Speaker 1: Said twenty five days to kick up for Utah football
Speaker 1: right here on your Home of the U CSPN seven
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety two to one FM presented by Outlaw Distillery.
Speaker 2: All Right, what's going on? Drive time Tuesday afternoon. We're
Speaker 2: looking at about thirteen minutes past the hour of two
Speaker 2: o'clock ninety two degrees hot and sunny here in downtown
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City, Utah, on this August Tuesday afternoon. And
Speaker 2: as it is every single day, it's good to have
Speaker 2: you along for the ride.
Speaker 3: Spence Check, It's beyond the Mike, Porter.
Speaker 2: Larsen, behind the Glass jam Pack Tuesday Show, good guest
Speaker 2: list on tap while college Football Conversation. As we are
Speaker 2: just over three weeks away from the start of the
Speaker 2: season for the University of Utah, Week zero will take
Speaker 2: place before that, and college football essentially is here as
Speaker 2: your home of the Untons will have the best coverage
Speaker 2: of Utah football all year long. As Camp Kyle rolls
Speaker 2: along Week two, up on the Hill for the Utes
Speaker 2: and down South, BYU continues to look for their quarterback
Speaker 2: and talk about the ladies. With that, BYU picks up
Speaker 2: another big time basketball commit yesterday, a four star kid
Speaker 2: out of our state, local recruit.
Speaker 3: So Kevin Young continues.
Speaker 2: To build his staff and year one for Alex Jensen
Speaker 2: of the Big Twelve.
Speaker 3: What's that going to look like?
Speaker 2: Of course, a lot of college football, but we are
Speaker 2: right on the precipice of college basketball as well. Offseason
Speaker 2: NBA stuff pretty quiet as of now. That certainly could change,
Speaker 2: as we saw not too long ago when the Jazz
Speaker 2: decided to move on from the group that brought us
Speaker 2: a really funny nine year stretch with Donovan, Mitchell and
Speaker 2: Rudy Gobert. I think Donovan was traded in September, if
Speaker 2: I remember correctly, and Bogdanovich was traded even after that.
Speaker 2: So not a lot of NBA off season stuff, But
Speaker 2: we will do a little NBA today. We got one
Speaker 2: of our favorite NBA guests in studio, so a lot to.
Speaker 3: Do on the program today.
Speaker 2: Some contract news in the world of pro football that
Speaker 2: we'll get to. Williams gets a three year, thirty three
Speaker 2: million dollar extension with the Rams. Teddy Bridgewater's on his
Speaker 2: way to Tampa Bay. So little NFL offseason news on
Speaker 2: the program today from a local standpoint. RSL is back
Speaker 2: in action tomorrow. Midweek clash in the League's Cup. I
Speaker 2: think it's the League's Cup, Nations Cup, whatever. It is
Speaker 2: a lot of cups in that sport, and then back
Speaker 2: to MLS play on Saturday in New York and Pablo
Speaker 2: mash twenty joined us yesterday. We talked about the two
Speaker 2: new editions. We'll kind of get to know them a
Speaker 2: little bit on the program today. We'll see if they're
Speaker 2: available either tomorrow or Saturday as reinforcements on the way
Speaker 2: for Pablo mash twenty and ray Al salt Lake. So
Speaker 2: a lot to do on the show. Good to have
Speaker 2: you guys along for the ride. We'll start things off
Speaker 2: today with Kyle Bona. Kyle bondagerra covers college football and
Speaker 2: soccer for ESPN and he just released a podcast series
Speaker 2: and I read the story that they attached to it
Speaker 2: this morning and it is a fascinating story about Paul
Speaker 2: wolf in the disappearance of his mother. Paul was the
Speaker 2: head coach of Washington State for a number of years.
Speaker 2: So we'll do some college football. I want to talk
Speaker 2: to Kyle about this project though. It's definitely worth your time.
Speaker 2: It's a pretty intriguing story. So Kyle will be our
Speaker 2: first guest, Spencer Living, our buddy from BYU TV, will
Speaker 2: stop by the latest on the quarterback battle down South.
Speaker 2: We'll do some Big twelve football, some college football with Spencer,
Speaker 2: Dave bar two the College Football Matrix. We'll talk to
Speaker 2: some college football and some Big twelve and some mutes
Speaker 2: with Dave today and if you know Dave bar two,
Speaker 2: we're about to get weird on a Tuesday afternoon because
Speaker 2: you never know where our guy is. He could be
Speaker 2: elk hunting, selling gummies, running one of his restaurants.
Speaker 3: He's a fascinating dude, so we'll bring him in today.
Speaker 2: And then it's our weekly conversation with Richard Smith forty
Speaker 2: years with.
Speaker 3: The Jazz front office.
Speaker 2: We'll talk some NBA offseason and the approach of the
Speaker 2: NBA season is actually also on tap, Kyle Bondager, A,
Speaker 2: Spencer Letton, Dave bar two, Richard Smith, Me, Spence Check.
Speaker 2: Its all of you, the great listeners, and that guy
Speaker 2: Porter Larson on a Tuesday afternoon. The headband Look. I'm
Speaker 2: a proponent of the headband look. Is this a new
Speaker 2: thing for you?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 3: Oh no, just tune into YouTube.
Speaker 2: I just forgot my hat at the studio and you
Speaker 2: can watch this hippie, this dirty hippie produce my show today.
Speaker 3: What's what's the motivation for the headband? Looked at it.
Speaker 3: I just forgot the hat.
Speaker 5: I'm if you're if you'll if you see me like
Speaker 5: not here, probably wearing the headband because I have too
Speaker 5: much hair usually have like a hat or I don't know,
Speaker 5: something else on didn't bring it. So yeah, I got
Speaker 5: the headband. Sorry, Jim, Jim gear I guess wait.
Speaker 2: A second, we have some breaking news.
Speaker 3: So the Utah Jazz just traded for George Niang. Ooh,
Speaker 3: that's big, that's blockbuster. The mini van comes home.
Speaker 2: Some breaking news to start things off on a Tuesday,
Speaker 2: Shams tweets out the Boston Celtics. There's our cheesy breaking
Speaker 2: news sounder. Budget issues have forced us to use a
Speaker 2: corny breaking news sounder. Accordion to Sham Sharati from ESPN,
Speaker 2: the Boston Celtics are trading George Niang and two future
Speaker 2: second round picks to the Utah Jazz for R. J.
Speaker 2: Lewis Junior. The Celtics ultimately are punting on this season.
Speaker 2: It is a pivot year as Jason Tatum is recovering
Speaker 2: from a torn achilles and George Dyang is coming home.
Speaker 3: The mini van returns to Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2: According to Shams, the salary goes into the John Collins
Speaker 2: trade exception, and they also get two additional draft assets,
Speaker 2: and the move allows the Celtics to have more salary
Speaker 2: relief below the second apron. So the Jazz get George Niang,
Speaker 2: who is a great guy but not a great basketball player,
Speaker 2: and a couple more second round picks to add to
Speaker 2: that treasure trove of draft assets that they have at
Speaker 2: their disposal. Now the challenge is to turn those draft
Speaker 2: picks into good basketball players.
Speaker 3: Breaking news. There you go, there's your analysis.
Speaker 2: So opening tip time on the program, we're going to
Speaker 2: bring in Kyle bond Gera Today, Top college football, Spencer Lytton,
Speaker 2: Dave bar Two, Richard Smith. It's unexpected, breaking news that
Speaker 2: George Nihang is coming home.
Speaker 3: The minivan returns to Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2: The Jazz had that trade exception with the John Collins situation,
Speaker 2: so they'll absorb George's salary into that and then get
Speaker 2: a couple of more second round picks to add to
Speaker 2: the treasure trove of draft capital they have.
Speaker 3: So there you go.
Speaker 2: Certainly not the way I plan on starting the show today,
Speaker 2: and it's certainly not groundbreaking.
Speaker 3: We'll get Smithy's take on this coming up in.
Speaker 2: Just a little bit, But yesterday was the release in
Speaker 2: the world of college football of the Coaches Pool, of
Speaker 2: the APE Coaches pol, the USA Today Coaches Poll. We
Speaker 2: talked about this during cross Talk with Sean Today. As
Speaker 2: it is early August, it is ranking season, its pole season,
Speaker 2: it's pre season prognostication season. And a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: when we were debating the merit of this Coach's poll,
Speaker 2: I texted a coach in state and I will leave
Speaker 2: his name off air because I told him it would
Speaker 2: be off the record, and I said, in all of
Speaker 2: your years of being a head coach in the world
Speaker 2: of college football, have you ever filled out this top
Speaker 2: twenty five police He emphatically, he said, no, I always
Speaker 2: delegate it.
Speaker 3: So I don't really know what to make of it.
Speaker 2: Next week, so six days from today, the AP pole
Speaker 2: will come out, and at least the Apeopole, for the
Speaker 2: most part, involves media members that actually study these things,
Speaker 2: media members that actually pay attention. Of course, the landscape
Speaker 2: of college college football has changed quite a bit, with
Speaker 2: most teams having roster changeover of forty to fifty sixty,
Speaker 2: sometimes more than that seventy percent Utah State with a
Speaker 2: brand new cast. I mean, so many teams ultimately don't
Speaker 2: look anything like they did the year before, and Utah
Speaker 2: is kind of in that spot obviously, with a new
Speaker 2: quarterback and a new offense coordinator and a grip of
Speaker 2: transfers on.
Speaker 3: Both sides of the ball.
Speaker 2: But the fact of the matter is the coaches aren't
Speaker 2: necessarily dialed into this thing, so it is fodder for conversation,
Speaker 2: and it certainly is proof that college football is right
Speaker 2: around the corner. So BYU at twenty three in the
Speaker 2: AP pol, which I found somewhat interesting. I think it's
Speaker 2: certainly indicative of the overall scope of the program Klonie
Speaker 2: is built, and then the team actually being pretty stacked
Speaker 2: in certain areas. I thought the rets left stuff might
Speaker 2: more adversely affect the preseason opinion of BYU, and to
Speaker 2: be fair, in some polls it has. And if you
Speaker 2: want kind of a hint at what the AP poll
Speaker 2: is going to look like, you can go look at
Speaker 2: Brett Brett McMurphy's top twenty five poll Joe Klatt has
Speaker 2: released his, a lot of other outlets have released theirs,
Speaker 2: and there's a lot.
Speaker 3: Of variance because ultimately nobody knows.
Speaker 2: As I say, every single year, the first three or
Speaker 2: four games of the college football season for me observation,
Speaker 2: not conclusion.
Speaker 3: I need at least three or four games. Now. The tricky,
Speaker 3: both the tricky and the exciting thing.
Speaker 2: About college football is it is the ultimate sprint.
Speaker 3: I think it's what makes it as popular as it is.
Speaker 2: Even at the NFL as it has expanded its calendar,
Speaker 2: you know, you get four or five more games and
Speaker 2: pro football college football you got to hit the ground running.
Speaker 3: So for Utah, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I think it'll be more applicable to kind of
Speaker 2: analyze who they are after the non con is behind them,
Speaker 2: because it's kind of a soft non con for the
Speaker 2: Utes this year at the Rose Bowl against UCLA, twenty
Speaker 2: five days away home against cal Poly where cal Poly
Speaker 2: receives a check in exchange for those poor kids get
Speaker 2: to get their heads kicked in. Then on the road
Speaker 2: at the Porter Larson Memorial at Wyoming. Are you still
Speaker 2: planning on taking that road trip to Laramie to see
Speaker 2: the Wyoming game?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Da God bless you.
Speaker 2: At least it's early September, so you won't be freezing,
Speaker 2: and hopefully no, hopefully no Wyom fans throw human feces
Speaker 2: at you.
Speaker 3: It's a real thing that happens up there. I know
Speaker 3: it has happened. Hopefully it happens consistently.
Speaker 2: But with the utes, I think probably after the Texas
Speaker 2: Tech game here in Salt Lake than on the road
Speaker 2: to West Virginia. After those, you know, four or five
Speaker 2: games are behind us, then we'll have a better idea
Speaker 2: of exactly what sort of hand that we've been dealt,
Speaker 2: because after that you run into a bit of a
Speaker 2: gauntlet Arizona State, the highest ranked Big twelve team here
Speaker 2: in Sault Lake, on the road in Provo at BYU,
Speaker 2: which is always tricky, and then you go to Boulder
Speaker 2: to see Dion and the Colorado Buffs, who really aren't
Speaker 2: getting near the amount of preseason buzz this year than
Speaker 2: they were last year. Obviously, Shador and Travis Hunter are
Speaker 2: in the NFL, so that's something that will, you know,
Speaker 2: change the scope of the attention. And BYU's non con
Speaker 2: isn't great. Portland State is the opener. I think if
Speaker 2: you're a BYU fan, you don't mind a soft landing
Speaker 2: spot to open things off because you are going to
Speaker 2: be breaking in a new quarterback. And regardless of the
Speaker 2: hype around any of the three that we'll discuss today,
Speaker 2: as far as BYU's decision making process goes, anytime you
Speaker 2: do something for the first time, you're simply going to struggle.
Speaker 2: It doesn't necessarily happen quite often where either a transfer
Speaker 2: true freshman who has never played at this level simply
Speaker 2: hits the ground running.
Speaker 3: You got to get your feet wet.
Speaker 2: So for BYU, their conference schedule begins at Colorado after
Speaker 2: their East Carolina road trip, then they get West Virginia
Speaker 2: at home, then they're at Arizona before hosting Utah.
Speaker 3: So preseason polls are preseason polls, that's all it is.
Speaker 2: It gives you some conversation and some fodder topically, some
Speaker 2: things to discuss. I will be interested to see where
Speaker 2: both these two teams come in with the eight people
Speaker 2: and then the rest of the Big twelve as well,
Speaker 2: because the Big twelve is not getting a ton of
Speaker 2: love as far as the preseason stuff. Arizona State your
Speaker 2: highest ranked team at eleven, then you have to go
Speaker 2: all the way down to Case State at twenty, Iowa
Speaker 2: State twenty one, BYU twenty three, Texas Tech twenty four,
Speaker 2: and then teams receiving votes.
Speaker 3: It's Utah Baylor in that.
Speaker 2: Kind of in that area, So we'll see the once
Speaker 2: conference play begins, once the non conness behind us, will
Speaker 2: kind of have a better idea of exactly what sort
Speaker 2: of situation is in front of us. If you missed
Speaker 2: the breaking news, the minivan is on its way back
Speaker 2: to Salt Lake George Niang has been traded to the
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz by the Boston Celtics along with two second
Speaker 2: round draft picks. So we have some NBA content to
Speaker 2: get to today. We'll do that with Smitty a little
Speaker 2: bit later on, but it's going to bring in our
Speaker 2: buddy Spencer Lytton today from BYU TV, latest on the
Speaker 2: quarterback battle down in Provo. Another big time basketball commit
Speaker 2: as well, Dave Bartwo college football matrix Richard Smith will
Speaker 2: join us the Jazz that made a trade the minivan
Speaker 2: is on his way back to Salt Lake City. George
Speaker 2: Niang will be playing for the Jazz next year. The
Speaker 2: Jazz traded r. J. Lewis and received Niang and two
Speaker 2: second round picks as well, so that news became official.
Speaker 2: Start things off on a Tuesday afternoon with one of
Speaker 2: my favorite guests, now a podcaster, Kyle Bonna Gera, Kyle,
Speaker 2: Happy Tuesday, sir.
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, Spence are you?
Speaker 3: I'm well? So let's start with your new project.
Speaker 2: And I recall hearing about this, but now as a
Speaker 2: result of you know, I read the entire piece that
Speaker 2: you and Adam did this morning. When I saw you
Speaker 2: were going to be on I pulled this up. So
Speaker 2: Paul Wolfe's mother, of course, Paul was the head coach
Speaker 2: of Washington State for a number of years. Dolores Wolf
Speaker 2: disappeared in July of nineteen seventy nine, and it is
Speaker 2: quite a fascinating story that I'm not sure how many
Speaker 2: people are fully aware of. So let's go back to
Speaker 2: the origin story kind of when you heard about this,
Speaker 2: and then why you and Adam decided to do this
Speaker 2: entire project.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, thanks for willing to chat about it. We're
Speaker 4: really excited about the project. So I think the most
Speaker 4: obvious place to start, just for your listeners is that
Speaker 4: Paul wolf is now the head coach at cal Poly
Speaker 4: who Utah will will host its first home game this year.
Speaker 4: So a little bit of a Utah youth connection for
Speaker 4: fro from the jump here. So in twenty twenty, Adam
Speaker 4: and I were kind of, you know, going through the
Speaker 4: COVID motions. R I were trying to report about college
Speaker 4: football during during that weird season, and he received a
Speaker 4: tip that he saw this interesting story about.
Speaker 6: Paul Wolfe and it's it's something about his mother, and
Speaker 6: so he's like, hey, this is kind of interesting. We
Speaker 6: should we should look into this. And so the short
Speaker 6: version is that when Paul.
Speaker 4: Wolfe was was twelve years old.
Speaker 6: He's the youngest of four children. One night, his mother disappeared,
Speaker 6: never was seen or heard from again. Almost immediately, his
Speaker 6: father was telling.
Speaker 4: Both him and his other brother who was still living
Speaker 4: at the house, that she was she was gone, and
Speaker 4: she was never coming back. It emerged very quickly that
Speaker 4: he was the primary suspect in her disappearance. But three
Speaker 4: number of factors, you know, they weren't able to ever
Speaker 4: prosecute him. He's never you know, never never went before
Speaker 4: a jury to face any charges. But you know, it
Speaker 4: really impacted the trajectory of his life.
Speaker 6: Of course, right he moves out of his house and
Speaker 6: his dad. He effectively lost both parents when this happens,
Speaker 6: is raised by his aunt and uncle, a really fascinating
Speaker 6: uncle who's had a crazy military career that we get
Speaker 6: into as well. And then forty one years later, in
Speaker 6: the summer of twenty twenty, a cold case detective in
Speaker 6: the Bay area near where I live, you know, it's
Speaker 6: kind of tipped off about another case and went down
Speaker 6: this went down this rabbit hole and eventually determined that
Speaker 6: Paul will'smother had been found just six weeks after she
Speaker 6: went missing, but no one was able to identify her.
Speaker 6: She had been in cemetery one county over for four decades,
Speaker 6: and they were able to do DNA testing through Paul
Speaker 6: to make the determination that this woman, who had only
Speaker 6: been identified an unmarked grave.
Speaker 4: As Jane does sixteen, was in fact his mother. It's
Speaker 4: a crazy story.
Speaker 6: We wrote about it in twenty twenty twenty one for
Speaker 6: ESPN where we kind of outlined the whole process and
Speaker 6: there was a lot of just wild stuff that happened.
Speaker 6: There's just too much to get into, but like it
Speaker 6: was the most incredible story that Adam and.
Speaker 7: I heard had ever worked on.
Speaker 6: And so we published the story. It was very much
Speaker 6: through the lens of Paul and this coach, it is
Speaker 6: in the ESPN story, but there was so much more
Speaker 6: to it that we couldn't get into in our story.
Speaker 6: It was a story that we both felt deeply deserved
Speaker 6: to be told more broadly to a wider audience interesting
Speaker 6: trips of like not not sports fans specifically, and so ESPN,
Speaker 6: with it, with its blessing, allowed us to pursue the
Speaker 6: project kind of on the side as a podcast, and
Speaker 6: so over the past year or so, a little bit
Speaker 6: more than the year, we've been kind of working on
Speaker 6: it in our free time, and the first episode of
Speaker 6: the podcast was released yesterday. It's called The Unforgotten. It's
Speaker 6: season three of a pre existing podcast, and the season
Speaker 6: is called Finding Dolores Wolf.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a gripping story.
Speaker 2: I mean, the written portion that I read starts out
Speaker 2: with Paul as a young man, and the way you
Speaker 2: framed it was great because it was just one of
Speaker 2: those things that the grips you to the point where
Speaker 2: you want to read the entire thing. In March of
Speaker 2: eighty five, Paul, who was eighteen, had been summoned to
Speaker 2: a meeting to confront the suspect in his mother's murder,
Speaker 2: and then you revealed that the suspect is his father.
Speaker 2: And I can't imagine what that's like when you're eighteen
Speaker 2: years old and you're asked to sit across your father
Speaker 2: to try to dig for information to find out whether
Speaker 2: or not he's the one that actually is responsible for
Speaker 2: the mother's disappearance. I mean it is written through the
Speaker 2: lens of Paul and excited to listen to the pod,
Speaker 2: But how would you say all of this kind of
Speaker 2: shaped him? And you know, through the lens of what
Speaker 2: he became, which is a high level player in college
Speaker 2: and then of course a coach.
Speaker 6: You know, I think it's it's foundational and who he
Speaker 6: became as a person.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 6: You can't live through something as traumatic as that and
Speaker 6: not having any impact to you, like to your war, right.
Speaker 4: And I think it started and I talked a lot.
Speaker 6: About this with Paul over the years. You know, he
Speaker 6: moved in with his uncle and aunt who I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 6: this guy who was a Vietnam that a really interesting
Speaker 6: guy who we have a whole episode devoted to, Like
Speaker 6: his military career is just crazy. That's episode four us
Speaker 6: so look forward to that. But he was like, he
Speaker 6: was a guy who was very involved in the community
Speaker 6: as a coach, like coach little league baseball, you know,
Speaker 6: youth softball, was involved in slow pitch softball recreationally, like
Speaker 6: just like coached all his kids in all their sports.
Speaker 6: Was you know, he he estimated that he you know,
Speaker 6: coached maybe five thousand.
Speaker 4: Kids over the course of his life in this community.
Speaker 6: And being raised by someone like that after you know,
Speaker 6: after the separation of his immediate family, the guy kind
Speaker 6: of stepped in as his protector at a time when
Speaker 6: he really needed it. Right, those are foundational years for anyone, right,
Speaker 6: but for someone who's twelve and goes through what he
Speaker 6: went through, now this is the mentor figure.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: He treated Paul like a son who was a better
Speaker 4: father than his actual father had ever been. And so
Speaker 4: I think he heavitated towards coaching and being around the
Speaker 4: team and having that camaraderie. And then I think what
Speaker 4: kind of stands out to me after talking with Paul
Speaker 4: about it, is like, look, he's very he feels like
Speaker 4: he can really relate to a lot of what these
Speaker 4: kids are going through and have the perspective of, like,
Speaker 4: football is very important, right, That's why they're all there.
Speaker 4: It's a big part of everyone's life who's involved in
Speaker 4: these high level teams. But there's other stuff going on
Speaker 4: in everyone's life, and it's tough at times, right, And
Speaker 4: so he's very sympathetic to family struggles and outside of like,
Speaker 4: you know, whatever somebody's dealing with, and being kind of
Speaker 4: accepting of them and being able to kind of relate
Speaker 4: to them in those ways.
Speaker 6: And so I think all of those elements that he
Speaker 6: went through, like he like, formed him and allowed him
Speaker 6: to kind of have those deeply personal relationships with all
Speaker 6: of his players and coaches.
Speaker 2: So one of the well, several interesting portions of this,
Speaker 2: But the connection about his mother's body having been found
Speaker 2: was made by a lady named Stacy Sherman who was
Speaker 2: looking for additional victims of the Golden State Killer, a
Speaker 2: man named Joseph James DeAngelo, who was arrested in twenty
Speaker 2: eighteen on eight counts of murder. Were there, ever, any
Speaker 2: other suspects outside of Carl Paul's father or did this
Speaker 2: appear to be Okay, this is just one person and
Speaker 2: we just don't have enough evidence to pin him down.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was very clear to anyone who was around then,
Speaker 6: and we did extensive interviews with the investigator at the time,
Speaker 6: the district training at the time, lots of family members,
Speaker 6: like many many hours like kind of looking into that possibility,
Speaker 6: and like everyone knew, the community knew, the family knew,
Speaker 6: the police knew, the district attorney knew, everyone knew who
Speaker 6: did it. But at that time it was just, you know,
Speaker 6: getting a murder conviction without a body was almost impossible
Speaker 6: at that point in time, Like there was physical evidence
Speaker 6: tied to it. There was blood on a blanket, there
Speaker 6: was like her missing earring was found in the trunk,
Speaker 6: there was like enough there. But the DA and we
Speaker 6: discussed this with him fairly recently, like it was a
Speaker 6: lot of circumstantial stuff, and so they made the decision
Speaker 6: at a certain point to like, well, let's keep looking
Speaker 6: for the body and hopefully we find it. And then
Speaker 6: once we have the body, it's a slam dunk, but
Speaker 6: without it, we think he'll probably walk. And so what
Speaker 6: actually happens is those six years go by with no arrest,
Speaker 6: and so finally the family is fed up and so
Speaker 6: they push They pushed the envelope a little bit and
Speaker 6: take the case to the Attorney general in the state
Speaker 6: of California, who looks at the evidence is like, yeah,
Speaker 6: there's enough to year to pursue a murder charge. We'll
Speaker 6: go ahead and handle it if the local DA doesn't
Speaker 6: want to. So at that point Yolo County, which is
Speaker 6: north of California outside of Sacramento, it says, okay, they
Speaker 6: didn't want to be bigfooted by the Attorney General's office
Speaker 6: and kind of relents and says, okay, we'll prosecute the case.
Speaker 6: So the fire is eventually arrested and there's you know,
Speaker 6: weeks of you know, evidentiary hearings in front of a
Speaker 6: judge to determine if the case could go to trial.
Speaker 6: And what the judge ruled is that because they took
Speaker 6: six years to charge him with murder, they violated his
Speaker 6: right to a speedy trial and therefore the case could
Speaker 6: not proceed. So it wasn't anything about the evidence, it
Speaker 6: wasn't anything about he wasn't proved innocent.
Speaker 8: It was really just.
Speaker 6: A technicality that let him walk and that's why he
Speaker 6: never never faced justice.
Speaker 2: One portion also alludes to the fact that Carl Paul's
Speaker 2: father tried to come back into his life later on,
Speaker 2: when Paul was a college football player and a coach.
Speaker 2: Did that connection ever manifest anything lasting. Was Paul ever
Speaker 2: open to trying to have a relationship with his father
Speaker 2: when he tried to come back into his life.
Speaker 6: No, So like the last time they ever they ever
Speaker 6: met or they ever spoken person was in nineteen I believe,
Speaker 6: nineteen eighty eight. And so Paul is a player at
Speaker 6: Washington State and it might be in the year's rock,
Speaker 6: but that the story is the same, Like did they
Speaker 6: had played Ucla? Ucla was the number one.
Speaker 4: Team in the country at the time. Washington State was
Speaker 4: a middle of the team went to the Rose Bolt and
Speaker 4: beat Ecla. Upset the number one team in the country.
Speaker 4: Big deal, right obviously for Paul, for the team, all
Speaker 4: of that, And outside the locker room.
Speaker 6: After the game, his dad was there.
Speaker 4: He had come to the game.
Speaker 6: He wanted to see him, and so Paul, you know,
Speaker 6: gave him a couple of minutes and saiday, it's probably
Speaker 6: not a good idea for you to be here. A
Speaker 6: lot of his you know, friends and family were there,
Speaker 6: and he was persented Mangrad around the family.
Speaker 4: It was like, basically, you need to leave, and he's like, well,
Speaker 4: I want to have more to do with you in
Speaker 4: your life, and Paul's like, look and tell you, tell
Speaker 4: me more about what happened to my mother. We're not
Speaker 4: going to have a relationship. And that was the last
Speaker 4: time they ever saw each other in person. There was
Speaker 4: one more phone call to following spring between Paul and
Speaker 4: his father about hey, like kind of one last chance
Speaker 4: to try to salvage the relationship from his father's perspective,
Speaker 4: but you know, they never talked again after that, so
Speaker 4: it was it was less several decades of the man's
Speaker 4: life and Paul had no contact with him.
Speaker 2: You referenced the uncle who does manifest himself throughout the
Speaker 2: written portion of what I've read here as a very
Speaker 2: very interesting, interesting I Slick was his nickname, and you know,
Speaker 2: he and others were pretty hell bent on making sure
Speaker 2: that Karl did not enjoy his existence at all, even
Speaker 2: while he was a free man. Can you elaborate on
Speaker 2: some of the things that they did to him to
Speaker 2: just dry Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, And this is some of my favorite part
Speaker 6: of the of the story. And we have got a
Speaker 6: couple of episodes devoted to this stuff. So episode three
Speaker 6: will be basically all the all the stuff they did
Speaker 6: to this man crazy and drive him out of town.
Speaker 6: And the fourth episode is basically a you know, we
Speaker 6: profile Slick and he's just incredible. We spent some time
Speaker 6: with him at his apartment. He's telling us wild stories.
Speaker 6: But so anyways, they're basically the family that the lorf
Speaker 6: had a large Portuguese family who all lived in the community.
Speaker 6: Carl had no family in the area, so he was
Speaker 6: surrounded by her family in this small town outside Sacramento.
Speaker 6: And after she went missing, they I mean, they made
Speaker 6: his life a living hell. I mean they would cut
Speaker 6: off his power.
Speaker 4: They would write like murder on his garage, on his
Speaker 4: garage door, and animal blood. They would throat dead animal
Speaker 4: carcasses on his on his lawn of his property. They
Speaker 4: would chase him out of grocery stores, they would stalk
Speaker 4: him around town. At one point there was a jar
Speaker 4: of urine that they threw through his living room window
Speaker 4: into his into his house. I mean, they really they
Speaker 4: really pushed the envelope, stopping short of physical violence. Certainly
Speaker 4: a lot of it would have, you know, been illegal
Speaker 4: in its own right, or.
Speaker 6: What they were doing just intimidating this man. But again,
Speaker 6: like everyone knew he was responsible for her disappearance and
Speaker 6: likely her murder at that time. So the police in
Speaker 6: town basically looked the other way and let them kind
Speaker 6: of have their way with this guy, because you know,
Speaker 6: they felt, you know, like the police in the small
Speaker 6: town felt like this guy should face justice, and if
Speaker 6: this is all they're going to be able to do,
Speaker 6: then they were kind of happy to look look the
Speaker 6: other way. And then this guy slicked the uncle of
Speaker 6: Doris is Doris's brother, who they had a really tight relationship.
Speaker 4: Then we get into that in the pod.
Speaker 6: He was someone who before the Vietnam War had really
Speaker 6: broken out into a full scale war, was in the
Speaker 6: one hundred and first Airborne did Theysion of the Army
Speaker 6: and had been parachuting in under the cover of darkness,
Speaker 6: you know, assassinating enemy years before the war had broken out.
Speaker 6: He was killing people with his bare hands. This is
Speaker 6: I guess maybe a little violent disclaimer here, Like there
Speaker 6: was like a lot of stuff that was really graphic
Speaker 6: that he described with us, and we get into that
Speaker 6: on the pod. So here's a guy who was responsible
Speaker 6: for a lot of death on his own as a
Speaker 6: member of the as a member of the military.
Speaker 4: And he did that.
Speaker 6: He did all this like in like he was conditioned
Speaker 6: to believe it's in service of the country.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 6: You can understand this is the fifties, right, that's that's
Speaker 6: like what he was assigned to do, right, And so
Speaker 6: he executed the cast that he was told to do,
Speaker 6: but still took a real toll on him. And what
Speaker 6: he told us is that or he told his son,
Speaker 6: is that he would have to get work himself into
Speaker 6: a frenzy to be able to do these, like these
Speaker 6: acts for the military. He would have to He told
Speaker 6: him that he had to pretend like these people were
Speaker 6: harming his sister, and then he would get he would
Speaker 6: get into a state of mind where he's able to
Speaker 6: kind of act in the way that they asked too.
Speaker 6: And then he gets back to the United States after
Speaker 6: going through all of this, and then his sister really
Speaker 6: is taking from his life. He knows who's responsible for
Speaker 6: doing it, and showed to had you know, had to
Speaker 6: show some restraint.
Speaker 4: And it was tough because he he.
Speaker 6: Told us, and this is all laid out in the interview,
Speaker 6: is like he thought about, you know, exacting revenge on
Speaker 6: him and told a few graphic stories about plans they
Speaker 6: had to to torture Carl wolf and get some answers
Speaker 6: out of him. He decides ultimately not to go through
Speaker 6: that because he made the choice to raise Paul Wolfe
Speaker 6: and his brother. It was a real kind of inflection
Speaker 6: point in all of their lives. But it was like morally,
Speaker 6: he always he felt like he was kind of sealed.
Speaker 6: He religious guy, and kind of what's done is done.
Speaker 6: What's one more? It won't affect me, you know, ultimately, right,
Speaker 6: It's kind of where his mindset was so really fascinating characters,
Speaker 6: a lot of really good storytellers throughout the family. And
Speaker 6: I think that's the podcast medium was really the perfect
Speaker 6: way to text acute this story.
Speaker 3: Last thing on this, Kyle.
Speaker 2: Then we'll do a couple of other things for us
Speaker 2: that you lose, As if losing your mother allegedly at
Speaker 2: the hands of your father as a young man wasn't
Speaker 2: enough of a tragedy to handle throughout one's life. Paul
Speaker 2: Wolfe was handed another very, very tough blow as his
Speaker 2: wife Tammy, in nineteen ninety seven, was diagnosed with a
Speaker 2: brain tumor and was given three to five years to live,
Speaker 2: and she later on passed in March of two thousand
Speaker 2: and two. I always find if I always find it
Speaker 2: interesting when you hear stories behind people that you only
Speaker 2: know of as like a coach or a player or
Speaker 2: someone with some sort of notoriety. I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: know that I really have a question, but this is
Speaker 2: just another piece of the Paul Wolf puzzle that I
Speaker 2: think deserves to be talked about.
Speaker 6: You know, you know, he's really like I think, because
Speaker 6: he had such a high profile stint at Washington State
Speaker 6: that did not go well, right, They had the record,
Speaker 6: His record there was not good. It was historically bad
Speaker 6: in fact, but I think like he was so hardened
Speaker 6: by these scenes that he had gone through his life
Speaker 6: that just the fact that he was able to become
Speaker 6: a head coach at Easter Washington. It was the head
Speaker 6: coach at his own alma mater, where he tried to
Speaker 6: clean up a mess. I mean, he certainly had the
Speaker 6: program in much better shape to hand off to my
Speaker 6: bleach than when he inherited it from Bildoba. It was
Speaker 6: just kind of in shambles when.
Speaker 4: He got there. They didn't really have a chance. But
Speaker 4: I think a lot of people just formulated their opinion
Speaker 4: based on those years and the win loss right, and
Speaker 4: you didn't hear about what.
Speaker 6: This guy had had gone through getting to that point, right,
Speaker 6: And so I gained a ton of respect for Paul
Speaker 6: over the last several years getting to know him and
Speaker 6: learning about him and his family. They have, everything they
Speaker 6: went through and how they banded together. The story is
Speaker 6: really it's just it's a true crime story. It's a
Speaker 6: sort of search for a missing woman. But you know,
Speaker 6: I've been telling people it's a story about a family
Speaker 6: and like this family bond that was unbreakable in many ways,
Speaker 6: just the ties that they have, the last is over
Speaker 6: several decades, all unified behind like this single cause is
Speaker 6: really impressive. And then for Paul to progress through all
Speaker 6: of that and be very successful, like the Winds went
Speaker 6: there at Washington State, but he progressed through. He was on,
Speaker 6: you know, hard about stuff with the Niners when they
Speaker 6: went to the Super Bowl around in college. And now
Speaker 6: he's back in the headshair at Kyle Poly. You're trying
Speaker 6: to resurrect that program as a head coach once again.
Speaker 6: So I'm glad he's got another.
Speaker 4: Opportunity to try to make the best of a of
Speaker 4: a cool situation down there at Cupola.
Speaker 3: It's the best way for people to find the pod. Kyle.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so it just called The Unforgotten Season three, Finding
Speaker 6: the Worst Wolf. It's anywhere you know, It's on all
Speaker 6: the podcast platforms, so anyone who's who's into the podcast
Speaker 6: scene should have no trouble finding it. I've tweeted a
Speaker 6: little bit about it, kind of broke out of my
Speaker 6: Twitter hibernation to promote it a bit. So they just
Speaker 6: want to find me on Twitter. He can easily navigate.
Speaker 6: But yeah, The Unforgotten Finding the Worst Wolf. Any googling,
Speaker 6: any searching, should should be pretty easy to Fine.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move over to the Coach's bull that
Speaker 2: was released yesterday. My question is how much stock should
Speaker 2: anybody put into this? How serious of an endeavor is
Speaker 2: this for any college football coach?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Deeply, like deeply unseerious, Like if if you're like, if
Speaker 6: there's twenty five teams ranked, or forget how many actually
Speaker 6: voting members there are, like how many actual coaches voted?
Speaker 6: Like the percentage is very low. It's a lot of sids,
Speaker 6: like staffers, assistance, those sorts putting it together, and a
Speaker 6: lot of them are just looking at way too early
Speaker 6: lists and using that as a starting point, making a
Speaker 6: couple of adjustments just so it's not the same. Right,
Speaker 6: this is like these people do not take this seriously.
Speaker 6: That being said, I love this stuff, like I love
Speaker 6: the scene where it starts. I think it's just like
Speaker 6: part of the part of the tradition of college.
Speaker 4: Football are a right, let's let's se where it moves.
Speaker 6: And but it's like at the end of the year
Speaker 6: and it's like nowhere near right, It's always going to
Speaker 6: be a lot different, I think in like in this
Speaker 6: era too, it's so much harder to predict it. College
Speaker 6: wole has always been hard to kind of project, what,
Speaker 6: you know, a top twenty five, But now with all
Speaker 6: the transfer stuff, no one knows anything. No one's ever
Speaker 6: known anything. But now it's it's really thrown, you know,
Speaker 6: your blind pulded throwing darts here. But you know it's good.
Speaker 6: It's a good talking piece and sets expectations and storylines.
Speaker 6: It's always kind of evolved from where those rankings are
Speaker 6: at the beginning of the year a few.
Speaker 2: Years ago, because the conversation that you and I are
Speaker 2: having on air now often you know, kind of transpires
Speaker 2: where talking heads wonder whether or not any coach actually
Speaker 2: takes this endeavor seriously or if they even fill out
Speaker 2: their polls. So I texted an in state coach a
Speaker 2: few years ago, and I told him it would be
Speaker 2: off the record. So I've never brought his name on air,
Speaker 2: and I said, have you ever done this before?
Speaker 3: And if so, how serious do you take it? He said,
Speaker 3: I haven't done it once.
Speaker 2: You have you had any conversations with coaches about that dynamic,
Speaker 2: whether or not they even do the thing?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I have.
Speaker 6: And so I talked with David sew when he was
Speaker 6: at Stanford. I was around them quite a bit in
Speaker 6: his early years. He actually did fill it out for
Speaker 6: one year, and he's like, I felt like, you know,
Speaker 6: if it's called the coach's poll, like he's felt like
Speaker 6: in an obligation to do it himself. But then he
Speaker 6: did it for one year and realized like what an
Speaker 6: exercise and futility it was, and so he stopped, like
Speaker 6: he stopped participating in Stanford, stopped participating after his one season.
Speaker 6: He's like, look, it's called the coach's pull. It should
Speaker 6: be the coaches. But now that I've done it, I
Speaker 6: realized it's I don't have time for this to do it,
Speaker 6: like spend the time to really do it correctly. So
Speaker 6: we're just not going to participate.
Speaker 4: He's the only one I've ever.
Speaker 6: Talked to who admitted to actually doing it themselves. Like
Speaker 6: no one else I've ever talked to has been upfront
Speaker 6: and said, yeah, you know, you know, I do it
Speaker 6: each week up and down. I think some of the
Speaker 6: coaches probably have like who do you want to be
Speaker 6: number one? Who's your top five? And they have their
Speaker 6: staffer whoever is still out the rest there's like some
Speaker 6: I think that involvement is like somewhat common, but let's
Speaker 6: certainly not all the way through.
Speaker 2: So the main takeaway here locally is that Jake Rretz
Speaker 2: laugh departs for Tulane, yet Byu still cracks that top
Speaker 2: twenty five.
Speaker 3: They come in at number twenty three.
Speaker 2: We still don't know who's going to start under center McKay, Hillstead,
Speaker 2: Tracy Borget and Bear Bachmeyer the three battling. So my
Speaker 2: two part question is your thoughts on Byu actually cracking
Speaker 2: the top twenty five and if Jake stays, where do
Speaker 2: you think they land.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the good. So I think, like the fact
Speaker 4: that they're in the top twenty five, I think.
Speaker 6: It's probably a lot of this is so based on
Speaker 6: where you did, what you did last year, independent of
Speaker 6: your way roster looks right, like right, So, I think
Speaker 6: because when they went eleven games last year, you were
Speaker 6: you're always going to get a shot to start in
Speaker 6: the top twenty five, regardless of what happened with Retslow.
Speaker 6: Obviously that's they end up in twenty three eight with him,
Speaker 6: you know, probably top fifteen, I would imagine, and some
Speaker 6: some people punished for for not having a returning quarterback.
Speaker 6: Of course, you know, is it fair? Yeah, Like I
Speaker 6: look at it, I haven't actually pulled up right now.
Speaker 6: I kind of thought Texas Tech would be a little higher.
Speaker 6: I'm actually surprised that you are. And I didn't see
Speaker 6: where the Big twelve preseason predictions were. Like with all
Speaker 6: the money that Texas Tech invested in its program, I.
Speaker 4: Kind of thought that would be a little higher, not
Speaker 4: that I'm looking at now.
Speaker 6: But again, like it's just there's no rhyme or reason
Speaker 6: to to why, especially when you get when you get
Speaker 6: out of the top ten in particular then people are
Speaker 6: I think they try to do it well at the top,
Speaker 6: and then the lower you get in the process, it's
Speaker 6: like you can't really differentiate between these teams, So any
Speaker 6: anywhere from like I don't know, fourteen to twenty five,
Speaker 6: all those teams you could probably just throw into a
Speaker 6: hat and pick out randomly and it probably ended up
Speaker 6: pretty similarly.
Speaker 2: And just because we're the home of the Utes and
Speaker 2: they're a mile away, I'll ask you about Utah technically
Speaker 2: coming in at thirty with others receiving votes, and whether
Speaker 2: or not you think the a people next week will
Speaker 2: kind of reflect a similar area for the Utes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they'll get votes. And I think the
Speaker 4: defense was so good last year right in the quarterback playoff.
Speaker 4: Even you guys and your wisteners no more than I do.
Speaker 6: But like you bring in, the defense was not an issue.
Speaker 6: It won't be an issue again this year. You bring
Speaker 6: a quarterback who had worked with his offensive coordinator, had success.
Speaker 6: It's a proven formula to resurrect teams right to have
Speaker 6: that sort of camaraderie. And now that you have a
Speaker 6: player who's proved proven he can run an offense and
Speaker 6: run into this exact offense.
Speaker 4: You know, in theory, it solves the problem, right, and
Speaker 4: so you.
Speaker 6: Have this elite defense. Even if you were like somewhat
Speaker 6: competent offense, if you taught like the team would have
Speaker 6: had a lot more wins last year. And so that simple,
Speaker 6: very rudimentary combination like makes me optimistic that they can
Speaker 6: be a lot more successful this year. And I think
Speaker 6: kind of showing a bit thirty whatever is kind of
Speaker 6: reflect that same sort of logic.
Speaker 2: According to both this Coach's poll and then pretty much
Speaker 2: everything else, including Bill Conley's rankings for you guys over
Speaker 2: at ESPN, it does feel like Arizona State is a
Speaker 2: prohibitive favorite and there's a bit of a gap between
Speaker 2: them and everybody else. To your point, we look at
Speaker 2: what you did a year ago, and we know what
Speaker 2: ASU did a year ago. Seventy nine percent of their
Speaker 2: production is returning, including Sam Levitt. Does it feel like
Speaker 2: they are the deserved favorite in the Big twelve this year?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 6: I mean, like ludn' skattaboo is tough, right because he,
Speaker 6: I mean, he was so much of what they did
Speaker 6: as a rusher, you know, as a pass catcher. But
Speaker 6: and It kind of goes back to what you were
Speaker 6: saying about Retzlaf, like you have if you have a
Speaker 6: good team and your starting quarterback is coming back, you're
Speaker 6: getting That's just like people are just gonna think expectations
Speaker 6: are going to be high, and that's the case with
Speaker 6: Asu Elevit's coming back. He had a good year. I
Speaker 6: think the expectation is it'll be better. He'll be better
Speaker 6: this year and even relied on more without Skattaboo around
Speaker 6: to carry the ball their back and burnning back. His
Speaker 6: name is escaping me off hand is pretty was a
Speaker 6: pretty good player. Last year has been relief, so that
Speaker 6: he's something they feel I can kind of step in
Speaker 6: and have.
Speaker 4: A really productive year as well. But yeah, I think
Speaker 4: like it's earned right after after the year they had
Speaker 4: and the good showing in the playoffs. I mean, they
Speaker 4: probably shouldn't be Texas. They probably felt they should be Texas,
Speaker 4: I guess. So the fact that it was a it
Speaker 4: was a coin flip game against a team with a
Speaker 4: ton of talent, you know, shows that As is for real.
Speaker 4: And I just think that, you know, the coaching turnaround
Speaker 4: there has been as impressive as any in college football,
Speaker 4: and you have so much of college football is the
Speaker 4: coaching staff, right, that's coaching Madison football more than any
Speaker 4: of the sport, and so I think they're in a
Speaker 4: they're operating from place of strength there as well.
Speaker 2: As I always say, I will not ask you about
Speaker 2: the depth of Raal saw Lake and whether or not
Speaker 2: their third left back is something you think can lift
Speaker 2: them into the playoffs. But Kyle Sonce you and I spoke.
Speaker 2: Diego Luna had himself an ice little Gold Cup run.
Speaker 2: He's been back on the ground here for a little
Speaker 2: bit and he is by far their best most productive player.
Speaker 2: They did bring in a couple of summer additions, one
Speaker 2: DP a nine and then what their manager calls a
Speaker 2: nine and a half. But do you think Diego Luna
Speaker 2: has done enough to solidify a spot for next year's
Speaker 2: World Cup.
Speaker 6: I you know, it's I wouldn't say like fully, it's
Speaker 6: not fully set in stone yet. I expect him to
Speaker 6: be on the team, and I'm almost ready to think
Speaker 6: that he has a chance to play like he hasn't.
Speaker 6: I don't think he's proven to be in that spot yet,
Speaker 6: but I think that that that's in play, and the
Speaker 6: fact that he's come so far so quickly that like,
Speaker 6: that's fascinating, right, he was just a few years ago
Speaker 6: that you know, I don't know how many, maybe four
Speaker 6: years ago now that San Jose like didn't even like
Speaker 6: he was an academy player and they dropped him from
Speaker 6: the academy goes to the USL route, you know, latches
Speaker 6: up with the RSL is really has really taken off.
Speaker 6: And the fact that he that we can even have
Speaker 6: this discussion about whether he's gonna be on the team,
Speaker 6: whether he's going to contribute, what his role should be.
Speaker 4: I mean, that sort of.
Speaker 6: Trajectory is so rare in American soccer, to jump so
Speaker 6: quickly through the USL, through an MLS team and to
Speaker 6: being contention for a roster spot when there's so many
Speaker 6: of the other guys at his position are playing at
Speaker 6: big clubs in Europe. Right, I think, you know, RSL
Speaker 6: fans should enjoy him as long as they can, because
Speaker 6: I think he's got a future that's going to take
Speaker 6: him places with much brighter spotlets.
Speaker 2: One more soccer question for you, I wonder and I've
Speaker 2: drawn the parallel on the show between Rest in Peace, Grantwall,
Speaker 2: the Beckham Experiment, the David Beckham MLS partnership that has
Speaker 2: continued into his foray into ownership of the Miami Club,
Speaker 2: and Grant wrote a great book called The Beckham Experiment
Speaker 2: that I read that I thought was awesome.
Speaker 3: And then the.
Speaker 2: Parallel between David Beckham and what Lionel Messi has brought
Speaker 2: to the league now I always hesitate to do it
Speaker 2: because then you get soccer pe. I know that Messi
Speaker 2: is twenty times a player that Beckham was. I understand that,
Speaker 2: and maybe when you're that good, you don't necessarily have
Speaker 2: to be the type of state hatesman that Beckham was
Speaker 2: for MLS. I mean, Beckham came here multiple times and
Speaker 2: Kyle he stayed after matches for hours and signed autographs
Speaker 2: like he got it. He understood what the deal was.
Speaker 2: He understood that he wasn't the player that he was
Speaker 2: once upon a time with man U or the English
Speaker 2: national team, and so he was here more of like
Speaker 2: a rep for the game and a rep for the league,
Speaker 2: and he just could not have been better. And maybe
Speaker 2: it's just because Messi is messy. He doesn't have to
Speaker 2: do those things. But doesn't show up to the All
Speaker 2: Star Game, they suspend him, which felt a little bit wild.
Speaker 2: But do you think MLS is getting the Roi whether
Speaker 2: and you can define that in any way, shape or
Speaker 2: form with this Messi experiment that they've undertaken over the
Speaker 2: past couple of years.
Speaker 6: So that's really interesting because it's been massive, undoubtedly, Like
Speaker 6: the exposure that the league has gotten as a result
Speaker 6: of having Messi in the league is significant. And now
Speaker 6: like how does it meet the other side of Like
Speaker 6: now it doesn't.
Speaker 4: Meet expectations, Like whatever Messi does, and.
Speaker 6: It'll probably be for the rest of his life, Like
Speaker 6: he goes on vacation in his seventies, he'll still draw
Speaker 6: a crowd. Right, He's that type of just talent and
Speaker 6: just like personality just that people just gravitate to him
Speaker 6: and he's like a god for people in Argentina and
Speaker 6: really around the world.
Speaker 4: So I think he's been an overall it's been incredible
Speaker 4: for the league, but I also don't think the league
Speaker 4: has done enough to make to maximize him at the
Speaker 4: same time, if that makes sense. So like there's so
Speaker 4: it's kind of too pronged at least.
Speaker 6: Like it's been huge. It's who he has certainly benefited,
Speaker 6: like a lot of the people who bought Apple Plus
Speaker 6: subscriptions just to watch Messi. It's probably hard to calculate.
Speaker 6: I mean, there's a reason that that was part of
Speaker 6: the deal for him, right, he gets a cut of
Speaker 6: subscriptions to the league just for internationally, just because they're
Speaker 6: not buying the subscriptions to watch MLS. They're buying subscriptions
Speaker 6: to watch Lionel Messi play soccer wherever he's.
Speaker 7: Going to be.
Speaker 6: So I think ultimately what we'll find out is long term,
Speaker 6: like when he's gone, what does the league look like
Speaker 6: and how will his time in the league have have
Speaker 6: pushed it forward. It comes at an interest time with
Speaker 6: the World Cup coming and that's also going to have
Speaker 6: an impact. But I thought there was like a really
Speaker 6: strong wave of Messi storylines and just like involvement when
Speaker 6: he came over. But I really feel like it's tapered
Speaker 6: off quite a bit this year. There's the Club World
Speaker 6: Cup where he participated, which I think was a nice
Speaker 6: boom to kind of have him. They advanced through the group,
Speaker 6: which was they were the only only MLS club to
Speaker 6: do that. But then you know, you get to PSG
Speaker 6: and you see there's levels to this, So yeah, it's
Speaker 6: it's it's an interesting again, like I just think after
Speaker 6: this fact.
Speaker 4: How many what will m l what will attendance look
Speaker 4: like in Miami when Messi is gone? Right, We'll find
Speaker 4: out because it's not there. There are not very many
Speaker 4: inter Miami fans. There are Messy fans who are going
Speaker 4: to support him wherever, and so we'll find out.
Speaker 6: It's hard to calibrate right now.
Speaker 2: Last thing I'll set you loose. Less than a year
Speaker 2: away from the World Cup. What's the Kyle Bondeger A
Speaker 2: confidence level in our team? Whatever that means to you,
Speaker 2: I mean, get out of group whatever, something that could
Speaker 2: be somewhat exciting for the Old Cup.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I think you have to get out
Speaker 6: of the group more. It's a massive failure, especially with
Speaker 6: an expanded World Cup.
Speaker 4: Right, so you go from thirty.
Speaker 6: Two teams to forty eight teams. That inherently is going
Speaker 6: to dilute the competition. And so it should be easier
Speaker 6: to get out of the group.
Speaker 4: Because there's less good teams. And you got out of
Speaker 4: the group last time and a tough group in a sense,
Speaker 4: and you have known who's really aged out, right, so
Speaker 4: you should have that. You should have essentially the same team,
Speaker 4: but guys who are like further deep into their prime.
Speaker 4: You have a coach who is you know, on paper better, right,
Speaker 4: he's really a bigger name and has achieved more at
Speaker 4: a higher level of the sport, but that hasn't shown up.
Speaker 6: You know, in the last two years. Obviously Burhalter was
Speaker 6: with them during during COPA and that they crashed out early.
Speaker 4: The Gold Cup.
Speaker 6: You have a small complement of the full team in
Speaker 6: the tournament at all, which was so you can't really
Speaker 6: evaluate the team and how they've done. You're not going
Speaker 6: to have the qualification process. I feel like interested in
Speaker 6: the US national team is really down right now just
Speaker 6: because of all those factors.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, if you don't advance, it's a
Speaker 4: abject disaster. And you probably because there's an extra I
Speaker 4: believe there's an extra round of the of the knockout
Speaker 4: phase two, so you probably need to win a win
Speaker 4: a knockout game as well to really define as a success.
Speaker 4: But I think if you had asked me about expectations
Speaker 4: about this team after the last World Cup, I would say, look,
Speaker 4: you got to make it to the quarterfinals. But now
Speaker 4: you know, there hasn't been a lot of positive developments
Speaker 4: for the team recently to have those sort of expectations.
Speaker 2: Kyle, thanks man for the time, excellent work on the
Speaker 2: story and the pod. We'll make sure to send it
Speaker 2: out on our socials. Have a great week and we'll
Speaker 2: chat soon, all right. Thanks ros about it girl. ESPN
Speaker 2: covers college football and soccer. This new podcast that he
Speaker 2: has with Adam Rittenberg is about the disappearance of Paul
Speaker 2: Wolfe's mother, and I read the written description of the
Speaker 2: disappearance of Dolores wolf. I have not listened to the
Speaker 2: pod yet, but the story is gripping and it is
Speaker 2: something that is definitely worth your time. At bonnegerat ESPN.
Speaker 2: That's his social channel. You can find the linked all
Speaker 2: of his work up there. Like any good coach, it's
Speaker 2: time to update the game plan for a healthy green
Speaker 2: lawn as the hot weather continues this month, make sure
Speaker 2: you're using IFA's Step three summer lawn food for healthy
Speaker 2: turf that stays green and every season IFA Step three
Speaker 2: Lawn Food.
Speaker 3: It's the ultimate lawn owner power move.
Speaker 2: With our good friends over at IFA, I got to
Speaker 2: bring in Spencer Lynton from BYU TV for the latest
Speaker 2: on the quarterback battle down South will do some big picture,
Speaker 2: big twelve stuff with Spencer Today. The USA Today Coaches
Speaker 2: Poll was released yesterday. BYU comes into twenty three Utah
Speaker 2: others receiving votes, technically the thirtieth rank team in that poll.
Speaker 2: Interested to see what the AP poll manifests coming up
Speaker 2: next Monday. Of course, the question marks at quarterback for
Speaker 2: BYU did not necessarily dissuade voters from voting them into
Speaker 2: the top twenty five. Interesting in conversation about what it
Speaker 2: would look like if Jake Retzlof was under center, but
Speaker 2: he's not.
Speaker 3: The quarterback battle is down to three players.
Speaker 2: McKay Hillstead, who has eight starts under his belt up
Speaker 2: at Utah State. I believe he's a freshman, Trays and
Speaker 2: Borgae a couple of years of Western Michigan. And then
Speaker 2: the true freshman, Bear Bachmeier, who played his spring ball
Speaker 2: at Stanford, who has the measurables that the other two don't.
Speaker 2: It's like six two six three, two fifteen to two
Speaker 2: twenty during their spring experience and now in fall camp
Speaker 2: he's worn number forty seven, which is an odd number
Speaker 2: for a quarterback. I believe Bear was a running back
Speaker 2: in high school. Maybe that's where the number comes from.
Speaker 2: So bringing Spencer to a Dave Bartwo College Football Matrix,
Speaker 2: one of our favorite guests to get weird with on
Speaker 2: a Tuesday. And then Richard Smith will join us forty
Speaker 2: years with the Jazz front office. The Jazz made a
Speaker 2: trade today. The Jazz sent R. J. Lewis to the
Speaker 2: Boston Celtics in exchange for George Niang. The minivan is
Speaker 2: coming back to Salt Lake. George's salary will go into
Speaker 2: the slot that was created by the John Colline trade.
Speaker 2: The Jazz had a trade exception and they add a
Speaker 2: couple of second rounders to their treasure trove of draft
Speaker 2: assets as well. The motivation for Boston this is kind
Speaker 2: of a gap year for them, a pivot year for them,
Speaker 2: so they now I believe are under the second aprin
Speaker 2: entirely after moving on from Porzingis and others.
Speaker 3: They've got a Jettist in everybody.
Speaker 2: Well, Jason Tatum continues to recover from that Achilles. This
Speaker 2: will be a just kind of a weird year in
Speaker 2: Boston where they're not gonna win a lot of games.
Speaker 2: They're probably gonna maybe compete for a playing spot, but
Speaker 2: ultimately if you're an owner of an NBA team, and
Speaker 2: the Celtics were sold last year. You're probably not interested
Speaker 2: in riding an extra five hundred million dollar check for
Speaker 2: a team that's not going to be serious about competing.
Speaker 2: That's where the Phoenix Suns found themselves last year.
Speaker 3: So a little.
Speaker 2: Unexpected NBA news that will get with Smitty with coming
Speaker 2: up in a bit. If you missed the Kyle Bonagurra interview,
Speaker 2: I would encourage you to go to his socials and
Speaker 2: check out this new problem that he and Adam Rittenberg
Speaker 2: front of the show have undertaken about the disappearance of
Speaker 2: Paul Wolfe's mother. Paul was the coach of Washington State
Speaker 2: for a number of years. Didn't go well for Paul
Speaker 2: as the coach up there. I think he was nine
Speaker 2: and forty if I remember correctly. We'ch just do a
Speaker 2: little quick, Mathew, that's not good. But his mother disappeared
Speaker 2: from their home in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 3: And there was no body.
Speaker 2: There was no answers, and then four decades later the
Speaker 2: information came to light about what had happened there, and
Speaker 2: ultimately the lone suspect was Paul's father, Carl Carl passed
Speaker 2: away at the age of seventy. He was charged at
Speaker 2: one point, but they didn't have enough evidence to kind
Speaker 2: of keep him locked up and then go forward with
Speaker 2: the charges, so he was released and then lived his life.
Speaker 2: But one of the most interesting parts is the family
Speaker 2: dynamics surrounding Paul after Paul lost essentially both parents at
Speaker 2: a very young age.
Speaker 3: So good stuff there.
Speaker 2: Kyle's socials at Bonnegura ESPN is where you find him.
Speaker 2: And then of course we talked a little big twelve
Speaker 2: football and will Diego Luna play for the US men's
Speaker 2: national team. But there's a quarterback race about forty miles
Speaker 2: down south, and nobody better to break it down than
Speaker 2: our good buddy, Spencer Lytton from BYU TV. Spencer, Happy Tuesday, Sir,
Speaker 2: How are you good, Spence?
Speaker 4: Great to talk with you, man. And what's this you
Speaker 4: mentioned of a quarterback battle. I didn't know something was
Speaker 4: happening there.
Speaker 3: Oh am, I breaking news for you.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, if the BYU media members need breaking
Speaker 2: news on the Home of the Utes about BYU Spencer,
Speaker 2: We've got something to talk about, buddy.
Speaker 4: We're in trouble. We're in trouble. Yeah, clearly Spence. That
Speaker 4: is all anybody really wants to talk about when it
Speaker 4: comes to BA football at this juncture is who's going
Speaker 4: to be the starter? You know, whether I'm at church,
Speaker 4: or I'm in the grocery store, or I'm walking to
Speaker 4: my car, like, I can see it. I can spot
Speaker 4: it from a mile away. Someone's easy. They make eye
Speaker 4: contact and I almost eighty percent of the time, I
Speaker 4: guarantee there's going to be a question about who's going
Speaker 4: to be the starting quarterback at the UA football But
Speaker 4: it comes with the territory and clearly that has been
Speaker 4: the headliner to open up a training camp for Kalani Sataki.
Speaker 2: The main difference between you and I Spencer, even though
Speaker 2: we have similar names, is when you walk into church,
Speaker 2: they say who's the quarterback? When I walk into church
Speaker 2: they say, what the hell are you doing here?
Speaker 4: With open arms? My friend?
Speaker 3: Oh, oh for sure.
Speaker 2: Speaking of which, do you know anybody named Spencer under
Speaker 2: the age of like thirty five? I feel like for
Speaker 2: about ten years, if you were raised in an LDS household,
Speaker 2: there was a good chance your name was Spencer. And
Speaker 2: now I don't think anybody will ever be named Spencer again.
Speaker 4: That's a great point. No, I mean, my oldest son
Speaker 4: has my name is his middle name. But yeah, I
Speaker 4: now that you ask that, I do not think I
Speaker 4: know anybody at least not in my close circle that
Speaker 4: I could recall at the top of my head that
Speaker 4: shares my name that is wild Man. We need more
Speaker 4: love for the name Spencer moving forward.
Speaker 2: And honestly, I believe we're close to the same age. Again,
Speaker 2: I know dozens of Spencer's in Healds families that around
Speaker 2: our age. But I think after a while people are like, yeah,
Speaker 2: the names all not all that great.
Speaker 3: We're gonna move on.
Speaker 4: It's been, it's washed up. It is, it ran its course,
Speaker 4: it's good.
Speaker 3: It is, it is.
Speaker 2: But indeed we traverse on all right, Well, I know
Speaker 2: you're sick of talking about it, but it is the
Speaker 2: one thing people want to know. So McKay Hillstead eight
Speaker 2: stars under his belt at Utah State, the tracing board,
Speaker 2: gay kid, that's been a couple of years of Western Michigan.
Speaker 2: And then bear Backmeyer, who I feel like a lot
Speaker 2: of people are really really high on. How would you
Speaker 2: handicap this as of now and how do you think
Speaker 2: it's going to play out?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is really splitting hairs at this juncture, and
Speaker 4: Aaron Roderick, the offensive coordinator, said late last week it's
Speaker 4: going to be a minute, it's going to take some time,
Speaker 4: and I know that others have been outspoken. Brandon Doman,
Speaker 4: a former Boa quarterback, He's like, no, they I mean
Speaker 4: you have to make decision now. You've got to like,
Speaker 4: you got to make your decision, and got that the
Speaker 4: earlier the better, it's going to be more advantageous to
Speaker 4: your team. But I believe, based on commentary from Aaron
Speaker 4: Roderick and Tessi Sataki and other coaches on the current staff,
Speaker 4: that they need at least ten practices to really be
Speaker 4: able to and it might be more practices in that
Speaker 4: to even get to a point where you're like, all
Speaker 4: right now, this guy is creating some separation. You just
Speaker 4: be always not in this situation right now where they
Speaker 4: can be like, okay, all we needed was a wig
Speaker 4: he's the guy. No, we're not there. And so I
Speaker 4: don't think that they will know even within the staff
Speaker 4: that their starting quarterback is this guy until at least
Speaker 4: all thrown out a date like August twentieth, like we
Speaker 4: probably need two more weeks and eight to ten more
Speaker 4: practices before they can feel confident in seeing separation for
Speaker 4: a guy now, if you were to ask me and
Speaker 4: you getting around about way like who's the guy today
Speaker 4: and how are we handicapping them now? Would give a
Speaker 4: very slight edge to McKay Hillstead because I feel like
Speaker 4: his skill set naturally fits Aaron Rodercks' offense best right now,
Speaker 4: and I think that he's the guy that's hitting all
Speaker 4: of a Rod's love languages at this point. And for
Speaker 4: those who are wondering what the heck I'm talking about,
Speaker 4: a Rod pays attention to three things very closely, one
Speaker 4: red zone efficiency, two taking care of the ball, and
Speaker 4: three your ability to scramble and extend plays and make
Speaker 4: something happen when the pocket does eventually collapse. And I
Speaker 4: think Hillstead is the guy that is at least consistently
Speaker 4: doing those things the best right now. But it's I
Speaker 4: mean a very slim margin between McKay and Trayson Borgae
Speaker 4: and Bear Bachmeier.
Speaker 7: If I were.
Speaker 4: Making the depth chart today, I'd probably have McKay starting
Speaker 4: Tracon very close second behind, and Bear is intriguing because
Speaker 4: he's a guy that you could implement some specialty packages
Speaker 4: for with what he brings to the field. And I
Speaker 4: know that people hate the idea of how multiple quarterbacks.
Speaker 4: Like I'm not saying Boa needs to play multiple quarterbacks,
Speaker 4: but don't be sprised to BYU. In the red zone
Speaker 4: on the ten yard line and all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: bear Bachmeyer comes in and the defense is like, Okay,
Speaker 4: here's this kid. We're a number forty seven. He's a big,
Speaker 4: physical guy. We know he likes to run, but you
Speaker 4: do have to respect his ability to pass. It's almost
Speaker 4: like what bou did with Taysom Hill in twenty twelve,
Speaker 4: and frankly what the Saints are doing with Taysom Hill
Speaker 4: right now, Like, Okay, well, we can't be sure that
Speaker 4: he's gonna run. We think he's gonna run, but he
Speaker 4: might throw. It might be a play action element. So
Speaker 4: that's kind of how I would sum it up right now.
Speaker 4: Is McKay's the guy, very close race between he and
Speaker 4: Trayson who would be number two. And then some specialty
Speaker 4: packages for bear Backmeyer, who once he's in the system
Speaker 4: a little bit longer because he's been impressive thus far,
Speaker 4: just give him a little more time to acclimate in
Speaker 4: and he's got the highest ceiling, but just he's third
Speaker 4: right now, but don't be surprised to see him on
Speaker 4: the field in some unique twists and a Rod's offense.
Speaker 2: You referenced the number, and as I was watching some film,
Speaker 2: I'm like, can we get our guy a different number
Speaker 2: than forty seven if he's playing quarterback? Like, it's just
Speaker 2: a little bit odd, Like what's the origin story of
Speaker 2: bear Backmeyer who is trying to be a quarterback at
Speaker 2: BYU wearing number forty seven?
Speaker 4: You know, he likes the idea of just being different
Speaker 4: and almost like a linebacker's mentality where he's just football player.
Speaker 4: So we need to dive into that some more. But
Speaker 4: from what I've gathered, it's just kind of a I
Speaker 4: like it because it's different and I feel like I
Speaker 4: bring a physical nature to the game, and so forty
Speaker 4: seven it is. It's just something that he made a
Speaker 4: decision about a while ago and it kind of made
Speaker 4: its way in through the prep ranks and what he
Speaker 4: was doing there, and so it kind of identifies himself
Speaker 4: as just different. So I've to get into the specifics
Speaker 4: of the forty seven with him and kind of died,
Speaker 4: like why that numbers? Because it went number forty five
Speaker 4: or number forty two. So let me follow up on that.
Speaker 4: That is a loaded question and one that it's certainly
Speaker 4: worthy of being asked.
Speaker 2: So the Coach's Poll is released on Monday, and we
Speaker 2: just said Kyle Bonniger on the show, and I asked Kyle,
Speaker 2: throughout his entire career covering college football, how many coaches
Speaker 2: he's spoken to that admitted they actually did this, and
Speaker 2: he said one. It was David Shaw who said he
Speaker 2: did it one year and that never did it again
Speaker 2: about three About three years ago, I texted a coach
Speaker 2: in state and I said, off the record, how many
Speaker 2: times have you done this exercise? He said zero? Now
Speaker 2: one time, I've never done it. I was delegated. It's
Speaker 2: an exercising futility. However, it's early August and we're inching
Speaker 2: closer and closer to game, so it is topical. Were
Speaker 2: you surprised that despite breaking in a new quarterback BYU
Speaker 2: still broke the top twenty five, coming in at number
Speaker 2: twenty three.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I did not expect BAA to be in any
Speaker 4: top twenty five, whether it be notable preseason magazines like
Speaker 4: Phil Steele and Lindy's and AffA on certainly not after
Speaker 4: the Jake Retslock news broke that he was leaving. It's like, okay,
Speaker 4: now BYU is not in that top twenty five category.
Speaker 4: I think the closest I have seen BYU other than
Speaker 4: the coaches pool your referencing now, was something that came
Speaker 4: out from CBS Sports yesterday or maybe this morning, which
Speaker 4: was they ranked all one hundred and thirty six FBS
Speaker 4: teams and BA was at number thirty six, which I
Speaker 4: thought was a fair number because I do believe that
Speaker 4: they're a good team, and there's a lot of faith
Speaker 4: and trust in Kilani and the culture that he's built.
Speaker 4: But everyone's in a holding pattern, understandably because of the
Speaker 4: quarterback situation. So when I saw the coaches pol number
Speaker 4: twenty three, that WHOA Okay. The sports information directors you're
Speaker 4: talking about clearly did not set the memo about what's
Speaker 4: happening with BYU's offense right now, because you're right, it's whatever.
Speaker 4: A person in the athletic department has been delegated the
Speaker 4: responsibility to submit said ballot for the coach's poll and
Speaker 4: it all gets tabulated, and I'm sure that some of
Speaker 4: them are like, well, B why you beat up on
Speaker 4: Colorado on the Aluma Bowl and one eleven and two
Speaker 4: and finish number thirteen. Yeah, I'll throw him in the
Speaker 4: top twenty five. So probably some lazy research there are
Speaker 4: just like, hey, this is get it done. When the
Speaker 4: media poll and the eight piece side comes out, I
Speaker 4: believe on Monday, I don't think we're going to see
Speaker 4: be only in the top twenty five. I think there
Speaker 4: will be a few that might put them at the
Speaker 4: very back of the pole, so they'll be receiving votes
Speaker 4: in some small capacity. But I think they probably deserve
Speaker 4: to be somewhere between eight to twelve spots out of
Speaker 4: the top twenty five because twenty three straight up shocked me.
Speaker 4: And I think BYU they revel in the idea of
Speaker 4: being the underappreciated, over delivering team. So I think you
Speaker 4: ask a typical fan or even the player on the team,
Speaker 4: it's like, no, don't rank us, Like just just let
Speaker 4: us start unranked and work our way up, and we'll
Speaker 4: have that proverbial chip on the shoulder and we'll use
Speaker 4: that as an advantage if they can channel that energy
Speaker 4: in the right direction.
Speaker 3: Completely hypothetical, so no way of knowing.
Speaker 2: But if Jake stays and is not facing a suspension,
Speaker 2: none of that goes down.
Speaker 3: Where do you think they land?
Speaker 4: I would put them probably between sixteen and eighteen in
Speaker 4: the media poll. If Jake retzl Off is still the quarterback.
Speaker 4: Now you've got like a real case for a team
Speaker 4: that has some continuity. Right, they still have continuity. But
Speaker 4: when you bring back your returning starting quarterback and a
Speaker 4: team that feels like their defense is not going to
Speaker 4: have a lapse or at least not a significant lapse,
Speaker 4: and you have key playmakers like Chase Roberts and LJ. Martin,
Speaker 4: and you have enough of a contingently offensive lineback, Now
Speaker 4: there's a case, at least in your typical media member's
Speaker 4: mind that BYU is the top twenty teen. So I
Speaker 4: would I had inflated somewhere between sixteen and eighteen to
Speaker 4: start the season with Red Fluff in the max. Now
Speaker 4: that he's gone, then I think, yeah, eight to twelve
Speaker 4: spots outside, And I think that's totally fair. And if
Speaker 4: YU wants to try and rally around the idea that
Speaker 4: they don't know but they about to find out that
Speaker 4: whole thing, then great, you know, more power to him.
Speaker 4: But there is I don't know why it is down here,
Speaker 4: but they the fans just they love the idea of
Speaker 4: being undervalued and then trying to make something more and
Speaker 4: they see, we told you, But we'll see if they
Speaker 4: can do it again, because this time around with a
Speaker 4: full on quarterback battle, like the question marks are totally
Speaker 4: fair and I have no idea what to expect in
Speaker 4: that first game on August thirtieth.
Speaker 2: I do think if you're a BYU fan, you take
Speaker 2: a little comfort knowing that a Rod and Kolani have
Speaker 2: traversed the quarterback battle space for what three straight years maybe,
Speaker 2: and they've made the right call every single time.
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, yeah, no at fair point.
Speaker 4: Like last year with Jake Retthloff and Gary Bohannon was like, man,
Speaker 4: it literally came down to the last week and they're like, hey,
Speaker 4: we're gonna We're gonna make Jake the guy, but Gary,
Speaker 4: you're you're right there, And so that was a tough
Speaker 4: one and they I mean, there was a lot of
Speaker 4: back and forth there because Gary's shoulder was better and
Speaker 4: he looked really good, and I don't know that they
Speaker 4: were anticipating that that happening. So that was a really
Speaker 4: tough decision there, and even going back to twenty eighteen,
Speaker 4: I think that was the last time, but a Rod
Speaker 4: wasn't the offensive coordinator. That was Jeff Grimes, and it
Speaker 4: was Tanner Mangham versus Dak Wilson, and they they opted
Speaker 4: for Tanner Mingum and his experience for the first six games.
Speaker 4: Then he got benched and then comes back Wilson and
Speaker 4: he starts his career. So that was really the last
Speaker 4: time I was like, oh, man, I have no idea
Speaker 4: what be what he's going to do at quarterback. And
Speaker 4: I don't envy the offensive coordinator that has to make
Speaker 4: that decision. Didn't in twenty eighteen, don't this year because
Speaker 4: that's really tough. But yes, to your point, like this
Speaker 4: is not something that is brand new and they're like, oh,
Speaker 4: what do we do? Like they have versus this, And
Speaker 4: if they can just name a guy internally at least
Speaker 4: a week out, then that's probably an okay scenario. But
Speaker 4: I don't think most of us in the media and
Speaker 4: in the public are going to know who the starting
Speaker 4: quarterback is until we see him run out with the
Speaker 4: offense in the first series of the season.
Speaker 2: Tell me about the on line, I mean Ultimately that's
Speaker 2: where it starts. And Klonnie, of course, you know, learned
Speaker 2: a lot of his trade under Kyle, and Kyle wants
Speaker 2: the trenches. Every coach wants the trenches dialed in and
Speaker 2: b Yu with some losses on that old line.
Speaker 3: How's it shape it up?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they are expecting a lot from a guy like
Speaker 4: Bruce Mitchell at center to take over for Connor pay
Speaker 4: and that he The good thing for Bruce is Connor
Speaker 4: got injured Buster and Bruce had to start at center
Speaker 4: in multiple important power forward games. So they feel like
Speaker 4: they for the most part, won't skip a beat with
Speaker 4: the guy who's ready and experienced it, and so they
Speaker 4: feel like they have their center and their captain on
Speaker 4: that line. The addition of Andrew Gentry, the Michigan transfer,
Speaker 4: is huge and the experience and perspective that he brings
Speaker 4: he'll be the right tackle, so that that should really
Speaker 4: help by you feel confident on that side. Isaiah Jada
Speaker 4: is going to be the blind side protector. I talked
Speaker 4: to TJ Woods, the offensive line coach, about Isaiah, and
Speaker 4: he said, look, there are a few guys that have
Speaker 4: taken significant steps forward. Isaiah is one of those. Guys.
Speaker 4: I have a lot of trust in him, so I
Speaker 4: feel very good about the two tackle positions, and then
Speaker 4: Whale and Lapuaho might be the He's certainly the vocal
Speaker 4: leader on that offensive line, but he brings a ton
Speaker 4: of experience and he's gone through the rigors of a
Speaker 4: full power force schedule, so you have most of your
Speaker 4: key components. I think the biggest question marked about the
Speaker 4: offensive line is how deep are they? Like after the
Speaker 4: starting five, what do they have? And that's what TJ said,
Speaker 4: He's like, camp for me is going to be figuring
Speaker 4: out who guys six through nine are so we can
Speaker 4: know what happens if and when, inevitably there is an injury.
Speaker 4: You know, what can Austin Leusa do? And you know
Speaker 4: some of these other younger guys were developing, Like that's
Speaker 4: the biggest question mark is the starting five. Like the
Speaker 4: opening five to six guys very confident. The depth is
Speaker 4: where the concern lies with positions like six through nine
Speaker 4: when those injuries happen.
Speaker 2: Both Utah and BYU have a bit of a soft
Speaker 2: landing into the season with some non conference games. Portland
Speaker 2: State the opener for BYU, then Stanford at home Stanford
Speaker 2: Fire Troy Taylor. Frank Reich is in as an interim
Speaker 2: coach and it's an agreement from both sides that it's
Speaker 2: a one year deal and then it's at East Carolina
Speaker 2: prior to launching into conference play. Do you like the
Speaker 2: soft landing just because BYU's breaking in a new quarterback
Speaker 2: so you kind of can see what sort of hand
Speaker 2: you've been dealt before conference play.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's interesting, but it worked out that way
Speaker 4: because at first I was like, man, I'd like to
Speaker 4: see BYU play kind of one of those banger non
Speaker 4: conference games with the experienced core returning. But when the
Speaker 4: Retslav situation went down, it's like, oh, man, this is
Speaker 4: actually beneficial that BYU can ramp up, and frankly, the
Speaker 4: first six games of the season for BYU are a
Speaker 4: necessary ramp to the back six because beginning with Utah
Speaker 4: and game number seven, it just is a dauntlet for
Speaker 4: the for about four or five straight weeks because now
Speaker 4: you've got Utah and then ba's got to go to
Speaker 4: Ames and play at Iowa State, and then they have
Speaker 4: a bye week and then they'll play in Lublick against
Speaker 4: Texas Tech. Who's you know, holding one of the most
Speaker 4: expensive and talented rosters they've ever had in program history,
Speaker 4: and then you got to come home and play TCU.
Speaker 4: So it's just like WHOA in mid October to mid November.
Speaker 4: There's a lot there for BYU. So I do feel
Speaker 4: like the first six games in general are just a
Speaker 4: natural ramp up because Boa is not going to figure
Speaker 4: a world big or a non conference Portland State, Stanford
Speaker 4: or East Carolina. Colorado is an intriguing Big twelve opener,
Speaker 4: not sure what they're going to be. Deon senders that
Speaker 4: they're a more talented team. They don't have as much
Speaker 4: individual talents they had last year, but he believes they're
Speaker 4: a better team overall, So take that for what you will.
Speaker 4: And then BYU's got a couple of games that I
Speaker 4: feel like they should be okay in a home game
Speaker 4: against West Virginia, who has to travel along away on
Speaker 4: a Friday night, and then Arizona on the road. We
Speaker 4: don't know what the heck they're going to be under
Speaker 4: Brent Brennan as he's trying to save his job. So
Speaker 4: it really is a great opportunity for Bay to break
Speaker 4: in a guy, and I think that it's not Outland,
Speaker 4: just to think that the Cougars can go five and one,
Speaker 4: even with a brand new quarterback against those six opponents.
Speaker 4: If BUA can be five and one going into the
Speaker 4: Utah game, then they should feel very very good about
Speaker 4: their chances, you know, to win eight games and try
Speaker 4: and go three and three in that back six and
Speaker 4: be going into a bowl game at eight.
Speaker 2: And talked about this earlier with the coaches poll released
Speaker 2: yesterday and the AP coming out on Monday. I need
Speaker 2: three or four I need three or four games before
Speaker 2: I can I always say observation, not conclusion, the first
Speaker 2: three or four games of the season. Now, the complication
Speaker 2: with this dynamic when it comes to a conference is
Speaker 2: you could go zero to three in non con turn
Speaker 2: it around to do finding conference play. But how long
Speaker 2: do you need before you feel like you have an
Speaker 2: accurate read on exactly who BYU will be this year?
Speaker 3: How many games you need do you need on your belt?
Speaker 4: I'm not far off of what you're you're saying there, Spence.
Speaker 4: I I feel like I have a really good idea
Speaker 4: of what a team is probably four games into the season,
Speaker 4: because I think you've you've seen at least one conference game,
Speaker 4: and you've seen them work out some of the workoffs,
Speaker 4: some of the russ work at some of the kinks
Speaker 4: in things through those three non conference games. So if
Speaker 4: I saw the first poll like the first week of October,
Speaker 4: I think that would be awesome because then we I thought,
Speaker 4: we really know, like Okay, we have a way better
Speaker 4: idea of what these teams are and you can avoid
Speaker 4: a situation like we had a Florida State last year
Speaker 4: where they're top ten team and they lose in the
Speaker 4: opener in Ireland to Georgia Tech, and we're like, oh,
Speaker 4: maybe it was a fluke, and then the wheels just
Speaker 4: absolutely fell off and they were an absolute dumpster fire
Speaker 4: a year after being a College Fool playoff contender. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm probably four games and then and then we're good,
Speaker 4: give me the first pull on October. But I understand
Speaker 4: that we're in a business that drives advertisers and ratings,
Speaker 4: and we need contexts and we want people to watch
Speaker 4: games early, and that's why we have the preseason eight
Speaker 4: pe pole and the coaches pulled because we want people
Speaker 4: to watch the product. We want people to pay attention
Speaker 4: to our shows, and it gives us Podder to talk about.
Speaker 4: So I trust me, I understand both dynamics. But if
Speaker 4: I had my way, first pull on the first week
Speaker 4: of October would be the way to go.
Speaker 2: I had a chance to catch up with Brian Santiago
Speaker 2: Big twelve media day. What's it been like first couple Well,
Speaker 2: I guess months now on the job. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: just it's tough to follow a guy like Tom with
Speaker 2: the job he did, and we know Brian was his
Speaker 2: right hand man, and you know, it does feel like
Speaker 2: he has inherited a very advantageous situation for an AD
Speaker 2: because it just feels like things are ticking down there,
Speaker 2: honestly in a way that it hasn't felt like for
Speaker 2: quite some time on both the men's basketball and football side.
Speaker 2: And then you know, a lot of the Olympic sports
Speaker 2: high level as well, so fan interest, ticket sales, you know,
Speaker 2: business of sport at BYU seems good. What's it been
Speaker 2: like having that new AD for a little while now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I joked to him. I actually spoke to him
Speaker 4: this morning and joked of them like, hey, you signed
Speaker 4: up at the perfect time.
Speaker 7: You know, nice easy.
Speaker 4: Transition into revenue share, your starting quarterbacks leaving the program
Speaker 4: and going through that craziness and then sold out arenas
Speaker 4: and students being mad because they're not of rock passes
Speaker 4: and season ticket holders wondering if they're going to be
Speaker 4: able to be in the building, and you know, we
Speaker 4: kind of, you know, joked about a tongue in cheek,
Speaker 4: but I mean, ultimately he said, it's it's this is
Speaker 4: a first world problem, no doubt about it. Like it,
Speaker 4: I'm so grateful and I'm using his words to see
Speaker 4: the passion and the commitment for BYU athletics at an
Speaker 4: all time high. And I mean he keeps using the
Speaker 4: word just like unbelievable and unprecedented, but he's genuinely excited
Speaker 4: about what's going to happen. He did point out the
Speaker 4: biggest challenge ahead of by U is now that there
Speaker 4: are expectations out there, especially for the men's basketball program,
Speaker 4: like how do they rise to the occasion? Can they
Speaker 4: meet the expectations which really haven't been there certainly not
Speaker 4: like this, But that's the challenge now is can we
Speaker 4: can we rise to the occasion, meet the expectations? Can
Speaker 4: this basketballs and put it together and go to an
Speaker 4: elite A or you know, be a legitimate national championship
Speaker 4: contender and can football replicate what they did last year?
Speaker 4: Can they make it so last year wasn't a fluke
Speaker 4: and they can they go out and be a legitimate
Speaker 4: contender to get to a big twelve championship game. So
Speaker 4: that that's the challenge. But I believe he is genuinely
Speaker 4: excited and thrilled and is aware of the concerns and
Speaker 4: complaints that happened when everyone wants to be in the
Speaker 4: building and can't. But you know, and I've got he's
Speaker 4: open to admitting that he's he's learning as he goes.
Speaker 4: You know, He's like, man, I feel like I'm learning
Speaker 4: lesson every day. Just you think you have an idea
Speaker 4: of if somebody's going to happen and how people are invested,
Speaker 4: and then it's just like whoa, the investment is even
Speaker 4: more and we're just trying to figure it out as
Speaker 4: we go. But I just getting through one day at
Speaker 4: a time. When he says one day at a time,
Speaker 4: like he, I believe he's living it and he means it,
Speaker 4: and he's exhausted, but he's really excited about just the
Speaker 4: general momentum of BYU athletics and the even the Olympic
Speaker 4: sports you talked about with you know my gosh sober
Speaker 4: Metal from the Paris Olympics, and and one of the
Speaker 4: runners being nominated for NC double Woman of the Year
Speaker 4: a Lexi Halliday Lowry and just national championships being won
Speaker 4: in track and field on top of a nice pedigree
Speaker 4: that you already have with women's volleyball and soccer. And
Speaker 4: so yeah, pretty pretty wild time. But can be what
Speaker 4: you prised the occasion. I think it's something that we're
Speaker 4: all very interesting to see before.
Speaker 3: We say you lose.
Speaker 2: You probably can't talk about the Dean Rucker kid, right,
Speaker 2: the new the new prospect that's time for twenty six.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's funny like we can't talk about him
Speaker 4: on a university based program like say his name officially,
Speaker 4: but on your show, I'm happy, it's happy to talk
Speaker 4: about him. Yet Bean's just another another big get, like
Speaker 4: another four star guy and another important in state win
Speaker 4: for Kevin Young. He uh. He kind of reminds me
Speaker 4: a little bit of Lee Kamarde honestly, in in in
Speaker 4: what he does, and he's a little I think I
Speaker 4: don't think he'll be as skinny as Lee lovely, but
Speaker 4: I really like what he what he brings to b
Speaker 4: with basketball, and you know, no question, it's hard for
Speaker 4: a young man like that not to notice what's been
Speaker 4: happening at the Annex and seeing the likes of AJ
Speaker 4: DeVonta and Rob right the third, Richie Saunders and these
Speaker 4: big time star guys and watching practice and like there's yeah,
Speaker 4: there's real energy there. So huge, huge good get for BYU.
Speaker 4: Really like his game and man, I think he's going
Speaker 4: to score a lot of points for BYU.
Speaker 2: To expand the question to more of a macro standpoint,
Speaker 2: I know you referenced that BYU fans would prefer to
Speaker 2: fly under the radar, Well, I don't know how many
Speaker 2: people really understand what this basketball team has. November fifteenth,
Speaker 2: Yukon in Boston, and look, it's it's really tough, Spencer,
Speaker 2: because you know me, I'm a basketball guy and I
Speaker 2: love college hoops. I know a lot of people around
Speaker 2: here don't and think it's changed in a way that
Speaker 2: you know, for people like us that grew up with
Speaker 2: Duke and UNLV and those great Utah teams in the
Speaker 2: nineties and some great BYU teams back in the day,
Speaker 2: maybe it doesn't land the way I once did, and
Speaker 2: because of the nature of the tournament, I always hesitate
Speaker 2: to say you should go to a final four, you
Speaker 2: should be a final four team, because every year there's
Speaker 2: a sprained ankle and then there's a random super senior
Speaker 2: that hits twelve threes and suddenly you're going home like
Speaker 2: crazy things happen in the tournament. Yeah, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to say, on paper, this should be a team that,
Speaker 2: if things go their way and they stay healthy, a
Speaker 2: final four is a legit possibility. It's not just AJ,
Speaker 2: It's the Rob Wright kid, Canard Davis comes in from
Speaker 2: Southern Illinois. They get Richie Back, top end NBA talent, depth,
Speaker 2: and a coach who's proven he could do it. Our
Speaker 2: BYU fans seeming in your mind to understand what they're
Speaker 2: in for. Even though everyone's excited about football, this is
Speaker 2: a basketball team.
Speaker 3: Unlike that I think anyone's seen down there.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and.
Speaker 4: Come on, let's be real, Like as exciting as football is,
Speaker 4: I feel like there is a strong growing content of
Speaker 4: the fan base that is more excited about BA basketball
Speaker 4: because this is a brand new stratosphere and this isn't
Speaker 4: just you know, going to another level. They've taken this
Speaker 4: thing another ten levels up and that honestly, it's kind
Speaker 4: of hard for fans to not be a little scared
Speaker 4: and have some trepidation about, oh gosh, like do we
Speaker 4: really want to go all in on like this this
Speaker 4: idea that Boa could go to their second lead in
Speaker 4: and then maybe get to their first ever final four.
Speaker 4: It's just like this this emotional disconnect because it hasn't
Speaker 4: ever legitimately since maybe when Jim or for Debt and
Speaker 4: Brandon Davies was still in the mace like that year
Speaker 4: was like, oh my gosh, boy really is good. But
Speaker 4: even then they had time to like kind of work
Speaker 4: into that. This is you're starting the season and you
Speaker 4: got you know, several local broadcasters yourself included, me included,
Speaker 4: and national guys John Rothstein and Franceschila are saying, a
Speaker 4: BA is final four good. They are final four good.
Speaker 4: We've never experienced that in Happy Valley like that's it
Speaker 4: hasn't ever been there. So it just feel like there's
Speaker 4: some hesitation to fully embrace it because the fear of
Speaker 4: maybe being disappointed. But come on, let's let's this is
Speaker 4: what sports are about, like is what being a fan
Speaker 4: is about? Just go all in, understand that this that
Speaker 4: this talent level is unlike anything we've ever seen before,
Speaker 4: and and go with it. And if if health remains good, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the U y U is Final four good. Which is
Speaker 4: a crazy thing for me to say, and even I
Speaker 4: am still trying to come around to like fully diving
Speaker 4: into that. But I've been in practice, I've seeing them
Speaker 4: like they are. It's is just another level they They
Speaker 4: are absolutely good enough to get to an elit day
Speaker 4: and and make history and get to a.
Speaker 2: Final four, no doubt. I buddy, appreciate the time. As
Speaker 2: one of the last Spencer standing. I always enjoy a
Speaker 2: commerce stations. Have a great week. We'll chat soon. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, Spencer Litton b YU tv B, why you
Speaker 2: still looking for a quarterback? Prior to their opener against
Speaker 2: Portland State. Speaking of driving my car, the minivan is back.
Speaker 3: Here we go.
Speaker 2: George Niang has made his triumph for return to play
Speaker 2: for the Utah Jazz. I got to admit, and this
Speaker 2: mostly is a me problem. I think most nicknames are horrific,
Speaker 2: and I think most nicknames that broadcasters try to make up.
Speaker 3: Are really really bad. The Minivan's pretty good. I like it.
Speaker 3: It's not bad.
Speaker 2: And also I believe it was George himself who nicknamed uh.
Speaker 2: He coined the nickname himself because I think he was
Speaker 2: asked a question about like Donovan's athleticism and he said
Speaker 2: something like Donovan's like a I don't know, nice Lamborghini
Speaker 2: or something.
Speaker 3: I'm just more like a minivan because it, excuse me,
Speaker 3: it works.
Speaker 2: George is not, how to put this gently, George is
Speaker 2: not built the way that most high level NBA players
Speaker 2: are built.
Speaker 3: Is that fair to say?
Speaker 5: George is built literally as he is like a guy
Speaker 5: who has had a lot of beers in Iowa, which
Speaker 5: he has done. A lot of beers and a lot
Speaker 5: of corn. That's George Neian.
Speaker 2: And also George lived in the same apartment complex I
Speaker 2: did for a while. He lived up with the NBA
Speaker 2: players like Derek favors like the nice apartments.
Speaker 3: I was in a normal person apartment of course, sure.
Speaker 2: And I can tell you walking into certain pool scenarios
Speaker 2: or party scenarios in said facility. He likes to have
Speaker 2: a good time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he does.
Speaker 5: You know you you always hear stuff about guys that
Speaker 5: are are, you know, playing here. George was always apparently
Speaker 5: having a really good having a really good time.
Speaker 3: I think he will continue to do so.
Speaker 5: Luckily in Salt Lake, You're not gonna like get into
Speaker 5: much trouble if you're just outsmashing natty lights like it,
Speaker 5: it appears George George likes to do. But I think
Speaker 5: he's also a guy who maybe not you know, an
Speaker 5: elite defender, good locker room guy.
Speaker 2: Whenever somebody says good locker room guy's code for he's
Speaker 2: not very good at basketball.
Speaker 3: Do you think George? Do you think George is a
Speaker 3: natty light guy?
Speaker 5: I think I at least at one time saw him
Speaker 5: drinking a natty light, but you know, maybe not specific
Speaker 5: to that. I don't think he's a bad NBA player,
Speaker 5: and I think he plays beyond sometimes what is like
Speaker 5: physical limitations might appear really good ball mover. I think
Speaker 5: he's a really good communicator on the floor, So you know,
Speaker 5: could be worse.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a low risk move.
Speaker 2: The Jazz get two second round picks attached, and essentially
Speaker 2: it's taking on George's salary for a player in r
Speaker 2: J Luis that probably was not going to play. And
Speaker 2: the Celtics said, okay, if you take Kniang's salary will
Speaker 2: also attach two second round picks to it. The Boston
Speaker 2: motivation is getting under the second apron. George is thirty two.
Speaker 2: That makes me feel old. I feel like you just
Speaker 2: came into the league. He was a really good four
Speaker 2: year player at Iowa State. Ultimately, this is not a
Speaker 2: trade that means anything. To Porter's point, he's a vet
Speaker 2: that knows the city. He's a vet that knows how
Speaker 2: to be a pro. And honestly, because of that approach,
Speaker 2: it's kind of a little Jared dudleysh Like Jared Dudley
Speaker 2: the final four or five year of his career, couldn't
Speaker 2: play at a twenty four hour fitness but a pro
Speaker 2: that did everything the right way. And so if you're
Speaker 2: a GM and you want a low risk addition to
Speaker 2: your locker room, you could do a lot worse than
Speaker 2: a guy like George.
Speaker 3: Yeh.
Speaker 5: Well, and you go to like a college campus and Spence,
Speaker 5: there are multiple since is where there's a former player
Speaker 5: who he might not be on the coaching staff, but
Speaker 5: he's there and he's getting paid and he's practicing. Sometimes
Speaker 5: he's in uniform, sometimes he's doing film cut up. Sometimes
Speaker 5: he's like, this is something that you know, you don't
Speaker 5: see it in the NBA on that level, But you
Speaker 5: can't have a guy where he's on your roster and
Speaker 5: he's not necessarily on your roster to be a rotation piece.
Speaker 5: He's on your roster to help young players number one
Speaker 5: learn a system that he already knows, learn you know,
Speaker 5: a lot of basketball and NBA things that he already knows.
Speaker 5: And I think George Ying is a pretty good candidate
Speaker 5: for that. And like you said, he's familiar with the city,
Speaker 5: he's familiar with the organization, and yeah, all all accounts,
Speaker 5: he's a he's a pretty good guy.
Speaker 2: Are we back to the moniker that pops can't raise pops?
Speaker 2: You remember last year when they signed Patty Mills and
Speaker 2: Drew you Banks and we're like, what the hell are
Speaker 2: you doing right? And Xanik or whoever would address to
Speaker 2: me and it's like, hey, pops can't raise pops.
Speaker 3: And then this it's all pups.
Speaker 2: So are we gonna hear somebody under the phrase when
Speaker 2: they announced this once again the pups can't race.
Speaker 5: Pups, Well, you know pups. They can't raise pups in
Speaker 5: the wild, just they don't. They don't get anywhere. So
Speaker 5: if it's just pups, they have to figure it out
Speaker 5: in some way. But it may not be pretty, but
Speaker 5: they'll figure it out.
Speaker 2: But if a pup figures it out without like a
Speaker 2: savvy guide, doesn't that pup turn out to be like
Speaker 2: a badass wolf or something?
Speaker 3: Can be I'm stretching, you're the you're the nature ex
Speaker 3: can be Okay.
Speaker 5: You know, some sort of lone wolf. I think so
Speaker 5: it'll uh, you know, iron sharpens iron. So if if
Speaker 5: these guys are, if these guys are you know, working
Speaker 5: towards the same goal, I don't know, maybe they'll help them.
Speaker 2: Iron does sharpen. Do you think the Jazz have a
Speaker 2: next man up mentality?
Speaker 3: Maybe not yet.
Speaker 5: They need they need the starters in order to have
Speaker 5: the next rod. You need five in order to have
Speaker 5: the next man up.
Speaker 3: That's true. They need more than like one good player. Uh.
Speaker 2: George's best year was probably in the year after he
Speaker 2: left the Jazz.
Speaker 3: He had a decent year in Cleveland when he was
Speaker 3: reunited with Donovan. It's been kind of interesting.
Speaker 2: So he leaves the Jazz in twenty one, goes to
Speaker 2: Philly and then lands in Cleveland, plays with Donovan again
Speaker 2: and actually spend some time with Atlanta last year, playing
Speaker 2: with Quinn in twenty eight games for Atlanta last year.
Speaker 3: Twelve points. Why am I reading George Niang stats on air?
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 2: Whatever? None of this is pertinent to the role he's
Speaker 2: gonna play for the Utah Jazz. To Porter's point, a
Speaker 2: vet safe, you know, safe guy that you can bring
Speaker 2: into the locker room, show the players, young players how
Speaker 2: to be a pro, knows the city. Don't know how
Speaker 2: familiar he is with will, but an unexpected move made
Speaker 2: by the Utah Jazz today.
Speaker 4: R J.
Speaker 3: Luis is a Boston Celtic.
Speaker 2: George and Yang and two second round picks come this
Speaker 2: way to Salt Lake for the Utah Jazz ESPN seven
Speaker 2: hundred twelve. Some of us were pleased to welcome Simple
Speaker 2: Plan with Bowling for Soup.
Speaker 3: I don't know why I find that band name so funny.
Speaker 2: Simple Plan Bowling for Soup and three zero zero three
Speaker 2: to the Plaza at America First Field, August sixteenth, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five. Make sure to tune in to the Shot
Speaker 2: O'Connell show for your chance to score a pair of
Speaker 2: tickets to Simple Plan Bowllying for Soup and three zero
Speaker 2: h three at the Plazat America First Field, August sixteenth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Smithy's going to join us today forty
Speaker 2: years with Utah Jazz. Jazz made a trade today George
Speaker 2: Dyang on his way back to Saul Lake to play
Speaker 2: for Will Hardy in the Utah Jazz. Two second round
Speaker 2: picks attached to that deal.
Speaker 4: R J.
Speaker 2: Luis heads to the Boston Celtics. But let's do some
Speaker 2: more college football. And I just never know what's going
Speaker 2: to happen when our next guest is on the show,
Speaker 2: But it's always entertaining. Dave bar two College Football Matrix.
Speaker 2: All right, Dave, where are you at? What are you doing?
Speaker 8: Dude? I swear I'm sober for this show man, come
Speaker 8: on break all right?
Speaker 3: No, but but for real, where are you right now?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 8: I'm actually I'm sitting on my deck and right next
Speaker 8: to me is my bow because I just got done
Speaker 8: building a whole new arrow set up for archery season,
Speaker 8: and I'm sighting in my bow from twenty to sixty
Speaker 8: yards right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, fair enough, I'm going to dig deeper
Speaker 2: and ask for some fun off season stories. Where have
Speaker 2: your travels taken you during the college football off season.
Speaker 8: Probably the best college football one in South Carolina for
Speaker 8: a week. We have a new program for early player identification,
Speaker 8: for athletics and just just finding kids either off the
Speaker 8: beaten path or before anybody else does, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
Speaker 8: fifteen year olds before they get the camp. And I
Speaker 8: kind of toured the state, rolling the whole thing out statewide.
Speaker 8: So really excited about the direction of that.
Speaker 2: Very nice so around these parts University of Utah football
Speaker 2: fans hopeful that last year was a moment in time
Speaker 2: and not the new normal for Utah football. What gives
Speaker 2: you the most confidence that year two in the Big
Speaker 2: twelve will look better for Utah than year one?
Speaker 3: Did?
Speaker 8: Dave all of it every day. I mean, you know,
Speaker 8: I still look. I know fans love recency bias, right,
Speaker 8: That's the biggest thing about being a fan of what
Speaker 8: happened last game, what happened last month, what happened last year.
Speaker 8: And there's probably a lot of people, you know, pushing
Speaker 8: the panic button, but you know, years like that happened,
Speaker 8: and I still go back to my position on where
Speaker 8: it was a year ago. It is one of the
Speaker 8: most talented teams in the Big Twelve. It is one
Speaker 8: of the best coach teams in the Big twelve, got
Speaker 8: one of the best head coaches in the Big twelve.
Speaker 8: None of that has changed. Okay, you had a bad year,
Speaker 8: I get it, and that's called college football. Stuff happens.
Speaker 8: But in my opinion, I don't think there's another team
Speaker 8: in college football that has the ability to bounce back
Speaker 8: from twenty twenty four as hard as Utai Youth.
Speaker 2: I know I asked you this every time you join,
Speaker 2: but just for listeners that may not be familiar. One
Speaker 2: of the things you do that I've always enjoyed learning
Speaker 2: about is you ranked stats, You rank coaches, you rank coordinators.
Speaker 2: So Utah once again coach wit is back, Morgan scally coach,
Speaker 2: and waiting defensive coordinator, but new offensive coordinator Jason Beck.
Speaker 2: How do you analyze and rank the current iteration of
Speaker 2: the Utah coaches?
Speaker 8: Well, what we like his upside. Now, he hasn't been
Speaker 8: an offensive coordinators, he hasn't handled enough game to get
Speaker 8: a full OC grade relative to everybody else, but we
Speaker 8: have a really good trend on him, and as a
Speaker 8: young offensive coordinator, we like the direction that he is going.
Speaker 8: So we're real positive about it, but at the same
Speaker 8: time not a big sample size, so let's not get
Speaker 8: too far over the skis. But I cannot say I
Speaker 8: don't dislike the higher I like the risk, and I
Speaker 8: think there's a lot of upside to what he brings
Speaker 8: to the table going forward.
Speaker 2: He also brings a quarterback that this program badly needed,
Speaker 2: and Cam Rising will always be a legend around here
Speaker 2: for a couple of Pac twelve championships, but the poor
Speaker 2: kid could not stay healthy.
Speaker 3: Cam moves on.
Speaker 2: He's now the offensive coordinator of his high school, so
Speaker 2: he'll be entering the coaching ranks. But what's the Dave
Speaker 2: Bartwo take on the new QB one here in Salt Lake.
Speaker 8: Devin Dampier, Well, you know something, what I would do
Speaker 8: with any quarterback it doesn't matter, is you know how
Speaker 8: many starts has he had and what did he do
Speaker 8: to elevate his team relative to expectations? Kind of like
Speaker 8: coach with what has he done with the talent to
Speaker 8: elevate the team beyond what he recruited? So I guess
Speaker 8: I would ask the question of anybody you know with
Speaker 8: the new quarterback, how many starts and did he elevate
Speaker 8: the team? Beyond what people expected out of him. And
Speaker 8: if the answer is positive, then I don't know how
Speaker 8: you not be positive about what he brings to Utah.
Speaker 2: The dynamic of moving up in competition, whereas New Mexico
Speaker 2: Mound West Conference School and now Devin dan Pier is
Speaker 2: playing in the Big Twelve. Certainly plenty of examples, namely
Speaker 2: cam Ward recently number one overall pick of players who've
Speaker 2: been able to make that jump and do it at
Speaker 2: a very high level. I don't know if you have
Speaker 2: data for this, but when it comes to, you know,
Speaker 2: a group of five quarterbacks making the move into what
Speaker 2: now is the P four?
Speaker 3: What sort of insights you have there?
Speaker 8: Nothing really other than like I said, is did they
Speaker 8: elevate where they're at before? Look at cam Woard. Did
Speaker 8: he elevate incarnate word yep? Did he elevate wise in
Speaker 8: a state?
Speaker 3: Yep?
Speaker 8: Did he elevate Miami?
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 8: He made a guy with almost no play calling experience
Speaker 8: in Shannon look awesome. Right, you know, look at Pabia
Speaker 8: New Mexico State to Vanderbilt. Boom elevated New Mexico State.
Speaker 8: Now he's elevating Vanderbilt. So while you say. People would
Speaker 8: like to say, well, it's really hard to make that job.
Speaker 8: I just go with kind of like what I do
Speaker 8: with coaching. If you're good, you stay good no matter
Speaker 8: where you're at. You know what, would Morgan scally be
Speaker 8: a good DC at any any place in the country. Yeah, right,
Speaker 8: he can go to Alabama, he's gonna be really good.
Speaker 8: Good in New Mexico's gonna be really good. So you know,
Speaker 8: the New Mexico offense, everything was solid down there. He
Speaker 8: certainly won above expectation, and so my take would be
Speaker 8: I expect him to win above expectations as at Utah
Speaker 8: as well.
Speaker 3: Morgan.
Speaker 2: As you know, Dave is the coach in waiting, and
Speaker 2: there are more than a few people that believe that
Speaker 2: transition will happen at the end of next season. I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, when it comes to coach Wit,
Speaker 2: I've always said, as long as he's under contract, he's
Speaker 2: the coach. And like when he decided to come back
Speaker 2: this year, there was a press release, there was a
Speaker 2: very simple statement, and I just wasn't surprised based off
Speaker 2: of the disappointment of a year ago, and Kyle was
Speaker 2: very honest during Big twelve media days that that disappointment
Speaker 2: did color the context of his decision making process. But
Speaker 2: I know you also analyzed, you know, coordinators in addition
Speaker 2: to head coaches. So shouldn't the transition happen next year?
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on the potential of Kyle stepping
Speaker 2: down and Morgan sliding over a seat.
Speaker 3: What do you think that looks like?
Speaker 8: Well, I think a lot of it depends on on
Speaker 8: two things in particular, certainly the culture continuity. The coaching
Speaker 8: continuity is going to be there, But I think it
Speaker 8: depends on how good the offenses this year. Does Morgan
Speaker 8: have to make a team this year or when he
Speaker 8: comes in and who's he bringing in as a defensive coordinator?
Speaker 8: Is he going to call the players for the first
Speaker 8: couple of years and take less risk or is he
Speaker 8: going to go next man up, promote somebody behind him,
Speaker 8: or is he going to bring a DC in brand
Speaker 8: new altogether. So there's a lot of pieces in terms
Speaker 8: of that puzzle and answering that question. I think it
Speaker 8: really is going to revolve around how much step thin
Speaker 8: Morgan has to do and how much staffing he's willing
Speaker 8: to do when that time comes.
Speaker 2: So ultimately, last year the Big Twelve preseason media poll
Speaker 2: proved you know that none of us know anything as
Speaker 2: far as what we're talking about. It was wild the
Speaker 2: way it was flipped up upside down. And we didn't
Speaker 2: do a preseason media pool in the Big Twelve this year,
Speaker 2: which is probably the right thing to do, so we
Speaker 2: all don't look like morons. But in addition to Utah,
Speaker 2: who you like, who else in the Big Twelve do
Speaker 2: you think will have a chance to be standing at
Speaker 2: the end.
Speaker 8: Well, I think you got to go with your best
Speaker 8: talent and your best coaching, right, I mean your best talent.
Speaker 8: Your best coaching is still Utah, really good head coach
Speaker 8: still Kansas State. I know everybody loves Arizona State, and
Speaker 8: I love Arizona State simply because I think Sam Levitt
Speaker 8: is just an amazing quarterback. You know, because if you
Speaker 8: look at their offensive coordinator Arroyo, when he doesn't have
Speaker 8: an awesome NFL quarterback justin Herbert, Oregon, he is a bad,
Speaker 8: bad offensive coordinator. So I think one of the easiest
Speaker 8: measuring sticks of teams regressing and progressing is looked at
Speaker 8: their recruiting levels. And so I think Arizona State, I
Speaker 8: think Colorado. Both those teams last year played way above
Speaker 8: their expectations. So I think we're going to see some
Speaker 8: regression there. I think you're going to see some progression
Speaker 8: in Utah. I think it's going to be Kansas State.
Speaker 8: And I'm not buying all the excitement with Oklahoma State
Speaker 8: because yeah, Gundhy clean house, but he brought a bunch
Speaker 8: of average fossils into that thing, and I just don't
Speaker 8: think it's gonna work that good.
Speaker 2: I would imagine by you outshot expectations a year ago
Speaker 2: by a long shot, and even by their own admission.
Speaker 2: You know, we had their athletic director on the show
Speaker 2: during Big twelve media days, Brian Santiago, and I was
Speaker 2: surprised that he actually admitted, because BYU fans don't love
Speaker 2: to admit when they get great luck. He said, the
Speaker 2: ball bounced our way all year long. They they're breaking
Speaker 2: in a new quarterback. Jake Rrett's laugh is now Tulane.
Speaker 2: We don't know who the starter is going to be.
Speaker 2: If I'm recalling correctly, I think you like Kilanie. They've
Speaker 2: got Aaron Rodgers as their offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3: J Hill. Now year three is their DC.
Speaker 2: What are your expectations for the BYU Cougars this year.
Speaker 8: I do expect a little regression, but Klannie has been
Speaker 8: a plus coach effect for his entire career about a
Speaker 8: game and a half, so I think BYU is still
Speaker 8: going to perform above expectations. But I don't think it
Speaker 8: is going to be as the ceiling as high as
Speaker 8: it was last year. I think there just has to
Speaker 8: be some regression in regards to that, but still great
Speaker 8: football coaching. Actually, the whole state of Utah, between Utah
Speaker 8: and BYU, even Utah State, now, there is really good
Speaker 8: coaching there. But I do believe and feel that BYU
Speaker 8: is due for a game or two regression in twenty
Speaker 8: twenty five.
Speaker 2: How how do you think the QB the storyline will
Speaker 2: affect them. I mean, Jake was eleventh in the Big
Speaker 2: twelve last year. In QBR, they won a lot of games,
Speaker 2: again based off of a lot of lucky bounces and
Speaker 2: some really really stout play on the defensive side of
Speaker 2: the football. They return a lot of players on defense,
Speaker 2: They've got a stacked running back room and a lot
Speaker 2: of good wide receivers. But whoever takes the snap against
Speaker 2: Portland State opening Day will be playing quarterback for BYU
Speaker 2: for the first time.
Speaker 3: How do you think that's going to affect him.
Speaker 8: It's got to affect him, right, I mean it is
Speaker 8: unless they get lucky, you know how it is. You
Speaker 8: know in college football, sometimes you just find that diamond
Speaker 8: in the rough and they get coach well and they're
Speaker 8: a great player, you know. But typically kids that do
Speaker 8: great in their first year in college elevated their high
Speaker 8: school team, right, you know, in terms of quarterback effect.
Speaker 8: We just talked about the guy transfer him with back
Speaker 8: from New Mexico. So whoever taking the ball at BYU,
Speaker 8: what did he do for his team in terms of
Speaker 8: elevating it. That's what I'd be looking at. But you know, yeah,
Speaker 8: the players are there. It is really hard though, to
Speaker 8: have consistency, I feel in the Big twelve, especially at
Speaker 8: a very high level. The talent's very balanced, the coaching
Speaker 8: is very balanced and very good. I just think it's
Speaker 8: going to be difficult to repeat and put themselves in
Speaker 8: this position where they were last year in terms of
Speaker 8: playing for a playoff spot in November.
Speaker 2: Always a little tongue in cheek about the Coach's poll
Speaker 2: that's released that was released on Monday, Ultimately, We've had
Speaker 2: a couple of college football guests on the show since
Speaker 2: the release, and it seems to be a consensus that most,
Speaker 2: if not all coaches don't even fill out the thing.
Speaker 2: It's delegated to an SID or maybe even below that.
Speaker 2: How much stock, if any, Dave do you put in
Speaker 2: the coaches poll that was released on Monday.
Speaker 8: I don't put anything into any of them. It's all
Speaker 8: for entertainment. That's it. All of it's for entertainment. I
Speaker 8: was laughing when your commissioner at Big pels like, we're
Speaker 8: not doing a media poll because it adversely affected our teams. No,
Speaker 8: you're scoring efficiency adversely affected your teams. That's what it was.
Speaker 8: It wasn't that, you know, you weren't good at the beginning. Again,
Speaker 8: that's that's a selection bias that fans have. None of
Speaker 8: these polls have any effect. Nobody listening right now can
Speaker 8: show me a correlation year over year to playoff committee
Speaker 8: behavior and preseason polls. It doesn't exist. They used the
Speaker 8: same formula for ranking teams today as they did ten
Speaker 8: years ago, and nothing, whether it's coaches polls or anything else,
Speaker 8: affects that. It's just a wives tale that people like
Speaker 8: to talk about, and I don't believe in it for
Speaker 8: a second. Just enjoy the rankings if your teams are there.
Speaker 3: Well said.
Speaker 2: Now, Having said that, Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, Georgia,
Speaker 2: Notre Dame, top five according to your model and your knowledge,
Speaker 2: just generally speaking, best teams in college football this year.
Speaker 8: Oh jeez man, this is going to be the This
Speaker 8: is going to be might be the best year of
Speaker 8: my life in following football. I have no idea. I
Speaker 8: really don't. I really don't. So last year, the five
Speaker 8: teams that checked off all the boxes to win the
Speaker 8: national title. None of this blue chip ratio crap where
Speaker 8: there's seventeen to twenty teams that could be competing. That's
Speaker 8: all a bunch of knockoff bs is what it is.
Speaker 8: Last year that were five, it was Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia,
Speaker 8: Notre Dame in Texas. Those were the only competitors. And
Speaker 8: in the last fifteen years it has always been three
Speaker 8: to five teams, no more, no less. This year there's eight.
Speaker 8: I throw out LSU, not even considering LSU, and I
Speaker 8: throw out Ohio State not even considering them at all.
Speaker 8: But the other top ten recruiters that are out there. Look,
Speaker 8: they were all good last year. They all have good staffs,
Speaker 8: but everybody has a whole Georgia has a new quarterback,
Speaker 8: Alabama has a new quarterback. Texas has a new quarterback.
Speaker 8: You know, you go down the list ten States got
Speaker 8: a new defensive coordinator and they don't recruit in the
Speaker 8: top ten. And Jim Knowle's defense is tough, And whoever
Speaker 8: wins it is going to be probably the least talented
Speaker 8: champion we've had in the last twenty five years. But
Speaker 8: I think the crop of teams that are competing this
Speaker 8: year is bigger than it's ever been, and I'm excited
Speaker 8: to see it play out.
Speaker 3: We follow up the battle Ohio State.
Speaker 2: You're the first person I have heard say what you
Speaker 2: just said about them. It feels like a lot of
Speaker 2: people still believe that they have a shot to win
Speaker 2: the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Why are you down on the Buckeyes?
Speaker 8: Oh, I'm not down on them, And certainly they have
Speaker 8: a shot to win the whole thing. They get to
Speaker 8: play a schedule and they're a top ten recruiter. But look, okay,
Speaker 8: they got a new quarterback never played before, right, they
Speaker 8: got a new DC who's never been to DC at
Speaker 8: the collegiate level, and they got a new offensive coordinator
Speaker 8: that has the same amount of play calling experience as
Speaker 8: you and me. Now, I know Ryan Day is right
Speaker 8: there to hold Brian Hartline's hand, But teams with a
Speaker 8: inexperience coordinator offense or defense don't win national titles. They haven't, right,
Speaker 8: I don't think there's one in twenty five years where
Speaker 8: you've got a brand new OC or brand new DC
Speaker 8: that has won a national title. So do I think
Speaker 8: Ohio State still has a chance to repeat? Sure, but
Speaker 8: I put them in the second tier. It wouldn't surprise me,
Speaker 8: but they would still be a pretty big anomaly compared
Speaker 8: to the rest of the teams out there in the
Speaker 8: last twenty five national champions.
Speaker 3: Do you still believe we are headed?
Speaker 2: You know, this is a topic we talk about around
Speaker 2: here all the time because the Big twelve is a
Speaker 2: fine place to land for now. It is, And if
Speaker 2: you're BYU, if you're Utah, you appreciate the fact that
Speaker 2: you're in a P four conference. But there is this
Speaker 2: storyline narrative that permeates, you know, kind of behind the
Speaker 2: scenes about what this sport is going to look like eventually.
Speaker 2: Do you still kind of believe we're headed towards this
Speaker 2: pro model with two conferences if it's the SEC in
Speaker 2: the Big Ten taking some of the leftovers from some
Speaker 2: of the other conferences, or does it feel like things
Speaker 2: have calmed down at least for the moment.
Speaker 8: Answer a question with a question, do you think America
Speaker 8: is still full of greed and will sell tradition for
Speaker 8: a dollar at any cost?
Speaker 3: Let me do some quick math.
Speaker 8: Yes, I do, yeah, yeah, so so yeah, I think
Speaker 8: this is still heading towards this totally sucks. I hate it,
Speaker 8: I really do. You know, as great as this country is,
Speaker 8: tradition is for sale. Everything is to the highest bidder.
Speaker 8: You know, when I hear when I hear talks about
Speaker 8: private equity owning college football programs, think about that private
Speaker 8: equity owning college football programs and I thought that was
Speaker 8: a bunch of I thought it was nuts years ago.
Speaker 8: And now, oh, look at the articles. Oh here's here's
Speaker 8: school valuations coming out that's not by accident, right, So
Speaker 8: imagine Utah or Oregon or USC or Ohio State now
Speaker 8: being owned by private equity. Vomit. We already have the
Speaker 8: NFL where there's no upsets, there's no tradition, Nobody cares
Speaker 8: about their well, they care about their teams, but it's
Speaker 8: just a bunch of teams that get into the playoffs.
Speaker 4: And I just.
Speaker 8: We don't need another homogenous football league. But boy, does
Speaker 8: it feel like college football is just absorbing the greed
Speaker 8: and going right down that same path tradition and everything
Speaker 8: else aside.
Speaker 2: Seems like the topic of collective bargaining and players unionizing
Speaker 2: as a lightning rod.
Speaker 3: And it depends on what side you're on there.
Speaker 2: For me, Dave, I just like you, I don't love
Speaker 2: the direction, but I'm also a grown up and I
Speaker 2: understand what capitalism means and when nil became a reality
Speaker 2: and transfer portal became a reality, I come from a
Speaker 2: background of pro sports, and so for me, if you
Speaker 2: want to solve some of these issues, namely keeping kids
Speaker 2: on campus for at least a couple of years, or
Speaker 2: you know, bringing some sort of uniformity and what you
Speaker 2: can pay them, I do believe that the best route
Speaker 2: is to allow players to unionize and collectively bargain with
Speaker 2: whatever the powers that be that are running the sport is,
Speaker 2: and that changes from day to day.
Speaker 3: Do you think we're headed in that direction. Do you
Speaker 3: think it's the right thing?
Speaker 8: Man, Two different answers. I don't know what the right
Speaker 8: thing is because everything changes so quick. Nobody's happy with,
Speaker 8: well what happened last year. It's just an instant oatmeal
Speaker 8: drive through fast food society, and we don't take time
Speaker 8: to really take a break to think about long term
Speaker 8: ramifications that feel like so. But to answer your question
Speaker 8: about collective bargaining, understanding laws and rules and so forth,
Speaker 8: of how it's all laid out to me, it almost
Speaker 8: seems like it's inevitable. But again, how that's put together,
Speaker 8: what that looks like, when that's going to happen. I
Speaker 8: don't know when, but every single week, every single month,
Speaker 8: every single year, it just feels like the tradition and
Speaker 8: everything that we had in our sport, you know, players
Speaker 8: being around for four or five years and identifying with
Speaker 8: a school, it just seems to be whittled away. And
Speaker 8: I think part of it, my emotion and attachment to it,
Speaker 8: gets whittled a way along with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't think you're alone there before you
Speaker 2: say you lose you know, again, along the lines of
Speaker 2: just accepting what reality is. If the Big ten wants
Speaker 2: four auto bids, and I know it's the SEC is
Speaker 2: kind of backed off that.
Speaker 3: Stance a little bit. But if the SEC and the
Speaker 3: Big ten.
Speaker 2: Want four auto bids for an expanded sixteen team CFP,
Speaker 2: they're going to get it, aren't they.
Speaker 3: If that's if that's the hill they're going to die on.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well they got the gold, they make the rules, right,
Speaker 8: they carry the big stick. Yeah, I guess they can
Speaker 8: try to die on that hill. That's fine, And you
Speaker 8: and I both know one year it'll work out. Two
Speaker 8: or three other years it'll look stupid. But I don't
Speaker 8: blame them trying to leverage their position to ensure as
Speaker 8: many teams are in this playoffs, no matter how many
Speaker 8: teams are in there as possible. Can't blame them for that.
Speaker 8: And if that's the direction they ultimately want to go,
Speaker 8: that's fine. You know, I don't know what any of
Speaker 8: us can do about that in terms of changing that
Speaker 8: outcome or their demands for automatic bids.
Speaker 2: Last thing, the twelve teams this year. Do you think
Speaker 2: the Big twelve can get two in?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 8: Sure, sure, you know it just it just depends on
Speaker 8: how it plays out. Again, the ball's got to bounce right,
Speaker 8: you know. I mean, is it hard to conceive to
Speaker 8: twelve and no teams in the Big Twelve title game?
Speaker 8: Sure it is. You know, is it hard to conceive
Speaker 8: two teams that are both twelve and one that can
Speaker 8: get in the playoffs? Yeah it is, but it's possible,
Speaker 8: not probable, because the talent and coaching balance in the
Speaker 8: Big Twelve is really really tough. But you know, look
Speaker 8: what Arizona State did last year. So I think that's
Speaker 8: one of the hopes that we all have in college football.
Speaker 8: Come to number one or week zero or whatever it is.
Speaker 8: Is what is going to happen is a mystery to us,
Speaker 8: and I think knowing that any outcome is plausible, I
Speaker 8: think that's what makes college football still exciting.
Speaker 3: Dave, Thank you, sir for the time, always entertaining.
Speaker 2: Best of luck and whatever incredibly exciting endeavors you have
Speaker 2: coming your way over the.
Speaker 3: Next few weeks, and we'll get you back on again soon. Okay,
Speaker 3: you know where I'm at.
Speaker 8: Don't be a stranger, buddy.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, Dave bartwo College Football Matrix. Get them on
Speaker 2: Twitter at CFB matrixes where you found them find him.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, some good stuff there with the coaching dynamics
Speaker 2: in State. One of the things Dave has always done
Speaker 2: that I've found very interesting is he does deep dives
Speaker 2: on coaching staffs. He analyzes his head coaches, coordinators, and
Speaker 2: then you know, juxtapose that with the talent you have
Speaker 2: coming back to try to understand the landscape for what
Speaker 2: college football is going to look like.
Speaker 3: And he nailed it.
Speaker 2: When it comes to these preseason polls, it's fodder for conversation,
Speaker 2: and if your team is ranked, you enjoy it.
Speaker 3: If your team is not, you think it's a bunch
Speaker 3: of bs.
Speaker 2: We'll see what the AP brings coming up on Monday
Speaker 2: after the Coach's Poll was released yesterday. I'm here live
Speaker 2: in studio because I show up.
Speaker 3: And I grind.
Speaker 2: Our next guest is Richard Smith, who is probably on
Speaker 2: a beach with his feet up enjoying the sunshine.
Speaker 3: Smitty, where do we find you on this Tuesday afternoon fast?
Speaker 7: Uh, You're you're missing the lead here. If you you're
Speaker 7: you're not telling the listeners that you spent a lovely
Speaker 7: week last week up in beautiful sun Valley, Idaho. Just
Speaker 7: boss over that and go right into your hard book schedule.
Speaker 7: I know that you have back again in the studio.
Speaker 7: That's tough to you.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not about yesterday's news. I'm more about where
Speaker 2: we are today, Smitty. So yes, I am grinding live
Speaker 2: in studio. Where where do we find you? Or would
Speaker 2: you rather just land on a location unknown?
Speaker 7: Hey spend Now, I had to follow your lead, so
Speaker 7: you were you you and your family. I know we're
Speaker 7: in Sun Valley last week, and I had to follow
Speaker 7: that league. So I'm up and I went even further north.
Speaker 7: And sitting out on the deck today at beautiful quarter Lane, Idaho.
Speaker 7: Who nice and at the Quarter Lane Resort, and we
Speaker 7: had a nice round of golf there yesterday and went
Speaker 7: over to Struggling Raven. It's about twenty minutes oight side
Speaker 7: of Quarterlane today. Another great golf court here, just part
Speaker 7: of Idaho and just just thirty miles east of Spokane.
Speaker 7: Tonisy get from the Salt Lake and yeah, having a
Speaker 7: great time here in great weather up here in northern Idaho.
Speaker 2: Very nice, very nice. As I often say, it's good
Speaker 2: to be Richard Smith. So Smitty, some breaking news. As
Speaker 2: the mini van is making his way back to Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City, the Utah Jazz made a trade today.
Speaker 4: R J.
Speaker 2: Lewis Junior goes to Boston George Dang and two future
Speaker 2: second round picks come to the Utah Jazz. Georgia's salary
Speaker 2: is about eight million and change. It goes into the
Speaker 2: trade exception from the John Collins deal. If you're Boston,
Speaker 2: you're shedding salary. If if you're the Jazz, I guess
Speaker 2: you're getting two second round picks in exchange for absorbing
Speaker 2: George's money. But what are your thoughts on what the
Speaker 2: Jazz and the Celtics did today?
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, I think in the grand scope of things spent,
Speaker 7: my opinion is that it's you know, much ado about nothing.
Speaker 7: It's uh, you know, the Jazz are obviously still in
Speaker 7: an asset acquiring mode and they get a couple of
Speaker 7: second round picks that they could you know, use at
Speaker 7: some point or move those along as they see fit
Speaker 7: in future trades. And in George Yang, who is a
Speaker 7: very serviceable player and actually came through the Jazz player
Speaker 7: development program and playing starting with the UH the Salt
Speaker 7: Lake City Stars and then working its way up to
Speaker 7: the Jazz and played some good games and and had
Speaker 7: some good contributions during this time, and actually because of
Speaker 7: the work he did with the Jazz as several years ago,
Speaker 7: played his way into an actual free agent contract with
Speaker 7: the Philadelphia seventy six ers at the time. And so
Speaker 7: I'm not sure. I'm not sure what to think he
Speaker 7: is in getting him. I'm not sure if they have
Speaker 7: to get to a salary floor as well, spent before
Speaker 7: opening day in October, so it could be something where
Speaker 7: he's filling that space for them. I'm not sure it's
Speaker 7: really has anything to do with trying to quote improve
Speaker 7: the club or get someone who's going to be a
Speaker 7: danger continued going forward. But I know George is a
Speaker 7: good worker, and he's a good guy, and you know
Speaker 7: he'll help young guys in the locker room if that's
Speaker 7: what they're what they're after. But I don't think it's
Speaker 7: going to mean much in the grand scheme of things
Speaker 7: in terms of the Utah Jazz, and they're winning and.
Speaker 2: Losing going forward, certainly, And as I stretched to make
Speaker 2: this a topic, you know, it's interesting last year when
Speaker 2: the Jazz acquired Patty Mills and Drew you Banks and
Speaker 2: some other borderline veteran players. The walking line from the
Speaker 2: coaches in the front office was well, pups can't raise pups. Well,
Speaker 2: it's a much different approach this year because basically, outside
Speaker 2: of Yusef Nurkic and now George Niang, these are all kids.
Speaker 2: But I kind of drew the parallel smitty earlier to
Speaker 2: the end of the career for Jared Dudley, who continued
Speaker 2: to find jobs even though his best years were far
Speaker 2: behind him, because he was known throughout the ecosystem of
Speaker 2: pro basketball as a professional who could be a safe
Speaker 2: bet to help young players learn how to traverse this
Speaker 2: league and be pros while playing pro basketball. So what
Speaker 2: sort of, if any benefit at all, can that intangible
Speaker 2: dynamic bring if that's the idea of the Jazz have here.
Speaker 7: Well, George is a great guy. He's a great personality.
Speaker 7: He never gets down, he's never in a negative space,
Speaker 7: you know, very similar to Jordan Clarkson, h you know,
Speaker 7: who obviously has moved on this summer to the Knicks.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 7: You know, maybe George is being brought in to fill
Speaker 7: that space as far as uh the locker room presence
Speaker 7: and and uh you know how guys need to handle
Speaker 7: a business day in and day out. Uh, usually you
Speaker 7: know that influence is really more felt when it's with
Speaker 7: someone who would have a greater impact on the team
Speaker 7: uh in games. Then I would foresee George would have
Speaker 7: going forward. UH So I don't know. Again, I haven't
Speaker 7: studied it. Like I said, there's a scenario where the
Speaker 7: addition could help them and the salary stuff having to
Speaker 7: get to a minimum UH spending before the season starts.
Speaker 7: I can also see a scenario where they use that
Speaker 7: to get to a second round picks and then they're
Speaker 7: going to do something with George before the season starts
Speaker 7: in terms of a buyout. But you know that's that
Speaker 7: will remain to be seen. I just don't I don't
Speaker 7: see anything other than being a good influence in the
Speaker 7: locker room. If they think that's helpful. I don't know
Speaker 7: what that did because I wasn't there last year with
Speaker 7: Patty Mills in the locker room was a great guy.
Speaker 7: I don't know what it did for them quote growing
Speaker 7: up with the young guys. If that helped at all
Speaker 7: or not. You know, that's for the coaching staff and
Speaker 7: the guys who are on the floor every day with
Speaker 7: them in practice to determine what kind of inflict that
Speaker 7: has but George can be that kind of a guy
Speaker 7: if that's what they're looking for. He's just not going
Speaker 7: to have a great influence in terms of helping them
Speaker 7: to win games going forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't know they're going to be doing
Speaker 2: a lot of winning anytime soon. I will ask you
Speaker 2: about what sort of And again this is me stretching
Speaker 2: to find something topical. But since you and I last spoke,
Speaker 2: Kyle Philapowski was named MVP of the Vegas Summer League,
Speaker 2: not just MVP of the Jazz team, MVP of the
Speaker 2: whole thing. A lot of the other players maybe a
Speaker 2: little bit left to be desired. Most of them were
Speaker 2: shut down sensible. I had a couple of good games
Speaker 2: and didn't play Ace Walter Clayton Junior, so it was
Speaker 2: tough to get a read on most of them. But
Speaker 2: what sort of if any I don't know, confidence or
Speaker 2: whatever can Kyle take from a Summer League performance into
Speaker 2: year two for the Jazz Oh.
Speaker 7: I think just just for him and his own confidence
Speaker 7: being able to play in that setting. You know, the
Speaker 7: competition is great, mostly guys who were trying to make
Speaker 7: a team or trying to get a fall camp invite
Speaker 7: from someone you know, a lot of a lot of
Speaker 7: the draft pits that were in this Juns draft, they
Speaker 7: didn't play either in the summer league for whatever the
Speaker 7: individual reasons were from team to team. But what it
Speaker 7: did give the Philipowski ta it is a feeling that
Speaker 7: he could he could show what he can do, what
Speaker 7: his versatility is skill wise, uh, and do that in
Speaker 7: front of everybody in the league. The whole league is there,
Speaker 7: all the general managers on the other coaches, blah blah blah,
Speaker 7: and so you know, maybe if nothing else, it helps
Speaker 7: them to see him in that kind of setting, to
Speaker 7: be able to say, oh, yeah, now that kid, he
Speaker 7: can he can play inside, he can play outside, he
Speaker 7: has good footwork on the block, he can pass the ball,
Speaker 7: he can he can catch it and transition as a
Speaker 7: trailer and nail an occasional three. You know. So so
Speaker 7: people get to see that, get to see that again
Speaker 7: to guys who are who are all working hard, because
Speaker 7: they're all all those guys on the floor are hustling
Speaker 7: for jobs, and so you know, at least the competition
Speaker 7: and the effort is there by everybody. You're playing again,
Speaker 7: and then to have the three performances he had, you
Speaker 7: know that that says something about him and also able
Speaker 7: to give people a look at at just the skill
Speaker 7: level he has in general. And then and now he
Speaker 7: goes into the fall camp and into the beginning of
Speaker 7: next season with some personal confidence that that he can
Speaker 7: play like that. And now the obviously the issue will
Speaker 7: be does that translate against the big boys when he
Speaker 7: starts playing for real in October.
Speaker 2: We're still a few weeks away from the opening of camp.
Speaker 2: But as these players start to trickle back into the market,
Speaker 2: and some of them have been here incrementally and others,
Speaker 2: you know, go elsewhere for their offseason season training.
Speaker 3: If you're Austin Age, if you're justin.
Speaker 2: Zandik, if you're the Jazz front office, and you're the
Speaker 2: Jazz coaching staff, based off of your experience, what do
Speaker 2: you what are you looking for as they return as
Speaker 2: far as whether or not they've been you know, doing
Speaker 2: the things they need to be doing during during the
Speaker 2: off season.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, a lot of that has stub to
Speaker 7: your evalue is an ongoing situation with individual coaches the
Speaker 7: way NBA teams do it now, every coach, as a
Speaker 7: player or to assigned to them, they have a regular
Speaker 7: workout schedule. They have a skilled department schedule, they have
Speaker 7: a conditioning schedule. All these things are laid out, you know,
Speaker 7: in in no book notebooks and programs that the players
Speaker 7: are given go and go over with their individual coaches, uh,
Speaker 7: consistently during the summer. If they're in town, obviously they're
Speaker 7: working out individually. If they're not in town, the coaches
Speaker 7: are checking on them to see how how they're going
Speaker 7: and what whatever that program is they laid out for
Speaker 7: that individual player. Uh. Sometimes Uh, you know, we used
Speaker 7: to stand coaches, you know, overseas when you know, when
Speaker 7: Rudy was on the team and he's in France, we
Speaker 7: would we would send a couple of guys over there
Speaker 7: to work with him for a week and both the
Speaker 7: condition and also development weight training and uh, and they
Speaker 7: and the coaches just want to keep a finger on
Speaker 7: it and make sure that they're doing what they're asking
Speaker 7: them to do and that they're making the progress that
Speaker 7: they're they're looking for and they try and measure that
Speaker 7: and whatever whatever facet they're they're looking for in each
Speaker 7: individual and then they can monitor that all summer. So
Speaker 7: when they get here, uh, in early September and start,
Speaker 7: you know, getting settled for the to the beginning of
Speaker 7: fall camp. You know, most of those players should already
Speaker 7: be be rolling as far as all those areas are concerned,
Speaker 7: and there's a very little catch up time that the
Speaker 7: coaches need to do with them because they've been they've
Speaker 7: been either talking with them or working directly with them
Speaker 7: all all summer long. So it's just a continuation of
Speaker 7: that process, uh, you know, and that's a lot different
Speaker 7: uh spent back in the old days, so to speak,
Speaker 7: when the likes of John Stockton and Karl Malone would
Speaker 7: be with the Jazz and the season would end and
Speaker 7: they would leave, you know, several days later from Salt
Speaker 7: Lake and go home their respective homes in Washington and Louisiana,
Speaker 7: and you might not see him again until the week
Speaker 7: before training camp or just a few days before training camp.
Speaker 7: And at that time, the approach was totally different. Guys
Speaker 7: were on their own to stay in shape, to figure
Speaker 7: it out, to make sure they were ready to go
Speaker 7: when they came back. But also a lot of players
Speaker 7: back then used the training camp period as the time
Speaker 7: to get quote back in shape, and those days are
Speaker 7: long gone. When players come back now to their NBA
Speaker 7: cities in early mid September. They have been going off
Speaker 7: summer long, and they most of the time they hit
Speaker 7: the ground running when training camp starts. And that's really
Speaker 7: in in some part why the NBA has cut down
Speaker 7: from high of eight preseason games that he used to play,
Speaker 7: so now they only play four preseason games. Because the
Speaker 7: teams have been in such contact with their players and
Speaker 7: they kind of have already a feel for what their
Speaker 7: guys are in shape and what they're able to do
Speaker 7: when they get in town for training camp.
Speaker 2: It is really tough, even after a few years to
Speaker 2: analyze a few of these players as far as who
Speaker 2: they are in the league.
Speaker 3: But it is going to be.
Speaker 2: A big year because there's some decisions that have to
Speaker 2: be made on some of these young players. Let's launch
Speaker 2: into a couple of these players one by one and
Speaker 2: then then I'll let you go, and let's start with Kyante.
Speaker 2: And Kyante is an interesting one because he's the one
Speaker 2: that we've seen the most and there's been some good,
Speaker 2: but there's been too much bad for me to anoint
Speaker 2: him as somebody who can be a rotational player in
Speaker 2: pro basketball with the team that's trying to win, and
Speaker 2: he clearly has some individual offensive pop efficiency numbers aren't
Speaker 2: good disinterested defender to say the least. What did the
Speaker 2: Jazz need to see from Keante this year so they
Speaker 2: continue to believe in this project?
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is gonna be a big year for him
Speaker 7: because he's gotta he's got to show that he has
Speaker 7: some pensions, some ability, uh to to be able to
Speaker 7: defend and to be able to contribute, uh in a
Speaker 7: defensive scheme where where he's not always seen as the
Speaker 7: weak link. And if that's if that's going to continue
Speaker 7: to be the process, then he I would think he
Speaker 7: would have a hard time sticking around because I think
Speaker 7: that uh uh. You know, from my my gathering of
Speaker 7: information and talking to guys around the Jazz organization, you
Speaker 7: will Hardy and his staff you'll really want to be,
Speaker 7: you know, some kind of a defensive team, have some
Speaker 7: kind of a defensive identity. They have done that the
Speaker 7: last couple of years. In fact, it's just the opposite.
Speaker 7: They've been one of the worst defensive teams. And at
Speaker 7: some point, you know, they've got to make a decision,
Speaker 7: you know, can this guy be part of what we're
Speaker 7: trying where we're trying to get to or do we
Speaker 7: just simply have to move on and admit that he
Speaker 7: just isn't the right guy for us. So him coming
Speaker 7: off the bench throwing up a bunch of shots early
Speaker 7: in the second quarter, trying to get eight points in
Speaker 7: a two minute span or whatever, you know, that's not
Speaker 7: going to cut it. You know, he's got to show
Speaker 7: that he's making consistent progress, you know, on that other
Speaker 7: end of the floor. And if he doesn't, then again
Speaker 7: then they'll they'll see that and then they'll they'll have
Speaker 7: to make a decision. But he's also on a rookie
Speaker 7: a rookie scale deal, so he's got this year and
Speaker 7: the Jazz you know, can pick up their fourth year
Speaker 7: deal on him before the season starts, or if they don't,
Speaker 7: then that may be telling him, hey, you know, this
Speaker 7: is it. You got to fisher cup baits on the
Speaker 7: steak and because we got to get this train moving.
Speaker 7: And that may be part of the m a you know,
Speaker 7: under the direction of Austin Ams now in basketball operations.
Speaker 2: So I suppose it just simply is not realistic for
Speaker 2: Isaiah Callier to fix a jump shot in a matter
Speaker 2: of a couple of months, but I was hoping to
Speaker 2: see maybe some progress in the right direction during Summer League,
Speaker 2: and we just saw the same stuff. We saw a bullish,
Speaker 2: strong kid who can get to the tin and is
Speaker 2: very athletic and strong, with some feel for the game,
Speaker 2: and probably a better feel for the game than Keyante,
Speaker 2: hence the decision to start Isaiah and bench Keiante last year.
Speaker 2: So just same question generally speaking, and then attached to
Speaker 2: the question, based off of your experience in player development,
Speaker 2: how long do we need to wait before we see
Speaker 2: whether or not tangible progress is made with the jump shot,
Speaker 2: because I don't care how good you are in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five in the NBA. If your league guard and
Speaker 2: you shoot twenty six percent from three, you're not gonna play.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, you're exactly right and that and that's that's
Speaker 7: one of the things he's going to have to show.
Speaker 7: And he's making progress, and a lot of that evaluation
Speaker 7: spends takes place in practice because they're working with him
Speaker 7: every day and they're going through drills, and they're going
Speaker 7: through having a shooting instructor, working on his form and
Speaker 7: how he sets his feet and how he gets his
Speaker 7: balance and where his release point is and all those
Speaker 7: kinds of things, and they judge that and they can
Speaker 7: they can track that, you know, through various types of
Speaker 7: drills that they do during practice, and so they're getting
Speaker 7: a feel even when he's not in gained competition to
Speaker 7: be able to see, you know, if he's making progress.
Speaker 7: Is he improving in these things? Is he just one
Speaker 7: of those guys who can't shoot? You know, Jason kidds
Speaker 7: you know as a Hall of Fame player, a great
Speaker 7: playmaker and then uh, good size for this position and
Speaker 7: good decision maker and floor leader and all that stuff.
Speaker 7: But Jason Kate couldn't shoot. And you know he improved
Speaker 7: somewhat during his career, but he never you know, improved
Speaker 7: to the point where you said, well, gee, now it's
Speaker 7: year six, year seven, year eight. He shouldn't be making
Speaker 7: you know, good leaps in that in that regard, and
Speaker 7: he just didn't do it. He wasn't able to. That
Speaker 7: just wasn't It wasn't his makeup. So you know, that
Speaker 7: might be something like the Collier kid, you know, but
Speaker 7: at some point again, the Jazz has to look at
Speaker 7: it and what their investment is going to be and
Speaker 7: what they think that return could be down the road.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 7: And and again, Benson remind ourselves that that all the
Speaker 7: guys we're talking about here, whether it's Philip how Steamer,
Speaker 7: or it's Collier, whether it's George whoever. You know, they're
Speaker 7: all in their early twenties. And so you know they've
Speaker 7: got they've got some growing to do. But they've got
Speaker 7: to show the coaching staff that they're trending in the
Speaker 7: right direction, uh, in in the in the areas of
Speaker 7: where they are major deficiency. So because up there not
Speaker 7: and you know, the Jazz don't have time to wait around.
Speaker 7: They've got to you know, make decisions and move on
Speaker 7: to the next guy. And and and that's the problem
Speaker 7: they're in that right they're they're trying all kinds of
Speaker 7: guys and pulling them in, uh, pulling them out and
Speaker 7: putting them in and and seeing this uh you know,
Speaker 7: kind of throwing stuff against the marrow and see if
Speaker 7: they fixed. And you know, that's in a position they
Speaker 7: find themselves in right now. And in regards to their
Speaker 7: overall player.
Speaker 2: Development, who in your experience, you know the answer might
Speaker 2: be Carl because when Carl entered the league, he was
Speaker 2: not a great shooter, and he turned himself into a great,
Speaker 2: you know, faceoff jump shooter and and really solid free
Speaker 2: throw shooter.
Speaker 3: But the old Saints Smittian basketball is great.
Speaker 2: Shooters are made, they're not born, and there is a
Speaker 2: lot to like about Isaiah, but he does have to
Speaker 2: fix this issue because it's such a big issue.
Speaker 3: In your experience.
Speaker 2: Is there a name or multiple names that come to
Speaker 2: mind of players that you know twenty five twenty six
Speaker 2: percent from three put in the work and turn out
Speaker 2: to be really good shooters.
Speaker 7: That's a good question, you know, guys who uh sometimes
Speaker 7: you know, if if you're looking at guys, I can't
Speaker 7: come home with somewhere else the top of my head.
Speaker 7: But I would say this in responds to your questions.
Speaker 7: Guys who are showing that they make some kind of improvement,
Speaker 7: you have to leverage that against what else they do.
Speaker 7: In other words, I just mentioned Jason Kidd, for example,
Speaker 7: had a Hall of Fame career and everyone knew he
Speaker 7: was a really good playmaker, very good decision maker, you know,
Speaker 7: not great, but solid defensively with his size and his
Speaker 7: ability to stay in front of guys. But he couldn't
Speaker 7: couldn't shoot. Uh. He improved some Uh, but not as
Speaker 7: much as you would have thought he would have during
Speaker 7: his career. But what he did do was the things
Speaker 7: he did very well. He did very well all of
Speaker 7: his career and he showed that and that's what made
Speaker 7: him eventually Hall of Fame player. Somebody like Collier, you know,
Speaker 7: they need to see some of that, uh some of
Speaker 7: that improved him. But like a kiscaping diffle him being
Speaker 7: a uh uh playmaker. He's got a good instinct, he's
Speaker 7: got a good feel with the ball, but he is
Speaker 7: so loose with the ball and makes you know, bad
Speaker 7: decisions about driving into traffic and then trying to figure
Speaker 7: something out or or whipping a ball for it and
Speaker 7: it ends up in the third row in the in
Speaker 7: the stands, those kinds of things. Also, he has to
Speaker 7: curb and he has to get in control because other
Speaker 7: that stuff tends to negate what you think is a good,
Speaker 7: good skill or a good trait that he has in
Speaker 7: bringing to the team on the floor. But if he's
Speaker 7: going to be inconsistent where he gets, you know, twelve
Speaker 7: assists in one game and then the next game he
Speaker 7: has three assists and seven turnovers or something. You know,
Speaker 7: that's not going to cut it, because you've got to
Speaker 7: be able to do the consistent things that you do
Speaker 7: well night in, night out, because that's how the team
Speaker 7: is able to measure their progress in terms of getting better.
Speaker 7: So that's really he's got a lot of areas to
Speaker 7: work on, but even the areas that he's good at
Speaker 7: right now or has a feel for, he's even got
Speaker 7: a tighten those up even more.
Speaker 2: You think there's a chance. Walter Clayton Jr. Is the
Speaker 2: starting point guard for the Jazz on opening night.
Speaker 7: Well, good question. Is there a chance? Yeah? I think
Speaker 7: there's a chance. Again because he's an older guy in
Speaker 7: terms of their groups. He's he's older than those other
Speaker 7: guys we're talking about because he was a five year
Speaker 7: college guy and has that kind of experience and and
Speaker 7: and big game pressure and uh has shown that he's
Speaker 7: able to deliver and tough situations. Now obviously a different
Speaker 7: level of skill and a different different level of talent,
Speaker 7: but he's shown that he can handle himself when situations
Speaker 7: get tough and UH, and again he's played those years
Speaker 7: in college that George didn't play because he only spent
Speaker 7: one year in school, UH or more years in college.
Speaker 7: And Tallia who only played one year in school and
Speaker 7: so he's got more experience than doing that regard, and so, yeah,
Speaker 7: that that's an interesting question. It will be it will
Speaker 7: be fun to see how he shows during training camp
Speaker 7: and how they choose to use him during the preseason games,
Speaker 7: and you know, whether he plays himself into a starting
Speaker 7: role like that.
Speaker 2: Moving over to Ace Bailey, who is a player that
Speaker 2: I think a lot of Jazz fans have hope for,
Speaker 2: and hope right now is something this fan base has
Speaker 2: not had and quite frankly needs. The list of players
Speaker 2: ready to play high level pro basketball at that age
Speaker 2: is very short, and we didn't see a ton of
Speaker 2: Ace in Summer League. Uh, there are obvious things to like,
Speaker 2: the athleticism, the measurables. So I guess the way I'll
Speaker 2: frame it is what needs to happen year one for
Speaker 2: what I perceive to be a little bit of hope
Speaker 2: from this fan base to be realized as a rookie.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, he just asked to show that he
Speaker 7: can play, you know, with a certain level of energy,
Speaker 7: a certain level the games of and showed that he's
Speaker 7: able to learn from his mistakes, which there will be
Speaker 7: plenty of. But does he keep making the same mistake
Speaker 7: over and over and over, or does he seem like
Speaker 7: he's a guy who can understands that, you know, he
Speaker 7: tries to do last game is going to work, and
Speaker 7: so he changes it up tonight and the next game.
Speaker 7: And when he's a young guy, and you know, the
Speaker 7: best thing about him probably is in he's with the
Speaker 7: team that needs a guy exactly like him. In other words,
Speaker 7: this is the type of player that affects winning in
Speaker 7: the NBA. If you are at a certain talent level,
Speaker 7: every team needs a guy who's six faith he's wrong,
Speaker 7: He's athletic, can play in multiple positions that they have
Speaker 7: to and do different things. He can rebound, he can
Speaker 7: push it up the floor on his own, he can
Speaker 7: advance the ball, and the guy you can create shots
Speaker 7: in the mid range. I think the jury is out
Speaker 7: about his long range shooting, but hopefully that that comes
Speaker 7: in time. And again we remind ourselves and uh, he's
Speaker 7: gonna be nineteen during the season, and he's gonna have
Speaker 7: a lot of opportunities and he's gonna have a chance
Speaker 7: to show the coaches, you know, you know, not just
Speaker 7: that he's obviously I can be a finished product, But
Speaker 7: is he making improvement in areas that show that, Okay,
Speaker 7: we need to keep working with him, We need to
Speaker 7: keep engaging him in the process because he's going to
Speaker 7: be a guy that we want to be able to
Speaker 7: count on going forward. But he's going to have to
Speaker 7: earn that. You know, you're not gonna be given it.
Speaker 7: He'll get minutes, he'll get opportunities, but like we're talking
Speaker 7: about George, at some point, you have to the goods
Speaker 7: and you have to show that, yeah, I can do this,
Speaker 7: so yeah, you can rely on me. And he's gonna
Speaker 7: have those opportunities early and they're gonna have a long
Speaker 7: lease with him.
Speaker 9: You know, he's there top five pick and a lot
Speaker 9: is being made of him, and so he's gonna he's
Speaker 9: gonna have several years to show that he's making improvement.
Speaker 7: It can be one of the the hopefully for them,
Speaker 7: the foundational peace and what they're what they're trying to
Speaker 7: build going forward. And you know it's good for him
Speaker 7: because he'll get all the kinds of chances he wants.
Speaker 7: And all you have to do is show that he's
Speaker 7: willing to work and improve and earn more playing time
Speaker 7: to earn more opportunities as as his uh as his career.
Speaker 3: In Bark Smitty, my friend, I'll set you loose.
Speaker 2: You go enjoy the good life and we'll see you
Speaker 2: soon in studio when you're back on the ground.
Speaker 7: Okay with you.
Speaker 3: All right? Great Richard Smith.
Speaker 2: Utah Jazz made a trade today George dangas on his
Speaker 2: way back to Utah. The Celtics t Niang and two
Speaker 2: future second round picks to the Jazz for R. J.
Speaker 2: Lewis Junior and Boston saves money they get under the
Speaker 2: second apron, and the Jazz add a couple of more
Speaker 2: second round picks to their compendium of draft assets that
Speaker 2: at some point hopefully they turn into players that are
Speaker 2: good at basketball. So where Niang fits in the grand
Speaker 2: scheme of things? Smitty with some good stuff there. Maybe
Speaker 2: they buy him out prior to the season. Is George
Speaker 2: just wanting to come back to Salt Lake? Is he
Speaker 2: looking to play for a contending team? Bounced around a
Speaker 2: bit since he left Utah. Spent some time in Philly,
Speaker 2: spent some time a little bit of time in Atlanta,
Speaker 2: and of course Cleveland, where he went back and played
Speaker 2: with his buddy Donovan Mitchell. So a little bit of
Speaker 2: NBA news today, there was somewhat somewhat surprising Jazz making
Speaker 2: a deal. The Jazz at this point appear to have
Speaker 2: their roster set now. Of course things could change, excuse me,
Speaker 2: more trades could come down, but they have the maximum
Speaker 2: amount of players on the roster as of now, and
Speaker 2: I do believe they've met the salary floor. I think
Speaker 2: with Yang's salary, they now meet the quiet criteria to
Speaker 2: meet the salary floor.
Speaker 3: It's like one hundred and fifty million in change.
Speaker 2: Lowry's on the books for forty six point three Nurkics
Speaker 2: nineteen point three. Jordan Clarkson's salaries actually off the books.
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens. Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love. You know
Speaker 2: some of these veteran pieces, is there really a place
Speaker 2: for them on the team.
Speaker 3: So the song will always remind me of Happy.
Speaker 2: Gilmore, Speaking of which, have you watched Happy Gilmore too yet?
Speaker 3: On Netflix? Have you checked it out? I started watching it. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: not good.
Speaker 5: It just it it felt more like grown ups than
Speaker 5: I did Happy Gilmore, which you know, that's kind of
Speaker 5: the route you're going in with with.
Speaker 3: Our guy at this at this hour. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: giggled a few times. I have not watched it yet.
Speaker 2: I'm sure I will, and right now is probably a
Speaker 2: good time to check it out because do respect to the.
Speaker 3: Little League World Series, which.
Speaker 2: By the way, Utah, Nevada tonight at seven o'clock Mountain
Speaker 2: time on ESPN. It's a good time to get caught
Speaker 2: up on shows and movies when there's just not a
Speaker 2: lot of sports going on.
Speaker 3: So maybe I'll check it out tonight.
Speaker 2: Also, well, you're gonna guess the answer, right, because there's
Speaker 2: no other way for me to ask the question. The
Speaker 2: state in our country that has the most plastic surgery
Speaker 2: per capita is who this one?
Speaker 3: It's Utah? Yeah I knew that. Did you know that?
Speaker 2: According to what I read? And I wasn't like looking
Speaker 2: for the information. It just popped up thirteen plastic surgeons
Speaker 2: for every one thousand residents.
Speaker 3: Wow, we know the exact number, But yeah, I didn't
Speaker 3: know we were.
Speaker 2: Up there, which is the most in the country. What
Speaker 2: does that say. I'm not trying to psycho in. We
Speaker 2: don't have to intellectualize everything, but that's got to say
Speaker 2: something about culturally keeping up with the Joneses here.
Speaker 3: Does it not.
Speaker 5: Absolutely there's a thing there. There's a little cultural aspect to,
Speaker 5: you know, an appearance and looking a certain way. There's
Speaker 5: also disposable income here. Right when you got all the
Speaker 5: bills paid, well, you might look at other things. So
Speaker 5: there's a litany of things that play into this. But yeah,
Speaker 5: there's a there's certainly also a cultural aspect of trying
Speaker 5: to trying to look good for your friends, your fan.
Speaker 5: I don't know, have you ever had plastic surgery? No,
Speaker 5: you're only like thirty, Well I could. My nose is
Speaker 5: I've broken my nose like three times. I got some
Speaker 5: crooked teeth, I got a chipped tooth. At the moment,
Speaker 5: that's part of me, it's part of my story. I
Speaker 5: don't really care to fix it or make it look different.
Speaker 5: All right, And we'll see maybe a nose job in
Speaker 5: the future.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I guess if you live here, you're
Speaker 2: in good company. All right, fun show today, lot going
Speaker 2: on Porter, What comes our way? On a Wednesday edition
Speaker 2: of the program?
Speaker 5: Yeah, on a Wednesday edition of the Drive, of course,
Speaker 5: we'll continue talking some offseason football, off season hoops, maybe
Speaker 5: some baseball with our guy Tony Parks.
Speaker 3: All Right, Dave Fox stops by.
Speaker 5: Of course you'll be on TV with our friend Dave
Speaker 5: Fox a little bit later on and on a match day.
Speaker 5: I think Jason Christ will join us from Reale Saul
Speaker 5: Lakes some off season football with Max Chadwick.
Speaker 3: Our friends from Fiddler's are going to be in studio.
Speaker 5: Yes, Fiddler's is u is returned to sugar House, so
Speaker 5: a bunch on the show on a humpday.
Speaker 2: Join us for a Wednesday show that will be a
Speaker 2: fun program. We'll say goodnight and a special thank you
Speaker 2: today to Kyle bonne Gera, Spencer Lytton, Dave Bartwo and
Speaker 2: Richard Smith for any of the sad you may have missed.
Speaker 2: Website ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure to
Speaker 2: download a mobile app and take us on the go. Then, finally,
Speaker 2: for what we do in our space every afternoon, check
Speaker 2: out our podcast page. It's called The Drive with Spence.
Speaker 2: Check its It's available wherever you get your show. Subscribe,
Speaker 2: rate reviews, say nice sings in the comments, give us
Speaker 2: all the stars. He's pored on. Spence say tonight, I'll
Speaker 2: be on TV with Dave tonight ten thirty five CAM.
Speaker 2: Why you we call it? Five questions with Spence Talk
Speaker 2: You on Wednesday show as I always gonna catch that right
Speaker 2: here on ESPN seven hundred ninety twenty FFM. We are
Speaker 2: proud to be part of you Jazi SPN Radio Network