Speaker 1: M Ramy. Let me check it out to you.
Speaker 2: Zach Barber is gonna roll by the NBA daily assist style.
Speaker 2: Good NBA games yesterday, a couple of NFL games that
Speaker 2: were just blowouts. The week of pro football wraps up tonight.
Speaker 2: We have the Thursday night game. It's the Bears in
Speaker 2: the Seahawks. You'll hear that right after we say it
Speaker 2: out at six o'clock. But let's do some more college football.
Speaker 2: One of our favorites, the legend himself, Eric Weddle, on
Speaker 2: a Thursday, he went, happy post Christmas, buddy, how are
Speaker 2: we doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing fantastic. Merry Christmas to you in the in
Speaker 3: the SAM. I hope everyone had a great one. Good
Speaker 3: to be on.
Speaker 2: Appreciate your time as always. And you know, we find
Speaker 2: ourselves in such an interesting landscape Eric, as you know,
Speaker 2: and I've been talking about it all show with college
Speaker 2: football guests, excited to get your take on it. We
Speaker 2: have free agency while the season is still going on,
Speaker 2: you know, like coaches are trying to coach, Like Klone's
Speaker 2: getting ready for a good game Allible Bowl against Colorado.
Speaker 2: He's got like ten kids that are in the portal
Speaker 2: that aren't going to play in the game. And then
Speaker 2: there are teams that are trying to win a national
Speaker 2: championship and coaches are trying to prepare for the biggest
Speaker 2: games of the season, and their players are into the
Speaker 2: transfer port, like help me fix the sport that you
Speaker 2: and I both love.
Speaker 3: God, I mean, that's gone a whole hour about this,
Speaker 3: the way the state of college football is and how
Speaker 3: it's affecting the high school kids the most. I mean,
Speaker 3: of all the kids that are getting the shafts and all,
Speaker 3: this is the high school kids. And now it's this
Speaker 3: JC rule going through. If it's stands with any coach
Speaker 3: recruit high school kids when you can recruit JC kids
Speaker 3: that have two years that won't count against their eligibility
Speaker 3: for the four year schools. So there's a lot of craziness,
Speaker 3: a lot of things that I don't agree with. And
Speaker 3: it's pay to play. It's not name, image and likeness.
Speaker 3: Where can I go to make the most money, And
Speaker 3: it's not culture building. It's not what university could help
Speaker 3: me become a great man. It's none of that. And
Speaker 3: it's hard to watch. Can fault the kids. The system
Speaker 3: is what it is. How I fix it, I'd get
Speaker 3: rid of the portal. I would put some regulations on
Speaker 3: what you can earn or your name, image and likenes.
Speaker 3: It's not hey, give you a million dollars here to
Speaker 3: come play for me. That's not what it was designed for.
Speaker 3: So so many issues with it. It's just hard to
Speaker 3: be involved with.
Speaker 2: Tell me from your end because you reference talent's affecting
Speaker 2: a high school kid and that's your space. Now you're
Speaker 2: doing some coaching, I would be genuinely curious, is somebody
Speaker 2: like you who knows how to lead? You did it
Speaker 2: as a player both in college and the pros. What
Speaker 2: do you say to your kids as they're getting ready
Speaker 2: to enter this space where they're going to hear from
Speaker 2: colleges and potentially agents, Like how does a high school
Speaker 2: coach handle the modern landscape of college football?
Speaker 4: Right now?
Speaker 3: Eric, you got to have a good head on your shoulders,
Speaker 3: and you got to what's most important to you? Is
Speaker 3: is it to make a quick buck or is it
Speaker 3: to make relationships that I last a lifetime? Is it
Speaker 3: somewhere where you can build the right attributes to be
Speaker 3: a great man someday and to learn how to handle adversity,
Speaker 3: learn how to be a good teammate, learn how to lead.
Speaker 3: Those things happen to being part of a program, not
Speaker 3: jumping program to program every six months, trying to learn
Speaker 3: new system, try to learn your teammates, try to learn
Speaker 3: the head coach like that stuff doesn't it least is
Speaker 3: success in my opinion. So reality is is this is
Speaker 3: what it is. I would hope for programs to start
Speaker 3: emphasizing development and building from the youth with high school
Speaker 3: kids and pouring into the younger guys that cherish and
Speaker 3: value the culture and value the program and value the team.
Speaker 3: We not meet type attitude. That's what I would focus
Speaker 3: in instead of trying to get the quick fix of
Speaker 3: a portal kid to just build some holes on your roster.
Speaker 2: It's difficult because you also have a situation here in
Speaker 2: Saul Lake Eric as we move over to the University
Speaker 2: of Utah. I mean, coach with referenced the number of
Speaker 2: forty players that they want to bring in and that's
Speaker 2: both with high school recruits and coming to campus and
Speaker 2: then the transfer portal as well. And that essentially means
Speaker 2: that Utah football will be entirely rebuilt in one year.
Speaker 2: And in pro football or pro basketball or pro sports,
Speaker 2: you run into rebuilds every I don't know, six seven,
Speaker 2: eight years. It depends on how smart your front office is.
Speaker 2: It depends on how good your ownership is. But right now,
Speaker 2: a lot of programs, namely the University of Utah, are
Speaker 2: going to be marching out a team next year that's
Speaker 2: totally rebuilt. Like what's what's what's reasonable to expect from
Speaker 2: Utah football when they're really going to have a brand
Speaker 2: new coaching staff in a lot of ways and a brand
Speaker 2: new roster.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, I mean I don't I don't have the
Speaker 3: answers to that. I just know turning over your roster
Speaker 3: isn't in my opinion, Kay, I'm not in it, So
Speaker 3: take my take my opinion with a grand assault, right.
Speaker 3: But I think that if you build, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: the numbers fifty to fifty high school support of kids,
Speaker 3: maybe it's seventy, you pick holes that you need an
Speaker 3: immediate starter right now, but you develop from within. You
Speaker 3: You almost like in the NFL, you reward a guy
Speaker 3: that you drafted with a new contract because he earned
Speaker 3: it and he's a great ambassador of your organization for
Speaker 3: the city. Like it's no different now it's a college landscape.
Speaker 3: So why do you want someone else that's leaving the
Speaker 3: program for whatever reason as a stop gap. Well, if
Speaker 3: you pour into the young guys in your programs, they're
Speaker 3: going to be loyal to you, Hugh Hope at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, I just don't understand for the
Speaker 3: life of me, how even gets to a point where
Speaker 3: you're entering the portal as a returning starter. Like they
Speaker 3: need to crack down on the guardrails of who's communicating
Speaker 3: with these kids. Who's the ones that are inside these
Speaker 3: universities knowing what they can offer these kids if they
Speaker 3: hit the portal, Like that needs to be real. That
Speaker 3: should be nonny. This like these kids are returning starters
Speaker 3: going to the portal for not how do they even
Speaker 3: know that they're going to get that? Like that's it's
Speaker 3: just slimy and wrong on so many ways and everyone's
Speaker 3: doing it. But how is that not how is that
Speaker 3: not Winstone that if you communicate with a kid then
Speaker 3: that should be illegal and should the school should get
Speaker 3: reprimanded for it, Like it's it's just it's just, oh,
Speaker 3: this is hard.
Speaker 2: It's hard, and it's unfortunate, you know, it's it really
Speaker 2: is too bad.
Speaker 4: But I will say, what does it say to you.
Speaker 2: About the product of college football and the sport of
Speaker 2: college football that even with the chaos off the field field,
Speaker 2: the ratings keep rising and people still watch. I mean
Speaker 2: it has to speak to the power of what this
Speaker 2: sport is that regardless of how bad the business is run,
Speaker 2: consumers still consume it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say it's a great product.
Speaker 3: The product is less than a year in a year
Speaker 3: out with the rule changes, with the amount of turnover
Speaker 3: on your roster every year. That limits what you can
Speaker 3: do off of defensive questions. Okay, so that means you're
Speaker 3: limiting what you can do, limiting what you can put
Speaker 3: out there on the field. You can't stress them enough.
Speaker 3: If they were in the system for one year, two year,
Speaker 3: three years, well they know it. That means you could
Speaker 3: expand it. That means you could push them harder. It's
Speaker 3: you dummy it down so these guys can learn it
Speaker 3: in a quick time. It means everyone's running the same crap.
Speaker 3: The team spread them out, you got RPOs, you got
Speaker 3: inside zone, a little sprint out action and they all
Speaker 3: line up on the side. They don't huddle out of
Speaker 3: the huddle. I mean they don't break the huddle and
Speaker 3: they look at the silent for the route. Take what
Speaker 3: are we really teaching and developing these kids? Right? They
Speaker 3: don't know formations, they don't know motions, they don't know shifts,
Speaker 3: they don't know check with me. They don't know audible.
Speaker 3: It's type and you get into that and that's why
Speaker 3: you see some struggle and some has a has an
Speaker 3: easy transition. But you know, that's what the NFL is
Speaker 3: becoming a lot of basic generic offenses out there that
Speaker 3: are easy to translate. So I don't I don't know
Speaker 3: the landscape. It is what it is like. Basketball is
Speaker 3: horrendous to watch. Nobody watches that. Baseball is born to
Speaker 3: watch unless you're in person. Hockey the same thing. So
Speaker 3: I think society is the only thing really exciting to
Speaker 3: watch is the NFL and college football. So it doesn't
Speaker 3: surprise me that the ratings are so high. It does
Speaker 3: know if people people play the game. No, the product
Speaker 3: is not a very good product that we're watching.
Speaker 4: See that's really interesting.
Speaker 2: So let me follow up because I've not heard very
Speaker 2: many people offer the opinion that the product is suffering
Speaker 2: on the college football landscape.
Speaker 4: And you kind of outlined reasons as to why. So
Speaker 4: I guess what I'll ask.
Speaker 2: You is, do you it is there like this permeating
Speaker 2: fear that, in your opinion, and the product will continue
Speaker 2: to suffer unless we get things figured out where there's
Speaker 2: a little more continuity. And are you concerned about the
Speaker 2: future of the sport?
Speaker 3: Well, I think I think a lot of it. I'm
Speaker 3: speaking more of the NFL compared to the cause. A
Speaker 3: lot of how the NFL is run is you're limited
Speaker 3: on added practices. You're limited on how much tackling you're doing.
Speaker 3: Most cases, second of the year, you're not even in
Speaker 3: pads at that moment. So it trickles down to college,
Speaker 3: like how much are you really practicing blocking and tackling?
Speaker 3: That is football? Okay? The great teams that win block
Speaker 3: the best and tackle the best. Okay, it's not seven
Speaker 3: on seven, it's not Hey, we throw the ball fifty
Speaker 3: sixty times a game, and what you're seeing is less
Speaker 3: time dedicated to that and more time to making it
Speaker 3: simplified so the guys can transition from a new school
Speaker 3: on the field and do what they do best. So
Speaker 3: I don't know, in my mind, I'm never gonna sacrifice
Speaker 3: team and scheme because that gives us an advantage every
Speaker 3: time we cross the field, right, that is our advantage.
Speaker 3: We're not just gonna sacrifice that so other guys can
Speaker 3: just quickly if they can't adjust, it shouldn't be a
Speaker 3: part of our program and maybe you should developed within
Speaker 3: Like that's my opinion on that.
Speaker 4: No, it's some really interesting stuff.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I feel like the narrative is a
Speaker 2: lot of folks continue to watch and really love college
Speaker 2: football despite the kid.
Speaker 3: Watch the ones that played. Know the type of football
Speaker 3: that we're watching is not high level football. You could
Speaker 3: ask any old player that's played NFL or college, and
Speaker 3: when you watch it, it's not sophisticated. It's not high
Speaker 3: level x'es and o's. You're not seeing in timing, you're
Speaker 3: not seeing you know, multiple things off defense Schematically, it's
Speaker 3: very vanilla, basic line up and play.
Speaker 4: Are there exceptions to that? Are there? Coaching staff they like,
Speaker 4: who do you like to watch?
Speaker 3: Uh? Shoot, you're talking collegiate.
Speaker 4: Or NFL either way, either level.
Speaker 3: Well, the top organizations in the league have a standard
Speaker 3: and the and they do what they do, you know, offensively,
Speaker 3: I think Detroit Ben Johnson, I mean he's on he's
Speaker 3: on another level, uh, gemmatically and how he draws up
Speaker 3: plays and gives his team advantage. I think Sean LeVay
Speaker 3: obviously have a close relationship with him. And you know,
Speaker 3: when you're talking collegiate, uh, you know, you could say
Speaker 3: the history and and what how they developed their skill
Speaker 3: guys and quarterbacks for the last three years of Ohio State.
Speaker 3: But man, have they winner the last time? That bes
Speaker 3: one in a big game? You know, so it goes
Speaker 3: zactly bet who they're supposed to be. They get in
Speaker 3: the big game, We'll see how they do against Oregon.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's you only can do with with
Speaker 3: what you have. I'm not naive. You know, you have
Speaker 3: players you're coaching. You don't win, you're probably gonna get fired.
Speaker 3: But I get that, and you got to adapt. I'm
Speaker 3: not saying don't adapt, but I'm saying, structurally, as a program,
Speaker 3: what are we laying our hat on. Are we laying
Speaker 3: our hat on you know, bill turn out forty to
Speaker 3: fifty guys a year, or are we hanging our hat
Speaker 3: on development? Culture, program building? And for me as a lum,
Speaker 3: that's what I wish or hope that we continue to
Speaker 3: do or try to do instead of just trying to
Speaker 3: find the next plug and play player.
Speaker 2: So tell me what the confidence level is eric with
Speaker 2: you and you know your friends that played up at
Speaker 2: the University of Utah, Because what you just described, in
Speaker 2: my opinion, describes a Kyle Whittingham program player development always
Speaker 2: has been and it's a new different era in college football.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like Utah and the coaching staff have
Speaker 2: adjusted and will they still be able to use the
Speaker 2: old approach that works so well in the new day
Speaker 2: and age of college football.
Speaker 3: I think it can work, but again, I'm not in there.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going on. How those conversations happened
Speaker 3: for a guy like Kyle hun Did they have a
Speaker 3: meeting with them? Did they talk about what he's getting paid?
Speaker 3: Does it need to be up for a high level
Speaker 3: starter in the Big twelve? Like? I don't know those questions, right,
Speaker 3: And I don't know what he got at Alabama. My
Speaker 3: point is why is he even in the portal? Right? Like?
Speaker 3: How does that even happen where they think I can
Speaker 3: get more? I'm not happy here? Like what is it?
Speaker 3: When is enough enough? Right? And so I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think they're going too much portal kids and enough
Speaker 3: younger guys and keeping them. But I don't know the situation.
Speaker 3: Are they being told to leave right like? Do they
Speaker 3: not want to be there because they're back? I don't
Speaker 3: know those questions. So it's hard for me to say
Speaker 3: what I wish we would do because I'm not intimate
Speaker 3: in those conversations in the roster buildings and what they
Speaker 3: have compared to what they need. So I just would
Speaker 3: say what I would do, and I would try to
Speaker 3: do it like sixty forty seventy thirty of high school
Speaker 3: development and then those two to four players you need
Speaker 3: to plug and play because you have a hole. You
Speaker 3: go find those guys and get them.
Speaker 2: When we last had you on and Eric weddles with
Speaker 2: us to the former Youth Legend Super Bowl champ When
Speaker 2: we last had you on, Eric, we weren't sure if
Speaker 2: coach wit was coming back and there was not an
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator. Well in the time that's past, Kyle Whitted
Speaker 2: Haam is elected to come back for year twenty one
Speaker 2: and Jason Beck is the new OC. Just wanted to
Speaker 2: get your reaction when you heard those two pieces of news.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I expected coach with to come back.
Speaker 3: I mean if I doesn't want to go out like that, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, with a situation with Morgan hanging in the balance,
Speaker 3: and was it this year? Is it next year? Like
Speaker 3: I think that needs to be communicated with everyone, right,
Speaker 3: Like we're not hanging at the end to see for
Speaker 3: the recruits for the program, but I'm guys coming back.
Speaker 3: He's a legend. Uh you know, I wouldn't be here
Speaker 3: today without coach with so I think it's better that
Speaker 3: he's around and moving forward. Uh, you know, with the
Speaker 3: offensive coordinator, I don't know, you know, like I hope,
Speaker 3: I hope they hired a great guy and he's innovative
Speaker 3: and he pushes a limit and he makes our offense
Speaker 3: better than one's been because we've struggled at times and
Speaker 3: we've been really good at times. And then I think
Speaker 3: a lot of times it comes back to players, and
Speaker 3: you only do so much as a coach, right, Players
Speaker 3: win games. Coaches most times find ways to lose it.
Speaker 2: Interesting perspective, all right, Before I say you loose, I
Speaker 2: just want to get I know you're in a lump,
Speaker 2: and I know you love the staff, and I know
Speaker 2: you love the team, and I know you're always going
Speaker 2: to look at it through a ute positive lens, but
Speaker 2: there is a there's a feel around here. There's a
Speaker 2: nervous feel from the fan base that after a rough,
Speaker 2: rough year and you know, a new coaching staff and
Speaker 2: talented players leaving either via graduation or transfer portal, that
Speaker 2: this next season might feel like the last. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: ask you, Eric, before I say you loose, what gives
Speaker 2: you the most confidence that year two in the Big
Speaker 2: twelve will look better than your one did?
Speaker 3: Well? I mean, we have a standard, and the standard
Speaker 3: is that we're a top knots program on and off
Speaker 3: the field. Okay, that didn't happen last year for a
Speaker 3: number of reasons. Reality is we didn't get it done.
Speaker 3: So changes were made. You got to hope and believe
Speaker 3: that the higher ing on the offensive side and the
Speaker 3: system that he's going to bring in place is going
Speaker 3: to be a good one that to maximize our potential
Speaker 3: offensively defense, we're always going to have a top knots defense,
Speaker 3: So if we could couple our offensive production, then we'll
Speaker 3: be one of the best things of the Big twelve
Speaker 3: in the country. And that's been the case for the
Speaker 3: last fifteen years. So that doesn't change. I will always
Speaker 3: have confidence that we play our style of football offense.
Speaker 3: Even such things. We could be anybody on the field.
Speaker 3: Now we couple it with great people counts that football
Speaker 3: players play together. Players one, you got a special team.
Speaker 3: If you can't have that dynamic with the team and
Speaker 3: how close they are, playing together and playing complimentary football,
Speaker 3: then you're gonna struggle. That's whether you have new coaches
Speaker 3: or not.
Speaker 2: Well, all right, Eric, I appreciate the time, man. I
Speaker 2: always appreciate the truth telling. So I'll wish you a
Speaker 2: happy new year. Thank you for your time. I'll love
Speaker 2: to have you back on soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, you got it, but anytime