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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 3-23-26 · 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: Willis on Utah's number one sports talk and homa b
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Speaker 1: ESPN seven and ninety two one a half Am, a
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Speaker 1: proud part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.
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Speaker 2: Happen Monday by Welcome to The Sean O'Connell Show. I'm
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Speaker 2: glad to be with you once again after a protracted
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Speaker 2: absence that I can blame on nobody but myself. Very
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Speaker 2: excited to be back in the chair talking about well,
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Speaker 2: a lot of different things on the show today. James
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Speaker 2: Peterson is behind the glass to produce. As is always
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Speaker 2: the case, Ari Tempkin is going to join us, Sean
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Speaker 2: Mooney is going to join us, and Sammy Mora. As
1:03
Speaker 2: Utah football is in spring football mode, the Morgan Scalley
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Speaker 2: era that began with a Bowl game victory is now
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Speaker 2: more firmly entrenching itself into all of our psychees psyche
1:17
Speaker 2: collective psyche psyches sound right, It sounds wrong to say
1:21
Speaker 2: psyche is as a plural word. In any case, you
1:27
Speaker 2: got your leadership council announcement will break some.
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Speaker 3: Of that down.
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Speaker 2: I had this whole list of things as I was
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Speaker 2: preparing to come back. So I was in Uganda, then Tanzania,
1:40
Speaker 2: then Madrid, Spain to call pfl action.
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Speaker 3: That's where I've been these last couple of weeks.
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Speaker 2: And about Thursday, I'm sitting in Madrid and like, okay,
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Speaker 2: here's what has happened in the time I've been gone.
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna cobble together some hopefully decent conversations about the
2:03
Speaker 2: things that happened that I missed, and hopefully people will
2:06
Speaker 2: will be all right with me revisiting that. And then
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Speaker 2: as the weekend started to come, just a bombshell of
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Speaker 2: public information request follow ups from Utah Football, Utah, the
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Speaker 2: Kyle Whittingham exit at the University of Utah, a storyline
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Speaker 2: by the way, that we are all best served to
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Speaker 2: just be done with and to move on from. The
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Speaker 2: hardworking folks on the beats and the journalists in our
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Speaker 2: market wanted to get more definitive answers, and there look,
2:40
Speaker 2: depending on which portion of the fan base you talk to,
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Speaker 2: the thin and sparse wit loyalists, the folks that are
2:48
Speaker 2: excited about Morgan Scalli in the future. The folks that
2:52
Speaker 2: are like I trust in Mark Harlan and I trust
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Speaker 2: no matter what like, there's always different opinions on the
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Speaker 2: way this thing worked out. And we now have seen
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Speaker 2: the emails. Okay, here's what you know. Kyle Whittingham wanted
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Speaker 2: to come back, he wanted to raise, he wanted more time,
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Speaker 2: he wanted more resources. UTAs said, all right, if you're
3:14
Speaker 2: gonna come back, you're gonna have no more money. You're
3:17
Speaker 2: gonna have no more resources. And Morgan Scally starting now, right,
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Speaker 2: the deadline was February. Starting in February, Morgan Scally is
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Speaker 2: gonna have final decision making on all personnel, player personnel
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Speaker 2: and on all coaching personnel, which to my knowledge, is
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Speaker 2: not a relationship that exists anywhere else in college football.
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Speaker 2: So I believe that the design of that response was like, oh,
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Speaker 2: you want to stay. Okay, if you'd like to stay,
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Speaker 2: we're happy to keep you. But but the transition is
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Speaker 2: happening while you're in the chair. Your lead assistant, your
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Speaker 2: defensive coordinator, your heir apparent is now really the decision
4:13
Speaker 2: maker in the program. Now, in those emails, you saw
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Speaker 2: nothing about who gets to decide whether you're kicking field
4:21
Speaker 2: goals against your rival. You saw nothing about whether you're
4:26
Speaker 2: going forward on fourth down or not right, You didn't
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Speaker 2: see anything like that, but effectively it was a message like, okay,
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Speaker 2: if you want to stay here and be the figurehead,
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Speaker 2: but in reality, Morgan Scalley's going to make these decisions
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Speaker 2: and there's no way Kyle Whittingham was going to agree
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Speaker 2: to that. So we didn't. All right, we know that,
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Speaker 2: and then there was a separation agreement thirteen and a
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Speaker 2: half million dollars, which you know, I'm I'm a miser,
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Speaker 2: I'm cheap. I've been hearing too much lack of resources
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Speaker 2: and different programs and lack of resources and worry about
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Speaker 2: resources and does this donor want to pay for this?
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Speaker 3: And I don't know, And you know, we've.
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Speaker 2: Had too many conversations and too many worries about money,
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Speaker 2: even at the University of Utah, where things are going
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Speaker 2: pretty darn well athletically on the football front, especially on
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Speaker 2: the gymnastics runt, especially right you got some good things
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Speaker 2: happening in athletics right now at the University of Utah.
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Speaker 2: Yet and still there are concerns because you're in the
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Speaker 2: Big twelve and not the Big ten, because your television
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Speaker 2: distribution deal is not something that is keeping you at
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Speaker 2: the forefront of college athletics from a financial standpoint, all
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Speaker 2: these things. We've been talking about it too much, right,
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Speaker 2: And when I hear, yeah, we're gonna burn thirteen and
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Speaker 2: a half million dollars to just send you off to
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Speaker 2: the retirement home with a little dignity, I don't even
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Speaker 2: like that, all right, And of course that's not how
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Speaker 2: it actually played out. That thirteen and a half million
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Speaker 2: dollars we learned from these emails that were released is
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Speaker 2: going to Kyle Whittingham to coach Michigan. We have a
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Speaker 2: couple of Bobby Bonia days coming our way next year
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Speaker 2: and the year after that for Kyle Whittingham where he
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Speaker 2: gets more money from the University of Utah football team
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Speaker 2: while he's the head coach of Michigan. Because nobody had
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Speaker 2: the presence of mind, the forethought, or whatever to think,
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Speaker 2: if we're gonna do this, if we're gonna do this
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Speaker 2: separation agreement, there's gonna be some qualifiers in there where
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Speaker 2: our buy out effectively gets canceled out if you take
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Speaker 2: another job.
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Speaker 3: And there's a lot of those in college sports, a
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Speaker 3: lot of them.
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Speaker 4: Hold on, they had if you take another job in Utah,
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Speaker 4: oh see, they had no they had that in there,
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Speaker 4: but like it needed to be, it needed to be
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Speaker 4: far reaching, and there was a decision.
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Speaker 3: More than just in the state of Utah.
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Speaker 2: And the email that from Mark Harlan to I'd Belie Leave,
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Speaker 2: the manager of Kyle Whittingham, was like, look, we're disappointed
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Speaker 2: in the way this thing went and we don't think
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Speaker 2: we actually should pay you this separation agreement, but we
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Speaker 2: also don't think that fighting this out is going to
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Speaker 2: be in the best interest of the University of Utah
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Speaker 2: football program. So here's your eight million dollar check. The
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Speaker 2: first installment makes me sick to my stomach thinking about
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Speaker 2: the university having to write that.
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Speaker 4: Check when he also said Mark Carlin also put in
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Speaker 4: there or for you, we didn't want to damage your legacy.
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Speaker 4: The translation of that, guys is they knew they didn't.
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Speaker 3: Have a case it is. That's what that was.
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Speaker 2: What that was was just Kyle Whittingham and his representation
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Speaker 2: having a laugh, unfortunately at the expense of the university
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Speaker 2: where he spent twenty one year is the head coach
8:02
Speaker 2: and some bridges have obviously been burnt, and that sucks
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Speaker 2: and I hate it, and I never wanted to have
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Speaker 2: this conversation again, I wouldn't be doing my job if
8:14
Speaker 2: I came back, especially after an absence when this story
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Speaker 2: broke on Friday, and I didn't say, well, hold on here,
8:20
Speaker 2: there's some stuff. There's some meat on the bone, some
8:23
Speaker 2: information that look, a lot of people knew this information.
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Speaker 3: We didn't see the particulars.
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Speaker 2: And it is a stark reminder of how the business
8:32
Speaker 2: of college football, the business of it is an ugly one,
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Speaker 2: is a nasty one.
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Speaker 3: Even when it should be.
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Speaker 2: This copasetic, unified vision Kumbayau relationship between a guy that
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Speaker 2: has put you on the map in a way that,
8:51
Speaker 2: let's be honest, a lot of people never thought Utah
8:54
Speaker 2: football would be on the map, and the leadership that
8:58
Speaker 2: is trying to figure out if his time to move
9:00
Speaker 2: on has already come or has passed or whatever, and
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Speaker 2: the decisions made, we're gonna live with them, We're gonna
9:06
Speaker 2: ride with them. The reason I'm so bothered by it
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Speaker 2: is because Morgan Scalley now has to take over for
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Speaker 2: a program that at some point was gonna be his
9:19
Speaker 2: unequivocally undoubtedly at some point was gonna be his. But
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Speaker 2: he has to do it in a messy situation instead
9:26
Speaker 2: of in a clean break. And there's a dozen different
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Speaker 2: ways it could have been a clean break, and there's
9:32
Speaker 2: probably a dozen different ways it could have been muddy
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Speaker 2: and ugly like this, and unfortunately we got what seems
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Speaker 2: like the muddiest and.
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Speaker 3: The ugliest of all of them.
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Speaker 2: And I hate it because Morgan Scally is the guy.
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Speaker 3: He's the right guy.
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Speaker 2: His first interview of springball made you reminded you if
9:52
Speaker 2: you had forgotten about the press conference, which you could
9:54
Speaker 2: obviously find on our ESPN seven hundred app ESPN seven
9:57
Speaker 2: hundred sports dot com.
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Speaker 3: Hey, how'd you? How was your first practice? Boring?
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Speaker 2: It's not real football yet you know he's like, he's candid,
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Speaker 2: he's giving you real answers, he's charismatic, He's awesome. He's
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Speaker 2: the reason why a bunch of great players are gonna
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Speaker 2: still come to the University of Utah, even as the
10:15
Speaker 2: rest of us fred about, well, I don't know, do
10:17
Speaker 2: we have enough money? I'm worried about this? What about
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Speaker 2: that guy? Like a bunch of players, great players are
10:23
Speaker 2: still gonna come to Utah. They're still gonna get developed
10:25
Speaker 2: well at Utah. They're still gonna play great football for
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Speaker 2: the University of Utah, but it didn't have to be
10:31
Speaker 2: the way that it is. And I don't I don't
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Speaker 2: know where you the football fan, the Utah football fan stands.
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Speaker 3: I don't know if you're like, well, I know a
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Speaker 3: lot of you are like.
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Speaker 2: Wit burned the bridges and he burned the boats, and
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Speaker 2: I'm sick of him and I don't like him.
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Speaker 3: Whatever that. If that's the opinion you want to have,
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Speaker 3: you're entitled to it.
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Speaker 2: That's fine. I saw a lot of conversation when this
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Speaker 2: was breaking. Hey, Witch, legacies really in question here. Okay,
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Speaker 2: he was shown the door, mine was told he was
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Speaker 2: told you you can come back, but you're you're you're not.
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Speaker 3: Really gonna be in charge completely. You're no longer in charge.
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Speaker 2: We're going to we're gonna allow you to maintain your title,
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Speaker 2: but we're not gonna allow you to maintain the functions
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Speaker 2: associated with that title. And by the way that transition,
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Speaker 2: anyone you talk to in the program, it has already
11:26
Speaker 2: been happening in a maybe somewhat begrudging, but a much
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Speaker 2: more natural way. Over the course of the last two
11:33
Speaker 2: or three seasons. How many times Devin dan Pierre would
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Speaker 2: sit here and we would talk and yeah, you know,
11:40
Speaker 2: Morgan actually runs a lot more meetings than people thinks.
11:44
Speaker 2: You know, like there's a lot of things that were
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Speaker 2: already happening, and I know there were. There was tension
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Speaker 2: last year, and there would have been further tension this
11:53
Speaker 2: offseason if Morgan scally had to sit there when Mark
11:57
Speaker 2: Carlan called him and said, hey, Manningham once two more
12:01
Speaker 2: years at nine and at nine point six, and we're
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Speaker 2: gonna give it to him because he's the winningest coach
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Speaker 2: in the history of this program. He is the face
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Speaker 2: of this program. He's the reason we're all in this position.
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Speaker 2: And we hope you're okay with that. And Morgan might
12:15
Speaker 2: have had to make a decision, but guess what it
12:18
Speaker 2: was gonna be his team at some point anyway, if
12:21
Speaker 2: he had gone to beat I don't know, Colorado State
12:24
Speaker 2: head coach U and LV head coach whatever, it was
12:27
Speaker 2: gonna be his at some point anyway, right, it doesn't
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Speaker 2: I prefer the storyline of he coached, he played at Utah,
12:36
Speaker 2: he coached at Utah, and only at Utah. I love
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Speaker 2: one logo. I'm a Utah man, always had been, always
12:45
Speaker 2: will be. Love it. I can't love it more. But
12:53
Speaker 2: it's as messy as it can possibly be. When we're
12:57
Speaker 2: in March and the team is up there practicing and
13:02
Speaker 2: we're reading emails between the athletic director and the former
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Speaker 2: head coaches agent detailing for us the insistence, under whatever influence,
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Speaker 2: that your time here is done, Kyle Whittingham, and then
13:17
Speaker 2: he gets to laugh his way to the bank with
13:20
Speaker 2: thirteen and a half of Utah thirteen and a half
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Speaker 2: million of Utah's dollars, while also making about ten million
13:26
Speaker 2: dollars a year from Michigan, and while taking the entire
13:31
Speaker 2: offensive staff and arguably your best defensive recruiter, and four
13:36
Speaker 2: or five of the best players that you had on
13:38
Speaker 2: the roster, at least the most proven best players you
13:40
Speaker 2: had on the roster.
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Speaker 3: It's it's a.
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Speaker 2: Bad look for Utah football. Not for Morgan, not for
13:51
Speaker 2: the players on the roster.
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Speaker 3: Not for the current coaching staff, nothing like that.
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Speaker 2: But it's a bad look for the way this was
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Speaker 2: handled at the end. And it forces the fan base,
14:04
Speaker 2: which is they've kind of already done it, but it
14:06
Speaker 2: forces the fan base to form an opinion and to
14:11
Speaker 2: take a side.
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Speaker 3: And I don't like that.
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Speaker 2: I hate that in fact, and most people have decided
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Speaker 2: and they've taken the side that like, look, we don't
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Speaker 2: like Kyle Whittingham. He fleeced us, and now we know
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Speaker 2: he fleeced us even more financially. He did, and he
14:26
Speaker 2: did it with the talent, the coaching talent and the
14:29
Speaker 2: player talent. Guys, he would not have done it if
14:34
Speaker 2: you had said yes to nine and nine point six,
14:37
Speaker 2: if you had have said yes to two more years.
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Speaker 2: And maybe the question is as simple as that eight
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Speaker 2: seven seven three five three zero seven hundred, if you
14:48
Speaker 2: can scrub all of the yuck and all the mud
14:50
Speaker 2: and all the muck out of your mind and out
14:53
Speaker 2: of your opinion and just decide for me, go back
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Speaker 2: to like right before the bowl game. Okay, you're going
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Speaker 2: into bowl prep week, Michigan has not yet offered Kyle
15:05
Speaker 2: Whittingham a job.
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Speaker 4: Pre Christmas because it is day after Christmas he gets hired.
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Speaker 3: Oh see, yeah it was. It was. Okay, a crazy
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Speaker 3: reminder that it was. Right there, Go back.
15:15
Speaker 2: To a more innocent time in your Utah football fan
15:18
Speaker 2: life when you're waiting for Santa Claus to bring you
15:21
Speaker 2: your great gifts and you find out hey, uh, Kyle Whittingham,
15:28
Speaker 2: we thought he was going to be done, he actually
15:29
Speaker 2: doesn't want to be done. Should we pay him nine
15:33
Speaker 2: million dollars to come back? Just just yes or no?
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Speaker 2: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred? Did
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Speaker 2: you want him back at nine million dollars for another year.
15:44
Speaker 3: We'll leave the.
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Speaker 2: Second year out of it because you can't even think
15:47
Speaker 2: about those things.
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Speaker 4: A year to WIT's been on a year to year
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Speaker 4: basis for what four years now, which was he told us.
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Speaker 2: He shouldn't have done it that way. He should not
15:59
Speaker 2: have answered the those questions the way that he answered him.
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Speaker 2: And by the way, if if Kyle Whittingham ask for
16:08
Speaker 2: another year, I know he asked for two. Let's say
16:10
Speaker 2: he asked for another year and it's for nine million
16:12
Speaker 2: bucks and Utah says, ugh, how about for eight? But
16:18
Speaker 2: without this thing in here where Morgan gets decision making power,
16:23
Speaker 2: where he has no control, Basically you just like he's
16:25
Speaker 2: your defensive coordinator and he's still your heir apparent, but
16:28
Speaker 2: your relationship with him is for you to manage that
16:32
Speaker 2: tension because he's sick of waiting, right. But we're not
16:35
Speaker 2: gonna give Morgan any extra power, any extra title we
16:39
Speaker 2: will give you not exactly what you ask for. That's
16:41
Speaker 2: just a negotiation. That's that's just a contract negotiation, right,
16:46
Speaker 2: Like Michigan probably doesn't probably doesn't come swooping in if
16:52
Speaker 2: it's like, if the report is Kyle Whittingham is expected
16:56
Speaker 2: to return to Utah for the twenty twenty sixth season
17:00
Speaker 2: for X number of dollars, terms of contract to be
17:04
Speaker 2: disclosed at a later date, whatever, Right, Michigan.
17:07
Speaker 3: Is probably just like, all right, we're gonna we'll figure
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Speaker 3: something else out.
17:10
Speaker 2: I think the Michigan thing happened because they were like,
17:16
Speaker 2: wait a second, this guy's on the market. He wouldn't
17:19
Speaker 2: be on the market if the response to the email
17:24
Speaker 2: is not, yeah, we'll give you less than you asked for,
17:27
Speaker 2: but we're also gonna take power away from you. Knowing
17:33
Speaker 2: what I think I know about Kyle Whittingham, the money
17:37
Speaker 2: has a lot less to do with this than that clause.
17:43
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, absolutely, that was my read to OC. And
17:46
Speaker 4: my big takeaway from this is I don't have any
17:51
Speaker 4: problem with in general, Utah saying Wit we're kind of
17:58
Speaker 4: tired of you change in your mind, so we're gonna we're.
18:02
Speaker 3: Going to.
18:05
Speaker 4: We're gonna take a hard line here and tell you, hey,
18:07
Speaker 4: we've moved on to Morgan. I don't I don't mind that.
18:10
Speaker 4: That makes it messy, but I don't mind it for
18:13
Speaker 4: like University of Utah Mark carl in the athletic department,
18:16
Speaker 4: they had every reason to feel that way. The donors too.
18:21
Speaker 4: I also don't mind wit going Are you kidding me?
18:24
Speaker 4: I'm Kyle Whittingham. Do you know what this program was
18:27
Speaker 4: before before me at the Urban Meyer the two years
18:30
Speaker 4: of Urban Meyer? Notwithstanding, like, come on, I I'm Utah Football.
18:35
Speaker 4: What why are you? Why are you trying to push
18:38
Speaker 4: me out the door? I don't mind that at all either.
18:43
Speaker 5: I do.
18:44
Speaker 4: What I don't think was handled very well is one
18:48
Speaker 4: the the new contract that got drawn up. I mean,
18:52
Speaker 4: Utah could have put more safeguards in there so that
18:55
Speaker 4: they didn't have to owe him thirteen and a half
18:58
Speaker 4: million dollars on his way out and have a little
19:02
Speaker 4: bit egg on your face.
19:03
Speaker 3: Right.
19:04
Speaker 4: It's it's that kind of stuff that that kind of
19:07
Speaker 4: that sits wrong with me. But everything else, I mean,
19:12
Speaker 4: we talked about this when we were speculating, and when
19:15
Speaker 4: you were you in particular, were hearing some of these
19:18
Speaker 4: things happening.
19:21
Speaker 3: At the time. Oh see, we talked about how.
19:25
Speaker 4: This is kind of proof that there's no real easy,
19:31
Speaker 4: I don't know, mutual good feeling parting of ways between
19:38
Speaker 4: between someone that has been your everything for a couple
19:42
Speaker 4: of decades and the next person. Like there, it's always
19:47
Speaker 4: gonna be more messy than you would like it to
19:50
Speaker 4: be sure that. I don't mind that there was some
19:53
Speaker 4: mess I just think Utah could have protected themselves better.
19:56
Speaker 2: A divorce probably was inevitable here, and it's instead of
20:00
Speaker 2: the the kind of like mutual friendly parting of ways,
20:06
Speaker 2: maybe maybe it was inevitable Ron.
20:08
Speaker 3: I mean, who knows what the whole truth is. You know,
20:13
Speaker 3: you know better than I do.
20:14
Speaker 4: But the Ron McBride era seemed like that was the
20:17
Speaker 4: most idyllic, like I'm done. He's still obviously been a
20:21
Speaker 4: big presence at the university and throughout the state since then.
20:25
Speaker 4: He doesn't there does There didn't seem to be any
20:28
Speaker 4: that was break what there was there was. I mean
20:31
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, like, you're you were young at
20:34
Speaker 4: that time, like, I mean, there.
20:36
Speaker 2: Were there were there were players crying when Ron McBride
20:39
Speaker 2: got fired, right, it was I didn't realize he's fired.
20:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a fire. Okay, so then there certainly
20:45
Speaker 3: was that.
20:46
Speaker 2: A little it all comes out in the wash because
20:48
Speaker 2: then you moved on to Urban Myyern. You have two
20:50
Speaker 2: of the greatest years in program history, and you're like.
20:53
Speaker 4: And coach Mack has handled it with all kinds of
20:56
Speaker 4: class and and and so is the university. Yeah, and
20:58
Speaker 4: there's like there's a a meeting of minds right where
21:01
Speaker 4: it's just like he went he coached at Weab State.
21:04
Speaker 4: He did great things for that university. He's done incredible
21:07
Speaker 4: things for high schools and high school recruiting and the
21:09
Speaker 4: development of the high school game and.
21:10
Speaker 2: Coaching at the high school level in the state. So yeah,
21:13
Speaker 2: it was handled as well as it could be handled.
21:16
Speaker 2: There was some ugliness at the end of the Ron
21:18
Speaker 2: McBride era at the University of Utah.
21:20
Speaker 3: I think, is Chris Hill coming.
21:23
Speaker 2: On with Spence today, doctor Chris Hill on the show today,
21:26
Speaker 2: Maybe Spence will ask him about that, because maybe there's
21:29
Speaker 2: maybe feels there's a reason to talk about that. But
21:32
Speaker 2: I mean that has been smoothed over time.
21:37
Speaker 3: Heals all wounds, right, this is fresh, This hurts, and.
21:42
Speaker 2: When divorces happen, because that's the best way to characterize this.
21:46
Speaker 2: I think both sides usually lawyer up and even when
21:50
Speaker 2: it's as mutually respectful as it could possibly be. And
21:54
Speaker 2: I don't think either side really bears any ill will
21:58
Speaker 2: towards the other. With the Kyle witting I don't think
22:00
Speaker 2: he hates the University of Utah for doing it this way.
22:03
Speaker 2: I don't think he hates Mark Harlan. I don't think
22:05
Speaker 2: he hates the athletic department. I don't think he hates
22:07
Speaker 2: President Randall. I think he's just like, all right, fine,
22:09
Speaker 2: it was probably upsetting, probably difficult for him.
22:12
Speaker 3: He's at Michigan now, all right.
22:15
Speaker 2: It worked out quite nicely, and he's laughing because he
22:17
Speaker 2: gets thirteen and a half million dollars from Utah as well.
22:21
Speaker 2: That's where like the lawyer for if Kyle Whittingham's dad
22:27
Speaker 2: in this divorce and the Utah football program is mom
22:31
Speaker 2: in this divorce, Mom's lawyer needs to lose a license here, Like,
22:38
Speaker 2: what how did you let that happen?
22:42
Speaker 3: That's like we weren't talking.
22:44
Speaker 2: I hated the analogy at first because I just thinctly
22:48
Speaker 2: remember cross talk sitting across respense knowing that coaches were
22:52
Speaker 2: gonna leave, knowing that players were gonna leave. He got
22:56
Speaker 2: the house, he got the car, he got the kids.
22:59
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't it's crass, it's callous, it
23:03
Speaker 2: makes light of something that actually happens and tears people's
23:07
Speaker 2: real lives apart. But it's it's apt right. It's an
23:10
Speaker 2: adept analogy here, and he absolutely did. He got the
23:18
Speaker 2: vacation home, he got the frequent flyer miles, and he
23:23
Speaker 2: got all the money in the bank accounts.
23:27
Speaker 3: You got all the friends too. The coaches could be
23:29
Speaker 3: all the friends.
23:32
Speaker 2: So we got great texts coming in from Derek sixteen
23:35
Speaker 2: twenty four. I'm a million percent with the athletic department
23:38
Speaker 2: on this. They were tired of being let on forever.
23:39
Speaker 2: They were tired of him as antics. I'm happy they
23:41
Speaker 2: made the decision they did.
23:43
Speaker 3: Fine.
23:43
Speaker 2: Yes, there's a huge contingent in the fan base that
23:47
Speaker 2: feels exactly that way. And the big reason why you
23:49
Speaker 2: can feel that way is because Morgan Scally is the
23:52
Speaker 2: right dude, and you feel good about the future right
23:56
Speaker 2: and you love it. But even if you're just like, yeah,
23:59
Speaker 2: get rid of him. I'm done with him. I wasn't
24:01
Speaker 2: in that place. But even if you are Kyle Whittingham,
24:05
Speaker 2: don't want him anymore. Force him into retirement. Send the
24:08
Speaker 2: email that says no, we don't want you instead of
24:11
Speaker 2: the one that says, yes, we want you, but you
24:13
Speaker 2: won't have any power whatever to say, hey, coach, we're
24:16
Speaker 2: done here. That's fine. I again, if that's the decision
24:20
Speaker 2: being made by leadership.
24:22
Speaker 3: Great.
24:24
Speaker 2: While you're doing that, cover your you know what, have
24:30
Speaker 2: the foresight, have the thought to know? The landscape of
24:33
Speaker 2: college football is unpredictable, and by the way, you're dealing
24:37
Speaker 2: with a man who has been unpredictable. In the last
24:42
Speaker 2: week of these emails, right, well, we thought he was done.
24:46
Speaker 3: He was acting like he was done.
24:48
Speaker 2: Every single sign pointed to Kyle Whittingham being done, and
24:53
Speaker 2: then he was like a wild card.
24:54
Speaker 3: Nope, I'm not give me nine million bucks. Fine. If
24:58
Speaker 3: you want to say no, I don't want that. No,
25:01
Speaker 3: it's time for us to move on.
25:02
Speaker 2: Coach, great, Fine, make sure that your divorce lawyer knows
25:09
Speaker 2: what they're doing.
25:11
Speaker 6: You.
25:12
Speaker 3: The biggest problem I have.
25:16
Speaker 2: Is that you're paying this man to coach at Michigan
25:20
Speaker 2: and we're going to have a couple more headlines on
25:23
Speaker 2: this when the season starts, and then we're going to
25:26
Speaker 2: have another headline in February of twenty twenty seven and
25:30
Speaker 2: another one in twenty twenty eight. Oh, the University of
25:36
Speaker 2: Utah is sending Kyle Whittingham another check today. That is
25:41
Speaker 2: damaging to the reputation of your athletic department, your university.
25:47
Speaker 3: And your school. That should not be allowed to happen.
25:51
Speaker 2: And if you wanted to fight it out in court,
25:54
Speaker 2: I'd have supported that. Maybe you would have lost, probably
25:58
Speaker 2: would have lost. That's probably why that probably were under
26:01
Speaker 2: legal advisement like it. Just pay him, because we didn't
26:04
Speaker 2: put the language in to protect ourselves, So just pay him.
26:07
Speaker 3: Take the high road here. I would rather fight it out.
26:13
Speaker 2: I would rather you say no, man, you said you
26:19
Speaker 2: wanted this program to be left in a good place.
26:21
Speaker 2: You wanted this program to be better off than when
26:25
Speaker 2: you left it. You want all this and again, this
26:28
Speaker 2: is the same guy I was the one who told you.
26:30
Speaker 2: Of course he did all of that, took coaches and
26:33
Speaker 2: players with him, because that's what you do, you maximize
26:36
Speaker 2: your setup for the next job. But this tells me
26:41
Speaker 2: there was nothing in there in that separation agreement that
26:46
Speaker 2: had any kind of thought at all that Kyle Whittingham
26:49
Speaker 2: would be taking another college coaching job, even though he
26:51
Speaker 2: told you I want to keep coaching college football.
26:54
Speaker 4: And even though you knew for two weeks that the biggest,
27:00
Speaker 4: maybe the biggest job opening that there ever would be
27:04
Speaker 4: in college football is open.
27:07
Speaker 3: Like that's the other, that's the other. Just bad foresight here.
27:11
Speaker 4: You knew Michigan was open, and yes, there were all
27:16
Speaker 4: of us going, I doubt he.
27:18
Speaker 3: I doubt Michigan calls him, and they don't.
27:19
Speaker 4: They They probably they probably want a younger guy who
27:23
Speaker 4: who coached at a bigger program than Utah. Even though
27:26
Speaker 4: we were all saying that, we all were also saying,
27:29
Speaker 4: if they call him, he's taking that job.
27:33
Speaker 2: Yes, people blew blew up at me because I was like,
27:38
Speaker 2: if I'm Michigan, I'm calling Kyle Whittingham right now. He
27:40
Speaker 2: was the exact antidote to the scandal that they just had.
27:44
Speaker 4: They landed on the right person, this sixth guy on
27:47
Speaker 4: their list.
27:48
Speaker 3: Guess what so did Utah? Utah also landed on the
27:51
Speaker 3: right guy.
27:52
Speaker 2: That's what I hate, Okay, I hate because I'm cheap
27:56
Speaker 2: and money centric in a world of college football. There's
27:58
Speaker 2: money centric right now. I hate paying money. This is
28:02
Speaker 2: dead money. This is salary cap dead money. Thirteen million
28:05
Speaker 2: plus in an athletic department that people are just like
28:08
Speaker 2: you don't realize the debt here?
28:10
Speaker 3: Okay, hate it. Hate that number.
28:14
Speaker 2: Right next to that on things that bother me is
28:17
Speaker 2: the fact that Morgan scally instead of running and focusing
28:21
Speaker 2: and doing the thing where it's like, hey, your first
28:25
Speaker 2: spring camp, let's get these guys developed.
28:27
Speaker 3: Who's showing out right now?
28:29
Speaker 2: Who is stepping into these leadership positions on the team,
28:33
Speaker 2: He now asked to answer questions about this or he
28:35
Speaker 2: has to say no comment on questions about this, and
28:38
Speaker 2: it's it's not the start that he deserves.
28:42
Speaker 4: Did you see Spence's reality check pod on KUTV and.
28:47
Speaker 3: Great job by Spence, great job by Morgan.
28:51
Speaker 4: Spence had to ask him yeah, and Morgan did a
28:53
Speaker 4: great job of just saying how much Kyle Whittingham means
28:56
Speaker 4: to him. But I was going, man, this sucks that
28:59
Speaker 4: Morgan and has to answer has to try to figure
29:02
Speaker 4: out a way to answer this question because it has
29:04
Speaker 4: nothing to do with Morgan.
29:05
Speaker 2: Well, and the other thing that sucks about it is
29:07
Speaker 2: now you have to say if you're really reading between
29:10
Speaker 2: the lines and these emails. All right, so you were
29:12
Speaker 2: willing to bring coach Whittingham back, but you needed the
29:18
Speaker 2: power to belong to Morgan. Was that a Morgan? Did
29:20
Speaker 2: Morgan tell you that? Did Morgan's agents say, well, if
29:24
Speaker 2: you're gonna let Kyle Whittingham come back, Morgan gets to
29:27
Speaker 2: make decisions?
29:28
Speaker 4: And and and who knows on that? From the things
29:32
Speaker 4: that you, in particular have heard, and others who are
29:34
Speaker 4: who are actually sourced unlike myself, have heard, more than
29:38
Speaker 4: likely there were some donors who said, you got to
29:41
Speaker 4: put this in you at the very least, there were
29:44
Speaker 4: some donors more than likely that said, you got to
29:46
Speaker 4: put this in in here if you're if w it's
29:49
Speaker 4: going to be our coach one more year?
29:50
Speaker 3: Who knows?
29:51
Speaker 4: Who knows if Morgan or of his reps did that.
29:53
Speaker 4: It doesn't seem like a move that Morgan would do,
29:55
Speaker 4: but who knows.
29:57
Speaker 2: So for long and Bartle and everyone else who did
30:01
Speaker 2: the hard work and made sure that we got the
30:04
Speaker 2: public information request, shout.
30:05
Speaker 3: Out to Jason Battakio at The Tribune.
30:07
Speaker 2: Batakia, the Beat writers, Good job to all of you,
30:10
Speaker 2: okay for doing the big Jay journalism work. Also, I'm
30:13
Speaker 2: mad at you because I wanted to be done with
30:15
Speaker 2: this and I did. I this is information that I
30:19
Speaker 2: am grossed out to see, right.
30:22
Speaker 3: It doesn't sit right with it.
30:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, and especially here in the home of the Utes,
30:26
Speaker 4: where listen, we don't want to have to talk about
30:31
Speaker 4: things that are could could absolutely skew negative towards the
30:35
Speaker 4: University of Utah. Well that that this is one of
30:39
Speaker 4: the this is unfortunately one of those things.
30:40
Speaker 3: It's well, it's a it's a negative outcome for the
30:43
Speaker 3: University of Utah.
30:45
Speaker 2: It's a positive outcome because Morgan Scally is your coach.
30:48
Speaker 2: That is the silver lining here. That's a wonderful thing.
30:52
Speaker 2: Pretty Much everything else that came out of this is negative.
30:59
Speaker 2: You lost money, you lost coaches, you lost players, You're
31:04
Speaker 2: losing respect in the college football world from the people
31:07
Speaker 2: that have seen you, and a lot of them do
31:11
Speaker 2: have seen you as like this throwback gold standard of
31:13
Speaker 2: a program that does things the right way and a
31:16
Speaker 2: department that is above some of this mess that everyone
31:20
Speaker 2: else has to deal with. That facade, even if hopefully
31:23
Speaker 2: it wasn't just a facade, but that Veneer is gone.
31:28
Speaker 2: So Morgan Scalley again unfairly now has to be the
31:32
Speaker 2: redeeming quality in all of this in his first year.
31:35
Speaker 3: As a head coach. Real quick, because we got a
31:37
Speaker 3: break you do.
31:39
Speaker 4: I'll say this because I've been able to be at
31:41
Speaker 4: some spring football stuff you of course, because because you've
31:45
Speaker 4: been out of the country have not. You would not
31:48
Speaker 4: be able to tell that this went on if you
31:53
Speaker 4: spend any time up at the facility. Right now, That's
31:55
Speaker 4: how great a job Morgan is doing. And not only
31:59
Speaker 4: not only with the players implementing his RSNB culture right
32:05
Speaker 4: and his just optimistic personality, but also.
32:13
Speaker 3: It's not just with the players. It's like you. We
32:16
Speaker 3: were able to He.
32:16
Speaker 4: Opened up practice for us on Saturday oc which was
32:20
Speaker 4: very refreshing. Thank you Morgan for letting us watch two
32:23
Speaker 4: hours of practice. You you just felt like good things
32:29
Speaker 4: are happening here just being being in that area when
32:32
Speaker 4: he when he invited us up to lunch and what
32:35
Speaker 4: he called a chalk talk presentation on Tuesday last week,
32:39
Speaker 4: same kind of thing. All the coaches, even this even
32:44
Speaker 4: some coming back. I talked to Chad Bumpus a lot
32:46
Speaker 4: at this lunch. All of them are so excited to
32:49
Speaker 4: be at the University of Utah and to be working
32:52
Speaker 4: for Morgan Scalley, and that despite this ugliness that happened
32:57
Speaker 4: at the end of the Kyle Whittingham era, that should
32:59
Speaker 4: make you feel really, really good if you're a Utah
33:02
Speaker 4: football fan. Does that mean they win ten games this year?
33:05
Speaker 4: That remains to be seen. What it does mean is
33:07
Speaker 4: that what we've been saying the program is in good
33:10
Speaker 4: hands for a long time going forward, no matter what
33:14
Speaker 4: is definitely feels like it's being true now that we're
33:16
Speaker 4: actually seeing them do some team functions.
33:19
Speaker 2: Show today and every day is brought to you by
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Speaker 2: Big Willi's presenting sponsor of the Sean O'Connell Show.
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Speaker 3: Loved them and everything they do for us.
33:47
Speaker 2: Ari Tempkin is going to have some thoughts on the
33:49
Speaker 2: way March madness has gone for the Big twelve, and
33:52
Speaker 2: of course I'll ask him about his thoughts on this
33:54
Speaker 2: situation that we're getting a little bit more light on
33:58
Speaker 2: regarding the Kyle Whittingham exit at so Sean O'Connell show
34:01
Speaker 2: getting rolling on a Monday ESPN seven hundred and ninety
34:03
Speaker 2: two one FM.
34:10
Speaker 1: You tune to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
34:13
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two and
34:17
Speaker 1: one a half an.
34:23
Speaker 3: Sean O'Connell show here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
34:25
Speaker 3: two one.
34:26
Speaker 2: FM, efforting a conversation with our friend Ari Tempkin. Big
34:32
Speaker 2: twelve Insider. Tune in Radio Big twelve today. The conference
34:40
Speaker 2: we talked about, You know how, the Big Twelve conference
34:44
Speaker 2: in basketball is either the best or in the conversation
34:49
Speaker 2: for the best basketball conference in all the land, and
34:53
Speaker 2: the Big Ten has in this particular in CAA tournament,
34:57
Speaker 2: they have staked their claim pretty emphatically as well. Arizona
35:04
Speaker 2: moved on against the Aggies, well fought Aggies. Good job
35:08
Speaker 2: to Utah State Jared Calhoun. Stay please, I know it's unlikely,
35:13
Speaker 2: but Utah State, in a valiant effort, still ends up
35:19
Speaker 2: losing by twelve to the number one seed Arizona, which,
35:22
Speaker 2: if you're looking at this from a big twelve lens,
35:24
Speaker 2: you're happy to see Arizona still involved. You're happy to
35:27
Speaker 2: see Iowa State and Houston still involved. And the Big Ten,
35:32
Speaker 2: who is you know, stood atop the college football world
35:36
Speaker 2: in recent years, is now probably gonna get even more cocky,
35:43
Speaker 2: even more arrogant, even more Dare I say obnoxious, because
35:49
Speaker 2: they're looking really really good in this.
35:53
Speaker 3: NCAA tournament as well.
35:56
Speaker 2: If there's a single if there's a single sin Tolla
36:00
Speaker 2: to be talked about. I don't think we can talk
36:03
Speaker 2: about Iowa being a nine seed Cinderella. But if there's
36:07
Speaker 2: anything that you're still clinging to as a fan who
36:10
Speaker 2: only likes March madness because of Cinderella stories, the Big
36:13
Speaker 2: Ten has given you some of that also. I guess Texas, Sorry,
36:18
Speaker 2: you don't ever get to be a Cinderella and anything anyway.
36:21
Speaker 2: Ari Tempkin joins us now here on the Sean O'Connell show.
36:24
Speaker 2: All right, welcome, how are you sir?
36:26
Speaker 6: What's how are you?
36:28
Speaker 3: Good man? I appreciate you jumping back on.
36:30
Speaker 2: I've been gone for a couple of weeks, and hell
36:34
Speaker 2: of a time to be gone. I'll tell you now
36:36
Speaker 2: that we're starting this March badness situation and seeing where
36:39
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve Conference is at. Have there been any
36:42
Speaker 2: results or any I guess absences in this second round
36:47
Speaker 2: or in this third round the Sweet sixteen that are
36:49
Speaker 2: surprising to you from a Big twelve perspective.
36:53
Speaker 7: No, Actually, you know, I think if you would have
36:55
Speaker 7: told me a month ago this is where we'd be
36:57
Speaker 7: in the Sweet sixteen, I probably would.
36:58
Speaker 5: Have been surprised.
36:59
Speaker 7: But I think given where the season ended the Big
37:02
Speaker 7: Twelve tournament, you know, these were the three best teams
37:04
Speaker 7: in the league, and I don't know that there's much
37:07
Speaker 7: of an argument to be made for it. So you know,
37:09
Speaker 7: it would have been nice for maybe a surprise team,
37:12
Speaker 7: you know, like in Iowa or a Texas in the
37:14
Speaker 7: SEC and the Big Ten respectively, to make it through.
37:16
Speaker 7: And you know, I think with the injuries to Texas
37:19
Speaker 7: Tech that I was obviously too much to overcome. And
37:21
Speaker 7: you know, Kan'tas had their own internal strife, the injuries
37:23
Speaker 7: with BYU. No, I'm not surprised at all that this
37:26
Speaker 7: is where we are with these three teams.
37:28
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought up BYU because you know, we
37:31
Speaker 2: we speculated this was a possibility weeks and weeks ago
37:34
Speaker 2: that like they had some significant injuries, that we're really
37:38
Speaker 2: starting to slow things down. And this was a big
37:40
Speaker 2: money roster that looked like, you know, even before we
37:44
Speaker 2: got to Big twelve conference play tournament play, they probably
37:48
Speaker 2: weren't going to fulfill the promise that we were all
37:51
Speaker 2: buying in on, at least locally buying in on when
37:54
Speaker 2: the year started. And they're not the only team in
37:58
Speaker 2: the country, the only program in the country that has
37:59
Speaker 2: to process that, but they're the one that people here
38:01
Speaker 2: care most about, either because they hate watch them or
38:04
Speaker 2: because they love watch them in Salt Lake City. So
38:08
Speaker 2: is there going to be any big picture evaluation, any
38:13
Speaker 2: any change, any alteration of recruiting behavior and nil behavior
38:18
Speaker 2: because of how it did not work out for BYU
38:21
Speaker 2: this year. For injuries are always a valid reason to
38:23
Speaker 2: do underperform, but it doesn't make you feel much better
38:26
Speaker 2: in the moment.
38:28
Speaker 6: Right And look, I mean, you know, I think the
38:30
Speaker 6: reality see is, you know, injuries and the Saunders injury
38:35
Speaker 6: in particular is a huge issue for this team. But
38:38
Speaker 6: I think there are some definite big picture takeaways from
38:40
Speaker 6: BYU brought a program standpoint that are probably as important,
38:44
Speaker 6: if not more important, than the Saunders injury. The Saunders injury,
38:48
Speaker 6: you know, completely derailed any possibility of a surprise run
38:52
Speaker 6: for this team based on you know, there what their
38:55
Speaker 6: matchups could have been. But like it also would have
38:58
Speaker 6: glossed over what I think are pretty impactful parts about
39:03
Speaker 6: how they're built. And you know, you could start one
39:06
Speaker 6: with depth and two with defense. You know, even before
39:09
Speaker 6: the Saunders injury, this was not a team that had
39:11
Speaker 6: any depth. I mean they were in the three hundred
39:14
Speaker 6: and fifties in bench scoring, in bench minutes. That obviously
39:18
Speaker 6: didn't change with the Saunders injury. And you thought, maybe,
39:21
Speaker 6: you know, this would empower some people and would help
39:23
Speaker 6: to you know, put them in a better position, a
39:26
Speaker 6: better light, But that obviously didn't happen. So I think
39:28
Speaker 6: as Kevin Young, you know, encounters this offseason, one of
39:32
Speaker 6: the most important things he can do is one, try
39:34
Speaker 6: to build a roster with greater depth, because you're you know,
39:37
Speaker 6: you look at Arizona, you look at Houston. I mean,
39:39
Speaker 6: those are two teams. It's not just that they're really
39:42
Speaker 6: good at the top, they're really good, you know, one
39:44
Speaker 6: through twelve on their roster, and they're getting guys who
39:47
Speaker 6: maybe didn't contribute as much throughout the season that have
39:50
Speaker 6: become impacted players once again into postseason play. The other
39:53
Speaker 6: thing is defense, and you know this isn't anything new.
39:56
Speaker 6: Last year, they didn't have a very good defense. You know,
39:58
Speaker 6: I would say beyond the obvious with Saunders. You know,
40:01
Speaker 6: their defense took a nose dive without Saunders. And I
40:05
Speaker 6: mean he was at a point where he was averaging
40:06
Speaker 6: over two steels per game. So you know, they didn't
40:09
Speaker 6: have a good defense even with Saunders playing, but once
40:12
Speaker 6: he left, their defense just took a nose dive. And
40:14
Speaker 6: I think, you know, you look at them compared to Houston.
40:17
Speaker 6: I know I brought this up, but like they're just
40:18
Speaker 6: not a physical team. They're not built like that. They're
40:21
Speaker 6: more finesse. I would hope that from an identity standpoint,
40:25
Speaker 6: you know, they build this offseason knowing that they've got
40:28
Speaker 6: to be one more physical and two you know they've
40:31
Speaker 6: got to be better on defense. You just cannot be
40:33
Speaker 6: that good on offense and completely neglect the defensive end.
40:37
Speaker 1: You know.
40:37
Speaker 6: Look, I mean even Purdue and Illinois are two teams
40:39
Speaker 6: that are very good offensively, but they're still top fifty
40:42
Speaker 6: in defense. You know, you don't have to be great defensively.
40:45
Speaker 6: You just can't be in the one hundreds of the
40:46
Speaker 6: two hundreds.
40:49
Speaker 2: If you had to put your eggs in the basket
40:51
Speaker 2: of in one of the remaining Big twelve teams, who
40:54
Speaker 2: would you choose, as we had to the Sweet sixteen.
40:58
Speaker 6: Yeah, Arizona. You know, look, I thought Arizona would play
41:02
Speaker 6: Duke in the national championship. In fact, my final four
41:05
Speaker 6: was Arizona, Duke, Michigan, and Illinois. The funny thing about
41:09
Speaker 6: that is, you know, now I would take Houston over
41:12
Speaker 6: Illinois and amend my final four to be you know, Duke, Houston, Arizona,
41:17
Speaker 6: and Michigan. But look, I think Arizona they're so good,
41:22
Speaker 6: even you know, they haven't played that good this postseason
41:24
Speaker 6: so far, and yet despite that, they've still had you know,
41:28
Speaker 6: two pretty lopsided victories. They just have so much depth
41:31
Speaker 6: and they can beat you in so many different ways.
41:33
Speaker 6: You know, we still have anyone seen Anthony del Arso
41:35
Speaker 6: go off in the tournament. You know, this is a
41:37
Speaker 6: guy that can can get you twenty or twenty two,
41:39
Speaker 6: and we've seen that over the course of the regular season.
41:42
Speaker 6: So I just think inside outside, point guard, play, experience, defense,
41:47
Speaker 6: you know, depth. Arizona checked a lot of the boxes.
41:50
Speaker 6: I think Arizona wins the national championship.
41:53
Speaker 2: The handwringing that started a few years ago continues. It
41:56
Speaker 2: has maybe extra allowed this year about the fact that,
41:59
Speaker 2: you know, the nil and the transfer portal situation, as
42:02
Speaker 2: in some people's mind, effectively killed Cinderella because it's harder
42:06
Speaker 2: now to maintain, you know, your roster, your development of
42:10
Speaker 2: players that get overlooked by those power teams. They get
42:15
Speaker 2: now to transfer to power teams, they get paid more
42:17
Speaker 2: by power teams. Is it enough of a problem that
42:20
Speaker 2: the NCAA will try to find a solution.
42:23
Speaker 3: We'll try to find a way to address it.
42:26
Speaker 6: It's an interesting question, O see. I mean I would
42:28
Speaker 6: say the short answer, no, I don't. And I think
42:32
Speaker 6: you know, as as you were talking about this when
42:34
Speaker 6: I was coming on, you know, there's a few ways
42:36
Speaker 6: to look at this. So I mean I would start
42:39
Speaker 6: number one with you know, what are the implications of it?
42:42
Speaker 6: So for me, one of the biggest implications of this,
42:45
Speaker 6: which maybe is not being as heralded as a story,
42:48
Speaker 6: is the idea of you know, you're really killing the
42:51
Speaker 6: feeder system for coaches. You know, coaches long would have
42:56
Speaker 6: deep runs into the postseason from the mid major level
42:59
Speaker 6: and then that would allow them to graduate and get hot,
43:01
Speaker 6: bigger jobs at the Power four. So, you know, for one,
43:05
Speaker 6: and we've seen coaches do it, we haven't seen players
43:07
Speaker 6: do it as much. Not players are doing it and
43:09
Speaker 6: people don't like it. The coach they've done it for
43:10
Speaker 6: a long time. But the other part to that too
43:12
Speaker 6: is you know, what does this mean for the you know,
43:15
Speaker 6: the the mid major losing coaches? And then two where
43:19
Speaker 6: are all the good coaches coming from? So I still think,
43:21
Speaker 6: you know, we'll still get mid major coaches that will
43:23
Speaker 6: move up, but I think it's harder to do, especially
43:27
Speaker 6: given you know, they're not going to have the same
43:28
Speaker 6: successes that they used to have in terms of getting
43:30
Speaker 6: to the sweet sixteen. But this is also not exactly new.
43:33
Speaker 6: It was newer last year than it is this year.
43:37
Speaker 6: You know, I think I I've mentioned this before, but
43:39
Speaker 6: you know, oh see, heading into the postseason, there were
43:43
Speaker 6: three teams that were plus thirty five in the Ken
43:46
Speaker 6: Palm Net Efficiency rate. What does that mean? Well, they
43:49
Speaker 6: they are plus thirty five in terms of what they
43:52
Speaker 6: score out of one hundred possessions and what they give
43:55
Speaker 6: up out of one hundred presents. Is basically the difference
43:57
Speaker 6: between points per game and points given up per game
44:00
Speaker 6: for all intensive purposes. Okay, so plus thirty five. So
44:03
Speaker 6: before last year O seed there had only been five
44:07
Speaker 6: teams that had done that between nineteen ninety eight when
44:10
Speaker 6: Ken Pump started to that stat and twenty twenty four
44:14
Speaker 6: five total teams. All five of those teams made the
44:16
Speaker 6: final four. Last year, all four to one seeds were
44:20
Speaker 6: plus thirty five heading into the tournament, So now it's
44:23
Speaker 6: nine for nine and this year three the top three
44:28
Speaker 6: to one seeds who are still in it, we're all
44:30
Speaker 6: plus thirty five. So teams plus thirty five in the
44:33
Speaker 6: net rating before the tournament starts are looking to go
44:36
Speaker 6: a perfect a twelve for twelve of making the final
44:40
Speaker 6: four being plus thirty five before the tournament starts. And
44:43
Speaker 6: again that number was plus was five five for five
44:47
Speaker 6: before last year's tournament, so it'll be seven for seven
44:51
Speaker 6: last two years, which goes to show you that really
44:53
Speaker 6: in the last two years, Perry has been killed at
44:56
Speaker 6: the top of the sport is way better than it's been.
45:00
Speaker 6: Maybe the biggest surprise about that is how much NI
45:02
Speaker 6: on the transfit portal have made parody more prevalent in
45:06
Speaker 6: football but less prevalent in basketball.
45:08
Speaker 2: All Right, Tim Gnner guest here on the Sean O'Connell
45:11
Speaker 2: show Big twelve Insiders.
45:12
Speaker 3: Tune in radios Big twelve today.
45:15
Speaker 2: We're looking at some uncertainty around Bill self at Kansas.
45:19
Speaker 2: North Carolina might be debating some things I haven't heard
45:22
Speaker 2: seen the latest if there's been an update on that.
45:25
Speaker 2: Are we going to have a couple of blue blood
45:27
Speaker 2: jobs open potentially?
45:30
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think so. I Mean, I'm not certain about Kansas,
45:33
Speaker 6: but it certainly feels like that's gonna be the case
45:35
Speaker 6: for Hubert Davis in North Carolina. Is they've really underperformed
45:39
Speaker 6: basically every year since he took over, not including the
45:42
Speaker 6: year they lost to Kansas in the National championship in
45:45
Speaker 6: twenty twenty two, when Davis was in year one and
45:47
Speaker 6: had basically Roy Williams's players. I think with self, basically
45:52
Speaker 6: since winning that championship, Kansas has been one or two
45:56
Speaker 6: and done in the tournament, you know, without making it
45:58
Speaker 6: to the second weekend. And you know, he might look
46:00
Speaker 6: at that and think what a spoiled fan base, and
46:02
Speaker 6: I get it as a fan of that team an alumnus,
46:06
Speaker 6: But when you look at their rosters, the money they spend,
46:10
Speaker 6: the investment that they're able to make, and the talent
46:13
Speaker 6: that they have, and their output, especially at offense, they've
46:16
Speaker 6: been hugely disappointing, especially this season. You know, you could
46:19
Speaker 6: have chalked up the last couple of years to you know,
46:22
Speaker 6: a stale program with lots of players that have been
46:25
Speaker 6: around for a long time. But you know, oh see,
46:27
Speaker 6: they've basically have been fiftieth or worse in Ken Palm
46:30
Speaker 6: offense every year since winning the title in twenty twenty two.
46:33
Speaker 6: They've been in the hundreds and three point shooting really
46:36
Speaker 6: every year since twenty eighteen, so they're not really a
46:39
Speaker 6: modern type team in terms of offense and three point shooting.
46:42
Speaker 6: Self has also missed time every year since winning the
46:46
Speaker 6: national title in twenty two. He had, you know that,
46:48
Speaker 6: the heart attack in twenty three. He's missed games in
46:51
Speaker 6: twenty four, and then he missed games again this season
46:54
Speaker 6: due to the same thing. So you know, I'm assuming
46:56
Speaker 6: he's going to evaluate his health. You know, notice that
46:59
Speaker 6: he's missing time, that he's you know, spending time away
47:01
Speaker 6: from his family, and that his heart is not getting
47:03
Speaker 6: any better. And obviously, if you're a coach at this level,
47:06
Speaker 6: that's not really conducive to your heart and heart health.
47:09
Speaker 6: So you know, we'll see. I mean, he's a legend.
47:12
Speaker 6: He's won. He won seventeen Big Twelve titles, he went
47:15
Speaker 6: to four final fours, won two national championships. He's one
47:18
Speaker 6: of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport,
47:20
Speaker 6: and certainly one of the great coaches in the history
47:22
Speaker 6: of the story program at KU. But I also think
47:25
Speaker 6: that if he evaluates the whole picture of this thing
47:27
Speaker 6: and knows how much time he's taken off, how this
47:30
Speaker 6: is not a great you know, profession for your heart,
47:33
Speaker 6: that I think he will also step aside.
47:37
Speaker 2: So even in the throes of March madness, I started
47:40
Speaker 2: the show today talking about Utah football because they're in springball,
47:44
Speaker 2: of course, but also some public information's requests came through Friday,
47:48
Speaker 2: some stories broke. We got to see emails back and
47:51
Speaker 2: forth between Kyle Whittingham's representation and the athletic department at
47:56
Speaker 2: the University of Utah. Learned some more details on a
47:58
Speaker 2: big fat payout that he's getting even as he coaches
48:01
Speaker 2: at Michigan, And to me, it makes what was already
48:04
Speaker 2: kind of an awkward and maybe ugly situation definitively uglier.
48:09
Speaker 2: Your thoughts on the new information regarding Kyle Whittingham's.
48:12
Speaker 6: Exit, Yeah, I mean I could not have put it
48:18
Speaker 6: any better. You know, it's it's really interesting because you've
48:21
Speaker 6: got the hard feelings internally, right, like the feelings between Utah,
48:25
Speaker 6: the feelings between Whittingham. But how is a fan supposed
48:28
Speaker 6: to feel? You know, that's the part that I think
48:30
Speaker 6: is probably lost at all this from the administration side,
48:33
Speaker 6: from the Kyle Whittingham side, is you know, here's a
48:36
Speaker 6: guy that was an absolute legend at the university. I
48:39
Speaker 6: mean he when you think about the Whittingham name and
48:42
Speaker 6: how long it's been associated with the program, and how
48:45
Speaker 6: much defensively that you know, the Whittingham has been involved.
48:49
Speaker 6: And you know, I can't imagine the confusion that Utah
48:52
Speaker 6: fans have right now in terms of, you know, what
48:54
Speaker 6: side to take, who's good, who's bad? Like, you know,
48:57
Speaker 6: we live in a world where it's really easy to
48:59
Speaker 6: pick out who the good guys and the bad guys
49:01
Speaker 6: are from the movies we watch and the shows we watch,
49:04
Speaker 6: and yet real life is a lot more difficult than that,
49:07
Speaker 6: and it's not as cut and dry. In some ways,
49:09
Speaker 6: you tas the bad guy, in some ways you taus
49:12
Speaker 6: the good guy, And you know, I think you could
49:14
Speaker 6: say the same thing about Whittingham. In some ways, Whittingham
49:16
Speaker 6: is you know, is innocent and the victim of all this.
49:19
Speaker 6: I think in some ways Whittingham is guilty and not
49:21
Speaker 6: a victim of any of this. So, you know, I
49:23
Speaker 6: think that's again sort of the way life is and
49:25
Speaker 6: not exactly how we see it in Disney movies. I
49:28
Speaker 6: think it's extremely disappointing the way that it was handled
49:30
Speaker 6: on both sides. I think, you know, it's funny because
49:34
Speaker 6: we just talked about Bill self. You know, in a
49:36
Speaker 6: year when Roy Williams leaves and all Kansas fans are
49:40
Speaker 6: all upset about Roy Williams leaving, you know, they forgot
49:43
Speaker 6: about that pretty quickly because of how good Bill's self
49:46
Speaker 6: was immediately. And I think the same is true for Utah.
49:49
Speaker 6: Like some of these hard feelings, somebody of these you know,
49:52
Speaker 6: confused feelings can all just be rectified by a successful
49:56
Speaker 6: season and start to Morgan Scalley, I have no reason
49:58
Speaker 6: I think that it won't be successful. So yeah, I mean,
50:02
Speaker 6: I think you're right. Like, there's got to be a
50:03
Speaker 6: lot of confusion, especially from Utah fans over how to
50:06
Speaker 6: feel about this, especially as more and more information comes
50:08
Speaker 6: to light it. Maybe if Utah fans were leaning more
50:11
Speaker 6: on the side got Whittingham, this helped make Utah look
50:14
Speaker 6: a little bit more, you know, a little bit better,
50:18
Speaker 6: and maybe the same is true for Whittingham. The reality
50:21
Speaker 6: is it looked like he wanted to continue coaching and
50:24
Speaker 6: Utah was not going to provide an environment for him
50:26
Speaker 6: to do so. So you know, he did what he
50:28
Speaker 6: was able to do, which is, you know, leverage that
50:31
Speaker 6: to get a great job at Michigan and Utah still
50:33
Speaker 6: paying for it. So you know, again I see both
50:36
Speaker 6: sides to it. It sucks, but at the end of
50:39
Speaker 6: the day, this is sort of the nature of the
50:41
Speaker 6: beast in this sport.
50:44
Speaker 2: Ari, it's always great here and from of me, thanks
50:46
Speaker 2: for jumping back on Man Talk soon.
50:49
Speaker 6: Welcome back, brother, Take care.
50:51
Speaker 2: Ari Tenkin Big twelve Insider Big twelve Today he hosts
50:56
Speaker 2: that on tune In Radio O'Connell show continues with some
51:01
Speaker 2: hot lunch provided by Big Willies next to ESPN seven
51:05
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety two.
51:06
Speaker 1: FFD, you were listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from
51:13
Speaker 1: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety
51:18
Speaker 1: two to one, alf Am, I.
51:24
Speaker 2: Got an update on how things are going here at
51:25
Speaker 2: the studio. I just accidentally pulled one half of my headphones.
51:31
Speaker 3: Off The toront O'Connell show. View for the YouTube channel
51:35
Speaker 3: about lunch Roger.
51:37
Speaker 2: You buy our friends at Big Willy seventeen seventeen, South Maine.
51:40
Speaker 2: The best food menu you're gonna find at any adult
51:43
Speaker 2: drink drinking establishment in the state of Utah.
51:47
Speaker 3: Today's hot lunch special.
51:50
Speaker 2: Corned beef, grilled cheese, and yes, it's as delightful as
51:55
Speaker 2: it sounds. They've used white bread for this one. You
52:02
Speaker 2: know what it might be a little bit of a
52:03
Speaker 2: sour dough and ranch fry, sauce, sharp cheddar, delicious corn
52:13
Speaker 2: beef and Jalapano cheese.
52:18
Speaker 3: Tater kegs.
52:19
Speaker 2: Now you've heard of a tater tot and you know
52:21
Speaker 2: how big a tater tot is?
52:22
Speaker 3: Right, James, do you have one? Of your tater kegs.
52:26
Speaker 3: You gotta hold it.
52:27
Speaker 2: I already ate mine, so you gotta hold yours up
52:28
Speaker 2: for your camera view. The tater keg is like to
52:34
Speaker 2: maybe two and a half times as big as a
52:36
Speaker 2: regular tater tot.
52:38
Speaker 3: Get it.
52:39
Speaker 2: It's really tall, a big old fat tater tot with
52:43
Speaker 2: halapenio and.
52:44
Speaker 4: Cheese, and it's real thick. I'm so excited for it.
52:48
Speaker 4: Thank you again for sharing some of the hot lunch. Yeah,
52:54
Speaker 4: we we gushed over another hot Lunch client which you
52:57
Speaker 4: should definitely check out Pergerfusion before you're before your trip
53:01
Speaker 4: oc Big Willies also never misses.
53:04
Speaker 3: So I'm really excited to dig into this.
53:07
Speaker 2: And I've said it many times, but I appreciate the
53:09
Speaker 2: way that they bring in things that they know I
53:10
Speaker 2: wouldn't necessarily order. I'm staying in my lane with tater
53:13
Speaker 2: tops most of the time I see something like a
53:15
Speaker 2: tater keg, I'm I don't know what that is. I
53:17
Speaker 2: don't need it. I do need it now. These things
53:19
Speaker 2: are awesome. Go down to Big Willies. Tell themost Cson
53:23
Speaker 2: you'd get the lunch special. The hot lunch today is
53:27
Speaker 2: a corn beef grilled cheese sandwich. With bacon, jalapano cheesy
53:34
Speaker 2: tater kegs. Think of a monster tater tot on the side.
53:38
Speaker 4: If you're like I didn't I didn't get enough corn
53:41
Speaker 4: beef on Saint Patrick's Day, Big Willies got you covered
53:44
Speaker 4: with this sandwich.
53:45
Speaker 3: Also, see it's.
53:47
Speaker 4: Appropriate that we're that you're sort of trying to sell
53:51
Speaker 4: people on things, because now your headset, your your headphones
53:54
Speaker 4: make you look like a telemarketer. Just no, like tiny microphone.
54:00
Speaker 3: I could add that this falls into for the hot launch.
54:04
Speaker 2: This falls into one of the things that I missed
54:06
Speaker 2: while I was gone category Morgan Scaley. Again, I cannot
54:12
Speaker 2: emphasize enough how we know Morgan is the right dude.
54:15
Speaker 2: Morgan's that guy right, He's putting his money literally where
54:20
Speaker 2: his mouth is because there is a need for increased
54:23
Speaker 2: support on the NIL front. There's a need for increased
54:26
Speaker 2: support when it comes to making sure that you have
54:29
Speaker 2: the recruiting resources necessary. And Morgan Scaley, who now is
54:33
Speaker 2: making Look he was making great money before as a
54:36
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator, but now he's making really good money as
54:39
Speaker 2: the head coach at the University of Utah. He's already
54:41
Speaker 2: peeling off two million dollars of his own cash to
54:44
Speaker 2: give back to the program. And my reaction to these
54:49
Speaker 2: things always at the beginning is just.
54:50
Speaker 3: Like wait, what, it's kind of weird, but.
54:56
Speaker 2: The reasoning behind it, and you've heard Morgan articulate it,
55:00
Speaker 2: and you'll talk to people that are in the know
55:02
Speaker 2: and people that are kind of in that same category.
55:06
Speaker 2: When I say, like lead by example, that this is
55:09
Speaker 2: literally what he's trying to do, he's saying, look, I
55:12
Speaker 2: will I will invest my own money into this program,
55:17
Speaker 2: money that the program has given me. I'm refunding it
55:20
Speaker 2: because I wanted to go to the players.
55:22
Speaker 3: I want to do that. You go back to.
55:24
Speaker 2: Pre nil right before the changes came, and there were
55:29
Speaker 2: coaches in the SEC that we're talking about doing this
55:32
Speaker 2: exact thing. I'll give some of my own money back
55:35
Speaker 2: if it allows us to pay these kids in a
55:37
Speaker 2: legal manner.
55:38
Speaker 4: You remember, uh, Matt Campbell gave some of his money
55:42
Speaker 4: back in his recent contract extension with Iowa State before
55:46
Speaker 4: he took the Penn State job this offseason, and your
55:49
Speaker 4: reaction to that was, oh, man, it.
55:51
Speaker 3: Makes you makes the university look really poor.
55:55
Speaker 2: Well, so I was curious what yours would be to
55:59
Speaker 2: more and stally doing a similar thing. And this is
56:02
Speaker 2: why it's important to hear the reasoning behind things before
56:05
Speaker 2: you open your big mouth. But like it is, leading
56:09
Speaker 2: by example, Morgan is saying he's not just gonna be
56:11
Speaker 2: the guy that yells into a microphone like I do. Hey, Boosters,
56:17
Speaker 2: you got to get behind this thing. We need more
56:19
Speaker 2: of your money. They don't want to hear that. They
56:24
Speaker 2: want to keep hearing that, right. They don't want to
56:26
Speaker 2: hear that at BYU. They don't want to hear that
56:28
Speaker 2: at Utah. They certainly don't want to hear it at
56:30
Speaker 2: places where you know the funds are a little bit leaner,
56:33
Speaker 2: like a Weaber state, like a Utah state. The big
56:36
Speaker 2: money folks in those worlds don't want to keep hearing.
56:40
Speaker 2: They don't want to get an email and a phone
56:41
Speaker 2: call and a text message and then have the head coach.
56:44
Speaker 3: They don't want to hear like we'll play some sound
56:46
Speaker 3: for you later.
56:47
Speaker 2: Mick Cronin talking about his team exiting and what's the solution,
56:52
Speaker 2: how can you make sure that UCLA basketball doesn't get
56:55
Speaker 2: knocked out before the second weekend, and his answers, I
56:58
Speaker 2: could use five more million dollars.
57:00
Speaker 3: They don't want to hear that, they're more willing to
57:04
Speaker 3: hear it.
57:06
Speaker 2: If you're like, look, I'm going to I'm gonna show
57:08
Speaker 2: you how willing I am to support this program, not
57:13
Speaker 2: just with my time, not just with the absurd work hours.
57:17
Speaker 2: I'm gonna put my money back in follow my lead.
57:22
Speaker 2: I know it's cliche, you might even think it's corny.
57:26
Speaker 2: But if I'm a person sitting on a mountain of cash, right,
57:30
Speaker 2: if I'm in that name on the building, big money
57:32
Speaker 2: kind of thing, kind of category, and a coach is just.
57:36
Speaker 3: Like, I need your money, give me more money. My
57:40
Speaker 3: personality's like, why don't you give your money?
57:43
Speaker 2: And if he's like I am, I did like, oh okay,
57:47
Speaker 2: well there's one barrier to entry that I can't I can.
57:50
Speaker 4: Well, let me lift up this couch cushion here. You
57:52
Speaker 4: can have this much million if you want so.
57:55
Speaker 2: Look, Morgan is invested and we've seen this. By the way,
57:58
Speaker 2: there's history of this in Utah football in the past.
58:02
Speaker 2: The coaches remember Brian Johnson, like he gave money for
58:05
Speaker 2: the facility. They the rules were set up so that
58:10
Speaker 2: when you made donations to the program, it went to
58:13
Speaker 2: a building, it went to equipment, it went to plane tickets.
58:18
Speaker 3: Whatever.
58:19
Speaker 2: Morgan is like, here's two million dollars of money that
58:23
Speaker 2: I have earned that has been given to me by
58:25
Speaker 2: the university. I'm going to give it back to not
58:28
Speaker 2: the university. I'm not refunding the university. I'm refunding the
58:31
Speaker 2: student athletes. I'm going to take my money and I'm
58:34
Speaker 2: going to say no. Give some of it to Bert Fickland,
58:37
Speaker 2: Give some of it to Devin dan Pier, Give some
58:39
Speaker 2: of it to Kelvin Obod, give some of.
58:41
Speaker 3: This to Creed Whittemore.
58:44
Speaker 6: Like.
58:44
Speaker 3: That's what he's doing.
58:47
Speaker 2: And it's a strange system that you can do it
58:51
Speaker 2: in college football now.
58:53
Speaker 3: But it is a commitment to the program.
58:57
Speaker 2: It's a gesture of commitment to the program that leaves
59:00
Speaker 2: you above reproach when anyone is just like, stop asking
59:04
Speaker 2: me for more, dude, I need you to do more. Look,
59:07
Speaker 2: I'm doing everything I put my money in. I'm asking you.
59:10
Speaker 2: You don't have to do the time thing. You don't
59:12
Speaker 2: have the expertise for that. You do have the money.
59:15
Speaker 2: Help me, help me, help you, right.
59:19
Speaker 3: Sorr, I take it.
59:20
Speaker 4: This was this whole thing was just an elaborative, indirect
59:23
Speaker 4: apology to Matt Campbell and Iowa State.
59:25
Speaker 3: Is that no, was you would left for Penn State.
59:30
Speaker 3: I don't like you. You're not like Morgan at all
59:32
Speaker 3: Morgan State.
59:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, Morgan's cool. You're not Matt Campbell. How many players
59:39
Speaker 2: did he take with him to Penn State?
59:41
Speaker 4: Was it nineteen or something? It was everyone man like
59:44
Speaker 4: every starter anyway, same same but different, different, same same.
59:52
Speaker 4: All right, Sean Mooney is gonna join us.
59:55
Speaker 2: We'll talk about a little post mortem on Utah's basketball season,
59:58
Speaker 2: to look at the tournament as it's played out to
1:00:01
Speaker 2: this point. I do have big questions about the way
1:00:05
Speaker 2: forward for BYU.
1:00:06
Speaker 3: We'll get Sean mooney's thoughts on all these things.
1:00:09
Speaker 2: It's a Sean O'Connell show on ESPN seven hundred and
1:00:11
Speaker 2: ninety two one FM.
1:00:13
Speaker 3: I'm gone.
1:00:18
Speaker 1: It's about Sean O'Connell show. You were home of the
1:00:20
Speaker 1: best inside of your use. Let's get back to OC
1:00:24
Speaker 1: from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and
1:00:28
Speaker 1: ninety two to one, f am.
1:00:36
Speaker 3: And welcome to our number two on the Sean O'Connell Show.
1:00:41
Speaker 2: You might not want to. Maybe you already know how
1:00:44
Speaker 2: bad it looks. Maybe it's looking great for you right now.
1:00:46
Speaker 2: But you can track your bracket on ESPN seven hundred
1:00:48
Speaker 2: and ninety two one FM's Million Dollar Bracket Challenge by
1:00:51
Speaker 2: going to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. See how
1:00:55
Speaker 2: you stack up against me other ESPN seven hundred staff
1:00:58
Speaker 2: and guests. Million Dollar Bracket Challenge brought to you by
1:01:01
Speaker 2: Big Willie's Game Day, Men's Health, Inner Mountain, Bobcat, Budweiser,
1:01:05
Speaker 2: International Sportsman's Expo, and The Utah r V Super Show.
1:01:11
Speaker 2: Sean Mooney joining us here before I get to Sewan Mooney, though,
1:01:14
Speaker 2: James I, we got to peel back the curtain a
1:01:16
Speaker 2: little bit. It's the whole reason why we welcome people
1:01:19
Speaker 2: into the show. My my phone rang during the break.
1:01:25
Speaker 2: My phone rang during the break and it said Broadway Media,
1:01:29
Speaker 2: which of course is are It's the parent company we
1:01:32
Speaker 2: work for.
1:01:33
Speaker 3: I don't know that we need to peel back there.
1:01:35
Speaker 2: James, I said Broadway Media on there, and I was
1:01:38
Speaker 2: just like, like, there was a benefits election window that
1:01:41
Speaker 2: was opened last week while I was gone, and I
1:01:44
Speaker 2: was getting a lot of emails about that. I'm just like, huh,
1:01:46
Speaker 2: why would Broadway Media, someone from Broadway Media be called HR,
1:01:49
Speaker 2: knowing that I'm on my show right now, but I
1:01:52
Speaker 2: was like, I we're in the break, okay, So I
1:01:53
Speaker 2: answer it was James.
1:01:56
Speaker 4: It was James Peterson called the on the other side
1:01:59
Speaker 4: of the glass. I called the rock shot. I told so,
1:02:03
Speaker 4: probably every phone can do this.
1:02:05
Speaker 6: Now.
1:02:05
Speaker 4: I don't know differences between Apple and I Android in
1:02:08
Speaker 4: this way, but like you can search just by name
1:02:11
Speaker 4: in your contacts, and like all the Seawans are on
1:02:14
Speaker 4: one page, and I doubt the wrong number.
1:02:16
Speaker 3: Awesome, Like, hey, this is James from BSPs seven. Like, James,
1:02:21
Speaker 3: you called the roll.
1:02:22
Speaker 4: And I'm looking down and you're like probably staring right
1:02:25
Speaker 4: at me, like hey.
1:02:26
Speaker 3: Man, Like hey, Bud, everything going okay in there.
1:02:30
Speaker 2: We're lucky enough though, to have the actual guest we
1:02:32
Speaker 2: were targeting, Sean Mooney. So now you've got two walk Shawans,
1:02:37
Speaker 2: which of course is what happens when Sean o'connle and
1:02:40
Speaker 2: Sean Mooney are on radio together.
1:02:42
Speaker 3: Hey Sean.
1:02:43
Speaker 5: Hey, In James's defense, I can't understand why he would
1:02:48
Speaker 5: do that, right, So number one, my fellow walk Shaan,
1:02:52
Speaker 5: You're smarter and better looking. Uh, and maybe his phone
1:02:56
Speaker 5: just accidentally directed us up you because it wanted someone
1:02:59
Speaker 5: on your show that wasn't you know, so tall and
1:03:02
Speaker 5: kind of homely.
1:03:03
Speaker 3: I don't think.
1:03:04
Speaker 2: I don't think that those comparisons are part of James's
1:03:08
Speaker 2: phone and I don't think those are accurate assessments of
1:03:11
Speaker 2: our differences in similarity, Sean. But I appreciate you trying
1:03:15
Speaker 2: to be humble about it. Hey, AI can new incredible.
1:03:17
Speaker 2: Thanks guys, Let's talk a little hope, Sean Mooney. You know,
1:03:23
Speaker 2: since the last time we spoke, obviously Big twelve Tournament
1:03:27
Speaker 2: and Utah's run in this first season under Alex Jensen
1:03:30
Speaker 2: officially came to an end. And look, none of us
1:03:33
Speaker 2: were surprised to see Utah kind of go down the
1:03:36
Speaker 2: way that it did in that Big twelve Tournament, given
1:03:38
Speaker 2: the strength of the conference and the opponents that you
1:03:40
Speaker 2: had to deal with and things like that. But now
1:03:43
Speaker 2: that there's been a little bit of time to process,
1:03:45
Speaker 2: if you can put a bow on it, if you
1:03:47
Speaker 2: can post mortem the first season under Alex Jensen, how
1:03:50
Speaker 2: do you characterize it.
1:03:53
Speaker 5: I don't know if you meant to say post mortem,
1:03:58
Speaker 5: but I think that's correct. I think since it would
1:04:01
Speaker 5: build the same way, you know, twenty three losses for
1:04:05
Speaker 5: any team at any level, regardless of how good the level,
1:04:10
Speaker 5: is not something that probably many coaches would be excited about.
1:04:15
Speaker 5: I know he's not. I know that they're working diligently
1:04:19
Speaker 5: to try and find a formula that works. I think
1:04:22
Speaker 5: now they understand that. I don't think that our formula
1:04:26
Speaker 5: was that far off. I think we were competitive in
1:04:29
Speaker 5: a lot of games. And you know, the unfortunate thing
1:04:32
Speaker 5: is being competitive in the Big twelve makes you a
1:04:35
Speaker 5: pretty darn good team even if you have those losses,
1:04:38
Speaker 5: but it doesn't get you to the NCAA tournament. You
1:04:41
Speaker 5: got to be good and even better than good to
1:04:45
Speaker 5: win at a level where you can make the tournament
1:04:47
Speaker 5: in the Big twelve.
1:04:50
Speaker 2: So obviously we hope for better things onward and upward
1:04:54
Speaker 2: for Utah basketball, and the expectations.
1:04:58
Speaker 3: Were relatively low for this first season.
1:05:01
Speaker 2: We wanted to see growth, We wanted to see some
1:05:03
Speaker 2: installation of a new culture and things like that, and
1:05:06
Speaker 2: we'll let other people have the debate about whether that.
1:05:08
Speaker 3: Was a success or not.
1:05:10
Speaker 2: But you turn the focus to teams like Kansas, like
1:05:14
Speaker 2: BYU Texas Tech was plagued by some injuries. You know,
1:05:18
Speaker 2: these are all teams with the talent and with the
1:05:22
Speaker 2: resources and in some cases with the coaching and the
1:05:24
Speaker 2: history to where you know, not making it to the
1:05:27
Speaker 2: sweet sixteen is is a big time disappointment. And when
1:05:32
Speaker 2: you look at we'll start with BYU for obvious reasons,
1:05:35
Speaker 2: when you look at the way their season worked out
1:05:37
Speaker 2: and all of the context behind it. If you're talking
1:05:41
Speaker 2: to your BYU friends, if you're talking to you know,
1:05:44
Speaker 2: the guys you used to play against, what is the
1:05:47
Speaker 2: reaction and what is the appropriate reaction right now to
1:05:50
Speaker 2: BYU's early exit given everything that was, you know, going
1:05:54
Speaker 2: for them and then the things that worked against them
1:05:56
Speaker 2: as the season progressed.
1:05:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, Sean, I just had luxury of spending time with
1:06:01
Speaker 5: Jeff Jutkins, whom you know, he was my coach when
1:06:06
Speaker 5: I was at University of Utah and then he coached
1:06:08
Speaker 5: at Utah obviously and then at BYU for a long time.
1:06:11
Speaker 5: And I think this is right. He just said this
1:06:13
Speaker 5: to day and we were talking about BUYU specifically, So
1:06:15
Speaker 5: shout out to Jetty. His women's teams were twenty I
1:06:21
Speaker 5: think this is right. They were always in the top
1:06:23
Speaker 5: twenty in defensive THELB percentage of one thing you knew
1:06:26
Speaker 5: that you could hang your hat on was defense, and
1:06:28
Speaker 5: I think ultimately that's what you got to talk about
1:06:30
Speaker 5: when you talk about BUYU this year. Obviously Doctain Baker
1:06:34
Speaker 5: going down was big, Richie Saunders more of a blue
1:06:36
Speaker 5: person than we even knew. They really didn't have a
1:06:39
Speaker 5: backup point guard. In my opinion, down Hall would have
1:06:42
Speaker 5: been that person if he had been there. But they
1:06:45
Speaker 5: weren't very good defensively. And even you know with RGB
1:06:48
Speaker 5: maybe the best player in the country a g BNPTA,
1:06:51
Speaker 5: you got to be better defensively. And it wasn't that
1:06:53
Speaker 5: he was about one on one defender. He was good
1:06:56
Speaker 5: just as the team. I think that's really when you
1:06:59
Speaker 5: end up talking about the season. That was the that
1:07:01
Speaker 5: was the difference, regardless of the injuries. Injuries number one,
1:07:05
Speaker 5: but the defense was number two A or one A
1:07:09
Speaker 5: one D.
1:07:12
Speaker 2: Do you think not just BYU, and we've had some
1:07:15
Speaker 2: version of this conversation before, but do you think that
1:07:18
Speaker 2: there's an alteration of philosophy, planning, whatever, when you kind
1:07:23
Speaker 2: of throw all your chips to the center of the table,
1:07:26
Speaker 2: at least in one way and it doesn't work out.
1:07:28
Speaker 2: Do you have to then reevaluate your strategy on roster construction,
1:07:32
Speaker 2: on recruitment, if you'r BYU specifically, because the conversations I've
1:07:37
Speaker 2: had down there, there's not going to be a lack
1:07:39
Speaker 2: of resources. Like people are not going to say, oh,
1:07:42
Speaker 2: it didn't work out with AJ, Well never mind, we're
1:07:44
Speaker 2: not doing this again. But I don't think you can
1:07:46
Speaker 2: keep doing the same thing over and over and expect
1:07:49
Speaker 2: a different result.
1:07:50
Speaker 3: That's the old insanity analogy.
1:07:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, and I mean I think that to me, Well,
1:07:55
Speaker 5: I think they have what Brant, a kid named Brant
1:07:58
Speaker 5: coming in who's maybe six in the country, So they've
1:08:00
Speaker 5: got another kid who could be a high level you know,
1:08:03
Speaker 5: possibly even an NBA player. But I think absolute sean
1:08:06
Speaker 5: every single year, if you're a coach, you're reevaluating, even
1:08:10
Speaker 5: the good years. I mean, so I think you should
1:08:13
Speaker 5: always be reevaluating. And I personally think the most successful
1:08:17
Speaker 5: coaches are the most humble. They don't think they know
1:08:21
Speaker 5: everything and they don't think that what they're doing is
1:08:23
Speaker 5: necturally the only way to do it. So yeah, I
1:08:25
Speaker 5: think you definitely reevaluate. And you look at and a
1:08:29
Speaker 5: lot of people talk about roster construction and obviously Kevin
1:08:31
Speaker 5: Young knows exactly what he needs to do. You know,
1:08:34
Speaker 5: he's been in the Big Twelve now two years in
1:08:36
Speaker 5: a row, and they've kind of had a little different
1:08:39
Speaker 5: look each year. And for the fans that don't like
1:08:41
Speaker 5: what happened this year, in my goodness, I want to
1:08:44
Speaker 5: remind them that they have a heck of a generational
1:08:48
Speaker 5: player that they got to watch. And now I understand
1:08:50
Speaker 5: that they want to seem to a team do better,
1:08:53
Speaker 5: and I don't want to steer the show. But at
1:08:55
Speaker 5: some point, Sean, we got to talk about Utah State too,
1:08:58
Speaker 5: because they are special and I know you believe that
1:09:02
Speaker 5: maybe you know, that's a team we should talk about
1:09:05
Speaker 5: here in Utah who arguably over the last twenty years,
1:09:09
Speaker 5: twenty five years, has been the best team in the seat.
1:09:11
Speaker 5: I think fifteen or their twenty six NCAA appearances have
1:09:14
Speaker 5: occurred since two thousand.
1:09:16
Speaker 2: I'm still trying to figure out how they do it.
1:09:19
Speaker 2: And I've asked, I mean, I've asked coaches up there,
1:09:22
Speaker 2: I've asked athletic directors up there. I've asked players, like
1:09:27
Speaker 2: when there is constant turnover and you are now with
1:09:31
Speaker 2: the model of college basketball, what it is You're like,
1:09:34
Speaker 2: you're a transitional stop for a lot of people, players
1:09:37
Speaker 2: and coaches. How are they so good continuously? And you
1:09:42
Speaker 2: get a lot of shrugs and half smiles and chuckles
1:09:45
Speaker 2: and hey, we love basketball up here. Obviously the environment
1:09:48
Speaker 2: is fantastic, but that can't explain all of it.
1:09:52
Speaker 3: So you're much more dialed in and you're much more of.
1:09:55
Speaker 2: A basketball expert than I'll ever be, Like, can you
1:09:58
Speaker 2: explain how Utah State has been able to be consistent
1:10:02
Speaker 2: with its results despite a lot of inconsistency with who
1:10:07
Speaker 2: is giving us those results?
1:10:09
Speaker 5: Okay, so yeah, I think this is my opinion obviously.
1:10:13
Speaker 5: I first of all, I got to give a shout
1:10:15
Speaker 5: out to my dad, Shawn jack Suitcase Mooney, he played
1:10:18
Speaker 5: football there and saw him and Aggie at part he's
1:10:21
Speaker 5: listening right now. But Utah State, I think what they've
1:10:24
Speaker 5: done is they haven't won the press conference once with
1:10:27
Speaker 5: their coach. I think they've really gone after a coach
1:10:31
Speaker 5: that they think can coach basketball. And I think the
1:10:33
Speaker 5: people in charge up there know what that means. And
1:10:37
Speaker 5: I think it starts on the defensive end. Like Calhoun,
1:10:40
Speaker 5: If you just watched this Utah State team, they went
1:10:43
Speaker 5: toe to toe with Arizona. I mean, they're defensively, they're good,
1:10:47
Speaker 5: and I think most of the teams they've had over
1:10:50
Speaker 5: the last twenty twenty five years have started with that.
1:10:53
Speaker 5: But I would say that their administration and the people
1:10:55
Speaker 5: that know, the donors that know, and there's one in
1:10:58
Speaker 5: particular I've had a chance to talk to, they understand basketball,
1:11:01
Speaker 5: and they look at a coach's resume and they understand
1:11:06
Speaker 5: who they're hiring because they're obviously really good coaches. I mean,
1:11:10
Speaker 5: look what Ryan Otam did at Virginia, and that list
1:11:13
Speaker 5: goes on.
1:11:15
Speaker 2: Are they going to have to build a fence around
1:11:17
Speaker 2: Jared Calhoun? I mean there's a bunch of teams that
1:11:20
Speaker 2: are in flux now right and yeah, you're getting you're
1:11:27
Speaker 2: getting reports that Cincinnati is after coach Calhoun right now.
1:11:30
Speaker 3: I mean, can you keep a guy like him for
1:11:32
Speaker 3: even another year?
1:11:34
Speaker 5: Man? I think Cincinnati has already filled their coaching position,
1:11:39
Speaker 5: but there are others in the Big twelve that have not.
1:11:43
Speaker 5: We know Arizona State, and I mean everything I've heard,
1:11:47
Speaker 5: I don't know coach Calhoun at all. I do know
1:11:50
Speaker 5: one of his coaches, Kerran Walsh, who was our DBO
1:11:53
Speaker 5: Utah under Craig Smith, and I really like Kern. And
1:11:55
Speaker 5: I know a little bit about Utah State because I've
1:11:58
Speaker 5: got some connection to what we call the Utah State
1:12:00
Speaker 5: Mafia in my own business. But yeah, I mean, if
1:12:05
Speaker 5: he decides coach Coach Calhoun decides that his quality of
1:12:10
Speaker 5: life is in a place where he likes it. Obviously,
1:12:13
Speaker 5: the Spectrum is a special at place to play in
1:12:16
Speaker 5: the country as there is. Those fans are as good
1:12:18
Speaker 5: as they get. The students come to all the games.
1:12:20
Speaker 5: Look at what they took on the road. I mean
1:12:22
Speaker 5: they were as loud as Arizona. And that's saying something.
1:12:25
Speaker 5: You got to build a French line and I how
1:12:27
Speaker 5: to electrify it. I don't know what it looks like.
1:12:30
Speaker 5: But yeah, he's a hot commodity. I hope he stays.
1:12:33
Speaker 5: I mean, I want us to play Utah State every year.
1:12:37
Speaker 5: I understand that that may not be a win win
1:12:40
Speaker 5: proposition for University of Utah, but I love the good
1:12:43
Speaker 5: old days when we played Weavers State in Utah State
1:12:45
Speaker 5: in southern Utah, and we should be playing I think
1:12:49
Speaker 5: that's Todd Phillips, that's right. Uvu Oh, yeah, they should
1:12:53
Speaker 5: have been in the tournament if it hadn't been for
1:12:55
Speaker 5: Dominique Daniels and Cal Baptist with an unbelievable effort.
1:13:00
Speaker 2: Sean Mooney is our guess for a few more minutes
1:13:02
Speaker 2: here on the Sean O'Connell show, talking all things college hoop.
1:13:05
Speaker 2: And look, we're in March badness, right, and people, there's
1:13:10
Speaker 2: people trying to say Cinderella is dead. There's people talking
1:13:13
Speaker 2: about what it means that, you know, the nil and
1:13:17
Speaker 2: transfer portal has affected not only the landscape of college basketball,
1:13:21
Speaker 2: but specifically this kind of like protracted national holiday where
1:13:26
Speaker 2: we all dial in on college hoops together. And I
1:13:29
Speaker 2: wanted your thoughts on that, because like, look, there's not
1:13:33
Speaker 2: a true Cinderella in this year's Sweet sixteen, and it's
1:13:38
Speaker 2: easy to overreact in a moment, but it does appear
1:13:42
Speaker 2: to be trending in a direction that's going to make
1:13:44
Speaker 2: those true Cinderellas fewer and further between.
1:13:48
Speaker 5: Yeah. No, I mean when we look at number eleven
1:13:51
Speaker 5: Texas and we call them a Cinderella, obviously they had
1:13:54
Speaker 5: a bad end to their sec but they're still Texas.
1:13:58
Speaker 5: And then we look at Iowa, a number nine in Iowa,
1:14:00
Speaker 5: you know, they're maybe the closest thing to Cinderella, and
1:14:04
Speaker 5: they're playing arguably another Cinderella, Nebraska, who hasn't gotten out
1:14:07
Speaker 5: of the first round. But traditionally none of those teams
1:14:12
Speaker 5: will be called a Cinderella Iowa. They've got a great story.
1:14:15
Speaker 5: McCollum as a coach who was coaching at the D
1:14:17
Speaker 5: two level, then took over for Debrees a Drake, and
1:14:20
Speaker 5: then he's got three or four players or are playing
1:14:22
Speaker 5: the D two level playing on his team, and maybe
1:14:25
Speaker 5: one of the best point guards. But yeah, Sean, I mean,
1:14:27
Speaker 5: I don't think you can argue the last couple of years,
1:14:29
Speaker 5: it looks more chalking, meaning that the teams that are
1:14:33
Speaker 5: supposed to win are winning. So it's tough, man. I mean,
1:14:37
Speaker 5: Texas and in Iowa are Cinderellas right now. In this
1:14:41
Speaker 5: week sixteen, I want to ask.
1:14:44
Speaker 2: You something very specific to the Saint John's game yesterday. Yeah,
1:14:49
Speaker 2: you put in you know whatever, fifteen, eighteen, ten, twenty
1:14:53
Speaker 2: minutes in a game, and you don't get a hoop
1:14:57
Speaker 2: at all, You don't get a bucket that entire time,
1:15:00
Speaker 2: and then when it's all on the line and the
1:15:03
Speaker 2: balls in your can you articulate for me as a player,
1:15:08
Speaker 2: how difficult it is to make that play, to make
1:15:12
Speaker 2: the only two points of your stat sheet in that
1:15:15
Speaker 2: game be the most important points of the entire game.
1:15:20
Speaker 2: That's what we saw in the Saint John's game.
1:15:23
Speaker 5: Okay, So, so the relicious that don't know, Dylan Darling
1:15:26
Speaker 5: is the point guard that Sean O'Connell's referring to. And
1:15:29
Speaker 5: he was strapping him up at Idaho State in Pocatello,
1:15:34
Speaker 5: it's a couple hours north of Salt Lake City for
1:15:37
Speaker 5: you Slake City listeners. And yeah, he hit the biggest
1:15:40
Speaker 5: shot of his career. And Sean, here's maybe what it was,
1:15:43
Speaker 5: the element of surprise. I'm sure Kansas was defending every
1:15:49
Speaker 5: other action, and how about Dylan Darling getting his body
1:15:53
Speaker 5: into a much longer defender and finishing in an acting
1:15:56
Speaker 5: like he'd been there all along. It was amazing. I mean,
1:15:58
Speaker 5: that's a moment right there.
1:16:00
Speaker 6: Now.
1:16:00
Speaker 5: It's Saint Johna's not Cinderella, but that's a Cinderella story
1:16:04
Speaker 5: and it's fun to see and hear about the mid
1:16:06
Speaker 5: major kids who have success.
1:16:08
Speaker 2: So I already asked Ari Tempkin this question today. I'm
1:16:11
Speaker 2: going to pass it to you as well. If you
1:16:13
Speaker 2: have to put all your eggs in the basket of
1:16:15
Speaker 2: one of the remaining Big twelve teams, who do you
1:16:18
Speaker 2: believe in most?
1:16:20
Speaker 5: I mean, Arizona's the best team remaining and I always
1:16:23
Speaker 5: state it's a close second for me.
1:16:26
Speaker 2: What makes we saw Arizona against Utah State obviously yesterday,
1:16:29
Speaker 2: and their size and their length were problematic for the Aggies.
1:16:35
Speaker 2: Is that going to be the case even when we
1:16:37
Speaker 2: get Sweet sixteen, Elite eight, Final four, et cetera.
1:16:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's going to be. It's absolutely going
1:16:43
Speaker 5: to be the case. I mean, they just they have
1:16:45
Speaker 5: on so many levels. They probably have four NBA players
1:16:48
Speaker 5: on that team, and then they've got arguably what the
1:16:51
Speaker 5: big TELL player the year, Jane and Bradley. They've got
1:16:53
Speaker 5: a senior guard and you saw what he did at
1:16:54
Speaker 5: the end of that game. A couple of those shots
1:16:56
Speaker 5: he made were just stupid. I mean, Utah Sty played
1:16:59
Speaker 5: incredibly well. And by the way, if I leave you
1:17:01
Speaker 5: sent out of this conversation, I'm just an idiot as
1:17:04
Speaker 5: a basketball analyst because Emmanuel Sharp and that team very
1:17:08
Speaker 5: easily could do something that they didn't do last year,
1:17:12
Speaker 5: and they could surprise everyone and not everyone. They could
1:17:14
Speaker 5: surprise people and finish the season, and I wouldn't be
1:17:18
Speaker 5: surprised to see an Emmanuel Sharp is the final four MVP.
1:17:24
Speaker 3: Is Bill Self coming back at Kansas?
1:17:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, you should be asking Bill Riley that question, not
1:17:30
Speaker 5: that he has an inside track. We were in Bill's office, Bill,
1:17:33
Speaker 5: Bill Riley, my partner, a partner, I'm a sidekick. He
1:17:36
Speaker 5: got us an after the game kind of we got
1:17:40
Speaker 5: to go through everything and that place is amazing, and
1:17:42
Speaker 5: we kind of snuck into Bill's South's area. And I
1:17:45
Speaker 5: will say this, I think this team he really liked,
1:17:49
Speaker 5: This team, really got along well. They had good chemistry.
1:17:52
Speaker 5: But I think he's tired and he should be. He's
1:17:56
Speaker 5: been doing it for a long time. My heart says yes,
1:18:00
Speaker 5: he's coming back. My mind says no.
1:18:02
Speaker 2: Okay, So we spent probably too much time on the show,
1:18:06
Speaker 2: even when you visited us talking about, you know, the
1:18:09
Speaker 2: problematic nature of Darren Peterson's season for Kansas, and that
1:18:14
Speaker 2: might be one of the things that makes a coach tired.
1:18:17
Speaker 2: I think Bill Self managed it as well as you
1:18:19
Speaker 2: possibly can, and there was conversation like I but this,
1:18:23
Speaker 2: you know, this is a lottery draft pick. Watch what
1:18:26
Speaker 2: he's gonna do. He's gonna flip the switch. He's gonna
1:18:28
Speaker 2: turn it on in the NCAA tournament. And I'm a
1:18:32
Speaker 2: believer that as an athlete you can't actually do that
1:18:35
Speaker 2: like that. You're you don't just get an extra ten
1:18:39
Speaker 2: percent out of bad habits or whatever.
1:18:41
Speaker 3: But did he help or hurt himself in the tournament?
1:18:46
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't think he helped himself, but I
1:18:48
Speaker 5: think the article in the Athletic, which I mean you
1:18:51
Speaker 5: may have read, really shed light under what's going on
1:18:54
Speaker 5: with him. And he has a unique circumstance this year.
1:18:57
Speaker 5: And I think when he was a prolific and NAPA
1:19:00
Speaker 5: as a high school player, there was no question who
1:19:02
Speaker 5: was the best player. But I would say it didn't
1:19:04
Speaker 5: didn't help him. You know, he looked not one hundred
1:19:09
Speaker 5: percent still, and I think that's gonna speak volumes. But
1:19:14
Speaker 5: I think everything I've heard about him, like what I
1:19:16
Speaker 5: read on the Athletic was the heal like hangs out
1:19:19
Speaker 5: with the managers, and I think that's genuine. And he's
1:19:21
Speaker 5: a very kind person and so from a bringing a
1:19:25
Speaker 5: person on that seems to be kind towards other people,
1:19:28
Speaker 5: and obviously has a lot of athletic talent that can
1:19:30
Speaker 5: be a win win because if he gets healthy, you
1:19:32
Speaker 5: know who knows. Apparently the sky is the limit for him.
1:19:35
Speaker 5: But I don't think it helped him.
1:19:37
Speaker 3: Sewan.
1:19:38
Speaker 2: I always appreciate you lending your basketball expertise to the show.
1:19:41
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for stopping by.
1:19:43
Speaker 5: Thanks Sawanna. Com'm glad you had a vacation. Have a
1:19:45
Speaker 5: good week this week, brother.
1:19:46
Speaker 3: You too. That's Sean Mooney.
1:19:50
Speaker 2: When you're trying to call Sean Mooney, don't accidentally call me,
1:19:53
Speaker 2: all right, Just a public service announcement out there for everybody.
1:19:56
Speaker 3: Don't pull a James Peterson.
1:19:58
Speaker 4: Well, no, for no particular reason. No one did that, right,
1:20:02
Speaker 4: that's awesome. Gosh, Hey, we're getting back in the swing
1:20:06
Speaker 4: of things, all right. We've I've been off two weeks,
1:20:09
Speaker 4: just like you have in this time slot.
1:20:11
Speaker 2: I I'm not like, I'm not killing it today either.
1:20:14
Speaker 2: I've already broken a pair of headphones, all right, who
1:20:18
Speaker 2: knows who knows what?
1:20:19
Speaker 6: Other?
1:20:19
Speaker 3: Already?
1:20:20
Speaker 4: Should we do the damn Patrick thing where he tries
1:20:22
Speaker 4: to fire everybody up.
1:20:23
Speaker 3: I clapping when when we get off the rail? Now,
1:20:25
Speaker 3: come on, let's go.
1:20:26
Speaker 2: I might need that. I'd love to hear from you.
1:20:30
Speaker 2: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. We
1:20:32
Speaker 2: had the Daily Dump coming?
1:20:34
Speaker 3: Uh? Should we do? I was thinking about this. I'll
1:20:37
Speaker 3: bring it on the air.
1:20:38
Speaker 4: Well, you've you've got some stories you want to hit
1:20:40
Speaker 4: that are actually recent. But should we do also daily dump?
1:20:46
Speaker 4: Like bam eighty three point gise stuff you missed kind
1:20:51
Speaker 4: of stuff? Should we do that as the daily dump too?
1:20:53
Speaker 4: It's like a two weekly dump here. We could we
1:20:55
Speaker 4: could do a little bit of that. The things that
1:20:57
Speaker 4: we missed. And when I say we, I mean I
1:20:59
Speaker 4: missed well was away. Everyone out there listening is like,
1:21:01
Speaker 4: we didn't miss this, you moron. We were living our lives.
1:21:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll give you an update on why I missed
1:21:09
Speaker 2: these things. It's The Shat O'Connell Show, ESPN seven ninety twem.
1:21:16
Speaker 1: Feeling out of the loop. Let's catch up on today's
1:21:19
Speaker 1: biggest headlines. Said about daily news dunk on the Shat
1:21:22
Speaker 1: o'connall Show, where we flush out the biggest stories of
1:21:25
Speaker 1: the day on Utah's number one Sports Talk ESPN seven
1:21:29
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety two to one. A f am brought
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Speaker 1: to you by Bally Plumbing just look for the truck
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Speaker 2: I come back and there had been like two eighty
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Speaker 2: degree days and it was seventy one yesterday.
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Speaker 3: So now AC is on.
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Speaker 2: did that one day when I had a leak in
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Speaker 2: a basement.
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Speaker 3: All right, So check them out.
1:22:35
Speaker 2: Telemosi sent you in the category of daily dumb things
1:22:39
Speaker 2: that I missed while I was away. We already touched
1:22:42
Speaker 2: on one, the Morgan Scalley donation, the gift to the
1:22:46
Speaker 2: Utah football program.
1:22:50
Speaker 3: Another one that.
1:22:53
Speaker 2: I couldn't I couldn't really understand what I was reading
1:22:56
Speaker 2: because it was the middle of the night in Uganda.
1:22:59
Speaker 3: When I first this story.
1:23:02
Speaker 2: Bam Abbadio scoring eighty three points, I was like, huh, what.
1:23:09
Speaker 3: So obscure? You don't even know how to pronounce his
1:23:11
Speaker 3: last name. I say Abbadio, had Bam.
1:23:17
Speaker 2: I do that all the time with Bam Bam out
1:23:19
Speaker 2: of Bio scoring eighty three points?
1:23:24
Speaker 3: On what how many free throws James?
1:23:27
Speaker 4: He made six, which is a which is a single
1:23:31
Speaker 4: game record, and he shot forty three, which is also
1:23:35
Speaker 4: a single game record. Shaq Wilt, all these other guys
1:23:39
Speaker 4: who just get who got literally hacked all the time
1:23:42
Speaker 4: because they weren't great free throw shooters. They didn't even
1:23:45
Speaker 4: shoot that many free throws in the game before.
1:23:48
Speaker 3: So I and there was this big debate this he's
1:23:51
Speaker 3: not Kobe.
1:23:51
Speaker 2: This ain't Kobe. Don't give him the respect. He didn't
1:23:54
Speaker 2: pass Kobe. It's just like, look, the NBA is different now.
1:24:00
Speaker 2: Defense is optional in a lot of these games. He
1:24:03
Speaker 2: did it against the tanking team, which I think is
1:24:06
Speaker 2: something that needs to be talked about more.
1:24:08
Speaker 4: But but again, teams didn't tank this way, certainly when
1:24:15
Speaker 4: Kobe was playing. That wasn't exactly like an NBA Championship
1:24:19
Speaker 4: calber Raptors team he did it against, right, Yeah.
1:24:23
Speaker 3: But good for you, Bam. I guess I just don't
1:24:26
Speaker 3: see how this is.
1:24:28
Speaker 2: This is gonna go down as one of those like
1:24:31
Speaker 2: trivia questions when you're at Big Willie's all right on
1:24:34
Speaker 2: a Wednesday night and you're playing bar trivia and the
1:24:37
Speaker 2: sports category comes up and everyone's they're gonna be like,
1:24:40
Speaker 2: all right, in modern basketball, the highest single game point
1:24:44
Speaker 2: total belongs too, and everyone's gonna want to jump at Kobe, right,
1:24:49
Speaker 2: And then there's gonna be one guy on the corner.
1:24:52
Speaker 3: Who's like, no, it was actually Bam and he scored
1:24:56
Speaker 3: a bunch of points at the stripe and then he's
1:24:59
Speaker 3: gonna say, Bam got all of you, and it just doesn't.
1:25:02
Speaker 3: I don't know. Good for you, Bam.
1:25:04
Speaker 2: That was a weird one for me because you're dealing
1:25:06
Speaker 2: with shoddy Wi Fi and it's the middle of the
1:25:08
Speaker 2: night and you're adjusting. You're adjusting to a significant an
1:25:13
Speaker 2: eleven hour time difference.
1:25:15
Speaker 4: Your your got your head on a swivel because you
1:25:17
Speaker 4: don't know if a gorilla is gonna attack you or not.
1:25:19
Speaker 3: And you're like, what Bam auto bio. Anyway, I that
1:25:25
Speaker 3: was a weird one.
1:25:26
Speaker 4: So here's I I appreciate your perspective on that, because
1:25:32
Speaker 4: while you're saying that you're not as impressed with it
1:25:37
Speaker 4: as you were with Kobe right twenty years ago.
1:25:40
Speaker 2: Which, by the way, I like BAM, Like I root
1:25:43
Speaker 2: for Bam a lot more than I ever rooted for Kobe.
1:25:46
Speaker 4: But you're you're more impressed with with Kobe's eighty one
1:25:49
Speaker 4: than BAM's eighty three.
1:25:51
Speaker 3: Totally totally down with that.
1:25:54
Speaker 4: But at the same time, you're also saying you're you're
1:25:58
Speaker 4: not trying to delegitimize it. There's so many people. I
1:26:02
Speaker 4: guess this could be. Actually I could save this for
1:26:05
Speaker 4: for Friday, maybe when Bill when hey Bill Riley hosts
1:26:09
Speaker 4: the show.
1:26:10
Speaker 3: How about that?
1:26:11
Speaker 4: More on that later, yeah, but during Eric of Grievances.
1:26:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we'll get to that at some point.
1:26:18
Speaker 4: But like, I could say this for Friday for Er
1:26:21
Speaker 4: of Grievances, but I hated the amount of Yeah, I
1:26:25
Speaker 4: think they all were Kobe fans being mad that one
1:26:28
Speaker 4: of Kobe's great marks went down.
1:26:29
Speaker 3: I don't think they.
1:26:31
Speaker 4: I think Luka Doncic, I think Kyrie Irving. I think
1:26:35
Speaker 4: Kevin Durant could have taken down this and Lebron James
1:26:39
Speaker 4: could have scored eighty three and the same people would
1:26:42
Speaker 4: have been, well, like Kobe, so like, it's obviously worse,
1:26:46
Speaker 4: it's not really eighty three points.
1:26:48
Speaker 2: If any of them had done it, scoring almost half
1:26:52
Speaker 2: of those on free throws, the reaction would have been
1:26:55
Speaker 2: the same.
1:26:56
Speaker 3: I just.
1:26:58
Speaker 4: I don't it should not be legitimized now if if
1:27:01
Speaker 4: you want to, if you want to compare the two
1:27:03
Speaker 4: and say Kobe's was more impressive, sure, great. Don't say
1:27:06
Speaker 4: that Bam didn't deserve to have eighty three points the
1:27:09
Speaker 4: way he played, By the way watching that back, the
1:27:13
Speaker 4: same amount of calls that stars get that make you
1:27:16
Speaker 4: roll your eyes was the same amount of calls that
1:27:19
Speaker 4: Bam got to get to the free throw line. There
1:27:21
Speaker 4: were not that many. Egregious. Really, that's a foul kind
1:27:25
Speaker 4: of stuff. He was really aggressive, and the refs awarded
1:27:29
Speaker 4: him for it, and by the way rewarded him for it,
1:27:31
Speaker 4: and by the way, the Washington Wizards might as well
1:27:36
Speaker 4: be the Washington Generals. They don't. They're not good. So yeah,
1:27:39
Speaker 4: they fouled a lot. So I I'm just I just
1:27:42
Speaker 4: wasn't really here for the Hey, this this was this
1:27:47
Speaker 4: was too much of a farce to be celebrated kind
1:27:49
Speaker 4: of stuff. So I appreciate that maybe you feel that
1:27:52
Speaker 4: way a little bit, but also that you're not gonna
1:27:54
Speaker 4: rain on the parade, go.
1:27:55
Speaker 3: Ahead and celebrate it.
1:27:56
Speaker 2: It just is like it's one of those things where
1:27:59
Speaker 2: it's a regular season accomplishment, single game accomplishment against an
1:28:04
Speaker 2: aggressively tanking team and done in a kind of a quirky,
1:28:10
Speaker 2: unorthodox fashion. So like it's gonna go down in the
1:28:13
Speaker 2: NBA record books, and it should, but it's a weird footnote.
1:28:18
Speaker 2: It's it's not like, make this makes you one of
1:28:21
Speaker 2: the best players of your era. It's like, and the
1:28:24
Speaker 2: reason like Bam doesn't have he doesn't have icon status
1:28:28
Speaker 2: the way that Kobe.
1:28:29
Speaker 3: He never will. He won't have icon status the way
1:28:31
Speaker 3: that Kobe.
1:28:32
Speaker 4: Does locally with the Miami Heat, but that's not the
1:28:35
Speaker 4: same and.
1:28:35
Speaker 2: Probably not because of this, you know. So it's just
1:28:38
Speaker 2: like that's what it is. In the grand scheme of things,
1:28:42
Speaker 2: this is a trivia answer where bam now is the
1:28:45
Speaker 2: answer to the single highest point total in an NBA basketball.
1:28:49
Speaker 3: Game, Like, Okay, cool eighty three, good job, Bud. Yeah.
1:28:54
Speaker 3: And much more interesting.
1:28:55
Speaker 2: For me was the the impasse that was each and
1:29:00
Speaker 2: then pushed through, and then almost strike, and then not
1:29:02
Speaker 2: a strike, and then Okay, we're gonna get a deal done.
1:29:06
Speaker 2: The WNBA salary cap going up four hundred and something
1:29:11
Speaker 2: percent is pretty crazy, and league minimum salaries approaching three
1:29:20
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars instead of what is now in most
1:29:25
Speaker 2: states and in most major metropolitan areas, like a barely
1:29:28
Speaker 2: livable wage that professional athletes in the WNBA were making before.
1:29:35
Speaker 2: That's much more fascinating to me. It's fascinating for two reasons. One,
1:29:40
Speaker 2: good on these women for demanding what they felt they
1:29:42
Speaker 2: were worth and sticking it out of the negotiation to
1:29:45
Speaker 2: try to get exactly what they were worth.
1:29:48
Speaker 3: That fascinates me. That's great.
1:29:51
Speaker 2: I don't know how they can make the numbers on
1:29:52
Speaker 2: this work long term. It has always been a subsidized league.
1:29:56
Speaker 2: I know they have a new television rights deal that
1:29:57
Speaker 2: has a lot more commas and zeros that it used to.
1:30:02
Speaker 2: So that's great, but this is a mass like this
1:30:05
Speaker 2: is a massive, massive increase in the money out for
1:30:10
Speaker 2: these franchise owners.
1:30:11
Speaker 3: Right.
1:30:13
Speaker 2: The other thing and probably the most interesting thing about
1:30:17
Speaker 2: the new WNBA collective barging agreement, and you're gonna have
1:30:21
Speaker 2: one of these teams at some point, Salt Lake City.
1:30:23
Speaker 2: So even if you're rolling your eyes that I'm talking
1:30:25
Speaker 2: about it right now, it is gonna affect your local
1:30:27
Speaker 2: sports market at some point. The league maximum sticking at
1:30:33
Speaker 2: one point five million dollars.
1:30:36
Speaker 3: If I am.
1:30:40
Speaker 2: Brianna Stewart, if I am Caitlin Clark, obviously, if I
1:30:46
Speaker 2: am Elena de la Don, if I am Sky Diggins,
1:30:50
Speaker 2: if I'm like any of these people, Caitlin Clark is
1:30:53
Speaker 2: the one that you can always throw out there, and
1:30:55
Speaker 2: she's gonna get her endorsement money. Paige Becker's like, we're
1:30:58
Speaker 2: gonna talk about the if your angel, you're getting money
1:31:00
Speaker 2: from your shoe deal. Asia Wilson has her shoe deal
1:31:04
Speaker 2: as well, Great Shoes. By the way, the league maximum
1:31:11
Speaker 2: being one point five million dollars, when you are the
1:31:14
Speaker 2: actual driver of everybody else's economic engine here is ultimately
1:31:20
Speaker 2: a really crazy disservice to the top top players in
1:31:24
Speaker 2: that league, and the fact that we're not debating that,
1:31:30
Speaker 2: hearing about it, talking about it.
1:31:33
Speaker 3: Is wild to me, because again, it's great that.
1:31:39
Speaker 2: The rank and file are now going to be making
1:31:42
Speaker 2: three hundred. I love that Elyssa Peel is going to
1:31:45
Speaker 2: be making three hundred thousand dollars a year instead of
1:31:47
Speaker 2: sixty grand year.
1:31:48
Speaker 3: I love that.
1:31:50
Speaker 2: The idea that that's happening across the league. While a
1:31:57
Speaker 2: nominal increase comes the way of Caitlin Clark and Paige
1:32:01
Speaker 2: Becker's and Angel Reese and Cam Brink, that's banana's to me.
1:32:10
Speaker 2: Can you imagine if Tom Brady's salary was one point
1:32:16
Speaker 2: five million dollars, if Patrick Mahomes made one point five
1:32:20
Speaker 2: million dollars, if Lebron James made one point five million dollars,
1:32:25
Speaker 2: and the last person in the starting lineup or the
1:32:28
Speaker 2: last person on the bench for that matter, was making
1:32:32
Speaker 2: three hundred thousand, It's I mean, it's just interesting.
1:32:37
Speaker 3: I I don't know. I didn't spoiler, I didn't dive.
1:32:42
Speaker 2: Into WNBA numbers really aggressively while I was in Uganda,
1:32:48
Speaker 2: but seeing that deal get done, that was the number
1:32:53
Speaker 2: sitting at the top was the most interesting one to
1:32:55
Speaker 2: me that the league maximum. It's not like MLS where
1:32:58
Speaker 2: they've decided we're gonna have some outliers here, We're going
1:33:01
Speaker 2: to do these like designated player type contracts. That would
1:33:05
Speaker 2: be the thing for me that made most sense in
1:33:07
Speaker 2: the WNBA, But that's not how they're doing it. And
1:33:11
Speaker 2: I hope the numbers can work, and I hope the
1:33:13
Speaker 2: league continues to grow. I think it's good when you
1:33:15
Speaker 2: have all these you know, when you have opportunities for athletes, male, female, whatever,
1:33:22
Speaker 2: I think that's wonderful as long as the economics support it.
1:33:25
Speaker 2: And the last thing you want to see, especially if
1:33:29
Speaker 2: you're a dad of girls who wants them to be
1:33:32
Speaker 2: able to watch, you know, high level success in the
1:33:34
Speaker 2: athletic field and the financial stuff that comes from success
1:33:38
Speaker 2: in the athletic field as they grow. The last thing
1:33:41
Speaker 2: I want is for the haters to try to be
1:33:44
Speaker 2: sitting there dunking on the WNBA five years from now,
1:33:47
Speaker 2: because this moment that they're having right now did not
1:33:51
Speaker 2: continue and was not as sustainable as you hope it was,
1:33:55
Speaker 2: and the numbers now make less sense even the they
1:34:00
Speaker 2: did before. Like television deals are going to drive all
1:34:03
Speaker 2: of this. Endorsement deals make up the gap for those
1:34:07
Speaker 2: league maximum players. But I mean there there's already been
1:34:13
Speaker 2: a bunch of cities that have shut the doors on
1:34:15
Speaker 2: their WNBA franchises when they were paying the players forty
1:34:19
Speaker 2: grand a year. It's a big ask now that we're
1:34:22
Speaker 2: talking about three hundred at least per year per player.
1:34:26
Speaker 4: I think that's why a five year deal and not
1:34:31
Speaker 4: like in other leagues we've seen much longer cbas at
1:34:35
Speaker 4: times sometimes around five years or shorter, but a lot
1:34:41
Speaker 4: of times longer than that. I think that the five
1:34:43
Speaker 4: year deal is a pretty good like gives us, gives
1:34:48
Speaker 4: them enough, gives the league and the players enough time
1:34:51
Speaker 4: to see if the moment that they're having is sustainable
1:34:54
Speaker 4: and they can grow from where they're where they are,
1:34:57
Speaker 4: which is they're already they've grown so much in the
1:35:00
Speaker 4: last couple of years, largely due to Caitlin Clark. Five
1:35:04
Speaker 4: years gives them a chance to see if that if
1:35:06
Speaker 4: they can continue to grow. But also it's short enough
1:35:08
Speaker 4: to where it's like, hey, we actually signed another record
1:35:13
Speaker 4: breaking TV deal in this time after we after the
1:35:19
Speaker 4: last one was record breaking for us, so we can
1:35:22
Speaker 4: we can actually give more, We can actually give players
1:35:25
Speaker 4: more of the revenue that that we agreed to, more
1:35:29
Speaker 4: revenue than we agreed to in the last one and
1:35:31
Speaker 4: only five years has passed. So it's not like, certainly
1:35:35
Speaker 4: that could be a couple of years where they're like, man,
1:35:37
Speaker 4: I'm only making I would I prefer to make this
1:35:41
Speaker 4: a whole lot more that we're going to make in
1:35:42
Speaker 4: the new CBA two years ago.
1:35:44
Speaker 3: But it's not.
1:35:46
Speaker 4: It's not like they have to they have to wait
1:35:48
Speaker 4: another five years to get there, you know what I mean.
1:35:50
Speaker 4: So I think that this is a good window to
1:35:54
Speaker 4: for each side to see how things are going to
1:35:56
Speaker 4: play out. Hopefully they continue to play out in the
1:35:58
Speaker 4: positive direction for the league in the player.
1:36:00
Speaker 2: Okay, I have to sneak this into the daily Dump
1:36:03
Speaker 2: because I know people are not overly thrilled most of
1:36:07
Speaker 2: the time talking about NCAA wrestling tournaments.
1:36:10
Speaker 3: Okay, but this is we.
1:36:12
Speaker 2: Have a Utah Valley University, by the way, sent four
1:36:15
Speaker 2: guys the Nationals. Shout out to the Wolverines. That represented
1:36:19
Speaker 2: great thing to see out of the Big twelve. By
1:36:21
Speaker 2: the way, Oklahoma State did they broke some records, They
1:36:27
Speaker 2: did some things that have never been done. They had
1:36:29
Speaker 2: three freshmen win national championships. There's a young kid named
1:36:35
Speaker 2: Jax Forrest Okay. He was an early enroll lee at
1:36:42
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State, and he became the first undefeated, true freshman
1:36:47
Speaker 2: national champion in the history of college wrestling. Let me
1:36:52
Speaker 2: say that again, true freshmen undefeated national champion, the first
1:37:00
Speaker 2: one ever in the history of college wrestling. You've had
1:37:03
Speaker 2: freshmen win national championships, You've had people be undefeated. Never
1:37:09
Speaker 2: before has it been a true freshman. Ad On top
1:37:12
Speaker 2: of that, he's an early enrollee. That means in the
1:37:18
Speaker 2: third weekend of March he won a collegiate national championship.
1:37:23
Speaker 2: In the second week of December. Last year, he was
1:37:28
Speaker 2: still in high school. He enrolled at Oklahoma State in January,
1:37:35
Speaker 2: and before even putting in a full season of college wrestling,
1:37:39
Speaker 2: qualified for and won a national championship. And I know
1:37:45
Speaker 2: it's hard to put it into context because people, myself included,
1:37:49
Speaker 2: I was never a collegiate wrestler, but I've spent enough
1:37:52
Speaker 2: time around them in the MMA world and training with
1:37:54
Speaker 2: some of them in the MMA world.
1:37:56
Speaker 3: They are freaks.
1:37:58
Speaker 2: If you are an All American college a wrestler, a
1:38:01
Speaker 2: high school All American, a college All American. It means
1:38:05
Speaker 2: you can take down anybody on the planet. It means
1:38:08
Speaker 2: that like nobody has a hope against you. This kid
1:38:11
Speaker 2: did it when he was supposed to still be in
1:38:14
Speaker 2: high school. This is the equivalent of aj debotsa in
1:38:22
Speaker 2: rolling early at BYU last January, instead of finishing out
1:38:28
Speaker 2: his high school career in rolling in enrolling early and
1:38:31
Speaker 2: then becoming like tournament MVP in the Big Twelve and
1:38:36
Speaker 2: potentially I mean, undefeated in basketball and undefeated in an
1:38:40
Speaker 2: individual sport like wrestling are totally different, but you can't.
1:38:44
Speaker 3: Even put it into context properly.
1:38:49
Speaker 2: January enrollee, true freshman, just like, oh, I'm moving out
1:38:54
Speaker 2: for the first time.
1:38:55
Speaker 3: I've never really done this.
1:38:56
Speaker 2: This is a kid who's got I mean, the most
1:38:59
Speaker 2: legend athlete for me in all of college sports. Belongs
1:39:05
Speaker 2: on the short list even if you're not a wrestling fan.
1:39:09
Speaker 2: Cale Sanderson, Iowa State University former wasatch wasp legend, current
1:39:17
Speaker 2: head coach of the Penn State and Nitney Lions. He
1:39:20
Speaker 2: won one hundred and fifty nine to oh As a
1:39:24
Speaker 2: collegiate wrestler, he was a four time national champion. He
1:39:27
Speaker 2: ended up being a gold medalist in the Olympics and Athens.
1:39:30
Speaker 2: Like he is a legend, he is an American sports hero. Okay,
1:39:35
Speaker 2: he's the greatest collegiate wrestler ever to live.
1:39:39
Speaker 3: He red shirted. He didn't enroll early out of high school.
1:39:45
Speaker 3: He didn't.
1:39:46
Speaker 2: He finished his high school career in life. Okay, he
1:39:51
Speaker 2: won another state championship in the state of Utah instead
1:39:56
Speaker 2: of doing it in college.
1:39:58
Speaker 3: He finished his senior year. Then he enrolled at Iowa State.
1:40:03
Speaker 2: Then he wrestled as a red shirt guy in a
1:40:07
Speaker 2: couple of tournaments because the rules are that you can
1:40:10
Speaker 2: you can't represent your your actual school, so you're like
1:40:14
Speaker 2: an unattached independent wrestler.
1:40:16
Speaker 3: That's red shirting.
1:40:17
Speaker 2: It's kind of like the old It's like before the
1:40:20
Speaker 2: football teams had four games where you could still maintain
1:40:23
Speaker 2: your red shirt, and college wrestling they already always had that.
1:40:26
Speaker 2: So Cale Sanderson took a year to develop his body
1:40:30
Speaker 2: to make sure that he grew into a college wrestling
1:40:33
Speaker 2: kind of like physicality, And then the next year he
1:40:36
Speaker 2: wanted at one hundred and eighty four pounds, Then he
1:40:38
Speaker 2: wanted a one hundred ninety seven pounds and he went
1:40:40
Speaker 2: down as one of the greatest wrestlers ever to do
1:40:42
Speaker 2: it in the world ever, and certainly in the United States.
1:40:45
Speaker 2: As a collegiate wrestler, This jacks Forest kid, he did
1:40:49
Speaker 2: not take time to get himself physically ready. He went
1:40:51
Speaker 2: from high school going to like homecoming dance to four
1:40:56
Speaker 2: months later being a national collegiate wrestling champion at one
1:41:00
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty three pounds. Do you know how insane
1:41:04
Speaker 2: that is as an athletic accomplishment? Have we ever had
1:41:14
Speaker 2: an early enrollie, true freshman win a Heisman Trophy in
1:41:18
Speaker 2: college football?
1:41:19
Speaker 3: The answer is no, Right, it's that we've had.
1:41:23
Speaker 4: We've had a couple of red shirt freshmen correct Menzel
1:41:26
Speaker 4: and Jamis, But that's it, right?
1:41:30
Speaker 3: Or do we have another one? And I don't think.
1:41:31
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if those guys were early in rollies either.
1:41:34
Speaker 7: No.
1:41:34
Speaker 2: Like, in order to do that, if we're gonna use
1:41:38
Speaker 2: that example, you would have to enroll in January and
1:41:42
Speaker 2: then the next January you should have a full year
1:41:44
Speaker 2: in college football and then you win that Heisman Trophy.
1:41:47
Speaker 3: This dude was in.
1:41:48
Speaker 2: College wrestling for three months, less than ninety days, and
1:41:54
Speaker 2: he went undefeated and won a national championship.
1:41:59
Speaker 3: That is banana sandwich.
1:42:02
Speaker 2: We are living in the upside down that there are
1:42:04
Speaker 2: people out there that are capable of doing that. Good
1:42:08
Speaker 2: for you, Jax Forrest. I hope that someday he makes
1:42:13
Speaker 2: fifty million dollars as an MMA fighter, because it's the
1:42:18
Speaker 2: best base of talent Forrest. Like wrestling, you get to
1:42:22
Speaker 2: decide whether or not the fight happens standing up or
1:42:25
Speaker 2: on the ground or whatever. I bet you this kid
1:42:27
Speaker 2: right now, with that level of wrestling ability, I bet
1:42:30
Speaker 2: you you could put him in the UFC. You could
1:42:32
Speaker 2: put him in the PFL. He doesn't he probably doesn't
1:42:34
Speaker 2: even know how to throw a punch. He could probably
1:42:36
Speaker 2: win some fights just because he's that dominant of a
1:42:39
Speaker 2: wrestler at eighteen and a half years old.
1:42:42
Speaker 4: It's an incredible story. And I'll take this chance to
1:42:46
Speaker 4: tease a little bit. Later in the week. Oh see,
1:42:49
Speaker 4: we had a Utes Club wrestler reach out who's also
1:42:55
Speaker 4: got an incredible story. We're getting him on Wednesday, Doctor
1:42:58
Speaker 4: Joseph Arrington out to him. He's also wrestling for the
1:43:03
Speaker 4: University of Utah in a National College Nationals competition, not
1:43:09
Speaker 4: NCAY sanctioned, but just outside of that, because Utah doesn't
1:43:13
Speaker 4: have an ncaabway sanctioned wrestling team that you've used.
1:43:17
Speaker 3: The only one used, the only University of State of State.
1:43:21
Speaker 4: But anyway, this guy has an incredible story, Doctor Joseph Arrington.
1:43:24
Speaker 4: He's coming on the show. He's coming on the show
1:43:27
Speaker 4: Wednesday to talk about a ute connection. Another great wrestling story.
1:43:31
Speaker 3: Love it.
1:43:32
Speaker 2: So congrats to Oklahoma State, to Jacks Forrest Wowser. Up next,
1:43:40
Speaker 2: a tank race update. Yes, we're getting to that time
1:43:42
Speaker 2: of year, all right. You've got one professional team chase
1:43:46
Speaker 2: in a playoff appearance, Go Mammoth. You've got another one
1:43:49
Speaker 2: once again looking for the top available odds in an upcoming.
1:43:53
Speaker 3: NBA draft lottery.
1:43:55
Speaker 2: So a tank race update for your Utah Jazz who
1:43:57
Speaker 2: are active tonight. We'll get to all of it on
1:43:59
Speaker 2: ESPN seven two.
1:44:01
Speaker 1: FM by Utah Jazz are in a race to the
1:44:11
Speaker 1: bottom of the NBA. It's tied to check in on
1:44:14
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz and the NBA's tank rates.
1:44:31
Speaker 2: All right, if you're trying to watch teams trying to win,
1:44:34
Speaker 2: like in March Madness or the Utah Mammoth or whatever,
1:44:38
Speaker 2: go down to Big Willies. They've got big screens all
1:44:40
Speaker 2: over the bar. They've got an incredible bar food menu,
1:44:43
Speaker 2: they've got drink specials that they run every single day.
1:44:46
Speaker 2: They keep the specials under four dollars, which is outrageous.
1:44:50
Speaker 2: They've got an incredible pool haul, the best one in Utah.
1:44:53
Speaker 2: That's not me telling you that that they were voted
1:44:56
Speaker 2: best pool haul in Utah. The number one sports bar
1:44:58
Speaker 2: in Utah as well, seventeen seventeen South Main. Big Willies
1:45:02
Speaker 2: is absolutely the place to go watch any sporting event
1:45:05
Speaker 2: that you're interested in. Fights, basketball, football, We don't have
1:45:11
Speaker 2: a lot of that going on right now. Obviously they'll
1:45:14
Speaker 2: have MLS soccer games. They've got it all down to
1:45:16
Speaker 2: Big Willies, the NHL, and when you're watching the Utah
1:45:20
Speaker 2: Jazz Tank, if you're trying to feel better about it,
1:45:23
Speaker 2: no better place then going down to Big Willies, maybe
1:45:26
Speaker 2: having a little bit of fun with the trivia, maybe
1:45:28
Speaker 2: some karaoke, get your mind off the fact that your
1:45:30
Speaker 2: favorite team, the Utah Jazz, aren't even trying too hard
1:45:34
Speaker 2: to win. Jazz Raptors tonights at the Delta Center on
1:45:38
Speaker 2: k Jazz.
1:45:41
Speaker 4: That's a definitely will help the Tank effort. The Raptors
1:45:44
Speaker 4: are a good team this year. They're gonna make the playoffs.
1:45:48
Speaker 4: Pacers Magic, that one not a very winnable game for Indiana.
1:45:53
Speaker 4: Magic are also a playoff team in the East. That's
1:45:56
Speaker 4: at five o'clock at five point thirty. Grizzlies Hawks, similar situation.
1:46:01
Speaker 4: There probably a Grizzlies loss there at five point thirty.
1:46:05
Speaker 4: Warriors MAVs at seven. You can hear this one on
1:46:07
Speaker 4: the station es Men seven hundred ninety two one FM.
1:46:10
Speaker 4: Is another way to pay attention to teams actually trying
1:46:13
Speaker 4: to win. You can listen to games here. Although tonight
1:46:16
Speaker 4: it's Warriors MAVs and one of those teams is trying
1:46:19
Speaker 4: to lose. That happens to be the Dallas Mavericks Nets
1:46:23
Speaker 4: Blazers at eight o'clock. So those are your Those are
1:46:26
Speaker 4: your games tonight. Winnable game for the MAVs, I'll say,
1:46:29
Speaker 4: because Steph is still hurt. Moses Moody, one of their
1:46:33
Speaker 4: rotational wings, also out. Al Horford one of their one
1:46:38
Speaker 4: of their bigs also out. Christophs Porzingis is probable but
1:46:43
Speaker 4: injury decimated Warriors roster, so Cooper Flag has a big game,
1:46:48
Speaker 4: could be could end up being a win for the
1:46:51
Speaker 4: MAVs and helps the Jazz out a little bit. You
1:46:53
Speaker 4: want to hear the update in the standings. Oh see
1:46:55
Speaker 4: gray standings. Let's see what the tank race standings look like.
1:46:59
Speaker 2: Pay remember you kind upside down and when you're talking
1:47:02
Speaker 2: about yeah, these standings, right.
1:47:04
Speaker 4: So if you're the worst year at the top, and
1:47:08
Speaker 4: when we're saying games back, you're technically games ahead, but
1:47:11
Speaker 4: we're saying we're calling them games back. So the Pacers
1:47:14
Speaker 4: are first at fifteen and fifty six. They just barely
1:47:19
Speaker 4: went ahead of the Wizards, who are one game back
1:47:21
Speaker 4: sixteen and fifty five, nets seventeen and fifty four to
1:47:24
Speaker 4: two games back. King's worst team in the West, are
1:47:28
Speaker 4: fourth nineteen and fifty three, three and a half games
1:47:32
Speaker 4: back of the of the top spot, one and a
1:47:35
Speaker 4: half games back of the top three. Remember, oh see
1:47:38
Speaker 4: that with the flatt and lottery odds, top three all
1:47:41
Speaker 4: have the best chance at the number one picks.
1:47:44
Speaker 3: So they're just they're right there.
1:47:46
Speaker 4: Jazz just behind them twenty one and fifty six games back.
1:47:51
Speaker 4: Not really a shot at getting to the worst record
1:47:53
Speaker 4: in the league like they had last year, but outside
1:47:56
Speaker 4: shot of getting into the top three or four.
1:47:59
Speaker 3: There's three.
1:47:59
Speaker 4: There are four games back of the top three, two
1:48:02
Speaker 4: and a half games back of the top four. I
1:48:04
Speaker 4: explain why that's important that last part, and in a
1:48:07
Speaker 4: second here MAVs just behind the Jazz twenty three and
1:48:11
Speaker 4: forty eight, Grizzlies just find them twenty four and forty six,
1:48:15
Speaker 4: Pelicans just buying them twenty five and forty seven. By
1:48:18
Speaker 4: the way, no one sentive for the Pelicans to tank.
1:48:21
Speaker 4: They don't even have their first round pick, so they're
1:48:23
Speaker 4: just bad. But they're above the eight worst records in
1:48:27
Speaker 4: the week. Now, Oh see, why does it matter how
1:48:30
Speaker 4: far back the Jazz are of the kings here?
1:48:32
Speaker 2: Why would we care about our distance from Sacramento. Yeah,
1:48:36
Speaker 2: by the way, not that far of a drive, not
1:48:38
Speaker 2: as far as.
1:48:38
Speaker 3: You can think, not that far, but dry.
1:48:40
Speaker 4: Uh So, if you remember, remember last lottery where the
1:48:46
Speaker 4: Jazz were the worst record, but they ended up with
1:48:48
Speaker 4: the fifth pick. That's the farthest they could have they
1:48:51
Speaker 4: could fall. That's the same thing throughout the lottery. So
1:48:56
Speaker 4: the Jazz are in fifth right now, meaning that they
1:49:01
Speaker 4: could it's the lowest percentage chance, but they could end
1:49:04
Speaker 4: up with the ninth pick, which their pick is top
1:49:07
Speaker 4: eight protected, meaning that ninth would mean it's going to OKAC.
1:49:13
Speaker 4: So they are right there, two and a half games back.
1:49:16
Speaker 4: Now only ten to eleven games left here for most teams,
1:49:20
Speaker 4: but two and a half games back of being guaranteed
1:49:23
Speaker 4: to keep their first round pick, which would obviously be
1:49:27
Speaker 4: mission accomplished around here for the UTU Chass. Now we're
1:49:31
Speaker 4: all dreaming of aj DEBONSA. For me, that's just gravy.
1:49:36
Speaker 4: What the actual eye on the prize that everyone needs,
1:49:40
Speaker 4: their eye that everyone in that organization has their eyes
1:49:42
Speaker 4: on is we just want to make sure that we
1:49:46
Speaker 4: don't fall lower than eighth, and they can do that
1:49:49
Speaker 4: by passing the Kings in these Tank Race standings. The Kings,
1:49:52
Speaker 4: by the way, won their most recent games, so they
1:49:54
Speaker 4: are on a hot streak.
1:49:57
Speaker 3: Let's go, let's go. It felt felt.
1:50:02
Speaker 4: Good to have the Tank Race update back here much
1:50:05
Speaker 4: later than last season, but that's okay. Well, it's it's
1:50:10
Speaker 4: appropriate to be to avoided this long since they're much
1:50:13
Speaker 4: better team this year.
1:50:15
Speaker 2: They're they're like three games better, five spots better than
1:50:18
Speaker 2: last year.
1:50:21
Speaker 3: We gotta get it.
1:50:21
Speaker 2: We gotta get a sponsor for the Tank Race update,
1:50:23
Speaker 2: like we got to find a porta potty company, or
1:50:30
Speaker 2: maybe like a septic tank company, yeah, the tank race
1:50:34
Speaker 2: update or just.
1:50:36
Speaker 4: Or or maybe a gas station. We can make gas jokes. Yeah,
1:50:43
Speaker 4: I don't know. Go Jazz lose with Dignity Raptors tonight
1:50:48
Speaker 4: at seven once again, watching it on KJAZZ. Go to
1:50:51
Speaker 4: Delta Center, have a good night at the Jazz game.
1:50:53
Speaker 4: Watch them lose. Okay, we're gonna take a quick one here.
1:50:56
Speaker 2: Sammy Mora is going to join us on the other side,
1:51:00
Speaker 2: talk a little Utah spring football. Get her reaction to
1:51:04
Speaker 2: the news that broke last Friday as well. It's the
1:51:06
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven ninety two one FM.
1:51:11
Speaker 3: Another one you.
1:51:14
Speaker 1: Were listening to The Sean O'Connell Show. Cure source for
1:51:17
Speaker 1: the best youth football cover reach. Here's oc from the
1:51:20
Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred nine am.
1:51:27
Speaker 3: Our three of the Sean O'Connell Show.
1:51:29
Speaker 2: Sammy Mora joins us to help fill the gaps on springball.
1:51:35
Speaker 3: Spring football coverage.
1:51:36
Speaker 2: Brought to you by Big Willies, Game Day, Men's Health,
1:51:38
Speaker 2: Burger Fusion, Valley Plumbing, Heating and Cooling.
1:51:42
Speaker 3: Sammy Mora welcome back to the show. How are you.
1:51:45
Speaker 8: I'm doing great, OC. How's It's been a long time
1:51:48
Speaker 8: since we've had one of these little chats.
1:51:50
Speaker 2: I know, I've been gone for a couple of weeks,
1:51:52
Speaker 2: and it's very weird to be jumping back in now
1:51:54
Speaker 2: while spring football and March Madness are in full swing.
1:51:57
Speaker 3: But here we are.
1:51:59
Speaker 2: So let's start with spring football, and I want to
1:52:03
Speaker 2: start with the actual football part of it. Some increased access,
1:52:07
Speaker 2: some different approach from Morgan Scalley, at least in certain
1:52:12
Speaker 2: instances here. And I know that talking with people who
1:52:16
Speaker 2: got to attend the open practice and got to do
1:52:18
Speaker 2: the chalk talk and things like that. You know, it's
1:52:21
Speaker 2: described as a breath of fresh air and something we've
1:52:23
Speaker 2: been asking for. I campaigned aggressively for it when Morgan
1:52:27
Speaker 2: got the job, and he laughed at me. But it's
1:52:30
Speaker 2: good to know that, at least for now, the doors
1:52:32
Speaker 2: are a little bit more open on observing practice. So
1:52:36
Speaker 2: tell me your thoughts on getting that increased access.
1:52:40
Speaker 8: It's very much like you said, it is a breath
1:52:42
Speaker 8: of fresh air. I think that you know, it's good
1:52:46
Speaker 8: because it makes us like we hear things from our
1:52:50
Speaker 8: sources and stuff like that. But to see things with
1:52:52
Speaker 8: your own eyes is a lot different than hearing it
1:52:54
Speaker 8: from somebody who heard it from somebody who saw something
1:52:57
Speaker 8: that second third hand information. Times he can get a little
1:53:01
Speaker 8: a little muddy, a little murky and stuff like that.
1:53:03
Speaker 8: So seeing seeing these like players with our own eyes
1:53:05
Speaker 8: and making assessments of our own I think is very
1:53:08
Speaker 8: beneficial because honestly, it makes us sound. It gives us
1:53:12
Speaker 8: a better idea. Like we're supposed to be insiders for
1:53:14
Speaker 8: a reason, and so seeing those things gives our gives
1:53:17
Speaker 8: our takes a little bit more of a validity, I
1:53:20
Speaker 8: would say.
1:53:22
Speaker 2: So from what you saw at open practice, you know
1:53:26
Speaker 2: it's you can always revise as these things progress. But
1:53:32
Speaker 2: who jumped out at you most, and did you see
1:53:35
Speaker 2: anyone with you know, flashes that surprised you.
1:53:39
Speaker 8: On the defensive side. Carson Kafusi, he looks so much bigger,
1:53:45
Speaker 8: He looks a little bit, he looks more refined than
1:53:48
Speaker 8: last year. And I know last year was freshman year.
1:53:50
Speaker 8: There was acclamation periods and everything like that. But Carson
1:53:55
Speaker 8: was really really really strong. Yet on Saturday, he he
1:53:59
Speaker 8: seems to have bulked up a little bit more. I know,
1:54:03
Speaker 8: people use the phrase man's strength. He seems to have
1:54:06
Speaker 8: kind of you know, found that over the off season.
1:54:09
Speaker 8: I'm really excited to watch him and what he does.
1:54:11
Speaker 8: He looked just and I understand it was there in shells,
1:54:15
Speaker 8: they're in helmets, there's no full pads. They're going up
1:54:17
Speaker 8: against each other and stuff. They're going up against, you know,
1:54:20
Speaker 8: an offensive line that also is still in shells and
1:54:22
Speaker 8: pads and you're doing fud work. But he really caught
1:54:26
Speaker 8: my eye really really early in the whole practice on Saturday.
1:54:29
Speaker 8: And then offensively, it's kind of hard because there was
1:54:32
Speaker 8: a couple that stood out. I'm not gonna go with
1:54:34
Speaker 8: the usual suspects of you know, Devin Way, Sean Bird,
1:54:39
Speaker 8: those guys I think, you know, Brayden Pagan looked really good.
1:54:42
Speaker 8: Kyrie Schulz looked good. Steve chaviz Soto looked, you know,
1:54:47
Speaker 8: looked the part. He passed the eye test as well.
1:54:49
Speaker 8: So I like what I saw from a lot of
1:54:51
Speaker 8: the newer guys on the offense, and you know, that
1:54:54
Speaker 8: defensive tackle room looks to be you know, improved. From
1:54:57
Speaker 8: my vantage point, there's a lot more size, and there's
1:54:59
Speaker 8: a lot more there's a lot more versatility than there
1:55:01
Speaker 8: was last year.
1:55:03
Speaker 2: It's tough when we're talking about you know, like when
1:55:06
Speaker 2: you see a receiver or running back make a play,
1:55:10
Speaker 2: you can kind of extrapolate that and say, all right,
1:55:12
Speaker 2: well that he jumped this high and he ran this fast,
1:55:15
Speaker 2: and I think that's going to work on Saturdays the
1:55:17
Speaker 2: same way it's working here in practice when you're going
1:55:20
Speaker 2: against your own team. It's a lot harder when it
1:55:23
Speaker 2: comes to that defensive tackle room and when it comes
1:55:25
Speaker 2: to an offensive line, because your measuring stick is only
1:55:31
Speaker 2: as good as the people.
1:55:32
Speaker 3: Across from you.
1:55:33
Speaker 2: And in both the offensive lines case and to a
1:55:36
Speaker 2: slightly lesser extent, but still true with the defensive line
1:55:39
Speaker 2: at the University of Utah right now, those are question
1:55:42
Speaker 2: marks that we're not really going to have great answers
1:55:45
Speaker 2: to until they're playing live reps against real competition. But
1:55:50
Speaker 2: you're a season die at this point, and you've seen
1:55:52
Speaker 2: guys as they get bigger, stronger, faster, more explosive. So
1:55:57
Speaker 2: you already told me about the defensive line. What about
1:55:59
Speaker 2: the offensive line, because that is the unit that has
1:56:02
Speaker 2: to answer I think the largest number of questions, the
1:56:06
Speaker 2: most significant questions, because last year you didn't have any
1:56:09
Speaker 2: about the offensive line. As long as those guys stayed healthy,
1:56:12
Speaker 2: we knew they were going to be excellent.
1:56:13
Speaker 3: And they were.
1:56:14
Speaker 2: They were the best offensive line in the Big twelve
1:56:16
Speaker 2: and one of the best offensive lines in the country
1:56:18
Speaker 2: and got jobbed on the Joe More Award, being finalists
1:56:21
Speaker 2: and things like that.
1:56:22
Speaker 3: But now you've got to fill those collective shoes.
1:56:26
Speaker 2: Ten big old pairs of cleats have to be filled
1:56:29
Speaker 2: along that offensive line.
1:56:30
Speaker 3: So what does that look like? In the early goings
1:56:32
Speaker 3: from your eyes.
1:56:34
Speaker 8: Seem Actually, me and Dan Thronson also view zone dot Com,
1:56:38
Speaker 8: we split up practice, so I spent most of my
1:56:40
Speaker 8: time watching the defensive tackles and he spent most of
1:56:42
Speaker 8: his time watching the offensive line. But from our little
1:56:45
Speaker 8: bit of our our little debrief as to the practice,
1:56:48
Speaker 8: you know, Keith Olsen, Keith Olsen and SOLOTOMOI are are
1:56:53
Speaker 8: your two guys at guard from like, you know, we
1:56:56
Speaker 8: kind of expected that with their experience, what they bring
1:56:59
Speaker 8: to the table, stuff like that. And then I think,
1:57:01
Speaker 8: you know, I think you're gonna it's gonna be interesting
1:57:03
Speaker 8: to see how those guys on the at the tackle
1:57:05
Speaker 8: and at center go. You know, you have Zaraway Williams.
1:57:08
Speaker 8: You have Kelvino about, you have Cedric Jefferson all battling
1:57:11
Speaker 8: for tackle, and then you know Isaiah Kma Alex Harrison,
1:57:15
Speaker 8: both who we expected to play center, might be battling
1:57:18
Speaker 8: it out there too. So it's gonna be interesting to
1:57:20
Speaker 8: see how this disc goes. And like you said, it's
1:57:22
Speaker 8: kind of hard to have a measuring stick on the
1:57:24
Speaker 8: offensive line when you are, you know, lining up against
1:57:27
Speaker 8: defensive tackles that you know you can't hit. You can't
1:57:30
Speaker 8: you get can't go full speed. When you're in shells
1:57:33
Speaker 8: and helmet, you're not hitting each other. You're not getting
1:57:35
Speaker 8: the push that sometimes you want to see and stuff,
1:57:37
Speaker 8: just because of the intensity that are trying to go
1:57:40
Speaker 8: with and stuff. But I'm I'm I don't have as
1:57:43
Speaker 8: many concerns about the offensive line than I did then
1:57:47
Speaker 8: I did, like you know, three four weeks ago. I
1:57:49
Speaker 8: think that there's gonna be a flight learning curve because
1:57:52
Speaker 8: you know, it's five brand new guys out there on
1:57:54
Speaker 8: that offensive line. But I think at the other at
1:57:56
Speaker 8: the at the same time, I think that they're gonna
1:57:58
Speaker 8: be good. They're gonna get the job done. I don't
1:58:01
Speaker 8: think we're going to see the same It's like intense, Well,
1:58:05
Speaker 8: where is the intensity on the offensive line? Jordan Gross
1:58:08
Speaker 8: is watching him coach, and from what I've heard, he
1:58:11
Speaker 8: is he is he's hitting it out of the park.
1:58:14
Speaker 8: He's you know, he's spending a lot of time showing
1:58:16
Speaker 8: by example, doing things that you know, help these guys
1:58:20
Speaker 8: learn these things. But I think the offensive line is
1:58:21
Speaker 8: gonna be fine. I don't think they're going to be
1:58:23
Speaker 8: top five in the nation like they were last year,
1:58:26
Speaker 8: but I think they're going to be They're going to
1:58:27
Speaker 8: get the job done.
1:58:30
Speaker 2: The one of the big questions is, you know, how
1:58:34
Speaker 2: how do you utilize both Devin and Byrd without having
1:58:38
Speaker 2: it be like a traditional quarterback battle.
1:58:41
Speaker 3: He got both guys to stay.
1:58:43
Speaker 2: You know, there's nil resources being spent on both and
1:58:46
Speaker 2: I'm glad that we have both guys still on the roster.
1:58:49
Speaker 2: Uh any indication on what it looks like so.
1:58:51
Speaker 8: Far, I mean, we saw both of them at practice
1:58:57
Speaker 8: and stuff, and so it's going to be interesting to see.
1:58:59
Speaker 8: You know, there's uh trying to figure out how to
1:59:03
Speaker 8: phrase this in the right way, but both guys, you know,
1:59:07
Speaker 8: there's gonna be I think there's gonna I think we're
1:59:09
Speaker 8: gonna see similar things that we saw last I think
1:59:10
Speaker 8: we're gonna see usage of both, you know, QBR games,
1:59:13
Speaker 8: stuff like that. But you know, it's it's a massive
1:59:16
Speaker 8: thing that you keep both. And I think that it's
1:59:19
Speaker 8: it's not been talked about enough. Is how good it
1:59:23
Speaker 8: feels to have Utah have a good started quarterback and
1:59:27
Speaker 8: a good backup quarterback because I feel like it's been
1:59:29
Speaker 8: years since Utah's had that. And it also, I said,
1:59:33
Speaker 8: this is a rum on board a couple of looks,
1:59:35
Speaker 8: but if it was really nice to head into the
1:59:36
Speaker 8: spring football and there's not some sort of quarterback one
1:59:40
Speaker 8: or QB two battle going on that we have to
1:59:42
Speaker 8: keep intention watch on, like we know who's one, we
1:59:45
Speaker 8: know who's two. We know it both bring to the table.
1:59:48
Speaker 8: So it's gonna be it's gonna be fun to see
1:59:50
Speaker 8: how how it evolves because I know Nick given does
1:59:53
Speaker 8: a really big He has a big focus on putting
1:59:56
Speaker 8: his players in the best position to succeed and using
1:59:58
Speaker 8: them in ways that they are going. But it's very
2:00:00
Speaker 8: similar to what Jason Beck did last year. You're gonna
2:00:04
Speaker 8: see a lot of like continuity in that aspect of
2:00:07
Speaker 8: using this offense and using the weapons in the way
2:00:09
Speaker 8: that they thrived the most.
2:00:12
Speaker 2: Sammy Moore and my guests here on the Sean O'Connell show,
2:00:14
Speaker 2: Managing editor over at Ute Zone, any hangover, any effect,
2:00:20
Speaker 2: anything that you'd notice with this this new news on
2:00:26
Speaker 2: the Kyle Whittingham exit as far as it, you know,
2:00:29
Speaker 2: affecting the coaching staff the team most particularly Morgan scally
2:00:33
Speaker 2: obviously because he's the only one you know, kind of
2:00:35
Speaker 2: directly involved in that conversation. With the new emails that
2:00:39
Speaker 2: we got and we've we've now had better insight on
2:00:42
Speaker 2: exactly what is being still paid out to Kyle Whittingham
2:00:46
Speaker 2: and the way that that that exit went to. It's
2:00:50
Speaker 2: funny because we we all talked about it, and we
2:00:52
Speaker 2: all had our sources on it, and this we just
2:00:55
Speaker 2: finally we got to read the emails and get a
2:00:57
Speaker 2: much clearer picture on exactly what it looked like, but
2:01:01
Speaker 2: were able to tell whether it affected anyone that's still
2:01:04
Speaker 2: in the program at all.
2:01:05
Speaker 8: I mean when we so that came out on Friday,
2:01:08
Speaker 8: we saw Morgan Saturday morning for practice and it was
2:01:10
Speaker 8: business as usual. You know, he was jumping around with guys,
2:01:13
Speaker 8: he was participating in stretches, he was joking around with them,
2:01:16
Speaker 8: he was getting them amped and stuff. He was very
2:01:19
Speaker 8: active in practice. So honestly, I have no clue if
2:01:22
Speaker 8: there's any hangover from that, but I do think, like,
2:01:25
Speaker 8: I think I'm at the point now where I'm like,
2:01:28
Speaker 8: I'm glad the emails are out and stuff, but also
2:01:29
Speaker 8: at the same time, what's in the passes in the past,
2:01:31
Speaker 8: and I'm ready to just kind of like, you know,
2:01:33
Speaker 8: look to the future and see what the what the
2:01:35
Speaker 8: what the Morgan Scaley era looks like. So but yeah,
2:01:38
Speaker 8: from Saturday, there didn't seem to be any issue with
2:01:42
Speaker 8: you know, a hangover or anything about those emails with Morgan.
2:01:45
Speaker 2: Well, I do think that's the only stance that any
2:01:47
Speaker 2: of us can really take on it now, right except
2:01:49
Speaker 2: besides just being bothered continually about the way it all
2:01:53
Speaker 2: went down. You just have to choose to pick it
2:01:55
Speaker 2: up and move it on at some point, And clearly
2:01:57
Speaker 2: the Whittingham side of that equation has done so, and
2:02:00
Speaker 2: I think Utah Football, with Morgan at the Helm, has
2:02:03
Speaker 2: done a good job of it, like internally in the
2:02:05
Speaker 2: actual locker room and things like that. So I'm glad
2:02:08
Speaker 2: to hear you say that there's no noticeable effect at all,
2:02:11
Speaker 2: when when we talk about, you know, the prognostication of
2:02:15
Speaker 2: the roster as a whole, right, we we knew what
2:02:19
Speaker 2: the strengths were heading into last year. We knew what
2:02:21
Speaker 2: the questions were with some you know, a new offense
2:02:24
Speaker 2: coming in and a bunch of new offensive personnel coming in.
2:02:29
Speaker 2: I saw some highlights of Larry Simmons continuing what we
2:02:32
Speaker 2: saw from him at the end of last year, and
2:02:34
Speaker 2: the chemistry building with Evan dan Pier and things like that,
2:02:37
Speaker 2: And it's a question every single year what the passing
2:02:41
Speaker 2: game is going to look like. Morgan Scalley has promised
2:02:44
Speaker 2: us that it's going to be, you know, a more
2:02:46
Speaker 2: wide open approach in that front at least, but you
2:02:48
Speaker 2: have to have the personnel for it. So give me
2:02:51
Speaker 2: your thoughts on those guys, in particular the past catching threats.
2:02:56
Speaker 8: I said this again, I said this, I think last week.
2:03:00
Speaker 8: I think, I honestly think this is probably the best
2:03:03
Speaker 8: wide receiver room Utah has had on paper in the
2:03:05
Speaker 8: last ten years. And I know that's kind of a
2:03:08
Speaker 8: low bar to have considering what the passing game looked
2:03:12
Speaker 8: like in previous years under previous offensive coordinators and previous
2:03:16
Speaker 8: head coaches. But I honestly, if if what we saw
2:03:20
Speaker 8: versus in the Vegas Bowl is what Morgan wants this
2:03:22
Speaker 8: offense to look like, then Utah's going to be in
2:03:26
Speaker 8: a really good position. You know. Braden Pagan, big guy.
2:03:29
Speaker 8: I think he you know, he matches side by. I
2:03:32
Speaker 8: think he's very comparable to JJ Buchanan, But at the
2:03:35
Speaker 8: same time, Pagan has a lot more experience that comes
2:03:38
Speaker 8: with him that that Buchanan didn't have. Kyrie Schulz fat,
2:03:43
Speaker 8: He's a fast dude, like he can he can hit
2:03:46
Speaker 8: that second gear and take it down down to the house.
2:03:50
Speaker 8: Larry Simmons, as you said, you know, Larry, Larry looked
2:03:53
Speaker 8: a little bit bigger when we were at practice on Saturday.
2:03:55
Speaker 8: He looked like he was a little bit more muscular
2:03:57
Speaker 8: and stuff, which I think will help him. Ricky Johnson,
2:04:01
Speaker 8: the Mississippi State transfer, he had a couple of good
2:04:05
Speaker 8: plays and stuff, so I'm excited to see how he
2:04:07
Speaker 8: factors into it. Creed what a more, you know, really
2:04:10
Speaker 8: started picking up speed at the last half of last season.
2:04:13
Speaker 8: I expect some good things from him, you know, and
2:04:15
Speaker 8: one that no one really talks about Nate Johnson. You know,
2:04:18
Speaker 8: he's listed still as an athlete on the wide on
2:04:20
Speaker 8: the roster, but when they posted it on socials, he
2:04:23
Speaker 8: was listened with the wide receivers. So how can Nate
2:04:25
Speaker 8: kind of be utilized in a lot of different ways
2:04:28
Speaker 8: considering you know, he has that elite speed, So can
2:04:31
Speaker 8: you light him up in the backfield? Can you line
2:04:32
Speaker 8: him upbout?
2:04:33
Speaker 5: Why?
2:04:33
Speaker 8: What are they going to do with him in that capacity?
2:04:36
Speaker 8: Tight end is kind of the area where I have,
2:04:39
Speaker 8: you know, a little bit more of a question as
2:04:41
Speaker 8: we hadn't as we continue this spring. You know, Hunter
2:04:44
Speaker 8: Andrews obviously is back from his injury that knocked him
2:04:47
Speaker 8: out last season. How does he factor ins with this?
2:04:49
Speaker 8: Is he used more as an actual tight end, like
2:04:51
Speaker 8: a flets tight end, or is he used more as like,
2:04:54
Speaker 8: you know, like an h back full back type thing,
2:04:56
Speaker 8: or what did they do with him? I think no event, Yeah,
2:05:00
Speaker 8: I know of Benny. Almost aid Jackson Benny for half
2:05:02
Speaker 8: a second. I think know of Benny. You know he's
2:05:03
Speaker 8: probably going to be your tight end one when you
2:05:05
Speaker 8: get to the start of fall ball, But how can
2:05:08
Speaker 8: he take the next step in his game? You know,
2:05:10
Speaker 8: he's been here before he knows what Uta needs culture wise,
2:05:13
Speaker 8: can he applimate to this offense quickly to get into
2:05:16
Speaker 8: that position to play? And you know, I'm also trying
2:05:19
Speaker 8: to see how Bear Fisher, you touch, true freshman tight
2:05:21
Speaker 8: end from Arizona, how he factors into it. You know,
2:05:24
Speaker 8: if he can get onto that field sooner, that adds
2:05:27
Speaker 8: an extra pass catching playmaker for Devin. And I think
2:05:31
Speaker 8: that Bear has the potential to be, you know, a
2:05:33
Speaker 8: really really really high end tight end by the time
2:05:36
Speaker 8: his career is done.
2:05:38
Speaker 2: Sammy, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you
2:05:40
Speaker 2: about the Red Rocks another conference championship back to back
2:05:45
Speaker 2: now in the Big Twelve, and look at the national level.
2:05:49
Speaker 2: They they have been a constant as contenders, but haven't
2:05:54
Speaker 2: won a championship in recent years. So when you look
2:05:57
Speaker 2: at the Big twelve champs as they move on to
2:06:01
Speaker 2: regionals and then hopefully you know, the finals beyond, what
2:06:04
Speaker 2: does that prognosis look like in your mind?
2:06:07
Speaker 8: Well, if you would have asked me, like Saturday, after
2:06:10
Speaker 8: the Big twelves, I would have said, I'm kind of
2:06:12
Speaker 8: stressed about regionals just because of you know, projected who
2:06:15
Speaker 8: would beware and what would be going on. But with
2:06:18
Speaker 8: the regional announcements that came out today, I'm actually feeling
2:06:20
Speaker 8: a little bit more confident about Utah's chances of making
2:06:23
Speaker 8: it to Nationals. So it'll be in Utah's meet. It
2:06:27
Speaker 8: will be Utah, Alabama, Oregon State, and Denver and you know,
2:06:33
Speaker 8: beat Denver twice already this season, you know what they're about.
2:06:36
Speaker 8: Oregon State ever since Jade Perry graduated, has really kind
2:06:38
Speaker 8: of fallen off, So that's going to be interesting to see.
2:06:42
Speaker 8: And then Bama. You know, Bama's been one of those
2:06:45
Speaker 8: teams that's been climbing the last couple of years and
2:06:47
Speaker 8: they're good, but they just seem to have these these
2:06:51
Speaker 8: nights where they you know, kind of collapse, And it's
2:06:54
Speaker 8: going to be interesting to see, specifically with Bama how
2:06:57
Speaker 8: they deal with crossing two time zone since this regional
2:07:00
Speaker 8: will be in Corepalas, does that affect them, what's going
2:07:03
Speaker 8: on with them there? And then you know the other session,
2:07:06
Speaker 8: you're gonna have UCLA, You're gonna have Minnesota. You know.
2:07:10
Speaker 8: You just the thing is that you just need to
2:07:12
Speaker 8: be top two. You need to be top too in
2:07:13
Speaker 8: your first session, and you need to be top two
2:07:15
Speaker 8: in the regional finals to make it to Nationals. And
2:07:17
Speaker 8: I like youth as odds. I think you talk handbeat
2:07:20
Speaker 8: Alabama and then you're gonna need to just be one
2:07:22
Speaker 8: of UCLA and Minnesota and Bama again to make it
2:07:26
Speaker 8: to regional or to make it to national. I like
2:07:28
Speaker 8: their odds. I think this team is picking up speed
2:07:31
Speaker 8: when they need to the most. And the thing is
2:07:34
Speaker 8: is the team that we saw on January is not
2:07:36
Speaker 8: the team that I saw on Saturday. For the most part.
2:07:39
Speaker 8: I will qualify that you know their bars.
2:07:41
Speaker 5: That was not.
2:07:43
Speaker 8: What you wanted to see, especially with Anna Potter Airio
2:07:45
Speaker 8: getting hurt and falling off the bars, and she ended
2:07:48
Speaker 8: up being okay afterwards, but she fell off. That usually
2:07:52
Speaker 8: is a high nine to nine score. That kind of
2:07:53
Speaker 8: hurt the youth, so they don't. They barely crack a
2:07:55
Speaker 8: forty nine on bars, which is not great. But if
2:07:59
Speaker 8: you would have told they still would have scored a
2:08:01
Speaker 8: one ninety seven to six with that low score on bars,
2:08:04
Speaker 8: I would have lacked in your face in January because
2:08:07
Speaker 8: it just felt like nothing was going right for that
2:08:09
Speaker 8: team back then. But now I think they're picking up speed.
2:08:12
Speaker 8: I think they're picking they're they're peaking when you need to.
2:08:15
Speaker 8: Avery Nef is avery Nef. She is just lights out
2:08:18
Speaker 8: every single day of the week. Ella's service has really, really,
2:08:21
Speaker 8: really been one of the more unsung heroes of this
2:08:24
Speaker 8: team this year. She's been just amazing on all four
2:08:28
Speaker 8: events for Utah. McKenna smith Senior Leadership. You love what
2:08:32
Speaker 8: she brings, especially on floor and vault, to this team.
2:08:35
Speaker 8: But I like their odds. I think that you know,
2:08:37
Speaker 8: they're in a good position. Being ranked number twelve nationally
2:08:40
Speaker 8: is not where you're usually used to seeing Utah. But honestly,
2:08:44
Speaker 8: I think it's fun to see this Utah team with
2:08:46
Speaker 8: a chip on their shoulder. You know, we haven't seen
2:08:48
Speaker 8: this very often, where they are outside of the top ten,
2:08:51
Speaker 8: outside of the top five, all those types of things.
2:08:53
Speaker 8: So it's a different type of Red Rocks team. I
2:08:56
Speaker 8: think you can sense the different vibe around the program,
2:08:59
Speaker 8: in the locker room and talking with the girls of
2:09:02
Speaker 8: you know, we know what we need to do. We
2:09:04
Speaker 8: just need to do it consistently and do it our way.
2:09:07
Speaker 8: And if they can do that, I think they can
2:09:09
Speaker 8: make it all the way to Nationals.
2:09:13
Speaker 3: We're gonna keep our fingers crossed for that go Red Rocks, Sammy.
2:09:16
Speaker 3: I'll see up at springball soon. Thank you, Thanks so Ceezia,
2:09:20
Speaker 3: Sammy mora.
2:09:24
Speaker 2: Utes insider, dang I forgot to ask her about Rhys Ross,
2:09:27
Speaker 2: managing editor over at yout Zone. Give her follow on
2:09:29
Speaker 2: Twitter at s underscore Mora two four seven. All right,
2:09:34
Speaker 2: there is a new market price for scoring receiving touchdowns
2:09:39
Speaker 2: in the NFL. Jsn's got a new contract. I broke
2:09:44
Speaker 2: it down by his numbers. And there's an obvious local
2:09:48
Speaker 2: reason why we should be doing this because Pooka is
2:09:51
Speaker 2: up next. It's the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred
2:09:55
Speaker 2: and ninety two ONEFM.
2:09:56
Speaker 1: We you are tuned to the Shan O'Connell Show from
2:10:07
Speaker 1: the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety
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Speaker 1: two one alf.
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Speaker 3: M, no doubt. Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.
2:10:24
Speaker 3: Glad to be with you again.
2:10:25
Speaker 2: After some time off, I realize this is gonna sound
2:10:29
Speaker 2: very first world problems. If any of you ever have
2:10:34
Speaker 2: an opportunity to get yourself to Africa to go on Safari,
2:10:40
Speaker 2: you have to do it. I've been on a bunch
2:10:43
Speaker 2: of them. Now it's like a passionate thing for me.
2:10:46
Speaker 2: I love going. This last one was as good as
2:10:48
Speaker 2: they're ever gonna get. I think I have to stop
2:10:50
Speaker 2: going now because I'm never gonna be able to top the
2:10:52
Speaker 2: one I just went on. But it is life changing
2:10:55
Speaker 2: to see some of these creatures in their actual natural
2:10:59
Speaker 2: environment up close, without glass and fences and stuff like that.
2:11:04
Speaker 2: So if you ever have an opportunity.
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Speaker 4: Oh see, can I just it's okay if I read
2:11:10
Speaker 4: what are the texts you sent me about while you
2:11:13
Speaker 4: were there?
2:11:14
Speaker 5: Uh?
2:11:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure. I was like, how's it? I had a
2:11:19
Speaker 4: show question for you. Yeah, asked you that how's the trip?
2:11:24
Speaker 4: And I wasn't expecting you to respond, honestly. I was like,
2:11:27
Speaker 4: I'll send this. If he responds, great, If not, it
2:11:30
Speaker 4: can wait till he gets back. You responded, and then
2:11:32
Speaker 4: you said going. You said awesome. Was six feet away
2:11:37
Speaker 4: from a silver back today inches away from a toddler gorilla.
2:11:40
Speaker 3: I mean that must have been incredible. It was incredible
2:11:42
Speaker 3: and then probably not the only time you were that
2:11:46
Speaker 3: close to these kids. And then so that was that
2:11:49
Speaker 3: was after our first day of gorilla trekking.
2:11:51
Speaker 2: All right, we had to climb three hours up a
2:11:53
Speaker 2: mountain and it was nice. It's like a good hard
2:11:55
Speaker 2: workout to get to him, which just made it feel
2:11:58
Speaker 2: that much more gratifying, right, And then then we went
2:12:01
Speaker 2: the second day was a much easier path to get
2:12:04
Speaker 2: to the gorillas. It was a family of twelve gorillas.
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Speaker 2: And I shouldn't I shouldn't be this way, but I
2:12:11
Speaker 2: am this way. I wanted somehow to find a way that,
2:12:17
Speaker 2: like I could make physical contact with a wild gorilla,
2:12:20
Speaker 2: Like you're obviously not allowed to on purpose, but they're
2:12:24
Speaker 2: moving around so if they touch you, you're fine. And
2:12:29
Speaker 2: I didn't touch the survey he touched me, and sometimes
2:12:32
Speaker 2: they do if you watch the YouTube videos of these
2:12:34
Speaker 2: gorilla tracks, like sometimes a silverback will get bothered and
2:12:38
Speaker 2: like push someone out of the way, or like one
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Speaker 2: of the babies will come up and try to get
2:12:42
Speaker 2: things out of your backpack. And I was just like,
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Speaker 2: I was hoping so hard that I was going to
2:12:47
Speaker 2: actually make physical contact with a wild gorilla and it
2:12:50
Speaker 2: didn't happen.
2:12:50
Speaker 3: On day one, we got really really close.
2:12:52
Speaker 2: I was like, legitimately I could have reached out and
2:12:55
Speaker 2: touched a silver back, which was bananas, right. And then
2:12:58
Speaker 2: the second day, twice James twice. First a little baby
2:13:02
Speaker 2: ran past me and grabbed my leg. And then one
2:13:05
Speaker 2: of the young males so not yet a silver back,
2:13:08
Speaker 2: but probably, like the guide said, maybe ten or twelve
2:13:10
Speaker 2: years old, so about to be a silver back. He
2:13:13
Speaker 2: was probably three hundred and fifty maybe four hundred pounds,
2:13:18
Speaker 2: big old boy gorilla. He like kind of brushed past me.
2:13:23
Speaker 2: He didn't push me or anything. I was just standing
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Speaker 2: stockstill because he was on the move, and he like
2:13:30
Speaker 2: rubbed his shoulder and back against me as he'd like
2:13:33
Speaker 2: get out of the way, dude.
2:13:34
Speaker 3: It was amazing.
2:13:36
Speaker 2: Anyway, I'm not here to just try to make you jealous,
2:13:39
Speaker 2: although I want you all to be jealous and find
2:13:41
Speaker 2: a way to get yourself there to do stuff like that,
2:13:43
Speaker 2: because it is life changing.
2:13:45
Speaker 3: It is incredible.
2:13:45
Speaker 2: I'm very grateful to have, you know, a cool job
2:13:48
Speaker 2: that allowed me to go and to have the people
2:13:52
Speaker 2: in my life that wanted to come with me. Shout
2:13:53
Speaker 2: out to my wife, her family that all came. It
2:13:56
Speaker 2: was a really great trip.
2:13:57
Speaker 4: Anyway, real quick, what other animals did you make contact with.
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Speaker 3: Or no physical contact with anything else.
2:14:08
Speaker 2: We got very close with wild chimpanzees, which was also
2:14:11
Speaker 2: really cool.
2:14:13
Speaker 3: A bunch of different species and monkeys.
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Speaker 2: My wife was like probably eighteen inches away from a
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Speaker 2: wild leopard. It was just like on the other side
2:14:22
Speaker 2: of the door. She was sitting in the front door
2:14:24
Speaker 2: of the safari vehicle. Was that terrifying. She was really scared,
2:14:28
Speaker 2: and I was sitting in the back like probably bad
2:14:31
Speaker 2: protective instincts as a husband.
2:14:33
Speaker 3: I was just like, oh my gosh, that's so cool.
2:14:34
Speaker 2: I'm so jealous that she was just like, ah, Ben,
2:14:37
Speaker 2: it's a leopard. You know what I mean, we saw leopards, lions.
2:14:42
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you one more thing.
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Speaker 3: Okay.
2:14:43
Speaker 2: So we're in the southern Serengeti in Tanzania on the
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Speaker 2: tail end of the trip, and it's a long, hot day.
2:14:52
Speaker 2: Everyone else decides they're going to drive back to camp. Okay,
2:14:55
Speaker 2: they're gonna go back, they're gonna turn in for the day,
2:14:57
Speaker 2: they're gonna go have dinner, they're gonna.
2:14:59
Speaker 3: Like shower up.
2:15:00
Speaker 2: And me and my wife and her mom and dad
2:15:04
Speaker 2: were the only people who are like, no, we want
2:15:06
Speaker 2: to keep going. We're we're going to stay until like
2:15:11
Speaker 2: the sun goes down. Basically, So our guide takes us
2:15:14
Speaker 2: to this spot and we see these two huge bull elephants.
2:15:17
Speaker 3: Right, two big bull elephants. Were like, wow, amazing.
2:15:21
Speaker 2: And we've seen elephants on the trip, but not this close,
2:15:24
Speaker 2: and we're just like really pumped about it. They start
2:15:27
Speaker 2: to get mad that we're there, so he's like, we
2:15:29
Speaker 2: should leave because they're gonna, you know, that's dangerous whatever,
2:15:33
Speaker 2: get aggressive. We're like, okay, cool. He drives up over
2:15:36
Speaker 2: the next little rise. It's a pretty flat area, but
2:15:38
Speaker 2: there's just like slight. He drives up over the next
2:15:41
Speaker 2: one and there was five hundred elephants. We're all excited
2:15:47
Speaker 2: about seeing two of them. And then it was just
2:15:50
Speaker 2: heard after, heard after, heard after, heard after heard, just
2:15:54
Speaker 2: unbel like you could hear the Jurassic Park music playing
2:15:59
Speaker 2: in the background.
2:16:00
Speaker 3: It was lion king.
2:16:01
Speaker 2: It was un believable, and it was incredibly special, and man,
2:16:07
Speaker 2: it gives you chills because it's just God's creation, where
2:16:12
Speaker 2: it's supposed to be, how it's supposed to be, and
2:16:16
Speaker 2: you're lucky enough to sit there and witness it. And
2:16:18
Speaker 2: it was just truly, truly special. So if you get
2:16:22
Speaker 2: a chance, do it. If you need recommendations, hit me
2:16:25
Speaker 2: up and I'll I'll give you what I can I want.
2:16:28
Speaker 2: This is the sports story I wanted to get to
2:16:30
Speaker 2: before we take another break, and then we'll do some
2:16:33
Speaker 2: cross talk with Spence. By the way, Bill Riley is back.
2:16:37
Speaker 2: He's going to be filling in on select editions of
2:16:40
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell Show. The first one on Friday. He'll
2:16:43
Speaker 2: be at Wassatch Frontkea up in Ogden. Bill Riley, who
2:16:47
Speaker 2: obviously I took over for Bill when he went to
2:16:48
Speaker 2: work for the university directly. And because I'm traveling again
2:16:52
Speaker 2: for the PFL, We've got an event in Pittsburgh this weekend.
2:16:55
Speaker 2: I got to take Friday off and we got permission
2:16:59
Speaker 2: from the Universe, and Bill was excited about doing it.
2:17:01
Speaker 2: So on some of these trips where I go and
2:17:05
Speaker 2: do my PFL thing, Bill's going to be filling in
2:17:08
Speaker 2: for me, which is hilarious because obviously he did the
2:17:12
Speaker 2: show so well for twenty years and now he's got.
2:17:14
Speaker 3: To come fill in for this shlub. But I love it.
2:17:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that'll be fun. We're really excited about it
2:17:20
Speaker 4: here at the station. The other the thing I'll say
2:17:23
Speaker 4: about it is it's not going to be every day
2:17:26
Speaker 4: that you're gone. There's special editions so we're calling him
2:17:29
Speaker 4: special editions of the Sean O'Connell Show with Bill Riley
2:17:33
Speaker 4: in the first one again this Friday. Go go out
2:17:36
Speaker 4: and see him. Wats that's front Kea in Ogden and
2:17:41
Speaker 4: be sure to tune in. You'll hear a familiar open.
2:17:44
Speaker 4: I'll say that, just a slightly slightly adjusted familiar open
2:17:47
Speaker 4: on Friday.
2:17:48
Speaker 3: I'm really excited for that.
2:17:49
Speaker 2: All Right, defending Super Bowl champion and Offensive Player of
2:17:52
Speaker 2: the Year in the NFL, Jackson Smith and jigbuch who
2:17:57
Speaker 2: if you are a YOUUT fan, you have to hate
2:17:59
Speaker 2: him because of the Rose Bowls. You have to you
2:18:02
Speaker 2: have to h four year, one hundred and sixty eight
2:18:05
Speaker 2: point six million dollar contract extension, one hundred and twenty
2:18:09
Speaker 2: million dollars in guaranteed money, average annual value of forty
2:18:14
Speaker 2: two point one five million dollars. Okay, So I love
2:18:19
Speaker 2: this when we get a new high bar on contract
2:18:22
Speaker 2: value for particular positions because you can start. If you
2:18:27
Speaker 2: do it the way that I do it, you can
2:18:29
Speaker 2: now tell yourself and you can tell the story of
2:18:31
Speaker 2: all right, how much is that person's production worth? And
2:18:35
Speaker 2: JSN is one of those guys who I think we're
2:18:38
Speaker 2: going to see a lot of really good years out
2:18:40
Speaker 2: of him. I think it's reasonable for Seattle and for
2:18:45
Speaker 2: everyone else in the NFL to expect that this past
2:18:48
Speaker 2: year was not even close to being an outlier. I
2:18:51
Speaker 2: don't know that he's always going to be the leading
2:18:54
Speaker 2: receiver in the NFL, but I think he's going to be,
2:18:56
Speaker 2: you know, a top five, top ten guy for a
2:18:58
Speaker 2: long time. And this is a relatively short term contract
2:19:01
Speaker 2: that's four years, but it's big time money. Average annual
2:19:04
Speaker 2: value is forty two million plus, right, So we now
2:19:08
Speaker 2: have a price tag on what a receiving touchdown costs
2:19:13
Speaker 2: in the NFL, or a team is willing to pay
2:19:16
Speaker 2: when they have salary cap space for an elite wide receiver.
2:19:20
Speaker 2: And this obviously matters because Puka Nakua is kind of
2:19:23
Speaker 2: the next guy up as a top flight young receiver
2:19:26
Speaker 2: still on a rookie deal, and he's gonna get when
2:19:30
Speaker 2: it's his turn. He's gonna get even more than JSN got,
2:19:33
Speaker 2: as long as he doesn't keep messing around outside of
2:19:36
Speaker 2: football and getting himself in trouble. But I don't know,
2:19:41
Speaker 2: if you have Jsn's numbers in your brain, don't look
2:19:44
Speaker 2: them up. James at forty two million per year average
2:19:48
Speaker 2: annual value, What are the Seattle Seahawks paying JSN for
2:19:52
Speaker 2: each receiving touchdown? If we say that he has consistent
2:19:55
Speaker 2: numbers for the next four years, like similar or the
2:19:59
Speaker 2: exact same to what he did this year, how much
2:20:02
Speaker 2: are they paying him per touchdown?
2:20:05
Speaker 3: Yeah?
2:20:06
Speaker 2: I do not know his touchdown Okay, he scored ten.
2:20:10
Speaker 2: He had ten receiving touchdowns. It is not number one
2:20:13
Speaker 2: in the league. That Vante Adams was the number one
2:20:15
Speaker 2: receiving touchdowns. So catcher in the league.
2:20:18
Speaker 4: Guaranteed, he's getting twelve He's getting twelve million a touchdown
2:20:22
Speaker 4: guaranteed and up to about seventeen million a touchdown.
2:20:26
Speaker 3: Well, no, that's that's one twenty is the life of
2:20:29
Speaker 3: the I'm talking about per year, oh, per year, per year.
2:20:31
Speaker 2: Okay, So yeah, if you if you base it off
2:20:34
Speaker 2: the forty two million dollars, he's making four point two
2:20:37
Speaker 2: million dollars per touchdown. Yeah, that's like you go back
2:20:42
Speaker 2: five years and the top receiver the top pay It's like,
2:20:46
Speaker 2: all right, you're getting like a million five per touchdown catch,
2:20:49
Speaker 2: you're getting a million five per sack. And then it
2:20:52
Speaker 2: went okay, Now the sack is worth two million. Now
2:20:54
Speaker 2: that touchdown is worth two million, all right, and then
2:20:57
Speaker 2: it went up to three. And now we're looking at
2:21:00
Speaker 2: for a wide receiver, top flight wide receiver. Four point
2:21:02
Speaker 2: two million dollars per touchdown. By the way, Pooka had
2:21:06
Speaker 2: the same He had ten receiving touchdowns. He also added
2:21:08
Speaker 2: a rushing touchdown, so he scored that one too, But
2:21:11
Speaker 2: four point two million dollars per touchdown, nice easy round
2:21:15
Speaker 2: figure because he only had ten of them.
2:21:16
Speaker 3: This is the wild thing.
2:21:18
Speaker 2: Okay, if we're basing it on his forty two million
2:21:21
Speaker 2: dollars plus per year, how much do you think he's
2:21:25
Speaker 2: making per catch per reception?
2:21:29
Speaker 3: Jackson Smith and Jigba.
2:21:31
Speaker 2: On forty two million a year, if they're expecting him
2:21:33
Speaker 2: to have the exact same numbers moving forward, what would
2:21:37
Speaker 2: you guess he's making per catch? Like two fifty three
2:21:44
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty two thousand dollars per catch?
2:21:48
Speaker 3: That's that's that really is insane based on current production.
2:21:53
Speaker 3: And again, like the NFL, these teams can afford it.
2:21:56
Speaker 2: I'm not I think it's great the players are getting
2:21:58
Speaker 2: this money, but when you make it down this way,
2:22:01
Speaker 2: I mean.
2:22:01
Speaker 3: If you're an elite.
2:22:02
Speaker 2: If you're a great wide receiver in college football, if
2:22:06
Speaker 2: you're playing for if you're Larry Simmons playing for the
2:22:08
Speaker 2: University of Utah, you might be getting that for the year,
2:22:12
Speaker 2: and they want you to get like sixty seventy catches
2:22:16
Speaker 2: for that. He's making three hundred and fifty two thousand
2:22:19
Speaker 2: dollars per catch. If I ask you how how much
2:22:23
Speaker 2: he's making per yard?
2:22:25
Speaker 4: Per yard, he had what seventeen hundred yards somewhere in there? Yeah,
2:22:32
Speaker 4: just over so, yeah, I can't. I'm not good enough
2:22:38
Speaker 4: at math. Okay, you'll do that in my head. It's
2:22:41
Speaker 4: bad to try to do on air math anyway. But yes,
2:22:45
Speaker 4: he had seventeen ninety three one thousand, seven hundred ninety
2:22:48
Speaker 4: three receiving yards. That when you almost eighteen hundred yards,
2:22:52
Speaker 4: then when you throw that in that number into forty
2:22:57
Speaker 4: two million dollars per year, that's twenty three thousand, four,
2:23:00
Speaker 4: one hundred and twenty four dollars per yard. Good for him, man,
2:23:06
Speaker 4: good for you, Jackson Smith and Jigba.
2:23:07
Speaker 2: And again, this is a lot more interesting on the
2:23:09
Speaker 2: local level because Puka Nakua's projected contract is now this
2:23:15
Speaker 2: plus whatever they can get right, because he is a
2:23:20
Speaker 2: top five wide receiver in the league, just like Jackson
2:23:24
Speaker 2: Smith and Jigba is in every one of these categories.
2:23:27
Speaker 3: Uh.
2:23:28
Speaker 2: The their stats were remarkably similar. Actually, and I already
2:23:33
Speaker 2: told you about the touchdowns. Jackson Smith and Jigba had
2:23:37
Speaker 2: the most yardage in the league. Puka was less than eighty.
2:23:40
Speaker 2: He was seventy eight yards behind him. He also missed
2:23:43
Speaker 2: a handful of games this year. I don't know if
2:23:46
Speaker 2: it's Smith and Jigma missed that many games this year.
2:23:48
Speaker 2: Puka missed one game. You only missed one. Okay, he
2:23:51
Speaker 2: missed the one game he left. He may have left
2:23:53
Speaker 2: a couple other games early, is what I'm thinking. He
2:23:56
Speaker 2: fumbled fewer times, all right, that probably matters to some.
2:24:00
Speaker 2: They both scored ten touchdowns. JSN had uh roughly two
2:24:05
Speaker 2: extra yards per catch, but Puka had ten more catches.
2:24:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, and again in one fewer games.
2:24:12
Speaker 2: So like we're talking about these types of numbers per
2:24:16
Speaker 2: kid from orum.
2:24:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, and a fifth round pick, by the way, a
2:24:21
Speaker 4: fifth round pick. Jackson Smith and Jigba top twenty pick.
2:24:25
Speaker 4: So it's I I heard I heard some people talking
2:24:30
Speaker 4: about Jackson Smith and Jigba is a little bit of
2:24:32
Speaker 4: an underdog story.
2:24:33
Speaker 3: I'm like, the guy was picked in the top twenty.
2:24:34
Speaker 4: He's not really an underdog, not near in the way
2:24:39
Speaker 4: that Puka Nakua is.
2:24:41
Speaker 2: So what a yard of receiver production is equivalent to
2:24:48
Speaker 2: what in radio production? So like, is that like per
2:24:52
Speaker 2: segment or is that per minute or something?
2:24:56
Speaker 3: Maybe? Uh maybe per three minutes shout out Nielsen?
2:24:58
Speaker 2: Okay, per for ratings point per ratings segment. So just
2:25:04
Speaker 2: just so you know, I'm looking for JSN money in
2:25:09
Speaker 2: the next contract negotiation. I wanted to break down to
2:25:12
Speaker 2: twenty three thousand, four hundred and twenty four dollars per
2:25:16
Speaker 2: whatever my equivalent of a yard.
2:25:18
Speaker 3: Is for quarter hour?
2:25:20
Speaker 4: This is what counted quarter hour, the radio equivalent of
2:25:24
Speaker 4: that or the actual.
2:25:28
Speaker 2: Sorry we'll keep that off the not like broadway media
2:25:31
Speaker 2: dollars like actual. But I mean, look, incredibly productive player.
2:25:36
Speaker 2: The NFL is a monkey, and isn't isn't Bezos going
2:25:41
Speaker 2: to buy the Seahawks anyway?
2:25:44
Speaker 3: He could do it? I mean they're for sale, isn't he?
2:25:47
Speaker 2: Like, I think he's the lead horse in the race
2:25:49
Speaker 2: to buy. So this is just like Amazon money. Yeah,
2:25:52
Speaker 2: JSI twenty three four and twenty four dollars per yard,
2:25:57
Speaker 2: four point two million dollars per touchdown, three hundred and
2:26:01
Speaker 2: fifty two thousand dollars per catch if he maintains the
2:26:06
Speaker 2: production he had this year. If it goes down, by
2:26:09
Speaker 2: the way, he still is gonna make this money as
2:26:11
Speaker 2: long as it stays in a relatively similar kind kind
2:26:14
Speaker 2: of realm.
2:26:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, the that's a lot of guaranteed money in that
2:26:19
Speaker 4: in that contract.
2:26:20
Speaker 2: One hundred and twenty million dollars guaranteed. By the way,
2:26:23
Speaker 2: Davante Adams had fourteen touchdowns this year. Dallas Goddards had
2:26:27
Speaker 2: eleven touchdowns. Both of those guys only had sixty catches.
2:26:34
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
2:26:34
Speaker 4: So Adams was definitely more of a red zone threat
2:26:39
Speaker 4: than compared to the rest of his career as a
2:26:44
Speaker 4: as a pass catcher.
2:26:45
Speaker 2: Phuka Nakua and Jackson Smith and jig but both they
2:26:48
Speaker 2: tied for sixth in total in touchdown receptions.
2:26:51
Speaker 4: So I'll say this as great as Jackson Smith and
2:26:56
Speaker 4: Jigba is. And he showed all the promise he had
2:27:00
Speaker 4: coming out of Fio State, all the promise that many
2:27:03
Speaker 4: of our listeners saw firsthand in that Rose Bowl, right,
2:27:07
Speaker 4: he finally chilled that in the NFL. He was healthy
2:27:11
Speaker 4: for an entire season and all that and and it
2:27:14
Speaker 4: all came together for him. But it's one year. Hookah's
2:27:16
Speaker 4: done this now this is his second out of three seasons?
2:27:20
Speaker 4: Is this was this his third NFL season something like
2:27:23
Speaker 4: that he had, He had one where he missed a
2:27:26
Speaker 4: lot of it due to injuries. He had an incredible
2:27:29
Speaker 4: rookie year and then he duplicated it and it actually
2:27:33
Speaker 4: eclipsed it this year. So he and his reps ought
2:27:38
Speaker 4: to be asking for more than this.
2:27:40
Speaker 3: When they're up.
2:27:40
Speaker 2: Well he's gonna, I mean, that's how it works, that's
2:27:43
Speaker 2: how you leaprong and right, and that's.
2:27:45
Speaker 4: In line always gets more. But he should be like
2:27:48
Speaker 4: he should be like, hey, if that guy who only
2:27:50
Speaker 4: did it for one who only could show he could
2:27:51
Speaker 4: do it for one year, which incredible, no disrespect to him,
2:27:54
Speaker 4: but like I've done, like I've had two of those now,
2:27:58
Speaker 4: like I he could be asking for way more than this,
2:28:01
Speaker 4: even not just the average like next guy in line
2:28:04
Speaker 4: kind of money.
2:28:05
Speaker 2: Yes, uh, this it'll be his fourth season pokas So
2:28:09
Speaker 2: this was his third, Yes, twenty three, twenty four to
2:28:12
Speaker 2: twenty five. Yeah, he played seventeen games in twenty three.
2:28:16
Speaker 2: He played eleven games in twenty four. He played sixteen
2:28:19
Speaker 2: games in twenty twenty five, and he averaged more than
2:28:24
Speaker 2: twelve yards per catch in each of those. He had
2:28:27
Speaker 2: six touchdowns, three touchdowns ten touchdowns. He's a remarkably productive player.
2:28:32
Speaker 2: He is undoubtedly one of the top five receivers in
2:28:35
Speaker 2: the league, and a bag is coming his way as
2:28:39
Speaker 2: long as he doesn't keep getting in trouble, all right.
2:28:44
Speaker 2: One last segment, A little cross talk with Spence Jeckets
2:28:47
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety TWOEFM,
2:28:51
Speaker 2: What troubles and Don't Save Me?
2:28:54
Speaker 1: You were listening to a Sean O'Connell show for the
2:28:57
Speaker 1: Murdoch Hunting Studio of ESPA seven hundred and ninety two
2:29:01
Speaker 1: one A f M like this, I'm a little shot John.
2:29:09
Speaker 2: O'Connell show, Wrapping things up here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
2:29:15
Speaker 2: Cross Talk brought to you by our friends at Advanced
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Speaker 2: John's player scored two points game winning shot eighteen minutes
2:29:44
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2:29:47
Speaker 2: the scoring category except scoring the game winning shot. What
2:29:50
Speaker 2: is that man's young what is that young man's name?
2:29:54
Speaker 2: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred who
2:29:57
Speaker 2: scored the game winner for Saint John's his only two
2:29:59
Speaker 2: point points of the game in March Madness, Spence check
2:30:03
Speaker 2: it's in the driver are up next here on ESPN
2:30:06
Speaker 2: seven hundred high Spence?
2:30:07
Speaker 3: Did you bring me back a baby gorilla? No?
2:30:11
Speaker 9: I was under the impression that that was part of
2:30:14
Speaker 9: the planned. You were bringing me back a baby guerrilla.
2:30:16
Speaker 9: It was part of the plan.
2:30:17
Speaker 5: Uh huh.
2:30:18
Speaker 2: But it turns out that mom and dad gorillas don't
2:30:22
Speaker 2: just allow you to take them.
2:30:23
Speaker 3: Oh well, we should have thought of that part, should have.
2:30:26
Speaker 9: So you attempted and the adult gorillas were not on
2:30:31
Speaker 9: board with the attacks.
2:30:32
Speaker 2: Actually, I would never even bother to attempt it there
2:30:35
Speaker 2: because the baby gorillas are so cute and they just
2:30:37
Speaker 2: look so happy and content in their environment. It's just like,
2:30:40
Speaker 2: all right, keep eating your little leaves and I'll come
2:30:42
Speaker 2: back later. What an excellent opportunity for you to do that.
2:30:45
Speaker 9: I heard you talking about it and the way it
2:30:47
Speaker 9: sounded sound like you had an incredible time.
2:30:48
Speaker 2: It was the best vacation I've ever taken in my life.
2:30:51
Speaker 2: Is the best trip I've ever been on in my life.
2:30:53
Speaker 2: It was beyond my expectations. Got so so lucky. I've
2:30:58
Speaker 2: been incredibly fortunate every safari I've ever been on to
2:31:01
Speaker 2: see things that I wanted to see and you know,
2:31:04
Speaker 2: not get rained out and stuff like that, and I
2:31:06
Speaker 2: every time, I'm like, all right, you know, I'll keep
2:31:08
Speaker 2: my expectations low for this one because there's no way
2:31:11
Speaker 2: it can top the last one.
2:31:13
Speaker 3: Keeps going up.
2:31:14
Speaker 9: It's wild, and vacations like that, like I'm about to
2:31:17
Speaker 9: go to Cabo and I'm just gonna lay on a beach.
2:31:19
Speaker 9: I don't want to talk to anyone, don't want to
2:31:21
Speaker 9: see anyone, don't want to do anything. Can leave the
2:31:23
Speaker 9: phone in the room and that's Those are fun. But
2:31:26
Speaker 9: vacations like you just took, they like change the way
2:31:31
Speaker 9: you think. Yeah, you know what, I mean, like it
2:31:33
Speaker 9: pays dividends through out of the course of the rest
2:31:35
Speaker 9: of your life if you are able to find the
2:31:37
Speaker 9: time and have the resources to just be in like
2:31:42
Speaker 9: the purest form of what this planet is. Those are
2:31:45
Speaker 9: the like, those are the you know, you can't quantify
2:31:48
Speaker 9: what those experiences are.
2:31:49
Speaker 2: I don't know how our guides were able to make
2:31:52
Speaker 2: it happen. But we're in the southern Serengeti, which is
2:31:55
Speaker 2: this massive, massive flat plane, right and I sent you
2:31:59
Speaker 2: a couple of the elephant videos from there. It's awesome
2:32:01
Speaker 2: and that was kind of like the foothills leading into
2:32:03
Speaker 2: the flat plane. But we were there for three days
2:32:09
Speaker 2: and we saw one other car with human beings that
2:32:13
Speaker 2: were not with our group. So it you feel like
2:32:17
Speaker 2: you're not even on the planet. Yeah, you're not on
2:32:20
Speaker 2: Earth anymore because it's just you and animals and the
2:32:22
Speaker 2: people you're traveling with.
2:32:23
Speaker 9: And it was just whoa man. I'll never get over it.
2:32:26
Speaker 9: I might have to hit you up for like recommendations.
2:32:29
Speaker 9: I'd like to put some, don't I want to do
2:32:30
Speaker 9: with my son. I want to take Connor. You should yeah, yeah,
2:32:33
Speaker 9: you like to do that, like, and it doesn't have
2:32:35
Speaker 9: to be.
2:32:36
Speaker 2: I mean I was lucky enough to go on a
2:32:37
Speaker 2: nice long one where we did we did chimps, and
2:32:40
Speaker 2: then we did gorillas, and then we did the traditional
2:32:43
Speaker 2: you know lines and jaguar lions and leopards and cheetahs
2:32:46
Speaker 2: and elephants and all that stuff. But even if you
2:32:49
Speaker 2: go to just one of those locations, it's totally life changing.
2:32:51
Speaker 2: And yeah, any recommendations anyway, eight seven seven three five
2:32:54
Speaker 2: three zero seven hundred, it's a The gospel of Safari
2:32:58
Speaker 2: is one that I will spread around my life.
2:33:00
Speaker 9: Would you have felt guilty if your poor bride was
2:33:03
Speaker 9: mauled by the leopard that you didn't give a rip
2:33:06
Speaker 9: about that it was like.
2:33:07
Speaker 2: Two feet away from her. Yes, I would have felt
2:33:09
Speaker 2: very guilty. Okay, fair enough, And you know, in my
2:33:12
Speaker 2: heart of hearts, I would have tried to like pull
2:33:15
Speaker 2: a tarzan and jump in save her, but fail and
2:33:18
Speaker 2: then get myself.
2:33:19
Speaker 3: Injured as well. You have children, when do you ask
2:33:21
Speaker 3: to live? You know?
2:33:23
Speaker 2: We actually people were giving us the side eye because
2:33:25
Speaker 2: we had to get on a bush plane a couple
2:33:27
Speaker 2: of times, and it was like, all right, I'm going
2:33:30
Speaker 2: to go.
2:33:30
Speaker 3: On that one, and you're going to go on that one.
2:33:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you know, got it be a boy scout
2:33:35
Speaker 2: about it.
2:33:36
Speaker 3: I have a I have a friend who claims that
2:33:40
Speaker 3: I have a theory on this.
2:33:42
Speaker 9: There have been times where they've gone on vacation and
2:33:45
Speaker 9: they've elected to fly on different planes in case one
2:33:47
Speaker 9: of them does crash. I just don't think he lets
2:33:49
Speaker 9: his wife I called PS.
2:33:53
Speaker 3: I just think he wants to travel by himself.
2:33:55
Speaker 2: He's like, honey, just you gotta go, just in case
2:33:58
Speaker 2: on that one and he's flying first class.
2:34:00
Speaker 3: She's in the middle row back the sky club.
2:34:04
Speaker 9: Prior to just smashing vodkaate's and just enjoying himself.
2:34:08
Speaker 3: One of us has to live.
2:34:09
Speaker 1: Now.
2:34:09
Speaker 3: You just don't want to fly with your You're also
2:34:11
Speaker 3: welcome back now.
2:34:12
Speaker 9: I don't have to do twenty five minute opening tip segments,
2:34:15
Speaker 9: so we can, you know, eat into my show a
2:34:17
Speaker 9: little bit.
2:34:18
Speaker 3: It's a little bit of a different energetic ass Well.
2:34:21
Speaker 2: Is that the twenty five minute opening segment that you
2:34:24
Speaker 2: have to do in every other hour except for this one.
2:34:26
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean to have one of them, to have
2:34:28
Speaker 9: a little assistance with one of them.
2:34:30
Speaker 3: Is never a background.
2:34:31
Speaker 9: Yeah, you miss quite the news cycle, Sean Well.
2:34:34
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I felt there was a little, like
2:34:37
Speaker 2: a small twinge of guilt with that until you're sitting
2:34:42
Speaker 2: seven feet away from a male line and you're just like,
2:34:45
Speaker 2: I don't.
2:34:45
Speaker 3: Feel that guilty now, Yeah.
2:34:46
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean I felt bad because I even sent
2:34:48
Speaker 9: you one work related text.
2:34:49
Speaker 3: I'm like, dude, leave them alone, and it doesn't matter.
2:34:52
Speaker 9: I think we all have a level of self importance
2:34:54
Speaker 9: in this business that is a facade. Like I can
2:34:58
Speaker 9: remember when Gordon the new is that Gordon Hayward was
2:35:01
Speaker 9: leaving came down. I was on vacation and my boss
2:35:04
Speaker 9: is like, you need to fly home tomorrow to be
2:35:05
Speaker 9: on air, and I did, and it was so dumb.
2:35:08
Speaker 3: I cut my vacation.
2:35:10
Speaker 9: Short by like four days for to do Gordon Hayward
2:35:13
Speaker 9: segment because I was working for the Jazz Broadcast. Tings
2:35:16
Speaker 9: like I need joined editmar I'm like, all right, self
2:35:18
Speaker 9: important bs. But what we now know, Sean, yeah, is
2:35:23
Speaker 9: most of the wits stuff that we thought happened actually did.
2:35:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:35:27
Speaker 2: And it's good to have that clarity so that you can't,
2:35:31
Speaker 2: you know, find yourself on the wrong side of somebody's opinion,
2:35:36
Speaker 2: because the opinions are all kind of out the window now.
2:35:39
Speaker 2: It's like, we know what happened, and we can at
2:35:43
Speaker 2: least extrapolate some of the things that did not happen. Yep,
2:35:46
Speaker 2: And yeah, we good work by everyone on that utes
2:35:50
Speaker 2: beat for getting the public information requests out there and
2:35:53
Speaker 2: making sure that we all got to see some of
2:35:55
Speaker 2: those emails.
2:35:55
Speaker 3: And it's uh, you know it. The thing I I
2:36:00
Speaker 3: said this at the beginning of the show, The thing
2:36:01
Speaker 3: I dislike.
2:36:02
Speaker 2: About it is that it is kind of a distracting
2:36:05
Speaker 2: bomb to throw on the beginning of Morgan Scalley's first
2:36:08
Speaker 2: springball campaign. But seems like they're handling it pretty well.
2:36:13
Speaker 2: Seems like he's handling it pretty well. And then you know,
2:36:15
Speaker 2: beyond that, it's just like, all right, now we know
2:36:19
Speaker 2: where leadership maybe could have done better.
2:36:23
Speaker 3: Now we know.
2:36:25
Speaker 2: I think some places that that Kyle Whittingham has been.
2:36:29
Speaker 3: I don't want to say disingenuous, but has been.
2:36:33
Speaker 9: A little bit kind of like flaky in a way. Yeah, fair, yeah,
2:36:37
Speaker 9: like make your mind up, dude.
2:36:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like you know that that waiting game that everyone
2:36:41
Speaker 2: was being forced to play, and then you know the
2:36:44
Speaker 2: school and the thought the department feeling they had to
2:36:46
Speaker 2: react to that.
2:36:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh yeah, just.
2:36:50
Speaker 2: Really interesting and unfortunate storyline in this particular time where
2:36:57
Speaker 2: you want to turn the page and you want to say,
2:36:58
Speaker 2: all right, good luck at Michigan.
2:37:00
Speaker 3: We're done with you. Now. It's all about Morgan Scalley.
2:37:03
Speaker 2: Well it is, but you're also looking at it going like,
2:37:07
Speaker 2: we got to pay thirteen and a half million dollars
2:37:09
Speaker 2: to this guy. We got a couple Kyle Woittingham, Bobby
2:37:12
Speaker 2: Bonia days coming at us for the next couple of years.
2:37:15
Speaker 3: That sucks.
2:37:16
Speaker 9: Yeah, no, And you played there and you were teammates
2:37:20
Speaker 9: with Morgan and you're friends of them, so you know this.
2:37:23
Speaker 9: But over the past couple of weeks we had a
2:37:25
Speaker 9: chance to go up to the facility for a little
2:37:26
Speaker 9: chalk talk with him.
2:37:27
Speaker 3: And you did a great job with your first interview.
2:37:30
Speaker 9: Thank you, and then lucky enough to be able to
2:37:31
Speaker 9: interview him last week that we played here. It's also
2:37:35
Speaker 9: the new podcast. And again I'm not telling you anything,
2:37:37
Speaker 9: you don't know. He's just so ready for this. He
2:37:40
Speaker 9: is so ready for this, and the time is right
2:37:43
Speaker 9: for this to be his program. The feeling up there
2:37:46
Speaker 9: in the building is I'm going to use the term
2:37:49
Speaker 9: refreshing a little bit and I sat next to Jordan
2:37:52
Speaker 9: Gross when we're reading lunch and he said something about
2:37:54
Speaker 9: Morgan that really really struck me. He said, the great
2:37:57
Speaker 9: thing about working for Morgan is that you want to
2:38:00
Speaker 9: do a great job for him, but you don't feel
2:38:01
Speaker 9: like you have to do a great job for him,
2:38:04
Speaker 9: you know. I think, and look, I'm a wit guy,
2:38:06
Speaker 9: love what wit bill here. I think there was a
2:38:09
Speaker 9: little bit of a I mean, Monson used to call
2:38:11
Speaker 9: him the dark Overlord, you know, And I think there's
2:38:15
Speaker 9: a little bit of a feel when Wits around, and
2:38:17
Speaker 9: it's not necessarily a bad thing because that's the intensity
2:38:20
Speaker 9: that makes him a great coach.
2:38:22
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying Morgan's intense.
2:38:23
Speaker 9: I mean, look, you said with Morgan's one of those
2:38:25
Speaker 9: guys when you say with him, you can feel it.
2:38:28
Speaker 9: You know, he's guided in him. But I don't think
2:38:30
Speaker 9: he's a leader that's going to lead with any sort
2:38:32
Speaker 9: of fear. And I think it's probably safe to say
2:38:34
Speaker 9: Kyle did a little bit.
2:38:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, and like that's a leadership style that
2:38:38
Speaker 2: obviously worked incredibly well for Kyle Whittingham for a long
2:38:41
Speaker 2: time at the University of Utah. Morgan's probably gonna have
2:38:44
Speaker 2: to tweak and adjust his leadership style as he goes.
2:38:48
Speaker 2: Right now, I think what this team needs and what
2:38:51
Speaker 2: maybe this community needed was what he's giving it right now. Well, so,
2:38:56
Speaker 2: but now you got to win some football games and
2:38:58
Speaker 2: you got to start that now. Yep, right, first quarter.
2:39:02
Speaker 9: Results over vibes, as I always say, vibes are great,
2:39:05
Speaker 9: but give me results.
2:39:06
Speaker 3: You do always say that, Well, that's just how I'm.
2:39:08
Speaker 9: Built, rooted in substance, not in flash over here Sean, Okay, Dan,
2:39:12
Speaker 9: I love that line. I use that all the time.
2:39:15
Speaker 9: I'll use it to my family, my friends, you know,
2:39:18
Speaker 9: a little disingenuous. But when he said that, when he
2:39:21
Speaker 9: dropped that line prior to the Buffalo game, I'm like,
2:39:23
Speaker 9: that's that's badass. Yeah, today we talk with our pads.
2:39:27
Speaker 9: I know that was built for social media, Dan Lanning,
2:39:29
Speaker 9: but it was still a really cool premium speech.
2:39:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some irony in it where he was just like,
2:39:34
Speaker 2: make sure you get this on camera, make sure you
2:39:37
Speaker 2: get this on camera where I talk about how we
2:39:38
Speaker 2: shouldn't be doing things for the camera.
2:39:40
Speaker 3: Oh wait are you filming?
2:39:41
Speaker 2: Oh man, I'm gonna make I'm gonna make fun of
2:39:43
Speaker 2: Dion we're having everything be about the on camera stuff.
2:39:46
Speaker 3: Make sure you get this.
2:39:47
Speaker 9: It was perfect capitalized on that Dion momentum that certainly
2:39:51
Speaker 9: has died down now, but it was pretty hot for
2:39:52
Speaker 9: a while.
2:39:53
Speaker 3: Hopefully Dion's health is better.
2:39:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, we got lots to talk about for the rest.
2:39:57
Speaker 2: It's great to be back. Thanks for everyone who held
2:40:00
Speaker 2: it down here, especially Spence. Check and stay tuned on
2:40:03
Speaker 2: the Drive Next. ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.