Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sammy Mora on today's Assistant Coaches media availability, NaQuari Rogers coming back (?), How much will Kelvin Obot play (?) + more

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Sammy Mora on today's Assistant Coaches media availability, NaQuari Rogers coming back (?), How much will Kelvin Obot play (?) + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Rock.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: This is the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: You were home of the best inside of your youths.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Let's get back to OC.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: From the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and
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  Speaker 3: ninety two to one, A f am telling me, welcome
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: back to the Shan O'Connell.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Welcome to our number three. Delon Wright joins us.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: In twenty five ish minutes, Sammy Mora joins us right now.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: What are we calling these Wednesdays?
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  Speaker 3: James Peterson Ute Zone Wednesdays every Wednesday throughout the season.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: We're going to do our best to touch base with
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: our friends at ute Zone.
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  Speaker 2: Samy Mora, Welcome to the show. How are you?
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  Speaker 4: I'm doing great, OC, How are you doing all right?
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  Speaker 3: Anything revelatory from post practice media availability today.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I think the biggest thing for me is
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  Speaker 4: Jordan Gross said right now, there's ten guys he feels
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: comfortable with on the offensive line. I know that the
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: offensive line has been the biggest question mark amongst Utah
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  Speaker 4: fans this spring summer as we started fall camp, but
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  Speaker 4: encouraging to hear there's at least ten guys that Grows
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  Speaker 4: feels comfortable with, you know, two days into fall camp.
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  Speaker 3: So obviously we've talked about this before, but that is
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  Speaker 3: for most people, the biggest question about this Utah football team.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Can you hit your stride with an offensive line that
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  Speaker 3: will feature five new starters? And I think realistically we're
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: going to see some combination of different bodies. I love
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  Speaker 3: hearing Jordan Gross say there's ten possibilities there. The most
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: fascinating one for me and probably for some people who've
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: been following the recruiting picture is Kelvin Obot and where
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  Speaker 3: does he fit in?
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  Speaker 2: Does he fit in at all?
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  Speaker 3: So I put an over under out there today of
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: five and a half games started by Kelvin Obot?
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  Speaker 2: Does he start half the season or less for the
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  Speaker 2: University of Utah?
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  Speaker 3: If you had to go with the information you've got now,
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  Speaker 3: now your gut feeling, the eyeball test, when you watch
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  Speaker 3: that monster walk it on and off the field, what
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  Speaker 3: would you say to the over under of five and
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  Speaker 3: a half games started for Kelvin Obot as a true freshman.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it depends on what position are you talking about.
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  Speaker 2: Does it matter? Does it matter?
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  Speaker 3: And that's why I think it's a more intriguing question,
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  Speaker 3: because like, is he going to be your starting left
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  Speaker 3: tackle is a true freshman, I don't think so. Is
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  Speaker 3: he going to be a guy that you put at
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  Speaker 3: right or left guard and let him then grow into
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  Speaker 3: the tackle position. That seems like a decent plan for me.
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  Speaker 3: Jordan Gross and some other people have alluded to the same.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Kevin mcgiven came on this show and talked about him
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  Speaker 3: getting reps at guards, so any position on the offensive line.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think we'll see him play center. But you
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  Speaker 3: can answer the question however you choose.
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  Speaker 4: I'm gonna say under just because I think that Solata
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  Speaker 4: Mooei and Keith Olsen are your two starting guards, and
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  Speaker 4: unless God forbid get hurt, those two aren't being jumped
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  Speaker 4: on the too deep.
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  Speaker 1: In my opinion, I think tackle is a little bit.
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  Speaker 4: More interesting just because there isn't as many bodies that
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  Speaker 4: tackle as we know there are for the interior of
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  Speaker 4: the line. Because obviously have Cedric Jefferson in the Montana
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: State transfer, who Jordan Gross called out today as.
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  Speaker 1: Someone who made big strides during the off.
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  Speaker 4: Season, which is also very encouraging to hear. You have
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  Speaker 4: Zaraway Williams, you have Soren Shinowfield, Garcia's in that conversation
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  Speaker 4: as well. So I want to go under, but I
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  Speaker 4: don't think that's the reason for Utah fans to panic,
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: because oddly enough, Utah might be in this exact same
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  Speaker 4: position again at this time next year, trying to figure
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  Speaker 4: out who they're starting five are again. Because outside of
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: you know, Solatoa, who should get an extra year back
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  Speaker 4: if my math is correct based on the new five
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  Speaker 4: for five rules, everybody on this or and Cedric will
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  Speaker 4: also be back. But you're gonna need to replace replace
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  Speaker 4: Key who Olsen. You're gonna need to replace Arroway Williams.
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  Speaker 4: You're gonna need to replace Alex Harrison. So there's three
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  Speaker 4: spots up for grabs right now next season. But I'm
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  Speaker 4: going to go under because I one think everyone on
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  Speaker 4: this offensive line is going to stay healthy.
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  Speaker 1: I'm projecting right now. And two, I.
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  Speaker 4: Just think that it's going to feed Kelvin to just
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  Speaker 4: go a little bit harder and work a little bit
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  Speaker 4: more because he knows that there are so many guys
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  Speaker 4: ahead of him.
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  Speaker 2: That's interesting.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, I'm taking the over because I think that you
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: don't bring in a five star guy, highest rate to
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  Speaker 3: recruit in program history, and then not expect that you're
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  Speaker 3: going to play him in at least half of a season.
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  Speaker 3: And I know that it's supposed to be all merit based,
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: but we're playing with a salary cap now, and I
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  Speaker 3: think that there's going to be some of that that
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  Speaker 3: factors in at some point for Kelvin Obot this year.
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  Speaker 2: But I want to hear from all of you out there.
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  Speaker 3: Over under five and a half games started for Kelvin
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  Speaker 3: Obot on the offensive line this year, sounds like an
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  Speaker 3: encouraging offensive line picture.
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  Speaker 2: With that being a big question.
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  Speaker 3: You just alluded to the new five for five rule
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: and eligibility, any update to anything that we about Nickarie
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Rodgers and the possibilities of him rejoining this team.
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  Speaker 4: Someone actually asked Marktuaya about it today and he said
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  Speaker 4: that it's something they're kind of, you know, working through
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  Speaker 4: and seeing if they possibly can. And then I follow
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  Speaker 4: it up and I said, how if you do bring
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  Speaker 4: the carri back, Like, how does that affect LaMarcus Bell,
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  Speaker 4: who another highly touted freshman that's coming in and stuff,
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  Speaker 4: Because with that five or five you can't work, you
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  Speaker 4: can't read shirt LaMarcus now, like you have to start
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  Speaker 4: pumping reps into these younger guys earlier in their careers,
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  Speaker 4: and so I don't know. I it's one of those
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  Speaker 4: things that's interesting because Morgan said earlier in the week
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  Speaker 4: that they have one to two scholarship spots that they
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  Speaker 4: or roster spots actually is the technical term that they
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: can work with. And there's still some muddy waters on
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: who can come back, like what happens if they're not
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: in the portal. Like I saw something earlier today that
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  Speaker 4: said that if a team adds a player who is
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: not in the portal prior to like April or whatever,
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  Speaker 4: that's head coaching gets suspended up to fifty percent of
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: the season. So then you have to worry about, Okay,
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  Speaker 4: well does that go towards Nakari. So it's just it's
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  Speaker 4: one of those things.
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  Speaker 1: Where I'm just kind of in a wait and see basis.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm not going to say for sure
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  Speaker 4: you ta going to bring Knack back, but I'm also not.
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  Speaker 1: Going to shut it down completely.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the fine print rules are interesting. I think the
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  Speaker 3: way that I understand it is, if you want to
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  Speaker 3: come back, you either had to have had some foresight
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  Speaker 3: to put yourself in the portal before you you know,
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  Speaker 3: kind of finished up, which I don't know why anyone
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  Speaker 3: would do that, or you have to come back to
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  Speaker 3: the same place you were already at, because then the
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  Speaker 3: portal wouldn't come into play, and that ghost transfer rule
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't come into plays.
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  Speaker 2: The way that I read it and.
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  Speaker 3: Understood it, I'm not sure if that's accurate, but that's
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  Speaker 3: how I interpreted it.
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  Speaker 4: It's so confusing right now with all of these these
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  Speaker 4: lawsuits and injunctions and everything like that. I feel like
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  Speaker 4: I needed to get a law degree and not a
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  Speaker 4: journalism degree with how much I'm reading lawsuits and stuff
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  Speaker 4: right now in this current junction of college athletic.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we'd probably I'll be better off covering sports now
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  Speaker 3: if we had better legal expertise. But here we are,
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  Speaker 3: so just a few days into camp and no no
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  Speaker 3: media observation, right, I mean they've they've stuck with that.
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  Speaker 3: You haven't been able to watch any practice yet?
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  Speaker 4: Nope, we have not seen any practice.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so we're we're operating on the statements of players
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  Speaker 3: and coaches, and we all kind of came in with
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  Speaker 3: the same questions.
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  Speaker 2: We already discussed. The offensive line thing.
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  Speaker 3: Anyone been given particular shout outs about you know, maybe
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  Speaker 3: being a surprise so far or someone who's starting to
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  Speaker 3: separate themselves in any of these other rooms.
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  Speaker 4: Yet Chad Bump has mentioned Tobias Merriweather this morning is
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  Speaker 4: somebody who you know came out of the gates early
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  Speaker 4: in fall camp, especially because Tobias in't practice in Spring
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  Speaker 4: for Utah. So Tobias was called out by Bump this morning.
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  Speaker 4: Luke Wells called out Little Moni, who again wasn't available
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  Speaker 4: during the Spring for Utah, as somebody else that he's
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  Speaker 4: gotten eyes on. It's just it's one of those things
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  Speaker 4: where it's like you have an idea of who you
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  Speaker 4: think the guys that are going to contribute are on
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  Speaker 4: this roster. But I feel like every year, without fail,
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  Speaker 4: there's one guy that kind of you know, gets spoken
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  Speaker 4: about a lot and everyone starts buying the stop Now,
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  Speaker 4: I think Cyrus Paulu is probably the best case and
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  Speaker 4: the best like bet right now for who that could
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  Speaker 4: be this year. I mean at this time last year,
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  Speaker 4: everyone was talking of Jackson Benny and looking look how
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  Speaker 4: that turned out. So if Cyrus can even if we
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: get to see Cyrus and he plays to the way
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  Speaker 4: that everyone's speaking that he's playing. I think the Utah
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  Speaker 4: linebacker room is in insanely good hands. But it's been
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: you know, the usual names that we've heard, but Tobias
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  Speaker 4: and Will were the two that were brought up today
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  Speaker 4: that we haven't heard.
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  Speaker 3: Are all fall You just mentioned Jackson Benny. We played
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: the sound from yesterday of him post practice, and you
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: know that that safety room, I don't think the picture
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: of like at least the rotation is as clear. Everyone
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: is like, yeah, your safety are good. But I'm not
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: ready to declare anyone a starter yet necessarily because there's
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: so much.
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  Speaker 2: Talent in that room.
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  Speaker 3: And I know, speaking with Morgan last year when he
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: still was coaching the safeties, he was really high on
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  Speaker 3: some of the young guys coming in. And obviously there's
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: versatility with someone like a Jackson Benny to play Nicol
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: if you need him to. So, what do you know
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: about or what do you think about the safety rotation
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: right now?
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  Speaker 2: Because it's a crowded room.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: Well, coach Derek Odom today said that you know, he
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: does a lot of mixing and matching with the guys
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  Speaker 4: in his room because there is so many guys that
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: are up for competition. Nate, Richie Jackson, Benny, Nate, Tillman,
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: I'm trying. My brain is just Rabbit Evans. My brain
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: is just blanking on everybody else, Manny Fuller. There's so
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: many guys that are available to play in the safety room,
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: and so it's a lot of mixing and matching. And
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: I think that a big thing with guys is not
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: to get complacent because it was this depth in the
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: safety room. If you half a step back, somebody's going
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: to be there to overtake you by a step and
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  Speaker 4: a half. And so I think that that's really good
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: and that's encouraging. And there's different guys who can do
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: different things in this situation. If there's a guy who's
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: a lot better in run support, he might be seeing
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: a little bit more time than someone who's specifically better
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: in coverage. And I think that's what's gonna make Utah's
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: defense I think even more hard to beat this year,
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: just with across the board, the amount of talent and
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: the amount of guys that can do different things. That's
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: gonna be hard for opposing offense is the scheme against
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: especially if the safety room takes a step forward in
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  Speaker 4: the tackling department, which again Odom spoke about and how
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: the guys in his room want to be better tacklers.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: They want to get better at that, they're willing to
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: do it. So as a whole, I like where the
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: safety room looks. I agree that heading into Fall, I
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: did think it was going to be Jackson and Rabbit
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: who are going to be your starters. But now it's
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: kind of one of those things where it's like, could
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: it be Jackson and Nate Ritchie? Could it be Nate,
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: Richie and Tillman, Like, there's so many different mixing and
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: matching that can happen, and it's.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Going to be really fun to see how that continues
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  Speaker 1: to shape up as fall goes on.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Do you do you have any insight on the defensive
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: line rotation the trench play?
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: The trench play is going to be so massively important
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: because you've got all this unproven talent, and you and
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: I have discussed is kind of every time you've come on,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: and we always appreciate your time, but we watch certain
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: players kind of take a step forward and excel a
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: little bit in Spring, and now we have to operate
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: on trust that we're getting the right information from coaches
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: and other players and things like that, and I was
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: always I felt like I was always able in the
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: past to get a good sense of who the guys
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: on the d line were going to be by watching
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: the five minutes we got to watch of them. Now
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: I don't know, and the coaches keep saying Carson CALFUSI.
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  Speaker 2: Who else?
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  Speaker 4: I think Carson's the biggest name that we've heard consistently.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: That second spot is the one that's really interesting to me.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: Like Lucas Samsul, the Wyoming transfer, he looks so much bigger.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Like standing next to him in the scrum yesterday, I
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: was like, Okay, yeah, this Steve Sanders string the conditioning
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: program looks to be paying off. He's someone that I
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: think could be in there, especially because he wants to
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: stop the run.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: That's his thing. He prides himself on that.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Then you have Ji moy the San Jose State transfer,
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: who you know, people are knocking on him because he's
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: six foot two ninety, but that kid has the motor.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: And when you hear offensive lineman repeatedly saying that he
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: is the hardest guy to block on that defensive tackle room,
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: that's something that at least for me sets off alarm
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: bells in my head, not like battle alarm bells, but like, oh,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: this could be something that could turn into some production
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: in the fall type of alarm bells. Jamal Wallace the
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Tennessee Transfer. I've heard some good things about Poopoo sepalone.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: I've heard some good things about that he's been, you know,
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: doing over the last couple of months and stuff. But
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: I honestly think it's I don't want to it's a
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: good problem to have, but I like that the fact
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: that we don't know who it's going to be because
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: I think, again, like we talked about with Stacy's I
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: think this defensive tackle room, there's so many guys who
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: do so many different things that I think you can
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: mix and match and you can play with this tackles
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: room to do different things, whether it be you put
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Carson and Lucas out there and you just have two
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: guys who are six four plus who are just there
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: to stop the run, or you put you know, jam
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: and Jai out there, who are a little bit more
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: shiftier and a little bit quicker, who can get off
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: blocks faster, who can get into the backfield. So that's
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: one of those things that those battles that I'm also
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: really interested to see how it develops as fall goes,
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: because if guys start separating themselves, then I think that
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: that's a good thing for Utah. But if you head
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: into this season with you know, four or five six
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: guys you feel comfortable with.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I think that's also kind of encouraging.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: Because last year, I think that, at least in looking back,
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: I think there was probably maybe one and a half
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: guys that people felt comfortable with on that defense, in
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: that defensive tackle room. But it feels a lot different
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: this year than it did last year.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Sammy Moore for a couple more minutes here on the
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Sean O'Connell show, talk in Utah football camp. They are
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: three days in now, plenty more to go. Obviously, the
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Idaho kickoff is less than a month away now, and
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: you got to get from here to that kickoff as
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: healthy as you possibly can. That's one of the reasons
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: why a change was made in the strength and conditioning program.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: And we have heard you mentioned his name.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: We've heard several players in the early parts of camp
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: coming out of the summer talking about how the Steve
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Saunders program has worked out very well. For them personally,
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: how their bodies feel different. Guys have taken off fat
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: mass and added muscle mass because of this.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, how many people are mentioning this, Sammy.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: It seems like it's kind of like one of the
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: main themes of the early conversations.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, every single player in the scrums this week
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: has been asked about it, and every single player had
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: something good to say. I think the biggest one that
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: stands out for me, specifically without Garrison, you mentioned that
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: there were guys in this offensive line room who lost
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: weight but gained twenty pounds of lean muscle, like in
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: just a two month span. Alex himself said that this
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: is like the best he's ever felt, and he's he's
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: been around the block quite a few times for Utah.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: So you have him saying that, you have Lucas Samsula
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: saying the same thing. Even Day told us after his
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: from that he's up to two hundred and seventy pounds
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: and he looks the part. And this is not just
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: weight that guys are putting on, like that bad weight
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: that people talk about, just like fat and stuff like
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: it is muscle and from the eye test so far,
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: a lot of guys look a lot different and it's
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: really encouraging. And you know, the coaches today said that, yeah,
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: there's been some bumps because guys, especially on the offense
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: and defensive line, are learning how to you know, move
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: and do different things with the new weight on their body.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: And as much as I think Luther Ellis said, as
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: much running and conditioning you do in the summer with
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: new weight, it's different than when you're actually playing football.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: With that new weight.
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: So guys are still getting used to it and stuff.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: But everything that we've heard so far from these players
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: has been highly, highly encouraging about Steve Saunderson what he's
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: done in two and a half months with these guys.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Uh, your first we're getting a lot of milestones, right,
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Morgan Scalley's first win as a head coach back in
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: the bowl game, his first spring ball. You get a
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: lot of firsts in this initial go uh, his first camp,
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: his first camp. Is the head coach any noticeable differences
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: based on what you are able to glean.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: I mean, Jackson Benny mentioned that they're not doing you know,
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: twenty three period practices. They're doing you know, shorter period practices.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: But Morgan wants one hundred percent effort in every single
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: one of those periods. That's not how things used to
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: be with Kyle. It was longer practices, bloody tuesdays, all
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: of those things. But it seems like Morgan is turning
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: more to It's okay for.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: It to be a little bit shorter, but I want
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: Effort this entire time, and we'll see if that pays off.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: We'll see if it has to change as time goes on.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: But that's less reps, which I know people are like, well,
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: less reps equals not good. It's like, no, if those
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: reps that are taken are high quality reps, it's better
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: than having quite a few low quality reps in my opinion,
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: at least, because the higher level competition these guys are
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: playing with in practice is going to let the cream
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: rise to the top and you will have, you know,
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: your eleven starters on offense and your eleven starters on defense.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Who know what it takes to play at this level.
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: And so that's the big thing that stood out so far.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: Obviously we are early two days in the pads. Had
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: it been on, we don't know, like Morgan even said,
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: we don't know what we have with the offensive line
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: and defensive line fully yet, because you know, they play
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: a lot different in pads versus when they're just in
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: you know, their shelves and stuff. So as we go on,
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: I think we're going to start learning a lot more
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: about what Camp Morgan or whatever we as the fans
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: and media decide to call this this fall camp. We're
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: going to start learning more as time goes on. But
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: as of right now, I think that's the biggest thing
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: to sot out was just the shorter practices but with
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: higher efforts.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: I have de lawn Wright coming on in about four minutes.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Anything you think I should ask Talon?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: Uh? I have not a single clue. OC.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: That's all right, I can. I can do my own job,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: but I don't need you to do it for me.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: I guess I just was you know you have you
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: have good questions, a good insights sometimes, so I wanted
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: to I want it.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I wanted to be lazy and see if I could
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: get one from you.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: Hey, if you ever want to talk basketball, are are
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: you insider? John Leone?
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: He's the guy to talked to about Utah basketball.
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: He's you know, talking to recruits and stuff. For us,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: and he's going to be leading the charge hopefully for
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: us this fall when it comes to basketball.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: All right, last thing before I let you go.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: Uh, And I don't know if anyone's asked this yet,
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: and I know it's maybe not fair because you don't
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: get to really watch practice, but one of the big
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: things that is an early indicator or not with Utah
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: football in recent seasons is are they coming in prepared
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: to tack How much tackling do we know or not
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: know they are doing in this fall camp?
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Well, Odem said that they that Morgan is is giving
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: them time to work on tackling, which it should be,
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: like I should be hearing applause across the valley right
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: now that there's dedicated time to tackling for this defense,
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: because that's been an issue for the last you know,
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: two ish maybe three years.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Is just the inconsistencies.
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: And I know that Kyle said that a lot of
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: it was we didn't want to tackle as much in
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: fall camp because then like the injury percentages goes up
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: and stuff, and whatever his reasoning was for that. But
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: if Odam can get these guys tackling better, especially in
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: the safety room, who had the highest rate of mistackles
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: last year. Like, I think that this defense is in
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: a really good shape because everybody else on the defense,
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: did you know, a little bit above average and tackling.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Dan Thorns and our publisher at ut Zone did a
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: great breakdown of percentages of how many mistackles happened last year,
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: where they came from, all those types of things. So
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: if you haven't read that, go over to youth Phone
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: and check that out. But with tackling, I think that's
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: a high priority and a high focus for Morgan, and
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: I think Odum is a great coach to get that.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Bug fixed with this specifically the secondary.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: In the safety room, knocking on wood that everybody stays
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: healthy and obviously that we see them on September third,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Ready to tackle. Sammy, thanks so much for your time
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: and all your work. We're live on air while you
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: guys get to do your thing up there, so I
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: won't be seeing you as much as I wished I would,
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: but thanks.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: For the time.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no problem, mosty, Thanks for having me.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Sammy Mora one of our insiders over there from ute Zone.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Ute Zone Wednesdays here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: two one FM