Streaming Live Money iHeartRadio. While this is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera
and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Okay, welcome, welcome,
Welcome back, Hid the Ball. Steve has stepped out of the out of
the studio forbid. He's he's got an assignment that he's on, so he's
gonna be out. He might he might be back shortly. Actually just walked
back in the room to get his phone. Okay, bye, Steve,
but welcome back. I've got Kevin here, our very capable intern, and
he's about to take us through breaking news. This is I on the Ball
breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Yeah, j we are gonna go
through a little bit of breaking news today, emphasis on the little bit.
Not not too much breaking news coming through between the last twenty four hours or
so. But we do have a ton of news about the Arizona football coaching
staff, as the department has rolled out a bunch of new hires over the
last you know, a day or so. I kind of started with Colin
Carroll. Yesterday I got announced as the Director of Football Strength and Conditioning Duayna
Kena. Obviously, we mentioned that earlier in passing that he is the new
defensive coordinator right for the UFA football team. Did what did you think about
that? Hired Jay Well? I love Dwayne A. Kena known Duayne a
Quina for thirty years, thirty some years. I was covering the team when
he was here as a defensive coach. Loved the guy. You know,
he's been given a lot of credit for what the defense did this last year.
You know, he was an on he got hired as an analyst,
so he wasn't gonna be an on field coach. But due to some issues
that Rickey Huntley has had with some physical stuff, uh Ricky had to step
aside and he was sort of a doing some other tasks with the with the
program, and Dwayne became an on on field coach. Look, I had
a number of people say, make no mistake that what the Arizona defense is
doing has a lot to do with the fact that they've got dwayn Naquina on
the field. Dwayne's been around a while, He's an older guy, passionate
about Arizona. He's loved it in Tucson. You know is is you know,
as the defensive coordinator, there's a whole lot to that. You know,
you got you know, you got to lead the recruiting, you run
the defense. He's been a defensive coordinator, he coached at Texas, he
coached at Stanford. Certainly qualified, we'll see, you know, qualified and
desired and yeah, and you know, you know, the fans love it.
He's known Brent Brandon for a long time. Just you know, these
guys are both part of the Tony pipeline. So, you know, I
think it's a good move. Arizona's certainly from a from the standpoint of somebody
in there that the fans believe we'll be able to do a great job.
Yeah, and from what I don't know from what I heard on social media
during the you know, uh turnover time, but between you know, figuring
out what players are entering the transfer portal and what players were not going to
enter the transfer portal, it seemed like that was also important for the players
to have Duyna Keena back in some sort of capacity. Right. He's certainly
a guy that will help hold again the defense, at least the defensive roster
together. A lot of the you know, you're starting to see guys coming
back, you know, the other direction, we're we're talking having fun with
this media. He posted his u of a jersey for sale on fanatics.
Fanatics, what did that mean? You know, certainly Arizona fans who are
looking for the slightest sign of good things. Does it mean by up,
we can wear watching him on the field next year? Right? Exactly,
So we'll see. But uh, you know that that's certainly having a guy
like Dwayne who knows the ropes here in Tucson, knows the ropes at the
University of Arizona, just knows the ropes as the defensive coordinator, and that's
probably a good choice. Yeah. And then we do have Alonso Carter coming
over from You have a bunch of guys coming ye, a bunch of guys
Brennan's last staff. But Alonso Carter, the running backs coach, formerly and
assistant head coach. He's gotten the title of assistant head coach. Josh Oglesby,
uh, the offensive line coach. Both of those guys are are are
San Jose State guys. Oglesby will be the run game coordinator, Matt Adkins
tight end coach, the pass game coordinator, another another San Jose State guy.
And then they officially announced you have a legend. Bobby Wade as the
wide receivers coach. I think that's a good high It's a really good higher
one. You know, the guy's got street cred, right, you know
he's done he's done it. He's done it here at Arizona. He's been
making his way up the ranks as a coach, most recently up at a
s U. We'll have to excuse thats Woll. We're gonna give him a
hall passed, but we're also gonna make fun of him. First time we
get him on the show. I had fun with uh. I had fun
with uh uh Antonio Pierce when we had him on the show. Uh I
said, didn't didn't it like sting a little bit the first time you put
on an a s U golf shirts coaching shirt or something like that. It
had burned just a little bit, didn't itself. It's a little sizzle.
Yeah, Well, we'll ask uh, We'll ask uh uh Bobby Wade the
same thing. And then we also had Joe Samalo bringing as the defensive line
coach line coach, and I thought this was an interesting hire. They have
shifted the title of brett Ars at the U from being a defensive analyst.
Now the coach of the Stars. He's a Stars coach. I don't know
what what that means. It does give him an on field role. I
believe Stars is obviously some sort of an acronym. So we'll figure out what.
Probably special teams and returners maybe maybe yeah, special teams and return specialists.
Yeah. But well, but except for the fact that that I thought
one of these guys was the one of the guys they hired was gonna also
the linebackers coach. Uh oh, when we haven't mentioned right, Oh,
they haven't announced, and they haven't announced, uh Danny Gonzalez that he was
coming in as a def as a linebackers coach and a and the special teams
coach. But some some staff members as well, uh Lyle Moyavo moy mo
baio, offensive analyst Ben Thanes. Who theenis? I think how you pronounced
it? Who? Brent Brandon mentioned him in his press conference. Who's gonna
be basically the chief of staff running the show? James Perez, Assistant director
of Football Strength and Conditioning. So there's these things are these things are coming
up every few minutes, so there may be more may before we before we
sign off the show. Uh, but Brendan staff is finally starting to shake.
The staff is filling out, you know, got some recruiting to do
or the next the spring signing date is coming up into what about a little
over a week, and still some re recruiting to do, right, and
there's some re recruiting to do. You got to get some of these guys
back. We you know, we've seen some guys coming back. Key and
Burnett and the other tight end both both coming back. So you know,
a lot, a lot has to happen. So, you know, good
for Brent Brandan to get some help down here. But he did say,
you know, he did say it. U was on Friday. He said
the main thing that he was trying focusing on was trying to keep players here.
And then he said that he said, I'll get my staff and that
that those guys are all uh, you know, lining up now. So
he's got a bit of got some work to do, though, got some
work to do, yeah, And it does seem like he's attacked it in
the correct way, you know, especially because if you don't have the players,
you don't really have a team right, uh, to to go compete
in the next conference. So, but we do have some more breaking news.
Kind of a shocker here, honestly, Texas State, uh, well,
prospective Texas State quarterback Jane DeLaura, formerly here of Arizona, is no
longer going to enroll at Texas State. He left, He's left the pro
he's left the school. Uh that the university did make an announcement saying that
he is no longer a student at the university. Not really sure why.
Uh, There's been some insinuation on social media, as there always is,
that it has something to do with the uh, the situation he had has
going on in Hawaii with the uh sexual assault settlement that he apparently he just
settled this. If Texas State didn't already know about this, then that's on
them. If so, there's no no way of knowing what's happened there.
But he apparently has left Texas State University and will not be the quarterback there
this coming season, which, like you said, surprising us and like really,
this just came over a little bit ago. So and in addition to
that, not only did it unfold quickly him leaving, it unfolded kind of
rapidly him going there. Yeah, it felt like he entered the portal and
then visited Texas State. So there was a tweet that that he visited,
and then all of a sudden it was he was the guy, and it
you know, it kind of unrolled just as fast as it rolled. And
then as as as as is always the case, there was a trickle down
effect. The quarterback that they had, TJ. Finley, who was their
starting quarterback last year, got him to their first Bowl win, got him
to the most wins in program history. When Jaden announced that he was coming
to Texas State, TJ. Finley transferred to Western Kentucky. So now Texas
State doesn't have either quarterback quarterbacks, right, So now the kind of it's
kind of messed up, it is. It seems like it's a very strange
situation that just unfolded that that's just the way this thing is. Now,
it's just the way this thing is that you know, somebody like that.
There's always dominoes falling when when when stuff like this happens, but just this
one, especially a long line dominant, incredibly crazy thing. So I don't
know, Anyways, we did want to talk about a minute about we did
you know, we talked about with with Michael Lev John Wilner put out a
column if you don't if you don't follow John Wilner, he has the Pac
twelve hotline as a as a Michael Lev said, it's probably gonna become the
Wilner hot line. John's a former reporter in Tucson. I we jokingly,
my wife and I jokingly call him when you know, our oldest son,
because he was very young when he got here. He took over covering the
basketball team after shortly after I left. He spent a lot of time here,
went to La He's been up in the Bay Area for a number of
years. Works out of San Jose. We worked for the Santaday American News,
and he's really carved a niche for himself as the sort of the authority
on all things Packed twelve, particularly from the business standpoint. We have him
on the show all the time. He just remains a really close friend.
So John has a hotline that he puts out a column. If you don't
subscribe to it, you should. Now the runs syndicated in the Star.
And so today John had a call him about six candidates that actually this came
out yesterday. Six candidates that Arizona should look for in As for the athletic
director job. At the top of the list, he mentioned Mark Harlan,
who's he calls him the obvious choice. The question is, is Mark Carlan
is financially in the picture for Arizona. You know Mark is again a close
friend of mine and Steve's. He's the guy who was here for a lot
of years, was a graduate assist under Dick Tomy. He was here at
the same time as Brent Brannan, so we know he knows Brent Brennan and
they work together also at Samsey State. So Mark would be a great choice.
The question is is he in Arizona's ballpark to get him? Others that
he mentioned, one that seems to be probably will draw the most intrigue would
be Stephanie Rempi. She's currently the athletic director at NAU. She was the
chief operating officer at LSU Big Time, held the same post at Texas A
and M Big Time. So she's been a Power five administrator for a long
time and she went to the U of A. She played volleyball here,
so a little bit of a connection there. She's in Reno right now,
not far from here. Somebody who with that chief operating officer type of experience
might be the type of person who could help dig air Zona out of this.
Yeah, I was gonna bring up that those The name that that stuck
out to me the most was Rempy, but also Mark Jackson. Right,
just from a pure sports standpoint, I think he has awesome experience in terms
of UH and honestly impressive experience in terms of handling high profile football and basketball
programs, And I think that's something that if any ady that comes here is
gonna have to deal with now, especially that fans are expecting more of the
football program going forward. He's He's currently the athletic director at Villanova, spent
some time at USC, so he's got some experience with this part of the
country. Lisa compos another another one who's although Wilner says she has no direct
ties to Arizona, she to the U of A. She was the a
d at Northern Arizona for for some years. She's not University of Texas San
Antonio, and hired the coach there who's turned that program into one of the
top group of five programs. So another other's Boise States Jeremy Dicky was on
his list Eddie Nunez at New Mexico. But all the all the all the
people that Wilner mentioned are our sitting athletic directors. Now we meant we you
know, there's a question of is uh is at the u of A.
Erica Barnes, you know, who's basically the number two person there? Uh
you know, what what's her? What are her chances of this job?
You know, Erica's you know, somebody that we all like. She's probably
done a pretty good job over there. Uh knows that knows the landscape.
I'm sure she'll have an opportunity at the job. Do you think at all
that the financial well, I'm sure it will. But how much do you
think the financial state of the university plays into the candidates that they're going to
pursue for this day? It's hard to know because because well, it's got
to be somebod who's gonna help him dig him out and and and you know,
does Erica you know, is there anything at her feet over you know,
over what's going on over there financially with Arizona as well. And she's
been here a long time, so there's you know, there's some things in
there that uh, you know Erica's uh have happened on her watch, and
so you know, it's hard to know, but certainly somebody you know again
went to the u of AS has been a career administrator in the athletic department.
So I'm certain Eric will get a shot at this job. All right,
let's go and take our break. We're to come back. We're going
to have John Perlman of FC two soon come in and talk about all the
things going on with SC two soon as they gear up for a whole bunch
of stuff. So John Perlman when we come back. The Window Depot is
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all the exes and oh it's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salvez. This is I
on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty Welcome back on the ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm jacon Zalez. Your host Steve is out on
some other business, possibly for the rest of the show. So it's Kevin
and I right here and we're waiting to hear from John Pearlman from FC Tucson
to talk about their Desert Friendlies match coming up this this Saturday out at the
Keno Sports Complex. It's going to be c F Montreal versus Minnesota United,
a couple of MLS teams who come here and there's a match like this,
a friendly every year, and this is the next iteration of this. So
we wanted to talk to John about this and what's going to be going on
with the with the at this event. So well, hopefully he'll uh give
us a call here in just a few minutes. But in the meantime,
we'll just keep going with where we're going. I'm sitting here trying to text
John to get to give him us a call. Uh it bear with me.
But you know, we were talking about the coaching staff. You know
that that uh Brent Brandon is putting together. Uh you know, as as
it always happens, Uh, there's a you know, a trickle down,
right, you know. I know Arizona fans were complaining about you know,
you know Washington and and Jed Fish taking all all the coaches. You know,
well, Arizona's doing the same thing. They're getting the San Jose State
coaches. I know they're gonna miss them at San Jose State. But you
know these guys are you know Brent Brannon. Uh, if we feel good
about Brent Brandon, we should feel good about the staff that he's bringing in.
That's exactly my thought earlier, Jay, As I was looking over the
signings for the coaches today, I always thinking, wow, it must be
really unfortunate for loyal San Jose State fans to watch all their coaches go to
a new school, a bigger school, and and and chase their their new
goals. And I was thinking, wow, this is just like you said
earlier, the dominoes of college football falling as they do in the modern era
and the era, and you know, it's just the way it is.
And there's still a lot of a lot of churn going on. You know,
we just talked about, you know, this thing that happened in Texas
State. You know, you're sitting there in Texas State. You're coming off
the best season you've ever had. That, Yeah, you transfer in this,
or you think you've transferred in this. This quarterback who was at a
at a power five school, had been you know, done pretty well,
did pretty well here in Arizona, and did well with Washington State. He
comes there. Your quarterback that you had who did all these great things for
you leaves, and then this and this guy, and it's just this.
It's constant chaos of stuff that goes on. Uh, you know, whenever
the whenever this stuff happens. You know, let's look at let's look at
Duayna Quina, right. Duyne Quina had decided to go over to Texas with
Johnny Nansen. Johnny Nansen. Uh oh, let's see if this is uh
this is John? Hi? Is this John? Hey? John? How
you doing? I'm sorry my interview went with someone else went ah okay wow,
so so so we're like kind of never mind, I'll just leave it.
I'll just leave that. You're the guy you bought me for, the
old swim coach that was Steve, not me. Yeah, you're gonna come
at me. Yeah, you're gonna come at me with a better, better,
am when you're the one that's screwed me yesterday. Okay, I'll stop.
I'm sorry, don't sweati. We appreciate you still getting with us.
So the Desert Friendly begins this weekend. Tell us a little bit about,
uh, what's going to be going on at the stadium. Yeah, it's
it's gonna be incredible. So we've got absolute games coming up for us.
We've got Montreal playing this so United six pm, Keenan North Stadium. Two
MLS teams, two coaches making their debut. It's gonna be really a fantastic
night and obviously everyone's got to come out as soon as you have the kicks
the ducks butt exactly exactly. So this is some of you guys been doing
for for a while. It really generates some interest to you know. I
mean this is sort of, you know, this is, as we say
things, sort of a spring training game for these guys. I mean,
it's it's the guys. It's a major league uh MLS, the MLS teams
and big time you know, Yeah, this is this is this is big
for our community. We have a lot of teams coming in to train here,
but the MS teams obviously are at the top of the level of the
stock up heramide here in the country. And you know, this team is
filled with former Premiership stars, players that have significant national team experience in the
number of countries and obviously the BB able to be up this close to see
the game from the speed, the athleticism and the quality of play for the
young players here and the and the fans from all over the country. We
have a lot of snowbirds out here from Minnesota and it's just played and Tison's
so popular with Canadians for visiting for the Gem show. So again it's a
wait for people to mind some of the things they love we're visiting here.
And then the local people hear all the soccer players who always you know,
want to see who they're aspiring to be right up in person, close up
a mint, right and this is where the you know, things start to
start to build up with with the World Cup coming to our part of the
our part of the world in a couple of years, you know, you
start generating exciting it's never too early to do that. And then this is
kind of where things start to start top percolate towards that right absolutely, and
you know what's what's really great. Is this is such a great summer of
soccer. So we have our event in January and February, and in March
we're running our open tryouts. In April we're rounding out the team. And
in the summer, obviously, this is an amazing summer. You of Copa
America coming to the United States for the first time. You have the Paris
Olympics, so there's going to be the women and men trying to win golds
at the Olympics in soccer. So it's just such an exciting time for soccer.
And we start to build up right here in January with a big match
between Montreal Minnesota, and it goes all the way through the summer and we're
going to get to see our FC Twuston teams, you know, obviously compete
for national prominence again. So tell us a little bit about what's been going
on in the off season for you and and FC Tucson. You know,
how are you fitting into the owner position and the things that you're doing with
the team, and how are you kind of shaping this sort of molding into
what you want it to be. Yeah, it's it's been great. It's
like it's again for me making sure that you know we're planning for planning this
preseason. We have so many teams coming to train. It's always a lot
of sales work in terms of getting and recruiting the teams, and my chief
operating Officer, Kyle Cornell's continue to do a tremendous job and assisting me with
that. But for me, you know, again, it's making sure that
we we're already been working on the teams and the structure and improving our Youth
Academy team all the way through. So it's always constant planning. Obviously,
increasing our partnerships. We have so many great community partners and sponsors that we
work with and seeing how we can you more in the community. Obviously we
do a lot with ARIS on a complete help. We work with t USB
and a bunch of the school districts and making sure that we're helping them with
their outreach initiatives. And most importantly, we have to be a solid member
of the community year round and contributing to organizations and to charities and to different
pieces that are part of the fabric that makes two sound amazing. So there's
always something, there's always somebody to help, there's always a way for us
to be impactful in kids' lives and lives with all the people in Tucson.
And so we're so pleased that we have so many great events here and so
many great organizations. It's doo good work here. We try to figure out
where we can fit in and where we can help them get their messaging out.
So we're growing all parts of our digital platforms and all of our more
organization here is going to be streamlined and better each year, and obviously with
the ultimate goal of returning to pro soccer when we can figure out the best
most commercially viable venue for us to play in. So, you know,
it might surprise some people that you guys started here back in you know,
twenty eleven, you've been here over a decade. You know, you feel
like this is that that FC two Son is really well embedded, you know,
into the community. People know about you, they're you know, they're
aware, they come out to the games, they see the things that you
guys are doing, they come out to the friendlies. Uh. I mean,
you feel like that you guys are very well recognized as being a big
part of what we have going on here in sports. I think I think
I think we have a lot of a lot of good recognition, but I
think you can always be better. I think you never know who isn't getting
your message and who's doing this. You have to find different ways outreach.
I mean, you know, I've always tried to come and spend time speaking
in different groups. I mean I've spoken to a number of groups that I
had never spoken to here that kind of had an idea who were but didn't
really understand our ethos and what we were about. Right. So it reminds
me as an owner and a leader that people might know a little bit about
you, but you also have to remind them why it's some and that they
support you and that you're worth supporting. So we're always going to do that
work. We're always going to have to reach out and listen. There's so
many it's not sets on these four to two song but it's for PEM accounts
for Southern Arizona, So whether it's us being on Serra Vista or Sara Rita
or No Gallus and make sure those people know that they're part of our fabric
and they're welcome in our games, and they're they're wanted. So we're always
trying to do different things and through different memes. Obviously, it's great to
be on your show, but I got to make sure I'm on podcasts and
I'm on you know, I'm not ready to make TikTok yat jay although to
see that, but understand that new platforms in the way young people are receiving
information. We have to be part of that and we have to solve that
puzzle every every day, every week and every year to be better. So
it's a great question you're asking, and the answer is, We're always going
to be a work in progress and we always think we can do better.
But I hope when people think about it and think of this event, they're
always they're creating memories with their parents or their children or with their friends,
right, And that's what soccer's about. It's the world's game. It's about
experiencing something together and caring about something and rooting for somebody and sharing the join
relation that a great goal can be, or a great save or just just
a cold beverage with somebody you love. So this last year is as an
owner, Now, is your approach changed at all? You know? Are
you staying up later getting up earlier? Is there is there a lot more
to it for you personally in terms of the work that you do with the
team. Now, No, I think it's it's it's really what we've done
is building smartly, building the team around me and giving them the tools they
need to be successful. I think micro management is not the future of any
organization. I think it's appreciated or enjoyed. I get to find people that
I trust to share my vision and let them go and do the things they
need to do. And for me it's always anybody who's a coach who's used
to controlling all the access and those and it's a good quality to have.
But also realizing that soccer in the best way. You do the training,
do the best game, but the players play the game. It's not like
basketball or football where you can time out or script to play. So managing
a stock organization, I should be taking a lot of the the cues I've
had as a as a soccer manager as I've gotten better as I get older,
which is do all the work I can, but when the event happens
or when they need to go and shine on their own, allow them to
do that, allow them to feel confident, making the mistakes and making their
own decisions. And there's a lot of smart people we have working with us
now not going to make sure I help them spread their wings. Awesome,
awesome, awesome. So no, that's a I mean, certainly, that's
you know that if anybody who's been in any sort of sports administration or in
any administration, you know that you got to have, you know, people
around you who you know, as you say, you can trust to do
the work and are capable of doing the work. And you know, especially
in the you know, in the situation that you guys are in with such
a you know, competition for the you know, for the entertainment, attention
and dollar in this in this community. And you know, look, we're
football and basketball centric, you know, with with the U of A here,
but there's there's plenty of other stuff going on and you guys have to
find a place in there and and to be able to do all that well.
It was well said to me by one of our new guys, and
he said it great. Listen, there's a million people in Tucson. All
we need are five thousands of peoples to come out in the summer into our
games, and we're a massive success so I know there's more than enough soccer
fans to do that. I know and and to me, I love it.
Support all the u of a sports. I support Ali and the football
team. We support the Noble Home loans work formerly and now obviously the barstool
bowl. These things are good. The Kisadors and the work they do and
having us here, all these things can be complementary to each other. The
Sugar Skulls, the fantastic job Bob Hoffin does, the road Runners right,
and the Rise and Todd raises all shifts so we can co brand, we
can come. We don't know, all of our games crossover and it's fund
of those key moments where we can help each other. Because us helping each
other, it's not that we have to take away from each other. Each
sport has its own crew. And then as overall family entertainment, people are
gonna choose to go to each of us at different times, and we need
to make sure that we we make sure we maximize that. Well said,
well said. So, last couple of minutes we have here, tell us
a little bit about you know, what's what's the schedule now for you as
you guys get ready for your next season. Yeah, for us, it's
uh season. Tickets are obviously on sale. We just got our we just
got our schedule hashed out, and we'll be able to make it public probably
in about a couple of weeks. On the men's side. The women's side,
I'm going off to Oklahoma to get that sort it out in a day
and we're gonna be able to come back with another great schedule for the people
on the women's side. And obviously we'll be announcing different events for going out
in the community with our partners, whether it's watch parties or you know,
for for a lot of soccer events as we built into the season in our
open tryouts, So we'll be talking a lot more hopefully moving forward with a
lot to announce. And most important thing that people can do is enjoy themselves
on Saturday night, six pm Keeno North Stadium CF Montreal VERSUS Minnesota United and
enjoy some pro soccer. Yeah, tickets starting at sixteen bucks. Is that
what I see? That's right, and we have you can call in and
get your U of a student discount as well. We've got a group discounts,
so you can call five two oh six hundred and three Zone ninety five.
If the online rate isn't good enough for you, call us up,
tell us what you got. We'll sort you out. All right. Saturday,
six o'clock at the Keno Sports Complex of Montreal taking on Minnesota United should
be fun. Thanks so much for the time. And the other thing is,
as I was joking, Frank Bush is an absolute leuger. We should
bump me for the single time that guy has not come enjoyed watching every swimmer
we've had when big metals man. Someday, if I can be as great
as him, this will be a huge accomplishment. Well, John, we
appreciate you, and I always appreciate getting you on your lot a lot of
stuff. And again, as I say, you're good for the community.
So we were glad to have appreciate you. Thanks, take care, all
right, Thanks, thanks a bunch, John Proman, owner of FC Tucson,
a big gamils. You know, a friendly coming up on Saturday night
out of the same If you're you're a soccer fan, uh, you know
this is your chance to go out and see the big boy. So it's
always fun to have pro sports and Tucson exactly exactly. So all right,
so we're gonna take our last break. We'll come back. Take your calls
five two zero four, one six seventy four. Forty ton of stuffing going
on. Man lots to talk about, So give us a call. So,
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 Loudelsen era. In
my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor of love through
the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight
to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and
inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach.
Lessons from Newton is an insight to how he built the program into a
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today at a teamsecurity dot Net. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This
is I on the Book with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
to fifty. Welcome back time the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Ja Gonzalez. Steve is out on some other business that he's working on,
so it's just me and Kevin the rest of the hour. We got
a call right out of the break, so let's take this call. Hi,
You're on the air and I on the Ball. Hey, hey,
guys, Hey, this morning I was listening to one of the sports talk
shows and they had Petros on and they asked him, you know, most
of it thought about football, but they had to ask him and they said,
do you have a favorite coach and it was Brennan. Wow. Yeah,
yeah, I did see something from Petros when it when the hire happened,
that he was big on it. Yeah. Well I was on the
National show this morning. It was pretty cool. Yeah. Now you know,
it's widely seen as a good hire. Yeah. One of the things
is fucking sucking me though, and it's on social media. Is there's some
guys doing in podcasts with the parents players, right, that's that's not good.
That'll go south. It can and uh, you know, look,
you know guys have their have you know, figure out what they're doing.
You know, that's that's way more of a fan podcast and than what we
do. You know what our show is. I mean, I'm a fan
and that we make no bones about it. Steve's the impartial reporter, and
we feed off of each other off that stuff. But uh, you know,
to me, you gotta be a little careful. Not because you're worried
about what fans are gonna say. It's like, I I what parents are
gonna say. It's just that their parents and you know, I guess if
they didn't want to be on the show, they wouldn't be on the show.
So it's I, you know, I don't have any issues with it.
But you know, we've had parents of players, but more from the
standpoint of For instance, we had you know, Roy Lopez, who had
played at New Mexico State came here to play at Arizona. Suddenly he was
somebody who was going to be drafted, and we got his dad on the
show, and you know, give give give his dad a chance to talk
about how proud you know, he is of him. We had Chester Burnett
key on. Burnette's dad was on the show. So we've done that from
time to time, but we haven't made that like a thing to do like
for a stretch of time. So you know, you have to you have
to be careful, yeah, with the parents. So that's a no go.
I don't think The other thing is is I I remember the days of
the players being on TV. Remember when Trell Turner had his little bit and
he'd have Victor Gates on there after practice every once in a while. Yeah,
yeah, we're not allowed to do that anymore. Yeah, I know,
but that was so it was pretty cool back in the day. Remember
the one time they had the uh, the wildcat come out to practice.
Oh and uh, an actual one or what? Yeah it was the actual
one. It was from the I guess that International museum. Oh yeah,
from the snor Dees Museum. Yeah. Yeah, and it scared the crap
out of them, is what I recall. Yeah, I remember that.
Yeah, Yeah, that was It was really fun. And I think it's
going to get back that way pretty quick. Well, we would love to,
you know, because Steve and I, you know, we're we're old
school, right, We were doing this in the you know, in the
eighties and nineties, and you know, the access that we had. We've
talked about a million times to be able to, you know, get a
player walking off the field after practice and go have a one on one conversation
with them, and and what that allowed to happen was fans like you got
to know these guys, got to know these players with male, female,
whatever. You got to know the athletes. And we have so little of
that now, and it's it's sort of a you know, not yes,
you see them out on social media and they're doing whatever they're doing. But
but you know, for me as a reporter, to be able to tell
a story of a player or a coach or whatever it is, yeah,
I missed those days. Yeah, well I appreciate the show. Guys,
all right, well thanks about appreciate your calling. Yeah, no, we
you know, Steve and I have talked about that a whole bunch, you
know. I mean, I mean, the reason one of the reasons Arizona
basketball became Arizona basketball is because we had the ability to to bring those players
and their personalities to the fans. We were able to do that. I
spent you know, I went and spent a full day with Steve Kerr his
senior year. They were going into the his senior season. He was coming
off that injury uh and uh in in the preseason, so was before the
before the first game. I went and met Steve at Saturday morning practice.
They finished like a if I call about noon, I picked him up.
We got in my car, we threw he rode a bike to practice,
put his bike in the back of my car and we went over. We
got a sandwich. I went to his apartment and I spent the day there
and you know, part of it, you know, I was interviewing,
and part of it we were just were we were watching football games and Bruce
Frasier was there, and you know, you get to know the guys,
and that's the piece that's kind of missing, that kind of it's really missing
from what we do now. Yeah, what I was going to bring up
is the access to players has totally changed with the amount of agency that they've
gotten to build their own platforms, and they now understand that there is a
certain amount of leverage that they have to give their time and and and I
guess space for lack of term, like some players have been known to try
to charge for interviews, which is not what we do here at all.
And yeah, so I think there there is definitely an adjustment going on with
with how to get access, how to properly engauge, like for example,
when we were trying to to discern the emotions of Tam Mac and Noah through
their podcast episode because that's all we had access to at that time. It's
it's definitely a new era, and it's a it's an interesting way to players
and too often and you know that's a good example, Noah and and Uh
and Team AC. You sit there and you watch that, and you wonder
how much of that is real, how much of it is scripted, how
much of it is messaging right that they want to do. Look, these
guys are not dumb guys. They know what they're doing right, Uh.
And they're now in a business where you know, one hundreds of thousands,
millions of dollars are are involved. And and you you see those guys in
that format and you're not sure what you're You're not one hundred percent sure what
you're getting whereas if I'm interviewing Team AC for a story and I get you
know, I get full on, you know, an hour hour and a
half with with with a with a player. You know, I'm gonna draw
things out of him, and sometimes they would be things that he doesn't want
drawn out of him, but he can't help himself, but talk about you
know, those things, and that's what we that's what we did as as
as reporters when we were covering the teams back then. We would sit down
with a guy. You know, I took Sean Elliott out for a pizza,
and you know, he didn't want to eat it at the restaurant because
he didn't want to be bugged. So when he picked up a pizza,
went back to his his his dorm room, and again spent hours sitting there
talking about you know, he told me about all these you know, all
these you know, I had a an data similar interview with Anthony Cook,
who was part of that that eighty eight team, and Anthony told me a
whole bunch of personal stuff. You know, his dad had committed suicide,
and you know, those are things you don't get when you're the only time
you're getting with these guys is on the podium right with twenty other reporters,
everybody trying to get one question in, you know. And and that's to
me, that's what's missing, not just at the college level, at the
at the pro level, you know. And so when you see a player
come out and say something, uh, maybe it's bad, maybe it's good
or whatever, you're you're really not sure what you're getting. And and it's
kind of like, I don't feel like I know this guy, and so
I don't really know what he meant by that exactly. And one more thing,
because we do have some big breaking news, I want to wrap up
this conversation before we get onto that one because there'll be a whole new conversation.
But one thing, with what you mentioned about t Mak and Noah,
it's also hard to tell how serious the comments are. And and for example,
we were talking about Apeciens price sock posting his jersey on social media.
It's kind of tough to tell what he even means. Is he taking that
seriously? Does he know what people are reading into his tweets about and uh
yeah, And it really increases the contrast between you know, the controlled environment,
right sound clips you get and for example, it makes things like ninety
four feet with Jay Billis on ESPN look like a window into the life of
the person he's interviewing because you don't get any access. Don't get it,
you don't get any access. But the breaking news that we were absolutely massive,
according to Adam Schefter, that's where I'm seeing it. Jim Harbaugh is
leaving Michigan to accept the head coaching job with the Los Angeles Chargers. Sources
tell ESPN the Chargers have have got the national champion winning coach. Do not
shock nuts shocked, not nutshocked at all. I mean, look, you
know, with everything that happened over at Michigan this this last year, the
spine scandal, the burger thing, I could see he's just you know,
he's like, I don't need this, I don't need this. You know,
he's won his national championship. You know, he's been to a Super
Bowl as an NFL coach. He wants to go win one. And I
was just gonna say, how much he can't get any higher than where he's
at right now, especially with all the things that you mentioned that some of
them have not been yet resolved, right and so and what happens when you
win one at a place like Michigan, you gotta go win another one,
and you got to do it like right now, right you know, Nick
Saban did it. He won some in a row and yet you won one.
Okay, go do it again. And it's the same thing with leaving.
When there's not a better time to leave than it's a cruel time to
leave. But right then, right now, when his stock in Michigan is
high, well, good for the Los Angeles Chargers. You know Harbor's you
know, he's again. He's been in an NFL coach he got he got
the forty nine er to the super Bowl pretty quickly after he got there.
But you know, I'm not surprised at all. And it's gonna be fun
to It's so many fun to watch. You know. There's a lot of
things in place there for him. He's got a quarterback in Justin Herbert,
maybe a great quarterback. We don't really know. Yeah, we think it
looks like he could. You know, he has the potential to be great.
He's got other pieces, you know, they're there. They're offense.
Allen is one of the most forgotten about elet receivers in the League. Right,
the running back Austin Eckler. You know they got guys, right,
they got guys, So I could see that seems like a good landing place.
He's got some history in San Diego. His college coaching career began in
San Diego at the University of San Diego. So not shocked. So now
here we go again, Right, what's the what's the trickle down? I
was just gonna bring that up. It definitely opens up a whole new domino
effect with because I think the Chargers job seemed like the most coveted almost or
at least the most popular job on the market. So now that that job
is off the market, Herbert as your quarterback is now off the market,
how do jobs like Atlanta now look for some coaches? And it'll be interesting
to see, like the the the news pieces that come out about oh,
you know, so and so coach was close to signing with the Chargers,
but they went with Harbaught and now he's here. Yeah, and that would
be interesting to see. Right field Yates, who we follow? Oh,
let's take this call. H you're on the aaron I and the Ball.
Hey, Jay, how's it going today? Pretty good? How are you
I'm good, So maybe Jed's gonna go to Michigan. Now there's certainly people
already saying that I wanted to say thank you for putting Umberto Lopez on the
radio yesterday. And my question is, how are they gonna reduce that two
and forty million dollar deficit? Well, a couple of things on that.
The two or thirty million dollars isn't a deficit. It was a it was
an accounting error. It's something less than that, but it's still a massive,
uh financial issue. They've got financial problems. What it is is they
have way less cash than they thought they had. So whether they I don't
think they've got to go find two hundred and forty million dollars and and put
it, you know, put it somewhere, But it's still a lot of
money, and it's still a thing that happened that really is bad for their
for the University of Arizona financially. The issue in the athletic department is they're
they're they're eighty seven or something like eighty million dollars in debt uh and and
there's like a fifty five million or a fifty five million dollar loan that they
owe that the athletic department owes to the campus. So those are the things.
Those are the harder numbers. The two hundred and forty million dollars we've
heard from a number of sources. Says it's kind of misconstrued. It's it's
a it's like you it's like you thought you had X amount in your checking
account, but you only had X. So it's not like this money is
gone. It's just that they thought they had some money that they never really
had. So but I don't know what they're good. I don't know what
the result a solution is going to be to that. That's way above my
pay grade. Okay, I just figure out it, all right, all
right, Yeah, I appreciate the call. All Right, thank you.
We got about a minute, so we've got to get out of here anyways,
all right, Jed and Justin Spears already already tweeted out Michigan job opening
up means Jdfish has the opportunity to do something very funny. I don't know
if that would be funny to the Washington folks, but certainly here's the thing
about that is that the reputation now that Jedfish has established or that he's stuck
with. And that's what I asked you in Steve that one day, I
was like, how long is that that he's stuck with? Is that he'll
go anywhere anytime. He'll sign a contract today and he'll break it tomorrow.
I imagine he can't leave Washington. There's probably a massive no no. The
bouts twelve million dollars. Cheez, they gave they did. They bought out
Jimbo Fisher for seventy so you know, if Michigan wants him, they could
go get him. I can't imagine that that would happen. You think you're
like the guy for that job. Now, I can't imagine. But I
was gonna say before we got that last call. Interesting stat three of the
four coaches who coached in the College Football Playoffs are gone from their jobs.
Michigan's coach has gone, Alabama's coach is gone, and Washington's coach left Washington
to go to Alabama. So now just sark. Yeah, so sorry,
Steves are kisy and the only one that's left, the only remaining coach from
the playoffs. So all right, yeah, thanks for being here, thanks
for calling. We'll be back tomorrow following the podcast it'll be up tonight,
and then please keep supporting us. We love it so thanks for being here.