may have to
take some of our players. Well we talked a little about that today,
not so much NL, but here we are tantraport, right, and they'll
get some guys too who want to come here, right. But I don't
disagree with you, Brian. It's that time of free market. You think
you think you know, I worry about McMillan only for the fact that I
know him and Theeter are best friends and everything. But you know, maybe
somebody from the Southeast Conference or whatever it comes to say, hey, oh,
here's five six million dollars. What do you think? Yeah, right
now, right, No, you're you're right if money talks. But if
there's any example that Singer helped with, it's that it's not always greener on
the other side, right, you know, the greener Yeah, yeah,
Hey, Brian, I thought it was great for the USC players to have
a crappy year. That's great, okay, Brian. Here we got to
go because we got to get to our guests. So thanks for calling calculator.
No, he I mean, do you work do you think that something
could happened? Of course, you know, uh, you know, there's
there's people out there freaking out that if if Chiff Kelly gets fired, that
Jed goes to U C l A And takes all these survete guys with him,
and stuff like that. A lot of scenarios, you know. I
mean, people are throwing his name out for the text saying m job,
which was never going to happen, right, I mean they lost their minds
over Mark Steep's a guy who's proven that he can win over a long period
of time in the SEC, and they and the Texan and In fans lost
their minds. We don't Yeah, we don't want him, so they went
and got the duke guy. But look, you're just gonna have to always.
You're gonna run that risk. You're gonna run the risk every year.
And Jet had a well we'll play the clip a little later, just talking
about transfer portal, uh in those kinds of things. But uh, you
know it's uh, it's it's it's the way things are today. So all
right, we've got Laman love It coming on. We want to get his
uh, his take on what he saw on Saturday right up in the press
box with Brian Jefferies and then in the uh in the second we're gonna rhyme
mc breer, head coach at Sabino, the twenty twenty three Class four three
A State champions. So we'll be back with those guys. So stick around
for Lamon love It, He's on five, He's so hot. Spots like
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wop. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball,
you know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Chickensauce,
no n if on. We have Lamott Love It the Wildcats Radio twelve
ninety l list for the football program. How are you, Lamont? I'm
doing good. How about you guys? How was Cloud nine and Tepee?
And could you joy it? Given your job description? Oh? I always
find a way to enjoy it, particularly that one of all the other ones.
I mean, you know, no, no one's ever accused me of
being a homer. Yeah right, but but it's not it's not a problem
with a hometown broadcast. So you know, I don't mind letting people know
that I bleed red and blue. So that's just that's just the way it
is. It's if they don't like it, you know, listen to the
you know, the ESPN broadcast or something. Okay, lemn So what just
forget what happened? What were your thoughts going in? What? What?
What? What? What kind of game did you see developing? You know,
did you think it could be close? We knew, you know,
they didn't really have a quarterback. What did you see happening? And or
did you have a kind of a score in mind? I honestly did not
have a score in mind. I had a couple of strategic things in my
mind. I felt like the strength of their team was their their defense,
and I felt like if we could block them, if you could block the
defense and give our car right some time, that I felt like they were
going to have some problems stopping us. And that's exactly what happened. So
that's that's pretty much was it from there now? I will I was a
little nervous after the first drive when they just went right down the field on
us and I was like, wait a minute. But other than that,
I felt pretty comfortable throughout the course of the game. So as they were
piling on, which I think is fair, what did you think, Because
it was like, okay, that this is going to happen and it's not
going to be pretty, it was pretty to me. I was enjoying every
second of it, and I had no you know, I definitely didn't feel
any pity or anything like that because we were all there. Well everybody wasn't
there, but I was there when the seventy to seven game, and I'll
never forget the way that, you know, they were taking pictures in the
middle of the a after the game with the cup and just it was just
the whole They just gloated for for a long time after that game. So
that one was kind of stuck in my cross. So no, I didn't
feel any any remorse or any any sympathy or anything like that. Were you
actually rooting for seventy, it wouldn't have hurt me. I wouldn't have I
wouldn't have been upset if they would across seventy. But I think the I
think the message was was there. I mean, you know, I think
it was definitely. You know, I think the message was there. But
when you're a player and you're in a game like that, you know what's
going through your head. You know, one you're probably saying, Okay,
we got to step on we got to keep our foot on the gas,
so you know, we don't let them breathe. But on the other hand,
you know, any ever, any kind of nervousness that it can get
away from you with a couple of weird plays or something like that, I'm
I'm That's the way I'm wired to always be a little bit you know,
to always never feel a little too overconfident or anything like that, because I've
been involved into many of these games where you know, something weird or something
crazy has happened at the end of the game, and just more than anything,
so this particular game, my hope process is just to stay locked in
and let's stay switch done, and to stay alert and just you know,
if that play presents itself, you know, you got to be the one
to make it if it presents yourself to you. But just just be prepared.
I can remember my senior season, I was in the game and uh
on the goal line, Chuck Levy, I believe it was Chuck. Chuck
Levy dove over the goal line and the ball popped out of his hand,
and I was like, you know, I was a fullback and so I
I just saw the ball there in the end zone and I dove on it
and I ended up getting a touchdown in that game. So it's it's just
one of those things, like I say, you's got to stay switched on
and just always be ready, right, yeah, no, no question,
How did how did how did you celebrate you with your your ex players teammates?
I was in Tempe, so I didn't really get you know, I'm
sure there were a lot of guys that were there, but I was too
busy working to be able to celebrate with the guys, you know, because
after the game and all that stuff, we're still doing our you know,
post game show. So I I really don't get a chance to, you
know, to celebrate it like that. But I was my my brother in
law, so just some people know, but not everyoney knows. My my
wife has a twin sister, and her sister went to a s U and
my wife went to U of A. And so it's it's that there's the
family, you know, little family feud right there. So we were we
were going up there. We stayed with him up there, so it was
it was pretty exciting, Uh to know I can got to go back and
talk crap to them after the game. That was always fun. That's fun.
That's the fun part about it. I could have had some fun with
that tool that that sounds like. That sounds like a lot of fun.
So okay, so let's kind of talk about, you know, what we've
seen for the season. You know, there's, first of all, there's
the whole thing of the just obviously the the Noah and a Feed and Tam
Mac connection. There's the things that Michael Wiley did. You got the you
know, the offensive line and the defensive line and just all these things that
had to come together for them to have this this nine and three season.
Does any one of those stick out more than the others in terms of why
this happened? You mean the season? Are you talking about the season for
the season? Oh? Yeah, Yeah, a lot of it sticks out.
I think for one, I felt like going into the season that they
needed to solidify one of those tackle positions because we knew what Jeorde Morgan brought
to the table. Well, we didn't know who other tackle was going to
be, and then they moved Big Jonah out there, and he's just been
equally as excellent from that position. So once the line was solidified, I
mean, I knew what we had in terms of skill on the opposite side
of the ball, so it was all about the offensive line. There was
no way of knowing that the running game would improve as much as it did.
We started seeing signs of that at the end of the year when Mike
Waller having that big breakout game. Could say issue last year, but the
running game was kind of a little up and down last year, but it's
been good all season this year, and so I felt like with the running
game coming around like that, really had some good balance on the offensive side,
So that part was solidified. I don't think anyone could have anticipated that
the defense was going to take as many steps as I mean forward as it
did. I mean, it's just if they were in a different galaxy compared
to where they were last year. And that's really been the key to our
team's success this year, is the defense just coming up that because our offense
was still pretty good last year, but the defense has just gone to another
level, and that's that's where you know, all of the successes really come
from. Yeah, no question. Uh, there's two guys. One of
my things I talked about this before you came on. I didn't think this
was going to happen. Maybe five wins, six wins, maybe six wins
potify wins. But I thought, and this is my analysis is short and
simple, Arizona was going to be much better, but everybody else is going
to be much better, making it hard for them to win against better teams.
And I was totally wrong with that because they improved tremendously more than the
other schools did. What did you What did you think? Because because they
had guys like you know, t Bac and these guys Manu, all these
guys who just kind of like who are these guys, they showed up even
better than what you thought they were. Yeah. I really think that that's
what's taking this team over the top, is that they all improved. It
wasn't just okay, we get Jacob cowing back and team AC had a pretty
good year last year. T Mac has raised his level would play, like,
exponentially. I think Jacob Manu exponentially has raised his level of play I
really feel like the whole team did. And the interesting thing is they've gotten
better as the season, you know, went along, and I really think
that that, you know, the turning point for them was really after that
USC game, I think where they finally just got tired of being close and
and and having that that that amount of frustration that gosh, we were right
there, but and we all and I think those are the types of time,
Those are the moments when you as a team can really reflect and say,
we can probably give a little bit more. And I think that's what
happened. And I think they just they all took that step forward. They
decided as a team that they were going to go forward. And so that's
that's really the turning point for them. So so the next thing and to
you know, jump ahead of it. You know they're gonna have a bowl
game in the whole thing. But now it's kind of like, Okay,
you know, Steve talked about, you know, they got better. They
they got this is gonna sound grammatically incorrect, but they got more better than
other schools, right, you know that they're better was better than than a
lot of the other teams. So now you've made this huge leap. So
now you start looking towards next year and how do you make the next big
lead when you you know it does? It? Does the ability to improve
lesson? You know, you can only get so much better when you're already
this good. You see what I'm trying to get with teams knowing that you're
going to be better, So you know, how much better? How much
better can you get when you made that big of a leap in one year?
You know, that's a that's a magic question is how how much further
can you take it as a team? And that's something that's really not I
don't know that anybody knows the answer to that. But what I do know
is that they've learned as a team how to raise their level this year.
And they're gonna have a lot of veterans coming back on this on this team.
So I really think from that standpoint, they're gonna they're gonna be able
to take that into the off season. They're going to be able to take
all that leadership, you know, to whatever new guys are are brought into
the equation. And so I mean, it's it's just exciting I think where
these guys can take it. If if you know. The the other big
thing is now we with this new new era of football and transfer portals and
all other stuff, you have to fight equally as hard to keep what you
got here already too. So if that's going to be another element, So
it's gonna come down to the you know, the whole player personnel department and
see how how well they keep things together, how well they fill in the
gaps, you know, with what new new new additions they have, and
so it's all those things. Yeah, no question, I'm not even sure
to ask you anymore. But we talked about the circumstances of events. Uh,
they were moving the kind of along they were, you know, five
hundred or whatever, and dor gets hurt and and here comes to Fida and
you're thinking, okay, uh, he's just kind of maybe manage it,
and he's gone beyond. He's probably he's kind of like the straw that stirs
the drink here. In my mind, Oh, there's no question about that.
The fact that he raised his he and with all all respect due to
Jane delaur because he really helped us, you know, change things here offensively
and helped us you know, become explosive in dynamic and offense, Noah took
it to another level and that and that was the part that I think.
I don't know if anybody could have anticipated that he would have gotten his efficiency.
It's just, you know, it's it's elite. And the fact that
he protects the ball really well, the fact that he gets through the ball
really quickly, the fact that he's very accurate, he's very poised. I
mean, it seems like he's almost unflappable out there, and so that that
has really taken the team to another love to It's all those things, you
know, the defense, the running game, being good on special teams.
It's Noah raising the level of play at the quarterback position. It's all those
things that made this team get to where they've got. But what what was
going through your head going at that Stanford game when you know, you know,
Arizona falls behind. Is a quarterback? You know, if I'm you
know, I'm born in Arizona, guy, I'm thinking the worst they're going
to lose. They're going to lose a game that you just can't lose,
right, what's going through your y at that time? Well, yeah,
it was. It was going bad badly. I could see that they were
they were. They were fighting hard. But I think that and and the
other thing was I thought, you know, Jayden was was not having his
best right and so all those things were kind of like stacking up because I
had the half. That's what I was seeing. It's like, got Lee
James got to snap out of it. You know, he's making some mistakes,
and it just was it was enough things that were kind of slowing the
offense down, and then he got hurt. And then Noah comes in.
And Noah is just like he comes in like gunning from the time he gets
in there and makes a great brow. And I've always felt really confident about
Noah because I've you know, Washington in high school. I felt like he's,
you know, he's got the goods. But yeah, it was just
great to watch him march right down the field and score and put the game
away. So this is a dumb question, just given my experience with the
basketball team and talking to the guys from way back in the day until now,
the one thing they didn't want to do was disappoint Steve Kerr. Right
he was on the team, he was he was not the Steve Kerr that
we all knew. Now, No now, but back then they didn't want
to disappoint him, so they played their butt off. They also obviously didn't
want to disappoint Loot, but as a teammate, they didn't want to disappoint
Steve. I wasn't wondering if one that could be the Fafita factor where they
played their butts off because they don't want to disappoint a guy who who's the
quarterback and is doing so well, And did you have a guy like that
and is there some credence to that? Wow? I have to think if
there was a guy when I. When I played, we had a different
kind of pressure. We had the pressure that we had the best defense probably
in the country. We had like a generationally good defense, and everyone was
looking at the offense of like, Okay, what are you guys going to
do now, because you guys are probably what's holding them back from a national
championship and all those stuff. So that's the pressure that we that we had,
so we always were constantly fighting. We didn't want to discipit. We
didn't want to disappoint the defense. It made us want to like continue to
try to raise our level because we just felt like, God, we were
the defense is good. You know, you feel like it was wasted if
you could have you know, couldn't muster some offense. So maybe not an
individual but a group, but a group. Yeah, absolutely, that was
there for us. Yeah all right, Lamont, well you know as a
wildcat. Congratulations to you. You know you you and Brian, you guys
were part of this, right you're part of them winning nine games. We'll
give you some credit there. Without you, guys, they couldn't have done
it. I will let you be the fan in the room because Brian's even
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, I'm the one that's always if you if you could
see me in the in the boots, you would laugh because I'm I'm the
one pumping my fists and jumping up and down. And every time when you
guys hear me kind of giggling, I have both my hands up in the
air. I'm probably standing up while I'm laughing. So I'm the one that's
like all over the place, and Brian's kind of like shuttled down over in
the corner. Well, thanks and much much. You've been great all season,
and you know, have fun with the bowl game. We'll be in
touch again, all right, guys, take care take care. That was
fun. It was fun, all right, ran a little over, so
let's take a quick break. We'll take your calls. Got some more stuff
from the Jet Fish press conference coming up. A lot to wrap up the
regular season and head to the Bulgain. So stick 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 the Loudolsen era. In my new book,
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Breaking down all the exes and ohs. It's Steve Rivera and Jagan Sammons.
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey,
welcome back to Whying the Ball here on Fox Sports Sports two fifty. I'm
Steve, he's Jay got sending with us today. Good to talk to to
Lamont obviously, but you know, we brought up a conversation in that conversation,
or a point in that conversation about poaching. You know, you've got
a good looking girlfriend and she loves you and you love her, but but
some some us, some other dudes is gonna come on, Hey, she's
got a cute yeah. Uh see somebody with a little more money. Yeah,
nicer are right, right right? Better looking? Yeah, but but
but but don't go. Yeah. So Jet kind of went there a little
with a question which was which was just talking about the transfer portal. How
you know now you got to start dealing with that. Yeah, and he's,
uh uh, you know, he he says he thinks that they're in
good shape, but you never know. Here's what he had to say about
which opened to day and already the starting quarterback at Kansas at Kansas States has
jumped in the portal in Mississippi State and the Missippi State I too. I
didn't see that, so you know, plus, you never know. Plus,
and we'll talk about this more during the Colorado stuff. But you think
everybody jump. You think about the three guys that left Arizona starters, left
air Zone for USC last year. Here's what he's had to say about the
transfer portal. Yeah, I mean they would have to come to me and
say that they would want to talk about that. I'm not really looking to
seek them out regarding the portal. I don't necessarily believe a lot of our
guys will want to enter in the portal. I'm sure there's always going to
be a couple that either don't envision themselves being able to become a starter here
or don't vision themselves becoming number two on the depth chart here and wanted to
go to try to do that somewhere else. There's other guys that may,
you know, seek an opportunity elsewhere due to circumstances beyond our control. But
I don't necessarily envision a lot of guys coming to me these next couple of
weeks. But I'm sure there'll always be some surprises. Yeah, Yeah,
And that's it. You know, because no matter how good things are going,
guys are you know, they're themselves right, they have their individual things
that they're thinking of. Show the funny thing along with that, we'll circle
back to the beginning. So he shows up, he's all giddy. He's
Jeff Fish giddy. Since down. Hey, how's it going, good to
see everybody. How's your weekend? I was just pretty good. It's good
to be us, right because people are recognizing us and uh so, so
he's getting a lot of attention, probably not just locally, but nationally from
players too. So what do you got going on over there with transfers and
other things. So there's a lot of give and take. If there's some
go, there's some get right. But and that's why that's the way it
gets to be. When you're doing well right, people, people you know
pay attention to you. You know, over the weekend, as coaches started
changing jobs and guys were getting fired, his name kept coming up. Uh
some in places that you thought there's no way, but others and places that
you thought maybe you know again, one of the one of the things that
I know fans are a little, uh a little concerned about is if Chip
Kelly gets let go at u c l A, all of a sudden that
job opens up. He's been, he was, he was an interim head
coach there, a coach. He talked about coaching a ball game in U
c l A. He's got a bunch of kids. The core of what's
making Arizona really good are a bunch of guys from southern California. So Arizona
fan, being Arizona fan is thinking the worst that if Chip Kelly gets let
go, that Jed takes this lift, this whole thing and moves it over
to U c l A. I don't think it's gonna happen one because I've
been told that Chip Kelly is not gonna get fired. They just don't have
the money to do it. So you know, we'll see, yeah pretty
soon if they're that's gonna happen. Let's take this call. Hire on the
air and I on the ball. Hey you guys, this is Gabe.
How are you guys doing brill You must be feeling pretty good today. Yeah,
I'm pretty Yeah, I'm doing great. I'm doing pretty I'm doing pretty
great. Can we talk about the game on Saturday? We can? Okay?
Uh so, uh so, I was watching the game on the television,
and what I was watching the game, Arizona was a better team out
and let's face it was basically dominating the scum, the scum devil. So
it was. It was a pretty it was a great win. I've personally
wanted Jetfishes to score eighty points on them, just to shut those dumbasses up.
But let's us let me. I'll get to that later. But yeah,
ninety three, hopefully we're gonna go to Hopefully we're gonna go to a
good bowl game, probably the Vegas Full Holiday Bull of the sem Antonio boll
So and too that Oregon State didn't didn't win against against Oregon. And also
if Arizona was playing against Washington, I feel that Washington, I feel that
Arizona would definitely beat Washington by two touchdowns. Well we did get that,
he certainly did. Uh, you know, talkolate we've we've been talking about
you know, okay, here, here's Arizona's done all this. Now they're
gonna have to be fighting people off for their players, for their coaches,
that kind of thing. How do you feel about all that going on right
now? So? I don't think so, I don't think any players were
trenfer out of Arizona because Arizona's ninety three. I know that Texas A and
M and the Mission State job built was filled. Nothing new on UCLA,
right, No, nothing new. Uh So I just kind of spent Jetfish.
I just kind of spent Dave Sneaky and President Robbins to give Jetfish an
extension and that I hope he includes all of the assistant coaches because we need
to build a great, beautiful wall around two so on a great wall,
a beautiful wall. Sorry, he just wanted to make fun of the forty
foth president. And also and also I just kind of feel that it was
I wasn't too worry about the Territorial Cup because I know that I know that
Arizona was a better team. And then as the Scummies are down bad and
I just kind of feel that Arizona was a better team. But you know,
the Territorial Cup is sometimes always wacky, and we're things sometimes happened,
and let and let me get to this. When when you when you when
you hear the scum Devils fans, they always say, oh, se shut
up, you guys, you guys basically help Arizona getting rid of Kevin Bumlin,
and let's take that. You help guys. You help us getting rid
of Kim Kevin Bomlin and also tech Lee, you help us winning back to
that Terrio toar of Cup last year and this year. So good job,
dumb asses. You didn't really think this won through, did you. Well?
Thanks a bunch, Thanks a bunch. I'm glad we gave you this
forum because you're great. Thank you, Gabriel, Thank you man. He's
funny. He's funny in a funny, you good way. Everyone talks about
the the the the bull. Right. Everybody's happy for the kids, yeada
YadA. But I don't think they're gonna go see it. They're not going
to San Antonio. You you'll get a decent you'll get a decent number of
fans. People like going to San Antonio, especially fans have gone there for
final, final fours or a tournament. Stuff like I like my one of
my brothers already he made his reservation a hotelization in San Antonio last week.
Oh yes, see, figures that's what's gonna be. We'll see, we'll
see, because I remember the last time ten years, I can't remember how
many years it was that they went when no, they went to crush twenty
ten and they got crushed by Globe State, right, yeah, twenty ten.
Yeah, yeah, let's take this call. Hi, you're on the
air and eye on the ball. Okay, guys, uh this is Frank.
And I noticed one thing about the difference between Cassida and uh De Laura.
And maybe I'm slow, maybe I should have noticed this before, but
it became very obvious that the sun Devils were rushing and sometimes blitzing, and
they were almost at Totida, but he stood his same position. It's trading
on throw and you got the ball off, completed most of the passes,
or if Delora or even going back to on the followment, they would start
running away trying to evade the players and sometimes make good throws, sometimes like
wild throws. So you think it's correct observation. I think you're not far
off because you know, the thing that I think the huge difference between Fefida
and DeLaura was that DeLaura was always looking for the home run and Fefida will
take I'm just gonna take what's there, and that's why you see him stay
in the pocket, because he was gonna take you know, if the play
was to throw the ball down the field, but you know the rush was
coming or whatever, he'll take the five yard or the eight yarder, whereas
de Laura would run around to still try and get that big play. So
that's my completely non coaching analysis of what I think was a big difference between
the two. And I mean, you look at it. Fafida doesn't throw
a great ball down the field, He really doesn't. You know, he
overthrows him a lot, he misses a lot. But man, when he
goes back and he steps into a throw, you know he's got you know,
he's got a guy. And that's I think the big difference. Yeah,
anyway, so yeah, I agree with you there. And of course
this is a guy that's been watching a wildcast now for sixty you know,
seventy two years, so you know, Frank such on my or yep,
so way more than me. Yeah what Sometimes I started like you as a
sports writer, but you know, I thought I should get it a legitimate
job sometimes, you know, good for you, smart man. I think
he just called you and I illegitimate will say that. But do you think
I think the Laura is going to go into a transfer portal. I wouldn't
be surprised, and I wish him well, you know, I wish him
well, but I can't see him standing on the bench for another year.
You're right, No, you're right, Frank. That's the sports writer and
you commit. There you go, Frank, all right, Frank, Hey,
thanks so much, man. I appreciate the call. One very quick
question. Why doesn't Fish bring in the third stringer, the dorman? You
know, see what he's got. There was not a need to hees,
you know. I think De Laura was first in line if somebody was gonna
come in. But don't be surprised if you see him in the bowl game.
But that does not count against red shirts and stuff like that. Okay,
guys, all right, thank you god, Frank appreciate it. Yeah,
we'll get to more. We don't have a minute left. We'll get
to more clips from Jet. We still need to talk about foot basketball.
That's another great another number two in country. If I didn't already screw that
up for your breaking news. But I think maybe maybe look up the last
time both teams were in the top twelve at the same time. I think
it's I don't know, my guess was someone at the Early the latest Early,
because they're two good programs. But okay, all right, well,
let's let's take our break. Sammy's loaded up with breaking. There's a lot
of stuff going on. I'm sure we're not going to get to all of
it, and we'll try not to get caught up in the minutia of it,
but a lot of stuff going on, not just here but everywhere else.
So stick around and we'll be right back that so she's seeing it as
it doesn't die, remember her bather starts talking Die