Speaker 1: All right, what's going on? Drivetime on a Wednesday afternoon?
Speaker 1: About nine minutes past the I got feedback, all right,
Speaker 1: about nine minutes past the hour, two o'clock on this
Speaker 1: Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 2: It's clear and sunny, just a little cold. We had
Speaker 2: our coldest night of the year last night, but about
Speaker 2: forty two degrees.
Speaker 1: The sun is shining here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker 1: And as it is every single day, it's going to
Speaker 1: have you long for the ride.
Speaker 2: Spence Check.
Speaker 1: It's behind the mic Porter Larson, just a few blocks
Speaker 1: away from where I'm at today producing the program.
Speaker 2: Where am I at today?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm at a surprisingly crowded beer bar for two
Speaker 1: ten on a Wednesday. I'm not sure why so many
Speaker 1: people are day drinking today. Well I might know, but
Speaker 1: it's kind of hoppening here. So come on buy and
Speaker 1: join us on this Wednesday afternoon. If your chances are
Speaker 1: you're either looking to celebrate or drown your sorrows, let
Speaker 1: me just say things are never as good or bad
Speaker 1: as they seem, and we'll how to put that aside.
Speaker 2: But come on down and have a good time.
Speaker 1: With us here at beer bar won sixty one ees
Speaker 1: two hundred south. Of course, this is the spot that
Speaker 1: is owned by Ty Burrell, Nick Romondo. My guy's rich,
Speaker 1: good people, and they've got all the MILS games, no blackouts.
Speaker 2: They have Apple TV.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately that no longer includes Rayal Salt Lake as they
Speaker 1: have been ousted. We are going to do a little
Speaker 1: RSL autopsy. We have not done that yet because we've
Speaker 1: been pretty packed with our BYU Utah football coverage, and
Speaker 1: of course we'll continue to be packed with that today
Speaker 1: as well. But here at beer Bar, I will incentivize
Speaker 1: you to come by and say what's up. I have
Speaker 1: ten passes for our ESPN seven hundred ultimate tailgate for
Speaker 1: the BYU Utah football game. So our tailgate's awesome. We
Speaker 1: have Kraft cocktails with our good friends at Clearwater Distilling.
Speaker 1: We have free food from Wingers Waters Sodas if you're
Speaker 1: not into the alcohol thing. So I've got ten of
Speaker 1: them and I'm gonna give away two per person. So
Speaker 1: that essentially is the first five people to roll in
Speaker 1: here and say what's up? But only two per person
Speaker 1: here at beer Bar, So come on in if it's
Speaker 1: your thing, grab a beer.
Speaker 2: If it's not, you can grab a little.
Speaker 1: Top of Chico over there, but they've got great brats
Speaker 1: and fries, sausages, burgers. I'm told they're about to release
Speaker 1: a garlic burger over the next few weeks, but that's
Speaker 1: not available today. So come on out to Beer Bar
Speaker 1: Beer till six o'clock tonight at one sixty one two
Speaker 1: hundred south here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker 2: All right, A lot to do on this Wednesday.
Speaker 1: As I reference, we will kind of put a little
Speaker 1: bow on the season that was for our local soccer
Speaker 1: club for RSL and talk about what could be next
Speaker 1: with the off season. Conka caf is a reality, so
Speaker 1: Pablo Masjoetti will hop on the show today. I always
Speaker 1: enjoy my conversation through the head coach, Pablo, the head
Speaker 1: coach of RSL, Pablo Mastuenti, one of our favorite BYU goobs,
Speaker 1: Spencer Linton from BYU TV, Sweet Guy. We'll get with
Speaker 1: Spencer today to talk BYU Utah Football. Will continue the
Speaker 1: college football conversation with Josh Pates, one of.
Speaker 2: My favorites to football with.
Speaker 1: Of course, his college football podcast has become wildly popular,
Speaker 1: so we'll bring in Josh pay today. Things have gone
Speaker 1: in the wrong direction for the Utah Hockey Club. They
Speaker 1: got smoked by Winnipeg three zero last night. They have
Speaker 1: now lost six of their last excuse me, yeah, six
Speaker 1: of their last seven games, and if you expand it out,
Speaker 1: they now have lost eight of their last ten games
Speaker 1: now that I'm looking at this. So we'll do a
Speaker 1: little hockey today behind the glass with Neil Smith, the
Speaker 1: former general manager of the New York Rangers and New
Speaker 1: York Islanders, and then the voice of the Utes himself,
Speaker 1: Bill Riley, potentially live today down at beer Bar. Not sure,
Speaker 1: Ryle's has a busy afternoon. Ran into him earlier today
Speaker 1: at the studios, the Broadway Media Studios. So as we
Speaker 1: do every day, we'll bounce around, we'll do a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything. We'll do some NBA as the Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz have the night off tonight. They're gonna be in
Speaker 1: Milwaukee tomorrow, which typically is a tough task, but that
Speaker 1: game will feature two teams that are one and.
Speaker 2: Six right now, so really bad start for the Jazz.
Speaker 1: As we've talked about it, it is by design, so we'll
Speaker 1: get to some jazz stuff. But of course I speed
Speaker 1: ahead to the college football weekend. I speed ahead to
Speaker 1: the weekend in pro football as well. The NFL trade
Speaker 1: deadline came and went yesterday afternoon, and we'll get you
Speaker 1: some takeaways from that.
Speaker 2: You're week ten. I can't believe it. You're week ten.
Speaker 1: Weekend of college football will begin tomorrow nights in Baltimore
Speaker 1: at M and T Bank Stadium, where the Bengals roll
Speaker 1: into town to take on the Ravens. Ironically enough, the
Speaker 1: Bengals are really good on the road, but they just
Speaker 1: don't went at home. They're three and one on the road,
Speaker 1: Ravens three and one at home. Baltimore is about a
Speaker 1: six point five point favorite there, So.
Speaker 2: Right around the corner football will be back. So we'll
Speaker 2: get to some of that on the show today.
Speaker 1: And of course, the latest on the Utes, the latest
Speaker 1: on the Cougars, the latest on the rivalry game coming
Speaker 1: up on Saturday eight to fifteen is the kick time
Speaker 1: at Rice Cycle Stadium, And don't forget you can hear
Speaker 1: our pregame coverage beginning at four fifteen, four hours of
Speaker 1: pregame coverage for you guys. Porter Larson, Isaacasiada and others
Speaker 1: will have that show for you. The spread for the
Speaker 1: game on Saturday night has moved back towards BYU, so
Speaker 1: it opened at five, moved down to four, and then
Speaker 1: settled for a little bit at three and a half,
Speaker 1: and as of about three hours ago now it's back
Speaker 1: up to four, so BYU is still somewhat of a
Speaker 1: healthy favorite to win the game. Coming up on Saturday,
Speaker 1: the first edition of the CFP rankings were released, and
Speaker 1: people are upset because I guess that's what the deal is.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to some of that stuff as we
Speaker 1: now can kind of put aside the ap pole. It
Speaker 1: is irrelevant, It does not matter anymore. This is the
Speaker 1: only poll that matters. So Pablo mashed you, Annie, Spencer, Litton,
Speaker 1: Josh Peyton, Neil Smith, Bill Riley, A Powerhouse guest list
Speaker 1: for you guys on a Wednesday, me Spence checkets all
Speaker 1: all of you.
Speaker 2: The great listeners were live here.
Speaker 1: Today at beer bar in just a couple of blocks
Speaker 1: away is where we find the producer of this program.
Speaker 1: His name is Porter Larsen. Happy Wednesday, pal, How you
Speaker 1: doing I'd be Wednesday?
Speaker 3: Back atches Spencer doing well. How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm well?
Speaker 3: I wish I were a beer bar.
Speaker 1: Well, come on down, just put it push the button
Speaker 1: that says, stay on air and then just walk off
Speaker 1: over here and grab a sausage and a beer.
Speaker 4: Well, speaking of that, sorry about the the echo there
Speaker 4: at the at the beginning. You know, when we started
Speaker 4: with the new board, there were a lot of issues
Speaker 4: that were.
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm not aware of any of those issues
Speaker 2: with a new board. I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4: Well, there were a lot of issues that were out
Speaker 4: of our control, out of my control, stuff like that.
Speaker 4: That one was not I literally saw the button that
Speaker 4: would send you an echo, and for some reason, I
Speaker 4: just I pressed it.
Speaker 1: Oh sir, you're just trying to cause problems. You're just
Speaker 1: trying to kill the show off.
Speaker 4: The top was entirely subconscious brain malfunction, there are you?
Speaker 1: Are you familiar with the term self reflection, self reflectional behavior,
Speaker 1: You're familiar with that term self.
Speaker 2: Actualization a little bit?
Speaker 1: Okay, So what that says is your subconscious is actually
Speaker 1: a true reflection of yourself, and so you're trying to
Speaker 1: sabotage the show.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, that's what that says.
Speaker 4: I'm just I'm trying to work with it, roll with
Speaker 4: the punches. But no, all right, we're good. We're we're
Speaker 4: one day closer to the rivalry game. We're in the
Speaker 4: midst of some I guess it's not so fun, hoops,
Speaker 4: But a lot to get to, whether it's good to
Speaker 4: discuss with the jazz or you know the bad, sorry,
Speaker 4: the good to discuss with BYU, the bad with the
Speaker 4: jazz and rsl ending their season.
Speaker 3: But as you said, a lot to get.
Speaker 2: To, a lot to get to live at beer Bar.
Speaker 1: If you guys have never been to our ESPN seven
Speaker 1: hundred tail gate, it's really fun. I'll roll through porters,
Speaker 1: gonna be there doing the show, craft cocktails from Clearwater,
Speaker 1: distilling free food from wingers. I've got ten tailgate passes
Speaker 1: and I'll give you two per person, except for the
Speaker 1: people that stop in all the time. Like, let's spread
Speaker 1: this around a little bit so you know who you are.
Speaker 1: If you can hear my voice, don't come down here,
Speaker 1: but everyone else come down here.
Speaker 2: Just not those people.
Speaker 1: And trust me, you may not know who I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: but the people who are sweating right now you know.
Speaker 2: Exactly who I'm talking to.
Speaker 1: I do not want to see you, but I want
Speaker 1: to see everybody else down here at Beer Bar.
Speaker 2: Come on down right downtown Salt Lake City one sixty one.
Speaker 2: He is two hundred south.
Speaker 1: All right, my guy Pablo, right out of gates to
Speaker 1: do a little RSL. But before we get to Pablo
Speaker 1: on a Wednesday, courtesy of our good friends, you're good
Speaker 1: friends too at Standard Restaurants Supply, your one stop shop
Speaker 1: for all your tailgating need. Standard Restaurants Supply dot Com
Speaker 1: or check them out at their their convenience Salt Lake
Speaker 1: City location on a Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Time. Now for your opening tip.
Speaker 6: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check. It's on Utah's
Speaker 6: number one Sports Talk. Now into the studio ESPN seven
Speaker 6: hundred to set the scene for the show. The opening
Speaker 6: tip of the Drive is brought to you by Standard
Speaker 6: Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop to build the best
Speaker 6: tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred south
Speaker 6: West Temple.
Speaker 1: So, as we warned you last night prior to signing off,
Speaker 1: there were going to be results revealed last night that
Speaker 1: were going to really shake the ground underneath a lot
Speaker 1: of people one way or the other, regardless of which
Speaker 1: side you're on. We were going to get a result
Speaker 1: last night that was going to make people uncomfortable. I
Speaker 1: encourage you to sit back, relax, and accept the results,
Speaker 1: regardless of what side you're on. And if you're on
Speaker 1: the BYU side, see I did it again. If you're
Speaker 1: on the BYU side. The first iteration of the CFP
Speaker 1: rankings probably.
Speaker 2: Didn't land very well.
Speaker 1: But let's get into a little bit of course, a
Speaker 1: big game coming up on Saturday with BYU and Utah.
Speaker 1: So what I tried to explain yesterday guy Scott Mitchell Opton,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he was fully grasping what I
Speaker 1: was saying. These are not the seeds for the twelve
Speaker 1: team CFP bracket. These are the rankings as the committee
Speaker 1: sees them right now. I don't fully agree with BYU
Speaker 1: at nine, but there's nothing about where BYU is that
Speaker 1: takes away what they eventually, in my opinion, will be
Speaker 1: in the CFP brackets. So they come in at number nine, okay,
Speaker 1: but they're still high speed ahead to a four seed
Speaker 1: and a first round by in the CFP. But so,
Speaker 1: the one thing that I think is being a little
Speaker 1: bit under talked about because everybody's talking about, well, Indiana
Speaker 1: shouldn't be ahead of them, all right, Well that's probably
Speaker 1: not necessarily wrong. BYU has two top twenty wins, their
Speaker 1: strength of schedule is number four Indiana. This will play
Speaker 1: itself out. Indiana still has a couple of tough games,
Speaker 1: including Ohio State, so BYU probably should have been ranked
Speaker 1: ahead of Indiana.
Speaker 2: And then you get into you know.
Speaker 1: What about Penn States, who does not have the two
Speaker 1: top twenty wins that BYU has. I'm not really here
Speaker 1: for the conversation about should they be ranked out at
Speaker 1: Tennessee that Bamma win. You know, the committee was looking
Speaker 1: at that with tremendous favor. I'm not really here for
Speaker 1: the Texas thing either, But I do think if you're
Speaker 1: a BYU fan.
Speaker 2: Today, you feel a little bit hard done.
Speaker 1: Well, you feel a little bit hard done every day
Speaker 1: because that's literally ingrained in your reality with this Woe
Speaker 1: is Me. Everybody disrespects us dynamic of that fan base,
Speaker 1: it gets a little bit exhausting. But you do have
Speaker 1: a beef in my opinion, when it comes to indiand
Speaker 1: and potentially Penn State, and that's kind of where I
Speaker 1: would stop.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Ultimately whether you're seven through nine. I said on the
Speaker 1: show yesterday, I was anticipating BYU coming in between seven
Speaker 1: and nine.
Speaker 2: I thought nine was their floor.
Speaker 1: I thought seven was their ceiling, and it turned out
Speaker 1: nine was the floor.
Speaker 2: But the under talked about.
Speaker 1: Thing here is Boise State's only three spots behind Brigham
Speaker 1: Young and the rules of the see is the five
Speaker 1: conference champs get the top five seed and the four
Speaker 1: top seeds get buys.
Speaker 2: Okay, somehow, some way.
Speaker 1: If Boise State's able to leap frog in the CFP rankings,
Speaker 1: not the bracket seedings, Okay, somehow, some way, if Boise
Speaker 1: State's able to climb up past the big twelve champ,
Speaker 1: maybe BYU falls to five and Boise State.
Speaker 2: Moves into four. But in that case, still in the CFP, you.
Speaker 1: Get a I believe you get to host the first
Speaker 1: round playoff game at Lavelle Edwards Stadium, so you don't
Speaker 1: get the buy, but you do host a game. So yes,
Speaker 1: I think you would prefer the buy because if you
Speaker 1: get to buy, you only have to win three games
Speaker 1: instead of four. But I don't foresee the scenario in
Speaker 1: play that Boise State can do enough to jump past
Speaker 1: either BYU or Iowa stayed.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, from strictly from strictly from a.
Speaker 1: BYU standpoint, Today is no different than yesterday because everything
Speaker 1: is still in front of you. And I suppose the
Speaker 1: one caveat that we could throw there is if the
Speaker 1: committee ranks BYU at nine as an undefeated Big twelve
Speaker 1: conference leader, is that an indictment on the conference?
Speaker 2: And it feels like it kind of is, And honestly,
Speaker 2: can you blame him? I mean really can you?
Speaker 1: Like we talked about this yesterday, we were going to
Speaker 1: do our Big twelve power rankings, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do? Like BYU is at one,
Speaker 1: and then everybody else has tied two to sixteen, don't
Speaker 1: it's impossible to ascertain who's good and who's bad. There's
Speaker 1: a chance it's just a bunch of decent teams with
Speaker 1: no great teams and no horrible teams, which is no
Speaker 1: way to build a conference.
Speaker 2: As we've seen with the love.
Speaker 1: That the SEC in the Big ten is getting and
Speaker 1: will continue to continue to get. But that shouldn't surprise anybody.
Speaker 1: That's part of the deal. So I saw some of
Speaker 1: the reaction. I heard some of the reaction after the
Speaker 1: bracket was released, and you know, again, the rankings are
Speaker 1: different than the seedings. If I can continue to underscore that,
Speaker 1: because this inferiority complex where every time you don't get
Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt you just cry into the
Speaker 1: ethos is exhausting. Do you have a bit of a
Speaker 1: beef at nine? Yeah, you probably do, certainly Indiana Penn State.
Speaker 1: We can talk about resumetd strength to schedule top twenty
Speaker 1: wins eye tests too, Like you can save me with
Speaker 1: the eye test stuff. BYU passes the eye test. But
Speaker 1: the brackets as of now has Oregon at one, very
Speaker 1: deserving Oregon team at one, the other, by the way,
Speaker 1: the only other team with two top twenty wins. There
Speaker 1: are two teams in the country with two top twenty wins.
Speaker 1: It's Oregon and it's BYU. So Oregon at one, and
Speaker 1: then it's Georgia at two. Miami comes in at three.
Speaker 1: And I think Miami's a little bit of a soft
Speaker 1: unbeaten team, but they're unbeaten nonetheless.
Speaker 2: And here's the other thing.
Speaker 1: You can't do the whole like, well, Miami had close
Speaker 1: games against it, BYU needed a miracle to beat the
Speaker 1: worst team in the Big twelve.
Speaker 2: So y'all can just chill with that stuff a little bit.
Speaker 1: You can't throw criteria teams that are in front of
Speaker 1: you that we can just throw right back at you.
Speaker 2: About your team. You needed a miracle to beat the worst.
Speaker 1: Team in the Big Twelve, and quite frankly, you had
Speaker 1: to sweat it out against Baylor. Okay, so you played
Speaker 1: close games against bad teams and barely escaped as well.
Speaker 1: So if that's going to be part of the criteria
Speaker 1: that you use to smash other people, you know, be
Speaker 1: careful about looking in the mirror at this point. So
Speaker 1: when it comes to the perceived you know, spot of
Speaker 1: where people are at. These are assumptions as far as
Speaker 1: conference champs, but there's so much left to do. So
Speaker 1: Miami at three, BYU at four. So those are your
Speaker 1: four teams in the CFP with first round byes, and
Speaker 1: then we'll just kind of go down the bracket. Oregon
Speaker 1: would take on the winner of Indiana and Tennessee. Georgia
Speaker 1: would take on the winner of Notre Dame in Penn State.
Speaker 1: Miami would take on the winner of how about this
Speaker 1: first round game Alabama and Texas, and Brigham Young would
Speaker 1: take on the winner of Boys.
Speaker 2: State and Ohio State.
Speaker 1: By the way first team out SMU b YU beat
Speaker 1: SMU on the road. That win continues to look better
Speaker 1: and better and better. But as we talked about last night,
Speaker 1: it was gonna be.
Speaker 2: A nervy evening. People were gonna be on edge. You're
Speaker 2: gonna hear results.
Speaker 1: They were gonna come spilling in and just accept the results,
Speaker 1: regardless of what side you're on.
Speaker 2: And sure enough, it was an anxious evening.
Speaker 1: As BYU comes in as the ninth ranked team in
Speaker 1: the first edition of the expanded twelve team CFP rankings,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't affect their seeding.
Speaker 2: They still have an excellent chance to get a.
Speaker 1: First round by as the fourth seed in the CFP brackets.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll catch a break. We're gonna do a
Speaker 1: lot of college football. Spencer Litton's gonna hop on, so
Speaker 1: we'll talk more BYU and the CFP. We'll of course
Speaker 1: get to the BYU Utah game. Josh Pate will be
Speaker 1: great with this stuff today as he's our guest later
Speaker 1: on Some Hockey with Neil Smith and the Voice of
Speaker 1: the Youths.
Speaker 2: Bill Riley, by the way, Kyle Whittingham.
Speaker 1: On Friday, Utah Jazz saunt out a press release that
Speaker 1: Taylor Hendrix has undergone successful surgery to addresses right fibular
Speaker 1: fracture and dislocated ankle. I've never seen a press release
Speaker 1: that says the surgery was unsuccessful, which is good. You
Speaker 1: don't want unsuccessful surgeries. But like everyone has the successful surgery,
Speaker 1: we're gonna risk wish Taylor a lot a lot of
Speaker 1: luck moving forward. All right, we have not done a
Speaker 1: lot of RSL this week, but it's time now to
Speaker 1: kind of look back on the season that was and
Speaker 1: look ahead to what maybe with the head coach of RSL.
Speaker 1: Great to have Pablo mach twenty on a Wednesday, Pops,
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, man, how we doing every Wednesday?
Speaker 5: Spent too well?
Speaker 1: But thanks appreciate the time. I wish he was under
Speaker 1: different circumstances. But of course, the you know, the bottom
Speaker 1: line is there's only one team that finishes the season
Speaker 1: with a you know, winding their sales for the offseason
Speaker 1: as a result of winning their last game.
Speaker 2: So my first question is, in all your years.
Speaker 1: In MLS playing and coaching, how many times have you
Speaker 1: been a part of the team that actually wins the
Speaker 1: final game of the year.
Speaker 5: That's a great question. Just once that was two thousand
Speaker 5: and ten, so eons ago. Now I think you said
Speaker 5: it right though, I mean, there's only there's only one team.
Speaker 5: And then the crazy thing is is we drew this
Speaker 5: last game, and that's a whole different story of those
Speaker 5: pks man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll get there in the moment, but i'd
Speaker 1: bring up that point to underscore just how hard it
Speaker 1: is to win trophies. And of course I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people thought you were going to be in
Speaker 1: the group that potentially could have ended the year lifting
Speaker 1: a trophy and heading on into the offseason without winning
Speaker 1: your sales. But ultimately, before we get to the situation
Speaker 1: in a vacuum, why from your damage point, Pablo, did
Speaker 1: the play take a dip after such a great start
Speaker 1: and never fully got back to when you were playing
Speaker 1: as one of the best teams in MLS.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, my reflection just thinking about the different things,
Speaker 5: and there's all kinds of variables that go into it, obviously,
Speaker 5: and it's going to be much greater.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 5: The one I'm about to speak about is but it's
Speaker 5: probably the one that sticks out the most is you know,
Speaker 5: between Andreas and Chicho, we had close to sixty goal
Speaker 5: fifty goal contributions, uh, come the beginning of July, and
Speaker 5: then from that point after, I think Chicho ended up
Speaker 5: with one assist. And so you go from fifty when
Speaker 5: we're flying, and then Andrea's obviously gets sold and chi Cho,
Speaker 5: you know, runs into a very difficult time. And so
Speaker 5: what that means from just a team perspective is when
Speaker 5: when we were at our best, Chicho was flying and
Speaker 5: scoring ungodly amounts of goals along with Andreas, and so
Speaker 5: at the end, you know, I think defensively we became
Speaker 5: a really good team the last you know, six or
Speaker 5: seven games, you know, giving up a couple of goals,
Speaker 5: but we just didn't have the firepower in front of
Speaker 5: goal to really content for a title.
Speaker 1: So I want to readdress something that we talked about
Speaker 1: right after andress sale. And I asked you, I asked Jason,
Speaker 1: I asked Kurt, I asked every RSL guest I had.
Speaker 1: Is there a danger that you sacrificed the potential for
Speaker 1: something special in the name of a long term game
Speaker 1: by sending an ondress on And look, I know the deal. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't like the deal. I never will, but I
Speaker 1: understand that that price tag was too. I'm sure ownership
Speaker 1: would not have let you pass it up. I don't
Speaker 1: know that, but that's my guess, and so I know
Speaker 1: the ethos of the club.
Speaker 2: I just don't like that approach.
Speaker 1: Because the type of sporting culture I was raised in.
Speaker 2: But let's readdress it as we look back.
Speaker 1: Did you guys potentially decide to take a paycheck and
Speaker 1: look at a long term game as opposed to sticking
Speaker 1: with the plan and maybe winning something special this year?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I mean yeah, I mean I think, if to
Speaker 5: put it bluntly, I think that that may have been
Speaker 5: the case. And I think this is where it's really interesting,
Speaker 5: in particularly with MLS, is where you know, the depths
Speaker 5: of other teams around the world are such that you
Speaker 5: can move on from players because you have two or
Speaker 5: three of the same caliber.
Speaker 2: Player in the States.
Speaker 5: You know, in MLS you just don't get that because
Speaker 5: of the cap and because of the way all the
Speaker 5: little intricacies of the way it's run, you just don't
Speaker 5: get that luxury. And so for for teams in the
Speaker 5: MLS to do something like that, I think it's going
Speaker 5: to have graver consequences. And then again, we bring in
Speaker 5: a player like Dominic, who I think is going to
Speaker 5: be a top player. I think he's in a better
Speaker 5: starting position than Andres was when he first got here,
Speaker 5: So that's that's odd. The problem is is you got
Speaker 5: seven games to go and he's got to get up
Speaker 5: to speed, and he's leaving the country for the first time.
Speaker 5: So it's a knockdown effect. But in this particular case,
Speaker 5: you know, it's not only to sell of Andre's but
Speaker 5: it's also what it did. You know, what the knockoff
Speaker 5: was the teacho because those guys were a pair, and
Speaker 5: those are things that I think, you know, we we've had,
Speaker 5: We've had a couple of conversations, you know, with Kurt
Speaker 5: and Jason, and will continue to have that with ownership
Speaker 5: Kurt and Jason and and continue to you know, find
Speaker 5: the best practices. But I think you rightly pointed out
Speaker 5: it is one of those deals that it was too
Speaker 5: it was it was too good for everyone to pass
Speaker 5: off on, and it was it was on Andres's dream
Speaker 5: to get to Europe, and so a lot there's a
Speaker 5: lot of factors that can into it. It's not just
Speaker 5: someone saying, hey, we got to sell it, you know,
Speaker 5: but if the player doesn't want to go, can't sell
Speaker 5: them when the player is dying to leave to get
Speaker 5: to live out in his childhood dream. It's almost like
Speaker 5: your kind of hands are tied, given that the deal
Speaker 5: was so good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I certainly understand all that.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's just sometimes tough the stomach from
Speaker 1: the perspective of believing you guys had something so special.
Speaker 1: I mean, for me, Pablo at one point, and I
Speaker 1: talked about this on air, I talked about it with you,
Speaker 1: there's a real case to be made that for about
Speaker 1: I don't know, fifteen to eighteen games, it may have
Speaker 1: been the best soccer played in the history of the club,
Speaker 1: right It does that resonate with you? I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I know you weren't here back in the day, but
Speaker 1: from my vantage point, I think the vantage point a
Speaker 1: lot of people who have watched and cared about this
Speaker 1: club for a while, there may have been a fifteen
Speaker 1: to eighteen game sample size there was some of the
Speaker 1: best soccer we've ever seen.
Speaker 5: I mean that, no, and I and I think so.
Speaker 5: And you know, I guess the way that I can
Speaker 5: interpret that is how much coaching we had to do
Speaker 5: versus you know, the big preseason, we're coaching quite a bit.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of new faces and a lot of
Speaker 5: new people, coaches included, and we were coaching our tails off.
Speaker 5: The players are working their tails off, and then we
Speaker 5: got to a point where it was almost like, you know,
Speaker 5: you get on the on the flight and they kick
Speaker 5: it into autopilot and you know, the you know, the
Speaker 5: captains are up there talking meanwhile this play, this plane
Speaker 5: is going exactly in the direction you know it's going
Speaker 5: to go, and you know it's going to be smooth,
Speaker 5: and you know it's going to be And that's kind
Speaker 5: of what it felt from from the coaching perspective, where
Speaker 5: it's like there wasn't there wasn't a whole lot to do.
Speaker 5: This thing was just moving. The players were just coming
Speaker 5: in every day and working and just loving the work,
Speaker 5: and it was everything was just on the autopilot and
Speaker 5: the guys were just vibing off one another and the
Speaker 5: results were coming and the football was great on both
Speaker 5: sides of the ball. And I completely agree with what
Speaker 5: you're saying, Like from from my standpoint as a coach,
Speaker 5: I've never been a part of such a such synergy,
Speaker 5: of such flow, and you know, Unfortunately, like all good
Speaker 5: things in life, it must come to an end at
Speaker 5: some point. And then the ability to then quickly get
Speaker 5: back on your feet and now double down on the
Speaker 5: coach and double down on the work, double down on
Speaker 5: all these things when they were so effortless when we
Speaker 5: were going through that run.
Speaker 2: So let me hone in on cheeto now.
Speaker 1: And I'm just stunned that I have the stats pulled
Speaker 1: up and it still says seventeen. I mean, I thought
Speaker 1: I was gonna get till like thirty. I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: Like I can remember when I got the text about
Speaker 1: the suspension, and I just wondered in my mind in
Speaker 1: that moment, and then allowed while talking about the club,
Speaker 1: like what what if effect whether this have? Now it's
Speaker 1: really easy to Monday morning quarterback this and say it
Speaker 1: must have been the suspension, It must have been on
Speaker 1: dress taken off.
Speaker 2: It probably was a lot of things.
Speaker 1: But it is pretty stunning that our guy didn't score
Speaker 1: after mid July.
Speaker 2: As the coach, what do you attribute that most to?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I think your what your assessment is is pretty accurate.
Speaker 5: You know, we've we've gone down all kinds of path
Speaker 5: paths to try to figure it out with with obviously
Speaker 5: Chicho involved as well, and I had countless conversations about
Speaker 5: a state of mind, and and I guarantee you that
Speaker 5: Chicho can't put a figure on it, right, because if
Speaker 5: you could have, he would have. It would have changed
Speaker 5: and it would have changed a lot of things. And
Speaker 5: there's something to be said about.
Speaker 8: The almost the alter ego that you have to have
Speaker 8: to be that kind of player, and the burden, the
Speaker 8: type of responsibility that comes with being that kind of player.
Speaker 5: In his case, scoring whatever it was, seventeen goals and
Speaker 5: having I don't know, ten thirteen assists or something to
Speaker 5: such July in such a short span of time. And
Speaker 5: then a couple of big instances happens in your life
Speaker 5: where I think you start to think like the rest
Speaker 5: of us humans, right, and you're no longer the superman
Speaker 5: with a kate because of this situation and that situation.
Speaker 5: And it could have been just the feelings that those
Speaker 5: situations provoke evoked. And so you know, I've never seen
Speaker 5: somebody that's been flying on all cylinders then suddenly become
Speaker 5: very human and dealing with some of the stuff that
Speaker 5: we deal with on on just a different level. And
Speaker 5: so those are questions that you know, obviously we're going
Speaker 5: to have our exit meetings with the players starting tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Obviously that's that's going to be a question. And more
Speaker 5: importantly is you know, I think it's it's it's up
Speaker 5: to the individual to really start the process, and then
Speaker 5: it's for the rest of us to help wherever we can.
Speaker 5: If we try to solve someone else's problems that are
Speaker 5: very that are internal, it doesn't make sense, then we're
Speaker 5: just ribbing him or we're poking and prodding. But I
Speaker 5: think it's been very difficult three months in helping cheat
Speaker 5: you him kind of figure that part out, and unfortunately
Speaker 5: we just ran out of time towards the end.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm about to lay a little Shakespeare on you, Pops. Ready,
Speaker 1: let's do it, all right, So Hamlet quote there is
Speaker 1: nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so right.
Speaker 1: And so ultimately, the reason I started the interview with
Speaker 1: asking somebody like you who has been an MLS lifer,
Speaker 1: how many times did you have the opportunity to walk
Speaker 1: away from a season as part of the one team
Speaker 1: that lifted the trophy?
Speaker 2: And I'm actually stunned that it was one.
Speaker 1: I thought there was more is to underscore how hard
Speaker 1: this thing is to actually walk away with a trophy,
Speaker 1: and what a marathon season it is. Now I am
Speaker 1: a results guy because I know the business of sports
Speaker 1: and I know what results means for the rise tied
Speaker 1: that that allows all both you know, they all boats
Speaker 1: to kind of go in the same direction.
Speaker 2: And I botch that quote. That's not Shakespearean, but.
Speaker 1: It's a long way of me asking it's it's a
Speaker 1: long way of me asking you do you consider this
Speaker 1: year success or failure?
Speaker 5: Again? I think you have to. I wish it was his.
Speaker 5: Now I'm thinking this is Shakespeare and stuff. I can't
Speaker 5: I can't even find words. If it was. If this
Speaker 5: whole thing was linear, then obviously with with one goal
Speaker 5: in mind, which is to win the title, then then
Speaker 5: I would I wouldn't say it's a failure. I just
Speaker 5: said we didn't it wasn't successful, right, I wouldn't say
Speaker 5: it's a failure. And the reason why I'd say it
Speaker 5: wouldn't be a failure is because it's multi dimensional. In
Speaker 5: other words, this is, like you said, it's a business. Right,
Speaker 5: So in order to keep bringing in players, you have
Speaker 5: to sell players, right, And so when you lose a
Speaker 5: player like Andreas. While it's a hit to the team,
Speaker 5: it's it's it's a plus to the fact that we
Speaker 5: as a club can develop young talent and and and
Speaker 5: what that means for the future means you know, the
Speaker 5: reason why we got Dominic who's a very talented player
Speaker 5: and just recently got called up to the fullman's Polish
Speaker 5: national team, right, and that's a huge step for him.
Speaker 5: And the only reason he came and speaking to him
Speaker 5: and his agent was because of what we were able
Speaker 5: to do with Andreas and one that we were willing
Speaker 5: to play young players, two were able to help them
Speaker 5: achieve their dreams, right, and so so that that part's
Speaker 5: a huge success, while it compromises the goal of winning
Speaker 5: a cup, right and so then the other part of it,
Speaker 5: for me, which is really important is the game model
Speaker 5: pieces the style that we play with the way we play,
Speaker 5: which for me is a really exciting you know, it's
Speaker 5: the way I see soccer, which is it it's up
Speaker 5: and back, it's it's it's very it's very fast paced,
Speaker 5: it's getting after the ball defensively, it's it's trying to
Speaker 5: score a ton of goals offensively, and and and then
Speaker 5: you look at those those metrics from our style of play,
Speaker 5: and we've we've almost one hundred percent improvement and a
Speaker 5: lot of those statistics that are relevant to our game model.
Speaker 5: You know, our goals are are are are pressing from
Speaker 5: the front, all these things have gone up exponentially over
Speaker 5: this course this year. And so when you think about
Speaker 5: long term and what puts you in the position to
Speaker 5: win those titles is to consistently be a top team.
Speaker 5: It doesn't guarantee you anything, but when I look at
Speaker 5: this year, I think that's a success. We've established this
Speaker 5: is who we are. This is a standard we have
Speaker 5: to hold and it allows us to keep building a
Speaker 5: team and and and building belief because if you're consistently
Speaker 5: top four in the West, there's going to be a
Speaker 5: breakthrough moment. You never know what it's going to be.
Speaker 5: But if you're not in the top four, then it
Speaker 5: becomes very difficult to win trophy. And then if you
Speaker 5: can keep bringing younger players and developing younger players whilst
Speaker 5: they're here, they're helping us win. That's a positive. And
Speaker 5: then the business side is is making money for the
Speaker 5: ownership and and showing them that we're capable, and you know,
Speaker 5: it's a proof of concept with Andres and and Fidel
Speaker 5: and now we have Dominic and and I'm sure there
Speaker 5: will be a couple of the younger players that will
Speaker 5: come in. And so I think it's not it's not
Speaker 5: it's not fair to answer that question on one level
Speaker 5: and say did you want to If you didn't want
Speaker 5: to show up, it's failure. It's more like, there's a
Speaker 5: lot of successes that have been uncovered this year, that
Speaker 5: have been that we've been able to achieve this year
Speaker 5: that hopefully in the future will lead to that title.
Speaker 5: When when when it all comes together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I figured, you know, you wouldn't utilize that to
Speaker 1: give you know, give me a binary decision, because there
Speaker 1: are nuanced parts of the whole thing that deserves me unpacked.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate that perspective, and let me add to it.
Speaker 1: Setting a single season record for points and goals that's
Speaker 1: not nothing, man, it really is. And now there's nothing
Speaker 1: hanging in the trophy room for it. But you know,
Speaker 1: the hope is at some point you can take a
Speaker 1: step back and reflect on the entire situation because the ending,
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is about soccer man.
Speaker 2: And maybe it's.
Speaker 1: Because I have PTSD because the ending used to men
Speaker 1: like are we going to lose the team?
Speaker 2: Like you know?
Speaker 1: And there's so many, so many ramifications back in the
Speaker 1: early days when we lost. And that's why the two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine Cup team is memory, you know, is
Speaker 1: remembered with so much fondness because it literally allowed us
Speaker 1: to basically plan our feet in the cement and say
Speaker 1: we're here and that's what results can do. But have
Speaker 1: you been able to get to the point where you
Speaker 1: can reflect on the things that you did this year
Speaker 1: that really we've never seen before, because I think that's important.
Speaker 5: No, I think yeah, I think obviously it's only been
Speaker 5: a few days since since our last game, and so
Speaker 5: it's it's it's hard, you know, you're you're frustrated, you're
Speaker 5: you're looking for answers. But I think when the dust
Speaker 5: settles and and and I think it goes back to
Speaker 5: the point of made earlier spence, which is you have
Speaker 5: to consistently be a top team and to put yourself
Speaker 5: in the best positions to win titles, right and and
Speaker 5: what and what those fifty nine points to do is
Speaker 5: it validates that we are a top team, right and
Speaker 5: and and what that also does is and stills belief
Speaker 5: not in the players, not only in the players that
Speaker 5: are here, but in the players that are coming and
Speaker 5: the expectations that they must have for joining this team.
Speaker 5: And and you know, before when I first got here,
Speaker 5: I remember it was really difficult to get good young
Speaker 5: players or good players period to come to Salt Lake
Speaker 5: because again, if they have a choice of l A
Speaker 5: and l A f C and Miami and New York
Speaker 5: players from abroad, that those are the only places they know,
Speaker 5: they have never heard of Salt Lake. But I think
Speaker 5: the more we continue to make these these steps in
Speaker 5: the right direction, the more of a favorable destinations, you know,
Speaker 5: RSL will be in the grand scheme of things, and
Speaker 5: so there, and there's there's a ton of other successes behind,
Speaker 5: you know, behind the curtains that that I'm really really
Speaker 5: proud of. And some of those are with the coaching staff,
Speaker 5: and some of those with the way we were able to,
Speaker 5: you know, get everyone on board and start the campaign
Speaker 5: off with so many changes in a great way. And
Speaker 5: and so there's a lot of takeaway from it. But
Speaker 5: I think if you're if you're a winner, that shouldn't
Speaker 5: satisfy you. That should that should evoke a feeling of belief.
Speaker 5: But we've got to do better, and we will do better.
Speaker 5: And I think that's what the season has really left
Speaker 5: me with.
Speaker 1: All Right, before we get to the off season, since
Speaker 1: I have not been able to speak to you, we'll
Speaker 1: take our medicine with one more question, and that is
Speaker 1: now that you've been able to reflect and think about
Speaker 1: what happened up in Minnesota, Uh, just kind of get
Speaker 1: give us some thoughts about how the decisions played out.
Speaker 2: You know, juli Anderson, Julio comes in.
Speaker 1: In place of chi Cho, You get Vera back and
Speaker 1: unfortunately he had a goal that was called back.
Speaker 2: It looked like that was gonna be a game changing moment.
Speaker 1: Javane goes back over to his right back position, and
Speaker 1: a Mecca who was and is awesome, goes back to
Speaker 1: where you like him.
Speaker 2: In the midfield.
Speaker 1: So take us through those decisions and then ultimately, what
Speaker 1: are your trip you the inability to find enough solutions
Speaker 1: to the.
Speaker 5: Most Yeah, So again I'll start with Chicho and and
Speaker 5: I think that decision had been coming for a while.
Speaker 5: And and again I think the biggest opponent that we
Speaker 5: face and sport is time, you know, and and and
Speaker 5: and trying to find different players around him to to
Speaker 5: find the back of the net, you know, resting him
Speaker 5: a couple of games and seeing what happens, and and
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, you know, unfortunately, given
Speaker 5: the circumstances, you know, we we we'd only won one
Speaker 5: game when when Chicho started after the suspension, you know,
Speaker 5: and so these are things that like you start to
Speaker 5: look into, dig into the weeds and figure out, like,
Speaker 5: you know, who are the guys that when when they
Speaker 5: start the game, we have a better chance of winning, right,
Speaker 5: given that all the other things that we've tried, it
Speaker 5: just wasn't clicking. And so that was really the case.
Speaker 5: The other part of that cheat your decision was wanted
Speaker 5: in the first half to really stretch the back line.
Speaker 5: Often in the last two games that we'd played them
Speaker 5: previous we played underneath them, and they just did such
Speaker 5: a good job defensively where they're releasing center backs into
Speaker 5: the midfield no threat of anything behind them, and so Julio,
Speaker 5: we felt was a really good option, and I think
Speaker 5: in a lot of ways we achieved what we wanted,
Speaker 5: which was to really have them question whether we're going
Speaker 5: to play in front of them or behind them, and
Speaker 5: I think that little doubt really opened up the second half.
Speaker 5: You know, Javane playing on the right side actually, you know,
Speaker 5: thought he did a good job. But I also think
Speaker 5: that he felt more comfortable when he went back to
Speaker 5: center back, given the way he played last three games
Speaker 5: in that position. And then Vera was always going to
Speaker 5: be a tough one. We Sarah before the suspension was in,
Speaker 5: playing form was ready and I think in the first
Speaker 5: half of this last game it just took them a
Speaker 5: little bit to catch up to speed. And there's no
Speaker 5: way to mimic game fitness and game sharpness other than
Speaker 5: playing in the games. And then Mecca for me, you know,
Speaker 5: it's it's ironic that I wanted him in the middle,
Speaker 5: and then we made the shift to pull there out
Speaker 5: and go with one pivot. We put a mecha on
Speaker 5: the right and wanted to use him more as like
Speaker 5: a third midfielder when the ball was on the weak side,
Speaker 5: creep creeping up centrally, and that's where we found our
Speaker 5: goal from from Mecca. And so he's one of these
Speaker 5: players you put him in any position and he's going
Speaker 5: to thrive and and so I think from a just
Speaker 5: a tactical perspective, is we we wanted to make sure,
Speaker 5: like I said, we threatened behind. But then when we
Speaker 5: conceded the goal, we went with one pivot instead of
Speaker 5: two and pushed one of the pivots higher up into
Speaker 5: the in between their lines to ask them questions. And
Speaker 5: I thought we got a stronghold of them. Is deal
Speaker 5: created some really good opportunities, and then the game of
Speaker 5: football comes down to you know, you know, Diego had
Speaker 5: a really good chance to go up uh, you know two.
Speaker 5: I think it was two to one, and we missed
Speaker 5: that opportunity, and you know, you get two goals called
Speaker 5: called back from off sides, and so it was almost
Speaker 5: like it was in it was beyond our control, like
Speaker 5: whatever we threw it, you know, for whatever reason, it
Speaker 5: just didn't work out. But it wasn't from a lack
Speaker 5: of effort. It wasn't from a lack of looking at
Speaker 5: all different options to change things around. But unfortunately on
Speaker 5: the day we fall short.
Speaker 1: All right, before I say, you loose a little off
Speaker 1: season conversation, and I'm aware that a lot of these
Speaker 1: decisions will be made by Kurt and Jason, but I
Speaker 1: know they value you when they bring you into the circle,
Speaker 1: and you guys are very collaborative with this stuff. So
Speaker 1: Conker Calf may change the calendar a little bit. The
Speaker 1: draw is going to be in December, and then you
Speaker 1: guys will get going I believe mid February. Does that
Speaker 1: change the timeline of potentially adding to the group And
Speaker 1: what positions or pieces do you think you guys need
Speaker 1: to just take that next step up in the process
Speaker 1: next year.
Speaker 5: That's a good question, and I think Kurt will be
Speaker 5: better served answering those questions. Although you know, we've had
Speaker 5: conversations internally, you know, I'll just say just you know,
Speaker 5: we want to solidify our back line a little bit more,
Speaker 5: even though we had some some a good injection of
Speaker 5: of play from Javane is fortifying the back line, and
Speaker 5: then up front is another position, you know, And and
Speaker 5: it's just experiencing what happened when when your striker isn't
Speaker 5: hit the back of the net. And and even though
Speaker 5: Anderson did a great job, just feel like that's an
Speaker 5: area that we can reinforce and and I think the
Speaker 5: most important thing for for for this off season heading
Speaker 5: into next year's uh, you know campaign is is is
Speaker 5: a deliberate you know, being deliberate with the expectations for
Speaker 5: these for for the players coming in next year where
Speaker 5: we're going to have less time to prepare. And so
Speaker 5: usually we have these guys off season workout plans and
Speaker 5: it's almost like without saying, it's like understood that it's
Speaker 5: kind of optional that if I know my body, I
Speaker 5: know what I have to do to come in. But
Speaker 5: we're we're going old school and and and there's going
Speaker 5: to be a Cooper test to come back and so
Speaker 5: that we know the guys that we can just hit
Speaker 5: the ground running and start preparing tactically, technically and physically
Speaker 5: for what is a shorter preseason. And so there's there's
Speaker 5: gonna be a big ask in this offseason to make
Speaker 5: sure that the guys come in and we're ready to
Speaker 5: you know, and we're really serious and deliberate about you know,
Speaker 5: this opportunity to be a great team within within our
Speaker 5: you know, our our conquer calf, which which would be
Speaker 5: a great start to the season. So, you know, the
Speaker 5: off season starts started a couple of days ago, but
Speaker 5: the off season work you know, starts Monday, and getting
Speaker 5: back on it and make sure that we prepa go for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you need time off, man.
Speaker 1: I believe at one point during our conversations this year,
Speaker 1: you said you've taken like one vacation in three years.
Speaker 1: That's that's unhealthy, dude. So are you gonna do anything
Speaker 1: to kind of unwind before you get back at it?
Speaker 9: Uh?
Speaker 5: My wife is looking at all kinds of trips and
Speaker 5: I'm telling her it. You know, for me, it's like,
Speaker 5: you need time off. But when you don't feel like
Speaker 5: it's work, when you feel like it's your purpose, if
Speaker 5: you wake up every day and you're like, man, let's go,
Speaker 5: you know. And that's why I said to the guys
Speaker 5: that that you know, after the season is like, I'm
Speaker 5: so blessed to be able to wake up every day
Speaker 5: and go. I can't wait to get to work with
Speaker 5: these guys, man. I can't wait to be a part
Speaker 5: of this team. I can't wait to feel full, feel
Speaker 5: live and do great things with life. You know, I
Speaker 5: think there's always time for vacation. And I'm sure I'm
Speaker 5: not gonna have to say, you know, if my wife,
Speaker 5: you know, books a trip to Montego Bay, which I'll
Speaker 5: go gladly take part in, but my mind will always
Speaker 5: be on how do we become a better team in
Speaker 5: twenty to twenty five if you were this year?
Speaker 7: All right?
Speaker 10: Man?
Speaker 1: Well, like I said, a lot of good and it's
Speaker 1: just so tough when there's only one team that enters
Speaker 1: the off season having accomplished that ultimate goal.
Speaker 2: So I appreciate your time today and all year. You're
Speaker 2: the guy for this. I got your back. Reach out
Speaker 2: if I can do anything for you.
Speaker 5: Okay, thanks, Bence. Always a pleasure, man, appreciate your.
Speaker 2: Help, all right.
Speaker 1: Pablo Masconti, head coach of RSL. RSL has hit the
Speaker 1: off season, but it will be shorter than usual as
Speaker 1: a result of their qualification for the Conka CAF Champions Cup.
Speaker 1: We'll learn the date and details about the game in
Speaker 1: mid December, and then I believe it's played mid February,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly. My task to border today was
Speaker 1: play cheesy happy music. Just play whatever's.
Speaker 2: Cheesy and happy. Is this Jack Johnson track?
Speaker 1: I were just playing because look, Jack Johnson is like
Speaker 1: an uncrustable right right.
Speaker 2: It never changes.
Speaker 1: It's never better or worse than it was, but it's
Speaker 1: always it's always pretty solid.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, that's a I thought it was a good
Speaker 4: request from you some happy tunes. I don't know that
Speaker 4: it's even like a happy song. I actually think it's
Speaker 4: like a sad breakup song. But because it's Jack Johnson
Speaker 4: singing and playing to a guitar, he like makes it
Speaker 4: feel good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's nothing wrong with an uncrustable. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with a PBJ. Our next guest is kind of like
Speaker 1: a PBJ PB and J.
Speaker 2: He's always reliable.
Speaker 1: You always know what you're gonna get, and you're not
Speaker 1: were let down. Our friend from BYU TV is Spencer
Speaker 1: Lytton on a Wednesday. Spencer, Happy Wednesday, Sir, How are.
Speaker 10: You indeed the happiest Spence, especially as you're comparing me
Speaker 10: to the greatest snack known to mankind in the encrustable sandwich?
Speaker 2: Well said, grape or strawberry? Most importantly, I like both.
Speaker 10: But I got to pick one of probably probably leaning strawberry.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, fair enough, fair enough. They're both very good
Speaker 1: and it is a very very close race, all right, Spencer.
Speaker 1: So last night we were gathered around our televisions, nervous
Speaker 1: about the results we were going to get, wondering if
Speaker 1: people would accept it when it came down and we
Speaker 1: see the states coming off, you know, bit by bit,
Speaker 1: and the fear kind of creeps in, and sure enough
Speaker 1: BYU comes in a number nine.
Speaker 2: See what I did there? You thought I was going election.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 1: Now, as as I've been talking about, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that they can't lock in the number four. C rankings
Speaker 1: are different than seeds. But I do believe there is
Speaker 1: a very very legitimate conversation that we had as to
Speaker 1: why I would say Indiana and then probably Penn State.
Speaker 2: I mean, Tennessee has that BAMA win.
Speaker 1: Texas is Texas, but there's a legitimate conversation, and maybe
Speaker 1: even Miami because BYU has the two top twenty wins
Speaker 1: strength of schedule, I think it's four. So I do
Speaker 1: believe it's legitimate to have a beef with BYUO at nine,
Speaker 1: even though I still think the four seed is probably
Speaker 1: the reality.
Speaker 2: What was your reaction when you saw briging me on
Speaker 2: at nine last night?
Speaker 10: Unfortunately, it was pretty close to what I expected. This
Speaker 10: has become a situation for me where I feel like
Speaker 10: Charlie Brown and the college Football Playoff Selection Committee is
Speaker 10: lucy and you just think maybe maybe this time they
Speaker 10: might let you actually kick the football and respect what
Speaker 10: you've done. But ultimately they pulled the football away and
Speaker 10: here we are again. And so I was kind of
Speaker 10: brake for that. I thought it would be eight at worst.
Speaker 10: So nine was a was a little bit of a
Speaker 10: new territory. And I'm with you, like I take issue
Speaker 10: on a couple of accounts. One, I look at Penn
Speaker 10: State and the committee siding well, the ispests of Indiana
Speaker 10: and Texas and Miami's explosive offense. Like whatever, they want
Speaker 10: to use the eye test for those teams to justify
Speaker 10: ranking them above BYU, great, that's their prerogative. So what
Speaker 10: is the eye test on Penn State? What have they
Speaker 10: done in their seven point survival win against Bowling Green
Speaker 10: at home and surviving the coliseum against the middle in
Speaker 10: USC program to say that our test says we should
Speaker 10: be at number six. It's like the committee is valuing
Speaker 10: a seven point loss to Ohio State more than what
Speaker 10: BYA has actually done and won in games like Buis
Speaker 10: played close games they played and for against the bad
Speaker 10: Oklahoma State teams, but Ohio Orry Penn State survived against
Speaker 10: holding Green for crying out loud. That's one I do
Speaker 10: not understand. The second thing I don't like about this
Speaker 10: is this leaves BYU with very little wiggle room to
Speaker 10: slip up at any point and hope that they're still
Speaker 10: going to get in as an at large. It now
Speaker 10: feels like DYU have to win the Big twelve championship
Speaker 10: game and qualified to get to that game to have
Speaker 10: a shot to be in the playoffs. Like if they
Speaker 10: lose in the Big Twelve Championship, there's still a scenario
Speaker 10: based on these rankings where the Cougars could be on
Speaker 10: the outside looking in, which is just super unfortunate because
Speaker 10: they're not getting the leeway and the wiggle room white
Speaker 10: teams such as Penn State and Indiana are. So those
Speaker 10: are my two issues.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the message, to your point, it feels like
Speaker 1: the message is you guys are one big league, regardless
Speaker 1: of what happens.
Speaker 2: So it does feel like that's the message.
Speaker 1: Do you do you think that BYU at nine is
Speaker 1: a direct indictment on the Big Twelve as a whole,
Speaker 1: because we do and I'm sure you guys do it too.
Speaker 2: Anybody in the.
Speaker 1: State and media does a Big twelve Power pol power
Speaker 1: rankings or whatever. And this week I told my producer,
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, we're not doing it because the power
Speaker 1: pole is BYU won that everyone else two to sixteen.
Speaker 2: I don't know who's good. I don't know who's bad.
Speaker 2: I have no clue.
Speaker 1: So do you think this ranking last night from the
Speaker 1: committee is a direct indictment on the Big Twelve as
Speaker 1: a whole?
Speaker 2: Because I do.
Speaker 10: Yeah, And last weekend did not help the cause, right
Speaker 10: right is the State losing at Houston and then Iowa
Speaker 10: State losing at home to Texas Tech. Like, while those
Speaker 10: results help BYU's chances of getting to a Big Twelve
Speaker 10: championship game, it worked against the overall perception of the
Speaker 10: conference and ultimately what the College Football Playoffs Selection Committee
Speaker 10: clearly thinks. Like if Kansas State had won and Iowa
Speaker 10: State has won, you and I are probably having a
Speaker 10: little bit different conversation. I tend to believe the b
Speaker 10: YU might be at least eight. But because those two
Speaker 10: teams that were at the top along with BA both
Speaker 10: lost and they're jumbled in this crazy Big twelve conference,
Speaker 10: leaving by the only unbeat, I think that hurts the
Speaker 10: Coopers going to this first playoff. Look I think that's
Speaker 10: totally valid and fair point, which is why I was
Speaker 10: telling people last week, like, yes, it's good for BYU's
Speaker 10: championship game chances, but now it feels like this is
Speaker 10: a one big league.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I'm with you as far as what the message
Speaker 2: seems to be.
Speaker 1: All right, before we get to Saturday night, Let's pan
Speaker 1: back now and look at this thing from thirty thousand
Speaker 1: feet and you know, Kilanie's my guy.
Speaker 2: Had a Monday day Rod Jay Hill.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously the synergies in the kind of incestuous
Speaker 1: nature of the two staffs makes this thing kind of fun.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm in contact with them, and they
Speaker 1: were telling me early on in camp like people are
Speaker 1: wrong about us.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Everybody says that every single year, every coaching and certainly
Speaker 1: in our state where we love to do the nobody
Speaker 1: believes in us thing.
Speaker 2: It's like a mantra to go shock the world.
Speaker 1: And so even though I was hearing from the coaches
Speaker 1: like just wait, this is going to be different, it
Speaker 1: seemed like everybody else on the outside did not believe
Speaker 1: this team was going to do much. I pegged them
Speaker 1: as a six to seven win team. That was going
Speaker 1: to go bowling, And I thought Utah at this point
Speaker 1: would be seven to one eight and oh. I thought
Speaker 1: Utah's offense would be dynamic. I thought their defense would
Speaker 1: be physical, forcing turnovers, creating chaos. I thought the special
Speaker 1: teams would be awesome. I thought Rice Ecles would be
Speaker 1: loud and proud. All of that Spencer is happening forty
Speaker 1: miles south of where I'm talking, right down down in Provo.
Speaker 2: What do you attribute this season to most, just right
Speaker 2: off the top, I.
Speaker 10: Think a couple of things. There is real power. It
Speaker 10: seems that BYU in the being able to keep the
Speaker 10: core and just have that natural evolving nature of a
Speaker 10: team that in large parts stays together after having gone
Speaker 10: through some tough steams. So as bad as it was
Speaker 10: for Bia to do limp to a five and seven
Speaker 10: finished last year after some gut punch losses to Oklahoma
Speaker 10: and Oklahoma States, it motivated them in a significant way
Speaker 10: to stick together. So they weren't a ton of new
Speaker 10: parts that were added in. And Jake Retzloff has certainly
Speaker 10: been a pleasant surprise, but he told me what happened
Speaker 10: late last year posted me in a way that I
Speaker 10: have never experienced before, to just be unwavering in how
Speaker 10: I prepare and what I do, and to get the
Speaker 10: guys to rally around and to, like you said, go
Speaker 10: actually shock the world so that core pick me together
Speaker 10: in this idea of learning, growing and usually the adversity
Speaker 10: that you have gone through as a team together as
Speaker 10: a motivating point pushed them harder, no doubt. The other
Speaker 10: thing I'll say is, I'll day didn't add a ton
Speaker 10: of pieces. Adding Jack Kelly, who is an NFL prospect
Speaker 10: at linebacker was huge, and another guy who Jahill trust
Speaker 10: in his defense huge. Also. Year two of the Jay
Speaker 10: Hill defense should not be understated. I did takes a while,
Speaker 10: and Jay told me before the season began, Cencer, we
Speaker 10: will be clearly a much better team than we were
Speaker 10: last year, just because it takes time and my defense
Speaker 10: is bought in. They understand and still instead of them
Speaker 10: second guessing where they're supposed to be and what they're
Speaker 10: supposed to be doing and getting the places late, now
Speaker 10: they just know and that will make a difference.
Speaker 7: And so he told me.
Speaker 10: I interpreted that as okay, I think the AI is
Speaker 10: gonna win seven or eight games, and I got laughed
Speaker 10: to scorn when I said they had a shotover the
Speaker 10: A game. But here we are and they are on
Speaker 10: the cut of surpassing that very soon. But yeah, so
Speaker 10: year two of J Hill, the core sticking together and
Speaker 10: then a few key transfers, and I'll finish with TJ.
Speaker 10: Woods as an offensive line coach that BYU went out
Speaker 10: and paid. They actually invested in a guy, and they
Speaker 10: spent a little bit of money and they went and
Speaker 10: got their guy to help out. And the improvement of
Speaker 10: the offensive line cannot be I don't even know how
Speaker 10: to give it a stud justice. But Caleb etn was
Speaker 10: terrible last year for BYU and now he's back on
Speaker 10: NFL radars. To lose your starting center Connor pay and
Speaker 10: then have a guy who's making his first start and
Speaker 10: Bruce Mitchell come in and it seems fretting seamless. That's
Speaker 10: all on TJ. Woods as well. So some some big
Speaker 10: coaching hires on the offensive line year tube J. Hill
Speaker 10: and just the core sticking together Spences is kind of
Speaker 10: how I see why by has been able to do this.
Speaker 1: And excuse me, I know I'm about to ask you
Speaker 1: the following question in the midst of an incredibly special season.
Speaker 2: So you know, the answer of course is going to
Speaker 2: be yes for today.
Speaker 1: But as you know, we we we we all are
Speaker 1: part of an echo cham chamber based off of our
Speaker 1: you know, our our inner circle family friends. And I
Speaker 1: was raised tried and true BUYU blue with a brother
Speaker 1: in law who still wears a T shirt with his
Speaker 1: freaking helim and Hall's number on it that.
Speaker 2: I want to rip off of it every time I
Speaker 2: see it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I know, Spencer, I know that there were
Speaker 1: a lot of people that were down on Kilanie at
Speaker 1: one point and not sure if this was the guy.
Speaker 1: He's my guy, and so I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that he's taken care of. Has he answered every question?
Speaker 1: And you think it's a situation where maybe they're going
Speaker 1: to take care of him the way they take care
Speaker 1: of their basketball coach.
Speaker 10: Now it is time, I'll say this much sence. I
Speaker 10: don't know what Kilanie's compensation and how BYU has specifically
Speaker 10: taken care of him by the numbers, but I have
Speaker 10: been told that he is in a better position than
Speaker 10: any previous doa football coach has been in, and they
Speaker 10: have every intention of sweetening the deal for him as
Speaker 10: he pushes forward, so and he has absolutely earned that right,
Speaker 10: so you're good to look out for him. I trust
Speaker 10: the administration that tells me he is being very fairly
Speaker 10: taken care of and they have no intention of doing
Speaker 10: anything but sweetening to pop for him, especially after the
Speaker 10: season like this.
Speaker 2: It's good to hear man, because I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how many jobs Klannie would leave by
Speaker 1: U four, but I wouldn't be stunned if Southern Cal
Speaker 1: is looking around like what we do. And you know
Speaker 1: they want to buy out with Lincoln. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's happening because they're paying him a ton of money.
Speaker 1: But if there's one job Colonie would look at, it
Speaker 1: has to be Southern Cal. So if they don't take
Speaker 1: care of him, man, I do think at one point
Speaker 1: he might look around.
Speaker 2: I don't know that, but that's just my gut feel.
Speaker 10: How do you not though, I mean any good age,
Speaker 10: any good eight, it's gonna say you need to look
Speaker 10: at this, and and Klana, they wouldn't say that if
Speaker 10: that were the case, So I'm with you. BUYU needs
Speaker 10: to continue to do what they say they're gonna do and.
Speaker 1: Take care of him all right before we get to
Speaker 1: the game in a vacuum on Saturday.
Speaker 2: I'm a little older than you, but you and I.
Speaker 1: Both raised playing sports, raised with the BYU Utah rivalry
Speaker 1: is part of our lives now being in the media
Speaker 1: for a number of years, we've covered it.
Speaker 2: Is there one moment, is it back to Harlen? Is
Speaker 2: it fourth and eighteen?
Speaker 1: Is there one BYU Utah rivalry moment that for you,
Speaker 1: Spencer stands out above the rest.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Beck to the Harlen obviously was remarkable, I mean remarkable.
Speaker 10: And then on the Utah side you go back to
Speaker 10: the youth there racing a twenty to nothing halftime lead
Speaker 10: and then for BYU and then even being down twenty
Speaker 10: seven to seven, to watch the youth storm back and
Speaker 10: win that game. As part of the list of the
Speaker 10: White Fence to watch, that is I will never forget
Speaker 10: what Rice Cycle Stadium sounded like. It felt like in
Speaker 10: that moment, it was electric, It was special. So those
Speaker 10: are two that I have been in Rife Cycle Stadium
Speaker 10: for that has been dynamited. I know haul the George
Speaker 10: gets a lot of attention, but one that might be
Speaker 10: a little off the radar that resonated with me was
Speaker 10: actually nineteen ninety six when BYU and Utah were playing
Speaker 10: for the wast championship and that spot in the last
Speaker 10: title game in Las Vegas, and the winner of that
Speaker 10: game was gonna go to Vegas. Usah was good, I mean,
Speaker 10: Chris Pumasumafalla and big physical team, and Byu went into
Speaker 10: right eckels and ran for like three hundred and thtyards
Speaker 10: and C. Sarkisian only throw twelve passes the entire game,
Speaker 10: and Ba stunned Utah, And I mean I remember sitting
Speaker 10: there as like a ninth grade or a tenth grader
Speaker 10: and thinking, how did YU do that? Because you so good?
Speaker 10: So that one was a memorable one for me is
Speaker 10: when I was in my formative years growing up in
Speaker 10: this rivalry because I expected something entirely different and then
Speaker 10: Dyu essentially out Utah Utah by running the ball at
Speaker 10: them NonStop and frankly spen last time by had a
Speaker 10: convincing win against Utah. It's always been close, and we're
Speaker 10: you go all the way back to ninety six to
Speaker 10: find a blowout for Byu, whereas Utah has enjoyed several
Speaker 10: in the past twenty five years.
Speaker 1: And because of the dynamic of this game, regardless of
Speaker 1: the situations between the two teams, you know, the chaos
Speaker 1: as possible. Now where I'm at is, there's if there's
Speaker 1: anybody out there that is pointing to any number or
Speaker 1: any data to indicate Utah is a better team than BYU,
Speaker 1: then they're looking at numbers.
Speaker 2: I don't see. There's no proof.
Speaker 1: There's no proof that Utah is better than BYU, not Vegas,
Speaker 1: not any of the rankings. There are some numbers that
Speaker 1: indicate Utah's defense is still very good. They're doing they're
Speaker 1: doing the quarterback thing.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 1: Now for me, Spencer, I'm not reporting this because I
Speaker 1: don't know it. We're gonna interview coach with on Friday.
Speaker 1: After having clowne on Monday. Brandon Rose was made available
Speaker 1: to the media for the first time on Tuesday, and
Speaker 1: my man spoke like he's playing, but I don't know, Okay,
Speaker 1: So that's that's my guess. Ultimately, how much does that matter?
Speaker 1: We'll see there's a new play caller. There's no other
Speaker 1: way to say that the offense is atrocious, and BYU
Speaker 1: rolls in here as a four point favorite.
Speaker 2: I think I heard you say the stat because I listen.
Speaker 2: I listened to the pod I've got you guys on
Speaker 2: in the car.
Speaker 1: That hit me across the face when you said BYU
Speaker 1: was outscored teams off turnovers sixty nine to ten, which
Speaker 1: says two things. Holy bleep, that's impressive and that can't
Speaker 1: continue right like So, so you know, I have a
Speaker 1: hard time believing Utah is gonna win this football game.
Speaker 1: But I've seen so many of these things get weird
Speaker 1: that I'm not ready to say one way or the other.
Speaker 2: What's your gut tell you about Saturday night?
Speaker 10: That it will be weird. That's what my gut tells
Speaker 10: me for sure. The one thing that BYU have to
Speaker 10: absolutely avoid that they want to win this game is
Speaker 10: doing what they really haven't done all year, and that
Speaker 10: is be reckless and careless with the football. Because Utah
Speaker 10: defense is still so solid and so capable of ramping
Speaker 10: up a hornets nest of a home stadium. If they
Speaker 10: can get one of those terminal turnovers against EYU and
Speaker 10: score a defensive touchdown and put BYU in a weird
Speaker 10: mental space, that to me is how Utah can go
Speaker 10: and win this game, especially if it's early in the game,
Speaker 10: and it just sets the tone for the remainder of
Speaker 10: the night that Utah defense is still really, really formidable,
Speaker 10: even though they've had at times trouble stopping the run. Overall, statistically,
Speaker 10: like you pointed out, they're pretty good. And so to me,
Speaker 10: it is as simple as BYU taking care of the
Speaker 10: football and not losing the turnover margin. I believe that
Speaker 10: if they do that, Thecouvers will find a way to
Speaker 10: manufacture twenty four points somehow with their offense and be
Speaker 10: able to hold Utah to under twenty four. Frankly, utahn't
Speaker 10: scored what more than twenty three in any gaming its
Speaker 10: powerful competition, So if you allow to use a defensive touchdown,
Speaker 10: then maybe they climb over twenty four against the P
Speaker 10: four team for the first time this year and shock
Speaker 10: BYU and in a way salvage their season and probably
Speaker 10: still get to a Boldie. So a lot on the line,
Speaker 10: for sure, But I mean my gut feeling is yes,
Speaker 10: I expect it's weird, loud, and I know there's a
Speaker 10: lot of rhetoric about Utah fans not showing up. I
Speaker 10: don't buy into it. I think there's going to be
Speaker 10: a sea of red, and I think that there should
Speaker 10: be because there's so much to play for and so
Speaker 10: much on the ligne here for both.
Speaker 2: You're making the trip up this way, you're gonna stay
Speaker 2: down south.
Speaker 10: I will be on the sideline. Yeah, So I'm going
Speaker 10: to experience it. And I love college football. I love
Speaker 10: this rivalry, and I'm excited for it to be in
Speaker 10: the same conference again after a long, long time off.
Speaker 2: All Right, man, well, I'll keep an eye out for
Speaker 2: you because I'll be there. I'll say what's up. I
Speaker 2: appreciate your time. Fun week, dudes. I'll see you Saturday.
Speaker 10: Okay, you got it, brother, be well.
Speaker 2: All right, We're live today at beer Bar right downtown
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker 1: Great sausages and burgers, about one hundred and thirty beers
Speaker 1: on tap, another forty to fifty Canon bottled beers non
Speaker 1: alcohol options for those of you who don't drink. It's
Speaker 1: oddly crowded on this Wednesday. I think people are either
Speaker 1: celebrating or drowning their sorrows. We have tailgate passes for
Speaker 1: the Utah BYU tailgate coming up on Saturday.
Speaker 2: Let's do some more college football.
Speaker 1: Always enjoy my time with my next guest the Great
Speaker 1: Josh Pate from Josh Pat's College Football Show on Wednesday afternoon. Josh,
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, buddy, how are we doing?
Speaker 9: I'm good. I assume that there are a multitude of
Speaker 9: reasons for people to be on edge out there and
Speaker 9: gearing up for this weekend, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1: Yes, certainly, and obviously, Josh. Last night, we're all sitting
Speaker 1: in front of our TVs. We're nervous about the results
Speaker 1: that are going to roll in. We see state by
Speaker 1: state by state by state, and then it's revealed that
Speaker 1: BYU comes into nine. So you thought I was doing
Speaker 1: an election thing, and I wasn't doing an election thing.
Speaker 1: I was doing a CFP ranking thing. So a lot
Speaker 1: of people around here wondering BYU at nine with a
Speaker 1: resume that you could argue is better than Indiana at
Speaker 1: eight and maybe even Penn States at six. I mean,
Speaker 1: BYU is undefeated. They have two top twenty wins. There
Speaker 1: are number four in strength of schedule. What's the Josh
Speaker 1: Pate take on BYU coming in at nine last night?
Speaker 9: I thought they'd be higher. Honestly, I think they should
Speaker 9: be higher. I mean, I mean as much as as
Speaker 9: much as I personally liked the traffic in the way
Speaker 9: I teams based on a more pure power rating model.
Speaker 9: That's not what the Playoff Committee is supposed to be doing.
Speaker 9: The Playoff Committee is supposed to be judging purely off merit.
Speaker 9: And you notice how after all these years, we never
Speaker 9: have a static list of criteria put out. And that's
Speaker 9: very purposeful, so they can move the goalpost as much
Speaker 9: as they need to. And I'm not normally the one
Speaker 9: that's banging that drum, but I will bang it here.
Speaker 9: I'll bang it for both of them. Actually, i'd make
Speaker 9: that case for Indiana if they were wearing a Michigan helmet.
Speaker 9: I'd make that case for Bringing Young if they were
Speaker 9: wearing a different helmet, they would be treated differently. I
Speaker 9: don't think there's any doubt about that.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 9: What aggravates me to no ends with all these people
Speaker 9: who want to tell you, Bro, relax, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 9: it's just the first version of the rankings. Well, they're
Speaker 9: lying to you. It does matter. And here's where it matters.
Speaker 9: It doesn't matter if Bringing Young wins out of course
Speaker 9: they'll be in. They were always going to be in
Speaker 9: if they won the conference.
Speaker 10: But where it matters, where.
Speaker 9: Rubber meats road is. They are building a giant trap
Speaker 9: door under your feet and under Indiana's feet to where
Speaker 9: they can reasonably pat themselves on the back for having
Speaker 9: ranked you top ten. But you know full well, just
Speaker 9: like I do, as soon as either one of those
Speaker 9: teams incurs one laws, they're gone. Trapdoor opens and they
Speaker 9: disappear from the horizon, and that committee says, well, you know,
Speaker 9: we gave them a shot, they didn't take care of business. Meanwhile,
Speaker 9: I got Penn State sitting at six after losing to
Speaker 9: Ohio State at home last weekend, which is just amazing
Speaker 9: to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I'm with you outside of BYU, outside of Indiana.
Speaker 1: You kind of gave us your take on Penn State.
Speaker 1: Any other Josh Paid reactions either good or bad from
Speaker 1: the rest of the rankings, which aren't the seeding for
Speaker 1: the bracket, but not one of the rankings. What are
Speaker 1: your other thoughts away from the dynamics we've already discussed.
Speaker 9: I thought I thought it was interesting that seven of
Speaker 9: the top sixteen teams and that thing or sec but
Speaker 9: a lot of them are ten to sixteen range, Like
Speaker 9: you got your Alabama's and your shoes and no play
Speaker 9: this weekend. A and M and Ole miss are in there,
Speaker 9: so there's gonna be probably some elimination blows dealt, which
Speaker 9: is fine, that's the way it's supposed to work. But
Speaker 9: we're also in this situation where I mean, we are
Speaker 9: looking at a situation rapidly approaching where the SEC is
Speaker 9: going to kind of judge themselves and judge how their
Speaker 9: future they want pent out based on a committee handles
Speaker 9: them this cycle. And what I mean by if they
Speaker 9: don't get as many teams in as they want or
Speaker 9: they think they deserve Big ten, you could fill in
Speaker 9: the blank. Same way here. They've got that look in
Speaker 9: provision in that playoff contract in two years, and they
Speaker 9: may very well want to take their ball and go
Speaker 9: home or go elsewhere. And I'm paying close attention to
Speaker 9: that right now.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, it does feel like the other message that
Speaker 1: has been since And I don't even know if this
Speaker 1: is the wrong message, because dude, we do a big
Speaker 1: twelve power rankings every week. You know, anybody who covers
Speaker 1: the conference does something like it. You have your your
Speaker 1: JA people, And this week I told my producer, we're
Speaker 1: not doing it because it sounds like BYU at one,
Speaker 1: then everyone else two through sixteen, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're good or bad. I mean, the problem is
Speaker 1: the conference is chaotic. So is this a message scent
Speaker 1: with BYU at nine that the Big twelve period end
Speaker 1: of story is a one big league.
Speaker 2: And that's going to go to the conference champ no
Speaker 2: matter what.
Speaker 9: Uh, that's a big question. I have I heard them
Speaker 9: say last night or I though it reported that they're
Speaker 9: trying to trying to crystallize the notion that you won't
Speaker 9: get punished for playing in a conference title game, which
Speaker 9: is great. That's the way it should be, Okay. I
Speaker 9: don't doubt that for the Big Ten. I don't doubt
Speaker 9: that for the SEC. I don't think their conference title
Speaker 9: loser will fall very far. I want to see what happens.
Speaker 9: We kind of need the case study here of Brigham
Speaker 9: Young goes undefeated all the way to Dallas and then
Speaker 9: they lose in the conference title game. They would almost assuredly,
Speaker 9: I mean, they would absolutely be a top ten team.
Speaker 10: Going into that SAT.
Speaker 9: If they lose in a game that they're only in
Speaker 9: because they earn the right to be in, are you
Speaker 9: going to drop them out of the rankings, because if
Speaker 9: you don't, then they go as well as the Big
Speaker 9: twelve champ going. And that means two Big twelve teams
Speaker 9: just crash the party. And I know that this is
Speaker 9: not the way it's supposed to work, but this is
Speaker 9: the way it will work. The folks in the SEC
Speaker 9: portion of the room will scream about that. The folks
Speaker 9: in the Big ten portion of the room will scream
Speaker 9: about that. That is not why they expanded this thing now,
Speaker 9: That is not why they built more seats at the table.
Speaker 9: Those seats are not for everyone else. Those seats are
Speaker 9: for more of who's already been there.
Speaker 1: One more thing on this. Boise State comes in and look,
Speaker 1: Boise State's good. I mean, we're kind of in that
Speaker 1: footprint because Utah State a Mound West Conference team. Is
Speaker 1: there any way Boise States in your estimation, and of
Speaker 1: course there's no way of knowing for sure because ultimately
Speaker 1: the football needs to be played, but there are only
Speaker 1: a few spots behind by you. Is there any way
Speaker 1: Boise State could catapult past the Big twelve champ and
Speaker 1: get a top four seed, and therefore that Boise gets
Speaker 1: the buy and the Big twelve champ is there at five.
Speaker 10: I think it's possible.
Speaker 9: It just you'd probably need a little chaos here down
Speaker 9: the stretch, and then one of the teams that emerges
Speaker 9: from the chaos ends up being the winner of the
Speaker 9: Big twelve championship game. So maybe like a two lost
Speaker 9: conference chant there, then I could see it. If it's
Speaker 9: just Britinging Young going on a run, no, I think
Speaker 9: that enjoy the higher seeds.
Speaker 2: I've got one more BYU question for it.
Speaker 1: Then we'll move on and obviously want to talk about
Speaker 1: the big game coming up on Saturday night. But you
Speaker 1: reference something early on in the interview about you know,
Speaker 1: the Michigan helmet or the Penn State brand, and certainly
Speaker 1: there's going to be brand biased and they're television executives
Speaker 1: that simply want the biggest and best brand on their
Speaker 1: TV show.
Speaker 2: And I understand that.
Speaker 1: What from a national standpoint, and not necessarily you because
Speaker 1: you cover and understand every team in college football, which
Speaker 1: makes you, you know, good at what you do.
Speaker 2: But how would you.
Speaker 1: Articulate as a national college football guy, what BYU's brand
Speaker 1: is nationwide?
Speaker 5: I think the.
Speaker 9: Brand is tucked away and isolated, hard to get to,
Speaker 9: really hard nosed team hard NOS program. They embody the
Speaker 9: mentality of their head coach to kind of always been
Speaker 9: that way.
Speaker 10: There.
Speaker 9: There are echoes from the past of big time teams.
Speaker 9: You hear from your dad. If you're my age, you've
Speaker 9: heard from your dad growing up about Brigham Young teams
Speaker 9: that did big things in the eighties, and you know
Speaker 9: of a few big time names will come through there.
Speaker 9: As for today, I think that people are still getting
Speaker 9: used to by being in the Big twelve. First off,
Speaker 9: like a lot of people have put two and two
Speaker 9: together there, and then when they do, they've probably lumped
Speaker 9: them in with every other Big twelve team, and that
Speaker 9: you've got to earn benefit of the doubt. In their minds,
Speaker 9: position is you're lesser than because you don't have an
Speaker 9: SEC or a big ten helmet sticker on. And I
Speaker 9: think that's the way the average college football fan to use.
Speaker 1: Bring him young right now, So we have a little
Speaker 1: football game here in the market coming up on Saturday night.
Speaker 1: I made a plea early on to get a Josh
Speaker 1: paid appearance out here for Utah BYU, but that was
Speaker 1: dependent upon both teams doing their jobs.
Speaker 2: BYU has Utah has not.
Speaker 1: We can be simply as reductive as saying, Cameron Rising's
Speaker 1: not under center and he's been hurt.
Speaker 2: Therefore everything is different. But nobody saw four and four
Speaker 2: for Utah, and no one saw.
Speaker 1: Eight no for BYU. Everything I thought Utah would be
Speaker 1: BYU has been. How surprised are you, Josh on that dynamic.
Speaker 9: I'm very surprised. I mean, if you told me I
Speaker 9: wasn't coming out there, I would have thought it was
Speaker 9: because one of these teams dropped the ball, I would
Speaker 9: just have the wrong team service right, And so as
Speaker 9: it turns out, I mean, it's it kind of. It
Speaker 9: surprises me only because Cam Rising not being available is
Speaker 9: not the biggest shock to anyone in the world. I
Speaker 9: just thought the program may be a tad bit more
Speaker 9: equipped to deal with it. And maybe I was wrong,
Speaker 9: or maybe I was just overestimating how difficult that is
Speaker 9: to continue to prepare for. But you know, I wanted
Speaker 9: to be out there now. We had it circled internally,
Speaker 9: I had it on the grease board in the office internally,
Speaker 9: But plans plans chain as the season unfolded.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, I can't argue with it. As much as
Speaker 1: we would have loved to host you once again. Like
Speaker 1: we did last year against Florida. One more big twelve question.
Speaker 1: Then we'll do some other stuff with the remaining few minutes,
Speaker 1: and then I'll set you loose outside of Brigham me ONNG,
Speaker 1: who do you think is good in the conference?
Speaker 2: Because I really can't figure it out week to week.
Speaker 9: I think Colorado is the biggest wild card out there.
Speaker 9: I mean Colorado has improved defensively, fairly significantly. They run
Speaker 9: the ball much better than they did, so they are
Speaker 9: I mean, they're a complimentary, improving football team. And last
Speaker 9: week I thought they were the biggest winner out there,
Speaker 9: even though they didn't play because Iowa State Kansas State
Speaker 9: went down. I don't trust Iowa State or I don't
Speaker 9: trust Kansas State away from home at all. Right now,
Speaker 9: Iowa State, I thought they had been skating on thin
Speaker 9: ice with hot blades for a few weeks and got
Speaker 9: a lost dealt to him by another team that's pretty
Speaker 9: bog walk card in Texas Tech. I kind of think
Speaker 9: that may end up being good for them, just in
Speaker 9: that it allows you to hit the reset button a
Speaker 9: little bit and you're no longer dealing with the pressure
Speaker 9: of undefeated, and do you just go play every one
Speaker 9: of your goals is still in front of you. Just
Speaker 9: go play. I'm still pretty high on the Hiowa State's capability.
Speaker 9: I think they've got the highest end capability of any
Speaker 9: of the teams out there. But Colorado is the one
Speaker 9: that I circle because Colorado's one I don't really know.
Speaker 9: They haven't peaked yet and I don't know what they
Speaker 9: look like when they do.
Speaker 1: As as disappointing as Utah football has been, and how
Speaker 1: difficult that is for a fan base around here with
Speaker 1: different expectations, how do you articulate owen six Oklahoma states
Speaker 1: in conference?
Speaker 9: I think I think Gandhi did a pretty poor job
Speaker 9: of putting his coordinators together. I don't think this is
Speaker 9: a very strong staff he has. It was one of
Speaker 9: my biggest concerns coming end of the year, and it is.
Speaker 9: It has really manifested itself into a poor result. I
Speaker 9: give him credit, and they went and played BYU hard
Speaker 9: in the game they played against him a few weeks back.
Speaker 9: Still lost, but I expected that team to kind of
Speaker 9: roll over and they didn't. But they're just it's not
Speaker 9: a good team this year. And it's a shame because
Speaker 9: they had a lot of returning pieces that looked like
Speaker 9: it may be otherwise, but that they have not even
Speaker 9: getten this as a chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you reference Colorado, and I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that I've really ever seen a talent like Travis Hunter.
Speaker 2: Shouldn't he win the Heisman Trophy? Josh? And if not,
Speaker 2: who do you think does?
Speaker 9: I think it's I think it's gonna come down to
Speaker 9: is he active on Conference championship Saturday. It's gonna be
Speaker 9: him and Camboard, I believe, and and Dylan Gabriel may
Speaker 9: be in that equation. But the thing about those other
Speaker 9: guys is Gabriel will be playing in the Big ten
Speaker 9: title game. I think I think cam Ward certainly will
Speaker 9: be playing in the ACC title game. If Hunter is
Speaker 9: just playing on that last Saturday, I think that's going
Speaker 9: to make a big difference, because otherwise, I think the
Speaker 9: voters are going to be willing. I think a lot
Speaker 9: of voters are looking for a reason to vote him,
Speaker 9: and it may come down to that. It may be
Speaker 9: as simple as that.
Speaker 1: All right, moving off the Big twelve, now, just simple question,
Speaker 1: how good do you think Miami is? It's another team
Speaker 1: when you're looking at the resume and their number four
Speaker 1: and of course the bottom line is staying clean, which
Speaker 1: they've done. But do you think their record where they're
Speaker 1: at right now accurately reflects simply how good they are?
Speaker 1: And if they have the opportunity to go against another
Speaker 1: one of those teams that live in that cul de sac,
Speaker 1: do they stack up in your mind.
Speaker 9: Talent wise? They do. I don't think the product they've
Speaker 9: put on the field measures quite yet, but we can't
Speaker 9: be sure because they you know, they haven't been pushed
Speaker 9: to the against quality competition. They've been pushed to the brink,
Speaker 9: But it's almost one of those situations where they played
Speaker 9: with their food a little too long and then took
Speaker 9: it serious in the end. If I put them on
Speaker 9: the field with Texas or Georgia, I don't really know
Speaker 9: what I should expect from them in that scenario. I
Speaker 9: think we'll end up seeing it because I think they'll
Speaker 9: be in the postseason. But the other thing I wonder
Speaker 9: with them is I remember kind of two different versions
Speaker 9: of LSU the twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three LSU teams.
Speaker 9: They both had Heisman quarterbacks. One of them got it
Speaker 9: backed together enough defensively to become a superpower team in
Speaker 9: twenty nineteen wasn't always that way. Last year's LSU team
Speaker 9: heis MC quarterback, but couldn't stop molasses in December defensively,
Speaker 9: and so they wasted that Heisman season and never accomplished
Speaker 9: anything of note in the postseason. Miami's gonna go one
Speaker 9: of those two directions here. I'm just waiting to see
Speaker 9: which one.
Speaker 1: Do you think we were discussing this earlier, because we
Speaker 1: were talking about Byu and Klonie Satake and whether or
Speaker 1: not they were gonna actually step up and pay him.
Speaker 1: It's a private institution, but they're known for not paying
Speaker 1: their coaches very much. And look, I have no inside
Speaker 1: information or knowledge at all about where Southern Cal's head
Speaker 1: is with Lincoln, but ultimately Klannie's a Southern California guy,
Speaker 1: and if that job came open, I think he would
Speaker 1: answer the phone if they called. I don't know what
Speaker 1: they would, I don't know if they would, but that's
Speaker 1: a long way to me asking you do you think
Speaker 1: Southern Cal is looking around wondering if they have the
Speaker 1: right guy after this really, really rough first season of
Speaker 1: the Big Ten.
Speaker 9: I think they may look around and ask the questions.
Speaker 9: I don't think they're looking around in the form of
Speaker 9: let's do our due diligence because we may make a move.
Speaker 9: I think they're a long way from that. I did
Speaker 9: a segment on the show last night, just did job
Speaker 9: approval ratings, and Lincoln Riley's approval rating would be a
Speaker 9: little low right now. But that's kind of detached from
Speaker 9: his hot seat rating. I don't think it's hot seat
Speaker 9: ratings anywhere. I'd say the same thing about Hugh Freeve
Speaker 9: at Auburn after that mattered. But I will say this,
Speaker 9: I've lost it and they've led in the fourth quarter
Speaker 9: of all five of those games. I mean they're having
Speaker 9: a dozen plays if you change in their season. They're undefeated,
Speaker 9: which means nothing other than to say they're not a
Speaker 9: long way away. It's not Florida State, where they're just
Speaker 9: dead on arrival and there's so many problems you don't
Speaker 9: even know where to start. He started, he replaced his
Speaker 9: defensive staff. They look a lot better this year. I mean,
Speaker 9: it's probably as simple as you don't have Caleb Williams anymore,
Speaker 9: and you need to go find the next version of him.
Speaker 2: Where's the Josh Paid Tour taking place coming up this weekend?
Speaker 2: Where are you going to be.
Speaker 9: We are headed down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana or Alabama
Speaker 9: at LSU on a Saturday night.
Speaker 2: You know, I've never experienced that game.
Speaker 1: I have experienced LSU, but I've heard that's the spot, man,
Speaker 1: that's the place to be with that game.
Speaker 2: What I would imagine you've been there before. So what's
Speaker 2: that atmosphere going to be?
Speaker 9: Like?
Speaker 2: A is Bama is down in Baton Rouge to take
Speaker 2: on LSU.
Speaker 9: The best way I can describe it is if you're
Speaker 9: standing on a runway at a major airport and you
Speaker 9: just hear jet engines around you. That's kind of the
Speaker 9: way it sounds on the field there in big third
Speaker 9: down moments and especially at night double especially if Alabama
Speaker 9: or Florida someone like that in there. I mean, especially
Speaker 9: if LSU show some life early and they get up
Speaker 9: on someone early.
Speaker 10: It feels it.
Speaker 9: Feels like you weigh one hundred and fifty pound or
Speaker 9: one hundred and fifty percent of your body weight. You
Speaker 9: just press it down on you. It is really really
Speaker 9: difficult to operate in that environment.
Speaker 2: We do like to keep track of our former Pac
Speaker 2: twelve buddies.
Speaker 1: What's the hulla baloo like the conversation like down and
Speaker 1: down there with Alabama and our old buddy Calein de
Speaker 1: Bor who's a great coach, but he's not Nick Saban,
Speaker 1: because nobody is.
Speaker 9: Yeah, there's a lot of attention on that this week,
Speaker 9: just people and myself included wondering how they'll handle this
Speaker 9: moment because they did not handle Tennessee well for many
Speaker 9: different reasons, but one of them was Bama under Nick
Speaker 9: Saban was a big game program, and I, ironic used
Speaker 9: to feel more confident in them when they were on
Speaker 9: the road than I did when they were at home.
Speaker 9: I just thought they handled that stuff so well. And
Speaker 9: it's really early with the boor we have like a
Speaker 9: one game sample size, but I didn't like the way
Speaker 9: they handled the trip to Tennessee. I think it was
Speaker 9: a learning experience for him. This will be another one.
Speaker 9: Both of them are coming out of the buy really
Speaker 9: interested to see how Jaylen Milroe performs, how healthy he looks.
Speaker 9: They'll tell you he's healthy now I don't believe him.
Speaker 9: So huge wildcard. Both teams are huge wildcards right now.
Speaker 1: Last thing is Oregon firmly entrenched themselves as the best
Speaker 1: team in the country, and if not who else is
Speaker 1: in that kind of just in that area.
Speaker 9: As of now, they're the best I've seen. I think
Speaker 9: Texas has higher end potential. I think Ohio State has
Speaker 9: high end potential. Oregon's the best I've seen. I've seen
Speaker 9: them all in person, some of them a couple of times.
Speaker 9: At this point. They are so multifaceted. They have got
Speaker 9: an assassinate quarterback right now. They can run the ball
Speaker 9: on you, they can stop the run. They're very multiple
Speaker 9: and athletic. Defensively, I think they're to get Test Johnson
Speaker 9: back before the end of the year. So that's the
Speaker 9: one I'd like to be if I could pick any
Speaker 9: team to be right now.
Speaker 2: Josh, thanks man for the time. Keep up the great work,
Speaker 2: and enjoy the games this weekend.
Speaker 9: All right, all right, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Josh Pate, host of The Josh Pates College Football Show.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite college football podcasts. Josh is
Speaker 1: a very talented guy. Find him on social media on Twitter.
Speaker 1: It's at Josh Pate CFB or X or whatever the
Speaker 1: hell we're calling it. Certainly the day after what happened
Speaker 1: yesterday at Josh Pate CFB is where.
Speaker 2: You find him. Maybe all right. We're live today at
Speaker 2: Beer Bar.
Speaker 1: It's right downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, and we're having
Speaker 1: a good time.
Speaker 2: Always due.
Speaker 1: You can come on down and grab a couple of
Speaker 1: tailgate passes for our Utah BYU tailgates prior to Kick
Speaker 1: kick His eight fifteen Saturday nights. The pregame coverage we'll
Speaker 1: begin at four fifteen, So if you are looking for
Speaker 1: something to do prior to the game, if you want
Speaker 1: some craft cocktails from Clearwater Distillion or some free food
Speaker 1: from Wingers.
Speaker 2: We also have non alcoholic options of.
Speaker 1: Course, come on by beer Bar two per person and
Speaker 1: while supplies last, we have ten, so we'll hook you
Speaker 1: up with a couple of passes just for rolling on
Speaker 1: in here at Beer Bar on this Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 2: It is one sixty one just had the address.
Speaker 1: It is one sixty one ees two hundred south, downtown
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, Utah. They've got great burgers and brats.
Speaker 1: They've got fries. The fries are awesome of course, bunch.
Speaker 2: Of beers on tap.
Speaker 1: If you guys want to roll by porter, do you
Speaker 1: have your pregame lineup dialed in for the radio station
Speaker 1: on Saturday.
Speaker 4: As dialed in as it's going to get because we
Speaker 4: have the on site kind of event going on with
Speaker 4: our friends at the NFL Players Association and a coat drive.
Speaker 4: So yeah, Isaacasciata will be alongside me for most of
Speaker 4: the ride, but we'll also have Stevenson, Sylvester and Austin
Speaker 4: Colly and a bunch of the guys that'll be there
Speaker 4: from both BYU and Utah. Trying to combine teams for
Speaker 4: a good cause, trying to get two twenty four coats
Speaker 4: to donate for the upcoming winter season.
Speaker 3: So that's the goal.
Speaker 4: Where we're going to be actually not at the seven
Speaker 4: hundred tailgate. We're gonna be across the street at the
Speaker 4: actual Guardsman tailgate tailgate with Nate Orchard and the folks
Speaker 4: up there. So looking forward to it. But yeah, we'll
Speaker 4: give folks the details as it comes along. And obviously
Speaker 4: you're gonna want to be warm on Saturday, but keep
Speaker 4: in mind and just you know, a few days in advance,
Speaker 4: if you have an extra coat in the closet, maybe
Speaker 4: some of the kids don't wear anymore, throw it in
Speaker 4: the truck, throw it in the car and bring it
Speaker 4: on your way on Saturday.
Speaker 2: There we go.
Speaker 1: That will be an excellent time, So stay tuned for
Speaker 1: that and set your alarm on Saturday to remind you
Speaker 1: of the pregame show starting at four fifteen, and then
Speaker 1: Bill Sly and Scott I'll have you taken care of
Speaker 1: after that. Bill is gonna roll on the show today,
Speaker 1: not sure if it'll be in person or.
Speaker 2: Over the phone.
Speaker 1: Ran into Riles at the studios earlier, the Broadway Media Studios.
Speaker 1: He was once a middling midday radio host for US
Speaker 1: before he got big time and went to the U Porter.
Speaker 1: We have not heard from you much this week because
Speaker 1: we have been busy and you're keeping us on air,
Speaker 1: and you're making phone calls, and you're playing music, and
Speaker 1: you're pushing buttons and you're eating on crustables, so you're
Speaker 1: doing a lot of things BYU at this point is
Speaker 1: a four point favorite, and I would be surprised if
Speaker 1: the line moves from four barring some unforeseen last minute
Speaker 1: injury news or a different starting quarterback, like if Jake
Speaker 1: Rhetz laugh had to you had to sit because of
Speaker 1: an injury, suffer this week or whatever it is.
Speaker 2: I think that's probably where it's gonna settle.
Speaker 1: What's your confidence level based off of as we've talked
Speaker 1: about with our guests, go ahead and dig through the
Speaker 1: data like there's nothing out there right now. Whether it's records,
Speaker 1: they're certainly defensive metrics that indicate Utah's defense is still elite.
Speaker 1: But BYU has earned the right to be the favorite
Speaker 1: Saturday Night. But this game gets weird, as you know.
Speaker 1: So what's your gut tell you about what we'll see
Speaker 1: Saturday Night?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think the gut feeling is along the
Speaker 4: to pardon the pun, along the lines of the line.
Speaker 4: It really is one where you know, I think it
Speaker 4: will be a close game, but Utah in order to win,
Speaker 4: would have to win the turnover battle. They would have
Speaker 4: to you know, turn a block field goal or an
Speaker 4: interception into a touchdown. One of those situations where you
Speaker 4: are a little outmatched with personnel because of injuries and
Speaker 4: because of the place you are in in the season.
Speaker 4: And I do think that BYU has the upper hand,
Speaker 4: But the fact that you're in right cycle stadium, the
Speaker 4: fact that it's Kyle Whittingham versus a bunch of guys
Speaker 4: that he kind of taught how to do the thing,
Speaker 4: I think it's going to be a stalemate. Spence, I
Speaker 4: really do. I don't know about three zero. I think
Speaker 4: we're in a different era of college football. But Jay
Speaker 4: Hill versus Kyle Whittingham on a cold November, I don't
Speaker 4: know that we're gonna see very many points. And that
Speaker 4: four point spread is is one that you know, I
Speaker 4: don't know that i'd really touch it because I think
Speaker 4: that this game very well could be decided by a
Speaker 4: field goal, and if not, then it's probably a comfortable
Speaker 4: by you win. But I just don't really see it
Speaker 4: getting out of hand in that regard.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I've talked about this as far as my
Speaker 1: own personal opinion, and we've asked other people as far
Speaker 1: as you know, Scott Mitchell, etc.
Speaker 2: About their opinion on this. I don't know, man.
Speaker 1: There was something about Brandon Rose on Tuesday, who was
Speaker 1: made available to the media. He to me porter he
Speaker 1: was talking like a kid it's gonna get the start.
Speaker 1: He was talking like a kid that was gonna play.
Speaker 1: That's my guess. I don't know what the deal is
Speaker 1: with Isaac's wrist. You know, if he has legitimately been hurt,
Speaker 1: and then that might explain quite a bit. But what
Speaker 1: does your guy tell you on who's gonna start under
Speaker 1: and if so, what sort of difference generally speaking, do
Speaker 1: you think that makes well.
Speaker 4: As you mentioned, part of the story here is that
Speaker 4: Isaac Wilson has been dealing with it at wrist injury.
Speaker 4: He's been dealing with I think some rib stuff, like
Speaker 4: he's just been beat up. It's a kid who, let's
Speaker 4: be real, wasn't expecting to take a bunch of snaps
Speaker 4: this year. And there is an adjustment that your body
Speaker 4: has to make when you go from playing as we've
Speaker 4: talked about, from playing Farmington and Loan Peek or whoever,
Speaker 4: to playing Big twelve opponents. There's an adjustment your body takes.
Speaker 4: Usually five to ten pounds of muscle. Is what every
Speaker 4: college coach tries to give every incoming freshman, something Isaac
Speaker 4: hasn't had a chance to do. So part of this
Speaker 4: conversation is the fact that he is a little bit
Speaker 4: banged up. But as you mentioned, Brandon Rose sounded like
Speaker 4: a guy who's preparing to play. Now, what I'll say
Speaker 4: about that is that Brandon Rose kind of always talks
Speaker 4: like that. That's just the confidence that the kid kind
Speaker 4: of walks around with. And whether that is is real,
Speaker 4: you know, you have to go into this game thinking
Speaker 4: that you may possibly see both of them. Spence, just
Speaker 4: with the way the season is gone, with the length
Speaker 4: of leash that I think the OC and head coach
Speaker 4: are going to give either of the quarterbacks that may
Speaker 4: take a snap for Utah on Saturday.
Speaker 1: So another interesting narrative. And we talked to Spencer Lynton
Speaker 1: from BYU TV about this earlier. And I want to
Speaker 1: be careful because maybe I'm being part of the problem.
Speaker 1: I simply have heard from and am aware of more
Speaker 1: than a few Utah fans that do not want to
Speaker 1: be there on Saturday, And according to what they've shared
Speaker 1: with me, they have sold their tickets.
Speaker 2: And some of the tickets online are very expensive. And
Speaker 2: so maybe you know, this is a way you can.
Speaker 1: Recoup some of your season ticket deposit or what have you.
Speaker 1: But I don't know that that is going to have
Speaker 1: a massive effect on the crowd on Saturday. You have
Speaker 1: a different echo chamber than I do. What sort of
Speaker 1: feedback are you getting from people or you fans that
Speaker 1: you know about their plans on Saturday night?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think there's always going to be
Speaker 4: a healthy, healthy interest in this game in particular with
Speaker 4: it being Utah BYU, I think the environment in the
Speaker 4: stadium is going to be a lot of fun. I
Speaker 4: don't really see any if fans or butts about that,
Speaker 4: but I do think there is a healthy contingent of
Speaker 4: Utah fans that, because of the way not only this
Speaker 4: year played out, but also last year, and because of
Speaker 4: the expectations that they had, some of them spent they're
Speaker 4: not missing their game, missing this game because they're not,
Speaker 4: you know, cheering for Utah. They're going to go home
Speaker 4: and still cheer for their team. But they had such
Speaker 4: high expectations for this game and for this season that
Speaker 4: they thought, you know, a month or two ago, that
Speaker 4: they would be watching an undefeated Utah team playing a
Speaker 4: lesser BYU team and their team would be the one
Speaker 4: fighting for a a chance at the college football playoff.
Speaker 4: And I think because of that letdown, there are quite
Speaker 4: a few fans that are saying, hey, why don't I
Speaker 4: make a few hundred bucks and watch the game from
Speaker 4: down the road and sell my ticket and go from there.
Speaker 4: I have seen a good amount of people that are
Speaker 4: at least talking about that online or listing their tickets.
Speaker 4: I still it's not going to be more BYU fans
Speaker 4: here than Utah fans. That's not going to happen, but
Speaker 4: there will be a healthy contingent of Cougar fans at
Speaker 4: Rice Cycles on Saturday, and if things start to go
Speaker 4: their way, they can get loud. So either way, that's
Speaker 4: it's going to be a fun environment. We've seen it.
Speaker 4: One of my favorite memories of this rivalry is one
Speaker 4: covered in person with the comeback game, right with Jason
Speaker 4: Shelley and the twenty seven to seven comeback. That game
Speaker 4: and that environment was really fun in a multiple in
Speaker 4: multiple different directions. First with an actual really loud section
Speaker 4: of BYU fans that were involved in tested as the
Speaker 4: game started, and then as the comeback rolled along, the
Speaker 4: crowd just started to move and jolt and you could
Speaker 4: feel the energy start to really fill up in that stadium.
Speaker 4: And then of course the touchdown, Jason Shelley scored the
Speaker 4: roof that if that place had a roof, it would
Speaker 4: have blown off on that touchdown. So I have no
Speaker 4: questions about the environment what we'll see, but yeah, I
Speaker 4: do think there will be a healthy contingent of Cougar
Speaker 4: fans in Recycle Stadium on Saturday that maybe wouldn't have
Speaker 4: been able to get tickets had Utah been more what
Speaker 4: we expected at kickoff.
Speaker 1: That comeback, that twenty seven to seven comeback still to
Speaker 1: this day ridiculous, Oh my gosh. And you know what's
Speaker 1: interesting because I was thinking about this, and you know,
Speaker 1: I never played for a paycheck, But if you played
Speaker 1: sports throughout the course of your life growing up, like
Speaker 1: in a high school or college or whatever, and you
Speaker 1: never got to do it, there's a good chance you
Speaker 1: played against Arrival.
Speaker 2: And I had two, you know, during my time playing.
Speaker 1: And I'm not not the radio guy that compares his
Speaker 1: slightly above average high school basketball playing career to these
Speaker 1: guys that are playing for money, But there's just something
Speaker 1: so different when you know that you're playing against Arrival.
Speaker 2: The whole energy is different all week. I love it,
Speaker 2: I always have. I just think that's kind of how
Speaker 2: I'm wired.
Speaker 1: I know some people aren't necessarily all that fond of
Speaker 1: the anxiety that this week seems to bring some people.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, people will say mean things to
Speaker 1: you during Elderscorma BYU Wins, and you know the internet
Speaker 1: is where cowards go to feel brave, So you're gonna
Speaker 1: get some guff online, But what about what about you
Speaker 1: and this dynamic of this week? Because you know Spencer
Speaker 1: Litton byu TV, you joined us earlier. One of his
Speaker 1: peers is a former producer of mine named Jason Sheppard,
Speaker 1: and Shep produced the show I did with Bill for
Speaker 1: about five years or so before I went over to
Speaker 1: my other station, and I can remember every year.
Speaker 2: Shep would show up for.
Speaker 1: Work on Monday of Rivalry Week and he would look
Speaker 1: like he hasn't slept in two weeks. He's not a drinker,
Speaker 1: but he looked like he was just smashing Jaeger all
Speaker 1: night and he hated it.
Speaker 2: And he's not alone. There are some people that are.
Speaker 1: Like that because of the potential ramifications of having their
Speaker 1: feel goods hurt if their preferred team loses this game.
Speaker 1: You were an athlete, I mean, when it comes to
Speaker 1: simply knowing that you're going up against your biggest rival,
Speaker 1: is that an energetic feel that you enjoy? Or do
Speaker 1: you understand where people are coming from when they kind
Speaker 1: of just back away from the dynamics of this week?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it depends on the position you're in. Spence.
Speaker 3: I think that if you're.
Speaker 4: Winning if you're confident, if you feel like your rival
Speaker 4: is not up to par, like you know, I think
Speaker 4: a lot of Utah teams felt like over the last
Speaker 4: decade and a half with BYU. And yeah, you're stoked,
Speaker 4: You're you're going into that game with really not much
Speaker 4: to lose, and a bunch to put on the highlight
Speaker 4: tape and and a lot of fun to have, right
Speaker 4: And and if you are going into a rivalry game
Speaker 4: with a bunch of pressure on your back and you
Speaker 4: don't necessarily feel like you have what it takes to
Speaker 4: to play with the team across from you, maybe you
Speaker 4: know you're you're having a down year, and and it's
Speaker 4: it's a game where it means more than maybe another
Speaker 4: game on the docket. Those those are all variables that
Speaker 4: that play into how you approach a rivalry game. And
Speaker 4: for this one in particular, you know, if you're Utah,
Speaker 4: there's not much to lose anymore. So I don't know
Speaker 4: how much the pressure should really mount on you, outside of,
Speaker 4: of course, your head ball coach I'm sure instilling in
Speaker 4: you how important the game might be to him.
Speaker 3: There's not much pressure.
Speaker 4: You're four and four, the big twelves out of reach,
Speaker 4: uh for big For BYU, that's the team that now
Speaker 4: is within the top twelve of the CFP. That's the
Speaker 4: team with a bunch to lose. And when you add
Speaker 4: that on top of a rivalry that can get nerve racking,
Speaker 4: that can bring in a pressure, a feel they can
Speaker 4: kind of start to seep into maybe your thoughts the
Speaker 4: day before and into prep. And I do wonder if
Speaker 4: that's the feel for BYU. Credit to Kelani and co.
Speaker 4: They've been able to, you know, keep things in house
Speaker 4: and really play that underdog role for the entirety of
Speaker 4: this year. Can they keep that going on Saturday and
Speaker 4: and and continue that focus is a big question. But yeah,
Speaker 4: the rivalry definitely adds a different aspect. But it's also
Speaker 4: about where the two teams are coming into that game,
Speaker 4: not just about the fact that they have a history
Speaker 4: and a hate for each other.
Speaker 1: Tell me just from your advantage point, because you were
Speaker 1: up at the football facility and you know, you hear
Speaker 1: the sounds, you know you're watching the local TV guys
Speaker 1: at night kind of breaks some things down and watching
Speaker 1: the video they're able to get We're not able to
Speaker 1: give much because we don't see practice anymore. But you know,
Speaker 1: in politics, there's this thing where they call the October surprise,
Speaker 1: where something happens that is crazy that throws a wrench
Speaker 1: into the election. And BYU Utah, you kind of just
Speaker 1: wait for the surprise during the week of the player
Speaker 1: who says the thing to get the ire of the
Speaker 1: other fan base, and that player this week was Jalen
Speaker 1: Glover who drops an F bomb and later apologize via
Speaker 1: social media. I thought Austin Colley's comments yesterday on the
Speaker 1: show are really interesting. We had Austin former BYU and
Speaker 1: NFL receiver on the show when he said he was
Speaker 1: like disappointed that Jalen apologized because he likes stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of competitors do.
Speaker 2: But have you.
Speaker 1: Witnessed anything, you know, going up there being around the players,
Speaker 1: because look, it's it's hard at this point for the
Speaker 1: coaching staff to keep these young men motivated when all
Speaker 1: of the things, all of the things we thought they'd
Speaker 1: be in the mix.
Speaker 2: For, are no longer on the tape. I mean, as
Speaker 2: I continue to say, the only.
Speaker 1: Thing worse than playing in a throwaway bowl game is
Speaker 1: not being eligible for one. So yes, they're still get
Speaker 1: the six wins, get the seven wins, you know, get
Speaker 1: to a bowl game, and you know who knows, maybe
Speaker 1: eight wins on the table. Unfortunately, my confidence in this
Speaker 1: team dwindled. I felt like I was the last one
Speaker 1: hanging on the proverbial final branch before my face hit
Speaker 1: the ground. But my face is clearly in the mud
Speaker 1: at this point. Have you noticed anything to indicate that
Speaker 1: the motivation to continue to climb without the reward that
Speaker 1: was on the table has waned a little bit or
Speaker 1: does it still feel like they're kind of ready to roll?
Speaker 4: Well, it's hard because the energy definitely has waned, but
Speaker 4: without you know, seeing them play against BYU, seeing them
Speaker 4: here at Rice Cycles and seeing their response to that spence.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think we have to see how they respond and
Speaker 4: how they react to that on Saturday, right, because it
Speaker 4: wasn't until you drop to four and four that you
Speaker 4: really really kind of have all that set in, right.
Speaker 4: I think with three losses on the on the schedule,
Speaker 4: you look around and you think we can play our
Speaker 4: way back in, or we can at least, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: stay above five hundred get into a decent bowl game.
Speaker 4: Now it's you know, a sobering moment where you have
Speaker 4: to to look in the mirror and and kind of
Speaker 4: reflect a little bit. And I think there was some
Speaker 4: of that that Utah certainly has gone through over the
Speaker 4: last couple of weeks, because I can tell you up
Speaker 4: at that facility, it's quiet, man, It's usually not that way.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's it's quiet. It doesn't feel like it
Speaker 4: usually does during the season because that team's usually used
Speaker 4: to win in a bunch of football games and and
Speaker 4: having a bunch of fun. And I think that that's
Speaker 4: okay sometimes, right, It's it's okay to have those uh
Speaker 4: vat peaks and valleys. But for Utah, it's about how
Speaker 4: you respond and if you can do so. If you
Speaker 4: can't do it this weekend against your arch rival in
Speaker 4: State in a game where you really don't have anything
Speaker 4: to lose, then yes, I definitely think there is a problem,
Speaker 4: and I definitely think that there is something going on
Speaker 4: in that locker room. But you got to give them
Speaker 4: a chance to respond first. And I do think that
Speaker 4: they do have at least some guys in the locker
Speaker 4: room that are pretty capable of driving that ship.
Speaker 1: So reminder, our pregame coverage on Saturday will begin at
Speaker 1: eight point fifteen, and we're gonna be live at the tailgates.
Speaker 9: And I had to do it.
Speaker 2: I had to do it on the Rivalry Week.
Speaker 1: Say that slowly into a mirror if you're speaking into
Speaker 1: a microphone.
Speaker 2: On radio or TV this week. But the voice of
Speaker 2: the utes, the appearance of.
Speaker 1: Bill Riley on this radio show during Rivalry Week had
Speaker 1: to be the jam you guys listened to for twenty
Speaker 1: years prior to the start of Bill's show, Ryle's I'm
Speaker 1: disappointed that here at beer bar there's no beers with Bill,
Speaker 1: but I'll take the time anyway.
Speaker 7: How are we doing, I'm doing good, Spencer. It was
Speaker 7: good to see you this morning for a few minutes.
Speaker 7: Give Duncan and Richard and all the crew down there
Speaker 7: my best.
Speaker 1: I will for sure, I will, for sure appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: So what is what's the week like for the voice man?
Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked about it with a bunch of
Speaker 1: guests all week long.
Speaker 2: I love it. I always have.
Speaker 1: When you and I were doing our old show back
Speaker 1: in the day, we had a producer, so didn't it
Speaker 1: want But he didn't want.
Speaker 2: Our producer did not want to get out of bed.
Speaker 2: During Rivalry Week, Schep hated it. Some people hate it.
Speaker 2: I love it. What's this week like for the Voice?
Speaker 9: Well, I love it.
Speaker 7: It's weird for the first time in what twenty or
Speaker 7: twenty three years living here not doing a radio show
Speaker 7: during rivalry Week. This was always one of my favorite
Speaker 7: weeks of the year. And I've been listening to you
Speaker 7: all week long and it's just great. And I'm you know,
Speaker 7: so much has changed at college football, spends at college athletics.
Speaker 7: The one thing that we have still are rivalries, and
Speaker 7: this week is just so good. You and I are
Speaker 7: old enough to remember. I'm old, You're You're getting there.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 7: You know, we used to be able to talk about
Speaker 7: this game three hundred and sixty five days a year,
Speaker 7: the old Mountain West Conference days. You could crack the
Speaker 7: mic on a Tuesday in mid May and start to
Speaker 7: fire up from Utah buy you Tube. That's kind of
Speaker 7: tempered a bit in recent years different conferences, Utah kind
Speaker 7: of taken off, EYU had kind of leveled out. But
Speaker 7: now being back in the same conference this year and
Speaker 7: BYU having a great year and Utah dealing with some
Speaker 7: issues that there's plenty to talk about. But as that
Speaker 7: little little liner coming in from our buddy Cavon said,
Speaker 7: when these two get together, there's no home field advantage,
Speaker 7: there's no real edge. It's usually a one possession game,
Speaker 7: and I think we'll get that on Saturday night too.
Speaker 7: So I just I love this week. It's everything college
Speaker 7: football and college athletics should be about.
Speaker 1: So the question Ryles on a Wednesday Utah BYU robbery
Speaker 1: game hot or not.
Speaker 7: I would say warm, heating up. I think if Utah
Speaker 7: is a little bit better right now and not having
Speaker 7: lost four games in a row, I think this game
Speaker 7: would be hot. I think it would be white hot.
Speaker 7: So I think it's warm with the possibility of getting
Speaker 7: hot Saturday night. But it's hard to call it hot
Speaker 7: all the way around when one of the two teams
Speaker 7: is struggling pretty well to try and find out who
Speaker 7: they are, and obviously that's Utah. They're trying to figure
Speaker 7: themselves out offensively.
Speaker 2: So you continue to preserve and protect the sanctity. I
Speaker 2: do appreciate that.
Speaker 7: Always you must preserve and protect the sanctity of rivalry
Speaker 7: week on a Wednesday, no doubt.
Speaker 2: No doubt. So Riles the line.
Speaker 1: The line opens with BYU getting five in Vegas, which
Speaker 1: essentially means Vegas is saying, on a neutral field, they
Speaker 1: think Byu is about a touchdown and a little bit
Speaker 1: more than that better than the utes. It moved towards
Speaker 1: Utah twice to three point five, it's settled at four.
Speaker 1: So if we remove the oddities of the game, which
Speaker 1: is impossible to do, and we'll get back to the
Speaker 1: actual dynamic of the game, and you just analyze these
Speaker 1: two teams as they are, is it fair to say
Speaker 1: right now bringing me Young's about a touchdown better because
Speaker 1: that's what Vegas seems to think.
Speaker 7: I think that that's a fair line spence. Because of
Speaker 7: the way they've played this year. I still think Utah's
Speaker 7: talent is probably as good, if not maybe a little
Speaker 7: bit better. But they've not played to their talent this year,
Speaker 7: and obviously there's been a big gaping hole at quarterback again,
Speaker 7: and that's a big reason why b Yu I think
Speaker 7: has played above their level. I think they are a
Speaker 7: good football team that has not beaten itself and has
Speaker 7: been very opportunistic when other teams present them with turnovers
Speaker 7: and gifts. You know, just because you get a turnover
Speaker 7: that you know, Utah's gotten turnovers this year, and they
Speaker 7: kick field goals BYU feels like they pay those things
Speaker 7: off with touchdowns and that's what good teams do.
Speaker 5: So so based on.
Speaker 7: Where they are right now and the way they've played,
Speaker 7: I think that line's fair.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I want to expand out because it's been
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. We've had some scheduling stuff because
Speaker 1: you're very busy. Since we've been able to catch up
Speaker 1: and Bill, last time we spoke, I felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: I was the media guy that was holding on to
Speaker 1: the final branch of confidence before hitting the ground. And
Speaker 1: now my face is in the dirt. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: four straight ls. I didn't see this coming. I get
Speaker 1: plenty wrong. I'm not sure that I've ever been as
Speaker 1: wrong as I've been about this Utah football team. So
Speaker 1: on a scale of reductive statement, no, cam all the
Speaker 1: way to four and four four straight losses take us
Speaker 1: on this journey.
Speaker 2: How do we find ourselves here?
Speaker 7: You know it's you know, obviously the injury to Rising
Speaker 7: and you know the eggs were in the rising basket
Speaker 7: this year and that didn't work. It say, obviously, Cam's
Speaker 7: injury against Baylor and his inability to come back, and
Speaker 7: then the injury to the lower leg whatever that was
Speaker 7: against its was Arizona State. Now that sidelined you, but
Speaker 7: the backup plan to have a true freshman as your guy.
Speaker 7: I think that they were betting a lot on Cam
Speaker 7: being healthy, you know, this year, and when you turn
Speaker 7: to a true freshman, you just don't know what you're
Speaker 7: gonna get. Isaac's had some good moments, and Isaac's had
Speaker 7: some freshman moments, and I think that I think probably
Speaker 7: the disappointing part is, you know, there's not been that,
Speaker 7: you know, that level line to maybe that slight bit
Speaker 7: of progression. It's been that roller coaster, that up and
Speaker 7: that down, and there hasn't really been that steady incremental progress.
Speaker 5: With the offense.
Speaker 7: And I think that's probably the reason you saw him
Speaker 7: go to the bench in the second half against Houston.
Speaker 7: Brandon Rose had a couple of bright moments until he
Speaker 7: didn't until he threw that pick late. And so, uh,
Speaker 7: they're they're they're looking at everything right now, and they've
Speaker 7: had two weeks to get ready, and we'll we'll see
Speaker 7: what they rolled out on Saturday night. Kyle's called it
Speaker 7: the plan. I'm very curious to see what that plan
Speaker 7: is now. The one thing I will always go back
Speaker 7: to Spence and there games like this before Brian Johnson
Speaker 7: tore his knee up pretty good second to last game
Speaker 7: of the year, and they turned to a guy that
Speaker 7: nobody had ever heard of, came from nowhere, was not
Speaker 7: a highly recruited guy named Brett Ratliffe, and got him
Speaker 7: ready in a week. Utah was about a sixteen point
Speaker 7: underdog in Provo and they went down there and won
Speaker 7: that game. I'm not saying that necessarily is going to happen,
Speaker 7: but what I'm saying is, you know, sometimes, you know,
Speaker 7: unusual things can happen, and with two weeks to get ready,
Speaker 7: maybe Mike would jake in and his quarterbacks have found
Speaker 7: a little something.
Speaker 9: That's what we'll find out Saturday night.
Speaker 2: So let's move over into that space now.
Speaker 1: When it pertains to the plan that you have discussed
Speaker 1: the coach Whit has talked about and had your broadcast
Speaker 1: partner Scott Mitchell out on site at ARUP yesterday, and
Speaker 1: I said to you this morning when I saw you
Speaker 1: at the studio, and to what I said to Scott
Speaker 1: when he sat down and I said, I don't know
Speaker 1: one of my friends back East's Italian father, and I
Speaker 1: can't use the language, but he would say, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Nothing from nothing, right, So I don't know nothing from nothing.
Speaker 1: But when I heard Brandon Rose talk on Tuesday, I thought,
Speaker 1: that sounds like a kid who's getting to start. I
Speaker 1: have no idea, but where are we at right now
Speaker 1: with his progress of getting one or the other, or
Speaker 1: maybe a bit of both ready for this game on
Speaker 1: Saturday night?
Speaker 7: You know, the stense I got listening to Kyle talk
Speaker 7: was they had given both these guys a look, and
Speaker 7: we're gonna give these guys an option. When they say
Speaker 7: they've got a plan, that makes me feel like they
Speaker 7: might have a plan for both quarterbacks, whether that's rotating
Speaker 7: guys or whether I don't know. I asked him last
Speaker 7: night and he was just kind of sly with me.
Speaker 7: He says, you'll see Saturday. So he didn't really give
Speaker 7: anything away to me last night either. So my inkling
Speaker 7: is both those guys have probably gotten some looks, and
Speaker 7: the plan maybe maybe involves both guys. We'll see.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, y'all just kind of discuss the feedback we
Speaker 1: get from our inner circles. So I want to be
Speaker 1: careful with the narrative that I think is getting a
Speaker 1: little bit out of control. And you've got a poltse
Speaker 1: on youth fans, and obviously you're up there now full time.
Speaker 1: What I can tell you is I have been contacted
Speaker 1: by some people that haven't heard from in years that
Speaker 1: I went to school with, that are really really down
Speaker 1: on the program. And look, we probably should have recalibrated expectations,
Speaker 1: but we were all wrong.
Speaker 2: Man. It's not just local. It's not just on our station.
Speaker 1: Like they were the Vegas favorite, they were the media
Speaker 1: pick and across the landscape, and I scoured predictions prior
Speaker 1: to the year. If Utah wasn't picked to win it,
Speaker 1: they were in everybody's top three. Ironically enough, most people
Speaker 1: you know would include you know, Oklahoma State, who can't
Speaker 1: win a conference game, and case State, who is good
Speaker 1: not great. I mean, I have no idea, but like
Speaker 1: I said, I've heard from a few people who are
Speaker 1: just simply not going to the game and they've sold
Speaker 1: their tickets. I don't want to turn this into like
Speaker 1: that stadium is going to be blue, But what sort
Speaker 1: of pulse do you have on youth fans as far
Speaker 1: as what you're expecting with that atmosphere on Saturday night.
Speaker 7: I've talked to some people that have considered not going.
Speaker 7: I said, are you going to sell your tickets to
Speaker 7: youth fans. I haven't decided what I'm doing yet, but
Speaker 7: I don't know if I want to go out in
Speaker 7: the cold, which you know, I don't like to call
Speaker 7: anybody out. I always say, I don't like to tell
Speaker 7: people how to fans man, sure, but this is a
Speaker 7: this is a rivalry game. I mean, this is Utah
Speaker 7: against BYU. And to me, not showing up to this
Speaker 7: game in your home stadium, you know, there's a sense
Speaker 7: around Utah football fans that they're zero to eight and
Speaker 7: they're one or one and seven, they're four and four,
Speaker 7: and I know they've lost foreign or they've not looked good,
Speaker 7: they've not met expectations. I get all of that, but
Speaker 7: if you if you've been alive this century, you've seen
Speaker 7: some crazy, wild, unbelievable games where Utah was wildly favored
Speaker 7: or BYU was wildly favored. And to me, you only
Speaker 7: get so many college football games and it's a rivalry game,
Speaker 7: and again, this Utah football team's got talent on it again,
Speaker 7: the gaping hole a quarterback without rising You're just not
Speaker 7: going to be a contender without a proven quarterback.
Speaker 5: It's just hard to do now.
Speaker 7: But this is not a bad team, and with two
Speaker 7: weeks to get ready, I just I've been a little
Speaker 7: disappointed in some of the people I've talked to about there.
Speaker 7: It's okay not to be happy about where the season is,
Speaker 7: but man, this is your rivalry game. This is one
Speaker 7: you want to show up for. And these games have
Speaker 7: been fun over the years.
Speaker 5: So I hope the.
Speaker 7: People that are considering not going change their minds and
Speaker 7: show up, and there's a good atmosphere. They'll always be
Speaker 7: blue BYU fans always find a way to get into
Speaker 7: that stadium. They'll be a patch of blue. There might
Speaker 7: be a little bit more blue this year than usual.
Speaker 7: But I hope the Utah fans show out because I
Speaker 7: I really do, Spence, I do believe this is gonna
Speaker 7: be a one score game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, it really does come down to
Speaker 1: the generational thing. And I know I used to crack
Speaker 1: on you for being old when you were like thirty
Speaker 1: two or whatever. When we were doing the show. But
Speaker 1: I'm now old enough to look back at and like
Speaker 1: some of the I'm sorry to be this guy, but
Speaker 1: some of these like millennial youthe football, like go vape
Speaker 1: or whatever you're doing, you know, like the they're spoiled,
Speaker 1: like the entitlement. Because I can remember, and this is
Speaker 1: a testament to Kyle. I can remember when I was
Speaker 1: in school or even prior to it was go to
Speaker 1: a bowl game beat BYU.
Speaker 2: Miracle, right, those were the expectations.
Speaker 1: Now expectations have changed, but it doesn't mean you sit out.
Speaker 1: Potentially the final chance you'll have to maybe see some
Speaker 1: of these coaches in this game, and the final chance
Speaker 1: you'll have, Bill quite frankly, and look, the game at
Speaker 1: Colorado is going to be awesome.
Speaker 2: It's just BYU's different.
Speaker 1: And you referenced Brett and you know we were talking
Speaker 1: about Jason Shelley and the twenty seven to twenty comeback. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the list of names that we talk about, the Mike McCoy's,
Speaker 1: the Eddie Johnson's, the Scott mitchells.
Speaker 2: If these young men can for one night be great
Speaker 2: against this team.
Speaker 1: If Dorian Singer goes for one fifty and three, touchdowns
Speaker 1: or whatever. No matter what has happened or will happen
Speaker 1: the rest of the way, you will be remembered and
Speaker 1: talked about differently in this community. Like Saturday Night to
Speaker 1: me is the maybe the last, and certainly the biggest
Speaker 1: chance this team has left to be great, and if
Speaker 1: they are, they will be remembered differently.
Speaker 2: Even though the season has been a bit of a disappointment, Yeah.
Speaker 7: You're you're one hundred percent on every single one of
Speaker 7: those points. And I would point out too, you're right.
Speaker 7: I think there there is a little bit of Hey,
Speaker 7: you know we've had this program has been so good
Speaker 7: for so many years in a row. Again, there's been
Speaker 7: a little bit of a dip this year. There's a
Speaker 7: lot of reasons for it, but you know that they're
Speaker 7: not a bad program. There's a lot of talent in
Speaker 7: this program, and there is an ability of a give
Speaker 7: a night to rise up and do it. Every weekend
Speaker 7: in college football, shoot, every weekend, it feels like at
Speaker 7: the Big twelve, somebody's upsetting somebody. Texas Tech went on
Speaker 7: the road to beat Iowa State last weekend.
Speaker 9: It can happen.
Speaker 7: And I just think if you're really a fan and
Speaker 7: you really love college football. This isn't like the Jazz
Speaker 7: or the hockey club where there's eighty you know, there's forty.
Speaker 10: Five home games.
Speaker 7: You only have six home games, and you haven't played
Speaker 7: your rival since twenty eighteen at home. Come on out,
Speaker 7: and I just and I do. I believe it with
Speaker 7: all my heart. I think it's going to be a
Speaker 7: good game because I've just seen enough of these. I've
Speaker 7: called enough of these to know that they're unpredictable.
Speaker 1: Since you brought up the Jazz, should we dig into
Speaker 1: the possibility that Utah football is actually tanking?
Speaker 2: Nobody talks about that.
Speaker 7: Is Cooper Flag available to play quarterback and or tight
Speaker 7: end or receiver next year?
Speaker 1: Don't think that's how it works in this sport. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, you know me, man, I like to zig
Speaker 1: when other people are zaging. Let's just talk about all possibilities.
Speaker 1: Since you referenced all of the games that you have called,
Speaker 1: I will tell you my favorite Bill Riley call was
Speaker 1: the Brandon Burton block, only because I knew in your
Speaker 1: head you wanted to punch Doulce for running over the call.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite rivalry game moment? A snapshot
Speaker 2: of all these games.
Speaker 10: That you fall.
Speaker 7: Moments. I didn't call the game, but the famous Tostito
Speaker 7: the Tostito Bowl game in twenty two thousand and four,
Speaker 7: when the game ended and the fans stormed the field
Speaker 7: and it went from a green field to a field
Speaker 7: completely covered, well can get it from up high.
Speaker 9: That was Mark Kroff's last home game.
Speaker 7: Was crazy. I mean, it was just impossibly crazy. The
Speaker 7: third time is the Charm game, just a couple of
Speaker 7: years after the Brandon Burton Block, where Utah basically on
Speaker 7: the last play of the game had to beat BYU
Speaker 7: three times and they ended up doing it there. Jason
Speaker 7: Shelley's run was amazing too. I'll tell you the games
Speaker 7: fence and it was the last time BYU won at
Speaker 7: rise ecl Stadium.
Speaker 9: Now Utah didn't win the game, but the game.
Speaker 7: Itself was unbelievably entertaining.
Speaker 9: Was the O six game.
Speaker 7: It was the famous Beckt to Harlean game. The end
Speaker 7: of the game was not great, but it was the
Speaker 7: back and forth. It had thirty three thirty one I
Speaker 7: think was the final score. It was an unbelievable game.
Speaker 7: So those are some of the memories that I absolutely
Speaker 7: positively love all.
Speaker 2: Right, let's move over here.
Speaker 1: So we had the Coaches Show last night, you and
Speaker 1: coach with So you've been around the team, You've been
Speaker 1: around the coaches, and all we get are snapshots of
Speaker 1: sound that we play on the show. Sound we get
Speaker 1: from media availability or you know, videos you see on
Speaker 1: social or just on the local newscast.
Speaker 2: So I don't really have a poulse on how they're doing.
Speaker 1: If it's gonna be a close game, and if they're
Speaker 1: gonna you know, be in it, they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: mentally be ready because this is a good team. What's
Speaker 1: the I guess I obviously ask you what the kids
Speaker 1: would ask. What's the vibe like up around Utah football?
Speaker 7: The vibe yesterday was great. I was up at the
Speaker 7: facility probably an hour before the show. You know, everybody
Speaker 7: was kind of buzzing and on edge a little bit
Speaker 7: coming off the practice field. Got a chance to talk
Speaker 7: to the final brothers on the show last night. These
Speaker 7: are two Utah County kids. They're Spanish four kids who
Speaker 7: went to temp You High School, so they were a
Speaker 7: stone's throw from you know, Lavell Edward Stadium. Logan Fino began,
Speaker 7: these guys are really hyped, and I said, do you
Speaker 7: guys like your chance And they're like, oh yeah, we
Speaker 7: love our game play Saturday, we love our game plan.
Speaker 7: So the sense i got yesterday and it was Tuesday.
Speaker 7: Granted it was Tuesday, but there was a lot of
Speaker 7: enthusiasm about it.
Speaker 2: That's good to hear. That's good here.
Speaker 1: So let's move over and out of the game and
Speaker 1: you reference you think it's going to be a one
Speaker 1: score game, and ultimately the line is settled at four,
Speaker 1: So that's not too far off, uh exactly what we'll see?
Speaker 1: What what gives you the most confidence? Because there really
Speaker 1: isn't a lot of data that would indicate Utah is
Speaker 1: a better overall team. There's some defensive metrics and conference
Speaker 1: play that do favor the uts What's given you the
Speaker 1: most confidence that you think this will be a one
Speaker 1: score game?
Speaker 2: And what does Utah have to do to ensure that
Speaker 2: that's the deal.
Speaker 7: Well, One, they can't turn it over. I mean they
Speaker 7: just can't. They've thrown way too many interceptions this year
Speaker 7: and BYU might be the most opportunistic team in the league,
Speaker 7: so they can't turn it over. But I think Utah's
Speaker 7: defense and I think the emphasis this week is forcing
Speaker 7: some turnovers if possible. I think the Utah defense has
Speaker 7: to play its best game of the year, and maybe
Speaker 7: you set the offense up with a couple of short fields.
Speaker 7: I have no doubt Morgan will be dialed in with
Speaker 7: those guys. And to be fair, you ran a lot
Speaker 7: of some of the metrics. The defense has been good
Speaker 7: this year, it really has. It's been better than good
Speaker 7: on some days. They've just had to kind of carry
Speaker 7: the load because the offense hasn't put up a lot
Speaker 7: of points. So to me, the offense can not turn
Speaker 7: it over, and I think the defense is going to
Speaker 7: have to come up with a couple of turnovers and
Speaker 7: maybe some short fields.
Speaker 1: Okay, last thing, and I'll set you loose because I
Speaker 1: know you got to get to it. And the obvious answer,
Speaker 1: I suppose maybe whoever starts under quarterback, and I won't
Speaker 1: limit you to one name, give me a couple of
Speaker 1: names of the most likely candidates that you think will
Speaker 1: step up on Saturday Night that in twenty years we're
Speaker 1: talking about them the way we talk about Brett and
Speaker 1: Brandon and everyone else that we talk about having great
Speaker 1: games against Brigham Young, Who are the most likely candidates.
Speaker 7: Well, I think it's whoever is the starting quarterback and
Speaker 7: whoever plays maybe the most snaps at quarterback if they
Speaker 7: both end up playing again. I don't know what that
Speaker 7: plan is, but I think it's easy to zone in
Speaker 7: on that. But it's just simply the case you've got
Speaker 7: to do that. I think there's two other guys. I
Speaker 7: think Brent Keithy has got to have a big game.
Speaker 10: I think Keithy in.
Speaker 7: The middle of the field when they can get him
Speaker 7: the football, can be that guy. Kalani defenses JJ Hill
Speaker 7: defenses generally don't give up a lot of big plays fence.
Speaker 5: They kind of keep everything in front.
Speaker 9: Of them, so I think they think you're going to
Speaker 9: hit them with a bunch of big.
Speaker 7: Plays when you haven't done a lot of big plays
Speaker 7: this year. Might be a little bit of a stretch,
Speaker 7: But I think Keithy having a big game. And the
Speaker 7: other guy I would keep an eye on too is
Speaker 7: Mackay Bernard, and I think they would probably love to
Speaker 7: get Mkay out in some space and get him the ball,
Speaker 7: not only running the football, but also get that ball
Speaker 7: to him out in space and let him touch some
Speaker 7: passes too. So whoever the quarterback is, but I'll say
Speaker 7: Bernard and Keithy too. If those guys have good game
Speaker 7: Saturday night, Utah will have a really good chance.
Speaker 1: All right, man, Well it's a great week. I know
Speaker 1: you're busy, so I'll let you get back to it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for the time, and as always, have
Speaker 1: a great call.
Speaker 5: Okay, thanks a man, I'll see Saturday, all right.
Speaker 2: The Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley, on the program today.
Speaker 1: Our University of Utah pregame coverage for the game on
Speaker 1: Saturday begins at four fifteen, So set your alarm for that.
Speaker 1: Porter Larson, isaac Osciata, a bunch of different utes like
Speaker 1: Nate Orchard rolling through drive at five time. Your commute
Speaker 1: home on this Wednesday afternoon starts right now. You are
Speaker 1: now officially halfway.
Speaker 2: Through your work week.
Speaker 1: You are one day closer the weekend, a couple of
Speaker 1: more days until Utah BYU, which of course has been
Speaker 1: a lot of our coverage this week. Your pro football
Speaker 1: weekend actually gets rolling tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Don't forget. We are your home of the NFL here
Speaker 2: in Utah, in this market.
Speaker 1: So hard to believe, but Week ten gets rolling tomorrow
Speaker 1: with the Bengals and the Ravens from M and T
Speaker 1: Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. It's a night off for
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz. It's a night off for the Utah
Speaker 1: Hockey Club. It's a night off for both Utah and
Speaker 1: BYU men's basketball. So tonight, if you're looking for something
Speaker 1: to watch, looks like NBA hoops is probably the deal
Speaker 1: for you, unless you want to watch some other college basketball.
Speaker 1: We've got some pretty good games in the NBA tonight,
Speaker 1: as we're inching closer and closer to a realistic sample
Speaker 1: size of when we can kind of understand what the
Speaker 1: league is about.
Speaker 2: We know what the Jazz are about.
Speaker 1: But I always say twenty to twenty five games in
Speaker 1: pro basketball until we really understand the direction these teams
Speaker 1: are taking. Unless your direction is obvious like the Jazz,
Speaker 1: and that ultimately means they're not going to be good
Speaker 1: most of the year.
Speaker 2: They got the first win in Chicago.
Speaker 1: They're going to be in Milwaukee coming up tomorrow, taking
Speaker 1: on the one in six Milwaukee Bucks, leading to a
Speaker 1: lot of speculation about what they'll do Milwaukee meeting.
Speaker 2: Do they move on from Giannis? I mean, the Yannis
Speaker 2: Dame thing hasn't worked.
Speaker 1: Still feel really bad for Adrian Griffin who lost his
Speaker 1: job and they brought in Doc Rivers, who's my guy?
Speaker 2: But man, it has not worked all right.
Speaker 1: So most of the show today has been college football related,
Speaker 1: as you would expect, a really illuminating conversation with Pablo
Speaker 1: mas Guenni to start things off today as we did
Speaker 1: a little autopsy on the RSL season that is now
Speaker 1: behind us. Then moved over to Spencer Lytton from BYU
Speaker 1: TV Just Chatto with Bill Bill Riley, the voice of
Speaker 1: the Utes and Josh Pate's gonna come your way in
Speaker 1: about twenty minutes from now before we say to night
Speaker 1: at six. We are out and about today at beer
Speaker 1: Bar right downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker 2: Come on buy and say hi.
Speaker 1: And if you've never been to our tailgate, our ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred VIP tailgate prior to Utah football games, it's
Speaker 1: your chance to stop by and grab a couple of passes.
Speaker 1: So prior to Utah BYU we'll have our tailgate going
Speaker 1: on Guardsman's Way. You can come on up and say
Speaker 1: what's up. We have free craft cocktails from Clearwater to Stilling.
Speaker 1: We also have free food from Wingers on Saturday prior
Speaker 1: to the game, So even if you're not going inside
Speaker 1: the game, you can.
Speaker 2: Come hang out at the tailgate. It is a late kick.
Speaker 1: A lot of people probably scared away by the cold weather,
Speaker 1: but the forecast actually looks okay, it's about forty eight
Speaker 1: degrees and clear a kick. I'm not gonna tell you
Speaker 1: HiT's not going to be cold. Make sure you're dressed
Speaker 1: warm for that late kick. We'll be at the stadium
Speaker 1: till probably after midnight, there's no doubt about that. But
Speaker 1: if you want to come hang out with us, come
Speaker 1: on by beer Bar at one sixty one Ees two
Speaker 1: hundred South now drive at five Today has brought to
Speaker 1: you by sound Warehouse.
Speaker 2: You can rock your car, your Harley.
Speaker 1: You're side by side at sound Warehouse Salt Lake, Ogden,
Speaker 1: ann Oram. Visit soundwarehouse dot com for inventory, lifetime installation,
Speaker 1: labor warranty and no credit needed financing only at sound
Speaker 1: Warehouse stop by during the week for passes to our
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred tailgate. So we were all gathered around
Speaker 1: our TVs last night wondering what the data would indicate,
Speaker 1: wondering where certain states would fall, wondering which side would win,
Speaker 1: wondering if people would be upset when they heard the announcements,
Speaker 1: and people were definitely upset.
Speaker 2: When they heard that.
Speaker 1: BYU came in at number nine last night in the
Speaker 1: CFP porter.
Speaker 2: Why am I not getting more love for my clever?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, she's going to talk about the election,
Speaker 1: but I zag and talk about college football.
Speaker 2: I feel like I should be getting a little bit
Speaker 2: more love for this bit.
Speaker 3: Well it's a good bit.
Speaker 2: It's a good bit.
Speaker 4: I just think that it's been done maybe just once
Speaker 4: or twice on the Twitter sphere, on air a little bit.
Speaker 3: But I'm I'm I'm on board.
Speaker 2: So it's sounding redundant, is what you're saying. It's sounding
Speaker 2: to move on from it.
Speaker 3: Or we can you know, just hit it over the
Speaker 3: head for the next four years.
Speaker 2: I'll just say things are never good or bad. It's
Speaker 2: thinking that makes it.
Speaker 1: So keep calm and carry on, all right, It's never
Speaker 1: as bad as you think it is or as good
Speaker 1: as you think it is. But when it comes to
Speaker 1: the reaction of BYU landed at nine, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit unfounded, but at the same at the same time,
Speaker 1: what it is is an indictment in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: That's undeniable. We've been talking about it today.
Speaker 1: That is the CFP committee saying, if you want to
Speaker 1: get in from the Big twelve, you have to.
Speaker 2: Win the thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, and the margin of error for BYU definitely became
Speaker 1: a little bit smaller last night.
Speaker 2: We'll talk more about this with Josh Pate.
Speaker 1: Their path Okay, so the rankings were released last night.
Speaker 1: In no way does that reflect what the seeding will be.
Speaker 1: I mean, BYU's path to Dallas is still very clean.
Speaker 1: They're the favorite by most metrics to at least show
Speaker 1: up in the Big twelve Championship game. Interestingly enough, one
Speaker 1: metric I read today and I'm not really sure where
Speaker 1: the formula is. It was just on social and it
Speaker 1: was interesting, so I clicked on it. Their most likely
Speaker 1: matchup is BYU Colorado in Dallas for the Big twelve
Speaker 1: Championship Game. A lot of eyes on that. Of course,
Speaker 1: Dion has done a really really good job. Time to
Speaker 1: give a coach prime a lot of credit.
Speaker 2: That's teams for real. Utah's gonna see him in Bolder.
Speaker 1: But even though BYU comes in at nine, their path
Speaker 1: to the four seed feels pretty clean. Okay, However, the
Speaker 1: fact that Boise State comes in at twelve, because the
Speaker 1: deal is this, the top five seeds are the conference
Speaker 1: champs and they're ranked in order. Okay, I anticipate Oregon
Speaker 1: will be one, Georgia will be two, Miami will be three,
Speaker 1: and it's it's most likely right now that BYU or
Speaker 1: the Big twelve champ, if it's not Brigham Young, will
Speaker 1: be in at four, therefore receiving that first round by
Speaker 1: which is big because that means you only have to
Speaker 1: win three instead of four. I mean, teams that are
Speaker 1: matched up in the first round have to win four
Speaker 1: football games against their peers, the other best teams in
Speaker 1: college football. That's a tough ask man. So if BYU
Speaker 1: is passed by Boise, okay, So if Boise is your
Speaker 1: fifth conference champ out of the Mountain West, and somehow
Speaker 1: someway they pass BYU.
Speaker 2: In the rankings.
Speaker 1: So if Boise continues to stay clean, which I think
Speaker 1: they will, that's a really really good team. And BYU
Speaker 1: gets got once or twice, or whoever is going to
Speaker 1: come out of the Big twelve gets got once or twice,
Speaker 1: as every other team has already got got once and
Speaker 1: Boise State, somehow, some way rises up past the Big
Speaker 1: Twelve champ and Boise State home against Nevada. Yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: they're winning the rest of their games home against Nevada,
Speaker 1: at San Jose State, at Wyoming home against Oregon State.
Speaker 1: I suppose that one could be a little bit tricky
Speaker 1: to end a year, but I bet Boise he's a
Speaker 1: healthy favorite, and I think they'll probably finish clean after
Speaker 1: losing Oregon. There is a world that exists where Boise
Speaker 1: moves up past the Big twelve champ into that four spot. Okay,
Speaker 1: but it's not all bad news. If we follow this,
Speaker 1: there's a chance that has the five seed instead of
Speaker 1: the four seed BYU or the Big twelve champ would
Speaker 1: host a CFP game on campus. Okay, so, but that
Speaker 1: really so the pieces of real collateral damage, not made
Speaker 1: up by a fan base that seems to love talking
Speaker 1: about how much nobody respects them every single year for
Speaker 1: whatever reason.
Speaker 2: It's an indictment on the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1: Last night was the first time where I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: all of the conversation about the Big Twelve getting one
Speaker 1: team in regardless, and I mean that, like, this opens
Speaker 1: up a pathway for BYU to finish the season winning
Speaker 1: their finn four games at Utah on Saturday, home against Kansas,
Speaker 1: on the road against ASU, which has a little bit
Speaker 1: of a tricky feel to it, and then home against
Speaker 1: the much improved Houston team. But that's a manageable schedule
Speaker 1: for Brigham Young. There's a world where they go twelve
Speaker 1: and zero and they go down to Dallas and they
Speaker 1: lose to Colorado and they're left out.
Speaker 2: I mean, that is what last night meant.
Speaker 1: Let's make no mistake there, Okay, but it doesn't change
Speaker 1: the fact that BYU still more or less controls their
Speaker 1: own destiny. And I still believe when the dust settles
Speaker 1: that Boise will not have enough on their resume to
Speaker 1: jump BYU or Colorado or whoever. Iowa State, k State
Speaker 1: will see how it plays out. I don't think Boise
Speaker 1: State has enough on their resume to jump into the
Speaker 1: four seed. So I still believe, even though folks are
Speaker 1: a little bit disappointed about seeing BYU land at nine,
Speaker 1: they will be the four seed when the dust settles.
Speaker 1: And in the first model that we've seen and the
Speaker 1: first projected bracket that we've seen, Boise State, Ohio State
Speaker 1: Round one BYU plays the winner of that game, meaning
Speaker 1: most likely they're going to take on Ohio State, right,
Speaker 1: which would be totally wild. But as far as some
Speaker 1: of the metrics, you know, every year we do this
Speaker 1: where there's a new committee.
Speaker 2: This year, I think there are six new members.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a hodgepodge of current AD's former ADS administrators,
Speaker 1: you know, and every year it seems like they tab
Speaker 1: one member to go speak to the media, and then
Speaker 1: the rankings are released, the person comes out, and more
Speaker 1: often than not, it's a convoluted mess of a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things that don't really ever line up. So
Speaker 1: I think BYU has a beef as far as being
Speaker 1: behind Indiana, and even though Tennessee is the seven seed
Speaker 1: as of now, I would say they also have a
Speaker 1: legitimate beef of being behind Penn States. So excuse me,
Speaker 1: Tennessee is the Yeah, that's right. BYU is nine, Indiana eight,
Speaker 1: Tennessee evan, Penn State six. So ultimately I do believe
Speaker 1: BYU's resume is better than Indiana's, and it's probably better
Speaker 1: than Penn States. BYU has two top twenty wins and
Speaker 1: by the way, SMU first team out at number thirteen. Okay,
Speaker 1: second team out as Texas A and M not your
Speaker 1: main of the conversation at this point. So the fact
Speaker 1: that BYU has one of the most impressive wins, and
Speaker 1: it really is with what SMU has gone and done
Speaker 1: and BYU going down on the road and taking care
Speaker 1: of them. It felt big in the moment, but it
Speaker 1: turns out to be a lot bigger and better than
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 9: That it was.
Speaker 1: So that to me, combined with the look, say what
Speaker 1: you want about the luck factor or the you know,
Speaker 1: fortunate circumstances against K State, BYU blew their doors off.
Speaker 2: K State's still a top twenty five team, Like, that's
Speaker 2: not a throwaway win.
Speaker 1: So I understand some of the frustration and some of
Speaker 1: the conversation around brand bias, and guys, I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you I'm sorry. It is for real, and you
Speaker 1: want to know why. It's not just the committee, It's
Speaker 1: not just the CFP committee. It's powerful, powerful television executives
Speaker 1: that simply want the biggest and best brands on their
Speaker 1: television network.
Speaker 2: That's what it is.
Speaker 1: So that's why you're gonna see the SEC and the
Speaker 1: big ten get multiple teams in and also for the
Speaker 1: most part, that's where the best football in America's played.
Speaker 1: As much as people around here don't like to say
Speaker 1: that out loud, it's just real. So is the CFP committee,
Speaker 1: combined with pressure from television executives looking at a first
Speaker 1: round matchup of Penn State Notre Dame and looking at
Speaker 1: a first round matchup of Alabama Texas and wanting Georgia
Speaker 1: to host a playoff, there is a very likely scenario that, Look,
Speaker 1: I don't know that the Indiana brand.
Speaker 2: Certainly on the basketball side it is, but not on
Speaker 2: the football side.
Speaker 1: I don't know that the Indiana brand as a football
Speaker 1: program is anything better than Brigham Young. I mean, probably
Speaker 1: biased because I'm local, but it doesn't feel that way.
Speaker 1: But Penn State certainly is in the realm of college football,
Speaker 1: true blue blood Tennessee because of their footprint, you know,
Speaker 1: a more you know, nationally recognized brand, certainly, And then
Speaker 1: there's no debate about Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, Georgia, Miami
Speaker 1: and now Oregon. They've played themselves in that stratosphere as
Speaker 1: the biggest, best and most recognizable brands.
Speaker 2: In all of college football.
Speaker 1: And if Brigham Young matched up to that brand, the
Speaker 1: TV data would tell us that it does. The only
Speaker 1: program out this way that actually has the ratings and
Speaker 1: eyes that some of these other blue bloods down in
Speaker 1: the SEC and the Big ten have is Colorado.
Speaker 2: It's not BYU.
Speaker 1: And BYU's brand is good. It's not a bad brand.
Speaker 1: You know, We're going to talk about it with Josh
Speaker 1: pay coming up. So how much of it is brand biased?
Speaker 1: I'm certainly. I'm sure some of that is there because
Speaker 1: every year the messaging is convolution. I heard the CFP
Speaker 1: reps say they used the eye test on Indiana, and yes,
Speaker 1: Indiana has smoked every team they played, But have you
Speaker 1: watched BYU like that? One to me was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not taking anything away from Indiana. They
Speaker 1: deserve a ton of credit as one of the four
Speaker 1: P four teams undefeated. And the other thing to keep
Speaker 1: in mind is this will play itself out. Indiana's last
Speaker 1: three games Michigan at home coming up this weekend.
Speaker 2: And then it's Ohio State at the Horseshoe.
Speaker 1: They're probably gonna get smoked in that one home against
Speaker 1: a horrible Purdue team, so they'll be fine with the
Speaker 1: final game of the season.
Speaker 2: But the Indiana. Stuff will take care of itself.
Speaker 1: You know, if BYU continues to handle their business and
Speaker 1: they stay clean, their path is still very very clear.
Speaker 2: But again, this is an indictment on the Big twelve.
Speaker 2: There's simply no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: All right, wrapping it up here at beer Bar, the
Speaker 1: final home stretch of the drive is brought to you
Speaker 1: b our friends at LHM Dealers Larry H. Miller, Ford
Speaker 1: and Draper, the Ford King, Utah's number one volume Ford dealer.
Speaker 1: They'll beat any trade in price in town by seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars anytime, any day.
Speaker 2: More info online at LHM Ford Draper dot com.
Speaker 1: All Right, quiet night locally as far as sports go,
Speaker 1: Jazz off Utah, Hockey Club off Utah BYU, Men's hoops
Speaker 1: off as well. Both had dominant opening night performances. Not
Speaker 1: going to mean much when you're playing bad teams like that.
Speaker 1: So got some good NBA games and then, of course
Speaker 1: the football weekend will begin tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Porter.
Speaker 1: Have you ever bought anything off a website and then
Speaker 1: suddenly two weeks later find information that comes your way,
Speaker 1: mostly via your credit card statement, that you have joined
Speaker 1: a membership that you were not aware of.
Speaker 3: I have done that a time time. Unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Yes, not going to say the name of the company
Speaker 1: out loud. But I bought about a little Clone. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a little Clone website where instead of paying ridic
Speaker 1: money for Clone, it's discounted and apparently I'm a prime member.
Speaker 1: That costs me seventy nine dollars a month. And the
Speaker 1: colone that I bought wasn't even that expensive. And I
Speaker 1: just found out via my credit card bill that apparently
Speaker 1: I'm like a VIP member of this website I've been
Speaker 1: to one time in my life.
Speaker 2: It's pretty shady. If I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 3: Well, now you're gonna get new cologne like every week.
Speaker 2: But I just got a new bottle. I don't need
Speaker 2: a new bottle.
Speaker 1: I just don't need them to charge me seventy nine
Speaker 1: dollars because I've never even been to their website.
Speaker 2: So kind of frustrated.
Speaker 4: I did it with And this is a different story,
Speaker 4: but I had one where my gym got a hold
Speaker 4: of my credit card number obviously the automatic monthly thing.
Speaker 4: It was one of those chain gyms, and man, they
Speaker 4: would not let it go. It took me like lawyers
Speaker 4: to get them to not continue my monthly payment and
Speaker 4: canceling my card. And then once I canceled my card,
Speaker 4: they still were claiming that I was supposed to be
Speaker 4: part of the gym membership for like some crazy long
Speaker 4: period of time.
Speaker 3: So I've been there, I've been there.
Speaker 1: It seriously is the most shady thing in the world,
Speaker 1: because I went to cancel on their website and they
Speaker 1: would take you through all these steps and then you
Speaker 1: click on the button to cancel and it says sorry, problem.
Speaker 2: Occurred, but there's no phone number there you go. So
Speaker 2: this is just like what is going you know what?
Speaker 2: I'm not going. I can't.
Speaker 1: I've done I've gone all show and I've not done
Speaker 1: what is going on? Diatribe? I will not do the
Speaker 1: what is going on diatribe. We have a work dinner tonight.
Speaker 1: So the question is, who's the member of the staff
Speaker 1: that you least want to sit next to at dinner tonight.
Speaker 4: Oh good question, that's a really good question. And I
Speaker 4: hope they're listening. I hope the whole staff is listening on.
Speaker 2: Their way in. Yeah, the answer is easily Kurt.
Speaker 3: It may be Kurt this week. Oh yeah, it's because
Speaker 3: I got I got beef with him. If he's listening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean it was a trick
Speaker 1: question because there's really one answer. The answer is Kurt,
Speaker 1: I kid, because if I said anybody else's name, I
Speaker 1: feel like they would have a meltdown to be mad
Speaker 1: at me. You can't say DJ's a sweet kid, he'd
Speaker 1: be mad. You can't say Steve, he's the boss. You
Speaker 1: can't say Jackie. She's in charge of sales, so we
Speaker 1: need her. Gotta be Kurt Man. That's I think the
Speaker 1: answer is Kurt tonight. That's the one I'd like to avoid.
Speaker 3: I think you've landed on it. But I'll sit next
Speaker 3: to Kurt. I'll take one for the team.
Speaker 2: Okay, I appreciate that, all right?
Speaker 1: Porter, Before we say good night on a Chili cold
Speaker 1: now dark Wednesday evening, because it gets dark at five
Speaker 1: point thirty, what should our listeners know about what comes
Speaker 1: their way?
Speaker 2: On a Thursday edition of the radio show.
Speaker 4: On a Thursday edition of the program, A Big Hour,
Speaker 4: Greg Bowler, Jack Gordon months and they'll both stop by
Speaker 4: via the telephone line. Well Chot with Dave mcminnimon talking
Speaker 4: some hoops on the NBA Daily Assist and then it
Speaker 4: is rivalry time. We're talking hoops or we're talking football
Speaker 4: rather with our friend Stevens Silvester, of course, the former
Speaker 4: ute NFL linebacker. He's going to be up there at
Speaker 4: the end of Players Association Code Drive with me before
Speaker 4: the game on Saturday, and then of course we'll be
Speaker 4: on the sideline for the game on Saturday. So good
Speaker 4: to catch up with Sly and the rest of them,
Speaker 4: and then we may we may catch up with our
Speaker 4: guy Neil Smith, who we missed.
Speaker 2: Out on today. Neil with a little sinus infection.
Speaker 1: He had to call in questionable, then was downgraded to doubtful,
Speaker 1: then ultimately out. So hopefully we can talk some Utah
Speaker 1: Hockey Club tomorrow. They are in action tomorrow night. All right,
Speaker 1: with that, we will say goodnight special thank you, Pablo
Speaker 1: mash do any Spencer Lytton, Josh Pate, Neil Smith, and
Speaker 1: Bill riley Man.
Speaker 2: Not Neil, he's going to join us tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But that's three really good college football interviews and a
Speaker 1: really fun conversation with Pablo. So if you're an RSL fan,
Speaker 1: go grab that on the podcast page. And if you're
Speaker 1: looking for Rivalry Week content, we have that too. Website's
Speaker 1: an option. It's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Download
Speaker 1: our mobile app and take us on the go, called
Speaker 1: the ESPN seven hundred app that's available in the App
Speaker 1: Store of the Google play Store. Our part our podcast
Speaker 1: is available wherever you get. It's called The Drive with Spence.
Speaker 1: Check its download rate, review, follow whatever they ask.
Speaker 10: You to do.
Speaker 1: Do it for us, because if you do it, it
Speaker 1: actually helps, which is why we all ask you to
Speaker 1: do it. Special thanks to beer Bar Tanner, my on
Speaker 1: side tech of course Porter Larson, who produces this program.
Speaker 1: My name is Spence check it saying tonight, enjoy your
Speaker 1: Wednesday evening. Guys will talk to you on a Thursday.
Speaker 2: Show as always. You can find it right here on
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred