Speaker 1: So if we're gonna do Billy Joel, you and I
Speaker 1: need a chat because I'm quite sure, with you being
Speaker 1: a young and you being a Summit County boy, your
Speaker 1: Billy Joel knowledge probably needs a little encouragement and a
Speaker 1: little uh, you know, rushing up?
Speaker 2: Is that this is this is fair? Uh? The only
Speaker 2: time I really have heard Billy Joel is parents a
Speaker 2: little bit. But then you little and old old uh
Speaker 2: Britain covey a are Billy Joel?
Speaker 1: Well, Billy Joel is coming to Rice Cycle Stadium. Billy
Speaker 1: Joel has like a bunch of awesome albums and a
Speaker 1: bunch of horrible albums and horrible songs. That doesn't make
Speaker 1: him unique. Let's talk about it, but let's talk football.
Speaker 1: Brian Jeffries, the play by play voice of the Arizona Wildcats,
Speaker 1: on a Monday, Mister Jeffries, how are you, sir?
Speaker 2: Very good?
Speaker 3: Glass Houses? Is that? Is that the album you're thinking of?
Speaker 2: Last Houses? Good? Pull?
Speaker 1: So I may I presume that you're a fan of
Speaker 1: Billy Joel.
Speaker 3: I you know, I'm not a diehard. I'm not going to,
Speaker 3: you know, run to his concert at the drop of
Speaker 3: the hat. But yeah, I guess I kind of was
Speaker 3: growing up in his era, so I'm certainly familiar with
Speaker 3: his music. And before I got into sports broadcasting, I'll
Speaker 3: admit to you that I was a rock and roll DJ,
Speaker 3: and so I probably played some of his records.
Speaker 2: Oh, very nice times, very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1: I always love to hear the journey of how people
Speaker 1: ended up where they did. And obviously now you and
Speaker 1: have been doing this for a long time with the
Speaker 1: University of.
Speaker 2: Arizona, Brian, what stood out most to you?
Speaker 1: Let's start macro level thirty thousand foot view, Arizona twenty three,
Speaker 1: Utah ten.
Speaker 2: What were your main takeaways?
Speaker 3: Well, I think just the way the Wildcats attacked the game.
Speaker 3: If you look back at their season so far, you know,
Speaker 3: they have been kind of up and down. I mean,
Speaker 3: they had a great offensive game planned against New Mexico
Speaker 3: and their opener defense didn't look very good. Second game
Speaker 3: defense looked great, offense kind of sputtered. Third game. You know,
Speaker 3: they scored on their opening drive at Kansas State, they
Speaker 3: were by seven or early third quarter, and then everything
Speaker 3: kind of fell apart from there. They had the bye
Speaker 3: week to try and fix some things, and I think
Speaker 3: the biggest question was you know, would they come out
Speaker 3: and attack Utah because, as you guys know, that's how
Speaker 3: the Utes play. I mean, they're a very attacking team
Speaker 3: and Arizona had to stand up to that. And so
Speaker 3: I think that's the first thing that I noticed early
Speaker 3: on in that game that on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 3: Arizona was very aggressive and that's something they need to do.
Speaker 3: If they had any chance to win, they had to
Speaker 3: do that. I'm not going to sit here and tell
Speaker 3: you I thought they had a chance to win, but
Speaker 3: I knew they had to come out and play a
Speaker 3: very aggressive football if they were going to have any
Speaker 3: chance of winning. And that's what they did. Like you said,
Speaker 3: from high up, I.
Speaker 2: Wonder around here and this won't be a surprise.
Speaker 1: I mean, the biggest topic of conversation is who the
Speaker 1: quarterback is going to be for the Utes and week
Speaker 1: in and week out. You know, you remember it was
Speaker 1: the same thing last year where the messaging from the
Speaker 1: team was it's going to be Cam, he's close, it's
Speaker 1: game time, and then it wasn't. And you know, this year,
Speaker 1: they've got a good young backup in Isaac Wilson who's
Speaker 1: looked pretty good. He's looked better than the situation a
Speaker 1: year ago that ultimately led to a.
Speaker 2: Lot of chasts around here.
Speaker 1: I wonder, Brian, what was the conversation last week leading
Speaker 1: up to the game about who Arizona generally speaking, was
Speaker 1: preparing for to see under center for Utah.
Speaker 3: Well, I can't take you inside the coaches room. I
Speaker 3: can tell you that they probably did the politically correct things,
Speaker 3: saying that they would expect either one of them, had
Speaker 3: to be prepared for either one of them. I know
Speaker 3: that Brent Brennan talked about the experience factor of Cam
Speaker 3: over Isaac Wilson that would be a big factor if
Speaker 3: he played. I think most of the talk was that
Speaker 3: Utah really didn't change its offense a lot depending on
Speaker 3: which quarterback they had. Other than the experience factor, it
Speaker 3: looked just on game film that they were running basically
Speaker 3: the same plays, and so you had to be prepared
Speaker 3: more for Utah's running attack, which is, as you know,
Speaker 3: always been the strength of that team, as opposed to
Speaker 3: who the quarterback might be. Now, the previous two games
Speaker 3: for Arizona they had faced a running quarterback, and I
Speaker 3: guess the one thing going into the game up in
Speaker 3: Salt Lake City, the thought was that Isaac Wilson is
Speaker 3: not going to run, and if cam Rising is playing,
Speaker 3: he's not going to run, because they just didn't want
Speaker 3: to afford any injuries there. And so I can't tell
Speaker 3: you what the Arizona defensive coaches thought if they were
Speaker 3: preparing for the fact that, hey, whoever Utah starts, they're
Speaker 3: probably not going to be a guy that's going to
Speaker 3: run a lot, and maybe they could game plan that way,
Speaker 3: but I don't think there was any thought at least
Speaker 3: from the Arizona camp one way or another as to
Speaker 3: who was going to start in that game and play
Speaker 3: the game.
Speaker 1: So watching the k State game, you know in Kansas State,
Speaker 1: Utah similar type programs as far as how they want
Speaker 1: to play, it felt Brian that Arizona just had a
Speaker 1: difficult time keeping up with the physicality of k State,
Speaker 1: which I think led to a lot of people around
Speaker 1: here being pretty confident because Utah is a very physical
Speaker 1: football team. But for me, it didn't look like Arizona
Speaker 1: was concerned with the physicality of Utah at all. It
Speaker 1: didn't seem like they were taken back by It didn't
Speaker 1: seem like they were intimidated by it. In fact, oftentimes
Speaker 1: it seemed like they were the ones bringing the physicality
Speaker 1: to a youth team, where it's usually the other way
Speaker 1: around more often than not. What do you attribute the
Speaker 1: shift to. I mean there was a buye between K
Speaker 1: State and Utah. The K State physical team. Arizona had
Speaker 1: a tough time holding up to that physicality. Utah physical
Speaker 1: team didn't seem to face them.
Speaker 3: What are your thoughts, Well, I think the bie weeks
Speaker 3: certainly helped you have a chance to sit back and
Speaker 3: look at some game film, maybe a little more than
Speaker 3: you do during a week because you're normally just preparing
Speaker 3: for your next opponent. So there was also some healthier guys.
Speaker 3: Everybody was not everybody, but you know, guys get banged up,
Speaker 3: not major injuries. And they used that bye week, I
Speaker 3: think to their advantage. And even though it's a new
Speaker 3: coaching staff at Arizona, if you go back to last
Speaker 3: year's Arizona Utah game here in Tucson, I think that's
Speaker 3: really kind of the turning point for Arizona in that
Speaker 3: game that they were able to stand up to Utah's physicality.
Speaker 3: And so maybe they the returning guys, maybe they used
Speaker 3: some of that I know. I asked the coaches, I said,
Speaker 3: even though you weren't on the staff a year ago,
Speaker 3: did you look back at last year's game film to
Speaker 3: try and draw anything from that? And they admitted they did,
Speaker 3: but again they were looking more at what Uta had
Speaker 3: done earlier this season. So it's a combination of things.
Speaker 3: And maybe, you know, the Arizona players just kind of
Speaker 3: figured out that, hey, if we're gonna win, we have
Speaker 3: to be more physical, and they certainly went out and
Speaker 3: did that, and we'll see if they can continue it
Speaker 3: as the season goes on.
Speaker 1: How you know, obviously all of us around here very
Speaker 1: impressed to the job Jedfish did, and I guess Washington
Speaker 1: took note and ultimately he left. How I'm just generally speaking,
Speaker 1: I think everybody was expecting Brian kind of a mass
Speaker 1: exodus to follow Jet up to Washington. How injured, ultimately
Speaker 1: how hurt as far as the personnel goes, was the
Speaker 1: program as a result of the coaching change? And you know, ultimately,
Speaker 1: did it feel like more guys stuck around than you
Speaker 1: were expecting, or did the amount of players who decided
Speaker 1: to bounce after losing their coach kind of fall in
Speaker 1: line with what you were expecting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's kind of hard to tell. I
Speaker 3: think more guys stayed than probably at least if you
Speaker 3: look at the media going into it or the social media.
Speaker 3: I think after Jed laughed last year, they expected more
Speaker 3: to go, and Jed made a concerted effort to try
Speaker 3: and get more guys to go to Washington. You know,
Speaker 3: Arizona lost Jonah Coleman, who was their best running back,
Speaker 3: and now he's the best running back at Washington. A
Speaker 3: season's of prices. Sock also went to Washington. I don't
Speaker 3: know how much he's played yet. He's a defensive back.
Speaker 3: Maybe the bigger loss than Coleman was Bill Norton, who
Speaker 3: left to go to Texas and he was a defensive
Speaker 3: lineman at Arizona, and that kind of wiped out Arizona's
Speaker 3: defensive front. They already had some guys graduating, but the
Speaker 3: fact that they were able to keep nor Fafida, Tedroa McMillan, etc.
Speaker 3: Tacario Davis, those three guys and Burnett, I'm thinking the
Speaker 3: guys that I know Washington really wanted. But those guys
Speaker 3: all had something in common. They call it the Band
Speaker 3: of the Brotherhood and they decided that, you know, they
Speaker 3: had committed to Arizona, they had committed to themselves. They
Speaker 3: have a different outlook on things. They're not all just
Speaker 3: looking for the nil money. And so they made the
Speaker 3: decision after Jed left that no, they were going to
Speaker 3: stick together and that probably kept some other guys. I
Speaker 3: mentioned some of them. There's some other guys probably that
Speaker 3: were on the fence. And I think because the names
Speaker 3: I mentioned there were the leaders of the team that
Speaker 3: because they were going to stay the other guys said, Okay,
Speaker 3: we're going to stay with you. And that was big
Speaker 3: obviously for Arizona have any chance to continue their success
Speaker 3: this season, they had to keep that core group together
Speaker 3: and they have and you know, like I said, if
Speaker 3: they continue to play well, I think it's going to
Speaker 3: bode well for the team and their one loss record
Speaker 3: as of the season goes on.
Speaker 1: So we've seen no Fafita for a while make plays.
Speaker 1: It didn't surprise anybody around here is watch this young
Speaker 1: man do what he did on Saturday night at Rice
Speaker 1: Cycle Stadium. First couple of games, it didn't look the
Speaker 1: way that most were expecting. And I think it's safe
Speaker 1: to say I'll speak for myself. I just thought that
Speaker 1: Noah would follow Jet up to Washington as well, but
Speaker 1: you kept your quarterback and Saturday night, you fans saw
Speaker 1: firsthand what makes him special, Brian. What stands out most
Speaker 1: about this young player as far as the way he's grown,
Speaker 1: And give me your thoughts on what he did Saturday
Speaker 1: night against a really good defense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is a very very grounded young man. And
Speaker 3: if you ever get a chance just to sit and
Speaker 3: even if you just listen to him, you don't even
Speaker 3: have to talk to him, just listen to him. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's just somebody that you know takes it personally. He's
Speaker 3: talked over the first three games that he wasn't playing
Speaker 3: as well as he knew he could, and he didn't
Speaker 3: blame anybody but himself. So we'll go back to that
Speaker 3: by week and say, Okay, you know, what was he
Speaker 3: going to do to be better? And I think he
Speaker 3: just got back some of the rhythm that he had before.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you another little you know, just inside part
Speaker 3: of this whole thing. And did it have any effect
Speaker 3: on Saturday? I don't know, but Arizona changed their offensive
Speaker 3: coordinator on Saturday and Dino Babers had called plays for
Speaker 3: the first three games, and he turned it over to
Speaker 3: Matt Atkins, who had been their passing game coordinator, and
Speaker 3: Brent Brennan had said that that was kind of the
Speaker 3: plan as they were working. They wanted some of the
Speaker 3: younger coaches to start moving into rows like that, and
Speaker 3: we just saw some different play calling in terms of
Speaker 3: how quickly they were able to get their plays underway.
Speaker 3: I think if he went back and looked at the
Speaker 3: game film from Arizona's first three games, some of their
Speaker 3: plays were very slow developing and they needed to get
Speaker 3: back because that were you know, Noah was at his
Speaker 3: best last year when it was a very quick offense.
Speaker 3: I'm talking snap to throw, snapped a handoff, and so
Speaker 3: they went back to some of those things Saturday, and
Speaker 3: I think that helped him because that's more the style
Speaker 3: of play that he likes to have going for him.
Speaker 3: So he's just he's a great young man. He's got
Speaker 3: a tremendous family, and you know, he's got some roots
Speaker 3: there in Utah as well, and so there's a lot
Speaker 3: of pride for him, I think going into that game
Speaker 3: where he wanted to get back to what he does best.
Speaker 1: Curious to get the take of the play by play
Speaker 1: voice about the environment in the stadium. You know, we've
Speaker 1: talked about this throughout the course of the show. This
Speaker 1: is a stadium, Riceycle stadium with a reputation for feeling
Speaker 1: and sounding a way that it just didn't on Saturday night.
Speaker 1: And of course football has to lead the way. It's
Speaker 1: easy to cheer for a team when they're playing well
Speaker 1: and winning. But juxtaposed her past Rice Ecles experiences, I
Speaker 1: wonder what you would have to say on kind of
Speaker 1: the atmosphere that everybody was experiencing on Saturday night.
Speaker 2: Pride.
Speaker 3: Yeah, two weeks in a row, two games in a row.
Speaker 3: Now Arizona's faced kind of that similar atmosphere when we
Speaker 3: were back in Manhattan, Kansas. They pride themselves the same way.
Speaker 3: They put fifty one thousand in their stadium and they're
Speaker 3: very loud, very supportive of their team. And so Arizona
Speaker 3: knew what to expect going to Salt Lake City. They'd
Speaker 3: just gone through it, and early on it was what
Speaker 3: I'd experienced before going up to Rice Cycles. I think
Speaker 3: probably and I'm just again, I can't get into the
Speaker 3: minds of the fans. But when Arizona had that halftime lead,
Speaker 3: I kind of sensed that there was some worry, you know.
Speaker 3: I was thinking, well, there's still another half of football.
Speaker 3: You know, Utah's not going to lay down after this.
Speaker 3: The Utes are going to come out. We figured they've
Speaker 3: come out fired up for that third quarter, and when
Speaker 3: they got within sixteen ten, it look the crowd kind
Speaker 3: of got it back again. But I understand when you're
Speaker 3: used to winning at home and probably and you guys
Speaker 3: would know better than me, you probably don't trail a
Speaker 3: whole lot at home, at least into the second half.
Speaker 3: And you kind of sense then that that was something
Speaker 3: new for the Utah fans. And I'll just add this that,
Speaker 3: you know, Brent Brennan has talked a lot if Arizona
Speaker 3: wants to, you know, get back to anything like Utah's
Speaker 3: got going, Arizona's got a packet stadium and we've got
Speaker 3: Texas Tech coming this week, so we'll see how that
Speaker 3: works out.
Speaker 1: I wonder, since you're one of our friends that sits
Speaker 1: at the former Pac twelve now Big twelve lunch table,
Speaker 1: there's only a few of us, Brian, you know, all
Speaker 1: of us that kind of experienced this for the first time.
Speaker 1: What have been your impressions of this new conference experience
Speaker 1: juxtaposed to what we're all used to as long term
Speaker 1: members of the PAC twelve.
Speaker 3: I mean, just personally, it's it's different because, Yeah, if
Speaker 3: you were around the PAC twelve for a long time
Speaker 3: and you play your non conference games and you get
Speaker 3: into the conference schedule, and even though players change and
Speaker 3: you might have coaching changes, you always had a good
Speaker 3: feel for the opponent. You just felt like okay. And
Speaker 3: I felt that way going up to Salt Lake City.
Speaker 3: It was like, oh, this feels great. We're going back
Speaker 3: to playing a team that you know something about, you've
Speaker 3: got some history with, you've been to the stadium before,
Speaker 3: and I just I don't take this the wrong way,
Speaker 3: but it was kind of warm and fuzzy. I thought, Wow,
Speaker 3: this is this is neat going. Even though the Kansas
Speaker 3: State game was not a conference game, it was still
Speaker 3: a Big twelve opponent, brand new. And now this week
Speaker 3: Arizona's got a brand new opponent in Texas Tech. And
Speaker 3: so to me, just from a personal land, it's like
Speaker 3: getting used to all these new rivalries now. And I was,
Speaker 3: you know, I grew up in the PAC ten and
Speaker 3: then the PAC twelve, and it's it's been disappoint I
Speaker 3: hated to see the conference come to an end, and
Speaker 3: I'm still adjusting to it. So I guess it's let's
Speaker 3: wait and see how it works out. But it isn't
Speaker 3: the same feeling. And that's why I said it was
Speaker 3: kind of fun going to Salt Lake because you knew
Speaker 3: what you were getting into.
Speaker 1: All right, bron, Before I say you louse, appreciate the
Speaker 1: time on this Monday, you know, I don't think anybody
Speaker 1: believes that there will be an undefeated Big twelve team
Speaker 1: at the end, whether overall or in conference. It's just
Speaker 1: it seems so far that this conference is in a
Speaker 1: similar spot to where the PAC twelve was at times,
Speaker 1: where there are a lot of teams that are very
Speaker 1: close and you know, maybe kind of cannibalize themselves a
Speaker 1: little bit. Who do you believe? And of course Arizona's
Speaker 1: on the list because they've gone defeated, but they're undefeated
Speaker 1: as of now. But how many teams do you think
Speaker 1: realistically can actually win this conference as of today?
Speaker 3: Well, I agree with you. I think the balance in
Speaker 3: this conference is pretty good. I mean, there's some teams
Speaker 3: at the bottom. You know, Houston doesn't look very good
Speaker 3: right now, but then you take a look at a
Speaker 3: lot of the other clubs. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: can discount anybody. I haven't seen everybody yet play. I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously BYU's off to a great start. Nobody expected this
Speaker 3: from them, So are they the favorite? I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, Kansas State looked great until you know,
Speaker 3: a week ago or so when they went to Provo,
Speaker 3: and Oklahoma State looked really good until Utah and would
Speaker 3: and beat them, And Utah looked great until Arizona. I
Speaker 3: don't you could take half the conference right now and
Speaker 3: probably throw them in the same bucket and pull out
Speaker 3: a name and that that team might win it. So
Speaker 3: I can't give you. I mean, Iowa State right now,
Speaker 3: maybe that's the Maybe it's Iowa State BYU. Maybe those
Speaker 3: are the two best teams. But I just agree with you.
Speaker 3: I think there's too much balance in this league. I
Speaker 3: think there's going to be a lot of teams, you know,
Speaker 3: beating up on each other, and it's gonna, hopefully, you know,
Speaker 3: just for the excitement. I guess at the conference come
Speaker 3: down to the last couple of weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: Thank you sir for the time. I hope you had
Speaker 1: a great trip out here to Salt Lake. I enjoy
Speaker 1: the rest of the seas and we'd love to do
Speaker 1: it again soon.
Speaker 3: Thanks Brian, glad to see you guys.
Speaker 1: Brian Jeffries, the play by play voice of the Arizona Wildcats,
Speaker 1: has been for a long time at catz PBP on
Speaker 1: Twitter is where you find them.