Speaker 1: Alright, what's going on? Drivetime Monday afternoon, about fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: past the hour of two o'clock. All is here. It's
Speaker 1: a little chilly, as we are about to turn our
Speaker 1: calendars to November here in a few days. But as
Speaker 1: it is every single day, it's gonna have you along
Speaker 1: for the riots. Bence check. It's behind the mike. That
Speaker 1: young man is Porter Larson beyond the glass producing this
Speaker 1: program today. How's your Monday? How are we doing? How
Speaker 1: we doing?
Speaker 2: Guys?
Speaker 1: Bring it in big group, hug rough Monday, kind of
Speaker 1: all the way around, depending on your local sports fandom.
Speaker 1: Luckily BYU continues to play really well for you fans,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna do much for you. RSL is in
Speaker 1: the Major League Soccer playoffs that starts tomorrow. So a
Speaker 1: couple of local teams winning, but most local teams losing.
Speaker 1: The Utah Hockey Club three straight losses, now three goals
Speaker 1: in three games after scoring sixteen goals in their first
Speaker 1: three games. We're gonna do a little Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 1: on the program today, do a little RSL. Of course,
Speaker 1: Utah football is stunned. I don't know what to say. Man,
Speaker 1: Like we were talking about this during cross talk with OC.
Speaker 1: I've been wrong often, and I'm find admitting that I
Speaker 1: don't know that I've ever been as wrong about a
Speaker 1: team as I've been about this Utah football team. Four
Speaker 1: straight losses, You guys know the deal. I am stunned
Speaker 1: they lost to Houston, But at this point, maybe that's
Speaker 1: a me problem. Last week I was the guy that
Speaker 1: was holding on to the last branch before falling face
Speaker 1: down to the mud, and today I am face down
Speaker 1: in the mud. I don't know what. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to spin it. Man, it is odd, but give
Speaker 1: BYU a lot of credit. As they moved eight to
Speaker 1: no they're a top ten team now number nine in
Speaker 1: the country. Both teams now are a buy before They're
Speaker 1: going to play up here eight fifteen kick time unfortunately,
Speaker 1: so it's gonna be a late game. Don't love that.
Speaker 1: But down in the stretch we come. College football continues
Speaker 1: to be pretty interesting from a national standpoint. We'll get
Speaker 1: to some college football takeaways Big twelve Takeaways on the program.
Speaker 1: Your Pro Football weekend will wrap up tonight we get
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson and Daniel Jones Monday Night Football. I'm also
Speaker 1: a Yankee fan. The Dodgers are up two.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I'm also a Jets fan. They lost to the Patriots.
Speaker 1: So how's your Monday from a sports perspective, Mine's not great.
Speaker 1: But we got a good guest list for you guys
Speaker 1: on this Monday afternoon to help you get your work
Speaker 1: week started out the correct way. Bell Fraser will be
Speaker 1: our first guest covers the Utah Hockey Club for the
Speaker 1: Salt Lake Tribune. Tom Haberstrow will drop your NBA Daily Assist.
Speaker 1: I gotta say, I gotta say one team that is
Speaker 1: losing that I'm fine with the Utah Jazz lose. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you've listened to the show, I've been on it
Speaker 1: for a while, I'm gonna stay on it. Nobody likes losing,
Speaker 1: but it is a necessity if you have to do
Speaker 1: a bit of a reset in pro basketball like the
Speaker 1: Jazz have to do. So we'll talk to Tom Haberstrow today.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about this, but on a Monday, we're gonna
Speaker 1: give you our Big twelve Power rankings. Who Baby and
Speaker 1: then Matt Crooks from RSL will stop by. Scott Mitchell,
Speaker 1: former Utah quarterback on the program as well. Belle Frasier,
Speaker 1: Tom Haberstrow, Matt Crooks, Scott Mitchell, Me Spence Jackets, all
Speaker 1: of you the great listeners on this Monday. Thank you
Speaker 1: for making us a part of your Monday. And that
Speaker 1: guy order Larson. I've been wrong, buddy, as you know,
Speaker 1: you produced the show for a number of years now.
Speaker 1: I've been wrong before. I don't know that I've ever
Speaker 1: been as wrong as I clearly have been about this
Speaker 1: Utah football team.
Speaker 3: Well, and I mean all of us can be guilty
Speaker 3: of that. And you look at the Big twelve pre
Speaker 3: season media poll, Utah was up there at number one.
Speaker 3: They were picked as the team to win it by
Speaker 3: not just us here in the market, but by media
Speaker 3: members across the country and around the conference. Yeah, we're wrong,
Speaker 3: but there is a lot of context to that, which
Speaker 3: includes obviously the availability of a quarterback, which is the
Speaker 3: main issue I think with this Utah team. That being said,
Speaker 3: just this is big of an issue, is the inability
Speaker 3: to move on from not having quarterback one and that
Speaker 3: is what we'll get into today. In addition, too, as
Speaker 3: you mentioned, a whole bunch of other stuff going on
Speaker 3: in the market.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a busy time of year, so that gives
Speaker 1: us a lot to get to We'll start things off
Speaker 1: little hockey chatter with bel Fraser from the trail. But
Speaker 1: before we get to bell courtesy of our friends at
Speaker 1: Standard Restaurant Supply check them out at Standard Restaurant dot
Speaker 1: com or stop by the location of thirty five hundred South.
Speaker 1: It is time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's
Speaker 4: number one sports talk. Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 4: seven hundred to set the scene for the show.
Speaker 2: The opening tip.
Speaker 4: Of the Drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurant Supply,
Speaker 4: your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town.
Speaker 4: Standard Restaurant Supply, thirty five hundred South West Temple.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna start the show on a Monday by
Speaker 1: taking our medicine. We gotta do it. Utah football goes
Speaker 1: down Houston and they lose last second field goal by
Speaker 1: Houston after an interception from Brandon Rose gave Houston some
Speaker 1: pretty good fuel position. Utah football has now lost four
Speaker 1: straight games for the first time since twenty seventeen. It's
Speaker 1: only the fourth time that it's ever happened in two
Speaker 1: decades under coach wit and now it's a bye week,
Speaker 1: and then you welcome in a red hot BYU Cougar
Speaker 1: team right now, who's very complete. They play complimentary football,
Speaker 1: They're good all the way around. Jake Retzlav has has
Speaker 1: evolved and developed into one of the best quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: this conference period. That's what the numbers say. So you
Speaker 1: can complain about it all you want, but right now
Speaker 1: BYU is flying, and I guarantee they are smelling blood
Speaker 1: in the water like a shark, and they want to
Speaker 1: come up here and they want to go for the jugular.
Speaker 1: That's just the nature of this game. Grew up around it,
Speaker 1: covered it for eighteen years doing this radio show. In
Speaker 1: other places this radio show as well. Usually there's chaos
Speaker 1: unless there's a big time talent gap. More often than not,
Speaker 1: it feels like a random, crazy play changes the scope
Speaker 1: of the entire thing. But as we sit here today,
Speaker 1: can't I can't. I can't sit here and tell you
Speaker 1: that I have confidence in this Utah football team to
Speaker 1: turn it around. I'm sorry about that. I wish I did.
Speaker 1: We are your home of the Utes, and ultimately, as
Speaker 1: someone who went to school there and has watched this
Speaker 1: football program, be built brick by brick by coach wit
Speaker 1: for twenty years. This is new. This feels like an
Speaker 1: all time new low. And I don't know exactly where
Speaker 1: to kind of place blame. I don't do radio like
Speaker 1: that anyway. I'm not a call for the coach's job,
Speaker 1: guy Mackai Bernard. Everyone's talking about Mackay's comments after the
Speaker 1: game when he said, look, I know what's wrong. I'm
Speaker 1: just not going to say it out loud. I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of rumors about that. I can't speak to it.
Speaker 1: My guess is if he was honest and kept going
Speaker 1: after Josh Furlong from KSL asking the question, he would
Speaker 1: have talked about the quarterback play. I don't think there's
Speaker 1: anything behind closed doors going on that we don't know about,
Speaker 1: but I can't speak to it. I have no idea.
Speaker 1: I'm not in the locker room. But I can just say, Man,
Speaker 1: the feeling around the community right now, and we all
Speaker 1: exist on our own little echo chambers and cognitive dissidents
Speaker 1: and such. So I am reacting to messages I receive
Speaker 1: from youth fans, social media, direct messages, friends, emails, text
Speaker 1: messages and such, and I from my vantage point. I
Speaker 1: don't think I can recall in eighteen years of doing
Speaker 1: this a feeling around Utah Football that feels this desolate,
Speaker 1: this desperate, this low. And obviously it's losing, it's four straight,
Speaker 1: but it's also juxtaposed and combined with what we all
Speaker 1: thought that they could be. Like if we were all
Speaker 1: on the same page that Utah Football was going to
Speaker 1: really struggle to find their footing year one of the
Speaker 1: Big Twelve, then the show would sound much different. We
Speaker 1: talk about the growing pains, and we talk about developing
Speaker 1: young players, and we talk about step by step like
Speaker 1: the reason everybody's so bummed about this is we all
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be the exact office And honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to say about this team the
Speaker 1: rest of the year. I have seen Kyle Whittingham turn
Speaker 1: teams around, and as we talked about during cross talk,
Speaker 1: coach wit over twenty years does deserve the benefit of
Speaker 1: the doubt. But I do feel like the trust is
Speaker 1: eroding a little bit. I mean, I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: there's another sports figure in our state that's more teflon
Speaker 1: than Kyle based off of what he's accomplished. Maybe Ryan Smith,
Speaker 1: because the man with the gold makes the rules. But
Speaker 1: you know, unless you you know, you want to count
Speaker 1: that element of this discussion. Coach Wit is probably the
Speaker 1: most teflon sports figure in our state, and he is
Speaker 1: a man of great integrity and great character, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure that he's going to do everything in his power
Speaker 1: to try to get this thing right over the next
Speaker 1: twelve days before Brigham Young comes rolling up to Riyseycle Stadium.
Speaker 1: Because I can tell you what if we just see
Speaker 1: coming up at rice Ecles what we've seen from both teams,
Speaker 1: BYU wins by two touchdowns at least, Like how can
Speaker 1: we spin any other way? As we say here today
Speaker 1: on this Monday, after watching Utah lose its fourth straight
Speaker 1: football game and watching BYU for the second time under
Speaker 1: Kolone Satake. The last time it was twenty twenty. During
Speaker 1: the COVID year, they've started eight and zero. They're in
Speaker 1: the top ten twelfth time all time for Brigham Young,
Speaker 1: in the top ten for their college football program. And
Speaker 1: the ironic thing is to start the year, we thought
Speaker 1: it was going to be BYU's tough schedule that might
Speaker 1: trip them up and Utah's relatively easy schedule. According to
Speaker 1: the metrics that would play in their favor. But now
Speaker 1: the final four games, Utah has a much much more
Speaker 1: difficult task where you're playing essentially three of the four
Speaker 1: best teams in the conference, and then you finish with
Speaker 1: a three time zone travel to Orlando to take on
Speaker 1: a solid UCF team. So it's Brigham Young, then it's
Speaker 1: in Boulder against Colorado, it's back home against Iowa State,
Speaker 1: then you're on the road at UCF. How many wins
Speaker 1: do you see? I mean, honestly, right here today as
Speaker 1: we sit it on a Monday and I read off
Speaker 1: the rest of the schedule for Utah football, how many
Speaker 1: wins do you see? Because they're going to need, you know,
Speaker 1: at least two to go bowling. And the really crummy
Speaker 1: part is it's going to be a throwaway bowl game.
Speaker 1: I mean, you like the experience for the seniors, and
Speaker 1: you want to qualify for a bowl because everybody does.
Speaker 1: But when your season has been broken down and and
Speaker 1: essentially broken down to the studs, we're the only thing
Speaker 1: you're playing for is to ruin the seasons for your opponents.
Speaker 1: That's a damning sentiment about where this program is. And
Speaker 1: I have to wonder where Morgan is on this right.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot and you guys, you don't have
Speaker 1: to take it from me. There are people that know
Speaker 1: in a way that I just wouldn't that believe that
Speaker 1: Kyle is going to walk away at the end of
Speaker 1: this year. And we know that Morgan is going to
Speaker 1: slide over one seat from his defensive coordinator slot and
Speaker 1: take over the head coaching job. Like, where is Morgan
Speaker 1: right now? I just wonder where his head is at
Speaker 1: as far is what he is about to inherit and
Speaker 1: what he's about to take over if that's the deal. Now,
Speaker 1: in a weird way, this could actually work to Morgan's
Speaker 1: favor because typically, you know, ask Tyrone Corbyn. I could
Speaker 1: give you a list. You know, ask anybody who has
Speaker 1: stepped in for a coaching legend after that legend steps aside,
Speaker 1: ask them what that's like. More often than not, it
Speaker 1: doesn't work. Klin de bor is going through it down
Speaker 1: in Tuscaloosa. They're used to a certain standard and Alabama
Speaker 1: football has not played up to that standard. So if
Speaker 1: the season continues to go south, and I'm sorry on
Speaker 1: this Monday, after being the guy that was holding on
Speaker 1: to the last branch last week, I let go of
Speaker 1: the branch. I'm face down in the mud. I can't.
Speaker 1: It's just the data that we have, the proof that
Speaker 1: we have. I think the defense is still good. Of course,
Speaker 1: a couple of fourth down goal line stands to keep
Speaker 1: him in the game, and by most metrics, Utah defense
Speaker 1: is still one of the elite defenses in both the
Speaker 1: conference in the country. But imagine being on that side
Speaker 1: of the football. And we've talked to Nate Orchard and
Speaker 1: others and will talk to Scott Mitchell today about this. Like,
Speaker 1: if you're on the defense and you get a great stand,
Speaker 1: you go over and you have a sipagatorade, then you
Speaker 1: turn around, you got to put your helmet back on.
Speaker 1: At some point that is going to seep into the
Speaker 1: chemistry of the group. It's just inevitable, and we're starting
Speaker 1: to see it a little bit here there. But look,
Speaker 1: credit Brigham Young for what they've done. Klone's doing a
Speaker 1: hell of a job. He's going to be on the
Speaker 1: short list for Coach of the Year both Big twelve
Speaker 1: and in the country, and he deserves it. Jake is
Speaker 1: playing mistake free football. I didn't think he could after
Speaker 1: the four starts and he lost all four last year.
Speaker 1: They're complimentary.
Speaker 2: LJ.
Speaker 1: Martin is back, Innkley, Rapotti's a beast. They can pass it,
Speaker 1: they can run it. Their special teams are dialed. They
Speaker 1: turned the other team over. They did it twice again
Speaker 1: against UCF. They take care of the football much better
Speaker 1: than Jake was under center last year. They've got a
Speaker 1: big time playmaker and Chase Roberts. Darius Lassiter has uped
Speaker 1: his game as well. Dari and Jake just kind of
Speaker 1: have this thing. They are dialed in on both sides
Speaker 1: of the football, all three phases. Offense, defense, special teams
Speaker 1: BYU is far superior, as we say here today over
Speaker 1: the University of Utah. Sorry, I wish I could spin
Speaker 1: it in another way. See, this is a great song
Speaker 1: and a great intro, but you can't cut it short.
Speaker 1: You gotta let it bleed into the start of the song,
Speaker 1: right I think, So, yeah, you can't. I mean, because
Speaker 1: it really is and this was so Bell picked this song. Yes,
Speaker 1: we must have an old soul on our hands because
Speaker 1: I believe she's too young for the who Belle Frasier
Speaker 1: covers the Yutah Hockey Club? Did you grow up? With
Speaker 1: the who bell.
Speaker 5: No, but it was always the New York Rangers intro
Speaker 5: song for playoffs, So it was just part of my
Speaker 5: childhood inherently. Yes, I guess it was like my hockey
Speaker 5: song growing up.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it well, great memories, certainly
Speaker 1: attending a lot of Ranger games, as you and I
Speaker 1: both did. All right, Belle, what's gone wrong here? After
Speaker 1: the hot start we kind of come back down earth?
Speaker 1: What stands out most of you about this Utah Hockey
Speaker 1: Club streak of three losses and then five losses in
Speaker 1: their last six games.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think first of all, it was
Speaker 5: a hot start. You know, that was not a start.
Speaker 5: I think most people were expecting from that team, especially
Speaker 5: going into the Islanders and Rangers opening night with those
Speaker 5: overtime wins, and then they had another great overtime win
Speaker 5: at Delta Center against the Bruins where they played a
Speaker 5: good game, and I think this is just what you
Speaker 5: have to expect with the team that's in the fourth
Speaker 5: year of a rebuild with one number one defenseman right now,
Speaker 5: and then kind of figuring out how to work with
Speaker 5: their injured blue line. Coach shuffled the lines a lot today,
Speaker 5: in practice, so you're going to see a new look
Speaker 5: up front for them tonight. But I think other than
Speaker 5: the five to one loss against Colorado, I think that
Speaker 5: game they just didn't show up at all. The player
Speaker 5: said it afterwards, it was kind of an unacceptable performance.
Speaker 5: The effort level wasn't there, the buying wasn't there. But
Speaker 5: I think the four NASA loss against Ottawa looks a
Speaker 5: lot worse than maybe it was. You know, they let
Speaker 5: up gas for eight minutes in the first period, gave
Speaker 5: up four goals, and then for the second and third
Speaker 5: didn't give up anything else and had a lot of
Speaker 5: good chances. And same thing with the Kings. That's a
Speaker 5: one shot game. Logan Cooley gets his first of the
Speaker 5: year and Clayton Keller gets his team going too. So
Speaker 5: I think what coach his sentiment today was, you obviously
Speaker 5: want wins in this league. You're not coming in just
Speaker 5: to have moral victories. But when you look at the
Speaker 5: body of work, maybe the scores or or the loss
Speaker 5: column for them is it looks a little bit different
Speaker 5: than how they actually feel in the room, And I
Speaker 5: think that's kind of the message you have to to
Speaker 5: give to stay positive in there. They're building, and then
Speaker 5: they're trying to find their identity in Utah and that's
Speaker 5: not going to come with you know, a ten and
Speaker 5: oh streak to start the season. But tonight they play
Speaker 5: the San Jose Sharks, so I believe are seven and two,
Speaker 5: So the pressure's on if you you don't want to
Speaker 5: underestimate any opponent in the league. But this is a
Speaker 5: team that Utah should be and it has an opportunity
Speaker 5: to get out of a losing right here and on
Speaker 5: home ice, nonetheless, so I would say this is kind
Speaker 5: of a must win for the team. And we can
Speaker 5: talk about lines later, but yeah, they're shaking up the
Speaker 5: forward group to kind of get something going after only
Speaker 5: scoring what three regulation goals in three games?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the offense is stalled and I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of kick the tires with you on and you'll
Speaker 1: know better than I, But when I read up, I
Speaker 1: didn't watch a ton of Coyotes hockey last year. I
Speaker 1: will admit that bell I wasn't dialed in on them,
Speaker 1: so when I read about the issues they had a
Speaker 1: year ago, it seemed like most people believe that Connor
Speaker 1: was asked to stand on his head a bit because
Speaker 1: the defense was just kind of left wanting. Now, they
Speaker 1: made some additions in the offseason, as we know, they
Speaker 1: also have some injuries. So are we kind of seeing
Speaker 1: a continuation of that issue that plagued them last year?
Speaker 1: Do you see that side of the equation here where
Speaker 1: the defense continues to struggle and they're asking their goalkeeper
Speaker 1: to do a little bit too much.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure. That and they're not scoring in the
Speaker 5: numbers that they did last year too. Like last year
Speaker 5: they didn't have really a lot of issues scoring three
Speaker 5: to four goals a night, but they were giving up
Speaker 5: average three point five goals a night, I think, more
Speaker 5: than they were scoring. So that's never going to win
Speaker 5: you a game. And the back end, we talked about
Speaker 5: it earlier this season. That was the main thing they
Speaker 5: focused on going to the season. They brought in Surgachev,
Speaker 5: they extended Dursey, they brought in John Marino, ian cole Bertuso,
Speaker 5: and Sean Jersey got shoulder surgery on his right shoulder
Speaker 5: and he's out four to six months. They just released
Speaker 5: and Marino hasn't even faded with the team yet. He
Speaker 5: got lower back surgery and is out I believe three
Speaker 5: to four months.
Speaker 6: So those are two.
Speaker 5: Guys that you kind of thought were going to be
Speaker 5: back in stalwarts for you, and you're kind of given
Speaker 5: the opportunity to a lot of young guys to step up.
Speaker 5: But that wasn't the blueprint for this season, you know.
Speaker 5: The whole point was to have these young guys be
Speaker 5: able to be paid with maybe a little more experienced veterans.
Speaker 5: And you still have Sergachev and you still have Colon Bertuso,
Speaker 5: but they're kind of more stay at home, you know,
Speaker 5: puck eating physical defenseman and not the same two way
Speaker 5: maybe offensive flare the way that Marino and Jersey are.
Speaker 5: So I think you see that as a struggle for them.
Speaker 5: They have Michael Kesling on the first pair, who has
Speaker 5: been holding his own and has kept up with the
Speaker 5: minutes pretty well. But you know, that's not exactly what
Speaker 5: you would have imagined coming to the season. And then
Speaker 5: they called up Maverick Lameru from the AHL. He made
Speaker 5: his NHL debut a few nights ago and he's been great,
Speaker 5: but he's twenty years old, you know, and he's learning
Speaker 5: the league for the first time as well. He's impaired
Speaker 5: with Ian Cole, So I think that NHL because of
Speaker 5: injuries and call ups, is kind of a learn as
Speaker 5: you go league. It's not really a developmental league. That's
Speaker 5: what the AHL is for. So you're kind of seeing
Speaker 5: Utah figure out their problems on the fly. And I
Speaker 5: think that defense doesn't just come from the defenseman. It's
Speaker 5: the forwards too, and Lost and Kraus kind of sets
Speaker 5: that they need to play better team defense. It's not
Speaker 5: just on the two guys and the goalie. So I
Speaker 5: think it goes down all through the roster and they're
Speaker 5: going to figure out eventually. But yeah, I think the
Speaker 5: the court that they have now is not what most
Speaker 5: people would have projected in September.
Speaker 1: So you reference some shuffling with some of the lines.
Speaker 1: So let's get let's get the detailed information there and
Speaker 1: do you know what it's going to look like, maybe
Speaker 1: starting as early as tonight.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So per coach this morning, he said the first
Speaker 5: line will be Keller, Cooley, and Gunther, So Cooley is
Speaker 5: getting moved up to center that line, as is guntherer
Speaker 5: on the right wing, and then second line is supposed
Speaker 5: to be Mitchelli, Hayton and Schmaltz. Third line Kerfoot Bukestad
Speaker 5: and Kraus and you know, big return with buke Sad
Speaker 5: who played his first game this season last game after
Speaker 5: being injured for all of training camp, and then the
Speaker 5: fourth line will be McBain, Stenlin and O'Brien. So big
Speaker 5: news tonight is that Josh Stone is a healthy scratch
Speaker 5: for the first time this season and O'Brien's coming in
Speaker 5: on the fourth line, So Michael Carconi will also be scratched.
Speaker 5: And then you so vallamachis scratch, so Wretusa will be
Speaker 5: in on the back end. But yeah, they really shuffled
Speaker 5: it up. I talked to Kuley the other day and
Speaker 5: he kind of said, when teams aren't producing and guys
Speaker 5: aren't feeling their best, sometimes a mix up is just
Speaker 5: good mentally to feel like you have a refresher and
Speaker 5: then see what happened and worked for him last game
Speaker 5: he got his first of the season and he kind
Speaker 5: of gets the promotion to the first line now, so
Speaker 5: we'll see.
Speaker 2: What it can do.
Speaker 5: But Utah kind of stuck with the same lineup for
Speaker 5: the first six Fish games of the season, and I
Speaker 5: think at a certain point, when you're not scoring, it's
Speaker 5: on the coach to kind of see what he can
Speaker 5: get out of his lineup, and that's exactly what they've
Speaker 5: done here.
Speaker 1: Let's move over to special teams first. I wanted to
Speaker 1: get your opinion on what you've seen on both the
Speaker 1: power play and then the power play kill. I mean
Speaker 1: that's another you know, killing power plays a year ago
Speaker 1: was not a strength of theirs. So are you seeing
Speaker 1: any improvement on the special team side? And do you
Speaker 1: know what the special team's lines are going to look
Speaker 1: like tonight?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think you know, starting the season, the power play
Speaker 5: was a strength for Utah and it's really dwindled off
Speaker 5: a bit. A lot of the players have talked about it,
Speaker 5: and you can see it in the games. They're playing
Speaker 5: a lot more perimeter than they did before. They're kind
Speaker 5: of being pushed the outside ice and shooting from the
Speaker 5: point and the circles, which you know is great, But
Speaker 5: in this NHL, goaltenders are too good. Defense oon are
Speaker 5: too good. They'll get in the way, they'll block the shot,
Speaker 5: they'll make the save. And I think when Utah had
Speaker 5: the most success this season was when they were battling
Speaker 5: for inside ice, when they were fighting for the crease.
Speaker 5: You know, Barrett Hayton had a great screen on Clayton
Speaker 5: Keller's goal right when the power play expired, and Logan
Speaker 5: Cooley did a good job of that, just getting in
Speaker 5: front and getting a tipping goal. And Coach has kind
Speaker 5: of preached getting the greasier, dirtier goals, and that's when
Speaker 5: you know they have three to four goals tonight. So
Speaker 5: I think they need to start doing that on the
Speaker 5: power play again and kind of not looking for the
Speaker 5: perfect shot, but just getting it on net and going
Speaker 5: for the rebound. And with so power play units today
Speaker 5: in practice, the first film was Sergachev, Keller, Schmaltz, Hayton
Speaker 5: and Gunther, which is unchanged. You know, that's a pretty
Speaker 5: loaded first unit. And then the second unit is Kesslering, Machelli,
Speaker 5: buke Sad, Kraus and Cooley. And that's a bit of
Speaker 5: a different look because Bukesad is back and also because
Speaker 5: Valla Macky is scratched. Kesslering will be running the point
Speaker 5: on the power play he did last game. He has
Speaker 5: a tremendous shot, one of the best, one of the
Speaker 5: defenseman on the team, I would say, so I think
Speaker 5: that's no worry with him up there and then for
Speaker 5: the penalty kill. You know, I personally don't I worry
Speaker 5: less about the penalty kill than the power play because
Speaker 5: I think just the experience they have back there is great.
Speaker 5: You look at stenlan Kerfoot Bortuso, all of those guys
Speaker 5: have kind of earned a living blocking shots, winning defensive
Speaker 5: zone face offs and have that mileage that they know
Speaker 5: what it takes and do or die situation. So I
Speaker 5: think the PK is less of a problem for Utah
Speaker 5: and you just need a score, Like if you're not
Speaker 5: scoring five on five, you're probably not scoring on the
Speaker 5: power play and vice versa. So I think once that
Speaker 5: offensive touch comes back for Utah, maybe that confidence will
Speaker 5: come back to the power play. But you know, it
Speaker 5: also comes to discipline. They've had to use their penalty
Speaker 5: kill a lot more than they've had to use their
Speaker 5: power play with the amount of penalties they've taken. So
Speaker 5: you've got to put yourself in opportunities to be a
Speaker 5: man up and not be a man down. And I
Speaker 5: think that's something that the team is actively working on.
Speaker 1: Are they getting what they need? Slash expected from Sergachev
Speaker 1: because it seems like he's extremely skilled for a defenseman
Speaker 1: as far as the ability to provide you know, assists.
Speaker 1: He hasn't scored a goal yet, but he has five assists.
Speaker 1: But back to the defensive issues. He was kind of
Speaker 1: the star signing of the offseason. Has he lived up
Speaker 1: to expectations in your opinion.
Speaker 5: Bill, Yeah, I mean it's early, and I think you
Speaker 5: probably need at least I don't know fifteen twenty games
Speaker 5: that you're nearing, but I think Sergachev has been great
Speaker 5: and I think he's been what they need him to be,
Speaker 5: and he probably has taken on a lot more responsibility
Speaker 5: than he thought he was going to have. You know,
Speaker 5: the conversations coming into the season was can he be
Speaker 5: the number one defenceman? Will he earn that role? And
Speaker 5: he has because of all the injuries they've had, and
Speaker 5: you know, there were two games where they went down
Speaker 5: to five defenceman when Jersey was out, Virtuso got hurt
Speaker 5: and Sergachev logged almost thirty minutes of ice time for
Speaker 5: both of those games. And he's continued, even with six defensemen,
Speaker 5: to log around twenty five plus a night. So that
Speaker 5: part of that is he's used in all situations. You know,
Speaker 5: he'll be on the power play, he can slodd in
Speaker 5: on the penalty kill, he's on the first pair, he's
Speaker 5: kind of orchestrating offense from the top. But then he
Speaker 5: also is the first one back. So I think his
Speaker 5: versatility kind of forces him to be on the ice
Speaker 5: for that amount of time. And I think something that
Speaker 5: sticks out with him is even if he's logging all
Speaker 5: those miles, his play doesn't really dip.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: It could be his first minute on the ice or
Speaker 5: his twenty second in the third period, and his his
Speaker 5: level of play and his compete level kind of remains
Speaker 5: the same. And that's something that is not true for
Speaker 5: a lot of defensemen who have to log that much time.
Speaker 5: You know, you just simply get tired. But we talked
Speaker 5: to Sergachev and he said he's really embracing it. It's
Speaker 5: his chance to be a leader on this team, and
Speaker 5: he said it's kind of helping him get his confidence back.
Speaker 5: You know, he suffered a really brutal injury last year,
Speaker 5: breaking his leg, and it takes a second to get
Speaker 5: back into the season and lose that fear of getting
Speaker 5: injured again. And he said the more he plays, the
Speaker 5: more comfortable he feels. Not only just as a hockey player,
Speaker 5: but within the Utah system. So I think he's kind
Speaker 5: of doing everything he can to lift that blue line
Speaker 5: and the goals will come. I think that's something everyone's
Speaker 5: confident about. You're not really nervous about Surgachev hitting a
Speaker 5: slump because if he's not scoring with the puck, his
Speaker 5: work away from it is helping the team win in
Speaker 5: different ways.
Speaker 1: So I think we all could agree with the following statement.
Speaker 1: Probably not as good as they started the season, and
Speaker 1: probably not as bad as they've been over the past
Speaker 1: four or five games. So it is early. It is
Speaker 1: nine games, but through the first nine, what are you
Speaker 1: confident bell in saying that you really do know about
Speaker 1: this team got off to a hot start, have leveled
Speaker 1: off in the truth as it normally is, is probably somewhere.
Speaker 2: In the middle.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, no, totally. I think it's not surprising. You
Speaker 5: knew with a team like this, a young team that's
Speaker 5: still trying to figure out all the pieces that there,
Speaker 5: it's going to be a mixed bag. It's going to
Speaker 5: be up and down.
Speaker 6: But something that's.
Speaker 5: Really stuck out to me over you know, this losing
Speaker 5: streak and even during the winning streak, is the maturity
Speaker 5: in the room and how they're handling this adversity. I
Speaker 5: think maybe in Arizona the past few years when the
Speaker 5: leaders on that team are only what twenty three, twenty four,
Speaker 5: twenty five at that time. Now those guys are twenty six,
Speaker 5: twenty seven, twenty eight, and even the young guys like
Speaker 5: gun thro and Cooley and McBain, they kind of just
Speaker 5: have a good mindset and head on their shoulders right now.
Speaker 5: And they came out of that Colorado game and no
Speaker 5: one was like, oh, it's early in the season, like
Speaker 5: you're going to lose sometimes at home. Oh well, like
Speaker 5: every single guy saying that's unacceptable, that is not Utah hockey.
Speaker 5: That's not what we're here to do. We have to
Speaker 5: learn from it and we have to grow from it.
Speaker 5: So I think that kind of just says a lot about,
Speaker 5: you know, where the team has come from and not
Speaker 5: getting frustrated with themselves. And I think you saw that
Speaker 5: in the Ottawa game too, when they lost for nothing.
Speaker 5: Even though they weren't able to score in those forty
Speaker 5: minutes after they gave out those four goals, they were pushing.
Speaker 5: It was never you know, breaking sticks. Bad attitude on
Speaker 5: the bench kind of throwing the game away because they
Speaker 5: were down four. I mean, they were fighting for a
Speaker 5: goal until that last minute. And I think that's what
Speaker 5: you want to see from a team if they're losing. Okay,
Speaker 5: everyone's going to lose in the NHL, but it's what
Speaker 5: are they taking from those losses, what are they trying
Speaker 5: to improve on, and how are they viewing kind of
Speaker 5: those role in those losses. So I think, yeah, big
Speaker 5: theme has been maturity and accountability in a room that
Speaker 5: had to grow that, you know, from the ground up
Speaker 5: in Arizona, and I think it'll help them get out
Speaker 5: of the thread and help them down the stretch, hopefully
Speaker 5: when they're able to start stringing someones together.
Speaker 1: I saw that you wrote about the debut of Maverick Lameoureau,
Speaker 1: the twenty year old man. So young, twenty year old
Speaker 1: defenceman who made his debut last week. Unpack that piece
Speaker 1: for us bell. Tell our listeners what you learned about
Speaker 1: this young kid.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean from day one when he came to practice.
Speaker 5: So he got called up. They called him right before
Speaker 5: he went to bed in Arizona and he's on a
Speaker 5: six am flight the next morning, shows up to Utah
Speaker 5: practice that same morning, off of like four hours of sleep,
Speaker 5: and he was probably the most lively guy there and
Speaker 5: in the media scrum, you know, he's just so happy,
Speaker 5: so smiley, laughing, jumping around, is so happy to be
Speaker 5: in the NHL. And he didn't know at that point
Speaker 5: if he was making his debut, but he was just
Speaker 5: so grateful for the opportunity. And what's really interesting about him.
Speaker 5: You know, Sean Jersey's out with the shoulder surgery. And
Speaker 5: I talked about this in the story, but before he
Speaker 5: turned twenty, or by the time he turned twenty, he
Speaker 5: underwent two shoulder surgeries. So he has had to deal
Speaker 5: with that four to six month rehab twice. The prime
Speaker 5: years of his development. He was injured in his draft year.
Speaker 5: Then he was injured in the time when you're trying
Speaker 5: to make a push in the juniors or NCAA or
Speaker 5: in the HL to show the franchise you were drafted
Speaker 5: by that you're kind of ready to go and be
Speaker 5: a difference maker in the organization. So he's had to
Speaker 5: battle back from a lot of that, and I think
Speaker 5: it shows in his work ethic on the ice. You know,
Speaker 5: he's six foot six, almost two hundred pounds and he skates.
Speaker 5: I talked to one of his strength trainers this summer.
Speaker 5: He said, he skates like he's five foot ten, but
Speaker 5: he's six foot six. And I think that's really unique
Speaker 5: about him and what Utah fans have been able to
Speaker 5: see that he's this big, physical body, but he's kind
Speaker 5: of fleet footed. He can score, he's responsible. That's something
Speaker 5: he's really been saying that he just wants the team
Speaker 5: to be able to trust him even though he's younger.
Speaker 5: And you know finality too. He was saying he grew
Speaker 5: out his He's been trying to grow out his mustache
Speaker 5: and his beard so he can look more like a
Speaker 5: pro because he's only twenty playing against these older guys.
Speaker 5: He said his dad told him to shave it, but
Speaker 5: he was like, no, I have to try to fit in.
Speaker 5: So I think that's something that Utah fans get with
Speaker 5: a developing team, is that with injuries and stuff like that,
Speaker 5: you're going to see some of their prospects from the
Speaker 5: AHL get to come up and have their opportunities. And
Speaker 5: you know, it's nothing's cooler than getting to see a
Speaker 5: kid's dream come true. And that's exactly what it was
Speaker 5: for Utah this week, and you know, coach said, sometimes
Speaker 5: that does something for the room. It's a little reminder
Speaker 5: for everyone to, you know, remember where they came from
Speaker 5: and remember what a privilege it is to play in
Speaker 5: the NHL. So I think that's been a bright spot
Speaker 5: for Utah and we'll kind of see how how long
Speaker 5: he can pull this pro stint off for well.
Speaker 1: Before I said you lose, I wonder what your opinion
Speaker 1: is on how the building has felt. I mean, I
Speaker 1: was there Opening night and it was awesome, and I've
Speaker 1: watched the rest of the games on television. I know
Speaker 1: you're there. What do you make of the type of
Speaker 1: support that this club is getting so far here in
Speaker 1: Sol Lake.
Speaker 5: I don't think anything has compared to Opening Night. That
Speaker 5: was a really special night, you know, sell out. The
Speaker 5: crowd was insane. It was super loud. Every play it
Speaker 5: felt like they were ready to explode. I would say
Speaker 5: the Bruins game, there were a lot of Bruins fans randomly,
Speaker 5: a lot of Utah Natives are Bruins fans, so it
Speaker 5: was kind of split for that, and then the last
Speaker 5: two games. You know, it's still full, but I think
Speaker 5: the energy has teetered off maybe a little, which is
Speaker 5: fair if your team is shut out one night and
Speaker 5: scores one goal with five minutes left in the third
Speaker 5: period the next night. So you know, I think the
Speaker 5: fan support is obviously still there. People are still interested.
Speaker 5: But the players have all talked about it. Nick Bugsad
Speaker 5: talked about it today. They need to give people something
Speaker 5: to cheer about and something to be invested in. And
Speaker 5: the way to create that tradition and culture of Utah
Speaker 5: hockey is winning. And so that's something I think they're
Speaker 5: really aware of, is that they need to put a
Speaker 5: good product on the ice for people to want to
Speaker 5: support the Utah Hockey Club and make this a premiere
Speaker 5: NHL city. So it's definitely not missed on them. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I would say opening night set standards pretty high. I
Speaker 5: don't know if the building has been that loud since
Speaker 5: that night, but it's loud every night, you know, and
Speaker 5: it's definitely a step up from what they were dealing
Speaker 5: with last year. So I think they appreciate the fan support,
Speaker 5: whether it's a sellout where the upper bowl is kind
Speaker 5: of scattered.
Speaker 1: Bell, thanks so much for the time, Keep up the
Speaker 1: great work. You're very helpful. For all of us as
Speaker 1: we learn this new sport here in our market and
Speaker 1: have a great week. We'll chat soon, Okay, thank you,
Speaker 1: all right. Belle Frasier covers the Utah Hockey Club for
Speaker 1: the Salt Lake Tribune. Get her on Twitter at Belle Fraser.
Speaker 1: One is where you find her. A really cool piece
Speaker 1: on Maverick Lamreau his debut with the hockey club last
Speaker 1: week and seems like a great kid. Trying to grow
Speaker 1: out a beard, so he looks old. He's only twenty
Speaker 1: years old. Get back to some college football.
Speaker 2: Coming up in a bit.
Speaker 1: Scott Mitchell stops five, one of the best ever do
Speaker 1: it at the U. Longtime NFL VET. We're going to
Speaker 1: bring Scott in a little bit later. Riso gets their postseason,
Speaker 1: hopefully postseason. Ron started tomorrow night against Minnesota here in
Speaker 1: our market and started things off a little hockey, but
Speaker 1: no outside for some basketball. The Jazz are zero to two.
Speaker 1: They've lost their first couple of games there in Dallas.
Speaker 1: Tonight time for the NBA Daily Assist with our guy
Speaker 1: Tom Haberstrow on a Monday, tom Happy Monday.
Speaker 6: Buddy, How are you doing doing great man? How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm well I'm well, so we have a lot of
Speaker 1: teams that are losing right now in our market. Utah
Speaker 1: football is not great hockey team three straight. But the
Speaker 1: one team that I'm on board with the losing is
Speaker 1: the Jazz. Okay, so I don't know if they're actually
Speaker 1: doing this by design, but through two games, you know,
Speaker 1: there were some decent moments against Memphis, marketing was really good.
Speaker 1: They get smoked by Golden State. Is there a chance
Speaker 1: they're finally leaning in to a full you know, I'll
Speaker 1: just say it a full tank in order to kind
Speaker 1: of expedite the rebuild with maybe a Cooper flag or
Speaker 1: something like it next draft.
Speaker 6: Until Larry Markinin is sidelined with some sort of load management. No,
Speaker 6: I don't think that they're trying to lose this badly.
Speaker 6: I think it's just a bad case of they hit
Speaker 6: a shot and the other team is just everybody looks
Speaker 6: like Steph Curry out there. What Buddy Heal did against
Speaker 6: the Blazers the other day and then what he did
Speaker 6: against the Jazz, you would think that he is the
Speaker 6: greatest shooter of all time, and it's just this is
Speaker 6: life in the NBA. It's a young team, Cante George
Speaker 6: still struggling to figure things out. It's another year.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: Scoot Henderson's another young point guard in his sophomore year
Speaker 6: and at times he's struggling to hit his jumper from downtown.
Speaker 6: But Cante George, we thought he was going to be
Speaker 6: better at this in terms of his long distance shooting,
Speaker 6: and he's shown moments that he is a really talented shooter.
Speaker 6: Hasn't been able to get it together. But marking In
Speaker 6: is that dude until he is sidelined for any sort
Speaker 6: of period. I am gonna say that they're not trying
Speaker 6: to lose this badly. But when the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 6: are going to look like that, it's really hard to
Speaker 6: beat anybody.
Speaker 1: No, for sure. And you reference Kyante. So look, every
Speaker 1: time either Xanik or Age has an opportunity to address
Speaker 1: the media, they pretty much hammer the same point home,
Speaker 1: which is developments, development of our young players, and believing
Speaker 1: in our coach and believing in this process. So what
Speaker 1: should Jazz fans look for to indicate whether or not
Speaker 1: the development is going well? Because you referenced it, and look,
Speaker 1: it's only two games. We're just trying to make some
Speaker 1: topics here out of a couple of basketball games, which
Speaker 1: is always tricky, but we have data now dating back
Speaker 1: to college of Kyante just not being a good shooter.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it sounds simplistic, but he didn't
Speaker 1: knock down a high percentage in college. He didn't as
Speaker 1: a rookie. He was three of eighteen against Memphis, and
Speaker 1: so if the development is working, He's four of twelve
Speaker 1: against Golden State, so obviously not a good start as
Speaker 1: far as shot making five turnovers against the Warriors as well.
Speaker 1: If the development is working over there, what should Jazz
Speaker 1: fans look forward to indicate that things are up with
Speaker 1: some of these young players.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll just put it like this.
Speaker 6: Over in Portland, Scoot Henderson has twenty two shots at
Speaker 6: the rim restricted area. So that's that area right, like
Speaker 6: a two to three feet inside the basket area. He
Speaker 6: has twenty two shots. He's getting to the cup. Do
Speaker 6: you know how many shots in the restricted area? Can't
Speaker 6: say George has so far this season?
Speaker 1: Doesn't feel like a lot, would be my guest.
Speaker 2: Zero.
Speaker 1: I didn't know it was zero.
Speaker 2: Like that, wow, zero.
Speaker 6: He's got zero shots at the rim in the two games,
Speaker 6: and that's worrisome for me beyond like the long distance
Speaker 6: shooting that isn't there yet in two games. If your
Speaker 6: ability to get to the rack, what separates Shake Gilgris Alexander,
Speaker 6: what separates John Moran, what separates Daron Fox, What separates
Speaker 6: even Steph Curry with his great three point shot very
Speaker 6: underrated at his finishing around the rim? You got to
Speaker 6: get there. That is an elite level skill that after
Speaker 6: a season of being a point guard in the NBA,
Speaker 6: you have to have at least one, you know, And
Speaker 6: so that for me.
Speaker 2: Is the biggest thing.
Speaker 6: Is your ability to get to the rack is a
Speaker 6: premier skill as a point guard. In order to be
Speaker 6: an upper echelon point guard and lead guy in the NBA,
Speaker 6: you got to get to the cup. And so far
Speaker 6: this season, according to NBA dot Com shooting data, kant
Speaker 6: George has zero attempts at the rim. Now, he's three
Speaker 6: of eleven in the paint, but not at the rim area.
Speaker 6: So maybe you can say that these floaters should be
Speaker 6: considered layups, but it is it is alarming to me
Speaker 6: that Kant George through two games does not have a
Speaker 6: single shot or a layup so far this season. So
Speaker 6: I'm not expecting him to be Jama. I'm not expecting
Speaker 6: him to be Russell Westbrook, prime Russell Westbrook or prime
Speaker 6: Derrick Rose. But that's going to be something that I'm
Speaker 6: going to track going forward. Is his ability to get
Speaker 6: to the rack. And yes, he's getting to the free
Speaker 6: throw line, so some of those attempts aren't being counted
Speaker 6: because he might be getting fouled at the rim and
Speaker 6: negates the miss free field goal attempt. But I do
Speaker 6: think that when other players like Scood Henderson who are
Speaker 6: about the same age are getting to the cup twenty
Speaker 6: two times in three games, it should be at least
Speaker 6: one attempt at the rim for Kiance.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said when you ask the question,
Speaker 1: because I've watched every minute of every game, you know,
Speaker 1: both games, it didn't seem like it would be a lot,
Speaker 1: but I did not know it was zero. This is
Speaker 1: year three for Walker Walker Kessler, So I'm going to
Speaker 1: continue to kind of track his progress because, like I've
Speaker 1: just asked you about Keyante, if the Jazz are asking
Speaker 1: us to watch this development take place a year three,
Speaker 1: Walker Kessler is going to be a bit of a
Speaker 1: case study because he's had time in the league, and
Speaker 1: so far it's been pretty good. He was really good
Speaker 1: against Memphis. Zach Edy, who played in one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty eight college basketball games and only filed out once,
Speaker 1: filed out in fifteen minutes, and Walker was kind of
Speaker 1: the main impetus there. He also had fourteen boards. And
Speaker 1: you know, the Golden State game is tough to measure
Speaker 1: because they were just getting smoked and so essentially a
Speaker 1: lot of guys just sat. Walker only played twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: But I'll kind of ask you the same question, what
Speaker 1: should year three look like for Walker Kesler.
Speaker 6: Well, it should be more than twenty five minutes a game.
Speaker 6: I think for him it's the ability to play deeper
Speaker 6: into games and proving that you don't get into foul trouble.
Speaker 6: But he's not getting into foul trouble, and yet he's
Speaker 6: only playing twenty five minutes so far. I would like
Speaker 6: to see him as an elite center who I think
Speaker 6: was on track to be a kind of in the
Speaker 6: same profile as Rudy Gobert. He's still not able to
Speaker 6: be trusted for huge minutes.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 6: You know, Markinen and Cante George have only played sixty
Speaker 6: one over those two games, so they're playing just over
Speaker 6: thirty minutes. But I still like to see Kessler playing
Speaker 6: a little bit more higher minutes, especially because he hasn't
Speaker 6: been in foul trouble. But also, you know, it is
Speaker 6: a little unnerving to see that the team with the
Speaker 6: second highest field goal percentage at the rim is Utah Jazz.
Speaker 6: Seventy four percent of the shots at the rim are
Speaker 6: going in and that's the second highest for any defense.
Speaker 2: In the NBA.
Speaker 6: That's not what you want to see from a team
Speaker 6: that employees Walker Kessler. That is, you know, one of
Speaker 6: the best shot blockers in the game in terms of
Speaker 6: just pure shot blocking. But rim protection is more than that.
Speaker 6: As you know from watching Rudy Gobert for all these years.
Speaker 6: It's not just about the block shots. It's also about
Speaker 6: the shots that don't get taken in the rim area.
Speaker 6: You're preventing your deterring shots at the rim. But so
Speaker 6: far this season, the Utah Jazz have allowed seventy four
Speaker 6: percent shooting and the restricted area, which is the second
Speaker 6: highest in the league. So you can't build a good
Speaker 6: defense around preventing shots at the rim. And even though
Speaker 6: it's a high number seventy four percent. Maybe you're minimizing
Speaker 6: the attempts and so you're preventing those shots at the rim.
Speaker 6: And yes, sometimes they break through in transition, but you're
Speaker 6: not seeing that rim protection or rim deterrence like you
Speaker 6: would hope. And so I think Walker, maybe it's just
Speaker 6: a tough couple of games here in the opening of
Speaker 6: the season, but I would like to see that rim
Speaker 6: protection stat be a little bit better for Walker.
Speaker 1: So I was curious to see because, as you know, Tom,
Speaker 1: you've been doing this forever. Coaches just want to win now.
Speaker 1: They don't have any interest in, you know, losing a
Speaker 1: bunch of games that goes on their track record for
Speaker 1: no matter where Will Hardy goes, he's gonna have a
Speaker 1: lot of l's on his resume as a result of
Speaker 1: being a part of this project. Now they picked up
Speaker 1: his fifth year, so next year will be year four.
Speaker 1: They already have that option picked up. They announced like
Speaker 1: two weeks ago you're good, okay, so you're picked up
Speaker 1: through year five. It's a lot like what Danny did
Speaker 1: in Boston with Brad Stevens. So he's in the room,
Speaker 1: he's part of the deal. He knows kind of what
Speaker 1: time it is with the youth on his roster. But
Speaker 1: I was really curious to see because Will and Patty
Speaker 1: Mills know each other from San Antonio, and Patty Mills
Speaker 1: is an NBA champ, and you know he's thirty six,
Speaker 1: so we no what's expecting very much, But I was
Speaker 1: curious to see what Will would do during Keyante's inevitable
Speaker 1: struggles as a young player who's been tasked as the
Speaker 1: league guard here and against Memphis, you know, Patty played
Speaker 1: sixteen minutes. He didn't take a shot, he didn't take
Speaker 1: a free throw, he had one board, he had one assist.
Speaker 1: But they were plus ten in patty sixteen minutes as
Speaker 1: a team, and they were minus eleven in Keyant's thirty one.
Speaker 1: As as Will decided to kind of go with Patty
Speaker 1: Mills a little bit to see if he could get
Speaker 1: a veteran and at work, the ball started popping, the
Speaker 1: ball started moving. Keyante, tom there's a little Donovan there,
Speaker 1: like he sometimes can get a little ball dominant instead
Speaker 1: of being more decisive and quick with his decisions. And
Speaker 1: then Golden State Utah got smoked. But in Patty's eighteen minutes,
Speaker 1: they were minus four in Kyante's thirty minutes, they're minus
Speaker 1: thirty seven. So what do you make of that dynamic
Speaker 1: of a coach who simply wants to win and wants
Speaker 1: to win now, but tasks with development And do you
Speaker 1: think we're going to see, you know, will allow Kyante
Speaker 1: to continue to learn with these mistakes or is he
Speaker 1: going to try to play some vets to get more wins?
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So in year three of the Brad Stevens head
Speaker 6: coaching gig over at Boston, they were a forty eight
Speaker 6: win team. Forty eight win team, so they were one
Speaker 6: of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. They lost
Speaker 6: in the first round, but they had Isaiah Thomas All
Speaker 6: Star twenty two points per game, which I guess you
Speaker 6: could put market in in the same category. But they
Speaker 6: also had some vets in.
Speaker 2: There that were good.
Speaker 6: They had a young team, for sure, but he had
Speaker 6: some guys who could really play and play right now,
Speaker 6: I'm not so sure you have the same caliber of
Speaker 6: players on this roster for Will Hardy, no matter who
Speaker 6: he is, he's prime, Greg Popovich, I don't think this
Speaker 6: team is going to be a forty eight win team.
Speaker 6: And in order to be a Michelin star chef. You
Speaker 6: have to have Michelin star ingredients. And so I think,
Speaker 6: you know, Patty Mills is at the end of his career,
Speaker 6: and for him to lean on Patty Mills for more
Speaker 6: than ten minutes a game is going to be tough.
Speaker 6: And so, you know, sometimes you look at a guy
Speaker 6: and say, you got to play him to learn through
Speaker 6: your mistakes. But then you see Mark hel Foltz get
Speaker 6: washed out of the league in four years. You see
Speaker 6: Anthony Bennett number one overall pick wash out of the
Speaker 6: league in four years. There's a lot of guys who
Speaker 6: were expected to be great right away and just didn't
Speaker 6: have it and washed out of the league. And so
Speaker 6: as much as we'd like to say that this is
Speaker 6: a noble thing that we got to let these guys
Speaker 6: play through their mistakes, there comes a point, a tipping
Speaker 6: point in which you're hurting your team and the morale
Speaker 6: of the club because there's other guys who are more
Speaker 6: capable who are sitting on the bench. I don't know
Speaker 6: if Patty Mills is that guy, but you know, just
Speaker 6: like Eric Bolster with Udonis Hasmitz, it is good to
Speaker 6: have these veterans who have won championships who've been in
Speaker 6: winning organizations to be around to, you know, give a
Speaker 6: sense of professionalism and a sense of winning character and
Speaker 6: having the right habits in the locker room. And you know,
Speaker 6: I remember Eric Bolsh was telling me once why he
Speaker 6: had Juwan Howard as a player even though he barely
Speaker 6: played at the end of his bench. And He's like,
Speaker 6: because his message carries a lot more weight when it's
Speaker 6: a player, When it's a guy in a uniform saying
Speaker 6: the same thing that I'm going to say. But when
Speaker 6: it's a player saying that, the young guy seem to
Speaker 6: listen a little bit more or they're just gonna it's
Speaker 6: going to reach them a little bit deeper if one
Speaker 6: of their teammates is saying the very same message that
Speaker 6: the coach does. So I do think this value in
Speaker 6: having Patty Mills on the team beyond just his minutes
Speaker 6: on the floor. But you got to see some some
Speaker 6: better production from George because you know this is there's
Speaker 6: I mean, I guess you could say Jordan Clarson could
Speaker 6: play backup point guard and steal some minutes from Cante.
Speaker 6: But I do think that it's a tough thing for
Speaker 6: will Hardy this organization. I think would be smart movie
Speaker 6: wise to see what they can get for their veterans
Speaker 6: and try to see, you know, what you can get
Speaker 6: for John Collins or what you can get for a
Speaker 6: guy like Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton and see if
Speaker 6: you can get some draft picks. Because you know, when
Speaker 6: you look at the trajectory, you said it, Brad Stevens.
Speaker 6: Brad Stevens didn't get Jalen Brown until year four. Year
Speaker 6: five is when he got Jason Tatum. So we like
Speaker 6: to think that Brad Stevens went through years of struggle
Speaker 6: to get those guys, but it's true four year four
Speaker 6: and year five is when they got two. And I
Speaker 6: think that's what Danny Age is pointing to and saying,
Speaker 6: like you will and the rest of the guys, we're
Speaker 6: trying to get our Victor Webbin Yama, We're trying to
Speaker 6: get our Jason Tatum. It just might be another year
Speaker 6: or two.
Speaker 1: All right, one more jazz question and then we will
Speaker 1: move along to some other topics that's going on around
Speaker 1: the basketball world right now. That's more interesting than what
Speaker 1: we're gonna watch here all year. I wonder so, and
Speaker 1: you know, obviously, as you know we're in this new
Speaker 1: CBA reality. A lot of people just to kind of
Speaker 1: be reductive, draw the parallel of Adam Silver, trying to
Speaker 1: make this look a little bit more like the NFL
Speaker 1: with parody.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I don't think he loves that parallel, but it's too
Speaker 1: obvious to not bring up, which, if you expand it
Speaker 1: and if we use our imagination at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, is good news for a team that plays
Speaker 1: in a city that most NBA players don't seem to
Speaker 1: want to either move here to play for the Jazz
Speaker 1: or even come here to play for the other team
Speaker 1: against the Jazz, Like we know the deal. So you know,
Speaker 1: we've already seen a couple of teams adversely affected by
Speaker 1: the second apron stuff Denver the clips, you know, some
Speaker 1: others losing talent, and it does seem like draft picks
Speaker 1: are going to be very valuable moving forward now this year,
Speaker 1: the take home from the Mitchell and go Bear trade
Speaker 1: start to come in, so three first round picks, you know,
Speaker 1: for the next few years, and also really clean books
Speaker 1: and Xanak and Age have been very deliberate in their
Speaker 1: approach here, So we could create a scenario Tom where
Speaker 1: the Jazz are a team that could capitalize by calling
Speaker 1: a team that is looking to shed some money and
Speaker 1: talent and offering them some picks and maybe some cap relief. Look,
Speaker 1: we're two games in, so I'm laughing as I ask
Speaker 1: you this, But do you anticipate any teams looking to
Speaker 1: shed legitimate talent as soon as this season? And do
Speaker 1: you think the Jazz could be buyers because of their
Speaker 1: treasure troves treasure trove of assets.
Speaker 6: I would bet against that. I think Danny Age is
Speaker 6: looking at ad picks rather than give him up. But
Speaker 6: you're looking at teams like the Chicago Bulls with Zach Levine.
Speaker 6: Do you want to take on that contract going forward
Speaker 6: to basically compete at and play a be a five
Speaker 6: hundred team. I'm not sure. He's got two more years
Speaker 6: on his deal at forty six million and forty nine
Speaker 6: million dollars, uh, the player option in his final year.
Speaker 6: Is that a guy that you want to add to
Speaker 6: your team? You know, Chicago probably would want to figure
Speaker 6: out a way to get off of Nicole Vucevic if
Speaker 6: their season is in the tank and he's due for
Speaker 6: another year at twenty one million dollars.
Speaker 2: Is that something you want to do.
Speaker 6: If you're the Utah Jazz, I think the other team
Speaker 6: that you look at is the Milwaukee Bucks. Janni Sandatokompo
Speaker 6: is already, you know, saying some crazy quotes to reporters
Speaker 6: in the preseason, telling Sam Amick, you know, joking basically
Speaker 6: looking around his staff and saying, oh, are you gonna
Speaker 6: if things? If we lose or you're gonna get five?
Speaker 2: Are you going to get traded?
Speaker 6: And my eyes, my third eye was open on that
Speaker 6: one because this is a new ownership in Milwaukee, and
Speaker 6: I do think that other teams like Golden State, like
Speaker 6: you know, San Antonio, like Okac, like Utah are watching.
Speaker 6: That's that situation very closely. Is if that becomes more
Speaker 6: combustible they're in Giannis's world? Does he demand some sort
Speaker 6: of trade or try to get out of there. Damian
Speaker 6: Lillard's same question, but again, where the roster is at
Speaker 6: right now. If you acquire Damian Lillard and take on
Speaker 6: that contract and you're nowhere near contending, is it going
Speaker 6: to be the same situation where he's in right now,
Speaker 6: where he's like, I don't I want to win right now.
Speaker 6: I don't want to spend the last years of my
Speaker 6: career on a five hundred team. I just don't see
Speaker 6: what team right now has both the player that could
Speaker 6: move the Utah Jazz into title.
Speaker 2: Contention or you know, whether they're willing to.
Speaker 6: Give up draft pick to make that deal happen, because
Speaker 6: I think the Utah Jayds are gonna be looking for
Speaker 6: draft picks rather than giving him up.
Speaker 1: All right, moving off the Jazz, now, let's get to Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: since you brought it up and you're working with the Blazers, now,
Speaker 1: at what point are we a little concerned about Scoot
Speaker 1: player who I really like during the draft process and
Speaker 1: Portland's you know, kind of in the same stratosphere as
Speaker 1: the Jazz this year with pretty low expectations. But where
Speaker 1: are you at right now as far as your concern
Speaker 1: level of Scoot with us? Scoot Henderson, he's getting to
Speaker 1: the cup.
Speaker 6: Like I said, he's number three in the NBA among
Speaker 6: guards in getting to the cup. He's he's getting to
Speaker 6: the free throw line. There is a real skill there.
Speaker 6: The jump shot hasn't really paid dividends. And that's another thing.
Speaker 6: Like if you want to be Darren Fox and we're
Speaker 6: going to be broadcasting the game tonight against the Sacramento Kings,
Speaker 6: and I'm going to be watching, you know, like if
Speaker 6: he wants to have that same burst as Russell Westbrook
Speaker 6: Darn Fox in the open court. The real reason why
Speaker 6: Daron Fox made the leap is because of that jumper,
Speaker 6: right is because he became a knockdown shooter, and so
Speaker 6: that's the missing part of the game that he hasn't
Speaker 6: shown yet this season. But you know, he's the same
Speaker 6: age as Kiance George. He just you know, turned twenty
Speaker 6: last year, turning twenty one in February, and so I'm
Speaker 6: probably going to hold out on, you know, any sort
Speaker 6: of referendum on Scoot Henderson until next year because not
Speaker 6: too many twenty year olds in the NBA, especially at
Speaker 6: point guard, are great right away. There's a very short list.
Speaker 6: Caiance George is not on that list yet. Scoot Henderson
Speaker 6: isn't on that list yet. But in terms of one
Speaker 6: identifiable skill is he gets to the rim all the time,
Speaker 6: and he had nine free throws in last night's game,
Speaker 6: and I do think that that is a veritable skill
Speaker 6: that he can build off of, and hopefully that jump
Speaker 6: shot rounds out into form, because he would be deadly
Speaker 6: as a player if he had a reliable Jay.
Speaker 1: How real, Tom, is what we've seen from the Lakers
Speaker 1: so far? You know, every once in a while you
Speaker 1: get an Anthony Davis game and you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why there were several people, well when he came
Speaker 1: out of school, you know, that were tabbing him as
Speaker 1: a generational city, generationally special player. And his deal has
Speaker 1: always been availability. He was actually pretty healthy last year.
Speaker 1: I just don't think he gets enough credit for it.
Speaker 1: And obviously Lebron is still Lebron even at that age.
Speaker 1: But three games under JJ Reddick and they're clean. How
Speaker 1: real is this? In your opinion?
Speaker 2: Have you seen the free throw totals in the NBA
Speaker 2: this year?
Speaker 1: I have not studied them as closely as somebody like you.
Speaker 1: I can guarantee that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: John Hollinger wrote great piece at The Athletic today saying
Speaker 6: that through five days in the NBA schedule, free throws
Speaker 6: are up fifty All right, sorry, free throws are up
Speaker 6: twenty plus percent. So you're adding, basically, you know, an
Speaker 6: additional handful of free throws every game, and that was
Speaker 6: something that they were pulling back last year. I covered
Speaker 6: that at Tom Thefinder dot com that the NBA was
Speaker 6: basically the referees were swallowing their whistle and letting a
Speaker 6: lot of high contact go through and play on a
Speaker 6: lot more physical in the playoffs. But Anthony Davis has
Speaker 6: been a huge beneficiary of this. I guess easier whistle.
Speaker 6: They're not swallowing it. They're blowing that whistle like crazy.
Speaker 6: In the early season, he's averaging fifteen free throws per
Speaker 6: game in his first three games. Now, that's a product
Speaker 6: of the fact that guys can't stop them. Minnesota, Phoenix, Sacramento,
Speaker 6: they haven't been able to stop them. Inside he is
Speaker 6: attacking the rim and they have no choice but to fallum. Maybe,
Speaker 6: but fifteen free throws a game is outrageous, And so
Speaker 6: I don't know what how much longer this free throw
Speaker 6: surge that we're seeing is gonna last. But Anthony Davis,
Speaker 6: what he's doing right now is even like peak James
Speaker 6: Harden levels of falvating. Fifteen free throws per game is outrageous.
Speaker 6: And if he's going to be anywhere near there, you know,
Speaker 6: in his career he's a route seven or eight free
Speaker 6: throws a game, He's gonna be an MVP if he
Speaker 6: maintained anywhere near ten, eleven, twelve free throws because that's
Speaker 6: Joel Embiid's territory. So if he's Joel Embiid's territory and
Speaker 6: getting to the free throw line, yeah.
Speaker 2: He's going to be an MVP in today's NBA.
Speaker 6: And JJ Reddick, I don't know what he said to him,
Speaker 6: but this, this version of Ahany Davis for sure is
Speaker 6: an MVP caliber player.
Speaker 1: So are we witnessing maybe the end of a really
Speaker 1: really special stretch in Denver? I mean, you know the
Speaker 1: Westbrook thing. For me, he's going to take a lot
Speaker 1: of heat and he's not, you know, the main impetus
Speaker 1: for their two losses. I just don't love that fit.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I would love to fit with
Speaker 1: him anywhere anymore. And a former MVP certainly deserves respect
Speaker 1: and he's probably gonna go to the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But you know, Jokic is such
Speaker 1: a delight and a joy to watch that it kind
Speaker 1: of feels a little Andrew Luck with the Colts ish, like,
Speaker 1: are they going to waste the remaining time you know
Speaker 1: of his prime? What do you make of the slow
Speaker 1: start that we've seen from the Nuggets.
Speaker 6: In Russell westbergus shooting two at eighteen.
Speaker 2: Two of eighteen.
Speaker 6: The offensive rating when he's on the floor is seventy,
Speaker 6: which is by far the lowest. There's no one under
Speaker 6: ninety points per one hundred possessions when a player's on
Speaker 6: the floor minimum twenty minutes a game. Russell Westbrook is
Speaker 6: the only player under ninety. When he's on the floor,
Speaker 6: the offensive rating plummets to about seventy.
Speaker 2: So think about that.
Speaker 6: No other player when they're on the floor has an
Speaker 6: offensive rating. The team's scoring rate is below ninety points
Speaker 6: every one hundred possessions, and Russell Westbrook when he's on
Speaker 6: the floor it's at about seventy. So that's how bad
Speaker 6: it is so far through two games. I sent the
Speaker 6: alarm bells. I rang the alarm bells in the preseason
Speaker 6: when he was taking about eight threes per thirty six
Speaker 6: minutes and he was making them. But the thing that
Speaker 6: was worrisome was the volume.
Speaker 2: I was like, what are they doing.
Speaker 6: They can't have Russell Westbrook, who's the worst high volume
Speaker 6: three point shooter in NBA history, taking threes like he's
Speaker 6: Michael Porter junior.
Speaker 2: But that's what was.
Speaker 6: Happening, and they got drunk off of the idea that
Speaker 6: he somehow had figured out this jump shot after an
Speaker 6: entire careers worth of evidence that he's not a good
Speaker 6: three point shooter. And this guy is, you know, just
Speaker 6: bricking three point shots left and right. He's not finishing
Speaker 6: at the rim.
Speaker 2: He in the.
Speaker 6: Preseason he wasn't either, And so I was like, Yo,
Speaker 6: this Denver Nuggets experiment is going to go south quickly.
Speaker 2: And even though they were a five star.
Speaker 6: Title contender in my title tiers that I do every
Speaker 6: week at the end of last season, I downgraded them
Speaker 6: to three stars at the outset of the preseason because
Speaker 6: of the rest of westbrook acquisition and performance on the preseason,
Speaker 6: and I just this morning I downgraded them again to
Speaker 6: a two star level title contender.
Speaker 2: This is a crime.
Speaker 6: You got Nikola Jokic in your prime and this is
Speaker 6: your bench. This your anchor for your bench is Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 6: But then you look around and you got Peyton Watson,
Speaker 6: who's one for ten from the floor as a bench
Speaker 6: player for UH, for the youth, for the Sorry the
Speaker 6: Denver Nuggets. Kevin O'Connor just put out a tweet my
Speaker 6: co host on the Kevin O'Connor show once a week
Speaker 6: at Yahoo Sports. He was tweeting just how putrid the
Speaker 6: offense is without Jokic on the floor. This is the
Speaker 6: last the last stage of Jokic playing nice and not
Speaker 6: being disgruntled as a superstar and saying I need better players.
Speaker 6: He is the only MVP through his nine years in
Speaker 6: the league, the only MVP in NBA history that has
Speaker 6: never played with an All Star or an All NBA
Speaker 6: or an All Defensive member on his team in nine years.
Speaker 6: That is unconscionable from the organization. They need to get
Speaker 6: him a co star befitting of his talents. He has
Speaker 6: the weakest supporting cast up to this point in his
Speaker 6: career of anybody, any MVP, and that's got to change
Speaker 6: at some point if it continues like this. I suspect
Speaker 6: that Jokic his nice guy. I just want to be
Speaker 6: out there and play basketball. That whole thing. I think
Speaker 6: it's going to.
Speaker 1: End SI all right, Tom, before I say you loose,
Speaker 1: I really am curious to see how Tom Thibodeau handles
Speaker 1: this kind of new look roster at his disposal, what
Speaker 1: the rotations look like, and whether or not he can
Speaker 1: make it work, and you know, the Celtics just might
Speaker 1: be historically special, like in an era of what is
Speaker 1: supposed to be parody. Boston might just destroy it because
Speaker 1: they're really, really that good. And then they got a
Speaker 1: good win against the Pacer team that also early on
Speaker 1: doesn't look very good. So before I say you loose
Speaker 1: early returns two games New York Knicks, Kat, how do
Speaker 1: you think it's looking.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I wrote about it today. It's tomdfinder dot com.
Speaker 6: They're zigging, well, everyone's zagging. I mean they are slowing
Speaker 6: the ball down. They are playing at a nineties pace.
Speaker 6: They're bringing back the nineties. I mean it is insane
Speaker 6: what they're doing in terms of like the NBA's throwing
Speaker 6: up threes. They're playing up tempo. That's the modern NBA.
Speaker 6: Tom Thibodeau is getting in his DeLorean and going back
Speaker 6: in time to nineties where he was an assistant under
Speaker 6: Jeff Van Gundy, because right now they have the slowest
Speaker 6: pace in the NBA. They are a team that goes
Speaker 6: deep into the clock almost every time down the floor,
Speaker 6: and they're not shooting a high volume of threes. Even
Speaker 6: though they got Kat, who's the greatest three point shooting
Speaker 6: big man in NBA history self proclaimed. By the way,
Speaker 6: they're not getting up a ton of three pointers and
Speaker 6: their roster depth is very thin. So maybe this team
Speaker 6: is built for playoff basketball. But it's October and they
Speaker 6: got to do eighty two games of this very slow,
Speaker 6: very methodical offense and hope that they are healthy. That's
Speaker 6: the thing, is, like they just got to make the playoffs,
Speaker 6: and their team had their rosters very top heavy. They
Speaker 6: got like six really good players. They just got to
Speaker 6: stay healthy. Honestly, that's my main mission is Yet they're slow,
Speaker 6: they don't chuck up a lot of threes like the
Speaker 6: rest of the NBA. They play a throwback nineties basketball.
Speaker 6: But they got the most important person on that staff
Speaker 6: is not Karl Anthony Towns or Jalen Brunson or mckel
Speaker 6: Bridges or Ognanov or Tom Thibodeau. It's their medical staff.
Speaker 6: They gotta say healthy and they got to make sure
Speaker 6: that they're ready for the playoffs, because that was the
Speaker 6: biggest thing that kept them out of the Eastern Conference
Speaker 6: finals last year is their health. And they gotta hope.
Speaker 6: In Tom Thibodeau's long history of injury problems that that
Speaker 6: does not the injury bug does not spike up again,
Speaker 6: because that's the number one biggest factor in making sure
Speaker 6: that they're going to reach their potential, to making sure
Speaker 6: those top six guys, including Juce McBride, who's looks awesome,
Speaker 6: are healthy come April and may I Tom.
Speaker 1: Where can everybody go find all of your work? You
Speaker 1: are a busy.
Speaker 6: Boy, yeah, and a dad and a husband on top
Speaker 6: of that. So Tomdfinder dot com is my substack. You
Speaker 6: can read my columns at Yahoo sports dot com and
Speaker 6: also catch The Big Number, my new podcast every Thursday
Speaker 6: with Dan Devine, as well as the Trailblazers Analytics Insider everydcast.
Speaker 6: If you want to catch us on League Pass, you should.
Speaker 6: Scoot is very interesting as a comp for Keyance George
Speaker 6: if you want to just watch how those two guys develop.
Speaker 2: Going this season.
Speaker 6: I am on the Blazers broadcast as well this year,
Speaker 6: so you can catch me on there for the Sacramento
Speaker 6: Kings game.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my friend. Have a great week. Okay, you
Speaker 1: got it?
Speaker 2: Thanks Bett?
Speaker 1: All right, the great Tom Havers Show every Monday dropping
Speaker 1: some NBA Daily knowledge on us on the NBA Daily Assist.
Speaker 1: Appreciate his time. Today, we're gonna do a little RSL
Speaker 1: with Matt Crooks in the four o'clock hour, and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna do Utah football. Scott Mitchell coming up next.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give you our Big twelve Power Rankings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, we have to. It's it's a Monday.
Speaker 6: It's Monday afternoon.
Speaker 4: After another exciting college football weekend, settle in a Spence
Speaker 4: gives you this week's edition of the Big Twelve Power Rankings,
Speaker 4: brought to you by the Murdock Auto Group and Genesis
Speaker 4: of Linden.
Speaker 1: All right, well, buckle up, kids, drop in, lock in.
Speaker 1: I appreciate Cavon's excitement in that sounder, but was it
Speaker 1: really another exciting college football weekend for folks around these
Speaker 1: parts or some? All right, well, I had to rank
Speaker 1: all sixteen teams because you need space for the two
Speaker 1: teams in our states that are in the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: Did you go as deep as I did? Did you
Speaker 1: go all the way to sixteen? I did not. I'll
Speaker 1: leave that to you. I'll just do.
Speaker 3: And there's a real line of delineation starting to appear
Speaker 3: in the Big Twelve, which is kind of how things
Speaker 3: play out the back half of the season. So I
Speaker 3: at least ranked the nine team spence that have what
Speaker 3: is really a mathematical opportunity to get to a Big
Speaker 3: twelve championship game.
Speaker 1: Well, fire away, young man, we'll let you lead off.
Speaker 3: At the bottom of that list is West Virginia. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're fine. They're better than I thought they would be actually,
Speaker 3: But they're at the bottom of this list at number nine.
Speaker 3: ASU right there with them, they're five and two. There
Speaker 3: are three and two in conference play. I just don't
Speaker 3: see many scenarios where they're in it at the end.
Speaker 3: That is also the case with Texas Tech and TCU,
Speaker 3: as well as Cincinnati, who comes in at number five.
Speaker 3: They are the bottom team that really does have an
Speaker 3: opportunity to win it at the Big twelve level. It
Speaker 3: is Cincinnati coming in at number five. I just those
Speaker 3: are the team spence that are in the hunt, if
Speaker 3: you will, without, in my opinion, a real shot at
Speaker 3: winning the Big twelve at Cincinnati, TCU, Texas Tech, ASU
Speaker 3: in West Virginia. After that you can get into what
Speaker 3: I believe will be and as of today, the kind
Speaker 3: of final four of the conference so far, Colorado coming
Speaker 3: in at number four Obviously, what Dion has done in
Speaker 3: a calendar year and a half almost two years at
Speaker 3: Colorado is remarkable. I still think that there are some
Speaker 3: issues with this stainability, with staying power with whatever Colorado
Speaker 3: looks like without Deon Sanders. I think it's a conversation
Speaker 3: that will need to be had in those offices in
Speaker 3: the near future. But as of right now, they are
Speaker 3: playing really good football. They come in at number four.
Speaker 3: At number three, they just got over what shouldn't have
Speaker 3: been a real tough matchup, but similarly to what BYU
Speaker 3: will be facing in their next matchup, it's a rivalry game,
Speaker 3: so it changes the the pressure that is on that game.
Speaker 3: Kansas State gets over Kansas which I think was a
Speaker 3: big hump on the remainder of their schedule, and coming
Speaker 3: in at number three, it is Kansas State with one asterix.
Speaker 3: I think Kansas State ends up playing in the Big
Speaker 3: twelve title game, even though as of today they are
Speaker 3: my number three team at number two. Only reason I
Speaker 3: don't have them at number one is because of the
Speaker 3: defense that I see in ames Iowa. Why you a
Speaker 3: top ten team as of today? Spence in college football
Speaker 3: and the Cougars control their own destiny going forward.
Speaker 1: In Big Twelve play.
Speaker 3: Of course, a big test coming into Rice Cycle Stadium
Speaker 3: in a couple of weeks, but we'll a lot more
Speaker 3: on that as the time comes along. And at number one,
Speaker 3: I think it's the best defense in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 3: I still think that there are questions that they need
Speaker 3: to answer on the offensive side of the football. This
Speaker 3: is an Iowa State team spence that I think had
Speaker 3: a I don't want to say easier first half of
Speaker 3: the schedule, but when you look at their slate, the
Speaker 3: last month is when things really get tough for them.
Speaker 3: They got to go on the road, they've got ranked matchups,
Speaker 3: they've they've got all the big ones on the back
Speaker 3: half of their schedule. The front half of their schedule,
Speaker 3: it was kind of just getting over Iowa in that
Speaker 3: rivalry game. They did that, they had a couple of
Speaker 3: buys and they eight as of Week eight, Week nine,
Speaker 3: are still unblemished in Big twelve play. Along with BYU,
Speaker 3: they are the top two teams on my Power rankings today.
Speaker 3: But again I mentioned I think Kansas State ends up
Speaker 3: playing in that Big twelve title game. We'll see how
Speaker 3: that plays out in the next calendar.
Speaker 1: Month. So according to ESPN's Football Power Index, k State
Speaker 1: right now is the best team of the Big Twelve.
Speaker 3: That's kind of where I'm I'm basing my thoughts right
Speaker 3: It's not only that, it's also how they looked against
Speaker 3: BYU versus the final score of that game. That was
Speaker 3: a much closer football games. You go back and watch
Speaker 3: the tape in the trenches. It was a dogfight and
Speaker 3: the final score did not end up looking like the
Speaker 3: actual game did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting because the FPI doesn't necessarily reflect what
Speaker 1: the standings reflect the FPI. For ESPN to win the
Speaker 1: Big Twelve, it's k State one, Iowa State two, Colorado three,
Speaker 1: and Brigham Young four. They have Utah all the way
Speaker 1: down at four team excuse me, thirteen in the Big Twelve,
Speaker 1: the FPI of the fifty fourth ranked team in the country.
Speaker 1: So obviously it has been a really, really rough season
Speaker 1: for coach Wit and the guys up on the hill.
Speaker 1: I'll just run through mine real quick. I actually moved
Speaker 1: BYU up to one going on the road. They've answered
Speaker 1: every question that has been asked of them, So rise
Speaker 1: and shout. The Cougars are out at number one atop
Speaker 1: the table with the Big twelve Power rankings. I, like Porter,
Speaker 1: has been very impressed with Iowa State and excited to see,
Speaker 1: you know, that game coming up. I will see what's
Speaker 1: at stake, if anything's at stake at all for Utah,
Speaker 1: which I doubt at this point, there will you know,
Speaker 1: there will be any ramifications, but there in town on
Speaker 1: November the twenty third. It's the final home game for
Speaker 1: Utah football this year. So I have iwas stated too
Speaker 1: like Porter, I'm very impressed with Case State. I have
Speaker 1: them at three, and you've got to give Dion coach
Speaker 1: prim a ton of credit with what he's done down
Speaker 1: in Boulder, and they continue to roll, you know, in
Speaker 1: conference play. They got a home win over a pretty
Speaker 1: solid Cincinnati team, and like Brigham Young, I think Colorado
Speaker 1: has deserved some bragging rides here. I have them at four.
Speaker 1: Aforementioned Cincinnati is five. Baylor has been a lot better.
Speaker 1: David Random might have saved a job here. They rise
Speaker 1: to six in my poll this week, TCUs at seven.
Speaker 1: I have West Virginia at eight, Texas Tech at nine.
Speaker 1: Arizona State had to buys, but I did move them
Speaker 1: down to ten. Just kind of crowded in the middle here,
Speaker 1: and then we move over to Texas Tech Arizona. Excuse me, UCF,
Speaker 1: I moved them up a slot. They actually fired their
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator after their loss to BYU Kansas. Is weird
Speaker 1: because they've actually played in a ton of really close games.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the way we talked about BYU
Speaker 1: last year in the Big Twelve. They had like four
Speaker 1: or five one possession games late they didn't go their way,
Speaker 1: you know, overtime losses and such. But you know, fact
Speaker 1: matter is they're two and six, one and four and
Speaker 1: Big Twelve play have them at twelve. I have Arizona
Speaker 1: at thirteen, and I cannot believe I'm saying this. I
Speaker 1: have Houston at fourteen, and then two of the three
Speaker 1: favorites to win the Big Twelve are at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the Big twelve power rankings. Today, I have Utah
Speaker 1: at fifteen and Oklahoma State, who has not won a
Speaker 1: conference game, at sixteen. I mean, Porter, I'll reiterate what
Speaker 1: I said earlier during cross talk with Sean and trying
Speaker 1: to get things rolling on the show today. I get
Speaker 1: things wrong. It happens in the business. You know, you
Speaker 1: like to be right but sometimes you're not. I don't
Speaker 1: know that I've ever been more wrong about anything in
Speaker 1: this business than I have been about Utah football this year.
Speaker 1: I just I'm out of explanations.
Speaker 3: It's perplexing, it is, but as you mentioned, there is
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of context around it, right,
Speaker 3: it does seem like the wheels have fallen off, but
Speaker 3: it just seems like a weird year in the conference
Speaker 3: as well. It's not limited to just Utah. Oklahoma State
Speaker 3: kind of dealing with a similar thing in Stillwater. And
Speaker 3: these are two not only the two of the teams
Speaker 3: that were picked to pete for the conference Spence, but
Speaker 3: also the two most stable and long standing like programs
Speaker 3: in the conference. Right, So it's surprising on a number
Speaker 3: of fronts, including that one. And yeah, man, I don't
Speaker 3: know where the youths to turn, where the youths have
Speaker 3: to turn right now, because the answers to me aren't
Speaker 3: there personnel wise, they're not on the roster. And what
Speaker 3: you have to do then is well, recruit other players,
Speaker 3: get other people on your staff, figure things out. Obviously
Speaker 3: we've already seen some changes. Don't need to maybe be wholesale,
Speaker 3: but something's got to happen between now and the next time.
Speaker 1: Utah wins a football game.
Speaker 3: Otherwise that's going to be a long time down the road.
Speaker 1: The kick time has been announced for byu Utah. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it is going to be at eight to fifteen November
Speaker 1: the ninth, So you're gonna expect both teams healthy and
Speaker 1: both teams ready to go. But man, it is really
Speaker 1: everything is. As I said last week, it's like Seinfeld
Speaker 1: bizarro world. Everything is, you know, the opposite of what
Speaker 1: we were expecting all year. So we'll see. I don't
Speaker 1: see if there are any changes. You know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: do the song and dance now with the quarterback stuff
Speaker 1: with Isaac Wilson and Brandon Rose. I'm sure it will
Speaker 1: not be announced he b yu on their heels and
Speaker 1: then we'll find out, you know, when they run out
Speaker 1: to take the field. All right, let's welcome in my
Speaker 1: guy Doug from Farmer and Chemist Doug. Happy Monday, sir.
Speaker 8: How are you good afternoon? I'm doing well, Thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time today. So let's start with what
Speaker 1: you guys have helped me out with with some of
Speaker 1: those gummies to help me get some rest. Now, as
Speaker 1: I say, every time that you guys hop on, you know,
Speaker 1: let's get you off some of those sleep meds that
Speaker 1: have adverse effects and they're also addicting. This is not that.
Speaker 1: So what can you tell us about how you can
Speaker 1: help people find some sleep?
Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely, we like think about the ambiens, the xen access,
Speaker 8: some of the other prescription drugs that folks used to sleep.
Speaker 8: They're not amazing for long term use. They are addictive,
Speaker 8: as you mentioned, and you think about some of the
Speaker 8: non prescription items that you can buy over the counter.
Speaker 8: They're also not great and have several side effects. So
Speaker 8: best alternative that we found, and we're pharmacists is CBD
Speaker 8: with another cannabinoid called CBN and enough THC to make
Speaker 8: it all work really really well for a gummy that
Speaker 8: provides a fantastic relaxation and a very good night's sleep.
Speaker 1: Also, folks out there struggling with physical pain, which is
Speaker 1: a real thing, and you know, as pat Riley had
Speaker 1: this great saying back, pain will change your personality and
Speaker 1: ultimately I know there are people out there suffering trying
Speaker 1: to alleviate that pain with some meds that also have
Speaker 1: adverse effects. How can you, DOUG help people that are
Speaker 1: suffering with physical pain day to day.
Speaker 8: Absolutely so pain. I think if we did a poll,
Speaker 8: probably forty percent of the country has pain on Mondays
Speaker 8: after painful weekends, like we watched this last last one,
Speaker 8: we're all hurting a little bitter, most of us. So
Speaker 8: getting over that pain. There's gummies that help with full
Speaker 8: body pain relief, the aches and pains that are all over.
Speaker 8: And if you're looking to target a specific area an
Speaker 8: arm adjoined the leg and neck, back, then problem solved,
Speaker 8: which is a topical CBD ointment with some CBG which
Speaker 8: is an amazing anti inflammatory, and rub that on once
Speaker 8: to twice a day and relief in literally five or
Speaker 8: six minutes. That lasts anywhere from twelve to twenty four hours.
Speaker 8: It's just amazing stuff. And everything is non prescription. It's
Speaker 8: all over the counter. You don't need a card, you
Speaker 8: don't have to go to your doctor, even just come
Speaker 8: into our store.
Speaker 1: What would you recommend, Doug for people to just get
Speaker 1: educated a little bit, you know, get more information, and
Speaker 1: then what's the special offer you for listeners?
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, I like we have like everybody podcast, so
Speaker 8: you can listen to you, me and CBD and that
Speaker 8: will educate you on all the science we nerd out
Speaker 8: on tons of different topics that teach people about CBD
Speaker 8: in appropriate use. You can also come into our store
Speaker 8: at seventy seven nineteen South Main Street in Midvale and
Speaker 8: talk to us, or go online Farmerandchemist dot com and
Speaker 8: for ESPN listeners if you're fans of the show that
Speaker 8: you get twenty percent off if you mentioned ESPN seven
Speaker 8: hundred in the store or use that on the promo
Speaker 8: code ESPN seven hundred at Farmer and Chemist dot com.
Speaker 1: We'll rainfalling in downtown Salt Lake earlier, but the sun
Speaker 1: is shining now. It's tough Monday for a lot of
Speaker 1: sports fans in our market because a lot of the
Speaker 1: teams are not playing well and they're losing games. But
Speaker 1: RSL is right now kind of our only hope BYU
Speaker 1: football playing really well. But RSL they're back out of
Speaker 1: coming up tomorrow hopefully starting what will look like a
Speaker 1: very long playoff push. And our next guest friend of
Speaker 1: the program, good to have Matt Crooks back on the drive. Matt,
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, buddy. How are you doing hell.
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, so you guys chomping it the
Speaker 1: bit you're ready to get out of tomorrow.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're excited. I guess this is where the season
Speaker 7: really starts for us, and these games have come with
Speaker 7: a bit more pressure now, but it's it's an exciting
Speaker 7: time to be playing and just see what the future brings.
Speaker 1: For sure, and you know, I want to start a
Speaker 1: big picture and then we'll kind of hone in a
Speaker 1: little bit in a vacuum. But now that you have
Speaker 1: been here for a number of months and you've played
Speaker 1: a number of matches for Pablo, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of revisit how your Utah experience has been, you know,
Speaker 1: how you lik it around here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's been great. You know, it's been a totally
Speaker 7: new experience for me, totally different culture to I mess myself,
Speaker 7: and I've tried to do that to the best of
Speaker 7: my ability, of different nationalities to play with their own
Speaker 7: kind of playing styles that have never been involved with before.
Speaker 7: So no, it's been it's been a leven experience where
Speaker 7: we have learned a lot about myself on and off
Speaker 7: the pitch. I think. So now it's been it's been
Speaker 7: valuable and I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: So it feels like Pablo has gone out of his
Speaker 1: way to really try to walk everybody through exactly how
Speaker 1: much of a connector you are during some postgame media
Speaker 1: or every time he has a chance to kind of
Speaker 1: talk about the state of the team, and he joins
Speaker 1: us on a weekly basis, and we always end up
Speaker 1: talking about your work rate. And I'm sure you want
Speaker 1: more than three goals and more than five assists, right Like,
Speaker 1: I know you want the stats, but it does feel
Speaker 1: like your contributions are ones that really can't be measured
Speaker 1: with numbers. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I'd love to have scored more goals
Speaker 7: and had a few opportunities, But listen, it's not about
Speaker 7: the individual, it's about the collective. And the team's done well.
Speaker 7: We've finished third records points, so all got to the
Speaker 7: look off Champions Cup, so that's that's the main objective.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 7: I'm sure in time goals will come back for me
Speaker 7: and I'll get opportunities, But if a team's performing, then
Speaker 7: that's kind of my main concern. So yeah, I'm not
Speaker 7: too I'm not too worried. I've scored goals on my career,
Speaker 7: so I'm sure they'll come back to me. At some point.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, Matt, it feels like the sentiment is, you know,
Speaker 1: and again, I know you want the goals, I know
Speaker 1: you want the assists, but a lot of what Pablo
Speaker 1: is asking you to do is serve as a connector
Speaker 1: right between like midfielders and maybe cheat you up top.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think naturally, I've always been more
Speaker 7: of a midfield, like I'm a break I played that
Speaker 7: positions of my career, so naturally for me, I'll probably
Speaker 7: drop a little bit deeper and maybe a natural number
Speaker 7: ten would and try and get on the ball a
Speaker 7: little bit more than others. But yeah, I just try
Speaker 7: and get the player, play my game, obviously to the
Speaker 7: to the style that the team wants to play, but
Speaker 7: play my own game with freedom and try and express
Speaker 7: myself that way.
Speaker 1: So how would you characterize Because I was at the
Speaker 1: Vancouver game, you know, and so I was able to
Speaker 1: chat with with Kurt and Jason and a lot of
Speaker 1: people with the club. Because undefeated in five heading into
Speaker 1: the playoffs, that's obviously a good thing. It feels like
Speaker 1: some of the defensive miscues have been have been cleaned up,
Speaker 1: and Pablo also talks a lot about defending as a
Speaker 1: group and making sure this is a team thing, so
Speaker 1: we're not just putting it on Gavin or Zach or whatever.
Speaker 1: So unbeaten in five mad but entering the playoffs, how
Speaker 1: would you characterize the form of RSL right now?
Speaker 2: Well, it's been good.
Speaker 7: I think a couple of those drugs for the win wins,
Speaker 7: we dropped, dropped a couple of points in a couple
Speaker 7: of those games where we have just closed out the game.
Speaker 7: So really we put the disappinted that we didn't pick
Speaker 7: up more points in the end, we're beaten in five.
Speaker 7: Might you say, it's not just on the defenders the
Speaker 7: defender it's a team thing. You see, all the best
Speaker 7: teams in the world were the hardest off the ball
Speaker 7: and then they get the rest with the ball. So
Speaker 7: I think we need all eleven players in sync with that,
Speaker 7: and that's what we've had the last last few games.
Speaker 1: What are the challenges of the roster turnover situation? Obviously
Speaker 1: On Dress was a big part of your early success.
Speaker 1: He was he accounted for twenty two goals, thirteen goals,
Speaker 1: nineteen assists, and you know they sell him. He moves
Speaker 1: on to France, and of course it was a good
Speaker 1: fee for the club, so I understand why they did it,
Speaker 1: and then I could keep going. You know the deal.
Speaker 1: You guys brought in five new players. What are the
Speaker 1: challenges of trying to acclimate to new talent around you, Matt, Yeah.
Speaker 7: Of course it's a new challenge. He's still trying to learn.
Speaker 7: I mean, I was trying to learn what Undress was
Speaker 7: doing still. And then I'll say he left and pushing
Speaker 7: the best of looking friends and I scored his first
Speaker 7: goal and he's a great kid, so wishing all the
Speaker 7: best of there. But then Dom comes in. I think
Speaker 7: he's settled in really well. But like you say, you've
Speaker 7: still got to kind of get to know what move
Speaker 7: was made, how they like to play, stuff like that.
Speaker 7: So yeah, of course it covered it with its challenges,
Speaker 7: but we're not complaining. We've passed over in the good position,
Speaker 7: and like I said, it's playoffs now and it's all
Speaker 7: to player for so we kind of just got quicker
Speaker 7: with it.
Speaker 1: So you referenced it, and I've been either with the
Speaker 1: club or covering the club since the first day it
Speaker 1: was broad here in two thousand and four, so I
Speaker 1: was around for all of Jason's great teams and saw
Speaker 1: that two thousand. I think it's the twenty twelve team
Speaker 1: who set the record for points in a season and
Speaker 1: you guys break that what I know you want to
Speaker 1: lift trophies. Pablo talks about it all the time. I
Speaker 1: know the goal is to make a run and hopefully
Speaker 1: lift MLS Cup. But put us put it into perspective.
Speaker 1: For us, what in the locker room does it mean
Speaker 1: to break this single season, all the time record.
Speaker 7: Of course, it's great, I think I think from my standpoint,
Speaker 7: I'm obviously used to the European style with the league running,
Speaker 7: so it's kind of like uh, less playoffs and more
Speaker 7: like over the course of the season, how well you do.
Speaker 7: And I think it shows consistency of how played. And
Speaker 7: obviously there's dips and people go through dips and fall
Speaker 7: and players have highs. But I think of the course
Speaker 7: of the season it shows the strength of the group
Speaker 7: and the players that we got on the talent that
Speaker 7: there is, whether that's at the start of the season
Speaker 7: or now. And it's obviously Britain home. I think it
Speaker 7: was fifty nine points was a great achievement for us,
Speaker 7: but we know and now that that's kind of irrelevant
Speaker 7: and we've got some big games going up, so.
Speaker 1: As you know, you know, you know, there was a
Speaker 1: stretch there where it felt like if chie Jo only
Speaker 1: scored one goal, he was having an off night because
Speaker 1: he was so dominant as you guys, went fifteenth straight
Speaker 1: without a loss. Now he hasn't scored since since back
Speaker 1: in July. Help us understand, like, and ultimately, with a
Speaker 1: guy like that, he gets one, it feels like the
Speaker 1: floodgates will open. But is that a result of new teammates.
Speaker 1: Is that a result of maybe a residual mental effect
Speaker 1: from the suspension And are you seeing things in training
Speaker 1: indicate that maybe the the bank account will be open
Speaker 1: once again by chiech Sho during this playoff run.
Speaker 7: Yeah, listen, I can't. I can't speak for future or
Speaker 7: how his mental state is, but I wouldn't. Obviously he's
Speaker 7: still like I went into two new players that we
Speaker 7: all are. But this happens in football. Sometimes you go
Speaker 7: through these periods where, well, maybe don't score as many
Speaker 7: goals as you want. I've been doing it all season, really,
Speaker 7: and it's you just got to keep going and keep
Speaker 7: working hard, and then eventually if you do keep getting
Speaker 7: those spots and the results will come. The goals will come.
Speaker 7: So I've got full faith in him. The quality is there.
Speaker 7: I know he's got full faith in himself, so I'm
Speaker 7: not I'm not too worried about him not scoring recently,
Speaker 7: and they'll come soon enough.
Speaker 1: So as far as the way Pablo has decided to
Speaker 1: implement some of the new players, I want to just
Speaker 1: kind of break this down a little bit and help you.
Speaker 1: Have you help me understand exactly what we're trying to
Speaker 1: do here. So Diogo feels like a ten to me, Matt.
Speaker 1: I'm not the coach, obviously, I'm not an expert, but
Speaker 1: Pablo has moved him around a little bit out wide
Speaker 1: to where where do you think diego and based off
Speaker 1: of what you know about his skill, where do you
Speaker 1: think the best spot is for him?
Speaker 7: Probably tenure, I agree with He's probably.
Speaker 1: A ten, so you like him more centralized, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think he's a ten.
Speaker 7: I mean our ten doesn't really play as a central ten.
Speaker 7: He's the more towards the right, so we don't really
Speaker 7: play with a conventional number ten. But yeah, he's he's
Speaker 7: definitely probably vying for the same as what I am,
Speaker 7: but Diego has got a huge amounts of talent and
Speaker 7: he's a really good guy, good professional. So listen, if
Speaker 7: he plays an idol, then I can't complains. He's a
Speaker 7: great player and he's got an abundance of talent. I
Speaker 7: just have to keep working hard in training and show
Speaker 7: show my worth, come come gain.
Speaker 1: Certainly we had Diego on the show last week, just
Speaker 1: a delightful ki and talk about a guy in form
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, I mean a couple of goals the
Speaker 1: last few games, and I like to say it's the
Speaker 1: luck of coming on the show, Matt, which means you're
Speaker 1: gonna score tomorrow, just so you know. But what have
Speaker 1: you What have you witnessed from Diego? Like why why
Speaker 1: do you think he's up this game so much? I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously has a ton of talent, but tell me what
Speaker 1: you're seeing from him?
Speaker 7: Yeah, Diego is a great kid as well. He's willing
Speaker 7: to learn. He's got like like to say, he's got
Speaker 7: great natural talent, but I think he he knows it
Speaker 7: has to work on his game to kind of take
Speaker 7: it to that next level. He's done really well this season,
Speaker 7: but I think then for him is to kick them
Speaker 7: even more and really progress. So I've tried directing in
Speaker 7: the right ways every now and then and given them
Speaker 7: a little well look as of information, whether he listens
Speaker 7: to me or not, so different things. But now he's
Speaker 7: a good kid that he's got he's got great ability,
Speaker 7: and I'll look forward to what he does in the future.
Speaker 1: So it does feel like Pablo is kind of leaning
Speaker 1: on you as one of the leaders in the locker room.
Speaker 1: Is that fair to say? And what what does that
Speaker 1: role mean? Matt?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm one of the older ones now. I still
Speaker 7: feel twenty one in my head. But yeah, but I
Speaker 7: was talking about yesterday, think about the third or fourth folder.
Speaker 7: So yeah, I guess it's using my experience to kind
Speaker 7: of I don't know, I don't feel like if I
Speaker 7: want to speak to about stuff and I'll give them
Speaker 7: my my thoughts on things, but kind of just doing
Speaker 7: the right things day and day out of training. I
Speaker 7: think that's that's where you're bos go and working on
Speaker 7: the training ground, training, how you play, getting in early,
Speaker 7: doing your work, doing your gym, eating right, just kind
Speaker 7: of living your life like like you should be doing.
Speaker 7: So yeah, that's I wouldn't say, like I'm really vocal
Speaker 7: on the pitch, but try and lead in in my
Speaker 7: own style, which is kind of doing just doing the
Speaker 7: right thing.
Speaker 1: So I've asked a number of your teammates this gonna
Speaker 1: ask you the same question. Certainly as a leader, I
Speaker 1: don't know what the approach is when something happens like
Speaker 1: Brian Vera spitting in someone's face and for the second
Speaker 1: straight year, really letting the club down. Uh, And look
Speaker 1: he is, he's really good. And it's not just that
Speaker 1: you're you. You're losing a center back. We know that
Speaker 1: at times there are design set pieces to utilize that
Speaker 1: cannon of the left leg he has. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's gutted because it's not just a regular season game.
Speaker 1: He's out tomorrow too. Tell us how you feel about
Speaker 1: the Vera situation, how it was kind of handled, and
Speaker 1: and how how he is doing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, abouly that happened. You can't really control that. It's
Speaker 7: one of those things in the moment that happened, and
Speaker 7: it wasn't great. And I think Brian knows that. I
Speaker 7: doesn't need any to tell him what he did was
Speaker 7: It wasn't exactly the right thing to do. But listen,
Speaker 7: we all want to stakes have to move past it,
Speaker 7: and I'm sure the club maybe it's booked to him,
Speaker 7: and just maybe try to refocus him now for the
Speaker 7: games coming up, because we can't have anyone slocking or
Speaker 7: feeling sorry for themselves. It's kind of we all got
Speaker 7: we had together, so hopefully we can move forward. I'm
Speaker 7: sure we are. I speak my very limited Spanish with Bryan,
Speaker 7: and I think his actions weren't indication of who he
Speaker 7: is as a person. What was in the air. Like
Speaker 7: I said, we all met mists. None's perfect, and as
Speaker 7: long as he kind of learns from it and makes
Speaker 7: himself about a player in person, then that's all you.
Speaker 1: Can ask for for sure. Well said. Unfortunately, it does
Speaker 1: leave a little bit of a hole because now Philip
Speaker 1: Quentin has been knocked up a little bit with an
Speaker 1: injury that he picked up against Vancouver, and I'm not
Speaker 1: really sure what that's going to look like. I think,
Speaker 1: if I can recall correctly, Pablo decided to put a
Speaker 1: Mecca right back, because Mecca did play right back last year.
Speaker 1: He brought in Nelson and then he put Gervayane in
Speaker 1: the middle next to Justin. I think that's what he did. Ye,
Speaker 1: So you okay, okay, So do you think that's the plan?
Speaker 1: I mean, because the center back depth right now, Matt
Speaker 1: is not great.
Speaker 7: I don't know. I've played the mcaree a few times,
Speaker 7: all right. I'm tall enough, so you never know. You
Speaker 7: might see me there tomorrow at the back. Now, listen,
Speaker 7: We've got we've got a good, good depth in the squad.
Speaker 7: And obviously it's unfortunate what happened with Quincy. I think
Speaker 7: he's done really well when he's coming to the team,
Speaker 7: is adding assurance and good with the ball, and obviously
Speaker 7: defensively as well. So it's unfortunate for Phil, but this
Speaker 7: is football. It happens. He knows that and he's trying
Speaker 7: trying to get back as quick as possible. But I
Speaker 7: thought you Bain was great sent a half, and like saying,
Speaker 7: Mac has played right back before last season, so obviously
Speaker 7: it's not it's not great timing. But as a squad
Speaker 7: we have to kind of, like I've said so many
Speaker 7: times already, have we have to kind of get on
Speaker 7: with it and and play the game in front of us.
Speaker 7: But if they for needs me to play center half,
Speaker 7: and I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love that attitude. I'm going to
Speaker 1: text Pablo and tell him that you you've offered to
Speaker 1: play center back against Don't mind. I wonder how you
Speaker 1: would characterize the defensive state of the club, because, like
Speaker 1: I said on the intro, it does feel like some
Speaker 1: of the defensive issues have been better as of late,
Speaker 1: because for a while and there was some bad, you know,
Speaker 1: mistakes by the keeper. But we certainly know that when
Speaker 1: it comes to the way Pablo wants to play, it's
Speaker 1: not all on one player, and I'm not pouring it
Speaker 1: on either Zach or Gavin, but it does feel like
Speaker 1: it's been better. Matt, do you would you agree with that?
Speaker 6: And if so, why, Yeah, certainly, I certainly think so.
Speaker 7: I think it's the same thing I said before. We've
Speaker 7: all got to do it together. I think if one
Speaker 7: person's out positioned or one person's not not doing what's
Speaker 7: supposed to be doing, it kind of there was as
Speaker 7: as strong as a weak slink, and if someone's not
Speaker 7: doing it, then it's kind of easy to play through.
Speaker 7: So we only do on the same page what we're
Speaker 7: doing defensively, and and I think we've done that in
Speaker 7: the last in the last few games. These game are
Speaker 7: going to be tight, So keeping a clean sheet, he's
Speaker 7: always going to be super helpful.
Speaker 1: All right, man, before say you loose. And this is
Speaker 1: just me saying this, okay, and I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: get in trouble.
Speaker 2: But from my.
Speaker 1: Vantage point, Minnesota is like scared of engaging with you guys,
Speaker 1: and I don't like that style. You know, you've had
Speaker 1: a couple of games against them, scoreless, draw, one to
Speaker 1: one draw. So if Minnesota rolls in tomorrow and if
Speaker 1: they decide to utilize the stile, which I think they're
Speaker 1: going to to try to grab a road result, what
Speaker 1: are the biggest challenges Somebody like you scored a ton
Speaker 1: of goal has always been an attacking player, like when
Speaker 1: a team parks the bus. Sometimes it feels like it's
Speaker 1: impossible to find the back of the net, like playing
Speaker 1: a long ball and just pray or something. What What
Speaker 1: What are the keys to breaking down a defensive unit
Speaker 1: like Minnesota if they decide to basically track back the
Speaker 1: entire game.
Speaker 7: Yeah, listen, I don't know very well, but I know
Speaker 7: that manager quite well. We have the same agent, So
Speaker 7: I've been trying to text an agent to get some
Speaker 7: information out of him. Book to no available but no,
Speaker 7: they were very they were very good defensively in the
Speaker 7: lost game. I think I have to move the ball quickly,
Speaker 7: make a move tired obviously the altitude of facts for always,
Speaker 7: but we have to try to penetrate and take risks
Speaker 7: and and just the ruthless when the chances come, if
Speaker 7: they do come. So yeah, I think just moving, moving
Speaker 7: the ball quickly and being being prepared to take risks.
Speaker 7: And when the ball does is given away, which it
Speaker 7: will happen at that times, we're trying to take more
Speaker 7: risks and right quickly to get the ball back. But
Speaker 7: I think we've got enough starting the game, enough on
Speaker 7: the bench to create chances and have our moments to
Speaker 7: win the game.
Speaker 1: Well, Matt, you should know Philip Quinton came on the
Speaker 1: show the week before he scored. Diego came on the
Speaker 1: show the week before he scored. So there's a little
Speaker 1: pressure on you to capitalize on the radio luck here
Speaker 1: to get a goal tomorrow.
Speaker 7: Okay, bad, all right, Okay, I'll try my best way, Matte.
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir, appreciate the time.
Speaker 7: You're welcome. I speak to you all right.
Speaker 1: Matt Crooks, midfielder for RSL. He has been really lauded
Speaker 1: and supported by the club for just his work rate. Now,
Speaker 1: as he referenced, all these guys want to score goals
Speaker 1: and get assists. So on the season Matt Crooks with
Speaker 1: three goals with five assists. He has played in twenty
Speaker 1: nine games, he started twenty three of them. But really
Speaker 1: he leads the team in past percentage. Matt's one with
Speaker 1: eighty seven percent, Diego's two eighty five percent. Actually, excuse me,
Speaker 1: Oheita and Ameca are both in the nineties.
Speaker 2: Tease.
Speaker 1: Those two central bids are pretty good. But you know,
Speaker 1: Matt obviously has been applauded as a hard worker and
Speaker 1: a connector. RSL is taken on a Minnesota team, as
Speaker 1: I said, who has been at least in my opinion,
Speaker 1: a little fraid to engage with RSL. Parking the bus
Speaker 1: as they say in soccer, trying to get eleven behind
Speaker 1: the ball and just slowing it down. And look, that
Speaker 1: is tactically something that can be effective. RSL did that
Speaker 1: against Seattle in the playoffs a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: when they went on their Western Conference MLS playoff run
Speaker 1: when nobody saw coming. But it's a challenge because goals
Speaker 1: are hard man, And that's the deal with this sport.
Speaker 1: That's why they're like a miracle. It's why it feels
Speaker 1: like such a dramatic, uh spectator sport to watch. And
Speaker 1: if Minnesota goes up early and they're simply parking the bus,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that that's gonna be something this fan
Speaker 1: base is gonna enjoy. But tomorrow night, RSL back in action.
Speaker 1: The playoffs are here. Fall soccer is awesome. Now Fall
Speaker 1: football of course, top of mine. We're gonna bring in
Speaker 1: Scott Mitchell coming up. But it is a six fifty
Speaker 1: kicktime tomorrow night, and that game will be on Apple
Speaker 1: TV or head over to RSL dot com. I don't
Speaker 1: know if there are any tickets left. We've got Monday
Speaker 1: at football coming your way in about ninety minutes from
Speaker 1: right now after we say good night here on the
Speaker 1: program Russell Wilson and Daniel Jones, and then on nine
Speaker 1: to sixty is where you can find Game three of
Speaker 1: the World Series between the Dodgers and the Yanks. Yanks
Speaker 1: got to get one tonight, man, Eli's up to zero,
Speaker 1: so keep that in mind. Joining us now on a
Speaker 1: Monday afternoon, the legend himself, Scott Mitchell. Scott happy Monday, sir,
Speaker 1: how are you?
Speaker 2: Thank you? I'm good. There might be some folks up
Speaker 2: on the hill that aren't good right now, but you
Speaker 2: know life, I can't complain. I'm good.
Speaker 1: There you go. I like that attitude. And look, last
Speaker 1: week I was the guy that was holding on to
Speaker 1: the final branch before we actually tumble out of the tree.
Speaker 1: And now I'm face down in the mud, Scott. Now
Speaker 1: I'm face down in the mud. I got nothing like
Speaker 1: I get a lot of things wrong. You know, you've
Speaker 1: done this job for a long time. You get some
Speaker 1: things right, you get some things wrong. I've got plenty wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't know. And I'm just speaking for me personally
Speaker 1: that I've ever been so wrong about something as wrong
Speaker 1: as I've been about this Utah football team all year.
Speaker 1: I'm out of answers.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Just from a macro standpoint, where's Scott Mitchell on this?
Speaker 2: Well? Oh, I feel your pain and I feel your
Speaker 2: like bewilderment, because really, you think about the first part
Speaker 2: of the season. You play SUU and it looks really good,
Speaker 2: and Cam rising okay, he's back from his injury, and
Speaker 2: Baylor starts out amazing and then he just runs into
Speaker 2: the whatever he ran into and it just and and
Speaker 2: there goes the season. And I know it's not just
Speaker 2: on one player, but Cam Rising, when he was here
Speaker 2: and he was healthy, he was one player that really
Speaker 2: changed the whole trajectory of this program. I mean, playing
Speaker 2: San Diego State and he comes in in the second
Speaker 2: half of that game four or five years or seven,
Speaker 2: eight nine, I don't know how many years he's been
Speaker 2: at Utah, and he was electric, and he was different,
Speaker 2: and he brought an attitude and he brought a belief
Speaker 2: that there just wasn't there and he did some incredible
Speaker 2: things and when to me, it's so much about you
Speaker 2: look at college football and your fortunes really do in
Speaker 2: a lot of way center around a really really good quarterback.
Speaker 2: And all the good teams in the country have them,
Speaker 2: and they all either a lot of them aren't homegrown,
Speaker 2: hired these guns and and a lot of them have
Speaker 2: worked out. I mean there's some that haven't, but a
Speaker 2: lot of these quarterbacks in the transfer portal and have
Speaker 2: have have panned out. And that that's really the biggest
Speaker 2: kind of uh, you know, because the defense has played
Speaker 2: well enough to win every single game that we've lost.
Speaker 2: I mean, they really have, and and the offense just
Speaker 2: has been anemic. And the way I look at it
Speaker 2: is there's something really weird going on on the offensive
Speaker 2: side of the ball, and it's and it's you know,
Speaker 2: and it's probably they look they got a true freshman
Speaker 2: who's been playing and he's just okay, and he's and
Speaker 2: he's just you know, he hasn't improved as the year
Speaker 2: has gone on, and and you're seeing the same performance
Speaker 2: every single week when he when he's out there, it's
Speaker 2: just very very pedestrial in and there's just not a
Speaker 2: lot there. And it's not saying he can't get there
Speaker 2: down the road, but right now he's just not ready
Speaker 2: to play. And so you're just it. You've just been
Speaker 2: in a tough situation with the quarterback there. But the
Speaker 2: other thing you're seeing is you're seeing all side penalties.
Speaker 2: You're seeing you're seeing guys drop balls, You're seeing guys
Speaker 2: not come back to the football. You're seeing very inaccurate throws.
Speaker 2: You're seeing a lot of fundamental things that if you're
Speaker 2: going to be consistent offensively, you just can't have guys
Speaker 2: shooting you in the foot right and left and that's
Speaker 2: what's happening. It's not just a quarterback play. It's across
Speaker 2: the board. Everyone play, and it's a mindset. It's a
Speaker 2: mindset of being focused and being taking care of those
Speaker 2: little details, because those little details that's really what the
Speaker 2: difference is between winning and losing, and between having a
Speaker 2: consistent performance offensively and not. You know, you can't just
Speaker 2: go through the motions and practice and just run the place.
Speaker 2: You have to run the place to a level of excellence.
Speaker 2: And if you don't, when you get in the game,
Speaker 2: it just it just doesn't show up. And so you
Speaker 2: just see these things, these fundamental things across the board
Speaker 2: not happening, and that's why this team's been really poor
Speaker 2: and inconsistent offensive. Now, the good news to that sense
Speaker 2: is it's all fixable. Like you have to you have
Speaker 2: to change your focus, you have to change your practice habits,
Speaker 2: you have to you have to have a commitment to
Speaker 2: being excellent when you're out on the field, and you
Speaker 2: can do that and whether you are perfect about it
Speaker 2: not relevant. It's it's the approach and the attitude that's
Speaker 2: the important thing. And I'm just not seeing that with
Speaker 2: and it's really the offensive side of the ball from me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll get over the defense in a moment,
Speaker 1: because to your point, there are a lot of metrics
Speaker 1: that indicate this is still a top shelf defense, but
Speaker 1: they're not getting to the quarterback and they're not turning
Speaker 1: the other team over. I mean, they're doing a lot
Speaker 1: of things well, they're just not doing the things that
Speaker 1: we're used to seeing them do well when they're head
Speaker 1: coach is coach with But we'll get to that in
Speaker 1: the mod because I do want to stay on the
Speaker 1: offensive side of the ball. Now. We talked last week,
Speaker 1: and this is not a knock. I just wonder aloud
Speaker 1: what Mike Bijakian can find in an Andy Ludwig offense
Speaker 1: and Andy Ludwig himself couldn't find. So, now that we
Speaker 1: have one game, which is a really small sample size,
Speaker 1: did anything different or unique stand out to you based
Speaker 1: off of the different play caller?
Speaker 2: Well, this isn't going to be a popular statement, Spence,
Speaker 2: but this is what I saw, and that is shoot,
Speaker 2: Brandon Rose actually looked pretty decent at quarterback. That was
Speaker 2: the most positive thing that I saw out of that game,
Speaker 2: and it was the decision on where to throw the ball.
Speaker 2: He threw the ball accurately. The interception wasn't some just
Speaker 2: what is hair brain? What are you thinking kind of throw.
Speaker 2: He's trying to make a place third down. The receiver
Speaker 2: needs to come back to him in that situation, and
Speaker 2: I didn't really any and he had guys drop the
Speaker 2: ball on him, and that through very accurately. He seemed
Speaker 2: really poised. He ran, He ran with decisiveness, He played
Speaker 2: with decisiveness, and and he you know, he's barely got
Speaker 2: to play. The guy with the most experienced understanding this offense.
Speaker 2: He's had the most reps at it, whether it's been
Speaker 2: in practice or where and it's not been in a game,
Speaker 2: but he's probably the most prepared and ready to play
Speaker 2: from an experienced maturity understanding. And you know, if it's me,
Speaker 2: and I think it was the right thing to do,
Speaker 2: because that offense was going nowhere. Uh, it just wasn't.
Speaker 2: It wasn't going anywhere with with with Isaac. And I'm
Speaker 2: not I'm not. I'm not like, oh, Isaac's you know,
Speaker 2: a bust or anything like that. As young he's just
Speaker 2: a young kid that just needs to grow and mature
Speaker 2: and and he's just not ready to play yet. Just
Speaker 2: not and so if there was anything positive out of that,
Speaker 2: maybe more of Brandon Rose executing this offense might might
Speaker 2: work well for this team.
Speaker 1: Huh interesting. So I guess I'll follow up and just
Speaker 1: ask you if you because here we go again, Scott like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do the song and dance thing for the
Speaker 1: next twelve days before BYU about who's it going to
Speaker 1: be Isaac or Brandon like we're and you know there's
Speaker 1: gonna be cooy messaging. We won't find out. Probably my
Speaker 1: guess is up up until kick. But I guess I'll
Speaker 1: just follow up and ask you, do you believe that
Speaker 1: for the rest of the year, starting with Brighamy Young
Speaker 1: in twelve days under center should be Brandon Rose.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna make a change, it's a great time
Speaker 2: to do it because he's gonna get all the practice reps.
Speaker 2: He's gonna get two weeks of practice reps, and he's
Speaker 2: gonna you know, he's gonna get a little bit of timing.
Speaker 2: He threw the ball very well with with a limited
Speaker 2: time he had in the game, he actually threw the
Speaker 2: ball very well. So if you're gonna do it, it's
Speaker 2: certainly it's certainly the right time to do it, and
Speaker 2: sometimes that change, you know, can be a spark. I mean,
Speaker 2: I mean everyone was like Charlie Brewer, you know, a
Speaker 2: few years ago, and and he beat out Cam Rising,
Speaker 2: like like he went the coaches. Everyone chose Charlie Brewer
Speaker 2: to be the starter. And Charlie was running this offense
Speaker 2: like a lot of these quarterbacks you've seen the last
Speaker 2: couple of years run it. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: Cam Rising comes in and it's a whole different offense.
Speaker 2: So maybe that's the situation where we're in here because
Speaker 2: no one knows. No one knows what Rose can do
Speaker 2: at this time. I mean because he never played, and
Speaker 2: no one knew what Cam Rising could have done. And
Speaker 2: I just saw a guy who wanted to play football
Speaker 2: when Brandon Rose got out there and played. So you know,
Speaker 2: you got to you gotta talk to Isaac Wilson off
Speaker 2: the ledge, you know, because he's young, and you don't
Speaker 2: want to you don't want to mess him up, but
Speaker 2: it might be a good time for him to just
Speaker 2: kind of take a seatback. I know a lot of
Speaker 2: people are like, now, I'll throw him in there, give
Speaker 2: him all of this experience and I'm I'm just not
Speaker 2: seeing a lot of improvement right now from Isaac Wilson.
Speaker 2: I'm and I'm a big fan of game reps and
Speaker 2: all that stuff, but I'm seeing more regression with Isaac
Speaker 2: than i am improvement.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I guess we'll see. I mean, look, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying you're wrong. I'm kind of surprised, Scott, because
Speaker 1: from my vantage point, I just figured at this point,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, if we're honest, what really is on
Speaker 1: the table, and if the only thing that you're playing
Speaker 1: for is to play spoiler, that's a bad indicator of
Speaker 1: where you're at as a program. So if you know,
Speaker 1: look a couple more wins, you get to a throwaway bowl.
Speaker 1: Obviously you like the bowl experience for the seniors upperclassmen.
Speaker 1: We don't want to see anybody go out on a downturn.
Speaker 1: And certainly, if this is Kyle's last year, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people believe that it is, I have no
Speaker 1: insight into that, you do want to go out with
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a bang than you're doing
Speaker 1: right now. But if there really isn't much on the
Speaker 1: table as far as what we thought could be on
Speaker 1: the table to start, the year. I just thought you
Speaker 1: might as well let Isaac go through the growing pains,
Speaker 1: right and just give them some reps.
Speaker 2: And I've been a believer of that, and I am
Speaker 2: a believer in that, but I'm also in a believer
Speaker 2: of you know, there's sometimes guys just aren't ready to play. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And and what I've seen is, you know, if my
Speaker 2: freshman year at Utah had I played, I probably would
Speaker 2: have been okay. But having you know, a maturity, just
Speaker 2: being in the program, having some confidence in myself and
Speaker 2: my ability, I was far far suited to start playing
Speaker 2: the second year and then you know, and beyond. But
Speaker 2: it's it's a tall order for a true freshman to
Speaker 2: step in there and really really, you know, do well.
Speaker 2: And what you don't want to do is you don't
Speaker 2: want to put all these ghosts in a kid's closet
Speaker 2: that come out later on in his career. You know,
Speaker 2: if all he's learning when he goes out on the
Speaker 2: field is is like these bad images, and you know
Speaker 2: that you don't want to you don't want to put
Speaker 2: that in a guy's mind either. And and there there
Speaker 2: really is a time when some kids they're just they're
Speaker 2: just not quite ready for it. They just aren't. And
Speaker 2: and and it's okay. It doesn't mean it's the end
Speaker 2: of him. It doesn't mean anything. It just means that
Speaker 2: in this moment right now, it's probably best for you
Speaker 2: to just take a step back. If I expence, if
Speaker 2: I saw him like, Okay, you know, there's improvement, and
Speaker 2: but I've kind of seen the same performance the last
Speaker 2: four week, you know, pretty much since he's been in there.
Speaker 2: I'm seeing it. I'm seeing a step forward with Isaac.
Speaker 1: Wilson, Yeah, for sure. And I'm not saying you're wrong,
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm I'm just kind of trying to
Speaker 1: dig down a couple of different levels to understand what's
Speaker 1: going on. I mean, look, I could run through all
Speaker 1: the metrics. They're fifteenth in total, oh, they're leventh and rushing,
Speaker 1: they're tenth and passing their fifteenth in efficiency, Like, by
Speaker 1: any measurable metric, this is one of the bottom three
Speaker 1: or four offense is in all of the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: But let me go back to asking you once again
Speaker 1: about the play calling away from either Brandon or Isaac.
Speaker 1: Did you see anything from Mike in his first game
Speaker 1: simply from calling plays that you it gives you some
Speaker 1: hope that this might look different starting with b Yu.
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, no, I mean it's the same offense.
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't I didn't see anything. I go, well, okay,
Speaker 2: that's that's kind of creative. That's that's a little bit different.
Speaker 2: They Utah was you know, clearly uh you know, trying
Speaker 2: to establish the run pretty patiently. Uh And but there
Speaker 2: wasn't any They weren't really running the ball, right. Uh.
Speaker 2: They're also running against a front designed to stop the run.
Speaker 2: And and and they've I've been seeing these same looks
Speaker 2: from all the teams. They're they're just challenging Utah to
Speaker 2: to throw the football and just say, your quarterback's gotta
Speaker 2: beat us, and and and they haven't been able to
Speaker 2: do that. And uh so you're when you are running it,
Speaker 2: you're you're running with kind of your hand tied behind
Speaker 2: your back a little bit. And so it's it's tough
Speaker 2: sledding and and uh but you know, I think that's
Speaker 2: the game plan. They said, Look, we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 2: run the ball. We're just going to you know, try
Speaker 2: to you know, work off of that. And and I
Speaker 2: don't think it worked. Very well for for Isaac in
Speaker 2: the game. Uh moving forward, you know, I don't know
Speaker 2: if they change that they do more, but yeah, the offense,
Speaker 2: there wasn't anything to me that I go, well, okay,
Speaker 2: that's that gives me a lot of excitement and hope
Speaker 2: you Spence, you're talking to a guy that's been in
Speaker 2: some of the greatest offenses in like the history of
Speaker 2: the NFL. I'm not joking like I mean, I mean
Speaker 2: the offense I had it so for me to watch
Speaker 2: all of this from just the ground level forever, you know, really, look,
Speaker 2: Kyle Whittingham's the defensive minded coach. It's not about playing
Speaker 2: great offense. It never is. And and so you know,
Speaker 2: I don't see where Mike Jaking's going to come in
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden they're going to have a
Speaker 2: great offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, I want honesty and truthful you know,
Speaker 1: interactions on this show. So I appreciate you kind of
Speaker 1: giving us the medicine because I certainly respect your eye
Speaker 1: in a way that others probably can't see it because
Speaker 1: you've played it at the highest of levels. I wonder
Speaker 1: what your thoughts are, Scott. You know, after the game
Speaker 1: Mackai Bernard essentially said, I know what's up. I'm just
Speaker 1: not going to say it out loud now. If I
Speaker 1: had to guess, it's simply the play of the quarterback position.
Speaker 1: And you know, maybe Mackai doesn't want to throw anybody
Speaker 1: under the bus. But that that led to a lot
Speaker 1: of speculation about what exactly is going on behind closed doors.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that plays into it. I'm sure that there
Speaker 2: may be you know, there's this there's a chemistry thing
Speaker 2: with teams, and it's and it's not the culture of
Speaker 2: the program, it's the chemistry of the players and how
Speaker 2: they interact with each other because you look at the
Speaker 2: body language and that that's what really what I was
Speaker 2: alluding to earlier. When you see guys not focused in games,
Speaker 2: something else is going on in their mind. They're they're
Speaker 2: they're upset by maybe I didn't get the same kind
Speaker 2: of money this guy did or whatever, you know, because
Speaker 2: that's that's kind of creeping into college football and these players.
Speaker 2: And and when you start getting those thoughts or those
Speaker 2: your focus goes outside of Hey, your job every week
Speaker 2: is to get yourself ready to play, and you don't
Speaker 2: get yourself ready to play when you're wondering, is the
Speaker 2: quarterback going to throw me the football? Is the coach
Speaker 2: going to call a play for me? You know? Am
Speaker 2: I you know I'm you know I'm not. I'm not
Speaker 2: involved in the offense. What are you? Excuse me? You
Speaker 2: you have this distraction and you have things that and
Speaker 2: it impacts the way you play. And that's what I'm seeing.
Speaker 2: I'm seeing guys not doing those fundamental things and they
Speaker 2: should be and I know they're coach to do it,
Speaker 2: but they're not doing it. And that's not just the quarterback.
Speaker 2: It's and so these guys are distracted in some way.
Speaker 2: They're not putting in the focus. They're not putting in
Speaker 2: the time to mentally and physically prepare themselves to play.
Speaker 2: Why why they're doing it? If they're upset that the
Speaker 2: quarterback's not playing very well and and you go, well,
Speaker 2: we got no shot to win the game anyways, you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's it's uh, uh, it's it is impacting their play.
Speaker 2: I mean, it just it just is. So they're uh,
Speaker 2: there's something, some dynamics, some chemistry going on on that
Speaker 2: team that's not conducive to production and winning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and to your point, and just in order
Speaker 1: to be fair, uh, let's move off the quarterback position
Speaker 1: because we'll see what happens against BUYU, whether it's Isaac
Speaker 1: or Brandon. But the truth is, there are not a lot,
Speaker 1: not a lot of things that are working right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, kicker miss a couple field goals, Brandon's interceptions
Speaker 1: set up a game winning field goal, and the defense, Scott,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of metrics that, like I said,
Speaker 1: indicate that the defense is very good. They're second in
Speaker 1: scoring D, they're number one in total D. They're number
Speaker 1: three and rushing. They're number three in passing, their number
Speaker 1: three in efficiency. But they are not getting to the quarterback.
Speaker 1: They have not had a sack in three games. They're
Speaker 1: eleventh in the conference in sacks. They're last in the
Speaker 1: conference in fumbles forced, their second to last in the
Speaker 1: conference in fumble's recovered, their ninth in interceptions. Like there
Speaker 1: are metrics to indicate that the defense still clearly is
Speaker 1: the strength of the team. That's not a hot take,
Speaker 1: But what do you make of what I just perceived
Speaker 1: to be? When a team is coached by Kyle Whittingham,
Speaker 1: they get to the quarterback, they force turnovers, they play
Speaker 1: that complimentary football. What do you most attribute to the
Speaker 1: lack of pressure that Utah is being able to drum
Speaker 1: up on the opposing team's quarterback.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna throw it back on the offense, I am,
Speaker 2: and I'll tell you why the offense has not performed well.
Speaker 2: Hasn't driven the ball down the field, hasn't given the
Speaker 2: defense time to rest in games. So as games progress
Speaker 2: and go on, as defense gets tired, and they've been
Speaker 2: down a couple of Conroe tool being out has hurt
Speaker 2: them a lot. And and he kind of, you know,
Speaker 2: gave him a good spark this last week when he
Speaker 2: was in the game and he wasn't in there. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm sure they're slowly kind of bringing him back to
Speaker 2: the game. But Houston barely threw the football. A lot
Speaker 2: of the teams, I mean, TCU, which throws the heck
Speaker 2: out of the football, didn't and they got rid of
Speaker 2: the ball really quick. They a lot of teams aren't
Speaker 2: really giving Utah a chance. And and they don't have to.
Speaker 2: And and you you saw a lot of patients with
Speaker 2: the running game out of TCU a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: as a team that all they want to do is
Speaker 2: throw it right like like they they you know, they
Speaker 2: realized that the Utah offense is not very good and
Speaker 2: that and that's the other thing. When you're not scoring,
Speaker 2: when you're not you know, you're not getting any kind
Speaker 2: of lead and you're always playing from behind, then there's
Speaker 2: no pressure on the other offense. They don't have to
Speaker 2: open it up, they don't have to throw the ball
Speaker 2: as much. They don't, so there's not as many opportunities
Speaker 2: for for the you know, the defense to really get sacks.
Speaker 2: They're just there just haven't been it. I mean, teams
Speaker 2: have really really focused on running the football against Utah.
Speaker 2: I mean it's blatantly running the football. And then and
Speaker 2: what happens the defense gets tired late in the game
Speaker 2: because they've been out on the field all night, and
Speaker 2: you get worn down and you get you know, and
Speaker 2: then you start missing tackles and you start getting lazy
Speaker 2: in your gap control, you know, at the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, boom, they just bust
Speaker 2: a big run and that and that's that's really kind
Speaker 2: of what's been happening, you know, with with a lot
Speaker 2: of with a lot of these these defensive plays, and
Speaker 2: and uh, and with with the limitations, with the the
Speaker 2: excessive demand and that the defense has been asked to
Speaker 2: do because the offense has not been producing. I really
Speaker 2: believe outside of one thing, the defense has been playing
Speaker 2: really well. And there's there's been a lot of mistackles.
Speaker 2: And you can attribute mistackles to guys being tired. I mean,
Speaker 2: and I know it's like, you know, just suck it
Speaker 2: up and play, and I'm sure they think that way,
Speaker 2: but your body doesn't necessarily react that way. You know,
Speaker 2: when you're tired, you just and you may not even
Speaker 2: realize it. But a lot of mistackles that I don't
Speaker 2: normally see from the defense. That's the one thing to
Speaker 2: me that's been more more of an issue than anything else.
Speaker 1: So this simply leads us to what comes next, right
Speaker 1: and BUYU. They have stayed clean. You know, they're undefeated,
Speaker 1: their atop the conference, they're a top ten team, and
Speaker 1: they've answered every question that's been thrown at them. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's really anything left to wonder about whether
Speaker 1: or not they're for real. They are and the number
Speaker 1: or say that, the data says that, and Scott, you
Speaker 1: know this better than anybody. They're gonna be smelling the
Speaker 1: blood in the water and they're gonna come up here
Speaker 1: to go for the jugular. You know, they know where
Speaker 1: Utah's at. And after a generation of having their heads
Speaker 1: kicked in and being made fun of for going independent
Speaker 1: and not having a conference home like, they're gonna come
Speaker 1: up here, you know, ready ready to roll. What what
Speaker 1: do you hope to see between now and the BYU game?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: And then during the actual game to indicate to you
Speaker 1: from your prism that maybe this thing is about to
Speaker 1: be turned around.
Speaker 2: Well, to start with, what really makes me nervous about
Speaker 2: this Utah BYU game is this is a This is
Speaker 2: a group of players at Utah that have grown up
Speaker 2: without being a part of this rivalry. They don't understand it.
Speaker 2: They've never played in a game. They don't realize the
Speaker 2: significance of it. They don't think they they don't, they
Speaker 2: don't they think, they don't think much of it. And
Speaker 2: now the coaches do. The coaches understand it. But none
Speaker 2: of these players has has has felt it, has been
Speaker 2: in it. And even when Utah was in the Pac twelve,
Speaker 2: it still wasn't the rivalry that it was before, and
Speaker 2: so now this is this, this is a big deal.
Speaker 2: This is gonna continue to be a big deal between
Speaker 2: these two schools. And I'm just I'm a little nervous
Speaker 2: to players don't at utah, I don't, I don't and
Speaker 2: a team that's not really been fighting that hard anyways,
Speaker 2: are they going to really all of a sudden step
Speaker 2: it up and go, Okay, this is a rivalry game.
Speaker 2: We got to really get into this one on the
Speaker 2: other side of it. So that that's a concern. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying it's it's gonna happen or whatever, but but
Speaker 2: it would concern me. The other thing to me is
Speaker 2: all the pressures on by U, Like you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's it's that time of the year. It's that one
Speaker 2: game where you know, the game gets started and and
Speaker 2: you are a little bit maybe more jazzed up than
Speaker 2: you normally would be because it is the rivalry. You
Speaker 2: start pressing a little bit, you get a you get
Speaker 2: an interception here there or a turnover, and it just
Speaker 2: starts going downhill and uh, you know, so, so I
Speaker 2: could see where it could be one of those weeks
Speaker 2: where because there's a lot of pressure when you're nine
Speaker 2: to zero and and a lot of pressure to keep
Speaker 2: doing it. And and uh, rivalry games, funny things happen,
Speaker 2: and not necessarily the best team always wins. So so
Speaker 2: you know, I could see that scenario happening, and and
Speaker 2: and it's a good time, uh, you know, to have
Speaker 2: another bye week and to kind of maybe collect yourself
Speaker 2: and and and I think, you know, there's gonna be
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, pretty harsh talk about I
Speaker 2: want to you know, we're going to play the guys
Speaker 2: that really want to play and really want to be
Speaker 2: here and really want to be out on the field,
Speaker 2: and you and so you may see some changes in
Speaker 2: what's happening with Utah. And you know, if there ever
Speaker 2: is a moment, if there ever is something to play
Speaker 2: for in your program and you're having a struggling year,
Speaker 2: it's a rivalry game, It really is. It can you know,
Speaker 2: it's not going to take the sting of the huge
Speaker 2: disappointment this season is, but it can take some of
Speaker 2: it away from what, you know, what's been a really
Speaker 2: abysmal year.
Speaker 1: So how much of this scot is fixable and coachable,
Speaker 1: How much of it is on the coaches, How much
Speaker 1: of it's on the players. And then then simply put,
Speaker 1: as a guy that played it at the highest level,
Speaker 1: how do you turn a train? It feels like it's
Speaker 1: so far off the track around in just twelve days,
Speaker 1: like dissect that for me.
Speaker 2: Well, a lot of those things that I told you
Speaker 2: about coming back to the football and focusing and not
Speaker 2: going off sides and better ball location and throws, all
Speaker 2: of that stuff is fixed. And it's all of these
Speaker 2: fundamental things. And you know, coach Ula made us tackle
Speaker 2: form tackle every every day. First thing we did in
Speaker 2: practice of the quarterback, you're not tackling Dan Marino. Well,
Speaker 2: I didn't get to tackle him. He said, don't care,
Speaker 2: you're not tackling me. I'll tackle you, but you're not
Speaker 2: tackling me. And it was all about the fundamentals, and
Speaker 2: the fundamentals of football were driven into us every single day.
Speaker 2: And when you get into a weird situation nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 2: we started zero three and it could have fallen off
Speaker 2: a cliff. We really just circle the wagons and it
Speaker 2: was even a bye week, and we focused back on
Speaker 2: those fundamental things of football and really re emphasized all
Speaker 2: of it and and really looked at the personnel we
Speaker 2: had and said, how do they best work? And let's
Speaker 2: let's not try to do everything. Let's just try to
Speaker 2: do the things that we can do well. And that's
Speaker 2: what I see happening now. You can't fix a freshman quarterback.
Speaker 2: He's still a freshman, but there's a lot of other
Speaker 2: things you can fix around it and might be sitting
Speaker 2: in for a little while, might not not be a
Speaker 2: bad thing. But one hundred percent of this is fixable.
Speaker 2: And really it's all in your brain, Spence. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just it's a mindset. It's a mindset about how
Speaker 2: you prepare and that's that's the thing that has to
Speaker 2: be fixed.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what. We'll end on this from
Speaker 1: your perspective, because for me and we all just kind
Speaker 1: of react off our own inner circle. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: some of this is cognitive dissonance and echo chamber based
Speaker 1: off of who I interact with. And you know, I
Speaker 1: have a lot of friends who are boosters and season
Speaker 1: ticket holders and donors, and obviously is an alum y'ar
Speaker 1: connecting the community. I don't recall a time where I
Speaker 1: feel like the fan base has been so down about
Speaker 1: a season, and part of this probably was unrealistic expectations
Speaker 1: in retrospect. I mean, for me, and I'm sure you
Speaker 1: did the same. I always prefaced any ute projection with
Speaker 1: if Cameron's under center and healthy, and obviously that that
Speaker 1: hasn't been the case. I don't think we can be
Speaker 1: so reductive as just to say this is a Cam
Speaker 1: thing anymore, because certainly that's probably the biggest piece of it,
Speaker 1: but there are other pieces as well. When's the last
Speaker 1: time from your vantage point, it felt as dire as
Speaker 1: it seems like it feels right now surrounding this team.
Speaker 2: It might be back when I was playing here, I
Speaker 2: mean in the eighties, you know. I mean it's it's
Speaker 2: it's there's a bad feeling and it's look, it's accentuated
Speaker 2: because BYU's doing so well. It just makes it worse.
Speaker 2: It just does you know? Can you turn around the
Speaker 2: last four games of the season, You sure hope. So.
Speaker 2: I think the thing that's shocking to me is I
Speaker 2: felt like Utah was a really solid team and every
Speaker 2: position and solid with the depth, and because depth is
Speaker 2: such an important part, because you're gonna have attrition and
Speaker 2: having guys come in and You've seen some injuries, and
Speaker 2: some guys have really stepped up at a lot of
Speaker 2: different positions and played and and and yet that quarterback
Speaker 2: position is just such a such a bugaboo. If you're
Speaker 2: if you're going to have a great year, well you
Speaker 2: got to get a guy under center who stays healthy
Speaker 2: and performs at a high level. But for me, you know,
Speaker 2: I was I was trying to be super objective and
Speaker 2: just say, Okay, I'm going to look at it. I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna try to be the ute fan. And I
Speaker 2: just I just said, this is a deep team, this
Speaker 2: is a good team. The problem is is you still
Speaker 2: have to play and and and there have been some positions,
Speaker 2: the tight end position massively underperforming, the wide receiver position
Speaker 2: massively underperforming. McKay Bernard's been phenomenal, but who's is there
Speaker 2: any other running back there? The offensive line is actually
Speaker 2: performed fairly decent. You know, quarterback position has been you know,
Speaker 2: C minus ish or even lower. Uh And and so yeah,
Speaker 2: you always know the season is not going to end
Speaker 2: the way you think it is or play out because
Speaker 2: guys have to perform and they have to play, and
Speaker 2: and it's it's just you know, the worst possible things
Speaker 2: I think could happen this year have happened, and and uh,
Speaker 2: and it's it's a tough one. It's a tough one
Speaker 2: to swallow. And and you just the one thing you
Speaker 2: know is you can change. You can change things quickly,
Speaker 2: and you can because of the NIL and because of
Speaker 2: the transfer portal, and so you're not you're not stuck
Speaker 2: in this challenge forever. You can have quick turnarounds. And
Speaker 2: and there are probably some things that are gonna have
Speaker 2: to change. There's some players that are going to need
Speaker 2: to get in here. If this if this is really
Speaker 2: gonna if it's really going to get back on track.
Speaker 1: I lied to you, Scott, to have one more because
Speaker 1: I wanted to get your thoughts on. I wanted to
Speaker 1: get your thoughts on just a dynamic that I was
Speaker 1: wondering aloud about earlier. Morgan Morgan Scaley, who is in
Speaker 1: line to take over for Kyle and Kyle the size
Speaker 1: that he's done. And like I can continue to say,
Speaker 1: I have no insight there, but people that know in
Speaker 1: a way that I wouldn't have wondered loud if this
Speaker 1: is it for coach? Wait, what do you think is
Speaker 1: going through Morgan said, because there's actually a way to
Speaker 1: spin this in a positive direction. It's always tough to
Speaker 1: take over for a legend, ask Kalin de Bore. But
Speaker 1: if this track, if this train continues to go in
Speaker 1: the wrong direction and Morgan is able to get it
Speaker 1: back on track next year, maybe it will inspire some
Speaker 1: confidence that Utah's made the right succession planned decision. How
Speaker 1: do you think Morgan's digesting all this right now?
Speaker 2: I think that whole dynamic spense is hard. When it
Speaker 2: was announced, I get why they announced that it's for recruits.
Speaker 2: It's to show continuity in the program. It's also the
Speaker 2: people were courting Morgan to leave. I know specifically, USC
Speaker 2: was going to pay him a lot of money to leave,
Speaker 2: so it was a way to kind of ensure that
Speaker 2: he sticks in the program. But the thing is is
Speaker 2: it's a funky dynamic because as a player, you go, well,
Speaker 2: I know Coach WIT's going to leave some time, and
Speaker 2: so I think you could get to where, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not really following coach Whittingham anymore because he's not
Speaker 2: going to be around. You know, he's really kind of
Speaker 2: he's kind of the guy, but he's kind of not
Speaker 2: the guy. You know, it's it's it's uh, it can
Speaker 2: get I think it could get kind of odd. And
Speaker 2: I mean I thought of this scenario. You know, maybe
Speaker 2: maybe maybe Morgan went to Kyle and said, hey, look,
Speaker 2: I don't think I want Andy as the coordinator. I mean,
Speaker 2: I mean, there's there's a lot of different you know,
Speaker 2: so so let's let's get rid of him now. And uh,
Speaker 2: and I'll move into different And I'm just speculating here.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying there's just a lot of a lot
Speaker 2: of scenarios that could play out. The bottom line, Coach
Speaker 2: Whittingham is a really good coach that done a phenomenal
Speaker 2: job at Utah. Morgan has been an outstanding coach player.
Speaker 2: You know, if there's anyone that's should be the coach
Speaker 2: at Utah should be Morgan. And and when you go
Speaker 2: into a situation, you believe you or you have all
Speaker 2: the answers. And I guarantee you Morgan scali believes he
Speaker 2: has all the answers, and I guarantee you that he'll
Speaker 2: take from Coach Whittingham what he likes. But he's also
Speaker 2: going to be Morgan Scalley and who he really is.
Speaker 2: And and uh, and and it's and it's proven to
Speaker 2: be a really a really good coach and that's not
Speaker 2: a bad thing, you know. Uh, Kyle learned from people,
Speaker 2: and you know, he wasn't Urban Meyer, but he learned
Speaker 2: a lot of things from Irbyn or coach Mack. And
Speaker 2: so I think Morgan is really feeling like, Man, I
Speaker 2: can't wait to get my hands on the steering wheel here.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to be the guy because I'm sure
Speaker 2: he's very ready for this, and I'm sure he has
Speaker 2: his own ideas and his own thoughts and and but
Speaker 2: I do think it would be hard right now to
Speaker 2: kind of, look, you kill him a program here that
Speaker 2: I'm getting in there, you know, I mean, I mean
Speaker 2: I could see that, you know, being being kind of
Speaker 2: a sticky point between between the two of them as
Speaker 2: as they're kind of waiting for Kyle to decide to end.
Speaker 1: All right, Scott, Well, good stuff today, man, I've appreciate
Speaker 1: the time, and we'll see if they can get it
Speaker 1: turned around.
Speaker 2: Have a good day, okay, all right, thanks appreciate.
Speaker 1: Its Scott Mitchell. Yeah, it's it's not great, not great.
Speaker 2: Bob