This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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kat z R two SAD and iHeartRadio Station. Hey, welcome back to two
and welcome to I am all here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Rivera. He's Chickensauace. We've got a boy e on today. Welcome back,
Ey, Hello, Happy New Year to people who haven't listened to it
so far this year. Welcome back everybody. It's freezing. It's really welcome.
Welcome to Christmas and two sounds, Welcome to winter and tuson. I
say there's ten winter days in the year for at least how I call it,
this is one of them. I guess tomorrow yesterday? So was it?
It was? It cooled? It snow yesterday. I couldn't. I
didn't say where I was at, Yeah, I mean didn't at my house,
So I goes, Okay, I'll good include that it rained at my
house two days okay, then tomorrow b three Okay, we'll keep count.
Welcome back everybody, Big weekend or the cats back after too convincing wins.
Is it all fixed? Right? You know what? What are the fans
thinking? Those same fans that were bitching on last week are talking rose colored
glasses? Good? Now we're all bad. We're all good. Right.
I'm monitoring it on Facebook because I got those names. Now, you know,
Oh the world does any know? Oh this team played so great.
I love Tommy lloyd Man. Yeah, just relax, everybody. It's November,
November. It's January. Yeah, it's January, and we have a
lot of basketball to play. Here's a concern Jay though. And we'll talk
a lot about a lot of different sports. Okay, So there are thirty
three and one in the conference. Uh played the schedule they've played? Now
what because the PAC twelve it sucks? I never I have never said that,
did you see? Yes, yes, I actually watched that because I
couldn't leave that U c l A could be that that bad Cone did even
show up an didn't take any players. Yeah, you know, you you
you wonder. I know they won the they won the PAC twelve last year,
you know, the regular season, and you know they played Arizona in
the championship of the tournament. And I know they were that good, but
it has gone so far south that I don't know. And then just the
way he's handling acted and handled it. Yeah, yeah, if you're u
c l A, you have to start thinking about whether or not you're gonna
keep that well. I don't know. I think he wants. He might
be a mutual decison to get the hell out because his name is coming up
at the Louisville job, but he is who he is, right this uh
this Crrent. If you're Louisville, you're gonna you're gonna go get this guy
better than the guy. You know what you me ilion were all better than
the guy, which is very surprising. But yeah, there might be a
mutually part of ways. We'll see what happens with U c l A.
But this is u c l A. It's not it's not the San Diego
State or or northern Arizona. It's u c l A. Yeah, just
just tough times there now. And that's my point. And maybe I asked
this question of Tommy down the road. Uh, Okay, you've played your
schedule. You're doing well, or your schedule shows that you've done well,
but the PAC twelve ain't gonna help you. It's not gonna help. Yeah,
no it's not. And we you know, we've talked about that,
and so they're you know, well, but you know Tommy's dealt with this.
A Gonzaga you know, Gonzaga would have to go out and play what's
the kind of schedule that that Arizona played this preseason and then knowing that they
weren't going to get any help from their league the rest of the year,
so they got to hang their hat on what they did in the in the
in the non conference. Okay, so here, this is what I'm thinking.
I'm just I'm throwing this spin balling at you. Uh So here we
are March twenty twenty. First wherever in the United States says the number one
or number two, and hypothetically they lose. What's the first thing, The
schedule didn't toughen them up, The schedule didn't have them ready. Blah blah
blah. What's the excuse going to be that? You know, they they'll
jump all over Tommy if they do if they don't do well in the in
the tournament. Okay, that's one is one. B No, there's no
one being. They'll just say Tommy can't coach the tournament. But I think
I don't think we know that yet. And I think Tommy knows, you
know, Tommy knows what he's got to do, yeah, and what he's
got to get his guys to do. Yeah. I mean he you know,
when when he when he saw what happened to him both last year and
the year before. You know, the roster he has now and the guys
he has now addressed what he thought were those were the shortcomings with those two
teams. So I think he's got a lot of confidence that that will work.
I mean, he taught you know, I was listening listening to his
press conference just a little bit ago from yes, from Saturday, he said,
he loves this team. You know, you were sitting there. He
loves what he's got. You know, he loves a guy like like Keisha
Johnson, who you know, as he said, we didn't bring him here
to score points, but you know he put twenty up on the board and
you didn't even know it. Sure, right on Saturday, a guy like
Palli Larson almost teared up when he talked about he's got a little so emotional
yeah, because you know, because he loves he loves what he's seen from
these guys that he's brought here to do and address certain things with the team.
And and these guys are doing that. You know, look at Pellea
Larson. I mean last year at this time we were talking about the fact
that he could you know, they have actually had to take him out of
the starting lineup because he was screwing everything up. Yeah, he's a key
guy. Again. Another another great another great game on Saturday, and and
and and and even last Thursday, invisible and invisible eighteen points on Thursday.
Nobody we we learned maybe by Osmosis or whatever with Mayakwa or telling us that
Larson is the key, is the key, He's the most important guy.
When he plays well, Arizona plays well, we would have like, but
it's true. And you know it's funny because it's got me watching him more,
right when he watching the difference when when he's in the game, when
he's not in the game, and seeing how how different it is. There's
a certain thing that he brings both defensively and offen He'll hear the three pointer
if he's open, you know, he'll play defense, throws, he'll throw
his body on the floor. That's what you know. All those things that
that those things that you notice he's diving, throwing his body, all that
stuff. My whole thing is, this team is a very good team.
I like this team a lot. I'm not sure I'm at Tommy level yet,
which of course I don't have to be. But that tournament, which
you're always judged on, that's a tough deal. You have six bullets you
gotta avoid and you have to have six bullets youre in the chamber to win
it. So it's very difficult, and that's what he's gonna be judged.
That's what event eventually. I mean, he can win the league. He
can you know, he can go nineteen and one in the Pac twelve,
you know, win the league running away, win the conference tournament. And
if he goes into the into the into the NCAA tournament and he's out before
the Elite eight, they're gonna they're gonna light him up. Yeah. Yeah,
and by fans who have no skin in the game except for the emotions.
That's my whole thing. Okay, we'll talk about that. We do
have a good guest in house, one of our first ones we've ever together.
Yeah, this is gonna be finne. It's been a while, so
they've had anybody in house but to Justin Spears from that other radio station.
But also there was one Daily Star football beat writer. He's gonna come in
studio hang with us for about forty five minutes. He'll be here next segment
and through the end of the hour, and we'll just wrap up the football
on a football season, look ahead the next uh, look ahead the next
season. Uh did you clean the Uh? Did you clean the house?
Sir? I don't think you cleaned the house before he came in. Yeah,
I picked up my area and in this area, your corner is still
like my house. You got a box of Pringles and a box of Ritz
Crackers, two caps and some papers that I don't know how long they did
there for the original show. We look good the rest of the the rest
of the I guess I gotta I gotta straighten up Joe Montana frame so that
it's straight. He's gonna well, we'll get them when we'll get him here
in about eight minutes. No, okay. Uh, So we'll talk a
lot about football all this year. Uh, to talk about the other things
as well, to ask him, you know, well, obviously get his
thoughts on the National Championship Game, which is uping about a couple hours.
And then Jack mcgrinor sportspattingdime dot com also writes for Forbes Sports uh their website,
and so he's had some thoughts on the on the college football playoff and
we'll get his take on I'm hoping he went with Michigan. Well he's all
over Washington. Oh I'm doomed. I'm doomed today. Well, it doesn't
matter. Our league is pretty much over, you know where we're settled.
But I think Washington and they went up to five and a half today.
I just got it at five five Yeah, so you got it at four
last week four and a half. I'm thinking about going If I like it
at four and a half, why wouln't I like it at five and a
half. Right, But there's something. How did that move on on point?
Because that doesn't happen very often on GA Well, yeah, if it
moved a point, and then it's going back the other way now because if
it got to five and a half five and a half, I saw it
back the other way because I decided it five Yeah, okay, right,
uh half a point? Who knows? I think it's gonna be a good
game. Yeah, yeah, you know. Look, look there's all kinds
of predictions about what's going to happen. If Michigan could run the ball,
it's gonna be a low scoring game. Michigan should win the game. If
Michigan can't run the ball, and or if Washington you know, can stop
the run and you know, keep the ball and throw you throw the ball
all over the place to be a high scoring game and Washington win the game.
Just everybody's got their own thoughts on on what's going to happen, and
you know, the game just now at this point, let's play it and
let's see what happened. I'm still on Washington. I just think that I
was talking to you know, Chris on the way in. We were talking
about its absolutely nothing, So what is ja I know a little more than
Chris. We were still talking about the quarterbacks, and yeah, you can
deny I still I still think. I still think Arizona Arizon. I still
think Washington's got the best quarterback on the field today. Yeah, no,
I don't disagree with you. The kid is very, very good. He's
twenty six and one or whatever it is. Well, he's that guy that
he beats you and you wonder how he's beating you because he doesn't look like
he should be. Yeah, exactly. I mean J. J. McCarthy
just looks like a guy that you know, he it looks like a typical
Michigan quarterback, right, doesn't look fast, doesn't look you know, overly
strong, he's not super athletic, but yet he finds way to beat Tom
Brady like Tom Brady Brady. Okay, well, I take the guy every
other day except for if you have if I have pinnics available. You know,
I think it's so one of the things I brought to basketball thing up.
I had seen something earlier and over the weekend. Uh Arizona's strength of
schedule. I think it's number four or something like that. Pretty high up.
But okay, so they beat Michigan State a month or so ago,
so long ago, right, Michigan State is not that good. They got
beat by Northwestern over the weekend, uh fau fau. They've fallen since since
they beat Arizona. They're not the team that we thought they were that day.
Right, So you know what I'm saying, it's the Arizona's big wins
have blost a little luster and and and the wins coming up, I got
no luster zero. Well that yeah, well that's the thing. I mean,
this uh, this league is just is just so bad. I mean,
yeah, Arizona be cowed by what like eighty points and then cow goes
over to u C. L A and wins. Yeah. I guess it
was in the league ASU who looked horrible sense because northern Northwestern Yeah, makes
zero sense. So no, I yeah, I mean I hear you.
Yeah, in Colorado, I mean, you know, Colorado looked terrible,
too, terrible. You know, they were missing some guys, but you
can't even if you're missing two players, you can't be losing by forty seven,
right, right, Yeah, you know you're right. Uh. And
Arizona played pretty well against Utah. They took a little time, but they
beat them pretty handily. Yeah, so you know, things things look okay
right now. I never thought the Utah game was in doubt. I thought
maybe, you know, Arizona took a lead and then also the games tied,
and I just thought, you know, Arizona will rent will wear them
down in the second half. Yeah, that was a good day for me
because it was fourteen thirteen and a half and you're thinking, okay, with
about two and stuff, they had fifteen point eight. Yeah, and they
kind of stretched it out. Yeah, so it was good. We'll see
what happens and the women. While uh, seven players on the run,
seven players, one fouled out, the other one was in foul trouble.
They go to overtime and beat Utah yesterday, a ranked team, and then
against Colorado. You know, I mean they got a shot, they had
a good clean shot to win the game, and you know a little you
know, eight footer or six footer and back rimmed it and missed, and
they would they could. They were that close to a sweep of two ranked
teams. Okay, so we got too many. What do you make of
that? Of the whole situation, Well, well we knew that, you
know, with injuries and illnesses, and look, everybody in town is sick
right now. You're sick. I mean, I've still got this crap ass
cold that I've had since I got back from California. I talked to Nick,
you know, meatballer guy. I called him. He's at home because
he's not feeling He just got back from California. People are sick. And
when you're we've only got ten players, you know, you run into illnesses
and injuries and stuff like that. That's the situation that you're in. The
fact that they were able to pull one of these games out in that situation
says a lot about I think it says a lot about their just their fight.
I guess I would say, because they could have. They had a
really good chance to beat Colorado, and then they did beat Utah with you
know, you know, I was listening to Ideas press conference Heleno player played
off forty five minutes yesterday, you know, I mean that's that It's ultimately
gonna wear on them. So I don't know how sustainable it is. But
today, you know they're in good shape because they you didn't go, You
didn't work to be the game, right, you didn't go. No,
I watched so another seven eight thousand people in the great I'm sure that fuels
them too. It's could you be home? Good to be home in those
situations. I think it's gonna be different on the road if you only have
seven or eight people to play with. But good for Ada, I mean,
she's being she's being pressured like I think Tommy was or is in terms
of being a better coach. Does that make sense? Yeah, because she's
and she's feeling it. Yeah, Oh, of course she's feeling it.
And and you know she's trying to do all the right things and make all
the right moves, and you know thinks she's she's adjusting how she's managing her
team. Right, if she talked last week about the fact that maybe instead
of chasing all these McDonald's, all Americans were going to come here and think
they should all have the ball, maybe she should get some girls that she
can come in, bring them in, develop them and without a lot of
expectations. As you I called that the Sean Miller coaching and went over right
right right when we saw that. You saw that for a number of years.
Yeah, if you can't coach him, or they're not going to be
coached, you don't need them here, then you don't need them to get
somebody else. Okay, all right, let's take a break. Justin Spears
should be waiting outside for us and the Colts, So we'll go get him.
Get him in here in the studio and we'll go with him. We'll
talk football for the next two segments. First, what happened and then what
we expect to happen next season. So stick around for Justin Spears. For
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evaluation today. Steve Vera and Jacin Salas they have their eye on the ball
on Tucson's Sports Stay Shaft. I'm Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome
back to Why I'm out here, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
Here's Jakinsauce. Look who we have here, justin Spears from the Arizona
Daily Star. We don't even have to mention the other show because no one
wakes up that early in the morning. Do you are you awake? When
do you do that? Actually, that's not that's not true, Steve,
because I'm always up at six o'clock in the morning. I'm old guy,
old guy up. That's right, you're sleeping pretty soon. I hit the
It's it's the nine o'clock at night, but I don't listen to. Yeah.
Well, welcome to our humble abode, I mean seriously humble abode.
And you guys have all the snacks, all the ritz and the Pringles house.
I heard you guys coming in. I was like, oh, they're
only about five months old. There is that, Yeah, there is that.
Nothing to go with it. Welcome to the show excited to hear guy.
Are you you You probably learned in the last year or so, there's
never, if ever, when a football doesn't sleep, be guess what,
the Beat writer doesn't sleep. Hell no, hell no. It was a
busy year and with the program and having such an incredible season. For this
to be my first year, it was pretty amazing. I'm not gonna let
you. And well, it had to be fun. First of all,
we all know it's more fun to cover a winner than a losing Yeah,
right, I mean it had to have been a drag from Lev Mike Leffer,
you know those years that he had to go through, the summing years
and stuff like that. And are you if you checked your breaks, if
you checked your breaks from Lef from Lev, maybe you wanted to come back
on the Beat cutting the break break? Yeah, I was wondering. I'm
like, Lev, you chose such a bad year to lead because, I
mean, because Laff first got here. His first game on the Beat was
a drescable in twenty fifteen Scooby's very last game, and then the year after
that, like his first full season, they go three and nine, and
then then there's the twenty game losing streak. There's the coaching changes, like
Michael, let I give that me a ton of credit. I toad my
cat to him because what he had to endure as the beat writer, I
could imagine trying to create the stories of a twenty game losing streak, like,
well, he was on two. He's been on a couple times last
month or so I blame. I said, maybe it was you liv that
created this. I joined the beat, and all of a sudden, he
started winning the ball game. You know what, I'm a guy who thinks
like that, justin I think it was all about you. It was all
It was all about Steve telling people they weren't going to win six games,
so they were gonna you know, you know it was it was about that
I do what I can. So you know, it's a little bit of
all of that. You know. I kind of held my expectations low.
I thought they could get to six games, although I've admitted recently in my
heart of hearts, I really didn't believe that there. I couldn't find six
definite wins. Yeah, going into the season, But you know what,
we talked to you before the season, and I think you in the six
win area. What did you really, really really think they were gonna do.
I thought they're gonna go seven and five. That was the the record
that I had, you know, my heart set on. And then the
start of the season came and you started to see, hey, Dion Sanders
in Colorado, they're a lot better than people think, right, And they
put together two impressive wins to start the year. There were college Football's or
the nation's favorite college football team. I mean so much so that the Starbucks
that was it, Print and Campbell were selling Colorado cups in their store.
I'm like, you guys are right up the street from University of Arizona.
You guys are joining the Colorado Way, Like that's how big it was.
And then you also looked at Washington State as well in the conference. Yeah,
and they had such a promising start, and you looked at those two
games as going into the season as like gimme games for Arizona. And then
you're like, ah, I don't know, man, this there's a lot
of tough games on Arizona schedule. Not every single game is going to be
a gimme. And you started to see them press throughout the season, and
that, of course, the quarterback change happened with no Fafeida taking over Jada
Dolora's spot, and ever since that USC game, there was just a switch
to this team and they were just completely different. And then they go out
in smack Washington State, they go out in edge, Colorado, and they
just figure it out the way to win ballgames. And I didn't expect them
to be this good. Yeah. Yeah, if somebody did, they were
lying at the beginning of the year. If somebody said they were gonna win
ten games at the beginning of the year, they didn't really believe it that.
You know, my brother says that every year. Actually this year he
didn't say, well, but I don't know that he really believes it,
but he says it. You know who believed it was Jet Fisch And I
remember going I remember going into his office, and there's not too many things
that I could say about the conversation that we had, but it was my
first year on the beat and I wanted to have that conversation with Jet.
And the only thing I will disclose from that conversation was he looked at me
and said, We're going to be a really good football team. Like seriously,
people were und are not counting on us to be this good. Like,
no, we're going to be a really good football team. If we
stay healthy and Michael Wiley and Jacob Cowing and the younger players improve and develop,
we're gonna win a lot of football games. And Jetfish believed it from
day one. And when your leader, when you're CEO in the company,
is believing that much into the company and makes the employees and makes the workers
all want to buy in. And that's what you saw. When did you
start to believe it? Because we talked about this, We even had jet
on in those accidents. It was Washington's Weston State game. That's when I
started to believing. I'm thinking this team could be very good. Let me
ask you this way, sure, what were you thinking? What did you
think after that Mississippi State game? Because there were two ways of looking at
that. Yeah, well you guys and you guys had five turnovers, you
must suck. Or you guys had five turnovers and got the game into overtime,
Maybe you're not so bad. How did you Which way did you look
at that? Well? I looked at it as kind of a glass half
full perspective because the defense was the big question mark going into the year,
And if your offense can commit five turnovers in SEC country and I know Mississippi
State they were bad this year. That was actually Mississippi State's best win R
Right, that looked like a bad loss for Arizona. But if your defense
can go into that tough road environment and create enough plays to keep you in
the game, I walked away from that like, well, if Arizona's defense
can evolve this way, offense was already good last year. They have already
most of their starters back. They're gonna figure it out at some point.
I don't know when it is, but I think this team is gonna be
okay. But the switch flip for me, I would probably say after the
USC game. I mean they were competitive against Washington, but Washington, I
mean they got off to such a hot start. They were up fourteen to
nothing. Arizona's playing catch up the whole way through. When they went on
the road at USC and had such a great start and took the Trojans all
the way down to triple overtime when they were twenty two and a half point
underdogs, that to me was the moment when things switch for Arizona. And
sure enough that was the last time they lost the game. So when uh,
okay. So, so that was the three four games into it,
I think it could have been five. That was game five, five games
and then by that time, uh Fafida had already kind of come in right
after the Stanford game. What did you make of his situation because it had
had de Laura not getting gotten hurt, Yeah, who knows what would have
passed. Actually it was six games, six games, so they were three
and three. Because there were three and three, we thought three and three
is well where we thought they were gonna be, right, so then it's
okay. So then Dlaura gets hurt and then Fafida comes in saves the Stanford
game. And then yeah, you saw him come in and essentially kind of
save the day because Jayden in an offense, they stalled out against Stanford and
Stanford had the worst defense in the Pack twelve this year, Like there was
no excuse. I mean, Arizona should have went in and took care of
business. They should have handled Stanford. But then nol Flafida comes in and
while he didn't have the game winning touchdown pass, he was the orchestrator on
that drive that marched him down the field and I think it was Jonah Coleman
or DJ Williams who had the touchdown to go ahead. But you saw the
poise of no Fafiita, I mean, just being thrown into the game.
And I'll never forget pregame warm ups. I went out there to Stanford Stadium
maybe two and a half hours, three hours before a game time, and
the first player out on the field or one of them, was no fa
Fida. I mean he went out there as one of the first guys out
there, warmed up as if he was QB one. And he's always stayed
like that because you're just one play away. And if you have that mentality,
it's where they say stay ready, so you don't got to get ready
right, And that's exactly what no Fafida did. And when he got his
opportunity, he seized it and moved on. So we had a guest on
here. I won't say who it is until after your answer, And I
mentioned this. I mentioned this during the game or during the show to me,
and I've covered enough games to say that with all my heart. He
came in and the team you saw something. The team played harder, or
they played more composed or whatever. I don't know if you saw that,
but did you see that or feel that? It definitely seemed like the offense
took a big breath, fresh air. Okay. With that said, Jay
kind of didn't believe me until you went back to the back to the tape
and you kind of saw something too, right, I had. I did.
I went back and I rewatched the you know when the period, it
did look different. It looks something looked different. Okay, So, and
I don't know what it was, right, I can't put my finger on
it, but something did look so a week or so later, maybe maybe
a little longer. Lamont Honey, who I think the world of, is
one of our sponsors, and I said that to him. He laughed at
me. Right, he says, the guys don't play harder for you,
blah blah. But let me tell you something in my mind, in my
heart, I know that happened. You saw it too. I definitely saw
the offense move at a better rate, at a better pace. I mean,
for three quarters they couldn't move the ball against Stanford, and then you
just throw them in the mix and next thing you know, the offense moves
no problem. It was like there was a confidence among them. But I
mean, I'm gonna say this too, because that Stanford game came on again
over the weekend on that PAC twelve and Football and sixty, and I watched
most of it. It was like middle of the second quarter on and watched
the rest of it. What I saw, and I could be completely off
base on this, what I saw was that Jane Delora did not involve Team
AC in the game near as much as no Fafieda. He was, He's
zero. He was throwing balls to Coleman to and not Coleman to Cowens.
That Noah Flafieda doesn't throw the count hard catches, you know, tough where
you had to think, Okay was tem mac open over here, and Jayden
didn't look for him as much as no fafeated it because like that ASU game
was crazy. He was just throwing. It was just him and and Team
AC playing catch ye all day long. Yeah, right, and then and
then all those games were like that. And know it's kind of like my
conclusion was, at the end of the day, the reason they got so
much better is because they have this incredible talent in the team. Millen and
Noah Fafita used that talent way more than Jayden Deloria did. I could be
completely wrong, but that's how I look at it now. And No,
also didn't have really the bad habits that Jaden Delora displayed, Like I think
about that Stanford game really, and Jaden would kind of just drift back in
the pocket and go into like this abyss and it's like, your offensive line
can only protect you for so long, your receivers can only run routes for
so long, and Jaden would just keep back pedaling and backpedaling and backpedaling.
And Jed has addressed it. And I know the Offen, that's a staff.
They know that that's not what you're taught. And that's Jaden Dolaura once
again being the improviser, kind of doing things like, Hey, I'm gonna
play within the confines of your offense, but I'm gonna add my little twist
to it. And sometimes Jaden didn't necessarily see the field the way he wanted
to know. If Afida is, I mean, his vision's unbelievable, even
though he's undersized for a quarterback, his ability to read and make the right
place and get the ball out of his hands quick he got the ball out
of his hands quick and even when guys would blitz and try to jump up
and swat him, he figured out a way to bend his arm and maneuver
ways in the pocket, so he's able to get the ball up. So
you're gonna tell me, and this goes to my point, just to go
backtrack real quick, is that you don't see teammates seeing all this with Dolaura.
How long can we protect him or look at the situation he's put us
in. Now with Fafida, we have stability and more consistency, and we
just have to play football. Yep, I mean that's what I read into
that. Yeah, now you don't have to hold the line, you don't
have to run around. Now we have a quarterback who can be a quarterback.
Yeah, and just run the offense. Yeah. And and then there
Jayden also a lot of times tried to make the home run play a little
too much. When you got you got Jonnah Coleman, you got Michael Wiley,
you got this tight end in Tanam McLaughlin. He's really good. And
Noah Fada made those throws. Just move the ball down the field. It's
all got to don Okay. So you come out of the USC game,
you think they're okay, they're pretty good. They smack up on Washington.
I think it was that going. It was after the Oregon State game.
I wanted to cut the clip again, to play it again, to play
today. After the Oregon Steak game, I said, there's an eighty five
percent win ten games. Steve made fun of me. I have the clip.
Okay, it exists. Wait wait, wait, he's never right,
I've never when Okay, when did you think, okay, now you know
these guys are are not only are they good, but they're really good.
They're you know, they might win out and they might get ten wins.
When when did that come? Immediately the game afterwards, when they went on
the road to Pullman and handled Washington State by thirty eight points. Because Wazoo
they were ranked at the time, all we heard about was man, this
Brennan Jackson guy coming off the edge. Their edge rushers are so great.
I mean, they're gonna give Arizona a lot of problems and Washington State.
And they also had Can Reward great quarterback who was viewed as you know,
a guy in the top half of the PAC twelve and in the league that's
littered with great quarterbacks and Washington State. They came out, drove the ball
down the field with ease, and then Arizona went up and put up how
many points to win by thirty eight? I mean Washington State scored in the
first drive. After that it was punt punt, punt turnovers. I mean
that defense played so lights out that game. That was one of the most
complete games that Arizona played. And from that point on, if you can
go on the road to and play against a good Washington State team and put
a back kind of performance. I mean, we were talking about Arizona.
They were supposed to be in the the win little maybe you go from lose
big to lose little twiny little to win big. This year was supposed to
be the win little phase. And yet they're dominating teams like Washington State and
Utah at home and the homes late, and they're beating them by four plus
touchdowns. It's impressive. Yeah, Okay, we have a lot of wisdom
in the room today. It's not for me and Jay, it's from Justin.
We've got to take a break through and come back on the other side.
Yeah, we'll be back. Justin will kind of start, you know,
looking ahead little bit. Yes, sir, I thought it was a
pretty good recap of what we saw. So what are we going to see
next year? So stick around for Justin Spears will be right back. If
you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty
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What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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online today at a Team security dot net. Steve Rivera and jaygen Salez they
have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stage Jeff Fox Sports fourteen fifty
streaming live, I mean iHeartRadio. Wapp Hey, welcome back to I Ining
the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera's jakinsos in studio with
us today the guy from the Arizona You star Justin Spears. First segment went
really fast, always go fast, really fast. Flies were having fun.
How was it with with two old dudes and not named Uh? How was
it with without No, Without two old dudes but not with Ali being one
of the dudes who's older, It's been uh better, refreshing. Interesting.
Well, let's remember that Ali is still way younger than both of us.
I don't want to remember that every well, he has no hair, but
he's still younger than that. You guys are so kind to me. Every
time I do a show with him. It's him give me some give me
guff about something it Yes, that's what it is, That's what it is.
But justin Okay, So let's look ahead to this football season coming up?
Wait, can we do one before we do that, Let's go to
the championship game. I didn't think they were gonna pull that baby off.
Did you think they're gonna pull that baby off? In the fourth quarter?
What the alma? Yeah? No, it was over for me. You
know, they were going down score. Yeah, right, they're up twenty
four to thirteen. They're going down to score. I'm sitting in a hotel
room with my daughter across the street from Disneyland. I'm thinking, let's go,
let's go, get on the Space Mountain, let's go do so.
But you know, then we saw the Gunner Maaldna club. Yeah, that
was the ultimate turnaround. That play right there just sparks something with a team
that was lifeless for two quarters because they got off to such a hot start.
They were up thirteen to nothing, and then Oklahoma delivered the Haymakers in
the second and the third quarter, and you know, Jackson Arnold was starting
to make the right throws and Oklahoma's offense seemed to have no problem moving against
Arizona's defense. And it also no fla Fida. I felt like was on
his back more times in that game than he had all season, and Arizona
was discovering life without Jordan Morgan, and you're shuffling over multiple offensive lineman.
You got a true freshman out at left tackle, you got a guy who
doesn't really have much experience starting at right tackle, and then you have Jonas
Sabina right there in the middle. And they tried to figure out the right
combination. They brought in Laif Magnuson back at guard and put big Jonah back
at tackle, and it seemed to be the right combination, and I really
thought Arizona was gonna lose. Well. What was going through my head there
during those two quarters was, Okay, this is the big boy football that
Arizona wants to play, but not quite ready yet. Maybe they will eventually,
but we thought, you know, because look, every league outside of
the Pac twelve is known for its offensive and defensive line. Yeah, and
I thought, okay, they were good enough to do these things that they
did in the Pac twelve. But this is Oklahoma the US. Oh.
You know, Oklahoma gets linemen like Texas gets, like Alabama gets, like
Georgia gets, like Michigan gets, like Ohio State gets. And Oklahoma has
those guys and they're it's taking its toll on Arizona. That's where my head
was. Yeah, the Sooners have a lot of Jimmy's and Joe's that they
have on both sides of the ball, and that defensive front, I mean
not many guys left on that defense. And so their linebackers, their defensive
linemen. They Brent Venables, their head coach, who comes from a defensive
background. He got very creative and how he blitzed certain linebackers and they were
really getting to know Fafida and the offense just didn't move the ball and then
all of a sudden, Gunner Maldonado one of six takeaways in that game.
The turnover sword was losing some space on that and for him to take it
back. And then the following possession, Marta Irbi gets the interception in Arizona.
They go on this tear and they score seventeen points in the fourth quarter,
and then the ultimate knockout punch was DJ Williams once he ran to the
end zone and Arizona essentially secured the win. I'm like, this is a
micro cosm of the season. I mean, they've always had their backs up
against the wall and they've answered the Bell every single tik time. Right,
I thought the offense did a good job in moving Flafieda around more get him
out of the pocket so that he would be less of a stable target,
so you know, to get those completions done. That throw he made the
cowing you know, you know, out of you know, out of the
you know, out of the pocket on the run and he finds cowing and
it's like, holy hell. You know, you felt like I kind of
felt all year long? Was it they figured it out? Yeah? You
know, And that's that's the thing that again, let's you know, looking
forward that you feel good about this coaching staff is that these are guys who
it's not their first rodeo. You know, they get into a game and
they figured things out. And that's what they did all year long. You
know, they did it with They did it with Washington by being able to
get back in the game up against Washington when you thought at fourteen to nothing,
I'm thinking, I don't know how long I'm going to stay for this?
Yeah, right, And in fact, my whole family left at the
end of the game, but I stuck around. Now, I was leaving
when Arizona went and scored that touchdown to get within seven. I'm like,
wait a minute, Wait a minute. You know, there was what a
minute and a half left or something like that, and I'm like, you
know, so it seemed like this is a coaching staff with enough chops that
they figure stuff out. And I kind of thought that's what happened in the
album all the way to the Alibable yep. And you look at the three
losses this year, sixteen total points. So not only did Arizona win ten
games, but I mean they also left some meat on the bone. And
there were two games that went into overtime periods that could have easily gone in
favor for Arizona. Now with that being said, the Stanford game, the
Colorado game, there were also some other games where it could have went the
other way and Arizona could have lost. All in all, I think it
was such a miraculous season for Arizona. And to think that just a few
years ago they were riding this losing streak. The program was ripped all the
way down to the studs, and now they have a winning brand. Awful.
Okay, now let's go, well, we've already seen you know the
future, right sure? Johnny Nansen out of here. Yeah, you know,
that's what happens for Arizona. And one of those fans out there were
saying, Oh, Jed's got to stay, and he'll stay as long as
the price is right for him. Yep. If an NFL team comes calling,
he's gonna go. And anybody who thinks that he'll stay because he loves
Tucson and he loves us. Yeah, and hey, you also look at
the situation going on in Michigan. If Jim Harball leaves and Michigan's looking around
like, now, what coach could be a good successor to Jim Harball?
Well, how about the guy who was the quarterbacks coach for him for two
years and turned Arizona into a winning brand. So don't don't rule out anything.
And that's why it's very important for Jed to get this contract extension and
get fairly compensated and also get his assistant coaches fairly compensated. So that way,
these programs like Texas, aren't we even the checks around and coaching their
guys. Well, they know they weren't going to keep Tony Nansen if Texas
wanted, even if the contracts were done. But you're not surprised. But
anyways, you know, whoever, whatever happens, it's still got good players
coming back. They do. But they've got the core of this team.
I've already seen one. I think I'll break bring it out during during breaking
news. But you know, somebody's already got them, like sixth or seventh,
eighth, Yeah, yeah, yeah, our song too. It might've
been your big big game Boomer guy was. But you know, we're talking
Big twelve favorite and also a favorable schedule in the Big twelve two because a
lot of their teams that they're facing in conference play, some of them finished
in the bottom half of the conference. Now they are rising programs, like
UCF is a rising program. They're gonna face some really good teams. But
Arizona should be favored in pretty much every Big twelve matchup. I think byu
Utah playing those schools, Colorado is gonna get better in the portal with Deon
Sanders. ASU is getting a bunch of talented players through the transferport like they're
gonna have some some tough games. But Arizona they should be in the conversation
to be at least a top twelve, maybe even a top ten team,
and with the College Football Playoff expanding to twelve teams next season, and if
you're the Big twelve champion, you also get a first round by I saw
the ESPN's way too early. Look at the CFP next year and they have
Arizona as the last seed getting that buy, which is like I had like,
rub my eyes and do it double takes. I'm like, how on
earth did Arizona get into a position where now they're in the national conversation.
So let me poop poop both of you guys real quick, because that's what
I do. Fine, well, and this just comes to your your thesis
of your life. How okay, Arizona's predicted for this, but history will
tell you it doesn't work out that way. Yeah, in all honesty,
I mean never had there's your sidebar for your special section for you. Yes,
yes, all this glory glory stuff, But here's a couple of paragraphs
that you guys need to read, yeah, to be cautious. Yeah,
the all the one if years where Arizona was number one in the country,
Desert Swarm the nineteen ninety eight season. I go back to also two thousand
and nine, when Arizona had an injured Rob Gronkowski and if he was available,
maybe him and Nick Foles would win that game against Cal and Washington.
And also the crazy game against Oregon at home, we're winning a double overtime.
There's a lot of moments where things seem like, okay, Arizona,
things are great right now, and then there's the Lucy pulling the football away
from Charlie Brown or Steve pulling. But back to what I was saying earlier
was the Big Twelve schedule. Not only does a favorite Arizona, but I
think the best team in the Big Twelve that's not the four corner schools joining
is Oklahoma State. He just went ten and four this year. Yeah,
they don't got Oklahoma State on the schedule, so the only time they would
have to face them would be in the Big Twelve championship. And if that's
the case, I would take Arizona. Yeah, No, I probably would
too. This team has a lot to like. Obviously, I'm just bringing
reality to the to the mix. But there's what's not to like here.
Yeah, everything sounds really good right now. We've talked about this from you
know, with a coaching stampoint, talked about it with former players and stuff
like that. But again, you know, when you're in Arizona, you
wait for it to fall apart the next season after the other three ten win
seasons were not great. Sure, you know things have to happen in the
off season. You know, they still got to work hard, They still
got to you know, the coaching staff has to stick together. Although they've
already lost Johnny Nansen, but you know, all these things have to happen
over the course of the off season to keep this ball rolling. Ye,
what do you think is the most important thing for them? I think still
developing on the interior, getting guys on the offensive line and defensive line.
I mean, they restored their defensive line and really bolstered that position, and
that allowed Jacobmnu to recavoc and make a bunch of tackles, Dalton Johnson coming
downhill and making those kind of plays. If they can continue to build around
the ball and the line of scrimmage, I mean, they're gonna be totally
fine. But I mean, I think Jed said it on the Jim Rome
Show eighteen or twenty two. Starters coming back, you use the transfer portal
like free agency in the NFL. If you're not living and dying by the
transfer portal and you feel good about your roster. That's a really good position
for a program. And that's where Arizona's at right now. So things are
on the up and up. I would imagine them probably going into the portal
after the spring and getting a player kind of like a Taylor Upshaw who came
in late and then ended up being one of the leaders in the PAC twelve
and Sacks. I expect them to have something like that. Yeah, yeah,
I mean yeah, really quick. Well, what do you make of
the kid who and I want to say his name because I don't know how
to pronounce it, who left here to go to Issue? Well, Jacob
can Geica, Yeah, Jacob kng Geika. That's an interesting situation. And
I can't ever remember a scholarship player transferring from Arizona to ASC. You would
know, I wouldn't. I can't remember one. Doma Fall He was a
cornerback, but he was a walk on, a scholarship player guy who was
a really key contributor. That was a little weird. Now, maybe NIL
had something to do with it. However, I think ASU's NIL collective isn't
as good as Arizona's in my opinion just from my research and Dolge, it's
it's very interesting. You know, I think that maybe he just also was
in search of more playing time. You know, it has to be that
because it wasn't starting and it doesn't look like he was gonna start, No,
and he was, and he was gonna have the same role next year.
So maybe he's just like, hey, I need to get on the
starting line, and AS is the place for it, right, Okay,
Yeah, I mostly I mostly don't care, but again, when guys leave,
but it stings a little bit, but I wish bad things. And
maybe last week only got like thirty seconds, give me twenty seconds of where's
singer gonna? Oh, Dorian Singer back there? So I'm just kidding.
He's not coming back to Arizona, at least I don't think he is.
Maybe he goes to Colorado or a s U Colorado issue and one last thing
ten seconds, uh Dolaora? Where does he go back to Hawaii? That's
my guess. That's not sourced by any mean. But you'll go back home,
all right? Hey, justin a whole bunch, man. This was
fun, absolutely, and you guys didn't ask, but I got washing it
tonight in the Natty. We were gonna okay, all right man, We'll
see you and good luck with your show. Thank you guys seven am,
seven am and Weekegy with with Oli Park. Thank you.