Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Robert "Rojo" Johnson on his expectations for the Morgan Scalley era, Derrick Odum returning as safety coach, Super Bowl preview + more

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Robert "Rojo" Johnson on his expectations for the Morgan Scalley era, Derrick Odum returning as safety coach, Super Bowl preview + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's the best, Claire, It's the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You were home of the best inside of your hutes.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Let's get back to woe.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: C from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of the ESPN seven
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: hundred ninety two one am.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: And welcome back to the Shan O'Connell Show.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Welcome in, Rojo, legend in the Utah football world. Robert
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Johnson kind enough to join us here on the Sean
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: O'Connell Show.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Rojo, how are you, sir?
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: I'm doing good. How y'all doing today?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Man doing great? Glad we get a chance to catch
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: up with you. We'll talk a little utes. We'll talk
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: some pro football as well, with the Super Bowl coming
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: up this weekend. Uh, it's been a minute, so, I
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: mean it's kind of old news now, but it's it's
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: not really because we still don't know what the Morgan
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Scully era is going to look like. I just want
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to let you get on record and tell me what
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: your expectations are for Morgan Scalley taking over this program,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a place where he's been for his entire coaching career
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and his playing career.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, I know for a fact that coach Kelly
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: gonna do good. He's going to do good. It's just
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: we just have to be patient as fans because at
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: the end of the day, this is Coach Scaley being
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: a head coach. You know, we know got used to
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: him being a defensive coordinator or I mean, for you
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: in my case, a GA or a player, you know,
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: things like that. But I believe that he's going to
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: do an awesome job. He already making some changes. He made,
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: He made some quick changes, some big changes. I was like, okay, but.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: We just have to be patient and.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Give time for growth. But then on top of that,
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: give time to let coach Scally put the program where
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: he wants it to be and just continue it to
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: be as high as we wanted when we had coach
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: with her.
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  Speaker 1: You were part of the early days of Kyle Whittingham,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: same thing, taking over as a first time head coach
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: after being a long time assistant in the program and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: as a long time coordinator, and you know that transition
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: because of the legendary achievements that happened throughout the years,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: like some people easily forget, or maybe some of the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: people listening weren't even born when it was happening. But
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: it wasn't always so perfect and smooth, right, So take
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: me back to those early days and obviously you were
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: part of massive, massive success, but not only massive success.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: There were growing pains even when you were on this roster.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: What did those look like and how did you and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the coaching staff overcome them in that time?
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, like thinking back, like my very first year
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: here at the University of Utah, that was back in
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: two thousand and seven, and it's the fans remember that year.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: That was the year I think we barely made a
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: bowl game. We played the points at a bowl game
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: against Navy, and that year was it was a tough year.
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: It was. It was up and down. But then we
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: finally figured it out. It's a time and we figured
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: it out because we lost that year to Force at home,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: and you know that was something that you're not used
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  Speaker 4: to seeing. And then we lost the UNLV in Vegas
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: that year. But then towards the end of the season,
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  Speaker 4: we figured it out because coach Coach Witt stayed with
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: the plan and we figured it out. And as the
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: fans are listening, we wind up taking that went taking
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: those wins, and then they wind up pushing us into
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: that undefeated season for the next year. But it took time.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Like I just was mentioning, it took time those growing pains.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: It's a lot of times you have to be able
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  Speaker 4: to be a coach. Like the way coach Witt was
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: look at it put the players in positions to be
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  Speaker 4: to be successful. I think coach Scalley will be pulling
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  Speaker 4: in that exact same mindset that you might have a
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  Speaker 4: Paul Krueger that was a quarterback and then it's like, hey,
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: we got to put them at the end and he
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  Speaker 4: wind up being really good for the team. So it
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  Speaker 4: just takes a lot of patients and it takes a
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  Speaker 4: lot of we have to try things to see what
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  Speaker 4: makes sense. And I think Coach Scalley is going to
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  Speaker 4: fully do that and the fans just need to be
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  Speaker 4: okay with it. There's going to be some years it's
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: going to be rough, but is going to be a
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  Speaker 4: lot of success that's going to be looking forward for
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  Speaker 4: the future.
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  Speaker 1: You have a unique role because of you know, your
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: status with the program, but also the fact that you
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: know you're in that world educating young people and being
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: able to say, hey, I've walked in these shoes before,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I followed this path. I made it to the league,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: which is what every high school athlete, every transfer coming
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: into the University of Utah, that's what they want to do. Right,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: So we talk about patients for the fan base, how
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: do you preach patients to players who now exist in
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: a system unlike when you were playing or when I
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was playing, or you don't have to be patient if
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh man, we had an eight and four year.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: We had a seven and five year. But I'm a
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: good player. I don't need to stay here and see
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: what next year can be. I don't need to see
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  Speaker 1: if we can go from nine to four to thirteen
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and zero because us he's calling me, or Texas has
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: called me, or whatever, because I've shown my individual talents.
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  Speaker 1: How do you preach patients from a program perspective from
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: a player perspective?
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  Speaker 4: That's one of the toughest questions to answer, because we
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: all know nowadays that.
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  Speaker 2: Nil money is big, Like I even like me and.
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  Speaker 4: Some of the boys back then that we played together,
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  Speaker 4: we cracked jokes about like what would you left, you know,
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  Speaker 4: like if this team was giving you one hundred thousand,
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: like would you have left? And things like that and
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: every every player has its own Every player has different situations,
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  Speaker 4: So it becomes hard to have a really great player
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: or a player that's potentially about to hit, about to
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: become great, and having that player sitting on a bench
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: and then you have a usc that's calling and it's
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  Speaker 4: time to go. It's like I have the money they
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: pay me. It's really hard to just answer it with
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: the with a full hundred percent answer. But what I
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  Speaker 4: can answer from my experience is that me coming here
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  Speaker 4: to the university in Utah, it was one of the
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  Speaker 4: best decisions that I made, and that was because the
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: coaches allowed me to develop into the person that I
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  Speaker 4: was in. The system that was that was installed at
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  Speaker 4: that when I was playing, was one of the best
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  Speaker 4: systems that fit me. So I would tell players that
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: if they're listening, that you need to find a system
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  Speaker 4: that fits you. Don't just chase the money, trust me,
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  Speaker 4: find the system, because systems can make a player good
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: and systems can make a player bad. So you know,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: you kind of see some of that with the nil
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  Speaker 4: money being thrown around with some of these college players
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: where they wind up leaving, then they wind up not
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: having a good year at the college that they were at.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: Then they try to go back to the college that
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: they was at, then they start chasing the coaches. It's
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: it's just it's a lot of different variables that can
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  Speaker 4: click into this type of situation of the new generation
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  Speaker 4: in iol money.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if I tell myself and people on
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  Speaker 1: the air this to make myself feel better or what.
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  Speaker 3: But I mean, the numbers say it.
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  Speaker 1: There have not been a lot of guys who have
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: left Utah and had that work out better in the
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  Speaker 1: new spot, right, Yeah, that's true.
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  Speaker 3: There's been There's been a couple of guys who've done great.
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  Speaker 3: You know. The Quentin Jackson is probably the best exam.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: He went to Arkansas and he had you know, when
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: he stay was healthy, he was great there and that's
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  Speaker 1: that's the type of player he is. Whatever, there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot more examples of guys who think the grass is
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  Speaker 1: going to be greener on the other side and it's not.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: And very specifically guys who leave Utah and end up
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  Speaker 1: and they see a role reduced elsewhere or whatever. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: do you learn from other people's example when you take
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: yourself back to when you're you know, nineteen twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: years old. You're a college football player, the world is
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: your oyster, You're the big man on campus. Whatever do
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  Speaker 1: you look at and say, well, man, this receiver who
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: left and we went to USC, he ended up having
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: like three catches, man. Or this guy we thought was
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: gonna be good playing at Alabama he ended up having
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: two tackles in the whole dang year at Alabama. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: I shouldn't leave. Or do you have to make at
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: that age group? Do you have to make mistakes yourself
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  Speaker 1: before you really learn?
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  Speaker 4: I believe that as an eighteen year old, you're looking
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: at money. Fair, you're looking at money. It kind of
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  Speaker 4: like my example of myself when I came here as
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: a jerior college transfer. You have to remember Steve Tate
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: was to start in safety yep, and then and then
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Joe Dale was a returning safety, like he was reaching,
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: so he played. He played a little bit last year
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  Speaker 4: and he was a returner. So when I came here,
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  Speaker 4: I did not even have a plan in my brain
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  Speaker 4: of like I will be starting at some point. I
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  Speaker 4: just came here because I remember telling Kasataki, yo, I
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: just need to make sure you get my degree, and
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: he was like, I could promise you a degree, no
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: matter what it is, no matter what the season looked like.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: I could promise you that, and that was one of
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: the main reasons. But then once again going back to
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: exactly what I said, everybody's situation is a little bit different,
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  Speaker 4: but I believe that most eighteen year olds, it's about
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: the money. And it's sad that this is how it's
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: going now, but it's about the money. And you do
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: have some players that will stay because of the coaches
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: or stay because the program fits the system that they have,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: but it's just it's far and beyond because you're totally right,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: it's a lot of players. As I was sitting there
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: thinking as you said it, it's a lot of players
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  Speaker 4: that I have left Utah and they have not had
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: a really good experience leaving, and then they wind up
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: coming back, or some of them wind up coming back.
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  Speaker 4: So it's one of those things of just as an
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: eighteen year old, everybody has to look into it and
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: see what fits them and makes them go good or
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: make them want to do stuff.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Robert Johnson is my guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: We're talking a little Utah football right now.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Do you know coach owed him he's back to be
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the safety's coaches you play for.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Him, Yeah, coaches, he's my guy. Like h between between
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: him and coach to take a funny story that we
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: talk about is that my first year here, the first
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: three games I didn't play. I didn't play, and going
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: into that UCLA week when we wind up destroying UCLA.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: You know, we beat him.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: You know, they was ranked eleven. We beat him forty
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: four to six. But that week leading up to that week,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: I wasn't playing much and I remember going to coach
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Old him was like, yeah, just send me home, Like
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: just send me closer, to send me close to LA
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: so I can play a little bit or at least
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: have my family I can see. And I just remember
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: him and coast of Tacky both was just like hey,
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: like you're going to start this week like you sure
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: you want to leave? And it's like, oh, well, I
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: guess I'm going to stay. And you and coach Odham,
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: he the one that him between coach of Hockey getting
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: me here to the University of Utah and coach Oden's
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: seeing something within me that just was like, Rojo will
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: be a better free safety than a strong safety. I
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: think that right there it clicked and we changed up
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: the defense a little bit, because you remember, back then,
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: we used to have the rock and roll where it
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: was like both like all the safeties was pretty much
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: the same signs, and if there was a receiver or
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: tight end that motion to the other side, we call
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: it rock and roll, where the other safety that's in
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: the post will come down to be in the box
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: and the box safety bumps back to be the post.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: But Coach Odam and Coasta Takey as well as Coach Anderson,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: they just was like, how about we just keep Rojo
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: back deep, so if that tight end motion's over, we'll
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: just send Steve Tate to the other side instead of
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: him bumping back. I believe that Coach Olden was a big,
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: a big component of that, and he helped out a lot,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: and it made our defense change over the years. And
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: then on top of that, it made me a better
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: player knowing that I can play a real true free
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: safety and play number to number and cover the field
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: and be the human eraser. So I know a lot
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: about Coach Oldham and he helped a lot with my.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Career, and I want to I love that story and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I just want to stress and express for people like
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you have to remember when we're talking about a minor
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: tweak like that being made to a Utah defense, this
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: is a Utah defense that came from Fred Whittingham through
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Kyle Whittingham. Like, it's not one that is an easy thing.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: It has to make sense if changes are going to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: be made because it's been so successful on down the years.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: So to adjust something like that, it takes a lot
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: from a whole coaching staff working together and to be
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: a guy who's even willing to propose that to it.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like that for a coach.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: It's something that's so small, But then a lot of
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: fans probably wouldn't even understand it unless you go look
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: at the stats, because when you start looking at the stats,
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: you'll see that most of the safeties the years prior
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: before I came, we was making hundred plus tackles and
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: we was always the the non coountant player in the box,
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: So we're the one that was making the tackles as
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: the linebackers was sacrificing.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And what I mean by sacrificing.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Fans, so you can clearly get it is that if
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: there's a fullback that's about to come down the block.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: It's normally the it used to be the linebackers will
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: go take that block to free up a safety to
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: go make the tackle. But then when I kind of
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: came into the system, it switched it up a little
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: bit where now it was like, well, we don't even
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: need to have a hundred tackle safety a hundred tackle
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: safeties for the season because now we got one safety
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: that's going to stick back there. So now we can
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: start lighting them up and start blitzing them from all
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: different angles because now it's the safety that can really
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: cover full field. So that's kind of where we went
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: undefeated at because if you go back and look at
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: that season, we was blitzing, like coach Anderson, we was
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: blitzing a whole lot, and it was a lot of
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: times that Coach Anderson, as well as coach Coach Scally
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: as my safeties coach and coach Odum, that was like, well,
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Rojo's gonna cover the whole field, so we can play
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: press men and Rojo just cover. And it just worked
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: out really, really well, and the defense did change. We
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: still had our common stuff, but it changed a lot.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: When I wind up staying at free safety.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: A beautiful thing for everyone to look back on.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: You can always find the Sugar Bowl highlights that are
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: available on YouTube and everywhere else. I want to switch gears,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: talk a little NFL with you here. I mean, we're
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: watching this weekend. We're watching a super Bowl where the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Patriots are back, and the Seattle Seahawks, with Sam Bleeping
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Donald as their starting quarterback, are the heavy favorite in
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: this super Bowl. And obviously, I mean Donald's this is
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: this is his third this is fourth stop.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Fourth, Yeah, it's his fourth.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: His fourth stop.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: And even when he won games for the Minnesota Vikings,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: they still weren't convinced that he was capable of what
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: he's been showing us in Seattle. And and now he's
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: on the brink potentially of being not only a super
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Bowl champion, but you know, he'd be one of the
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: guys we probably put as a favorite to be.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl MVP.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: What is it?
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: What should we learn from a story like this Rojo
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: where a guy perseveres through you know, backup situation, expected
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to be a great player, but you're with the Jets,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and it's hard to be a great player with the Jets.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: And then even when you win with the Vikings, they say,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: NA see you later. What should we learn as fans
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: from this?
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Just being consistent, like Sam Darnold, you've been.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Through a whole lot and mentioning it again. System system fits,
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: some systems don't. Maybe the system that was with the
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: New York Jets, it didn't fit them. They didn't fit
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: his style. But he was drafted there, and it's you know,
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: everybody can't can't be be Eli Manning where you kind
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: of request that I'm not going to play for you
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: unless I go for another team when you get drafted.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: But in Sam Darnald case, I'm really happy and proud
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: of him. He's one of those I don't know him
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: as a personal level, but I do know from what
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: I've seen and I've heard, is that you know, he
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: was always consistent. He made sure that what they say,
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: bank on yourself, you know, or bet on yourself, he
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: bet on himself and it's working out. Not too many
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: people can get to the super Bowl and think about this.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: Fans like Dan Marino never made it to a super Bowl.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: From my understanding, he never never have never even played
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: anyone from my understanding of what I read.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: But then you got somebody named Sam Darnald that come
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: in and bounced around through different systems, different team, different organizations,
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: but somehow, some way, he figured out a way to
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: bettle himself that he can get things done. And now look,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: he's in the Super Bowl with an opportunity to be
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: one of the greatest teams, to be one of the
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: to be in the record books. I'll say as as
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: one of those NFL Super Bowl teams.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: We were talking about that system fit earlier because we
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: were looking at the mock draft and ESPN's mocked they
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: got the first and second rounds and they've got two uts.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: In the first round, I got Spencer Fano going to
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the Browns, which for obvious reasons, I'm like, man, great
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: to be a number six overall pick, but who wants
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to be with the Browns because you're.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Ever gonna win anything.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And then and Caleb Lomboill going too the San Francisco
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: forty nine ers, where the expectation would be that he
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: would back up Trent Williams, who's one of the all
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: time greats at the position, And I'm like, man, that
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: to me is a perfect example of how, yeah, it's
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: wonderful to be that top pick, but man, that's gonna
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: be tough sledding potentially with a Browns organization versus if
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: you can be a little bit later on in the
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: draft and in that type of offense where there's so
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: much value placed on offensive linemen and you're understudying behind
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: someone like Trent Williams.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Like, I get it.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: We all want to be the number one pick or
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: the number five pick instead of the number twenty haven't picked,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: But that's a fit situation for me.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, well think about this though. Think about Denver
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: Broncos Garrett Bo's you.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Remember, yeah, perfect, and when he got there, Denver was not.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: Good at all. They was, It was not good. I
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: felt like the organization was going to get sold at
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: some point, like that's where they was at. But then
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: Garret bose, he bowed out and did what he needed
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: to be doing, and he made sure to stay loyal
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: to them and worked hard, and they almost had the
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: opportunity to make it to the super Bowl this year,
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: where you would never think that Denver was going to
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: be pretty good. But throughout the years Garrett stayed there
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: and he did exactly what he needed to do. I mean,
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: if if Spence Fnal get get drafted to the Cleveland Browns.
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: It sucks, I say, oh it's great. No, it sucks,
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: But I feel like Cleveland Browns might their organization might
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: start putting the right pieces around the most important position.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: So if they do draft them, they already got quarterbacks.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: They got quarterbacks. It's quarterbacks that's pretty solid. Running backs
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: that's pretty solid. And see what happens. Because any getting
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: a Sunday, a team can win, and give a Sunday
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: a team can lose. And if you think about some
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: of these teams that was not as good, they're all
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: of a sudden becoming better. And then the teams I
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: was really good, they're not even making the playoffs. So
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: it just matters about what system you fall into. But
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: then also can the player be consistent and bet on themselves?
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: As a former Tennessee Titan, how do you process that
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: organization moving on from Mike Rabel and then him being
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl two years later?
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: All I can say is that go Titans. You know,
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: tighten up, you know. That's all I can say. But
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: because I mean, like the fans, I don't think the
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: fans really know that I'm a Raiders fan, like I'm
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: a full time Raiders fan, but then I'm a Titans
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: fan as well because they drafted me. Both of the
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: organizations are they talked about organizations that just can't get right.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: It's getting tough.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: So Fernana Mendoza to the Raiders, you think that'll be
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a good fit if that's where they take him.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: I was, I was saying that that would be a good,
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: good start because right now, I guess I'm more of
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: one of those guys that's like, let's just win more
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: games than we won last year.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Let's win more of this game.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Like if we won three last year, let's just win
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: four and then and now we're doing good. But yet
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: getting him will be a really good, really good thing
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: to do. But then you got to work on the
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: biggest and the most important piece. Like if most of
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: us football players, we know the most important piece when
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: it comes to playing football is the d lineman. It's
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: the big boards. You got to be able to control that.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: And I feel like register Raiders or the Titans, or
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: just you look at all the team you look at
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: the teams that's now in the Super Bowl, Like you
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: have offensive lineman that's really good, you have defensive lineman
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: that's really good. Then the ones that wins most of
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: those games. Don't get me wrong. The fantasy the quarterback
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: throwing the ball and the running back running, Yeah, that's
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: the excitement part. But the dirty part is the trenches,
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: the big boys. You gotta have the big boys right.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: If you don't have your big boys right, then it
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: kind of it messes up a lot of things. Can't
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: protect the quarterback, or can't get to the quarterback, or
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: can't stop the run or can run. So you have
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: to remember that as US football players that played, offensive
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: line is the most important piece. So you can put
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: a camp Moore at that quarterback and he's awesome, but
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: how he's supposed to look if the offensive line can't
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: hold their blocks long enough for him, And then it
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: turned into how quick he might get injured.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Well, we saw that in playoffs with the Chargers going
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: up against the Broncos and the just getting murdered.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Like, yeah, you gotta.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Look at the Texans.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: We run the playoffs. The Texans they pretty much won
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: because they deliged like they delined, like who they played against,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: because I didn't know CJ had a terrible game. But
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: then the d line played so good. They even scored
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: on defense. I think I can't remember what game that
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: was in the playoffs, but it was like, this is
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: what matters. The D line and the offensive line is
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: what's the most important piece to sometimes having successful programs
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: or success for organizations, to having bad programs or bad organizations.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: With that in mind, and I agree with you one
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: hundred percent, Like one of the bright spots, one of
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the few bright spots on this Raiders roster is Max Crosby,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: who's an excellent pass rusher, and that's a huge part
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Right now.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: You could try to keep building talent around him, or
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: you could say, hey, you know we're too far away
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: right now, let's ship out Max Crosby and get back
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: like four picks, probably two first round picks for him.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: What would you do if I put you in charge
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and I say you're managing this roster now, Rojo, would
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: you keep Max Crosby or would you use him to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: maximize draft capital?
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: My biggest thing, We'll look at the draft players, the
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: players that's being drafted, what's available, because you never know,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: you could probably get a Max Crosby from an income
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: and draft pick that's coming in, and you get him
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: for the cheaper and then say, if you ship off Max,
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: you eat your four picks. You can wind up getting
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: another Max Crosby and in turn around to get offensive
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: linemen and get some weapons to get around the running
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: back that the Raiders have. But it's one of those
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: like it's sometimes it's it's a smart move when you
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: do it, and it's and it's good. It's a dumb
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: move when you do it, and it doesn't make sense
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: talking about the Raiders really fast. They got rid of Mac.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: I couldn't understand that they traded Mac yard. Remember Mac
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: like the best, one of the best defensive linemen. Now
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: he's with the Chargers. But that trade right there, it
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: set the organization back because you trade, you trade one
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: of the.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Best defensive linemen and you get picks, but you.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: Didn't use the picks the right way. So in my case,
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I will keep Max unless I see somebody that just
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: jumps off the board. That's just like you watching them
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: on film, it's like they fit the system really well
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: and they're cheaper. Let's get rid of Max and bring
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: in some picks that we can do what we need
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: to do. So it's a matter it's different variables again.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: So I know I'm always talking like I'm always on
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: defense when it's when I'm answering her questions, but it's
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: it's how do you feel at that moment and what
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: do you see when it comes to trusting your other
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: components of coaching.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Ro Joe, It's always great to hear your thoughts.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: We're gonna keep leaning on your expertise. We'll chat again
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: during springball.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: All right, awesome, that sounds good man. And congratulations man,
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: you know doing good. The show is amazing, so thank you.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: Congratulations will letting me own, and then congratulations and all
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: the success is about to happen.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Robert Johnson, one of the legends of this Utah football program.