Speaker 1: All right, what is going on a drive time on
Speaker 1: a Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2: We're a little late today.
Speaker 1: It's about nineteen minutes past the hour.
Speaker 2: Of two o'clock.
Speaker 1: Man, it is a chamber of commerce Utah day. Outside
Speaker 1: it's about seventy five degrees and clear and the sun
Speaker 1: is shining. Have great weather this weekend. Excited for that.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday to you. And as it is every single day,
Speaker 1: it's gonna have you long for the ride's bench check
Speaker 1: hits behind the mic. That young man is Porter Larsen
Speaker 1: behind the glass today and we are, yep, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna say. We are absolutely gampacked on a
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon to get you ready for a big sports
Speaker 1: weekend ahead. The weekend in pro football, well technically started
Speaker 1: last night, all.
Speaker 2: Right, I'll admit it.
Speaker 1: Pro Rogan looked pretty good, Aaron Rodgers looked pretty good.
Speaker 1: My New York Jets absolutely smoked the enemies from up north,
Speaker 1: the New England Patriots, twenty four to three at Jet
Speaker 1: Life Stadium.
Speaker 2: And Aaron Rodgers looked good.
Speaker 1: Man, he just did.
Speaker 2: There's no other way around it.
Speaker 1: And as a Jet fan, you kind of love to
Speaker 1: see it, and you hope that it lasts, so the
Speaker 1: Jets handle the Patriots. Unfortunately, most of the news right
Speaker 1: now concerning the pro football cycle coming up for Week
Speaker 1: three in the NFL are injuries. We'll keep you up
Speaker 1: to date throughout the course of the show today as
Speaker 1: far as any of the breaking news that comes down,
Speaker 1: But there are a ton of injuries in the NFL,
Speaker 1: more than we typically see. It feels very Dare I
Speaker 1: say load management ish as they do in pro basketball?
Speaker 2: I hope I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: But Week three the NFL gets rolling last night and
Speaker 1: a bunch of great games. Obviously a lot of attention
Speaker 1: around here, a lot of attention on this show. For
Speaker 1: the first time at the University of Utah will play
Speaker 1: as a charter member up well, not charter, but a
Speaker 1: member of the Big Twelve. They travel the Still Water
Speaker 1: to take on Okay stay tomorrow two o'clock Mountain Time.
Speaker 1: Our pregame covers with Porter Larsen and Jordan win live
Speaker 1: at Bout Time pub Ordan Landings will begin at ten o'clock.
Speaker 1: So go grab some brunch, grab some food, get ready
Speaker 1: for the Utah game. Then after the youths are done,
Speaker 1: it's BYU's turn. They take on k State Rayl Salt
Speaker 1: Lake back in action tomorrow seven thirty America first Field
Speaker 1: and Sandy taking on the Portland Timbers. Portland got the
Speaker 1: best of RSL back in July. Three to no was
Speaker 1: the final score. Butt RSL looking to continue their climb
Speaker 1: up the Western Conference, where currently they are in second place.
Speaker 1: The Utah Hockey Club makes their way to Saint Louis
Speaker 1: to take on the Blues. Then they're going to host
Speaker 1: the Kings in preseason action. Few preseason games prior to
Speaker 1: the October eighth opener when the Chicago black the black
Speaker 1: Hawks are in town. So pro hockey is a reality show.
Speaker 1: Hey o, Toddy made history last night. My goodness, what
Speaker 1: a year he has had. What a night he had
Speaker 1: last night. So a ton to do on a Friday afternoon.
Speaker 1: We'll start things off with Pablo mas Joentni for some RSL.
Speaker 1: Andy Larson makes his tround for a return to the program.
Speaker 1: I haven't caught up with Andy for quite some time.
Speaker 1: If you miss Shan's conversation with Cameron Rising, we'll bring
Speaker 1: that back to you. In preparation for the Utah game tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Chris Comraddi from the Athletic wrote a great piece on
Speaker 1: Cam this week. Former Robert Johnson stops by, So we
Speaker 1: have a lot to do on a Friday. Pablo mash Errounni,
Speaker 1: Andy Larson, Cam Rising, Chris Comaraddi, Robert Johnson, be Spence check.
Speaker 1: It's all of you, the great listeners, and that guy
Speaker 1: Porter Larson on a Friday afternoon. How's your Friday pale?
Speaker 1: Ready for the weekend?
Speaker 3: I am, I am. Friday's gone. Well, it is beautiful outside?
Speaker 3: Is that Chamber of Commerce day?
Speaker 4: Is that?
Speaker 3: Is that what you're getting at?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a perfect Salt Lake City day. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's what that means. It's like seventy five and so sunny.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is why people pay a ton of
Speaker 1: taxes and deal with wokeness to live in California.
Speaker 3: Okay, it is a beautiful day.
Speaker 1: It is a beautiful day outside.
Speaker 2: They are woke in California, right? Is that the update?
Speaker 4: I think?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 1: I think there, Thank you for that.
Speaker 3: If you want to, if you want to get into
Speaker 3: defining stuff today, can we can go there?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 1: They have weather like every day and we don't. So
Speaker 1: I like to enjoy it when we have it.
Speaker 3: I and we're of course discussing. This is going to
Speaker 3: still Water this weekend, not the coast of California. It'll
Speaker 3: be an adjustment for some Pac twelve fans that are
Speaker 3: making their first road trip to the Big twelve. But
Speaker 3: I am very much looking forward to that on the
Speaker 3: football side of things, because I think that'll be a
Speaker 3: really fun environment in still Water. And uh yeah, we'll
Speaker 3: we'll be covering it live and looking forward to some
Speaker 3: soccer this weekend as well. So good Friday show to come.
Speaker 1: We have Misbehave on the clock today, so let's jump
Speaker 1: into it before we catch up with Pablo today courtousy
Speaker 1: of our friends at Standard Restaurant Supply. It's your tailgate headquarters.
Speaker 1: Check them out at Standard restaurant dot com or head
Speaker 1: on down to thirty five hundred South and West Temple
Speaker 1: get the best tailgate in town with Standard Restaurants Supply.
Speaker 1: On a Friday afternoon, It's time now for your opening tip.
Speaker 1: You've got a tune to.
Speaker 6: The Drive, which Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check
Speaker 6: it's on Utah's number one sports talk. Now into the
Speaker 6: studio of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for
Speaker 6: the show. The opening tip of the Drive is brought
Speaker 6: to you by Standard Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop
Speaker 6: to build the best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply
Speaker 6: thirty five hundred Southwest Temple, So.
Speaker 2: Utah heads to still Water.
Speaker 1: Well, they're already there, but the rest of you nation
Speaker 1: will converge upon Boone Picken Stadium. Very curious to see
Speaker 1: how many youth fans make the trip. We've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about this throughout the course of the off season.
Speaker 1: When the Big twelve became the reality and the PAC
Speaker 1: twelve was left in the rear view mirror. I think
Speaker 1: it's safe to say, at least I can only speak
Speaker 1: for myself, excuse me, is that in the PAC twelve footprint,
Speaker 1: it seemed like Ute fans traveled really well as the
Speaker 1: experience went on. I think early on, you know, in
Speaker 1: the PAC twelve, people try to kind of get a
Speaker 1: feel for what it's all about. But as Utah started
Speaker 1: to find their footing in the PAC twelve, when they
Speaker 1: started to compete and then even win conference championships, go
Speaker 1: to Rose Bulls and such, the Ute fan footprint spread
Speaker 1: out pretty wide around here, at least around these parts,
Speaker 1: and in the PAC twelve foot print I'm curious to
Speaker 1: see what it looks like tomorrow and stillwater. How many
Speaker 1: people are actually making that trip. It's not a destination city.
Speaker 1: It's not an easy place to get to. It is
Speaker 1: more of a land figured out, go to the game
Speaker 1: and then get out of Dodge, as opposed to some
Speaker 1: of the other cities in the PAC twelve where a
Speaker 1: lot of Youte fans who I know would go to
Speaker 1: watch the game then say for another three or four
Speaker 1: days because there are destination places. That's not the deal
Speaker 1: in the new conference. We've talked about ad nauseum. So
Speaker 1: how many fans are going to be there at boone
Speaker 1: Picken Stadium. Interesting thing for me to watch now, Just
Speaker 1: so you know, the line has moved back towards Utah.
Speaker 1: So we talked about this yesterday because two nights ago,
Speaker 1: on Wednesday night, it definitely was odd to see that
Speaker 1: line go from Utah minus two to Oka se minus
Speaker 1: two and e excuse me, yeah, Okay State, not Okay
Speaker 1: see Okay State minus two and a half. That line
Speaker 1: moved more and a half points in the matter of
Speaker 1: about two and a half hours. And that doesn't mean nothing,
Speaker 1: but the fact that it's moved back towards the University
Speaker 1: of Utah probably should alleviate the fears, at least as
Speaker 1: of now, and it's the one thing that's on everybody's
Speaker 1: mind right now. Is at a golf tournament earlier today
Speaker 1: with small college friends, and same question was asked, is
Speaker 1: camp playing? What's the deal? What's the deal? You know?
Speaker 1: We've been follow online, what's going on? New cycle? It's
Speaker 1: hard to ascertain anything, you know other than what's been reported.
Speaker 1: And what I can tell you is what I've been told,
Speaker 1: and what I feel like everybody around here has been
Speaker 1: told is simply that Cam is playing, and we don't
Speaker 1: know what the deal is until he steps under center.
Speaker 1: I would be shocked. If you know Utah opening kick,
Speaker 1: what have you? First possession? For the utes the offense
Speaker 1: rolls out onto the field, I'd be stunned if number
Speaker 1: seven wasn't running out there with him. Now, if he doesn't,
Speaker 1: we have to have a conversation about what that means,
Speaker 1: because it's probably not related to a lacerated hand. It's
Speaker 1: probably not related to a cut on his throwing hand
Speaker 1: or just some uncomfortable things going on with his finger.
Speaker 1: His finger would have healed by now. An a laceration
Speaker 1: would have been at least healed enough for him to
Speaker 1: be able to go out and give it a go.
Speaker 1: If he's not playing tomorrow it's not because of the hand,
Speaker 1: then that's when the news gets a little bit tenuous.
Speaker 1: But we can't operate off hypotheticals. We can only talk
Speaker 1: about what we know as far as what's in front
Speaker 1: of us. And my guess is Cam is going to play.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: We'll give you our pick before we say gag night
Speaker 1: at six, as we do every Friday, We'll give you
Speaker 1: a six pack of picks. You do with it what
Speaker 1: you would like. As I say every day, do not
Speaker 1: gamble on sports. You work too hard for your money.
Speaker 1: Keep it in your pocket, keep it in your bank account.
Speaker 1: I am very confident that if Cam Rising is under center,
Speaker 1: Utah wins and the covers and I'm not even and
Speaker 1: they cover it, I'm not even sure it's going to
Speaker 1: be all that uncomfortable. Okay, State third worst in the
Speaker 1: country at giving up chunk plays. Okay, twenty plays allowed
Speaker 1: of twenty five yards or more, and Utah has the
Speaker 1: ability to create a bunch of chunk plays that Cam's
Speaker 1: under center. If Isaac's under center, it's different Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: So far, offensively, they've been balanced because ultimately they've had
Speaker 1: to be teams are stacking the box to stop Olli
Speaker 1: Gordon and Bowman. Their quarterback has been around for as
Speaker 1: long as Cameron has been. They were both in the
Speaker 1: class of twenty eighteen. Highest ranked quarterback in their class
Speaker 1: was Trevor Lawrence. These two have been around for a
Speaker 1: long long time. I'm not saying this is going to
Speaker 1: be easy. I'm saying my confidence level in Utah to
Speaker 1: win this game if Cam's under center is very high.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a specific pick later on in the show.
Speaker 1: What does the conversation sound like next week if Utah
Speaker 1: comes home with that dub Well, I think it sounds
Speaker 1: like Utah has put themselves in the driver's seat to
Speaker 1: at least compete to win this conference. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say they're gonna win the conference after four weeks. This
Speaker 1: is probably, as of now, the hardest game on the
Speaker 1: schedule by far.
Speaker 2: You guys probably know it.
Speaker 1: Utah has been a little bit fortunate this year with
Speaker 1: some of the scheduling stuff they avoid k State Okay
Speaker 1: State has to go on the road to play Kansas State,
Speaker 1: and there're gonna be some tricky games. Excuse me, They're
Speaker 1: gonna be some tricky games, for sure. This is on
Speaker 1: paper as of now. The biggest test that Youthes have
Speaker 1: to pass in order to have a road ahead of
Speaker 1: them that should they handle their business, they should be
Speaker 1: right in the mix of this thing at the end.
Speaker 1: To win the conference, go to the conference championship and
Speaker 1: therefore go to the CFP. So that to me is
Speaker 1: what the conversation will sound like next week. If Utah
Speaker 1: is able to get to win real quick. What will
Speaker 1: the conversation sound like if BYU is able to beat
Speaker 1: K State on Saturday night? It's a big night Saturday
Speaker 1: Night in Provo. We got a whiteout. We got a
Speaker 1: white out unlike other games at Lavelle Edwards Stadium. It's
Speaker 1: actually gonna be a wide out. They're giving away alternate
Speaker 1: cougar tails. You can get a nice vanilla frosted cougartail
Speaker 1: as opposed to the typical maple frosted cougartail. A white
Speaker 1: out and an alternate cougar tail. Porter Saturday night in
Speaker 1: Provo is gonna get weird.
Speaker 3: Let's be clear, I am quite excited about the vanilla
Speaker 3: it sounds much more appetizing on the cougartail specifically than
Speaker 3: the maple.
Speaker 1: Just just somebody needs to get a hold of whoever's
Speaker 1: in charge of game promotions and just be like, let's
Speaker 1: not do the white out anymore, Like, let's just not
Speaker 1: do it other than we'd usually do it anyway.
Speaker 2: I don't think they need to lean into.
Speaker 1: It, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I guess they don't have the black
Speaker 3: uniforms okay.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So it's a big night, big Saturday night in Provo.
Speaker 1: BYU is a touchdown underdog seven points of the line
Speaker 1: as of now. The conversation for BYU next week, if
Speaker 1: they get this win, will sound like, hey, we're a
Speaker 1: top twenty five team. They're probably gonna move into the
Speaker 1: top twenty five and potentially, depending on results, they'll be
Speaker 1: one of maybe three or four, depending on results, maybe
Speaker 1: four or five, but they'll be maybe four or five
Speaker 1: undefeated Big twelve champion you know Big twelve teams left
Speaker 1: that could be considered Big twelve championship contenders.
Speaker 2: The hard part for.
Speaker 1: BYU is, even if they get this win, it's not
Speaker 1: going to sound the same way it will for Utah.
Speaker 2: Because BYU schedule is a bear.
Speaker 1: You know, it's k State, then it's at Baylor, it's
Speaker 1: home against Arizona. They get Okay State, they're at UCF,
Speaker 1: They're at Utah, They're home against Kansas, They're at Arizona State. Like,
Speaker 1: even if BYU gets this win, if Utah gets the win,
Speaker 1: I do think people are gonna be talking about a
Speaker 1: path for the conference championship. If BYU gets the win,
Speaker 1: I think people will be talking about a team it's
Speaker 1: really overachieved, that's down the top twenty five and has
Speaker 1: a chance to do something nobody thought they would do.
Speaker 1: At three and oh, they're halfway to Bowl eligibility. I
Speaker 1: picked them to win six games. If they win on
Speaker 1: Saturday night with an alternate cougartail during a wide out,
Speaker 1: we'll have to change the conversation we have about BYU.
Speaker 1: All right, back to college football coming up, coming up
Speaker 1: in a bit, But a big game for RSL as
Speaker 1: Portland is in town after a nice one on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: They're head coach Pablo Mashchuretti start things off. Starts things
Speaker 1: off on a Friday afternoon, So keep it right here.
Speaker 1: He missed Cam Rising earlier today. He and Sean chopped
Speaker 1: it up for a little bit. The conversation with Cam
Speaker 1: the Cam Rising Reports.
Speaker 2: We'll bring that back around.
Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of intrigue on whether or not
Speaker 1: Cam's going to play Tomorrow'll leave it up to you.
Speaker 1: You can listen to the interview and then see what
Speaker 1: you think. Chris Camarondie from the Athletic Robert Johnson former
Speaker 1: YOUT so plenty of college football yet to come with
Speaker 1: a big match coming up tomorrow here in the market,
Speaker 1: Portland is in town to take on URSLF. Our next
Speaker 1: guest is the head coach of Rayal sal Lake. It's
Speaker 1: been a minute since we caught up with a great
Speaker 1: Pablo Mas joinning. Pablo, Happy Friday, brother, how we doing?
Speaker 5: Happy Friday? Sprint's doing well? About you?
Speaker 2: All good here?
Speaker 1: All good here, beautiful day and vibes are good right
Speaker 1: now as you guys bounce back to get that win
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. What did you like most, Pablo about the
Speaker 1: way you guys were able to respond after losing the
Speaker 1: match to Houston last weekend.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: No, I think it was a fantastic performance. More so
Speaker 7: from the mentality perspective. I think with all this change
Speaker 7: and a couple you know, uh, factors that were beyond
Speaker 7: our control.
Speaker 5: There's there's, there's.
Speaker 7: Been this, and the way the schedule has been where
Speaker 7: we've only had a few games in the last couple
Speaker 7: of months. You know, I think we've lost our way
Speaker 7: a little bit from a mindset perspective, And I think
Speaker 7: everything starts and ends with the way you approach the
Speaker 7: game as an individual and how that permes.
Speaker 5: Into the collective.
Speaker 7: And I think the guys that that that played on
Speaker 7: Wednesday did a great job of pressing the right way,
Speaker 7: attacking the right way, but more importantly, playing as a
Speaker 7: team and and doing it for one another. And I
Speaker 7: think that's what kind of evaded us against Houston and
Speaker 7: against San Jose, which was another game where I felt
Speaker 7: like we weren't playing for the group. So, you know,
Speaker 7: I think it's, uh, it's it's important to understand that,
Speaker 7: and more so for the for the players that are
Speaker 7: coming in from other countries and joining the group this
Speaker 7: late in the season. It's it's it's got to be
Speaker 7: clear to them what we represent and what we stand for.
Speaker 7: Above the tactics, above the technique, above individual performance on
Speaker 7: game day is who are we as a group and
Speaker 7: what I'm grateful for is that type of performance with
Speaker 7: that result hopefully cements that that mantra that we're doing
Speaker 7: this for the team.
Speaker 1: You know what, I was going to ask you a
Speaker 1: question about Houston, but it's Friday, it's seventy five degrees,
Speaker 1: and I don't want him, so I'm not gonna We're
Speaker 1: gonna move on from it. Okay, But here's I want
Speaker 1: to ask you a couple of things about the Dallas match.
Speaker 1: And I've talked to you before about the process you
Speaker 1: have in place for penalty kicks and who steps up
Speaker 1: and why and all that stuff. And I suppose if
Speaker 1: chi Cho's out there, it's chie Jo and maybe some
Speaker 1: other options as well. And we know that Vera's got
Speaker 1: a canon. I'm not saying he should not have been
Speaker 1: the guy. I'll just speak for myself. I was a
Speaker 1: little bit surprised, So take us through the thought process
Speaker 1: or just the mindset, whatever unfolded. It allowed Vera to
Speaker 1: step up to the spot, and obviously he converted.
Speaker 7: Yeah. No, I think you know, over the last year
Speaker 7: and a half, you know, been able to to watch
Speaker 7: Vera in these moments. And the one thing I think
Speaker 7: is really important Spence and I think you have nail
Speaker 7: on the head if Chiechjo's out there. This is not
Speaker 7: this is not even a conversation. But it was one
Speaker 7: of the few times where we had a penalty kick
Speaker 7: and and Chicho wasn't on the field. And and so
Speaker 7: for me, the one thing I know that I'm going
Speaker 7: to get from Vera when you go to a free
Speaker 7: kick or a penalty kick in this case, is that
Speaker 7: there is zero doubt in his mind. In other words,
Speaker 7: he's not trying to see where the goalie's going to lean.
Speaker 7: He's not he's not overthinking it, where I think an
Speaker 7: attacking player might be trying to play a little bit
Speaker 7: of cat mouse, a little bit like Chiecho does. And
Speaker 7: I think when you as a coach, when you know
Speaker 7: what you're going to get, regardless of the end result,
Speaker 7: at least you know that he went in there into
Speaker 7: that situation full of confidence and belief. And and again,
Speaker 7: if there's one guy on our team that I wouldn't
Speaker 7: want to stand in front of twelve yards out, it's
Speaker 7: it's Brian Vera, and so again, a fantastic fish. But
Speaker 7: but yeah, so and again it's it's not that it's
Speaker 7: not I mean, obviously, in today's game, it's obviously the
Speaker 7: nine that takes it, right, But you know, even growing
Speaker 7: up and playing myself, there there was times when center
Speaker 7: backs took it because again there's not this weight of expectation.
Speaker 7: They just go up and knock the ball in the corner.
Speaker 7: So but hopefully Chijo will be on the field for
Speaker 7: the next one for sure.
Speaker 1: All Right, you often talk about life and soccer and
Speaker 1: sport defined by individual moments. What did you make of
Speaker 1: that moment when Anderson Julio and you know, it's funny, Pablo.
Speaker 1: I watched the replay and he didn't even look up.
Speaker 1: I mean, he must have. He must have been seeing
Speaker 1: tendencies from the keeper prior to that opportunity, because he
Speaker 1: just got the ball and then had a nice little
Speaker 1: touch and turned around and and right when he hit it.
Speaker 2: But it's funny.
Speaker 1: My first response was he underhit it, like I didn't
Speaker 1: think he got enough of it.
Speaker 2: But right, and maybe you can help me understand.
Speaker 1: Is that a thing that players do they notice maybe
Speaker 1: five or ten minutes prior to oh wait, he is
Speaker 1: creeping up if I get it, because he didn't look up,
Speaker 1: he didn't turn around, did he just one touched and
Speaker 1: he struck it. Would you make in that moment?
Speaker 7: No, I think again, I think that's individual brilliance. You know,
Speaker 7: over the last two years, we've had you know, Chicho
Speaker 7: do it this year, Pablo just do it last year
Speaker 7: and now and though and I think it's a multiple
Speaker 7: of things. One, it's obviously individual brilliance to be aware
Speaker 7: that that is happening, which is a great thing because
Speaker 7: again in soccer, it's about understanding where everyone is at
Speaker 7: all times and then making the best decision available to you.
Speaker 7: So his ability to understand that the goalkeeper is playing off.
Speaker 5: His line.
Speaker 7: Is awesome on Ada's part. And then the execution, which
Speaker 7: is very difficult from that distance to your point, how
Speaker 7: do you gauge a sixty yard ball? And the funny
Speaker 7: thing is that in training, not one training goes by
Speaker 7: where these guys, especially attacking players, aren't picking out a
Speaker 7: goal out in the distance and they're like, okay, one
Speaker 7: hop into that goal, you know. So like, I don't
Speaker 7: know if that's subconstantly training it, but it's definitely something
Speaker 7: that we don't go over. That's a low quality chance.
Speaker 7: So we don't even talk about that. But I think
Speaker 7: The reason why you're seeing this more and more all
Speaker 7: over the world is twofold one teams want to press
Speaker 7: higher up the field, which means the most goalies are
Speaker 7: playing like a sweeper keeper, right, so they're protecting the
Speaker 7: space behind, and that's kind of what happened in that
Speaker 7: particular play. And the other part is is a lot
Speaker 7: of teams are using goalkeepers and builds, so now they're
Speaker 7: you know, playing twenty five yards out from goals, so
Speaker 7: if you steal a ball, these moments are more readily
Speaker 7: available than they were back when I was playing in
Speaker 7: you know, nineties and eighties and these kind of things
Speaker 7: were goalkeepers were just goalkeepers. So the more that they're
Speaker 7: becoming more field players and have more responsibilities with the
Speaker 7: ball and defending the line, that is extremely high. I
Speaker 7: think these moments will continue to present themselves, all right.
Speaker 1: So we're learning about some of these new players, and
Speaker 1: I do have a question in a moment about the
Speaker 1: macro situation of getting them accustomed to what you want
Speaker 1: them to do. But that run up the right side
Speaker 1: from Dominic mark Zuk and the cross and Anderson Julio,
Speaker 1: that was art man.
Speaker 2: That was brilliant start to finish.
Speaker 1: I mean the problem is the highlights later on, Like
Speaker 1: the highlight shows just showed the cross, but the turn
Speaker 1: the run. I mean, that was one of the first
Speaker 1: times that I mean, I haven't seen him play much,
Speaker 1: but that should indicate to RSL fans that there's some
Speaker 1: quality with this young kid. What do you so? Two
Speaker 1: part question, What did you make of that snapshot moment?
Speaker 1: And what can you share with us about how he's
Speaker 1: looked from a macro standpoint?
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I would even rewhinded a little further because
Speaker 7: it was actually a great team goal where Justin Glad
Speaker 7: plays it out to Phil Quinton, he gets pressured and
Speaker 7: he zips the ball out to Dom and Dom just
Speaker 7: an individual play that is just awesome. And these kind
Speaker 7: of moments are exactly what we saw in the video
Speaker 7: when we were scouting him from Poland, is his ability
Speaker 7: to make good decisions on the endline and then have
Speaker 7: the quality to pick out the best option with the
Speaker 7: right way to pass. And that's exactly what he did
Speaker 7: on that goal. So I think, and I don't know
Speaker 7: if you saw his reaction to it, it was like,
Speaker 7: thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this.
Speaker 7: You know, he was so excited, obviously for the team
Speaker 7: but himself because I think some of the there's a
Speaker 7: lot of doubt when you're going from league to league
Speaker 7: and you're a really young player and you don't have
Speaker 7: a lot of experience. So it couldn't have come at
Speaker 7: a better time for for Dom and his integration to
Speaker 7: the group, and and the other thing it's really important
Speaker 7: for for our forwards, you know, and and and chi
Speaker 7: Cho to understand is that he has now shown his
Speaker 7: quality to find the nine in the box. And so
Speaker 7: once you have that, now the idea is, can we
Speaker 7: get our nines playing more central, more more close around
Speaker 7: the goal because now we have a player that can
Speaker 7: finds you in these areas. And then you know, I
Speaker 7: think for us, you know, after Andre's left, it's really
Speaker 7: about who, you know, how long is it going to
Speaker 7: take for these younger players to accomate newer players. And
Speaker 7: you know, we played lockey out there. He did a
Speaker 7: really good job, but he likes to come inside on
Speaker 7: his left foot. And now we saw in this game
Speaker 7: that Dom did a really good job. And I'll also
Speaker 7: say the work that he did defensively was awesome, really
Speaker 7: high level stuff that usually takes a lot of time,
Speaker 7: but he did a really good job of making it
Speaker 7: difficult for that whole right side. So I feel like
Speaker 7: it's these kind of moments that, you know, bring a
Speaker 7: lot of belief into the individual, and I think given
Speaker 7: his performance, brings a lot of belief to the group.
Speaker 1: All Right, help me understand what happened with the HAYESUSA
Speaker 1: free kick, because I still am confused. Now. It was
Speaker 1: a hell of a strike actually by him, but I
Speaker 1: don't know, Like if I was playing FIFA, I would
Speaker 1: have thrown my control roller instead. You're cheating, I felt.
Speaker 1: I felt like that was my reaction. I'm like, you're cheating,
Speaker 1: I'm resetting the xbox. What happened there?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So it was.
Speaker 7: It was strange, and again it's it's so interesting. These
Speaker 7: are all things that we talk about in the preseason,
Speaker 7: that we hit on, and if you don't get hurt
Speaker 7: by it somewhere along the somewhere along the regular season,
Speaker 7: then you don't really bring it up because it's almost
Speaker 7: like a known action. Right, So when when Krootsy commits
Speaker 7: the foul, the first thing you do when it's around
Speaker 7: the goal is the person that foul the player is
Speaker 7: stands in front of the ball and he waits for
Speaker 7: the referee to say back up. So one, when you
Speaker 7: do that, you you buy time for the rest of
Speaker 7: the group to set up behind it, whether you're going
Speaker 7: to go with a line to defend a wide free kick,
Speaker 7: or you're going to set up a wall, and and
Speaker 7: so then the other part of that is Gab setting
Speaker 7: up the setting and trying to set up a wall,
Speaker 7: a two man wall. But there's no one in front
Speaker 7: of the ball, and I think it's it's just a
Speaker 7: great earning opportunity for Gab. Is like, you can't set
Speaker 7: anyone up or prepare to set anyone up if there's
Speaker 7: no one there. Right, You've got to protect the goal
Speaker 7: because at any point unless the referee says on the whistle,
Speaker 7: and that usually happens when you have someone stand on
Speaker 7: the ball and they the referee has to mark off
Speaker 7: ten yards and so then the referee goes okay on
Speaker 7: the whistle, and now we can start setting up and
Speaker 7: all these things. So, like you said, it was a
Speaker 7: video game moment that rarely happens, and one that is
Speaker 7: that will never happen again with our group.
Speaker 1: So you reference something after the game, And I wanted
Speaker 1: to dig into this a little bit because we've talked
Speaker 1: a lot, talk to Jay about this week about the
Speaker 1: system that you've been wanting to implement, and you started
Speaker 1: to implement the system in the offseason and carried over
Speaker 1: with some excellent results, and you were playing a lot
Speaker 1: more in possession. And when you guys are in possession,
Speaker 1: it feels like you're really dangerous, and sometimes when you're
Speaker 1: chasing it a little bit, it feels like you're very vulnerable.
Speaker 1: And the message that you sent, at least via pregame
Speaker 1: was we want to play in possession, we want to
Speaker 1: keep the ball, but when we lose the ball, it's
Speaker 1: eleven dogs after the ball. And you looked at the
Speaker 1: camera and you winked a little bit, okay, and so
Speaker 1: you could see, like, you know, I like your facial expression.
Speaker 1: You know, you could you could see what you were
Speaker 1: saying is this is how I used to play, and
Speaker 1: I want my players to play this way. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of a consistent theme in our conversations is do
Speaker 1: you guys have the force and the bite to go
Speaker 1: win something special?
Speaker 2: Because you have to have force and bite to do that.
Speaker 1: So how do you how do you kind of translate
Speaker 1: that message to your players, and how do you feel
Speaker 1: like it's been received? You know, when you're not in possession,
Speaker 1: do everything you can to get the ball back.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know. I again, I attribute a lot of
Speaker 7: this to the fact that there's been so much change
Speaker 7: within the group and it's gonna you know, and all
Speaker 7: the different dynamics that come about with like the guys
Speaker 7: that are still here with new guys coming in, and
Speaker 7: it's just like it's such a turbulent time and then
Speaker 7: you're not getting the results, and so it's like, how
Speaker 7: do we peel all this back and talk about under
Speaker 7: the hood, what does it look like? Who are we like?
Speaker 7: What makes us go? Because again we've talked a lot
Speaker 7: about in possession, but for me, mentality always stems from
Speaker 7: the way you defend. And why defending for me is
Speaker 7: so important is because it's this most selfless act you
Speaker 7: can do in professional sports. Right, The selfish acts are
Speaker 7: wanting to be the guy in front of the goal, Right,
Speaker 7: that's easy, Like, that's what you know. The hard thing
Speaker 7: is is a forward tracking somebody back thirty or forty yards,
Speaker 7: a pivot chasing someone to the sideline, you know, a
Speaker 7: tense sprinting out of the line to put pressure on
Speaker 7: the ball. Like these things are all selfless, because at
Speaker 7: the end of the day, the attackers just want to attack.
Speaker 7: But what we've learned about our group is what got
Speaker 7: us in a good run of form, was we were
Speaker 7: very dangerous with the ball, but we were really really
Speaker 7: difficult to play against when we didn't have the ball
Speaker 7: because we were just putting pressure on the first guy,
Speaker 7: pressure on the second guy, the guy that the back
Speaker 7: line was able to step up and put real pressure.
Speaker 7: And so what I've seen in the last probably you know,
Speaker 7: two or three games, particularly the San Jose home game
Speaker 7: and the Houston away game, was this like we're gonna
Speaker 7: wait for the guys back there to win the ball
Speaker 7: and then they can just give it to us. And
Speaker 7: so we're playing with like six dogs, right, And so
Speaker 7: it just makes sense that when you have eleven dogs
Speaker 7: working for each other, and and more in particular, the
Speaker 7: front four working hard for the team, those guys in
Speaker 7: the back will sell their souls to the devil to
Speaker 7: do whatever it takes to give those guys the ball
Speaker 7: when they see them working that hard. However, the foot
Speaker 7: part of that, if they don't work hard from the
Speaker 7: defensive standpoint.
Speaker 5: Up front, the.
Speaker 7: Lack of predictability breeds so much doubt within the whole
Speaker 7: team that you end up not being good without the ball,
Speaker 7: and then when you get it, there's so much doubt
Speaker 7: you're not good with the ball, and it becomes a cycle.
Speaker 7: And so when we when we get pressure on the
Speaker 7: ball at all times, we are present minded. This guy goes,
Speaker 7: this guy covers, this guy goes, this guy covers, and
Speaker 7: it's like you're just playing from a place to flow.
Speaker 7: When you're not getting pressure on the ball, everyone is
Speaker 7: guessing what the next guy is going to do because
Speaker 7: there's no real clear trigger to make play predictable for
Speaker 7: the guys behind. And so when you have a game
Speaker 7: like we had against Dallas, where it was really front
Speaker 7: foot defensive, you end up scoring three goals, right, And
Speaker 7: granted there were strange goals. There are anomalies in a
Speaker 7: lot of ways, but that's what I feel like the
Speaker 7: game gives you because you're almost it's like a self
Speaker 7: fulfilling propsty. We're going to be on the front foot,
Speaker 7: we're going to be aggressive, and with that comes the
Speaker 7: ball in the attacking half. With that comes with loose
Speaker 7: balls being one closer to their goal, and so that's
Speaker 7: that's got to be who we are. So that is
Speaker 7: clear to the guys that are coming into the group.
Speaker 7: These are the expectations, These are the standards, regardless of
Speaker 7: the positions. Where eleven dogs. When we have it, play
Speaker 7: play to your quality and everyone's got different qualities. But
Speaker 7: when we don't have it, you're one of the dogs
Speaker 7: that we need to make sure we get that ball back.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to say it was the most
Speaker 1: impressive individual moment because I thought, obviously Anderson's goal was
Speaker 1: nuts in that run up the up the flank by
Speaker 1: Mark Zuke and Lacrosse was pretty pretty brilliant. But the
Speaker 1: goal that Diogo had that was called back, I rewound
Speaker 1: that and watched it like five times, like that was
Speaker 1: a skill check.
Speaker 2: Now it was off size, it didn't count.
Speaker 1: But you know, all these new players, we're all trying
Speaker 1: to get to know him a little bit. In that
Speaker 1: moment right there, I think for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: even though it was called back, was another indicator that
Speaker 1: you might have something special on your hands. How's the
Speaker 1: project coming along? Trying to ingratiate Diogo into what you
Speaker 1: want to do.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, it's he Listen. He's a fantastic player. He's
Speaker 7: a fantastic teammate. And I think with him within our
Speaker 7: with just coming to MLS in Europe, you have a
Speaker 7: more I don't want to say sophisticated, but there's a
Speaker 7: lot more respect with teams, Like there's very few teams
Speaker 7: in Europe that high press the way we do, and
Speaker 7: in our league, everyone high presses, right, So in Europe
Speaker 7: it's more like, oh, you have the ball, we'll drop
Speaker 7: back by midfield and we'll find gaps. What he's brilliant
Speaker 7: at is finding the space between the lines to receive.
Speaker 7: And he's a technician, and I think that play that
Speaker 7: you're talking about is case in point. Diego has an
Speaker 7: eye for goal, Diego has a technique to be able
Speaker 7: to execute it. I think the transition between the two
Speaker 7: leagues is how do I create that kind of space
Speaker 7: for myself where in Europe it would be very available,
Speaker 7: where a lot of times in the MLS is helter
Speaker 7: skelter in and around goal, and so in Europe you
Speaker 7: might be able to turn in that pocket. And in
Speaker 7: the MLS, for whatever reason, there's a guy that's waiting
Speaker 7: to just smash you, and so you don't have as
Speaker 7: much space in and around goal that I feel like
Speaker 7: you can find at times in Europe. And so there's
Speaker 7: no doubt in my mind that Diego is going to
Speaker 7: be a top player for this team. I think the
Speaker 7: challenge for myself and the staff is always thinking about
Speaker 7: how can we put our group that understands clearly what
Speaker 7: we want in this moment now whilst bringing these guys
Speaker 7: along and in a role that that allows him to
Speaker 7: understand the mentality the tactics so that they can fully
Speaker 7: execute their technique versus you know, square peg, round hole.
Speaker 7: It's not it's not clicking quite yet, but that's fine.
Speaker 7: It's not his fault that we you know, we got
Speaker 7: here with seven games left. That's just life. And now
Speaker 7: it's our job is to try to find that that
Speaker 7: that that connection between he's a really special player and
Speaker 7: you know, he plays really well with this kind these
Speaker 7: three guys, but struggles a little bit with this guy
Speaker 7: against this type of system, and so there's still a
Speaker 7: you know, a learning curve to go. But there is
Speaker 7: no doubt in my mind that Diego is a special
Speaker 7: player and that and that will just need a little
Speaker 7: bit of time to transition to, you know, to being
Speaker 7: the guy.
Speaker 1: I have before you set you lose your win combined
Speaker 1: with like a ridiculous amount of results that win ourselves way,
Speaker 1: which is awesome on Wednesday, bumps you up to second.
Speaker 1: No rest for the weary. Portland is in town tomorrow.
Speaker 1: They're the highest scoring team in the West and second
Speaker 1: only to Miami with sixty goals scored. So according to the numbers,
Speaker 1: they score a lot of goals and they give up
Speaker 1: a lot of goals. That's what's in front of me.
Speaker 1: So tell me about Portland, Pablo, what do you have
Speaker 1: to do to go get all three tomorrow night?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I think you said it. They're they're a team that
Speaker 7: attacks really well and at times they're you know, they're
Speaker 7: they're they're poorest in the back, and I think it's
Speaker 7: really easy against this team to get caught in this
Speaker 7: transition game, which is they lose the ball and their
Speaker 7: front four don't necessarily transition to get back behind the ball,
Speaker 7: and so it's now it's our attack. It might be
Speaker 7: like say six guys in that transition moment against six
Speaker 7: of their back guys. The problem is when you don't
Speaker 7: make good decisions in that moment and you give the
Speaker 7: ball up, and now it's four versus four in the
Speaker 7: back in our in our defensive half. Those four players
Speaker 7: are some of the most dynamic.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 7: They're they're they're all people not only creating goal scoring
Speaker 7: opportunities for the teammates, but they're all very good one
Speaker 7: v one attackers. And so for us, it's it's going
Speaker 7: to take a little bit of you know, sophistication. Even
Speaker 7: if we can go to goal, if the numbers aren't
Speaker 7: great or if the space isn't wide open, we almost
Speaker 7: have to wait for our team to get forward and
Speaker 7: set up camp in their attacking half to force these
Speaker 7: attack to force third attacking players to get back and defend.
Speaker 7: It's it's almost counterintuitive as to how we want to
Speaker 7: how we normally play. But given that there's such a
Speaker 7: unique team and they're very dangerous, we don't want this
Speaker 7: to be an open game. We don't want this to
Speaker 7: be a transition game. We want to be able to
Speaker 7: dictate the game with the ball and be very tight
Speaker 7: and put out fires when that we have to. If
Speaker 7: we have to give up a foul, you know, when
Speaker 7: we lose the ball. Then that's better, so we can
Speaker 7: get numbers behind the ball and let them beat us
Speaker 7: with eleven versus beat us four v four. But I
Speaker 7: feel like, you know, if we have the right mindset,
Speaker 7: we can we can get a couple of goals, and
Speaker 7: if we're just defensively savvy, I feel good about our chances.
Speaker 1: I'm considering coming out, but I need to guarantee that
Speaker 1: you're gonna win.
Speaker 2: If I'm going to drive out to Sandy.
Speaker 7: Let's go, Spence.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 7: I'll put it out there, man.
Speaker 1: This game, I love it all right. Always good chat
Speaker 1: with you, man, Go get three chairing for you. Okay?
Speaker 5: Like what thanks?
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Speaker 1: I got Chris com Roddie stopping by from the Athletic.
Speaker 1: He wrote a good piece on Cam Rising this week,
Speaker 1: so we'll do some Utah football and some other stuff
Speaker 1: with c K. He's got a very exciting project in
Speaker 1: the works, but I have been told it's embargoed, so
Speaker 1: we're not allowed to talk about it. Robert Johnson, former
Speaker 1: Utah safety stops by as well. If you missed Cam Rising,
Speaker 1: he hopped on Sean Show earlier. Of course, a lot
Speaker 1: of conversation about whether or not Cam is going to go.
Speaker 1: I maintained that he will play coming up tomorrow and
Speaker 1: still Water, so stay tuned for all that. But joining
Speaker 1: us now usually a very consistent guest throughout the course
Speaker 1: of the basketball season, but Andy Larson good enough to
Speaker 1: give us some time on a Friday afternoon, Andy, Happy Friday, buddy,
Speaker 1: how we doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good man, doing well, doing well. Here's where I
Speaker 2: want to start.
Speaker 1: It feels like our guy fulk over at the Trip
Speaker 1: has really started to kind of remake that newsroom with
Speaker 1: the new beat writers for BYU and Utah and now
Speaker 1: the Utah Hockey Club. All three have been on this
Speaker 1: show and will be on this show. So what's it
Speaker 1: been like over there as you guys are kind of
Speaker 1: trying to kind of remake some things and tell us
Speaker 1: about these these new faces here in the market.
Speaker 8: Yeah, man, it's been cool. I you know, Aaron was
Speaker 8: out of town earlier this week, so I kind of
Speaker 8: was subbing for him in that sports editor role at
Speaker 8: the Trip and got a chance to like really work
Speaker 8: with these new writers on all their stuff.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 8: Like I mean, Jason I think has done some really
Speaker 8: incredible work on the U S feat with the Morgan
Speaker 8: Scalley story earlier this week. You know, got one on
Speaker 8: ones with Kyle Whittingham and and Mike Gundy this week
Speaker 8: ahead of this game and talking about their their past
Speaker 8: as coaches. You know, the two twenty year coaches left
Speaker 8: in college football playing each other this week. I think
Speaker 8: that's an interesting angle that It's pretty remarkable that, you know,
Speaker 8: a relatively new voice in the market can can get
Speaker 8: and so quickly. You know, I think Kevin's done an
Speaker 8: awesome job on the Bwayu job and just kind of
Speaker 8: his hustle from a reporting interview and getting and breaking
Speaker 8: news that no one else has in in Byu despite
Speaker 8: you know, I don't know that by you is a
Speaker 8: huge fan of the Soltic Tribune, and yet Kevin's breaking
Speaker 8: these stories and then fell you know, started Monday and
Speaker 8: already has four stories out there about the Utah Hockey
Speaker 8: Club and media day in training camp, and you know,
Speaker 8: her writing's great, and she's so enthusiastic about hockey and
Speaker 8: really knows the sport growing up in New York and
Speaker 8: Boston as a as a big hockey.
Speaker 4: Lifer, you know.
Speaker 8: So like, it's been really cool to have a full
Speaker 8: section of sports, you know, sports nerds in the Tribune
Speaker 8: office that that allow us to do some really good reporting.
Speaker 8: And I let you know, everyone says this and it's cliche,
Speaker 8: but I am, legit super excited about what the Tribune
Speaker 8: sports department is right now and what it's going to
Speaker 8: be for the next few years.
Speaker 1: So as as simply a Utah not just the jazz
Speaker 1: b writer data columnist from the Utah Jazz. Because we
Speaker 1: were talking about this earlier in the we you know obviously,
Speaker 1: and I do want to talk about the Bees. You know,
Speaker 1: they're leaving. This is the last week of Bees baseball.
Speaker 1: But we have pro hockey now. We have really grown
Speaker 1: into this. I don't even want to say underrated anymore.
Speaker 1: Just this really solid college football market over the past
Speaker 1: decade or so, the Jazz or the Jazz RSL's RSL.
Speaker 1: And we'll see what the Millers are able to do
Speaker 1: to bring Major League Baseball here. But how would you
Speaker 1: articulate the growth not just economically or just simply people
Speaker 1: moving here, but simply from a sports and entertainment market
Speaker 1: that you've seen since you gotten into this business, what
Speaker 1: ten twelve years ago?
Speaker 8: Yeah, look, I mean I think it's wildly different. I
Speaker 8: mean it's when you go, you know, out of town
Speaker 8: or overseas, people know Utah because of Utah Jazz and
Speaker 8: those battles with the Chicago Bulls. But I think that's
Speaker 8: now expanding a little bit, you know, So it's not
Speaker 8: either just the Jazz or the Olympics. It's now you
Speaker 8: do have the hockey club, now you do have college football,
Speaker 8: and the use making a name in that space, you know,
Speaker 8: obviously having done what they did in the past, and
Speaker 8: I think still a player in that. I think BAU
Speaker 8: basketball is going to be a big player in the national.
Speaker 4: Scene this year.
Speaker 8: And then yeah, you mentioned kind of the possibility of
Speaker 8: getting a major League baseball team. It's it's more, it's
Speaker 8: more important and more diverse than I feel like it
Speaker 8: has been ever and certainly you know, in my time
Speaker 8: kind of paying attention to it. So you know, it
Speaker 8: was kind of going through as I wrote that Bees
Speaker 8: article you mentioned, like going through the old newspaper clips
Speaker 8: from the you know, nineteen twenties, nineteen fifties and so on,
Speaker 8: when you know, baseball was the biggest thing, and we
Speaker 8: were just kind of talking about like how the Cincinnati
Speaker 8: Reds did every week. It's not that anymore. Now Utah
Speaker 8: can really like compete on its own and now it's
Speaker 8: Utah stuff making a difference in other places newspapers, and
Speaker 8: I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: So let's move over to the Bees. You know, we
Speaker 1: had Tony and Studio to try to get people out
Speaker 1: to the ballpark and You didn't pull punches, and that's
Speaker 1: what I like about you. You rarely do. You didn't
Speaker 1: mince words. And I talked to you when the news
Speaker 1: broke that the Bees were leaving and heading south, and
Speaker 1: I'll say the same thing today that I said.
Speaker 5: Then.
Speaker 1: We're all going to react to this news about, you know,
Speaker 1: the Bees moving as far as how it affects us personally.
Speaker 2: I live in the Capital City, so.
Speaker 1: To you, and I don't want it to move because
Speaker 1: I like going to Bees games and it's close by.
Speaker 1: As you point out in your piece, they'll find fans,
Speaker 1: they're going to find an audience. It's just gonna be
Speaker 1: a different audience, and it's just gonna be weird because
Speaker 1: I have, like you, so many memories of going to
Speaker 1: those games way back in college, taking my son and
Speaker 1: going there with friends and dates and all the things.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts as the Bees leave us here in the
Speaker 1: Capital City head south and tell our listeners kind of
Speaker 1: what motivated you to write what you wrote?
Speaker 8: Yeah, man, Like it's it's sad, you know, and that
Speaker 8: doesn't mean that it's not okay. And you know that
Speaker 8: it won't be a good thing for people who live
Speaker 8: in the South and west corner of our Velly. But
Speaker 8: like you know, baseball was on the corner of thirteen
Speaker 8: South and West Temple for ninety eight years. You know,
Speaker 8: in nineteen twenty six, Community Fields or Community Park opened
Speaker 8: up for minor league baseball, and since then, minor league
Speaker 8: baseball has been played on that corner. And it's sad that,
Speaker 8: you know, Miller ownership is moving away from that history
Speaker 8: to you know, land that they own. I think they
Speaker 8: have kind of consistently moved away from that history, whether
Speaker 8: by be by selling the Jazz you know, closing the
Speaker 8: Tuila Motorsports Park, selling the dealerships. I mean, right now,
Speaker 8: the Miller company is largely about making real estate money
Speaker 8: and money in senior living houses, right Like, It's not
Speaker 8: a sexy business they're running right now. It's not a
Speaker 8: passionate business. And they're running right now. It's really I
Speaker 8: think about the bottom line, and I think that is
Speaker 8: reflected in their move away from again, where baseball has
Speaker 8: been played for one hundred years. I mean, doing the
Speaker 8: research for the story, it's kind of incredible how much
Speaker 8: has happened here. I mean, like Babe Ruth played at
Speaker 8: the ballpark, Willie May's played at the ballpark. The longest
Speaker 8: home run in sat Cast history was hit at the
Speaker 8: ballpark by Joe Adell a couple of years back, five
Speaker 8: hundred and fifteen feets. I mean, the longest winning streak
Speaker 8: in baseball history was set by the Trappers back in
Speaker 8: the eighties when Bill Murray on the team. There's some
Speaker 8: really cool stuff that happened a corner and it's just
Speaker 8: I think it's sad, you know. I think it's sad
Speaker 8: that the team is moving. And that doesn't mean it's
Speaker 8: a you know, it will benefit other people, and it
Speaker 8: doesn't mean that the Millers are evil, but it means
Speaker 8: that we are losing something significant and that I think
Speaker 8: we're allowed to mourn that. I think we're allowed to
Speaker 8: be disappointed and sad about what we're losing, kind of
Speaker 8: that connection to a community, connection to a history that
Speaker 8: we won't get back by having a new park open
Speaker 8: up in.
Speaker 1: Daybreak, any update, I haven't heard anything in a while.
Speaker 1: We had Steve starkson studio that must be a year
Speaker 1: and a half ago now, but I.
Speaker 2: Haven't heard anything in a while.
Speaker 1: As far as traction towards getting a major League Baseball
Speaker 1: team here in our market. Is there any update in
Speaker 1: that direction, Andy.
Speaker 8: None that I've heard, and none that's been reported in
Speaker 8: the last few months. I mean, they're so interested in
Speaker 8: doing so. You know, I obviously have an interest in
Speaker 8: the A's, but the biggest interest is in a Major
Speaker 8: League Baseball deciding to expand. And their formal word on
Speaker 8: the topic is that they are not currently.
Speaker 9: Looking to expand.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, fair enough, all right, let's move over here.
Speaker 1: Let's move over here. What sort of, if any, effect
Speaker 1: do you think the potential Let's see, how do I
Speaker 1: say this, the potential underwhelming Jazz season ahead. Potential underwhelming
Speaker 1: Jazz season ahead, That's how I'll put it.
Speaker 2: What effect, if any, do you think the potential.
Speaker 1: Underwhelming Jazz season ahead will have on the interest with
Speaker 1: his local hockey club? Because, look, they're not going to
Speaker 1: win the Stanley Up this year. But the more and
Speaker 1: more I kind of dig into it, read about it,
Speaker 1: listen to some of these previews, I think they're in
Speaker 1: a good spot.
Speaker 2: I think they're going to be entertaining.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to be fun, and they're further
Speaker 1: along and they're rebuild project than the Jazz are, and
Speaker 1: part of me feels like they're much further along with
Speaker 1: a much better plan in place than the Jazz are
Speaker 1: right now, do you think we'll see Jazz fans potentially
Speaker 1: disenfranchised at the I don't know the direction or lack
Speaker 1: of direction whatever you want to say. Uh, and maybe
Speaker 1: head over and find a different home with the Utah
Speaker 1: Hockey Club this year.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I think from a TV ratings point
Speaker 8: of view, especially you know, I think, you know, the
Speaker 8: UTA Hockey Club will sell out every game. I think
Speaker 8: the Jazz will get close to selling out of the game,
Speaker 8: but I you know, ultimately it's going to be kind
Speaker 8: of what gets the casual fans going, and I don't
Speaker 8: think the Jazz will the hockey club. Meanwhile, has you know,
Speaker 8: according to Vegas about a thirty three to forty percent
Speaker 8: chance of making the playoffs, you know, and and you know,
Speaker 8: I's we ask the Vegas odds of what likely the
Speaker 8: Jazz of making them playoffs. We're at the one two
Speaker 8: five percent range, right. So Look, I think this market
Speaker 8: is you know, certainly loves the Jazz and but also
Speaker 8: has proven time and time again that they will turn
Speaker 8: their eyeballs to winning franchises or competitive franchises. And it's
Speaker 8: I think relatively clear right now, and that at least
Speaker 8: looking ahead, the hockey club is going to be better
Speaker 8: than the Jazz are next year, and I think casual
Speaker 8: eyeballs will turn to that, you know, casual eyeballs will
Speaker 8: turn to whatever other sporting events there are maybe just
Speaker 8: not sports at all if they're you know, the Jazz
Speaker 8: aren't interesting. So look, you know, I don't expect a
Speaker 8: ton of empty seats in the Delta Center next year
Speaker 8: at Jazz games. I think there's still like a substantial
Speaker 8: season ticket base that prevents that. I think there's still
Speaker 8: you know, a substantial number of fans that will will
Speaker 8: nearly fill that building kind of no matter what. But
Speaker 8: there's no doubt that the enthusiasm is way low for
Speaker 8: this season. I mean the lowest that I've seen it
Speaker 8: in all my time.
Speaker 5: On the beat.
Speaker 8: And yeah, you know, as a result, I think it's
Speaker 8: going to be pretty natural that fans, especially in the
Speaker 8: first half of the season when college football is available,
Speaker 8: tune into that, tune into the hockey rather than tune
Speaker 8: into what's going to be a I think a pretty
Speaker 8: mediocre product on the court.
Speaker 1: Do you have any information or knowledge of you know,
Speaker 1: it's just a tough ask, and they do it in
Speaker 1: other cities, So maybe this is us just growing up.
Speaker 1: But you know, if you're a Jazz season ticket holder
Speaker 1: and you get the email about buying season tickets for
Speaker 1: the Utah Hockey Club, I know several people that have
Speaker 1: chosen one or the other.
Speaker 2: I know a few that are gonna do both.
Speaker 1: But there are legitimate questions about not just is there
Speaker 1: enough money to go around from the consumers and the fans.
Speaker 1: Is there enough support from corporate sponsorships? Is there enough
Speaker 1: money from businesses and corporations for the folks over you know,
Speaker 1: under the Smith umbrella who have been tasked with some
Speaker 1: very audacious goals to be able to hit those goals
Speaker 1: on the corporate spose ship side and the ticket sales
Speaker 1: side as well. Any information about how that project is
Speaker 1: going and are they you know, are they going to
Speaker 1: be able to pull this off with both entities to
Speaker 1: make sure that both entities can hit their goals.
Speaker 8: Look, I mean, they're charging a ton of money for
Speaker 8: hockey tickets, right, I think so they're getting some money
Speaker 8: from that, you know, in terms of corporate sponsorships, I
Speaker 8: don't know. I know that the Jazz had moved up
Speaker 8: a lot in the Smith era in terms of that,
Speaker 8: because they were really able to kind of tap into
Speaker 8: Utah's texting and get much higher sponsorship rates than they
Speaker 8: had kind of in the Miller era, especially kind of
Speaker 8: earlier middle in the Miller era. So you know, my
Speaker 8: early impressions are that they have, you know, have done
Speaker 8: well in that space. But I couldn't tell you exact numbers,
Speaker 8: I like if they ranked top twenty, top fifteen, like
Speaker 8: what we're actually talking about here. I do know, like, look,
Speaker 8: the collective bargaining agreement of the NBA, especially right now,
Speaker 8: kind of guarantees that the Jazz and the Smiths are
Speaker 8: going to make money on this, right, Like if we
Speaker 8: you know, if we're honest, the Jazz are going into
Speaker 8: the season next year with the lowest payroll in the NBA.
Speaker 8: They can pay that off and then some just based
Speaker 8: on the you know, national TV money alone almost right, Like,
Speaker 8: it's not going to be close from a money making
Speaker 8: point of view. The Smiths are going to be just fine.
Speaker 8: From from that point of view, I guess I'm not
Speaker 8: worried about that at all. From you know, if you're
Speaker 8: worried about how much are going to spend on payroll
Speaker 8: or whatever. Whether or not these businesses are are viable,
Speaker 8: they absolutely are because the clips of bargaining agreements of
Speaker 8: both leagues have really made sure that every team is
Speaker 8: going to make a lot of money.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's, uh, let's move over into the
Speaker 1: space of, you know, ultimately a quick little jazz thought
Speaker 1: as we actually know before we do that, because I
Speaker 1: saw this on your Twitter timeline and I know it's
Speaker 1: been talked about. So for our listeners that may have
Speaker 1: missed it, the Smith Entertainment Group did announce the streaming
Speaker 1: options at the disposal of the fans for both the
Speaker 1: Hockey Club and the Jazz Get the details, Andy, Yeah.
Speaker 8: So three different streaming options. You got your Jazz Plus
Speaker 8: from last season now, a Utah Hockey Club Plus and
Speaker 8: an SEG plus, which just basically combines bolls. It's seventy
Speaker 8: dollars a month for the Hockey club, one hundred and
Speaker 8: twenty five dollars a month, or sorry, one hundred seventy
Speaker 8: dollars a year for the Hockey club, one hundred and
Speaker 8: twenty five dollars a year for Jazz Plus. Combine them
Speaker 8: together and it's one hundred and seventy. I believe, if
Speaker 8: I if I'm remembering the number right on the combined
Speaker 8: price that's available for fans in Utah and kind of
Speaker 8: surrounding states. The broadcast range is a lot wider for
Speaker 8: the Hockey Club than the Jazz, just due to NBA
Speaker 8: restrictions basically, and that the Smith Entertainment Group sold off
Speaker 8: some of the broadcast rights in Washington and Idaho to
Speaker 8: Root Sports up Northwest. But yeah, you know, honestly, if
Speaker 8: you are familiar with kind of how Jazz Plus works
Speaker 8: last year, the Hockey Club's streaming service will work pretty
Speaker 8: much the same as that. And then if you don't
Speaker 8: want to pay that kind of streaming feed to stream
Speaker 8: the games online, you can also just get them over
Speaker 8: the over the air on on antenna broadcast and that's
Speaker 8: you know, k Jazz channel fourteen for the Jazz and
Speaker 8: then channel sixteen. I believe it's kup X for for
Speaker 8: the huck teams.
Speaker 1: All right, one jazz thing, because I I don't know,
Speaker 1: man like Bowler.
Speaker 2: Bowler.
Speaker 1: Bowler was in studio last week and he was running
Speaker 1: over his questions about the rotations, and I just wanted
Speaker 1: to give him a hug, you know, like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear Locke stats about Patty Mills and Drew
Speaker 1: Eubanks pick and roll in the second half of the
Speaker 1: third quarter. I just I can't. I'm not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to do it. So I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about Will. So CBS Sports released their lists. They do
Speaker 1: it's off season fodder best you know, best coaches in
Speaker 1: the NBA that Will at seven?
Speaker 2: Uh it does?
Speaker 1: It does seem like, you know, he is respected across
Speaker 1: the league with coaches that he has worked for, coaches
Speaker 1: he's worked with in San Antonio and Boston US US basketball.
Speaker 1: I watch the Jazz fifty documentary and Will's doing the
Speaker 1: whole like, Hey, this isn't your grandfather's jazz, and I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: so what is your jazz? Because I don't think you know.
Speaker 1: I don't think they know. But I just wonder, with
Speaker 1: what you know about him, where you think his mentality
Speaker 1: is at. And I understand that he has a long
Speaker 1: term contract. I understand that he was given guaranteed money.
Speaker 1: I understand that he is part of the process. I
Speaker 1: get it. But I know coaches, man, and coaches aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily thrilled about a long game when they are going
Speaker 1: into a gunfight with a knife every single night. Where
Speaker 1: do you think his head is at as he enters
Speaker 1: year three of a project that really, at this point, Andy,
Speaker 1: if we're honest, does not have a clear line of
Speaker 1: delineation as to when he is going to be able
Speaker 1: to go into gym's and have a fair fight with
Speaker 1: other coaches.
Speaker 2: Where do you think he's at with all this?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Look, I mean every conversation I've ever had with Will
Speaker 8: over the last couple of years about this, he's been
Speaker 8: as understanding and as forgiving as anyone possibly can be.
Speaker 8: Even when you know, I'll write something critical about jazz
Speaker 8: player and He'll be like, yeah, I know, you know
Speaker 8: it's not news to Will. And I'll be like, okay,
Speaker 8: then why are you playing? You know, Rudy gay And
Speaker 8: he was plain x YZ whatever, locker room deal, et cetera.
Speaker 8: But in the end, like he sees this all as
Speaker 8: like a multi year ramp up to something else. Now,
Speaker 8: I think he would have hoped that by year three
Speaker 8: of his contracts that they would be further along in
Speaker 8: that rebuild than they are. But I also think that
Speaker 8: he sees himself as part of the long term process
Speaker 8: kind of beyond the five year contract, and that in
Speaker 8: the end, like, I don't know that he wildly disagrees
Speaker 8: with the moves that the front office has made to
Speaker 8: get here, you know, And I think, you know, I
Speaker 8: think a lot of coaches, you're right, would have demanded
Speaker 8: better talent or try to accelerate the rebuild. And I
Speaker 8: think Will is pretty understanding. And maybe that's just due
Speaker 8: to his youth of kind of where the Jazz are.
Speaker 8: So I guess I I'm less worried about Will than
Speaker 8: I am about SAYL Lowry Markinen, who you know, has
Speaker 8: a more limited prime less in his career, where Will
Speaker 8: can coach until he's sixty, right, and probably be pretty good.
Speaker 8: So I don't anticipate that being a problem. I you know,
Speaker 8: I think that the Jazz can retain Will Hardy, and
Speaker 8: you know, I think he's he's going to be on board.
Speaker 8: But I do think that, and I think that kind
Speaker 8: of that kind of patience as an asset, I think
Speaker 8: he's really pretty well equipped to deal with this, even
Speaker 8: though you know, I think it's fair to say that, yeah,
Speaker 8: the first two years UH didn't give him as much
Speaker 8: fruit for a year three or year four as.
Speaker 9: He might have helped.
Speaker 1: All right, Andie before I said you loose quick, RSL
Speaker 1: thought the good and the bad? What has Andy Larson's
Speaker 1: vibes high? And what has Andy Larson concerned the rest
Speaker 1: of the way.
Speaker 8: I mean, they won on Wednesday and it wasn't a
Speaker 8: very confident or you know, confidence inspiring win. And you know,
Speaker 8: I think ultimately the hope is that you know, Diogo
Speaker 8: gets it together, that some of these new editions end
Speaker 8: up being worth kind of what they were they.
Speaker 9: Were purchased for.
Speaker 8: But as of now, like the attack looks a little
Speaker 8: bit sketchy. I think maybe if you start Anderson Julio
Speaker 8: up top and Techo in the middle, you're you might
Speaker 8: be better than just starting Teacho up top and Julio
Speaker 8: off the bench. That's something to consider. And I thought
Speaker 8: it was really interesting what Jason christ said on a
Speaker 8: station about how you know no players.
Speaker 9: Place is safe.
Speaker 8: I think there's kind of some real competition for these
Speaker 8: spots given that some of the bigger money names haven't
Speaker 8: played that well over the last few months. So you know,
Speaker 8: there's stuff for them to figure out over the next
Speaker 8: what four games it is until the playoffs start. But
Speaker 8: if they do. I think they can get to the
Speaker 8: heights of of you know, earlier in the year, but
Speaker 8: there's there and they're not a terrible team as is,
Speaker 8: they're just an average team. My hope is that you know,
Speaker 8: they retain a home court playoff advantage, home field advantage,
Speaker 8: I guess I should say, and you know, make it
Speaker 8: into the second third round and then as you know,
Speaker 8: it's soccer or anything can happen. But they're no longer
Speaker 8: kind of a favorite that I think they were a
Speaker 8: few months ago.
Speaker 1: What's a handsome, young eligible batcher like Andy Larson doing
Speaker 1: on a Friday night in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 8: Hanging out with Aaron Falkon then going to the BS game?
Speaker 1: Lovely? Okay, Well, enjoy that teller and we said hello
Speaker 1: and we'll see us soon. Andy, thanks for the time.
Speaker 4: We'll do.
Speaker 1: Thanks, Andy Larson saw late Tribune. All right, I want
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Speaker 2: All right, rolling.
Speaker 1: Along here, three o'clock out of the show on a Friday.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful Friday afternoon Chamber of commerce type day
Speaker 1: here in Salt Lake, seventy five degrees in sunny. It's
Speaker 1: soposed to be nice all weekend long. So obviously looking
Speaker 1: forward to some college football. Good one tonight, two top
Speaker 1: twenty five teams, the Fighting Alaina Illinois taking on Nebraska.
Speaker 1: Thursday night football. Last night saw my New York Jets
Speaker 1: handle the New England Patriots. I always enjoy that Chris
Speaker 1: Camaraddie will stop by at about a half hour from
Speaker 1: right now. Ck wrote a great piece on Cam Rising
Speaker 1: this week, so we'll do some utes with Ck Moore,
Speaker 1: Utah football with Robert Johnson, and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 1: But a lot of conversation in the market this week
Speaker 1: about the quarterback position.
Speaker 5: At you.
Speaker 1: That's not a new topic. We've been talking about it
Speaker 1: for a long time. And obviously when it comes to
Speaker 1: one Cameron Rising, oftentimes the conversation is predicated on his health.
Speaker 1: Told that he is going to play, and I know
Speaker 1: there are rumors out there because there always are. The
Speaker 1: line on Wednesday night moved four point five points in
Speaker 1: two and a half hours. That rarely, if ever, happens
Speaker 1: unless two things go down, one injury news happens to
Speaker 1: a very important player like a quarterback, or two very
Speaker 1: wealthy people decide to move the line with some shark betting,
Speaker 1: some wise guy betting. Maybe that's the case because the
Speaker 1: line has moved now back towards the University of Utah,
Speaker 1: so don't take my word for it. Earlier today Cameron
Speaker 1: Rising sat down with Sean O'Connell and here's that conversation.
Speaker 10: Time now for the Rising Report, which of course is
Speaker 10: a conversation with QB one Cameron Rising of your ute's
Speaker 10: Cam Rising.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 5: How are you doing good? How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm doing all right?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 2: You know I got to ask, so how's the hand feeling.
Speaker 5: It's feeling a lot better, definitely way better than last
Speaker 5: week and just continues to get better. So just got
Speaker 5: to keep staying on top of treatment and everything and
Speaker 5: or turn it in the right direction.
Speaker 2: That's always good to hear.
Speaker 10: I want to focus a lot of this conversation on
Speaker 10: Oklahoma State, but I do want to look back a
Speaker 10: little bit at this Utah State game. And you know,
Speaker 10: your guys did it without you, not without you. You
Speaker 10: were there, you were on the sideline, warmed up, getting
Speaker 10: yourself ready to play. A slow start for Utah. You've
Speaker 10: seen it happen when you're under center. You've seen it
Speaker 10: happen when you're watching on the sideline. You probably seen
Speaker 10: it happen when you were watching it on TV. Is
Speaker 10: there a way to look back on it and say
Speaker 10: why a slow start happens? Can you figure it out
Speaker 10: after the fact.
Speaker 5: Sometimes in football you don't don't connect early and can't
Speaker 5: really get into a rhythm. And when that happens, it
Speaker 5: just it just gets hard for the offense. It gets
Speaker 5: a little stagnant. And then usually coach Coach Lud calls
Speaker 5: them some easy plays to the quarterback that gives them
Speaker 5: some easy reads and and kind of get into a rhythm.
Speaker 5: And and I think once once that happens, usually that
Speaker 5: offense starts to get rolling. And it did that just
Speaker 5: this is last Saturday, and we just got to make
Speaker 5: sure we're coming out a lot fatter this game because
Speaker 5: this is a this is a high powered team right here.
Speaker 2: I've been trying to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 10: Isaac looked so much better after the half, and I
Speaker 10: asked coach wit about it.
Speaker 2: Hey, what'd you say to him? What did you do?
Speaker 2: You said, I didn't do anything.
Speaker 10: He was over with coach Lud And I asked Coach
Speaker 10: Lud and he didn't think it was something that happened
Speaker 10: at halftime. Did you have a conversation with Isaac Wilson
Speaker 10: at halftime? Were you able to tell that the second
Speaker 10: half was going to be a better half?
Speaker 5: I I kind of got that sense in the in
Speaker 5: the at the end of the second half, in that
Speaker 5: second quarter, I think he really started to get a
Speaker 5: rhythm and just get a feel for the game and
Speaker 5: and really just got comfortable back there and and yeah,
Speaker 5: he just he turned it on. I think it half time.
Speaker 5: The only thing I told him is, look, go win
Speaker 5: this game. It's explicit right there. But no, Yeah, and
Speaker 5: he was fired up and yeah, and it was a
Speaker 5: it was a good day and he came out on fire.
Speaker 5: I think he was eight for eight out of the half.
Speaker 5: And anytime you get to do that and the offense
Speaker 5: is going to be firing on all cylinders.
Speaker 10: And coach Lud said he actually thought it was the
Speaker 10: touchdown pass in the late second quarter two Money Parks.
Speaker 10: Coach Ludd called it an AHA moment. He said, I
Speaker 10: think that's where the game kind of clicked for Isaac Wilson.
Speaker 10: And that makes sense to me, right, You get you
Speaker 10: get those moments where you realize, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 10: know exactly what I'm doing, I belong here, et cetera.
Speaker 10: When did that happen for you? Do you do you
Speaker 10: remember in your career, earlier in your career when you
Speaker 10: were just like, ah, I know exactly how to play
Speaker 10: this position.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be fine moving forward.
Speaker 5: I think it was just the San Diego State game
Speaker 5: that I played in in twenty one that, yeah, just
Speaker 5: kind of playing free, you don't really have any any
Speaker 5: worries and just go out there and play some ball.
Speaker 5: That that's kind of where I started to feel that
Speaker 5: comfort playing playing quarterback.
Speaker 10: It's actually really funny to hear you say that, because
Speaker 10: if you ask Utah fans, like, what was the pivotal
Speaker 10: moment for this team in the turning point, like they will,
Speaker 10: they will point to that same thing. And when Cam
Speaker 10: Rising took over as QB one and you know, still
Speaker 10: lost that San Diego State game, you played well, fought back,
Speaker 10: but after that it was onward and upward and two
Speaker 10: PAC twelve championships and all that other stuff. So it's
Speaker 10: funny that your recollection of it, the moment for you
Speaker 10: is the same for a lot of the fans.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, whenever you get that get your name called,
Speaker 5: you just gotta be ready. And yeah, that's that was
Speaker 5: definitely a good game, but I still wish we could
Speaker 5: have won it. That's one thing I regret about that game.
Speaker 10: Cam Rising my guest here on the Sean O'Connell show
Speaker 10: for the Rising Report headed on the road to still Water.
Speaker 10: Let's talk about this game with Oklahoma State. They are
Speaker 10: a team that is a lot like Utah, sometimes overlooked,
Speaker 10: maybe not as big of a brand, but just as
Speaker 10: powerful and can beat anybody in college football. That was
Speaker 10: true when they were in the Big Twelve with Texas
Speaker 10: and with Oklahoma that's true. Now your expectations for the
Speaker 10: atmosphere in still Water. The stadium's about the same size
Speaker 10: as rice Ecles. The fan base is very similar, very loyal.
Speaker 5: It should be loud, Oh absolutely. I mean I've been
Speaker 5: there before, back when I was at Texas, and it's
Speaker 5: a it's aeraudi, rowdy crowd, and they do a good
Speaker 5: job making noise. They got they got the paddles smacking
Speaker 5: the boards and stuff, and it's it's going to be
Speaker 5: a great environment. And it's kind of everything you dream
Speaker 5: of as a kid playing college football, going into the
Speaker 5: hostel environment like that, and yeah, just just ready to
Speaker 5: get out there and get the ball over all.
Speaker 10: Right, let's talk about what this Oklahoma State team is
Speaker 10: on paper, and maybe you could tell me more about
Speaker 10: what they are on film, because on paper right now,
Speaker 10: they're the worst passing defense in the Big twelve Conference.
Speaker 10: They're giving up a lot of yardage, but they're not
Speaker 10: giving up a ton of points. They're obviously three and oho,
Speaker 10: so the only stat that really matters, they're successful.
Speaker 2: They won them all.
Speaker 10: But you know, this is a young secondary that has
Speaker 10: shown some vulnerability.
Speaker 2: That's the paper side. What do you see it on film?
Speaker 5: They love to play a lot of man coverage and stuff,
Speaker 5: and they do run multiple coverages and stuff, and I
Speaker 5: know that can be challenging for offenses to see, but
Speaker 5: it can also be challenging for them to go out
Speaker 5: there and execute all those different different types of defenses
Speaker 5: that you can see. Not a very typical thing that
Speaker 5: a lot of defenses do. But they definitely have some
Speaker 5: great athletes on the defense that can make some plays
Speaker 5: and stuff like that. And I think, like you said,
Speaker 5: they don't give up very many points, and I think
Speaker 5: that's because they play good red zone defense and stuff
Speaker 5: like that. And yeah, they're they're a good team. And
Speaker 5: I think they do a good job just feeding off
Speaker 5: the offense and and and relying on that and and
Speaker 5: both both sides can really do stuff. But yeah, they're
Speaker 5: they're a good team.
Speaker 10: I asked coach Lovely this yesterday and he said, you know,
Speaker 10: I wasn't holding anything in the playbook back against Baylor.
Speaker 10: We need to win these games. You gotta win all
Speaker 10: of these games. Is there something Is there anything new
Speaker 10: or the new wrinkles that we might see against Oklahoma
Speaker 10: State that in the non conference the playbook didn't get
Speaker 10: that deep, or because it was Isaac instead of Cam
Speaker 10: and and you know the freshman doesn't have the same bandwidth. Well,
Speaker 10: we see more in the offense this week from a
Speaker 10: play calling standpoint, you think, I.
Speaker 5: Mean, yeah, you can. You can definitely dress things up
Speaker 5: differently and make it give it a different appearance. But
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, it's football. You got
Speaker 5: to go out there and execute plays and stuff and
Speaker 5: and well you got to make sure we're running stuff
Speaker 5: that we're comfortable with. And I think the team is
Speaker 5: just ready. I think a lot of the plays we've
Speaker 5: been working on for a long time, ever since really springball,
Speaker 5: so just got to be ready to go for whatever
Speaker 5: coach lad calls. I mean, there's always going to be
Speaker 5: new wrinkles in each and every week, and I think
Speaker 5: coach Elied does a good job just making sure we're
Speaker 5: hitting on all cylinders. And really just know what we
Speaker 5: want to get accomplished of each play.
Speaker 10: I know that every game is taken very seriously, and
Speaker 10: you do take it one week at a time, and
Speaker 10: everyone's trying to improve every single week. Is there a
Speaker 10: sense in practice this week though, like, hey, now we
Speaker 10: really got to step up.
Speaker 2: I need ten percent more from everybody.
Speaker 10: I need whatever that number is more from everybody, because
Speaker 10: not only is this conference play, but this is another
Speaker 10: team that is your equal. This is another highly ranked
Speaker 10: team that is built just like you are in a
Speaker 10: lot of ways. Is there that sense where like you
Speaker 10: already took all these other games seriously, but this one
Speaker 10: is even more important and you got to be that
Speaker 10: much better.
Speaker 5: Yeah? Absolutely. I mean when you get to conference place,
Speaker 5: it comes down to championships at that point. So every
Speaker 5: game we play is pretty much have to be treated
Speaker 5: as if it's a championship, and you just got to
Speaker 5: go out there and be ready to execute. And I
Speaker 5: think we've had a great week of practice so far
Speaker 5: and just got to finish these next two days off
Speaker 5: and get on the plane and get ready to go.
Speaker 10: Okay, I know they're piping noise in in the practices, right,
Speaker 10: they do that thing where they turn up the speakers.
Speaker 2: How annoying is that for you? I mean I was
Speaker 2: only a practice player.
Speaker 10: I didn't have to deal with crowd noise in the games,
Speaker 10: but I hated those weeks of practice where urban Meyer
Speaker 10: would roll out the big speaker system and just crank
Speaker 10: that stuff up. You couldn't hear yourself think it's the worst.
Speaker 5: It is. It's not the worst. I actually I have
Speaker 5: grown quite fond of it. It definitely makes that environment
Speaker 5: just kind of seem peaceful, more peaceful. You kind of
Speaker 5: feel a little bit more comfortable once you get into
Speaker 5: that loud third down and stuff like that, or even
Speaker 5: in the red zone, and I just I just feel like, yeah,
Speaker 5: you have to kind of do that just so that
Speaker 5: you're you're going in to those hostile environments and you
Speaker 5: got to make sure everybody can hear and gets the
Speaker 5: play call, because sometimes those play calls get get pretty long,
Speaker 5: and and just it's, uh, it's good to get work
Speaker 5: at it during the week so that we can go
Speaker 5: into the game time and be ready to go.
Speaker 10: Is the is the headset in your helmets just like headphones.
Speaker 10: You can turn the volume up and down like you've
Speaker 10: had to adjust that or you're willing to adjust that
Speaker 10: when you're practicing it and when you're in the.
Speaker 5: Game, Yeah, for sure. And we also have these little
Speaker 5: covers that kind of go in our helmet that that
Speaker 5: pretty much simulate covering your your ear piece right there,
Speaker 5: so or that ear hole that's in the helmet, and yeah,
Speaker 5: that that kind of makes it makes it a lot
Speaker 5: easier here. And just with that speaker being right next
Speaker 5: to your ear and having a cover, it really keeps
Speaker 5: the sound in. So should should be should be pretty
Speaker 5: good here the calls and everything.
Speaker 2: There's actually a built in cover in your helmet.
Speaker 10: Because the only time a quarterback doesn't look cool on
Speaker 10: a football field is when he's standing there looking at
Speaker 10: the sideline and cupping his hands over the ear holes
Speaker 10: in the helmet. That's the only time a quarterback doesn't
Speaker 10: look cool. So they've eliminated that possibility.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's I think they do it in
Speaker 5: the NFL an away games and stuff. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 5: a little piece that covers that ear hole. And it's
Speaker 5: hard to talk to people from the side. But besides that,
Speaker 5: you need you need to get the call really, and
Speaker 5: that's the one thing you need to focus on.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 10: Cam Rising and my guest here on the Sean O'Connell show,
Speaker 10: getting ready for a road trip. Utes at Oklahoma State.
Speaker 10: Utes are ranked twelfth in the country. Oklahoma State ranked
Speaker 10: fourteenth in the country. Going back to that secondary and
Speaker 10: they are it's a young secondary and they do have
Speaker 10: a bunch of different looks.
Speaker 2: Is this a week where you could see the wide receiver.
Speaker 10: Room specifically being a bigger part of the offense, you know,
Speaker 10: going off for some more touchdowns, because we've seen the
Speaker 10: passing game pick up, but it's been tight ends, it's
Speaker 10: been you know, running backs out of the backfield.
Speaker 2: Is this the week for the wide receiver room? Potentially?
Speaker 5: Absolutely. I Mean, anytime you get a team that plays
Speaker 5: a lot of man coverage, you got to have guys
Speaker 5: who went on the outside, and that's really what what
Speaker 5: will keep the offense moving down the field. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I do expect them to have a good week. They
Speaker 5: they've been looking good running their outfall all week, and yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm just excited to get them the ball.
Speaker 10: I know you're focused on the offensive performance here, but
Speaker 10: your defense has got a tough task as well. Best
Speaker 10: running back in the country last year was Olie Gordon
Speaker 10: and he's still on that roster, and they brought back
Speaker 10: a bunch of starters on the offensive line.
Speaker 2: For whatever reason.
Speaker 10: They have yet to really get it going in the
Speaker 10: run game at Oklahoma State. And again, I know you're
Speaker 10: focused on their defense and your offense, but when you're
Speaker 10: in those team periods and we've kind of like talked
Speaker 10: to the coaching staff and figured out the whole game plan,
Speaker 10: have you figured out have you all been able to
Speaker 10: figure out why that is happening why that run game
Speaker 10: hasn't got going yet for Oklahoma State?
Speaker 5: Not really. I mean I don't I don't really get
Speaker 5: to study their offense very much, so I don't like
Speaker 5: to vary from from what I have to accomplish. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I think they definitely have struggled running it and stuff
Speaker 5: like that. But I I think they just haven't haven't
Speaker 5: really opened it up and and and tried to give
Speaker 5: all these some new new new looks and just let
Speaker 5: him kind of handle it. Because I do have a
Speaker 5: lot of respect for him, think he's a very very
Speaker 5: good running back. And yeah, I think it's going to
Speaker 5: be a hard task for the defense, but I think
Speaker 5: they'll be up for it.
Speaker 10: Oklahoma State is without a guy you could argue is
Speaker 10: their best pass rusher. I could make an argument that
Speaker 10: Colin Oliver is probably their best overall defender because of
Speaker 10: his versatility, and they're without him. How do you attack
Speaker 10: a defense knowing they're without their best player potentially.
Speaker 5: It's never never something you want. You always want to
Speaker 5: go against the best, And yeah, I think he's a
Speaker 5: phenomenal player. I wish he was going to be able
Speaker 5: to be on the field, but yeah, you just gotta
Speaker 5: gotta go go attack it in every way. You can
Speaker 5: take advantage of the past because he was a phenomenal
Speaker 5: pass rush of him stuff, But they definitely have some
Speaker 5: guys behind him that can that can do some that
Speaker 5: can disrupt some plays and stuff like that. So it
Speaker 5: just got to be ready to play and play at
Speaker 5: a high level. It doesn't matter who's on the field.
Speaker 5: Just got to go out there and execute.
Speaker 10: The pole question on Twitter today for the Sean O'Connell
Speaker 10: Show is do you expect this game to be a slugfest,
Speaker 10: low scoring, kind of grind it out type game or
Speaker 10: could it potentially turn into the high flying, high scoring
Speaker 10: shootout Because the Brands are Utah Physical Team grinds it
Speaker 10: out the brand for Oklahoma State Physical Team grinds it Out,
Speaker 10: But both squads now very capable opening things up in
Speaker 10: the past game. Actually, Oklahoma State has been a lot
Speaker 10: more successful this year with their pass game than they
Speaker 10: have their run games. So I put the poll question
Speaker 10: to the starting quarterback, what is more likely in Stillwater
Speaker 10: a slug fest or a shootout?
Speaker 5: I think it'll be somewhat of a combination of the
Speaker 5: bull I think there would definitely be some points put
Speaker 5: up on the board, and yeah, I think it's it's
Speaker 5: kind of gonna be who can score the most. It's
Speaker 5: kind of always been that way in the Big Twelve,
Speaker 5: and it's not going to be. It's definitely not going
Speaker 5: to be an easy game. I think. I think everything's
Speaker 5: going to be fought for. But yeah, I do expect
Speaker 5: there to be some points put up on the board.
Speaker 10: How much swagger does if McKay Bernard have walking around
Speaker 10: right now? He's got a couple of one hundred yard
Speaker 10: games under his belt. It's clear that he's proven himself
Speaker 10: he can be running back number one.
Speaker 2: He can be a bell cow, and.
Speaker 10: It feels like a role he's been working toward for
Speaker 10: a very long time. It's been fun for us to
Speaker 10: kind of watch him accomplish that and and you know,
Speaker 10: truly deserve it.
Speaker 2: Here, what's he like in practice right now?
Speaker 5: He's doing he's doing a great job, just making sure
Speaker 5: he's leading, always locked in and always kind of help
Speaker 5: out in any way he can. He's a phenomenal player
Speaker 5: and anytime he can get him the ball, it's easually
Speaker 5: going to be very successful for the offense. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I just got to go to make sure he stays
Speaker 5: running downhill and and and pops and pops a few
Speaker 5: big ones and not always always helps the whole offense.
Speaker 5: But yeah, he's he's got a lot of confidence right now.
Speaker 5: He just got to keep it rolling and let him
Speaker 5: be the player he is.
Speaker 10: And I'm not going to name any names right now.
Speaker 10: This is a general question. When a player is in
Speaker 10: the coaches doghouse or feels like he's in the coaches doghouse,
Speaker 10: what can you do as a teammate, as a captain,
Speaker 10: as a leader to help them work their way out
Speaker 10: of a position where they feel some type of way
Speaker 10: about the reps they're getting or the respect they're getting
Speaker 10: or whatever.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 5: I mean, just just stay locked in you can. That's
Speaker 5: that's usually my always my advice. You never know when
Speaker 5: when you're going to be needed, and and just got
Speaker 5: to make sure you're ready for when your name is called,
Speaker 5: so that you can go in there and kind of
Speaker 5: not not not let them look back at all, and
Speaker 5: just focus on the task at hand. That's that's pretty
Speaker 5: much the only thing that there is to do, because
Speaker 5: you can't really control anything else. And yeah, I I
Speaker 5: think they whoever, whoever gets their name called at any
Speaker 5: time will be ready to.
Speaker 10: Go on the youth Cam rising for another minute or
Speaker 10: two here on the Sean O'Connell Show, as the youthes
Speaker 10: get ready for a road trip to steal Water to
Speaker 10: take on Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 10: Injuries are never funny, and the fallout from injuries are
Speaker 10: never funny. But but something from your injury did turn
Speaker 10: out to be at least a little bit funny this week.
Speaker 10: I think you're on social media during the season, right,
Speaker 10: you kind of stay away from the Twitter and stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for the most part.
Speaker 10: Okay, so were you aware though of this? The troll
Speaker 10: tweet the troll account that put out that like you
Speaker 10: had developed I don't know, Gang Green or something. You
Speaker 10: were going to be out for an extended amount of
Speaker 10: time because of the hand injury, and some of some
Speaker 10: people got got some people fell for the tweet, including
Speaker 10: Dion Sanders.
Speaker 2: Did you see this?
Speaker 5: I did? I and and thank you Dion. I was
Speaker 5: very nice of you. I can't tell you how much
Speaker 5: I appreciated him. Yeah, I think they said I got
Speaker 5: tetanus or something. So yes, yeah, definitely definitely very nice
Speaker 5: of him. I got a lot of respect for coach
Speaker 5: Dion and and and how he was doing doing his things.
Speaker 5: But yeah, it's not an ideal situation when somebody starts
Speaker 5: tweeting out stuff like that. It definitely definitely did get
Speaker 5: some people, and even some of my teammates are asking
Speaker 5: me if I was okay, So yeah, it was. It was.
Speaker 5: It was definitely a funnier deal.
Speaker 2: Oh, It's crazy how that happens.
Speaker 10: And actually, not only did Dion express his respect for
Speaker 10: you and is concerned for you, even when he found
Speaker 10: out that the tweet was fake, he doubled down and
Speaker 10: was just like, Okay, well what I said was still true.
Speaker 2: Cam Rising is a beast and I still wish him well.
Speaker 2: So that's really cool.
Speaker 10: And that's really where I wanted to go with this question,
Speaker 10: because look, Deon Sanders is one of the most famous
Speaker 10: guys in sports and even beyond sports, right, and Dion
Speaker 10: has told us he's a Cam Rising fan. Like, I know,
Speaker 10: you don't get starstruck. I know you're a star yourself
Speaker 10: at this point. But who is the most famous Cam
Speaker 10: Rising fan or who is the person who when you realize, oh,
Speaker 10: they're aware of me and they talk about me, they
Speaker 10: think about they like they know that I'm the starting
Speaker 10: QB at utah, You're like, wow, that's actually pretty cool
Speaker 10: that that person is a fan of Cam Rising.
Speaker 2: Who is there a big name?
Speaker 10: Is there a famous person who You're just like, wow,
Speaker 10: that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 5: I mean, well, growing up for me, I was more
Speaker 5: so a dB and a corner so I actually loved Dion.
Speaker 5: He would always be talking and and and just putting
Speaker 5: on a show out there playing and everything like that.
Speaker 5: And I was a Cowboys fan, so I always knew
Speaker 5: knew about Dion or wearing that twenty one in the
Speaker 5: Cowboys uniform, and and yeah, I've I've always had a
Speaker 5: lot of respect for him and just just admire him
Speaker 5: as a as an athlete and as a player and
Speaker 5: even as a coach. And yeah, it's it's it's a
Speaker 5: it's pretty cool to have one of the ghats talking
Speaker 5: about you and and even just having any any any
Speaker 5: respectful comments and anything like that. It's a it's a
Speaker 5: good deal. And yeah, I think Dion is definitely something
Speaker 5: that that sticks out to me in that in that.
Speaker 1: Sense that would make sense.
Speaker 10: He is one of the I mean, he is arguably
Speaker 10: the best defensive back all time in football and obviously
Speaker 10: a huge star for multiple reasons now, so pretty pretty
Speaker 10: cool when a guy like that, especially if you grew
Speaker 10: up watching him, just like, yeah, I'm a fan of
Speaker 10: Cam Rising wild ball.
Speaker 5: Yeah he's yeah, it's it's definitely and yeah, I think
Speaker 5: he I think he is a goat at cornerback without
Speaker 5: it out all.
Speaker 10: Right, So good luck and still water. Obviously we're wishing
Speaker 10: for your health. I'm gonna say it before we get out,
Speaker 10: because you know, I got to you do expect to
Speaker 10: play this game?
Speaker 5: Yes, that is my plan at the moment, is there.
Speaker 2: That's what we're all hoping for.
Speaker 6: Cam.
Speaker 10: As always, I appreciate your time. We'll talk again next week.
Speaker 10: Good luck.
Speaker 5: They appreciate you have a good one.
Speaker 2: Straight from the horse's mouth.
Speaker 1: Cameron Rising says he's gonna play, and that appears to
Speaker 1: be the plan as of now. If you missed it,
Speaker 1: the line has moved back towards the utes. That's kind
Speaker 1: of what caused the panic on Wednesday night, a four
Speaker 1: and a half point movement over about two and a
Speaker 1: half hours. Utah as we sit here today, right now,
Speaker 1: just before four o'clock mountain time, is a one point
Speaker 1: favorite over Oklahoma State in still Water. All right right
Speaker 1: around the corner is the Black Desert Championship and the
Speaker 1: Black Desert Resort in Saint George, Utah. October the ninth
Speaker 1: through the thirteenth. Black Desert Championship marks the return of
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour to Utah for the first time in
Speaker 1: sixty years. Tickets available at Black Desert Events dot com.
Speaker 1: Their instagram is Black Desert Championship. Went out there a
Speaker 1: couple of months ago to play the track with some
Speaker 1: buddies and it is awesome. Excited for this, so tickets
Speaker 1: on sale now at Black Desert Events dot com. It's
Speaker 1: the Black Desert Championship October the ninth through the thirteenth.
Speaker 1: Appropriate on a Friday beaver Dog by still Water, not
Speaker 1: the city, but the band, fictional band?
Speaker 2: Is it a fictional band? I mean it's a great song.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they have other songs, but that's
Speaker 1: the band from Almost Famous. And of course it's Chris
Speaker 1: Camaradie who brings us a little stillwater on a Friday
Speaker 1: afternoon seventy five degrees, Sonny, I mean, if you're not
Speaker 1: out back with a audity or afferred at this point,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what you're waiting for, young man.
Speaker 4: Well, I was outside for a while, but as always
Speaker 4: I exist for the listeners, in the host of the drive,
Speaker 4: for the best possible listening experience. So I find myself
Speaker 4: in the kitchen doing my very best to walk the
Speaker 4: line of being a parent and a special guest host
Speaker 4: on this fine radio show at the same time.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, fair enough, all right, you have been a
Speaker 1: busy boy, Chris, you have been a busy, busy boy.
Speaker 1: We'll start out with the piece that you wrote on
Speaker 1: Cameron Rising, Utah's quarterback. Of course, there's another situation with
Speaker 1: the health and you know all off season, you know
Speaker 1: the conversation, it's like, all right, we gotta make sure.
Speaker 1: He understands that he's too important toss to get hurt,
Speaker 1: so get down, throw it out of bounds. And it
Speaker 1: lasted a game and a half and now dealing with
Speaker 1: it again out against Utah State. I think he's playing tomorrow, don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what else to say about it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was weird that the line moved on Wednesday night
Speaker 1: four and a half points over the course of two
Speaker 1: and a half hours.
Speaker 2: That is weird.
Speaker 1: That's not nothing, But I don't think it indicates he
Speaker 1: isn't playing. I feel like I would have called win
Speaker 1: of it at this point, but you wrote on it.
Speaker 1: Where are we at at this point with Cam and
Speaker 1: yet another conversation about an injury, and you know how
Speaker 1: it kind of clouds the overall prism and viewpoint with
Speaker 1: which we view this quarterback who's had a lot of
Speaker 1: bad luck. What are your thoughts? He can't.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the irony of this whole thing was this story
Speaker 4: was Cam rising coming back from the two longest years
Speaker 4: of his life, missing twenty months of football to you know,
Speaker 4: the second game in Cam's got to get down, man,
Speaker 4: bottom line, Cam's got to get down, and you know,
Speaker 4: you take the twelve yard Sack. I mean, just give
Speaker 4: yourself up. But I think when we talk about Cam Rising,
Speaker 4: there's a reason why he's reached cult status within the
Speaker 4: fan base is because he is a guy that has
Speaker 4: a very hard time turning off the insatiable drive to
Speaker 4: get one more yard. So the piece was, you know,
Speaker 4: a a look back as to what Cam went through
Speaker 4: for a very very long time, the will he won't
Speaker 4: he all of that stuff, and right now we are
Speaker 4: dealing with not a severe knee injury, but a questionable
Speaker 4: hand injury due to the fact that he went barreling
Speaker 4: into a hydration station along the Baylor sideline. I'm with you, Spence.
Speaker 4: I do think he plays. I mean, I honestly think
Speaker 4: if the games were switched and last week we're talking
Speaker 4: about you know, Utah Okay State, I think there's probably
Speaker 4: an outside chance that Cam would have tried to play,
Speaker 4: just because of the importance of this game. But we
Speaker 4: don't know because Utah's policy when it comes to injuries
Speaker 4: within the program is they do not talk about injuries
Speaker 4: within the program. You have to try to read the
Speaker 4: tea leaves. But Cam is a fascinating figurehead in the
Speaker 4: history of Utah football. He's a guy who led them
Speaker 4: to two rose bulls, and if he stays healthy, he
Speaker 4: gives this team a chance to make the CFP. But
Speaker 4: there's a reason why quarterback is the most important position
Speaker 4: in sports. All the pressure is on you, and for
Speaker 4: Cam the last couple of years has been pretty tough.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's a guy that doesn't necessarily let clouds
Speaker 4: darken his sunny disposition. But you know, he told me
Speaker 4: the door dash build got pretty expensive and expensive at
Speaker 4: times because he got so tired of going out and
Speaker 4: having people just asking how you doing, how you doing,
Speaker 4: how you doing. It's really hard for anybody to have
Speaker 4: to deliver bad news when you don't want to deliver
Speaker 4: bad news, let alone on the level that lastly almost
Speaker 4: two years.
Speaker 1: Because you got access to Cameron, you got access to
Speaker 1: his parents, you had a lot of access for your piece.
Speaker 1: For our listeners that have not read it, you can
Speaker 1: go to CK's Twitter page where he's very active, or
Speaker 1: you can just go to the athletic website. I We'll
Speaker 1: tell you where you can find it. But what other
Speaker 1: anecdotes stood out? Pieces of info stood out that you
Speaker 1: did not know prior to talking to Cameron. Talking to
Speaker 1: his parents and writing your piece.
Speaker 4: Well, one of the most interesting things was Cam telling
Speaker 4: me that he did some rehab work with Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 4: who is also a patient of doctor Neil Elatrosh, who
Speaker 4: is probably the most well renowned orthopedic, you know, specialty
Speaker 4: surgeon in the country when it comes to superstar athletes.
Speaker 4: And you know, Cam said it, stuff like that matters, man,
Speaker 4: whether you're twenty five or nineteen or thirty five, anytime
Speaker 4: you get to hang out with a guy like Aaron Rogers,
Speaker 4: who is very, very good at football, Cam said that
Speaker 4: being able to talk to guys like Aaron Rodgers, JK. Dobbins,
Speaker 4: other guys who are in kind of the thick of
Speaker 4: things with him as he's going through the grind of
Speaker 4: trying to get back, that stuff matters. It picks people
Speaker 4: up because you see that other people who have reached
Speaker 4: the pinnacle of their goals with you know, becoming professional players,
Speaker 4: they're going through it too. So that's that's one thing
Speaker 4: that I found really interesting. I mean, for me, Cam
Speaker 4: is a guy who is kind of a paradox. He
Speaker 4: is a star football player and then in the nil
Speaker 4: world reportedly makes a whole lot of money and he
Speaker 4: just doesn't like the spotlight that much. He understands that
Speaker 4: what is required of him. He's never rude, he's never
Speaker 4: you know, off putting. But listen, man, it's it's a
Speaker 4: it's an interesting existence when you have the hopes of
Speaker 4: hundreds I think it's accurate to say hundreds of thousands
Speaker 4: of people on your shoulders and not to mention lots
Speaker 4: of money on the line with the success of a
Speaker 4: program like UTAH, whereas you know, if Cam is healthy
Speaker 4: and available, UTAH has a chance to do more, has
Speaker 4: a chance to break new ground as it did with
Speaker 4: Cam Underson er twice and making Ross Bowls. If they
Speaker 4: can do that again, then you're talking about Cam potentially
Speaker 4: leading this program to a CFP. But again, it all
Speaker 4: boils down to the health factor. And unfortunately for Cam,
Speaker 4: he's been dealt so many difficult spots in his career
Speaker 4: that he just has he just has to always find
Speaker 4: a way to bounce back.
Speaker 1: Is it really possible to And I've asked this question
Speaker 1: to a lot of different guests, and I get a
Speaker 1: bunch of different answers, But I don't know that it's
Speaker 1: possible to change a player's neuropathways when they're in a
Speaker 1: fight or flight situation, if they're used to fighting to fight,
Speaker 1: if they're used to fighting for a couple of yards
Speaker 1: to get down thrown out of bounds. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are examples of quarterbacks who have learned this. I think
Speaker 1: Steve Young is the one that was brought brought up
Speaker 1: on the show not too long ago. But if you
Speaker 1: watch the replay of the play where Cam got hurt
Speaker 1: against Baylor, it was just nonsensical. He was running to
Speaker 1: his left, the ball was in his offhand, it was
Speaker 1: early down, it was good distance. There was no reason
Speaker 1: to do what he did. I just I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not crack it on because I honestly feel like it
Speaker 1: was fire or flight and he just fought because that's
Speaker 1: who that's who he is. I mean, is there any
Speaker 1: way to really rewire a guy's brain like that.
Speaker 4: I don't know, that's a great question. I mean Cam's dad,
Speaker 4: you know, said that Cam just has to be smarter
Speaker 4: with a lot of things going forward, coming up a
Speaker 4: knee injury. Kyle Whittingham said the same thing. Cam said
Speaker 4: the same thing, but in the moment. Listen, man, these
Speaker 4: these guys sign up to play this game. For a reason.
Speaker 4: They're paid money now to play this game for a reason.
Speaker 4: I understand that, you know, he has to find a
Speaker 4: way to be more, as Kyle would say, judicious when
Speaker 4: it comes to taking hits. That attempt out of bounds
Speaker 4: was going nowhere, like you said, But I do think
Speaker 4: the fight or flight thing is an interesting way of
Speaker 4: looking at it, because listen, man, people in college football, no,
Speaker 4: Cam Rising is the guy that gets knocked down and
Speaker 4: keeps getting up. Like people forget about that insane hit
Speaker 4: he took in that USC game in the Tact twelve
Speaker 4: championship game, like a hit that would normally knock a
Speaker 4: lot of people out of the game entirely, and Cam
Speaker 4: got right back up. So I don't know if you
Speaker 4: can rewire it. My guess is Andy Ludwig is doing
Speaker 4: his damnest to try to rewire it, and maybe maybe
Speaker 4: this kind of freak injury helps Cam understand that. Like, yeah, man,
Speaker 4: just take a fifteen yard loss and move on. If
Speaker 4: that means you have to go three and out after
Speaker 4: a great start, shore, so be it. But your importance
Speaker 4: to the longevity of the program is way more important
Speaker 4: than going second and twenty five.
Speaker 1: So if there's a piece of good news to Cam.
Speaker 1: We're not playing a week ago up in Logan. It
Speaker 1: is that we actually saw their QB two look like
Speaker 1: he is up to the task and met the moment,
Speaker 1: at least for one day on a Saturday up in
Speaker 1: Logan against Utah State. It's different as you move towards
Speaker 1: Big Twelve play, But with how bad it looked CK
Speaker 1: last year with Bryson and then Nate and then Bryson
Speaker 1: and Nate and then Nate and then Bryson, I think
Speaker 1: there was a big sigh of relief because here's the thing, man,
Speaker 1: I've said this four or five times. I'm gonna repeat it.
Speaker 1: If I asked you to bet the sizeable Chris Camaraddie
Speaker 1: Athletic paycheck on whether or not Cam is gonna play
Speaker 1: every game the rest of the way, you would have
Speaker 1: no choice but to bet against that based off the
Speaker 1: data that we have. So I'm under the impression I
Speaker 1: should say opinion. I'm under the I'm of the opinion
Speaker 1: for Utah to win the Big Twelve, they need Cameron healthy.
Speaker 2: But I think they're gonna win the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: They're probably gonna need a little bit more from Isaac
Speaker 1: at some point, right, So, I feel like he did
Speaker 1: answer some questions last Saturday, but it's different if he's
Speaker 1: called upon in Big twelve play. So what do you
Speaker 1: make of where we find ourselves with Cam QB one
Speaker 1: and Isaac QB two based off of what you saw
Speaker 1: last week?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Speaker 4: It's kind of convenient that the game after the Baylor
Speaker 4: game was Utah State for a whole bunch of reasons.
Speaker 4: Like if we're talking about Cam hurting his hand, you know,
Speaker 4: against Okay State and having to miss that game, and
Speaker 4: then you're turning around playing Arizona home, that's a different beast.
Speaker 4: But listen, man, there's a reason why Utah went after
Speaker 4: Isaac Wilson. It's because they believe he has the upside.
Speaker 4: There's a reason why Andy Ludwig and Kyle Whittingham made
Speaker 4: this kid the number two quarterback, beating out a guy
Speaker 4: who's been in the program for a few years and
Speaker 4: Brandon Rose in a one time five star recruit like
Speaker 4: Sam who cwared. So yeah, it's obviously necessary to have
Speaker 4: a guy who can step in and win you games
Speaker 4: when your star quarterback is down. But again, I just
Speaker 4: think you have to find a way to keep Cam healthy.
Speaker 4: And if Utah is going to win the Big Twelve
Speaker 4: Conference in its first year, I just don't think they
Speaker 4: can afford to lose Camp for any more games the
Speaker 4: rest of the way. I just don't. I mean, I know,
Speaker 4: their schedule lines up comparatively better compared to some other
Speaker 4: folks in the conference. Like you avoid k State, you get,
Speaker 4: you know, some decent challenges at home. Okay State is
Speaker 4: easily their most difficult road game. But I understand that
Speaker 4: people are stoked on the notion that Isaac Wilson can
Speaker 4: spin it and make these kind of throws that a
Speaker 4: lot of people rule about. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: it's got to be Cam, and it's only going to
Speaker 4: be Cam. And that's something that Utah fans know. It's
Speaker 4: something that the staff knows, and it's something that even
Speaker 4: the most random college football fan knows. It's like, if
Speaker 4: Utah is going to be in the mix come November,
Speaker 4: it's because Cam's got to play as many games as possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I agree with that, let's move away from
Speaker 1: the Cam stuff, but sick with the Utah youth stuff.
Speaker 1: This week, the Salt Lake Tribune friend of the show,
Speaker 1: Jason Batakio Batakio excuse me, wrote about the four year
Speaker 1: journey that Morgan Scalley has taken. I can't believe it
Speaker 1: was four years ago. But you know what, COVID for me,
Speaker 1: like time is such a mental construct. I remember nothing.
Speaker 2: I had a man bond.
Speaker 1: It was weird. So you know, you and I talked
Speaker 1: about this when the whole thing went down, when the
Speaker 1: text messages were revealed, and obviously something you cannot say
Speaker 1: or do in any context no matter what. I think
Speaker 1: everybody's on the same page with that. If you're not,
Speaker 1: that's kind of odd. But what did you make of
Speaker 1: what Jason wrote? Some of the anecdotes in there. He's
Speaker 1: singing Sam Cook and now he gets the coach in
Speaker 1: waiting reinstated in his employment contract. That happened a year ago.
Speaker 1: We all found out about it a few months ago.
Speaker 1: But as you watched from the sideline this whole thing unfold,
Speaker 1: what are some of your takeaways?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I justin did a great job, and I give
Speaker 4: Morgan a ton of credit for being willing to sit
Speaker 4: down with Jason and talk about it. I mean, everybody
Speaker 4: remembers that that time being a very turbulent time within
Speaker 4: the program. Because of that, I mean, a lot of
Speaker 4: people viewed Morgan as he was the head coach in waiting,
Speaker 4: you know, five years ago, I mean, and I think
Speaker 4: all of this was going to give Morgan a chance
Speaker 4: to do a lot of self reflection, as he did.
Speaker 4: I'm always impressed with an interview subject's willingness to basically
Speaker 4: open up their phone book to other people, like you know,
Speaker 4: the fact that Morgan let Jason talk to siblings, talk
Speaker 4: to former players, like friends, Like that stuff matters because
Speaker 4: a lot of people have insight into what people have
Speaker 4: gone through, and more often than not, I find the
Speaker 4: most compelling information you find when you're writing a feature
Speaker 4: of profile, somebody usually comes from not the main subject. So,
Speaker 4: like I said, Jason's did a great job. He's been
Speaker 4: a hell of a higher and he's done some great work.
Speaker 4: And I credit Morgan for sitting down and talking to him,
Speaker 4: because I'm sure that's the last thing he wanted to do.
Speaker 4: But I understand, and I think he does too, that
Speaker 4: this is part of the process of coming to grips
Speaker 4: with a mistake, is that you have to lean into it.
Speaker 4: You have to embrace it. You have to say raise
Speaker 4: your hand and say I made a mistake, which Morgan
Speaker 4: has done, so you have to give him kudos for that.
Speaker 1: So Joe klad this week was just kind of discussing
Speaker 1: the potential of what you Tah could do this year.
Speaker 1: And he went into a little bit of a diet
Speaker 1: tribe on his pod and kind of for you know,
Speaker 1: college football fans. He may not know entirely the Kyle
Speaker 1: winningham resume here in Utah, you know, from the Whack
Speaker 1: Mount and West Conference PAC twelve winning championships. Rose Bulls like,
Speaker 1: he did a good job of articulating everything Kyle's done
Speaker 1: here as the coach, you know, prior to de coordinator
Speaker 1: assistant and kind of went through the entire thing.
Speaker 2: And while we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Coaching, part of me does believe that it was calculated
Speaker 1: to announce the Morgan news publicly prior to this season.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm not reporting it. Nobody has
Speaker 1: told me that behind closed doors, But part of me
Speaker 1: has always believed, all right, something there's more than meets
Speaker 1: the eye here and Klat's ole thing and this was
Speaker 1: just a guess. And since you're you know, you've been
Speaker 1: around the program for a number of years. You'll be
Speaker 1: good on this And the when is Kyle going to leave?
Speaker 1: Topic is not new on SPORTSTOC Radio in Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: But they win the Big Twelve, if they go to
Speaker 1: the CFP, if for the first time, coach Win has
Speaker 1: a chance legitimately to coach his team for a shot
Speaker 1: at winning national championship. Is that the ending Kyle's been
Speaker 1: waiting for? Is that the Okay, it's time? And this
Speaker 1: is why we announced Morgan earlier today. Like if all
Speaker 1: that goes down, does it feel like that's the final
Speaker 1: Swan song?
Speaker 2: The last dance?
Speaker 1: And Kyle rides off in his motorcycle this sleeveless T shirt.
Speaker 4: You know, I mean I asked Kyle that this preseason
Speaker 4: fall campus said like, is this the last thing on
Speaker 4: your bucket list? And Kyle said He's really good at,
Speaker 4: you know, knowing how to dodge questions. He says, I
Speaker 4: don't know if I have a bucket list, which I
Speaker 4: don't believe him. But Kyle's smart enough to not say like, yeah,
Speaker 4: this is the last thing I want to do before
Speaker 4: I hang it up. I don't know if it was calculated.
Speaker 4: I know that Kyle believes that Morgan should be the
Speaker 4: guy to succeed him. Kyle told me that on the record,
Speaker 4: like two years ago before I went on paternity leave.
Speaker 4: So that's that's not a surprise by any means. It's
Speaker 4: just like you said, we found out a little bit
Speaker 4: later than expected. I at this point, the fact that
Speaker 4: Kyle hasn't hung him up Spence, Like, I don't know
Speaker 4: if like he's tired of it, to be honest with you,
Speaker 4: and maybe he's just be been reinvigorated by this new conference,
Speaker 4: this new schedule, this new challenge, the fact that the
Speaker 4: playoff has expanded to twelve teams, which is something that
Speaker 4: he's been a huge proponent of and justifiably so. But
Speaker 4: if they win, if they win the Big Twelve, if
Speaker 4: they get a top four seed, if they get past
Speaker 4: the first round, I don't know, man, Like you're talking
Speaker 4: about a guy who is, you know, addicted to the
Speaker 4: feeling of winning and competing, and Kyle would be the
Speaker 4: first person to tell you that. So like, if they
Speaker 4: get that close, then is he even more compelled to say, Hey, yeah,
Speaker 4: maybe we lost Cam, but we're always good on defense.
Speaker 4: Isaac Wilson has a huge upside, the Big Twelve maybe
Speaker 4: isn't as great as people think it is. Depending on
Speaker 4: how the rest of the season shakes out, maybe I'll
Speaker 4: give it another year, and then maybe after that I'll
Speaker 4: give it another years. It's interesting, Like I think I've
Speaker 4: said this show a million times, when Kyle does hang
Speaker 4: it up, nobody's going to see it coming. He's not
Speaker 4: going to do it at the press conference after they
Speaker 4: know win the Big Twelve championship, if they win that.
Speaker 4: He's not going to do it at a bowl game
Speaker 4: or a playoff game. He's going to do it when
Speaker 4: nobody's expecting it.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, since you've been down there,
Speaker 1: since you've written on him, since you've interviewed him, and
Speaker 1: people down in Boulder. I heard more than a few
Speaker 1: people last week say that if Colorado lost to Colorado State,
Speaker 1: and that's a rivalry game and it's a G five
Speaker 1: verse P four and so Colorado was only a seven
Speaker 1: point favor they go there, they handle their business. But
Speaker 1: I heard a lot of people say last week, like,
Speaker 1: if they lose to Colorado State, because it hasn't looked
Speaker 1: good for them, people will start asking legitimate questions about
Speaker 1: Dion and whether or not this makes sense. Now they
Speaker 1: get Baylor at home, they're only a two point favorite.
Speaker 1: Does it feel like the prime shine I didn't even
Speaker 1: mean to make that rhyme. Didn't mean to make that
Speaker 1: rhyme with the other two look at me, I'm on
Speaker 1: fire today. Does it feel like the shine on Dion
Speaker 1: is fading a little bit and it's the shiny new toy?
Speaker 1: Do you as someone who kind of gets it down
Speaker 1: there in a way that I don't because you've been there?
Speaker 1: How safe is he? Regardless of results? They have not
Speaker 1: been a P four team in over a year. Okay,
Speaker 1: so they're looking for the you know, a little bit
Speaker 1: of a spark for folks to be reminded that maybe
Speaker 1: he is good at this because a lot of people
Speaker 1: think that he's not.
Speaker 4: Zek I would say there, he's fine. Locally, he's beloved
Speaker 4: I think in Colorado. At Colorado he made a very
Speaker 4: very irrelevant program relevant on a number of levels. He
Speaker 4: is a guy that moves the needle locally and nationally.
Speaker 4: But I don't know within the walls of the athletic program.
Speaker 4: If Colorado drops to one and two and loses its
Speaker 4: two high profile rivalry games to start the season. I
Speaker 4: don't know if there's going to be more pressure on
Speaker 4: Dion because where was Colorado before. I understand that the
Speaker 4: results haven't been there, and I understand that you talk
Speaker 4: a lot and there has to be some sort of
Speaker 4: backing behind it. But they still have two top picks,
Speaker 4: and anytime you have two top ten picks, people are
Speaker 4: going to want to watch you play. And people are
Speaker 4: still watching Colorado play even if they lose. So I
Speaker 4: think if we're talking about kind of a barometer of
Speaker 4: how people may view Colorado under Dion, I mean they
Speaker 4: were still like I think they were the second most
Speaker 4: watched team through the end of the season last year,
Speaker 4: even after the wheels fell off. So they're in the
Speaker 4: Big twelve, they have, you know, some new opponents ahead
Speaker 4: of them. I don't think Dion is on the hot seat.
Speaker 4: I don't think he ever really will be unless they
Speaker 4: really go off the rails. But again, you have two
Speaker 4: top ten players on your team, and one of them
Speaker 4: is a son, and one of them plays the quarterback.
Speaker 4: The other guy plays the other most exciting position on
Speaker 4: the team, So people are gonna want to watch you play.
Speaker 1: All right, Big night Tomorrow night in Provo it's a
Speaker 1: wide out and they're giving away No it is what
Speaker 1: it's a wide out. You need to wear white to
Speaker 1: the game. I'm doing my job as a sports talk
Speaker 1: radio host to inform the market that it's a wide
Speaker 1: out in profo. What's wrong with that. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be part of the community.
Speaker 4: Okay, keep going, all right.
Speaker 1: In addition to the white out, there's also an alternate
Speaker 1: cougar tail available. You can get the Classic That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. You can get the Classic Maple. However, they're
Speaker 1: offering vanilla to match the white out. So it's a
Speaker 1: big night tomorrow night. Ultimately, there's also a football game
Speaker 1: despite the chaos that's going on around the community. If
Speaker 1: they get this done, ck, if they're able to pull
Speaker 1: it off, touchdown under dog. We had a rod on
Speaker 1: the show this week. They're four and oh they're going
Speaker 1: to be in the top twenty five if they get
Speaker 1: this done. What does the conversation next week sound like
Speaker 1: around BYU football.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm going to ask you to put your journalist's
Speaker 4: hat on, and I've been the kind of out of
Speaker 4: the loop. What is the status they're running backs is?
Speaker 4: You know, if LJ Martin or the other kid are
Speaker 4: scheduled to play. Are they still out?
Speaker 1: I believe both LJ and Hinckley Rapati, the number two,
Speaker 1: are out. I believe that they're out tomorrow.
Speaker 4: That's tough. Yeah, that's a tough one.
Speaker 9: LJ.
Speaker 4: Martin makes that offense go at a different level, has
Speaker 4: the gunslinger mentality. He has to cut down on the
Speaker 4: very stupid turnovers, which he tends to do at least
Speaker 4: once a game. But I've been very impressed with By's defense.
Speaker 9: Man.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's a Kialani defense. You have Kilani and
Speaker 4: j Hill on one side of the ball. Those are
Speaker 4: two very smart dudes who know how to coach defense.
Speaker 4: K State is just going to want to try to
Speaker 4: do to everybody what BYU did once upon a time
Speaker 4: with Taysom Hills, use their quarterback, who is a tremendous athlete,
Speaker 4: to run all over you. I do think BYU will
Speaker 4: probably have a scheme in place to slow down Avery Johnson.
Speaker 4: They have dudes. BYU has dudes up front, and they
Speaker 4: have one of the best linebacker corps in the Big twelve.
Speaker 4: They have guys to hang with this kid. To me,
Speaker 4: it's I'm gonna be basic. Can Jake Reetzloff avoid the
Speaker 4: pick at his own ten yard line? Can he hold
Speaker 4: onto the ball when he goes off and scrambles? If
Speaker 4: BYU can win the turnover battle, if Retzloft can have
Speaker 4: a good game, I think they'll be in it. I
Speaker 4: think Case State is a very good team. I mean,
Speaker 4: there's a realistic there's a reality that Case State wins
Speaker 4: a big twelve. You know they're that good. But I
Speaker 4: do think it is a very very demanding task to
Speaker 4: ask a team to go play at Leveelle Edwards Stateium
Speaker 4: at night in a wide out where there's cougar tails.
Speaker 4: If that place gets rocking, it's a very difficult place
Speaker 4: to play. So I think YU can do it. It's
Speaker 4: just going to be contingent on if it's quarterback can
Speaker 4: avoid the silly mistakes.
Speaker 1: It's a big night, man, it's a big night. It's
Speaker 1: not just a wide out in cougar tails. It's a
Speaker 1: wide out in cougar tails with Vanilla Frost team. So
Speaker 1: let's just get this right.
Speaker 4: I wonder, I wonder what the calorie difference is with
Speaker 4: the Vanilla should look into that.
Speaker 1: Yep porters on it. He's my ESPN stats and info.
Speaker 1: All right, final final thing for you today and then
Speaker 1: we'll set you loose to get back at it. The
Speaker 1: update with the lads, they were able to grab one
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. They're up to They're up to second because
Speaker 1: they had a bunch of they had all the results
Speaker 1: go their way on Wednesday. A couple of moments with
Speaker 1: some of these new players indicating some pretty exciting quality
Speaker 1: if they can kind of settle in. So the good
Speaker 1: the bad before I set you loose on our lads
Speaker 1: on RSL very good.
Speaker 4: I think you can make an argument that Anderson Julio
Speaker 4: has sneakily been this team's MVP this year. Considering where
Speaker 4: this team was with the loss of Chico Orongo to
Speaker 4: suspension and injury and just the drop off statistically, Anderson
Speaker 4: Julio has been a savior for this team. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's been very, very good. He's produced at a level
Speaker 4: that I mean, he's always been that kind of quote
Speaker 4: unquote super sub, but you know, he was always a
Speaker 4: guy that was looked upon as put him in at
Speaker 4: the sixtieth minute and let him tire out the back line.
Speaker 4: He's playing on another level.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: Kudos to him. Rsel still has to find a way
Speaker 4: to become more gold dangerous with its star players on
Speaker 4: the field. I mean, like you're talking about the other night,
Speaker 4: they score three goals. They're without you show Aroango, and
Speaker 4: they have Diego Diego Luna and Diego Gounsalvez on the bench.
Speaker 4: They have to find a way to get those three
Speaker 4: playing together in lockstep the way that Luna Orongo and
Speaker 4: Andres Goomis were earlier on in the year. Otherwise RSL
Speaker 4: is not going to have a very long playoff run,
Speaker 4: and it's jumbled at the top. Man, it's always this way,
Speaker 4: like you're gonna You're gonna see RSL go up to second,
Speaker 4: and if they have a couple of down weeks, they
Speaker 4: can drop down to fifth or six. That's how tough
Speaker 4: the Western Conferences, and that's how much parody is in MLS.
Speaker 4: The bad, I would say is their defense continues to
Speaker 4: look really shoddy. They give up some really silly goals
Speaker 4: and the goalkeeping play man woof. I know, Gavin Beavers
Speaker 4: is a teenager and he's got a lot to learn.
Speaker 4: But between the Howlers that Zach mcmass, Zach mcmaff has
Speaker 4: had this year, and then that one the other night.
Speaker 4: You gotta have some very very strong goalkeeper play in
Speaker 4: order to have a run in the playoffs. As RSLO
Speaker 4: knows all too well when Nick Rimondo was on, I'm
Speaker 4: a heater. Rso always had a chance. So they have
Speaker 4: to figure that out soon.
Speaker 2: Cek, you are the man.
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend and we'll chat toon. But appreciate you.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you, all right.
Speaker 1: Chris Comraaddi, Senior staff rider from the Athletic bunch of
Speaker 1: great stuff and a bunch of great stuff coming up.
Speaker 1: I can tease that for ck. Get them on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Chris Comraddi is where you find. I want to
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Speaker 1: The injuries keep on rolling in in preparation for the
Speaker 1: NFL weekend ahead. I guess that got started last night
Speaker 1: with the New York Jets taking care of the New
Speaker 1: England Patriots. But we'll update you before we say good night.
Speaker 1: There's a ton they just keep rolling in. Looks like
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert may not play the Rams, and the Niners
Speaker 1: are playing without like the majority of their good offensive
Speaker 1: skill position players. So we'll get to some of that
Speaker 1: stuff before we say a night at six o'clock.
Speaker 2: But let's talk more college football.
Speaker 1: Consistent guest on the show, former ute, former NFL player,
Speaker 1: You know him, you love him. Robert Johnson on a Friday, Roajo,
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, man.
Speaker 2: How we doing so?
Speaker 6: I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: How y'all doing doing well? Doing well?
Speaker 2: I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: So let's, uh, let's kind of look back before we
Speaker 1: look forward.
Speaker 2: Uh So Utah State.
Speaker 1: Last week, Utah rolls up to Logan for the first
Speaker 1: time in twelve years. They get it done. Tell me, Rojoe,
Speaker 1: what you saw from Isaac Wilson QB two. What sort
Speaker 1: of questions did he answer for you?
Speaker 9: Well, I mean, the biggest question I feel like he
Speaker 9: answered was that he's he's a baller, he a gamer,
Speaker 9: he is a gamer. And then it took it took
Speaker 9: a couple of series before we started getting into the
Speaker 9: start getting into the tool of things. But I'm really
Speaker 9: happy about our future or will we stand with everything?
Speaker 9: I'm very, very happy and proud of him and proud
Speaker 9: of the coaches at least opening up sub which was great.
Speaker 1: Were you concerned it all after that slow start? You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of Youte fans fourteen three looking around, you know,
Speaker 1: no Cam Rising, no karn Reid. I think there was
Speaker 1: some certainly some nerves firing up around here in the community.
Speaker 1: Were you concerned it all after that slow start from
Speaker 1: the utes last week?
Speaker 9: Heck, yeah, well like you got have you got a post?
Speaker 9: If you've got a utah, you post or your heartbeat
Speaker 9: Utah Youto definitely was nervous about it, or more like
Speaker 9: just concerned about like last game, how it went. Whereas
Speaker 9: he like popped into the game and then where he started,
Speaker 9: it was like, oh, here we go. But he got better.
Speaker 9: And I always talk about that during the summertime of
Speaker 9: like like when it comes to summer ball, it's like
Speaker 9: I want to see what the live bullets look like.
Speaker 9: I want to see what going against the opponent that
Speaker 9: don't wear the same colors you and when he's coming
Speaker 9: to attack you, how do you react. So it was
Speaker 9: really really cool to kind of sit back and watch
Speaker 9: him and I'm just happy and proud of the way
Speaker 9: that he did it, which gave us all hope of
Speaker 9: like we got a good future. We got it's a
Speaker 9: good plan behind this.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: A lot of the attention, of course, is on the
Speaker 1: health of the quarterback because it's just so important as
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: But Rojo, you're a defensive guy.
Speaker 1: What does this defense miss when Karine Reid isn't out there.
Speaker 9: I feel like that missed a lot. But then I
Speaker 9: was looking on Twitter and Pop on something. I said
Speaker 9: that we was trying some new things on defense at
Speaker 9: the beginning of the half. He was trying stuff. We
Speaker 9: want to see what we could do, and I think
Speaker 9: we was already kind of planning to get ready for
Speaker 9: Oklahoma State this week. So our defensive plan wasn't really
Speaker 9: bad at the beginning, but it was more of trying things,
Speaker 9: if that is true, and you see we locked it
Speaker 9: down towards the second half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was actually going to ask you about that
Speaker 1: because the conversation was Bryson Barnes, Utah States quarterback, of course,
Speaker 1: was down here for a number of years, and they
Speaker 1: were a little bit concerned that Bryson knows the personnel
Speaker 1: and knows the scheme. So it was interesting to hear
Speaker 1: coach Wit and Coach Gally talked about how at the
Speaker 1: start of the game they were trying to change it
Speaker 1: up to keep Bryce and Barnes off their heels, but
Speaker 1: when they in Kyle's words, when they went back to
Speaker 1: doing what they always do.
Speaker 2: They settled in and were dominant. You played in the system.
Speaker 1: What does it mean when coach Wit says we settled
Speaker 1: back into doing what we always did on defense.
Speaker 9: Is a big sign that growth. That's what I would say,
Speaker 9: because at the end of the day, our scheme is
Speaker 9: the NFL scheme, and when it comes to opponents that
Speaker 9: you play against, you're going to see it like it's
Speaker 9: the same looks no matter what. Like you can get
Speaker 9: that cover one, cover two, Cover three, cover four, you
Speaker 9: know that those are just common looks. But it's one
Speaker 9: of those we gonna line up against you and we're
Speaker 9: gonna try to figure out can you stop? Can you
Speaker 9: stop what we're doing, or even if we show what
Speaker 9: we're doing, can you at least get around it. So
Speaker 9: I was really happy that we went back to our
Speaker 9: bread and butter and show how strong we are with
Speaker 9: our defense.
Speaker 1: So of course this and it's still early, still early
Speaker 1: in the season, you know, and I tell college football
Speaker 1: fans this all the time. I mean, everybody just misses
Speaker 1: college football so much and then it comes back and
Speaker 1: we blink and it's over. But it is still early.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to get from you Rojoe, because you
Speaker 1: hear college coaches talk all the time like the only
Speaker 1: thing we can do is win the day. The only
Speaker 1: thing we can improve between this week. It's all we
Speaker 1: can do is to improve between this week and the
Speaker 1: next week through three weeks. From your vantage point, is
Speaker 1: Utah improving the way they need to week by week
Speaker 1: to compete in this conference?
Speaker 9: Heck yeah, we are. I mean to go to go
Speaker 9: at the beginning of the season where everybody was really
Speaker 9: saying we're gonna win the Big Twelve and then now
Speaker 9: seeing how we how we're going to me that's one
Speaker 9: of the biggest things of like showing that the team
Speaker 9: is loaded, the team is ready to perform when it
Speaker 9: comes to big games. So this week is a big game.
Speaker 9: It's a huge game. So I feel like in my
Speaker 9: heart that this is this is one of those games
Speaker 9: where we're gonna know exactly where we stand at of
Speaker 9: like if the team is strong enough or is the
Speaker 9: team we need to just need to get a little
Speaker 9: bit better and send us off the season very very
Speaker 9: strong in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1: So, Rojoe, the fact of the matter is Rashul Faizon
Speaker 1: goes for a buck fifteen and as a team Utah
Speaker 1: State hangs three eighty five on the Utah defense, so
Speaker 1: they were able to gain yardage. A lot of it
Speaker 1: were you know, chunk plays here or there, but they
Speaker 1: were able to gain a lot of yards on the
Speaker 1: ground with Rasul Feizan Ali Gordon the Dolk Walker a
Speaker 1: year ago Alan Bowman, just like Cam Rising is a
Speaker 1: seventh year college quarterback. What does Utah's defense need to
Speaker 1: improve upon this week when they're going to be on
Speaker 1: the road against a better team than Utah State to
Speaker 1: make sure that, you know, Oklahoma State doesn't get off
Speaker 1: the way that Utah State was able to at times
Speaker 1: last week.
Speaker 9: For me, I feel like the ball control is one
Speaker 9: of the biggest things were going into a hostile environment
Speaker 9: because I've heard about Stillwater still water a lot. So
Speaker 9: like they have their fans, they have a big call
Speaker 9: in but on top of the big calling, the way
Speaker 9: to outfield is that if we control the ball, we
Speaker 9: can control whether we going to get down to that
Speaker 9: last position or a bigger position.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 9: So so it's one of those things. Sorry, my son,
Speaker 9: I'm I'm in a supermarket right now. See that's how
Speaker 9: I know.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 9: I'm in a supermarket trying to shop with my son
Speaker 9: and they going crazy. But but yeah, like exactly what
Speaker 9: I was just mentioning is that if we can go
Speaker 9: down there and control that ball and do what we
Speaker 9: need to do, as in not having those turnovers early
Speaker 9: and being able to get first down, first down, first downs,
Speaker 9: it could be a really good setup of like a
Speaker 9: last possession type of setup. And I feel like we
Speaker 9: can win last possessions because Coach would always make sure
Speaker 9: that we're ready for those grinder games.
Speaker 1: I'll say, all right, since you're with your boys grocery shop,
Speaker 1: and I'll set you loose, but I'll ask you one
Speaker 1: more question here, because again, Oli Gordon is a very
Speaker 1: capable back in Oklahoma State so far has faced defenses
Speaker 1: that stacked the box and that's why he's not off
Speaker 1: to a great start. They do have a capable, balanced quarterback.
Speaker 1: But walk us through Rojo before I say you lose schematically,
Speaker 1: How you stop a team that has the rushing attack
Speaker 1: like Oklahoma State is capable of having, even though they
Speaker 1: haven't showed it so far this year entirely.
Speaker 9: Turns into that quarterback. That quarterback has been there so long.
Speaker 9: I'll put the balls over into his hand, whereas like
Speaker 9: make them throw. And to me, our secondary is great.
Speaker 9: We have weapons on secondary wise as well as linebackers wise.
Speaker 9: We have weapons. Now we can force them to throw
Speaker 9: the ball. It could be a win on our end
Speaker 9: for what I feel, because the running back is so good.
Speaker 9: You're right, their running back is very, very very good.
Speaker 9: So he could bust loose every time you get the ball.
Speaker 9: But the goal is to stack the box and let's
Speaker 9: see what that quarterback can do. We're trying to read
Speaker 9: read a secondary or read a defense where nobody knows
Speaker 9: who's coming. Don't nobody know who's running Cover three weren't
Speaker 9: running pressed what I seen those run last week against
Speaker 9: Utah State. I got a feeling that we're going to
Speaker 9: test out some different looks and try to make him
Speaker 9: hold the ball a little longer so than our d
Speaker 9: line can get there and get the sacks that we
Speaker 9: need because to getting a negative play it wins games
Speaker 9: from what I see.
Speaker 1: All right, ro Joe, go chase your boys man, enjoy
Speaker 1: the game tomorrow with chat soon.
Speaker 5: All right, Hey, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You all right. Robert Johnson, former Utah defensive back, played
Speaker 1: a number of years in the NFL always pre appreciate
Speaker 1: road Jo's time. Of course, really interesting dynamics of play
Speaker 1: coming out tomorrow. It's a two pm kick on Fox.
Speaker 1: Remember you can watch it on Fox. Of course, you
Speaker 1: can listen to the game on our radio station beginning
Speaker 1: at ten o'clock with pregame covers with Porter Larson and
Speaker 1: Jordan Winn live at Bout Time Pub at Jordan Commons.
Speaker 1: You've got two twenty year coaches and coach Winting Mike Gundy,
Speaker 1: two seventh year quarterbacks and camera Rising and Alan Bowman.
Speaker 1: So far, OSU hasn't got much out of Oli Gordon
Speaker 1: the second last year. He's averaging three point five yards
Speaker 1: of Kerry only point nine before contact. He's getting hit hard.
Speaker 1: Osu ranks one hundred and fifteenth in rushing success rate
Speaker 1: so far. But ultimately the quarterback Bowman has been able
Speaker 1: to play pretty well and they've they've been able to
Speaker 1: stay clean. They survived against Arkansas. They should have lost
Speaker 1: that game. Okay, State has won seventh straight home games
Speaker 1: versus AP ranked opponents. So it's a tough one for you,
Speaker 1: Tah tomorrow. All right, the show is over, Desperate today.
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday final segment of the show.
Speaker 1: On this Friday afternoon. Man, what a gorgeous day. Weekend
Speaker 1: is supposed to be. Phenomenal, fantastic, so fun show today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give you a six pack of picks before
Speaker 1: we get out of here. Porter, what do you outside
Speaker 1: of grinding on tape? I mean an outdoor into the wild, wild,
Speaker 1: untamable soul like yourself. Cannot be in the film room
Speaker 1: for three straight days. You gotta have something going on
Speaker 1: with the weather like it is this weekend.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's beautiful out and yeah, we'll take advantage of it.
Speaker 3: Get out into the into the mountains at some point,
Speaker 3: play some tennis at some point. Here's here's the thing.
Speaker 3: I I once was a man who if I didn't
Speaker 3: watch it live, I just I thought it was it
Speaker 3: didn't matter, it didn't happen, right. I had to get
Speaker 3: over that working in sports. Otherwise you'll just you'll never
Speaker 3: you'll never have any any time.
Speaker 1: So anyway, you got a DVR.
Speaker 3: Basically, I DVR every Big game, the Big twelve. Stuff
Speaker 3: is actually awesome because ESPN Plus has has everything in
Speaker 3: playback if you go back and want to watch stuff.
Speaker 3: But I really DVR everything, and then my Saturday PMS,
Speaker 3: my Sunday PMS. It's all football. It's all. It's all
Speaker 3: watching the games, catching up on stuff and skipping through
Speaker 3: the commercials. And I usually get in way more football
Speaker 3: that way, and I'm able to watch several games kind
Speaker 3: of in their their totality and do it well into
Speaker 3: the am hours, and I actually quite enjoy that.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, if I don't go to a game live,
Speaker 1: I will DVR the game and then do something fun
Speaker 1: and come home and not watch commercials. There you go,
Speaker 1: it's the way to do it.
Speaker 3: If it's obviously like maybe the CFP or a UTES
Speaker 3: game where we are here there on the road, I'll
Speaker 3: watch that live. I'll cover it. But other than that, ye,
Speaker 3: I really do try to take the resources we have
Speaker 3: and you last, all.
Speaker 1: Right, pregame coverage Utah football, Let's get the deats.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We'll be Atbout Time in Jordan Landing, West Jordan, which
Speaker 3: is actually not the location. They're in a different location now,
Speaker 3: but that's where About Time was founded fifteen years ago,
Speaker 3: so it's kind of their their anniversary. They're celebrating fifteen
Speaker 3: years Jordan win appropriately at Jordan Landing with me at
Speaker 3: about time. We'll be there from ten am to noon.
Speaker 3: Bloody Mary Barr brunch. Come by watch some football, say
Speaker 3: hello to Jordan and I and we'll have some tailgate
Speaker 3: passes for the next home game. We'll have some tickets
Speaker 3: to give away and go from there. So yeah, come
Speaker 3: stop by the West Jordan Jordan Landing location about time
Speaker 3: ten am to noon. Jordan and I will be there
Speaker 3: talkings and football.
Speaker 1: Deets by the way, short for details, Yes you knew that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I used the shortened version because I have the RIZ.
Speaker 3: I heard a couple of teenagers like behind me at
Speaker 3: the crosswalk on my way to work the other day
Speaker 3: having a conversation right spence. I didn't know what they
Speaker 3: were talking about, and they were speaking English. I am
Speaker 3: fluent in English. I had no idea what they were
Speaker 3: talking about. It's the new world we're in. I got
Speaker 3: the RIZ. I don't have it, but I know what
Speaker 3: it means. I know deets. It pretty old, but some
Speaker 3: of the new stuff. Man, I have no idea what
Speaker 3: the duk mop sounds like.
Speaker 2: That conversation must have been pretty mid.
Speaker 3: It was, in fact, it was intelligible.
Speaker 1: No, that's too bad. Don't be so extra I'm trying.
Speaker 1: That's all I got.
Speaker 2: I'm trying.
Speaker 1: I think that's all I got At this point, I
Speaker 1: could probably search for more. All right, real quick, here
Speaker 1: are my picks for the weekend six pack of picks. Okay,
Speaker 1: we've done pretty well five and one. Week one. We
Speaker 1: were four and two week two, So quick math. We
Speaker 1: are nine and three through two weeks, which is much
Speaker 1: better than we did a week ago. So real quick,
Speaker 1: let's go through these. I'm taking Tennessee. This is making
Speaker 1: me nervous because everyone's on Tennessee now, But I think
Speaker 1: Tennessee rolls in to Oklahoma and smokes them. I'm taking
Speaker 1: Tennessee thirty eight Oklahoma twenty one. That's a seven point spread.
Speaker 1: I think Tennessee's gonna work them. I'm taking Baylor to
Speaker 1: win outright on the road of Colorado, even though they
Speaker 1: are a two point dog. Baylor made a quarterback change.
Speaker 1: I like how they look. I'm taking Baylor thirty Colorado
Speaker 1: twenty four. Give me TCU to win and cover at SMU.
Speaker 1: It's only a two point spread. TCU, I think is
Speaker 1: a good team. I think they're gonna go down there.
Speaker 1: They're gonna cover thirty one. Twenty eight. Give me USC
Speaker 1: to win, but Michigan to cover. In the Big House
Speaker 1: USC twenty eight, Michigan twenty four, I'm taking k State
Speaker 1: to win, but BYU to cover. I'm taking k State
Speaker 1: twenty eight, BYU twenty four. Then finally, I'm going to
Speaker 1: operate off the premise that Cameron Rising will be under
Speaker 1: center tomorrow for the Utah Ute. So give me Utah
Speaker 1: thirty three, Oklahoma State twenty one. I'm taking Utah to
Speaker 1: win and cover, and actually win somewhat comfortably because of
Speaker 1: Cam's under center. I have confidence they can get that done.
Speaker 1: All right, Porter, Time to get our weekend started out
Speaker 1: the right way? What comes our listeners way? On a
Speaker 1: Monday edition of the show.
Speaker 3: On a Monday edition of The Drive, of course, we'll
Speaker 3: hear from Kyle Whittingham his weekly press conference. We're hoping
Speaker 3: to hear from him on the show next week week
Speaker 3: as well, but we'll of course play back his weekly
Speaker 3: presser as we do each and every Monday. Bill Riley,
Speaker 3: the Voice of the Utes, will stop by fresh off
Speaker 3: of a trip to the first Big twelve opponent in
Speaker 3: Utah football history. It is the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Of course,
Speaker 3: we'll have our Big twelve Power rankings, our AP voter
Speaker 3: Josh Furlong will stop by, and the return of our
Speaker 3: friend Spencer Hall, who was in Mongolia this summer. Was
Speaker 3: I don't even know what the hell he was doing
Speaker 3: the last couple of months. He's been all over the place.
Speaker 3: But looking forward to catching up with Spencer Hall.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that'll be a good Monday show. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: have a great weekend. Okay, it should be a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Weather's great. It's not going to be great forever,
Speaker 1: so get out and hike it out and golf, Get
Speaker 1: out and spend some time with your family and friends.
Speaker 1: Special thank you today at to Pablo Master, Aenny, Andy Larson,
Speaker 1: Cameron Rising, Chris Comaradnie and Robert Johnson for any of
Speaker 1: the sound you may miss from the show today.
Speaker 2: Check out our.
Speaker 1: Website it's ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Make sure
Speaker 1: to download our mobile app and take us on the go.
Speaker 1: It's the ESPN seven hundred app that's available in the
Speaker 1: App Store or the Google Play Store. Then, finally, for
Speaker 1: what we do in our space for four hours every afternoon,
Speaker 1: check out our podcast page, which is called The Drive
Speaker 1: with Spence check its. That's available wherever you get your show. Subscribe,
Speaker 1: rate reviews, say nice things, give us all the stars.
Speaker 1: You will be eternally blessed. That young man is port Larson.
Speaker 1: My name is Spence. Check it saying and I have
Speaker 1: a great weekend. Be good to yourself, be good to
Speaker 1: each other. We'll talk to you out on Monday Drive
Speaker 1: as well as you can find it right here on
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred