Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Stevenson Sylvester on Utes fall camp beginning next week, Former players he'd like to see on this year's team + more

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Stevenson Sylvester on Utes fall camp beginning next week, Former players he'd like to see on this year's team + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: You were listening to about Sean O'Connell show. You're a
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Speaker 1: source for the best huge football company hears oc from
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Speaker 1: the Murdock Hungry Studio of ESPN seven ninety two, one
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Speaker 1: half m.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.
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Speaker 3: Time for a little Utah football camp preview with a
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Speaker 3: legend of this Utah football program. One of the all
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Speaker 3: time best linebackers to do it in the Crimson Stevenson
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Speaker 3: Sylvester Sly here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
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Speaker 2: Sly welcome.
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Speaker 4: How are you, sir, ohcod Man?
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Speaker 2: A week from football camp?
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Speaker 3: Take me back to the playing days in the NFL
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Speaker 3: and obviously in your days up on the hill and
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Speaker 3: you're set days out from jumping back into fall camp.
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Speaker 3: What are you doing in those final few days of
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Speaker 3: freedom man?
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Speaker 4: You're just hearing your last week of prep as far
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Speaker 4: as training, because you set up your eight to twelve
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Speaker 4: week training schedule based off of training camps. So here
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Speaker 4: in your last week where you're just doing straight conditioning,
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Speaker 4: no heavy lifts, and just trying to make sure you're
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Speaker 4: pushing out all the lactic acid that you have in
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Speaker 4: your in your legs from training and just getting ready
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Speaker 4: to go, man, so kind of releasing your mind. My
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Speaker 4: birthday is always around training camp time, so I just
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Speaker 4: I always get to itch. This time is the year,
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Speaker 4: so I just know that, like, Okay, my birthday's coming up.
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Speaker 4: That means I need to get ready for training camp.
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Speaker 4: So even though even now that I'm not playing it,
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Speaker 4: it still has the same mentality for me. But it's
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Speaker 4: more of you know, kissing your family and hugging and
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Speaker 4: spending some time and happen because you really aren't going
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Speaker 4: to see that for the next seven months unless they
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Speaker 4: come to visit for a day or whatever. So get
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Speaker 4: out all the stuff you need to do as far
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Speaker 4: as your house stuff, business stuff. Get that all wrapped
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Speaker 4: up and done, and then go to training camp.
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Speaker 2: Okay, hold on.
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Speaker 3: The birthday thing is gonna send me on a tangent here,
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Speaker 3: because if your birthday is around training camp time, that
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Speaker 3: means you're either really young for your grade or you
2:21
Speaker 3: were really old for your grade. So growing up, which
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Speaker 3: one were you young?
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Speaker 4: I was young? I was very young in my for
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Speaker 4: every grade I was in, I was always the young kid.
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Speaker 3: That's really fascinating because obviously, you know, sometimes especially with males,
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Speaker 3: if you're the young one in your grade, you're behind
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Speaker 3: it almost a year, or I mean day near a
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Speaker 3: full year. You're behind a year behind everyone in you know,
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Speaker 3: your your physical development did not seem to hurt Stevenson Sylvester,
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Speaker 3: which is uh, I guess, really shows how further ahead
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Speaker 3: you work, because if you had been in your own
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Speaker 3: real age category, if you've been the oldest in the grade,
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Speaker 3: been that much further ahead, I guess.
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Speaker 4: Or if my mom was like some of these parents
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Speaker 4: out here now and purposely holding their kids back so
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Speaker 4: they could be the oldest in their kids, maybe I
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Speaker 4: would be a little better. But now I was the youngest.
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Speaker 4: But I think what helped me is is developing a
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Speaker 4: cosmic Kamakazi kind of mindset of just go get it,
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Speaker 4: no excuses, and being young or whatever does it. It
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Speaker 4: doesn't mean anything. Nobody cares, right, And that's kind of
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Speaker 4: my statement that I say to myself over and over,
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Speaker 4: nobody cares. Nobody cares about your your faults or you
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Speaker 4: messing up or whatever. You just got to get out
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Speaker 4: there and do it, man. And so that that's kind
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Speaker 4: of the mentality I always had of being young or
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Speaker 4: being whatever I played my older brother in basketball and
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Speaker 4: all this stuff. So I was always training with older
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Speaker 4: kids no matter what age I was, and so being
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Speaker 4: young just wasn't an excuse.
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Speaker 2: Let that be a lesson.
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Speaker 3: Take it however you will if you're one of those
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Speaker 3: parents considering like holding a kid back so they get
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Speaker 3: to be the oldest in the grade. Just for Stevenson Sylvester,
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Speaker 3: it was not harmful for him to be the youngest,
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Speaker 3: So make your decisions accordingly.
4:08
Speaker 2: Back to actual Utah football.
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Speaker 3: So a week away from starting camp, and obviously there
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Speaker 3: are questions. We've discussed the offensive line and you got
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Speaker 3: to find the right five. My question for you is
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Speaker 3: do we think the right five in game one, two,
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Speaker 3: and three ends up being the right five in the
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Speaker 3: games you know, ten, eleven, and twelve. How much mobility
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Speaker 3: do you see on that offensive line? How much change
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Speaker 3: in different combinations do you think we could anticipate?
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Speaker 4: I don't know. There's always going to be a filling
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Speaker 4: out process, right, And in this day and age, it's
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Speaker 4: I feel like college football is more like the pros
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Speaker 4: where you don't have time to make mistakes, right. You know,
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Speaker 4: before there was always time, right, there's like, oh this
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Speaker 4: guy has time to develop. You know, we'll give him
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Speaker 4: another shot. It's like, no, everything is a one year
4:58
Speaker 4: deal in college football now. You got to put up
5:00
Speaker 4: or shut up. If you don't win championships, you lost, Right,
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Speaker 4: That is the mentality in college football now. It's not like, oh,
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Speaker 4: in two years, this program is going to be. That
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Speaker 4: is not a statement that anybody's making about any college
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Speaker 4: football team now. The mentality is more like a professional mindset.
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Speaker 4: That's why I really consider these guys semi pros. One.
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Speaker 4: They're getting paid, but the mentality of the game has
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Speaker 4: changed as well. Right, It's like, look, you have to
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Speaker 4: win this year. You have to be put in the
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Speaker 4: situation to win right now. And if you're not doing that,
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Speaker 4: you don't know. And so with all the new coaches
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Speaker 4: for Jordan Groves, Morgan Scalley, Kevin McGibbon and their relationships
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Speaker 4: of working together and understanding adversity. Right, we're having adversity
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Speaker 4: at offensive guard or at offensive tackle. We got a
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Speaker 4: young guy, our five star offensive line freshman at Jordan grows.
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Speaker 4: Bullet came in. What if he doesn't do well the
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Speaker 4: first few weeks, right, are we going to just sub
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Speaker 4: him out? Or are we going to force him in there?
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Speaker 4: Is that going to affect our winning? Right? We got
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Speaker 4: all these talented, skilled positions, but we're a little loose
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Speaker 4: on the offensive line. Are we going to be able
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Speaker 4: to sacrifice all the other positions because we have a
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Speaker 4: young offensive line? So you know, college football is is
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Speaker 4: not how they used to be. So that that's a
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Speaker 4: big question. And that's nothing that I can confirm or
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Speaker 4: confidently say that that's a strong suit for us. That's
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Speaker 4: going to be a work in progress. And when we
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Speaker 4: get to that point, it's how well are these coaches
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Speaker 4: going to be actually able to coach? Right? There was
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Speaker 4: one thing in the past you on football that I
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Speaker 4: didn't like is you know, if somebody's not doing well,
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Speaker 4: sit them. Today's just wasn't his day. They would force
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Speaker 4: a guy in there he's not doing well, keep him
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Speaker 4: in there, and he keeps doing bad and it ended
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Speaker 4: up being a detriment to the team and you're not winning.
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Speaker 4: Right in a substituting the amount earlier getting a fresh out
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Speaker 4: of eyes, especially the lays, we could have did that.
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Speaker 4: So hopefully this coaching staff has that mentality of like, look,
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Speaker 4: we don't have next year, we have right now. And
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Speaker 4: so if this guy's not putting up this week, who
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Speaker 4: take a rest, take a beat, somebody else got be
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Speaker 4: ready to go and step up. We gotta find out
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Speaker 4: the guys who are ready to go today, right now.
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Speaker 4: And that starts on the first day of training camp
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Speaker 4: and finding out who's gonna be the guy that when
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Speaker 4: the chips are down, that we can rely on. And
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Speaker 4: that's in the first unit, that's in the second unit,
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Speaker 4: special teams, everything. Who's gonna be the guys that we
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Speaker 4: can count on when we faced Arkansas byu down the road.
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Speaker 4: And so that's what training cap is gonna be this
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Speaker 4: year is Morgan scut Is finding out the guys that
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Speaker 4: he can count on when he needs them.
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Speaker 3: One of my great hopes you just mentioned special teams.
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Speaker 3: One of my great hopes for Utah football and the
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Speaker 3: changing of the guard is that they become once again
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Speaker 3: a dominant special teams program. There was a time where
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Speaker 3: you knew that the punt team punk coverage you were
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Speaker 3: gonna if you didn't have a successful offensive drive, Okay, fine,
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Speaker 3: but we're gonna pin that team deep after you scored.
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Speaker 3: You knew that the team your kickoff was either gonna
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Speaker 3: go out of the end zone and get a touchback,
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Speaker 3: or your kick coverage team was gonna do something good
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Speaker 3: and they were gonna have a long field to drive
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Speaker 3: to score.
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Speaker 2: That we've gotten away from that in recent years.
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Speaker 3: And I don't know if it's because they're playing the
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Speaker 3: wrong guys on special teams. I don't know if it's because,
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Speaker 3: you know, the scheme changed drastically or whatever. But it
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Speaker 3: feels like that's something that that Utah football buttered its
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Speaker 3: bread with for a long time and then it sort
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Speaker 3: of fell by the wayside. And I couldn't explain why
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Speaker 3: because you still had the same guy as the head man.
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Speaker 3: What's what's it going to take for this program to
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Speaker 3: return to elite In terms of a special teams unit.
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Speaker 4: It's more about the players staring about the position, right,
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Speaker 4: And I think they got a good past as coasted
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Speaker 4: special teams in Sharif Shawman. But it's all about exactly
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Speaker 4: what we talked about, and the coach is understanding that
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Speaker 4: we got to win now for the best guy's got
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Speaker 4: to be out there, right. Like I remember playing on
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Speaker 4: the punt team, man, and I absolutely loved it. I mean,
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Speaker 4: so many plays on there. There wasn't that many plays
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Speaker 4: to be made because we had Luis Lakota, who was
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Speaker 4: the best punter in the nation. He was the absolute
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Speaker 4: best at penning people down there make it really easy.
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Speaker 4: We just had to make sure we protected him and
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Speaker 4: give him enough time and so that made life really easy.
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Speaker 4: But yes, it's an extra threat, and that's why they
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Speaker 4: said there's three phases of the game and they all
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Speaker 4: have to help each other out. Right, it's the offense
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Speaker 4: goes three and out and the punt team put the
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Speaker 4: defense in a position where they can win. To enable
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Speaker 4: the three and out, the offense to give your offense
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Speaker 4: the ball back. Everybody has to work and sync together.
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Speaker 4: But special teams is huge, and I don't think people
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Speaker 4: put or give special teams enough credence because it's such
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Speaker 4: a major factor in the game of win. Is played
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Speaker 4: from punt return to punt to kickoff, kickoff return and
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Speaker 4: even field goal.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 4: We felt it in some of those games, right where
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Speaker 4: the Wyoming game last year where we missed what three
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Speaker 4: or four field goals in that game and make that
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Speaker 4: game really really tight. Special teams play such a huge
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Speaker 4: role that we have to make sure that it's a
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Speaker 4: prime focus and that means that the best guys that
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Speaker 4: be out there, that's some starters on defense and offense
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Speaker 4: having to play special teams. And that's what it used
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Speaker 4: to be. And I think, you know, with the different
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Speaker 4: nature of college football where you're paying guys, you're getting
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Speaker 4: more people who I'm good for this one position. I'm
10:16
Speaker 4: not playing multi positions. Right, You're not having your starting
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Speaker 4: linebackers playing punt or executing or caring to play punt
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Speaker 4: the way they used to.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 4: We used to care about doing punt, you know, even
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Speaker 4: if we play defense, and that's just not the way
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Speaker 4: it is. So you're just going to make sure that
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Speaker 4: everybody is in the right mindset, you know, to be
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Speaker 4: able to do special teams. Special teams is what I've
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Speaker 4: learned from Utah and in the pros. It's an attitude thing,
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Speaker 4: right When I was talking about the Tomakonzi mentality of
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Speaker 4: going out there and getting it, making it happen, that's
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Speaker 4: what it is. I got to win at all costs.
10:51
Speaker 4: I'm not going to secede display. I'm going to go
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Speaker 4: out there and and make it happen every single time.
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Speaker 4: My goal on special teams with a punt kickoff, I'm
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Speaker 4: gonna make the play every single time. That's why I
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Speaker 4: played my rookie year in the NFL and we went
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Speaker 4: all the way to Super Bowl and I was a
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Speaker 4: contributor on that super Bowl team. Is because I made
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Speaker 4: a ton of plays on kickoff and punt to the
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Speaker 4: point where I heard that other teams were scouting against me.
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Speaker 4: They pointing me out in their meetings that you got
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Speaker 4: to watch out for this guy because he creates problems.
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Speaker 4: And that was the mentality that I had on special teams.
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Speaker 4: So even if you're not playing defense, you could make
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Speaker 4: plays all over the field and be a known name.
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Speaker 4: And that was my goal is to do that with
11:35
Speaker 4: Utah and Pittsburgh wherever I played at Man. So we
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Speaker 4: got to have guys on special teams that have that
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Speaker 4: type of mentality. And that's the bottom line. Man. It's
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Speaker 4: not like, oh, I need to get my snaps on offense.
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Speaker 4: You need to get my snaps on defense. It's like, no,
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Speaker 4: anytime that I can get on the field, I could
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Speaker 4: be a factor in this game.
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Speaker 3: I know it's got to be hard for coaches because
11:54
Speaker 3: you want the most athletic guys out there, right, you
11:56
Speaker 3: want the guys on special teams that you know are
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Speaker 3: physically the most capable. But I agree with you wholeheartedly
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Speaker 3: that the mentality of it. If your most capable physical
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Speaker 3: performers don't have that mentality, put the kid out there,
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Speaker 3: who it's his super Bowl every time he runs down.
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Speaker 4: On kickoff, exactly exactly. I'm with you, man, And that's
12:18
Speaker 4: what I loved about Trey Reynolds. He was backing Uplanda
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Speaker 4: Barden and Lemoni Deloni and karonny Reid and when he
12:24
Speaker 4: went out there, he was just making plays and he
12:26
Speaker 4: just loved it. And that's where Cody Barton really came up. Right. Well,
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Speaker 4: Cody Barton, right, he only played one year at linebacker,
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Speaker 4: but what was he good at? He was good at
12:34
Speaker 4: at special teams. He was a huge special teamer and
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Speaker 4: that developed into a defensive guy. And now he's a
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Speaker 4: multi millionnaire in the NFL. Right, he's on his third
12:44
Speaker 4: fourth contract in the NFL. Because he's developed and established
12:49
Speaker 4: and every time he was on the football field, he
12:51
Speaker 4: made a play man. And yes, I agree with you, man,
12:53
Speaker 4: it's they got to have that mindset and if you
12:56
Speaker 4: want to win, and you got understand that mindset helps
12:58
Speaker 4: everybody that helped this team, That helps his fans, that
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Speaker 4: helps the coaches make plays, that helps everything. Man. So yeah,
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Speaker 4: you want to have your most athletic guys, but you
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Speaker 4: also want to have the guys who are like, I'm
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Speaker 4: gonna make this play right now because it's my only
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Speaker 4: time going to be in the game, and I'm gonna
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Speaker 4: be the I'm gonna be the hero. I'm gonna be
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Speaker 4: the hero this game because I'm gonna go make this play.
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Speaker 4: And you just got to have that mentality. Play within
13:21
Speaker 4: the scheme, of course, but you got to go make
13:25
Speaker 4: that play.
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Speaker 3: Stevens and Sylvester is our guest here on the Sean
13:28
Speaker 3: O'Connell Show talking a preview of Utah's upcoming football season,
13:31
Speaker 3: camp begins one week from today. We spent about half
13:36
Speaker 3: an hour in the in the noon segment talking about
13:40
Speaker 3: a good problem that I think this offense is gonna
13:42
Speaker 3: have where you've got to figure out how to get
13:44
Speaker 3: the ball into hands of multiple playmakers. And I knock
13:47
Speaker 3: on wood as I say it, because if all these
13:48
Speaker 3: guys stay healthy in the wide receiver room, in the
13:51
Speaker 3: running back room, I think you've got a little bit
13:53
Speaker 3: of an embarrassment of riches and obviously it starts with
13:56
Speaker 3: the quarterback position, because you've got two guys who are
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Speaker 3: big time factors and can be big time factors in
14:02
Speaker 3: a game. And so I'm operating under the assumption that
14:05
Speaker 3: you get like seventy two offensive snaps. I think that's
14:07
Speaker 3: a decent average based on what we saw a pace
14:10
Speaker 3: of play wise with Utah football at least last year.
14:14
Speaker 3: And you know, if you if you split that in half,
14:16
Speaker 3: and it's fifty percent run fifty percent pass most teams,
14:21
Speaker 3: it ends there for Utah.
14:22
Speaker 2: You got to decide how many of those passes.
14:24
Speaker 3: Are going to bird Ficklan, how many of those runs
14:27
Speaker 3: are going to bird Fickland. How often you have him
14:29
Speaker 3: on the field instead of Devon Dampier, Maybe how often
14:32
Speaker 3: you have him on the field with Devon dam Pier.
14:35
Speaker 3: Help me solve the Bird Fickland problem for lack of
14:38
Speaker 3: a better term, because it's not a problem at all,
14:39
Speaker 3: it's a great thing. How often do we see him
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Speaker 3: on the field. How many touches does that guy need
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Speaker 3: a game?
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Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, right, you know you said it. We
14:49
Speaker 4: only have one football. You only have one football. We
14:52
Speaker 4: got four or five dynamic eight hundred yard plus receivers
14:57
Speaker 4: on this roster. We have a thousand yard running back,
15:00
Speaker 4: We have a thousand yard quarterback who can run the
15:03
Speaker 4: football for a thousand yards, you know, and pass for
15:06
Speaker 4: twenty five hundred and three thousand plus yards. And we
15:08
Speaker 4: have a backup quarterback who can rush for fifteen touchdowns
15:12
Speaker 4: in a year and not even play the entire year.
15:16
Speaker 4: Embarrassment of Richards is an understatement. Man. We are a
15:19
Speaker 4: talented football team. You only have one ball. There's gonna
15:21
Speaker 4: be tons and tons of misdirection. I think how you
15:24
Speaker 4: solve this problem because bird Finkling isn't the only issue.
15:26
Speaker 4: We just talked about all the other guys that potentially
15:29
Speaker 4: couldn't get the ball. It starts in the mind, right,
15:31
Speaker 4: these guys have to understand that you're not going to
15:35
Speaker 4: end the season. And everybody like looks like, look, I
15:38
Speaker 4: hate this because like everybody's a stack guy. Everybody like, like,
15:42
Speaker 4: the biggest thing right now is the narrative of Lebron
15:45
Speaker 4: James Michael Jordan on the internet. Right now, you turn
15:47
Speaker 4: it on. That's what everybody's talking about. Right. The assistants
15:52
Speaker 4: are so skewed, right, Like, for me, when I played
15:56
Speaker 4: my stats aren't as high as Devin Lloyd's stats, Right,
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Speaker 4: Is that to say that I was that much worse
16:02
Speaker 4: than Devin Lloyd? No, not at all. You got to
16:05
Speaker 4: understand the schemes of the offenses that were going and
16:07
Speaker 4: how many three and outs did we have. Mike defense
16:10
Speaker 4: was so legitimate. We weren't on the field that much.
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Speaker 4: When we were, it was three and out and I
16:14
Speaker 4: had everybody had Mike right, I had John Smith, I
16:16
Speaker 4: had Robert Jonson, had kol Meete, Paul Krueger, all these
16:20
Speaker 4: guys very new up in front of me, Derick Shelby,
16:22
Speaker 4: all these guys making play. I wasn't the only one
16:25
Speaker 4: to make it play. So our our we were more
16:27
Speaker 4: guys around seventy plus tackles than other rosters. Other rosters
16:31
Speaker 4: you can see one or two guys who had seventy
16:34
Speaker 4: plus tackles are around that range. We had at least
16:37
Speaker 4: seven guys that were above fifty tackles in that whole year.
16:40
Speaker 4: That is the love was spread around. So statistics are skewed,
16:43
Speaker 4: and that goes to third dem percentage time and possession.
16:47
Speaker 4: All of that stuff is so skewed, and that's where
16:50
Speaker 4: you have to understand that stats don't tell the real
16:52
Speaker 4: story of what's going on and all these things, and
16:55
Speaker 4: so I think it's going to be extremely hard for you. You
16:59
Speaker 4: got to you got to tosk to these guys and
17:01
Speaker 4: get in their head, not just in trading camp, not
17:03
Speaker 4: just week one, not just week six, but throughout the
17:06
Speaker 4: entire year and reminding them that sacrifice is gonna have
17:09
Speaker 4: to be made. Right. You're gonna have to be a
17:11
Speaker 4: deplay on this play. You're gonna get the ball on
17:14
Speaker 4: this play, but you're gonna have to give it up
17:15
Speaker 4: and this other there's gonna be so many fumble Rooskies
17:18
Speaker 4: this year of misdirection. I can't wait the creativity that
17:22
Speaker 4: this offense is gonna need to have, not gonna need
17:25
Speaker 4: to have, but they can have. It's gonna be so
17:28
Speaker 4: wild that it's gonna spin defenses in the three cision
17:31
Speaker 4: and they're just gonna give up. And I can't wait
17:33
Speaker 4: for it because this guy can have the ball. This
17:35
Speaker 4: guy can have the ball. Like I watched the play
17:37
Speaker 4: last night as a highlight, they handed the ball off
17:40
Speaker 4: and then did the triple offtin after handing the ball off,
17:42
Speaker 4: So it was a whole other factor. And if he's
17:44
Speaker 4: doing that. I was just imagine doing that with Burt Fekland,
17:47
Speaker 4: Wayshaw Parker, and and and so you had the ball
17:50
Speaker 4: off the way Sean Parker, he pitches it to Burt Finkland.
17:53
Speaker 2: At the same.
17:54
Speaker 4: Time, you got Devin damp here run around the other
17:56
Speaker 4: side and the QB QB wheel and he throws it
18:00
Speaker 4: all the way back to There's so many things that
18:02
Speaker 4: a defense has to worry about here that it's going
18:04
Speaker 4: to be absolutely crazy, man. So it's going to be
18:07
Speaker 4: the biggest thing is getting in these guys head and
18:09
Speaker 4: understanding like, look, this may not be weak to get
18:13
Speaker 4: all the stats, but you can make a big impact
18:15
Speaker 4: in the game with the block, with the misdirection, with
18:18
Speaker 4: this and this and this, and helping game plan and
18:20
Speaker 4: helping the team win, man. And so that is the
18:23
Speaker 4: biggest thing to answer your question of what these guys
18:26
Speaker 4: are going to have to understand and develop and what
18:29
Speaker 4: these coaches are going to have to deal with this year.
18:32
Speaker 3: One of the questions that we've talked about repeatedly is,
18:35
Speaker 3: you know, there's fewer known commodities on the defensive front
18:40
Speaker 3: than we're used to with Utah football. Right We're high
18:44
Speaker 3: on some of the potential really of every position. But
18:49
Speaker 3: explain for the listeners the role of in this defense,
18:53
Speaker 3: especially the defensive tackles, and how important those defensive tackles
18:56
Speaker 3: are not just for their own production, but for allowing
18:59
Speaker 3: you all in the second level to roam free and
19:03
Speaker 3: not be blocked and and make tackles that way, do
19:07
Speaker 3: you feel like that defensive line, specifically the tackles room,
19:12
Speaker 3: is going to be able to keep John ou Hall
19:14
Speaker 3: and Reynolds and Cyrus Polo and those guys from getting
19:18
Speaker 3: too tangled up.
19:20
Speaker 4: Man? And what I love about these defense this is
19:24
Speaker 4: an NFL style defense. I transition to the NFL extremely
19:27
Speaker 4: well and one of the hardest defense ever known. But
19:31
Speaker 4: with Dick Lebow and his mentality and all that, and
19:34
Speaker 4: I traveled well because the terminology was so similar to college.
19:38
Speaker 4: And so I think that whatever they're teaching these guys
19:42
Speaker 4: that you know, it may not be this guy's WEE
19:44
Speaker 4: can may be game planned, uh, to get to the
19:48
Speaker 4: second level and and and and block the linebackers. That
19:52
Speaker 4: means that the d tackles are going to have to
19:55
Speaker 4: make the play at the point of attack. But who's
19:58
Speaker 4: gonna let D tackle go? Right? So it could be
20:01
Speaker 4: this guy's week, could be that guy's week. A lot
20:04
Speaker 4: of there's no names guys. But this is one thing
20:06
Speaker 4: that Borg Scalta said immediate days that absolutely loved was
20:09
Speaker 4: you're gonna you know, like how many guys were up
20:12
Speaker 4: in arms about John Henry Daily before the year started
20:16
Speaker 4: last year, before the year started, n Johnny Ley. You know,
20:20
Speaker 4: there's a lot of guys that you just don't know.
20:22
Speaker 4: There's gonna be a lot of guys like that this year,
20:24
Speaker 4: Guys that we don't know that are gonna be huge,
20:27
Speaker 4: huge contributors on this team. Right, you know, you're gonna
20:29
Speaker 4: have all kinds of different guys pop up that we
20:33
Speaker 4: haven't heard before, and it's gonna be huge factors on
20:36
Speaker 4: this team. And man, wait, you're gonna have new heroes.
20:39
Speaker 4: That's the thing about college football. You're not getting the
20:43
Speaker 4: NFL team where you got this guy for four or
20:44
Speaker 4: five years or even now. You got this guy for
20:46
Speaker 4: six months one year, and then he's transferred to another school.
20:49
Speaker 4: That's why you got to win now, right, You're not
20:52
Speaker 4: able to relationship build like you were in the past.
20:55
Speaker 4: And so whoever the hero is, it's what bottom of
21:00
Speaker 4: what I'm getting at is this scheme is built for
21:03
Speaker 4: a lot of people to be able to win. If
21:05
Speaker 4: you want to take away this, this guy is gonna
21:09
Speaker 4: make the play right. It's it's that's what I absolutely
21:12
Speaker 4: love about it is if the offense wants to do
21:15
Speaker 4: x YZ, this person should be able to make that play.
21:19
Speaker 4: And so the tackle's got to understand it is like, look,
21:22
Speaker 4: your goal is to be double team, but you got
21:24
Speaker 4: to make sure that that double team stays with you.
21:27
Speaker 4: You got to hold that double team. They can't shift
21:29
Speaker 4: you and then go to somebody else. You have to
21:31
Speaker 4: be able to do that. But if they leave and
21:33
Speaker 4: don't double team you at all, you have to you
21:36
Speaker 4: have to win, right And then the best thing that
21:38
Speaker 4: I told on anything from special teams to defense, to
21:41
Speaker 4: offense defense and basketball, football sports in general, is you
21:45
Speaker 4: have to win your one on one battles. Have to
21:48
Speaker 4: win one on one battles. If you're on kickoff and
21:50
Speaker 4: there's one guy blocking you, you better win. If you're
21:53
Speaker 4: on defense and there's one guy who's blocking you, you
21:56
Speaker 4: got to win. Or you're guarding one guy, you have
21:58
Speaker 4: to win. It doesn't matter. And so that's that's the
22:02
Speaker 4: mentality that everybody has to have. He's like, look, if
22:04
Speaker 4: I'm not getting double teams, I'm the one who's making
22:06
Speaker 4: this play. And that's plain and simple. And so I
22:09
Speaker 4: just can't wait to see and hear of all the
22:12
Speaker 4: new guys' names that we haven't heard of before come
22:16
Speaker 4: up and make a play for Utah. It's gonna be
22:18
Speaker 4: It's gonna be nice. A lot of people are talking
22:19
Speaker 4: about Ethan day Is. It's supposed to be really specially
22:23
Speaker 4: transferred here. I believe that in North Texas. And so
22:26
Speaker 4: he's made a lot of noise in the spring and
22:28
Speaker 4: picked up the defense really fast, extremely athletic from what
22:31
Speaker 4: I saw in spring, and so there's gonna be a
22:34
Speaker 4: lot of guys Lance Holstah. I think he's going to
22:36
Speaker 4: be hands down the guy this year, hopefully the new
22:38
Speaker 4: mayor of Sac Lake City and really making things happen.
22:42
Speaker 2: How does a guy like Lance holzklad Because I'm with
22:44
Speaker 2: you on that.
22:45
Speaker 3: I'm so impressed with him, and I know all of
22:46
Speaker 3: his teammates and his coaches are as well. He had
22:49
Speaker 3: one and a half sacks last year, right, so you
22:52
Speaker 3: look at it on paper and you're just like, oh, yeah,
22:54
Speaker 3: I mean he's a good player, But can we expect
22:57
Speaker 3: him to go from one and a half to double digit?
23:00
Speaker 3: What's it going to take for somebody like that to
23:03
Speaker 3: go from being an excellent role player to now the guy.
23:08
Speaker 4: Man opportunity, right, opportunity Who is he playing with last
23:13
Speaker 4: year or playing against last year? Did he get the
23:15
Speaker 4: reps to be able to do it? Put on that
23:18
Speaker 4: Bowl game against Nebraska and Vegas man, and just watch
23:20
Speaker 4: how he terrorized that backfield man and just understand that
23:24
Speaker 4: he's got a whole off season of development that he's
23:27
Speaker 4: been able to put in man and confidence that he's
23:30
Speaker 4: been able to have himself. But he was playing behind
23:33
Speaker 4: logan final last year, John Henry Daily Cash Stillen was
23:37
Speaker 4: in there at rotation. And so now Lams has just
23:40
Speaker 4: been able to really hone in his skills and really
23:43
Speaker 4: do it. What I saw from him in spring exactly
23:46
Speaker 4: what you want to see after a really good Bowl
23:49
Speaker 4: game performance, Right, is that development and one on one
23:52
Speaker 4: work and the details, right, putting in that extra work
23:56
Speaker 4: and understanding what is going to make me better? And
23:59
Speaker 4: so I think with him being the number one guy,
24:01
Speaker 4: who's going to have a lot more opportunity to make
24:04
Speaker 4: plays right and It's kind of like you look at
24:06
Speaker 4: that UCLA game with Jonah Ellis right when he had
24:10
Speaker 4: four sat four and a half cents or something like that,
24:12
Speaker 4: and I'm just like, how the heck is he doing this?
24:15
Speaker 4: And I'm just like, one the protections wasn't great. It's
24:18
Speaker 4: not like he beat like a crap ton of one
24:21
Speaker 4: on one things. It was just I'm in the right
24:23
Speaker 4: place at the right time, and this is coming to me, man.
24:26
Speaker 4: And he was just consistent and relentless. And that is
24:29
Speaker 4: what I'm seeing from Len's hold squall. His consistency and relentlessness,
24:33
Speaker 4: and that's what he needs to bring to the table.
24:35
Speaker 4: And I just think that he needed that Bowl game
24:38
Speaker 4: to give him the confidence that I can do this
24:40
Speaker 4: at this level. And when I talk to him at
24:42
Speaker 4: media days, that is exactly what I got. He got
24:44
Speaker 4: that confidence in himself and he's really eager to take
24:48
Speaker 4: advantage of the opportunity that he's going to be able
24:50
Speaker 4: to be the mayor of sat Lake City.
24:53
Speaker 2: All right, last thing before I let you go.
24:54
Speaker 3: And I'm always hesitant to even talk about this aspect
24:57
Speaker 3: of football because I'm superstitious and I don't want to
25:00
Speaker 3: jinks anybody or jinks anything.
25:01
Speaker 4: But you sound like at your superstitions, I'm.
25:05
Speaker 3: Knocking on wood because I mean, through my whole fight career,
25:08
Speaker 3: one of the worst things that can happen, right is
25:12
Speaker 3: injury in camp. Injury in your fight camp, Like it's
25:16
Speaker 3: always something stupid. It's always you're not paying attention and
25:20
Speaker 3: the the guys wrestling next to you roll up on
25:23
Speaker 3: your knee or something like that.
25:25
Speaker 2: That's where these things happen.
25:26
Speaker 3: It's it's a lot more rare than people think to
25:29
Speaker 3: have a serious injury happen in actual competition and gameplay.
25:34
Speaker 3: How can this team optimize its health through camp? Because
25:39
Speaker 3: when we look at the roster, what we know about
25:42
Speaker 3: the coaching staff, you see this schedule and all of
25:44
Speaker 3: us are like, it could be a really, really good year,
25:47
Speaker 3: but the team's got to stay healthy. What can the
25:49
Speaker 3: players themselves do to make sure that they optimize that.
25:53
Speaker 4: You gotta go on, you know. It's it's kind of
25:57
Speaker 4: what we talked about a little while ago, is is
26:01
Speaker 4: guys managing themselves instead of going one hundred percent, they're
26:05
Speaker 4: over there like, well, I got to save mine, conserve
26:09
Speaker 4: my energy for X y Z. When you're out there
26:11
Speaker 4: on the football field. There's no such thing. You got
26:13
Speaker 4: to go one hundred percent. If you can't go one
26:15
Speaker 4: hundred percent, then you're not in shape. That is not
26:18
Speaker 4: an excuse or not something you should ever say. If
26:21
Speaker 4: you're an athlete, if you're a top tier athlete, you
26:23
Speaker 4: are definitely in shape. You are prepared, right, because the
26:26
Speaker 4: last thing you want to tell your coaches I'm unprepared.
26:29
Speaker 4: So the thing is is for me, what I've learned
26:31
Speaker 4: is is injuries happened when you're trying to prevent injuries. Right.
26:38
Speaker 4: It's very rare for somebody to come out of training
26:41
Speaker 4: camp with no Nix and Bruce. The only people that
26:43
Speaker 4: could do that is backup quarterbacks and even quarterbacks, kickers, snappers.
26:50
Speaker 4: There are the only people that come out of training
26:51
Speaker 4: camp with no nicks and bruises. Man, And so you're
26:55
Speaker 4: gonna be a little beat up because I remember in
26:56
Speaker 4: eight we played Michigan. In the first week, I felt
27:00
Speaker 4: like we were doing things great and everything, and the
27:02
Speaker 4: next thing you know, Karani got pissed off at us
27:05
Speaker 4: and then made me, Mikey and all you guys like
27:07
Speaker 4: hit each other and I got a stinger. My whole
27:10
Speaker 4: shoulder was messed up for a while and going into
27:13
Speaker 4: that first game, and it was just like, yeah, there's
27:16
Speaker 4: no way to come out of training camp unscathed, right,
27:20
Speaker 4: And so you got to go one hundred percent and
27:22
Speaker 4: understand that football is that you're you're battling injuries. I
27:26
Speaker 4: remember talking to coach with before the season stucks all
27:28
Speaker 4: the time. It's like everybody's injured, everybody's injured. It is
27:32
Speaker 4: what it is. But this is football, and and and
27:35
Speaker 4: so if you have that mentality, I think you're you're
27:38
Speaker 4: more you're more advantaged to come out healthy. If you
27:42
Speaker 4: go one hundred percent of everything, the coaches will take
27:45
Speaker 4: care of you and all that other aspects and then
27:48
Speaker 4: you're gonna be fine. But you got to have a
27:50
Speaker 4: mentality of football, the same basketball, the same tennis. Uh,
27:55
Speaker 4: this is a very physical sport. It's what happens. And
27:58
Speaker 4: the more one hundred percent you go, the better your
28:01
Speaker 4: team will be because good on good right, iron sharpening iron,
28:05
Speaker 4: whatever mentality you want to use, everybody helps everybody out.
28:09
Speaker 4: If I play, if Devin Dampire sits in the media
28:13
Speaker 4: and tells you, I'm playing against the best defense in
28:15
Speaker 4: the conference every single week, but the defense isn't going
28:18
Speaker 4: one hundred percent? Is he playing against the best defense, right,
28:21
Speaker 4: And so if you're going good on good, then you
28:23
Speaker 4: got to be one hundred percent all the time, man.
28:25
Speaker 4: And so that's who Morgan Stalley is. And that's what
28:27
Speaker 4: I'm really really excited about for this training camp to start,
28:31
Speaker 4: for him his first training camp, to see exactly what
28:34
Speaker 4: he feels like works and hopefully that's the mentality of
28:38
Speaker 4: going out there and getting it.
28:41
Speaker 3: Sly, I always appreciate your time and your expertise. We'll
28:43
Speaker 3: see you up on the hill real soon.
28:44
Speaker 4: All right, you're the man.
28:46
Speaker 2: Thanks those SEPs Stevens and Sylvester