Speaker 1: All right, well, it's good drivetime Monday afternoon, fourteen minutes
Speaker 1: past the hour of two o'clock.
Speaker 2: It is cold.
Speaker 1: It is great because it's January and Utah, almost halfway
Speaker 1: through January. We're gonna get through your kids, you and
Speaker 1: me together and as it is every single day, it's
Speaker 1: gonna have you along for the red bench check.
Speaker 2: It's behind the mic.
Speaker 1: That young man is Porter Larsen beyond the Glass today
Speaker 1: producing this radio program to tach until six o'clock tonight
Speaker 1: in time for Monday Night Football. It should be a
Speaker 1: good one tonight, as the weekend in Pro football is
Speaker 1: behind us with some really good games and some games
Speaker 1: that were just so so, but it will culminate tonight.
Speaker 1: The Wildcard weekend will wrap up with the Vikings and
Speaker 1: the Rams from Glendale, Arizona. This game was supposed to
Speaker 1: be played at SOFI, but it was moved as a
Speaker 1: result of the fires in the greater Los Angeles area.
Speaker 2: Of course, continuing to send.
Speaker 1: Good wishes and thoughts and all the good things to
Speaker 1: the folks in LA and the greater area that have
Speaker 1: been affected by just a horrible couple of weeks, but
Speaker 1: NFL moved to Glendale tonight at State Farm Stadium, don't
Speaker 1: call it.
Speaker 2: State Farm Arena.
Speaker 1: Minnesota is a two point five point favorite that over
Speaker 1: under his forty seven point five. Local boy Pooka and
Speaker 1: Nikua will be in action tonight. A lot of local
Speaker 1: guys making players making plays over the weekend. How about
Speaker 1: Bobby Wagner, Dude does not age and a really really
Speaker 1: fun story the surfacing for the Washington Commanders as Jaden
Speaker 1: Daniels and as a rookie quarterback was able to go
Speaker 1: down to Tampa take care of Baker Mayfield and the
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 2: I don't know that I've ever heard a more.
Speaker 1: Negative news cycle surrounding a team that won their playoff
Speaker 1: game rather comfortably as I've heard about.
Speaker 2: The Philadelphia Eagles over the past.
Speaker 1: You know, sixteen seventeen hours or so, the Packers were
Speaker 1: without like five offensive players.
Speaker 2: Jordan Love, Utah Staate Alum was playing.
Speaker 1: Without Christian Watson, lost a couple of other receivers to
Speaker 1: offensive linemen, and I suppose if you're an Eagles fan,
Speaker 1: you want something more convincing.
Speaker 2: But they were never in danger of losing that game.
Speaker 1: After a slow start, the Bills undressed the Broncos at home.
Speaker 1: Ravens handled the Steelers on Saturday, and then.
Speaker 2: The Texans really took it to the Chargers.
Speaker 1: So we'll look back on the wild card weekend.
Speaker 2: We'll give you a bit of a divisional.
Speaker 1: Round preview ToxS of NFL football on the show Today.
Speaker 1: I want to give a big hug and congratulations to
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy who will escape Jerry's world and will not
Speaker 1: return as the Cowboys head coach.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Since you and I last spoke, the New England Patriots
Speaker 1: have hired Mike Vrabel to try to bring them back
Speaker 1: to respectability, and we have the CFP final matchup between
Speaker 1: Ohio State and No.
Speaker 2: Tr Dame, so a lot to do on the show.
Speaker 1: The Utah Jazz continue to, at least from my standpoint,
Speaker 1: provide a little bit more excitement for the direction of
Speaker 1: the organization, and games recently have been either competitive or
Speaker 1: the Jazz have won. They sat like half their team
Speaker 1: against a bad Brooklyn Nets team. Brooklyn's kind of doing
Speaker 1: what Utah is doing, and the Jazz we're able to
Speaker 1: get that win. And Isaiah Collier, after a horrific mistake
Speaker 1: in regulation, called for an eight second violation hits the
Speaker 1: game winn and overtime, and the Jazz beat the Brooklyn Nets.
Speaker 2: And that is their third home win of the season.
Speaker 2: Am I reading that right? Oh?
Speaker 1: I know they had lost ninth straight games at home. Sorry,
Speaker 1: don't mean to be pessimistic. I'm gonna be nice about
Speaker 1: the Jazz. They got a night off tonight and tomorrow
Speaker 1: they're back in action on Wednesday against the Hornets.
Speaker 3: So we'll do some.
Speaker 1: NBA A, We'll to do some jazz on the show.
Speaker 2: Can we get I don't know.
Speaker 1: If it's a standing, oh, but can we get a
Speaker 1: little Can we clap it out for the Utah men's
Speaker 1: basketball team? Can we give the Utes a little love
Speaker 1: today on a Monday afternoon for grabbing a Big twelve
Speaker 1: win over Oklahoma State here in Salt Lake at the Huntsman.
Speaker 2: Center BYU woof.
Speaker 1: I mean we knew Utah was going to struggle BYU
Speaker 1: audacious expectations according to some, and they are just off
Speaker 1: to a bad start.
Speaker 2: Watch the game.
Speaker 1: Over the weekend, they were on the road at TCU
Speaker 1: BYU one and three in Big twelve play ten and five. Overall,
Speaker 1: this conference is nuts. It's really high quality college college
Speaker 1: basketball if you're into such things, so local landscape college basketball,
Speaker 1: not a lot of local college football stuff. By you
Speaker 1: picked up a good recruit over the weekend at the
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl. I was actually watching that game live and
Speaker 1: didn't realize I was about to stumble upon a news story.
Speaker 1: We'll tell you who that is, Counto Tonavas's book to Cassel,
Speaker 1: shedding some more light on his decision to leave Utah
Speaker 1: for BYU. But I think it's probably time to let
Speaker 1: that story die. I don't know how much meat is
Speaker 1: left on that bone. But good guest list on a Monday,
Speaker 1: it did feel like there was a little bit of
Speaker 1: a running back kind of retribution story over the weekend.
Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley, Derek Henry, James Cook, and we have an
Speaker 1: NFL running back on our show today. His name is
Speaker 1: Zach Moss. He's one of the best football players to
Speaker 1: ever play in the state of Utah and one of the
Speaker 1: best youths of all times. Zac STAPs about today to
Speaker 1: talk a little NFL from college. Stevenson Sylvester continues to
Speaker 1: con station, You're gonna talk a lot.
Speaker 2: Of NFL with slat today.
Speaker 1: Get us thoughts on the Wildcard round, what's head in
Speaker 1: the division A round? Bobby Marks, espn NBA front office
Speaker 1: guy will stop by and then we're gonna chat with
Speaker 1: Brian Dunseeth. We were hoping to get an RSL front
Speaker 1: office member and we will sooner rather than later, because
Speaker 1: someone's got some explaining to do as RSL has Jettensen
Speaker 1: excuse me off. Most of it's attacking eleven and eighteen
Speaker 1: quite frankly, and a lot of holes to plug for
Speaker 1: this soccer club. So we'll see what Donny has to
Speaker 1: say as rare al saw Lake, San Chico, Rango to
Speaker 1: San Jose for really pennies on the dollar, a lot
Speaker 1: of college football, a lot of NFL football, Little NBA
Speaker 1: gonna gets you ready for a wild card give you
Speaker 1: all the up to date news with the NFL coaching
Speaker 1: carousel and good guest list with Zach Moss, Stevens and Sylvester,
Speaker 1: Bobby Marks and Brian dun Seth, Me Spence checkets, Happy Monday.
Speaker 1: I hope you had a great weekend off to a
Speaker 1: great start to that work week. And that guy Porter
Speaker 1: Larson who is a Cowboys fan and met today's news
Speaker 1: that Mike McCarthy is out.
Speaker 2: With the emotion that is blank obvious.
Speaker 3: Duh.
Speaker 2: I don't know exactly what this done emotion. I don't know,
Speaker 2: it could be I'm not judging.
Speaker 4: And I don't really know where to fall with the emotions,
Speaker 4: because this is something I've been asking for since before
Speaker 4: last off season. And if you remember last off season, oh,
Speaker 4: I don't know, there was a coaching market that involved
Speaker 4: Jim Harbaugh, Bill Belichick, Mike Rabel, blah blah blah, blah blah.
Speaker 4: You go on and on about the coaches that were
Speaker 4: available last off season, and it was obvious then as
Speaker 4: obvious as it is today that Mike McCarthy thing wasn't
Speaker 4: going to work. And so the Cowboys are now where
Speaker 4: we were when Jason Garrett got let go of Nothing
Speaker 4: about what they've done in Jerry's world in the last
Speaker 4: decade inspires any confidence in me in the next step.
Speaker 5: But I'm hopefully optimistic.
Speaker 2: I'll just say that, all right, all right, I'd love
Speaker 2: to hear it.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Resident Cowboy fan Porter Larson on the program today, Jordan
Speaker 1: loved to be the Cowboys in the playoffs last year.
Speaker 2: Could not get that done this season.
Speaker 1: We'll do some NFL and Zach Mawson is going to
Speaker 1: join us right out of.
Speaker 2: The gates today before we get to Zach.
Speaker 1: On this Monday afternoon, courtesy of our friends at Standard
Speaker 1: Restaurant Supply, it's your tailgate headquarters.
Speaker 2: Get everything you need to make your tailgate epic.
Speaker 1: Stop by their location with thirty five hundred Southwest Temple
Speaker 1: or online at Standard restaurant dot com.
Speaker 2: It's time now for the opening Tip.
Speaker 6: Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check. It's on Utah's
Speaker 6: number one sports talk. Now into the studio of ESPN
Speaker 6: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 6: opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by
Speaker 6: Standard Restaurant Supply, your one stop shop to build the
Speaker 6: best tailgate in town. Standard Restaurant Supply, thirty five hundred
Speaker 6: Southwest Temple.
Speaker 1: I'm not making this a topic for the opening tip today.
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of observing that we've all lost our
Speaker 1: minds in this society as of today. Kids, you can
Speaker 1: go lay money down on the twenty twenty six college
Speaker 1: national champion. That's right, we have odds Texas is your
Speaker 1: favorite that it's Georgia and Ohio State, both BYU and
Speaker 1: Utah right now are plus ten thousand to win the
Speaker 1: national championship next year. That puts him in the same
Speaker 1: stratosphere as North Carolina, Colorado. Let's see Illinois, Iowa State,
Speaker 1: Boise State, and that's the area that odds makers are
Speaker 1: telling you BYU and Utah exist. And it is so
Speaker 1: wild that in January of twenty four we're able to
Speaker 1: put odds down money down on the odds for the
Speaker 1: national champion twenty six. But we're not going to spend
Speaker 1: any time on that today outside of.
Speaker 2: What we already have because it's irrelevant.
Speaker 1: All right, wildcar Weekend in the NFL, We'll wrap up
Speaker 1: tonight with a Monday night football game in Glendale, Arizona.
Speaker 1: It's been moved from Los Angeles. It's Minnesota and it's
Speaker 1: the La Rams. I think this is going to be
Speaker 1: a really good game. I don't think Minnesota is the
Speaker 1: right side here, but they are a two point five
Speaker 1: point favorite and the spread is forty excuse me, the
Speaker 1: over under is forty seven point five. The line did
Speaker 1: move the way of the Vikings when it was taken
Speaker 1: away way from the Rams as a home game. Obviously,
Speaker 1: local angle Pokinakua has had an incredible sophomore season after
Speaker 1: his historic rookie year, he battled some injuries but little
Speaker 1: local flavor on the field tonight, a lot of local
Speaker 1: flavor over the weekend in pro football, and you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to hone in a little bit on what
Speaker 1: I perceived to be a really odd reaction to the
Speaker 1: win that the Eagles had over the Packers. Now, I
Speaker 1: like Jalen, I think I like him more than most,
Speaker 1: but I understand at times you're watching an offense that
Speaker 1: has two like super elite wideouts and DeVante Smith and
Speaker 1: aj Brown and a top shelf tight end. Now that
Speaker 1: Dallas Goddard is now healthy, that touchdown catch he had
Speaker 1: was incredible. And the Packers started the game without Christian Watson,
Speaker 1: then they lost Jayden Reid, and they even lost Josh Jacobs,
Speaker 1: who had an insanely effective game, so they were down
Speaker 1: like six offensive starters, and of course I'd cheer for
Speaker 1: our local guys. Brittain Covey unfortunately is on the injured
Speaker 1: reserve as an Eagle, and Jordan Love played his college
Speaker 1: ball at Utah State, so hoping to see Jordan have
Speaker 1: a better game, and he struggled, but he didn't have
Speaker 1: time to throw it, and he didn't have three of
Speaker 1: his top five offensive weapons, maybe four of his top six.
Speaker 1: So I get why you watch the Eagles and maybe
Speaker 1: want more from Jalen, Like you win the turnover battle
Speaker 1: by four, and you're up sixteen ten in the fourth
Speaker 1: and you only throw for one hundred and thirty one yards.
Speaker 1: Saquon went for one hundred and nineteen twenty five carries
Speaker 1: one hundred nineteen yards.
Speaker 2: Could have been like one hundred.
Speaker 1: And seventy with a touchdown, but he decided to just
Speaker 1: kind of hit the turf after he broke that last
Speaker 1: run in the in the fourth quarter where pay dirt
Speaker 1: was there, but he just decided to fall down and
Speaker 1: win the game. And I get it from a team standpoint,
Speaker 1: smart thing to do. Your boy may have been playing
Speaker 1: a DraftKings lineup with Saquon as the captain, wouldn't have minded.
Speaker 1: Sequan decided to go get that six. Nonetheless, but ultimately,
Speaker 1: Philly to me, look, they're not Kansas City, and I'm
Speaker 1: starting to feel like this is Josh Allen's year.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The Bills Broncos game started out as pretty tenuous back
Speaker 1: and forth. The Broncos have a really, really good defense.
Speaker 1: Sean Payton's a really, really good coach, but like all
Speaker 1: year long, Josh Allen to me, has proven to be inevitable,
Speaker 1: and they figured it out. Dalton Kinkaid had three catches,
Speaker 1: he had that big time catch in the second half,
Speaker 1: and that game was it was not a fair fight,
Speaker 1: even though the start ultimately was back and forth, and
Speaker 1: if you're a Bills fan, you were probably a little
Speaker 1: bit nervous.
Speaker 2: But Josh Allen, it feels like, and I said this about.
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers for a long long time, and even though
Speaker 1: our guy is busy taking ayahuasca and talking to caterpillars
Speaker 1: as they turned into butterflies, there was a moment in
Speaker 1: time where I'm like, I've never seen anybody play the
Speaker 1: quarterback position like Aaron Rodgers plays a quarterback position, and
Speaker 1: he's too talented to not win a Super Bowl. And
Speaker 1: then he got his, and I still felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: and certainly the history of pro football. Scott Mitchell himself,
Speaker 1: who backed up Dan Marino, said Dan Marino is the
Speaker 1: best thrower of a football he's ever seen before. Dan
Speaker 1: never won one, but when you know, you see Eli
Speaker 1: Manning get a couple, you see Peyton, get a couple
Speaker 1: of Brady of course, with a grip of them with
Speaker 1: seven going to I always felt like Aaron was too
Speaker 1: talented to really only win one quite frankly, and he's
Speaker 1: not going to get another one, like obviously that ship
Speaker 1: has sailed.
Speaker 2: But that's how I feel about Josh.
Speaker 1: And just like you know the greatest teams that I
Speaker 1: cheered for in New York with the Knicks and here
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake with the Jazz, those two Jazz, you know,
Speaker 1: those two teams in the nineties, The Knicks and the
Speaker 1: Jazz had one thing in common about what stood in
Speaker 1: their way to get rings. Had nothing to do with
Speaker 1: their talent. It had nothing to do with their coaching,
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with anything that they did. They
Speaker 1: simply had the misfortune of playing their best basketball at
Speaker 1: a time where this dude happened to play in Chicago
Speaker 1: and wear twenty three on his back and just nobody
Speaker 1: could beat Mike Cup and Spring. You just couldn't do
Speaker 1: it when he was at his peak. And that's when
Speaker 1: the Knicks and the Jazz and the nineties had their
Speaker 1: best teams and ultimately Josh's krypton. I could be fifteen
Speaker 1: for Kansas City. Simply put, Kansas City, though, feels a
Speaker 1: little bit more vulnerable than they have in years past.
Speaker 1: By the way, I still think they're gonna win it.
Speaker 1: That's just the confidence I have. And Andy Reid and
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes. But Josh Allen, to me, this year feels
Speaker 1: like it might be his time. And I'm also cheering
Speaker 1: a little bit for Lamar Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens,
Speaker 1: who had a good, not dominant win over a Steelers
Speaker 1: team that I don't know, felt a little bit unserious
Speaker 1: after that great start. But I've been a little bit
Speaker 1: surprised at how many people who I respect and cover
Speaker 1: the game and know the game of football are really
Speaker 1: down on the Eagles despite a pretty.
Speaker 2: Dominant win in the Wildcard round against the Packers.
Speaker 1: Wild Card weekend in Pro football ends tonight with a
Speaker 1: Monday Night Slates in Glendale, Arizona State Farm Stadium, Vikings Rams,
Speaker 1: Minnesota two point five point favorite. Let's talks more football
Speaker 1: today right now with one of our favorites, one of
Speaker 1: the best ever. Due's at the University of Utah now
Speaker 1: with the Cincinnati Bengals. You guys know you love him.
Speaker 1: Zach Moss on a Monday afternoon. Zach, Happy Monday man.
Speaker 1: How are we doing?
Speaker 2: Happy money man, I'm going to I've been good. I
Speaker 2: appreciate the time as always.
Speaker 1: So how much how much of the playoffs did you
Speaker 1: consume this weekend? I know obviously you guys unfortunately were
Speaker 1: eliminated after a great end of the season. Is it
Speaker 1: hard to watch or you're just kind of a football
Speaker 1: guy and you want to tune in?
Speaker 7: You know, it's always hard to watch obviously, you know
Speaker 7: from a competitive standpoint. You know, I've made personally good
Speaker 7: playoffs the last three seasons, I want to say now,
Speaker 7: so you know, competitively, you always want to be in
Speaker 7: that and you know it rises your gameplay and all
Speaker 7: that type of stuff. But definitely just been you know,
Speaker 7: enjoying the time off, you know, off season, and just
Speaker 7: watching the games and watching guys that I know around
Speaker 7: the league, you know, chase after that championship, it's.
Speaker 2: Actually where I wanted to go next.
Speaker 1: Is there a rooting interest do you cheer for your
Speaker 1: fellow AFC North teams? Are you looking at former teammates,
Speaker 1: former uts? Is there one team you want to see
Speaker 1: get this done?
Speaker 7: I don't have one specific team. I think just you know,
Speaker 7: I just want to, you know, see really good football.
Speaker 7: You don't want to see blowouts and you know, you know,
Speaker 7: games where it's a lot of turnovers and it favors
Speaker 7: one side or the other. I think, you know, just
Speaker 7: one of those heavyweight, you know battles. Looking forward to
Speaker 7: the Buffalo Baltimore game, I think it'll be one of
Speaker 7: those games. I'm you know, mentioning right now. So I'd
Speaker 7: just like to sit back watch them and you know,
Speaker 7: hopefully we get a good game.
Speaker 2: I probably bury the lead man, give us a health
Speaker 2: up date.
Speaker 1: How you doing, what's the rehab process like, and what
Speaker 1: are some of your next steps?
Speaker 7: Doing good man, feeling good? Uh, you know, blessed in
Speaker 7: that aspect, you know. I'm just you know, home, been
Speaker 7: home for a few months now, you know, with the
Speaker 7: family and things like that, so you know, being able to,
Speaker 7: you know, even in a in a bitter way as
Speaker 7: in not being able to go out and perform on Sundays,
Speaker 7: but not being able to be home and performing that way.
Speaker 7: So uh, you know, it's always a positive somewhere. So
Speaker 7: I'm just enjoying the positives that I do have currently.
Speaker 7: But I'm feeling good, rehabbing is going with and things
Speaker 7: like that, and you know, Brady to get back up
Speaker 7: there next season.
Speaker 2: Good to hear you play for a team, Zach.
Speaker 1: That was a topic of conversation for a lot of
Speaker 1: people that cover pro football, and of course you were
Speaker 1: a conversation for us here on the show because we
Speaker 1: track your progress and cheer for you. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not one that's like Joe Burrow's number one or
Speaker 1: number three or number I don't know where he is
Speaker 1: in the pantheonic quarterbacks in this league. But Zach, he's
Speaker 1: as good. He's as good sometimes I feel like he's
Speaker 1: as good as anyone, if not better. And you guys
Speaker 1: on offense are electric, dynamic, and we're among the best
Speaker 1: offenses in the entire AFC. So I feel like there
Speaker 1: is a foundation set in Cincinnati. If you just tweak
Speaker 1: a couple of things, you're going to be right there.
Speaker 1: What's kind of the mindset in that locker room?
Speaker 7: Yeah, Mom, you know, you know, obviously I can speak,
Speaker 7: you know, mainly only for offensive Why you know, we
Speaker 7: have just so many guys on off the side of
Speaker 7: the ball that can do a lot of different things,
Speaker 7: which is going to cause problems for teams just you know,
Speaker 7: at the end of the day, you know, luckily I've
Speaker 7: been able to play two really really good quarterbacks in
Speaker 7: their primes, at the top of their games and things
Speaker 7: like that in Borough now and the first few years
Speaker 7: out in the league with uh with Josh, So I've
Speaker 7: been able to see two guys, you know, and how
Speaker 7: they go about the game and just the cerebral part
Speaker 7: of it and things like that. And you know, we
Speaker 7: we got a really good team, Like you said, we
Speaker 7: got pieces just like every other team, so we got
Speaker 7: to fill in to get a little better and things
Speaker 7: of that nature. And you know, we play in a
Speaker 7: very very difficult division where it's you know, usually going
Speaker 7: to be probably three team race to get into the
Speaker 7: playoffs out of one division. So you know, we'll be back,
Speaker 7: and you know, we know what we need to do
Speaker 7: now and what it looks like and what it needs
Speaker 7: to look like. So excited for that part of things,
Speaker 7: and it'll be a new challenge.
Speaker 1: So you were the third best offense in the AFC
Speaker 1: this year, but defensively, the team that gave out the
Speaker 1: same amount of points that you did was the Raiders,
Speaker 1: who won four games all year and I don't I'm
Speaker 1: not asking you to, nor would you ever throw a
Speaker 1: team mate under the bus. But does it get challenging
Speaker 1: when you feel like you're playing on the side of
Speaker 1: the ball that's carrying their weight and you're kind of
Speaker 1: looking around going like, dude, what gives Like we're doing
Speaker 1: everything we can here?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously it gets to some
Speaker 7: degree challenging. I mean you kind of have to look
Speaker 7: at it in the lens of you know, when you're
Speaker 7: doing a school project, right who's who's doing you know,
Speaker 7: part of the project, and then you know the ones
Speaker 7: that are in but they want to credit and things
Speaker 7: of that nature. But like I said, you know, we
Speaker 7: got a lot of guys had to step up, you know,
Speaker 7: young guys, just both sides of the ball. Honestly, at
Speaker 7: end of the day, you know, we can't go out
Speaker 7: there and win the game without defense and vice versa.
Speaker 7: And you can interject special team into that as well.
Speaker 7: It's a you know, got to have all of the
Speaker 7: guys on both sides of the balls, uh, you know,
Speaker 7: clicking at the right time and doing the right things
Speaker 7: over and over and that's how you are able to
Speaker 7: be successful in this league, and like I said, with
Speaker 7: our division being so tough, it's going to be usually
Speaker 7: a three team race out of one vision and it's
Speaker 7: only so many spots. Uh, you can't have a lot
Speaker 7: of the things that happen to us where you know,
Speaker 7: sometimes it's player things, sometimes it's you know, the ball
Speaker 7: just didn't roll all the way, we didn't get that bounce,
Speaker 7: and things of that nature. So you know, at the
Speaker 7: end of the day is you know it was last year.
Speaker 7: Now we can learn from those things and you know,
Speaker 7: move forward and hopefully we don't repeat those things.
Speaker 1: So I'm kind of gonna ask you a similar question
Speaker 1: about one of your teammates that I asked you about Burrow,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to be a little bit more demonstrative
Speaker 1: in my opinion, because I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: feel like Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in
Speaker 1: pro football, And for me, it's like every time I
Speaker 1: it just it feels like he is an impossible cover.
Speaker 1: He can do anything from that position. And you've played
Speaker 1: in the league and in college with a lot of
Speaker 1: really talented, skilled position players. But what makes Jamar Chase
Speaker 1: who he is? What stands out most about the way
Speaker 1: he prepares and what's it like to watch him do
Speaker 1: what he does.
Speaker 2: We can weak out. Like I said, I think he's
Speaker 2: the best in the game right now.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, like again, I've been lucky to, you know,
Speaker 8: like you said, play with a lot of really really
Speaker 8: good players and across this league and obviously played with
Speaker 8: Stefan Diggs and things of that nature and got to
Speaker 8: see him.
Speaker 7: You know, work and things like that. Jamar is just
Speaker 7: you know, very very different in the sense of one.
Speaker 7: You know, his athletic ability separates him from so many guys.
Speaker 7: Just buy that alone. It's really not fair on what
Speaker 7: he's able to do. He has the speed of the receiver,
Speaker 7: but he's you know, in a sense built like a
Speaker 7: running back and being able to be able to you know,
Speaker 7: be contacted and fight through contact and break tackles. He's
Speaker 7: really just a three level receiver.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 7: You have some guys who can't catch lens and go
Speaker 7: everywhere and go all the way, right, you have some
Speaker 7: guys that can only do so many different levels. He
Speaker 7: can impact the game as a threat from every single level,
Speaker 7: which makes it almost impossible for a defense to have
Speaker 7: to prepare and guard that when you can you can
Speaker 7: throw a guy at pass, you know, two yards behind
Speaker 7: the line of sperimen, so you can throw a guy
Speaker 7: ten yard route where you can throw them a deep
Speaker 7: ball and it can all result in six at any
Speaker 7: point in time. So you know, to me, he's definitely
Speaker 7: the best. I think he went out there and improved
Speaker 7: that this season, you know, posting the triple ground and
Speaker 7: you know that was really cool just being able to know,
Speaker 7: you playing with someone on that level and you know,
Speaker 7: people forget he missed all the training gap yah, going
Speaker 7: out there doing that at the same time. So you know,
Speaker 7: once you know contract is all situated, and you know,
Speaker 7: you get into training camp and he gets really really
Speaker 7: into shape and things of that nature. Man, I think
Speaker 7: if you haven't really seen all you can do, which
Speaker 7: is crazy to think because he's only I think one
Speaker 7: of four one or five players and so has to
Speaker 7: do a triple ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's wild and so fun to watch.
Speaker 1: I got to ask one of your former one of
Speaker 1: your former teams, looks like they've got a shot to
Speaker 1: win this thing. And obviously you spend the first part
Speaker 1: of your career with the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 2: As a results of the time you spent there.
Speaker 1: Is it more like you want to see them win
Speaker 1: it or is it more like, man, that would be
Speaker 1: tough because that's my former team.
Speaker 7: I think you definitely want to see him win it.
Speaker 7: I think, you know, that's a really good team. We
Speaker 7: have really good teams when we were there. We just
Speaker 7: fell short with suffs, but you know, over time, you
Speaker 7: know they've gotten better and things of that nature, and
Speaker 7: you know, definitely would love to see those guys win
Speaker 7: because you know, obviously I played with a lot of
Speaker 7: those guys that's still on that team and have good
Speaker 7: relationship with those guys, and you know, they work really
Speaker 7: hard to be in this position, so it's gonna be
Speaker 7: nice to see them win. I think I probably know
Speaker 7: a guy on each team that's in the playoffs certainly
Speaker 7: right now. So you know, like I said, really just
Speaker 7: looking forward to really good ball. You know, those game
Speaker 7: winning field goals and game winning drives and kind of
Speaker 7: keeps feeling the edge or your seats. Allows me to
Speaker 7: be a fan and some guys always happened to be
Speaker 7: in those moments when you go through a eighteen week season.
Speaker 1: Now for sure, all right, let's do a little utes,
Speaker 1: Zach before I say you lose today, And let me
Speaker 1: start with your reaction to coach hit coming back. You're
Speaker 1: twenty one, nobody really knew what exactly was going to happen.
Speaker 1: And then after a really rough year, one of the
Speaker 1: worst years we've had here in a long time, as
Speaker 1: you know, Kyle took some time and decided that he's
Speaker 1: back on the sideline. What's what's your reaction to your
Speaker 1: former head coach is going to give it another go.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that was the you know, the really
Speaker 7: really good smart move. Really honestly feel like that was
Speaker 7: the only move that made sense with him to come back.
Speaker 7: Couldn't see him leaving out right on a year like that,
Speaker 7: being in the first year in the new division, a
Speaker 7: new conference, and things like that. So I think the
Speaker 7: best thing was for him to come back and you know,
Speaker 7: put this team in a situation where they can win.
Speaker 7: You know, one, let's you know, stay healthy. That's the
Speaker 7: biggest thing. A lot of injuries really derailed this team
Speaker 7: from being able to be competitive like many people thought
Speaker 7: they would. So just the fact that guys can stay
Speaker 7: healthy and now they kind of know the layout and
Speaker 7: what they're going up against all the way the way,
Speaker 7: they can't go out now and recruit and things of
Speaker 7: that nature to build this up. And I think mainly
Speaker 7: he really wants to leave this thing, you know, well
Speaker 7: oiled up for coach Galley when it's his turn too,
Speaker 7: you know, take over range. So looking forward to that,
Speaker 7: looking forward to the season. You know, those guys are
Speaker 7: really good and the coaches are great. They've been for years,
Speaker 7: as long as guys can stay healthy. Man, you really
Speaker 7: can't move about.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to get your take.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've got a lot of former college
Speaker 1: athletes on the show. We have a lot of former
Speaker 1: college football players, a lot of college basketball players. And
Speaker 1: always kind of feel bad asking this question because if
Speaker 1: I was you, Zach, and you know, knowing that you
Speaker 1: were a charismatic personality, you were really good with the media,
Speaker 1: and the public really loved you, and you were an
Speaker 1: awesome player, I would look at the fact that college
Speaker 1: running backs who are getting five hundred, six hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year as something that kind of stings a
Speaker 1: little bit. Now, I know that you can't live in
Speaker 1: that space because obviously you move on. You're one of
Speaker 1: the guys that was good enough to cut a paycheck
Speaker 1: and several paychecks.
Speaker 2: Playing for pro football.
Speaker 1: But now that you've been away from the college game
Speaker 1: and you've been more an observer of players being able
Speaker 1: to transfer all the time and actually get a little
Speaker 1: cash for their skill set, how do you how would
Speaker 1: you articulate your opinion on where we're at with the
Speaker 1: current state of college football?
Speaker 2: Are you concerned about its future?
Speaker 10: Uh?
Speaker 7: To some degree, I think you have to be concerned with,
Speaker 7: you know, the future of you know, how competitive this
Speaker 7: thing can be. And obviously, you know college football being
Speaker 7: what it is and what has always been, you know,
Speaker 7: the money that pours into the universities all across. I
Speaker 7: think it's going to be very challenging and it's going
Speaker 7: to rule a lot a lot of different teams and
Speaker 7: a lot of different schools on you know, who can
Speaker 7: compete and you know, who has the biggest pay you know,
Speaker 7: highest payrolls and things of that nature. And that's what
Speaker 7: guys are really kind of going to go to.
Speaker 11: And a lot of these blue blue college schools, you know,
Speaker 11: schools that you know, honestly probably put out better you know,
Speaker 11: talent in the NFL that kind of lasts longer than
Speaker 11: some of these you know, bigger name schools that kind
Speaker 11: of was going to wash them out a little bit
Speaker 11: to some degree in what they're able to and how
Speaker 11: they're able to compete.
Speaker 7: And I think that's that's that part of it. From
Speaker 7: the competitive standpoint, it's going to suck. I wish, you know, uh,
Speaker 7: that they would have had it some type of understanding
Speaker 7: of what they wanted to do in the sense of
Speaker 7: NT double and how these payrolls are going to go
Speaker 7: out and how these things are going to look. And
Speaker 7: you know, right now it's sounded like just the wild
Speaker 7: wild West. Things are just happening, and things are just
Speaker 7: doing and guys just you know, jumping from school to
Speaker 7: school left and right. And obviously as an ex college player,
Speaker 7: you know you want to see guys, you know, get
Speaker 7: what they deserve from, you know, reaping the benefits of
Speaker 7: their name and the work they do on the field
Speaker 7: weekend and week out. But then also you want to
Speaker 7: see some type of loyalty from the standpoint of you know,
Speaker 7: it being just a more so of a level play
Speaker 7: in field when you go into financials. So I think,
Speaker 7: you know, if they would have had a better understanding
Speaker 7: what they want to do with how they were going
Speaker 7: to do it, versus just kind of opening up the floodgate.
Speaker 7: We kind of wouldn't be in this realm of man.
Speaker 7: We just things just kind of happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, unfortunately, what you see more often
Speaker 1: than not, Zach, as you know is the NCAA reacting
Speaker 1: instead of getting in front of it. And now we're
Speaker 1: in the scenario where as you referenced, there's so much chaos.
Speaker 1: Now they're going to try to put some guardrails in
Speaker 1: coming up this summer is one of the twenty million.
Speaker 2: I'll just call it a salary cap.
Speaker 1: I've just Zach, I've started talking college football with the
Speaker 1: same terminology as the pros because that's kind of where
Speaker 1: we're headed. So the school's going to have a salary cap.
Speaker 1: You know, you'll be able to pay players like their employees.
Speaker 1: At some point, You'll still be able to have the name,
Speaker 1: image and likeness benefits outside of the paycheck that you
Speaker 1: actually get. But I wonder from your vantage point, how
Speaker 1: you feel like our market is set up to support
Speaker 1: the University of Utah football program. Because the fact of
Speaker 1: the matter is every college coach, when given the opportunity
Speaker 1: to address the public, there are. They are planing for donations,
Speaker 1: they're pleaning for businesses to step up and help.
Speaker 2: And you played here, you lived here.
Speaker 1: How do you feel like we're equipped here in saul
Speaker 1: A to keep up with the new normal of college football.
Speaker 7: I mean it's gonna be challenging obviously. Like I said,
Speaker 7: you know, one has to be a place where guys
Speaker 7: really want to come and they can see themselves right
Speaker 7: from any from just delving standpoint. And I think, you know,
Speaker 7: to some degree, BYU has done a really good job
Speaker 7: on how they are kind of doing it to some degree,
Speaker 7: and I think that's something that we can take a
Speaker 7: look at and you know, pull from what we like
Speaker 7: out of what they're doing and what they're not doing,
Speaker 7: and kind of go from there. And you know, you
Speaker 7: have a lot of these coaches that just aren't used
Speaker 7: to having to deal with, you know, eighteen ninety old
Speaker 7: kids making all the type of money, because that's the impact,
Speaker 7: you know, what practices look like, what you know, film
Speaker 7: study looks like, and just the amount of time and
Speaker 7: you know, trying to keep these kids out of palm's
Speaker 7: way at all times as well, you know, all that
Speaker 7: stuff that people don't really think about does impact it.
Speaker 7: And a lot of these coaches are old school and
Speaker 7: these are new times and it's gonna take a few years, right,
Speaker 7: it doesn't matter if you have a ton of be
Speaker 7: backing and all that type of stuff. It's gonna all
Speaker 7: be in home and how they are able to you know,
Speaker 7: handle that, and what type of players they recruit, because now,
Speaker 7: more so than anything, maybe you have to think about
Speaker 7: the the character of the guys you're bringing into your
Speaker 7: locker room and the people you're bringing into the community
Speaker 7: and things of that nature. And it's kind of hard
Speaker 7: to really grasp that. And you're bringing talking about eighteen
Speaker 7: ninety year old kids coming in and things of that nature.
Speaker 7: So I think it's gonna be challenging. Again, That's why
Speaker 7: I said, I think coach Wab definitely, you know, wanted
Speaker 7: to make sure he leaves this thing on a really
Speaker 7: good note for coach Scalley to where the transition right
Speaker 7: isn't super hard and they can compete for years to come.
Speaker 7: It's not like you have to start from you know,
Speaker 7: from scratch, and which really just pushed you behind eight ball.
Speaker 7: And you're talking about being in a new conference with
Speaker 7: a lot of different schools that guys do really want
Speaker 7: to go to and they have a lot of funding
Speaker 7: and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: Do you do NFL players and coaches and people on
Speaker 1: your level do they does does it feel like college
Speaker 1: football Zach is moving towards the way of pro football?
Speaker 1: Is that kind of the redeeming thought among NFL players
Speaker 1: and coaches?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean you're talking about guys in college. A
Speaker 7: lot of these guys made more than uh some some
Speaker 7: pro athletes, man, And you know that's something that also
Speaker 7: seeks into locker rooms right now. We're talking about Japanese guys,
Speaker 7: and you know how long they stay in school, and
Speaker 7: it can hurt the NFL game to some degree, just
Speaker 7: because the hunger is in there to you know, most
Speaker 7: guys when they get drafted, if you're not in the
Speaker 7: first round. Technically even if you're in the first round,
Speaker 7: but usually if you're not the first round, you have
Speaker 7: a different type of hunger to get to a second
Speaker 7: contract right to Now, that's where you're talking about, you know,
Speaker 7: the financial freedom to some degree that you're setting up
Speaker 7: for years to come. But you know, like I said,
Speaker 7: you got guys that maybe would be fifth or sixth
Speaker 7: round draft picks. That would want a chance in the NFL,
Speaker 7: would want that dream to play out. They're making five
Speaker 7: six million dollars in college football, so it's almost no
Speaker 7: point right to even go and you know, waste your
Speaker 7: time to some degree in the sport that's super super
Speaker 7: physical when you already kind of have you know what
Speaker 7: you made, you already kind of live in that dream.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, well said all right, Zach.
Speaker 1: Last thing, then I'll set you loose, and I just
Speaker 1: want to continue to apologize to you because I'm also
Speaker 1: going to ask you another question about what could have
Speaker 1: been if timing was different. Because I have said before
Speaker 1: and i'll say it again, the twenty nineteen Utah you
Speaker 1: roster could potentially be the best roster pure talent wise,
Speaker 1: we've ever seen here, and I still believe that to
Speaker 1: be true. I've got the roster in front of me.
Speaker 1: I could go down, but you know the deal, you
Speaker 1: were on that team if you were able to stay
Speaker 1: healthy and the CFP was expanded to twelve in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, I don't know that I really
Speaker 2: have a question.
Speaker 1: All I'm saying is I would have liked to see
Speaker 1: you guys have that shot if that makes sense.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, out of all the
Speaker 7: things we were able to accomplish and you know, push
Speaker 7: the team for you know, that twenty sixteen class, that's
Speaker 7: pretty much the twenty nineteen team talking about the way
Speaker 7: we were able to come in and push the team
Speaker 7: for if you know, I think the biggest thing now
Speaker 7: al is suck is you know, losing that game to
Speaker 7: Orgon and then you know, thinking about maybe if we
Speaker 7: get in and you know, being in the four team
Speaker 7: race there, it would have been nice if we had
Speaker 7: a twelve team system and you kind of just see
Speaker 7: what the chief tis me falls were talking about team
Speaker 7: I think we had one maybe eight or nine games
Speaker 7: in a row at that time, and you're talking about
Speaker 7: a lot of scheme and a lot of confidence and
Speaker 7: things of that nature. But like it sucks, you know
Speaker 7: when you kind of think about it, but you know,
Speaker 7: it is what it is, and hopefully we can get
Speaker 7: one of these these newer teams now that the use
Speaker 7: are going to have and these guys can you know,
Speaker 7: go out there and you know, put their name into
Speaker 7: that into that hat and have a chance to go
Speaker 7: out there and play for a national championship.
Speaker 1: Well said man, hey, I appreciate the time. Okay, keep
Speaker 1: up that rehab, get healthy. We want to see you
Speaker 1: back on the field next year. Okay, thanks Zach, Yeah, sir,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it all right. One of the best to
Speaker 1: ever do it at the University of Utah, Zach Moss
Speaker 1: now with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 3: Porter.
Speaker 1: We've talked about that twenty nineteen team before, like and
Speaker 1: every time, you know, we have Zach on or brit
Speaker 1: Or who whoever. I pull up that roster and it's like, stupid,
Speaker 1: how much talent was on that team, and unfortunately there
Speaker 1: were some injuries. I'll never forget that game at SC
Speaker 1: they lost, you know, twenty three thirty and then stumbled
Speaker 1: down the stretch. They played Texas in the Alamo Alamo Dome.
Speaker 1: Of course, they had the opportunity in the Packtweld Championship
Speaker 1: against Oregon. Some health issues, but simply from a talent standpoint,
Speaker 1: you can make the argument it's the best roster that
Speaker 1: Utah has ever had.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding, well, I do make that argument now.
Speaker 4: Obviously, other teams finished stronger, they had better finished this
Speaker 4: to the year. Obviously, Stevenson's twenty eighteen will have an
Speaker 4: argument as slide joins us next. But when it just
Speaker 4: comes to sheer talent number one, the game has changed, right.
Speaker 4: The pool of players is better in twenty twenty, twenty
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen, as you're talking about, than it was in
Speaker 4: two thousand and one than it was in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 4: That's just the reality of the sport. But you look
Speaker 4: at that team and yes, Tyler Huntley, Zack Moss, Jackson Barton,
Speaker 4: all these offensive players that are still playing in the NFL.
Speaker 4: But then you go to the defensive side of the football.
Speaker 4: How many of those players made it to the league
Speaker 4: at least for a cup of coffee. I'll if you
Speaker 4: guessed all of them eleven players from the two twenty
Speaker 4: nineteen Utah defense, not all of them starters, not all
Speaker 4: of them upperclassmen that year, but every single one of
Speaker 4: them at some point had a cup of coffee in
Speaker 4: the NFL a practice squad. They got paid an NFL paycheck.
Speaker 4: That's something that I don't know has really ever happened
Speaker 4: anywhere else. I can guarantee you it's never happened at
Speaker 4: a Utah or another local school. And yeah, they didn't
Speaker 4: finish the way that folks would have liked them to.
Speaker 4: But you've got a glimpse I think in October November
Speaker 4: of how good that team could have been. I think
Speaker 4: they won like five or six straight. All of them
Speaker 4: were forty plus points and holding their team to minimal
Speaker 4: Sometimes you don't, you don't fulfill exactly your entire potential.
Speaker 1: They won eight straight games and the only team to
Speaker 1: throw more than thirteen was Washington up at Husky Stadium.
Speaker 1: That was a great game. Utah won that game thirty
Speaker 1: three to twenty eight. But yeah, to Porter's point one,
Speaker 1: eight games in a row. They started eleven and one
Speaker 1: and then a couple of losses down the stretch, But
Speaker 1: that was a talented, talented group.
Speaker 2: Appreciate Zach time.
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Speaker 1: All right, at three o'clock hour of the program gets
Speaker 1: rolling right now, can bring in Bobby Marks in a
Speaker 1: bit to do some NBA.
Speaker 2: Little Little RSL later on with Brian Dunseeth.
Speaker 1: Special thank you to Zach Moss who rolled through to
Speaker 1: start the program today. But let's continue the football conversation
Speaker 1: with one of our favorite Stevenson Sylvester back on the
Speaker 1: driving a Monday sly, Happy money man, how are we doing?
Speaker 2: Hello Sli Oops, sorry I was a mute there.
Speaker 3: Happy Monday brother, how you doing?
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us?
Speaker 1: You know I've done that so many times, are you
Speaker 1: on zoom or Google Li?
Speaker 2: Like, how are you joining it us today?
Speaker 3: Google meet man Meat?
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 10: Porter got me introduced to that man. And I much
Speaker 10: preferred doing my interviews that way. I have zero connection
Speaker 10: and issues and it just feels better.
Speaker 1: Love it and you sound great, and I've done the
Speaker 1: mute things several times, and sly, I've got to. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna apologize right out of the gates before I ask
Speaker 1: a question, because I don't mean disrespect. Porter and I
Speaker 1: were debating this last segment as our guy Zach Moss
Speaker 1: hopped on the team or e cheeuse me hopped on
Speaker 1: the show and for the team. He's part of our team,
Speaker 1: so are you. And here's what I'll say, slide. I
Speaker 1: just want your reaction. You guys will always go down
Speaker 1: the twenty eight team, the one that Sugar Bowl. I
Speaker 1: believe the Sugar Bowl win over Alabama is the best
Speaker 1: win in the history of Utah football, all due respect.
Speaker 2: To conference championships and such.
Speaker 1: And you guys will go down as one of, if
Speaker 1: not the greatest Utah football team of all time. If
Speaker 1: I said to you that twenty nineteen is the most
Speaker 1: talented team on paper that Utah football potentially has ever had.
Speaker 2: What would you say to me.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't.
Speaker 10: I mean, I can't argue that that's all subjective, right,
Speaker 10: And honestly I'm good with that. Right on paper is
Speaker 10: is not as good as results. And so we've seen that, right,
Speaker 10: Like we came into last season like this is the best.
Speaker 3: Team Utah has ever had on paper, Look what happened.
Speaker 10: Right, So, as far as a comparative, like I don't
Speaker 10: mind that, you know, twenty eighteen, you know, doing my
Speaker 10: research with you know, my Utah man brand and talking
Speaker 10: to all the old players from the past, it's about
Speaker 10: a whole bunch of undervalued guys overperforming right guys, proving
Speaker 10: people wrong, you know, day in and day out from
Speaker 10: training camp throughout the season, and even when everything is
Speaker 10: pointed to you supposed to be winning, everybody would still
Speaker 10: denounce you or or think of less of you, and
Speaker 10: you still prove them wrong. And that was the mentality
Speaker 10: of those guys. So honestly, I'm more excited and privileged
Speaker 10: and honor to be a part of that style of
Speaker 10: team because that's what sports is all about.
Speaker 3: Then somebody who's better on paper.
Speaker 1: For sure, well, said, no argument here, but I will.
Speaker 1: I'm going to follow up with a question and if
Speaker 1: you can solve it, you might get a phone call
Speaker 1: to go coach the Cowboys, because it's what everybody wants
Speaker 1: to know. Slid, because what are the elements like twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to pick on them, but any team
Speaker 1: that's great on paper and then there's a team like you,
Speaker 1: guys who want every game in front of you, which
Speaker 1: is all that matters. What are the most important dynamics
Speaker 1: to make sure that a team that on paper has
Speaker 1: every single thing that you could want. Talent, experience, offense, defense,
Speaker 1: special teams, and the road between day one of springball
Speaker 1: and the final day of the season that for you
Speaker 1: culminated in a Sugar Bowl went over Alabama.
Speaker 2: How do you turn talent into results? What are some
Speaker 2: of the key dynamics?
Speaker 3: It's leaders, end of the day. It's the type of
Speaker 3: leaders that you have.
Speaker 10: And I can humbly say that from from the different
Speaker 10: teams and the things that I've seen, it's it's the
Speaker 10: leaders on the team and how they lead.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 10: People can consider themselves a leader, but like, are you
Speaker 10: willing to do what you're asking somebody to do right.
Speaker 10: Like a lot of people hate their bosses, right because
Speaker 10: like they're asking me something so simple, like why don't
Speaker 10: they just do it right?
Speaker 3: And so it's it's more of like can you lead
Speaker 3: by example?
Speaker 10: Can you are would your teammate or the person next
Speaker 10: to you believe that what you're asking them, what you're
Speaker 10: asking of them, that you're willing to do right? And
Speaker 10: and it's so for me, it's the leaders on the team.
Speaker 10: When I got on the Pittsburgh my first year, we
Speaker 10: went to the Super Bowl, right, and the leaders on that.
Speaker 3: Team was just second to none.
Speaker 10: Right, Pittsburgh started going downhill when those guys left Pittsburgh,
Speaker 10: right like the hines Wards, the Ben Roethlisberger's, the Willie Colowns,
Speaker 10: the Max Starks, the Troy Polamalo's, Ryan Clark's, and I
Speaker 10: take to Brett keesl to Casey Hampton and James Fair,
Speaker 10: James Harrison, like those leaders right there.
Speaker 3: They set the stage for out everything is supposed to go.
Speaker 10: Those leaders, the coaches didn't need to talk to They
Speaker 10: knew what to get done. Whether you had the tellent
Speaker 10: or not, you still have to go out there and
Speaker 10: earn it and execute it. And there's no prime example
Speaker 10: today more than the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 3: The Detroit Lions.
Speaker 10: Looked great on paper, and they're going out there and
Speaker 10: executing every single week and earning their recognition.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 10: So I just think that it's all about the leaders
Speaker 10: on the team. It was for us in eight of
Speaker 10: going out there and putting in the work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know that's probably a tried and true principal,
Speaker 1: you know, both in sports and in life, right, great
Speaker 1: leaders who understand what to do, and then it probably
Speaker 1: takes a lot of humble followers, correct. I mean, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what your talent level is, like if you've
Speaker 1: never done something before, it's probably an important element of
Speaker 1: it of a team to have people that are willing
Speaker 1: to listen to the older classmen and understand what it
Speaker 1: is to be part of Utah football culture. Is that
Speaker 1: kind of in line with what you're thinking.
Speaker 10: That's one hundred percent, And that's kind of where I
Speaker 10: want to get back to. Like I always look at
Speaker 10: like what happened this past year because I'm like, we
Speaker 10: had the talent we talked about, or I came into
Speaker 10: the season talking about the depth it would benefit us
Speaker 10: for when we do have injuries, people can step in
Speaker 10: and we shouldn't miss a beat.
Speaker 3: And as soon as cam Risen got hurt, we went
Speaker 3: to straight crap. So at that.
Speaker 10: Point, what where were our leaders and what were our
Speaker 10: leaders doing, you know, to inevitably make the whole team
Speaker 10: step up and make things happen right, And so.
Speaker 3: It's leaders for me.
Speaker 10: I looked at it, you know, over and over again,
Speaker 10: and just like and how they do it right? You know,
Speaker 10: you got leaders of all kinds of different stuff. People
Speaker 10: consider themselves leaders, but I think there's a certain type
Speaker 10: of leader that it is. You know, Coach Whittingham says
Speaker 10: it all time, He's an alpha dog, alpha of alpha, right,
Speaker 10: But like, what type of leader are you? And can
Speaker 10: you do the be the right leader that will bring
Speaker 10: a locker room together? And I just don't feel like
Speaker 10: we had that last year.
Speaker 2: So this is interesting.
Speaker 1: I didn't plan on doing this today, but it's one
Speaker 1: of the things I liked about interviewing you. You know,
Speaker 1: we can go in a bunch of different directions. And
Speaker 1: now I'm thinking about what the BYU players said after
Speaker 1: the Alamo Bowl postgame press conference. Connor pay a lot
Speaker 1: of the seniors and upper classmen over there, and every
Speaker 1: single one of them talked about the leadership in the
Speaker 1: locker room from the players, and they weren't diminishing the
Speaker 1: leadership of the coaches. But what is the difference, slide,
Speaker 1: what's the difference between having great leadership and your coaching
Speaker 1: staff and then having great leadership on the team with players,
Speaker 1: Because I do think it does hit different a little
Speaker 1: bit when you hear it from your peer.
Speaker 3: It's uh for me.
Speaker 10: I interviewed Connor after the Alamo Bowl too, and these
Speaker 10: are a lot of questions that you know, I ask
Speaker 10: him because you know, I have my own opinion, but
Speaker 10: I want to see the validity of it, right. I
Speaker 10: want to make sure that my theory or whatever I
Speaker 10: thought when I was a player, or whatever I think today,
Speaker 10: you know, holds true and it's same.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but for me, with all of that, it's ownership, right.
Speaker 10: You got to you gotta be willing to own what
Speaker 10: you're a part of. So it doesn't matter how much
Speaker 10: money you make, how long you've been there, what type
Speaker 10: of ownership do you have on the product that you're
Speaker 10: a part of, Right, And so the coaches can't make
Speaker 10: you understand ownership.
Speaker 3: You have to understand it.
Speaker 10: It has to go to people that are on your level,
Speaker 10: that are putting in the work that you're into. And
Speaker 10: it's it's ownership, right, And then like do you feel uh?
Speaker 10: And if you have ownership of your product, you want
Speaker 10: the best out of your product, right. And and so
Speaker 10: for me, if I put anything out there, anything that
Speaker 10: has my name attached to it, right, everybody wants to
Speaker 10: talk about nil, right, anything that has my name attached
Speaker 10: to it, I want to make sure it represents me
Speaker 10: in the best life.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 10: If my name is attached to the University of Utah,
Speaker 10: that's why I'm so prideful it and why I love
Speaker 10: the university so much. If my name is attached to that,
Speaker 10: I wanted to be held in the highest standard.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 10: And that's what we had in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 10: That's what I had on my team in Pittsburgh. And
Speaker 10: that's what I think a lot of championship teams have,
Speaker 10: is they have ownership between each and every player, right,
Speaker 10: everybody players like talk about I have to own my
Speaker 10: twelve square feet right, the square feet around me, I
Speaker 10: have to own that, and I have to know that
Speaker 10: the person next to me believes that I'm going to
Speaker 10: do that to the best of my abilities, and not
Speaker 10: only to the best of my abilities that I can
Speaker 10: do it.
Speaker 3: He believes that I can do it.
Speaker 10: So for me and the leaders, and what I took
Speaker 10: from Connor pay was ownership, ownership of this team, ownership
Speaker 10: of the product that we're putting out there each and
Speaker 10: every week, and that people are watching and and and
Speaker 10: just loving what you do.
Speaker 2: Follow up, does a quarterback have to be a leader?
Speaker 1: I mean, you obviously play with Brian who, like you know,
Speaker 1: you had a quarterback who was a leader. And Coach
Speaker 1: Wit talked a lot about Cameron Kevin Rising how he
Speaker 1: was and I hate to say was it just doesn't
Speaker 1: sound like he's coming back. And I could keep going
Speaker 1: down the list. But you reference the Lions and look,
Speaker 1: Jared Goss a really good player. We saw him, you know,
Speaker 1: we were in the Pac twelve foot print. We saw
Speaker 1: him play Utah. I don't know if he strikes me
Speaker 1: as like one of their main leaders.
Speaker 2: Maybe he is. I'm not in the locker room.
Speaker 1: But do you have to have a quarterback who's also
Speaker 1: one of your preeminent leaders?
Speaker 3: Well, I think.
Speaker 10: It makes the most sense, but I don't think that
Speaker 10: at the end of the day that makes the team.
Speaker 10: I think it's the easier way when you have that
Speaker 10: guy who has the ball in his head. It's like
Speaker 10: the point guard, right, You want your point guard to
Speaker 10: be your leader, right, Like what were the teams of
Speaker 10: the Michael Jordan's team without like a Ron Harper or
Speaker 10: Steve Price or Steve Kerr, right, or you know Gary Payton,
Speaker 10: he was the leader of his team, right, the Chauncey Billups, right,
Speaker 10: Like they were the leaders of the team that you
Speaker 10: look up to. So you want to have that person
Speaker 10: because they have the ball in their hands most often,
Speaker 10: to be the leader that just makes everything and everybody
Speaker 10: because they want the ball, they want to be effective.
Speaker 10: They'll look at that person more often because that person's
Speaker 10: name will more often be said. Like if you listen
Speaker 10: to a play by play, guy, they're gonna say a
Speaker 10: person's name more often, right, Like if you're just listening
Speaker 10: on the radio and somebody says, Chauncey Billups has the ball,
Speaker 10: passes it to Riy Hamilton, pass it back to Chauncey Billups,
Speaker 10: passes it to Rashid Wallace, hits the couldn't Tayshawn Prince Oh,
Speaker 10: that's a goal who's name that they say more often
Speaker 10: in that than anything. It's the point guard. Same thing
Speaker 10: with the quarterback. Quarterback takes the snap from center, they're
Speaker 10: gonna see the name of this guy who's delivering the
Speaker 10: ball to handing the ball off and orchestrating the play
Speaker 10: more often than so. I think it's easier when it's
Speaker 10: the quarterback for it to be your team to like,
Speaker 10: you can't have a team without your quarterback being the leader.
Speaker 10: I don't agree with that because I've been a part
Speaker 10: of teams where quarterbacks are not the vocal leader, but
Speaker 10: you know, they go out there and execute.
Speaker 3: They lead by example, so they're a type of leader.
Speaker 3: To be the head honcho leader, that's the raw raw guy.
Speaker 10: I don't think it's completely necessary, but again, you just
Speaker 10: got to have make sure that that person is bought
Speaker 10: in and has ownership of his.
Speaker 3: Twelve square space and it makes it happen.
Speaker 10: But at the end of the day, the quarterback being
Speaker 10: the leader doesn't have to be it for you to
Speaker 10: have a team. But I do think it's the easiest
Speaker 10: to get your entire team to buy in because everybody
Speaker 10: knows football is the most people right you have to
Speaker 10: have the most people on the same page than any
Speaker 10: other sport that's out there, and if your quarterback is
Speaker 10: at the helm of it, it just makes it easier
Speaker 10: to do that.
Speaker 1: One more question about this before we get accused of
Speaker 1: ted talk.
Speaker 2: Instead of talking football.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, because you know, college or pro, who's
Speaker 1: the who's the best leader you ever played with in
Speaker 1: your career?
Speaker 10: Oh, my gosh, the best leader as a player. There's
Speaker 10: been a few, right like, Uh, for me, I love
Speaker 10: James Ferrier. James Ferrier when I got to the NFL,
Speaker 10: he was just a guy that everybody looked up to.
Speaker 10: And as far as if we go, we go the
Speaker 10: way James Ferry goes, that's Troy Polamalud, that's Ryan Clark,
Speaker 10: that's Ike Taylor, that's Brett Keisol. They looked at James
Speaker 10: Ferry even offensively. You know, Willie Cologne, you know uh,
Speaker 10: Marquise Pouncy mind in Hall, even Roethlisberger.
Speaker 3: They looked at James Ferry.
Speaker 10: He was one of the best, uh examples of the
Speaker 10: head haunchho and it became.
Speaker 12: So natural to him because he was so cool, like
Speaker 12: you wouldn't even I don't know you know, just as
Speaker 12: a guy that you looked up to, respected, know's going
Speaker 12: to put in the work and everybody believed in.
Speaker 3: I thought James Ferrier was one of the best leaders
Speaker 3: I was ever around.
Speaker 2: Interesting stuff. Interesting stuff.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move off of it and actually talk
Speaker 1: some football now, and let's do a little college. We'll
Speaker 1: end with pro and I'll set you loose on a Monday.
Speaker 1: Do you like this new format now that we've seen
Speaker 1: it unfold? Because it's one thing to say, Hey, I
Speaker 1: like the idea of twelve teams or the premise is sound,
Speaker 1: but you have to see what it's like. You have
Speaker 1: to witness how it unfolds before you can actually have
Speaker 1: a fully baked opinion. So, now that we have a final,
Speaker 1: Ohio State Notre Dame, what do you make of our
Speaker 1: first experience as college football fans witnessing this twelve team
Speaker 1: c CFP man.
Speaker 10: I loved it one. It automatically got me thinking of
Speaker 10: the future. What are the next few years going to
Speaker 10: be like? Now that the players know what.
Speaker 3: It's going to be like and the possibilities of it.
Speaker 10: Right now that each team understands like, Okay, Boise State
Speaker 10: got in it and s and U got in it.
Speaker 3: We could be one of the Indiana got it.
Speaker 10: We could be one of those teams, and we have
Speaker 10: a possibility.
Speaker 3: I'm Indiana.
Speaker 10: If I beat Notre Dame, I can go play Georgia
Speaker 10: and I could beat Georgia.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 10: I scored more points on Notre Dame than Georgia scored
Speaker 10: on Notre Dame. Right, I can do that, and then
Speaker 10: I can beat the next team, and I like it.
Speaker 10: It's just more possible when you've seen it done and
Speaker 10: the possibilities of you making it happen. Right, Like even
Speaker 10: our twenty eighteen about us breaking into the BCS and
Speaker 10: beating teams like that, we've seen it done, right.
Speaker 3: We've seen the O four.
Speaker 10: Team, you know, break the BCS, or even before that
Speaker 10: in two thousand and three when they were just beating
Speaker 10: teams like Texas A and M in North Carolina and
Speaker 10: then then just everybody they lined up against, they just
Speaker 10: they they demolished them, right, And even the year before
Speaker 10: seven when UCLA was ranked number eleven in the country
Speaker 10: and they came in the right Eycle Stadium and we
Speaker 10: just beat the brakes off of them.
Speaker 3: So we knew it was possible. By the examples of.
Speaker 10: The years before us, right, And now that this has
Speaker 10: been done, I just think that other schools are looking
Speaker 10: at that like like we always had an epifty, Like, oh,
Speaker 10: maybe we could do it. But you see in Arizona
Speaker 10: State take Texas to the brink. Arizona State possibly should
Speaker 10: have won in many examples, right, take that field goal
Speaker 10: that bounced on the ground but bounced through the uprights
Speaker 10: technically they want, right, Imagine them playing against Ohio State,
Speaker 10: right and not losing it in the last two minutes
Speaker 10: of the game, right, and not throwing a freaking pitch
Speaker 10: on goal to go situations Oh so stupid. But I
Speaker 10: think the possibility that other schools are now looking at
Speaker 10: in this twelveteen format is just great. And I just
Speaker 10: think that the years to come are just going to
Speaker 10: be that much more interesting, that much more intriguing. I
Speaker 10: think it brings that much more fire to regular season
Speaker 10: games to get to the opportunity to be a part
Speaker 10: of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So I asked you prior to the semi final kind
Speaker 1: of what your got told you about these games? And
Speaker 1: I remember, I know you did a good job of
Speaker 1: breaking down why ultimately every game is kind of its
Speaker 1: own thing, and it's all about matchups. And as a
Speaker 1: guy that played for Utah to beat Alabama and the
Speaker 1: Sugar Bowl in two thousand and eight when not a
Speaker 1: lot of people thought you would, you're well equipped to
Speaker 1: talk about how any team can beat any other team
Speaker 1: on any given day. But it feels like nobody believes that.
Speaker 1: Marcus Freeman, by the way, what an impressive dude, age.
Speaker 1: How about your first coaching job in life is just
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. You know, at the age of thirty five
Speaker 1: and now at the age of thirty ninety, has a
Speaker 1: chance to win a national championship.
Speaker 3: Against his team that his alma mater.
Speaker 2: Exactly, it's his alma mater.
Speaker 3: That's even more.
Speaker 1: Insane awesome storylines. But Vegas isn't giving Notre Dame much
Speaker 1: of a chance. The general public, according to the money,
Speaker 1: giving them almost zero chance at all. Ohio State's an
Speaker 1: eight point favor. Do you think the Irish have a
Speaker 1: fighting chance? No pun intended.
Speaker 3: Hey, anytime you lace them up, you have a fighting chance.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 10: I'm always for a game not being one before it's
Speaker 10: played right, And I think that these odds and lines
Speaker 10: from Vegas, they're just more motivation and bullet to board
Speaker 10: material than anything, and so it's all about how you
Speaker 10: line up, right. I didn't think Notre Dame would do
Speaker 10: what they did against Georgia, but let alone Georgia have
Speaker 10: as bad a receivers as they did. Like, I didn't
Speaker 10: think they could drop the ball that many times. I thought,
Speaker 10: you know, the matchup against Penn State was very equal,
Speaker 10: and as it was, it was twenty four to twenty
Speaker 10: four to the last second, right, And so you know,
Speaker 10: I think this matchup going into Ohio State, I do
Speaker 10: think Ohio State has the has the edge.
Speaker 3: But you've seen in this Texas game, it's never over.
Speaker 10: Like Ohio State started on fire and then they got
Speaker 10: one penalty and they went right back in the tank
Speaker 10: and Texas kind of came back in the game. But
Speaker 10: it was fourteen twenty one and Texas has one yard
Speaker 10: to game to make it twenty one twenty one, and
Speaker 10: they don't make it happen.
Speaker 3: Like that game was.
Speaker 10: Close until the end. You know, you can look at
Speaker 10: twenty eight to fourteen and like, oh they had it handily. No,
Speaker 10: Ohio State did not have that handily. And that's what
Speaker 10: I was talking about.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 10: The other week is that like Texas can make it happen, right,
Speaker 10: and so I think that's gonna be the same situation
Speaker 10: in this National Championship game.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be exciting. I think it's gonna be a
Speaker 3: great matchup.
Speaker 10: And if you can put a game plan together, anything
Speaker 10: is possible.
Speaker 3: Rights. It's not like the NBA Finals where you have
Speaker 3: to score four games. You have to win four games
Speaker 3: against a single opponent to actually win it. This is
Speaker 3: sudden death.
Speaker 10: Man, you got one opportunity to make this happen. I
Speaker 10: love this and I think it's gonna be a great matchup.
Speaker 10: I do give the edge to Ohio State when you
Speaker 10: look at the offense, the defense, I give it to them.
Speaker 10: I don't think it's gonna be an eight point game.
Speaker 10: I think it'll be a little closer. But these National
Speaker 10: Championship games are are are always interesting. And here's one
Speaker 10: thing that if if Notre Dame pulls this out is
Speaker 10: because I believe they have more heart than anybody in
Speaker 10: this bracket. The way that they play, they want it
Speaker 10: more and I and that's all about the leader, uh
Speaker 10: and Marcus Freeman to instill that in him, right, like
Speaker 10: the coach for the Lions Uh, he's he's instilling the
Speaker 10: ability to want it more in his players than the opponent.
Speaker 10: That that Vikings game at the end of the season
Speaker 10: was awesome, and I think that's exactly what Marcus Freeman
Speaker 10: is doing in his Notre Dame Fightrish Fighting Irish, and
Speaker 10: so I just think it's gonna be a great game
Speaker 10: because of that.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll do a little NFL slide on set
Speaker 2: you loose.
Speaker 1: And one of the coolest things, in my opinion about
Speaker 1: your football career is you played college football for Kyle
Speaker 1: Winningham and pro football for Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 2: Like that's a.
Speaker 1: Really really cool thing, man. That makes you That put
Speaker 1: you in a very small group. You know the deal though,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been eight years since the Steelers playoff wins,
Speaker 1: the longest playoff droughts in seventy two. Mike's streak of
Speaker 1: eighteen consecutive non losing seasons is insane. But you know
Speaker 1: the standard in Pittsburgh, and look, I'm a fan. I
Speaker 1: don't think they should do anything. I don't think they will,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of noise around your former head coach.
Speaker 1: I just want to get your thoughts on it.
Speaker 10: I'm just I just I don't think it's coming from
Speaker 10: Steeler fans. I think it's coming more from just you know,
Speaker 10: outside opinion is. But like, who else are you gonna get? Right,
Speaker 10: Who's gonna replace Mike Tomlin?
Speaker 3: Steelers have had three coaches in the last forty five years.
Speaker 10: Here's my thing, everybody who always has an opinion of something,
Speaker 10: is there someone else you have in mind that would
Speaker 10: do a better job, because it's not right the Steeler
Speaker 10: mentality and how they do it, from the roster that
Speaker 10: they assemble, from the ownership that they have. You have
Speaker 10: to have a certain per personality fit that and do
Speaker 10: that right. And I do think I think the Steelers
Speaker 10: have slipped up and just been able. But this is football, man,
Speaker 10: and that's why I'm saying, like, it's not like the
Speaker 10: NBA playoffs where you get four opportunities against a single opponent.
Speaker 10: It's sudden death and if you don't make it happen,
Speaker 10: it's good. But you look at the talent in the
Speaker 10: West the last fifteen twenty years. Look at the last
Speaker 10: twenty five years, right, it was the Patriots, Tom Brady, right,
Speaker 10: you got the all kinds of teams in the AFC
Speaker 10: have been making noise from Carson Palmer and in the
Speaker 10: same division we've been Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Raates
Speaker 10: have been in the same division for the last twenty
Speaker 10: five years.
Speaker 3: Like, it is not easy to win.
Speaker 10: In the AFC, right, And I want to do more
Speaker 10: research to see how many Super Bowls the AFC in
Speaker 10: the last twenty five years have won over the NFC.
Speaker 3: But like, it's not easy to win in the AFC.
Speaker 3: It's a sudden depth deal. I'm telling you, you'd be
Speaker 3: a lot more hurt if.
Speaker 10: You were a Steelers fan and having a losing record
Speaker 10: every year, then going to the playoffs and losing, Right, Like,
Speaker 10: what if you were the Browns, What if you were
Speaker 10: the Jets, what if you were you know, some of
Speaker 10: these other lowly teams that may have one good year
Speaker 10: in the last.
Speaker 3: Ten to fifteen years.
Speaker 10: There's literally a possibility every single year with the Steelers,
Speaker 10: And so you got to keep that. I think, you know,
Speaker 10: Mike Tomlin is trying to figure it out and navigate
Speaker 10: this new day and age with what type of personnel
Speaker 10: that we need to have, right, Like, you look at
Speaker 10: that game against Baltimore and you've just seen a lot
Speaker 10: of lackluster effort. How do you motivate guys that you're
Speaker 10: paying so all this money, right, like, you got to
Speaker 10: do that and out how do you motivate guys you
Speaker 10: know that they got to want it themselves, right. And
Speaker 10: then for me, I'm watching that game and I'm just like,
Speaker 10: how the hell do the Pittsburgh Steelers defense look like
Speaker 10: they've never seen or heard or played against Lamar Jackson before?
Speaker 3: That first drive was abysmal And I'm just like, where's
Speaker 3: your technique? What were you practicing all week?
Speaker 10: It was just it was terrible, And I'm just like,
Speaker 10: you know it was going to be an uphill battle
Speaker 10: because one, Baltimore's surging at the end of the season,
Speaker 10: which is what you want to do. They got a
Speaker 10: talented roster, but you know that going in, you know
Speaker 10: that you know they're beatable, that's for sure, But you.
Speaker 3: Know it's it's just I don't know. I just felt like,
Speaker 3: you know, there.
Speaker 10: Was a certain point of the game where the players
Speaker 10: felt like, oh man, we can't win this, and they
Speaker 10: just stopped fighting and so it just sucked. But I've
Speaker 10: been down twenty one points to an opponent and we've
Speaker 10: came back and won, and that's what the Steelers were,
Speaker 10: and they just they just didn't have that mentality of
Speaker 10: that we could overcome and that was just unfortunate.
Speaker 2: Well, and we could reduce it pretty simply.
Speaker 1: Where you know, Mike and the Steelers had such a
Speaker 1: great run when they had a much better option on
Speaker 1: a quarterback. And I think Russ did a pretty admirable
Speaker 1: job after he was left for dead in Denver.
Speaker 2: But did they run it back with Russell Wilson next year?
Speaker 2: What do you think?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 10: No, no, I don't think so. I think you know
Speaker 10: you you played great with Russell Wilson. Hopefully that Justin
Speaker 10: Fields was able to learn a lot of things with
Speaker 10: Russell and and then he can attack this offseason.
Speaker 3: Like that. But I was thinking about it too right
Speaker 3: after the meeting.
Speaker 10: I would have Russell Wilson and and Justin Fields sit down.
Speaker 3: If I'm Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 10: I know this office too because I've said in them
Speaker 10: multiple times, but like I sit them both in my
Speaker 10: office and being like, yo, Russ, you know, we did
Speaker 10: sign to a one year deal, but we're gonna work.
Speaker 10: But Justin is our starter. If you want to go
Speaker 10: test the market, that's great. If you don't find anything
Speaker 10: that you like because you're getting paid thirty forty million
Speaker 10: dollars a year from from Denver not to play for them. Anyway,
Speaker 10: if you want to come back, we would love to
Speaker 10: have you as a backup.
Speaker 3: But this will be Justin Field's offense going forward.
Speaker 10: And that's exactly how I would tell him. I think
Speaker 10: Russell Wilson would be professional and understand that. I think
Speaker 10: he probably understands that already, and and and that's how
Speaker 10: I would go about it. But you give the keys
Speaker 10: to Justin Fields. He's the younger guy. He's got a
Speaker 10: lot of potential. He led this team great. There were
Speaker 10: things that he can learn. He's been able to sit.
Speaker 10: And this is what a lot of these college kids
Speaker 10: don't freaking understand, is like.
Speaker 3: It's okay to sit a here. It's okay to sit
Speaker 3: down and learn. Everybody's like, oh I can play faster here.
Speaker 3: That doesn't mean.
Speaker 10: Good things for your future, right You're wasting years potential
Speaker 10: opportunity there.
Speaker 3: And so like, I think Justin Fields was able to sit.
Speaker 10: And be humble, But I think that Pittsburgh needs to
Speaker 10: vocalize that this is Justin Field's team and instill all
Speaker 10: the confidence that you can in him.
Speaker 1: All right, slide before I set you loose my two
Speaker 1: parter and it could be the same. They're not mutually exclusive.
Speaker 1: But who do you think will win the super Bowl?
Speaker 1: And who do you want to win the Super Bowl?
Speaker 13: Oh?
Speaker 3: Man, it's it's gonna be crazy.
Speaker 10: You know, we haven't seen the guys that had the
Speaker 10: first round by in the playoffs yet. Houston looked absolutely amazing.
Speaker 10: So I can't wait to see that Kansas City Houston matchup.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 10: Uh, the Baltimore Buffalo matchup is gonna be an instant classic.
Speaker 10: My team's been the Commanders all year because my boy
Speaker 10: BJ's over there killing it and and watching Jayden Daniels
Speaker 10: just overcome so much. I just can't wait to see
Speaker 10: what he does against Detroit. Detroit has so many injuries
Speaker 10: on defense that they may be susceptible to getting beat
Speaker 10: by by the Commanders. You have no idea, but I
Speaker 10: just think that one. There's there's just so many teams,
Speaker 10: uh that have the opportunity to make this happen.
Speaker 3: You'd want to get.
Speaker 10: Josh Allen to to finally overcome the hump, right, Get
Speaker 10: over Baltimore, get over Kansas city, get.
Speaker 3: To that Super Bowl and show your stuff.
Speaker 10: I'm hoping I can see a Buffalo Philadelphia super Bowl.
Speaker 3: It's kind of what I think.
Speaker 10: And then I I just I think Philadelphia is too deep,
Speaker 10: and so the Eagles might win the Super Bowl this year.
Speaker 1: All right, Sly, I appreciate the time. Man, always good stuff.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, have a great week.
Speaker 2: And we'll chat soon.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, talk to so Stevens and Sylvester one
Speaker 1: of the best to ever do it at the University
Speaker 1: of Utah with some fiery takes today twenty nineteen Utah
Speaker 1: roster Man. I think it's the most talented team the
Speaker 1: coach what's ever had solve played in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: They beat Bam and the Sugar Bowl. They won all
Speaker 1: of their games, So there's a bit of a mic
Speaker 1: drop there. Yeah, the Tomlin thing is interesting. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna talk to anybody that covers football that
Speaker 1: doesn't think he's a great coach.
Speaker 2: It was Alex Smith himself.
Speaker 1: I was listening to Alex talk about how archaic the
Speaker 1: offense is and it might be time to upgrade. I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, but the results just haven't been there
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. It has been eight years since the
Speaker 1: Steelers won a playoff game. It's the longest playoff drought
Speaker 1: since nineteen seventy two. They have the same amount of
Speaker 1: playoff victories as the Jets over the past eight years,
Speaker 1: which is zero. But Tomlin has eighteenth straight non losing seasons,
Speaker 1: which is wild.
Speaker 2: So we'll see. I don't think they're gonna move on
Speaker 2: from him.
Speaker 1: During their first ten seasons, the Steelers ranked tied for
Speaker 1: fifth with eight postseason victories, and they won Super Bowls
Speaker 1: under Mike and you know, his results are what they are,
Speaker 1: So we'll see if they decide to make a little
Speaker 1: bit of a change. But appreciate slaves time. We'll do
Speaker 1: a little more football later on. Don't forget you can
Speaker 1: hear Monday Night Football on our station tonight after we
Speaker 1: say go tonight, we're gonna do the Craig Smith Coaches
Speaker 1: Show first and then we'll join the Rams and the
Speaker 1: Vikings game in progress.
Speaker 2: That game is being played in Glendale.
Speaker 1: It was moved from Los Angeles as a result of
Speaker 1: the horrible fires. So appreciate slave time. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: a little basketball coming up with Bobby Marks, the ESPN
Speaker 1: front Office, NBA Insider, the latest on a bizarre kind
Speaker 1: of under the radar. We're pretty football centric right now,
Speaker 1: and obviously we'd be more basketball centric if the Jazz
Speaker 1: we're more interesting. But it's football basketball for the most part.
Speaker 1: But the last few weeks, if you have not been
Speaker 1: paying attention, and I don't blame you, but our local
Speaker 1: soccer club finds itself in a precarious spot, a lot
Speaker 1: of head scratching move without a lot of reinforcements on
Speaker 1: the way for now, and they play a game in uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, a few weeks. It's next month, the
Speaker 1: Conky Calf Tournament. I know you guys are dialed into that.
Speaker 1: So we'll bring in Brian Dunseth coming up for the
Speaker 1: latest on RSL. Time for a chance to catch some
Speaker 1: tickets to the red hot Utah Uts men's basketball team.
Speaker 1: That's right, first, big twelve win Saturday night at Okay
Speaker 1: State on fire Text ut right now to three, three, nine,
Speaker 1: eight six to enter for Utah men's basketball tickets. Very
Speaker 1: very happy for Craig and very happy for that team.
Speaker 1: There was no way they were going to go through
Speaker 1: conference play without winning a game. But we talked to
Speaker 1: Sean Moody about this last week, and we were kind
Speaker 1: of debating and discussing when that first Big Twelve win
Speaker 1: would come Utah's way, and it came in dominant fashion,
Speaker 1: and so Okay State. On Saturday the Huntsman Center and
Speaker 1: Utah now hits the road to take on TCU, a
Speaker 1: TCU team that beat bringing me up over the weekend.
Speaker 1: You know, pretty surprised about the start of the season
Speaker 1: to BYU. And I've got to say, I know, the
Speaker 1: Yegor Deming kid is thought to be a top ten
Speaker 1: lottery prospect and he's only a freshman. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to crack on him. But I watched more or less
Speaker 1: than the entire TCU game. I saw a lot of
Speaker 1: the Texas Tech game, the Houston game, Look Houston. Whenever
Speaker 1: I watch Kelvin Sampson's team, I'm like, those are pros.
Speaker 1: Those are like grown men playing against college kids. And
Speaker 1: the Texas Tech game for BYU was more about make
Speaker 1: or miss. But TCU was not thought to be a
Speaker 1: very good team. Like everyone else in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of talent, but the Demon kid
Speaker 1: just does not appear to have a great feel for
Speaker 1: this level of basketball.
Speaker 2: He had four turnovers and a couple of bad.
Speaker 1: Ones down the stretch and BYU was down two and
Speaker 1: Yegor took like a step back fade away three with
Speaker 1: plenty of time left and it wasn't close. So I
Speaker 1: bring it up because he's thought to be like a
Speaker 1: top ten NBA prospect, I'm just not seeing it as
Speaker 1: of now. Richie Saunders has played really well for him.
Speaker 1: Cannon Catching's is the other NBA prospect on that roster.
Speaker 1: There's some other players like down Hall really should be
Speaker 1: their primary ball handler in those situations because he has
Speaker 1: experience there. In my opinion, instead of the Diego demon kid,
Speaker 1: I think Dallen just has more of a calming presence.
Speaker 1: But for all of the talent the BYU has, you know,
Speaker 1: on that roster and Kevin has at his disposal.
Speaker 2: As I've discussed ever.
Speaker 1: Since the announcement came down that aj Debantsos headed a
Speaker 1: provo to play college basketball for five months, all these
Speaker 1: things are great, like it's awesome. BYU Athletics has momentum
Speaker 1: right now, probably in a way that UTA Athletics doesn't.
Speaker 3: Yet.
Speaker 1: These things are sick, We're cool, and they can change
Speaker 1: or the drop of a hat. But that's kind of
Speaker 1: where we're at for now. But now Kevin's got a
Speaker 1: show you can coach, man Like, the pressure really is
Speaker 1: on the head coach when the talent is clearly on
Speaker 1: the team, like Kevin's got.
Speaker 2: He's never been a head.
Speaker 1: Coach, and will excuse me, I think he was a
Speaker 1: G League head coach, but you know, of course he
Speaker 1: coached in the NBA and all of that is finding
Speaker 1: good and because of Kevin's NBA ties, he has the
Speaker 1: ability and we've already seen it to recruit players at
Speaker 1: a high level by dropping names like Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and Chris Paul. And the BYU coaching staff
Speaker 1: is littered with NBA experience G League experience, as is
Speaker 1: the entire quite frankly operation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did coach in the G League.
Speaker 1: He as the head coach Phoenix Sun's assistant, so Kevin's
Speaker 1: had head coaching experience before. But when the talent is
Speaker 1: clearly on the roster, the onus is entirely on the
Speaker 1: coaching staff. And that's just the deal with basketball on
Speaker 1: any level, Okay, Because I don't think anybody would argue
Speaker 1: that Utah's talent is superior to that of Brigham Young's
Speaker 1: and so it's finding good to be able to recruit
Speaker 1: future future pros. And it's tickets and it provides excitement,
Speaker 1: but you got to prove you can coach.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: Text utes to three three, nine eighty six to enter
Speaker 1: for Utah men's basketball tickets. So it was really excited
Speaker 1: and happy for Craig and his roster to get that
Speaker 1: first Big twelve win because it has just been a
Speaker 1: bit of a slog and it's been tough, and Craig
Speaker 1: is trying with different different rotations. I think that was
Speaker 1: his sixth different starting lineup of the season. They're just
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out right now, and you know,
Speaker 1: it ultimately does come down to the conversation is what
Speaker 1: are these crowds going to look like? So BYU's coming
Speaker 1: up here in Salt Lake City on January the eighteenth,
Speaker 1: So right around the corner we're going to see BYU,
Speaker 1: you tire in Salt Lake. I do wonder what that
Speaker 1: crowd will look like and see, you know, see over
Speaker 1: the next couple of games, if the youths can pile
Speaker 1: up some wins here there, maybe folks will be a
Speaker 1: little bit more motivated to come see Utah basketball. But
Speaker 1: text in right now for your chance to win some tickets.
Speaker 1: Also text assets. We're asking you did a little texting.
Speaker 1: I would imagine message rate supply, So don't get mad
Speaker 1: if you get your cell phone bill. But text asset
Speaker 1: right now to five eight seven seven seven one thousand.
Speaker 1: That's five oh eight seven seven seven one thousand for
Speaker 1: a chance to win one thousand dollars cash in this
Speaker 1: nationwide contest. Good luck from all of us over here
Speaker 1: at ESPN Porter. I kind of feel bad. I feel
Speaker 1: like I uh, I pitted Zach Moss and Stevenson Sylvester
Speaker 1: against each other.
Speaker 2: That was not my intent.
Speaker 1: I thought Slies points were well taken now in the
Speaker 1: modern day and age of political discourse quite frankly sport discourse,
Speaker 1: where you're supposed to crack a mic and yell an
Speaker 1: opinion they don't even believe, just to be salacious and
Speaker 1: in cindiary. I know it's not popular in this line
Speaker 1: of work to acknowledge that two things could be true,
Speaker 1: But could we acknowledge that twenty nineteen had more talent
Speaker 1: on paper yet two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2: That's the team that got it done.
Speaker 4: I think that's exactly where you should land because it's
Speaker 4: the truth. Yes, that twenty eight team had plenty of
Speaker 4: NFL talent, and they similarly put a bunch of guys
Speaker 4: on the defensive side of the football into the NFL.
Speaker 4: But you just look at around the league right now,
Speaker 4: Spence around the NFL today, Julian Blackman, Jalen Johnson, Devin Lloyd, Lecky,
Speaker 4: Fotwo Bradley and I Tyler Huntley, Zach Moss.
Speaker 2: Britton Covey was on that team, Cody Barton, you know
Speaker 2: else was on the team.
Speaker 4: Bran Keithy, Britton Covey, Brandon Keithy, Mikha Defua. These are
Speaker 4: all guys that have played in the NFL. So outside
Speaker 4: of Bran Keathy, so far, that is the most talented
Speaker 4: team on paper that has ever walked through the University
Speaker 4: of Utah AM not only and that's not only my take,
Speaker 4: I am confident saying it. But again, that doesn't tell
Speaker 4: the whole story because they injuries played a part, yes,
Speaker 4: but they kind of fell apart at the end. And
Speaker 4: obviously the PAC twelve championship didn't happen. The playoffs in
Speaker 4: which the four team playoff. It wasn't a twelve team playoff.
Speaker 4: The four team playoff spence that they only needed to
Speaker 4: beat the organ to get into. Let's be clear, everything
Speaker 4: else fell into place. If Utah would have won the
Speaker 4: Pac twelve Championship in twenty nineteen, they would have gone
Speaker 4: in two bowl season the number four team in the country,
Speaker 4: and they would have had a chance at a college
Speaker 4: football playoff. So I think it is worth mentioning, and
Speaker 4: I think you're exactly right. I think that's where we
Speaker 4: should land because it's just the realistic take.
Speaker 2: I liked slives fire though.
Speaker 1: When I asked him, like, what's your response if I
Speaker 1: say twenty nineteen is the most talented team we've ever
Speaker 1: had here?
Speaker 2: He went full slide yeah on that one.
Speaker 1: And if I was on two thousand and eight, I
Speaker 1: would feel the same way, because honestly speaking, I feel
Speaker 1: like most people and I'm raising my hand. Okay, ranked
Speaker 1: two thousand and four over two thousand and eight. Two
Speaker 1: thousand and four, And we could get into the weeds
Speaker 1: on this debate as well, because I think twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: is also more talented on paper than two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: The Utah Football two thousand and four is the best
Speaker 1: football team I believe we've ever had in this state
Speaker 1: with the way they just kind of kind of came
Speaker 1: together and smoked everyone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think three things can be true at the
Speaker 5: same time.
Speaker 2: Hey, you behave yourself. We're going to break people's minds.
Speaker 1: They people these days are not capable of holding three
Speaker 1: thoughts in their head.
Speaker 4: The two thousand and four youth team is the greatest
Speaker 4: team to go through this program. The two thousand and
Speaker 4: eight team is the best football team to go through
Speaker 4: this program. And the twenty nine team is and should
Speaker 4: have been the most talented team that has gone through
Speaker 4: that program. And I think I think we can land
Speaker 4: the plane somewhere around there.
Speaker 1: Five things can be Wait, wait, let's go. Let's move
Speaker 1: up to four things can be true? One hundred things.
Speaker 1: Calmed down, It's Monday. Okay, we've got to pace ourselves.
Speaker 1: We've got five of these this week. Sorry, what's the most?
Speaker 1: Could it be possible? The twenty twenty three slash twenty
Speaker 1: four Utah football is the most disappointing team making four
Speaker 1: things true on a Monday afternoon. I know we're getting weird.
Speaker 1: Can we say that four things are not true.
Speaker 5: I think so.
Speaker 4: I think so, And that has more to do with
Speaker 4: the expectations than the result to me, and the expectations
Speaker 4: were warranted.
Speaker 5: Let's be clear.
Speaker 4: They should have had very high expectations. And you add
Speaker 4: in the fact that we're talking about twenty twenty five
Speaker 4: being the year the twelve team college football Playoff is debuted.
Speaker 5: You add in the fact that.
Speaker 4: They're rejoining BYU in the Big twelve, and all of
Speaker 4: the collision course that was the Pac twelve Big twelve
Speaker 4: independent drama kind of colliding in twenty twenty five and
Speaker 4: the youths laying an egg man. That's more disappointing than
Speaker 4: any season in program history. And I don't think it's
Speaker 4: really close.
Speaker 1: Five things can be true twenty twenty one Utah Football
Speaker 1: Pac twelve champ, the most surprising team, Okay, in U
Speaker 1: Tough football history.
Speaker 2: So we have the.
Speaker 1: Best, the best season, the best team, the most disappointing.
Speaker 1: Now five things can be true, the most surprising team
Speaker 1: in you tough football.
Speaker 4: I disagree, damn it, because I think that was building.
Speaker 4: I think if you watch this team in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, you watch Zach and Tyler, that thing was turning,
Speaker 4: and it was you know, you just needed to get
Speaker 4: a quarterback. You just needed to replace Tyler Huntley and
Speaker 4: keep that thing turning. I'm gonna go back to old
Speaker 4: Scott Mitchell, old you know, middle of the McBride era,
Speaker 4: where you just start throwing I don't know, seventy passes
Speaker 4: in a game with the big lefty back there and
Speaker 4: actually winning a game or two. I'm gonna go with that,
Speaker 4: just because I actually expected that twenty twenty one team
Speaker 4: to be really good.
Speaker 1: Well, we got to four things can be true at once,
Speaker 1: and most media shows of any kind, sports politics cannot
Speaker 1: get to four things.
Speaker 2: So I feel like we've done a good job.
Speaker 5: I think we've we've accomplished.
Speaker 1: Something started a little physical therapy today once again found myself.
Speaker 5: Back there we go.
Speaker 2: No, it's not she, it's the shoulder. This time. It
Speaker 2: was the knee last.
Speaker 1: Year, it was the rib of the year before that.
Speaker 1: And it's just like I walk in now. My physical
Speaker 1: therapist is one of my best friends.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, it might just be the routine now,
Speaker 4: like you used to do a radio show and then
Speaker 4: go home and walk the dog and then work out
Speaker 4: and then.
Speaker 5: You know, cook dinner. You may just put Pete on
Speaker 5: the list.
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, we're like homies.
Speaker 1: I walk in and in the reception, she's like, Spence, Hey,
Speaker 1: great to see. I'm like, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: the guy. Did every one of the physical therapy office knows.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be that guy, but I've turned
Speaker 1: into that guy.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: Four weeks to get the to get the wing right. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're doing a little extracide. Was pretty encouraging, but I'm
Speaker 1: not allowed to swing a golf club and tell him good.
Speaker 5: That's probably good advice.
Speaker 4: As much yoga as you can, and you maybe maybe
Speaker 4: avoid the PT a little bit more order.
Speaker 2: I can't do yoga becau he has a chataranga. Man,
Speaker 2: get familiar with poses.
Speaker 5: I'm behind.
Speaker 1: You want me to start doing rapid chotaaranngas and down
Speaker 1: dogs when my shoulders bad?
Speaker 2: Neo fight a little better knowledge here, please of the
Speaker 2: practice the art.
Speaker 5: I just want your range of ability to do better
Speaker 5: so you don't get injured.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm glad you're being part of the solution. I
Speaker 2: appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Anyway, hang in there, stretch, don't get hurt, and try
Speaker 1: not dage. I don't know what the secret is, but
Speaker 1: we're doing the best we can, all right, two hours down,
Speaker 1: two hours ago. We'll get back to football in the
Speaker 1: five o'clock hour. Don't forget, we are going to say
Speaker 1: good night at six time for the Craigsmith Coaches Show
Speaker 1: at Slackwater.
Speaker 2: Craig and Rles will have that for you.
Speaker 1: Utah basketball with their first Big twelve win of the season,
Speaker 1: so congrats to them. And after the Craigsmith Coaches Show,
Speaker 1: stay tuned because you're gonna hear the conclusion and probably
Speaker 1: the majority quite frankly, of the Vikings and the Rams game.
Speaker 1: That Monday Night tilt will wrap up the wild card
Speaker 1: weekend of pro football. But coming up next, Bobby Marks, ESPN,
Speaker 1: NBA Front Office Insider, Monday Night Football on your airwaves
Speaker 1: this evening. Don't forget, where are your home of the
Speaker 1: NFL and college football in this market?
Speaker 2: We'll come your way after the Craigsmith Coaches Show you.
Speaker 1: Tom Manz Hoops gets their first Big twelve win of
Speaker 1: the year over the weekend, so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1: But joining me now, Man, it's been a while that
Speaker 1: I always appreciated when the great Bobby Marks can make
Speaker 1: some time, and he does on a Monday afternoon.
Speaker 2: Bobby, Happy Monday, sir. How are you.
Speaker 13: I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm well.
Speaker 2: Thank you for the time. Of course, I will not
Speaker 2: bury the lead.
Speaker 1: Your reaction on Leangelo Ball signing a deal with Deaf
Speaker 1: JM weorth thirteen million dollars.
Speaker 13: I thought, that's what You're going to lead the show
Speaker 13: into this song. I'm probably not. You know, it's funny,
Speaker 13: my my, I have a fifteen and I'm an eighte
Speaker 13: year old. We're talking about it and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 13: let me listen. I'm want to listen to the lyrics.
Speaker 13: And I started playing in the kitchen. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 13: this is probably not the song that's going to be
Speaker 13: it's blaired in the Catholic school here down here in Naples.
Speaker 1: Oh that's probably yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean I would imagine being the only ball that's
Speaker 1: not playing pro basketball. You got to find a way
Speaker 1: to make some money. So I'm not a hater, Bobby.
Speaker 2: I'm not a hater.
Speaker 1: So good for him, not at all, all, right, Bobby,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've noticed, Jazz aren't winning much
Speaker 1: this year. Okay, so I want to do a little
Speaker 1: jazz off the top. We won't do a ton.
Speaker 2: And I've got to say I'm more.
Speaker 1: Bullish on the potential of what they could be this
Speaker 1: year than I was either last year or the year before.
Speaker 1: Like I do think they're doing the right thing, and
Speaker 1: I actually applaud the way they're going about it. And
Speaker 1: Will's just like last night they sat half their team
Speaker 1: and Brooklyn is not a serious team, but the front
Speaker 1: office is trying to find a way to do this,
Speaker 1: and Will seems to be able to coach this team
Speaker 1: no matter who is on the roster. So while we're
Speaker 1: sitting here with a team that's ten and twenty eight
Speaker 1: in a market of basketball fans that are not accustomed
Speaker 1: to losing, I actually think there are some good signs.
Speaker 13: No, I mean, and I think you could probably say
Speaker 13: that even with you know kind of what happen what's
Speaker 13: happening with Brooklyn too, and I and I say this
Speaker 13: is that the most important thing that you can take
Speaker 13: away from this, and yes there's pain alongside. If I
Speaker 13: lived through it twelve and seventy, I lived through it.
Speaker 13: That's a that's a long year. Is to continually have
Speaker 13: your coach put a foundation in place, so when the
Speaker 13: time is right, and when when is that time, whether
Speaker 13: it be with your young players that continually play better
Speaker 13: and develop here, or if it's in a trade or
Speaker 13: if it's a free agency or when we get to
Speaker 13: the draft in June, that those guys there's a system
Speaker 13: in place with that. I think that's the most important thing.
Speaker 13: And I said this, I said, it's the Sean marks
Speaker 13: their general managers. This was before they made the Shrewd
Speaker 13: trade and during Finnish Smith and I said, listen, you
Speaker 13: have what we learned from Jordi Fernandez is that he
Speaker 13: can coaches rare endof and there's a system in place.
Speaker 13: And that's the two. I think that's the two two
Speaker 13: most important things that you can you can kind of
Speaker 13: take away from this. And Will is, yeah, listen, is
Speaker 13: this is different than you know the last two years.
Speaker 13: You get to what were they probably five hundred dish
Speaker 13: at the All Star break, and that's the hardest that's
Speaker 13: the hardest part to you. If you want to start
Speaker 13: tearing it down, then that's where it becomes very very
Speaker 13: difficult here. So I listen, they've they're open eyes as
Speaker 13: far as what the endgame here, you know, certainly with
Speaker 13: this draft coming up, but you know, you just you know,
Speaker 13: you're not you're not throwing away games, but you're you're
Speaker 13: putting your guys in a position where the developmental part
Speaker 13: is key. Listen, Isaiah last night at a you know,
Speaker 13: we don't we're not going to talk about the second violation.
Speaker 13: But you learn from those things, right, Those are like
Speaker 13: learning experiences that guys have to go through here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought, uh, I thought Colin Section was going
Speaker 1: to rip poor Isaiah's head off after the second violation.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, and and I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go down the list to ask it where you think
Speaker 1: about each player because that you know, ultimately time will tell.
Speaker 1: But I do want to kick the tires on a
Speaker 1: few of them because you know, whenever I I'll go
Speaker 1: on a radio show or a podcast and they want
Speaker 1: to talk about the jazz. The question they asked me
Speaker 1: consistently is who besides Lowry Marketing will be on this
Speaker 1: roster when they're good again, who's the keeper? Yeah, And honestly,
Speaker 1: prior to the start of the year, I would answer
Speaker 1: the question, I don't know, it's only Lowry at this point,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of ready to put Walker next to
Speaker 1: market in with the way he's played this year.
Speaker 2: Give me your thoughts on year three for Walker Kessler.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I listen. I think I think there was so
Speaker 13: much of an expectation level going into last year, how
Speaker 13: he played, you know, his rookie year, you know, everything
Speaker 13: that came with it that you know. I don't I
Speaker 13: don't want to say letdown, but we were probably looking
Speaker 13: for him to maybe take another step last year, and
Speaker 13: it kind of plateaued a little bit here, I thought.
Speaker 13: I think I think this year, I think he's been
Speaker 13: extremely extremely good on the court, you know, both sides.
Speaker 13: You know, I think there's just more of a more
Speaker 13: of a comfort level. I chuckle sometimes when I hear
Speaker 13: his name mentioned in like trade talks, and I'm like,
Speaker 13: you know, the guy is really good, and he's on
Speaker 13: a rookie contract, and you know, I think he might
Speaker 13: be part of this future here. So I I like
Speaker 13: what I've seen from him. I think that's those are
Speaker 13: like those individual goals that we were kind of talking about,
Speaker 13: like what you can kind of take away from each guy,
Speaker 13: And it's it's like an open tryout this year, right,
Speaker 13: It's an open tryout for some of the I like
Speaker 13: what Bryce has done right, I thought he's played I
Speaker 13: thought he's played really well. I think Isaiah has you know,
Speaker 13: as the season grows up, you know you can you know,
Speaker 13: you feel comfortable with him, you know, running point as
Speaker 13: far as some of your younger guys. You know, Cody's
Speaker 13: going to be, you know, up and down. I think
Speaker 13: this is kind of a growing pains year. And I
Speaker 13: think whenever you're you're picked in the lottery, there is
Speaker 13: an expectation that you're going to be up there with
Speaker 13: Rookie of the Year, and that's you know, that's not
Speaker 13: always the case.
Speaker 2: No, it's not. And I do think he's really answered
Speaker 2: the bell.
Speaker 1: So I'll just expand and that question to see if
Speaker 1: And it's so hard. I mean, all of these most
Speaker 1: of these players are still babies and they've got a
Speaker 1: marathon in front of them. There have been some good
Speaker 1: Kyle Philipowski moments. I just don't I don't know what
Speaker 1: to make a Kyante you know. Sometimes I watch him,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I see it, and other times I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: he looks like Colin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, and there's
Speaker 1: some redundancy on there. I don't know, but outside of marketing,
Speaker 1: outside of Kessler, who else you think is kind of
Speaker 1: uh in this plan for the long term.
Speaker 2: It could be around when they're good again.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean I think I think you have to
Speaker 13: As I said, I think you have to like what
Speaker 13: you show, what you've seen with with with Bryce, I
Speaker 13: think he's kind of been more you know, certainly more
Speaker 13: consistent than prior years. I agree with you regarding Kiante.
Speaker 13: I you know, I want to see more, right Like,
Speaker 13: I want to see him on the court. I want
Speaker 13: to see him healthy. I want to you know, last
Speaker 13: year was kind of a like a mixed bag of
Speaker 13: a little bit of a little bit of good and
Speaker 13: you know, a bunch of you know, a bunch of
Speaker 13: you know, whether it be turnovers or you know, carelessness.
Speaker 13: I you know, I wanted, you know, I want to
Speaker 13: see more of that. So I'm not yeah, I'm not
Speaker 13: ready to kind of annoying, you know. These are the
Speaker 13: five guys I think, as you know, I think the
Speaker 13: hardest thing with these rebuilds and is that you've got
Speaker 13: to have like a stud man, you got to have
Speaker 13: a franchise level. And what we've seen in Okay see,
Speaker 13: and certainly this year in Detroit, like you have a
Speaker 13: franchise level guard and I think that can take you
Speaker 13: a long way to told me like having you know,
Speaker 13: you draft the guy in the NFL and you get
Speaker 13: a quarterback and it's like, you know, he's are you
Speaker 13: know the kid you know, Jane mc daniels in in
Speaker 13: down in d C and everything like that. So that's
Speaker 13: where you know, I you know, if if I'm how
Speaker 13: this thing turns around in Utah, it's like you got
Speaker 13: to get one of those guys, right, you got to
Speaker 13: get one of those I don't know if it's gonna
Speaker 13: be in the draft or in a trade, and that
Speaker 13: kind of you know, that takes you long, uh, you know,
Speaker 13: a long way.
Speaker 1: So you won't be surprised to learn that Duke Basketball
Speaker 1: is receiving excellent rating in our market this year as
Speaker 1: we're all watching, I mean, he's really fun. Man Cooper
Speaker 1: flag dropped forty two over the weekend.
Speaker 2: And there are a lot of names.
Speaker 1: There's the Ace Bailey kid, There's Dylan Harper, and we
Speaker 1: could keep going. So the hope is finally Bobby Lady
Speaker 1: Luck shines on us out here in Salt Lake.
Speaker 2: Finally, we don't move down.
Speaker 1: Maybe we move up, and maybe Cooper Flag is alongside
Speaker 1: marketed in Kessler next year.
Speaker 2: That frontcour would be very popular in Utah.
Speaker 1: And I just won't elaborate on that anymore, but I'll
Speaker 1: ask you, what are you hearing about the type of
Speaker 1: pro that Cooper Flag is expected to be. If he
Speaker 1: stays healthy, puts in the work, it actually does fully develop.
Speaker 9: Well.
Speaker 6: I saw him.
Speaker 9: I don't know if I told you this.
Speaker 13: I saw him a year ago down here at Fort
Speaker 13: Myers and the Tour, the big tournament they have every year.
Speaker 13: This is when he was sixteen and he was out
Speaker 13: Mountain Verd And I turned to a scout and I
Speaker 13: said he could play right now in the NBA. And
Speaker 13: the scout said to me, he reminded me of a
Speaker 13: younger Kevin Garnet. And it's really like, listen the forty
Speaker 13: two points he scored over the weekend against Pitt that's
Speaker 13: gonna be the you know, the running headline on ESPN
Speaker 13: dot com. I love his I love what he can
Speaker 13: do defensively. I love his length, I love his instincts,
Speaker 13: his ability to guard multiple positions here. I think that
Speaker 13: will that will get him. I mean, he'll play, but
Speaker 13: that will probably be his more of his niche than
Speaker 13: a guy that's gonna you're expecting to get, you know,
Speaker 13: thirty points from m or twenty five points. I think
Speaker 13: he's a I think he's a multipurpose you know player.
Speaker 13: He can play both ways here. That's that's kind of
Speaker 13: been you know that that was the takeaway from a
Speaker 13: year ago. That's still the takeaway now. I think, you know,
Speaker 13: we get caught up a little bit earlier in the year.
Speaker 13: There were some games, you know, certainly at the end
Speaker 13: where he turned the ball over. They're not asking him
Speaker 13: to do as much, you know, as far as put
Speaker 13: the ball in his hands like that. So listen there.
Speaker 13: You know, he'll be one of two or one of three,
Speaker 13: you know, probably top two. You know, we have a
Speaker 13: lot of people on number one. Dylan Harper certainly. You know.
Speaker 13: The to part with Rutgers is that they're not They're
Speaker 13: not gonna make a tournament, you know as where they are,
Speaker 13: so you're not gonna you're likely if you want to
Speaker 13: see him play now in the next couple months, you
Speaker 13: better do now, because the likely is you're not going
Speaker 13: to see him in March because they're really not having
Speaker 13: a really good year.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, that's true.
Speaker 1: That's true, and it's not a new thing in college
Speaker 1: basketball where transcending talent is playing for a team that
Speaker 1: can't just win. I mean, we could go over a
Speaker 1: bunch of examples Ben Simmons, LSU, but we won't do
Speaker 1: that today. So, Bobby, since you and I last spoke,
Speaker 1: a rather surprising development and Stephen A. Smith, your peer,
Speaker 1: was rather taken back when young AJ Debants had told
Speaker 1: him that he was taking his talents to Provo, Utah
Speaker 1: to play his college basketball.
Speaker 2: For Kevin Young and Brigham Young.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you the same question I asked you
Speaker 1: about Cooper, because I didn't know much about AJ prior
Speaker 1: to this storyline, and I've watched a ton of him
Speaker 1: since and he just appears to be generationally good.
Speaker 2: He and his dad said were one and done, and.
Speaker 1: So he's getting seven middle to play five months of
Speaker 1: basketball for BYU, Ryan Smith b Yu along big Time Donor.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are trying to line between like, hey,
Speaker 1: you can develop BYU players and they'll play for the Jazz.
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's not really how that works. But okay,
Speaker 1: but tell me your reaction when you heard AJ was
Speaker 1: coming out here?
Speaker 2: What kind of player?
Speaker 13: You think that he is not surprising at all? You know,
Speaker 13: I think they're you know, the Ties were kind of
Speaker 13: pointing that way. I enjoyed steven A's reaction, and I
Speaker 13: felt like saying, not everyone has to go to Duke
Speaker 13: or North Carolina or Kentucky or Kansas or some of
Speaker 13: these blue bloods. I think, what what they're building out there,
Speaker 13: I think can be really can be really good. I
Speaker 13: think when you talk to you know, certainly our own
Speaker 13: Johnathan Cavoni and our draft guys, is that, you know,
Speaker 13: as much as twenty twenty five is being built, twenty
Speaker 13: twenty six draft class is probably better as far as
Speaker 13: from a depth standpoint, And certainly AJ is sitting up
Speaker 13: there selling that the boozers or are there. I feel
Speaker 13: like this is that it's a draft class. We're going
Speaker 13: to see a lot of former NBA players with their
Speaker 13: sons in this in that class. So yeah, I think,
Speaker 13: you know, listen, if Jazz fans are like, oh my god,
Speaker 13: we have to sit through another one in these years
Speaker 13: and stuff like that, that next, you know, twenty to
Speaker 13: twenty sixth class could be, could be really really good.
Speaker 13: And I think you know certainly's versatility is length, position
Speaker 13: of need, which is always uh, which is always important.
Speaker 1: One more jazz question, and I've got to say I
Speaker 1: love having you on as a guest because I can
Speaker 1: actually get ten minutes of jazz conversation where other guys
Speaker 1: are like, hey, I'm not watching them, Like all right,
Speaker 1: I get it. But you are kind of a north
Speaker 1: star for for people when it comes to the trade
Speaker 1: deadline and we're high speed ahead to that trade deadline,
Speaker 1: and I just wonder, are you hearing anything about the jazz?
Speaker 2: Do you think they're active?
Speaker 1: And part of me, Bobby believes they're built perfectly for
Speaker 1: what they're trying to do this year because you've got
Speaker 1: to pay players.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if they can get a first
Speaker 2: for a vet.
Speaker 1: Maybe we see something, But what are you hearing about
Speaker 1: the jazz prior to that February deadline?
Speaker 13: Yeah, listen, I think when you when you look at it,
Speaker 13: it's it's will always point to the three veterans, right,
Speaker 13: whether it be Colin Jordan and John and John Collins.
Speaker 13: As far as you know, how do they fit in?
Speaker 13: You know, what's the value of it. Listen, I think
Speaker 13: out of the three colins got value right now, what's
Speaker 13: the value? Can you can you you know, get another
Speaker 13: first out of it? I don't know, based on you know,
Speaker 13: where the market is. I mean remember this year, this
Speaker 13: upcoming draft, Utah is part of a group of teams
Speaker 13: that have like fifteen out of thirty picks. Right they're
Speaker 13: with OKC in Brooklyn, San Anton I think is in there.
Speaker 13: So what's the value? What are you trying to do?
Speaker 13: Is calm more valuable to you in the locker room
Speaker 13: with your young players? You know, as I said, he
Speaker 13: still has another year. You know, Jordan's you know, certainly
Speaker 13: been dealing with that planner fasciet. John's got you know,
Speaker 13: John could be of service. But the hard part is
Speaker 13: that the rules make it extremely difficult when you're trading
Speaker 13: for a player who's earning more than you know, twenty
Speaker 13: twenty five million dollars, like we're going to see that.
Speaker 13: Like the guys in Washington, like Kusma and Brognen, I know,
Speaker 13: those guys are probably not getting traded, you know, at
Speaker 13: the deadline, as much as probably the Wizards would would
Speaker 13: like to do it and everything. So I think that's
Speaker 13: you know, that's the key leads as far as from
Speaker 13: a from a draft standpoint, I mean, from a trade standpoint,
Speaker 13: is that I don't know. I mean, I'm not expecting
Speaker 13: as much action as we've seen in the past, just
Speaker 13: based on a third of the league is in the ape,
Speaker 13: either in the apron or in a luxury tax, inability
Speaker 13: to take back more money, the inability to multiple them,
Speaker 13: to aggregate contracts. There's a lot of different variance is
Speaker 13: here with that. You know, Like last week at a
Speaker 13: team exec calm people like, Hey, I'm hearing something maybe
Speaker 13: Zach Levine in Utahn. I'm like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 13: That doesn't make sense? Right, Like, So you're you gotta
Speaker 13: flush out a lot of things as far as what's
Speaker 13: being talked about, you know, out there. But you know,
Speaker 13: we'll see, you know, you know, the Jimmy Butler situation
Speaker 13: certainly has kind of hovered over everything. It's kind of
Speaker 13: quieted down a little bit here. But for Utah, I
Speaker 13: think I think the big name would probably be because
Speaker 13: he's having a really good year. But as I said,
Speaker 13: he's done a really good contract, making eighteen nineteen million
Speaker 13: dollars and he has another year left.
Speaker 1: I like to turn flesh out, So let's flush out
Speaker 1: one more while we're in the space. And you know
Speaker 1: the deal. That's why I searched. You know, you're writing
Speaker 1: out and other people that I trust, because if you
Speaker 1: jump on social it's like hey, NBA trade deadline, primer.
Speaker 2: Check it out.
Speaker 1: But there have been more than a few, and I
Speaker 1: can't give any credibility or credence to any of them.
Speaker 1: But since it's out there, I keep hearing, like, because
Speaker 1: a lot of teams need centers, and Walker's good. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying Danny and Justin wouldn't take a phone call,
Speaker 1: but I don't know that they have any interest in
Speaker 1: moving on from this kid who's really evolved.
Speaker 2: Year three, as we already talked about.
Speaker 13: Yeah, listen, I think you taught you you take a
Speaker 13: phone call and listen. Unless you have Curry or Lebron
Speaker 13: or you know somebody the Yannis and stuff, you know,
Speaker 13: some of these upper echelon guys, Shay, you take a
Speaker 13: phone call on everyone you know and you just basically
Speaker 13: hear that and you add it to your big board
Speaker 13: or your whiteboard, and you know, something makes sense. Some things,
Speaker 13: you know you circle back to when you get closer
Speaker 13: to February sixth here. But I will say this, I'm
Speaker 13: fifteen teams into my big trade guy that I put
Speaker 13: out at the end of January. This is probably the
Speaker 13: toughest year. I mean, the most difficult year as far
Speaker 13: as I'm a writing standpoint, just because there's not as
Speaker 13: much juice out there, right Like you're you know, you're
Speaker 13: trying to look at different angles and everything like that,
Speaker 13: and it's hard to complac Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, well said.
Speaker 1: Since you brought up the Jimmy Butler thing, I know
Speaker 1: nobody knows, but he is the name that everybody's talking about.
Speaker 1: And I hear a different team every week. Memphis I
Speaker 1: think was out there for a minute, Golden State, Phoenix,
Speaker 1: who needs to do something? But how does it play out?
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't mess with pat Riley, you just don't.
Speaker 1: And he tried, he got sad. So so what's the
Speaker 1: end game here? Because Bobby, as you know, there are
Speaker 1: several reasons that makes sense for Miami just to not
Speaker 1: make a move.
Speaker 2: So I'm not I'm not really sure how this plays out.
Speaker 2: What do you think?
Speaker 13: Yeah, listen, they're not going to trade, They're not going
Speaker 13: to try for Bradley Beal, like guy will go on
Speaker 13: the record and say that ain't happen. They're not taking
Speaker 13: back what is left. And Bradley Beal has done a
Speaker 13: nice job in Phoenix, but he's not a fifty three
Speaker 13: to fifty four million dollar player, so it makes no
Speaker 13: sense for Miami to go about in that direction here.
Speaker 13: I think how it works out is that Jimmy Butler
Speaker 13: returns from this suspense this and this is all to
Speaker 13: Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler returns in the suspension at the
Speaker 13: end of the week, he plays out the year, there's
Speaker 13: no trade at the deadline, and then he opts into
Speaker 13: his contract at the end of the year, and both
Speaker 13: sides work out of trade in the offseason because there's
Speaker 13: more flexibility as far as when you can when you
Speaker 13: can go at the rules get a little bit looser
Speaker 13: as far as because the money starts to increase the
Speaker 13: salary cap. And I think that's what happens now that
Speaker 13: that's there's a big asterisk next to that, and it's
Speaker 13: a wildcard because I don't know how Jimmy Butler reacts
Speaker 13: when he comes from back from the suspension on Friday,
Speaker 13: and if he and if he doesn't act right, the
Speaker 13: heater is just going to spend him again. I mean,
Speaker 13: that's the reality of it here, and I said it.
Speaker 13: I said it over the weekend. Miami needs Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 13: and Jimmy Butler needs Miami. If Jimmy Butler wants another
Speaker 13: contract out there, he needs them and he needs them
Speaker 13: to be he needs to be on the court playing
Speaker 13: at a high level.
Speaker 1: Well said, all right, let's move over here. A couple
Speaker 1: of minutes left that I'll set you loose. I always
Speaker 1: appreciate your time. You know, Year two, Donovan Mitchell, you know,
Speaker 1: Jazz makes some good moves. Dennis brings in Ricky Rubio,
Speaker 1: Joe Ingles becomes a player that nobody thought he could.
Speaker 1: Go Bear Pops as this defensive stopper, and the Jazz
Speaker 1: go to the playoffs and they beat Okac and Donovan
Speaker 1: is their primary offensive option. And I remember thinking insane
Speaker 1: on air, like this is such good news that a
Speaker 1: year two player now has playoff experience. This will pay
Speaker 1: off in five, six, seven years And it is.
Speaker 2: But it's in.
Speaker 1: Cleveland, right, So how real is it? Because he seems
Speaker 1: to be maturing. He did an interview a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago where he's like, hey, guys, I'm playing defense now,
Speaker 1: and all of us are like, thanks dude, but you
Speaker 1: got to respect what he's doing.
Speaker 2: And they're thirty three and five. Man, how much of
Speaker 2: a threat A thing? I guess I'll say to the Celtics,
Speaker 2: they're a threat now, Listen.
Speaker 13: A threat. I mean, I said on Sports Center last
Speaker 13: after that game, and I said, probably Cavalier fans I
Speaker 13: want to hear this, but listen, Boston still a favor, right,
Speaker 13: I mean, just based on what happened last year here,
Speaker 13: but you should take Cleveland much more serious than than
Speaker 13: if you did a year ago, because they have done
Speaker 13: a really good job with Donovan's minutes. You know, last
Speaker 13: year I thought he was dragging that leg, you know,
Speaker 13: that knee at the end that in the Boston series,
Speaker 13: and certainly in that in that Orlando series, he's they're
Speaker 13: managing his minutes. I mean he's right around like thirty
Speaker 13: thirty one minutes and stuff, which is huge. And then
Speaker 13: you saw and they you know, okay, see gave me
Speaker 13: scored eleven points. He doesn't have to be superman, right,
Speaker 13: They've gotten Mobley has taken a huge step in his
Speaker 13: development Garland Allen, they've got nice lifts off the bench
Speaker 13: with with Lavert h they finally got shrewsed back. Ty
Speaker 13: Dromes played really well and so it's more it's more
Speaker 13: of a balanced team than it was the Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 13: we saw trying to put up fifty because he needs,
Speaker 13: you know, he needs to win on the road at
Speaker 13: Orlando here like like we did last saw last April.
Speaker 13: So I just think it's a maturation. It's it's evolving
Speaker 13: as far as for him because he realizes that he
Speaker 13: does not have to be the guy. And I think,
Speaker 13: you know, certainly Kenny Atkinson has you know, has done
Speaker 13: a nice job there. But I could also say that
Speaker 13: jab Paper staff did a nice job because look at
Speaker 13: what Jay's doing in Detroit. I mean, that's one of
Speaker 13: the great stories of the NBA right now here. So yeah,
Speaker 13: I think I think it's just a matter of how
Speaker 13: guys mature, you know, whether it be in their eighth
Speaker 13: or ninth year.
Speaker 1: All right, Bobby, before I set you loose, I'll just
Speaker 1: we'll end with this. You know, a lot of conversation
Speaker 1: about how many good teams there are this year and
Speaker 1: how there's parody all over the place. Are we just
Speaker 1: simply going to end with Okac and Boston in the final?
Speaker 1: And if not, who gets in Okac's way out this way?
Speaker 13: Yeah, they still scare me a little bit. I mean,
Speaker 13: I really like what they've done. Uh and we haven't
Speaker 13: even seen you know, Chet's been out and Cruso has
Speaker 13: been out of a big chunk of big chunk games.
Speaker 13: It scares me a little bit. And and and a
Speaker 13: couple of the Marquee games, whether it be I guess,
Speaker 13: you know, we put the NBA Cup up there against
Speaker 13: Milwaukee and then that Cleveland game, it you know kind
Speaker 13: of you know, you know turned you know, it turned
Speaker 13: south for for both those games here, So that that
Speaker 13: scares me a keeeny bit here. But who But if
Speaker 13: you're saying it, then who is it in the West right?
Speaker 13: Like who's gonna is it? Can Can it be Denver?
Speaker 13: Is Denver gonna go? You know they've played really well
Speaker 13: of late here. Do you trust Houston? Probably not in
Speaker 13: a big setting. Memphis, if they're all healthy, what do
Speaker 13: they do at the deadline? Maybe they make a move
Speaker 13: to try to add another player here? So I think,
Speaker 13: you know, certainly, you know, I think it's it's probably more.
Speaker 13: I would say it's probably I don't want to play
Speaker 13: okay See Boston right away. I mean, I'm not. You know,
Speaker 13: what Cleveland has done is remarkable, and I think it's
Speaker 13: certainly a toss up of them getting out of the
Speaker 13: East and then certainly the you know, I think that
Speaker 13: some of it depends on what happens at the deadline,
Speaker 13: and but okay See will be the one seed here
Speaker 13: and I think will be fascinating because one of those
Speaker 13: teams that we've seen we saw last year, whether it
Speaker 13: be Golden State or Phoenix or one of those teams,
Speaker 13: maybe San and Tone will be playing them, probably in
Speaker 13: the first round.
Speaker 2: Well, Bobby, great stuff.
Speaker 1: As always, we'll see where the trade deadline brings and
Speaker 1: now it's time to lean into more pro basketball. So
Speaker 1: appreciate your time on a Monday. Have a great week.
Speaker 7: Thank you, sir, appreciate it.
Speaker 13: Thanks, Yep, you got it all right.
Speaker 3: Great.
Speaker 1: Bobby Marks, ESPN front office insider spent a number of
Speaker 1: years in NBA front offices with the New Jersey Nets
Speaker 1: and in others. He writes all their trade deadline primers.
Speaker 1: He did a really good piece recently on the teams
Speaker 1: in the best spots to add add talent via draft
Speaker 1: capital over the next four or five years. The jazz
Speaker 1: I believe were fourth the first. The first team on
Speaker 1: that list is Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Get him on Twitter at Bobby Marks forty two is
Speaker 1: where you find them. About ninety minutes away from the
Speaker 1: Craig Smith Coach you show you Tom N's hoops with
Speaker 1: its first Big twelve win.
Speaker 2: Of the season.
Speaker 1: On Saturday, following the conclusion of the Craigsmith Coaches Show
Speaker 1: live at Slackwater, we will bring you Monday Night football.
Speaker 1: The final game of the Wildcard weekend is the Rams
Speaker 1: and the Vikings in Glendale. That game has been moved
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles as a result of the horrific fires
Speaker 1: in the greater Los Angeles area. But we'll take a
Speaker 1: break from our football and basketball conversation to welcome in
Speaker 1: the guy that can help us understand what's up. I'm
Speaker 1: not the guy for this, but Brian Dunseth is on
Speaker 1: a Monday afternoon.
Speaker 2: Donty, Happy Monday, my guy. How you doing.
Speaker 9: I'm good man, I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm good?
Speaker 1: So world traveling right, You've been taking a little time
Speaker 1: off as you should during this time. I believe you've
Speaker 1: been traversing the world. How's the off season been for you.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's been good, man, it's been quick. We got away.
Speaker 9: We did a couple I think we did like fifteen
Speaker 9: days down in Cabo over the holiday break, and we're
Speaker 9: home for a couple days and then we're down in Mesquite,
Speaker 9: Nevada for my son Luca, my six year old, have
Speaker 9: a tournament down there. So it was all right. Back
Speaker 9: to the mix and I'm off for the US men's
Speaker 9: national team coverage this weekend. I leave Thursday, but Saturday
Speaker 9: against Venezuela Mcanelli and Diego Luna going to be part
Speaker 9: of that, and then the following Wednesday against Costa Rica
Speaker 9: out in Orlando.
Speaker 1: Oh very nice. Good for you back at well, glad
Speaker 1: you got some time off. Shout out to Luca. All right, man,
Speaker 1: Like a lot of people, I got the alert on
Speaker 1: my phone that RSL had moved on from Chicho Orongo,
Speaker 1: saw that it was San Jose, saw the takeaway, and
Speaker 1: I just went, wait, what, like, now, there's a lot here, right,
Speaker 1: There's a lot of meat on this bone. And I'm
Speaker 1: of the opinion that last year's team, with Andris on
Speaker 1: the wing and Chicho scoring goals and a bevy of
Speaker 1: other contributors for about fifteen sixteen games, was as entertaining
Speaker 1: as any team we've had here, and Chicho was in
Speaker 1: the middle of a stretch that was as exciting as
Speaker 1: any striker we've had here. That includes Sabo, and we
Speaker 1: could go down the list. But the suspension comes down,
Speaker 1: and I can remember talking to you shortly thereafter and
Speaker 1: people over the club, and there was this feeling like,
Speaker 1: we just hope this does not derail the entire exciting
Speaker 1: stretch that we've just seen.
Speaker 2: Well, it appears, Dunny that it did exactly that.
Speaker 1: So, now that you have the ability to be a
Speaker 1: little bit retrospective and you talked to some people, why
Speaker 1: did this go down?
Speaker 2: How did this go down? And why did they take
Speaker 2: what I perceived.
Speaker 1: To be pennies on the dollar for such a talented
Speaker 1: yet mercurial player.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'll tell my best sense, because much like you
Speaker 9: caught completely off guard by the announcement that the Chico
Speaker 9: was sent out to San Jose and linking up with
Speaker 9: Bruce Arena and subsequently Joseph Martinez, the former league MVP,
Speaker 9: and goalscorer from Atlanta United. He was down at Miami
Speaker 9: and up at Montreal. He just joined up as well
Speaker 9: with Bruce and San Jose. So Bruce rina making some
Speaker 9: moves after returning to Major League Soccer after being unceremoniously
Speaker 9: pushed out of the New England Revolution.
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Listen, man, if you go to the twenty twenty four
Speaker 9: stat page for Major League Soccer with regards to Real
Speaker 9: Salt Lake, it's got Chi choh Rongo on seventeen goals,
Speaker 9: twelve assists. It's got Andres Go. I was still up
Speaker 9: there with thirteen goals, nine assists. He's got Anderson Julio
Speaker 9: with nine goals, three assists, Diego Luna had eight and twelve,
Speaker 9: and then Matt Crooks three and five. I mean that
Speaker 9: my math isn't great from calac fullyds Tim Passer fail,
Speaker 9: but that's four of your top five goal scorers are
Speaker 9: no longer in the building. Down in Sandy, Utah or
Speaker 9: down in Herriman, depending on which part we're talking about.
Speaker 9: You know a lot of ways this is devastating. You
Speaker 9: go back a couple of summers ago, eighteen months and
Speaker 9: we're talking about Chi cho Rongo for six million coming
Speaker 9: from Mexico after his time at LAFC and for the
Speaker 9: first time in a long time, and you referenced Sabaio.
Speaker 9: You know, we felt like here at Real Salt Lake,
Speaker 9: you have one of the most dynamic goal scorers in
Speaker 9: Major League Soccer, a guy that was familiar with the
Speaker 9: league and the necessity of the week in, week out
Speaker 9: grind and the understanding that this is going to be
Speaker 9: one of the big focal points going forward that was
Speaker 9: supposed to put Real Seal Lake over the top. Fast
Speaker 9: forward twelve months. You got a guy who, on seventeen
Speaker 9: goals and I believe a ten or eleven assists, was
Speaker 9: an MLS All Star, was up for the MLS All
Speaker 9: Star captaincy, and out of nowhere the suspension hits. There
Speaker 9: was a lot of questions, a lot of uncertainty surrounding
Speaker 9: the exact nature of the suspension. It still hasn't been
Speaker 9: clarified by either the player of the club or even
Speaker 9: Major League Soccer. But the moment that that's been suspension
Speaker 9: came down, you were right. There was a major concern,
Speaker 9: especially with the correlation of the sale of Andres Gomez
Speaker 9: and thirteen million coming over from RN that you know
Speaker 9: where where were these thirty goals going to come from?
Speaker 9: It came from goals by committee. I mean, Real Lake
Speaker 9: has the unfortunate title of, you know, being knocked out
Speaker 9: of the playoffs without losing a game, going to penalties
Speaker 9: against Minnesota and in both games losing and just being
Speaker 9: dumped out of the playoffs and going into a question
Speaker 9: mark of the offseason with players contracts and thinking about
Speaker 9: what the future was going to look like it but
Speaker 9: against and whether this was the player's decision that he
Speaker 9: was asking for a move. There were whispers that this
Speaker 9: was something that was better for he and his family
Speaker 9: to a little longer be in Salt Lake. There was
Speaker 9: whispers potentially going back to Columbia, but for the price
Speaker 9: one and a half million and I think one point
Speaker 9: four million in general allocation money plus an international spot.
Speaker 9: To give context to this, Craig Wible, former general manager
Speaker 9: at Salt Lake currently in Seattle, sent two million dollars
Speaker 9: general allocation money, international spot and Dealeo Chu down to
Speaker 9: Dallas in return for Haeses Fedeta. I would argue that
Speaker 9: Chicho Rangos is a much in terms of finances, would
Speaker 9: be at a bare minimum the same cost for trade
Speaker 9: as what we saw Craig wible stand on Hayes's for data.
Speaker 9: So a big loss in terms of the goal scoring ability.
Speaker 9: You're talking about the club captain as well, leadership vacuum
Speaker 9: inside of that locker room, and still more questions as
Speaker 9: opposed to answers as to why exactly this was a
Speaker 9: move best for the player and his family to depart
Speaker 9: Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2: So let's stay in the space for a moment.
Speaker 1: Your point about the compensation is well taken, and Kurt
Speaker 1: Schmid is a smart soccer executive. So because of these dynamics,
Speaker 1: I have to imagine there was pressure potentially from the
Speaker 1: people that signed Kurt's checks to say, we need to
Speaker 1: get this done, and we need to get this done quickly,
Speaker 1: and we need to get it done before Conky CAF
Speaker 1: which is next month. But that is that such a
Speaker 1: horrible haul? And I know he's aging, right, I know
Speaker 1: he's a little bit older, and maybe his reputation is
Speaker 1: taken a hit because apparently he could be a little
Speaker 1: bit difficult to deal with, not just with with Salt
Speaker 1: Lake but also in Los Angeles. I can't speak to
Speaker 1: any of that, so I'm sure you've talked to some
Speaker 1: of the same people I have. Maybe there was some
Speaker 1: uncomfortable feelings from his family about staying here for certain
Speaker 1: reasons that will remain off air.
Speaker 2: But have you been able to uncover any reason.
Speaker 1: As to why they decided to take what I perceived
Speaker 1: to be a really awful deal. They must have been
Speaker 1: up against a massive deadline, and it feels like they
Speaker 1: just made a phone call was like, who wants them? Okay,
Speaker 1: you can have him, even though we're not getting what
Speaker 1: we should in return for them.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean Spence, I taught to somebody associated with
Speaker 9: San Jose as a club and I congratulated him because
Speaker 9: I thought it was it was a hell of a
Speaker 9: deal for them. I mean, one point four million in
Speaker 9: general location money in that spot in today's world is
Speaker 9: really not that much. And again I'm not a math genius,
Speaker 9: but taking a loss on four and a half million
Speaker 9: is a significant wash considering you knew exactly what you
Speaker 9: were paying for eighteen months ago. Yeah, I would assume
Speaker 9: similar that this was something that had to have been sanctioned.
Speaker 9: This wasn't going to be something that just Ker Schmidt
Speaker 9: was making the decision upon. This would have had to
Speaker 9: have been a collaborative effort and agreement that from Pablo
Speaker 9: and his coaching staff, Kurt Jason and anybody else associated
Speaker 9: before it ran up the food chain to you know,
Speaker 9: the the Blitzer hierarchy, Blitzer Smith hierarchy, and whoever ultimately
Speaker 9: is in charge of managing this club. From their perspective
Speaker 9: that you've got a lot of smart people walking away
Speaker 9: from a lot of significant money, especially in a a
Speaker 9: in a window in which you know, you go back
Speaker 9: and think about the effective seventeen to eighteen million dollars
Speaker 9: raised off sales during the summer transfer window, invested minutely
Speaker 9: with Diogo Gonsalveez coming at the end of the summer
Speaker 9: transfer window. That not really working as quickly as we
Speaker 9: thought it was going to work out. And maybe that's
Speaker 9: a byproduct of Luna's development being the MLS Young Player
Speaker 9: of the Year, and maybe Matt Crooks filling a role.
Speaker 9: But again, it's not just Chicho Rongo. It's Anderson Julio,
Speaker 9: It's Andres Gomez, Matt Crooks. Those are a lot of
Speaker 9: goals departing I mean, you're you're talking. I think roughly
Speaker 9: forty two goals in all competitions that are no longer
Speaker 9: a part of this group. That's that's a big void.
Speaker 9: So yeah, your assumption is well taken as something that
Speaker 9: I would agree upon as well, that if you're going
Speaker 9: to get this deal done for you know, roughly one
Speaker 9: point four in general allocation money at this stage of
Speaker 9: the season, that you felt like you needed to make
Speaker 9: the decision, because in my world that doesn't come close
Speaker 9: to the full valuation of what a guy like Chicho
Speaker 9: Arongo's capable of doing a major league.
Speaker 1: Soccer So I'm not sure Danille'll ever be like fully
Speaker 1: on board with we find young talents, we invest young talent,
Speaker 1: we develop young talent, and then we sell good players.
Speaker 1: But I understand it, and Andres's proof of concept. So
Speaker 1: thirteen mil potentially, I get it. I understand that. But
Speaker 1: tell me what you're hearing about Diego, who right now
Speaker 1: appears to be like such a necessity in a lynchpin
Speaker 1: with the lack of creativity in that group.
Speaker 2: Is there a chance that he's gone prior to the
Speaker 2: start of the season.
Speaker 9: No, I mean, there's nothing to suggest. And again I'm
Speaker 9: not privy to those internal conversations, you know, for fielding
Speaker 9: phone calls and interest, And again I would just I
Speaker 9: would always remind people that, you know, a conversation about
Speaker 9: a player isn't an offer for a player, So theoretically
Speaker 9: you never really truly know the intrinsic value of a
Speaker 9: player unless that you know comes over in that email
Speaker 9: that facts whatever we're talking about to justify what a
Speaker 9: real offer looks like. And it's different. Right, Fidel Braja
Speaker 9: is going for five million after costing two hundred thousand.
Speaker 9: Elston Battery is more of a bright product of a
Speaker 9: rule change down in Lega a Mechi's in Mexico where
Speaker 9: they're putting higher value on Mexican international players or those
Speaker 9: that have dual Mexican international availability, because Major League Soccer
Speaker 9: is cashed in on some players that were highly overvalued
Speaker 9: by Legua a Mechi's versus what we've seen value internally
Speaker 9: in Major League Soccer. But yeah, with Luna in particular, listen,
Speaker 9: I think this January camp, I've got him as my
Speaker 9: Tier one, number one player to keep an eye on
Speaker 9: because I think his skill set and his ability, his
Speaker 9: mentality is something special and I think after the season
Speaker 9: he just had, he could be one of the few
Speaker 9: players in this January camp that I think has a
Speaker 9: realistic opportunity to really impress Mauricio Pochettino in a manner
Speaker 9: that could see a more consistent basis of call ups,
Speaker 9: similar to what we saw with Aiden Morris and Columbus
Speaker 9: Crew a year ago, who was with Diego making his
Speaker 9: international debut down in San Diego against Slovakia, turned that
Speaker 9: into a sale to Middlesbrough in the Championship and you know,
Speaker 9: subsequently being more outside of that knee injury, having more
Speaker 9: of a role with Marito Pozattino's central midfield conversation. But
Speaker 9: as of right now, there's nothing to suggest that Diego
Speaker 9: Luna is the next one out the door. I think
Speaker 9: he's fully capable of earning himself significant interest and inevitably,
Speaker 9: you know, a couple of doors being knocked on, they're
Speaker 9: kicking the tires at least by teams over in Europe.
Speaker 9: But I could see that more in a summer transfer
Speaker 9: window interest as opposed to a January window.
Speaker 1: So there's a report the club has not announced it yet,
Speaker 1: but you know, I think it's just fair to say,
Speaker 1: and I'm not trying to be overly critical. The situation
Speaker 1: goal felt untenable last year where Zach was making some
Speaker 1: errors where you're like, dude, are there orange slices and fruit?
Speaker 1: You know, the snacks involved in like so many weird
Speaker 1: gas from Zach who's done it for a lot long time.
Speaker 1: Gavin ultimately gets the shot to win that job and
Speaker 1: he didn't. You know, he's young, He's got a lot
Speaker 1: of upside. But apparently Gavin is being moved on to
Speaker 1: a Danish club. So what is your understanding as far
Speaker 1: as what the plan is in goal for oursel this year?
Speaker 9: Yeah, so it sounds like Gavin Biever's is going to
Speaker 9: be a part of the Blitzer umbrella because the Blitzer
Speaker 9: Sports and you know, Splitzer Sports also owns Bronby over
Speaker 9: in Denmark, and that's where it sounds like that's going
Speaker 9: to be the landing spot. Tommy Boger, Tommy Snacks, as
Speaker 9: I call him, the best mustache in the game, has
Speaker 9: all the inside information from a soccer perspective, and he
Speaker 9: was the first to kind of really put this out
Speaker 9: there that Gavin was on his way. Now we don't
Speaker 9: understand the full compensation, you know, is it a couple million?
Speaker 9: Is it only a million? I know there was there
Speaker 9: was whispers about interest from Newcastle United from the Premier
Speaker 9: League over the summer, but that didn't materialize into a
Speaker 9: true offer from what I understood at the time, more
Speaker 9: about again kicking the tires and seeing what the value
Speaker 9: potentially could have been for Real as Salt Lakes desire
Speaker 9: and want. Listen, I think both he and Zach you know,
Speaker 9: we're given the opportunity to. I think and I feel
Speaker 9: like this is the biggest question coming out of League's
Speaker 9: Cup and that suspension, and coincided with the Chiecho conversation,
Speaker 9: is you've got two goalkeepers that couldn't figure out a
Speaker 9: way to consistently play at a high enough level. That
Speaker 9: didn't justify Pablo and their coaching staff to have significant
Speaker 9: questions about either goalkeeper. And Listen, you were coming out
Speaker 9: twelve months ago steps from Maxim Crepo, John McCarthy, some
Speaker 9: significant goalkeepers being available in the internal free agent market,
Speaker 9: and Real Salt Lake not interest on in making a
Speaker 9: run at either of them or competing for the signature
Speaker 9: of either of them. Zach's been a solid goalkeeper. I've
Speaker 9: always thought that in terms of competition, you could go
Speaker 9: out in the market, either internationally or intra league and
Speaker 9: find someone that could compete and make both goalkeepers better.
Speaker 9: But you know, there was a pathway for Gavin to
Speaker 9: be the number one. He couldn't hold on to it.
Speaker 9: He was given i would say, two to three legitimate
Speaker 9: opportunities to be the number one goalkeeper. And whether it
Speaker 9: was a crisis of confidence three games in seven days,
Speaker 9: or you know, just not proving that he was the
Speaker 9: under speed in number one, that didn't mean that there
Speaker 9: wasn't significant interest because of his performances at the U
Speaker 9: nineteen US Under nineteen team level. And that's what I've
Speaker 9: been told led to this Bronbee opportunity. So it does
Speaker 9: sound like there's a potential for a new goalkeeper coming
Speaker 9: through the door. I've been told that it sounds like
Speaker 9: there's a potential for that announcement coming soon. And hopefully
Speaker 9: this is this is a guy that isn't just competing
Speaker 9: for the number one spot, that potentially is for the
Speaker 9: number one spot because I feel like since the loss
Speaker 9: of Nick Romando, you know, we've had Deva Dachilla, who
Speaker 9: was a Western Conference final winning goalkeeper. For whatever reason,
Speaker 9: he's gone out the door. Now you're going to lose
Speaker 9: another young, dynamic, high potential, high threshold goalkeeper, and you've
Speaker 9: got to figure out what's happening from that position. Are
Speaker 9: you developing for you finding yourself an undisputed number one.
Speaker 9: So hopefully that that has been answered by the time,
Speaker 9: you know, I guess day one started today. By the
Speaker 9: end of the week, and you start thinking about we're
Speaker 9: right around the corner from the startup CAFT Championship, and
Speaker 9: that's kind of.
Speaker 1: One of where I want to go next, Donny, because
Speaker 1: as you reference, like, the players are gathering and I'm
Speaker 1: just you know, you have Mark Zuke, who I think,
Speaker 1: you know, as a chance to be really really good,
Speaker 1: to be honest, I mean with a full preseason, you've
Speaker 1: got uh, you know, Diogo Gonsalvez, who certainly has skill
Speaker 1: it never fully you know, came together last year.
Speaker 2: I'm just looking at the attacking group, like, what exactly
Speaker 2: are we doing here?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: Of course, you know Diego's still around, so there's some
Speaker 1: bright I guess i'll say skilled midfielder midfielders, But who's
Speaker 1: who's scoring goals?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: And do you think there's some reinforcements on the way,
Speaker 1: maybe as early as the next few weeks before their
Speaker 1: first cocky Calf match.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean the well they went through the MLS
Speaker 9: Combine and through the MLS College Draft and picked up
Speaker 9: a pretty sizable amount of players. Now, the one thing
Speaker 9: we never know is are you finding he asked for
Speaker 9: Lafelson or an Amcca and Nelly in this draft we
Speaker 9: talked about Diego Luna being involved with Mauricio Pochettino side
Speaker 9: a mecha and Nelly is also down in Orlando and
Speaker 9: Fort Lauderdale right now with US team. And that's an
Speaker 9: incredible story of a young man that, you know, the
Speaker 9: pathless traveled, not picked to go pro, going through the
Speaker 9: college game and worked himself through, you know, the early
Speaker 9: part of what his future as a professional soccer player
Speaker 9: looked like, and ultimately rewarded with the starting spot and
Speaker 9: playing so well that he was in contention for a
Speaker 9: lot of these conversations, including the All Star Game, but
Speaker 9: ultimately with Diego being coinciding a call up to the
Speaker 9: US men national team. So there is still value in
Speaker 9: the college game. You hope at this stage that there's
Speaker 9: enough of a philosophical approach as well as a professional
Speaker 9: layout that the identification process through the academy system from
Speaker 9: the fifteen year olds to the nineteen year olds, that
Speaker 9: you're creating a pathway through the academy to the real
Speaker 9: Monarchs to the first team, and there's a viable option there.
Speaker 9: And we see guys like Zavi Ragozo who consistently are
Speaker 9: being called into the US under seventeens, eighteens, nineteens, and
Speaker 9: now twenties that there's hopefully a pathway if he's good
Speaker 9: enough for the US under twenty national team, that he's
Speaker 9: good enough to see some significant minutes. You know, not
Speaker 9: too long ago, we were celebrating a guy like Axel Kai,
Speaker 9: and Axle Kai hasn't come close to really breaking through
Speaker 9: at the highest level. So you know, in this offseason,
Speaker 9: you know, you trade, you know, a couple of players
Speaker 9: in particular, You're getting Sam Junka, who's a defender who's
Speaker 9: got some memost experience. You got Tyler coming over from
Speaker 9: Atlanta United. That's Josh Wilis's oldest son who's had some
Speaker 9: pretty good minutes in Major League Soccer so far. You've
Speaker 9: got Eliath Monuel who came over from the New York
Speaker 9: Red Bulls who was started on the bench in the
Speaker 9: MLS Cup Final and came in while they were chasing
Speaker 9: the game. To try to get themselves back in and
Speaker 9: then the announcement today of the loan of Kobe Henry
Speaker 9: coming in, who is a dynamic, young center back with
Speaker 9: a high threshold who started off in Orange County in
Speaker 9: the second division here in the United States and was
Speaker 9: over at Rim and so you're gonna give him a
Speaker 9: runout on a loan option. But outside of that, I
Speaker 9: think you're still waiting for these announcements and the timing
Speaker 9: and the league and making sure all the passport and
Speaker 9: the visa situations get all laid out. That takes a
Speaker 9: little bit more time than anybody's willing to really admit.
Speaker 9: But yeah, to your point, whether you're talking about Gonzalez,
Speaker 9: you're talking about mar Chuk, you're talking about any of
Speaker 9: these other players, Laughlin Brook. At the end of the day, again,
Speaker 9: there's a lot of goals that are missing and a
Speaker 9: short amount of time for Pablo and his staff. I mean,
Speaker 9: and here's the other thing, Spence, you know, to assume
Speaker 9: that they're just going to roll out the same formation
Speaker 9: or at least the tactical approach becomes up for debate
Speaker 9: because you've lost so many different players and because this
Speaker 9: system is you know, is the players fitting the system
Speaker 9: is the system fitting the players, and that's going to
Speaker 9: be the challenge for Pablo and his coaching staff, especially
Speaker 9: with kind of the leadership vacuum that I would say,
Speaker 9: in particular, you lose from Chiico and a guy like
Speaker 9: Matt Crooks walking out the door.
Speaker 1: All right, Donnie, Before I said you loose, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: they set a club record for points a year ago,
Speaker 1: they set a club record for goal scored a year ago,
Speaker 1: they were ousted in the first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 2: What gives?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 2: Like? Why the fire sale?
Speaker 1: And as a guy that has been in a number
Speaker 1: of locker rooms, what does that say to you about
Speaker 1: the things that behind the scenes that were potentially going
Speaker 1: on that maybe none of us really knew, like it?
Speaker 1: I don't know, Man, For a season that had so
Speaker 1: many victories, it seems odd to more or less break
Speaker 1: it down to the studs.
Speaker 2: So why do you think they're doing it?
Speaker 9: Yeah, and again I'm not privy to the financial ratifications. Obviously,
Speaker 9: I don't have the insight of exactly the breakdowns of
Speaker 9: how they're functioning. Because there's a bunch of different options
Speaker 9: in terms of designated players U twenty two initiative players
Speaker 9: target allocation money. You know, there's a bunch of expendable cash,
Speaker 9: supplemental cash that can be invested by ownership based on
Speaker 9: how you build your roster in the structure. But I'll
Speaker 9: be as honest and transparent as I possibly can as
Speaker 9: just an Apple TV analyst in this situation, I'm shocked.
Speaker 9: I got to be honest with you. I'm shocked that
Speaker 9: whatever's happened in Chicho, in his family's world, that this
Speaker 9: was a necessary move at this time of his career
Speaker 9: and at his tenure with the club, Because you don't
Speaker 9: go from being club captain in seventeen goals in a
Speaker 9: season to all of a sudden have so much havocs
Speaker 9: surrounding you that this moment is the moment that you decide,
Speaker 9: with your family's agreement that you got to get out
Speaker 9: of Salt Lake. I completely understand Andres gomaz and pulling
Speaker 9: that trigger on his move in the summer and effectively
Speaker 9: coming just over thirteen million in from Red. So those
Speaker 9: are planning purposes, and I think that was part of
Speaker 9: the deal that comes Alvez Anderson Julio. I'm not aware
Speaker 9: of exactly what his number or his cap hit was
Speaker 9: with either triggering an extension or whatever was left on
Speaker 9: his deal, because I'll gently remind everybody that usually the
Speaker 9: backside of deals are, as you know, spence in any sport,
Speaker 9: pretty heavily burdening for clubs, depending upon what the outlay
Speaker 9: of the statistics look like. And then Matt Crooks is
Speaker 9: more of a family issue for as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 9: and from what I've been told that it was going
Speaker 9: to be difficult for him to stay here for more
Speaker 9: than one year based on what was going on with
Speaker 9: his wife and his family and the desire to stay
Speaker 9: back in England. So there's certainly circumstances again, as you know,
Speaker 9: in any walk of life, any sport, that clubs have
Speaker 9: to deal with. But I did not have this on
Speaker 9: my winter off season Bingo Pard that this club was
Speaker 9: going to be torn apart in the manner in which
Speaker 9: it was, and so significantly transitioning in a time where
Speaker 9: I thought that the potential going in the off season
Speaker 9: was making a decision on maybe one, two three players max,
Speaker 9: but certainly not losing forty plus goals in one fell
Speaker 9: swoop of one off season in Major League soccer.
Speaker 1: My goodness, my goodness. All right, buddy, next time somebody
Speaker 1: forwards me an article. When you're asked about the first
Speaker 1: broadcasting job that you've ever had, please make sure that
Speaker 1: it includes that the idiot that I heard talking they
Speaker 1: knew nothing about soccer also petition to get me on
Speaker 1: his show. I just want you to include that the
Speaker 1: next time you're asked about it. I just want you
Speaker 1: to include that piece.
Speaker 2: Please.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I just want everyone to know. Spence and Trey
Speaker 9: were the first two people after I retired quote unquote
Speaker 9: that I looked around and I said, let me know
Speaker 9: when you guys want someone who knows what they're talking about.
Speaker 9: And that was the start of my glorious involvement in
Speaker 9: the media. What was that maybe May or June of
Speaker 9: two thousand and six.
Speaker 2: Somewhere there some are right in there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure, we go along.
Speaker 9: We go way back, way back, Yes.
Speaker 1: Sir, all right, brother, thanks for the time. I'd be
Speaker 1: good with chat. Soom appreciation Brian done seth Apple TV.
Speaker 1: You can hear them on the call for a lot
Speaker 1: of the US men's national team matches as well.
Speaker 2: And I think Donny put it really well.
Speaker 1: If you are an RSL fan and I'm aware that
Speaker 1: a few of you are not here from you from
Speaker 1: time to time. This is a wild, wild approach for
Speaker 1: a team that it appeared to have a lot of
Speaker 1: really good things going for it. But I guess the
Speaker 1: only time we'll tell Kurts a smart guy ownership is
Speaker 1: showing the willingness and ability to write some checks, and
Speaker 1: Pablo at this point probably deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: Concacaf a few weeks away. The guys are the lads.
Speaker 1: Here for the lads. They're gathering right now for camp