Speaker 1: All right, what's going on? It is drivetime. It's a
Speaker 1: Thursday afternoon. It's about ten minutes past the hour of
Speaker 1: two o'clock. We are in the midst of some unusual,
Speaker 1: unseasonably warm weather.
Speaker 2: Outside. It's a beautiful day.
Speaker 1: It's about seventy eight degrees and clear and sunny here
Speaker 1: in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, our Broadway Media studios
Speaker 1: overlooking the beautiful Wassaps Mountains.
Speaker 2: Great to have you with us, it is every day.
Speaker 2: It's great to have you. Long for the ride. It's
Speaker 2: betch check.
Speaker 1: It's behind the mic portor Larsen behind the glass.
Speaker 2: And we got a lot to do, a lot to
Speaker 2: do on.
Speaker 1: This Thursday afternoon to get you ready for the weekend.
Speaker 1: You're almost there, and keep your company on your drive
Speaker 1: around town or your commute home here.
Speaker 2: On the drive.
Speaker 1: Good guest list today, a bunch of different topics. We
Speaker 1: are still a few weeks away from kind of leaning
Speaker 1: into NBA coverage.
Speaker 2: We like to cover the NBA on the show.
Speaker 1: We usually like to cover the jazz on the show,
Speaker 1: so we're not gonna do a ton of it today,
Speaker 1: but there are some NBA preseason It's like NBA preseason
Speaker 1: prediction time. Our buddy Howard Beck from The Ringer wrote
Speaker 1: his piece today that he does every year on the
Speaker 1: state of every single team, and Kevin Pelton from ESPN
Speaker 1: did his yearly win prediction for every team.
Speaker 2: In the league.
Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, Nobody thinks the Jazz are going to be
Speaker 1: either good or interesting, So there you go.
Speaker 2: But I did want to bring some of that on
Speaker 2: air today.
Speaker 1: They're doing a preseason media thing tomorrow with Ange Annik
Speaker 1: and I think Ryan's going to be there, so NBA
Speaker 1: seasons right around the corner, but we're not going to
Speaker 1: necessarily lean into.
Speaker 2: It on the show just yet.
Speaker 1: We're pretty football centric right now, obviously looking ahead to
Speaker 1: a very big weekend for both Utah and BYU local
Speaker 1: and national college football implications.
Speaker 2: On the line.
Speaker 1: Start to learn about some more of these teams, both
Speaker 1: in the Big Twelve and just around the country. BYU
Speaker 1: at Baylor. Right now, Baylor is a three point five
Speaker 1: point favorite. The over under is forty five point five.
Speaker 1: Bringing me Young historically is not great with day games.
Speaker 1: I read today they've lost their last ten day games
Speaker 1: to FBS opponents, seven of those who have been on
Speaker 1: the road, and dating back historically, I think it's five
Speaker 1: to nineteen something along those lines. BYU struggles day games
Speaker 1: for some reason, and that's maybe one of the reasons
Speaker 1: Baylor is favored, even though BYU is unbeaten. The Youthes
Speaker 1: welcome in the Arizona Wildcats. That's going to be an
Speaker 1: eight point fifteen kicktime. You can see that game on ESPN.
Speaker 1: You can hear it on this old radio station beginning
Speaker 1: at four fifteen to keep you company all the way
Speaker 1: up until kicks. So if you're driving around town, if
Speaker 1: you can't make it over the game early, or even
Speaker 1: if you're in the tailgate lot, just fire up ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred listener our pregame coverage with Porter and then
Speaker 1: later on obviously Bill sli and Scott So big games
Speaker 1: for both Utah and BYU this weekend. We're going to
Speaker 1: get into it on the show today and a big
Speaker 1: slate of big twelve twelve games.
Speaker 2: A lot of eyes on Manhattan.
Speaker 1: Kansas case State's getting five points over Oklahoma State. The
Speaker 1: two teams that BYU and Utah beat last week will
Speaker 1: play each other in Kansas State a pretty healthy favorite
Speaker 1: at least as of now.
Speaker 2: Colorado on the road at UCF.
Speaker 1: I believe that is the Fox Big Noon kickoff with
Speaker 1: Joe Klatt, Gus Johnson in front of the show and
Speaker 1: the Fox gang down there in Orlando, so we'll get
Speaker 1: to a lot of college football storylines. I do want
Speaker 1: to revisit a topic we talked about yesterday, and that
Speaker 1: is UNLV losing their starting quarterback after a really good
Speaker 1: start and inserting themselves as the G five favorite to
Speaker 1: advance to the CFP. And I've heard a lot of
Speaker 1: reaction about this and I want to kind of.
Speaker 2: Get into it today.
Speaker 1: To some people overnight, A couple of people who work
Speaker 1: up with you, who listen to the show reached out
Speaker 1: via text. It's just clear that nobody knows what to do.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows how to handle this because the people in
Speaker 1: charge have so badly dropped the ball for basically twenty
Speaker 1: five years. And if it doesn't get fixed pretty quickly here,
Speaker 1: I do think we could have a conversation about whether
Speaker 1: or not this sport it will survive. I talked about
Speaker 1: it yesterday. I'm not a college football alarmist. Alarmist, I
Speaker 1: know there are a lot of people out there that
Speaker 1: believe the recent happenings in the sport are bad for
Speaker 1: long term. I'm not there. It's just different now, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about it on the show. But certainly one
Speaker 1: thing is for sure. They've got to figure this stuff out.
Speaker 2: They've got to get their arms around it one way
Speaker 2: or the other.
Speaker 1: Whether you're just lean into the pro model sooner rather
Speaker 1: than later. I know that they're pleading for help from Congress.
Speaker 1: As a citizen of the country, I prefer Congress's energy
Speaker 1: elsewhere at this point. But you know, we'll see how
Speaker 1: it plays out. The NFL gets rolling tonight. You can
Speaker 1: hear the NFL on our radio station. Reminder, we are
Speaker 1: your home of the NFL in this market. It is
Speaker 1: Thursday n at football from Jet Live Stadium. See what
Speaker 1: I did there, East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Cowboys are
Speaker 1: getting five and a half points on the road against
Speaker 1: the Giants. Both these teams are one and two. Giants
Speaker 1: aren't thought to be very good this year. They're probably
Speaker 1: playing for little draft capital, so to me, all the
Speaker 1: pressure is on Dallas tonight.
Speaker 2: But don't forget. After we SAYGA night.
Speaker 1: At six o'clock, you can hear the Cowboys Giants game
Speaker 1: here on the station.
Speaker 2: Big weekend ahead for Rayal Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: All the projections as of now have RSL advancing to
Speaker 1: the postseason. Of course they've already clinched that, but maybe
Speaker 1: as a top four seed well where they're gonna get
Speaker 1: a home playoff game, which is always a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: So we'll do a little soccer on the show today.
Speaker 1: Utah Hockey Club continues their preseason journey after getting the
Speaker 1: win on Monday at the Delta Center, so a lot
Speaker 1: to do on a Thursday afternoon. We'll start things off
Speaker 1: with Kyle Bonnach from ESPN. Kyle has been great with
Speaker 1: a PAC twelve Mountain West Conference beef there. We say
Speaker 1: it's a beef as the PAC twelve has posted a
Speaker 1: bunch of teams, speaking of which U and Lvan Air
Speaker 1: Force will stay put in the Mountain West Conference with
Speaker 1: some incentives tied to that decision. So we'll bring in
Speaker 1: Kyle today to talk about that. Then it's time for
Speaker 1: the Big Show, Big Hour. We do it every Thursday.
Speaker 1: Craig Bowler, Jack Gordon Monson. It will be mostly football today.
Speaker 1: We'll probably do a little jazz with Bowlers since they're
Speaker 1: doing their preseason media availability tomorrow at the Delta center,
Speaker 1: Max Bretdas stops by to talk a little RSL, little soccer.
Speaker 2: We'll do a little sports court today.
Speaker 1: Ton of gray topics to get to on this Thursday
Speaker 1: afternoon with Kyle Bond, a girl with Craig Bowlerjack with
Speaker 1: Gordon Monton, with Max Bredas, with me Spence check Its
Speaker 1: with all of you the great listeners, and that guy
Speaker 1: a very nervous Dallas Cowboy fan on a Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 1: All the pressures on your boys, you know that tonight
Speaker 1: Tonight it's like a sneaky big game. I don't think
Speaker 1: they lose, but this is one of those early season
Speaker 1: games where they got to get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't believe in like when you say a
Speaker 3: must win, right and it's Week three. You're in a
Speaker 3: division that's not going to have anyone with twelve, thirteen,
Speaker 3: fourteen wins. You know, outside of the Eagles, you're probably
Speaker 3: gonna get a wild card spot if you're the Cowboys.
Speaker 3: I I don't know, man, I don't know if I
Speaker 3: want to even go to that territory because, like I said,
Speaker 3: I'm approaching the zone of of fandom where a win
Speaker 3: means Mike McCarthy continues to just kind of flounder and
Speaker 3: do this charade in the middle, and I don't know
Speaker 3: how much longer I want that to go on. So
Speaker 3: I'm conflicted as a fan, and I know they're not
Speaker 3: a bad team. That's the point. They've had a top
Speaker 3: five roster in the NFL for a decade maybe more,
Speaker 3: and here we are.
Speaker 2: Yep. It's kind of a sneaky big game.
Speaker 1: I agree, not necessarily a must win, but one and
Speaker 1: three making the playoffs in pro football, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a tough amountain all right. Our first guest right out
Speaker 1: of the gates today will be Kyle Bonnager to tap
Speaker 1: college football. Before we get to Kyle, on this Thursday afternoon,
Speaker 1: I almost said Wednesday. Brought to you by good friends
Speaker 1: at Standard Restaurant Supplies. Standard Restaurant Supplies your tailgate headquarters
Speaker 1: get everything you need to make your tailgate epic. Check
Speaker 1: them out at thirty five hundred Southwest Temple and online
Speaker 1: at Standard restaurant dot com.
Speaker 2: It is time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check It's on Utah's
Speaker 4: number one Sports Talk. Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 4: seven hundred to set the scene for the show.
Speaker 5: The opening tip of.
Speaker 4: The drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurant Supply,
Speaker 4: your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town.
Speaker 4: Standard Restaurant Supply thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.
Speaker 1: So, the news that UNB quarterback Matthew Sluka left the
Speaker 1: program on Tuesday night to utilize his red shirt amid
Speaker 1: claims of unfulfilled verbal nil promises from a UNLB assistant
Speaker 1: coach really send shockwaves across the landscape of people who
Speaker 1: love college football, people who cover college football, and people
Speaker 1: who are in college football. So we talked about this
Speaker 1: on a couple of different occasions. Yesterday I actually did
Speaker 1: like a twenty twenty five minute segment on it and
Speaker 1: got a couple of messages after I signed off air
Speaker 1: from some boosters, some alumni, and one gentleman who shall
Speaker 1: remain nameless who works at the University of Utah. And
Speaker 1: overnight did some reading, listen to some pods, you know,
Speaker 1: checked out some of the shows to see how people
Speaker 1: were reacting to this. And one thing has become extremely clear,
Speaker 1: and it's not new information, but I just have a
Speaker 1: hard time feeling anything other than you dug your grave
Speaker 1: and now you have to lie in it.
Speaker 2: When it comes to the NCAA.
Speaker 1: Now, I do feel bad for member institutions because it's
Speaker 1: pretty clear athletic departments, institutions, colleges across the landscape of
Speaker 1: college football just don't know how to go about their
Speaker 1: business when it comes to NIL. Specifically, transfer portal is
Speaker 1: becoming a little bit more clear if they made some restrictions,
Speaker 1: they're not as many opportunities just to get up and
Speaker 1: bounce and leave as.
Speaker 2: There were even a year ago.
Speaker 1: So they've made some progress with the transfer portal With NIL,
Speaker 1: it still clearly is baffling schools and athletic departments as
Speaker 1: far as.
Speaker 2: How they go about their business to do this.
Speaker 1: And there really is this underlying panic and anxiety about
Speaker 1: how this is going to play out, what we do
Speaker 1: to make sure that we can keep up with.
Speaker 2: The other schools.
Speaker 1: Look, the schools with the biggest budgets have always won
Speaker 1: at the highest levels.
Speaker 2: That's not a new thing.
Speaker 1: And for a number of years, you know, players were
Speaker 1: being paid in ways that we didn't see. I have
Speaker 1: so many stories locally and nationally of guys I know
Speaker 1: who played football and basketball in college and we're getting money,
Speaker 1: getting cash out of the table from you know, boosters
Speaker 1: and donors and powerful people in their communities.
Speaker 2: So now it's just in front of our faces.
Speaker 1: But still at this point, it really is putting a
Speaker 1: lot of athletic departments in tough situations for them to
Speaker 1: figure out something so important without any regulation.
Speaker 2: And that's the issue.
Speaker 1: And yes, the House settlement is thought to be on
Speaker 1: its way to being finalized. Maybe we'll get to that
Speaker 1: a little bit later on today with our friends from
Speaker 1: Handy and Handy, And when that happens, maybe we'll start
Speaker 1: to see some things settle in. But until it happens,
Speaker 1: it continues to be just do whatever you want and
Speaker 1: ask for forgiveness later or not permission now. But for
Speaker 1: a starting quarterback to leave a program over a verbal
Speaker 1: promise which simply is your word against his, and a
Speaker 1: program that's undefeated, a player that's playing well over one
Speaker 1: hundred k and I hate the sound up to one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars is not a ton of money. Now,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of money. All of us would like
Speaker 1: another one hundred thousand dollars to.
Speaker 5: Come our way.
Speaker 1: But for something like this, for somebody to simply just
Speaker 1: quit on his team, and I don't love that narrative.
Speaker 1: That's a little old school, like, you know, step up,
Speaker 1: you know, be the band of brothers whatever. I am
Speaker 1: the guy that for basically ten years, if not more,
Speaker 1: I've yelled about these players being compensated for what they
Speaker 1: do because that's the way America works. The NCAA simply
Speaker 1: is a serial anti trust violator. And finally the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court was like, get out of here and figure it out.
Speaker 1: These kids now have the same basic economic rights as
Speaker 1: all of us to simply profit off.
Speaker 2: Of who they are as people.
Speaker 1: It was dumb that they never could, and it's better
Speaker 1: now that they can. But you had twenty five years
Speaker 1: at least as a runway. Certainly at Obannon's lawsuit was
Speaker 1: filed in two thousand and eight, you at least had
Speaker 1: fifteen or sixteen years to understand that this was coming.
Speaker 1: And your failure to prepare is putting administrators in athletic
Speaker 1: departments in very precarious situations.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, as I said yesterday, for me, it comes down
Speaker 1: to one thing, and that is how is the product.
Speaker 1: The product is still really good, but it's just different,
Speaker 1: and will progress is not being made. You can make
Speaker 1: an argument that the anile stuff is actually getting worse
Speaker 1: when programs are losing key players as opposed to making
Speaker 1: progress to get to the point where it's actually better.
Speaker 1: You could make that argument, for sure, I would hear
Speaker 1: you if you did. But ultimately it kind of leads
Speaker 1: into a conversation where if you're going to be a fan,
Speaker 1: whether it's college football, whether it's the NFL, whether it's
Speaker 1: the NBA, whether it's Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer,
Speaker 1: or the NHL, no matter what it is that you love,
Speaker 1: as things change and things progress, you just simply have
Speaker 1: to decide whether or not you're okay making allowances for
Speaker 1: the things that make you uncomfortable in the name of
Speaker 1: consuming the thing you enjoy.
Speaker 2: Right, And there are plenty of examples.
Speaker 1: Right, So if you listen to the show, first of all,
Speaker 1: thank you, hello, how are you? Second of all, you know,
Speaker 1: during basketball season, you can probably plan on hearing me
Speaker 1: go on some massive diatribe and we'll put the over
Speaker 1: under on twenty. Okay, this upcoming NBA season, when Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic decides that his ankle hurts and he doesn't make
Speaker 1: the trip to Salt Lake, When Lebron James decides that
Speaker 1: LA's very nice this time of year and it's fifteen
Speaker 1: degrees and snowy and Salt Lake, and suddenly he doesn't
Speaker 1: fly to play the jazz. And I could go on
Speaker 1: and on and on, because guess what it's going to happen,
Speaker 1: because it's already has happened. Tom Haberschrow, our buddy from
Speaker 1: the NBA Daily Assist, did the data, did the work
Speaker 1: and pulled up the data. Salt Lake almost by It's
Speaker 1: like it's almost by far is the NBA market most
Speaker 1: adversely affected by quote load management, meaning star players don't
Speaker 1: feel like going to Utah.
Speaker 2: Yes, injuries are real.
Speaker 1: I know we have to say that to protect ourselves,
Speaker 1: but we suffer as an NBA market more so than
Speaker 1: any other market in the entire league, with star players saying,
Speaker 1: oh it's salt Lake on Wednesday. Sorry my son's not
Speaker 1: feeling well, or oh my gosh, I think I have COVID.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, all the excuses it's star players use
Speaker 1: to not play the jazz in salt Lake will irk
Speaker 1: me forever, right, I'll never get off that.
Speaker 2: I never will.
Speaker 1: And if I sound like the old guy because I
Speaker 1: say John and Carl played eighty two, and so did
Speaker 1: you ing and so did Mike. Okay, fine, then I'm
Speaker 1: the old guy once upon a time. Actually showing up
Speaker 1: and playing when you're able to play and when you're
Speaker 1: healthy matter to people, and I still think it should.
Speaker 2: I'll never get off that.
Speaker 1: However, I still watch NBA basketball. Right as an NFL fan.
Speaker 1: You heard a lot of people say, I don't watch
Speaker 1: the NFL because the CTE stuff I learned about, how
Speaker 1: you know, what little regard they have for their players,
Speaker 1: who are the product that we pay to watch. And
Speaker 1: since you learned about, you know, the NFL essentially turning
Speaker 1: a blind eye to horrific brain injuries for years, a
Speaker 1: lot of people tapped out right.
Speaker 2: A lot of people did, how about Kaepernick?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 1: You saw a guy neil for the national anthem, and
Speaker 1: you're not watching football anymore. Some people took that stance,
Speaker 1: and some people still have. Ratings for NFL games have
Speaker 1: never been higher. So they just have to decide if
Speaker 1: you love consuming the sport enough to make allowance for
Speaker 1: the things that make you uncomfortable in pro basketball are
Speaker 1: in pro basketball right now? It's basketball players not wanting
Speaker 1: to play basketball.
Speaker 2: That's hard to stomach.
Speaker 1: Now their profit and lost statement and their new TV
Speaker 1: deal indicates the business of basketball is good. I do
Speaker 1: think the regular season ratings suffering are directly correlated to
Speaker 1: star players not playing, but enough people still watch basketball
Speaker 1: for the NBA to make seventy what billion dollars or
Speaker 1: whatever with their new deal, you know, out to twenty
Speaker 1: thirty one or twenty thirty two. Like I can say
Speaker 1: it's a problem. They can throw whatever back in my
Speaker 1: face about the business being good. But you, as a
Speaker 1: fan have to decide if you mind after ponying up
Speaker 1: for hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars for four seats to
Speaker 1: a Jazz game because your son wants to see Lebron
Speaker 1: and Lebron decides that the weather in la is too
Speaker 1: nice this time of year and he doesn't want to
Speaker 1: deal with Saul Lake.
Speaker 2: You have to decide if that's okay with you.
Speaker 1: In the NFL, brain injuries, CT, political stances, whatever it
Speaker 1: is okay, is that enough to dissuade you from watching
Speaker 1: pro football? And now we have the answer in college
Speaker 1: football because honestly, honestly, we didn't for a long time, right,
Speaker 1: it really was for a lot of people the last
Speaker 1: bastion of amateurism, even though that's not a real sentence.
Speaker 1: You're fooled into believing that you're just watching these young
Speaker 1: men essentially make old people who have been in the
Speaker 1: business rich for a number of different decades. I'm all
Speaker 1: for them being paid. I'm not for the way it
Speaker 1: went down. The lack of regulation is alarming, and these
Speaker 1: things are concerning, But I'm not an alarmist when it
Speaker 1: comes to the future of college football, because this is
Speaker 1: the example of what you have to make allowance for
Speaker 1: as a fan. If you want to keep going to games,
Speaker 1: if you want to keep watching games, if you want
Speaker 1: to keep.
Speaker 2: Supporting your school. It's not good or bad.
Speaker 1: It's just different, right, And I'm with you with a
Speaker 1: lot of these things, with load management, with brain injuries,
Speaker 1: with political stances, with whatever it is with college football now,
Speaker 1: with the NIL and the transfer portal really causing a
Speaker 1: lot of cash. I'm with you that it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: as easy to consume it as it once was. But
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get to the point with all this
Speaker 1: stuff where it's not good or bad, it's just different.
Speaker 2: And then you decide if you want to be the
Speaker 2: consumer all right.
Speaker 1: Coming up on the other side, we're gonna bring in
Speaker 1: Kyle Barne girl.
Speaker 2: College football coming up next.
Speaker 1: I got mostly college football on the show today, So
Speaker 1: beautiful Thursday, it's good.
Speaker 2: Have you with us. Keep it right here.
Speaker 1: You weren't very excited when I laid on my idea
Speaker 1: about the Bumps today, when I said, hey, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's do a little jam band. Just do a little
Speaker 1: Northeast style jam ban. Now this is the Grateful Dead,
Speaker 1: But today I need a little I need a little guster.
Speaker 2: I want a little fish.
Speaker 1: I want a little string cheese incident. You can throw
Speaker 1: a little Dave in. You know, Dave technically is a
Speaker 1: jam band. You didn't seem very enthused about my idea.
Speaker 3: They've definitely a jam ban.
Speaker 1: There was tone there. What was the tone? There was
Speaker 1: tone there? Watch your tone?
Speaker 3: How do I put this?
Speaker 2: Just put it kindly.
Speaker 3: I like most jam bands, and in fact, I'm a
Speaker 3: big fan of the Dead, much like our next guest.
Speaker 3: But but there is a time when the song could end.
Speaker 1: I didn't say we're gonna do a little psilocybin in
Speaker 1: talking for a seventeen minute guster guitar solo.
Speaker 2: They're Bumps they're thirty seconds.
Speaker 3: I know, so for bumps we're doing great. But just
Speaker 3: my overall thoughts, that's you're not wrong. Kyle bonde gera
Speaker 3: definite jam band fan.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out on a limb Kyle and say
Speaker 1: you enjoy a good jam ban I.
Speaker 6: Would say, generally speak, I'm very specific to you the
Speaker 6: Grateful Dead, I don't. I don't venture out much, but
Speaker 6: beyond beyond them. So that's kind of where I sit
Speaker 6: on the whole conversation of jampans.
Speaker 1: All right, fair enough, we can move on immediately, all right, Kyle.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, on the show yesterday and to start the
Speaker 1: show today, we've been discussing kind of the fallout from
Speaker 1: the Matthew Sluka nil dispute with UNLV, and after the
Speaker 1: show last night, I got a couple of messages from
Speaker 1: some people that work up at the U and it's
Speaker 1: just pretty clear that nobody knows what they're doing. But
Speaker 1: this one kind of sent shock waves across the landscape
Speaker 1: of college football. What's what's your take on how this
Speaker 1: all went down.
Speaker 6: I think it's kind of a window into what is
Speaker 6: wrong with the system and kind of what's going to
Speaker 6: be possible in the future. I think we'll see more
Speaker 6: of this, not exactly how this one played out, but
Speaker 6: I do think you're going to see more kids leaving
Speaker 6: at this at this stage.
Speaker 7: Of the year.
Speaker 6: You know, my minder saying is, look, it's the offensive
Speaker 6: coordinator made a verbal offer of you know, a we
Speaker 6: can get you one hundred thousand dollars, but it wasn't
Speaker 6: really a formal deal. It sounded like maybe it was
Speaker 6: just in conversation, and then there was no real follow up. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I think we're still kind of waiting on more of
Speaker 6: those details and to like show it to me and
Speaker 6: writing like, let's let's get a better sense of what
Speaker 6: really happened. And then look, if you're the kid and
Speaker 6: you are one hundred percent under the impression that you're
Speaker 6: getting one hundred thousand dollars and you don't get if
Speaker 6: you put yourself in the in the kid's shoes, you
Speaker 6: could be you could understand why he would be upset
Speaker 6: if he's under the impression he's going to get one
Speaker 6: hundred thousand dollars. But if you're the coach and you
Speaker 6: don't know the deal exists, you could also understand while
Speaker 6: they are, uh, you know, kind of pissed off by
Speaker 6: this whole situation as well the collective if they weren't
Speaker 6: looped in. It's it's really just, you know, really poor
Speaker 6: communication all the way around, and I'm having a really
Speaker 6: tough time trying to figure out who's at fault here
Speaker 6: other than the NCAA and kind of letting the sport
Speaker 6: get to this point because there's just not a clear
Speaker 6: process for you.
Speaker 1: Know, Kyle, it's kind of I was just thinking about
Speaker 1: this tongue in cheek as a as a big college
Speaker 1: basketball fan, dating all the way back to you know,
Speaker 1: the nineties. It's kind of ironic that it's UNLV that's
Speaker 1: not paying their players correctly because they were like the
Speaker 1: school under Tark that paid everybody and didn't really back,
Speaker 1: you know, shy away from it.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah, That's the funny thing, right, is that U
Speaker 6: and LV is the school with his reputation of being
Speaker 6: able to make these shady deals, and now that it's
Speaker 6: legal for them to be the school that's having trouble
Speaker 6: with it is certainly a kind of a funny development.
Speaker 1: Sure, And speaking of a funny development, I asked you
Speaker 1: and probably ten other college football guests, Hey do you
Speaker 1: think there's any shot in do you think there's any shot,
Speaker 1: any chance that the PAC twelve falls enough wrongs, falls
Speaker 1: down enough wrongs after trying to recruit schools to their
Speaker 1: conference that they land on Utah State, right, And you
Speaker 1: know everybody said no chance, right, And so obviously things
Speaker 1: have changed, and you guys have been great with this
Speaker 1: over at the dot com side of things.
Speaker 2: What do you make of where we find ourselves.
Speaker 1: Now with the PAC twelve And how surprised are you
Speaker 1: that Utah State found their way to get an invite?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's been a crazy couple of days for me,
Speaker 6: tracking all this stuff and having those conversations to try
Speaker 6: to figure out what's going on behind the scenes. If
Speaker 6: you asked me a month ago if Utah State would
Speaker 6: be in the PAC twelve, certainly would have been surprised, right,
Speaker 6: But you know, when it happened, I was kind of
Speaker 6: expecting it because they were the next they were next up.
Speaker 7: Once those AA schools all passed, it.
Speaker 6: Was pretty clear that Utah State was going to be
Speaker 6: in the you know, in the crossairs of the PAC twelve,
Speaker 6: so to speak, right, And I think you know, when
Speaker 6: I was gaming it out, the AA school the AAC
Speaker 6: schools that passed like that. That didn't surprise me at
Speaker 6: all because the amount of money that the PAC twelve
Speaker 6: was going to be able to offer them to entice
Speaker 6: them to leave, it was a gamble without a real
Speaker 6: media deal, you know, with the significant buyouts that they
Speaker 6: were going to have to pay to leave, there was
Speaker 6: not a guarantee that situation was going to be a
Speaker 6: whole lot better. So, you know, once you started looking
Speaker 6: at the numbers, it kind of made sense that Utah
Speaker 6: State ended up there.
Speaker 1: What do you make of the decision for both the
Speaker 1: Air Force and UNLV to stand pat stay in the
Speaker 1: Mound West Conference is supposed to jump ship.
Speaker 6: It's it's it's really similar to the decision the aa
Speaker 6: AAC schools made.
Speaker 7: The Pactal just wasn't able.
Speaker 6: To offer them enough money to justify what they were
Speaker 6: gonna be getting from the Mountain West. You know, I
Speaker 6: don't have the numbers nailed down, but there is a
Speaker 6: significant financial incentive being provided by the Mountain West to stay.
Speaker 7: In the conference.
Speaker 6: You know, this is kind of a more of a
Speaker 6: short term deal, right, and that just made it worth
Speaker 6: their while.
Speaker 7: You're gonna look at those schools.
Speaker 6: Now you're gonna have a chance to you know, be
Speaker 6: at the top of that conference for you know whatever
Speaker 6: it looks like. It certainly won't have the appearance of
Speaker 6: a very strong football conference, but they'll have this you know,
Speaker 6: call it twenty twenty five, thirty million dollars from the
Speaker 6: Mountain West. It was only possible because of the exit
Speaker 6: fees that the other schools in the Mountain West were
Speaker 6: responsible to leave, right and so they could either go
Speaker 6: be the eighth team in the PAC twelve. You know,
Speaker 6: the PAC twelve, you know, kind of made it clear
Speaker 6: early on that they didn't believe that un LB should
Speaker 6: be a part of that first wave. So you could
Speaker 6: either be the eighth school in this new look PAC twelve,
Speaker 6: which still isn't a power conference, or you could kind
Speaker 6: of be the you know, the top of the heat
Speaker 6: in this new mountain, new look Mountain West with all
Speaker 6: the money that they've they've been incentivized.
Speaker 8: With to stay.
Speaker 6: So, yeah, it's a it's it's an interesting dynamic, and
Speaker 6: you know, there's still a lot more moving that has
Speaker 6: to happen because both conferences are still below the minimum
Speaker 6: threshold to be to be a conference by NCAA bylaws.
Speaker 1: And that's where I wanted to follow up. Both need
Speaker 1: add one more member institution. Any thoughts on who those
Speaker 1: schools could be.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's what I've been spending the day trying to
Speaker 6: figure out. And there's not a real consensus yet. I mean,
Speaker 6: they think if you game it out, there's a you know,
Speaker 6: a couple of places you go Texas State, you know,
Speaker 6: other Conference USA schools, I mean New Mexico State to
Speaker 6: the Mountain West, makes makes some sense. Utah is a
Speaker 6: school that you know, look, they don't have much in
Speaker 6: the way of football history, but you know, that's kind
Speaker 6: of where we're at here, right. This is the this
Speaker 6: is the trickle down effect of all this realignment. So
Speaker 6: we're talking about schools that don't really you know, relative
Speaker 6: to you know, the schools we're used to talking about,
Speaker 6: don't have a lot to offer. But that that's how
Speaker 6: far down the list we are. And I guess we
Speaker 6: should have expected that, right that the realignment was never
Speaker 6: going to really stop and eventually those schools were going
Speaker 6: to be brought into the mix. But I think we're
Speaker 6: going to see is you know, eventually some FCS schools
Speaker 6: are probably going to have to elevate or going to
Speaker 6: be enticed to do so, to fill to fill out
Speaker 6: all those conferences. You know, eventually you're going to run
Speaker 6: out of schools, and so I think, you know, it's
Speaker 6: time to start vetting some of those FCF schools that
Speaker 6: might have some interest.
Speaker 1: When the dust settles, what happens with Gonzaga, you know,
Speaker 1: because there's all this like misinformation out there. A report
Speaker 1: was actually tweeted out then refuted, and now I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of wondering, you know, when the dust settles, where
Speaker 1: there's where they're going to end up? Kyle, what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't be surprised if they ended
Speaker 6: up in the PAC twelve eventually. And I know the
Speaker 6: pactwelve has had conversations with them. I you know, confirmed
Speaker 6: that they had conversations with Saint Mary's also in the WCC, right,
Speaker 6: but where that conversation. When that conversation was taking place,
Speaker 6: the PAC twelve was also optimistic it was going to
Speaker 6: get the four AAC schools right, and so keep in mind,
Speaker 6: if they had brought those four schools in, then the
Speaker 6: media evaluation for a potential deal was going to be
Speaker 6: different than it will be with wherever it settles on
Speaker 6: the football side, right, And so the amount of money
Speaker 6: that they could offer Gonzaga is going to be different
Speaker 6: now than it would have been with the AA schools
Speaker 6: in the mix of the AAC schools and potentially un LB.
Speaker 7: In the mix.
Speaker 6: And so now Gonzaga has to then look at it
Speaker 6: again and say, Okay, like we have a pretty good
Speaker 6: thing going here, We've been able to turn ourselves into
Speaker 6: a national brand playing in this conference.
Speaker 7: Do we leave for.
Speaker 6: Whatever it is the pack this new look PAC twelve
Speaker 6: has to offer. I think it's a little bit of
Speaker 6: a different conversation than it would have been with those
Speaker 6: AAC schools. But yeah, I think once it's set, once
Speaker 6: football is settled, those conversations can get a little bit
Speaker 6: more serious again and they can kind of work out
Speaker 6: if it makes sense for both parties. I think the
Speaker 6: PAC twelve would like to have Gonzaga and potentially Saint
Speaker 6: Mary's if it just for like for numbers purposes for basketball.
Speaker 6: Their payouts will be different than the football schools. Of
Speaker 6: course that should be pretty well understood. But yeah, I
Speaker 6: think we have to just wait a little bit before that.
Speaker 6: Those talks can really heat up and see how real
Speaker 6: they'll be.
Speaker 1: One more quick expansion question, because then we'll actually get
Speaker 1: to games that are being played. What's the latest as
Speaker 1: far as you understanding goes with Yukon and their flirtation
Speaker 1: Brett or Mark East Coast guy, he wants the New
Speaker 1: York market, and as somebody grew up back there, I
Speaker 1: can tell you Yukon basketball moves the needle in a
Speaker 1: way that Saint John's doesn't, or you know, even Syracuse.
Speaker 2: Obviously they're upstate.
Speaker 1: But Yukon basketball would help the Big Twelve, you know,
Speaker 1: at least kind of sneak in a little bit through
Speaker 1: the side door to that New York market. Do you
Speaker 1: think that's a union that is inevitable given time? Where
Speaker 1: are you at with that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 6: I don't have any great like first hand insight and reporting,
Speaker 6: like only the only inside I have to that is
Speaker 6: just what I've what I've read as well. Yeah, I
Speaker 6: mean it's it's an interest proposition, right, But the problem
Speaker 6: is that is that Yukon also has football, and I
Speaker 6: don't think the Big Twelve has any interest in bringing
Speaker 6: Yukon football into the mix. I know the Pac twelve
Speaker 6: has had some discussions with Yukon, like preliminary discussions about
Speaker 6: bringing them in as a football only member to try
Speaker 6: to get to try to get them to the necessary
Speaker 6: amount of schools too. Right, So Yukon's in a weird
Speaker 6: place fitting into this whole mix. I mean, the conversations
Speaker 6: have been ongoing for a while. My understanding is that
Speaker 6: a lot of the schools in the Big twelve were
Speaker 6: not really in favor of having Yukon enter the league,
Speaker 6: and that probably carried the days as far as setting
Speaker 6: those conversations to the side for the time being.
Speaker 2: All right, good stuff there.
Speaker 1: You guys have done a great job and you've specifically
Speaker 1: on kind of helping us understand all of this. Let's
Speaker 1: move over now to the Utes who start out four
Speaker 1: oh one to oer on Big twelve play and you know,
Speaker 1: camera rising. It continues to be a question mark and
Speaker 1: Isaac Wilson has been understanded of the past couple of games,
Speaker 1: but they've been able to get it done. And they
Speaker 1: go to Stillwater where no one wins. I mean, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: State is tough to play in their stadium, but a
Speaker 1: four and oh start one and N one conference, they
Speaker 1: welcome in Arizona coming up on Saturday night, and Kyle,
Speaker 1: as you know, Arizona stopped him pretty good last year,
Speaker 1: and the coaches and players have talked a lot about
Speaker 1: that throughout the course of the week. Watching Arizona k State,
Speaker 1: watching ky State kind of bully them around the field,
Speaker 1: gives me a lot of confidence that you talk and
Speaker 1: do the same. So where yet with the start of
Speaker 1: the utes season and what do you think happens on
Speaker 1: Saturday night?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean you have to be happy with four
Speaker 6: and oh obviously right, and the fact that yeah, I
Speaker 6: mean you look, if you looked at the schedule to
Speaker 6: start the year, I mean I think the Oklahoma State
Speaker 6: game was the game that was like, oh yeah, that's
Speaker 6: that'll be the toughest game on the schedule.
Speaker 7: It's Oklahoma State. They you know, came in with high expectations.
Speaker 7: That's on the road.
Speaker 6: And to win that game without Cam, I think is
Speaker 6: a statement of intent about what's possible this season. I
Speaker 6: still think they need him back to make a real
Speaker 6: run at the playoff and hops the things that they
Speaker 6: think they can right that, I think they can. But
Speaker 6: at the you know, at the same time, it's I
Speaker 6: feel so like gunshy now about like what do.
Speaker 7: You make of it?
Speaker 6: Right, It's been the same story for for a long
Speaker 6: time with with Cam and.
Speaker 7: Is he available? Is he not available? This one doesn't
Speaker 7: seem as serious. But at the same time, you know.
Speaker 6: There was a there was like early last year, we
Speaker 6: also thought he was a week away, right, And so
Speaker 6: it's hard to really try to make sense of it.
Speaker 6: I'm sure that you guys have a better read into
Speaker 6: it just being there and and and and hearing from
Speaker 6: players and coaches during the week, but you know, from
Speaker 6: a national perspective, trying to monitor it is it has
Speaker 6: become really difficult. Arizona interesting team because I mean I
Speaker 6: was really high on Arizona coming to the year. They
Speaker 6: have a lot back from a team that you know,
Speaker 6: finished the finished last year with seven straight wins. It
Speaker 6: was one of the best seasons in school history. You
Speaker 6: got this quarterback who was playing at a Heisman level
Speaker 6: down the stretch, best receiver in college football. But the
Speaker 6: last two weeks that the offense just hasn't hasn't clicked.
Speaker 6: I mean they didn't move the ball at all outside
Speaker 6: the first drive against Kansas State and even against Northern Arizona,
Speaker 6: it was pretty dire on the offensive side, and so
Speaker 6: they had the talent to be good and to give
Speaker 6: you tall all it can handle. And you saw, you
Speaker 6: know McMillan, and I know if it beat the last
Speaker 6: year and what they can do. But you know, here
Speaker 6: we are three games into the year and they have
Speaker 6: kind of reset expectations on Arizona.
Speaker 7: So I'm excited to be there.
Speaker 6: I'll be there in Salt Lake this this weekend for
Speaker 6: this one. I'm so excited to check out both these
Speaker 6: teams in person for the first time this year.
Speaker 1: Oh very nice, Well, travel safe, you can enjoy some
Speaker 1: great weather. It's a late kick, but it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be like seventy degrees at eight o'clock on Saturday, so
Speaker 1: it should be a lot of fun. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you your opinion on because you know, we've discussed the
Speaker 1: as you can imagine here in Salt Lake, we've discussed
Speaker 1: the Cam Rising Isaac Wilson dynamic quite a bit. Look,
Speaker 1: the bottom line, Kyle is money does change the equation.
Speaker 1: It does change the conversation. And folks around here like
Speaker 1: if Cameron Rising is really being paid seven figures to
Speaker 1: play quarterback for the University of Utah. I think it
Speaker 1: changes the way people view how this stuff has been handled.
Speaker 2: Now I am of the opinion that he's hurt.
Speaker 1: We had coach went on the show yesterday and they're
Speaker 1: trying to get him back, and when he's right, he's
Speaker 1: going to play.
Speaker 2: That's where I stand now. You reference last year.
Speaker 1: It was the same stuff every week, getting close you know,
Speaker 1: needs to be cleared by the doctor, doctor Neil A. Trasha,
Speaker 1: And that was a real thing. I'm not saying it wasn't.
Speaker 1: But do you think we're high speed ahead to college
Speaker 1: football adopting the pro model of reporting injuries? Because until
Speaker 1: Kyle gets the email from the Big twelve saying you
Speaker 1: got to report, he's simply gonna do everything he can
Speaker 1: to do his one job, which is to win football games.
Speaker 1: And if he thinks holding some information back gives him
Speaker 1: an advantage, he's going to continue to do it. At
Speaker 1: some point, do you think coaches will be mandated to
Speaker 1: report like they are in pro football.
Speaker 6: I do think that's going to be the case, And
Speaker 6: it's already happening in the SEC, I believe.
Speaker 7: This year.
Speaker 6: And so look it's it's once it starts like yeah,
Speaker 6: I think a lot of those policies kind of fall
Speaker 6: into line across the country, So like, I can't imagine
Speaker 6: there's a world where the SEC is the only conference
Speaker 6: doing that into perpetuity, right, I think it's reasonable to.
Speaker 7: Have that policy in play.
Speaker 6: But look, I covered the forty nine ers when Jim
Speaker 6: Harbaugh was the coach, and he said something that always
Speaker 6: stuck with me is like, look, if we think something
Speaker 6: is going to give us, you know, a one percent
Speaker 6: chance to be better, to have a better chance, so
Speaker 6: when we're going to chase that one percent? And it
Speaker 6: was like something really insignificant that he was talking about
Speaker 6: at the time, But I think that applies with the
Speaker 6: injury stuff. I mean, if you can force another team
Speaker 6: to prepare for two quarterbacks that are kind of different
Speaker 6: in style, like, yeah, there's there's probably some benefit there,
Speaker 6: Like is it going to swing the game? You know,
Speaker 6: I don't know, Probably not right. But at the same time,
Speaker 6: if you're adding a little bit more to the other
Speaker 6: team's plate during the week that they have to prepare for,
Speaker 6: like that's not a bad thing. And I don't know,
Speaker 6: there's a real tangible benefit to announcing your starter early
Speaker 6: and so yeah, like I want to find out who's plan.
Speaker 6: It will generate interest, right. It certainly helps spetding lines
Speaker 6: and those sort of things, and gives everyone a better
Speaker 6: sense about what to expect. But yeah, I think Kyle's
Speaker 6: wealth and his right to operate that way is as
Speaker 6: frustrating as it might be.
Speaker 1: So we might have two very elite college football teams
Speaker 1: in our state. Now I am a pump the brakes
Speaker 1: guy on BYU for now, just because of the way
Speaker 1: the game went down last weekend against k State. But
Speaker 1: k State rolls into Provo as the number thirteen team
Speaker 1: in the country and BYU just smoked them. Now, there
Speaker 1: was a insane punt return, there was a scoop and score.
Speaker 2: There were two picks inside of the red zone.
Speaker 1: I think BYU had like two hundred and forty nine
Speaker 1: yards of offense.
Speaker 2: But it is what it is. They get to win.
Speaker 1: It wasn't close there four and oh, now they were
Speaker 1: three and oh a year ago. They get into Big
Speaker 1: twelve play last year and it was just a catastrophe.
Speaker 1: They will tell you there were one or two plays
Speaker 1: from winning three or four of the games. That's great.
Speaker 1: I don't hand out participation trophies on the show. They've
Speaker 1: never won a big twelve road game. They're zero and five.
Speaker 1: They've lost their last ten day games. Crazy enough, it's
Speaker 1: a ten am kick at least Mountain time style at Baylor.
Speaker 1: So before I set you loose, same question I asked
Speaker 1: you about Utah. What do you make of BYU's clean start?
Speaker 1: What do you think happens coming up on Saturday?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I think I think they're clearly a
Speaker 6: better team than Baylor.
Speaker 7: Right, Like the early morning thing is interesting.
Speaker 6: I wasn't aware of that, but yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 6: you have TOD four to oh, I think the SMU
Speaker 6: win actually looks pretty good. It was a kind of
Speaker 6: a not in a very exciting game, but look, they
Speaker 6: held a team to fifteen points that went out and
Speaker 6: scored sixty six the next week, Right, and so there's
Speaker 6: something you know to like about that. I mean, the
Speaker 6: rest of the schedule, you know, make up what you will,
Speaker 6: but I you know, to be here at four oh,
Speaker 6: to have the win against K State and look as
Speaker 6: kind of unusual as the game was against K State,
Speaker 6: I mean, you.
Speaker 7: Laid it out well with just all that.
Speaker 6: It wasn't the traditional domination, but it was still a
Speaker 6: lop sided win against a ranked team that had just
Speaker 6: had its way with Arizona the week before, right, And
Speaker 6: so yeah, I mean I think it's this is always
Speaker 6: the case early in the year, Right, It's like, Okay,
Speaker 6: we're watching, we're paying attention. Now you've earned the right
Speaker 6: to kind of be in the conversation. And now at
Speaker 6: this point of the season is where we kind of
Speaker 6: really separate, you know, and try to figure out how
Speaker 6: what to make of those early non conference results.
Speaker 1: Cole, appreciate the time, man, enjoy the weekend ahead, and
Speaker 1: enjoy your time out here, and we'll get you back
Speaker 1: on again soon.
Speaker 2: Okay, sounds good, all right.
Speaker 1: Kyle Bonegaert covers college football for ESPN. Get him on
Speaker 1: Twitter at vonneger at ESPN. He's been really really good
Speaker 1: with the expansion stuff PAC twelve Mound West Conference style
Speaker 1: be in town for Utah Arizona, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: you can hear that game on our radio station beginning
Speaker 1: at four fifteen with pregame coverage with Porter Larson at the.
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Speaker 1: Damn dramatic, That's what it comes down to. But man,
Speaker 1: it is time for the big show, Big hour.
Speaker 2: Do it every Thursday.
Speaker 1: Run about now with our friends Gordon Monson and Craig Bowler.
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Speaker 1: Big O' Tires has over fifty locally owned and operated
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Speaker 1: missed it the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 9: How you doing, buddy, I'm doing well. Thanks, Yeah, it
Speaker 9: was phoned in. You did, Bro, I'm better, I'm better
Speaker 9: in person.
Speaker 2: You are. I say it all the time.
Speaker 1: And our next guest who has my sincere permission to
Speaker 1: always be over the phone and not in studio because
Speaker 1: he is such a true pro Craig Bowler, Jack Bowler,
Speaker 1: how are you?
Speaker 10: He spent some good I'd rather be setting alongside you
Speaker 10: and Gordo, but appreciate just the time to chat.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 5: It's Gordo.
Speaker 10: How you been man, I've.
Speaker 9: Been all right, I mean, staying out of trouble for
Speaker 9: the most part as far as you know.
Speaker 10: Well, Spence and I don't believe that, but we'll try
Speaker 10: to take your word for it. Today.
Speaker 1: Well, it's great to have both you here and Craig.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take advantage of having you with us for
Speaker 1: the first segment to do just a little bit of
Speaker 1: jazz just to scosh because okay, all right, ultimately people
Speaker 1: on football, We're gonna give him college football. Gordon's been
Speaker 1: writing about both BYU and Utah. Both b YU and
Speaker 1: Utah remain clean and you're beloved Case State alma mater
Speaker 1: had to go home with the y L. But our
Speaker 1: friend Howard Beck, who joins the show for the NBA
Speaker 1: Daily Assist every year with the Ringer.
Speaker 2: He does this every year.
Speaker 1: He talks about his tiers in pro basketball and trying
Speaker 1: to understand the direction of the team. It's not a
Speaker 1: win lost guess, although Pelton did that today. It's more
Speaker 1: of like, Okay, here's what the Raptors are doing, here's
Speaker 1: what the Knicks are doing. Here's what Howard wrote about
Speaker 1: the Jazz. Okay, And I'll read it in, Craig, I
Speaker 1: want your.
Speaker 10: Reaction, yes, yes, quote.
Speaker 1: And as for the Jazz, they might be the most
Speaker 1: confusing of all. A team that jettison it's two all
Speaker 1: stars two years ago, isn't good enough to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and isn't bad enough to nab a high draft pick.
Speaker 1: They could have dealt lowry market in a dozen times
Speaker 1: by now, but they instead gave Hi him an extension
Speaker 1: that makes him trade ineligible until next summer. They're neither
Speaker 1: trying to win nor they're trying to lose. The epitome
Speaker 1: of a franchise with an identity crisis. What do you
Speaker 1: make of that, Craig.
Speaker 10: No, I think you know, he he's spun on. I
Speaker 10: think there is an identity crisis. From my chair, I'm
Speaker 10: not privy to all the inside, behind the doors conversations,
Speaker 10: but you know, we will talk tomorrow in a press
Speaker 10: conference with Ryan Smith and Danny and Justin Zannik, and
Speaker 10: maybe some of this will be clarified. I think it's
Speaker 10: very clear that they kept marketing as a centerpiece of
Speaker 10: a of a young team that maybe Danny again has
Speaker 10: something Spence and Gordo that he sees marketing able to
Speaker 10: lure someone else in. I don't know, but you have
Speaker 10: to win to do that. And you know what I
Speaker 10: think is here is that the Jazz may fly under
Speaker 10: the radar of popularity for the first time in eons
Speaker 10: because of a hockey team in town that's going to
Speaker 10: steal a lot of eyes from the Jazz. Now do
Speaker 10: they fly under the radar? Maybe they like that, you know,
Speaker 10: but I find it's still intriguing for me that you
Speaker 10: have two professional teams in town vne for ies, television,
Speaker 10: vying for ticket sales, Jazz and the Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 10: and sponsorship money, and you know, when you're both winning,
Speaker 10: it makes it a little easier there's so much excitement
Speaker 10: surrounded a hockey team, and I totally understand why, but
Speaker 10: you know that doesn't give the Jazz a pass. I mean,
Speaker 10: the one thing this team's always done was trying to
Speaker 10: be a playoff team, and right now very few give
Speaker 10: them any chance of winning thirty games, maybe twenty five
Speaker 10: unless something happens of maybe oddity, that one of these
Speaker 10: six young players that have been taken in the last
Speaker 10: two years, now three this past summer and three last summer,
Speaker 10: actually one or two of them pop. And what I
Speaker 10: mean by that is that they make a huge advancement
Speaker 10: in their development as an NBA row. I guess we'll
Speaker 10: all wait and see, but no, it is unpredictable. It
Speaker 10: is a scratch of the head of what direction the
Speaker 10: Jazz want to go. And I think, you know, we
Speaker 10: all talked to three of us, had many summer conversations
Speaker 10: about marketing, and He's right, you know, he was in
Speaker 10: every rumor. He was in every discussion, mostly with Golden
Speaker 10: State and other teams that were interested in marketing to
Speaker 10: really put that particular team over the top uh market.
Speaker 10: And I think chose to stay here. And you know what,
Speaker 10: that's a rarity by itself, Svince and Uh, I think
Speaker 10: we're gonna get the answers we need to know here
Speaker 10: very soon. We're going to play first preseason game a
Speaker 10: week from tomorrow night, and it's gonna be let's just
Speaker 10: say this, it's going to be youth on stage. I mean,
Speaker 10: there's no there's no question about that, Pordo.
Speaker 1: From my vantage point, and I mean this sincerely, I
Speaker 1: don't know that I can remember a season that's approaching
Speaker 1: with this little buzz and excitement about the Jazz in
Speaker 1: our That's just kind of my feel about it. Where
Speaker 1: you're at right now as we enter training camp, and
Speaker 1: as Craig mentioned, the first preseason game right around the corner.
Speaker 9: I agree with the spence. And last year I was
Speaker 9: shocked that the building was as full as it was
Speaker 9: a game after game after game, and I wondered, how
Speaker 9: long can this last? I mean, Jazz fans are really
Speaker 9: good fans, and they have that reputation around the league.
Speaker 9: But but maybe maybe it's you know, U Tall Football
Speaker 9: BYU Football. Maybe it's Utah Hockey Club. Maybe there's other
Speaker 9: things going on that are distractions to the Jazz and Bowler.
Speaker 9: You've brought that up a lot about what the relationship
Speaker 9: will be between hockey and basketball and whether there's a
Speaker 9: friendly competition there or how that goes as far as
Speaker 9: ticket sales is concerned. And I don't know. I agree
Speaker 9: expectations are extremely low, Bowler and and I just don't
Speaker 9: see a likelihood or any kind of high percentage or
Speaker 9: even a modest percentage that they're really going to provide
Speaker 9: a product this year that people are gonna.
Speaker 2: Go, wow, look at this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there'll be little you know, tidbits here there, Keyante,
Speaker 1: you know, growing Cody popping, whatever it is, but nothing.
Speaker 1: And I think Howard's point is the right point. And
Speaker 1: I've been on it for two years. I was never
Speaker 1: like trade everybody and get rid of Dennis and Quinn.
Speaker 2: I was never that guy.
Speaker 1: But okay, that's the deal, all right, Then go all
Speaker 1: in on a rebuild. At Howard's point is the one
Speaker 1: I've been yelling about for two years. What is the direction?
Speaker 1: Where is your lane? And everybody's talking about this prior
Speaker 1: to the NBA season. Anyone who writes about the Jazz
Speaker 1: are just kind of like no clue man, no idea,
Speaker 1: some decent pieces here or there, you know, Craig will
Speaker 1: give you the final word, the let's do some college football.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Spence, I think you know what maybe led us
Speaker 10: all astray was one comment last year after the season
Speaker 10: with Danny when he said he was potentially big game hunting,
Speaker 10: and I think that just kind of stuck thinking that
Speaker 10: the big move was imminent, right, wouldn't to agree? I
Speaker 10: mean that comment to me when I sat there, I thought,
Speaker 10: oh wow, Okay, now we kind of see youth with
Speaker 10: another piece or two with marketing most likely, and then
Speaker 10: they'll let the young guys grow around a veteran. I
Speaker 10: can't say core, but you mix and you still don't
Speaker 10: achieve what you want, but you have a blending of
Speaker 10: talent and also a way for young players to understand
Speaker 10: what it takes to be a pro in this league,
Speaker 10: the work ethic right, and how to take losses and
Speaker 10: how to handle wins and balance all that that did
Speaker 10: not occur Drew you Banks, Patty Mills, you know, long
Speaker 10: long term veterans, and so that may or may not
Speaker 10: have any role in this team at all. I just
Speaker 10: see marketing the centerpiece and around a bunch of young
Speaker 10: nineteen twenty year olds. I think I'm intrigued with Walker Kessler.
Speaker 10: Will he win games, you know, not by himself? And
Speaker 10: of course Philipowski has some talent out of Duke. This
Speaker 10: early second round pick, Cody Williams, what does he do?
Speaker 10: Does Hey does Keante bust open? Is this guy really
Speaker 10: the guy that's going to run this team? I don't know,
Speaker 10: and I guess we'll all I hate to say this,
Speaker 10: we'll all find out together. But as this conversation continues,
Speaker 10: people I run into asking the same thing. I said, Look,
Speaker 10: you know I don't have I don't have that magic,
Speaker 10: you know magic, but you know singing ball that can
Speaker 10: predict anything. I think we just have to find out
Speaker 10: together on what what direction Danny really thinks in the
Speaker 10: evaluation of these young guys, if the actually are going
Speaker 10: to stick, or if there'll be pieces that would be
Speaker 10: moved out before the trade deadline or next season. But yeah,
Speaker 10: it's kind of interesting to watch the Jazz for the
Speaker 10: first time in a long time not be the talking
Speaker 10: point of the fall going into camp, and to have
Speaker 10: a hockey club and NHL franchise really kind of stealing
Speaker 10: the headlines right now.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do some college football, because Craig, I
Speaker 1: know your time is limited. I want to get some
Speaker 1: of your takes here, but Gordon will start with you
Speaker 1: on the Utes going to Stillwater and getting to win
Speaker 1: with their backup quarterback. Now, I've been talking about it
Speaker 1: all week. I don't love the lack of information, but
Speaker 1: I understand why Kyle does it. And until Kyle gets
Speaker 1: the email from the Big twelve saying we report injuries
Speaker 1: now like the NFL and the SEC do, he's going
Speaker 1: to continue to hold information back if he thinks it
Speaker 1: gives him an advantage. His job is not to tell
Speaker 1: us who's playing quarterback. His job is doing football games.
Speaker 1: And it just looks like the same old Utes, doesn't it,
Speaker 1: the same old coach with a team no matter who's
Speaker 1: under center, they're going to run the ball, they're going
Speaker 1: to tackle, they're going to be prepared, work hard and
Speaker 1: win four to oh one tone conference play.
Speaker 2: Where you're at with the Utes right now.
Speaker 9: Nowhere near as good as if came Rising were playing,
Speaker 9: for sure. I mean that's clear, clear for anywhere see.
Speaker 9: And you know, I mean maybe Cam thought he was
Speaker 9: going to have a chance play, but I was told
Speaker 9: that it was the kid who was getting all the
Speaker 9: reps during the week, So I think that was pretty
Speaker 9: much what they were planning on. But they hid that
Speaker 9: pretty well because most people I talked to thought Cam
Speaker 9: was going to give it a go. He was not.
Speaker 9: They beat that team, one of the best teams that
Speaker 9: they'll face all year long on the road, playing Utah football,
Speaker 9: punching them in the mouth. That's what they did. And
Speaker 9: that defense, that defense is tough. And I know a
Speaker 9: lot of people wondered a little bit about, well, what
Speaker 9: happened at the end of the game, giving up two
Speaker 9: touchdowns and two two point conversions? What about that? By
Speaker 9: that time the game was over with and Amy Lovewood
Speaker 9: was just holding back on that offense. He saw the
Speaker 9: three turnovers in the first half and didn't want to
Speaker 9: risk that with Wilson quarterback, and so he went extremely conservative.
Speaker 9: And so the youths pick up two hundred and forty
Speaker 9: nine yards rushing and they play old school Utah football,
Speaker 9: And I think they answered this question. Guys. People wondered,
Speaker 9: can the Utes really come in from that Nandy Pamby
Speaker 9: Pac twelve and come into the Big twelve and punch
Speaker 9: these teams in the mouth the way that they are
Speaker 9: accustomed to doing and the way they have built a
Speaker 9: reputation around. That's exactly what they did on the road
Speaker 9: in the place they had never played before, and they
Speaker 9: showed the Big twelve what you tall football is all about.
Speaker 9: And the thing is, when Cam Rising is back, that
Speaker 9: team is going to elevate in a way that is
Speaker 9: going to be pretty interesting to watch because Cam Rising's
Speaker 9: presence on that team lifts everybody, even the defense, I think,
Speaker 9: because all the players rally around that. Yeah, they're giving
Speaker 9: the kid the chance and he's coming along and he's
Speaker 9: he's a talent, he is, but he's just not ready
Speaker 9: to take the Utes to the level at which they
Speaker 9: can play. And when they are at that level, watch out.
Speaker 9: I could see this team winning out.
Speaker 1: One of the three of us went to a school
Speaker 1: that is in the Big twelve and it's familiar with
Speaker 1: the land Escape of the Big Twelve and Craig Bowler. Jack,
Speaker 1: you know that Mike Gundhy does not lose in Stillwater,
Speaker 1: he just doesn't. That's a tough place to play and
Speaker 1: you roll in there with your backup true freshman QB.
Speaker 2: You get a win.
Speaker 1: Where are you at now at the start of the
Speaker 1: season for the Utes.
Speaker 10: I'm impressed, Gordo said, it the ground game with Micah
Speaker 10: Bernard blew me away. His strength is ridiculous. Guys, after
Speaker 10: the initial hit, he's averaging about seven yards of carrier.
Speaker 10: Then Mike Mitchell gives you some strength on the goal
Speaker 10: line too, But you know the defenses where it's at
Speaker 10: thirteen points a game allowed on a four and oh start.
Speaker 10: You know, I think for me, I get so many
Speaker 10: people and guys, I think this Cam Rising thing has
Speaker 10: angered some fans. Look, I don't know when he's coming back,
Speaker 10: if it's you know, last week we talked about him
Speaker 10: playing or that's why I spence you kind of I
Speaker 10: thought pull the string or the trigger on the Vegas line.
Speaker 10: They knew something we didn't, And I think that it
Speaker 10: is time to let people know who's in who's out.
Speaker 10: I mean, look what happened at UNLV with the kid
Speaker 10: Matthew Sluka, who's out now and quit the team over
Speaker 10: one hundred thousand dollars promise on an nil. Look, and
Speaker 10: Cam's making reportedly did you say seven figures?
Speaker 2: Those are the rumors.
Speaker 7: I mean.
Speaker 1: The problem is, like everything else, there's no one place
Speaker 1: to actually get anything that's real.
Speaker 2: We're all kind of guessed.
Speaker 10: Right, well, this was the problem with UNLV. You know,
Speaker 10: the assistant coach at Lesley promised this type of one
Speaker 10: hundred thousand dollars payoff. And I think it's just getting
Speaker 10: to the point now where fans are like again, I
Speaker 10: think it's a danger time in college football. Look UNLV
Speaker 10: they decide to jump into the Pac twelve. Excuse me,
Speaker 10: they decided to stay in the Mountain West. But Utah
Speaker 10: State jumps with a few other teams.
Speaker 5: You know, the whole.
Speaker 10: Landscape is just rocky, unpredictable. And you know what, if
Speaker 10: you're gonna pay players, I'm I'm I'm in the physition now,
Speaker 10: and you guys know I'm old school. I didn't like
Speaker 10: the fact players being paid, but I get it. But
Speaker 10: if it's now that way semi pro football in college,
Speaker 10: then if you're getting paid, then they should know if
Speaker 10: you can play or not. I mean, this is gambling,
Speaker 10: by the way, Spencer, you and I talked about it
Speaker 10: last week about how it slid four points in a
Speaker 10: matter of what for two hours, and so how does
Speaker 10: that play into the betting scheme of college football when
Speaker 10: you don't know who is on the field. I love
Speaker 10: it being paid. I think this is a danger time
Speaker 10: right now and UNLV's quarterback maybe the tip of the
Speaker 10: iceberg on this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that story yesterday since shockwaves. I love how
Speaker 1: when paying players was illegal, Jerry Jerry Tarkanian, which is
Speaker 1: paying everybody and not even apologizing. Now it's legal, and
Speaker 1: he's like, no, we can't do it. You know, it's
Speaker 1: interesting that it actually comes from Vegas.
Speaker 10: Let's move over since Bush suing the answer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and as he should.
Speaker 1: But since Craig only has a few more minutes, let's
Speaker 1: do a little BYU.
Speaker 9: Then we'll start something. I got a news for you guys.
Speaker 9: It's gonna get worse.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, but let's do that next second, because let's
Speaker 1: talk a little BYU. So Craig will give you the
Speaker 1: first crack of this since you have a couple of
Speaker 1: minutes left BYU. Also a clean start. We had a
Speaker 1: rod on last week and I said, you know what
Speaker 1: gives you because they were three and oh last year.
Speaker 1: Then they get into conference and it just didn't go well.
Speaker 1: They'll spin it like, hey, we were a couple of
Speaker 1: plays away from winning three more games. Great, congratulations, print
Speaker 1: the shirts. They have not won a road game in
Speaker 1: the Big twelve their own to five. They go to
Speaker 1: Baylor as an underdog. Give me your thoughts. Do you
Speaker 1: think the start of the season from Brigham Young is
Speaker 1: actually real?
Speaker 2: Are they really this good?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 10: Okay, I know people say I'm going to try to
Speaker 10: protect kse State because That's where I went. And look,
Speaker 10: it was an implosion by by Kansas State. But I
Speaker 10: will say this, what teams have to do when another
Speaker 10: team implos is when the ball lands in your hands,
Speaker 10: then you must take advantage and punish them. And that's
Speaker 10: what BYU did with Kalanie Sataki and and forcing the turnovers.
Speaker 10: K State coughed it up. You throw the pick the
Speaker 10: young kid, Avery Johnson, sophomore, and all of a sudden
Speaker 10: they aren't mature enough to handle that type of of collapse.
Speaker 10: Is I'm going to say?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 10: You turn it up, turn it over three times and
Speaker 10: the ninety yard punt return was a beautiful thing. That's
Speaker 10: a top three play of the year at the moment
Speaker 10: in college football. It may rise as the year rolls on,
Speaker 10: but uh, the Kingston kid showed incredible talent, speed, nimble, patience,
Speaker 10: picked up the blocks and basically that was it. K
Speaker 10: State was done and I was just sitting there going, Wow,
Speaker 10: I've never seen this team or a team lately implode
Speaker 10: like they did. But by you took advantage of every opportunity,
Speaker 10: and that's why winning football has. You have to do
Speaker 10: that to win against a ranked team, mind you, and
Speaker 10: now by You find themselves ranked twenty two in the
Speaker 10: coaches pulls. So the Baylor game may be the one
Speaker 10: the tipping point. Never easy to win on the road.
Speaker 10: Baylor has some highs and lows in their program, but
Speaker 10: they're a favorite of a field goal, or so I think,
Speaker 10: and that's usually what happens when you're at home. You
Speaker 10: get the three point advantage unless you're really bad. So
Speaker 10: this I think this game Week five, Game five may
Speaker 10: be the one who really get to see who BYU is,
Speaker 10: unless Baylor just wants to hand it to him right,
Speaker 10: which I don't think they're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Gordo, you sat here two months ago and you said
Speaker 1: they're better than people think. Media picked BYU thirteenth in
Speaker 1: the Big twelve poll Vegas set over under four and
Speaker 1: a half. I taded them as six. You said two
Speaker 1: months ago you thought BYU is better than people think.
Speaker 2: So far you've been proven right.
Speaker 9: Well, only because that's what Colonie Sataki told me to
Speaker 9: my face. We talked for almost an hour and I
Speaker 9: couldn't believe how optimistic he was because I was a
Speaker 9: skeptic and he just went on and on. I said, no, no, no,
Speaker 9: this team is better than people don't have us right.
Speaker 9: They don't have us right. And so far he's been
Speaker 9: right and everybody else was wrong. I think I've seen
Speaker 9: enough how to BYU this year to really believe that
Speaker 9: they are better. Now are they better than Kansas State?
Speaker 9: If those two teams played on a neutral field ten times,
Speaker 9: I would say BYU might get three, maybe two. And
Speaker 9: yet that's the way it went on that particular night
Speaker 9: with that home fueled win. That was a big win
Speaker 9: for BYU. And I understand that Kansas State is good bowler.
Speaker 9: I'm not going to run the Wildcats down. I think.
Speaker 9: I think that's a good team that will bounce back.
Speaker 9: But BYU has more than we. They're one went away
Speaker 9: from tying how many wins they had last year, and
Speaker 9: I know they fell apart last year they lost five
Speaker 9: straight down the stretch. I don't see that happening this
Speaker 9: they have. They have Houston on the schedule, that's going
Speaker 9: to be a win, right, So what happens on the
Speaker 9: other this team could go eight and four. I don't
Speaker 9: know what they'll do, and I'm not predicting it one
Speaker 9: way or another. I'm just saying that that team is
Speaker 9: better than we thought it was. And a lot of
Speaker 9: that has to do with that defense. That that that
Speaker 9: that run we were talking about against k State Bowler,
Speaker 9: I mean, the defense scored, the special team scored, and
Speaker 9: the offense score. Boom boom boom and Oliver. That's that's
Speaker 9: the kind of thing that you look for if you're
Speaker 9: a coach hoping that a team is coming together. And
Speaker 9: that's what Kalani SAIDI said.
Speaker 10: What happened, and Gordon, I tell you this. Also, they
Speaker 10: held Kansas State on two very impressive early drives and
Speaker 10: just field goals when you thought they were just marching
Speaker 10: down the field. Right, So there's early success. You'll hold
Speaker 10: them to three twice and then they take advantage of
Speaker 10: the turnovers. What I saw in b Yu was better
Speaker 10: speed than I expected, and the defense can can move
Speaker 10: sideline to sideline. I was impressed. But Baylor's a different
Speaker 10: story on the road. As you guys said, and I
Speaker 10: wonder how they bounce back after Dion and the Buffalo's
Speaker 10: got a Hail Mary overtime when and let's see what
Speaker 10: happens if Baylor has a little anger on their side
Speaker 10: as well well.
Speaker 1: Craig, I appreciate the time, man. We'll set you loose
Speaker 1: and look forward to seeing you back in studio when
Speaker 1: you can.
Speaker 10: All right, yeah, I'll be there next week. And you
Speaker 10: know what, I got five minutes. I'm gonna listen when
Speaker 10: you guys get back. This's inn il thing. I'm sorry,
Speaker 10: it riles me up again. It's it's I don't know
Speaker 10: what direction college football is going, but it's ever changing
Speaker 10: and we're not done. But the nil, when we look
Speaker 10: back on it in twenty years is going to be
Speaker 10: the centerpiece of what if this if college football imploded,
Speaker 10: or if it actually became an NFL semi pro league,
Speaker 10: you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: I don't know, Laura.
Speaker 9: I'm going to tell you what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do that coming up next with our guy,
Speaker 1: Gordon Craig.
Speaker 2: Thanks for the time.
Speaker 10: We'll talk soon.
Speaker 5: Bye bye.
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Speaker 1: Gordon Montson Live and Studio for one more segment. Gordon,
Speaker 1: I have a concept of a plan for this segment,
Speaker 1: if you'd be so kind. Okay, So we were talking
Speaker 1: nil last segment with Craig Bowler, Jack, Gordon Montson Live
Speaker 1: and Studio. And so when the news came down yesterday
Speaker 1: that Vegas was losing U and LB was losing their
Speaker 1: starting quarterback Matthew Sluca after a three and oh start
Speaker 1: where they had actually elevated themselves to the Vegas favorite
Speaker 1: to be the g REP in the expanded CFP over
Speaker 1: a verbal promise for one hundred k from assistant coach,
Speaker 1: it caught my antenna in a way that most of
Speaker 1: these nil stare stories just don't now. I started the
Speaker 1: show off today just with a conversation about it's not
Speaker 1: good or bad, it's just different, and it's really up
Speaker 1: to you to decide if you can look past it
Speaker 1: to consume the sport that you love. Every sport has
Speaker 1: something that you have to look past if you want
Speaker 1: to enjoy it. The NBA has load management. I will
Speaker 1: yell about that until Am ninety five. The NFL, there's
Speaker 1: political statements heard, people say I'm not watching football, calling
Speaker 1: Kaepernick neild right, and so it's like, all right, if
Speaker 1: that's your thing, fine. You know, the brain injuries, the
Speaker 1: CTE stuff, I think disillusion to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: But you know, NFL ratings are an all time high.
Speaker 1: People are still watching college football. So I do think
Speaker 1: it's an issue that needs to be figured out. But
Speaker 1: I also believe that if you want to watch college
Speaker 1: football and enjoy it, it's here.
Speaker 2: If you don't have to deal with it.
Speaker 9: This will be disappointing the bowler because Bowler's old school.
Speaker 9: But it's going to get worse. I think it's well,
Speaker 9: it's going to get worse and it's going to get better.
Speaker 9: More and more corporate involvement is coming, and I think
Speaker 9: you'll even see teams sponsored by certain companies and certainly
Speaker 9: giving money for something in return. That's definitely on the horizon,
Speaker 9: especially at the bigger programs around the country. We all
Speaker 9: remember during the summer we saw that thing about the
Speaker 9: Big Twelve being brought to you by All State maybe
Speaker 9: or some It's going to continue to get more and
Speaker 9: more tangled, but I think there will come a point.
Speaker 9: They will come to a point of salary caps. I
Speaker 9: think that is something that will happen. And the problem
Speaker 9: with that is, you know, the players have been being
Speaker 9: paid forever and it's gone on under the table and
Speaker 9: people were cheating. If you have a salary cap, well
Speaker 9: that stopped people and chieving. You're still going to have
Speaker 9: payments under the table. But I think it does make
Speaker 9: sense from an institutional standpoint to limit how much dough
Speaker 9: can flow to the players. And I think that they've
Speaker 9: got to get that under control in order to make
Speaker 9: it seem at least legitimate.
Speaker 1: Can we call it how it is and just say
Speaker 1: that this is professional sports, that's what it is, and
Speaker 1: ultimately for football only and This is where it gets
Speaker 1: complex because there are several different layers here to figure
Speaker 1: out how to preserve Olympic sports and figure out how
Speaker 1: to preserve athletic departments overall. If football simply just leaves
Speaker 1: the NCAA and in a way kind of leaves the
Speaker 1: athletic department high and ride, the ramifications are deep. So
Speaker 1: I don't say this lightly, but it is time for
Speaker 1: football to break away from the NCUBA.
Speaker 2: It's time to hire commissioner. I don't know who it is.
Speaker 1: It's time for that commissioner to enact a governing body
Speaker 1: that's very similar to the NFL, and hire a deputy
Speaker 1: commissioner and build out a college football headquarter office to
Speaker 1: figure all this stuff out and operate it as if
Speaker 1: it essentially is a minor league feeder system for the NFL.
Speaker 2: It's time to do it.
Speaker 1: I don't love it, because I think we all love
Speaker 1: what made us all fall in love with college football,
Speaker 1: and that was it wasn't tainted by money, but it was.
Speaker 1: We just didn't see it. It wasn't tainted by money
Speaker 1: in front of our face. The problem is it was
Speaker 1: tainted by money in the back room, by a bunch
Speaker 1: of old dudes that were getting rich on the backs
Speaker 1: of employees who they didn't pay. So they were a
Speaker 1: serial anti trust violator for about one hundred years and
Speaker 1: it's about time they're not. And so we're here now,
Speaker 1: So let's be grown ups and let's not yell about
Speaker 1: kids getting paid, and let's put some regulations in place.
Speaker 1: Because I heard from some people at the U yesterday
Speaker 1: after my show. It's pretty clear, Gordon, nobody knows what
Speaker 1: to do. Nobody knows how to traverse this space. And
Speaker 1: if you're a young athlete, go get yours. But until
Speaker 1: they allow the athletes to unionize and collectively bargain the
Speaker 1: way they do in pro football, to come up with
Speaker 1: a contract and come up with a cap. And yes,
Speaker 1: you sign contracts, guess what happens when you sign contracts
Speaker 1: you don't transfer. It solved.
Speaker 2: I just did it.
Speaker 1: I just saw the transfer port right, So like at
Speaker 1: least we alleviate that. And yes, there are slots in
Speaker 1: place like there is in pro football. If you're a
Speaker 1: starting caliber quarterback, this is what you're worth. Boom boom boom.
Speaker 1: I hate to say it, it's just far past the
Speaker 1: time where college football just needs to lean into.
Speaker 9: The pro model, and that's coming. Yeah, that's all coming already.
Speaker 9: You see programs that are hiring CEOs to run the program,
Speaker 9: and so this is just a matter of time. One
Speaker 9: thing I've learned and you've learned it too, Spence, that
Speaker 9: when it comes to college football and college sports in general,
Speaker 9: the thing is like it's like turning an aircraft carrier.
Speaker 9: I mean, it takes forever for things to be put
Speaker 9: into place to make it official. And this will take
Speaker 9: some time too, but it's on the way. So the
Speaker 9: bad news for all you amateurism lovers out there is
Speaker 9: that that's not what it is. That's not what it
Speaker 9: was back when you love the amateurism, and it certainly
Speaker 9: won't be what it will be moving forward. It will
Speaker 9: be pro football and it will be better organized.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I just think if you want to be
Speaker 1: an alarmist, if you want to, you know, be the
Speaker 1: mule at the end of Don Quixote sounding the message
Speaker 1: about things. You know, the bottom line is Saturday's in
Speaker 1: the fall are still going to feel like Saturdays in
Speaker 1: the fall. And as I talked about Gordon, if you
Speaker 1: want to continue to watch a sport, go to games,
Speaker 1: spend money on tickets and whatever it is.
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to look past some things. That's just
Speaker 2: the deal.
Speaker 1: And things change, things progress, and sometimes we don't like
Speaker 1: the way things progress because we're afraid of change. We
Speaker 1: want to stay status quo because we like the way
Speaker 1: that the thing is. There are several elements to the
Speaker 1: pro model that I actually think will improve the sport.
Speaker 1: I don't need to see fifteen FFFCS teams play each
Speaker 1: other for three weeks. I don't need to see Ohio
Speaker 1: State bludgeon some poor small programs so they can get
Speaker 1: a check to go down and support their school.
Speaker 2: I understand the dynamic, but.
Speaker 1: From a viewer standpoint, I think college football's main problem
Speaker 1: is week in and week out, it doesn't have enough
Speaker 1: brand games. It has four or five, and then as
Speaker 1: the season progresses sometimes you get more. But then Nick
Speaker 1: Saban week eleven, you know, schedules little sisters of the poor, they're.
Speaker 2: Playing like a glorified.
Speaker 1: By leaning into the pro model, every week will have
Speaker 1: probably fifteen or twenty like brand matchup games, and I
Speaker 1: think that's actually good for the sport.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and the records that were so clean, as you mentioned,
Speaker 9: you know, if those will become a sort of a dinosaur,
Speaker 9: because if you're playing tough teams every week, then your record,
Speaker 9: a record of nine and three is going to be
Speaker 9: absolutely stellar. I'd rather have that than what you just described.
Speaker 9: Who wants to watch these games sixty two to nothing.
Speaker 9: I mean, it's a waste of time. It's not fun
Speaker 9: for anyone, even the players. They go out there and
Speaker 9: they're playing against an inferior team. You know, it's a joke.
Speaker 9: It's a joke to them, and they can't focus the
Speaker 9: way they should. If they did focus, it would be
Speaker 9: two hundred and twenty to nothing. And so yeah, get
Speaker 9: rid of that. And I understand that the teams that
Speaker 9: need some money, and I don't know what the answer
Speaker 9: is for that, but it would be nice to have
Speaker 9: competitive games every single week.
Speaker 1: So Week one Iowa forty, Illinois State zero, Okay k
Speaker 1: State forty one, U T. Martin six, Tennessee sixty nine,
Speaker 1: Chattanooga three, all right, Old Miss seventy six, Furman zero,
Speaker 1: Alabama sixty three, Western Kentucky zero. I could keep going.
Speaker 1: I don't need those games on my TV. And if
Speaker 1: I'm a television executive, I'm a little bit more excited
Speaker 1: if My week one game is Oregon Ohio State, right,
Speaker 1: and week in and week out, my big brands are
Speaker 1: playing each other. It's what happens in pro football and
Speaker 1: as TV money has really taken over the thing behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, It's kind of what has to happen with
Speaker 1: college football in the area of them breaking away from
Speaker 1: the NCAA and surviving on their own. That's why it
Speaker 1: is going to be the forty or whatever biggest brands,
Speaker 1: because they know that's where the money is. I don't
Speaker 1: have to tell you about what happened with English soccer
Speaker 1: when all of the superclubs almost broke away to start
Speaker 1: their own high level league. Like when powerful people get involved,
Speaker 1: they see where the revenue streams are, they're going to
Speaker 1: do everything they can to make it happen. In college football,
Speaker 1: what that means is big brands playing each other every week.
Speaker 9: Well, as you know, Spence, I made a study of that.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, no, I'm a professional soccer situation and I
Speaker 9: agree with you. I think we're of one mind on that.
Speaker 1: Was there one club that really pulled the plug on
Speaker 1: that whole operation that you blame more than the others?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 9: I would say probably, man, you and you Yeah, why
Speaker 9: would you buy just a bunch of sobs?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: Just like Hubris that thing, it's just arrogance.
Speaker 9: I don't like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I like scrappy Yep, that's why.
Speaker 9: That's why I like Uh, that's why I like Liverpool.
Speaker 2: Oh you're a Liverpool supporter. Now, this is one thing.
Speaker 9: I've never figured out completely and I won't be pitched
Speaker 9: to it because I don't want to leave people behind it.
Speaker 2: It makes us feel infurious.
Speaker 9: But Liverpool and Everton, you know, how is where's the
Speaker 9: dividing line on that? I'm not I've never been able
Speaker 9: to figure that out. That's a little beyond me. But
Speaker 9: I will say that I every once in a while
Speaker 9: you'll have a big upset and that that sort of
Speaker 9: encourages these underdogs to go out there and fight the fight.
Speaker 9: But they're so rare that it's not worth putting up
Speaker 9: with all the other nonsense that happens in the meantime.
Speaker 9: And I do look forward to teams really having to
Speaker 9: bring it every single week, and you know, then you
Speaker 9: have an upset likely so on Saturday night be why
Speaker 9: you beat in Kansas State. That was a huge upset
Speaker 9: and and yet it happened, and it was exciting, and
Speaker 9: so you can have upsets even when you have, you know,
Speaker 9: teams that are relatively similar level, and so that doesn't
Speaker 9: get eradicated from the game.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, because you've been doing this
Speaker 1: a long time and you've seen a lot of things,
Speaker 1: and I'm now old enough where I've seen some things,
Speaker 1: but not as many things as you've seen. And my
Speaker 1: whole premise on this NIL stuff is and I heard
Speaker 1: media members, I read media members sounding the alarm that
Speaker 1: this was the end of college football. I heard smart
Speaker 1: people who I respect say about two two and a
Speaker 1: half years ago, Okay, now it's real transfer portal nil.
Speaker 2: This game is screwed.
Speaker 1: I just referenced the and IL excuse me, I just
Speaker 1: referenced the NFL stuff where a lot of people were
Speaker 1: disenfranchised with the CT and the brain injuries and the
Speaker 1: Kaepernick stuff.
Speaker 2: Whatever that stuff is.
Speaker 1: NBA load management, too much money, guaranteed contracts, Major League Baseball, juicee,
Speaker 1: we could keep going. Have you ever seen anything in
Speaker 1: your career that actually does end up having a super
Speaker 1: adverse effect on a sports league that people enjoy consuming
Speaker 1: NFL college for like, cause, I feel like sometimes it's
Speaker 1: just clickbait and fodder for content where it's like the
Speaker 1: sky is falling its chicken little. I'm like, no, dude,
Speaker 1: I woke up on Saturday a couple of weeks ago
Speaker 1: just as juice to watch utahn by you play football
Speaker 1: as I did five years ago, like Saturday's in the fault.
Speaker 1: Gordon still feel like Saturdays in the fall.
Speaker 9: And they will continue to do so. I mean, you're
Speaker 9: gonna have the reactions and that's okay, but the sky
Speaker 9: is not falling and it won't fall. And as long
Speaker 9: as people care about the teams they root for, it
Speaker 9: will be okay. It'll be different. You nailed it, Spence.
Speaker 9: People don't like change and they glom onto things that
Speaker 9: they sometimes are not what they think they are. And
Speaker 9: but it'll be okay. This stuff will evolve and it'll
Speaker 9: be it'll be fun to watch. The thing that comes
Speaker 9: to mind when you said that it was Kurt Flood. Okay,
Speaker 9: when when free agency started coming into baseball and people thought,
Speaker 9: oh my gosh, these guys are gonna bounce all over
Speaker 9: the place and it's gonna give the players all the
Speaker 9: power and all And there were certain union leaders who
Speaker 9: did a really good job of empowering players. But I
Speaker 9: mean that might still frustrate some fans because they care
Speaker 9: about these players and then all of a sudden one day,
Speaker 9: when they're contractor is up, when they have the freedom
Speaker 9: to do so, they're gone. And that's troubling to some people.
Speaker 9: But it wasn't the end of the sport, and it
Speaker 9: hasn't been the end of sports in general. And in
Speaker 9: some ways that fluidity has helped bring some hope to
Speaker 9: certain teams that were in a bit of a funk
Speaker 9: and they found a way to climb out of it
Speaker 9: because they could add players. This is especially true in
Speaker 9: the NFL. You see teams. I mean, who used to
Speaker 9: talk about the NBA and it was like you could
Speaker 9: pencil in the teams that were going to be in
Speaker 9: the playoffs way in advance, and you knew who was
Speaker 9: going to be in the finals, and at least you
Speaker 9: had a good idea. In football, a lot of times
Speaker 9: you really didn't have an idea and that made it
Speaker 9: more fun. And why because there was fluidity among Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1: Weird, Gordon, because a lot of things because your reference
Speaker 1: free agency and in my mind I'm thinking nil and
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm thinking load management.
Speaker 2: In my mind, I'm thinking CTE.
Speaker 1: It all comes back down to one thing, and that
Speaker 1: is the power of the almighty dollar. It's it's follow
Speaker 1: the money, you'll always find the answers. The golden rule
Speaker 1: is the man with the gold makes the rules right.
Speaker 1: And ultimately, when it comes to where we're at right
Speaker 1: now societally, where the middle class is really being squeezed
Speaker 1: out and most of the wealth is can you know,
Speaker 1: essentially in the pockets of the top one percent of
Speaker 1: our country in a capitalistic society, when a middle class
Speaker 1: is being squeezed out, if there's a chance to join
Speaker 1: that one percent, people are gonna do whatever they want
Speaker 1: to do, even if it's at the expense of the
Speaker 1: consumers that.
Speaker 2: Watch their product. Nobody gives a rip.
Speaker 1: If people are mad that a quarterback's getting money, they're
Speaker 1: gonna do whatever they can do to pad their bank
Speaker 1: account and take care of themselves. Load management is about
Speaker 1: one thing and one thing only. That's getting NBA players
Speaker 1: to their second and third max contracts. Because that's when
Speaker 1: generational wealth spills in. Agents realize that suddenly it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: we need to preserve the help.
Speaker 2: No, you don't like.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, there's no data that indicates load management leads to
Speaker 1: longer careers, it leads to bigger paychecks when they get
Speaker 1: to their second or their third contract. Why did the
Speaker 1: NFL cover up CTE. They didn't want lawsuits because they
Speaker 1: want to preserve their cash as well. This all is
Speaker 1: kind of tied into the same similar dynamics, certainly societally,
Speaker 1: when the middle class is being squeezed out and the
Speaker 1: best life is over there, everybody's gonna do whatever they
Speaker 1: can do to go to that life because that's what
Speaker 1: looks fun.
Speaker 9: That's so true. I mean, remember when two million dollars
Speaker 9: a year the salary, you go, oh my gosh, that's
Speaker 9: so much money. Yeah, well now it's like fifty million.
Speaker 1: The money is it's so stupid now.
Speaker 9: The one group I do feel sorry for those middle
Speaker 9: class fans who want to go to a hockey game
Speaker 9: but they can't get a good seat, and they certainly
Speaker 9: can't afford season tickets. I'm worry about those folks. And
Speaker 9: that's been a bit of a problem for a long
Speaker 9: time now, because there's always somebody out there who has
Speaker 9: the money that do it, who has the money to
Speaker 9: fill that seat, either through corporation, corporate dollars, or some
Speaker 9: other way. And like you say, the teams don't care
Speaker 9: because they're racketing the money.
Speaker 2: Remember Gordon.
Speaker 1: Two years ago, Jason Kidd, after a playoff win, took
Speaker 1: the podium and said, what you guys don't understand is
Speaker 1: we're millionaires chearing for each other. And I was like, dude,
Speaker 1: I know, right, yeah, I know, Jason, but don't say
Speaker 1: that out loud.
Speaker 9: And that's dangerous because what we love. How did we
Speaker 9: get hooked on sports to begin with?
Speaker 2: Competition?
Speaker 9: Competition? That is, that's what we want. And that's why
Speaker 9: certain exhibitions that you see where it's not really a competition,
Speaker 9: it's just and sort of what you talked about with
Speaker 9: these lopsideds coores, they're not competitive and so they don't intrigue,
Speaker 9: they don't hook us. Competition hooks us, and we stay
Speaker 9: stay hooked, even if the dollars are ridiculous. But I
Speaker 9: do I do feel for that family out there, that
Speaker 9: father or that mother wants to take daughters or sons
Speaker 9: to a game and they can't afford to do it,
Speaker 9: not with a good seat right right.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes can't afford to do it period, and then oftentimes
Speaker 1: save up for months to do it, and they show
Speaker 1: up and Luca stays in Dallas and Lebron loves Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: It's like all connected and the message continues to be
Speaker 1: we don't give a rip about you, yep. And how
Speaker 1: long does that last? I don't know. I say this
Speaker 1: all the time. I can yell about the NBA having
Speaker 1: a load management issue and they can send me their
Speaker 1: profit and lost statement and be like, where's the issue?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 2: And I get it.
Speaker 1: I just think it's sad that that really is where
Speaker 1: all the energy goes in our country.
Speaker 2: It feels like it does.
Speaker 9: At least, And then people what happens is people say, well,
Speaker 9: it's the fans' fault. Why don't they just walk away
Speaker 9: from it? Why do they pay attention to it? Yeah,
Speaker 9: Well here's why. Because your granddad or your grandmother rooted
Speaker 9: for a certain team, and they pass that intergenerationally down
Speaker 9: to their kids, and then their kids you're dead or
Speaker 9: mom pass it down to you. And you care about
Speaker 9: these things in a way that you you don't care
Speaker 9: about what Brandon milk you buy.
Speaker 1: Sure, it means a lot to a lot of people,
Speaker 1: especially I've always said this, I probably said it with
Speaker 1: you back on our show back in the day. It
Speaker 1: feels like your college fandom is a little different than
Speaker 1: your allegiance to a pro team. More often than not,
Speaker 1: there are exceptions, but in college, it's it's where you
Speaker 1: met your wife, it's where you met your friends, it's
Speaker 1: where you grew up.
Speaker 2: It's where your community. Probably my community.
Speaker 1: Still exists as a result of going to you, right,
Speaker 1: And so watching Utah football hits a little bit different
Speaker 1: than watching the Jets because I didn't go to Jets
Speaker 1: University and I didn't, you know, meet my friends there,
Speaker 1: and you know, I didn't raise Oh certainly I didn't
Speaker 1: raise my son in the shadows of the stadium. I
Speaker 1: just think the college fandom hits a little bit different.
Speaker 1: But just what sucks is and I hate to sound
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, Maybe I'm just getting older. I
Speaker 1: just feel like it sucks that the people who are
Speaker 1: in charge feast upon the love and commitment that people
Speaker 1: have for their teams with only one goal in mind,
Speaker 1: and that's creating revenue stream. That's how it feels now. Honestly,
Speaker 1: part of me is like I wonder if the new
Speaker 1: NBA ownership thing is to be like a cool, young,
Speaker 1: hip guy with joggers and make a bunch of money
Speaker 1: and not really give a rip about whether your team
Speaker 1: wins and loses because you're part of the club.
Speaker 9: I don't know, boy, I'll tell you it's It does
Speaker 9: make you wonder if one day fans will revolt and say,
Speaker 9: I can't keep doing this. But we I mean we
Speaker 9: talked about that. Your's ago spence and it's still moving forward.
Speaker 9: So there is this huge appetite to have a rooting interest,
Speaker 9: to have something that you care about, to have your
Speaker 9: feudal army that you can get behind that will go
Speaker 9: to someone else's city and conquer as. Some people in
Speaker 9: Kansas City how they feel about pro football right now,
Speaker 9: they're pretty turned off.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, it's just you know, when you think about it,
Speaker 1: it's like legalized hair win dealers. You know you love
Speaker 1: your team so much. We know that you're addicted to
Speaker 1: how much you love the team, and we know that
Speaker 1: you love your escape from life. So take a price
Speaker 1: that just went up twenty percent. We know that you
Speaker 1: need the jazz in downtown Salt Lake City, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot how south that looks really nice. You got
Speaker 1: an extra billion, right, you know, and we'll stay right
Speaker 1: like that. That's just where I guess we're at. Maybe
Speaker 1: I just need to start accepting it.
Speaker 11: Not really Well, if you talk about like rage against
Speaker 11: the machinery, you talked about college sports being professionalized while
Speaker 11: professional sports is professionalized, And what is it about.
Speaker 9: It's about the same thing that every other business is about.
Speaker 9: It's just that this this DOPA bean that is released
Speaker 9: through through the connection to teams keeps fans coming back.
Speaker 1: All right, Gordo, before I set you loose, If Utah
Speaker 1: and BYU played ten times neutral field tomorrow, well and
Speaker 1: fit ten games in tomorrow, but right now in the season,
Speaker 1: not how they're gonna evolve before November ninth, that those
Speaker 1: two how do you think generally speaking they'd match up?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 9: Utah wins eight or nine of those.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'm with you. What do you want
Speaker 1: to see from BYU at Baylor? Because I still and
Speaker 1: I've got to give Kilanie and a Rod and all
Speaker 1: those guys a lot of credit. I heard Kelly Pepinga
Speaker 1: give an interview where they were very forthcoming and honest
Speaker 1: about how fortunate they were.
Speaker 2: Last week.
Speaker 1: Now, A Rod called a couple of great kill shots
Speaker 1: here in the red zone, get touchdowns not field goals.
Speaker 1: They did that right, but only two forty nine of
Speaker 1: offense and Case State ran the ball well. So there
Speaker 1: are still in my mind like Utah's Utah. It is
Speaker 1: what Kyle's built this thing up. It's ticking, it's going
Speaker 1: down the track. There's still questions for me about BYU.
Speaker 1: What do you want to see from them against Baylor
Speaker 1: on Saturday.
Speaker 9: I think that BYU defense is exactly what Kolonie Sataki
Speaker 9: told me in August that it was better than it
Speaker 9: had been a lot better. And they have these athletes
Speaker 9: that are coming up that are Jack Kelly. I mean,
Speaker 9: this kind of could be an NFL type player, and
Speaker 9: he's coming up and they're they're they're filling holes and
Speaker 9: they're doing things, they're filling roles, and so that defense
Speaker 9: is really surprisingly good. Uh, but the offense has to
Speaker 9: get better. The offense the offensive line has to create
Speaker 9: a push. And there's been a lot of injuries in
Speaker 9: that running back room. And Moa was injured, you know,
Speaker 9: I mean he looked promising. I don't know how severe
Speaker 9: his his ankle is, but he's got a bit of
Speaker 9: a problem. So can they continue to improve the run game?
Speaker 9: And Jake Ritzlov can he continue to mature as a quarterback.
Speaker 9: That's what needs to happen. I think the defense is
Speaker 9: ahead of the offense. We'll see if the offense can
Speaker 9: catch up.
Speaker 1: All right, coming up next, we're gonna be bringing Max Bredos.
Speaker 1: Will do you just a little soccer, a little RSL.
Speaker 1: We'll get back to some college football, Gordo, real quick, RSL.
Speaker 1: S's Austin FC coming up this weekend. Who's the most
Speaker 1: dangerous player on Austin FC?
Speaker 9: I think, uh, Jose Perez.
Speaker 7: Don't.
Speaker 2: You can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: You can't just come up with a Jose Perez name
Speaker 1: because a lot of people play soccer.
Speaker 2: Gordon, it's not allowed.
Speaker 1: I know you're not on the radio as consistently as
Speaker 1: you used to be, but you can't do that anymore.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you don't even pay that much attention to Austin
Speaker 9: because they bore me.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, they have a player named Perez. Well done, Gordon,
Speaker 1: good to see what We'll see you next week, right,
Speaker 1: The Great Gordon Monson brought to you today by Clearwater Distillion,
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Speaker 1: some good college football covering your way in the five
Speaker 1: o'clock hour tonight, not an hour from now. The latest
Speaker 1: on the situation with you ANDLB losing their starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: We'll get you ready for BYU Baylor, will get you
Speaker 1: ready for Utah. Here sona Kyle Bonnagero from Espano stop I.
Speaker 1: But it is fall at least that's kind of the
Speaker 1: time of year. It's about eighty degrees in Sunday today.
Speaker 1: That does mean football, but it also means playoffs soccer,
Speaker 1: and it looks like RSL has a real legitimate chance
Speaker 1: to host a home playoff match. Our next guest, one
Speaker 1: of our favorites, to talk the beautiful game, Max bred Us,
Speaker 1: on a Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 2: Max, Happy Thursday, sir?
Speaker 5: How are you happy? Thursday undercover? One of maybe my
Speaker 5: favorite day of the week. Not every week, but most weeks.
Speaker 2: Thursday's an underrated day, Max.
Speaker 9: I'm with you.
Speaker 7: There, there's a good event.
Speaker 5: There's good events going Sorry rrupted, but there's good events
Speaker 5: going on. If you want to go out, go out
Speaker 5: to dinner without the crowd.
Speaker 2: Like for sure.
Speaker 1: And also if you're young enough or excuse me, if
Speaker 1: you can remember when you were young enough to start
Speaker 1: weekends on a Thursday. That was kind of like the
Speaker 1: college thing, right, Like we can start on Thursday?
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh yeah, drinking in yeah.
Speaker 2: No doubt, no doubt. All right, buddy, I appreciate the
Speaker 2: time today.
Speaker 1: And we find ourselves in an interesting spot with RSL,
Speaker 1: who elected to move on from some really good players,
Speaker 1: namely Andris Gomez is now in France. They bring in
Speaker 1: five players and so far I think it's fair to
Speaker 1: say the results have been mixed.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: I asked Jason, Kurt, and Pablo all the same thing
Speaker 1: when they joined the show after the window closed, and
Speaker 1: I said, do you feel like he sacrificed short term
Speaker 1: potential to do something special for the long game?
Speaker 2: Like was that the deal?
Speaker 1: And they all said no, they still confident they can
Speaker 1: get something special done this year. So where are you
Speaker 1: at now with kind of this recalibrated RSL group.
Speaker 5: Well, I think one thing that's pretty evident is you
Speaker 5: know and Gomez, and I'm still blown away the business
Speaker 5: they did with that price tag where he had to
Speaker 5: sell him And I mean he's had a rough start
Speaker 5: in Europe, he's been injured. I think he's played one game,
Speaker 5: so he's, uh, that's neither here nor there. But you know,
Speaker 5: if he's successful, that's only going to benefit Rail Salt Lake,
Speaker 5: if in fact he gets sold here the idea, you know,
Speaker 5: sometimes you have to explain it to people about being
Speaker 5: a reliable club that develops talent, so that teams like
Speaker 5: scot Rene or n Is, you know, is world famous
Speaker 5: for developing young players. They have a great academy, so
Speaker 5: many top top players Jeremy Doku, Eduardo kammaving Peter Check
Speaker 5: have come through there because they have a great scouting system.
Speaker 5: So they fought enough about Andres Gomanz and they've faught
Speaker 5: enough about to pay a big price tag and now
Speaker 5: Rail Salt Lake in the world football stage is going
Speaker 5: to benefit greatly. I know people probably go, wait a minute, well,
Speaker 5: we had this great player, but now clubs know that
Speaker 5: Rail Salt Lake is legit when it comes to identifying,
Speaker 5: developing and then selling players. So this is going to
Speaker 5: be big long term. As for the short term, yes,
Speaker 5: his void is really evident, not just because they haven't
Speaker 5: been able to duplicate what he does out wide. And
Speaker 5: I talked to Pablo about this. It's affecting Chi Cho
Speaker 5: on Angle. Chi Cho Levanngo and him were great foils,
Speaker 5: great tag team. Chicho became a better player clearly be
Speaker 5: cause Andras Gomez was stretching out the field and Chi
Speaker 5: Cho hoongle is finding space that's not there yet. So
Speaker 5: that's a big one. I mean that could be railed
Speaker 5: the chances for RSL to hit their targets. Whatever that is.
Speaker 5: Making an MLS Cup final, winning an MLS Cup Final
Speaker 5: and winning a playoff series, So there's I think in
Speaker 5: theory was what the good news is they really were
Speaker 5: active and ambitious with the players they brought in. They
Speaker 5: could have sold the player like Atlanta. Did you know
Speaker 5: Atlanta cleared them all out. Granted Atlanta's not in a
Speaker 5: good position, but they haven't replaced those players yet. They
Speaker 5: went out, and you know, they have to hope that
Speaker 5: they get Diogo something out of Diogo. They've been lucky
Speaker 5: with Mark Chuk, who I mean, I had my first
Speaker 5: look at him, really impressed. He's no Andre's Gomed, but
Speaker 5: he couldn't contribute something on that side, and it's it's tricky.
Speaker 5: Look if I look at the West with Andres Gomezrael
Speaker 5: felt late to me or one of the two or
Speaker 5: three best teams there without him, maybe fourth or fifth.
Speaker 5: And it's so tightly packed. You need game breakers. So
Speaker 5: hopefully Mark Chuk or more specifically Diogo or Gonsalves is
Speaker 5: the guy that can provide it. They have talent, but
Speaker 5: the problem is so do the Galaxy Rapids, LAFC, Houston
Speaker 5: and Portland Seattle.
Speaker 1: So Max, you know, we really can and will debates,
Speaker 1: you know, whether or not the attack is where it
Speaker 1: needs to be But I'll tell you what if they
Speaker 1: don't figure out the situation, and I always has to
Speaker 1: just simply blame the keeper, just blame Gavin or blame Zach.
Speaker 1: There have been a tremendous amount of very soft goals
Speaker 1: allowed in my opinion, Max all year. It's not good enough.
Speaker 1: So I do think they've got enough firepower. And I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about cheat you in a moment,
Speaker 1: But tell me your thoughts on where we're at with
Speaker 1: either Zach or Gavin, And is it a back line
Speaker 1: issue like you defend as a team, it's an eleven
Speaker 1: player deal.
Speaker 2: And Pablo asked that out of his group.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to hone I don't want to
Speaker 1: hone in and pin this on just one person or
Speaker 1: one thing. But I think in my opinion it's it's
Speaker 1: safe to say it's been too softback there for too long.
Speaker 2: So give me your thoughts on that dynamic well, and I.
Speaker 5: Think earlier the season, because you know Zack, it's got
Speaker 5: to be frustrating. He has a great game and then
Speaker 5: he has the one, you know, the howler, which could
Speaker 5: many times have cost ourselves. Gavin Beavers, you're a little
Speaker 5: more forgiving because he's a teenager, but he's getting an
Speaker 5: opportunity because Zach hasn't been clean. I would have made
Speaker 5: and that's a fair affessment. So Gavin's been fast tracked
Speaker 5: a bit. I like Gvin Beavers a lot, but you're
Speaker 5: gonna have to take the inexperience, the good and the
Speaker 5: bad here with him. And if you're a team of
Speaker 5: these playoff positions, it's probably gonna bite you at some
Speaker 5: point because he's going to enter this form and very
Speaker 5: rarely you see young players, but there's not my, me
Speaker 5: and you miles all over the place that they're just
Speaker 5: are wise beyond their years. You know, I would have
Speaker 5: loved u seeing Rayl salt Lake pursue and get a
Speaker 5: top keeper. Imagine, I mean, I don't know if it
Speaker 5: was feasibly possible. Imagine they made a push for Zach
Speaker 5: Stephan like the Rapids did. I mean that Rayal salt
Speaker 5: Lake team all of a sudden looks a lot lot better,
Speaker 5: but they feel confident with Zach. But the one thing
Speaker 5: I see more for Gavin than Zach. And they played
Speaker 5: Portland and they didn't do it, but once they did
Speaker 5: it a couple of times when you press them, the
Speaker 5: playing out of the back is not very desirable. I mean,
Speaker 5: and they don't play exclusively. They do, that's kind of
Speaker 5: part of what Pablo does, but he almost we think
Speaker 5: it just dump it in the meantime. But you would
Speaker 5: like to see them get a top top keeper here
Speaker 5: at some point, because even with Zach, there's like mistakes
Speaker 5: from playing out of the back when teams press you
Speaker 5: in pressure, which they're going to do, even teams that
Speaker 5: generally don't press a lot, because I think they can
Speaker 5: get an advantage out of that. And that's that's a
Speaker 5: bit of an achilles for RSL and they they've got
Speaker 5: to just hope that these guys can put together quality
Speaker 5: game after quality game, and a mistake, which we have
Speaker 5: seen a fair bitness season doesn't rise at the worst
Speaker 5: possible time, so Max.
Speaker 1: At one point, when RSL went fifteen matches without an
Speaker 1: l if Chico had one goal, it felt like he
Speaker 1: had an off game. And he's had one goal in
Speaker 1: nine games now.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: When the news came down about the suspension, I talked
Speaker 1: about it on air and disgusted with people off air
Speaker 1: about the very type of thing that, if not handled
Speaker 1: appropriately or correctly, can derail a player and a team.
Speaker 1: I've seen it countless of times in my two decades
Speaker 1: doing this. I'm not I'm not blaming it all on that. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not laying it all on that. But something has
Speaker 1: changed in him where he has not been as dangerous
Speaker 1: in the attack as he was when RSL felt like
Speaker 1: they were playing as well as anyone in all of.
Speaker 2: MLS for a while.
Speaker 1: Give me your give me your thoughts on Chicho's incredible
Speaker 1: season suddenly going cold and do you think he can
Speaker 1: turn it around?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I can answered. Part of that drop is on
Speaker 5: Thiss Gooma is no longer there. You need to see it.
Speaker 5: You can see it's affecting it the uh. The other
Speaker 5: part is this was a pretty traumatic stretch and he
Speaker 5: was so I mean he I don't think he was
Speaker 5: so good earlier in the season. He had a couple
Speaker 5: of hat tricks. He was just scoring, scoring, scoring, And
Speaker 5: I don't think anyone's gonna say he's gonna keep playing
Speaker 5: that way. I mean, he is second in the Golden
Speaker 5: Boot and he's basically been gone for two months. So
Speaker 5: I mean, if he played, if he's if he was
Speaker 5: playing regularly and at the clip from earlier the season,
Speaker 5: he would have like twenty seven to twenty eight goals,
Speaker 5: which is approaching the single season record. So you know
Speaker 5: that's neither here nor there either. But you can't have
Speaker 5: the early season, Chicho, But you need to have better
Speaker 5: than what you have right now. I get the feeling
Speaker 5: that he needs a goal to kind of take the
Speaker 5: lid off a little bit, and he has to create
Speaker 5: new partnerships. He has to play it a little differently
Speaker 5: because they don't have on this gomaz and Diego Gonzales
Speaker 5: isn't a direct replacement for Goma, So a lot of
Speaker 5: teams do it, and I'm here at LAFC and LSD
Speaker 5: suffered from this as well. I think they suffered for
Speaker 5: it this year. They suffered in twenty twenty two when
Speaker 5: they brought in Georgia Kileeni and Gareth Bale. You're bringing
Speaker 5: players at the tail end of the season and you
Speaker 5: have to incorporate them and it's never clean. So I
Speaker 5: think that's part of what Chicho is dealing with. But
Speaker 5: this is a big distraction and he's going to have
Speaker 5: to He's gonna have to do more than anyone to
Speaker 5: overcome it because he is They expect so much of him.
Speaker 5: And it's been weird for Rail salt Lake because you
Speaker 5: said that fifteen game Winles Street, they can I mean
Speaker 5: them getting two wins in a row is rare late
Speaker 5: summer through September, so I mean, it's just so inconsistent
Speaker 5: and it's a different team. But there's a lot of
Speaker 5: things that play. There's a lot of things that Rayl
Speaker 5: salt Lake have to take ownership off, but there's some
Speaker 5: things that are out of their control. If you sell
Speaker 5: a player like Andreskomas and you're active in the summer market,
Speaker 5: which RSL were, you hope that it clicks into place
Speaker 5: like a jig Salt puzzle by October. But we'll see.
Speaker 1: You know, we we're accustomed to mercurial strikers around here
Speaker 1: with Alvaro Savario and you're a moth SISI and I
Speaker 1: could keep going, and maybe that's just the deal with
Speaker 1: that position. A number nine, who you know suddenly can
Speaker 1: have a rapid change in production or change in mood.
Speaker 2: I don't know, chi Cho Max.
Speaker 1: I think that you do because he was in LA
Speaker 1: when you know and you're you're there, so help help
Speaker 1: me understand. Is he prone to these incredible peaks and valleys.
Speaker 1: Is that something that he's known for, because I honestly
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm asking just to ask.
Speaker 5: No, he was prolific with LAFC. I mean, he had
Speaker 5: two seasons there and he hit the ground running and
Speaker 5: there was rarely a stretch where he didn't score. So
Speaker 5: this is a little bit. I mean, this is the
Speaker 5: first real dry spell he has had in his MLS career.
Speaker 5: I mean, his time in Mexico didn't go great, but
Speaker 5: you know, at LAFC, and he scored fourteen goals in
Speaker 5: seventeen games in the first year, which is phenomenal, and
Speaker 5: then in twenty twenty two he had sixteen goals. He
Speaker 5: played every game and he was part of a championship
Speaker 5: season where there was a little more rotation. So he's
Speaker 5: been good. I mean, that's part of it, and that's
Speaker 5: I think part of the reason Pablo Mastronni identified him
Speaker 5: as the guy he wanted is I know he can
Speaker 5: be a consistent goal scorer at MLS. He has proven that,
Speaker 5: and he proved it last year when he arrived at
Speaker 5: the tail end, and he's proved it most of the
Speaker 5: season here. It'd be hard to imagine he continues in
Speaker 5: this run I get the feeling that there's at least
Speaker 5: the goal, maybe not four or five in a three
Speaker 5: game stretch, but a goal or two that will help
Speaker 5: this team. He is really good, and he's good. He's
Speaker 5: really good in this league, and he's adapted many times
Speaker 5: because he dealt with those LASC teams that brought in
Speaker 5: so many different players. So he's everything is there to
Speaker 5: suggest a spence that he is going to get. There's
Speaker 5: going to be an upward trend here again, but that's
Speaker 5: not guaranteed. But we've seen him do it in the past,
Speaker 5: and I've never seen him have a really bad spell.
Speaker 5: I get the feeling he's going to get out of it.
Speaker 1: I know we already talked about the keeper, but I
Speaker 1: want to follow up here. Pablo hopped on the show
Speaker 1: about three weeks ago and announced that the starting keeper
Speaker 1: was now Gavin and Zach is going to be benched
Speaker 1: four games last.
Speaker 2: Then it's playoff time. Who would you wrote with match.
Speaker 1: To get Do you go with the young kid who
Speaker 1: everybody thinks is going to be a beast when he's
Speaker 1: fully baked, or do you go with the vet who's
Speaker 1: been there before you know? Or do you take the
Speaker 1: next four games and try to figure it out. Who
Speaker 1: do you think should be between the pipes?
Speaker 5: When I asked Pablo that, because I said, is this
Speaker 5: being Gavin's the starter? Because he's started these last four
Speaker 5: or five games, and he was like reluctant. So I
Speaker 5: think Zach's going to get another sniff at it. I think,
Speaker 5: deep down because some of the Zach you say, hopefully
Speaker 5: he just figures it out. This is a guy, a
Speaker 5: real veteran, and he's played a ton of games in
Speaker 5: MLS all over the place that he could figure it out.
Speaker 5: I think it's a little riskier for Gavin because you
Speaker 5: know that you're going to have to deal with some
Speaker 5: rookie or some being green mistakes. They're going they're almost
Speaker 5: guaranteed to happen. You can with Zak you can say
Speaker 5: they are they're probably going to happen, but there's a
Speaker 5: better chance they don't happen. And he has a good stretch.
Speaker 5: So I think Zach's still very much into it. I
Speaker 5: would imagine depending on these last four games, that you
Speaker 5: know Zach is when the playoffs roll around, has a
Speaker 5: chance to be the number one guy for the duration
Speaker 5: of the postseason.
Speaker 1: All Right, I had Gartha on the program. Garth log
Speaker 1: Away on the program after Atlanta was in town. I
Speaker 1: asked him a very direct question. I'm gonna ask you
Speaker 1: the same. Do you believe RSL has a legitimate chance
Speaker 1: to hoist MLS Cup this year for the first time
Speaker 1: since two thousand and nine?
Speaker 5: They do have a chance. There's not a team. I mean,
Speaker 5: the Galaxy look like they're gonna finish first and you're
Speaker 5: gonna have to go beat them at their place, which
Speaker 5: are us all almost god earlier this season a long time ago,
Speaker 5: So I don't think there's a big gap from anywhere else.
Speaker 5: LAFC are struggling and certainly in league play. But if
Speaker 5: I had to pick a list, I mean, I would
Speaker 5: say Galaxy would be number one, and then I like
Speaker 5: Houston a lot. Houston looks like a team that they've
Speaker 5: won eight away games. I put Houston too, and then
Speaker 5: I'd put LAFC RSL maybe and Vancouver right behind them.
Speaker 5: But it's it's so tight, I mean, if the Galaxy don't,
Speaker 5: if the Galaxy have any issues, it's it's wide open,
Speaker 5: and I think you would be you'd like your chances
Speaker 5: against the Galaxy better than either Columbus or Inner Miami.
Speaker 5: Those are the two best teams in the league right now,
Speaker 5: So the West will provide some opportunity. I tend to
Speaker 5: think there will be a surprise or two, which we
Speaker 5: haven't had the last couple of years in the West.
Speaker 5: I mean Saint Louis getting knocked out, but they were.
Speaker 5: You know, it's hard to see them as a number
Speaker 5: one seed in any other year because it was it
Speaker 5: was a magical regular season. But I think RSL have
Speaker 5: a shot. They have to be they have to be
Speaker 5: stout defensively, and they need some magic from chi Cho
Speaker 5: Luna and some of the new guys. But to say
Speaker 5: they don't have a chance, I think would be unfair.
Speaker 5: They've had a really good season. They it also comes
Speaker 5: down to the matchups. We'll see what they get, but
Speaker 5: I think they it has things have to fall in place,
Speaker 5: but it's possible.
Speaker 1: Well, all you can ask for is a shot going
Speaker 1: to the playoffs, right Like, that's all you can ask
Speaker 1: for is a shot, especially if you're not among the
Speaker 1: league lead leaders and spend. Do you like the playoff format?
Speaker 1: Does it feel like it's too saturated, Does it feel
Speaker 1: like too many teams get in? Do you like the
Speaker 1: current MLS playoff format.
Speaker 5: Actually the West. I mean, I always have people criticized
Speaker 5: because you know, people love to criticize MLS even though
Speaker 5: things that are happening in MLS other leagues are imitating now.
Speaker 5: And I think what they did, like with Leagues Cup,
Speaker 5: is a real avant garde move that I think other
Speaker 5: leagues will imitate as well. But it's everyone in the
Speaker 5: West right now has a five hundred record or better.
Speaker 5: An eight of the nine teams are well above five hundred.
Speaker 5: So that's the rule of thumb, right, if you're above
Speaker 5: five hundred, you should make the playoffs, and mostly not
Speaker 5: all of them in American leagues, we should say, but
Speaker 5: it's maybe maybe you have those teams, but you find
Speaker 5: a way to protect the higher seeds a little better,
Speaker 5: like you give them a buy or a double buy,
Speaker 5: and you can have those teams. I'm fine with it.
Speaker 5: My big issue with the playoffs we had it last
Speaker 5: year and we had it this year is you have
Speaker 5: that international window and it just really takes the wind
Speaker 5: out of the sales when you're going through and all
Speaker 5: of a sudden you have to stop before the conference
Speaker 5: semis and then onwards there is a big gap which
Speaker 5: we can't really do much about, and you don't want
Speaker 5: to play on that weekend. That's the only issue. But
Speaker 5: then on the side I don't want I don't know
Speaker 5: if the ending the season in mid October makes sense either.
Speaker 5: You might as well go. It's just that one gap
Speaker 5: which you just learned to deal with. But I think
Speaker 5: in a perfect world, maybe six, maybe you lose two
Speaker 5: four teams from the playoffs set up, but that's not
Speaker 5: going to happen everyone the reality it might get bigger
Speaker 5: at some point, but I'm warmed up to it. But
Speaker 5: I think maybe it would make the irregular season a
Speaker 5: little more interesting if say six teams make it, or
Speaker 5: teams that finished seventh and eighth have to win twice
Speaker 5: just to get a shot at one of them higher seat.
Speaker 2: I like that. I like that, Max, before I said,
Speaker 2: you lose.
Speaker 1: Since you and I last spoke, we had a really
Speaker 1: really fun, cool event here in the market. Kyle Beckerman
Speaker 1: was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame, and
Speaker 1: then we had a dinner the next night of the
Speaker 1: stadium to honor that two thousand and nine MLS Cup
Speaker 1: championship team with a bunch of the former players. I've
Speaker 1: never heard the Max bread Us Kyle Beckerman take. You know,
Speaker 1: he changed everything here instantly after the trade went down.
Speaker 2: I mean it was instantaneous.
Speaker 1: And I remember his first training thinking like that, dude
Speaker 1: is different than anyone we have had.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: It was a very young franchise, and you know, Jason
Speaker 1: Christ himself said that if Kyle embraced Kyle want this
Speaker 1: is Kyle's own these are his own words. He always
Speaker 1: wanted to be a striker because he wanted to score goals,
Speaker 1: or like a central attacking mid, and you know, he
Speaker 1: scored a lot of goals.
Speaker 2: He could really bomb it.
Speaker 1: You know, we used to call him Becker Bombs around here.
Speaker 1: But Jason asked him to embrace the central holding mid
Speaker 1: role and said to me on air, if Kyle plays
Speaker 1: this position, he will play in a World Cup, which
Speaker 1: he did. So, I you know, like it's weird to
Speaker 1: say as a radio host, super proud of him or
Speaker 1: everything that he's done here since he landed way back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, but he's a Hall of famer.
Speaker 2: Now, Max, what's the Kyle Beckerman take?
Speaker 5: It's so unexpected to see the benchmarks that he reads,
Speaker 5: and I talked to Donny and he tells me he
Speaker 5: kills me in now that he's a coach at what
Speaker 5: Utah Valley or that's amazing. I mean, what a great
Speaker 5: opportunity for those young players to get someone like that
Speaker 5: who has played, you know, more MLS games than everyone
Speaker 5: except for what Nick Romondo. I mean, we're talking about
Speaker 5: almost six hundred or we are talking about six hundred
Speaker 5: games when you include everything, and I mean he hit
Speaker 5: his targets. You mentioned winning MLS Cup and being part
Speaker 5: of RSL when they were a bad team, to being
Speaker 5: a playoff a perennial playoff team and an MLS Cup contender.
Speaker 5: But I think with Kyle Beckerman what comes to mind?
Speaker 5: And I heard Tavano say this. He called the twenty
Speaker 5: fourteen World Cup team the best US team he has seen.
Speaker 5: And Kyle Beckerman was a part of that and part
Speaker 5: of that era. He was so underappreciated and for what
Speaker 5: he did on the national team, you know, like sixty
Speaker 5: caps and played alongside some of our best players. Ever,
Speaker 5: never was out of place, great teammate, a guy who
Speaker 5: did the dirty work so that these others could excel
Speaker 5: on that national team. And he didn't get enough credit
Speaker 5: for that. And you know, like in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 5: where the people ridicule MLS players, they don't ridicule, but
Speaker 5: they don't they equate MLS on the national team as
Speaker 5: a weakness. I mean, imagine Kyle Beckerman didn't get that chance,
Speaker 5: and what a great servant he is for this league
Speaker 5: for not only being as good as he was, but
Speaker 5: you know, spending his entire career here with RFL in
Speaker 5: Colorado and briefly with the Miami Fusion. Those are the
Speaker 5: kind of guys that ten twenty thirty years, when this
Speaker 5: league is growing, you point out and say, you know
Speaker 5: that is He's the foundation. This is why we were
Speaker 5: successful because you can have players that commit themselves to
Speaker 5: the league and still achieve everything they want in a
Speaker 5: professional career. I don't know if that opportunity for Europe
Speaker 5: may I'm sure he thinks about it, but it's just perfect.
Speaker 5: You know how he was able to do that and
Speaker 5: still be a part of some great national teams. And
Speaker 5: I thought he was a great national team player. And
Speaker 5: I mean the hair, I mean, the hair is amazing
Speaker 5: and just to see it and I've mis seen him
Speaker 5: galloping around and a durability. Just a tremendous talent and
Speaker 5: asset and wonderful guy for our league. I'm a big
Speaker 5: m a less guy. I'm glad we have Kyle Beckerman.
Speaker 2: Max.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time, buddy, I appreciate it. Have a
Speaker 1: great weekendial chat soon.
Speaker 5: You have a great Thursday spent. Yes, have a great weekend.
Speaker 1: Yes sir, Yes, sir. Our weekend starts tonight. Max, I
Speaker 1: said it out loud. That's the deal. That's the deal,
Speaker 1: all right. Our good friend Max Bradas. He announces RSL
Speaker 1: games at time, stills other MLS matches depending on his
Speaker 1: his assignment. He works with Donny. They're the look there.
Speaker 1: I'm biased. They're the best duo on Apple TV by far.
Speaker 1: Max is on social media at max breadas Sports is
Speaker 1: where you find them