Speaker 1: All right, what is going on drives on Tuesday afternoon?
Speaker 1: It is about eleven minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Speaker 2: It is cold, it is rainy.
Speaker 1: Winter is on its way as we are preparing to
Speaker 1: turn our calendars to November. Happy Tuesday to you, as
Speaker 1: it is every single day, it's gonna have you along
Speaker 1: for the ride.
Speaker 2: Spence check. It's behind the mic. That young man is.
Speaker 1: Porter Larson producing the show today, and as we do
Speaker 1: every day, we're gonna do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do some Utah football, some college football, some BYU.
Speaker 1: We'll do a little NFL as the weekend in pro
Speaker 1: football came to close last night Monday Night.
Speaker 2: Football where the Steelers were able to get it done.
Speaker 1: Moved to six and two now and Russell Wilson is
Speaker 1: two and oho as a starter.
Speaker 2: So we'll do a little pro football on the show today.
Speaker 2: The Utah Jazz are back in action.
Speaker 1: Sacramento is in town to take on the Jazz and
Speaker 1: just se gut it for Taylor Hendricks. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about that, talk about the injury, what it means
Speaker 1: for the Jazz, what it means for as far as
Speaker 1: his continued development. It almost felt like Will Hardy was
Speaker 1: almost in tears last night during his postgame presser. So
Speaker 1: a tough, tough piece of news for this young Jazz team.
Speaker 1: They've lost all three of the games they played so far.
Speaker 1: If you listen to our Jazz coverage, our NBA coverage,
Speaker 1: you know that I'm fine with that. This is not
Speaker 1: a group that is built to win anything special right now.
Speaker 1: There's not a quick fix available on the market to
Speaker 1: catapult them to where we all hope that they can
Speaker 1: be at some point, and that's getting back to a
Speaker 1: legitimate contender in the Western Conference at some point. So
Speaker 1: get to some Jazz stuff, some NBA stuff on the
Speaker 1: program today as well. There are two teams here locally
Speaker 1: that appear to be on their way to hopefully something special.
Speaker 1: BYU Football Top ten team and they're undefeated at eight
Speaker 1: to no for the second time this year. Both Utah
Speaker 1: and by You are on a buy prior to their
Speaker 1: a big time matchup coming up here in Salt Lake
Speaker 1: City on the ninth. It's fifteen, I know, eight to
Speaker 1: fifteen first kick, So we're all going to be in
Speaker 1: that staateium until about one thirty two o'clock am. So
Speaker 1: BYU playing really really well, RSL is the other team
Speaker 1: that is in a position and maybe do something fun.
Speaker 1: I know fall is mostly football for a lot of you,
Speaker 1: but fall soccer is very dramatic, it's very entertaining, it's
Speaker 1: very engaging.
Speaker 2: And RSL is in.
Speaker 1: Action tonight seven o'clock Mountain time, although Apple TV has
Speaker 1: the first kick listed at six point fifty pm, So
Speaker 1: we'll get you ready for the playoffs tonight for a
Speaker 1: real Salt.
Speaker 2: Lake and I kind of preview that game and.
Speaker 1: Have a good time on this Tuesday good guest list
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday afternoon. Richard Smith is live in studio
Speaker 1: forty years in pro basketball, number of different areas scouting,
Speaker 1: coaching and such player development. O'bringin Smitty to give give
Speaker 1: us an idea of what's next for young Taylor Hendrix,
Speaker 1: what's next for the Utah Jazz and McMahon the return
Speaker 1: of Tim McMahon NBA Daily Says Style. Get Tim's thoughts
Speaker 1: on all things Jazz at all Things NBA. Gonna do
Speaker 1: a little college football with Kevin Reynolds from the Salt
Speaker 1: Lake Tribune today He's gonna join us. Brian dun Seth,
Speaker 1: will Roll by as well. Now we're hoping it's Doney.
Speaker 1: Trey's our backup, so we're really hoping it's Donny. Let
Speaker 1: me repeat that Trey is our backup. So we're really
Speaker 1: hoping it's Doney, who I think is on the call tonight.
Speaker 2: With some Apple TV stuff.
Speaker 1: So Donnie'll get us ready for this big time playoff
Speaker 1: match tonight in the market for RSLs.
Speaker 2: They welcome in Minnesota, So a lot to do.
Speaker 1: Richard Smith, Tim McMahon, Kevin Reynolds, Brian dun Seth, Me Spence,
Speaker 1: check ITTs, all of you, the great listeners, and that
Speaker 1: young man Porter Larson. On a Tuesday afternoon. All right,
Speaker 1: so what did the kids say on social media? Some
Speaker 1: personal news? Yes, I know, longer cheer for any of
Speaker 1: my sports teams.
Speaker 2: Oh you've got the same. Yeah, personal news.
Speaker 1: The Jets have hitched their wagon to an old, weird
Speaker 1: quarterback who's not good anymore. The Yankees' bats have gone silent,
Speaker 1: the next look broken. The Cats stuff's not working so far, Calves,
Speaker 1: get them in the garden. As I've talked about all week,
Speaker 1: I've never been more wrong about anything as far as
Speaker 1: how wrong I've been about Utah football. So I'm too
Speaker 1: blessed to be stressed. I'm choosing to focus on my
Speaker 1: blessings today. I'm just not going to cheer for sports
Speaker 1: sports teams anymore.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a big step. I know that is a
Speaker 2: big step. I know, you know.
Speaker 4: I think there's a way back for you. But a
Speaker 4: break might be a good thing. A break might be
Speaker 4: a good thing. That's what we'll call it. We'll call
Speaker 4: it a healthy breakbat.
Speaker 1: We'll circle the wagons coming up, and then we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens after that.
Speaker 2: But how's your Tuesday afternoon? Everything good? Tuesday's gone.
Speaker 4: Well, it's a bit rainy out, it's a bit not
Speaker 4: doesn't feel like winter yet, but it's a getting little chilly,
Speaker 4: so you can tell the seasons are are definitely changing.
Speaker 4: Kind of a slow week locally as we we go
Speaker 4: as far as football college football goes with the two
Speaker 4: bye weeks, but so much other stuff going on, as
Speaker 4: you mentioned, NBA Jazz tipoff tip off, RSL. I was
Speaker 4: at the hockey game last night, which was a bunch
Speaker 4: of fun. Maybe hot take oh.
Speaker 2: Right out of the gates. I hope it's Trey. I
Speaker 2: hope it's Trey. You hope it's done it.
Speaker 1: That's a really, that's a hot and an irresponsible take
Speaker 1: from you.
Speaker 2: All right on a Tuesday, so we'll see. Let me
Speaker 2: repeat one more time.
Speaker 1: Brian Dunseeth is set to join us, but Tray's our backup,
Speaker 1: so let's very much hope that Tunny is available to
Speaker 1: get us ready for ourself. All right, let's get into
Speaker 1: it on a Tuesday afternoon, sobody, he's gonna be our
Speaker 1: first guest. But before we get to Richard Smith, courtesy
Speaker 1: of our good friends at Standard Restaurant Supply, your tailgate
Speaker 1: headquarters get everything you need to make your tailgate epic.
Speaker 1: Standard Restaurant dot com is where you find them online
Speaker 1: and they're conveniently located at thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.
Speaker 2: On a Tuesday, Todd Now for your opening tip.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's
Speaker 5: number one Sports talk. Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 5: seven hundred to set the scene for the show.
Speaker 2: The opening tip.
Speaker 5: Of the Drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurant Supply,
Speaker 5: your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town.
Speaker 5: Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.
Speaker 1: So for the second straight well not second straight, but
Speaker 1: for the second time this year, both Utah and BYU
Speaker 1: football are on buys. But obviously both these programs in
Speaker 1: a very different spot as we sit here on this Tuesday,
Speaker 1: heading in very different directions. So look, we'll get into
Speaker 1: it here. Klani Kalanie Satake did some media yesterday, no
Speaker 1: media for coach Wit. He does not do media when there's.
Speaker 2: A bye week.
Speaker 1: But I thought Kilani handled it very well, talked about
Speaker 1: how fun it is for these two programs to be reunited.
Speaker 1: Of course, there is a lot of love between these
Speaker 1: two coaching staffs because there's deep friendship that is as
Speaker 1: a result of working to get other long hours. You know,
Speaker 1: ultimately these guys and I heard OC talking about this earlier,
Speaker 1: you know, the lifestyle of a college coach, and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: any coach on any level. I think it's probably a
Speaker 1: little bit misunderstood by some folk who think it's probably
Speaker 1: a lot easier than it actually is. And when you
Speaker 1: go to battle with each other, and you're on recruiting
Speaker 1: trips with each other, and you spend like during the season,
Speaker 1: these guys spend way more time together than they do
Speaker 1: with their families, and the reality of college football now
Speaker 1: with transfer portal NIL, constant recruiting all year long is
Speaker 1: even the offseason is probably a bit more busier than
Speaker 1: it was once upon a time, and several dynamics have
Speaker 1: come into play. Like I do think there was a
Speaker 1: little bit of an unnecessary sound the alarm fever pitch
Speaker 1: when Saban you know, retired and a couple of other
Speaker 1: college coaches decided to try their hand doing some other things.
Speaker 2: Tony Bennett stepped down.
Speaker 1: Just a couple of weeks before the college basketball season started.
Speaker 1: I don't know that we're we are going to see
Speaker 1: a mass x it is, but whenever a big time
Speaker 1: coach decides that due to the current climate of what
Speaker 1: it's like to try to build a program with a
Speaker 1: modern day and age of college football, it does make
Speaker 1: me think about Kyle and whether or not. And Kyle
Speaker 1: has always been very front facing and direct about, you know,
Speaker 1: wanting to adapt to the new reality of college football
Speaker 1: and doing the best they can to adapt to what
Speaker 1: the transfer portal brings and what NIL means. And I
Speaker 1: think it's probably fair to say that the Utah football
Speaker 1: results ever.
Speaker 2: Since this thing became a reality.
Speaker 1: Have been mixed at best, right, and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not ready to look ahead to the offseason, but ultimately
Speaker 1: I do wonder what it's going to look like if
Speaker 1: this thing continues to go south as it has over
Speaker 1: the past four games, and south in a way that
Speaker 1: has been dramatic, that has been surprising and quite frankly
Speaker 1: shocking and stunning. Four straight els hasn't happened since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: It's only happened four times in twenty years of coach
Speaker 1: Wit And how much of the lack of results have
Speaker 1: to do with the program's inability to adapt. I don't
Speaker 1: know the answer to that. I'm honestly just thinking out
Speaker 1: loud because there is part of me that feels like
Speaker 1: we can still be extremely reductive and talk about the
Speaker 1: lack of health thunder Center as the main impetus for
Speaker 1: what I perceived to be a very disappointing year. Now,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about on the show, and we'll continue
Speaker 1: to talk about a week, it's not just quarterback play,
Speaker 1: but it feels like that is the biggest deal by far,
Speaker 1: whether it's Cameron's health or for the second straight season,
Speaker 1: the program not being prepared adequately for the contingency they
Speaker 1: had in play should Cameron go down. I think early on,
Speaker 1: after the trip to Stillwater, Okay State that win, we
Speaker 1: felt like, Okay, Isaac certainly looks better than Rice and
Speaker 1: or Nate did last year. And you know, last year,
Speaker 1: obviously it wasn't as Cam, it was Brandon Rose two
Speaker 1: got hurt. But as time has gone on and we
Speaker 1: realize Oklahoma State is a sieve. They're probably the worst
Speaker 1: team at a conference. You know, ultimately, the performance under center,
Speaker 1: no matter who it's been, has not been good enough.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting to hear Scott Mitchell on
Speaker 1: the show yesterday say that he would ride with Brandon
Speaker 1: and he felt like Brandon looked better than Isaac in
Speaker 1: a small, truncated space. You know, obviously, Brandon threw the
Speaker 1: pick that gave Houston the field position that ultimately led
Speaker 1: to the game winning field goal.
Speaker 2: And I think it's fair to say.
Speaker 1: And you don't blame the kid because last year he
Speaker 1: was trying to throw touchdowns against Skyridge and less than
Speaker 1: a year later he's asked to figure out Big twelve defenses.
Speaker 1: Eighteen years old, enrolled in April, I have a hard
Speaker 1: time putting any of this on Isaac, I do think,
Speaker 1: so I gotta.
Speaker 2: Be careful here.
Speaker 1: The way I would characterize it is, I think for
Speaker 1: the most part, the kids up there playing football have
Speaker 1: been let down by the grown ups in the room.
Speaker 1: Whether it was the handling of cam situation, which once
Speaker 1: again going back and forth, whether you know it was
Speaker 1: ultimately making the right calls when it came to who
Speaker 1: was going to back him up, and then making sure
Speaker 1: that Isaac was set up to succeed. Of course, Andy
Speaker 1: has stepped aside Mike Pajakian in and as I said
Speaker 1: last week, I just was very skeptical that Mike was
Speaker 1: going to be able to find anything in an Andy
Speaker 1: Ludwiggins tall the offense that Andy couldn't find himself. I
Speaker 1: understand the cliches of new voice, new energy, new eyes, Okay,
Speaker 1: but this isn't pro football. You can't go make a
Speaker 1: bunch of trades. If you need a left tackle, a
Speaker 1: running back or a wide receiver. It's the same positional group,
Speaker 1: it's the same system, it's the same offensive you know modality,
Speaker 1: you know ethos and such, and what will it look
Speaker 1: like against Brigham Young? Because ultimately your season has come
Speaker 1: down to playing spoiler if you're a ute fan, and
Speaker 1: that is a bad commentary on where you're at as
Speaker 1: a program. You do not want to be the plucky
Speaker 1: little school that might upset BYU season, that might knock
Speaker 1: off Iowa State and make sure they're not undefeated. Like
Speaker 1: that's not what you want to have left to play for.
Speaker 1: But honestly, that's kind of all it is. So the
Speaker 1: other thing that Scott was talking about yesterday, and I've
Speaker 1: heard this from more than a few different people, is ultimately,
Speaker 1: you know, as both programs, but certainly University of Utah
Speaker 1: expanding their recruiting footprint to try to grab players that
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily only in our backyard.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can just go down the list.
Speaker 1: We've got California, Washington, We've got Texas, a bunch of Florida,
Speaker 1: a bunch of California, Montreal, Canada, David Alford from Montreal,
Speaker 1: and I could keep going Mesa, Arizona, Atlanta, Georgia, Cohuckoo, Hawaii, Tampa, Florida.
Speaker 1: You know, and as a result of the majority, when
Speaker 1: you look at the roster of these players being from
Speaker 1: out of state, do they really understand what Utah BYU
Speaker 1: football means if you didn't grow up with it, and honestly,
Speaker 1: if you didn't grow up here, you may not have
Speaker 1: had access to it, and you don't really understand exactly
Speaker 1: what it means to people around here.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: I think by is a little different.
Speaker 1: They have a lot more of the local flavor, but
Speaker 1: they've expanded their footprint as well. So what I would
Speaker 1: say in the off chance that college kids are listening
Speaker 1: to sports soccer radio, this game means a lot to
Speaker 1: a lot of people, and you, honestly can change the
Speaker 1: sentiment around your program with a dominant win over your rival.
Speaker 1: And as an individual, I mean, there's a reason why
Speaker 1: we remember the block field goal, Brandon's blockfield goal. You know,
Speaker 1: Brett Ratliff is still a name that we talk about
Speaker 1: around here. Scott Mitchell who pulled off a remarkable win
Speaker 1: over Brigham Young when nobody thought they could do that.
Speaker 1: Eddie Johnson back in the day, I could keep going.
Speaker 1: If you have a big time performance against Brigham Young
Speaker 1: and football, you're remembered here in a much different way,
Speaker 1: even if you're playing for a team that let's face it,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, no matter what happens the rest.
Speaker 2: Of the way.
Speaker 1: Whenever we look back at Utah football twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: we will wonder what could have been same thing with
Speaker 1: the team last year. But even if you're playing for
Speaker 1: a team that has been disappointing by any measurable metric,
Speaker 1: you go, you go, you know, blow the brakes off
Speaker 1: of Brigham Young, you go blow their doors off. It
Speaker 1: will change the way that people in this community view
Speaker 1: you moving forward and forever. That's how much this game
Speaker 1: means to a lot of people. And I do understand
Speaker 1: that if you didn't grow up here doesn't carry the
Speaker 1: same weight. And ultimately, as I referenced earlier, if you
Speaker 1: listen to Kilonie's the takes media availability yesterday, all he
Speaker 1: talked about is how much love and admiration or respect
Speaker 1: he has for Kyle. And we know Kyle feels the
Speaker 1: same about Kilanie. And it's a rod, it's Jay Hill.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is so many cross pollination relationships between
Speaker 1: the coaching staffs, like the venom that exit first of all,
Speaker 1: the venom that exists online. I don't give a rip
Speaker 1: about if you guys want to go argue about big
Speaker 1: brother or little brother on the Internet, go ahead and
Speaker 1: do your thing, and certainly some of the venom spills
Speaker 1: from you know, online banter to certain situations that probably
Speaker 1: aren't great.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen a ton of that, and I've been.
Speaker 1: To both Leavel and Rice Cycles for BYU Utah. You
Speaker 1: do see some of it, and then you do hear
Speaker 1: a lot of rumors. You know that seemed like every
Speaker 1: time BYU was here, somebody would have beer poured on them.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, okay, probably not because they don't sell
Speaker 1: beer at Rice Cycle Stadium, and if you're sneaking something in,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be beer. So I don't know
Speaker 1: what you thought it was, it probably wasn't you hear
Speaker 1: some of those rumors. There are snapshot moments of Bronco
Speaker 1: Mennenhaal going face to face with a ute fan in suspenders,
Speaker 1: which was an odd look. The rumors about what happened
Speaker 1: to coach WIT's wife by some BYU fans.
Speaker 2: I mean, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Does spill over, but ultimately there's a lot of love
Speaker 1: and respect between the coaching staffs. I don't know how
Speaker 1: much of the player you know relationships are there anymore
Speaker 1: because of both of these programs, expanding their recruiting footprint,
Speaker 1: So how many natural synergies and rivalries are there between
Speaker 1: the players can't really speak to that. Most of the
Speaker 1: bad behavior comes from people online or fans for both programs.
Speaker 1: But there is an opportunity still for Utah football to
Speaker 1: change the sentiment around this football team, and it comes
Speaker 1: in eleven days if b WHATU comes up here.
Speaker 2: By the way, the line has been released.
Speaker 1: According to USA Today sportsbook, BYU is a four point
Speaker 1: five point favorite, and you can get other lines like
Speaker 1: right now looks like on fan duel, BYU's a three
Speaker 1: point five point favorite. So the line is kind of
Speaker 1: oscillating a little bit in that area. But BYU is
Speaker 1: the favorite every sports book. They're a top ten team,
Speaker 1: they're undefeated. They come up here to Salt Lake and
Speaker 1: Utah Football sends them back down a provo with the
Speaker 1: dominant l and Brandon or Isaac have a great game
Speaker 1: of kai Bernard goes for one hundred and fifty and
Speaker 1: a couple of touchdowns. You instantly change the way you're
Speaker 1: viewed in this community. That's how much this game means.
Speaker 1: And even if you didn't grow up here, you probably
Speaker 1: should get familiar because at this point, there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of great sentiments surrounding Utah football. But you can
Speaker 1: change that by being great for one day and that
Speaker 1: comes your way. Hopefully the opportunity does in eleven days.
Speaker 1: All right, Todody, he's gonna be live in studio. Before
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Speaker 1: as basketball with Smitty Liven Studio.
Speaker 2: Tim McMahon's gonna roll by today.
Speaker 1: NBA Daily Assist style back to college football, Kevin Reynolds, Uh,
Speaker 1: Sam Bruckhouse will stop buying to do some NFL. Then
Speaker 1: we'll get you ready for a big RSL match tonight.
Speaker 2: As the playoffs are here.
Speaker 1: Fall soccer is here, so we're gonna bring in Brian
Speaker 1: Dunsath coming up a little bit. But my guy, Richard
Speaker 1: Smith on a Tuesday, even though it's a Tuesday, I
Speaker 1: had a lovely weekend in Park City at a wedding.
Speaker 1: It's a good time. Saw some old friends hadn't seen
Speaker 1: it quite some time. What uh, what kept you busy
Speaker 1: this weekend, Smitty see Spence.
Speaker 6: We we had divergent weekends going on. I actually went
Speaker 6: to uh La uh to to see an old friend
Speaker 6: of ours, an old NBA colleague of ours down in
Speaker 6: La and I got to uh I got to take
Speaker 6: a moment out of the visit with him to go
Speaker 6: to Game two Saturday night, and right here live on
Speaker 6: the radio that people can't see, I'm presenting Spence with
Speaker 6: his own special World Series ball.
Speaker 2: What oh wow, vide Are you serious?
Speaker 6: Because because that's the kind of guy I am.
Speaker 2: You are a good guy.
Speaker 6: See that.
Speaker 2: I appreciate this.
Speaker 6: How about that? We found that? And I said, you
Speaker 6: got to be kidding me. I said, I know exactly
Speaker 6: who would appreciate something like this with an Otanian judge
Speaker 6: pictures on the ball.
Speaker 1: I had a decent curve back in the day, back
Speaker 1: a little curve.
Speaker 6: See that that that goes with the line Spence. You know,
Speaker 6: the older I get, the better I was.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure. Yeah, I'm learning that now in my forties.
Speaker 1: And I should probably watch him tape to remind me
Speaker 1: of exactly who I was.
Speaker 6: Hey, Hey, to your left, I put a little holder there.
Speaker 6: Oh sweet, the little thing you put the you put
Speaker 6: the ball on, and uh, thank you, bow to it
Speaker 6: every time you walk by.
Speaker 2: So here's the real question.
Speaker 1: Twenty year anniversary of the greatest comeback in sports history
Speaker 1: that I know, Can my Yanks get a little bosox
Speaker 1: magic can try to come back to the trio.
Speaker 6: Well, anybody who who remembers that, you know, back in
Speaker 6: four between the Red Sox and the Yankees and the
Speaker 6: A l c S. The year before, it was Aaron
Speaker 6: Boone who had the walk off home running, I know
Speaker 6: this is a family show it and and uh and
Speaker 6: that and that was off Tim Wakefield, the great Red
Speaker 6: Sox pitcher, rest in peace, and and uh. And then
Speaker 6: the next year they're playing again in the ALCS and
Speaker 6: the Red Sox were down the ninth inning, down a run,
Speaker 6: and uh, the greatest reliever in history is on the
Speaker 6: mound for the Yankees. It's all over. This is this
Speaker 6: is a four game sweep. You gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 6: And and then Kevin Millar, who has made a living
Speaker 6: since then off his rant before the game, walking around
Speaker 6: anybody who would listen, and they got him on camera
Speaker 6: right saying saying, don't let us don't let us wind night,
Speaker 6: let us win tonight, because then we got p D tomorrow,
Speaker 6: and then we got ship in game six, and then
Speaker 6: anything can happen in game seven, so they better not
Speaker 6: let us win tonight. And then he's the one who
Speaker 6: drew the walk in the bottom of the ninth and
Speaker 6: Dave Roberts came in and ran for him and stole
Speaker 6: second and blah blah blah. So yeah, the Yankees could
Speaker 6: do something, you know, and they're at home right just
Speaker 6: like the Red Sox were, so they have a chance
Speaker 6: to do something and you know, maybe try and claw
Speaker 6: their way back in. But tell you what, the Dodgers
Speaker 6: seemed to be just in one of those grooves that
Speaker 6: you can get in in any kind of a playoff
Speaker 6: series in any sport, where all of a sudden you
Speaker 6: can't plan it, and you can't you can't map it out,
Speaker 6: but all of a sudden, things just start falling your way,
Speaker 6: one thing after another, and it starts snowballing, you know,
Speaker 6: to wit the Freddy Freeman, I don't know, is he
Speaker 6: gonna play? Is he not gonna play? He's got a
Speaker 6: bum ankle, I don't know. Oh, home run, home run,
Speaker 6: home run. Like you know, that's the kind of stuff
Speaker 6: that you can't plan for and you can't make it up,
Speaker 6: and that you're just in the middle of right now
Speaker 6: for the Yankees and the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: So it's funny because as I'm watching the playoffs, I
Speaker 1: felt like the Yankees had a far superior roster as
Speaker 1: they were making their way through, and now I feel
Speaker 1: the same way about the Dodgers juxtaposed to the Yankee lineup,
Speaker 1: Like there's no oxygen, there's no break for the Yankee
Speaker 1: pitchers because even some of their you know, the batters
Speaker 1: at the end of the lineup, one just won the
Speaker 1: MVP of the Conference champion, like when they won the Pennant.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, so I thought.
Speaker 1: The Yankees had a better starting pitching, but clearly the
Speaker 1: Dodgers top to bottom, have a much better lineup and
Speaker 1: all the momentums on their side.
Speaker 6: I do think the Yankees have better pitching. They are
Speaker 6: lined up better too, but again, look, it's one swing
Speaker 6: in Game one right there. The Yankees are a pitch
Speaker 6: away from winning Game one, and the series will still
Speaker 6: have a different tone if Freeman doesn't connect on that
Speaker 6: and and uh and but that that's what happens in
Speaker 6: the series, right, one play, one one swing, one missed
Speaker 6: ground ball, you know, one error here? I mean, how
Speaker 6: about the two plays at the plate?
Speaker 1: Yeah, last night, like chi Oscar, that throw was right on,
Speaker 1: but like how close with both of those?
Speaker 6: I mean they were, it was it was an inch
Speaker 6: or two, Like you can't tell in a replay the
Speaker 6: guy was safer out. I mean, it's it's both of
Speaker 6: those and and but that's what makes baseball, uh, you know,
Speaker 6: so exciting, especially this time of year.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, Otani's banged up and they like don't
Speaker 1: need them.
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous. Yeah that's right, all right, Smitty.
Speaker 1: Uh, fun night last night with so many things going on,
Speaker 1: So flipping back and forth between Monday Night Football World Series,
Speaker 1: Utah Hockey Club and then I get a text saying,
Speaker 1: did you see what just happened to Taylor? So I
Speaker 1: switch over in time for the replay, which I did
Speaker 1: not need to see. I don't like, like the Kevin
Speaker 1: ware Kid, the Louisville injury back in March madness.
Speaker 6: You know what I thought of?
Speaker 1: I thought of Joe Daisen, Joe Thaisman, Paul George, Gordon Hayward,
Speaker 1: right like, whenever these things happen, I don't enjoy watching it.
Speaker 1: So Taylor Hendrix, who, according to people that I talked
Speaker 1: to over there, worked his tail off all summer, you know,
Speaker 1: got his body in better shape. He looked bigger, he
Speaker 1: looked stronger, was off to a pretty solid start to
Speaker 1: the season, some good defensive minutes on John Morant opening night.
Speaker 1: He played Luca pretty well last night in a couple
Speaker 1: of occasions as well. As you referenced, I don't know
Speaker 1: that Taylor is ever going to be a guy that's
Speaker 1: going to drop forty on you. I'm not sure he's
Speaker 1: ever gonna be like a twenty point a night guy.
Speaker 1: I don't think he has to because of his measurables,
Speaker 1: his ability to guard, rebound, and also finish at the rim.
Speaker 1: But what does this mean now? As far as the
Speaker 1: what's next for Taylor? As Will mentioned last night, the
Speaker 1: development obviously is on hold. It sucks, it really does.
Speaker 1: But your thoughts on young Taylor Hendrix probably being out
Speaker 1: for the year.
Speaker 6: Now, Yeah, it's devastating injury and the the freakish part
Speaker 6: about it spendses all these injuries that you see that happened,
Speaker 6: whether it's football, whether it's on an NBA court, someone
Speaker 6: and you know, sliding into a base in baseball and
Speaker 6: jamming their leg whatever it is. This thing happened right
Speaker 6: in plain view of everybody, with nobody around him. He
Speaker 6: was just running down the court and went to stop
Speaker 6: and his leg just completely gave out on him, just
Speaker 6: a freak accident. He'll rehab, he'll get back.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 6: The Jazz I think will be super ultra conservative in
Speaker 6: his rehab. It's not like they need him back for
Speaker 6: any kind of a playoff push in the spring. It's
Speaker 6: not like they're depending on him, uh to to come
Speaker 6: and save the day in terms of their season or
Speaker 6: what they their plans are currently with this, with this roster.
Speaker 6: So they're gonna let him do the rehab he needs to.
Speaker 6: They're gonna rely on the doctors who are involved. They're
Speaker 6: gonna set the path. They're gonna set the schedule of
Speaker 6: what he has to do, surgery wise, rehab wise, getting
Speaker 6: back to the playing condition, ultimately, all that stuff. They're
Speaker 6: not gonna rush it. They want to make sure he's okay.
Speaker 6: He's only twenty years old, s Bence, so they they
Speaker 6: realize he's got his full career ahead of him. So
Speaker 6: they're gonna do everything they can to make sure that
Speaker 6: he's okay physically, that he's okay emotionally, which is a
Speaker 6: big part that a lot of people don't take into
Speaker 6: account with these things. He's a young guy who's never
Speaker 6: been hurt before. Now he has a devastating injury early
Speaker 6: on in his professional career that in your mind you
Speaker 6: can't help but start thinking, oh, am I, Am I
Speaker 6: ever gonna be as good as I thought I could be,
Speaker 6: or as I even was at the moment that this happened.
Speaker 6: Is this gonna set me back somehow? Is this gonna be?
Speaker 6: Am I only gonna be eighty percent of what I
Speaker 6: was before this happened? Am I gonna get back to
Speaker 6: being better two years from now? All those things play
Speaker 6: in your mind as a young man, And so that
Speaker 6: that'll be one of the things that their staff with
Speaker 6: Ron Kimmins, who's their their psychological player rep with within
Speaker 6: the group, he's gonna try and help him on the
Speaker 6: mental side to make sure that he's okay during the
Speaker 6: rehab process. And and look, Spets, just because he can't
Speaker 6: play doesn't mean he won't be working on his body.
Speaker 6: He'll be working on his upper body. He'll be working
Speaker 6: on that kind of conditioning that'll give him time to
Speaker 6: to add a little bit more weight, to add some
Speaker 6: more strength, and to do some of those kinds of
Speaker 6: things to along with his rehab of his leg to
Speaker 6: make sure that he's he's okay whether that's twelve months
Speaker 6: from now or fifteen months from now, whatever it is,
Speaker 6: and try and get him back on the floor when
Speaker 6: it makes sense for him and when it makes sense
Speaker 6: for the organization.
Speaker 1: And excuse me, I don't want to be over dramatic here,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to jump to any conclusions. But
Speaker 1: this is not a sprained ankle, This is not a
Speaker 1: jammed risk. This is a serious injury. Yes, and Taylor's
Speaker 1: a really, really good athlete, so he relies on his
Speaker 1: verticality and his speed side decide if he's ever going
Speaker 1: to be an elite defender. He's got to move laterally.
Speaker 1: So look the fact that and you know, the staff
Speaker 1: down there obviously a great reputation for caring for their players,
Speaker 1: and the fact that he's twenty is a good sign
Speaker 1: for long term recovery. But this is an injury like
Speaker 1: Marquise Chris had it and that essentially kind of knocked
Speaker 1: him out of the league. Like we have seen, this
Speaker 1: injury essentially change the scope of careers for players. So
Speaker 1: give me your thoughts on Jazz fans, the hope that
Speaker 1: we do see Taylor back at peak potential at some point, Well.
Speaker 6: He's gonna everybody's every individual is different. They all heal differently. Uh.
Speaker 6: They all approach it supposedly the same way. Some guys,
Speaker 6: you know, cheat a little bit left and right depending
Speaker 6: on what they're supposed to do along in the process.
Speaker 6: Some guys are more patient than others.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 6: Some guys adhere to the strict rules of what they're
Speaker 6: they're supposed to be doing along the way. A lot
Speaker 6: of it is gonna be on how he approaches it.
Speaker 6: And and again Spence, not just the physical part, but
Speaker 6: the mental part of of how he how he thinks
Speaker 6: about the process, how he goes about it, the people
Speaker 6: around him, how they're coaching him to handle it on
Speaker 6: both the physical and the and the mental side of it.
Speaker 6: And and then then you just have to wait and
Speaker 6: see how he comes out. You know, some guys get healthy.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 6: The doctors say you're ready to go, you're you're all mended,
Speaker 6: you're good, you're good, And the guy just has a
Speaker 6: mental block about doing something because they're afraid it's gonna
Speaker 6: happen again. And and that's that's that's a big thing,
Speaker 6: especially at the pro level. And so that's gonna be
Speaker 6: part of it for him. Is a maturing process as
Speaker 6: he is a young man, not only dealing with the
Speaker 6: injury and the rehab part of it, but as he
Speaker 6: comes back, how can he get his frame of mind
Speaker 6: back to where it needs to be to be able
Speaker 6: to at some point compete at the highest level in
Speaker 6: this sport. That that's gonna be the thing that's gonna
Speaker 6: be for him, and and that's gonna be something that's
Speaker 6: gonna take patience.
Speaker 2: One more thing on this then we'll move on.
Speaker 1: You know, we were very spoiled by two of the
Speaker 1: greatest iron men in NBA history when the Jazz were
Speaker 1: at their apex with John carl And I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: you could provide some insight because I was in I
Speaker 1: intentionally went back to watch Will last night and then
Speaker 1: interviews of the players Keyontay and Walker. It sounded I
Speaker 1: couldn't see it. I was only listening. It sounded like
Speaker 1: they were crying. And if you go back and watch Will,
Speaker 1: he was holding back emotion. So as far as the uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the the effect that it has on his teammates,
Speaker 1: as Kiante said, his brothers who he works shoulder by shoulder,
Speaker 1: and and the effect that it could have kind of
Speaker 1: on the rest of the group, what's the best way
Speaker 1: to kind of try to traverse that space.
Speaker 6: Well, again, that that's going to be a group effort
Speaker 6: and and UH, their their mental preparation UH is going
Speaker 6: to be key, how they communicate with each other, how
Speaker 6: the staff works through that with them. It's not just Taylor,
Speaker 6: of course, you know that that's a whole separate thing
Speaker 6: that that that they'll be dealing with with him and
Speaker 6: and giving him the priority of their of their efforts
Speaker 6: and their their knowledge. But at the same time, you've
Speaker 6: got a whole group of guys who witness step and
Speaker 6: they're now thinking in the back of their minds, oh
Speaker 6: am i the next guy, Am I gonna is something
Speaker 6: weird gonna happen to me? And so the fragility of
Speaker 6: the group, the mindset of of how they approach their
Speaker 6: their task is UH is always interesting because you really
Speaker 6: need everybody focused together, but you need people around you,
Speaker 6: whether it's coaches, whether it's the support staff to be
Speaker 6: able to help in terms of coaching them through the
Speaker 6: mental part of being able to deal with it. Not
Speaker 6: just that Taylor's not here, He's not with us, where
Speaker 6: we we can't count on him to help us. Now,
Speaker 6: we've got to be able to move forward with our group,
Speaker 6: but we also have to do so in a way
Speaker 6: that that where we can perform the way that we
Speaker 6: uh that we want to, and sometimes the mental part
Speaker 6: holds you back, And so that's gonna be it's gonna
Speaker 6: be interesting to see how they respond as a group. Look,
Speaker 6: when you're in the middle of the game, guys are playing,
Speaker 6: Guys aren't thinking about that stuff. But all the stuff
Speaker 6: outside of the game, when you're on the road, you're
Speaker 6: in you're a hotel room by yourself, and you're sitting
Speaker 6: in the locker room before practice or after a game
Speaker 6: or whatever. Those are the times when your mind can
Speaker 6: kind of wander to those things, and you have to
Speaker 6: have the people around you as a group to support you,
Speaker 6: to make sure that you're all working on the same
Speaker 6: level and all working in the same direction, to try
Speaker 6: and get everybody together on the same page.
Speaker 1: So rotationally, what this does is really opened up about
Speaker 1: thirty minutes a night. So Taylor played twenty nine against
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies. Against the Warriors, he played twenty five, and
Speaker 1: then last night twenty one, but then he left the game.
Speaker 1: So about twenty seven to twenty eight minutes a night,
Speaker 1: probably it opens up. So if we go off of
Speaker 1: what they've been saying, it development youth, you know, we
Speaker 1: want to learn what we have with the young players.
Speaker 1: And would you look at what will has at his disposal.
Speaker 1: He could bring in John Collins and that would be
Speaker 1: a pretty big front court with Walker, John and Lowry.
Speaker 1: He could bring in Bryce, bry Senseiba. We could see
Speaker 1: a little bit more of Cody Cody Williams, and maybe
Speaker 1: even a little bit more of Kyle Philipowski. So with
Speaker 1: about you know, twenty seven twenty eight minutes now open up.
Speaker 2: What do you think rotationally we see.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well you just named all the options are going
Speaker 6: to have and I think it's probably going to be
Speaker 6: a rotating door depending on the matchups from night to night.
Speaker 6: The teams are playing who the who the opponent is,
Speaker 6: you know, they could go smallish with Sensible as a three.
Speaker 6: They could go bigger with Philipowski, you know, and move
Speaker 6: him and marking in around, depending on again, on who
Speaker 6: they're playing on any given night, like for example, tonight
Speaker 6: they're playing the Sacramento Kings, who have a set growth,
Speaker 6: a set lineup. They have of starting five who are
Speaker 6: here early in the season. It's only been a handful
Speaker 6: of games, but they're they're guys are playing thirty four
Speaker 6: thirty six minutes a night, so they're they got a
Speaker 6: regular group that's playing and a group that's set to
Speaker 6: try and win this year, to try and get something
Speaker 6: accomplished for them. So they're a group that's that's gonna
Speaker 6: come in, you know, with their own agenda. So every night,
Speaker 6: the Jazz are gonna be facing a different team that
Speaker 6: has a different approach based on where they're at uh
Speaker 6: in their team development situation, whether they're competing for playoffs,
Speaker 6: whether they're competing for a championship, whether they're just trying
Speaker 6: to get in the playoffs, whether a developmental team like
Speaker 6: the Jazz are, say like Portland is or something like that.
Speaker 6: So it's gonna it's gonna be a rotating door. I
Speaker 6: think it's gonna be something where they're gonna be giving
Speaker 6: different guys different looks with different groups on floor and
Speaker 6: to see who works well with each other. I don't
Speaker 6: think it changes a lot spence in terms of the
Speaker 6: approach they're going to take as the season goes along.
Speaker 6: In terms of rotation, I think they're just going to
Speaker 6: be trying to find out who we got, who plays
Speaker 6: well with who what makes sense on any given night.
Speaker 6: And it may be different guys. It may be sensible
Speaker 6: could play one night as a starter and play thirty
Speaker 6: two minutes because he because he gets on a little
Speaker 6: bit of a role, and then two nights later he
Speaker 6: doesn't even get in the game because the matchup isn't
Speaker 6: right and they're trying to, you know, take a look
Speaker 6: at somebody else, and so, uh, that's what you're gonna see.
Speaker 6: That That's I don't think a lot of that changes
Speaker 6: for what the Jazz Is overall approach going into this
Speaker 6: season was going to be.
Speaker 1: So let's let's talk about some of the individual players
Speaker 1: we've seen so far and your thoughts. And I want
Speaker 1: to start with Keante, but I want to start with
Speaker 1: a question at at what point?
Speaker 2: Because I I offer.
Speaker 1: Time say like when it comes to summer League, don't
Speaker 1: worry about mak er miss. When it comes to rookies,
Speaker 1: not many of them are going to shoot a very
Speaker 1: high percentage. But at what point do we worry about
Speaker 1: maker miss? With Kyante?
Speaker 2: Because here are his college stats at Baylor, he played
Speaker 2: thirty three.
Speaker 1: Games, he shot thirty seven percent from the floor and
Speaker 1: thirty three percent from three.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So then we move over to his rookie year with
Speaker 1: the Jazz, he shot thirty nine percent from the floor
Speaker 1: in thirty three percent from three. And now we look
Speaker 1: at what we've seen as far as this start goes,
Speaker 1: and Kyante right now is twenty seven percent from the floor,
Speaker 1: twenty three percent from three. So college rookie start to
Speaker 1: second year, the maker miss numbers, we can't ignore them. Like,
Speaker 1: at this point he has shown that he is a
Speaker 1: lead guard that can't shoot the basketball. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know how else to say it, Like, at what
Speaker 1: point does that become a concern.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a concern the whole time. I mean, but
Speaker 6: let's look at it this way. He in another another
Speaker 6: ten days or so, he turns twenty one years old, Okay.
Speaker 6: So he's a young guy. Played one year of college,
Speaker 6: played one year professional last year. Now he's starting his
Speaker 6: second year. You know, the thing with him with the Jazz,
Speaker 6: from my perspective, is that they're still trying to figure
Speaker 6: out whether he's a point guard or whether he's a
Speaker 6: scoring two guard. And I think, you know, based on
Speaker 6: what he's done so far. For me, I think he's
Speaker 6: gonna be He's gonna be best served long term in
Speaker 6: his career being utilized as a as a Jordan Clarkson
Speaker 6: type or a Lou Williams type who's a smallish scoring
Speaker 6: guard who's a volume shooter. He's I don't know if
Speaker 6: he's ever gonna be a great shooter, but he can be.
Speaker 6: I mean, look, he he I think his shots election
Speaker 6: needs to improve, and that's not anything different than any
Speaker 6: young guy who's trying to feel his way. I think
Speaker 6: the thing with him for me is that at the moment,
Speaker 6: he's trying to figure out how to be a point
Speaker 6: guard and he's trying to also figure out how to
Speaker 6: score at the NBA level. And one thing is hard
Speaker 6: enough to do on its own, but trying to do
Speaker 6: both those things at the same time and to be
Speaker 6: relied upon and to have the spotlight on you in
Speaker 6: that regard is puts another layer to it. So I
Speaker 6: think the Jazz at some point they have to figure
Speaker 6: out is he going to be a point guard? Do
Speaker 6: we think he's good enough to do that? And if
Speaker 6: he is, then we need to work with him on
Speaker 6: being better with the ball and not trying to score
Speaker 6: as much, or are we just going to let him
Speaker 6: loose to do the Jordan Clarkson type thing. I think
Speaker 6: that's what's gonna happen, you know, as his as his
Speaker 6: season this year unfold.
Speaker 1: We'll catch a quick break, one more big segment with
Speaker 1: Smitty coming up on the other side. I want to
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Speaker 1: coming up next right here on ESPN seven hundred.
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Speaker 1: We have the triumphant return of one Tim McMahon of
Speaker 1: the program today. Dan McMahon will drop your NBA Daily
Speaker 1: Assist coming up in about we'll call that like thirty
Speaker 1: minutes from right now. Then we have Kevin Reynolds from
Speaker 1: the Trib covers by U Undefeated. Sam. I'm going to
Speaker 1: go ahead and go with Bruckhouse. I believe that's what
Speaker 1: it is. He's been on the show before, so I
Speaker 1: need to learn his name before he hops on do
Speaker 1: a little NFL. Then we're gonna bring Donnie for some soccer.
Speaker 1: Azars welcomes in Minnesota. Have you ever been to an
Speaker 1: MLS playoff match?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 6: I have, aren't they And I've been to several, you know,
Speaker 6: I become a real fan the last several years. We
Speaker 6: have good friends, the Farleys, who have season tickets and
Speaker 6: they let us come with them and we, uh, I
Speaker 6: don't know about like the tonight where it's gonna be
Speaker 6: freezing out and it's gonna be a little dicey, you know.
Speaker 6: I Usually when I go there, it's ninety degrees out
Speaker 6: in the sun and we're sweating and whatever. And that's
Speaker 6: what's funny about soccer, right it starts in the cold
Speaker 6: in March, and then in the middle of the season
Speaker 6: if the sun is out and it's hot and it's
Speaker 6: ninety five and whenever, whatever, and then at the end
Speaker 6: of the season it's back to being cold again. When
Speaker 6: you're watching, the season is way too long. It's bizarrely long. Yeah,
Speaker 6: but we'll be cheering for oursel the downy's gonna hop on.
Speaker 6: Get us ready for that mass great all right, Smitty.
Speaker 6: So look, it's three games in, but it is sports radio.
Speaker 6: So not like I'm worried about Lowry. Nobody should be
Speaker 6: worried about Lowry had a great game.
Speaker 1: One against Memphis, and then the last two games he's
Speaker 1: combined eight of thirty two and it's clear he's on
Speaker 1: the first page of the scouting reports.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 1: So Golden State ran a couple of guys at him Dallas.
Speaker 1: You know, he was their main point of emphasis defensively.
Speaker 1: So what have you liked most about Lowry's start and
Speaker 1: what do you make of the past couple of games
Speaker 1: when he is going to be the number one dude
Speaker 1: the teams are watching out for. How he's kind of
Speaker 1: adapting to that role.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that's what he's going to get every night.
Speaker 6: So that's he's going to have to get used to that. Then,
Speaker 6: you know, the the other guys who were in the
Speaker 6: so called developmental stages and are just going to have
Speaker 6: to be able to start pulling some weight to help him,
Speaker 6: to free him up a little bit more. I mean,
Speaker 6: he's still he's still shooting. You know, it's early in
Speaker 6: the season. It's only one week spend. We spend twenty
Speaker 6: six weeks in the NBA season. They've played one so
Speaker 6: they played the three games out of out of eighty two.
Speaker 6: But but you know, he's still shooting the ball, okay,
Speaker 6: you know from distance when he's open. You know, the
Speaker 6: early season here he's shooting forty seven from three eighty
Speaker 6: five from the line. He's I still think he's a
Speaker 6: potential one eighty guy for a season, but he's gonna
Speaker 6: have to get more help, you know. I I do
Speaker 6: like the early season play of Colin Sexton. I think
Speaker 6: he's playing with his usual passion, his usual aggressiveness, but
Speaker 6: it looks like he's playing a little bit tighter, a
Speaker 6: little bit smarter. And and again that that that speaks
Speaker 6: to his maturity in the league now and uh and
Speaker 6: and I think they're gonna have to rely on him
Speaker 6: as well. And then whether you're throwing the guys like
Speaker 6: Clarkson and Collins or if they're even gonna be here,
Speaker 6: you know, during the season as a season unfolds, if
Speaker 6: the Jats are gonna do something with them, which I
Speaker 6: don't know anything about that but it does seem like
Speaker 6: those guys fit in with what they're trying to get
Speaker 6: done long term with this group. So some of those
Speaker 6: young guys are going to have to play, and they're
Speaker 6: gonna have to start pulling a little bit of weight
Speaker 6: to just take some of that burden off of marketing them.
Speaker 1: So, and I always say this, you know, we can
Speaker 1: only go off their word. We can only go off
Speaker 1: what they're saying. And as you and I both know,
Speaker 1: there's what the front office says to the media and
Speaker 1: the public, and then there's what actually goes on. Okay,
Speaker 1: But whenever Danny and Justin speak, it's development, development, development youth.
Speaker 1: We got to see what sort of hand we've been dealt.
Speaker 1: If the developmental program is working, Walker will be a
Speaker 1: case study this year because it's his third year in
Speaker 1: the program. Right I think it's been an a plus
Speaker 1: start for him. Right now through three games, Walker's at
Speaker 1: ten points, eleven boards, three blocks. His shooting percentages are
Speaker 1: back to where you want. He's sixty eight percent from
Speaker 1: the floor, only fifty seven percent from the line. We
Speaker 1: need Walker to shoot better from the free throw line.
Speaker 1: But that's getting nitpicky because I think he's been their
Speaker 1: best players through the first three games.
Speaker 6: Give your thought, Yeah, well he looks a little bit
Speaker 6: better to me. You know, I like his rebounding. I
Speaker 6: like the fact that he looks like he's moving with
Speaker 6: a little more purpose when he's uh, especially on the
Speaker 6: on the offensive end. Look, you know these are early numbers.
Speaker 6: But if you if you told me now in October, Uh,
Speaker 6: he's averaging you know, in this this first handful of games,
Speaker 6: ten points, eleven rebounds, and and almost three blocks a game.
Speaker 6: If you told me, if you said, would you take
Speaker 6: that in April and say, oh, that's what he did
Speaker 6: all year? I would say give me that because those
Speaker 6: those are those are helpful numbers for a group that's
Speaker 6: trying to get better and trying to improve. Those numbers
Speaker 6: from a center position with the way that they're constructed currently, Uh,
Speaker 6: would be very would be a contributing factor to them
Speaker 6: getting better. So if he can keep up that kind
Speaker 6: of pace, I think that would be good. You know,
Speaker 6: I don't think he should be doing anything that's off
Speaker 6: the charts, but anything that he can do where he
Speaker 6: averages a double double and I don't know if he
Speaker 6: can do that. If that, if he can keep that up.
Speaker 6: But anything around those numbers, he's ten to eleven. Now,
Speaker 6: if he ends up averaging eleven eleven and eight or
Speaker 6: something like that with a two blocks, a block and
Speaker 6: a half, whatever that kind of thing, that would mean
Speaker 6: to me that he's made that incremental step in his
Speaker 6: third year to being a contributor to a winning effort.
Speaker 2: So tonight he's got Sabonis.
Speaker 1: Right, So the Kings are in town, and you know
Speaker 1: Sacramento one and two, first three. They bring in DeMar
Speaker 1: DeRozan in the offseason. But Walker's got Sabonis, who right
Speaker 1: now is twenty three points eleven boards about just under
Speaker 1: a block. Assists because he can pass it. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so what is Walker up against tonight?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's almost.
Speaker 6: He's gonna get worked tonight by Sbonis and then and
Speaker 6: then and and because because uh Demontes can go outside
Speaker 6: and that's the thing. He can go outside and if
Speaker 6: he gets uh Kessler in space at all, now he
Speaker 6: can go to work. He's got a great pivot move,
Speaker 6: he's got great footwork, and and he'll be able to
Speaker 6: set up. He can make elbow jumpers. He can even
Speaker 6: step back off of that. If you give him space.
Speaker 6: He can make that if you get up on him.
Speaker 6: He's got the footwork and the ability to go one
Speaker 6: two bounces and get right to the rim on a big,
Speaker 6: big guy like Kessler. So he's gonna he's gonna have
Speaker 6: his hands full because Sibonis is a different type of
Speaker 6: big man that that doesn't really fit into the mold
Speaker 6: of what Kessler is usually used to guarding.
Speaker 1: Since he is in town tonight, And I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever asked you once about your experience with Trey Lyles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's still in the league. He's still playing significant minutes
Speaker 1: for a good team.
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 1: And you know, I I understood why you guys liked him.
Speaker 1: I thought it was easy to see a guy with
Speaker 1: that size and still with the skill that he has
Speaker 1: put it on the floor shoot a little bit. Uh,
Speaker 1: But what was what was the experience like from your
Speaker 1: vantage point when Trey was here? And obviously when he
Speaker 1: left he had some things to say about Quinn that
Speaker 1: didn't seem to land very well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't know. He was he was always a
Speaker 6: quiet guy, had great parents who were always here, a
Speaker 6: lot that you know, involved in his career. Maybe maybe
Speaker 6: a little too much on the pro level, you know.
Speaker 6: But that's okay. You know, they they cared about him
Speaker 6: and about how he was doing. So I get that,
Speaker 6: uh and I had to deal with some of that
Speaker 6: in my role at the time, you know, with the organization.
Speaker 6: But he's a good guy. He's a quiet guy. He
Speaker 6: was always uh, you know, came to work. I always
Speaker 6: thought that he had another gear. Uh yeah, he never
Speaker 6: really got to in any kind of consistent level, you know,
Speaker 6: but uh uh then again, you know he was he
Speaker 6: was on that Kentucky team, you know, with with Devin
Speaker 6: Booker and the Jazz. We we we took Trey Lyles
Speaker 6: and Phoenix. The next pick took Devin Booker. So you
Speaker 6: can sit there and go, you know, you guys, you know,
Speaker 6: how dumb were you guys? You know, you guys took Booker.
Speaker 6: My whole different story, Okay, all right, yeah, so you
Speaker 6: win some and you lose some, all right, But you know,
Speaker 6: Trey Lyles has been a a serviceable journeyman player, Okay.
Speaker 6: Devin Booker has been a multi time All Star, a
Speaker 6: main guy in, an Olympic gold medalist. Okay, so he's
Speaker 6: the guy. So you know, that's one of the things
Speaker 6: when you're scouting. That's difficult on some of these so
Speaker 6: called big blue blood programs, whether it's a Duke or
Speaker 6: a Kentucky or a Kansas where they may have multiple
Speaker 6: NBA level guys on the team and you see him
Speaker 6: play one year before they enter the NBA draft, but
Speaker 6: maybe you don't see everything that they can do or
Speaker 6: maybe their shortcomings because they have to work within a
Speaker 6: confined space because they're with all these other guys. They're
Speaker 6: not the one star on the college team. You know,
Speaker 6: like Dalton connect last year in Tennessee. You know who's
Speaker 6: getting all the shots and getting all the attention and everything.
Speaker 6: You know, they're there with a bunch of other guys,
Speaker 6: and sometimes guys get lost in the shuffle. That happened
Speaker 6: to Wesley Matthews way back when in Marquette. You know,
Speaker 6: he was playing with two other teammates who were all
Speaker 6: three of them were NBA guys, and he didn't show
Speaker 6: as much as you know, maybe he could have. And
Speaker 6: in his collegiate career a senior year and the other
Speaker 6: two guys got drafted and West didn't get drafted. And
Speaker 6: West comes into the Jazz Summer League and to a
Speaker 6: series of events ends up his second year signing a
Speaker 6: free agent, you know, a contract with the way the
Speaker 6: rules were at that time, making more money in his
Speaker 6: second year than Blake Griffin, who was in the same
Speaker 6: draft class, who was the number one pick. I mean,
Speaker 6: just by a set of circumstances. That's that we would
Speaker 6: have to go into on another show. But it's really
Speaker 6: it's one of those things where you really have to
Speaker 6: scrutinize who you're looking at in college because you're never
Speaker 6: quite sure if all you're seeing is all that is there?
Speaker 1: How much while we're in this space, and I want
Speaker 1: to acknowledge how unfair this is as far as what
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring up, because to your point, everybody
Speaker 1: has hits, everybody has misses.
Speaker 2: So whenever anybody throws Trey Burke.
Speaker 1: At me, I said, well, okay, Donovan late lottery, go
Speaker 1: bear late first, like in order to be fair. But
Speaker 1: how much of the misses do you still think about it?
Speaker 1: Do you still think about Kawhi? Do you still think
Speaker 1: about Devin Booker? Do you still think about uh Jokic?
Speaker 1: Be honest, I mean, and everybody missed on those dudest
Speaker 1: just be clear. But as a guy that evaluated talent.
Speaker 1: Do those misses still kind of haunt you a little bit?
Speaker 6: Well, it just I don't know if it haunts as
Speaker 6: much as you just you're always trying to be retrospective
Speaker 6: about you know, what you were looking at. Uh And
Speaker 6: and you've got to make sure that you don't get
Speaker 6: caught into a mode of revisionist history. In other words,
Speaker 6: you have to remember that what you thought and what
Speaker 6: you had at that time in terms of information and
Speaker 6: intelligence was what you based a decision on. And you
Speaker 6: can't change that five years later and say, oh, well,
Speaker 6: well we should have done this, So we should have
Speaker 6: done that.
Speaker 2: You know, everybody can do that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, of course. And that's that's the Monday morning quarterbacking
Speaker 6: and that's you know, that's that's a lot of that spens.
Speaker 6: In my opinion, from More for More. The seat I
Speaker 6: used to sit in for for a long time is
Speaker 6: you know, guys, people who never did it before, and
Speaker 6: they always have the answers. Tomorrow, I'll give you the
Speaker 6: answer tomorrow. Okay, after the game tonight, I'll tell you
Speaker 6: who the best play you know, And so you have
Speaker 6: to do you have to work with what you have
Speaker 6: at that time. And yeah, you you know, hey, I was,
Speaker 6: I was really high. I remember at the time on
Speaker 6: Robert Swift who was coming up, who was coming out
Speaker 6: of high school and you know, out of Bakersfield and
Speaker 6: looked like a big guy who knew how to set
Speaker 6: a screen, knew how to roll, you know, had good hands.
Speaker 6: You know, it could be you know, it could be
Speaker 6: a really solid big man in the league. And I
Speaker 6: think he had the skill or ability to potentially do that.
Speaker 6: But he had other things off the court, uh, that
Speaker 6: got in his way and derailed him from any kind
Speaker 6: of a lengthy career, you know. And uh, you know,
Speaker 6: but then there are other guys, you know, whether it's
Speaker 6: a Paul Millsap at forty six or whether it was
Speaker 6: a Mo Williams at forty six, and guys that you
Speaker 6: like and they're still there in the draft, and you go, well, well,
Speaker 6: I like this guy. I don't know why he's not
Speaker 6: gone already. He's a you know, and and so you
Speaker 6: you know, if you get a chance at him now, Carl, Yeah,
Speaker 6: Johnny Carl. Yeah, you know, John was taking sixteen and
Speaker 6: Carl was taking thirteen. You know. But there's also all
Speaker 6: the guys that you liked that went somewhere else for
Speaker 6: whatever the circumstances were, and you were convinced, oh, Spence,
Speaker 6: check it's that guy. He you know, I really like him,
Speaker 6: and we were two spots away from getting them. And
Speaker 6: now now the other team has him, and five years
Speaker 6: from now, you know, he's a four time All Star
Speaker 6: and going, boy, those guys are really smart, you know,
Speaker 6: and you don't. You're sitting there going, well, you know, hey,
Speaker 6: I was pretty smart too, I just didn't get him.
Speaker 6: You know, that kind of thing. So you have those
Speaker 6: kind of thoughts that you can get carried away with
Speaker 6: at times and and you know, but the when you're
Speaker 6: in the heat of it, when you're in that that space,
Speaker 6: you really have to be cognizant that you've you've checked
Speaker 6: all the boxes and that you're comfortable with whatever it
Speaker 6: is you're doing at that moment, because those are the
Speaker 6: things that live with you. Hey, look, a lot of
Speaker 6: people liked Donovan Mitchell right, and the Jazz were just
Speaker 6: we were never going to get him at twenty four,
Speaker 6: which is where the Jazz were picking that year, and
Speaker 6: Dennis Lindsay made a great move with Tim Connolly and
Speaker 6: Denver to move up from twenty four to thirteen, which
Speaker 6: by the way, was where when we traded Trey Lyles.
Speaker 6: So Denver liked Trey Lyles coming off his rookie year.
Speaker 6: So the Jazz traded Trey Lyles and twenty four to
Speaker 6: get up to thirteen. Denver liked the move because they
Speaker 6: thought they were getting two you know, decent players, and
Speaker 6: Trey Lyles and the kid I can't remember his name,
Speaker 6: not from Syracuse that they drafted who really didn't pan out,
Speaker 6: but they liked them at the time, and we the
Speaker 6: Jazz were able to get Donovan Mitchell. Now Dennis doesn't
Speaker 6: make that move, or Denver doesn't want to make a move,
Speaker 6: and Dennis can't get something done with the other teams,
Speaker 6: and Mitchell goes seventeen to Portland or you know whoever
Speaker 6: it would have been, and then Donovan Mitchell never shows
Speaker 6: up in Utah and doesn't have the start of the
Speaker 6: career that he had. And there's millions of those stories,
Speaker 6: and sometimes it's always fun to go back and see
Speaker 6: what might have happened if just one different thing had
Speaker 6: taken place, whether it's during a draft process or during
Speaker 6: a workout process. You know, Carlos Boozer came in had
Speaker 6: had a terrible workout with us, and we asked him afterwards, hey,
Speaker 6: how come you And he tells us, well, we didn't.
Speaker 6: I haven't eaten in about thirty hours. And we go,
Speaker 6: what do you mean you haven't eaten? He goes, well,
Speaker 6: I didn't. I didn't eat yesterday morning before I got
Speaker 6: on the plane because I thought there'd be food on
Speaker 6: the plane, and then there was they didn't have it,
Speaker 6: And so then I got here and I didn't have
Speaker 6: any money. I don't have a credit card, so I
Speaker 6: didn't eat last night because at Duke they told us
Speaker 6: we couldn't order room service or anything when we're staying
Speaker 6: at the hotels. So I haven't eaten since yesterday morning.
Speaker 6: And Kevin O'Connor like blew his stad like what are
Speaker 6: you talking about? You know you got to eat and whatever.
Speaker 6: I remember Kevin famously in that meeting saying saying, look
Speaker 6: a booze wherever you go from now on. If you're
Speaker 6: hungry and you don't not sure what to do, use
Speaker 6: my credit card and just buy some food wherever you.
Speaker 6: I don't care, I'll pay for the food. Don't don't
Speaker 6: do that. Yeah, and you know, and that's how that's
Speaker 6: how Booze was. That's the kind of guy he was.
Speaker 6: And then and then we had him back for a
Speaker 6: second workout where just before the draft we obviously did
Speaker 6: much better, and but we didn't get a chance at
Speaker 6: him because Cleveland took him early in the second round
Speaker 6: and then we got him two years later. Blah blah
Speaker 6: blah and and all that stuff. But all of those
Speaker 6: are fun stories, backstories about things that that did happen
Speaker 6: or things that didn't happen that could have happened if
Speaker 6: just one other thing had had gone differently. It's, uh,
Speaker 6: that's what makes this business so fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the margin of error so thin.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, yeah, it's uh by winning is it comes
Speaker 6: and that stuff is crazy and and you know, I
Speaker 6: we always would would, uh would use the comparison to like,
Speaker 6: you know, a professional golfer and all these guys you
Speaker 6: got the top guys you always hear about now, whether
Speaker 6: it's Schoffley or Scheffler or you know, Marcau or whatever.
Speaker 6: But the guys who were like twenty five to two hundred, Yeah,
Speaker 6: they're like basically the same guy. And one guy made
Speaker 6: a putt right and a qualifying thing and the other
Speaker 6: guy shanked one shot off the tee or something and
Speaker 6: then that was it, you know. And it's that that
Speaker 6: that line of making it not making it successful not
Speaker 6: successful is such a it's such a thin line, and
Speaker 6: there's so little margin for error.
Speaker 1: I saw that there's a video going around of a
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was the Corn Ferry back
Speaker 1: in the day, but whatever the tour was that you
Speaker 1: had to play on to get to the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: And there was a golfer who I think was in
Speaker 1: his mid thirties and he had a chance to grab
Speaker 1: his card. All he had to do was two putt
Speaker 1: from like four feet out, and he three putted because
Speaker 1: he just missed like a tap in and he never
Speaker 1: had a chance to qualify again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean yeah, and people never go with that.
Speaker 6: People never never hear about those stories, right right, And
Speaker 6: they they wondered why I thought you were a good golfer.
Speaker 6: I thought I heard a lot about you. Well yeah,
Speaker 6: I was, yeah, well you know, and it's hard to
Speaker 6: explain to people, you know, how how thin that that
Speaker 6: that that that line really is?
Speaker 1: All right, Smitty, before I say you loose, we got
Speaker 1: about thirty seconds here, so it's probably not long enough
Speaker 1: to explain the whole thing.
Speaker 2: They're awful defensively.
Speaker 1: They're twenty fifth in efficiency, they're twenty seventh in scoring.
Speaker 2: Defense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know it's only three games, but they were
Speaker 1: the worst defensive team in pro basketball last year. So
Speaker 1: they've improved. I get they're not last this year. They're
Speaker 1: third to last or fifth to last inefficiency. Sorry, how
Speaker 1: do we how do we see a little bit?
Speaker 6: Well, they've got it. They've got to be better spence
Speaker 6: and and there's no that that's just work, that's just effort,
Speaker 6: that's determination and and again, through this developmental process and
Speaker 6: the stuff that the Jazz are going through now, they're
Speaker 6: going to find out who the guys are that want
Speaker 6: to play, who want to get after it. And when
Speaker 6: they identify guys that don't, after a certain amount of time,
Speaker 6: they're just going to put them on the train and
Speaker 6: ship them out of town. They're going to go on
Speaker 6: to the next guy because they've got to get and
Speaker 6: especially defensively, is one area you can do that with
Speaker 6: effort and determination and grit, and that's what they're trying
Speaker 6: to find.
Speaker 1: Great to see you, my friend, enjoy the game. Tonight
Speaker 1: and we'll see you soon.
Speaker 6: Okay, Okay, Spence, and I haven't said this and maybe ever,
Speaker 6: but go Yankees, just for you, just for you.
Speaker 1: You're rolling on that, Okay, for to God for you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have them clip that and I'm gonna use
Speaker 1: it as my ring tone. Let us get one game
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Speaker 5: Next on the Drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your
Speaker 5: NBA Daily assists.
Speaker 9: Van McMahon, Van McMahon batted all the land, Textus flood
Speaker 9: as tickets, Mud He's and Manvan McMahon, Van McMahon.
Speaker 1: Oh man, it's been too long, but the triumphant return
Speaker 1: of the legend himself. Some may say the goat when
Speaker 1: it comes to covering the Utah Jazz. Van McMahon, Tim
Speaker 1: McMahon back on the Drive on a Tuesday, Tim, how
Speaker 1: you been.
Speaker 3: Man Hodiy partner, how are you?
Speaker 1: We're well, We're well. Thanks for the time we've missed
Speaker 1: you on the show. And of course it means basketball
Speaker 1: season is here. When you make your parents around these parts,
Speaker 1: we appreciate the time. And it is a dark and
Speaker 1: rainy day in Salt Lake, which matches the mood Tim.
Speaker 1: Because Taylor Hendrix, after spending a number of hours in
Speaker 1: the off season improving his body and was off to
Speaker 1: a pretty good start, suffers a catastrophic leg injury that
Speaker 1: sees him lost for the year. What's your reaction and
Speaker 1: what are you hearing about how he's doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know I was in the building last
Speaker 3: night and it was gruesome and garaging. I mean the
Speaker 3: second you saw the direction that his leg was turned,
Speaker 3: you knew like, oh no, this is a really bad thing.
Speaker 3: And you know Will already summed it up and already
Speaker 3: said this is the bar of sports. It sucks. I mean,
Speaker 3: the kid did everything that they asked him to do
Speaker 3: and everything they hoped he would do over the summer,
Speaker 3: got significantly stronger, you know, really showed an incredible work ethic,
Speaker 3: earned the right to be in that starting lineup, was
Speaker 3: guarding the other team's death player, whether there's John Morant
Speaker 3: or Luca Chitch or you know, anybody in between on
Speaker 3: a nightly basis. You know, really major stride in his development.
Speaker 3: And again in the bar from Will Hardy, all that
Speaker 3: has been on pause right now. His season's over. You know,
Speaker 3: typically in these cases there's going to be served or
Speaker 3: acquired that you know, the further testing the day is
Speaker 3: to determine the severity of it, you know, specifically like
Speaker 3: ligamant damage, that kind of thing. But I mean, really
Speaker 3: just poy what a gut punch? And then what a
Speaker 3: tough thing for a twenty year old kid who had
Speaker 3: a rough look year and responded the right way to
Speaker 3: now have to deal with this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he According to people I've talked to over there,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you hear the same, Like, in order to
Speaker 1: develop as a young player, the main thing you have
Speaker 1: to show people you can do is work. And he
Speaker 1: showed everybody this offseason that he can work. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know the deal. Like I oftentimes joke that in
Speaker 1: pro basketball it's kind of the same thing as kind
Speaker 1: of National Signing Day in college football, where every coach says, well,
Speaker 1: we got every prospect we wanted, like, well your rank
Speaker 1: seventy second, Like he didn't get everybody, and everybody in
Speaker 1: NBA training camps talks about, oh, it's game, it's muscle
Speaker 1: gain season. This guy put on twenty pounds, this put
Speaker 1: this guy put on ten. But Taylor walked into the
Speaker 1: building and went, oh my gosh, like he looked different
Speaker 1: and he was off to a good start to the season.
Speaker 1: And certainly, I guess before we move on a thought
Speaker 1: on you know, I'm not a doctor. I don't try
Speaker 1: to play it on the radio. You know, the Jazz
Speaker 1: certainly will not rush this, nor do they have to.
Speaker 1: Are you hearing anything about you know, is this going
Speaker 1: to be a full year situation, any knowledge in that direction.
Speaker 3: You know, what I can say is that a typical
Speaker 3: recovery process from this sort of injury is right about
Speaker 3: that year. So you know, I don't have specifics from
Speaker 3: the Jazz quite yet on you know, IMRI results and
Speaker 3: plans for surgery, that sort of thing, but yeah, it
Speaker 3: would not be surprising, giving them the severity of this injury,
Speaker 3: if he's not ready for the startup camp or even
Speaker 3: started the regular season next year. I mean, he's really
Speaker 3: this is a tough one. It's a really, really tough one.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is.
Speaker 1: And you know, Jazz have a great medical staff and
Speaker 1: he's only twenty, so certainly leave a lot of space
Speaker 1: for a long term recovery that gets him back on track.
Speaker 1: But I mean it's hard to focus on anything else.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you heard last night, so obviously
Speaker 1: Will Hardy spoke, but then Keyante and walker on. I
Speaker 1: didn't see video, but I listened to the audio. It
Speaker 1: sounded like they were by crying, like emotional. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not just something that will affect Taylor. This
Speaker 1: locker room's gonna have to move on from as Kyante
Speaker 1: I said, losing their brother.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean listen, Kiante. As as the stretchers coming
Speaker 3: out for Hendricks on the floor, he was covering his
Speaker 3: face of the towel and clearly you know, tearing up.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's again, it's the emotional thing. And then
Speaker 3: I visually seeing this guy who you're in a locker
Speaker 3: room with, who you're on playing with, who you're you know,
Speaker 3: playing with on a daily basis, who you've developed this
Speaker 3: bond with, especially like Conte coming in the same rookie
Speaker 3: class and he's sitting there in shock and his his
Speaker 3: ankle is pointed outward like that is a just an
Speaker 3: extremely difficult thing to process on an emotional basis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, for sure. All right, it feels, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of a little ubtuse or.
Speaker 1: Whatever to talk about other dynamics. But we can't just
Speaker 1: hone in on that. So I wonder, and we just
Speaker 1: had Smittian studio and I was asking him the same question,
Speaker 1: because you know, the Keyante stuff. At at Baylor, he
Speaker 1: played in thirty three games. He shot thirty three percent
Speaker 1: from three thirty seven percent from the floor. His rookie
Speaker 1: year for the Jazz, you know, seventy five games, he
Speaker 1: shot thirty nine percent from the floor, thirty three percent
Speaker 1: from three. And he's off to even a worse shooting
Speaker 1: start this year with splits that are under thirty for
Speaker 1: three and just barely I mean twenty seven percent from
Speaker 1: the floor, twenty three percent from three.
Speaker 2: So ultimately, he's only twenty.
Speaker 1: He played a year pro basketball, it's only or excuse me,
Speaker 1: a year of college basketball. It's only a second year
Speaker 1: on the pros. But he's never proven to be an
Speaker 1: efficient shot maker. At what point is that kind of
Speaker 1: an issue?
Speaker 3: And I always say, you have to consider it a
Speaker 3: concern now. And you also have to have patience with
Speaker 3: a one and done player who is learning to play
Speaker 3: point guard at the NBA level, didn't play in high school,
Speaker 3: didn't play in college. So and you know, him playing
Speaker 3: aside from you know, aside from a few guys, playing
Speaker 3: with a bunch of young guys. So again, you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to have some patience with him and understand it's
Speaker 3: there's gonna be a lot of bumps in the road,
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe maybe he comes to legitimate starting
Speaker 3: point guard in the league, and maybe he doesn't. There's
Speaker 3: no guarantees here.
Speaker 2: There's not.
Speaker 1: And you know, while Justin Zany and Danny Ainge talk
Speaker 1: a lot about development and the youth, and that's probably
Speaker 1: what we're gonna see this year. I do wonder how
Speaker 1: Will's gonna handle this, because, look, Patty Mills is thirty six. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to make him anything that he's not
Speaker 1: at this stage in his career, but Will knows him
Speaker 1: from San Antonio, and I just wonder if Will's gonna
Speaker 1: let Keante go through a bunch of mistakes or if
Speaker 1: he's gonna rely on the veteran. Game one against Memphis,
Speaker 1: in Patty's sixteen minutes, they were plus ten and Keyante's
Speaker 1: thirty one, they were minus eleven. Patty didn't take a shot,
Speaker 1: he didn't take a free throw, he only had one board,
Speaker 1: one assist. But he came in and the ball started popping,
Speaker 1: the ball started moving. So there is this dynamic of
Speaker 1: that's sitting behind these youngsters, and you know, I know
Speaker 1: they want development, but Will wants to win.
Speaker 2: How do you think he traverses that space this year?
Speaker 3: Well, I think what you don't want is bad habits
Speaker 3: to develop, and if bad habits are developing, that's gonna
Speaker 3: cost Keiante a tors minute. She's doing the right things
Speaker 3: and getting the wrong result. I think it's a complete
Speaker 3: different kind of conversation. So you know, but listen, Kiante's
Speaker 3: development is a priority for the organization. And there's also
Speaker 3: understanding that you know, from a wins and losses and
Speaker 3: standings perspective, this is probably not going to be a
Speaker 3: phenomenal season in the history of Utah Jazz basketball.
Speaker 2: Which, as you know, I'm totally fine with.
Speaker 1: Like, if if this is the situation, because the the
Speaker 1: other thing is, you know, it is a protected pick.
Speaker 2: If it's outside of the top ten, it goes to OKC.
Speaker 1: How much of the early losing do you expect to continue?
Speaker 1: And if it does, how much of that is intentional?
Speaker 3: Sorry, I was going through the I was trying to
Speaker 3: stink my way through security without interrupting you check question.
Speaker 2: I'll ask you a much shorter question.
Speaker 1: Does it feel like they're actually tanking intentionally this year?
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily know that they're going to have to
Speaker 3: be intentional about it. I think there's I think the
Speaker 3: level of competition in the Western Conference and the quality
Speaker 3: and experience of the players on the Jazz roster. I
Speaker 3: think the results that take care of themselves. I think
Speaker 3: they will be well positioned to participate in a lottery.
Speaker 3: Debt obviously is expected to produce not just one, but
Speaker 3: potentially a handful of franchise type of talents.
Speaker 1: Give me your best guess rotationally what it looks like
Speaker 1: with Taylor out? You think they go John Collins, I
Speaker 1: think it's Price's sense about there's about twenty eight minutes
Speaker 1: available rotationally.
Speaker 2: How do you think we'll handles it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Cody Williams might get some more time.
Speaker 3: My guess is probably held air on the side of
Speaker 3: going with the vet in the starting lineup to open
Speaker 3: things up. But I'll be honest with you, I really
Speaker 3: wasn't kind of poking around about that last night. There
Speaker 3: were you know, obviously better things, particularly the verity of
Speaker 3: Hendrick's injury that I was great focused on more of
Speaker 3: my reporting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, before I say you lose, if this
Speaker 1: is about development, then a year three, Walker Kessler will
Speaker 1: give us a peak as to whether or not they're
Speaker 1: developing players through three games.
Speaker 2: He's I think it's been an a plus start.
Speaker 1: Ten points, eleven boards, almost three blocks, the shooting percentage
Speaker 1: is close to seventy, So really good first three games
Speaker 1: for Walker.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's going to continue?
Speaker 3: Listen, he had great summer, and you know, I think
Speaker 3: in hindsight playing fourteen yosa in the World Cup was
Speaker 3: a mistake for him. He needed to be you know,
Speaker 3: in a weight room. He needed to be you know what.
Speaker 3: Some of his game at gym and last he was
Speaker 3: kind of a humbling thing for him. He went an
Speaker 3: all rookie season to being you know, let's be honest.
Speaker 3: Why would considered a disappointment as a sophomore. But again
Speaker 3: he talked about the way people respond to disappointment, and
Speaker 3: I can I can tell you when I ran into
Speaker 3: Will hard in the preseason, he said, waiting to see Walker.
Speaker 3: You know, he's he's bigger, he's stronger like, he looks
Speaker 3: good like he you know, he came in ready to
Speaker 3: compete this year. So I can tell you Will it's
Speaker 3: not a guy who closed a lot of smoke. You know.
Speaker 3: If he if he's pumping the guy up and saying
Speaker 3: he's happy for what he's been doing, that means he's
Speaker 3: been doing the right things. And you know, I think
Speaker 3: he's talked about it. He had you know, hashtag muscle watch.
Speaker 3: But he is bigger. You know, he did add about
Speaker 3: twenty pounds, and you know, I think he's humbled and
Speaker 3: came in with me to prove that all the optimism
Speaker 3: about him during his rookie season was accurate. And you
Speaker 3: know he's ready to back that up.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, We'll good to hear your voice, Glad
Speaker 1: to have you back. We'll set you loose and look
Speaker 1: forward to catching up soon.
Speaker 3: Storry to rushing on this one. I got an early
Speaker 3: tip tonight, but we will. We will make up for
Speaker 3: it in the weeks to go.
Speaker 1: All good, All good. There is Tim McMahon covers the
Speaker 1: NBA for ESPN. He is the ESPN beat reporter on
Speaker 1: the jazz beat. So we'd like to bring him in
Speaker 1: to get the latest with the Utah Jazz. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: feels a little insensitive or I don't know, futile at
Speaker 1: this point to talk about anything other than the horrible
Speaker 1: scene we all saw yesterday and just thinking to Taylor
Speaker 1: and man, Jazz have a great medical staff. He's twenty,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure he'll get back and he'll be fine,
Speaker 1: but probably won't be for a year, which does hinder
Speaker 1: the development of what he could be.
Speaker 2: But step one, get healthy. Hopefully he's doing all right.
Speaker 1: We're gonna bring in Kevin Reynolds today to talk a
Speaker 1: little college football. It is a bye week for both
Speaker 1: BYU and Utah, the second time this year it's happened.
Speaker 1: Obviously a new scheduling situation with the Big twelve stuff,
Speaker 1: so we'll get you ready for that game. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of of course, rival re weeks say
Speaker 1: it slowly in the business. We're gonna have a lot
Speaker 1: of daffy ducks next week on the radio with Utah
Speaker 1: and BYU going at it. We're gonna have a ton
Speaker 1: of coverage for you. We're gonna be out and about
Speaker 1: on a couple of remotes. And as I referenced earlier,
Speaker 1: you know, there's not certainly as much to play for
Speaker 1: for Utah's we thought there would be.
Speaker 2: But there is still this game which is not nothing.
Speaker 1: And even though it feels about hollow because there will
Speaker 1: not be a Big twelve championship in saw Lake this year,
Speaker 1: there will not be a CFP appearance. Despite the CFP
Speaker 1: expanding to twelve. This game means a lot to a
Speaker 1: lot of people. I'm not sure if that reverberates in
Speaker 1: the locker room in fact, Porta. Let me kick the
Speaker 1: tires with you on this because I actually I think
Speaker 1: when we first started doing the show together, you were
Speaker 1: one of the first that I heard kind of describe
Speaker 1: it in a way that I hadn't necessarily heard as
Speaker 1: far as the Because if if you grew up around
Speaker 1: it like I did, if you went to school at
Speaker 1: either BYU were Utah like I did. Now covering it
Speaker 1: in the media full time for eighteen years, you don't
Speaker 1: need any explanation when someone says Utah BYU football, you
Speaker 1: know you know exactly what that means people around here.
Speaker 1: But if you're nineteen and you grew up in Florida,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, okay, the Holy War.
Speaker 2: That sounds kind of odd.
Speaker 1: And then there's also this generation of youth fans that
Speaker 1: I think are closer to your age that don't have
Speaker 1: the same like desire to see it play. So as
Speaker 1: we approach next week, where do you think that you
Speaker 1: players are at with his game?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, it's it's definitely a little bit different, right,
Speaker 4: you mentioned it there when you're recruiting base, right, your
Speaker 4: recruiting footprint isn't Ron McBride's recruiting footprint. It's not the
Speaker 4: Polynesian kids that are moving into state and your your
Speaker 4: big in state recruits. It's southern California, it's Texas, it's
Speaker 4: Florida because of the Denis ericson pipeline.
Speaker 2: Right, it's Morgan.
Speaker 4: Scally who is really got a foothold in Houston and
Speaker 4: the Fort Worth area. Right, There's there's a difference when
Speaker 4: you didn't grow up in the rivalry. There's a different
Speaker 4: feel to it. There's less urgency to it. I think
Speaker 4: when it comes down to the pressure on the game. Now,
Speaker 4: if you're a pro. Now, these guys are amateurs. These
Speaker 4: guys are college players, of course, but if you approach
Speaker 4: the game as a pro, you don't change the way
Speaker 4: you play because it's a rival. You go about your business,
Speaker 4: you execute, you play the same play every play the
Speaker 4: way you would regardless of who you're playing. Right, But
Speaker 4: there is there is an edge you can get when
Speaker 4: you're playing your rival. Right, there's an intensity you can
Speaker 4: get that I think you as a football fan, as
Speaker 4: a maybe someone that played even at a high school level.
Speaker 4: You understand the edge you can get with a rivalry game,
Speaker 4: maybe just a little bit of a different focus you
Speaker 4: can get in your locker room. And I think Kyle,
Speaker 4: regardless of who is in that locker room Spence, is
Speaker 4: still pretty good at doing that right, He's still really
Speaker 4: good at finding that motivation. So when I tell you,
Speaker 4: these kids do view it differently, Yes, I talk to
Speaker 4: Zach Moss, a kid who grew up in Miami in
Speaker 4: the you to him has nothing to do with the
Speaker 4: University of Utah until he came here, right, But once
Speaker 4: he got here because of Isle Whittingham and Morgan Scally
Speaker 4: and Quinton Ganther, guys that he play with, he understands
Speaker 4: the assignment. He understands the rivalry and very much approaches
Speaker 4: it with a seriousness that is a little different than
Speaker 4: most weeks. So, yes, there's a different approach to it,
Speaker 4: but I still think there is a lot of urgency
Speaker 4: in Kyle specifically makes sure that anyone in that facility
Speaker 4: on BYU week or this time around the two weeks
Speaker 4: you get to prepare for BYU, he makes sure everyone
Speaker 4: in that building understands it's a little different focus.
Speaker 2: At the very least.
Speaker 1: When we hosted Dan Patrick here, which was my first
Speaker 1: going around with ESPN seven hundred, which I guess would
Speaker 1: be thirteen years ago.
Speaker 2: Now, well, I know I'm getting a old.
Speaker 1: Frank Daulce was with us, shout out Frank Hilchin at dinner,
Speaker 1: and so Dan's asking us all these questions. He gets
Speaker 1: to Dulce's like, what's your story, and Franco's I've played
Speaker 1: quarterback at the You, and Dan said, you played quarterback
Speaker 1: at the University of Miami and Frank said, no, the You,
Speaker 1: and Dan was he'd never heard of before.
Speaker 2: He's like, what do you mean.
Speaker 1: There's one you, it's Miami, and Frank said, well here
Speaker 1: there's also a you. It's and So Dan had never
Speaker 1: heard the University of Utah referred to as the You.
Speaker 1: So when Dulce told him he played quarterback, he thought he,
Speaker 1: you know, played at Miami in and Frank was not
Speaker 1: necessarily that level. And he has candles. We'll catch a break,
Speaker 1: all right, coming up on the other side, we are
Speaker 1: going to bring in Kevin Reynolds from the trip. But
Speaker 1: before we catch a break, let's welcome in Jeff from
Speaker 1: Farmer and Chemist.
Speaker 2: Jeff Happy Tuesday, sir, how are you.
Speaker 10: Yeah, great, happy wet Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is indeed, it is indeed.
Speaker 1: So let's start with farmer and chemist, the ability that
Speaker 1: you have to help people sleep well without the need
Speaker 1: for any sort of medication that is addictive and causes
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Speaker 2: How can you help people that need to sleep a
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Speaker 2: All right, sorry, no, I.
Speaker 10: Was just gonna say it, you know.
Speaker 3: So it really is about what.
Speaker 10: I would love, you know, to be The message is
Speaker 10: the dosing matters, the Raub administration matters, how you use
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Speaker 10: to have people come in and talk to us as pharmacists.
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Speaker 1: And what's the best way for people to do that
Speaker 1: to come in to ask you questions just so they
Speaker 1: can get educated. And also, Jeff, let's hear about that
Speaker 1: special offer you have for our listeners.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Yeah, So we have a store in Midvelds right in
Speaker 10: the middle of the valley, just off of I fifteen.
Speaker 10: We would love to have people come in and spend
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Speaker 1: Jeff, thank you sir, having an excellent week and we
Speaker 1: will chat soon.
Speaker 10: Thanks all appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Check them out Farmer and Chemist. It's an excellent spot,
Speaker 1: really classy joint. Go in and say hello, ask them questions.
Speaker 1: They are all pharmacists there are really nice people, so
Speaker 1: we appreciate having them as a partner. Onto ESPN seven
Speaker 1: hundred for the second time this year, which feels really weird.
Speaker 2: Not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: Utah and BYU Football are out a buye for the
Speaker 1: first time this year. They will play each other and
Speaker 1: so still a lot to play for. Depending on I
Speaker 1: suppose your view of this rivalry. Game BYU is a
Speaker 1: slight favorite depending on the sports book. I've seen about
Speaker 1: three point five about four point five that was according.
Speaker 2: To USA Today.
Speaker 1: I think Van Duel has Brigham Young as the slide favorite.
Speaker 2: They're undefeated. Utah is very much not.
Speaker 1: Our next guest covers BYU in college football for the
Speaker 1: Salt Lake Tribune. My guy, Kevin Reynolds, keV, Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Man, How you doing good?
Speaker 11: How are you doing man?
Speaker 2: Well, appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: So as a transplant here in our market. You've lived
Speaker 1: here for a number of months now, I've been doing
Speaker 1: the job for more than just a minute. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you have an accurate frame of reference for
Speaker 1: what BYU Utah football means around the market?
Speaker 11: You know, I've been told a lot about it, and
Speaker 11: I've heard a lot about it over the last few years,
Speaker 11: but I've actually never seen this game in person because
Speaker 11: it's never been played since I've been here. So in
Speaker 11: a weird way, you know, I've heard so much about
Speaker 11: this game over the last few years that I feel
Speaker 11: like I have a relative understanding of what to expect.
Speaker 11: But also I've been here two years and i haven't
Speaker 11: seen the game in person, so I'm interested in this
Speaker 11: experience it in person for the first time in two weeks.
Speaker 1: See, I find this really interesting because let me let
Speaker 1: me follow up. Growing up, obviously you're a football fan,
Speaker 1: and obviously a college football fan. Did you have any
Speaker 1: exposure to BYU Utah football? I mean, it's a massive
Speaker 1: rivalry here. I think it's gained a lot of traction
Speaker 1: locally because both teams are now in P four conferences.
Speaker 1: But was it ever part of your college football consumption
Speaker 1: growing up?
Speaker 11: I'll be honest, Coming as a Rutgers fan growing up
Speaker 11: and being on the East Coast, I didn't get to
Speaker 11: see a ton of BYU or Utah games, or really
Speaker 11: anything on the West Coast or in the Mountain time zone.
Speaker 11: So I really haven't watched this game, even on television live.
Speaker 11: But as you grow up and I moved to Texas
Speaker 11: and you're kind of a little bit closer, you definitely
Speaker 11: hear about it more. I'd say, honestly, the first time
Speaker 11: that really I think I heard about it was probably
Speaker 11: twenty twenty fifteen around that time. But yeah, I growing
Speaker 11: up as a kid, No, I hadn't heard a ton
Speaker 11: about this.
Speaker 1: See I've been talking about this on the show because
Speaker 1: Scott Mitchell hopped on yesterday. And you can pull up, well,
Speaker 1: quite frankly, keV, you can pull up both Utah and
Speaker 1: BYU's roster, and you know in a way that it
Speaker 1: just wasn't like this back in the day. I think
Speaker 1: there were Look, there's still plenty of local representation, but
Speaker 1: you know, both BYU and Utah have I would say,
Speaker 1: just from a quick glance, the majority of their players
Speaker 1: are from out of state.
Speaker 2: Certainly on Utah side.
Speaker 1: BYU certainly has I think a little bit more local flavor.
Speaker 1: But we've got Texas, We've got Virginia, we've got California.
Speaker 1: I could keep going Pittsburgh. Of course, a lot of
Speaker 1: Cahukuo kids Hawaii, and it doesn't seem like the players,
Speaker 1: who some of them are around your age, due respect,
Speaker 1: who didn't grow up here, it didn't seem like this
Speaker 1: game really was part of their experience in college football.
Speaker 1: And therefore I wonder how many the players actually understand
Speaker 1: how much it means to community.
Speaker 2: I wonder where your thoughts are on that when you're
Speaker 2: not raised with it.
Speaker 11: Yeah, No, I think that's definitely an aspect to this,
Speaker 11: especially because you know, just talking to guys in the
Speaker 11: last few weeks about this game, a lot of these
Speaker 11: guys in this game, at least from YU side, have
Speaker 11: not played in this game and really have to learn
Speaker 11: about this one. I mean, you look look at Jake
Speaker 11: Retzlaf right, he grew up in California and he's talked
Speaker 11: about it. How you know, he hasn't played in this game.
Speaker 11: He's heard a lot about this game. But DYU came
Speaker 11: on to his radar, you know, not maybe as a
Speaker 11: five or six year old, but came on, came on
Speaker 11: to his radar a little bit later as he you know,
Speaker 11: grew up around football and then he became a college
Speaker 11: prospect and all those types of things. And I think
Speaker 11: you can go down the list. There's certainly guys on
Speaker 11: this roster. Like I don't want to say that that's
Speaker 11: the universal truths, Like, there's plenty of guys on this
Speaker 11: BYU team who understand the rivalry.
Speaker 2: Grew up in.
Speaker 11: Utah, you know, Kates Roberts, who've been recruited by both
Speaker 11: programs right, So I think there is a lot of
Speaker 11: that connect and certainly on the coaching staff, there's a
Speaker 11: lot of connection, you know, look at BYUS coaching staff.
Speaker 11: So I don't want to say that this is just
Speaker 11: the universal thing. I think there's a ton of connections
Speaker 11: here and a ton of people who understand what this
Speaker 11: means from both programs side. But I do think there's
Speaker 11: definitely some prominent figures in this rivalry this year who
Speaker 11: are learning about it for the first time, especially because
Speaker 11: this hasn't completed since twenty twenty one. I mean, this
Speaker 11: is the longest breaking the rivalry since I think nineteen
Speaker 11: forty two to nineteen forty six, so I think that
Speaker 11: plays a factor too. And even the guys who have
Speaker 11: been on BYU's team for one or two years, since
Speaker 11: they've kind of made the transition to the Big twelve,
Speaker 11: they haven't played in this game and they haven't seen
Speaker 11: this game, so I think that adds a little bit
Speaker 11: of a layer to this.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting I viewed from this perspective. I mean,
Speaker 1: all time, Utah leads the series sixty two, thirty five
Speaker 1: and four, although BYU I think Likesho to throw out
Speaker 1: a lot of the early Utah wins because they were
Speaker 1: known as you know, bring them Young Academy. So BYU
Speaker 1: fans whenever they lose, they get a little tricky with numbers.
Speaker 1: They don't really ever lose, So that's just kind of
Speaker 1: the deal. But when I was growing up, it was
Speaker 1: lavelle and it was BYU every year, I mean like
Speaker 1: almost every year. The Utah in ninety or in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight had a stunning fifty seven to twenty eight win.
Speaker 1: The next year BYU hung seventy on them, and Utah
Speaker 1: just never really beat BYU. Ronnie Mack took over and
Speaker 1: he found some success against BYU in the early nineties,
Speaker 1: and then you know, recently it's a generation of more
Speaker 1: or less you dominance Utah fourteen and four in the
Speaker 1: last eighteen. BYU did win the last one, but prior
Speaker 1: to that, Utah beat them nine straight times, and you know,
Speaker 1: Utah goes to the PAC twelve. BYU was kind of
Speaker 1: left out in the win. They decided to do this
Speaker 1: really awkward independent thing that was certainly met with mixed reactions.
Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say had mixed results.
Speaker 1: And so while Utah was kind of making their way
Speaker 1: way through P five football in the PAC twelve, BYU
Speaker 1: was trying to find footing and during that time Utah
Speaker 1: stomped them. But this year, keV Byu is going to
Speaker 1: They're gonna smell blood in the water man, like I
Speaker 1: am sure they're sick of hearing basically everything I just said,
Speaker 1: and hearing and dealing with results. It more or less
Speaker 1: have been one sided for nearly twenty years now. And
Speaker 1: with the way they're rolling and with how confident they're playing,
Speaker 1: they're only a slight favorite. But you know they're gonna
Speaker 1: want to come up here and make a statements regardless
Speaker 1: of what Klanie says about how much he loves Kyle, right,
Speaker 1: and so with Byu at eight, No, I think there's
Speaker 1: a feeling of this way that this game might get
Speaker 1: a little loose.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean, I think because growing up, I mean
Speaker 11: we talked about the start of growing up. What rivalries
Speaker 11: did I watch? And I think a lot of the
Speaker 11: times it was, you know, Penn State, Ohio State, it
Speaker 11: was Ohio State, Michigan, like, those were the big rivalries
Speaker 11: that I think were in primetime in New Jersey growing up.
Speaker 11: One of the great parts about all those rivalries to
Speaker 11: me is that they had actual significant implications for Big
Speaker 11: Ten title games, for playoff spots kind of later down
Speaker 11: the road, right, And I think now with this game
Speaker 11: having you know, it's not just an independence versus a
Speaker 11: pack twelve team. This is a you know, with two
Speaker 11: schools that now share a conference, a conference that has
Speaker 11: direct implications for who gets into the college football playoffs,
Speaker 11: and with BYU now eight no, and you know, I
Speaker 11: don't know if it's premature to talk about those things,
Speaker 11: but I do think, you know, that's an element to this,
Speaker 11: especially with the way the schedule shapes up for BYU
Speaker 11: with the last four games, is you know, there are
Speaker 11: playoff implications to this game, which do you think adds
Speaker 11: to it? And it is not something that really has
Speaker 11: been had in this rivalry, to be honest before, just
Speaker 11: because of where the rivalry was placed, especially in the
Speaker 11: last ten years where you know, this rivalry has taken
Speaker 11: place in September.
Speaker 12: And so.
Speaker 11: And BYU is an independent, So I think that adds
Speaker 11: to it as well.
Speaker 2: All right, let's let's talk a little b YU.
Speaker 1: As you reference eight and No, I wonder is, well,
Speaker 1: is there one element that has stood out as the
Speaker 1: most surprising. There are several surprising elements juxtaposed to all
Speaker 1: of our expectations, hence the media poll, hence the Vegas
Speaker 1: over under. But they're complete, they're playing complimentary football, they're
Speaker 1: good in all three phases, and certainly fortune right, fortune
Speaker 1: favors the bull though they're creating their own luck, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think they have any more questions to answer
Speaker 1: about whether or not they're legit. But is there one
Speaker 1: or maybe one or two elements about this start that's
Speaker 1: kind of caught you off guard based on what you're expecting?
Speaker 11: Yeah, no, I actually wrote this, I think after UCS
Speaker 11: game is I don't think there's any people out there
Speaker 11: now that are saying, oh cause I think for the
Speaker 11: first couple months of this season, it was always BYU
Speaker 11: good or is the start sustainable?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 11: Because I definitely think there were some questions. You know,
Speaker 11: Kansas State twenty eight point run in basically six minutes,
Speaker 11: like how often are you going to get that? And
Speaker 11: Oklahoma State we obviously saw what happened there with a
Speaker 11: seventy five yard drive and the last minute of the game,
Speaker 11: you know, down to ten seconds left, and that's an
Speaker 11: iconic moment. And you definitely don't don't scoff at it.
Speaker 11: But again it's like, I don't think the questions anymore
Speaker 11: are whether this team is good or not because of
Speaker 11: what you just said. I do think this is a
Speaker 11: very complete football team. But I do think the questions are,
Speaker 11: you know, how realistic is a postseason bid for this
Speaker 11: team now at eight MIL? And what does the last
Speaker 11: four games of the season, of the regular season look
Speaker 11: like for BYU? And in terms of surprises, one, I
Speaker 11: think Jake Retslast, I don't necessarily know this is a surprise,
Speaker 11: but I think I remember after Wyoming. I remember after SMU,
Speaker 11: the question was can Jake Retslast kind of find this
Speaker 11: mix of being the you know, the risk taker that
Speaker 11: he is, which I think makes him a very good
Speaker 11: quarterback for BYU. Pushes the ball downfield, gives this offense
Speaker 11: something on the ground as well, which is something they
Speaker 11: did not have last year with Keeten Slovas, but also
Speaker 11: being able to, you know, also almost calibrate himself a
Speaker 11: little bit and not take so many risks with the ball.
Speaker 11: I mean we saw at SMU there was a number
Speaker 11: of turnovers we talked about after Wyoming, there was a
Speaker 11: number of balls that maybe could have been turnovers, and
Speaker 11: there were some interceptions there. But since Big twelve plays started,
Speaker 11: I mean, he's eleven to four in touchdown interception ratio.
Speaker 11: That's not even counting the rushing kind of numbers that
Speaker 11: these had. So I do think his ability to kind
Speaker 11: of just find the right mix, which is something that
Speaker 11: I think was a pretty big outstanding question even in
Speaker 11: late September, I think he's done a good job of that.
Speaker 11: I mean, the other part too, is how well this
Speaker 11: run game has worked, particularly the last two weeks with
Speaker 11: l J. Martin and Hinckley were a Potti back because
Speaker 11: for so long it was just Jake rets last kind
Speaker 11: of willing this offense for a run game. He was
Speaker 11: the leading rusher up until this week.
Speaker 3: With l J.
Speaker 11: Martin coming back for two weeks finally healthy, So the
Speaker 11: ability to kind of have that run game mix off
Speaker 11: the pass game, which is what this offense I think
Speaker 11: is meant to look like. And for the first time
Speaker 11: since really Tyler Algier, I think LJ. Martin gives BYU
Speaker 11: this really complete unning game that has transformed this offense.
Speaker 11: And in terms of J Hills team or sorry, Jay
Speaker 11: Hills side of the ball. I think this linebacker group
Speaker 11: has been really fantastic, to be honest, with Isaiah Glasker
Speaker 11: emerging as kind of exactly what he wanted. I mean
Speaker 11: two years ago, I remember talking to linebacker's coach Justinmana
Speaker 11: about what do you kind of want to see in
Speaker 11: a linebacker? What's the mold look like? And he talked about,
Speaker 11: you know, it's guys like Isaiah Glasger. They definitely need
Speaker 11: to put on more weight, but the length and the
Speaker 11: speed at the linebacker positions, you know, the ability to
Speaker 11: drop back and coverage but also get after the quarterback,
Speaker 11: and it translates to you know, eleven interceptions or eleven
Speaker 11: different guys giving an interception on the team. So I
Speaker 11: don't know if it's necessarily surprises, because I think we
Speaker 11: knew where the pieces of the puzzle needed to fit
Speaker 11: for BYU if they were going to be good. But
Speaker 11: it was just a matter of will it actually come
Speaker 11: to truition And the surprise there, I guess, is that
Speaker 11: it absolutely has the first two and a half onto
Speaker 11: the year.
Speaker 1: So look, they're number two in total offense, they're number
Speaker 1: three in total defense, and I could keep going throughout
Speaker 1: the overall metrics, rushing, passing, same thing on defense efficiency,
Speaker 1: like most of the data indicates they're really complete, Like
Speaker 1: is there an achilles heel? Because I keep hearing Kialani saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we can be better than we've been, and I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: what does that look like? You know, like if you
Speaker 1: could actually play better? Like is there something specific that
Speaker 1: they need to clean up? Because the metrics tell you
Speaker 1: that they are pretty solid all the way around this year.
Speaker 11: I think they have played well all the way around
Speaker 11: this year, but I do think there are sometimes I
Speaker 11: think on defense, and Kialani Sataki has talked about this
Speaker 11: at times, particularly the last three weeks right where there
Speaker 11: are some big runs that are that are allowed. I
Speaker 11: mean you look at the Oklahoma State game, like, I
Speaker 11: know this is not what the headliner is because of
Speaker 11: the way that game ended, and the offense has been good.
Speaker 11: The offense has been very, very efficient since the running
Speaker 11: backs came back right, but Oklahoma State did run the
Speaker 11: ball quite well on this team. I mean this was
Speaker 11: an Oklahoma State offense where Ali Gordon really hadn't gotten
Speaker 11: going all year. But he has over one hundred yards
Speaker 11: against BYU and he has three total touchdowns, including the
Speaker 11: receiving one. All right, so I think there were some
Speaker 11: concerns in that game. And also you weren't really able
Speaker 11: to get off the field on third and fourth down
Speaker 11: on that seventeen play drive eight minute drive before. And
Speaker 11: I think those are the things that Klanie's looking at
Speaker 11: and just saying, you know, that is where BYU needs
Speaker 11: to do better. And I think BA did a better job.
Speaker 11: I think in terms of run defense against UCS, r J.
Speaker 11: Harvey was the best running back in the Big twelve
Speaker 11: going into that game. He did have a couple of
Speaker 11: big runs, but it wasn't insane. It certainly wasn't Ali
Speaker 11: Gordon devils from the week before. So I do think
Speaker 11: they cleaned some stuff up. But I do think that's
Speaker 11: kind of what he's talking about when he says he
Speaker 11: wants some of these mistakes to be clean. But overall,
Speaker 11: I do think it's hard to it's hard to poke
Speaker 11: holes in what by he's doing right now. And I
Speaker 11: think he even said that after last week, he said, yeah,
Speaker 11: there were some mistakes, but going on the road two
Speaker 11: time zones away and beating UCS and kind of containing RJ.
Speaker 11: Harvey to a degree, I think you talk that up
Speaker 11: as a win, but when you look at where the
Speaker 11: team can maybe improve, I think those are the things
Speaker 11: he's talking about.
Speaker 1: So they have fourteen picks, that's best in the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: They're sixth and fumbles recovered. They're turning the other team
Speaker 1: over and pressure in the quarterback in a way that
Speaker 1: they didn't last year like at all, which caught me
Speaker 1: off guard. Because of Kilane and because of j two
Speaker 1: defensive minded coaches, they typically couldn't put together a defense
Speaker 1: that looks like the one that we see this year.
Speaker 1: What are the biggest differences defensively with this BYU team
Speaker 1: from this year compared to last year.
Speaker 11: I think there were a lot of questions in the
Speaker 11: beginning of the year or form of this exact reason,
Speaker 11: because they decided they're going to bring back the entire
Speaker 11: defensive line. They didn't really make any They didn't make
Speaker 11: any splashy signings in the transfer portal in terms to
Speaker 11: add to the edge rusher position or even the interior
Speaker 11: defensive line. And Kalani kind of bet and said, hey,
Speaker 11: another year in the system. You know, with the year
Speaker 11: or two in a J Hill coaching staff, there was
Speaker 11: no changes on the defensive coaching staff at all really
Speaker 11: they own. They did bring in Gary Anderson to be
Speaker 11: a consultant, which everybody knows him quite well in this state.
Speaker 11: But I do think it was a that bet really
Speaker 11: paid off for Kilani. Where the interior defensive line, I
Speaker 11: think Blake Manglsson has played extremely well. I thought he
Speaker 11: had his best game of the year possibly you know,
Speaker 11: you could argue SMU, but probably the best game of
Speaker 11: the year against UCS. So that certainly helps. But I
Speaker 11: think the biggest factory you look at in terms of
Speaker 11: how they gotten pressure on the quarterback, I think you've
Speaker 11: got to give a lot of credit to the linebackers.
Speaker 11: Jack Kelly being added from Weaver State playing that linebacker position,
Speaker 11: he's been very good at pressuring the quarterback, which he
Speaker 11: did have ten sacks last year playing at Weaver State.
Speaker 11: It was just like will this translate? And I think
Speaker 11: Jay Hills had a strong track record of recruiting guys
Speaker 11: from Weaver that he coached before he got to BYU
Speaker 11: and then making an immediate impact like Eddie Hecker Mark
Speaker 11: Collins this year as well, and then Isaiah Glasker's emergence
Speaker 11: along with Harrison Taggert. I mean, I think for a
Speaker 11: large part of this year, we thought Jack Kelly or
Speaker 11: Jacob Robinson would be the best players on defense for BYU,
Speaker 11: and I think they've been good. I don't think. I
Speaker 11: don't say this as they haven't been good, but I
Speaker 11: think Isaiah Glasker of the guys who have played two
Speaker 11: hundred snaps on this team, Isaiah Glasker is the highest
Speaker 11: graded defensive guy on Pro Football Focus, and so his
Speaker 11: emergence has been has been really good. And you know,
Speaker 11: he can get after the passer two and I think
Speaker 11: that really helps. He also has two interceptions himself, so
Speaker 11: those those things combined, I think do help. They hill
Speaker 11: kind of get the scheme that he wanted.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to Jake because he was
Speaker 1: picked as I believe the worst quarterback in the Big
Speaker 1: twelve by some of the media preseason prognosticators. Like you
Speaker 1: can draw a direct line. I mean, look at Sportstock Radio.
Speaker 1: We've got to fill four hours of time, so I
Speaker 1: can't just turn on a mic and be like, oh
Speaker 1: Cam's hurting, Jake's healthy, Okay, talk to tomorrow. But you
Speaker 1: can be that reductive. You really can like Jake has
Speaker 1: been healthy, He's been awesome. Cam Rising has not been healthy.
Speaker 1: In the quarterback situation of Utah is atrocious, but by
Speaker 1: most metrics, Jake is one of, if not the best
Speaker 1: quarterback in the entire conference now oh and four a
Speaker 1: year ago just atrocious decision making, and so you understand
Speaker 1: the skepticism as far as people wondering what that was
Speaker 1: going to look like this year when you talk to
Speaker 1: him down there, like, was it a bunch of work
Speaker 1: in the offseason?
Speaker 2: Is just a year older? Is it a better o line?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 1: What are the dynamics that have allowed Jake Good to
Speaker 1: go from a player that was thought to be among
Speaker 1: the worst at his position in the conference too clearly
Speaker 1: one of the best.
Speaker 11: I think there was always an internal belief in Jake,
Speaker 11: Like I really do think b YU believed in Jake
Speaker 11: Red's laf like even if they bought it, brought in
Speaker 11: you know, other quarterbacks, and there was a competition really
Speaker 11: for all of fall camp, right Like, let's not forget that,
Speaker 11: Like this went really close down to the wire in
Speaker 11: terms of making a decision to say who's going to.
Speaker 3: Be the starter.
Speaker 11: But with that said, I think Jake has has I
Speaker 11: think he's clearly improved decision making wise. I think he's
Speaker 11: you know, he throws the ball away when there's stuff
Speaker 11: not there, and I don't think he was doing that
Speaker 11: last year, So I think that's.
Speaker 3: Part of it.
Speaker 11: But the other part of it too, that I think
Speaker 11: is really significant over the last few weeks is that
Speaker 11: they are winning games where Jake Retslaft throws for two
Speaker 11: hundred and eighteen yards, throws for two hundred and thirty yards,
Speaker 11: and Jake Redslif can throw for three hundred yards. We've
Speaker 11: seen BYU win and he throws for two ninety three.
Speaker 11: BYU's asked him to throw quite a bit at SMU,
Speaker 11: throw quick a bit at Wyoming. That's all true, but
Speaker 11: with this running game, he doesn't really need to do
Speaker 11: that as much, and he can kind of pick his
Speaker 11: spots to win and when he wants to push the
Speaker 11: ball downfield. And I think last game's kind of a
Speaker 11: great example of that. Where last year, was it really
Speaker 11: possible for BYU to win a game in the second
Speaker 11: half where Jake reds Laff only throws for twenty eight yards. No,
Speaker 11: I would say absolutely not. But this time around, when
Speaker 11: you have LJ. Martin, when you have Hinckley Ropazzi, when
Speaker 11: you have SIONI, I moo. We've seen in spots when
Speaker 11: you have an actual rushing attack that's not just Jake
Speaker 11: Rutzlaf and you know everybody else. I think that really helps,
Speaker 11: and you don't put so much pressure on him to
Speaker 11: make plays all the time. And that's not something I
Speaker 11: think that would have been possible last year just because
Speaker 11: they couldn't run the ball. They really couldn't run the
Speaker 11: ball really at all. And help Keten slow this in
Speaker 11: the least. And I know King Slows couldn't run either
Speaker 11: as much. He wasn't as mobile. But I do think
Speaker 11: that plays a role into this and how balance the
Speaker 11: offense is, which is what the offense. I think it's
Speaker 11: the posed to look like right where you're throwing off
Speaker 11: of the run and it's not just you're dropping back
Speaker 11: the past fifty times a game.
Speaker 2: All right, keV before I set you loose.
Speaker 1: There's no way of knowing this, but according to ESPN
Speaker 1: FPI BYU should be the betting favorites in every game remaining.
Speaker 1: Do you think they really do it? Do you think
Speaker 1: we see them win all twelve in the regular season?
Speaker 11: Put me in a tough spot. You know, I think
Speaker 11: I wrote I wrote after UCS like UCS was the
Speaker 11: game that they were not favored in in the last
Speaker 11: five and they win that game. You know, it's really
Speaker 11: hard to say that. You know, you never know what's
Speaker 11: going to happen with Utah. But after that, the schedule
Speaker 11: does set up nicely. And then the other part of
Speaker 11: it too, I think that is a factor in this
Speaker 11: is that Kansas State, Iowa State, and even Colorado like
Speaker 11: their schedule down the stretch like there will be losses
Speaker 11: and there will be separation just because those teams are
Speaker 11: playing each other, Like I don't have the schedule in
Speaker 11: front of me, but the mix and matches they're playing
Speaker 11: each other BYU is not so. And history does show
Speaker 11: in the Big twelve title race at least that teams
Speaker 11: in the last four years, teams in the Big twelve
Speaker 11: Title game, there's been multiple two lost teams. Sorry sorry,
Speaker 11: there's been a two lost team every single year for
Speaker 11: the last four years in the Big Title race. And
Speaker 11: who gets to Arlington. So you do have you do
Speaker 11: set yourself up nicely in the last month of this season,
Speaker 11: could give yourself a little bit of breathing room by
Speaker 11: beating UCF and going in eight and oh but no,
Speaker 11: I don't know. It's tough to predict what's going to happen,
Speaker 11: especially with this utaih game. I've never been a bystander
Speaker 11: in it. I never I've never experienced it. But it's
Speaker 11: tough to predict.
Speaker 6: Right it?
Speaker 2: Sure is it? Sure is? keV. I appreciate the time, man,
Speaker 2: have a good weekend. We'll chat too, Yeah, thanks man,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: Kevin Reynolds covers college football b YU for the Saul
Speaker 1: Lake Tribune. His Twitter is at Kevin Reynolds thirty looking
Speaker 1: for a good college football content. Really good kid came
Speaker 1: here a couple of years ago doing a really good
Speaker 1: job on the beat. So of course that game next
Speaker 1: week will be a big part of our coverage.
Speaker 2: Excited for rival re weeks say it slowly.
Speaker 1: It's gonna get weird with some radio hosts next week,
Speaker 1: including this one, probably a couple of times.
Speaker 2: But it's not nothing. As we've talked about during the show.
Speaker 1: If you're a Utah football player right now and you're
Speaker 1: kind of wondering, like, well, is there a lot left
Speaker 1: to play for? You go have a couple of magical
Speaker 1: moments in a Utah BYU game, and you're remembered for
Speaker 1: a long time, even if you're playing for a team
Speaker 1: that is in a spot that nobody thought you'd be in.
Speaker 1: So we'll cover that game quite a bit coming up
Speaker 1: next week. So you know how I've been bemoaning an
Speaker 1: outlier of a fantasy football season.
Speaker 2: Right, it's been rough. It's been rough. Not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: Also have Stefan Diggs on the roster, all right, So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm.
Speaker 2: Make the playoffs. You might be cursed this year. I am.
Speaker 1: I think I am, unfortunately, so I don't know that
Speaker 1: the playoffs are going to be a reality.
Speaker 2: But let's socks and pro football.
Speaker 1: It's good to have Sam brook House back on the
Speaker 1: show on a Tuesday. Sam, Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Are we doing doing?
Speaker 7: Good?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 7: You chune me up with music, the brick house music
Speaker 7: like I'm a wrestler, dude. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my producer. He's in his bag today.
Speaker 1: Typically I have to scold him for his country music
Speaker 1: selections that drive me crazy, but we'll give him a
Speaker 1: little credit on this Tuesday afternoon. All right, Sam, as
Speaker 1: we talked about last time you joined I am a lifelong,
Speaker 1: suffering fan of the New York Football Jets, and the
Speaker 1: most reductive thing I can say about it is, you
Speaker 1: got in bed with an old, weird dude and you're
Speaker 1: married to a guy that's just done.
Speaker 2: Like Aaron's got nothing left.
Speaker 1: The numbers say that they're giving him everything he wants,
Speaker 1: and I just think they have hitched their wagon to
Speaker 1: the wrong guy. Is there any hope for my Jets
Speaker 1: to turn this thing around?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Look, the hope is is that you have Defonte Adams.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 7: They have the weapons they need. The pieces just have
Speaker 7: not come together. Frankly in terms of like net points,
Speaker 7: which projects out a little better than record does at
Speaker 7: this point. They're not absolutely terrible. They're about, you know, average.
Speaker 7: They're around the teams like the Falcons and the Bengals
Speaker 7: who have varying records. But man, it looks pretty rough.
Speaker 7: It reminds me of that Brady year And I'm a
Speaker 7: lifelong New Orleans Saints Dan the breeze here too, where
Speaker 7: if he just looks immobile, it looks like you can't throw,
Speaker 7: and then the defense is struggling on the other side,
Speaker 7: which was unexpected. Some injuries there. It's looking pretty grim.
Speaker 7: I too was big on them this year. It's kind
Speaker 7: of disappointing to see how they performed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's frustrating. But that's just kind of
Speaker 1: the deal because I didn't buy any the hype, because
Speaker 1: when you've been sharing for this team for forty six years,
Speaker 1: you know the deal. But let me ask you this,
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson two and I was a starter, and you
Speaker 1: know it was the Giants, all right, So there's that.
Speaker 1: But Pittsburgh six and two with a really good def
Speaker 1: in a really good run game, how real do you
Speaker 1: think this is? Should we be paying a little bit
Speaker 1: more attention to Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 7: I mean, the defense is the absolute name of the
Speaker 7: game with the Steelers. They're one of like the four
Speaker 7: or five best defenses in the league. Cameron Hayward is
Speaker 7: having a year that returned to form year. TJ. Watt
Speaker 7: makes big plays every single game, made a big play
Speaker 7: on Monday Night Football. The recipe for the offense has
Speaker 7: kind of changed since justin fields you went out and
Speaker 7: Russell Wilson comes in. They're really trying to plug back
Speaker 7: into that old school Seattle seahawk play action, throw it deep,
Speaker 7: and when you have George Pickens, who is probably one
Speaker 7: of the best contested catch wide receivers in the league.
Speaker 7: That's ended up being a recipe for success, and we'll
Speaker 7: see if that can continue. I generally am a little
Speaker 7: reticent of Russ's potential given what we've seen in the
Speaker 7: past couple of years. But if they can keep making
Speaker 7: that recipe work, that's a recipe we've seen be successful,
Speaker 7: particularly in that AFC. Nor As the year goes on,
Speaker 7: it gets colder and such.
Speaker 1: At what point I'm gonna stick kind of with this
Speaker 1: theme of is this real for a moment and at
Speaker 1: what point do we start look, everyone just might be
Speaker 1: playing for second against the Chiefs, But at what point
Speaker 1: do we look at Denver and give Bonnicks and Sean
Speaker 1: Paige a little credit for I think they've ran off
Speaker 1: five of six, Like, what are you liking about it?
Speaker 2: And do you think it's real and sustainable?
Speaker 7: Bonnicks has absolutely shocked me, mostly his ability to limit
Speaker 7: bad plays, which is weird. Do you think about Bonnicks,
Speaker 7: particularly as an old school SEC fan from Louisiana, Like
Speaker 7: I also played against Bonick, so we had on our
Speaker 7: scouting report. You know he's gonna run around, He's gonna
Speaker 7: kind of throw it around. He limited that at Oregon
Speaker 7: and now we're really seeing kind of the frooits of it.
Speaker 7: He can still run around him it he's a little bit.
Speaker 7: He's quite mobile, he avoids sex. He's done an okay
Speaker 7: job of avoiding interceptions. He may not be doing the
Speaker 7: most through the air. He looked good this week. But
Speaker 7: when you have that really aggressive defense on the other side,
Speaker 7: coach boy Advance Joseph, they're doing a fantastic job of
Speaker 7: blitzing heavily, really pressing up on the wide receivers. With
Speaker 7: guys like Patser Tan and Riley Moss, that's also a
Speaker 7: recipe for success. I think their defense is probably for real.
Speaker 7: And I'm kind of becoming a bow leaver man. I
Speaker 7: can't believe I'm saying that after all my draft research,
Speaker 7: but I kind of see the vision in what Shawn
Speaker 7: Ange trying to do.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Now I've got to follow up, where'd you play against
Speaker 1: bon Nicks and how good of a player were you
Speaker 1: back in the day.
Speaker 7: So I played at Sulane University American Athletic Conference, currently
Speaker 7: leading the American Athletic Conference. I might add we went
Speaker 7: into Auburn, Man, it's been several years now, maybe four
Speaker 7: or five years ago now, we weren't able to come
Speaker 7: up with a win. I think it was one of
Speaker 7: Boenick's first home games actually, but it was a fun
Speaker 7: place to play, obviously in that SEC environment.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1: To have that opportunity to have that experience is great.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about another rookie quarterback. And I've
Speaker 1: got a buddy who's a big Washington Commanders fan, and finally,
Speaker 1: for the first time in a number of years, he's
Speaker 1: actually excited about his team. And you know, we're obviously
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake in the former PAC twelve foot print.
Speaker 1: Jayden Daniels is out here for a bit, and he
Speaker 1: was good when he was out here. But I don't
Speaker 1: know that anybody who saw him play. Obviously he transfers,
Speaker 1: he wins the Heisman, it's a different thing. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that anybody projected this. Obviously, the Hail Mary is
Speaker 1: a snapshot moment that maybe average NFL fans are finally,
Speaker 1: you know, getting with the deal. But he has been
Speaker 1: so good, and I'll just continue to ask you what
Speaker 1: do you like about it and how sustainable is it.
Speaker 7: I think it's very sustainable. I thought he was the best,
Speaker 7: most prepared, I guess, like NFL ready quarterback going into
Speaker 7: the draft this year. I thought Caleb did have a
Speaker 7: higher ceiling because of his homes like tendency, which we
Speaker 7: kind of though at the end of that Commander's Bears game.
Speaker 7: But jd his like calling card is those perimeter deep
Speaker 7: throws and he's able to hit them over and over
Speaker 7: and over again. And I noticed his ability to do that,
Speaker 7: you know, versus Florida State his last year at LSU,
Speaker 7: which ended up being a lost. But I was like,
Speaker 7: this just looks completely different than what we suspected. His
Speaker 7: downside was always going to be his pressure to sack
Speaker 7: ratio and taking big hits. He's been able to kind
Speaker 7: of mitigate that. Obviously, has a rib injury that occurred
Speaker 7: or a theme that it occurred on him taking a
Speaker 7: big hit, running the ball kind of erratically. I'm in
Speaker 7: for the Jay Daniels ride. I think he's an absolutely
Speaker 7: incredible player and the class of this year's draft class.
Speaker 1: So I referenced the Chiefs and it just continues and
Speaker 1: Andy Reid played his college ball at BYU. We like
Speaker 1: to cheer for our local players here, and you know,
Speaker 1: they have been able to just remake and themselves into
Speaker 1: whatever the game in front of them needs in order
Speaker 1: to win. I mean, a guy in my fantasy football
Speaker 1: league straight up dropped Patrick Mahomes right, and so it's
Speaker 1: like he's not putting up the numbers that he used to,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't matter. Like all they do is figure
Speaker 1: out what you're trying to do and then they're just
Speaker 1: a little bit better than you are on that day.
Speaker 2: Do you think that this is going to, you know, be.
Speaker 1: A situation where everybody's clearly playing for second?
Speaker 2: Are they vulnerable anywhere?
Speaker 1: And what do you make of just another incredible start
Speaker 1: there's seven or zero.
Speaker 7: I think their vulnerability is if they start losing some
Speaker 7: offensive linemen. But that's really their biggest strength right now.
Speaker 7: Like they're one of the best running teams in terms
Speaker 7: of expected points added, which basically puts yards in context
Speaker 7: and keeps football analysts from you know, looking at some
Speaker 7: of the garbage time stuff that can get inflated and
Speaker 7: ironically as well, like we're looking at Patrick Mahomes right
Speaker 7: now saying, oh, he has all year. He has tons
Speaker 7: of turnovers. But even they're also good in that statistic
Speaker 7: per drop back to pass, So like they're really optimizing
Speaker 7: for what is successful. I think you really hit the
Speaker 7: nail on the head there on the offensive side of
Speaker 7: the ball. But where they are absolutely killing teams is
Speaker 7: on the defensive side of the ball. Chris Jones is
Speaker 7: mauling offensive lines, their dvs are are just sticking to
Speaker 7: wide receivers. It's gonna be really hard to beat them
Speaker 7: because they're probably the most well rounded team in the
Speaker 7: league right now.
Speaker 1: So my producer is a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, And yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, not great. We have Jerry Jones threatening to
Speaker 1: fire radio hosts, we have players going at media members,
Speaker 1: we have Look, they're always good for some drama, but
Speaker 1: they're certainly not good for consistent, high quality football. Look,
Speaker 1: they're they're in bed with DAK, aren't they. You think
Speaker 1: they try to move on from this and maybe just
Speaker 1: rebuild and go all in on being bad for a while,
Speaker 1: or are they just going to be perpetually in mediocrity,
Speaker 1: which is what they've been forever.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think the Cowboys, at least when it comes
Speaker 7: to DAK and CD like it's going to be very
Speaker 7: difficult to move off of them because it's going to
Speaker 7: be really hard to find someone who's better. I guess
Speaker 7: the Vikings have kind of done that this year. They
Speaker 7: moved off of Kirk Cousins. They now come in with
Speaker 7: Sam Donald. But we're even seeing Sam Donald start to
Speaker 7: regress in the last few games. So it's just really
Speaker 7: hard to move off with quarterback who we saw last
Speaker 7: year over the course of sixteen seventeen games, he was
Speaker 7: the best guy in the league. And so when you
Speaker 7: have a team like that, you want to see where
Speaker 7: you can plug. You know, we're coming up on the
Speaker 7: trade deadline and at Summer Sports. On the Summer Sports
Speaker 7: Show with Thomas Mentrov and Lindsay Roads, some great professionals
Speaker 7: who have been in the industry for a long long time,
Speaker 7: we were talking about some of the guys that we
Speaker 7: like for Dallas, and I'm really interested to see if
Speaker 7: they try to make a move for someone like a
Speaker 7: blutea Baker, because right now you mentioned like guys going
Speaker 7: after media members. That was just because the defense is
Speaker 7: looking so rough. You look at some of the advanced
Speaker 7: analytics that we have at Summer Sports, they just don't
Speaker 7: have a bunch of good players right now, and so
Speaker 7: I'd really be interested if they go after a boot
Speaker 7: A Baker or one of these guys who can have
Speaker 7: an impact in the running game and the passing game
Speaker 7: and can kind of be a rental for a year
Speaker 7: to just try to get them in the playoffs at
Speaker 7: this point.
Speaker 2: Got a lot of Niner fans around here.
Speaker 1: To start the year, they were the second favorite to
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, and at this moment,
Speaker 1: it looks like they're now behind the Lions, the Ravens,
Speaker 1: and the Bills, and they're just ahead of the Eagles.
Speaker 1: So look, if they can get healthy. Obviously, that's still
Speaker 1: a roster that a lot of gms would love to
Speaker 1: have their disposal. For me, it's always been a pretty thing,
Speaker 1: like I know it's reductive, but is he good enough
Speaker 1: to be the guy under center with all the riches
Speaker 1: around him to win something special? Concerned about the Niners
Speaker 1: after four and four? They need to get healthy and
Speaker 1: they're going to be fine. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that's the biggest concern is the injuries.
Speaker 7: And frankly, that was the reason why I was a
Speaker 7: lot lower than consistent at the beginning of the year
Speaker 7: on the forty nine ers, because they just have so
Speaker 7: many guys who are getting up there in age and
Speaker 7: also who have injury histories. Christian McCafferty being the number
Speaker 7: one guy, he's missed the whole season at this point.
Speaker 7: I know they say they plan that he comes to
Speaker 7: he plans to come back after the buye, but apparently
Speaker 7: he has an achilles injury that he had to go
Speaker 7: to Germany to get fixed. Like that's not doesn't seem
Speaker 7: like a recipe for success. I actually think Perty has
Speaker 7: played pretty well this season. I know he's had some
Speaker 7: off games, particularly against the Chiefs, but I've actually been
Speaker 7: quite surprised by his ability to generate offense despite the
Speaker 7: turnstyle of guys who have been coming in and out
Speaker 7: of the lineup. I wouldn't worry too much about them.
Speaker 7: I know it's a little sticky, but their division is
Speaker 7: very up and down right now. We have teams games
Speaker 7: that they don't expect to win, expect to lose, teams
Speaker 7: winning games they don't expect to win. I think they
Speaker 7: can probably control that division throughout the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: So Pooka Nakua played his college ball around here as well,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm a Sean mcveig guy, and you know,
Speaker 1: obviously they've had injury issues over the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: I was pretty impressed though, because the Vikes are good,
Speaker 1: and you know, the Rams, to me, with Puoka back
Speaker 1: and we'll see what they do with Cooper Cup, to me,
Speaker 1: are a team that still could potentially make teams uncomfortable
Speaker 1: as we move forward. They still are three and four
Speaker 1: and that's at the bottom of the NFC West. All
Speaker 1: three of the teams in front of them are only
Speaker 1: four and four, though. What's your opinion on the recent
Speaker 1: uptick that we've seen from the Los Angeles Rams.
Speaker 7: I mean, you mentioned Puka. He's just kind of an
Speaker 7: old school wide receiver. He's really just a ballplayer. I
Speaker 7: mean you see on some big downs they'll motion him
Speaker 7: in and he'll crack, like completely annihilate a linebacker's or
Speaker 7: big dude. These great at running routes. I am worried
Speaker 7: about their injuries because we saw Matthew Stafford not be
Speaker 7: too productive when both Cup and Pooper were out. But
Speaker 7: I think they're definitely in that class with the forty
Speaker 7: nine ers more than the Seahawks and the Cardinals in
Speaker 7: that division right now, I'm a little worried about their defense,
Speaker 7: particularly on the back end. This is another team that
Speaker 7: I think at the deadline could use some safety, some
Speaker 7: cornerback help. But I'm really excited about how the way
Speaker 7: that Jared Verse and Braden Fifth, their two early round
Speaker 7: draft picks, both from Florida State, have played. They've really
Speaker 7: been pretty elite in some of our pass rushing and
Speaker 7: run defense metrics as they try to like put a
Speaker 7: patchwork together to replace an unreplaceable player and Aaron and
Speaker 7: Aaron Donald, they've really kind of done a good job
Speaker 7: there and it'll be interesting to see how they grow
Speaker 7: throughout the year as they get more games in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Of the rookie quarterbacks, and I think I might know
Speaker 1: the answer to this, But if we play the tape
Speaker 1: forward ten years and we're talking about this class, who's
Speaker 1: going to be the one guy we talked about standing
Speaker 1: out among the rest and why?
Speaker 7: Man, it is tough and you think about this. I
Speaker 7: am sticking with Jayden Daniels just because I think his
Speaker 7: ability to throw down the field that's always going to
Speaker 7: be there unless he gets like majorly injured, which is
Speaker 7: the fear with him. I think Caleb's starting to look
Speaker 7: good as well. I probably put Caleb in at number two.
Speaker 7: I'm still sticking with JJ McCarthy at three. I liked
Speaker 7: how he looked in college. He's just a winner, man.
Speaker 7: He's won all the way from Illinois High school to
Speaker 7: IMG to Michigan. I think will probably continue that with
Speaker 7: a pretty good coaching staff with the Vikings.
Speaker 12: Next.
Speaker 7: Drake May is kind of the old school style stereotypical quarterback.
Speaker 7: I think he can be pretty good. I still don't
Speaker 7: believe a ton in the mix, as you know, being
Speaker 7: a long term three four contract guy with the Broncos.
Speaker 7: But I just lifted off a bunch of good quarterbacks
Speaker 7: and the last time I kind of saw that was
Speaker 7: with the Borough two of class Herbert and I think
Speaker 7: this class is more like that one, you know, than
Speaker 7: the Trevor Lawrence type classes, the Bryce Youngs which we
Speaker 7: saw last year.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Burrow, I mean they're owing for a home,
Speaker 1: you know. So like I've always felt like he is
Speaker 1: too special for a team to kind of waste.
Speaker 2: And look, he's still young, He's got plenty of time left.
Speaker 1: But can Cincinnati turn this around and make it interesting
Speaker 1: and why can't they win a home game?
Speaker 7: I think they can make it interesting. But moreover, as
Speaker 7: we go into the trade deadline, typically they're not super active.
Speaker 7: But I've been listening as long and we're talking about
Speaker 7: how the Jazz were approaching this season. Typically, you know
Speaker 7: NFL teams go all in, but they really have decisions
Speaker 7: to make on what they want to do, especially given
Speaker 7: that they did not pay t Higgins this year and
Speaker 7: it seems like he's out the door at the end
Speaker 7: of the season. They also didn't make a decision to
Speaker 7: extend Jamar Chase, and they got to do that as
Speaker 7: long as you know, they extended Joe Burrow already, so
Speaker 7: you got to give him his number one target. You
Speaker 7: look at kind of how they perform this year. Their
Speaker 7: net points is around that kind of jet zone, that
Speaker 7: falcon zone in between, kind of like median level. They
Speaker 7: could go up, they could go down. Their offense is
Speaker 7: like good and Burrow is like a sneaky MVP candidate
Speaker 7: if they can string together a bunch of wins. At
Speaker 7: the end of the year. They're fourth in passing this
Speaker 7: year passing EPA. Their defense is just atrocious, particularly against
Speaker 7: the run, which is a little weird because a bunch
Speaker 7: of their guys are playing good. You see Trey Indrickson,
Speaker 7: he has like seven eight sacks this year. They have
Speaker 7: a bunch of holes kind of in their defensive backfield
Speaker 7: in the run game, but I think they're going to
Speaker 7: put it together. I'm optimistic about the Bengals. I think
Speaker 7: if they would want to make a move, they probably should,
Speaker 7: particularly to shore up that defensive run game. But I
Speaker 7: think their offense is very good and I think that's
Speaker 7: going to carry him the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: I want to go back because you referenced JJ McCarthy,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not out the way you are,
Speaker 1: but I loved Sam Darnold in the pre draft process.
Speaker 1: The lesson is, if you play quarterback, do not go
Speaker 1: to the New York Jets. Just don't do it. Okay,
Speaker 1: I just do not do it. It will not work out
Speaker 1: well for you. But you know, obviously JJ is the
Speaker 1: plan for them moving forward. But what sort of questions
Speaker 1: has Sam Darnold answered? And do you think maybe he's good?
Speaker 1: Because look, there are so many teams right now that
Speaker 1: are badly in need of a high caliber starter. So
Speaker 1: if the Vikings say, we're going with the kid. Do
Speaker 1: you think Sam's earned a deal around the league with
Speaker 1: what he's done.
Speaker 7: I'm kind of on the downside on this event. I
Speaker 7: do not think that he is a certified starter in
Speaker 7: this league despite what he's shown this year. And here's
Speaker 7: what I chalk it up to. You you look at
Speaker 7: some of his metrics, and obviously they're winning games, they're
Speaker 7: pretty good offensively, but you really dig deeper into his metrics,
Speaker 7: the way he's getting a lot of his value is
Speaker 7: through really deep throws down the field, which you know
Speaker 7: is a skilled but high variance through penalties and this
Speaker 7: was kind of the you know, the recipe for success
Speaker 7: back in the old days with the Baltimore Ravens and
Speaker 7: Joe Flacco. But as time went on, they ended up
Speaker 7: wanting to replace him, and I don't even think he's
Speaker 7: as good as doing that as Flacco was back in
Speaker 7: those days. I still think they're probably going to move
Speaker 7: on and go with JJ McCarthy next year, and I'd
Speaker 7: actually suspect that there will be regression as the games
Speaker 7: move on. You know, we've seen them struggle when they
Speaker 7: are trailing, both against the Lions and against the Rams.
Speaker 7: I think we're going to continue seeing that, particularly if
Speaker 7: on the other side of the ball they don't score
Speaker 7: up their defense. I think they may start bleeding points
Speaker 7: just due to the talent they have back there, and
Speaker 7: it'll put Sam Donald in some tough positions and we
Speaker 7: may see a regression back to that old kind of
Speaker 7: poor decision making Sam Donald, we've seen in past days.
Speaker 1: Last thing, and I'll set you, lou Sam, how many
Speaker 1: teams today are you willing to say you think can
Speaker 1: legitimately win a Super Bowl?
Speaker 7: Look? I love the Lions and I love the chief
Speaker 7: I think they are a class above everyone. I think
Speaker 7: the Ravens are probably right there too, And after that
Speaker 7: so it starts getting a little tricky. So right now
Speaker 7: I think three. Maybe you include the Bills in there
Speaker 7: because they have Josh Allen, but probably only three I'd
Speaker 7: be well to throw money on.
Speaker 2: So woh wow. All right, buddy, Where can people go
Speaker 2: find your work?
Speaker 7: You can buy me where all podcasts are Sumer daily podcasts.
Speaker 7: We're going to be doing a lot of trade deadline stuff.
Speaker 7: In fact, we did one on the Summer Sports Show podcast,
Speaker 7: another one of ours. Also check us out at Summer
Speaker 7: Sports Dot com We have a bunch of cool data
Speaker 7: going up that can help you set your fantasy lineups.
Speaker 7: Bet you know, stuff like that. So that's where you
Speaker 7: can find me and at brook out Sports on Twitter
Speaker 7: as well.
Speaker 2: Sam, thanks for the time, man, keep up the great work.
Speaker 2: We'll get you back soon.
Speaker 7: Okay, appreciate it. Thank y'all.
Speaker 1: All right, Sam brook House, right, young kid man does
Speaker 1: a lot of great work up on his Twitter pagees podcast,
Speaker 1: his website, so check it out as the well per
Speaker 1: usual has been a lot of fun this year. Your
Speaker 1: Week nine, goodness, gracious man, you blinking this thing's almost done.
Speaker 1: Week nine gets rolling on Thursday with the Texans and
Speaker 1: the pathetic, horrible, embarrassing Jets at Medlife Stadium. The Jets
Speaker 1: are two point favorite. They won't win, but you can
Speaker 1: hear that game on our radio station. RSL is in
Speaker 1: action tonight. The MLS Cup playoffs start tonight.
Speaker 2: Want to get it. Get you guys ready for that.
Speaker 2: Now here's the deal.
Speaker 1: I do not know how our guest is because Trey
Speaker 1: said he would get me Donny unless Donny is too busy,
Speaker 1: and in that instance, Trey booked himself as the backup,
Speaker 1: which I would very much like to avoid so porter.
Speaker 1: Who's our guest?
Speaker 2: Yes, Oh.
Speaker 1: Yes, bullet dodge. Come on, Donny, Donny, thank you for
Speaker 1: saving us. Happy Tuesday, buddy.
Speaker 12: Oh what's going on?
Speaker 3: Guys? How are you?
Speaker 12: Perfect timing? I just got done with my meeting for
Speaker 12: Apple ahead of our broadcast tonight of Real Soakings Minnesota.
Speaker 12: So perfect timing literally wrapped up like thirty seconds ago.
Speaker 2: Very nice.
Speaker 1: Well, look, fall, for a lot of people is about football.
Speaker 1: Fall also means playoff soccer. I love fall soccer. I
Speaker 1: just love the drama. I love the field, So just
Speaker 1: paint a picture for us. You're out there at the
Speaker 1: Stadium's what's the buzz like?
Speaker 12: Yeah? I mean gates are about to open here in
Speaker 12: about thirty minutes, and then you got to march the
Speaker 12: match right around six sixteen, where RSL supporters will head
Speaker 12: out from the tailgate and make their way into the
Speaker 12: stadium and listen to today's the start. Right, it's the
Speaker 12: last days of the season. You work so hard from
Speaker 12: January to get to this stage, right, all the extra doggies,
Speaker 12: the runs, the weightlifting sessions, you know, those tough conversations
Speaker 12: about who deserves to play, who doesn't deserve to play
Speaker 12: based on performance or news signing, the amount of money
Speaker 12: spent during the summer transfer window. You know, the atmosphere
Speaker 12: and the investment into this stadium, and this is what
Speaker 12: it's all about. Heading in the playoffs, and once you
Speaker 12: secured that top three spot in the Western Conference, you've
Speaker 12: secured home field advantage unless you hit one of these
Speaker 12: two Los Angeles teams, whether that be LAFC top of
Speaker 12: the table in the West or LA Galaxy who failed
Speaker 12: at the very last moment down in Houston and tonight
Speaker 12: against the Minnesota United team that you know Rialso Lake
Speaker 12: has had success, but most recently these last couple of
Speaker 12: matchups they've ended in draws, including these two teams meeting
Speaker 12: a couple of weeks ago where Brian Vera ended up
Speaker 12: spitting at an opponent and getting himself a multi game ban.
Speaker 12: So statistically two teams that match up fairly even. But
Speaker 12: for real Lake probably most importantly keeping the back to
Speaker 12: back shutout, turning that into something even more and trying
Speaker 12: to get Chico Rongo that goal. It's because it's been
Speaker 12: elusive finding the back of the net. The seventeen goals,
Speaker 12: twelve assists, his last goal on July sixth, previous to
Speaker 12: that three goals and the hat trick performance June first,
Speaker 12: So they got to get their captain back on track,
Speaker 12: confident and scoring goals.
Speaker 1: So tell me a bit about Minnesota. Now, Ultimately, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be dispared erging, but the two games
Speaker 1: that I've watched, certainly the one here, they did park
Speaker 1: the bus in a way they kind of did not
Speaker 1: engage and look tactically, that's something that Pablo did in Seattle.
Speaker 2: Like I understand if.
Speaker 1: You don't think that you have the ability to kind
Speaker 1: of engage the other team, or if you just want
Speaker 1: to get a road result, that that is a way
Speaker 1: to attack the game.
Speaker 2: That might be beneficial.
Speaker 1: But first of all, I guess I should just ask
Speaker 1: you is that kind of the way they play?
Speaker 2: And then if so, how does RSL handle that?
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean it's dependent upon, you know, the game itself.
Speaker 12: The regular season game going on the road and the
Speaker 12: point at Real Salt Lake is something to be proud of.
Speaker 12: Considering the strength of the home record schedule for RSL
Speaker 12: this season. It turned it back into the fortress that
Speaker 12: it once was back in the days of Rio Tinto.
Speaker 12: But also for Eric Ramsey and Minnesota United. This is
Speaker 12: the season of three. So I just hit my hit
Speaker 12: on Apple TV and I was trying to explain it's
Speaker 12: a young manager, just thirty two years of age. For
Speaker 12: those that don't no, the Minnesota United manager Eric Ramsey
Speaker 12: spent time at Chelsea Football Club, He spent time at
Speaker 12: Manchester United, spent time as an assistant coach at Wales
Speaker 12: with Gareth Bale and company, and now has taken over
Speaker 12: at Minnesota United. And I think it was kind of
Speaker 12: I don't want to say he was out of nowhere,
Speaker 12: but you didn't think at that stage of his career
Speaker 12: this young man would take that job. So he had
Speaker 12: to bet in and it was actually Cameron Knowles. Cam
Speaker 12: Knowles who played for Rial Sala as a center back
Speaker 12: back in two thousand and five. He was the head
Speaker 12: coach for the purpose couple of matches of the season,
Speaker 12: so adaption period. Team was doing well, some young players
Speaker 12: probably over punching their mark. In the middle of the
Speaker 12: summer June and July, things kind of went sideways. Three
Speaker 12: goal or three wins in just fourteen games. But in
Speaker 12: these last ten matches, seven wins. You know, they've conceded
Speaker 12: just one goal in their last five and they've been
Speaker 12: trending upwards. Like Real Salt Lake. They've added some players
Speaker 12: guys like Bata Bongee, Robin Hood up top, Kelvin Yoboa.
Speaker 12: These players have shown they're more than capable of causing
Speaker 12: havoc against opponents. But like you said, it's a team
Speaker 12: that's probably going to come sit in, sit back, force
Speaker 12: Reale Salt Lake or allowed Real Salt Lake to play
Speaker 12: their possession based type of attacking football soccer and see
Speaker 12: if they can hit in the transition because they are
Speaker 12: legal and counter attack opportunities. And sometimes the name of
Speaker 12: the game isn't being beautiful with the ball. Sometimes the
Speaker 12: name of the game is figuring out how to expose
Speaker 12: your opponents. And that's what they've done well these last
Speaker 12: five matches, four wins and just to draw.
Speaker 2: All right, So.
Speaker 1: Excuse me on the RSL front. You reference the Vera stuff,
Speaker 1: which is just such a bad look. And I've had everybody, Pablo, Jason, Kurt,
Speaker 1: We've all talked about it. Then Big Phil Quinton goes down,
Speaker 1: and so against Vancouver, Pablo's solution was to move to
Speaker 1: Van Brown to center back, a Mecca Andelli to right
Speaker 1: back a mecca I think played sixteen games right back
Speaker 1: last year and bring in Nelson to where a mecca was.
Speaker 1: Are you anticipate or maybe you straight up no, like,
Speaker 1: what what is that going to look like? I was
Speaker 1: gonna say you you might have the lineups, like what
Speaker 1: is it going to look like tonight with that lack
Speaker 1: of center back depth?
Speaker 12: Yeah, without confirming anything whatsoever, because you know, I want
Speaker 12: to keep my job. I think the one thing that
Speaker 12: you can lean into is everything you just described how
Speaker 12: they ended. They kept the shut you know, they they
Speaker 12: they They've showed defensively that they can handle those type
Speaker 12: of moments, and you go back. There's been multiple times
Speaker 12: this season where Justin Glad and Brian Vera, the preferred
Speaker 12: partnership for Paulo Mastroni, has not been available where effectively
Speaker 12: you've played two outside backs as center backs. And whether
Speaker 12: that was you know, the days of a left back
Speaker 12: and a right back playing a center back, or you're
Speaker 12: just having to mix a match, it hasn't been ideal.
Speaker 12: But at the same time, nobody's healthy. You know, nobody's
Speaker 12: one hundred percent healthy. So again, you know, the back
Speaker 12: to back shutouts for Zach McMath kind of continuing to
Speaker 12: build what it looks like in terms of defensive solidity
Speaker 12: and a shape and identity that at least of Mecha Andelly.
Speaker 12: What I would say is, if he does again play
Speaker 12: in that right back position, yes, he's played there. When
Speaker 12: I talked to Pablo last year, he you know, he
Speaker 12: was thinking down the road of uh A Mecca being
Speaker 12: a central midfielder, which has been incredible alongside Ojeita. But
Speaker 12: now if you put him at right back, he's he's
Speaker 12: got the intelligence of playing that position, the familiarity of
Speaker 12: playing that position. But I'd be really intrigue expense to
Speaker 12: see what type of wrinkle he adds in terms of
Speaker 12: overloading and stepping up into that midfield in possession and
Speaker 12: what that looks like, because it's gonna it's going to
Speaker 12: cause some havocs for the opponents to kind of think
Speaker 12: about where his starting position and his ending position are,
Speaker 12: especially with Patronis down that left hand side. He loves
Speaker 12: to get forward, effectively plays a left winger, and that
Speaker 12: ultimately allows Diego Luna and Matt Crooks to be too
Speaker 12: central midfielders in attacking mode underneath Tico Orongo. All of
Speaker 12: those little movements that I'm talking about causes a lot
Speaker 12: of it causes. It causes a ton of havoc for
Speaker 12: opponents to try to figure out when this step, when
Speaker 12: to stay and you have to be very communicative in
Speaker 12: terms of dealing with what's in front of you and
Speaker 12: what's behind you. That is a nightmare, especially in the playoffs,
Speaker 12: to deal with.
Speaker 1: So Pablo hopped on before the Vancouver match and I
Speaker 1: asked him because the schedule's being a little funky this year,
Speaker 1: with three games in one week often and then international
Speaker 1: duty injuries, he's had to shuffle a bit. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: last regular season match before the postseason, are we going
Speaker 1: to see a first choice eleven? And he basically said yes. So,
Speaker 1: And you know, I just want you to walk me
Speaker 1: through this because it feels like Diego should be centralized.
Speaker 1: But Matt's been really good there and so Diego was
Speaker 1: out left, Diego was out right, which is new. Diego
Speaker 1: hopped on the show last week and said, where every
Speaker 1: place I'm gonna end up centralized?
Speaker 2: So there's that.
Speaker 1: It feels like Mark Zuke was the guy they wanted
Speaker 1: and maybe still will be the guy they wanted. His
Speaker 1: feeling for Andres, and we have Lachlan in the mix
Speaker 1: as well. He has a lot of different offensive options
Speaker 1: and groupings. Where where do you think that group ultimately
Speaker 1: should and will kind of settle when the dost settles.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I don't think Mark Chuk started because he was
Speaker 12: away with Poland and Germany coming off international duty. So
Speaker 12: I think mar Chuk if he had, if he had
Speaker 12: his full complement of attacking players available, Mark Chuck will
Speaker 12: be on the right, Luno be on the left, Crooks
Speaker 12: would be underneath Chico. Now it seems surprising for a
Speaker 12: lot of people, including myself, because Diogo and the amount
Speaker 12: of money that you've spent on him, it would suggest
Speaker 12: that he would be the guy that you would absolutely
Speaker 12: play over Matt Crooks, especially because statistically Matt Crooks isn't
Speaker 12: anywhere near the respective number tens in Major League Soccer.
Speaker 12: But what he does for the system and the past
Speaker 12: before the pass and the runs off the ball, I
Speaker 12: think have been incredibly important for the for the setup
Speaker 12: and the tactical nuance that Pablo wants from this group.
Speaker 12: So and by the way, not that he wants to,
Speaker 12: but Diogo has been really good coming off the bench
Speaker 12: and being an impact player, uh, you know, in the
Speaker 12: in the second in the second phase of play. So
Speaker 12: all of those things I think can be real and
Speaker 12: can be true and still be frustrating. But I think
Speaker 12: Pablo has a really good identity of who his starting
Speaker 12: eleven is, even though he's got to have some tough
Speaker 12: conversations about why certain players aren't getting the certain amount
Speaker 12: of minutes that they expect at this stage of the season.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you've seen this year from Diego, who
Speaker 1: I perceive to be the player in that group that
Speaker 1: is in the best form right now. Obviously, goals helped,
Speaker 1: and he's scoring goals. The best strike he had against
Speaker 1: Vancouver may have been the one that actually didn't go
Speaker 1: in and went off the crossbar after like four stepovers.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a magical talent.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 2: How from your vantage point, Dotty, has he grown this year?
Speaker 12: Well, I mean I did his game in January when
Speaker 12: he was called up to the full men's national team
Speaker 12: and he was Caps and down in San Antonio, And
Speaker 12: you know, the joke was he was turning from moon
Speaker 12: boy to moon man because he was no longer kind
Speaker 12: of this precocious young talent. Now he was going to
Speaker 12: be about what can you do at the highest level
Speaker 12: with the pressure on, the expectation on and a U
Speaker 12: twenty two on track that significantly gave him a pay
Speaker 12: raise little but well, I don't want to say little
Speaker 12: by little because he's the same player. But every game
Speaker 12: he's continued to I think, showcase not only why he
Speaker 12: deserves to start, but why he should be an all star,
Speaker 12: why he should be a contender for the US men's
Speaker 12: national team underneath new head coach Mauricio Pochettino. You know,
Speaker 12: the double birds based on performance he gave the former
Speaker 12: US under twenty three coach that refused to take him
Speaker 12: to the Olympics over in France. You know, this is
Speaker 12: a young man who has dealt with setbacks his entire life,
Speaker 12: and the strength and mental fortitude that he has is extraordinary.
Speaker 12: And I would agree with you in terms of the
Speaker 12: consistency of run a for him, there haven't been a
Speaker 12: lot of games where you've seen a dip in his performance.
Speaker 12: He's a type of player that nobody wants to play against.
Speaker 12: He's quick, he's dynamic, he's got a low center of gravity,
Speaker 12: very very intelligent, great technically with either foot, and he's
Speaker 12: a kid that wants to be on the ball as
Speaker 12: much as possible, and you can see the frustrat when
Speaker 12: he doesn't feel like he can be a part of
Speaker 12: the solution and finds himself maybe as part of the problem.
Speaker 12: So yeah, the sky's the limit for this young man.
Speaker 12: And twenty gold contributions on the season so far and
Speaker 12: counting heading into the playoffs, I think it's just the
Speaker 12: start of what we're going to continue to see during
Speaker 12: whatever the timeline looks like. With him wearing an arshol jersey.
Speaker 1: Let me go back to Chico for a moment because
Speaker 1: I haven't been able to catch up with you for
Speaker 1: the past few weeks and I'm just floored.
Speaker 2: Did he still on seventeen goals?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm baffled, right, So several dynamics here on
Speaker 1: dress and he obviously had a cool, good thing going.
Speaker 2: Gomez has gone acclimates new players.
Speaker 1: The suspension maybe a hot star that wasn't sustainable, But
Speaker 1: how would you characterize exactly why a player that was
Speaker 1: so red hot has gone so eyes cold?
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean it definitely coincides with the suspension for me.
Speaker 12: You know, he was supposed to he was up for
Speaker 12: the not only just starting in the All Star Game,
Speaker 12: but potentially being the captain of the All Star Game
Speaker 12: in Columbus, so you know that, and probably the frustration
Speaker 12: and or embarrassment of having to deal with the suspension
Speaker 12: in the manner in which it was verbalized or not verbalized.
Speaker 12: Losing andres hurts because I think those two just instinctually
Speaker 12: understood one another. But I would say more importantly, you know,
Speaker 12: it's we saw. You know, we saw even the Siachinka
Speaker 12: own goal down in Houston where we thought, okay, Chio's
Speaker 12: getting got his goal again, here we go. How many
Speaker 12: posts you fit, how many world class saves goalies have
Speaker 12: had against them. But I think the one thing to
Speaker 12: recognize as well, statistically, yeah, that's what we're always going
Speaker 12: to focus on. Goals and the fifth from Chicho because
Speaker 12: he is that good and he's the captain of Rial
Speaker 12: Saw Lake and he was about to break Calvo Saboio's
Speaker 12: single season goal staring record of seventeen goals. He's still
Speaker 12: playing well, Spence. I think that's the that's the craziest
Speaker 12: part about this. You know, statistically, he fell off a cliff,
Speaker 12: but he's still playing really well. So if I knew
Speaker 12: the solution, I would certainly verbalize that to Pablo and
Speaker 12: his staff and to Chea Hill himself. But I think
Speaker 12: I'm as dumbfounded to the frustration that he's finding himself
Speaker 12: in as anyone else.
Speaker 2: All Right, So what.
Speaker 1: I have here is about forty degrees a kickoff with
Speaker 1: the chance of light rain, but maybe no rain at all.
Speaker 1: You're a guy that played all over the world in
Speaker 1: extreme conditions everywhere. What yeah, no, yeah, I know, Like,
Speaker 1: so what sort of unique challenges does a cold, rainy
Speaker 1: night bring.
Speaker 12: Well, it's ideal in terms of you feel like you
Speaker 12: can run forever, but you have to get your body
Speaker 12: right in warm ups and make sure that you're not
Speaker 12: pulling up. By the way, I didn't know Stevie ray
Speaker 12: Vaughan was practicing the national.
Speaker 7: Anthem behind nice.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I think you just got to make sure physically
Speaker 12: you're prepared and you're and you're warm, because getting through
Speaker 12: the warm up is one thing. But then you go
Speaker 12: back inside of the locker room and then you're standing
Speaker 12: out there during national anthems, which it sounds like it's
Speaker 12: going to be a fifteen minute national anthem right now
Speaker 12: with Stevie ray Vaughan out here. But then you know
Speaker 12: it's about mentality, and right now it's about killer mentality.
Speaker 12: So you know, you you wear the long sleeves, if
Speaker 12: you need to wear the gloves, whatever it is, it's
Speaker 12: going to be a cold night, and hopefully, you know,
Speaker 12: maybe they can mimic the performance they had against LAFC
Speaker 12: in the beginning of the season where the snow was falling,
Speaker 12: seemed like it was going to be a nightmare, and
Speaker 12: they absolutely smashed LAFC on the night.
Speaker 1: All right, Dundy, last thing, then I know you got
Speaker 1: to go. So I'll just put it like this very simply.
Speaker 1: RSL gets all three gets a win tonight.
Speaker 6: If what.
Speaker 12: Ooh, if they set the tone, and I expect them
Speaker 12: to set the tone, but I think it's important on
Speaker 12: a night like this where you've had such a significant
Speaker 12: break since decision day that you know effectively what ten
Speaker 12: eleven days off, that you haven't lost your rhythm and
Speaker 12: if you can set the tone, that is the baseline
Speaker 12: of confidence in terms of like the first tackle, first touch,
Speaker 12: you know, winning that first header. If you if you
Speaker 12: set that level of expectation for your teammates and you
Speaker 12: show that you're up for it, it's a lead by example,
Speaker 12: like I never needed to hear somebody tell me as
Speaker 12: a player, let's go, boys, let's go, Like I already
Speaker 12: knew we had to go. So then how do you
Speaker 12: get everyone to fall in line with your leadership. It's
Speaker 12: it's it's getting stuck in, it's setting the tone, it's
Speaker 12: it's you know, getting into those those verbal dialogues with
Speaker 12: the opponents. These are two teams that don't like each other.
Speaker 12: That's clear and evident. And you've got to continue that
Speaker 12: through the playoffs because in a week, a couple of
Speaker 12: days time, when you're on the road in Minnesota on
Speaker 12: Saturday night, you want to make sure that you that
Speaker 12: they know psychologically, whether they want to verbalize it or not,
Speaker 12: that they're in for one hell of a painful game
Speaker 12: to deal with playing ourselves.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, well, I appreciate the time, have a
Speaker 1: great call, and I we'll love to get you back
Speaker 1: on soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, sounds good, my man, good talking.
Speaker 1: Ryan Dunseeth, he'll be on the call tonight with Max
Speaker 1: Bretas as RSL welcomes in Minnesota for the first leg
Speaker 1: of a best of three first round MLS playoff format.
Speaker 1: They changed the damn thing every year. So I think
Speaker 1: that's what it is. Do not quote. Brought to you
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Speaker 1: Prize Picks run your game all season long. Is Aaron
Speaker 1: Judge just a more likable Alex Rodriguez breaks my heart
Speaker 1: to say that.
Speaker 2: I think so. It might be at least this postseason.
Speaker 4: Obviously, the Yankees down big, but as you mentioned, Spence,
Speaker 4: on a close to anniversary of a pretty big comeback,
Speaker 4: maybe they can get a spark at least make things interesting.
Speaker 2: That's what I want.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm not gonna hold out hope that they
Speaker 4: come back from three to zero in a World Series,
Speaker 4: but force a Game six. Maybe I'd be on board
Speaker 4: for that.
Speaker 1: Looks like John Carlos Stanton, who's been by far the
Speaker 1: best Yankee, is going to be moved down from the
Speaker 1: cleanup spot to fifth switching with Jazz Chisholm. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of switch desperation time. But if Aaron Judge
Speaker 1: can't get a hit, this team is screwed.
Speaker 2: So it is the.
Speaker 1: Twenty year anniversary of the Boston Red Sox coming back
Speaker 1: from a three to zero deficit against my Yankees.
Speaker 2: So maybe we can exercise some demons tonight.
Speaker 4: Maybe, or maybe that's a bad omen, right, They don't
Speaker 4: have to be negative all the time.
Speaker 2: It could be a good omen.
Speaker 4: I'm just throwing it out there. You know that was
Speaker 4: the Red Sox that did that. You're our trival. But
Speaker 4: we'll see, we'll see. I personally hope they make it interesting,
Speaker 4: they win and extend the series. That's always my hope,
Speaker 4: that we see seven games. That's the best two words
Speaker 4: in sports. But yeah, right now, they're gonna need a
Speaker 4: more than a lineup change and more than a couple
Speaker 4: hits from from Aaron Judge. They're gonna need to four
Speaker 4: straight games of really solid play.
Speaker 1: Andy larsh and our buddy from the trip is reporting
Speaker 1: that Cody Williams gets to start tonight in place of
Speaker 1: Taylor Hendrick. So we wondered, if it's going to be development,
Speaker 1: you might as well, because what are we going to
Speaker 1: learn that we don't know about John Collins?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: Well, you asked Tim McMahon earlier on the show, like,
Speaker 4: have you seen enough to think the Jazz tank is intentional? Well,
Speaker 4: when your players are getting injured, when you're not really
Speaker 4: playing well, it doesn't have to be intentional. Jazz are
Speaker 4: zero and three and they're now at a point spence
Speaker 4: where you're having to throw in guys you were not
Speaker 4: planning to start and it's game four.
Speaker 2: Now that sucks. If you're a.
Speaker 4: Fan who is in the arena buying your Dippin' dots,
Speaker 4: buying your uniform, you know, all in on the team,
Speaker 4: But from a big picture perspective, when you zoom out,
Speaker 4: might be a good thing for the Utah Jazz In
Speaker 4: twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Four, did you say dippin' dots?
Speaker 3: Hell?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did, kind of a random snack to select
Speaker 1: when's the last time you had dippin' dots?
Speaker 4: It's more the reason I said dipp dots is because
Speaker 4: it's very much a game thing. So the last time
Speaker 4: I had dippin' dots was the last time I think
Speaker 4: I was, you know, probably at a game as a fan.
Speaker 4: Outside of last night at the hockey game, I did
Speaker 4: not have any any dippin' dots.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, how was your experience at you I believe that
Speaker 1: was your first Utah Hockey Club game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at least, you know, as a fan. I went
Speaker 4: and picked up my credential and was there earlier in
Speaker 4: the year. But you know, was able to just kind
Speaker 4: of take in the event, take in the the atmosphere,
Speaker 4: and it was fun.
Speaker 2: It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: Obviously the game was interesting for to One was the
Speaker 4: lead late into that one, and then Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 4: let San Jose, who has been really bad in fact,
Speaker 4: hadn't won a game in several weeks, and Utah let
Speaker 4: him right back in it, and then of course lost
Speaker 4: in overtime. So the result wasn't good. The team is
Speaker 4: not playing all that well at the moment, but it
Speaker 4: was fun. I do wonder, Spence, We're only on week
Speaker 4: two or so, and the now it was San Jose.
Speaker 4: They're not a great team. Wasn't all that full. It wasn't,
Speaker 4: you know. And I know it's it's early. It's not
Speaker 4: a good team at San Jose. But I do wonder
Speaker 4: when we're talking about the environment there, you'd think that
Speaker 4: this early on, the attention to the hockey club would
Speaker 4: be still really really upfront. And I don't know that
Speaker 4: that early excitement, that early wave of people being in
Speaker 4: the building and packing that thing seems to have died
Speaker 4: off a little bit. The majority of the upper bowl
Speaker 4: was was kind of empty, which I thought was surprising.
Speaker 1: All Right, Before we get out of here, some tough
Speaker 1: news as Money Parks is done for the year following
Speaker 1: an injury.
Speaker 2: He's to stand against Houston.
Speaker 1: Cameron Rising is set to have surgery this week, and
Speaker 1: it looks like Brandon Rose and Isaac Wilson are going
Speaker 1: to split the reps this week and we'll find out
Speaker 1: more as they evaluate the position. Bummer about Money Parks, man,
Speaker 1: you got it for that kid.
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously, Money guy who hadn't broken through as much
Speaker 4: as maybe you would have liked. That's partly because of
Speaker 4: the quarterback position. Right, Money had a lot of really
Speaker 4: good showings when Cam was healthy. You saw him break
Speaker 4: out in that game against USC And I mean, if
Speaker 4: they're going to have a strong finish to the year,
Speaker 4: you're gonna have to have performances from guys like Money
Speaker 4: Parks in that locker room, and you know guys that
Speaker 4: can help out in Isaac Wilson or a Brandon Rose
Speaker 4: or whoever it may be that in that backfield. But yeah,
Speaker 4: that's a tough loss. Obviously, you mentioned Cam Rising going
Speaker 4: in for surgery later this week TBD on the future
Speaker 4: for Cam, we're not sure there. And then yeah, when
Speaker 4: you're having what looks like, at least as of today, Spence,
Speaker 4: maybe a quarterback battle midway through the season, and it's
Speaker 4: a battle between a freshman who's already shown not to
Speaker 4: be entirely ready and and a sophomore who from all
Speaker 4: reports in the off season wasn't ready either. Not ideal
Speaker 4: spot to be going into a rivalry game.
Speaker 1: If through Utah, let me ask you one more question,
Speaker 1: then we're going to get out of here, because if
Speaker 1: I answer my own question, I might say, Jalen Glover,
Speaker 1: is there anybody on this roster, in your opinion, that
Speaker 1: hasn't been getting run that Kyle could look either side
Speaker 1: of the ball, they could kind of provide whatever they need.
Speaker 1: I mean, is there anybody with the depth that we
Speaker 1: haven't seen that? Jalen's the one if I'm answering my
Speaker 1: own question, But is there is there anybody out there
Speaker 1: that can actually provide a spark?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Offensively, obviously you mentioned Jalen, and that's that, it's the
Speaker 4: right answer. But it's it's so much more than that
Speaker 4: because the offense has been so pedestrian.
Speaker 2: It's Land and King.
Speaker 4: It's I haven't heard Munier McClain's name until very shortly
Speaker 4: in in that game against Houston. It's it's it's Micah Pittman.
Speaker 4: I mean, there are there are really no weapons that
Speaker 4: are making huge impacts on the offense right now, and
Speaker 4: that's that's part of the problem. Defensively, yes, but it's
Speaker 4: it's all availability, right, It's Conro Tool, It's it's Samody Peppa,
Speaker 4: it's Junior Tafuna when he's there, Keanotanavasa who has been
Speaker 4: in out of the lineup. Defensively, yes, they need that spark,
Speaker 4: but it's it's gonna be just based on availability and health. Offensively, man,
Speaker 4: it's just about the quarterback getting Land and King Munier, McClain,
Speaker 4: Micah Pittman. Money parks now obviously out. But those guys
Speaker 4: are are gonna be relying on the quarterback to get
Speaker 4: them involved in and that will be the spark that
Speaker 4: Utah is hoping for.
Speaker 2: World Series nets Yes, World Series. He's next on the.
Speaker 1: Show, Stay tuned. World Series Action coming up. We'll see
Speaker 1: if the Yanks can actually get a game, all right, porter,
Speaker 1: What comes our way on a Wednesday show?
Speaker 4: On a Wednesday edition of the program, the return of
Speaker 4: Tony Jones.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Yes, a big deal.
Speaker 4: It's NBA season tip off is here. Obviously, Tony one
Speaker 4: of the favorites here in the market when it comes
Speaker 4: to interviews on our shows. I don't just say that.
Speaker 4: When you look at the downloads on our interviews, it's
Speaker 4: Tony Jones. He dominates. So good to have Tony back
Speaker 4: in the fold. Chris com Ronnie's going to stop by
Speaker 4: tomorrow because he's going to be out of pocket. Over
Speaker 4: the course of the late weekdays. Amy Donaldson is also
Speaker 4: going to stop by, so we'll cover all of our
Speaker 4: bases there and then we're also going to be visited
Speaker 4: and joined by some friends from the Olympic Legacy. Foundation,
Speaker 4: So some non college football, non soccer, non NBA market
Speaker 4: stuff with the folks from the Olympic Legacy Foundation.
Speaker 2: So pretty busy show.
Speaker 4: But of course Amy Chris and with the return of
Speaker 4: Tony top of mind, can.
Speaker 1: We get Tony to make some sort of Jared Butler
Speaker 1: is going to be an All Star proclamation tomorrow.
Speaker 4: A'll text Tony and say, just just humor us, give
Speaker 4: us like something almost incendiary as far as hot takes go.
Speaker 2: I'll give them heads up.
Speaker 1: All right, I like it. I like it, so join it.
Speaker 1: Join us for a Wednesday show. Got a fun Tuesday
Speaker 1: night of action with Jazz Hoops World Series and RSL
Speaker 1: take it on, Minnesota. We'll say good night in a
Speaker 1: special thank you to Richard Smith, Tim McMahon, Kevin Reynolds,
Speaker 1: Sam Brookhouse and Brian Dunseth. I've missed any of that.
Speaker 1: Sound Head to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred Sports
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Speaker 2: It helps.
Speaker 1: He's Porter, I'm spent, Saga and I enjoy your Tuesday evening.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you on a Wednesday. Drive World Series
Speaker 1: Baseball Comes Aroyd coming up next right here on ESPN
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