Speaker 1: All right, what is going on Drivetime Thursday afternoon, about eleven.
Speaker 2: Minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Speaker 1: It is a chili but clear and sunny day outside
Speaker 1: on this Thursday, But as it is every single day,
Speaker 1: it's going to have you along for the ride.
Speaker 2: Spence check. It's behind the mic.
Speaker 1: That's poor Larson beyond the glass producing the show today,
Speaker 1: booking the show today, and we are jam packed, as
Speaker 1: I say every day, but we're I don't lie to
Speaker 1: you about that, okay. We have an honest relationship, you
Speaker 1: and I. I don't lie to you about being jam packed,
Speaker 1: but today I really meet it as we are high
Speaker 1: speed ahead to Utah and BYU coming up on Saturday night,
Speaker 1: which will be a lot of what we discussed today
Speaker 1: and cover topically on the program.
Speaker 2: Don't Forget Kick is.
Speaker 1: Eight fifteen, but our pregame coverage will begin at four
Speaker 1: fifteen live from the tailgates, the ESPN seven hundred VIP tailgates.
Speaker 2: We have had line movements, just so you know.
Speaker 1: I did not anticipate this, but as of now, BYU
Speaker 1: is a three point favorite. When we said good night
Speaker 1: yesterday six o'clock, BYU is a four point favorite.
Speaker 2: I thought that was where the game was going to stay.
Speaker 1: But a little wise guy money coming the way towards
Speaker 1: the utes in a.
Speaker 2: Rivalry game situation.
Speaker 1: A chili but clear Saturday night in Salt Lake City,
Speaker 1: so over under has remained at about forty point five.
Speaker 1: We'll give you our pick for the game coming up
Speaker 1: tomorrow before we signed off for our final show of
Speaker 1: the week. But a lot of buzz around this game,
Speaker 1: a lot of anxious energy around this game, a lot
Speaker 1: of nervous UT fans, a lot of very very confidence
Speaker 1: and excited why fans interested to see what that stadium
Speaker 1: looks like coming up on Saturday night. I don't really
Speaker 1: have a pulse out of what we'll see. As we've
Speaker 1: talked about all week, we all kind of just have
Speaker 1: our own little echo chambers. A lesson we all learned
Speaker 1: again this week in a very intense way. So I
Speaker 1: know of several people that would typically be there who
Speaker 1: will not be there.
Speaker 2: Some have just playing.
Speaker 1: Trips, they've sold their tickets, and I've heard from a
Speaker 1: lot of people who will be there all be there.
Speaker 2: How about you?
Speaker 1: I mean, you only get six of these things, man,
Speaker 1: And this really, to me is an opportunity for.
Speaker 2: This Utah football program to kind of.
Speaker 1: Show the community on the biggest and most intense stage.
Speaker 1: They have left that everything that we thought they had
Speaker 1: in them they still do because we were all wrong.
Speaker 2: Man, I was wrong.
Speaker 1: I would imagine most other media members feel the same way.
Speaker 1: I'm sure the fan base feels the same way. So
Speaker 1: we'll see how it plays out. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about it on the show today. Kind of a quiet
Speaker 1: night locally. Last night, Utah State men's hoops Alcorn State.
Speaker 1: They never just want to roll into the state of
Speaker 1: Utah in I was watching the game and it was
Speaker 1: fifty to fourteen at halftime, and of course.
Speaker 2: They already got smoked by the Ute.
Speaker 1: So we do have more local action tonight with the
Speaker 1: Utah Hockey Club is playing the Saint Louis Blues, which
Speaker 1: is hilarious to me for reasons that we don't need
Speaker 1: to get.
Speaker 2: Into by the hockey club. Back in action.
Speaker 1: The two worst teams in pro basketball are the Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 2: They're gonna play tonight in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: We've got a little Utah women's basketball in the station,
Speaker 1: so stay tuned for that. That's gonna that's gonna cause
Speaker 1: us to.
Speaker 2: Pop off a little bit earlier today.
Speaker 1: We'll say goodbye about five fifteen, five twenty to make
Speaker 1: some space for Utah coming up against Weaver. So that
Speaker 1: comes your way tonight as well. We have a little
Speaker 1: NFL football in addition to that. The Week ten slate
Speaker 1: starts tonight with what should be a good game. When
Speaker 1: they played last time, Joe Burrow had like three fifty
Speaker 1: or something and four touchdowns, but the Ravens won.
Speaker 2: Bengals are really good on the road.
Speaker 1: I think the Ravens are one of the top four
Speaker 1: to five teams and pro football. That's that's your game
Speaker 1: tonight in Baltimore. Baltimore is a six point five point favorite.
Speaker 2: So a lot to do.
Speaker 1: Fun weekend in college football ahead as well. Little bit
Speaker 1: of everything going on right now, guest listen on a
Speaker 1: Thursday goes like this. Tony Jones covers the Jazz and
Speaker 1: the Nuggets for the Athletic, covered Youte football for a
Speaker 1: long time too. We'll get a little rivalry stuff from
Speaker 1: town today, but of course we'll talk some NBA. Gordon Monson,
Speaker 1: it's the Big Show, Big hour, but we are a
Speaker 1: part because Bowler is traveling with the Jazz. So we'll
Speaker 1: bring in Monson today at three and then Bowler at
Speaker 1: three thirty. We will do a little Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 1: with Neil Smith today. It's our behind the Glass segment
Speaker 1: with the former general manager of the New York Rangers
Speaker 1: and New York Islanders. Want to Stanley Copp back in
Speaker 1: ninety four, probably the best hockey guest in the market consistently,
Speaker 1: and we love having Neil On do a little sports
Speaker 1: court with our friends over at Handy and Handy. Then
Speaker 1: Stevenson Sylvester stops by for his weekly hit prior to
Speaker 1: Utah BYU coming up on Saturday Night, Tony Jones, Gordon Montson,
Speaker 1: Craig Bowler, Jack, Neil Smith, Stephenson, Sylvester, Me, Spence, Jackets,
Speaker 1: all of you the great listeners on this Thursday, and
Speaker 1: that guy, that guy Porter Larson on a Thursday.
Speaker 2: Here, what I want from you right out of the gates.
Speaker 2: Has your opinion on.
Speaker 1: What we could see Saturday night changed between Monday and
Speaker 1: where we stand today on this Thursday.
Speaker 2: Has my opinion changed? I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I think you know what we see on Saturday is
Speaker 3: is going to be reminiscent of a lot of rivalry games.
Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be tense. I think it's going
Speaker 3: to be low scoring, and I think Utah is going
Speaker 3: to be paddling uphill a little bit. Is that the
Speaker 3: right one paddling up upstream a little bit?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean there's gonna be water to paddle right right, maybe,
Speaker 1: I think so. Let I mean you see guys hiking
Speaker 1: up mountains with those right with the UH poles.
Speaker 3: So some form of paddling uphill upstream up the hill.
Speaker 2: I get the point.
Speaker 3: And they're gonna have to force a turnover too. I
Speaker 3: think they're gonna have to score off a turnover too.
Speaker 3: And they're gonna have to reverse the good fortune slash
Speaker 3: making their own luck, that is by you leading the
Speaker 3: country in points off of turnover margin.
Speaker 2: And I think that that is going to be part
Speaker 2: of the game.
Speaker 3: And at the line of scrimmage, I do think it
Speaker 3: is gonna be a little bit of a stalemate with
Speaker 3: both teams good personnel while also being a little shorthanded
Speaker 3: on both the line of scrimmages going into Saturday.
Speaker 1: Gonna be interesting to see. I do think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a fun night. And I'll repeat I encourage you
Speaker 1: fans to show up and support this team, support this
Speaker 1: coaching staff that really has earned a lot of support
Speaker 1: in the market over the years coming up on Saturday night.
Speaker 2: But I do not tell fans how to fan. One
Speaker 2: more thing wrote you know what.
Speaker 1: We're gonna save it for opening tip, because I do
Speaker 1: want to get your take on this. Our first guest
Speaker 1: right out of the gates is going to be Tony Jones.
Speaker 1: But before we get to Tony on a Thursday, courtesy
Speaker 1: of our good friends at Standard Restaurants Supply, that's your
Speaker 1: tailgate headquarters. Get everything you need to make your tailgate
Speaker 1: epic prior to the game on Saturday. Stop by Standard
Speaker 1: Restaurant dot com online or check out their convenient location
Speaker 1: at thirty five hundred south West Temple On a Thursday.
Speaker 2: It's time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's
Speaker 4: number one sports top. Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 4: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 4: opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by
Speaker 4: Standard Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop to build the
Speaker 4: best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred
Speaker 4: Southwest Temple.
Speaker 1: So I've heard a lot of people say BYU Utah
Speaker 1: football is the best rivalry in the country. It's not, okay,
Speaker 1: but it's up there, and it certainly is rising as
Speaker 1: far as its profile goes. And so one of the
Speaker 1: things I kind of wanted to dig into today is
Speaker 1: we've always talked about this rivalry and if you listen
Speaker 1: to the show, first of all, thank you, hello, how
Speaker 1: are you? Second of all, I tried to kind of
Speaker 1: expand my reach beyond just our bubble here and talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, what I perceived to be certain dynamics of
Speaker 1: our in state stuff from a national prism, and I've
Speaker 1: always believed that nationally it is underrated. And then you'll
Speaker 1: get a national media member out here to see it,
Speaker 1: they'll write a piece and everybody kind of is like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, people are kind of seeing what the
Speaker 1: game is all about, you know. As far as the
Speaker 1: best college football rivalry in a country, that's a tough
Speaker 1: tough thing for me to say as far as what
Speaker 1: I believe, but it certainly has always been one of
Speaker 1: the most underrated and under talked about. But I do
Speaker 1: think it's going to change now with these two teams,
Speaker 1: it's not just that they're in the same conference. It's
Speaker 1: that they're both now in a P four conference. It's
Speaker 1: not the Whack or the Mountain West all due respect, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not knocking on those conferences, but forever we were
Speaker 1: waiting for the moment when these two teams would be
Speaker 1: in the same conference and in one of the power conferences, because.
Speaker 2: It's just different as far as the exposure goes.
Speaker 1: Back when this was the Whack in the Mountain West
Speaker 1: Conference and it was Utah BYU. I mean, hell, I
Speaker 1: can remember living back East and wanting to watch Utah
Speaker 1: BYU basketball and I literally had to stay up until
Speaker 1: midnight Eastern time because ESPN's Big Monday coverage was ten
Speaker 1: o'clock Mountain time.
Speaker 2: That's where this game was buried.
Speaker 1: Now the football game of the basketball game Big Monday,
Speaker 1: and so there's nobody back East staying up at midnight
Speaker 1: to watch Utah BYU back in the day in the
Speaker 1: Mountain West Conference. And yes, I wish the kicktime was
Speaker 1: a little bit different, but I'm kind of viewing this
Speaker 1: as the first iteration of BYU Utah as conference members
Speaker 1: together in a P four conference that now will give
Speaker 1: this game a lot more exposure. Now, obviously there's the
Speaker 1: conversation about what most people believe to be as another
Speaker 1: inevitable shift in college football. What does that mean for
Speaker 1: BYU Utah moving forward?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I can't speak to it. The time will come where
Speaker 1: we can have that conversation. But if we operate off
Speaker 1: the hypothetical that at least for the next I don't know.
Speaker 2: You can't even put a timeline on.
Speaker 1: It, because every time we do, like two months later,
Speaker 1: there's another seismic shift and what this sport looks like.
Speaker 1: But if we operate off the premise for four or
Speaker 1: five years together in the Big twelve, then you'll start
Speaker 1: to say, I think, more appreciation for this rivalry nationwide, right,
Speaker 1: because it's simply a matter of exposure. And the more
Speaker 1: and more people who see what this game is really
Speaker 1: all about, the more people will start to understand exactly
Speaker 1: how dynamic, crazy, intense, passionate, and quite frankly unique this
Speaker 1: game is. I mean, just simply the incestuous nature of
Speaker 1: the coaching staff, the cross pollination. I think there are
Speaker 1: seven members of the BYU coaching staff that have University
Speaker 1: of Utah ties, and obviously Utah's head coach played at BYU.
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen in many other places, in many other games.
Speaker 1: Of course, there are games where you see a coach
Speaker 1: here there, you know, maybe take both sides, but you know, Michigan,
Speaker 1: Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, your Army, Navy of the World, Oklahoma, Texas,
Speaker 1: USC Notre Dame. Like you don't see seven coaches on
Speaker 1: Georgia's staff that once upon a time was at Florida.
Speaker 2: You know, it does make this unique.
Speaker 1: It makes it unique that it's about forty miles as
Speaker 1: the crow flies between the two stadiums.
Speaker 2: The proximity makes it unique.
Speaker 1: And then there's the religious undertone thing that I've never
Speaker 1: really loved, but it's certainly part of it. That's why
Speaker 1: the nickname for a lot of people is the Holy War.
Speaker 1: But it's the whole thing that we've been talking about
Speaker 1: all week with the dynamic of a lot of BYU
Speaker 1: fans who are LDS wondering how any LDS person could
Speaker 1: ever even look at the University of Utah and where
Speaker 1: red and LDS people at the University of Utah looking
Speaker 1: at BYU and believing that the piousness and the holier
Speaker 1: than now attitude is impossible to deal with, and that
Speaker 1: collides together and it makes it unique.
Speaker 2: The whole thing is just different. Is it better?
Speaker 1: That's not really up for me to decide. And I've
Speaker 1: only been to a handful, you know, I've been to
Speaker 1: Harvard Yale. That was pretty crazy. I've only been to
Speaker 1: a handful of like national college football ribvaly games.
Speaker 2: LSU Florida in Swamp is one that I've been to.
Speaker 1: Oregon organ State BYU Utah is as intense as any
Speaker 1: college football game I've ever been to, maybe with the
Speaker 1: exception of like big bulls like the Sugar Bowl against Bama.
Speaker 1: The intensity and we'll talk to sly about that later,
Speaker 1: but the intensity with that game is something that hit
Speaker 1: me right across the face as I was covering it
Speaker 1: actually for this radio station back in the day. So ultimately,
Speaker 1: nobody knows what's going to happen. The spread is interesting
Speaker 1: to follow. Utah's now only a three point dog, and really,
Speaker 1: when you look at what Vegas builds in, that's the
Speaker 1: betty market saying these two teams are very even. I
Speaker 1: have not heard very many predictions of a blowout one
Speaker 1: way or the other we'll get into some dynamics like
Speaker 1: ultimately bring them young. Over the past couple of games
Speaker 1: have been rushing the football really well, two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty plus yards the last couple of games. Utah's defense
Speaker 1: is one of the best in the country at first
Speaker 1: and third down, but over the past four games that
Speaker 1: they've lost, they've allowed like one hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: on the.
Speaker 2: Ground and nearly five yards to carry.
Speaker 1: Feels like the defense is getting healthier and ultimately we'll
Speaker 1: get to more of this as we kind of ease
Speaker 1: into prediction time. It just feels like if Utah is
Speaker 1: gonna win, it's gonna be a thirteen to ten, seventeen
Speaker 1: to fourteen, twenty one to twenty type game. And I
Speaker 1: do think the start is key because BYU starts fast.
Speaker 1: They dominate teams in the first and third quarters. They
Speaker 1: come out of the gates on fire. Then they come
Speaker 1: out of the locker room on fire, okay, And if
Speaker 1: BYU gets off to a fast start and before you
Speaker 1: blank it's like fourteen zero, that's gonna be tough because
Speaker 1: I'm not sure Utah has the ability to come back
Speaker 1: based off of what we've seen so far, offensively and
Speaker 1: quite frankly, based off of what we've seen so far,
Speaker 1: if both teams do what they've been doing, there's a
Speaker 1: chance it could get ugly. Now BYU has not won
Speaker 1: this game by more than ten points since nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1: I think the last time they won in saw Lake
Speaker 1: was like two thousand and six, so it has been
Speaker 1: a while since those types of things have happened. A
Speaker 1: Brigham Young dominant win in saw Lake. It's been a
Speaker 1: long time, so that would be something that catches most
Speaker 1: people off guard. But all you can do when you
Speaker 1: analyze this stuff is analyze what we've seen so far.
Speaker 1: You can't make some prediction that suddenly everything's going to
Speaker 1: be different when it has been one way for a
Speaker 1: number of games. Utah hasn't been bad offensively for one
Speaker 1: or two quarters. It's been quite frankly since the first
Speaker 1: half of the Baylor game when Cameron was under center,
Speaker 1: the last time we had a dynamic offense consistently for
Speaker 1: the use. Okay, So if both teams do what they've
Speaker 1: done so far, there's no other way to analyze it outside.
Speaker 2: Of a runaway win for Brigham Young.
Speaker 1: But we know that this is a unique game, and
Speaker 1: we know the way coach went and Morgan and those
Speaker 1: guys coach their teams up this week juxtaposed to other weeks.
Speaker 2: I thought the Austin Colleague conversation this week was really.
Speaker 1: Interesting because we had always heard that Bronco Menhen Hall
Speaker 1: was just like nameless, faceless team.
Speaker 2: It's not it's unlike any other week.
Speaker 1: You know, we'd always heard that, but Austin essentially he
Speaker 1: said it out loud. He's like, yeah, you never really
Speaker 1: coached us. Differently, for the Utah game, Kilani is different.
Speaker 1: This means a lot to Kilani and for all of
Speaker 1: the kumbahi Yah love between the coaching staffs. Make no mistake,
Speaker 1: both coaching staffs badly want to win this game.
Speaker 2: That's I mean obviously, But you know.
Speaker 1: Aaron Roderick interviewed yesterday, our guy a Roddy joins the
Speaker 1: show and it was all love and respect for them.
Speaker 2: They have love and respect for us.
Speaker 1: When it is on between the lines, they want to
Speaker 1: blow the doors off of each other, which makes it
Speaker 1: for a really intense atmosphere. So excited for this coming
Speaker 1: up eight point fifteen BYU and saw Lake to take
Speaker 1: on the utes. Uta is a three point dog as
Speaker 1: of right now, and we'll get to more of this
Speaker 1: throughout the show today. All right, coming up on the
Speaker 1: other side, we're gonna catch up with Tony Jones.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: As the show rolls along today, I'm joined in studio
Speaker 1: by my good buddy Matt Deeren from my Hearing Centers.
Speaker 2: Matt, How you doing, man, good spence, how you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: So holidays are coming, which means you're gonna have a
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Speaker 1: Big Week Man, Big Week Utah BYU football.
Speaker 2: Of course, it's funny to hear the different.
Speaker 1: Time frames of what both universities.
Speaker 2: Considered to be the start of the rivalry.
Speaker 1: EYU does not count the first number of years because
Speaker 1: they lost all of those games BYUS. The presidential candidate
Speaker 1: that calls voter fraud when they lose and celebrates when
Speaker 1: they win.
Speaker 2: Utah is a different timeline.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a different thing altogether, which is pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: The jazz are in action tonight as well. Our next
Speaker 1: guest covers the Jazz, the Nuggets, the NBA, the draft,
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff for the athletic But once upon
Speaker 1: a time was a humble beat reporter for Utah football.
Speaker 1: So we have some good perspective on everything. Tony Jones
Speaker 1: on a Thursday, what's.
Speaker 2: Up to yo?
Speaker 6: Yo?
Speaker 1: I'm good man, all right, So let's get a little
Speaker 1: Utah BYU stuff from you, as a resident of our state,
Speaker 1: as somebody who's covered both these teams. What's this week
Speaker 1: spring for you? Like memories of covering these robbery games?
Speaker 1: What does b yu Utah football mean for Tony Jones?
Speaker 7: I mean, it's one of the apexes of college football,
Speaker 7: one of the best traditional ribbraries in college football. It's
Speaker 7: it's certainly, you know, a week that everybody looks too
Speaker 7: around here and locally, and you know, it's it's one
Speaker 7: of the it was a shame when the rivalry went away,
Speaker 7: and I'm glad it's back, and you know, these are
Speaker 7: these are are the weeks that that everybody This is
Speaker 7: the week that kind of everybody in the state looks,
Speaker 7: looks towards the jobs. The Utah Jazz, they galvanized the state,
Speaker 7: but I mean other than the Utah Jazz. I mean,
Speaker 7: you know, the state is pretty much you know, factioned
Speaker 7: in the two like are you, you know, with the
Speaker 7: team down south or you with the team up north?
Speaker 7: And you know, it's it's it's definitely one of the
Speaker 7: crown jewels of every college football season for me.
Speaker 1: So as I've been talking about all week tone based
Speaker 1: off the data that we have, if both of these
Speaker 1: teams on Saturday do what they've done so far this year,
Speaker 1: it could get bad for Utah. Now, the rivalry game
Speaker 1: brings an interesting wrinkle. The line is three by US,
Speaker 1: a three point favorite. What's your gut tell you? What
Speaker 1: do you think we're gonna see?
Speaker 7: You know, you know, I think my head tells me
Speaker 7: that you know, this is a two touchdown game. I
Speaker 7: just you know, I mean, Utah can't score. They haven't
Speaker 7: been able to score all year BYU scores. And not
Speaker 7: only does B WHYU score? B? WHYU stop?
Speaker 5: Shoot?
Speaker 7: You know, that's one of the that's legitimately one of
Speaker 7: the best defenses in college football. And you know, if
Speaker 7: Jay Hill's not up for some awards at the end
Speaker 7: of the season, something is wrong. And at Jay Hill
Speaker 7: isn't up for for some for some head coaching gigs
Speaker 7: at the end of the season, something is wrong. He
Speaker 7: has completely turned around that defense and he has made
Speaker 7: that defense of one season one of the best defenses
Speaker 7: in college football. They fly around, they get after you
Speaker 7: up front, they have a great, great, great linebacking corps,
Speaker 7: and they have one of the better secondaries in the
Speaker 7: Big twelve. Certainly, it's not college football, so you know
Speaker 7: they it's it's a bad matchup. If you're Utah, you know,
Speaker 7: if we're looking at the tape that that Isaac Wilson
Speaker 7: is is put on tape uh for for this season, uh,
Speaker 7: because you know that that defenses is rough on quarterbacks anyway.
Speaker 7: And you know what I've seen of Isaac Wilson is
Speaker 7: that you know, he hasn't read the field, He doesn't
Speaker 7: make reads as well, he doesn't see the field as well.
Speaker 7: Those are some of those are typical freshmen, uh freshman issues.
Speaker 7: But at the same time, you know that that seems
Speaker 7: like a bad matchup. But on the other hand, you know,
Speaker 7: the rivalry teams to do things that you know, even
Speaker 7: when the matchups to the last slot is on paper,
Speaker 7: you know these games tend to end up close, so
Speaker 7: I'm hoping for, you know, a close game either way
Speaker 7: down the stretch. But you know, obviously this is this
Speaker 7: is a game that not only has huge implications locally,
Speaker 7: but it has huge implications in terms of the Big Twelve,
Speaker 7: and it has huge, big implications nationally as well.
Speaker 1: Last thing, then we'll get to some jazz, because I'm
Speaker 1: really curious, and I do think this rivalry has gained
Speaker 1: a lot of attention that it didn't have prior to
Speaker 1: But I think it's about to even get more attention
Speaker 1: because we've never had BYU in Utah in the same
Speaker 1: P four conferences. It's different than the Whack of the
Speaker 1: Mountain West Conference. And you're an East Coast guy like
Speaker 1: I am. I mean I can remember, since of course
Speaker 1: South was born here, have ties here living back East,
Speaker 1: when I wanted to watch Utah BYU basketball, and like
Speaker 1: Big Monday, Big Whack Monday on ESPN, it started at
Speaker 1: midnight Eastern time because their TV slot was ten o'clock
Speaker 1: Mountain time. So you know, the exposure hasn't been there
Speaker 1: in a way that it's about to be. So I
Speaker 1: do think it's about to receive more of the credit
Speaker 1: that it deserves for being an elite rivalry. But one
Speaker 1: of the interesting dynamics Tea is that only nine of
Speaker 1: Utah's one hundred and twenty five players have played in
Speaker 1: this game, and only I don't know what the number
Speaker 1: is for BYU, but it's about the same.
Speaker 2: It's not very many players.
Speaker 1: And if you pull up these rosters, it's California and
Speaker 1: Texas and Virginia and Canada. I mean, these these these
Speaker 1: these recruiting footprints are different than they were back in
Speaker 1: the day. You're an out of stater, what would you
Speaker 1: say to you know, mute players BYU players that didn't
Speaker 1: grow up here about when you realized exactly what this
Speaker 1: game is about and you know what they're in for
Speaker 1: coming up on Saturday night.
Speaker 7: Well, I think you know that's the unfortunate byproduct of
Speaker 7: obviously the game going away for a few years, right,
Speaker 7: Like you know, and you know, there's so much to
Speaker 7: unpack with your question. Like you know, when I first
Speaker 7: got to the state, it was like it was it
Speaker 7: was a cute little rivalry, right, but it wasn't anything
Speaker 7: like you know, Army Navy, Notre Dame Miami like some
Speaker 7: of the old school traditional rivalries that you know, gain
Speaker 7: attention on a national scale. And I think a lot
Speaker 7: of that was because you know, back in I came
Speaker 7: to the state in two thousand and eight. You know,
Speaker 7: both of those teams were in the Way Conference then,
Speaker 7: and you know, and then you know, Utah went to
Speaker 7: the Pact twelve and you know b YU went independent
Speaker 7: for a while. So you know, it was it was
Speaker 7: one of those things where, you know, as Utah kind
Speaker 7: of gained a footing on the national stage a little bit,
Speaker 7: the rivalry you know, got more and more attention because
Speaker 7: of that. But you know, it's it's one of those
Speaker 7: things where I think right now that it's every bit
Speaker 7: respected as you know some of the some of the
Speaker 7: old school traditional rivalries that we celebrate every season, uh
Speaker 7: as as you know, as a whole in college football.
Speaker 7: You know, I will say this, I would be really
Speaker 7: really shocked if you know, it doesn't matter, if you know,
Speaker 7: these kids have never played against each other. I'd be
Speaker 7: really shocked if they haven't been conditioned to, you know,
Speaker 7: not like each other from the time that they stepped
Speaker 7: on campus. I mean, one of the staples of you know,
Speaker 7: being recruited, uh to to b YU or being recruited
Speaker 7: to Utah is the fact that you know you don't
Speaker 7: like the other and you know, are you if you're
Speaker 7: a b YU kid, then you're not a Utah kid.
Speaker 7: If you're a Utah kid, then you're not a b
Speaker 7: YU kid. Uh. Shout out to Francis Bernard obviously who
Speaker 7: played both who played in both spots. But you know,
Speaker 7: I think you know, it's it's one of those things,
Speaker 7: is where you know, I don't I don't think that
Speaker 7: you know that's going to have a real impact on,
Speaker 7: you know, the intensity of what we're going to see
Speaker 7: on Saturday night. I think that Utah knows that this
Speaker 7: is their super Bowl, considering everything that's going on in
Speaker 7: the first eight games of the season, and BYU knows that,
Speaker 7: you know, if they get over this game, they're going
Speaker 7: to be They're going to be significant favorites and for
Speaker 7: the rest of the season and the rest of their games,
Speaker 7: and they're going to have a real shot to go
Speaker 7: on defeed it. So there's a lot of stake on
Speaker 7: Saturday night.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move over to the Jazz and I
Speaker 1: usually do the whole Let's start from thirty thousand feet
Speaker 1: and then get into the vacuum. But I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: the opposite because I want to start out our interview
Speaker 1: by giving Keyante a little credit for what he did
Speaker 1: in Chicago because it's been rough for him. It's been
Speaker 1: rough for him for a while. This this is not
Speaker 1: a shooting slump. This is a player that hasn't shown
Speaker 1: that he can make shots. And he was only eight
Speaker 1: of eighteen, but he was aggressive. He got to line.
Speaker 1: He had six to twelve from three at nows and
Speaker 1: only two turnovers, thirty three points in thirty nine minutes.
Speaker 2: He was so good.
Speaker 1: So what stands what the way I'll phrase it today, Tony,
Speaker 1: when Keyante is good like that, what what's different?
Speaker 2: What stands out to you?
Speaker 1: When he has a game where he looks like he's
Speaker 1: legitimate pro prospect?
Speaker 7: You know, I think it stands out. What stood out
Speaker 7: to me in Chicago is that he was making the
Speaker 7: right reads. And you know, for so much of this year,
Speaker 7: you know it wasn't. I mean, obviously, but let's let's
Speaker 7: keep it one hundred. You know, the shot has been
Speaker 7: bad and the percentages have been awful, and you know,
Speaker 7: there's a lot, there's been a lot to be concerned
Speaker 7: about right. But you know, for me, it was more
Speaker 7: than the percentages. It was more than the shot the
Speaker 7: shot quality. It was you know, he wasn't shooting when
Speaker 7: he was supposed to shoot, and he wasn't passing when
Speaker 7: he was supposed to pass. And I'll go back a
Speaker 7: little further than Chicago and Denver. You know, he started
Speaker 7: to kind of break through. He had sixteen. You know,
Speaker 7: he made he made some really good reads off the dribble.
Speaker 7: And I talked to him in Denver and I said, hey,
Speaker 7: you know this is you know, maybe this is something
Speaker 7: you know a little bigger for you. And he said, yeah,
Speaker 7: you know, it's about time. You know that I got
Speaker 7: something to fall, and you know, I'm going to put
Speaker 7: together a good game and you know, Long Behold on Monday.
Speaker 7: On Monday Night, he put together, you know, the game
Speaker 7: of his career. He had thirty three points, he had
Speaker 7: not assists, He was in complete control. You know, the
Speaker 7: shot diet still needs to get better, right, Like I
Speaker 7: think he's got to get cleaner looks from above the yard.
Speaker 7: I think he really needs to find a way to
Speaker 7: get to the basket a little bit more consistently and
Speaker 7: to finish once he gets there, and I think he
Speaker 7: really needs to develop a flow or that he can
Speaker 7: rely on, that he can rely on consistently, and you know,
Speaker 7: a lot of that's gonna come in time. But you know,
Speaker 7: when you see a game like that, when you see
Speaker 7: a thirty three and nine, you know, those those aren't
Speaker 7: numbers that are easy to easily accumulated if you're not
Speaker 7: a really good player and or if you don't have
Speaker 7: a lot of talent. So we don't know whether Kante
Speaker 7: George is ever going to develop into a really good
Speaker 7: player or not. And you know that's the jury is
Speaker 7: still very much out on that. But you know, but
Speaker 7: if you're a jazz man, a game like that thirty
Speaker 7: three and nine tells you that at least he has
Speaker 7: a really he has a lot of talent. He has
Speaker 7: a significant amount of talent because you just don't fall
Speaker 7: into those numbers. Those aren't flup numbers, even it's just
Speaker 7: for one game. So you know, I think if more
Speaker 7: than anything, it gives you a little bit of hope
Speaker 7: that you know, he can find some consistency, you know,
Speaker 7: and and kind of snaps you back into reality and says, hey,
Speaker 7: this is still his second year, and this is still
Speaker 7: very early in the second year, and then he snapped
Speaker 7: back into a little bit more of reality and realize
Speaker 7: that he's never played point guard until he's gotten to
Speaker 7: the pro level. So you know, there's all kinds of
Speaker 7: context into what the roller coaster of Keante George has
Speaker 7: been through the first part of the second season.
Speaker 1: We'll stick with the young players because well, I think
Speaker 1: John Collins deserves some credit, and he was so good
Speaker 1: against Chicago.
Speaker 2: We know the deal here.
Speaker 1: John's like the perfect player for this roster because he
Speaker 1: makes a ton of money and more often than not,
Speaker 1: he's not overall a great player, but he has so
Speaker 1: many snapshot moments and there's a reason why he played
Speaker 1: himself into that contract. And you see games like Chicago
Speaker 1: and you're like, man, he was physical. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: really good on both ends, and certainly twenty eight, thirteen
Speaker 1: and five.
Speaker 2: But we'll put that aside because I want to ask
Speaker 2: you about Cody. I thought that was like the.
Speaker 1: First grown up game that we've seen from Cody Williams,
Speaker 1: and he's going to be It looks like, according to
Speaker 1: the decisions we've seen from will so far, the main
Speaker 1: benefactor of the thirty minutes that have been left on
Speaker 1: the table as a result of Taylor's injury. He went
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes against Chicago, eleven points, five boards for sist,
Speaker 1: no turnovers in thirty minutes. So to me, that was
Speaker 1: probably from my prism. So if it's only seven games,
Speaker 1: but that was the first kind of grown up game
Speaker 1: step in the right direction I've seen from Cody Williams.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean in more than that. I mean there
Speaker 7: were you know, he was running the offense for a
Speaker 7: couple of possessions. If you put Cody's basketball IQ, I
Speaker 7: don't want to sit I kind of don't want to
Speaker 7: say this because I don't want to insinuate the Kiante
Speaker 7: doesn't have a basketball iqu because I think he does.
Speaker 7: But if you put Cody's basketball IQU into Keyante into
Speaker 7: kyante physical abilities, I think you'd have a hell of
Speaker 7: a basketball player. And you know, I've been high on Cody,
Speaker 7: you know, since you know why I seen him last
Speaker 7: year at Colorado. I mean, he's a guy that you know.
Speaker 7: For me, I don't think he has a real weakness
Speaker 7: in terms of skill. He can dribble the ball, he
Speaker 7: can pass the ball, he can shoot the ball, he
Speaker 7: can defend. Uh, he can defend multiple positions. He can
Speaker 7: play multiple positions offensively. And you know, to me, his
Speaker 7: weaknesses are I don't know that he knows how good
Speaker 7: that he is or how talented that he is. And
Speaker 7: he's got to get a lot of physical strength, Like
Speaker 7: he has to gain twenty pounds, he has to gain
Speaker 7: a lot of muscle, and there's you know, room on
Speaker 7: his body to get you know, to put on you
Speaker 7: know that kind of that kind of weight and still
Speaker 7: maintain the athleticism, the bounce and and the first step
Speaker 7: that he has. But you know, he can do a
Speaker 7: lot of things on the floor, and you know, he's
Speaker 7: you know, I want to I want to see him
Speaker 7: stop being so much of a floater in terms of,
Speaker 7: you know, he can go real chunks of the game
Speaker 7: without putting his imprint on the game. Because I think
Speaker 7: that he can put his imprint on the game from
Speaker 7: possession to possession when he really puts his mind to it.
Speaker 7: And you know, and I want to see him. I
Speaker 7: want to see him be more aggressive off the dribble
Speaker 7: with the basketball because when he gets downhill, he's really
Speaker 7: capable of bending the defense. And when he bends the defense,
Speaker 7: he's really capable of making the rights the right decisions
Speaker 7: from there in terms of whether it's shooting and passing. Now,
Speaker 7: some of that has to do with the lack of
Speaker 7: the strength. You know, he can still get bumped off
Speaker 7: of his drives pretty easily at the pro level. But
Speaker 7: you know, I just want to see him. He's talented
Speaker 7: enough to I just want to see him try stuff
Speaker 7: this year, Like you know, I want to see him
Speaker 7: come down. I want to see him, you know, try
Speaker 7: to mix people off the dribble. I want to see
Speaker 7: him try to go to the basket, and I want
Speaker 7: to see him try to dunk on people. I want
Speaker 7: to see him be aggressive, take you know, do stuff
Speaker 7: that he normally doesn't do like this. This is the
Speaker 7: perfect team and the perfect season for him to just
Speaker 7: try to expand his game with game reps as much
Speaker 7: as possible, because I think he's talented to do most
Speaker 7: stuff on the floor that a wing does. I don't
Speaker 7: know that he's going to be a star because I
Speaker 7: don't know that he's ever I don't know that he's
Speaker 7: ever going to get the aggression that's necessary to go
Speaker 7: out and average twenty five and seven assists and five
Speaker 7: remounts of game. But I'm pretty sure that he's going
Speaker 7: to be a valuable player, valuable rotation player for a
Speaker 7: long time at the NBA level.
Speaker 1: So the other player that looks like he's going to
Speaker 1: benefit from Taylor's injury will be Kyle Philipowski. And I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit curious to see how Will handles
Speaker 1: this because right now, defensively he doesn't have the lateral quickness.
Speaker 1: Now he's got Goode six eleven, so you know, but
Speaker 1: oftentimes he's cotton switches. It looks like they're identifying him
Speaker 1: intentionally to try to get the right switch on him.
Speaker 1: So defensively it hasn't looked good for Kyle. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it ever will. But we know his skill
Speaker 1: set at Duke and how complete it was, so the
Speaker 1: question is does that translate since Taylor's injury. Twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes against Sacramento, he had twelve points, eight boards, went
Speaker 1: two to five, from three to five to ten from
Speaker 1: the floor, twelve points, five boards against San Antonio. He
Speaker 1: bat against Denver and Will saw it pretty quick, so
Speaker 1: he played eighteen minutes two points. But again, the defense,
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the floor is an issue with
Speaker 1: him against Chicago seventeen minutes, seven points, five boards, a
Speaker 1: couple of assists. There have been a lot of bright
Speaker 1: moments for Kyle. Looks like we're going to see a
Speaker 1: lot more of him. What has stood out most to
Speaker 1: you so far?
Speaker 7: I just think a versatility He stands out. You know
Speaker 7: the fact that he can do things at least from
Speaker 7: two levels, Like he can do things at the rim,
Speaker 7: and he can do things from above the arc. You know.
Speaker 7: I like that he can uh get to the basket
Speaker 7: off the bounce, even from the four spot, which you
Speaker 7: know typically means he's trying to take you know, quicker players,
Speaker 7: there's smaller players off the bounce, and he's certainly been
Speaker 7: able to do it from the five spot. In a
Speaker 7: few minutes, states that he's played at the center spot.
Speaker 7: I think because because of what you said, because of
Speaker 7: what you said in terms of his defense, which is
Speaker 7: an issue, I think that I think that his best
Speaker 7: outcome is that he becomes one of these centers that
Speaker 7: you know, obviously can't defend, but it's so good offensively
Speaker 7: that it kind of makes up for it, right, And
Speaker 7: you know that, you know, he becomes such a mismatch
Speaker 7: of offensive because that's that Look, this is an extreme
Speaker 7: example because we're talking about in all time in here,
Speaker 7: but you look, in the cold Nko is a bad defender.
Speaker 6: I know that.
Speaker 7: You know, analytics people will try to point to to
Speaker 7: his analytics, to his analytics, and and and try to
Speaker 7: argue otherwise. Look, you know, I watched him play a
Speaker 7: lot of nights. He's a bad defender, and but he's
Speaker 7: so good offensively, and he's so good on the boards
Speaker 7: that it really just doesn't matter how how good or
Speaker 7: bad bad that he defends. So kles Philpowski, and this
Speaker 7: is not a comparison to Jokics in his own way.
Speaker 7: He has to figure out a way to get good
Speaker 7: enough offensively that you know, on some levels, you know
Speaker 7: his his defense didn't matter. Let's so let's on a
Speaker 7: let's go on a real smaller scale, like you know,
Speaker 7: Kelly Olynik in most regular season instances, you know he's
Speaker 7: a bad defender, but he's so valuable offensively in terms
Speaker 7: of being able to to uh be a up offensively
Speaker 7: and you know, score and playmate for others that you
Speaker 7: know he makes, he makes his bad defense matter less.
Speaker 7: So that's the thing with Kyle Silopowski, How good can
Speaker 7: he become offensively to where you know, we say, yay,
Speaker 7: he's a bad defender, but you know, it kind of
Speaker 7: doesn't matter. And you know, if the Jazz can can
Speaker 7: build around that and build you know, enough defenders around
Speaker 7: I don't know if you want to build around Col Silatowski,
Speaker 7: but if the Jazz can build enough people around Kylosi
Speaker 7: Latowski that it makes his defense not matter as well.
Speaker 7: So those are some of the questions that I have
Speaker 7: for him.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So, as I have said all along, and you can
Speaker 1: only operate based off of what the front office and
Speaker 1: the staff say out loud. And so when they're talking
Speaker 1: about development, the biggest indicator as to whether or not
Speaker 1: this new iteration of Jazz management and coaching can develop
Speaker 1: players is going to be Walker because he is in
Speaker 1: your three now under Will and you know the other
Speaker 1: players Keante year two, Bryce year two and then a
Speaker 1: lot of rookies too, But this is year three for Walker.
Speaker 1: And so if you can develop players, Walker will stand
Speaker 1: out one way or the other. And for the most part,
Speaker 1: Tony he stood out and played really well. He had
Speaker 1: a rough game against Golden State, He had a rough
Speaker 1: game against Sacramento. He was awesome against Chicago. He was
Speaker 1: really good against Denver opening night. Probably the best player
Speaker 1: for the Jazz outside of market in and he was
Speaker 1: solid against Dallas. On the season, we're looking at about
Speaker 1: let me pull up his splits real quick as my
Speaker 1: computer refreshes. On the season, Walker is about ten points,
Speaker 1: twelve boards and if you round up, it's three blocks.
Speaker 1: He's ten points, twelve boards, three blocks. I think he's
Speaker 1: fourth in the NBA and rim defense. That's the opponent's
Speaker 1: field goal percentage at the rim when Walker is the
Speaker 1: main defensive player. So a few rough games, but my
Speaker 1: biggest bright spot for the Jazz so far has been
Speaker 1: Walker Kessler. I think it's been like an eight plus start.
Speaker 2: What do you think?
Speaker 7: I mean, I think he's been terrific, and you know,
Speaker 7: I think he's one of the best friend protectors that
Speaker 7: we have in our game. You know. But the thing
Speaker 7: that I've been encouraged about when you watch watch Walker Castle,
Speaker 7: I think he's rebounding the ball a lot better. I
Speaker 7: thought he's the average rebounder last year, and I think
Speaker 7: that he's gotten better at that. And you know, and
Speaker 7: I think that you know, people are finding him as
Speaker 7: a as a vertical lot threat. You know, he's really
Speaker 7: dependent on the play, probably more than any player, uh,
Speaker 7: outside of Lowry on this roster. He's dependent on how
Speaker 7: the point guard play is, you know, because you know,
Speaker 7: when he's getting downhill, when he sets the screen, you know,
Speaker 7: and when the guards finds him, it's he's he's going
Speaker 7: to he's he's going to score, and he's he's going
Speaker 7: to score at the basket and you know, and if
Speaker 7: that doesn't happen to he looks really pedestrian offensively, but
Speaker 7: you know, he's got so many strengths in terms of
Speaker 7: being able to protect a round. I truly think he's
Speaker 7: one of the best five run protectors in the league.
Speaker 7: You know. But he's also really athletic. He runs the
Speaker 7: floor really well. Uh and he's done a lot of
Speaker 7: his damage and limit and limited minutes. I think his
Speaker 7: minutes load has increased a little bit as the season
Speaker 7: has gone on, but you know, his minues loader was
Speaker 7: was was pretty split with with John Collins at the
Speaker 7: beginning of the season. Now you know Taylor Hendris being out,
Speaker 7: that's that's helped a lot because John has started to
Speaker 7: soak up a lot of the minutes at Powell Ford, uh,
Speaker 7: particularly against Chicago. So Walker and John have been playing
Speaker 7: on the floor, on the floor together a little bit more.
Speaker 7: But you know, he's he's just really been a lot
Speaker 7: better and he's been a lot more confident. He's in uh,
Speaker 7: such a better head state mentally than he was, uh
Speaker 7: than he was last season. Last season, he was just
Speaker 7: in a kind of a mess mentally, and I think
Speaker 7: that he's gotten a lot stronger and more focused, uh
Speaker 7: mentally going into this year. So, you know, and this
Speaker 7: is you know, this is a huge season for him.
Speaker 7: This is not a you know, it's not a contract
Speaker 7: year for him, but it's kind of like a contract
Speaker 7: year because the Jazz have to have to decide whether
Speaker 7: or not they're gonna pay him. By by this summer,
Speaker 7: you know, he's going to be extension eligible, So the
Speaker 7: Jazz have to decide whether they're going to extend him
Speaker 7: or whether they're going to allow him to go into
Speaker 7: a restricted free agency uh the following summer. So this
Speaker 7: is a kind of a big year for Walker and
Speaker 7: the Jazz. Uh And we're gonna find out a lot
Speaker 7: as this year goes on and as we get into
Speaker 7: next summer, whether the Jazz truly see Walker as a
Speaker 7: long term piece or not.
Speaker 1: Before it set you loose, you had a assignment that
Speaker 1: was away from the Jazz and your name was up
Speaker 1: there with Sam amck and David Aldridge, who were that's
Speaker 1: heavyweight man. Those are two of the best NBA riders
Speaker 1: that we've ever seen. And our guy was on the
Speaker 1: assignment with him as well. So unpack what happened in Philly.
Speaker 1: It's a situation with Joel Embiid shoving a columnist in
Speaker 1: the locker room, and you were one of the guys
Speaker 1: that was in charge of writing a really big story.
Speaker 7: All right, So I'm gonna give you a Tony Jones fact.
Speaker 1: Oh well, that okay, jack Jones kind of an oxymoron militaria.
Speaker 7: Yes here, So here's a Jackie Jones fact. She was
Speaker 7: so the columnist in question, his name is Marcus Hayes.
Speaker 7: He works for the Philadelphia Inquirer. When Marcus Hayes, once
Speaker 7: upon a time, was young and a burgaining columnist at
Speaker 7: the Philadelphia Daily News, My mother, Jackie Jones, was his boss. Yeah,
Speaker 7: she was his editor. She was a city editor at
Speaker 7: the Philadelphia Villa the News. When I was in high school,
Speaker 7: which is why we moved to Philly, and he was
Speaker 7: one of her writers, so I was just, you know,
Speaker 7: it was just kind of coincidental, and I've never met
Speaker 7: the guy, which is kind of crazy as well, but
Speaker 7: you know it so essentially, long story short, Marcus wrote
Speaker 7: a pretty inflammatory column about Joel Ebad's lack of availability
Speaker 7: and it's lack of durability, and within that column he
Speaker 7: wrote an excerpt that talked about Joel's brother Arthur, who
Speaker 7: who tragically passed away about a decade ago, and Joel
Speaker 7: was very upset. So what happened was Joel the previous
Speaker 7: the day before the locker room Francus called out Marcus
Speaker 7: in uh inavailabilbility and essentially said that I've done too
Speaker 7: much for the city of Philadelphia for a columnists to
Speaker 7: write this about me and the Inquirer. So Marcus went
Speaker 7: to the Philadelphia the Sixers game the very next day,
Speaker 7: the very next night, to apologize to Joel and uh
Speaker 7: the Sixers knew that Marcus was there to apologize, and
Speaker 7: he went up to him in the locker room. He
Speaker 7: tried to apologize, and Joel did not accept the apology.
Speaker 7: To put it kindly, there was a verbal altercation, and
Speaker 7: so Joel basically shouted at Marcus, nobody gives a bleep
Speaker 7: what you write. And then Marcus looked at Joel and
Speaker 7: he said, but you do, and that set Joel. That's
Speaker 7: what set Joel off, and that's when he pushed Marcus
Speaker 7: and that's when everything kind of faded to black. So
Speaker 7: the Sixers apologize to Marcus Hage for for the incident,
Speaker 7: and obviously the n B a uh suspended and beat
Speaker 7: and you know, basically, uh, the Sixers season is kind
Speaker 7: of gone off the rails so far. Uh, they're one
Speaker 7: and six on the season. They just lost Tyrege Maxy
Speaker 7: to a hamstring strain. Uh, he's going to be out
Speaker 7: for a couple of weeks. So they have Lakers tomorrow
Speaker 7: night and I'm out in La. I'm going to cover that. Uh.
Speaker 7: I expect them to lose that game. So you know,
Speaker 7: if they lose that game, they'll fall to one and seven,
Speaker 7: and you know, in it's kind of all bad. Joel's
Speaker 7: serving his suspension. He'll be out Tomorrow night and he'll
Speaker 7: be out. He'll be out on Sunday as well, and
Speaker 7: his season debut is expected to be Tuesday. In an
Speaker 7: NBA Cup game against the next So that's kind of
Speaker 7: the story of the Philadelphia seventy six is as of
Speaker 7: right now in a nutshell the NBA Cup.
Speaker 1: Baby, it is here, all right. Tell him, Tell everybody
Speaker 1: where they can go get your work.
Speaker 7: You can find me at the Athletic. You can find
Speaker 7: me on Instagram at t Jones Athletic, and you can
Speaker 7: find me on Twitter at t Jones on the NBA.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend with chat soon. Okay, thanks my
Speaker 2: God appreciation Tony Jones.
Speaker 1: Give him a follow check out his work. Brought to
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Speaker 2: A sign now for.
Speaker 1: The beginning of the big show, Big Hour. Did we
Speaker 1: go age before beauty or beauty before age? That's for
Speaker 1: you guys to decide. Bowlers on the road with the
Speaker 1: jazz and I wish I was looking across from me
Speaker 1: in the studio to see the handsome face of Gordon.
Speaker 1: Yet he joins us via telephone today, Gord, where you at, buddy?
Speaker 6: I'm I'm at home in the middle of writing a column.
Speaker 6: So that's where I am. And by the way, if
Speaker 6: we're talking about handsome faces, when it comes to Spence
Speaker 6: check its and it comes to bowler Jack, I'll take
Speaker 6: third place there.
Speaker 1: Oh, don't do that to yourself. I believe you said, Uh,
Speaker 1: what'd you say? When you're in your prime? You really
Speaker 1: had it going on?
Speaker 2: Is that? Is that the old Monson line he.
Speaker 6: Has about thirty years ago, maybe forty?
Speaker 2: All right? Well, fair enough, fair enough?
Speaker 1: First of all, when it's Utah BYU week, when it's
Speaker 1: Rivalry week, does it bring back the memory of when
Speaker 1: you caught the touchdown pass over Danny Ainge?
Speaker 6: It does?
Speaker 8: You know?
Speaker 6: That is in the back of my mind. You know,
Speaker 6: I do think about that at times, a moment of
Speaker 6: glory and and then Ames, you know, pat me on
Speaker 6: the back saying hell of a catch here. So I mean,
Speaker 6: I do have that in my memory, but to it
Speaker 6: doesn't really reply.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, if I remember correctly, If I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: you both were in your prime. He jumped as high
Speaker 1: as he could. Then you claimed you out jumped him
Speaker 1: and snatched the ball from his hands.
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 6: You have a great memory, I'm telling you because because
Speaker 6: as the ball was spinning in the air, we both
Speaker 6: jumped up and we both caught the ball. We both caught.
Speaker 6: There were four hands on that ball, and I ripped
Speaker 6: it away from him, you know, And that's the way
Speaker 6: it happened. Look, I promise you this is not some fabrication,
Speaker 6: some embellishment. It is the absolute truth. Trust me.
Speaker 1: Did the alarm wake you up right after the catch?
Speaker 1: Did you hear the alarm sound? So you had to
Speaker 1: get out of bed. I'm just curious.
Speaker 6: I'm just curious. I swear to you that that is
Speaker 6: a true story.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well moving on, moving on. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll give you that one, Gord.
Speaker 2: So let's just get right down to the crux of
Speaker 2: the thing.
Speaker 1: Like the bottom line is, if both teams do on
Speaker 1: Saturday what they've done all year long, it feels like
Speaker 1: this is a pretty easy BYU victory. The line is
Speaker 1: now three. BYU is a three point favorite. It opened
Speaker 1: up at five, it's moved down to three. But you've
Speaker 1: covered as many of these as anybody I could talk
Speaker 1: to on the radio today, So you know as well
Speaker 1: as anybody the craziness probably will ensue, because it usually does.
Speaker 1: The last time BYU has won by more than ten
Speaker 1: was ninety six, and I think the last time they
Speaker 1: won in saw Lake was way back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and six. I may be incorrect there, But what's your
Speaker 1: gut tell you about what we're in for Saturday night?
Speaker 6: I would expect I agree with you, first of all.
Speaker 6: If both teams play to their potential, BYU wins this game.
Speaker 6: And that's something that if you would ask me before
Speaker 6: the season, or even at the start of the season
Speaker 6: beginning and parts of the season. I would have I
Speaker 6: would have thought a different way. But as we've seen
Speaker 6: what the evidence in front of us, BYU is a
Speaker 6: superior team. Now, the rivalry game brings all kinds of
Speaker 6: different things into play. Foremost two things come to mind,
Speaker 6: emotion and motivation. And if Utah can play at the
Speaker 6: top of its game, and BYU, because it has more
Speaker 6: to lose, comes out with nerves jangled and you know,
Speaker 6: making mistakes because they have in their mind if we
Speaker 6: blow this opportunity, man, we're blowing a lot and they
Speaker 6: could lose this game. That's why anybody who lays too
Speaker 6: much money on a game like this I think is
Speaker 6: making a mistake.
Speaker 2: Oh, I wouldn't touch the line.
Speaker 1: I've told people all the week, like, don't touch the thing, man,
Speaker 1: because you have no idea how it's going to play out.
Speaker 2: All right. The bottom line is this.
Speaker 1: The data indicates the numbers in the Utah And you
Speaker 1: know what, you don't have to look at numbers.
Speaker 2: You can just watch the game.
Speaker 1: The last time Utah was dynamic offensively was the first
Speaker 1: half of the Baylor game when Cam was under center.
Speaker 1: Since then, and look, they went up to Utah State.
Speaker 1: They hung thirty eight on the aggis all due respect
Speaker 1: to our friends, you know in the North, it's just
Speaker 1: not a great litanus test. Oklahoma State's the worst team
Speaker 1: in the conference and they've lost four straight and over
Speaker 1: the four game losing streak, the offensive numbers are anemic,
Speaker 1: near to near the bottom of the conference, some near
Speaker 1: bottom of the country. So we know that, you know,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Brandon Rose or Isaac Wilson. I guess
Speaker 1: they're splitting reps. Coach WIT's gonna join us tomorrow. We'll
Speaker 1: see if we have an update there. And I honestly
Speaker 1: don't know that it matters who's under center between the
Speaker 1: two because we just haven't seen enough from either to
Speaker 1: indicate that this is going to be somewhat of an
Speaker 1: explosive offensive team all of a sudden. So for me, Gord,
Speaker 1: if Utah wins, it feels like it's gonna be one
Speaker 1: of those thirteen to ten three nothing right, like one
Speaker 1: of those games where defense lee where the numbers indicate
Speaker 1: Utah is still very good.
Speaker 2: They're going to have to try to limit BYU.
Speaker 1: But I just they haven't scored more than twenty four
Speaker 1: points against a P four team. It feels like if
Speaker 1: Utah gets this, it's one of those trenches. You know,
Speaker 1: stop the run, run, you know, run the football, control
Speaker 1: time of possession and they win a very low scoring game.
Speaker 1: That's where I'm at, Give me your thoughts on it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I agree that Utah has been pretty good at
Speaker 6: time of possession, but they just have not been able
Speaker 6: to take advantage of scoring opportunities. And this has been
Speaker 6: much on the mind of Kyle Whittingham. They're inefficiency in
Speaker 6: the red zone. That's been a real problem for that team.
Speaker 6: That's why I think that if BYU makes mistakes that
Speaker 6: enable say Utah's defense to score touchdown or something along
Speaker 6: those lines, then in a low scoring game. And I'm
Speaker 6: not sure it's going to be low scoring on BYU's
Speaker 6: in but it certainly could be what you fashioned it
Speaker 6: to be. You know, those kinds of turnovers could make
Speaker 6: a huge difference. The problem for the Utes is that
Speaker 6: BYU has been much better getting turnovers and having a
Speaker 6: turnover margin in their favor than Utah has been, and
Speaker 6: that stems to all kinds of things. I mean, you
Speaker 6: could trace that back to Kyle has said that the
Speaker 6: team has not been as physical this year, and I
Speaker 6: think that's been obvious to anybody who's watched, and so
Speaker 6: they haven't caused those turnovers. BYU, on the other hand,
Speaker 6: has and so the very thing that the Utes need
Speaker 6: to have in their favor in order to give themselves
Speaker 6: a legitimate chance is the thing that BYU has thrived at,
Speaker 6: not the Utes.
Speaker 1: So to underscore that point, the stat that probably has
Speaker 1: hit me across the face more than any other. On Monday,
Speaker 1: I read that BYU has outscored their opponents sixty nine
Speaker 1: to ten off of turnovers, which is nuts. They've allowed
Speaker 1: one touchdown all year off of turnover and one field goal.
Speaker 1: So what's the combination of way to go, tip of
Speaker 1: the cat. That's awesome and that can't continue right Like.
Speaker 2: It's a little bit of both.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that stat, which to me
Speaker 1: underscores everything they've been doing as far as causing turnovers
Speaker 1: and making sure that they stay clean, and if they do,
Speaker 1: they don't allow a lot of points.
Speaker 2: What does that say to you?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it comes down to a coaching cliche that we've
Speaker 6: heard a thousand times, and that is clean execution. If
Speaker 6: the youths can do that, and I think because Kyle's
Speaker 6: been hitting this hard about being more physical, he's telling
Speaker 6: his team and to utilize the fuel of the emotion
Speaker 6: to play physically with the rival. Now, that can either
Speaker 6: work in their advantage or it could work for their disadvantage.
Speaker 6: If they get too hyped up and they start leaving
Speaker 6: their assignments and trying to do too much, that could
Speaker 6: be a problem. But if they're able to play physical
Speaker 6: Utah foot ball to do what b what to do
Speaker 6: to BYU, what BYU has done to so many of
Speaker 6: its opponents this year, that gives them a chance to
Speaker 6: flip that script. Now, whether they can do that or not,
Speaker 6: or whether they're capable of doing that, I don't know.
Speaker 6: And that's talking about defense. On offense, they're going to
Speaker 6: have to take care of the ball for the very
Speaker 6: reasons that we've been talking about, because BYU has been
Speaker 6: so good at pressuring the quarterback and then grabbing interceptions,
Speaker 6: are taking advantage of weird plays that put them in
Speaker 6: scoring position and allow them to build up these big
Speaker 6: leads that they're getting. The US are scoring twenty two
Speaker 6: points a game, and that includes the earlier success and
Speaker 6: the success that you mentioned against Utah State, whereas BYU's
Speaker 6: averaging what thirteen to fourteen points more than that per game,
Speaker 6: and so that's got to be changed in order for
Speaker 6: the huge stev A shot.
Speaker 1: The other thing BYU does really well well, they do
Speaker 1: a lot of things really well, but this year they're
Speaker 1: starting fast out of the gates, and they're starting fast
Speaker 1: out of the locker room. Their first and third quarter
Speaker 1: splits are insane, and I think if you're a ute fan, Gord,
Speaker 1: I think the concern is the ability to come back
Speaker 1: from a big deficit.
Speaker 2: So to me start and this is not we're not,
Speaker 2: you know, breaking news here.
Speaker 1: The start of the game is going to be so
Speaker 1: key because if BYU comes out and they have two
Speaker 1: really good drives and suddenly it's fourteen zero and Utah
Speaker 1: can't move the football, that will allow a Rod to
Speaker 1: really change his game plan to basically kill out the
Speaker 1: clock and not allow Utah the oxygen because I just
Speaker 1: don't think Utah can come back now if it's like
Speaker 1: three to nothing after one, and it is that kind
Speaker 1: of dogfi that we dissected. I think you fan should
Speaker 1: feel pretty good. But what do you make about just
Speaker 1: simply how important it is? For both teams to start
Speaker 1: well and then once the emotion of the rivalry kind
Speaker 1: of dissipates, you can get back to the meat and
Speaker 1: potatoes of football because you know that.
Speaker 2: Stadium is going to be crazy loud.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I concur with everything that you just said. There's not
Speaker 6: much more to say about it. I do believe, and
Speaker 6: that's why Utah's defense has to be at its best
Speaker 6: because if it, if it limits BYU offensively and then
Speaker 6: you have a tight game, then those nerves that we
Speaker 6: talked about before. B why's a very confident team right now?
Speaker 6: I mean they think they deserve to win and they
Speaker 6: think they will win now if Utah goes out and
Speaker 6: what what did Mike Tyson say? Everyone has a plan
Speaker 6: until they get punched in the head. How's that does
Speaker 6: that saying?
Speaker 2: You know, punched in the mouth. But you you're nearly there.
Speaker 6: So so if that's what the youths are able to
Speaker 6: do to BYU, then they start to.
Speaker 7: Go Wait a minute.
Speaker 6: You you look at you look at BYU through all
Speaker 6: its season. After games, it's been all hyped up and
Speaker 6: we win, nobody beats us. We you know, it's all
Speaker 6: that talk that they seem to have been able to
Speaker 6: conjure amongst themselves. But if you tall limits that to them,
Speaker 6: suddenly BYU's looking at each other going wait a minute,
Speaker 6: this isn't this isn't what we expected. If this isn't
Speaker 6: what sh'd be happening. And when you put a team
Speaker 6: in that position, suddenly that confidence may sheer away a
Speaker 6: little bit, especially when you're playing in a building like
Speaker 6: White Ecls. And I know the Uts haven't a big
Speaker 6: grip on their home field, but in this kind of
Speaker 6: emotional atmosphere, that could give the Utes their best chance
Speaker 6: if they could rattle the Cougars and not make mistakes themselves.
Speaker 6: If the Utes make mistakes, then they're in for a long,
Speaker 6: long night.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And in the past, you have confidence in Cameron Rising
Speaker 1: and Andy Ludwig, and you know, say they lose the
Speaker 1: turn say the turnover battles minus one or maybe even
Speaker 1: minus two. In the past, you had an offense that
Speaker 1: could make up for some of those mistakes, or a
Speaker 1: more opportunistic defense. They could find diamonds where you didn't
Speaker 1: even know that you know they were looking over there
Speaker 1: with pick sixes and scoops and scores and big game
Speaker 1: changing plays. Clark Phillips and Devin Lloyd and Eric Quad
Speaker 1: and the list goes on and on. But the problem
Speaker 1: is right now, that offense isn't good enough to make
Speaker 1: up for stubbing your toe more than once or twice.
Speaker 2: And for all of the.
Speaker 1: Metrics that indicate Utah's defense is really good in areas
Speaker 1: they're the number one scoring defense in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1: They're among the best in the country at both first
Speaker 1: and third down, what they're not doing is creating havoc
Speaker 1: plays and turnovers and the offense can't move the ball.
Speaker 2: Like the margin of error.
Speaker 1: To underscore your point for Utah's mistakes is raizor thin.
Speaker 2: If they want to win this football game.
Speaker 6: How about this for an idea, Kyle Wavingham telling his team, man,
Speaker 6: this is what you guys are going to do. We're
Speaker 6: going to throw the ball here and there, but we're
Speaker 6: going to go out and play physical, offensive football. That's
Speaker 6: offensive front. Go out, hit these guys, create space, allow
Speaker 6: us to run the football, and allow us to burn
Speaker 6: time off the clock. If they're able to do that
Speaker 6: and sustain drives, which they haven't been able to do
Speaker 6: really and haven't been able to capitalize on those drives.
Speaker 6: If they can do those two things, and those are
Speaker 6: big ifs, I get it. But if they can do
Speaker 6: those things and then the defense does enough to nick
Speaker 6: up Jake Retz laugh and make him a little bit nervous,
Speaker 6: or make him a little off his normal timing a
Speaker 6: little bit, you know, keep those receivers under control, then
Speaker 6: then again that that works to the huge advantage. The problem
Speaker 6: is actually executing it, and I'm not sure whether they
Speaker 6: can do that, but I would be shocked if this
Speaker 6: was like some sort of wipeout.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 6: That speaks to what you were talking about before. If
Speaker 6: the Cougar's get a big lead, then I think the
Speaker 6: game is going to be over unless they just get
Speaker 6: so full of themselves that they're just doing stupid things
Speaker 6: on defense and they let let off the gas a
Speaker 6: little bit. But if you talk and keep it close
Speaker 6: and run the football and do it in a physical
Speaker 6: banner that puts BYU in a situation where they go
Speaker 6: they're uncomfortable, they're un they're not that in that particular environment,
Speaker 6: then I think things could go the youth's way. But
Speaker 6: that's a whole lot to ask, and I'm not sure
Speaker 6: whether the youths can pull that off. I think they can,
Speaker 6: but whether they will that that's very much in debt.
Speaker 2: Well, it's back to where we started.
Speaker 1: If both teams continue to do what they've done so far,
Speaker 1: there's a chance that this is a bloodbath, you know,
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: We only can go off of the data that we have.
Speaker 1: I mean, you try to predict things in a business
Speaker 1: like this, and you're going to be wrong a lot.
Speaker 1: And as we've talked about, I've been so wrong about
Speaker 1: this Utah football team that it is going to take
Speaker 1: some sort of random Burton block Scott Mitchell coming out
Speaker 1: of nowhere, you know, John Why, Jason Shelley with a
Speaker 1: big comeback, like all of the crazy rivalry memories we
Speaker 1: have should give youth fans confidence because this game is
Speaker 1: different than other games on the schedule. But what we've
Speaker 1: seen so far simply is BYU is a much better
Speaker 1: team almost all the way around.
Speaker 2: But let's dig into a little bit, Gordon, your opinion.
Speaker 1: On what that stadium is gonna look like on Saturday night,
Speaker 1: because it has become a narrative that's gotten a little
Speaker 1: out of control. There are online ticket outlets where you
Speaker 1: can look and kind of see what's available, and it's
Speaker 1: hard to tell whether or not BUYU fans or snatching
Speaker 1: up all these tickets that a lot of youth fans
Speaker 1: seem to be selling. I have a hard time believing
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a ton of blue. I do think
Speaker 1: youth fans will show up. I mean, in a way,
Speaker 1: this is going to be potentially the most important game
Speaker 1: on the schedule for the rest of the season for
Speaker 1: Utah football. Even if they go to a bowl, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be somewhat meaningless. The only thing worse than playing
Speaker 1: in a throwaway bowl game is not being eligible for one.
Speaker 1: So this is massive for Utah to show the community
Speaker 1: maybe one time this season that they are who we
Speaker 1: thought that they could be.
Speaker 2: So what are you hearing in your.
Speaker 1: Vantage point from your vantage point about you know, fan attendance.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of anxiety and nervous feelings
Speaker 1: by yout fans, But do you you think we're going
Speaker 1: to see a good portion of blue in Salt Lake
Speaker 1: on Saturday night.
Speaker 6: I think we'll see more blue than is typically the
Speaker 6: case in these rivalry games. But youth fans are going
Speaker 6: to show up. I mean I think they are worried,
Speaker 6: but I think they're going to show up and they're
Speaker 6: going to pour the same emotion that they always do
Speaker 6: in this particular game, you know, and if the youths
Speaker 6: can feed off of that, but the youthes have to
Speaker 6: give the crowd, you know, they have to give him
Speaker 6: encouragement that hey, they're not wasting their time and for instance, Okay,
Speaker 6: so one of the things that I think will be
Speaker 6: really interesting to see is, uh, will j Hill I'm sorry,
Speaker 6: will Morgan Scalley pressure Jake Rhtz Left? And how much
Speaker 6: will he pressure him? How much will they try to
Speaker 6: get those big plays that you're talking about, force those
Speaker 6: kinds of mistakes in order to do that. If they
Speaker 6: let Jake Rhtz Left sit back there and and peruse
Speaker 6: the field and get the ball to the right place
Speaker 6: or to the right player for the right reasons, then
Speaker 6: they're gonna lose this game. If they disturb him, if
Speaker 6: they they can jumpy, then you know, he might flash
Speaker 6: back to some of the things we saw a year
Speaker 6: ago where he'll he will make mistakes. And so is
Speaker 6: Morgan scally gonna be willing to do that. And if
Speaker 6: he does do it and they get sacks, then what
Speaker 6: happens the crowd erupts and the emotion is there, and
Speaker 6: the big plays are made and the Ute fans are
Speaker 6: feeling pretty good. If it doesn't happen and BYU is
Speaker 6: as comfortable as it's usually been or almost always been
Speaker 6: this season, then that that's not gonna work. So the
Speaker 6: crowd has to work in the huge favor, but the
Speaker 6: Utes have to feed that beast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's been kind of a hate the
Speaker 1: term narrative, but that's kind of the right term to
Speaker 1: use with this one. There's kind of this narrative that's
Speaker 1: gone on around the marketplace here about how docile that
Speaker 1: crowd has been this year and how uh you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like it typically has over the past
Speaker 1: decade or so to rise cycles.
Speaker 2: But you've got to give them some to cheer for.
Speaker 2: You can't. The muss is always going to be the muss.
Speaker 1: But if Utah Football, if they're players and coaches want
Speaker 1: to see this crowd and hear this crowd the way
Speaker 1: it typically is, they've got to feed them.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 1: You can't expect them just to go crazy if there's
Speaker 1: nothing going on.
Speaker 6: So if the Utes make mistakes, it'd be why you
Speaker 6: build that early lead that you're talking about, what's the
Speaker 6: place going to look like? What I mean, what kind
Speaker 6: of advantage that the utes usually or typically would have
Speaker 6: that's going to dissipate? And then so really, I know
Speaker 6: the utes want to depend on their crowd to really
Speaker 6: give them a boost, but as you said, they have
Speaker 6: to give them a reason. And if they don't give
Speaker 6: them that reason, then the place is going to is
Speaker 6: going to get quiet real quick.
Speaker 1: You want to give us a little tease for the
Speaker 1: column you're riding right now for our friends of the trib.
Speaker 6: Well, I've written, I've heard a couple of columns. You know,
Speaker 6: I don't learn my lessons very well sometimes, Spence. But
Speaker 6: I have the fifty things that are bound to happen
Speaker 6: in this game, and I've got that written and I
Speaker 6: think that'll be either tomorrow or Saturday, I'm not sure which,
Speaker 6: But I pick a stab at predicting specific things that
Speaker 6: will happen in this game. And I got to tell you,
Speaker 6: as I've done what you said, and what you've been
Speaker 6: doing all week and before that, probably studying the stats,
Speaker 6: looking at the numbers, looking at the record, look examining
Speaker 6: what's happened in previous weeks. I don't see a lot
Speaker 6: of practical reasons to pick the youths to win. Now,
Speaker 6: in that same breath, I'll say that is it possible
Speaker 6: that they can win? Yet? It is possible, But things
Speaker 6: that haven't happened very often this yeason aren't going to
Speaker 6: have to happen against a team that is playing really
Speaker 6: out of its mind.
Speaker 1: What what does it mean for Arsenal if Nick Kushing
Speaker 1: decides to go to the gunners disasters?
Speaker 6: Disasters, that's catastrophic. H I just think that's something that
Speaker 6: you cannot allow to.
Speaker 1: Have, well said I Concur. All right, my friend, Well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate the time today. I hope to see in
Speaker 1: studio next week.
Speaker 6: All right, all right, then give Bowler my love will.
Speaker 1: Do the great Gordon Monson from the Salt Lake Tribune,
Speaker 1: my radio partner for seven years back in the old days.
Speaker 1: Brought to you today by clear Water Distilling rear rear
Speaker 1: delt fly.
Speaker 2: Day to day, just.
Speaker 1: Crushing, just moveing weight around, litill pour some sugar on
Speaker 1: me comes on, motivated to finish the super set. Thought
Speaker 1: about my guy Bowler. So that's why we're doing this today.
Speaker 3: It's not a bad gym playlist, Little deaf Lefpard, I'm
Speaker 3: on board.
Speaker 2: Just move and wait around man, like it's nothing. It's
Speaker 2: not a big deal.
Speaker 1: Live from the Road, Milwaukee, I believe, is where we
Speaker 1: find the voice of the Jazz. Craig Bowler, Jack Bawler,
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, sir.
Speaker 9: How are you hey, Spencer? Well, I'm glad that that
Speaker 9: got a little energy in my pants right there, man,
Speaker 9: A little death leopard coming back. Just caught off at
Speaker 9: the bus. A two hour ride from Chicago to five
Speaker 9: Serve Forums. So we're here and then fly to San
Speaker 9: Antonio after the game with the Bucks tonight. Kind of
Speaker 9: a crazy road schedule.
Speaker 2: We'll get to the Jazz in a moment, Craig.
Speaker 1: But of course, as you know, as someone who was
Speaker 1: a big booming voice.
Speaker 2: During college football season.
Speaker 1: And did radio here locally, it's a big week around
Speaker 1: here with Utah and BYU playing a little American football
Speaker 1: on Saturday night. When you hear Rivalry Week Utah BYU
Speaker 1: football week, what are some thoughts that come to your mind?
Speaker 9: Ah, Man, I love it and I'm so glad BYU
Speaker 9: and Utah in the same conference with even more impact now, Spence,
Speaker 9: you know the old days of the Mountain West.
Speaker 2: You know, the.
Speaker 9: This is great. I mean, you know that it's going
Speaker 9: to be here, whether it's going to be home or
Speaker 9: away for whatever team. Utah, you know, dials up first
Speaker 9: with a home game at right secals and I think
Speaker 9: it's great. Man, it's uh, it's what fans want. Coaches
Speaker 9: may not like it, but it gives you that feel
Speaker 9: good feeling. Utah is struggling in a big way this year, unexpectedly,
Speaker 9: so this game with BYU, who is winning and dominating, undefeated,
Speaker 9: there's a lot on the line here, man to save
Speaker 9: a season, or BYU really jumps into the national scene
Speaker 9: and really knocks on the door. And I think it's
Speaker 9: it's about hey, look at us, We're for real And
Speaker 9: that's what I think BYU's most interest, most interested in.
Speaker 9: But hey, every week's different. Spence is you know, rival weeks.
Speaker 9: Really you can't go with what the spread is. The
Speaker 9: emotion plays big, the home crowd plays big unless those
Speaker 9: fans have sold off tickets, and there'll be more blue
Speaker 9: than red, and that'll be intriguing to see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's definitely a topic here locally, for sure, not
Speaker 1: exactly you know, I don't exactly know what to expect
Speaker 1: based off of rumors here or there. It does sound
Speaker 1: like a lot of youth fans have tapped out, But
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of youth fans will be there
Speaker 1: loud and proud, And if you're a BYU fan, you
Speaker 1: probably want to attend because you feel good about your chances.
Speaker 1: But you know you grew up with rivalries Case State Kansas.
Speaker 1: You've called rivalries throughout the course of your broadcasting career.
Speaker 1: So as you just outlined the dynamic of this game,
Speaker 1: certainly could and in my opinion, probably will make it close.
Speaker 1: But the data tells us BYU is just simply the
Speaker 1: better team through eight games.
Speaker 2: But what is it, Craig about rivalries? You've been a
Speaker 2: part of.
Speaker 1: Rivalries You've covered that make the environment so intense and
Speaker 1: make the outcome of the game oftentimes impossible to ascertain.
Speaker 9: Well, in my opinion, from my experience, it's the one
Speaker 9: moment where one mistake can fuel the confidence of the
Speaker 9: underdog or fuel the confidence of the team that is
Speaker 9: supposed to dominate. And so that's what I've always noticed
Speaker 9: is a fumble early can give new life to the underdog,
Speaker 9: or it can give dominance to the team that is
Speaker 9: expected or favored to win. I think that's the one
Speaker 9: key is you cannot make mental mistakes. And BYU has
Speaker 9: taken every opportunity this year. And we've talked a lot
Speaker 9: about just being opportunistic. Look, they've earned that, but you know,
Speaker 9: to make something out of that turnover to really be
Speaker 9: costly for their opponent in case State lived it by
Speaker 9: the way. You know, that's truly what started this whole
Speaker 9: run and this dominance of BYU and their confidence grew
Speaker 9: I thought immensely after the k State victory. So you know,
Speaker 9: for Utah, if you get down and this you know
Speaker 9: your form for you still play me before a bowl game.
Speaker 9: Not sure how hype fans are about just getting the
Speaker 9: six wins, but you know this one, this one just
Speaker 9: on paper, means more. You know, in the SEC when
Speaker 9: I was a CBS, I mean every game felt like
Speaker 9: a rivalry game because the competition is so keen in
Speaker 9: that conference, the LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Alabama. I mean I
Speaker 9: got to call all those and man, it just it
Speaker 9: just has a special hum. You know, you'll feel the
Speaker 9: energy in the building unless b why you was able
Speaker 9: to take it out, And that's what I mean by
Speaker 9: something early that has to dictate maybe the the outcome
Speaker 9: of the game. There's always a chance to rally back.
Speaker 9: But I tell you that that first defensive series or
Speaker 9: that first offensive series, whoever wins the coin flip and
Speaker 9: how they decide to go. But Spence, that's what I've
Speaker 9: always felt is that you can change it quickly if
Speaker 9: you take advantage of what's given to you, and if
Speaker 9: you don't, then the opponent's gonna I think, roar back
Speaker 9: and try to dominate.
Speaker 1: One more thing here, And you just kind of alluded
Speaker 1: to it because coming from the guy who has called
Speaker 1: some of the biggest games in the landscape of college football,
Speaker 1: you know you can pull up lists like greatest Rivalries
Speaker 1: in college football. You're going to see Michigan, Ohio State, Bama, Auburn, Army, Navy, Oklahoma, Texas,
Speaker 1: USC Notre Dame. Most of the lists. You know you'll
Speaker 1: have Utah BYU around fifteen or sixteen. And I think
Speaker 1: that's going to change because we've been waiting for BYU
Speaker 1: in Utah to be in the same conference, but not
Speaker 1: just the same conference, the same P four conference. This
Speaker 1: isn't the Whacker, the Mountain West All due respect. So
Speaker 1: now it's this new era starting on Saturday where more
Speaker 1: people are simply going to see it as somebody who's
Speaker 1: called some of the biggest rivalry games and has been
Speaker 1: a part of Utah BYU, how does this rivalry stack
Speaker 1: up with the Auburn's and damas in the usc Notre
Speaker 1: Dames of the world.
Speaker 9: Well, that's another great conversation to have because look, you know,
Speaker 9: Kuk State was just more a four state area. Okay,
Speaker 9: so was Nebraska Oklahoma back in the day. Is Switzer
Speaker 9: right and Osbourne? But this becomes it spreads, is my point.
Speaker 9: And in the Southeastern Conference it's religion spence it is,
Speaker 9: and you have to experience it on game day and
Speaker 9: even the whole week because people travel miles and they
Speaker 9: actually have the thirty five foot you know, RVs and
Speaker 9: make it a religious you know moment and a way
Speaker 9: football is. Football is what people just do from August
Speaker 9: until December or the first of the year when the
Speaker 9: playoffs come in. For BYU and Utah, I think it
Speaker 9: ranks higher than people give it credit for. Honestly, I do.
Speaker 9: And and you know, when I was at CBS and
Speaker 9: Fox and ESPN, they always talked about what do you
Speaker 9: think is it? Is it really that big of deal?
Speaker 9: It's it absolutely because it splinters a state of and
Speaker 9: you always talk about it. The religion part of it,
Speaker 9: read and blue Mormon or non Mormon, that feeds it.
Speaker 9: Maybe not as much as it once did, but I
Speaker 9: still think it's very real. But then you add in
Speaker 9: this year the fact that you have two big twelve
Speaker 9: teams back and now a team that Utah was favored
Speaker 9: to be a real player nationally, not only in the
Speaker 9: conference spense, but my gosh, they were talking about hosting
Speaker 9: the first round of the of the playoffs. That's not
Speaker 9: going to happen, but BYU could easily. And that's what
Speaker 9: makes I think this such an intreaking game is how
Speaker 9: the turn of events throughout the last three months have occurred,
Speaker 9: and you know, the injury to Cam and and the
Speaker 9: way that Dyu's defenses has really bowed their back and
Speaker 9: played incredibly well, and what Jake's been able to do
Speaker 9: to just say, handle the offense in provo. So I
Speaker 9: think this is top five personally. People may laugh and shuckle,
Speaker 9: but I think if you're in this part of the West, yeah,
Speaker 9: it's it just hasn't been exposed as much. And I'm
Speaker 9: still not in favor of an eight to fifteen kick
Speaker 9: because again on the East Coast, that's late and you
Speaker 9: may not see the ending of it. I'd still like
Speaker 9: to see it more in a quote prime time Arena
Speaker 9: six o'clock, the five point thirty window and let people
Speaker 9: really enjoyed around the country. But you're still going to
Speaker 9: see a hell of a football game, and you should
Speaker 9: see a lot of the pomp and circumstance that goes
Speaker 9: with it. And I love calling those games.
Speaker 6: Scott Mitchell.
Speaker 9: The one year we had it down to Provo, I
Speaker 9: called and Voyd Mitchell put on a show. And you know,
Speaker 9: the dominance of BYU was so keen for so long,
Speaker 9: and then you know Matt came in and changed the whole,
Speaker 9: the whole culture, and Level and him actually were friends,
Speaker 9: and that didn't sit very well.
Speaker 2: Spence.
Speaker 9: You know that with the Cougar's the Cougar and the
Speaker 9: youth fans is how how these two guys get along.
Speaker 9: But they were, they were bonded up until Lavelle's passing
Speaker 9: and beyond. But I just think it's special, and you
Speaker 9: know what, I hope fans have a great time, because
Speaker 9: it's it only happens once a year, and it looks
Speaker 9: like it's gonna come back for a long time.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move over to some jazz.
Speaker 1: And you know I did we do talking jazz over
Speaker 1: at KU TV with Dave and me and Dave Fox,
Speaker 1: and we were just looking at the schedule and wondering aloud,
Speaker 1: like when's the first win gonna come?
Speaker 2: Because the schedule's tough.
Speaker 1: Man Like, they're on the road and then they're home
Speaker 1: with the Sons.
Speaker 2: And the MAVs and they're back on the road.
Speaker 1: And look, Chicago in a way is kind of where
Speaker 1: Utah is. They're trying to figure out what they have
Speaker 1: with their young players. They have some decent vets in
Speaker 1: the Kola Vusavik and obviously Zach Lavine who didn't play.
Speaker 2: So that's not a great team.
Speaker 1: But I was just really happy for him, Craig, just
Speaker 1: to get one. Yeah, And I was really happy for
Speaker 1: Kyante to have a game that reminded everybody why he
Speaker 1: has so much potential. So let's just start in the
Speaker 1: vacuum as the guy that called the game with kind
Speaker 1: of the feel around the team after getting their first
Speaker 1: win in a road went against Chicago Spence.
Speaker 9: I think John Collins was a fuel. I really do.
Speaker 9: I thought he would not let this team get beaten again.
Speaker 9: Collins has come off the bench and whatever you want
Speaker 9: to say. You know, as a veteran, he's accepted a
Speaker 9: role of a bench guy. He can start if he
Speaker 9: has to, but he's shooting the ball extremely well from
Speaker 9: three and two. He's a rebounder, almost eight a game.
Speaker 9: He had twelve against Chicago. I thought that his veteran
Speaker 9: energy helped fuel Keyante, It helped fuel Cody Williams to
Speaker 9: a nice you know game, and Walker Kessler Man has
Speaker 9: really turned his game up. The way he finished last
Speaker 9: year the way he started, you know, two different polar opposites.
Speaker 9: But you know, Walker's been able to find some confidence,
Speaker 9: find some muscle, and that's been a good thing for
Speaker 9: the Jazz. You know, twenty two rebounds through seven games, Spences,
Speaker 9: you know, three plus blocks a game. I should say
Speaker 9: twenty two blocks and so yeah, three plus blocks a game.
Speaker 9: But I just thought John was really the fuel of
Speaker 9: what that win was. Sixty paid points? How about thirty
Speaker 9: five assists? We haven't seen that. And maybe the biggest
Speaker 9: stat of all is the Jazz finally did not just
Speaker 9: put themselves in a ditch with turnovers. They at thirteen,
Speaker 9: that's doable, and they only gave up twelve points and
Speaker 9: that's just that was a season low in that stat
Speaker 9: So the bench continues to play well. He's rotated, you know,
Speaker 9: about ten to eleven guys in and without marketing, it's
Speaker 9: even I thought, probably even a sweeter win and JC
Speaker 9: as well. So the young guys had to really take
Speaker 9: control of that game.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't pop off the screen when you're looking
Speaker 1: at the box score. But you know, you and I
Speaker 1: discussed the dynamic of who would get the minutes on
Speaker 1: the table after Taylor went down. There's twenty eight thirty
Speaker 1: minutes available. Looks like Cody's going to be the guy.
Speaker 1: That was the best game Cody has played. It's only
Speaker 1: seven games at Sports Talk. Yeah, so we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about what we have and through seven games, that
Speaker 1: was a grown up game from Cody had eleven points,
Speaker 1: he had five boards, he had four assists.
Speaker 2: He did not turn it over in thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: Okay for your seventh NBA game and no turnover, staying
Speaker 1: clean and being able to board a little bit, and
Speaker 1: being able to guard a little bit. That to me
Speaker 1: was the best game I've seen from Cody. Yeah, give
Speaker 1: me your thoughts.
Speaker 9: Greg No, I think he feels like watching him and
Speaker 9: after that game talking to him is like, you know,
Speaker 9: it's that switch Thorough always talks about, when do you
Speaker 9: actually believe.
Speaker 2: I belong?
Speaker 9: Okay? And I thought this game probably the light he
Speaker 9: turned the light switch up and on because he realized
Speaker 9: that he can't compete and he's his body is not
Speaker 9: one that you're going to dominate guys with. But yet
Speaker 9: he's smart angles. I thought he played angles better than
Speaker 9: he has in the early part of this season. You're right,
Speaker 9: he can go in and rebound eleven points like it.
Speaker 9: He was still getting his teammates involved that. You know,
Speaker 9: you're the tenth pick and you play and you're a
Speaker 9: young guy out of Colorado and the immense pressure to
Speaker 9: perform instantly is there for all these guys now, Spence,
Speaker 9: you know, you get one year of college and now
Speaker 9: you have to be developed, and it's not When Thorough
Speaker 9: came out four years and won a national championship with
Speaker 9: North Carolina State. One of the last guys I remember
Speaker 9: was Wesley Matthews, Right that the Jazz picked up and
Speaker 9: played four years at Marquette. That just doesn't happen, right,
Speaker 9: because if you're not out after two something's not right
Speaker 9: and teams don't want to touch it. EDI's an exception
Speaker 9: right at Purdue coming into the NBA, But I thought
Speaker 9: he played well. I think Flip has done an amazing
Speaker 9: job as well. By the way, he's twenty one today.
Speaker 9: Can you believe that that's how we're Yeah, that's how
Speaker 9: we're talking about. Most of these guys are twenty. They
Speaker 9: came in at nineteen. It seems like most of them
Speaker 9: have November birthdays. So you know, sense of Ball and
Speaker 9: and the others in Keyante who had you know, how
Speaker 9: about the nine to two turnover ratio nine assists and
Speaker 9: two turnovers? And Kyante continues to make maybe baby steps,
Speaker 9: but I thought he made a big, big step in Chicago.
Speaker 1: On on Monday night, all right before we get to
Speaker 1: tonight's let me just because you you touched on Walker,
Speaker 1: but I want to expand it because as as you
Speaker 1: and I discussed to start the year, I am really
Speaker 1: keen in on him because this is his third year
Speaker 1: under Will and they traded Oachi's so like this is
Speaker 1: the third year example, because we know we know that
Speaker 1: Quinn and his staff were able to develop young players.
Speaker 1: We saw with Heyward, we saw with Mitchell, we saw
Speaker 1: with Gobert, you know, and obviously previous iterations of the
Speaker 1: Jazz have been able to develop. It's an organization known
Speaker 1: for its development. But this is a new staff, it's
Speaker 1: a new front office, and if they can develop players,
Speaker 1: Walker is going to be ourt example, because this is
Speaker 1: year three and it's just as different after you've done
Speaker 1: something for a while.
Speaker 2: And he's had a couple of off nights.
Speaker 1: He wasn't great against Golden State, he wasn't great against Sacramento.
Speaker 1: But overall, this to me is the one piece of
Speaker 1: the start where I go okay, that's like an A
Speaker 1: plus start for him.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Overall on the season, his splits are really really impressive,
Speaker 1: and he is back to what we saw at the start.
Speaker 2: Of the career and he's actually playing better.
Speaker 1: He's double digit points, he's ten points, he's twelve boards.
Speaker 1: He's four offensive rebounds tonight, which is a massive number.
Speaker 1: He's blocking three shots tonight, and ultimately, to me, again,
Speaker 1: as a result of this quote development situation, we need
Speaker 1: to see what he's about year three, What has stood
Speaker 1: out most to you about what I perceive to be
Speaker 1: the brightest spot of the start to the jazz season.
Speaker 9: I think you got to get credit My first song
Speaker 9: when you asked a question was Will Hardy. I think
Speaker 9: that he has not let up on on Walker, and
Speaker 9: I think he's encouraged him at the same time. Look,
Speaker 9: coaching is you have to have a psychology degree alongside,
Speaker 9: and you have to know your players. Their personality is
Speaker 9: what switch to turn on, which one to turn off.
Speaker 9: I think he's been brilliant with Walker, I really do.
Speaker 9: He's been hard on him, you know what. He's been
Speaker 9: very public about that conversation about quit looking at me,
Speaker 9: you know, and Walker has He's finally grown, he's maturing,
Speaker 9: he understands who he is, and he's finding little bits
Speaker 9: of confidence spence along the way. And the Chicago game
Speaker 9: was just another piece of the puzzle. So I give
Speaker 9: Will a lot of credit for just helping him along
Speaker 9: and through last years at times a bit of a debacle.
Speaker 9: But I've talked to Walker a ton and he knew
Speaker 9: he's left hand dominant. So when he heard his elbow,
Speaker 9: the left elbow, he knew that he wasn't going to
Speaker 9: be able to perform and couldn't perform at the level
Speaker 9: he won. And so what happens during the you know,
Speaker 9: people always say this, oh the sophomore slump. It bit him,
Speaker 9: and how do you respond to it? Spence, That's the
Speaker 9: biggest thing Hardy I think has helped helped Walker come back,
Speaker 9: grow up and go out and play with a bit
Speaker 9: more of a Now he's not a mean guy, but
Speaker 9: on the floor he can least express it, right, he can.
Speaker 9: He can play with some high level energy and those
Speaker 9: numbers you spoke of, he's shooting sixty six percent from
Speaker 9: the floor, he has the three plus block shots, and
Speaker 9: the guy's rebounding nearly twelve boards a night and average
Speaker 9: in ten. So that's that's a big man who's making
Speaker 9: a difference on this team. And you know, the point
Speaker 9: is if they can develop Walker Kesser from basically just
Speaker 9: kind of a babyfaced kid out of Auburn and make
Speaker 9: him into you know, a legitimate big who can run
Speaker 9: the floor and still has to improve his free throws,
Speaker 9: but that is that developmental parts bench you speak of.
Speaker 9: The Jazz have done very well, but this is Will's baby, right,
Speaker 9: this is Will's first test. Can you develop a guy
Speaker 9: and make him into an All Star or close to
Speaker 9: it and be an integral part of your starting five?
Speaker 1: All right, Craig, before I say you lose, Tonight's an
Speaker 1: interesting game. And I try to stay tuned into Milwaukee
Speaker 1: games because we cheer for Dame around here. Milwaukee's an
Speaker 1: eight point five point favorite. From what I have in
Speaker 1: front of me. As far as the injuries go, right now,
Speaker 1: we know that Chris Middleton is out. He hasn't played
Speaker 1: this year, and it looks like, yeah, exactly, and it
Speaker 1: looks like Giannis is questionable from what I'm seeing, Yes, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then Lowry questionable, Clarkson questionable, and Isaiah Callier questionable
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: So let's start with a helped up date. What do
Speaker 2: you know about the health of both teams right now?
Speaker 9: Well, I do know that the three players of the
Speaker 9: Jazz you just mentioned have all been upgraded a probable. Okay,
Speaker 9: So I think we're gonna see Lowry, We're gonna see
Speaker 9: JC and you know what, I'm anxious to see Callier
Speaker 9: kind of more of a bulldog point guard who was
Speaker 9: basically raised as a point guard, unlike Keyante who's making strides,
Speaker 9: but Caller will be an interesting fit. That means no
Speaker 9: minutes for Patty mill and that was kind of the
Speaker 9: plan anyway. But to fit marketing back in means less
Speaker 9: minutes for Philipowski. If you get JC back in, you
Speaker 9: probably won't see much of Johnny Guzaning or Bryce Senza baw.
Speaker 9: But I still think you'll see minutes. Uh and depends
Speaker 9: on how Will wants to to to divide those up.
Speaker 9: I haven't heard any update since I walked in here
Speaker 9: to the pressure room yet on onto Tcombo. Look he's
Speaker 9: been He was as listed as a hip then than
Speaker 9: a right adductor. I'm not really sure you know what's
Speaker 9: going on? Look there, just it's not between you and
Speaker 9: I because everyone's listening. But Milwaukee's won in six man,
Speaker 9: they've lost six in a row after their opening night
Speaker 9: win against Philly, and things aren't good here and there's
Speaker 9: a lot of heat, you know, mentioned in the local
Speaker 9: press and around the country. Hey, what's up with Milwaukee
Speaker 9: and Doc? So you know they made the change last year,
Speaker 9: they moved Adrian Griffin out and then Doc comes in.
Speaker 9: So I don't know, it's going to be interesting to
Speaker 9: get a field when I get out on the floor
Speaker 9: here in a bit to kind of see what's going on.
Speaker 9: But they haven't won a home game, by the way,
Speaker 9: They're zero and two and their only win was on
Speaker 9: the road in Philadelphia and that was on opening nights.
Speaker 9: So interesting to see if Giannis is bucking for change
Speaker 9: or if he's actually hurt. But Lillard, you know, can't
Speaker 9: carry this team alone. They don't have the deepest bench
Speaker 9: except for Bobby Portis, who I like a lot and
Speaker 9: you know about the way he plays. He's just you know,
Speaker 9: consistent guy coming off the bench. But it's interesting to
Speaker 9: see how the Jazz respond tonight. They come in with confidence, spence.
Speaker 9: And this is where you have to wonder as a
Speaker 9: Jazz fan, how many wins you know, do you really
Speaker 9: actually want to put in your pocket? Right And you know,
Speaker 9: with this young team, but Will wants to win. He
Speaker 9: wants these guys to jump and make progress. And then
Speaker 9: I could be an interesting scenario with a team Milwaukee
Speaker 9: I'm speaking of. This seems that a little be a
Speaker 9: little bit upside down, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Bouler roll, I appreciate the time from the road.
Speaker 1: Have a great call, Tony and Hopefully we can see
Speaker 1: you back in the studio soon.
Speaker 9: Okay, all right, so soon.
Speaker 1: All right, Craig Bowlerjack, We'll be on the call tonight.
Speaker 1: It's a jazzer taking on Milwaukee. We'll see which players
Speaker 1: actually participate because NBA basketball these days, you never know.
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Speaker 2: You do a little hockey the Utah Hockey Club back
Speaker 2: at Action. Neil Smith is our guest.
Speaker 1: We got Stevenson, Sylvester Rowan, talk some Utah BYU football,
Speaker 1: get to some NFL with Sly as well. So we've
Speaker 1: done mostly college football today, a little Utah jazz, but
Speaker 1: how about a little Utah Hockey Club as the Utah
Speaker 1: Hockey Club is in Saint Louis to take on the Blues,
Speaker 1: which is just hilarious for so many different reasons.
Speaker 2: Been a rough stretch for the guys.
Speaker 1: Our next guest joins us on a weekly basis, the
Speaker 1: Great Neil Smith, former GM of the Rangers the Islanders.
Speaker 1: He's a hockey life for Neil. First of all, Happy Thursday.
Speaker 1: Second of all, how you feeling.
Speaker 10: I'm feeling a little bit better, but my voice doesn't
Speaker 10: sound like it. But I yesterday I got to tell you, Spence,
Speaker 10: was an amazing awakening when I was sitting in my computer,
Speaker 10: looking at stats, looking at things, ready for your call,
Speaker 10: and then realized I can't talk. I have no voice,
Speaker 10: so we had to delay this. But I'm feeling good.
Speaker 10: How about you.
Speaker 1: I'm well and I feel that because being in this business,
Speaker 1: like the voice is the moneymaker. So if I run
Speaker 1: into some allergies or a cold, it changes the entire thing.
Speaker 1: You've only been in this business for a little while, Neil.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, you could lose your voice and
Speaker 1: still go build.
Speaker 2: A hockey club. It's a different thing when you're talking
Speaker 2: to a mike.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yoh, for sure it's and when you're on TV
Speaker 10: it's even more complicated. But radio, you're only a voice,
Speaker 10: that's all you are. So if you've got no voice
Speaker 10: or a Larnux trouble, stay off the radio.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, all right.
Speaker 1: After a red hot start, things have crashed pretty mightily
Speaker 1: for the Utah Hockey Club. They're two and eight in
Speaker 1: their last ten games and Connor Ingram and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: need you to help me understand this because I don't
Speaker 1: want to put it all. I understand in hockey you
Speaker 1: can't put it all on the goaltender. And Connor is
Speaker 1: a quality goalie, He's going to be fine. But five
Speaker 1: two and three with an eight eight one save percentage
Speaker 1: and a three point five seven goals against average. According
Speaker 1: to stat Elites, he has a minus seven goals saved
Speaker 1: above expected after finishing with a plus three point four
Speaker 1: goals saved above expected last year. How much of the
Speaker 1: leaky defense is on the goalie? And how much of
Speaker 1: it's on the group. They just can't stop teams right now, Well, I.
Speaker 10: Think that there's enough to go around. I think there's
Speaker 10: some on Connor Ingram. He's not playing up to the
Speaker 10: level that he can play at in the NHL. To
Speaker 10: be a starting goaltender, you've got to be at nine
Speaker 10: hundred save percentage, which means an easy math that you're
Speaker 10: allowing one goal on every ten shots. You can't be
Speaker 10: letting more than that, and you can't have a goals
Speaker 10: against some three point five seven. Now, having said that,
Speaker 10: with Thrsey out and Marino out and them trying to
Speaker 10: fill that void with other guys, you know, they're trying
Speaker 10: to get better defensively with their defenseman, but it's going
Speaker 10: to have to be a team effort. It's going to
Speaker 10: have to be everybody locking down the opposition because when
Speaker 10: you're missing two key defensemen like that, the forwards can't
Speaker 10: take the chances that they would normally take. So they've
Speaker 10: got to be a little bit more conservative and help out.
Speaker 2: So the offense continues to be fine.
Speaker 1: It was never going to be what it was to
Speaker 1: start the year, because what it was to start the
Speaker 1: year was historic, but you know, more often than not
Speaker 1: they did get shut out.
Speaker 2: And I will get to Winnipeg in a moment.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on with Winnipeg, but you
Speaker 1: know the Utackey club was able to get three against
Speaker 1: the Golden Knights four against the Sharks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it hasn't been what it was.
Speaker 1: So if we moved to the other side of the
Speaker 1: equation and leave the defense behind, and I'm sure they're
Speaker 1: all intertwined, why do you think the offense has not
Speaker 1: been able to keep up with the pace it's.
Speaker 2: Set to start the year, which again was very very good.
Speaker 10: Well, remember who you're playing too. I mean you got
Speaker 10: to give those teams credit. I mean they're playing against
Speaker 10: two really good teams. For playing Winnipeg, they're playing Vegas.
Speaker 10: I mean, those are good teams. But the other thing is,
Speaker 10: I think Spence, I'll go back to what I said before,
Speaker 10: and that is when you're back on your heels because
Speaker 10: you're not sure if you make a mistake. You don't
Speaker 10: have the defenders back there that used to have, and
Speaker 10: you also your goalies a little bit leaky, like the
Speaker 10: Milka and Ingram Binn. Then you're not taking those offensive
Speaker 10: chances to score goals the way you do when you're
Speaker 10: very confident and when the group is confident, so it
Speaker 10: you know, it all goes hand in hand. And especially
Speaker 10: if you think when you're out on the ice, if
Speaker 10: you turn the puck over, it could very easily be
Speaker 10: in our net. You're going to be very conservative with
Speaker 10: what you do.
Speaker 1: So tonight it is the Saint Louis Blues, and ultimately
Speaker 1: they've lost Robert Thomas to a fractured ankle. But two
Speaker 1: point sixty nine goals per game in the blues first
Speaker 1: thirteen games, twenty fourth in the NHL. But they're really
Speaker 1: stout when it comes to their goalies, and they've got too.
Speaker 2: It's Jordan Bennington and.
Speaker 1: Joel Hoffer, so very good defensive team, but they don't
Speaker 1: score a lot of goals. Preview The game for US
Speaker 1: tonight is the Blues take on the Utah Hockey Club.
Speaker 10: Well, they're playing Joel Hoffer in net tonight according to
Speaker 10: the sources that I have, but his save percentage is
Speaker 10: three point thirty nine, so there's some holes there. They
Speaker 10: allow a lot of shots, but so does you taught
Speaker 10: you to allows almost thirty just under thirty shots a game,
Speaker 10: So they're going to have to tighten that up. But
Speaker 10: interesting guys to look for tonight. Cairo is their best
Speaker 10: offensive player. He's got eleven points in thirteen games. Proberg
Speaker 10: that they signed from the Edmonton Oilers on an off
Speaker 10: for sheets having a good start to his season. And
Speaker 10: he's a defenseman. And Perako is also a defenseman. Two
Speaker 10: out of their three top scorers on their team or defenseman.
Speaker 10: But they'll they'll, they'll play hard for sure, and they
Speaker 10: all they always do, the Blues always do. But Hofer
Speaker 10: will be in that tonight.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's get back to a couple of the
Speaker 1: teams that I referenced, and you know, we we were
Speaker 1: discussing the hot start.
Speaker 2: For Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: But it's one thing to have a hot start, but
Speaker 1: eight straight wins to start the season, that sided for
Speaker 1: the third longest streak in NHL history. Through twelve games,
Speaker 1: fifty nine goals, that's the highest total in their first
Speaker 1: twelve games since the nineteen ninety five ninety six Penguin
Speaker 1: scored sixty three times. That's Mario Lemieux, Jarmar Yager, Ron,
Speaker 1: Francis serge Zubov, a phenomenal team to play NHL on
Speaker 1: the PlayStation with which I did back in the day.
Speaker 1: So what what stands out most about what really is
Speaker 1: a historic start from Winnipeg.
Speaker 10: Well, Kyle Connor stands out to me as playing out
Speaker 10: of his mind this year is as a forward, as
Speaker 10: an offensive player, and Connor Helibuk, who won the Visita
Speaker 10: last year, is playing doesn't Atrophy hockey again. So you know,
Speaker 10: those are the two guys that are really standing out
Speaker 10: and above everybody. But to have a record like they
Speaker 10: have at twelve and one, you've got to have everybody
Speaker 10: you know on all play, all cylinders, and everything for
Speaker 10: them is going good. I mean, their their power play
Speaker 10: is at forty four percent. Their penalty killing has been
Speaker 10: you know, middle of the pack, but it's that's still
Speaker 10: pretty good. So they're you know, they're goals for or
Speaker 10: four point seven. They lead the league with that. They've
Speaker 10: just had a terrific start. But if you want me
Speaker 10: to pick out a couple of players also on Morrissey
Speaker 10: on defense has been great for them. But Kyle Connor
Speaker 10: and Hellibuck and Morrissey, they've all been really good.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about a story before I set
Speaker 1: you loose egoork In, the goalie for the Rangers. We've
Speaker 1: been waiting for news on this potential extension. It sounds
Speaker 1: you're teasing it, Neil. Do you have any any meat
Speaker 1: on the bone you can share?
Speaker 10: Not really, I mean other than I'm just you know,
Speaker 10: you hear things, and you hear that things are you know,
Speaker 10: heating up? What that means? Who knows. But you would
Speaker 10: think that the Rangers would be anxious to get them
Speaker 10: signed and not let them get near free agency. So
Speaker 10: I would imagine that there's something going on in the
Speaker 10: background between the h and kushchu Stirk and Chris Drewy.
Speaker 2: All right, Neil, got a lot of new hockey fans
Speaker 2: in the market.
Speaker 1: Where can they go find your podcast that you guys
Speaker 1: release often during the week.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we had Bill Darn the GM of Minnesota on
Speaker 10: this week and it's on every platform, NHL Wrap Around,
Speaker 10: you can find it on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, anywhere that
Speaker 10: you can find podcasts, you'll find it. And it's been
Speaker 10: a lot of fun. And we're doing it three times
Speaker 10: a week Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And give it a listen.
Speaker 1: Neil, thank you, sir. I always appreciate the time. Get
Speaker 1: that voice ready to roll, and we'll get you back
Speaker 1: on next week.
Speaker 10: All right, I'll sound like a different man next week.
Speaker 2: There you go, There you go.
Speaker 1: The great Neil Smith built a juggernaut of a New
Speaker 1: York Ranger hockey team that want a Stanley Cup in
Speaker 1: the nineties. Also general manager of the Islanders. He was
Speaker 1: the head scout for the Red Wings when they were
Speaker 1: kind of at their heyday.
Speaker 2: He's on Twitter.
Speaker 1: You can find the links to his work at NYC
Speaker 1: Neil Smith is where you find him. You can follow
Speaker 1: the podcast at NHL wrap Around is where you get that.
Speaker 9: All right.
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Speaker 1: say good night just a little bit early in time
Speaker 1: for Utah women's basketball, so stay tuned for that. Good
Speaker 1: time out for more Utah byu Chatter NFL. Potentially if
Speaker 1: we have a little time, my guy Stevenson Sylvester on
Speaker 1: a Thursday rolls by Sly.
Speaker 2: Happy Thursday, buddy, how are you doing?
Speaker 8: Happy Thursday? Rivalry week? What's up?
Speaker 7: Brother?
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time and I love the enthusiasm, So
Speaker 1: let's just let's give us a little peak beyond the curtain? Man,
Speaker 1: What is this week like for somebody who has played
Speaker 1: in this game? What are some of the emotions that
Speaker 1: are conjured up?
Speaker 8: Well, I mean it depends on what level you know
Speaker 8: you're at with all of this, right, Like some of
Speaker 8: the young guys that haven't been familiar with it, haven't
Speaker 8: been around it. There's actually a lot of other guys
Speaker 8: a part of the program that you know, hasn't had time.
Speaker 8: You know, this series has been on and off, you
Speaker 8: know for years. But this week for guys that know,
Speaker 8: like my junior and senior year, even sophomore year, that
Speaker 8: had some experience with it, your blood is boiling, you know,
Speaker 8: the entire week, and you're trying to really control your output, right,
Speaker 8: You got to control your emotions because you don't want
Speaker 8: to get too excited too early in the week and
Speaker 8: you're not ready to go on Saturday. And so for me,
Speaker 8: like right now Thursday, it's getting closer to the day, right,
Speaker 8: you know ESPN is covering it's a big deal. The
Speaker 8: city's on fire, everybody's talking about it, so everybody's talking
Speaker 8: about it in the classrooms. Everybody's wearing their utah gear
Speaker 8: around even more than usual, So all of those things
Speaker 8: come into play. You notice those things, even the stuff
Speaker 8: that's not said. You just feel it in the air,
Speaker 8: you know, feeling. I've been playing Phil Collins in the
Speaker 8: air of night all week. This week, this has been
Speaker 8: It's an absolutely incredible week, and as soon as that
Speaker 8: kickoff happens, you really feel how important it is to
Speaker 8: the community, right, like everybody knows. You can feel when
Speaker 8: the crowd is live and juiced uff. Imagine them being
Speaker 8: live and juic stuff during a rivalry game, and so
Speaker 8: absolutely love it. This week is crazy and it's bringing
Speaker 8: back great memories of me preparing for this game. Straight
Speaker 8: focus and lots of intensity.
Speaker 2: All right, does coach Wit prepare his team for this week?
Speaker 1: What's different about Kyle's approach when it is b YU
Speaker 1: week is somebody who went through at firsthand?
Speaker 8: I don't. I don't really think you see him crack
Speaker 8: a smile all week. I think his intensity radiates through
Speaker 8: through the team, right, Like it's so weird, Like he
Speaker 8: played at b with you, but he just does not
Speaker 8: like him and it's it's crazy. And so you really
Speaker 8: go off of your head guy, your guy in charge.
Speaker 8: His vibe, his attitude really delivers through the team. So
Speaker 8: his intensity, especially the way the month of October went
Speaker 8: for this football team, I can just tell his intensity's
Speaker 8: got to be at an all time high this week,
Speaker 8: and I think that's going to radiate through the team.
Speaker 8: And so and you just see his level of focus,
Speaker 8: his level of intensity. That impacts us as players. Sorry
Speaker 8: I'm uncle Rico. I'm saying U. It impacts the players
Speaker 8: and they increase their level of focus, their level of intensity.
Speaker 8: So I think he's a big proponent to how this
Speaker 8: game is going to go.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna be good with this because there's this
Speaker 1: narrative going throughout the community this week about the fact
Speaker 1: that only nine Utah players out of one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five have played BYU and there's only a handful
Speaker 1: of BYU players that have played against Utah, and both
Speaker 1: rosters are littered with out of state kids. So as
Speaker 1: someone who grew up elsewhere and then came here to
Speaker 1: play for the University of Utah. What's it like experiencing
Speaker 1: this from an out of state perspective? And do you
Speaker 1: think the out of state kids really understand how intense
Speaker 1: this is going to be on Saturday night?
Speaker 8: I gotta be honest, they won't really understand. I mean,
Speaker 8: they can get And that's why the coaching of the
Speaker 8: history this week is so important, right It is because
Speaker 8: when the game actually happens, you're able to really understand
Speaker 8: what they were talking about a week. But as an
Speaker 8: outer turner, you don't get it until the game is played,
Speaker 8: until the outcome has had and whether that's a win
Speaker 8: or a loss, you don't really feel it until that moment.
Speaker 8: You kind of get glimpses of to be able to understand.
Speaker 8: But I'm telling you it's just as important the community.
Speaker 8: The fans that show up your intensity, your passion throughout
Speaker 8: the game will showcase to the players how important this
Speaker 8: game is. The players, literally, their whole momentum, their whole
Speaker 8: playing style will go off of the crowd's intensity. So
Speaker 8: if the crowd is into it all game, so will
Speaker 8: the players, and you're gonna get one heck of an outcome.
Speaker 8: So It's just as important as the players are the
Speaker 8: fans are for this game.
Speaker 1: Do you have a personal favorite memory or a couple
Speaker 1: of favorite memories in your time playing for Utah against Yu?
Speaker 8: Man, just being able to play in the game, right,
Speaker 8: to say that I played in that game is is
Speaker 8: all the memory. Every single year, I could take a
Speaker 8: bits and pieces from them from from when I played
Speaker 8: was a long time ago, two thousand and six, thousand seven,
Speaker 8: two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine. Yeah, I
Speaker 8: know Utah has had like a winning streak, but I
Speaker 8: was one and three against these guys, and so I
Speaker 8: hate them even more because of that. I think the
Speaker 8: only team that I got a losing record against, and
Speaker 8: so like I that just makes me that much more
Speaker 8: intense about this rivalry. I love that we we went
Speaker 8: nine in a row. You know, hopefully we can get
Speaker 8: back on track with the winning records and do that,
Speaker 8: but yeah, man, this was this rivalry was great. The
Speaker 8: moments heading down to Lavelle Edward Stadium. I absolutely love
Speaker 8: going into opponent stadium, into hostile environments. I've been in
Speaker 8: some of the craziest hostile environments, and I tell you,
Speaker 8: Lavelle Edwards is right up there one or two or
Speaker 8: three as the most hostile environment I've been in, And
Speaker 8: I love it. I love the feeling of nervousness I had,
Speaker 8: you know before kickoff, how how intense I was. I'man
Speaker 8: from specifically two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine,
Speaker 8: before that kickoff happened, I'm literally blacked out red. I
Speaker 8: don't see nothing. I hear crowds, intensities, the booze, and
Speaker 8: I just see that color blue, and I just I
Speaker 8: want to rip it apart. Like that's just my whole
Speaker 8: mentality that whole time warming up, I just looking at
Speaker 8: their sideline looking for my little punk that I could
Speaker 8: punk all game? What old lineman, am I going to
Speaker 8: talk craft to all games? You know? Is it Dallas Reynolds?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 8: Is it some of these other frigga dudes. I was
Speaker 8: so walked in heading into the stadium before the game started.
Speaker 8: And then of course the whole first quarter in the
Speaker 8: rivalry game is all fights, and so I was fighting
Speaker 8: that entire first quarter with all the boys, So like, yeah,
Speaker 8: that's my biggest memory is is that first quarter and
Speaker 8: that pregame of these rivalries, man, it is it is
Speaker 8: something that a lot of people can't experience and it'll
Speaker 8: be awesome.
Speaker 2: I gotta know.
Speaker 1: Because you played on a Utah team with guys that
Speaker 1: like to talk. Who is who who talked the most smoke? Like,
Speaker 1: who is the best at it on your side?
Speaker 8: I mean aside from me, of course, of course, yeah,
Speaker 8: we had a few. Man at first it comes to
Speaker 8: mind is Terrell Cole. I don't know if a lot
Speaker 8: of people remember Terill Cole. That dude he talked most.
Speaker 8: He would get under everybody's skin. And I'm in a
Speaker 8: group chat with him now, so I just I know
Speaker 8: he still doesn't he still has.
Speaker 2: It in him.
Speaker 8: He's got it. He doesn't. That never left him. But
Speaker 8: other guys is like Keppa Geyson, Kepa Guyson talked a
Speaker 8: lot of smack. Cannapa Iliopol was great at at tagas
Speaker 8: smack on the offensive side of the ball. Robert Conley,
Speaker 8: you know, he he was subtle, he was more straightforward,
Speaker 8: like you want to talk to and he get it
Speaker 8: on the other offensive side of the ball. Jeremy Brooks.
Speaker 8: I'd have to give it to Jeremy Brooks and Brick
Speaker 8: has steel as being some of the biggest smack talkers
Speaker 8: on when I played at Utah and then of course
Speaker 8: you know me, Rojo Kepa Cole was quiet, Coult, don't
Speaker 8: ever say nothing. And then everybody's favorite, the legend himself,
Speaker 8: Sewn Smith.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, of course Sean probably should have been one
Speaker 1: of the first names I thought of. What what about
Speaker 1: on the other side, did did b YU have any
Speaker 1: guys that could keep up with with the talking smoke
Speaker 1: that stand out from from Yeah.
Speaker 8: From my experience, it was good. I can't remember anybody's names,
Speaker 8: but a lot of the old linemen, you know, with
Speaker 8: talk smack. And I remember in two thousand and seven
Speaker 8: I was I was talking to smacking and it was
Speaker 8: after a play up being an incomplete pass, and then
Speaker 8: I'm coming back and he starts saying something because I
Speaker 8: got by him, but like I didn't, I didn't get
Speaker 8: to the quarterback and he started saying something. He said
Speaker 8: something really foul, and I'm just like, you guys can
Speaker 8: say that at b YU and he just started frigging
Speaker 8: cracking up, laughing, and so like it's all. It's all
Speaker 8: great in sport, you know, to be able to experience that.
Speaker 8: Austin Collley talked a lot of smack Harvey younger, dude
Speaker 8: talk a lot of smack. You know, I can't really
Speaker 8: say that they started it, but they definitely contributed. He
Speaker 8: definitely contributed. So Max All really didn't say much. He
Speaker 8: said a lot after the game, but you know, during
Speaker 8: the game, he didn't talk a lot of smack. But yeah,
Speaker 8: those guys got into it. It's it's it's the same
Speaker 8: over there. They probably got the same amount of guys
Speaker 8: that talk smack as we do.
Speaker 1: Since you brought up Max All, we had Austin colly
Speaker 1: On earlier in the week, and you know, I've met
Speaker 1: Max a number of times. I've interviewed him and he
Speaker 1: seemed like a fine guy. I don't pretend to know
Speaker 1: him at all. I don't think I've ever asked you
Speaker 1: what was the reaction of the locker room, because you
Speaker 1: reference Max didn't say a thing during the game and
Speaker 1: then decided to run his mouth after the game, which
Speaker 1: is pretty telling, to be honest.
Speaker 2: But what was the reaction in the locker room. I
Speaker 2: know what it was in the community.
Speaker 1: He was a pariah up here, but what was the
Speaker 1: reaction in the locker room when you heard what Max
Speaker 1: had said?
Speaker 8: Well, I mean, he said that after they won in nine, right, right,
Speaker 8: that's freaking stupid O nine. And so we were in
Speaker 8: the locker room. We were kind of dejected, and you know,
Speaker 8: and you know, getting back to Salt Lake City before
Speaker 8: we even heard that he said that. It was actually
Speaker 8: on our way back to Salt Lake City that we
Speaker 8: heard that, and we were all actually getting together that night,
Speaker 8: so we all got to say it. You know, it
Speaker 8: was my senior year, so there's nothing we could do
Speaker 8: after the fact, but we kind of laughed at it.
Speaker 8: We're just like because because of that fact, we knew
Speaker 8: you didn't tell I smacked there in the game, but
Speaker 8: you want to say that now, and so but I
Speaker 8: can kind of get where he's coming from, especially the
Speaker 8: year before. Our fans went absolutely him on him in
Speaker 8: two thousand and eight, and I loved every bit of it.
Speaker 8: So I hope our fans do the same thing to
Speaker 8: Jake Retzlaus this year so he can get baptized into
Speaker 8: this holy war and the right way. And but yeah,
Speaker 8: I don't know. I ain't had much from it because
Speaker 8: there was nothing that we could do because we didn't
Speaker 8: play them again after the fact, But we just laughed
Speaker 8: at it because we knew that. I was like, oh,
Speaker 8: you wasn't talking no smack in the game, but she was.
Speaker 8: You definitely want to say something that's with that, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Sli, I want you to help me understand something here,
Speaker 1: because most of the defensive numbers for Utah football are
Speaker 1: very good, and most of the metrics indicate the defense
Speaker 1: is very good, and I believe that that's the case.
Speaker 1: But they're last and fumbles forced their last and fumbles recovered.
Speaker 2: This isn't a conference.
Speaker 1: They're ninth in interceptions and they're eleventh's me, twelfth in sacks.
Speaker 1: So usually the things that we see from a Utah
Speaker 1: defense are havoc plays and turnovers and pressure in the quarterback.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a good defense. It's number one in
Speaker 1: overall scoring defense. They're top three in the or excuse me,
Speaker 1: their top six in the country. First down and third down,
Speaker 1: so they put you in difficult situations. It's hard for
Speaker 1: teams to convert third downs. But tell me why from
Speaker 1: your vantage point, Utah football has not been able to
Speaker 1: really pressure the quarterback or force turnovers in a way
Speaker 1: that we're accustomed to.
Speaker 8: Scene This is such a great question. I kind of
Speaker 8: talked about it on Steve Bartell's pardcast last week or
Speaker 8: was it last week? Yeah, I think it was last week.
Speaker 8: Very crazy to look at that, Right, you're doing so
Speaker 8: well in first and third down, but you're also at
Speaker 8: the bottom in these other categories. And sadly this happened,
Speaker 8: and it happens because of the position that you're put in. Right, Sacks, turnovers,
Speaker 8: having plays happen because you're able to pin your ears
Speaker 8: back and get after the other team. Right, this defense
Speaker 8: has not been in a position where we're being able
Speaker 8: to pin our ears back and get after the other team.
Speaker 8: We've had to really be conservative on the defensive side
Speaker 8: of the ball. You know, we've blitzed a few times,
Speaker 8: but we've had to be conservative because it's just like
Speaker 8: just like in the TCU game. Right, you let TCU's
Speaker 8: offense drive all the way down the field on the
Speaker 8: first drive, but you create a turnover. Right, we create
Speaker 8: a turnover, you give it to our offense. What does
Speaker 8: our offense do with it? Absolutely nothing? And so we're
Speaker 8: deep in our own side of the field and we
Speaker 8: have to punt out of that side. We punt forty
Speaker 8: yard punt you give them, So you're giving them the
Speaker 8: ball back on their own forty five to midfield, and
Speaker 8: so they only have fifty yards to go. So we've
Speaker 8: been having to be really conservative and not be able
Speaker 8: to take risk. When you go for an interception, when
Speaker 8: you go for a strip fumble, when you make all
Speaker 8: those things, you go for a sack, you're taking a
Speaker 8: risk in some aspect, right, You're creating some kind of
Speaker 8: vulnerability in the defense. At one point. If I go
Speaker 8: for a pick, if I missed that pick, this guy
Speaker 8: can go over the top. Right, there's no confidence right
Speaker 8: now in the defense and our offense being able to
Speaker 8: get our back as a defender. Right, So if I
Speaker 8: go for this risk and miss and they get in
Speaker 8: a good position, they get a field goal or a touchdown,
Speaker 8: can our offense come back and score. Or if I
Speaker 8: take this risk, we're going to get that much further behind.
Speaker 8: So I don't see our defense taking risks in order
Speaker 8: to create those havoc plays. We've been having to be
Speaker 8: extremely conservative because we haven't been able to play conservative
Speaker 8: or complementary football. It's been very difficult in that aspect
Speaker 8: for us to be able to achieve a lot of
Speaker 8: the havoc plays that we're used to because of those
Speaker 8: simple sacs.
Speaker 1: All right, got to ask you about the quarterback position
Speaker 1: because obviously it's just been the number one thing, and
Speaker 1: it is the number one position. Isaac Brandon splitting reps
Speaker 1: sly from my vantage point, when I heard Brandon, he
Speaker 1: was made available to the media on Tuesday, which is
Speaker 1: not typical. When I heard Brandon talk, he sounded like
Speaker 1: a kid that's started a football game on Saturday night.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: We have coach Wait on the show tomorrow. I'll see
Speaker 1: if I can get any info in that direction. So
Speaker 1: how do you think this is going to play out?
Speaker 1: Do you have a preference? And ultimately is there a
Speaker 1: massive difference between the two right now?
Speaker 8: Well, here's the thing with practices being closed off spring
Speaker 8: game not being of that telling of what's going on.
Speaker 8: We're just privy to the information that the coaches have
Speaker 8: given us in the offseason and during practices and stuff, right,
Speaker 8: so we can't really tell. And yes, Brandon Rose, he's
Speaker 8: been a great case. He's been in his program. He's
Speaker 8: had to take the back seat a lot. Even last
Speaker 8: year he didn't get his opportunities and this and that.
Speaker 8: So again we're going into a position where we have
Speaker 8: to just rely on you know, the coaching staff making
Speaker 8: the right decisions, which is what they get paid to do,
Speaker 8: and put us in a position to win.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: For me, I'm on the other side of this, right,
Speaker 8: we don't have an opportunity to win the Big Twelve
Speaker 8: Championship or get to the Big Twelve Championship, So I
Speaker 8: need to make sure that my team is secure and
Speaker 8: ready to go for the future, right, And so the
Speaker 8: future is Isaac Wilson. To me, I think both of
Speaker 8: these guys have really strong arms. I know, we're talking
Speaker 8: about Isaac Wilson and he missed a couple of the
Speaker 8: short flat passes in the Houston in the Houston game,
Speaker 8: but there's a lot of things going on with that
Speaker 8: to make that happen. But you know, confidence is key
Speaker 8: in the quarterback position room and when you take the field.
Speaker 8: I haven't seen enough tape on Brandon Rose to be
Speaker 8: confident and say you're the guy. You're definitely better than Isaac.
Speaker 8: And then of course we haven't seen Isaac with you know,
Speaker 8: but Jaki and you know for more than a couple
Speaker 8: of weeks and seeing how these guys can do it,
Speaker 8: you know, I don't know if Isaac Wilson's confidence is
Speaker 8: completely shot for the rest of this year, so you
Speaker 8: have to go with Brandon Rose. I don't know if
Speaker 8: you know Isaac has done enough in this by week
Speaker 8: and this to to rebuild his confidence in himself to
Speaker 8: to get out on the field. For me, I would
Speaker 8: put Isaac in right. I'll put isa He's familiar with
Speaker 8: this rivalry, he understands the intensity. And if you practice
Speaker 8: with him and you've simplified this offense, you've you've given
Speaker 8: him things to be able to succeed in this, then
Speaker 8: you know I can. I can definitely say that he
Speaker 8: can lead us to victory on Saturday. But you know,
Speaker 8: of course we don't know what we don't know, so
Speaker 8: I'm gonna have to wait till kickoff to know who's
Speaker 8: gonna start at QB. But you know here nor there,
Speaker 8: I think, uh, this team is much more than the
Speaker 8: quarterback to position. So for us to keep putting oners
Speaker 8: on that sole position I think is terrible. And as players,
Speaker 8: the same thing. Just because Cam Rising goes out, Isaac
Speaker 8: Wilson throws a bad pass, it can't demoralize the rest
Speaker 8: of the team. There's so many different ways people can
Speaker 8: affect the football game, and so if you can understand that,
Speaker 8: we should get a lot of play out of everybody
Speaker 8: else on this football team. So I'm just more so
Speaker 8: waiting for that, for everybody to step up and take
Speaker 8: advantage of this ribbery.
Speaker 1: I feel like the start of these games are often telling,
Speaker 1: and I wanted you to take us kind of beneath
Speaker 1: the helmet a little bit about the tricky balance of
Speaker 1: making sure you're playing very hard, as hard as you can,
Speaker 1: but not getting consumed by the moment, not getting overwhelmed
Speaker 1: by the intensity because at some point that will wane
Speaker 1: and then it's just time to play football.
Speaker 2: So what are you going to be looking for? Slide
Speaker 2: right out of the gates from the utes, indicate they're
Speaker 2: in a good place.
Speaker 8: Well, I mean to indicate they're in a good place.
Speaker 8: It's kind of different from traditional years. Right, I'm more
Speaker 8: on the stage and we're on a four game losing streak,
Speaker 8: So can we showcase any offense right like that? That's
Speaker 8: where my head is at. That's where the importance is
Speaker 8: at for me, is can we show that you know
Speaker 8: we have it together, that we're playing with confidence and
Speaker 8: we can make it happen. You know, the beginning of
Speaker 8: this game can be whatever I've seen it throughout. The
Speaker 8: rivalry go both ways, the team down South getting a
Speaker 8: great start, Utah getting a great start, and in the
Speaker 8: end it's completely different, right, and so one, you got
Speaker 8: to be locked in throughout the game. Every single play,
Speaker 8: every blade of turf grass out there is going to
Speaker 8: be extremely important the entire game. Every second of best
Speaker 8: sixty minute football game is going to be very, very
Speaker 8: very important to some capacity in this football game. So
Speaker 8: I hope these guys just understand that they can't miss
Speaker 8: an opportunity when it's presented. If you have an opportunity
Speaker 8: to get an interception, you've got to make it. You
Speaker 8: got an opportunity to get a strip sack or make
Speaker 8: a tackle, or force these guys out and punt the football.
Speaker 8: You got an opportunity to catch the football. There's been
Speaker 8: some drops by key players on this receiving core. Right.
Speaker 8: We've seen some key drops by Dorian Singer, Micah Pittman
Speaker 8: money parts before he got injured. We've seen some drops
Speaker 8: from these guys. This is opportunities when it presents itself,
Speaker 8: and when it presents itself, it needs to they need
Speaker 8: to make that happen. And so with that being said,
Speaker 8: like you can't miss your opportunity in this football game
Speaker 8: and a robbery holy war game. This game is about
Speaker 8: who can take advantage of the opportunities that are presented
Speaker 8: to them.
Speaker 2: I'm putting thirty seconds on the clock.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the Tackle the Cold Coach Drive coming
Speaker 1: up on Saturday.
Speaker 8: Tackle the Cold Code Drive the NFLPA, which is a
Speaker 8: new chat. They're here in Utah Players Association, former players
Speaker 8: from the team down South, former players from Utah, former
Speaker 8: players from Utah State, and then other former players from
Speaker 8: around the United States live here in Utah and we
Speaker 8: created a chapter with the NFL Players Association and we're
Speaker 8: partnering with Utah Foster Care to provide foster kids with
Speaker 8: new coachs for the winter. So if you guys have
Speaker 8: in your hearts to give this season, we're doing a
Speaker 8: code drive at the tailgate this weekend. Our tailgate lot
Speaker 8: is right in front of the Aquatic Center and the
Speaker 8: male tailgate in the main tailgate lot, and you can
Speaker 8: drop off new coach. If you don't have new coach,
Speaker 8: you can do gift cards or venmo at Utah Foster
Speaker 8: Care Foundation on Venmo, but contribute if you can't. We
Speaker 8: got to get these foster kids some new clothes for
Speaker 8: the winter because it's going to be cold this year.
Speaker 10: For sure.
Speaker 2: Live you're the man. We'll see Saturday.
Speaker 8: Okay, thanks Bence, appreciate you.