Speaker 1: Get twos and takeaways from the chaos after the game
Speaker 1: on Saturday, the comments of Mark Harlan that are going
Speaker 1: to cost him forty thousand dollars and a public reprimand
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is. I never have, but
Speaker 1: Mark has been reprimanded publicly. You should all know that.
Speaker 2: So we'll do that.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we have Scott Mitchell on the show today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play your coach witch comments. We have Kyle
Speaker 1: Bonnagera from ESPN, Andy Larson as well, but Batty leadoff.
Speaker 1: The man who was on the call Saturday night, Dave
Speaker 1: Fleming on a Monday. Dave, Happy Monday, sir.
Speaker 2: How are you? I'm good, Thank you, appreciate the time.
Speaker 2: So here's the question right off the top.
Speaker 1: I don't know how familiar familiar you are with the
Speaker 1: dynamic of Utah BYU. So I wondered what you anticipated
Speaker 1: prior to the game and what you learned as you
Speaker 1: called it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think I learned anything, because I do
Speaker 3: think I've been there enough now over the last many
Speaker 3: years to understand. I think I've only done one other
Speaker 3: of these rivalry games. But you know enough familiar already
Speaker 3: with both programs to know what the scene was going
Speaker 3: to be. Like, I'll say this, it didn't disappoint. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think you know, one thing about rivalry games is
Speaker 3: that when one fan base is super charged and another
Speaker 3: one is feeling kind of down and like things aren't
Speaker 3: going our way, it can produce. It can kind of
Speaker 3: go two ways. You know, Sometimes the team that isn't
Speaker 3: having a great year there fans can rise up and
Speaker 3: make it really feel like a special game. And sometimes
Speaker 3: it goes the opposite way, where you know there's not
Speaker 3: a sort of a defeated mentality, but something like that. Anyway,
Speaker 3: Utah players, fans, coaches certainly didn't let that happen, and
Speaker 3: so you know, it was just a great game to
Speaker 3: be a part of it. It is a people say
Speaker 3: unique rivalry, and that's you know, it's just a sort
Speaker 3: of a bad term to use in college football in general.
Speaker 3: But there isn't another rivalry in the whole sport that
Speaker 3: is interconnected as that one is where coaches have been
Speaker 3: on both sides, where players and their families have been
Speaker 3: on both sides. There's nothing like that in the country.
Speaker 3: So it makes it different than almost every other great
Speaker 3: rivalry and it makes it great what it is. So
Speaker 3: that's a long way of saying it was really fun
Speaker 3: to be there on Saturday night.
Speaker 1: I genuinely wish I did not have to ask you
Speaker 1: about the holding call, but I do because obviously that's
Speaker 1: topically the big thing.
Speaker 2: Here in the market.
Speaker 1: How did you kind of digest that entire thing when
Speaker 1: you fans out they want then be why you got
Speaker 1: a time out and you fans out.
Speaker 2: They won and be while you got the holding call?
Speaker 1: And you know, I heard what Brock had to say
Speaker 1: as you walk people through the call. That replay has
Speaker 1: been going all over the place in the community. But
Speaker 1: what was that moment like for you and what's your
Speaker 1: opinion on how it went down?
Speaker 3: Well that's probably two answers to that. Number one. While
Speaker 3: the whole thing is happening for us in the booth,
Speaker 3: I mean, I think, you know, and Brock shared his
Speaker 3: very good, strong opinion. You know, I think that's what
Speaker 3: we want all our analysts to do. Tell the truth.
Speaker 3: What do you see? Tell us what that is? And
Speaker 3: you know a lot of guys are afraid to take
Speaker 3: a stand and equivocate in that moment, and Brock did not,
Speaker 3: to his credit, you know, whatever you think about his opinion,
Speaker 3: that he should be given a lot of credit for that,
Speaker 3: because that's what we want from our analysts on television.
Speaker 3: He really did his job in a big moment, So
Speaker 3: I give him credit for that. It is hard for
Speaker 3: both of us, for all of us in those moments.
Speaker 3: You got to do it. It's it's the job. But
Speaker 3: there is so much going on. You know, first of all,
Speaker 3: we're a million miles from the field where we're watching
Speaker 3: through monitors and binoculars and our own eyes from far removed,
Speaker 3: the producers in our ear. We got replays coming. You know,
Speaker 3: There's so many things that are going on in that moment,
Speaker 3: real time, with no safety net. You got to do
Speaker 3: all this live, and you can mess it up, and
Speaker 3: so it becomes a chaotic sequence. And I think the
Speaker 3: thing that I always regret about those kinds of scenarios
Speaker 3: is there just isn't enough time to reflect. You have
Speaker 3: to move on. Okay, So once the call gets made
Speaker 3: the BYU, then there's a near interception, there's a huge
Speaker 3: pass where they have to review that. Like, we can't
Speaker 3: go back and keep dwelling on it. We can't. We
Speaker 3: have to follow the game. Forward, So it almost makes
Speaker 3: it seem like we're dismissive of the importance of that moment.
Speaker 3: We're not. We just have to We just have to
Speaker 3: keep doing the job and following the game. That's just
Speaker 3: the way it is, So, you know, I think that's
Speaker 3: part of our challenge in any moment like that. When
Speaker 3: you're broadcasting a game, is it's moving fast, You're talking
Speaker 3: to the producer, how much times left? What's this, what's
Speaker 3: the implication of the penalty? We have a rules analyst
Speaker 3: or we're bringing him in. All this stuff is going
Speaker 3: on in a matter of seconds while you're trying to
Speaker 3: coherently explain to an audience at home what we're seeing,
Speaker 3: and it makes for a jumbled it just you got
Speaker 3: to do the best you can. The call was the
Speaker 3: correct call, like if there was a hold, the timeout
Speaker 3: did get signaled for before the play was snapped? Like,
Speaker 3: I don't. I just don't think those things are disputable.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I guess if you want to argue that, hey, the
Speaker 3: holding call happened, the guy was getting sack, it had
Speaker 3: no impact on the play. If you want to make
Speaker 3: that argument, you can. I don't. The officials job is
Speaker 3: you're watching the part of the field. That's your responsibility.
Speaker 3: And if you see a penalty, you throw a flag.
Speaker 3: That's that official's job. The officials job is not to
Speaker 3: to try to measure well, was that a part of
Speaker 3: the design of the play? Was the quarterback already in
Speaker 3: so much trouble but it wasn't going to matter. That
Speaker 3: is not that official job. The kid got held, he did,
Speaker 3: and the penalty was thrown and the timeout was called
Speaker 3: for in time. So like, I understand the sore feelings
Speaker 3: of losing that game, and I understand how close it
Speaker 3: was and what an agonizingly painful defeat that was. But
Speaker 3: I also don't particularly think you can dispute those two things.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said, it's pretty clear that there are some
Speaker 1: people that live in this community that don't necessarily agree
Speaker 1: with you, Dave, namely the head coach of Utah and
Speaker 1: the athletic director of the University of Utah, who were
Speaker 1: very upset after the game. Emotions definitely spill in. But
Speaker 1: I always like, excuse me after the fact I interview
Speaker 1: the play by play guy, because you have to hone
Speaker 1: in on every play, So let me bring in another dynamic.
Speaker 2: Just get your thoughts.
Speaker 1: A lot of people throughout the course of yesterday and
Speaker 1: today have brought up the consistency portion of the way
Speaker 1: the game was officiated now BYU. I'm on a couple
Speaker 1: of three. I come from a BYU family. I went
Speaker 1: to the University of Utah because I chose truth. That's
Speaker 1: just a line I use, and so I get a
Speaker 1: lot of BYU interaction, a lot of Utah interaction. My
Speaker 1: phone was lighting up with BYU fans that were really
Speaker 1: angry about the officiating in the first half, and then
Speaker 1: lighting up after the game youth fans ready to find.
Speaker 2: Out where the officials live.
Speaker 1: So you know, there was the phantom face mask call
Speaker 1: on the Glasger kid, where upon replay it looked like
Speaker 1: he grabbed him on the shirt. But as far as
Speaker 1: the holding call, Dave, do you feel like it was
Speaker 1: consistent with the way that dynamic was officiated all game long?
Speaker 3: I probably just don't have a good answer for you.
Speaker 3: I'm not avoiding it. I mean, I'm willing to share
Speaker 3: my opinion. I just don't you know, it's a play
Speaker 3: by play guy. It's really hard for me too. I'm
Speaker 3: following the ball and so I just don't feel like
Speaker 3: I've got a great sense for on the perimeter those
Speaker 3: kind of plays exactly how the game was officiated. I
Speaker 3: know a lot of Utah people feel like they were
Speaker 3: letting players get away with stuff. But I mean, even
Speaker 3: if they were, I think if you grab a guy's
Speaker 3: jersey and turn his shoulders, which is what happened, now,
Speaker 3: you know, did the kids stumble too? Did that exaggerate
Speaker 3: the way it looked to the official? Maybe it did,
Speaker 3: but he grabbed part of his jersey and the shoulders turned.
Speaker 3: Like whether you're letting guys get away with stuff or not,
Speaker 3: it's really hard to ask an official not to throw
Speaker 3: a flag when he sees that. It just is so,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't have a great answer for you
Speaker 3: on the consistency of the whole game. I thought the
Speaker 3: game was, you know, all college football and football in general.
Speaker 3: Now is just you know, the over analysis of officiating.
Speaker 3: A lot of times officiating is flawed. But we have
Speaker 3: all these replay reviews, and the game feels so disjointed
Speaker 3: at times, and the replay reviews all they do is
Speaker 3: just emphasize more like individual calls. Are they getting it right?
Speaker 3: Are they getting it wrong? Like it just fuels this
Speaker 3: sort of snowball effect of oh my gosh, what a
Speaker 3: terribly officiated game. And the reality is is just every game,
Speaker 3: there's a million, there's one hundred calls in every game
Speaker 3: that could go either way, and I don't believe that
Speaker 3: this one really falls in that category. I think he got.
Speaker 1: Held so away from the controversial elements of what happened
Speaker 1: and over to kind of just more of the beaten
Speaker 1: potatoes of the game.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you from your.
Speaker 1: Vantage point or maybe broacats and things to share about
Speaker 1: what by you did at halftime as far as adjustments
Speaker 1: go to really stifle a Utah offense that's been bad
Speaker 1: all year but seem to figure some things out as
Speaker 1: they put up twenty one all in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: but they cannot do anything in the second half. Is
Speaker 1: is that you know specific to what b why you
Speaker 1: did at halftime to approach it differently, or did you
Speaker 1: Tah take their foot off the gas something puts up
Speaker 1: in the second half.
Speaker 2: Tell me what you saw.
Speaker 3: I do think Jay Hill is really good at that.
Speaker 3: I think if you watch BYU a lot, he is
Speaker 3: good at He kind of lets the game early play
Speaker 3: out and you know sometimes that philosophy can get you
Speaker 3: in a little bit of trouble. I think the guy
Speaker 3: with the Chiefs actually does this quite a bit Spagnolo like,
Speaker 3: where he'll let a couple series go where he's not
Speaker 3: calling a lot of pressures. He's kind of playing it vanilla.
Speaker 3: And I think his philosophy is, even if I give
Speaker 3: up some points early in the game, I get a
Speaker 3: real strong sense of exactly how they're approaching us, and
Speaker 3: then he's really confident in his ability to make those changes.
Speaker 3: And I think Jay's like that. I think Jay is
Speaker 3: very good at mid stream changing what they're doing. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not going to play analysts and get
Speaker 3: into like x's and oh's technical stuff. I think clearly
Speaker 3: they change their looks. I think anytime you have a
Speaker 3: young quarterback who's getting into a little bit of rhythm
Speaker 3: and I say he's young, he's not young by age,
Speaker 3: but by playing experience. Jay's point to us going into
Speaker 3: the game was we got to give him a lot
Speaker 3: of different looks make it complicated for him to diagnose
Speaker 3: at the line of scrimmage. I think they got better
Speaker 3: at that as the game was going. They got more
Speaker 3: pressure on him and a couple of those linebackers. I mean,
Speaker 3: Kelly had some monster plays. A couple of individual guys
Speaker 3: just really stepped up and played well. And I think
Speaker 3: losing Keithy was a big factor. You know, He's just
Speaker 3: really good and he made a big impact in the
Speaker 3: first half, and they missed him when they didn't have
Speaker 3: him in the second half. So I think it was
Speaker 3: kind of a combo of all three things.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming, as all major broadcasts, do you have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to meet with both coaching staffs pride of the game, Dave,
Speaker 1: Is that a correct assumption?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Great, Great, So let's start with the Utah coaches, because,
Speaker 1: as I've been saying, well I should say over the
Speaker 1: past three or four weeks, I get things wrong a lot.
Speaker 1: This is a sports talk radio show. You get paid
Speaker 1: to you have opinions. Essentially, they're educated guesses. A lot
Speaker 1: of them are wrong. I don't know that I've ever
Speaker 1: been as wrong as I've been about this Utah football team.
Speaker 1: What are some of the things the coaches shared with
Speaker 1: you as to why we find ourselves sitting here talking
Speaker 1: about five straight ute losses.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Kyle's really boils down to him and
Speaker 3: I do agree with him. You know, Kyle's got a
Speaker 3: very typical Utah team except for one aspect of the team,
Speaker 3: and the total lack of passing attack has torpedoed the season.
Speaker 3: And I think that's what Kyle believes, and I think
Speaker 3: he's right in that. The defense, I mean that Utah
Speaker 3: defense on Saturday was awesome. The effort level from those
Speaker 3: front guys, Pillinger was incredible. I thought Lander Barton played
Speaker 3: the best game I've ever seen him play. He was fantastic.
Speaker 3: Reid was flying all over the place. Vaughn had some
Speaker 3: huge plays like that defense play, the two defensive tackles.
Speaker 3: I mean, Tonavas has got a chance to be one
Speaker 3: of the best players in the country. He is fantastic,
Speaker 3: and they just play their tails off. And the defense
Speaker 3: by every statistical measure is elite again this year. Elite
Speaker 3: with very little support from the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3: And I think you saw in the first half with
Speaker 3: any element of complimentary football, even giving up a kickoff
Speaker 3: return for a touchdown, Utah was in firm control of
Speaker 3: the game. It's just hard to hold up when when
Speaker 3: one side of the ball, and particularly one half of
Speaker 3: one side of the ball just just can't do its job.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the story of Utah season, and
Speaker 3: I think that's how Kyle sees it, and I.
Speaker 2: Think he's right on the other side.
Speaker 1: You know, as you referenced earlier, the cross pollination of
Speaker 1: these two programs is wild. So I've been doing radio
Speaker 1: in the market for almost two decades, So when Klonie
Speaker 1: Satake was up here as defensive coordinator, I did a
Speaker 1: weekly show with him and Aaron Roderick is actually kind
Speaker 1: of a lifelong friend.
Speaker 2: We've known each other since we were young.
Speaker 1: You referenced Jay Hill, who coached under Kyle, played at
Speaker 1: you like it's wild, and of course coach Witt was
Speaker 1: a great player at Brigham Young, So you know, I
Speaker 1: cheer for those guys down there. I like to see
Speaker 1: Kilanie have success and I hope it leads to the
Speaker 1: contract that he finally deserves. But on the flip side,
Speaker 1: what did the coaches from Brigham Young Dave share with
Speaker 1: you about what has been an incredibly unexpected yet magical season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they I mean, and we've done a bunch of
Speaker 3: their games, So I've gotten to know all these coaches
Speaker 3: really well over the last few years, and especially this year,
Speaker 3: he know Kilani. One one thing that Kyle and Kalanie
Speaker 3: both shared with us, which I thought was really cool,
Speaker 3: was they both had an almost exact you know, they
Speaker 3: had not talked all week rivalry week. They're not going
Speaker 3: to be tied out. I think they're talking a ton anyway,
Speaker 3: an off season maybe, but you know, they both had
Speaker 3: almost the exact same recollection of a meeting when Kilanie
Speaker 3: had just joined, like after maybe the first season he
Speaker 3: was with Kyle and sort of the end of year,
Speaker 3: let's decompress and see how things are going. And Kyle
Speaker 3: basically said to Klannie, you have something special. You can
Speaker 3: be anything you want in this business, and here's let's
Speaker 3: pencil down a roadmap for you and put some goals
Speaker 3: down of when you're going to become a coordinator and
Speaker 3: when you're going to have a chance to be a
Speaker 3: head coach. And basically it sort of played out almost
Speaker 3: exactly like Kyle laid it out for him. And so
Speaker 3: I thought that was cool, Like Kyle truly had like
Speaker 3: an intense mentor relationship with Kilanie and helped him get
Speaker 3: to where he is. So that was a fun part
Speaker 3: of the prep for this week to have those guys
Speaker 3: remember those those moments together. I think Jay Hill's a
Speaker 3: fantastic defensive coach, really good Aaron Is, uh, you know, Aaron,
Speaker 3: like all offensive coaches, when your quarterback's playing better, all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, you look a lot better. And and
Speaker 3: he's he deserves a lot of credit for helping get
Speaker 3: Retzlov to the point where he's one of the better
Speaker 3: quarterbacks in the league after you know, some struggles last
Speaker 3: season without a whole lot around him. Uh. Kalani, you
Speaker 3: know Kalanie Is, he's mister positive. He he I think
Speaker 3: he really truly believes the cliche is living out this
Speaker 3: year of our guys focus one week at a time,
Speaker 3: and it's gonna get harder and harder for that team
Speaker 3: if they stay undefeated. It's going to be really hard
Speaker 3: to do. But you can't think about like big picture.
Speaker 3: You got to just focus. And I think Kilanie's really
Speaker 3: proud of his team for doing that. He loves his group.
Speaker 3: They've been patient developing players. You know, they haven't just
Speaker 3: hit the portal or run a bunch of guys out
Speaker 3: or well, you know, they've been patiently building this team
Speaker 3: up to this point, and it's paid off. And he's
Speaker 3: really proud about that.
Speaker 2: All right, Dave, before we say you lose.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've done any Buffs games this year,
Speaker 1: but Utah hits the road for a really difficult game,
Speaker 1: and Dion deserves a lot of credit.
Speaker 2: Colorado is for real.
Speaker 1: Do you give the Utza puncher's chance coming up on Saturday?
Speaker 1: And did you see enough from Utah to believe that
Speaker 1: maybe over the final three games there are a couple
Speaker 1: of wins out there, so these upperclassmen can go bowling before.
Speaker 2: They get gone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they have. Definitely, when you have that defense,
Speaker 3: you've got a chance. To me, the big question is
Speaker 3: kNN the offense just give them enough support to let
Speaker 3: the defense win the game essentially, and I think they
Speaker 3: can do it now. Colorado's super explosive, but Utah upfront
Speaker 3: is a handful and Colorado has gotten a lot better
Speaker 3: on the offensive line, a lot better. But when they've
Speaker 3: failed in the last few years, it's been when they
Speaker 3: can't protect Shador, when when he's under extreme duress, Colorado
Speaker 3: has a hard time functioning and you talk him, do
Speaker 3: that to him. So that's to be that's the formula
Speaker 3: for the game. You've got to go in there, must
Speaker 3: go in there and hit him a bunch of times
Speaker 3: and get in his face almost every time he drops back,
Speaker 3: and they're capable of it. If those big guys up
Speaker 3: front can play inspired like they did this last weekend,
Speaker 3: they can go in there and win. That's a big
Speaker 3: if though, because it's just going to be It's I
Speaker 3: don't envy the challenge of Kyle and the staff this week.
Speaker 3: I know they love their players, and the players have
Speaker 3: played hard, but you can understand the disappointment of that loss.
Speaker 3: And we'll see how much energy and enthusiasm they can
Speaker 3: carry on the road. That's going to be a massive
Speaker 3: challenge because you know, if you give up a couple
Speaker 3: big plays early and gets rolling it with the way
Speaker 3: the season's gone, it's you know, you can't blame anybody
Speaker 3: if a player now a rollover is too strong, but
Speaker 3: if you lose a little bit of your fight if
Speaker 3: you fall down early. So that's how they go in
Speaker 3: and win the game. Can they do it? They absolutely can?
Speaker 1: Dave, thank you sir, excellent job on the call. Be well,
Speaker 1: have a good week. Love to do it again, okay.
Speaker 3: And anytime I can come back for that rivalry. Sign
Speaker 3: me up. I would do that game every year. It's
Speaker 3: a special thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, Sir, Dave Fleming.
Speaker 1: College football, baseball, golf too, does a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: For ESPN calls Giants games. Had a number of years
Speaker 1: as a sub for the Warriors broadcast. I can remember
Speaker 1: call them some NBA games as well