Speaker 1: Alright, what's going on drivetime on a Thursday afternoon, about
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes past the hour two o'clock. We are a
Speaker 1: little late today because admittedly Shot and I misbehaved during crosstalk.
Speaker 1: But beautiful day outside. It is sunny and clear, little chilly,
Speaker 1: of course, because you know it's January, but as it
Speaker 1: is every single day, it's good.
Speaker 2: To have you along for the ride.
Speaker 1: So betch check. That's beyond the mic. That is Porter
Speaker 1: Larsen behind the glass tonight, producing the show this afternoon.
Speaker 1: This afternoon, I should say, it's still afternoon. We will
Speaker 1: take you into the evening. We will get you ready
Speaker 1: for the college football semi final, and we'll talk some
Speaker 1: college football on the show. Today actually marks the start
Speaker 1: of really five days of excellent football action if you're
Speaker 1: into such things. We got a little Notre Dame Penn
Speaker 1: State tonight, then of course Ohio State Texas tomorrow, and
Speaker 1: then high speed ahead to the wild card weekend. In
Speaker 1: Pro Football's a Flowers will not play coming up this
Speaker 1: weekend for Baltimore against the Steelers.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize.
Speaker 1: Jay Flowers is the first All Pro wide receiver ever
Speaker 1: drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. That kind of caught me
Speaker 1: off guard, but Jay Flowers will sit. But the Ravens
Speaker 1: are a pretty heavy favorite there. So we'll get you
Speaker 1: ready for the game tonight. It should be fun the
Speaker 1: Orange Bowl in Miami hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida,
Speaker 1: where as of now, the line is even at Penn
Speaker 1: State slight favorite Notre Dame slight favorite.
Speaker 2: It kind of went back and forth, but according to what.
Speaker 1: I have in front of me, as of right now,
Speaker 1: that line has moved to even over unders forty four
Speaker 1: point five.
Speaker 2: These are two really good.
Speaker 1: Defensive football teams, so it'll be fun to see how
Speaker 1: this one plays out. James Franklin with some comments about
Speaker 1: Notre Dame joining a conference, then leave veiled shots. I
Speaker 1: suppose at Notre Dame, who does not need to join
Speaker 1: a conference as they've shown, and if they go win
Speaker 1: the national championship, they're gonna have a nice twenty million
Speaker 1: dollar check for themselves as opposed to sharing that revenue
Speaker 1: with their conference piers. So you kind of understand the
Speaker 1: model by you tried to do it for a while,
Speaker 1: but Notre Dame really is the one institution that seems
Speaker 1: to have been able to pull this off. Tomorrow's game,
Speaker 1: Cotton Bowl A and Arlington sees Ohio State take on Texas.
Speaker 1: Ohio State is now a six point favorite. I still
Speaker 1: think that line is not necessarily reflective of how I
Speaker 1: believe that game will roll. I think Ohio State beats
Speaker 1: them by double digits. And then, of course National Championship
Speaker 1: Game January the twentieth, So plenty of college football left
Speaker 1: to talk about on the program today. The Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: are back in action tonight, taking on the Miami Heat.
Speaker 1: We saw a great NBA game last night, and you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the conversation surrounding pro basketball this year
Speaker 1: has been the lack of interest and the lack of ratings.
Speaker 1: But if you watched last night, you're it's a reminder
Speaker 1: of what that what that game can look like when
Speaker 1: the best players on the planet care and play hard.
Speaker 1: It was the Cavs and the Thunder. It was real entertaining.
Speaker 1: Donovan struggled, It was Darius Garland down the stretch and
Speaker 1: some excellent play by their bigs Evan Mowbley and Jared Allen.
Speaker 1: Dovin three of sixteen took sixteen shots to score eleven points.
Speaker 1: It actually kind of felt early reminiscent of some nights
Speaker 1: back here when Dodvan was playing for the Jazz. But
Speaker 1: the Cavs get to win, they break over Casey's fifteen
Speaker 1: game winning streak for a big game in the world
Speaker 1: of pro basketball with a lot of eyes on that game.
Speaker 1: So Jazz back in action tonight. Utah Hockey Club got
Speaker 1: smoked last night by the Florida Panthers, the defending Stanley
Speaker 1: Cup champs and one of the three favorites to hoist
Speaker 1: Lord Stanley's Cup this year. But the hockey club has
Speaker 1: six more home games during this seven game home stretch,
Speaker 1: hopefully they can start to pick up some points. The
Speaker 1: lack of production lately still has not really killed them
Speaker 1: in the standings.
Speaker 2: They're in the mix for the wild card and.
Speaker 1: I think if they can get a wild card playoff
Speaker 1: Berth your one in Salt Lake, that would be nothing
Speaker 1: other than an absolute success. Carson Beck is not going
Speaker 1: pro Georgia quarterback who announced he was going pro last week.
Speaker 1: He's not a very highly thought out pro prospect as
Speaker 1: of now, but he is coming back to college. He
Speaker 1: is entering the transfer portal because that's what players do
Speaker 1: but a lot of college football on the show today.
Speaker 1: Pump for this game tonight should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: We'll get you the some keys to the matchup. We'll
Speaker 1: learn a little bit more about both these two teams,
Speaker 1: and yeah, we'll get to we'll get to that on
Speaker 1: the program today. Good guest list Tony Jones. Been a
Speaker 1: minute since we've been able to catch up with Tony.
Speaker 1: He's gonna join us right off the top today He's
Speaker 1: gonna bring in Craig Bowler, Jack Gordon Monts and I'm
Speaker 1: told Live in studio, reunited and it feels so good.
Speaker 1: The big show, big hour here on the Drive, brought
Speaker 1: to you by big Otires. So Craig Buller, Jack Gordon Monson,
Speaker 1: live in studio and then our guy Ted Robinson. Notre
Speaker 1: Dame a lump man, this fan base, I'll tell you what,
Speaker 1: got a lot of friends that went to Notre Dame,
Speaker 1: a lot of people excited for this game tonight. Notre
Speaker 1: Dame has not won a national championship since nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what Uncle Ted has to say about
Speaker 1: the game tonight, and then move over to a little
Speaker 1: sports courts on the program. As we do every Thursday
Speaker 1: with our friends over at Handy and Handy, Tony Jones,
Speaker 1: Craig Bowler, Jack Gordon Motts and Ted Robinson, me Spence check,
Speaker 1: ats all, all of you the great listeners, Happy Thursday.
Speaker 1: You have almost made it. And that guy Porter Larson
Speaker 1: with his votech outfit on today you got the votech
Speaker 1: hat and sweatshirt no color color coordinating, but oh so.
Speaker 2: Just a vo tech hat.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Excited for the CFP semi.
Speaker 4: Final for I am I am obviously college football play
Speaker 4: off top of mine, but a lot of good football
Speaker 4: still still to come in the next five days, as
Speaker 4: you mentioned.
Speaker 2: Excited for no doubt.
Speaker 1: So if you're a football fan, you've got five days
Speaker 1: of Nirvanda with the CFP semi Final tonight and tomorrow
Speaker 1: and then Wildcard weekend Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Pro football.
Speaker 1: So Tony Jones will be our first guest right out
Speaker 1: of the gates. But the ESPN seven hundred cash kickoff
Speaker 1: is here. Time for your shot to win one thousand
Speaker 1: dollars cash to pay your bills. Text Fortune in to
Speaker 1: five oh eight seven seven seven one thousand. That's Fortune
Speaker 1: to five oh eight seven seven one thousand, for a
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Speaker 1: nationwide contest. Good luck from all of us here at
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred, courtesy if Standard Restaurant Supply you want
Speaker 1: to stop shop for all of your tailgate needs.
Speaker 2: It is time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's
Speaker 5: number one sports talk. Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 5: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 5: opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by
Speaker 5: Standard Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop to build the
Speaker 5: best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply, thirty five hundred
Speaker 5: Southwest Temple.
Speaker 1: Programming Reminder, we are your home of the biggest and
Speaker 1: best college football and NFL events in the market. We
Speaker 1: will have the Orange Bowl on our station Tonight's following
Speaker 1: the conclusion of the Craig Smith Coaches Show. So we'll
Speaker 1: sake it out about six o'clock tonight and then we'll
Speaker 1: send it over to Bill and Craig at Slackwater in
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City for the Utah Men's Basketball Coaches Show.
Speaker 1: And then after that we'll get you over to the
Speaker 1: remaining portion of the Notre Dame Penn State game in
Speaker 1: the Orange Bowl to historic college football brands. Two historic
Speaker 1: college football brands that have not won a national championship
Speaker 1: in quite some time. Notre Dame has not won a
Speaker 1: national championship since nineteen eighty eight, but they are looking
Speaker 1: for their ninth Natty in the ap ERA, which is
Speaker 1: second only to Alabama now. Penn State, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: has not won a national championship since nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: So two coaches that I think are very, very likable.
Speaker 1: It's been funny to kind of watch the back and forth.
Speaker 1: James Franklin some comments about how he believes every program
Speaker 1: in college football should be in a conference now because
Speaker 1: of what we do in the modern day and age
Speaker 1: of media consumption, we react to a thirty second SoundBite.
Speaker 1: He went on to talk about scheduling uniformity in college football,
Speaker 1: which is something I've talked about for a number of years.
Speaker 1: I think it's beyond time that every team has to
Speaker 1: play the same amount of conference games, and you know,
Speaker 1: ultimately there has to be some sort of centralized scheduling
Speaker 1: uniformity that makes it just a little bit more Even
Speaker 1: we were talking about this over the course of this week.
Speaker 1: I think it was Scott Mitchell who brought it up,
Speaker 1: where ultimately, you know, if you're Utah, if your BYU,
Speaker 1: you're really, you know, kind of at the mercy of
Speaker 1: the schedule makers as it pertains to the teams you'll
Speaker 1: play in conference. The cruel irony for the past season
Speaker 1: of Utah football is that Utah football actually had a
Speaker 1: very manageable and I put manageable in air quotes because
Speaker 1: nobody knew anything about the Big Twelve. But when the
Speaker 1: Utah schedule came out, it was a very manageable Big
Speaker 1: Twelve schedule and that was just luck of the draw.
Speaker 1: BUYU actually had a much harder schedule, and that's just
Speaker 1: unfortunately the reality of it, where you know, on the
Speaker 1: NFL side of things, obviously, you know you have schedule
Speaker 1: akers that are in a little bit more lockstep with
Speaker 1: what exactly a fair schedule is going to be now
Speaker 1: year and in year out. Divisions have been flow so if
Speaker 1: you're in a bad division, you're gonna get a little
Speaker 1: bit more lucky. But all of the conversation today about
Speaker 1: like James Franklin and what he had to say about
Speaker 1: the whole thing, I think ignored actually the forest through
Speaker 1: the trees, but have two really good defensive teams. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: for all the conversation about the offensive explosion in college
Speaker 1: football over the past few years, the four teams left
Speaker 1: are four of the top seven defensive teams in all
Speaker 1: of college football. Notre Dame is the best team in
Speaker 1: college football at takeaways. They have thirty one takeaways. That's
Speaker 1: best in college football. They're the best team in college
Speaker 1: football as far as points per game. They have won
Speaker 1: the turnover margin in every game except one. And you
Speaker 1: know exactly what game that was. That was Week two
Speaker 1: against Northern Illinois, which is wild to think about that
Speaker 1: that game actually went down as Notre Dame has run
Speaker 1: off twelve straight games with a win last game take
Speaker 1: care of Georgia. They have now won thirteen games for
Speaker 1: the first time in Notre Dame history. When you could
Speaker 1: say something has happened for the first time in Notre
Speaker 1: Dame history, it means it's pretty exciting. But it feels
Speaker 1: like this is Notre Dame's game to me, Jeremiah Love
Speaker 1: is healthy, they're leading rusher, and apparently he's not even
Speaker 1: wearing a brace. Marcus Freeman was asked today about there
Speaker 1: was this online rumor that the flu bug kind of
Speaker 1: went through the Notre Dame locker room. Marcus Freeman said
Speaker 1: that wasn't true. I guess they had a wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Bo Collins was sick last week, but he actually kind
Speaker 1: of touched down against Georgia, and Jeremiah Love was also
Speaker 1: a little sick. But that, according to Marcus Freeman, that
Speaker 1: rumor that's going around is not true at all. And
Speaker 1: you know, ultimately both these two teams do this, do
Speaker 1: very similar things when it comes to the defensive side,
Speaker 1: and the Notre Dame's numbers are a little bit better.
Speaker 1: Penn State's one of the top seven defensive teams in
Speaker 1: college football. Both points per game, then against the run,
Speaker 1: and both these teams want to run the football. So
Speaker 1: I don't know that we're gonna see a very high
Speaker 1: scoring game. I think we'll see a close game again.
Speaker 1: The Vegas line has moved to even, but two historic
Speaker 1: programs looking for their first national championship since the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: We got Craig Bowler Jack Gordon Monson, both live in
Speaker 1: studio coming up. Called that about a half hour from
Speaker 1: right now. Uncle Ted Robinson, our buddy from the PAC
Speaker 1: twelve network back in the day. Notre Dame of lum
Speaker 1: Will stop by the preview Tonight's ce FP semi final?
Speaker 2: Was that?
Speaker 1: Was that the Fresh Prince.
Speaker 2: Of bel Air? Very nice?
Speaker 1: Any reason we decided to play that today?
Speaker 2: You sent it to me?
Speaker 1: Oh, Tony's on the phone, right, it's the Tony Jones
Speaker 1: interview time, right?
Speaker 2: That is? That is true?
Speaker 1: On a Thursday, TJ. It's between us, pal.
Speaker 2: How you doing?
Speaker 6: I just don't understand you guys.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you know what you know that your secrets are
Speaker 1: safe with me. I just figured you'd like that bump
Speaker 1: on a Thursday, right?
Speaker 6: That is? That is really funny. How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm good man to you. To you as well? We
Speaker 1: haven't spoken to you in the new year. What where
Speaker 1: do we find you these days? It feels like you're
Speaker 1: always traveling to and from.
Speaker 6: I am currently in Denver.
Speaker 1: Currently in Denver, Okay, Well, Denver's a lovely city. Are
Speaker 1: you enjoying your time in Denver?
Speaker 6: I am bedridden with the flu.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, no, like literally.
Speaker 6: I went out to Denver and I left for Denver
Speaker 6: on Monday because the Nuggets had the Celtics on Tuesday.
Speaker 6: So huge game, and then the Clippers on Wednesday, so
Speaker 6: even you know, a big, big game. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 6: so we're gonna go and we're gonna spend a week
Speaker 6: in Denver. God playing got to the hotel media like
Speaker 6: just almost immediately got sick. Now. The other thing is
Speaker 6: Nicola Yokis did not play on Tuesday or Wednesday because
Speaker 6: I think he caught the same thing that I have.
Speaker 1: So you and you and the Joker with the flu
Speaker 1: in Denver this week.
Speaker 6: Huh, me and the Joker have the flu. This is factual.
Speaker 1: Okay, my goodness, my goodness. Well, I hope you feel
Speaker 1: better soon, because that's not fun. Obviously, this time of year,
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff going around. And let's just start
Speaker 1: with the little jazz, Tony, even though you've been busy
Speaker 1: covering a bunch of other teams for the Athletic, because
Speaker 1: the Jazz this year unseerious about winning.
Speaker 6: But my story on Monday, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: Did you write a story about the jazz?
Speaker 6: I wrote a story about the jazz random and Monday's Athletic.
Speaker 1: Well, then I'm glad I'm asking you about the jazz.
Speaker 1: That means you're uniquely qualified to time. I just I
Speaker 1: know that you're traveling around covering other teams. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: know that you have one eye on the Jazz at
Speaker 1: all times. I know you watch other games. But here's
Speaker 1: what I wanted to ask you. Even though the wins
Speaker 1: haven't necessarily been coming, it does I mean they they
Speaker 1: went down to Florida, won a couple of games, but
Speaker 1: even in losing efforts, it just feels like there are
Speaker 1: signs that are pretty pretty good, that are kind of
Speaker 1: revealing themselves that were not around earlier in the year
Speaker 1: when they were just getting trucks. So what do you
Speaker 1: see from them that I would just ask you, like,
Speaker 1: is a little bit encouraging right now?
Speaker 6: I think whenever the Jazz decided that they want to
Speaker 6: be competitive again, I think they're going to be competitive
Speaker 6: pretty easily.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: The one thing that I wrote in the story on
Speaker 6: Monday was stack, you know, despite you know, everything that
Speaker 6: that's going on in terms of you know, guys missing games,
Speaker 6: you know, you don't kind of you kind of don't
Speaker 6: know who's gonna play and who's not gonna play on
Speaker 6: a ninth and night basis. I mean, this is a
Speaker 6: competitive and entertaining team, and it's a competitive, uh and
Speaker 6: entertaining product. And I think if you're a Jazz fan,
Speaker 6: you just have you have to be encouraged by the
Speaker 6: progress that's being made. You know, Bright sense the ball.
Speaker 6: We didn't know coming into the season whether he's an
Speaker 6: NBA player. Now he kind of has a look of
Speaker 6: a guy who can be your sixth man. You know,
Speaker 6: Isaiah call Your and Kyle Philopowski are getting you know, meaningful,
Speaker 6: meaningful reps. So you know, this could easily be you know,
Speaker 6: like a ship with no rudder in terms of you know,
Speaker 6: this could look like the Washington Wizards, it could look
Speaker 6: like the Charlotte Hornets, or it can look like you
Speaker 6: know what the New Orleans Pelicans has have regretted into
Speaker 6: this season. But you know, the Jazz have found themselves
Speaker 6: in a position where they're, you know, they're kind of
Speaker 6: I don't want to say it like this, but they
Speaker 6: kind of have to try hard to lose these games.
Speaker 6: And you know, I think that that's a good thing
Speaker 6: because I think that it means that you know, the
Speaker 6: players are buying into everything that Will Hardy's doing. Will
Speaker 6: Hardy's you know, keeping the group engaged Uh, these guys
Speaker 6: are going out and they're playing hard from night to
Speaker 6: night and and and they've been competitive because of it.
Speaker 1: Let me follow up with how you kind of led
Speaker 1: your answer when you said, when the Jazz want to
Speaker 1: get back to being competitive, they'll be able to do
Speaker 1: that pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: What do you think that looks like?
Speaker 1: You know, when when they when they lean into really
Speaker 1: competing night in and night out. Do you think that's
Speaker 1: something that's a year down the road? Two years down
Speaker 1: the road. I mean, there are so many promising prospects,
Speaker 1: not just this year but next and we're gonna have
Speaker 1: one of them in our backyard with the AJ debantsa
Speaker 1: kid heading down a provo. So when when do you think,
Speaker 1: in your estimation, the Jazz will lean into actually being
Speaker 1: competitive again?
Speaker 2: What does that look like?
Speaker 6: In my opinion, I think the Jazz should, you know,
Speaker 6: lose sixty games this year, and I think they should
Speaker 6: try to lose sixty games next year because the top
Speaker 6: of this draft and the top of the twenty twenty
Speaker 6: six draft, are you know, the top of the twenty
Speaker 6: sixth draft, the first three kids in that draft. We
Speaker 6: all know AJ DEBANSA, but we all know Cameron Boozer,
Speaker 6: But there's also a kid named Darren Person He's committed
Speaker 6: to Kansas, and that kid is special. There are three
Speaker 6: franchise players at the top of the twenty six draft,
Speaker 6: and obviously there's Cooper Flag and there's still a Harper
Speaker 6: at the top of the twenty five drafts. So in
Speaker 6: these two drafts, in my opinion, there are five guys
Speaker 6: who I think are franchise were franchise level guys or
Speaker 6: potential franchise level guys. So if you're the Jazz, you know,
Speaker 6: you got to try to come away with at least
Speaker 6: one of them. If not try to come away with
Speaker 6: two of them, that means losing a lot How that
Speaker 6: looks for them, I don't know, because I don't know
Speaker 6: that they can lose on the level that's needed, you know,
Speaker 6: for that to happen. I mean, even with all the
Speaker 6: losing they've done this season, there's still right now they
Speaker 6: still only have the fifth best lottery odds that the
Speaker 6: season season where to end the day because there are
Speaker 6: teams that they're just not going to be worse than.
Speaker 6: But you know, at the same time, you know, if
Speaker 6: you're the Jazz, you definitely want to be at the
Speaker 6: top of this draft, and you want to be at
Speaker 6: the top of next year's draft, and then you know,
Speaker 6: if they if that comes to fruition, then you know,
Speaker 6: after that, you know you can try to go and
Speaker 6: do all the winning that you want.
Speaker 1: Let's have some fun, and let's operate off of fun.
Speaker 1: Hypothetical that this plan works out to perfection and this
Speaker 1: year and next year they're able to capture, you know,
Speaker 1: two of the prospects that you perceive to be the
Speaker 1: elite prospects. I mean, we can get totally crazy and
Speaker 1: say they get Cooper flagged and aj de bantsa. If
Speaker 1: we want to have a little fun, if that's the process,
Speaker 1: if that's the path three years from now when they
Speaker 1: lean back into being competitive, who's left from this group
Speaker 1: on that team.
Speaker 6: So we're saying, have Cooper flag and ad devans h
Speaker 6: let's get weird.
Speaker 1: Let's get weird on a Thursday. Johnny, you got the flu.
Speaker 1: You know, we're just we're hanging out.
Speaker 2: We're getting weird. Lets you get weird.
Speaker 6: Right, So that would mean that your starting lineup will
Speaker 6: be Keynty George or likely would be Keanty George uh
Speaker 6: uh aged Devanca, which started at shooting guard, because Mike
Speaker 6: he's literally I told you he's literally Tracy McGrady another
Speaker 6: coming to Tracy McGrady. And then you're forward, you'd have
Speaker 6: you'd have what I what I would call the all
Speaker 6: clear front court. You would have lowry marketing, Cooper Flag
Speaker 6: and Walker Kessler.
Speaker 2: Did you say the all clear.
Speaker 6: The all clear front court?
Speaker 1: Tell you what you're getting Jazz fans excited with that
Speaker 1: front court.
Speaker 2: And I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 6: That would immediately be one of the better front courts
Speaker 6: in the league. Because if you look at what Walker
Speaker 6: Walker Kessler is doing this year, Walker Kessler has been
Speaker 6: argued Utah's best player this season. You know, lowry marketing
Speaker 6: is still lowry marketing in you know, and I think
Speaker 6: Cooper Flag is is amazing. I think he's an amazing talent. So,
Speaker 6: you know, if if the Jazz would to luck up
Speaker 6: and get you know, the number one pick in two
Speaker 6: consecutive drafts, which just doesn't happen, you know, I mean,
Speaker 6: they would simply put they they'd be in a position
Speaker 6: to uh to compete at the highest levels potentially in time.
Speaker 6: So and that's the thing that you know, I see
Speaker 6: with this team. They're whoever they draft, you know, they're
Speaker 6: are building blocks already in place, Like Walker Kessler is
Speaker 6: already already in place. Lowry Marketing is already in place.
Speaker 6: So you have two guys that I think that you know,
Speaker 6: kind of no matter what happens around the roster, these
Speaker 6: guys are gonna be there. They're gonna be and they're
Speaker 6: gonna the building blocks. I would have put Taylor Hendrickson
Speaker 6: in in that category as a role player, except that,
Speaker 6: you know, uh, he obviously had you know, his his
Speaker 6: tragic injury and and we have to to see how
Speaker 6: he comes back from that injury. But you know, I
Speaker 6: think that, you know, the rest of the season is
Speaker 6: about figuring out, you know, who's going to be around
Speaker 6: in the long run. And you know, right now, I
Speaker 6: can I can pect Lowry Marketing. I conpect Walker Kesslers
Speaker 6: the two guys right now that I'm most confident I'll
Speaker 6: be around in the long run.
Speaker 1: What about like, you know, what about Kyle Kyle Philipowski,
Speaker 1: What has he shown you through the first he's played
Speaker 1: twenty five games as a rookie. What has Kyle showing
Speaker 1: you well?
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, he's I saw a little bit
Speaker 6: in Summer League. I just, you know, was a little
Speaker 6: bit naive and thinking that it would translate to the
Speaker 6: NBA so soon. But you know, he's a mismatch, especially
Speaker 6: when he plays at the center spot. Uh he's you know,
Speaker 6: he's really good uh facing the basket. Uh he's He's
Speaker 6: better than I thought from three levels because of his
Speaker 6: ability to put the ball on the floor and play
Speaker 6: with force. And he has a nasty streak that I
Speaker 6: didn't think.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 6: You know, I watched him plenty at Duke, but you know,
Speaker 6: I didn't really think that he had a nasty streak
Speaker 6: the way the way he does. Earlier in the season.
Speaker 6: You know, the Jazz were playing at San Antonio and
Speaker 6: uh and and Flip found himself uh facing the basket,
Speaker 6: you know, about twenty feet in the basket, Uh, isolated
Speaker 6: on on Victor Win Bayama, And you know, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 6: no way. He takes Wemby, and he takes Wenby to
Speaker 6: the basket and he draws a file. You know, that's
Speaker 6: the kind of fearlessness, uh, in the force that that
Speaker 6: he plays with. So, you know, I don't know what
Speaker 6: happened in the in the G League. You know, he
Speaker 6: obviously didn't play as well there, but you know when
Speaker 6: he gets into NBA spacing and he's playing with this group,
Speaker 6: he's playing well.
Speaker 1: Can I follow up about Kyante? You know, because we're
Speaker 1: following kind of the ebbs and flows and in this
Speaker 1: fun and hypothetical where the next two years the jazz
Speaker 1: won't win very much but be rewarded for those endeavors
Speaker 1: by some generational talents. Is are you still confident that
Speaker 1: at some point some of the issues we've seen from
Speaker 1: Kiante over the first year and a half will settle in.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's a lot to like. I've never
Speaker 1: said there's not, but at some point we just need
Speaker 1: to see a little bit more consistency with the shot selection,
Speaker 1: the decision making, and quite frankly, shot making. Do you
Speaker 1: remain confident that he can figure this thing out?
Speaker 6: Hang off for one second?
Speaker 2: All right? Tony Jones is with us live and.
Speaker 6: Right now.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, hang on, okay, as long as somebody's not
Speaker 1: breaking into your hotel room.
Speaker 2: Well you're sick.
Speaker 1: Tony is in Denver, suffering from the flu, covering some
Speaker 1: nug It's games this week. He did write a piece
Speaker 1: on the jazz for the Athletic that dropped on Monday.
Speaker 1: The Jazz are in action tonight against the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: who have a lot of questions to answer themselves with
Speaker 1: some chaos in their locker room. And then last night
Speaker 1: we saw Okay see Cleveland, So we'll get Tony's take
Speaker 1: on that as soon as he's back.
Speaker 2: You good, buddy, I think I am.
Speaker 6: Yeah. So you know we were talking about Kayoste.
Speaker 2: Correct, yep, correct?
Speaker 6: You know I think you know with Kians his best
Speaker 6: attribute is, you know, kind of like Hoyle Philipowski. It's
Speaker 6: it's a fearlessness.
Speaker 1: Hang on for a second, grab some water this time
Speaker 1: while your coffee and grab some water. Well, we can
Speaker 1: fill a little time because we have plenty of dease
Speaker 1: on the show. We've got Craig Bowler, Jack Gordon mottson
Speaker 1: live in studio. We have Ted Robinson who's going to
Speaker 1: join us to a preview tonight's CFP semi final between
Speaker 1: Notre Dame and Penn State. That line moved to Evan,
Speaker 1: I'll check you it coming up in just a little bit,
Speaker 1: so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 2: By the way, playoffs are here in the NFL.
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Speaker 1: your game all season. Long, Tony Jones, how he holding up?
Speaker 6: Pal, I'm alive? Okay, good thing right?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Can I get five more minutes out of you?
Speaker 6: Yes? You can?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 6: So you know, I think I think the thing with
Speaker 6: Keyante is you know that that I love is the
Speaker 6: fearlessness and the ability to score. And he's got to
Speaker 6: figure out a way to transition from a streaky score
Speaker 6: to a consistent score. And I think that that's, you know,
Speaker 6: going to hold the key to what he becomes as
Speaker 6: an NBA player, whether he's a starter or whether he
Speaker 6: you know, eventually transitions to a six man. I still
Speaker 6: think that he can be a starter. I think that,
Speaker 6: you know, his offense instincts are are really good. I
Speaker 6: think that he's got a lot of tricks in his back.
Speaker 6: And you know, I think that that, you know, if
Speaker 6: you put the right team around him, which you know,
Speaker 6: I think means you know, putting a playmaking forward around him,
Speaker 6: you know, he can be a really good starter in
Speaker 6: this league.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'm glad you're still confident because I
Speaker 1: just haven't seen enough just yet. But you know the
Speaker 1: other thing that's hard, Tony is analyzing a player when
Speaker 1: they're not surrounded by like elite players every night. Right,
Speaker 1: what do you what do you think Keyante could be
Speaker 1: when you know this thing is fully baked, so every
Speaker 1: night he's not playing with young players that are still
Speaker 1: learning how to play, and he actually has some good
Speaker 1: veteran players that know exactly what Will is asking for
Speaker 1: them to do, and he's just surrounded by simply better talent.
Speaker 2: What do you think that looks like for Kiante?
Speaker 6: You know, I think that you know, some of that
Speaker 6: that depends on Kiante and you know how he develops
Speaker 6: as a player, how he developed from the defensive end,
Speaker 6: because I think that that's a real weak spot for
Speaker 6: him right now. And you know how he develops, you
Speaker 6: know kind of mentally, you know, does he you know,
Speaker 6: going to every game seeing himself as you know, a
Speaker 6: twenty five point per game score if he isn't one,
Speaker 6: or you know, does he you know, going to every
Speaker 6: game figuring out you know, what the team needs, what
Speaker 6: the game needs, and playing to what the game needs,
Speaker 6: and you know that's a that's a that's a big
Speaker 6: question for him. You know the thing that you know,
Speaker 6: the things that I hold on to from a positive perspective.
Speaker 6: You know, games like Chicago where you know he was
Speaker 6: you know, terrific not only scoring, but you know, getting
Speaker 6: others involved. Uh, And you know you'll see that one
Speaker 6: out of every you know, eight or nine games where
Speaker 6: he just seems to get it, and then you'll see
Speaker 6: one out of every nine games where it kind of
Speaker 6: goes the other way. So where does the pendulum swing
Speaker 6: for for Kiance. Does it swing towards you know, him
Speaker 6: getting it or does it swing the other way? And
Speaker 6: I think that those are questions that the Jazz are
Speaker 6: going to have to ask and answer for themselves at
Speaker 6: the end of the year when they do when when
Speaker 6: when they evaluate Kiante. And the second thing with Kiante
Speaker 6: is you know, I think this part is out of
Speaker 6: his hands. Like what if the Jazz gets the number
Speaker 6: two picks and you know that means Dylan Harper comes
Speaker 6: to Utah. You know, Dylan Harper is a point guard
Speaker 6: and Dylan Harper is a better player than Kiante, you know,
Speaker 6: so you know that part is out of his hands.
Speaker 6: And you know, if the Jazz get you know, get
Speaker 6: Dylan Harper or you know, even somebody like has from Illinois,
Speaker 6: you know real, you know, live, really dynamic point guards,
Speaker 6: then you know that's going to put in question to
Speaker 6: where Kiante is as a jazz anyway. But for kiant
Speaker 6: he has to control what he can control, and you know,
Speaker 6: he's got to figure out eternal he's got to figure
Speaker 6: out the defense.
Speaker 1: All right before I said, you lose one young player
Speaker 1: that we just haven't talked a ton about, at least
Speaker 1: this year or over the course of the first couple
Speaker 1: of years, is Bryce Bryce Sensiba, who just could not
Speaker 1: miss on the road trip, and that was his you know,
Speaker 1: that's his superpower at Ohio State. He just simply was
Speaker 1: a pure bucket getter. And that's why the Jazz decided
Speaker 1: to get back in when he was available, to take
Speaker 1: him where they did. And the question was always, you know,
Speaker 1: can he get his shot off? Is he quick enough
Speaker 1: to find some airspace? Is he simply just a spot
Speaker 1: up shooter. I've always kind of felt there's a little
Speaker 1: Dennis Scott to his games, I've told you, But when
Speaker 1: you see him make shots the way that he was
Speaker 1: making shots when he was on that heater, when the
Speaker 1: Jazz won a couple of games. It gives you some
Speaker 1: potential faith and maybe he's a rotational piece. Where are
Speaker 1: you at right now with the development of right Censiba.
Speaker 6: He you know, obviously the shot, you know, the shooting
Speaker 6: is real, and you know the jazz is long. You know,
Speaker 6: really thought that he was an elite shooter, you know,
Speaker 6: but he's gotten his body to the point to where
Speaker 6: he can get stuff off the dribble at the NBA
Speaker 6: level now and he couldn't do that last year. You know,
Speaker 6: he was a little bit too much overweight, but he
Speaker 6: lost some he lost some pounds. Uh, he's in. You know,
Speaker 6: he's gotten his body to the point where, uh he
Speaker 6: can get to his spots. And when he gets to
Speaker 6: his spots, you know he's gonna make shots. And you
Speaker 6: know he's he's taken a lot of hard coaching from
Speaker 6: from from Will, from Will Hardy and you know, I
Speaker 6: don't think you know, he's had to earn a lot
Speaker 6: with Will and you know, he's had to earn some
Speaker 6: trust and I think that's he's done that in you know,
Speaker 6: the Heat game, in the Magic game, you know, those
Speaker 6: were real glimpses into to what he can be. He
Speaker 6: had thirty four and then he had twenty seven. But
Speaker 6: it was the way he got him, you know, he
Speaker 6: just he had the entire offensive arsenal. I mean, he
Speaker 6: was obviously shooting well from beyond the art, but you know,
Speaker 6: he got to mid range. He was hitting floaters, he
Speaker 6: got all the way to the basket. You know, he
Speaker 6: was posting up in the mid posts a little bit,
Speaker 6: he was playing off the pick and roll. I mean,
Speaker 6: he just did it in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 6: He got filed, went to the free throw line, you know.
Speaker 6: So you have to be encouraged by what you're saying
Speaker 6: out of bright sense of ball and you know the
Speaker 6: fact that the Jazz got him so deep into the draft.
Speaker 6: That's turning out to be a skill at this point.
Speaker 1: All right, my guy, well, hydrate. Do you have some
Speaker 1: Gatorade electrolytes?
Speaker 2: You know you have?
Speaker 1: Do you have the proper hydration elements you need to
Speaker 1: get back on your feet.
Speaker 6: I'm trying to man, I apologize to anybody who almost
Speaker 6: heard me pass away this on this radio interview.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm just glad you're okay. Stay safe, You know,
Speaker 1: travel safe and hit us up.
Speaker 6: You can need all right, no problem, thank you.
Speaker 1: All right, Tony Jones. You know, one of the things
Speaker 1: I love about this job, among several it's a wonderful
Speaker 1: way to make a living, make your way through the world,
Speaker 1: is you never know when coming into work whether or
Speaker 1: not you will have a first and oftentimes you do.
Speaker 1: I think that was the first time in eighteen years
Speaker 1: of doing this full time now that I had to
Speaker 1: pause and do a read while my guest was coughing
Speaker 1: up along to make sure that he's good and safe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a that was a new one we've got.
Speaker 4: I mean, we've had similar instances. I remember doing Bill
Speaker 4: Show once and this is a first and probably a last.
Speaker 4: We did Collins on the midday show, Oh yes you did,
Speaker 4: and a caller who wanted to speak on Utah football
Speaker 4: was on hold, and while he was on hold, apparently
Speaker 4: got into it with police officers, Like we went to
Speaker 4: him and we heard am I being detained like he
Speaker 4: was fighting with cops on the side of the road,
Speaker 4: And we just kept it live for a second and
Speaker 4: Bill was entertained.
Speaker 1: Did it have anything to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: he was on his cell phone trying to talk into
Speaker 1: a radio show.
Speaker 4: Could be could be if you're driving down the freeway,
Speaker 4: maybe wait until you pull over, get the the serri
Speaker 4: on the line to call us.
Speaker 2: Don't be textan and driving.
Speaker 1: Should we start taking phone calls on the show?
Speaker 2: The answer is now, let's do it. It will never happen
Speaker 2: every segment.
Speaker 1: It was just a fundamental difference that we had when
Speaker 1: we did the show together. But hey, what is for
Speaker 1: some is not for others. Okay, one hour down, three
Speaker 1: hours to go. I just saw Gordon's Porsche pull up.
Speaker 1: I believe Lisa was driving the Cayenne, so she's dropping
Speaker 1: Gordon off right now. He will shuffle his way up
Speaker 1: the stairs and join us live in studio. Craig Bollerjack
Speaker 1: on a game day as well. Now we're going to
Speaker 1: move over to Ted Robinson comprehensive preview of a big
Speaker 1: Game time Man Notre Dame, Penn State.
Speaker 5: For fifteen years, the Big Show dominated the Utah sports
Speaker 5: talk airwaves. First it was Craig Bowler, Jack and Gordon Monson,
Speaker 5: followed by Spence check its in Monson. Now all three
Speaker 5: are reunited on the drive. It's time for the Big
Speaker 5: Show Hour on the drive at Spence check its exclusively
Speaker 5: on ESPN seven hundred.
Speaker 1: It is time for the big Show, Big Hour, and
Speaker 1: as a result of some logistics, it's been difficult to
Speaker 1: get all three of us in studio, but we have
Speaker 1: accomplished it today on this Thursday afternoon, so we have
Speaker 1: Craig Bowler, Jack Sporting. I love the look whenever it's
Speaker 1: game day, and let's make sure there mics are on
Speaker 1: whenever it's game day. It just looks like you did
Speaker 1: a set as a crooner down at Graycie, singing a
Speaker 1: little Sinatra and just walking right across the street.
Speaker 9: I just loosened the tie. It was a tough three
Speaker 9: hour little gig, but I'm good. It was that lunch crowd.
Speaker 9: It's tough out there.
Speaker 1: I love the look man, and just smashing beers. It's
Speaker 1: unreal on a Thursday, Gordon, it looks like that looks
Speaker 1: like a Budweiser in your in your cup, and I know,
Speaker 1: I know that you're not necessarily one that in vibes.
Speaker 1: What are you drinking in the early afternoon stages of
Speaker 1: a Thursday.
Speaker 8: It is apple beer, So it's not real beer. No, well,
Speaker 8: I mean it's apple beer, but it doesn't. I don't
Speaker 8: think it has alcohol in it?
Speaker 1: Are you sure? We'll find out its loose sence? All
Speaker 1: I know is back in the day. I know he
Speaker 1: won't love you sharing this, but for about a week
Speaker 1: if pat Dad was like, man, I really love kombucha.
Speaker 2: It makes me feel grand, like you know, there's a
Speaker 2: little bit of hitting there right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just so you know, bops, that's why you're feeling good.
Speaker 1: So apple beer, is this a new knew bobby of you?
Speaker 8: Actually, it's a trip back in time for me because
Speaker 8: when I was a kid on the East Coast, apple
Speaker 8: beer was a little more of a thing. Sure, you know,
Speaker 8: uh and uh, But I haven't really had much of
Speaker 8: it since then.
Speaker 3: So I thought, what the heck? I went grocery shop
Speaker 3: in this.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that for a second or video of this, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't believe that for a second.
Speaker 2: Where'd you go? Because we're calling right now.
Speaker 8: I went to the grocery stores down the street from me.
Speaker 8: I was supposed to pick something up. Yeah, And I
Speaker 8: picked up a cart and went up and down the aisles. Man,
Speaker 8: And you know what, it's just so amazing what's in
Speaker 8: these grocery stores. You take it for granted, right, But
Speaker 8: I mean I'm not there very often. And so I
Speaker 8: started looking around, and I was going, how come Lisa
Speaker 8: never gets that?
Speaker 3: And so I started just cherry picking stuff off the aisle.
Speaker 2: You would wait?
Speaker 1: Did you leave you to your own devices at the store?
Speaker 3: Yeah, she wasn't there.
Speaker 2: It was just me.
Speaker 1: But he's talking like he wants the Nobel Peace pros
Speaker 1: and he went grocery shops?
Speaker 2: You really? Did you hit all the aisles, all twenty
Speaker 2: four of it.
Speaker 3: I didn't go up down everyone on them, but I
Speaker 3: went up.
Speaker 8: I think I skipped the uh the kitchen cleaning uh
Speaker 8: applying stunning.
Speaker 3: But I went up down most of them.
Speaker 9: Wow, did you do this as a push cart or
Speaker 9: a hand just a push cart? What you got in
Speaker 9: the little scooter? I would pay to see that.
Speaker 1: Can't you see Gordon just rolling around the store in
Speaker 1: a little the way the way?
Speaker 2: Hold on here? When you guys go to the grocery store, Yeah,
Speaker 2: what do you buy.
Speaker 1: The necessities that I need to live?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 2: What though?
Speaker 8: I mean, do you spoil yourself with a little treat
Speaker 8: here and and something that's less than healthy over there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know what? Usually it's a list that I
Speaker 2: mean given from sharing. I'm saying break free.
Speaker 9: But sometimes you know, I'll go on my own just
Speaker 9: because like I need id prof bad, you know, Okay,
Speaker 9: something like that. After these long road trips, I'm out,
Speaker 9: I got where I need some help. Yeah, exactly. That's
Speaker 9: a headache right there.
Speaker 3: So what do you buy?
Speaker 9: It's it's whatever, you know. Sometimes I'll see a special
Speaker 9: on Cheetos and I haven't had a had the tough
Speaker 9: of cheetos in a while. Okay, you know, two bags
Speaker 9: five forty nine with the card, you know, with my card? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 9: so i'll see what the heck I'm taking them. I'll
Speaker 9: leave one in my office and then just throw one
Speaker 9: in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know what I got today that I've never bought before?
Speaker 2: I can't wait time?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 8: Those those what do you call those little potato puff things?
Speaker 8: Like in Napoleon Dynamite that he was putting.
Speaker 10: Tater tots potato puff things. That's not even a hard
Speaker 10: thing to pull. Tater tots? What do you call your potatoes?
Speaker 10: And little slits and you fry them?
Speaker 2: What do you call those? Do you understand that you
Speaker 2: have to warm those up? Yeah? You just can't open
Speaker 2: the bag and eat I know. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 8: In fact, we got one of those do dads that
Speaker 8: air fryer things.
Speaker 1: You can use the air fry to make some tater tots. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: Well it looks like if you're smashing a budweiser right
Speaker 1: in front of it.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: Do you think people would judge me?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't, No, man, I can't speak for the community.
Speaker 9: If it's five o'clock, i'd say right on, But it's
Speaker 9: three three oh seven, so I thought maybe a little early.
Speaker 9: But that's okay, it's five o'clock someplace, you know. The
Speaker 9: first thing I thought of was the great late Jerry Sloan,
Speaker 9: who liked to throw a few ice cubes in a
Speaker 9: cold bud light.
Speaker 2: Really. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of my jobs when I was the pr intern
Speaker 1: for Dave all Read and Kim Turners, I had to
Speaker 1: keep six beers back for hot Rod and two beers
Speaker 1: back for Jerry because in the media room back in
Speaker 1: the day they had beers.
Speaker 2: They did not any longer.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't judge you, but I think there's a portion
Speaker 1: of our community that's been enjoying your recent work with
Speaker 1: the trip that might judge you.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 8: If you're smashing beers, I think that I'm doing that. Well, look,
Speaker 8: if that's your thing, then go forward. But I'm just saying,
Speaker 8: when I walked in here, there's a police officer driving by,
Speaker 8: and would that be ill?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would be.
Speaker 1: That's called an open container And I could go down
Speaker 1: all the laws you want to.
Speaker 2: We can. We can dissecting one of them in Vegas.
Speaker 2: You'd be fine.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine getting an alert on your phone that
Speaker 1: Monson has been detained for an open container in downtown
Speaker 1: So I would not believe that to be true.
Speaker 8: For but if I had this Benson it was filled
Speaker 8: up because it started up here. If it's filled up
Speaker 8: there and it's got the phone, me head on it
Speaker 8: and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: That's the found my head. Would would would the police officer?
Speaker 1: Yes? I think I think a cop would inquire as
Speaker 1: to what the beverage was in in your plastic cat there.
Speaker 9: I don't know if they have like a little scary
Speaker 9: strip they may have put in there to see if
Speaker 9: it reacts to it well.
Speaker 1: And also, since you're new to the game, red red
Speaker 1: plastic cups, Yeah, the red sol bear. That's why everybody
Speaker 1: has the red solo cups.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, because I had one to lose at home,
Speaker 3: I could he use.
Speaker 2: See this is a giveaway.
Speaker 1: Well it's also apple beer. You're fine.
Speaker 2: Red plastic or you had to go if you know
Speaker 2: what I mean.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, So look like that we caught off
Speaker 1: guard Bowler. Welcome back to civilization friends here.
Speaker 3: You shouldn't be wearing socks, Bowler.
Speaker 2: Really, I was not complete it if he was.
Speaker 9: If I was in Miami like I was like five
Speaker 9: days ago, uh should just warn no socks. And we
Speaker 9: did big T's idea. We just went the uh the
Speaker 9: Don Johnson Miami vice look no tie, which felt good
Speaker 9: for change.
Speaker 3: Actually to go down to the South Beach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we actually did. Yeah, not much.
Speaker 9: It rained the entire you know, a little little no no.
Speaker 9: That was New York. I get mixed up where I
Speaker 9: am sometimes. Miami was beautiful. Orlando was very nice as well.
Speaker 9: But to Spencer and if we were talking earlier, I
Speaker 9: mean that the schedule has been insane. Uh. And we
Speaker 9: hit the road again for a quick trip to Phoenix
Speaker 9: and then we come back and head to New Orleans
Speaker 9: and by the middle of January, uh man, we've we've
Speaker 9: we've we've put some miles on those airplanes.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you that, right, this is the time
Speaker 1: of year. Because I did pre aff and post for
Speaker 1: seven years, and even because I never traveled. We were
Speaker 1: at the at the arena and that was no. This
Speaker 1: is the time of year where you walk out of
Speaker 1: and for me, it was like one thirty am, and
Speaker 1: you're just like, dude, I need to I don't care
Speaker 1: if you're a coach, a player, or a broadcaster. This is
Speaker 1: the time of year where you lose track of the
Speaker 1: days and like where you're at.
Speaker 9: Here's the biggest thing that happens to me. What side
Speaker 9: of the bed do I get off and out of? Okay,
Speaker 9: I mean it's weird. I wake up and I go
Speaker 9: I am totally lost. I don't know if people who
Speaker 9: travel a lot feel the same. World's And the thing
Speaker 9: I've been trying to do is make sure you know
Speaker 9: as you get older, you say I can handle it.
Speaker 9: But one night I remember, on this last road trip,
Speaker 9: I stayed in room nine seventeen. The next night I
Speaker 9: was in seven nineteen. You see, So okay, all of
Speaker 9: a sudden, my mind flashes back to the ninth floor
Speaker 9: or mind the seventh floor. Yeah, and you go crap,
Speaker 9: So you go up to the sumventh floor and you
Speaker 9: throw your cart across a little you know, if it
Speaker 9: doesn't beep or go click click, just start knocking loud. Yeah,
Speaker 9: then I go back up to the ninth floor and
Speaker 9: try it again. So that's what I did.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you're back.
Speaker 9: It's good to be bad guys to see you know.
Speaker 9: This is where you know, this is where it all starts.
Speaker 9: This where it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got I gotta.
Speaker 8: Ask a quick question about this travel thing, Spence. You
Speaker 8: remember back when people were telling us that Carl had
Speaker 8: in his contract that he had to have a couple
Speaker 8: of baskets of fresh fruit in his hotel room.
Speaker 3: Yeah? Was that true?
Speaker 2: I don't know it.
Speaker 9: I wouldn't be surprised. I mean if you hear rock
Speaker 9: stars only have green m and m's right in the
Speaker 9: green room or whatever. I mean, everybody has this, you
Speaker 9: know oddity that they like.
Speaker 3: You have anything that you have?
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 9: They would laugh me right through, Like Bullerjack wants, what yeah, right?
Speaker 2: You ever you ever raide the bar? I try to
Speaker 2: stay away from that.
Speaker 8: Isn't it like two hundred bucks if you if you
Speaker 8: ate a bag of potato chips.
Speaker 1: It's not two hundred dollars for a bag of potato chicks.
Speaker 1: But it's not economic.
Speaker 9: Depends on what city. If you're in San Antonio versus
Speaker 9: New York, if you're in Sacramento versus Miami. It is
Speaker 9: a night and day price difference night and day.
Speaker 3: So people wonder this spence you drive this bar.
Speaker 1: I think people wonder, Yeah, but we got an hour here,
Speaker 1: were fine?
Speaker 2: Okay? Uh? What what are the players?
Speaker 3: Uh? What is their situation from city? This city?
Speaker 2: Is it? I mean, is it posh? Is it just routine?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 3: What are their accommodations?
Speaker 9: Well, it's nice according to the NBA Players Union, I
Speaker 9: do believe hotels are in the five star category.
Speaker 2: That's part of the contract.
Speaker 9: Yes, per diem, Yes, well you know, food at their
Speaker 9: disposal in the hotels. But I'll be honest with you,
Speaker 9: all the years I've traveled, I really think that it's
Speaker 9: a routine that everyone has to decide on how to
Speaker 9: do it themselves and what works for you. I mean,
Speaker 9: Tea has told me in the older days, because they
Speaker 9: used to play back to back to back and there
Speaker 9: were some days in the Sloan era especially, but the
Speaker 9: back to backs are rough.
Speaker 2: I mean there's naps.
Speaker 9: I mean, it sounds crazy for young men to say
Speaker 9: it's nap time, but I think you have to catch
Speaker 9: your best rest whenever you possibly can, and it depends
Speaker 9: on your body. Some sleep on the flight someone, Some
Speaker 9: stay busy with, whether it's movies or looking at at
Speaker 9: game film honestly, and others just I think just try
Speaker 9: to just just chill.
Speaker 8: The players watch what they eat. Who is the player
Speaker 8: Spence who used to eat the cheeseburgers? I was Mel
Speaker 8: Turpin dinner Bell Mel. Yeah, I thought there was another one.
Speaker 8: I'm forgetting his name right now, but.
Speaker 3: He he ate like a teenager.
Speaker 9: But you know, I don't think the NBA, any training
Speaker 9: staff in the league now would allow that, at least
Speaker 9: in the sense of them presenting to that on the
Speaker 9: flight or in a hotel gathering where they get together
Speaker 9: for team meetings and then they have a meal. There's
Speaker 9: no way unless they jump out on their own and
Speaker 9: go to Smashburger.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe once in a while they do.
Speaker 2: They got to treat themselves on a ca.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this because I love the Gordon
Speaker 1: asked if NBA players staying nice, it's like a Lakina
Speaker 1: with Jimmy Johns for lunch. Of course they stayed nice.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the buffet how accommodated, made order pancakes.
Speaker 1: Walker just nailed a thousand marry A points so he
Speaker 1: can get some milk in the morning.
Speaker 2: Give me a break.
Speaker 1: But I am curious. Gordon as Gordon, as only Gordon
Speaker 1: can do. Gordon does bring up an interesting topic. I
Speaker 1: wonder how it's changed, because I think it was Wickerstram
Speaker 1: somebody about four years ago, five years ago, because I
Speaker 1: can remember doing postgame my final year, doing postgame with Britain,
Speaker 1: and we would notice it was a Warriors game and
Speaker 1: there were about six or seven young ladies in the
Speaker 1: arena just sitting there and we're kind of like, what's
Speaker 1: going on here? Like how'd they get in? And Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson walks out and all six or seven of them
Speaker 1: just followed Clay out back and.
Speaker 3: And they disappear end of the night.
Speaker 2: Well I didn't follow them. I don't know where they went.
Speaker 1: But the piece that Wickerstram road, he called it the
Speaker 1: tenderfication of the NBA whereas back in the day, like
Speaker 1: Gordon was talking about, and I saw this, you know,
Speaker 1: in my own travels, But you've traveled with the teams
Speaker 1: of more than I have. You know, players get done
Speaker 1: with a game, go back to the hotel and then
Speaker 1: they're out. They go to the club, right they want
Speaker 1: to meet women, they want to hang out, and that
Speaker 1: was kind of the deal. And now with dating apps,
Speaker 1: they land and boom, you're swiping and oh, a girl
Speaker 1: sees Klay Thompson match with me on Tinder, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to go meet him.
Speaker 2: After the game.
Speaker 1: They don't have to go out the way they used
Speaker 1: to if they want to meet women. And also there's
Speaker 1: a little bit more of an understanding of how to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself because of the implementation of strength
Speaker 1: and conditioning coach and nutritionists, like teams, they don't want
Speaker 1: these twenty one to twenty two year old players going
Speaker 1: out and smash into kuila shots. I think they take
Speaker 1: care of themselves better now in a way they didn't
Speaker 1: back in the day.
Speaker 9: I would agree that there's more on the line today
Speaker 9: than ever because they make it very clear your in
Speaker 9: the NBA and the rookie symposiums that that are held. Look,
Speaker 9: here's the way you're supposed to act, and the team
Speaker 9: also expects the same thing.
Speaker 8: But at what point is an intrusion into privacy? Because
Speaker 8: you know, that's a great point.
Speaker 1: You still have your private life, right. It was Tom
Speaker 1: Habershaw who wrote that piece. My bad Tom Habershaw, Yeah,
Speaker 1: who wrote the piece about the tender use in the NBA.
Speaker 8: Just but I remember one time at Marina del Rey.
Speaker 8: We were standing at a hotel there and the team
Speaker 8: hotel was next door, the Ritz and and uh, yeah,
Speaker 8: you've been there many times, and the jazz are in
Speaker 8: the playoffs, and there was a certain jazz player who
Speaker 8: was checking his cousin into the hotel right when a
Speaker 8: few of us media people walked and he was checking
Speaker 8: her in and and he happened to also be married
Speaker 8: at the time, and he was checking this cousin in
Speaker 8: And it was just kind of weird because it was like, Okay,
Speaker 8: it's really none of our business what so and so
Speaker 8: is doing.
Speaker 3: Uh, but that's what he was doing.
Speaker 2: How do you know it wasn't his cousin.
Speaker 3: We were pretty sure.
Speaker 1: Can't people have attractive cousins?
Speaker 2: Uh could be a sister. It's a dangerous question in Utah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, true, it could be a sister.
Speaker 2: Well your point is, well.
Speaker 8: I don't want to jump to a conclusion, but we
Speaker 8: kind of did.
Speaker 9: I think the bottom line to it is that there
Speaker 9: is space that men live and women who travel in
Speaker 9: the WNBA or whatever, you know, there still is a privacy.
Speaker 9: I think the players respect that, the coaches as long
Speaker 9: as it doesn't impact that the team concept of winning
Speaker 9: and moving forward. You I tell you what, there's some
Speaker 9: nights at three o'clock. He doesn't, You don't. I can't
Speaker 9: say it, but you know what I'm talking about. You
Speaker 9: just want to go to get your butt upstairs, throw
Speaker 9: your sixty pounds bag that you've been on the road
Speaker 9: for seven days, and just try to find some sleep.
Speaker 8: I think this particular jazz player just wanted to take
Speaker 8: a little comfort.
Speaker 9: Ah, not a pillow simon. You know, look, does it happen?
Speaker 2: Sure? I mean, but is this exclusive to the NBA? No?
Speaker 9: I mean business trips, whatever you make, you know, you
Speaker 9: can break it downever you want. But look, traveling is,
Speaker 9: in my opinion's still difficult mentally physically, and if you're
Speaker 9: making the kind of money that is in the NBA
Speaker 9: the National Football League, hockey baseball, there was so much
Speaker 9: at stake now even more that if you want to
Speaker 9: stay in this league and they're pushing you every day
Speaker 9: because there's somebody else rumored to be on their way,
Speaker 9: and so I think the pressure of just being who
Speaker 9: you are and keep and for six months, that's your job. Obviously,
Speaker 9: you work out during the off season, and you may
Speaker 9: go overseas, you may play in summer leagues or whatever
Speaker 9: it may be.
Speaker 2: But man, you've got to be uber focused, especially.
Speaker 3: With a team like the Jazz, because.
Speaker 2: You play hungover. I can't imagine.
Speaker 8: Well, I mean, if you're a star, if you're an
Speaker 8: established star, then people aren't going to really question you
Speaker 8: about what your routine is. But if you're in the
Speaker 8: Jazz situation and you're trying to prove yourself and you're
Speaker 8: trying to improve as you do it, if I were
Speaker 8: one of those guys, I wouldn't be messing around.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't do a thing, man.
Speaker 9: I would play ball, sleep and eat, play ball, sleep
Speaker 9: and eat. As they say is you're living in the tube,
Speaker 9: which means the bus, the arena, the hotel, and the plane.
Speaker 2: That's it. That's it.
Speaker 9: That's your life and the money you make is the reward.
Speaker 9: And right now, the Jazz especially, there's a lot of
Speaker 9: players out there that are still unknown in their own
Speaker 9: minds or their contracts, and their agents are trying to
Speaker 9: make sure that they play, they live to play another day.
Speaker 9: Because I loved your interview with Tony coming in, I
Speaker 9: mean Tony spot on. I mean there's a lot of ifs.
Speaker 9: There's a lot of players that are potentially ready to
Speaker 9: be drafted that could easily jump in and take a
Speaker 9: place or two of multiple jazz players you over this
Speaker 9: next three years. Man, you've got to be solid if
Speaker 9: you're going to survive. Danny Ainge and Justin Zannik.
Speaker 8: Do you remember Ron Fellows? Yes, Na sounds familiar, defensive
Speaker 8: bag for the Dallas Cowboys. I'm almost certain my memory
Speaker 8: might be playing a trick on.
Speaker 2: Me, but I was here.
Speaker 8: I was interviewing him about Manny hendrick Man, the former
Speaker 8: youth basketball player who was trying to make the jump
Speaker 8: to the NFL. And the Cowboys were having their training
Speaker 8: camp out a thousand Oaks, and I went out there
Speaker 8: and to do something on Manny, and I was stucking
Speaker 8: to Ron, and he's an established player in the NFL,
Speaker 8: and I'm asking him tell me about Manny Hendrix and
Speaker 8: he said, well, I don't want to give him too
Speaker 8: much glory or public because I don't want my job
Speaker 8: taken away.
Speaker 3: That was the first thing he said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, think about Kante.
Speaker 9: He's looking over his shoulder, looking at a kind of
Speaker 9: a bulldog athletic point guard in Isaiah Collier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, does he developed?
Speaker 9: Well, look, man, you know I've got I've got my
Speaker 9: own worries in U two and you know, or Sensiba.
Speaker 9: All of a sudden, it's starting to look like a
Speaker 9: six a sixth number six player. Or he's got a
Speaker 9: body like a d Wade, you know, where he can
Speaker 9: plow in and get things done. He may actually turn
Speaker 9: out Spence to be a good finisher at the rim.
Speaker 9: Of course, he has to learn how to play defense
Speaker 9: or continue to improve there. But man, there's all of
Speaker 9: a sudden since we've talked, you know, in studio, there's
Speaker 9: been an acceleration of development with the team, and I
Speaker 9: probably would say the Hawks loss was as entertaining as
Speaker 9: we've had all season long. On a tree, young heave
Speaker 9: ho after Sexton goes crazy with with the tie and
Speaker 9: you go, wow, did they grow up a lot tonight?
Speaker 9: But they still suffered the loss. And I know no
Speaker 9: one wants to well, some Jazz fans want to lose,
Speaker 9: and I get it, But for me, it was like, Wow,
Speaker 9: a lot accomplished tonight. Incredible minutes, closing minutes, tight minutes
Speaker 9: against a team that has a really outstanding player to actually,
Speaker 9: but Trey Young's good man.
Speaker 8: When Sexton hit that three, I just saw, Okay, there
Speaker 8: it is. Yeah, And next thing they turn around and
Speaker 8: Trey hits that. I texted Quinn and said, what was that?
Speaker 8: And he texted me back and said, crazy stuff. Can't
Speaker 8: make this up. Yeah, you know, it's just I don't
Speaker 8: care what the situation is. I don't care what the
Speaker 8: Jazz are trying to do, where they're trying to win
Speaker 8: or trying to lose.
Speaker 3: That was a great game. That was a fun game
Speaker 3: to watch.
Speaker 9: The last ten I think Spence and you're probably looking
Speaker 9: at him right now, I think have been competitive. I
Speaker 9: think we've seen growth. I've seen more confidence in this team.
Speaker 9: Will Hardy's a good coach and the players are connected,
Speaker 9: and you know that's part of the whole process. You know,
Speaker 9: you talk about building the foundation the winning culture. I
Speaker 9: think the culture the bricks are starting to pile up
Speaker 9: a little bit. And you know, a month ago, I
Speaker 9: don't think we could have said that, but I think
Speaker 9: over the last team games.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yeah, it's funny. I texted Quinn after the game.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, hell of a play call, and he said,
Speaker 1: better to be lucky than good. But that No, that
Speaker 1: was a fun night, and I do think, okay, so
Speaker 1: we'll do this topic. Don't catch a break because I
Speaker 1: was thinking about because I've been watching Cleveland. I watched
Speaker 1: the Cabs OKAC game last night, and Donovan is starting
Speaker 1: to really understand. You know, his numbers are about the same.
Speaker 1: He didn't shoot it well last night, but if you
Speaker 1: watch the way he's participating in the team offensive flow
Speaker 1: and he's playing defense. He actually said, not too long ago,
Speaker 1: oh I'm actually trying on defense now. And I'm like, thanks, dude, sweet, yeah,
Speaker 1: you were here for five years.
Speaker 2: What was that?
Speaker 1: But I was thinking about through this prison because I
Speaker 1: could remember Donovan's rookie year when he just like remember
Speaker 1: Gordon Leaves and everybody said, okay, they'll be okay because
Speaker 1: Rodney Hood is going to step in and take Gordon's usage,
Speaker 1: and honestly, Rodney had shown a little ability. So it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's see if Rodney is ready for that
Speaker 1: challenge within five games, like he's you know, he's not
Speaker 1: that dude. Maybe he can be a role player that
Speaker 1: can hit some shots. And Quinn said to Donovan, all right,
Speaker 1: you're driving the car now throwing the keys. Boom, Rookie
Speaker 1: takes over. And then the second year Donovan's second year,
Speaker 1: watching that playoff run where Donovan was the main scoring
Speaker 1: option for a team that advanced a couple of rounds.
Speaker 1: They beat OKC Right, Okase was supposed to be that
Speaker 1: super team, And I remember thinking like, this is such
Speaker 1: great news because for a second year player to have
Speaker 1: playoff experience as the guy that's leading the charge in
Speaker 1: four or five, six years, it's gonna pay off. Now.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately it's paying off for the Cavs. But I've been thinking, like,
Speaker 1: for a team that has no playoff basketball in their future,
Speaker 1: how are we going to get some of these young
Speaker 1: kids experience in intense game situations if they're not gonna
Speaker 1: have playoff experience like Donovan did as a young player.
Speaker 1: Because the experience you have in your one year, two year,
Speaker 1: three manifests, year four, year, five, year six. This is
Speaker 1: a ride of passage league. So the fact that over
Speaker 1: the past ten to twelve games they've had a couple
Speaker 1: of wins here there, but these games are close down
Speaker 1: the stretch, and it's intense, and it's good basketball against
Speaker 1: good teams. These are the games that you want Keyante
Speaker 1: and I know he's been out, but you want Kyle in,
Speaker 1: you want Isaiah, and you want the young players to
Speaker 1: feel what it's like to play intense minutes in intense situations.
Speaker 1: And if it's not going to be playoff basketball, this
Speaker 1: is the second best thing exactly.
Speaker 9: I thought the same thing down those last four and
Speaker 9: a half minutes, was like, Wow, this is what you know,
Speaker 9: players fans all wanted to see, all want to live for,
Speaker 9: and it is a replica. It's the best replica replication
Speaker 9: of a playoff field goro. I mean, you can't replicate
Speaker 9: that until you live it because there is another level.
Speaker 9: But this is as close as you can get. And
Speaker 9: also who closes those minutes? You know, Will Hardy is
Speaker 9: using ten player rotations mostly he's gotten a lot of
Speaker 9: guys get a lot of minutes but Cody Williams is
Speaker 9: in there, you know, since the ball has been in
Speaker 9: there when he hasn't been ill Kyante has been there
Speaker 9: and flip his head some moments as well. So how
Speaker 9: do you do it? You have to throw them into
Speaker 9: a situation that they go, Man, this feels good. I
Speaker 9: don't like to lose, but boy, it felt good to
Speaker 9: get this to this point. What do I have to
Speaker 9: do now to get to the next level? And so
Speaker 9: it's a process, but I still I hold true the
Speaker 9: last ten games, man, I just get a total sense
Speaker 9: of more confident, more confident Utah Jazz team who seem
Speaker 9: to be handling situations much better. Turnovers are down a bit,
Speaker 9: but they still come back to bite them in just
Speaker 9: stressful times where they haven't been and they seem not
Speaker 9: to know exactly what to do or if they trust
Speaker 9: themselves or their teammates.
Speaker 8: So, if I were gonna ask the both of you
Speaker 8: one conclusion, I know we're really not in the conclusion
Speaker 8: business right now with that team, But based on the
Speaker 8: last ten games, if you had to come up with
Speaker 8: one conclusion about what's happening with the Jazz, what would
Speaker 8: you say it?
Speaker 1: In a way, it reminds me of the early part
Speaker 1: of Quinn's tenure here, where early on rebuild team wasn't winning,
Speaker 1: but you could see like this guy can coach. Will
Speaker 1: can coach, and so even on nights like in Orlando,
Speaker 1: they sat like half the team, Well, it's like whatever,
Speaker 1: let's just go win the thing. He maximizes the talent
Speaker 1: on that roster, and I just I really hope that
Speaker 1: in the next two years he sees enough to stick
Speaker 1: around for the long term, because I remember thinking before
Speaker 1: Dennis was able to be really savvy and a little
Speaker 1: lucky with Donovan and Rudy, right, but other additions ingles
Speaker 1: pops like nobody thought he would. Then Quinn had a team.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, Quinn is good here. But I
Speaker 1: remember thinking like, if Dennis doesn't get Quinn players, Quinn's
Speaker 1: gonna get gone. And I just hope that they can
Speaker 1: give Will enough talent at his disposal that in two
Speaker 1: years from now he sees enough to stay, because I
Speaker 1: think he could coach pretty much anywhere in the league.
Speaker 1: I think it'd be a hot commodity if he doesn't
Speaker 1: stick around here.
Speaker 2: He deserves it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, No, I mean it comes from you know, the
Speaker 9: Popovich Tree and he's obviously well trained, learned, watched listen
Speaker 9: started in the film room, like Spolstra with pat Riley
Speaker 9: in Miami. There's a lot of comparisons there. But again,
Speaker 9: you know how far? How long? Yes, Tony, this too, Spence?
Speaker 9: What's the run time here of actually being a dynamic
Speaker 9: playoff team in the West which is aging which will.
Speaker 2: Help the Jazz in a lot of ways.
Speaker 9: But what if you finish with the five spot and
Speaker 9: maybe Lady Luck doesn't follow on you like it did
Speaker 9: with Atlanta. Now, Rishache, you know that the for a
Speaker 9: number one pick, I'm not really sure where that is,
Speaker 9: but you know, the next two years there's some home
Speaker 9: runs out there to hit and where are the Jazz?
Speaker 9: And the other part of this equation is does Xanik
Speaker 9: and Danny do what they've done the last two years
Speaker 9: and move players prior to the trade deadline? And that
Speaker 9: is yet to be seen if that would really then
Speaker 9: push the Jazz back down from where they are right
Speaker 9: now and open up more minutes or even flip and
Speaker 9: if and for Cody and others.
Speaker 1: I don't think they'll do anything. I actually think I mean, look,
Speaker 1: if a GM calls and says I'll give you first
Speaker 1: for Clarkson, they'll take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or known Collins.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, maybe they can get a first for
Speaker 1: a bad But it almost feels like they're built perfectly
Speaker 1: to stay competitive but continue to lose, and that I
Speaker 1: know it sucks, but that's kind of what you want.
Speaker 9: Delta Center. Still, I'm really I got applaud Jazz fans.
Speaker 9: It's still wow. They walk in, they want to see
Speaker 9: this rebuild. They're there and I wasn't sure if that
Speaker 9: would be the case this season, but I think they
Speaker 9: do see what we see, and that is some young
Speaker 9: players who have some excitement to them, and you know,
Speaker 9: it's a wait and see game to see exactly how
Speaker 9: long they'll take.
Speaker 3: Can I use one analogy? I look at it like this.
Speaker 8: I think that the Jazz are putting a puzzle together.
Speaker 8: Only what's the first thing you do when you're doing
Speaker 8: a five thousand piece?
Speaker 2: Don't you want to find something else to do?
Speaker 1: Sucks?
Speaker 2: Is it a five thousand pieceer we're doing here?
Speaker 8: Calif're talking about I want you do the border on
Speaker 8: a puzzle?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you do the.
Speaker 3: Border, But the Jazz are doing the middle.
Speaker 2: First, building out Yeah, because they don't.
Speaker 3: They don't have a framework.
Speaker 2: That makes it tougher.
Speaker 1: We started out the segment with cooking potato puffs and
Speaker 1: the go Daddy instead of tops.
Speaker 2: Here and we're talking puzzles.
Speaker 1: He literally called tater tots potato puffs. He's a sixty
Speaker 1: five year old man calling on. All right, we'll catch
Speaker 1: a break. We're going do some football coming up next,
Speaker 1: Penn State Notre Dame tonight. And since we last spoke,
Speaker 1: Big Time transfer heads down to Provo. Gordon Monson, Greg
Speaker 1: Bullerjack liven Studio. Gordo's almost done with his beer, so
Speaker 1: keep it here on ESPN seven hundred. Got another big
Speaker 1: segment here before we bring in Ted Robinson preview tonight.
Speaker 1: It's Notre Dame Penn State game. Interesting conversation during the break.
Speaker 2: I think it.
Speaker 1: I think it. It's probably appropriate and fair to say
Speaker 1: we should all be very grateful for this time and
Speaker 1: where we find ourselves existing in society.
Speaker 8: Yes, I would agree with that one hundred percent. And
Speaker 8: I wish you know this has been something in my
Speaker 8: thirty years of doing radio. Sometimes I think the breaks
Speaker 8: are more interesting than what we say on the air.
Speaker 8: I wish all of your listeners could have heard the
Speaker 8: story Craig just told.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just anyway.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent. When you
Speaker 8: see what's happening down in southern California right now, people
Speaker 8: losing their homes, people in tough, tough circumstances.
Speaker 2: It doesn't be grateful for the good things.
Speaker 9: I think we've lost track of that. Not to preach,
Speaker 9: but you know, I hope everybody just takes a deep
Speaker 9: breath on occasion and just understands what really is going down.
Speaker 9: You lose a president and Jimmy Carter, you know, half
Speaker 9: staff flags a new president inauguration around the corner, you've
Speaker 9: got fires. It's crazy world, man, make the best of me.
Speaker 9: I don't understand. You know, you know more about that,
Speaker 9: gordl you lived there. But the Santa Anna wins, they
Speaker 9: always fear that, they always fear the Santa Anna wins.
Speaker 9: And it can just I mean, those things roar like
Speaker 9: forty to sixty miles an hour, right or.
Speaker 2: More more, and so it be more. It's its own
Speaker 2: weather system.
Speaker 9: And so once a fire picks up, and they haven't
Speaker 9: had much rain of ending in the last three years
Speaker 9: in sokows so it's it's prime picking.
Speaker 8: I talked to a friend of mine last night and
Speaker 8: he sent me four or five videos he drove around
Speaker 8: my old neighborhoods. I had two different houses down there.
Speaker 8: One of them's gone, the other one made it through.
Speaker 8: And I'm like, he's showing me what's going on. And
Speaker 8: I'm like, and people. I heard one person say, isn't
Speaker 8: it a coincidence there was a fire and the wind
Speaker 8: just happened to be blowing at that time, And I
Speaker 8: said no, because there could a fire when the Santa
Speaker 8: Ana's aren't roaring and they just put it out. But
Speaker 8: in this case, that wind picks up those zmbers and
Speaker 8: they are flying all over the place and next thing
Speaker 8: you know, your city's burning down.
Speaker 3: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's horrifying.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 1: It looks like apocalyptic out there. But there was this
Speaker 1: let's see here. Let me give this guy the proper credit.
Speaker 1: So David Bornstein is his name, and he's he's the
Speaker 1: co founder of a organization called the Solutions Journalism Network,
Speaker 1: and he wrote an op ed for The New York
Speaker 1: Times two years ago and said, scared by the news,
Speaker 1: question mark take the long view. Now's the greatest time
Speaker 1: in history to be alive. But the problem is we're
Speaker 1: all consuming fear based you know, propaganda and for profit
Speaker 1: news that doesn't give a rip about truth. They want
Speaker 1: to scare you, so you keep consuming. And if you
Speaker 1: get lost in the cycle about who's going to be
Speaker 1: president and then half the country hates that Canada and
Speaker 1: suddenly we're on the precipice of a civil war, you
Speaker 1: lose track of the long game, which is truly, this
Speaker 1: is the best time in human history to be alive.
Speaker 1: And I think it's important to keep reminding people of
Speaker 1: that because it does feel like life is so hard
Speaker 1: for so many people right now. And I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how necessary that is. If you just reframe your thinking,
Speaker 1: the truth does get lost, and that's a scary thing.
Speaker 1: When the truth doesn't matter anymore, and when it comes
Speaker 1: to government and other things, then you've got a bit
Speaker 1: of a problem that needs to be handled. But you're right, Spence,
Speaker 1: when you think of the advances and I hear people
Speaker 1: complain about doctors, and they complain about this. When you
Speaker 1: think about the advances in medicine and how it's helping
Speaker 1: people live rich lives, and I don't not talk about financially,
Speaker 1: they're just.
Speaker 2: Being able to live. I mean, we do.
Speaker 8: Live in a fantastic time. But and people used to
Speaker 8: ask me this all the time, and they say, man,
Speaker 8: the news is so negative all the time.
Speaker 3: I get it.
Speaker 8: I get what you're saying. But the very definition of
Speaker 8: news is that which is extraordinary. And so if the
Speaker 8: bad news is extraordinary when it gets when don't get
Speaker 8: really bad, is if the good news is extraordinary, and
Speaker 8: that's what's being portrayed. And so take good some optimism
Speaker 8: out of that, you know, be Paul McCartney and say
Speaker 8: everything is getting better.
Speaker 3: Not John Lennon. It couldn't get no no.
Speaker 9: I pick up this phone, Spence, and I think, what
Speaker 9: an incredible development this was. You're what are we on
Speaker 9: the iPhone sixteen going on seventeen? I mean, I don't
Speaker 9: use half of whatever's on this thing. I don't have
Speaker 9: any need for it, but it's you can become addicted
Speaker 9: to it, and anyone now has everyone has a voice,
Speaker 9: but now it's heard more than ever. You know, we
Speaker 9: just grew up in an era with Gordo and I
Speaker 9: where of course we sat down and watched two newscasts,
Speaker 9: the six and ten in the old days or the
Speaker 9: five thirty National News with the Kronkite and others. I
Speaker 9: miss Walter, Yeah, and you know those are those are
Speaker 9: early memories for me. But there was no other way
Speaker 9: to get news. But now news is so fast and
Speaker 9: the six and ten is old news, and so now
Speaker 9: they do more local. But I think that's something that
Speaker 9: you can almost become addicted to, is the negativity that
Speaker 9: you see on your phone every day and so many
Speaker 9: different areas of communication. So you have to decide for yourself.
Speaker 9: And I've decided to kind of let it just sit
Speaker 9: down a little bit more, to be honest with you,
Speaker 9: because i'ment on the road. My office is the plane.
Speaker 9: My office is my hotel room. And sometimes, you know,
Speaker 9: after my fifth run of mash Or Gilligan's Island, you know,
Speaker 9: I've got to do something else. So I picked this
Speaker 9: up and go, no, that can't be right, And you know,
Speaker 9: and and they all have. Everyone has their own opinion
Speaker 9: about every subject that's out there.
Speaker 8: I read somewhere where there's more computing power in that
Speaker 8: phone you just picked up than thes that put the
Speaker 8: man on the moon.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly right, Yeah, yeah, you know it's we could
Speaker 1: do hours and hours on this topic. You know, to
Speaker 1: your point about progress in medicine, I mean, our life inspects,
Speaker 1: expect and sy has gone up over the past one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years because we've learned how to eradicate
Speaker 1: diseases through science.
Speaker 2: This body's only made to last fifty.
Speaker 1: And then I swear, and then ultimately I got these
Speaker 1: you know, artificial this and ar You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's amazing COVID gets politicized and we forget like, no,
Speaker 1: we need to keep eradicating diseases through science. That's why
Speaker 1: we're living longer than we over have. Interesting enough, though,
Speaker 1: life expectancy for white men in America has actually gone
Speaker 1: down since COVID Apple beer, what's the apple beer?
Speaker 2: Yes, what's the explanation for this?
Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of lonely, disenfranchised, you know,
Speaker 1: middle aged men that don't have life partners, that don't
Speaker 1: have things to get them out of bed every day
Speaker 1: that excite them. They probably thought they were going to
Speaker 1: be presidents of companies and now they're barely hanging on.
Speaker 1: And so there are things out there that indicate people
Speaker 1: I think are just thinking the wrong way. Though, you know,
Speaker 1: that's why this piece where it's like, keep the long
Speaker 1: game in mind. This is an ext the time to
Speaker 1: be alive. Not enough people, I think fully Embrace, Embrace.
Speaker 3: I love what's your message there is, Spence. I couldn't
Speaker 3: agree with you more.
Speaker 8: Even though we get the extraordinary, we get so much
Speaker 8: of the bad news, it really is probably the best
Speaker 8: time ever to be alive.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna send you this out at I think you'd
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for as far.
Speaker 8: As opportunity, as far as health, as far as UH,
Speaker 8: as far as maybe some degree of open mindedness at
Speaker 8: least in some camps UH, and the opportunity that to
Speaker 8: be what you want to be if if you're willing
Speaker 8: to pay the price, and if you do have the
Speaker 8: original opportunity from jump, because if you don't have that opportunity,
Speaker 8: then you can be stepped on your whole entire existence.
Speaker 9: And one last thought, I think you have to force yourself,
Speaker 9: to Spence and Gordo, to actually control your own narrative,
Speaker 9: because you can actually become overwhelmed with negativity. And you know,
Speaker 9: why do some white men don't make it as long
Speaker 9: as what the norm is, if that's you know what
Speaker 9: the study you just said is that you become depressed.
Speaker 9: You only look at the negative, and if you're that
Speaker 9: negative in life, then it draws you down. Your health
Speaker 9: is impacted by it as well. Mental health is a
Speaker 9: key here, That's my point. Mental health is something that
Speaker 9: you have a friend. If you know someone that needs
Speaker 9: to talk, I think it's super important to try to
Speaker 9: offer that type of help or someone to talk with
Speaker 9: a guide them to the right people.
Speaker 8: Well, I think I have a good idea about your
Speaker 8: entire background. I could get you in a whole lot
Speaker 8: of trouble. I know so much about you. Yeah, spend
Speaker 8: the same thing with you. And when I look at you,
Speaker 8: guys's lifeline and how you've sort of gone through and
Speaker 8: overcome certain challenges. And look, I'm not saying that, I'm
Speaker 8: not saying that, oh boy, you guys had it so
Speaker 8: rough from the beginning, but you have had your rough
Speaker 8: spots and you overcame them through some degree of positivity.
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, if you weren't an optim.
Speaker 8: Has spent some of the challenges that you've overcome are unbelievable.
Speaker 8: It's a great story. And same thing with you, Bowler.
Speaker 8: And so if there's a message in this for all
Speaker 8: your listeners out there, Spence. I hope they hang on
Speaker 8: and keep climbing and keep working towards something positive, because
Speaker 8: you can make a difference in this world.
Speaker 3: You can do. I sound like a Baptist preacher.
Speaker 2: You do, amen, It's a revival here right here on
Speaker 2: seven hundred.
Speaker 1: I like the new approach gory. You know, if I
Speaker 1: told you my one resolution, well, I mean it is
Speaker 1: still the first week of January.
Speaker 9: It's like like water Boy when he says the play
Speaker 9: another day. Yes, there we go. See that's think about that.
Speaker 9: Live to play another day. So if you're down, you
Speaker 9: just have to remember tomorrow you continue on perfect well,
Speaker 9: said last thing here, and then we'll move on entirely.
Speaker 9: But I find this really fascinating because the leading cause
Speaker 9: of death for middle aged white man it's still heart disease,
Speaker 9: but number two is accident old deaths meaning suicide addiction
Speaker 9: related overdoses.
Speaker 2: That's now number two. You know.
Speaker 1: So you have a lot of depressed, like lonely men
Speaker 1: out there right now that they just get lost in
Speaker 1: their mind.
Speaker 3: What's the answer?
Speaker 1: Well, number one, recognize that your mind lies to you.
Speaker 1: Your mind is constantly barking at you about things that
Speaker 1: aren't true constantly. Yes, there's a difference between thinking and thoughts.
Speaker 1: Thoughts are the things that just come in when you're
Speaker 1: not you're just sitting there and like, oh, you're a
Speaker 1: piece of you know, you did this. You can combat
Speaker 1: that with positive thinking, but it takes practice.
Speaker 9: The thing I've learned is that everyone has just the
Speaker 9: odd thought that you know, when you're growing up, you know,
Speaker 9: you just think that life is just you know, you're
Speaker 9: out of the playground having a good old time playing baseball.
Speaker 9: But then you hit the real reality of life and
Speaker 9: you think, oh, wonder what that popped into my head?
Speaker 2: What what that was? Kind of sitting dumb.
Speaker 9: Thought, Yeah, dumb thought, but it's it happens, and people
Speaker 9: can't sit on it and just, I think, become obsessed
Speaker 9: with that.
Speaker 1: And that's why you just are a bit and let
Speaker 1: it go. If you can't, you can't get lost in
Speaker 1: the mind because then it goes like this.
Speaker 8: I think that all three of us have been extremely
Speaker 8: fortunate in our lives, but we've also overcome some things
Speaker 8: that people may not know about. And I love it
Speaker 8: when people say he always remember that the guy you're
Speaker 8: talking to or the guy.
Speaker 3: Sitting next to you. You don't know what his problems.
Speaker 9: Everyone has, what I've learned, everyone has a story. Yeah, everyone,
Speaker 9: everyone has a story. Every person in the arena that
Speaker 9: you set to, you're you're you know, everyone is going
Speaker 9: through something and they're really good at hiding it. And
Speaker 9: you're lucky enough if you can find one or two
Speaker 9: friends along the way that you can actually trust and
Speaker 9: open up and maybe they give you some ideas to
Speaker 9: either alleviate or find answers to some of those stresses
Speaker 9: that everybody takes every day. Well, I think I'm still
Speaker 9: working hard on mine. I mean, look, it never ends.
Speaker 9: You just kind of find ways to say, okay, progress,
Speaker 9: I get it, you know, I get it.
Speaker 2: I understand.
Speaker 8: I have made a profession out of expressing opinion but
Speaker 8: also interviewing people to tell their stories. And I boler,
Speaker 8: I did that to you did and we got into
Speaker 8: all kinds of stuff. Did I make you uncomfortable with that?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 6: You know what?
Speaker 2: I need to talk about those things as I get older.
Speaker 2: There's a great story and people boler.
Speaker 8: People look at you and say, oh, he's got it made.
Speaker 2: Look at what he's doing.
Speaker 8: Wouldn't that be a great job to have they have
Speaker 8: no clue what you've overcome in your life and spent
Speaker 8: the same thing with you. And this is interesting because
Speaker 8: when I interview I've interviewed people over the last fifty years,
Speaker 8: a lot of times they think, oh, I don't have
Speaker 8: anything really interesting to say about myself.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, almost.
Speaker 8: Everyone listening to your show right now, Spence, you have
Speaker 8: a story to tell, and you have an interesting story
Speaker 8: to tell, and you have a worthwhile story to tell.
Speaker 8: But people don't give themselves enough credit I think for
Speaker 8: what they've been well.
Speaker 1: And when you when you share it, it empowers others
Speaker 1: to help. And I will say, before we move on
Speaker 1: a little football with a few minutes left, I just
Speaker 1: know that you're not alone in struggles and in sadness
Speaker 1: and in loneliness. And ignore those dumb thoughts, man, let
Speaker 1: them go and get back to center, and just get
Speaker 1: through another day, and.
Speaker 3: Ignore the criticism that comes from the guy behind the HI.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 9: I know it's sports talk radio, but I hope that
Speaker 9: if we touch one person in this twenty minute segment,
Speaker 9: then that's a good thing for this day. I'm one person.
Speaker 9: If we just made one person think differently or say,
Speaker 9: you know what, I'm gonna make a conversation about this
Speaker 9: or I'm going to go look and find somebody that
Speaker 9: can help. Then amen, we did the right thing today. Sometimes,
Speaker 9: you know, I get ah, you guys get off topic
Speaker 9: and stuff. Yeah, but you know what, We're just talking
Speaker 9: life sometimes too, and I like that.
Speaker 2: And I'm on here for four hours.
Speaker 1: So you can stay tuned for sports for the other
Speaker 1: three hours and forty minutes. So everybody calmed down. But
Speaker 1: let me get both your opinions on this. And I
Speaker 1: I think I've talked to you both separately about the dynamic.
Speaker 1: But with a few minutes we have left, let's get
Speaker 1: into this. You know Keano Tanavasa, who is a professional
Speaker 1: football player. He's going to play in the NFL and
Speaker 1: he's awesome. And if you're a ute fan and you're
Speaker 1: following the news and you see that, you know, Makai
Speaker 1: Pittman his inners of transfer port, you're like, all right, dude,
Speaker 1: by five, good luck. But then you see that Kanu
Speaker 1: does and you go, oh, man, that hurts. And then
Speaker 1: you see he goes to Byu and that hurts even worse.
Speaker 1: I'm happy for Kilani and Jay to get this kid
Speaker 1: who's a stud and also seems like a good kid.
Speaker 1: But the way he announced it was interesting because he
Speaker 1: took a lot of heat because Keanu went at Cameron
Speaker 1: Calhoun who Cameron said a Utah manami, and then Caylin
Speaker 1: Debor said, well, do you want to check out Tuscaloosa.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, that sounds good. So he goes down
Speaker 1: to Bama and Keanu kind of cracked on him on
Speaker 1: social and he sends out Utah manami and then boom
Speaker 1: deletes the tweet two days later. And I was told
Speaker 1: he told the Utah coaches two weeks before we found
Speaker 1: out he heads down a pro releases a scripture. His
Speaker 1: father is very active on social which I didn't know this,
Speaker 1: and he said when the heavens open, our family listens.
Speaker 1: And I was told Keano told the youth coaches, God wants.
Speaker 2: Me in provo.
Speaker 1: What do you say to that? You know, like what
Speaker 1: I'm not saying.
Speaker 2: He's using it as a smoke screen.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is the unique dynamic with Brigham
Speaker 1: Young in Utah and the religious like undertones of the
Speaker 1: football rivalry. But there are a lot of things like, oh,
Speaker 1: what's the what's the number. Okay, help us, we can
Speaker 1: maybe meet this with nil. Okay, what are they promising you? Okay,
Speaker 1: we can send you the NFL as well. But when
Speaker 1: someone says like this is God's will, what do you do?
Speaker 1: You give him a high five and say there's nothing.
Speaker 2: You can really say to it.
Speaker 9: No, I mean, you know, look Kyle Whittingham, former BYU player,
Speaker 9: so you know he understands probably better than the three
Speaker 9: of us. Gordo, you'll understand it better than I do.
Speaker 9: I'm the outsider here growing up in the Midwest, and
Speaker 9: I'm were coming here in eighty five trying to figure out. Wow,
Speaker 9: I didn't wow the BYU Utah rivalry. Man, This is
Speaker 9: a little odd, but interesting but intense. Yeah, this one's interesting.
Speaker 9: There's not much you can't say, Spence, I don't think.
Speaker 3: I would say this about that.
Speaker 8: Everyone has to make their own mind up about what's
Speaker 8: most important for them. But you can find God at
Speaker 8: Utah just as well as you can at BYU. I
Speaker 8: mean it's not as much out there and straight in
Speaker 8: your face, but the largest LDS institute in the world
Speaker 8: is sitting up on the hill on Utah's campus. So
Speaker 8: I mean you can find that if that's what you're
Speaker 8: looking for. Typically, when I hear that, I think, okay,
Speaker 8: there are other factors as well. There's something going on here.
Speaker 8: And I'm not discounting him his feeling religiously at BYU
Speaker 8: whatever if I'm not saying he doesn't feel that, but
Speaker 8: there are other things as well.
Speaker 3: And he talked about the coaching.
Speaker 8: I mean, he said that coaches at b YU would
Speaker 8: love him even if he sucked. Use those words, but
Speaker 8: he essentially the only thing that does that mean that
Speaker 8: Kyle would have been all over what. I don't know
Speaker 8: what that means, but it spoke to him personally. Whether
Speaker 8: God spoke to him, I don't know, but you know,
Speaker 8: you got to follow your own heart, and if.
Speaker 3: That's what this heart's telling them, then go do it.
Speaker 9: The only other thing that comes into play for me, guys,
Speaker 9: is that if there's other situations at at hand at
Speaker 9: both schools that impacts those decisions. What I mean by
Speaker 9: that is the future of Utah football quit.
Speaker 2: And the link to time.
Speaker 9: He stays that he knows more than than others and
Speaker 9: that the feel good feeling is gone and BYU's on
Speaker 9: the upswing, and you know, this is the time but
Speaker 9: I'm with you. If you're if you feel like that,
Speaker 9: the heavens, as his dad said, has opened and spoken.
Speaker 2: What do you say to that? I mean it's like,
Speaker 2: go with your heart. I guess right.
Speaker 9: And this bo we're living today is the portal, the
Speaker 9: nil money, all those things are the trickle down effects
Speaker 9: as well. Who knows? And you know what, it's hard
Speaker 9: to I guess counter that with other you know, like, oh,
Speaker 9: was it cash only?
Speaker 2: Was it you know? The is it playing opportunity?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 2: You know? What? What could it be?
Speaker 9: But if the young man says it's you know, that's
Speaker 9: what the good man wants, then so be it and
Speaker 9: shake his hand and say good luck.
Speaker 3: Do you think God cares?
Speaker 2: That's here we go, buddy, here we go.
Speaker 9: This has been a question that I get asked constantly
Speaker 9: because it's very in the forefront of sports today interviews
Speaker 9: after games. Yes, intriguing, yes, yes, And I wonder I
Speaker 9: don't know how that really sets or settles in with
Speaker 9: most fans who watch football because it's a violent ass game.
Speaker 2: Man. But then at the same.
Speaker 9: Time you turn and praise your heavenly father for the victory.
Speaker 9: So what does he think about it? And this is
Speaker 9: what I was gonna So he didn't like the the opponent.
Speaker 9: That's always the counter to this. I think it's it's
Speaker 9: tough to intertwine it. You know, Tim Tebow really came out, remember,
Speaker 9: and was on the forefront of that as well. I
Speaker 9: think he had underneath his own his eye wasn't the
Speaker 9: sticker was the psalms and it was.
Speaker 2: John?
Speaker 7: Was it?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Psalms? John? Yes.
Speaker 9: But I think it's really interesting to see how people
Speaker 9: react to that. And it's more of a it's it's
Speaker 9: much more now happening in collegiate athletics. Not as much
Speaker 9: I see in pros but on occasion, but a lot
Speaker 9: now in postgame comments, and I guess even on Sunday
Speaker 9: and Monday Night football, same type of thing.
Speaker 8: I always thought that when Tebow went into the end
Speaker 8: zone and took a knee instead of prayer. I look,
Speaker 8: I'm a religious person, try to be, but that to
Speaker 8: me is the greatest form of smack talk that you
Speaker 8: can do, because you're essentially proclaiming to God, thank you
Speaker 8: for blessing me over the schmuck.
Speaker 9: I just beat in the insiet. Yeah, And I don't
Speaker 9: like it's a tightrope to walk.
Speaker 3: I prefer to have it separate, not because I don't think.
Speaker 3: I think God.
Speaker 8: If you believe in God, okay, and God can bless
Speaker 8: your life. He wants you to live a happy, productive life,
Speaker 8: but he doesn't necessarily favor you over the guy you
Speaker 8: just beat.
Speaker 9: Now that's a great topic of conversation, and Spence, I
Speaker 9: got to applaud you.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 9: This show in one hour's time really goes back to Napoleon,
Speaker 9: Dynamite and frozen tater tots and all the way to take. Man,
Speaker 9: think about that where we covered this today. Man, it's
Speaker 9: the world of sport.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 9: I think the lesson for me is it's all encompassing
Speaker 9: of us of life. It is we live for sport, competition,
Speaker 9: for the gladiators that we watch on the field at
Speaker 9: certain times and then praise them or they praise their God.
Speaker 9: It's it's fascinating to me, and it's it's it is.
Speaker 2: What it is. If you want to hear it as
Speaker 2: you like I guess, as a as a as a consumer.
Speaker 8: If you want to hear a good speech on this,
Speaker 8: listen to Steve Young. He's got some great deep thoughts
Speaker 8: on the value of sports and the relationship with what
Speaker 8: we're talking about here, and he talks about Ronnie Lott
Speaker 8: in the lessons he taught Steve about the importance of
Speaker 8: what you're doing in the middle of competition, but not
Speaker 8: necessarily that I'm a winner and you're a loser. That's
Speaker 8: not the labeling that any kind of power up above
Speaker 8: would it would have in mind, but that's the way
Speaker 8: it's portrayed sometimes.
Speaker 3: And you want to end the show is saying praise Jesus.
Speaker 9: Taking aid before the game tonight. Now you know, I
Speaker 9: I'm it's personal for me, but I I feel very connected,
Speaker 9: but I just don't use that verbally in public. And
Speaker 9: again that's something that again is a personal decision to
Speaker 9: do and I try to respect that. But at the
Speaker 9: same time I get pushed back from fans who says
Speaker 9: that's a great thing, or I that does not jive
Speaker 9: with the way that I live my life. You can
Speaker 9: buy a Trump Bible so and sneakers. Yeah, but you
Speaker 9: know that's where we are today. This is again as
Speaker 9: a microcosm of where we are in society today, very
Speaker 9: split on so many issues, and for us to come
Speaker 9: together and just talk about it's a good thing. And
Speaker 9: then you make your own decision and if you want
Speaker 9: to get mad at Gorda Orrye or Spen's fine. But
Speaker 9: you know, everyone has an opinion about it, but it's
Speaker 9: right there for us all to consume and see. Do
Speaker 9: you agree with everything?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: But how do you accept it? I think is probably
Speaker 2: the biggest challenge.
Speaker 1: And certainly faith faith is an individual thing, and I'm
Speaker 1: not judging anybody for the way they decide to, you know,
Speaker 1: express their faith. But sometimes when it's laid on super
Speaker 1: thick with the outcomes of games, I'm like, does God
Speaker 1: have like a fourteen parlay that he needs one to hit?
Speaker 6: You?
Speaker 1: Like, does he pulling up his draft kings app like,
Speaker 1: oh I need Penn State to win? And I like
Speaker 1: the way it's laid on sometimes is just like I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's a little weird.
Speaker 9: But you know what that comment right there that makes
Speaker 9: me laugh, man, Yeah, a fourteen parlay going tonight?
Speaker 3: You mean that God is in a Notre Dame.
Speaker 9: Season to Notre Dame tonight, Notre Dame, Penn State, Gattle
Speaker 9: States d By the way, it's pretty good. Well, thanks
Speaker 9: for humoring me and leaning in a different direction to
Speaker 9: come Onotato puffs, get some puffs.
Speaker 2: I got a microwave down here. Let's roll.
Speaker 1: I always prefer it in studio. Great to see you guys.
Speaker 1: By the way, Jazz, no, no, no, not Jazz. We
Speaker 1: are sitting next to you. The three time Utah Sports
Speaker 1: Broadcaster of the Year, Craig. Congratulations and while we're in space,
Speaker 1: real quick shout out to clearly the best sports rider
Speaker 1: in the market, Sarah Todd for winning her award.
Speaker 8: Is first of all, this way, uh that award. If
Speaker 8: that award was properly done, bowler would have won.
Speaker 2: Okay, kind of you, my friend. You know what, I've
Speaker 2: worked with some great people and.
Speaker 9: You know, Trav I got JB and Joe and Stoke
Speaker 9: and everybody I got to I've got great support the
Speaker 9: Jazz have some great people that I work with and
Speaker 9: I'm blessed.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Have a great call. It's going to happen.
Speaker 1: It's the Bowler every year. In my opinion, it's going
Speaker 1: to happen.
Speaker 2: Spence. Great to see you guys, have a great call tonight. Okay,
Speaker 2: appreciate you.
Speaker 1: You can hear the CFP semi final at the Capitol
Speaker 1: One Orange Bowl. Let's give the sponsor a shout out
Speaker 1: tonight following the Craig Smith Coaches Show, Notre Dame, Penn
Speaker 1: State and our next guest, I have to imagine is
Speaker 1: excited for it tonight's festivities, Uncle Ted, as he's gone
Speaker 1: around these parts, the Great Ted Robinson on a Thursday. Ted,
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, sir, how are you?
Speaker 7: It's great to be back with you. Happy New Year?
Speaker 7: And yeah, I mean it's it's nice to see and look,
Speaker 7: Penn State is a terrific school itself, so and I
Speaker 7: think many of us, I guess you probably are not
Speaker 7: surprisday we say this, are very happy that the SEC
Speaker 7: is not of office. Texas is not the SEC, even
Speaker 7: though they're taking the money from us. It's been good
Speaker 7: and you know what, the games last week actually ended
Speaker 7: up being pretty good, and I was happy for that
Speaker 7: because we all know the first week that Friday Saturday
Speaker 7: was not good.
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. And you know, I do want to
Speaker 1: get to some Macro takeaways. But since you are a
Speaker 1: proud Notre Dame alum, I wanted to have you on
Speaker 1: today to talk about what exactly would it mean for
Speaker 1: this institution and folks such as yourself did care about it.
Speaker 1: If Notre Dame is not only able to win tonight,
Speaker 1: but go in their first national championship since what nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight?
Speaker 7: Wow, well, yeah, it would mean It would mean a
Speaker 7: ton And I will always proclaim that Notre Dame won
Speaker 7: the national championship in nineteen ninety three since the peat
Speaker 7: fle are to stay head to head in November and
Speaker 7: the two schools ended up with the same record. But
Speaker 7: back then there was not a whole lot of love
Speaker 7: for the Holtz and Bobby Bowden was beloved by the media,
Speaker 7: had never won the national championship and so they gave
Speaker 7: it to him. And that's just the way it is.
Speaker 7: And that's why, you know, it's one of the many
Speaker 7: reasons why we eventually got to various forms of playoffs
Speaker 7: is because that was just ridiculous. I mean, the two
Speaker 7: teams met head to head in November, not a week zero,
Speaker 7: and Notre Dame beat them and you end up with
Speaker 7: the same record. That usually means the tie break, right,
Speaker 7: but that didn't happen Idea anyway, What it would mean
Speaker 7: in the present day would be a lot. It would
Speaker 7: be confirmation for Marcus Freeman. I'm very open with the
Speaker 7: fact that I met Marcus Freeman once I met him
Speaker 7: last year when Notre Dame played at Stanford the final
Speaker 7: Pack twelve Network football game. Very impressive. I'm thrilled for
Speaker 7: the university because it was way too long to have
Speaker 7: diversity in our coaching ranks. Being the prim and Catholic
Speaker 7: university in the world, that should be something is important
Speaker 7: to us, and we didn't practice it enough in my
Speaker 7: view until recently. And Marcus Freeman even now has gotten
Speaker 7: heat from alums because of some of the losses Notre
Speaker 7: Dame's had in this three years, including Northern Illinois this year,
Speaker 7: and I'm thrilled for the results because it just silenced
Speaker 7: all of that. Admittedly, Notre Dame didn't have the toughest
Speaker 7: schedule this year because the ACC wasn't great. USC was
Speaker 7: not great, so it wasn't it wasn't the gauntlet that
Speaker 7: some of the SEC teams have to face. Let's let's
Speaker 7: be clear on that. But Notre Dame handled their business
Speaker 7: and they handled it pretty well.
Speaker 1: So James Franklin with some comments about his belief that
Speaker 1: every school should have a you know, should be in
Speaker 1: a conference, and Notre Dame has always been the one institution,
Speaker 1: the one brand that's been able to make this model work.
Speaker 1: And if they win the national championship, I think the
Speaker 1: check is twenty twenty one million, which goes to Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: They don't have to split it to the winner, goes
Speaker 1: to Spoil. So help us understand a little bit more
Speaker 1: as to why the independent dynamic is so important to
Speaker 1: the lifeblood of not just the football program, but the
Speaker 1: institution that is Notre Dame.
Speaker 7: Okay, yeah, I don't know what. I didn't I'm not
Speaker 7: familiar with James Franklin's comment there. I don't understand it,
Speaker 7: as you related. I don't know what. First of all,
Speaker 7: none of his business. And secondly, I don't know why
Speaker 7: is there a constitutional mandate here that every school has
Speaker 7: to be a part of something that doesn't seem to
Speaker 7: make a whole lot of sense. But anyway, having said that,
Speaker 7: let's let me say two things. One, Notre Dame is
Speaker 7: really part of the conference. They are in the ACC
Speaker 7: for every sport except hockey. Because the ACC doesn't play hockey.
Speaker 7: Notre Dame actually plays in the Big Ten, believe it
Speaker 7: or not, hockey conference. They're in the ACC for every
Speaker 7: other sport and they play between four and five ACC
Speaker 7: games a year. That also means that when the ACC
Speaker 7: school plays at Notre Dame, that school has taken home
Speaker 7: a pretty nice TV paycheck as a visiting team on
Speaker 7: a national NBC telecast. So the one, or i should say,
Speaker 7: the two elements that the independence means for Notre Dame,
Speaker 7: and it's only two, is the TV the home television
Speaker 7: contract only the home games. And secondly, it's scheduling. It
Speaker 7: enables Notre Dame to schedule probably half a dozen games
Speaker 7: a year, including what they termed the Shamrocks Series, which
Speaker 7: means it's a neutral site game, usually in a big
Speaker 7: market in the country that has a lot of Notre
Speaker 7: Dame alums, and Notre Dame schedule is one of those
Speaker 7: every year. That's the extent of their independence. So my
Speaker 7: point to you is it's vastly overrated. I'm also my
Speaker 7: second point would be, this was back in the late nineties,
Speaker 7: probably Jim Delaney opened the door for Notre Dame to
Speaker 7: join the Big Ten as the twelfth member within the
Speaker 7: Notre Dame world. I thought it was a great idea.
Speaker 7: I thought we belonged to the Big Ten for all
Speaker 7: of our sports. Women's sports were just growing, we were
Speaker 7: starting to develop Olympic sports, and to be in the
Speaker 7: Big Ten just made a ton of sense. For all
Speaker 7: the apparent reasons. The Notre Dame faculty largely wanted that association.
Speaker 7: Most of the Big Ten schools, not the new Big Ten,
Speaker 7: but the original Big Ten schools. Most of them are
Speaker 7: excellent academic schools. They're large state universities with good library systems,
Speaker 7: with good research programs, with medical schools, and Notre Dame's
Speaker 7: faculty wanted that association. At the end of the day,
Speaker 7: football independence won out, and that's how powerful it is
Speaker 7: in the Notre Ame world. That was the only reason
Speaker 7: Notre Dame turned down the Big Ten membership. That has
Speaker 7: never come back, although I suspect it will someday because
Speaker 7: I think it's known the Big Ten has clauses in
Speaker 7: their TV deals that would reflect adding Notre Dame that
Speaker 7: would have a lot more money. So I'm assuming that
Speaker 7: somewhere down the line that opening will come up again
Speaker 7: for Notre Dame. I don't know how long it'll take,
Speaker 7: but I hope that Notre Dame join. Well, the Big
Speaker 7: Ten isn't the Big Ten anymore, so I have to
Speaker 7: revise that thought. But I've always thought the Big Ten,
Speaker 7: the core Big ten, was a great place for Notre
Speaker 7: Dame to be.
Speaker 2: Well, excuse me.
Speaker 1: We could talk about what the Big ten is right now,
Speaker 1: but we would probably have to recalibrate not too long
Speaker 1: after because everything continues to change and ebb and flow,
Speaker 1: Which allows me to transition into more of a macro
Speaker 1: question because I keep using this line over the past
Speaker 1: few weeks, ted where I've just leaned into from a
Speaker 1: sports radio approach, diagnosing and not prognosticating, because we're all
Speaker 1: learning this as we go. It's a new format, it's
Speaker 1: a new sports as far as your ability to talent
Speaker 1: off the field with a transfer portal and the and
Speaker 1: the nil situation, And of course it's a twelve team
Speaker 1: expanded CFP, and all the conferences look much different than
Speaker 1: they did a year ago. Most of them do, as
Speaker 1: far as you know, conferences adding teams several of the
Speaker 1: teams that you and I are familiar with as the
Speaker 1: Pac twelve crumbled. But since I haven't had a chance
Speaker 1: to catch up with you for a while, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about the current state of college football, the
Speaker 1: sport that we all love to consume.
Speaker 7: Wow, that's a wide open Palette there Spence, So you know,
Speaker 7: I'll let me personalize this to my experience this football season.
Speaker 7: So the Pac twelve still existed in the form of
Speaker 7: two schools. As everyone knows, those two schools did a
Speaker 7: television deal with the CW network, which is an over
Speaker 7: the air network has an outlet and I think just
Speaker 7: about every significant market in America. So the Washington State
Speaker 7: and Oregon State home games were aired all on the
Speaker 7: CW this year. I was part of that package. The
Speaker 7: season began with a lot of hope for Oregon State,
Speaker 7: it quickly pivoted to Washington State, and I ended up
Speaker 7: doing five Washington State games. So being around the Cougar
Speaker 7: program a lot this year was the collision of where
Speaker 7: I think college sports are right now. It was an
Speaker 7: incredibly uplifting season for them. I am a huge fan
Speaker 7: of their head coach. I think Jake Dickard is terrific
Speaker 7: and he's meant to be a coach and he's only
Speaker 7: forty one years old. The quarterback story having cam Ward
Speaker 7: had this huge build up in the twenty three season
Speaker 7: and then basically fall flat and the Cougar's collapsed at
Speaker 7: the end of the year. Cam Ward collapsed and then
Speaker 7: he ended up getting a million plus to go to Miami,
Speaker 7: which you saw what happened this year. So what's Washington
Speaker 7: stay going to do a quarterback? Well, they had a
Speaker 7: kid from Texas who was under recruited. He had been
Speaker 7: there for a couple of years and it's his turn.
Speaker 7: And John Matteer made himself into a player that I
Speaker 7: actually put on my Heisman ballot this year, that's how
Speaker 7: good he was. The team sat, their defense was not good,
Speaker 7: and they collapsed in the last three games and took
Speaker 7: themselves out of you know, they were on the fringe
Speaker 7: of the playoff conversation and would say no more than that,
Speaker 7: but just being there was a miracle, and sadly they
Speaker 7: fell out the last three games. What happens, John Mattier
Speaker 7: goes to Oklahoma. Rumors are three million offensive coordinator goes
Speaker 7: to Oklahoma. And then Jake Dicker turns around and and
Speaker 7: I would have even stunned me, takes the job at
Speaker 7: Wake Forest. So this incredibly wonderful, uplifting story for the
Speaker 7: school that got left behind, the school that's got in
Speaker 7: the prairies, you know, doesn't have wealthy roles of alums.
Speaker 7: You know, a lot of individuals who succeeded in farming
Speaker 7: an bag and business, but they chip in to a
Speaker 7: collective and they have this wonderful season, and the program
Speaker 7: survives the first year of this anarchy, and then suddenly
Speaker 7: it collapses within a couple of days. So I'm uplifted,
Speaker 7: and then I'm really dismayed because that's the point, and
Speaker 7: it's very obvious for everyone to see, is that the
Speaker 7: Washington States right now and the Oregon States and other
Speaker 7: programs around the country are just farm teams. And until
Speaker 7: there's some order in all of this, and no one
Speaker 7: knows how that's going to happen, but until there is,
Speaker 7: this is this is the case. So to your question
Speaker 7: that I hope that explains this internal collision I've experienced.
Speaker 7: I'm so happy to be part of that Washington State
Speaker 7: football season. And then at the end, you go, man,
Speaker 7: that's just a drag that really stinks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, from that vantage point for sure, And there's nothing
Speaker 1: really to debate there because you're not wrong, and you know,
Speaker 1: from a local standpoint, Ted, it's interesting to see where
Speaker 1: Utah football finds themselves because, as you know, covering the
Speaker 1: program as part of the Paxweld Network. Coach Witt has
Speaker 1: built Utah football on the ethos of recruit and develop.
Speaker 1: That's how they do it. And they don't necessarily rely
Speaker 1: on number of four and five star guys. Go find
Speaker 1: Utah guys and then they bring them on campus and
Speaker 1: over the course of a number of years they basically
Speaker 1: indoctrinate them into the Kyle Whittingham way. His saying is,
Speaker 1: we will not become you, you will become us. In
Speaker 1: the most successful seasons in Utah football history have been
Speaker 1: with third, fourth, fifth year players that sign on the
Speaker 1: dotted line, often overlooked from other schools, came in and
Speaker 1: learned the Kyle way, put in the work, and you know,
Speaker 1: at times it paid off with conference championships and Rose
Speaker 1: Bowl appearances. Can you build a football program in the
Speaker 1: modern day and age of college football with the ethos
Speaker 1: of recruit and develop over time anymore?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Hard?
Speaker 7: I mean, my initial answer is that Spence is really hard.
Speaker 7: I hope somebody does it. You know, it's I'm trying
Speaker 7: to think of an example right now. I mean, it's
Speaker 7: it's it's I mean, we're sitting here waiting tomorrow night
Speaker 7: to watch Texas play and here's Texas having its best
Speaker 7: football season in a long time, and everyone's talking about
Speaker 7: should the quarterback come back to Texas next year or
Speaker 7: should he get a huge nil deal to go to
Speaker 7: another school which would likely pay more than he would
Speaker 7: make in his first NFL season. I mean, that's what
Speaker 7: that that. I'm sorry, that's just lunacy when you think
Speaker 7: of what that means. But it is where the world is,
Speaker 7: and so I would Sugg. I would take this. Maybe
Speaker 7: if I can spend a background on that question, Spence,
Speaker 7: here's my concern, having raised kids and now raising grandkids,
Speaker 7: it's it's extremely wise to respect the fact that players
Speaker 7: athletes now in the top college sports can earn there.
Speaker 7: And I have no objection to that. I don't know
Speaker 7: that any smart minded person has an objection to that.
Speaker 7: The way it's done, maybe that's where we would start
Speaker 7: to have some some difference of opinion. And what I
Speaker 7: feel very strongly about is I fear that this generation,
Speaker 7: represented by these eighteen to twenty five year olds and
Speaker 7: damn near thirty year olds now in some cases playing
Speaker 7: college athletics, are being are being raised, and are living
Speaker 7: through an experience completely devoid of character, character, commitment when
Speaker 7: a quarterback quits in the middle of the season. How
Speaker 7: many times did we see that top level college football
Speaker 7: this year where quarterback just quit the quarterback of a
Speaker 7: football team. Is there any more leadership demanded position in
Speaker 7: sport and quarterback and football? And you had several guys
Speaker 7: just quit in the middle of the season on their team,
Speaker 7: and you reference the Kyle phrase with the word US,
Speaker 7: and I'm very fearful from what I see in football
Speaker 7: and men's basketball, there's no US. It's me MEI me me.
Speaker 7: And so the the concept of an athlete being able
Speaker 7: to be compensated when everybody else around them is fine,
Speaker 7: we get that. To do it without character is really
Speaker 7: I mean, that's long term ramifications for us, way beyond sport.
Speaker 1: Well said, we'll end with because I know you got
Speaker 1: to go. We'll end with your thoughts on because the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is, you know, we can belly
Speaker 1: ache about the state of the sport and then you
Speaker 1: just look at the ratings and the numbers, and people
Speaker 1: are consuming it at a historic level. And it happens
Speaker 1: to be a multi billion dollar business with a failed
Speaker 1: business model, which makes it probably very appealing to folks
Speaker 1: in the private equity world, and it does feel like
Speaker 1: we are in this like neoliberal capitalism type takeover of
Speaker 1: college athletes. On the horizon out it feels like very powerful,
Speaker 1: rich people are going to start to buy potentially college
Speaker 1: football programs. A lot of rumors already circulating. But that
Speaker 1: thing is, you know, going to happen, and it is inevitable.
Speaker 1: Is there part of you that is hopeful that at
Speaker 1: some point the business model of college football can be
Speaker 1: fixed to the level where most of the problems that
Speaker 1: are plaguing the sport can go away and we can
Speaker 1: all kind of sit and enjoy whatever the final paradigm
Speaker 1: shift is with this sport.
Speaker 7: Whenever that happens, Yes, Ben, I think I think the
Speaker 7: business model is in place. I don't think it will change.
Speaker 7: I mean unless somebody else gets a case of the
Speaker 7: Supreme Court and the Supreme Court has another, you know,
Speaker 7: Judge Kavanaugh life decision that reverses things. I think We're
Speaker 7: way gone. It's professional nothing. There's nothing college about the
Speaker 7: top anymore. It's professional. So now, to me, the question
Speaker 7: is how in the name of goodness do we get structured?
Speaker 7: And I listen to smart people who believe now with
Speaker 7: the results of the election, that there's a much better
Speaker 7: chance that Congress will get involved and help orchestrate some guardrails,
Speaker 7: build some guard rails because the universities clearly are there
Speaker 7: is no NCAA anymore, and the universities don't because they're
Speaker 7: all involved in self interest. There's no collective concern to
Speaker 7: build those guardrails. So I believe that that's the ultimate
Speaker 7: answer here, is that the business models in place, but
Speaker 7: let's make it so it's just like the pros, where
Speaker 7: everybody can make money in the pros, but there's a
Speaker 7: way you do it. There's a structure because and you say,
Speaker 7: why do I have to have structure, because you sell tickets.
Speaker 7: You're a competitive enterprise. And if we don't have competition,
Speaker 7: then we have wrestling, which is performance. And that's fine.
Speaker 7: If you want to call performance art, that's great. That's
Speaker 7: what wrestling is. And wrestling no longer tries to hide it.
Speaker 7: I think sport doesn't want that. And if you want
Speaker 7: to make sure that we have a competitive enterprise, and
Speaker 7: there has to be structure, which the NFL, of course
Speaker 7: is the gold standard to make sure they're all thirty
Speaker 7: two of their members every year have a chance. So
Speaker 7: I strongly feel that where this thing has to happen.
Speaker 7: And again I'm not smart enough to know, but here's
Speaker 7: let me throw one other thing that you spent because
Speaker 7: we haven't talked for a while, and I'll just finish
Speaker 7: with this. And I thought a lot about this during
Speaker 7: the year, my belief that we're going to have a
Speaker 7: Super League and it could be anywhere forty to fifty
Speaker 7: teams anymore, and I've started to realize I think we
Speaker 7: already had it. And if you look at the SEC Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Florida,
Speaker 7: now Texas, that's maybe very equivalent to the forty nine Ers, Bears, Giants, Cowboys,
Speaker 7: Eagles of the NFC. The SEC's owned by a network,
Speaker 7: ESPN owns them, the NFC is owned by a network Fox.
Speaker 7: Then you look at the Big ten and wait a second.
Speaker 7: We have Michigan, Ohio, State, Penn State, USD, now Oregon
Speaker 7: is pushing its way into trying to be that national brand.
Speaker 7: And you can say, well, that's kind of like having
Speaker 7: the Steelers and the Patriots and the Raiders and the
Speaker 7: Broncos and the Chiefs and the ASC is owned by
Speaker 7: a network CBS and Fox, owns the Big Ten? They
Speaker 7: own it. Okay, what's to stop the ESPN and Fox
Speaker 7: and their respective conferences that they owned from just saying, listen,
Speaker 7: each of our leagues, we're just going to play off
Speaker 7: and have a champ. We'll have our Big Ten champ
Speaker 7: and our SEC champ and then we're just going to
Speaker 7: play a super Bowl. The heck with his twelve teams?
Speaker 7: Why are we sharing with Boise State and Notre Dame
Speaker 7: and Pence Pens in the Big Ten? But Arizona State,
Speaker 7: why are we sharing with them? We'll just do our
Speaker 7: own super bowl, college Bowl, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 7: I think that's maybe a more realistic end game, and
Speaker 7: that would achieve the breakaway of the schools that are
Speaker 7: already professional, and it would leave the Florida States and
Speaker 7: the Clemson's and the Notre Dames, and you probably a
Speaker 7: couple of other schools that want to think they're in
Speaker 7: that category just get Oh wait a second, what about us?
Speaker 7: Can't leave us behind?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know, Ted, when we have more time, you and
Speaker 1: I are just going to fix college football in the world,
Speaker 1: my friends, But I know you have to run. It's
Speaker 1: always a pleasure, I hope you're well, and anytime you
Speaker 1: have time, you know, we have time for you here.
Speaker 2: Okay, No, and it goes the.
Speaker 7: Same way, Spenson. I'll enjoy talking to you and say
Speaker 7: hi everybody. I missed coming to see live. I saw
Speaker 7: Colin in the spring Mills, I missed football Visuer, and
Speaker 7: I miss seeing Craig and basketball. So hopefully I'll get
Speaker 7: back soon.
Speaker 1: For sure, we'll be pulling for the Irish tonight.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, good, thanks, all right?
Speaker 1: Great Ted Robinson Notre dame alum. He is a broadcasting legend.
Speaker 1: He has done everything Olympics, golf, tennis, basketball, football. Was
Speaker 1: the first voice hired by the Pac twelve and obviously
Speaker 1: you know PAC twelve didn't last sadly, all right, final
Speaker 1: segment of the program this Thursday afternoon. Coming up next
Speaker 1: it is the Craig Smith Coaches Show, Bill Riley Craig
Speaker 1: Smith live at Slackwater and saw Lake City. The Utes
Speaker 1: basketball team on the men's side, they've lost four straight games,
Speaker 1: they have been run off the floor, and they're first
Speaker 1: three Big twelve games. But they do welcome in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: State coming up on Saturday. And certainly on paper, this
Speaker 1: appears to be Utah's best chance to get their first
Speaker 1: Big twelve win. As we've talked about this week, if
Speaker 1: you have time and the ability and the budget, you
Speaker 1: should head and support this basketball team. They could certainly
Speaker 1: use it. Oklahoma State, after getting really housed over their
Speaker 1: first couple of Big twelve games, they did beat k
Speaker 1: State at home a couple of nights ago, seventy nine
Speaker 1: to sixty six. So we'll see what Craig has to
Speaker 1: say about the current state of the team. You tell women.
Speaker 1: Surprisingly enough, they got smoked pretty good by k State,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna take on a good Houston team coming
Speaker 1: up on Saturday as well. All right, Porter, here's where
Speaker 1: I'm at. Notre Dame twenty four Penn State twenty ooh.
Speaker 1: I'm taking the fighting Irish. I think it's a low
Speaker 1: ish scoring game that hits about where the over under is.
Speaker 1: So I'm taking Notre Dame twenty four Penn State. What's
Speaker 1: your head tell you about this game?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm I mean, I'm close there with you. I
Speaker 4: think it's gonna be a one possession game. I think
Speaker 4: this is one of the better matchups, maybe just stylistically,
Speaker 4: that we've seen in the college football playoff, and I
Speaker 4: think it'll be an entertaining game. I've gone back and forth. Obviously,
Speaker 4: the line has too, so that kind of tells you
Speaker 4: where we are at and where everyone thinks this game
Speaker 4: is at. There's a lot of players on that Penn
Speaker 4: State roster that are still there from when I covered
Speaker 4: them at the Rose Bowl, right, and I just have
Speaker 4: this feeling that they are It's a long time coming
Speaker 4: for those guys, right, and I think James Franklin has
Speaker 4: them dialed in and ready to go. I think they
Speaker 4: are the better team by a small margin, but Notre
Speaker 4: Dame's been playing better football. So I've really gone back
Speaker 4: and forth on this one for the sake of the show.
Speaker 4: Even though I'm wavering so hard, I'm going to do
Speaker 4: the exact opposite, is you. I'm gonna say twenty four
Speaker 4: to twenty for the Nitney Lions.
Speaker 1: Loser has to audition for season of Yellowstone Deal already
Speaker 1: you've already done that, though.
Speaker 2: I think they're done right.
Speaker 1: Well, I think they're giving the daughter spinoffs now, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they're doing them some spinoffs because the daughter
Speaker 1: married like the big rancher dude I forget his name
Speaker 1: and rip, Yes, yes, and I think they're getting their
Speaker 1: own show.
Speaker 2: Okay, I believe good for them. I'm gonna look that
Speaker 2: up real quick.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So Beth Dutton Kevin Costner's daughter, John Dutton's daughter
Speaker 1: who likes vodka and ice cream for breakfast and cigarettes.
Speaker 2: It's a real thing.
Speaker 1: Married Rip Wheeler played by Cole Hauser, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: is a phenomenal actor. He's a really good actor. Hilarity ensues,
Speaker 1: drama ensues. She's quite a handful. He's a cool character.
Speaker 1: And I believe they're getting their own show. So the
Speaker 1: loser has to look into it and then go audition
Speaker 1: for that show.
Speaker 2: I wish them well.
Speaker 1: I look good in a cowboy hat man.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 1: I can cosplay a cowboys. I've ridden a horse before. Really,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I've never been bucked off one like you,
Speaker 1: but I've I've ridden.
Speaker 2: Sounds fun. We should We should get out there.
Speaker 1: I know how to get it to trot there we go,
Speaker 1: just kick it the spur, all right, All right, porter,
Speaker 1: let's get out of here. We got a Friday show
Speaker 1: coming up on the other side though, it's the Craig
Speaker 1: Smith Coaches Show.
Speaker 2: Then we're gonna throw it over.
Speaker 1: To Penn State and No Tre Dame with Dave Passion,
Speaker 1: Roddy Jones, how are we getting in our listeners? Weekend
Speaker 1: started out the right way.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow Yogi rob On a Friday, of course, talking some
Speaker 4: college football, some CFP. We'll do some MBA with our
Speaker 4: friend Howard Beck, as we do each and every Friday.
Speaker 4: We'll double it up on the college football side. Max
Speaker 4: Chadwick of Pro Football Focus in the PFF College Football
Speaker 4: Show stops by the program and on apparently sentencing day,
Speaker 4: JL Covan and the former and next President of the
Speaker 4: United States.
Speaker 1: Okay, very nice. If you don't know jol shtick, he
Speaker 1: is a jazz fan who is a lawyer and a
Speaker 1: stand up comic from Jersey and I have him on
Speaker 1: a cup of times a year to talk about the
Speaker 1: Utah jazz in his Donald Trump voice. It is very funny.
Speaker 1: Don't get offended. It's called comedy. That'll be a good
Speaker 1: Friday show and we'll say goodnight.
Speaker 2: It special.
Speaker 1: Thank you to Tony Jones, Craig Bowler, Jack Gordon Monson,
Speaker 1: and Ted Robinson Brady of the sound. You may have
Speaker 1: missed from the show today, head to the website it's
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred sports dot Com. Download our mobile app,
Speaker 1: take us on the GOP's ESPN seven hundred app that's
Speaker 1: available in the App Store of the Google play Store. Then, finally,
Speaker 1: for what we do in our space four hours every day,
Speaker 1: check out our podcast page. It's called The Drive with Spence.
Speaker 1: Check it's available wherever you get your shows. Reporter, I'm
Speaker 1: Spence Sagadnight you've been tuned in to the Drive on
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM. Proud to be
Speaker 1: a part of utah's ESPN Radio network.