Speaker 1: Right, what is going on?
Speaker 2: It is drivetime, it's a Wednesday, It's about ten minutes
Speaker 2: past the hour of two o'clock. Little chili, getting chili outside,
Speaker 2: getting ready for essentially our first cold front of the fall.
Speaker 2: We've had such a mild, warm fall that we are
Speaker 2: about two get our first snowstorm. It looks like up
Speaker 2: in the mountains. Not sure we'll be affected here down
Speaker 2: in the benches, but it's about to get cold over
Speaker 2: the next couple of days.
Speaker 1: Going to be a chili weekend.
Speaker 2: Should be a chili night in Provo on Friday night
Speaker 2: for Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: Should be a chili night.
Speaker 2: On Saturday night for Utah as they welcome in TCU. So,
Speaker 2: of course, college football top of mind this week, college
Speaker 2: football top of mine this time of year. Utah is
Speaker 2: going to try to get right against Texas Christian Saturday
Speaker 2: night at eight thirty Rice ecl Stadium here in Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City. Our pregame coverage on the radio side will
Speaker 2: begin four hours prior to kick, as it always does,
Speaker 2: will have you taken care of starting at four thirty
Speaker 2: on Saturday.
Speaker 1: So we'll get you ready for that game.
Speaker 2: Wednesday is kind of the day where we get you
Speaker 2: halfway through your work week, we get you one day
Speaker 2: closer to the weekend, and we kind of turned the
Speaker 2: page into what happened a week ago, and we start
Speaker 2: to look out to the weekend and talk about kind
Speaker 2: of what's at stake now for BYU. They put themselves
Speaker 2: in a fantastic spot. They're a top the Big Twelve
Speaker 2: conference standings right now. They have not lost a football game.
Speaker 2: They're three to zero conference, they're six to oh overall,
Speaker 2: and right now that line has moved a couple of
Speaker 2: times towards the way the BYU Cougars. As of right now,
Speaker 2: they're a nine point five point favorite in provo over
Speaker 2: the reeling Oklahoma State Sooners, who at this excuse me, Cowboys,
Speaker 2: who at this point have probably been the most disappointing
Speaker 2: team in the entire Big Twelve. I think youth fans
Speaker 2: who probably say Utah has been but Oklahoma State who
Speaker 2: was picked to finish well. Some people pick them to
Speaker 2: win the whole conference. I think the media picked them
Speaker 2: to finish third in Kansas State and Utah, and the
Speaker 2: Vegas odds had Utah one, Kansas State two, and Oklahoma
Speaker 2: State at three.
Speaker 1: And Mike Gundhy is fighting.
Speaker 2: Off rumors in Stillwater that his days may be numbered
Speaker 2: and they're trying to get bull eligible. So it's a
Speaker 2: big weekend of local college football and a big weekend
Speaker 2: of course national college football, as well.
Speaker 1: A lot of ranked matchups.
Speaker 2: This time of year, most of the Dog games are
Speaker 2: behind us until later on in the season when the
Speaker 2: SEC team schedule a bunch of cakewalks as they always do.
Speaker 2: But we'll get ready for a big game down in Austin,
Speaker 2: Georgia and Texas Top five matchup at dk R Texas
Speaker 2: Memorial Stadium. So there's a bunch of big time college
Speaker 2: football games.
Speaker 1: Of course, both locally and nationally.
Speaker 2: Big twelve continues to try to sort itself out where
Speaker 2: the pretenders are being revealed and the contenders are left standing.
Speaker 2: Iowa State's a fourteen point favorite over UCF and ames
Speaker 2: kind of the sneaky interest game in Morgantown, as Kansas
Speaker 2: State is going to be taken on West Virginia and
Speaker 2: Kansas State is only a three point favorite. West Virginia
Speaker 2: is a pretty decent football team this year, They've only
Speaker 2: lost to teams that are undefeated. Actually, Colorado will be
Speaker 2: down in Tucson at Arizona Stadiums take on of course Arizona.
Speaker 2: We have Houston, Kansas, and another kind of sneaky big
Speaker 2: game in Cincinnati Nippert Stadium, Arizona State Cincinnati. Cincinnati is
Speaker 2: actually a six point five point favorite over Kenny Dillingham.
Speaker 2: Surprise Arizona State Sun Devil. So exciting week of college
Speaker 2: football ahead and we'll get you ready for that on
Speaker 2: the show today. A couple of unusual NFL transactions with
Speaker 2: some wide, really good wide receivers on the move, as
Speaker 2: DeVante Adams is expected to play for the New York
Speaker 2: Jets on Sunday against the Steelers, and Amari Cooper is
Speaker 2: going to go play for the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1: A lot of.
Speaker 2: Injury news, unfortunately, we'll get to some of that. On
Speaker 2: the pro football side. Get you ready for your pro
Speaker 2: football weekend that will be in on Thursday night as
Speaker 2: Denver is in the Big Easy to take on the Saints.
Speaker 2: You can hear that game on our radio station after
Speaker 2: this show finishes at six o'clock. We have RSL back
Speaker 2: on the pitch this weekend after a little bit of
Speaker 2: a restpit, little bit of a break. It's the final
Speaker 2: match of the regular season. And Demir Krylock and Vancouver
Speaker 2: are in town. The white Caps are in town to
Speaker 2: take on RSL coming up at seven o'clock on Saturday.
Speaker 2: With a win, ray Al saw Lake will set a
Speaker 2: single season point record for the club. And that's not nothing. Man,
Speaker 2: Jason Christ had four or five real elite years here
Speaker 2: when he was the manager, So of course pulling for RSL.
Speaker 2: They've already locked in a home playoff match and they
Speaker 2: are trying to potentially move up depending on some results
Speaker 2: ahead of them, as it will be the final day
Speaker 2: of the MLS regular season. The Utah Hockey Club, after
Speaker 2: suffering their first loss to the Devils, are back at
Speaker 2: it tonight to fly cross country.
Speaker 1: They're to take on the Ducks in Anaheim.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be an eight o'clock the puckle drop at
Speaker 2: eight o'clock and Anaheim. We're gonna talk some Utah Hockey
Speaker 2: Club on the show today. And the Utah Jazz continue
Speaker 2: their preseason action as we're getting ready for the regular
Speaker 2: season coming up next week.
Speaker 1: The Jazz are gonna have one more preseason game.
Speaker 2: It's at Portland coming up on Friday, and they beat
Speaker 2: Sacramento last night.
Speaker 1: At this point, they're four to.
Speaker 2: One of the preseason, which doesn't mean anything but watching
Speaker 2: some of the preseason stuff, trying to learn what Will
Speaker 2: has in mind with some of his rotations, and get
Speaker 2: to know some of these new players, some of these
Speaker 2: young players they're gonna be watching that we're gonna be
Speaker 2: watching for the Utah Jazz all year long. So it
Speaker 2: is the great time of year where we can talk
Speaker 2: a little bit of everything college football, Pro football, RSL soccer,
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club, Jazz basketball as well. And we've got
Speaker 2: guests to talk about all of that as we are
Speaker 2: out and about today. We are at beer bar. Okay,
Speaker 2: So here's what we have and we don't usually have these,
Speaker 2: so you guys should take advantage of it. If you've
Speaker 2: never checked out our tailgate, our ESPN seven hundred tailgate,
Speaker 2: highly recommend it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we're.
Speaker 2: Gonna have a tailgate prior to the TCU game, and
Speaker 2: we are located right by the Smith's tailgate, like the
Speaker 2: massive setup where like Bill and Sly and Scott kind
Speaker 2: of do some pregame stuff before the walk. We've got
Speaker 2: free food from Wingers, we have spirits from our friends
Speaker 2: down at the clear Water Distillery, in Utah County.
Speaker 1: They roll up and.
Speaker 2: Provide the spirits. So come on by beer bar and
Speaker 2: say what's up. I'll limit it to two per person,
Speaker 2: but I do have about ten and might even have
Speaker 2: a little bit more. So if you're looking for something
Speaker 2: to do prior to kick on Saturday before the Utah
Speaker 2: TCU game, obviously a massive game for a lot of reasons,
Speaker 2: come on by beer bar, say what's up.
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred van is right out front.
Speaker 2: Come on in and say hello, and we will hook
Speaker 2: you up with a couple of passes for our tailgates
Speaker 2: prior to Utah TCU on Saturday. Again, it's gonna be chili,
Speaker 2: but we have warm food. We have some craft cocktails
Speaker 2: from clear Water. If you're not a drinker, there are
Speaker 2: plenty of soda and water options as well.
Speaker 1: So that's where we're at today. Beer Bar.
Speaker 2: It's one sixty twenties two hundred south right downtown in
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker 1: Over one hundred beers with thirty of them on tap.
Speaker 2: They've got great burgers and brought side of fries, salad, soups,
Speaker 2: so made sourdo Brett as well. So located in the
Speaker 2: heart of downtown at one sixty Oneies two hundred south.
Speaker 1: The ESPN seven hundred van is right out front.
Speaker 2: All right, Our first guest on this Wednesday afternoon is
Speaker 2: gonna be Kyle Bonnagerro. Kyle joins us from time to
Speaker 2: time on a pretty consistent basis the top college football
Speaker 2: Big twelve football Utah Football. Will get to some BYU
Speaker 2: stuff with Kyle as well. If time allows, we'll maybe
Speaker 2: do a little RSL MLS with Kyle today. Neil Smith
Speaker 2: or his weekly behind the Glass visit to TAK Hockey
Speaker 2: Tak NHL Hockey Utah Hockey Club.
Speaker 1: Then Pablo mash twenty. You haven't chatted with.
Speaker 2: Pablo on a while, they've been off for a minute,
Speaker 2: But we'll get ready for the RSL Vancouver match coming up.
Speaker 2: And then our buddy Andy Larson. Maybe we'll convince Andy
Speaker 2: to roll on down live on site here at beer Bar,
Speaker 2: talk a little jazz, talk a little RSL. So Kyle
Speaker 2: Bonnagera and Neil Smith, Pablo mashr Winny, Andy Larson, Me
Speaker 2: Spence checkets live at beer Bar, Beer Bar, excuse me,
Speaker 2: all of you, the great listeners, and just if a
Speaker 2: few blocks away, we're pretty close to each other downtown
Speaker 2: Salt Lake. Is Porter Larson, the producer of this program,
Speaker 2: Happy Wednesday, how's your Wednesday pout?
Speaker 3: Happy hum day to you Spencer of course, halfway through
Speaker 3: the week and yeah closer to hopefully, as you've talked
Speaker 3: about throughout the week, a little bit of a get.
Speaker 4: Right game for the you.
Speaker 3: It's a bunch of other exciting Big twelve stuff RSL
Speaker 3: Hockey Club, Jazz A lot to get to and yeah,
Speaker 3: a little jealous that you're at Beer Bark per usual.
Speaker 2: It is a great spot. They are decorated for Halloween.
Speaker 2: They've got the beers on taff and I can smell
Speaker 2: those brats and burgers. So if you want to come
Speaker 2: hang out with us at the tailgate, Porter's gonna be
Speaker 2: doing the pregame show.
Speaker 1: Live up there and I'll roll through as well.
Speaker 2: Prior to kick for utah TCU just come on down
Speaker 2: a beer bar, grab yourself an afternoon beer, or if
Speaker 2: you're not a drinker, they've got soda and water, They've
Speaker 2: got great food and come.
Speaker 1: Say what's up.
Speaker 2: Hook he up with a couple of passes for our
Speaker 2: tailgate lot prior to utah TC.
Speaker 1: It's a fun way to meet people.
Speaker 2: It's a fun way to get ready for the game,
Speaker 2: and if you haven't checked it out, it's definitely worth it.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Our first guest right out of the gates tsat College
Speaker 2: Football will be Kyle Bonnagurro. But before we get to
Speaker 2: Kyle Curtsey about our good friends, you're good friends too.
Speaker 2: It's Standard Restaurant Supply. It's your one stop shop for
Speaker 2: all of your tailgate needs. You can check them out
Speaker 2: online or at their convenience Salt Lake location. Three Utah
Speaker 2: football games left. Make sure your tailgates dialed in. It's
Speaker 2: Standard Restaurants Supply. 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: south West Temple.
Speaker 2: So, as we look ahead to the weekend, a couple
Speaker 2: of very interesting games for our local teams, both kind
Speaker 2: of playing for different things as far as where BYU
Speaker 2: and Utah position themselves, and it continues to be a
Speaker 2: real lesson in predictions, continues to be a real lesson
Speaker 2: And what does the media know?
Speaker 1: Anyway? You know most of the.
Speaker 2: Preseason stuff if you listen to BYU coaches and players,
Speaker 2: certainly Kalani, who he had on the show twice actually
Speaker 2: Big twelve Media Day and then a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: after that prior to the season, he hopped on a
Speaker 2: rods hopped on a couple of times, and they all
Speaker 2: And this is kind of interesting because every single coach
Speaker 2: it's kind of like my old take on signing day.
Speaker 2: Now signing day is a different carries a different way
Speaker 2: to a different tone in tent or the transfer portal
Speaker 2: has made it not a moot point but not near
Speaker 2: as important.
Speaker 1: As it used to be.
Speaker 2: But you would listen to a coach whose recruiting class
Speaker 2: was ranked like seventy seventh, he's like, we got everyone
Speaker 2: we wanted, Like, well, did you did you get everyone
Speaker 2: you wanted? Because according to the rankings, you have one
Speaker 2: of the worst recruiting classes in the country. And prior
Speaker 2: to the season, every coach is going to give lip
Speaker 2: service to the fan base and to the media about
Speaker 2: what they have as far as the hand they've been
Speaker 2: dealt and how confident.
Speaker 1: They are that they can shock people.
Speaker 2: And Amy Donaldson hopped on yesterday and we talked about
Speaker 2: this thing that happens in our state, and it really
Speaker 2: happens with all of our teams if you think about it,
Speaker 2: and it's kind of a microcosm of the attitude that
Speaker 2: we have here in the state. There's like this weird
Speaker 2: inferiority complex where we want people to like us a lot,
Speaker 2: and we don't like it that maybe people think we're
Speaker 2: odd from the outside looking in, so we want to
Speaker 2: prove you wrong. We want you to like us. We
Speaker 2: want you to think that we're cool. It's why jazz fans,
Speaker 2: you know, they basically lather themselves in joy. Whenever a
Speaker 2: jazz player just implies that he likes living here, it's like,
Speaker 2: did you hear Lowry?
Speaker 1: He likes it here? Hey, did you guys hear this?
Speaker 1: Check out this hand by Lowry Marketing likes Utah, We're
Speaker 1: not weird. Lowry likes us.
Speaker 2: And it's this dynamic where, even if the team is
Speaker 2: really good, we played the underdog role and play the
Speaker 2: underdog card and say, well, nobody believe. Nobody believes in
Speaker 2: the Jazz. They're gonna shock the world.
Speaker 1: Nobody believes in the Utes, nobody believes in the Cougars.
Speaker 2: It really is permeating and has been throughout the DNA
Speaker 2: of what the soccer club was built on.
Speaker 1: And how RSL used itself.
Speaker 2: RSL against Everybody was their playoff shirt they printed a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago. It's the same thing for BYU,
Speaker 2: same thing for Utah, same thing for the Jazz. And
Speaker 2: this little hockey club now with all these young players, like, oh,
Speaker 2: you think that just because we're a new franchise we
Speaker 2: can't compete. We went into the garden and beat the Rangers.
Speaker 2: We like that stuff. And Kalaie seems to have done
Speaker 2: a real masterful, masterful job. And I listened to his
Speaker 2: Monday presser every week after their games at both convincing
Speaker 2: his group that nobody believed in them and also keeping
Speaker 2: them humble and hungry to make where they continue just
Speaker 2: to focus on one game in one week at a time.
Speaker 2: He says it every single Monday. Now, we want to
Speaker 2: make just our sixth statement, which they did last week.
Speaker 2: Now they want to make their seventh statement against Oklahoma
Speaker 2: State in provo coming up on Friday night, and Kialani
Speaker 2: has really played this thing well because you can tell
Speaker 2: that these kids are playing with that proverbial state of
Speaker 2: Utah BYU football chip on your shoulder. The basketball team
Speaker 2: last year was picked to finish what thirteenth and I
Speaker 2: think they finished sixth, So you.
Speaker 1: Feed off of it, and BYU is fed off of it.
Speaker 2: Kilani and his group they fed off the fact that
Speaker 2: the media picked them basically near the bottom, I think,
Speaker 2: thirteenth in the Big Twelve. They fed off the fact
Speaker 2: that Vegas said four and a half wins, that's your line.
Speaker 2: They've already surpassed their four and a half, their Bowl eligible,
Speaker 2: they're cleaning conference and they're unefeated, and you have to
Speaker 2: give them a ton of credit. It doesn't matter the
Speaker 2: way you as far as what your feelings are about BYU.
Speaker 2: Maybe a BYU fan has been mean you online because
Speaker 2: the internet is.
Speaker 1: Where cowards go to field brave.
Speaker 2: All right, that's fine, you know, certainly the cesspool of
Speaker 2: online back and forth of the rivalry fan bases is
Speaker 2: something I'm not interested in.
Speaker 1: But you do.
Speaker 2: You But if you remove that and just look at
Speaker 2: what they've done. There's no way you can be anything
Speaker 2: other than wildly impressed with Kilanne and the job that
Speaker 2: that staff is staff has done so far through six
Speaker 2: games in the Big Twelve. Now Oklahoma State, I think
Speaker 2: is the biggest disappointment in conference. They roll in a
Speaker 2: Provo without a conference win. They're five hundred. They're going
Speaker 2: to be fighting for their bowl lives.
Speaker 1: And this was a team that.
Speaker 2: Some people pick to win the conference, and certainly if
Speaker 2: you looked at most of the preseason prognostications, they were
Speaker 2: definitely top three, at least from what I saw. They've
Speaker 2: lost three straight to at home and they never lose
Speaker 2: in Stillwater.
Speaker 1: Of course, they lost to the Utes.
Speaker 2: Then they went to k State and they got run
Speaker 2: and West Virginia dog walked them thirty eight to fourteen
Speaker 2: in Stillwater. So they come in limping. There are rumors
Speaker 2: about who's going to start a quarterback. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: they know.
Speaker 1: And this feels like it's going to be another BYU.
Speaker 2: Win on Friday night in Provo, and my guess is
Speaker 2: BYU as of next week could potentially be a top
Speaker 2: ten team depending on what happens in front of them.
Speaker 2: Now up here and saw a Lake, a different tone
Speaker 2: and tenor and a different dynamic as it pertains to
Speaker 2: what's at stake here on Saturday night. Essentially every game
Speaker 2: from here on out for the Utes is more or
Speaker 2: less a Big Twelve elimination game.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: I do think there's a world because this conference, and
Speaker 2: I was hoping this wouldn't be the case. I talked
Speaker 2: about a preseason, but everybody you said the Big Twelve
Speaker 2: was going to cannibalize itself this year appears to be correct.
Speaker 1: My hope was there would be a couple.
Speaker 2: Of elite teams that separated themselves, and obviously we thought
Speaker 2: Utah would be one of them to potentially allow for
Speaker 2: more than one inclusion in the CFP at this point.
Speaker 2: Last night, ESPN did their first twelve team CFP prediction show.
Speaker 2: The only Big Twelve team they had in the CFP
Speaker 2: was Iowa State.
Speaker 1: Their model has Iowa State winning the Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: But my hope was maybe a Utah in an Iowa State,
Speaker 2: or a Utah and a BYU or a k State
Speaker 2: and a Utah, two really good teams would separate themselves.
Speaker 2: Then we'd have two teams in the Big Twelve championship game.
Speaker 2: Maybe with one loss or maybe clean, therefore allowing access
Speaker 2: to two Big Twelve teams.
Speaker 1: It doesn't look like that's going to happen.
Speaker 2: So there is a legitimate possibility that one or both
Speaker 2: of the teams in the Big Twelve Championship game will
Speaker 2: have multiple losses.
Speaker 1: But I don't think three will get you in.
Speaker 2: I think two could because BYU and Iowa State have
Speaker 2: separated themselves, and Tech is still clean as well. Texas
Speaker 2: Tech is still clean as well. So if you're Utah,
Speaker 2: you're asking a lot for those three teams to lose
Speaker 2: more than two games each. But I don't think it's
Speaker 2: impossible for that to happen. I do think it's impossible
Speaker 2: for all three of.
Speaker 1: Those to lose three.
Speaker 2: So if you're Utah, essentially, if you still want to
Speaker 2: have something to say about the Big Twelve Championship, still
Speaker 2: could that's still on the table. Every game from here
Speaker 2: on out essentially is an elimination game, and if you
Speaker 2: lose on Saturday, you're kind of playing for what Utah
Speaker 2: football used to play for back when I was a.
Speaker 1: Kid, and that is maybe you beat BYU and go
Speaker 1: to a bowl.
Speaker 2: That was kind of the deal, right, Maybe somehow you
Speaker 2: beat BYU and go to a bowl game and ultimately
Speaker 2: the separation. The season of the two programs has been
Speaker 2: interesting to watch because from my vantage point, you know,
Speaker 2: I grew up in a generation of Lavelle Edwards BYU
Speaker 2: football dominance. My son has grown up in a Kyle
Speaker 2: Whittingham Utah football generation of dominance, and it's been a
Speaker 2: generation of Utah football dominance. They've been the better program
Speaker 2: than BYU for a generation for a long time. But
Speaker 2: there's always this underlying fear with the Ute fan base
Speaker 2: that things are going to go back to the way
Speaker 2: they were when Lavelle went well like twenty one and
Speaker 2: two or something like that against the Utes. And there's
Speaker 2: this underlying fear that with the way BYU has played
Speaker 2: this year and the way Utah has fallen flat on
Speaker 2: their face, are we in the beginning stages of a
Speaker 2: process where we're going back to what it was like
Speaker 2: before Witt took over Utah.
Speaker 1: That's hyperbolic, that's dramatic.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's the case, but there are legitimate
Speaker 2: questions to be asked. Because there are more than a
Speaker 2: few people that I've talked to they would definitely know
Speaker 2: that believe this could be it for Kyle Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it matters.
Speaker 2: We talked about this yesterday, like if Utah Max Chadwick
Speaker 2: hopped on he covers college football for PFF.
Speaker 1: He has Utah now as a seven win team.
Speaker 2: So if Utah wins seven games and goes to some
Speaker 2: throwaway bowl, does that motivate Kyle to comeback for one
Speaker 2: more try. I don't know if it matters one way
Speaker 2: or the other. When he's done, he's probably gonna be done.
Speaker 2: But this is certainly not the way he wanted to
Speaker 2: go out. And what does the program look like once
Speaker 2: they're head coach? One of the most respected head coaches
Speaker 2: and all the college football decides he wants to do
Speaker 2: other things with his time. Klanie's young. Klanie's not even
Speaker 2: fifty yet. I think he just turned forty nine, forty eight.
Speaker 2: I mean, if Kilanie really has built this thing up
Speaker 2: and he's going to be the BYU coach for the
Speaker 2: next fifteen to twenty years like Lavelle was, there are
Speaker 2: now serious questions to be asked about whether or not
Speaker 2: we are running into a tipping point and whether or
Speaker 2: not this generation of you football dominance has come to
Speaker 2: an end. Now I'm not there yet, but I definitely
Speaker 2: hear a lot of people talking about that, and they
Speaker 2: wonder if after a generation of Utah football dominance, are
Speaker 2: we now seeing the penduluance swift or excuse me, you know,
Speaker 2: basically shift to the other side. Because these things are cyclical.
Speaker 2: There was no way Utah was going to continue to
Speaker 2: be byu every single year.
Speaker 1: Sports are cyclical.
Speaker 2: You know, a coach figures it out, you would adjust
Speaker 2: and adapt to the new world of college football with
Speaker 2: a transfer portal and nil. Maybe you figure something out
Speaker 2: he hadn't figured out before, and all this time, maybe
Speaker 2: Kilani has been going about this the right way because
Speaker 2: as of right now, there's no doubt that so far
Speaker 2: this year, the best team in the state plays their
Speaker 2: football about forty miles down south in Provo. Big weekend
Speaker 2: of college football locally and nationally. Our next guest, Joins
Speaker 2: is consistently to break it down. Kyle Bonta Gera on
Speaker 2: a Wednesday. Kyle, Happy Wednesday, sir, How are you.
Speaker 6: I'm doing good, sirs.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the time. Kyle.
Speaker 2: Now we are here today sitting in a very similar
Speaker 2: situation as to where we were all of last season
Speaker 2: and you fans with some PTSD your reaction to the
Speaker 2: news that broke since you and I last spoke that
Speaker 2: Camon Rising is now done for the year for the
Speaker 2: second straight season.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it's incredibly deflating again, right, especially because
Speaker 7: of everything that happened last season. I think when youth
Speaker 7: fans are going to dealing with it in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 7: it's like, Okay, at least we have twenty twenty four.
Speaker 7: Cam will be back, we can move in conferences and
Speaker 7: that'll be there's still that kind of to look forward to.
Speaker 7: It feels a lot different now, right It's it's you
Speaker 7: have Isaac Wilson, who's, you know, a true freshman, and
Speaker 7: he's talented and all that, But I don't know, like
Speaker 7: at the same level of optimism probably doesn't exist as
Speaker 7: it would have a year ago when you're just kind
Speaker 7: of looking out into the future. And yeah, after watching
Speaker 7: CAM last week against Arizona State, I mean, I can't
Speaker 7: say that I'm surprised here today that in the past
Speaker 7: couple of days this is the news we all received.
Speaker 7: Disappointing of course for a number of reasons then, but
Speaker 7: I do think it kind of allows everyone to kind
Speaker 7: of move on it, and Kyle hinted at the possibility
Speaker 7: of Cam coming back for an eighth year, but man,
Speaker 7: it just feels like it's it's probably best not to
Speaker 7: even consider that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's where I wanted to follow up with
Speaker 2: with you today. I mean, ultimately, I'm a little bit
Speaker 2: conflicted with this because I would completely understand, like we
Speaker 2: all we all went to college to try to find
Speaker 2: a career. We all went to college to try to
Speaker 2: figure out what we wanted to do with our lives.
Speaker 2: And certainly, if I had the opportunity to, i don't know,
Speaker 2: make a million million bucks one point five mil and
Speaker 2: come back to school for another year and do something
Speaker 2: I very much.
Speaker 1: Enjoyed doing, I would probably do that.
Speaker 2: But the question is, you know, does Utah have interest
Speaker 2: in having Cameron back and attendant to that, will the
Speaker 2: nil money still be there? Because there are a lot
Speaker 2: of boosters, the people that are writing the checks that
Speaker 2: essentially go to the players that have fatigue because he
Speaker 2: hasn't been playing, and of course he's been hurt. I mean,
Speaker 2: my heart just goes out to the kid. But the
Speaker 2: dynamic of him coming back for an eighth year is
Speaker 2: a really interesting thing to consider. What do you think
Speaker 2: from CAMS side, from Utah side, from the NIL side
Speaker 2: about that possibility?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean that's why it's so fascinating, right is it. Look, Look,
Speaker 7: if I could totally understand all the angles here, if
Speaker 7: you can't rise, like you said, if you can make
Speaker 7: big money to come back again, and like, yeah, like
Speaker 7: I could totally see him being interested in doing that.
Speaker 7: Like it's considering the way he's gone out right, you
Speaker 7: don't these last two years, no one, I'd imagine no
Speaker 7: one's more frustrated than him with the way things have progressed, right,
Speaker 7: And so if you have a chance to correct that, Yeah,
Speaker 7: that that's really appealing, especially if you're gonna make money
Speaker 7: on top of it. But if you, like, if you're
Speaker 7: Utah or the people responsible for funding the NIL program, like,
Speaker 7: are you do you really want to invest in another
Speaker 7: year of Cam rising? With with the injury industry right now,
Speaker 7: it's it's not just like a fluky thing at this point.
Speaker 7: There's been one injury after another over a few years,
Speaker 7: and so you're certainly not going to be confident that
Speaker 7: he can make it through and scathe and even you know,
Speaker 7: at that point, it's like, okay, and that'll have been
Speaker 7: you know, more than two years, and he's played competitive football,
Speaker 7: you know, for more than a few quarters at a time. Like,
Speaker 7: even if he comes back healthy, is he the same player? Right?
Speaker 7: You don't really know what you would be getting. Maybe
Speaker 7: even getting a great player, that's certainly one of the
Speaker 7: variables that is out there, but you know, it would
Speaker 7: be a gamble. And then there's the compliance part of it.
Speaker 7: I mean, I honestly don't even understand how it would work,
Speaker 7: and I reached out to Utah to try to get
Speaker 7: some clarification on that. I think they're kind of trying
Speaker 7: to sort through that right now as well as to
Speaker 7: kind of even understand what the options are. Because here's
Speaker 7: the guy whose first year on a college campus on
Speaker 7: a roster was twenty eighteen. And so if you're kind
Speaker 7: of kind to go through it, okay, red shirt at Texas,
Speaker 7: then he sits out the year with the transfer year,
Speaker 7: then he gets the COVID year, plays two years, and
Speaker 7: then misses two years with injuries like he would certainly likes.
Speaker 7: It's possible, I guess, because the NCAA could just decide, yeah,
Speaker 7: like he gets another year for however they want to
Speaker 7: justify that, but it would take them making the decision
Speaker 7: to give him that extra year. And so yeah, I
Speaker 7: mean that's what There's a lot to consider there. And
Speaker 7: so I mean it's just unprecedented, right to have this
Speaker 7: many moving pieces with a player who's dis important in
Speaker 7: for a program that has high aspirations and it has
Speaker 7: been frustrated by how everything's played out.
Speaker 1: How do you think?
Speaker 2: And this is going to sound silly, and I admit
Speaker 2: that it's the question is going to sound a little silly.
Speaker 2: But if this is it for Cam, and it feels
Speaker 2: like it is, to be honest with you, I.
Speaker 1: Don't think you know.
Speaker 2: We had Eric Weddle on the show on Monday, and
Speaker 2: I asked Eric about the potential of Cam coming back
Speaker 2: for an eighth year.
Speaker 1: He was pretty adamant that that was a bad idea.
Speaker 2: We've seen other alumni on social media speak out against
Speaker 2: the possibility of him coming back.
Speaker 1: So it does feel like Kyle that this is it
Speaker 1: for him.
Speaker 2: So if it is, and as he walks out the door,
Speaker 2: how should he be remembered by this fan base?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think time will heal a lot of this, right,
Speaker 7: I mean, here's the guy who led the program to
Speaker 7: two Pac twelve titles. He was the first team All
Speaker 7: Pack twelve quarterback in what twenty twenty one, I believe,
Speaker 7: So I think it's best to remember him for those years,
Speaker 7: and I think that trump's anything that happened since, because
Speaker 7: there's only you know, so many guys who have led
Speaker 7: any power you know, then power Fyve program to multiple
Speaker 7: conference titles. Right, it's a pretty I mean, there's a
Speaker 7: number of guys who have done it, but it's a
Speaker 7: pretty select group of quarterbacks all the time, and just
Speaker 7: about all of them are are widely celebrated and remembered
Speaker 7: it positively. So I think Cam deserves that, right. It's
Speaker 7: not like he quit on the team and he had
Speaker 7: a major knee surgery that kept him up for an
Speaker 7: entire season and then you know these are you know,
Speaker 7: this is another injury situation that's keeping him sidelined. Right, Like,
Speaker 7: no one, no one honestly believes that the came rising
Speaker 7: is especially after Washing got his way through the game
Speaker 7: against Arizona State, doesn't believe he doesn't you know that
Speaker 7: it's this is his choice, right, I Mean, he was
Speaker 7: clearly slowed by injury and and you know the case,
Speaker 7: you know, I think was made fairly by quite a
Speaker 7: few people that he probably shouldn't have even been finished
Speaker 7: the game because he just wasn't physically there, right and
Speaker 7: if he had pulled himself out, like he could have
Speaker 7: certainly made that decision, but he made the like like
Speaker 7: the other choice, and that was to stay in the game.
Speaker 7: And so yeah, I think it's frustrating and certainly in
Speaker 7: the moment, but like two three years done lying or
Speaker 7: even maybe even tomorrow, right, like cam Risen should be
Speaker 7: remembered for the success that he had on the field, for.
Speaker 2: Sure, No, I agree with and honestly, I do think
Speaker 2: most people around here will remember him that way. To
Speaker 2: your point, you know, some time in between probably will
Speaker 2: help because there's a lot of frustration.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, we find ourselves in a very interesting spot because
Speaker 2: you predicted this, A lot of people who cover college
Speaker 2: football predicted this. I was hoping that we wouldn't have
Speaker 2: this cannibalized situation in the Big Twelve. I was hoping,
Speaker 2: and look, maybe BYU and Iowa State are elites, and
Speaker 2: maybe they continue to separate themselves as the two elite teams,
Speaker 2: but if I had to guess today, Kyle, one of,
Speaker 2: if not both, of the teams in the Big Twelve
Speaker 2: Championship Game, we'll probably have multiple losses, but I don't
Speaker 2: know that they'll have three. So that leaves Utah with
Speaker 2: a very thin margin of era of the rest to
Speaker 2: the way with a semi manageable schedule.
Speaker 1: The BYU game here in Salt.
Speaker 2: Lake is going to be much more difficult than anybody
Speaker 2: initially anticipated, but that's a rivalry game and crazy things
Speaker 2: happen all the time.
Speaker 1: The trip to.
Speaker 2: Boulder is harder today than it feels like we thought
Speaker 2: it would be about a month ago. Iowa State comes
Speaker 2: to Salt Lake too, so there are some complications.
Speaker 1: Ahead as far as the schedule goes.
Speaker 2: But ultimately, if they do finish strong, they might have
Speaker 2: something to say about who plays in the Big Twelve
Speaker 2: Championship Game.
Speaker 1: Do you think there's.
Speaker 2: A small chance that this team is still going to
Speaker 2: have something to say about the Big Twelve Championship Game
Speaker 2: at the end of things.
Speaker 7: I don't. I mean, you can make the case for
Speaker 7: it for sure, and like it's certainly the mathemath. You
Speaker 7: know they're still in it mathematically, but just the way
Speaker 7: the offensive has been so ineffective over the last several
Speaker 7: for several weeks. I'm just not confident that there'll be
Speaker 7: a to change, like improve enough to where they'll be
Speaker 7: that relevant. I mean, you've got three three and oh
Speaker 7: teams in the league. You've got a number of one
Speaker 7: lost teams in the league, but there's just so many
Speaker 7: other you know, you could finish with three, you know,
Speaker 7: are they gonna run like they would basically have to
Speaker 7: run the table from here on our right, And like,
Speaker 7: for me, that just doesn't seem possible given everything that
Speaker 7: we've watched, Like even in the games that they've won
Speaker 7: this year, they haven't looked great in those games, right,
Speaker 7: there hasn't been especially when you look at maybe early
Speaker 7: in Oklahoma State, you're like, okay, maybe they got something here,
Speaker 7: they got things rolling. But now that Oklahoma State's oh
Speaker 7: and three in the league and and you kind of
Speaker 7: merely gave that one they away at the end. I
Speaker 7: mean the Arizona State loss, it's even worse now after
Speaker 7: Arizona State got punk pretty good by BYU. I mean,
Speaker 7: they're like, none of the performances today look better than
Speaker 7: at the time. Right, They've all kind of looked worse
Speaker 7: with the benefit of hindsight, right, Baylor's oh in three
Speaker 7: and I was a not a very impressive performance. So like,
Speaker 7: it's just there's not a there's not a data point
Speaker 7: here other than look, ky Woody Handle over the course
Speaker 7: of his career has has won a lot of games,
Speaker 7: and you kind of he deserves the benefit of the
Speaker 7: doubt most most of the time. But as far as
Speaker 7: like the performance of this team, like it just doesn't
Speaker 7: look like a team that's con factoring for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's and you know it's, uh, it's hard to
Speaker 2: push back on that altogether, do you think And look,
Speaker 2: I'm reaching here. So we've seen Isaac Wilson under center certainly,
Speaker 2: and it's looked okay, at times it looks it's at
Speaker 2: other times it's looked like an eighteen year old who
Speaker 2: enrolled in April, and you know he is a true freshman.
Speaker 2: Wanted to get your thoughts on the potential of maybe
Speaker 2: seeing a different Isaac Wilson under center now that he
Speaker 2: knows that the job is his.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think what's been interesting about Isaac, right is
Speaker 7: that there and you said it was that there have
Speaker 7: been some moments where he looks really good, right, And
Speaker 7: I think that's encouraging because it was always going to
Speaker 7: be unfair for him to step into this job, especially
Speaker 7: with the expectations of Cam being the guy right, to
Speaker 7: have not a whole lot of time to prepare expecting
Speaker 7: to be the starter. So physically, I think he has
Speaker 7: all the tools, you know, certainly steps into the steps
Speaker 7: into the ball, steps into the throw. He can deliver
Speaker 7: a good ball.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 7: He's a highly recruited guy, So I mean, I think
Speaker 7: that the potential is clearly there. The problem is a
Speaker 7: true freshman, he's eight eighteen year old kid, and there's
Speaker 7: a learning curve that comes there with that, right, And
Speaker 7: so is it going to result to, you know, in
Speaker 7: success right away this season? You're probably not, right, not
Speaker 7: at the level that Utah fans are expecting, but I
Speaker 7: certainly think it lays the ground where for him to
Speaker 7: you know, have success down launch.
Speaker 2: All right, So Friday night interesting game down in Provo,
Speaker 2: because if I told you at the start of the
Speaker 2: season b YU would nearly be a double digit favorite
Speaker 2: to beat Oklahoma State, you would have told me I
Speaker 2: was crazy. But they're nine point five point favorite Friday
Speaker 2: Night in Provo.
Speaker 1: And when BYU was good.
Speaker 2: Lavelle Edwards Stadium is a challenging place to play. I mean,
Speaker 2: they do a great job with their game ops, it
Speaker 2: gets loud, and Oklahoma State is youth fans would tell
Speaker 2: you that Utah might be the most disappointing team in
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve. For me, it's Oklahoma State, who most
Speaker 2: people picked to finish in the top three and some
Speaker 2: people picked to win the conference. Out right, So what
Speaker 2: do you think happens down in Provos b yu welcomes
Speaker 2: in Oklahoma State?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was just gonna make the same point about
Speaker 7: it could be worse. You could be Oklahoma State and
Speaker 7: sure you could be winless in the conference, and a
Speaker 7: lot of the same elements, right, seventh year quarterback, veteran coach.
Speaker 8: And on top of that, they have a guy.
Speaker 7: Who you know, might have been a first round pick
Speaker 7: as a running back coming out last year and comes
Speaker 7: back to be a part of this disaster. So yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean, look, you I's got to be feeling really
Speaker 7: good about where they're at headed into that one. To
Speaker 7: be that big of a favorite, I think speaks to
Speaker 7: where both teams.
Speaker 6: Are, right.
Speaker 7: I think the uius you know, they had the big
Speaker 7: win against Kansas State, but that was a little bit
Speaker 7: of a funky game, right I think the Arizona win
Speaker 7: for IMMED at least felt a little bit more complete.
Speaker 7: I didn't watch the whole thing start to finish, but
Speaker 7: I saw enough of it to come away thinking that
Speaker 7: not only is BYU good, but they're like they're getting
Speaker 7: better week to week. It feels like two and so
Speaker 7: they're really seems to be finding something there. So yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean, look, I think b YU right now is
Speaker 7: this is a team that is the favorite in the conference.
Speaker 7: I mean Iowa States right there as well, and we'll
Speaker 7: kind of have to wait to see if they match
Speaker 7: up at the conference title game, but you know, for
Speaker 7: them to be taking playoff right now, yeah, it's a
Speaker 7: good time to be a bye fan.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 6: It is.
Speaker 1: Klanie's done a hell of a job. Before I say
Speaker 1: you lose.
Speaker 2: The ESPN did last night, they did their first twelve
Speaker 2: team CFP per you know, prediction show. They had Iowa
Speaker 2: State in as the Big twelve champ and BYU was
Speaker 2: one of the first two teams out with Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: Does it feel like and we talked about this and
Speaker 2: maybe it'll change. But as of today, does it feel
Speaker 2: like if you're a Big twelve fan you can essentially
Speaker 2: count on your champ to get in and that's it,
Speaker 2: or is there an outside shot they could at least
Speaker 2: get two teams in?
Speaker 7: So yeah, I mean this is all tough, right. I
Speaker 7: mean when I do the Bowl projections every week, you know,
Speaker 7: I kind of like do this exercise to figure out
Speaker 7: how to pick these teams, and it's just impossible to
Speaker 7: do with any sort of accuracy or like in the
Speaker 7: middle of October, but like I had Iowa State and
Speaker 7: buy you both then right now, I mean I think
Speaker 7: if part of that is like the ground defeated, you
Speaker 7: know that that that's something. And then like if you
Speaker 7: look at the SEC, those teams are going to keep
Speaker 7: beating each other, and so I think if you're like
Speaker 7: a one loss, two loss, even if you're a two
Speaker 7: loss Big twelve team, you still have you still have
Speaker 7: a chance to be considered. I mean, it's just because
Speaker 7: if you're there's a case here where something the like
Speaker 7: fourth best team in the SEC might end up with
Speaker 7: with four losses at the end of the year. So
Speaker 7: if you're sitting there at you know, eleven and two,
Speaker 7: and you're not the Big twelve champ, right, So you
Speaker 7: say you finished with one loss, you know, two losses
Speaker 7: in the regular season to win it, or if you're
Speaker 7: you know, one loss and then you lose in the
Speaker 7: conference title game, you're still going to have a really
Speaker 7: good resume at the end of the year. And so
Speaker 7: you know, for me, it really feels like the cover
Speaker 7: still could get to But these are all these are
Speaker 7: all hypotheticals, right, and so I wouldn't I certainly wouldn't
Speaker 7: feel strongly about it being a one or two or
Speaker 7: whatever league at this point. There's just so many variables
Speaker 7: that so they need to be sorted out.
Speaker 2: Kyle, thanks for the time, buddy, have a great week ahead,
Speaker 2: enjoy a little college football.
Speaker 1: We'll catch up next week.
Speaker 7: All right, sounds good, Thanks Kyle.
Speaker 2: Bonna Girl covers college football, does a little soccer two
Speaker 2: for ESPN. You can find him on social media at Bonnagura.
Speaker 2: ESPN is where you get him. Really good talented rider
Speaker 2: does a lot of their bull projections and yeah, last
Speaker 2: night ESPN did their first projection show for the twelve
Speaker 2: team expanded CFP and their model has Iowa State winning
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve and therefore going to the CFP, and
Speaker 2: then they had BYU and Notre Dame as the first
Speaker 2: two teams out of the bracket. But those are just projections,
Speaker 2: as Kyle said, and only time will tell where we
Speaker 2: go from here.
Speaker 1: Getting back to some.
Speaker 2: College football conversation coming up in just a little bit,
Speaker 2: we also are going to get you ready for a
Speaker 2: busy weekend ahead for both the Jazz and RSL. The
Speaker 2: Jazz continue their preseason action on Friday in Portland. RSL
Speaker 2: is back at action on Saturday, it's Vancouver. But the
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club is off to a great start.
Speaker 1: Now. They did have their first loss.
Speaker 2: Against New Jersey, but they've started off three and one
Speaker 2: and they are leading the NHL and goal scored as
Speaker 2: a team. Dylan Gunter leads the NHL and goal scored
Speaker 2: period and Neil Smith time for all behind the Glass
Speaker 2: segment that we do weekly with the former general manager
Speaker 2: of the Rangers, Stanley Cup winner.
Speaker 1: On a Wednesday afternoon. Neil, Happy Wednesday, sir.
Speaker 6: How are you happy Wednesday?
Speaker 5: To you?
Speaker 6: I'm doing great, Thank you, appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: So three and one.
Speaker 2: You know what stands out most to you about this
Speaker 2: hot start? For our new hockey club here in Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City.
Speaker 6: Well, what stands out is Dylan Gunter being NHL's first
Speaker 6: Star of the Week in the first week of the
Speaker 6: season is pretty impressive, and he's a pretty impressive young man.
Speaker 6: And then they've got other guys that have been pretty
Speaker 6: impressive too with Keller and Cooley. And getting those two
Speaker 6: wins in New York was great. Unfortunately got shut out
Speaker 6: in New Jersey. But now they go tonight to Anaheim
Speaker 6: and I would expect that they'll do pretty well there
Speaker 6: against a rebuilding Anaheim team. So they're taking the league
Speaker 6: a little bit by surprise right now. You know, people
Speaker 6: don't really know how good Utah is, but they're finding out.
Speaker 2: So how long, Neil, because look it's only four games,
Speaker 2: right and so you know it is early in the season,
Speaker 2: and this is a team that does have a lot
Speaker 2: of young players and some new pieces that we're learning.
Speaker 1: A little bit more about.
Speaker 2: And the Blackhawks game, you know, they really fed off
Speaker 2: a great crowd here in Salt Lake and then as
Speaker 2: you reference, they get two overtime wins in New York
Speaker 2: over the Islanders and the Rangers, and then shut out
Speaker 2: against the Devils how long would you say to this
Speaker 2: fan base is a big enough sample size to maybe
Speaker 2: accurately analyze whether or not we actually have a really
Speaker 2: special team here in Salt Lake.
Speaker 6: You know, I think you should judge the team at
Speaker 6: the twenty game mark. That's a quarter of the way
Speaker 6: through the season. And I don't mean that that necessarily
Speaker 6: is going to be the way it's going to stay
Speaker 6: for the last sixty two games, But twenty games is
Speaker 6: a pretty good benchmark of where you're at with the competition.
Speaker 6: And you know, Utah will get to play Anaheim tonight
Speaker 6: and then come home for three, go to LA for one,
Speaker 6: and then come home for another two, So they could
Speaker 6: pile up a lot of points if they can do
Speaker 6: well at home during that, you know, basically a five
Speaker 6: game Homestand.
Speaker 2: So what what can go on the road and getting
Speaker 2: results due for a young team, you know, a group
Speaker 2: of players that are living in a new place, a
Speaker 2: group of players that are getting used to new teammates,
Speaker 2: a group of players that are getting used to each other.
Speaker 2: And yes they lost to New Jersey, but those two
Speaker 2: wins in New York what what sort of camaradie, what
Speaker 2: sort of team chemistry can be created with those road
Speaker 2: trips when you actually do have some success.
Speaker 6: Well, what's great about playing on the road and winning
Speaker 6: on the road is that you're there all by yourself.
Speaker 6: So there's a group of thirty let's say, including staff
Speaker 6: and everything, or thirty five that's all that's in that
Speaker 6: building out of twenty thousand people. So you know, you
Speaker 6: feel a tight bond to each other. And when you
Speaker 6: win and you turn the music on in the locker
Speaker 6: room after the game and you're all happy, and you
Speaker 6: get on the bus and you're all excited, there's nothing
Speaker 6: like it for bonding. I mean, it's different than a
Speaker 6: home game. Home games are great. You win a home game,
Speaker 6: you meet your wife, your girlfriend, your parents, who have
Speaker 6: it is, and then you get in your car and
Speaker 6: you drive home and it's that's good too. When you're
Speaker 6: on the road, it's just the guys, and there is
Speaker 6: a special feeling about that.
Speaker 1: So let's go back to Dylan Gunther.
Speaker 2: And you know Clayton Keller, as you reference, he leads
Speaker 2: the team in points with three goals and three assists,
Speaker 2: but Dylan Gunther has started the season on fires.
Speaker 1: You referenced the first Star of.
Speaker 2: The Week in the NHL probably didn't get as much
Speaker 2: preseason love as Clayton, who's the captain and was the
Speaker 2: leading scorer from a year ago. What stands out most
Speaker 2: to you about the type of player he is and
Speaker 2: can he keep this up?
Speaker 1: I mean, he's not.
Speaker 2: Going to continue to score multiple goals every game, but
Speaker 2: Kenny Ken, is this a kid that could potentially be
Speaker 2: in for maybe an All Star selection with the hot
Speaker 2: start that he's had so far.
Speaker 6: Well, he could very well be. You know, time will tell.
Speaker 6: But the one thing about this kid is he scored
Speaker 6: everywhere he's played, So this isn't new that he started
Speaker 6: to score now in the NHL. He's been scoring right
Speaker 6: from junior on and that's what led Utah or sorry
Speaker 6: Phoenix or Arizona getting the names wrong, to take him
Speaker 6: in the first round, very high in the draft. So
Speaker 6: I think you're going to see more of what we've
Speaker 6: already seen, which is a very quick release. That goal
Speaker 6: that he got against Chicago, the first goal of Utah franchise,
Speaker 6: went off of his stick in a skinny little second
Speaker 6: after he received that pass. And that's what the goal
Speaker 6: scorers can do. They can release really lightning quick and
Speaker 6: from what I can see a gun or he can
Speaker 6: do that. So I think you're in for some real
Speaker 6: fun with this guy, especially on the power play.
Speaker 2: And of course Clayton Keller, as I referenced, you know,
Speaker 2: three goals, three assists, six points on the season.
Speaker 1: You know, so he's showing the.
Speaker 2: Ability to find his teammates and also finish with his
Speaker 2: own accord. We've talked about him before, but he's off
Speaker 2: to another hard start, hot start as well.
Speaker 1: What do you think think our.
Speaker 2: Utah hockey fans here in the market are in for
Speaker 2: all year long with Clayton Keller.
Speaker 6: Well, Clayton Keller has been a great offensive player his
Speaker 6: whole career, all the years he was in Arizona, he
Speaker 6: proved that. I think he's going to be even better
Speaker 6: this year now that he's been named captain and he's
Speaker 6: got you know, he's got a hold of that. I
Speaker 6: think that he's going to do well with that. I
Speaker 6: said that early before the season started that I thought
Speaker 6: that was the right guy to make captain because I
Speaker 6: think he is their best player. Another guy that we
Speaker 6: haven't talked about, but Logan Cooley I think is having
Speaker 6: a great start to his season, leading the team and
Speaker 6: assists and is another extremely high draft pick. The one
Speaker 6: thing you got to say about Bill Armstrong and his
Speaker 6: staff when they had a high pick, they picked right.
Speaker 6: They didn't blow it. And sometimes you can blow it
Speaker 6: even though you're picking three, four, five, six, seven, You
Speaker 6: know what you get is not what you saw when
Speaker 6: they were playing junior. So and give them credit. They
Speaker 6: got those three guys that I just mentioned, Gunther Cooley
Speaker 6: and Clayton Keller. They're all extremely high picks and they're
Speaker 6: all doing extremely well for Utah.
Speaker 2: So against the Devils, and I will not make a
Speaker 2: Seinfeld face painting joke, although I want to, But against
Speaker 2: against the Devils, Neil, they struggled to score on the
Speaker 2: power play when they Rozer for four, and they struggled
Speaker 2: to stop New Jersey on the power play, who scored
Speaker 2: I believe.
Speaker 1: Three power play goals last year.
Speaker 2: They were decent on the power play, but they were
Speaker 2: really bad at killing power plays. So like the special teams,
Speaker 2: at least against the Devils kind of reverted back to
Speaker 2: a little bit of what we saw last year. In
Speaker 2: order for them to make the playoffs, they're probably gonna
Speaker 2: have to be a little bit better on special teams
Speaker 2: do you is there anything you're seeing as far as
Speaker 2: line changes, you know who coach Torney is electing to
Speaker 2: play on special teams that you think they could adjust
Speaker 2: to be better on this moving for order. Do you
Speaker 2: have confidence in overtime their special teams will level out
Speaker 2: a little bit?
Speaker 6: No, I have confidence. I want to speak a little
Speaker 6: bit about the New Jersey Devils because they deserve a
Speaker 6: lot of credit. It's not just that Utah, you know,
Speaker 6: couldn't score in the power play and wasn't able to
Speaker 6: stop New Jersey. It's more that New Jersey played a
Speaker 6: great game at home, get everything right. Their power play
Speaker 6: was going, their penalty killing was going, and they're a
Speaker 6: much improved team from last year. The stuff that they
Speaker 6: did in the offseason. The biggest thing was they got
Speaker 6: Jacob Marx from the goaltender from Calgary in a trade
Speaker 6: and he's been real good for them. So I don't
Speaker 6: think that Utah has really got a lot of worries
Speaker 6: there because of that game. I think that they will
Speaker 6: get their power play goals, and I think they have
Speaker 6: improved their defense, and I think they're going to be
Speaker 6: better on special teams, especially on the MPK, And I
Speaker 6: really don't see a big worry now as far as
Speaker 6: scoring goals. They got eleven goals in those two games
Speaker 6: in New York, which is pretty phenomenal. And they played
Speaker 6: you know, road runner hockey with the Rangers in that
Speaker 6: game at the Garden. I mean, they kept going back
Speaker 6: and forth and back and forth, one team would scoring
Speaker 6: in the other team. So you can't play like that
Speaker 6: and be successful all the time. But there's not going
Speaker 6: to be any worry about this team being able to score.
Speaker 6: It is this team going to be able to be
Speaker 6: defensively sound enough that their offense can carry them all
Speaker 6: the time.
Speaker 2: And that's where I wanted to go next because it
Speaker 2: is a good point. And you know, last year, based
Speaker 2: off of some of the things I read to kind
Speaker 2: of learn about the team a little bit, it felt
Speaker 2: like Connor Ingram was asked to stand on his head
Speaker 2: a lot, and he is a good young goaltender. But
Speaker 2: they did make some additions, you know, namely Mikhel Sergachev.
Speaker 2: They did lose Sean Jersey Neil looks like he's going
Speaker 2: to be out for a while. Bill Armstrong said he's
Speaker 2: heard he's going to be out for a while, So that's.
Speaker 1: A big blow.
Speaker 2: But are you seeing incremental improvements from the defense so
Speaker 2: that Connor doesn't have to make miracles happen. And how
Speaker 2: do you think they're going to replace Seon Jersey?
Speaker 1: Now? That looks like he's going to miss significant time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it does look like he's going to miss significant time.
Speaker 6: And the manager, Bill Armstrong did say that of the
Speaker 6: guys that he felt that there was a couple of
Speaker 6: names that he felt were he was going to they
Speaker 6: were going to give a chance to come up and
Speaker 6: kill in But you know, Dursey is a loss. It
Speaker 6: sounded like he's going to be out for you know,
Speaker 6: a few weeks the lower body injury. They already have
Speaker 6: Marino out with a lower body injury already, So they're
Speaker 6: going to have to dip into their depth now and
Speaker 6: try to get by. But that's the National Hockey League
Speaker 6: and that's what happens during the regular season. You know,
Speaker 6: you get injuries and you've got to deal with them,
Speaker 6: and you've got that's where you hope that the management
Speaker 6: has strong enough replacement. People don't forget that they signed
Speaker 6: Robert Bartuso in the offseason, who played for the Islanders
Speaker 6: last year. He won a Stanley Cup with Saint Louis,
Speaker 6: so he's more than capable of playing in the National
Speaker 6: Hockey League and and filling in. They've also got a
Speaker 6: couple of young kids and Zueber and coach, so those
Speaker 6: are young guys that they're not sure where they fit
Speaker 6: on the whole thing, but they're going to probably be
Speaker 6: given a chance to come up now that they've got
Speaker 6: both Marino and Dersey out of the lineup.
Speaker 2: So I'm honestly asking this just to ask because I
Speaker 2: don't know if this is the case. But from my
Speaker 2: vantish point, watching them play through four games, they don't
Speaker 2: look as big and physical as some of the other
Speaker 2: teams they've played.
Speaker 1: I mean it look they're.
Speaker 2: They're very skilled, as you've referenced, they are going to
Speaker 2: score a lot of goals.
Speaker 1: They're very entertaining on the attack.
Speaker 2: But do they have the strength, the force, the physicality
Speaker 2: that some of these other NHL teams have. It feels
Speaker 2: like maybe if they're lacking in one area it is
Speaker 2: simply size, strength and physicality.
Speaker 1: Is that a fair assessment?
Speaker 6: Well, I don't think that's unfair. I think that that's fair,
Speaker 6: but that doesn't always necessarily mean that that they're not
Speaker 6: going to be extremely competitive this This is a team
Speaker 6: that's climbing the ladder, as we've talked about in the offseason,
Speaker 6: and that's going to get better as you go along,
Speaker 6: and they're going to fill parts in. They can't be
Speaker 6: they can't be everything. You know, they can't be skilled,
Speaker 6: great defensively, score a lot of goals, and be big
Speaker 6: and tough all at the same time. When you get
Speaker 6: to that point with their team, you know, you're knocking
Speaker 6: on the door for Stanley Cup. And I don't think
Speaker 6: Utah is knocking on the door for Stanley Cupp. But
Speaker 6: I do think that they're knocking on the door to
Speaker 6: be in the playoffs and maybe win around So you know,
Speaker 6: I yeah, they may not be as big and physical.
Speaker 6: I don't think that that's a real detriment though to
Speaker 6: where they're going this year.
Speaker 2: So they have about eight point five million dollars I believe,
Speaker 2: according to what I'm reading that they can spend on
Speaker 2: other players. They also have a great pipeline ESPN. Their
Speaker 2: hockey covers.
Speaker 1: Today ranked all the NHL teams.
Speaker 2: As far as their prospects go, Utah Hockey Club is
Speaker 2: ranked number nine and we've talked to you about, you know,
Speaker 2: Tez Againla, who's now you know, in the pipeline, as
Speaker 2: well as some other really talented young players. Do you
Speaker 2: think at some point Bill's gonna look at this and
Speaker 2: decide to maybe make some additions to utilize their prospects
Speaker 2: and utilize the cash they have. And if he does
Speaker 2: make additions, Neil, where do you think he does make them?
Speaker 6: Well? I think that if he does make additions later
Speaker 6: in the season, it'll be in the in the probably
Speaker 6: in the veterans who have been around for a while,
Speaker 6: some players that have either won or have been you know,
Speaker 6: close to winning and have been around so that they
Speaker 6: can supplement all these good young players that they got.
Speaker 6: That's normally what you would do it at that point
Speaker 6: in the season. I don't think you're going to see
Speaker 6: him trading for another young player because they're okay there
Speaker 6: and they've done really well. As I mentioned earlier in
Speaker 6: the conversation, they did really well in the draft. That's
Speaker 6: why they're ranked so high. But in fairness to everybody else,
Speaker 6: they've had a lot of high picks over the years
Speaker 6: because they haven't been in the playoffs. So I think
Speaker 6: now it's time that they are going to take that
Speaker 6: next step, and Bill Arnstrong may decide as he watches
Speaker 6: this team get closer to the deadline, Hey, we've really
Speaker 6: got a real shot here to either make the playoffs
Speaker 6: or you know, whatever the case may be. There's a
Speaker 6: lot of different benchmarks, and that'll be how much you'd
Speaker 6: spend at the time. You're not going to spend a
Speaker 6: lot to get a player to simply make the playoffs
Speaker 6: and then lose the player in the offseason. That would
Speaker 6: be foolish, So they won't do that. But it'll be
Speaker 6: interesting to see how he supplements his team before.
Speaker 2: We move on to some other big picture of NHL topics.
Speaker 2: Tell us about Anahi, the team that Utah will play tonight,
Speaker 2: as it is a match day, a game day for
Speaker 2: the Utah Hockey Club, Vegas has Utah as the favorite
Speaker 2: to win the game, even though it's on the road.
Speaker 2: What should we know about the hockey club's opponent tonight
Speaker 2: eight o'clock on ESPN Plus.
Speaker 6: Well, you should know that they're in a big rebuild.
Speaker 6: They are not a team that I don't think is
Speaker 6: knocking on the door for to make the playoffs. They
Speaker 6: know where they are and they're rebuilding. They didn't do
Speaker 6: much in the offseason. They're going to depend on young
Speaker 6: players coming up. They're going to depend on developing their
Speaker 6: own young players. The one thing that's interesting, that's a
Speaker 6: side note, is they change their uniforms. They wear orange now.
Speaker 6: They obviously were always in a brown color. And they've
Speaker 6: gone back to the logo that they had in their
Speaker 6: original days of being the Mighty Ducks. They've got the
Speaker 6: Mighty Duck logo on the front. So they've got some
Speaker 6: real good players, I mean, some good young guys that
Speaker 6: you can watch out for. You know, Trevor Troy Carey sorry,
Speaker 6: is a real good player. Trevor Ziegris is a really
Speaker 6: talented young player. Cam Fowler, a veteran on defense, is
Speaker 6: a good player. Those are all guys that you can
Speaker 6: look for and you know, and Ryan strom is another
Speaker 6: veteran that's been there for a while. Jason mccavish. They've
Speaker 6: got some They've got some real good young players. But
Speaker 6: again they're in an early stages of a rebuild. I'd
Speaker 6: say they are where Arizona was two or three years ago.
Speaker 2: So we find ourselves in the Central Division of the
Speaker 2: Western Conference. So let's talk about some of the other
Speaker 2: teams that we need to be watching out for, but
Speaker 2: let's start with a team that I think most people well, look,
Speaker 2: it's only three or four games, so let's not get weird.
Speaker 2: But Colorado has not won yet, and they are a
Speaker 2: sieve on defense. They've allowed twenty goals, which is worse
Speaker 2: in the NHL, and they've scored ten, which is about
Speaker 2: mid table but not great. So I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people expect them to be just fine, but they
Speaker 2: are in our division out here.
Speaker 1: What do you make of the slow start for the Avalanche.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm surprised. They've got some real superstars on that team,
Speaker 6: and obviously and Nate McKinnon, the reigning MVP of the league.
Speaker 6: And they've got Cal mccarr who's any team would be
Speaker 6: just licking their lips to be able to get a
Speaker 6: defenseman like him. They've had a tough start. Their goalpending
Speaker 6: hasn't been good. Georgia, who they traded for from the Rangers,
Speaker 6: has been there. I think this is his third year.
Speaker 6: He came in after the year after they'd won the
Speaker 6: Stanley Cup. He hasn't delivered the way that they would
Speaker 6: have hoped for. They went out and got Capocacko off
Speaker 6: of waivers from the Winnipeg Jets to be to supplement
Speaker 6: their goaltenders. In the backup is a kid named Ananin.
Speaker 6: They hadn't been good goal but cal mccarr said after
Speaker 6: the Islander game, which was a loss at home, that
Speaker 6: childish mistakes cost us childish mistakes in that game, So
Speaker 6: we'll see. I think they're too good to say where
Speaker 6: they are. I think they're going to rebound.
Speaker 2: So Dallas has not lost. Dallas through four games, has
Speaker 2: stayed clean twelve goals scored, only five allowed, and they
Speaker 2: have not lost through four games.
Speaker 1: What do you make of the stars hot start.
Speaker 6: Well, they're a team that everybody's talked about as a
Speaker 6: Cup contender. It's not surprising to me that they've got
Speaker 6: that start. The team that is surprising to jump down
Speaker 6: one is Winnipeg, who's hasn't lost at all. They're three
Speaker 6: and zero and they've only had two goals scored against
Speaker 6: them three games. So that's sort of surprising to me.
Speaker 6: Not that I thought that they weren't a playoff team,
Speaker 6: but that I didn't think they were going to be
Speaker 6: a dominant team. Another team in the conference for Utah.
Speaker 6: That's shocking everybody is Calgary start. They're four and oh
Speaker 6: when people thought that they were going to be down
Speaker 6: with the Anaheims of the of the conference, and they've
Speaker 6: turned around and they've even beaten the mighty Edmondson Oilers
Speaker 6: there there across province rival in Edmonton. So there's some
Speaker 6: real surprises going on in the Western Conference especially.
Speaker 2: I got to ask you about the Rangers since since
Speaker 2: you know that's my that's my childhood team, and watching
Speaker 2: it was surreal turning on the TV and watching a
Speaker 2: hockey club with Utah on their chest play in Madison
Speaker 2: Square Garden.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously a great run last year.
Speaker 2: Uh you know they've got so far through three games,
Speaker 2: two wins, one.
Speaker 1: Loss that lost to the Utah Hockey Club.
Speaker 2: Everything I read indicates they're gonna have something to say
Speaker 2: about the East at the end of the day. Do
Speaker 2: you do you believe that with with the Rangers back
Speaker 2: in New.
Speaker 6: York, Yeah, I think they're going to I don't I
Speaker 6: don't know that they're going to win the President's Trophy again,
Speaker 6: which to the team that's got the best record in
Speaker 6: the entire league. But I do think they're going to
Speaker 6: be a team that's going to be hanging around first
Speaker 6: place in the Metro all year. They've got some stiff
Speaker 6: competition this year with the Devils, and the Devils and
Speaker 6: the Rangers I think are going to be the class
Speaker 6: of the Metropolitan Division. I think the Atlantic Division with
Speaker 6: Florida and Tampa and Toronto and Boston is a lot
Speaker 6: stronger than the Metro Division. And to answer your question, yeah,
Speaker 6: I think the Rangers should be right there on top
Speaker 6: of the Metro or fighting for it, and the same
Speaker 6: way with the whole Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2: All right, Neil, before I set you loose, Obviously, we
Speaker 2: have a lot of new hockey fans around here. I
Speaker 2: wonder if you could share your podcast where people could
Speaker 2: find it because a lot of people still wanting to
Speaker 2: learn about this new team.
Speaker 1: Then the league as a whole, Where can I find
Speaker 1: the podcast?
Speaker 6: Well, they can find it anyhl Rapp. It's on every
Speaker 6: platform that you get podcasts on it. Today, Spence, we
Speaker 6: did what we call Short Shifts Show. We're going to
Speaker 6: do it twice a week where it's just fifteen minutes
Speaker 6: and we bring everybody up to date on what's been
Speaker 6: going on in the last few days and so that
Speaker 6: was a lot of fun to do. And I mentioned
Speaker 6: Utah in that show being one of the teams that
Speaker 6: are really doing well to start the season, along with Calgary,
Speaker 6: Winnipeg and Dallas. And it's a fun show. So for
Speaker 6: those fans that perhaps are following one team, they can
Speaker 6: listen to our podcasts and find out what's going on
Speaker 6: in the entire league and perhaps how their team stacks
Speaker 6: up against the other team. So it's NHL wrap Around
Speaker 6: and you can get it wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 2: Neil, thank you as always for the time. Have a
Speaker 2: great week ahead and we'll catch up next week.
Speaker 6: Looking forward to it. Spence, thank you all right.
Speaker 2: The great Neil Smith, general manager of the Rangers for
Speaker 2: twenty years, and they want to Stanley Cup when he
Speaker 2: was the general manager, who's the head scout of the
Speaker 2: Detroit Red Wings, spent some time with the Islanders, and
Speaker 2: now he's got a podcast.
Speaker 1: NHL Wraparound dot com is where you find it.
Speaker 2: He's gonna be joining us every week throughout the hockey
Speaker 2: season to give us all the knowledge we need to
Speaker 2: understand what we're seeing here with this new young Utah
Speaker 2: hockey club who finds themselves in Anaheim tonight for an
Speaker 2: eight o'clock that's when the puck drops eight o'clock will
Speaker 2: be the start of the game. It's on ESPN plus
Speaker 2: Vegas has Utah is the favorite to win the game
Speaker 2: tonight and as Neil mentioned, Anaheim in the middle of
Speaker 2: a rebuild, it's been a really fun start. This is
Speaker 2: a fun team, man, a fun young team that scores
Speaker 2: a lot of goals. As they went back east and
Speaker 2: won a couple of games in overtime including against the
Speaker 2: Rangers at the Garden. And yeah, right now, Dylan Gunther
Speaker 2: leads the NHL and goals scored. And right now Clayton
Speaker 2: Keller was six points is your leader so far for
Speaker 2: the Utah Hockey Club. So a lot of fun to
Speaker 2: have NHL here in Salt Lake City. We're live here
Speaker 2: at beer Bar today. It's one sixty one of these
Speaker 2: two hundred south located in the heart of downtown Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City, Utah giving away VIP tailgate passes for the
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred tailgate events. Prior to Utah TCU, only
Speaker 2: three Utah home games left, man, So if you haven't
Speaker 2: checked out our tailgate, it's fun. We have a good time.
Speaker 2: A lot of clients there, a lot of listeners there.
Speaker 2: Our pregame show with Porter will be live there starting
Speaker 2: at four thirty for that eight to thirty kick as
Speaker 2: it's a big one for Utah trying to get right.
Speaker 2: So come on by Beer Bart's one sixty one East,
Speaker 2: two hundred South. We'd love to meet you, say hello
Speaker 2: and give you a couple of passes for our tailgate
Speaker 2: event coming up on Saturday prior to Utah TCU. All right,
Speaker 2: we're gonna do a little RSL today, Pablo mash joining
Speaker 2: the head coach of the club.
Speaker 1: The manager of the club.
Speaker 2: Will stop by on the other side of four o'clock,
Speaker 2: Andy Larson, as the Utah Jazz continue their preseason adventures.
Speaker 1: One more game.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be up in Portland on Friday, and then
Speaker 2: Memphis in town coming up next week for the regular
Speaker 2: season opener. John Morant and the Memphis Grizzly Jaw is back.
Speaker 2: Obviously that changes what Memphis could potentially be this year,
Speaker 2: so stay tuned for that. Kyle Bondagura College Football, Neil Smith,
Speaker 2: Utah Hockey Club.
Speaker 1: So we've been bounced around doing a bit of everything.
Speaker 2: On this Wednesday afternoon, Happy Wednesday to you, you're halfway
Speaker 2: through your work week. You are one day closer to
Speaker 2: the weekend. Porter Larson, pregame host Utah Football. Do we
Speaker 2: have an idea of your rotating cast of characters coming
Speaker 2: up on Saturday?
Speaker 4: It's Saturday.
Speaker 3: It may be a literal rotating cast of characters, as
Speaker 3: a lot of folks are out of town and whatnot,
Speaker 3: so they may be just stopping by via phone. May
Speaker 3: have a few folks stop by segment by segment on
Speaker 3: site at the tailgate, but it's just going to be
Speaker 3: me and whoever I have dialed in, Nate Orchard, Isaacaciada,
Speaker 3: the usual crew hopefully stopping by, but probably probably not
Speaker 3: on site. I think I think some of them are
Speaker 3: a little a little bummed about the state of the
Speaker 3: program just this week and are not making an appearance
Speaker 3: on campus. But that's it's understandable. We'll still have a
Speaker 3: good time up there and enjoy it with clear Water
Speaker 3: and our friends at the TELGI.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's interesting you referenced, you know, the
Speaker 2: current state of the program and the way that people
Speaker 2: are kind of feeling about it right now, and I
Speaker 2: get it.
Speaker 1: You know, I.
Speaker 2: Kind of have a tough time with maybe you fans
Speaker 2: that are a little bit entitled and spoiled, but that's
Speaker 2: what happens when you're used to a certain level from
Speaker 2: the team that you love. I mean, I started the
Speaker 2: show off with this today, I wonder what your take
Speaker 2: is on it, because look, man, and people probably get
Speaker 2: sick of this, and I definitely hear from people about it.
Speaker 2: Like I can recall a number of different years where
Speaker 2: as a youth football fan, the thing was like, hey,
Speaker 2: if we beat BYU and go to a bowl.
Speaker 1: That's a great year.
Speaker 2: And you know, ultimately when I was growing up, it
Speaker 2: was Lavelle Edwards. I think he went like twenty one
Speaker 2: and two against Utah or the course of a generation
Speaker 2: and with the pendulum completely shifting over to Utah for
Speaker 2: a generation under coach with I sense this like underlying
Speaker 2: current of anxiety from the fan base, and it's either
Speaker 2: in a vacuum moment in time with what Kloonnie has
Speaker 2: done to start the year.
Speaker 1: And of course there are several reasons.
Speaker 2: Utah has not looked like we thought that they would,
Speaker 2: the main one being the issue a quarterback. Is it
Speaker 2: hyperbolic and over dramatic to react to this from a
Speaker 2: Utah fan perspective, watching Brigham Young do what they've done,
Speaker 2: juxtaposed to a tough start for Utah to believe that
Speaker 2: this is the new reality, or do you think there's
Speaker 2: something there?
Speaker 3: No, I mean, I think it's easy to go there
Speaker 3: because of everything that you're seeing this year. But I
Speaker 3: do hope that folks are not prisoner of the moment.
Speaker 3: Right everything in college football is sick and that will continue.
Speaker 3: Yes byu is on what looks like a little bit
Speaker 3: of an upswing in twenty twenty four in Utah due
Speaker 3: to some injuries, due to some recruiting cycle stuff, due
Speaker 3: to I think some uncertainty with the future of who
Speaker 3: may be at the Helm with with you know, Kyle
Speaker 3: Whittingham obviously in his last half decade or so of
Speaker 3: college football, maybe less there.
Speaker 4: There's going to be a cycle there.
Speaker 3: Spence as a as a Hokies fan, like, I hope
Speaker 3: people understand how good they've had it as a Utah
Speaker 3: fan for so long, literally for two decades. If if
Speaker 3: I can go back to my own perspective. Frank Beemer
Speaker 3: retired at Virginia Tech in twenty fifteen. He is he's
Speaker 3: the Kyle Whittingham for my friends in Blacksburg and guys,
Speaker 3: Hokies have gotten to double digits and wins one time
Speaker 3: since he since he retired. Before that, it was a
Speaker 3: bowl game every year, it was ten wins almost every year.
Speaker 3: It was a BCS appearance, it was high touted recruits,
Speaker 3: it was you know, a good defense every single year.
Speaker 3: Of course, the special teams that we were used to
Speaker 3: seeing and Spence, it's kind of a good parallel to
Speaker 3: what you see here at Utah because it's a kind
Speaker 3: of a mid major school punching above their weight for
Speaker 3: a good couple of decades, kind of because of the
Speaker 3: head coach and partly because of the head coach. And
Speaker 3: I do hope that that Utah fans understand how good
Speaker 3: they've had it for so long, so that they can
Speaker 3: have a good perspective about these low cycles, these these
Speaker 3: valleys rather than the peaks, because that's just the reality
Speaker 3: of college football.
Speaker 4: Spence, no one escapes it.
Speaker 3: The one, you know, the one difference there is Utah
Speaker 3: over the last twenty years. You can throw Iowa in there.
Speaker 3: You can throw with a few schools, of course, the
Speaker 3: the Bamas and the schools that are in there every
Speaker 3: single year. But to have this sort of consistency, it
Speaker 3: just doesn't happen. And you know, there will be a
Speaker 3: downturn maybe when Morgan Scaley or whoever takes over, but
Speaker 3: it won't be permanent, and it never will be permanent.
Speaker 3: And especially if you have the right people in the
Speaker 3: locker room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these things are cickle, cool man, I mean, and
Speaker 2: I have a tremendous amount of respect for Kilanie. And
Speaker 2: as soon as I heard the news that Bronco was leaving,
Speaker 2: I remember sending out on social media and talking on
Speaker 2: the show. I was doing the show at Gordon, at
Speaker 2: my old station of the day, you know, back in
Speaker 2: the day, and I remember, you know, sending out on
Speaker 2: social and talking on the show like Kilanie's got to
Speaker 2: be the guy.
Speaker 1: And I felt like.
Speaker 2: You know, for no other reason, you know, what Kilanie
Speaker 2: had done up this way, cutting his teeth under coach
Speaker 2: with would prepare him for this opportunity. And look, it's
Speaker 2: it's always funny to me. And there's a ute angle
Speaker 2: here too, you know. And we've talked to doctor Hill
Speaker 2: about this. As Doctor Hill joins the show from time
Speaker 2: to time for an hour and studio. It's always funn
Speaker 2: to get his perspective. The first few years in the
Speaker 2: PAC twelve, you know, year two, year three, because year
Speaker 2: one was a little funky with the way things played out,
Speaker 2: they actually had a chance to compete for the thing
Speaker 2: when no one thought they were going to be able to.
Speaker 2: But a couple sub five hundred years PAC twelve big
Speaker 2: Boy football, there were plenty of people in this community,
Speaker 2: plenty of youth fans, boosters, season ticket holders, wondered aloud
Speaker 2: whether or not Kyle was the guy. And well, right
Speaker 2: now BYU fans are singing Clownie's praises. I know for
Speaker 2: sure that there was a big faction of that fan
Speaker 2: base was skeptical about whether or not he could figure
Speaker 2: it out. So if given long enough time, and I
Speaker 2: always say, doctor Hill deserves a lot of credit, you know,
Speaker 2: bringing in Urban and then deciding to go with Kyle,
Speaker 2: and then rolling with Kyle when a lot of people
Speaker 2: thought maybe he should look to do something different. And
Speaker 2: obviously the bulk of the credit goes to coach Wit,
Speaker 2: who has worked himself into one of the preeminent coaches
Speaker 2: in the country, not just out here in this portion.
Speaker 1: And you talk to anybody.
Speaker 2: Ultimately about college football the country, and you bring up
Speaker 2: Kyle Whittingham, it's a consensus and unanimous praise for what
Speaker 2: he's done. And I want to give Tom Homoll credit
Speaker 2: too for rolling with Kilani, and certainly as they entered
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve and that job became different. I don't
Speaker 2: know the details of Kilanie's contract. USA today came out
Speaker 2: with their annual coaches salary list.
Speaker 1: It's up online if you want to see it.
Speaker 2: BYU a private institution, we don't get that information. I
Speaker 2: was told that they did renegotiate and make Kilanie you know,
Speaker 2: a whole in a sense where they're paying him the
Speaker 2: way that Big twelve teams should pay a coach that
Speaker 2: they like. But you know, I think there were a
Speaker 2: lot of people that care about BYU football that wondered
Speaker 2: whether or not if Kilanie was going to be the
Speaker 2: guy to figure this out, to make sure that they
Speaker 2: could find their footing in the Big twelve. And then
Speaker 2: last year, you know, with the decent start and then
Speaker 2: they fall flat on their face, they couldn't get it
Speaker 2: done in conference, didn't even go to a bowl. I
Speaker 2: think if given enough time, you know, smart coaches figure
Speaker 2: it out and Porter from my vantish point today, you know,
Speaker 2: on this day in a vacuum, I think we have
Speaker 2: to give Colonie a lot of credit for, at least
Speaker 2: at this point bringing Jay Hill works out. And I
Speaker 2: know a lot of people are really down on a rod,
Speaker 2: but those BYU coaches, those guys deserve their flowers today. Man,
Speaker 2: I think if given time, I thought they'd figure it out.
Speaker 2: And at least, as we say her today, it feels
Speaker 2: like they have.
Speaker 4: They absolutely have.
Speaker 3: Obviously when you when you run the table, at least
Speaker 3: to this point in the season, there's something clicking with
Speaker 3: that team. Again, I don't think they have the best
Speaker 3: roster in the Big twelve. I think there's there's a
Speaker 3: lot going on where they're trying to and having to
Speaker 3: kind of mixmatch their their roster. Of course that the
Speaker 3: offensive line has dealt with some injuries throughout the year,
Speaker 3: the defensive has dealt with some injuries throughout the year,
Speaker 3: and we're not talking about those because they are performing
Speaker 3: through those issues. And that's a testament to the changes there.
Speaker 3: Because I Spence, you go back just a couple of
Speaker 3: years ago and BYU was the team they were struggling
Speaker 3: with every week. It seemed like a season ending injury.
Speaker 3: They couldn't keep guys in the field. Of course, that's snowballs,
Speaker 3: and when you're not winning, it's hard to recoup from that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, as you mentioned a lot of guys that
Speaker 3: we're familiar with here in Salt Lake and Kilani and
Speaker 3: Jay Hill and Gary Anderson who has been really really
Speaker 3: instrumental with some of that offensive line stuff that I
Speaker 3: was mentioning in defensive line stuff I was mentioning as well,
Speaker 3: they have responded in a way that not many of
Speaker 3: us were expecting. Did I expect BYU to be better
Speaker 3: than the preseason poll at thirteen?
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: I thought they'd be, you know, a couple games there.
Speaker 3: I thought they'd get the over on the four and
Speaker 3: a half wins. But to be here already, Spence, and
Speaker 3: to be running the table and to control your own
Speaker 3: destiny within the Big twelve, that's really really impressive, and
Speaker 3: they deserve a ton of credit. I'll give another shout out.
Speaker 3: I know it's not Jay Hill or Klon but our
Speaker 3: guy Skyler Maine, who's a full time down there, Spence.
Speaker 3: I mentioned that's a team that has for a half
Speaker 3: decade a decade dealt with a lot of injury issues,
Speaker 3: and that trend is at least moving in the opposite direction.
Speaker 4: So quick shout out to him as well.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, porter, that's doctor Skyler Maine.
Speaker 3: To you, that's Sky, that's my guy Sky, but doctor
Speaker 3: Doctored everyone else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, phenomenal mustache and look it.
Speaker 2: That is an element that has to be brought up
Speaker 2: because I'm not calling anyone out and.
Speaker 1: That's not the way I do radio.
Speaker 2: And certainly when it comes to football, it's not a
Speaker 2: contact sport. It is a violent sport. But for the
Speaker 2: second straight year, Utah football is dealing with not just
Speaker 2: a couple of injuries here, there game changing, catastrophic injuries
Speaker 2: that change the scope of the season. I mean, as
Speaker 2: I've talked about, and I've talked about with a bunch
Speaker 2: of guests in ten fifteen years, when you're sitting around
Speaker 2: and you're with your boys, hanging out with your family
Speaker 2: or what, and they say, hey, Utah football twenty three,
Speaker 2: twenty four, tell me about it, It's like, well, we
Speaker 2: don't know, we're not sure these two teams will always
Speaker 2: be the what could have been teams, And I don't
Speaker 2: you know, in sports, media today, you have to place
Speaker 2: blame so you can have a hot take. I'm not
Speaker 2: placing blame on anyone at Utah for what I perceived
Speaker 2: to be just something you deal with.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna play a violent sport, you're gonna have injuries.
Speaker 2: Now you have to have depth and contingency plans in
Speaker 2: place to make up for those injuries. And it felt
Speaker 2: like Utah was in a better spot with contingency plans
Speaker 2: in place in the case of these injuries. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say, even in a truncated
Speaker 2: space and a small sample size, Isaac has been better
Speaker 2: than Nat or Bryson were last year. And should Cameron
Speaker 2: miss time, as we talked about to start the year,
Speaker 2: you know, to preview the season and start the season,
Speaker 2: it did feel like they were in a better place
Speaker 2: to handle that. But one of the reasons BYU has
Speaker 2: been able to really play well right out of the
Speaker 2: gates is they've been more or less healthy.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: They lost the Hinkley Rapotti kid, LJ. Martin as well,
Speaker 2: so a couple of running backs missed some time. LJ
Speaker 2: came back, he looked great. And the bottom line is
Speaker 2: when you have the data and you have the proof
Speaker 2: in front of you, you have to ask questions about
Speaker 2: exactly why this stuff happens. BYU has had some real
Speaker 2: fortunate luck this year with health, where Utah just hasn't.
Speaker 1: Do you have any inside or info.
Speaker 2: About, you know, potentially what sort of you know, health
Speaker 2: that we could see coming back for Utah football this
Speaker 2: weekend on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, at least this weekend there could be some
Speaker 3: positive news with the return potentially of a Karenni Reid
Speaker 3: of a Connor ro tool. Obviously, Junior Tafuna came back
Speaker 3: and was at full strength. I think there's still some
Speaker 3: question marks along the defensive line, but Utah is expecting
Speaker 3: to get at least some of their defenders back. Karenni
Speaker 3: reads still a question mark. It's it's really just a
Speaker 3: really nagging ankle injury. You know, when you roll those
Speaker 3: those ankles, they can sometimes take a lot longer than
Speaker 3: you may expect to return from. So that's the situation
Speaker 3: with Karenni and Spence. I think that's as big as
Speaker 3: obviously the absence of Cam Rising has been the absence
Speaker 3: of Karenni Reid on the defensive side for Utah has
Speaker 3: been absolutely massive and all and an under talked about
Speaker 3: because of the Cam Rising stuff, because of what Utah
Speaker 3: has dealt with for the last eighteen months, it's kind
Speaker 3: of flown under the radar. Man, They and not just
Speaker 3: the entire defense, but Lander Barden looking for kind of
Speaker 3: a leader there alongside him as well. You've seen it
Speaker 3: both with the absence of Karenni but also with a
Speaker 3: little bit of a fall off from Lander. They've really
Speaker 3: really missed Karenni read They're hoping to have him back
Speaker 3: this weekend, but that is still TBD. This is a
Speaker 3: team and you mentioned it, Man, at a certain point,
Speaker 3: you do have to pay attention to the trends. I'm
Speaker 3: not a guy who likes to place blame anywhere, and
Speaker 3: from all accounts, Utah has a really really good strength
Speaker 3: and conditioning program. But it's not just these last two
Speaker 3: year Spence. I mean, you go back to twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: That was a team that dealt with injuries to Tyler
Speaker 3: Huntley and Zach Moss, Jason Shelley. Jason Shelley started several games,
Speaker 3: Julian Blackman missed parts of the year and then was
Speaker 3: out after the PAC twelve title game because of an injury.
Speaker 3: You go through, even the PAC twelve title runs that
Speaker 3: the youths won, Mackai Bernard was playing cornerback. There was
Speaker 3: injuries all over the field. They were just able to
Speaker 3: get over them in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: and obviously it's snowball to a point where it's really
Speaker 3: catching up with them now. But again, I don't like
Speaker 3: to play the blame game like you, but at a
Speaker 3: certain point, and I think a half decade of guys
Speaker 3: that are struggling to stay on the field, you got
Speaker 3: to at least analyze that data and try to make
Speaker 3: some changes. I'm sure they are, but we'll have to
Speaker 3: wait to see the results of that as time goes along.
Speaker 1: I hope the stadiums fall on Saturday night. I really do.
Speaker 2: I know that this has not been the type of
Speaker 2: start fans were hoping for, and I do sense a
Speaker 2: little bit of a general I don't know, fatigue worn
Speaker 2: out over the storylines of injuries, over wondering who's going
Speaker 2: to be under center.
Speaker 1: There's still everything to play for.
Speaker 2: You guys know that I would be hard pressed to
Speaker 2: sit here today and tell you Utah is going to
Speaker 2: run the table. But We have seen Kyle Whittingham's teams
Speaker 2: in the past figure it out after some slow starts.
Speaker 2: We have twenty twenty one right lostes to SDSU and BYU,
Speaker 2: and then they went and won the Pac twelve right,
Speaker 2: so all is not lost, Porter, before we catch break?
Speaker 2: Are you old enough to remember? I was doing the
Speaker 2: show with Bill at the time. We were doing Bill
Speaker 2: and Spence, and then I was in charge of our
Speaker 2: Utah football pre half and postgame on the radio side
Speaker 2: in twenty ten when College Game Day was in town
Speaker 2: and my buddy Ryan Rosillo was doing the college Game
Speaker 2: Day radio and so you know, we spent a bunch
Speaker 2: of time together talking football.
Speaker 1: He joined the show prior to.
Speaker 2: The game and number three TCU rolls into town and
Speaker 2: Utah was number five at the time in twenty ten,
Speaker 2: and it was a drubbing.
Speaker 1: It was maybe the number one example.
Speaker 2: I could come up with at the top of my
Speaker 2: off the top of my head, where folks were just
Speaker 2: so juice for that game. Game days here twenty ten,
Speaker 2: it was forty seven to seven. Andy Dalton did whatever
Speaker 2: he wanted to do. Are you old enough to remember
Speaker 2: that game?
Speaker 3: I am old enough to remember that game. I was
Speaker 3: in high school at the time. But okay, we had
Speaker 3: a game that day. It was a state playoff game
Speaker 3: in which we also lost to our.
Speaker 4: Friends in Mantai.
Speaker 3: So I had a football game in which I lost,
Speaker 3: and then I got home and my family was entirely
Speaker 3: upset because they were checking the score and seeing that
Speaker 3: Utah did not have a great outing.
Speaker 2: That was a really good TCU team. They went to
Speaker 2: the Rose Bowl and beat Wisconsin. But my goodness, that
Speaker 2: was just And these two t teams have played some
Speaker 2: classic games back in the day, you know, obviously former
Speaker 2: Mount West Conference piers, and both teams left the Mount
Speaker 2: West Conference for Power conferences, and both teams have had
Speaker 2: tremendous success on their own right since then. So big
Speaker 2: one coming up, kind of an elimination game the rest
Speaker 2: of the way. Utah's a four point five point favorite.
Speaker 2: Eight to thirty Kick time at Rice Equels our pregame
Speaker 2: coverage with Porter live from our tailgate.
Speaker 1: We'll begin at four thirty.
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Speaker 2: back in action after a little time off, Vancouver rolls
Speaker 2: into town. Our next guest, the head coach of RSL,
Speaker 2: Pablo masch Joetti on a Wednesday, Pops, Happy Wednesday, man,
Speaker 2: how are we doing?
Speaker 6: Happy Wednesday? Spends too and great budds.
Speaker 2: So you're ready to get back at it. You're ready
Speaker 2: to get back at it. Been a little time off.
Speaker 2: What have you guys utilized this little break for?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 9: So I'm super excited to get back at it, you know,
Speaker 9: last home game of the season in regular season. And
Speaker 9: some of the things that we've been working on has
Speaker 9: been close sides of the ball defending. We've been working
Speaker 9: on defending the box again, critical areas to make sure
Speaker 9: that we shark it up on. But the majority of
Speaker 9: emphasis has been on being more games in front of goal,
Speaker 9: and in order to do that, the positioning of our
Speaker 9: tens and our nine have to be such that we're
Speaker 9: threatening their back line, our own back line, as opposed
Speaker 9: to just peeling off in the areas just to keep
Speaker 9: the ball and keep possession of it. So taking trying
Speaker 9: to turn the screws a little bit on being more
Speaker 9: goal dangerous in that final third, and the guys have
Speaker 9: responded really well, some great pictures where you know, we
Speaker 9: got a you know, a wide player out in the
Speaker 9: just outside the area and we have four or five
Speaker 9: guys crashing the box and putting the ball in dangerous
Speaker 9: areas and really you know, threatening the goal. And I
Speaker 9: think that's an area that you know, we haven't been
Speaker 9: great at in the last month or so, but you know,
Speaker 9: given the way it's been in the last ten days,
Speaker 9: it's looked really great and hopefully we can apply some
Speaker 9: of that in real time this weeken And gets Vancouver.
Speaker 2: So as a result of some of the schedule oddities
Speaker 2: this year, you know, the three games in seven days,
Speaker 2: the league's cup break, and you know, just it's it's
Speaker 2: been a little convoluted at times, so you kind of
Speaker 2: had to juggle the lineup to keep guys fresh for
Speaker 2: the weekend, so you hold him out during midweek. As
Speaker 2: as we approach this game coming up against Vancouver, are
Speaker 2: we going to see as close to a first choice
Speaker 2: playoff style starting eleven as possible now that you've had
Speaker 2: a bit of a break.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think so as close as we can get.
Speaker 9: We have Dominic Marsuk who's coming in from pulling this evening,
Speaker 9: and obviously he's played, he's played two games over the
Speaker 9: span of the week, and then he gets in you know, tonight,
Speaker 9: and it's obviously close to the game time, so you
Speaker 9: know he'll he'll probably be more of a player that
Speaker 9: comes into the game, but could potentially be a starter.
Speaker 9: And then me have Brian Verry as well, has been
Speaker 9: suspended for three games. We'll miss this one. In the
Speaker 9: first playoff game, but those would be the two guys
Speaker 9: that are you know, our question marks that that have
Speaker 9: been a really you know who's been right in the
Speaker 9: you know, run down the stretch. So but but as
Speaker 9: far as that, it gives us an opportunity again to
Speaker 9: look at players different positions that that can give us
Speaker 9: maybe a wrinkle heading towards the playoffs when we're thinking
Speaker 9: more tactically as to how to break teams down whether
Speaker 9: we're home and we want to go for it or
Speaker 9: away and be a bit more methodical on our approach.
Speaker 9: So this game will definitely be as close to, you know,
Speaker 9: the starting group other than those two, those two players
Speaker 9: that I just mentioned.
Speaker 2: When last we spoke, you were very honest and very
Speaker 2: upfront about the message to Vera after the unfortunate incident.
Speaker 1: Have you been.
Speaker 2: Happy with the way he's responded and where's his head out?
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got to be bummed out.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 1: It's not just missing Saturday, he's missing a playoff match.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's tough for any player. How's how's
Speaker 1: he responded?
Speaker 9: No, it's it's it's You're absolutely right, And I think
Speaker 9: again that's for one difficult thing for I think any
Speaker 9: athlete is is that the consequences are long lasting beyond
Speaker 9: the you know, the sidelines, right, it goes beyond that
Speaker 9: when you're we're spending three games and it's like what
Speaker 9: it happened on the field, and so it's it's him
Speaker 9: taming his wild side. But the way he's approach it's
Speaker 9: been awesome understanding that, you know, I need to get
Speaker 9: back into that game environment where where I'm breathing hard.
Speaker 9: And so what he's done is he's teamed up with
Speaker 9: our with our fitness coaches, and he's doing our double
Speaker 9: session every day, and so he's really buying into the
Speaker 9: you know, he feels terrible for the team, but understand
Speaker 9: that feeling bad for yourself and the team is going
Speaker 9: to get you in the right headspace to contribute come
Speaker 9: the second playoff game. So I'm doing double sessions. He's
Speaker 9: been bright in training and really positive. And again, we
Speaker 9: all need moments and lives in our lives that that
Speaker 9: stop our world to make us think about what we've done.
Speaker 9: And I think this has been a moment in his
Speaker 9: life that hopefully we won't see it again in the future.
Speaker 1: So what's the plan in that spot?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, losing the hurts for several reasons,
Speaker 2: not just what he brings to the back line, but
Speaker 2: you use him on set pieces and you know, corner
Speaker 2: kicks and then there are times where you have that
Speaker 2: play in place where you play a short corner to
Speaker 2: him so he can fire away with that rocket of
Speaker 2: a left leg. What's the what's the plan in place
Speaker 2: when when VARs out?
Speaker 9: Yeah, So from an attacking standpoint where we're not going
Speaker 9: to be able to make up for what he brings,
Speaker 9: because you're absolutely right, he's one of our best free
Speaker 9: kick takers. He's dangerous on any set piece, so unfortunately
Speaker 9: we won't be able to make up for that. But
Speaker 9: from a defensive standpoint, and the Philip Quinton has stepped
Speaker 9: in played a really good game against San Jose, and
Speaker 9: I would say some of the attributes that Philip brings
Speaker 9: to the back line. Has a lot of great communication
Speaker 9: and he's just really diulgent in all the little things
Speaker 9: that go un noticed. His body shape.
Speaker 6: Is tackling his and again his communication being is probably
Speaker 6: his greatest asset to our team in real time. So
Speaker 6: whilst we can't make up for some of that, I
Speaker 6: think he brings other things to our group. That will
Speaker 6: make us better defensively. And like I've said for the
Speaker 6: last few weeks, when you get down to these these games,
Speaker 6: playoff games where it's you know, everything's going to be
Speaker 6: tight and can tell you want to make sure you're
Speaker 6: doing all the little things right. And I think Phillips
Speaker 6: the right guy for that position.
Speaker 2: So how is the progress, because you know, at times
Speaker 2: we have seen a tremendous amount of quality from all
Speaker 2: of these players that I'll just say that are in
Speaker 2: the attack were obviously chi Cho's chie Cho Anderson Julio
Speaker 2: to me, has been an unsung hero all year. As
Speaker 2: we've talked about Diego's Diego. We talked about Crooks last
Speaker 2: week with his work rate, and then there's Diego, there's
Speaker 2: the new pieces you know, obviously Lachlan and Dominic two.
Speaker 2: You have a lot of options in the attack. How
Speaker 2: is the progress coming and have you settled on the
Speaker 2: group that you want to see either Saturday or in
Speaker 2: the playoffs in attack?
Speaker 9: That's that's that's a great question, and I think we're
Speaker 9: still kind of formulating that. Again, Dominic not being available
Speaker 9: to start this game, it will we'll kind of hamper
Speaker 9: that a little bit. But I think one of the
Speaker 9: things that I've realized in the last five or six
Speaker 9: games is the important of Matt Crooks, and he brings
Speaker 9: to life all those players around him because of all
Speaker 9: the little things, all the little things he does with
Speaker 9: the ball, plays simple gets, gets his players teammates involved,
Speaker 9: and then defensively all the dirty work he does to
Speaker 9: close things down to allow us to win the balls
Speaker 9: higher for the field. So, you know, Chicho, obviously, you know,
Speaker 9: we got to get him scoring the goal, and once
Speaker 9: he does, I think we're going to have the best
Speaker 9: striker in current form in Major League soccer. And it's
Speaker 9: just that we're just hanging on that one moment where
Speaker 9: the ball is the back of the net. Diego Luna
Speaker 9: has been awesome in every phase of the game, and
Speaker 9: just like last year, you know, he's picked up where
Speaker 9: he left off at the end of last season, which
Speaker 9: was carrying us into the playoffs. And you know, the
Speaker 9: fantastic play he made in San Jose to steal the
Speaker 9: three points is you know, uh, you know, it's reminiscent
Speaker 9: of the same type of form he was in last year.
Speaker 9: And then the other position, you know is either you know,
Speaker 9: Dominic or Diogo and and I think depending on our opponents,
Speaker 9: will have a lot to do with that. Dominic's in
Speaker 9: a great run of form. You played two games with
Speaker 9: the under twenty one Polish national team scored two goals,
Speaker 9: so he's in a great reun of form as well.
Speaker 9: And I think you know Diego today in the eleven
Speaker 9: to eleven screamage that we had buried a fantastic goals.
Speaker 6: So we have options. It's just I think again we
Speaker 6: haven't in the last six or seven weeks been able
Speaker 6: to get everyone on the field at the same time
Speaker 6: because of the scheduling, because of suspensions and injuries and
Speaker 6: what have you. But I think we're getting closer and closer,
Speaker 6: and I think those three players have definitely solidified their
Speaker 6: position within the team that earned them a bill in
Speaker 6: the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Obviously, a big storyline has been the battle between the
Speaker 2: two keepers for that spot, and at times, as we've
Speaker 2: talked about, it just simply.
Speaker 1: Hasn't been good enough.
Speaker 2: We are coming in though, with back to back clean
Speaker 2: sheets and back to back shutouts. I'm just going to ask,
Speaker 2: is the plan Zach did Zack win that job back?
Speaker 2: Are we're going to see Zach on Saturday and potentially
Speaker 2: moving forward into it's hopefully a deep playoff run.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm gonna keep saying what I've been saying Spence,
Speaker 9: and I don't want to jinx anything, and we're taking
Speaker 9: it game by game, you know, And I think, you know,
Speaker 9: the game against Austin, you saw a bit of experience.
Speaker 6: As that brought to the back line.
Speaker 9: Both hit the ball without the ball, and we've been
Speaker 9: able to now sits the set piece problem that we
Speaker 9: had just with that communication and I think his level
Speaker 9: of experience and and then going to the next two
Speaker 9: games where we had two shutouts that obviously it's it's
Speaker 9: like the struker scoring a goal. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 9: putting the cape on a goalkeeper, right, And so I
Speaker 9: don't want to I don't want to get too far,
Speaker 9: too far ahead of it. I feel like that's in
Speaker 9: a great spot where he comes in every day and
Speaker 9: earns his keep. He's training really well, and and when
Speaker 9: you have experienced players that are training well, playing well,
Speaker 9: they're now in a position to help leave the group,
Speaker 9: which is going to be critical down the stretch. So
Speaker 9: you know, we'll we'll take it one game at a time.
Speaker 9: But that's been an amazing job of you know, putting
Speaker 9: himself back in that the picture at the right time
Speaker 9: of the season.
Speaker 2: Force and I always feel the need when we hone
Speaker 2: in on the keeper to follow up with the question
Speaker 2: about the group in front of him, and that doesn't
Speaker 2: just include the back four. And you know, a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks ago when you joined US, I talked about
Speaker 2: from my vantage point, seeing a work rate from Chicho
Speaker 2: and Diego specifically that maybe we haven't seen consistently, you know,
Speaker 2: all year long. And it's not just a keeper issue.
Speaker 2: It's not just a back four issue. It's a team issue.
Speaker 2: When you're not defending the right way and allowing goals
Speaker 2: that are costing you points, you feel like you're getting
Speaker 2: the buy in from the group to defend as a team.
Speaker 9: Yes, in particular really the last two games. And again
Speaker 9: I think for me, if there's a phase of the
Speaker 9: game that exemplifies team, it's the defending part. It's because
Speaker 9: everyone plays soccer because they want the ball, they want
Speaker 9: to pass the ball, they want to dribble the ball,
Speaker 9: they want to shoot the ball, and they want to
Speaker 9: score it right. And that it doesn't matter if you're
Speaker 9: a center backer you're a forward. Those are all things
Speaker 9: that all soccer players like to do. The selfless thing
Speaker 9: is working hard for the team defensively, and again the
Speaker 9: guys up front, they're tasked with making the play predictable
Speaker 9: for the guys in the midfield. The guys in the
Speaker 9: midfielder are doing the same but also trying to win
Speaker 9: balls in the midfield. And then the lap line of
Speaker 9: defense is obviously the back line, and they're the ones
Speaker 9: that make the goalkeepers job easy by by marking men
Speaker 9: in the box, by you know, doing other little things right.
Speaker 9: So again I think you know, if you were talking
Speaker 9: to me a month ago, I would have said, man,
Speaker 9: this is the area that we need to work on,
Speaker 9: and those are areas that we've worked on. The commitment,
Speaker 9: and then then you need to, like you said, the
Speaker 9: buying and the commitment from the guys and and the
Speaker 9: guys at front starting the teacher. I've done a fantastic job. Uh,
Speaker 9: in the last few weeks have really make it adficult
Speaker 9: for teams to play easy to our through our lines,
Speaker 9: which then gives everyone confidence because we believe that we
Speaker 9: have a great attacking group and if we can get
Speaker 9: the ball in dangerous areas we will score goals. The
Speaker 9: biggest prompt for us in our in the middle of
Speaker 9: the sea towards a lot of part of the season
Speaker 9: has been conceding so many goals that it makes it
Speaker 9: almost impossible to get results because you know, if you're
Speaker 9: conceding two goals, it's it's all the same to duds
Speaker 9: to score three, right, So if he can keep teams
Speaker 9: at bay defensively, we have the firepower, you know, to
Speaker 9: get results. And I believe in the last few weeks
Speaker 9: we've really turned the trus on that I know.
Speaker 2: You're referenced in you know you often hear this in
Speaker 2: soccer about a striker, you know, and someone is talented
Speaker 2: as chie Scho. It does feel like you get one
Speaker 2: and then the flood gates could open. I'm sure the
Speaker 2: fan base very interested in his form in training.
Speaker 1: How he's looked.
Speaker 2: I mean, during that fifteen game on Beaten Streak, Bob says,
Speaker 2: as referenced before, if he only scored once, it felt
Speaker 2: like he had a down game because he was just
Speaker 2: so dominant.
Speaker 1: So how's he looking, how's he sound and has his head?
Speaker 1: Is he ready to roll?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I know he is.
Speaker 9: Again the last three sessions in particular have been dynamic.
Speaker 9: And one of the you know, objective metrics that we
Speaker 9: use is obviously the GPS data. So how much sprinting,
Speaker 9: how much highs be running and and it's it's it's
Speaker 9: amazing how there's a correlation between strikers that run hard
Speaker 9: and sprint a lot with their goal production.
Speaker 6: Right. So we sat down and we talked about all
Speaker 6: these things, and after each session, you know, Chicho has
Speaker 6: been going with the fitness coaches and looking at his data,
Speaker 6: you know, and I think that's the type of commitment
Speaker 6: that that that we had when teacher was scoring a
Speaker 6: ton of goals, right, And it's really easy to get
Speaker 6: down on you when things aren't happening, but it's it's
Speaker 6: also important from a coaching perspective to reinforce those habits
Speaker 6: and those behaviors that put them in those positions to
Speaker 6: score those goals. And so he's been, uh, you know,
Speaker 6: above average all those metrics, and that's for everyone on
Speaker 6: the field. And when chi Jo's operating in that place,
Speaker 6: there's it's only a matter of time before you know,
Speaker 6: the ball hits to the back of the net. And
Speaker 6: then once that starts happening, you know, I'd hate to be,
Speaker 6: you know, the defender on the other side of the field.
Speaker 2: What would setting the single season point record mean to you?
Speaker 2: I mean, as we've talked about, Jason had four or
Speaker 2: five real.
Speaker 1: Elite, elite years here.
Speaker 2: Uh, and you know, if you guys get three on Saturday,
Speaker 2: by any measurable metric, you're the most successful regular season
Speaker 2: team in RSL history. Now you want, you want to
Speaker 2: lift trophies, and you know there's no trophies for setting
Speaker 2: that record, but what would what what would that feather
Speaker 2: in the cap mean to you.
Speaker 7: And your group?
Speaker 9: Well, again, I think it just validates the process that
Speaker 9: we have to get to where we want to go.
Speaker 9: You know, I think every year that I've been here,
Speaker 9: we've we've improved in in in that place where we're
Speaker 9: we're getting more points, we're in a better position in
Speaker 9: the playoffs. And you know, unfortunately spent the special sports
Speaker 9: that no one has time, right, everyone wants it now.
Speaker 9: And your truth is in life is that everything takes time.
Speaker 9: And what what what takes time is formulating a process
Speaker 9: that that will breed success. Because again, you can have
Speaker 9: a one off year where you finished eighth and you
Speaker 9: win an VLS Cup. Right, you can have that, and
Speaker 9: we have that in Colorado. I think you've been a
Speaker 9: seventh and we of winning them Moss Cups, but then
Speaker 9: the next year we struggle to get out of the
Speaker 9: first round. And so I think the most important thing
Speaker 9: from a coaching perspective is here, here's the formula to
Speaker 9: get us to where we want to go. And if
Speaker 9: we can get players playing one to two percent greater
Speaker 9: than anyone else thought they could, and we do that
Speaker 9: as a collective, then we're here to today. We will
Speaker 9: always be at the top. We'll always because we have,
Speaker 9: you know, the blueprint of what it takes to be
Speaker 9: a team, what it takes to be successful, and one
Speaker 9: off games, what you know, and all these lessons that
Speaker 9: we've learned over the years and applying it in real time.
Speaker 9: And so for me, that's what that that's what that means.
Speaker 9: It means that the processes that we have in place
Speaker 9: are are working, and that we just need to double
Speaker 9: down all the little things that will keep us in
Speaker 9: the in in that uh in that top three, top
Speaker 9: two every single year in the West.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes players leave under try and circumstances, and
Speaker 2: sometimes players leave and they're not necessarily thought of fondly then,
Speaker 2: And sometimes there's Demir Crylock, who just simply is beloved
Speaker 2: by everybody, and I would say is on everyone's RSL
Speaker 2: Mount Rushmore and you.
Speaker 1: Know, anecdotally, Pablo.
Speaker 2: A couple of years ago, when I was down at
Speaker 2: a playoff match for you guys, Demir pulled me aside
Speaker 2: and said, hey, thank you for interviewing.
Speaker 1: Me all year. And I was like, what, Like, who
Speaker 1: does that?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think I've ever had a player
Speaker 2: on any team on any level pulled me aside to
Speaker 2: say thank because look, man, I know the deal. I'm
Speaker 2: sure you got the text from trend to day and
Speaker 2: You're like, dude, are you serious? Like, I know you
Speaker 2: guys don't want to do this. I'm under no you know,
Speaker 2: false pretense. I've been on the team side and the
Speaker 2: media side, and that just blew me away. But that's
Speaker 2: kind of who he is as he comes back. What
Speaker 2: would you say about the former captain of RSL.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think he's one of the most professional people, right,
Speaker 9: and I guess one of the most one of the
Speaker 9: best character people I've been around a professional sports and
Speaker 9: and I think you said it right where. I think
Speaker 9: gratitude is always the best statitude, and I think he
Speaker 9: is so grateful for this opportunity to be a professional
Speaker 9: athlete and does not take one single day for granted,
Speaker 9: whether it's with the media side, whether it's with the
Speaker 9: foundation and given to the people in the community, whether
Speaker 9: it's his teammates and holding a standard that is so
Speaker 9: hard for him to hold that he knows it's what's
Speaker 9: that's for the group and for himself. And so you know,
Speaker 9: he's he's one of these one in a million guys.
Speaker 9: He's almost a dinosaur anymore because the next generation they're
Speaker 9: very human far between. And so you know, I've I've
Speaker 9: had nothing but wonderful experiences and memories with Dommy. He's had,
Speaker 9: you know, a big impact on me as a coach,
Speaker 9: and having to have difficult conversations with him and look
Speaker 9: him in the eyes and seeing that he's given everything
Speaker 9: for the club and and still having to make a
Speaker 9: decision you know you're not going to start this weekend.
Speaker 9: He goes, Listen, I respect your opinion. I'm grateful for
Speaker 9: the honesty and the transparency, and so everything he does
Speaker 9: is with just a top class character and understanding and
Speaker 9: like I said, he's one of the few. He's one
Speaker 9: of the few that still remain in the game, and
Speaker 9: it's always great to see him. So it'll be great
Speaker 9: to see him this weekend.
Speaker 2: So we find ourselves in an inner Wait real quick,
Speaker 2: when you got the text from Trey.
Speaker 1: Were you bummed or are you really excited? Let's let's
Speaker 1: be honest.
Speaker 9: I was really excited to spend anytime Trey goes, hey,
Speaker 9: can you get on with Spence at four? I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 9: four or five?
Speaker 6: Six? You tell me?
Speaker 1: All right, man, all right, you don't have to tell
Speaker 1: me the truth. It's all good. I always appreciate your
Speaker 1: time no matter what. You know that. But coming up.
Speaker 2: On Saturday night, you guys and Seattle, who are tied
Speaker 2: and potentially could move up to third, are taking on
Speaker 2: Vancouver and Portland, who are both trying to avoid the
Speaker 2: wild card.
Speaker 1: It's pretty wild the way this thing has played out.
Speaker 2: So you do you have Trey with Apple TV behind
Speaker 2: the bench updating you do you not want to know anything?
Speaker 1: Just go get your three? I mean, how do you
Speaker 1: handle the final match?
Speaker 6: Yeah? No, I think again.
Speaker 9: I think it's it's one of the things we talk
Speaker 9: about incessantly, and here is controlling the controllables, and the
Speaker 9: only thing our control is the way we perform that
Speaker 9: hopefully puts us in a position get to get a
Speaker 9: great result.
Speaker 6: And so even using this last game, it's not like
Speaker 6: whether we win or we lose, you know, it's not like, ah,
Speaker 6: we win, and so we were finished. It's like, no,
Speaker 6: now we're starting again. Now we're starting a whole different
Speaker 6: series with the playoffs, right, So I think for us
Speaker 6: it's really about taking the things that we've applied these
Speaker 6: last couple of weeks and being more threatening in front
Speaker 6: of goal, being good in front of our box to defend.
Speaker 6: And so that's the way. That's why I don't even
Speaker 6: want to know what goes on in the other games,
Speaker 6: because it has really nothing to do of how we
Speaker 6: approach the following week. So, you know, we played well
Speaker 6: this game, we put ourselves in a position to get
Speaker 6: a result. That's the only thing I care about, because
Speaker 6: then we can take that performance, we can review it,
Speaker 6: we can apply whatever training sessions we need to really
Speaker 6: focus on those little minute details and then attack the
Speaker 6: playoffs full of bigger and desire and belief and and
Speaker 6: and make a real, real good run in in this
Speaker 6: playoff series, all right.
Speaker 1: Before I set you loose.
Speaker 2: If the playoffs started today, as you know, you would
Speaker 2: play Houston at this point, is it was just like
Speaker 2: screw it, let's just go get it done. Or is
Speaker 2: that a matchup do you really want to avoid? Like
Speaker 2: obviously the past, you know, number of matches have been
Speaker 2: rough and maybe it's just a bad matchup. But I mean,
Speaker 2: at this point, you're just like, it doesn't matter who's
Speaker 2: in front of us, or do you really care about
Speaker 2: who the matchup is?
Speaker 6: No, I really don't care.
Speaker 9: And and again I think if I'm a player in
Speaker 9: that locker room, if there's a team that I want
Speaker 9: to face the way I look at it from my
Speaker 9: experience as the player, and it might not be the
Speaker 9: same today, but I would say, let's let's go get
Speaker 9: these guys.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 9: Let's we got We got two of the three games
Speaker 9: if you need them at home. When they came here,
Speaker 9: I think we won five to two or something like that.
Speaker 9: It was a you know, we had a really good game.
Speaker 9: And so homefield is a big thing. So that's what
Speaker 9: we've worked so hard all season for. And so if
Speaker 9: it is Houston, you know, They're a fantastic team. They're
Speaker 9: obviously a difficult team to play, especially away from home.
Speaker 6: But I feel like.
Speaker 9: If we're you know, if that's who we face in
Speaker 9: the first round and we can overcome this group of
Speaker 9: players that that have causes so much grief this year
Speaker 9: and last year, I think, uh, there's there's there's no
Speaker 9: one that that that will be scary moving forwards. So
Speaker 9: I think you want to win, you gotta beat the
Speaker 9: best teams, and so grew better to do it than
Speaker 9: Houston in front of our home base at.
Speaker 6: The Riot, cold chilly night. Let's go. I'm excited for it.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, Well fall soccer is always my favorite.
Speaker 2: So excited for what's next. Best of luck on Saturday
Speaker 2: and always calling for you.
Speaker 6: Okay, thanks, Man's appreciate it, Buch.
Speaker 2: All right, Pablo Master, Runny Aresel head coach, back in
Speaker 2: action coming up this weekend.
Speaker 1: With a lot on the line.
Speaker 2: Rsel can still move up to third potential, but they
Speaker 2: have locked in a home playoff match and the opponent
Speaker 2: is to be determined.
Speaker 1: All Right.
Speaker 2: We're live today at beer Bar right downtown Salt Lake City, Utah,
Speaker 2: at one sixty one East two hundred South. We are
Speaker 2: giving away VIP passes for our ESPN seven hundred Ultimate
Speaker 2: Tailgate Experience prior to the Utah TCU game on Saturday.
Speaker 2: Porter will be doing the Utah pregame show live from
Speaker 2: the tailgate starting at four thirty.
Speaker 1: All roll by as well. It's a lot of fun, man.
Speaker 2: We have free food from Wingers, we have spirits from
Speaker 2: Clearwater to Stilling, and we're giving away two passes per
Speaker 2: person while supplies last, just for stopping in and saying hi.
Speaker 2: Here at Beer Bar one sixty one East two hundred
Speaker 2: South right downtown Salt Lake. You can see every RSL
Speaker 2: match here. It's the only sports bar in Salt Lake
Speaker 2: with no blackouts because they do have Apple TV. Our
Speaker 2: next guest likes beer and soccer, yet he's not here
Speaker 2: at beer Bar, which hurts my feelings since Andy Larsen
Speaker 2: from the Tribune, where are you, dude?
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's there. I would have liked to come out,
Speaker 8: but I had a meeting, a three o'clock meeting and
Speaker 8: a six o'clock meeting, and I can't. I had to.
Speaker 8: I had to do this one from home, So sorry
Speaker 8: about that.
Speaker 1: Were your meetings at Juniors or what's what's the deal.
Speaker 8: Hey, that's only on Mondays and Friday.
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough, fair enough?
Speaker 2: All right, Andy, safe to say that the preseason has
Speaker 2: been somewhat encouraging for the Utah Jazz, for a team
Speaker 2: that's not getting a lot of buzz both locally and nationally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last night was a fun game.
Speaker 2: What has stood out most to you throughout the preseason
Speaker 2: which will wrap up coming up on Friday.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, I think there's a few things. I
Speaker 8: think one, the defense does look better right now, and
Speaker 8: it's start to know how much of that is preseason
Speaker 8: teams taking it easy on the Jazz. You know who's
Speaker 8: out there on the floor. Frankly, they're playing a lot
Speaker 8: less John Collins and a lot more Walker Kessler. But
Speaker 8: that being said, there they're sixteenth in league defensively through
Speaker 8: the preseason, which is a lot better than twenty nine
Speaker 8: or thirtieth that they were last season. So, I you know,
Speaker 8: I think they've taken a step there on transition D
Speaker 8: and really kind of staying and finishing throughout a play.
Speaker 8: And then you know, I think there have been some
Speaker 8: kind of promising steps forward taken from the young guys.
Speaker 8: I mean, I think conty George has looked really good.
Speaker 8: I think Taylor Hendrick looks significantly bigger and maybe ready
Speaker 8: to contribute kind of at a role player level, not
Speaker 8: as a star or anything, but at a higher level
Speaker 8: than he did last year. And you know, Cody Williams
Speaker 8: looks like a pretty good kind of fit in right
Speaker 8: now kind of player and we'll see obviously how he develops.
Speaker 8: But I don't think he's taking anything off the table
Speaker 8: right now, which is pretty rare as a rookie. So
Speaker 8: you know, I think there's some some good stuff going
Speaker 8: on here that maybe says, hey, this isn't a fifteen
Speaker 8: to twenty win team, this is a thirty win team.
Speaker 8: And you know, again we'll see what that means if
Speaker 8: preseason is real. But the the I A would say
Speaker 8: they've played better than expected so far.
Speaker 2: So what have you You referenced Walker playing a little
Speaker 2: bit more than John and I hope that continues. But
Speaker 2: from both the starting lineup and benchmit a distribution, any
Speaker 2: surprises about Will's preferred rotation so far? And what are
Speaker 2: your main takeaways from the players that we're actually going
Speaker 2: to see?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I think the takeaway is that there
Speaker 8: is like a real youth movement here, but they're not
Speaker 8: going necessarily all the way in right like, so you
Speaker 8: know that they it does seem like they're going to
Speaker 8: play the callier over Patty Mills. It does look like that,
Speaker 8: like me, Michale, you kin grew you Banks aren't going
Speaker 8: to play right away. I do think that it's notable
Speaker 8: that you know, like Bright sent the bass and the rotation,
Speaker 8: even though he hasn't looked brilliant, you know, I think
Speaker 8: there is a lot of youth there, but there's still
Speaker 8: you know, there's still kind of the four veterans on
Speaker 8: the roster who do kind of demand playing time. Obviously
Speaker 8: Lowry's one of them in part of the future core,
Speaker 8: but Colin Sexton, John Collins, and Jordan Clarkson are guys
Speaker 8: that probably don't match up with that timeline and probably
Speaker 8: they would like to move on from at some point.
Speaker 8: And so I think that's a that's the real question
Speaker 8: we'll see during the regular season. It's like can they
Speaker 8: trade them or you know, are there any buyers that
Speaker 8: at kind of some relatively large salaries for those guys,
Speaker 8: or do they instead kind of play the load management
Speaker 8: make up injuries game to make room for the likes
Speaker 8: of Kyle Philipowski, who is a d M p CD
Speaker 8: in a preseason game last night. You know, I think
Speaker 8: that that's going to be kind of interesting to see
Speaker 8: how that that really plays out, because I think there
Speaker 8: are kind of eleven guys at least who probably kind
Speaker 8: of demands time on this roster and probably nine or
Speaker 8: ten rotation spots to put them in.
Speaker 2: Walker last night four blocks, nine boards. This is a
Speaker 2: big year for Walker Kestler. Oftentimes, you know, year three,
Speaker 2: it's when teams more often than not, are deciding on options.
Speaker 2: You know, for that didn't get his picked up for
Speaker 2: the Kings after year three. Most of the time rookies
Speaker 2: do have that option picked up. It's pretty rare, and
Speaker 2: I'm not saying Walker's not going to but year three
Speaker 2: more often than not for most players outside of unicorns
Speaker 2: like Lebron and Wembin Yama, you got to figure out
Speaker 2: whether or not this is gonna be a rotational piece
Speaker 2: for you moving forward, and whether or not you have
Speaker 2: just a benchwarmer in the league, or is this a
Speaker 2: guy you can start and rely upon to anchor your defense.
Speaker 2: I've not really changed my calculus on him. I mean,
Speaker 2: the numbers dipped a little bit last year, but it
Speaker 2: wasn't like a precipitous dip. It was just minor here
Speaker 2: or there, But it was clear that he didn't take
Speaker 2: a step up from year one to year two. Have
Speaker 2: you seen enough in the preseason to give you confidence
Speaker 2: that we will see a positive step from Walker year
Speaker 2: two to year three.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think a little bit of one. And I
Speaker 8: guess I'm not saying huge stripes or anything like that.
Speaker 8: And I still think, honestly, the biggest thing that would
Speaker 8: help Walker would be playing with a top level point guard.
Speaker 8: You know, I think, honestly, he just looked a lot
Speaker 8: better in that rookie season in large part was playing
Speaker 8: with Mike Conley, who could deliver lob passes, who you know,
Speaker 8: compared to Kanty George, who's not strad that right. But
Speaker 8: that being said, I do think he's playing with a
Speaker 8: little bit more physicality. Will Hardy said that he thought
Speaker 8: the Decreaseason game against Dallas was the best rebounding game
Speaker 8: of his Jazz career and picked up fifteen rebounds including
Speaker 8: five offensives in that game. You know, I thought he
Speaker 8: was I agree with Will. I thought he was very
Speaker 8: good in that game, and I do think, you know,
Speaker 8: he made a big defensive impact last night and what
Speaker 8: was ninety five percent of a regular season game with
Speaker 8: the Kings playing four starters over thirty six minutes, So yeah,
Speaker 8: you know, I think ultimately like that is, the question
Speaker 8: with Walker is not whether or not he's an NBA player,
Speaker 8: he definitely is. It's whether or not he is a
Speaker 8: starter or a bench guy, right and and really, how
Speaker 8: much do you want to pay him on that extension
Speaker 8: in those extension talks starting next season? And I think
Speaker 8: most likely is that he's kind of a tweener in
Speaker 8: that way and that you know, he's someone who you
Speaker 8: can start defensively, but maybe he doesn't have the offensive
Speaker 8: skill set that you feel really great about doing that,
Speaker 8: and maybe a player worth in the end of fifteen
Speaker 8: million dollar range. But yeah, he gets to determine that
Speaker 8: based on how this season goes for him. And you know,
Speaker 8: I think again, I'm thinking kind of small steps there
Speaker 8: with improved physicality on the glass, a little bit better screening,
Speaker 8: a little bit better hands, but it's not anything I
Speaker 8: think fundamentally changes who he is as a player.
Speaker 2: How has Taylor fit in next to him and obviously
Speaker 2: lowry and what do you what do you anticipate from
Speaker 2: Taylor all year long? I mean, the measurables have always
Speaker 2: stood out, and the experience he gained last year. Oftentimes,
Speaker 2: even as a young player with not a lot of
Speaker 2: experience guarding the other team's best wing, can he grow
Speaker 2: into a legitimate defensive stopper that will can use on
Speaker 2: dynamic offensive wings from other teams?
Speaker 1: And you think we'll see that this year?
Speaker 8: I you know, I think he can, but I don't
Speaker 8: think he's there now from a game processing point of view.
Speaker 8: I think, first of all, teams aren't going to be
Speaker 8: guarding him right Like, there's just not enough confidence in
Speaker 8: his overall offensive game. Uh. Frankly, the the the handle
Speaker 8: I think is his weakest point right now as a player,
Speaker 8: Like he just can't be, you know, trusted to dribble
Speaker 8: to create on his own, even just against closeouts. So, uh,
Speaker 8: you know, that's an obvious improven point. I think he
Speaker 8: can knock down threes relatively well, and I think he
Speaker 8: can stay in front defensively against pretty good players. But
Speaker 8: I don't think you think he's an elite stopper by
Speaker 8: any means at this point in his career, and you know,
Speaker 8: that still makes sense. He's still young, he's still just
Speaker 8: in his second year, and Jazz knew that this would
Speaker 8: be a project. But I do think that, uh, you know,
Speaker 8: if you're expecting him to be a stopper this year,
Speaker 8: that's that's going to be optimistic. You're you're you're looking
Speaker 8: for flashes of development and kind of continual development and
Speaker 8: his ability to read the game and make those kind
Speaker 8: of plays. I do think he looks significantly bigger and
Speaker 8: older this year, right Like I do think like just
Speaker 8: his body grew up a little bit, and I think
Speaker 8: we're seeing some of the benefits of that in preseason,
Speaker 8: but he's still kind of struggling to impact the game
Speaker 8: on a possession by possession basis. It's more about flashes
Speaker 8: right now rather than about putting together a full you know,
Speaker 8: twenty four or thirty minutes whatever he's going to end
Speaker 8: up getting in regular season actions.
Speaker 1: So is there a chance, Andy? You know, ultimately I
Speaker 1: don't believe this.
Speaker 2: Team has a shot to make the playoffs, but is
Speaker 2: there a chance as a result of some of the
Speaker 2: teams in the league that have aged out a little
Speaker 2: bit and also the dynamic of simply players not showing
Speaker 2: up in Salt Lake City, as Tom Haberstrow did the
Speaker 2: research for US a year ago, that as a result
Speaker 2: of Will playing, and if he decides to do this,
Speaker 2: if there's no tricky like Larry has a sprained ankle,
Speaker 2: he's out for two weeks, and Will plays his best
Speaker 2: lineups every night, and they stay healthy and they don't
Speaker 2: lean into load management, that they might be able to
Speaker 2: steal a bunch of regular season games that nobody sees
Speaker 2: coming and maybe even approach like a thirty five to
Speaker 2: forty wins such like I said, this is not a
Speaker 2: team that I believe will make the playoffs, and if
Speaker 2: they somehow squeak in if they face any of the
Speaker 2: other teams in the West that are in front of
Speaker 2: them fully healthy, They're not going to win four times
Speaker 2: and seven tries, but they could potentially win more regular
Speaker 2: season games than most believe because a lot of the
Speaker 2: teams that are going to be playing will be sitting
Speaker 2: players for load management or they're just not showing up
Speaker 2: in Salt Lake. Can they overshoot regular season expectations? If
Speaker 2: Will decides to play his guys big minutes every night
Speaker 2: and they simply show up to work and work hard.
Speaker 8: I think maybe you know, like I don't want to say,
Speaker 8: even like forty wins to me is optimistic. And I
Speaker 8: don't think forty wins gets to a playoff spot in
Speaker 8: this your's Western Conference, right. I think there are thirteen
Speaker 8: teams that on paper are pretty clearly better than the Jazz,
Speaker 8: right And you know, maybe one or two of those
Speaker 8: kids Injers and you move up to the kind of
Speaker 8: eleven or twelve spot they've been in in the last
Speaker 8: couple of years. But I also don't think that this
Speaker 8: roster is a tire player, right, Like, I think you're
Speaker 8: right that these there are good veterans. I think, you know,
Speaker 8: Larry Market is a really good player. I think it's
Speaker 8: relatively deep. I think they do play hard. I think
Speaker 8: there's decent odds that the defense is not worse than
Speaker 8: the league like it was last year. And I think
Speaker 8: you know, they're going to win some significant games because
Speaker 8: of the home you know, home court advantage, because of
Speaker 8: the altitude, because of teams resting guys coming into Utah,
Speaker 8: because they take a lot of threes and three point
Speaker 8: variance is a thing. And I think, yeah, there's just
Speaker 8: going to be some games where like the youth wins
Speaker 8: out and beat the tire team on the second hand
Speaker 8: of a back to back or whatever. Right Like, it's
Speaker 8: it's not a Washington Wizards or Detroit Piston situation. I
Speaker 8: don't think where they're going to win fifteen to twenty games.
Speaker 8: I think they they're a little bit better than that.
Speaker 8: And so you know, really where you get into kind
Speaker 8: of a from a tanking point of view, I guess
Speaker 8: it's the Eastern Conference right where you do have the
Speaker 8: Pistons and Wizards and Hornets and Raptors and Bowls and
Speaker 8: a couple other crappy teams. I'm forgetting here, and those
Speaker 8: are going to be kind of your competitions for the
Speaker 8: lottery odds. But yeah, like I think a thirty win season,
Speaker 8: you know, that is their biggest over under right now,
Speaker 8: and that feels about right for where the talent level
Speaker 8: is on this roster.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about the dynamic that most people
Speaker 2: really want to discuss, and that is the media meals
Speaker 2: this year at the Delta Center. So it looks like
Speaker 2: you and I are going to be smashing some ja dogs.
Speaker 2: Is that the case here?
Speaker 8: I've been trying out new things. I mean it's only
Speaker 8: been three games, right, So like Maxwell's is no longer
Speaker 8: in the arena, there's a new piece of place called mods.
Speaker 8: I tried that honestly, was was B minus grade, if
Speaker 8: you know, if we're honest, tried out the notch was
Speaker 8: a Coasta Beida last night. Those weren't bad. But yeah,
Speaker 8: this is a season of experimentation and learning about the
Speaker 8: concessions that the Delta Center for sure for us.
Speaker 2: So what we're referring to and I learned this as reason, well,
Speaker 2: I guess I was at the hockey game and I
Speaker 2: enjoyed myself a jay dog.
Speaker 1: I like a good jay dog from time to time.
Speaker 2: Now, now the hockey team the locker room is taking
Speaker 2: up space, and so there's no more media dining room
Speaker 2: and we're eating eating with vouchers on the concourse.
Speaker 1: Is that the deal moving forward?
Speaker 8: Yeah? Yeah, So, I mean I don't know if we're
Speaker 8: we'll get into whatever, We'll just say everything. Yeah. So
Speaker 8: where the media dining room was last year is now
Speaker 8: where the hockey the Utah Hockey Clubs locker room is
Speaker 8: this year. And they say there's no other space downstairs
Speaker 8: for media dining and so yeah, we get twenty dollars
Speaker 8: vouchers as media members for every game. So that's that's
Speaker 8: what we get. And you know, honestly, it's not bad
Speaker 8: in some ways, Like at least this way you kind
Speaker 8: of get to choose what you eat if you want,
Speaker 8: and there are plenty. There were some times last year
Speaker 8: where heck, I you know, I wasn't in favor of
Speaker 8: the media dining buffet, and so we'd go upstairs and
Speaker 8: get a slice of piece or whatever. But now that's
Speaker 8: that's kind of our deal. And then I personally just
Speaker 8: eat it in our media seets. But you know, up
Speaker 8: to you where you want to eat it.
Speaker 2: I guess Andy, this is what the listeners want. The
Speaker 2: listeners want to talk about how the media will be fed.
Speaker 2: I promise you this is compelling content.
Speaker 8: Look, and I mean I don't think it is. But
Speaker 8: I've heard good things about the by you tube cono
Speaker 8: spread the league, the NBA. Some teams like Detroit has
Speaker 8: little Caesars arena you wouldn't believe has the best stake
Speaker 8: and spread and just the most amazing choices you could
Speaker 8: ever imagine, you know, like it's better than a Vegas
Speaker 8: buffet in Detroit. And then you have a lot of
Speaker 8: teams now that, yeah, are doing the concession bouchers things,
Speaker 8: some even liminum to just one place you can buy
Speaker 8: like chicken tenders from the league. Is changing sense in
Speaker 8: a way that really matters to our listeners.
Speaker 1: Is this all because you tweeted about Stewart Adams?
Speaker 8: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: No, this is your fault, dude, This is all your fault.
Speaker 8: The hallway is because I tweeted about Stuart Adams. The
Speaker 8: dining situation, I do think is like largely just because
Speaker 8: the hockey team needed the place to have locker room,
Speaker 8: which is pretty reasonable. Now, look, they're still the club.
Speaker 8: They're still like the Delta Sky three sixty club for
Speaker 8: the rich folks in the first five rows. That's still
Speaker 8: on level one. They're still a family room on level one.
Speaker 8: There's still Ryan's Sweet the Underground on level one. But yeah,
Speaker 8: there's no more immediate dining on level one.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, all right, last jazz thing. ESPN's doing their
Speaker 2: player rank. Lowry comes in at thirty. Lowry comes in
Speaker 2: at thirty three. They did I think fifty to ten today.
Speaker 2: That's down five spots from twenty eight. So what ESPN
Speaker 2: rank is telling us is the best player on the
Speaker 2: Jazz by far quite frankly, is the thirty third best
Speaker 2: player in the league.
Speaker 1: What does that say to you if anything?
Speaker 8: Yeah, and the Ringer released their list today too, and
Speaker 8: I think Glwery was thirty first, and then Colinsecon I
Speaker 8: believe was ninety seventh. I may have those numbers one
Speaker 8: or two offs, but yeah, it gives you the vibe,
Speaker 8: like looks for this Jazz seems not the most talented
Speaker 8: top level with in terms of top level talent, right, Like,
Speaker 8: that is clearly the thing that the Jazz needs to
Speaker 8: add in order to be an actually good team again,
Speaker 8: is a top twenty player in the league. And that's
Speaker 8: that's why we're talking about thinking, that's why we're talking
Speaker 8: about big game hunting and all of that. Right. I
Speaker 8: do think Lowry basically had the same season he did,
Speaker 8: you know, one year ago. The difference was he played
Speaker 8: fewer games, and you know, the the win loss totals
Speaker 8: didn't look as good and so that impacted some of
Speaker 8: the advanced stats. But like in the end, I you know,
Speaker 8: I think Lowerry's a good player. I would probably put
Speaker 8: him like in that when he fits the thirty zone
Speaker 8: rather than in the thirty to thirty five zone. But
Speaker 8: really we're you know, putting hairs at that point, and yeah,
Speaker 8: it's all about how are you going to find that
Speaker 8: next top twenty guy? Probably even you know, really if
Speaker 8: you want to be a true contender, a top ten
Speaker 8: guy to add to the Jazz's roster. And you know
Speaker 8: that's yeah again draft right, that's a game hunting. That's
Speaker 8: all the stuff we've been talking about all off season
Speaker 8: where we don't really have an answer on how the
Speaker 8: Jazz are going to find that guy next?
Speaker 2: All right, Andy, before I say you lose, the lads
Speaker 2: are back after a little bit of a break. Pabla
Speaker 2: joined us last segments Vancouver. It's interesting because RSL plays
Speaker 2: Vancouver and simultaneously, Seattle plays Portland, and RSL and Seattle
Speaker 2: are still in the mix for three and Portland and
Speaker 2: Vancouver are trying to avoid that wildcard spot. So it's
Speaker 2: gonna be a crazy night on Saturday seven o'clock. What
Speaker 2: would you like to see on Saturday night to indicate
Speaker 2: this team is in a good place heading into the postseason.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think a few things to see. I feel
Speaker 8: like I'm asking for a lot here, but a win,
Speaker 8: a clean sheet, and a good attack. But like those
Speaker 8: are kind of what I'm looking for right Like the
Speaker 8: defense has been a significant question all year long. Can
Speaker 8: they figure out a defensive rotation that's not allowing a
Speaker 8: gazillion shot? You know, who's your starting goaltender? All that
Speaker 8: kind of stuff, I think is a really interesting question.
Speaker 8: The offense has you know, dropped the level clearly. Can
Speaker 8: Chicho get going? You know, what do they do? You know,
Speaker 8: in terms of who's starting at the wings? Is that
Speaker 8: Mark Duke is at Lachlan Brook? Is it? You know,
Speaker 8: I think they're there are questions to be asked there.
Speaker 8: Do you definitely start, you know, can Diego Luna playe
Speaker 8: ninety minutes? Diogo the guy in the middle, or do
Speaker 8: you go with Anderson Julio at some point up top
Speaker 8: and slide Chicho back? Like they're real kind of rotational
Speaker 8: questions to answer. But like, to me, kind of the
Speaker 8: most important thing is this chance I think they if
Speaker 8: they do end up in third, I believe they could
Speaker 8: steel still steal the CONCACAFT Champions Cup placement, and that
Speaker 8: would be I think a big deal. You know, I
Speaker 8: think it's been a long time since ourselves played in
Speaker 8: that tournament, and I think, you know, a season that
Speaker 8: was so good in these stretches. I think it could
Speaker 8: really benefit oursel to have that international competition again. So
Speaker 8: that's kind of what I'm hoping for as a fan,
Speaker 8: is to see them play at that top level, at
Speaker 8: a continental level again the next year, rather than you know,
Speaker 8: kind of miss out on it on that tournament like
Speaker 8: they have in the last what half decade or so.
Speaker 2: All Right, buddy, what I appreciate the time. Have a
Speaker 2: good week gets you out against suit.
Speaker 8: Okay, sounds good, Thanks Ben, all Right?
Speaker 2: The great Andy Larson from the saw Lake Tribune. Get
Speaker 2: them on Twitter at Andy B. Larson is where you
Speaker 2: find them.
Speaker 1: I think this is a.
Speaker 2: Good message for a Wednesday afternoon, halfway through your work
Speaker 2: week and one day closer to the weekend. Sometimes you
Speaker 2: can't always get what you want, but if you really
Speaker 2: hone in, you get what you need. At least that
Speaker 2: my takeaway from this brilliant song, this brilliant Rolling Stones track,
Speaker 2: Because right now I don't know how to spend this
Speaker 2: for a Utah football perspective forord Her, because right now,
Speaker 2: Utah football fans probably not getting what they want, but
Speaker 2: certainly not getting what they need either. So I don't
Speaker 2: know I was going to try to be philosophical wax poetic.
Speaker 2: I think I got nothing in that direction.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well you're on the right track. That's that's why
Speaker 3: I'm getting the song out there right. It's a It's
Speaker 3: a week in which I think Utah fans listen the
Speaker 3: expectations spents coming into this season. I think we're really
Speaker 3: really high, historically high for the University of Utah football team.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't just about the team that they had returning.
Speaker 3: It was about the opportunity they had in front of them,
Speaker 3: the expanded College Football Playoff, the wide open Big Twelve.
Speaker 4: It was it was easy if you were a Utah fan,
Speaker 4: and I could see it.
Speaker 3: I understand why it was easy for us in studio
Speaker 3: here as well, to get really really excited about what
Speaker 3: we wanted the twenty twenty four college football season to
Speaker 3: look like. And while we can't necessarily get all of that,
Speaker 3: we can still move along and have a good season.
Speaker 3: It's four and two. The utes are not again. I
Speaker 3: don't know how it's maybe sounded if you're listening to
Speaker 3: sports talk airwaves in Salt Lake this week. But this
Speaker 3: is a team that's four and two and still mathematically
Speaker 3: in the hunt for a Big twelve title, and of
Speaker 3: course that's something they have to play for. It's something
Speaker 3: Isaac Wilson will have to be much better for. But
Speaker 3: it's still a reality. It's still there, and it's not
Speaker 3: a team again that is zero to five. That is
Speaker 3: something that I think folks can at least find some optimism,
Speaker 3: some silver lining in well.
Speaker 2: And can we remember that this stuff is supposed to
Speaker 2: be fun, yes, and it's a zero sum game that
Speaker 2: ultimately doesn't matter. These are eighteen, eighteen to twenty five
Speaker 2: year olds, I guess that are just doing the best
Speaker 2: they can with an oblong ball made of pigskin, like
Speaker 2: we need to. And I'm reminding myself too, I'm not
Speaker 2: preaching here. Can we just remember this stuff is supposed
Speaker 2: to be fun because during the offseason we pine for it.
Speaker 2: Then it gets here and it seems like folks are
Speaker 2: just miserable no matter what. It's supposed to be a
Speaker 2: good time.
Speaker 4: Porter it is, and it is a good time it is.
Speaker 6: I do.
Speaker 4: I'm with you.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people and I don't want
Speaker 3: to get on my diatribe. I think a lot of people,
Speaker 3: whether it's fantasy football, it's betting on sports, it's getting
Speaker 3: involved in the donation side, whatever it may be, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of people that seem to be how do
Speaker 3: I say, more involved than they actually are in the product,
Speaker 3: in the game, in the college football world. And that's fine.
Speaker 3: I understand you want to be a part of the product.
Speaker 3: You want to be part of it, but you're not.
Speaker 3: If the UTS lose or if your favorite team loses. Breathe,
Speaker 3: take a deep breath, go outside, talk to your kids,
Speaker 3: do something in that regard. But you know tomorrow there'll
Speaker 3: be more sporting events and you'll be okay. I I
Speaker 3: think this week specifically, I saw a lot of people
Speaker 3: that maybe maybe we're getting a little too personal with
Speaker 3: how they felt about a college football sporting event and
Speaker 3: a status around it. And I just don't think that's
Speaker 3: healthy for you, for the for the fans, for the players.
Speaker 3: I think there's a step back and hopefully folks can
Speaker 3: take that. And yeah, I do think that there's an
Speaker 3: issue when it comes to gambling and how people treat athletes,
Speaker 3: especially college ones, but that's a longer, different conversation.
Speaker 1: I hope that stadium's jam packed on Saturday. I'll be there.
Speaker 2: Porter is going to be there. Hopefully you'll be there too.
Speaker 2: Let's support these young men. There's still a lot to
Speaker 2: play for. And don't forget our pregame coverage. We'll begin
Speaker 2: at four thirty on Saturday. Is gonna have that for you,
Speaker 2: So roll by the tailgate, say what's up? Would love
Speaker 2: to meet you Friday coming up, We're gonna be at
Speaker 2: Overtime Cards and Collectibles. It's a little bit of a
Speaker 2: funky setup because I'm on remote for my show at
Speaker 2: the Snowmobile Expo. Would love to meet you there on Friday.
Speaker 2: Then after I'm done, I'm gonna roll over to Overtime
Speaker 2: Cars to say what up to my guy Chris James
Speaker 2: and Scott Mitchell is gonna host a couple of hours
Speaker 2: therefore you I'll do a little radio with Scott. But
Speaker 2: want you guys to support this great spot Overtime Cards
Speaker 2: and Collectibles. It's the best spot for all your football, basketball, hockey,
Speaker 2: MMA and even Pokemon card collection. So on October the eighteenth,
Speaker 2: on Friday, Logan Cooley, We'll be there the Center for
Speaker 2: the Utah Hockey Club signing autographs for all the fans.
Speaker 2: You can buy tickets for the signing at Overtimecardsocollectibles dot com,
Speaker 2: so put that into your calendar. It's five to seven
Speaker 2: on Friday. We'll be there at Overtime Cards, their new
Speaker 2: location in Sandy.
Speaker 1: All right, Porter, Before we say goodnight, what comes our way?
Speaker 1: On Thursday edition of the show.
Speaker 3: On a edition of the program, as we do each
Speaker 3: and every Thursday, we'll have a big hour presented by
Speaker 3: Big O' Tires and our friends at Clearwater Distilling, Gordon Monson,
Speaker 3: Craig Bowler, Jack, We'll talk youts, we'll talk BUYU, we'll
Speaker 3: talk jazz, maybe a little hockey club as well with
Speaker 3: Bowler and our friend Gordon mons and then joining us
Speaker 3: live in studio Chris com Ronnie of the Athletic, usually
Speaker 3: a Friday staple, but I've talked Chris into stopping by
Speaker 3: in person. Always always good to have Ck and studio,
Speaker 3: So we'll do that, and then we'll wrap up with
Speaker 3: a little sports court our friends from Handy in Handy
Speaker 3: Law before we turn it over to a Friday one
Speaker 3: day closer to your weekend.
Speaker 2: All right, that'll be a good Thursday show, so join
Speaker 2: us for that, and don't forget coming up next little
Speaker 2: Major League Baseball playoff action. We'll see if the Metropolitans
Speaker 2: the New York Mets can continue to make life difficult
Speaker 2: for the Dodgers. It's the Mets Dodgers coming up on
Speaker 2: the other side especially well. Thank you Kyle Montager and
Speaker 2: Neil Smith, Poblo Master, Honni Andy Larson for any the
Speaker 2: sound you made miss from the show. Check out the
Speaker 2: website it's ESPN seven hundred Sports dot com. Download our
Speaker 2: mobile app and take us on the go. It's the
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred app that's available in the App Store
Speaker 2: or the Google play Store. Then, finally, for what we
Speaker 2: do every afternoon in our four hour afternoon drive space,
Speaker 2: check out our podcast page which is called The Drive
Speaker 2: with Spence check Its and that's available.
Speaker 1: Wherever you get your shows.
Speaker 2: Make sure to subscribe, rate, review, sayd ie things, give
Speaker 2: us all the stars for Tara my Onside Tech and
Speaker 2: of course Porter the producer of this program. My name
Speaker 2: is Spence check it saying I enjoy your Wednesday evening.
Speaker 2: We'll talk to you on a Thursday drive back in studio.
Speaker 2: You can catch it right here on ESPN seven hundred