Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Coordinator's Corner: DC Colton Swan on taking over the defense, Did they tackle enough in camp (?), Challenges Idaho's offense presents ...

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Coordinator's Corner: DC Colton Swan on taking over the defense, Did they tackle enough in camp (?), Challenges Idaho's offense presents ... · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:01
Speaker 1: Let's dive into this week's matchup in the coordinator's corner
0:04
Speaker 1: of the Sean O'Connell Show. OC chats with the coordinators
0:08
Speaker 1: every week of the Utah football season. On your home
0:12
Speaker 1: of the Utes and your home for football, ESPN 792.1 FM.
0:15
Speaker 1: All right, it's that time.
0:19
Speaker 2: On the Sean O'Connell Show.
0:20
Speaker 3: Game week and every game week during the football season,
0:24
Speaker 3: we're lucky enough to catch up with the coordinators at
0:28
Speaker 3: the University of Utah. We'll alternate between defense and offense.
0:32
Speaker 3: We will start the season ahead of an Idaho versus
0:35
Speaker 3: Utah kickoff with the defensive coordinator, Colton Swan. Kind enough
0:40
Speaker 3: to give us some time today.
0:42
Speaker 2: Coach, how are you?
0:43
Speaker 4: Doing well, doing well. How about yourself?
0:45
Speaker 2: Man, excited because we're almost there.
0:51
Speaker 3: And we'll get to the actual game plan, what you
0:54
Speaker 3: see on film from the Vandals here in just a second.
0:56
Speaker 3: But it's been a few weeks since we've had a
0:58
Speaker 3: chance to catch up with you.
0:59
Speaker 2: So I want to touch on some of the big
1:01
Speaker 2: picture things.
1:02
Speaker 3: Everybody that we talked to players, other coaches, they've kind
1:06
Speaker 3: of confirmed that this was a successful fall football camp
1:10
Speaker 3: and that the game prep weeks have gone well. Also,
1:14
Speaker 3: I want your thoughts and your words on how you
1:17
Speaker 3: thought camp came out and then the transition into actual
1:20
Speaker 3: game prep.
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Speaker 4: Speaker 4 0 1 0.
1:22
Speaker 1: Right.
1:22
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, it has been a very good fall camp
1:25
Speaker 4: for us, you know, with defensively and as a team,
1:28
Speaker 4: but for us on the defensive side, the biggest thing
1:32
Speaker 4: was like, okay, we've got, you know, new guys in
1:35
Speaker 4: almost every position and seeing these guys start to emerge
1:39
Speaker 4: and kind of work their way through the defense and
1:41
Speaker 4: really start to gain the trust of the coaches was
1:44
Speaker 4: the biggest thing in, in, in us gaining confidence in
1:47
Speaker 4: them in performance style. And so it's been nice to
1:50
Speaker 4: see that. I think the kids have worked extremely hard.
1:53
Speaker 4: It has been a successful camp, you know, for us.
1:55
Speaker 4: I think even from an injury standpoint, we've been very
1:59
Speaker 4: fortunate and, you know, good there. And I think everybody's
2:02
Speaker 4: in a great position right now, you know, going into
2:04
Speaker 4: this first game to be successful.
2:08
Speaker 3: How much of a wait-and-see mentality is there still? Because
2:12
Speaker 3: you want to be a good practice player. You want
2:14
Speaker 3: to have great habits. You want to be a hard worker.
2:17
Speaker 3: But some things do change when the lights are on.
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Speaker 3: So I'm sure you and your staff have a pretty
2:22
Speaker 3: good idea of who you think the best guy at
2:24
Speaker 3: each position is and whatnot. But is there still a
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Speaker 3: little bit of allowance for, well, let's see what he
2:30
Speaker 3: looks like in live game reps.
2:33
Speaker 4: Oh, a hundred percent. I mean, you're going against an
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Speaker 4: offense for the last, you know, eight months here that
2:39
Speaker 4: where you haven't been able to tackle a quarterback, right.
2:42
Speaker 4: You're going against an offense where you're not live all
2:45
Speaker 4: the time. You know, so things like that are always
2:48
Speaker 4: the question mark of, okay, where are we at? And, and,
2:51
Speaker 4: you know, how well are we going to do it in,
2:54
Speaker 4: in hopes that you've prepared them enough that they are
2:56
Speaker 4: successful on, on game one, you know, and we understand
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Speaker 4: as coaches, Hey, there's going to be mistakes made, right.
3:02
Speaker 4: You know, but our whole job is to minimize those
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Speaker 4: mistakes and make sure, number one, we play extremely hard
3:09
Speaker 4: and we do it very smart. You know, we can align,
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Speaker 4: we can assign and we're running that football. You know,
3:13
Speaker 4: the technique has got to be good inside hands with
3:17
Speaker 4: good vertical leverage. You know, our pad level has got
3:20
Speaker 4: to be better than their pad level and we've got
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Speaker 4: to be able to tackle. Those are things that we
3:25
Speaker 4: focused on defensively going through that fall camp. Like you said,
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Speaker 4: you're going against an offense where you're not tackling a quarterback.
3:33
Speaker 4: When the lights turn on, how are you actually going
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Speaker 4: to perform as a player in hopes that we've done
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Speaker 4: a good job preparing them?
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Speaker 3: Do you feel like you were able to find through
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Speaker 3: camp and in practice the right balance of actual live tackling,
3:47
Speaker 3: working on the craft of tackling? We are hypersensitive to
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Speaker 3: this because we've seen first game performances in the last
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Speaker 3: several years where it looks like, oh man, they must
3:58
Speaker 3: have tackled a lot in camp. Very few missed tackles.
4:01
Speaker 3: We've seen the opposite end of that spectrum as well.
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Speaker 3: Was the right balance struck in camp, you think?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, we obviously, that's something that we talked
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Speaker 4: about almost from a daily standpoint is, okay, have we
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Speaker 4: tackled enough? Have we done in the live tackling? And we,
4:16
Speaker 4: you know, feel like we have. In game one, you know,
4:21
Speaker 4: you're going to have some guys that, you know, haven't
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Speaker 4: tackled as much or you're going to have some missed
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Speaker 4: tackles that will appear and that you got to get
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Speaker 4: better at. And so that's been a huge focus for
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Speaker 4: us defensively. Even though we're not live tackling, we're always
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Speaker 4: working tackling of some sort within our individual drills because
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Speaker 4: it is the nucleus of what we do. We play hard,
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Speaker 4: we tackle, we play smart, and we do it with
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Speaker 4: good technique.
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Speaker 3: For Utah fans that have been watching this team and
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Speaker 3: this defense for two or three decades, where the defense
4:54
Speaker 3: has been largely the same, will there be a noticeable
4:58
Speaker 3: flavor change under Colton Swann?
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Speaker 4: Speaker 4 0 5, you know, I think the, probably
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Speaker 4: the biggest thing, because this defense has been around, you know,
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Speaker 4: the backbone of this defense has been around for a
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Speaker 4: number of years, ever since I started, you know, coaching
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Speaker 4: clear back in, in 2004, you know, when Ron McBride
5:15
Speaker 4: came to the, to the university of Utah and this
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Speaker 4: defense was, was put in place clear back then, you know,
5:20
Speaker 4: and then you look at the years of through Weaver
5:22
Speaker 4: state of Jay Hill and then on into coach Scali
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Speaker 4: over here at the university of Utah. you know, and every,
5:28
Speaker 4: every coordinator's got their little spin on things as do we. And,
5:32
Speaker 4: but I would say that, you know, what we get
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Speaker 4: back to is, is the backbone of what's been successful
5:39
Speaker 4: here at the university of Utah, you know, and, and
5:42
Speaker 4: being able to play hard and play smart. And, and
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Speaker 4: I think that you'll see my own little spin and
5:50
Speaker 4: maybe that's because offenses are changing. you know, as you
5:54
Speaker 4: face different opponents, I think you've got to be creative
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Speaker 4: enough to attack different things from a defensive standpoint. And
6:01
Speaker 4: that's probably the biggest thing that you'll see between myself
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Speaker 4: and other coordinators that have been involved in this defense.
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Speaker 3: When we asked Morgan Scali about it, you know, having
6:09
Speaker 3: filled this role, your role for so long, when we
6:11
Speaker 3: asked him about, you know, the difficulty of surrendering that
6:15
Speaker 3: and how he sets you up for success, he'll kind
6:18
Speaker 3: of laughingly say, well.
6:19
Speaker 2: I just got to get out of his way. I
6:21
Speaker 2: got to make sure that.
6:22
Speaker 3: I'm not you know, trying to influence things too much.
6:26
Speaker 3: Have you guys found the right balance there?
6:29
Speaker 4: Number one, he's been extremely supportive. He is definitely an ally.
6:33
Speaker 4: I don't feel that there is a figure looking over
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Speaker 4: my shoulder, you know, judging of any sort. He's been
6:41
Speaker 4: an absolute ally and a blessing. You know, he, how
6:45
Speaker 4: he has handled me and our progression through this has
6:48
Speaker 4: been amazing and Uh, he, he looks at it as in, Hey,
6:52
Speaker 4: use me as, you know, uh, an analyst, use me
6:55
Speaker 4: as a tool. Let me provide, you know, some knowledge from,
6:58
Speaker 4: you know, a 30,000 view perspective and, and just what
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Speaker 4: he does with me and our defense has been amazing
7:06
Speaker 4: and just his suggestions and things that he would attack. And,
7:10
Speaker 4: and so it's been great. It's been a great, great, uh,
7:13
Speaker 4: relationship and, and, uh, I look forward to, to the,
7:16
Speaker 4: you know, it growing.
7:19
Speaker 3: We don't know a lot about, like, Coach Brechterfield, for example.
7:23
Speaker 3: So he's new on the staff, right? Doesn't have the same, like,
7:27
Speaker 3: deep-rooted connections to the program that some of the other
7:30
Speaker 3: guys do. But now you've been through spring and a
7:33
Speaker 3: fall camp with him and, you know, getting into game week.
7:36
Speaker 3: What is something that the Utah fans need to know
7:39
Speaker 3: about him and maybe that you've learned through this process?
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Speaker 4: Well, number one, he's a wealth of knowledge. He comes
7:48
Speaker 4: to as well, diverse in multiple defenses. He's been to
7:53
Speaker 4: a lot of really awesome universities and he's coached a
7:57
Speaker 4: lot of really good players, as we all know. I mean, in,
8:00
Speaker 4: in Aaron Donald, as far as one of the best
8:03
Speaker 4: NFL players out there, he had the opportunity to coach
8:05
Speaker 4: him and And, um, uh, TJ watt, you know, and
8:09
Speaker 4: guys of that nature. So he knows how to get
8:12
Speaker 4: the most out of his guys. Uh, but when you
8:16
Speaker 4: just talk to him in the coaching staff room of
8:19
Speaker 4: what he can provide from a defensive line, knowledge is,
8:22
Speaker 4: is amazing. He does a fantastic job. He's got the
8:28
Speaker 4: trust of his players. I think the players really know
8:30
Speaker 4: what he's all about when it comes to what his
8:33
Speaker 4: expectations are. His guys play really hard. And so he's
8:37
Speaker 4: just been an absolute blessing for us on the defensive side,
8:40
Speaker 4: especially as a D-line coach.
8:43
Speaker 3: A lot of talk about the offensive line in fall
8:46
Speaker 3: camp because obviously replacing five starters, but some uncertainty on
8:50
Speaker 3: the D line and with the safeties we'll get to
8:53
Speaker 3: here in a second. As far as the D line goes,
8:55
Speaker 3: how did that rotation come out? How many guys deep
8:58
Speaker 3: do you think you go at that interior defensive line position?
9:02
Speaker 4: You know, it's, it's interesting because you look at last
9:05
Speaker 4: year's team and there wasn't a huge rotation of guys.
9:08
Speaker 4: I mean, you had, you had your four or five
9:10
Speaker 4: sticks guys that you were playing. I think this year,
9:13
Speaker 4: if you look at the defensive end spot, you know,
9:15
Speaker 4: there's four guys that can play at any point within
9:19
Speaker 4: the game that are all really talented players. You look
9:22
Speaker 4: at the, the D tackle spot, I believe there's going
9:24
Speaker 4: to be another four guys that So I feel like
9:28
Speaker 4: we have the depth on the defensive line spot this year. And,
9:33
Speaker 4: you know, they're all new. I mean, you look at
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Speaker 4: every defensive lineman really from, from last year, you got
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Speaker 4: to carry over in Carson Kapusi, who was a young
9:42
Speaker 4: defensive tackle, but you look at these guys this year
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Speaker 4: and it's like, okay, everybody's new. Right. And we feel
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Speaker 4: like all, all these guys can play and it's going
9:51
Speaker 4: to be nice to see kind of as coach Whitwood
9:54
Speaker 4: always put it, you got this Christmas package and you're
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Speaker 4: unwrapping it here in game one. See what you got.
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Speaker 3: Colton Swan, Utah defensive coordinator is our guest here on
10:02
Speaker 3: the Sean O'Connell show for coordinators corner ahead of week
10:06
Speaker 3: one game one matchup for Utah, as they welcome the
10:09
Speaker 3: vandals of Idaho on a Thursday night at rice cycle stadium.
10:13
Speaker 3: Let's talk about that safety position again. You know, a
10:17
Speaker 3: lot of people are just like, Oh yeah, we're good there.
10:20
Speaker 3: I think that's right. I think we are good there. However,
10:24
Speaker 3: who's it going to be? Because you got correct me
10:26
Speaker 3: if I'm wrong, four or maybe five guys that I
10:29
Speaker 3: could see being starters.
10:30
Speaker 2: And there's only most of the time, two.
10:32
Speaker 3: Safety spots, I guess with Jackson, Benny's athletic versatility, he
10:36
Speaker 3: could be your nickel or something like that. But you
10:38
Speaker 3: tell me, are we going to see all those guys?
10:40
Speaker 4: Yeah. And, and that's, you know, they kind of mimic
10:43
Speaker 4: and then it's almost, almost every position and where we're
10:46
Speaker 4: at is the amount of guys that we have at,
10:49
Speaker 4: you know, backer and corner and D line, like we
10:51
Speaker 4: mentioned earlier, but it's like, okay, you look at the
10:53
Speaker 4: safety position, there's guys that, you know, have a number
10:57
Speaker 4: of experience, Nate, Richie, right. Rabbit Evans. And then you
11:00
Speaker 4: throw in Jackson, Benny, who's the Swiss army knife of football,
11:04
Speaker 4: who can, who can play a bunch of different spots.
11:07
Speaker 4: And then you start to see the, you know, a
11:09
Speaker 4: young safety and Nate Tillman start to emerge and come
11:11
Speaker 4: up who, you know, when, when Nate Ritchie got hurt
11:14
Speaker 4: last year, he started playing a bigger role for us defensively.
11:17
Speaker 4: So he's got the experience. It's a good problem to
11:21
Speaker 4: have defensively. You will definitely see a lot of these
11:25
Speaker 4: guys on the field and, and I'm excited for, you know,
11:29
Speaker 4: for all of them.
11:30
Speaker 3: As long as we're talking about Swiss army knives that
11:32
Speaker 3: you have to like, tell Kevin McGiven to get away
11:35
Speaker 3: from some of your defensive players. He's not going to
11:37
Speaker 3: be a two-way guy because we started to see that
11:40
Speaker 3: become not only a luxury, but also a problem at
11:43
Speaker 3: times for Utah football the last couple of years.
11:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and Utah's always done a really good job
11:48
Speaker 4: of utilizing talent. Coach Witt had a knack for that,
11:53
Speaker 4: and I don't think it's stopped as Coach Scali takes
11:56
Speaker 4: over the helm, and it's been a good thing. So
12:00
Speaker 4: as a defensive coordinator, obviously the number one thing is
12:03
Speaker 4: you want to win the game, and any way that
12:05
Speaker 4: you can provide help and depth or guys that can
12:08
Speaker 4: come over and do things like Jackson did last year,
12:12
Speaker 4: like Lander Barton did last year, Those guys that can
12:15
Speaker 4: provide a skill set to the offense, we're all for
12:18
Speaker 4: it on the defensive side.
12:19
Speaker 3: All right, so I'm interpreting that as maybe we will
12:22
Speaker 3: see some of it this year.
12:25
Speaker 4: Well, do with it what you will.
12:28
Speaker 2: All right. Keeping it close to the vest, Colton Swan here.
12:32
Speaker 2: That's fine.
12:36
Speaker 3: The natural progression for me as an observer, as a fan,
12:41
Speaker 3: is I expect to see guys come into a program And,
12:44
Speaker 3: you know, be special teams, defensive players, at least be
12:47
Speaker 3: special teams guys for half season, maybe a full season.
12:50
Speaker 3: And then, you know, they're a reliable rotational player. Maybe
12:53
Speaker 3: they get some spot starts. Maybe they even become a
12:56
Speaker 3: full-time starter because of an injury or something like that.
12:58
Speaker 3: And then they're a full-time starter and then they become
13:01
Speaker 3: a captain. when you guys released the captain's list and I,
13:04
Speaker 3: and I saw Trey Reynolds name on there, I was
13:07
Speaker 3: a little surprised, not because I doubt his abilities or
13:10
Speaker 3: anything like that, but because, you know, we, we, we
13:12
Speaker 3: don't know as much about him. He doesn't have like
13:15
Speaker 3: this deep well of, of production, but obviously his teammates
13:19
Speaker 3: look at him and say, yeah, that's one of our guys.
13:21
Speaker 3: That's one of our leaders. And they voted him to
13:23
Speaker 3: be a captain. Did that surprise you at all? Tell
13:26
Speaker 3: me how you saw that thing unfold.
13:29
Speaker 4: Well, I think the biggest thing with him earning that position,
13:34
Speaker 4: I'm going to use that word, is that he's really
13:39
Speaker 4: gained the trust of his teammates by how hard he works.
13:43
Speaker 4: You'll be hard to find another kid that works harder
13:45
Speaker 4: than Trey Reynolds. And I think his teammates see that
13:49
Speaker 4: obviously he's extremely talented. He's been amongst some really talented
13:54
Speaker 4: linebackers over the years and has done his part in
13:58
Speaker 4: keeping his progression going and developing. He's had a huge
14:01
Speaker 4: role on, on special teams. And, you know, he's been
14:05
Speaker 4: behind guys like Corinne Reed and Lander Barton. Um, you know,
14:10
Speaker 4: Levani Damuni and some, and some players like that, John O'Hall,
14:14
Speaker 4: you know, and now it's his, his opportunity to emerge.
14:17
Speaker 4: And I think that the guys, you know, it's a
14:19
Speaker 4: very good question because I think the guys have always
14:22
Speaker 4: known about Trey Reynolds and that already works. but he's
14:25
Speaker 4: really taken it to the next step of becoming that
14:27
Speaker 4: leader in, in a compelling aspect. And he's grabbing guys
14:31
Speaker 4: and bringing them with him. And, and I think the
14:33
Speaker 4: guys really are taken to Trey Reynolds and he's a,
14:36
Speaker 4: he's a playmaker. You go back through his film and
14:38
Speaker 4: just look at what he's done over his career here,
14:41
Speaker 4: not only from a special team standpoint, which has been amazing,
14:44
Speaker 4: but even from a defensive standpoint. I mean, there's a
14:47
Speaker 4: lot of trust coming from me about Trey and what
14:50
Speaker 4: he does and just how he handles himself. And like
14:53
Speaker 4: I said, he just brings, he's compelling. He brings guys
14:56
Speaker 4: along with him and he wants his defense, not only
14:59
Speaker 4: him to be great, but he wants his defense to
15:00
Speaker 4: be great.
15:04
Speaker 3: Is there any element in modern-day college football, because it
15:08
Speaker 3: is so different now than it was even five years ago,
15:10
Speaker 3: and certainly than it was 10 and 20 years ago,
15:13
Speaker 3: is there any element of awareness for you or your
15:17
Speaker 3: position coaches or anything about what a guy is paid now,
15:20
Speaker 3: what his NIL deals are like when it comes to
15:23
Speaker 3: practice reps, when it comes to trying to get him
15:25
Speaker 3: in the game? Is there any influence there?
15:30
Speaker 4: I try to stay out of, I guess I would
15:32
Speaker 4: call that the political side of things. When it comes
15:35
Speaker 4: to that, we feel like in order to win games,
15:39
Speaker 4: the best players obviously have to play. We feel like
15:42
Speaker 4: we've got a lot of really good players, but I
15:45
Speaker 4: try to stay out of the politics or, if you will,
15:48
Speaker 4: the NIL stuff and being influenced by stuff like that.
15:53
Speaker 4: We educate our guys right from the very beginning. OK,
15:57
Speaker 4: some guys are getting paid this and some guys are
15:59
Speaker 4: getting paid that. And that's great. You know, but at
16:03
Speaker 4: the end of the day, you know, in order to
16:05
Speaker 4: win games, are you able to execute? Are you the line?
16:07
Speaker 4: Are you able to sign? You know, are you able
16:10
Speaker 4: to do the things that we're asking you defensively? Right.
16:12
Speaker 4: And so, you know, it doesn't necessarily matter what, you know,
16:17
Speaker 4: you know, you have with our team manager or even
16:20
Speaker 4: from the NIL standpoint, you know, the best players got
16:23
Speaker 4: to play. And that's what we've got to do in
16:25
Speaker 4: order to win.
16:27
Speaker 3: Couple more questions with Colton Swan here, coordinator's corner. This
16:31
Speaker 3: is our defensive coordinator, of course, at the University of Utah.
16:36
Speaker 3: So what do you see on film from this Idaho team?
16:39
Speaker 4: They're talented. Yeah, they've got some good, talented players. You
16:43
Speaker 4: look at them from just starting, the guy that touches
16:46
Speaker 4: the ball every snap is going to be the quarterback.
16:49
Speaker 4: And what he can do, he's extremely talented with his feet.
16:53
Speaker 4: I think that is probably his brightest talent. spot and
16:58
Speaker 4: what he can do. He can create plays. He does
17:00
Speaker 4: a really good job of getting outside the pocket and,
17:03
Speaker 4: and looking downfield and creating plays with his feet. You
17:07
Speaker 4: can see that he's older and has complete command of
17:10
Speaker 4: the offense. We had the luxury of watching one of
17:15
Speaker 4: their games from this year, so really studying that and
17:18
Speaker 4: studying him has been a blessing. I've been really impressed
17:23
Speaker 4: with him. He does a great job. You look at
17:25
Speaker 4: their offensive line, they're a bunch of veterans that have
17:28
Speaker 4: played together for a long time, and that's a strong
17:31
Speaker 4: point of what they do offensively. And so it's nice
17:35
Speaker 4: to see those guys and what we're going to be
17:37
Speaker 4: up against. You look at kind of the outside and
17:40
Speaker 4: the perimeters between the wide receivers and the tight ends.
17:43
Speaker 4: The tight ends have talented players, you know. I like
17:48
Speaker 4: what they're doing. And they're, you know, running 11, 12
17:51
Speaker 4: personnel sets that they do a good job in. And
17:53
Speaker 4: you can see the athleticism come from them. I think
17:56
Speaker 4: at the wide receiver position, they've done a really good
18:00
Speaker 4: job of adding some speed to it. And some guys
18:02
Speaker 4: that really understand their offense, you know, they run the
18:05
Speaker 4: RPO system and have the ability to get the ball
18:08
Speaker 4: out to them. And, and those guys do a great
18:10
Speaker 4: job at the line of scrimmage. They do, they play hard,
18:13
Speaker 4: they block out on the perimeter and I've been really
18:16
Speaker 4: impressed with how well they're coached. So. The running backs
18:19
Speaker 4: are a good group. You know, they treat it as
18:22
Speaker 4: a three-headed monster. And you can see that in their
18:26
Speaker 4: first game of all three guys getting reps. And so
18:29
Speaker 4: being able to attack them, you know, and their strengths
18:32
Speaker 4: is part of what we need to do.
18:35
Speaker 3: All right, last thing before I let you go. Pull
18:37
Speaker 3: back the curtain for me a little bit. You're my guy.
18:39
Speaker 3: I'm so excited for you to have this opportunity. You're
18:43
Speaker 3: stepping into the shoes of a great lineage of defensive coaches,
18:48
Speaker 3: and you get to be the University of Utah defensive coordinator,
18:52
Speaker 3: and you get to call games, and you get to
18:54
Speaker 3: lead this defense, which is what.
18:56
Speaker 2: The program is known for. How you feeling? What is
18:59
Speaker 2: it like? Is there nervousness?
19:00
Speaker 3: How is your level of self-belief heading into a game
19:03
Speaker 3: like this one tomorrow night?
19:05
Speaker 4: Yeah. It's a little nerve wracking, you know, it's, it's
19:08
Speaker 4: a position, any, anything that change or new, you know,
19:12
Speaker 4: you've got that, that nervousness to it, but at the
19:16
Speaker 4: same time, I'm surrounded by really good guys, really good coaches,
19:19
Speaker 4: really good players, you know, coach Scali has done an
19:21
Speaker 4: amazing job with, with our culture and things like that.
19:24
Speaker 4: And so, yeah, is there, is there a nervousness to it? Absolutely.
19:28
Speaker 4: And if you didn't have nerves, you excitement, I, you know,
19:31
Speaker 4: I would think there's something wrong. But, but fear is
19:35
Speaker 4: something that, you know, in my opinion, where you didn't
19:39
Speaker 4: prepare well enough, then you should be fearful.
19:41
Speaker 1: Right.
19:43
Speaker 4: And, and I feel like, you know, we've done a
19:45
Speaker 4: great job in preparing not only us as coaches, but
19:48
Speaker 4: our players to be successful and and so, you know, yeah,
19:51
Speaker 4: there's going to be nerves and it's exciting. Like I said,
19:54
Speaker 4: there's been a long tenure of coaches that have come
19:57
Speaker 4: through this program as a defensive coordinator that have gone
20:00
Speaker 4: on to, you know, be great head coaches and things
20:03
Speaker 4: of that nature and gone on to be, you know, do,
20:05
Speaker 4: do great things. And so I'm looking forward to the
20:08
Speaker 4: next step.
20:09
Speaker 3: What's scarier, getting ready to call your first game or
20:13
Speaker 3: climbing onto the back of a rough stock animal or
20:15
Speaker 3: handling something nasty at rodeo?
20:17
Speaker 4: Well, in the steer wrestling, I know going 35 miles
20:21
Speaker 4: an hour down the arena, jumping off a perfectly good
20:23
Speaker 4: horse onto a 600, 700-pound steer and trying to throw
20:27
Speaker 4: it to the ground, that's a little nerve-wracking too. And
20:31
Speaker 4: you can be sitting there backing up into a box
20:33
Speaker 4: and being like, what in the heck am I doing
20:35
Speaker 4: right now? And then you nod your head and it's
20:37
Speaker 4: about four seconds of rush. So, yeah, it's very, that's
20:42
Speaker 4: a great analogy for sure. Sean is that the nervousness of,
20:47
Speaker 4: of steer wrestling and doing some of those rodeo events versus,
20:51
Speaker 4: you know, calling a defense.
20:53
Speaker 2: So, well, We're excited.
20:55
Speaker 3: You know, if you can handle that, you can probably
20:57
Speaker 3: handle making some defensive calls and letting these guys go execute.
21:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt.
21:02
Speaker 1: No doubt.
21:03
Speaker 4: Yeah. That's the way you got it. You got to
21:04
Speaker 4: all put everything into perspective.
21:06
Speaker 1: All right.
21:07
Speaker 2: Looking forward to seeing you out there. Good luck.
21:09
Speaker 3: Keep these guys healthy. Have a good last day of
21:11
Speaker 3: practice and preparation. And we'll see you Thursday night up
21:15
Speaker 3: there at Rice Eccles for live, live blow.
21:18
Speaker 4: Sounds good. Appreciate it, Josie.
21:20
Speaker 3: Colton Swan, defensive coordinator, defensive, At the University of Utah.