Speaker 1: All right, what is going on?
Speaker 2: It is drivetime. It's a Thursday afternoon. It's about nine
Speaker 2: minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Speaker 1: It's like a chamber of commerce day.
Speaker 2: Outside it's seventy five degrees, it's sunny, beautiful, looks like
Speaker 2: we have a great weekend ahead, and as it is
Speaker 2: every single day, it's gonna have you along for the ride.
Speaker 2: Spence check, it's behind the mic. That's Porter Larsen behind
Speaker 2: the glass today producing the program. You've got a lot
Speaker 2: to do with jam packed on this Thursday afternoon, Thursday
Speaker 2: Night Football. You can hear it on your home with
Speaker 2: the NFL in this market. That's US ESPN seven hundred,
Speaker 2: the New York Football Jets host the New.
Speaker 1: England Patriots six fifteen.
Speaker 2: Tonight is your kick Amazon Prime, so you can be
Speaker 2: you can be a grown up like me and get
Speaker 2: Amazon Prime.
Speaker 1: You can be a childlike quarter and steal it from
Speaker 1: your mother.
Speaker 2: So you can watch football either way. I'm not judging.
Speaker 2: That's just the dynamic tonight. As Thursday Night Football gets going,
Speaker 2: we are high speed ahead to an a week and
Speaker 2: I should say massive weekend in the world of college football.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get to all the storylines. How we doing, guys,
Speaker 2: how we doing?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 1: Fans? We uh a little nervous about this weekend.
Speaker 2: A lot of you panicked when the Vegas line moved
Speaker 2: last night, and it moved very rapidly.
Speaker 1: Something's up.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying something's not up, but I don't know
Speaker 2: if that's something.
Speaker 1: Is Cam Risey not going to Stillwater? I don't know.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people are talking about that,
Speaker 2: as the Vegas line moved rapidly last night. When we
Speaker 2: said good night at six o'clock yesterday on a Wednesday,
Speaker 2: the Utah Utes were a two point favorite over Oklahoma
Speaker 2: State in Stillwater. As we sit here today, Oklahoma State
Speaker 2: is a two point five point favorite. For you math
Speaker 2: experts out there, that's a four and a half point
Speaker 2: swing in a matter of hours.
Speaker 1: That's not nothing.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying, you know, I'm not saying that there
Speaker 2: isn't anything going on. I remind you last year, despite
Speaker 2: being trolled on the interwebs by losers who use the
Speaker 2: Internet to feel brave, I'm the one that gave you
Speaker 2: the info that Cam and Bryant we're not gonna play
Speaker 2: all year.
Speaker 1: That was about week three or four, caught a.
Speaker 2: Lot of pushback from it, caught a lot of heat
Speaker 2: from it, but I was right, And as I can
Speaker 2: tell you today, I've done the best I could to
Speaker 2: get some info for the situation coming up on Saturday
Speaker 2: and Stillwater and everyone I talked to he says he's going.
Speaker 1: Everyone I talked to, he says he's playing. I don't know.
Speaker 2: That's a weird, weird dynamic for a line to move
Speaker 2: that much. So we're gonna get into it today. We're
Speaker 2: gonna get you ready for this Utah game coming up.
Speaker 2: YU has a challenging task of their own on Saturday
Speaker 2: night in Provo as Kansas State rolls into town. Kansas
Speaker 2: State at the number thirteen team in the country. I
Speaker 2: am of the opinion that this conference, despite the parody
Speaker 2: throughout the majority of it, is top heavy with two
Speaker 2: teams I think one case State, I think the other's Utah.
Speaker 2: Right now, Kansas ctatey six point five point favorite, that
Speaker 2: line is held pretty still and the over unders forty
Speaker 2: eight point five. Just over a week away from the
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club getting rolling pre season style the Saint
Speaker 2: Louis Blues, and then they'll be home to take on
Speaker 2: the La Kings. I'm laughing because I just never thought
Speaker 2: I'd be talking about these teams that I grew up
Speaker 2: watching and coming to Salt Lake City play. NHL Hockey
Speaker 2: Media Day was yesterday. So excited for pro hockey to
Speaker 2: land here at our market. And we are about two
Speaker 2: weeks away from Jazz training camp.
Speaker 1: How about that.
Speaker 2: We got a little bit of everything going on, a
Speaker 2: little bit of everything going on. Shout out to our
Speaker 2: little old soccer club who could ral saw Lake a
Speaker 2: three to two win over FC Dallas last night in
Speaker 2: Sandy and Anderson Julio brace soccer term race as a
Speaker 2: soccer term. That's two goals and RSL was able to
Speaker 2: hold on three to two. Robert Turbin, Big Show, Big Hour,
Speaker 2: Aaron rogerc Mee, Spence, check at Zach Guy, Porter Larson,
Speaker 2: how is your Thursday afternoon?
Speaker 4: Thursday's gone well, Spencer, and we got football today, so
Speaker 4: obviously we're looking forward to that. I don't know how
Speaker 4: much maybe you are looking forward to it, but of
Speaker 4: course Jet's Patriots tonight and looking forward to a really
Speaker 4: really good weekend of college football in the market as well,
Speaker 4: with both a game we'll be watching on the road
Speaker 4: and a game that hopefully a bunch of folks in
Speaker 4: the market can get to Dan and Probo.
Speaker 2: All right, our first guest right out of the gates
Speaker 2: will be Robert Turbin. Once upon a time, a really
Speaker 2: good running back for Utah State played pro football as well.
Speaker 2: But before we get to Robert on a Thursday, courtesy
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Speaker 2: a Thursday afternoon, it's time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check. It's on Utah's
Speaker 5: number one sports talk Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 5: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 5: opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by
Speaker 5: Standard Restaurant Supply. Your one stop shop to build the
Speaker 5: best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred
Speaker 5: Southwest Temple.
Speaker 2: All right, so when we said good night last night
Speaker 2: six o'clock on a Wednesday, the University of Utah was
Speaker 2: a two point favorite over Oklahoma State heading into the
Speaker 2: game coming up in just a couple of days now
Speaker 2: about twenty four hours or excuse me, forty eight hours
Speaker 2: away as we sit here currently ish at boone Pickens Stadium.
Speaker 1: Two o'clock PM is your kickoff on the.
Speaker 2: Mountains on the Mountain time Zone, and then the TV
Speaker 2: coverage will be on Fox. Our pregame coverage for the
Speaker 2: radio side, we'll begin at ten o'clock with Porter Larsen.
Speaker 2: I'll hand it over to Bill Riley and Scott Mitchell
Speaker 2: and Stevenson Sylvester for the call. So of course, as
Speaker 2: always as you're home of the Utes, you can hear
Speaker 2: the game on this radio station. So last night, round
Speaker 2: eight nine o'clock I get like four or five texts
Speaker 2: right away, Hey is Cam playing on Saturday. I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: I think so that's what everybody is under the impression
Speaker 2: that Cameron will be back under center. Every conversation I've
Speaker 2: had every report, I've read.
Speaker 1: Every show I've listened to.
Speaker 2: Everyone seems to be operating off the premise that cam
Speaker 2: is playing on Saturday in Stillwater.
Speaker 1: However, well, we'll kind of take a little trip into.
Speaker 2: The Doloreate and go back a year a year ago
Speaker 2: on this show, it was about this time, week three
Speaker 2: or week four, where after all of the Dog and
Speaker 2: Ponty show every single week, from the coaches and the
Speaker 2: players up there, it's like, hey, yeah, we're preparing this
Speaker 2: if he's gonna play. At some point we're like, dude,
Speaker 2: what's the deal?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: And I want to be clear, like, until coach Wit
Speaker 2: and his staff are mandated by the conference or college
Speaker 2: football to report injuries side note, they should be, but
Speaker 2: they're not. And until they are, I get this game
Speaker 2: now as a media member and somebody who's covering the
Speaker 2: team and trying to speak to the community about what
Speaker 2: we can expect. It drives me crazy. But nobody gives
Speaker 2: a rip about that. We all care about Utah Football
Speaker 2: winning football games. So it is to the you know,
Speaker 2: the benefit of coach with his staff in Utah football
Speaker 2: to keep the opponents guessing, and certainly with the component
Speaker 2: of simply how important camera it is to Utah football.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, Isaac looked good last week, all right,
Speaker 2: but that's Utah stated respect. This is a different beast
Speaker 2: in Stillwater, it's a different stadium in Stillwater. And if
Speaker 2: Isaac Wilson is under center on Saturday, I don't know
Speaker 2: that Utah can.
Speaker 1: Get that done. That's not a knock on him.
Speaker 2: It would be Isaac's first experience on the road in
Speaker 2: the Big twelve in a scenario and an environment like that.
Speaker 2: It's different than average stadium, it's different the logan, it's
Speaker 2: different than any of the high school stadiums he's played in.
Speaker 2: This would be the very definition of drinking from a
Speaker 2: fire hose and baptism by fire if Isaac Wilson is
Speaker 2: under centered against Oklahoma State. So anyway, I get these
Speaker 2: text messages and I'm like, why are people texting me
Speaker 2: asking if cam's gonna play?
Speaker 1: And then they all said the same thing. Look at
Speaker 1: the line.
Speaker 2: So I signed off air last night, six o'clock, Utah
Speaker 2: two point favorite.
Speaker 1: I get home, walk the dog, have some dinner, come home.
Speaker 2: Within about two hours, two and a half hours, the
Speaker 2: line went from Utah Favored by two to Oklahoma State,
Speaker 2: favored by two and a half. You don't see that
Speaker 2: very often. It doesn't mean nothing. Typically, if a line's
Speaker 2: gonna move, it'll move half a point, maybe one point.
Speaker 2: It doesn't move four and a half points in the
Speaker 2: matter of a couple of hours unless something's up.
Speaker 1: So let's discuss who knows what it is. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: be clear. I don't. I'm not reporting anything.
Speaker 2: I kicked the tires on a bunch of people today,
Speaker 2: including the source who gave me that Cam and Brandt
Speaker 2: were going to sit all of last year. That I
Speaker 2: told you about week three or four, angering youte fans
Speaker 2: on the internet.
Speaker 1: But whatever, I was right, I stand by it.
Speaker 2: And I got nothing on Cam on Saturday other than
Speaker 2: the walking line we received from the team and the
Speaker 2: institution that he's good to go. I listened to a
Speaker 2: couple of podcasts this morning, a couple of shows this
Speaker 2: morning previewing the weekend head in college football. They all
Speaker 2: talked about a massive game in Stillwater. Because there are
Speaker 2: a ton of really good games on the slate, this
Speaker 2: is one of the top three or four regardless of conference. Okay,
Speaker 2: because there's so much on the line, I do believe
Speaker 2: the winner of this game puts themselves in i'll just
Speaker 2: call the proverbial driver's seat to do something special in
Speaker 2: conference play, UTA schedule is favorable this year. Utah left
Speaker 2: out a little bit with some of the scheduling stuff.
Speaker 2: Okase did two a little bit, But they're up against
Speaker 2: KSE State next week, who I think right now is
Speaker 2: the second best team of the conference, next to the youth.
Speaker 2: A lot on the line, a lot at stake, and
Speaker 2: everybody who's previewing this game, everybody who's writing about this game,
Speaker 2: everybody who's talking about this game is talking about it
Speaker 2: with the understanding that Cam is expected to be under center. However,
Speaker 2: that line moving doesn't mean nothing. I don't know what
Speaker 2: it means. It could mean that somebody got some inside
Speaker 2: info that Cameron is not going to play. For it
Speaker 2: to move for and a half points means something significant happened.
Speaker 2: It could also be sharks and wise guys and really
Speaker 2: you know, really intense gamblers who have massive bank rolls
Speaker 2: deciding that once it did move that much to Utah,
Speaker 2: they felt better about putting their money to move the
Speaker 2: line towards Okay State.
Speaker 1: That could be on the table. But for it to
Speaker 1: move for and a half points. That's seven figures.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's a massive, massive bet from a shark or
Speaker 2: a wise guy that decided he liked the line and
Speaker 2: decided he was going to throw a bunch of chedder
Speaker 2: on it. But I can't sit here today and tell
Speaker 2: you I know exactly what's going on. So we'll move
Speaker 2: on from it and essentially talk about this game through
Speaker 2: the prison and through the lens of Cam under center,
Speaker 2: because that's what I've been told. I can't, you know,
Speaker 2: it can't pontificate on possibilities that are just out there.
Speaker 1: We have to talk about the information that we have,
Speaker 1: and that is Cam.
Speaker 2: We'll play, and if Cam does play, I'm starting to
Speaker 2: feel like this could be a comfortable ish type win
Speaker 2: for Utah. So Oklahoma State on defense has been bad.
Speaker 2: Now they've got athletes, they've got size up front. I actually,
Speaker 2: and Porter, this won't surprise you. Grinding on tape last
Speaker 2: night of Tulsa OKC. Tulsa's defensive line was blowing Oklahoma
Speaker 2: State's offensive line off the line.
Speaker 1: They were pushing them back.
Speaker 2: And Tulsa's defensive line doesn't have close to what Utah's
Speaker 2: defensive line has. However, it's on the other side where
Speaker 2: I think if you're okay State, you got to be
Speaker 2: really concerned about a Utah offense.
Speaker 1: If if if Cameron Rising's under center.
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State has given up the third most explosive plays
Speaker 2: in college football this year. They've given up twenty five
Speaker 2: plays of twenty yards or more. Arkansas had eight. They
Speaker 2: should have lost that Arkansas game if you watch it.
Speaker 2: Okay State needed a miracle to come back. But they
Speaker 2: stay clean defensively. They're a bit of a sieve right now.
Speaker 2: They're really underperforming. I mean again, they smoke Tulsa, but
Speaker 2: they give up thirty one to Arkansas.
Speaker 1: They give up eight big plays.
Speaker 2: They've given up eight plays of over twenty yards, which
Speaker 2: is excuse me, twenty five plays of over twenty yards
Speaker 2: on defense, which is the third worst in the country. Now,
Speaker 2: where it gets tricky is if on the other side,
Speaker 2: cameras not under center. Because if that's the case, I
Speaker 2: can see a little bit of an attack where it
Speaker 2: is run heavy, kill the clock, keep Bowman and Gordon
Speaker 2: on the sideline, and try to get out of dodge
Speaker 2: with like a thirteen to ten win or something. Because
Speaker 2: I just don't know that you can count on a
Speaker 2: freshman quarterback to roll into a place like Picking Stadium
Speaker 2: and still water and just sling it like you did,
Speaker 2: you know in.
Speaker 1: The second ALFA against Utah State.
Speaker 2: So if we get any information about this, we'll bring
Speaker 2: it to you for sure. Like I said, the line
Speaker 2: moving was weird, I'm not saying that it's not. I
Speaker 2: just can't tell you what it means because I don't
Speaker 2: have any intel, And we'll just kind of have to
Speaker 2: wait until Saturday to see what it looks like. All right,
Speaker 2: KSE State in Provo coming up Saturday night. Love the
Speaker 2: way the schedule is kind of playing out. You can
Speaker 2: watch the ute game, you can grab some dinner, and
Speaker 2: they get ready for a late kick in Provo at
Speaker 2: eight point thirty where BYU welcomes in k State. This
Speaker 2: line has state steady. K State is a six point
Speaker 2: five point favorite. The over unders forty eight point five,
Speaker 2: so it's a late kick. If you're driving down there,
Speaker 2: godspeed man, you're gonna be home at three am if
Speaker 2: you live up here. If you're down there, maybe grab
Speaker 2: some swig and you enjoy your evening.
Speaker 6: For me.
Speaker 2: For BYU, this would be a massive, massive win. For
Speaker 2: them in my opinion, based off of how I feel
Speaker 2: they've kind offer so far. Still with a bunch of
Speaker 2: questions to be asked about whether or not that defense
Speaker 2: second year under J Hill.
Speaker 1: Of course Kilani as the head coach.
Speaker 2: It looks like a defense that is coached by J
Speaker 2: Hill and coached by Kilanie. But how real is it
Speaker 2: based off the competition that we've seen so far Southern Illinois,
Speaker 2: I still.
Speaker 1: Give them a ton of credit. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: to a Rod about this.
Speaker 2: The road win at SMU, they smoked a really bad
Speaker 2: Wyoming team.
Speaker 1: K State is different. They bullied Arizona.
Speaker 2: Watching that game, I was extremely impressed Avery Johnson, dual
Speaker 2: threat quarterback. If BYU's defense can look like it has
Speaker 2: for the first three weeks, they got a puncher's chance here.
Speaker 2: This is on the offense. I know we'll ask a
Speaker 2: Rod about the running back help or health. I should
Speaker 2: say last week against Wyoming they were without their first
Speaker 2: two choice running backs and LJ. Martin and Hinckley Rapati.
Speaker 2: So we'll see if Miles Davis gets a little run.
Speaker 2: But to me, this comes down to BYUS quarterback. Jake
Speaker 2: Retzloff has to be better. Has to take care of
Speaker 2: the football, has to get up and down, you know,
Speaker 2: when it comes to completely bottling up Kansas State.
Speaker 1: I think that's a lot to ask.
Speaker 2: In your defense, I think Jake's gonna have to really
Speaker 2: put it one of the best performances of his career
Speaker 2: out there coming up in provo for BYU to get
Speaker 2: to win. However, Porter the most under talked about element
Speaker 2: of BYUK States, and my reporting is indicated coming up
Speaker 2: on Saturday night, they are going to have the original
Speaker 2: maple flavored cougar tails, but they are offering a special
Speaker 2: Vanella frosting addition. Stop it of cougar tails on Saturday night,
Speaker 2: and when BYU offers the special edition cougartail, I have
Speaker 2: a hard time picking against him. It seems like there's
Speaker 2: gonna be a lot of motivation.
Speaker 1: And you said vanilla Vanella frosting.
Speaker 4: I might have to make a trip just for a
Speaker 4: cougartail for the football as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's be clear, Big twelve football as well. There's
Speaker 2: also new packaging for the cougartail. Okay, yeah, tell me
Speaker 2: about it. Well, that's all there is. It's vanilla frosting
Speaker 2: and it's new packaging.
Speaker 4: It sounds exciting.
Speaker 2: I think you got to pick Cougar's if they're going
Speaker 2: with the new cougartail.
Speaker 4: I'm going to pick the Wildcats, but I might go
Speaker 4: eat a.
Speaker 2: Cougar till all right, fair enough, So two massive games
Speaker 2: coming up this weekend. Excited to learn a little bit
Speaker 2: more about Utah. Excited to learn a little more about BYU.
Speaker 1: All right, coming up on the other side, more college football.
Speaker 2: Robert Turbin, one of the best ever doing at Utah State,
Speaker 2: was on the broadcast for Utah State Utah week ago.
Speaker 2: We'll bring in Robert today, Big show, Big big hour
Speaker 2: with Buller and Monson, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick, and
Speaker 2: we'll say good night at six on a Thursday.
Speaker 1: So keep it right here.
Speaker 2: Big weekend of college football ahead, Massive weekend at college
Speaker 2: football ahead, both locally and nationally.
Speaker 1: Some great games on the schedule.
Speaker 2: Utah Heads and still Water CEE, Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2: And then it's BYU's turn to welcome in k State.
Speaker 2: Our next guests joins us a couple of times a
Speaker 2: year if we're lucky, if the schedules line up. The
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator of the BYU Cougars Aaron Roderick on a
Speaker 2: Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Ay, Rod, how you doing, buddy?
Speaker 3: I'm doing well.
Speaker 6: Hey.
Speaker 3: The intro song, that's a good touch.
Speaker 7: Like it.
Speaker 1: That's your gig. That's your song.
Speaker 2: Because I remember, I think the first time I had John,
Speaker 2: like five years ago or something, I'm like, give me
Speaker 2: the band, you said, drive by.
Speaker 1: So every time we have you on, that's your bed.
Speaker 6: I love it. Nice job.
Speaker 1: You you seen them lately?
Speaker 3: I have, yeah, yeah, saw them the summer.
Speaker 2: Did you see the show up here? Because I went
Speaker 2: to the show up here in Salt Lake. You were
Speaker 2: at that show?
Speaker 1: Okay? I was, yep, very nice, good time, very nice.
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 2: Well, we're not here to talk music, hey Rod. We're
Speaker 2: here to talk football. And you guys are three and oh.
Speaker 2: So here's why I want to start. You were three
Speaker 2: and oh a year ago. What gives you confidence that
Speaker 2: this three and oh is different than last year's three
Speaker 2: and oh?
Speaker 3: Just we have a more experienced team, a lot of
Speaker 3: guys that went through some tough, tough times last year,
Speaker 3: and just you know, I think we're more prepared to
Speaker 3: deal with what's ahead of us town. I mean, we've
Speaker 3: got a tough road ahead for sure. No one's saying
Speaker 3: it's not tough. But I think we're just built a lot,
Speaker 3: We have a little more depth, and we just we
Speaker 3: just what we went through last year. I think there's
Speaker 3: a lot of lessons you could learn from that.
Speaker 1: Yes, you have a tough road ahead. We'll get to
Speaker 1: that in the moment.
Speaker 2: But before we do, of course, there was a battle
Speaker 2: for the quarterback starting job that was run by one
Speaker 2: by Jake Rhet's laugh. How close was that leading up
Speaker 2: to the start of the year and what ultimately gave
Speaker 2: Jake the nod over Behannon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Gary I thought did a good job
Speaker 3: in camp. The longer camp went, Gary just kept getting
Speaker 3: better and better. He you know, he got the chance
Speaker 3: to play at Wyoming last week and that was the
Speaker 3: first snaps he'd had and I think October tenth, if
Speaker 3: I'm correct, it was October of twenty twenty two is
Speaker 3: the last time played in the game, and so his
Speaker 3: injury was really serious. And he's just since he got here,
Speaker 3: he's just slowly been getting a little more healthy and
Speaker 3: a little more healthy. And then so towards the end
Speaker 3: of camp he was starting to throw the ball better
Speaker 3: and starting to look like he could actually challenge to start.
Speaker 3: Then Jake hab pretty much won the job and established himself.
Speaker 3: But Gary's getting better every day, and we have a
Speaker 3: lot of confidence in him and no fear at all
Speaker 3: to play him as if we need to.
Speaker 2: So, as I've heard you talk about, as I've heard
Speaker 2: Collotte talk about, we talked about on this show. I
Speaker 2: think anybody who covers BYU football talks about it. We
Speaker 2: saw four starts from Jake last year. We've seen three
Speaker 2: this year. There are certainly dynamite moments that indicate he's
Speaker 2: got what it takes for you guys, to do what
Speaker 2: you want to do. Then there are moments where they're
Speaker 2: just mistakes that can't happen. As you said yourself a
Speaker 2: week ago, there were I think four fumbles a year ago,
Speaker 2: and then Wyoming rolls around, he throws the pick and
Speaker 2: we're going here we go again, and ultimately he settles in.
Speaker 1: But how do you coach that?
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously you don't want turnovers, No coach loves turnovers,
Speaker 2: But how do you coach that?
Speaker 1: How does he get better at that?
Speaker 3: Well, we're trying to eliminate the the egregious ones. You
Speaker 3: know there was a couple of mistakes in the SMU
Speaker 3: game that were, you know, sort of gave us all
Speaker 3: PTSD from a year ago. The interception in the Wyoming game.
Speaker 3: We were throwing a one on one matchup to one
Speaker 3: of our best players against one of their players that
Speaker 3: we wanted to attack. He under threw the ball just
Speaker 3: a little bit. I thought Cody sort of could have
Speaker 3: reacted a little better and at least broken it up,
Speaker 3: like you can live with one of those. They intercepted
Speaker 3: the ball and they have the ball in the one
Speaker 3: yard line. Our defense goes three and out and we
Speaker 3: get the ball four plays later and plus territory again
Speaker 3: and then we score a touchdown. So there's not all
Speaker 3: turnovers are exactly the same. But Jake is sort of
Speaker 3: he reminds me a lot of what Zach Wilson went
Speaker 3: through when he was a young player, and he had
Speaker 3: moments as like just he was brilliant and you could
Speaker 3: just see the talent and the arm talent, and then
Speaker 3: there were times where he just had to grow, you know.
Speaker 3: And I think Jake started seven games and I think
Speaker 3: we're going through that process with him. But it's getting
Speaker 3: better every game.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's move over to the running back room.
Speaker 2: Let's get an update here. Hinkley, Rapati, LJ. Martin, two
Speaker 2: very capable backs. I understand they're banged up. So I've
Speaker 2: said this to you before. If I had a running
Speaker 2: back named Miles Davis, he'd play every snap for me
Speaker 2: just based off his name.
Speaker 1: But I'm just I'm a radio guy. I'm not a coach.
Speaker 2: So talk about how you're handling the health situation and
Speaker 2: the depth you have in that running back room.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had Miles has stepped up and played well.
Speaker 3: We had Enichnawaheene stepped up and played well against SMU,
Speaker 3: and then last week we had se Anymore and Polkai
Speaker 3: Huwanga houn a step up and both of those guys
Speaker 3: played well.
Speaker 1: So I have.
Speaker 3: Confidence in those guys. It's not going to be a
Speaker 3: one guy gets thirty carries kind of game. We're going
Speaker 3: to play those guys to their strengths and and we'll
Speaker 3: use them as we see fit. But I have confidence
Speaker 3: in all of them, and Harvey's done a great job
Speaker 3: getting those guys ready to play.
Speaker 1: So up this up this way, Rod.
Speaker 2: As you know, Utah has a real weapon in bran Keathy,
Speaker 2: who they moved around in a bunch of different ways,
Speaker 2: and it feels like you're using Chase. And we caught
Speaker 2: up with Chase at Big twelve media days in Vegas,
Speaker 2: and you know, a great kid, really good interviewer, obviously
Speaker 2: a veteran presence for you guys. Seems like you're utilizing
Speaker 2: him in a much more nuanced way than you did
Speaker 2: a year ago. Is that fair to say? And what
Speaker 2: can you say about the way he started the year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're using him. He's kind of playing a really
Speaker 3: similar role to what Puka played for us a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago. Or Puka lined up everywhere, did everything.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm not saying Chase is the same guy,
Speaker 3: but he is a very complete player and we can
Speaker 3: do a lot of different things with him. So yes,
Speaker 3: and he's a veteran now, so there's publy no limits
Speaker 3: on where he can line up, what he can do.
Speaker 3: And uh so yeah, you're that's I'm glad you noticed
Speaker 3: that because that is true.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, he's I wanted to follow up with this.
Speaker 2: It appears that he has evolved as a playmaker that
Speaker 2: can do more things than he just did a year
Speaker 2: or two ago.
Speaker 1: And these are young people. Of course, they are going
Speaker 1: to evolve and improve.
Speaker 2: But what specifically did you see leading up to the season,
Speaker 2: whether it's camp or whatever, it is that has motivated
Speaker 2: you to use him in so many different nuanced ways.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, he's he's long, he's six four,
Speaker 3: and Chase can run. I mean he's not just a
Speaker 3: possession guy. He can he can get down the field,
Speaker 3: take the top off the defense. He's really good runner
Speaker 3: with the ball in his hands. He breaks tackles, he
Speaker 3: makes people miss. So we get him the ball in
Speaker 3: the Jets sweep game, we get him the ball on
Speaker 3: shallow crosses, and try to get him the ball in
Speaker 3: the open field where he can run with it, and
Speaker 3: he's just yeah, he's just improved overall. And then he's
Speaker 3: he's one of the best I've ever coached that making
Speaker 3: the catch when it's a contested catch. I mean, he
Speaker 3: doesn't have to be open to make the play. And
Speaker 3: so there's just a lot of different things we can
Speaker 3: do with him, and I think his confidence is just
Speaker 3: growing every week.
Speaker 2: He was thinking about this when I was watching the
Speaker 2: Wyoming game. I mean, Chase, Darius Lasseter, Cody Epps and
Speaker 2: I could keep going. You guys have a ton of
Speaker 2: different weapons, you know, whether it's tight ends, wide outs,
Speaker 2: or what have you. I mean, you really have a
Speaker 2: bunch of different guys that have been in the program
Speaker 2: for a while, some new guys who are in the
Speaker 2: program for the first time with the transfer window and stuff.
Speaker 2: But it does feel like whether it's Jake or whether
Speaker 2: it's Gary, there are quite a few options. When a
Speaker 2: room is that crowded, is it iron sharp and iron?
Speaker 2: Iron sharpens iron. You got to compete for the reps.
Speaker 2: I mean, as the offensive coordinator, how do you eat
Speaker 2: so many mouths?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not always easy. I mean, those guys all
Speaker 3: want the ball, they all want to play. That's part
Speaker 3: of Fesse's job and Kevin Gilbride's job to use those
Speaker 3: guys as they see fit and try to you know.
Speaker 3: But it's part of being a team though, too, is
Speaker 3: understanding that if everybody's a threat and everybody's part of
Speaker 3: the offense, and we're harder to defend as a team.
Speaker 3: And I do believe we're we're a lot more skilled
Speaker 3: than maybe a lot of people think. We have good
Speaker 3: skilled players here, and our wide receiver play has been
Speaker 3: really good for several years now. I think Vestis does
Speaker 3: a great job with those guys, and we've recruited well there,
Speaker 3: so it's nice to have those guys. And I think
Speaker 3: we're executing much better now than we were a year ago,
Speaker 3: and so hopefully we can keep growing and and you know,
Speaker 3: execute on Saturday night because we're going against a really
Speaker 3: good team this Saturday.
Speaker 2: What we had you on a year ago. Also, Klada
Speaker 2: as well hopped on the show. We talked about what
Speaker 2: appeared to be I guess the way I'll say it
Speaker 2: gently is some inconsistency with the offensive line right a
Speaker 2: year ago. Do you feel like that's been better a
Speaker 2: rod Through three games.
Speaker 3: It's been better, and it's it's it's a work in progress.
Speaker 3: You're right, it was that was it was a problem
Speaker 3: a year ago, and we did not execute as a
Speaker 3: team well enough last year, but especially as an off
Speaker 3: of the line. So far through three games, run game
Speaker 3: has shown improvement. And it's nowhere near where we want
Speaker 3: to get to, but we've been improving our past. Protection
Speaker 3: has been solid, and that group is playing much better
Speaker 3: than a year ago. We still have a lot of
Speaker 3: long way to go, but I'm proud of those guys
Speaker 3: for how they've done up to this point, and we
Speaker 3: just got to keep you know, stay humble, and just
Speaker 3: keep working to correct our mistakes and keep getting becoming
Speaker 3: a tighter unit each week.
Speaker 2: I know that Wyoming was your most recent opponent, but
Speaker 2: I want to go back to SMU because before that game,
Speaker 2: all week on this show, and I know you're a
Speaker 2: daily listener, so thank you for that.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you what you already heard. But on this show,
Speaker 1: whether it was just my take or.
Speaker 2: Interviewing people, I don't think people fully understand how big
Speaker 2: that win was.
Speaker 1: Okay, so if you weren't able to get.
Speaker 2: SMU, you were going to have to get Wyoming and
Speaker 2: then find four conference wins to go bowing. Not saying
Speaker 2: you can't do that, but how big was that? How
Speaker 2: big was that win? What was to feel like in
Speaker 2: the locker room after you guys just gotted that thing
Speaker 2: out and came home with the dub.
Speaker 3: It was huge and we were twelve point underdogs or
Speaker 3: eleven point underdogs on the road and SMU has dudes. Man,
Speaker 3: those that's that team. That team can play with anybody
Speaker 3: in our conference. I've been through this conference now for
Speaker 3: a year that's a good football team. They're gonna they're
Speaker 3: gonna win some games this year in the ACC, and
Speaker 3: especially on defense, they have two guys that are supposed
Speaker 3: to be really high draft picks. I thought they were
Speaker 3: very good. We didn't play great on offense, but it
Speaker 3: was a great win to get because we answered. We
Speaker 3: kept answering the bell and finding ways to get the
Speaker 3: ball in the end zone while they kept kicking field goals.
Speaker 3: They kicked five field goals. We found a way to
Speaker 3: get the ball in the end zone twice and then
Speaker 3: got a game winning field goal after a fourth and
Speaker 3: one conversion. So I just thought our team showed a
Speaker 3: lot of character. And so even though you leave the
Speaker 3: field thinking feeling like, oh gosh, we should have played better,
Speaker 3: sometimes those kind of wins are really helpful later in
Speaker 3: the season when you're in these type ball games that
Speaker 3: we're going to be in in conference play.
Speaker 2: I thought it was gutty, man, I really thought it
Speaker 2: was gutty. I was impressed that you guys came back
Speaker 2: with that when to your point, you were a double
Speaker 2: digit underdog. All right, hey, Rod, here's a little yeah,
Speaker 2: here's a little analysis for you.
Speaker 1: Kse State's all right. This is a good team.
Speaker 2: They bullied Arizona in a way that kind of even
Speaker 2: caught me off guard. So k State rolls into Provo
Speaker 2: Saturday night. It's a late one, it's gonna be eight thirty,
Speaker 2: that's on ESPN. As you study tape on Kansas State,
Speaker 2: what stands out most just how big is this task
Speaker 2: in front of you coming up on Saturday night?
Speaker 3: Well, it's huge. Case State is a team that they're
Speaker 3: not going to beat themselves. They're gonna they don't make mistakes,
Speaker 3: they do everything right. They are squared away in all
Speaker 3: three phases. You know, when when people watch us on film,
Speaker 3: our opponents watch us on film, I hope that they
Speaker 3: feel the same way about us that I feel when
Speaker 3: I watch Kansas State play, Like they do everything right.
Speaker 3: They play really hard, the people are in the right gap,
Speaker 3: they're covering the right guy, they're using the right technique
Speaker 3: on special teams, the same thing on offense, same thing.
Speaker 3: And so to win a game like this, you have
Speaker 3: to do everything right, and you can't. You can't just
Speaker 3: give them anything, you know by it. It's going to
Speaker 3: be a game that I think is just going to
Speaker 3: come down to who makes the fewest mistakes and they're
Speaker 3: a very tough team, and I'm looking forward to the challenge,
Speaker 3: but I also understand what we're up against. They're very
Speaker 3: good football club.
Speaker 2: Obviously, you are hyper focused on your game and I
Speaker 2: wouldn't expect anything other than that. But you do have
Speaker 2: experience going to Stillwater and playing at Okay State, which
Speaker 2: is what Utah does Saturday afternoon. What can you tell
Speaker 2: us about that experience? What are youth fans in for?
Speaker 2: What is the youth football team in for?
Speaker 3: Well, just I would say it's similar to almost all
Speaker 3: the road games in the Big Twelve. It was a
Speaker 3: different experience, much different than the Pack twelve. You're you know,
Speaker 3: Pac twelve. Everything was like a one hour flight. You're
Speaker 3: mostly going to destinations that are pretty nice and you're
Speaker 3: excited to be there, and short drive on game day
Speaker 3: to a stadium that may or may not be very intimidating.
Speaker 3: In the Big twelve, there's you know, every every flight's
Speaker 3: two three hours. You're staying in some sort of small
Speaker 3: town motel type thing that's usually like an hour drive
Speaker 3: to the game on game day, and then you get
Speaker 3: there and there's tailgators for miles and it's rocking, and
Speaker 3: so I think just that's sort of just well, a
Speaker 3: lot of the road games with Big twelve are like that,
Speaker 3: and they're they're tough road troops. Now the Utes, shoot,
Speaker 3: the Utes are awesome and they'll be ready for it.
Speaker 3: They're they're they had a good team and they're not
Speaker 3: gonna be caught off guard by any of that. But
Speaker 3: that is it is a different experience going on the
Speaker 3: road in the Big twelve than the Pac twelve as
Speaker 3: far as like just how the travel goes, your food,
Speaker 3: your your your day, your game day operation leading up
Speaker 3: to kick off. But there is a little bit of
Speaker 3: an adjustment there.
Speaker 2: Since we're in the space with the Utes, and you're
Speaker 2: familiar with this coaching staff, you're familiar with this programs,
Speaker 2: and you and I haven't spoken in this space for
Speaker 2: about a year or so. I wonder what your reaction
Speaker 2: was when you found out that you were once again
Speaker 2: going to be conference peers with Utah.
Speaker 1: When the news came down, Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm excited about it. I think adding another
Speaker 3: great team to our conference just makes it better, you know,
Speaker 3: And so I'm excited about it. I mean, we're we're
Speaker 3: in a weird, weird world of constant change. You never
Speaker 3: know what's gonna happen from year to year right now,
Speaker 3: but I think that our league is very good this year.
Speaker 3: And you know there's just right now. I'm just folks,
Speaker 3: not on Kansas State, but I definitely think the more
Speaker 3: good teams.
Speaker 1: The better, for sure.
Speaker 2: And before I sat you loose, I'm gonna ask you
Speaker 2: the same question I asked Kilani at Big twelve media days.
Speaker 2: How have you guys acclimated to this new reality of
Speaker 2: transfer portal of nil? I mean, Kevin Young and his
Speaker 2: staff are getting a lot of money, getting a lot
Speaker 2: of support, and obviously a lot a lot of that's
Speaker 2: coming from Ryan. Ryan Smith's basketball guy. And I you know,
Speaker 2: I'm a fan of yours. I'm a fan of Kilaune.
Speaker 2: I want you guys to get the resources you need
Speaker 2: to compete and keep up with the Joneses in college football.
Speaker 2: What's it been like down in Provo with the ever
Speaker 2: changing landscape of college football? How have you guys adjusted
Speaker 2: and adapted so far?
Speaker 3: I feel like we're very competitive with that stuff. I mean,
Speaker 3: our players are doing very well. And one thing that
Speaker 3: I know that is true of this place is when
Speaker 3: our players are you know, when there's something whether it's
Speaker 3: an il money or something like that, when there's when
Speaker 3: there's something that's promised or contracted by it. And I'm
Speaker 3: not involved in this stuff, I know that it's it's
Speaker 3: very important here that the players to the university they
Speaker 3: get what they were told they were going to get.
Speaker 3: And I know that that's not always the case a
Speaker 3: lot of places in college football where you hear these
Speaker 3: astronomical numbers about things and then a guy gets there
Speaker 3: and he doesn't play a lot as well as they
Speaker 3: had hoped, and also and that just comes to an end.
Speaker 3: And then you've heard those stories that some of these
Speaker 3: some of these places, and but I think we're I
Speaker 3: don't know all the details of all that, but I
Speaker 3: feel like we're very competitive. I feel like if we
Speaker 3: go after a big time recruit, we can get in
Speaker 3: the game with just about anybody. We're not we're not
Speaker 3: a place that's ever going to be like probably the
Speaker 3: best offer, but we're we're competitive and we're in the mix.
Speaker 3: And then we have to focus on our other competitive
Speaker 3: advantages or other reasons for why a guy would want
Speaker 3: to come here.
Speaker 1: You golfing at all you're swinging a golf club these
Speaker 1: days or is it all coaching?
Speaker 3: All head down, elball?
Speaker 2: All all right, Well I just was because Colani is
Speaker 2: saying he's getting better, and I need somebody to give
Speaker 2: me proof that they're actually seeing he is.
Speaker 3: He is getting better. Yeah, he's improved. All yeah, Well,
Speaker 3: look I appreciate the one fest is the best golf
Speaker 3: front our set ah.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, yeah, well look man, you just want
Speaker 2: to make sure you're balancing out life a little bit.
Speaker 2: But then I realize you're a coach and you guys
Speaker 2: do not know how to do that.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate your time. Go ahead.
Speaker 3: I try to get in a run. You know, if
Speaker 3: I try to run every day, that's my that's my
Speaker 3: little moment a piece.
Speaker 1: All right, man, Well look well we'll set you loose.
Speaker 1: You know, we're always pulling for you. For you up here.
Speaker 1: Good luck against k State and continued success.
Speaker 3: Okay, great talking, thank you?
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers, offensive coordinator for BYU. It's a big weekend
Speaker 2: college football, both in state and nationally. First, it's Utah,
Speaker 2: Okay State and Stillwater. Love this when you can actually
Speaker 2: watch both games because Utah Okay State two o'clock, then
Speaker 2: byu K State eight thirty.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 2: That is a late late tip, late late kick for
Speaker 2: folks driving down to Provo. If you're coming from Salt
Speaker 2: Laker up north, you're not gonna be home intel like
Speaker 2: four am. So best of luck with that. But of
Speaker 2: course always pulling for our guy a Rod Klonne. Those
Speaker 2: guys down in Provo, great dudes. Hopefully they can pull
Speaker 2: it off. All right, more coming up next on a
Speaker 2: Thursday show Keep it right here on ESPN seven hundred.
Speaker 5: For fifteen years, the Big Show dominated the Utah sports
Speaker 5: talk airwaves. First it was Craig Bowler, Jack and Gordon Monson,
Speaker 5: followed by Spence Check its in Monson. Now all three
Speaker 5: are reunited on the Drive. It's time for the Big
Speaker 5: Show Hour on the Drive at Spence check Its exclusively
Speaker 5: on ESPN seven hundred.
Speaker 2: All right, it is time for the Big Show Big Hour.
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Speaker 1: Today we are not.
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Speaker 2: All right, batting leadoff today, the better half of the
Speaker 2: big Show. Let's call it how it is, the TV
Speaker 2: voice of the Utah Jazz, the legend around here, the
Speaker 2: great Craig Bowler, Jack Bowler. Happy Thursday afternoon, sir, how are.
Speaker 8: You spans them? Great? How you doing?
Speaker 1: We're good, man, We're good. It's a big weekend coming up.
Speaker 2: And you know this is your alma mater, k State
Speaker 2: rolling into Provo for the first time since what like
Speaker 2: seventy nine? Did you ever think your alma mater was
Speaker 2: gonna be playing college football in this state?
Speaker 8: Huge surprise and really a treat. I had plans to
Speaker 8: be there, but the games at a thirty. I thought
Speaker 8: it was gonna be at noon. It seems like I
Speaker 8: have this problem many times. But ESPN made it a
Speaker 8: primetimer at Lease on the West Coast in the Mountain
Speaker 8: time zone as a primetimer at eight thirty, So I
Speaker 8: have another commitment. Sadly at night I'll be able to watch. Well,
Speaker 8: i'll record it, but I'll probably be able to see
Speaker 8: the second half live, but man, I wanted to be
Speaker 8: in Provo. Got a lot of friends in town, and
Speaker 8: I told them they will love the scenery and the feel,
Speaker 8: the vibe at Lovella eded Word Stadium. It's a special
Speaker 8: place and it's it's gonna be a fun game. I
Speaker 8: tell you, the crowd in Provo is great. They're gonna
Speaker 8: find that one day. I believe it's twenty twenty sixth
Speaker 8: maybe or was it twenty seven that BYU will be
Speaker 8: in Manhattan, so they're gonna get a taste of what
Speaker 8: Aggieville and just a great feel of fans in Manhattan
Speaker 8: as well.
Speaker 2: Had a chance to interview Chris Climb in Big twelve
Speaker 2: media Day. Very impressive, very impressive guy. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: gotta say, Craig, like they bullied Arizona, like Arizona they
Speaker 2: suffocated them, like it wasn't even a fair fight. Arizona
Speaker 2: top twenty team at the time. What do you think
Speaker 2: byus in for as K State rolls into pro Bo
Speaker 2: is a six point five point favorite.
Speaker 8: Now, well, I'd say if people are going to say
Speaker 8: you're just talking up State because you went there, but no,
Speaker 8: this is a good football team. This program has come
Speaker 8: a long way led by Bill Snyder years ago, and
Speaker 8: they continue to build. You know what, every football team
Speaker 8: wants to have the tradition and just a way of
Speaker 8: how they play the game. And I think they do it,
Speaker 8: you know with lesser you know, five star players, Spence. Look,
Speaker 8: they go out and find threes and fours and guys
Speaker 8: who want to play the game. They work high level
Speaker 8: hard of getting to that to that level, and I'm
Speaker 8: proud of them, I really am. Look, Avery Johnson's a
Speaker 8: young kid, the quarterback for k State. He'll be twenty
Speaker 8: next month November two, and just a sophomore. But I
Speaker 8: thought he really came into his own last week as
Speaker 8: as you know, sort the O line D line for
Speaker 8: k State Avery fast. You know, it's really the first
Speaker 8: taste I've had of him a full type of game
Speaker 8: situation where you know, he was you know, going high level,
Speaker 8: high motor, but he get on the edge and he's
Speaker 8: working on his passing game. And I think that's one
Speaker 8: thing Kialan He's probably looking at this week. How do
Speaker 8: you keep him between the tackles and force him to
Speaker 8: throw the ball because he's not that experience with the
Speaker 8: passing game. He's I think he's starting to show signs
Speaker 8: of that, but his legs are really his best attribute
Speaker 8: right now.
Speaker 2: So ultimately you brought up the lad kick, it's an
Speaker 2: eight thirty kick, and that is you know, it's the
Speaker 2: you know, it's a necessary evil as it pertains to
Speaker 2: where the Big twelve is on the hierarchy of television
Speaker 2: executives picking teams for prime windows.
Speaker 1: It is primetime on the West coast.
Speaker 2: But it is way too late for folks back east
Speaker 2: to really stay up and watch. I wonder if from
Speaker 2: your vantage point, case State rolls in there's already altitude,
Speaker 2: that place is going to be going crazy eight thirty.
Speaker 2: The night games in Provo are fun. Man, those kids
Speaker 2: show up and show out, so it's going to be loud.
Speaker 2: What sort of complications do you think this for Alma Mater?
Speaker 2: The fact that they're probably not going to be done
Speaker 2: until the Sabbath begins.
Speaker 8: I love that, you know they won't mind playing after midnight. Look,
Speaker 8: I think that's okay. I don't think b YU is
Speaker 8: gonna pull their players off the off the field either
Speaker 8: if it goes late. But you know, I think the
Speaker 8: altitude will be a bit of a blast I mean,
Speaker 8: you know, they'll have to get used to it first quarter.
Speaker 8: I'm always a believer Spence covering teams over the years,
Speaker 8: they always talk about how do you start games, especially
Speaker 8: on the roads. Six and a half point favorites. Okay,
Speaker 8: any coach will take that, but don't get over confident
Speaker 8: with that spread, by the way, And look, I think
Speaker 8: any home team is always worth three points, no matter
Speaker 8: how good or how bad you are. But I think
Speaker 8: it's the way you start. Look, just go in, do
Speaker 8: your thing, don't don't turn the ball over. And I
Speaker 8: know BYU's defense probably will try to blitz this young
Speaker 8: quarterback and force him to make mistake. Look, Klanie is
Speaker 8: very very good in game planning in my opinion, and
Speaker 8: I think you know, they know his strengths and weaknesses,
Speaker 8: and they want to rattle this guy on the road. Uh,
Speaker 8: And I get it. And so don't throw a pick,
Speaker 8: you know, try to establish a run game and let
Speaker 8: your offensive line help you. And I think BYU and Utah,
Speaker 8: excuse me, b YU and k State Uh both these
Speaker 8: both these teams are strong upfront, and I think the
Speaker 8: test for b Yu, in my opinion, is the physical
Speaker 8: play of what the Big twelve brings and I think
Speaker 8: that's the first taste for the Cougars in a way
Speaker 8: how they saw uh, you know, they saw teams prior Baylor. Uh.
Speaker 8: But I think it's going to be interesting to see
Speaker 8: how everyone responds as this season really kicks off in
Speaker 8: conference play.
Speaker 2: So last thing here, and I just want to make
Speaker 2: sure this doesn't change your opinion on the outcome of
Speaker 2: the game or how it's going to play out.
Speaker 1: But my sources Craig in that Saturday night.
Speaker 2: In Provo, the good folks down at BYU will roll out, Yes,
Speaker 2: indeed your classic maple Cougar tails. But attendant to it,
Speaker 2: they're planning on releasing a very limited edition vanilla frosting cougartail.
Speaker 2: Does that change your view on how this game is
Speaker 2: going to play out?
Speaker 1: On Saturday?
Speaker 8: I saw that. I saw that. You know what, if
Speaker 8: I was there, I would definitely be taste. That'd be
Speaker 8: a tasty treat, to be honest with you, the original
Speaker 8: If I'm not mistaken, where will the original frosting be?
Speaker 8: And then the lighter cougartail. Is that in the front
Speaker 8: or the front of the tail?
Speaker 1: That's a good question.
Speaker 2: But I'm also told that they're releasing limited edition new
Speaker 2: packaging for their cougar tails. So I'm only bringing this up,
Speaker 2: Craig because but it also feels like this is an
Speaker 2: underreported element because those students are going to be even
Speaker 2: more fired up after consuming, you know, this new cougartail scenario.
Speaker 2: Maybe that is something that you need to tell your
Speaker 2: alma mater about.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm going to make a phone call. The sugar
Speaker 8: high will be a you know, it be insane, Spence,
Speaker 8: as you know that concerns me. You know, sugar, you know,
Speaker 8: but you have to be careful too. That sugar high
Speaker 8: wears off, you know, after a while, So yes, be
Speaker 8: prepared for a while crop and it could swim up
Speaker 8: down It could, It could could. But I'm anxious for
Speaker 8: these guys that I know to come into town, Spence,
Speaker 8: I really am.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: They always say what you been down doing on Utah
Speaker 8: a these years. That's well you're gonna get You're gonna
Speaker 8: get your first taste of really what the mountains and
Speaker 8: the night feel at Lavelle Edwards Stadium feels like, Uh,
Speaker 8: you know, I did ten years of BYU football and basketball,
Speaker 8: and I've always been in awe of both stadiums by
Speaker 8: the way up on the hill and down and that
Speaker 8: team down south. As people love to kid each other,
Speaker 8: but I mean, really, we're lucky to have two really
Speaker 8: incredible stadiums of high maggnot now in the Big twelve.
Speaker 8: That will, I think radiate a lot of positive vibes
Speaker 8: for people outside the state who are getting their first
Speaker 8: taste of what's going on here Big twelve football man.
Speaker 8: Right now, it's rolling multiple teams in the top twenty,
Speaker 8: top twenty five, and I'm excited about it, and I
Speaker 8: think BYU fans should this should be a fun game.
Speaker 8: Could be decided by a field goal, could be decided
Speaker 8: by a turnover. But the six and a half points
Speaker 8: I'll take. But pay State has to make sure early
Speaker 8: they understand what they're up against, a great crowd, very
Speaker 8: physical football team, and just don't give yourself, you know,
Speaker 8: don't turn the ball over and try to establish a
Speaker 8: run game. I sound like a coach, but that's the
Speaker 8: way it plays out, especially on the road.
Speaker 1: All right over to the utes, Greg.
Speaker 2: Something something's cooking, Okay, something's going on here. I don't
Speaker 2: know what, all right, So it's just really odd to
Speaker 2: see a line swing four and a half points in
Speaker 2: a matter of just a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: That rarely happens.
Speaker 2: Okay, So when we signed off air last night at six,
Speaker 2: Utah was a two point favorite, and then went home,
Speaker 2: walked the dog, grab some food, and suddenly I get
Speaker 2: like four texts simultaneously, and they all said the same thing.
Speaker 2: Is cam playing on Saturday? And I said, well, I
Speaker 2: think so, you know, like we don't know, and I
Speaker 2: want to be clear. Until the conference mandates Kyle and
Speaker 2: his staff to report injuries, I totally understand why they don't.
Speaker 2: It drives me crazy, but I get it. You know,
Speaker 2: the competitive advantage of keeping your opponent on its heels.
Speaker 1: I understand that.
Speaker 2: I do think college football will eventually adopt the pro
Speaker 2: model where we will get an injury report and that
Speaker 2: does away with the ambiguity. But until we are there,
Speaker 2: I understand why they do this. I can't speak to
Speaker 2: why that line moved four and a half points in
Speaker 2: a matter of hours, but that means something, Craig, I
Speaker 2: don't know what it means, but it means something.
Speaker 8: Look today, am I right? Two and a half? That's
Speaker 8: where we're.
Speaker 1: That's that's where we are. That's where we are to that.
Speaker 8: It's interesting, isn't it the Cam Rising factor? I mean,
Speaker 8: would you say that's probably it?
Speaker 2: Well, it's it's either somebody in Vegas got a tip
Speaker 2: the Cam's not playing, because it can't be that like
Speaker 2: Karenne Read is out, because a four and a half
Speaker 2: point swing indicates like a big time injury to somebody
Speaker 2: that really moves the needle, which would be a quarterback.
Speaker 2: All due respect to Karenna that we want him back to.
Speaker 2: It either means that somebody got some information that maybe
Speaker 2: Cam is out, or when the line moved towards the
Speaker 2: utes to two points, some shark or some wise guy
Speaker 2: laid down a seven figure bet, you know, and and
Speaker 2: and to move the It's one of those two things.
Speaker 2: Unless I'm missing something.
Speaker 8: Well, I would think it has to be big money bet.
Speaker 8: I mean, unless something's happened in practice, because all indications
Speaker 8: point that the laceration on the right hand at Cam
Speaker 8: Rising wasn't as serious as some people thought, and that
Speaker 8: Cam would be playing. But look, I think you have
Speaker 8: to look at the history of Cam and the way
Speaker 8: that the youths have handled his injuries in the past,
Speaker 8: very very quiet up until game time and they really
Speaker 8: never spent last year early were upfront until maybe what
Speaker 8: was it Week five, Week six, that this wasn't going
Speaker 8: to happen for Cam to play. So what I've learned
Speaker 8: in college football, in the pros or whatever it may be,
Speaker 8: I'm not convinced until I see it, And so I
Speaker 8: think maybe again, Vegas maybe knows something. That's what they do.
Speaker 8: They make a lot of money in this bet game,
Speaker 8: and these guys are on top of it. How they
Speaker 8: get that information is beyond me. But maybe again it's
Speaker 8: just the way it works itself out. But it's either
Speaker 8: big on Utah that drove it, or they know something
Speaker 8: about Cam that we don't. I don't think it's Keepy
Speaker 8: nobody else right that would really turn the dial down
Speaker 8: into Oklahoma State's favor.
Speaker 2: Now, a four and a half swing in like two
Speaker 2: and a half hours is a quarterback injury or big money.
Speaker 1: I don't know what else it could be.
Speaker 2: But let's move off that, Craig, and let me ask you,
Speaker 2: since you and I last spoke, we did see Utah
Speaker 2: for the first time in twelve years. Go up to Logan.
Speaker 2: They got to win over Utah State. It wasn't pretty,
Speaker 2: it was rough for the start, but specifically focusing on
Speaker 2: Isaac Wilson, I thought the young man met the moment
Speaker 2: after a tough start. I thought he really stepped up.
Speaker 2: I thought he answered some questions. What did you see
Speaker 2: from Utah's backup quarterback last Saturday?
Speaker 8: Well, confidence came his way and that's what they were
Speaker 8: waiting for. And I thought, honestly, you got to say
Speaker 8: that with Kyle and Andy and the way they kind
Speaker 8: of game planned it, I thought they put a lot
Speaker 8: of confidence into him. I thought he found you know,
Speaker 8: after a little maybe slow, shaky, you know, first couple
Speaker 8: of series. I thought he just played great. I mean
Speaker 8: they put it on him again. Offensive line, strong, d line,
Speaker 8: played their game, and I think Isaac really found some
Speaker 8: confidence and who he is eighteen years young. That's a
Speaker 8: tough transition from high school to college, believe me. And
Speaker 8: you know, the speed of the game is real. These
Speaker 8: guys all run fast, they hit harder, and they're smart.
Speaker 8: And I think I was impressed. You know, I wasn't
Speaker 8: sure before that game, but he as a game continued on,
Speaker 8: I thought, Spence, I don't know what you saw, but
Speaker 8: I thought I just saw building confidence and flow and
Speaker 8: that's where the game kind of just came to him,
Speaker 8: and I was happy for him either. You know, fans
Speaker 8: can get on you pretty quick, and it happens in
Speaker 8: the NFL, and you see guys get binged, right, But
Speaker 8: I thought Isaac stood up and said, Hey, that's why
Speaker 8: I'm here, and that's that's why you name me the
Speaker 8: number two quarterback behind camp.
Speaker 1: I wonder bull.
Speaker 2: I was listening to your old buddy Joel Klatt his
Speaker 2: podcast this morning, and he broke down Utah Okay States
Speaker 2: and he said, any he wasn't reporting this, but he
Speaker 2: referenced that there's a feeling and he would know. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's pretty plugged in in the scene of college football.
Speaker 2: There's a feeling this could be wits last year. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it is. It is a topic in
Speaker 2: this marketplace Taale as old as time, because at times
Speaker 2: Kyle will drop hints, like when he came on the
Speaker 2: show just a couple of years ago asked what my
Speaker 2: father was up to. I said, he's basically retired, spending
Speaker 2: time with the grandkids, and Kyle said, well, that's gonna
Speaker 2: be me soon, And of course people freaked out, like, oh,
Speaker 2: does that mean he's done. I don't know what he's done.
Speaker 2: He's got a couple of years left on his deal.
Speaker 2: But if Utah football wins the Big Twelve, if they
Speaker 2: go to the CFP and for the first time as
Speaker 2: a head coach, Kyle has a legitimate chance to really
Speaker 2: play for a national championship. Do you think that motivates
Speaker 2: him to look back and say, I was here from
Speaker 2: the Whack to the Mountain West Conference. I was here
Speaker 2: from the mount West Conference to the Pac twelve. We won,
Speaker 2: We won Mountain West Conference championships, we won Fiesta Bowls,
Speaker 2: Sugar Bowl, we won Pac twelve championships, we went to
Speaker 2: a couple of Rose Bulls, and now I had a
Speaker 2: chance to play for a national championship. First of all,
Speaker 2: what a resume, I mean, my goodness, you know I'll
Speaker 2: start to finish. Second of all, do you think that
Speaker 2: might be enough for with to say, you know what,
Speaker 2: I don't know what else I can do. I did
Speaker 2: the best I could. I left it better than when
Speaker 2: I found it. Give me your thoughts on that.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I think a lot of players always think they'll walk
Speaker 8: off the field once they won a Super Bowl, but
Speaker 8: then all of a sudden the hunger of the game returns,
Speaker 8: and it's hard to leave Spence. I think it'll be
Speaker 8: hard for for Wit to leave, no matter when. I mean,
Speaker 8: it's in his blood, it's in his DNA about right.
Speaker 8: And he always he had chances to make a jump
Speaker 8: from here or there. Probably had an NFL call once
Speaker 8: or twice. He's kind of hinted on that. But he
Speaker 8: loves it here and what a magnificent job and really
Speaker 8: transitioning from Whack to Mountain West now to Big twelve
Speaker 8: Pac twelve, Big twelve and man, he has your What
Speaker 8: you just read Spence is a resume that very though
Speaker 8: coaches possess. The one thing that's missing. If he would
Speaker 8: have I'll tell you what, if he would have put
Speaker 8: won of those two Rose Bowls, he may have stepped
Speaker 8: down then maybe, But you know, he keeps coming back
Speaker 8: thinking that this is a good team he's put together
Speaker 8: and he has there's so many weapons if they stay healthy.
Speaker 8: Does he walk away? Man, family may have something to
Speaker 8: say about that. Probably, yeah, it's time, But you know what,
Speaker 8: he loves this game and there's a lot of talent.
Speaker 8: And if he does leave, Morgan Scaley's the one most
Speaker 8: from all indications will be the one to what would
Speaker 8: you say, Spence benefit in a big way. I don't
Speaker 8: think there'd be much of a t the schools. When
Speaker 8: you have winning program and have very good conference, with
Speaker 8: a great fan base and the hell of a stadium,
Speaker 8: that's gonna, you know, keep this program down if at all.
Speaker 8: So if Wit decides he's earned it, he maybe maybe
Speaker 8: some people try to convince him to stay one in
Speaker 8: a while longer. I'm not sure he's well paid. We
Speaker 8: know that probably one of the highest paid employees in
Speaker 8: the state of Utah, I'm not mistaken. So if he walks,
Speaker 8: he earns it right. But I could see him sticking
Speaker 8: around to enjoy it. But maybe the time has come.
Speaker 8: Only he knows or very few people, very few people
Speaker 8: in a circle knows.
Speaker 2: All right, Craig, before I say you lose, I mean
Speaker 2: we have been very football centric and I cover everything
Speaker 2: that goes on, So we do hockey.
Speaker 1: We'll do a little RSL.
Speaker 2: The Utah Jazz start their camp in what, yeah, like
Speaker 2: two weeks away.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is why this time of year is
Speaker 1: so fun. Just in a matter of days.
Speaker 2: Quite frankly, we'll be able to really cover all of
Speaker 2: the local products that I enjoy covering. I mean, that's
Speaker 2: kind of what this show is about. We're not one
Speaker 2: product centric. We cover everything that we have going on
Speaker 2: here and do the best we can to be fair
Speaker 2: and all that stuff. But as Jazz Camp approaches, you know,
Speaker 2: another year with Craig butlerjack behind the microphone. Is this
Speaker 2: the time of year where you start to get excited?
Speaker 2: Is this the type of year where you start to
Speaker 2: get antsy?
Speaker 1: What are your what are your thoughts on the Jazz
Speaker 1: being back in just a matter.
Speaker 8: Of a couple of weeks all the above. A week
Speaker 8: from Monday the thirtieth is the the big day where
Speaker 8: the team and our staff get together and the media
Speaker 8: has a chance to really get all the all the
Speaker 8: interviews out of the way and a chance to kind
Speaker 8: of get to know a lot of new faces. Spence, yeah,
Speaker 8: some of the players around and they call it open
Speaker 8: court right now. And then the Jazz get to work
Speaker 8: and we actually start the preseason in about two weeks time,
Speaker 8: which I can't believe against New Zealand the Breakers at home,
Speaker 8: and before you know it, it's here and hockey started
Speaker 8: what yesterday with their their camp. So this city is growing,
Speaker 8: and the eyes will be interesting for me to see
Speaker 8: where the eyes are concentrated on hockey or whether it's
Speaker 8: the NBA. And of course, look what's going on with football.
Speaker 8: I mean, the Big twelve has a lot of eyes
Speaker 8: on it and obviously a lot of eyes on Utah
Speaker 8: at the moment. So man, it's a great time. It's
Speaker 8: a great time for you know, Salt Lake City, Utah
Speaker 8: fans to see what's going on Jazz fans. A lot
Speaker 8: of questions spent though that I have to get answered
Speaker 8: as a broadcaster, as I watched this team grow very young,
Speaker 8: two straight years of three well five number one picks
Speaker 8: in one second round with Philipowski, the big big kid
Speaker 8: on a duke and then you know, what do you
Speaker 8: do with JC and what do you do with Collins?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 8: And Sexton is he going to be a starter? My
Speaker 8: guess is yes. And the growth of Kyante and Taylor Hendrix,
Speaker 8: all those things come into play. But I'm most interested
Speaker 8: too to see what Walker Tessler becomes in year three,
Speaker 8: Big t and most NBA players will tell you that
Speaker 8: year three is kind of the jumping off point that
Speaker 8: either you find out who you are or the Jazz
Speaker 8: may move on who knows, But I think it's a
Speaker 8: big year. I mean for a lot of players, but
Speaker 8: for Walker. With Pilapowski in the camp, it's going to
Speaker 8: be pushed. But I think there's there's those three guys.
Speaker 8: Keante's got to turn down his turnovers, Taylor's got to
Speaker 8: grow with confidence and strength, and Walker's just got to
Speaker 8: find himself on who he wants to be. Can he
Speaker 8: find a face up game to the basket or is
Speaker 8: he just going to put the ball down like Rudy
Speaker 8: did on top of the rim? Is he a good defender?
Speaker 8: Can he run the floor? Absolutely? But there's always these
Speaker 8: questions Spence, and that's what I'm looking forward to. And
Speaker 8: I'm anxious also to get to know the game of
Speaker 8: hockey better. To me, that's important for this fan base
Speaker 8: to give it some time. Some fans already know out
Speaker 8: you know, the outsiders don't, but I think they're going
Speaker 8: to be hungry to understand what hockey is all about
Speaker 8: in the physical play that comes with it. I think
Speaker 8: it's going to be damn fun.
Speaker 2: All right, Bowler, thanks for the time, my friend, and
Speaker 2: have a great weekend. And the weather's supposed to beautiful,
Speaker 2: so Hopefully you have something fun planned and we'll chat soon.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 7: Sir.
Speaker 8: Hey, well, you tell Gordo man I I kind of
Speaker 8: miss him.
Speaker 1: I will tell him.
Speaker 2: I will tell him that you miss him, but I
Speaker 2: will not say that we miss him.
Speaker 1: I will say that you miss him. Is that fair?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 8: Well, let me backpedal on that. I'm not sure I do.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: We'll be reunited soon, buddy, Okay, I'll keep the great
Speaker 2: Craig Bowlerjack TV Voice the Utah Jazz brought to you
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Speaker 2: my buddy, saw Lake Tribune author Gordon Monson on a
Speaker 2: Thursday afternoon saw La Tribune writer excuse me, Gordo, Happy Thursday?
Speaker 1: How we doing that?
Speaker 6: Was the best sports talk host in the market.
Speaker 1: That's very kind of you, Gordon.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you saying that, and I just want to
Speaker 2: get your take right out of the gates about what
Speaker 2: you just witnessed in the UAFA Champions League game between
Speaker 2: AS Monaco and FC Barcelona.
Speaker 6: Uh. Preposterous, ridiculous, I mean I can't even find the
Speaker 6: right words. Just shocking.
Speaker 2: Huh Okay, any specific element of the game that was
Speaker 2: preposterous and shocking just.
Speaker 6: Because of a bad form And I didn't see, you know,
Speaker 6: I didn't see. I didn't see the action I thought
Speaker 6: I was going to see. I thought that the game
Speaker 6: was lethargic and the Paul movements shucked and I mean
Speaker 6: it just it was. It was sloppier than I thought.
Speaker 2: Huh, Okay, you know reports have in front of me
Speaker 2: are talking about what a clean, fast paced game it
Speaker 2: was and now entertaining it was for the audience.
Speaker 1: You must have seen something different with your keen eye.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean you say, they say each his own
Speaker 6: filby crew, their own eyeballs, and look, all I can
Speaker 6: tell you is what my brain tells me that that's sure.
Speaker 2: Sure, beauty is in the eye of the Gordop. All right,
Speaker 2: let's start with Utah. So last week, Utah goes up
Speaker 2: to Logan for the first time in twelve years.
Speaker 1: And they handled their business. But it was a little
Speaker 1: shaky at the start.
Speaker 2: But I want to hone in on Isaac Wilson, who
Speaker 2: I've been talking about all week is as a young
Speaker 2: man who I thought Gordon really met in the moment
Speaker 2: after a shaky start, What did you see from Utah's
Speaker 2: QB two.
Speaker 6: Well, you saw the growth during the game. Early on,
Speaker 6: it looked like more of the same what we've slipped
Speaker 6: between seen earlier. But as time went on, he seemed
Speaker 6: to settle in and I thought they allowed him to
Speaker 6: show what he's got and I think that emboldened him
Speaker 6: and made him a better quarterback. I'll say it this way.
Speaker 6: I don't think there's any doubt that Isaac Wilson is
Speaker 6: going to be a really good quarterback. He still has
Speaker 6: stuff to learn, and once he does that, then I
Speaker 6: think the arm talent he has is going to show
Speaker 6: itself off, and Utah's future quarterback looks and really good. Shit.
Speaker 2: I really felt like a general sigh of relief in
Speaker 2: this community based off of just how unprepared they were
Speaker 2: a year ago to handle the injuries to their quarterbacks.
Speaker 2: And I say that plural because it was Cam and Brandon,
Speaker 2: but it has to be a huge sigh of relief
Speaker 2: because here's the thing, Gordon, I mean, look, none of
Speaker 2: us want Cameron to be injured. None of us want
Speaker 2: him to get hurt. We want him to be healthy,
Speaker 2: we want him to play all year. But if I
Speaker 2: asked you to bet the sizeable Gordon Monks and Salt
Speaker 2: Lake Tribune paycheck on whether or not Cam is going
Speaker 2: to play in every game this year.
Speaker 1: My guess is you would bet it that he won't.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have the data.
Speaker 2: It's hard to stay you know, optimistic, even though we
Speaker 2: want him to stay healthy, it's hard to be optimistic
Speaker 2: about him playing every single game. So I still believe
Speaker 2: if they want to win the Big Twelve, they need
Speaker 2: Cam under center. But at least ute fans know that
Speaker 2: there's a kid waiting in the wings where it doesn't
Speaker 2: look as catastrophic it did a year ago when it
Speaker 2: was Bryson, Nate and Bryce and the Nate like. They
Speaker 2: do have a plan in place this year, and I
Speaker 2: think that's a great sign.
Speaker 6: All true spence, every bit of it, and I think
Speaker 6: he'll get better. The problem for Isaac Wilson will be
Speaker 6: if he is called upon in the game or two
Speaker 6: moving forward, he's probably going to face a better team
Speaker 6: than Utah State. I know there are a lot of
Speaker 6: compliments passed around about what the Aggies and the way
Speaker 6: they played in their toughness and all that sort of thing.
Speaker 6: Kyle talked a lot about that, but really that's not
Speaker 6: relative to what they will face in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 6: That is not a comparable football team, and so he'll
Speaker 6: have to. He'll he will get better, but his opposition
Speaker 6: will get better as well. So we'll see how that
Speaker 6: all works itself out. But he's the kind of quarterback
Speaker 6: that will benefit greatly from watching Cam play in the meantime.
Speaker 6: And if he does that his attention, that's the part
Speaker 6: of this game that I think really will come around,
Speaker 6: and that's the part that needs to come around. So
Speaker 6: good news for the Uts on that front, no other
Speaker 6: way to say so.
Speaker 2: Some tenuous storylines have emerged over the past, you know,
Speaker 2: twelve to sixteen hours here Gordo with Utah high speed
Speaker 2: ahead to still Water to take on Oklahoma State. And
Speaker 2: when we signed off last night at six o'clock, Utah
Speaker 2: was a two point favorites. And then, as I've talked
Speaker 2: about all day on the show, I go home, I
Speaker 2: walk the dog, I get some dinner, and then I
Speaker 2: get four tech simultaneously that say the same thing, which
Speaker 2: is is Cam playing on Saturday. I'm like, well, I
Speaker 2: think that he is. But here's the deal. In about
Speaker 2: two and a half hours, Gordon, the line went from
Speaker 2: Utah favored by two to Oklahoma State favored by two
Speaker 2: and a half. It was a four and a half
Speaker 2: point swing over a matter of two two and a
Speaker 2: half hours. That doesn't mean nothing. Now, it doesn't mean
Speaker 2: Cam is not playing. But what do you make of
Speaker 2: just the way the line has switched over to the
Speaker 2: direction of the Cowboys and whether or not you fans
Speaker 2: should be concerned.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't know the answer to the question with
Speaker 6: any exactness, but I think your instincts are pretty good, Spence,
Speaker 6: And that is somewhat concerning, because when you have the
Speaker 6: kind of injury that Cam had, you know that thing
Speaker 6: can be bothersome and a lot of it. It's kind
Speaker 6: of like a golfer who you know, you think a
Speaker 6: finger problem or whatever, but when you're gripping the club,
Speaker 6: as you know, as a season golfer, you know that
Speaker 6: could really bother you. And when you're delivering a football
Speaker 6: that is this sounds funny to say, but it's got
Speaker 6: grains in it and it tears away at the fingers
Speaker 6: sometimes and can cause real problems for somebody who has
Speaker 6: something like that. So, Man, I thought he was going
Speaker 6: to play. I thought he was going to play for sure,
Speaker 6: but I'm not so sure anymore. And if he doesn't play,
Speaker 6: I think this is going to be the toughest game.
Speaker 6: You need to play the toughest opponent they play all
Speaker 6: year because they don't play Kansas State. They don't play
Speaker 6: Kansas and so I mean, this is it. And so
Speaker 6: if he can't go, that means he really can't go,
Speaker 6: because you if they're going to leave him in any
Speaker 6: of their regular season games, this is the one they
Speaker 6: meet him the most.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if if he doesn't play on Saturday, he's properly hurt.
Speaker 2: And I can already feel the general consensus in the
Speaker 2: market of oh, here we go again. Now, let's be
Speaker 2: very clear. We don't know whether or not Cam's going
Speaker 2: to be under center. I don't If I had the
Speaker 2: guest today, I would say that he is, because that's
Speaker 2: what I've been told. And I'm the one that they
Speaker 2: told everybody last year that Cam and Brandt weren't playing
Speaker 2: all year long after two or three weeks and caught
Speaker 2: a ton of heat.
Speaker 1: But do you feel like.
Speaker 2: Gordon, because I've heard a lot of people talk this
Speaker 2: way this week, do you feel like if Utah goes
Speaker 2: to Stillwater gets it down against ok State, that puts
Speaker 2: them in the driver's seat to potentially win the conference.
Speaker 1: Even though it's only week four.
Speaker 6: Yes, I do, I do agree with that. And Spence,
Speaker 6: going back to last years, you were miss you were
Speaker 6: just making mistakes. You were misled. You were misled, and
Speaker 6: a lot of people were misled. They made it sound like, oh,
Speaker 6: it's just around the corner. It's just around the corner.
Speaker 6: And that was the longest, biggest corner I've ever seen.
Speaker 6: And of course you never ended up playing. And so
Speaker 6: that was not foolishness on your part. That was what
Speaker 6: everyone on the inside saw it, and then it didn't
Speaker 6: work out that way. So but if the US get
Speaker 6: this game on the road against the Cowboys, you know
Speaker 6: they're gonna have to They're gonna I mean, the Cowboys
Speaker 6: slowly been average at one hundred and twelve yards on
Speaker 6: the crowd. So as much as Oregon scaley and Cowboy,
Speaker 6: they can't talk about stopping the run, and that team
Speaker 6: so important to them. It is important to them, and
Speaker 6: they happen to have the Cowboys have a very good
Speaker 6: running back, but they are loading up all kinds of minds,
Speaker 6: all kinds of yardage on on through the air, and
Speaker 6: so the back half of that Utah defense is gonna
Speaker 6: have to play well and I thought what we saw
Speaker 6: against Utah State showed some vulnerabilities that I didn't think
Speaker 6: we would see. However, there's the mental side of the
Speaker 6: game too, and who you're playing. I am absolutely sure
Speaker 6: that the Utes are fired up to play this game
Speaker 6: in still Water, so I don't think you'll have any
Speaker 6: laps in focus or concentration against this kind of opponent
Speaker 6: to be physically good enough to shut that attag down.
Speaker 2: Tell me from the perspective of a season journalist like yourself.
Speaker 2: I said this earlier, intel the conference or college football
Speaker 2: excuse me, mandates that you report injuries. I understand why
Speaker 2: Kyle and his staff do what they do now, as
Speaker 2: somebody who covers the team and tries to talk to
Speaker 2: the community about the storylines, it drives me nuts that
Speaker 2: we have to deal with this.
Speaker 1: But what do you make of the.
Speaker 2: Dynamic in college football juxtaposed to the pros where you
Speaker 2: have to submit the injury report, where a lot of schools,
Speaker 2: including the Utes, just don't say a word in order
Speaker 2: to not tip their hand to the opponent.
Speaker 6: While all of college football is moving towards the professional model,
Speaker 6: and some of those things are maybe unfortunate. Some people
Speaker 6: see it like that. But this is one that they
Speaker 6: should change, and I think they will change. It needs
Speaker 6: to change. There's too great an interest, there's too much,
Speaker 6: there's too much riding on these games for guys not
Speaker 6: to be honest about who's going to be available, because
Speaker 6: that makes a huge difference. Obviously, a guy like Cam Rising,
Speaker 6: Are you kidding me that he's not available? Yes, you
Speaker 6: have a different way of looking at a football game.
Speaker 6: I think that's only fair. It's not just fair to
Speaker 6: the gamblers. It's fair to the fans, it's fair to
Speaker 6: the media, it's fair to everybody who loves college football.
Speaker 6: Tell the truth about who's going to be available. Who
Speaker 6: is it? Yeah, the NFL does that, right.
Speaker 2: Since we're in the space, I'll just ask you if
Speaker 2: it isn't Cameron, if we are, if we're sitting down
Speaker 2: on the couch, if we got the TV fired up
Speaker 2: and Utah, let's say they get the opening kick, they
Speaker 2: receive it, return it and boom first first in ten
Speaker 2: Utah and then out runs eleven and not seven, and
Speaker 2: it's Isaac can not Cam? Do you think they can
Speaker 2: go get That would be a big upset on the
Speaker 2: road with a true freshman in stillwater. Do you think
Speaker 2: Utah can get this game if it's not Cam and
Speaker 2: it is Isaac.
Speaker 6: I think it'll be much more difficult. And if I
Speaker 6: were Obama State and I saw Isaac Wilson come out
Speaker 6: on that field, I would do everything I could to
Speaker 6: disrupt him and hurry him up and make him feel uncomfortable,
Speaker 6: because the strength of his game is when he does
Speaker 6: get comfortable and he sits back in that pocket and
Speaker 6: he can look around and find his targets. So if
Speaker 6: I'm the Cowboys, if I see Isaac Wilson on the field,
Speaker 6: I'm going to do everything I can to to make
Speaker 6: him not just nervous but incapable at times of delivering
Speaker 6: the football.
Speaker 2: All Right, one more Utah storyline, then we'll move over
Speaker 2: to BYU. You were the guy that hopped on the
Speaker 2: show last week and said, quote, Wyoming sucks end quote,
Speaker 2: and you appear to be right, but I wanted to
Speaker 2: get your take on this.
Speaker 1: I was listening. We just talked to Bowler.
Speaker 2: I asked him this question because Joe Klatt, who Craig
Speaker 2: worked with for a number of years on the college
Speaker 2: football side.
Speaker 1: His podcast today.
Speaker 2: This is kind of his weekend preview pod, and Joel's
Speaker 2: one of the college football guys I like to listen to.
Speaker 1: I think he's really bright.
Speaker 2: And he previewed Okay, stay Utah, and then he went
Speaker 2: on a little Kyle Whittingham diatribe where he talked about
Speaker 2: and I want to get your take on this, because
Speaker 2: the topic of when will Kyle retire is not new
Speaker 2: in the marketplace, and part of it is because he
Speaker 2: drops hints here or there about not wanting to coach
Speaker 2: past sixty five, or on my show a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago when he asked what my dad is up
Speaker 2: to these days and I said he's kind of retired,
Speaker 2: spending time with the grandkids.
Speaker 1: He said, that's going to be me soon.
Speaker 2: Like Kyle does drop little tidbits and hints, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of chumming the water a little bit. But if
Speaker 2: Utah wins the Big Twelve this year, if they go
Speaker 2: go to the CFP and for the first time, coach
Speaker 2: wit has a chance to coach a team that really
Speaker 2: has a shot to win a championship. I don't think
Speaker 2: they're Texas or Ohio State or whatever, but you understand
Speaker 2: the spirit of the question, that will mean Kyle was
Speaker 2: here from the Whack to the Mountain West, winning Mount
Speaker 2: West Conference championships. From the Mount West to the PAC
Speaker 2: twelve winning Pac twelve championships, and going to the Rose Bowl,
Speaker 2: Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl and then the Cherry on top
Speaker 2: of the Sunday is a CFP appearance and winning the
Speaker 2: big twelve year one. It is easy to surmise that
Speaker 2: that might be enough for a guy to look at
Speaker 2: the path behind him and say, man I did all
Speaker 2: I could. So that was kind of Joel's thinking earlier today.
Speaker 2: I wonder what you think about this. If if Utah
Speaker 2: is able to do all that, do you think this
Speaker 2: might be coach WIT's sponsong.
Speaker 6: All good logic there, because those of us who know
Speaker 6: Kyle have been talking to him about.
Speaker 7: This and it's not a drop easy.
Speaker 6: He sincere in what he's saying, and his reasons for
Speaker 6: talking about retiring are good ones. He talks about family
Speaker 6: and listening time with them and being able to do
Speaker 6: things with his grandkids and he hasn't been able to.
Speaker 6: These are all noble reasons for him to go. He's
Speaker 6: a better football coach now than he's ever been. He's
Speaker 6: got a great program going. The whole thing is moving forward,
Speaker 6: and so some people would say, well, why would you
Speaker 6: leave this, Well, he's got other things that he might
Speaker 6: do is more important, and he's already accomplished all this
Speaker 6: stuff that you talked about. And if they do go
Speaker 6: to the playoff this year, if I were on a
Speaker 6: scale from zero to ten, ten being most likely if
Speaker 6: they go to a college playoff and situation and represent themselves,
Speaker 6: well I would put that number about an age.
Speaker 2: All let's move over to BYU. Do you want to
Speaker 2: spend any time on the Wyoming game. You're the one
Speaker 2: that came on air last Thursday and said Wyoming sucks,
Speaker 2: b why you should roll?
Speaker 1: You were right, and they did give.
Speaker 7: Me your.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that's exactly and Wyoming's not good. And Colisataki
Speaker 6: said afterward, you know, in so many words, he said,
Speaker 6: we probably should have won by more, but he felt
Speaker 6: good about what's happening with the team moving forward. But
Speaker 6: it's so hard to judge how good they are against
Speaker 6: that kind of opponent. I mean, that team is not good.
Speaker 6: And one thing that my covering college football through years
Speaker 6: has taught me is that the caliber of competition you're
Speaker 6: going up against is this is not exactly rocket science
Speaker 6: but it makes a huge, huge difference. Kansas State's a
Speaker 6: terrific team who and they can move the ball on
Speaker 6: the ground. They've got a quarterback who's a dual threat guy,
Speaker 6: and those are the kinds of quarterbacks who have caused
Speaker 6: BYU a lot of trouble in the past. Wyoming just
Speaker 6: didn't have the firepower to slow BYU down and the
Speaker 6: way it was necessary, even on their home field. So yeah,
Speaker 6: a nice win by BYU. But this week, this week
Speaker 6: is when we really start to learn about the Cougars.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this.
Speaker 2: The defense through three games has been like last year
Speaker 2: was so weird. I'm watching BYU football, I'm like, wait
Speaker 2: a second, your head coach is Klonie Satakea. You just
Speaker 2: hired Jay Hill and you're like last in the nation
Speaker 2: in sacks. It was really strange. So they've flipped that
Speaker 2: this year and they have been really good defensively. Have
Speaker 2: you seen enough from BYU on defense to believe that
Speaker 2: on that side of the ball they can hang on
Speaker 2: Saturday night against a really physical Case State team.
Speaker 6: My number one question, well maybe probably number two, behind
Speaker 6: the quarterback situation about BYU is can they pressure the
Speaker 6: quarterback and you just address that. They surprised me in
Speaker 6: that regard. Klannie told me they were going to be
Speaker 6: able to do that, and I wasn't sure I believed him,
Speaker 6: But that is the best way to stop a gifted quarterback.
Speaker 6: Now this kids are going up against on Saturday night.
Speaker 6: You can pressure him, but he's mobile enough to move around,
Speaker 6: and so I don't know how that's going to go.
Speaker 6: But that defense is going to have to be stellar
Speaker 6: for the Cougars to get a chance to win that game,
Speaker 6: and they've got to stop They've got to stop that
Speaker 6: around game because I think KSE State is averaging like
Speaker 6: almost two hundred and seventy two hundred and sixty yards
Speaker 6: a game on the ground, and so will they be
Speaker 6: able to do that well? The run defense has been
Speaker 6: pretty good thus far. We'll see how it does against
Speaker 6: a really quality.
Speaker 1: Opponent, and you reference this.
Speaker 2: So for me, I feel like I've seen enough from
Speaker 2: BYU's defense and the respect I have for Jay and
Speaker 2: Kolani to believe that physically they can hang with most
Speaker 2: teams in the Big twelve. KSE State might be an exception,
Speaker 2: but I think Byu is going to be fine that way.
Speaker 1: To me, Gordon. This is a Jake retzov game.
Speaker 2: This is if BYU wants to win on Saturday in
Speaker 2: provo home field advantage, their quarterback has to be better
Speaker 2: than he has been, not just so far this year,
Speaker 2: but four stars last year. Like in my opinion, U y,
Speaker 2: you're about a touchdown underdog for them to pull off
Speaker 2: the upset at home.
Speaker 1: This is a Jake retz laf game.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and no turnovers are a very few mistakes. He's
Speaker 6: got to be an intelligent, proficient quarterbacks because they're gonna
Speaker 6: have to keep up with k State because kse State
Speaker 6: is going to move the ball and they're going to
Speaker 6: gobble up yardies on the ground. Even with that BYU defense,
Speaker 6: I mean, these things they're connected. Is that by defense
Speaker 6: can keep k State off the field offensively, then that
Speaker 6: will give obviously Jake where it's a lot more opportunity
Speaker 6: to move the ball for the Cougars. And you know,
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm willing to give him a little slack.
Speaker 6: I'm willing to let him grow into that role because
Speaker 6: it's not an easy role. But when you're going up
Speaker 6: against this kind of opponent and all the fiddle faddling
Speaker 6: is done now you go out. You got to go
Speaker 6: out and be real and play good football. It's go
Speaker 6: time for BYU. Even though they do feel comfortable because
Speaker 6: they're playing on their home field, and they should, I mean,
Speaker 6: that is an advantage, but against this quality of an opponent,
Speaker 6: they're going to have to play their best game of
Speaker 6: the season by far.
Speaker 1: And you should probably know this, Gordon.
Speaker 2: On Saturday night, the BYU, the whoever's in charge of
Speaker 2: the game promotions, they've announced that they are offering the
Speaker 2: traditional maple glaze cougartail, but for Saturday night, which is
Speaker 2: also a whiteout, which is also known as Monday in Provo,
Speaker 2: they are offering a cougar tail with vanilla frosting too.
Speaker 2: Does that change your opinion on how the game will
Speaker 2: go on Saturday?
Speaker 6: Oh, it's the cougar's all the way. I mean, who
Speaker 6: wouldn't want that. It's been a long time. It's been
Speaker 6: a long time since I've had a cougar tail. But
Speaker 6: that sounds inviting to me. And you know what happens
Speaker 6: is and you know how it is in Provo, so
Speaker 6: utilize sugar in order to create energy because they can't
Speaker 6: really turn to other substances without breaking the honor code,
Speaker 6: so they go heavy on the sugar. It's probably less
Speaker 6: healthy than the things that are prohibited, but it's going
Speaker 6: to fire that crowd up, and maybe it'll fire up
Speaker 6: the actual players on the field too.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, all right, my friend, I appreciate your time today,
Speaker 2: save travels, and we'll get you back in the studio soon.
Speaker 6: Okay, alrighty next week we'll see you the.
Speaker 2: Great Gordon Monson from the Solid Tribune, my co host
Speaker 2: of The Big Show for seven years, Different time, different place.
Speaker 2: Appreciate Gordo's time on this Thursday afternoon. All right, Porter
Speaker 2: will be live pregame coverage Utah football coming up Saturday,
Speaker 2: starting at six thirty am.
Speaker 1: Is that six seven am? What is it? We'll be
Speaker 1: on at ten am, ten am.
Speaker 4: We'll be on ten am this week.
Speaker 1: Who's on with you? Jordan win Nie.
Speaker 4: Bye this week a guy who's well, let's say, pretty
Speaker 4: qualified to talk about quarterback ify situation. So well we'll
Speaker 4: get to all of that with our guys.
Speaker 1: And you will be bout time pub Jordan Landing.
Speaker 4: Bout time pub Jordan landing out there in West Jordan,
Speaker 4: So come by, say hello and grab some food and
Speaker 4: we'll have some tickets and tailgate stuff and a bunch
Speaker 4: of stuff to give away. So talking football, grabbing some
Speaker 4: wings and going from there.
Speaker 2: Saturday ten am, Porter Larsen Jordan Win check out the
Speaker 2: bout Time Pub location at Jordan Landing, so definitely check
Speaker 2: that out. Bout Time Pub is the place to watch
Speaker 2: well anything, NBA, NFL, UFC, NHL, you tell you it's football.
Speaker 2: Make bout Time your place for sports or even brunch.
Speaker 2: All food made from scratch, new mocktails for those of
Speaker 2: you who don't participate in partaking in alcohol.
Speaker 1: More TVs than tables.
Speaker 2: All bout Time TVs have their own receivers so they
Speaker 2: have all the games going live. So their locations are
Speaker 2: in Ogden, Late West Valley, West Jordan, Sandy Tula, Herman, Bluffdale,
Speaker 2: Lehigh and Vineyard, Utah. Sports bars celebrating our fifteen year anniversary.
Speaker 2: As Porter mentioned in House Smoke Wings build your own
Speaker 2: Bloody Mary Bar ten am to two pm during brunch,
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Speaker 2: you get more information. The Big Show, Big Hour is
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Speaker 2: I will get back to some Utah football too, but
Speaker 2: joining me now. Did a great job on the broadcast,
Speaker 2: one of the best to ever do it at Utah State.
Speaker 1: He's a Super Bowl champ.
Speaker 2: Robert Turbin on the Drive on a Thursday, Robert, how
Speaker 2: you doing many?
Speaker 7: What's up man? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the time, so give us an updoate on
Speaker 2: what you're doing now. It seems like you're really busy.
Speaker 2: Like I said, you really go to the broadcasting stuff.
Speaker 2: How busy does that keep you? And what else do
Speaker 2: you have going on?
Speaker 7: Well? I appreciate that very much. It means a lot.
Speaker 7: You know, I started calling games for CBS in twenty
Speaker 7: twenty two, and you know, I've just done my best
Speaker 7: to try to build from there. My first year I
Speaker 7: did eight games, and last season I did eleven, and
Speaker 7: this year I've got a full slate of thirteen, including
Speaker 7: the Conference USA championship game at the end of the year.
Speaker 7: So not looking too far ahead, but certainly excited about
Speaker 7: that and all of these opportunities. I'm doing a little
Speaker 7: bit of what you're doing as well, a little radio
Speaker 7: action with Serious XM. I've got two of my own shows,
Speaker 7: and one of those shows being the Tailgate Show INFROL
Speaker 7: Radio Channel eighty eight every Sunday morning at nine Eastern times. Obviously,
Speaker 7: I'm in California, so I got to be up early
Speaker 7: and get you know, got my big cup of coffee
Speaker 7: to get the energy right to be fired up to
Speaker 7: do that. You know, still affiliated with the Seahawks and
Speaker 7: work about a game a month for their broadcast and
Speaker 7: uh and yeah, man, you know, just just trying to
Speaker 7: build my broadcasting career as much as possible. The last
Speaker 7: thing I'll say is you're in Sacramento where I live
Speaker 7: now Channel thirteen CBS, I'll do I'll do postgame analysis
Speaker 7: for them in regard to the forty nine ers of Raiders,
Speaker 7: just because that's the market here in this in this
Speaker 7: region of California. So it's been a fun ride, man,
Speaker 7: and just doing my best best to build it every year.
Speaker 1: All right, man, good stuff, good stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, best of luck, and if you ever want to
Speaker 2: hop on to get some reps, of course, I always
Speaker 2: would love to interview a former Super Bowl champ.
Speaker 1: So you have a home here.
Speaker 2: But I wonder, Robert, what your impressions were last week
Speaker 2: of the Utah Utah State game and specifically what you
Speaker 2: saw from Utah's young quarterback to the true freshman Isaac Wilson.
Speaker 7: Well, I think Isaac showed that he's certainly going to
Speaker 7: be the future for Utah at quarterback. Now, you know,
Speaker 7: I know, like Kyle Whittingham, is big on competition, so
Speaker 7: he certainly won't be just handed the keys to the car.
Speaker 7: When that opportunity persists itself, He'll have to earn it.
Speaker 7: But he certainly displayed a lot of good things against
Speaker 7: Utah State last weekend. And I think the best part
Speaker 7: about his game, you know, outside of the physicality that
Speaker 7: he brings, you know from a throwing standpoint, be an
Speaker 7: actor and stuff like that. But you know, I thought, hey,
Speaker 7: his ability to be able to fight through adversity was
Speaker 7: a thing that stood out to me. You know, it
Speaker 7: wasn't like he played great against Baylor the week before
Speaker 7: when he got his opportunity, and it was a little
Speaker 7: bit of a slow start against Utah State, but he
Speaker 7: overcame that and you really saw him in the pocket
Speaker 7: look left, punk, fake, come back right, throw the ball
Speaker 7: on time, accurate, and he just started doing that throughout
Speaker 7: the entirety, well not the entire game, but mostly in
Speaker 7: the second half, but you started to see a lot
Speaker 7: of it, really that back half of the second quarter
Speaker 7: where he just boom a little shoulder stake that touchdown,
Speaker 7: he threw the money Parks in the end zone, he
Speaker 7: completely faked out Ike Larson with just a little slight
Speaker 7: pump fake to the right, I mean just a little
Speaker 7: shoulder and then boom came back to his left and
Speaker 7: was on target to money Parks in the end zone
Speaker 7: right there for the touchdown. So just seeing those things
Speaker 7: developed throughout the game was the most impressive part, and
Speaker 7: I think he's got a really broad future.
Speaker 2: So away from the quarterback position, what else on the
Speaker 2: and we'll get to the Utah State stuff in a minute,
Speaker 2: but what else on the Utah side most stood out
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 1: I mean, they were able to run the football.
Speaker 2: With Makai Bernard. I thought Utah State looked pretty good early.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of nervous youth fans after that
Speaker 2: early start from Utah State. But other than Isaac Wilson, Robert,
Speaker 2: what were some of your takeaways from watching Utah play
Speaker 2: last week.
Speaker 7: You know, one of the guys that stood out to
Speaker 7: me on the defensive side for Utah was Cameron Calhoun.
Speaker 7: You're talking about a freshman with not a lot of
Speaker 7: playing experience obviously at the you know, at the FBS level,
Speaker 7: and you know there were some moments in there where
Speaker 7: he got beat, but again, it was just this resilient
Speaker 7: mentality that you saw throughout a number of guys in
Speaker 7: the game. You recognize that Zamiah Vaughn, who was obviously
Speaker 7: the veteran corner for Utah, he was matched up with
Speaker 7: Jalen Royals throughout the entire game before he got injured.
Speaker 7: So that was a game plan for Kyle waiting him
Speaker 7: and Utah going into the game, and Cameron Holme was
Speaker 7: gonna have to supplement that. But it was going to
Speaker 7: be a challenge for him because he's just a freshman
Speaker 7: and Utah State like to put the ball in the air,
Speaker 7: and I thought he answered the call really well. So
Speaker 7: he's a guy that stood out to me. Uh in
Speaker 7: in that football game. Van Fillinger, I thought, did a
Speaker 7: nice job consistently putting pressure on the quarterback, particularly in
Speaker 7: the second half, getting his hands up and knocking the
Speaker 7: ball down. He's a he's a veteran player. He's been
Speaker 7: around this program a while, but I never got to
Speaker 7: see him play, you know, up close like that. I
Speaker 7: thought he was I thought he was really impressive. And
Speaker 7: so those are two guys that you know, I think
Speaker 7: on the defensive side. And then and then and then
Speaker 7: you mentioned it. I mean, the run game speaks for
Speaker 7: itself with Mackay Bernard and Mike Mitchell, just their ability
Speaker 7: to stay with it uh and uh and be able
Speaker 7: to close out games when they need to. They've done
Speaker 7: that consistently. Uh so far A little bit a little
Speaker 7: a little disappointed in Dijon Stanley, I'll lad, but I'm
Speaker 7: visiting a kid though that had a great potential. I
Speaker 7: thought he just had a bad I mean every now
Speaker 7: and then, he just had a bad You have an
Speaker 7: off day, And I thought Stanley just had an off day,
Speaker 7: a couple of drops. You know, his seat weren't under him,
Speaker 7: stumbling over his own feet, something wouldn't really see normally
Speaker 7: from him. But still a young player, a lot of potential,
Speaker 7: and this team has a lot of potential to go
Speaker 7: for in a big twelve.
Speaker 1: So your alma mater looked ready to go early.
Speaker 2: Obviously, Bryson Barnes played down here for a for a
Speaker 2: couple of different years, so you know, he knows the scheme,
Speaker 2: he knows the personnel, and threw.
Speaker 1: A couple of picks.
Speaker 2: But did you believe early on when Utah State took
Speaker 2: that lead that we were potentially in for an upset?
Speaker 2: What was your what was your confidence lever early on
Speaker 2: when Utah State came out and punched u TI right
Speaker 2: in the mouth.
Speaker 7: Well, I expect that. I expected Utah State to come
Speaker 7: out fast and you know, sort of have this uh
Speaker 7: you know, this energy about him to start the football game.
Speaker 7: The crowd was into it. There's a there's a quite
Speaker 7: a few a few players who transferred from Utah and
Speaker 7: who are now at Utah State. So I sort of
Speaker 7: expected them to have a fast start. And the other thing, too,
Speaker 7: was I mean, think about how the game finished for
Speaker 7: Utah against Baylor. I mean the second half, you could almost,
Speaker 7: even when good things are happening, after Camp Horizon was injured,
Speaker 7: you could really hear like a pit. I mean, the
Speaker 7: energy was just out of the stadium. The energy was
Speaker 7: out of the sideline. They were able to finish the game,
Speaker 7: but it kind of felt like they just sort of
Speaker 7: squeezed by to finish it and there was no energy.
Speaker 7: So it trickled into the start of Utah State where
Speaker 7: Utah just didn't have the energy there to start the game.
Speaker 7: And we spoke to colwitting hand before and I mean,
Speaker 7: obviously Utah's never overlooking anybody, but you know, it wasn't
Speaker 7: like Utah State is a team anymore that you know
Speaker 7: us to be honest about it, that Utah wants to
Speaker 7: play year in, year out anymore. You know, they they
Speaker 7: they've moved on to different things and they have different
Speaker 7: aspirations for their program, and so you know, from that standpoint,
Speaker 7: you know, maybe there was some you know, just the
Speaker 7: slow start. I think maybe some slight overlooking, especially with
Speaker 7: the Big Twelve opening, the Big Twelve coming up this
Speaker 7: week against Hey, maybe looking overlooking the Utah date a
Speaker 7: little bit, But at the end of the day, I
Speaker 7: felt like Utah was going to find their stride as
Speaker 7: they did, and find a way to pull it out
Speaker 7: in the second half. As they did. They took the
Speaker 7: lead before the end of the first half, and you know,
Speaker 7: I felt like it was it was kind of going
Speaker 7: to be their games from there. But I do give
Speaker 7: a lot of credit to Utah State. They did get
Speaker 7: it within seven right before they start of the fourth quarter,
Speaker 7: and so they fought that Utah was just the the
Speaker 7: better team that day.
Speaker 2: You know, Russul Feizon pulled his best Robert Turbin and
Speaker 2: went for a buck fifteen against a really good defense.
Speaker 2: I wonder what your take is, Robert on why Utah
Speaker 2: staid was able to find so much success on the
Speaker 2: ground against a defense that typically is very, very very
Speaker 2: good against the run. And then what Utah needs to
Speaker 2: do better coming up on Saturday against the guy who
Speaker 2: won the Doak Walker a year ago.
Speaker 7: Oli Gordon, that's a good question. I got a chance
Speaker 7: to talk to razul Fezar before the game, and you know,
Speaker 7: I just toilet said, look, you know, if you want
Speaker 7: to have some success today against this defense, you're going
Speaker 7: to have to attack these guys downhill, north and south.
Speaker 7: I mean, the minute you can get north, the second
Speaker 7: you can get north, getting north, and that is going
Speaker 7: to sort of be the formula for you and this
Speaker 7: run game to have success. And I think he did that,
Speaker 7: and I think this in general for Utah State was
Speaker 7: able to have some success against Utah because they they
Speaker 7: played the game vertical. Utah State, when you watch them,
Speaker 7: a lot of the things that they like to do
Speaker 7: offensively is east and west. It's lateral. It's the quick
Speaker 7: screens out wide to the wide receivers down the sideline.
Speaker 7: Hopefully they can make a guy miss and and make
Speaker 7: a make a play, you know. Down the field. It's
Speaker 7: it's the edge runs to the running back trying to
Speaker 7: get to the outside and you know, hopefully they're you know,
Speaker 7: they can beat them with speed and and I just
Speaker 7: felt like that wasn't going to do anything impactful against
Speaker 7: Utah and it didn't. Uh, And so because they had
Speaker 7: a more vertical game plan, that felt like, you know,
Speaker 7: they they had some success. So Utah didn't have to
Speaker 7: really uh sort of uh, you know, shape up a
Speaker 7: little bit within the middle of their defense. I think
Speaker 7: they're strong on the edges, uh, but they were. You know,
Speaker 7: Utah State was able to find some some success in
Speaker 7: between the two guards, specifically that you taught decent and
Speaker 7: the decincive tackles. And so they're gonna have to be
Speaker 7: a little bit more stout, maybe commit more, you know,
Speaker 7: people to the box. It's difficult to do that against
Speaker 7: Utah State because you know they're such a spread out team,
Speaker 7: but you know, if they can commit next to defender
Speaker 7: in there in the box, I think Utah can have
Speaker 7: a better day defending the run against Oklahoma State.
Speaker 2: I know you don't live here anymore, Robert, but I
Speaker 2: am curious to get your take on how connected you
Speaker 2: remain to Utah State and other Utah State alums, and
Speaker 2: what your reaction is, and what the reaction is of
Speaker 2: great players like yourself who played here and stay connected
Speaker 2: to the program. About the chaos that ensued in Logan
Speaker 2: this offseason, costing Blake Anderson his job, Jerry Bovee and
Speaker 2: others let go, and Nate Dryling, while on a European
Speaker 2: trip with his wife, found out that he is now
Speaker 2: the head coach.
Speaker 1: As he was at a pub insk in Ireland. I believe.
Speaker 2: So it's just been a bizarre you know, five six
Speaker 2: months up there. What's the thought of Utah State Alum.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, it has been and coach Nate Driling
Speaker 7: is you know, has been excellent, you know, to be
Speaker 7: able to step up in here. I believe he was
Speaker 7: in Ireland with his wife, but you know, to be
Speaker 7: able to step up and take on this role and
Speaker 7: this challenge and the and the kids that really responded
Speaker 7: very well to him. He only one player since he
Speaker 7: took over, transferred away from the program, and so that
Speaker 7: lets you know, and tells you a lot about coach
Speaker 7: Nate Driling and you know how he presents himself with
Speaker 7: the team thinks about him. But I am still very
Speaker 7: well connected to Utah State. I care about the university
Speaker 7: a lot. Obviously, it you know, it raised me, you know,
Speaker 7: in a way without the you know, the coaching and
Speaker 7: and uh, you know some of the people that I
Speaker 7: were able to connect with, some of the people who
Speaker 7: helped me throughout my collegiate career. Uh, there's no professional
Speaker 7: career for me. And so that goes from not just
Speaker 7: people in the football facility, but folks who live in Logan,
Speaker 7: you know, the actual community who were always there to
Speaker 7: lend a helping hand if and when needed, whether it
Speaker 7: was a summer job where there was like my car
Speaker 7: breaking down or something like that. I mean, all kinds
Speaker 7: of examples that I can go through, so very well connected.
Speaker 7: I'm developing a nice relationship with Diana, who's the new
Speaker 7: athletic director. Jered Bovey was a good, good friend of mine.
Speaker 7: I thought Coach Anderson was an awesome, awesome person, and
Speaker 7: him and I would talk, you know, on occasion, I
Speaker 7: can talk to my own coach, Coach Anderson, who actually
Speaker 7: came to sell me up in the booth actually at
Speaker 7: the game. So the connection and the love is very strong.
Speaker 7: It's there. It's unfortunate that all of these things and
Speaker 7: these events happened in the way that they did this
Speaker 7: off season, but you know, those are also things that
Speaker 7: aren't in my control. But what I can control is
Speaker 7: to continue to support the university the best way that
Speaker 7: I can, and that's what I try to do.
Speaker 2: All right, well said, I want to move back over
Speaker 2: to Utah. I want to ask you a question about
Speaker 2: Cameron Rising. You know QB one around here and you're
Speaker 2: a guy that played at the highest level, and you
Speaker 2: played at the highest level as a running back where
Speaker 2: you had the ball in your hand and very big, physical,
Speaker 2: large men were trying to kill you while you were
Speaker 2: running with the football. So the conversation around here, Robert
Speaker 2: has been now for a number of months, like when
Speaker 2: Cam gets back and what he's healthy. We've heard coach win,
Speaker 2: We've heard coach loud, We've heard the coaching and staff
Speaker 2: and other people around here saying that they have really
Speaker 2: done everything they can to try to help him understand
Speaker 2: how important he is to them and therefore get out
Speaker 2: of trouble. Is it possible to learn that when you
Speaker 2: are a competitive guy like Cameron Rising, and when you
Speaker 2: are a physical football player like Cam who plays a
Speaker 2: quarterback position with a lot of competitive fire, can you
Speaker 2: relearn how to play that position in order to keep
Speaker 2: yourself as safe as possible. Because we're three games in,
Speaker 2: he's already missed a game, and there's some conversation about
Speaker 2: what's next.
Speaker 1: So give me your thoughts on that, Robert.
Speaker 7: Will you Yeah, you can absolutely absolutely learn it. If
Speaker 7: you're intentional about learning something, you will. One of the
Speaker 7: examples I can give is Josh Allen, who is starting
Speaker 7: quarterback for the Buffalo those obviously believe you with to
Speaker 7: Wyoming sect me if I'm wrong, But you know his
Speaker 7: early years, I mean, he was just you know, throwing
Speaker 7: his shoulder head down, you know, wanted to impose his
Speaker 7: physicality on defenders. But when you watch him now, now
Speaker 7: there's still a certain level of athletics that he plays
Speaker 7: with and it's natural. But when he gets into space
Speaker 7: and he sees defenders, he slides. Josh Allen slides now
Speaker 7: when you watch. And so if you're intentional about playing
Speaker 7: the game a certain way, of course you can learn it.
Speaker 7: You absolutely can. And so came rising. He's just got
Speaker 7: to want that. He's got to want that for himself.
Speaker 7: But I can tell you this, if he doesn't, this
Speaker 7: is going to continue to be the result for him.
Speaker 7: Because the fact of the matter is, no matter how
Speaker 7: great of a quarterback you are, or how big or
Speaker 7: strong you are training or running back, you don't train
Speaker 7: the same way in the off season like a linebacker
Speaker 7: or a strong safety. You're not throwing the same type
Speaker 7: of weights around, You're not doing the same type of drills,
Speaker 7: You're not preparing for the same type of physicality to
Speaker 7: endure through an entire football season. Quarterbacks are dropping back,
Speaker 7: they're going through cones and are throwing the football as
Speaker 7: they should be doing, and therefore you need to slide.
Speaker 7: So if he's more intentional about having a long career
Speaker 7: and a healthy career, he'll fix this will no longer
Speaker 7: be an issue moving forward.
Speaker 2: All right, Robert, before I said you loose, you know,
Speaker 2: a big game for Utah on Saturday, as we've discussed
Speaker 2: against Oklahoma State Vegas. Has Utah's the favorite to win
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve. The media have picked them to win
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve as well, the Robert Turmin tick. What
Speaker 2: has to happen generally speaking, for Utah to get this done,
Speaker 2: win the Big Twelve and go to the CFP.
Speaker 1: How does it play out?
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, it's a great question obviously. Are you asking
Speaker 7: about just this game against Oklahoma State of the Big
Speaker 7: Twelve in general?
Speaker 2: The Big Twelve in general all seasons? Like, what has
Speaker 2: to happen for Utah to win the conference?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Well, cam Rise is gonna have to stay healthy
Speaker 7: number one, because he is a really good he's a
Speaker 7: great playmaker.
Speaker 1: He is.
Speaker 7: That's gonna have to happen. Secondly, you know this running
Speaker 7: game this one two with Micai Bernard continue to be
Speaker 7: really really efficient. I mean, this is going to have
Speaker 7: to be the meat potatoes of their offense, you know,
Speaker 7: for them to have success control the clock and be
Speaker 7: able to play the type of offense that they want to.
Speaker 7: But this is all going to be about defense for
Speaker 7: me with Utah if they want to continue to if
Speaker 7: they want to win the Big Club this season. Takeaways
Speaker 7: on defense, being able to get pressure on the quarterback
Speaker 7: on a consistent basis, the combination of those two things,
Speaker 7: and then obviously stopping to run if you want to
Speaker 7: add a third wrinkle in there. But the defense is
Speaker 7: going to have to play like a top ten defense
Speaker 7: in my opinion for them to be Big twelve champions
Speaker 7: at the end of the year.
Speaker 2: All right, man, well good stuff. You want to call
Speaker 2: this weekend? Where can our listeners go find you?
Speaker 1: Coming up at?
Speaker 5: You know what?
Speaker 7: I'm actually off this weekend and my son is turning eight.
Speaker 7: So we've got a dragon Ball the themed birthday party
Speaker 7: going on on Saturday. So I'll be doing the dad
Speaker 7: thing this weekend, but the following week I will be
Speaker 7: in Wyoming. Speaking of Wyoming, they'll take on Air Force
Speaker 7: at home and I'll be on the call for that one.
Speaker 1: Well, enjoy the dad stuff. I'm telling you.
Speaker 2: Mine just turned twenty three, Roberts, so you're gonna blink
Speaker 2: and he's gonna be out of the house.
Speaker 1: So enjoy while you.
Speaker 7: Can, all right, I will. That's great advice, all right.
Speaker 2: The great Robert Turbin one of the best ever. Do
Speaker 2: it to Utah State and won a Super Bowl with Seattle.
Speaker 2: Now he's doing some broadcasting. He's really good at it.
Speaker 2: Hopefully he gets some more opportunities. Is on Twitter at
Speaker 2: Robert Jay. Turbin is where you find them. Want to
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