Speaker 1: We have some clouds coming in, maybe a little storm situation,
Speaker 1: and it's fall. Technically we're there, so the weather's going
Speaker 1: to start to cool down a little bit. But joining
Speaker 1: me now live in studio for an entire hour.
Speaker 2: Man, my guy.
Speaker 1: We've worked together in one way or another for like
Speaker 1: fifteen years.
Speaker 2: TP.
Speaker 1: Tony Parks the voice of the Bees. What's up, buddy,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm on the wrong.
Speaker 2: No, you're good.
Speaker 1: So you'll respect this as somebody who literally has done
Speaker 1: everything in radio.
Speaker 2: You can talk about the jazz or take the trash out.
Speaker 2: That's what's great about you.
Speaker 1: We've got a new board here and we've got a
Speaker 1: new setup in studio, so we're still trying to traverse
Speaker 1: that space. So Porter asked to actually turn your mic on.
Speaker 1: This will terrify you. I cannot turn my mic on
Speaker 1: or off. And we don't have a dump button every
Speaker 1: day for four hours. I'm like, don't don't don't say
Speaker 1: that one. Hey there pops in your head again, don't know,
Speaker 1: can't say that one.
Speaker 2: So I take it. Britton Johnson will not be in
Speaker 2: studio foroff. I love that, man.
Speaker 1: Do you need a dump button with Britton Johnson along
Speaker 1: for the Ride, longtime co host on Jazz Perff post how.
Speaker 2: You been, Manthe's good. I've been so good, man. I
Speaker 2: love it. Man. Every day I get to wake up
Speaker 2: and I go to a baseball game. And today we
Speaker 2: don't have a game, but we traveled in last night,
Speaker 2: so my wife and our newborn daughter were there at
Speaker 2: home here in Salt Lake, at our place here, and
Speaker 2: got up today and had a great morning with her.
Speaker 2: And you know, there is nothing like it. I wake
Speaker 2: up and I have an infant who makes fun little
Speaker 2: noises and squeals, and she just loves her puppy, and
Speaker 2: she loves her life and she can't wait to see
Speaker 2: what's coming up every day. And then after that, I
Speaker 2: go to a baseball game and I get to be
Speaker 2: around great people and I love the team that I
Speaker 2: work with. I love the team that is on the
Speaker 2: field as well, Manager Keith Johnson. Just like when you
Speaker 2: have that every single day, man, you are really alive.
Speaker 2: And it's the final year of the ballpark, a place
Speaker 2: that's very near and dear to my heart for so
Speaker 2: many reasons. And so this last week I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: soak it up.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: Six days. If you the fan you know, make sure
Speaker 2: to join us. You know, I'm gonna pump for tickets
Speaker 2: just because it's an iconic place. The weather's going to
Speaker 2: be great, but we have all these great tributes coming up,
Speaker 2: and I am just over the moon excited for what
Speaker 2: should be, you know, a great week of being around
Speaker 2: great people. This is the last week of the ballpark. Oh,
Speaker 2: we talked about it last week.
Speaker 1: I just forgot that played way too much mediocre golf
Speaker 1: over the weekend.
Speaker 2: It's taking the bandwidth.
Speaker 1: How you dealing with that? What's it like over there
Speaker 1: last week of that ballpark?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: I can remember, we all can remember going there forever
Speaker 1: ago and thirsty Thursdays in college and throughout the course.
Speaker 1: You know, like so many great memories. Obviously you're the
Speaker 1: guy for this. You have more memories than anyone outside
Speaker 1: of the late great Steve Cloukey.
Speaker 2: So what's it like?
Speaker 1: What's it feel like knowing that this thing is coming
Speaker 1: to an end in the Capital City.
Speaker 2: I think it's very emotional for me because there's so
Speaker 2: many different chapters to it. Childhood baseball is where we
Speaker 2: felt most safe. When we made the move my mom
Speaker 2: and I to Salt Lake City. That was kind of
Speaker 2: our thing. It's how I grew a big Cubs fan
Speaker 2: because we watched WGN. No matter where we were, Greg Maddocks,
Speaker 2: I was on Dan Gil. Steve Stone was the star
Speaker 2: of our home Mark Grace. Yeah, I mean I had
Speaker 2: Steve Stone and my mom teaching me the game. Anybody
Speaker 2: who knows my mom knows like that was the ultimate
Speaker 2: cheat code to have him and her together, Like teaching
Speaker 2: me the game was amazing anyway, So baseball is a
Speaker 2: big part to us. And then you know, when I
Speaker 2: got the job as the play by play announcer, I'll
Speaker 2: never forget it. I mean, I come back into the
Speaker 2: state of Utah really for the first time since Sophie
Speaker 2: was born, and I go up to the press box.
Speaker 2: I had a Weaver State football game, and Steve Cloukey's
Speaker 2: calling it for radio and I got it on TV,
Speaker 2: and it's the first time we'd seen each other since
Speaker 2: he retired, Like there's some there's some stuff here. And
Speaker 2: the way he grabbed my arm and the way he
Speaker 2: shook it around, and the way he pulled me in
Speaker 2: and gave me a hug, and then the one thing
Speaker 2: he told me was, you know, I called the first
Speaker 2: game ever at that ballpark, and I think it's so
Speaker 2: beautiful that you get to call the last game ever
Speaker 2: at that ballpark. So here's one thing people didn't know
Speaker 2: all year. I had remembered him saying that, and I
Speaker 2: put something together towards the last homestand to where I
Speaker 2: was going to bring different people in to call a
Speaker 2: few innings with me, just as a color commentary conversational
Speaker 2: on the TV. Brook loved, Yeah one, I'm Frank Layden. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's an obvious one. There's just just all these different
Speaker 2: people I was going to bring in. But the last
Speaker 2: one I was going to have was Steve Cloukey, and
Speaker 2: I know exactly the way that he would set up
Speaker 2: his book. I've studied it all the way down because
Speaker 2: he has all of his books in there, and I
Speaker 2: was going to set up the game book exactly like that.
Speaker 2: And when it got to the final three outs are
Speaker 2: six depending on how the game was going, I was
Speaker 2: going to have him call the final outs at the
Speaker 2: ballpark because I truly felt that's the way it should
Speaker 2: have ended. And so as I think about that, that's
Speaker 2: another thing that gets me emotional about this week because
Speaker 2: I had those plans put into place, tell her that's mean.
Speaker 1: Tell our listeners, do you ever listen to the podcast
Speaker 1: SmartLess The Bateman Will. It's a funny like celebrity podcast.
Speaker 1: It's like a guilty pleasure listen and they talk often
Speaker 1: about their industry as actors. When they use terms they tell,
Speaker 1: they follow up to tell the guests to talk to
Speaker 1: one of the co host sisters who has no clue
Speaker 1: about acting.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense? Care? So for our listeners that
Speaker 2: don't know what a game book is, oh, explain what
Speaker 2: that is. Yeah, it's just like it's the way you
Speaker 2: have your score sheet and you have you know, the
Speaker 2: visitor and the home team, and the way you list
Speaker 2: out the starting lineups and all those different things. He
Speaker 2: and I have a very similar one. Yeah, very very similar.
Speaker 2: We have very different ways which way we format it.
Speaker 2: I put numbers in unique spots and I don't label it.
Speaker 2: I just know what that number means, and so when
Speaker 2: I need it, my eyes go right to it. I
Speaker 2: got it, and I move gotcha, And it's the way
Speaker 2: and he was very much the same. Now we're different
Speaker 2: in exactly what we put where, but there's a style
Speaker 2: in which we had so I mean down to the
Speaker 2: tiniest details. He had a unique style. I had a
Speaker 2: unan style. So one thing that I would do is like,
Speaker 2: if somebody pops up the first base and it's caught,
Speaker 2: it's three. But if it's a pop up high in
Speaker 2: the air, it's a big fat three. That's the way.
Speaker 2: If it's a line drive, it's like the straight lines
Speaker 2: gocha three. If it's a pop up and foul ground,
Speaker 2: it's a backwards fat three, like I do. Like just
Speaker 2: my mind automatically knows popped up in the foul ground.
Speaker 2: So there's a coding system that you have that your
Speaker 2: own style. And I knew his style inside out, So
Speaker 2: I was gonna set it up that way throughout the game,
Speaker 2: and that's how it was gonna end. I was gonna
Speaker 2: surprise him with it. I'm gonna make sure his family
Speaker 2: knew about it. Yeah, and let it be because that's
Speaker 2: the way I believe that the final three outs and
Speaker 2: the broadcast and all that.
Speaker 1: I still, you know, I had a twin pin tweet
Speaker 1: of my bob, my Steve Clokey bobblehead until like a
Speaker 1: week ago, and every time I think it, I still
Speaker 1: go white ones. Yeah, what how did that happen so
Speaker 1: over there. So Oklahoma City's in town. We've got Smith's
Speaker 1: family and I coming up tomorrow, Thursday, Thursday. On Thursday,
Speaker 1: we got to go Golden Night on Friday, fan Appreciation
Speaker 1: Night Saturday. Then the finale is on Sunday, the final
Speaker 1: game for the Bees of the ballpark here in the
Speaker 1: Capital City.
Speaker 2: It's Sunday. Now.
Speaker 1: Obviously, you and I are of the same about the
Speaker 1: Miller family and the goals they have. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: Stewards they were over a team that you and I
Speaker 1: both worked for and still to this day I cheer
Speaker 1: for in the Utah Jazz So Steve Stark's front of
Speaker 1: the show friend.
Speaker 2: Off air as well.
Speaker 1: You know what they're doing to build a new ballpark,
Speaker 1: you know probably deserve A bottom line for me is
Speaker 1: I live in Salt Lake and it's a bummer that
Speaker 1: it's leaving, right, But I appreciate this endeavor that the
Speaker 1: Millers have taken on and hope that at some point
Speaker 1: it does lead to a major League baseball team here
Speaker 1: in our capital city personally, which would be awesome. So
Speaker 1: as you look ahead, Tony to what's next for this
Speaker 1: little old ball club, what are some of your thoughts
Speaker 1: and what's kind of the redeeming feel of the organization.
Speaker 2: I love the big steps that we're taking this year,
Speaker 2: and some of them were not witnessed. Some of them
Speaker 2: you couldn't see with your eyes, but great work from
Speaker 2: so many people who stepped into the ballpark ready to
Speaker 2: go with great baseball mindset and great business of baseball mindset. Right,
Speaker 2: you can be a baseball person, you could be a
Speaker 2: business person, but these are people who understand the business
Speaker 2: of baseball and it's going on long way. Derek Amacon
Speaker 2: a huge part of that. Cam Coglan a huge part
Speaker 2: of that. Ty Wardle. I know I'm leaving some people out,
Speaker 2: but I don't have all day. But the point is
Speaker 2: a lot of people who are stepping in there with
Speaker 2: new roles, new responsibilities. They're doing a masterful job at
Speaker 2: putting together great concepts that are helping build and go
Speaker 2: bigger because a lot of what's happening is is we're
Speaker 2: moving to major league mindset and there were major strides
Speaker 2: that took place there. First of all, they got a
Speaker 2: TV deal done in record time. That was amazing. I mean,
Speaker 2: the great work by from Cam Coglan to you know,
Speaker 2: obviously ty Wordle and everybody in between to make sure
Speaker 2: that that came together. We have all these games on KMYU,
Speaker 2: and we have more games than I think any minor
Speaker 2: league team out there on lineing or TV. I want
Speaker 2: to say, I'd have to double check that to be sure,
Speaker 2: but we have almost forty games right right then the
Speaker 2: quality of our broadcast. Then we go into the features
Speaker 2: of our broadcast and they just kind of said, dude,
Speaker 2: you run with this. You make it the best it
Speaker 2: could be. Go and everybody's one hundred miles an hour
Speaker 2: to be the very best that we can be. Now,
Speaker 2: a lot of these things that were put into place
Speaker 2: behind the scenes you can't see. Next year, you're going
Speaker 2: to see things that a new ballpark that are going
Speaker 2: to be elevated to levels no other minor league baseball
Speaker 2: team has. They are very serious about not just being good,
Speaker 2: not just being the best, but they want to run
Speaker 2: up the score. It's not about everybody else. It's truly
Speaker 2: about us, and it's about creating a major league level
Speaker 2: experience in a minor league ballpark. And that's the standard
Speaker 2: that Steve Clouke had for the broadcast. That was my
Speaker 2: number one goal coming into it as well as humanizing
Speaker 2: the broadcast and making sure that the listener felt connected
Speaker 2: to what's happening. They're also doing that in their game presentation.
Speaker 2: They're going all the way when it comes to premium seating,
Speaker 2: everything involved. So that is I think a great runway
Speaker 2: into a wonderful campaign into giving this market the absolute
Speaker 2: best chance possible to have a major league team someday.
Speaker 2: So when you talk the stuff that you'll see, that's
Speaker 2: what you're gonna see next year. And a lot of
Speaker 2: the things that have been under the surface this year
Speaker 2: also great job by I mean, from Amy Jackson to
Speaker 2: Dustin dell In. I mean, there's just a lot of
Speaker 2: people that have exhausted efforts, Brian Dever, everybody who's just
Speaker 2: gone all in on making this the best year it
Speaker 2: can be to give next year a big punch. Did
Speaker 2: you say, Derek Amercon, Yeah, Mark amcconwy porter, will you
Speaker 2: hop on the micro quick and remind Tony what our
Speaker 2: official stances on our radio show about nepotism. Please not
Speaker 2: big on nepotism. You can't win with them, can't wait
Speaker 2: with them.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just now that's just this radio show,
Speaker 1: that's just our opinion. I can't I kid marks the
Speaker 1: never met Derek, but Mark's a great guy.
Speaker 2: Derek's a star. Yeah, that's awesome. Good to hear, huge star.
Speaker 2: He's been as close to MVP as anybody could be
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: So before we move off the bees, give me the
Speaker 1: pitch man. Let's get people out this week. I I
Speaker 1: completely for I'm getting to a game this week, so
Speaker 1: let's let's hear it.
Speaker 2: Five dollars tickets on Sunday. We're going back to nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety four. Five dollars tickets. Unbelievable, like concession items that
Speaker 2: will be at great value pricing team store items throughout
Speaker 2: the week that you're going to want to take advantage
Speaker 2: of with that wonderful tributes all week, iconic members that'll
Speaker 2: be there, former big name people who've played there. Won't
Speaker 2: give out the name yet, but you're gonna want to
Speaker 2: join us and be a part of that. Friday Night's
Speaker 2: gold Golden Night. And I know that this is one
Speaker 2: that's going to hit to you personally. I mean, I
Speaker 2: know you know cancer has affected you personally. You and
Speaker 2: I have talked about this on the air. Off the air.
Speaker 2: That's a big one in the fight against childhood cancer.
Speaker 2: We're we're really really big on that, and my family
Speaker 2: is all in on doing what we can to support families.
Speaker 2: And so that night you get fireworks after the game,
Speaker 2: kids get to run the bases after the game. On Friday,
Speaker 2: Saturday and Sunday, you know, fireworks on Friday and Saturday.
Speaker 2: You know everything that you're going to want to have,
Speaker 2: all the feels that made this place so special, You're
Speaker 2: going to feel it over and over and over again.
Speaker 2: I was putting together some different videos and just wonderful tributes,
Speaker 2: so you know, at your last chance to get there
Speaker 2: to catch a B's game, whether you started there with
Speaker 2: the Buzz or the Stingers, or whether you were even
Speaker 2: you know, the trappers, or let's say go back to
Speaker 2: the goals. My favorite part is talking to every person
Speaker 2: giving me It's always a family story. My grandpa, my dad,
Speaker 2: my mom, this that, and there was this game. They
Speaker 2: don't remember the score, they don't remember this, they don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe they remember one player in one moment, but they
Speaker 2: never forgot the foam finger or the foul ball. There's
Speaker 2: always something there and I just I think that's what
Speaker 2: makes this place so beautiful. Yeah, that's what it's about.
Speaker 2: I mean I was, and you referenced, you referenced, go
Speaker 2: Golden Knight. So the fight against childhood cancer.
Speaker 1: And I just had my twenty one years man twenty
Speaker 1: one year but I remember, thank you very much. I
Speaker 1: just remember I was twenty five when a doctor looked
Speaker 1: at me.
Speaker 2: He was like, you're gonna die.
Speaker 1: You have a brain tumor or you're dying, right, And
Speaker 1: so I can remember during my recovery walking up and
Speaker 1: down the hallways and it's the kids where you go.
Speaker 2: Dude, what this five year old? Yeah, he is in
Speaker 2: here with no hair.
Speaker 1: And I can remember in the in the room next
Speaker 1: to me when I was in physical therapy, literally relearning
Speaker 1: how to walk.
Speaker 2: A mom. It's hard to talk about him.
Speaker 1: Mom would come in the room every night and pray
Speaker 1: with her son, and he was twelve years old and
Speaker 1: his name was Nate. And I remember listening to her
Speaker 1: say a prayer with her son Nate, and then I
Speaker 1: woke up one morning and he was gone from the
Speaker 1: room and he died. He passed three weeks of listening
Speaker 1: to his mother pray with him every night. At the
Speaker 1: age of twelve. He died of a brain tumor that
Speaker 1: could't operate on. It's just whatever we can do societally
Speaker 1: to fight our generations that thing, and that's what cancer is.
Speaker 1: I definitely applaud that. So where's the best place tell
Speaker 1: him for people to get tickets?
Speaker 2: Yeah, SLBs dot com, that's where you're want to go.
Speaker 2: SLBs dot com. Amazing discounts, very valued pricing. Take advantage
Speaker 2: of all of that. And I've been telling people, don't
Speaker 2: just catch one last game, catch multiple Yea, be there
Speaker 2: multiple times. Every Night's gonna look and sound and feel
Speaker 2: a little bit different. You're gonna want to take a
Speaker 2: piece of that.
Speaker 1: So all right, good stuff. So head over to the
Speaker 1: BS game this week. It's the final week of the
Speaker 1: Bees playing baseball in Salt Lake. Let's move over to
Speaker 1: the Utes. But before we get there, because you just
Speaker 1: jarred something in my mind. It really is. It's one
Speaker 1: of the things that as I age and as I
Speaker 1: continue to be involved in the world of sports, I
Speaker 1: try to have perspective on it's very much a zero
Speaker 1: sum game. We're not changing the world, but the generational connections.
Speaker 1: I lost my grandfather about a year and a half ago,
Speaker 1: and you know, Big d Big Dave. He's getting a
Speaker 1: little older, right, So I'm watching my dad age. I
Speaker 1: said goodbye to my grandpa, and we have this book
Speaker 1: that was put together for all the grandkids and all
Speaker 1: the pictures. It's me and my grandpa golfing, It's me
Speaker 1: and my grandpa to Jazz game.
Speaker 2: It's me and my grandpa to BYU game. He was
Speaker 2: a Cougar club guy.
Speaker 1: And then the generational connection between my grandpa and my
Speaker 1: father and now my son who was twenty three. You know,
Speaker 1: he's fourth generation big sports fan. He's back east living
Speaker 1: in New York. On a Jets games, Yankee game, nick game,
Speaker 1: loving it. I walked through the tailgate the other day
Speaker 1: for it was prior to the Utah SUU game, and
Speaker 1: a gentleman called out my name. He listened to the
Speaker 1: station and they had a tailgate set up. It was
Speaker 1: very extensive. They did the prep, they're barbecuing that drinks
Speaker 1: and it was packed and he said, I want to
Speaker 1: want you to I want to introduce you to my grandfather.
Speaker 1: He's the one that started all this. And I sat down,
Speaker 1: I talk with him, and he talked about buying a
Speaker 1: ticket to the old stadium for a nickel back in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven, and then I'm seeing I met his son,
Speaker 1: and then I met his grandsons, and they're all there
Speaker 1: at the Utah football game tailgating prior to the kick.
Speaker 2: And you know the deal.
Speaker 1: When you get into the job, you know, you kind
Speaker 1: of have to become agnostic.
Speaker 2: You kind of have to become.
Speaker 1: Immune or numb to fandom or else it compromises the
Speaker 1: craft of what you're trying to do. And sometimes it
Speaker 1: does feel too much like a job to me, and
Speaker 1: so to be reminded of really what it's all about.
Speaker 1: You know, the stories that you get at the ballpark
Speaker 1: of people talking about generations of baseball fans going over
Speaker 1: the years, walking through a tailgate of Utah football where
Speaker 1: you meet the patriarch of the whole situation who's been
Speaker 1: going a Utah football game since nineteen forty seven, passing
Speaker 1: on to his kid, who's now passed it on to
Speaker 1: his sons. Oh man, that it reminds you, like we
Speaker 1: catch a lot of crap in the world of sports,
Speaker 1: like you don't matter, like there's too many other things
Speaker 1: going on in the world. It reminds you why it's
Speaker 1: fun to exist in the toy asle that we do
Speaker 1: covering sports.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because what you really are in love with
Speaker 2: is the emotions you feel in the connection with Michigan
Speaker 2: winning the national title last year. The connection I have
Speaker 2: with that with my mom because we'd watch clubs games
Speaker 2: in the afternoon summertime, during the day, well in the fall,
Speaker 2: Saturday and Sunday mornings. I would kind of take care
Speaker 2: of myself early so she could sleep in because she
Speaker 2: was waitressing, bartending, she was up late, stuff like that,
Speaker 2: and I would kind of have to take care of myself,
Speaker 2: take care of the house. So she would get up
Speaker 2: and we'd watch football together. And I learned the game
Speaker 2: initially through Michigan football and her the cool song, cool helmet,
Speaker 2: cool everything. Oh my gosh, that was our team. They
Speaker 2: were the first team on a lot of times. So
Speaker 2: there's so much wrapped into that, and then it comes
Speaker 2: into my brother and it just expands out. It has
Speaker 2: nothing to do with Elvis Gerbach or Desmond Howard, I mean,
Speaker 2: but it was the memory and the excitement and all
Speaker 2: of those moments that we lived through. Charles Woods and
Speaker 2: soaring through the air, picking off the pass in the
Speaker 2: end zone, and the Rose Bowl. It's the way my
Speaker 2: mom screamed when Tommy Hendrix picked it off in the
Speaker 2: end zone against Notre Dame in nineteen ninety seven, and
Speaker 2: the celebration in our living room. It's that stuff right there.
Speaker 2: It's that it's watching her joy and excitement. So you
Speaker 2: as a fan, whether it's going to the ballpark, whether
Speaker 2: it's the fan of the utes and all that, what
Speaker 2: it really is about is your experience in your life,
Speaker 2: and and that is a fabric of what makes this
Speaker 2: so beautiful. And I wish we could get back to
Speaker 2: more of that instead of some of the toxicity that
Speaker 2: comes with sports. Especially now you know where I fill
Speaker 2: in on radio and do that and do more play
Speaker 2: by play. I've been able to really absorb more into
Speaker 2: the beauty of what makes sports sports and why we
Speaker 2: love our team.
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons why something like a stadium
Speaker 1: movie is a big deal to a lot of people.
Speaker 2: It hits you in the heart.
Speaker 1: You know, it hits you when you've grown up going
Speaker 1: to these games, because that's where your memories exist. And
Speaker 1: I remember going to Be's games with my with my
Speaker 1: grandfather and all these all these games, and it's ultimately,
Speaker 1: you know, it is the toy Isle. But it's a
Speaker 1: it's a it's a great way to connect generation after generation.
Speaker 1: We'll do a let's do a big college football segment
Speaker 1: coming up next. I want to do some Utah football.
Speaker 1: I want to do some b YU football, some Big
Speaker 1: twelve stuff. We got a couple of minutes here, so
Speaker 1: let's do a scoch of jazz basketball. A scosh tony,
Speaker 1: just a scosh Okay. So Bowler rolled in the studio
Speaker 1: last week. Craig and Gordon come on the show once
Speaker 1: a week for an hour. Call it the Big Show,
Speaker 1: Big Hour. It's fun to be reunited with those guys.
Speaker 1: And bless his heart, we were going over the depth
Speaker 1: chart and I was asking him what he's watching out for,
Speaker 1: and as he was naming the names of the players
Speaker 1: most likely in the rotation, I'm just like, well, good
Speaker 1: luck calling those games foul. So I mean, look, ultimately,
Speaker 1: we all know the deal, okay. And as I was
Speaker 1: saying you off air, Danny Ainge has a track record.
Speaker 1: Danny does not need me to stand up for him.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: His resume is out there, you can go look at it.
Speaker 1: And the fact of the matter is things like this
Speaker 1: take time. Here's the issue, Tony, as I see it,
Speaker 1: Vegas over underwins right now in the NBA in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference, because you remember we were both working over
Speaker 1: there during the Mitchell Gobert, Quinn, Dennis Lindsay ingles like
Speaker 1: that whole thing. And so the walking line at the
Speaker 1: time was, we hope we're in a spot to capitalize
Speaker 1: on a window that opens when Golden State is kind
Speaker 1: of done and Lebron is a little bit older, and
Speaker 1: maybe Kawhi has aged out. Like when that happens, we
Speaker 1: hope to be in the spot to be the team
Speaker 1: with the players in their prime to maybe win something special. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now here's the issue, Vegas over underwins. OKC one, Minnesota two.
Speaker 1: You're looking at this point, Dallas three. Let's see here, Pelicans, Kings,
Speaker 1: Grizzlies with jaw back, and then you get into there's
Speaker 1: the Kings, then it's the Lakers, then it's the war
Speaker 1: excuse me, the Suns. Then it's the Lakers, and it's
Speaker 1: the Warriors, and then it's the Spurs, then it's the Rockets,
Speaker 1: and the final two the only two teams that are
Speaker 1: not thought to be close to competing for a playoff
Speaker 1: spot in the West are the Jazz and the Trailblazer.
Speaker 2: Those are the only two.
Speaker 1: Bad quote unquote bad teams according to what the odds
Speaker 1: tell us in the Western Conference. Here's where the issue
Speaker 1: comes in. Okac is not going anywhere forever. They're awesome,
Speaker 1: and they're young. Jokic still in his twenties. Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior is still young. Jamal Murray if you can get
Speaker 1: back like Denver still has a runway of four or
Speaker 1: five years, sodas Minnesota, you can make an argument that
Speaker 1: the Pelicans do that.
Speaker 2: The Kings do so.
Speaker 1: Now the seven of the eight top teams in the
Speaker 1: West are better than the Jazz, and they're also young.
Speaker 1: So the window and this is kind of how you
Speaker 1: have to view the whole thing in pro basketball.
Speaker 2: When will a window open?
Speaker 1: And can we formulate our roster construction to be there
Speaker 1: when that window opens. Now, the windows like seven or
Speaker 1: eight years away, barring something completely unforeseen, I just don't
Speaker 1: see the direction forward to serious competition Tony anytime soon.
Speaker 2: If it is so, First of all, you're right, there
Speaker 2: is a Danny Ainges playing the long game. You don't
Speaker 2: have to be okay with it. I've also said you
Speaker 2: don't have to pour money into it as a fan.
Speaker 2: If you don't want to, that is your chance. That
Speaker 2: is your choice. You are not any less of a
Speaker 2: fan if you don't. By the way, if you say cool,
Speaker 2: I'll wait for the long game and I'll put my
Speaker 2: money into it. When things seem to be more of
Speaker 2: the approach that this team is a threat, there's nothing
Speaker 2: wrong with that as a fan, nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2: This can't be a process though, where you just simply
Speaker 2: wait for everyone else to get worse. So is that
Speaker 2: kind of is the described way that you're talking about.
Speaker 2: That can't be it. Well, you have to believe in
Speaker 2: is your ability to identify the best players that make
Speaker 2: the difference between being good, respectable, threatening, and elite eventually. Now,
Speaker 2: they believed in that process before Danny ageed it, and
Speaker 2: he was right, Tatum Brown, we can go on and
Speaker 2: on and on with the other names. And they threatened
Speaker 2: for a good number of years. Now that was a
Speaker 2: twelve year process, and for the first four years, I
Speaker 2: want to say, not a whole heck of a lot happening. Remember,
Speaker 2: they flushed out, they got a bunch of picks, they
Speaker 2: started over. Okay, the payoff is is a ring and
Speaker 2: maybe more. I don't know if it's gonna take twelve.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's gonna take eight. I don't
Speaker 2: know if it's gonna take I don't know. But what
Speaker 2: I do know is they have a belief in their
Speaker 2: ability with the process to identify those players, get them
Speaker 2: in and create the situation and the circumstance that gives
Speaker 2: them that championship level success. He has the track record
Speaker 2: to prove it, but what it takes is time. Because
Speaker 2: what he did in Boston by quickly making trades and
Speaker 2: then winning the title in eight, he did it that way.
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be tougher to do something like
Speaker 2: that in sul Lake City. With this, with free agency
Speaker 2: and all that, I think you're gonna have to go
Speaker 2: with your draft. You're gonna have to go with your guys.
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to be very selective, and you have
Speaker 2: got to hit more than you miss because you're not
Speaker 2: gonna bat a thousand. But you gotta kind of be
Speaker 2: Reggie Jackson. When you barrel one up, you really barrel
Speaker 2: one up. And Danny ain't just proven that while he
Speaker 2: does not bat a thousand, he can have more strikes
Speaker 2: than he does gutters, And so that's what this is
Speaker 2: that we and I love that you've just been very
Speaker 2: honest about what this is, so you as a fan,
Speaker 2: you don't have to be okay with it now, but
Speaker 2: at least be honest with what it could pay off
Speaker 2: to be later. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in the immediate now, no no, yeah, no, well
Speaker 1: well said, so the hope, the sincere hope, truly, And
Speaker 1: I don't really know that I'm ready to emphatically anoint
Speaker 1: or dismiss in any of these young players. Does Cody
Speaker 1: get stronger, quicker? Is he able to take contact? Can
Speaker 1: he score on all three levels? Does he look like
Speaker 1: a promising young player? Does keyante? He had the Countess stuff.
Speaker 1: We won't do a lot of time on this Countes stuff.
Speaker 1: Is really interesting to me because there are moments where
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, all right, that's real, right, and then
Speaker 1: there are a lot of moments where I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know that he can run a team, at
Speaker 1: least at this age, has not shown his ability to
Speaker 1: be a leade guard. Does he show that ability this year?
Speaker 1: Here's what you got? You got marketing and he's awesome? Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's the one you found throughout the course of
Speaker 1: everything you gave up. And I've always been the one
Speaker 1: guy yelling into the void about the go bear deal. Okay,
Speaker 1: because I saw Rudy impact winning here in a way
Speaker 1: that he's impacted in Minnesota. And yes, they got a haul,
Speaker 1: but does that turn into and we still don't know?
Speaker 2: So do we see something.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, that we're not expecting from an Isaiah Collier?
Speaker 1: You get my point? Like, does one of the young
Speaker 1: players popping away we're not expecting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's something that can happen, will eventually happen.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're gonna have progress. The key point is
Speaker 2: how much progress do you have with some of those guys?
Speaker 2: And what will happen with Danny Ainge is I do
Speaker 2: believe there's a shorter release than people would think. With him.
Speaker 2: It's a hell yes or it's a no. And I
Speaker 2: do think fans should like that because he is quick
Speaker 2: to make those moves. You you were the first to
Speaker 2: point that out when he first arrived. You were like,
Speaker 2: this is what's great about this. If he sees it's
Speaker 2: not gonna work, he's moving right away. He's moving. He's
Speaker 2: not playing the Dante ex them. Hey, let's say, you know,
Speaker 2: I'll see how this and you know he's so young
Speaker 2: and he's so and it just it's the same story.
Speaker 2: It's the same crap. It's a different typer and it's
Speaker 2: over and over. No, no, no, no, no, it is Is
Speaker 2: this getting us where we want to go? No? Out?
Speaker 2: Can this get us where we want to go? Yes,
Speaker 2: let's continue to process and develop. We're not gonna hang
Speaker 2: on to Alec Burks longer than we should. We're not
Speaker 2: gonna hang on to Dante Exe long ember should. And
Speaker 2: so that it sounds ruthless, it sounds like incredibly I
Speaker 2: don't want to say small money, like somebody would think. Man,
Speaker 2: that's so impatient. You're in a league where you can't wait.
Speaker 2: You can wait and play the long game with the
Speaker 2: big picture to win the title. But you can't play
Speaker 2: the long game with something that you don't see getting
Speaker 2: good enough fast enough. And he has to be able
Speaker 2: to believe that he can identify what that is, know
Speaker 2: one he's wrong when he's wrong, and move Danny Ainge.
Speaker 2: I give him a lot of credit. He's been that
Speaker 2: way his whole career, and he's going to be that
Speaker 2: way with this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Danny understands sun cost fallacy unlike almost any other NBAHM.
Speaker 1: When it's time to move on, it's time to move on.
Speaker 1: I do wonder what this means for Will Hardy, who's
Speaker 1: in year three, who is a very proud guy who
Speaker 1: wants to win basketball games. But he's being paid handsomely.
Speaker 1: He's obviously part of the plan. I just have a
Speaker 1: hard time seeing this turn into anything really exciting anytime soon.
Speaker 2: I hope that they can give him what he needs
Speaker 2: going for because I do believe culturally he's doing a
Speaker 2: lot of great things. I do believe systematically, I think
Speaker 2: he's a great basketball mind. I'm not just saying this
Speaker 2: because I've had a chance to watch it up close
Speaker 2: and see what's developing. I hope that they can say, hey,
Speaker 2: you've been a part of this process as we were
Speaker 2: going through the pain tolerance. He deserves to be a
Speaker 2: part of the process to give it a chance to
Speaker 2: see them thrive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's hope you gets some players, because there's a
Speaker 1: reason he wanted them to trade for Dame Liller.
Speaker 2: I can tell you that all right.
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Speaker 1: We'll do some college football with Tony coming up next
Speaker 1: right here on ESPN seven hundred, Tony parks live in
Speaker 1: studio the Voice of the Bees Last Chance promo code style.
Speaker 1: As the Bees are saying goodbye to the Capital City,
Speaker 1: join the Solid Bees at Smith's Ballpark for their final
Speaker 1: two home stands as well their final home stand of
Speaker 1: the season. Porter laughs at me because I Ron Burgundy
Speaker 1: my reads. If it's on the script, I'm gonna read it.
Speaker 1: Let's get Tony's mikel when we have a chance. September
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Speaker 1: get your tickets at SLBs dot com today. A bunch
Speaker 1: of great promos going on starting Tomorrow night all the
Speaker 1: way through Sunday. So one last foray for the Bees
Speaker 1: here in the Capitol City. Real quick, Tony, what's your
Speaker 1: opinion on I caught some because during cross talk with
Speaker 1: Sean Sean O'Connell's hosting our midday show now, he was
Speaker 1: giving away Disney on Ice tickets and he said something
Speaker 1: along the lines of, well, if you have kids, this
Speaker 1: will be great. Then he said, well, even if you
Speaker 1: don't have kids, you should go. That's a whole lot
Speaker 1: of second And I was too aggressive with my opinion,
Speaker 1: as you know me, as I want to do from
Speaker 1: time to time. I guess this is where I'll settle
Speaker 1: on it because I was a little aggressive earlier. I
Speaker 1: don't fully understand Disney adults, like, like, you don't have kids,
Speaker 1: and you're calling up your group of friends and you're like, dude,
Speaker 1: what are you doing the third week of October?
Speaker 2: Let's roll to Disney for like a week.
Speaker 1: Bro, Let's crush a little small world to top on space,
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean. I'm not judging, but
Speaker 1: it's just not my thing. And I am a father,
Speaker 1: as you know, and I've had wonderful times with my son,
Speaker 1: my young son, at Disney World and on Disney cruises.
Speaker 1: But the way I phrased it earlier, I caught some pushback.
Speaker 1: People are saying that I was being too harsh. What's
Speaker 1: your not not on adult that likes Disney movies? What's
Speaker 1: your opinion on adult who multiple times a year spends
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars with his or her friends to take
Speaker 1: week long vacations at Disney resorts without children.
Speaker 2: Okay, I am not a hater on Disney adult fan,
Speaker 2: I'm not. I'm not no hate, I'm not. But you
Speaker 2: better get out of the way when something for the
Speaker 2: kids ever comes up, and you better let them have
Speaker 2: the front row seat, and you better let them go first,
Speaker 2: and you better make it about them. But you ever
Speaker 2: take too long with I don't care if it's a
Speaker 2: Star Wars character or or if it's Rapunzel or whatever,
Speaker 2: you better make sure that it is first and foremost
Speaker 2: for them, because that's who this is for. So Nat
Speaker 2: and I did Disney on nice once. We ended up
Speaker 2: getting tickets and it was just her and I and
Speaker 2: it also was shortly, probably three months after our oldest
Speaker 2: daughter was more and so there was there was a
Speaker 2: little more to it, you know, And so we went
Speaker 2: and I remember being there with my wife and the
Speaker 2: first thing we did, I mean, all these families have
Speaker 2: all these little kids, and our seats were supposed to
Speaker 2: be at the front row of this suite and we
Speaker 2: were like, huh uh, all the kids go up there.
Speaker 2: And we sat back on the barstools and you know,
Speaker 2: sat up at the table and had a good time.
Speaker 2: But we made sure every prize that was given out
Speaker 2: we gave it to one of them. Like anything that
Speaker 2: was given Ah, it is for them. So as long
Speaker 2: as you keep that part in mind. I'm all about I.
Speaker 2: I I not for me, Like I'm not dropping a
Speaker 2: bunch of money on Disney. My sister's big Disney adult fan.
Speaker 2: And now she you know, she has a daughter and stuff,
Speaker 2: and so it's great. But I'm not a hater on them.
Speaker 2: But just make sure you don't impede on any child's experience.
Speaker 1: If there's limited tickets, they get the ticket. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: good life advice. Ye, it's a much more serious tone
Speaker 1: than I was expecting. Bro, I'll meet you at Dumbo,
Speaker 1: the Dumbo ride, and then let's hit up Pirates and
Speaker 1: go to the Jungle Crew like you know what I mean. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's so expensive. You could do others anyway off my
Speaker 1: soapbut not for me.
Speaker 2: Not for me either. Tell Parks live in studio.
Speaker 1: All right, we had some time here, so let's seek
Speaker 1: into some college football storylines. And I gotta say, man,
Speaker 1: I think Isaac Wilson answered a lot of questions on Saturday.
Speaker 1: We learned the lesson around here last year of what
Speaker 1: it can look like not just without your starter, but
Speaker 1: without your backup. Cam was hurt last year, so was
Speaker 1: Brandon Rose. And I said after the Baylor game, I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: Isaac's the two. You know, you guys know your team
Speaker 1: way better than any of us do. So Isaac's the two.
Speaker 1: If he's the two, it had to look better than
Speaker 1: it did against Baylor. Now, Dave Randa, as we all
Speaker 1: know around here, is a defensive savant. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: how he's made his way in the business. So I'm
Speaker 1: sure Baylor schematically was something that Isaac wasn't used to.
Speaker 1: But Utah State up in Logan is probably the most
Speaker 1: hostile environment that young man's ever played in front of.
Speaker 2: I know, corner cannon get some big crowds, but I
Speaker 2: was proud of a man.
Speaker 1: I thought he stepped up. I thought he met the moment.
Speaker 1: I thought he answered a lot of questions. What do
Speaker 1: you make of what we saw from Isaac on Saturday?
Speaker 2: Isaac Wilson is much better than most true freshman quarterbacks,
Speaker 2: and by a mile by the way, he's going to
Speaker 2: get xp and atually better as the year goes on.
Speaker 2: The question is how good is he going to get
Speaker 2: and how fast? And which games are going to be
Speaker 2: the ones where the wheels wobble at all where you know,
Speaker 2: film crew or scouts try to catch up to him
Speaker 2: from each team, right, that being coaching staffs when they're
Speaker 2: preparing for him. But the big one for this Saturday,
Speaker 2: the big question is Okay, Isaac Wilson will kind of
Speaker 2: jump is he going to take? I think this game
Speaker 2: is going to.
Speaker 1: Be decided by the offensive line of Utah playing and simple.
Speaker 2: This is a Kyle Whittingham game on Saturday. This isn't
Speaker 2: an Isac Wilson game. This is a Kyle Whittingham game.
Speaker 2: This is where your team is coming along, right. They're
Speaker 2: taking quality strides. And I give this team some credit
Speaker 2: as some Kyle Whittingham teams in some of these recent
Speaker 2: previous years kind of started a bit slow, like maybe
Speaker 2: got away with the win where they didn't play all
Speaker 2: that well slow start to that game against Utah State,
Speaker 2: But those last three quarters I really liked the way
Speaker 2: the od line grinded and the way they started pushing bodies,
Speaker 2: the way they started executing, the way they started smashing.
Speaker 2: If they play like that, in this game, but they
Speaker 2: got it do it for four quarters. If they win
Speaker 2: it up front, especially against the way they line up defensively,
Speaker 2: they get to dictate the terms. Life is much easier
Speaker 2: on Isaac Wilson and suddenly Utah with Kyle Whittingham, who
Speaker 2: knows how to get the best out of what any
Speaker 2: situation happens to be. If that happens, they win this game,
Speaker 2: this type of game. There's so many games people are
Speaker 2: gonna remember about Kyle Whittingham, and they're gonna remember the
Speaker 2: Sugar Bowl, and they're gonna remember some, you know, landmark victories.
Speaker 2: To me, it's the at Washington State a few years
Speaker 2: ago where you find out your starting quarterback's not gonna
Speaker 2: play and you find a way to win. It's the
Speaker 2: home against USC where you're down big like that you
Speaker 2: find a way to win. It's the Travis Wilson at
Speaker 2: home against USC where you barely score anything on offense,
Speaker 2: but you keep it close and you win at the
Speaker 2: end USC last year. I know I'm just pointing out
Speaker 2: USC games, but there's several of them that we can
Speaker 2: go to where it's like, man, oh, they won that game,
Speaker 2: the hell of a job and you look at the
Speaker 2: work of coaching and some of the guys that come
Speaker 2: through and help you in the win at home against
Speaker 2: BYU in twenty twelve, it was the field storming game.
Speaker 2: That was a Kyle Whitningham game. Your longest drives for
Speaker 2: a touchdown were seventeen yards and thirty nine yards. You
Speaker 2: found a way to win with John Hayes Like that
Speaker 2: was dude, that was some work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's interesting. I was thinking about this through
Speaker 1: the prism like I'm watching Chiefs Bengals, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: Chiefs will figure it out. They're gonna win somehow, someway right,
Speaker 1: And I never fully and you probably experienced the same
Speaker 1: thing because on Saturday, I said this on Friday, that
Speaker 1: Utah State game had some of the tricky dynamics of
Speaker 1: what an upset game could encapsulate. And I say this
Speaker 1: every Monday. One of the reasons I love college football
Speaker 1: so much is the unpredictable nature of it, and really
Speaker 1: good teams get got every week, and Utah rarely gets
Speaker 1: got in a scenario where they're not supposed to lose,
Speaker 1: so unless there is a cataclysmic injury situation like there
Speaker 1: was a year ago, which made last year a moot point.
Speaker 1: I don't even reference it. It's a miracle they got
Speaker 1: to eight. I thought that was a great coaching job.
Speaker 1: More often than not, when Utah football is supposed to
Speaker 1: win a game, they win a game. He very rarely
Speaker 1: gets God when he's not supposed to get got So
Speaker 1: I view Saturday ultimately as a massive success because you
Speaker 1: handled your business and it was never fully uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: I mean, they go down fourteen to three.
Speaker 1: But I always get such a kick out of football
Speaker 1: fans who in the first and second quarter are tweeting
Speaker 1: like they're about to jump off their roof.
Speaker 2: I mean it's the first quarter. You can't be up
Speaker 2: a million to three after one. Like, give it some time.
Speaker 2: Just see Bears fans in the city. Oh sure, they're sure.
Speaker 1: But it was a combination of to your point, just
Speaker 1: a do your job work ethic coach, wit win. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's not get got here, let's not get let's not
Speaker 1: get stung by an end state team. When a lot
Speaker 1: of their players probably want to play for Utah. You
Speaker 1: know they're going to show up against a CFP contender
Speaker 1: to put good tape out there, and some of them
Speaker 1: did for their pro careers, like, let's not get God here.
Speaker 1: So that's simply put showing up getting to win when
Speaker 1: it never was fully in doubt, it just wasn't. But
Speaker 1: then to know, because look, Tony, I know you're not
Speaker 1: a gambler, but if I called you, I said, hey,
Speaker 1: you have no choice but to put the Tony Park
Speaker 1: paycheck from any of your seventy million jobs on the line.
Speaker 1: And the bet is will came rising play every game
Speaker 1: this season. Who is going to bet on that? Like,
Speaker 1: I don't want him to get hurt, and we want
Speaker 1: to see camp play all year. But I think it's
Speaker 1: fair to say that there's a really good chance that
Speaker 1: Utah is going to need Isaac in a pretty tricky
Speaker 1: spot in conference play because what's the confidence level the
Speaker 1: Cameron's just going to be under center all year.
Speaker 2: It's hard to have that right now. No, it really
Speaker 2: is hard to have that. So you need Isaac to
Speaker 2: just continue to progress. And I love this kid. I
Speaker 2: love the first time I ever saw Isaac Wilson. He's
Speaker 2: playing in a game against Loan Peak and this is
Speaker 2: a sophomore game, so by no means it says varsity whatever,
Speaker 2: he's a freshman. It's early in the season and he
Speaker 2: throws a really bad interception before halftime, and I mean,
Speaker 2: the coaching staff is just all over him. I mean,
Speaker 2: he was okay to be coached hard, and he took
Speaker 2: it on the chin and he owned it. He came
Speaker 2: out in the second half, they were down like seventeen
Speaker 2: eight minutes to go, and he rallied him back to
Speaker 2: win that game, and he made throws that were just insane.
Speaker 2: And I remember being like, this dude is tough. His
Speaker 2: name Wilson sling it, oh Man, no doubt about that.
Speaker 2: As a Jets I watched him from each piece of
Speaker 2: that not just grow a little bit, but grow so fast,
Speaker 2: so quickly. And I understand college football is a different deal.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying a sophomore high school experience is truly
Speaker 2: what's going to represent his whole college career, but his
Speaker 2: mindset and also where he comes from in a family
Speaker 2: that has played at high levels. You can see that
Speaker 2: he absorbs things quite quickly. And then you have a
Speaker 2: coaching staff who's great at managing problem solving. And Jason
Speaker 2: Bennetti said it last year in that game against the USC,
Speaker 2: Is there a program that's better a problem solving. No,
Speaker 2: there's not. So then you have all these ingredients with
Speaker 2: a chance for him to excel. I'm not saying he's
Speaker 2: going to hit all American level this next week, but
Speaker 2: I think he'll take a very good stride forward. And
Speaker 2: if that offensive line can play like they did during
Speaker 2: those final three weeks, I think they have a chance
Speaker 2: to have a great victory in Stillwater. Now, there's still
Speaker 2: plenty of variables. You gotta perform right. You have to execute.
Speaker 2: You can't come out there on the road and get
Speaker 2: off to a slow start. You can't feel your way
Speaker 2: into this game. You can't take what the defense gives you. No,
Speaker 2: you just got to go get it. And that old
Speaker 2: line can make life a lot easier on a QB
Speaker 2: in Wilson, who I think has great skills and talent.
Speaker 2: By the way, you now have I think a great
Speaker 2: weapon on third down, red zone, cold Weather another one.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't say just one, but Loaner going up and
Speaker 2: getting the ball and Wilson with great touch like that's
Speaker 2: that's fabulous. That's a great sign. So this is all
Speaker 2: formulating and coming together. And if this is that week
Speaker 2: where I think they polish it for four quarters they
Speaker 2: win this game, and.
Speaker 1: I just think it was so good for the fan
Speaker 1: base to see a dynamic in place, and look, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: State will be a different challenge.
Speaker 2: And if Isaac has.
Speaker 1: To play on a random Saturday, a road game in
Speaker 1: a hostile Big twelve environment, then we're gonna see he's
Speaker 1: made of because this is a different thing. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's not, but for how bad it was last
Speaker 1: year when it was Bryce and Nate, then Nate than Bryson,
Speaker 1: then Nate and Bryson, the fact that the fans.
Speaker 2: Were able to see it can look okay this year.
Speaker 1: Even if Cam has to miss time, I think put
Speaker 1: a lot of fears to bed because the dude, you
Speaker 1: know the deal. The conversation for Utah football over the
Speaker 1: past three four weeks leading up into the season. Here
Speaker 1: Kyle say it, Here Coach lud say it, like, we
Speaker 1: need Cam to be smart, we need him to show
Speaker 1: discretion is the better form of valor. We need him
Speaker 1: to throw the ball away, we need him to get down,
Speaker 1: we need him healthy. And he lasted a game and
Speaker 1: a half and here we are again. Now it's not
Speaker 1: a long term thing, and we're told that he is
Speaker 1: going to play on Saturday.
Speaker 2: That's the plan against Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: But the fact that it took a game and a
Speaker 1: half for Cameron to miss a game, not a couple
Speaker 1: of snaps, not a couple of series, he missed an
Speaker 1: entire game that, in my opinion, brant a lot of
Speaker 1: it anxiety around here, like, oh, here we go again.
Speaker 1: It's gonna look like it did last year. And I
Speaker 1: think Tony, at least for one day, the fan base
Speaker 1: saw that it's not going to look like last year.
Speaker 2: In the event that Cam No totally agreed, because now
Speaker 2: you're dealing with the guy with a lot more skills,
Speaker 2: and that's no slight to the guys before. It's just
Speaker 2: a factive. This guy has more skills. You watch the
Speaker 2: way he throws the ball, the different types of throws.
Speaker 2: He's more polished, he's more skilled. You don't have to
Speaker 2: protect yourself from him. It's not be careful Country. It's
Speaker 2: not John Hayes where you throw a deep once each
Speaker 2: half and then try to hand it off to John
Speaker 2: White for the other you know whatever, sixty five snaps. No,
Speaker 2: that's not it. The preparation is going to give a
Speaker 2: more skilled quarterback when he's out there, it'll be in
Speaker 2: Isaac a lot more confidence on what's going on. Plus
Speaker 2: you have a great coach in Cam Rising who has
Speaker 2: no reason not to help coach this guy up right,
Speaker 2: because when Cam is fully healthy and ready, he's the
Speaker 2: guy that's back out there. Right. So there's a great
Speaker 2: amount of trust that's in this program. And I've seen
Speaker 2: it ten thousand times. It's very very rare in this
Speaker 2: and in college football right now. With depth and experience
Speaker 2: on that coaching staff that you always feel like they're
Speaker 2: going to give you the very best chance possible with
Speaker 2: what you're working with here, and what you're working with
Speaker 2: is still very good. So I'm with you on the
Speaker 2: here we go again. It's gonna get anxiety. The one
Speaker 2: thing you got to do is exhale and say, man,
Speaker 2: we got a great coach in place. They're gonna come
Speaker 2: prepared for a guy in Wilson. It's not like he's
Speaker 2: coming in there. Hey, you know, this is kind of
Speaker 2: his thing. He's new. We don't really know what he's
Speaker 2: made of.
Speaker 1: No, I think we've seen some of what he's made of,
Speaker 1: and I think at his very very best, he's showing
Speaker 1: you some flashes to be great and I think he's
Speaker 1: going to show you continued flashes to be responsible.
Speaker 2: The big one there, too is defense has got to
Speaker 2: come up with some more timely plays. The Snowden pick
Speaker 2: was I think as big as anything. It was awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like that. I did not see a pick coming on
Speaker 2: that play. At best, they saw a PBu Like. The
Speaker 2: guy's a hell of a player, right, I chance see
Speaker 2: him up close a lot. So it's some of that
Speaker 2: all mixed in together to get what I think will
Speaker 2: be a close road victory. But I could see the
Speaker 2: fan being a concern. The other thing you got to
Speaker 2: remember is be happy that you're in a conference that
Speaker 2: is not going to be like Oregon and Washington and
Speaker 2: maybe USC happened to be at the top last year,
Speaker 2: and you are dealing with a team that is well
Speaker 2: put into place to go give you a great chance
Speaker 2: the rest of the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a lot to be confident about.
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think the next four games it's
Speaker 1: not an easy task. It's Oklahoma State, it's Arizona home,
Speaker 1: then it's at Arizona State, who's been a lot better
Speaker 1: than anybody thought. I'm a big UCF guy, but I'm
Speaker 1: not super down on TCU after that great football game
Speaker 1: over the weekend. That's how UCF just beat them and
Speaker 1: the other thing. And then we'll move on because I
Speaker 1: have to wonder. Brock Hword hopped on the show prior
Speaker 1: to the season, and I actually heard him talking about
Speaker 1: this on the Utah Baylor broadcast as well. It's not
Speaker 1: a slight corner canyon. It's not a slight high school football.
Speaker 1: Andy Ludwigs playbook is ten times to what you know
Speaker 1: as it pertains to what Isaac Wilson has used to study.
Speaker 1: And it's a different thing altogether. It's a different level.
Speaker 1: It's more complex and nuanced. But I thought coach lud
Speaker 1: let him go. Look bit against Utah Stadi threw it
Speaker 1: thirty three times. So I wonder, and again let's be
Speaker 1: clear here for people that are turning on the radio,
Speaker 1: same way they're talking about Isaac Wilson playing. Now Cam
Speaker 1: is expected to play on Saturday, But I wonder if
Speaker 1: Isaac needs to get back in there. Did Andy see
Speaker 1: enough from him on Saturday to continue to give him
Speaker 1: some freedoms to be who he is as opposed to
Speaker 1: to your point, just three yards in a cloud of dust, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he has.
Speaker 2: I think he has I think he has the maturity.
Speaker 2: I think he has the focus. I think he has
Speaker 2: the tenacity. I think he has the responsible mindset where
Speaker 2: he can still play with abundance without having to be careless,
Speaker 2: but yet plays with the right amount of scarcity and
Speaker 2: understanding control and managing the game. And Kyle today was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I shouldn't use the word managing because it sounds like
Speaker 2: we're trying to protect ourselves from him. But no, he
Speaker 2: understands the full sixty minutes, the ten possessions or whatever,
Speaker 2: ten to twelve possessions, and he has an element to
Speaker 2: his game that he understands how to consume the whole
Speaker 2: game so well. And I know some of this is
Speaker 2: because I was so close to it for so many years,
Speaker 2: but I was so impressed, you know, with Zach obviously,
Speaker 2: and I'm impressed with Isaac in that way. I think
Speaker 2: he's well ahead of what most people in his position
Speaker 2: would be, and so is he finished. No, but if
Speaker 2: you end up having to go to him again somewhere,
Speaker 2: because as you mentioned like that, there's an injury situation
Speaker 2: there that exists, you're not trying to speak ill of camp,
Speaker 2: but it just is what it is. You've got a
Speaker 2: lot of games left and you might need to have
Speaker 2: this again. And when you need to go to it,
Speaker 2: are you going to have Conference player of the Year
Speaker 2: type performance? No? All American No, But what you will
Speaker 2: have is something that you can depend on to minimize
Speaker 2: the gap between who your starter is and who your
Speaker 2: backup is. Because last year it was quite a drop.
Speaker 1: Let me get a quick by you thought from you
Speaker 1: before we catch a break for the five o'clock hour
Speaker 1: of the show. Last year, it just it was weird
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways for a team whose head
Speaker 1: coach was Kolonie Satake and his defensive coordinator was Jay Hill.
Speaker 1: To be I think they were last in the country
Speaker 1: in sacks. They could not pressure the quarterback. It didn't
Speaker 1: look great. Keaton slow Is are fully settled in, they
Speaker 1: get off to a decent start, then they get smoked
Speaker 1: in conference play. But it was the defense that confused me.
Speaker 1: Because Klannie that's his thing. Jay Hill, that's his thing.
Speaker 1: We were talking about Dave Randa earlier. Klane cut his
Speaker 1: teeth under Kyle, so did Jay. They know the deal.
Speaker 1: They know that in order to win football games, you
Speaker 1: have to be stout on that side of the ball,
Speaker 1: and they are this year very stout defensively in a
Speaker 1: way that I don't think they were a year ago. Now,
Speaker 1: a lot of it's going to come down to Jake
Speaker 1: and I'd sit down and turn on the game. He
Speaker 1: throws that early pick and I'm like, dude, what are
Speaker 1: we doing here? I mean, a Rod last week said
Speaker 1: I will eliminate the turnovers form my program. As QB
Speaker 1: goes out, throws an early pick and I'm like, Balhannah
Speaker 1: started warming up. It was on the broadcast they started
Speaker 1: warming up a hand in. I'm like, all right, they're
Speaker 1: going to pull the plug. But I thought Jake, just
Speaker 1: like Isaac, responded really well. Manson on Friday said Wyoming sucks.
Speaker 1: B why you should roll. I wasn't convinced that Wyoming sucked,
Speaker 1: but they suck, and by you rolled.
Speaker 2: Give me your thoughts on by He's clean start. Well,
Speaker 2: I think Wyoming isn't very good, and I think by
Speaker 2: You is going to be tested even more so here
Speaker 2: coming up. The big thing is can you play consistently enough?
Speaker 2: Can you stay away from some of the catastrophic mistakes
Speaker 2: that against Wyoming? You'll get away with here and there.
Speaker 2: Like Utah had a slow start in their game against
Speaker 2: Utah State, Right, you can't do that against Oklahoma State.
Speaker 2: But at your best, which I think they showed during
Speaker 2: huge stretches of those final three quarters, you can dominate
Speaker 2: a team like that, and you can absolutely show the
Speaker 2: fundamental sound abilities to control a game by you. I
Speaker 2: still need to see more from them that they can
Speaker 2: avoid some of the catastrophic mistakes that give me belief
Speaker 2: that they can have a much better season than I
Speaker 2: had originally expected. Right, some of that is still going
Speaker 2: to be a work in progress, and I think one
Speaker 2: of the big questions about them at a P four level,
Speaker 2: if you will, is can they get the players often
Speaker 2: enough to be that kind of program that emerges and grows. Right,
Speaker 2: there was an acclamation period for Utah to the PAC twelve,
Speaker 2: and that was clearly a few years there where they
Speaker 2: were sub five hundred, didn't go to bulls, things like that,
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden it was eight plus
Speaker 2: wins regularly for BYU. I'm very curious about that because
Speaker 2: the acclimation period is different, because you're recruiting, your situation
Speaker 2: is unique. I do think They have as good a
Speaker 2: staff as you could ask for, with great abilities to
Speaker 2: recruit in a variety of different ways. Now the big
Speaker 2: thing is just how good is their best And I
Speaker 2: think Jay who if you look at what they do defensively, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it comes from perfecting fundamentals, lane discipline, guys understanding their job,
Speaker 2: not getting outside of themselves. But on offense, you've got
Speaker 2: to be able to make big plays more often enough.
Speaker 2: And then the other thing you're gonna need is you
Speaker 2: got to stay away from some of the catastrophic mistakes.
Speaker 2: So how they weigh that balance here spence against better
Speaker 2: competition that remains to be seen. And I think a
Speaker 2: Rod has a really big task on his hand to
Speaker 2: gauge and balance how that is because Kyle Whittingham, with
Speaker 2: his number of offense coordinators that he had for years,
Speaker 2: had to figure out how to do that. With Travis Wilson,
Speaker 2: he had to figure out how to do that. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously with John Hayes and some other guys. He had
Speaker 2: to figure out how to do that without depth, because
Speaker 2: when they would have some injuries to olign and then
Speaker 2: you have some quarterback issues, all of a sudden, you
Speaker 2: start one to five that's hard. So I'm very curious
Speaker 2: to see how a rod works and balances that. There's
Speaker 2: a real fine amount of work that goes into that.
Speaker 2: And by the way, it was a part of some
Speaker 2: of those Utah staffs they had to work with that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny some people may forget not to
Speaker 1: do the Trump thing, like everyone forgot. No, you're the
Speaker 1: only one that forgot. There was a time when it
Speaker 1: came to the Utah offensive coordinator spot where it felt
Speaker 1: like it was like, hey, does anyone have Dave Shram's number? Right?
Speaker 1: Like it was such a turnover right year in and year out.
Speaker 1: The coach lud has really solidified that. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you one more thing, because I don't think I've got
Speaker 1: your take on this, and I'm surprised. Now, let's be clear,
Speaker 1: the reporting on this is murky because nil stuff. There's
Speaker 1: some websites here there and there's some reporting that you
Speaker 1: can look at. By all accounts, and this is a
Speaker 1: Ryan Smith thing because Ryan's a basketball guy. But by
Speaker 1: all accounts, BYU at this point has tremendous resources invested
Speaker 1: in their basketball program, yet they have not found the
Speaker 1: football equivalent of Ryan Smith. And I just thought, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I come from a family of BYU fans. I've got
Speaker 1: a brother who's the CEO of a company, and there
Speaker 1: are so many ex BYU athletes or just x BYU
Speaker 1: students to go on to start companies or MLMs and
Speaker 1: make a ton of money.
Speaker 2: They'll love BYU football.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised the Ryan Smith equivalent for the
Speaker 1: football program has not manifested itself just yet, at least
Speaker 1: as far as our understanding goes.
Speaker 2: So I said this from the beginning. I was working
Speaker 2: at America First Credit Union. There weren't many people in
Speaker 2: the office at the time. It was COVID, but there
Speaker 2: are a few people and we would talk football in
Speaker 2: this great time, and this nil thing really started getting big.
Speaker 2: They talked about how big a deal it could be
Speaker 2: for football, and that's what they wanted to see. Hey,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of people to support this team. They
Speaker 2: could really get behind it in these different ways. I said,
Speaker 2: I think basketball is where they can really make it happen.
Speaker 2: Because you have a smaller number of players, you have
Speaker 2: a much better chance to garner some stars. You have
Speaker 2: a twenty thousand seed arena that you can pack. I
Speaker 2: think they have game presentation that is second to none.
Speaker 2: They're so good with their game and they're so good
Speaker 2: with their fan experience. I tip my hat to them
Speaker 2: all the time. They're really really good at it. And
Speaker 2: that's not to disparage anybody else. I just think they
Speaker 2: really have something there that I think is very impressive,
Speaker 2: and so they've worked hard at it and they've taken
Speaker 2: a pride in it. I think if you're an athlete,
Speaker 2: you love to see that in basketball, the way that
Speaker 2: they do it. And people at Utah would say, well,
Speaker 2: well why not.
Speaker 1: Us, Well, no, it's hard because you don't have enough
Speaker 1: people there to have some of what you're trying to build.
Speaker 2: And obviously that comes with winning. And we can go
Speaker 2: down that rabbit hole another day. So it's kind of
Speaker 2: unfair to some of the other staffs trying to put
Speaker 2: together a good fan experience because bou basketball has something there.
Speaker 2: They put together some good wins there with Pope, they
Speaker 2: had a good run that you know, they went to
Speaker 2: an NCAA tournament. Whatever, They're stacked right on paper. This year,
Speaker 2: this year, this year, the juice is just high man
Speaker 2: and you you did a lot with the coaching staff,
Speaker 2: so Niol With basketball, I thought was going to have
Speaker 2: the first big impact. I do think they can get
Speaker 2: there with football, but it's got to be with like
Speaker 2: a quarterback and then a key running back receiver, right,
Speaker 2: So you dial in on a couple of key positions
Speaker 2: for that and you target in on that, and that
Speaker 2: is the way it would have to happen. That I
Speaker 2: think is a slower process. I really do believe it's
Speaker 2: a slower process there, Spence, and it's it's got to
Speaker 2: be something that's gonna come over time. Whereas basketball, I
Speaker 2: thought they would actually have it earlier than they have
Speaker 2: until now. Now they're ready to go. But I remember
Speaker 2: saying that all the way back and like the fall
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty, going no, this is this is actually
Speaker 2: where they can have massive advancement.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, because that's been the case. All right, Tom,
Speaker 1: great to see before I say you lose hit that
Speaker 1: be's promo again.
Speaker 2: Well we do it. We got get at SLBs dot com.
Speaker 2: Make sure you come out to the games five dollars
Speaker 2: tickets on Sunday. You get to run around the bases
Speaker 2: on the field after the game. You know what, you
Speaker 2: could probably stay longer, take a few pictures. You know,
Speaker 2: have a good time, hang out with Bumble for a
Speaker 2: few extra minutes. Let it be that sign off. Let
Speaker 2: it be something that you're a part of. By the way,
Speaker 2: weather Sunday is supposed to be amazing, so you know,
Speaker 2: it's one of those days where bring a jacket anyway,
Speaker 2: but it's probably gonna be nice. Probably don't need it. Oh,
Speaker 2: when it's bark at the park on Sunday, bring your
Speaker 2: dog to the ballpark. Gets your tickets SLBs nice dot com.
Speaker 2: There's no better place for park in the park than
Speaker 2: that place. Friday night, Go Gold Night. That is gonna
Speaker 2: be a beautiful and special night. Fireworks after the game.
Speaker 2: But we have wonderful tribute set up for all the
Speaker 2: different families currently in the fight, those who have been
Speaker 2: in the fight, those who have lost somebody in the fight.
Speaker 2: Cancer affects everybody in some way, people that we love.
Speaker 2: For me, I've got a very good friend of mine, you,
Speaker 2: who you know, has has been a part of that fight,
Speaker 2: and I think of you every single time anything like
Speaker 2: that comes up. I appreciate it and the conversations we've
Speaker 2: had off the air. We have friends of ours who've
Speaker 2: had children who've been in that fight, and so it's
Speaker 2: a wonderful night to come to the ballpark be a
Speaker 2: part of those tributes and the Huntsman Cancer Foundation's pediatric research,
Speaker 2: all of that. Big thanks to everybody over there for
Speaker 2: all that they do. So at any point, come twice
Speaker 2: this week. You know the ticket deals are gonna be
Speaker 2: good enough you can afford to come twice, and we'll
Speaker 2: have some great options for a gear that you can
Speaker 2: buy in the Team store that you're gonna love the
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Speaker 2: coounts when it comes to concessions, just everything involved with it.
Speaker 2: Make sure you're a part of it. S LBS dot com.
Speaker 2: Great to see him, My brother, Okay Park's voice of
Speaker 2: the Bes