Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Ari Temkin on the best performances by Big 12 teams in week 1, Utah 1-0, Whitt and Michigan's wild ending + more

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Ari Temkin on the best performances by Big 12 teams in week 1, Utah 1-0, Whitt and Michigan's wild ending + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:04
Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
0:06
Speaker 1: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. Football season
0:17
Speaker 1: is back. College football this weekend. Great slate coming up.
0:23
Speaker 1: Arizona and BYU. Utah and Arkansas. NFL tonight. NFL tomorrow night.
0:30
Speaker 1: Ari Temkin is going to be all over all of it.
0:33
Speaker 1: Friend of the program, Big 12 Radio. Tune in at
0:36
Speaker 1: the Big 12 Studios. And he's doing some Cowboys work
0:39
Speaker 1: on the Haymaker Network. Ari, welcome back to the show.
0:42
Speaker 2: How are you, sir?
0:44
Speaker 3: I'm great, OC. How are you, brother?
0:45
Speaker 1: I'm doing awesome, man. We're in football season again. It's
0:50
Speaker 1: a good time of year.
0:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, what could be better? It started last Thursday. The
0:57
Speaker 3: only day off we had was yesterday. We've got NFL
1:00
Speaker 3: football tonight, NFL football tomorrow. Great Kansas-Missouri old rivalry game.
1:05
Speaker 3: First time in Lawrence for that game in 20 years. Like,
1:08
Speaker 3: this is poking straight into my veins, man. Seriously.
1:13
Speaker 2: Who impressed you most in the Big 12 this past weekend?
1:17
Speaker 3: Colorado. Best win by far. You know, and look, you've
1:22
Speaker 3: got to hand it to Julian Lewis. He was not good.
1:25
Speaker 3: Through three and a half quarters, He looked, you know,
1:28
Speaker 3: like the moment was too big. And, you know, he
1:31
Speaker 3: said after the game they had no doubt that they
1:33
Speaker 3: were going to go and score. And glad they didn't
1:36
Speaker 3: because I think we all did. I mean, for three
1:38
Speaker 3: and a half quarters, you looked like you were incapable
1:40
Speaker 3: of scoring. And then they get the ball back down
1:42
Speaker 3: six with 140 left and no timeouts and scored like
1:47
Speaker 3: it was easy. So, you know, I think the big
1:50
Speaker 3: development from that game is their defense, their rush defense
1:54
Speaker 3: in particular, and their rush offense. These are two things
1:57
Speaker 3: that I know you and I talked about heading into
1:59
Speaker 3: the season. I expect that Brennan Marion is going to
2:01
Speaker 3: make a significant difference in their rush offense. And through
2:05
Speaker 3: one week, Michael Welch, who has just not been as
2:09
Speaker 3: effective for Colorado, was extremely effective. And the other rush
2:14
Speaker 3: defense was dominant. Their pass defense struggled, and it almost
2:18
Speaker 3: gave up the game at the end. But I think
2:21
Speaker 3: Deion's got to like where he is after one week.
2:23
Speaker 3: And look, I was critical of Deion last year at
2:25
Speaker 3: times for in-game coaching. I mean, clock management in certain
2:28
Speaker 3: situations was dreadful. And, you know, that changed. I mean,
2:33
Speaker 3: it was clear. The way that he managed the end
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Speaker 3: of the game, taking his time out, and then kind
2:38
Speaker 3: of allowing Colorado to get the ball back with one
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Speaker 3: free left. I just think in every way that game
2:44
Speaker 3: was as masterful as Colorado has not been the last
2:46
Speaker 3: couple of years. So they were super impressive. And for
2:49
Speaker 3: a team that I said, pound the over four and
2:51
Speaker 3: a half, it's a bowl team. They're off to a
2:53
Speaker 3: really good start.
2:57
Speaker 1: I watched Houston and I was like, okay, I think
2:59
Speaker 1: they looked how, how I thought they would look. I
3:03
Speaker 1: don't really know how we judge Oregon state as of yet.
3:07
Speaker 1: Texas tech had less than a perfect game, which I
3:10
Speaker 1: think was encouraging for a lot of people. BYU played
3:14
Speaker 1: a junior college team effectively. The team's at the top
3:17
Speaker 1: of our at least perceived power structure in this Big
3:21
Speaker 1: 12 conference. Did anyone surprise you? Is there anything stronger
3:25
Speaker 1: or shakier than maybe you expected?
3:28
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, let's start with Texas Tech. So, you know,
3:31
Speaker 3: it's really interesting because Tech gets Oregon State this week.
3:35
Speaker 3: And earlier this week, it's like, do you have to
3:39
Speaker 3: stop yourself? Houston and watching the Oregon State-Houston film because
3:44
Speaker 3: they've got Oregon State and Houston in back-to-back weeks, so
3:46
Speaker 3: it's got to be rare that you see kind of
3:48
Speaker 3: a non-conference opponent take on a conference opponent and that
3:51
Speaker 3: you're playing those two teams in successive weeks. And, you know, look,
3:56
Speaker 3: I'm not going to nitpick, but you don't expect Will
3:59
Speaker 3: Hammond to look fully back. I mean, he's not even
4:03
Speaker 3: fully 11 months removed from tearing his ACL. So you
4:07
Speaker 3: expect there to be a little bit of cobwebs that
4:10
Speaker 3: he's got to dust off. I also think, you know,
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Speaker 3: the big picture for me there was I don't know
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Speaker 3: that that defense looks to be as dominant as we expect. Now, again, it's,
4:20
Speaker 3: you know, we're accounting for one team that they played,
4:23
Speaker 3: and so maybe I'm just nitpicking too much. But, you know,
4:26
Speaker 3: this was a dominant defense last year. Last year they
4:29
Speaker 3: were a record-setting defense. from many around the program that, hey,
4:34
Speaker 3: this defense could actually be better, which is just hard
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Speaker 3: to believe, again, considering it's a record-setting defense. I would
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Speaker 3: say one game in, that doesn't appear to be the case.
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Speaker 3: Do they need to be as dominant on defense? Probably not,
4:46
Speaker 3: but if they're not, they're going to need to be
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Speaker 3: better on offense. Through one week, that didn't look like it. Luckily,
4:54
Speaker 3: Big 12 championships aren't won in one week, so they
4:57
Speaker 3: still have some time to turn it around. I'm not
4:59
Speaker 3: sure we can learn much else about anybody else. I
5:01
Speaker 3: do think Oregon State is a much better team than
5:04
Speaker 3: the team from last year. Their quarterback looked really good.
5:08
Speaker 3: He really had an impressive performance against Houston's Pasty. So
5:14
Speaker 3: I'm very curious to see how Texas Tech's Pasty does
5:16
Speaker 3: this week against that same outfit. That would be probably
5:19
Speaker 3: my main takeaway from the team to the top of
5:21
Speaker 3: the conference. I think, look, Utah did what they were
5:23
Speaker 3: supposed to do. I think their rush defense at times
5:27
Speaker 3: was a little bit questionable for those two drives that
5:30
Speaker 3: Idaho had that led to touchdowns. But I also think
5:33
Speaker 3: it's hard to gauge motivation at certain points throughout the game.
5:37
Speaker 3: And ultimately, it was fun to watch Utah. Man, I
5:42
Speaker 3: can't remember the last time I actually had fun watching
5:44
Speaker 3: Utah play offense, and I imagine that's how Utah fans felt, too.
5:47
Speaker 3: And then the other thing is kind of watching Kyle
5:50
Speaker 3: Whittingham crash and burn before the Big Ten gods handed
5:53
Speaker 3: them a victory.
5:55
Speaker 1: Well, there's plenty of meat on the bone with that conversation,
5:58
Speaker 1: and so we might as well get into it. Even
6:02
Speaker 1: without the Utah context on it, this is the biggest
6:05
Speaker 1: story in college football from the weekend, and I haven't
6:09
Speaker 1: heard your fully fleshed out thoughts on it, what should
6:13
Speaker 1: have happened at the end of that game?
6:15
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, let's, let's put the shoe on the
6:17
Speaker 3: other foot. If Western Michigan, you know, down where they were,
6:21
Speaker 3: you know, what Michigan was down to that same circumstance,
6:24
Speaker 3: are they putting a second pack on the clock? No.
6:29
Speaker 3: Hard to think they would. Now, you know, we, we
6:32
Speaker 3: had the Scott Draper on who's kind of the head
6:36
Speaker 3: of football and it's his job to, you know, know
6:38
Speaker 3: the rules and, uh... oversee that we have to about
6:41
Speaker 3: this and you know he brought the fact that there's
6:43
Speaker 3: no tenth of a second in football but there is
6:46
Speaker 3: a time that exists between one second and zero seconds
6:49
Speaker 3: and so essentially that's what they're saying is that time
6:52
Speaker 3: between one second zero second exactly where they were which
6:55
Speaker 3: would be ten for the second which football means you
6:57
Speaker 3: get a playoff it back all means you probably can't
6:59
Speaker 3: catch and shoot you've got to put it but i
7:01
Speaker 3: don't know if there are ten for the second and
7:03
Speaker 3: i don't feel that we're just making up rules in
7:05
Speaker 3: order to make it feel like they she won that
7:07
Speaker 3: game fair and square And the reality is they didn't
7:10
Speaker 3: Western Michigan had that game stolen from them. And I
7:13
Speaker 3: think the NCAA and the Mac completely agree there, but
7:17
Speaker 3: statements they've just released, you know, the reality is, Michigan
7:21
Speaker 3: won this game because the Big Ten absolutely needed Michigan
7:23
Speaker 3: to win this game. Look at Michigan's schedule. They're toast.
7:27
Speaker 3: Rice Underwood was not good. And we know the type
7:30
Speaker 3: of offense that Cal Whittingham likes to run. It's going
7:32
Speaker 3: to be very blot. They're going to play defense. They're
7:34
Speaker 3: going to run the football. They want their quarterback to
7:38
Speaker 3: make a few throws, but it's not going to be
7:39
Speaker 3: the most aggressive outside the box thinking on offense. I
7:44
Speaker 3: don't know if that's going to work. And, you know,
7:46
Speaker 3: even if they win this game, the Michigan outlook to
7:49
Speaker 3: me does not look very good. They've got to play Indiana.
7:51
Speaker 3: They've got to play Ohio State. They've got to play Oregon.
7:53
Speaker 3: I mean, they're playing the three best teams in the
7:55
Speaker 3: Big Ten. I think this team looks certainly after one
7:57
Speaker 3: week like one of the worst, you know, teams in
7:59
Speaker 3: the Big Ten given, you know, they barely... battle. But ultimately,
8:05
Speaker 3: I'm going to pay attention to what they're doing the
8:07
Speaker 3: rest of the season to see if they win the
8:09
Speaker 3: war in terms of being a 500 or better team,
8:11
Speaker 3: because after one week, it doesn't look like it. And,
8:14
Speaker 3: you know, they're certainly getting the benefit of the doubt
8:15
Speaker 3: here based on, you know, some very, very fishy officiating
8:19
Speaker 3: here that was extremely Big Ten friendly. I mean, the
8:21
Speaker 3: game was over. Everybody knew it. Everybody saw it. And
8:25
Speaker 3: yet they put a second back on the clock. Now, look,
8:27
Speaker 3: the other day, Why are you rushing five? Why can't
8:31
Speaker 3: you defend a Hail Mary? These are all things we
8:33
Speaker 3: always ask. You've got to take the game out of
8:35
Speaker 3: the officials' hands. But in this case, it was an
8:37
Speaker 3: egregious second they put back on the clock.
8:42
Speaker 1: Okay, so the correct way for me to look at
8:47
Speaker 1: that whole situation is what does this mean for Utah football?
8:51
Speaker 2: What does it mean that it was.
8:53
Speaker 1: Such a disastrous start for Kyle Whittingham and you know,
8:57
Speaker 1: the opponent was significantly different, but it was a good
8:59
Speaker 1: start for Morgan Scali.
9:01
Speaker 2: You know, is Jason Beck was a.
9:04
Speaker 1: Much sought after offensive coordinator and hit the offense looked terrible.
9:09
Speaker 1: The offensive line looked terrible. And Jim Harding was one
9:11
Speaker 1: of the most sought after offensive line coaches. Is it
9:14
Speaker 1: just what, what Kyle Whittingham does, what they do doesn't
9:18
Speaker 1: work at Michigan. Isn't going to work at Michigan or
9:21
Speaker 1: was this a fluke?
9:25
Speaker 3: Look, I don't think it was a fluke. I do
9:28
Speaker 3: think what Kyle Whittingham does should work at Michigan, right?
9:31
Speaker 3: I mean, when you've got the horses, then you should
9:35
Speaker 3: be able to have a really effective defense. You should
9:38
Speaker 3: be able to run the ball effectively, right? I mean,
9:42
Speaker 3: it's the same exact model that Utah has followed, have
9:46
Speaker 3: a really big offensive line, have a really big and
9:48
Speaker 3: aggressive defensive front. One of the things we talked about
9:51
Speaker 3: with Morgan Scali at Media Days is, You know, what
9:54
Speaker 3: is it about the scouting and development at Utah that
9:57
Speaker 3: it doesn't seem to have made a huge difference for
9:59
Speaker 3: our standpoint, they always seem to turn out quality defensive linemen.
10:03
Speaker 3: And Scali's like, yeah, there's certain traits we're looking for.
10:06
Speaker 3: There's certain things we develop. That's a Fred Whittingham thing
10:09
Speaker 3: that goes back even before Kyle. And so it should
10:13
Speaker 3: work in Michigan, right? Michigan is going to get blue-chip prospects.
10:17
Speaker 3: They're going to get NFL prospects, especially on the offensive
10:20
Speaker 3: and defensive lines. And that was always, in my opinion,
10:24
Speaker 3: what made the SEC head and shoulders above everybody else.
10:28
Speaker 3: They would just hoard NFL talent along offensive and defensive
10:31
Speaker 3: lines and Alabama would line up and they'd run it
10:34
Speaker 3: down your throat and you couldn't do anything to stop it.
10:36
Speaker 3: And you couldn't do anything on offense to combat the
10:39
Speaker 3: strength that they had with a bunch of NFL players
10:41
Speaker 3: along their defensive line. And Michigan should be the same.
10:43
Speaker 3: So I think like the idea here of like playing
10:46
Speaker 3: them straight up, you should be able to be successful
10:48
Speaker 3: is absolutely the case, but you know, without following the,
10:53
Speaker 3: and they're recruiting that closely. I'm not sure if they
10:56
Speaker 3: were sort of caught this first year with a half-baked
10:59
Speaker 3: class in terms of having the right people and right
11:03
Speaker 3: guys up front. It is one week, but, man, it
11:06
Speaker 3: feels like it's said a lot, much in the same
11:08
Speaker 3: way that one week for Oklahoma State seems to have
11:09
Speaker 3: said a lot. you know, you know, this OC, like
11:13
Speaker 3: in football, it's never as bad as it seems. And
11:15
Speaker 3: it's never as good as it seems. And you always
11:18
Speaker 3: want to reserve judgment week to week. For me, I
11:21
Speaker 3: always judge seasons in quarters because if something happens in
11:25
Speaker 3: one game, it's an anomaly. If something happens over three
11:27
Speaker 3: or four games, it becomes a pattern three in college
11:30
Speaker 3: football and four in the NFL. And so, you know,
11:33
Speaker 3: I always reserve judgment for three weeks, but it's hard
11:36
Speaker 3: not to look at that as a this is not
11:39
Speaker 3: a good fit at least year one here. And I
11:42
Speaker 3: feel like Kyle Whittingham looked extremely relieved that they were
11:46
Speaker 3: able to win the game because you could tell like
11:48
Speaker 3: how tense those moments were in the fourth quarter where
11:50
Speaker 3: he could just sense that this thing was not going
11:52
Speaker 3: to go his way. In some ways, I almost felt
11:54
Speaker 3: bad for him, which is weird because I'm, I'm obviously
11:57
Speaker 3: on the Utah side of things and how poorly Whittingham
12:00
Speaker 3: handled it, how well Scali handled it. But it really was,
12:03
Speaker 3: I almost felt bad for him.
12:04
Speaker 1: There, there was, I think a decent amount of questioning
12:10
Speaker 1: about whether or not Bryce Underwood and Kyle Whittingham and
12:16
Speaker 1: maybe Jason Beck by extension, like how well that whole
12:19
Speaker 1: thing jives.
12:20
Speaker 2: Right.
12:21
Speaker 1: And I think that's a valuable question in modern football
12:24
Speaker 1: because Kyle Whittingham has adapted to the new era, but
12:28
Speaker 1: I don't think he's truly embraced the new era. If
12:31
Speaker 1: that makes sense, if I'm saying that the right way
12:33
Speaker 1: and Bryce Underwood is absolutely a product of that new
12:37
Speaker 1: era where he your boosters have as much to do
12:39
Speaker 1: with who your starting quarterback is going to be as
12:42
Speaker 1: your coaching staff does. And with the big ticket NIL
12:46
Speaker 1: deal that is attached to price Underwood's name, a couple
12:50
Speaker 1: of questions were brought up about like, well, if you
12:52
Speaker 1: want to bench this guy, how easy is that to do?
12:56
Speaker 1: Or do you have to make a phone call to
12:58
Speaker 1: Dave Portnoy? And do you have to make a phone
13:00
Speaker 1: call to whoever else? threw some money in there and say,
13:04
Speaker 1: all right, it's not working out. So we have to
13:07
Speaker 1: do this. And that's not just a Michigan question. I
13:10
Speaker 1: think that's a question everywhere. I've asked coaches point blank.
13:14
Speaker 1: Do you have to factor in salary now when you
13:17
Speaker 1: want to bench a guy or play a guy or
13:19
Speaker 1: anything else? How does that play into this Michigan deal?
13:23
Speaker 3: No, I think it very much does. You know, and it's,
13:26
Speaker 3: it's interesting too, because I covered the University of Texas
13:30
Speaker 3: in Austin for a good period of time, and this
13:33
Speaker 3: was back in the early 2010s when this was probably
13:38
Speaker 3: not the case, like what you're asking. I don't know
13:42
Speaker 3: every other school in the country, with the exception of
13:44
Speaker 3: a few, including Texas. Part of the job for Mack
13:47
Speaker 3: Brown wasn't just to coach football was to be a
13:51
Speaker 3: CEO coach, which is now what every coach is expected
13:54
Speaker 3: to be. And at Texas at that point in time,
13:57
Speaker 3: it was, you've got to shake hands and kiss babies.
13:59
Speaker 3: There are a lot of boosters and like they, they
14:02
Speaker 3: need a lot of attention and Mac did it to
14:05
Speaker 3: a tee. It was probably his best skill set at Texas,
14:08
Speaker 3: quite frankly, in that he knew like all of these boosters,
14:12
Speaker 3: not only just their names, but their wives' names, their
14:15
Speaker 3: kids' names, their grandkids' names. Like he went so deep
14:18
Speaker 3: with each of them and that played a crucial role
14:20
Speaker 3: in his success. It was something that in seeing and
14:23
Speaker 3: observing Tom Herman, he was quite frankly, the exact opposite.
14:27
Speaker 3: And so I think like, that's just one example at
14:29
Speaker 3: the University of Texas, but I think that this is
14:31
Speaker 3: the norm now. You do have to placate to certain people.
14:35
Speaker 3: And You know, Kyle Whittingham doesn't strike me as the
14:38
Speaker 3: type where it's like, if I want to bench Bryce Underwood,
14:40
Speaker 3: I'm not calling Dave Portnoy. But that doesn't mean that
14:42
Speaker 3: you have to call Dave, and we're using Dave Portnoy
14:44
Speaker 3: as the example here, but let's insert any Michigan booster,
14:47
Speaker 3: any Michigan millionaire, or in this case, many billionaires, which
14:51
Speaker 3: I'm not sure Portnoy is, but there are many billionaires
14:53
Speaker 3: that went to Michigan that are funding that football and
14:55
Speaker 3: basketball programs. You know, Kyle Strech is the type of
14:58
Speaker 3: guy that may call and may ask for advice or input,
15:01
Speaker 3: but he's not necessarily going to actually do that. He's
15:03
Speaker 3: going to do what he wants, but he's going to
15:05
Speaker 3: placate to them. And I think every coach needs to
15:09
Speaker 3: figure out what exactly that line is, because at the
15:12
Speaker 3: end of the day, all those guys want is to win. Yeah, sure,
15:15
Speaker 3: they want their input, but... Ultimately, if they don't win
15:19
Speaker 3: and then they feel like their input's not being heard,
15:21
Speaker 3: that's an absolute disaster for that coach, which is exactly
15:24
Speaker 3: what happened to Tom Herman. And again, I think this
15:26
Speaker 3: is happening everywhere across the country. Every coach has to decide,
15:30
Speaker 3: who do I have to listen to and at least
15:33
Speaker 3: gauge advice on. And then what do I, what do
15:36
Speaker 3: I do with that information? They're not football coaches. And
15:39
Speaker 3: though many of them are billionaires and have made quality
15:42
Speaker 3: decisions in their businesses to make them billionaires, that does
15:45
Speaker 3: not qualify them to be football coaches. If anything is
15:48
Speaker 3: probably the, quite the opposite. They've got huge egos without
15:50
Speaker 3: much of the substance to follow it up. Just look
15:52
Speaker 3: at Cody Campbell. So, you know, for me, it's, if
15:56
Speaker 3: there's a balancing act there where you, you sort of
15:59
Speaker 3: need to at least placate them to a degree, because
16:01
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, like if you don't
16:03
Speaker 3: win and they don't like you, that is not going
16:06
Speaker 3: to buy you much time. I think Mack Brown bought
16:09
Speaker 3: himself a lot more time at Texas because of those relationships.
16:11
Speaker 3: Tom Roman was the exact opposite. Again, it's more of
16:14
Speaker 3: a metaphor than the specific example we're looking at here.
16:17
Speaker 3: But like, if you play the game, then ultimately that
16:20
Speaker 3: will buy you more time. But I mean, but again, it's,
16:22
Speaker 3: it's a, it is a unrelenting business. You got to
16:26
Speaker 3: win football games. And if you don't, it doesn't matter
16:28
Speaker 3: what you're going to be out.
16:30
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting to, to even think of things through
16:34
Speaker 1: this lens right now, because we're seeing the way that like,
16:39
Speaker 1: and it's, it's framed, it's characterized as broken promises or
16:42
Speaker 1: unkept promises, right? At BYU with the whole like Brian Santiago,
16:47
Speaker 1: Kalani Satake disagreement and, and the situation going on there
16:51
Speaker 1: and i think they seem to be handling it as
16:53
Speaker 1: well as probably can at this juncture of the season
16:56
Speaker 1: but uh... that's a money thing right because when you're
16:59
Speaker 1: talking about unfulfilled promises what we're not talking about well
17:03
Speaker 1: he he said that you know i could i could
17:07
Speaker 1: invite my best friend to the gaming dirt we're talking
17:09
Speaker 1: about right money that is being funneled where it was
17:13
Speaker 1: supposed to or not and in now it's i think
17:17
Speaker 1: bleeding over more than ever into college football, actual decision-making,
17:22
Speaker 1: which is, it begs the question, right? You've got a
17:26
Speaker 1: couple of quarterbacks on Utah's roster. Devin Dampier and Bird
17:29
Speaker 1: Ficklin both showed really nice things, right? And I think
17:35
Speaker 1: that we're going to see that every single game, as
17:37
Speaker 1: long as both of those guys are healthy.
17:39
Speaker 2: At some point, you'd like to keep both.
17:43
Speaker 1: At some point they're getting phone calls from Michigan. So
17:46
Speaker 1: I don't know what you do when we get to
17:48
Speaker 1: the end of this season, if that is the case.
17:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're totally right. And look, I think the reality
17:54
Speaker 3: that we've learned is, you know, every person is different
17:58
Speaker 3: and everybody is motivated differently. And, you know, look, certainly
18:03
Speaker 3: money is a motivating factor, but I think if you've
18:05
Speaker 3: like got a good head on your shoulders and even
18:08
Speaker 3: at 18, 19, 20, and you get good advice from
18:10
Speaker 3: people that genuinely have your best interest at heart, which
18:13
Speaker 3: is far easier said than done. Ultimately, there's such a
18:18
Speaker 3: small amount of these guys that actually make it to
18:21
Speaker 3: the pros and get that pro money, but that money
18:23
Speaker 3: is so much more substantial than anything they could ever
18:25
Speaker 3: get in college. The problem is a lot of these
18:28
Speaker 3: guys are getting really bad advice, and they're being told, hey,
18:30
Speaker 3: you should be starting. You should be doing this. You
18:32
Speaker 3: should be doing that. As long as they're getting good
18:35
Speaker 3: advice and they like the coaching, which appears to be
18:37
Speaker 3: the case with Dampier and Ficklin, then I think all
18:41
Speaker 3: bets are off. The BYU example is really interesting to
18:44
Speaker 3: me because this one seems so easy. It's such a
18:48
Speaker 3: good example. I think you get five reasonable people in
18:52
Speaker 3: a room and you tell them the situation. I don't
18:55
Speaker 3: know that anybody would take Brian Santiago side with all
18:57
Speaker 3: due respect to Brian Santiago, but like you're telling me
19:01
Speaker 3: that on a dollars to dollars comparison, BYU is spending
19:05
Speaker 3: far more money on basketball In comparison to football, again,
19:09
Speaker 3: dollars to dollars, right? So it's the, you know, for
19:13
Speaker 3: every dollar that football is spending, basketball is spending this.
19:16
Speaker 3: At most schools, it's like for every $ 7 being spent
19:20
Speaker 3: on football, it's a dollar in basketball. At BYU, it's
19:23
Speaker 3: closer to free. That is unbelievable, especially when you factor
19:28
Speaker 3: in the output. I mean, Kevin Young is a friend
19:31
Speaker 3: of the program. He's a great guy. I think he's
19:33
Speaker 3: a hell of a basketball coach. But you can't look
19:35
Speaker 3: at me and tell me that that team and program
19:37
Speaker 3: has not drastically underperformed relative to expectations. They haven't done
19:41
Speaker 3: anything in the NCAA tournament and had a lot of
19:44
Speaker 3: NBA talent. On the other side, Kalani Sataki, without the
19:48
Speaker 3: resources that he should have... is making chicken salad, like
19:53
Speaker 3: big-time chicken salad. And for a guy that is not
19:57
Speaker 3: going to... For a guy that's roots are in offensive
20:00
Speaker 3: line play, he's not going to be Dion. He's not
20:04
Speaker 3: going to be screaming for the mountaintops, wanting that money.
20:06
Speaker 3: He is handling it as only Kalani Sataki can. I
20:10
Speaker 3: can't even imagine and begin to imagine the frustrations he
20:12
Speaker 3: must have, not only in terms of resource allocation, but
20:16
Speaker 3: now the fact that you were actually told that you
20:17
Speaker 3: were going to get this and you're not getting it.
20:19
Speaker 3: I would be ticked off if I were Kalani, and
20:21
Speaker 3: I noticed the resource allocation was out of whack without
20:24
Speaker 3: even getting the promise. No, I got the promise. I'm
20:26
Speaker 3: still getting that out of whack. Oh, and by the way,
20:29
Speaker 3: football drives the bus. Football is the major revenue driver
20:34
Speaker 3: in every school. And I say this as an alum
20:36
Speaker 3: at the University of Kansas. This is egregious what's happening
20:40
Speaker 3: at BYU. So, you know, yeah, I think. every situation
20:45
Speaker 3: is different. I think when you look at the motivations
20:47
Speaker 3: of kids, those are different. You try to recruit the
20:50
Speaker 3: right kinds of kids, but you never know until you
20:52
Speaker 3: get them on campus, what they're like. And ultimately you're
20:54
Speaker 3: going to lose some of those guys. You're you want
20:57
Speaker 3: to maintain most of them, but you're going to lose
20:59
Speaker 3: some of them. And, you know, you just, it's like
21:02
Speaker 3: this in radio, man. And it's the truth. You just,
21:05
Speaker 3: I always tell people this. It's like, you can't make
21:08
Speaker 3: all the people happy all the time, but you can
21:11
Speaker 3: make some of the people happy some of the time.
21:14
Speaker 3: And in radio, what it means is like, if I,
21:16
Speaker 3: if you asked your entire audience, what do you want
21:18
Speaker 3: to listen? What do you want to hear about? What
21:19
Speaker 3: do you want to hear about? Every person, most people
21:21
Speaker 3: are gonna have different opinions. Ultimately you talk to a
21:23
Speaker 3: hundred of them and there's going to be a prevailing
21:25
Speaker 3: opinion there. Most of them are going to want to
21:27
Speaker 3: talk about Utah football. But if I asked every person,
21:29
Speaker 3: I'd get a bunch of different answers. And so I'm
21:31
Speaker 3: not going to, I'm not going to make everybody happy.
21:33
Speaker 3: but I can make some people happy some of the time.
21:36
Speaker 3: And that's, again, I think very translatable in life in
21:39
Speaker 3: many fields, especially in this, you can make some people
21:42
Speaker 3: happy some of the time, but you can't make all
21:45
Speaker 3: of the people happy all of the time. And that's,
21:47
Speaker 3: that's really what it is.
21:48
Speaker 2: All right.
21:50
Speaker 1: Temkin for a couple more minutes here on the Sean
21:52
Speaker 1: O'Connell show. So what does BYU versus Arizona look like?
21:57
Speaker 1: This is the first kind of like premier Big 12
22:00
Speaker 1: versus Big 12 matchup we get for the season.
22:03
Speaker 2: It happens in week two.
22:05
Speaker 1: Brent Brennan and his team have, I think, something to
22:08
Speaker 1: say about the conference championship before it's all said and done.
22:13
Speaker 2: Do they make a splash in week two?
22:19
Speaker 3: I love that this game is week two here, and
22:23
Speaker 3: then we have Texas Tech-Houston week three, because I would say,
22:27
Speaker 3: are these two teams that I expect to be playing
22:30
Speaker 3: in Arlington? No, but these are certainly two of the
22:33
Speaker 3: five best teams in the conference preseason-wise, so we're going
22:37
Speaker 3: to get a pretty good gauge for both of these squads. Obviously,
22:41
Speaker 3: Texas Tech and Houston as well next week. I think
22:45
Speaker 3: when it comes to BYU and Arizona, it's so interesting
22:47
Speaker 3: because BYU's biggest question this year is their passing attack.
22:52
Speaker 3: They were not a consistent downfield passing threat last year
22:55
Speaker 3: because they had a true freshman. There were limitations, especially
22:57
Speaker 3: early on in the year. Ultimately, you know, I, I,
23:05
Speaker 3: the question this year is, okay, do they have, are
23:08
Speaker 3: they going to have any more consistent downfield pass attack? And,
23:11
Speaker 3: and though I think legend Glasgow looked unbelievable week one,
23:14
Speaker 3: it remains to be seen with Casper and everything else
23:16
Speaker 3: they've added with their tight ends, if they're going to
23:18
Speaker 3: have that. And then for Arizona, this was one of
23:20
Speaker 3: the best secondaries in college football last year. And, you know,
23:23
Speaker 3: two of those guys at safety are going to be
23:25
Speaker 3: playing in the NFL on, on Sunday. Um, and one
23:30
Speaker 3: of their replacements at safety is actually a walk-on who
23:33
Speaker 3: had an interception and was not even close to the
23:36
Speaker 3: radar before the season started, you know, before fall camp started.
23:40
Speaker 3: So for me, like the battle here comes down to
23:44
Speaker 3: the biggest weakness for BYU also is a big weakness,
23:48
Speaker 3: AKA question mark for Arizona. It's that pass offense against that,
23:52
Speaker 3: you know, past defense, which was so good last year,
23:54
Speaker 3: but lost four guys to the NFL draft and five
23:57
Speaker 3: guys overall. So I, that's the most interesting, you know,
24:01
Speaker 3: game within the game here. I do expect BYU to
24:04
Speaker 3: win this game because I do think that they're the
24:07
Speaker 3: better team, but, you know, we didn't see Isaiah Glass
24:09
Speaker 3: for week one. I expect that we'll see him week two. We,
24:12
Speaker 3: you know, Raider to Mooney now is going to be
24:14
Speaker 3: out now for, you the foreseeable future. I had questions
24:17
Speaker 3: about their secondary heading into the season because they lost
24:19
Speaker 3: Jay Hill and you know, it was so good. So
24:22
Speaker 3: will it maintain that level, especially without the Mooney? I,
24:25
Speaker 3: that to me is so interesting about this week, but
24:27
Speaker 3: I do think and see a BYU winning.
24:29
Speaker 1: It's going to be a fascinating weekend all over college football,
24:35
Speaker 1: Utah versus Arkansas, obviously right here in Salt Lake city,
24:39
Speaker 1: Arkansas is not exactly the best the sec has to offer,
24:43
Speaker 1: which makes the game, I think that much more important
24:46
Speaker 1: for Utah. You have to look good against this Arkansas team.
24:50
Speaker 1: How do you see the Utah-Arkansas.
24:52
Speaker 2: Game playing out, Ari?
24:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, this is such an important
24:56
Speaker 3: game for the Big 12. Big 12 went 0-4 against
24:58
Speaker 3: the SEC last year. And, you know, 0-1 so far
25:02
Speaker 3: with Baylor losing basically a coin flip, you know, to Auburn.
25:07
Speaker 3: And then there's the Arkansas-Utah game, Kansas-Missouri, and Texas-Arizona State.
25:11
Speaker 3: Find me a win there. Let's see. It's Utah, Arkansas.
25:15
Speaker 3: That's the one. So the Big 12, and this is
25:18
Speaker 3: the last opportunity for the Big 12 in SEC this season.
25:22
Speaker 3: So the Big 12 needs a win here, maybe two.
25:25
Speaker 3: One would be nice, though, and certainly the one that
25:28
Speaker 3: jumps out would be the one between Utah and Arkansas. Um,
25:33
Speaker 3: it's an absolute stud. He had eight sacks and 15
25:35
Speaker 3: and a half tackles for loss last year for Arkansas. Um,
25:37
Speaker 3: you know, so he's an all sec guy and they've
25:41
Speaker 3: got a lot of new starters along their defense, but
25:43
Speaker 3: that guy is not new. And so I think like
25:46
Speaker 3: that's the one they've got to account for because we
25:48
Speaker 3: don't really have a gauge yet of what that Utah
25:50
Speaker 3: offensive line looks like. Now, with that being said, I
25:52
Speaker 3: think we put far too much stock into, Hey, they
25:55
Speaker 3: lost two guys to the NFL on the offensive line
25:58
Speaker 3: and not as much stock as we probably should have
26:00
Speaker 3: put into, Hey, look at this innovative offense. That's actually
26:03
Speaker 3: fun to watch. I mean, we saw bird fickle line
26:06
Speaker 3: up in the backfield. We saw him lined out wide.
26:08
Speaker 3: We saw that tight end line up in the backfield.
26:10
Speaker 3: What a fun, what a fun team to watch. So
26:13
Speaker 3: like we really aren't used to say with Utah football
26:15
Speaker 3: and offense. So sometimes that's the great equalizer, right? Like,
26:19
Speaker 3: if you want to play straight up and run downhill
26:21
Speaker 3: and play good defense, like you better have a really
26:23
Speaker 3: good offensive line. But if you, if you do some
26:26
Speaker 3: window dressing, some preset movement, you are multiple and you know,
26:31
Speaker 3: your personnel packages. If you know, if you run out
26:33
Speaker 3: of spread sets, run out of 11 personnel and throw
26:36
Speaker 3: on a 13 personnel, right? Like these are things that
26:38
Speaker 3: I think really innovative offenses are starting to do that.
26:41
Speaker 3: We haven't seen as much from Utah. I'd love to
26:44
Speaker 3: see more of that. And I think that again is
26:46
Speaker 3: kind of a great equalizer of, of, Hey, maybe our
26:48
Speaker 3: offensive line is not as good as it was, by
26:49
Speaker 3: the way, that's a high expectation considering we're talking about
26:52
Speaker 3: two first round picks. Most teams don't have one along
26:54
Speaker 3: the offensive line, let alone two on the same line.
26:57
Speaker 3: So those are big shoes to fill. And though we
27:00
Speaker 3: know we're, we're maybe not as good there. Now we
27:03
Speaker 3: can do some things that, that allow for our play
27:05
Speaker 3: calling to really compliment the fact that, you know, we're
27:08
Speaker 3: not going to play you as quote unquote straight up
27:10
Speaker 3: and look, the best offenses in football are doing that.
27:13
Speaker 3: I mean, you look at, at Ben Johnson with the
27:15
Speaker 3: Chicago bears, you look at, Some of the most innovative
27:18
Speaker 3: offensive minds, Sean McVay, it's the same stuff, right? It's
27:21
Speaker 3: throwing out a 13 personnel. It's running out of 11
27:23
Speaker 3: or 10 personnel. It's it's just, it's the pre-snap stuff.
27:28
Speaker 3: It's all that window dressing that, that draws the defense's
27:31
Speaker 3: eyes and forces them to have to adjust and think.
27:34
Speaker 3: And I think that's, we're going to see way more
27:35
Speaker 3: of Utah with, so I'm really excited to see this game.
27:38
Speaker 3: It is again, a game that is of huge importance
27:40
Speaker 3: to the big 12. And it's a game, the big
27:43
Speaker 3: 12 really needs.
27:45
Speaker 1: This one is apropos of almost nothing, but I think
27:48
Speaker 1: people here in Salt Lake have always paid close attention
27:51
Speaker 1: to Boise State because of their rivalries with Utah State,
27:54
Speaker 1: with BYU, and just the similarity in status that Boise
28:00
Speaker 1: State came from the same spot that Utah and BYU
28:03
Speaker 1: have been able to graduate out of. They tested Oregon
28:06
Speaker 1: pretty firmly. Is that more a commentary on Boise State
28:10
Speaker 1: or on Oregon?
28:13
Speaker 3: Take a little bit of both, you know, I mean,
28:16
Speaker 3: Evan Stewart must a punt and, you know, and then
28:19
Speaker 3: a play later, Boise state cashes in, you know, there
28:22
Speaker 3: was some really a lot of penalties for Oregon. It
28:25
Speaker 3: was just a very sloppy game and Oregon did itself
28:29
Speaker 3: no favors in that game. Now you can make the
28:31
Speaker 3: same case for Oklahoma state and Oklahoma state at nearly
28:34
Speaker 3: 400 yards of total offense. They had, I mean, they
28:37
Speaker 3: basically beat Tulsa in every offensive category. The problem was
28:39
Speaker 3: they had far too many turnovers. They were really bad
28:42
Speaker 3: on short yardage, especially third and one or fourth and one.
28:46
Speaker 3: And like they, they were shut out multiple times on
28:49
Speaker 3: fourth down. I mean, it just could not get out
28:51
Speaker 3: of their own way. So, I mean, I think both games,
28:56
Speaker 3: But probably more Oregon. I just chalk it up to
28:59
Speaker 3: week one stuff against a pretty good group of 16
29:04
Speaker 3: that will very much be in the playoff race. So
29:08
Speaker 3: I hope that Oklahoma State looks a little bit better. Again,
29:14
Speaker 3: the short yardage stuff was just wild to me because
29:18
Speaker 3: I wonder if Eric Morris kind of felt like, I
29:21
Speaker 3: could do the same play calling that I'm used to
29:23
Speaker 3: doing with a brand new team. I mean, there's 91
29:25
Speaker 3: new players. I don't think, like, we have a sense of, like, yeah,
29:29
Speaker 3: you can make that work immediately, but, like, are you
29:31
Speaker 3: kidding me? That's 91 new guys. Like, that has to
29:33
Speaker 3: take time. But we just live in a world right
29:36
Speaker 3: now where you expect that it will immediately take. And
29:39
Speaker 3: even though a lot of those guys... a handful of them,
29:41
Speaker 3: are from North Texas, that's still a brand new team.
29:43
Speaker 3: Even if you brought your entire new team with you,
29:45
Speaker 3: that's still a new team and a new season. I
29:46
Speaker 3: hope Oklahoma State shows up a little bit better than
29:51
Speaker 3: it did last week against Tulsa. But I mean, that
29:56
Speaker 3: is just going to be an absolute, it's going to
29:58
Speaker 3: be a tough one because Oregon is going to be
30:00
Speaker 3: mad coming off the way that they played. And, you know, again,
30:03
Speaker 3: I think they did some things in that game that
30:04
Speaker 3: kind of allowed Boise state to stay in it.
30:08
Speaker 1: I could pick your brain all day, but we got
30:10
Speaker 1: to try to get to a break. I suppose, even
30:12
Speaker 1: though it's way over time, are you the man appreciate
30:15
Speaker 1: you as always enjoy this weekend.
30:16
Speaker 2: We'll chat again next week.
30:17
Speaker 3: Okay. Take care, OC. See you, brother. Be well. Thank you.
30:21
Speaker 2: Ari Tebkin, great stuff, as always, from him.
30:24
Speaker 1: Encyclopedia of knowledge on all things Big 12 and really
30:27
Speaker 1: college football.