This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions, Katz
R two SAD and iHeart Radio Station. Yet very good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports tween fifty. I'm hoping
you can hear me. If you can't, to let me know we could
be on. We might not be on with Jay's not in today. That's
why I have that's very smart. They're very smart and elusive. Kerry Cecil.
Yeah, I've been trying to get you on the show for a while,
their little girl. Thanks for having Yes. Yes, I think I'm
gonna get smarter today. I'm hoping again we're on from all the different topics
we're gonna hit. Right, you're a you're a woman about town and the
world. Actually, how there's three hundred sixty five days a year. How
many of those do you work doing your job and don't because you're like out
and about doing doing the stuff for sports. Yeah, with with not just
people, with the people in sports. Yeah, behind the scenes in sports
more than anything. Yeah. Yeah, how when did you decide in your
life to do this. It's so crazy, you know. I started my
career with the Honorable Senator McCain and worked into the private sector and then into
sports, probably about two thousand and two, so not that you know,
in the Great year twenty years? So what was that before the twenty years?
US and entertainment mainly entertainment. Okay, so they're similar. And I
think the sports thing about when NASCAR was consolidating the broadcast rights and France family,
Bill France Junior god rested Soul such a nice fan and you were you
were in the Poiland guests and they well, the French family asked me to
help them and a man named Jim Hunter and a couple of other people at
NASCAR to deal with the broadcast partners. Really box at that point, it
would CEO was you're kind of the goal between. What do you mean,
I'm the go between? Yeah. Yeah. They had been a regional they
you know, the Frince family went around and they were a private company and
ate up all the broadcast rights for the tracks and they did a split with
the driver's teams and tracks for the revenue, and they partnered at that time
with Fox Sports and NBC and Dick Eversol was head of NBC and David Hill
was a head of Fox Sports, and I had a relationship with both nice
So yeah, like the segue, the go between, Yeah, the go
between, the fantastic and here you are with so many, so many different
things. I have so much to ask you. You've been on my show
before, two or three years ago at the other place. A lot of
things have happened since then. College, Nil, all that stuff. We'll
get to all that and more. Is it I don't know. I guess
it's job security with so many things going on. I know it's funny.
I mean mainly I work in in litigation and crisis communications, and people always
ask me, what is that? Right? What was that? You are
busy? That you are busy, you know, And if you've ever seen
the show Scandal, Yes I am, you know they sort of the Olivia
pop of sports. Or I'm a fixer. So I work for attorneys and
am brought in and protected by the privilege. So many things that I say
and I do and can wheel behind the scenes are non admissible. Oh the
stories you can tell, indeed I can that you won't but well I won't
until nobody listens to us. Go ahead, tell me, you know,
I mean, but uh no grenades, right, I mean, yeah,
well that's what your job is, just to protect, to protect the people
you're you're serving. Let me ask you because I'm interested in this, because
you know a ton of the one hundred and plus uh college football coaches?
How many do you know in in the Power five in the everywhere? Don't
listen? I mean I work for the Coaches Association. I mean I have
done so many different things for different coaches, everyone from Nick Saban, J.
Kirby and you know, you name it. I mean, there's not
probably one five percent of them. You're you haven't read Astership? How difficult?
Like reporters, right, we need to get close to the story,
but we get get too close, right we because we if there's bad,
we have to write about the bad. Yeah, you have to get close,
but not too close. Are you okay with getting close? And if
something bad happens, yeah, you're too close. My job is to know
what's bad, So I tell people at the time, I'm not in the
judgment business, I mean the fixer business. And there have been cases with
individuals where they make mistakes, right, and we all make mistakes. I
mean, we all have certain things in our personal lives, our marriages,
our kids, you know, our careers where nothing is perfect and God forbid
everything you've ever done in private, right, it becomes a headline. And
so mainly when I take on a client and I just say, listen,
there's there's not much I haven't seen or heard, and you got to tell
me what I need to know, because I got to know before you got
to know. The reports gotta and so I can prepare holding statements or you
know, look at it with audience listening tools on the internet and and and
be able to mitigate that the length of that story or control calmentches, or
be able to tell the truth. I mean, it's it gets crazy.
I mean there's things you see out there. I mean you've read all the
hidelines, I mean in owners getting brought up in stings, you know,
and you have coaches, yeah, coaches, the emails, coaches you know
on the phone doing things yeah. Right, Uh, there's a lot of
different stuff that you see in So for me, you know, unless you're
doing you're you're hurting people, you know, you're or kicking dogs, ye,
or doing something to kids like, I'm probably your person. Yeah,
it's fixable, you can can you know it? Sometimes it's not like I
had a client say to me, you know, can you fix this?
And I'm like, listen, you're done. And and so what I can't
do is stop it from being done when it's already. You know it's done.
You know it's done. But I can control the levels of descent.
And so I have to sometimes remind people that are in crises, reputational crises
or a job crises. They you know, they don't eat and they don't
sleep, and you know they're getting dragged through the mind that you fashion.
And just say to them, hey, what's the worst thing that happens?
And they say, I get fired, And I'm like, no, the
worst thing that happens is you die. And then the second worst thing is
you go to prison, which I've had those guys. And the third thing
is that you lose your reputation, and the fourth is that you lose your
job. Because one, two and three. You know, it's really hard
to rebuild an individual. But I mean, where a society that loves comebacks,
I mean Robert Downey Junior, there's lots of people and I got you
Freeze coaching it out at Auburn. You know what I mean, people are
like, you know, they're talking about you know, melt Tucker right now
and all he's done. I'm like, he's not done, right, he's
done it? Probably done in Michigan State, he's not done. Sure.
I was gonna ask, So you have all these issues. I would assume,
having been in politics yourself and you've been in politics, that it's it's
similar in a in a is it is it less less troublesome now that in
the past. And I'll give you an example, Mike Price. You know,
you got a coach in the pac twelve years at Alabama went to a
passo or whatever. How do they go with Alabama for going to a strip
club or whatever. There had to be more of the story, But that's
kind of seems minuscule compared to today. Yeah, I think we just listen.
I think that human behavior, whether it's uh, the strip clubs or
you know, recruiting violations or you know, all of those things have been
going on for years and years and years, and I don't we just didn't
see them. You know, they didn't make news, they weren't qulickable.
They weren't headlines. And so I think today the more sensational the story or
they can make the story, you know, the more people you know,
follow it on social media, the more it becomes viable to the journalists.
And so we live in the world today where it's very hard to be a
journalists and to tell both sides of the stories because the achy stuff sells.
So yeah, I don't think it's worse. I just think people are getting
caught. Yeah, okay, no, So you must love your job,
but not not because of all that stuff. But you do it for a
reason. I mean if you weren't happy, you wouldn't do it. Yeah,
I mean you said something, you said, you're serving people. I
wrote that down in my notes when you said it, and that's really it.
I'm in the service business and and I'm there to serve the client.
I'm also there to serve the media. Like you said, you know,
that could go between. Yeah, and a lot of people think the media
on our side, the client side, or the agent side, or the
lawyer side. They think the media is the enemy, when in reality,
no they're not. And a lot of the media trainings that I do it
is getting them equipped to you know, answer question, don't get faided,
don't get in right right, get in the hypotheticals and things like that.
But I always say, listen, if you're going to get your butt kicked
zero to one hundred in the newspaper, like I don't like to lose,
So I'd rather have it be forty sixty. And you tell your side of
the story, because any journalists worth their weight, he's going to tell your
story. They're gonna callant they want to tell your story. Yeah, and
so my job is to make sure number one, it's accurate. Like I
tell my clients all the time, listen, I don't I don't care that
you had you did this with this woman, or you did this with whatever.
You know, just don't lie. Because we live in a world now
with electronic forensics and your phone. There's a camera everywhere you go, and
every building and every you know, Quickie mart and strip club and you know
there's a camera everywhere. So you just don't lie. They will forgive you
for making a mistake because we are human beings. Everyone, by the grace
of God, you know, we just made mistakes, and won't forgive you
for lying. Yeah, right, Okay, luck to get to obviously you're
the longtime wife of Chuck cecil. I am. It's such a cutie.
How when how did you? Well, we'll talk. We had three minutes,
we got four with us. Tell me, uh, you met in
college? We did meet at the University of America. You were sophomore?
How how old were you? How was a freshman? Freshman and he was
a junior and we met and we dated and he was It's funny because I
had a big brother. His name is Jeff, and he was a cigarettet.
You of it as well. He's a big guy and in college he
usually really big. Your real brother brother, a real my older brother,
Jeff, And I tell the story all the time. I grew up in
a house where we played in sports, and you know, I can throw
a football better than yeah, but he he's used to beat up everyone I
dated. So like, I can remember coming out of dirtbags and I was
some guy in a jeep and my brother was coming out in dirtbags and I
was under age, and my brother like ripped him out of the jeep like
it was a soft door. We ripped him out. He was like,
that's my little sister like you're or not in And I started dating Chuck almost
like did make my brother irritated? Right, And he was so cute and
everything. Not that I didn't like. I think he was super cute,
but I was like, what are you gonna do? Now? You're gonna
get really, you're gonna you're gonna be that checks. He was a little
get black. But so did he know who he was before he My brother
and Chuck are the same class. Okay, so that he knew of him,
so he right away he's not gonna say, you know, you know,
do this, do that? Oh yeah, I'm like, go ahead
and take on checks for them. You do that. I don't care how
you're both equally angry. You know at that point you probably a good day.
Yeah yeah. And they've been together since yeah, on and off,
not the whole time. Okay, oh you oh really yeah you broke up
and came back together. Yeah. I tell people that all the time.
Oh I didn't not and I mean not to get too personal. No,
no, no, is like, hey, you know, you were the
first in the last, but there were a couple in between. Good for
you, good for you. Listen, we both had very I greup with
a single mom who raised two goods and she was extraordinary and she put us,
you know, enabled us to go to college or sally me lungs and
paid them off and she did. She was like, you didn't work.
It's hard to marry some pro athlete like And at that point I was already
interning, you know, for Senner and McCay. And she's like, you
need to do your own thing. You need to depend on you. And
I think watching jobs and in raising her kids, I just there was no
way I was doing that. Great advice. Yeah, she's Sae Sa sage
advice. Is your birthday? Oh nice? September fifteen, my mama,
she's here in town probably yeah, she just moved here. Oh nice.
Okay, okay, today, very nice, very nice. One of life.
Let's take a break. We know how to do this. It sits
with me today handling the boards. Obviously Jay is out today with personal stuff
going on. Can we get out of to commercial and then come back.
And I think Jake Fisher is going to be giving us a quick call our
usual Friday stuff, you know, Jake right, Jake crazy, Jake crazy,
Jake. Yes, we've got some questions for Jake, and he's always
got an opinion, so let's go to break and then come back. For
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in for you. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay
Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeart
Radio Whip just Surge on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to I the
Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera jagins All. This
is not here today doing some personal stuff on About in the City. Been
with me as a co host today, Carry carry cecil. Yeah, good
to have you here. It's been three years I think since you if you're
groovy music? Oh yeah, yeah, music is so groovy. It's our
music. It's so cool. It's kind of like kind of our music,
uh, you know, back of the day. Good to have you in
the studio. A lot to get to. There's so many things going on,
and we're gonna supposed to have Jake. I think he might have run
into some business because he's not calling in. He's always calling in. But
and I l U paid for play all whatever you want to call it.
When you when this started to happen a few years ago, Yeah, it's
not what people visioned. No, And what do you think? What do
you what do you think about it? But well, I mean I think
that people don't understand it. So which people, which people I think the
majority the mass people, the mass population, even the media does not understand
it unless they're really really covering it. Someone like a Ross Dellinger, who
convers it, lives in dcovers it for Yahoo. It used to be a
Sports illustrated You know, NIL is great. We everybody loves the idea of
an NIL is name, image and likeness. Some people understand what it is,
and I mean NIL laws create a pathway for student athletes to receive payments
for from third parties from their name, in their image and likeness. It's
like marketing, right. They can they can read the benefits their marketing event
will that that was the premise, right that is, that's what it is.
That's what that's what it is. And there are thirty some odd different
state laws, and so the we need federal legislation number one, a unique
law that covers all of the states that is enforceable because right now, what
you have if you're a student athlete and you can go play for this school
where you can market yourself and get sponsorships and get all kinds of stuff in
this state, or you have this school over here, maybe your dad went
to and you've always loved it, but they don't have they are don't have
ANIML laws. You're going to pick the school that you can actually go and
market yourself. So that's nil and that's not pay for play. That is
what we're go aheading. So, well, you're exactly right, no,
no, no, and actually I think you might be done. This is
where my problem is. And we've had a couple of athletes. Okay,
so you are definitely correct and all that, but the problem that I think
I have with it is that now it's not paid for play. You're paying
them to come here. With that in mind, because they're getting paid,
they're getting paid to come, they're not getting paid. They do that through.
So the other word that people confuse that with is collectives. Yes,
so a collective is different than in nil, right, and it's out there.
It's out there, so schools or big donors which we used to see.
Listen, if you ain't cheating, you ain't drying. Sorry just at
the sec Sorry I'm just getting greg commssion. That was a joke. But
in reality, you know, these collectives are a lot of different donors and
they put in money to be able to disperse to student athletes for all kinds
of things, right, and that has been misused. That has been misused.
It's paid to come, pay to stay, and pay to play.
That's exactly what it's play to stay. It's totally different. And that you
define nil perfectly. My thing was the side thing with the collective. The
collectives are different. Now, some collectives are great, like you know here
Arizona has a great collective and so it's above board. But you know,
like anything else, you're gonna see that is a way to use money to
get to induce players. And so that's the violation, right. The NSA
violation is is inducement of getting people to come for a certain amount of money.
Sure, and and you see that money funneled sometimes through these collectives that
have you know, look at look at the SMU donors back in the day.
No now, okay, like SMU joins a new conference where they agree
if they're not getting any medium money, like they're getting nothing, right,
and they don't care because the donors are like, yeah, we'll give you
the fifty million bucks a year. You know, we just find oil in
the backyard. Yeah, they have it, and so and it's awesome for
them that they have that kind of sport and kind of money. That's that's
incredible. But I think people misunderstand what is nil? What is an il
legislation? What is important? What is a collective? What does it mean
to be revenue sharing like you saw, you know, like the Kappa bill
in California, what that means? And and then how are we protecting women's
sports? Right? How do you protect Title nine and allow you know,
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of student athletes to achieve an education through
sport. Like we're just looking at football. That's really what this is about.
We're looking at football and men's basketball. It's some schools. Well,
let me keep give an example of this of a geist I can't remember.
Jim guys think you the track guy want a couple of the national titles in
the shot put? He was kind of him. And the diver of snow
one national title, she's olympian. Yeah, yeah, face of the program,
face of the University of Verse program. Very successful. They don't see
very they see very little of this money, even though the nil money money,
Yeah, even though they're top notch of the whole place. Yeah,
because and he's and Jim the guy said this is not about us. This
is about football and basketball. Well, I would disagree with that. So
the challenge with the infancy of NIL is that there's very few marketing companies that
are going after sort of what would be smaller market, even Arizona to small
market, Right, it doesn't get a ton of media exposure that you have
the ability for these kids to go get deals, right, Like I mean
what you have like gem click. You know a few people that are and
those people have been behind that the University of Arizona for decades, right,
and they're they're wonderful, like the Davis's people with deep pockets, yeah,
and just deep hearts too, I mean the davis Is. I mean,
they're they're amazing and so look what they've done for football and the clements and
there's just a lot of good people out there that sport the University of Arizona.
But it is a small pool exactly. I was just gonna say that,
as you were speaking, the pockets and the pockets eventually kind of dry
up. Well, and particularly when you start to question leadership, right,
I mean, when you have a bad coach or and I'm not just talking
about you know, anything in this market or specifically to this market. I'm
just saying, if you have a coach or an athletic director or someone like
that that is not these they don't get along with, right, they just
stopped giving. Yeah, that's just how that works. So I don't like
you. I don't like you anymore. Yeah. And I don't have to
pay you. I don't have to do it just my money. Don't tell
me how to use it. Yeah, And I think that's why culture,
which is one of the almost overused words in college athletics. I agree with
you, it's so crazy, right, but it is why it's so overused.
But then you see it come to life with someone like Jetfish, right.
I mean we come off of you know, Coach Rodriguez to coach someone
I think everyone and two sons like, oh my gosh, this is like
I mean, behind the scenes were like holy smokes. Right, and then
you have someone like coach Fish who comes in and he does everything right.
Yeah, I mean from ringing you know people like Ricky and Chuck and you
know Ronk and some good dudes, some good dudes and some good dudes and
embracing the past but yet still being innovative. Right, he knew how to
do it. He knows how to play by the rules, he knows how
to sell it. He's really good. But you know, he's a better
coach his offensive ethos. I mean, he is a better coach than culture
guy, and that sometimes gets left behind. I mean, his stats are
insane. It's it's funny because I was listen, I was thinking about this
the other day and now I just forgot about it. But when he first
arrived, we had a press corments. We all had a chance to talk
to him and I throughout this question because we didn't know who in the hect
jed Fish was right. You know, he threw out this day his coach.
They've had a lot of coaches before you. Uh, And I was
here when Toby you got here. How is it these coaches before you couldn't
recruit, couldn't do as well as they could have. And now, what
what makes us think that you're gonna do that? Well? Lowill behold,
two years into this, he's done that and more. He's done that and
more, and and he's got some kind of charm to get these guys to
come here. Yeah, and this is the thing I was talking about.
You talking about being a coach. I was yesterday driving around and I was
thinking the same thing you just said. He brought in Chuck, he brought
in Hunley, he brought in some other guys with names former coaches, and
he there's no question that Jed has an ego, because if you don't reached
this point without an ego, but it was not big enough to where I'm
gonna bring these dudes in to make me better. Does that make sense?
Because previous coaches wouldn't bring Chuck in, wouldn't bring in Huntley because it would
have affected their power. Does that make sense? Yeah? Am I accurate?
Yeah? And I mean we knew Jed from a little bit from before,
but I mean he's uh, okay, we got a call. We
got a call. Maybe this is him, and that's cool. We have
a call. You're on the air on Night of the Ball. Look y,
hey, Jake, where you been? They blew us off? It's
so hurtful. Well, okay, okay, you're good. We'll stay for
about ten minutes. Is that cool? You're good? Absolutely? Okay.
I'm Carrie cecil is with me today? What's on my favorite linebacker? How
are you? How are you? We could barely hear you. You must
be somewhere. Are you in the car? Can you hear me? Now?
A little bit better? Perfect? So we're just talking shooting the stuff
I wanted to ask carry maybe the difference in eras your husband played in the
mid eighties in college, right, and then to Jake's twenty fifteen years,
thirteen years, what, thirteens? What? What do you think the differences
are in in eras? Jake? I think you can get away with a
lot more back then. I mean, you know, Chuck used to hit
people and knock them out, and now if you even get close to somebody's
head you're getting thrown out of the game. Yeah, you could be a
lot more physical back then. I guess it's the best way to put it.
There's gotta be more. But you you I agree with that, you
know, yeah, I mean I told I mean from a from a defensive
standpoint, he's one hundred percent right. I mean, player safety has become
the number one priority. But with that, you have given up a lot
of you know, physical ball. So but we understand a lot more now
today about concussions and all kinds of stuff that we didn't know then. We're
very bless knock on wood that Chuck doesn't have any of those types of things
going on with him. But we've seen a lot of you know, guys
in the pros that he played with and coach with, and they have those
you know, residual effects sad. Yeah. Yeah. And then the folks,
the folks have gotten a lot bigger too. So those offensive lines,
you know, I mean, shoot our offensive line, what average is like
three fifteen or something like that. Yeah, I mean that's kind of the
same. And then I think the athletes, you know, obviously because we're
you know, the game just gets better all the time. I think that
the athletes have gotten a lot better too. And now you have these guys
who just basically get him in space and let them go. Yeah. I
mean I think one of the guards, I'm Mississippi State was like three eighty
or something like he was. He was massive. I mean, they're so
big. That is a massive human, right, Jake, What did you
I said this on the ra of Monday or Tuesday or whatever it was after
Saturday's game, which was very good. They played well well enough to win,
but didn't that I learned more in that Saturday game than I'd learned on
the NAU game because I kind of said this, guys are going to be
pretty good or I feel comfortable with what I see. Do you agree?
Yes, I think that they looked they were never out of the game,
Like the defense was awesome in the first half, with the exception and maybe
the first drive of the first and second half, I guess. Other than
that, I mean, they looked stout. Going against an SEC school,
you're going to give up some chunk plates. But I think they held their
own and I'm really happy that the defensive line was able to be physical against
you know, Mississippi's offensive line, which there are no slashes. So it's
gonna be interesting to see what Mississippi State does this week. You know,
it'll tell me a little bit more about you know, our team in general
as well, because they're going against Minnesota. But I thought they overall they
held up pretty well. If it wasn't for the turnovers that I mean,
we win that game. We don't even go it all the time. Let
me ask you, being a wife of a coach, travel with the team,
how you go out there? Do you get still get nervous for games?
Yeah? I want us to win. I want, you know,
what say, did you know? Come on check you know? No not
yes, no, not really, that's not that. I mean I used
to be really emotional at the games and just get you know, I just
I'm too old now see. I'm like, ok, Jake, there's still
hope for you. Then there's still hope for you as you get older,
you're mature. I don't know if it's maturity, you're just like I just
like you know, you're just how much space can this stake up in my
head? And die? He has them still with eight wins, right,
Jake, I'm gonna stick with my original prediction with how good the pack to
Alves was, It's gonna be tough. I mean, this team WI last
year in the pack probably would have won, you know, eight or nine
games. Yeah, I'm here. It's gonna be a lot suffer, Yeah,
no question, no question. So what do you get from a weekend
against you? Tap? And I'm not already given him in the win,
but I kind of already am what do you don't do that? So I'm
not play? So what do you get from a game like this after playing
very well last week? Rebound game? Basically you're going to tune up things
that you messed up in the Mississippi State game, and then you're gonna get
ready for the next week, you know. And the good thing is these
guys they've been there, done that, they've been through the hard times.
They're not going to look past them. But I think that you shouldn't,
you know, kind of show your hand per se, you know, with
some plays that you might keep in your back pocket for the next week.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've had a number of these games when you
played, and we've talked about them at nauseam because there are times when you
guys didn't show up and you guys gotta beat Yeah. Well, you know,
my senior year, you're Washington State. We should have won that game
by three touchdowns. We got upset. And I think it's because some of
the guys been looking forward to Oregon the next week, and then you saw
we bounce back. Yeah, no, I agree, And then and then
you guys come up and beat Oregon the next week. I think it was
right you played up. You know, it's all about emotions. In fact,
one of the things that were in being a reporter and doing this job
is that how how how emotions play a part at this level can you talk
about that. Yeah, it's it's it's hard to saving kill. I mean,
you know, you're so down after losing to Washington State who that should
have been a guaranteed win, and then you know, having to go and
play against the number four team in the country. So you gotta stay level
headed. That's why a lot of teams that are that are senior driven,
usually they don't get too high or too low and they take care of business.
Some of the teams that have to start young guys, unfortunately, they
end up kind of feeling the effects of that. Yeah, no, no
question, no question. I mean, because Kerry Kerry followed you a little.
How was it playing for rich Rod? How is it playing for rich
Ron? Yeah? It was tough. I mean you were running until you
wanted to throw up every day, and lines in between the white lines,
you know, he was He was a menace. He's like a mad scientist.
But as soon as you get off of the fields, he's a great
guy. He treats us well, and uh, you know, just from
a pure you know, exs and O standpoint, he was the best I've
seen. He was awesome and Miss Rita made some amazing enchiladas. Did she
Oh, yeah, absolutely, Well, yeah, I just saw them.
I saw them both. Yeah, it was so like I saw them across
It's a you know, it's a couple of conferences. There there four conferences
to get together for league meetings with all the football coaches. And and he
was there down the festival the puts it on. It's called the FISA Summit.
He was down there and I saw him and I just like my face
just lit up. But he just makes me smile. Well, I think
they won their first game. Did they played this last week as well?
Well? They beat you, they beat YouTube the first game, right,
yeah, So let me ask you because I maybe you laugh at this character.
So we saw we saw Jed handle do Laura on the sideline Saturday,
right, very calm, very composed. They have a relation, They have
a this relationship. And asked Jadis, how do you think rich Roder would
have had a do Laura after that first half? Oh god, he would
have showed him out and it would have been crazy. But the thing is
like with rich Rob when you do something right, and this is why it's
okay for him to do that. When you do something right, he's the
first one to tell you that you did a good job, and so you
kind of instill that player coach, you know connection where it's like he wants
the best for me and he wants me to succeed. So you're okay if
he gets in your face. Yeah no, if that's fair, I mean
both sides, that's fair. I'll give it to you. I mean,
you got another kid. I mean I remember Chat in the pros and when
he was a coordinator, even when he was a secondary coach and at the
Titans, and the first year he uh Pack, you know, pac Man,
he had Chris Hope and he had Robert Griffin and they're all they were
all rookies in his room and there was the first time in the NFL history
that they had seen three rookies. He coached them in the Pro Bowl.
He I mean they were that good Night year. So it was crazy.
But he said, you know, particularly, I mean, Pack was going
through a lot at that time. He's like a lot of my job is
therapy and and knowing when right, Like every kid is different and just like
people, and we're going through different things and knowing when to you know,
love him and knowing when to kick him in the bottom. That's that's exactly
right, exactly right. Jack doesn't. I mean he doesn't believe in degrading
players. He doesn't because I think he played, and when you play,
you have a you have a different style of coaching. You just you know,
like he can't do that, Like he just he doesn't. Yeah.
Well I think I think at that level too, because the players most of
the time were making more than the coach, Like, you can't take that
approach. Ye are grown, you know what I mean, they have stuff
in college, like, hey, I think it might be a little bit
different, but I mean, if that coaching style works for him, you
know, yea the highest degree than Yeah, absolutely, that's perfect. Absolutely.
Yeah, Well we gotta go, Jake, thanks for calling. Talk
to you next week by Jake. We'll see at the game. Yeah you
guys, Thank you. Jake Fisher one of our big spongers, one of
the good dudes. We're gonna run late, so we're gonna have a little
time on the other side, but we'll come back. If you're an Arizona
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Learn more at United Way Tucson dot org. Steve Rivera and Jacob Solids they
have there I on the board on Tucson sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty Hey
Welcome back to all on the Balldale Fox Sports Sports team coffee. Our Steve
Rivera Jay is out today, so I have Karry Sesil with me today.
It's good, thanks for being with my measure. Lots of topics we Jake
called in at this time. You're talking about Jed and some of the stats
and some of the great things that I think he's doing. I do,
go ahead and tell me, and I do think I told you that story
about about the other coaches and and Jed is doing exactly what but I didn't
think possible. So he's doing it very well. And you've seen it.
I've seen it. I mean, I like him. It's so funny.
So when he got hired, right, we had analytic listening tools, which
we it's like a campaign. What the hell is that? Okay, I
know, right, So in crisis communications or any type of thing, and
we get hired by you know, owners, NFL owners, athletic directors,
institution presidents, board of trustees to run reports that say, you know,
everything that you can find about that individual, positive negative, what people are
saying if they like him, who's winning? Like if you give me three
coaches names that are up for job, I can tell you who's winning the
court of public opinion, right, and then what that looks like. And
then reporters like you or whoever you know, you're writing yes or no or
why? Okay, So we had analytic tools on jet and and it was
catastrophically bad when they hired it, and everyone was like everyone thought they were
gonna, oh, we're gonna hire another dictomy. Right. Everyone was like,
oh, we're gonna hire the guy from San Jose State or another Who
is this guy? I mean everyone was like, you know, not not
me, but I'm saying like people, hundreds of thousands and people. I
mean, it was terrible. So you want those word clouds, and it
was it's exactly like running a campaign for a politician, right, It's the
same type of campaigning, and you learn how to lean in and out of
messaging and even colors, and they use on logos to sway the court of
public opinion. Anyway, Jez was terrible, right, but by then he's
already been hired. He's hired, and I'm just like, holy smokes is
bad. And then cut too. He's no matter what anybody says, because
listen, the guy is like steady Freddie. He is not. I mean,
he's he's one of the most passionate individuals that I've ever met. But
he's he's really really smart. Yeah, right, he's super he knows what
he's doing right, and so you know, I think he's talked about it
like it was about rebuilding the culture, which he needed. We need fans
in the seat every day. And yeah, and it was down trodden and
no area. I mean I had I mean, sweet Sally uh uh Drachman
was my neighbor. She's like nine years old. She's amazing, right,
and she's like, Oh, Arizona Football, I'm so glad Chuck is back,
you know. But it was just I mean, here's a lifelong chant,
right, it's just really sad. And Jed knew and so he did
everything right. I think we touched on that right cultural wise, but listen,
you you can't win the game, you can't win the race unless you
got the ponies. And so that's about, you know, recruiting, and
and I think he went to do that. And I think when you know,
he inherited a program with four consecutive eleventh place finishes in the PAC twelve
recruiting, I mean, that's a lot of years, right, and you're
not going to get anywhere with that. No, And in the first four
recruiting cycle he produces the best recruiting class in the school's history according to two
four seven. You know that's so. And then you get to early July,
I think twenty twenty three, and Arizona signs its first five star prospect,
right and committed the program. And then again, you know it's shaping
up to be the school's best history. So for the first time in u
of a history, he's getting the ponies, And so Arizona has the best
offensive and defensive player in the state of Arizona coming to you of a I
mean never never before, right, And he's usually everyone talks about the portal.
Yeah, he's used the portal, but he's this is him. Yeah,
No, I say, however you use it? This is this happening.
And I'm not an alibi guy. He's you should be his pr guy.
No, I'm not, but I mean I listen, I think a
lot of people get caught that he's like mister culture guy, which he is,
right, But if you look at the stats and who he came from,
like Belichick, right, I mean or McVeigh or when he was a
coordinator or when he was an interim head. Go, right, he really
has some jobs. And I mean since taking over, like from the year
before, since he's been here. If you just you look at some of
some of the offensive stats, I mean, it's an eighty two percent increase
in the points per game, Yeah, per game. So let me ask
you, so you saw this analytics right after he was hired. Yeah,
do you go back and find new analytics? Like now? Yeah, I
haven't, you know, I haven't run it lately. I ran it like
I'll run it if I see a scandal come up or see something in the
news and I think, and I'll jump on to see it, you know,
because if jump on to see if people are talking about it, right,
if I'm gonna, you know, have to get something ready. I
mean not for him, but in general. And so I think it's important
to know what people are saying and what they think. But I you know,
I can't imagine that that market. It's gotta be it's gotta be through
positive. Yeah, it's gotta be through the positive. Even with you know,
Mississippi State a loss. Oh yeah, that's that's what people were still
like a nose. Holy smokes. You went in to startville. You you
you had a bunch of turnovers in the first write four and five whatever was,
and and they never gave up. Yeah, that's what impressed me.
I mean, they were still in the game. You you mentioned ponies,
and I don't know if you're a pony person, but it's a horse that
got in a bad lane and can get through because of difficulty. Next race,
Yeah, it gets through. It's gonna win easily. We gotta go,
we gotta break, have a hard stop and then we have a breaking
news and then we'll come back, all righty