Speaker 1: All right, what's going on? Ride time? Thursday afternoon, rainy
Speaker 1: and cold, snow was falling up in the mountains. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people have been waiting for that.
Speaker 1: Winter's on its way. You can feel it today. If
Speaker 1: you're like me, you've enjoyed our mild fall. But it
Speaker 1: is getting to be late October, so chilly, rainy day outside,
Speaker 1: and as it is every day, it's going to have
Speaker 1: you along for the ride. Spence check, it's beyond the mic.
Speaker 1: That's Porta Larson behind the glass. We're back in studio
Speaker 1: after being out in about the last couple of days
Speaker 1: with our friends at the Dish Professionals and then at
Speaker 1: Bar actually yesterday. We're gonna be out with our friends
Speaker 1: at the Snowmobile Expo on Friday, and then after the
Speaker 1: show join us at Overtime Cards and Collectibles or a
Speaker 1: very special event. Logan Cooley from the Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 1: is going to be signing in autographs for fans at
Speaker 1: Overtime Cards and Collectibles. The station's gonna be out there
Speaker 1: from about five to seven, so come on buy say
Speaker 1: hi to Scott Mitchell, Logan Cooley. I'll be out there
Speaker 1: as well, and check out the great trading cards for
Speaker 1: all your favorite athletes. Check them out online time Cards
Speaker 1: and Collectibles dot Com where you can buy and trade.
Speaker 1: We'll be out at their new location out in Sandy,
Speaker 1: so come on out and join us. Happy Thursday. One
Speaker 1: day closer of the weekend, we get a little NFL
Speaker 1: football tonight. Don't know if this is gonna be a
Speaker 1: great game. It's the Broncos and the Saints. The Saints
Speaker 1: are badly injured. It's at the super Dome down in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, Denver's a three point favorite and the over
Speaker 1: under thirty seven point five. Not a lot of points
Speaker 1: tonight in the Big Easy, but you do get some
Speaker 1: pro football. You can listen to that on this station
Speaker 1: after we say it out about six o'clock. Ball Baseball
Speaker 1: playoff Baseball has been great tonight. The Yankees and the
Speaker 1: Guardians from Progressive Field in Cleveland. The Guardians trying to
Speaker 1: get back in that series. The Yanks took the first
Speaker 1: couple of games. Mets fighting for their lives now down
Speaker 1: two to one after being blank yesterday. That's a series
Speaker 1: goes to Cityfield and Queens, where the Mets will host
Speaker 1: the Dodgers. One day closer to a massive college football
Speaker 1: weekend both locally and nationally. Utah trying to get right
Speaker 1: against TCU Saturday night here in Salt Lake. We'll get
Speaker 1: you ready for that game. We'll talk a lot about
Speaker 1: that game today. As we sit here today, Utah is
Speaker 1: a three point five point favorite. That line has moved
Speaker 1: four separate times in the way of TCU. Opened up
Speaker 1: as a seven point favorite for the Utes. It's now
Speaker 1: three point five and Utah badly in need of a win.
Speaker 1: There's your hot take. On a Thursday, Brigham Young tries
Speaker 1: to stay undefeated. Friday night in Provos, Oklahoma State is
Speaker 1: in town, potentially the most disappointing team in the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: BYU is a nine point favorite as we sit here today.
Speaker 1: It was up to nine and a half yesterday. Now
Speaker 1: it's back down at nine, open at eight and a half.
Speaker 1: That's a late kick eight fifteen in Provo on Friday
Speaker 1: night at both Utah and BYU, because they're not in
Speaker 1: the SEC or the Big Ten, we'll play late games
Speaker 1: on Friday and Saturday. Utah State welcomes in Bronco, Menenhall
Speaker 1: and New Mexico. The Aggies have been trucked and have
Speaker 1: lost five straight games, but football on its way. We're
Speaker 1: pretty much halfway home for the most part for most teams,
Speaker 1: and we'll get into some of the bigger national storylines
Speaker 1: on the show today as well. The Utah Jazz will
Speaker 1: wrap up their preseason schedule with a Friday tilt in
Speaker 1: Portland's before starting the season for real next week against Memphis.
Speaker 1: The Athletic has done a really, really good five part
Speaker 1: series on the current state of the NBA. They released
Speaker 1: four of them. I think they're going to release the
Speaker 1: fifth tomorrow, and some interesting things about the new collective
Speaker 1: bargaining agreement, what means for markets like Salt Lake and
Speaker 1: Adam Silver's quest to bring parody to pro basketball the
Speaker 1: way they have it in pro football. We're going to
Speaker 1: get into that today because we do need to talk
Speaker 1: a little Jazz on the program. Is the NBA is
Speaker 1: a pop on us. It'll start next week. RSL back
Speaker 1: at action on Saturday, taking on Vancouver. With a win,
Speaker 1: RSL will set a single season point record for the club,
Speaker 1: so obviously pulling for them. The Utah Hockey Club, we
Speaker 1: have so much going on right now. Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 1: had to fly across country. Usually if you go from
Speaker 1: New York to California. In pro sports, you have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to stop once, but not for the Utah Hockey Club.
Speaker 1: And after a three and oh start, they now have
Speaker 1: one loss, two losses in a row. They're three and
Speaker 1: two overall five to four, though they continue to score
Speaker 1: a lot of goals. And we'll get to as much
Speaker 1: as we can with the Utah Hockey Club today, Good guest,
Speaker 1: listen on a Thursday afternoon, we've moved some things around.
Speaker 1: Usually Gordon Mountson, Craig Bowlerjack Live and Studio both will
Speaker 1: be over the phone today. Gordon will start us off
Speaker 1: at two thirty. Craig joins us free Chris Comrodnie from
Speaker 1: The Athletic Live and Studio for an hour scited for that.
Speaker 1: We'll talk mostly college football, but we'll bounce around get
Speaker 1: to some other topics as well. Chris was recently hunting
Speaker 1: for feral pigs in Hawaii with Trevor Riley. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a real thing. Bringing our friends at Sports Court. Then
Speaker 1: after five o'clock we'll kind of reset some things with
Speaker 1: the drive at five, so busy show on a Thursday
Speaker 1: day afternoon. Gordon Montson, Craig Bowler, Jack, Chris com, Ronnie,
Speaker 1: the Spence Checkets, all of you, the great listeners, and
Speaker 1: that guy with a mustache and no beard. Every day
Speaker 1: I walk in here and I think like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to grow a mustache. Feels like everybody's growing a mustache.
Speaker 1: I think you should. I think you should.
Speaker 2: It's it's not a bad idea, it does seem like
Speaker 2: it's It's kind of jumped the shark a little bit, though,
Speaker 2: like we're in the twenties or something again with the mustaches.
Speaker 1: But hey, I'm I'm guilty of it, so I can't complain.
Speaker 1: I'm also forty six, and I feel like I feel
Speaker 1: like if I grew a mustache, my friends would be like,
Speaker 1: you're trying to look like you're in your twenties. Don't
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, I don't want to be that guy
Speaker 1: that tries to look younger than he is. That's fair.
Speaker 1: Of all of all the stuff that's going on right now,
Speaker 1: what is grasping your attention the most? Ah Man.
Speaker 2: I don't veer far from college football when it's when
Speaker 2: it's fall time, but it's hard to not be somewhat
Speaker 2: distracted by all the busyness in the Sports World here locally.
Speaker 1: So you you you mentioned it.
Speaker 2: It's it's fun for me as a very much a
Speaker 2: novice when it comes to hockey, like my hockey knowledge
Speaker 2: Spence is playing the game on PlayStation two back in
Speaker 2: the day, so fun. It was kind of the same
Speaker 2: way with me with FIFA and and the hockey games.
Speaker 2: The video games are really fun. So I got to
Speaker 2: learn a little bit about the sport, but I have
Speaker 2: no knowledge of the actual leagues, the players I'm I'm
Speaker 2: learning now and that's been really fun. Of course RSL
Speaker 2: and the playoff Push. I'm a I'm a huge fan
Speaker 2: of Pablo Mastruenny and that crew, and I think that
Speaker 2: he has a way of changing gears a little bit
Speaker 2: when postseasons on the line, regardless of who's in the
Speaker 2: locker room. He's proven he has that ability, so I'm
Speaker 2: excited to see that forthcoming. And then of obviously as
Speaker 2: a Mets fan, man, I've been kind of like anxiously
Speaker 2: shaking U the last few days. I know it's not healthy.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't let a sports team affect me in that way. Man,
Speaker 2: I've got better, But as you just said, it's with
Speaker 2: playoff Baseball, man, the amount of anything that rides on
Speaker 2: one single pitch, one single swing at the bat. It's
Speaker 2: just different than a lot of sports, and yet it
Speaker 2: gets me going. That's probably my main distraction from college
Speaker 2: football to the moment.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you played that hockey video game. But during
Speaker 1: the break you need to Google search NHL ninety four
Speaker 1: Sega Genesis. That's the hockey game and that's a shout
Speaker 1: out to my fellow jed xers. You probably played that
Speaker 1: if you're of a certain age. All right, Gordon Monson,
Speaker 1: our first guest today on a Thursday, right out of
Speaker 1: the gates. But before we get to Gordo, courtesy of
Speaker 1: our good friends at Standard Restaurant Supply, it's your tailgate headquarters.
Speaker 1: We have three Utah home games left. Make sure your
Speaker 1: tailgate is ready to roll. Check them out Standard Restaurant
Speaker 1: dot com or thirty five hundred south West Temple On
Speaker 1: a Thursday, it's time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's
Speaker 3: number one sports talk. Now into the studio of Yes
Speaker 3: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 3: opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by
Speaker 3: Standard restaurant supply, your one stop shop to build the
Speaker 3: best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply, thirty five hundred
Speaker 3: Southwest Temple.
Speaker 1: All Right, College football ahead NFL tonight, you can hear
Speaker 1: the Thursday night game here on this radio station. I
Speaker 1: have to promote it, even though it's the Broncos and
Speaker 1: the Saints. But let's look ahead to the Friday night
Speaker 1: till Oklahoma State BYU. Then of course the Saturday till
Speaker 1: with Utah and TCU. Of course we'll start with the Utes.
Speaker 1: The big storyline this week continues to be the change
Speaker 1: at quarterback, because everybody wants to talk about the quarterback
Speaker 1: and everybody wants to know what's next and what it's
Speaker 1: going to look like. And you know, at this point
Speaker 1: we've kind of really beat this topic over the head.
Speaker 1: But every day it seems like somebody of note chimes
Speaker 1: in on what Cam Rising should or should not do
Speaker 1: at the end of the season. So we have to
Speaker 1: table it for now. We just simply don't know because
Speaker 1: now we have to see what sort of hand Utah
Speaker 1: has been dealt with Isaac Wilson. And I will repeat
Speaker 1: what I have been saying, which is, to me, this
Speaker 1: is like a clean slate for Isaac. It hasn't been
Speaker 1: great so far. It's been about what you would expect
Speaker 1: from an eighteen year old. It enrolled in school in April.
Speaker 1: Been some moments, for sure, but too many interceptions, and
Speaker 1: ultimately he needs to be better with his decision making.
Speaker 1: But more than anything else, Utah has to rally around
Speaker 1: this kid and probably start playing more in the image
Speaker 1: of who their head coach is, because the fact of
Speaker 1: the matter is they have been able to run the football.
Speaker 1: Mackai Bernard one of the top two or three backs
Speaker 1: in the entire Big Twelve, proving that nobody knew anything
Speaker 1: about this Utah football team. But the offensive line, while young,
Speaker 1: has settled in and we'll get back to them in
Speaker 1: a moment now. TCU, the opponent on Saturday so far
Speaker 1: this season, has not been able to stop the run
Speaker 1: at all. They're okay against the past. But my guess
Speaker 1: is going to be with all the attention on Isaac
Speaker 1: Wilson and all the attention on how he's going to
Speaker 1: look now that he has job security and he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to look over a shoulder, and as Mackay himself
Speaker 1: said to the media this week, they no longer are
Speaker 1: preparing two game plans, which is not a great formula,
Speaker 1: even though it was kind of a mandate out of
Speaker 1: necessity because you want Cameron back. You hope he comes back,
Speaker 1: so you understand that you plan for it because that's
Speaker 1: the preferred situation. But now that's off the table, and
Speaker 1: so it's all about Isaac Wilson. It's all about what
Speaker 1: he's going to look like under center. But certainly the
Speaker 1: success of this team cannot be placed on the shoulders
Speaker 1: of an eighteen year old. So I still have tremendous
Speaker 1: faith in what this team can ultimately be. And honestly,
Speaker 1: some of the defensive numbers are a little bit cloudy
Speaker 1: in my opinion, because statistically Utah is still a top
Speaker 1: twenty defense, but they haven't been great against the run.
Speaker 1: Or is it a scenario where last week this essentially
Speaker 1: allowed Skataboo two massive, big play chunk runs, you know,
Speaker 1: and ultimately you can't give up those big plays. You know.
Speaker 1: Ohio State learned that last weekending it'inst Oregon. You know,
Speaker 1: seven point five year yards per play for the Ducks.
Speaker 1: That's not going to get it done if you're Ohio State.
Speaker 1: But Ultimately, Utah has to get back to who they are.
Speaker 1: So all the conversation about well, a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: they averaged thirty eight points a game. That's not happening
Speaker 1: this year. Okay, Cameron's not back. We thought for a
Speaker 1: minute he was going to be early on Southern Utah.
Speaker 1: First half against Baylor, he looked phenomenal, and then what happened.
Speaker 1: Expectations went sky high. Oh, we got Cam back from
Speaker 1: two years ago. We're gonna have another dynamic offense, and
Speaker 1: even if the defense isn't as good as we expected,
Speaker 1: if we have Cam under center, we're going to outscore
Speaker 1: teams anyway. No longer the case, and I don't know
Speaker 1: what's realistic to expect from Isaac and the offense as
Speaker 1: far as consistent points per game. So now it's time
Speaker 1: to call upon the way this team was built back
Speaker 1: in the day and who Kyle wants them to be.
Speaker 1: Win in the trenches, run the football, stop the rush.
Speaker 1: TCU does not run the football that well. Okay, they've
Speaker 1: got a quarterback who can certainly fling it and get
Speaker 1: some yards here there, but he has six picks of
Speaker 1: his own, Like this is a get right game that
Speaker 1: feels like as we closer and closer to kick, Utah
Speaker 1: should handle it pretty well. If all of the conversation
Speaker 1: that's happened over the past week since the loss again
Speaker 1: Sashu and the news that Cameron is out, if everything
Speaker 1: these players and coaches have said to the media and
Speaker 1: behind the scenes as well is true, if this team
Speaker 1: has really responded, you go thump TCU on Saturday night
Speaker 1: and you show this fan base that you're going to
Speaker 1: be fine regardless of who the quarterback is. All right,
Speaker 1: my guess is the fans are going to show up
Speaker 1: that stadium. Usually, if not at capacity is close to it,
Speaker 1: they'll announce a sellout, But how many people will be there?
Speaker 1: I'll be there, so I'll be curious to see whether
Speaker 1: the attendance is going to be a Saturday night late kick. Certainly,
Speaker 1: the muss will be the muss, and I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: going to be a lot of noise. But in order
Speaker 1: for the noise to reverbiate consistently, as we saw against Arizona,
Speaker 1: you got to give them something to cheer for. You
Speaker 1: can't just expect fans to stay on their feet every
Speaker 1: minute for four quarters when they're watching a football team
Speaker 1: that doesn't appear to be ready to play, and unfortunately
Speaker 1: that was the case last week, you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of weekends ago against Arizona obviously on the road last
Speaker 1: week at a ISU. But run the football, stop the run,
Speaker 1: win the battle on the trenches, get back to the
Speaker 1: physical defensive team that knows how to tackle regardless, and
Speaker 1: then take the football away. Morgan talked about that this week.
Speaker 1: You know, you've lost the turnover margin two to one
Speaker 1: to three one right, the last couple of games. Not
Speaker 1: gonna get it done. It's exactly the reason why Brigham
Speaker 1: Young is undefeated. They turned the other team over consistently
Speaker 1: in compromise situations. Then they capitalize on those situations with
Speaker 1: touchdowns not field goals, something Utah is not doing. Kyle
Speaker 1: talks about it himself. Red zone, third down, okay, not
Speaker 1: good enough, but it can't all be on the shoulders
Speaker 1: of your freshman quarterback. You got to rally around him.
Speaker 1: And then also, I wonder how they take the pressure
Speaker 1: off of Mackai Bernard because we heard a lot about
Speaker 1: Mike Mitchell. I'm still gonna wonder why jalaln Glover are
Speaker 1: running back who's had big games and big situations for
Speaker 1: this team can't get off the pine because Mackay has
Speaker 1: established himself as the dude. But he's not built like Zach,
Speaker 1: like Zack Moss right, He's not built like one of
Speaker 1: those backs like Tavion was built. Right. He's built enough,
Speaker 1: but I don't think you want him touching the football
Speaker 1: thirty forty times every single week. You obviously have to
Speaker 1: ride him. He's your best player right now, again proving
Speaker 1: none of us knew anything. Looking at that room, the
Speaker 1: conversation was, is there one bell cow? Will it be
Speaker 1: by committee? Four or five running backs? We didn't know,
Speaker 1: and they've got one. That's just awesome. Kyle did tell
Speaker 1: us he was running back one. But it can't just
Speaker 1: be on Isaac. It has to be a group effort.
Speaker 1: I am really curious to see if the connection we
Speaker 1: saw between Isaac and Dorian continues. Right He was clearly
Speaker 1: Isaac's favorite target. Dorian Singer one of the most talented
Speaker 1: wide receivers we've had here in a long time. I'm
Speaker 1: sure Brandt Keithy is looking at his numbers right now
Speaker 1: and wishing those were up a little bit. We all
Speaker 1: expected more, but with the chaos under quarterback. Point is this.
Speaker 1: Isaac has weapons, He's got upper classmen leaders, he has
Speaker 1: a good, albeit young offensive line that's performed really well.
Speaker 1: They should be able to win the battle of the trenches.
Speaker 1: They should be able to block for Makai run the ball,
Speaker 1: and TCU doesn't run the ball that well either. This
Speaker 1: feels like a game that Utah should get at home
Speaker 1: with a ton of momentum to show the fan base
Speaker 1: that the last couple of weeks have been an aberration.
Speaker 1: Porter let me bring you in on this. Utah football
Speaker 1: pregame will start at four point thirty on Saturday. Roll
Speaker 1: up to the tailgate, say what's up. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun, free food from Wingers, draft cocktails from our
Speaker 1: friends at Clearwater Distilling. Porter will be there doing the
Speaker 1: pregame show. This feels like a really good matchup for Utah,
Speaker 1: but you can't put it all on the shoulders of
Speaker 1: your freshman quarterback.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Like you said, there's a lot of things that Utah
Speaker 2: does well. The run game is the most significant one
Speaker 2: that stands out that I think TCU will struggle with,
Speaker 2: especially McKay Bernard's style. His run style right, he has
Speaker 2: been he's always been good talented back. Obviously, he's been
Speaker 2: productive when he's been on the field when he hasn't
Speaker 2: been injured. Obviously that's been an unfortunate part of his
Speaker 2: mute reality. But the way he's run the football outside
Speaker 2: the tackle, he's been patient with the line developing the
Speaker 2: run blocks in the run plays. He's matured as a
Speaker 2: running back this year, where you're seeing it's not just
Speaker 2: as talent catching the ball out of the backfield and
Speaker 2: the spin moves out in open field. He's learning how
Speaker 2: to play the running back position, which is a whole
Speaker 2: different story about how good you are as a running
Speaker 2: back in open field, right, And that is taking him
Speaker 2: to a next level where we're seeing him one hundred
Speaker 2: yard game after one hundred yard game after hundred yard game,
Speaker 2: and very very good opportunity to have another one of
Speaker 2: those against TCU. But on the other side, Spence TCUs
Speaker 2: a team that if Utah doesn't come back somewhat healthy
Speaker 2: on the defensive side, they can hurt you on offense
Speaker 2: as well. So I think that's the main part. As
Speaker 2: you said, defense has to be productive and not leave
Speaker 2: too much on the plate of an Isaac Wilson, who
Speaker 2: is having one of his first tests since Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: So TCU rolls in with three wins, three losses. They
Speaker 1: actually went down on the farm to beat Stanford opening week.
Speaker 1: A lot of people thought that was a pretty solid
Speaker 1: road win. And then they smoked the boys from Strong Island,
Speaker 1: which I didn't even know that a football team a
Speaker 1: lost to UCF. They got run by SMU. Then they
Speaker 1: beat Kansas, but everybody's beating Kansas, sorry, Ryles. And then
Speaker 1: they're coming off a loss against Houston, and maybe Houston's
Speaker 1: playing well, they better have been playing better than they
Speaker 1: were early on. But this is a game you should win.
Speaker 1: So one of the fantasy football leagues I'm in is
Speaker 1: with my little nephews. It's the main reason I'm in it.
Speaker 1: I was only in two and then my brother was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: your nephews want to play fantasy football. And these kids
Speaker 1: are young, so it's super fun and all they do
Speaker 1: is talk smack. Does it make me a bad person
Speaker 1: if I'm about to make a very lopside of trade
Speaker 1: with my seven year old nephew. No, okay, he's in
Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, no, I agree.
Speaker 2: If you're not ready for the heat, spence gotta get
Speaker 2: out of the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, stop watching SpongeBob and get on ESPN dot com
Speaker 1: and listen to what Field Yates has to say. You're seven,
Speaker 1: get in the I agree. I'm a shark in the water.
Speaker 1: I hate kid. I smell blood speaking of a shark
Speaker 1: in the water over the phone today, although I miss
Speaker 1: him in studio because oftentimes he wears a hat with
Speaker 1: a shark on it. Gordon Monson on a Thursday afternoon, Godfather,
Speaker 1: how are you, sir?
Speaker 4: I'm doing just fine, Spence. I want you to keep
Speaker 4: something in mind though, from the from the play Lema's
Speaker 4: a rob this song, remember the pups they do grow up?
Speaker 1: You better run for you better run for cover.
Speaker 4: Right, I'll tell you if you're seven year old, is
Speaker 4: it your I'm sorry, is that your nest it is?
Speaker 4: It is my nestig So that the fact that he's
Speaker 4: in the league to begin with tells you that he's
Speaker 4: got some potential. I would tread carefully on that one.
Speaker 1: He does. And he's built like a linebacker, even at seven,
Speaker 1: So you're probably right when he grows up. And I'll
Speaker 1: be like sixty when he's you know, in his twenty,
Speaker 1: So you're right Cordell. It's good advice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, but go ahead and make the trade fair enough.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, he's screwed. He's screwed anyway. All right,
Speaker 1: let's start with the Utah Utes, where we find ourselves
Speaker 1: with the second straight season of in ten years. What
Speaker 1: will probably be known is what could have been, so
Speaker 1: just your reaction to the biggest story here in the
Speaker 1: market that for the second straight year, just feels so
Speaker 1: bad for him, Cam and Rising is done playing football,
Speaker 1: at least for the season.
Speaker 4: I recall him about Cam after I guess after the
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two season, saying that he's the second best
Speaker 4: quarterback to ever played Utah. I was so impressed with
Speaker 4: everything he ever did for the program. And man, I
Speaker 4: wonder about this. Don't you ever sit back and think
Speaker 4: how many great athletes, how many careers were cut short
Speaker 4: or hampered by injury. I mean, none of this is
Speaker 4: his fault. We've talked about how he sort of maybe
Speaker 4: run out of bounds to avoid getting hit and all
Speaker 4: this sort of thing. But man, he's just a great quarterback.
Speaker 4: He's a great leader of that team, and for his
Speaker 4: career to be cut short like this is really I
Speaker 4: mean it's a kick to the gut, it really is.
Speaker 4: And so I got nothing but respect for Camerasing as
Speaker 4: an athlete, as a quarterback, as a team leader, is
Speaker 4: everything that he's brought to Utah's program. And that being said,
Speaker 4: I don't think he should come back next year, even
Speaker 4: if you can.
Speaker 1: So we'll get there in one moment. But you you
Speaker 1: just sparked a memory in me. I can remember being
Speaker 1: just a because your reference A Fleets, who you loved
Speaker 1: whose careers were cut short by injury. And I'm old
Speaker 1: enough to remember. I know you are too. When listening
Speaker 1: to games in the radio was very, very commonplace, right,
Speaker 1: and so oftentimes if we were on a road trip,
Speaker 1: my dad would have a football game in the radio
Speaker 1: on the radio, and I remember the call of Bo
Speaker 1: Jackson injury in his hit, and I can remember the
Speaker 1: announcer later on saying, they're saying in my be career ending.
Speaker 1: This is way back in I think the late eighties,
Speaker 1: early nineties, something like that. And I can remember because
Speaker 1: you didn't have to be a Raiders fan to just
Speaker 1: adore Bo Jackson. He was awesome, he was marketable, he
Speaker 1: was dominant, and I remember the feeling of thinking like,
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna watch Bo Jackson play football again. You're right,
Speaker 1: it happens all the time, and when it does, it
Speaker 1: sucks every time.
Speaker 4: And I wonder how many great athletes there are out
Speaker 4: there who couldn't end up being more what they could
Speaker 4: have been because of these injuries. Yeah, I mean, that's
Speaker 4: something about it. And it's a tough sport. It's a
Speaker 4: brutal sport, and I mean there's not a whole lot
Speaker 4: you can do about that. But man, Cam Rising one
Speaker 4: fantastic quarterback, and he's the kind of guy we've talked
Speaker 4: about dismiss He's the kind of guy who really did
Speaker 4: make other players both on offense and defense better because
Speaker 4: they knew he was in the lineup. But this this
Speaker 4: up and down and back and forth has got to
Speaker 4: have taken a toll on that team as a whole.
Speaker 4: And so now I guess that question is answered for good.
Speaker 1: So let's move over now to what you brought up.
Speaker 1: And I had Eric Weddle on the show on Monday,
Speaker 1: and I found Eric's response to my inquiry about the
Speaker 1: potential of Cam coming back for an eighth year really interesting.
Speaker 1: He wasn't taking a shot at Cam. He just said
Speaker 1: it's it's better for everybody just to move on, right,
Speaker 1: And you have experience you you know you at one
Speaker 1: point you were a serial dater back in your college years.
Speaker 1: You had to break a lot of hearts, right, and
Speaker 1: we all know that about you. You does this feel
Speaker 1: like one of those breakups where it's just best for
Speaker 1: both parties just to go in the opposite direction, even
Speaker 1: though there's still love there somewhere.
Speaker 4: Well, see you're asking, I have to think about that
Speaker 4: for a minute, because because it was the other person
Speaker 4: that was always still in love.
Speaker 1: I want you to behave yourself here, Gordon. I just
Speaker 1: I know what's going through your mind. I want you
Speaker 1: to be careful what comes out of your mouth.
Speaker 4: Well, there should be honor on both sides, yes, well side,
Speaker 4: you know, just you know, just maybe some people want
Speaker 4: him to come back, but if he does come back,
Speaker 4: he won't have the nil money that he obviously got
Speaker 4: this year. And I don't know, I'd be interested in
Speaker 4: your opinion on this, Spence, What do you think about me?
Speaker 4: Up and down and back and forth.
Speaker 5: If he came.
Speaker 4: Back, if he really wanted to come back, and I'm
Speaker 4: not sure that he would ever want to do that.
Speaker 4: But if he did, could he service the team in
Speaker 4: a way without necessarily being starter?
Speaker 1: Potentially? But here's where I'm at with it, because I
Speaker 1: always try to look at this stuff like this from
Speaker 1: all sides best I can. And you know, if Cam so,
Speaker 1: Cameron Rising at the age of twenty five, if this
Speaker 1: is it for him, because I don't perceive him to
Speaker 1: be a pro football player. I don't think he's an
Speaker 1: NFL quarterback. Even when Cam was like Pete Cam, we
Speaker 1: would have scouts on the show that even back then,
Speaker 1: we're like, yeah, maybe he has a shot, probably not drafted,
Speaker 1: maybe he can make a team. And at this point,
Speaker 1: you know, with another injury. As much as I hate
Speaker 1: to say it because I know how much he wants
Speaker 1: the chance to be a pro quarterback, I don't think
Speaker 1: that's in his future. So what does Cam Rising do
Speaker 1: next year? As far as the next step in his life.
Speaker 1: Is he going to get a job at Shields? I mean,
Speaker 1: I have no idea. And so ultimately I think anybody
Speaker 1: if given the opportunity to just hey, come back to school,
Speaker 1: do something you love doing, and oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: you can make a million dollars, I don't know to
Speaker 1: your point. I don't know if the money's to be there,
Speaker 1: but some money will be there, So I don't think
Speaker 1: I would blame Cameron for doing it, but I'm just
Speaker 1: not sure that that's the right thing for everybody. That's
Speaker 1: why hence the relationship analogy. It's probably best for both
Speaker 1: parties to go their way and give each other a
Speaker 1: hug and always cheer for a moving forward, but probably
Speaker 1: time for a little bit of a split. That's where
Speaker 1: I'm out with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I agree with you on that. And look,
Speaker 4: he's got a great football like you. He could go
Speaker 4: into coaching and with the connections he's built at the
Speaker 4: University of Utah through the years, through many years, I'm sure,
Speaker 4: and he could get into all kinds of different fields professional.
Speaker 4: So he's got a lot going for him regardless of
Speaker 4: what happens from here on it.
Speaker 1: No, I agree with that. It's one thing that Byu
Speaker 1: does really well. A lot of those ex athletes latch
Speaker 1: on to some of those companies down south that are
Speaker 1: printing money, they end up doing really, really well. So
Speaker 1: your point about his community certainly is well taken, and
Speaker 1: he will land on his feet doing something. He's a
Speaker 1: sharp guy. But probably the time is come for everybody
Speaker 1: just to go their separate ways. Whose heart, of all
Speaker 1: the hearts you broke, which one stands out the most
Speaker 1: back in the day that you still regret that, maybe
Speaker 1: you think about from time to time.
Speaker 4: No, I regret now.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: Admitting that I regretted at this point might do me
Speaker 4: some damage with my beloved wife, now, you know, because
Speaker 4: if I'm regretting that and it makes it sound like
Speaker 4: I'm unhappy. Now, are you trying to get me in trouble?
Speaker 1: No, No, she's You're both stuck at this point. She's
Speaker 1: not going anywhere. Come on, there's just got to be
Speaker 1: one name from back in the day.
Speaker 4: Okay, let me let me say it this way. You're
Speaker 4: bringing back some fond memories.
Speaker 1: Actually, no, I know, I can hear it.
Speaker 4: The run up to the breakup was fantastic, you know,
Speaker 4: But the breakup itself, I do have some regrets about,
Speaker 4: you know, landing that plane a little less tactfully than
Speaker 4: I should have. So I do have some I have
Speaker 4: some regrets about that, but not the fact that that
Speaker 4: boom it was over. It was all you know, it
Speaker 4: was kind of like looking forward, not you know, you
Speaker 4: can't play backwards.
Speaker 1: Sure, no, well said good advice. As always, Gordon, I
Speaker 1: missed the life advice segments we used to do. Now,
Speaker 1: no relationship analogy is necessary for what's going on down
Speaker 1: at Brigham Young as they continue to answer every single
Speaker 1: question asked of them. And at this point, you know,
Speaker 1: Vegas still likes Iowa State. ESPN did their first twelve
Speaker 1: team expanded CFP Projection show and they have Iowa State
Speaker 1: in as the Big twelve champ and BYU and Notre
Speaker 1: Dame as the first two outs. But they're right there,
Speaker 1: and you know, the odds continue to climb. Oklahoma State
Speaker 1: might be the most disappointing team in the Big twelve,
Speaker 1: even though you fans might think at Utah it's definitely
Speaker 1: Oklahoma State. What do you think happens Friday night late
Speaker 1: kick as Oklahoma State rolls into Provo? Do we see
Speaker 1: another BYU win? They're a nine point favorite.
Speaker 4: I would expect them to win. Yeah, based on I've
Speaker 4: seen Oklahoma State times this year, and that's the game.
Speaker 4: I would expect me want you to win. And look,
Speaker 4: you know that whole idea? Is this team for real?
Speaker 4: Is it for real? I talked to Kolony Stagi. He
Speaker 4: knew it was from real. It was real, way back
Speaker 4: before anybody else did. And he tried to talk me
Speaker 4: into it. He said, no, no, you don't know. Nobody knows.
Speaker 4: I know. I'm telling you. He went on and on
Speaker 4: about it, and I'm telling the way they played, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean, you can say, Okay, that might have been
Speaker 4: a fluke here or there, whatever, play here or there.
Speaker 4: But after watching what they did the Arizona, I don't
Speaker 4: know how anybody can really doubt that team. Now they're unbeaten.
Speaker 4: Does that mean they're unbeatable. No, I don't think that's
Speaker 4: the case. But I would expect them to win this
Speaker 4: coming week. However, Utah fans know this that sometimes teams
Speaker 4: they do they do stub their toes somewhere along the way,
Speaker 4: you know, and they lose a game they shouldn't lose.
Speaker 4: But that was what was so impressive about the youths
Speaker 4: undefeated seasons and four and eight that they didn't allow
Speaker 4: them able to do that. And that team down in
Speaker 4: Provo right now looks not only talented, but they look
Speaker 4: like they're together, they look like they're having fun and
Speaker 4: rets left. He made a great comment after the game
Speaker 4: against Arizona, he said, uh, when it comes down a
Speaker 4: paraphrasing here, but essentially, we know what we were doing
Speaker 4: and we were not going to look past anything. So
Speaker 4: if a team is talented and they know they're talented,
Speaker 4: they have the confidence that they're talented, but they don't
Speaker 4: look past anyone. That's the key, and I don't expect
Speaker 4: them to do that against the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, every Monday, Klanie says, you know, stay humble, stay hungry.
Speaker 1: You know he just in the moment let's make our
Speaker 1: seventh statement, is how he talks about every single week.
Speaker 1: And the formula is working. You know what's interesting, Gordon
Speaker 1: is Kalani is utilizing like they're they're out Utah in Utah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's turnovers, right, They're they're turning the other
Speaker 1: team over. They're causing havoc plays. I even heard Jay
Speaker 1: Hill say four and a score. That an old John
Speaker 1: PA's line. Like all these Utah coaches that are down
Speaker 1: there are really utilizing the model the coach Win has
Speaker 1: used to build this thing up, and they're doing it
Speaker 1: better than Utah is this year.
Speaker 4: And that's a surprise to everybody, or garden near everybody
Speaker 4: except for maybe Kilane, but after every win, Kilani has said,
Speaker 4: we need to get better, there's room for improvement, and
Speaker 4: so he's keeping that in front of his players, like
Speaker 4: you ain't done nothing yet, keep going. He wants them
Speaker 4: to have fun, but keep going when it comes down
Speaker 4: to getting the business done, get that business done. And
Speaker 4: this is just a remarkable, remarkable coaching job by Kolonie
Speaker 4: Shataki this year. But I have to give that the
Speaker 4: players credit. They are they are meeting that challenge and
Speaker 4: the way he's been handling these things Spence, That's the thing.
Speaker 4: And I don't want to I'm not saying that this
Speaker 4: is a team that you know, Jacob Robinson mentioned national
Speaker 4: championship for college football playoff, I'm not going to go
Speaker 4: there with it. But I'm telling you I believe, after
Speaker 4: watching the way they've played these weeks, I believe that
Speaker 4: team is far far better than anybody thought they were
Speaker 4: going to be. Anybody else except for Kalana.
Speaker 1: Did you buy a chance watch any of the Ohio
Speaker 1: State Oregon game.
Speaker 4: I saw part of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody in the Big twelve is winning a national championship.
Speaker 1: Let's just get that out of the way right now.
Speaker 1: Like watch Texas Georgia this week. I'm sorry you watched
Speaker 1: some of these big time national games, like that Ohio
Speaker 1: State Oregon game. That was big boy football. So I
Speaker 1: don't care if it's Iowa, staate Ca State BYUTA. Nobody's
Speaker 1: winning a national championship at the Big twelve. I can
Speaker 1: promise you that.
Speaker 4: What do you think of Dan Lanning's a little trick
Speaker 4: there towards the end of that game. What's having twelve
Speaker 4: been on the field. I'm sure you've discussed that at length. Yeah,
Speaker 4: interesting take there.
Speaker 1: I love me some Dan Lanning. So last year it
Speaker 1: was clearly a pr ploy because Dan utilized the platform
Speaker 1: the coach Prime brings to Eugene and his pregame speech
Speaker 1: before the Oregon Colorado game was awesome. I thought it
Speaker 1: was great when he talked about we're rooted in substance,
Speaker 1: they're rooted in flash today we talk with our pads,
Speaker 1: and I was like, that is that is such a
Speaker 1: great line. And I know it was for TV, but
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan. He could have gone to Bama. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Uncle Phil's checkbook helps. But Oregon's all sorts of good.
Speaker 1: So is Texas. So's Ohio State. So any National championship
Speaker 1: talk from any team in the Big twelve. I don't
Speaker 1: care who it is. That's a fool's Errand man.
Speaker 4: Well and you mentioned it. That money that they have there,
Speaker 4: those players are making bank, and I you know, this
Speaker 4: is maybe at some point this needs to be leveled out,
Speaker 4: because right now I think those teams they've got, they're
Speaker 4: not quite rivaling NFL rosters, but they're heading at the right.
Speaker 1: Let me go back to the utesier and TCU rolls
Speaker 1: in into town on Saturday night. I can remember, I
Speaker 1: think I've been on radio for maybe four years, like
Speaker 1: my fourth year. End radio Game Day was in town
Speaker 1: back in twenty ten when TCU just and Andy Dalton
Speaker 1: picked apart Utah's defense, I think it was forty seven
Speaker 1: to seven. So a little PTSD little flashback. This feels
Speaker 1: like a good match up for Utah, and it feels
Speaker 1: like a good landing spot for Isaac because TCU does
Speaker 1: not stop the run, and so I would imagine that
Speaker 1: Utah is going to start to play even more in
Speaker 1: the image of their head coach and ride McKay Bernard
Speaker 1: and hopefully in RB two to take some pressure off mackay.
Speaker 1: Run the football get back to winning the battle in
Speaker 1: the trenches, and then Isaac just kind of has to
Speaker 1: do enough. I feel like this could be a get
Speaker 1: right game for Utah. What do you think happens Saturday night?
Speaker 4: I would expect Utah is way better than they've played.
Speaker 4: And I know there's been all this up and down
Speaker 4: with the quarterback position, but I think I think the
Speaker 4: thing about it, there's a lot of people want to
Speaker 4: blame the losses on their camerasing playing or not playing
Speaker 4: up to the way he usually does, or not playing
Speaker 4: at all. This team is better than what had shown Spence.
Speaker 4: The Utes are a good, good team, but they've made mistakes.
Speaker 4: They've away from the quarterback position, and my recollection is
Speaker 4: that Kyle Whittinghan usually gets these things fixed, you know,
Speaker 4: even the Rose Bowl years. Remember they faced adversity early
Speaker 4: and they found a way to overcome that. I would
Speaker 4: expect the Utes to come back strong now, although I
Speaker 4: still don't know exactly. Isaac Wilson, Well, do you think
Speaker 4: they should use him as a game manager like you
Speaker 4: were suggesting there, or can they build his confidence and
Speaker 4: allow him to keep as kind of likes to say,
Speaker 4: the throw game in play and not just necessarily sit
Speaker 4: back and hand the ball off over and over again.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I haven't want the practice. I don't
Speaker 4: know where Isaac Wilson said it is at this point,
Speaker 4: but you're going to see mister Bernard pick up a
Speaker 4: whole lot of yardage.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the term game manager makes people cringe, right,
Speaker 1: I don't think it should, but it does.
Speaker 6: For me.
Speaker 1: It's more like you cannot put the whole thing on
Speaker 1: the kid's shoulders. You know, you can't expect him to
Speaker 1: be cam rising it two years ago, right, And so
Speaker 1: Utah football, in my opinion, they need to get back
Speaker 1: to doing what Kyle wants them to do and how
Speaker 1: we built this program on the ethos of we run
Speaker 1: the ball, we stopped the run, we win in the trenches,
Speaker 1: and then our quarterback just doesn't screw it up whatever
Speaker 1: that means. If you want to call that a game manager,
Speaker 1: that's fine. And look, his arm is live enough and
Speaker 1: we've seen coach Ludd open up the playbook for him.
Speaker 1: It's not like he's gonna, you know, be neutered. You know,
Speaker 1: he'll have an opportunity back there to make plays. But
Speaker 1: he's a freshman. He needs help and it's time for
Speaker 1: the entire team to step up around him because Cam
Speaker 1: Rising's not walking through that door. Sorry to quote Rick Bettino,
Speaker 1: this is the deal. Now make the most of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and those guys, the skilled players have to. They
Speaker 4: can be dropping balls and making mistakes or turning the
Speaker 4: ball over. But this is really I think where the
Speaker 4: guys in the trench has really come to the forefront,
Speaker 4: both on offense and defense. If that offensive line does
Speaker 4: its job and create space for the run game, then
Speaker 4: things will be well on the offense. Same thing on
Speaker 4: the defense. Like you mentioned, Morgan Skelley said it a
Speaker 4: thousand times, as has Kyle. Their number one priority on
Speaker 4: defense is stop the run, and if you can do that,
Speaker 4: you can manage the rest of whatever's coming at you.
Speaker 4: And I think that's particularly important for the Hutes in
Speaker 4: their situation of late.
Speaker 1: You know Kyle. You've covered Kyle for a long time,
Speaker 1: and there are more than a few people and this
Speaker 1: actually comes up often in other markets on other shows.
Speaker 1: I'll listen to people around here are scared to say it.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if he's retiring this year. I
Speaker 1: have no clue, but there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: that surmise that this is the year and if not
Speaker 1: this year, we know it soon. Morgan now has the
Speaker 1: moniker of coaching waiting back. Do you think and I've
Speaker 1: talked about this all week, So we had a college
Speaker 1: football analyst on from CFP on Tuesday that now thinks
Speaker 1: Utah is a seven win football team this year. If
Speaker 1: Utah wins seven games, they go seven to five and
Speaker 1: they go to some you know, po Dunk Bowl or whatever.
Speaker 1: Do you think that changes the scope of what Kyle
Speaker 1: will do this offseason not wanting to go out like
Speaker 1: that or does it? It may not even matter because
Speaker 1: that dude doesn't need to accomplish anything else. But I
Speaker 1: I if Utah stumbles into the gates this year, do
Speaker 1: you think it affects coach WIT's decision?
Speaker 4: There's an interesting that's an interesting point because before the
Speaker 4: season started, what do we hear or Spence everybody guess
Speaker 4: since CFP goes, yeah, yeah, if he goes to the
Speaker 4: Collins football playoff, then this will be the year that
Speaker 4: he hangs it up.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: This is so much speclation about that because Kyle has
Speaker 4: said over and over again that he's not going to
Speaker 4: coach into his later years. His dad passed away at
Speaker 4: sixty four. I think that's very much on his mind.
Speaker 4: He's got grandkids, he's got family, he's got reasons to
Speaker 4: live beyond football that he's looking forward to doing that
Speaker 4: he hasn't had time to do, so I don't think
Speaker 4: it's that far off. But you know, I don't even
Speaker 4: really think the record matters at this point. I think
Speaker 4: if he decides it's time to go, he'll go, and
Speaker 4: it will have nothing to do whether they're winning or losing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I tend to agree with that. All right, Gordon.
Speaker 1: We've revisited this topic every time you've joined us this week,
Speaker 1: and it probably takes a little bit of a turn
Speaker 1: this week. If tomorrow it's Utah BYU, neutral fields, who
Speaker 1: wins and why?
Speaker 4: Boy, that question has gotten a whole lot more complicated,
Speaker 4: hasn't it. I thought if the US had came Rising
Speaker 4: and he was playing the way came Rising, can play
Speaker 4: or does play normally that, especially at rice cycles, I
Speaker 4: would pick the utes. Now. I think BYU's got the edge,
Speaker 4: But you know that games at rice cycles, and so
Speaker 4: how's that going to go? We know how these rivalry
Speaker 4: things happen. It doesn't even matter who's the better team,
Speaker 4: although that certainly helps. But man, am I Wafflin or
Speaker 4: what I guess I would I would say at this
Speaker 4: point I'd give the nod to b Yu.
Speaker 1: Well, it's hard to argue against that based off of
Speaker 1: the results. That's all we can now. Now. I still
Speaker 1: think like some of the some of the noise surrounding
Speaker 1: Utah I'm not here for. I still think like there's
Speaker 1: a lot of conversation about the defense not stopping the run.
Speaker 1: It's not wholly unfair to bring up, but they get there.
Speaker 1: They've been without three of their front seven, and they've
Speaker 1: been out with their you know, without their best pass
Speaker 1: rusher and canro tool, you know, Karnny Reid. Some would
Speaker 1: say he's like the Cam Rising of the defense and
Speaker 1: the film Your Kid has been great. So they still
Speaker 1: have talent up there. But if they get healthy with
Speaker 1: their defensive front, I still believe the defense ultimately will
Speaker 1: settle in to be as nasty as we thought that
Speaker 1: they were going to be. The question just lies on
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the football. Can they move the
Speaker 1: ball with a true freshman quarterback. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of noise right now surrounding Utah. That I don't think
Speaker 1: is necessarily fair. I still think there's a chance that
Speaker 1: they turn it around because we've seen it from Coach
Speaker 1: Witch teams before. In twenty one they lose to BYU
Speaker 1: and SDSU and they win the Pac twelve. So I'm
Speaker 1: still holding out hope for Utah. But I'm entirely convinced
Speaker 1: that BYU is good. That's just where I'm at with
Speaker 1: both programs.
Speaker 4: I'most you one hundred percent on that. And anybody who's
Speaker 4: still doubting that hasn't been paying attention right about the
Speaker 4: way BYU is doing what it's doing. Look forget about
Speaker 4: what we all thought before the season started. And that's
Speaker 4: what people have to get rid of because in their mind,
Speaker 4: they're going BYU can't be this good. They can't. They
Speaker 4: can't be what we've seen so far. Look, I mean,
Speaker 4: open the eyes and realize, see what's really happening. They
Speaker 4: be there. That's a team that Utah loss to. They
Speaker 4: beat Kansas State, which is a really, really good team,
Speaker 4: and those are no flotus man. People thought because of
Speaker 4: what happened in the Kansas State game with the crazy
Speaker 4: punt returns and the turnovers and things that were outside
Speaker 4: the box. No, I mean BYU is showing that they
Speaker 4: are making those things happen. When they beat SMU down there,
Speaker 4: it was like, okay, so maybe SMU is not that good. No,
Speaker 4: SMU is good, and the Cougars beat them on their
Speaker 4: home field. So yeah, I mean this team is for real.
Speaker 4: Although I do agree with you that Utaw, as I said,
Speaker 4: is far better than what we've seen so far, and
Speaker 4: I would expect them to get it together even though
Speaker 4: they're you know, their leader on offense is out of
Speaker 4: the question.
Speaker 1: Gorn On, thanks for the time, man, have a great
Speaker 1: week and with you soon.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, a hard time for.
Speaker 1: You know, I will, you know, I will. Gordon Monson,
Speaker 1: longtime columnists of the Solid Tribune, my old radio partner
Speaker 1: on our old show. We do the Big Show, Big
Speaker 1: Hour every Thursday, oftentimes with the two of them together
Speaker 1: in studio. But Gordon's old and is cold, you know,
Speaker 1: he wants to stay inside. Need some soup and that's
Speaker 1: all right. Brought to you today by clear Water Distilling.
Speaker 1: Clear Water Distilling is the only distillery in Utah County
Speaker 1: open on Sundays, great spirits tasting room and the nicest
Speaker 1: crew around. They have their limited release Wednesday Whiskey Batch
Speaker 1: number two mix of their bourbon and Rye whiskeys. Try
Speaker 1: their scandal Us. They're an air their vodka, which is
Speaker 1: now in most day liquor stores. Football season, of course,
Speaker 1: is here. Clear Water is the official spirits provider for
Speaker 1: our VIP ESPN seven hundred tailgate we have at every
Speaker 1: home game. Do yourself a favor. Check out the tailgates,
Speaker 1: or schedule a tour and tasting in their Victorian tasting room.
Speaker 1: It makes a great date night or fun activity anytime.
Speaker 1: Authentic vintage Prohibition prescriptions and decor. Try their scandal Us,
Speaker 1: which is a no sugar, no addedive, is great tasting,
Speaker 1: grown upon of Simon whiskey. They have ultra premium spirits,
Speaker 1: many with a unique twist. Try there Renee or their Josephine.
Speaker 1: They're Lorenz as well. You can buy their spirits and
Speaker 1: state liquor stores online or take a trip to their
Speaker 1: beautiful distillery. Just grab some booze, some local cigars and
Speaker 1: immerse yourself in the clear Water distilling culture. More information
Speaker 1: can be found at Clearwaterdistilling dot com. The answers no,
Speaker 1: it's distasteful, get I don't care. I don't give a
Speaker 1: rip the answer. It's a hard note today on a Thursday.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you're trying to do to me.
Speaker 1: It's a hard note.
Speaker 2: You're the only one even bringing it up.
Speaker 1: We all know what you're doing. You're being a bad influence.
Speaker 1: Craig Bowler Jack usually live in studio with Gordo, but
Speaker 1: Gordon hopped on the phone last segment. So we continue
Speaker 1: our big show, Big Hour, brought to you by Big
Speaker 1: O' tires. Now it's our pleasure to catch up with
Speaker 1: the TV voice of the Jazz, the legend himself Bowler.
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, buddy, it's good.
Speaker 7: Tell are you you guys having problems there at you
Speaker 7: and porter Man Media eight?
Speaker 1: Well, he played a Death Leopards song because he wants yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I know I know where that's going. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: you know way to go? You know, I know you
Speaker 7: want to maybe share that that little piece of I
Speaker 7: don't know if it's comedy, but just insight, but yeah,
Speaker 7: probably better not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not you know, it's just it's dumb joke.
Speaker 1: It's like, yo, what has nine? You know what? No,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna stay away from
Speaker 1: it on a Thursday. No, I can't. I just did.
Speaker 1: I showed you I could, all right, Craig, how about uh,
Speaker 1: how about a little Jazz preseason action. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: it's preseason, right, we all know the deal, but I
Speaker 1: think it's I think it's fair to say there have
Speaker 1: been some fun games, some close games, and the crowd
Speaker 1: was even into it against Sacramento. So one more Friday
Speaker 1: night against Portland. But what do you make of the
Speaker 1: four and one preseason starred for these Utah Jazz.
Speaker 7: Well, we just got to Portland. Half the rookies remote.
Speaker 7: I'd say most of the rookies made the yearly trip
Speaker 7: out to Nike to get choose and stuff for friends
Speaker 7: and family and themselves. So I just jumped into the
Speaker 7: hotel and you know what they seem to be, you know,
Speaker 7: like what young guys nineteen and twenty year olds would do.
Speaker 7: And that's the the I think, just you know, learning
Speaker 7: every step of the way. Spence, Look, I've been surprised.
Speaker 7: I mean competitive, yes, four and one okay, still not
Speaker 7: doesn't mean anything except development, which I think is key.
Speaker 7: That's what we've been talking about all summer. But There's
Speaker 7: been some good things and still some issues that have
Speaker 7: to be addressed. And you know, despite the win against
Speaker 7: Sacramento that had a real good feel to it, the
Speaker 7: crowd was definitely into it. You still got to do
Speaker 7: something with turnovers. I know they're young, but I look
Speaker 7: at the fact that, you know, the twenty five turnovers
Speaker 7: allowed thirty two points in that game. The Jazz you know,
Speaker 7: held on to win one seventeen one to fourteen. But
Speaker 7: when you look at the turnovers, it's surely not the youth.
Speaker 7: It's actually the Vets, marketing and the Clarkson combined for
Speaker 7: eleven of those twenty five. So you can look at
Speaker 7: that any way you want. Are they not used to
Speaker 7: having new faces on the floor or is there timing
Speaker 7: not not you know, up to what it should be.
Speaker 7: But I was impressed at titlor Hendrix didn't turn the
Speaker 7: ball over, sins of Baw didn't turn the ball over.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 7: And there's been, you know, some bright spots, but turnovers
Speaker 7: still I think have to be the centerpiece of just
Speaker 7: Once this team hopefully gets more in tune to who
Speaker 7: they are and knowing tendencies of their teammates, that number
Speaker 7: will drop in fact it has to issue last year
Speaker 7: by the way, as you know, at the second half
Speaker 7: of the season when they went totally with the youth movements.
Speaker 7: So but there's been some good stuff. Hendricks has had
Speaker 7: a moment or two sins of ball. Johnny Juzang when
Speaker 7: he's on the court, has been incredible. From three, they've
Speaker 7: been able to blend Vets and JC and and John Collins,
Speaker 7: and they seem to kind of maybe got the rotation
Speaker 7: down a little bit. I'm you know, tomorrow night, have
Speaker 7: no idea what what will will do. I would hope
Speaker 7: they continue to just play and get better and get
Speaker 7: to know each other, their tendencies on the floor and
Speaker 7: how they cut and what where was the pass going
Speaker 7: to be received, all those little things that make a
Speaker 7: big difference.
Speaker 1: So we've talked about this and we'll continue to talk
Speaker 1: about it. I certainly am going to cover it on
Speaker 1: my show quite a bit because it's a big year
Speaker 1: for Walker Kessler. And last year, you know, the numbers dipped.
Speaker 1: It wasn't some massive fall, but most all of his
Speaker 1: numbers dipped a little bit outside of blocks because that
Speaker 1: is his superpower to protect the rim. But it's year
Speaker 1: three and this is when as an organization you draft
Speaker 1: the player, and year one you just kind of see
Speaker 1: what sort of hand you've been dealt. Give them a
Speaker 1: lot of space because you never trust rookies, and then
Speaker 1: hopefully they surprise you and you hope for a jump
Speaker 1: from year one year two. We didn't see it from Walker,
Speaker 1: and so far in the preseason I liked it will
Speaker 1: As starting him instead of John, I think that's the
Speaker 1: right call. And you know, four blocks the other night,
Speaker 1: nine boards, He's had a fifteen rebound game, and he's
Speaker 1: staying within him self offensively. I want him so badly
Speaker 1: to finish with Forrest this year. You're seven feet, you
Speaker 1: get the ball, drop step, go dunk on somebody. No
Speaker 1: like right running finger rolls, like play like a big play,
Speaker 1: like a pivot, because that's who you are. And again,
Speaker 1: just preseason, but so far, I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: to like about the way Walker's approach. You know, the
Speaker 1: opportunity it looks like he's being given by Will.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I totally agree. I think there's he's a great
Speaker 7: guy first and foremost, but you can't let that define
Speaker 7: you on the court. What I mean by that is
Speaker 7: it's good to have a little nasty, right, you want to,
Speaker 7: like you said, take the ball up and rock the
Speaker 7: rim and take a glance back at who you just
Speaker 7: post a rise and make a statement. I think stronger hands.
Speaker 7: I've seen that more. He's rebounded better in traffic in
Speaker 7: the preseason. Spencer, you know what, he's killing it at
Speaker 7: the rim. I mean his percentages or sky high nearly
Speaker 7: eighty percent, somewhere in that range. And yeah, he's rebounding
Speaker 7: the ball and I'm glad he's hanging on to it
Speaker 7: and not letting it in a crowd be taken away.
Speaker 7: So you know, and I've been keeping an eye because
Speaker 7: this is something we talked about too in the summer,
Speaker 7: was he's a pleaser, and Will's talked a lot about this.
Speaker 7: Here's a guy that you know, kept looking at the
Speaker 7: sideline and wants, I think, to know that he's doing okay. Well, look,
Speaker 7: you just don't have time to do that in this league.
Speaker 7: And the fact is if you do have a blunder
Speaker 7: or a bad play, the growth that I'm looking for
Speaker 7: is that you just play on and you bust your
Speaker 7: tail down the floor. He has run I think Spence
Speaker 7: really the floor well, and he's been rewarded several times
Speaker 7: by Keyante, by Bryce and other teammates when the guy
Speaker 7: gets out and runs, and I think he feels better
Speaker 7: about himself when he makes a big play, and it's
Speaker 7: not going to happen every time, but he's got to
Speaker 7: be able to bust his tail and continue to run.
Speaker 7: And the pace of this team's intriguing too. It's a
Speaker 7: fast paced league. But the biggest issue is to improve
Speaker 7: defensively on transition defense as well. And you see a
Speaker 7: little bit of improvement in that you know you only
Speaker 7: have one way to go, and that's up after being
Speaker 7: ranked dead last in the league last year in defense.
Speaker 7: But I've seen some improvement. I've seen more hustle, I've
Speaker 7: seen more speed, I've seen more defensive impact at times.
Speaker 7: But then there's at one or two minutes that they
Speaker 7: tend to tail off and the turnovers occur and they
Speaker 7: let teams back. So I think I'll be a real
Speaker 7: focal point as we get into the first fifteen to
Speaker 7: twenty games of the season.
Speaker 1: So it's always interesting to watch how the league evolves
Speaker 1: from an offensive standpoint, as far as who is your
Speaker 1: best offensive player, who's your focal point? You know who
Speaker 1: who who runs the offense? Is the offense formulated through
Speaker 1: you know this best player that best player. Once upon
Speaker 1: a time it was Bigs. Once upon a time it
Speaker 1: was Kareem and Will and Russell and all those guys.
Speaker 1: And then it moved into this phase of where it
Speaker 1: seemed like every team had a great wing. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: call it a shooting guard, a small forward sixty six
Speaker 1: sixty seven, And ultimately that was the type of prototype
Speaker 1: you want. The archetype was Michael Jordan, of course, and
Speaker 1: then the Kobe years and Dwayne Wade and like everybody
Speaker 1: had a great wing. And now the league is really
Speaker 1: interesting because it just depends on the team. Like Golden
Speaker 1: State goes through Steph, Denver goes through Jokic, so like
Speaker 1: san Antonio is gonna go through when Miyama and we
Speaker 1: could ultimately go down the list, Memphis goes through job.
Speaker 1: Not every team needs that great offensive wing that once
Speaker 1: upon a time felt like a mandate, But it's still
Speaker 1: very much a thing. And more often than not, you're
Speaker 1: gonna need you because you reference the defense. More often
Speaker 1: than not, you're gonna need a defender that can push
Speaker 1: back against the durant or push back against a Shay
Speaker 1: or push back against a brandon Ingram or whoever the
Speaker 1: other team's offensive wing happens to be. There are several
Speaker 1: top shelf offensive wings in pro basketball, and that brings
Speaker 1: me to Taylor. Who is the guy that has the
Speaker 1: measurables to play that role. Now, Larry can a little bit.
Speaker 1: He's big and strong, but he's limited as far as
Speaker 1: his lateral movement goes. He doesn't keep up with the
Speaker 1: faster wings, but Taylor could if he grows. Can he
Speaker 1: grow into the spot where the Jazz would have a
Speaker 1: wing defender that can make all these wing offensive players
Speaker 1: throughout the landscape of the NBA at least somewhat uncomfortable.
Speaker 7: Well, they're going to get data points on that spence.
Speaker 7: To your point, I mean, that's the guy, Taylor Hendrix
Speaker 7: has been given that charge to say, you're the guy.
Speaker 8: You're the stopper. We're going to put you.
Speaker 7: On every top score on the wing and your length
Speaker 7: is going to be.
Speaker 8: Your best friend.
Speaker 7: And he does move well, latterly getting better, you know,
Speaker 7: put on the seventeen pounds big team makes a great
Speaker 7: point eighty two games, is rough and rugged, and does
Speaker 7: he keep that strength? You know? The weight's one thing.
Speaker 7: But as Thurle says, you know, in his experience, because
Speaker 7: he's a thin guy, still is today. I mean he
Speaker 7: had to put down ten thousand calories a day just
Speaker 7: to keep the weight on. But do you keep the
Speaker 7: strength that you're going to need every night, Spence to
Speaker 7: guard out on the perimeter and trying to shut down baselines.
Speaker 7: You know, there's been moments again where I've seen Taylor
Speaker 7: make some steps from last year. He's you know, he
Speaker 7: may shoot the three. I don't know if he's a
Speaker 7: thirty three or a forty thirty eight percent type, you know,
Speaker 7: three point shooter. But I think defense is the focus
Speaker 7: that Quinn has right now. I want him to be,
Speaker 7: he said this. I want him to be the guy
Speaker 7: to go out and harass and defend, and you know,
Speaker 7: you hope he grows more and more into it and
Speaker 7: that his body will allow him to. I think he's
Speaker 7: got all the physical tools, uh you know upstairs in
Speaker 7: the confidence that comes with it' spence. Uh, he's got
Speaker 7: to be an integral part of this defense in transition
Speaker 7: as well, because he can run. You make a great
Speaker 7: point about marketing, but still not the guy that Hendrix's
Speaker 7: and length and lateral speed and able to recover right uh.
Speaker 7: And Walker is going to be a big part of
Speaker 7: it too. He's blocking shots, he used it, He's very
Speaker 7: comfortable with the left hand. And those two guys, in
Speaker 7: my opinion, are going to be if they all five start,
Speaker 7: those two I think are the centerpiece of what the
Speaker 7: Jazz want to do on the defensive end. And then
Speaker 7: you're throwing Cody, you throw and a sens of baw.
Speaker 7: What's Drew Vubanks's role going to be? If any? I
Speaker 7: think he still has a role here because he is
Speaker 7: a tough guy and he did and obviously Will knows
Speaker 7: him well from his days in San Antonio and Wilson
Speaker 7: himself he's totally a brute, so he can come in
Speaker 7: and probably do some backup defense when needed.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, Justin Zanik, you know, the media availability that he,
Speaker 1: Danny and Ryan did indicated that this is going to
Speaker 1: be a situation where we'll see a lot of these
Speaker 1: young players. And you know, one of the things I
Speaker 1: like about obviously Danny and Justin been doing this forever,
Speaker 1: So there's a checks and balance front office coaching symbiotic
Speaker 1: relationship in place, and that ultimately Will be up to Will.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's always a reason when a coach
Speaker 1: clearly wants a vet, like the reports that the one
Speaker 1: guy and the Tim McMahon had the report that the
Speaker 1: one guy in the Jazz front office who wanted Dame
Speaker 1: Lillard was Will Hardy. Because of course, coaches want to
Speaker 1: win right now because they don't think that they'll ever
Speaker 1: win again. Their famous Jerry slum line where he said,
Speaker 1: I after losses, I feel like I was never going
Speaker 1: to win another basketball game. So do you think Will
Speaker 1: is going to lean into this Let's play all the
Speaker 1: young guys or are we going to see big minutes
Speaker 1: from John Collins and Patty Mills and Jordan Clarkson. And
Speaker 1: I don't think you Banks is going to play much.
Speaker 1: But you get the point of the question.
Speaker 8: Sure, sure, no.
Speaker 7: Jerry Sloan, just to your point, I always thought he'd
Speaker 7: be fired after a loss.
Speaker 8: Remember that, you.
Speaker 7: Know, Jerry, as great as Jerry was and the respect
Speaker 7: he had and the Larry Miller trust, he still doubted
Speaker 7: about his status at times, which just amazed me. But
Speaker 7: you know, Will had his contract picked up for the five.
Speaker 7: But look, this is a short league in the sense
Speaker 7: of coaches don't last long if you get five years
Speaker 7: in one spot and get a second contract and something's right,
Speaker 7: or again they trust you in this rebuilding process, which
Speaker 7: I think again is what Justin and Danny and Ryan believe.
Speaker 7: But I think he wants to win in spence, I mean,
Speaker 7: that's what he's hired to do and develop. He wants
Speaker 7: these guys to make the next step in a hurry.
Speaker 7: You know, I thought the same thing you did. What
Speaker 7: are the veterans truly about? And I didn't think i'd
Speaker 7: see JC and John as much as I did so far.
Speaker 8: In the preseason.
Speaker 7: Does that hold true when we tip it off next
Speaker 7: Wednesday night against Memphis?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 7: What I'm seeing is kind of a continued rotation of
Speaker 7: ten on occasion eleven, and that does include Clarkson and
Speaker 7: Collins mixing with the younger guys to help lead. If
Speaker 7: that's the plan, then so be it. But it also
Speaker 7: gives you, you know, opportunities still for the younger guys
Speaker 7: to blend, but also you're taking minutes away, so it's
Speaker 7: really a balance, right, It's going to start in the
Speaker 7: G League most likely, you know, Isaiah Collier before the
Speaker 7: hamstring was showing some promises back up when Kyante was
Speaker 7: out that one game with the knee spring. So you know,
Speaker 7: it's it's really one of those seasons Spence that as
Speaker 7: I go along every ten or twenty games, there will
Speaker 7: be a better evaluation point. But I'm not sure if
Speaker 7: it's totally bought in on all the time being young.
Speaker 7: But do you let the young guys watch the veterans play,
Speaker 7: mix them in and let them know what it's like
Speaker 7: to win and what it takes to win. So those
Speaker 7: are the questions I still have for my chair, and
Speaker 7: I think they're all good questions because you know, and
Speaker 7: again I say this a lot, we do find out
Speaker 7: a lot together. You know, when guys hit the floor
Speaker 7: and you watch the rotations on Wednesday against Memphis, how
Speaker 7: will Hardy's going to play this?
Speaker 1: So you know, we have this interesting story going on
Speaker 1: in the market right now. Of course, as you know
Speaker 1: where Cameron Rising is out for the year for Utah
Speaker 1: football and I don't We'll do a football in just
Speaker 1: a little bit, but I'm going to tie this back
Speaker 1: around to the Jazz real quick, because I hear a
Speaker 1: lot of conversations that sound like, well, he's getting paid,
Speaker 1: now he shouldn't miss time. Well, you don't watch NBA basketball,
Speaker 1: do you, Because players that make thirty times what Cameron make,
Speaker 1: they sit all the time. Okay, And so here's here's
Speaker 1: my question, Craig. As we have, we have been in
Speaker 1: the era of load management for quite some time. It's
Speaker 1: not stopping anytime soon. Despite what the league says about
Speaker 1: them trying to curb it, it's a half assed attempt.
Speaker 1: It's never going to be fully curbed because the agents
Speaker 1: have all the power, and the agents want their young
Speaker 1: players to get to their second and third contracts because
Speaker 1: that's when they make their money. So let's keep them
Speaker 1: healthy as long as we can. The toothpaste is out
Speaker 1: of the tube, all right. So the reason I bring
Speaker 1: it up is Tom Haverstrow, a consistent guest of ours
Speaker 1: during the NBA season, did the data and did the
Speaker 1: story about Salt Lake City being the market where stars
Speaker 1: miss games here more than any other market.
Speaker 8: All right, Yes, yes, I will. You know, by the
Speaker 8: way it's spent, I.
Speaker 7: Will agree with that whole heartedly. I've watched it night
Speaker 7: in night out about you know, lebron Lake, KD Phoenix,
Speaker 7: whoever it may be. They use this to stop in
Speaker 7: Salt Lake as a rest night.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, right, right, right right, no, no, no, all
Speaker 1: good because you're there every night. I mean, that's the deal.
Speaker 1: So I wonder if this team may do the whole
Speaker 1: like Lowry has to miss a couple of weeks with
Speaker 1: a shoulder because maybe they want to do the draft stuff.
Speaker 1: They might do that. I don't know if they will.
Speaker 1: What I believe will happen more certainly at the start
Speaker 1: of the season is will Is gonna play his best
Speaker 1: lineup every single night, and they're gonna play really hard
Speaker 1: every single night, which leads me to wonder aloud whether
Speaker 1: or not they could even win, you know, thirty five
Speaker 1: to thirty eight games. The Vegas line is twenty seven
Speaker 1: point five. I just think they're gonna win a lot
Speaker 1: of games against teams that, on paper they shouldn't beat,
Speaker 1: because the team's best players will sit and will more
Speaker 1: often than not, will play his best lineup and they
Speaker 1: will play hard for him. And it sounds silly and
Speaker 1: try it, but that leads to more wins in pro
Speaker 1: basketball these days.
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, all the above. Yes, we saw it last
Speaker 7: period of times. You know, games that shouldn't have been
Speaker 7: won were one and up until about the trade deadline,
Speaker 7: and then things fell apart because.
Speaker 8: They did go youth.
Speaker 7: But you're right, this is a stop where players sometimes
Speaker 7: don't even climb on the plane to come to Salt
Speaker 7: Lake to play the Jazz, and it will be a
Speaker 7: day you hope that. I feel bad Spence, really because
Speaker 7: I see kids. I see dads or moms bringing families
Speaker 7: to watch Lebron.
Speaker 8: And Wimby or what to be.
Speaker 7: Onto to Coombo, and they're not there, or they're not
Speaker 7: on the floor, and that money they spent, you know,
Speaker 7: you still get to see basketball. They're not the stars
Speaker 7: the young people want to see. I feel bad for that,
Speaker 7: and I think the league again still has to rectify
Speaker 7: it some way.
Speaker 8: I don't know how.
Speaker 7: Maybe you earn an extra ping pong ball on the
Speaker 7: draft if your vets play a certain amount. I don't know,
Speaker 7: but it's going to be a long time before I
Speaker 7: think it's situation, before a final decision or they find.
Speaker 8: The cure to it.
Speaker 7: But yeah, I think there'll be some games handed to
Speaker 7: the Jazz because of stars not playing, not more maybe
Speaker 7: even more than one, maybe two, And that's something they're
Speaker 7: going to have to put into the equation on what
Speaker 7: they want to do, if they're really playing for a
Speaker 7: top lottery pick or if they're just going to try
Speaker 7: to play, And then you start to teeter into the
Speaker 7: playoff or the play in, and then you get yourself
Speaker 7: a real conversation. But as long as I guess Spence,
Speaker 7: and again I'm not inside Danny or Justin's head, you
Speaker 7: know what the true purpose of development is. They have
Speaker 7: enough youth, but is there someone that can ignite them more,
Speaker 7: you know, with another draft pick? And obviously we know
Speaker 7: who that may be, kids at Duke, but it's just
Speaker 7: gonna be interesting to me. I don't know if they
Speaker 7: want to go after another VET or they're hoping that
Speaker 7: someone pops or two of these guys pop and become
Speaker 7: I get a rotation players that are going to be
Speaker 7: make a big impact on this franchise moving forward. If
Speaker 7: I know Will to think the way I think I do.
Speaker 8: He wants to do it. He wants to win.
Speaker 7: I mean, his reputation and his futures on the line.
Speaker 7: He's thirty six, he can coach on forever in this league.
Speaker 7: But also it depends on what he does here. And
Speaker 7: you know what he's thought of or do they say, well,
Speaker 7: that isn't quite working out, we'll have to change coaches.
Speaker 7: I don't think he wants to hear that. But all
Speaker 7: coaches are paranoid, as you know, and their whole bottom
Speaker 7: line is they know one thing, prepared to win. And
Speaker 7: I'll be honest on the plane his coaching staff is
Speaker 7: being is preparing to win. And you know, if you're
Speaker 7: a fan, you have to appreciate that. Some don't like that.
Speaker 7: Those stings because they want to fall off the table
Speaker 7: and grab all the goodies they can to make this
Speaker 7: team better in the future. But now they have competition
Speaker 7: with hockey. That's the other part of the equation. It
Speaker 7: will take thirty minutes of another time to discuss about
Speaker 7: competition for the first time. I'm in Salt Lake City
Speaker 7: with professional teams NBA, NHL, and also the talk of
Speaker 7: you know, Utah Utes and BYU who's running the table
Speaker 7: right now. It's amazing time in sports in Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, no no doubt. All right, let's do
Speaker 1: a little college football before it set you loose. As
Speaker 1: the godfather of the Big twelve in the market, you
Speaker 1: are a child of the Big twelve, Big ten. You
Speaker 1: understand this conference. You understand kind of how everything goes.
Speaker 1: My first question, We'll do just a little college football
Speaker 1: and I'll set you loose. Like you hear national championship
Speaker 1: talk this time of year when a team goes undefeated.
Speaker 1: Jackson Robinson from BYU mention it and BYU fans as
Speaker 1: they should very feeling their football team right now after
Speaker 1: watching Oregon and Ohio State and watching you know, we'll
Speaker 1: see Texas taking on Georgia coming up this weekend. No
Speaker 1: big twelve teams should be talking about a national championship.
Speaker 1: Like if you're watching these big dog teams play right now,
Speaker 1: it feels like and everybody's sensitive because the SEC and
Speaker 1: the Big ten are taking all the money and they're
Speaker 1: potentially going to break off and do their own thing.
Speaker 1: But the quality of play with the top I don't know,
Speaker 1: four or five teams, it seems like there's a big
Speaker 1: gap between them and everybody else.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 7: The games I've watched with Sarksian, who I got to
Speaker 7: know really well up at Washington and then he went
Speaker 7: to USC and now he's turned Texas football.
Speaker 8: Into the real deal.
Speaker 7: Those guys are so deep and fast physical Spence in Oregon.
Speaker 7: There's another level there of athlete. I think you would agree.
Speaker 7: It's just in numbers. They keep coming at you. And
Speaker 7: that's what I remember. Nick Saban used to say this
Speaker 7: all the time, and I've said this before in your show.
Speaker 7: He used to point across the table when he was
Speaker 7: at LSU and at Alabama when I was doing SEC football,
Speaker 7: was that, look, I've got these kids on the field now,
Speaker 7: but I got better ones over across the way at
Speaker 7: the eight dorm, the athletic dorm. I thought, Man, they
Speaker 7: just continue at stockpile, stockpile, and that's not going to
Speaker 7: change because first you're right about the money, second about
Speaker 7: the nil the money that's going to be available to
Speaker 7: them to use to lure the five star recruits. So
Speaker 7: Utah has to work harder. BYU does as well this year.
Speaker 7: I'm just stunned of how Byus run the table. But
Speaker 7: their mistake free football, I just don't see right now
Speaker 7: any real weakness Spence and Byu. Jake has thrown the
Speaker 7: ball well, I believe like fourteen almost fifteen touchdowns close
Speaker 7: to it. He can run out of the pocket if
Speaker 7: he has to, and the defense man they're advantageous. They
Speaker 7: stop on fourth down, they have sacks, they had what
Speaker 7: ten or eleven picks and four fumbles, five fumble recoveries.
Speaker 7: They seem to just be on the page. This may
Speaker 7: be the greatest example with Utah and byu picked not
Speaker 7: even to sniff in the big twelve and then the
Speaker 7: top dog not delivering, and really, how about maybe just
Speaker 7: falling under the pressure of trying to be a national championship,
Speaker 7: national champion. In that conversation at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 7: no one saw Cam getting hurt again.
Speaker 8: He did.
Speaker 7: I am glad they'll spence. Wit came up quickly and
Speaker 7: said he's out, and Isaac is our guy, and that
Speaker 7: was huge to go there, not dragging the longest injury
Speaker 7: thing that we're moving forward. And that's the only thing
Speaker 7: I think Wick could do.
Speaker 1: Well, said Bowler. I appreciate the time, man, have a
Speaker 1: great time up in Portland's and we'll get you back
Speaker 1: on next week.
Speaker 7: Okay, all right, good to talk to you. And by
Speaker 7: the way, it's raining it.
Speaker 1: Is down here too, brother, so you're in good company.
Speaker 1: All good man, all right, all right, the great Craig
Speaker 1: Bowlerjack TV Voice of the Utah Jazz, brought to you by
Speaker 1: Big O' Tires. It's their false sale right now, their
Speaker 1: fall into saving sale. You get eighty to one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars off select tires sets. Big o Tires is your
Speaker 1: true one stop shop for automotive repair. Stop in for tiles, tires, wheels, alignments,
Speaker 1: rotations and balances, oil changes, breaks, battery, shock struts, fluids
Speaker 1: and more. Big Go Tires offers retire rotations, they do
Speaker 1: flat repairs, alignment and break checks. Make an appointment online
Speaker 1: or drop in. Get weird on a Thursday. Why not
Speaker 1: we have weird on a Thursday. Chris com Ronnie is
Speaker 1: live in studio. Now. You and I are both fans
Speaker 1: of the sunshine. Do you enjoy a little bit of
Speaker 1: rain from time to time or is this just an
Speaker 1: indicator of what we're in form The answer is yes, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: like yes and yes, it's fine.
Speaker 6: I think we were absurdly spoiled the last month.
Speaker 1: Yes we were.
Speaker 6: Something that's I don't remember ever happening here, like end
Speaker 6: of September through basically most of October, where it's eighty
Speaker 6: degrees every day, like no clouds in the sky. This
Speaker 6: is fine, this is this is acceptable. I'm about it
Speaker 6: that rain and wind means like clear air, crispair, Yes
Speaker 6: it does. And at the end of the day, that's
Speaker 6: what we're all aiming for in this place.
Speaker 1: For sure, and we have been spoiled with an actual fall,
Speaker 1: so we'll take that. Christopher, how are you man? Happy Thursday?
Speaker 1: Things good with you?
Speaker 6: I'm good man. I'm standing straight because I know I'm
Speaker 6: on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Chris is on YouTube. If you want to go watch
Speaker 1: us on YouTube, go ahead. We get like two people. Man,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, you know, And that's why I
Speaker 1: keep the lights lowly.
Speaker 6: Four it's Aaron and John Paul waiting to get screen
Speaker 6: grabs of us embarrassing ourselves.
Speaker 1: Good point. So wait, there's currently four viewers on YouTube.
Speaker 6: Yeah, pressures on it. Can you find out who it is?
Speaker 1: Like? Can you see the accounts of good question? Can
Speaker 1: you porter? Negative? All right? Negative? Well, let's see the
Speaker 1: Christopher Camaraddie falk Is one is one of them, though
Speaker 1: the Chris Comaraddi in studio situation might change things. So
Speaker 1: hopefully we get to ten. Let's see if we can
Speaker 1: get to ten YouTube viewers by the end of four
Speaker 1: point thirty, which is when Chris leaves us. So appreciate
Speaker 1: your time. Excellent shirt which features Aaron Falk on talking
Speaker 1: sports and that's the goat, Adam Miklitch behind him, correct
Speaker 1: the goat? Do you need an explanation? Yes? Please?
Speaker 6: So when Aaron was the jazz beat writer for the Tribune,
Speaker 6: he was doing a live shot after the Joe Johnson
Speaker 6: Clippers series. They won Game seven from LA and KUTV
Speaker 6: had Aaron on live to talk about it, and they
Speaker 6: were kind of fumbling around last second to make sure
Speaker 6: everything was going to be go off all copaesthetic and
Speaker 6: Adam to make sure Aaron got his ear piece in,
Speaker 6: put the thumb behind it and shoved it basically all
Speaker 6: the way into his ear drum. So that cringe you're
Speaker 6: seeing Aaron on Aaron's face is a legit painful. Oh
Speaker 6: I hope my ear drum hasn't ruptured.
Speaker 1: We're down to one viewer on you? Yes, getting a
Speaker 1: oh man?
Speaker 5: That is?
Speaker 1: Why do? Why don't I have that shirt? Can order one?
Speaker 6: I'll send you in Oh please do? You can pick
Speaker 6: your color and everything.
Speaker 1: So if you want to see a T shirt with
Speaker 1: a picture of Aaron Falk cringing because Adam Mikolich just
Speaker 1: stabbed him in the ear. Drum Ck is wearing that
Speaker 1: three viewers. Now we just added two viewers. Check out
Speaker 1: our YouTube page if you'd like. Let's go all right, Chris,
Speaker 1: you know what is the sky falling? You know, before
Speaker 1: we do that, let's save Utah football for the four
Speaker 1: o'clock out. I like, and let's start with the lads. Okay,
Speaker 1: Let's start with the lads, okay, because I know it's.
Speaker 6: In a little bit of like, you know, parking the bus,
Speaker 6: so to speak, Like if we're playing online and we're
Speaker 6: playing against a player that you know is better than you,
Speaker 6: got to kind of play from the back.
Speaker 1: That feels like a personal shot. But anyway, but I
Speaker 1: know Trey's listening. He's crying real tears because we haven't
Speaker 1: talked to oursl and they play this week, and we'll
Speaker 1: do a whole segment of Utah Football Cam rising in
Speaker 1: the four o'clock hour, and we'll also recap your trip
Speaker 1: to Hawaii to hunt for pigs with Trevor Riley. A
Speaker 1: real thing. But as we approach the final match of
Speaker 1: the season, you'll be good with us put into context
Speaker 1: what setting a record would mean four points in a
Speaker 1: season if they get three on Saturday. That's oh wow.
Speaker 1: I did not know that it would set a record
Speaker 1: for the regular season. Wow.
Speaker 6: I still think that we're playing the same amount of
Speaker 6: regular season games as we did around the early twenty
Speaker 6: tens to mid tens. They had really good runs, so
Speaker 6: that obviously you can compare that fairly. On one hand,
Speaker 6: glass half full despite very lackluster last two months. The
Speaker 6: fact that you can still achieve that is impressive. Glass
Speaker 6: half empty. If they don't hit the skids in August,
Speaker 6: September and October, you wonder where this team could be.
Speaker 1: Honestly, like I.
Speaker 6: And this is going to be a talking point for
Speaker 6: the fan base for a long time, is what was
Speaker 6: the ultimate ceiling of this team before they had to
Speaker 6: sell Andras Gomas And I think you can make an
Speaker 6: argument that it was a potential top two seed, but
Speaker 6: as good as Andras was, and as in sync as
Speaker 6: he was with Diego Luna and Chico Rongo, it wasn't really.
Speaker 6: It was kind of masking the defensive deficiencies of this
Speaker 6: team for a long time. I mean, we were watching
Speaker 6: very fun back and forth four two, five, three, three
Speaker 6: three games, which if you're even a casual soccer fan.
Speaker 6: You're stoked on because there's actual, tangibly cool stuff happening
Speaker 6: on the field.
Speaker 1: It was as entertaining of a group that potentially I've
Speaker 1: ever seen here.
Speaker 6: From an attacking standpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And there will.
Speaker 6: Always be a what might have been type of deal,
Speaker 6: my bet, there will always be a what type of
Speaker 6: like what could have been? But andres had to be
Speaker 6: sold because you have to pocket that money. That is
Speaker 6: an insane amount of money. It's a club record. It's
Speaker 6: one of the highest fees in the history of the league.
Speaker 6: And I don't think they I don't think they've missed
Speaker 6: the mark with some of these investments. It's just it's
Speaker 6: always hard to come into this league in the middle
Speaker 6: of the season as an international player and hit the
Speaker 6: ground running. Look at Diego Gonzalveez, Like, this is a
Speaker 6: dude who basically owned Manchester United in a Champions League game,
Speaker 6: and he's having trouble finding his spot in starting eleven.
Speaker 6: It's not because he's not a good player or the
Speaker 6: wrong player. It's just that Pablo has to figure out
Speaker 6: who his best attacking group is right now, and currently
Speaker 6: it's Diogo coming off the bench. It's Matt Crooks in
Speaker 6: that attacking spot. It's Dominic mark Zuk, who's been very
Speaker 6: good I think since coming over. So a very long
Speaker 6: winded way of saying, if they can achieve the points
Speaker 6: record from a club standpoint, it's a huge accomplishment. But
Speaker 6: it's just a very odd season that we'll look back
Speaker 6: on for a multitude of reasons, and it's not a
Speaker 6: bad thing. It's just something that this club has never
Speaker 6: really had to go through before.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and you did a good job of unpacking it,
Speaker 1: because ultimately it might be the right thing. But I
Speaker 1: did feel like there was a chance, and I asked
Speaker 1: Kurt this, I asked Jason this, and I asked Pablo this.
Speaker 1: I felt like there was a chance that even though
Speaker 1: to your point, you can't turn down that transfer fee,
Speaker 1: they were trading the potential for something cool now for
Speaker 1: the long game down the road, which again might be
Speaker 1: the right thing. But in retrospect, did they do that
Speaker 1: or do we still have to wait and see?
Speaker 6: I think we still have to wait and see again,
Speaker 6: Like if Andris is here, if Carlos is here, Carlos
Speaker 6: Andres Gomess is still here, excuse me? Are they still
Speaker 6: winning five three? Games, because if you are, that's not
Speaker 6: sustainable in the playoffs. Good point, like we've seen when
Speaker 6: Ursel has had runs under Pablo, they're literally winning games
Speaker 6: where they haven't registered a shot on goal, or if
Speaker 6: they've gone on the road and the only two shots
Speaker 6: on goal that they've registered that those were two goals,
Speaker 6: like against Kansas City a couple of years ago. Like
Speaker 6: things tighten up in the postseason. So you you you
Speaker 6: roll the dice, so to speak, in selling andris. But
Speaker 6: there's just no way you could have turned that down
Speaker 6: because the whole point for some clubs in this league
Speaker 6: is to do what ourselves doing.
Speaker 1: That's just it correct.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and but in I think in oursl's mind, I
Speaker 6: think ideally you're talking about homegrown players who are able
Speaker 6: to fetch that kind of cash eventually. And they've had
Speaker 6: some players here and there be you know, moved on
Speaker 6: unfortunately not for any sums of money. Guys that left early.
Speaker 6: You know, Ricardo Ledesma comes to Richie Ledesma comes to mind.
Speaker 6: He's in Holland and has been a very good player
Speaker 6: over there. Sebastian Soto. But yeah, RSL is a club
Speaker 6: that is towing the fine line. Of competing for a
Speaker 6: MLS Cup championship while also developing to sell on.
Speaker 1: So as we approach Saturday, there's some interesting stories to
Speaker 1: dig into, and you alluded to this. It appears that
Speaker 1: Zach has his job back. Pablo yesterday said they're going
Speaker 1: game by game, but Zach has had way too many
Speaker 1: gaffes that are so elementary and punitive that I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's a permeating nervousness in the fan base if it's Zach.
Speaker 1: But he does have this ability to be a little
Speaker 1: bit more front facing with his communication than Gavin does
Speaker 1: at eighteen what do you do back there? And look,
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, I always want to be
Speaker 1: fair to keepers. It's never all as the work.
Speaker 6: Listen, man, I play keeper and indoors sometimes and it
Speaker 6: is the worst. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is the absolute
Speaker 6: worst because you see every breakdown in front of your
Speaker 6: right and yes, there have been some, as you mentioned,
Speaker 6: elementary mistakes by both of those players, but it is
Speaker 6: it is an unforgiving position like it is not. It
Speaker 6: can be fun, but it is not fun.
Speaker 1: So how much of the late game conceding of goals
Speaker 1: and therefore losing of points is on the keeper? Situation
Speaker 1: and how much of it is on the groove.
Speaker 6: I mean, that's a good question. I think, like if
Speaker 6: you're looking at some of these goals that RSL has
Speaker 6: been giving up late in games when they've seen leads disappear,
Speaker 6: a lot of it is just guys tuning out for
Speaker 6: a split second, guys losing their marks. A lot of
Speaker 6: it is newer players being thrust into, you know, spots
Speaker 6: on the back line that you know, you're you're learning
Speaker 6: on the fly how to communicate with players that you
Speaker 6: might only have known for the last two or three
Speaker 6: weeks or the last two or three months. That stuff
Speaker 6: takes time. I mean again, like I know it's going
Speaker 6: to always be unfair to compare eras, but the reason
Speaker 6: why you know RSL was once impossible to score on
Speaker 6: was because they had basically the same five guys on
Speaker 6: that back line for like four straight years, which is insane.
Speaker 6: If you think about like that just doesn't really happen,
Speaker 6: and you throw Kyle in the mix as well as
Speaker 6: the defensive midfielder, it just doesn't happen. So if you're
Speaker 6: talking about who's at fault for a lot of these
Speaker 6: costly late goals and these leads being conceded.
Speaker 1: I think it's everybody.
Speaker 6: And it's really odd because if you think about Pablo, like,
Speaker 6: I know, he's a vibes guy, but he's a I mean,
Speaker 6: he's a defensive minded player.
Speaker 1: That's what he did.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's that's how he basically cut his teeth in
Speaker 6: the sport when he was a player. So I'm fascinated
Speaker 6: to see how they look in the playoffs because if
Speaker 6: they keep these kinds of like mental errors and lapses
Speaker 6: of mental judgment going, they're going to be a quick
Speaker 6: out no matter who they play.
Speaker 1: So who do you think should be between the pipes?
Speaker 1: I probably go with Zach.
Speaker 6: It's it kind of goes against everything that I stand
Speaker 6: for because you know, you know, I'm all about, like,
Speaker 6: you know, playing the right goalkeeper in Major League socer.
Speaker 1: I mean, you'll die on.
Speaker 6: Gavin Beavers is really well regarded in the youth.
Speaker 1: National curious a talented kid, So.
Speaker 6: I would assume that it will be Zach, But I
Speaker 6: think this has to be the last year, like if
Speaker 6: you're going to keep if Gavin is going to be
Speaker 6: your guy for the future and a guy that you
Speaker 6: can see potentially, you know, establishing himself well enough that
Speaker 6: he could maybe be moved on overseas.
Speaker 1: He's got to have more games. He just has to.
Speaker 1: Zach mcmathe cam rising of RSL. We'll get to that
Speaker 1: in a little bit too early of a transition. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that a little bit. All right, let's let's
Speaker 1: have a little fun here. Okay, So Pablo yesterday because
Speaker 1: I asked him, Okay, you've been on a break, and
Speaker 1: you know, the schedule has been a little bit chaotic.
Speaker 1: So we've seen a lot of Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, and
Speaker 1: therefore Diego will sit on Wednesday, and then Chico will
Speaker 1: sit on Saturday, et cetera, et cetera. He said on
Speaker 1: Saturday he's going to march out the closest thing to
Speaker 1: a first choice eleven to prepare for the playoffs now
Speaker 1: that he's had a little bit of a break. Essenating Vera,
Speaker 1: My goodness, come on, dude, like second year in a row.
Speaker 1: I know it's such a horrible look, asked Pablo about
Speaker 1: it yesterday. But Vera's out on Saturday and he misses
Speaker 1: a playoff.
Speaker 6: Match, So tell me, because I'm a terrible follower of
Speaker 6: the sport, are we still in a best of three
Speaker 6: in the first round or is it a one off.
Speaker 1: Best of three? Okay, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: it's best of three. We need a fact we're gon
Speaker 1: need a fact check. Her back there, Porter, Porter is
Speaker 1: our ESPN stats in the FO department. Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: the Mickey Mouse League changes. That's what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. I believe it's best of three if.
Speaker 6: You if I hate that, I think it's so silly.
Speaker 1: Trey's gonna call in eight seven seven three five three
Speaker 1: zero seven hundred at any moment. I'm pretty sure it's
Speaker 1: best of three. But do you think you can guess
Speaker 1: what the eleven will be on Saturday if we go?
Speaker 6: I think if you're asking me or if I'm asking
Speaker 6: you to read Pablo's mind.
Speaker 1: Important line of delineation. You are trying to read Pablo's
Speaker 1: mind about what the eleven will look like on Saturday.
Speaker 1: If this is as close to a first choice is
Speaker 1: we're going to.
Speaker 6: See, I'll go Zach and gold catrona set left back
Speaker 6: Justin because they have no death Right now, I'm guessing
Speaker 6: Philip Quinton next to Justin and then Andrew Brodie it right,
Speaker 6: back midfield obviously a mecca.
Speaker 1: Hada.
Speaker 6: So this is where it gets tricky. I'm reading, I'm
Speaker 6: reading Pablo's mind. I'm going to go Luna Crooks, Mark Zuke.
Speaker 1: I know this is hard.
Speaker 6: Either Diogo or Chicho. I know, No, it's Anderson or
Speaker 6: Chico right at the top.
Speaker 1: Run me through your midfield the end.
Speaker 6: So I'm going I'm going at the holding spots and
Speaker 6: then the three in front of them, I'm going Luna Crooks,
Speaker 6: Mark Zuke.
Speaker 1: So crooks instead of Diogo, Gotcha okay.
Speaker 6: And then I'm gonna go Chiacho. But it but it's close.
Speaker 6: They've looked better with and I'm not saying it's the
Speaker 6: I'm not saying it's right or wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's the hottest they take.
Speaker 6: They know they just have looked better with Anderson Julio
Speaker 6: than chi Cho for the past several months.
Speaker 1: How have they not?
Speaker 6: Chi Cho hasn't scored and how long July seventeen, he's
Speaker 6: one goal away from breaking Savo's record for how long?
Speaker 1: Four months? Do you think there's any shot that that.
Speaker 6: Uh oh, there's a chance he doesn't break it.
Speaker 1: Do you think that Pablo sits chi Cho on Saturday. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: breaking news.
Speaker 6: If you're talking about if we're going off of our
Speaker 6: guy who is who is a vibes guy.
Speaker 1: He is a vibes guy. But results have come this year.
Speaker 6: Too, results have come. But I'm just saying, it's kind
Speaker 6: of what have you done for me lately? And the
Speaker 6: last couple of games. It is so obvious that Chiecho
Speaker 6: is so in his head that I don't know. I
Speaker 6: honestly don't know who gives you the best chance to
Speaker 6: win right now?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 6: Are you going with your superstar striker who is terribly
Speaker 6: out of farm.
Speaker 1: Coach win on me best chance to win.
Speaker 6: I'm just saying, I don't think you're you're asking me
Speaker 6: to read Pablo's mind if it's me. If it's me,
Speaker 6: I'm going pure FIFA, give me the highest overall rated
Speaker 6: players and then let me hit Turbo and see what happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, we're on the same page then, because that's
Speaker 1: what I would do. And you, okay, do you do
Speaker 1: you think because I can remember I had you on.
Speaker 1: I think it was just a couple of days after
Speaker 1: the suspension was announced, and I remember when I got
Speaker 1: the alert that this was the deal and I you
Speaker 1: see things like that derail seasons all the time in
Speaker 1: any sport. You think there's still something there with probably
Speaker 1: because he has just not well and then he got
Speaker 1: injured right as soon as he came out. True, But
Speaker 1: there was a stretch Chris where if he only scored
Speaker 1: one goal, you're like, what's up with the dude? And
Speaker 1: now he hasn't scored since.
Speaker 6: He had some he had some telepathic stuff going on
Speaker 6: with Gomez where they were just always always on the
Speaker 6: same page. I mean, I think him moving really really
Speaker 6: hurt Chi. Cho's just connectivity. Like I would have to
Speaker 6: ask Trey, But I wonder of those seventeen goals, how
Speaker 6: many were direct assists from from Andras.
Speaker 1: Let's go to our ESPN Stats and Information department for
Speaker 1: an update on the first round of the MLS playoff format.
Speaker 2: Yes, so first round of course is as as it
Speaker 2: was last year. Round one, best of three. Of course,
Speaker 2: RSL misses the wild card, so that's well where they'll start.
Speaker 1: All right, So best of three and home field advantage,
Speaker 1: home pitch advantage as it were. I believe that's on
Speaker 1: the line. Because you know what's interesting, Chris. On Saturday,
Speaker 1: we have RSL taking on Vancouver, and then we have
Speaker 1: Seattle taking on Portland. RSL and Sattle. It's a derby.
Speaker 1: It is RSL and Seattle are still in the mix
Speaker 1: for three, and Vancouver and Portland are trying to avoid
Speaker 1: the wildcard, which is a one match elimination, and those
Speaker 1: games they first kick is at the same time.
Speaker 6: Listen, man, I think if you're RSL, honestly, you want
Speaker 6: to avoid Houston at all costs.
Speaker 1: They just have their number. I don't.
Speaker 6: I think there's I don't know what it is tack,
Speaker 6: you know, from a tactical standpoint or whatever, but you've
Speaker 6: seen different pieces come and go, but here or there,
Speaker 6: Ben Olsen's group has had the best of Pablo side.
Speaker 6: So it looks like it's going to be Houston. Right Like,
Speaker 6: if we're looking at the standing.
Speaker 1: If it started today five, if RSL wins and Seattle loses,
Speaker 1: RSL will move up to third. Where's that Seattle game?
Speaker 1: Seattle that is in Portland, So oursel's at home, Seattle's
Speaker 1: in Portland. And if RSL moves up to third, they
Speaker 1: could see, as JP would say, the Crappits, the hated Crappits.
Speaker 1: I mean, that would be that would be good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be good. That looks like it's either gonna
Speaker 1: be Houston or Colorado.
Speaker 6: I mean, Colorado has been much improved. But yeah, I
Speaker 6: I it would be a a monkey off their back,
Speaker 6: so to speak, if they could draw Houston and eliminate them.
Speaker 1: For sure. It just has looked real bad the last
Speaker 1: couple of seasons. All right, before we break, and we'll
Speaker 1: do a segment on Utah football, b YU football college
Speaker 1: football coming up next. He K has been in the lab.
Speaker 1: We have now a very decent sample size of what
Speaker 1: Linel Messi looks like in MLS and Miami potentially, well,
Speaker 1: they're gonna win the Supporter Shield. They're three points and
Speaker 1: they're also three points away from setting an MLS single
Speaker 1: season record. How much of it is messy? How much
Speaker 1: of it is the embarrassment of riches and can anybody
Speaker 1: beat them in the playoffs?
Speaker 6: A lot, a lot, and yes, okay, a lot of
Speaker 6: it is massy, A lot of it is messy. A
Speaker 6: lot of it is the insane amount of talent that
Speaker 6: they've added, albeit aging talent, and this is going to
Speaker 6: make their last stop. It's MLS. But listen, man, like
Speaker 6: you're talking about putting together like thirty percent of arguably
Speaker 6: the best club team ever. Maybe it's a decade later,
Speaker 6: but you're still talking about or sorry, yeah, I'm missing
Speaker 6: one Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquetz.
Speaker 1: And Geordie Albo.
Speaker 6: Yeah, like that is insane, it is, I'm sorry. And
Speaker 6: the fact that they've all managed to stay healthy for
Speaker 6: the most part outside of Messi than when he got
Speaker 6: hurt in Copa America. Like this, that team has been
Speaker 6: as good, if not better without him as they have
Speaker 6: been with him. But like in MLS, yes, can they
Speaker 6: be beat, Yes, of course they can be beat.
Speaker 1: It's MLS who last thing, who lives in their cul
Speaker 1: de sac. I mean I don't watch enough. I only
Speaker 1: watch RSL and then I'll check if Miami's on, and
Speaker 1: of course you want to see what that looks like. Columbus.
Speaker 1: Columbus is in their stratosphere. Anyone out West I would be.
Speaker 6: I mean LA Galaxy have been really good, like they
Speaker 6: finally ditch the superstar chasing mode. They do have Marco
Speaker 6: Royce who just came up. But LAFC, Yeah, I think
Speaker 6: if you're talking about the two best teams in the league,
Speaker 6: It's Columbus, Miami.
Speaker 1: Easy interesting, well fall soccer is a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Want to mind you guys. Coming up tomorrow, we have
Speaker 1: a special events at Overtime Cards and Collectibles gonna be
Speaker 1: live at their new location in Sandy. Logan Cooley will
Speaker 1: be there the Center for the Utah Hockey Club signing autographs.
Speaker 1: You can buy tickets for the signing at Overtime Cardsancollectibles
Speaker 1: dot com. It goes from five to seven tomorrow. So
Speaker 1: the format is this, I am live at the Snowmobile Expo.
Speaker 1: After my show, I am going to run over not
Speaker 1: literally to Overtime Cards and Collectibles. Scott Mitchell will be there.
Speaker 1: Scott and I are going to do a couple of
Speaker 1: radio hits and then we're going to interview Logan Cooley
Speaker 1: on air. So we'll be there up until seven o'clock.
Speaker 1: Come on buy and say hello to Scott and Logan
Speaker 1: and check out their trading cards of all your favorite athletes.
Speaker 1: You can check them out online at Overtimecards Andcollectibles dot
Speaker 1: com where you can buy and trade more with c K.
Speaker 1: Coming up next right here on ESPN seven hundred Clueless,
Speaker 1: the Alicia Silverstone movie. I'm getting clueless vibes with the
Speaker 1: no doubt I'm just a girl, No great song. It's
Speaker 1: a good shout out, King, It's a good shout out
Speaker 1: to gen X, my generation, the generation that you best generation.
Speaker 1: You should you fit the description you You are a
Speaker 1: millennial trapped in a gen x ER's body.
Speaker 6: I believe that wholeheartedly, and I'm sad that I am
Speaker 6: part of what I can argue is not the best generation.
Speaker 1: But hey, we move forward. Yeah, and nobody wants my
Speaker 1: take on it. It's well documented.
Speaker 6: They just gen X sounds cooler. It's like if you
Speaker 6: when you say millennial does not sound cool, well and
Speaker 6: gen Z sounds cooler.
Speaker 1: It is cooler, yes, millennials. Yeah, and we don't have
Speaker 1: to you know what, I'm not going to do that
Speaker 1: thing today. There's a certain age right now that I'm
Speaker 1: having a tough time with in life. But I think
Speaker 1: it's just just going to move on from all of that,
Speaker 1: all right, Chris. Since you and I last spoke, uh,
Speaker 1: the news became official that Cameron Rising is done for
Speaker 1: the year. Yeah, second straight season. You had very unique
Speaker 1: access to Cam and his family for the piece you
Speaker 1: wrote that I've sent people to over and over and over.
Speaker 1: There is still this faction of our community that you know,
Speaker 1: he's a sandbagger, he got paid, he should be playing.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much attention I want to give
Speaker 1: that faction of our community, but they do exist, and
Speaker 1: the money thing does.
Speaker 6: Can the players see it, which is unfortunately no.
Speaker 1: No, I've been talking about that. Every time I hear
Speaker 1: a coach say, well, I'm not on social media, I say, well,
Speaker 1: guess what your players are, right, So let's just big
Speaker 1: picture where you are with this entire thing. Second year
Speaker 1: in a row, brutal development.
Speaker 6: I can't remember the last time a local player had
Speaker 6: as many high highs and low you know, personal lows
Speaker 6: from an injury standpoint, like we don't. I guess Taysom
Speaker 6: is like would be a close like analogy, but Tasom
Speaker 6: never led them to COMPU championships.
Speaker 1: Carlos Boozer, Yeah, yeah, but you're not wrong.
Speaker 6: But like I'm just yeah, it's unfortunate. I mean, he
Speaker 6: shouldn't have been out there, like clearly it did not
Speaker 6: look right, and we can relitigate that till the cows
Speaker 6: come home. But he's done for the year, and my
Speaker 6: assumptions would be that the two sides, you know, hug
Speaker 6: each other, give each other thanks and say we did
Speaker 6: a lot of cool stuff, but it's time to part ways.
Speaker 6: That is just an assumption on my part, and I
Speaker 6: think that would be best for both parties involved.
Speaker 1: I agree with you there, and that obviously has been
Speaker 1: a topic on the show. Eric Weddle was on on
Speaker 1: Monday and I asked him straight up his thoughts on
Speaker 1: Cam coming back for an eighth year, and you can
Speaker 1: go listen to it. I don't want to speak for him.
Speaker 1: He wasn't taking a shot at Cam. He echoed what
Speaker 1: you just said. Probably best for everybody to kind of
Speaker 1: go their separate ways. I do have to say I
Speaker 1: wouldn't blame Cam if he did it, Like if the
Speaker 1: nil money is still there, he's not. I agree with that.
Speaker 1: So but if it's even there for a couple hundred grand, come,
Speaker 1: you know, be on the sideline and help Isaac Wilson
Speaker 1: as a quasi backup. I don't know, I'm just thinking
Speaker 1: out loud, because what's Cam going to do next year
Speaker 1: if he doesn't play football? Gordon joined us earlier. He
Speaker 1: made a good point, like he's got a good community,
Speaker 1: if he's got an agent and he's made a little money.
Speaker 1: A lot of these guys, like X BYU players latch
Speaker 1: onto the brow companies down south and make a lot
Speaker 1: of money. They work down there, and there is a
Speaker 1: community you have as a collegiate athlete where you're not
Speaker 1: gonna go be the assistant manager at Shields. But what
Speaker 1: does he do next year if he doesn't play football?
Speaker 1: Would you blame him if he came back.
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 6: No, I wouldn't blame him if he came back. But
Speaker 6: I mean, he has to make a business decision at
Speaker 6: this point. Like he's made a lot of money, he's
Speaker 6: been very successful. Does it make sense for him to
Speaker 6: if he doesn't come back to Utah, does he want
Speaker 6: to pursue going somewhere else? And what does that market
Speaker 6: look like? I mean, because at this point, we don't
Speaker 6: know what the severity of the injury is and how
Speaker 6: long he's going to be out. Now, like when Kyle
Speaker 6: says he's out for the rest of the year, we're
Speaker 6: talking six games, which is basically two months. So I
Speaker 6: would assume it's nothing serious. We haven't heard otherwise. But
Speaker 6: Cam has made it very clear to me. His folks
Speaker 6: have made it very clear to me that you know
Speaker 6: he wants to give the NFL, And like, I'm not
Speaker 6: comparing the two before people before the two people watching
Speaker 6: on YouTube go nuts.
Speaker 1: Five five.
Speaker 6: Who would have thought that Taysom Hill would become a
Speaker 6: very good NFL player? Totally different skill set. I get it,
Speaker 6: But I'm just saying, like you're talking about a guy
Speaker 6: who had like the same awful injury three years in
Speaker 6: a row, and all of a sudden became like a
Speaker 6: very reliable, unique Swiss Army knife healthy player in the NFL.
Speaker 6: So Cam ran into about of really crappy luck man,
Speaker 6: Like that is the bottom line. Like you can't really
Speaker 6: turn it or twist it any other way. The knee
Speaker 6: injury was lingering two years ago. You know he heard
Speaker 6: it in that crazy USC game and it prolonged and
Speaker 6: eventually exploded. That's a that's a very big unfortunate reality.
Speaker 6: The hand thing you never see happen, especially to your
Speaker 6: throwing hand, you know, being shoved into a gatorade station
Speaker 6: and got rolled up on.
Speaker 1: It is what it is.
Speaker 6: Again, Like I don't want to be that guy who
Speaker 6: sounds like a broken record. Can't be mad at football
Speaker 6: player for getting hurt.
Speaker 1: Let me follow up, and I'll just ask you straight up,
Speaker 1: outside of what you just said, what's your reaction to
Speaker 1: the portion of the community that I perceive to be
Speaker 1: real Because it's not just cowards that want to be
Speaker 1: brave online. I've hurt real people who I know say
Speaker 1: out loud that they're out on camp, like, just out
Speaker 1: on them, just over it.
Speaker 6: To that, I would say, the term fan is short
Speaker 6: for fanatic, and that is a very fanatic approach to
Speaker 6: an existence that people have poured a lot of energy
Speaker 6: and time and money into. But I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 6: In this day and age, people can pay attention to
Speaker 6: how fan bases treat their players. And if you're talking
Speaker 6: about a place that has historically struggled to recruit and
Speaker 6: return quarterbacks, if you're having their fan base turn on
Speaker 6: one of the best to ever do it, it's not
Speaker 6: a great look. That's just the reality. It's not a
Speaker 6: great look.
Speaker 1: They did lose a big time commit today as well,
Speaker 1: a defensive lineman from Spanish Fork decommitted. He was one
Speaker 1: of the best players they had in the class coming up.
Speaker 1: I'm not drawing a straight line, but you're not wrong.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, is there any part of
Speaker 1: the entire dynamic that it's fair to be frustrated with.
Speaker 6: You can be well, if you're asking me, my opinion
Speaker 6: is you can be frustrated with the way Utah handled
Speaker 6: the injury quote unquote reports the situation mainly last year.
Speaker 6: I think this year people understood saw the writing on
Speaker 6: the wall, realized kind of what was taking place. But again,
Speaker 6: Kyle doesn't care. He doesn't you're talking about like, I mean,
Speaker 6: is Kyle the most powerful, like non politician in this state?
Speaker 1: Probably honestly, Like.
Speaker 6: He's a guy that could walk into most households and
Speaker 6: everybody would just be like, here, let me make something
Speaker 6: for you, please.
Speaker 1: My guy Ryan might have a little power these days.
Speaker 6: Okay, I guess, like, yeah, I guess I'm saying like
Speaker 6: a player athlete from a player coach athlete point of view,
Speaker 6: But yeah, they fans can be frustrated with that.
Speaker 1: I do think we had.
Speaker 6: An unfortunate bubbling to the surface of people believing that
Speaker 6: this team was going to go undefeated in the Big
Speaker 6: Twelve and that they were better than everybody else and
Speaker 6: kind of drinking the kool aid, which is an overuse cliche.
Speaker 6: But this team has a lot of flaws and they
Speaker 6: have a lot of injuries. But you know, teams also
Speaker 6: have other injuries across the country. Other teams have injuries
Speaker 6: across the country, just have better depth. And that's just
Speaker 6: the reality. We've talked about this ad nauseum.
Speaker 1: Nick Saban two undefeated teams. Two of his national championship
Speaker 1: teams went undefeated in his entire run. Like even the best,
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen very often. I don't think I ever
Speaker 1: thought they were in that stratosphere potentially running the table,
Speaker 1: but I did think they'd have something to say about
Speaker 1: the Big twelve championship.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, day, yeah, if Cam stays healthy. Listen, Cam
Speaker 6: looked like his old self the first game and a
Speaker 6: half until he got hurt again, two different injuries. I'm
Speaker 6: sorry it happens, but eventually you got to turn the page.
Speaker 6: It is a cutthroat, unforgiving business for a player in
Speaker 6: college football. You can be a superstar, millionaire, nil quarterback
Speaker 6: one day and then you get hurt and then you
Speaker 6: have to figure out what's next. For Cam, that's where.
Speaker 1: He's at and it is time to turn the page.
Speaker 1: So let's let's talk ball.
Speaker 6: Okay. I came prepared listen. I know I'm prepared. Okay,
Speaker 6: where do you want to start offense or defense?
Speaker 1: I want to start with the dynamic on Saturday night
Speaker 1: where TCU is not great against the run. Okay there,
Speaker 1: I think one hundred and sixteenth in the country against
Speaker 1: the run. And you can't put everything on the shoulders
Speaker 1: of your freshman quarterback. I think we see Andy Ludwig
Speaker 1: and this entire approach go old school entirely. You got
Speaker 1: to start winning the line of scrimmage again. You've got
Speaker 1: to be better against the run. And I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna see a healthy dose in Mackai Bernard. And I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna do everything they can to surround Isaac
Speaker 1: with healthy needs instead of making him be cammed from
Speaker 1: two years ago. I feel like this is a game
Speaker 1: that they can get because TCU doesn't stop the run.
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna see a healthy dose of the
Speaker 1: Utah run game.
Speaker 6: Okay, stats, bring it, came, came prepared. I know you
Speaker 6: did total offense right now in the country fifty eighth.
Speaker 6: This is Utah Utah rushing offense fifty sixth, which is
Speaker 6: lower than I thought because McKay has been good. Yeah,
Speaker 6: but he's really been the only like there isn't really he's.
Speaker 1: A best player on the team. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Passing offense sixty sixth, only ten spots behind the Russian defense.
Speaker 6: First downs tied for seventy seconds, scoring offense eighty first,
Speaker 6: red zone offense eighty ninth. And this is the craziest
Speaker 6: part to me. Time of possession second in the country.
Speaker 6: So Utah has the second best time of possession in
Speaker 6: the country, but they have not been able to cash
Speaker 6: in no matter who's at quarterback. That is a huge
Speaker 6: problem considering the weapons that they have. And I understand
Speaker 6: fans have been frustrated with the offensive play calls and
Speaker 6: the schemes and whatnot. And there have been some very
Speaker 6: head scratching calls, you know, second and ten wildcat to
Speaker 6: brand Keithy, where you obviously know what's going to happen,
Speaker 6: that kind of stuff in the red zone.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work.
Speaker 6: But Andy and his staff have to figure out a
Speaker 6: way to Taylor an offense that fits who they have,
Speaker 6: and right now they have Mackay Bernard, they have Dorian Singer,
Speaker 6: Bran Keithy's looked okay, and they to your point, they
Speaker 6: have to make Isaac Wilson look comfortable because I think
Speaker 6: if you're talking about that Arizona game, like we talked
Speaker 6: about it, if you kick field goals there and don't
Speaker 6: go for it twice on fourth and goal, you probably
Speaker 6: have a little bit of confidence. If you're Isaac, like
Speaker 6: you're bummed that you didn't get into the end zone,
Speaker 6: but shoot, it's still six zero or seven to six.
Speaker 6: That matters for young players.
Speaker 1: And like.
Speaker 6: Andy, this isn't Andy's first rodeo. He's done it a
Speaker 6: bunch of schools. He's done it here with a bunch
Speaker 6: of different quarterbacks. But it is odd considering the personnel
Speaker 6: that they have at their disposal. I mean, most of
Speaker 6: the injuries have come on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 6: Outside of camp, right, I mean, like yeah, I mean
Speaker 6: they're they're wide receivers of stayed healthy, brand has stayed healthy.
Speaker 6: Everybody's obsessed with the amount of tight ends that they have.
Speaker 6: Like you know, you know, Cale Blowner had a good
Speaker 6: game against somebody a few weeks ago. Red zone threat,
Speaker 6: red zone threat, six to seven, Throw it up. But
Speaker 6: you don't want to say it's all on the offense, man,
Speaker 6: It's not, because the entire team Listen, Utah has not
Speaker 6: looked good in one game this year. They have not
Speaker 6: looked good in one game. We're six games in and
Speaker 6: I was looking at this up the other day. When
Speaker 6: was the last time Utah beat a good team? In
Speaker 6: your mind?
Speaker 1: Off the top, I'll go USC a year ago, who
Speaker 1: was not a great team two years ago, SC, that's
Speaker 1: the twelve champion. That's the last time they beat a
Speaker 1: good team.
Speaker 6: Ye And the only other time they beat a good
Speaker 6: team that year was the previous time they'd beat USC
Speaker 6: in the Crazy Cam game here and Dalton Kincaide game.
Speaker 6: Utah has not played well like and I understand.
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 6: The injuries to the most important position on the field
Speaker 6: will derail lots of people, of course, but this team
Speaker 6: has failed to meet expectations that I think a lot
Speaker 6: of people have, unfortunately and unfairly to them, blowed it
Speaker 6: up in recent years.
Speaker 1: Did you think Saturday Night is something that will manifest
Speaker 1: itself as a get right type situation? They get healthy.
Speaker 6: Gotta see it. I'm not going to believe until I see.
Speaker 6: I mean, the vibes are not good, man. They do
Speaker 6: not look good.
Speaker 1: They're not turning the other team over. They lost the
Speaker 1: turnover battle the past couple of games. Want some stats,
Speaker 1: bring it, bring it. I will say this before you
Speaker 1: levy your stats on me. I do think the rushing
Speaker 1: defense numbers are a little bit cloudy right now because
Speaker 1: a couple of big runs from the Skataboo kid, like
Speaker 1: fifty eight to forty eight. Look, you can't let that happen, correct,
Speaker 1: But ultimately I think if they can get Karene back
Speaker 1: and Conner back, and I still think defensively, they're going
Speaker 1: to be fine stopping the run.
Speaker 6: But if you're Utah, if you're Utah, if you are
Speaker 6: the program that is known locally and nationally to be
Speaker 6: a quote unquote badass defense every year, are two players
Speaker 6: really going to make that much of a difference.
Speaker 1: Shouldn't be? They shouldn't be exactly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Okay, rushing defense forty second in the country, which
Speaker 6: is not where Utah is used to be. And you know,
Speaker 6: piggybacking off your point against Skataboo against Arizona, those kids
Speaker 6: were running like eight or nine yards every single.
Speaker 1: Touch open for sure.
Speaker 6: Turnovers tied for fifty ninth in the country, which is
Speaker 6: very not not like Utah. And this was the craziest
Speaker 6: one to meet. Red zone defense tied for ninety six.
Speaker 6: The opposing team scores on ninety percent of the time
Speaker 6: they get.
Speaker 1: Into ooh not good, not good, not good.
Speaker 6: So again, like, while people are pissed that Cam got hurt,
Speaker 6: while they're pissed about the offensive red zone numbers, this
Speaker 6: is not on one player or one group. The entire
Speaker 6: team has failed to meet expectations. And that's okay. But again,
Speaker 6: like maybe we were two not locally and nationally. Maybe
Speaker 6: people were lazy, Maybe people were like up, cam Riising's
Speaker 6: coming back. He hasn't played in a year and a half,
Speaker 6: but he's going to be the same guy that he was.
Speaker 6: Brand Keith he hasn't played in two years. Oh, he's
Speaker 6: going to be the same guy that he was. Kai
Speaker 6: Bernard out for a year. He's looked good. But like
Speaker 6: these were huge questions around a team that had a
Speaker 6: lot of questions going in regardless.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kyle's built a bit of a benefit of the
Speaker 1: doubts that you absolutely there's no doubt. It's a good point.
Speaker 1: A few minutes left before I set you loose. The
Speaker 1: team that is using the Utah ethos to win games
Speaker 1: is forty miles down south Man because they're turning the
Speaker 1: other team over. They won the turnover battle every single game. Statistically,
Speaker 1: their defensive numbers not just better this year, far better.
Speaker 1: They couldn't get to the quarterback last year. They didn't
Speaker 1: make very many transfer portal additions. They just relied on
Speaker 1: continuity and giving Jay Hill another year. And you know,
Speaker 1: I even heard Jay Hill say four and a score.
Speaker 1: That's an old John PA's Utah saying like they are
Speaker 1: using the model the Utah wants to be using and
Speaker 1: they're doing it much better than Utah is forty miles
Speaker 1: that south of the year.
Speaker 6: How many people on that staff were on Kyle staff
Speaker 6: at one point.
Speaker 1: Except Papina probably, I really like you.
Speaker 6: Can go down the list, but yeah, to your point,
Speaker 6: they are not losing the turnover battle. They don't have
Speaker 6: like a standout offensive player.
Speaker 1: They have seventeen different players who've scored touchdowns. Isn't that
Speaker 1: mind blow?
Speaker 6: There you go? I mean they've played like eight running backs.
Speaker 6: They do have really good receivers. I mean, I'll give
Speaker 6: them that. I mean, like, but they don't have a
Speaker 6: you know, a McMillan kid, like. They have a bunch
Speaker 6: of really good receivers, and you know, Jake Reetzlof has
Speaker 6: made some boneheaded plays in the past, but he looks
Speaker 6: really good. Man like Aaron Roderick knows what he's doing,
Speaker 6: Like he knew what he was doing here. He knows
Speaker 6: what he's doing down there. But to your point about
Speaker 6: the defense, like they didn't go out and make wholesale changes.
Speaker 6: They got really good in the linebacker room. And some
Speaker 6: of those were portal ads. The Tiger Kid came from Oregon.
Speaker 6: Jack Kelly came from Weber State. I don't know if
Speaker 6: Glasker was a transfer or not, but he's a local
Speaker 6: kid who's been really good. I mean, like, BYU has
Speaker 6: the best linebacker corp in the Big twelve. It's not
Speaker 6: even close.
Speaker 1: It's so crazy to say, but you're not wrong.
Speaker 6: So like, to me, the most interesting part of this
Speaker 6: whole start is if you're comparing, like you can make
Speaker 6: a comparison almost like Utah fans have been so spoiled
Speaker 6: with the success of the last twenty years. BYU fans
Speaker 6: have been spoiled from the previous success of the Lovelle
Speaker 6: Edwards regime. That like, coming into the season, people were
Speaker 6: saying Kilani was on the hot seat Spence like like
Speaker 6: that stuff to me is one it's silly because it's BYU.
Speaker 6: There are only two coaches out there, in my opinion,
Speaker 6: in the in the NFL and college football realm, who
Speaker 6: would be considered upgrades to Kolonie Sataki right now. You
Speaker 6: want to name him Andy.
Speaker 1: Reid Kyle Whittingham. Seriously, like people.
Speaker 6: Who think that like there would there was going to
Speaker 6: be a better direction for the program to go live
Speaker 6: in a unfortunate reality and don't understand the the difficulties
Speaker 6: of recruiting and retaining talent at BYU. So the fact
Speaker 6: that Kilani has been able to do that, albeit there
Speaker 6: have been some down years, you know last year in
Speaker 6: the Big.
Speaker 1: Twelve for sure, on yea, yeah, what's tough.
Speaker 6: But they weren't getting their doors blown off them every
Speaker 6: week like they lost some brutal games the Okay State game.
Speaker 6: You know they were talking about this week time insane,
Speaker 6: Like listen, BYU fans should be throwing a party every
Speaker 6: single weekend knowing that they have Kalani Sataki as their
Speaker 6: head coach. Because it is probably the most difficult place
Speaker 6: to recruit and retain players at the P four level
Speaker 6: in the country.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with you. Have you ever tried a
Speaker 1: cougar tail?
Speaker 6: I have not.
Speaker 1: You're kind of anti sugar though.
Speaker 6: It's not that I'm anti sugar. I just feel like
Speaker 6: I'm just gonna get a migraine.
Speaker 1: Would you rather have beer or milk poured on you? Oh,
Speaker 1: that's a good question, both same time at the same time.
Speaker 1: If you want to party, all right, let me ask
Speaker 1: you this. You know you're old enough to know. Like
Speaker 1: Lavelle was like twenty one and two against Utah right now,
Speaker 1: there's a generation under Kyle of Utah football dominance over BYU.
Speaker 1: It's a full generation.
Speaker 6: I'm talking about like your son's age, where they like
Speaker 6: just showed up and they're like, oh, we're gonna win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: he was the exact opposite. If the games were close,
Speaker 1: it was a miracle. Utah very rarely won those games.
Speaker 1: And for you fans of a certain age, namely mine
Speaker 1: and maybe a little bit older, there's kind of this
Speaker 1: permeating nervousness that the pendulum ishak beneath their feet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because look, if you were a diehard youth fan the
Speaker 1: Lavelle years were painful, you never won, you never had
Speaker 1: a chance. Oftentimes you were insignificant. And then Ronnie Mack
Speaker 1: takes over and evens the playing field a bit, and
Speaker 1: then since Urban and Kyle, it's been all Utah. Do
Speaker 1: you think we're seeing the beginning of a moment? I
Speaker 1: don't want to be hyperbolic or a prisoner of the moment,
Speaker 1: but could this be the start of the next BYU generation?
Speaker 6: I would have to see BYU put together a few
Speaker 6: really good seasons in a row. I mean, I think
Speaker 6: like Colonne and his staff have had a couple of
Speaker 6: good seasons and then a bad season, A couple of
Speaker 6: good seasons and then a bad season. We'll see how
Speaker 6: this year finishes, and we'll see how they look next year.
Speaker 6: You're talking about a lot of mitigating factors involved in this, too,
Speaker 6: like the fact that BYU went independent and basically could
Speaker 6: not recruit to the same level as their art rival.
Speaker 6: You're talking about moving from one head coach that wasn't
Speaker 6: very widely liked in Bronco Mendenhall to a guy that
Speaker 6: has very widely liked in Kaloni Sataki, And you're talking
Speaker 6: about the ultimate equalizer was the guy who's coaching Utah
Speaker 6: used to play at BYU played for a little Bell
Speaker 6: said no, it was Alma mater and really.
Speaker 1: Likes beating them.
Speaker 6: So like Utah going to the PAC twelve and BYU
Speaker 6: going independent. I mean this, that topic has been, you know,
Speaker 6: relitigated ad nauseum for decades on local radio. But I'll
Speaker 6: have to see BYU string together a couple of good
Speaker 6: seasons in a row and simultaneously see if Utah doesn't
Speaker 6: fall off the map. But if they're going seven and five,
Speaker 6: six and six, the way they were early on in
Speaker 6: the PAC twelve, then we can have that conversation.
Speaker 1: Coach Wit retires, Kilani has a rough couple of years. Uh, no,
Speaker 1: excuse me, Morgan has a rough couple of years. Utah
Speaker 1: hires Kilani, and BYU talks coach Wit out of retirement.
Speaker 1: See what I just did. That's called sports radio black
Speaker 1: magic right there.
Speaker 6: I mean that my wife like teases men in general
Speaker 6: by saying, like, you can't be mad at people for
Speaker 6: liking reality TV because sports is the ultimate, like version
Speaker 6: of drama and reality TV. With the fact that you're
Speaker 6: that's even thrown out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, without the negative influences. Oh, Yeah, there's no negative influences. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in sports there's a few, but it's not permeating throughout
Speaker 1: society and culture. No, I've always said, and you know,
Speaker 1: like old school WWE wrestling, that is the soap operas
Speaker 1: for men. Oh absolutely? Did you watch the Vincement mcmandals
Speaker 1: even started it? I need to. It's pretty compelling. That's
Speaker 1: one thing I can actually tell you they they did. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's one thing I can tell you to watch that
Speaker 1: you haven't watched yet. Yeah, No, that's that's good. I want.
Speaker 6: I want to watch it because I'm sure they went
Speaker 6: to Stone Colds Ranch.
Speaker 1: They did. They did. It's right. What else you got
Speaker 1: for me as far as what I can watch right now? Nothing? Uh? Nothing?
Speaker 1: Good man.
Speaker 6: Honestly, we are not watching any new shows.
Speaker 1: Lose Clues and is that still a thing for the kids.
Speaker 1: Lose Clues now? Too bad? Yeah? All right man, great
Speaker 1: to see. Okay, great, Chris Camaraddie. Let's bring in Ryan
Speaker 1: from the Dish pros. Give them a call it eight
Speaker 1: oh one, four to two four Dish upgrade, save money,
Speaker 1: support local. What's going on? Ryan?
Speaker 5: This is the time guys lower your bills and this
Speaker 5: is what we do day in day out. I had
Speaker 5: another customer almost one hundreds and fifty dollars a month. Guys,
Speaker 5: this is that simple. Call us up. Listen your cable
Speaker 5: company or your other TV provider, or even your fiber company.
Speaker 5: They don't send you big flashing lot signs that say
Speaker 5: hey we raised your bill. It just goes up. And
Speaker 5: a lot of people saw an increase on their fiber bill.
Speaker 5: It's an increase on their TV bill. Kaise, here's the thing,
Speaker 5: call us up. You probably don't know how much you're
Speaker 5: spending and uh it's really the truth. But you probably
Speaker 5: know you probably could pay less. And that's the deal.
Speaker 5: Call us up. Take advantage of the offers. We have
Speaker 5: fantastic deals with Internet right now with even gift card
Speaker 5: offers two or n our gift card. When you sign
Speaker 5: up as a new customer, take advantage of these free
Speaker 5: money and let us hook you up with fantastic services
Speaker 5: and the best TV solution out there with the Hopper
Speaker 5: and we'll get you installed as early as next day.
Speaker 5: I can still hook you up with the Multi sports
Speaker 5: pack free for a year, which includes the NFL Red
Speaker 5: Zone and movie channels. Plus we'll throw in dinner at JCW,
Speaker 5: so call us now. We can have you installed as
Speaker 5: early as tomorrow. Get you set up before the weekend.
Speaker 5: Four two four Dish's eight oh one four two four
Speaker 5: three four seven four A.
Speaker 1: There he is Ryan from the Dish Bros. I can't lie.
Speaker 1: It's a really cool interest song. It's one of the
Speaker 1: coolest scenes in college football. I've never been there, but
Speaker 1: Porter is a VA Tech fan Blacksburg. It's be going
Speaker 1: crazy Overtime Cards and Collectibles coming up tomorrow. We have
Speaker 1: a busy afternoon drive. I'll be at the Snowmobile XFO,
Speaker 1: so come say what's up out of the Mountain America
Speaker 1: Expo Center. And then at five o'clock we're gonna move
Speaker 1: our programming over to overtime Cards and Collectibles. Logan Cooley,
Speaker 1: the Center of the Utah Hockey Club is gonna be
Speaker 1: there signing autographs for fans. Scott Mitchell will be on
Speaker 1: air while I'm driving over there, so thank you to Scott.
Speaker 1: Then I'll show up and do some radio until seven o'clock.
Speaker 1: We'd love to see You can buy tickets for the
Speaker 1: signing at Overtime Cards and Collectibles dot Com. All right, Porter,
Speaker 1: what comes our way on a Friday edition of the show.
Speaker 2: On a Friday edition of the program, Spence, we will,
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, kind of go all over the map
Speaker 2: talking some RSL, talking some jazz preseason, Richard Smithy Smith
Speaker 2: makes his return from the Black Desert Championship talking some jazz.
Speaker 2: Maybe he talks some football as well, Real salt Lake,
Speaker 2: a front office member, probably Jason christ on a Friday.
Speaker 2: And then of course some college football for you. JB
Speaker 2: Long talking some PAC twelve, Big twelve, NFL wherever you
Speaker 2: want to go with him, Yogi Roth on a Friday
Speaker 2: as well, and then we'll hand it over to Scott
Speaker 2: Mitchell and the folks at overtime with our friend Logan
Speaker 2: kol Utah Hockey Club.
Speaker 1: There you go. That'll be a fun Friday show. So
Speaker 1: get your weekend started out the right way with us
Speaker 1: coming up next Thursday night, Football Denver, New Orleans. Special
Speaker 1: thank you today to Gordon Monson, Craig Bowlerjack Chris Comroddie
Speaker 1: as well for any the sound you made this from
Speaker 1: the show. Go to the website. It's ESPN seven hundred
Speaker 1: sports dot com. Download our mobile app. ESPN seven hundred
Speaker 1: app is available for free in the app store of
Speaker 1: the Google Play Store and then download our podcast follow
Speaker 1: a long rate review. It's called The Drive Wispence check
Speaker 1: its that's available where you get your shows. He's Porter
Speaker 1: Arms Spence saying tonight, have a great Thursday evening. Thursday
Speaker 1: night football on the other side right here on ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred