Speaker 1: And it is the Drive with Spence. Check it's here
Speaker 1: on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM, proud
Speaker 1: to be a part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network. I'm
Speaker 1: Scott Mitchell. I'm going in for Spence today, tomorrow and right.
Speaker 1: So glad you could join the show. We've got some
Speaker 1: crazy stuff going on in the world of sports. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is crazy, it's eventful, it is it is the
Speaker 1: beginning of all the excitement. Really is. You've got Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball, big trade, You've got gambling going on, you've
Speaker 1: got video games, you have former players being cut, you
Speaker 1: have former players we're going to talk to from up
Speaker 1: on the hill. We've got NFL nuttiness, We've got some
Speaker 1: we've got broadcasters. We've broadcast millions of sport. We got
Speaker 1: so much fun with There's just a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1: And we got the data because it's all about the data, folks,
Speaker 1: That's that's what it matters. So really, glad you could
Speaker 1: could join the program. And look, if you miss a
Speaker 1: part of it, don't panic. So if you're here just
Speaker 1: for the beginning, there's gonna be a lot and you
Speaker 1: don't want to miss any of it. So you can
Speaker 1: just download the ESPN seven hundred Sports app. You can
Speaker 1: go to the ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. You
Speaker 1: can stream us, you can podcast this, you can download us.
Speaker 1: You can do all kinds of fun stuff. And you're
Speaker 1: not gonna miss a moment, like, not a single moment
Speaker 1: of what's actually happening here with the show. So really
Speaker 1: excited to be here, of course I am every day.
Speaker 1: I love to talk about sports, a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. Always fun to talk about, all right.
Speaker 1: Porter actually did mention this in his little update there.
Speaker 1: He talked about Zach Moss. Oh Man, Zach Moss was
Speaker 1: actually cut by the Cincinnati Bengals. I was really bummed
Speaker 1: by that. By the way, Zach was a fun player
Speaker 1: to watch when he was at Utah, and he was
Speaker 1: very impressive to me in the sense that he could
Speaker 1: find the smallest little crease at the line of scrimmage
Speaker 1: and scoot right through it. And he had this ability
Speaker 1: to run tough on the on the inside, but also
Speaker 1: he had a burst he could get out and get
Speaker 1: out on the edge. And I really liked him. Uh
Speaker 1: and you know, and he and he just kind of
Speaker 1: I don't know if he if he found he just
Speaker 1: never seemed to find the perfect fit, but he fit
Speaker 1: in and uh, you know, he has had some injuries,
Speaker 1: and of course the Bengals drafted a couple of guys
Speaker 1: and that means you're expendable. So a little bit bummed
Speaker 1: that Zach Moss was actually let go by the Bengals.
Speaker 1: But clearly this early in training camp, uh you know,
Speaker 1: there there's there's probably a pretty significant injury without having
Speaker 1: preseason games for a player too to get caught like that.
Speaker 1: So anyways, it's it's uh, it's just kind of hopefully
Speaker 1: he's either healthy or finds a good spot because I
Speaker 1: like I like Zack Moss. He belongs in the NFL.
Speaker 1: He belongs there every week. I need I need some
Speaker 1: clarific here. So maybe Porter could help me out on
Speaker 1: this one. You have cam Ward of course, he was
Speaker 1: the number one pick in the draft and he's kind
Speaker 1: of been struggling in practice and he said that their
Speaker 1: offense right now is very mid, and I don't know
Speaker 1: what mid means. Do you know what mid means? Porter?
Speaker 2: Yes, Scott, we're just going to go with like average, right, Okay,
Speaker 2: you know it's not it's road special. It's it's yeah,
Speaker 2: middle of the road, it's it's in the mean the
Speaker 2: median somewhere in there, I guess instead of yeah, where
Speaker 2: does inventing words now or using words to mean other
Speaker 2: things to mean other things?
Speaker 1: Yeah, mid I what I've learned is that pretty much
Speaker 1: every day, every word I say on the radio, if
Speaker 1: you go in the urban Dictionary, I'm offending about four
Speaker 1: million people every word that comes out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: I had no idea of all these things. If you
Speaker 1: hang around younger people, millennials and some of those folks, uh,
Speaker 1: they will they will correct you. I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: know what you are. Porter. I think you're a human being,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, I'm not. I'm not dissing if
Speaker 1: you're a millennial or any of that stuff or gen z.
Speaker 3: Or I think technically a millennial.
Speaker 1: Ish are you like the tail end of millennial?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I just I just turned thirty, so I'm like on
Speaker 3: the on the border there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could be my son. You want me to
Speaker 1: adopt you, a Porter, I could we could have like
Speaker 1: a ceremonial. I would I would be happy if you
Speaker 1: have myself.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm absent to father Scott as of a
Speaker 2: few years ago, so we're, oh, yeah, sorry to hear
Speaker 2: that you can pay my rent or something.
Speaker 1: If you want, Hey, I'm right on it. Just send me,
Speaker 1: send me the invoice so I'll get right on it.
Speaker 1: So so what cam Ward was actually saying is like, hey,
Speaker 1: don't panic everyone. Even though I've thrown four million interceptions
Speaker 1: in the last couple of days, We're still okay, Like
Speaker 1: we're not We're not in the dumps, you know, We're
Speaker 1: we're We're gonna fight through this. And and it was
Speaker 1: it was fascinating to me, and it brings back so
Speaker 1: many memories when you read about some of these young
Speaker 1: players and they're starting out in their NFL careers and
Speaker 1: it's just it's a little bit overwhelming. I think mid
Speaker 1: is probably a team word, or it's probably like my
Speaker 1: hair is on fire is more the accurate description of
Speaker 1: probably where Camra Reward is right now. But he's trying
Speaker 1: to keep it cool, kind of keep it under control here.
Speaker 1: And it reminded me of my rookie year in the
Speaker 1: NFL and I went I went to my first mini
Speaker 1: camp and I was not mid. I was like in
Speaker 1: the dump. I mean it was I was like, I
Speaker 1: can't do this like this is too fast. These guys
Speaker 1: are too good. I am too bad, and this is
Speaker 1: not going to work out. And I was extremely disappointed.
Speaker 1: And they had a banquet one one night, you know.
Speaker 1: So I was there like three days for this little
Speaker 1: mini camp, and so one of the nights we had
Speaker 1: a team banquet and they drove us down to this
Speaker 1: nice hotel in downtown Miami and they're doing the team
Speaker 1: awards in the highlight film and Coach Shula gets up
Speaker 1: to speak, and uh, Bob Greasey gets up to speak,
Speaker 1: you know, he's kind of one of the legends for
Speaker 1: the Dolphins, and and he calls me out my name
Speaker 1: in the in this you know, this huge team you
Speaker 1: know banquet thing where there were fans and all kinds
Speaker 1: of people there, And like, what are you talking about
Speaker 1: me for? I'm just this little rookie fourth round draft
Speaker 1: choice from Utah. I've only been here a day and
Speaker 1: and Bob Greasey's calling me out the team banquet and
Speaker 1: what he said, He goes, yeah, he's his boy, watching
Speaker 1: that Scott Mitchell out there kind of struggling. Uh, brought
Speaker 1: me back to when I was a rookie. And he goes,
Speaker 1: I went through those same those same growing pains, and
Speaker 1: it's a it's a fascinating thing process to go through
Speaker 1: as a player when you when you move through your
Speaker 1: career and you you know, and and especially going from
Speaker 1: college to professional football, and there's this part of you
Speaker 1: that's like can I even do this? Like am I
Speaker 1: even capable of doing this? And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the light bulb just clicks on. And of course if
Speaker 1: it doesn't ever click on, that means you can't do it.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of the barometer. Light bulb clicks on,
Speaker 1: You're okay, you're gonna make it. But if it doesn't,
Speaker 1: then you need to, I don't know, find a new
Speaker 1: profession or it will find you. But when you're going
Speaker 1: through it and the light bulb isn't on, you do
Speaker 1: feel like you're in darkness and you're like is it
Speaker 1: ever going to get light again? And it's a scary,
Speaker 1: scary thing to kind of go through. But man, once
Speaker 1: it clicks in and it's you know, it's a process.
Speaker 1: And just hearing Cam Woarr talk about I need to
Speaker 1: watch more film, I need to work more with these receivers.
Speaker 1: I need to you know, understand this much better than
Speaker 1: I do right now. And the only way to do
Speaker 1: it is just to experience it. You just have to
Speaker 1: go through it. So it was kind of it was
Speaker 1: kind of interesting to see and to hear, you know,
Speaker 1: cam Ward, and quite frankly, the more honest you are
Speaker 1: about where you are, the faster you're going to get better.
Speaker 1: And sometimes people aren't really in an honest place about
Speaker 1: where they are as a player, and that means you're
Speaker 1: kind of fooling yourself and kind of deceiving yourself about
Speaker 1: where you are. Okay, so much is happening today, and
Speaker 1: I find all of this stuff so fascinating. But the
Speaker 1: one that kind of this will be kind of weird,
Speaker 1: but it's so interesting is this whole thing about video games.
Speaker 1: And I talked about this on my show earlier today,
Speaker 1: that Down and Dirty, which airs here on ESPN seven
Speaker 1: or ninety two one FM ten to eleven. You can
Speaker 1: hear us there and then you just listen all day.
Speaker 1: You get to you get Sean, you get Spence, And
Speaker 1: on occasion I fell in for those guys like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm the pitch, I'm the pinch hitter, I'm I'm the
Speaker 1: I'm the the sixth man and uh, hopefully I get
Speaker 1: awards for I get the sixth Man of the Year
Speaker 1: award at ESPN seven hundred. Anyways, I was talking about
Speaker 1: video games and more specifically Madden and how how the
Speaker 1: Madden system of ranking players and there's not very many
Speaker 1: to get like this special ninety nine rating. Did you
Speaker 1: ever play Did you ever play video games? Porter?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I grew up mostly it was always a sports game,
Speaker 2: so just kind of mad in college football usually.
Speaker 1: So you were you were a Madden guy. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: this ninety nine club came.
Speaker 3: Out sought after.
Speaker 1: It's red. There's not many players in it, and and
Speaker 1: I was shocked at how few were actually in this
Speaker 1: Madden you know, the ninety nine club, which is the thing.
Speaker 1: It's like, what is it? It's like Club thirty three
Speaker 1: at Disney. It's kind of a special secret place. So
Speaker 1: Sattwan Barkley was there. I'm sorry, go ahead, there's a
Speaker 1: secret club at Disney. Huh Oh you didn't know about this?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: Oh it's Club thirty three.
Speaker 3: Is that just for like the NFL quarterbacks?
Speaker 1: No? No, no, this is this is the Club thirty
Speaker 1: three at Disney. Is a big deal. Yeah, like you
Speaker 1: have to. I mean they let people in, but yeah,
Speaker 1: not a lot of people. And it's a very special deal.
Speaker 1: And at the different disneys I think they have I
Speaker 1: think they have it. I know they have it at
Speaker 1: disney World, and I know they have it at disney Land,
Speaker 1: And so it's like in like it might be on
Speaker 1: Main Street. I think at disney World it's it's by
Speaker 1: the New Orleans or Pirates of the Caribbean and kind
Speaker 1: of in that area. But yeah, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: she shee place for just a select few. So just
Speaker 1: like this ninety nine club is with Maddon and so
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated that. So Saquon Barclay's on it, Lane Johnson
Speaker 1: a right tackle, not even a left tackle for the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson,
Speaker 1: and Miles Garrett. Those Now there's no Joe Burrow, there's
Speaker 1: no Patrick Mahomes. There's only one defensive player on the
Speaker 1: whole thing. I think that's insane. I think it's crazy.
Speaker 1: But what's more crazy is how many people like spend
Speaker 1: so much time watching video games or playing them. And
Speaker 1: I know, I know, personally, I can't watch them. I
Speaker 1: can't play him. I can play them like meaning I
Speaker 1: have the capability, but I cannot. I cannot do it
Speaker 1: because if I did, I would be so consumed by
Speaker 1: playing them that I would I just would. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be in a good as a human being, like I
Speaker 1: would just be an absolute mess. Speaking of back in
Speaker 1: my rookie year, the same we had a player and
Speaker 1: the player was a tight end and he was my roommate.
Speaker 1: And so I get off the bus again, I have
Speaker 1: no idea what I'm doing. I go in my room
Speaker 1: and there's my roommate and he's sitting there playing Super
Speaker 1: Mario Brothers. And for him, all he wanted to do
Speaker 1: the whole time we were at this mini camp was
Speaker 1: play Super Mario Brothers. I go in the room, he's
Speaker 1: playing it. I go to bed at night, he's playing it.
Speaker 1: And this is nineteen ninety and he would not he
Speaker 1: would not stop playing it. And so I, instead of
Speaker 1: watching television, I watched my roommate play Super Mario Brothers.
Speaker 1: And for him, it was like he was just trying
Speaker 1: to pass the time, and he was just I mean,
Speaker 1: he brought his own you know, his own box, his
Speaker 1: own game, his own and like he was really into this.
Speaker 1: And then later on in my career when I was
Speaker 1: playing for the Bengals, there was a the team had
Speaker 1: a room like the players Lounge, and players would play
Speaker 1: Madden and they would play it for hours. Now, as
Speaker 1: a quarterback, you spend a lot of time at the
Speaker 1: facility studying. And I would be studying and it might
Speaker 1: be seven eight o'clock at night and these guys were
Speaker 1: still in this room playing video games. And these are
Speaker 1: like NFL players, Like it's like not studying their playbook
Speaker 1: and would have and and it got at times kind
Speaker 1: of heated because you know, someone would win and lose
Speaker 1: and they had some kind of tournament whatever going on.
Speaker 1: But it was a big deal, which brings me to
Speaker 1: the to the next thing. Like basically football players a
Speaker 1: bunch of grown boys just doing you know, that's really
Speaker 1: that's really the best way to describe professional sports. Just
Speaker 1: a bunch of boys who just have money now, but
Speaker 1: they still like the sillies, you know, nonsensical things that boys.
Speaker 1: And this this whole thing with Gilbert Arenas and and
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's it's a serious deal. You know
Speaker 1: where where you know there's uh there I mean, you
Speaker 1: get arrested. You have these these things going on now
Speaker 1: Now now poker games and stuff have have become kind
Speaker 1: of a you know, Sheishi thing. People do it. You know,
Speaker 1: they kind of have a lot of Hollywood people. You
Speaker 1: have a lot of people are interested in this. You know,
Speaker 1: Texas Holdham tournaments and all that stuff. I remember back
Speaker 1: when I was a player again, so I'm going back
Speaker 1: in my time as a player here and that was
Speaker 1: a common a common occurrence poker games a common occurrence
Speaker 1: on like the airplane, and you would have you'd have
Speaker 1: like guys sitting kind of in the aisle around a
Speaker 1: group of seats and they put something in the I
Speaker 1: don't know what it was, but it's kind of served
Speaker 1: as their as their table now back then, and it
Speaker 1: was all for money and they're just playing poker, just
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys together playing poker, and it would
Speaker 1: carry over into someone's room as soon as as soon
Speaker 1: as the plane landed. And at the time, I think
Speaker 1: the biggest pot ended up being like thirty five thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: which was a lot of money back in the day.
Speaker 1: But the whole idea of these players, like you know,
Speaker 1: just playing video games gambling, and you kind of see
Speaker 1: it now today. It's just it's just it's just a
Speaker 1: it's a bigger thing and a bigger problem. And this,
Speaker 1: this whole gambling thing with Gilbert Renez is a much
Speaker 1: serious thing. But it certainly stems from, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of interest in gambling today. I'm not an advocate
Speaker 1: for gambling. I'm not a judge of people who gamble,
Speaker 1: but it can be a serious problem. And that's why
Speaker 1: I stay away from it because I know that I have.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to find out how addicted to
Speaker 1: it I could become. Because I did have an addiction
Speaker 1: one time in my life, and that was that was
Speaker 1: soap operas. And I was like thirteen and one summer
Speaker 1: I just got hooked on soap operas and I couldn't
Speaker 1: stop watching them. And I just burned a whole summer.
Speaker 1: You know, it'd be like ten o'clock till two in
Speaker 1: the afternoon. I did nothing but watch soap operas. And
Speaker 1: so I can't have that happen again. I can't take
Speaker 1: the chance. So I stay away from Madden, I stay
Speaker 1: away from gambling, and that's my life. Hey, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take a little break here when we come back. I
Speaker 1: believe we have Trevor Riley because number one Sports Talk.
Speaker 1: I'm Scott Mitchell filling in for Spence all week. I'm
Speaker 1: here all week. I'm here twice on Saturday, and enjoy
Speaker 1: the HDL and make sure to tip your waiter. I'm
Speaker 1: excited about what's going to happen right now. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you that much. We have with us none other than
Speaker 1: Trevor Riley, former Utah Great and former NFL player and
Speaker 1: former coach, current coach, former coach, Trevor. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: How you doing today?
Speaker 6: Well, I just want to say, mister Mitchell, it's an
Speaker 6: honor to speak to a legend. I'm doing very very well.
Speaker 1: How you doing? You know, I'm living a dream and
Speaker 1: it's not a nightmare. So I feel like I'm up one,
Speaker 1: you know, on the competition here a little bit. What
Speaker 1: are you up to these days?
Speaker 6: Well, and that's the question today up too is we
Speaker 6: got football practice to night of six forty five UTA
Speaker 6: Islanders at Zions Banks Stadium in Herriman. We we got
Speaker 6: Snow College in about twenty five days August twenty third.
Speaker 1: Oh, very very very nice. I good for you. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining the show. I appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Well, it's great to be here. I want to ask
Speaker 6: you a question, Scott quickly getting into it, what do
Speaker 6: you think of Utah's quarterback? I got to ask you.
Speaker 6: I went and saw him the other day. I have
Speaker 6: asked you questions. I want to think, Well, what's your
Speaker 6: take on this guy? I don't know much about them.
Speaker 6: I'm kind of to not being the loop. Can you
Speaker 6: fill me in? What do you think of this kid?
Speaker 1: Well, let me tell you about Devon dam Pier. You know,
Speaker 1: the quarterback right lee or wrongly, has such an impact
Speaker 1: on the outcome of games, and even more so in
Speaker 1: college And what I like about Devon Dampier is that
Speaker 1: he really is a multifaceted player. He can manufacture offense
Speaker 1: in a lot of different ways. He has the best
Speaker 1: sack ratio of any player in college football, so he
Speaker 1: doesn't get sacked very often. He's very elusive. He's a
Speaker 1: he's a smart runner. You know, I think I think
Speaker 1: Cam Rising maybe wasn't a smart runner. You know, he
Speaker 1: liked to run into trouble and uh, you know which
Speaker 1: was you know, part of what made him great too.
Speaker 1: But uh, and Devin control the ball of fairly effective.
Speaker 1: So you know, I believe he's a catalyst for Utah
Speaker 1: to be being able to be more explosive and score
Speaker 1: more points on offense. And and if you if you
Speaker 1: do that, then then the team certainly is going to
Speaker 1: have a very very good year this year. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't see it being a real big problem that
Speaker 1: he's kind of moving up, you know, in a in
Speaker 1: a tier of sports. You know, I think he's you know,
Speaker 1: because he's a really good athlete. He'll adjust to everything.
Speaker 1: He's got some good people around him. Offensive line, U
Speaker 1: wide receiver position is still kind of up for grabs,
Speaker 1: But I think he's going to have a huge impact
Speaker 1: on the team this year. I really do. Well.
Speaker 6: I appreciate repill me and I'm asking because I'm going
Speaker 6: to be going to practice tomorrow sometime next week. I'm
Speaker 6: gonna be looking at the kid. We're running the spread
Speaker 6: offense in our team, and I know Utah it's going
Speaker 6: to be well a newbie, but really an oldie if
Speaker 6: you go back to Irber and the other stuff. The
Speaker 6: spread offense. Man, you know, I'm just I'm learning a
Speaker 6: little bit about it and where I've heard about this
Speaker 6: kid because he's a winner. I know they won five
Speaker 6: games last year in Mexico, maybe four, but not an
Speaker 6: easy place to win. And I hear that this kid
Speaker 6: has the intangibles. This is a little short, but I'm
Speaker 6: interested to see. You know, I know how big you are, Sky,
Speaker 6: I know you know, in the old school offenses, that
Speaker 6: was kind of a premium. So I'm interested to.
Speaker 5: See how works.
Speaker 6: You know, he's the shorter guy, but they're running a
Speaker 6: more spread, open offense. I think I'm interested to see.
Speaker 5: If it works.
Speaker 6: Honestly, this is a new before it's been a while
Speaker 6: since we run this offense.
Speaker 1: I think it worked. Here's the thing about offense. I'll
Speaker 1: just get I'll just enlighten you. Okay, it's really simple.
Speaker 1: You just pick a guy and let it fly. That
Speaker 1: was the best advice I ever got, and and it
Speaker 1: was really good advice. And then the other advice was,
Speaker 1: no matter how good your defense is, you can't beat
Speaker 1: a perfect throw. So that's true. That's all you got
Speaker 1: to do. You just you just make a perfect throw
Speaker 1: and pick a guy and just let it fly, and
Speaker 1: everything else will happen. All right, I have to ask
Speaker 1: you this. I I have been wanting to ask you
Speaker 1: this question for some time now. I need I need
Speaker 1: to understand. Are you on an NDA where you can't
Speaker 1: talk about your experience at Colorado or can you can?
Speaker 4: You?
Speaker 6: I can talk about I mean, yeah, I can talk
Speaker 6: about it. I don't like to hide anything, right, absolutely,
Speaker 6: if it's a fair game. They all talked about it.
Speaker 1: So what was what was Deon like? Because he's fascinating
Speaker 1: to me because he's so flashy, you know, and he's
Speaker 1: so kind of in your face, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of substance there, and I really like a lot of
Speaker 1: things that he says and does. What was it really
Speaker 1: like coaching with him?
Speaker 6: I would say that as a former NFL guy, he's
Speaker 6: about his cliches about that that's kind of a moniker
Speaker 6: or a character when he's in the public light. But
Speaker 6: at the same time, he really wants to help these kids.
Speaker 6: So his heart and the message behind closed doors is
Speaker 6: always about the kids first, and even with the you know,
Speaker 6: when you talk about football stuff, he wants to take
Speaker 6: care of the kids like players like like pros. I mean,
Speaker 6: so it's the whole the whole conversation is always about
Speaker 6: kids with him. Now, some of the extracurricular stuff people
Speaker 6: get excited about. I look at it more like the WWE,
Speaker 6: the you know, football and Twitter and the Internet in
Speaker 6: general is a platform for characters, and I think Dion
Speaker 6: plays the role as well as he can. He's trying
Speaker 6: to enact change in his you know, the communities that
Speaker 6: he grew up in and coming to Colorado Becott. You know,
Speaker 6: that's not the most urban setting or the most his
Speaker 6: black people just there's not a lot of them there.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 6: He's bringing a whole different type of message to a
Speaker 6: group of people, and it's it's an interesting thing to watch.
Speaker 6: It's kind of like, you know, it's machine learning. It's
Speaker 6: two totally different types of machines interacting. And I'm a
Speaker 6: big fan of theon. You know, everybody has their faults
Speaker 6: or problems, especially me. I'm not anyone to say that,
Speaker 6: so whenever people are critical of anybody, I'm always you know,
Speaker 6: what's the the big general message with him is he
Speaker 6: wants to help kids, and I think he's put his
Speaker 6: money where his mouth is.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that because I do. I like
Speaker 1: a lot of what he says, and I can resonate
Speaker 1: with a lot of it, so it is fascinating. Speaking
Speaker 1: of Dion, he's hired Marshall Fall Hall of Famer, Warren Sapp,
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, Byron Lefwich, longtime NFL quarterback, Super Bowl
Speaker 1: champion himself. He surrounded himself with a bunch of Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame NFL players. Is that a good Is that
Speaker 1: a good thing? Does that work having all these because
Speaker 1: there's kind of maybe this, well, NFL players they don't
Speaker 1: really want to, you know, spend the time and put
Speaker 1: in the hours like a like a coach has to do.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're a little bit of prima donna. What what
Speaker 1: do you feel about hiring a significant amount of high
Speaker 1: profile former NFL plays?
Speaker 6: Well, I think it's definitely a double edged short because
Speaker 6: a lot of times US players that we get ready
Speaker 6: for it. We can get ourselves ready for the game,
Speaker 6: right when you're talking about getting ten other people ready,
Speaker 6: that's a whole other animal. Sometimes personal routines don't cross over.
Speaker 6: With all that being said, Warren Staff was fantastic a
Speaker 6: short time I spent with him. He was fantastic, inspiring, informative.
Speaker 6: Now to your point about NFL guys, right, especially some
Speaker 6: Hall of famers, they're not going to get coffee, and
Speaker 6: they they've paid their dues to the game in that regard,
Speaker 6: and that sometimes doesn't sit with coaches. But you and
Speaker 6: I were in the NFL, dude. You if you're a
Speaker 6: Hall of Famer, you walk into a room of football
Speaker 6: guys and you're the gap. And so that's kind of
Speaker 6: a thing where with Warren, with Marshall, with with Prime,
Speaker 6: I think Prime, uh, you know, as Prime always says,
Speaker 6: even in the Hall of Fame, there's levels to it, right,
Speaker 6: I think Prime is probably in the penthouse of the
Speaker 6: first team. All a history of the NFL is probably
Speaker 6: on sand question. So in that room, right, he still
Speaker 6: carries a little bit of weight. There's still a little
Speaker 6: bit of reverence. Right when Dion says something with football,
Speaker 6: it's like, that's Deion Sanders, dude.
Speaker 1: So back when you played, for some reason, I got
Speaker 1: in the first segment I got, I went, I went
Speaker 1: kind of down memory lane a little bit, and there
Speaker 1: was one of the things that popped in my head.
Speaker 1: I didn't say it on the radio, but I remember
Speaker 1: a time when Coachula, who was pretty hard nosed, and
Speaker 1: you played for a guy Bilichick who was pretty hard nosed, well,
Speaker 1: and winningham was no you know, uh aqual either. But
Speaker 1: Coachula one year said, hey, all the veteran players can
Speaker 1: stay home during training and but if we have any issues,
Speaker 1: then you're all back in the dorm. So we have
Speaker 1: this big meeting, like, you know, hey, don't screw this up,
Speaker 1: like Coachla doesn't do stuff like this. So this is
Speaker 1: nice that we can stay home. And so you know,
Speaker 1: we go two or three days and the guy guy
Speaker 1: messes up big time, really bad. And he in fact,
Speaker 1: he he didn't show up one day for practice and
Speaker 1: and he didn't show up till six o'clock that night,
Speaker 1: and he made up this. He made up the story
Speaker 1: that he was kidnapped and and he was taken out
Speaker 1: into the ever.
Speaker 6: Place such like Miami, I got a story like this
Speaker 6: to keep going, keep going. Could happen?
Speaker 1: No, it did.
Speaker 5: So it's just like this.
Speaker 6: Guy's in the says they took me to the Everglades.
Speaker 1: Really they took him out in the Everglades. He took
Speaker 1: his car, he had to walk back. And so so
Speaker 1: the FBI gets involved in this and they start asking questions.
Speaker 1: They realize this guy's not telling the truth. It's he
Speaker 1: finally admits the truth. He says, look, I slept in,
Speaker 1: I panicked. I didn't want to mess it up for
Speaker 1: the team, so I made up this story. Oh I
Speaker 1: got kidding. So so back in the dorms we go,
Speaker 1: and the team was so furious with this guy that
Speaker 1: they taped him to a palm tree. Oh my bigness.
Speaker 1: And and he was out there, you know, with the
Speaker 1: with the athletic tape. You know, they taped your ankles.
Speaker 1: They this guy do a palm tree for he was
Speaker 1: and he was out there all night long. Did you
Speaker 1: ever have any crazy things like that happened when you
Speaker 1: played in the NFL.
Speaker 6: I gotta tell you. College was a little college. We
Speaker 6: had more of that stuff. Okay, Okay, College was and
Speaker 6: it got cleaned up.
Speaker 4: As we got older. Okay, but there was a lot
Speaker 4: of that hazy but it would.
Speaker 6: Say we were just wild man, you know, twenty years ago,
Speaker 6: fifteen years ago, guys would do wild stuff.
Speaker 4: And in the NFL we saw a little bit.
Speaker 6: Of that carried you know, helmets.
Speaker 1: You're there.
Speaker 6: And I saw rookie dinner in Miami. I was playing
Speaker 6: for the Dolphins. I saw a lot of stuff in Miami.
Speaker 6: I was only there for six month. I saw some
Speaker 6: crazy stuff in Miami. But we had a rookie dinner
Speaker 6: where you know I was. I was in a rookie
Speaker 6: but I was there. And this is the end of
Speaker 6: the season and one of the one of the vets
Speaker 6: right Hall of Fame guy. It was the table. So
Speaker 6: it's about thirty five grand. He says, give me five
Speaker 6: thousand dollars your finest wine to go.
Speaker 4: It's not high.
Speaker 6: I want to get to four thousands. He walked out.
Speaker 6: So you see, while somebody I saw a guy in
Speaker 6: Miami one time, a linebacker. He didn't show up for
Speaker 6: the first game. Okay, we're in La he goes missing.
Speaker 6: I mean, that doesn't happen. Then we find out he's
Speaker 6: flown out to his former team. And this is all
Speaker 6: during the week of the game. So any story you
Speaker 6: tell me about Miami Dolphins, Scott, I gotta tell you.
Speaker 4: I believe you.
Speaker 6: And they made a movie about it, didn't Jim Carey
Speaker 6: wasn't he in a movie? They spintera PEP Detective was
Speaker 6: not about somebody in the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Well it was it was Dan Marino and that someone
Speaker 1: stole the Miami Dolphin mascot the dolphin.
Speaker 6: There you go, who had done it?
Speaker 4: Okay, And I gotta tell you the.
Speaker 6: Dolphins is why I described Miami. I see it's like
Speaker 6: Lostgas and Ellie had a baby.
Speaker 1: Dude, you know what that is a perfect that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just going to say this is you know,
Speaker 1: they say what state. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,
Speaker 1: and Miami's probably ten times worse.
Speaker 6: So, oh, dude, I went to spring Bak there one time,
Speaker 6: and we tell you what th just can't tell the
Speaker 6: stories here, but you see wild stuff and just like
Speaker 6: I saw that, I didn't. I just show the NFL
Speaker 6: was wild, but Miami was. I was in New York, Miami,
Speaker 6: in Boston, Miami and the short time I was there
Speaker 6: was the wildest.
Speaker 4: It's crazy.
Speaker 1: So training camps have started, you know, Fall camp at
Speaker 1: the U has started. Uh, how did how did you
Speaker 1: like camp? What was your what was your take on
Speaker 1: going back to football?
Speaker 6: I would say I'm the last of the generation of
Speaker 6: two a days. They ended my year after I left.
Speaker 6: They didn't allow them anymore. I think it was twenty fifteen. Wow,
Speaker 6: we had two days, and I know the old days
Speaker 6: were harder. They always were harder than the old days, right.
Speaker 6: They always say that day go Ahead said, of course,
Speaker 6: I agree with you. So there's always stories of that.
Speaker 6: But I remember camp being time to compete. So there
Speaker 6: was always jobs and for whatever reason, they always tried
Speaker 6: to replacement. You thought I was and it was a
Speaker 6: good thing because we're bringing good players, right right, So
Speaker 6: Nate Orchard, right, we were bringing a guys behind me
Speaker 6: or I was like, and so James Iono. There's a
Speaker 6: lot of guys that I was always for me. Camp
Speaker 6: was a time where I had to fight, all right.
Speaker 6: That was fight time. That was the time to go.
Speaker 6: I had to whoop some people's butts to make sure
Speaker 6: and this is my spot, you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: So there was a you don't really compete against the
Speaker 6: offense or the appointent. You're competing against the offense, and
Speaker 6: you're competing as an eventsive player against your competition by
Speaker 6: seeing who can fight harder. And I'm interested to see that.
Speaker 6: I want to see that fight in this team this year. Scott.
Speaker 6: I got to tell you they lost a quarterback last year,
Speaker 6: and I thought they powdered a little bit. I thought
Speaker 6: we had more in the tank than what we gave.
Speaker 6: And so I think coach would agree with that. The
Speaker 6: message year is we're gonna they should fight. We're gonna
Speaker 6: fight for every down, every inch, or we freaking play.
Speaker 6: I want to say that you'd fight it out like
Speaker 6: we used to, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good observation because I would agree with you.
Speaker 1: And and and there just wasn't There wasn't that uh determination.
Speaker 1: And you have to wonder because you know, coach Whittingham's
Speaker 1: done such a great job there and culture and and
Speaker 1: uh and having that fight and uh and and it
Speaker 1: felt like he almost slipped up and said, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: he goes, I couldn't end my career on what happened
Speaker 1: last year. So it almost sounded like he was ready
Speaker 1: to retire. And you wonder if maybe subconsciously he was
Speaker 1: a little bit more relaxed because maybe he thought he
Speaker 1: was going to retire. And uh and and and because
Speaker 1: I don't get a sense from the team this year
Speaker 1: that they're like, oh, you know that there seems to
Speaker 1: be a sense of urgency. There does seem to be
Speaker 1: a lot of fight and a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of players for a lot of reasons. But uh, I
Speaker 1: just wonder if that that might have something to do
Speaker 1: with it. I don't know.
Speaker 6: I think that out. You know this now that they're
Speaker 6: a pro organization, they're making plans two and three.
Speaker 4: Years in advance.
Speaker 6: They want to win now, right, But when you're buying
Speaker 6: freshman Okay, everybody have to listen to this. Now, when
Speaker 6: you're paying rookies, you're buying freshmen, you're paying for development,
Speaker 6: you're buying you're buying your time right right, you're waiting
Speaker 6: to see. So it's a fine line. Last year they
Speaker 6: went all in on the quarterback, right, and not a
Speaker 6: bad move. You've got a fifth year, sixth you guy
Speaker 6: coming back, you got Keithy coming back. This is a
Speaker 6: veteran team, so they thought by the end of the
Speaker 6: season they were a young team. Because of the injuries
Speaker 6: and because of.
Speaker 4: What had happened.
Speaker 6: I would say Kyle was not ready because he would
Speaker 6: probably consider this, maybe he was ready to retire. Because
Speaker 6: if I'm looking at it, and I haven't told me so,
Speaker 6: I'm looking at it from an organization standpoint, that's the peak.
Speaker 6: The peak they're supposed to return the investment on that year.
Speaker 6: Does that make sense with the quarterback and all the
Speaker 6: guys returning. That was the year where the full investment
Speaker 6: return was most to common. It was a complete disaster,
Speaker 6: obviously due to injuries among other things.
Speaker 1: Speaking of coach winning, am, what's your least favorite memory
Speaker 1: of coach with you? Oh?
Speaker 6: For sure, when we used to roll. They don't do
Speaker 6: that here.
Speaker 4: Anymore, but always there.
Speaker 6: When we had to roll.
Speaker 5: They used to roll.
Speaker 6: It's old school military. He did in high school too,
Speaker 6: but we used to roll. It was the thing in football.
Speaker 6: And that was the worst memory I ever had a coach. Okay,
Speaker 6: running if we ever were late or did something really bad,
Speaker 6: you know, rolling was always last resort. It was like
Speaker 6: if a guy refused to come to practice or missing
Speaker 6: study all three or four times. That was my worst
Speaker 6: memory though as a ute, was always having to roll
Speaker 6: because I was afraid of it. Was only I couldn't
Speaker 6: beat everybody up. I would get motion sickness. But other
Speaker 6: than that, I had a great time with coach. I
Speaker 6: liked the toughness. I thought it was good for us.
Speaker 6: I liked everything about it. Honestly, hold on a second.
Speaker 1: When you say roll, would you like just do somersaults
Speaker 1: and roll?
Speaker 6: And they used to roll on the side. There wasn't
Speaker 6: like long, long gated roll for fifty yards, roll for
Speaker 6: one hundred yards, nothing. That was just roll on your side.
Speaker 6: But what it was was just mental toughness his old
Speaker 6: school marine training. Again, they don't do that anymore than
Speaker 6: we've done it for a number of years. But that was,
Speaker 6: you know, that was That was my least favorite memory
Speaker 6: of Coach. And other than that, and it wasn't even
Speaker 6: that bad, right, we're just rolling. It wasn't like it was.
Speaker 6: But other than that, I Coach was pretty fair, all right.
Speaker 6: If you talked to him and really have a real conversation,
Speaker 6: I think people will find it Coach leading him is
Speaker 6: the fair guy.
Speaker 1: What what? What? Uh? Why did you go to Utah?
Speaker 6: I wasn't going to go to Mike Leaves the tech Okay,
Speaker 6: I signed there at a high school.
Speaker 4: Leads was you know, he's in the I had an
Speaker 4: interesting family, right.
Speaker 6: We're from San Diego, we're working in Tijuana, and we're
Speaker 6: working in the other places. We were contractors and so
Speaker 6: always making networks everywhere. An uncle mine, Kurt Salisbury, his
Speaker 6: brother actually Brett Salisbury's mouth coordinator, brother of Shawn Salisbury.
Speaker 6: I think you know him Scott.
Speaker 4: Quarterback and he's on the radio. Uh.
Speaker 6: He played red with Mike at b YU back in
Speaker 6: the eighties, and so when I was coming out of
Speaker 6: high school, Kirk kind of raised me a little bit.
Speaker 1: Right he was.
Speaker 6: And I went to a rugby tournament with Mike Leach
Speaker 6: and at University Cow it was a ba He re union.
Speaker 6: When I was sixteen. I got to meet Leech and
Speaker 6: hang out with him for a weekend. He liked my tape,
Speaker 6: so I was going to go there. I get off
Speaker 6: my mission and Leach just one of eleven games and
Speaker 6: they didn't give me an extension. The whole thing with
Speaker 6: Adam and then the Adam James thing came up next year.
Speaker 6: But my dad was like, hey, you might want to
Speaker 6: read between the lines. He's probably not going to be
Speaker 6: there much longer. So my brother was walking on in
Speaker 6: Utah as a basketball player and a football player a
Speaker 6: j Riley and seven and eight excuse me, and so
Speaker 6: they knew who he was and they said my brother said, hey,
Speaker 6: my Trevor is available. And so when I came off
Speaker 6: my mission and I opened my recruiting and it was
Speaker 6: the UCLA with Norm chow Utah or Leech at Tech,
Speaker 6: and so I chose Utah. They had Paul Krueger just
Speaker 6: graduated and coach. But told me, he says, this is
Speaker 6: where we see you being the guy. And so that's
Speaker 6: kind of how that went. Scalley Range with a guy
Speaker 6: named Steve mcdonne. I told this last week, set up
Speaker 6: a meeting in Saint George, and the rest is history.
Speaker 6: But I got to you kind of on a back
Speaker 6: door deal. I was, you know, it was a push forward.
Speaker 6: It was kind of basically a walk on.
Speaker 1: What was Mike Leach like? Because I I love to
Speaker 1: listen to him interview him during the PAC twelve Days
Speaker 1: like he was just I wanted to go spend like
Speaker 1: a week with Mike Leach.
Speaker 6: So funny story, Okay, I want to hear my uncle
Speaker 6: and he's talking to brother telling stories about the time
Speaker 6: Mike Leach invited my uncle Keith and uncle Kurt to
Speaker 6: come to love It to present their Pop Warner football
Speaker 6: offense to him. I swear to you just told me
Speaker 6: the story. Okay, he says, put it up on the board.
Speaker 6: So they're up there and they're dissecting our twelve year
Speaker 6: old Pop Warner football tape and so He's that type
Speaker 6: of guy. Right when I when I committed to him,
Speaker 6: I was it was it was in La or something,
Speaker 6: and he calls me and my uncle's on the phone
Speaker 6: and by the end of the conversation it was like
Speaker 6: a half hour. He's talking to me about wild Blueys
Speaker 6: in Norway.
Speaker 4: Was a very interesting guy.
Speaker 6: I think he went with the flow. I went visiting
Speaker 6: a Mississippi State and he showed up like the practice
Speaker 6: every day, and then the team as soon as he
Speaker 6: showed up late, they stopped the practice. Every player on
Speaker 6: the team wull start clapping for him and cheering form
Speaker 6: so complete players coach. Definite cowboy from Cody, Wyoming and
Speaker 6: he was a great guy to me. Dude, always nice.
Speaker 6: I always took the time. When we needed to hire
Speaker 6: it at Jackson State, Dion had me reach out to
Speaker 6: him and within hours we had to Brett Barborloni another
Speaker 6: guy as recommendations, and then he invited us out to
Speaker 6: go visit him. So very open guy, very caring and
Speaker 6: always was nice to me.
Speaker 1: And again he.
Speaker 6: Invites my uncles to go out and present their Pop
Speaker 6: Warner offense while he's coaching at Texas tex Just a
Speaker 6: crazy fun guy.
Speaker 1: Now, So a funny story about Mike Leach. After my
Speaker 1: second year with the Miami Dolphins, I played in the
Speaker 1: World League in the offseason with the Miami with the
Speaker 1: Orlando Thunder, and he was recruiting and came through Florida
Speaker 1: and stopped at our practice and watched it. Because we
Speaker 1: ran we ran a no huddle offense and we ran
Speaker 1: a spread offense essentially like back. Galen Hall was our coach,
Speaker 1: and we had a wristband we just called the place
Speaker 1: at the line of scrimmage. And he goes, that's what
Speaker 1: I want to do, and he says that that was
Speaker 1: the catalyst that started his whole air raid spread offense.
Speaker 6: To go on that drive down there.
Speaker 1: He told me, yeah, and that that and I was
Speaker 1: playing for the team back then and that was fun.
Speaker 1: He was, He was great, what's that?
Speaker 6: Let me ask you that about that offense. Who was
Speaker 6: the person on your guys staff that was pushing that offense?
Speaker 1: Do you remember? It was Galen Hall? So Galen had
Speaker 1: been the Yeah, he'd been the coach at at Florida
Speaker 1: and it's a very offensive minded guy. Had spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time with actually Joe Paterno at Penn State
Speaker 1: and we just had like we very very rarely ran
Speaker 1: the football. It was very fun. I had a blast
Speaker 1: one of the funnest times. In fact. You you played
Speaker 1: for the Stallions, the Salt Lake Stallions. Yes, and it
Speaker 1: was a similar type of thing. Oh. I just loved
Speaker 1: I loved it, and I was just pulling so so
Speaker 1: hard for that league to actually succeed. And I just
Speaker 1: have a tender heart for spring football and all that
Speaker 1: stuff because it made a huge difference for me in
Speaker 1: my career. I went back to the game totally.
Speaker 6: When you played and I played, right, it was me,
Speaker 6: Silver Solana, Mike Purcell, a lot of the Utah Wyoming guys.
Speaker 6: We were on this team right, and we killed it
Speaker 6: on defense because our minds were free. We just loved
Speaker 6: to play. It was fun to play, man. I remember
Speaker 6: John Peace told me when he got out of the
Speaker 6: military and was done playing. He came back and was
Speaker 6: getting his degree at Westminster. He played on a scrimmage
Speaker 6: team for him and they used to go on practicing
Speaker 6: people and in his late twenties, Wow, and I asked him, so,
Speaker 6: why did you do this. I just love to play, man,
Speaker 6: I just love to play. So that energy then when
Speaker 6: you're around it. Right, that's the walk on energy that
Speaker 6: called they'll play for free type guys.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: I love those typic dudes.
Speaker 4: I love the atmosphere.
Speaker 1: It was a fun time, it really was. I get
Speaker 1: it all right. Well, I'm gonna let you go. Really
Speaker 1: enjoyed this. Good luck with practice tonight, and hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: see you around soon. And that's luck to you. Really
Speaker 1: enjoyed this today, don't.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Yes, mister Mitchell, and always good to talk
Speaker 6: to you. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good? All right, there you have a
Speaker 1: Trevor Riley. What a fun conversation. I hope you enjoyed that,
Speaker 1: because I sure did. ESPN seven hundred listeners help children
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Speaker 1: of ESPN's network, and of course you Tulls number one
Speaker 1: to Sports Talk. Oh Man, have so much fun. It's
Speaker 1: just so fun to talk to Trevor Reiley for a
Speaker 1: little while ago and just some of the some of
Speaker 1: the conversations. Crazy day in Sports, I think every day
Speaker 1: is a crazy day in sports, and it's gonna get
Speaker 1: crazier right now because Sam Brookhouse from Sumer Sports joins
Speaker 1: us right now and it's all about the data and
Speaker 1: they're going to give us the numbers and they're going
Speaker 1: to tell us what is going on in the world
Speaker 1: of sports based on the numbers. Sam, Welcome to the program,
Speaker 1: and how are you today.
Speaker 5: I'm doing great man. Y'all are leading me in with
Speaker 5: brick House by the Commodores got me out my seat.
Speaker 5: And I can tell you what definitely could tex gets
Speaker 5: me out of my seat is some of these highlights
Speaker 5: from training camp. On the Summer Sports Show, which we
Speaker 5: just released, we went through the stats of what you
Speaker 5: can really start to believe, and we also met with
Speaker 5: some ext general managers and coaches in the NFL to
Speaker 5: give us a sense of what you can believe because
Speaker 5: sometimes these highlights, you know, they're just that highlights their cliffs.
Speaker 5: I know, you know, Scott, how that kind of goes
Speaker 5: in training camp. You get excited about a guy based
Speaker 5: off of one thing and then it doesn't pan out
Speaker 5: all the while. I'm ready. I'm ready for football, man.
Speaker 5: All it took was two days of training camp and
Speaker 5: I'm back in So.
Speaker 1: What crazy stat do you have or crazy data have
Speaker 1: you pulled then from your analysis of training camp?
Speaker 4: So I think you got to just go back to
Speaker 4: the fundamentals.
Speaker 5: And the fundamentals that we found this summer when we
Speaker 5: were doing research is that the wide receiver position typically
Speaker 5: is one where we can get a sense of how
Speaker 5: a player will play, particularly how much he's going to
Speaker 5: be targeted, and how big of a part of that
Speaker 5: offense he's supposed to be. Obviously the first true wide
Speaker 5: receiver if you're considering Travis Hunter as a defensive back.
Speaker 5: With Ted Roig McMillan off the board in Carolina, we've
Speaker 5: seen some excellent highlights of him. We've heard from the
Speaker 5: reports from the notebooks, from some of the beat writers
Speaker 5: that the ball has been spread around a little bit,
Speaker 5: but it seems that he should be a target earner
Speaker 5: this year. I want to see once the preseason games come,
Speaker 5: if Tedero McMillan in those early snaps. Is getting twenty
Speaker 5: to twenty five percent target share obviously could be a
Speaker 5: little muted. You want to hide stuff going into the season.
Speaker 5: But if he's getting a major amount of reps with
Speaker 5: the Ones and he's getting major target share in a
Speaker 5: preseason games, I think it could be an indication that
Speaker 5: he's a true wide receiver one for the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, I sure liked him when he was
Speaker 1: at Arizona. I thought he was a good looking wide
Speaker 1: receiver and he was a guy that kind of went
Speaker 1: almost unknown. It felt I was like, am I missing something?
Speaker 1: Because there was so much hype about all these other
Speaker 1: players up early in the draft, and then and then
Speaker 1: when draft day came, like he went off the board
Speaker 1: relatively early, and I was like, okay, good because because
Speaker 1: I think this guy I person. Now, I don't have
Speaker 1: the data. I don't study it like you guys do,
Speaker 1: which is really cool. Maybe I should I might learn something.
Speaker 1: That's why I talked to you is because I get
Speaker 1: I get all my education when I talk to you, Sam,
Speaker 1: so it helps me I feel smarter after I get
Speaker 1: up the phone. By the way, so it's it's a
Speaker 1: good deal. But I just thought, man, this guy's good
Speaker 1: and so so that's that's interesting you you brought up
Speaker 1: his name. I want to go in a this is
Speaker 1: kind of maybe a little different direction, but I think
Speaker 1: it's fascinating. It kind of happened today or yesterday. But
Speaker 1: Byron Leftwich was signed as a coach with Colorado. So
Speaker 1: here you've got Coach Prime, who's like one of the
Speaker 1: all time greatest. You have Marshall Falk, who is one
Speaker 1: of the all time greates, Warren Sap who's one of
Speaker 1: the all time grades, Byron Leftwich who was a pretty
Speaker 1: darn good quarterback in the NFL and won a couple
Speaker 1: of Super Bowls or won a Super Bowl as a coach,
Speaker 1: And is there any data about former Like I know
Speaker 1: a lot of players former players, but this is like,
Speaker 1: this is like a Hall of Fame coaching staff. You know,
Speaker 1: does it make him a better coaching staff? Does it
Speaker 1: make him worse? What are the statistics or what kind
Speaker 1: of information do you have about the impact the coach
Speaker 1: has based on the success that the coach had as
Speaker 1: a player.
Speaker 5: So I think it's very interesting because one of the
Speaker 5: hardest problems in football is disentangling a quarterback who touches
Speaker 5: the ball every play from his play caller who is
Speaker 5: obviously making the call every play and putting the ball
Speaker 5: in the quarterback's hands, and you know, sending in multiple
Speaker 5: plays and so forth and so on, and so that's
Speaker 5: even more important at the college level. Fyron Leftwich obviously
Speaker 5: was with Tom Brady for years in bucks Land and
Speaker 5: Tampa Bay. And you know Brady twenty plus years. A
Speaker 5: forty two year old has seen it all. Obviously, a
Speaker 5: lot of that offense was with Brady. Now he's coming
Speaker 5: into a situation where he'll be coaching at Colorado. Caden Salter,
Speaker 5: the transfer quarterback from Liberty, obviously has won an absolute
Speaker 5: metric ton of games. Liberty has been very successful. It's
Speaker 5: going to be interesting how we kind of allocate credit
Speaker 5: there if Colorado ends up winning a lot of games.
Speaker 5: Shador Sanders while he was there, kind of kept the
Speaker 5: wheels running despite having two different offensive coordinators. Obviously two
Speaker 5: years ago, a little bit more of an air raid system,
Speaker 5: last year, a little bit more pro style. The signing
Speaker 5: of Byron Leftwich probably means they want to continue going
Speaker 5: in that kind of pro style, but still spread attack.
Speaker 5: So I'm really interested to see if Caden Salter maintains
Speaker 5: the same kind of profile, how much he scrambles, how
Speaker 5: much he's throwing the ball away. But I really want
Speaker 5: to know about that running game. If Byron Leftwich is
Speaker 5: able to get that running game of Colorado, which has
Speaker 5: struggled at times going, especially given the struggles the Buccaneers
Speaker 5: had back in the day when Brady was there, I
Speaker 5: think that could be a real imprint that number one
Speaker 5: Byron Leftwich is probably an excellent coach, and that offensive
Speaker 5: staff is probably going places, and that the quarterback is
Speaker 5: put in a position to make the right checks at
Speaker 5: the line, check into the runs when you get the
Speaker 5: good looks, and stuff like that. And I think that's
Speaker 5: kind of what we want to understand, because the data
Speaker 5: really shows that it's very difficult to disentangle in the NFL,
Speaker 5: for example, a Jimmy Garoppolo or a Brock Party from Mi,
Speaker 5: Kyle Shanahan type character.
Speaker 1: Just by way of some fascinating information about Byron Lefwitch
Speaker 1: and Tom Brady and Tampa Bay, one of the coaches
Speaker 1: that was there, he would probably be called a senior analyst,
Speaker 1: Tom Moore. Of course, Tom Moore was with the Peyton
Speaker 1: Manning for his career in the Indianapolis and Tom Moore
Speaker 1: was my co offensive coordinator in Detroit. And so this
Speaker 1: is back in nineteen ninety four, ninety five, ninety six,
Speaker 1: ninety seven, and we a lot of the plays that
Speaker 1: we incorporated into our offense were plays that I part
Speaker 1: of the system that I was in with the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins and Don Shula, which goes all the way back
Speaker 1: to Johnny Unitas, right, So these concepts went way back
Speaker 1: to Johnny Unias and then and Tom Moore actually was
Speaker 1: ran into my agent and he's still coaching with the
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers today, and he said, you know, we're
Speaker 1: still running a lot of the same stuff we did
Speaker 1: in Detroit when Scott was there, and this was with
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, and so it doesn't ever really change, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's just to fascinating. When you were you mentioned
Speaker 1: I just like, yeah, this offense, I know it, I
Speaker 1: lived it, I was part of it in this long
Speaker 1: kind of cool history, you know, because it went it
Speaker 1: went quite a few places through the NFL, very success successfully,
Speaker 1: mind you.
Speaker 5: Right, It's really interesting because we had Chuck Bresnahan, who
Speaker 5: is a longtime NFL defense coordinator, has also spent some
Speaker 5: time in college now is working with us as a
Speaker 5: SUMER scout.
Speaker 4: We have all kinds of.
Speaker 5: Really really a deep history in football, deep knowledge of
Speaker 5: football with us over at SUMER and I was talking
Speaker 5: to him pre show. You can you can catch our
Speaker 5: conversation on the Suomer Sports show where you can find podcasts,
Speaker 5: but our best product is on YouTube right now, go
Speaker 5: subscribe to that YouTube at Suomer Sports. But we were
Speaker 5: discussing because he's a Navy guy, and I went to
Speaker 5: Tulane in my day and still to this day, big rivalry,
Speaker 5: American newly named American Conference rivalry, and I really disliked
Speaker 5: playing Navy, and he was talking about, you know, the
Speaker 5: how they used to run back in the day, you know,
Speaker 5: a little bit more of a hard nosed offense, less misdirection.
Speaker 5: Then obviously the Service Academy start running the triple option.
Speaker 5: We were discussing, you know, the depths that that flex
Speaker 5: bone attack goes back to. And even Willie Fritz, who
Speaker 5: I played in, who I played with, had had roots
Speaker 5: in the triple option now at Houston in the Big twelve,
Speaker 5: and and so it's so interesting to see, especially like
Speaker 5: when we're considering these things about like which quarterbacks succeed,
Speaker 5: where is the true lineage, the true history of football,
Speaker 5: and all these coaches coming on down even until recently.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's fascinating, and you sometimes say, is it
Speaker 1: is it the the lineage, is it the is it
Speaker 1: the system? Or or is it the guy running the system?
Speaker 1: You know, that really makes it makes it come to life,
Speaker 1: you know, or or is he just you know? Or
Speaker 1: is he just have the good fortune of being in
Speaker 1: a good system and because there are bad ones too,
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, and I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: I totally land on that. I think it's I really
Speaker 1: think it's more or the system fits the guy at
Speaker 1: the right time. You know, some guys don't fit in
Speaker 1: certain systems even though it might be a good system,
Speaker 1: and they're just not a good fit.
Speaker 4: Well, here's what the data kind of says.
Speaker 5: You know, you look at the quarterback position and these
Speaker 5: guys who are running these systems, and on a year
Speaker 5: to year basis expected points added per play, which is
Speaker 5: something that we analysts like to use just to put
Speaker 5: yards in context. Basically, what it means is that fourth
Speaker 5: and if you get the first down on fourth and three,
Speaker 5: it means a little bit more than if you, you know,
Speaker 5: get sixteen yards on third and twenty five. That's basically
Speaker 5: all that expected points added is saying, and that typically
Speaker 5: year to year has a correlation of about fifty to sixty,
Speaker 5: where one hundred is the best. So it's not a
Speaker 5: fantastic correlation year to year. You got to consider things
Speaker 5: like injuries. But what's really interesting is that the amount
Speaker 5: that a quarterback scrambles travels with him even when he
Speaker 5: moves team, even when he moves offensive coordinators, And so
Speaker 5: I think there's a core element of who a quarterback is.
Speaker 5: Guys who like to throw the ball away are probably
Speaker 5: going to continue throwing the ball away. Guys who like
Speaker 5: to scramble a lot are probably going to continue to
Speaker 5: scramble a lot. Guys who get sacked a lot are
Speaker 5: probably going to continue to get sacked a lot. Devin Dampier,
Speaker 5: I know we've talked about this. Scott is not one
Speaker 5: of those guys almost never get sacked, and as a result,
Speaker 5: you can expect that despite whoever the offensive coordinator may be.
Speaker 5: Now the end result, I think the offensive coordinator has
Speaker 5: probably half or more credit. But when it comes down
Speaker 5: to that decision making once the ball is snapped, I
Speaker 5: think the quarterbacks are who they are.
Speaker 1: Okay, So taking all this into consideration and speaking about
Speaker 1: Devin Dampier, he's on a team Utah that arguably well
Speaker 1: certainly has the best offensive line in the Big twelve as.
Speaker 6: The country probably right, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one or two for sure. And then and then
Speaker 1: he has his his offensive coordinator who came with him.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like when a guy has a
Speaker 1: personal chef. It's like, I have my personal offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: I bring in with me. That's that's that's how these
Speaker 1: players roll today. So he's got his offensive coordinator, he's
Speaker 1: got a better offensive line, and he's a guy that
Speaker 1: doesn't get sacked. That what you're saying should bode extremely
Speaker 1: well for Utah this year.
Speaker 5: It certainly should bode well in terms of their success
Speaker 5: rate on a play by play basis. I think there
Speaker 5: is per chance, given there's just so many transfers at
Speaker 5: the wide receiver, running back skill positions for this offense.
Speaker 5: I think, you know, maybe it takes some time for
Speaker 5: them to get ready, but there's not going to be
Speaker 5: negative plays, particularly in the passing game. They will be
Speaker 5: at least at the line of scrimmage because that ball
Speaker 5: is going to get thrown away or Damn Pier is
Speaker 5: going to try to make the most of it. But
Speaker 5: there will not be sacks, there will not be negative plays.
Speaker 5: And going over to the NFL, this was the recipe
Speaker 5: for success for the Denver Broncos last year where bo
Speaker 5: Nicks avoided sacks. He wasn't the most efficient in the
Speaker 5: passing game, but they were able to construct an offense
Speaker 5: as the season went along that was pretty successful and
Speaker 5: could make some pretty big plays. I think that's the
Speaker 5: recipe for success. Play behind that offensive line early on
Speaker 5: in the season, gain chemistry between dam Pier and some
Speaker 5: of the new skill players, and then as the season
Speaker 5: goes along that kind of recipe for success, the rue
Speaker 5: as we like to say in Louisiana, will come together,
Speaker 5: We'll know who the guys are, and Dan Pier can
Speaker 5: start moving the ball where it needs to be. I
Speaker 5: think that's the recipe for success. And I think particularly
Speaker 5: if we see that run game start to get moving
Speaker 5: behind those excellent offensive linemen in weeks three or four,
Speaker 5: I think Utah had a really, really, really good shot
Speaker 5: to win the Big twelve, especially given their defensive prowess.
Speaker 4: On the other.
Speaker 1: Side, all great foods starts with a good rue.
Speaker 5: That's true, that says, at least I don't know.
Speaker 1: Oh I know, I know, I may care more about
Speaker 1: food than anything else. So I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: So this whole, this whole concept, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: talking about getting excited watching a little bit of NFL
Speaker 1: training camp and players kind of they are who they are,
Speaker 1: you know, Leffard the leopard never loses his spot, so
Speaker 1: to speak. So sder Sanders. You know, there are people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, he might be the starter, and there's
Speaker 1: who knows, or he could be terrible, or he's not
Speaker 1: going to get an you know, you just don't Where
Speaker 1: do you think he might end up in the in
Speaker 1: the in the sense that you know, he held the
Speaker 1: ball a lot at Colorado and he moved himself into
Speaker 1: a lot of sacks, you know, where he was not
Speaker 1: he's not very efficient moving in the pocket. Where do
Speaker 1: you think he ends up this year?
Speaker 5: So I think that's the real question, and that's something
Speaker 5: that we can't really see in practice per se, because
Speaker 5: you're not getting sacked, the quarterback is not getting touched.
Speaker 4: Here's what we know right now.
Speaker 5: Got a pretty good day two weeks ago, excuse me,
Speaker 5: two days ago.
Speaker 6: Nine for nine with two.
Speaker 5: Touchdowns in the red zone drill. We know that he
Speaker 5: is probably running with the second group or even the
Speaker 5: third group, and we have a sense that Joe Flacco
Speaker 5: is running with the first and that there's some injury
Speaker 5: concerns with Kenny Pickett. That's what we know right now.
Speaker 5: We discussed like how general managers are really looking at this. Obviously,
Speaker 5: the media is going to report what they report. We'll
Speaker 5: get a consensus. The preseason games will put it all
Speaker 5: on the line and we can kind of gauge from there.
Speaker 5: But I think if you start seeing him move up
Speaker 5: into the second slot or start to get a couple
Speaker 5: reps with the ones, I think that means a lot
Speaker 5: for what.
Speaker 4: Shad Door Sanders is going to look like in a.
Speaker 5: Kevin Stefanski offense. The second thing that I'll note, and
Speaker 5: this was a real big kind of point of emphasis
Speaker 5: on the Summer Sports Show, which Mike mccagnan, the former
Speaker 5: general manager of the New York Jets, hammered on and
Speaker 5: he said, it's not about one day, It's about you know,
Speaker 5: backing those days on top of each other, and so
Speaker 5: I think, particularly with Shador, if you start seeing multiple
Speaker 5: reports day after day after day, that people really are
Speaker 5: starting to gel with him. He's starting to build chemistry
Speaker 5: with the wide receivers. We're seeing stats that outlay that
Speaker 5: accuracy that was his calling card and the positive to
Speaker 5: the con of his sack avoidance. I think that's all good,
Speaker 5: But I think we're going to have to see him
Speaker 5: in particular in the preseason when we can actually get
Speaker 5: a sense of what it looks like when Shador Sanders
Speaker 5: who struggled so mightily with sacks, as you know, the
Speaker 5: bad guys coming after him on the other side on
Speaker 5: the defense.
Speaker 1: This is the Drive with Spence Checket's here on ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred and ninety two ONEFM. I'm Scott Mitchell filling
Speaker 1: in for Spence. We're here talking with Sam Brookhouse from
Speaker 1: sumer Sports. Great. Great. I always love to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Just by the way, Sam, one day, I hope to
Speaker 1: meet you because I just I've really enjoyed these conversations
Speaker 1: throughout the past several months or so. So it's it's
Speaker 1: been a lot of fun.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: College football is started the craziness has begun, and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated about the Big Twelve. From this perspective, it
Speaker 1: feels like there's a lot of quality teams. Like maybe
Speaker 1: from top to bottom, you know, maybe there might be
Speaker 1: four teams that eh, but but the rest of the league,
Speaker 1: you know, it's pretty solid and I wouldn't say there's
Speaker 1: a team you just go, Man, that just really excites me.
Speaker 1: But it's it feels super competitive across across the conference.
Speaker 1: And yet in some of these other conferences, the Big Ten,
Speaker 1: uh SEC, it's more top heavy. You know, there's there's fewer,
Speaker 1: fewer teams. What what do you think is going to
Speaker 1: happen in the Big Twelve this year? And is it better?
Speaker 1: Because I know, I know that's that was kind of
Speaker 1: the push with the conference. You know, we're we're tough
Speaker 1: top to bottom, and the other conferences are trying to say, hey,
Speaker 1: we don't. We don't care about the bottom. We want
Speaker 1: we want five or six teams in the College Football
Speaker 1: playoffs and the rest of them we don't care about.
Speaker 1: And so we want easier schedules. We want, you know,
Speaker 1: an easier path to get to the playoffs. That's what
Speaker 1: we're interested in, So tell me what's going to happen
Speaker 1: at the Big twelve and does it I guess does
Speaker 1: having an average conference mean anything?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think you've got to start at the top
Speaker 6: from last year. You look at Arizona State and Iowa
Speaker 6: State bringing back quarterbacks Sam Levitt rock Obeck project to
Speaker 6: be two of the better players in the nation this year.
Speaker 6: I don't expect much to change. I think the coaching
Speaker 6: situations that both of those.
Speaker 5: Are pretty stable. I'd expect those two teams to remain
Speaker 5: in the top twenty five for most of the season.
Speaker 5: Unless something goes wrong, particularly at that quarterback position. Then
Speaker 5: I think not to be a homer, but I just
Speaker 5: loved what Utah's done. I think when you go out
Speaker 5: and you get one of the top G five to
Speaker 5: P five quarterback transfers, I think that's a sign in
Speaker 5: the right direction. We've seen that work in the past,
Speaker 5: and I think that that kind of build that they have,
Speaker 5: with an excellent defense building behind you know, pretty young
Speaker 5: but developing and very highly touted offensive line, I think
Speaker 5: that's going to be extremely difficult to beat. In October
Speaker 5: and November. I think Utah has a real chance to
Speaker 5: jump up and then if you want to look kind
Speaker 5: of in the dul drums of the Big twelve, Like
Speaker 5: you said, there's been a lot of teams that kind
Speaker 5: of fifth fault last year and it didn't go necessarily
Speaker 5: their way. I think Houston is going to be one
Speaker 5: of those teams that are going to come in With
Speaker 5: Connor Wegman at quarterback, the one time five star recruit
Speaker 5: who struggled with injury at Texas A and M was
Speaker 5: able to win games but just couldn't get it done,
Speaker 5: ends up going to Houston. Houston now has one of
Speaker 5: the top quarterbacks in future years recruiting wise. This is
Speaker 5: a program that's coming together. This is a program builder
Speaker 5: in coach Willie Fritz, and I think if you notice
Speaker 5: in weeks one, two, or three starting to have an
Speaker 5: effective run game mixed with a lot of talent on
Speaker 5: the back end, I think that could be a team
Speaker 5: who could jump into a conversation or at least kind
Speaker 5: of shuffle stuff up. Last person I want to mention
Speaker 5: I mentioned it a little bit earlier. Caden Salter is
Speaker 5: a name to watch at Colorado. This is the guy
Speaker 5: who has achieved a lot in his career. It's his
Speaker 5: first time at a power conference. I think that coach Prime
Speaker 5: loves to run quarterbacks happy offenses, and I think if
Speaker 5: you start seeing some big numbers put up, I think
Speaker 5: that's a good signal for Colorado. Their defense really came
Speaker 5: together last year. If they can maintain that momentum, that's
Speaker 5: another team that I think can jump all the way
Speaker 5: up into that ASU in Iowa s Eightier.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as you were talking, I just I realized something,
Speaker 1: because you know, one of the things that would certainly
Speaker 1: make the profile for the Big Twelve better is to
Speaker 1: get multiple teams in the college football playoffs.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: We talk about in Iowa State, who very impressed with
Speaker 1: a year ago, and I agree with you. I believe
Speaker 1: they're going to be in the conversation. Of course, Arizona
Speaker 1: State brings back, you know, everyone on a team that
Speaker 1: won the conference.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: But but Utah doesn't play They do play Arizona State,
Speaker 1: but they don't play Iowa State. Utah doesn't play Houston
Speaker 1: And and so you could end up on a collision
Speaker 1: course and have multiple teams having really good years just
Speaker 1: because of the nature of the sixteen team conference, and
Speaker 1: and that that may be a way that all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, all of a sudden, you get two teams,
Speaker 1: maybe you have three in the conversation. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you end up with two teams in
Speaker 1: the college football playoffs. Then then it then it starts
Speaker 1: creating some credibility for the conference. So, uh, one last
Speaker 1: question before I let you go, who who is a
Speaker 1: player from Utah that we should really watch for? Maybe
Speaker 1: we're maybe we're not, Maybe we're overlooking him, maybe he
Speaker 1: doesn't get a lot of a lot of discussion. But
Speaker 1: is there a player that that maybe we should be
Speaker 1: watching for.
Speaker 5: I think you got to look at those two tackles
Speaker 5: man Spencer Fanu and the right tackle as well, are
Speaker 5: just going to be the tenth Poles. I think that
Speaker 5: is going to start to be the build as we
Speaker 5: talk about the transfer portal in college football. I think
Speaker 5: people have started to figure out that you just cannot
Speaker 5: get excellent tackles in the transfer portal, and I think
Speaker 5: that's really going to be the name of the game
Speaker 5: this year. It's going to be an interesting parallel just
Speaker 5: talking about the Big Twelve because Texas Tech, the Shrine
Speaker 5: Bowl one thousand was put out. Some of the best teams.
Speaker 5: Everyone is a transfer on that team. Man. I mean,
Speaker 5: they've spent twenty five million dollars. They're getting people in
Speaker 5: another team to watch, and so I think those guys
Speaker 5: who have been hand built by Utah across that offensive line,
Speaker 5: particularly at the left tackle position, Spencer Fanuho should be
Speaker 5: one of the best players in the league. You've got
Speaker 5: to give some love to the offensive lineman. I think
Speaker 5: he's going to be one who could be in awards ceremony,
Speaker 5: all American discussions by the time this year. In so,
Speaker 5: I do want to make one more note about the
Speaker 5: Big Twelve here. I've mentioned Texas Tech, you mentioned Baylor
Speaker 5: as well. I just don't think the bottom of the
Speaker 5: conference allows for you know, people to get by on
Speaker 5: schedule last year like they did last year. Taking Miami
Speaker 5: for example, last year didn't play a really good ACC
Speaker 5: team until the very end of the year Syracuse. Syracuse
Speaker 5: ends up beating them. I think the Big Twelve is
Speaker 5: a little bit better than that, and I think even
Speaker 5: the bottom of that conference is still very, very competitive,
Speaker 5: and so it could be a scenario in which every
Speaker 5: team takes each other out. Obviously that doesn't look good
Speaker 5: for prestige, but I think it's because the conference itself
Speaker 5: is strong, tough to bottom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hopefully the cannibalism won't happen, but we'll see. All right, Sam,
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Always fine to have a conversation. Have
Speaker 1: a great rest of your day.
Speaker 5: Thank y'all so much.
Speaker 1: All right, there you have it. Sam Brookhouse from Summer
Speaker 1: Sports love those conversations. Data driven, so it's all about
Speaker 1: the numbers to be.
Speaker 7: Ready for all the situations that are going to be
Speaker 7: coming up, and it's really identifying who are to trustworthy
Speaker 7: guys the playmaker does when you put those eleven guys together,
Speaker 7: all doing their different roles, you know who can you
Speaker 7: depend on.
Speaker 6: And count on.
Speaker 7: So it's a matter of finding consistency. Who showed up
Speaker 7: every day consistently getting their job done so we know
Speaker 7: we can count on them to put them out there
Speaker 7: for the game. So that's where you're trying to develop
Speaker 7: that and tease that out or who to count on who?
Speaker 1: Alrighty sports fans, welcome back. It is the drive with
Speaker 1: Spence checkets here on ESPN seven hundred ninety two. I'm
Speaker 1: Scott Mitchell filling in And that was Jason Beck, offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator at the University of Utah, very pivotal coach, one
Speaker 1: that's got a lot on his shoulders, a lot of expectation.
Speaker 1: You've got this uh really strong defense, need some offense.
Speaker 1: So interesting comments there about gaining trust of your coaches
Speaker 1: such an important thing. You can also hear the full
Speaker 1: interview on the old website that's ESPN seven other sports
Speaker 1: dot com, or on the app ESPN seven other sports app.
Speaker 1: You get that, but we're also going to play a
Speaker 1: lot more of it here in the show coming up
Speaker 1: in a bit, and do a deeper dive, a deeper analysis,
Speaker 1: analysis by paralysis or paralysis by analysis. In other words,
Speaker 1: don't overthink things. People don't over complicate them. And people
Speaker 1: do that sometimes in football. They over complicate things. They
Speaker 1: make it so much harder than it has to be.
Speaker 1: Like I said earlier in the show, just keep it simple,
Speaker 1: pick a guy and let it fly. And when you
Speaker 1: can just play freely and just play instinctively, play pretty good.
Speaker 1: See I could be a coach. It's not that hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually was a coach. We're all coaches. We're all
Speaker 1: coaching something. Actually, we're all salesmen. We're selling something, whatever
Speaker 1: it might be. We're selling things. Constantly all the time,
Speaker 1: speaking of selling things. The NBA is actually going to
Speaker 1: go overseas and play regular season games. They're going to
Speaker 1: play in Berlin and London in multiple locations over the
Speaker 1: over the so in the next few years. So they
Speaker 1: play a series of games this year, next year, in
Speaker 1: the following year. Now, it's kind of a cliche, a
Speaker 1: niche thing. It's kind of a I don't know, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. It's becoming a popular thing with these sports
Speaker 1: leagues to play their games overseas because everybody's doing it.
Speaker 1: All the kids these days are doing it. Let's go,
Speaker 1: let's bring our league over and let's play in another continent.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play on the continent. Now, hey, Buffy, let's
Speaker 1: go play our NFL games over Oh, NFL, we'll play
Speaker 1: the NBA. Oh, We'll have all of those games over
Speaker 1: on the European continent. Now, it's winter time. So I
Speaker 1: don't know who's gonna go. I mean, people will be
Speaker 1: interested because basketball has become very very popular over in Europe.
Speaker 1: And so I read this and I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: this is kind of interesting. But you know, people play
Speaker 1: basketball in Europe. Some of the best basketball players in
Speaker 1: the NBA are from Europe. Now, football is different. You
Speaker 1: don't hear of, you know, some player being the MVP
Speaker 1: of the NFL, or being a great quarterback in the
Speaker 1: NFL or running back or you don't hear it because
Speaker 1: they don't play. And so that's why the NFL is
Speaker 1: expanding over there with an attempt to grow its audience.
Speaker 1: The NBA, I think kind of maybe already has an
Speaker 1: audience over there. Maybe they're trying to tap into, you know,
Speaker 1: a bigger mark. I get. I get that, you know,
Speaker 1: growing the game and part of it too. Sports are
Speaker 1: big in Europe. I mean, football, soccer is massive, and
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's almost to the point that it's unhealthy.
Speaker 1: These people get in violent conversations and interactions because you know,
Speaker 1: the soccer team's lost to someone and it's bad. So
Speaker 1: I just I I guess, well, here, here's how I
Speaker 1: would do it. And this was an idea I had
Speaker 1: the other day, like this fusion of sports. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're going to go over to Europe, that's kind
Speaker 1: of the thing, like, even if you're a tourist, if
Speaker 1: you're going to go over there, you need to make
Speaker 1: it worth your while. You need to go at least
Speaker 1: seven days, but more like ten, no more than fourteen,
Speaker 1: So because you're going over there, so make it worth
Speaker 1: your while so you can see things because you don't
Speaker 1: know when you're going back, and it's a long way
Speaker 1: to go. It's not like a weekend trip. And that's
Speaker 1: what you kind of feel like with these these games.
Speaker 1: It's like, why you're coming over for one game and
Speaker 1: then you can go back, don't you guys want to
Speaker 1: eat like some fish and chips, some bangers and mash?
Speaker 1: Do you know what bangers are? Porter, I guess that's no.
Speaker 3: Did you say bangers in mash?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Do you know what those? Do you know what
Speaker 1: bangers are? It's a food in England, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a it's a pork sausage.
Speaker 2: And the reference I have there is from that movie
Speaker 2: with Russell Brand where he's the rock star. It's a
Speaker 2: song called Banger's mash.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And and what it is so that when they
Speaker 1: were in the war, everything was so cheap that it
Speaker 1: was made. It kind of had a water, a lot
Speaker 1: of water in the in the pork, right, and so
Speaker 1: when you fried it, it exploded and that's the bang.
Speaker 1: So so it's basically a pork sausage and mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3: Wartime food is what you're saying.
Speaker 1: It's wartime food, yes, but the banger came from it
Speaker 1: the fact that it was cheap.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 1: And so it's kind of a thing in England and
Speaker 1: it's actually kind of good. I'm not gonna lie. So
Speaker 1: so my point is is, you have you have this
Speaker 1: whole thing, right, you have, you have this like sports fusion.
Speaker 1: So if you're gonna go over there, join the football people,
Speaker 1: let's do let's do a two for one. So the NFL, NBA,
Speaker 1: and maybe you throw in the NHL because they they
Speaker 1: like hockey over in Europe. And not only do you
Speaker 1: play like you're going over together, you play simultaneously. You play,
Speaker 1: you play in these big arenas or these big places,
Speaker 1: and you play multiple sports going on at the same time.
Speaker 1: That would be something that would really garner some interest.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I feel it with the NFL, I
Speaker 1: really do. I feel like, Okay, the NFL, Yes, that's
Speaker 1: a good move, and they're gaining a lot of traction
Speaker 1: and to the point of potentially having a division over
Speaker 1: in Europe. That's my goal, the European because then the
Speaker 1: super Bowl becomes a worldwide They're trying to make it
Speaker 1: like the World Cup, but only every year. Right, wouldn't
Speaker 1: that be big? So you you literally are world champions
Speaker 1: because right now in the NFL, I don't want to
Speaker 1: burst anyone's bubble. The Super Bowl is just an American thing.
Speaker 1: It's not world champs. Same thing with baseball. But they
Speaker 1: like to say it and people are letting him get
Speaker 1: away with it, and that's fine whatever. Okay, I I
Speaker 1: think this is a debate. And I have friends that
Speaker 1: have tried to get into coaching who are former NFL players,
Speaker 1: and now coach Prime Dion has hired like almost the
Speaker 1: Mount Rushmore of coaches at Colorado. This is like, this
Speaker 1: is seriously Marshall Faulk running back coach. You could argue
Speaker 1: one of the top running backs of all time. If
Speaker 1: I'm picking a team and I got to pick my
Speaker 1: running back, he's going to be up there on one
Speaker 1: or two. If I'm picking a defensive back, Deon Sander's
Speaker 1: going to be one or two, like, he's going to
Speaker 1: be up there. I'm picking a defensive lineman, Warren Sapp
Speaker 1: is up there. There's some other I mean Aaron Donald's
Speaker 1: pretty pretty freaking good. Some other other guys are pretty good,
Speaker 1: but so is Warren Sapp. In fact, in my generation
Speaker 1: who I played against Warren Sapp, it's, you know, just
Speaker 1: talking to office linemen, they're like, he's the hardest guy
Speaker 1: in the world to block. He because so athletic, so quick.
Speaker 1: He just he's just really quick. Uh And and I
Speaker 1: think people didn't completely understand how good he really was.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think people thought that, but you know,
Speaker 1: they talked a lot whenever. So then they bring in
Speaker 1: now Byron Leftwich, who isn't a Hall of Famer in
Speaker 1: the NFL, pretty darn good quarterback, won a Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: been to multiple Super Bowls as a coordinator. I know
Speaker 1: he had Tom Brady whatever, but still pretty darn good.
Speaker 1: All of these guys are in Colorado, every single one
Speaker 1: of them, and you have to want So the dilemma is,
Speaker 1: does the fact that you're a Hall of Famer or
Speaker 1: a really accomplished professional football player. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: a guy that wasn't drafted or whatever, or got cut
Speaker 1: their rookie year, never really made it in the NFL,
Speaker 1: or was on the practice squad for a while, or
Speaker 1: was kind of a you know, just it wasn't wasn't
Speaker 1: an everyday player in the NFL fringe, barely lucky to
Speaker 1: just be on a team kind of guy. I'm not,
Speaker 1: you know, not talking about that. I'm talking about stars, superstars,
Speaker 1: some of the best stars ever. And and the debate
Speaker 1: is can you be a good coach if you were
Speaker 1: a great player, Because a lot of people don't seem
Speaker 1: to think so. They just think for a new numerous reasons.
Speaker 1: They'd say, well, you know, the game was different for them.
Speaker 1: They had a skill set and an ability that no
Speaker 1: one else had, And so how are you get to
Speaker 1: coach from that perspective? How do you coach players who
Speaker 1: don't have that same ability? You can't. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: kind of the senses and we all know that, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the you know, kind of bias about players,
Speaker 1: and like certain players can't play certain positions, or certain
Speaker 1: positions are kind of not really all that relevant, like
Speaker 1: tight end like tight ends, Like yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 1: an afterthought. Now It's like guys are getting drafted right
Speaker 1: and left in the first round that are tight ends.
Speaker 1: Tight Ends have now become a massive part of an offense.
Speaker 1: You get a hybrid type of tight end. You create
Speaker 1: massive mismatches for teams that he's too big for a
Speaker 1: dB and he's too fast for a linebacker, and so
Speaker 1: you get a mismatch almost one hundred percent of the
Speaker 1: time that because you're going to get like the fourth
Speaker 1: or fifth best defender on your tight end. And and
Speaker 1: they figured this out and and the tight ends changed,
Speaker 1: they got much more athletic and different things. And but
Speaker 1: the point is is there's a perception. There's this there's
Speaker 1: this mindset about players that are really good that they
Speaker 1: couldn't be good coaches. And and so then there's the
Speaker 1: work ethic. A really great player doesn't have to grind
Speaker 1: it out, doesn't have to work hard because it just
Speaker 1: all comes so naturally. And as a as a player,
Speaker 1: you don't you don't have the same work schedule that
Speaker 1: a coach does. You know, you go to practice, you
Speaker 1: go to the meetings, you go home, and the coach
Speaker 1: that when you go home, that's when their job starts
Speaker 1: or or before you get there in the morning. So
Speaker 1: they're there all night long, and they're there early in
Speaker 1: the morning while you're gone. And so the perception is, well,
Speaker 1: coch players just can't they can't make that commitment. It's
Speaker 1: an eighty hour week. There's no way they're going to
Speaker 1: be able to do it. And then there's another thing,
Speaker 1: and this is what I think it really is. There's
Speaker 1: this threat because most coaches are or the fringe player.
Speaker 1: We're the guy that maybe you know, maybe got through
Speaker 1: high school, maybe played some in college, maybe played pretty
Speaker 1: well in college, and it just says, Okay, I'm done
Speaker 1: playing football. I want to get into coaching. And they do.
Speaker 1: And so they start out as a graduate assistant, and
Speaker 1: they go through all these levels of coaching, and they
Speaker 1: travel around the country to different jobs and they build
Speaker 1: it up and build a resume. I mean Jim Harbaugh,
Speaker 1: Jim Harbaugh, by the way, was not Jim Harbaugh was
Speaker 1: a long time NFL quarterback who was you wouldn't say
Speaker 1: had a Hall of Fame career, but he had a
Speaker 1: very he had a very successful career. You know, played
Speaker 1: fifteen years in the NFL and was pretty good. Former
Speaker 1: first round draft choice, his first round draft choice out
Speaker 1: of Michigan, uh and and he you know, he stuck
Speaker 1: around a long time. But when he started coaching, he
Speaker 1: went to the University of San Diego. He was he
Speaker 1: was an intern ish type of player, an offensive assistant
Speaker 1: for the Los Angeles or the Oakland Raiders, and then
Speaker 1: he went to Stanford, and then he went to the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers, and then he went to Michigan, and
Speaker 1: then he went back to the Charge. So he's bounced
Speaker 1: around a little bit, and a lot of people say,
Speaker 1: well that, you know, so there's a there's a there's
Speaker 1: an envy. And I wouldn't say Jim Harbaugh. I know
Speaker 1: there's I know there's coaches. I know that there's really successful, popular,
Speaker 1: well known coaches today, maybe even one of them coached
Speaker 1: at Utah. At one point think that Jim Harbaugh is
Speaker 1: not a good coach. And I think there was some
Speaker 1: resentment and some jealousy because he was a former player.
Speaker 1: Because former players guess what they get. You walk in
Speaker 1: the door and you instantly have credibility. People are gonna
Speaker 1: listen to you, and so you don't have to you
Speaker 1: don't have to build this massive level of trust. You
Speaker 1: don't have to convince players that you know what you're
Speaker 1: talking about, or that you can actually share information with
Speaker 1: them that they will find useful. You know, a former
Speaker 1: player just has a built in library of information that's
Speaker 1: like really good, and a lot of coaches resent it.
Speaker 1: And that's why I don't think if you see a
Speaker 1: lot of former star players who are coaches, and you
Speaker 1: could argue that the star players don't need money, right,
Speaker 1: they just like, Hey, I made a ton of money.
Speaker 1: Why in the world would I want to get all
Speaker 1: this brain damage trying to be a football coach and
Speaker 1: just dealing with all the headaches and everything that you have. Now.
Speaker 1: I coached high school football and I will tell you
Speaker 1: it's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.
Speaker 1: And I you know, it was interesting to listening to
Speaker 1: Trevor Riley early on the show talk about coach Prime
Speaker 1: and how a lot of you know, he's really about
Speaker 1: these kids, and he's about, you know, changing lives and
Speaker 1: about helping them in their lives. And I get it,
Speaker 1: and I could totally see that being a very worthwhile
Speaker 1: and worthy cause to be a part of, to literally
Speaker 1: change lives. And what I found was, man, it was
Speaker 1: really cool to teach someone else to do something and
Speaker 1: then watch them have success at it. That was amazing.
Speaker 1: That was very cool. And as a player, you have
Speaker 1: that opportunity to just do it for yourself, right, you
Speaker 1: focus on getting yourself ready to play, and you learn
Speaker 1: and you study and you prepare. Then you go out
Speaker 1: and you play, and it's very rewarding. But to do
Speaker 1: it and to be able to do it for a
Speaker 1: lot of people is a really really cool thing. So
Speaker 1: I can get why while he's into this now, it
Speaker 1: might open I don't know, a can of worms, a
Speaker 1: new opportunity. Maybe former really good players might end up
Speaker 1: being really good coaches, maybe even better than some of
Speaker 1: the coaches that are there now. And maybe you'll start
Speaker 1: seeing a trend of well known popular coaches getting into
Speaker 1: the players getting into the coaching rings. Who knows, we'll see,
Speaker 1: but it's certainly one of those things that they got
Speaker 1: going on at Colorado that you know, if they have success,
Speaker 1: you might go, yeah, maybe we should consider more of
Speaker 1: these people. I don't know. All right, it's about time
Speaker 1: to take a break. But if you need help feeling
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Speaker 1: tissue free consultation and more at purelifemedical dot com. It's
Speaker 1: pure pure life. I'm Scott Mitchell filling in for Spence
Speaker 1: all week long. I'll be here all week so having
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. It's been a great show. If
Speaker 1: you miss any of the show, don't worry. Just go
Speaker 1: to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com or the ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred Sports app and you can get the podcast version.
Speaker 1: You can get anything that you missed. So driving along
Speaker 1: in your car and you just have to get out
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it's okay, you're not going to miss anything.
Speaker 1: So and always glad that you tune in. So we
Speaker 1: have a great time, having a great time today, and
Speaker 1: it's even going to get better because we're speaking with
Speaker 1: none other than Roxy Bernstein. He joins the show. Of course.
Speaker 1: He's a commentator on pretty much every sport invented. He
Speaker 1: is a play by play guy. Roxy. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: How you doing.
Speaker 8: I'm great, Scott, how are you?
Speaker 1: You know? I'm living the dream and as I always say,
Speaker 1: it's not a nightmare. So I feel pretty good about
Speaker 1: it and I am I am awakened conscious. So this
Speaker 1: is this is not you know, not made up. You
Speaker 1: were just in town right for Tom.
Speaker 8: They're kind of I try to slide in under the
Speaker 8: radar because it was supposed to be a surprise party
Speaker 8: for they had a retirement down at BYU for Tom
Speaker 8: Holmo twenty three years working in the administration of course,
Speaker 8: the athletic director of BYU, and and so it was
Speaker 8: supposed to be a surprise. So I didn't alert anybody
Speaker 8: I was coming to town like my buddies. I didn't
Speaker 8: text him, Hey, I'm coming in. Just slide under the radar.
Speaker 8: But was a great event. It was cool to see
Speaker 8: guys like Ronnie Lott and Keena Turner show up yea
Speaker 8: and in support of Tom Homo. But it was a
Speaker 8: fabulous night at it at Provo.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, Tom did a great job as as
Speaker 1: an ad And what I thought was a tough situation.
Speaker 1: I thought b YU being in independence was almost almost
Speaker 1: a prison sentence. Uh. And then and then you know,
Speaker 1: of course b YU has the unique challenges that it does,
Speaker 1: and I just thought he's just he's handled it so
Speaker 1: well and made some really savvy moves and uh, and
Speaker 1: you know, got b Yu, I think, in a better
Speaker 1: place when he left. And then he when he was
Speaker 1: there and when he showed up.
Speaker 8: So no question considering you're now in the Big Twelve,
Speaker 8: you're in one of the power for conferences. And there
Speaker 8: had to be some growing pains along the way you
Speaker 8: alluded to when they went independent and went West Coast
Speaker 8: Conference for a their Olympic sports and including basketball. But
Speaker 8: they were patient and the Big Twelve hunt for BYU
Speaker 8: was a long.
Speaker 6: Time in the making.
Speaker 8: It just didn't spark a few years ago like this
Speaker 8: has been something that they were after for a while
Speaker 8: and it came to fruition and now you look at
Speaker 8: the league and it's just when you look at especially
Speaker 8: in basketball, Scott. It's a good football league as we know,
Speaker 8: and certainly the success ASU had last year, but it's
Speaker 8: arguably the best basketball league in the country at least consistently,
Speaker 8: although the SEC was the best league in the country
Speaker 8: last year.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious, how many sports do you actually broadcast.
Speaker 8: As of now? I'm doing well, do we count pro
Speaker 8: and college as one? If I'm doing the same sport, I'm.
Speaker 1: Going to say no. But because I think it's different.
Speaker 1: I think it's a different preparation. Are you tell me?
Speaker 1: Is it the same? Doing the same sport or no.
Speaker 8: Prep, as you know, is different. So I do both
Speaker 8: the NFL and college football for ESPN NFL and ESPN
Speaker 8: Radio and college football on TV and radio. I do
Speaker 8: college basketball. Tons of it is your listeners who are
Speaker 8: familiar with the You know that I don't do the NBA.
Speaker 8: I do Major League in college baseball, and I do
Speaker 8: the NHL and a little bit of college hockey also
Speaker 8: for ESPN. So what is that seven.
Speaker 1: I had? Yeah, I had eight, But don't trust my math,
Speaker 1: right because I'm not sure I even have ten fingers,
Speaker 1: So who knows I could beware of? Uh So when
Speaker 1: you when you prep for that, I was just thinking this,
Speaker 1: you know how, I think it would be maddening. Which
Speaker 1: one of the sports that you actually broadcast you have
Speaker 1: to like really grind like, because I'm sure there are
Speaker 1: things you're just really comfortable, really familiar with, but there's
Speaker 1: got to be a sport, you man, It's it's a
Speaker 1: real grind to find it.
Speaker 8: Well, I wouldn't say, but I take it back. I've
Speaker 8: been doing some of that indoor football recently. Also, there's
Speaker 8: a team here at the Pay Area, so I forgot
Speaker 8: about it, The Bay Area Panthers are co owned by
Speaker 8: Marshawn Lynch and they're the team in the Western Conference.
Speaker 8: And so I've done and they reached out to me, Hey,
Speaker 8: do you want to do some of our games? Sure,
Speaker 8: I'll do your home games, yeah, and just drive down
Speaker 8: to San Jose. So they have the playoffs coming up,
Speaker 8: so we're getting ready for that. That's been the hardest Scott,
Speaker 8: because there is very little information out there on even
Speaker 8: the team's website. It is very elementary. So that has
Speaker 8: been the hardest sport to prepare for. And you know
Speaker 8: the thing that's challenging is, and you deal with this too, is,
Speaker 8: for example, an opening college football game, because the rosters
Speaker 8: are so big and you have the guys that are
Speaker 8: the top of the depth chart. Right if you get
Speaker 8: a one sided game, which for example, I'm probably going
Speaker 8: to have one of those week one, Well, how deep
Speaker 8: will the school go into their depth chart, what true
Speaker 8: freshmen are going to play? And how how big can
Speaker 8: I get my spotting board to make sure I have
Speaker 8: every potential player on there? So that that's challenging because
Speaker 8: you know, right when if Utah has played, for example,
Speaker 8: when they were heavy favorite over I don't know Southern
Speaker 8: Utah or weirder state, Right, how deep do you go
Speaker 8: in your depth chart? And you know, you try to
Speaker 8: quiz coach Witt and his staff, right, who could possibly
Speaker 8: see the field? That's a challenging I think, as it
Speaker 8: is to prepare for a game, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: Well, and if you get a Utah game, you're going
Speaker 1: to get a lot of Polynesian names and and I
Speaker 1: feel confident with them. But when you're on the air
Speaker 1: and you have to say it, just it's got to flow,
Speaker 1: you know, and you get you dig deep. That's that's
Speaker 1: a tough one.
Speaker 8: And it takes some practicing, right. You can't just phonetically.
Speaker 8: You have to say it at numbers and you can't
Speaker 8: just like repeat it in your head. You have to
Speaker 8: say it out loud and numerous times to make sure
Speaker 8: you get it correctly. Because the last thing you want
Speaker 8: to do is offend someone's family, especially their mom.
Speaker 1: If you and the Polynesian mom is that's that's that's
Speaker 1: a death sentence right there. It's it's like it's like
Speaker 1: throwing a football in the NFL. You just have to
Speaker 1: let it go. You just have to.
Speaker 5: You can't.
Speaker 1: You can't hold on to it. You just got to
Speaker 1: let it go. No, just just go for it. Just
Speaker 1: whatever you say, just say it with confidence and the
Speaker 1: and it'll turn out somewhat nice. Uh so, well, because
Speaker 1: I want to jump all over the place. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about a bunch of different things, different sports.
Speaker 1: I was I actually kind of wanted to play a game, okay,
Speaker 1: And do you want to play a game for a minute?
Speaker 8: Sure? Why not?
Speaker 1: Okay? So I'm going to give you a sport that
Speaker 1: you broadcast, and I want you to give me the
Speaker 1: most uh the most relevant information I need to know
Speaker 1: about that sport today. Can you do that?
Speaker 8: I can do my bad?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 9: College baseball, bok college baseball. The transfer portal is, of course,
Speaker 9: like college basketball, like college football, the talk of the
Speaker 9: town and money speaks, and players are leaving, and unfortunately
Speaker 9: that is taking the thunder away from what we should
Speaker 9: be talking about.
Speaker 8: But the transfer portal is just as prevalent college baseball
Speaker 8: as it is in football or basketball, and maybe even
Speaker 8: more so.
Speaker 6: To be honest with.
Speaker 1: You, really I did not know that. See I'm glad
Speaker 1: I asked you these questions. I'm glad we're playing this game.
Speaker 1: Is there money out? There for these players. Of I
Speaker 1: know there was a softball pitcher from Stanford who went
Speaker 1: I think to Texas.
Speaker 6: And back and got over a million.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was a big deal.
Speaker 8: All right, let's go you think thing go with that too,
Speaker 8: Scott is you deal with the major league draft with
Speaker 8: some high school kids and turning it down and if
Speaker 8: kids are drafted do they go do they go to college?
Speaker 8: And how much it really is. It's a fascinating deep dive.
Speaker 8: It could take you seriously down a rabbit hole if
Speaker 8: you don't stop.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I guess because you know, you get drafted
Speaker 1: out of high school, you're going to get some signing
Speaker 1: bonus or something. And where you go to college you
Speaker 1: may get more money, and you may it may be
Speaker 1: a better opportunity for you to grow and develop. And
Speaker 1: you still and you kind of still have the benefit.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're not having the same competition, but you're at
Speaker 1: least I don't know, getting I struggled with like three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month when I played. I can't fathom
Speaker 1: what these players are getting with money and how it's
Speaker 1: all really changed. It's so fascinating.
Speaker 8: With the agents involved, and it's crazy. I was, I
Speaker 8: was talking to a football agent last week, and they're
Speaker 8: going into the high schools now to recruit kids because
Speaker 8: they can make money on their nil contracts and deals
Speaker 8: that they have with schools. So it is starting not
Speaker 8: just okay, when guys are in college is probably when
Speaker 8: you first dealt with agents, but they're going into the
Speaker 8: high school ranks now because of the money that's out there.
Speaker 8: It is an incredible business now. I'm anxious to see
Speaker 8: how it changes moving forward and with some of the
Speaker 8: regulations they're trying to put in, but it is nuts
Speaker 8: when you think about high school kids are being approached
Speaker 8: by professional agents.
Speaker 1: So my agent, who I had my whole entire career,
Speaker 1: great great guy, still in agents today. He's been in
Speaker 1: the business forever, Tony agnow is his names in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: and I actually had him on my radio show talking
Speaker 1: about the same thing, and he said, he said, I
Speaker 1: had a former client whose son was going through all
Speaker 1: this stuff and he was, you know, he was a
Speaker 1: young kid still in high school and he goes and
Speaker 1: I was actually giving him instruction and helping him out
Speaker 1: with the whole thing. So yeah, it's a real thing,
Speaker 1: and they're going after these kids at a young age.
Speaker 6: It is crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, let's go to let's go to major
Speaker 1: League Baseball. What do I need to know about major
Speaker 1: League Baseball?
Speaker 8: Well, right now, the big thing is a trade deadline,
Speaker 8: because we're approaching it tomorrow and these trades are going
Speaker 8: to happen fast and furious, and teams like the Dodgers
Speaker 8: and the Yankees are going to be aggressive. And I've
Speaker 8: already seen some interesting trades go down today between the
Speaker 8: Mets and the Giants. And does that mean the Giants
Speaker 8: are waving the white flag that they don't think they
Speaker 8: can make a push for the wild card? But right
Speaker 8: now that's the talk as far as Major League Baseball goes.
Speaker 8: It's the trade deadline and it's going to get fast
Speaker 8: and furious here over the next probably twenty four hours,
Speaker 8: as these trades and teams are trying to strengthen their
Speaker 8: roster heading down the stretch toward the postseason.
Speaker 1: Is that what you kind of look for with the
Speaker 1: trade It's like, if the team doesn't make a trade
Speaker 1: and you're a fan, you go, we're done. They're they're
Speaker 1: not going to play make the playoffs? Or is there
Speaker 1: still hope for some of these teams who don't to
Speaker 1: don't land a good trade option.
Speaker 8: It's hard because teams are just trying to bolster their
Speaker 8: roster right, get depth where they're adding an arm for
Speaker 8: their pitching staff, whether it's a bullpen, or they're trying
Speaker 8: to bring in a starter where they're trying to get
Speaker 8: another bat to lengthen the lineup.
Speaker 5: It's hard if.
Speaker 8: You don't make a move because how aggressive these other
Speaker 8: teams are. And you see it, Scott. You know, when
Speaker 8: a team makes a move and they're aggressive about making
Speaker 8: a trade, it sets the message to the clubhouse or
Speaker 8: the locker room right that they believe in this team,
Speaker 8: and everybody in there gets just a little more confident
Speaker 8: knowing that, hey, they're trying to help us and they're
Speaker 8: trying to give us another weapon that we can use.
Speaker 8: So that's the other the psychological factor also coming up
Speaker 8: on a trade deadline. But or if a team that realizes,
Speaker 8: you know what, we're not going to get there, so
Speaker 8: they start unloading some key veterans or some big contracts
Speaker 8: to try to gear up for the next season or
Speaker 8: at least replenish their farm system.
Speaker 1: So you talked about, of course, the Dodgers Yankees, who
Speaker 1: do you think makes the biggest move in the in
Speaker 1: the with the trade this year, are there still moves
Speaker 1: to be made? Do you? Do you hear things? Who's
Speaker 1: gonna Who's gonna turn out with the best the best
Speaker 1: new team moving forward with the trade?
Speaker 8: Well, the Dodgers have always been aggressive, and they have
Speaker 8: the resources both with some of the talent they have
Speaker 8: in the minor leagues, plus the revenue and the money
Speaker 8: that we saw last offseason. Their bullpen is still an issue,
Speaker 8: and they've reportedly acquired about, for example, Mason Miller from
Speaker 8: the Artist formerly known as the Oakland Athletics. Uh Camillo
Speaker 8: Douvall is another one that the Giants closer. But I
Speaker 8: just find it hard to believe the Giants and Dodgers
Speaker 8: are going to get together on a trade where the
Speaker 8: Giants would send their closer to their bitter arch rival.
Speaker 8: But teams are gonna go for it. They're going to
Speaker 8: roll the dice knowing that everybody else is also trying
Speaker 8: to better their team and the only way to do
Speaker 8: it is is to be aggressive and will teams overpay,
Speaker 8: and the teams that are the sellers are trying to
Speaker 8: hold those teams in the club's ransom to try to
Speaker 8: get the best deal, and they'll try to wait until
Speaker 8: the eleventh hour to make a trade. But the Dodgers
Speaker 8: are going to be aggressive, and it wouldn't shock me
Speaker 8: if somebody like Detroit is aggressive or Toronto with how
Speaker 8: well they're playing. Those are teams that feel that they
Speaker 8: have a chance to contend it. And frankly, Scott, I
Speaker 8: think the American League is wide open.
Speaker 1: Ryan Sanmdberg. Ryan Samberg passes away this past He was
Speaker 1: one of my favorite players. Loved Ryan Samberg. Actually have
Speaker 1: a ball signed by Ryan Samberg. It's a funny story,
Speaker 1: but just loved him. Of course he died way too young.
Speaker 1: Just kind of your thoughts on him.
Speaker 8: First off, what a tremendous player, right, Rhino, What for
Speaker 8: sixteen years you think of him with the Cubs, although
Speaker 8: he was with the Phillies briefly as well, But to
Speaker 8: pass away at sixty five is so and he fought
Speaker 8: cancer for a number of years. But that's a part
Speaker 8: of my childhood right growing up watching Major League Baseball,
Speaker 8: and the Braves and the Cubs were basically on TV
Speaker 8: every day in every household if you were a baseball fan,
Speaker 8: because they were on those superstations and you got to
Speaker 8: see Harry Carey broadcasting, Ryan Sandberg and Mark Grayce and
Speaker 8: those great Cubs teams from the eighties, and he was
Speaker 8: the dominant offensive second basement of his generation. And what
Speaker 8: was it like, ten time All Star I believe, but
Speaker 8: gold gloves that he won Silver Sluggers and he was
Speaker 8: a no doubt Hall of Famer and just a phenomenal
Speaker 8: career that he was an MVP led the National League
Speaker 8: and homers one year. Just a tremendous player. But also
Speaker 8: you hear the great stories about him off the field
Speaker 8: and what a great person he was. And that's what
Speaker 8: makes it even fatter, is just you lost somebody so young,
Speaker 8: had such an impact and was really revered and loved
Speaker 8: by every Cub fan everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said, I really was upset by that because
Speaker 1: I have the same thing. You know, Braves and Cubs
Speaker 1: were in my living room and he was one of
Speaker 1: my favorite players. Speaking of baseball, we'll stay on that
Speaker 1: for just a minut Major League Baseball, there's there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about Salt Lake City potentially getting
Speaker 1: a franchise, and it seemed like they're they're I don't
Speaker 1: want to say they're the team, but they're certainly in
Speaker 1: significant consideration for a spot when expansion happens. Do you
Speaker 1: get a sense that that's reality or are we just
Speaker 1: living a non reality life here in Utah.
Speaker 8: No. I think it's realistic Scott, that Salt Lake City
Speaker 8: could become a major League team. There's some issues that
Speaker 8: major League Baseball needs to get through.
Speaker 6: First.
Speaker 8: They need to figure out the Tampa Bay situation, and
Speaker 8: it appears they have some clarity on that now. And
Speaker 8: they also have to get I think, some clarity on
Speaker 8: the athletics because Okay, yes they did their quote unquote
Speaker 8: groundbreaking in Vegas. I'm still not one hundred percent sold
Speaker 8: that they're moving to Vegas. I don't think it's more
Speaker 8: than likely than not they will end up there. But
Speaker 8: nothing having worked for that an organization, which I did
Speaker 8: for ten years, nothing would surprise me with that team.
Speaker 8: Like could they go back to Oakland? I think every
Speaker 8: option is on the table. Could they stay in Sacramento.
Speaker 8: Could John Fisher, who owns the team, get fed up
Speaker 8: with a situation and things are stalling in Vegas? Because
Speaker 8: keep in mind, he's got to pay for the majority
Speaker 8: of the ballpark himself. And as he get frustrated and
Speaker 8: decide to walk away and look to sell. And if
Speaker 8: that's the case, then would for example, Ryan Smith be
Speaker 8: active about trying to get the major league team there
Speaker 8: to Salt Lake City. We saw how aggressive he was
Speaker 8: in pursuit of bring him the Coyotes up and now
Speaker 8: the Mammoth getting ready for their second year and it
Speaker 8: is the whirlwin and how crazy it was that how
Speaker 8: quickly that deal came together. But I wouldn't rule anything
Speaker 8: out at this point. But I think major League Baseball
Speaker 8: has some other issues Scott to deal with as far
Speaker 8: as both Tampa Bay and the Athletics. And I also
Speaker 8: think the whole labor situation because we could be headed
Speaker 8: toward a lockout potentially after next baseball season.
Speaker 1: Ooh, were you with the A's when they were doing Moneyball?
Speaker 8: I was not, And so when Moneyball that was back
Speaker 8: the two early part of the early to mid two thousands,
Speaker 8: I was working for the Marlins at the time. So
Speaker 8: but it was prevalent. You know, everybody paid attention to
Speaker 8: what Oakland was doing, and it just seemed at the
Speaker 8: time that they were ahead of the game what Billy
Speaker 8: Bean was doing. And he talked about were hard counters
Speaker 8: at the casino, and they were creative about the way
Speaker 8: they did things. And for example, the movie Moneyball, really
Speaker 8: it cracks me up, to be honest with you, because well,
Speaker 8: for example, it featured Scott Hadiberg and Chad Bradford, who
Speaker 8: were key players on that team. I'm not saying they weren't,
Speaker 8: but what the movie neglects was the aides had three
Speaker 8: dominant ages at the top of the rotation. They had
Speaker 8: Tim Hudson, Mark Boulder, and Barry Zito, and two of
Speaker 8: those guys won cy YOUG Awards at one point in
Speaker 8: their career. Yet it kind of gets glossed over in
Speaker 8: the movie. And oh, by the way, that year they
Speaker 8: also had the American League MVP and Miguel Tahata, which
Speaker 8: kind of also doesn't really get featured in the film.
Speaker 8: And the other thing, I hate to burst the fan out,
Speaker 8: there's bubble, but you never had to pay for soda
Speaker 8: in the clubhouse.
Speaker 6: That's completely hogwashed.
Speaker 1: I love this And Rudy wasn't real either, by the way.
Speaker 1: I know that one too.
Speaker 8: They had to make it more appealing right for the audience.
Speaker 8: All it was such a great start. Chad Bradford, who
Speaker 8: is this, you know, submarine specialist that comes in and
Speaker 8: Scott Hadiberg teaching him to play first base. It's it's
Speaker 8: got to be more attractive than talking about Mulder, Hudson
Speaker 8: and Zeno.
Speaker 1: But don't But don't you think that sports actually in
Speaker 1: its raw form, I mean, you don't have to embellish it.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of great stories that you know, you can
Speaker 1: just state of the true true nature of them, and
Speaker 1: they're they're very compelling. I don't know, I just I
Speaker 1: don't think you have to embellish it to make it wonderful.
Speaker 8: No, And look, the twenty game win streak was incredible.
Speaker 8: Right to see the A's win night after night and
Speaker 8: think about that twenty consecutive wins and that's you're on
Speaker 8: top of your game for over three straight weeks. That's
Speaker 8: incredible to do. And then, of course the Indians or
Speaker 8: the Guardians I think they were the I think they
Speaker 8: were the Indians. Were they the Guardians at the time
Speaker 8: that they won the twenty two in a row?
Speaker 1: I remember because I thought they were the Indians.
Speaker 8: Okay, just Cleveland, I'll be safe and just go Cleveland.
Speaker 8: But it's crazy to think about how consistent you need
Speaker 8: to be and the other as you know this as
Speaker 8: well as anybody. Those professionals on the other side, I
Speaker 8: don't care, for example, how bad the Colorado Rockies are
Speaker 8: this year. That is a major league team and they're
Speaker 8: professionals and they're competing at the highest level. And to
Speaker 8: win twenty consecutive major league games, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: Well it is because you talk about the bad teams
Speaker 1: are still really good, and they are. And that line
Speaker 1: between winning and losing is so thin, and it's just
Speaker 1: and it moves all the time. And you know, you
Speaker 1: can walk into a game and say, oh man, we
Speaker 1: got this and we are just on top of the
Speaker 1: world and we're playing a garbage team today and you
Speaker 1: get it handed to you or the other way around.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, I don't know if we got
Speaker 1: a shot today, and all of a sudden, you beat
Speaker 1: the best team in the world. So yeah, it's to
Speaker 1: do that is absolutely incredible. To win that number of
Speaker 1: games in a row. All right, let's go ahead.
Speaker 8: No no, no about upsets. Okay, upsets happen, and but to
Speaker 8: do it on the road and you're fatigued, you're tired,
Speaker 8: but you keep grinding, and you see upsets, crazy upsets
Speaker 8: more in college, and you do professionally because the pros
Speaker 8: are just not upsets. It's because they're professionals. They're getting
Speaker 8: paid just like everybody Else's all.
Speaker 1: Right in our little game we're playing here, I'm going
Speaker 1: to let you it's it's dealer's choice. So you get
Speaker 1: to pick which sport you want to talk about that
Speaker 1: you broadcast. Give me relevant information that I need to know.
Speaker 8: Oh, relevant information that we need to know. Well, I
Speaker 8: went and watched by U basketball practice the other day.
Speaker 8: Is that relevant?
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Yeah, we're we're on the Voice of Utah. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I'm kidding, hay On. Let me give you
Speaker 1: because this is this is my perspective, and I'm a
Speaker 1: big fan of Look, I went to Utah and I
Speaker 1: left and I went, you know, and played professional football
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. And I want my uthes to
Speaker 1: be on the national stage. And I think by U
Speaker 1: basketball is headed there, if it isn't there already, and
Speaker 1: they're making that commitment, whether it's financially and whatever they're doing.
Speaker 1: You know, they get the number one prospect in the country,
Speaker 1: and and it looks like they've got a pretty solid
Speaker 1: basketball team this year. And it's and it's mind boggling
Speaker 1: to me because here you're in the Big Twelve and
Speaker 1: you talk about what is this This This conference is
Speaker 1: known for basketball, and it's certainly not known for BYU basketball,
Speaker 1: but they are making a name for themselves. And I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, hey, big brother up the street forty five
Speaker 1: minutes away, you better get your act together. Are you
Speaker 1: going to get left in the dust. That's my take
Speaker 1: on this.
Speaker 8: Well, I think the Big Twelve took notice that by
Speaker 8: us a player last year, look what Kevin Young did
Speaker 8: with certainly some support both financially and off the floor,
Speaker 8: that they're going to compete and they've got the resources
Speaker 8: to do it. And last year, for example, Jegor Demon
Speaker 8: the top ten pick this year in the NBA Draft,
Speaker 8: and they go out, as you alluded to, HJ. Debansa
Speaker 8: coming in as the top prospect of the country, Richie
Speaker 8: Saunders staying, they have depth, they're really talented, and they're
Speaker 8: going to be really good and I don't see it
Speaker 8: flowing down anytime soon. And maybe that's what motivated the
Speaker 8: coaching change in Utah and to try to kind of
Speaker 8: copy I don't want to say copy what they're doing,
Speaker 8: but certainly the way the Utah puts their stamp on it,
Speaker 8: because we know how proud of a basketball program the
Speaker 8: running Utes have you do you think.
Speaker 1: That ask you know, you talk about putting a stamp
Speaker 1: or copying it. You know, you have Kevin Young, who's it.
Speaker 1: You know, watching BYU, it looked more like a pro
Speaker 1: styled game. You know, the floor was spread out more,
Speaker 1: and it looked, you know, more of a free or
Speaker 1: flowing game and as opposed to kind of hunkered in
Speaker 1: and you know, and in a half court game. And
Speaker 1: so Utah Alex Jensen, who was a former player but
Speaker 1: had a lot of extensive experience as an assistant in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Do you think that's a just a one
Speaker 1: or two off just just because of it, you know
Speaker 1: the nature of the schools here, or is this potentially
Speaker 1: a trend in college basketball in general?
Speaker 8: Well, I think for example, with Utah seeing a success
Speaker 8: that BYU had, I'm sure it had some influence on
Speaker 8: hiring Alex Jensen, and of course the former player, but
Speaker 8: with the NBA experience, but you're seeing at some NBA
Speaker 8: guys in the college game and have success And for example,
Speaker 8: my alma mater over at cal Mark Matt who was
Speaker 8: at Utah Valley, did a really good job as a
Speaker 8: college head coach coach in the NBA with the Lakers
Speaker 8: played in the NBA for a long time. USC Eric
Speaker 8: Musselman was a head coach in the NBA even the
Speaker 8: mid major quote unquote programs. Mike Bibbie gets hired as
Speaker 8: the head coach at Sacramento State. You're seeing that NBA
Speaker 8: influence now come in to the college game. And it's
Speaker 8: not just that influence, but when I watch Arizona play,
Speaker 8: for example, the free flowing offense that Tommy Lloyd has
Speaker 8: and when they were doing at Gonzaga when he was
Speaker 8: there as well, that's kind of what the thought process is.
Speaker 8: And I thought how creative Mark Pope was when he
Speaker 8: was the coach at BYU and how their offense and
Speaker 8: now he carries it to Kentucky. So I think we're
Speaker 8: seeing more of that NBA influence come into the college game.
Speaker 1: I got one more question for you, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to pick the sport. This is our last question. The
Speaker 1: game done amazing, by the way, I'm very impressed how
Speaker 1: you play this game, but so the Mammoth. Of course
Speaker 1: you were the Coyotes. Now they're the Mammoth. We're trying,
Speaker 1: we're slowly being convinced that the Mammoth was a thing
Speaker 1: here in Utah. But it was just a long time.
Speaker 1: It's ten thousand years ago. It's but we're catching up
Speaker 1: to history. What is it going to take and have
Speaker 1: the Mammoth done enough to make it to be a
Speaker 1: playoff team this year? In this in this NHL season.
Speaker 8: I thought they could have been a playoff team last year,
Speaker 8: but things had to go right, and they had so
Speaker 8: many injuries, got in the blue line right with John
Speaker 8: marineing as much time as he did, Sergachev was banged up,
Speaker 8: Sean Dursey was out for an extended period of time.
Speaker 8: It makes it hard to compete when guys you're counting on,
Speaker 8: and that was basically you didn't have half of your
Speaker 8: defense corps for a good chunk of the season. I
Speaker 8: like the move they made to go get Pa Turca
Speaker 8: to give them some more firepower up. Look, guys that
Speaker 8: score twenty five thirty goals a year, they don't grow
Speaker 8: on trees. And when I look at the top six
Speaker 8: offensively that they have with the great season that Keller had,
Speaker 8: the emergence of Gunther like, this is a team that
Speaker 8: can't compete. The problem that they have is you look
Speaker 8: at the division and how good Dallas is and the
Speaker 8: firepower Colorado has. It is a very tough division to
Speaker 8: compete in, and that's what they're going to have to do.
Speaker 8: But I think they can push. I think that there's
Speaker 8: a lot of young talent that's pushing under the radar
Speaker 8: move I like to pick up a Brandon tanneb You
Speaker 8: need to have a little sandpaper out there and some depth.
Speaker 8: This is a team that I think is definitely in
Speaker 8: the upswing and could push for a playoff spot next year.
Speaker 1: I sure hope. So for the sake and the sanity
Speaker 1: of all sports fans in the state of Utah, we
Speaker 1: need some winning. We're in the process of rebuilding all
Speaker 1: of our professional sports teams except for RSL. RSL is
Speaker 1: doing quite well.
Speaker 8: So well, I'll say that Mammoth they're not rebuilding at
Speaker 8: this point. They're rising. They were bottomed out and they
Speaker 8: consistently been getting better, so they're on the rise.
Speaker 1: How's that. I love the optimism. Hey, and thank you
Speaker 1: so much for humoring me with this little game we played.
Speaker 1: I hope it wasn't too much for you. I didn't
Speaker 1: ask you to name any pa Polynesian names, so hopefully
Speaker 1: it was a good day, a lot of fun.
Speaker 8: I really appreciate thanks for having me man.
Speaker 1: All right, have a good day you too. All right,
Speaker 1: there you have it. Roxy Bernstein. Of course, he is
Speaker 1: the man. He broadcasts all the sports around the sports dial.
Speaker 1: So oh, we're going to get some sound from Utah
Speaker 1: coming up here at after the break, We're going to
Speaker 1: have sounds from Camp ESPN seven our listeners. Help children
Speaker 1: at the road home start school in style. Stop by
Speaker 1: the advocates in Ogden, American Fork or Murray, pick an
Speaker 1: apple from the tree, and you can supply clothing, backpacks
Speaker 1: for a child at the road home. Is the drive
Speaker 1: was spent? Check its here on ESPN seven hundred ninety
Speaker 1: two one FM. Utah's the number one sports talk a
Speaker 1: fun show today, A lot of crazy stuff to talk about.
Speaker 1: I just enjoy it, I really do. I hope you too.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy the stories, the insight, the interviews,
Speaker 1: all of it, the analysis, paralysis by analysis, pick a guy,
Speaker 1: let a fly. These are all the things we just learned.
Speaker 1: Right now, we're going to do a little Camp Kyle assessment.
Speaker 1: Of course, we have the coordinators talking to us, and
Speaker 1: we have none other than old Morgan Scaley. He's gonna
Speaker 1: tell us what's going on up with night Hill.
Speaker 2: I asked you at the end of spring what might
Speaker 2: still be top of mind come fall, and you mentioned depth,
Speaker 2: that corner and defensive tackle.
Speaker 10: Obviously you haven't.
Speaker 3: Been on the field yet, but where do you write
Speaker 3: where do you feel.
Speaker 1: Here save spat spot.
Speaker 11: That's good, very good, yeah, but you know good to
Speaker 11: have a couple uh funeral d tackles dal In Battle
Speaker 11: transferring from LSU Pooper Cepalona, Semi Talalonga.
Speaker 10: So those bodies will.
Speaker 11: Help out a lot in the depth category. Now it's
Speaker 11: just a matter of developed, developing them and seeing who
Speaker 11: can play right away. The good thing is is we're
Speaker 11: not having to do much physically with them.
Speaker 10: There were there weights where it needs to be. It's
Speaker 10: just learning the defense.
Speaker 12: What led to your pursuit of Dylan Battle in the
Speaker 12: transfer portal outside of just the need of.
Speaker 11: Depth, well depth, the relationship he had with a former teammate,
Speaker 11: you know, and he was being let go. It was
Speaker 11: also an opportunity to look at something. You know, he
Speaker 11: was coming off an injury and we felt like we
Speaker 11: could be pretty aggressive in the treatment of it, that
Speaker 11: we could get him going right away.
Speaker 10: So there are a few things there.
Speaker 11: But obviously with the relationship we had with his coaching
Speaker 11: staff back in high school and then his relationship with meate.
Speaker 13: When you look at fall camp, how do you want
Speaker 13: to approach it in terms of trying to like get
Speaker 13: guys aggressive, kind of get them ready, but also still
Speaker 13: kind of save something for the season.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's a physical sport. You gotta you gotta be
Speaker 11: able to practice tackling. I think a few years ago
Speaker 11: and we played Florida. First time we played Florida at
Speaker 11: their place. We tried it, tried to dial it down physically,
Speaker 11: and we missed a ton of tackles in that game
Speaker 11: and it exposed us a little bit. So, yes, you know,
Speaker 11: we want to get to the first game healthy and uh,
Speaker 11: you know, we're spacing out the practices and the periods
Speaker 11: in a way that you know, we feel like we're
Speaker 11: being smart with with their health. At the same time,
Speaker 11: as a physical sport, you got to practice physicality, got
Speaker 11: to be able to tackle and do the things that
Speaker 11: football players do.
Speaker 12: Your defensive end room looks noticeably different, obviously in terms
Speaker 12: of the faces, but also just leaner, builds more athleticism.
Speaker 12: Has that been a point of emphasis this offseason? Increase
Speaker 12: in the athleticism, Uh.
Speaker 11: Not necessarily, I would say getting stronger. Definitely. You're always
Speaker 11: looking for speed off the edge. You know, this is
Speaker 11: again a point I've talked about before.
Speaker 10: I'm much more.
Speaker 11: Focused on a productive, efficient pass rush than sacks. If
Speaker 11: I'm hitting a quarterback, if I'm being disruptive, then you're
Speaker 11: forcing him to get rid of the ball quicker than
Speaker 11: he wants to. So I felt like we did a
Speaker 11: pretty good job of that last year. Obviously the sack
Speaker 11: count wasn't what it was in previous seasons, but I
Speaker 11: felt like we were effective at getting to the quarterback.
Speaker 11: I like the depth that we have there. I think
Speaker 11: that we've gotten better. Coach Palace done a great job
Speaker 11: of developing that group, and it's going to be a
Speaker 11: competitive fall camp for those guys.
Speaker 12: Corners also in the portal at GC Heart and Jalen Motion,
Speaker 12: what did they bring.
Speaker 13: To this corner room.
Speaker 1: We'll find out.
Speaker 11: Jac obviously has a ton of speed, he was a
Speaker 11: track guy out of high school, had shown that at
Speaker 11: Auburn the.
Speaker 10: Speed and the fluidity that we were looking for.
Speaker 11: He's got to continue to make sure that he's doing
Speaker 11: everything he can to be healthy, you know, with shoulder
Speaker 11: and everything. And then Mosen obviously provides some quickness, some athleticism.
Speaker 11: So those are two guys that need the development as well.
Speaker 11: But we would not have gone that route if we
Speaker 11: didn't feel like we could use them right away.
Speaker 13: You've seen a lot of offensive looks in your tenure,
Speaker 13: but what does it mean to have a guy like
Speaker 13: Devin Dampier who can kind of make things just different
Speaker 13: to kind of help your defense.
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 11: You know, Athletic quarterbacks just cause issues, particularly when you're
Speaker 11: going to use them in a dedicated quarterback run game.
Speaker 10: It's one thing for him to just pull it on
Speaker 10: his own.
Speaker 11: Escape the pocket, things break down and he's able to
Speaker 11: make plays just with his legs on his own. But
Speaker 11: when there's a dedicated run package or that you, as
Speaker 11: a defensive coordinator, I really have to focus on, Okay,
Speaker 11: how are we going to add a guy in the box?
Speaker 11: You know, how are we going to take care of
Speaker 11: the quarterback in the run game.
Speaker 10: It really forces you to practice that. So he provides both.
Speaker 11: You know he can if you're going to form man
Speaker 11: rush the kid. He does a great job of understanding
Speaker 11: when things break down when to take off. But they
Speaker 11: also have a very good, dedicated QB run game.
Speaker 7: At the beginning of spring, you talked about having an
Speaker 7: emphasis on more havoc plays this season. How do you
Speaker 7: feel that that went in the spring and then how
Speaker 7: does that work going to continue going on into the fall.
Speaker 11: I felt like havoc plays were a strong emphasis in spring.
Speaker 11: I felt like we did a really good job of it.
Speaker 11: The takeaways were really good. That's got to continue in
Speaker 11: fall camp. The studies have shown us that you know,
Speaker 11: your takeaways come from your number one takeaway in the
Speaker 11: Big Twelve last year was an interception in zone coverage.
Speaker 11: It's zone eyes, it's quarterbacks forcing things into windows.
Speaker 10: The second was intercept in man coverage.
Speaker 11: Which man coverage, you know, usually that's more of an
Speaker 11: incompletion coverage.
Speaker 10: Your your completion.
Speaker 11: Percentage goes down, and so the majority of interceptions you
Speaker 11: see there are you know, tipped passes, free safety coming
Speaker 11: over the top. And then you know, so the next
Speaker 11: thing that you're looking at is forced fumbles from the
Speaker 11: second guy in, not the first guy in.
Speaker 10: Second guy in.
Speaker 11: So there are certain takeaways, certain aspects of takeaways that
Speaker 11: you can practice zone drops, catching a football, you know,
Speaker 11: including footballs in your drill work, and then a focus
Speaker 11: on second guy in, how to strip the ball, how
Speaker 11: to take care of the ball, how to go down,
Speaker 11: how to recover ball in traffic versus how to recover
Speaker 11: a ball in space right, and so those are the
Speaker 11: things that we have to do a really good job
Speaker 11: of the things that you can practice in terms of takeaways.
Speaker 10: You better be practicing. And I feel like we're doing
Speaker 10: a good job of that.
Speaker 12: You talked about you talked about completion percentage, you know,
Speaker 12: in coverage smith snow and allowed. I think like forty
Speaker 12: percent coverage. Tail On someone's also really good. What's going
Speaker 12: to be the key for them becoming more playmakers on
Speaker 12: the ball and getting those takeaways.
Speaker 10: It's just a matter of making the plays.
Speaker 11: There's a couple of times last year where Tail's got
Speaker 11: the ball right there, can make can make a play,
Speaker 11: didn't make the play, and so it's just a matter
Speaker 11: of making the play. He's got the athleticism he's got
Speaker 11: the ability. We just got to be able to make
Speaker 11: the play. So again, drill work where they're flipping finding
Speaker 11: the ball right locally, locate drills on the sideline when
Speaker 11: you're when you're working fades, you know, vertical routes, jumping
Speaker 11: in front of the vertical route. When to steal, when
Speaker 11: to strike right? There comes a time where you have
Speaker 11: to make that decision as a safety. Am I am
Speaker 11: I going to be able to get to the ball
Speaker 11: if not strike him? If I can get there, steal it.
Speaker 11: So again, drill work is a big part of that.
Speaker 5: Spring.
Speaker 13: In spring you had talked about you guys just weren't
Speaker 13: good enough and stopping the run. How do you feel
Speaker 13: like you can change that this year? What is the
Speaker 13: personnel like, how do you kind of get to that point?
Speaker 11: Some of it was techniques, some of it was mistackles.
Speaker 11: So again, we got to be able to tackle better,
Speaker 11: you know, the not throwing shoulders, making sure that we
Speaker 11: understand proper tackling technique, and then proper technique in maintaining gaps.
Speaker 11: A big a bunch of the big hitters were guys
Speaker 11: not maintaining their gaps.
Speaker 10: And that's just an alignment assignment deal.
Speaker 1: All right, there you have it. Coach Morgan scally is
Speaker 1: first day of camp. There are some really interesting stuff there.
Speaker 1: A little bit surprising to me. Actually. One of the things,
Speaker 1: of course, is the is the depth and adding a
Speaker 1: few guys in the transfer portal. And the comment to
Speaker 1: me that kind of stood out was, we wouldn't go
Speaker 1: after these guys if we didn't think that they could
Speaker 1: help us immediately. I think it's a big challenge for
Speaker 1: programs in this day and age, where you have the
Speaker 1: transfer portal, you don't have the years to developing.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 1: You hear Coach Scaley talk about TAYO Johnson and there
Speaker 1: were plays to be made and and you know, TAYL
Speaker 1: Johnson this year probably makes those plays. And it's because
Speaker 1: he's had time to develop, he said, time to grow.
Speaker 1: He said, he's gotten that experience, and experience is just
Speaker 1: such a big part of the kind of success you have.
Speaker 1: So it'll be fascinating to me one to see how
Speaker 1: how this defense actually assimilate some of this depth and
Speaker 1: some of these new guys that have come in post
Speaker 1: spring football. Another thing that I thought was interesting was
Speaker 1: that like there's a lot of depth at certain positions,
Speaker 1: and and I think I think the absolute key to
Speaker 1: this defense is to be able to get pressure on
Speaker 1: the quarterback. I I when when the season ended last year,
Speaker 1: if it was me, I would and and I had
Speaker 1: like money to spend and to go out in the
Speaker 1: transfer portal, I go find the best defensive lineman I
Speaker 1: could possibly find in the transfer portal, and I would
Speaker 1: do it in you know, I spend the money at
Speaker 1: because because it just makes this defense go. And you
Speaker 1: have you have athleticism in the secondary, you got experience
Speaker 1: at linebacker. You put pressure on the quarterback, and it
Speaker 1: really spells uh up. You know, a healthy, positive thing
Speaker 1: for your your defense if you can do that. And
Speaker 1: so they've got a lot of guys, and it's really
Speaker 1: good that there's competition because that that's going to raise
Speaker 1: all boats, you know, the competition type of thing. So
Speaker 1: it'll be it'll be fascinating to me to see what
Speaker 1: happens was this defensive line. And and there's some guys
Speaker 1: in there that could potentially really emerge and and and
Speaker 1: you know, you listen to Morgan, you know, he doesn't
Speaker 1: sound like he's full of baloney. It doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: he's just kind of I mean, I know that there's
Speaker 1: you know, there's whatever, but I think he really feels
Speaker 1: confident that he's got some depth at that defensive line position,
Speaker 1: is a defensive end position, and that that someone will
Speaker 1: emerge out of the pack. And you know, it's this
Speaker 1: as this team evolves, as this team develops, the quicker
Speaker 1: that they can create, that assimilation the team, whatever, I
Speaker 1: think the better off they're actually going to be. You
Speaker 1: were there, porter, what what's what's some of your thoughts?
Speaker 2: I always and I agree with you Scott on on
Speaker 2: some of the things that stood out from from one
Speaker 2: Morgan Scalley. But I always kind of point back to
Speaker 2: and and you heard me open up the questioning with Morgan,
Speaker 2: asking him had anything changed from fall and or from
Speaker 2: from spring. Right, he wanted to see depth in the
Speaker 2: quarterback cornerback room and depth in the defensive tackle room improve.
Speaker 2: And his response to that was, Dude, we haven't played
Speaker 2: anything yet, right, we have not hit the field yet.
Speaker 2: This is the first interview of spring. We haven't practiced yet.
Speaker 2: Check back next week, check back after kickoff. And for me,
Speaker 2: that tells me that there's still questions.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: The fact that.
Speaker 2: Morgan is being very ambiguous about some of the depth
Speaker 2: at cornerback, at defensive tackle. That tells me that he's
Speaker 2: still working through some of the hierarchy there. And thirty
Speaker 2: one days from kickoff, I really want to see that
Speaker 2: take shape. I really want to know who the first
Speaker 2: four or five guys are at corner and I really
Speaker 2: want to know how deep that defensive tackle rotation is because,
Speaker 2: as you know Scott, on this Utah team and on
Speaker 2: this Particularler defensive scheme, if you can have four, five,
Speaker 2: six guys rotating a defensive tackle, it adds an element
Speaker 2: to this defense that completely changes the way they can play.
Speaker 1: When they've had depth, they've won championships exactly. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just been a thing. Whether it's because you know,
Speaker 1: you save guys, you keep guys healthy, you have a
Speaker 1: nice rotation, they don't get beat up, they don't get
Speaker 1: worn out. There is there's just an attrition through the year,
Speaker 1: and and so having that depth is just is just
Speaker 1: really the key to success. And quite frankly, I think
Speaker 1: it's a key to you know, a lot of these
Speaker 1: big time programs, they just they do their stockpiled with
Speaker 1: really good player you know, the backups. If you think
Speaker 1: about back in the day at USC, the backups might
Speaker 1: be better than the starters and and that's where Utah
Speaker 1: really made a move to be a different team. So
Speaker 1: it's challenging now now the backups. Now the depth is
Speaker 1: coming through the portal and it's coming late, and so
Speaker 1: can they get up to speed. Morgan did say from
Speaker 1: a physical standpoint, we're good. So we don't have a
Speaker 1: bunch of fat bodies that we got to get in shape.