Speaker 1: But let's talk more college football.
Speaker 2: Consistent guest on the show, former ute, former NFL player,
Speaker 2: You know him, you love him. Robert Johnson on a Friday,
Speaker 2: Roger Happy Friday, Man, how are we doing? Hey?
Speaker 3: It was so, I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: How y'all doing doing well? Doing well? I appreciate the time.
Speaker 2: So let's, uh, let's kind of look back before we
Speaker 2: look forward.
Speaker 1: Uh So, Utah State.
Speaker 2: Last week, Utah rolls up to Logan for the first
Speaker 2: time in twelve years. They get it done. Tell me, Rojo,
Speaker 2: what you saw from Isaac Wilson QB two. What sort
Speaker 2: of questions did he answer for you?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, the biggest question I feel like he
Speaker 3: answered was that he's a he's a baller, he a gamer,
Speaker 3: he is a gamer. And then it took. It's in
Speaker 3: a couple of series before we started getting into the start,
Speaker 3: getting into the tool of things. But I'm really happy
Speaker 3: of our future or will we stand with everything? I'm
Speaker 3: very very happy and proud of him and proud of
Speaker 3: the coaches at least opening up stuff, which was great.
Speaker 1: Were you concerned at all after that slow start?
Speaker 2: You know a lot of yout fans fourteen to three
Speaker 2: looking around you know, no Cam Rising, no Karrede Reid.
Speaker 2: I think there was some certainly some nerves firing up
Speaker 2: around here in the community where you concerned all after
Speaker 2: that slow start from the utes last week.
Speaker 3: Heck yeah, I was like, I say, if you got
Speaker 3: if you gotta post. If you've got a utah, you
Speaker 3: post or your heartbeat utah. Yout definitely was nervous about it,
Speaker 3: or more like just concerned about like last game, how
Speaker 3: it went. Whereas he like popped into the game and
Speaker 3: then where he started, it was like, oh, here we go.
Speaker 3: But he got better. And I always talk about that
Speaker 3: during the summertime of like like when it comes to
Speaker 3: summer ball, it's like I want to see what the
Speaker 3: light bullets look like. I want to see what going
Speaker 3: against an opponent that don't wear the same colors you
Speaker 3: and when he's coming to attack you, how do you react.
Speaker 3: So it was really really cool to kind of sit
Speaker 3: back and watch him and I'm just happy and product
Speaker 3: in the way that he did it, which gave us
Speaker 3: all hope of like we got a good future. We
Speaker 3: got it's it's a good plan behind this. You know.
Speaker 2: A lot of the attention, of course, is on the
Speaker 2: health of the quarterback because it's just so important, as
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: But Rojoe, you're a defensive guy.
Speaker 2: What does this defense miss when Karine Reid isn't out there.
Speaker 3: I feel like they missed a lot. But then I
Speaker 3: was looking on Twitter and popped up on something I
Speaker 3: said that we was trying some new things on defense
Speaker 3: at the beginning of the half. He was trying to
Speaker 3: stuff We want to see what we could do, and
Speaker 3: I think we was already kind of planning to get
Speaker 3: ready for Oklahoma State this week. So our defensive plan
Speaker 3: wasn't really bad at the beginning, but it was more
Speaker 3: of trying things, if that is true, and you see
Speaker 3: we locked it down towards the second half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2: Actually gonna ask you about that because the conversation was
Speaker 2: Bryson Barnes, Utah States quarterback, of course, was down here
Speaker 2: for a number of years, and they were a little
Speaker 2: bit concerned that Bryson knows the personnel and knows the scheme.
Speaker 2: So it was interesting to here coach With and Coach
Speaker 2: Galli talked about how at the start of the game
Speaker 2: they were trying to change it up to keep Bryce
Speaker 2: and Barnes off their heels, but when they in Kyle's
Speaker 2: when they went back to doing what they always do,
Speaker 2: they settled in and were dominant.
Speaker 1: You played in the system.
Speaker 2: What does it mean when Coach witch as we settled
Speaker 2: back into doing what we always did on defense?
Speaker 3: Is a big sign that growth, That's what I would say,
Speaker 3: because at the end of the day, our scheme is
Speaker 3: the NFL scheme, and when it comes to opponents that
Speaker 3: you play against, you're going to see it like it's
Speaker 3: the same looks no matter what, Like you can get
Speaker 3: that cover one, cover two, cover three, cover four, you know,
Speaker 3: like those are just common looks. But it's one of
Speaker 3: those we gonna line up against you and we're gonna
Speaker 3: try to figure out can you stop? Can you stop
Speaker 3: what we're doing, or even if we show what we're doing,
Speaker 3: can you at least get around it. So I was
Speaker 3: really happy that we went back to our bread and
Speaker 3: butter and show how strong we are with our defense.
Speaker 2: So of course this and it's still early, still early
Speaker 2: in the season, you know, and I tell college football
Speaker 2: fans this all the time. I Mean, everybody just misses
Speaker 2: college football so much and then it comes back and
Speaker 2: we blink and it's over. But it is still early,
Speaker 2: but I wanted to get for you, row Joe, because
Speaker 2: you hear college coaches talk all the time like the
Speaker 2: only thing we can do is win the day. The
Speaker 2: only thing we can improve between this week. It's all
Speaker 2: we can do is to improve between this week and
Speaker 2: the next week through three weeks. From your vantage point,
Speaker 2: is Utah improving the way they need to week by
Speaker 2: week to compete in this conference? Heck yeah, we are.
Speaker 3: I mean to go to go at the beginning of
Speaker 3: the season where everybody was really saying we're going to
Speaker 3: win the Big Twelve and then now seeing how we
Speaker 3: how we're going to me that's one of the biggest
Speaker 3: things of like showing that the team is loaded, the
Speaker 3: team is ready to perform when it comes to big games.
Speaker 3: So this week is a big game. It's a huge game.
Speaker 3: So I feel like in my heart that this is
Speaker 3: this is one of those games where we're going to
Speaker 3: know exactly where we stand at of like if the
Speaker 3: team is strong enough or is the team we need
Speaker 3: to just need to get a little bit better and
Speaker 3: send us off the season very very strong in the
Speaker 3: Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: So Rojo, the fact of the matter is Rashul Faizan
Speaker 2: goes for a buck fifteen and as the team, Utah
Speaker 2: State hangs three eighty five on on the Utah defense.
Speaker 2: So they were able to gain yardage. A lot of
Speaker 2: it were you know, chunk plays here or there, but
Speaker 2: they were able to gain a lot of yards on
Speaker 2: the ground with Rashul Feizon Oli.
Speaker 1: Gordon won the dok Walker a year ago.
Speaker 2: Alan Bowman, just like Cam Rising, is a seventh year
Speaker 2: college quarterback. What does Utah's defense need to improve upon
Speaker 2: this week when they're going to be on the road
Speaker 2: against a better team than Utah State to make sure that,
Speaker 2: you know, Oklahoma State doesn't get off the way that
Speaker 2: Utah State was able to at times last week.
Speaker 3: For me, I feel like the ball control is one
Speaker 3: of the biggest things were going into a hostile environment
Speaker 3: because I've heard about still still Water a lot. So
Speaker 3: like they have their fans, they have a big call in.
Speaker 3: But on top of a big call in the way
Speaker 3: that outfield is that if we control the ball, we
Speaker 3: can control whether we going to get down to that
Speaker 3: last position or a bigger position. No. So so it's
Speaker 3: one of those things. Sorry, my son, i I'm in
Speaker 3: a supermarket right now. See that's how there you go.
Speaker 3: I'm a supermarket trying to shop with my sons and
Speaker 3: they going crazy. But but yeah, like exactly what I
Speaker 3: was just mentioning is that if we can go down
Speaker 3: there and control that ball and do what we need
Speaker 3: to do, as in not having those turnovers early and
Speaker 3: being able to get first down, first down, first downs,
Speaker 3: it could be a really good setup of like a
Speaker 3: last possession and type of setup. And I feel like
Speaker 3: we can win last possessions because Coach, we'd always make
Speaker 3: sure that we're ready for those those grinder games. I'll say, all.
Speaker 2: Right, since you're with your boys grocery shop, and I'll
Speaker 2: set you loose, but I'll ask you one more question here,
Speaker 2: because again, Oli Gordon is a very capable back in
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State. So far, his face defenses that stacked the
Speaker 2: box and that's why he's not off to a great start.
Speaker 2: They do have a capable balanced quarterback. But walk us
Speaker 2: through Rojo before I say you lose schematically, how you
Speaker 2: stop a team that has the rushing attack like Oklahoma
Speaker 2: State is capable of having, even though they haven't showed
Speaker 2: it so far this year entirely.
Speaker 3: Turns into that quarterback that quarterback has been there so long.
Speaker 3: I'll put the balls over into his hand where it's
Speaker 3: like make them throw. And to me, our secondary is great.
Speaker 3: We have weapons on secondary wise as well as linebackers wise.
Speaker 3: We have weapons. Now we can force them to throw
Speaker 3: the ball. It could be it could be a win
Speaker 3: on our end for what I feel, because their running
Speaker 3: back is so good. You're right, their running back is very,
Speaker 3: very very good, so he could bust loose every time
Speaker 3: you get the ball. But the goal is to stack
Speaker 3: the box and let's see what that quarterback can do.
Speaker 3: We're trying to read read a secondary or read a
Speaker 3: defense where the nobody knows who's coming. Don't nobody know
Speaker 3: who's running cover three, we're running pressed. What I seen
Speaker 3: those run last week against Utah State. I got a
Speaker 3: feeling that we're going to test out some different looks
Speaker 3: and try to make him hold the ball a little
Speaker 3: longer so than our d line can get there and
Speaker 3: get the sacks that we need because to getting a
Speaker 3: negative play it wins games from what I feel.
Speaker 2: All right, Rod, Joe, go chase your boys man enjoy
Speaker 2: the game tomorrow with chat soon.
Speaker 3: All right, Hey, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Go you all right.
Speaker 2: Robert Johnson, former Utah defensive back, played a number of
Speaker 2: years in the NFL. Always pre appreciate Rojo's time. Of course,
Speaker 2: really interesting dynamics of play coming up tomorrow, It's a
Speaker 2: two pm kick on Fox.
Speaker 1: Remember you can watch it on Fox.
Speaker 2: Of course, you can listen to the game on our
Speaker 2: radio station beginning at ten o'clock AM with pregame covers
Speaker 2: with Porter Larson and Jordan Winn live at Bout Time
Speaker 2: Pub at Jordan Commons. You've got two twenty year coaches
Speaker 2: and coach Witting Mike Gundy, two seventh year quarterbacks and
Speaker 2: camera Rising and Alan Bowman. So far, OSU hasn't got
Speaker 2: much out of Oli Gordon the second last year. He's
Speaker 2: averaging three point five yards of Kerry only point nine
Speaker 2: before contact.
Speaker 1: He's getting hit hard.
Speaker 2: OSU ranks one hundred and fifteenth in rushing success rate
Speaker 2: so far. But ultimately the quarterback Bowman has been able
Speaker 2: to play pretty well and they've they've been able to
Speaker 2: stay clean. They survived against Arkansas. They should have lost
Speaker 2: that game. Okay State has won seventh straight home games
Speaker 2: versus AP ranked opponents.
Speaker 1: So it's a tough one for Utah tomorrow,