Speaker 1: All right, show rolling along.
Speaker 2: It is not football season, but it's never a bad
Speaker 2: time to talk football because spring football for the utes
Speaker 2: right around the corner. The headball coach himself, Kyle Whittingham,
Speaker 2: on a Wednesday afternoon, Coach, Wait, how are you.
Speaker 3: Sar doing well? Spencer? How are you doing?
Speaker 1: I'm doing really well.
Speaker 2: I always appreciate your time, So just kind of take us
Speaker 2: behind the scenes a little bit. What's this time of year? Like,
Speaker 2: what are the boxes you're trying to check prior to
Speaker 2: the beginning of spring ball here in just a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks.
Speaker 3: Well, last couple of months, we've been in what we
Speaker 3: call winter player development. It's primarily in the weight room,
Speaker 3: you know, getting bigger, faster and stronger, and then on
Speaker 3: the field doing agility work and that type of thing
Speaker 3: and mixed in with some football walkthroughs at the NC
Speaker 3: two allows you to do. So that's that's been since
Speaker 3: they got back in early January for school up until
Speaker 3: next week when we go into spring break. That will
Speaker 3: put an end to that. Then when we get back
Speaker 3: from spring break, we have a couple of days of
Speaker 3: review and then we start springballing the twentieth of March.
Speaker 2: You know, it's no secret, Coach that you guys have
Speaker 2: a lot of roster change over, and even when you
Speaker 2: have good years, now you're gonna have a lot of
Speaker 2: roster change over because of the nature of the sport.
Speaker 2: How's the process been to get the new coaches up
Speaker 2: to speed with what you want them to do and
Speaker 2: get the new players to understand as you always say,
Speaker 2: mentally they need to understand what you're asking them to do,
Speaker 2: and physically they need to be capable of doing those things.
Speaker 2: What's the process like integrating the new pieces.
Speaker 3: I think, relatively speaking to where we are in relative
Speaker 3: to the time of year, I think we're right on track.
Speaker 3: We've got the offense essentially put in and now it's
Speaker 3: just reviewing it and making sure we get as much
Speaker 3: opportunity to expose them to it as possible. It's been
Speaker 3: a very good transition with the new coaches. We have
Speaker 3: three new coaches on the offensive side, and of course
Speaker 3: with coach Beck and his new scheme that he's brought in,
Speaker 3: the players have really embraced that defensively. Pretty much business
Speaker 3: as usual, you know, no change over there. The scheme
Speaker 3: has remained the same for for years and years. And
Speaker 3: it's you know, in as far as the basics, we
Speaker 3: tweak a little bit here and there, but but I
Speaker 3: think based on you know, where we are early March
Speaker 3: as a team right now, we're in good shape.
Speaker 2: So we had we had Jason Beck on the show.
Speaker 2: It was funny get to know him not too long ago,
Speaker 2: and I asked him the question, Kyle point blank, is
Speaker 2: Devin Dampierre your starting quarterback? And he said he is.
Speaker 2: So I will take the opportunity to ask you. For
Speaker 2: a fan base that's always wondering, he's gonna be starting
Speaker 2: to understand the plan moving forward.
Speaker 1: Is Devin right, Devin damp Pier under center?
Speaker 3: Well, if we played today, he would be the guy.
Speaker 3: So he's obviously got a great grasp of the offense
Speaker 3: having been in it in years past, and so it's
Speaker 3: it's nothing new to him. He's like having another coach
Speaker 3: on the field right now. He's he's just you know,
Speaker 3: completely versed in what we're doing. And and so you know,
Speaker 3: he's doing a great job. Isaac Wilson is really entrenched
Speaker 3: right now. Is number two. Now, that's not the same,
Speaker 3: that can't change because everything's a competition. But Isaac has
Speaker 3: done a nice job assimilating the new offense as well.
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting, Kyle, I'm sure you know this.
Speaker 2: More than a dozen teams have straight up canceled their
Speaker 2: spring game. The latest to do it, Oklahoma is changing.
Speaker 2: They're just kind of there the way they go about it.
Speaker 2: But USC, Alabama, Ohio, State, Texas, Nebraska as well, they've
Speaker 2: just punted on spring games. Is that anything you guys
Speaker 2: have discussed up there as far as what to do
Speaker 2: with the spring game.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and that's still a discussion. And right now as
Speaker 3: we speak, a spring game in its format that our
Speaker 3: fans and players are used to through the years is
Speaker 3: still in place. That could be subject to change based
Speaker 3: on how things go through spring. You know, if we
Speaker 3: get thin at certain positions or you know, there's things
Speaker 3: that can change that. And so at the moment, spring
Speaker 3: game is a go. But I'm not going to rule
Speaker 3: it out just you know, circumstantially down the road, depending
Speaker 3: on what happens.
Speaker 2: Well, And look, I wouldn't blame I don't want to
Speaker 2: see it go away because ultimately all of us just
Speaker 2: enjoy the spring celebration of your program and covering the
Speaker 2: game and just kind of being together and talking football
Speaker 2: is the fun thing we get to do as far
Speaker 2: as my little spot in this ecosystem. But I completely
Speaker 2: understand it, Kyle, because the roster limit changes things, right,
Speaker 2: I mean one oh five on game day and at
Speaker 2: last count you had one oh nine that might be
Speaker 2: up to as of now. So is the new roster
Speaker 2: limit something that you have to keep in mind? I
Speaker 2: mean you always have to keep player safety in mind.
Speaker 2: In the past couple of years, you guys have just
Speaker 2: been riddled with bad luck and bad injuries. How does
Speaker 2: the new roster limit change? It feels like walk Ons
Speaker 2: are going away, right, You're going to get scholarships for
Speaker 2: all your players, But how does the new roster limit
Speaker 2: change the way you have to approach your job.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a big impact in the roster limit. As
Speaker 3: of now, nothing is said completely in stone, but it's
Speaker 3: looking like the roster limit will need to be adhered
Speaker 3: to by your first content, which would be August thirtieth
Speaker 3: for US, the UCLA game, and so we would be
Speaker 3: able to train more than the one oh five during
Speaker 3: summer summer conditioning and then during fall camp. But then
Speaker 3: you have to be at one oh five. So essentially
Speaker 3: you're going to have to make some cuts after fall
Speaker 3: camp to get to that one oh five number, because
Speaker 3: I don't know anyone that's going to go into fall
Speaker 3: camp with one oh five because if you get guys
Speaker 3: injured and you don't have guys in the bullpen, so
Speaker 3: to speak, you know you're not going to be able
Speaker 3: to be at one oh five healthy bodies. And so
Speaker 3: most teams, I believe, will go into fall camp with
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty one hundred and twenty five guys,
Speaker 3: and then when you get to that first game, there'll
Speaker 3: be you know, a certain amount that have weeded themselves
Speaker 3: out due to season ending injuries, and hopefully not not many,
Speaker 3: but it's it's it's you know, bound to happen to
Speaker 3: some teams, and then you just choose your your best
Speaker 3: one oh five at that point, and unfortunately, there's going
Speaker 3: to be some guys that worked hard through camp that
Speaker 3: that just aren't going to have that opportunity. And that's
Speaker 3: how you have to do it, because, like I said,
Speaker 3: if you start at one oh five, I've you know,
Speaker 3: just through attrition, you're gonna you're gonna fall below that,
Speaker 3: and you know that's already a razor thin number to
Speaker 3: be able to operate. So so to me, that's how
Speaker 3: most teams are going to go.
Speaker 1: About it well.
Speaker 2: And you know, Kyle, if you're able to win the
Speaker 2: conference and make make it to the postseason and be
Speaker 2: a playoff team, you could play seventeen or eighteen games,
Speaker 2: and without the ability to add two during the season,
Speaker 2: that feels like a small group. I know listeners are
Speaker 2: probably think one hundred and five, that's plenty of players.
Speaker 2: But this is not a contact sport, coach, as you know,
Speaker 2: this is a violent sport, and every week you're gonna
Speaker 2: lose guys, and so without the ability to add two
Speaker 2: during the season, does one o five feel a little
Speaker 2: bit low to you?
Speaker 3: Very much so? And it was, you know, our understanding
Speaker 3: initially was that you had the one oh five, you know,
Speaker 3: the first game, and then if you had season ending injuries,
Speaker 3: you could replace those guys. Now they're saying, no, that's
Speaker 3: not going to be the case. And so that one
Speaker 3: oh five can get you know, into the high to
Speaker 3: mid nineties real quick. And you know, college football we
Speaker 3: have you know, pretty much everybody operates with the scout
Speaker 3: teams that you know give the look, you know, your
Speaker 3: scout defense gives the offensive look and vice versa. And
Speaker 3: so as you start to creep those numbers down, you're
Speaker 3: gonna have to think about more of an NFL model
Speaker 3: where it's self serve, where the offense services of the
Speaker 3: defense and vice versa, rather than having the full on
Speaker 3: scout teams.
Speaker 2: How has the new model changed your job day to day?
Speaker 2: Because I was thinking about this. You know, you obviously
Speaker 2: have Robert Bleckin as your general manager. Is there a
Speaker 2: portion of this coach that is taken a little bit
Speaker 2: off your plate because you have to have other people,
Speaker 2: you know, more of a pro model with some of
Speaker 2: the guys that are in charge of the finances, guys
Speaker 2: that are in charge of recruiting. You've always had recruiting coordinators.
Speaker 2: But does hiring a guy like Robert as your GM
Speaker 2: and the infrastructure you have in place, does it actually
Speaker 2: allow you to maybe focus more on coaching than you know,
Speaker 2: having to be in charge of literally every piece of
Speaker 2: information and every piece of logistics when it comes to Utah.
Speaker 3: Football, it's helped the assistant coaches stay out of it.
Speaker 3: They've stay out at the business end, and they've they
Speaker 3: just focus on making each guy in their room better.
Speaker 3: And in coaching them up and getting them ready for
Speaker 3: the season. I still have my hand in everything, and
Speaker 3: that's that's not going to change them. I don't know
Speaker 3: any head coach in the country that's at least right
Speaker 3: now going to completely turn over personnel to And this
Speaker 3: again at the collegiate level. Pro level is a whole
Speaker 3: different deal, and you have those full blown personnel departments.
Speaker 3: We're still building that. You know, we don't have a
Speaker 3: you know, a quite demand power yet that we would
Speaker 3: need to be able to do that. But as the
Speaker 3: head coach in college, you're going to find most of us,
Speaker 3: most of the head coaches completely involved in personnel decisions
Speaker 3: and making sure they're monitoring what's going on on that
Speaker 3: side of the ball as well as the pure football
Speaker 3: end of it. But again for assistant coaches, we try
Speaker 3: to keep them completely out of the business end and
Speaker 3: just in the football end.
Speaker 1: I see, how are you, as a delegator coach getting better?
Speaker 3: You know? It's been a process, yeah, and twenty one
Speaker 3: years into it now, I guess I've learned a few
Speaker 3: things in that regard and I'm more you know, just
Speaker 3: letting a few things go, not letting them go. But
Speaker 3: turning them over to other people and just being able
Speaker 3: to trust them and make sure, you know, I feel
Speaker 3: good about that it's going to get done. And that's
Speaker 3: that's been something that you know, I have gotten better
Speaker 3: and I still could probably do a better job of it,
Speaker 3: but you know, just I am who I am, but
Speaker 3: I'd say I've made improvement in that area.
Speaker 2: Catching up with coach with headball coach Utah football a
Speaker 2: couple weeks away from Utah springball, you reference UCLA opening game.
Speaker 2: Haven't been able to tick the tires with you on
Speaker 2: the schedule since I came out. But my main question
Speaker 2: is October eighteenth, Saturday at BUYU. I just I don't know.
Speaker 2: For me, coach, I feel like that should be during
Speaker 2: rivalry week. I like it either beginning or the end,
Speaker 2: and it's smack dab in the middle of October. What
Speaker 2: were your thoughts when you saw the release in the
Speaker 2: game against Brigham Young was October.
Speaker 3: Eighteenth, Well, it wasn't the first thing I looked at.
Speaker 3: I can tell you that it's obviously that we take
Speaker 3: them in order as they as they unfold, and we've
Speaker 3: got a big one at UCLA on the thirtieth against
Speaker 3: a really good Big Ten opponent. I mean, they struggled
Speaker 3: last year, but there's no shortest of personnel down there,
Speaker 3: I can promise you that. And so they'll be athletic,
Speaker 3: they'll be fast, they'll be well coached, and so it'd
Speaker 3: be the second year in their coach Foster. And you know,
Speaker 3: we got to be turning all our attention, all our
Speaker 3: you know, all our focus on that obviously. But you're right,
Speaker 3: you know, we do have a rivalry game, and it
Speaker 3: would seem to make sense that would be put at
Speaker 3: the end of the season. But so far the Big
Speaker 3: twelve has not got to that point yet. I don't know,
Speaker 3: haven't had discussion with him and say, you know why,
Speaker 3: But right now that's something that they have not implemented.
Speaker 2: I wonder if this moves the needle for you at all,
Speaker 2: because obviously the leaders of the SEC and the Big
Speaker 2: Ten continue to meet without everybody else in college football
Speaker 2: to dictate with the future or of college football is
Speaker 2: going to look like.
Speaker 1: And there it seems like they're kind of calling the shots.
Speaker 2: They want to expand the CFP with more aqs for
Speaker 2: their conferences, and obviously, and you've been front facing and
Speaker 2: honest about this if you are not part of that
Speaker 2: lunch table, you and you're in a safe landing spot
Speaker 2: at and P four conference. But is there any concern
Speaker 2: as a member of the Big twelve what the Big
Speaker 2: ten and the SEC seem to continue to try to
Speaker 2: do with this power play?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if concerns the right word, but
Speaker 3: I think that we don't have much say. I mean,
Speaker 3: they're they're the they're the power brokers, and that's just
Speaker 3: how it is, and they're going to, you know, be
Speaker 3: the ones that call most of the shots, don't. I
Speaker 3: don't see any other way around that. I would personally
Speaker 3: like it to get to sixteen teams as you know,
Speaker 3: full bown playoff. And I've been saying that they will
Speaker 3: get there eventually for a lot of years and people say, oh,
Speaker 3: it's not going to be you know, for several years.
Speaker 3: But here here we're looking at going from twelve to
Speaker 3: sixteen you know, very soon, and so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 3: But answer your question, I mean, they're they're the guys
Speaker 3: that have the most clout, have the most say, and
Speaker 3: that's just you know, at least at the present and
Speaker 3: during the present time, in this present setup, that is
Speaker 3: not going to change in the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1: All right, coach, before I say you loose, I just
Speaker 1: appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't cover the story of whether or
Speaker 2: not you would come back very much because in my mind, Mike,
Speaker 2: he's a coach that's under contract.
Speaker 1: He simply could just continue to coach. It's his job.
Speaker 2: But there was a release that was made indicating that
Speaker 2: you were coming back. So I just for our listeners,
Speaker 2: I think they would be very curious to know what
Speaker 2: you juggled after the season, what you kind of processed,
Speaker 2: what you went through before landing on Yes, I want
Speaker 2: to keep doing this.
Speaker 3: Well, you juggle everything in your process everything, and so
Speaker 3: it's it's not any one thing. I can tell you.
Speaker 3: One of the overriding factors, and one of the more
Speaker 3: factors that was way more heavily was you know, the
Speaker 3: disappointing season that we had in the way that things
Speaker 3: unfolded and get into our fifth QB and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: For me, it was just very frustrating. But but again,
Speaker 3: nobody feels sorry for us. I'm not trying to to uh,
Speaker 3: you know, create create sympathy or anything like that. It
Speaker 3: was just as frustrating as things were. It you know,
Speaker 3: would have left a bad taste in my mouth to
Speaker 3: have that be the you know, the final goal around
Speaker 3: and so that that was a big factor. But again
Speaker 3: everything was involved my energy levels. Uh, you know, what's
Speaker 3: best for the program and that that ultimately is the
Speaker 3: most important thing, is what's best for the program going forward.
Speaker 3: And uh, that's uh, you know, that was a big
Speaker 3: part of the.
Speaker 2: Decision swinging a golf club at all. Say that again,
Speaker 2: you're swinging a golf club at all yet? Are you
Speaker 2: just waiting for the weather?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, not yet, and that'll that'll come after spring ball.
Speaker 3: But you know, through through the end of spring ball,
Speaker 3: it's all football.
Speaker 2: All right, my friend, Well, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: the time. As always, it's always a pleasure. Best of
Speaker 2: luck and hopefully we can do it again soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, Spencer, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: There is coach wait, head coach of the Utah football program.
Speaker 2: We are just a couple of weeks away from spring ball.
Speaker 2: Interesting stuff there, as Kyle, you know, he he indicated
Speaker 2: that the conversations going on around Utah right now do
Speaker 2: include potentially shifting away from the what Utah calls the
Speaker 2: twenty two Forever Game, the spring game. I've always enjoyed
Speaker 2: the spring game. I've always enjoyed spring football. I mean
Speaker 2: from a content creation standpoint. When you're covering the team
Speaker 2: as a sports soccer radio host, you always just want
Speaker 2: things to talk about. But Oklahoma became the latest team
Speaker 2: to adjust their spring football kind of ethos. They're going
Speaker 2: to have a spring football event, but it's not going
Speaker 2: to be a game. As of now, USC Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: and Nebraska have either canceled or shifted their spring game paradigm.
Speaker 1: And I get it.
Speaker 2: Man one o five roster limit. You know, that's down
Speaker 2: from about one twenty eight. Every player will be able
Speaker 2: to receive a scholarship. It does eliminate walk ons, which
Speaker 2: is thirty percent of college football. There'll be about two
Speaker 2: thousand kids that don't get to play college football this
Speaker 2: fall because of the new roster limit. So some challenges
Speaker 2: for coach Wit and that staff up there, But I
Speaker 2: always appreciate his times