Speaker 1: Set.
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Speaker 2: right here on your home of the Ute, ESPN seven
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Speaker 3: All Right, sports fans, welcome back.
Speaker 4: It is the Drive with Spence Check. It's here on
Speaker 4: ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one FM, Proud
Speaker 4: to be a part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.
Speaker 3: I'm Scott Mitchell filling in for sent today and the
Speaker 3: rest of this weekend.
Speaker 4: So it's been here all week and I feel like
Speaker 4: I have a lot. I feel like it's home now.
Speaker 4: If you missed part of the show, don't worry. Just
Speaker 4: go download the ESPN seven hundred Sports app or go
Speaker 4: to ESPN seven other sports dot com and you can
Speaker 4: get You can live stream this, you can catch the
Speaker 4: podcast version. You don't want to miss a moment of
Speaker 4: what we talk about, because we talk about the most
Speaker 4: important things, the things you care about, the things that
Speaker 4: are interesting, the things that move the needle.
Speaker 3: We're doing it all right right now.
Speaker 4: Speaking of doing it, we have none other than former
Speaker 4: Ute and BYU wide receiver coach Guy Holiday joins the program.
Speaker 3: Guy, how are you today?
Speaker 1: I'm great Scott, How are you doing? Man?
Speaker 4: I'm living the dream and it's not a nightmare, so
Speaker 4: I cannot complain.
Speaker 3: I am. I'm a happy camera.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 3: So tell me what are you up to these days?
Speaker 1: I own a a sports training facility actually twenty six
Speaker 1: thousand square feet down here, and so that got my
Speaker 1: health back good. So, uh whatever, So.
Speaker 4: Do you know, because it's fall camp started, you know
Speaker 4: that the juices are flowing and uh, and your facility
Speaker 4: looks amazing, and you know there's something about that. I
Speaker 4: would love to do myself to just kind of work
Speaker 4: with athletes and develop and train. But so it sounds
Speaker 4: really cool. But uh, do you do you miss coaching?
Speaker 4: Do you miss when it gets to be this time
Speaker 4: of year and you're you're finally starting up again?
Speaker 1: You know that that's I go back and forth. I
Speaker 1: certainly I missed the camaraderie of being around you know,
Speaker 1: fellow coaches. I miss I missed the players. Uh, but
Speaker 1: you know, the grind of it. I think you I
Speaker 1: miss it, but uh, you just want it kind of controlled,
Speaker 1: you know. And quite honestly, the last year and a
Speaker 1: half when I was at Utah, I got ill and
Speaker 1: it just wore me down it, you know, and and
Speaker 1: it goes that way sometimes, but no, yeah, of course
Speaker 1: I miss it. I think there's nothing better than a
Speaker 1: Saturday night football game, and uh so, sure you missed
Speaker 1: that and the ability you don't have the ability to
Speaker 1: compete anymore, but that competitiveness you can pass on to
Speaker 1: your to your players, and so that part of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do miss that. I'm not going to say I don't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So who is your favorite player that you coached?
Speaker 1: Oh, that's that's tough. I have a lot. Greg Jennings
Speaker 1: was the one that comes to mind. Uh, Reggie Barlow.
Speaker 1: Love Reggie Barlow, I love Tim Patrick. I think Tim
Speaker 1: formed a really good relationship with Tim Raylan Singleton and
Speaker 1: I'm going back to Utah days. Of course, it's hard
Speaker 1: to say, Uh, you gotta include Jordan Leslie considering he's
Speaker 1: my stepson, and uh so you all that comes. It's
Speaker 1: been so many good players that I've been fortunate enough
Speaker 1: to be around. But you know this, and being a
Speaker 1: former player, it's I think what you really take pride
Speaker 1: in is what they become as men. And that always
Speaker 1: meant something to me. I mean, Sampson, the Corps, you know,
Speaker 1: I love coaching Samson and he was a character, so
Speaker 1: you know, you love I used to always say the
Speaker 1: ideal thing is to have characters with character and and
Speaker 1: and I think that those are the guys I missed.
Speaker 1: And uh, but it's so many through the years. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think one day I sit down, I think it's
Speaker 1: like thirty four or thirty five NFL players that I coached.
Speaker 1: So hopefully I made an impact on those guys when
Speaker 1: I had them. And and you know, you go from there.
Speaker 4: It's quite a list. You just let you just named.
Speaker 4: I mean, I throw all those guys, I'd be happy
Speaker 4: to do that. So they're great players. I just remember.
Speaker 4: I don't know why I remember this, but when I
Speaker 4: was when I was recruited to go play in college
Speaker 4: and I was recruited by b why you and h
Speaker 4: and Lavelle Edwards And we had a conversation one time.
Speaker 4: It just stuck with me, and it was and and
Speaker 4: he actually told me who his favorite players were. And
Speaker 4: I just I just found that, I don't know, fascinating,
Speaker 4: that he actually he actually had favorites and that he
Speaker 4: was willing to tell me who they were. And and
Speaker 4: that was it was a short list too, But I
Speaker 4: don't know, it was just it was just fascinating.
Speaker 3: And then.
Speaker 4: I was just going to say, you know, I coached, Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, I coached at my high school and and
Speaker 4: I had never thought anything could be as satisfying as
Speaker 4: punt being a player, like it was the coolest thing
Speaker 4: in the world, you know, to go play football and
Speaker 4: play it at the level I did.
Speaker 3: But man, you talk about having.
Speaker 4: An impact on these these young men's lives, and it
Speaker 4: was really it became really satisfying and really cool to
Speaker 4: me that you could go back and uh and actually
Speaker 4: teach someone else something and they get it, and then
Speaker 4: to watch them succeed at it and and excel. I
Speaker 4: was like, I don't know that this is less than
Speaker 4: being a player. In a lot of ways, it's even
Speaker 4: more satisfying.
Speaker 1: I think for me being a coach and having played
Speaker 1: at at every level, being a coach was far more rewarding.
Speaker 1: Which you know, once you get to college and then
Speaker 1: in the NFL, it's a job. It's the rewards, Uh,
Speaker 1: once you get to a certain level really comes in
Speaker 1: winning and uh, when you are a coach, the rewards
Speaker 1: is watching someone develop and and helping them become not
Speaker 1: only a good football player, but a better person, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's that's been fortunate for me. I left one
Speaker 1: person off the list. One of my all time favorite
Speaker 1: tape to go back, Grick Covey. But anyway, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean he's when you talk about I think the thing
Speaker 1: is a coach that you love the most. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: fun to coach talented guys, but it's probably funner to
Speaker 1: coach a guy who maybe not have as much talent,
Speaker 1: but he puts in so much work and you just
Speaker 1: watch him get rewarded for the hard work. And I
Speaker 1: think that's so pleasurable for me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I could totally see that now. I also know
Speaker 4: that these young men are still young men. Brain's not
Speaker 4: fully developed, and it comes with challenges. What was the
Speaker 4: most challenge, because it would just drive me nuts, What
Speaker 4: was the most challenging part of coaching these young men
Speaker 4: and knowing that they're going to just do stupid things
Speaker 4: from time to time.
Speaker 1: I think the first thing that's most challenging is getting
Speaker 1: young people to understand that football is not a right,
Speaker 1: it's a privilege, and understanding all the work that has
Speaker 1: to go and to be successful. And I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously social media was influential when I was
Speaker 1: when I was coaching. Now it's it's worse. And so
Speaker 1: I think one of the most frustrating things even now,
Speaker 1: that I see people look at a thirty second clip
Speaker 1: of glory and they never look at the story. They
Speaker 1: never look at how hard it is to be successful,
Speaker 1: and that that was nerve wracking. And of course, you know,
Speaker 1: being in in the NFL and college, one of the
Speaker 1: toughest groups to coach are receivers when it comes to
Speaker 1: managing egos and this whole class thing going to class,
Speaker 1: and so those were the things that you struggle with
Speaker 1: and you you knew that you just had to stick
Speaker 1: with it long enough to where the light bulb came on.
Speaker 1: And I think that when you say about rewarding, that's
Speaker 1: the most rewarding thing. When they find they wake up
Speaker 1: that morning, they walk in and it's like, who is
Speaker 1: this guy? This? This is the guy that I wanted
Speaker 1: him to be. And I think that that so the
Speaker 1: frustrating part is watching him screw it up over and
Speaker 1: over again, no matter how many times you try to
Speaker 1: tell him, uh. And I'm a parent, so that's just
Speaker 1: like your kids, and and then watching that light bulb
Speaker 1: come on, and then and and maybe the most disappointing
Speaker 1: thing are the ones that you couldn't reach or they
Speaker 1: made a poor decision that affected the rest of their lives.
Speaker 3: Uh, you were born in Baltimore. Did you grow up
Speaker 3: in Baltimore.
Speaker 1: I grew up born in Baltimore. Spent a big part
Speaker 1: of my time in California, between Baltimore and California. Most
Speaker 1: people know, my dad was something owing, my mother was
Speaker 1: Cuban and so came from a totally different background, and
Speaker 1: so I, you know, spent so much time in California,
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area, and then of course southern Californi
Speaker 1: and then but most of my life that I can recall,
Speaker 1: I went to some school in California. But back to Baltimore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so on the West side of Baltimore. I always try
Speaker 1: to tell people to ask me where, and I tell
Speaker 1: them exactly where the wire happened. I grew up in
Speaker 1: the Murphy Home Projects.
Speaker 4: Actually, my agent is from Baltimore. I spent a good
Speaker 4: deal of time there and I've had crabcakes. That's what
Speaker 4: I want to talk about. Have you ever had crabcakes?
Speaker 4: I lost crabcakes.
Speaker 1: If you've never had a Maryland crabcake, you haven't had
Speaker 1: a crack cake.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: It is different. It's no filler, it's blue crabs straight
Speaker 1: from the Chesapeake Bay and it's it's to die for.
Speaker 1: And I actually have crab meat ship out and I
Speaker 1: make my crack cakes.
Speaker 4: Here, So I have done that before, believe it or not,
Speaker 4: I actually have. H So why was it like? What
Speaker 4: was it like at USC?
Speaker 1: And I ended up there? Obviously the summer and tradition
Speaker 1: helped me being my first year at high school in
Speaker 1: California health and it was at that time USC recruited
Speaker 1: the East Coast pretty good. I mean when you the
Speaker 1: Chip banks from Augusta, Georgia. You know, when Pete Carroll
Speaker 1: got back, he started going back to Jersey. So I
Speaker 1: it was a natural for me. I would go down
Speaker 1: to the camps every summer because they wanted to get
Speaker 1: me out. The house didn't want me hanging around, and
Speaker 1: so my uncle would flop me out if I wasn't
Speaker 1: already in California and go And that's how it ended up.
Speaker 3: Wow, what was your What was it like?
Speaker 1: It was at that time probably that some of the
Speaker 1: most talented people I've ever been around, whether it's Kobe Brenner,
Speaker 1: whether it's coming in when Marcus Allen is leaving, you know,
Speaker 1: there's uh leaving and seeing Junior say out come in.
Speaker 1: I mean the players were and you know back in
Speaker 1: that time, you weren't transferring. I called home and told
Speaker 1: my mother I wanted to come home, and she asked me,
Speaker 1: did I realize how long the greyhound bus ride was
Speaker 1: back to Baltimore? So that didn't go well for me.
Speaker 1: It was great. The tradition was great, you know Jr.
Speaker 1: The first year and then Ted told the b why guy?
Speaker 1: Uh So, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Speaker 4: Honestly, Yeah, I find I just like, to me us
Speaker 4: he is like the standard bear.
Speaker 3: Like every kid, that's the first place they want to go.
Speaker 4: And I and and then if they don't, you know,
Speaker 4: then they go somewhere that you know, like a lot
Speaker 4: of kids Utah gets, they want to play USC every year,
Speaker 4: you know, if they can't join them, they want to
Speaker 4: play against them every year, and and and and I
Speaker 4: just I was just curious to what, you know, what
Speaker 4: it was like to be there and uh so interesting?
Speaker 1: Well it was it was a ball and like you said,
Speaker 1: I think every kid. Hell, when I got to Utah,
Speaker 1: that was the one game I circled on the schedule
Speaker 1: every year. You know, I know Utah b y U
Speaker 1: is huge obviously, but you know, for me personally, it
Speaker 1: was always Utah. I see.
Speaker 4: So, speaking of U b y U and Utah, you
Speaker 4: coached at both of these schools. Uh, tell me a
Speaker 4: little bit about that, Like what was similar about these
Speaker 4: two schools?
Speaker 1: I think that there there is because and Kyle will
Speaker 1: probably kill me for saying this, but there are a
Speaker 1: lot of similarities with Wit and Bronco menden Hall in
Speaker 1: the defense and the high effort. I think, how can
Speaker 1: I The big difference for me, and I always try
Speaker 1: to describe this like b y you is I've never
Speaker 1: coached a place like that where if you are walk outside,
Speaker 1: everybody knows you. If you go, you know, did something,
Speaker 1: and everyone knows you. So that was tough, and that
Speaker 1: was that was challenging. It was somewhat like that at
Speaker 1: Mississippi State, but you know that was different. Uh, certainly,
Speaker 1: Uh Utah. What I loved about Utah the people, the
Speaker 1: people were great. It was you know, a little bit
Speaker 1: more diversity for me, not being LDS a lot more diversity.
Speaker 1: But I think I had the george of being under
Speaker 1: two two really good head coaches and two defensive minded
Speaker 1: head coaches and two people who don't will never realize
Speaker 1: how similar they are from a football philosophy standpoint. Uh So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I love with With is my guy. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't have a not close to Bronco. We we
Speaker 1: communicate every now and then. But I mean Utah is
Speaker 1: just for me. That was going to be my last job,
Speaker 1: just because of the I came to Utah for one
Speaker 1: huge reason. I told with this, you know, to me,
Speaker 1: Utah was everything that FS was. It was punch you
Speaker 1: in a face, defense, run the ball down your throat,
Speaker 1: and make some big plays. And it was about toughness.
Speaker 1: It was so much about toughness when I first got there,
Speaker 1: and I just that's who I am as a person,
Speaker 1: you know, coming from humble background, underside and you know,
Speaker 1: you just gotta be tough. And uh So, I really
Speaker 1: loved that culture. Both both the universities are very unique,
Speaker 1: you know, being down in as uh and and UH
Speaker 1: and Provo, it's it's different. I mean, everybody's so they're
Speaker 1: really not you know, all the time and that's not
Speaker 1: my reality with with people. And then but just coming
Speaker 1: coming to South I love Salt Lake City. I think
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City is one of the most under valued
Speaker 1: cities in the country. As far as I had a
Speaker 1: great experience that I love being close to Park City.
Speaker 1: Uh So they were both very unique experiences. And if
Speaker 1: someone asked me, you know, would you go back to
Speaker 1: either one of those? Yeah, you know, I think with
Speaker 1: Kliney being there, and then you know, always with with is.
Speaker 1: I love Kyle Whittingham. I can't say enough about him,
Speaker 1: and I think people are don't expect much from Utah,
Speaker 1: but I just like, I don't know how you can
Speaker 1: know Kyle Whittingham and think that he was going to
Speaker 1: walk away last year.
Speaker 3: There's no way that is.
Speaker 1: I've worked for two people that hated lou as much
Speaker 1: as as much as any two people I've been around,
Speaker 1: and they wore it on that sleeve. Kyle Whittingham and
Speaker 1: Jackie Sheryl. You love winning the boy when you lost,
Speaker 1: you knew, you knew that freaking Sunday meeting and that
Speaker 1: Monday meeting and just get through Tuesdays practice and it's like, yes,
Speaker 1: you know, and but that's what you love about him.
Speaker 1: He taught.
Speaker 3: He told me that.
Speaker 4: He says, he said, I get after my coaches on
Speaker 4: Sunday he goes, he goes, I get after him.
Speaker 1: No, you can't be a meek individual, you know, and
Speaker 1: worked for Kyle Whittingham. What I loved about with he
Speaker 1: asked your input, He asked honest questions and if you
Speaker 1: gave him honest answers and if he got after you
Speaker 1: and you were up to the challenge, he always respected that.
Speaker 1: And that's what I love about him. It wasn't He's
Speaker 1: not the people have this say only beat you up. No,
Speaker 1: I never. He never wants to beat me up. And
Speaker 1: he was always when he came at me, he always
Speaker 1: wanted feedback. And that's what I will always respect about him. Uh.
Speaker 4: He's just He's a tough minded, just straightforward, honest person.
Speaker 3: That's who he is and that's what he wants. So
Speaker 3: I'm I.
Speaker 4: I have been perplexed by this for ages and and
Speaker 4: I do the color for the for Utah and half
Speaker 4: for the last year eight years, you know, alumni all
Speaker 4: that stuff, and watched.
Speaker 3: This for years and we threw the heck out of football.
Speaker 4: When when I was at Utah and and and they
Speaker 4: don't throw the heck out of the football now and then.
Speaker 4: I'll be honest, it's a little hard to watch, but
Speaker 4: but I I work through it. How do you get
Speaker 4: your receivers where there's so many they're so limited in
Speaker 4: their opportunities, you know, I mean just just they warm
Speaker 4: up before the game, they're catching the ball and it
Speaker 4: might be two hours of actual time before they see
Speaker 4: their first pass. I mean, you know, I think that's hard,
Speaker 4: and you know, and to stay focused and then to
Speaker 4: actually make a play, and usually it's like on third
Speaker 4: it's a critical situation, you know, And uh, how do
Speaker 4: you keep your guys focused when when they're their opportunities
Speaker 4: to catch the football kind of are limited.
Speaker 1: I think what you have to go in is be
Speaker 1: honest with them and just really sell the point that
Speaker 1: it's not how many balls you get, it's what you
Speaker 1: do with the ones that you do get. And if
Speaker 1: you pout and you're so frustrated, I can promise you
Speaker 1: and my experience, when the opportunity comes, you're not going
Speaker 1: to be able to perform because you're in your own mind.
Speaker 1: And it's certainly I think when I when I first
Speaker 1: got there. It was certainly a lot easier with a rod.
Speaker 1: We did throw it around a little bit. I think
Speaker 1: if you go back my first year with Luod, we
Speaker 1: did throw it. I think a lot of people forget
Speaker 1: University of Washington game we had five two or three
Speaker 1: receivers close to one hundred yards. I think it was three.
Speaker 1: So I think you do throw it. I think what
Speaker 1: people misunderstand about Kyle Whittingham, he is not anti throwing
Speaker 1: the football. He does not walk in and tell a
Speaker 1: coordinator you got to run the ball. He walks in
Speaker 1: and he's all he wants is success. And you know,
Speaker 1: I was there with Troy Taylor and Troy we I
Speaker 1: think we were together two years and we threw the
Speaker 1: hell out of it. But you know, the hard thing
Speaker 1: in football is understanding your offense and defense, and teams
Speaker 1: have to compliment each other. And so I think people
Speaker 1: misunderstand with Witt wants to score points. And I can
Speaker 1: tell you that, and Wit has no problem throwing the ball. Now,
Speaker 1: what he doesn't want to do is go for a
Speaker 1: straight series of three and out right you know which
Speaker 1: is And you know when Lud came, Lud was very
Speaker 1: much from coaching a receiver standpoint. I think that's when
Speaker 1: it got a little challenging because, and you know, being
Speaker 1: in the NFL, you're zipping down receivers to go dig
Speaker 1: out will backer or going up to the strong safety
Speaker 1: to make the key block on power. And I never
Speaker 1: lied to a kid when I was recruiting them. I
Speaker 1: never would never tell a kid, hey, we're going to
Speaker 1: throw it a hundred times, you're going to be the
Speaker 1: starting receiver. I never did that. So I think you
Speaker 1: got to sell them on the fact that this is
Speaker 1: how the NFL plays, and you got to be able
Speaker 1: to take advantage of it when you get your opportunities.
Speaker 4: I love it, I love the conversation, really enjoyed this.
Speaker 4: Appreciate your time today and wish you all the best
Speaker 4: of luck with your adventure you got going there.
Speaker 3: It sounds sounds really exciting. And take care.
Speaker 1: Hey, I appreciated Scott. And I'll tell you who I
Speaker 1: ran across about. I was in Atlanta a couple of
Speaker 1: months back, and I ran across Robert Torche and I'm
Speaker 1: sure that you remember. Oh yes, that's right, brother. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 4: All right, he be good here, All right, there you
Speaker 4: have a guy Holiday, former wide receiver coach at Utah.
Speaker 3: Very fascinating stuff, really cool. Love love the interview.