Speaker 1: I'm a year. You could deal the weather.
Speaker 2: This weekend, drop a little bit falls right around the corner.
Speaker 2: Utah Football, Big twelve Football, b YU football, college football.
Speaker 1: Pro football is right around the corner.
Speaker 2: And our next guest, it's been a minute, one of
Speaker 2: my favorites breakdown college football with now with our friends
Speaker 2: of the ACC Network, Our buddy from the old Pack
Speaker 2: twelve days is Max Brown. On a Tuesday afternoon, Max,
Speaker 2: I apologize about misbehaving with the clock.
Speaker 1: How are you, buddy, No, it's all good.
Speaker 3: It's all good. You made up for it with the
Speaker 3: PAC twelve intro. Always got love for that, never can
Speaker 3: never forget.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 2: But it still is weird. We don't have to re litigate.
Speaker 2: It's still just wild though. But let's start with what's
Speaker 2: new with you? So what is what's the college football
Speaker 2: season and schedule going to look like for you this year?
Speaker 1: Max?
Speaker 3: Yeah, switching up network networks. I was at the CW
Speaker 3: last year calling their full ACC package. It'll be a
Speaker 3: similar schedule for me, but now with the ACC network,
Speaker 3: So I'll have no ESPN be calling games with Chris
Speaker 3: Cotter over there, and it'll be a rotating schedule, so
Speaker 3: you know, sometimes the one pm kick, sometimes the four
Speaker 3: pm kick, but it'll be a lot of East Coast
Speaker 3: college football these days.
Speaker 1: Good stuff, good stuff. Well out this way we are again.
Speaker 2: I'm shaking my head as I say we're in the
Speaker 2: big twelve footprint because for so long we were in
Speaker 2: the back twelve footprint.
Speaker 1: But it's year two for Utah. Max.
Speaker 2: Let me just ask you, just macro standpoint, take it
Speaker 2: whatever direction you want to take it. What gives you
Speaker 2: the most confidence that year two for Utah will look
Speaker 2: much better than year one in the big twelve?
Speaker 3: Yeah, just the history of what Ale Whittingham has been
Speaker 3: at that program, which I know you fans know well,
Speaker 3: but I think nationally sometimes sometimes people forget about that
Speaker 3: of just how obscure and how disappointing last year was
Speaker 3: and how much of a surprise it was. And I
Speaker 3: don't think that'll happen again for Utah. I do think,
Speaker 3: you know, these past couple of years feel like, on paper,
Speaker 3: like that was the window if Utah was going to
Speaker 3: get that championship, whether it was a CFP type of win,
Speaker 3: whether it was a Rose Bowl type of win, might
Speaker 3: get Unfortunately, says that window may have passed, but I
Speaker 3: do think in the conference of autonomy these days, in
Speaker 3: the Big Twelve, there's no reason Utah can't be right
Speaker 3: in the thick of things. And I think we were
Speaker 3: this time last year expecting that Utah would be the
Speaker 3: enforcers in the Big twelve. And hey, Big twelve, like,
Speaker 3: you know, get ready for the utes coming to town.
Speaker 3: That obviously didn't come to Fruition last year. But I
Speaker 3: feel confident in a conference that doesn't necessarily have physicality
Speaker 3: across the board, there's no reason that can't be Utah's
Speaker 3: mo and you know, kind of sent a message to
Speaker 3: the rest of the conference still being someone of the
Speaker 3: new guys in that conference.
Speaker 2: So Devin dan Pierre is the new quarterback and it
Speaker 2: actually is a little i would say relieving for the
Speaker 2: fan base.
Speaker 1: Around here just to know who's going to be under center.
Speaker 2: And he arrives in Salt Lake with his offensive coordinator
Speaker 2: for a year ago now it was New Mexico. Devin
Speaker 2: put up some good numbers last year, a lot with
Speaker 2: his legs. The throw game numbers, as coach, we would
Speaker 2: like to say weren't necessarily all that good. But what
Speaker 2: sort of challenge is does a step up in competition,
Speaker 2: pos and Max. What are you expecting from Devin dan
Speaker 2: Pierre under center for the Utes this year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, right away, specifically with Dan Pierre, like because he's
Speaker 3: such a mobile quarterback and his legs being a factor,
Speaker 3: Like I would have still imagined that's obviously going to
Speaker 3: be a huge part of his game. But I do
Speaker 3: think it's a notch higher in terms of the athletes
Speaker 3: you're getting in the secondary and the athletes you're getting
Speaker 3: that linebacker. From a throw standpoint, which if Utah is
Speaker 3: going to be in Big Twelve title contention, I do
Speaker 3: think they're gonna have to throw the rock. I anticipate,
Speaker 3: you know, games being more quarterback run centric, maybe a
Speaker 3: little bit ball control, lean on your defense, don't make
Speaker 3: mistakes and offense kind of thing and wear you down
Speaker 3: type of offense, which that's more how Utah was when
Speaker 3: I was in college. But I do think they're gonna
Speaker 3: have to throw the rock to win a championship, and
Speaker 3: i'd imagine that will be the biggest adjustment for Dan
Speaker 3: Pierre coming into the next level. But you said it
Speaker 3: coming over with your offensive coordinator, it's becoming a trend
Speaker 3: in college football. You're seeing it at Oklahoma with Jeah
Speaker 3: Mattier and his offensive coordinator coming from Washington State. You've
Speaker 3: seen it in years past. I mean Diego Pavia at
Speaker 3: Vanderbilt last year took the college football world by storm.
Speaker 3: He came over with his play caller and whatnot. So
Speaker 3: in my era when a quarterback was transferring, so much
Speaker 3: of the conversation with hey, they're gonna have to learn
Speaker 3: a new offense and that's going to be the biggest adjustment.
Speaker 3: That's not the case when you're coming over with your OC,
Speaker 3: which is a huge level up compared to the different
Speaker 3: era of recruiting.
Speaker 2: Tell me Max, what you know about Ucla? Utah is
Speaker 2: opening opponent this year on the non con We'll be
Speaker 2: at the Rose Bull against Ucla.
Speaker 1: We're still eighteen days away, but we already have odds.
Speaker 2: Utah is about a touchdown favorite DraftKings right now has
Speaker 2: a minus six point five. So it's a road games
Speaker 2: first game for Devin. What you know the Bruins Utah's
Speaker 2: first opponent this season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they have the most noteworthy and I'm sure he's
Speaker 3: covered it with your audience with the most noteworthy quarterback
Speaker 3: transfer really of the entire offseason and Nico Yamalayava coming
Speaker 3: from Tennessee. A lot of controversy around that, obviously transfer
Speaker 3: and after spring because if you believe the reports, you
Speaker 3: hear that he wasn't getting the money that he wanted.
Speaker 3: So welcome to new school Nil and transfer portal. But
Speaker 3: I would say from a Utah lens, I mean, the
Speaker 3: threat of what that team can be with Nico behind center,
Speaker 3: to me is a lot a lot scarier than where
Speaker 3: they were before him, obviously, or funny enough, I shouldn't
Speaker 3: say obviously, but Joey Aguilar was on track to be
Speaker 3: their starter. Nico comes in and so then Joey just
Speaker 3: transfers to Tennessee and it was a little musical chairs
Speaker 3: game there. But I think Nico's got a lot of talent.
Speaker 3: I think He's gotten a raw deal a little bit
Speaker 3: from a perception perspective, because he was the first quarterback
Speaker 3: to be one of these multi million dollar guys coming
Speaker 3: out of high school. I mean, the number you heard
Speaker 3: from him out of high school is getting offered eight
Speaker 3: million dollars a year. So the expectations have been so high.
Speaker 3: They've been Hey, if you're not a first rounder in
Speaker 3: three years, what's going on the kid can still play.
Speaker 3: Does he need to get better for sure? Does he
Speaker 3: need to clean things up for sure? Is he a
Speaker 3: top five quarterback in college football? No? But do I
Speaker 3: think he has the talent to potentially get there if
Speaker 3: things work out for him. Sure. The only problem is
Speaker 3: there's not a lot of talent around him at UCLA.
Speaker 3: So when you look at who those playmakers that he's
Speaker 3: going to be throwing the rock to or who's going
Speaker 3: to be running next to him, I don't know the
Speaker 3: answers to that. I don't They've lost some talent in
Speaker 3: the portal in their own right. That's concerning to me.
Speaker 3: They lost J Michael's sturt event or go to receiver
Speaker 3: a year ago to Florida. I believe it was one
Speaker 3: of the one of the state of Florida schools, and
Speaker 3: so that to me is the biggest concern is I
Speaker 3: think Nico's got some talent, but I wonder what UCLA
Speaker 3: has around him. And so I'm from a Utah lens.
Speaker 3: I think it's an opportunity to, uh, you know, send
Speaker 3: a message. Week one.
Speaker 2: So the Vegas odds to win the Big twelve depending
Speaker 2: on which sports book you look at. But it's more
Speaker 2: or less Arizona State, K State, Texas Tech, Utah, and
Speaker 2: Baylor as the five team. And look, we were all
Speaker 2: so wrong about this conference a year ago that they
Speaker 2: just decided to kill the Big twelve preseason media poll.
Speaker 2: So odds are what they are and preseason polls are
Speaker 2: what they are. But I guess the way I'll ask it, Max,
Speaker 2: is your tier one teams in the Big Twelve are
Speaker 2: who and why?
Speaker 1: And as Utah in that mix.
Speaker 3: That's hilarious. I actually didn't even know that. That's funnygether like,
Speaker 3: we picked ASU to finish last last year, so we're
Speaker 3: not going to have the terrible PR crisis what that was.
Speaker 3: That's hilarious. I mean the Tier one is probably as
Speaker 3: wide as any Tier one of any conference, which is
Speaker 3: what makes the Big Twelve amazing because I do think,
Speaker 3: you know, there's well probably five or six teams in there.
Speaker 3: I mean maybe this is media West Coast byas. I
Speaker 3: still put Utah in that tier because of the upside
Speaker 3: of what Dan Peer can do, because of what Whittingham
Speaker 3: has done, and again I think last year was an outlier.
Speaker 3: I put Texas Tech there, I put Iowa State there,
Speaker 3: I put Kansas State there, and I probably put Arizona
Speaker 3: State there first too. Out For me, I had TCU,
Speaker 3: I called one of their games last year. I'm still
Speaker 3: not there with them. I know people like Josh Hoover
Speaker 3: their quarterback, and then Colorado also has questions at quarterback.
Speaker 3: So yeah, to me, it's those five teams that I mentioned.
Speaker 3: I'm very intrigued with what Texas Tech is. I mean,
Speaker 3: big picture, I think Iowa State, Kansas State, Arizona State,
Speaker 3: like those are quality football teams you know, and to
Speaker 3: some extent what you're going to get. But Texas Tech,
Speaker 3: as I'm sure you've covered as absolutely rated portal as
Speaker 3: you know, cranked it up a whole notch. And one
Speaker 3: thing that I don't think is getting covered as much
Speaker 3: with their transfer portal acquisitions as maybe should is they
Speaker 3: are betting on Baron Moore, their quarterback, to be the
Speaker 3: guy that can lead him to a championship, and they
Speaker 3: did not go to the outside and invest in a
Speaker 3: transfer portal quarterback, which I think a lot of schools
Speaker 3: with that kind of money would have done that. I'm
Speaker 3: not saying Morton's a bad quarterback, but I'm saying, if
Speaker 3: you're gonna have an influx of millions of dollars that
Speaker 3: you did not have a year ago to your nil program.
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of head coaches I would
Speaker 3: have tried to go get the big fish in the
Speaker 3: quarterback portal market. They didn't necessarily do that and invested
Speaker 3: those resources, and all the dudes around him don't. I
Speaker 3: don't necessarily know if it's gonna be a good or
Speaker 3: bad strategy. I just think it's an interesting strategy because
Speaker 3: on paper, Texas Tech had a huge portal class and
Speaker 3: that's the team. That's interesting to me, Like when you look, hey,
Speaker 3: the past two years, what are the teams that have
Speaker 3: popped nationally that on paper, we probably could have projected
Speaker 3: that Indiana last year, Right, they had a lot of
Speaker 3: proven talent that came over and we dismissed it because
Speaker 3: it was Indiana. But then in hindsight, it's like, wait,
Speaker 3: those guys were playing really high quality football. Yes, it
Speaker 3: would a level down, but we probably could have seen
Speaker 3: that pop coming better than we did. And then the
Speaker 3: year before that, I know a lot of West Coast
Speaker 3: people had Washington with Michael Pennix and Klin de Boor
Speaker 3: making a pop, but that was not a national storyline.
Speaker 3: I think it should have been, because when you look
Speaker 3: on paper, that was a Husky team that had NFL
Speaker 3: prospects at every level. My point is when you look
Speaker 3: at Texas Tech and the damage they've done in the portal,
Speaker 3: I mean, they should be right in the thick of
Speaker 3: Big Twelve title conversations come November.
Speaker 2: BYU a year ago they were picked to finish second
Speaker 2: to last and finish second in the conference. Further in
Speaker 2: the narrative of why we're no longer allowed to rank
Speaker 2: these teams pre season, but they lose their quarterback, Jake
Speaker 2: Rahtz laugh is now at TWU Lane. Of course, that
Speaker 2: story was wildly, you know, widely covered not just here
Speaker 2: locally but naturally with the honor coache stuff. It was
Speaker 2: certainly sticky and certainly messy. It sounds like Max they're
Speaker 2: going to start the bear Bachmeyer kid. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you know anything about him. He's a freshman that
Speaker 2: spent some spring ball at stan Ferd. Aaron Rodgerick BYU's
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator badly wanted him out of high school. It
Speaker 2: sounds like he's gonna get that job over McKay Hillstead
Speaker 2: and Trayson Borgae, who sounds like he's the odd man out.
Speaker 2: B yu Well, ranked ahead of Utah in both the
Speaker 2: AP and the coaches poll, is eighth in Vegas and
Speaker 2: odds to win the conference even behind Kansas, just.
Speaker 1: Ahead of Colorado.
Speaker 2: Good defense, good coaching staff. What are you expecting this
Speaker 2: year from bringing me on?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm waiting to see on the quarterback position. I
Speaker 3: think obviously anytime you're losing a starter that was super
Speaker 3: successful for them, that's that's concerning. I do think, you know,
Speaker 3: it wasn't like Retslop was always the reason they were
Speaker 3: winning games, which would make me encourage if I was
Speaker 3: BYU where hey, maybe you know, if it is Bachmeyer,
Speaker 3: who I've covered his brother in person, called a couple
Speaker 3: of his games last year at Wake Forest, you know,
Speaker 3: if he steps in and he's the guy like you
Speaker 3: don't need to light the world on light the world
Speaker 3: on fire. The thing that always is intriguing to me
Speaker 3: with BYU, especially in this transfer portal era where there
Speaker 3: is so movement, BYU's roster makeup is much more sticky
Speaker 3: and the culture is much more ingrained, rather than a
Speaker 3: lot of other programs have to reinvent their culture every
Speaker 3: single every single year because you know, there's a heavy
Speaker 3: dose of portal fluctuation for lack of a better term.
Speaker 3: And oh, by the way, BYU is an older roster,
Speaker 3: which has always played a factor and has always been
Speaker 3: an advantage for BYU, but I think it's even more
Speaker 3: of an advantage in this era of college football. So
Speaker 3: I'm never counting BYU out. But obviously they got to
Speaker 3: find an answer at quarterback or I don't think they're
Speaker 3: going to be back in the back at the level
Speaker 3: they were a year ago.
Speaker 2: Moving off to Big twelve and talking some big picture
Speaker 2: national college football, Texas is your number one team of
Speaker 2: both the AP and the coach's Paul of course, Steve
Speaker 2: sarkisian Arch manning a lot of buzz around Texas this year.
Speaker 2: Are they deserving number one? Do you think they're the
Speaker 2: best team in college football this year?
Speaker 3: I do. I would have put them there. I was
Speaker 3: actually kind of a rise number one because everything I'm
Speaker 3: least listening to and reading it feels like most people
Speaker 3: have either Penn State or Clemson as their number one team.
Speaker 3: But I like Texas. I mean, I'm a believer in
Speaker 3: what Arch can be. I mean, I know you're I'm
Speaker 3: getting ahead of myself with that take, But I just
Speaker 3: the brief action. We've seen everything you read, you listen,
Speaker 3: you listen to his interviews, like you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 3: bought in and and the hype there and and what
Speaker 3: he could be. But I think it'll be really interesting
Speaker 3: because this year, more than other years, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of big time programs rated inside the top ten that
Speaker 3: have a huge question that quarterback and what that quarterback
Speaker 3: situation will be. You know, you got Notre Dame at six,
Speaker 3: Oregon at seven, Alabama at eight, who named their start today.
Speaker 3: Georgia is gonna be breaking in a new starter. I
Speaker 3: mean that's what five four teams there and Ohio State,
Speaker 3: So half the top ten has brand new quarterbacks. That's
Speaker 3: I feel like we haven't had that in years past,
Speaker 3: which obviously a lot of those starters are highly ranked guys.
Speaker 3: But what's the upside Because if one of those teams
Speaker 3: is going to come up and win a national title,
Speaker 3: it's because Hey, the quarterback that we don't know anything
Speaker 3: about could be a guy that's the high upside guy.
Speaker 3: Like I know, I'm super intrigued with what Dante Moore
Speaker 3: could be at Oregon after sitting out a year and
Speaker 3: being a former five star guy. I feel like sometimes
Speaker 3: people latch onto only what he was as a true
Speaker 3: freshman youngster at UCLA and forget a he was a
Speaker 3: big time recruit and he's not a finished product as
Speaker 3: a freshman. So those schools are fascinating to me. Like
Speaker 3: the Alabama's Organs Notre Dame Georgia with new quarterbacks, I
Speaker 3: think they have maybe a higher upside than some of
Speaker 3: these other teams. And again obviously with Texas as well,
Speaker 3: but right now, middle of August, I do think Texas
Speaker 3: is a worthy number one team overall in the country.
Speaker 2: Well, Voye said, you lose and your point about these
Speaker 2: schools breaking a new quarterbacks certainly a good one and
Speaker 2: certainly one we've covered a lot because BYU and Utah
Speaker 2: are also breaking in new quarterbacks. Penn State and Clemson
Speaker 2: are not, and they are two teams that did receive
Speaker 2: votes as the number one team in the country with
Speaker 2: Clad Kid Club Nick the Kid who I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people might believe might be the number one
Speaker 2: pick and Drew Aller, I think answered a lot of
Speaker 2: questions last year for Penn State. How beneficial is that
Speaker 2: for those two teams really maybe the only two teams
Speaker 2: in the top upper echelon of college football that actually
Speaker 2: do have returning qbs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's huge, it's huge. I do wonder though, like,
Speaker 3: because we fell into this trap as a media world
Speaker 3: last year, at least a lot of people did. I
Speaker 3: won't speak for you, Spence, but we we anointed Carson
Speaker 3: Beck this time last year as like the shirt fire
Speaker 3: number one overall pick in the NFL draft or at
Speaker 3: worst he's at least a first rounder. And how wrong
Speaker 3: were we with that? I mean, he's not even a
Speaker 3: top ten quarterback in preseason list this year. And I
Speaker 3: wonder if we're doing the same thing with Drew Aller
Speaker 3: because he looks the part coming off the bus and
Speaker 3: he's obviously got a rocket arm. But man, sometimes I think, hey,
Speaker 3: Tyler Warren, you know, we underestimate the impact that he
Speaker 3: had with the offense. And you know, we've seen two
Speaker 3: full seasons from Drew Aller, and sure he got better
Speaker 3: last year, but to me, he's not in that conversation
Speaker 3: yet of hey, where at cam Ward was as a
Speaker 3: number one overall pick, or certainly where a Kayleb Williams
Speaker 3: was as a number one overall pick, or even you
Speaker 3: know guys like a Michael Pennix that I know we've
Speaker 3: covered a bunch, like those guys still have a big
Speaker 3: step to do. And Kate Clubnick, I think is deserving
Speaker 3: of being the top returning quarterback in college football, but
Speaker 3: again looking at the NFL, like his his legs are
Speaker 3: a huge part of his college game, I think his
Speaker 3: mobility gets minimized a lot in the NFL. So I
Speaker 3: think he's got to develop a lot as a pocket
Speaker 3: passer and like, show me that you can win games
Speaker 3: from the pocket, you know, leading two minute drills without
Speaker 3: your legs being a factor. That's when I think he
Speaker 3: gets to the NFL ceiling. And again that's also why
Speaker 3: I'm intrigued about all these other new quarterbacks because I
Speaker 3: think as a media world, we're falling into a trap.
Speaker 3: We're like, we know what Kate Clubnick is, we know
Speaker 3: what True Allur is, So we're talking about those guys
Speaker 3: a bunch. We don't really know what Julian saying is
Speaker 3: at Ohio State. We don't really know what Notre Dame's
Speaker 3: quarterback situation is. So if those guys were to hit,
Speaker 3: it could totally change the complex of college football.
Speaker 2: Max, you are the man. It's been too long. Always
Speaker 2: appreciate the time. I have a great week, ed and
Speaker 2: we'd love to chat soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks buddy for sure.
Speaker 3: Thanks Ben, appreciate you all right.
Speaker 2: Max Brown, our old buddy from the PAC twelve network
Speaker 2: now landing with the ACC.
Speaker 1: Always appreciate Max's time.
Speaker 2: He's very active on social media, whether it's Instagram or
Speaker 2: TikTok or wherever the kids are doing these days. At
Speaker 2: Max Brown is where you find them. Brown is spelled
Speaker 2: with a knee.