Speaker 1: Hey, dude, don't make it bad. Take a side sun
Speaker 1: and make it banner Lean and du Lettereal Home. Then
Speaker 1: you can stop to make it Banner.
Speaker 2: Pay two broadcasting live today nineteenth year out here at
Speaker 2: the road Homes, thinking about that this morning, we are
Speaker 2: asking for your donations to help families in need. The
Speaker 2: road Home operates eighty percent of our communities year round,
Speaker 2: shelter beds. Tell you more about the spot out here.
Speaker 2: The Connie Crosby Family Resource Center serves up to three
Speaker 2: hundred individuals with families nightly. So here's how you donate.
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Speaker 2: eight oh one eight three hundred. You can also go
Speaker 2: to the road Home dot org. Slash donates. Our next
Speaker 2: guest used to come out here with me every year.
Speaker 3: It's been a minute.
Speaker 2: Gordon Monson back on the drive on a Thursday. Gordon,
Speaker 2: Happy Thursday, sir.
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm doing fine? Thanks, Vince Taylor. Road Home is always
Speaker 4: close close to the heart, you know. I mean, anybody
Speaker 4: who goes out there and sees the work that's gone,
Speaker 4: I think would be happy to open the.
Speaker 2: Wallet, no doubt, And I always have these memories because
Speaker 2: back in the day, they don't do this anymore. But
Speaker 2: back in the day, they used to have like a
Speaker 2: competition among the stations as far as who could get
Speaker 2: the most donations, and I think they saw that that
Speaker 2: was probably a little.
Speaker 3: Bit cringey to do, so we don't do it anymore.
Speaker 2: But back in the day, we used to be neck
Speaker 2: and neck with some of the bigger stations, and because
Speaker 2: your buddy Spence Echels would roll in last minute and
Speaker 2: write a big check and give us credit, we always
Speaker 2: shot to the top.
Speaker 3: Of the list.
Speaker 2: So I was kind of remember those days back in
Speaker 2: the day, Gorda.
Speaker 4: I do remember those days. It was kind of like
Speaker 4: it was a friendly competition, and we knew we knew
Speaker 4: Spence was coming in with the big hammer, and so
Speaker 4: that always gave us a big boose. So we were
Speaker 4: grateful to him, and he used to bring like his
Speaker 4: entire family down and I have great respect for him.
Speaker 3: For that, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 2: All right, Gordon, I want to start with you where
Speaker 2: I started the show today, because I think you'll be
Speaker 2: good with this and the you know, the sports talk
Speaker 2: radio or the sports calumnist topic of culture building is
Speaker 2: not new and sometimes probably hit over the head a
Speaker 2: little bit too much. But there's an article today in
Speaker 2: The Athletic about my hapless, hopeless, pathetic New York Football Jets.
Speaker 2: And if you think it's bad, it's even worse when
Speaker 2: the owner is enlisting the advice of his sons based
Speaker 2: off their Madden video game experience to make personnel decision.
Speaker 2: They have not been to the playoffs in thirteen years.
Speaker 2: They married themselves to an idiot who wants to go
Speaker 2: on Netflix and just smash mushrooms instead of actually be
Speaker 2: a serious person.
Speaker 3: It is bad.
Speaker 2: And so I was thinking about this today from a
Speaker 2: local standpoint, Gordon, about the culture that the Miller's built in,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty five ish years owning and operating the
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz, and even though it never led to an
Speaker 2: NBA championship, it was one of the healthiest and most
Speaker 2: enviable cultures in all of pro basketball. When Greg Popovich
Speaker 2: took the job with San Antonio, he said, I want
Speaker 2: to build it the way Jerry built, you know, the
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz. And look, I'm not saying what Ryan has
Speaker 2: done so far is either good or bad. We don't know,
Speaker 2: but it is different. Over the course of three and
Speaker 2: a half years, Larry, you knew him well, was front.
Speaker 3: Facing, authentic and honest.
Speaker 2: Ryan seems to prefer to do a lot of his
Speaker 2: business behind the scenes and in more of a clandestine way.
Speaker 3: That leads to a lot of questions.
Speaker 2: And then we'll get an occasional puff piece from his
Speaker 2: PR team that they give to ESPN. But we don't
Speaker 2: really know this group the way that we all knew
Speaker 2: the Millers. And again, I want to be clear, it's
Speaker 2: not good or bad, it's just different. But from your seat,
Speaker 2: the way the Millers built this thing up over the
Speaker 2: course of twenty five years juxtaposed to the way that
Speaker 2: Ryan approaches it and his group over the course of
Speaker 2: about three and a half.
Speaker 4: Well, when it comes to culture and you bring up
Speaker 4: the Jets, I mean, it's not who you say you are,
Speaker 4: it's who you are, right, That's what builds the culture, right.
Speaker 4: And I had great respect for Larry and for his
Speaker 4: you know, it's funny because if you used to talk
Speaker 4: to him all the time, you know, and he would
Speaker 4: say things that you would think, Okay, that's unusual for
Speaker 4: an owner to say, But you knew where it was
Speaker 4: coming from. It was coming from deep inside that vast
Speaker 4: brain of his, and he was honest in what he said.
Speaker 4: And I think there is a great blessing to that
Speaker 4: kind of transparency. Even though every once in a while
Speaker 4: you might hear something you don't like Ryan, I still
Speaker 4: haven't figured out to say the truth. When he first
Speaker 4: came in, I I sat down with him and we
Speaker 4: talked for maybe an hour and a half or so,
Speaker 4: and I did a big kind of Lifetime feature on him.
Speaker 4: And when I do that, I usually feel like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I have a pretty good idea who this guy is.
Speaker 4: I'm still not sure about Ryan Smith. I'm not quite
Speaker 4: sure who he is. And maybe those who are closest
Speaker 4: to him know that. But based on what we've seen,
Speaker 4: certainly out of the culture that's being built with the jazz,
Speaker 4: that's a big old question mark right now. I mean,
Speaker 4: we've seen what's happened with that team. You and I
Speaker 4: have watched it closely, and we have asked questions, and
Speaker 4: we're still asking questions. You know, if they were going
Speaker 4: to tank, why didn't they tank? I'm a go it's
Speaker 4: really your options are limited in the NBA, as you know, Spence,
Speaker 4: when it comes to rebuilding, you don't have a lot
Speaker 4: of choice unless you get extremely lucky. And the Jazz
Speaker 4: have sent mixed messages that way. And so if that's
Speaker 4: what you mean, but building a culture, I think what
Speaker 4: Ryan has built is very much in question right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And also I want to follow up because I
Speaker 2: want to be very fair here and you bring up
Speaker 2: a really good point, because we're gonna discuss this rather
Speaker 2: the course of the show. There is a little bit
Speaker 2: of a different approach with the modern day and age
Speaker 2: of roster construction. What Danny and Justin are tasked with
Speaker 2: is a little bit different than what Scotty Layden was
Speaker 2: tasked with, or Kevin O'Connor or Dennis lindsay. But you
Speaker 2: bring up the luck portion, and not even frank Leyden himself,
Speaker 2: God Bless the legend, would tell you that he knew
Speaker 2: John was gonna be John and Carl was gonna be Carl.
Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connor, I doubt knew that, you know, Darren was
Speaker 2: gonna be well, maybe Darren.
Speaker 3: Because he was like a top three guy.
Speaker 2: But Dennis Lindsay has said to me and you as
Speaker 2: well before, no idea Donovan was gonna be Donovan and
Speaker 2: Rudy was gonna be Rudy. You know, the O'Connor stuff
Speaker 2: is different because he drafts Darren early. He hits on that,
Speaker 2: he signs Booze and o'curran. So that's a great group,
Speaker 2: and Kevin did a hell of a job. But you
Speaker 2: referenced luck portion and as of right now, what we
Speaker 2: have as far as the three year sample size of
Speaker 2: talent that has been acquired via draft, I think Walker
Speaker 2: Kesseler is probably the best news. But if you go
Speaker 2: down the list, Taylor Hendrix is hurt, Keyante George looks
Speaker 2: like he's miscast. Bryce Senseiba not unclear if he's even
Speaker 2: a rotational piece. Kyle Philipowski a couple of things here there.
Speaker 2: Isaiah call you're nothing really. Cody Williams is in the
Speaker 2: G League, and all we have as far as the
Speaker 2: data so far is that the team has not won
Speaker 2: anything even close to a high level type situation.
Speaker 3: They're not close to the postseason.
Speaker 2: And Gordon, there's an argument to be made that there's
Speaker 2: like one young player on the team that provides consistent
Speaker 2: hope to the point that you think he's a rotational player.
Speaker 2: So the luck or whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 2: that potentially franken Scott had with John Carl or Dennis
Speaker 2: had with Rudy and Donovan has not manifested itself so far.
Speaker 2: But is it only luck or is it a failure
Speaker 2: to do your job as a talent evaluator.
Speaker 4: I think it's a little bit of both. And as
Speaker 4: was the case when I did the show with you
Speaker 4: for all those years, I can't say it any better
Speaker 4: than you just did. I think you put a rap
Speaker 4: on it perfectly, and I think that is an issue.
Speaker 4: It's funny you bring up Frank, and I remember Frank saying, Hey,
Speaker 4: if we knew, if we knew these guys doctor Malone
Speaker 4: was going to be as good as they ended up being,
Speaker 4: we would have moved up to draft them. You know,
Speaker 4: they did not know, but they did get lucky. And
Speaker 4: when I talked to Phil Johnson about this, I'll never
Speaker 4: forget what he said. He said he hit the luckword hard,
Speaker 4: and I do believe there is a part of that.
Speaker 4: But in a market like ours here, and this may
Speaker 4: or may not be fair, it isn't fair. Let's come
Speaker 4: right out and say it. You got to be smarter
Speaker 4: than the rest of the guys. You've got to be
Speaker 4: smarter in order because you can't make up for your
Speaker 4: mistakes by being a destination team. And so these guys
Speaker 4: have to get their picks right. There are there is
Speaker 4: talent available later in the draft, as mister uh uh
Speaker 4: As the joker himself in Denver has proved that there
Speaker 4: are there is talent out there, it's just hard to get.
Speaker 4: And the Jazz have to be smarter. They have to
Speaker 4: be smarter than they've been, both from a philosophical standpoint
Speaker 4: and from a selection standpoint. Everybody praised them when they
Speaker 4: got all the draft picks for Rudy and all this stuff,
Speaker 4: and okay, but what are the draft picks turning into Spence?
Speaker 4: Not so great so far as you pointed out. So
Speaker 4: I mean, I know there are those on the inside
Speaker 4: who say that what the Jazz were with the elevated
Speaker 4: Rudy it wasn't gonna work moving forward. Well, it would
Speaker 4: have been a whole lot better, a whole hell.
Speaker 2: Of a life here for people that are listening that
Speaker 2: may be workover at the old spot.
Speaker 3: I love the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 2: In this job, you have to be agnostic, and Gordon,
Speaker 2: you taught me as much as anybody did about that.
Speaker 3: I care about the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 2: I want nothing more than in five years from now
Speaker 2: to and again, I want to be clear about today.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's good or bad, It's just different.
Speaker 2: But I want to be proven wrong, you know. And
Speaker 2: if the starting front court Gordon in three years is Lowry,
Speaker 2: Markin and Cooper Flag and aj Debantza all eat some crow, okay,
Speaker 2: happily so right, absolutely absolutely all right Away from that
Speaker 2: for a moment, over to some college football. Since since
Speaker 2: you and I last spoke, Isaac Wilson, who hit the
Speaker 2: transfer portal to potentially look at playing at other places,
Speaker 2: ends up back where he started. And I gotta say, Gordon,
Speaker 2: I give him a lot of credit for wanting to compete.
Speaker 2: I I got to be clear, I do not know
Speaker 2: what the status is of his knee. We got to
Speaker 2: remember that he hurt his knee, and so will he
Speaker 2: be ready to compete come springball?
Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: And it does feel like Devin Dampier is going to
Speaker 2: be the starting quarterback no matter what. But what are
Speaker 2: your thoughts on Isaac entering the transfer portal and essentially
Speaker 2: decided to come back to play for the Utes.
Speaker 4: Well, let me start a little broader than that, and
Speaker 4: I'll get to that specifically. But what did Kyle say
Speaker 4: at the end of the season. He said, essentially, Hey man,
Speaker 4: we're going to go out and we're going to sign
Speaker 4: a bunch of guys. We're going to get a bunch
Speaker 4: of guys. What did he say? I think he said
Speaker 4: they were looking at you get forty some guys and
Speaker 4: half of those would come through the transfer. What are
Speaker 4: they at now about ten? You know? And so they
Speaker 4: are changing it up because Kyle sees the need to
Speaker 4: do that. You compare that with like BYU, what is
Speaker 4: BYU gotten so far in the transfer one? I think
Speaker 4: they've gotten one new guy, you know, and it came
Speaker 4: from Utah Ryan to tight End yep. So, so the
Speaker 4: youths are going about their business exactly the way. I
Speaker 4: don't know, forget everybody they wanted to, but they're doing
Speaker 4: what Kyle said they would do. As far as Isaac
Speaker 4: Wilson goes, you know, Isaac is a really interesting case.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure you know. Zach Wilson was crazy for football,
Speaker 4: and I hope I'm not misstating that. I'm not sure
Speaker 4: that Isaac Wilson is crazy for football so his brother was.
Speaker 4: That's just the way it seems to being one of
Speaker 4: the whispers I've heard around him. Does he have talent, Yeah,
Speaker 4: he has talent, has a live arm, and yeah, I
Speaker 4: like guys who are willing to compete for their job.
Speaker 4: Everyone's making a big deal over this damn pier guy,
Speaker 4: and Kyle has always talked about the usefulness of a
Speaker 4: dual threat quarterback. But can Isaac Wilson be that? I
Speaker 4: don't know. I don't know. I don't think he's as
Speaker 4: good as Zach was, but I think he's got a
Speaker 4: live arm, and I think he's a decent athlete. Is
Speaker 4: his care factor crazy for football? I'm not sure of that.
Speaker 4: I'm not convinced of that either. But what we saw
Speaker 4: this last season isn't really fair to him. I don't
Speaker 4: think you don't just throw a kid in like that
Speaker 4: right near the beginning of a season and expect him
Speaker 4: to be completely polished. So you wait to see I
Speaker 4: wouldn't be surprised if we see a whole lot more
Speaker 4: of Isaac Wilson at Utah.
Speaker 2: So, according to their dad, I have in front of
Speaker 2: me ten ten additions to the transfer portal from the
Speaker 2: youth so far. Cameron Calhoun announced that he's had to
Speaker 2: di Alabama, which is a big time gut punch, and
Speaker 2: there are a bunch of other players still in the
Speaker 2: transfer portal that have not landed in a spot. You
Speaker 2: reference Carson Ryan, who's headed to bring him young and
Speaker 2: then we'll get to the BYU side of this in
Speaker 2: just a moment. But Gordon, I haven't talked to you
Speaker 2: about the dynamic. I mean, it's a statement and a
Speaker 2: testament to the power of the game of college football,
Speaker 2: in the product of college football that a business that
Speaker 2: is that is run by a confederacy of dunces continues
Speaker 2: to bring in the consumer numbers.
Speaker 3: That it does.
Speaker 2: I can't believe that the transfer portal is open when
Speaker 2: coaches are trying to win national championships. Can you imagine
Speaker 2: if the NFL playoffs are about to start. Lamar Jackson
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, I'm out, just so you know, Like
Speaker 2: it's so it's beyond stupid, and it's it's even dumber
Speaker 2: that the idiots in the room haven't done anything about this.
Speaker 3: And every time I hit like I feel.
Speaker 2: Horrible for these coaches that are in the twelve team
Speaker 2: CFP or even in the Alamo Bowl like Brigham Young
Speaker 2: that have to run a practice and then finish practice
Speaker 2: and go to damage control to make sure their players
Speaker 2: are going to actually play for them. Like, what's your
Speaker 2: thought on this dynamic of essentially having free agency during
Speaker 2: the season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's chaotic. They need to do something about that.
Speaker 4: And at least the teams that are in the College
Speaker 4: Football Playoff have something to play for, you know. I
Speaker 4: mean when Deion Sanders said that his stars were going
Speaker 4: to play against BYU and the Alamo Bowl, I mean,
Speaker 4: a lot of people were shocked by that. He's to
Speaker 4: be said, We'll see if it actually happens that way.
Speaker 4: But with these bowl games, be I don't want to
Speaker 4: call a meaningless, but it seems like that's what they've
Speaker 4: turned into. Unless you're in the playoff. I mean, if
Speaker 4: I'm a player, I may be looking at for my
Speaker 4: best interests in front of of the Team's interesting you're
Speaker 4: playing and you know, the tidy Bowl down in some
Speaker 4: small town in the South somewhere. But I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I mean, look, you could find some way to organize this,
Speaker 4: and there's a whole lot of organizing that needs to
Speaker 4: take place in college football and college basketball for that
Speaker 4: matter these days, and maybe revenue sharing will help that,
Speaker 4: but it's not going to solve it. There's going and
Speaker 4: with all the things that are out there that are
Speaker 4: about to be added to the college game, with more
Speaker 4: money pouring in and pouring in, it's like you said,
Speaker 4: it's like the fools are getting richer and richer because
Speaker 4: there's more and more money being invested all right over.
Speaker 2: To the BYU side of things. According to the data
Speaker 2: have in front of me. Maybe I should just ask Crittle.
Speaker 2: Here is Chase Roberts coming back? Okay, okay, I've got
Speaker 2: a BYU host next to me. I should just tap
Speaker 2: into his knowledge. Eleven BYU players in the PORTALASA now.
Speaker 2: The one player they picked up was Carson Ryan. But
Speaker 2: Chase Roberts did some meat after practice and it said
Speaker 2: he's going to announce his intention via social.
Speaker 3: Media this week. You know, we have this really.
Speaker 2: Fun matchup with Chase against Travis Hunter coming up in
Speaker 2: the Alamo Bowl that we all kind of want to watch.
Speaker 2: And Chase I love what he said this week. He
Speaker 2: said I'm gonna find him and follow him. So he
Speaker 2: has to cover me. So that's kind of the white
Speaker 2: whale out there right now. BYU again one edition. Eleven
Speaker 2: players have left and we're waiting on Chase Roberts. But
Speaker 2: you know, Klonie, well, how do you think he's traversing
Speaker 2: because they're not in the CFP.
Speaker 3: But it's an awesome Bowl game.
Speaker 2: They're gonna get like six mil I think is a
Speaker 2: payout and Kilanie's got to deal with the same stuff
Speaker 2: with the game coming up on Saturday.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of people are wondering where are all
Speaker 4: the transfers for BYUYU had a pretty good year. I
Speaker 4: don't know if the need is as great for them
Speaker 4: as it is for some other teams to make a
Speaker 4: whole lot of moves. But Chase Roberts is a guy
Speaker 4: you've got to hold on to. If this guy sticks around,
Speaker 4: he's going to be in a very strong receiving core.
Speaker 4: He's going to be the star.
Speaker 3: Yep, the star.
Speaker 4: They will utilize him in a way that they utilized
Speaker 4: him a lot this last year, nothing compared to what
Speaker 4: he'll be next season if he stays at BYU. And
Speaker 4: if I'm Jake Ritz laugh, I'm talking to him, avag
Speaker 4: I'll give you the ball every other down. Come on
Speaker 4: back because I need you to come back. And I
Speaker 4: kind of agree with Ben. I think he will come back.
Speaker 4: But we've all been shocked before. But he's a clutch receiver,
Speaker 4: he's got great size. He's a guy that I think
Speaker 4: can improve his draft stock if he sticks around.
Speaker 3: So it was announced.
Speaker 2: I don't think I talked to you about this, and
Speaker 2: of course it's BYU, so we don't know all the details.
Speaker 2: Kilanie given his extension, and you know I was thinking
Speaker 2: about this, and because you know him well, I want
Speaker 2: to get your thoughts on it. The one job I
Speaker 2: think Kilanie might leave BYU four is USC and Lincoln
Speaker 2: Riley's buyout is like seventy million.
Speaker 3: Dollars or something like that.
Speaker 2: Which is just insane. That's nature of college football coaching.
Speaker 2: And again, Colonie just got extended. But do you think
Speaker 2: if that job came open and the powers to be
Speaker 2: at Southern cal decided to call down to provo, Colonnie
Speaker 2: answers the phone.
Speaker 4: Yes, he answers the phone. I'll say it this way,
Speaker 4: and I'm not going to quote Klaney in any way here,
Speaker 4: but I do know him well and I think he's
Speaker 4: been somewhat pissed off about the amount that he's gotten
Speaker 4: in the past. I did not know the details of
Speaker 4: this particular extension. My guess would be that it was
Speaker 4: enhanced substantially. But I'll go back and quote what gorbe
Speaker 4: Chow said many years ago when I was talking to him,
Speaker 4: and of course he was the offensive coordinator down at Troy.
Speaker 4: He said, quote, USC gets what USC wants, and yeah,
Speaker 4: so I think Klane would pick up the phone and
Speaker 4: see what that is all about. Although I see right now,
Speaker 4: I mean that's not the US, see that I remember it.
Speaker 4: They seem to be in some more a pile of
Speaker 4: turmoil right now. They have players who are abandoned that program,
Speaker 4: and so if I'm the powers that be a USC,
Speaker 4: I would be very interested in a guy like Kolani Sataki.
Speaker 4: They need to do something because what they're doing right
Speaker 4: now is very much hanging in the air.
Speaker 2: Gordo, I got to say, I got your family Christmas
Speaker 2: card in the mail last night, so thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Everybody looks like they're thriving and doing well. So I'll
Speaker 2: set you loose, but happy holidays to you and List
Speaker 2: and the girls, and you know, only love from this direction.
Speaker 3: You guys hope you know that.
Speaker 4: Well, they do know that there's nothing but that admiration
Speaker 4: in our family for you. And I'll say that on
Speaker 4: a professional level and on a personal level, nothing but
Speaker 4: love in this direction too, Spence, thanks for having
Speaker 3: Me on Okay Gordo, Happy holidays.