Speaker 1: A couple of nights this week no football, So I've
Speaker 1: decided to fire up some friends reminisce go old school,
Speaker 1: get nostalgic, enjoy the phenomenal acting of that great cast,
Speaker 1: namely one Courtney Cox, I underrated member of the Friends cast.
Speaker 2: Neither here nor there. Let's get to our next guest.
Speaker 1: Talk a little football, talk, a little baseball, whatever comes
Speaker 1: our way with my guy, Roxy Bernstein.
Speaker 2: Roxy, Happy Friday, Sir, How are you Spence?
Speaker 3: That's never gonna get old? It's truly not.
Speaker 2: I can't stop the bit, Roxy, I can't stop the bit.
Speaker 3: I never will we going come on? Yeah, I'm with
Speaker 3: you on that A one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Now for our new listeners. I say this every time
Speaker 1: Roxy joins us.
Speaker 2: Roxy.
Speaker 1: The cliche one of one is overused. What makes Roxy
Speaker 1: Bernstey one of one several things. Namely, he is a
Speaker 1: phenomenal broadcaster. He does a tremendous job on whatever he does, football, baseball, basketball,
Speaker 1: But he also has a continuing beef with Courtney Cox
Speaker 1: because he's friends with the lead singer of Counting Crows
Speaker 1: and she broke his heart. I just we have new listeners, Rocksy,
Speaker 1: I just have to remind them of the deal.
Speaker 3: Spence. Bill Walton was clearly one of one, and I
Speaker 3: just happened to be one of probably a few. You know,
Speaker 3: there's a few of Adam's close friends, and we all
Speaker 3: probably have a general distaste for Courteney's, so I can't
Speaker 3: be just one of one in that regard.
Speaker 2: How is my guy, Adam Durretz these days? How's he doing?
Speaker 3: He's good. They just finish up tour. He's all pumped
Speaker 3: because the Golden Bears for the first time, College Game
Speaker 3: Day will broadcast from Berkeley tomorrow. In the history of
Speaker 3: that program, they've never had Lee Corso put on Osky's
Speaker 3: head or the other mascot Tomorrow with Sebastia the ibis is.
Speaker 3: Miami's in town to play cal but the first time
Speaker 3: College Game Day will broadcast from Berkeley. I hope whoever
Speaker 3: holds the bleak button with Marshaun Lynch being the guest
Speaker 3: picker is ready to go when that show comes to
Speaker 3: a conclusion around nine o'clock specific ten Mountain time tomorrow,
Speaker 3: because I think that button might get used a few
Speaker 3: times tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Well said, and you know you didn't see my notes today,
Speaker 1: but you stole my first question because as a proud alum,
Speaker 1: I mean it has to be pretty cool, and you
Speaker 1: know what there I haven't seen a ton of them,
Speaker 1: but I think they're a little bit improved based off
Speaker 1: of the chaos that that program's had to deal with.
Speaker 1: I mean, I still chuckle when I say Cal out.
Speaker 2: Of the ACC.
Speaker 1: But with game day in town, with game day in
Speaker 1: town in Berkeley and a really good Miami team rolling
Speaker 1: in the spread is ten, which is sizable, do you
Speaker 1: think they'll be motivated to make this thing interesting? You
Speaker 1: think they've got a shot at the upset?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, I do. They're at home and Spence. They're
Speaker 3: a really good defensive team. They have some shortcomings offensively.
Speaker 3: I have concern about Cal's offensive line. I like the quarterback.
Speaker 3: I think Bernando Mendoza has grown and now is redshirt sophomore,
Speaker 3: is comfortable in the offense. They were three and zero
Speaker 3: going into that game against Florida State and lost a
Speaker 3: tough one on the road, a game they should have won.
Speaker 3: But you know, the kicker misses a couple of chip
Speaker 3: shot field goals and you don't score on off as
Speaker 3: a touchdown and you lose a thirteen to nine game.
Speaker 3: It makes it frustrating, but they went on the road,
Speaker 3: they wanted Auburn. They tie have tied for the most
Speaker 3: interceptions in the country defensively, so this is going to
Speaker 3: be an inspiring performance. They're going to be ready. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of hype and buzz around this and Cal's
Speaker 3: got an opportunity to make a name for themselves on
Speaker 3: a national stage with a good shilling on game day
Speaker 3: and if the team can follow it up Saturday night
Speaker 3: against the You.
Speaker 1: All right, Roxy, let's move over to the University of Utah.
Speaker 1: Before we talk about any game specifically or what comes next,
Speaker 1: you will not be well. You follow the new cycle.
Speaker 1: You follow the program. We're former Pac twelve buddies, so
Speaker 1: you know that for the second straight year, we're dealing
Speaker 1: with a lot of unknown, a lot of ambiguity about
Speaker 1: the quarterback under center Cameron Rising. Where I want to
Speaker 1: start with you is, you know, in the NFL, in
Speaker 1: the SEC, in the Big ten, you gotta report, got
Speaker 1: to report injuries. And Steve Sarksian was asked about this
Speaker 1: dynamic and he gave a very articulate answer, but ultimately
Speaker 1: he said the report is a good thing, so that
Speaker 1: everyone's clear of why we do this reported, so that
Speaker 1: we can.
Speaker 2: Minimize the leaks in our building.
Speaker 1: From a gambling perspective, nobody wants to know the truth,
Speaker 1: right everybody's trying to figure out who's planning and who's not.
Speaker 1: And then if you don't report, everybody wants to call
Speaker 1: your student trainers and student managers and ask who's practice.
Speaker 2: Who didn't didn't do all these things.
Speaker 1: And then Dennis Dodd also quoted a gentleman who has
Speaker 1: been hired by all P four conferences, and name is
Speaker 1: Matt Holt, who is known as the founder of US
Speaker 1: Integrity in Las Vegas, which doesn't sound like the thing,
Speaker 1: but it is. And he talks about how he advises
Speaker 1: the colleges to report injuries because if you don't, you're
Speaker 1: putting your student athletes, your trainers, everybody at risk in
Speaker 1: the program because those guys in the desert, as we
Speaker 1: all know, we'll do whatever they can to get information.
Speaker 1: So coach Witt is under no obligation report. He believes
Speaker 1: it's a competitive advantage. Some people would disagree with that,
Speaker 1: but Kyle's job is to win games, not tell you
Speaker 1: or me who's going.
Speaker 2: To play quarterback.
Speaker 1: Do you think we should just make it mandatory for
Speaker 1: every school to report injuries to avoid the you know,
Speaker 1: the kind of the chaos we find ourselves here in
Speaker 1: Slick City.
Speaker 3: I think there should be universal policy, not just okay,
Speaker 3: this league's been does it or that league does it?
Speaker 3: Especially among the Power for conferences. I think there should
Speaker 3: be some unity between those leagues that they all do
Speaker 3: the same thing. And it's not just for injuries, but
Speaker 3: across the board they played the same number of conference games.
Speaker 3: I think everything should be even as far as those
Speaker 3: power conferences go, and that includes disclosing injuries. And look
Speaker 3: how you saw Kyle Whitningham last year and even dealing
Speaker 3: with it this year. How sick and tired was he
Speaker 3: of answering the question about Cam Rising is he playing?
Speaker 3: Is he not playing? Who's going to play quarterback for you?
Speaker 3: On set Saturday? And to the point where I think
Speaker 3: it became a nuisance in a distraction, I think it
Speaker 3: can help alleviate some of those issues which you alluded to,
Speaker 3: that it's all out in the open and people know
Speaker 3: exactly and I'll full disclosure. He was upfront and honest
Speaker 3: with us. He trusted our crew last year when we
Speaker 3: were what everybody was speculating, is Cam playing, is he
Speaker 3: coming back? Who's going to be the quarterback? Is it
Speaker 3: going to be Barnes? And he was upfront and honest
Speaker 3: with us, and there was a level of trust. But
Speaker 3: there's very few people that are in that circle of trust.
Speaker 3: And I get the paranoia the coaches have because my
Speaker 3: sister's married to a Division one head basketball coach, So
Speaker 3: I get it from their perspective. And you keep the
Speaker 3: opponent guessing because they have to prepare not only for Okay,
Speaker 3: they're not sure if Cam's going to play, but Wilson
Speaker 3: whoever plays quarterback when they go up against Utah. So
Speaker 3: a preparation standpoint, it could give you a competitive advantage,
Speaker 3: But I would like to see it level across the board.
Speaker 3: All the power conferences do the same thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well said.
Speaker 1: And you know there is a portion of the community
Speaker 1: that's really down on Cameron, which I'm not with.
Speaker 2: I'm not here for that. I mean, he's hurt and
Speaker 2: when he's healthy, he will play.
Speaker 1: And the knee injury last year was way worse than
Speaker 1: anybody knew because nobody reported it until a writer from
Speaker 1: the Athletic Front of the show Chris Comrodnie interviewed doctor
Speaker 1: Neila Trash and then Cam came on.
Speaker 2: Bill's show last year and I felt for him.
Speaker 1: I mean, he sounded emotional and he actually went into detail.
Speaker 1: I think people thought he may have like, you know,
Speaker 1: sprained his MCL his knee exploded. And the piece that
Speaker 1: Camaradnie wrote, he had access to Cam and Cam's family.
Speaker 2: You could tell it really it really affected him.
Speaker 1: He said he didn't want to leave the house his
Speaker 1: door dash Bill was rising and a lot of dark days.
Speaker 2: And you know, the deal with these young football players rocks.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like the old John Calipari quote when
Speaker 1: he was asked how many NBA.
Speaker 2: Players do you have in your locker room? He said
Speaker 2: I have twelve? Go ask him. You know, they all
Speaker 2: think that are going these young people. Football is like
Speaker 2: their identity, It's what they know.
Speaker 1: I don't know Cam, if I don't know if Cam's
Speaker 1: an NFL guy and coach Wit. Every time he's asked
Speaker 1: about this and he, you know, a reportable reference. The
Speaker 1: criticism Cam is taking, Kyle will say, well, I'm not
Speaker 1: on social media.
Speaker 2: I don't see any of that.
Speaker 1: Well, guess who is his twenty five year old quarterback
Speaker 1: and he obviously sees it, and he obviously is.
Speaker 2: Affected by it.
Speaker 1: Do you think that dynamic should kind of change and
Speaker 1: shift the paradigm as far as how they're handling it,
Speaker 1: because it feels like Cam is taking a lot of
Speaker 1: unnecessary heat.
Speaker 4: Roxy it's unfair to criticize him.
Speaker 3: His body is letting him down. It's not that he
Speaker 3: doesn't want to play.
Speaker 4: He physically can't.
Speaker 3: And so how can you take shots at a kid
Speaker 3: for trying to do whatever he can to get healthy
Speaker 3: to get back out there on the field, but his
Speaker 3: body won't cooperate with that. And look, we all deal
Speaker 3: with physical elements in life, especially as we get older,
Speaker 3: and there's nothing we can do about it. We do
Speaker 3: our best prepared our bodies for life. And he's trying
Speaker 3: to prepare his body to play football and his body's
Speaker 3: not cooperating right now, and it's brutally unfair to take
Speaker 3: a shot at him. Do you think that anybody wants
Speaker 3: to play more than Cam Rising does? Absolutely not. He
Speaker 3: wants to be out there in the worst way, but
Speaker 3: he can't be. And I just don't understand the logic
Speaker 3: from people that that they take shots and want to
Speaker 3: criticize a kid when he physically can't go out there
Speaker 3: and do it, because nobody wants to play. Nobody wants
Speaker 3: to see Cam Rising on Rice Echo Stadium's field than
Speaker 3: Cam Rising. I guarantee you that one hundred percent, and
Speaker 3: nobody could convince me otherwise for sure.
Speaker 1: Roxy and Kyle Boneguro joined us earlier and made a
Speaker 1: really good point because one of this and look, I'm
Speaker 1: not the radio host that's he's won tweet and creates
Speaker 1: a topic.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a real thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's a portion of the community that feels like
Speaker 1: Cam is just saving himself for the NFL.
Speaker 2: But as Kyle said earlier.
Speaker 1: Can didn't play a snap lash year, so he needs
Speaker 1: tape this year to give the NFL team to show
Speaker 1: that he's right. I don't know if he's an NFL quarterback,
Speaker 1: but the notion that he's saving himself for pro football
Speaker 1: when he badly needs tape to show the decision makers
Speaker 1: in pro football that he can still play might be
Speaker 1: the most lucrous thing I've seen so far.
Speaker 3: It's it's asinine to think that that is a reality.
Speaker 3: He's at this point with the injury that kept him
Speaker 3: out all last year Spence and now I'm dealing with
Speaker 3: an injury this year. I think that he's got to
Speaker 3: prove of the GMS. He can get on the field
Speaker 3: and he can play. That's what they want to see.
Speaker 3: He's already got the production. They know he's a strong
Speaker 3: quarterback and a great leader. Right now, it's just a
Speaker 3: question about his durability. And I think Michael Pennix went
Speaker 3: through that at Washington. To be honest with you, he's
Speaker 3: an older quarterback when he came out last year, just
Speaker 3: like Cam's an older quarterback. But the knock on him
Speaker 3: was he couldn't stay healthy and they had to see
Speaker 3: him complete seasons and he did it the last two years,
Speaker 3: and that's I think what Cam has to do, to
Speaker 3: be honest with you, in the eyes of the NFL,
Speaker 3: they need to know that he can get out there
Speaker 3: physically and do it. And you know, what's that old
Speaker 3: line about a professional athlete, what's their best ability availability?
Speaker 3: And I think at this point that's what the teams
Speaker 3: want to see in the NFL, is can Camerising get
Speaker 3: back out on the field.
Speaker 1: Last thing on this then we'll move off it, because honestly,
Speaker 1: it's exhausting, But it really is the one thing that
Speaker 1: everybody asks me every time I show up at a
Speaker 1: buddy's house. So what everyone wants to know what he's playing,
Speaker 1: because of course there's so much at stake.
Speaker 2: This is a good team.
Speaker 1: They could go to the CFP and potentially without under
Speaker 1: with Cam under center for the second straight year. We'll
Speaker 1: be looking back and talking about, you know, what could
Speaker 1: have been, or what ifs or what have you. So
Speaker 1: I get it, but I wonder because there is part
Speaker 1: of me that understands the frustration about the messaging where
Speaker 1: every week, and look, all due respect, coach Wit said
Speaker 1: earlier in the schedule, we are not doing this for gamesmanship.
Speaker 1: But see, they kind of did last year every week
Speaker 1: when behind the scenes it was known that there's no
Speaker 1: way he's playing. It was maybe game time week in
Speaker 1: week out, we'll see and then sometimes he would dress,
Speaker 1: then he wouldn't play. So they did utilize it to
Speaker 1: use a message where they thought they were getting an
Speaker 1: advantage last year. Is it an advantage that's a legitimate debate.
Speaker 1: But I do think there's some credence to the folks
Speaker 1: around here that are just kind of tired of the
Speaker 1: whole like, all right, week to week game time decision. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm not criticizing Cam and I'm not criticizing Kyle his
Speaker 1: jobs to win football games. If Kyle wouldn't hand the
Speaker 1: head coach believes that by not reporting injuries he gets
Speaker 1: a competitive advantage. That's well within the scope of his responsibilities.
Speaker 1: But do you believe there's any credence at all to
Speaker 1: the portion of youth fans around here that seem just
Speaker 1: to be over the whole thing with the way the
Speaker 1: messaging has kind of gone down.
Speaker 3: I get it from the Utah fan perspective, because you're
Speaker 3: so invested in the program and you want to see
Speaker 3: the best players on the field, and so from that standpoint,
Speaker 3: they've been okay, came back and started and got hurt again,
Speaker 3: and it's now a year and a half, two years
Speaker 3: that this speculation has gone on, and until he returns
Speaker 3: to the field, unfortunately, I think you're going to have
Speaker 3: this topic front and center and you're going to have
Speaker 3: to deal with it' spence and oh Stein's going to
Speaker 3: have to do with it on his show. But that's
Speaker 3: unfortunately the nature of the Beast, and we all know
Speaker 3: who's the most popular player. It's the quarterback and that's
Speaker 3: what people want to talk about, and it won't change
Speaker 3: in the NFL right right now, the questions around the
Speaker 3: Dolphins and Tatonga Bilo and his future. He's the quarterback
Speaker 3: and that just happens to be the sexy topic for people.
Speaker 3: And I get the apathy and the frustration from fans,
Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, that's what they
Speaker 3: pay attention to more than anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, well said, all right, So let's move
Speaker 1: over to where we find ourselves now. I was Arizona
Speaker 1: rolled in a rice Cycles last Saturday and Rocks and
Speaker 1: you've been a rice Cycles, You've called game of rice Cycles.
Speaker 2: And I can tell you as.
Speaker 1: Somebody who's been going to games there since the eighties,
Speaker 1: went to school there in the nineties, and has been
Speaker 1: covering them as a medium member for basically two decades
Speaker 1: in the market, that was as surreal of a night
Speaker 1: as maybe I've seen in a while.
Speaker 2: Now. It's been a little bit misconstrued that I'm knocking
Speaker 2: on fans. I'm not.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, you need good football to cheer for, but Arizona
Speaker 1: beat Utah on the trenches. Coach, we had talked about
Speaker 1: that himself on Tuesday, which I did not see coming.
Speaker 1: Noah Flafiita is awesome when you see him up close,
Speaker 1: and I just think the fans were left wanting because
Speaker 1: there was not a lot of noise. Certainly, the muss
Speaker 1: is the muss, no matter what, right, But ultimately it
Speaker 1: was just kind of an odd night. But what do
Speaker 1: you make of Arizona rolling in town on Saturday and
Speaker 1: taking care of Utah relatively easily.
Speaker 4: They're a good football team and they've got talent, as
Speaker 4: you talked about it, and it's not just the feedum,
Speaker 4: but you look at McMillan and you mentioned their offensive
Speaker 4: line and defensive line.
Speaker 3: Play, and that was an angry team that they were
Speaker 3: getting in that game. And Brent Brennan had his team
Speaker 3: ready to go as they were coming off sitting around
Speaker 3: for two weeks after they got it handed to them
Speaker 3: at Kansas State, and we hadn't really seen Arizona clicking yet, right.
Speaker 3: They put up sixty one points in their opening game,
Speaker 3: or however many they scored against New Mexico, then they
Speaker 3: didn't play well but one against Northern Arizona in week two.
Speaker 3: Then they go get a hand to them into Little
Speaker 3: Apple in Manhattan. So now you're two and one, you're frustrated.
Speaker 3: You've been sitting on that game of getting pounded by
Speaker 3: Kansas State for two weeks. You catch a break because
Speaker 3: Utah's without their quarterback. But Brent had his guys ready
Speaker 3: to go, and this is, you know, a place that
Speaker 3: they knew was not going to be easy to come
Speaker 3: in and win. They had a great game plan, I thought,
Speaker 3: and they capitalized on some of the ineffectiveness of the
Speaker 3: Utah offense in that game, because at times Utah had
Speaker 3: real difficulty moving the football. And Arizona's a good football team. Okay,
Speaker 3: Utah probably when a full strength is the best team
Speaker 3: in the Big twelve, but they weren't a full strength
Speaker 3: and Arizona basically was. And Arizona had the advantage in
Speaker 3: that regard and they took advantage of it. They were
Speaker 3: able to run the football against Utah, They were effective
Speaker 3: in a passing game. They were able to generate some
Speaker 3: opportunities defensively and really put Wilson off balance and frustrate them.
Speaker 3: Arizona was the better team on that night. Do I
Speaker 3: think Arizona's a better football team overall? Probably not, But
Speaker 3: they were on that night, and they took advantage of
Speaker 3: the situation.
Speaker 2: All right, Roxley, last thing before I saw you lose.
Speaker 2: And I'm doing this for.
Speaker 1: My producer, who is a lifelong suffering Mets fan, and
Speaker 1: I told him, don't do the Mets thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a Yankee fan, I'm a Northeast boy, and I
Speaker 1: know several Met fans. I'm like, don't do the Met thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: don't do the Met thing where you get excited then
Speaker 1: they let you down. But I gotta say, what a moment.
Speaker 1: You know, Alonzo who's struggled for a couple of months.
Speaker 2: Agoes deep, they win, they advance.
Speaker 1: Do they have four porter Do they have a puncher's
Speaker 1: chance against the Phillies?
Speaker 3: I think they do. I think there's an advantage of
Speaker 3: both the Mets and the Padres, for example, have and
Speaker 3: that's the series all have starting tomorrow night is the
Speaker 3: Padres and Dodgers down in LA. But when you have
Speaker 3: a team that's already in playoff mode, and the Mets
Speaker 3: have really been in playoff mode for a few months now,
Speaker 3: it's not like, Okay, they just kind of back into
Speaker 3: the playoffs. They've been having to win baseball games for
Speaker 3: a while they get off to a bad start and
Speaker 3: a miraculous run that oddly enough coincided with Grimmiz throwing
Speaker 3: out a first pitch at City Field, and ever since
Speaker 3: then the Mets have taken off and last night down
Speaker 3: to nothing in the Nines and Pete Alonso and all
Speaker 3: the speculation spence about his future He's going to be
Speaker 3: a free ation after the year. Does that have bat
Speaker 3: change the whole dynamic for Pete Alonzo and the Mets
Speaker 3: going forward? By how do you let him go? Now?
Speaker 3: After the biggest moment of his career, he comes up
Speaker 3: with a home run in the ninth inning of a
Speaker 3: winner take all Game three against one of the lights
Speaker 3: out closers in the game, and he lifts the Mets
Speaker 3: into the Division series against the hated rival Phillies. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they have a puncher's chance, and they're a hot team,
Speaker 3: and Lindor is an MVP candidate. He's not gonna win
Speaker 3: it because his name's not Otani. But this is a team.
Speaker 3: It's hard to beat. And you've had a confident group
Speaker 3: that's riding a wave of momentum and it's hard to
Speaker 3: get it restarted. I saw it with the Dodgers last
Speaker 3: year in the Division Series when they were swept by
Speaker 3: the Diamondbacks. You've been sitting for a week essentially, they've
Speaker 3: been playing the Phillies have kind of eased into it.
Speaker 3: I think the Mets had you up a puncher's canton.
Speaker 3: To be honest with you, I think the Padres should
Speaker 3: be the favorite to beat the Dodgers in the other series,
Speaker 3: even though the Dodgers have the number one seen in
Speaker 3: the National League.
Speaker 2: Wow. All right, man, Well you've done it. Now.
Speaker 1: Porters can do the Met thing even more. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to deal with a sad producer at some point.
Speaker 3: All good, apologize, thank you.
Speaker 1: No, all good, my friend. Hey, I always appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure. Hope you're well with chat soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, anytime, fan talking to you. Take care, having good week.
Speaker 2: The great Roxy Burnstein he is on Twitter. Get him
Speaker 2: on Twitter. Just his name.
Speaker 1: It's at Roxy Bernstein. Formerly the Pac twelve Network. Now
Speaker 1: he's calling baseball at ESPN. My man's a real talent,
Speaker 1: so check him out.