Speaker 1: All right, let's get a drivetime Wednesday afternoon style, thirteen
Speaker 1: minutes past the hour of two o'clock, scorching hot day.
Speaker 1: It's about ninety six degrees and sunny here in downtown
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, Utah. It looks like we have some
Speaker 1: cooler temperatures coming our way starting on Sunday and then
Speaker 1: throughout the course.
Speaker 2: Of next week.
Speaker 1: As it is every single day. It's good to have
Speaker 1: you along for the riot. Spence checkets behind the mic.
Speaker 1: That is Porter Larsen Beyond the Glass today producing the program,
Speaker 1: booking the show, some good guests on the program today
Speaker 1: to talk about a bevy of different things. Happy Wednesday
Speaker 1: to you. You are halfway through that work week. You're
Speaker 1: one day closer to the weekend. Hopefully you're having a
Speaker 1: good work week. As we inche closer and closer to
Speaker 1: game day. It is game week in the world of
Speaker 1: college football. Is week zero. It's gone coming up this weekend,
Speaker 1: and then we are ten days away from Utah football,
Speaker 1: ten days away from Utah the Rose Bowl against UCLA,
Speaker 1: ten days away from Young Bear Bachmeyer taking the field
Speaker 1: for Brigham Young against Portland State, and the Bronco mennenh
Speaker 1: Hall era begins in Logan with a matchup against UTAP
Speaker 1: So all three of our local teams at action in
Speaker 1: ten days from right now. Of course, Week zero will
Speaker 1: get going with a big tilt in Dublin, Ireland at
Speaker 1: ten am on Saturday. It's Iowa State and Kansas State
Speaker 1: as well. All be eager to learn a little bit
Speaker 1: more about a couple of the Big Twelve opponents and
Speaker 1: foes that Utah and BYU have to deal with. Idaho
Speaker 1: State will take on UNLV got little Fresno State, Kansas
Speaker 1: Actions another Big twelve team playing Stanford and Hawaii Sam Houston,
Speaker 1: Western Kentucky as well. So Week zero starting on Saturday,
Speaker 1: and then Week one we'll begin on Thursday of next week,
Speaker 1: August the twenty eighth. Boise State is in South Florida.
Speaker 1: We've got a bunch of good games on that Thursday night.
Speaker 1: They'll be watching a lot of the opponents that Utah,
Speaker 1: BYU and Utah State have. We've got Friday action in
Speaker 1: college football next week, more Big twelve actions and big
Speaker 1: non con Big Twelve games. Georgia Tech, Colorado, Auburn and Baylor.
Speaker 1: Auburn will be at mclains Stadium in Waco, and if
Speaker 1: you're a Big twelve fan, you've got to be cheering
Speaker 1: for these non con.
Speaker 2: Games to go the way of the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1: We'll do some college football in the show today. The
Speaker 1: CFP Selection Committee has announced some enhanced metrics but they're
Speaker 1: going to use to select the teams in advance to
Speaker 1: the CFP. There is a December first deadline for the
Speaker 1: agreement of the new CFP format to be put in
Speaker 1: place or else he's just going to kind of remain
Speaker 1: the same for next year. And I want to get
Speaker 1: into the difference between innovation and just change. Brian Rolapp,
Speaker 1: Friend of the program. Brian Rolap actually is the new
Speaker 1: CEO of the PGA Tour, and for the first time
Speaker 1: he addressed the group of media at East Lake in
Speaker 1: preparation for the tour championship.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: They're forming a new committee led by Tiger Woods to
Speaker 1: implement innovation and change on the PGA Tour. But college
Speaker 1: football seems to lack innovation and simply lean into change
Speaker 1: for the sake of change.
Speaker 2: So I want to get into that.
Speaker 1: On the show today to see if we can understand
Speaker 1: the landscape of college football a little bit better. RSL
Speaker 1: One day closer to the weekend for Reale Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: They are taking on Minnesota out in Sandy coming up
Speaker 1: on Saturday. It is a big, big match for the boys.
Speaker 1: We're here for the lads. Seven thirty First kick on
Speaker 1: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. RSL dropping a couple
Speaker 1: of road matches, some tough calls going against the boys,
Speaker 1: So we'll get you ready for that match and talk
Speaker 1: a little Raal saw Lake. The secondary transfer window closes
Speaker 1: tomorrow and some rumors that there could be an addition
Speaker 1: on the way for RSL for the final eight matches
Speaker 1: of the season, and the final eight matches feature five
Speaker 1: at home. Probably safe to say they need to win
Speaker 1: all five of the matches at home. No ties, no nil,
Speaker 1: nil draws, go.
Speaker 2: Get all three.
Speaker 1: And the latest that continues to spilling on this beef
Speaker 1: with the current US men's national team players and kind
Speaker 1: of some of the X guys that are criticizing them
Speaker 1: soft young generation. You gotta deal with it, so we'll
Speaker 1: get it out on the show lot to do on
Speaker 1: the program. Inching closer and closer to pro football, Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson had to leave Ravens practice today with what looked
Speaker 1: like a wrist injury, but the reports are he's okay.
Speaker 2: There was a.
Speaker 1: Scuffle down in Tennessee featuring cam Ward Scott. Mitchell joined
Speaker 1: us yesterday and talked about the complications of this time
Speaker 1: of year when you're in camp and all you want
Speaker 1: to do is hit somebody else. You're sick of hitting, you,
Speaker 1: your teammates. You just want to get out there and play.
Speaker 1: So inching closer and closer to the starter. Pro Football.
Speaker 1: Week three of the NFL preseason gets roll, coming up
Speaker 1: on Thursday, and then Week one a week from next Thursday,
Speaker 1: September the fourth with the Cowboys.
Speaker 2: Will Mi Caa Parsons be on the roster.
Speaker 1: Charlotte Jones is the latest Jones to put her foot
Speaker 1: in her mouth as she made some comments today about
Speaker 1: the landscape of the Dallas Cowboys, the favorite football team
Speaker 1: of that guy Porta Larson.
Speaker 2: All Right, our first guest will be our friend Sammy
Speaker 2: Morra from You Zone.
Speaker 1: We'll do some Utah football camp Kyle, some fall football
Speaker 1: with Sammy on the show.
Speaker 2: Matt Brown, what are our favorites?
Speaker 1: From the College Football newsletter? Extra Points stops by. We'll
Speaker 1: do the latest on the CFP format. There's an interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic happening throughout the landscape of college athletics as far
Speaker 1: as employees for athletic departments that are being squeezed out.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of the athletic directors and higher
Speaker 1: ranked executives are being paid a lot of money and
Speaker 1: the staffers are not, and they're being asked to do
Speaker 1: more these days, and Matt wrote about that. We're going
Speaker 1: to get into that with Matt today and we'll do
Speaker 1: some college football with him.
Speaker 2: Good friend of the.
Speaker 1: Program, Tony Park stops five Voice of the Bees. We'll
Speaker 1: do a little bit of everything with Tony. We'll do
Speaker 1: some college football, some offseason jazz, and we'll get the
Speaker 1: latest on the Bees with TP. Then the head coach
Speaker 1: over Al saw Lake. Even though he was awarded a
Speaker 1: red card yesterday, Porter, I've rescinded that and I've made
Speaker 1: it a soft yellow, so I've allowed Pablo to come
Speaker 1: on the show today.
Speaker 3: There we go, how are you appealing to the league office? Indeed, indeed,
Speaker 3: how'd that go?
Speaker 2: It was a proof.
Speaker 1: So even though a red card indicates kicked him off
Speaker 1: yesterday and kick him off today soft yellow, We're gonna
Speaker 1: let him on.
Speaker 3: For Pablo. I support it for Pablo. I do support it.
Speaker 3: So we're good there old soccer players. No, they don't
Speaker 3: get a pass. How's your Wednesday, Val, Wednesday's good. Halfway
Speaker 3: through the work week. In ten days, Spencer checkets away
Speaker 3: from football here in the great state of Utah, which
Speaker 3: should be a really exciting year, I think in college
Speaker 3: football in the state of Utah. Bronco Mendenhall, Kyle Whittingham,
Speaker 3: Klonie Satake, Morgan Scally, who may join the show later
Speaker 3: this week.
Speaker 1: I believe, stop it, don't tease me. We'd never get
Speaker 1: Morgan on the show in waiting.
Speaker 3: I guess I want to call it right. It gives
Speaker 3: a little feel of, of course, when Kyle was like
Speaker 3: very much the head next head coach because Urban was
Speaker 3: clearly going to either take an NFL job or in
Speaker 3: Ohio State Florida USC type gig right, there's a little
Speaker 3: bit of that feel with him on the way out.
Speaker 3: Obviously different with Kyle maybe retiring in the next I
Speaker 3: don't know one to ten years. Who knows with that guy,
Speaker 3: But excited for it and yeah, ten days away frum
Speaker 3: kickoff right.
Speaker 2: Around the corner.
Speaker 1: Our first guest today will be Sammy Moro from Mute
Speaker 1: Zone to give us the latest on the Utah football
Speaker 1: situation as far as training camp goes, maybe some positional battles.
Speaker 1: We did find out yesterday that Isaac Wilson is your
Speaker 1: QB two.
Speaker 2: Most of the positional battles seem to.
Speaker 1: Be relatively settled, but we'll see what Sammy has to
Speaker 1: say about that today.
Speaker 2: But before we.
Speaker 1: Bring on Sammy on a Wednesday afternoon, courtesy if our
Speaker 1: good friends, and you're good friends too at Prize Picks, it's.
Speaker 2: Time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Drive with Spence check its on Utah's
Speaker 4: number one sports talk now into the studios of ESPN
Speaker 4: seven hundred to set them on a scene for the show.
Speaker 4: The opening tip of the Drive is brought to you
Speaker 4: by Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and
Speaker 4: run your game with Prize Picks.
Speaker 1: All right, First things first, with Prize Picks, if you
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Speaker 1: deal with our good friends at prize picks. All right,
Speaker 1: a couple of things here and we'll get into the
Speaker 1: later with Matt Brown. Brian Rolapp front of the show.
Speaker 1: He joined us a couple of years back. Brian Rolap
Speaker 1: is now the CEO of the PGA Tour. Okay, and
Speaker 1: it was announced today as Brian Rolapp, who spent twenty
Speaker 1: two years as Roger Goodell's right hand man. Brian is
Speaker 1: a sharp, good dude. I've known him for a long time.
Speaker 1: Great family, really good people. If he wanted to wait
Speaker 1: it out, he would have been and maybe still will
Speaker 1: be the next commissioner of Pro Football.
Speaker 2: He would have been the successor to Roger Goodell.
Speaker 1: All of the NFL revenue streams generated by TV deals.
Speaker 1: He is the brain power behind all of those deals. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the media behemoth it is live TV rights behind
Speaker 1: pro Football is the brainchild of Brian Rolap, who has
Speaker 1: now taken over the PGA Tour.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So listening to Brian today as he addressed the group
Speaker 1: at Eastlake as the Tour Championship is get getting ready
Speaker 1: to get underway. Scottie sh with the shortest odds to
Speaker 1: win that tournament since Tiger in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: Brian has decided to implement a new committee led by
Speaker 1: one Tiger Woods to essentially enact what he's calling quote
Speaker 1: significant change to the tour's current model. Okay, and I'm
Speaker 1: really excited. We're not going to do a ton of
Speaker 1: golf here. I will land the plane, trust me. We
Speaker 1: are going to bring this back around. But I'm very
Speaker 1: We're gonna have Rex Hoguard on the show tomorrow from
Speaker 1: the Golf Channel, so excited to talk to him about this.
Speaker 1: But on I would say five or six different occasions,
Speaker 1: Brian used the term innovation, okay, to.
Speaker 2: What as far as what they're going to try to
Speaker 2: do to kind of.
Speaker 1: Get this this you know, certain dynamic with the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: just kind of bring it back around to take advantage
Speaker 1: of the popularity of golf right now. Golf has boomed
Speaker 1: across the world in a way that the sport's never
Speaker 1: seen and Brian is a really interesting guy to lead
Speaker 1: this endeavor during this landscape change interest spike in the game.
Speaker 1: So a lot of innovation, a lot of change to
Speaker 1: the tour, a lot of innovation, a lot of change
Speaker 1: to media partners to try to make the game more
Speaker 1: accessible to fans and also try to unite the best
Speaker 1: players in the world because as we know, Live Golf
Speaker 1: still has you know, maybe four of the top seven
Speaker 1: or eight players in the world, with John Rahm and
Speaker 1: Bryce and De'shambeau and you know some of the other
Speaker 1: players they have Brooks, Kepkin and such. So I'm excited
Speaker 1: to see how this plays out with Tiger in charge.
Speaker 1: There's some other PGA Tour players are going to be
Speaker 1: on this committee, Patrick Cantley, Adam Scott, Maverick Maverick McNeely
Speaker 1: and Keith Mitchell and others. But there's a big difference
Speaker 1: because I was thinking about this through the prism of
Speaker 1: the audacity of the Big ten to even say out
Speaker 1: loud that they want a new CFP model that includes
Speaker 1: twenty eight football teams, seven auto bids from the Big Ten,
Speaker 1: seven auto bids from the SEC, five from the Big twelve,
Speaker 1: five from the ACC, then a few four some of
Speaker 1: the FPS school or excuse me, the non P four schools,
Speaker 1: and then a couple of at large bids. The audacity
Speaker 1: to even say it out loud, let alone to believe
Speaker 1: that you think anybody would take you seriously. Like the
Speaker 1: main issue with college football right now has and it's
Speaker 1: it's been the main issue for a while. It's the
Speaker 1: main issue right now, and it will be the main
Speaker 1: issue until they settle in to a different ecosystem and structure.
Speaker 2: Overall, there's nobody in charge.
Speaker 1: And because there's nobody in charge, the audacity of the
Speaker 1: Big Ten to even float this model out there. And now,
Speaker 1: I will give the SEC a little bit of credit,
Speaker 1: you know, they have kind of walked back a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of their initial messaging that we're the SEC,
Speaker 1: so we should get whatever we want.
Speaker 2: Really, the Big.
Speaker 1: Ten these days are causing all the problems. You can
Speaker 1: make an argument that the Big Ten is the best
Speaker 1: football conference in America. I don't think it's the deepest,
Speaker 1: but maybe at the top it's the best. But the
Speaker 1: audacity to even float this thing out there, it is
Speaker 1: beyond stupid. Because what makes college football great, what has
Speaker 1: always made college football is the urgency and the prescient
Speaker 1: nature of every weekend.
Speaker 2: Every time your team plays, it feels like it's.
Speaker 1: Life or death because you suffer a loss in conference
Speaker 1: and suddenly everything shifts. You suffer your first loss of
Speaker 1: the season when BYU is independent. As soon as they
Speaker 1: lost the game. It's like, Okay, Idaho Potato Bowl, Hawaii Bowl.
Speaker 1: We know your destination. Now, you just got to go
Speaker 1: get six wins, even if some of those wins against
Speaker 1: like UMass or like East Carolina or that joke of
Speaker 1: a schedule they had for years. But now that you're
Speaker 1: at a conference, the urgency week to week it feels
Speaker 1: so immediate and it feels so intense that any endeavor
Speaker 1: that you undertake to undermine that dynamic of your sport
Speaker 1: will start to drain the interests of it.
Speaker 2: It will.
Speaker 1: Now the problem right now if you're just a college
Speaker 1: football consumer, is that the powers that be, even though
Speaker 1: there's nobody in charge, there certainly are college commissioners, and
Speaker 1: we know the Big ten of the SEC and the
Speaker 1: landscape of college football, wield most of the power. They
Speaker 1: know that they've got you. They know they got their
Speaker 1: hooks in you. They know that with the combination of
Speaker 1: simply your joy of watching your favorite football team, combined
Speaker 1: with the new widespread acceptance of putting money on games,
Speaker 1: that there's almost nothing they can do that will motivate
Speaker 1: you to.
Speaker 2: Turn off your television.
Speaker 1: And this is a little bit of a spillover effect
Speaker 1: of pro football because pro football for years, we've heard
Speaker 1: a lot of people say, oh man, this will be
Speaker 1: the thing that drains interest in the NFL, and you
Speaker 1: know what, it's never the thing. It's never the thing
Speaker 1: that leads to people turning off their televisions or stopping
Speaker 1: going to games, whether it's the head injuries, whether it's
Speaker 1: the CTE, whether it is you know, players being suspended
Speaker 1: for gambling on games they play in, the danger of
Speaker 1: the sport, the culture of the sport, the wokeness of
Speaker 1: the sport, whatever it is leaning into this, that or whatever,
Speaker 1: There's never been anything that has transpired in the history
Speaker 1: of pro football's evolution that has motivated a large enough
Speaker 1: group of people to turn the TV off, that motivates
Speaker 1: them to change what they're doing.
Speaker 2: They can do what they've been doing.
Speaker 1: And honestly, screw a few things up here or there,
Speaker 1: and y'all are still gonna watch. And they know that,
Speaker 1: which is why they have the audacity to float out
Speaker 1: an idea of a twenty eight team expanded CFP. Baylor
Speaker 1: would have been playing for the national championship last year
Speaker 1: if if this thing was real, And every year we
Speaker 1: debate like who's the seventh best team in the Big
Speaker 1: Ten who deserves to get in after the top six
Speaker 1: have been decided. Like it would do away with conference
Speaker 1: championship games, It would absolutely kill the prescient, urgent nature
Speaker 1: of every single Saturday. And this is the thing that
Speaker 1: if they lean into it, I actually believe some of
Speaker 1: the interest week to week will will wane. There's a
Speaker 1: difference between innovation and change for change's sake, and college
Speaker 1: football strikes me as throwing a bunch of darts at
Speaker 1: a dart board and hopes one sticks.
Speaker 2: And then let's roll with that.
Speaker 1: And Brian roll out the commission of the PGA Tour today,
Speaker 1: I think gave a bit of a masterclass on leadership
Speaker 1: and what it's like to put things in place intentionally,
Speaker 1: with an organized approach, in order to capitalize on this
Speaker 1: moment that golf has and has had for a few
Speaker 1: years now with its popularity. Okay, things are good right
Speaker 1: now in golf. Let's not rest on our laurels. Let's evolve,
Speaker 1: let's innovate, let's improve.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: College football, on the other side, has this built in
Speaker 1: advantage of so many fans just loving it no matter what,
Speaker 1: and they don't seem to give a rip about that.
Speaker 2: All they want to do is change for change shake,
Speaker 2: trying to make.
Speaker 1: Me cry on the show today with extensive So what
Speaker 1: do we got here?
Speaker 2: What's the bump?
Speaker 3: Little Chappelle roan Pink Pony Club on behalf of the guest.
Speaker 2: Wait, is that how you pronounce it? I think so.
Speaker 1: I thought it was Shapple. I honestly it might be.
Speaker 3: It might be. You'll have to ask Sammy. I'm not again. Listen,
Speaker 3: this is pretty new music, like brand new, but like
Speaker 3: this century, so it's not really down my wheelhouse.
Speaker 1: Well, we like to give our guests an opportunity select
Speaker 1: their walk up song, so we'll bring in Sammy Mora,
Speaker 1: our friend from you Zone. All right, Sammy, how do
Speaker 1: you pronounce the artist's name? I honestly don't know. It's
Speaker 1: Chapel roone, nice porter.
Speaker 3: There we go. See. I'm not like that song though.
Speaker 5: Bro.
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to be really an older brother. But
Speaker 1: if we stretch it and get weird, I'm old enough
Speaker 1: to be your father.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: All right, Sammy. How are you happy Wednesday? I'm good, good,
Speaker 2: Thank you for the time.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the announcement that came down yesterday
Speaker 1: that Isaac Wilson is officially QB two. He'll be backing
Speaker 1: up Devin Dan Pierre, And I suppose Sammy the blessing
Speaker 1: in disguise with Cam's son, you know, his inability to
Speaker 1: stay healthy last year is Utah football as a backup
Speaker 1: quarterback with a good amount of Big twelve experience, which
Speaker 1: of course is a good thing.
Speaker 2: What's your reaction to the news.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, you have Kyle say that that Isaac
Speaker 6: is that backup quarter but then Jason Beck yesterday kind
Speaker 6: of slightly contradicted him by saying that he sees it
Speaker 6: as a two A and a two B versus a
Speaker 6: two and a three, so saying and he was talking
Speaker 6: about Bird Fickl and specifically, like he said that Bird
Speaker 6: can get out there and get the job done if
Speaker 6: they needed. But you know, it's kind of interesting to
Speaker 6: hear Kyle say that Isaac is two and then you
Speaker 6: hear Jason say that it's a two A two B
Speaker 6: type of situation. But like you said, it, to a
Speaker 6: certain extent, it's kind of a blessing in disguise, knowing
Speaker 6: that Isaac does have all that experience coming into this season,
Speaker 6: and I know you know, there's a lot of hesitation
Speaker 6: about him and his play and stuff, especially how last
Speaker 6: season went down. But the way that I see it is,
Speaker 6: you know, I think that everybody, everyone in this quarterback room,
Speaker 6: with the exception of Devin, came into this spring with
Speaker 6: the clean slate. You know, they were all learning the
Speaker 6: offense at the same time. It wasn't like someone had
Speaker 6: been in the program for a little bit longer than
Speaker 6: another one, so they had to edge up. But you know,
Speaker 6: Isaac Bird, we're both on the same page, same playing field,
Speaker 6: and you know, they this this battle went on from
Speaker 6: the start of spring ball until literally Saturday when the
Speaker 6: or Friday when the scrimmage ended. You know, like that's
Speaker 6: a long time for these two to be going neck
Speaker 6: and neck and back and forth. But I think it
Speaker 6: proves that, you know, Isaac has made the stride that
Speaker 6: he needs he needs to do to be more consistent
Speaker 6: as a quarterback. You know, Kyle said that his in
Speaker 6: head clock is is going off a lot faster, so
Speaker 6: he's you can tell that the game is starting to
Speaker 6: slow down for him. I think, you know, most people
Speaker 6: hope that you only see Isaac in garbage time, you know,
Speaker 6: in a couple of games this year. But I think
Speaker 6: having a backup quarterback who has the experience is you know,
Speaker 6: it's it's a positive, but you know, this isn't the
Speaker 6: same offense that he ran last year. Like I always
Speaker 6: joked that Andy Ludwig's offense, to a certain extent, you
Speaker 6: needed like three PhDs, a Masters, and like a bunch
Speaker 6: of other degrees to be able to do a checkdown
Speaker 6: in the in the offense just because of how chaotic
Speaker 6: and how the intense it was. And this offense is
Speaker 6: a very lug and play user friendly type system from
Speaker 6: what we've heard, So you know, it's going to be
Speaker 6: interesting to see how Isaac you know, has adapted to it,
Speaker 6: how he's he's grown in it and stuff like that.
Speaker 6: But at the end of the day, I think, you know,
Speaker 6: it is a it's it's a blessing in disguise. I
Speaker 6: hope I know most Utah fans and I I think
Speaker 6: everyone maybe include it. Hope that you know, you don't
Speaker 6: see any of the backups for an extended period of
Speaker 6: time this season, but if God forbid something were to happen,
Speaker 6: you know it, it gives me at least a little
Speaker 6: bit of comfort knowing that you know there is some
Speaker 6: experience behind Devin.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you've learned about Bird, because to your point,
Speaker 1: it is kind of funny to hear Kyle emphatically announce
Speaker 1: the backup and coach back Beck, wait, hold on a second,
Speaker 1: and I wonder how much of the messaging is too.
Speaker 1: It's just such a weird thing now. And obviously the
Speaker 1: transfer portal is not open, but so many players, if
Speaker 1: they're not happy with their lot, decide to withdraw and
Speaker 1: maybe go elsewhere. I don't know how much of that
Speaker 1: messaging is to you know, let Bird know, like, no,
Speaker 1: we still like you. But in the instance I mean Sammy,
Speaker 1: As you know, the pastast few years, it hasn't just
Speaker 1: been QB one, QB two. I mean how we've seen
Speaker 1: four and five quarterbacks at times. So if we do
Speaker 1: see Bird this year, and we hope that we only
Speaker 1: see Devin, to your point, what have you learned about him?
Speaker 2: What kind of quarterback is bird? Ficklin?
Speaker 6: Well, bird is Beck even said that Bird does things
Speaker 6: a lot similarly a lot, more like a lot, the
Speaker 6: same way that Devin does things Bird. So it's like
Speaker 6: the fun fact that I have about birds. He's a leftist,
Speaker 6: so you know, they kind of have to, you know,
Speaker 6: shift a few things here and there because of you know,
Speaker 6: the left tended quarterback. But other than that, like, he's
Speaker 6: a he's a big guy. He's up to two hundred
Speaker 6: pounds now. He's very, very, very mobile. Like that was
Speaker 6: one of the things that I think was when I
Speaker 6: watched his high school tape, you know, late in the cycle,
Speaker 6: when Utah started pushing really hard for him down the stretch.
Speaker 6: He's a fast guy, he's very shifty, he's hard to
Speaker 6: bring down. And you know, I can see a lot
Speaker 6: of the same qualities that Devin Dampier has in Bird Ficklin.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, yeah, he's still young and you're
Speaker 6: you're gonna have to see how he adapts to, you know,
Speaker 6: playing in a live snap and stuff like that. But
Speaker 6: from just a film standpoint and just watching his high
Speaker 6: school film and watching the little bit we've got to
Speaker 6: watch in the spring, Bird plays very similarly to Devin.
Speaker 6: He's very mobile, he he is he's elusive. Like there
Speaker 6: were times that like when you go back and watch
Speaker 6: high school film and even like, you know, I think
Speaker 6: there was a moment during the spring game where it
Speaker 6: looks like he's dead in the water, like the defense
Speaker 6: is going to get to him and he is somehow
Speaker 6: able to get out of there and turn it into
Speaker 6: a positive play. I you know, outside wise, I like
Speaker 6: where Bird is at. You know, maybe it's for the
Speaker 6: best that he sits for a year, gets his feet wet,
Speaker 6: gets his feet underneath him, and the game starts to
Speaker 6: slow down because you know, if Devin has a massive
Speaker 6: season this year, you know, Utah could have a wide
Speaker 6: open quarterback spot heading into next season, and you know
Speaker 6: we might have this whole battle all over again between
Speaker 6: Bird and Isaac, depending on if someone Alexa transfer or not.
Speaker 6: But there's a lot If you haven't went and watched
Speaker 6: birds highlight reel from high school, I encourage everyone too.
Speaker 6: It is. It is a very fun highlight reel to watch.
Speaker 1: How is that wide receiver room shaken out? I know
Speaker 1: I asked you this last week, and I'll ask you
Speaker 1: this probably up until we actually see see the games
Speaker 1: and see what they look like. Coach Witz said they've landed.
Speaker 1: I think he said seven or eight. And the reason
Speaker 1: that number is applicable is that's how many you travel with.
Speaker 2: And we'll see.
Speaker 1: I mean when asked about it, Devin has good things
Speaker 1: to say. The wide receivers were made available last week.
Speaker 1: They all said things you'd expect them to say in
Speaker 1: fall camp. But any thoughts on who wide receiver one is,
Speaker 1: wide receiver two is how that room is kind of
Speaker 1: shaping out as of now.
Speaker 6: So I honestly I said this to you last week,
Speaker 6: but I still think Tobias Merriweather is going to be
Speaker 6: wide receiver one. I mean, it's kind of hard to
Speaker 6: say who's going to be where on a depth chart
Speaker 6: considering Kyle, So we're not getting depth charts anymore, which
Speaker 6: I know, like there's people that are like what we
Speaker 6: need them, but I'm like, honestly pert past game one,
Speaker 6: nothing really ever changed on a Utah depth chart unless
Speaker 6: someone had a season ending injury, so you just kind
Speaker 6: of had to like base it off of what you're seeing,
Speaker 6: uh like during war ups and stuff. But I will
Speaker 6: say that Tobias I think is is wide receiver one.
Speaker 6: We've heard a lot of great things about him coming
Speaker 6: out of camp, and you know, he's a big he's
Speaker 6: a big guy, big playmaker, and I think that he
Speaker 6: could be like a very dynamic pass catcher for this
Speaker 6: Utah offense. I still am very uh bullish on Larry
Speaker 6: Simmons at that wide receiver wide receiver two position, just
Speaker 6: you know, another guy, big guy, he can make a
Speaker 6: big downfield plays, a big playmaker, threat guy, very good
Speaker 6: at making contested catches too, So I'm still high on him.
Speaker 6: And then but the slot receiver position is one that
Speaker 6: I over the last few weeks have kind of went
Speaker 6: back and forth with. You know, at the beginning of fall,
Speaker 6: I honestly thought it was going to be it was
Speaker 6: going to be Ryan Davis, and then I didn't know
Speaker 6: who was going to be at the two. But now
Speaker 6: I honestly if there was a depth chart, which I think,
Speaker 6: I think that that's I think it would be Ryan
Speaker 6: Davis or Creed with him or now just you know,
Speaker 6: we've heard good things about both of them coming out
Speaker 6: of fault camp. But you know, Creed really really really
Speaker 6: came on the last few weeks, and I think that
Speaker 6: he's firmly worked his way into that rotation and he
Speaker 6: might even you know, at some point this season he
Speaker 6: could possibly overtake RD depending on how his production is
Speaker 6: going and stuff like that. But that that that slot
Speaker 6: spot has kind of evolved for me over the last
Speaker 6: few weeks.
Speaker 1: So you sent out a tweet, Sammy, and I followed
Speaker 1: you last week when you joined the show, and you're
Speaker 1: a great follow I'll encourage people to follow Sammy at
Speaker 1: s Underscore more two four seven. That got quite a
Speaker 1: lot of attention, and it was the you were the
Speaker 1: first person I saw tweet this. I later listened to
Speaker 1: the sound as Devin Dampier said that he sometimes has
Speaker 1: up to eight seconds in the pocket with the Utah
Speaker 1: offensive line the big boys blocking up front, and it
Speaker 1: got got quite a lot of attention. Looked like some
Speaker 1: YU fans decided they wanted to chime in, which I'll
Speaker 1: you know, it's always kind of an interesting dynamic that way, but.
Speaker 2: Look, it is the positional group.
Speaker 1: Like ESPN did their top one hundred players in college
Speaker 1: football today, Spencer is at seven in the entire country
Speaker 1: at any position, you know. And I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this the other day. I was just kind of doing
Speaker 1: some prep for the show. We never talk about Michael
Speaker 1: Mokafi Si. He has thirty three starts under his belt
Speaker 1: and all the attentions on like Spencer and Caleb and
Speaker 1: Jared's a captain. So tell me about your thoughts with
Speaker 1: that dynamic and certainly going up against Utah's defense projected
Speaker 1: to be one of the best in the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: Do you really feel like the old line has that
Speaker 1: type of performance in him?
Speaker 6: I honestly do. Like you know, this is like you said,
Speaker 6: there's a lot of experience on this line. You know,
Speaker 6: Spencer and Caleb are getting most of the of the
Speaker 6: preseason praise and stuff, but you got to remember to
Speaker 6: know what Togi. I Also, he graded out as one
Speaker 6: of PFF's top guards last season. Like he is also
Speaker 6: a high, high level play. So you know, it's not
Speaker 6: just the tackles that are good at what they do.
Speaker 6: Those three interior guys are also really well. And it's
Speaker 6: it's good that you bring up Moco because you know,
Speaker 6: people seem to forget People seem to just use that
Speaker 6: last season as the reason why, you know, maybe he's
Speaker 6: not playing the best and stuff, but he got hurt
Speaker 6: last season, he didn't play majority, he didn't play majority
Speaker 6: of the season. So but before that, I mean, I
Speaker 6: can think of times his freshman in his sophomore year
Speaker 6: where he was making some really big plays that made
Speaker 6: everyone really excited for his future. And so you know,
Speaker 6: those thirty three starts, those are going to be really important.
Speaker 6: And I think, you know, all five of these guys
Speaker 6: have played quite a lot of football together, and they
Speaker 6: know each other, they know how they're going to react,
Speaker 6: they know what's going on. So I think that that's great.
Speaker 6: And you know that tweet that we did go out
Speaker 6: mute as as soon as I saw that it was
Speaker 6: making waves, I just I just went onto my notifications,
Speaker 6: I just hit mute. But the thing is is like,
Speaker 6: I don't know if that eight seconds people are saying
Speaker 6: that that's the indicative of the defensive line, I don't
Speaker 6: think so, because we're also hearing the defensive line is
Speaker 6: still making a lot of big time plays. You know,
Speaker 6: those two things can happen and they can coexist in
Speaker 6: the same universe without one being negative and one being positive,
Speaker 6: you know. And so yes, the offensive line could be
Speaker 6: giving Devin to eight seconds, but that's why maybe one play,
Speaker 6: the next play, the defensive line could get back there
Speaker 6: in two, you know. So it just kind of depends
Speaker 6: on the situation and what's going on. But I don't
Speaker 6: think those two things one can exist without the other
Speaker 6: one being negative. I think is how I'll put that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said I wonder. You know, you're in a
Speaker 1: generation where it's not your fault. But we raised you
Speaker 1: guys with cell phones. They were your babysitters, they were
Speaker 1: your friends. You probably had a phone when you were young.
Speaker 1: I didn't have my first phone until I was in college,
Speaker 1: and so the Internet wasn't a thing when I was
Speaker 1: in college.
Speaker 2: So let's be clear about that.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to the online dynamic of your job,
Speaker 1: is it uncomfortable for you or I mean anyone.
Speaker 2: In our space.
Speaker 1: Amys to develop leathery skin, and I think for some
Speaker 1: older people it probably takes time.
Speaker 2: Because I was not raised with social media like you were.
Speaker 1: Is that an uncomfortable part of your job or is
Speaker 1: it just something that you can kind of roll with
Speaker 1: because you're used to it.
Speaker 6: Well, to be fair, like I was one of the
Speaker 6: last kids in my school to get a phone. My
Speaker 6: parents didn't get me a phone until I think I
Speaker 6: was in like fifth or sixth grade, and I was, like,
Speaker 6: I graduated high school in twenty seventeen. Just to like
Speaker 6: put that into perspective, So I was like one of
Speaker 6: the last kids in my brain to get a phone.
Speaker 6: But you know, like I'm when I first got into this,
Speaker 6: it was hard because you know, the more followers you get,
Speaker 6: the more eyes you get, and the more attention you get,
Speaker 6: and it's just it's sometimes it does get to be
Speaker 6: a lot at times. But you know, I have a
Speaker 6: great support system around me that like make sure that
Speaker 6: they're like, Okay, well, you know, maybe let's put the
Speaker 6: phone down for a little bit and like go watch
Speaker 6: a movie or go outside and hit some golf balls
Speaker 6: in the backyard or something. And so I always, you know,
Speaker 6: I'm very good. I have my notifications off on Twitter
Speaker 6: so I don't get constantly blown up with things. But
Speaker 6: you know, it's taken. It takes time to get used to.
Speaker 6: But I'm at the point now where you know, it's
Speaker 6: just it's just kind of like water off a ducks
Speaker 6: back to a.
Speaker 1: Certain extent, good because the Internet is where cowards go
Speaker 1: to feel brave, and certain BYU fans are a certain
Speaker 1: kind of coward and they want to be a certain
Speaker 1: kind of brave. So don't let it get you down, Sammy,
Speaker 1: You're doing a good job. I've been asking all of
Speaker 1: my guests the following question. I will ask you this
Speaker 1: as well. What does success look like against Ucla? I'm
Speaker 1: not playing home from the Rose Bowl? What sort of
Speaker 1: dynamic result? Obviously a win, but beyond that, what does
Speaker 1: success look like for coach Wit and the Utes Week
Speaker 1: one at the Rose Bowl?
Speaker 6: Well, I think, yeah, like you said, the win is
Speaker 6: probably the best. The is the biggest thing, and I
Speaker 6: think you know, getting out on a one and oh
Speaker 6: start is going to be massive for this thing. But team,
Speaker 6: but I think, you know, offensive success at this point,
Speaker 6: you know, everyone's going to like UCLA is basing their
Speaker 6: game plan off of what Beck did at New Mexico
Speaker 6: and what Beck possibly did at Syracuse. So right now,
Speaker 6: nobody knows what to expect to this Utah offense. So
Speaker 6: Utah has the ability to catch UCLA off guard with
Speaker 6: his offense and you know, just you know, shock them
Speaker 6: and push them back on their heels. This defense is
Speaker 6: going to be this defense. They're going to do what
Speaker 6: they do. And I think that, you know, the offense,
Speaker 6: if the offense can come out and put up good numbers,
Speaker 6: I don't want to put a number range on it
Speaker 6: so that everyone's like, well, Sammy, you said this many
Speaker 6: yardage is going to happen and stuff. But you know,
Speaker 6: I think you want to see a good amount, Like
Speaker 6: I don't even know what yardage to say on this one,
Speaker 6: because you know, it's it's it's about consistency with some
Speaker 6: of these guys too. But I think offensive performance needs
Speaker 6: to be strong and I think, you know, keeping the
Speaker 6: ball for safe, whether it's Devin, whether it's the pass catchers,
Speaker 6: whether whether it's the running backs. I think that's what
Speaker 6: the big thing is going to be for this game
Speaker 6: because you have you don't have the opportunity to you know,
Speaker 6: have a massive game and put the nation on watch,
Speaker 6: be like, hey, this is what this new offense has
Speaker 6: the ability to do. So everyone just like watch out
Speaker 6: type of thing. So I think offensive success is going
Speaker 6: to be the biggest thing that I probably you know,
Speaker 6: look at it from you know, the defense. I don't
Speaker 6: have concerns about. I just I think more than anything,
Speaker 6: I think everyone's just ready to see this offense because
Speaker 6: there's been a lot of talk about it. So I
Speaker 6: would just say offensive.
Speaker 1: Success, what sort of balance or maybe I'll even say
Speaker 1: a lack thereof because there is a part of me
Speaker 1: that believes this is going to be a very run
Speaker 1: heavy attack and I'm only basing that off of the
Speaker 1: personnel that we feel, you know, more or less confident in,
Speaker 1: and maybe this wide receiver group will blow us all away.
Speaker 1: And maybe Devin is better with his arm than he
Speaker 1: was a year ago in New Mexico.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I certainly leave space for the possibilities of things manifesting
Speaker 1: that I don't know about. I'm no expert at all,
Speaker 1: but it does feel like with your line being what
Speaker 1: it is in two backs they like a lot and
Speaker 1: a quarterback that can really run, it feels like we
Speaker 1: could be in for a little bit of a rush
Speaker 1: heavy system, which you know or maybe you know intermediate passes.
Speaker 1: But maybe it's more explosive than I'm expecting. But as
Speaker 1: far as just generally speaking, the balance between the run
Speaker 1: game and the throw game, what are you expecting, Sammy, Well, I.
Speaker 6: Think you know this, Like you said this, this offense
Speaker 6: is I think going to be rooted in a run
Speaker 6: first and a run first mentality. I've said, I think
Speaker 6: sometimes I say it's gonna be fifty to fifty. Sometimes
Speaker 6: I say it's gonna be sixty forty in terms of
Speaker 6: run to pass. But I do think you know, Utah's
Speaker 6: gonna take their chances. They're gonna you know, Devn's a
Speaker 6: good quarterback. Devan knows how to get the get it
Speaker 6: done through the air. I think they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 6: make them. They're gonna do some damage for the air.
Speaker 6: I mean, Daan Pier even this week said that the
Speaker 6: area that he thinks hees the like that he thinks
Speaker 6: that is gonna thrive the most is the run game.
Speaker 6: He's like, that offensive line is making up these these
Speaker 6: massive holes. And if the offense is making these massive
Speaker 6: holes and leading to these big run plays, you know,
Speaker 6: that's just gonna open up the pass game. You know,
Speaker 6: you got to keep teams honest, you gotta keep these
Speaker 6: defenses on their toes. And I think that, you know,
Speaker 6: having a quarterback like Devin who can run and who
Speaker 6: can throw is going to be a benefit this year.
Speaker 6: And you know, the pass catchers are gonna be great.
Speaker 6: I know, wayshot in Nakari are great in pass pro,
Speaker 6: which is another added benefit for this offense. And so
Speaker 6: you know, at the end of the day, I think
Speaker 6: it's just gonna come down to the pass catchers, because
Speaker 6: if the pass catchers are aren't doing what they need
Speaker 6: to do, then you're gonna start seeing this offense move
Speaker 6: to more of a run primary system with occasional throws.
Speaker 6: But you know, Beth said that, you know, they don't
Speaker 6: know right now, Like in practice it's one thing, but
Speaker 6: when the lights are on, it's a different thing. Like
Speaker 6: he again referenced that in New Mexically a team last
Speaker 6: year where he thought it heading into this, like heading
Speaker 6: into the season last year, that he had like six
Speaker 6: or seven path catchers that he could rely upon, and
Speaker 6: then they all started struggling, and but the running backs
Speaker 6: were really thriving, and so they turned into a run
Speaker 6: first offense. So it's just gonna evolve. I think that
Speaker 6: you know, we're going to see how this offense maybe,
Speaker 6: like I honestly, the team we see week one might
Speaker 6: not be the same offense we see the last week
Speaker 6: of the season. And it's just going to be depend
Speaker 6: on who is performing at the high level and who's
Speaker 6: earning Beck's trust.
Speaker 1: Have you landed on where you think you ta exists
Speaker 1: in this big twelve ecosystem. I'm telling you every whether
Speaker 1: it's a podcast or an article or you know, college
Speaker 1: football media members or experts, who I who I trust?
Speaker 1: And this isn't just the Big Twelve. And look, I've
Speaker 1: always been of the opinion, Sammy, that this is the
Speaker 1: sport that is the hardest to predict year in and
Speaker 1: year out. And that's before every roster had the changeover
Speaker 1: and the turnover it does now during the offseason, I mean,
Speaker 1: every team has at least, you know, thirty forty new players.
Speaker 1: Some teams have more. Utah State has eighty. So it
Speaker 1: feels wide open. Both the race for the CFP the
Speaker 1: race for just college football is elite in in the
Speaker 1: Big Twelve. I feel like most people believe Utah is
Speaker 1: still a Tier one Big twelve team, including Vegas. But
Speaker 1: just generally speaking, where do you think Utah exists in
Speaker 1: this Big twelve ecosystem?
Speaker 6: I honestly like this conference is so hard to read
Speaker 6: and predict, like you said, and it's just kind of
Speaker 6: it's it's interesting to see. I mean, I've been asked
Speaker 6: so many times to do a preseason ranking, and at
Speaker 6: this point I just split it up into tiers. I
Speaker 6: have contenders, middle of the pack and bottom of the pack.
Speaker 6: Like I can I see Utah being in that contender
Speaker 6: top half, top third of the conference. You know, Arizona
Speaker 6: State's up there, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech.
Speaker 6: You know, those are all those teams that I see
Speaker 6: in the in the in the top half of the
Speaker 6: conference or the top third I should stay actually, and
Speaker 6: then you know BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Kansas TCU in the
Speaker 6: middle pack, and then the bottom would be you know, Arizona, UCS, Colorado,
Speaker 6: West Virginia. I know I probably forgot somebody because they're
Speaker 6: sixteen teams, but you know, I think Utah does if
Speaker 6: you talk and stay healthy, I very strongly believe that
Speaker 6: they can go toe to toe with all with every
Speaker 6: team in this conference. You know, you know, you have
Speaker 6: Texas Tech at home, which is an added benefit. You
Speaker 6: have Kansas State at home added benefit. You have Arizona
Speaker 6: State at home. So that's that's all nice, and that's dandy,
Speaker 6: and that's good. You have that home field advantage Baylor
Speaker 6: on the road, by you on the road. Those are
Speaker 6: going to be tough environments to play in. But Utah,
Speaker 6: if they stay healthy and do what they need to do,
Speaker 6: I really think this team could go toe to toe
Speaker 6: with anybody.
Speaker 1: All Right, before I say you lose, what are you
Speaker 1: willing to say about where you believe Utah will be
Speaker 1: prior to their trip to Provo. So it's the opener
Speaker 1: at U SA LA at the Rose Bowl, it's a
Speaker 1: cake walk against cal Poly. At home, it's a road
Speaker 1: trip to Laramie against a Wyoming team they should handle.
Speaker 2: The home versus Tech Morgantown.
Speaker 1: West Virginia, then home Arizona State bye week mixed in there.
Speaker 1: So after those six games, prior to the trip to Provo,
Speaker 1: where do you believe Utah football will be?
Speaker 6: Oh? God, that's so, that's that's that's that's hard because
Speaker 6: you know, I could see losses to Texas Tech and
Speaker 6: Arizona State, but I could also see Utah pulling off
Speaker 6: wins against both of them. So you know, I could
Speaker 6: see Utah maybe going six and oh, but I could
Speaker 6: also see five and one. I think that's that's a
Speaker 6: safe bet for me. I mean, worst case scenario is
Speaker 6: six and two, I think, or not six and two,
Speaker 6: four and two. Don't do math on the air, kids,
Speaker 6: but I think that worst case scenario four and two,
Speaker 6: best case scenario six and zero. Realistically, five and one.
Speaker 2: Probably fair enough.
Speaker 1: All right, Sammy, where can people go find your work?
Speaker 6: You can find me on Twitter at s Underscore Mora
Speaker 6: two four seven and you can come join us over
Speaker 6: at ut Zone, one of the best communities for Utah
Speaker 6: fans on the internet. We're running a fifty percent off
Speaker 6: sale currently for the first year of your subscription. We
Speaker 6: have a VIP podcast that comes out twice a week.
Speaker 6: So yeah, come over and join us at yout zone.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Sammy, I have a great weekend. We'll catch
Speaker 1: up soon.
Speaker 6: Okay, thankes. Sense all right, our.
Speaker 1: Friend Sammy more from ute Zone, Ashy reference at s
Speaker 1: underscore Mora two four seven and then ut zone dot
Speaker 1: com for all the latest on the University of Utah.
Speaker 1: All right, before we catch a break, I want to
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Speaker 1: oh one eight two one eight six seven zero. All right,
Speaker 1: we're making a little bit of a shift on the
Speaker 1: show today. Matt Brown, who writes the college football newsletter
Speaker 1: Extra Points, will join us, and I hope he does.
Speaker 1: I have a list of like ten questions if you
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the show.
Speaker 2: First of all, thank you, Hello, how are you?
Speaker 1: Second of all, Matt stops by all the time, and
Speaker 1: you hear me say this often. It really is one
Speaker 1: of the best college football newsletters out there. It has
Speaker 1: been a nice north star as we all navigate the
Speaker 1: changes to the sports. So we're gonna bring him on
Speaker 1: in a moment. But apparently his personal assistant answered his
Speaker 1: cell phone porter.
Speaker 2: Is that what's happened?
Speaker 3: Yeah, assistant or he's what I believe to be like
Speaker 3: not a toddler daughter, but not far off. She's very young.
Speaker 3: She answered his phone and I could tell it was
Speaker 3: it was young Gal. I said, hey, could you put
Speaker 3: your your father on the phone? Could you put Matt on?
Speaker 3: And she emphatically told me no and hung up. So
Speaker 3: that was a first as a radio producer. We're waiting
Speaker 3: on one. Matt Brown. I've seen his Twitter before get
Speaker 3: hijacked by his daughter, so I'm not totally surprised, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's the first for me as a producer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Matt has this funny bit on his Twitter page
Speaker 1: where occasionally he lets his daughter tweet, and she's talking
Speaker 1: about like Peb and Jay's and like Disney movies.
Speaker 3: It might that might be going on now, and she
Speaker 3: is not taking phone calls apparently, And this.
Speaker 1: Only reinforces your belief that all kids suck, right, because
Speaker 1: you're not a fan of kids.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is the first time ever on this
Speaker 3: show that I've had a child, I believe, and he's
Speaker 3: she rather is ruining this segment.
Speaker 1: So I wonder if Matt would let us interview his.
Speaker 3: Daughter, probably for a minute.
Speaker 1: We should do a segment where I interview toddlers, where
Speaker 1: we just have random six year olds on the show.
Speaker 3: I mean pretty much sports radio.
Speaker 2: They do say.
Speaker 1: There's this old TV show I think it's called Kids
Speaker 1: Say the Darnedest Thing.
Speaker 3: Yes, that was funny.
Speaker 1: Like I was with my brother and sister in law
Speaker 1: and their family in Carmel and Dian over the weekend.
Speaker 1: They have six kids, and they have twins that are
Speaker 1: three years old, and their little daughter, Helen. I could
Speaker 1: just listen to her talk all day like it's nonsensical,
Speaker 1: but it's hilarious and they're just so happy. What do
Speaker 1: we do to children to knock the happiness out of them?
Speaker 1: That's what I want to know.
Speaker 3: You want to do this today?
Speaker 1: Well, we got an open segment, So why don't we
Speaker 1: just talk Why don't we just talk about how we
Speaker 1: can solve the go to solve the world's problem, the
Speaker 1: societal condition of children that suddenly removes them of all joy.
Speaker 3: And you want to talk about the socioeconomic trends that
Speaker 3: cause despair.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, I know, I know there's not
Speaker 1: a high chance you're ever gonna be a father.
Speaker 2: I is that fair to say?
Speaker 3: I would say it's a lower chance.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll see. But for parents, out there.
Speaker 1: And you know, I am a father, I have one
Speaker 1: uh and I have one child. You just turned twenty four.
Speaker 1: Everyone can relate to the following. There's just something that
Speaker 1: happens when they hit a certain age where you're like,
Speaker 1: what happened to you know, my and my sons are
Speaker 1: very well adjusted.
Speaker 2: You know Connor, he's a good kid. He's a sweet kid.
Speaker 1: But something happens where you're like, wait, what happened to
Speaker 1: the joy and the wonderer? And you know, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: Like I can remember when Connor was like six, we
Speaker 1: went fishing and caught a fish and I'm a catch
Speaker 1: and release guy, but I couldn't get the hook out
Speaker 1: of his mouth in time and he died. Oh no
Speaker 1: or she, I don't know, or they them. I'd have
Speaker 1: the fish's you know, current.
Speaker 3: Don't have a fish gender.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. I need to be better about that.
Speaker 1: You're right, So whatever the sex of the fish, whatever,
Speaker 1: the fish died. Okay, the fish died, and Connor started crying,
Speaker 1: and I was like, that is the sweetest thing, and
Speaker 1: I just want to want it to be like I
Speaker 1: hope he holds on to this pure, kind, soft hearted
Speaker 1: nature his entire life.
Speaker 2: And something happens in.
Speaker 1: Any any parent can can relate where you just one day,
Speaker 1: It's like, what what happened?
Speaker 2: What did I do? Is this my fault? Is it
Speaker 2: society's fault?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 1: Why aren't you full of wonder and joy? I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know. So yes, we should have a segment
Speaker 1: where I just interview toddlers who bring joy and wonder
Speaker 1: and awe on the program and Whimsy.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I'm a big fan of Whimsy.
Speaker 3: I don't hate the idea. Get their sports takes.
Speaker 1: Maybe all right, if you are a parent of an
Speaker 1: interesting toddler, get ahold of us and we'll have the
Speaker 1: toddler on the show. So you tell, do you want
Speaker 1: to punt two three point thirty for Matt?
Speaker 3: Maybe? At this point we're at the mercy of his
Speaker 3: personal assistant. I regret to inform you we do have
Speaker 3: practice sound from Morgan Scalley from Jason Beck from the
Speaker 3: from the Fellas yesterday. But yeah, I think I think
Speaker 3: Matt Brown is TBD.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's do some sound from practice. We played your
Speaker 1: Coach with and Devin Danpier yesterday. So we'll bring you
Speaker 1: Morgan Scalley and Jason Beck here, I do want to
Speaker 1: tell you about my friends at IFA Country Stores. Like
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Speaker 1: Matt Brown as soon as his daughter allows us to.
Speaker 1: We also have Tony Parks and Pablo Masteroni later on.
Speaker 1: But if you missed it from yesterday, here's Utah's defensive
Speaker 1: coordinator Morgan Scaley Morgan, How's how was camp?
Speaker 3: Solid?
Speaker 5: Solid camp?
Speaker 7: I'm excited to be getting some other jerseys.
Speaker 2: Good physical camp.
Speaker 7: Still working out some kinks with depth positions.
Speaker 1: But very happy with the leadership, Very happy.
Speaker 7: With the progress guys have made and pretty much pretty
Speaker 7: much you know where we are right now.
Speaker 5: What's that defensive tackle one look.
Speaker 1: Like for you right now?
Speaker 5: Uh man, We've made a ton of progress.
Speaker 7: The freshman came in and really have proven that they
Speaker 7: can play year and one, So you know, Carson Kfusci
Speaker 7: and I would say Poopoo, Sprona, you know, Thisten, Sammy
Speaker 7: and my guess is all in see time at some
Speaker 7: point this season.
Speaker 8: But I would say that person Poop, who have kind
Speaker 8: of separated themselves from the pack, from the freshman pack
Speaker 8: after that Leaky and you got Dallas and you've got
Speaker 8: who many sung Jonah.
Speaker 2: So that's a solid group right now.
Speaker 1: Very happy.
Speaker 7: Luthian Ellis has done a heck of a job with
Speaker 7: that crew who should be solid.
Speaker 6: How was a few weeks ago that Blake Katt had
Speaker 6: finally separated him sold on the outside cornerspot What have
Speaker 6: you seen from him? You know, from you know the
Speaker 6: time fall started until now that led to that separation.
Speaker 7: I would just say mastery of the scheme in physicality.
Speaker 7: You know he's he's got the speed to play corner,
Speaker 7: but to be able to add the physical element, the
Speaker 7: ability of the blitz and and you know leverage the
Speaker 7: football is a big factor in it. So that's another
Speaker 7: position group that you're going to probably see quite a
Speaker 7: bit of rotation there because we feel comfortable with the
Speaker 7: progress that's been made there.
Speaker 5: Shreef Shaw is.
Speaker 7: A head of a coach, has gotten those guys to
Speaker 7: progress quite a bit. Add to that, you know the
Speaker 7: progress of Jackson, Benny, the ability that Rabbit Evans.
Speaker 2: Has to play the nicole.
Speaker 5: We have some versatility in the safety room. So very
Speaker 5: excited about the secondary.
Speaker 9: What have you seen from Levoni Demoni this BLF camp
Speaker 9: as he comes back from from his injury.
Speaker 7: He's just trying to get more confident and that Achilles
Speaker 7: just more confident. And we've done a pretty good job
Speaker 7: of kind of limiting the reps. He knows the scheme
Speaker 7: and it's just about getting to the party healthy and
Speaker 7: so the physicality.
Speaker 5: Is never an issue with him.
Speaker 7: He's not a guy that has to be in there
Speaker 7: and and learn how to hit.
Speaker 5: He knows how to do that.
Speaker 7: So but he's feeling much better and he's getting increased reps.
Speaker 3: What does his follow up?
Speaker 1: What does his presence mean to the younger guys and
Speaker 1: everybody else?
Speaker 2: And never, well, you just you need leadership.
Speaker 7: You need those guys that are compelling, that will meet
Speaker 7: extra with the young guys and be able to teach
Speaker 7: and teach in a way that his coaches were sitting
Speaker 7: there saying, yeah, we don't worry about him screwing the
Speaker 7: deal up, teaching something that we're not teaching. So leadership
Speaker 7: you can you can never outperform the leadership that's provided,
Speaker 7: particularly from the players.
Speaker 10: How does how does having Smith and Lander taking some
Speaker 10: offensive snaps effect that I'm so mad.
Speaker 2: So mad.
Speaker 7: No, it's just like shoony Vaki last year, and deal
Speaker 7: with it.
Speaker 2: It's it's a good thing.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 7: As much as I'll give them prap when i'm you know,
Speaker 7: when they're on the offensive side of the ball and
Speaker 7: I'll talk crap to him, I also let him know
Speaker 7: how proud eye on them of.
Speaker 5: Him and listen.
Speaker 7: If you can at wherever you can add value, you
Speaker 7: can help the team win.
Speaker 2: More power to you.
Speaker 8: Its little fit to have in the big green dot
Speaker 8: this year or kind of how does that role work
Speaker 8: for you guys?
Speaker 4: This year?
Speaker 7: We'll have multiple green dots And you know, the biggest
Speaker 7: thing there is in your substitution packages, just understanding that.
Speaker 2: You know you've got to.
Speaker 7: Have one your air at all times. So good thing
Speaker 7: is the linebacker position. We have a new depth that
Speaker 7: the rotation.
Speaker 5: You're always gonna have a guy either they can trust.
Speaker 2: So whether it's Trey, whether.
Speaker 5: It's Lander, whether it's Levanni, all three of them are great.
Speaker 7: Communicators, most improved position group defensive tell w Yeah, you know,
Speaker 7: came into fall camp. That was a big priority getting that,
Speaker 7: you know, the position figured out, and I'm much more confident.
Speaker 3: What does the location look like at defense?
Speaker 7: End defense a lot, you know, So all of them
Speaker 7: are getting reps, all of them are playing well. Uh,
Speaker 7: it's it's five guys right now, five guys.
Speaker 5: You're rotating and like I said, it allows us.
Speaker 7: You know, in the past situations, to get a little
Speaker 7: bit creative, but very pleased.
Speaker 2: I do nothing.
Speaker 7: You know, I got great position coaches. I'm just saying,
Speaker 7: you guys are awesome. Blue the spouse fantastic with those
Speaker 7: guys and recruited the majority of them.
Speaker 5: So I just get to call Bess.
Speaker 7: I can't see the degrees from last season that you
Speaker 7: went into our address going into this season that maybe
Speaker 7: you guys adjusted. Fixing bull run, defense, tackling and taking
Speaker 7: the football away.
Speaker 2: Those are all three that I feel.
Speaker 7: We've done a good job focusing on.
Speaker 1: And having as a priority. Whether you're practicing.
Speaker 7: Every day, We've had live sessions almost every time.
Speaker 5: We get your full pads and.
Speaker 7: You know, you can't be scared of it's it's it's football.
Speaker 2: And we're a position now.
Speaker 7: We always said we will just keep tackling so we
Speaker 7: feel comfortable with.
Speaker 12: The with the group, and we nowhere we feel and
Speaker 12: then ply with Sto Johnson add on your defensive side.
Speaker 7: You can play corner, can plain Nicol he can play
Speaker 7: into three and now he's he can play the strong safeties.
Speaker 2: He's much more physical than the box. So versatility would
Speaker 2: be the biggest thing to face the table.
Speaker 1: I don't think I would enjoy trying to tackle Landerbarton. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think that would be fun. And he mentioned
Speaker 1: he got five carries with the Lions the other day
Speaker 1: during preseason football. I don't think I would enjoy trying
Speaker 1: to tackle him either.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's a way that like linebackers and Siony.
Speaker 3: I know he was a defensive back technically, but kind
Speaker 3: of the way that he played up in the box,
Speaker 3: the way he played in Morgan's defense, that's basically a linebacker.
Speaker 3: They bring a certain physicality that you don't want to
Speaker 3: meet in the in between the tackles.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think, Oh, did you see the videos
Speaker 1: floating around of this new forty and over tackle Football League?
Speaker 1: I don't know specifically, but yes, I just saw these
Speaker 1: videos this morning. I guess there's a league there for
Speaker 1: forty and over gentlemen.
Speaker 3: No, there's plenty of these leagues.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is it's it's a horrible idea. It's a
Speaker 2: great idea. No, it's a horrible idea.
Speaker 3: I didn't tell you about the time I played a
Speaker 3: game for the Zion Lions. You did not When was this?
Speaker 3: It was college ish down at Saint George. There's a
Speaker 3: little there's a little league. Yeah, but you're a college kid.
Speaker 3: But the rest of the roster. Let me be clear,
Speaker 3: what it's not college kids?
Speaker 2: The Zion Lions. Yep, was this down south?
Speaker 9: It was?
Speaker 2: Okay, it was.
Speaker 3: I think that league is still technically going. I'm not
Speaker 3: exactly sure, but yeah, there's there's there's middle aged men
Speaker 3: playing I guess what is dubbed semi professional football over
Speaker 3: this great country and paying their way to do it.
Speaker 3: I honor and respect the hustle.
Speaker 1: Tom Haberstrow told the story on the show last year
Speaker 1: of his friend tearing his meniscus turning around teaching a class. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're in your forties, you can and you can tear
Speaker 1: an Achilles grocery shopping.
Speaker 3: You shouldn't be playing football. Maybe you're training, you're staying
Speaker 3: in shape. Maybe that's the reason, Maybe that's the purpose
Speaker 3: by a per semi semi semi pro football, buy a Peloton,
Speaker 3: goes ion lions go for a walk.
Speaker 1: What do you remember during your football days having to
Speaker 1: tackle one specific person?
Speaker 2: That wasn't very much fun at all?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: I mean I never played high level football really, I
Speaker 3: you know, I The only time I was playing any
Speaker 3: sort of respectable opponent was on the basketball circuit AAU
Speaker 3: or or you know, right post high school football wise,
Speaker 3: it was literally just the farm boys I grew up with.
Speaker 3: Because those some of those guys well, and to be clear,
Speaker 3: some of them did go on and played good football.
Speaker 3: A couple of them, it's no college. One of them
Speaker 3: is the head coach up at the school right now,
Speaker 3: One Levi Thompson. Just freaks of nature that grew up
Speaker 3: carrying logs and and farming, and that's a different kind
Speaker 3: of strength than just pushing weight around. I saw him,
Speaker 3: like Levi I was talking about, like put kids in
Speaker 3: ambulances because they had never really seen a man like that.
Speaker 3: And he's eighteen seventeen years old. Those are the ones
Speaker 3: that I kind of shine away from.
Speaker 1: The First time you get hit, like properly hit, you
Speaker 1: never forget it. No, my last year of football I
Speaker 1: think was my sophomore year in high school and quarterback
Speaker 1: end around ear hold knocked out.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Oh No, that's probably why I stoped playing. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't need to do this. I'm just gonna play
Speaker 1: basketball year round. I'll go shoot hoops. But trying to
Speaker 1: like Lander Barton running at you full speed, that would
Speaker 1: not be a fun person to tackle.
Speaker 3: He and listen. He is a guy that I watched
Speaker 3: a little bit in high school. When he was on
Speaker 3: the offensive side. They used him more as a tight end.
Speaker 3: He wasn't running the ball much. It was more like
Speaker 3: I'm almost picturing more of a Caleb Blowner situation. He
Speaker 3: is that type of athlete. He really can't go up
Speaker 3: and get him. That is what he was doing.
Speaker 2: At Brighton.
Speaker 3: They were just like, Okay, go stand by the field
Speaker 3: goal post and we're gonna throw it up in the air.
Speaker 3: That's when we use Lander Barton. We'll see I think
Speaker 3: that's more of what you'll you'll see from him, while
Speaker 3: maybe Nate Johnson, Smith Snoden, those guys might be more
Speaker 3: out of the backfield.
Speaker 1: We'll see Caleb Ata catch for the Broncos over the weekend,
Speaker 1: one catch for about four yards coming a reed. Jonah
Speaker 1: ellis a lot of uts on the Broncos. Do we
Speaker 1: have time to play Jason?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: We will try to run interference through Matt Brown's daughter
Speaker 1: to bring him on after a break. But before we
Speaker 1: catch a break, we let you hear from Morgan. Let's
Speaker 1: hear from the offensive coordinator, Jason Beck. Jason, at the
Speaker 1: beginning of False Campus said, you wanted to go with
Speaker 1: your trusted.
Speaker 5: Guys, the guys that are gonna be consistent. How have
Speaker 5: you felt like this all camp has.
Speaker 10: Gone for your offense.
Speaker 13: Yeah, that's been what we're looking at every day. You know,
Speaker 13: who's consistently day and day out making those plays. And
Speaker 13: some guys have been emerging that way and doing a
Speaker 13: nice job. Some guys are close somewhere's trying to keep
Speaker 13: forcing that issue of what we're asking them to do, uh,
Speaker 13: so that we can count them and count on them
Speaker 13: in critical situations. So the nice job is, you know,
Speaker 13: up front, they're setting the tone every day with that
Speaker 13: consistent work and for everybody else to follow along with that.
Speaker 7: What progress have you seen out of Tobias Mariyweather and
Speaker 7: Murray Simons.
Speaker 13: You know, they were so new when they got here,
Speaker 13: it was just getting everything everything going. But they both
Speaker 13: have played and done stuff in the past where they're yeah,
Speaker 13: they're comfortable stepping in and playing, you know, right off
Speaker 13: the bat.
Speaker 2: So they've done a good job. Just trying to get them.
Speaker 13: Up to speed as fast as possible, and yeah, they're
Speaker 13: both doing a next job coming along.
Speaker 2: And we'll help us this year.
Speaker 5: Well have you seen this tight end room maybe evolved
Speaker 5: as fall.
Speaker 13: Campus, Yeah, it's been. It's been one of our more
Speaker 13: consistent rooms with that mix of guys showing up every day,
Speaker 13: and that includes like JJ he came in as a
Speaker 13: young kid, and he's done a really nice job as
Speaker 13: he's been in.
Speaker 2: There and improving each week.
Speaker 13: So they've been a strength of the group in terms
Speaker 13: of their consistency and what they're getting done.
Speaker 1: The Obviously the starting five gets the headlines, but what
Speaker 1: sort of progress did you see him in the second
Speaker 1: unit offensive line?
Speaker 13: Well, yeah, the starting five, you know, they've done a
Speaker 13: nice job and they've kind of been in and out
Speaker 13: a little bit with some different things, or to have given
Speaker 13: other guys opportunities.
Speaker 5: To get reps.
Speaker 13: So right now you feel like we have three guys
Speaker 13: that could come in and play and we won't have
Speaker 13: to drastically change too much. So they've done a nice
Speaker 13: job just kind of establishing themselves in what they can do,
Speaker 13: and then we're just looking for another player or to
Speaker 13: continue to make that next jump where we feel the
Speaker 13: same way.
Speaker 10: But we gave us an update on the on the
Speaker 10: back of quarterbacks, and you mentioned in that there might
Speaker 10: be some place for Bird. Is that is that something
Speaker 10: you anticipate maybe every game we might see him some
Speaker 10: these situations or how often might we see it?
Speaker 13: Well, you never know, but if hopefully, you know, hopefully
Speaker 13: we played well and all of that bought if something
Speaker 13: were to happen. Bird has done a nice job. He's
Speaker 13: come in here, he's paid plays, and he's done a
Speaker 13: nice job. So if we needed to, he could kill
Speaker 13: him and help us play. So I kind of look
Speaker 13: at him at it like we have a two A
Speaker 13: and a two B versus a two and a three.
Speaker 13: So Bird's kind of played himself where he's a two
Speaker 13: B and he could do things at a high level
Speaker 13: wherever we needed to, we can call him to get
Speaker 13: that done.
Speaker 5: What has given you a confidence about I think allowed
Speaker 5: you to name him with the K.
Speaker 13: You know, he's really coming from spring and just took
Speaker 13: a big step forward from where he faused the spring,
Speaker 13: and his just the ability to manage every thing because
Speaker 13: of the experiences come through has just kind of put
Speaker 13: him a step ahead for hanging the whole offense and
Speaker 13: being able to do everything we needed to. But at
Speaker 13: the same time, he you know, burned this stuff a
Speaker 13: little more like dev.
Speaker 2: Than Isaac does.
Speaker 13: So it kind of has that door where a bird
Speaker 13: can step in into some things.
Speaker 6: Kevin said yesterday that he's working on, you know, not
Speaker 6: taking chances as much this season.
Speaker 5: Have we seen that, you know, the smarter decisions as
Speaker 5: fall so.
Speaker 2: Far he has you know, approoves through a fall.
Speaker 13: We track everything every day with all that, and he's
Speaker 13: done a really nice job with that, and so you know,
Speaker 13: you just want that to continue forward to the season.
Speaker 1: He just stood at a wide receiver so far?
Speaker 3: What's that?
Speaker 1: Who stood a wide receiver so far?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 13: That's uh, that's where you know, the most consistent is
Speaker 13: our d He kind of maybe had a leg up
Speaker 13: coming from New Mexico with being consistent and having chemistry
Speaker 13: with Death. But then a lot of all the other
Speaker 13: guys have just been you know when you guys learning
Speaker 13: the bias. You know, Zip's been in that deal, Justin's
Speaker 13: been in there. So a lot of those guys have
Speaker 13: just been improving, getting better, and we're just focusing in
Speaker 13: as we're starting to.
Speaker 2: Set that game plan on what can they do to
Speaker 2: help us win.
Speaker 14: I'm talked a lot about mending your offense towards the
Speaker 14: strength of your team. You know, four weeks through fall camp, bag, guess,
Speaker 14: just what do you feel like your best strengths on
Speaker 14: the offense are.
Speaker 13: Well, it is, Yeah, I'm mending the offense to Dad
Speaker 13: and specifically the kind of each guy. So even in
Speaker 13: the past game, you know what game guys do putting those.
Speaker 1: Positions to be successful.
Speaker 13: But we're looking to be a you know, a real
Speaker 13: efficient offense. We'll lean on the guys up front and
Speaker 13: kind of counting them to lead the way, and then
Speaker 13: as those skill guys performing games, then we'll see what
Speaker 13: direction that takes. You know, I've been a part of
Speaker 13: this where you think you have a great idea and
Speaker 13: you hit week one and then you really find out.
Speaker 5: Where exactly you got do this.
Speaker 2: But they playing can we stop with the jugs machine?
Speaker 1: I have a feeling there's somebody listening right now based
Speaker 1: off the text we just received. They can hear the
Speaker 1: messaging I've been Usually I only do it once a
Speaker 1: year and hope that my please actually land with somebody
Speaker 1: up there that can do something about it.
Speaker 2: Can we just stop with the jugs machine?
Speaker 1: In the background while we're interviewing the players and coaches,
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Bill Riley's handlers specifically right now, our guy.
Speaker 1: Can we just please? Can we please stop? That's not
Speaker 1: too much that it is.
Speaker 3: The one thing I'm thankful for with the countdown, We're
Speaker 3: now within ten days because starting next Monday, we get
Speaker 3: Kyle in a press conference room, we get the interview
Speaker 3: rooms at campus. Right, I'm with you, But the clockets
Speaker 3: ticket on the jugs machines they got to go behind
Speaker 3: closed doors.
Speaker 11: Here.
Speaker 2: In the next couple of.
Speaker 1: Weeks, I'm gonna start going up there and unplugging them
Speaker 1: before media availability.
Speaker 2: Yes, maybe that'll maybe that'll do the trick.
Speaker 1: All right, maybe Matt Brown if his daughter allows us
Speaker 1: to join, allows us to talk to him. Coming up
Speaker 1: on the other side, We've got some other things that
Speaker 1: will bring your way. We do have Tony Parks on
Speaker 1: the show today the Latest with RSL with Pablo Maschuetti.
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Speaker 1: Pleasant Grove, Cottonwin Heights is the one I.
Speaker 2: Use, and South Ogden as well.
Speaker 1: All Right, Matt Brown's five year old daughter has given
Speaker 1: us permission to interview him at four o'clock today, A
Speaker 1: little uh on the other side of four, So bring
Speaker 1: in Matt. Pablo mash Drenni, the head coach of RSL.
Speaker 1: I would imagine he's still a little bit salty as
Speaker 1: a result of some calls that continue to go the wrong.
Speaker 2: Way against RSL.
Speaker 1: Will join us in about an hour from right now
Speaker 1: get into five o'clock out of the show, but let's
Speaker 1: welcome in a very special guest. You know him as
Speaker 1: the voice of the Bees and longtime radio personality in
Speaker 1: our market, The Great Tony Parks on a Wednesday TP,
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Are we doing?
Speaker 5: I'm doing great man. Mike Toddler is never coming on
Speaker 5: this show.
Speaker 12: I become more and more afraid over time if you
Speaker 12: were to interview with her, you know what she might unveil?
Speaker 5: Are the things that she might say.
Speaker 12: So I'm when I heard about this, I thought, you
Speaker 12: know what, other and keep my phone close to me
Speaker 12: at all times when I'm expected to be on the air,
Speaker 12: because I'm not quite sure what would happen.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling, though ton as the young lady
Speaker 1: grows and evolves, if she's anything like either her mother
Speaker 1: or her father, she'll be very willing to express anything
Speaker 1: that she wants to express.
Speaker 2: Is that fair to say?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 12: She talks with her hands, she loves pasta, and she's
Speaker 12: a fast talker too, very passionate. I don't know where
Speaker 12: she got all this from, but whatever, She's an Italian
Speaker 12: for sure, and she shows that all the time, and
Speaker 12: she's absolutely wonderful and I couldn't be more in love
Speaker 12: with the experience of having her in our life.
Speaker 2: Love it, buddy.
Speaker 1: All right, let's start actually with the announcement that was
Speaker 1: made by BYU that young Bear Bachmeyer has won the
Speaker 1: starting job as a freshman.
Speaker 2: As a true freshman.
Speaker 1: He will be the first true freshman in BYU history
Speaker 1: to start an opener, and he will be the seventh
Speaker 1: true freshman to see action under center for Brigham Young.
Speaker 5: He was with.
Speaker 1: Stanford for springball, didn't land in Provo until late July.
Speaker 1: He's been there like four weeks, five weeks. I was
Speaker 1: on TV with our guy to Dave Fox last night
Speaker 1: and he asked me what this says about the quarterback room.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's an indictment on the room. I
Speaker 1: think it's a commentary on the kid, and it's pretty
Speaker 1: impressive that he was the guy that stepped up and
Speaker 1: won the job. Now, whenever you do anything for the
Speaker 1: first time in life or in sports, there's going to
Speaker 1: be growing pains. And as a result of the quarterback change,
Speaker 1: BYU's Vegas line has dropped, their odds compete in league
Speaker 1: play have dropped as well, we know that defensively they're
Speaker 1: going to be stout because they've been since Jay took
Speaker 1: over down there. But what do you make of young
Speaker 1: bear Bachmeyer winning the starting job for BYU?
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean the question is always going to be
Speaker 12: who gives you the best chance to win going forward? Now,
Speaker 12: I think you make the best comment there. You know,
Speaker 12: everyone wants to say, well, this must be an indictment
Speaker 12: on you know, what they really have.
Speaker 5: This must show a.
Speaker 12: Lack of depth or a lack of capability. Well, we
Speaker 12: don't really know until live bullets get flyed. I mean,
Speaker 12: there was a season where Utah was battling back and
Speaker 12: forth between you know, did they go with Travis Wilson
Speaker 12: or do they go with Kendall Thompson and oh my goodness,
Speaker 12: and each of them brought something, but neither.
Speaker 5: Of them was complete right.
Speaker 12: And then there was a season where this guy named
Speaker 12: Brett Elliott was a returning starter and was ready to
Speaker 12: take over and have a great season for Utah, and
Speaker 12: he was injured and everybody thought the season really might
Speaker 12: be headed down, you know, a downward spiral. And then
Speaker 12: some guy named Alex Smith came in took over and
Speaker 12: they flourished.
Speaker 5: And they would go on to win the conference and
Speaker 5: the rest is history.
Speaker 12: So I do understand the true freshman's you need come
Speaker 12: because it's the first time he's going to be out there,
Speaker 12: he's young, all of that.
Speaker 5: It is not nineteen ninety two anymore.
Speaker 12: We're having a freshman quarterback was just thought of as
Speaker 12: the worst possible situation you could be in. What I
Speaker 12: do know is that when it comes to the way
Speaker 12: that program's going to view it, Look, if you're the
Speaker 12: best thing to help us win, you're going to be
Speaker 12: out there.
Speaker 5: And if you're not, you're not. So when there's this.
Speaker 12: Hey, we need patience and baby steps, and let's remember
Speaker 12: how young he is. Sure, if he's the best thing
Speaker 12: to help you win, then you know what, you're going
Speaker 12: to have him out there, and if he's not, you're not.
Speaker 12: So as long as that ends up being the case,
Speaker 12: and it is clear that that is the case, they'll
Speaker 12: continue to have the trust of that locker room. And
Speaker 12: I think Kilani, with his experience, has been tremendous at
Speaker 12: problem solving and making proper adjustments fairly quickly and being
Speaker 12: able to turn the page fast and go a different direction.
Speaker 5: If it's not going to work out.
Speaker 12: What I do know is this when the live bullets
Speaker 12: get flying, and that's when we discover so much more
Speaker 12: about these guys, and we're going to find out that
Speaker 12: much more about him.
Speaker 1: And I will say that I believe Colonie and a
Speaker 1: Rod have earned the benefit of the doubt. And when
Speaker 1: it comes to the quarterback battles that we've like, Zach
Speaker 1: Wilson didn't automatically have that job.
Speaker 2: He won the job.
Speaker 1: Jaren Hall won the job, Jake Rahetzif a year ago
Speaker 1: won the job. Like they're pretty much three for three
Speaker 1: when it comes to picking the right QB, you know,
Speaker 1: as it pertains to the quarterback battle they found themselves in.
Speaker 1: So it does feel like those guys know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: If I'm a Byu fan, I am putting my faith
Speaker 1: in that staff.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I would, because the last time I saw a
Speaker 12: job given to someone who I thought had massive question
Speaker 12: marks as to whether or not he was capable and
Speaker 12: kept getting a longer and longer leash was Jake Keaps And.
Speaker 5: We all saw how that turned out and it wasn't good.
Speaker 12: And then all of a sudden they were facing a
Speaker 12: situation where they had to turn away from him before
Speaker 12: they lost the locker room, and they were able to
Speaker 12: salvage the end of the year. And by the way,
Speaker 12: Riley Nelson was going to be a Heisman candidate, but
Speaker 12: they had to make that quick decision to go. So
Speaker 12: this is one where I definitely put the trust in
Speaker 12: that staff. I mean, they have a wealth of experience,
Speaker 12: and I think if you look at the historic track
Speaker 12: record of how long it took Kyle Whittingham to eventually
Speaker 12: get exactly what he want established and to have the
Speaker 12: culture of the way he wants and the decision making process,
Speaker 12: everything that goes into it, and the trust of.
Speaker 5: An entire program and fan base.
Speaker 12: If you look at the way it worked for Kyle,
Speaker 12: it's actually been similar in the timeline I think for
Speaker 12: Kilani and now he has really solidified so much of
Speaker 12: what he wants and how he wants to do things
Speaker 12: never perfect, of course, but I really like the roots
Speaker 12: that he's built there, the trust that he's built there,
Speaker 12: and now going forward when it comes to decisions, you know,
Speaker 12: anytime Kyle's been wrong about something, redirects quickly and then
Speaker 12: you see them start to.
Speaker 5: Move back upward.
Speaker 12: I think it would be the same case here if they,
Speaker 12: let say, missed on Bear as your starting line or
Speaker 12: starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: The other piece of news that was announced yesterday and
Speaker 1: it's it's been kind of interesting. We actually just played
Speaker 1: the sound from Jason Beck, offensive coordinator for the You.
Speaker 1: So coach Wit comes out and announces that Isaac Wilson
Speaker 1: is QB two, and then Jason is like, well, it's
Speaker 1: more like two A two B. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that messaging is to You've got to be careful in
Speaker 1: this day and age with these athletes. If you you know,
Speaker 1: if if a race is decided and a young man
Speaker 1: is not happy that he's suddenly QB three, maybe he's
Speaker 1: inclined to find somewhere else to play. So maybe that's
Speaker 1: making Bird feel better about it. But you know, according
Speaker 1: to coach Wit, and he's dead, coach, we'll go with him.
Speaker 1: Isaac Wilson will be the backup to Devin, Danpier and Ton.
Speaker 1: I suppose the blessing in disguise a year ago, with
Speaker 1: Cameron's inability to stay healthy, is now Utah's backup quarterback
Speaker 1: is one with one year of legitimate Big twelve experience
Speaker 1: under his belt. What do you make then announcement that
Speaker 1: Isaac is the backup.
Speaker 12: Well, Isaac being the backup I don't think is a
Speaker 12: bad thing at all. The other part about that, as
Speaker 12: you talk about his experience and all of that, is
Speaker 12: when you go two A two B and people are like, wow,
Speaker 12: that's kind of interesting. I actually think it's important to
Speaker 12: always keep as many people believing they are one play
Speaker 12: away as many as possible, because if you make them believe, well,
Speaker 12: you're so far down the depth chart that there's a
Speaker 12: real unlikelihood that this is going to happen, then not
Speaker 12: only could you lose them from the program, you could
Speaker 12: lose them from let's say, just being as engaged as
Speaker 12: they need to.
Speaker 5: Be day to day, having some of the investment that
Speaker 5: you need from a guy that is very unlikely to play.
Speaker 12: Clearly, there's a two and a three, there is a
Speaker 12: two and a three two A two B. I would
Speaker 12: I would bet my money that that is unlikely. But
Speaker 12: it's very important that a player believes that understands and
Speaker 12: perceives they are one play away. You need them to
Speaker 12: keep competing because the moment that you draw up a
Speaker 12: hierarchy and someone believes they're too far down or someone
Speaker 12: believes that the likelihood of getting on the field is
Speaker 12: too little one either you need to be honest with
Speaker 12: them and tell them that, so they leave and you
Speaker 12: don't want them there. I've seen coaches who have to
Speaker 12: do that, and now's not the time for that. By
Speaker 12: the way, you're getting ready for your season. So this
Speaker 12: is a this is an off season part that you
Speaker 12: would do it that way, but the current situation, no,
Speaker 12: you want guys believing, you know what, you are one
Speaker 12: play away and you can contend and compete to win
Speaker 12: the number two spot, and you could still win the
Speaker 12: number one spot. Remember this is these jobs are never
Speaker 12: completely solid.
Speaker 5: If you are the better option and you start showing.
Speaker 12: Things that help us believe you know what, this is
Speaker 12: actually going to win us games more than that, then
Speaker 12: you're going to find yourself on the field and staying
Speaker 12: on the field. And so it goes back to the
Speaker 12: the you know, the h Alex Smith calling Kaepernick thing,
Speaker 12: which I know is so controversial last decade, but the
Speaker 12: point was Kaepernick was one play away, and then when
Speaker 12: Kaepernick got on the field, the forty nine ers had
Speaker 12: to realize, wait, this guy right now gives us the
Speaker 12: best chance to win the Super Bowl. And we are
Speaker 12: appreciative of what Alex has done, and it's not that
Speaker 12: we're lacking appreciation for that, but this guy can actually
Speaker 12: give us a better chance to do it. They played
Speaker 12: the odds, they were six yards away. So you'll get
Speaker 12: your chance with several reps. And this is going to
Speaker 12: continue to evall because you're dealing with young players and
Speaker 12: some that are unproven still and some that have shown
Speaker 12: some flashes and still have not been able to show
Speaker 12: that dynamic high level consistently. Well, this is your chance
Speaker 12: to continue to show us that each and every day.
Speaker 5: So two A two B is you.
Speaker 12: Need to keep them hungry to believe each one of
Speaker 12: them that they are one play away from.
Speaker 2: Being on the field.
Speaker 1: I've been asking all my guests this this week as
Speaker 1: we're ten days away from the first game for Utah.
Speaker 1: They're at the Rose Bowl against UCLA. They're six point
Speaker 1: five point favorite, and I kind of like this opener.
Speaker 1: I actually I like the opener for BYU in a
Speaker 1: different way. I think it's good that Bear will have
Speaker 1: a soft opponent to kind of land. I'm not a
Speaker 1: huge fan of the FBSFCS thing. I think at some
Speaker 1: point it will go away. But with it being the
Speaker 1: reality of breaking in a freshman quarterback, you might as
Speaker 1: well do it in provo against Portland State, and I
Speaker 1: like that. We'll see Devin on the road against a
Speaker 1: P four team and one of college football's most historic venues.
Speaker 2: But when they're on.
Speaker 1: The plane flying home from LA after playing UCLA, what
Speaker 1: does success look like for you?
Speaker 2: Game one for the Utes, there's.
Speaker 12: A clear indication this offense can work in sync and
Speaker 12: that it can be reliable over four quarters. Like you
Speaker 12: can't just come in with a game plan that starts
Speaker 12: really well and then you're three and outing your way
Speaker 12: out and hoping your defense can save you and clinging
Speaker 12: to a seventeen to fourteen win.
Speaker 5: Now, I'm not saying you don't turn.
Speaker 12: Down a win, but in order for you to get
Speaker 12: on that plane heading back to Salt Lake and feel like,
Speaker 12: you know what, we got something here that can travel
Speaker 12: the rest of the season, I want to see an
Speaker 12: offense that can really work in sync. One thing that
Speaker 12: I really wish for you fans that they could see
Speaker 12: with that team is a group of receivers that can
Speaker 12: be very dependable to make high level plays consistently.
Speaker 5: To make the tough catch Lakisi at times.
Speaker 12: To be able to just go up and win a
Speaker 12: ball more often when a quarterback needs to just kind
Speaker 12: of put it in a spot and depend on his
Speaker 12: guy to go win.
Speaker 5: Utah has not been able to have that consistently.
Speaker 12: They've had ugs here or a player who has a
Speaker 12: particular skill, such as you know, a guy with speed,
Speaker 12: or a guy's got good hands but not a great
Speaker 12: route runner. It always feels like they have one, but
Speaker 12: they're always missing the other. And I would love to
Speaker 12: see a core of receivers that they can depend on
Speaker 12: more and more.
Speaker 5: Balance.
Speaker 12: I don't think is going to necessarily be a must,
Speaker 12: but you have to be able to have a threat
Speaker 12: for these things rather than a defense saying okay, this
Speaker 12: is all we have to do, and we can simplify
Speaker 12: our plan once we figure out what their original game
Speaker 12: plan is. I want to see a group that can
Speaker 12: go out and beat people just simply by being better players.
Speaker 12: And so last year, like the BAU game, always jumps
Speaker 12: out to me because I love that game plan.
Speaker 5: I love the way they executed.
Speaker 12: The physicality was tremendous, and Utah obviously hangs their hat
Speaker 12: on that but the second half it was very early.
Speaker 12: You're looking at it going they're not going to score.
Speaker 12: I mean they had field position for days, couldn't move.
Speaker 12: I mean they their defense was given them opportunity after opportunity,
Speaker 12: and they couldn't convert even with a field goal. So
Speaker 12: I don't want to see them backing their way into
Speaker 12: a win and then coming out of it going, well,
Speaker 12: a win's win and one to zero and you never
Speaker 12: turn out a victory and oh they got some things
Speaker 12: to clean up.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 12: I want to see something that shows me with a
Speaker 12: guy like Devan stepping in winning a job like that
Speaker 12: where you fans have been hoping to see a guy
Speaker 12: who can go out and be a dynamic playmaker like
Speaker 12: they had, you know a few years ago when healthy,
Speaker 12: and then say, okay, now if you take this away,
Speaker 12: we can be great here. Or if this isn't quite
Speaker 12: running the way we need, we can always go back
Speaker 12: to this rather than well, if we're not winning first
Speaker 12: down with the run, we're in trouble and trying to
Speaker 12: find a way to you know, kind of like twenty
Speaker 12: fourteen where you're just trying to find a way to
Speaker 12: eke out a nineteen sixteen victory. That's just not going
Speaker 12: to give anybody a good feeling going forward about what
Speaker 12: is a very difficult conference to play in that is
Speaker 12: so unpredictable.
Speaker 1: You reference the balance and look, man, you've known me
Speaker 1: for a long time. I'm just a natural cynic for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, and I'm usually more skeptic than I am
Speaker 1: accepting just audacious expectations based off of no data or proof.
Speaker 2: So I lean into what I feel like.
Speaker 11: I know.
Speaker 1: I mean, back when like Al Jefferson was here, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're going to call it the Wheezy and he's going
Speaker 1: to be twenty and ten, Like, no, well he's not
Speaker 1: very good. If this team is not going to be
Speaker 1: very good, and you know, when it comes to just
Speaker 1: Homer Broadcast and Homer Media, I'm not into it. So
Speaker 1: I just don't know enough about the weapons on the
Speaker 1: outside for Utah right now.
Speaker 2: I don't know enough about the wide receiver room.
Speaker 1: Even if the Zach Williams kid didn't transfer, I mean,
Speaker 1: he didn't have a ton of experience. Here's what we know,
Speaker 1: and I'll speak for myself, here's what I feel like.
Speaker 1: I know they've got two running backs they like They've
Speaker 1: got a run it, They've got a quarterback that can
Speaker 1: really rush the football. They've got potentially the best offense
Speaker 1: in line in the country, not just the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: They have a head coach that just abhorrors not taking
Speaker 1: care of the football. Part of me feels like this
Speaker 1: is a rush heavy attack and we are going to
Speaker 1: see a lot of like seventeen fourteen or twenty to
Speaker 1: fourteen hopefully wins for Utah football. Nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 1: but as far as just generally speaking, when it comes
Speaker 1: to the balance between the run game and the throw game,
Speaker 1: how do you think that will look for Utah football
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 5: If it's heavy run.
Speaker 12: Because you're incapable of passing, and then you have to
Speaker 12: do it like you did say in twenty fourteen, which
Speaker 12: I'm not bashing that twenty fourteen team and that was
Speaker 12: the first one in the Pac twelve area era to
Speaker 12: kind of emerge and start to win at a higher clip.
Speaker 5: You cannot save your way to wealth.
Speaker 12: You must be the one that ends up being a
Speaker 12: little more aggressive, or is it the threat to be
Speaker 12: more aggressive? So the twenty fourteen team, it was I
Speaker 12: remember coming out of their game against USC thinking you
Speaker 12: can't keep winning like this, Like you just can't keep
Speaker 12: like you can't have a wide receiver drop a backwards
Speaker 12: pass and stare at the football on the ground.
Speaker 5: I think it was Orfe who picked it.
Speaker 12: Up and ran it back while nobody eve knew what
Speaker 12: was going on and takes it back for a touchdown.
Speaker 5: Utah I think had one good offensive drive. It just
Speaker 5: happened to be the game.
Speaker 12: Winning drive, and everyone's like, but they're in contention, and
Speaker 12: it's like they can't keep winning like this, Like in
Speaker 12: this league, you're just not going to survive that way.
Speaker 12: If you want to talk about a championship aspiration, if
Speaker 12: you want to talk about playoff threat, those.
Speaker 5: Kinds of things, you won't get there.
Speaker 12: Then the twenty eighteen team, they lost a couple of
Speaker 12: conference games early and when they started playing their best balls,
Speaker 12: they lost one conference game the rest of the way out.
Speaker 5: This is the part I'm getting into. They were not balanced.
Speaker 12: They were like sixty four percent runs something like that.
Speaker 12: The difference was Huntley was now a much bigger threat
Speaker 12: to throw effectively. The team showed the capability to throw
Speaker 12: at a much more efficient level, and so the defenses.
Speaker 12: Even though Utah would say take off with Huntley or
Speaker 12: go to their run game.
Speaker 5: Because they knew you could.
Speaker 12: It actually helped open up even more run opportunities. So
Speaker 12: balance may not need to be there. The balance of
Speaker 12: what is a realistic threat. Those two things must happen,
Speaker 12: because if they get to the point that they know
Speaker 12: that you are not dependable enough in the throw game,
Speaker 12: that they can absolutely load the box and that if
Speaker 12: they play the odds right, you're just not going to
Speaker 12: be able to put up enough offense, and if they
Speaker 12: take care of the ball, they'll eventually prevail. I mean,
Speaker 12: you can still find a way to win some games,
Speaker 12: as Kyle has been able to do that with field
Speaker 12: position and just playing great defense and making the timely plays.
Speaker 5: But you won't get to the elite levels. You'll just
Speaker 5: have a nice season. You'll have a nice season.
Speaker 12: So when people look back at some of those Novembers
Speaker 12: when they used to say, boy, the uts they just
Speaker 12: can't figure it out in November, well that's because they
Speaker 12: kept trying to survive with a situation where they everybody
Speaker 12: knew that their ability to throw the football was not
Speaker 12: a real threat, or it wasn't a consistent threat.
Speaker 5: Just don't get.
Speaker 12: Beat on a massive big play and you're fine because
Speaker 12: eventually the quarterback, as I remember, Wilson at one point
Speaker 12: had a I think an interception every nine attempts through
Speaker 12: pac twelve play in one of those years because they
Speaker 12: knew at.
Speaker 5: Some point a big mistake was going to be made,
Speaker 5: and so it.
Speaker 12: Was worth the risk to just not get beat deep,
Speaker 12: keep it in front of you, wait for him to
Speaker 12: make a mistake.
Speaker 5: You can't play it. You can't be great like that.
Speaker 12: So that's what I'm curious about with Utah, even after
Speaker 12: the first game, do teams now have to legitimately respect
Speaker 12: your ability to.
Speaker 5: Throw the football and hurt you in all different facets
Speaker 5: of the pass game?
Speaker 12: And if they throw for you know, some great number,
Speaker 12: but we're talking screen passes that took off for a
Speaker 12: big gain, or somebody got out of their alignment on
Speaker 12: a wheel route, you know, in coverage and it was
Speaker 12: a busted coverage and an easy throw. That's not the
Speaker 12: same thing as Hey, if you don't make sure you
Speaker 12: cover this guy, it sticks over the top every time.
Speaker 12: And if you don't have your eyes in the right place,
Speaker 12: this guy's going to beat you across the field.
Speaker 5: Get to the sideline and it's going to be thirty
Speaker 5: five yards.
Speaker 12: I want to see if Utah actually has that threat,
Speaker 12: because that, I think is going to tell me a
Speaker 12: lot as to whether or not this is going to
Speaker 12: be a season of improvement or a season of being
Speaker 12: a true threat to become elite.
Speaker 1: HI to him before I say you lose. Give me
Speaker 1: the latest the Bees. What's going on with our local
Speaker 1: baseball team?
Speaker 12: Yeah, man at home here tonight getting ready for the
Speaker 12: game against the Reno Aces, the Diamondback's affiliate, And then
Speaker 12: after this week we have two weeks left in the
Speaker 12: season in terms of home games, a twelve gamer there
Speaker 12: in September. Take advantage of the great September weather by
Speaker 12: coming out to some games.
Speaker 5: Those nights are going to be beautiful.
Speaker 12: So if you haven't joined us, make sure to come
Speaker 12: on out, and if you have joined us, join us
Speaker 12: one last time.
Speaker 5: Saturday Night is a big night.
Speaker 12: That's this upcoming Saturday, the twenty third, we have Princess Night,
Speaker 12: so make sure to join us here. Kids get to
Speaker 12: run around the bases after the game, and do not
Speaker 12: forget that we'll have the princesses here with a princess theme.
Speaker 12: Dron Show all of that more so great theme night's
Speaker 12: great fun and tickets on Sunday or five bucks getting
Speaker 12: while they last.
Speaker 5: So hope to see you out here.
Speaker 1: Good stuff, Tom, Thanks for the time, buddy. You have
Speaker 1: a good week with chat too.
Speaker 5: Appreciate you.
Speaker 9: Thanks man.
Speaker 2: We've got two hours down. We have two hours to go.
Speaker 1: Coming up on the other side, we will interview Matt Brown,
Speaker 1: then we'll bring in Pablo. Matt all right, ten days
Speaker 1: away from Utah football at the Rose Bowl against UCLA.
Speaker 1: B Yu welcomes in Portland State. Well, Utah, stay, welcomes
Speaker 1: in Utah. It is week zero though, so we have
Speaker 1: college football this weekend.
Speaker 2: Our next guest good enough.
Speaker 1: To join us after his personal assistant ran interference earlier,
Speaker 1: the great Matt Brown from Extra Points Matt, Happy Wednesday.
Speaker 2: How are we doing?
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm doing great.
Speaker 9: I appreciate nobody taking my eleven year old picking up
Speaker 9: the phone and hanging up personally just to glad that
Speaker 9: she didn't accellently get put on the air.
Speaker 1: Well, actually, Matt, in that vein, I told porter I
Speaker 1: was going to ask you if I could interview this
Speaker 1: young lady because at times she does do a little
Speaker 1: Twitter takeover and she seems like a very gregarious, funny
Speaker 1: young lady.
Speaker 2: Is that fair to say?
Speaker 9: I would say that she is better at social media
Speaker 9: than I am. I think every single time she ends
Speaker 9: up on my computer when I'm off doing something else,
Speaker 9: people are like, why why are we paying to read
Speaker 9: Matt Let's go, let's go hear the eleven year old
Speaker 9: review of K pop Demon Hunters, and not about who's
Speaker 9: going to join the a Sun next week? Like, sure,
Speaker 9: next time, we'll just get for the fun.
Speaker 11: I'll pay her a buck.
Speaker 2: Love it, Love it well.
Speaker 1: I wanted to have you on for a number of
Speaker 1: different reasons, but I saw a tweet of yours that
Speaker 1: caught my attention, got a lot of people's attention that
Speaker 1: I just find to be interesting and not talked about
Speaker 1: a whole lot.
Speaker 2: And look, I say this often.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been in media for about twenty years now,
Speaker 1: but I've spent my entire career in the realm of sports,
Speaker 1: whether it was marketing, pr venue management. And you're really
Speaker 1: sold kind of a bill of goods that oftentimes turns
Speaker 1: out to be completely not the thing you thought it
Speaker 1: was going to be. You are asked to work a
Speaker 1: ton of late nights. You're asked to work a ton
Speaker 1: of hours, and honestly, if you're lucky enough to work
Speaker 1: your way up to a high position, then.
Speaker 2: You're gonna make a little bit of money.
Speaker 1: But up until then, and most people never make it
Speaker 1: that you just don't get paid very well.
Speaker 2: It's not near as glamorous as.
Speaker 1: Of what most people believe because we watch the athletes,
Speaker 1: and now college athletes are being paid, Coaches are being
Speaker 1: paid millions of dollars, athletic directors are getting rich. But
Speaker 1: what are you hearing about the other people in athletic
Speaker 1: departments that are now asked to even carry a heavier
Speaker 1: load without really getting an additional compensation.
Speaker 9: There's going to be a bigger story about this next week,
Speaker 9: and I think you're right to draw comparisons to the
Speaker 9: media industry, right Like I tell people, I love my job,
Speaker 9: I love running extra points. This isn't the best job
Speaker 9: that I've had so far, and I'm really fortunate that
Speaker 9: I'm I think one of the few media people that
Speaker 9: has a fair amount of autonomy over what I get
Speaker 9: to do every day and makes it.
Speaker 11: Makes a decent living.
Speaker 9: But it's wild to think that I'm probably like the
Speaker 9: top five percent, top ten percent of earners, because the
Speaker 9: comp is so terrible and there's so few jobs left
Speaker 9: in this world, even for people who are doing stuff
Speaker 9: far more important, I think than what I do.
Speaker 15: And this is.
Speaker 9: Very much what I hear a lot from people that
Speaker 9: work in college sports, where it was I would say
Speaker 9: bad before COVID, between COVID and House, and now this
Speaker 9: gigantic clawback of research money and federal money at larger
Speaker 9: universities over the last year. It's very rare that I
Speaker 9: talk to anybody that I would describe as a frontline
Speaker 9: athletic worker that isn't deeply, deeply burned.
Speaker 2: Out and looking to leave.
Speaker 9: And when I say frontline worker, I'm not talking about
Speaker 9: Kyle Whittingham, although obviously he works a ton of hours.
Speaker 9: I'm talking about the people that actually execute the plans
Speaker 9: that coaches and ads put into effects. So these are
Speaker 9: not just the comm staffers that you and I talked to.
Speaker 9: These are the athletics trainers. These are the people that
Speaker 9: are trying to sell ticket packages to the Boys and
Speaker 9: Girls Club of Metropolitan Salt Lake City. These are the
Speaker 9: people that are making all the social media and video
Speaker 9: and working on development work and the one hundred and
Speaker 9: fifty plus people in a major athletic department that actually
Speaker 9: make everything go. Do these guys get paid like crap?
Speaker 9: And not only do they do, they do they truly
Speaker 9: get paid terribly and kind of you know, run through
Speaker 9: the ringer.
Speaker 11: But what I've been hearing more and more.
Speaker 9: Is I'm not expecting to get paid a lot of
Speaker 9: money because I work in sports for a living. I
Speaker 9: do want my boss to be invested in the quality
Speaker 9: of work that I do. I want to feel like
Speaker 9: what I do matters, that there's some kind of connection
Speaker 9: between how well I do my job and success. And
Speaker 9: if you don't feel that once you get to on
Speaker 9: a mid career, a lot of people are going, you
Speaker 9: know what, if I'm an athletic trainer, what am I
Speaker 9: doing working for the University of Utah When I can
Speaker 9: go to some peak private pet clinic, never have to
Speaker 9: work past six o'clock ever again, and make twenty.
Speaker 11: Grand more money.
Speaker 9: There's a real brain drain that I can I can
Speaker 9: see happening not just at the you know you U
Speaker 9: BYU level, but you know, down to the the use
Speaker 9: of the world for the people that are actually making
Speaker 9: stuff happen, and that that is not a.
Speaker 11: Positive thing for the industry, just like it's not for media.
Speaker 1: I mean, I could give you a list of so
Speaker 1: many names of brid eyed, bushytailed young people who would
Speaker 1: you know, contact me how can I get in sports?
Speaker 1: And you know, then you provide an avenue and then
Speaker 1: suddenly they try it out and they just don't last.
Speaker 1: You know, I do think we romanticize the industry in
Speaker 1: a way that to your point, people that have a
Speaker 1: skill set that could be translated into other endeavors to
Speaker 1: allow their pocketbooks to a little bit a little bit differently.
Speaker 1: They want to work for Utah football because it's cool,
Speaker 1: they want to work for BYU basketball because it's cool,
Speaker 1: and then ultimately it just it doesn't last when they
Speaker 1: experience the reality of it.
Speaker 2: Now, it's not everybody.
Speaker 1: There are plenty of people that have careers in the
Speaker 1: space and they're you know, able to kind of find
Speaker 1: their way into a landing spot that allows them to
Speaker 1: make a good living. But what sort of extra added
Speaker 1: weight or pressure or workload have you heard that these
Speaker 1: staffers have received as a result of things like nil
Speaker 1: and the new reality of what college athletics looks looks
Speaker 1: like yeah.
Speaker 9: So I think an example that I hear a lot
Speaker 9: from both big and small schools is with trainers.
Speaker 11: Right, in a perfect world, you want.
Speaker 9: Some kind of emergency trained medical professional trainer that's at
Speaker 9: every practice and and every game, and you'll have some
Speaker 9: of those folks. You'll be in the traveling party for
Speaker 9: every sport as they go across the country.
Speaker 11: Well as you are. And let's let's say you're.
Speaker 9: A basketball coach, right, and you're really mad at your team.
Speaker 9: They went out there and they played some late November
Speaker 9: game against to the head Cares Division two team and
Speaker 9: there they stuck up the joint. So the coach calls
Speaker 9: an emergency practice at eleven o'clock at night. Well, guess
Speaker 9: what that means. The trainer who might have had plans
Speaker 9: has to cancel all those and they have to show
Speaker 9: up too. And you'll follow follow the same structure here
Speaker 9: as as everybody else, but you don't get paid over
Speaker 9: time or any of that. And what is increasingly, I
Speaker 9: am told the case outside of the power flour is
Speaker 9: you have trainers who then are responsible for serving so
Speaker 9: many different athletes that they don't feel that they can
Speaker 9: provide a high standard of care if they're responsible for
Speaker 9: four or five different teams. And when you go to
Speaker 9: the school and say, hey, we've got to allocate money
Speaker 9: to have more trainers, are like, well, that's fine, we
Speaker 9: don't have any money because they got to pay the players,
Speaker 9: or we.
Speaker 11: We have to we spend all this money on new.
Speaker 9: Facilities, or the state isn't going to give us any money,
Speaker 9: or the fens aren't going to give us any money.
Speaker 9: So this is the place that we decide to cut
Speaker 9: corners until it's too late. It's very rare.
Speaker 11: I think at this point that I can think of
Speaker 11: schools that have hired common staff.
Speaker 9: Most people have laid off or strunk their staffs, while
Speaker 9: also asking them to produce more social media content, to
Speaker 9: produce more videos, to produce more features, to be more visible,
Speaker 9: sometimes even doing sales work.
Speaker 11: All of all of this is a lot, and I don't.
Speaker 9: Think it's just about money. I think part of the
Speaker 9: trade that people make when they work in college sports
Speaker 9: is I'm going to take less salary in exchange for
Speaker 9: really rewarding work that's around athletes. And also, if I'm
Speaker 9: working for a university system, I should get pretty good benefits.
Speaker 9: And I think that kind of trade offs is increasingly
Speaker 9: not holding up.
Speaker 2: All right, Matt, moving off this one.
Speaker 1: Tell our listeners and me what the Score Act is
Speaker 1: and why we need to know about it. And as
Speaker 1: it kind of continues to gain some momentum, do you
Speaker 1: think we're getting closer to this actually becoming a reality.
Speaker 9: I think we're getting closer to a passing the House.
Speaker 9: The Score Act is actually a bipartisan bill, although it's
Speaker 9: overwhelmingly supported by Congressional House Republicans, to address a lot
Speaker 9: of the stuff that the NCAA has been asking for years.
Speaker 9: It would give the NCUBA an anti trust exemption to
Speaker 9: be able to enforce an IL regulations, to be enforce
Speaker 9: the terms of the House Settlement, and and so they
Speaker 9: won't get sued.
Speaker 11: And it's like it's.
Speaker 9: Are not and shouldn't be designated as employees regardless of
Speaker 9: what happens with Johnson v. V mc double A or
Speaker 9: other future court cases. This is something that's really important.
Speaker 9: It's a powerful conference conference leaders, but also folks in
Speaker 9: Indianapolis at the incident because their concern is without some
Speaker 9: of these anti trust exemptions, the CSC can't actually, you know,
Speaker 9: smack down anybody's nil deal that goes above the cap,
Speaker 9: they won't be able to enforce eligibility rules, and shoot,
Speaker 9: we already had that. We just saw today grant in
Speaker 9: junction first and West Virginia athletes to be able to
Speaker 9: play a lot of athlete rights this and economists and
Speaker 9: many progressors look at this and think this is terrible
Speaker 9: because it's all it does is handle over power right
Speaker 9: back to the NC double a that the Supreme Court.
Speaker 9: I'm a Strip student, and that lots of athlete rights
Speaker 9: activists have said that they shouldn't have in the first place.
Speaker 9: It would be a step towards kind of consolidating what
Speaker 9: the college sports world order looked like about a decade ago.
Speaker 11: I can tell you guys, it's very likely.
Speaker 9: To pass the US House. It has widespread Republican support.
Speaker 9: There's three Democrats that are co signing it. Probably at
Speaker 9: least one more will vote for it. The question is
Speaker 9: what happens in the Senate, because if you want to
Speaker 9: break the filibuster, you need more than fifty one votes.
Speaker 9: And the Senate Republicans, last time I talked to some
Speaker 9: staffers there, feel pretty good about getting some Democrat support.
Speaker 9: They don't think they have sixty votes yet, so we'll
Speaker 9: have to see.
Speaker 1: Started the show off today after listening to Brian Rolapp,
Speaker 1: who's the new commissioner, excuse me, the new CEO of
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. Brian spent twenty two years as Roger
Speaker 1: Goodell's right hand man, friend of the program of actually
Speaker 1: interviewed me a couple of times. He's a really really smart,
Speaker 1: really sharp guy, and he gave a very eloquent, organized
Speaker 1: message about this committee that he's starting with nine people
Speaker 1: led by Tiger Tiger Woods is going to be on it,
Speaker 1: and he used the word innovate about six or seven times.
Speaker 1: They want to innovate, they want to improve, they want
Speaker 1: to capitalize on this moment the golf is having that
Speaker 1: it quite frankly has never had. It is so wildly
Speaker 1: popular that you can barely get a tea time, and
Speaker 1: they're like five six hour rounds, so everybody's like ratings
Speaker 1: are up, interest is up, you know. And to juxtapose
Speaker 1: what I perceived to be a very intelligent, organized approach
Speaker 1: from a new CEO of the PGA Tour, I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the difference between innovation and then change
Speaker 1: for change's sake, and it seems like college athletics, college
Speaker 1: football specifically oftentimes just wants to change, just to change.
Speaker 1: And the new proposal that was forwarded by the Big
Speaker 1: Ten to expand the CFP to twenty eight to give
Speaker 1: the Big ten seven auto bids, the SEC seven, Big
Speaker 1: twelve would get five, the ACC would get five. Then
Speaker 1: there's some left over number or it strikes me as
Speaker 1: so tone deaf because you eliminate conference championship games and
Speaker 1: what you do is almost not entirely, but you really
Speaker 1: do kill the main thing that I think makes this
Speaker 1: sport great, and that is the prescient nature of every weekend,
Speaker 1: the urgent nature of every single conference game.
Speaker 2: Does this thing have any legs at all?
Speaker 1: Like, what's your reaction when you saw that this is
Speaker 1: the thing that the Big ten decided to actually leak
Speaker 1: out there?
Speaker 9: When I first heard about this, my first thought is
Speaker 9: always I personally appreciate when schools and conference offices are
Speaker 9: willing to leak stuff to reporters, throw things at the
Speaker 9: wall that they know are not completely baked and get
Speaker 9: beaten up a little bit, because I actually I think
Speaker 9: that's a way to kind of keep organizations from making
Speaker 9: really bad decisions. And sometimes after an idea kind of
Speaker 9: gets dragged through the national you know, discourse circuit.
Speaker 11: Sometimes it comes out better.
Speaker 9: And that was kind of my read on the Big
Speaker 9: Ten's proposal. Like I'll tell you, I talk to people
Speaker 9: that work at the Big Ten, Like Big ten headquarters
Speaker 9: is fifteen minutes from my house. There are people that
Speaker 9: have Big ten email addresses, are like, now, this is.
Speaker 2: A stupid idea.
Speaker 9: And what I think this is more about is trying
Speaker 9: to negotiate in public to throw something out so Atlantish
Speaker 9: and like ash Hucks, You're right, twenty six is way
Speaker 9: too many. We should go back to sixteen, right and
Speaker 9: try to you know, shift the terms of the debate
Speaker 9: to go get what they really want, which is automatic
Speaker 9: more automatic bids. So a team like in Iowa or
Speaker 9: Minnesota or Wisconsin that will probably not make the twolth
Speaker 9: team college football playoff more than once a decade has
Speaker 9: more of a pathway to that world. I think that
Speaker 9: overwhelmingly benefits the Big Ten in the SEC. The plus sucks.
Speaker 11: Like I agree with you, I haven't seen.
Speaker 9: Anybody in the here in the Midwest.
Speaker 11: In the footprints, you know, really really.
Speaker 9: Cake for this thing. I don't even think the math
Speaker 9: pens out because conference championship games, even as they are,
Speaker 9: you know, less important than they were in like nineteen
Speaker 9: ninety four, they're enormously valuable, not just broadcast television inventory,
Speaker 9: but they're really important for conference sponsorships. Like you know this,
Speaker 9: the SEC and the Big Ten make a lot of
Speaker 9: money selling sponsorships at Lucas Oil Stadium and and you
Speaker 9: know the Georgia to only all these other places for
Speaker 9: these events. So you have to bet that now, you know,
Speaker 9: moving inventory that you control.
Speaker 11: To the college Football Playoff that you don't.
Speaker 9: Control will make you financially whole I for a game,
Speaker 9: first round game that's going to feature you like two
Speaker 9: eight and five teams. I very much struggle to see
Speaker 9: how that works for anybody.
Speaker 1: The Salt Lake Tribune did a really interesting piece this
Speaker 1: week on BYU and their athletic department budget is doubled
Speaker 1: since twenty twenty. According to the Tribune, they interviewed a
Speaker 1: history professor at by You excuse me, he's a leading
Speaker 1: Latter Day Saint expert of Colorado State. His name is
Speaker 1: Matt Harris. The Church Commissioner of Education Clark Gilbert. He's
Speaker 1: a general authority UH sent out you know, this tweet
Speaker 1: about you know, the way that BYU should handle their
Speaker 1: nil endeavors and their economic model. Uh, and they they
Speaker 1: went in depth and we've talked about it quite a bit,
Speaker 1: and ultimately there's just kind of this, uh, this conversation
Speaker 1: going on about whether or not the modern version of
Speaker 1: Cougar athletics is at odds with what BYU's mission is
Speaker 1: according to their their own mission, their own model, And
Speaker 1: it does appear there are a lot of people who
Speaker 1: work for BYU that aren't necessarily comfortable and you know,
Speaker 1: the the friction between academia and athletics at institutions as
Speaker 1: the tales old as time, this is not a new thing,
Speaker 1: but certainly a lot of people, Uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: pay for play is not landing all that well with
Speaker 1: certain people down at BYU. The fans love it, of course,
Speaker 1: because you're getting better talent with the basketball team and
Speaker 1: the football team. It just continues to be the messaging
Speaker 1: of you know, people in the athletic department that doesn't
Speaker 1: land with me because they're they're lying, is what they're doing.
Speaker 1: They have been among the highest bidders to land certain
Speaker 1: players that have played that are playing for basketball and football.
Speaker 1: The average Big twelve roster, according to the Tribune, will
Speaker 1: be about twelve million dollars this year. BYU's is going
Speaker 1: to cost more than fifteen million. They're paying Kevin Young
Speaker 1: as one of the highest paid basketball coaches in the country.
Speaker 1: Kilani got a new deal Rob Wright three point five
Speaker 1: million from Baylor, Richie Saunders seven figures. But there continues
Speaker 1: to be this like clandestine approach to messaging from the
Speaker 1: athletic department that they just do not want to say
Speaker 1: the truth out loud, which is you are among the
Speaker 1: highest bidders in college athletics, which is a benefit to you.
Speaker 2: You are not breaking the rules.
Speaker 1: You should be able to say it out loud as
Speaker 1: opposed to lean into the BYU experience. And that's why
Speaker 1: AJ sat like, you're paying him five million dollars, like
Speaker 1: it's really interesting piece, And I just wonder what your
Speaker 1: thoughts are with this dichotomy between one side of what
Speaker 1: appears to be down at BYU with some administrators not
Speaker 1: being comfortable with the way they're going about it. Then
Speaker 1: on the other side in the athletic department, while they're
Speaker 1: clearly writing big checks, they just don't want to say
Speaker 1: that out loud.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'll answer this question with the caveat that I
Speaker 9: have not had a chance to read this in its entirety,
Speaker 9: Like that's one of the stories that I've had opened
Speaker 9: on a tab for a minute here. Well, what I
Speaker 9: can tell you just from being on this beat here
Speaker 9: for a minute is that it's pretty rare to find
Speaker 9: an AD or a senior administrator or a president who's
Speaker 9: willing to say on the record, yes, we do pay
Speaker 9: near the top of the market for talent. When I
Speaker 9: was at the college football National Championship game and I
Speaker 9: was down on the field after Ohio State won, and
Speaker 9: I ran over and I grabbed ros Byorke as the
Speaker 9: confetti is falling down Ohio state'sad and the only thing
Speaker 9: that he wanted to talk about in that moment was, Hey,
Speaker 9: Matt put it in the paper that we didn't have
Speaker 9: the highest payroll for our football team, which which wasn't
Speaker 9: actually true they didn't, but like that was the narrative
Speaker 9: that they wanted to spend.
Speaker 11: I feel like the only school that's.
Speaker 9: Been willing to kind of say it with their chest
Speaker 9: this offseason that yes, we are opening up our checkbook
Speaker 9: is Texas Tech, and and A big part of that
Speaker 9: is because the checkbook opening up is not exclusively coming
Speaker 9: from the university. It's also it's also coming from some booster.
Speaker 9: So I think that there's there's a there's a discomfort
Speaker 9: with with admitting we are paying in the top twenty
Speaker 9: percentile for X, Y and Z. I don't think that's
Speaker 9: unique to b YU. I don't think it's unique to
Speaker 9: the LDS church. Like that's that. I think if you
Speaker 9: if we if we called up Scott what we're at
Speaker 9: LSU right now or Brian Kelly, he'd probably tell us
Speaker 9: the same thing, even if.
Speaker 11: It's not true.
Speaker 9: I also think, knowing what I know about BAU athletics,
Speaker 9: if there's some some some discomforts with with answering some
Speaker 9: of those questions, like look, you have to you have
Speaker 9: to say what if you're going to say something in.
Speaker 11: The paper, you you have to say what you're.
Speaker 9: Bosses want you to say, even if you know in
Speaker 9: your heart that that yes, you know our our payrolls
Speaker 9: and the X percenter you know for X, Y and Z.
Speaker 9: If you know that, if you say that in the trade,
Speaker 9: if Clark Gilbert's gonna yell at You're not gonna do it.
Speaker 11: I understand that this is legitimately.
Speaker 9: Like I'm not being dismissive or just saying that pejoratively,
Speaker 9: like that's that's the gig, And that's true at state schools,
Speaker 9: and and that's true somewhere else. There's a lot of
Speaker 9: unique tensions in a place like b YU between the
Speaker 9: athletic department, between academia, between central administration, between high level donors.
Speaker 11: And I know that that's that's not unique to just nil.
Speaker 11: I don't.
Speaker 9: I don't think this is a state this is this
Speaker 9: is a this is talking out of school or gonna
Speaker 9: get me in trouble or anything. But the etholic department
Speaker 9: at b r U is gonna have often has a
Speaker 9: different view about diversity related issues than everybody else because
Speaker 9: they talked they work with the most diverse pool students
Speaker 9: than anybody in the law school or the business school
Speaker 9: or or administration does like it's it's in their interest
Speaker 9: to maybe have a lighter touch or more.
Speaker 11: Inclusive touch for their students. That it might be if
Speaker 11: all you do is teach American heritage.
Speaker 9: That's true for fundraising that that you know that that's
Speaker 9: true for for lots of other departments.
Speaker 11: I don't know how it ends.
Speaker 12: Like.
Speaker 9: What I would say to anybody listening to this trying
Speaker 9: my very best to not be biased, is I don't
Speaker 9: think there's a writer or wrong way to feel about this.
Speaker 9: From my reading of the scriptures and my understanding of
Speaker 9: LDS theology, I don't think there is anything that you know,
Speaker 9: runs counter to church teachings in paying a basketball player
Speaker 9: of five million dollars, I understand for cultural reasons or
Speaker 9: other reasons. Why so that would make somebody uncomfortable, And
Speaker 9: I think both of those feelings are valid. I share
Speaker 9: your thought that I wish the people that we.
Speaker 11: Talked to would would just tell us.
Speaker 9: The full truth instead of hiding behind euphanisms.
Speaker 11: But that is I you know, I don't think I
Speaker 11: could throw any any.
Speaker 9: Proverbial rocks, just that provo for that, because I think
Speaker 9: that's a higher education challenge, not just the Utah County challenge.
Speaker 2: For sure, you know, I find interested.
Speaker 1: I've got a good friend who's a Notre Dame alum,
Speaker 1: and he's Catholic, obviously Notre Dame Catholic the tie there,
Speaker 1: and we were discussing he's done well and he donates
Speaker 1: heavily to his alma mater, and he loves Notre Dame football,
Speaker 1: Notre Dame basketball, and the language he uses isn't unlike
Speaker 1: what I hear from some of my LDS buddies who
Speaker 1: went to BYU.
Speaker 2: Who also you know.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of it almost feels in a way, Matt,
Speaker 1: that some of these religious institutions have this built in
Speaker 1: advantage when it comes to raising money with nil because
Speaker 1: if you are a faithful member of a certain religion
Speaker 1: and you believe that your money will help further the
Speaker 1: message of the religion you belong to, if your by
Speaker 1: you were Notre Dame, you can send out the message
Speaker 1: to the masses like, okay, all you faithful believers, our
Speaker 1: football program being good helps the mission of the church,
Speaker 1: so open up your checkbook. Kind of an interesting dynamic
Speaker 1: that some of these faith based institutions do kind of
Speaker 1: have this nil thought raising advantage.
Speaker 15: You know.
Speaker 9: Yeah, maybe like that actually I think might be something
Speaker 9: that that's worth investigating or worth turning into an actual story.
Speaker 12: You know.
Speaker 9: One of one of the differences I think between b
Speaker 9: YU and that kind of approach and maybe other large
Speaker 9: religious institutions in Division one is uh, most Protestant and
Speaker 9: even Catholic institutions are.
Speaker 11: Not missionary focused.
Speaker 9: The these, the these you know, the spreading the message
Speaker 9: of Catholicism through Notre Dame football does not have like
Speaker 9: the same doesn't mean the same thing, I think as
Speaker 9: as as it does in Mormondom. I don't know if
Speaker 9: there's as many people that are like you know, checking
Speaker 9: the annual statu reports about about how many people went
Speaker 9: to Mass or or you know, if they opened up
Speaker 9: a new parish somewhere, maybe the same way that that
Speaker 9: that that happens in this market. I think there what
Speaker 9: you're describing is something that could be true for Liberty,
Speaker 9: that it could be true for some other institutions, But
Speaker 9: there's a lot of faith based schools, and like, I
Speaker 9: don't know if that helps Jamie raise money at Grand Canyon,
Speaker 9: I don't. I don't think that that necessarily works for Baylor.
Speaker 9: And I don't know if there's anybody other than outside
Speaker 9: of the immediate Waco area that thinks like Baylor Bears
Speaker 9: football victories is as a positive sign for Baptists to
Speaker 9: slay the godless Episcopalians in the Protestant Wars or something like.
Speaker 9: I don't, I don't I don't think it necessarily works
Speaker 9: that way. I think from an outsider who you know,
Speaker 9: who spent a long time in the LDS world, I
Speaker 9: think that that kind of argument would has a little
Speaker 9: bit more emotional heft about trying to give it, about
Speaker 9: the importance of constantly trying to to grow and spread
Speaker 9: this message and to get validation in the national culture.
Speaker 9: I don't think that's a thing that like Wake Forest
Speaker 9: fans think about the same way, because they already are
Speaker 9: part of the culture.
Speaker 1: Certainly, yeah, yeah, yeah, And certainly the examples I utilize
Speaker 1: your anecdotal would be interested to hear somebody like you
Speaker 1: read somebody like you actually dig into it to see
Speaker 1: if there's anything there. But look, man, good, I guess yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm glad we were able to get past the first
Speaker 1: layer of the brown household to get you on the
Speaker 1: show today.
Speaker 2: Where where can people go get the work? My friend?
Speaker 9: You bet you can find my work my reporting at
Speaker 9: extra Points mb dot com. I have some I'm gonna
Speaker 9: break a little bit of news about some some SCS
Speaker 9: conference re alignment tomorrow. I've got I've got some reporting
Speaker 9: that's gonna come out in a couple of days about
Speaker 9: they kind of burn out crisis within within college sports.
Speaker 11: I'm gonna be in the in Raleigh this weekend for.
Speaker 9: The Raleigh Sports Podcast Festival and doing a little reporting
Speaker 9: there and then next week when everyone else is talking
Speaker 9: about the biggest games in college sports, Like I mean,
Speaker 9: I'm excited, I'm going to Texas to go to the
Speaker 9: first ever game at ut RGV.
Speaker 11: We're gonna, We're gonna counter program you have, you have
Speaker 11: State Texas, you know world here.
Speaker 9: I'm excited for some of the places off the beaten path.
Speaker 11: I think extra Points will be going this season.
Speaker 2: Very nice.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for the time, Save travels and we'll
Speaker 1: chat soon.
Speaker 11: Thanks Matt, Oh, yep, you bet.
Speaker 1: Thanks friend, the great Matt Brown College the college football
Speaker 1: newsletters called extra Points. I utilize it for the show
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Speaker 1: his socials. I want to tell you about my friends
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Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: They will be our partner for our vip ESPN seven
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Speaker 1: I will get back to some of the college football
Speaker 1: storylines of the day today as we're ten days away
Speaker 1: from kick for the Utes for the Cougars, for the
Speaker 1: Aggies as well, It's week zero in the world of
Speaker 1: college football, so we actually have games this weekend. We
Speaker 1: also have a match this weekend in Sandy, which is
Speaker 1: a big one for the lads. Rsl welcomes in Minnesota
Speaker 1: our next guest, the head coach over Real saw Lake.
Speaker 1: On a Wednesday, Pablo Master Whennie pops Happy Wednesday, Man,
Speaker 1: how are we doing?
Speaker 15: Happy ones? Just spend doing well, buds.
Speaker 1: I hate to start it out this way, but you
Speaker 1: know where I'm going. And I'm certainly no soccer expert,
Speaker 1: but my soccer pee brain says, when a player kicks
Speaker 1: a ball and the defender hits that ball with his hand,
Speaker 1: typically that is what is known as a handball. I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I hate to continue to harp on
Speaker 1: this officiating stuff, but it seems like weekend and week out,
Speaker 1: you guys have to feel a little hard done.
Speaker 2: Is that fair?
Speaker 15: Yep, yeah, I think I think it's absolutely fair. And
Speaker 15: the other way just affects the group. Is this momentum,
Speaker 15: you know, And I think it's like Murphy's law, those
Speaker 15: things that you think might happen end up happening. You know,
Speaker 15: two games in a row where we're just on the
Speaker 15: wrong side of some calls. But I really like Porter's point,
Speaker 15: you know. I talked to him before getting on and
Speaker 15: he says, you know, they always say everything always evens
Speaker 15: out at the end, and because you guys have taking
Speaker 15: so many bad calls this year, it's going to come
Speaker 15: down to the last games. And making a great run
Speaker 15: to the playoffs. So I really like that positive spin.
Speaker 2: Well, he stole that point from Dunny yesterday.
Speaker 1: Look at you, quarter, at least give Dunny credit if
Speaker 1: you're going to try to brag the Pablo.
Speaker 3: I know Dounny did bring it up. Okay, all right,
Speaker 3: if it does bring true, it's going to swing real fart.
Speaker 2: No, all good, all good.
Speaker 1: Hey, Look, we need to give Porter some love because
Speaker 1: when he makes a good point, it makes him feel
Speaker 1: good to acknowledge it.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad you brought it up.
Speaker 1: Okay, Let's move over to the tackle on a Mecca
Speaker 1: also like in real time, because here's the thing, Like
Speaker 1: a Mecca's a sturdy kid.
Speaker 2: And he doesn't dive. Okay.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 1: And so when I saw the tackle, I'm like, I
Speaker 1: need to see a replay. Then I saw the replay
Speaker 1: like that to me, clearly is reckless and violence. I
Speaker 1: mean that felt like a red card to me.
Speaker 15: Yep, No, and again his arms across his neck chest
Speaker 15: area and he's throwing them down and and again. The
Speaker 15: weird thing is the subjectivity part is you know, we'll
Speaker 15: see all these replays and we're gonna, I think, start
Speaker 15: in the in the referee preseason video of all the
Speaker 15: calls that they do differently, because again we you know,
Speaker 15: we get feedback from the refs every week and kurts
Speaker 15: on the call, and you know, I jumped on last week.
Speaker 15: I didn't jump on this week because again, they're not
Speaker 15: going to change the results. And I think that's the
Speaker 15: biggest thing for me, is like, you know, what what
Speaker 15: areas can we look into in the game state? And
Speaker 15: obviously that affects players, you know, when calls don't go
Speaker 15: your way, obviously you get frust your initial reactions frustration,
Speaker 15: it's like we're being cheated here, and then you start
Speaker 15: to lose sight of the game. And so I think
Speaker 15: it's really important for my part, you know, because that
Speaker 15: did look like a red card, and we've been red
Speaker 15: carded for a lot less than that. I mean, Diego
Speaker 15: is red carded the two games before in New York
Speaker 15: where the other guy grabbed his put his arms around
Speaker 15: Diego's neck and he still got red carded. So I
Speaker 15: think for us, it's really thinking about the details and
Speaker 15: and and how we can incorporate you know, Ruan Cruz
Speaker 15: and Victor Olatunji and and really make a strong run
Speaker 15: here because we have a great opponent in Minnesota at
Speaker 15: the weekend who's a flying and it just takes one
Speaker 15: moment and like you know, Porter and Donny Bradley pointed,
Speaker 15: I think we're going to get a break this weekend,
Speaker 15: and and not a break that's not fair because I
Speaker 15: don't want that either. I just want a well officiated
Speaker 15: game and with good momentum. You know, I think we'll
Speaker 15: we'll we'll make a run here to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I'll ask you one more thing about this and we
Speaker 1: can move on and talk about how the team is
Speaker 1: coming together. But when you do some simple math, because
Speaker 1: here's here's always it's always been my issue with officials
Speaker 1: that I don't think they fully understand what's at stake
Speaker 1: when they bought a call. Because if you miss the
Speaker 1: playoffs and you're a coach, there's an owner that might say, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's not good enough or right. If you're a player
Speaker 1: that doesn't have the opportunity to tallly a goal that
Speaker 1: he deserves, then that looks bad on him and his stats,
Speaker 1: and suddenly you can't like there's a lot at stake
Speaker 1: when calls are made that that directly affect outcomes. It's
Speaker 1: it's one thing to miss a call here or there,
Speaker 1: but when points are taken off the table the way
Speaker 1: they've been with you, maybe six or seven matches, you
Speaker 1: do some simple math, pops and if you get half
Speaker 1: of those calls, you're in the top six or seven,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, so how do you
Speaker 1: how do you reconcile that when you're talking to your
Speaker 1: players about this dynamic?
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think Spence, that's the hardest thing because the
Speaker 15: last thing I want to do is quite to something
Speaker 15: that we have no control over, you know, And so
Speaker 15: I don't think I you know, in this last time,
Speaker 15: I didn't even acknowledge this Charlotte game, you know, because
Speaker 15: it's futile. And the thing is is that mice. I'm left,
Speaker 15: you know, fuming over all these these situations as opposed
Speaker 15: to given my ennery the things that we can control
Speaker 15: and things that we need to look forward on, because
Speaker 15: you know, life happens, you know, it's that's in the
Speaker 15: past and now we have to move forward. And so
Speaker 15: I think, again, I'm always trying to be an example
Speaker 15: of how I want the players to behave and obviously
Speaker 15: after the game, we're frustrated. You know, we end up
Speaker 15: conceding on a on a set piece, something that's that
Speaker 15: that you know we're completely in control of and and
Speaker 15: did that moment fifteen minutes earlier affect us? And so
Speaker 15: the more I bring it up, the more I feel
Speaker 15: it's okay for the players to feel the way they do.
Speaker 15: And what I want to do is like, let's get
Speaker 15: on with it. It's not fair, but no one cares.
Speaker 15: It's on us to rectify that. So it's really tough.
Speaker 15: It's not easy, especially when it's been so many this year.
Speaker 15: And but but again, I'm going to go back to
Speaker 15: Porter's point. It's going to come back to us in droves.
Speaker 1: He's going to be so insufferable after this interview he's
Speaker 1: doing he's doing a fist pump in the studio.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, No, I like it.
Speaker 1: We can give our guy a little credit here, all right.
Speaker 1: You reference Rawan and Victor. We've seen both of them. Now,
Speaker 1: just give us an update on how it's going to
Speaker 1: integrate them into the system, and then tell us about
Speaker 1: how training is going. Are they grasping what you're asking
Speaker 1: them to do as we get familiar with these two
Speaker 1: new acquisitions.
Speaker 15: Yeah, and again I think this is why there's been
Speaker 15: talked about changing the season around, and it's it's it's
Speaker 15: so difficult to integate, integrate guys with eight games left, right,
Speaker 15: and there's so many variables in our league. And I
Speaker 15: think I touched on it last week, but as far
Speaker 15: as you know, our tactics are going to be different
Speaker 15: than the way either of them played. And then understanding
Speaker 15: how they you know, what their teammates' qualities are, right
Speaker 15: and who you're playing alongside. And but they've today they
Speaker 15: were awesome. Both of them are awesome, and you see
Speaker 15: with every training session that they're getting a really good
Speaker 15: understanding of both the team tactics and more importantly, how
Speaker 15: how they can play off each other. They're both really
Speaker 15: sophisticated thinkers. They you know, I think, but in the game,
Speaker 15: both of them had really good chances uh to score
Speaker 15: some goals. And and so that's coming from not knowing
Speaker 15: a whole lot and just playing, you know, from from
Speaker 15: a place of field really because we only had a
Speaker 15: couple of days to prepare to get them both on
Speaker 15: the field. But I think with every training session they
Speaker 15: get sharper and what you're all what I'm also noticing
Speaker 15: and training is the level of confidence that the players
Speaker 15: around them have having those two guys on the field,
Speaker 15: and so you know, I think they're they're you know today, uh,
Speaker 15: you know, we had a meeting with Jun Cruz as
Speaker 15: far as the tactics in the pockets that he can
Speaker 15: really hurt teams with. And again, both great students of
Speaker 15: the game, great teammates, wonderful people, and and I think that, uh,
Speaker 15: these guys are going to be flying here soon. And
Speaker 15: so I'm really excited now. That's why I'm really excited
Speaker 15: for the weekend. We're up against a very stingy Minnesota
Speaker 15: defense and if we can get both want and uh
Speaker 15: Victor on the score sheet, will be fined.
Speaker 1: Always has a day to say this. I don't want
Speaker 1: to sound like the ugly American, but I'm always curious about, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the communication between players who come here and
Speaker 1: the language barriers, and you know, I know you have
Speaker 1: found a way to kind of circumvent some of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But how's the English, How's how's the communication with the
Speaker 1: two new players communicating with the other guys on the roster.
Speaker 15: That's a great point, you know, It's been really fascinating
Speaker 15: his victors completely fluent in English and he's a big
Speaker 15: time reader, so he's you know, he he loves, He
Speaker 15: easily integrates into the end of the team. And Huon
Speaker 15: as a when we talked him on the zoom, he
Speaker 15: was really hesitant to speak English. But what I've come
Speaker 15: to realize is his understanding of the English is really
Speaker 15: really good and he wants to learn, so he's going
Speaker 15: to start taking classes. But whenever the coaches talked to
Speaker 15: Huan and you know, and he understand obviously speaks and
Speaker 15: understands Portuguese like his first language, but his ability to
Speaker 15: listen to the coaches and to be able to implement
Speaker 15: what we're asking is incredible given the zoom that we
Speaker 15: had where he was really hesitant to speak English. So
Speaker 15: the language piece isn't isn't an issue with either of them.
Speaker 15: But the one thing that real positive and we talk
Speaker 15: about is they understand football and they understand space, and
Speaker 15: so when teammates have the ball, you're always looking at
Speaker 15: angles and options to be able to play off the
Speaker 15: other ones. And they've played off each other really well
Speaker 15: in the last couple of days, so I think we
Speaker 15: won't have any problems with with a language barrier.
Speaker 1: So you're without Diego again this weekend, right, and then
Speaker 1: Gozo as well as let's see, I think it's Willie right,
Speaker 1: we got it, Okay, we got it okay. So without
Speaker 1: those three, what's that attack going to look like?
Speaker 15: Yeah, So we looked at a couple of guys, you know,
Speaker 15: in those positions, Johnny Russell being one of them, Ari
Speaker 15: Fuel being another. And you know, I think it's a
Speaker 15: it's a good opportunity for guys like Goan and Victor
Speaker 15: to go to distance, right, you know, with with a
Speaker 15: few games left, we've got to make sure that we
Speaker 15: give him a long enough run way to be fit
Speaker 15: for these important games. And so, you know, Johnny looked
Speaker 15: really bright today. He's a guy that can make plays.
Speaker 15: And I think that's another aspect that we were talking about,
Speaker 15: is within the tactics, you still need to make plays
Speaker 15: in other words, like whether it's the really crisp final
Speaker 15: pass or it's shooting from you know, from an angle
Speaker 15: with a with a cultured technique to hit the back
Speaker 15: of the net. And I think that's that's one of
Speaker 15: the things that Johnny Russell brings with his experience and
Speaker 15: his qualities. So you know, we'll finalize things as we
Speaker 15: move towards the weekend. But those two guys in place
Speaker 15: for Gozo and then obviously Diego has been doing better,
Speaker 15: and I think now that he's got players ahead of him,
Speaker 15: has has really changed the way he's played, you know,
Speaker 15: because oftentimes we're looking at him to always be got
Speaker 15: to score goals this year, and what I've seen with
Speaker 15: the introduction of these two players has been he's got
Speaker 15: a great final pass and and maybe what we were
Speaker 15: missing is just the runners ahead of him to to
Speaker 15: really see Diego's quality.
Speaker 1: So every time I and look, I mostly just watch RSL,
Speaker 1: mostly just watch you. But every time I watch Minnesota
Speaker 1: just seems like a total pain in the ass.
Speaker 2: They just seem like such a pain. What is it?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: Is it personnel? Is it coaching? Is its schmatics? Like
Speaker 1: why are they so stout defensively? Why are they so hard?
Speaker 1: Let's say they seem like such a tough nut to crack.
Speaker 15: Yeah, you know, they're almost contrarian spence in that the
Speaker 15: modern game of football is primarily how are we going
Speaker 15: to attack? They flipped the script and they say, how
Speaker 15: are we going to defend? And so where teams placed
Speaker 15: maybe a seventy thirty emphasis at pieces, right, So it's
Speaker 15: it's the muondane part of the game that they they're
Speaker 15: excellent at. So they're almost comfortable giving you the ball
Speaker 15: and then they'll say, we'll catch you on a counter
Speaker 15: attack or we'll catch you on a long throw in, right,
Speaker 15: So they use these set says. You know, if there's
Speaker 15: a foul in there and they're attacking and their defensive half,
Speaker 15: they will literally move the whole team forward and have
Speaker 15: their goalkeeper punt it and use that as a way
Speaker 15: to keep you pinned in. And so they play for
Speaker 15: a battle of territory. So it's it's kind of an
Speaker 15: old school way of thinking, but they do it to
Speaker 15: the nines. And that's why they make every game so
Speaker 15: difficult for any team because they're they're they're they're they're
Speaker 15: they excel at areas where teams are like, well, that's important,
Speaker 15: but not as important as the way we want to attack. Well,
Speaker 15: long thrownes are important, but you know, defending them, you know,
Speaker 15: is is hit or miss and you're usually playing not
Speaker 15: necessarily for the first phase. But like I said, they
Speaker 15: play for territory, and how can they build two or
Speaker 15: three shots on goal from a long throw in, which
Speaker 15: is not something most teams will even focus on. So
Speaker 15: what they do is they do very well. Obviously, that's
Speaker 15: that's coaching and and it's really buying from the from
Speaker 15: the players, and that's always been my thing. It's it's
Speaker 15: very difficult to have a group of guys that are
Speaker 15: committed to not playing with the ball because in modern
Speaker 15: foot all from the time you're five years old, you're
Speaker 15: doing goal kick builds and you're in the love of
Speaker 15: the game comes with the ball. So they bought into it,
Speaker 15: and I think it's hard to not buy into it
Speaker 15: when you can get results. So areas that we've been
Speaker 15: really you know, working on, but throwing a wrinkle in
Speaker 15: there as to how we can kind of throw, you know,
Speaker 15: throw something at them that looks a little bit different
Speaker 15: than they've seen all year from the way they want
Speaker 15: to attack the game from a set piece perspective, is
Speaker 15: hopefully we ask some questions as to whether or not
Speaker 15: they're going to continue to throw to that many numbers
Speaker 15: forward feels like a.
Speaker 2: Bit of a must win.
Speaker 1: Pobs, you've got eight games left, with five at home.
Speaker 1: Have you done the math as far as where you
Speaker 1: think you need to be to get over the line
Speaker 1: and make the playoffs.
Speaker 15: Yeah, you know, I think, you know, if we take
Speaker 15: care of home and win the five home games, I
Speaker 15: think it puts us in a position to compete for
Speaker 15: the playing game. And then you know, we got to
Speaker 15: squeak one or two one with a draw. So somewhere
Speaker 15: around eighteen points, I think Jesus in a in a
Speaker 15: playoff position, and I think fifteen points sees us buying
Speaker 15: for that playing game. So and you know how I
Speaker 15: think about that, Spence is like the only way to
Speaker 15: get to the future is to go through the present
Speaker 15: and and and so we got to walk the walk
Speaker 15: and and really hit this game head on. So it
Speaker 15: must win. I think it's it's pretty close. It's pretty
Speaker 15: close to must win game that we need. And and uh,
Speaker 15: you know, and I always look at our training sessions
Speaker 15: like what's what's the vibe like? And these guys were
Speaker 15: flying today and committed, and you know, one of the
Speaker 15: things that you know, we have a great leadership group.
Speaker 15: One of the things that you know, we're going to
Speaker 15: throw a tactical a pretty big tactical tweak into the
Speaker 15: into what we're doing this week in lieu of Minnesota,
Speaker 15: and the leadership group said, Coach, like, listen, we believe
Speaker 15: in what we're doing. We're literally one set piece away
Speaker 15: from getting results, one PK not being called from getting results.
Speaker 15: We believe in what we're doing. We've enjoy what we're doing. Well,
Speaker 15: let's let's keep it the same. Let's not let's let's
Speaker 15: just keep focusing on ourselves and let's kill these guys
Speaker 15: this weekend. So when you got a leadership group like that,
Speaker 15: that that's all in and it's reflected in the way
Speaker 15: the guys have trained this week. I'm really really optimistic
Speaker 15: about this weekend.
Speaker 1: Transfer window closes tomorrow night. My sources little Bertie, cute
Speaker 1: little Bertie to keep us little Bertie that could ever
Speaker 1: be indicates that we might might might have some news
Speaker 1: dropping over the next twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: Care to elaborate on that at all?
Speaker 15: Yeah, No, I think it's again, I don't know if
Speaker 15: the documents have been signed, and I'm so hesitant to
Speaker 15: say anything before because there's nothing you can't go back
Speaker 15: on that. It's kind of like a referee call, right
Speaker 15: Spence like, yeah, sorry, it's but if it goes threatened
Speaker 15: to be fair, I talked to the the players coach.
Speaker 15: He's a good friend of mine in Cincinnati and and yeah,
Speaker 15: a really good defender with again, I think another part
Speaker 15: to you know, things that we talked about on the
Speaker 15: phone were just an unbelievable human being, a great culture
Speaker 15: guy and a huge leader with a ton of experience.
Speaker 15: And I think if I didn't tell you the position,
Speaker 15: and I said, these are the qualities this player has,
Speaker 15: I think, you know, it's it's so welcome with our
Speaker 15: group again, a young group that's you know, gaining, you know,
Speaker 15: cat a bit of momentum at the turn. These last
Speaker 15: couple of games haven't gone our way for various reasons,
Speaker 15: but now we're we're in the final stretch. And to
Speaker 15: add a player of his magnitude and his experience and
Speaker 15: the way he leads is it's like the stars the
Speaker 15: lining for a great rundown stretch.
Speaker 1: Good stuff. Does he have copious amounts of neck tattoos?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 15: He does?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, last thing that I'll set you loose on
Speaker 1: this and if you need to go, you can be
Speaker 1: quick on it. But I am genuinely curious. And the
Speaker 1: nice thing is you're a coach, you don't exist in
Speaker 1: the media space, but you are a former member of
Speaker 1: the US men's national team, and there's been this really
Speaker 1: weird back and forth. It was a documentary for Polisic
Speaker 1: where he and I think it was way, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, you are really going at like Landing and
Speaker 1: Clint and all, you know, Taylor, Tim Howard or whoever,
Speaker 1: like all of the former US men's national team players
Speaker 1: that are in the media space. Way have called them
Speaker 1: evil polistic said they're just looking for clicks, and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: you're literally talking about this during the documentary you want
Speaker 1: people to watch. I don't know, man, it's part of
Speaker 1: the job when you get into the space with a
Speaker 1: microphone in front of your face.
Speaker 2: I hope you coach forever and you never have to
Speaker 2: do this.
Speaker 1: But as somebody that once upon a time represented our country,
Speaker 1: what do you make of this back and forth between
Speaker 1: the old guard and the players playing now?
Speaker 15: Yeah, yeah, I find it really interesting. And you know,
Speaker 15: I think I think everyone wants the same thing, Spence,
Speaker 15: And one side is coming from having played, and another
Speaker 15: side is coming from playing and and but I think
Speaker 15: at the end of the day, everyone wants the same thing.
Speaker 15: Which is the US team to be successful. And so
Speaker 15: like I can see through all this stuff. I think
Speaker 15: there's points on both sides. You know, I'm definitely not
Speaker 15: taking aside because I've been a player and the previous
Speaker 15: generation was like, you know, they are hard on us,
Speaker 15: But I felt like they were hard on us because
Speaker 15: they represented the country well and they want we wanted
Speaker 15: us to do the same thing. And and so you know,
Speaker 15: and I understand from from you know, Landing and Tim
Speaker 15: Howards is when when the amount of pressure that we
Speaker 15: put on ourselves, irrespective of the pressure that was put
Speaker 15: out by the fans and proofs at the time, it
Speaker 15: was immense and we held ourselves to a level amongst
Speaker 15: ourselves like hey, if it wasn't good enough in training,
Speaker 15: it's like, man, we're playing for something huge here. You know,
Speaker 15: this is a qualifier, this is a World Cup game.
Speaker 15: There's there's no bs here. We've got to bring our
Speaker 15: best and it was us kind of managing ourselves. And
Speaker 15: that was a really unique time where we had great
Speaker 15: players that played in Europe mixed with players in MLS,
Speaker 15: but there was this unspoken understanding of what it means
Speaker 15: to represent your country. And so I think there's I'm
Speaker 15: sure there's a lot of stuff that gets lost in
Speaker 15: translation between the camps, but I really believe that both
Speaker 15: camps want the same thing, and that's for the US
Speaker 15: team to have a successful outing in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: All Right, Buddy, will you sound good?
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you're going to be grumpy, but
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're sounding good. So I will be there
Speaker 1: this weekend. You are undefeated when I'm in the building,
Speaker 1: so best of luck.
Speaker 2: Let's go get three. Pablo.
Speaker 15: All right, thanks man, appreciate it. Bud.
Speaker 1: All right, Pablo Masceroni, head coach of URSEL. They're back
Speaker 1: at action this weekend against Minnesota in what has to
Speaker 1: be characterized as a must win game seven thirty on
Speaker 1: Apple TV.
Speaker 2: All I wrapping it up, final.
Speaker 1: Segments of the show on this Wednesday afternoon. You're halfway
Speaker 1: through that work week, you are one day closer to
Speaker 1: the weekends. I want to take some time to say
Speaker 1: very special thank you to all of our listeners. We
Speaker 1: received up to date numbers today and we are in
Speaker 1: the best spot that we've been in since we started
Speaker 1: the show. So it's very cool. We just turned six
Speaker 1: last week. It both seems like we just started this
Speaker 1: yesterday and thirty years ago. I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1: Time is a mental construct, but we have a lot
Speaker 1: of new listeners and we've never had the ratings that
Speaker 1: we currently have. Right now, we are stomping our competitor,
Speaker 1: which is always nice, but ultimately that is a testament
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: So if you listen to us every day.
Speaker 1: Or anytime at all, whether it's on seven hundred AM
Speaker 1: ninety two one FM, our podcast page, you're streaming online,
Speaker 1: a very very sincere.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Never take a listener for granted.
Speaker 2: You guys mean everything to us.
Speaker 1: So we got the numbers today and they're really really good,
Speaker 1: So thank.
Speaker 2: You for that.
Speaker 1: Do not get a big head just because Pablo said
Speaker 1: you had a good point about soccer, You're gonna be
Speaker 1: insufferable the rest of the week. Because Pablo complimented the point.
Speaker 1: So take me beyond the scenes when you had them
Speaker 1: on the phone. What was this salient, excellent point that
Speaker 1: you made, just just.
Speaker 3: You know, soccer guy stuff, behind the behind the scenes,
Speaker 3: you know, stuff that if I were to bring it
Speaker 3: on air, it wouldn't it wouldn't really translate to the
Speaker 3: everyday listener when it comes to soccer. I know, it's
Speaker 3: just it's my guy Pablo. We're talking schemes, We're talking,
Speaker 3: you know, timing, roster, substitutions, the whole, the whole. Like
Speaker 3: you know, my guy Kyle Kyle b KB saw him
Speaker 3: playing tenness the other day, you know, a little conversation
Speaker 3: just my you know US men's national team homies.
Speaker 1: I like to call what is your preferred formation in
Speaker 1: the attack? What's your favorite formation to enact when you
Speaker 1: need to attack and score goals?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I like I like eleven personnel to eleven? Do you
Speaker 3: like like multiple tight end sets?
Speaker 2: Usually?
Speaker 1: Can you name one soccer formation diamond? Your worst than
Speaker 1: I am the triangle. I'm a fan of a four
Speaker 1: one two one two myself. That is the diamond formation
Speaker 1: in the middle.
Speaker 3: That's what I was going for. I know, it's like
Speaker 3: something like that where you got the one guy that's
Speaker 3: like you're your leave for really right? Right?
Speaker 2: Sure? Sure?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, speaking of that, I have just been informed
Speaker 1: that tomorrow at nine am it is supposed to be
Speaker 1: official for the RSL player announcement. They are bringing in
Speaker 1: a really big name. Now, look when I say really
Speaker 1: big name. This is the league that recently we've seen
Speaker 1: my guy Sonny from Tottenham, Tomas Mueller from Germany, and
Speaker 1: obviously Lionel Messi, so it's not on that level, but
Speaker 1: it's a name you'll be familiar with. It's a defender
Speaker 1: who's spent some time overseas. He's played in two World Crops,
Speaker 1: He's been an MLS so all Star, so stay tuned
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 2: That should become official tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We are ten days away from game day for the Utes,
Speaker 1: the Cougars and the Aggies, and then we have Week
Speaker 1: zero college football this weekend. You're gonna blink in. The
Speaker 1: NFL will be here week one, September fourth, and then
Speaker 1: we are actually not that far away from training camp
Speaker 1: in Pro basketball too. Now we're not gonna do a
Speaker 1: lot of that as of now, and hopefully the Jazz
Speaker 1: give us something to talk about this year.
Speaker 2: My guess is they will not.
Speaker 1: But we are creeping off on one of the best
Speaker 1: time of years for sure. So we will say good
Speaker 1: night for a Wednesday Porter what comes our way on
Speaker 1: a Thursday edition of the show.
Speaker 3: On a Thursday edition of the show, we'll continue the
Speaker 3: college football conversation with one Kyle Bonegura of ESPN. We'll
Speaker 3: talk some PGA Tour Championship with one Rex Hoggard Mate,
Speaker 3: catch up with our friend Richard Smitty Smith out of
Speaker 3: the US Open, and a little little Bertie, Sweet little
Speaker 3: Bertie tells me we may have a particular RSL maybe
Speaker 3: newcomer on the show tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the RSL player announcement will be in the
Speaker 1: morning and we hope the interview said player in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: So that'll be a fun Thursday show and border reference.
Speaker 1: The US Open is going on right now too, so
Speaker 1: a little bit of everything. Join us for a Thursday show.
Speaker 1: We'll say goodnight and special thank you to Sammy Mora,
Speaker 1: Matt Brown, Tony Parks and Pablo Masch joinny for any
Speaker 1: of the sound you missed from the program today. The
Speaker 1: good news is it's up online. You can listen to
Speaker 1: it when you want. You have a few options. Go
Speaker 1: to the website, which is ESPN seven hundred sports dot com.
Speaker 1: Make sure to download our mobile app and take us
Speaker 1: on the go. The ESPN seven hundred app is available
Speaker 1: for free in the App Store in the Google Play Store. Then, finally,
Speaker 1: for what we do in our space, every afternoon for
Speaker 1: four hours. Go over to the podcast page. Support us
Speaker 1: over there. It's called The Drive with Spence. Check it's
Speaker 1: It's available wherever you get your show. Subscribe, rate reviews,
Speaker 1: say nice things. The comments give us all the stars.
Speaker 1: It helps reporter. I'm Spence saying tonight, have a great
Speaker 1: Wednesday evening. We'll talk to you on a jam pack
Speaker 1: busy Thursday edition of the program, and as always, you
Speaker 1: can find it right here on ESPN seven hundred ninety TWOEFM.
Speaker 1: We are proud to be part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.