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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 1-22-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: He's the Sean O'Connell Show, brought to you by Big
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Speaker 1: Willies on Utah's number one sports talk and home of
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Speaker 1: the ESPN seven hundred ninety two one a half am
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Speaker 1: a proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.
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Speaker 2: Happy Thursday, Everybody, Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show. It's
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Speaker 2: gonna be a big day, brought to you by a
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Speaker 2: friends at Big Willie seventeen seventeen, South Maine. If you
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Speaker 2: have a party you need to throw, if you have
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Speaker 2: a corporate event, if you want a romantic date nights
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Speaker 2: with this particular sports fan, they'll hook you up. On
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Speaker 2: all fronts seventeen seventeen. So half made Utah is number
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Speaker 2: one sports bar, Utels, number one pool haul, the best
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Speaker 2: place to watch your Utah Mammoth games, your Utah Jazz
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Speaker 2: games if you don't have tickets to the Delta Center
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Speaker 2: of course, and the upcoming play off games this weekend
1:01
Speaker 2: AFC and NFC Championship games. They will have watch parties
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Speaker 2: going on for those with food and drink specials, wallet friendly,
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Speaker 2: sports fan friendly Big Willies seventeen seventeen, South Maine. Gordy
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Speaker 2: Chase is going to join us in the noon hour now,
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Speaker 2: because we had a slight scheduling change. Morgan Scalley, the
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Speaker 2: new head coach at the University of Utah, was set
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Speaker 2: to join us right off the top here like any
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Speaker 2: minute now. Flight delay means that he's going to be
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Speaker 2: joining us at eleven thirty, So Morgan at eleven thirty,
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Speaker 2: Gordy from noon to one, effectively noon to twelve forty
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Speaker 2: five or so, our guy Eric Weddle at one o'clock.
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Speaker 2: Fun Show, Big Show, we'll talk some fights at one
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Speaker 2: point thirty. Zach Partridge from Fierce Fighting Championship, I think
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Speaker 2: is going to come in studio with us.
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Speaker 3: If not, we'll just call him.
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Speaker 2: Getting you ready for a fun weekend again in the
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Speaker 2: world of Utah sports. And I don't know how many
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Speaker 2: of you watched the Utah Mammoth game last night.
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Speaker 3: If you missed it, you missed out.
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Speaker 2: Finishing off the home stand against a Philadelphia Flyers team
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Speaker 2: that in the East in the Metro Division is position
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Speaker 2: points wise exactly where the.
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Speaker 3: Utah Mammoth are position.
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Speaker 2: Now. They're in a different place from the playoff standings
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Speaker 2: because things are different over there in the East. But
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Speaker 2: fifty four points coming into the game. And again this
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Speaker 2: was Adrian Denny between the pipes yesterday. He said, this
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Speaker 2: is a bit of a trap game because you've been
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Speaker 2: playing so well and things have been looking so good,
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Speaker 2: and you know, Philly is one of those teams that
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Speaker 2: can cause you problems if you start to think ahead
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Speaker 2: to this brutal road trip that you've got coming up,
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Speaker 2: or you start to rest on the laurels of whatever's
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Speaker 2: been happening as of late. Well, the Utah Mammoth last
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Speaker 2: night started the game as poorly as you possibly can.
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Speaker 3: Early, early in the first period, give up two goals.
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Speaker 2: Early in the second period, give up another goal, so
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Speaker 2: they're trailing three zero, and then they start to clawed back.
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Speaker 2: And I actually spoke with Adrian Denny at the game
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Speaker 2: for a grand total of like five seconds after the
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Speaker 2: first Utah goal to start clawing back, and he said,
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Speaker 2: that's exactly what they needed. Four or five great shifts
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Speaker 2: in a row and then something's gonna break. And I
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Speaker 2: was like, all right, okay, I went James, I grabbed
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Speaker 2: my Santorini. Shout out to Santorini in the Delta Center.
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Speaker 2: The concessions are excellent these days at the Delta Center
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Speaker 2: and Santorini is my favorite, unabashedly little Mediterranean Greek cuisine,
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Speaker 2: classic Greek salad. Would I like to be knoshing on
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Speaker 2: the Sultan vinegar fries?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? Should I?
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Speaker 2: Should I be getting two slices of pizza when I'm
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Speaker 2: at a game like this, No, so Santorini. For all
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Speaker 2: of you are trying to stay a little bit health
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Speaker 2: conscious while you're taking in a game. You start to
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Speaker 2: claw back, You start to put some good shifts together,
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Speaker 2: and suddenly it begins to break Utah's way. Then Philadelphia
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Speaker 2: gets a fourth goal. And still this Utah man a
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Speaker 2: team not giving up, putting together a good shift after
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Speaker 2: good shift, threatening, staying in the ozone better on the
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Speaker 2: back check, the melka, kind of dialing himself in a
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Speaker 2: little bit. You claw another goal back. Now it's four
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Speaker 2: to two and Philadelphia as you're running out of time.
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Speaker 2: Now we're in the third period. Utah running out of time,
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Speaker 2: all right, and Philadelphia pulls their goaltender, or excuse me,
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Speaker 2: Utah pulls the goaltender to try and equalize. When you're
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Speaker 2: within you get that one more goal. Gunter shoots one in.
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Speaker 2: You get one more goal. You pull the goaltender Veggie's
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Speaker 2: off the ice for the final two minutes of the
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Speaker 2: third period. Okay, you have an open goal, empty net.
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Speaker 2: Garnet Hathaway picks up the puck right past the blue line,
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Speaker 2: and he should have been able to flick it from there,
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Speaker 2: just a little wrister. These guys can go full length
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Speaker 2: of the ice and find an open net.
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Speaker 3: He skates it in for whatever reason.
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Speaker 2: And one of the heroes of this season, a guy
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Speaker 2: that has not been talked about enough even on this show.
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Speaker 2: While I mentally ignowre Colledge how important he's been, especially
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Speaker 2: at the start of the year when the Mammoth started
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Speaker 2: at like blazing red hot, he was a huge part
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Speaker 2: of that.
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Speaker 3: Nick Schmaltz comes from.
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Speaker 2: I mean, if we're watching the Kentucky Derby, right, it's
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Speaker 2: like four horse lengths back.
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Speaker 3: He is hustling, staying in the play.
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Speaker 2: You are a fraction of a second away from Philadelphia
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Speaker 2: putting this one in the bag five to three with
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Speaker 2: less than two minutes to play.
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Speaker 3: You're not overcoming that.
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Speaker 2: Instead, Schmaltzos poke checks.
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Speaker 3: The puck away from this.
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Speaker 2: Garnet Hathaway steals it, creates the turnover, dumps it back
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Speaker 2: in kind of to the neutral zone and allows the
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Speaker 2: Utah Mammoth to live and fight another day. I can't
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Speaker 2: remember which Philadelphia defenseman mishandles the puck along the boards
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Speaker 2: in front of the benches.
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Speaker 3: And the Captain Captain of America.
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Speaker 2: Steve Rogers aka Clayton Keller, who had had kind of
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Speaker 2: a first half of the season that was below the
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Speaker 2: standard of what we expect from him, and then experienced
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Speaker 2: family tragedy and that kind of extended this this period
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Speaker 2: of malaise. But then all of a sudden he gets
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Speaker 2: added to the Team USA Olympic roster and it seems
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Speaker 2: to have energized him and the players around him. Clayton
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Speaker 2: Keller snatches the puck skates it across the mouth of
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Speaker 2: the goal equalizer with seconds left to play, Philadelphia on
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Speaker 2: their heels, Delta Center fans going banana sandwich loud, crazy insanity,
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Speaker 2: and still I think a little bit of disbelief that
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Speaker 2: after starting this game so poorly, being out shot by
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Speaker 2: a two to one margin for a peero and a half,
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Speaker 2: now with seconds left to play, you are tied up
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Speaker 2: and you're about to head into overtime. Overtime, you kind
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Speaker 2: of knew it. You kind of knew that the momentum
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Speaker 2: had shifted so aggressively. The arena is loud, the fans
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Speaker 2: have stayed. Philadelphia is looking at each other wide eyed,
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Speaker 2: like what is happening here? Gunther Keller Ice it out done,
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Speaker 2: slap shot? I think what top left?
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Speaker 3: Gone?
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Speaker 2: Go home overtime winner after trailing three to zero, and
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Speaker 2: if you watched only the first half of the game,
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Speaker 2: which you'd probably be justified as a fan.
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Speaker 3: And just be like, I'm done. I'm turning this off.
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Speaker 2: Five to four overtime victory for the Utah Mammoth to
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Speaker 2: finish out the home stand with the win, to snatch
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Speaker 2: nearly every point possible in this homestand to establish yourself
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Speaker 2: as what you won. You won six out of seven
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Speaker 2: at home, and you are now back in the conversation
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Speaker 2: for hottest team in the NHL.
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Speaker 4: Why is it that those two numbers always seem to
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Speaker 4: be coming up lately? OC six, six and seven. I know,
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Speaker 4: I know, the the the joke with the with the
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Speaker 4: junior high and younger kids, the junior high joke that's
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Speaker 4: going on around now, but it's wild. Maybe it's because
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Speaker 4: we're hearing it all the time where our brains are
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Speaker 4: just like because like even PBR giving away tickets too.
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Speaker 4: That's on what dates, oh see February six, sixth and seventh.
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Speaker 4: It's just wild that anyway, six six out of seven
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Speaker 4: for the Mammoth.
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Speaker 2: Well those six out of seven for them, this one
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Speaker 2: on a five to four score.
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Speaker 5: Uh.
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Speaker 2: Credit to Daniel Boot who opened the scoring account in
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Speaker 2: this game.
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Speaker 3: Not because he scored the goal. J. J.
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Speaker 2: Pitterka got the Maama's first goal, but it was Daniel
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Speaker 2: Boot fighting it out, going to back around behind the
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Speaker 2: goal and creating a I mean, it looks like junior's hockey,
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Speaker 2: and it looked like gremlin's hockey because he tries to
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Speaker 2: wrap around and tries to wrap around goal.
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Speaker 3: That thing gets blocked.
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Speaker 2: But then the puck there's three Mammoth and four flyers
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Speaker 2: all like right there in the crease and everyone's just
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Speaker 2: hacking it hack, hack, hacking. It's like little kids on
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Speaker 2: a soccer ball. It's the tiniest little hockey dudes you've
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Speaker 2: ever seen, but at the NHL level, and they're just
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Speaker 2: trying to jam this one home.
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Speaker 3: Puck squirts out a little bit.
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Speaker 2: JJ Pitturk is kind of like I don't know, a
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Speaker 2: half step behind where everyone else is, and he immediately
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Speaker 2: puts it in. That's but that's an effort play from
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Speaker 2: daneil Boot. It's an unassisted goal officially, but that Daniel
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Speaker 2: Boot is the one that created the scenario where Philly's
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Speaker 2: goalkeeper he can't trap it, he can't stop play, and
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Speaker 2: there's there's like seven just trying to figure out where
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Speaker 2: that thing's gonna come out. They're all jamming each other up,
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Speaker 2: they're all kicking at it. JJ Pitterka with the vision
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Speaker 2: with the patients, gets that one in thirty six seconds later,
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Speaker 2: Las and Krauss adds another goal.
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Speaker 3: And suddenly after.
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Speaker 2: A more than a period, more than a full period
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Speaker 2: of just malaise and thinking, this Utah Mammoth team is
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Speaker 2: gonna finish out this home stand on kind of a dud,
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Speaker 2: like Adrian Denny told us was possible, But they clawed
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Speaker 2: it back, unfailing fights, unfailing belief even down three zero,
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Speaker 2: that this thing was gonna happen. They know what they're
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Speaker 2: capable of when they have these guys on the ice
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Speaker 2: and need I remind you I beat this thing to death.
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Speaker 3: I will do it.
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Speaker 2: They are doing this six out of seven at home,
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Speaker 2: piling up all these points without Logan Cooley right now,
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Speaker 2: without one of their best players, one of their best
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Speaker 2: scoring threats, one of the better young players in the NHL,
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Speaker 2: and a guy who's very important to team chemistry and
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Speaker 2: everything else. This is a tech. This home stretch is
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Speaker 2: a testament to what the team is capable of, and
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Speaker 2: that end of game sequence where you had Schmaltz, who
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Speaker 2: Nick Schmaltz is a really excellent player for this team.
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Speaker 2: Contract deals coming up. I hope they extend him and
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Speaker 2: keep him around. Schmaltz is one of those guys that
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Speaker 2: isn't He's not at the top of your list, right
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Speaker 2: You're not going into the team store and saying, I'm
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Speaker 2: gonna grab me a Schmaltz sweater. Everyone's trying to get
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Speaker 2: themselves on the Clayton Keller train, the Dylan Gumter train,
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Speaker 2: the Logan Cooley train. JJ Pitturka seems like he's a
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Speaker 2: popular sweater right now. So you're talking about a guy
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Speaker 2: who's like sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, most highest profile guy
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Speaker 2: on your team, but he has been massive to the
12:53
Speaker 2: best stretches of hockey that you have played. I mean,
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Speaker 2: if you had to take a vip from the early
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Speaker 2: portion of the season where the Utah Mammoth looked like
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Speaker 2: they were the best team in hockey, remember that, do
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Speaker 2: you do? You remember the first month of hockey.
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Speaker 4: And he shall not be named shouting him out in
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Speaker 4: a press conference and that's and and that was the
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Speaker 4: jinks for a little bit, right we thought, oh geez,
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Speaker 4: now now we jinxed it, and then they they're back
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Speaker 4: to that kind of play. By the way, if you
13:24
Speaker 4: looked at the standings, oc UH Utah fourth in their division.
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Speaker 4: Because we talked about with Adrian Denny, the divisions just
13:32
Speaker 4: it's the best division and the Central Division is the
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Speaker 4: best division in hockey.
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Speaker 2: Right now, three of the best, three of the best
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Speaker 2: four teams in hockey are in the Central Division. With
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Speaker 2: the Utah Mammoth, they are the NHL equivalent of the
13:45
Speaker 2: NFC West in NFL football.
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Speaker 4: But they but they are the number one wildcard team
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Speaker 4: right now. To what so, just we're still we're still
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Speaker 4: the new hockey market. OC it just to ed educate
13:57
Speaker 4: people who were trying to get into it.
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Speaker 6: Still.
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Speaker 4: I had to educate myself on the playoff format here.
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Speaker 4: It's the top three teams from each division two divisions
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Speaker 4: in each conference. Top three teams in each division get
14:08
Speaker 4: in in each conference, so that's six of it. It's
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Speaker 4: eight teams total, just like the NBA. Six of the
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Speaker 4: eight teams from the from the division and then the
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Speaker 4: next two highest point total teams in the standings are
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Speaker 4: your are your last two teams.
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Speaker 3: Those are your two wildcards from each conference.
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Speaker 4: So Utah is the top wild card team even though
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Speaker 4: they're fourth in their division. They're three points ahead of
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Speaker 4: the next one, Seattle and San Jose, which if you
14:37
Speaker 4: remember last year, O see, we were thinking like Utah
14:40
Speaker 4: was in the Seattle and San Jose position. We're thinking
14:43
Speaker 4: only three points out like right there, and they were
14:47
Speaker 4: from that perspective, but it's hard to it's hard to
14:50
Speaker 4: gain even that small amount of points with only a
14:53
Speaker 4: few months left in the season.
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Speaker 3: Like we are now.
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Speaker 4: Utah is now in that power position where it's like
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Speaker 4: people need to catch us, which is which obviously great position.
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Speaker 2: So Anaheim right now they've won five in a row.
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Speaker 2: Utah's won five in a row. Getting hot when you
15:08
Speaker 2: need to get hot, and to get back to the
15:11
Speaker 2: point I was making, Nick, if you go back to October,
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Speaker 2: when the Utah Mammoth were bursting onto the scene of
15:18
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five twenty twenty sixth season. Nick Schmaltz
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Speaker 2: was as important as anyone else, maybe the most important
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Speaker 2: player in that run, in this homestand he's been great.
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Speaker 3: Last night.
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Speaker 2: He showed its perfect team chemistry and you're not gonna
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Speaker 2: get it every single night. But what I mean when
15:36
Speaker 2: I say perfect team chemistry is guys like Clayton Keller,
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Speaker 2: your captain. He's the one that you want scoring two
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Speaker 2: goals in two minutes in order to win you an
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Speaker 2: overtime game.
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Speaker 3: But that does not happen. That is not possible.
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Speaker 2: If Schmaltz doesn't make the hustle play and recover a puck,
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Speaker 2: that is I mean a blink away from being an
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Speaker 2: empty net goal for the Philadelphia Flyers.
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Speaker 3: If he does not.
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Speaker 2: Skate his hardest, reach his farthest recognize that, Oh my gosh,
16:16
Speaker 2: why is he making Why is he being so lackadaisical.
16:19
Speaker 2: Why is Garnet Hathaway of the Philadelphia Flyers not showing
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Speaker 2: urgency here? He thinks that because he's got an open
16:26
Speaker 2: net in front of him, because Bimelka has already skated off,
16:30
Speaker 2: and there's just ice and disappointed fans behind the glass
16:34
Speaker 2: for him in like his field division, he's taking his
16:37
Speaker 2: sweet time. If Schmaltz doesn't recognize that and poke, check
16:43
Speaker 2: that puck away and create the turnover and send it
16:46
Speaker 2: back into the neutral zone where his guys can fight
16:49
Speaker 2: it out, and then the captain can be the captain.
16:52
Speaker 2: It's like a scene from The Avengers where a bit
16:55
Speaker 2: character holds down some villain for just long enough the
16:59
Speaker 2: Captain America can come in, just long enough that Iron
17:03
Speaker 2: Man can make something happen. It's like, you know, when
17:05
Speaker 2: Thanos they're about to get the they're about to get
17:08
Speaker 2: the Infinity Stones away from him, get the glove off,
17:13
Speaker 2: star Lord screws it up for everyone because he's mad
17:15
Speaker 2: and jealous.
17:16
Speaker 3: Stop that. I don't like that. I hate that in
17:18
Speaker 3: a movie. But like you know, it's like.
17:21
Speaker 2: Drax, who's effectively a bit character there, he's he's gotta
17:24
Speaker 2: he's got to play that role of distraction. He's got
17:27
Speaker 2: to make that like role player kind of moment happen.
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Speaker 2: And that's what Schmaltz did last night. And he's done
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Speaker 2: that over and over and over again.
17:36
Speaker 3: This year.
17:36
Speaker 2: I mean, in hockey, the dynamics because even your even
17:42
Speaker 2: your megastars, don't really get to play much more then
17:46
Speaker 2: your rank and file guys. They don't skate all that
17:49
Speaker 2: more much more often, unless they're like Sergachev and they're
17:53
Speaker 2: on the penalty kill and they're on the power play, then.
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Speaker 3: You might get an extra couple of minutes a night.
17:58
Speaker 2: Like the weight of impact and the star power is
18:03
Speaker 2: determined by a lot of these things that we measure, assists, goals,
18:08
Speaker 2: points plus minus, things like that, and Schmaltz is never
18:12
Speaker 2: going to be the guy who's at the top of
18:14
Speaker 2: those lists over the course of an entire season. But
18:17
Speaker 2: look at the stretch that Mammoth had in October, look
18:19
Speaker 2: at the stretch that they're having right now, and tell
18:22
Speaker 2: me that there's even a Clayton Keller, even a Dylan Gunther,
18:25
Speaker 2: even a Mikhal Sergachev is more valuable to this team
18:29
Speaker 2: than schmalty has been. That play is just a perfect
18:33
Speaker 2: little snapshot of it. And he's far from being a
18:35
Speaker 2: perfect player, but he is amazing when they need him.
18:39
Speaker 4: To your point about how important he is to the team,
18:41
Speaker 4: you remember Ryan Smith, the owner of the team, obviously
18:45
Speaker 4: going on ESPN their first ESPN game of the year
18:49
Speaker 4: and saying during that hot stretch to start the season, saying, yeah,
18:54
Speaker 4: we need we need to get him resigned. So at
18:57
Speaker 4: the highest levels of the organization they know how important
19:03
Speaker 4: Nick Schmaltz is and he keeps showing it on the
19:05
Speaker 4: ice for sure.
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Speaker 3: Now things get.
19:11
Speaker 2: Less than easy as you go on this road trip
19:15
Speaker 2: where again we talked about this yesterday with Adrian Denny
19:18
Speaker 2: between the pipes. You can go find that at ESPN
19:20
Speaker 2: seven hundred sports dot com. You can find it in
19:23
Speaker 2: the on demand section of the ESPN seven hundred app.
19:27
Speaker 2: So you've got the Predators next and the Preds. When
19:31
Speaker 2: we're talking about that wild card picture and we're talking
19:34
Speaker 2: about the standings in the NHL, teams like this, teams
19:37
Speaker 2: like Philadelphia who are your equal. You know, we have
19:41
Speaker 2: these conversations with Gordy Chiays all the time. You got
19:43
Speaker 2: to beat the teams that are in your category. If
19:46
Speaker 2: you lose to the Colorado Avalanche right now while you're
19:50
Speaker 2: on the rise and they look like they're the best
19:52
Speaker 2: team in hockey, if you lose to Colorado, you're not
19:55
Speaker 2: like okay with it. But it's more understandable when you're
19:58
Speaker 2: talking about teams that are in your neighborhood. From a
20:01
Speaker 2: talent rebuild standpoint, you got to beat those teams when
20:05
Speaker 2: certainly in the standings, their.
20:09
Speaker 4: Utah's got a pretty good lead on them, but they're
20:11
Speaker 4: one of the teams that thinks they still have a
20:13
Speaker 4: chance at the playoff at one of those wild card firsts.
20:18
Speaker 2: Nashville is holding fifty points right now, and we saw
20:22
Speaker 2: what happened last year with Saint Louis. Remember when we
20:26
Speaker 2: got we got to about mid late February, and it
20:32
Speaker 2: was just like all right, the Mammoth, you know, three
20:34
Speaker 2: points out and the Flames are two points out, and
20:39
Speaker 2: the Blues are six points out, but the right and
20:41
Speaker 2: then they went on like an eight win streak or
20:43
Speaker 2: an eight game win streak and just snagged the playoff
20:46
Speaker 2: spot ahead of everyone. You gotta keep Nashville down, and
20:52
Speaker 2: you got to tell them, send the message to yourself,
20:55
Speaker 2: send the message to everyone in the NHL that like
20:58
Speaker 2: all right when it comes to as we get better
21:02
Speaker 2: as a team, and again all without Logan Cooley, right now,
21:06
Speaker 2: as we show our growth in developing towards being a
21:09
Speaker 2: playoff contender, here maybe we are not the Colorado Avalanche
21:15
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six. Maybe we're not
21:17
Speaker 2: true Stanley Cup contenders right now. But if you're going
21:20
Speaker 2: to go on the road after this incredible home stand,
21:24
Speaker 2: if you're gonna go on the road and look, Florida
21:28
Speaker 2: is going to be in the Stanley Cup Finals probably
21:30
Speaker 2: again this year.
21:31
Speaker 3: They're gonna get hot at the right time.
21:32
Speaker 2: They haven't looked at their best as of yet, but
21:34
Speaker 2: that's kind of a Florida m These last couple of seasons.
21:37
Speaker 4: They're surprisingly low in the standings. They're they're about as
21:43
Speaker 4: far away from from Utah as Nashville, like it's like
21:47
Speaker 4: Nashville to to to the Mammoths right now. So they've
21:51
Speaker 4: got a lot of work to do. But they are
21:53
Speaker 4: just they did just get ka Chuck back. They're poised
21:55
Speaker 4: to make a run. Like you said, they got Kachuck back, and.
22:01
Speaker 2: That's a veteran team that knows you've got to turn
22:05
Speaker 2: it on at some point.
22:06
Speaker 3: Now.
22:06
Speaker 2: Their goal differential is disastrous at this moment. I expect
22:10
Speaker 2: that to get better. But the point is you're going
22:14
Speaker 2: against Tampa, who's top of the Atlantic Division in the
22:17
Speaker 2: Eastern Conference right now, one of the best in the East.
22:21
Speaker 2: You've got then an immediate turnaround against Florida. It's a
22:24
Speaker 2: tough swing. The Carolina Hurricanes are going to be enough
22:27
Speaker 2: to cause you some problems. Are at the top of
22:29
Speaker 2: their Metro division right now in the East. So you've
22:33
Speaker 2: got two teams that are at the top of the East.
22:35
Speaker 2: And you've got a team in the East that is
22:38
Speaker 2: back to back Stanley Cup champions that just got their
22:41
Speaker 2: best player or one of their best players back after
22:44
Speaker 2: a long injury recovery.
22:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it doesn't matter like that they're not in
22:48
Speaker 4: the playoff picture right now. That's going to be a
22:51
Speaker 4: team that's hard to beat no matter what.
22:52
Speaker 2: And then you've got Nashville, who is at least serviceable
22:55
Speaker 2: that we talked about this stretch. You cannot say, well,
23:01
Speaker 2: you know, Nashville, that one got away from us. No
23:05
Speaker 2: like let the other ones get away, because the implications
23:11
Speaker 2: aren't right on your front door when it comes to
23:13
Speaker 2: the playoff standings. You gotta find a way to carry
23:19
Speaker 2: this momentum from a home stand into a road trip.
23:22
Speaker 2: Oh and by the way, there's apparently this insane weather
23:26
Speaker 2: event coming to the South and the East coast to
23:30
Speaker 2: where you might get snowed in in Nashville. There's gonna
23:36
Speaker 2: be some distractions, there's gonna be some difficulties. But this
23:39
Speaker 2: Utah Mammoth team is in absolute top form right now,
23:44
Speaker 2: even after showing last night a shaky start, recovering five
23:49
Speaker 2: goals in a period and a half, well and a
23:52
Speaker 2: little bit of overtime, and you win five to four
23:55
Speaker 2: against Philly, one of the better games we've seen them play,
24:00
Speaker 2: one of the better turnarounds we've seen them put together
24:03
Speaker 2: in game at least, and that final sequence. If you
24:06
Speaker 2: did not see Clayton Keller's final two goals, go find
24:11
Speaker 2: the highlights, watch them. They're readily available and incredible, stellar, stunning,
24:17
Speaker 2: exciting finish for the Utah Mammoth in a game that
24:20
Speaker 2: was far from being must win, but it's something that
24:26
Speaker 2: you absolutely wanted to finish this incredible homestand on a
24:30
Speaker 2: high note, and they pulled it out well done.
24:34
Speaker 4: It's important to It's not as it's not as important
24:38
Speaker 4: as like some obvious wins like against the top teams
24:44
Speaker 4: right or the team right ahead of you and the
24:46
Speaker 4: standings whatever, but it's important to win these potential trap games. Right,
24:50
Speaker 4: we always get nervous about Hey, that looks like it
24:53
Speaker 4: could be a trap game. Big you had a big
24:56
Speaker 4: emotional potentially could be a big emotional win against the
25:00
Speaker 4: it you face before. This could be a letdown, last
25:03
Speaker 4: one of the last one, the home stand You might
25:06
Speaker 4: be overlooking them because they're not as good as.
25:08
Speaker 3: Your previous opponent.
25:09
Speaker 4: Those are always important to be like when you come
25:12
Speaker 4: back out of them and go, oh, yeah, we got
25:14
Speaker 4: that win. They didn't trap us, So yeah, from that standpoint,
25:18
Speaker 4: an important win.
25:20
Speaker 2: Well done, coach Paar, Well done to everyone in that
25:24
Speaker 2: mammoth locker room. Incredible stuff. Four in a row for
25:30
Speaker 2: your Utah Mammoth. Who are now? Should I say now?
25:35
Speaker 2: Should I say four?
25:36
Speaker 6: Now?
25:36
Speaker 2: I'll say four now, just to keep it neutral. Who
25:40
Speaker 2: are four now? In the wild card picture for the playoffs?
25:44
Speaker 2: And remember that is exactly on pace with where we
25:47
Speaker 2: thought they should be at this moment in the franchise's existence.
25:52
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna take a break here. Morgan Scally
25:54
Speaker 2: is going to join us in our next segment. We're
25:56
Speaker 2: gonna try and get him right at eleven thirty. Remember
25:59
Speaker 2: his flight was delayed, so we will accommodate whatever the
26:02
Speaker 2: travel situation is for Morgan Scalley. But the new Utah
26:06
Speaker 2: head football coach is joining us today. It's the Sean
26:09
Speaker 2: O'Connell Show on Utah is number one Sports Talk ESPN
26:12
Speaker 2: seven hundred and ninety twoefm.
26:17
Speaker 1: Est this is the Sean O'Connell Show. You are home
26:34
Speaker 1: of the best inside of your US. Let's get back
26:37
Speaker 1: to OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN seven
26:41
Speaker 1: hundred ninety two to one.
26:42
Speaker 3: A f am, I've been looking forward to this conversation
26:49
Speaker 3: for weeks.
26:52
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. Welcome in head
26:55
Speaker 2: coach for the University of Utah football team. Morgan's galley,
27:00
Speaker 2: not coordinator's corner anymore. People, it is the head coach, Morgan.
27:04
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.
27:05
Speaker 3: How are you?
27:07
Speaker 6: What's up, dude, I'm the same, I'm the same boring guy. Man,
27:11
Speaker 6: it's just a different title.
27:13
Speaker 3: Look, you're anything but boring. All right?
27:16
Speaker 2: Uh? Have you have you watched back your introductory press conference?
27:20
Speaker 2: Did did like I don't know, did your agent make
27:21
Speaker 2: you do that? Did your wife make you do that?
27:23
Speaker 2: Did anyone say Morgan? Sit down and watch how you
27:26
Speaker 2: took over this room.
27:28
Speaker 6: Frederick, When have you ever looked back at something that
27:31
Speaker 6: it's that one of those deals like I hate the
27:33
Speaker 6: sound of my own voice, you know, it's like I don't, no,
27:36
Speaker 6: I have not, I've not.
27:39
Speaker 3: Well.
27:39
Speaker 2: Uh, I hope at some point it consider it like
27:42
Speaker 2: tape study, consider it film because it was a masterclass man.
27:45
Speaker 3: It was that was it was wonderful to be there.
27:47
Speaker 2: It was great to see uh, and it was you know,
27:50
Speaker 2: kind of I mean, I guess a little bit anti
27:53
Speaker 2: climactic for you because you're already one to oh as
27:55
Speaker 2: a head coach.
27:55
Speaker 3: But uh, has it sunk in yet?
27:59
Speaker 2: Now that we're several weeks removed from the official handover happening.
28:03
Speaker 2: When you wake up in the morning and you come
28:05
Speaker 2: to the office and you see head coach Morgan scally
28:08
Speaker 2: on the door or wherever it's at, has it really
28:10
Speaker 2: sunk in? Do you think of yourself as the head
28:12
Speaker 2: coach of Utah football?
28:13
Speaker 7: Yet?
28:14
Speaker 6: I'm trying to get there. I keep walking by my
28:17
Speaker 6: office thinking it was it's Kyle's I mta see Kyle there,
28:22
Speaker 6: and I'm like, wait, hold on, that's my office. There's
28:24
Speaker 6: times where I walk into Derek Odam's office. I'm I'm sorry, dude,
28:27
Speaker 6: it's just have it after so many years being here.
28:31
Speaker 6: But no, I can't believe we haven't even done I
28:34
Speaker 6: feel like I've done fifty million interviews, so the fact
28:37
Speaker 6: that we haven't done it on our flagship station rather,
28:40
Speaker 6: I'm sorry.
28:41
Speaker 2: Well, that's not your fault. Will air our grievances with
28:44
Speaker 2: the people responsible for these types of things. But look,
28:47
Speaker 2: it's great to get an opportunity to do this, and
28:51
Speaker 2: you know, the staff putting together your own staff, I mean,
28:55
Speaker 2: I imagine because you knew this was coming at some point,
28:58
Speaker 2: so I imagine you had ideas of who were who was
29:00
Speaker 2: going to get that phone call from you? Who you know, first, second, third,
29:04
Speaker 2: options we're going to be. I know that the landscape
29:07
Speaker 2: shifted so much in this cycle that maybe some of
29:11
Speaker 2: those phone calls that you planned on making you weren't
29:13
Speaker 2: able to make. But how was it putting your staff together?
29:15
Speaker 2: How many phone calls did it take? How many guys
29:18
Speaker 2: did you have to talk to?
29:21
Speaker 6: Well, I mean it was a fairly crazy process in
29:25
Speaker 6: the sense that it's like, Okay, are we going to
29:27
Speaker 6: keep the guys on offense? Are they going to end
29:29
Speaker 6: up going to Michigan. And so this is something that
29:34
Speaker 6: I've done a study of throughout my career, not just
29:38
Speaker 6: as a you know, thinking I was going to be
29:39
Speaker 6: the head coach at some point. It's like, Okay, who
29:41
Speaker 6: are guys that when you study ball or that you
29:44
Speaker 6: go against, you have a ton of respect for And
29:48
Speaker 6: and so I I've just always kept a not necessarily
29:52
Speaker 6: a roll Ofdex, but just a spreadsheet of guys that
29:55
Speaker 6: I'm like, man, these are good coordinators, These are you know,
29:59
Speaker 6: good to usition coaches, Guys that I could see myself
30:03
Speaker 6: working with. And you know, one of the names that
30:07
Speaker 6: had always popped up, not only from a schematic standpoint,
30:11
Speaker 6: but you know, a guy that's coached different positions on
30:15
Speaker 6: the offensive side of the ball. And then you know,
30:19
Speaker 6: when I got the head coaching waiting title, it was
30:22
Speaker 6: just it seemed like every year that people thought I
30:24
Speaker 6: was going to be able to take over, the name
30:27
Speaker 6: Kevin mcgiven would always be sent to me, texted to me.
30:30
Speaker 6: And I didn't, you know, I hadn't spent a ton
30:33
Speaker 6: of time with Kevin. I just had watched his stuff,
30:36
Speaker 6: watched his film, watch his progression, and knew that that's
30:41
Speaker 6: a guy that I would love to work with, just
30:45
Speaker 6: not only from a schematics standpoint, but just the way
30:49
Speaker 6: he looks at football. And if you sit and you
30:54
Speaker 6: in an interview, you know, as a defensive mind, there's
30:58
Speaker 6: certain questions I like to ask, ask the certain questions
31:01
Speaker 6: I like to throw at offensive coordinators, and he is
31:05
Speaker 6: just so intelligent and the way he talks about scheme
31:10
Speaker 6: and utilizing personnel, how to conflict a defense at different levels.
31:17
Speaker 6: It just was so refreshing to listen to him and
31:21
Speaker 6: to interview him, let alone to look at what he'd
31:25
Speaker 6: done at the different places he'd been so, you know,
31:28
Speaker 6: and then with all the different position coaches, same thing.
31:31
Speaker 6: It's like, Okay, who who if I looked at throughout
31:34
Speaker 6: the years, I say, yes, I'd love to work with
31:36
Speaker 6: this guy. He would fit what we do here, fits
31:38
Speaker 6: our culture. And it was just a matter of making
31:41
Speaker 6: those phone calls along the way, so you know, the
31:44
Speaker 6: preparation had been there. It's just a matter of you know,
31:49
Speaker 6: reaching out and feeling those roles as needed.
31:53
Speaker 2: Okay, so you put a staff together, and concurrent with
31:56
Speaker 2: putting your staff together, you have to try to re
31:59
Speaker 2: recruit your own raw and also figure out who is
32:03
Speaker 2: appealing to you in the transfer portal and try to
32:05
Speaker 2: get some of those guys to come. And that was
32:09
Speaker 2: an insane process. Is you know, some people we thought
32:12
Speaker 2: were going to stay ended up leaving some people we
32:14
Speaker 2: didn't think would be in the transfer portal and available
32:17
Speaker 2: for you to bring in. Suddenly are there the player
32:20
Speaker 2: personnel standpoint, while you're also taking over the job for
32:23
Speaker 2: the first time and filling out your staff and being
32:28
Speaker 2: able to tell these kids, Hey, this is who you
32:30
Speaker 2: will be playing for. I mean, how hectic is that process?
32:33
Speaker 2: And I promise there's a reason I'm asking you this question.
32:36
Speaker 6: Oh no, I understand. Yeah, it was. I think with
32:40
Speaker 6: the evolution of college football and what you're seeing with
32:42
Speaker 6: the transfer portal, those it's difficult in the sense that
32:48
Speaker 6: when you're recruiting your guys and they come to the
32:52
Speaker 6: University of Utah and you have those ties with their family,
32:55
Speaker 6: with their parents, and you have these relationships that were
32:57
Speaker 6: built up over time, and those just decide to go elsewhere,
33:03
Speaker 6: it can be very difficult because it's an emotional deal
33:06
Speaker 6: at that point, right, you have those ties, you have
33:07
Speaker 6: those relationships. But what we've had to learn is that hey, Listen,
33:14
Speaker 6: we still love the people that leave our program, but
33:20
Speaker 6: we have to focus and spend all of our time
33:23
Speaker 6: and attention, our energy, and our love on those that
33:25
Speaker 6: want to be a part of this program and those
33:28
Speaker 6: those that were bringing into our program. So, you know,
33:31
Speaker 6: I think our coaches did an unbelievable job of identifying
33:38
Speaker 6: the holes we needed to feel as guys were transferring
33:41
Speaker 6: and we were bringing guys in as well as I
33:45
Speaker 6: think it was very important for our players, and it
33:47
Speaker 6: worked out great at least for me that our players
33:50
Speaker 6: were able to see at least a glimpse of who
33:52
Speaker 6: I would be as a head coach at the Bull
33:55
Speaker 6: site at the bowl game. And because the offensive players,
33:58
Speaker 6: as much as they've they've known as a defensive coordinator
34:02
Speaker 6: and walk in the halls and and I have great
34:04
Speaker 6: relationships with them, they haven't necessarily known the full Morgan
34:08
Speaker 6: scally and so they got to see a glimpse of
34:11
Speaker 6: that as a head coach at the at the bowl game,
34:14
Speaker 6: and was a huge coup for us to be able
34:18
Speaker 6: to hold on to our our two quarterbacks and as
34:22
Speaker 6: well as you know them understanding that we wanted to
34:27
Speaker 6: make sure that the offense we brought in fit their
34:31
Speaker 6: skill sets and and if you look at what Kevin's
34:35
Speaker 6: done anywhere he's been, that's what he's been able to
34:38
Speaker 6: do is adapt and innovate. And so they were really
34:42
Speaker 6: excited about coach McGivern and his system and the coaching
34:47
Speaker 6: staff that we were bringing in. So, you in college
34:52
Speaker 6: football nowadays, it's not just recruiting the high school kids
34:57
Speaker 6: going out of portal. You're every day recruiting your own guys.
35:01
Speaker 6: They have to experience something special while in your program.
35:04
Speaker 6: The culture's got to be such that the experience is
35:07
Speaker 6: so awesome that they don't necessarily want to leave, even
35:11
Speaker 6: if they're offered a higher price tag, right, And so
35:14
Speaker 6: it's creating that experience for the guys already in your
35:17
Speaker 6: program that they know they're loved, they know they're valued,
35:20
Speaker 6: and they know that we're going to go win championships.
35:25
Speaker 2: Your assistance and your players might be better people to
35:27
Speaker 2: ask this question, but I'm always curious about self perception. Also,
35:31
Speaker 2: what are the differences between Morgan Scalley defensive coordinator and
35:35
Speaker 2: Morgan Scalley head coach.
35:38
Speaker 6: Oh. I guess a lot of that is I don't
35:43
Speaker 6: know yet sure. The biggest thing for me as a
35:48
Speaker 6: defensive coordinator is the biggest thing for me as a
35:50
Speaker 6: head coach, and that's establishing culture, making sure that everyone
35:53
Speaker 6: understands the behaviors that win championships, defining those for the people,
35:58
Speaker 6: providing clarity, holding guys accountable to it, and giving the support.
36:01
Speaker 6: But so I guess you know, from a head coach standpoint,
36:04
Speaker 6: it's making sure that every single person in the program,
36:08
Speaker 6: from staff, support staff to players understand where we're headed
36:14
Speaker 6: and the behaviors that we're asking for. Making sure they
36:16
Speaker 6: know they're valued, that that they're a part of this journey,
36:19
Speaker 6: that it's not just a dictatorship. And so it's it's
36:24
Speaker 6: really been me getting to know all the people in
36:27
Speaker 6: our program and making sure they get to know me.
36:31
Speaker 6: There's that trust factor that needs to be built over time,
36:35
Speaker 6: but I think it's just a larger scale of creating
36:39
Speaker 6: and sustaining culture.
36:41
Speaker 2: Utah head football coach Morgan Scally my guest here on
36:44
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell show, how did you keep Devin Dan
36:47
Speaker 2: Pierre and Bird Ficklin on this Utah football roster? Because
36:51
Speaker 2: I know both guys and their agents were getting a
36:53
Speaker 2: lot of phone calls.
36:55
Speaker 6: Right I would say. Number one is they love Utah,
36:59
Speaker 6: they love being here, they love the fan base. Number
37:03
Speaker 6: two is they were excited about what we were bringing in,
37:08
Speaker 6: you know, schematically that it was going to be something
37:11
Speaker 6: very similar to what they had just gone through.
37:14
Speaker 7: Uh.
37:15
Speaker 6: They love their teammates, they love the guys that are
37:17
Speaker 6: coming back with them, and you know, I just I
37:22
Speaker 6: it in college football to have what we have at
37:26
Speaker 6: the University of Utah, with a with a fan base
37:28
Speaker 6: that sells out every home game, that has a passion
37:33
Speaker 6: that that shows their love for our players. And you know,
37:39
Speaker 6: they I don't know that they felt the need to
37:41
Speaker 6: go anywhere else. They've got what they need here in
37:44
Speaker 6: the opportunity to win a championship. And so They're a
37:48
Speaker 6: combination of things for sure. And I'm just I'm excited that,
37:54
Speaker 6: you know, to have that leadership in the quarterback room
37:58
Speaker 6: because both those guys walk the talk and it's fun
38:03
Speaker 6: to see when your best players are also some of
38:06
Speaker 6: your best leaders.
38:08
Speaker 2: I've been incredibly impressed with both of those guys. I know,
38:10
Speaker 2: a big part of success for you next year offensively
38:14
Speaker 2: is also going to be replacing an offensive line that's
38:16
Speaker 2: sending I mean, I think all five of those starters
38:18
Speaker 2: from last year are going to have an opportunity to
38:20
Speaker 2: play professional football. A couple of them are obviously projected
38:23
Speaker 2: to be first round picks. In making sure that that
38:28
Speaker 2: that position stays consistent, you also had to bring in
38:31
Speaker 2: a coach, and Jordan Gross has not been in this
38:35
Speaker 2: role at this level before this. Now, I have talked
38:39
Speaker 2: to enough people that know Jordan Gross a lot better
38:41
Speaker 2: than I do that say that lack of experience is
38:44
Speaker 2: not going to be a big deal here.
38:46
Speaker 3: But what made you so confident that he was the
38:49
Speaker 3: right guy?
38:50
Speaker 2: Because he doesn't check the experience box, at least from
38:53
Speaker 2: a coaching at Division one football level box, What made
38:56
Speaker 2: you so confident that he was the right man for
38:57
Speaker 2: this role.
39:02
Speaker 6: The guy is the smartest student in the room, you know.
39:06
Speaker 6: And when we came in at nineteen ninety eight together,
39:12
Speaker 6: he was this tall, skinny, gangly offensive lineman and I
39:16
Speaker 6: listed more weight than he did. I'm like, you're an
39:18
Speaker 6: offensive lineman, dude? What on earth? I went? I went
39:22
Speaker 6: on my mission, I came back and the guy was
39:24
Speaker 6: hanging cleaning four or five like it was nothing. I'm like,
39:27
Speaker 6: what happened to you? He just has a work ethic
39:32
Speaker 6: and a competitive mindset that you don't find many places.
39:36
Speaker 6: Why he's on the Ring of Honor with the Carolina
39:39
Speaker 6: Panthers and why he played so many years in the NFL.
39:42
Speaker 6: He gets it. He understands offensive line play, but he
39:46
Speaker 6: also understands relationships and he can coach. You know, I'm
39:50
Speaker 6: not the only one that was trying to get Jordan
39:51
Speaker 6: Gross to coach. He had opportunities to coach in the NFL,
39:55
Speaker 6: so there's a lot of other people to understand his
39:57
Speaker 6: aptitude and his ability to co and teach. And I
40:02
Speaker 6: tried to talk him into it a few years ago,
40:07
Speaker 6: and he just said, with you know, his kids and
40:08
Speaker 6: what he was doing with his family life, it just
40:10
Speaker 6: didn't make a whole lot of sense. And was I
40:14
Speaker 6: the luckiest dude ever that you know, the timing worked
40:18
Speaker 6: out that it was right for him. The timing was
40:20
Speaker 6: right for him to come coach. Our guys up and
40:25
Speaker 6: watch this guy is a superstar. And I'm so fired
40:30
Speaker 6: up for the guys for the offense, our oh block
40:33
Speaker 6: the offensive line here. I think they're already seeing the
40:37
Speaker 6: benefit of having you know, an NFL All pro as
40:40
Speaker 6: there as their coach.
40:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't wait to see what that product looks
40:44
Speaker 2: like under your leadership, and obviously under the leadership of
40:49
Speaker 2: one of the all time greats to play offensive line
40:51
Speaker 2: at the school. I mean that's that there's this. It
40:54
Speaker 2: could be used as a criticism, and I've tried to
40:57
Speaker 2: bring up both sides of the argument, Like the coolest
41:01
Speaker 2: thing at that press conference, You're like, I'm a ute,
41:05
Speaker 2: always have been, always will be. It gives me chills
41:09
Speaker 2: even repeating it, because it's such a rarity in college
41:13
Speaker 2: football now that the whole journey can be at this
41:16
Speaker 2: one place, and we hope it's the whole journey that's
41:18
Speaker 2: at this one place. I guess that will depend on
41:21
Speaker 2: if you don't have NFL aspirations. Maybe, but neither here
41:24
Speaker 2: nor there. Look, the insular nature of your experience at
41:29
Speaker 2: Utah on only Utah could be perceived as a potential
41:34
Speaker 2: negative when you're taking over a head coaching job and
41:37
Speaker 2: you're trying to fill out a staff and you might
41:39
Speaker 2: not have the same network as everyone else. I've heard
41:42
Speaker 2: you addressed this before, but you haven't done it on
41:44
Speaker 2: my show. Did you feel handicapped in any way by
41:47
Speaker 2: the fact that you've only ever been in Salt Lake City,
41:50
Speaker 2: had only ever been at the University of Utah.
41:52
Speaker 3: When it came to filling out your staff.
41:55
Speaker 6: I've never felt handicapped. I think you handicap yourself if
41:59
Speaker 6: you don't reach out and you go. I mean the
42:01
Speaker 6: amount of relationships I've built over the years with people
42:03
Speaker 6: from across the country, the connections I have down in
42:07
Speaker 6: Texas from recruiting. It you just you handicap yourself and
42:12
Speaker 6: people can say whatever they want to say. I remember
42:13
Speaker 6: being a graduate assistant and you know, going to the
42:19
Speaker 6: National Coaches Convention, Which have you ever been there?
42:22
Speaker 2: Oh see, I've never been there for the Coaches Convention.
42:26
Speaker 2: I was in Orlando the same time it was happening.
42:29
Speaker 2: That's the one in Orlando, right.
42:31
Speaker 6: It changes locations from year to year. It's been in Nashville, Orlanto,
42:36
Speaker 6: San Antonio, you name it. So it goes all over
42:38
Speaker 6: the country. But I'm talking thousands and thousands of coaches
42:42
Speaker 6: show up to this thing, right, and you can go
42:44
Speaker 6: put your resume up on a board that no one
42:47
Speaker 6: looks at, and it's like a thousand resumes guys looking
42:51
Speaker 6: to get into the profession, looking to do whatever. I'll
42:53
Speaker 6: never forget. I went to Urban and Urban was coaching
42:59
Speaker 6: it at Florida at the time, and he was he
43:03
Speaker 6: was big time And I'll never forget just asking him.
43:07
Speaker 6: And I've talked to him about this, so we kind
43:08
Speaker 6: of laugh about it. But I just remember asking him,
43:12
Speaker 6: you know, advice on what I should do and and
43:17
Speaker 6: and I'll never forget says, well, you know what I think.
43:21
Speaker 6: So I did this as a gradu assistant, but then
43:23
Speaker 6: I also did it as a position coach, so I
43:24
Speaker 6: think I was a position coach. We won the Sugar Bowl,
43:28
Speaker 6: and I was a position coach at the time now
43:31
Speaker 6: that I remember it. And I go up to him
43:34
Speaker 6: and I'm talking to him about what what I should
43:35
Speaker 6: do in my career path, and he said, Morgan, I
43:39
Speaker 6: really think you need to you need to get out
43:42
Speaker 6: from underneath coach with and you should go elsewhere because
43:46
Speaker 6: at the end of the day, no one knows who
43:48
Speaker 6: Morgan Scaley is. And I never forgot that. And I
43:54
Speaker 6: was like, so, why do I have to go someplace
43:57
Speaker 6: else for people to know who I am? And I
44:02
Speaker 6: just said, no, forget that. I'm going to get out there.
44:05
Speaker 6: I'm going to meet people, I'm going to learn and
44:07
Speaker 6: grow and I did. I was sitting right next to
44:11
Speaker 6: Nick Saban and he asked me how we defended Mike
44:13
Speaker 6: Leach when when Mike took over the head coaching job
44:17
Speaker 6: a Mississippi State. Right. I sat with kirkby Smart, sat
44:21
Speaker 6: with Dan Landing with Dan. Was at Georgia Brent Vnables
44:24
Speaker 6: came here. You know, I've done so much of just
44:28
Speaker 6: developing and learning and doing everything I could to find out,
44:33
Speaker 6: you know, what's the best way to play defense or
44:37
Speaker 6: you know, the best schemes, the best lifting programs. I
44:40
Speaker 6: would go to the convention and look at all the
44:42
Speaker 6: different gadgets that people come up up with. That's I've
44:45
Speaker 6: always been someone that wanted to innovate, that wanted to create,
44:49
Speaker 6: and I never thought that, you know, you had to
44:53
Speaker 6: go other places to learn about different cultures, different backgrounds.
44:58
Speaker 6: And I've been able to do it at Utah. And
45:02
Speaker 6: you know, you get to a place where, okay, if
45:05
Speaker 6: you just put your head down and grind and work
45:08
Speaker 6: and and you know, you extend yourself to people and
45:12
Speaker 6: you go out and meet people. And I mean, who
45:15
Speaker 6: would have thought the an LDS kid you know from
45:20
Speaker 6: Salt Lake City, Utah, would would ever become one of
45:24
Speaker 6: the top recruiters in Houston, Texas. You know it's it's
45:28
Speaker 6: it's because it's all about relationships. It didn't matter name
45:32
Speaker 6: or what logo you have. People people like people. So
45:38
Speaker 6: I just I got out there and I extended myself
45:41
Speaker 6: and I learned, and I asked questions and and I
45:44
Speaker 6: finally got to the point where I was like, I
45:46
Speaker 6: don't need to go anywhere. And I've looked around and
45:50
Speaker 6: when I said we can win a national championship here,
45:53
Speaker 6: I'm I truly believe that. You look at the people
45:56
Speaker 6: we have here, the fan base that we have here,
45:58
Speaker 6: the high school coaches here in Utah done an unbelievable
46:03
Speaker 6: job of developing talent. You look at all the teams
46:06
Speaker 6: coming to Utah to recruit, look all over Twitter, and
46:08
Speaker 6: look at the amount of teams that are coming to
46:10
Speaker 6: Salt Lake City, Utah to recruit our guys. If we
46:13
Speaker 6: can keep all of our guys here in state, you
46:17
Speaker 6: can't tell me we can't do it. You can't tell me.
46:21
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna tell you that, especially
46:23
Speaker 2: after we all just watched Indiana win a national championship.
46:26
Speaker 2: Do you find do you find inspiration in that, the
46:29
Speaker 2: fact that there's now like a new kid on the
46:32
Speaker 2: block that was able to achieve at the very very
46:34
Speaker 2: highest level. When five years ago, if you would have
46:36
Speaker 2: brought this up as a possibility, you'd have been laughed
46:39
Speaker 2: at any room. But Kurtz Signetti and the Indiana Hoosiers
46:41
Speaker 2: just pulled it off.
46:42
Speaker 6: On dred percent. So uh, that's why I've never felt
46:48
Speaker 6: that I needed to leave, and I've you know, it's like,
46:51
Speaker 6: we've got what we need here and now it's just
46:53
Speaker 6: a matter of everyone buying into it.
46:57
Speaker 2: How complete is your roster right now? How many scholarships
47:00
Speaker 2: are left to give out? The transfer port? You can't
47:03
Speaker 2: enter your name into it anymore unless you were in
47:05
Speaker 2: that National championship game. You can't enter your name into
47:07
Speaker 2: it anymore. But there's there's three thousand kids in there
47:10
Speaker 2: that are all you know, I imagine you're still interested in
47:14
Speaker 2: some How close is this team to be in complete roster?
47:18
Speaker 6: God, we're within one to two. So we've actually done
47:20
Speaker 6: a pretty good job of filling holes, and we're excited
47:24
Speaker 6: with the group we have. It's so much of it
47:26
Speaker 6: is getting the guys here, and particularly with a new
47:31
Speaker 6: offensive staff, just like last year with Jason Is. You
47:36
Speaker 6: want to hit the ground running. You want these guys
47:38
Speaker 6: in the weight room developing. You want to get out
47:41
Speaker 6: there and start teaching these guys and our coaches, you know,
47:45
Speaker 6: in the film room. So the development during the off
47:48
Speaker 6: season is such a huge deal, taking advantage of the
47:52
Speaker 6: hours that we have and then getting them ready for
47:56
Speaker 6: spring ball. So that was a priority. You don't want
48:00
Speaker 6: to just fill holes to feel holes. You want to
48:02
Speaker 6: fill them with the right guys. But we've been fortunate
48:04
Speaker 6: enough to be able to do that, and we still
48:06
Speaker 6: got maybe one to two left to field. But we're
48:11
Speaker 6: in a good situation, a good spot, and you know,
48:15
Speaker 6: it's after January right now, everyone's on the road recruiting
48:19
Speaker 6: or in state recruiting. And then once we come back
48:22
Speaker 6: in February, that's the signing date in February. Then it's
48:26
Speaker 6: all about, you know, us in with our players and
48:30
Speaker 6: making sure that culture is what we want and the
48:36
Speaker 6: journey begins.
48:37
Speaker 2: Man Utah, I had football coach Morgan Scalley for another
48:41
Speaker 2: minute or two here on the Sean O'Connell show. I
48:42
Speaker 2: wish I had like another forty five minutes because I
48:44
Speaker 2: could keep this thing going. But I'll I'll respect your
48:48
Speaker 2: time and I appreciate what you've given us already.
48:51
Speaker 3: Colton Swan, I love Colton Swan.
48:53
Speaker 2: After I left Utah and transferred to Weaver State, he
48:56
Speaker 2: was on the staff there and I was impressed with
48:59
Speaker 2: him from man all the way through what he is now.
49:02
Speaker 2: How'd you know he was the right guy to make
49:03
Speaker 2: the defensive coordinator to replace the honorable, venerable very accomplished
49:09
Speaker 2: Morgan Scali himself.
49:10
Speaker 6: Oh boo, No, the Swan is so bright, so organized,
49:19
Speaker 6: a great teacher. He's a guy that's coordinated before, he's
49:23
Speaker 6: done it before. He's provided me so much insight when
49:26
Speaker 6: I was when I was a coordinator, helped me along
49:30
Speaker 6: the way. He's tough as nails. He's our culture to
49:34
Speaker 6: a tee. And people are going to really get to
49:38
Speaker 6: know Colton Swan. That's what I'm excited about, is for
49:40
Speaker 6: people to get to know the cowboy. This is a
49:43
Speaker 6: guy that he still competes in rodeo. Yeah, and every
49:49
Speaker 6: single year, you know, we've had these opportunities to have
49:54
Speaker 6: each coach stand up and present something to the players. Well,
49:57
Speaker 6: every year he presents a new event in the rodeo
50:04
Speaker 6: and explains how it's judged, and our guys are just
50:09
Speaker 6: the enthralled. I wish everyone could see him present a
50:14
Speaker 6: rodeo event. This guy is tough as nails and he's
50:17
Speaker 6: as good as they come, so I have no doubt whatsoever.
50:21
Speaker 6: Plus that staff is so good for him that he's
50:25
Speaker 6: gonna flourish and succeed. And you know, I'm just excited
50:30
Speaker 6: to be now kind of a fly on the wall
50:34
Speaker 6: whenever he'll let me in the room.
50:36
Speaker 2: How good are you at delegating? How much of a
50:38
Speaker 2: micromanager are you? Because there's always we don't really know
50:42
Speaker 2: as fans media members, right like how much that coach
50:46
Speaker 2: is not letting his offensive coordinator do what he wants
50:48
Speaker 2: to do. Or oh, that guy's defensive mind and so
50:50
Speaker 2: he's got his fingers all over this defense and he
50:52
Speaker 2: won't let Colton Swan spread his wings and fly. Like
50:56
Speaker 2: how difficult or natural is it going to be for
50:59
Speaker 2: you to be the CEO and to be the guy
51:02
Speaker 2: that says, hey, there's a reason you're my offensive coordinator
51:04
Speaker 2: and played college. There's a reason why you're calling my
51:06
Speaker 2: defensive plays right now. I am going to let you
51:08
Speaker 2: do your job or you know, this is your program
51:12
Speaker 2: for the first time. Do you want to make sure
51:13
Speaker 2: you keep your your thumb print on it?
51:16
Speaker 6: Well, I just want to provide help. That's what Kyle
51:18
Speaker 6: did for me when I was a young coordinator, and
51:20
Speaker 6: I wanted him in the room. I wanted his his thoughts.
51:24
Speaker 6: I wanted him to be able to say, hey, you
51:26
Speaker 6: may want to think about this, just because he had
51:29
Speaker 6: all that experience and but no, I it's it's very
51:34
Speaker 6: important for me to me for our coordinators to know
51:40
Speaker 6: how much confidence I have in them. Otherwise I wouldn't
51:43
Speaker 6: have hired them to do the job. You know, being
51:45
Speaker 6: a head coach is is much more about being a CEO.
51:52
Speaker 6: And you know, my responsibilities and my calendar is going
51:57
Speaker 6: to be a lot different than what it has been
51:59
Speaker 6: in the past, and I'm fully aware of that. I'm
52:03
Speaker 6: you know, I I unless you're in the seat, you
52:05
Speaker 6: really don't know all that it entails. And I'm learning
52:08
Speaker 6: as I go, but I have been prepared for a
52:11
Speaker 6: lot of it, and so it's you know, I'm there
52:15
Speaker 6: as the sounding board. I want them to understand. Hey, listen,
52:18
Speaker 6: we've talked about during the hiring process, what We're looking
52:21
Speaker 6: for what we want, uh, complimentary football, and and you
52:27
Speaker 6: know it's up to you guys to to get together
52:30
Speaker 6: and make sure that happens. And I'm a sounding board
52:32
Speaker 6: in the process. I'm excited to sit in an offensive
52:35
Speaker 6: room and just sit sit back and listen to them
52:37
Speaker 6: and be like, no, that's not gonna work. You know,
52:40
Speaker 6: this is what we would do to to I want
52:43
Speaker 6: to I want to be on the offense side of
52:44
Speaker 6: the ball and you know, give some creative thoughts as
52:48
Speaker 6: to how to beat a defense. And that's that's what
52:50
Speaker 6: I'm excited about. I've always wanted to like a year
52:53
Speaker 6: sabbatical where I could just go and sit in offensive
52:57
Speaker 6: rooms and and and listen to them talk about what's
53:02
Speaker 6: gonna work, what's not going to work, and and just see,
53:05
Speaker 6: you know, what they're looking at.
53:07
Speaker 3: In a perfect world.
53:08
Speaker 2: What is the identity of a Utah football offense with
53:11
Speaker 2: Morgan Scally as.
53:12
Speaker 3: The head coach.
53:14
Speaker 6: I think it's what I said in the in the
53:16
Speaker 6: in the press conference. It is physical. You can never
53:20
Speaker 6: get away from physicality in this game. It will be
53:22
Speaker 6: exposed at the highest level for good or for bad. Uh.
53:26
Speaker 6: And and you look at how physical Indiana was right
53:31
Speaker 6: and their identity and you know there is just will
53:37
Speaker 6: always be a part of the game. So physicality and innovation,
53:42
Speaker 6: the ability to do what you do do it at
53:47
Speaker 6: an efficient rate, but also uh create adapt uh be
53:54
Speaker 6: ahead of the game in terms of how we can
53:57
Speaker 6: use personnel and how we can h you know, gain
54:02
Speaker 6: a distinct advantage, you know, based on the guys that
54:06
Speaker 6: we got in the room.
54:08
Speaker 3: How will you treat the Holy War the BYU rivalry game?
54:13
Speaker 6: What do you mean?
54:14
Speaker 2: Like, you know, sometimes there's a countdown clock in the
54:17
Speaker 2: weight room. You got two hundred and fifty five days
54:19
Speaker 2: before you have to fight the team down South.
54:22
Speaker 3: Whatever.
54:22
Speaker 2: Some coaches lie to us and say that's just any
54:25
Speaker 2: other game, Like how will you I mean, you you
54:28
Speaker 2: cared about it since you were in diapers, you played
54:30
Speaker 2: in it, you coached it.
54:31
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you've got Morgan Scalley sound bites to remind me.
54:36
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, but Morgan Scalley, the head coach. How I mean?
54:40
Speaker 2: It's it's the most important day on the Utah sports
54:43
Speaker 2: calendar every year, and you are now one of the
54:46
Speaker 2: two most important figures in that rivalry game of that
54:50
Speaker 2: most important day.
54:51
Speaker 3: So how will you approach it.
54:54
Speaker 6: The way I've approached it for the last while is
54:57
Speaker 6: that every you have to treat every game like it's
55:01
Speaker 6: your super Bowl. Otherwise you'll never get there. If you
55:03
Speaker 6: treat b YU differently than you treat you know, Texas
55:09
Speaker 6: Tech or Kansas Kansas State, you're doing it wrong, you know.
55:14
Speaker 6: And and that's allowing emotions to get in your way of
55:18
Speaker 6: doing what we want to do. It's all about behavior. So, yes,
55:22
Speaker 6: I want to beat b YU, you know. And I
55:27
Speaker 6: talked to Klonie. Colonie is one of my best friends.
55:29
Speaker 6: We went through the fire together at some point during
55:31
Speaker 6: during our careers and and you know we will be
55:35
Speaker 6: going to dinner together and all that stuff. That's that's
55:38
Speaker 6: my friend. But I told them, dude, I love you,
55:40
Speaker 6: and every time I play you, I want to beat
55:42
Speaker 6: you by fifty. That's just how it is. That's just
55:46
Speaker 6: we're we are competitive souls. And but you know, I
55:51
Speaker 6: have no hatred towards Brigham Young University. No, there are
55:56
Speaker 6: guys justin Anna, Aaron Roderick, Chadkaw, Gary Anderson, guys down
56:02
Speaker 6: there that I love that I have relationships with. But again,
56:05
Speaker 6: it doesn't mean that I don't want to ruin him
56:07
Speaker 6: when I when we play him. That's just how it is.
56:09
Speaker 6: That's the competitive nature of this game, and I'm a
56:11
Speaker 6: competitive dude.
56:13
Speaker 2: Is your relationship with Kyle Whittingham in a good place
56:16
Speaker 2: right now?
56:18
Speaker 6: I would hope. So. Yeah, we were together last night
56:21
Speaker 6: and gave him a big hug, and and that's that's
56:24
Speaker 6: my guy. Now. If Kyle and I always seen eye
56:27
Speaker 6: to eye on things, no, have you always seen the
56:30
Speaker 6: eye to eye with your boss? You know, and every
56:32
Speaker 6: single thing that you do? If so, man, congratulations, oh Sie,
56:36
Speaker 6: you've got a I love that.
56:38
Speaker 2: I will not make that claim, Morgan. I have not
56:41
Speaker 2: the easiest guy to work with.
56:42
Speaker 6: No, I don't. I don't think you know anyone that
56:45
Speaker 6: works with someone for as long as we work together
56:47
Speaker 6: is going to see eye to eye. But I've always
56:49
Speaker 6: been one hundred percent royal to Kyle Whittingham. That's the
56:52
Speaker 6: guy that I love. He's mentored me, giving me every
56:54
Speaker 6: shot along the way to progress in this in this profession.
56:58
Speaker 6: And I will always love that man and wish him
57:04
Speaker 6: nothing but the best. Was with him last night at
57:06
Speaker 6: the Outland Trophy Award bankut for Spencer Fauna was an
57:10
Speaker 6: unbelievable award for him, an honor for him. But no,
57:15
Speaker 6: you know, I don't. I mean, shoot, I think I
57:17
Speaker 6: was maybe me and Doug Elisia. I think we're the
57:21
Speaker 6: two that were with Kyle throughout his entire times as
57:26
Speaker 6: head coach. I barring my one year of trying out
57:31
Speaker 6: the NFL, but I don't think you can spend that
57:35
Speaker 6: much time with someone and not love him. Otherwise I
57:39
Speaker 6: would have left a long time ago.
57:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense. We got the schedule release yesterday.
57:45
Speaker 2: Did you circle the games that you care about more?
57:47
Speaker 2: And just, oh my gosh, just won this road? I mean,
57:50
Speaker 2: I'm always asking that facetiously, but what did you think
57:52
Speaker 2: your schedules it rolled out yesterday?
57:55
Speaker 6: I don't care. We play who we play, you know,
58:00
Speaker 6: and we play, we play, and and you know, you
58:03
Speaker 6: give me the time and date, we'll go, let's go,
58:05
Speaker 6: let's trap it up. But I'm excited to get to
58:08
Speaker 6: work with our guys right now in the offseason and
58:10
Speaker 6: get things going.
58:12
Speaker 3: Well.
58:12
Speaker 2: You'll leave it to guys like me to say, well,
58:14
Speaker 2: that's an easy schedule. So minimum ten wins in Morgan
58:18
Speaker 2: Scalley's first years ahead football coach.
58:20
Speaker 6: Right, listen, no one puts higher expectations on me than me.
58:25
Speaker 6: So uh, you know, like I said, our whole deal
58:30
Speaker 6: is create the culture and the results should speak for themselves.
58:34
Speaker 2: Well, I have no doubt you will do so we're
58:37
Speaker 2: very much looking forward to it. The very last thing
58:39
Speaker 2: before I let you go, are you gonna let us
58:42
Speaker 2: media schlubs come and watch practice?
58:44
Speaker 3: Please? Please? Please?
58:46
Speaker 2: Can I watch one on one pass rush reels? Please
58:48
Speaker 2: let me watch real practice.
58:50
Speaker 6: I'm gonna maybe let others, but you know, because I
58:53
Speaker 6: know that you'll be sitting there, Well shouldn't they do this?
58:56
Speaker 6: You're like, you'll get too involved though, See I can't
58:58
Speaker 6: have that.
58:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm already deeply offended that I didn't get
59:02
Speaker 2: a call like, hey, I need a coach specific to
59:05
Speaker 2: the walk Ons that are not ever actually going to
59:07
Speaker 2: do anything for us on the field.
59:09
Speaker 3: Can you come take care of those guys?
59:10
Speaker 2: I would be perfectly equipped for that, Morgan, And yet
59:14
Speaker 2: I didn't get the phone.
59:15
Speaker 6: Come teach me, Come teach me some some moves, some
59:18
Speaker 6: mma moves. Dude.
59:19
Speaker 2: Well, look, if you if you ever need that for
59:21
Speaker 2: your guys, I'm I will volunteer my time. That'd be
59:24
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. But thank you so much for
59:27
Speaker 2: your time today. Love you man. Very excited for this
59:30
Speaker 2: new era of Utah football and uh and cannot wait
59:33
Speaker 2: to be watching every spring practice in its entirety under
59:38
Speaker 2: your new media policy as the head coach. All right, thanks,
59:45
Speaker 2: that's Morgan Scaley. You tell football head coach. He's one
59:49
Speaker 2: to know already in that Bowl game and a guy
59:52
Speaker 2: that uh Man. You you can feel however you want
59:57
Speaker 2: to feel about the changing of the guard, but there's
1:00:00
Speaker 2: only one way to feel about him taking over, and
1:00:03
Speaker 2: that is optimistic and excited. Our two begins with Gordia
1:00:09
Speaker 2: Chiasa right here in studio on Utah's number one sports talk.
1:00:12
Speaker 2: It's the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven and ninety two NFM.
1:00:35
Speaker 5: Peace out.
1:00:35
Speaker 1: Let's get the latest on the Utah Jazz with former
1:00:38
Speaker 1: Jazz assistant coach Gordon Chiasa. He's forgotten more about the
1:00:42
Speaker 1: NBA than any of us will ever know.
1:00:44
Speaker 5: Let's not get crazy.
1:00:45
Speaker 3: Come for the hoops.
1:00:45
Speaker 5: Talk, stay for his list of the day a list today.
1:00:49
Speaker 1: Here's o C with basketball savan Gordy Chiaysa on the
1:00:53
Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell Show.
1:00:57
Speaker 2: Were welcome at Gordon Chiasa President, NBA Gurul courtesy of
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Speaker 2: our good friends at America First Credit Union and A
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Speaker 2: Latin Industries.
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Speaker 5: Your Utah Vlockx dealer, Gordy welcome. How are you, sir, Jean.
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Speaker 5: I'm doing well, thank you. It should be interesting next
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Speaker 5: few days for the Jazz and for the NBA. But
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Speaker 5: all start the other night Sewing when the Jazz and
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Speaker 5: the Tea Wolves. That was some game where the Jazz
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Speaker 5: showed their heart and their courage. One two, let's go
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Speaker 5: to t Wolves by seventeen in the fourth quarter. But
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Speaker 5: it's how the Jazz played. And Kiante George, that guy
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Speaker 5: is improving every single game. Forty three points fifteen for eight,
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Speaker 5: twenty eight from the field, six to thirteen from threes
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Speaker 5: plus three rebounds. And that was a masterpiece of a game.
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Speaker 5: And as I shd to a colleague of mind, Sewan
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Speaker 5: earlier yesterday morning, that U Kiante is developing I called
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Speaker 5: a headache driver. That he gives headaches to the guy
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Speaker 5: guarding him. And that's what's good about it. And he's
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Speaker 5: he's improved tremendously as a screen reader. So Keante reads
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Speaker 5: screens very well. And now so he's a drivestick ball
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Speaker 5: to the basket. He reads screens and that equals what
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Speaker 5: I called a turbot scorer. He can score both over
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Speaker 5: the top and get to the line. And that's why
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Speaker 5: he's developing into really a standout NBA player.
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Speaker 2: Not only does Utah beat the Minnesota Timberwolves without lowry
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Speaker 2: marketing in the lineup and a huge night for Keante,
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Speaker 2: George nirk gets with a triple.
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Speaker 5: Double, oh very much. Yeah, And it's how he got them.
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Speaker 5: So eight chote alluding to eighteen excuse me, sixteen points,
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Speaker 5: eighteen rebounds, tennissists, and he played, he helped played Rudy
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Speaker 5: Gobert tremendously during that game. I called bang, chase and
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Speaker 5: secure getting rebounds. He bangs the guy, He chases the rebound,
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Speaker 5: whether it's on the floor, up at the rim, and
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Speaker 5: then he's he secures the ball. Before with Morgan Scalley
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Speaker 5: talking about being physical, well guess what the Jazz were
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Speaker 5: physical led by Yusuf Nurkice, I called it sean rogue physicality.
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Speaker 5: The way he plays like he's a rogue rebounder, and
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Speaker 5: he has so many great passing skills. So when he
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Speaker 5: has the ball, a lot of times Sewan, it's like this,
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Speaker 5: he has to bol a grapefruit and he has to
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Speaker 5: bail the high post mill of the floor. It's like
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Speaker 5: a grapefruit. And Thenant de George and those guys are
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Speaker 5: the direct benefactor him. I called he's a great fruit passer.
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Speaker 5: Wait he throws that ball last game, Tennis says I
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Speaker 5: mentioned two turnovers. Tremendous win. It was great how they
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Speaker 5: play the outfought the tee wolves who are struggling. Now
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Speaker 5: he lost three in a row and now let's do
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Speaker 5: it over again tonight Delta Center.
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Speaker 2: When you have a guy like keionte George who's having
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Speaker 2: this like crazy breakout type of year, right, and it's
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Speaker 2: not He's not a rookie having a breakout year. He's
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Speaker 2: been around, he's been in the league a little bit,
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Speaker 2: and now he's he's starting to become a star, a
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Speaker 2: borderline star. Obviously, there's been belief in him in this
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Speaker 2: Jazz organization. They probably saw it sooner than everyone else did.
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Speaker 2: That's probably why he's on this roster. Gordy, what is
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Speaker 2: the process like when you have one of these guys
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Speaker 2: starting to emerge and the rest of the NBA starts
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Speaker 2: to take notice. Like you as a coach. I imagine
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Speaker 2: you know, shoot around, you're doing warm ups, the other
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Speaker 2: coach staff walks over just like, hey, how come here
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Speaker 2: and tell us about this Kiante. I mean, what's it
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Speaker 2: like is the rest of the league wakes up to
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Speaker 2: Kyante's talent abilities and the danger he presents to them.
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Speaker 5: Well, the coaching staff and his teammates see every single
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Speaker 5: day in practice and in preparation, so usually speaking, when
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Speaker 5: players keep working and developing, the game slows down for them.
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Speaker 5: So usually speaking, again, most young players play offense too
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Speaker 5: fast and defense too slow. Now Kyante now has done
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Speaker 5: both now where he's playing offense at a certain pace
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Speaker 5: and a defense much faster. And that's why he's having
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Speaker 5: a breakout season. And it's been so much fun if
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Speaker 5: you're Jazz officiado to see him develop his skill set
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Speaker 5: and that he's gonna he's gonna be very very important
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Speaker 5: for the Jazz as they go forward, of what he
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Speaker 5: brings to the group every single day. I have him
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Speaker 5: shown right now of being the third in the voting
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Speaker 5: for most improved player, the most improved player that I
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Speaker 5: have right now as we speak past the halfway mark,
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Speaker 5: would be Jellen Johnson of the Hawks, Danny Adia of
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Speaker 5: the Portland Trailblazers, and Chante George at number three for
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Speaker 5: the Jazz and a number four should be former jazzman ironically,
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Speaker 5: the kel Alexander Walker from the Hawks also, and five
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Speaker 5: should be Jellen Durham of the Pistons. So Shawing, he's
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Speaker 5: right there as far as being the most improved player,
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Speaker 5: and what a great honor for that.
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Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about what's coming tonight for the
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Speaker 2: Utah Jazz Delta Center, and it's the San Antonio Spurs.
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Speaker 2: You and I we talk every time about Victor wen Minyama.
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Speaker 2: If you have yet to see Victor web Minyama in person,
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Speaker 2: or have yet to see this version of the San
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Speaker 2: Antonio Spurs, you have opportunities to get out there tonight.
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Speaker 2: Tickets are available. But you know, for this Utah Jazz team,
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Speaker 2: they've already checked the box of being better than we
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Speaker 2: thought they were going to be. They're maybe not ahead
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Speaker 2: of schedule the way that this San Antonio Spurs team
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Speaker 2: is ahead of schedule, but they are ahead of schedule.
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Speaker 2: What are your expectations for tonight against the Spurs roster?
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Speaker 5: Well, the first thing ahead of schedule, meaning this is
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Speaker 5: that Hey, by the way, if the Jazz win tonight
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Speaker 5: will be the eleventh Hope victory, which is one more
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Speaker 5: than all of last year.
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Speaker 3: Wow.
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Speaker 5: So that's good. It's positive. And the last time the
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Speaker 5: Spurs made the playoffs was twoenty and nineteen, so it's
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Speaker 5: going to be seven years. So nineteen now it's twenty six.
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Speaker 5: So show he's a question you back in twenty nineteen,
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Speaker 5: what were you doing.
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Speaker 2: Nineteen twenty nineteen, I was doing a serious XM radio
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Speaker 2: I had just retired from fighting.
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Speaker 5: Okay, So this guy, this guy I'm looking at right now,
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Speaker 5: this muscular guy is showing o'count right as we speak
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Speaker 5: right now, and that that was the last time the
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Speaker 5: Spurs made the playoffs. So it's gonna be seven years
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Speaker 5: right now, I'm pretty sure they're gonna make it. As
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Speaker 5: we speak, they are thirty and fourteen, the second best
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Speaker 5: record in the East. They're trying to fight off the
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Speaker 5: Denver Nuggets and the Rockets that are trying to climb
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Speaker 5: ahead of the thunder. And it's led by Victor Wenbiamba.
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Speaker 5: They're once in a generational talent and that he is
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Speaker 5: he's always been a tremendous standout. Some quick numbers twenty
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Speaker 5: four point four points per game, ten point three rebounds,
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Speaker 5: two point five blocks, fifty point six field club percentage,
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Speaker 5: thirty eight from threes in eighty four from the foul line,
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Speaker 5: which is really good. Victor's missed fourteen games, but what
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Speaker 5: the Spurs have done is that they have a good
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Speaker 5: supporting cast Without Victor Wenbiamba. The Spurs are ten and four,
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Speaker 5: So he's missed fourteen games because they are different injuries.
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Speaker 5: They're ten and four. The Spurs are third overall in
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Speaker 5: the NBA and defensive rating. The only two teams ahead
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Speaker 5: of them are the first place Thunder and the first
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Speaker 5: place Detroit Pistons. So it seems to me that if
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Speaker 5: you play defense as a collective group and a very
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Speaker 5: highly defensive rating, the chances of getting the postseason are
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Speaker 5: very very strong, whether it's the NFL or whether it's
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Speaker 5: the NBA. And that's that is the Spurs right now.
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Speaker 2: How did the Jazz match up with this team we
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Speaker 2: saw not so long ago, this Utah team was able
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Speaker 2: to beat the San Antonio Spurs. Now you're trying to
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Speaker 2: do it on your home floor. So with what you
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Speaker 2: just said about you know, the not only individual ef
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Speaker 2: it's a Victor women yaba, but the way that this
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Speaker 2: Spurs squad plays as a team and what the Utah
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Speaker 2: Jazz are trying to do, which is thread this needle
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Speaker 2: between improvement and keeping your draft pick and all that
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Speaker 2: kind of stuff. I mean this, this San Antonio team
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Speaker 2: is an easy place where you can kind of lay
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Speaker 2: down second team in the West. All right, But this
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Speaker 2: is a home game and you've got a lot of
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Speaker 2: people who are gonna show up because they want to
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Speaker 2: see not only your guys but the visiting team.
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Speaker 3: So how do you match up tonight? If you're the Utah.
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Speaker 5: Jazz one being physical? That's the first thing. So the
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Speaker 5: question right now is can you sive Nurkage, who's coming
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Speaker 5: up a great game. As far as we mentioned a
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Speaker 5: few seconds ago about his triple double, Kenny has enough
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Speaker 5: moxie and also technique to guard Victor wemb beyonda out
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Speaker 5: on perimeter. So now use of Nurkage has to be
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Speaker 5: it has to change his mindset and not be a
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Speaker 5: force in the lane. It's might be out more in perimeter,
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Speaker 5: and can can the Utah Jazz as a group right now,
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Speaker 5: give well, can I help as far as playing it?
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Speaker 5: And on the flip side is can the Aaron Fox
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Speaker 5: and Stefan Cassel have enough defensive presidence to guard Kiante George?
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Speaker 5: And the answer is we're gonna find out tonight because
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Speaker 5: has got it rolling and as Bailly and all the
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Speaker 5: other guys the Jazz and Isaiah Callia. And let's not
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Speaker 5: forget one of the reasons why that Cant de George
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Speaker 5: is playing really exceptional is because of his own ability,
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Speaker 5: but also how he plays off the ball when they
1:10:31
Speaker 5: have Isaiah Collier in the game. So Isaiah Klea is
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Speaker 5: vastly underrated that that guy is past happy. And you know,
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Speaker 5: last game against the Tea Wolves, he gets a double
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Speaker 5: double as far as points and assists and the benefactor
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Speaker 5: is kyant de George. So can the can the Jazz
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Speaker 5: backcourt outplay Darren Fox and Isaiah Isaiah Screamy, d Aaron
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Speaker 5: Fox and also Stephan Castle and Dylan Harper those three
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Speaker 5: guys basically can the Jazz outplay them? And also can
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Speaker 5: on the boards? So usually speaking, when you win the
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Speaker 5: game in the NBA, you win the win the boards
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Speaker 5: and also you in that's fourth quarter, you make so
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Speaker 5: many timely shots. And it all starts with organized defense
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Speaker 5: and it ends with what as far as securing the
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Speaker 5: rebound and during throughout the game is what getting your
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Speaker 5: scores to play in space, just like in Sean, just
1:11:30
Speaker 5: like in the NFL, get the ball to your star
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Speaker 5: players when their space to what to make plays. And
1:11:36
Speaker 5: in basketball it's involves what to dribble, dribble and or pass.
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Speaker 5: And the Jazz may, let's not forget on Martin Luther
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Speaker 5: King Day on Monday afternoon, the Jazz lost. So now
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Speaker 5: it's the rematch right now, literally three days later here
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Speaker 5: in Salt Lake City. I expect to be a great
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Speaker 5: game for the Jazz, and I have no problem. I
1:11:55
Speaker 5: have no problem to Jazz playing against these guys I
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Speaker 5: thinks are gonna win.
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Speaker 2: Is Dylan Harper having the kind of year that San
1:12:02
Speaker 2: Antonio expected or that you expected.
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Speaker 5: Well, here's the first thing about it. The answer is
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Speaker 5: is that he's playing behind Darren Fox and Stephan Castle,
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Speaker 5: so you know he's coming off the bench. So usually
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Speaker 5: when your second pick of the draft, you're gonna start.
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Speaker 5: So Ace Bailey as the fifth pick, he's starting, and
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Speaker 5: he gets the ball a lot of times in rhythm,
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Speaker 5: and the Jazz have been committed to play through some
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Speaker 5: of his errors because he is part of the future
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Speaker 5: now the Spurs. Dylan Harper the second pick of the draft.
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Speaker 5: He's not beating out right now, Darn Fox, who's one
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Speaker 5: of the fastest guys in the NBA, who's playing exceptionally well,
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Speaker 5: and Stefan Castle. Ironically, the rookie of the Year last
1:12:45
Speaker 5: year is Stephan Castle eight twenty one, averaging sixteen point
1:12:49
Speaker 5: nine points per game, seven point zero assists and five rebounds.
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Speaker 5: So it's not a question of of Dylan Harper that
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Speaker 5: people be disappointed to him. He has a difficult time
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Speaker 5: of playing a lot of minutes on the floor. So
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Speaker 5: with that said, he's averaging ten point six points per game,
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Speaker 5: three point six assist in twenty one point five minutes,
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Speaker 5: and most of all showing just like you are. He's
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Speaker 5: a south poor player, and that's when he's able to
1:13:16
Speaker 5: play with Rhythm. When they move where he cuts in
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Speaker 5: the game, then they play the Aaron Fox off the
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Speaker 5: ball and Dylan Harper has the ball to make plays.
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Speaker 5: So they have a lot of great options to Spurs,
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Speaker 5: and that's why they're trending that be second in the
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Speaker 5: East right now, So not disappointed at all. He's playing
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Speaker 5: relatively well. He's really a good team right now, and
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Speaker 5: he's going to try to carve out space and force
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Speaker 5: the Spurs to move Vosses around, remembering else are the Spurs.
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Speaker 5: They're playing with Devin Vassel, who's a very good player.
1:13:49
Speaker 5: He's hurt, right, he's hurt, and that he has a
1:13:52
Speaker 5: strain the left thigh. So a lot of times is that.
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Speaker 5: Now let they go ultra small and they they'll play
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Speaker 5: all three guys. They'll use Stephan ka Olessiz sometimes point
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Speaker 5: guard to guard and small phote and that allows, that
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Speaker 5: allows Dylan Harper and you know for defense right now, Yes,
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Speaker 5: Dylan Harper's related to his his dad who is what
1:14:12
Speaker 5: Ron Hopper Jr. And he did a Ron Hopper's former
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Speaker 5: Chicago Bulls player that tormented the Jazz about twenty five
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Speaker 5: years ago by playing defense and scoring the ball.
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Speaker 2: We started the show today talking about the Utah Mammoth
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Speaker 2: closing out their long home stand with another victory, hard
1:14:30
Speaker 2: fought and look, all of us in sports sports fans,
1:14:34
Speaker 2: you appreciate a good comeback, right, what's better for team chemistry.
1:14:39
Speaker 2: What's better for the learning process when you have that
1:14:42
Speaker 2: complete performance all the way through. Or I mean, they
1:14:44
Speaker 2: started the game last night pretty bad and found a
1:14:48
Speaker 2: way they won it, really with a period and a
1:14:51
Speaker 2: half of excellent hockey after digging themselves a little bit
1:14:56
Speaker 2: of a hole. And I know that it's apples to
1:14:58
Speaker 2: oranges in some ways because basketball and hockey you are
1:15:00
Speaker 2: not the same thing. But we see this in the
1:15:02
Speaker 2: NBA as well, where you have a terrible first quarter,
1:15:05
Speaker 2: terrible first and second quarters, whatever, and then somehow, some
1:15:08
Speaker 2: way you claw back into it and you find a
1:15:10
Speaker 2: way to win.
1:15:11
Speaker 3: From a coaching standpoint, which is more valuable.
1:15:17
Speaker 5: Clawback to win. Yeah, momentum. Momentum is this interesting word
1:15:23
Speaker 5: that every coach seeks for it momentum for the players
1:15:28
Speaker 5: where remember, now, oh, by the way, the other guys
1:15:31
Speaker 5: are good also, so you play against yeah, see against
1:15:34
Speaker 5: good defense and really stella offense that they're not gonna
1:15:38
Speaker 5: let you play totally your game. That so during the
1:15:41
Speaker 5: course of a game you find your footing, and that's
1:15:44
Speaker 5: both on both sides of the ball. You mentioned Moore
1:15:47
Speaker 5: about hockey, and before I beget is Sean, I love
1:15:49
Speaker 5: how you talked about your food choices at the Delta
1:15:52
Speaker 5: Center and the hockey game last night. Forget about winning
1:15:54
Speaker 5: or losing. I'm impressed by your food choices.
1:15:56
Speaker 2: You got to make a good food choice when you're
1:15:58
Speaker 2: especially if you get to attend these twas with some regularity,
1:16:01
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Yes, when you when you're
1:16:03
Speaker 2: on a little inside baseball here, when you're on a
1:16:07
Speaker 2: press pass or a media pass at the Jazz games,
1:16:10
Speaker 2: you get that Toyota Club, little wristband, Gordy, it's real
1:16:14
Speaker 2: easy to go ham sandwich down there. You can get
1:16:16
Speaker 2: a little bit crazy. You could destroy your diet with
1:16:19
Speaker 2: one Jazz game.
1:16:20
Speaker 5: And or if you have really discipline as a person,
1:16:24
Speaker 5: which I know you have, but also as the players
1:16:27
Speaker 5: have also both on both sides of the ball. I've
1:16:31
Speaker 5: been doing this showing for fifty three years, and so
1:16:33
Speaker 5: I'm still curious how how you and James Peterson, how
1:16:38
Speaker 5: you guys roll fifty three years doing this And also
1:16:42
Speaker 5: more importantly, just as important to say, the Jazz, the
1:16:45
Speaker 5: Jazz in particular there that they're that interesting uh segue
1:16:50
Speaker 5: where they they have some good players. They have some
1:16:54
Speaker 5: good players, and so that the question is can you
1:16:56
Speaker 5: keep adding to it. Ace Billy. Let's not forget. Let's
1:16:59
Speaker 5: let's remember he's young and he's coming off a good
1:17:02
Speaker 5: game the other night where he got twenty points. But
1:17:05
Speaker 5: he's how he's got them, and can he can he
1:17:07
Speaker 5: keep emerging right now? I think he can.
1:17:09
Speaker 2: It's really crazy how wrong the perception of Ace Bailey
1:17:14
Speaker 2: was in that draft and post draft scenario. I mean,
1:17:20
Speaker 2: the stink surrounding the agent and he doesn't want to
1:17:24
Speaker 2: go here, he only wants to be drafted there. It
1:17:28
Speaker 2: left the perception out there, which thankfully was wrong, that
1:17:32
Speaker 2: this is a kid with diva tendencies and he's going
1:17:35
Speaker 2: to try to be bigger than an organization and it's
1:17:38
Speaker 2: not going to be a team first. And unless they're
1:17:42
Speaker 2: doing just an incredible job in the Jazz organization of
1:17:46
Speaker 2: squashing down any stories of bad behavior, he seems like
1:17:49
Speaker 2: he's a model citizen, model teammate, model rookie whatever. I
1:17:54
Speaker 2: just I just cannot get over how wrong that initial impression,
1:17:59
Speaker 2: that first impression of Ace Bailey.
1:18:01
Speaker 5: And that's why all I know is what I see,
1:18:04
Speaker 5: not what I hear, And so that's he'd be a
1:18:07
Speaker 5: classic example of doing that. He plays with joy and
1:18:12
Speaker 5: he also has a whole bunch of talent and that
1:18:14
Speaker 5: he's fitting very nicely here in Salt Lake City. And
1:18:17
Speaker 5: from a team standpoint, he's going to be part, absolutely
1:18:20
Speaker 5: part of the future. Him and Kiante George, those guys
1:18:23
Speaker 5: will be will be here for a long long time.
1:18:26
Speaker 5: And then now the Jazz as far as and so
1:18:29
Speaker 5: so really we should be Larry Markin. What happens is
1:18:31
Speaker 5: a lot of times out of sight is out of mind.
1:18:34
Speaker 5: Larry Markin has some illness and that hopefully you'll play
1:18:37
Speaker 5: tonight and that if not, they're gonna keep going forward.
1:18:41
Speaker 1: Uh.
1:18:41
Speaker 5: As far as for the next game, this is a
1:18:43
Speaker 5: Jazz second game of a six game homestand and there's
1:18:47
Speaker 5: no reason why that those guys, the Jazz can't win
1:18:50
Speaker 5: a whole bunch of these games, including tonight. This is
1:18:53
Speaker 5: good for the Jazz. They're going to go against a
1:18:54
Speaker 5: good team in the Spurs, who were once rebuilding. Now
1:18:58
Speaker 5: they're trying to keep going forward with the second best
1:19:02
Speaker 5: record in the West and the Jazz right now. The
1:19:06
Speaker 5: Jazz right now, their record overall is fifteen and twenty nine,
1:19:11
Speaker 5: ten and twelve at home and five and seventeen road
1:19:14
Speaker 5: and the Jazz are the thirteen in the West. They're
1:19:17
Speaker 5: playing the second best team in the West, but I
1:19:20
Speaker 5: think the Jazz can knock come out.
1:19:24
Speaker 6: All right.
1:19:24
Speaker 2: We got gord To Chiaza for another segment or two
1:19:27
Speaker 2: here on The Sean O'Connell Show, so we're going to
1:19:28
Speaker 2: take advantage of that quick break here. We'll be back
1:19:31
Speaker 2: with more on the NBA, including an approaching trade deadline,
1:19:35
Speaker 2: big names still going to be on the move or
1:19:37
Speaker 2: is it settled Sean O'Connell Show. You tell us number
1:19:40
Speaker 2: one Sports Talk ESPN seven hundred ninety two NFM.
1:19:48
Speaker 1: You're tuned to The Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
1:19:51
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
1:19:55
Speaker 1: one a half am.
1:20:08
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show with Gordy Chiasa here on ESPN seven
1:20:12
Speaker 2: hundred ninety twoe FM and also Prince.
1:20:19
Speaker 7: Is.
1:20:21
Speaker 5: In nineteen eighty two, I was at a consint in Pasaic,
1:20:24
Speaker 5: New Jersey, and that was the first time I ever
1:20:26
Speaker 5: saw people like in Abash pot Pitt as far as
1:20:29
Speaker 5: you know them, passing people around. Yeah, yeah, nineteen eighty two,
1:20:32
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty two, Yeah, that's when Prince was young, and
1:20:37
Speaker 5: he was it was happening to say the least, nineteen
1:20:40
Speaker 5: eighty two. I know, shown you born nineteen eighty three,
1:20:43
Speaker 5: so I know i'm dating myself in Jane James pasn't
1:20:45
Speaker 5: even younger than you. However, Prince is really timeless.
1:20:50
Speaker 3: To see Prince, to see a young Prince, yeah, be
1:20:53
Speaker 3: pretty cool.
1:20:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, nineteen eighty two, pasake New Jersey we have. I
1:20:57
Speaker 5: mean he wrote the song in nineteen ninety nine. She
1:21:00
Speaker 5: wrote it way before then. Yeah, it's crazy.
1:21:02
Speaker 2: Tonight, we're going to party like a nineteen ninety nine
1:21:05
Speaker 2: looking at it like it was some distant future event.
1:21:09
Speaker 3: Now it's almost thirty years in our rear view. Yikes.
1:21:12
Speaker 5: Yeah right, yeah, yikes. And that's both and that's as
1:21:15
Speaker 5: you keep moving on in the age group. It's the
1:21:20
Speaker 5: most amazing how you look at different things of different prism.
1:21:25
Speaker 5: And that's both personal life but also in sports. So
1:21:28
Speaker 5: you know, who would have thought that that so and
1:21:31
Speaker 5: so would be traded, or that the New England Patriots
1:21:36
Speaker 5: after Bill Belichick and Tom Brady sean might they think hey,
1:21:42
Speaker 5: we can do this, we can win the whole thing.
1:21:44
Speaker 3: They might be headed back to the Super Bowl right,
1:21:46
Speaker 3: we'll find out this weekend.
1:21:47
Speaker 5: So who would have thought that. I mean, but the
1:21:51
Speaker 5: guys in the buildings did in New England and Foxboro,
1:21:54
Speaker 5: Yes they did. And also the personnel people.
1:21:56
Speaker 7: I know.
1:21:57
Speaker 5: I'm not objecting because besides being a coach, I was
1:21:59
Speaker 5: once with direct the pro personnel from the Memphis Grizzlies,
1:22:02
Speaker 5: So I saw a first hand that it's so important
1:22:06
Speaker 5: to personnel people if they get it right sean the
1:22:10
Speaker 5: majority of the time, not every time, this is impossible,
1:22:13
Speaker 5: it's really truly it. You're doing your behavior, but if
1:22:16
Speaker 5: you get it right most of the time, your team
1:22:18
Speaker 5: can go from me from losing to winning relatively quickly.
1:22:24
Speaker 2: So a bunch of these player personnel folks right now
1:22:27
Speaker 2: are trying to figure out do I trade this guy away?
1:22:31
Speaker 3: Can I go get that dude? Do I need a
1:22:33
Speaker 3: role player? Do I need a star?
1:22:35
Speaker 2: If I need a star, do I have the assets
1:22:37
Speaker 2: to make it worth it? And one of the biggest
1:22:40
Speaker 2: names that apparently is available with the approaching deadline would be,
1:22:45
Speaker 2: you honest, the Greek Free And there are not a
1:22:49
Speaker 2: lot of teams in the NBA who could even put
1:22:51
Speaker 2: together in a package that would make the Milwaukee Bucks
1:22:55
Speaker 2: consider it right now, But there's some teams that are
1:22:57
Speaker 2: really good already that could but actually want to package
1:23:01
Speaker 2: some things to go out and get Yannis. I've heard
1:23:02
Speaker 2: the Spurs mentioned. I don't know if you believe that
1:23:05
Speaker 2: makes sense. We'll start there. Do you pair somebody like
1:23:08
Speaker 2: that with Victor Weman Yama? If you do so, you
1:23:12
Speaker 2: probably have to get rid of a bunch of picks.
1:23:13
Speaker 2: Do you have to give up Dylan Harper? Do you
1:23:15
Speaker 2: have to give up a Stefan Castle type individual? Are
1:23:18
Speaker 2: you willing to do that?
1:23:19
Speaker 3: Are the Spurs calling feeling this out with the Milwaukee
1:23:24
Speaker 3: Bucks right now?
1:23:25
Speaker 6: Do you think.
1:23:28
Speaker 5: Yes, they're trying to like Gold Teems would be, they're
1:23:30
Speaker 5: trying to explore it because Giannis really has not said publicly,
1:23:34
Speaker 5: but he's hinted via his agent, is that what is
1:23:38
Speaker 5: going on here in Milwaukee. It's not forget that back
1:23:41
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty one, the Bucks were world champions. So
1:23:44
Speaker 5: now let's fast forward it five years later. They're reckon.
1:23:47
Speaker 5: Now is eighteen and twenty five, and they seem like
1:23:50
Speaker 5: what they're heading not even remotely being competitive in the East.
1:23:56
Speaker 5: And we know in NBA basketball that the Western conference
1:23:59
Speaker 5: is much more are competitive from top to bottom than
1:24:03
Speaker 5: the Eastern conferences. So Jannis is uh, he's frustrated, and
1:24:08
Speaker 5: he is He's basically saying that we need help dramatically
1:24:14
Speaker 5: and if not, please try to make it work as
1:24:18
Speaker 5: far as trading me, and if not, right now this
1:24:20
Speaker 5: trading deadline, which is Thursday, February fifth, definitely during the
1:24:24
Speaker 5: week of the NBA draft. Gianni's contract just quickly for
1:24:28
Speaker 5: the listeners right now, Jianna's contract this year is fifty
1:24:31
Speaker 5: one point four million, twenty six, twenty seven fifty eight
1:24:34
Speaker 5: point four and twenty seven twenty eight sixty two point
1:24:38
Speaker 5: seven million with a player option. And I know these
1:24:40
Speaker 5: numbers seem so are you kidding me about these numbers?
1:24:44
Speaker 5: They are unfathomable to think. And you're right, you know,
1:24:47
Speaker 5: all of us like Sean I'll come, Gordon Sias and
1:24:51
Speaker 5: James Peterson, all these common folks that are on the
1:24:54
Speaker 5: air right now, we're gonna we're common folks. These numbers
1:24:57
Speaker 5: are so incredible. And do you realize that's day someday
1:25:02
Speaker 5: Victor Wenbiyama and Luka Danteg will be probably the first
1:25:05
Speaker 5: two players ever to make one hundred million dollars in
1:25:08
Speaker 5: a season. Season I just say, I just say a lifetime.
1:25:14
Speaker 5: I'm saying a season.
1:25:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, We've we've done this before, right, We've gone over
1:25:19
Speaker 2: the top earners in the sport. And how there's guys
1:25:22
Speaker 2: now like Danilo Gallinari made more money in his career
1:25:25
Speaker 2: than Michael Jordan did, like in terms of NBA salary,
1:25:29
Speaker 2: and those numbers are just getting further and further inflated.
1:25:32
Speaker 2: And this, by the way, still in a hard cap league.
1:25:34
Speaker 2: That's not even bringing in the baseball conversation and how
1:25:37
Speaker 2: insane some of those things get.
1:25:39
Speaker 5: But and then the NFL is so cruel where it's
1:25:42
Speaker 5: absolutely a hard cap like it's hard there's no like
1:25:46
Speaker 5: gray area.
1:25:47
Speaker 3: No aprons, there's no luxury tax.
1:25:49
Speaker 5: Right exactly. And that's what makes it so interesting in
1:25:52
Speaker 5: the NFL where if you're champions, absolutely those those depth
1:25:59
Speaker 5: was these guys came came to your team and they
1:26:03
Speaker 5: overperformed their their modest contract. And that's even including in
1:26:07
Speaker 5: the NBA where the players when you're you go deep
1:26:11
Speaker 5: in the playoffs, your contributors out did their contract and
1:26:17
Speaker 5: that's why your team is really good. To With that said,
1:26:20
Speaker 5: here's some guys that could be in the trading mix.
1:26:25
Speaker 5: Jonathan Kaminga from the Warriors. Now, Jimmy Butler got hurt,
1:26:29
Speaker 5: so he's out till with a twenty ACL he'll be
1:26:32
Speaker 5: out until minimum December first next year, twenty twenty met
1:26:39
Speaker 5: this year, I mean twenty twenty six and he's out.
1:26:42
Speaker 5: So Kamen is gonna be gonna be trying to possibly
1:26:45
Speaker 5: be traded. So Michael Porter of the Nets will be
1:26:47
Speaker 5: in play, Sacklavin of the Kings, Kyle Kuzma, former Utah
1:26:52
Speaker 5: standout from the Bucks will he will be if they
1:26:56
Speaker 5: do make a trade for any to improve their roster,
1:26:58
Speaker 5: he'll be part of that group right now. Cam Thomas
1:27:01
Speaker 5: are the next, also Damari De Rosen of the Kings.
1:27:05
Speaker 5: Nick Vussovich of the Bulls that everybody likes. His contracts
1:27:08
Speaker 5: up this year, so he has a lot of value
1:27:10
Speaker 5: that it makes him much more tradable for the In
1:27:13
Speaker 5: Jazz basketball, it could be someone like Kyle Anderson as
1:27:17
Speaker 5: far as getting more assets for the Jets. George Nyang,
1:27:20
Speaker 5: who's who's been hurt but now possibly could be playing
1:27:23
Speaker 5: his far off injury. He'll be in play, as it
1:27:26
Speaker 5: could be Jeremiah Jeremy Grant Pardon of the Portland Trailblazers
1:27:32
Speaker 5: will be out there. Daniel Gafford of the Maps everybody
1:27:35
Speaker 5: likes because of them not winning, but also because he's
1:27:38
Speaker 5: he's a contract is truly friendly. So and then if
1:27:41
Speaker 5: you don't get a guy right now, there'll be some
1:27:43
Speaker 5: buyout options at between the between February fifth and March first,
1:27:49
Speaker 5: if you play in the NBA, if you want to,
1:27:52
Speaker 5: you can't be bought out, and some with another team
1:27:55
Speaker 5: after March first. So he goes from the trading deadline,
1:27:58
Speaker 5: then the buying option, and then have to watch first.
1:28:01
Speaker 5: Then your roster's basically.
1:28:03
Speaker 2: Said, if you're if you're in the trade market for
1:28:07
Speaker 2: let's let's talk about you. Let's talk about these top
1:28:10
Speaker 2: top guys. Kaminga I think is interesting for some teams.
1:28:14
Speaker 2: But let's let's stick with the most familiar name here.
1:28:17
Speaker 2: You're the Milwaukee Bucks. What do you need to get
1:28:20
Speaker 2: back in order to send one of the top three
1:28:23
Speaker 2: top four players in the history of your organization who
1:28:26
Speaker 2: still has what do you think Gordy three or four
1:28:28
Speaker 2: maybe five good years of basketball.
1:28:30
Speaker 5: Left right now? He's age thirty one right now, right
1:28:32
Speaker 5: so I.
1:28:32
Speaker 3: Mean he could play in his mid thirties, very successful,
1:28:35
Speaker 3: very much.
1:28:36
Speaker 2: Yes, So what do you need if you're in Milwaukee
1:28:40
Speaker 2: to say, all right, fine, well, let he kind of
1:28:42
Speaker 2: wants to go, but you're not gonna sell him cheap.
1:28:47
Speaker 5: No you're not. So that's when it gets so interesting.
1:28:50
Speaker 5: It would be minimum two front light starters and minimum
1:28:58
Speaker 5: two or three future first round picks and alternate. He
1:29:02
Speaker 5: is usually speaking, and it could be a freeway trade
1:29:06
Speaker 5: with another team involved to make everything work as far
1:29:09
Speaker 5: as the money and the players. So it's a whole
1:29:12
Speaker 5: bunch of things that they're going to try to do.
1:29:15
Speaker 5: So it's got to be high draft picks, meaning first
1:29:18
Speaker 5: round draft picks, which usually should be most times for Giannis,
1:29:21
Speaker 5: would be protected through one through four with that team
1:29:25
Speaker 5: and then also with standout players that are somewhat younger.
1:29:32
Speaker 5: So if it was if it was just hypothetically with
1:29:36
Speaker 5: someone like say the the San Antonio Spurs, it would
1:29:40
Speaker 5: be it would be so like the aren't Fox type
1:29:44
Speaker 5: guy or Dylan Harper or Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sohan as
1:29:51
Speaker 5: far as making money work, Harrison Bonds to make the
1:29:53
Speaker 5: money work, et cetera. Devin Voss, Sol they have a
1:29:56
Speaker 5: lot of different assets that they possibly could, so we
1:29:59
Speaker 5: sh I'll see if a Giannis can do that, and
1:30:03
Speaker 5: it will affect the NBA as far as I call
1:30:05
Speaker 5: it court tilt. If a star player gets traded before
1:30:08
Speaker 5: the deadline, is that and he's really he's really a
1:30:11
Speaker 5: top player, that it would it would create so much
1:30:14
Speaker 5: as far as court tilt for the team and possibly
1:30:18
Speaker 5: for the whole conference. Where now things changed dramatically, and
1:30:23
Speaker 5: that was Luca Doncs last year. I remember when they
1:30:25
Speaker 5: trade Luca Danci. They just think about this Lakers right
1:30:29
Speaker 5: now Without Luca Dantac, they would be hurting unbelievable. So
1:30:33
Speaker 5: what they made that miracle trade, what I call miracle.
1:30:38
Speaker 5: Do do you ever celebrate Christmas? Not in the not
1:30:42
Speaker 5: in December twenty fifth, Well, the Lakers celebrated Christmas in
1:30:46
Speaker 5: early February last year, ye early February. And so look
1:30:50
Speaker 5: at the Lakers that they're right now. They're the fifth
1:30:53
Speaker 5: seed at twenty six and sixteen, with Luca Donces being
1:30:56
Speaker 5: absolutely once in a lifetime generational talent. Lebron James is
1:31:00
Speaker 5: still laveraging twenty two points a game at age forty one,
1:31:03
Speaker 5: and let's not forget Austin Reeves is hurt and Austin Reves,
1:31:06
Speaker 5: having an amazing year of averaging to our twenty seven
1:31:09
Speaker 5: point eight points per game, hasn't played in the last
1:31:11
Speaker 5: month or so, and they're still highly competitive. Without Luca,
1:31:15
Speaker 5: there'll be app there would be there'd be a mess.
1:31:17
Speaker 5: And that's what shows you how it happens, and that
1:31:20
Speaker 5: Luca Dontu Tree, Anthony Davis. What happened goes from again
1:31:24
Speaker 5: a star player. When the Lakers goes to the Dallas Mavericks.
1:31:27
Speaker 5: They had a miracle with drafting Cooper Flag as far
1:31:30
Speaker 5: as being the first pick of a draft, and he's
1:31:32
Speaker 5: a generational talent.
1:31:34
Speaker 4: But the.
1:31:36
Speaker 5: Mavericks are eighteen and twenty six and probably a non
1:31:40
Speaker 5: playoff team.
1:31:43
Speaker 3: Gordia, this is apropos of almost nothing.
1:31:46
Speaker 2: But Steven Adams is going semi viral right now because
1:31:50
Speaker 2: he is, uh, he's living the simple life right now.
1:31:54
Speaker 2: He put out some videos of his apartment set up,
1:31:58
Speaker 2: his living setup in he Houston. And this is a
1:32:00
Speaker 2: guy who's made almost two hundred million dollars so far
1:32:03
Speaker 2: in NBA contracts and he's he's doing like an MTV
1:32:07
Speaker 2: Cribs kind of thing. Laughing at himself. He's got like
1:32:11
Speaker 2: a folding table with a video game system and a
1:32:15
Speaker 2: gaming chair. He's got a mattress on the floor. He
1:32:18
Speaker 2: sleeps in a sleeping bag because he says it's better
1:32:21
Speaker 2: to sleep on us on the floor for his back.
1:32:23
Speaker 3: And of course everyone's just like, are you kidding me?
1:32:25
Speaker 7: This guy?
1:32:26
Speaker 2: I mean, he's got no furniture in this place. He's
1:32:29
Speaker 2: very clearly living a simple life. So who's the Who's
1:32:34
Speaker 2: the guy that lived most simply or the player that
1:32:38
Speaker 2: you like, wow, Like, this is a guy who's saving
1:32:40
Speaker 2: it all for when he's retired.
1:32:46
Speaker 5: When he's retired, let me see a simple Well.
1:32:48
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know what Steven Adams plan is.
1:32:50
Speaker 5: But also right, let's not forget in a present tense,
1:32:54
Speaker 5: he has a severe sprained ankle. Yes, so part of
1:32:56
Speaker 5: me is not playing until roughly March twentieth. So he's
1:32:59
Speaker 5: home right now rehabbing and he's not playing. So this
1:33:03
Speaker 5: is part of why he's uh, why he's on social
1:33:07
Speaker 5: media to the stream showing off his crib. And so
1:33:12
Speaker 5: what guy would be like that? I have to think
1:33:14
Speaker 5: about that because I know in jazz basketball, over the years,
1:33:17
Speaker 5: most people were absolutely, relatively strongly serious about about doing that.
1:33:23
Speaker 5: But let me think of the next time we speak,
1:33:25
Speaker 5: I will think about one or two. Well again, I
1:33:29
Speaker 5: word that the late great Bill Walton was like that.
1:33:32
Speaker 5: Well yeah, like a free spirit. Oh sure, yeah, like
1:33:35
Speaker 5: Bill Walton, you know, as far as a free spirit
1:33:37
Speaker 5: and you know, just minimum things as far as what
1:33:40
Speaker 5: he would do.
1:33:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had his TP We know that.
1:33:43
Speaker 2: There's it's fascinating because we have all these stories right
1:33:46
Speaker 2: of professional athlete, NFL players, NBA players, whatever. They just
1:33:50
Speaker 2: squander all their money, they spend lavishly and then it's gone.
1:33:54
Speaker 2: And then you've got these that you hear about a
1:33:56
Speaker 2: lot less often of guys that don't spend any of
1:33:59
Speaker 2: their money. The Gronx story went viral a couple of
1:34:03
Speaker 2: years ago where he was like, yeah, I've never spent
1:34:05
Speaker 2: any of my my NFL salary. I just used my
1:34:08
Speaker 2: endorsement money to live on. And people are like, what,
1:34:11
Speaker 2: how do you pull that off? But obviously you can.
1:34:14
Speaker 2: And this is just fascinating. I mean, Steven Adams is
1:34:17
Speaker 2: a different cat. His you know, New Zealand roots and
1:34:20
Speaker 2: it comes from that massive, massive family and all that.
1:34:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, seventeen kids yeah, so that's that's how he grew
1:34:27
Speaker 5: up a different culture right now, and good for him
1:34:31
Speaker 5: and for the Rockets. You know, he he's hurt and
1:34:34
Speaker 5: so he's sitting out and they need him badly because
1:34:37
Speaker 5: he's a contributor. He's one of the best screens in
1:34:39
Speaker 5: the NBA and Sean, he's a free spirit with the swag.
1:34:47
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna take one more break. Gordy's gonna
1:34:49
Speaker 2: join us one more segment and we'll do his list
1:34:53
Speaker 2: and then we'll cut him loose. Eric Weddle's gonna join
1:34:55
Speaker 2: us in hour number three. Sounds like that'll have to
1:34:58
Speaker 2: be about one fifteen. So a pro gramming note there,
1:35:01
Speaker 2: Eric Weddle at one fifteen instead of at one o'clock
1:35:04
Speaker 2: when he normally joins us. Plenty left to get to
1:35:06
Speaker 2: on the Sean O'Connell show. It's ESPN seven hundred and
1:35:08
Speaker 2: ninety tw one FM.
1:35:13
Speaker 1: You're listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
1:35:16
Speaker 1: Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to.
1:35:20
Speaker 5: One half m.
1:35:25
Speaker 2: Gordon Chiasa has been kind of have to hang us
1:35:27
Speaker 2: out with us for an hour and even more kind
1:35:29
Speaker 2: and that our schedule with Morgan Scalley got shifted around
1:35:33
Speaker 2: a little bit, so we had to push Gordy back
1:35:34
Speaker 2: to the full noon hour instead of eleven thirty twelve thirty.
1:35:37
Speaker 3: Always appreciate you being accommodating, Gordy.
1:35:40
Speaker 2: If you missed the Morgan Scalley interview, you can find
1:35:43
Speaker 2: at ESPN seven hundred sports dot com or on the
1:35:47
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred app. And I bet that they'll play
1:35:51
Speaker 2: at least some of it on the Drive with Spence
1:35:53
Speaker 2: Checkets later today. But we're still talking a little hoop
1:35:57
Speaker 2: with Gordychiasa Jazz versus the Spurs tonight at the Delta Center. Uh,
1:36:04
Speaker 2: and then it'll be, uh, what a six game? They
1:36:07
Speaker 2: got a six game homestand.
1:36:08
Speaker 5: Well this the fifth one of a six game homestand
1:36:10
Speaker 5: that's right, the second one tonight, so there'll be a
1:36:14
Speaker 5: it's sixth total and the games of so quickly, here's
1:36:18
Speaker 5: the homestand would be they It was the recently it
1:36:22
Speaker 5: was the Wolves, then the Spurs, the Heat on Saturday,
1:36:27
Speaker 5: Then next Tuesday the Clippers, which is eight o'clock start.
1:36:30
Speaker 5: That game's on Peacock. Next Wednesday the Warriors, and the
1:36:33
Speaker 5: following Friday, January thirtieth, the Nets. So it's it's so
1:36:38
Speaker 5: this is the second game of a six game homestand
1:36:41
Speaker 5: then they just go away for five straight games and
1:36:44
Speaker 5: welcome to the NBA, where a lot of it's these
1:36:47
Speaker 5: long home stands and then these really really competitive road trips.
1:36:52
Speaker 5: And that's when you earn your earn your dollars when
1:36:54
Speaker 5: you win on the road.
1:36:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, the road, the road trip after this long home
1:36:59
Speaker 2: stand Toronto, Indiana, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, So long travel for those.
1:37:06
Speaker 5: Ones and Sewan. Just for a note is that the
1:37:09
Speaker 5: Jazz will be in Atlanta on trading deadline day, so Thursday,
1:37:14
Speaker 5: February fifth, those players will be in Atlanta, which means
1:37:19
Speaker 5: also on Wednesday, the day before the trading deadline, they'll
1:37:23
Speaker 5: be in Atlanta because the Jazz played Tuesday on February third, Indiana.
1:37:27
Speaker 5: So usually speaking, you come at you fla after the
1:37:29
Speaker 5: game to the next sight or the next day, probably
1:37:34
Speaker 5: in the morning either or based on what's going on.
1:37:37
Speaker 5: And so that's an interesting time shown where everyone's circling
1:37:41
Speaker 5: around your team about who might be traded, whether it's
1:37:45
Speaker 5: true or not. But the players know about it because
1:37:48
Speaker 5: their loved ones keep telling them and their agents. They're
1:37:51
Speaker 5: on the phone all the time talking to them that
1:37:54
Speaker 5: it's possible you might not be traded or don't believe
1:37:57
Speaker 5: that it's not. And so it's really interesting where your
1:38:01
Speaker 5: world would change for you or for a player. We
1:38:03
Speaker 5: used to always counsel the guys showing that if we
1:38:06
Speaker 5: traded you, that we we appreciate what you did, and
1:38:10
Speaker 5: then we braced the new guy we traded four he
1:38:13
Speaker 5: would come into the locker room and that It's all
1:38:16
Speaker 5: part of the professional sports where you might have to
1:38:19
Speaker 5: relocate to stay employed. So if someone moves you on,
1:38:23
Speaker 5: that means someone also wants you as far as being
1:38:26
Speaker 5: on their team.
1:38:26
Speaker 3: So it's both all right, Gordy, what is the list today?
1:38:31
Speaker 5: The list today is the New Orleans Utah Jazz Korea
1:38:36
Speaker 5: Triple double game Leaders. It's a very short list. Thew
1:38:40
Speaker 5: Orleans Jazz, Utah Jazz Korea Triple double game leaders. What's
1:38:47
Speaker 5: the triple double? A triple double is recorded when a
1:38:51
Speaker 5: player registers ten or more and three of the following
1:38:56
Speaker 5: five game categories. They are one point two assist, three rebounds,
1:39:05
Speaker 5: four steals, and five block shots. The New Orleans Jazz
1:39:10
Speaker 5: first season as an NBA franchise was the nineteen seventy
1:39:14
Speaker 5: four to seventy five campaign, which means that fifty one
1:39:18
Speaker 5: seasons of New Orleans and Utah Jazz basketball. Here's the
1:39:22
Speaker 5: list of only eleven players that had a triple double
1:39:27
Speaker 5: in their career. Gail Gerrich had won, Joe Merriweather had won,
1:39:34
Speaker 5: and both those guys played for the New Orleans Jazz.
1:39:37
Speaker 5: Adrian Dantley had won, Danny Chase had won, Corlis Boosier
1:39:44
Speaker 5: had won, Jordan Clarkson had won, Yusuf Nurkice had won,
1:39:50
Speaker 5: the other day a triple double versus the Minnesota Timberwolves
1:39:57
Speaker 5: with three triple doubles, they are Carl Malone and Andre Carolinko.
1:40:05
Speaker 5: The second most triple doubles and Jazz history is Mark
1:40:09
Speaker 5: Eaton with six wow, and the number one player in
1:40:14
Speaker 5: New Orleans Utah Jazz history for the most career triple
1:40:19
Speaker 5: doubles is Pete Maravich with seven. So only eleven players
1:40:25
Speaker 5: and Jazz history of all the guys played of fifty
1:40:28
Speaker 5: one seasons had a regular season triple double. What about
1:40:32
Speaker 5: John Stockton? John Stockton played for the Jazz for nineteen years.
1:40:37
Speaker 5: He played spectacularly in one thousand, five hundred and four
1:40:44
Speaker 5: Korea games. He never had a regular season triple double.
1:40:48
Speaker 5: Game he had won triple double was in a playoff
1:40:52
Speaker 5: battle versus the Dallas Mavericks on April twenty eight, two thousand.
1:40:58
Speaker 5: I remember the game vividly. He scored twelve points, eleven
1:41:01
Speaker 5: rebounds and tennissists. So that's how hard it is. So
1:41:05
Speaker 5: usually use the nurcage other day with that unbelievable showing
1:41:09
Speaker 5: great fruit passing with that ball, had registered a tennissists
1:41:13
Speaker 5: besides the rebounds and points, and he joined the very
1:41:17
Speaker 5: very exclusive club of only eleven players in JESS history
1:41:21
Speaker 5: triple double.
1:41:24
Speaker 2: Who will finish their NBA careers with more triple doubles.
1:41:26
Speaker 2: Russell Westbrook, the current record holder, or NICOLEA. Jokic, who
1:41:31
Speaker 2: is twenty seven behind him.
1:41:34
Speaker 5: Jokic absolutely, Jokic could get a triple double literally in
1:41:40
Speaker 5: eight tenths of his games in his career the way
1:41:44
Speaker 5: he plays again, think about the criteria rebounds, assist points, steals,
1:41:51
Speaker 5: and block shots. He could do that literally almost every game.
1:41:55
Speaker 5: And he has. He's hurt right now, so he's out
1:41:58
Speaker 5: of sight, out of mind, but he is absolutely a
1:42:01
Speaker 5: triple double. He is so and also sewn. He's another guy,
1:42:04
Speaker 5: young guy Alpha and Chagoon from the Houston Rockets. He's
1:42:08
Speaker 5: a younger version of of Nikolai Jokic and he's also guy.
1:42:13
Speaker 5: So it's it's so amazing that both these big guys,
1:42:18
Speaker 5: including Yusuf Nurkice, all these European guys from the Baltic
1:42:22
Speaker 5: States meaning what as far as Bosnia and uh and
1:42:25
Speaker 5: the Lithuanian all these different players included the Bonus Domotoks.
1:42:31
Speaker 5: The Bonus also triple doubles. He's hurt right now. Al
1:42:34
Speaker 5: he's back now off injury, but he's hurting the start
1:42:36
Speaker 5: the season. All these big guys have so many great
1:42:38
Speaker 5: passing skills, so it should be Nikolai jok So enjoy
1:42:42
Speaker 5: enjoying right now all the basketball fans. I know he's
1:42:45
Speaker 5: a Jazz nemesis, he play against them in the same division,
1:42:48
Speaker 5: but he's really a spectacular player.
1:42:50
Speaker 2: That's Gordy Chieza, our resident NBA guru, Gordia. It's always
1:42:55
Speaker 2: great to see you, Thank you, sir.
1:42:56
Speaker 5: Thanks Sean peace out.
1:42:58
Speaker 3: Eric Weddall is going to join us at about fifth
1:43:00
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes.
1:43:00
Speaker 2: We've got a leaderboard update, we got a daily dump
1:43:03
Speaker 2: of a potpourri of stories for you. It's a jam
1:43:05
Speaker 2: packed one o'clock hour on ESPN seven hundred ninety two
1:43:08
Speaker 2: one FM.
1:43:16
Speaker 1: This is by Sean O'Connell's show, you were home of
1:43:19
Speaker 1: the best Inside of your use. Let's get back to
1:43:22
Speaker 1: OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred
1:43:27
Speaker 1: at ninety two to one f M.
1:43:30
Speaker 7: Sixteen.
1:43:34
Speaker 2: Eric, right, I'm going to join us in about ten
1:43:36
Speaker 2: minutes here on the Sean O'Connell Show. There's a lot
1:43:42
Speaker 2: in the daily dump I wanted to get to, So
1:43:43
Speaker 2: I guess I'll peel a couple of those stories off
1:43:46
Speaker 2: here and we can.
1:43:48
Speaker 3: This is the one I really want to focus on,
1:43:50
Speaker 3: all right.
1:43:51
Speaker 2: The San Francisco forty nine Ers as an organization are
1:43:55
Speaker 2: officially investigating the power substation next to the practice facility.
1:44:01
Speaker 2: John Lynch was like, Hey, if anyone has any studies,
1:44:03
Speaker 2: any information, let us know. This is the biggest double
1:44:08
Speaker 2: edged sword for the San Francisco forty nine ers you
1:44:11
Speaker 2: could find. The correct solution is the one that I
1:44:15
Speaker 2: already gave them last week. Just move the practice field.
1:44:22
Speaker 2: Don't have to tell anybody why everyone kind of already knows.
1:44:28
Speaker 2: But spend the money, build yourself a new practice facility,
1:44:33
Speaker 2: buy a piece of land over here, swap the parking
1:44:36
Speaker 2: lot places, whatever you want to do. Let's say, James Peterson,
1:44:41
Speaker 2: that the San Francisco forty nine ers conduct a thorough investigation,
1:44:46
Speaker 2: and because it serves my conspiracy purposes better, they find
1:44:50
Speaker 2: that there's even a nominal effect of this power substation
1:44:54
Speaker 2: next to their practice field on collagen health, on hydration,
1:45:00
Speaker 2: on whatever the scientists or pseudo scientists are claiming could
1:45:05
Speaker 2: potentially be the harm of having your guss meter readings
1:45:10
Speaker 2: next to the power substation. Let's say they find even
1:45:14
Speaker 2: like the tiniest minor effects are possible.
1:45:19
Speaker 3: What does that mean for the San Francisco forty nine ers.
1:45:21
Speaker 3: Let's string this thing out to the end.
1:45:23
Speaker 8: What does it mean.
1:45:25
Speaker 1: It?
1:45:26
Speaker 4: I mean it means they probably should move the practice field, right,
1:45:30
Speaker 4: And I'm with you, like, no investigation needed, don't make
1:45:35
Speaker 4: this bigger than it needs to be.
1:45:37
Speaker 3: But what happens is if they find, if they.
1:45:42
Speaker 2: Pay for a study, if they commission a study, even
1:45:45
Speaker 2: if they don't, but they just encourage a study, and
1:45:48
Speaker 2: that study even remotely.
1:45:51
Speaker 3: Suggests that this is affecting the health of their players.
1:45:54
Speaker 2: What this results in for the San Francisco forty nine
1:45:57
Speaker 2: ers is litigation from literally every single player. How naive
1:46:03
Speaker 2: of me to not that has had an injury on
1:46:06
Speaker 2: the team. I think nineteen eighty six is when they
1:46:10
Speaker 2: put that substation there.
1:46:11
Speaker 4: Well, how about the how about Greenlaw the linebacker who
1:46:14
Speaker 4: tore his achilles or was it his acl and jumping
1:46:18
Speaker 4: in jumping into game action in the Super Bowl, which
1:46:22
Speaker 4: kind of played a part in dooming your Niners against
1:46:25
Speaker 4: the Chiefs a couple of years ago. Losing one of
1:46:28
Speaker 4: your best linebackers. That's a notable injury you can think of,
1:46:31
Speaker 4: and so many last year and this year too. Yeah,
1:46:34
Speaker 4: you're right, a lot of litigation. Naive of me, like
1:46:37
Speaker 4: I was saying, to not think of that right away. Also,
1:46:41
Speaker 4: you risk getting way, You risk getting inundated from everyone
1:46:48
Speaker 4: outside of your organization, and a lot of people inside
1:46:51
Speaker 4: your organization when it comes to players and stuff being
1:46:56
Speaker 4: inundated by those people with how could you let these guys?
1:47:00
Speaker 4: How could you like these guys practice? Look at the
1:47:03
Speaker 4: you got. This proves there was levels of whatever of
1:47:07
Speaker 4: EMF That's that's mate, that's causing them injuries? How could
1:47:11
Speaker 4: you let this happen? Even if you don't lose a
1:47:13
Speaker 4: bunch of money from litigation, you're gonna get bet, Like,
1:47:17
Speaker 4: just move the field, don't encourage, don't do a study,
1:47:21
Speaker 4: don't encourage studies. Like if I'm John Lynch, I don't
1:47:24
Speaker 4: even bring it up in the press.
1:47:25
Speaker 2: Conte you just say, hey, guys, you know what, We're
1:47:28
Speaker 2: gonna put everyone's minds at ease. We're moving this facility.
1:47:32
Speaker 2: And then the follow up question, right, people, well why
1:47:35
Speaker 2: are you moving? And if you don't think it's a
1:47:36
Speaker 2: big issue, well, you know what, the peace of mind
1:47:39
Speaker 2: of our players is just as important to us as
1:47:41
Speaker 2: anything else.
1:47:42
Speaker 3: So we're moving this facility.
1:47:44
Speaker 2: There's nothing other than disaster that can strike here for
1:47:47
Speaker 2: the San Francisco forty nine ers, unless, of course, and
1:47:51
Speaker 2: here's the other end of the conspiracy theory, unless of
1:47:54
Speaker 2: course they're just like, hey, we're hiring you to conduct
1:47:58
Speaker 2: a study it shows that this does not affect injuries
1:48:03
Speaker 2: at all, because otherwise we are going to be bankrupted
1:48:08
Speaker 2: by the agents of these players.
1:48:10
Speaker 4: And you know what, that's probably the quiet confidence behind
1:48:14
Speaker 4: that behind John Lynch and the organization deciding to open
1:48:19
Speaker 4: that up is like they're not going to find anything, Okay,
1:48:22
Speaker 4: they're gonna find something though.
1:48:24
Speaker 3: Well that's the thing.
1:48:24
Speaker 2: I mean, we all know how studies that are inconclusive
1:48:30
Speaker 2: end up working. It's like every new pharmaceutical drug has
1:48:37
Speaker 2: the lens in the most profitable position.
1:48:40
Speaker 3: Right.
1:48:41
Speaker 2: They'll just be like, all right, what is this sky Rizzy?
1:48:45
Speaker 2: We keep seeing these damn commercials for sky Rizzy. You
1:48:49
Speaker 2: hear them a little bit on the station too.
1:48:51
Speaker 3: Is sky Rizzy? Sky Rizzy good for you? What kind
1:48:55
Speaker 3: of cure?
1:48:56
Speaker 2: And it's like, oh yeah, it gets rid of your ezema?
1:48:58
Speaker 2: And then the side effects that they list off are
1:49:01
Speaker 2: like death, dismemberment, hair loss, brain loss.
1:49:08
Speaker 4: A lot of this is such bad mental health side
1:49:11
Speaker 4: effects too, like you like, you know, suicide ideation, it's insane.
1:49:18
Speaker 2: Right, So they'll be like, hey, do you want to
1:49:20
Speaker 2: get rid of your itchy elbows but potentially also have
1:49:25
Speaker 2: crippling diarrhea for the rest of your life. It's these
1:49:29
Speaker 2: these studies are always pointed in the direction that people
1:49:31
Speaker 2: want them to be pointed. We're like, hey, we found
1:49:34
Speaker 2: a positive effect over here, never mind the rest of this, right,
1:49:38
Speaker 2: So the san Francisco forty nine. Ers like, in the
1:49:41
Speaker 2: best case scenario are at least going to be accused
1:49:44
Speaker 2: of if the study comes back clean. They are at
1:49:47
Speaker 2: the very least going to be accused of trying to
1:49:49
Speaker 2: repress what would have been damaging information for them, the
1:49:53
Speaker 2: correct thing to do as soon as there was any
1:49:56
Speaker 2: idea that this might be an issue. And apparently this
1:49:59
Speaker 2: is something that players have been talking about for years.
1:50:02
Speaker 2: Like Navarro Bowman did an interview and he was talking
1:50:05
Speaker 2: about it. Olli're like, yeah, we used to joke about
1:50:08
Speaker 2: that thing or whatever, famously famously injured in an NFC
1:50:12
Speaker 2: Championship game. Navara Bowlman the first one, by the way,
1:50:15
Speaker 2: the first time that you ended up having a player
1:50:20
Speaker 2: that was just like, hey man, my weird hippie nutrition
1:50:23
Speaker 2: iss says that this is a problem. You got to
1:50:25
Speaker 2: be like, all right, well, we're printing money here in
1:50:28
Speaker 2: Santa Clara, where the York Family we have billions of dollars.
1:50:34
Speaker 2: I'm going to spend fifty million to tear up to
1:50:38
Speaker 2: tear up a parking lot, to lay down some turf,
1:50:42
Speaker 2: and to build a nice little practice facility with a
1:50:44
Speaker 2: nutrition lab in it.
1:50:46
Speaker 3: Because it's somewhere far away from this substation. Here's the thing.
1:50:50
Speaker 3: I hate this.
1:50:50
Speaker 2: This is my favorite professional sports organization on the planet.
1:50:54
Speaker 3: I hate this. But there's no positive outcome that I
1:50:57
Speaker 3: can foresee here. I agree with you on here's a positive.
1:51:01
Speaker 4: Maybe they can get a Netflix uh, a Netflix sponsorship
1:51:05
Speaker 4: because this is very stranger things.
1:51:07
Speaker 2: Just just say, hey, Netflix, do you want to do
1:51:10
Speaker 2: we know whether or not DEMC Gorgan's had anything.
1:51:12
Speaker 4: To do with these injuries, because apparently I've been hearing
1:51:18
Speaker 4: are they are they gonna make some kind of knockoffs
1:51:21
Speaker 4: or like like progress the story with different characters?
1:51:25
Speaker 7: Is that?
1:51:25
Speaker 3: Is am I hearing that?
1:51:26
Speaker 8: Right?
1:51:27
Speaker 3: With stranger things? I think that's all conspiracy. Maybe it's not.
1:51:31
Speaker 2: Fits right in did you I mean you saw you
1:51:33
Speaker 2: saw the fan theory that the season finale was not
1:51:38
Speaker 2: actually the season finale or the series finale.
1:51:40
Speaker 3: Did you see this? I missed that.
1:51:42
Speaker 4: Okay, there was this whole thing where, by the way,
1:51:45
Speaker 4: I'm not with the people that hated this season five
1:51:48
Speaker 4: or the series finale.
1:51:48
Speaker 3: I thought it was great. I thought it was great.
1:51:50
Speaker 2: Anyway, moving on, there was a whole group of people,
1:51:53
Speaker 2: large group of people that were taking little Easter eggs
1:51:57
Speaker 2: and finding things in the series finale, they're like, oh,
1:52:00
Speaker 2: that that's not happening in real life.
1:52:03
Speaker 4: This is like an alternate reality. I heard a little
1:52:06
Speaker 4: bit of this the whole there's not enough waterfalls at
1:52:09
Speaker 4: the end, not this spot. It's still new enough. We
1:52:12
Speaker 4: don't want to we don't want to put out any spoilers,
1:52:14
Speaker 4: but there's that you hear throughout this season. Mike and
1:52:18
Speaker 4: Elle are gonna go someplace with a certain amount of waterfalls,
1:52:21
Speaker 4: and there's there's like one less in at the end
1:52:25
Speaker 4: of the Yeah.
1:52:26
Speaker 3: So there's like this whole thing.
1:52:27
Speaker 2: There was this whole fan theory, this segment of the
1:52:30
Speaker 2: Internet that was just like, look at this, this would
1:52:33
Speaker 2: not if we're staying with the cannon of the show
1:52:37
Speaker 2: and these like electromagnetic weapons are being directed at Ell.
1:52:41
Speaker 2: She's not able to do this thing that supposedly she
1:52:44
Speaker 2: was doing. So there was this whole because anyone who
1:52:48
Speaker 2: watched Stranger Things, right, you realize that there's like there's
1:52:51
Speaker 2: like Hawkins, there's the upside down. They figure out that
1:52:54
Speaker 2: there's maybe some in between world with Vecna and all
1:52:57
Speaker 2: that stuff, And the fans did their work and they
1:53:00
Speaker 2: looked at it and said these things that they tried
1:53:04
Speaker 2: to button up the show with aren't possible.
1:53:07
Speaker 3: If this is true, then that can't be true.
1:53:09
Speaker 2: So they were like, they lied to us, and what
1:53:12
Speaker 2: they're doing is they're secretly filming and releasing a true
1:53:17
Speaker 2: series finale at a later date. And then the Duffer brothers,
1:53:23
Speaker 2: who actually made the show and wrote the show and
1:53:25
Speaker 2: created the show, and the show is nothing if not
1:53:28
Speaker 2: figments of their imagination, they came out and they were
1:53:31
Speaker 2: just like, no.
1:53:31
Speaker 3: Guys, that was it. That's we're done. And all the
1:53:34
Speaker 3: actors were just like, no, that's it. It's over. And
1:53:37
Speaker 3: all the fans were like, no, it's not part of
1:53:38
Speaker 3: the conspiracy.
1:53:39
Speaker 1: No, it is it.
1:53:41
Speaker 3: You guys are not that's not true.
1:53:45
Speaker 2: I would like to see the Venn diagram between those people,
1:53:49
Speaker 2: and like flat earthers, you just wonder. So, yeah, the
1:53:56
Speaker 2: San Francisco forty nine ers aparent truly looking into whether
1:54:03
Speaker 2: or not injuries were partially or fully attributed to this
1:54:11
Speaker 2: electromagnetic substation next to their practice field.
1:54:17
Speaker 3: Not good, all right, what a great pleasure.
1:54:22
Speaker 2: Earlier today, Morgan Scally, new head coach for the University
1:54:25
Speaker 2: of Utah and of course one of the all time
1:54:27
Speaker 2: great safeties in the history of the program.
1:54:30
Speaker 3: How you joined us to start the show.
1:54:32
Speaker 2: And now as we reach the end of the show,
1:54:34
Speaker 2: another Utah football legend and my friend Eric Weddle joins us.
1:54:38
Speaker 3: Dave, Hello, welcome back.
1:54:39
Speaker 6: How are you.
1:54:41
Speaker 7: My brother? Hey, I didn't get to hear the interviews,
1:54:44
Speaker 7: so I want you to recap a little bit for me,
1:54:47
Speaker 7: and then maybe I can piggyback off of some of
1:54:50
Speaker 7: those questions and answers that we can like double down
1:54:53
Speaker 7: on this awesome interview I've heard about.
1:54:55
Speaker 3: Okay, so here's what happened.
1:54:57
Speaker 2: I brought him on and I was like, hey, how
1:54:59
Speaker 2: come Eric, well has a standing job offer, but I
1:55:01
Speaker 2: don't have a standing job offer with U Tough Football.
1:55:05
Speaker 3: And no, that's uh. Look it was.
1:55:08
Speaker 2: It was a lot of what you would expect. We
1:55:10
Speaker 2: asked him about what, you know, the identity of his
1:55:12
Speaker 2: offense is going to be. He's very, very excited about
1:55:15
Speaker 2: Kevin mcgiven. I asked him how he got both quarterbacks
1:55:18
Speaker 2: to stay because you know, they were getting phone calls,
1:55:22
Speaker 2: their agents were getting phone calls, and you know the
1:55:25
Speaker 2: culture of U Tough Football is alive and well with
1:55:28
Speaker 2: Morgan Scalley at the hellmeric.
1:55:31
Speaker 7: No, no question. Uh, you know, I've been trying to
1:55:35
Speaker 7: express that over the few weeks and you you as well.
1:55:38
Speaker 7: And obviously they're still uncertainty. There's still the product has
1:55:43
Speaker 7: to show what he's saying, which it will, but you know,
1:55:47
Speaker 7: people are gonna be skeptical until otherwise.
1:55:49
Speaker 6: But it's.
1:55:51
Speaker 7: It's nice to get him out there and get these
1:55:55
Speaker 7: conversations going, and more people are going to see what
1:55:59
Speaker 7: we all know and understand of Morgan and his direction,
1:56:04
Speaker 7: his vision, his passion is really I mean, you know,
1:56:09
Speaker 7: we all we all love coach with and everyone knows that.
1:56:11
Speaker 7: But there are some things that Morgan's gonna bring just
1:56:15
Speaker 7: from a connection standpoint that you're already feeling around the building,
1:56:19
Speaker 7: through the staff, through the players, and and that's really
1:56:23
Speaker 7: cool to see, especially in the dynamics of athletics in
1:56:27
Speaker 7: today's world.
1:56:29
Speaker 2: I mean, he's he's obviously got the charisma that we
1:56:32
Speaker 2: know him for as well, which.
1:56:35
Speaker 3: That's it.
1:56:35
Speaker 2: That's a difference in like I don't know how concrete
1:56:38
Speaker 2: of a difference it can make in recruiting and things
1:56:40
Speaker 2: like that, but he is like easy to talk, too
1:56:44
Speaker 2: easy to get along with, and and Kyle Whittingham is
1:56:47
Speaker 2: one of those guys that you kind of had to
1:56:49
Speaker 2: You had to grow on him a little bit, and
1:56:51
Speaker 2: he had to grow on you. From his communication style.
1:56:53
Speaker 2: Morgan could Morgan could strike up a conversation with a
1:56:57
Speaker 2: fire hydrant, you know what I mean. So I don't
1:56:59
Speaker 2: know what that's gonna do from a football standpoint, but
1:57:03
Speaker 2: it's a heck of a treat when you're a media guy, I'll.
1:57:05
Speaker 6: Tell you that.
1:57:07
Speaker 7: It'll it'll pay dividends. I can promise you that because players,
1:57:11
Speaker 7: when they feel connected, they feel a relationship that's bigger
1:57:16
Speaker 7: than football. They're they're gonna they're gonna do and buy
1:57:21
Speaker 7: in to what you want them to do quicker and
1:57:24
Speaker 7: at a at a higher clip. So it's gonna pay dividends.
1:57:29
Speaker 7: And uh, you know what was interesting, I saw you
1:57:33
Speaker 7: know on Twitter that you know, some people comment on
1:57:35
Speaker 7: the interview, and I saw one that he he said
1:57:39
Speaker 7: like since he hadn't been anywhere else, the relationships and
1:57:43
Speaker 7: you know, the connection that you hold on a second,
1:57:50
Speaker 7: trying to open the gate to my high school.
1:57:54
Speaker 3: There we go, he's the head coach. Let him in,
1:57:57
Speaker 3: Rancho Bernardo, Seriously, I.
1:57:59
Speaker 7: Gotta put in code. Let me in the gate so
1:58:01
Speaker 7: I can park anyway. I thought it was interesting, and
1:58:05
Speaker 7: I'm sure he didn't go into specifics, but every offseason
1:58:08
Speaker 7: it was really cool for me to hear this is
1:58:12
Speaker 7: other schools like the Oklahoma's, the Clemson's, the big time
1:58:19
Speaker 7: programs when they went out to get better, to improve,
1:58:23
Speaker 7: to see other places. Guess where they went. They went
1:58:27
Speaker 7: to Utah to see Morgan and his defense and his
1:58:29
Speaker 7: philosophy and stuff like that. And what do you think
1:58:31
Speaker 7: Morgan did over the last decade plus. He's going out
1:58:36
Speaker 7: and evaluating and learning and growing and leadership and program building.
1:58:42
Speaker 7: So it was awesome to hear, like a little tidbit
1:58:45
Speaker 7: of someone wrote that his explanation of how he's been
1:58:49
Speaker 7: working for fifteen years on being the head coach and
1:58:52
Speaker 7: building those relationships because he knew one day he'd be
1:58:56
Speaker 7: a head coach.
1:58:57
Speaker 2: Well, I actually did ask him about that because I
1:59:00
Speaker 2: wanted to give him the opportunity to kind of explain
1:59:03
Speaker 2: that how you know, on paper, it can be a
1:59:09
Speaker 2: negative if you've been in one place for your whole
1:59:11
Speaker 2: career and you don't have the same spider web of
1:59:14
Speaker 2: network and things like that. And he told a great
1:59:16
Speaker 2: story about how his first coach's convention, or one of
1:59:19
Speaker 2: his first coach's conventions, urban Meyer actually said, Hey, Morgan,
1:59:23
Speaker 2: you got to get out from under the shadow and
1:59:25
Speaker 2: you got to get out in the country so people
1:59:27
Speaker 2: know who you are. And it would be the easiest
1:59:30
Speaker 2: thing to do would be to take the advice of
1:59:33
Speaker 2: your one time head coach who led you to the
1:59:37
Speaker 2: highest peak of your college football career.
1:59:39
Speaker 3: You'd be like, yeah, I'll do whatever this guy says.
1:59:42
Speaker 2: But Morgan was actually a skeptic of that, even though
1:59:45
Speaker 2: it was urban Meyer who told him and said, I
1:59:47
Speaker 2: don't actually think that's necessary as long as I do
1:59:50
Speaker 2: the work. And so he did the work, and he
1:59:53
Speaker 2: stayed at Utah, But like you said, and like he said,
1:59:56
Speaker 2: he was able to go out and make those connections.
1:59:58
Speaker 2: And look, I think that the most obvious place that
2:00:03
Speaker 2: we're seeing we're going to see that in this first
2:00:07
Speaker 2: seasons as a head coach is the Kevin mcgiven higher
2:00:11
Speaker 2: because they've never worked together, but they have some common connections.
2:00:14
Speaker 2: And then coach Breakterfield, the defensive ends coach that he
2:00:17
Speaker 2: brought in that the connections are even looser. That's a
2:00:21
Speaker 2: very very important position in his defense, you know it
2:00:23
Speaker 2: better than me. And that's just two examples of how
2:00:26
Speaker 2: that work is going to pay off for this Utah
2:00:29
Speaker 2: football team.
2:00:30
Speaker 7: No questions. And you know, as a coach, you're either learning,
2:00:36
Speaker 7: growing or you're getting left behind. And that's on every
2:00:40
Speaker 7: level from a coaching standpoint. How you teach, how you motivate,
2:00:44
Speaker 7: how you inspire the fundamentals. There's so many different ways
2:00:49
Speaker 7: to do things nowadays, right, and I think some in
2:00:53
Speaker 7: the grand scheme, like there's a certain standard, there's rules
2:00:56
Speaker 7: like within the defense, within the offense, but there's different
2:01:00
Speaker 7: ways to practice, there's different ways to schedule, there's there's
2:01:02
Speaker 7: different ways to work out what Let's find the best right,
2:01:06
Speaker 7: the best way to do it that makes sense, and
2:01:09
Speaker 7: let's go execute it with the with the vision and
2:01:12
Speaker 7: the goals in mind. And I and I seeing that
2:01:17
Speaker 7: and being like a little fly on the wall in
2:01:19
Speaker 7: some of those interactions with the interviews and just getting
2:01:23
Speaker 7: my opinion on stuff, it was was really cool because
2:01:26
Speaker 7: I know he's doing it the right way. I know
2:01:29
Speaker 7: what he's trying to build for the future is is
2:01:32
Speaker 7: is so in my opinion, the right way to do it.
2:01:36
Speaker 7: And so it's easy to get behind them and see
2:01:39
Speaker 7: what it's going to be, because I think it's gonna
2:01:41
Speaker 7: be something special in years to come.
2:01:43
Speaker 3: I also asked him how he knew.
2:01:45
Speaker 2: Like a Jordan Gross who doesn't have a wealth of
2:01:48
Speaker 2: coaching experience, I mean, from a coaching standpoint, he's underqualified
2:01:53
Speaker 2: to be the offensive line coach at a place like
2:01:56
Speaker 2: Utah right now, But obviously from a playing in football
2:01:59
Speaker 2: expperience and sort of real perspective, he's far from being underqualified.
2:02:04
Speaker 3: He just doesn't have the level of experience.
2:02:06
Speaker 2: And I asked him how he knew, and he was like, oh,
2:02:09
Speaker 2: come on, he's the smartest guy in every room. And
2:02:11
Speaker 2: his development, his own growth as a player, et cetera,
2:02:13
Speaker 2: et cetera. Like you played with a bunch of different dudes,
2:02:17
Speaker 2: and if I asked any of them, I'd say, who
2:02:20
Speaker 2: did you play with?
2:02:21
Speaker 3: Who you know could be a great coach?
2:02:22
Speaker 2: Your name comes up from every one of those guys,
2:02:26
Speaker 2: the guys that you played with that you know will
2:02:29
Speaker 2: be great coaches, or you knew if they already got
2:02:31
Speaker 2: jumped into coaching, would be great coaches just by how
2:02:34
Speaker 2: they played handled the job of a player.
2:02:41
Speaker 7: You know, Philip obviously comes to mind. Nick Hardwick, who's
2:02:44
Speaker 7: coaching with the Charges right now as an assistant online coach.
2:02:48
Speaker 7: I think Andrew Whitworth would be an incredible coach, but
2:02:51
Speaker 7: I think he could be an even better GM one day.
2:02:54
Speaker 7: And we've talked about you know, him being the league
2:02:57
Speaker 7: guy and you and I be as little runners and
2:02:59
Speaker 7: coffeegoers if he needs it. But uh, you know, you
2:03:04
Speaker 7: know a lot of a lot of people. I think,
2:03:08
Speaker 7: like you would get those same sentiments if Morgan hired
2:03:11
Speaker 7: me on the staff. Yeah, and then what would anyone
2:03:15
Speaker 7: with a logical brain not say He's gonna be and
2:03:19
Speaker 7: and would be and will be one of the best
2:03:21
Speaker 7: secondary coaches in the entire world. So whether I had
2:03:25
Speaker 7: college coaching experience or not, Like, but that's that's for
2:03:30
Speaker 7: others to talk about. But within the building, you just know,
2:03:32
Speaker 7: like when you're talking ball, you're talking scheme, you're talking techniques, fundamentals,
2:03:36
Speaker 7: Like some people have it who are ex players, some
2:03:39
Speaker 7: people don't, And that's okay. Coaching is not for everybody.
2:03:42
Speaker 7: Can you relay? Can you teach what made you a
2:03:46
Speaker 7: good professional to younger generations and get them to try
2:03:51
Speaker 7: to do what you do? It's not easy, but it
2:03:54
Speaker 7: can be done. And on the flip side, I would
2:03:56
Speaker 7: say anyone that's the head coach in high school is
2:03:59
Speaker 7: probably more more qualified than anyone to coach college or
2:04:03
Speaker 7: the NFL, because we're getting guys to do things that
2:04:07
Speaker 7: have no business playing football. So if we can do that,
2:04:11
Speaker 7: imagine what we could do with really talented guys who
2:04:14
Speaker 7: are motivated that want to be the best. So uh,
2:04:18
Speaker 7: I think it's kind of a funny question for him. Yeah,
2:04:21
Speaker 7: he's going to learn to recruit and the dynamics of
2:04:24
Speaker 7: that with the parents, the runners and the agents and
2:04:28
Speaker 7: this and that, like yeah, like okay, everyone has to
2:04:30
Speaker 7: change with that because it wasn't the same five years ago.
2:04:33
Speaker 7: So I was pumped when he hired them. I'm I
2:04:37
Speaker 7: think he's a rock star and we're lucky to have him.
2:04:41
Speaker 2: All Right, we got to talk a little NFL here.
2:04:43
Speaker 2: We're down to AFC and NFC championship games.
2:04:46
Speaker 7: I'm sure you Niners are still in it, right?
2:04:49
Speaker 3: Why do you do this?
2:04:51
Speaker 7: What?
2:04:51
Speaker 3: There's no reason I was there.
2:04:53
Speaker 7: I wasn't able to watch the games last week.
2:04:56
Speaker 2: There's no reason for you to come come on my
2:05:00
Speaker 2: show and try to hurt me like this.
2:05:03
Speaker 3: All right, that's just mean that embarrassing.
2:05:10
Speaker 7: So they won, they lost? Like, can you recap that
2:05:12
Speaker 7: game for me real quick?
2:05:15
Speaker 3: They did not win the game, Eric, You know it
2:05:20
Speaker 3: and I know it.
2:05:21
Speaker 7: It was one of the worst performance as a fan
2:05:25
Speaker 7: of the Niners. Okay, honest question, what are your what
2:05:29
Speaker 7: is your opinion on how the I U situation was
2:05:34
Speaker 7: supposedly handled not handled? And how disgruntled and frustrated was
2:05:39
Speaker 7: Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch trying to comprehend what it
2:05:44
Speaker 7: happened with you? Can you just can you just chime
2:05:47
Speaker 7: in on that?
2:05:47
Speaker 2: Well you know more, you know more about it than
2:05:51
Speaker 2: I because you you could talk to these actual people
2:05:53
Speaker 2: that are involved in this type of thing. But look,
2:05:56
Speaker 2: I'm of the opinion and I know that this is
2:05:58
Speaker 2: an outdated sort of mentality, especially when you're talking about
2:06:02
Speaker 2: pro athletes and wide receivers most likely in particular, But like,
2:06:07
Speaker 2: I don't want diva type players, no matter how talented
2:06:11
Speaker 2: they are. And he strikes me as a guy who thought,
2:06:15
Speaker 2: as soon as he had two good seasons in the NFL,
2:06:19
Speaker 2: deserve to have a red carpet rolled out for him
2:06:21
Speaker 2: in every situation. I don't know how you coexist with
2:06:24
Speaker 2: that mentality when you have fifty two other guys on
2:06:27
Speaker 2: the roster that deserve that respect, that deserved the money,
2:06:30
Speaker 2: that deserve a couple of targets and game et cetera,
2:06:32
Speaker 2: et cetera. He just felt like an awful fit for
2:06:35
Speaker 2: an organization that that feels kind of team first.
2:06:38
Speaker 3: But what's your assessment of it?
2:06:42
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I'm wistly on all that. I think
2:06:44
Speaker 7: you can get by with those types if your leadership
2:06:49
Speaker 7: is really strong and your players, your older leader players
2:06:53
Speaker 7: keep that guy in check, right, Like you know, receivers
2:06:57
Speaker 7: are you kind of want them to. They're gonna be
2:07:01
Speaker 7: that way. That's okay, but you gotta you gotta be
2:07:04
Speaker 7: you gotta somewhat at the end of the day, be
2:07:06
Speaker 7: team first at the end of the day, right, And
2:07:08
Speaker 7: so ultimately, I'm I always I just go back to
2:07:13
Speaker 7: the fact that they should never extended them, They should
2:07:15
Speaker 7: have traded them, and they were on the brink of
2:07:17
Speaker 7: it in Kyle Shanahan at the last second. From what
2:07:21
Speaker 7: I've read, you know, like they got a deal done
2:07:23
Speaker 7: and they were pumped about it. But man, it's all
2:07:26
Speaker 7: they could have got a couple first round picks, maybe
2:07:28
Speaker 7: at least one and would have been got rid of
2:07:31
Speaker 7: the headache. So that makes me think that it wasn't
2:07:35
Speaker 7: always bad, Like I think he was maybe a good
2:07:38
Speaker 7: team guy and then it just kind of went awry
2:07:40
Speaker 7: with the injury. And you know, I don't know, and
2:07:44
Speaker 7: I really don't care at the end of the day
2:07:46
Speaker 7: because they're they're the Niners and they lost. So let's
2:07:50
Speaker 7: just talk about the rams.
2:07:52
Speaker 3: Wait before we before we move on.
2:07:55
Speaker 2: Did you like the conspiracy theory of the Niners press
2:08:00
Speaker 2: this facility being too close to that electric substation and stuff?
2:08:04
Speaker 2: How how prone to these types of things are NFL guys,
2:08:07
Speaker 2: Like if if you're because it's never my fault. If
2:08:11
Speaker 2: I get injured and I didn't do anything wrong, if
2:08:13
Speaker 2: I got injured, and I would definitely be like it's
2:08:16
Speaker 2: because of that that power station. You guys ruined it
2:08:19
Speaker 2: for me. Like they're actually doing an investigation on this.
2:08:22
Speaker 2: Where do you stand?
2:08:25
Speaker 7: Well, uh, you know, I think injuries, You know, there
2:08:33
Speaker 7: is an uptick at the Niners, Like that's not that's
2:08:36
Speaker 7: not like not true, right, Like over the last few years.
2:08:41
Speaker 7: I think it's the marijuana, the smoking and the bad
2:08:44
Speaker 7: eating and staying up late playing video games and not
2:08:48
Speaker 7: working out like they used to. I think that's the
2:08:50
Speaker 7: real reason with injuries. But I'll be the old head
2:08:54
Speaker 7: and they'll be like, you're dumb because I know I
2:08:57
Speaker 7: didn't like to do yoga and I don't like to
2:08:59
Speaker 7: do you know, stretch for thirty minutes for for practice
2:09:03
Speaker 7: and then do another fifteen minute dynamic and then also
2:09:06
Speaker 7: the crap. It's like, guys, we're wasting like so much time,
2:09:10
Speaker 7: Like let's just go work out, get strong, let's prep
2:09:15
Speaker 7: practice for five eight minutes, and let's get to work.
2:09:18
Speaker 7: But these guys that they got to do all this
2:09:21
Speaker 7: other crap. So I don't know. I do know, like
2:09:25
Speaker 7: the EMS stuff is there is some some what's the
2:09:31
Speaker 7: word information like data that says when you're around it.
2:09:34
Speaker 7: This is like the same thing with Bluetooth. You shouldn't
2:09:36
Speaker 7: have listen to your headphones with Bluetooth more than an
2:09:39
Speaker 7: hour or two hours, but we all do it. So
2:09:41
Speaker 7: I mean, I don't know. There's so much that's gonna
2:09:44
Speaker 7: hurt us in the long run, but it's good that
2:09:49
Speaker 7: they're trying to see it out if it's true or not.
2:09:51
Speaker 7: And I don't know how they're going to ever prove
2:09:54
Speaker 7: it one way or the other. But if it is
2:09:56
Speaker 7: affecting the guys, then they should move their facility.
2:10:00
Speaker 2: Eric weddles Our, I guess for a few more minutes
2:10:02
Speaker 2: here on the Sean O'Connell show. More importantly, the matchups
2:10:06
Speaker 2: for a championship weekend and your Rams. I'm calling them
2:10:10
Speaker 2: your Rams because that's where you won a Super Bowl.
2:10:12
Speaker 2: Your Rams are in it. And yeah, I mean it
2:10:19
Speaker 2: was an It was crazy how we saw we saw
2:10:22
Speaker 2: in the two games that played out so similarly. Overtime, situation, turnover,
2:10:28
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera, catch no catch all that. But
2:10:33
Speaker 2: how confident are you that the Rams are on their
2:10:34
Speaker 2: way to the Super Bowl?
2:10:37
Speaker 7: Well, I mean confidence is always I'm always confident, right,
2:10:49
Speaker 7: but this is this is a huge challenge. They're they're rested.
2:10:56
Speaker 7: They blew out a no name team in the divisional round,
2:11:00
Speaker 7: so you know it's they're gonna be coming in. They
2:11:04
Speaker 7: had that big comeback a few weeks back. At the
2:11:08
Speaker 7: end of the day, we got Stafford and we got Sean,
2:11:11
Speaker 7: and we have the experience in big games. They're Super
2:11:15
Speaker 7: Bowl champions. You gotta think that amounts for something. Now,
2:11:22
Speaker 7: does it overcome? How good Seattle is across the board.
2:11:26
Speaker 7: I'm not sure Mike is as up for Coach of
2:11:31
Speaker 7: the Year. Everyone knows how much I respect and love him.
2:11:34
Speaker 7: I still talk to him. The offense runs through the
2:11:38
Speaker 7: running game. If they shut down there not shut down.
2:11:40
Speaker 7: If they limit first and second down yardage and make
2:11:43
Speaker 7: Sam throw the ball twenty five times or more, I
2:11:46
Speaker 7: think they win the game.
2:11:47
Speaker 5: I really do.
2:11:48
Speaker 7: And I think offensively for the Rams, they'll have success.
2:11:52
Speaker 7: I don't think it'll be the four hundred and fifty
2:11:54
Speaker 7: yards thirty eight points or whatever they did a few
2:11:57
Speaker 7: weeks back. I think it's gonna be much more difficult
2:11:59
Speaker 7: to move the ball. But at the end of the
2:12:02
Speaker 7: day and evenly matched teams, you go with the best
2:12:05
Speaker 7: quarterback and that Stafford.
2:12:10
Speaker 2: The interception that everyone was debating for me on the
2:12:15
Speaker 2: Brandy Cooks catch was an interception. I imagine you usually
2:12:20
Speaker 2: air on the side of the defensive back. But you
2:12:22
Speaker 2: tell me, was that a pick or a catch?
2:12:26
Speaker 7: Anyone that knows the rule and actually like looks at
2:12:29
Speaker 7: the rule and understands what they're going off of it,
2:12:32
Speaker 7: it's an interception all day, every day, and it's kind
2:12:37
Speaker 7: of odd to see the amount of people that are
2:12:39
Speaker 7: actually football supposed experts saying it's a catch, and you know,
2:12:46
Speaker 7: it's just unfortunate, Like you're in that situation, you're jumping,
2:12:50
Speaker 7: you're coming down. You didn't make a football moose you
2:12:52
Speaker 7: got you gotta survive the ground, and the ground means
2:12:56
Speaker 7: getting the ball taken away as you're rolling through the ground.
2:13:00
Speaker 7: So don't get the ball taken away. Don't turn the
2:13:03
Speaker 7: ball over five times, Josh Allen, don't do dumb things
2:13:07
Speaker 7: before half to give them a field goal. Like so
2:13:10
Speaker 7: many people are up on arms. I just dated, I
2:13:12
Speaker 7: just go back. There are a few instances, like you
2:13:15
Speaker 7: go to the Rams game, and it was a very
2:13:17
Speaker 7: similar situation. I don't know if you've watched the game
2:13:19
Speaker 7: and saw DeVante Adams catch that.
2:13:21
Speaker 3: Ball over the middle, yes, and game fourth quarter.
2:13:26
Speaker 7: That THI game, et cetera, And it was pretty much
2:13:29
Speaker 7: the same situation. But the refs and the way they
2:13:32
Speaker 7: looked at that play is he got two feet down
2:13:35
Speaker 7: and made a football move quotation marks, Like in my mind,
2:13:39
Speaker 7: I thought it was the same as the Bills won,
2:13:42
Speaker 7: I did an interception.
2:13:43
Speaker 2: I thought that the Bears should have got the ball there,
2:13:45
Speaker 2: and that that the Bills Broncos won.
2:13:48
Speaker 7: Was the correct call, yes, and so, but I also
2:13:52
Speaker 7: understand what they saw and they deemed that is a
2:13:56
Speaker 7: football move and then his knee went down, so if
2:13:59
Speaker 7: that goes by that rule, it's a catch and he's
2:14:02
Speaker 7: down by his knee, and then on the coach one,
2:14:05
Speaker 7: that's what they said. So again it goes back to
2:14:07
Speaker 7: the whole des Bryant catch against Green Bay. You know,
2:14:11
Speaker 7: like this is when it all started, because that should
2:14:14
Speaker 7: have been a catch and Dallas maybe in the NFC
2:14:17
Speaker 7: Championship game, but they're not. And even to this day
2:14:21
Speaker 7: odd years later, we still have these issues and until
2:14:25
Speaker 7: the Competition Committee and all this other craft stop changing
2:14:31
Speaker 7: the rules and get back to what the game was
2:14:33
Speaker 7: twenty years ago. It was much more pure and much
2:14:36
Speaker 7: more of a sound rules and font, you know, like
2:14:42
Speaker 7: a playing field that everyone knew what's the catch, what's not,
2:14:45
Speaker 7: what's a what's the rough in the pass or what's not?
2:14:47
Speaker 7: Can we hit someone? Can we not? Can we hit
2:14:49
Speaker 7: a guy up top and not get kicked out? Or
2:14:52
Speaker 7: do we blow out people's knees? Like that's what it's
2:14:54
Speaker 7: turned into. And you know, but I'm sure they love
2:14:57
Speaker 7: it because we're talking about it and this drama, and again,
2:15:00
Speaker 7: at the end of the day, it's it's an entertainment
2:15:03
Speaker 7: and uh, they're trying to trying to get eyes watching
2:15:06
Speaker 7: the entertainment.
2:15:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're probably right. We're probably playing right into it
2:15:09
Speaker 2: by having these debates. All right, So before we let
2:15:13
Speaker 2: you go, the Super Bowl matchup when we talk this
2:15:15
Speaker 2: time next week is going to be who.
2:15:19
Speaker 7: It's going to be Rams Patriots rematch a few years back,
2:15:24
Speaker 7: and Sean gets his his get back on one of
2:15:28
Speaker 7: his you know what, he said, one of his lowest
2:15:31
Speaker 7: moments as a coach in the Super Bowl getting shut
2:15:33
Speaker 7: down by Belichick and it's his uh, gets his revenge
2:15:37
Speaker 7: in that. So Rams super Bowl champs.
2:15:40
Speaker 3: What a shocking pick from Eric Weddle.
2:15:44
Speaker 6: Turkey.
2:15:46
Speaker 2: Oh great, talking to you as always. Thanks for joining us, dude.
2:15:51
Speaker 6: You got love, love you, dude.
2:15:53
Speaker 2: That's Eric Weddle, you tough football legend, he says, Rams Patriot.
2:16:00
Speaker 3: It's I think just Didham.
2:16:03
Speaker 2: All of the conversation around Jared Stidham is that he
2:16:06
Speaker 2: should have been the starter all along.
2:16:07
Speaker 3: He's the better he's the better player.
2:16:09
Speaker 2: That's how That's how Broncos Country feels let's ride even
2:16:13
Speaker 2: Russell Westbrook said, or Russell Russell Wilson says it all right,
2:16:19
Speaker 2: gotta take a quick one. We'll come back. Zach Partridge
2:16:24
Speaker 2: from Fierce Fighting Championships. They've got a really good event
2:16:27
Speaker 2: going on at the Masonic Temple this weekend. We'll talk
2:16:29
Speaker 2: a little bit about it at some other news in
2:16:31
Speaker 2: the combat sports world. It's the Shan O'Connell Show on
2:16:34
Speaker 2: ESPN seven hundred ninety one FM.
2:16:42
Speaker 1: You tuned to the Shad O'Connell Show from the Murdock
2:16:45
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of.
2:16:57
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell show blows in the Big Down in a
2:17:00
Speaker 2: little bit, We've got some giveaways for you, five Finger, Death,
2:17:03
Speaker 2: Punch and PBR coming up on February sixth and seventh.
2:17:09
Speaker 2: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. If
2:17:11
Speaker 2: you can answer this trivia question. We had Gordy Chays
2:17:16
Speaker 2: on earlier. We were talking triple doubles. He told us
2:17:19
Speaker 2: the jazz man with the largest number of triple doubles
2:17:22
Speaker 2: in their career, the current NBA all time leader in
2:17:26
Speaker 2: career triple doubles is filling the blank. Eight seven seven
2:17:30
Speaker 2: three five three zero seven hundred, and you'll get five
2:17:34
Speaker 2: Finger Death Punch and PBR tickets. If you're looking for
2:17:39
Speaker 2: something to do this weekend, you're in luck. Okay, Saturday
2:17:42
Speaker 2: night you're gonna watch some fights. Sunday you're gonna watch
2:17:46
Speaker 2: some football. You've got an AFC and NFC championship. The
2:17:51
Speaker 2: Masonic Temple is one of the coolest venues. If you
2:17:54
Speaker 2: have if you've not taken my word for it yet,
2:17:56
Speaker 2: you have not gotten out into one of these fierce
2:17:57
Speaker 2: Fighting Championship events at the Masonic Temple, That's fine because
2:18:02
Speaker 2: you've saved maybe the right events to make your first impression.
2:18:08
Speaker 3: This is a big one, lot.
2:18:09
Speaker 2: Too versus Hatch in the main event, zeke La too,
2:18:12
Speaker 2: Jerome Hatch. Jerome Hatch has been around, He's been doing
2:18:15
Speaker 2: it since he was fighting. Before my first fight in
2:18:19
Speaker 2: the local Utah MMA scene, I remember Zach Partridge Fears
2:18:23
Speaker 2: Fighting Championships here in the Broadway studios with us. I
2:18:27
Speaker 2: remember I went to my very first like fighter meeting
2:18:31
Speaker 2: for the ultimate combat experience. That was the only show
2:18:35
Speaker 2: in town. Basically back then, drive out to the gym
2:18:38
Speaker 2: that he had in West Valley. Any prospective fighters could
2:18:41
Speaker 2: be here, little Q and A whatever. I remember walking
2:18:44
Speaker 2: in and of course sizing each other up, looking around,
2:18:47
Speaker 2: looking around, looking around, and the Hatch brothers were already
2:18:50
Speaker 2: in there. They were already six seven fights deep, and
2:18:52
Speaker 2: they were just.
2:18:53
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, what if we do this? What if we
2:18:54
Speaker 3: do this?
2:18:55
Speaker 2: Like who are these yahoos? So he had already had
2:18:58
Speaker 2: fights before I even took my very first one. He's
2:19:00
Speaker 2: been an og, he's been around.
2:19:02
Speaker 8: He's the guy. I mean, he's a dying breed. I
2:19:05
Speaker 8: said all the time. And and you know he's coming
2:19:08
Speaker 8: up if there's sanctioned fights, and then there's back in
2:19:10
Speaker 8: the day when they weren't recording him as well. This
2:19:13
Speaker 8: is his one hundred and eighty eighth fight and his
2:19:16
Speaker 8: fiftieth fight in Utah.
2:19:18
Speaker 3: That's wild.
2:19:19
Speaker 2: And he's done a little bit of everything, right, Uh
2:19:22
Speaker 2: dabbled in the bare knuckle, he still had a lot
2:19:24
Speaker 2: of success. He won a major organization championship and bare knuckle.
2:19:28
Speaker 8: He did, and I mean he didn't fight MMA last year,
2:19:30
Speaker 8: but he went three and one in bare knuckle and
2:19:32
Speaker 8: beat a UFC VET. And that they literally they were
2:19:36
Speaker 8: they were bringing in Jerome for that fight to lose
2:19:38
Speaker 8: to build this UFC VET. And then what does Jerome do,
2:19:40
Speaker 8: does what he does best and and you know, shocks shocks.
2:19:44
Speaker 8: Everybody beats that guy up. Guy gets carried out on stretcher.
2:19:47
Speaker 8: He goes three and one last year in bare knuckle
2:19:48
Speaker 8: and they he he wants to fight all the time
2:19:51
Speaker 8: so much. They said, do you have anything for me?
2:19:53
Speaker 8: And he said and they said not right now, sit tight,
2:19:55
Speaker 8: and he goes, Okay, I'm gonna go do this MMA
2:19:57
Speaker 8: fight on two weeks notice.
2:19:58
Speaker 3: Then that's awesome.
2:20:00
Speaker 2: And uh, look, I know that it can be a
2:20:04
Speaker 2: curse on a card if you say, this one's not
2:20:06
Speaker 2: going to the judges right this the Oakly shake.
2:20:09
Speaker 8: This one's not going to the judge.
2:20:10
Speaker 2: There's just absolutely no shot that zeke La Too and
2:20:14
Speaker 2: Jerome Hatch are you could send the judges home main event.
2:20:17
Speaker 2: They get off the early, they're done, their scorecards are not.
2:20:21
Speaker 3: Going to be needed. Both these guys a big knockout power.
2:20:24
Speaker 8: Well and yeah, I mean and we've seen one of
2:20:27
Speaker 8: the best fights we've ever seen at Fierce was the
2:20:28
Speaker 8: last time we went to UVU in twenty twenty four.
2:20:34
Speaker 8: Jerome went the distance in a five round title fight
2:20:36
Speaker 8: that was incredible. Uh, and it was exciting for twenty
2:20:39
Speaker 8: five minutes, but Zeke never goes to a decision like
2:20:45
Speaker 8: that's that's just the way it is. And so the
2:20:48
Speaker 8: way Zeke fights and the way Jerome fights, uh honestly,
2:20:51
Speaker 8: I'd be surprised if it gets out of the first round,
2:20:53
Speaker 8: but that could happen.
2:20:55
Speaker 2: I guess if you're looking to see a large, tough
2:20:58
Speaker 2: man get knocked out, then this is the card for you.
2:21:01
Speaker 8: Absolutely. I mean yeah, I mean, and Zeke's coming. Zeke's
2:21:06
Speaker 8: coming off of a knockout win at the Maverick Center
2:21:08
Speaker 8: last August thirteen seconds, knocked a guy out that is
2:21:14
Speaker 8: gone four and one in his last five heavyweight fights,
2:21:16
Speaker 8: and Zeke was the one that he lost to. So
2:21:18
Speaker 8: he'd knocked out a really tough, really tough guy, uh,
2:21:21
Speaker 8: Danny Trejo. And then uh yeah, and then Jerome's just
2:21:24
Speaker 8: been staying busy. But like that is the beautiful thing.
2:21:26
Speaker 8: When Zeke's Uh, Zeke got an opponent pull out in December.
2:21:30
Speaker 8: He's supposed to be on her December card. He pulled out,
2:21:32
Speaker 8: and then we tried to get him rebooked and didn't
2:21:34
Speaker 8: work out, and then we went through a couple of
2:21:36
Speaker 8: opponents and I just finally, I just said, I know,
2:21:39
Speaker 8: I know who will take the fight if we can
2:21:41
Speaker 8: get it. You're your boy, uh Andy Bouquette. He's like,
2:21:45
Speaker 8: have you have you hit up Jerome? And I was like,
2:21:47
Speaker 8: not yet, but I know he'll do I know he'll
2:21:50
Speaker 8: do it. It's just and that's the other thing. And
2:21:51
Speaker 8: you know this too. You came up in a day
2:21:53
Speaker 8: and age where the Utah fighters fought each other all
2:21:56
Speaker 8: the time. Yeah, we've kind of gotten away from that.
2:21:59
Speaker 8: We like to bring guys in and build, always build
2:22:02
Speaker 8: the Utah guys.
2:22:03
Speaker 3: A lot of the Utah guys they trained together now exactly.
2:22:06
Speaker 8: And even Zeke and Jerome had the opportunity to fight
2:22:08
Speaker 8: at one point last year, and and and the reality
2:22:10
Speaker 8: was Zeke was like, I like Jerome, like we're around
2:22:13
Speaker 8: each other at the fights, Like he's somebody that you know,
2:22:16
Speaker 8: we're friendly, you know, and uh and so it just
2:22:19
Speaker 8: it didn't materialize. But when you explain to it, like
2:22:24
Speaker 8: this is what makes the biggest fights, when the whole
2:22:26
Speaker 8: fan base knows both guys. Yes, And even Zeke texts
2:22:30
Speaker 8: me and he's like, I can't believe the amount of
2:22:32
Speaker 8: support I'm getting for this because people are excited for
2:22:34
Speaker 8: him to fight somebody like Jerome, and everybody's usually really
2:22:38
Speaker 8: excited to see Jerome on a card because they know
2:22:40
Speaker 8: what he brings. So it's I mean, for an eleven
2:22:44
Speaker 8: fight card, but to end with that, there there are
2:22:47
Speaker 8: so many people that are coming to this card just
2:22:49
Speaker 8: to see that fight.
2:22:50
Speaker 5: Yeah.
2:22:51
Speaker 2: And look, one of the reasons I love a fight
2:22:53
Speaker 2: like this one is because you and I have talked
2:22:56
Speaker 2: about this. There's a lot of guys that are coming
2:22:58
Speaker 2: up that maybe haven't fought on the biggest of the
2:23:00
Speaker 2: big shows yet, and they're trying to cultivate a record,
2:23:03
Speaker 2: and they're trying to protect this and they don't want
2:23:05
Speaker 2: a tough fight because of that. And this matchup is
2:23:09
Speaker 2: two guys that even if they're friendly with each other,
2:23:12
Speaker 2: even if they kind of know each other, even if
2:23:14
Speaker 2: I train with his friend and he trained with my friend,
2:23:16
Speaker 2: and he might know my secrets and I might know
2:23:17
Speaker 2: his secrets, it's just like, no, man, I want to fight. Yeah,
2:23:21
Speaker 2: And so records kind of be damned, and the politics
2:23:25
Speaker 2: of it be damned. I'm gonna go out and fight.
2:23:27
Speaker 2: Like Zeke Latu could very easily say that guy's got
2:23:31
Speaker 2: five times as many fights as me, just sanctioned. Yeah,
2:23:35
Speaker 2: I don't want to like that's I'm not gonna bite
2:23:37
Speaker 2: off more than I can chew from an experience standpoint.
2:23:40
Speaker 2: But he takes the fight, and Jerome Hatchell fight Jerome
2:23:42
Speaker 2: Hatchell fight his grandma for the right price.
2:23:44
Speaker 6: Yeah.
2:23:44
Speaker 8: But by the way too, Jerome's fought for us his
2:23:48
Speaker 8: last couple of fights. He's fought for our one to
2:23:49
Speaker 8: eighty five title. He's fought for our two o five title.
2:23:54
Speaker 8: It was our two five champ at one point. Zeke's
2:23:58
Speaker 8: two hundred and sixty plus pounds every day of a
2:24:00
Speaker 8: heavyweight and Drume's like drums down to fight him. I'm
2:24:05
Speaker 8: pretty sure he's if he gets his hand raise, he'll
2:24:08
Speaker 8: be calling out Camp Maffileo, who's been our perennial heavyweight champ,
2:24:12
Speaker 8: who trains with Zeke as well. They you know, like
2:24:15
Speaker 8: he's here, he's here for He's here for everybody. He's
2:24:18
Speaker 8: here for violence, so, you know, for a guy. And
2:24:20
Speaker 8: that's why I say I don't make him anymore. Let
2:24:22
Speaker 8: alone one person not protect their record, but go up
2:24:26
Speaker 8: multiple weight classes. I mean, Jerome's stature wise, if you
2:24:31
Speaker 8: look at him, he's five to ten. Yeah, I'm tall
2:24:33
Speaker 8: and he is, you know, but you go shake his
2:24:36
Speaker 8: hand in his forearms or cab muscles and two you know, like.
2:24:39
Speaker 2: He's a big blue collar dude. Yeah, he's an iron worker,
2:24:41
Speaker 2: like an iron worker, a welder or something like that.
2:24:43
Speaker 2: He's just it's a it's a little bit of a throwback.
2:24:46
Speaker 2: Like I said, I've known Jerome Gosh. Two thousand and
2:24:50
Speaker 2: seven was when we first met each other, so I
2:24:52
Speaker 2: known him almost twenty years now. We fought on a
2:24:54
Speaker 2: lot of the same cards. And heck, I'm sure if
2:24:57
Speaker 2: I hadn't retired, we would have fought each other at
2:24:59
Speaker 2: some point.
2:24:59
Speaker 8: But I'm sure if you want to do one more
2:25:01
Speaker 8: I know the guy that would.
2:25:02
Speaker 3: Say, yes, uh, don't, don't temp me with a good time.
2:25:08
Speaker 3: I gotta, I gotta.
2:25:09
Speaker 2: I heard you still like to go into the jivid
2:25:11
Speaker 2: veage a little every once in a while. You know,
2:25:14
Speaker 2: the wife doesn't really enjoy it when I come back
2:25:17
Speaker 2: with one more time.
2:25:18
Speaker 3: Don't do that.
2:25:19
Speaker 2: You can't afford I'm a promoter, dude. Of course I'm
2:25:22
Speaker 2: gonna try. You can't afford my my fees. That's what
2:25:26
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell myself. Anyway, best way to get tickets
2:25:29
Speaker 2: do you even have tickets available.
2:25:31
Speaker 8: Absolutely Fierst Fighting Championship dot com. You can go onto
2:25:34
Speaker 8: the event the event page and uh and click the
2:25:37
Speaker 8: link you pick your pick your favorite fighter. Again, I'm
2:25:41
Speaker 8: gonna always help this for the fighters. When you pick
2:25:44
Speaker 8: them to support them, they get a piece of that
2:25:46
Speaker 8: that back. So I always tell people, don't don't give
2:25:49
Speaker 8: Fierce the whole, the whole, the whole pot. Get support
2:25:52
Speaker 8: the fighters and pick one of the fighters and click
2:25:54
Speaker 8: on one of their their pictures and that'll give them credit.
2:25:56
Speaker 8: And you know, maybe if you think, if you're going
2:25:59
Speaker 8: for that fight, whoever you think is gonna win, you know,
2:26:01
Speaker 8: maybe go click on them and get put a couple
2:26:03
Speaker 8: extra bucks in their pocket too.
2:26:04
Speaker 2: I think that's great, and that's it's it's the way
2:26:07
Speaker 2: things are done at the lower levels of the sport.
2:26:09
Speaker 2: When you're climbing up, you gotta sell tickets.
2:26:11
Speaker 3: You gotta.
2:26:12
Speaker 2: And I remember those days when my actual purse was
2:26:16
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars, but I got five hundred from the
2:26:18
Speaker 2: ticket sales because people supported me. It's a big deal, man,
2:26:22
Speaker 2: And it makes you feel cool when folks are chanting
2:26:24
Speaker 2: your name and your hometown or whatever. So outside of
2:26:27
Speaker 2: this main event, which we spent a lot of time on.
2:26:29
Speaker 2: Which fight are you most intrigued by on the card?
2:26:32
Speaker 1: Oh?
2:26:32
Speaker 8: Man, there's I mean, there's a handful the main cards
2:26:34
Speaker 8: really good. I mean, honestly, the prelims are about as
2:26:37
Speaker 8: good and loaded as as you as you can look at.
2:26:39
Speaker 8: If I'm gonna have to circle one on the prelims,
2:26:41
Speaker 8: I'm probably gonna look at James Iona versus Hunter Birdsley.
2:26:44
Speaker 8: They have a total they are both one and zero
2:26:46
Speaker 8: at two o five. James Iona's original opponent unfortunately had
2:26:51
Speaker 8: to pull out with an injury last week, and we
2:26:54
Speaker 8: called Hunter Birdsley, who James Iona filled in for Hunter
2:26:58
Speaker 8: Birdsley in August at the Maverick Center card when he
2:27:02
Speaker 8: had to pull out. So come full circle. Now they're
2:27:04
Speaker 8: fighting each other and they between the two of them,
2:27:07
Speaker 8: I believe have about fifty eight seconds of fight time.
2:27:10
Speaker 8: Both of their fights lasted less than thirty seconds so
2:27:13
Speaker 8: with knockout. So that that's another one at two o five,
2:27:17
Speaker 8: two amateurs one to zero amateurs that you know, judges,
2:27:23
Speaker 8: you can you can probably take a break on that
2:27:24
Speaker 8: one because they have the way they fight, both of them,
2:27:29
Speaker 8: there's no other outcome then somebody's getting knocked out.
2:27:32
Speaker 2: If you are an old school MMA fan in the
2:27:35
Speaker 2: state of Utah, that named Birdsley just perked your ears
2:27:38
Speaker 2: up because James Birdsley was one of the guys that
2:27:44
Speaker 2: I mean, just an absolute menace back in the early
2:27:48
Speaker 2: days of the sport. Here, a guy who honestly should
2:27:51
Speaker 2: have and could have made it to the big leagues.
2:27:53
Speaker 2: Just every time he was close, something dumb would happen,
2:27:57
Speaker 2: and that's just kind of the legacy unfortunately. But his
2:28:01
Speaker 2: I got to figure out how I think Hunter is
2:28:04
Speaker 2: his nephew, and if I'm correct there, then Hunter's dad
2:28:09
Speaker 2: is like would be Ryan Birdsley, who I trained with
2:28:12
Speaker 2: also for a long time.
2:28:14
Speaker 3: So you got to find this out for me. But
2:28:16
Speaker 3: I trained with James back in the day.
2:28:17
Speaker 2: I trained with Ryan, and Ryan always had like a
2:28:21
Speaker 2: job like he was like a regular dad that was
2:28:25
Speaker 2: focused not on his MMA career. He was focused on
2:28:28
Speaker 2: his family and focused on you know, putting food on
2:28:30
Speaker 2: the table and stuff like that. But was an absolute monster,
2:28:35
Speaker 2: incredibly tough, beautiful long grade striking, could not be knocked out.
2:28:42
Speaker 2: You get into those crazy rounds in the gym where
2:28:45
Speaker 2: it stopped being a sparring round and ended up being
2:28:47
Speaker 2: a fight and this is like he's like an accountant
2:28:50
Speaker 2: who then ended up running a CrossFit gym or something
2:28:53
Speaker 2: like that, and he's kicking your ass. When you're a
2:28:55
Speaker 2: pro fighter, you're just like, man. So that Birdsley blood's
2:28:59
Speaker 2: line blood line is made of something tough.
2:29:02
Speaker 8: I just texted him to see if we can get
2:29:04
Speaker 8: the relation there. But you know, what you just described
2:29:07
Speaker 8: is exactly how people describe him to. He's six three
2:29:10
Speaker 8: six four long, and yeah, he's an animal.
2:29:15
Speaker 3: Former Olympus Titan, yeah, hunter Birdsley.
2:29:18
Speaker 6: Yeah.
2:29:18
Speaker 3: So go check it out, man.
2:29:20
Speaker 2: And again, if you're a casual MMA fan and you're
2:29:25
Speaker 2: not sure if you're going to like the in arena experience,
2:29:29
Speaker 2: the live experience, I don't want to be sitting clear
2:29:31
Speaker 2: up in the nosebleed seats, not a bad seat in
2:29:33
Speaker 2: the house. At these Masonic Temple fights. It's this really
2:29:37
Speaker 2: cool atmosphere, really cool vibe. The building is so fascinating.
2:29:41
Speaker 2: Walk around, look at the symbology and the weird portraits
2:29:44
Speaker 2: on the wall.
2:29:45
Speaker 8: It's neat, man, it's cool. It's one hundred year old building.
2:29:48
Speaker 8: I mean, that's our campaign this year is we're there
2:29:50
Speaker 8: to save the temple. People keep asking, why are you
2:29:52
Speaker 8: guys at the Masonic Temple. Well, it's because they were
2:29:55
Speaker 8: going to close their doors. They're they're they're very close
2:29:58
Speaker 8: without some events things going on there that they would
2:30:01
Speaker 8: have to close their doors and it would be a
2:30:03
Speaker 8: real shame to see that cool historical building go away.
2:30:07
Speaker 8: So that's a big part of the reason why we're there,
2:30:09
Speaker 8: and so that's part of our campaign is to bring
2:30:11
Speaker 8: awareness and hopefully other people book events there as well.
2:30:14
Speaker 8: But I mean, yeah, we love it there and it's
2:30:17
Speaker 8: my favorite venue to watch fights at here in Utah.
2:30:20
Speaker 3: It really is.
2:30:20
Speaker 8: I know, everybody's alerd with the Maverick Center or whatever,
2:30:23
Speaker 8: which is it's really nice in there too, but it
2:30:26
Speaker 8: has the big show vibe, but the intimacy of the
2:30:28
Speaker 8: small regional show still too. And it's just really cool
2:30:31
Speaker 8: and unique.
2:30:31
Speaker 3: I mean it really is.
2:30:32
Speaker 2: I've watched fights in every setting all over the world
2:30:36
Speaker 2: of called fights. I'm lucky enough to do this, and
2:30:38
Speaker 2: it is one of the most unique and interesting places
2:30:41
Speaker 2: you're gonna find one. And there really is not a
2:30:43
Speaker 2: bad seat because the bleacher seating it's like almost vertical.
2:30:48
Speaker 8: It's an auditorium and it just goes straight up.
2:30:50
Speaker 2: It just goes straight up, so you're never far away
2:30:53
Speaker 2: from the cage. Even if you're in the very very
2:30:54
Speaker 2: last row, you're like twenty five feet from the cage.
2:30:58
Speaker 8: You're good. Yeah, it's awesome.
2:31:00
Speaker 6: Him.
2:31:01
Speaker 8: We have an amateur title fight between Calvin Taylor and
2:31:03
Speaker 8: Tristan McDonald on the card. That's gonna be really good.
2:31:05
Speaker 8: Calvin's uh, he's an athletic freak. I trained with him.
2:31:08
Speaker 8: Tristan McDonald, he's down at a GEMA with Court McGee
2:31:11
Speaker 8: and that team. And uh, he's a former Iowa state wrestler.
2:31:14
Speaker 8: And Calvin was is a freak athlete wrestler. I mean
2:31:17
Speaker 8: it's gonna it's gonna be it's gonna be very competitive.
2:31:20
Speaker 8: Uh uh, you know, athlete versus technician. But they and
2:31:24
Speaker 8: they both have their strengths. And then Ricky Mamone is
2:31:27
Speaker 8: a guy that he was our amateur featherweight champ making
2:31:30
Speaker 8: his procue and uh, he can crack and when I
2:31:33
Speaker 8: mean he can crack like he sleeps people. Henry Sujuda
2:31:37
Speaker 8: was in town once. He actually came to Ricky and
2:31:41
Speaker 8: his brother Cam Waler were fighting on a card to
2:31:42
Speaker 8: get together. Henry Sujuda was in town, actually came to
2:31:45
Speaker 8: the weigh ins and was gonna come check out the
2:31:47
Speaker 8: fights and uh, and he ended up inviting Ricky and
2:31:51
Speaker 8: his brother to train with him a little bit while
2:31:53
Speaker 8: he was in town, and he's like, these kids are
2:31:56
Speaker 8: he he was all over it. So that that tells
2:31:59
Speaker 8: you that this lamp of approval there.
2:32:01
Speaker 2: I actually they came down to the gym and I
2:32:03
Speaker 2: got to train with both of the both of the brothers,
2:32:05
Speaker 2: and I'm one hundred pounds bigger than both of them,
2:32:07
Speaker 2: and they're still they don't care. They're formidable and the
2:32:11
Speaker 2: local kind Hawaiian guys.
2:32:13
Speaker 3: So uh, this is a card.
2:32:15
Speaker 2: If you're looking to get into the sport of MMA,
2:32:18
Speaker 2: or you're just curious about it, this is a card.
2:32:20
Speaker 2: There's gonna be a lot of exciting fights. There's gonna
2:32:22
Speaker 2: be a lot of finishes. And one of my favorite
2:32:24
Speaker 2: things about grassroots MMA is you get to watch them
2:32:27
Speaker 2: before they become famous and you get to say, oh,
2:32:30
Speaker 2: I saw that dude in his amateur fight, or I
2:32:32
Speaker 2: saw that dude in his first title fight, you know,
2:32:35
Speaker 2: on a local scene before he ended up in the
2:32:37
Speaker 2: UFC or ended up in the PFL or whatever. So
2:32:39
Speaker 2: fierce Fighting Championship dot com this Saturday, January twenty fourth
2:32:46
Speaker 2: at the Masonic Temple. Doors open at four, fights start
2:32:49
Speaker 2: at five. They will have vendors, they will have food.
2:32:52
Speaker 2: It's a great building, it's a great show. Zach will
2:32:55
Speaker 2: be there. Telemose he sent.
2:32:56
Speaker 8: You absolutely, come see me. Come check out. Get some
2:32:59
Speaker 8: R and R barbecue. We got great barbecue there. Got
2:33:02
Speaker 8: we got drinks. We got bad bev which is a
2:33:05
Speaker 8: company that does like the mix sodas you know, so
2:33:07
Speaker 8: we have we have the alcohol beverages. And then we
2:33:10
Speaker 8: got for the non drinkers, we got the we have
2:33:12
Speaker 8: the really good uh you know, so does come have
2:33:14
Speaker 8: a good time. I mean, yeah, we're gonna We're gonna
2:33:17
Speaker 8: have a blast. You can use coupon code if you go,
2:33:19
Speaker 8: uh go to get tickets. You can use coupon cod
2:33:21
Speaker 8: ESPN to get a discount on tickets too.
2:33:23
Speaker 2: There it is coupon CODESPN Fierce Fighting Championships. Thanks for
2:33:27
Speaker 2: coming in, dude, good to see you. Thank you the
2:33:29
Speaker 2: driving Spence check. Its are up next on Utah's number
2:33:32
Speaker 2: one sports stock. It's ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM.