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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 9-1-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Every Tuesday, everybody, welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Happy to have you with us. We'll be doing a
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: little red and blue today. Jerem Jordan's going to swing by.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Jeff Schwartz, the talk pro and college football. And a
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: lot to get to. It is game week for the
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: University of Utah as such. We will do a little
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: over-under conversation. We're getting to more of the big-picture stuff now.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: The point totals for your offense, the point totals for
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: your defense, the win total for this Utah football season.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: As set by Vegas.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: We're going to give our own predictions on all those
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: things before the week is out because I want it
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: to be truly predictive. As the season kicks off officially
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Thursday night at Rice Eccles Stadium, you can hear Bill Riley,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Stevenson Sylvester, and Zach Moss right here on the Utah-Idaho
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: broadcast on the only place you can catch Utah radio,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: your home of the Utes, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: So, a.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Lot of Ute discussion. I went up to practice yesterday.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: We got a little bit of sound for you. They
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: made players available. Devin Dampier was his usual charming self.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: John O'Hall, there's a good piece of sound from John O'Hall.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Al Harrison, I think was probably what will bring you
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: on air today. But in a matter of minutes, all
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of that is going to be available at ESPN700sports. com and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: on the ESPN 700 app as well. I think it's
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: worth making a big story or not a big story,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: but at least a top mention on the show today,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Devin damp here gifted every one of his teammates, a
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: pair of beats headphones yesterday as a, just because as a, Hey,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: we're all in this together. This is a, a team thing. I'm,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I'm happy to have gotten to know you guys even better.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: We made it through camp. QB1 doing QB1 things, leadership things.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: And look, Devin Dampier is right now highly compensated. He
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: is the highest paid player on this Utah football team,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: as he should be as the starting quarterback.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: He is a captain. He is a leader.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: He's an incredibly charismatic individual. He's a guy that hopefully
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: you feel like you've gotten to know pretty well through
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: his weekly conversations with us here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I got to tell you, I've always been bad at
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: being a journalist, a big J journalist, right? Because I'm
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: too opinionated and I have emotional reactions to things. And
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: the big J journalists are better at compartmentalizing those things.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: I probably shouldn't actively root for individual players the way
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: that I do, but I will tell you this. I'm
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: glad that Devin Dampier is the starting quarterback at the
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: University of Utah. I will be rooting for that guy
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: from here at.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Infinitum.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: He is just such a pleasant person to talk to,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: to interact with. He's a guy you feel like Even
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: though there's a buffer, right? There's a significant age gap.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I'm a media guy. He's a player doing his duties
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: or whatever. It just feels like he's the kind of
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: guy that if you met somewhere else, you would be
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: friends with that guy.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I know that that's not a requirement.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: When it comes to rooting for people or when it
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: comes to, you know, do I actually want this person
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: to be successful? Sports fans all over the place have
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: their own sort of threshold for what a player needs
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: to be off the field in order for them to
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: care about them on the field. Devin Dampier is just
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: an awesome guy that Utah fans are lucky to get
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: to root for. It removes a layer of questioning because
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not above rooting for somebody who might not be
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: the coolest person, the nicest person, the most generous person.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Devin Depp here is just like, you know, he's that guy.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: He handed for no reason other than he wanted to
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: be generous and share his success with all of his
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: teammates who might not be able to get to, you know,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: to have that same level of notoriety, financial compensation, appreciation
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: from the program kind of thing.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: He just wanted to do something nice.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: He made the arrangements himself and gifted to the players
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the a pair of beats by Dre headphones yesterday, which
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I looked up the price on these things and there's
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of different models to them, but with a hundred,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: 105 players on the team and I'm sure that, you know, there's,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: a couple extra pairs left over and things like that.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: But in fact, I know there was, cause I saw
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: him carrying a box that still had a few left
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: in them, but you know, there's a guy spent like
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: 20 grand plus on a gift for his teammates just because.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: So there's a little feel good for you as a
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Utah football fan. There's nothing momentous about it. There's nothing
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: like game changing about it.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: There's nothing.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this will have an effect on team
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: chemistry and there'll be a better team because of it.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: That's not what I'm trying to say.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I'm just bringing it to your attention that QB1 at
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the University of Utah, who will appear on the show
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: on Thursday, he's just that guy that wants to share,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: that wants to be a good teammate.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: So that's a cool thing.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: OC, when it comes to athletes and coaches, obviously all
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: of us, with anybody, we judge people based on interactions
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: and how we are treated by them personally.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: And in a lot of ways, but one of the
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: things that I gauge for me personally is cause I'm,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: I didn't play, I didn't play college football. I didn't,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: I wasn't a pro athlete like, like you and others
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: that are in the local media.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: So I'm like, if someone who is that big a
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: deal is a high level college football athlete in this case,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: or a pro athlete, if it's a jazz player or whatnot, a,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: a high level college football, a college football head coach,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: a pro head coach. And they're still decent to me
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: as someone who isn't a big deal at all. He
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: just happens to work in the media. Like that means,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: that means a lot to me, not just because they're
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: decent to me personally, but also it gives me an
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: idea of like, they must be like this to a lot, to,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: just about everybody they're with.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And it is one of the ways, right.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: When you're, when you get into like telling your kids
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: who to date or when you were going out there
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and figuring out who your life partner was going to be,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I'm sure there was someone who offered you the piece
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: of advice, like pay close attention to how that person
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: treats folks that can't benefit them.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Can't help them.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: How do they treat the, for lack of a better term,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the little people in their life? Like, are they, Opening
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: doors for strangers. Is it a person that says thank
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: you to the janitor? Is it somebody that expresses appreciation
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: for the small things when you have a waiter? Is
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: it someone who talks nicely while you're sitting down at
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the restaurant or whatever?
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Those are so cliche, but they're accurate. It's true, right?
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: And congratulations to Devin Dampier's parents. They did a great
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: job raising the young man. He deserves credit for his
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: own accomplishments athletically and obviously his own character development. And
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: there was a really nice piece written about his spiritual
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: development and how he feels like he's taken a significant
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: step forward in something that for him, his faith is
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: important to him. And he's wanting to be a better Christian.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: And I applaud that here. It doesn't have to be
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: the official stance of ESPN 700, but it is mine.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I think it's really cool.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: That story is also being told about the starting quarterback,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: who we all think is going to be a really,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: really good player. That is what people care most about
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: because that's how you know him, as a player. But
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: it's really neat to see in his second year as
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: the projected starter, the other side of his personality coming
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: out and him maybe feeling a little bit more comfortable
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: in sharing those details of his life and using his platform,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: as he mentioned in the article, using his platform, for good.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: And here's another example of generosity. And, uh, and if
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: you're a teammate, right, this probably doesn't need to go
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: a long way for like way Sean Parker and John
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: who hall, and even the Braden pagans of the world
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: who is a newcomer.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: But he, he was brought here.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: With a little NIL enticement and he was brought here
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: with some expectation of being treated. Well, this goes the
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: furthest adjustment. like this, with the guys whose names we're
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: not going to ever say on the radio this year, right?
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Your quarterback does not have to be friendly with or
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: generous to the guys who are not starting, not rotational players.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: They don't have to be good to the scout team guys.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: They don't.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: It's better leadership if you are right. But even if
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: you're good to them, it doesn't mean you have to
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: buy them things like this. This is a bull gift.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: We used to scrub walk on nobody players on the team.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: You used to like, this was manna from heaven. If
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: you got like a free anything in college. And I
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: know the dynamic has changed a little bit and the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: guys are treated better now, even at the lowest levels.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: rung of the ladder than it used to be the case,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: but this is, it's just a cool gesture. And you know, I,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I hope that, I hope that stories like this get
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: spread more often. Cause there's, there's plenty of, Oh, this
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: guy's a bad guy, but he's talented. So we just
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: kind of deal with it. Oh, look at this guy's
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: arrogant and egotistical. And look, Devin's got, he's a confident guy.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: So maybe that can come off to some people sometimes
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: in a bad way.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I have not seen it personally though.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we've been interviewing him every week all through
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: last football season, three-plus months, right, OC?
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: It's been three weeks so far this season.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: You've done media days interviews with him, spring football interviews
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: with him. Besides that, I feel like besides people on
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: the team and his own family, we have a pretty
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: good perspective and close friends or whatever. We have a
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: pretty good perspective of, who he is because of that
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: familiarity we've been able to gain. And yeah, I I've
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: yet to see him act, behave badly, act arrogant. In
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: my opinion, like he just seems like a, he's always
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: a happy, humble young man who I, I think Utes
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: fans got to be really proud that he represents your
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: football team and represents your university. And I think even,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: even fans of other, universities in the state, BYU, Utah State, whatever,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: if you hate Utah, you got to feel good that
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: that guy's representing your state in some way, someone like that,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: even if he's not playing for your team.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: So that's just a fun little story.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Utah football kicks off their season Thursday night. Utah will
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: remain the major focus of this program. However, we have
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: to talk about something brewing down south. BYU also kicks
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: off their season this weekend, not Thursday night, but on Saturday,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: it's a, it's a layup game against Utah tech.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Sorry, James. And that's just, that was uncalled for.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I know like the trailblazers are going to blaze a
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: trail all the way up from St.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: George.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: And we'll leave the Cougars in their wake, okay?
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing. You don't have to blaze a trail
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: from St.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: George.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: That's what we do.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: We have that kind of grit all the time. I-15
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: is already there. You don't have to blaze your own
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: trail now.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: It's already paved.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: You got a nice bus, I'm sure. Now, we're going
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: to be that gritty, though.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: We're horse and buggy all the way up the state.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And up north, as we say down there, down here,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Provo is down south.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: For us in St. George, anything past Nephi is up north.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: You say team up north? They don't say BYU down
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: in Utah Tech country? I think they actually have started
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: because SUU is in the conference with them now. So
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: SUU is the team up north? I think SUU is
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: their team up north. Okay. I left before they were
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: in the same conference. They were still a Division II
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: school when I left, so I'm still learning these things.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: So that would make BYU the team really far north,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: and if they play Utah State, then they're just like
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: the team at the North Pole.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: That's Canada.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: So in any case, Dick Harmon, who writes for the– Trailblazers, okay?
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Dick Harmon, who covers BYU Athletics for the Deseret News.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Went on Big 12 Today.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: We talk with Ari Temkin from Big 12 Today once
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: a week here on the program during football and basketball seasons.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Ari's a great friend of the show.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: By the way, sorry, did Ari have this conversation with
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: him before he was on on Monday? Because grievance there, man.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: You've got to bring up that someone said something juicy
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: to you. I think this conversation happened yesterday. Oh, you're right.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: So whenever it happened, Dick Harmon made.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say claim. He delivered a statement
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: that rocked me back in my chair a little bit
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: on the air on Big 12 Today where he said,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I know Kalani Satake was promised that Brian Santiago would
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: be fired.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: And it's like, wait, what?
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: And that may not be a direct quote, but that
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: was the meaning. That's what he conveyed on Big 12 Today.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: And.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking, okay, that's someone who's, I mean, Dick does
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: a great job. He is as dialed in. He is
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: as connected source-wise at BYU as anybody is, as anybody
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: can be. And he's stated with supreme confidence that, well,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: I know Kalani was told that Brian Santiago would be fired.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: And there was another part of that conversation, and all
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: of this is kind of like, once again, swirling around
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: the BYU Twittersphere especially, and more pointedly, the Big 12 Twittersphere,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: because you've got to remember, there are folks in Lubbock,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Texas right now, in Boulder, Colorado, in Tempe, Arizona, in Tucson, Arizona,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: in Houston, that are paying very close attention to everything
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: that is going on with BYU Athletics, with Provo. Because
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: not only on the football front, but also on the
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: basketball front, BYU has made themselves into a hyper-relevant team
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: in this conference. BYU has made themselves into a can't-miss,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: pay attention, are they going to be a conference champion
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: in both sports kind of a factor. And any time
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: that there's a disconnect in leadership, any time that there's disarray,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: any time that there's a potential chink in the armor,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: everyone in the big 12 is paying attention, right? So
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: not only did on big 12 radio, Dick Harmon make
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: a statement that, Hey, they were going to fire. They
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: promised Kalani. They would fire Santiago, but they didn't. And
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: instead we know what happened. There's been a divorce between
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Santiago and the football program where now Kalani reports to
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Keith Vorkink. I told you when that broke publicly, officially,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, I hope I wasn't inaccurate in this, but
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I felt confident in hearing from the sources I heard
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: from that, that has already been the case that Kalani
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: has not been reporting to Brian Santiago since he turned
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: down Penn state. And that now is when it was
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: made public by the university officially. And I don't know
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: what the motivation for delaying an announcement or even giving
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: an announcement ever would be because BYU is not exactly
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: the oversharing type of school that But that's where we're at, right?
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: And that by itself was enough of a splash. And
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: now Dick Harmon goes out and says, oh yeah, they
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: were going to fire him though. And Kalani expected that
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: he would be fired. Not that he would be separated.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Not that he would be taken off the top.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Not that Kalani would not have to report to him.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: But that Santiago would be fired. And I don't know
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: what their relationship is like.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to pretend to. I know Kalani Satake
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: pretty well.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Kalani Satake is not the type of guy that would
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: ask for somebody to be fired over nothing. I don't
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: even think he would ask for somebody to be fired,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: if I'm being honest. Now I could see a situation
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: in which BYU felt like the right way to appease Kalani,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: the right way to keep Kalani happy, might be to
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: get rid of a guy who, another part of this conversation,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: and we've heard about this reports again going all the
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: way back to January, was that Brian Santiago offered Jay
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Hill Kalani Satake's job. And that could be seen as
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: a faux pas. That could be seen as an unforgivable sin.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: That could be seen as an offense somewhere in the middle. Look,
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: there's plenty of reasons for Kalani to be upset with
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Brian Santiago if there's unfulfilled promises on an NIL front,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: on an infrastructure front, on an assistant coaching salary front,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: on a commitment front. to his own salary front, whatever facilities,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: it's clear that there has been some sort of some
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: level of failure in delivering on Kalani's expectations.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: And maybe this, maybe.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: The fact that Santiago was still employed was a big
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: part of that. If he was promised as, as Dick
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Harmon says that this guy would be fired and he
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: would be out of the way, maybe that was Kalani's expectation.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: And maybe that was part of why Kalani felt it
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: was necessary to finally get stop taking the obvious high
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: road and being a little bit more transparent about his
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: feelings regarding the level of support, resources, etc. There are
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: plenty of reasons why he's could be upset i i
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: want to douse some of the flame though a contingency
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: plan if your coach leaves for penn state is not
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: a reason to get rid of an athletic director is
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: not a reason for Kalani, who's a very practical and
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: reasonable person, to say that the bridge is completely burnt.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: If Brian Santiago truly did, as many suggest, and as
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Dick Harmon confirmed, if Brian Santiago went to Jay Hill
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and said, hey, this job is yours if Kalani leaves,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: that's not the unforgivable sin people want to make it
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: out to be. That's a contingency plan. That's a succession plan.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: That's a, hey, if this guy goes, I need to
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: know that I can go to my boosters, we can
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: go to this roster, we can talk to these players
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: who will immediately have the right, if a coach leaves,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: to put their name in the transfer portal, regardless of timeline.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I need to know that I can tell those people,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: we have a plan in place. Brian Santiago has always
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: been cordial to me. I don't have a significant relationship
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: with him one way or the other. I have no
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: reason to dislike the man. I have heard the same
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: thing that a lot of people have heard about the
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: maybe less appealing parts of his personality, some of the
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: things that could be viewed as concerns from BYU sports
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: fans about him being promoted to athletic director in the
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: first place. Obviously, I have said on the air many,
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: many times that don't expect anybody to take your side
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: in a feud against Kalani Satake because one of these
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: guys is just an absolute gem of a human being.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: And the other one might be also Santiago might be also,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: but we definitively know that Kalani is. So there's zero
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: question as to who's going to get the support of
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the public and especially the non BYU public in a
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: conversation like that. But Jay Hill, I saw some, social
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: media firestorm about this. I saw there was some, you know,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: message board things about it. Jay Hill being offered allegedly
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: or confirmed or whatever being offered, uh, as like the, Hey, you're,
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: you're the next guy up. If we have to go
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: that route, that's, that's not a reason to be upset
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: with Brian Santiago. If you're BYU, it's not even a
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: reason if you're Kalani Satake to be upset with Brian Santiago.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Because you were having active conversations with another school. There
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: was a very sincere dual-sided interest being expressed with Penn
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: State and Kalani Sitake. If the situation occurred this coming
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: December at Utah.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: And Morgan Scali.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: has the season we hope he has.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Let's say Morgan is a 10-win.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Coach in his very first year as a head coach
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: at the University of Utah. And USC comes and says, hey, Morgan,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: we're sick of this Lincoln Riley guy. We want you
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: to bring RSNB down to Southern California. In a case
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: like that, Mark Harlan's number one priority would have to be,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: of course, retaining Morgan Scali. a close second would have
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: to be knowing what to do if you can't win
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: that battle.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: And if in that case, in this weird hypothetical, we
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: find out that Sharif Shah has called into the athletic
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: director's office and said, Hey, you're the next guy. If
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: you want it, or it would really probably be Jay Hill.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Then that a phone call went out to Jay Hill
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: and Hey, if Morgan is going to take a USC job,
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: We want you to be the next head coach here.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Are you willing? Would you be able?
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: That's just somebody doing their job.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: So I think that the reaction to these two things
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: should be drastically different. And those were the main takeaways
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: from Dick Harmon. Again, BYU Insider on Big 12 Today
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: talking about BYU and their ongoing saga, even as game
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: day approaches. with perceived or real disconnect between Brian Santiago
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: and the football department that has now been made official.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Dick Harmon said Santiago was supposed to be fired. Somebody
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: told Kalani that Santiago would be fired. And in that case,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, I understand why BYU didn't make that move,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: even if they had promised Kalani Satake that they were
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: going to make that move, even if somebody promised Kalani
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Satake that they were going to make that move.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Because how long was Tom Homo there? A couple of decades?
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: And then you're going to have a guy in place
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: for 11 months and fire him? That is a PR
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: nightmare for a school that already has to be very
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: delicate with how they fight their PR battles. There are
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: so many just like wolves at the gate all the
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: time with BYU. And we are guilty of being those
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: wolves at the gate on occasion on the Utah side
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: of things. If you, if you say, all right, you
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: know what? The Santiago thing didn't work out. He's fired now.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Everyone's going to be like, Oh, disarray in Provo. Oh,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: they didn't have a plan.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: Oh, right.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: So of course they're being as careful and cautious as
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: they can. And ultimately it was decided that, that the
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: best thing for this football program for the best thing
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: for this athletic department was to just separate Kalani and Santiago.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: You can't be in the sandbox at the same time
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: as Kalani.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: You have to have a buffer seat in between you.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: If Kalani wants, if Kalani wants to be on the
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: monkey bars, Brian, you have to go over and play kickball. Well,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: why can't I be on the monkey bars? Because the
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: playground belongs to Kalani. Cause you know why Brian, you
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: know why?
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Because I talked to Jay.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Because you said, cause Jay was eating glue and you
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: went over and you talked to him.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Now for real though, like having a plan is not
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: a reason to be mad at Brian Santiago. unfulfilled promises,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: not having a good relationship with Kalani in the first place,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: is a sin punishable by.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Athletic director death in most cases.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: He's hanging on because the Kevin Young thing, the Danny
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Ainge connection, the Ryan Smith connection is profound, is important
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: at BYU Athletics. I don't know how long, how sustainable
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: it is, and I'm not saying... I'm expressing doubt, but
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying they can't manage it because BYU already
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: has to manage a lot of things that other programs
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: and other schools don't have to manage. And they do
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: a pretty darn good job of it. They've got a
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: good thing going on down there in Provo, whether you
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: like it or not. I don't know legitimately how sustainable
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: it is that you can have somebody who is a
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: figurehead of your athletic department who is the on paper
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: letterhead face of your athletic department as the athletic director,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: who the football coach doesn't even want to talk to.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Like let's not sugarcoat it. Kalani Satake and Brian Santiago.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: There's a problem there. There was a problem though, between
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Kyle Whittingham and Chris Hill. At some point, there was
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: a problem between Kyle Whittingham and Mark Harlan. At some point,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: There's probably a problem with Chip Kelly and Martin Jarmond
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: who got fired at UCLA at some point. There's oftentimes
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: tension between a football coach and an athletic director, and
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: there's a power dynamic that is hard, that is untenable
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: in a lot of those cases. Rarely, almost never, is
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: that power struggle so publicly acknowledged and so untenable that
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: that something like this happens like up just so all
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: of you know, like if you're Brian Santiago, can you
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: even go to football games and stand on the sideline
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: this year?
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know you can maybe all the way
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: down at the end of the sideline.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine how awkward, how terrible that feels for
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Brian Santiago?
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Again, I have no relationship with the man.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Like There's a measure of pity in my heart for
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: the fact that you are now like persona non grata
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: with the man who brought with his program $ 120 million
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: worth of revenue into your school last year. The other,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: whatever it was, 45, I think, maybe it was 65,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: the other chunk came from basketball, and that guy likes you.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: But the football program, the crown jewel of the campus, Like,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: you could show up. It's kind of like me at
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: that Jethro Tull concert.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're allowed. You can be here, but nobody actually
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: wants you here. Always bothered me when people say Jethro
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Tull is just a person in a band.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: OC. I just, man.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Dick Harmon just goes on Big 12 Today yesterday. Just flamethrower.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Just like, oh, yeah, by the way, here's my fastball.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: I got some heaters. The fact that he said, I know.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: He didn't say, I'm hearing. He didn't say, I've heard.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: He said, I know Kalani was told Brian would be fired. Oh,
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: so I had a conversation on Saturday morning with somebody
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: who's pretty connected at BYU, all right? Someone who knows
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: people who know people, right? And again, this is third
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: or fourth hand information, so who knows if it's true,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: but the fact that it's out there is problematic enough, okay?
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: His quote to me was that, The exact words that
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Brian Santiago gave to Kalani Satake, this is according to
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: somebody who heard it from Bigwig Booster kind of situation, right?
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: I quote, pound sand. I have a really hard time
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: believing that Brian Santiago would have told Kalani Satake on
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: the phone to his face in an email or through
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: an intermediary, like an agent. I have a really hard
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: time thinking that the athletic director at BYU ever would
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: have said, hey, Kalani is talking to Penn State.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: They've offered him this. He wants this.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: That even someone like Brian Santiago would say the words
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: pound sand. I have a hard time believing that, okay?
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: But this person I was talking to, who's a big-time
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: BYU fan, and of the kind of means to be
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: influential for BYU football, if you know what I mean,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: that person believes that's what Brian Santiago said to Kalani Satake.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: So whether it's true or not, perception is reality, right?
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: And if that person believes it, then maybe there are
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: 10 other booster-level individuals who also believe it. Maybe there
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: are five other people who have important titles at BYU
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: who believe that those words are something equivalent were uttered
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: to Kalani Satake instead of, no, no, no, no.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: We need you.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: We want you to stay. We'd love to have you here.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Let's work something out. If even the sentiment is, yeah, okay,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: see ya. That's a failure and is potentially a fireable offense,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: which would make sense.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Why then the guy.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Who was told allegedly pound sand would be like, all right, well,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to pound sand, but the guy who
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: told me to pound sand, I don't want to talk
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: to him anymore. I don't want to look at him.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: I don't want to see him. I'm certainly not reporting
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: to him. And then maybe the response to that is okay. Well, yeah,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: if he really said that he's fired, we're going to like,
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: This is a soap opera at the highest level of
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: BYU athletics. There is no higher level for BYU athletics.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: And I would make an argument that for the university,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: and by extension, maybe for the actual LDS church, there
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: is no higher level of public representation than BYU football.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: It is the.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: If I walk into a random room anywhere in the
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: country and I say.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: What do you know about Mormons?
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: They're going to tell me the Book of Mormon musical,
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: which has nothing to do with the actual church.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Or they're going to say BYU football. Probably. They might say, like,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: depending on their age, Donny Osmond.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Lavelle Edwards, maybe. Which is BYU football. Which is BYU football.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: This is like, the more I think about it, and
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I've kind of like. I think they're going to quote
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: a conference talk from April, actually, OC.
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: Okay. Okay.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: That's what I think. No, it's BYU.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: And that's why this is a bigger deal than I
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: think people... This kind of strife playing out so publicly
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: is a bigger deal for probably the church, certainly for
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: the university, than people who are just sports fans in
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: this state probably realize.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: This is something....
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: A big enough deal that they're willing to be like,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: not only someone else in the athletic department, we're going
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: to now put you in charge of football. They're putting
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: the vice president of the school in charge of football
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: in order to smooth this over. It's a very strange thing.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: And Dick Harmon, thank you for the fodder for the material.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Cause I, I mean, I've, I've watched this whole thing
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: unfold and like I'm pretty firmly in camp Kalani, right?
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, yeah, do whatever you can to
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: make that guy happy. He's an excellent coach. He's right
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: there taking you to the highest heights that this program
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: has ever been. He's right there on the precipice. Do
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: whatever you can to make him happy. Do whatever you
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: can to retain him. Do whatever you can to make
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: sure that his great assistants, the Aaron Rodericks of the world,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: are also happy. Do what you can. For Kalani. To
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: keep him in place. That is the right move for BYU.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: I've been watching this and I've been seeing them do
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: those things. And I'm like, okay, yeah. Everything they do
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: makes sense. And then you get this level. It's just like, oh,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: and now I'm going full TMZ. Now I'm like, I
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: want to know exactly what was said by who. I
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: wish they were subject to public records requests. I wish
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: we could get the email chain like we got with
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: the Mark Harlan and coach wits agent kind of situation.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: I want that desperately.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: You can't get it from BYU because they're not subject
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: to the same rules as a private institution, but good golly,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: I want Brian Santiago in studio sitting right there. And
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: I want him to look at me in the face
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: and say, this is what I said when Kalani's agent.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Mention that he might go to Penn state.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Cause if it was anything remotely close to pound sand,
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: then it's like, okay, well. Maybe you should be more
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: than just separated from football. Well, I actually said pound
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: your really soft mattress. I didn't say pound sand. So
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: I don't like how that was misconstrued.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Again, I don't know if I'm not quoting.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: The person I was talking to was offering it like
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: it was a real quote. And that person believing that
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: is problematic for BYU athletics.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I just I'm just reeling OC from from all of
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: this because I didn't know you knew the cookie man
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: so well. The cookie man, cookie bro, as Spence likes
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: to call him, the crumble cookie guy, I'm sure is–
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know anything about him. I don't have anything
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: bad to say about you as a person. Your product
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: is not my thing. And I love cookies. I don't
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: love those cookies.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: There are.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: More people starting to agree with that from what I've seen.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Not doing so well. Not doing as well as they
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: used to do. Although, I will say this, if you're listening,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Cookie Bro, I do love a crumble cookie. So, got
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: nothing to problem. Maybe, if it was the Cookie Man,
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: he probably would have said that Santiago said to pound frosting.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: So, it wasn't Cookie Man you were talking to, right? Oh,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: you're sorry. Hey, don't say anything if that's who you're
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: talking to.
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: Oh!
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: Oh!
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Okay. This is from Mike on text line.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: I think I've had enough of B Y who, what
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: about the youth's coaches making injured players play Mike? I
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: hope you listen to the show on Friday when we
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: talked about that a lot. And I hope you listen
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: to the Dan Patrick show this morning. And we've got
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: a little update on that.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I think, right.
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: You know what?
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Let's do that next. Cause Mike asked for it, Mike.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Thanks for helping us plan the show.
• 37:30
  Speaker 7: 8 7 7 3.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: 5 3 0 700.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: If you want to weigh in, I always love to
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: hear from our listeners. A little sound regarding the accusation
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: that Utes coaches made injured players play, which every coach in.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: The country wants their injured players to do.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: That's next on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: You tuned to.
• 37:52
  Speaker 7: The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of
• 38:00
  Speaker 7: ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell show.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: We got red and blue coming up in about 15 minutes,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: but we had a texter, Mike, who wanted, he says
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: enough with BYU. What about, what about Utah players being
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: forced to play through injuries.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: By their coaches?
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Well, The head coach in question from that era where
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: the Jason Batacchio article was addressing the concerns of six
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: former players that maybe their injuries were mishandled by the
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: University of Utah.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: The head coach at the time was, of course, Kyle Whittingham.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: He's now at Michigan.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: He joined Dan Patrick, which you can listen to right
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: here on ESPN 700 and 92 on FM. And Dan
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Patrick asked him about these allegations. There was a story
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: in the Salt Lake Tribune a couple of days ago.
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: Some former players accused you and your staff of mishandling injuries.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I want to give you a chance to address this.
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: Never in my career have I ever tried to sway, influence,
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: whatever the word is, our medical staff, wherever I've been.
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: We listen to the medical staff. If they say a
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: player's available, we go with that. And if they say
• 39:28
  Speaker 6: he's not available, we go with that. And so I'm
• 39:30
  Speaker 6: not sure where this came from or just how it
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: ever materialized, but never in my career have we ever
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: crossed the line of trying to override a medical decision
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: by our medical staff.
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: Could you have stayed at Utah if you wanted to?
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: I believe that's probably would have been in the cards.
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: I think, I think if it really pushed came to
• 39:55
  Speaker 6: shove and, you know, I had two years left in
• 39:57
  Speaker 6: my contract and, and, uh, but, uh, you know, I've
• 40:02
  Speaker 6: always been the type of guy don't wear out your welcome.
• 40:05
  Speaker 6: And I felt like that, that was starting to happen. And, and, uh,
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: you know, overstaying your, your welcome is something that, uh,
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: I had made a, uh, you know, a conscious decision
• 40:15
  Speaker 6: not to do several years ago. And when I, You know,
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: and you just don't want to stay somewhere too long.
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: Maybe I did stay too long as it was.
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: But but I'm grateful for the situation I'm in now
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: and couldn't be happier with what's going on here in Michigan.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Felt like mutual mutual parting.
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: Is that fair to say?
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: It's probably on some people's part back there.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say I'd say, you know, depending who you
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: talk to. I, I want more follow-up on that. Honestly,
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: I know that he's there to talk Michigan and he's
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: there and Dan is not having him on to talk
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: about what happened at Utah because that's now months and
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: months in the rear view. But I wish that we
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: would have had like three more Dan Patrick level questions
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: on that last little bit, whether truly was a mutual
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: parting of ways. That was, that was perfect. Uh, by him,
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: by the way, asking about the thing. That is in
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: the news now getting his answer and then going straight to,
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: and there's this other lingering thing that people have lots
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: of questions about.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: What do you think of this? I love, I love
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: the line of questioning. Dan is the gold standard in
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: this business for a good reason.
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: But we played you that clip because it's the first
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: time Kyle Whittingham has gone on record to my knowledge
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: about the accusations.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: There was the tribune. Jason Batacchio does a great job.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: He reached out.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: And sought comment from the coaches in question. And you
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: got the no comment from all those things. Or the
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: sort of like canned answer, like, oh, that's a medical
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: staff question sort of a thing. We played you that
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: quote because Kyle Whittingham denies that he ever tried to
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: circumvent medical advice from the trainers, from the doctors, when
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: it came to asking players to play.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: This is one of those things, right?
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: The Twitter responses, the message board stuff, the conversations I've
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: had with people in person. I had a good conversation
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: with Jason Patakia at post-practice media availability yesterday. This is
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: one of those things that, look, it's an article that
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: was presenting you facts or alleged facts. It's not an
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: opinion piece. Jason is not a columnist. He's a big
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: J journalist. He's telling you this is what these players
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: have to say. And presented with that, my choice, your choice,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: then becomes, do I believe this at face value? Is
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: there some reading between the lines? Is there some nuance
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: to this? What is my opinion of this particular story?
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: It's masterful, right? And now you have to form an
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: opinion on whether or not you believe Kyle Whittingham's denial.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Some people are going to. Some people are not. I
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: think most people here in Salt Lake City... Are more
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: prone to say, I don't believe what he says. Because
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: they feel jilted in some way or another by Kyle
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Whittingham and the way that he exited the program. And
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: that's totally fine. You're entitled to that feeling and that opinion.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: I kind of put these in silos.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: I compartmentalize.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: Kyle Whittingham leaving the way he did, his assistant coaches
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: leaving the way they did, his brother Freddie being sued
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: because of the exit and the lack of settling up
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: on the contract, all these things, you kind of have
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: to decide what camp you're in here. I am in
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: the camp of coaches pressuring players to play, hurt or not,
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: is not a fireable offense. It's not a story necessarily.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: It's not something that we need to be hypercritical of. Obviously,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: if it leads to serious detriment, like the van fillinger one,
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: where he feels like maybe his ability to compete as
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: a professional athlete was compromised by not being quote unquote,
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: not being allowed to red shirt.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: That one.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: I'll listen to that. There's some case by case basis
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: stuff here. Again, I'd like to have van here in
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: studio so we can discuss. But the whole point of
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: this and the whole point of Dan Patrick asking that
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: question is like you are now given differing perspectives. It's
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: the coach perspective we got from the Dan Patrick conversation today.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: You got the player perspective from the Jason Batacchio article.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: And you as a fan have your own perspective on
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: is this guy good? Is he bad? Are these players good?
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Are they bad? Are they telling the truth? Are they lying?
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Is Kyle Whittingham lying? Is Van lying? Is Is David
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Fotu lying? Is the anonymous player who a lot of
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: people think is this guy or that guy, is that
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: person lying? Is any assistant coach being made as a
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: scapegoat here or saying like, hey, the big man says
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: you can't redshirt. That's what Lewis Powell was alleged to
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: have told one of his players.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: Is there any level of disbelief? For all of us,
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: that's what this writing and this conversation are asking. I
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: don't take Kyle Whittingham's statement at face value. I don't
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: take the player's statement at face value because there are
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: emotional factors involved and these are human beings. Kyle Whittingham saying,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: I've never in my career defied a doctor's orders at
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: Tried to sway or influence medical staff. Tried to sway
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: or influence medical staff. Coach Witt, I don't believe that
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: even the tiniest bit.
• 45:52
  Speaker 7: I don't.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: At the very least, because of what you said, there
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: being emotions, there being high stakes to this level of
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: college football. He absolutely, at the very least, I believe
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: every football coach has done this, including Kyle Whittingham.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Tried to manipulate.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: The training staff, maybe he wasn't directly like, dude, you
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: got to let him play.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: This is ridiculous.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: But he, but 21 years, you never looked at the
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: guy and said, you can't tape him up and let
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: him play.
• 46:23
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: There there's some level of subtle influence.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: I don't think we ever got an answer as to
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: whether or not Kyle Whittingham had a conversation with Neil
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Ella trash, the camera doctor. I don't, I don't know
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: if they ever had a conversation with one another. If
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: we ever got the transcript of that conversation, if it happened,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: I would think in a situation like that, Kyle Whittingham
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: maybe would have been caught out in contradiction to what
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: he said on Dan Patrick. Like, hey, can you please
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: let this guy go? What is standing in the way?
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: I don't believe Kyle Whittingham 100% when he says, what
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: I do believe is that he never felt like he
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: crossed the line. He directly defied medical staff because you can't.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: In modern day college football.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: If the team doctor says he's in concussion protocol, he
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: cannot play you as the head coach. Can't be like, yes,
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: he can. And give the kid his helmet back.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: You can't.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Can't you just put some ice on his head? Let's go.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: That I also, and I said this last Friday, I
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: also don't believe like flat out. Maybe you interpreted something
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: a certain way. I don't believe that Lewis Powell ever
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: walked up to you and said, we're going to pull
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: your scholarship if you don't play.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: I don't believe you. I don't. I've made the point
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: several times.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: We could find at the end of this season, even
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: with Morgan Scali, who is everybody's favorite coach, right? He
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: is the player's coach to the ultimate degree. We could
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: find somebody who is disgruntled against Morgan Scali. In fact,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: we have found that. That's happened in Morgan Scali's career.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Even players that... Everyone in the world loves Morgan Scali.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: And there were like three guys. You remember when this happened, everybody?
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: There were three guys or four guys who were disgruntled
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: enough that they tried to submarine his career... because of
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: a stupid text message he never should have sent, he
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: acknowledges that, a word that he never should have been
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: using that was supposed to be directed to one of
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: his friends that, I mean, I'm not going to get
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: back into that, but when you talk to disgruntled players,
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: you get disgruntled responses. When you talk to disgruntled employees,
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: they say things that are exaggerations. They say things that
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: are interpretations, right? You found six players who felt that
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: they had been wronged and we could go at the
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: end of this year. We could find six more players
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: who feel like I wasn't given the right opportunities. I
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: was benched because I made one mistake. The guy in
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: front of me was allowed 10 mistakes, right? You find
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: these things. Kyle Whittingham's denial is not any more believable
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: than the players saying like, Oh yeah, they forced, they
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: tried to force me to play when I was injured.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: Both of those things are well within the norm. They
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: are both of those things. A coach saying, no, no, no,
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: I don't, I don't try to influence medical staff. Players saying, hey,
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: the coach wanted me to play when I was hurt.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we know, dude. That happened to me in Little League.
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: That's going to happen to you when you don't get
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: to play football anymore and you're working at a post
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: office and you try to call in sick. Your boss
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: is going to be like, could you not please? I'm
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: screwed if you don't do this route today. What do
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: you have? You have a sore throat? Can you rub
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: some dirt on it and come in?
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Can you spray some.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: We've all experienced something like that with those of us
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: who work regular jobs.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: Anyway, that's all the time I'm going to spend on it.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: I've made my thoughts very clear on the article from Friday.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: Now we played for you the Kyle Whittingham response to
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: the accusation, and.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: We got a game in two days, people. So we're
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: just going to leave it at that.
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700, 92.1 FM, proud part of
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: Utah's ESPN radio network.
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: That's me in the corner.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: That's me in the spot.
• 50:47
  Speaker 7: You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 50:50
  Speaker 7: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. And I
• 50:53
  Speaker 7: don't know if I can do it.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: All right, welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. We've
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: got to do a really quick segment here because we're
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: doing a little red and blue with Jerem Jordan next. Utah, Idaho,
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: coming in to Rice Eccles Stadium on Thursday night. I
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: have set the over-under for... Defensive points allowed by Utah's defense.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: That's the right way to say this. Points allowed by
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Utah's defense this year at 20.5. That's today's over-under, 877-353-0700.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: Will this Utah defense give up, on average, more or
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: less than 20.5 points a game, which I'm really asking you,
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: can this defense average less than three touchdowns a game?
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: Or the equivalent thereof. This is a five-year average of
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: Utah defense. The actual five-year average of points surrendered by
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: Utah's defense was 20.58 points. So, with a new coordinator,
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: with a new head coach who is the coordinator from before,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: with the defensive mindset, with losing... Very important coaches on
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: this staff, like Lewis Powell, but retaining Colton Swan, who
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: gets promoted, retaining Sharif Shah, bringing back Coach Odom to
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: handle the safeties. Anoke Brechterfield, very highly respected and thought
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: of in the field, now replacing Lewis Powell.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Colton Swan calling.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: This defense, will it skip a beat or not, is
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: effectively the over-under question today.
• 52:54
  Speaker 5: 877-353-0700.
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: A five-year average of Utah's defense is about 20.5 points
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: a game. And I've set the over-under at that.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: So 877-353-0700.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: Tell me if they hit the over or the under.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: As long as I'm telling you to text things, text
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: FOOTBALL to 33986 for your chance to win ESPN 700
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: tailgate passes. Home opener, of course, is on Thursday night.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Tailgate party is going to open at 4 p.m. on
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: Guardsman Way. Our ESPN 700 tailgate brought to you by
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: R & R BBQ, Sound Warehouse, and Budweiser. Tailgate passes
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: do not get you into the game, but they will
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: get you some great grub, and you can come hang
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: out with us before this thing kicks off on Thursday night.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: All right, if you've been out there in these rainy conditions...
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: Maybe you've been jogging. Things are slippery. Maybe there's some
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: gravel left by a construction crew in your neighborhood. That's
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: something that is currently plaguing the street that I live on.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: If you have been the unfortunate victim of an accident
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: as a result here, it might be time for you
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: to make a quick phone call.
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: 801-355-5550.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: You can also go to utahadvocates.com. Consultations are available 24-7, 365.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: There's always someone to answer your questions, to answer your call.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: The advocates are award-winning injury attorneys that are looking for
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: just a simple win for you. All right?
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: No-cost consultations.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: You'd never pay a dime out of pocket while the
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: advocates work on recovering compensation that you deserve. So you
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: might be thinking, oh, my gosh, I can't afford this.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: I cannot afford this.
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: To hire an attorney to represent my interests, they're not
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: going to charge you until they win your case. If
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: you've been injured in an accident, a trip and fall,
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: a slip, an industrial situation, something that happened at work,
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: a car accident, a motorcycle accident, a biking accident, you
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: did not deserve to be injured, but you do deserve
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: an advocate, and the advocates are here to help. They
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: will fight for you. You can focus on your recovery.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: You can get the compensation that you deserve. 801-355-5550 or utahadvocates.com.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: Tell them OC sent you. Answer the over-under question. 20.5
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: points per game surrendered by Utah's defense under new coordinator
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: Colton Swan with a remade defensive front.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: And stay tuned for Red and Blue. That's next.
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: Jerem Jordan joins us in three minutes on ESPN 700
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: and 92.1 FM.
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: My father taught me many things.
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: You know what they say.
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: He taught me, keep your friends close. But your enemy's close.
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: Time to check in on the team down south.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: They have done absolutely nothing wrong.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: But they're blue. This is the Red and Blue on the.
• 56:00
  Speaker 7: Sean O'Connell Show and Utah's number one sports talk.
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: Time for some red and blue here on the Sean
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: O'Connell Show. We check in with the team down south.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Jerem Jordan, our BYU insider and friend of the program.
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: Conversations brought to you by Murdoch Ford Santa Quinn. Right now,
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  Speaker 2: buy four select tires. Jerem Jordan, welcome back to the show.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: How are you, sir?
• 56:56
  Speaker 5: I'm great. What if I told you I was getting
• 56:59
  Speaker 5: new tires at a Murdoch dealership right now? So I'm
• 57:04
  Speaker 5: just tying into the sponsorship.
• 57:06
  Speaker 7: Let's go.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: I would say I hope it's in Santa Quinn and
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: then not ask you to confirm or deny one way
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: or another.
• 57:11
  Speaker 5: No comment.
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Love that.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: Are we surprised at all by the fact that this
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: Santiago Kalani story will not go away? Dick Harmon made
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: sure we get another day or two legs out of
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: this thing when he went on Big 12 Today and
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: made some claims that I was previously unaware of. I
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: haven't been able to confirm one way or another, but
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: I usually trust insiders when they're sourced that well. And
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: he said that Kalani was promised that Brian Santiago would
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: be fired.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: Now, that has not been the case.
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: We've already talked about sort of the separation between the
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: rest of the athletic department and the football program now.
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: But I think one of the things for me here, Jerem,
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: is that we're still talking about it, and it's game week.
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we're still talking about it, which I don't like.
• 58:01
  Speaker 5: Not that we shouldn't be talking about it, but that
• 58:03
  Speaker 5: it is a story still. I was hoping, as we've
• 58:06
  Speaker 5: chatted the last couple weeks, that this would be resolved
• 58:08
  Speaker 5: prior to this week, because now it's ball week. Luckily
• 58:11
  Speaker 5: for the team and Kalani and everybody, they're dialed in. Literally,
• 58:14
  Speaker 5: the players don't really know what's going on. They're like, what?
• 58:17
  Speaker 5: Like we talked about, they're focused, which is good. And
• 58:20
  Speaker 5: they should pound Utah Tech, but Yeah, there's still– this
• 58:25
  Speaker 5: is still a lot of– it's not just embers. It's
• 58:27
  Speaker 5: still a fire, and it's still going. And I'm hoping
• 58:30
  Speaker 5: they can figure things out. Obviously, the news came out
• 58:32
  Speaker 5: that Keith Wartink, the vice president over several departments, including
• 58:36
  Speaker 5: athletics and mine, broadcasting, will be the supervisor who Kalani
• 58:43
  Speaker 5: reports to directly. And so, unfortunately, this is not resolved
• 58:46
  Speaker 5: because I think in the end, resolution needs to occur
• 58:49
  Speaker 5: so that BYU can maximize its opportunities. as an athletic department,
• 58:53
  Speaker 5: but full steam ahead. Cause once the ball kicks off,
• 58:56
  Speaker 5: I don't think Kalani and the team and Frank, they
• 58:59
  Speaker 5: haven't cared since August 1st, when fall camp started there,
• 59:02
  Speaker 5: they're dialed in and they need to be, cause this
• 59:04
  Speaker 5: could be a really, really special season for BYU. So
• 59:07
  Speaker 5: I'm hoping that all parties can figure this out as
• 59:10
  Speaker 5: soon as humanly possible. And, and as you mentioned, Dick,
• 59:12
  Speaker 5: Dick Carmen's the godfather of BYU reporting and journalism. And
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: so he certainly carries a lot of weight from his
• 59:19
  Speaker 5: service in the, in the area over decades.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: What, what does resolution look like? If not what we
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: already have? Because I'm with you. You want it to
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: kind of go away. You want it to put a
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: bow on this thing and have it be the way
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: it needs to be down there if you're going to
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: capitalize on the opportunities in front of you. Not only
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: in football season, but basketball right on the tails of it.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: We'll be talking about that in a month or so.
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: What does resolution look like for BYU Athletics right now?
• 59:51
  Speaker 5: That's a great question. I think there's several possibilities, and
• 59:56
  Speaker 5: I know that different parties want different things and whatnot,
• 59:58
  Speaker 5: but I just want there to be no conflict and
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 5: no issues. What does it take to do things the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 5: BYU way and keep Kalani and Kevin Young? I want
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 5: BYU to have the right coaches, the right people in
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 5: the right places, whatever that looks like. That's up to
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 5: the Board of Trustees. That's up to the BYU administration.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 5: let's figure this out. And, and they've made a move
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 5: where they feel like that will get them a step
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 5: in the right direction. Is it the resolution that all
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 5: the parties need? I think that's still TBD at this point.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 5: I am glad that they made a move that they
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 5: feel like they need to make, but it's still, the
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 5: jury's still out and perhaps they have resolved it and
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 5: it will proceed and it will work, but that's to
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 5: be determined.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Indeed.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: We had, we had, former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: go on the Dan Patrick show this morning and address
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: an article that came out last Friday in the Salt
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: Lake Tribune where players reported, where players talked to the reporter,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: Jason Patakiao, and said, hey, my injuries were mishandled at
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: the University of Utah and I was forced to play
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: when I wasn't fully recovered.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: I wasn't ready to play.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: And obviously this is kind of weird timing the same
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: way this BYU story is weird timing and things like that.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: And I wanted your thoughts, you know, Kyle Whittingham on
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: Dan Patrick, of course, denied that he ever tried to
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: influence medical staff to get players on the field if
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: they weren't ready. My response initially was like every coach
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: in the country wants their guys on the field or
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: on the court or wherever, if they can get them
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: there and players just, kind of in some ways should
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: feel pressure to get back as soon as they possibly
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: can because they're on scholarship and now they're also paid
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: on top of that. So I think maybe I have
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: a harsher mindset against what players need than I should.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: I have less sympathy for the injured athlete than I
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: probably should because I spent plenty of time as an
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: injured athlete myself and you just show up and you
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: keep performing if you can. I wanted your thoughts on
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: this article that was for me mostly a non-story that
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: has turned into a big story.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 5: And I, to be fair, didn't read the article, so
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 5: I don't know all the specifics. Or see the Dan
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 5: Patrick interview with Kyle. I'll probably listen to it later
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 5: because I listen to the Dan Patrick podcast religiously.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 5: He's great. But, yeah, it is unique, right? Because in
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 5: pro sports, there's so many games. You kind of understand if,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 5: you know, on the tails of back-to-back or three and
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: four nights that, you know, LeBron doesn't play in Salt
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 5: Lake sometimes, although he started playing. last couple years um
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 5: in college yeah it's hard it's like especially when there's
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 5: only 12 regular season football games if a guy can
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 5: play you're hoping you can play yet there's an agenda
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 5: for the team there's an agenda for the player the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: agent's probably saying hey it's gonna hurt your nfl stock
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 5: if you get hurt or what you know there's all
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 5: kind of agendas so it is a bit complicated but
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: it is it is kind of weird still to have
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 5: this sort of post kyle whittingham's Utah relationship articles. Like
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 5: it is a little odd, right? Like things, things are
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 5: happening still where it was like, Hey, I thought we
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: broke up. We're still talking about the, uh, the furniture
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 5: and who gets what, like what's, what's going on here.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: It's a great, it's a great, it's a great way
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: to put it. It's like, uh, what are we doing?
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 5: Why? We're splitting assets still. Like we're complaining about that. Like, yeah,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 5: I thought we, I thought we were done. I guess not.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: It's a sort of a weird situation, but, We've had
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: a couple of those this offseason.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: I think we'll continue to have a few.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: But not as many as the Niners.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: Don't. Don't do that.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 5: This, like, Dijon love, dude. I cannot get enough of
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 5: this story. And now all these NFL players are embracing
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 5: it like, oh, man, he's one of the greats. Like,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 5: I remember playing with him. They're just, like, mocking it openly.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 5: It's unbelievable.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: I'm actually– I'm just jealous that I didn't think of this,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: although– It probably wouldn't be believable if I pretended that
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: I was a San Francisco 49er.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: You could act like you fought him.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: Just the fact that he fooled so many people into
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: believing that he was. It's like, how do these folks
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: not have Google? They don't know how to look up
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: a roster or a practice squad.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Give me a break.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah. And there have been other dudes that have come out.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 5: There was a dude that faked he was a Cowboys player,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 5: even signed autographs for kids. I'm like, what are we doing?
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 5: We all have to be careful. We have to double-check stuff.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 5: We have to make sure we're good. The ability to
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 5: dupe people has never been better than ever. And it
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 5: used to be like, oh, old people watching a scam
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 5: commercial at night and they'd call a number and that's rough.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 5: It's everybody. We've all got to be careful, man. It's crazy.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 5: But I cannot get enough of that. that story, because
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 5: I'm like, what happened? Every day there's some new detail.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: Did you see the NFL Top 100 list, as long
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: as we're talking about NFL players? These are real ones, though,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: not fake ones.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 5: Well, Love didn't make it this year, but he made
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 5: it a few years ago, according to him. I did
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 5: see a few, like Puka and JSN.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: So, Fred Warner at number 20 in the NFL Top
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: 100 players.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Puka Nakua at 6th.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: The 6th best player overall And you and I have
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: had this conversation over the last year plus about the
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: quantity versus quality argument. The fact that you've got two
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: players from BYU, recent BYU football players, recent BYU grads
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: that are in the top 20, not even just in
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: the top 100, that are in the top 20 and
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: in the argument for being best player in the league
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: at their respective positions. What does that mean for Kalani
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: Satake right now with BYU?
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 5: It's big time in recruiting because they can point to
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 5: not just having certain NFL dudes, because BYU's done better
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 5: the last decade in that space. They don't have as
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 5: many as kind of, you know, they want. They're getting more, though,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 5: the last couple of years. There's more talent coming into
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 5: the program. But are we producing, like, elite players? The
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 5: answer is yes. And Fred, I think Fred would be
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 5: even higher if he wasn't coming off an injury. Like,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 5: he'd be a top. 10 top 12 guy probably. And then, yeah, Puka, unbelievable.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 5: Hopefully he can figure things out on and off the
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 5: field and then get a $ 250 million contract. That could
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 5: be in his future. We'll see. But it's huge for
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 5: the program. Kalani acknowledges that, yes, they're trying to develop people.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 5: Some of them will make the NFL. Most of them won't, right?
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 5: And they've got to be successful in whatever space. But
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 5: you can come to BYU, not only win a bunch
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 5: of games at a high level, but play in the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 5: NFL at a high level, undrafted or otherwise. And yeah,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 5: some of those dudes are, are Hall of Fame caliber.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 5: Like I, I hope that, you know, Taysom Hill gets
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 5: an opportunity to finish his career with the contender here.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 5: He's got kind of a Hall of Fame utility resume,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 5: if you will. He probably won't be in the Hall
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 5: of Fame, but like he could be if, if they
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 5: talked about like a utility type position, but then Fred
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 5: and Puka are certainly doing great work. So it's awesome.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 5: It's fantastic. And looking forward to a crazy NFC West
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 5: again this year with those guys.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: If, If he was playing in 1956, then Taysom Hill
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: would definitely be a Hall of Fame player.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 5: Hey, he would have given Y.A. Tittle a run for
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 5: his money with the New York Giants for sure.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: And I don't mean that as an insult because I,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: like all of his peers in the NFL, I'm incredibly
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: impressed with him as just football player. Doesn't matter position,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: just football player. It's so amazing that a guy can
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: be elite at like five different things in a league
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: that we just went through NFL roster cuts. when you,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: when you read the list of guys who just got
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: cut from an NFL roster, it's the same list that
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: you read a few months ago as an all conference list.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: These are excellent, excellent football players who can't even make
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: it onto a roster. And Taysom Hill has been through
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: a career now where he's just like, yeah, I'm, I'm
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: a fullback tight end running back quarterback punt returner, a
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: special teams like tackling machine. I I'm all of these things.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: Most guys can't even get into the league to do one,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: and he can do seven.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm literally watching the Terminator today because Terminator 2
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 5: is in the Megaplex. I'm going with my brother-in-law. He's
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 5: never seen it. And I'm watching Terminator. I'm going, oh,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 5: it's tasting hell. It's just whatever you need. He comes
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 5: back to try and get Sarah Connor. You know, if
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 5: that's needed, that's there. Terminator 2, now he's the good guy.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 5: You know, like, he can do whatever. He can do whatever.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 5: The versatility is unbelievable. I'm excited for him because right
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 5: now my understanding is he's waiting for the opportunity with
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 5: a contender that might be mid-season that might be in
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 5: a couple weeks who knows but that's kind of my
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 5: understanding of his potential hopes because he's not retired and
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 5: certainly it'd be sweet to have Taysom involved at some
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 5: point in the future but not right now not right
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 5: now because I want him to get with somebody good
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 5: and see him in the playoffs and make a big
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 5: play in a big moment, and he's not done. It
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 5: doesn't feel like he's done quite yet.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: Jerem, just say what you really want. Just tell us.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: You want to be with the Seahawks.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, dude.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 5: A Taysom Hill Seahawks jersey?
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 7: Let's go.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: Come on.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 5: I'd be all over that.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: I'd be fine if he ended up with the San
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: Francisco 49ers. The way that the injury situation in San
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: Francisco is going, Debo at some point will be injured.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: Taysom could fill in for him. Kittle at some point
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: will be injured. He could fill in for him. McCaffrey
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: at some point will be injured. He could be the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: backup for Christian McCaffrey. Brock Purdy, he might even be
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: able to fill in for Trent Williams in a pitch.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 5: Just left tackle?
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Why not?
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 5: And let's be honest. It's the world versus the Rams.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 5: They're so freaking stacked. Let's unite as NFC West brethren.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 5: We don't need the Cardinals.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 6: Sorry, Tyler.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 5: Let's go. It's us versus them. One of us has
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 5: to do this this year. I am going to concede
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 5: just a little bit. We won the ship. That's going
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 5: to be good for five years for me emotionally, although
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 5: I feel like we're still good. Let's go. It's us
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 5: versus the Rams. They're stacked. They're hosting. They're They got
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 5: guys all over the place. One of us, Niner Seahawks,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 5: we got to beat the Rams.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: Let's go.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we can get on board with that. Jerem Jordan
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: for a couple more minutes here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: Red and Blue is brought to you by our friends
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: at Murdoch Ford at Santa Quinn. Swinging the focus back
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: to the BYU Cougars.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, BYU.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: Utah Tech, I don't think, has a lot for Kalani's squad, but,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: you know, they're going to say the right things. They're
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: When you ask Kalani or you ask his assistant coaches
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: or his players, oh, yeah, we respect these guys, and
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: we've got to be on our A game and things
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 4: Okay, whatever.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: Coach speak. We appreciate it.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: What does the success actually look like for BYU in
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: the home opener against the Trail Blazers?
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 5: A great first half. Think back to last year's game
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 5: against Portland State. BYU was up 49-0 at half. They
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 5: pulled the starters. The twos and threes did a nice
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 5: job of kind of keeping the pedal down. Some of
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 5: the backups got some great experience. I don't know that
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 5: BYU has a ton of games on the schedule where
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 5: they're going to have this kind of situation. So a
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 5: glorified exhibition. You know, Montana State won the FCS national
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 5: title last year. They're number one. They won 54-0 in St. George.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 5: There were some things that, you know, the Trailblazers did
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 5: that were interesting. But ultimately, be healthy. You know, get
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 5: the kinks out and find these receivers in the passing
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 5: game that are I've been playing great in fall camp.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 5: That's not a question mark for me, but we do
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 5: need to see it. Special teams, you're replacing kind of
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 5: all three guys in the snapper, holder, punter, place kicker thing.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 5: Get them some reps. You don't want the punter to
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 5: punt too much, but a couple of those. And then defensively, yeah,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 5: just get a bunch of dudes in, stay healthy, be 1-0,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 5: and then huge game with Arizona on Fox the next
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 5: week in the afternoon. So, followed Telsa Tuala's full go,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 5: by the way. Had a foot injury coming into camp.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 5: Limited for the first couple weeks. He's back. He's not
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 5: going to be a 60-snap kind of guy, Kelly Papanga said,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 5: but he should play. Still a question about Nussi Tamoyepeo,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 5: one of the outside linebackers who's a good head rusher
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 5: for BYU. Not sure if he's going to play or not.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 5: We'll see. But ultimately, really building up to a massive
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 5: Week 2 game with Arizona where if BYU wins, now
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 5: they're in a great spot. If they lose, it's very
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 5: uphill after that. So it ramps up very quickly next week.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: I am asking an over-under question for the Utah football
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: fans today, and I took the five-year average of Utah's
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: defensive points allowed. So for Utah, that is 20.5 points
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: per game.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 5: I was going to say, is it 21? I literally
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 5: was going to ask, is it around 21? They've been
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 5: really good.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: They've been really good defensively over the past five years,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: and it came out to 20.58 points per game.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: So I'm setting the.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: Over-under at 20.5, so essentially right where you guessed. Are
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: they going to be three touchdowns-ish a game or less
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: this season? Obviously, new coordinator, remade defensive front, all that
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff. If I'm asking you the Utah version
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: of that, the 20.5, you're taking the over or the under?
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 5: For BYU, you're saying?
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, no.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: For Utah, and we're going to get to BYU here
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: in a second.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: You know that.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 5: For Utah, the strength has obviously been on the defensive
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 5: side of the ball. You've got that guy as head
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 5: coach now. I would think that would be the goal.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 5: I would guess it would probably be under. That's been
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 5: a strength. Obviously, some big losses in the portal last
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 5: year and the graduation, but probably around that number. I
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 5: think that's pretty safe. That's a great number, too. If
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 5: your team's under 21, come on. You're winning a lot
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 5: of games.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're really good with these numbers.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: So I also did the average for BYU's points per
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: game surrendered over the last five years.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 5: I'm guessing it's like, because you have like 23 and 23.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 5: I'm guessing it's like 23 and a half.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: It's 24 and a half. So you're really good at this. Okay,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: 24 and a half over the last five years. I
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 2: feel like with this year's defense, same thing. You're replacing
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: a coordinator. But 24.5 is a bigger number, and personnel-wise,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: I think it's a no-brainer that they're under 24.5.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: Is that okay to say?
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 5: One gajillion percent. And Kelly Papanga said, our goal is
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 5: 19 again. So we were like, why did he say 19?
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 5: Because it was 19.1 last year. So just, like, keep
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 5: that going. Because this offense is certainly capable of getting–
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 5: you know, 21 a game. And they had Sean, they
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 5: have way too much talent to think that they couldn't
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 5: do it. They have NFL guide to every position. This
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 5: is one of the most talented BYU defenses of all time.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 5: I think it'll be a top five, top 10 defense
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 5: ever for BYU. And the last two years, they've been
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 5: spectacular new coordinators you mentioned, but they feel like they
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 5: have a lot of continuity and, and just a lot.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 5: They feel like County town of Austin will be unleashed
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 5: first year in the system. There was some learning curve there.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 5: Feel like we're going to get that Keanu Tanavasa that
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 5: was in the backfield against BYU in 24, the whole game.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 5: He was amazing. Love the corners with Evan Johnson, who's
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 5: an NFL prospect. Trey Alexander, Follett Southside, Tawala, Raider Dumouni
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 5: is the senior. They love Kato Uluwabe and Isaiah Glasker. So, yeah,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 5: and that's without other guys emerging. Those are like the
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 5: known quantities. So it's very stunning. I think, yeah, under
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 5: 24 now for sure. If they were at 24, I'd
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 5: be disappointed. They need to be around 19, 20, 21
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 5: right there.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: If I put it, if I gave you the Utah
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: number for the BYU defense, the 20 and a half,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: would you still take the under?
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 5: Probably, yeah, because I think they'll be in the 19
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 5: or 20 spot. The key for BYU the last couple
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 5: years has not necessarily been, like, total yards it's been
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 5: that they take away the football and they've been one
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 5: of the best intercepting teams in the country they've been
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 5: kind of top 15 i believe the last two years
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 5: and so if they keep that going and they certainly
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 5: have the secondary to do it they brought all the
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 5: all the main pieces back then yeah absolutely.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: The the depth chart is out were there any surprises
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: for you on the depth chart that byu released.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 5: Offensively, there was zero. It was expected that, you know,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 5: legend Glasser as a true freshman out of Lehigh High
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 5: would be a starter. Kyler Casper from Oregon, JoJo Phillips,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 5: a returning guy, those are your top three. You knew
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 5: Al Jantz, Joni Mola, Preston Rex is the number three back.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 5: Tracyn Borgé is a fifth-year guy. The backup is great.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 5: You love that you have a former FBS starter, Western Michigan,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 5: ready to go if needed. You hope you don't need him,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 5: but he's there. Defensively, no, nothing really stuck out there.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 5: Too crazy. Special teams, Evan Johnson and Legend Glass are
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 5: listed as your kick returners. So it would be interesting
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 5: to see Evan Johnson, BYU's lockdown corner on kick return potentially. But, yeah,
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 5: BYU hasn't had a true freshman in the offensive starting
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 5: lineup or defense, I think, since 2018. So it's been
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 5: eight years. It's been a long time. So shout out
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 5: to Legend. Certainly an opportunity there. No Chase Roberts, no
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 5: Barton Kingston. Yeah, not a lot of surprises, and that
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 5: is due to the fact that BYU has been very
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 5: healthy since fall camp, which is great. Typically, they've lost
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 5: a guy or two for the season in that space.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 5: They did not this year, which is great.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: Is eight captains too many captains?
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 5: Oh, captain, my captain. I guess, you know, you just
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 5: rotate through the floor walking out there. Yeah, I don't know.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 5: What's the right number? Who's to say what is right
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 5: in this space? Lots of leaders, so hard to go around.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 5: Then you have 12 co-captains, so 20 dudes that are
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 5: the leadership for this team.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: On the captain front, the fact that K.D.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: Luwabe was voted as a captain, and he's been here for, what,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: eight months, feels like that's an important thing for this
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: BYU defense.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 5: Absolutely. Came in, total leadership dude. Feels like a BYU cougar.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 5: Grew up a BYU guy. Went to Cal. He's kind
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 5: of undersized, and Ninjas a little bit. He played running
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 5: back in high school. I believe he went to Sky Ridge. And, yeah,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 5: so he jumped in and been a dude right away,
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 5: like no question. Roger Saliapaga was one of the four
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 5: offensive captains as well. That says a lot about his
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 5: influence coming in, and they're going to get hit in
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 5: the rock a ton. So I'm excited about, like, those
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 5: two guys represent two different kinds of transfers. Cade is
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 5: the big-time– producer, first-team all-power conference guy. BYU hasn't had
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 5: a ton of those guys transfer in. And then Roger
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 5: sally piger represents more of the traditional okay i was
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 5: at a i was at another school i i didn't
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 5: get a ton of run but i'm going to get
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 5: a lot of looks here and what does that look
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 5: like i call that the alex barcello principal because alex
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 5: barcello played basketball in arizona for two years barely played
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 5: comes to byu jay billis says he's the best shooter
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 5: in america and he goes to three ncaa tournaments so
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 5: that's the kind of guy uh you know that gets
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 5: an opportunity sometimes and uh really really thrives here like
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 5: Even Puka Nakua, to some degree, injured, banged up, like
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 5: the third or fourth guy at Washington, comes to BYU,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 5: ends up being a dude, fifth-round pick, first or second
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 5: best receiver in the NFL. So, yeah, sometimes you just
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 5: need a different situation, and BYU feels like Sally Apaga
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 5: is going to be a guy that, with Walker Lyon,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 5: could be one of the best tight end duos in America.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 2: I'm removing TCU from the list of teams I might
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: be afraid of in the Big 12 this year.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: After their week zero game. I'm done. I'm writing them
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: off after week zero.
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 5: That was brutal, right? Like, Jaden Craig did not play well.
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 5: And the team that loses from the Big 12 in
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 5: Ireland the last few years, I mean, last year, Iowa
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 5: State just, K-State hit the crapper after that. It was bad.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 5: Iowa State, you know, was fine. But it was not good.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 5: I don't want to read too much into it, but
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 5: UNC just seems like they stink. So I don't think
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 5: they're that good yet. TCU we thought would be, you know, okay,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 5: that's like top five tricky game on the schedule. Historically
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 5: BYU is just two and four in Fort Worth. You know,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 5: I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I'm, I'm trying to,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 5: I've got that like fan mindset slash player mindset. The
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 5: player was like, no, we got to respect him. The
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 5: fans like, dude, they stunk. So I want to see
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 5: him play another powerful team maybe before I call it.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: That's probably the more measured approach, but when you, The
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: offside penalty to lose the game effectively.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: I was like, all right.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 5: That's rough.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 5: That's so Belichick, dude. He was like, yeah, like in
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 5: front of the ref's face, like first down.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 2: He showed more emotion for that than like a touchdown
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: win in a Super Bowl.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: He's just like, yep, we drove offsides, boys.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 5: And then he's like, we're on to Cincinnati. I haven't
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 5: seen if they play Cincinnati this year, but I need
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 5: to hear that one again.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: I haven't even looked. All right, Jerem.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 2: Well, enjoy Thursday night because I know you're going to
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 2: be watching. Enjoy Saturday as well because, of course, we'll
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 2: be watching.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 5: All of it. All of it. We made it. Like,
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 5: this is great. Week zero is always overrated, but fun.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 5: You know, there's a game or two, and then, gosh dang,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 5: football's back. My happiness percentage, Sean, is like at 94%
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 5: in the offseason, and then it goes to 1,094%. When
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 5: there's football on five days a week. Can't wait.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 2: Wait, I have to ask one more thing because we
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 2: were talking about this at post-practice media availability yesterday. Is
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 2: the media meal still free at BYU? Because they're charging
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: fans $ 800 for it. Are they going to let you
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 2: eat it for free?
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 5: I'm hoping so. You know, I'm hoping so. If not,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 5: I got a backup plan, you know. I got the
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 5: BYU TV kind of crew meal in another spot, so
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 5: I'll be all right.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. That's a flex. That's a flex.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 5: I can't flex in the gym. I'll flex verbally right there.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 5: I hope so because I love– I went to Brazil
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 5: on my mission, so I love– It's the.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: Best– press box meal that I've had anywhere.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 5: Uh, and I wouldn't think in America, right?
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 5: Like who's going to beat that?
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: Who's going to beat Tacano's. I don't think anybody.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 5: And it's been unlimited the last year, by the way,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 5: they used to kind of close it in the first quarter.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 5: And then they just kind of left it open the
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 5: whole game. I was like, dude, how much can I
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 5: eat right now?
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: The answer is always a lot.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 7: I don't know.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 5: I'm like a fly guy. I'm like six foot one 85.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 5: So who knows? Yeah.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: That's not me.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: Jerem, appreciate your time as always, sir. Thank you.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 5: Sean, you're the best. Let's go. Game week, baby.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 2: That's Jerem Jordan, BYU insider. You can find him on
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: BYU TV, on BYU Sports Nation. You can find him
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 2: all over the place covering the Cougs. That conversation brought
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: to you by our friends at Murdoch Ford, Santa Quinn.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: All right. Wow. The end of an era.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: And most of the time we wouldn't care about community
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: colleges in Mississippi, but this one you are going to
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: care about. Daily Dump is coming next. It's the Sean
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: O'Connell Show on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 3: Feeling out of the loop?
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 7: Let's catch up on today's biggest headlines in the Daily
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 7: News Dump, where we flush out the biggest stories of
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 7: the day on the Sean O'Connell Show and Utah's number
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 7: one sports talk, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. Brought to
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 7: you by Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Just look for
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 7: the truck with the duck.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, it is with a heavy heart that I report
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: that Buddy Stevens is out at Scuba Tech, East Mississippi
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: Community College, the featured school of iconic docu-series Last Chance U.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: Buddy Stevens, who won five national titles in JUCO football
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: with the Lions. and was the subject of the first
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: two seasons of Last Chance U. Buddy Stevens, he's been fired.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: He announced on Monday night, EMCC, I should say, announced
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 2: Monday night that offensive coordinator and associate head coach Preston
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 2: Rice will serve as interim head coach for the Lions.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: who began the season this past week, they beat Southwest
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 2: Mississippi community college, which of course, when you're talking directional
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 2: Mississippi community colleges, you're talking elite football, baby. Buddy Stevens
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: has been fired after being critical of the school leadership.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: He talked to a newspaper about.
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: And said that the conference that they play in, all
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 2: the leadership are idiots, and that the leadership at the
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: school was subpar. He complained that the school presidents did
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: not want to spend money on travel for the National
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: Junior College playoffs. He crafted a format in which they'd
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 2: be more likely to host national playoff games. And he
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 2: said this, we wouldn't, Buddy Steven said this, we wouldn't
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 2: have won two national championships because we were the second
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 2: place team in the North. It's not a very well
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 2: thought out process. It was really junkified the way they
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 2: decided they were going to do it. And there wasn't
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of real thought. I was very surprised at
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 2: how it came out because there were actual people who
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: have doctorates that came up with this. So he just
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: went on and he trashed the leadership of the conference.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: He trashed the leadership of the universities in the conference.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: And he got fired as a result. So buddy Stevens,
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 2: last chance you out. My question is, is there a
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: chance after the last chance? Is there like a very
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: last chance you, because it's a, no guys, we're serious
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 2: this time. This is for real. Your last chance. It's
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 2: kind of like when you're threatening your kids and you're
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: just like, This is your last warning.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: Count of three, one, two, three.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: Another count of three. I'm going to go to 10
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: this time.
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 2: And you better put down that iPad count of five
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 2: minutes and seconds. So that's my real question here, by
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 2: the way, count of 300, whatever, all of the coaches
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 2: that have been featured on seasons, the last chance you,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 2: because it was, it was buddy Stevens at first. And
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 2: then it was that, uh, Jason Brown guy from independence
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: in Kansas, right? He got fired a long time ago.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 2: The guy's a psycho, right? That probably was his last chance.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: And John beam from the one in Oakland, he passed away.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: That's right. Unfortunately, that's right.
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: P coach.
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 2: He seemed like a really nice guy, but so none
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 2: of these coaches that were on last chance, you are
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 2: still at their universities for varying reasons, but that's tough
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 2: for buddy Stevens and for, Now that would be another
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 2: Netflix series. You have those guys be on a staff together,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 2: like very last chance. You very last chance and put
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 2: them in, like, make it like a Ted Lasso kind
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 2: of a situation. Have them go coach American football.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: In like England.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 2: NFL Europe, whatever the equivalent is still, they have, Oh,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 2: you know what they have?
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: They have an American football league in Japan. This is,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: this is real.
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 2: Send them over there and they have to like coach
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 2: the Osaka flying tigers or something. Make a Netflix series
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 2: out of that. You tell me people wouldn't watch it.
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 2: The Osaka striped dragons to just curse like a sailor coaches,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 2: old school guys. One of them who speaks like he's
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 2: from like a ghetto in California. The other one who
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 2: speaks like he's from a trailer park in the South
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 2: and you send them to Japan.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: Be perfect.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 2: I'd make it true Ted Lasso, make him soccer coaches
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 2: in Europe somewhere.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, it'd be amazing. Yeah.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: But you're reading this OC, and I'm like, oh, I
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 2: wonder what he got fired for.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: And you're like, yep, that'll do it. That'll do it.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 5: When you.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 2: you call here, when you say, these people have doctorates.
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 2: I don't know how they're so stupid. I'm not a
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 2: thought putter. They're idiots.
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: But they got doctorates. Like, yeah.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 2: It is. That made me laugh because of what I
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 2: just said.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, that'll get you fired somewhere.
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 2: But also because I've had the exact same thoughts about
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 2: people who are allegedly in charge of college sports. Like
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 2: a lot of these people are on the, for example,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 2: the CFP management committee are presidents of universities, allegedly some
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 2: of the smartest people in America. And yet we have
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 2: some of the dumbest things happening in college sports right now,
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: particularly college football. So it's, he's not, wrong necessarily, but yeah,
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 2: that'll get you fired. This one, this is a story
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 2: that I think Utah fans want to pay close attention
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: to the, um, the UCLA athletic department is now making
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 2: a change at the top athletic director. Martin Jarmond has
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 2: been fired. Now UCLA is was, of course, invited as
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 2: a travel partner and L.A. market school to the Big
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 2: Ten alongside USC in the death of the Pac-12 and
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 2: the blow that ultimately led to the bleeding out and
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 2: death of the Pac-12 conference. But UCLA fired Martin Jarmond,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 2: and this has kind of been a long time coming.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: They are crippled with financial debt.
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 2: Right now at UCLA, even though they're part of the
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 2: big 10 conference that brings in more and more and
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 2: more revenue, UCLA has mismanaged it really badly. And, uh,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 2: this is coming from the Los Angeles times. One dozen
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 2: of UCLA's largest athletic donors approached an LA times reporter
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 2: a year ago and said they lost faith in the
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 2: athletic director. They informed the New York Times, or excuse me,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 2: the LA Times reporter at that moment that they had
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 2: already stopped writing checks. The revenue that had been pouring
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 2: in from the Big Ten kind of made people notice
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 2: a little bit less, but like a dozen donors at
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 2: UCLA had said, yeah, we don't believe in this guy anymore.
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: We're not doing it.
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 2: And Martin Jarmon was a guy that was hired while
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 2: I was covering the conference. He was this wunderkind type, like,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 2: the dude who, you know, wears the tailored suit and
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 2: the Jordans and is this young hip kind of individual.
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 2: He was very much supposed to be the, the new guard,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 2: the changing of the guard from the old stuff shirt
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 2: type athletic director, much like the NFL had started to
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 2: skew young in GM and head coaching positions. This was
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 2: UCLA's kind of answer to that. Like we're going to
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 2: get someone who's young, imaginative, who speaks the language and,
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 2: of these big money movers. And we're going to get,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 2: we're going to get someone at the top of our
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 2: athletic department. I think he was 38 years old when
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 2: he was hired to be the athletic director at UCLA.
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: That is huge.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 2: And now Martin Jarmon is out. So the question becomes,
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 2: can they turn it around? Can they pull out of
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 2: this tailspin? Their donor contributions at UCLA have dropped significantly,
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 2: but they never were able to keep up with the rest.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: Of the big 10. Anyway, did you see, have you
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: seen this article?
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 2: So UCLA joined in 2024, the fiscal report from 2025
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 2: for the big twin, big 10 says that Ohio state
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 2: had $ 69 million worth of donor contributions to Penn State
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 2: had 65. Washington had 53. Illinois had 50. Michigan had 50.
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 2: Oregon only 33.2, according to this report. UCLA had $ 13. 5
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: million in donor contributions. Maryland had 11. Rutgers had $ 8 million.
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 2: So they're like well behind the Ohio States and Penn
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: States of the world. I don't know how accurate this
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 2: is because obviously Oregon... is doing just fine. They were
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 2: right in the middle of the pack, according to this,
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 2: but that came from the, uh, night new house college
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 2: athletics database.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: Who knows how accurate that is? Night is in Phil night, perhaps.
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 6: No.
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: Uh, speaking of Phil night with Oregon, maybe I, if
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 2: that 33 number is correct, then it's like Phil night's
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 2: the only guy.
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: Cause I don't, I don't know.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 2: They, we've been, it doesn't go with the assumptions that
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 2: we've made about what that one guy is doing, but
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 2: maybe there's not really any others donating big time money
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 2: to Oregon football.
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 2: So yeah, Martin Jarman was hired in 2020 by UCLA athletics.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: UCLA athletics has overspent since 2020.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 2: They have overspent over $ 220.
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 5: Million.
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 2: So during his tenure as the athletic director, they have
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 2: dug a $ 220 million hole. Maybe he thought that since
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 2: it's since 2020, maybe he thought, well, we have to
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 2: overspend by 2020. That is a really bad number. He's like,
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 2: we're making up the deficit here. It's like, no, you're
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 2: supposed to save us money if you can.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: So Martin Jarmond is out.
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 2: And the reason I think this is important for everyone
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: to pay attention to is because.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: UCLA is in the big 10 conference.
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 2: This is a school that is supposed to have all
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 2: of its financial problems solved because they're in the big
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 2: 10 conference. we have talked about this for the big 12,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 2: the institutions in the big 12, very specifically, we've talked
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 2: about this for the university of Utah. Oh, the private
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 2: equity thing is a move towards preparing us for the
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 2: next round of college football realignment. And maybe that is
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 2: the big 10, or it's at least membership in whatever
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 2: super conference includes big 10 teams and sec teams.
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: And you want to get invited to that.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people have looked at
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 2: this horizon and said, Our salvation is there as long
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 2: as we get invited to one of these places. Well,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 2: UCLA did, and UCLA is still in big trouble. Rutgers
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 2: is still in massive trouble financially. Maryland is still in
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 2: the hole financially in a very, very desperate situation. So
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 2: it doesn't fix everything being in the Big Ten, as
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 2: UCLA has found out.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: And Martin Jarmond has found.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 2: Out, although he's being fired with another $ 6 million on
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 2: his contract.
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 5: So.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: That's not all bad. Absolutely not.
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 2: Paid me $ 6 million not to work.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: I'll be embarrassed for a while.
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 2: James, have you ever commented on your own social media posts?
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: I have not.
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 2: I think it's uncouth to like your own social media posts,
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 2: let alone comment on it.
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: I agree with you.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 2: I even hesitate when you do the repost or retweet
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 2: to be like, I'd get it back up to the timeline.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 2: I even had to say, I hope people aren't thinking
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 2: anything crazy about me retweeting my own thing, let alone.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: Commenting on it. That's crazy.
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we've had athletes be exposed for burner accounts because
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 2: they forget to log out of their actual account and
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 2: then post from their burner account. Kevin Durant, notorious for this.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 2: Angel Reese has been caught out doing this. And the
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 2: latest is Tua Tango Bailoa. He posted his own, his
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 2: own thing. He's in with the Atlanta Falcons now posted
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 2: a picture of himself celebrating and the caption for the a,
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 2: which is of course a reference to Atlanta.
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: And then his own.
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 2: Account, same account, same account, the same tag, the same handle,
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 2: whatever posted this. And this is what makes it even more,
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 2: more embarrassing quote. We're so proud of you. You got this.
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 2: From his own account, on his own post.
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: Hold on.
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 2: Could this be another personality of his saying, we're proud
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 2: of you, me and yourself? I hate this so much
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 2: because the most obvious jokes are then connected to Tua's
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 2: repetitive knockout situations in college and pro football.
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: Like, don't run your own burner accounts, guys, if you
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: have to have them. Or just, you know, don't have
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: the burner account.
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 2: That's the correct way to do it. It really doesn't even...
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 2: You don't have to comment on things. You don't actually
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 2: have to read the comments about you. You can't come
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 2: back from this, Tua, okay? You can't ever look cool again.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 2: Kevin Durant, when you did this... You lost every cool
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 2: point that you had for like five years. It's to
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 2: the point where he's not even really denying that he
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 2: does it anymore. Remember the drama in the locker room
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 2: with Houston because of things that his burner, that he
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 2: put out on his burner allegedly about his teammates in
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 2: a Twitter DM. And reportedly he didn't even say, yeah,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 2: that's not true. He just said, let's move on, basically. Like,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 2: it's just, that's where we've gotten with Kevin Durant. Yeah,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 2: this is embarrassing. But also, OC, I just want to say,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 2: we're so proud of you, James.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: Keep it up. Just wanted to say that publicly.
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 4: Okay, good job.
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 2: All right, NFL top 100 players list. How many Utes
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 2: made it? How many players with local connections made it?
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about that next. That was your Daily Dump
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  Speaker 2: brought to you by our friends over at Valley Plumbing, Heating,
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  Speaker 1: It's Utah's number one sports talk, ESPN 700, 92 on FM.
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  Speaker 4: It's a nice day for a white wedding.
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 3: This is the Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the
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  Speaker 3: best inside of your utes. Let's get back to OC
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  Speaker 3: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 792.1 FM.
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 2: Jeff Schwartz is going to join us here in about
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  Speaker 2: five minutes on the Sean O'Connell Show. Reminder to all
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  Speaker 2: of you out there that now is the perfect time
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  Speaker 2: to schedule your Windows appointment, advancewindows.com or 801-850-9100. The mayor
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  Speaker 2: of Sac Lake City, Nate Orchard, and his business partner,
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  Speaker 2: Jake Weber, are still servicing lifetime warranties on windows from
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  Speaker 2: long before they even.
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  Speaker 1: Took over this company. That's just the kind of businessmen
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  Speaker 1: they are.
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  Speaker 2: And they have continually, year by year, they've improved the
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  Speaker 2: product so that they hope they don't never have to
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  Speaker 2: service one of those warranties. The frames are better. The
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  Speaker 2: glass is better. They even make sure that they've got
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  Speaker 2: the best gas mix available. for what they pump in
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  Speaker 2: costs with your home, cooling and heating. Airtight, watertight, everything
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  Speaker 2: you need from these windows. They keep getting better. The
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 2: attention to detail that made Nate a great football player
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 2: has also made him a great business owner. He has
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 2: transferred all that over to advanced windows. They'll handle your
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 2: window coverings. They'll give you financing options. Tell them OC
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 2: sent you when you call 801-850-9100 and let Advanced Windows
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  Speaker 2: take care of you, beautify your home, increase the resale
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  Speaker 2: offset the cost of new windows by making your power bill,
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 2: your heating bill that much lower. All right, how many
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 2: Utes made the list of top 100 players in the NFL?
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: James, what's your guess? Former Utes, of course.
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 2: Former Utes, I'm going to say seven. It's Garrett Bowles
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 2: and only Garrett Bowles.
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 2: He comes in at number 37 of the NFL's top
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 2: 100 players, according to ESPN.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: Fred Warner from BYU, number 20.
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 2: Panay Sewell, not a college player here in the state,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 2: but played his high school ball down in Desert Hills.
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 2: He was number 12 on the list and Puka Nakua,
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 2: who played both high school and some of his college
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 2: ball here in the state, number six on the list.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 2: So four of the top 100 NFL players with strong
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 2: ties to football here in the state of Utah. Garrett
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 2: Bowles at 37, Fred Warner at 20, Panay Sewell at 12.
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: Puka Nakua at six of the top 100. Pretty good. Yeah,
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: it's pretty good.
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 2: Puka's awesome, but do we think Panay Sewell might be better?
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 2: Is there something to quibble over there?
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: I think that.
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 2: Even the article itself gives you some room for argument there, James,
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 2: because Panay Sewell was named the top tackle in football
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 2: by everyone they surveyed. All of them said, yeah, he's
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 2: the top tackle. Puka Nakua... is not the consensus best
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 2: wide receiver in football. However, he did lead the league
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 2: in reception, receptions and yardage. So like, yeah, statistically he's
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 2: the best receiver in the game.
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 2: But just subjectively, some people like Jackson Smith and Jigba
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 2: who won offensive player of the year. Some people like
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 2: Justin Jefferson. Yeah, I could see that, but that's one
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 2: of the reasons why it just feels like panay there's
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 2: there's a strong argument for panay being the best player
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 2: with utah ties in the nfl but puk is awesome
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 2: he's if he's not one he's two as far as
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 2: that goes i'm a little surprised and maybe dalton kincaid
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 2: just didn't have enough of a leap last year but
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 2: it seemed like he had a really strong year uh
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 2: strong enough to maybe get consideration on this list but
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 2: i don't know maybe he wasn't even a pro bowler
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 2: though i i may maybe it's just uh Having the
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 2: Bills fan in the home, I'm over-inflating what he did
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 2: last year with the Bills and also just really rooting
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 2: for the guy. The number one player on this list,
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 2: Miles Garrett, reigning defensive player of the year, set an
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 2: NFL record for sacks with 23 sacks last season.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: And, of course, now he gets to play next to
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: Aaron Donald.
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 5: Yay!
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: Josh Allen, Bills quarterback, is number two.
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 2: Let's go, Joshy. Lamar Jackson is number three. Jamar Chase
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 2: is number four.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 2: Last year he was ranked eight. This year he's number four.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes is number five. Last year he was ranked
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 2: number one. So only those five guys above Puka Nakua.
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 2: Should we do an ESPN radio show here? Patrick Mahomes,
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 2: third best quarterback in the NFL?
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 6: Really?
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 2: Hot take.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: Probably not. No, we're not doing that. Matthew Stafford came
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: in at number nine. Number nine.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: Is he after the next highest quarterback after Mahomes? Speaker
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: 0 5. He, no, Joe burrows at eight.
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you put Joe burrow above Matthew
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: Stafford right now.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 2: It's probably just, it's obviously the, when healthy Joe burrow
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 2: and giving him the benefit of the doubt, even though
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 2: he was injured a lot again last year, but yeah,
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 2: it's Stafford's healthy and he's awesome. So any was awesome
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 2: playing hurt at the start of the season last year.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 2: So winning MVP. Remember this time last year, he, first
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 2: of all, he was the MVP last year. This time
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 2: last year that we were talking about how he was
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 2: getting epidural injections, like a pregnant lady, just so he
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: could practice because his back was hurting him that badly.
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 2: And maybe, and maybe his season was in doubt or
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 2: at least his production level was in doubt. It goes
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 2: out and wins MVP. He'd led the NFL with 27
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 2: touchdowns against the blitz. He had pretty good numbers.
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: Let's see.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 2: He's now sixth in NFL history in passing yards and
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 2: seventh in passing touchdowns. 64,516 yards, seventh with 423 passing touchdowns.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: That's a lot of tutties. Quietly, too, right, OC?
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 2: Probably because he spent the first chunk of his career
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 2: with the Lions and not making the playoffs, but Yeah.
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 2: He was still racking up huge stats with the lions
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 2: and Megatron. It just, they were never good as a team.
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 2: So it, it feels like he was underrated with the
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 2: lions because the team wasn't very good. And now that
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 2: he's been on a good team, all of a sudden
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, he's actually one of the best to
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 2: ever do it.
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: Go figure. All right. We'll take a break.
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 2: We'll come back with Jeff Schwartz. We'll see what he
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 2: thinks of this list. and Aaron Donald coming back, and
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 2: the college football season being back. It's the Sean O'Connell
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 2: Show on ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 7: You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source for
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 7: the best youth football coverage. Here's O.C. from the Murdoch
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 7: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. Welcome in our
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 2: college football and pro football and everything insider, Jeff Schwartz.
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: Hey, buddy. Welcome back to the show.
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 4: Glad to be here. Did I hear correctly in the update,
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 4: I think it was, that Utah, the last time I
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 4: played Idaho, they lost to them in 93 or something.
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 4: Did I hear that correctly?
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: It's 99, I think, a revenge game.
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 4: Revenge spot, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: Morgan Scali was a player on that team, if I'm
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: not mistaken.
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 4: I know Utah hasn't always been what they are, but
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 4: that feels odd that they lost the last time they
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 4: played each other.
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: What do you want me to say about it?
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 4: This is odd. What did you make of the NFL
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 4: head coach going after me this week? I need your
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 4: opinion on this. What do you think?
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't see it.
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 4: You saw it.
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 6: I didn't.
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 4: You're online. I forgot. Sean Payton I talked about the
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 4: Broncos and I didn't think Bo Nix was going to
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 4: get any better and I misspoke on one thing about
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 4: him throwing the ball deep and Sean Payton tweeted at
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 4: the clip of me talking saying you can tell who
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 4: works at it and who doesn't.
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 5: What?
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: Sean Payton went after my guy?
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 4: It was his second tweet of the year. The other
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 4: one was like Drew Brees Hall of Fame and then
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 4: Jeff Schwartz. There's two tweets so far in the calendar year.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: You're right, by the way. It was 1993 that Utah
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: played against.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 4: I do listen, believe it or not. Not to you,
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 4: but I do listen to the voice guy.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, so look, I guess what we've done now is
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 2: we're declaring war on Sean Payton.
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: And now we have to hate him.
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 2: If you're a Broncos fan in this market, you have
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 2: to choose between Jeff Schwartz and Sean Payton.
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: And I hope you choose wisely.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 4: They're probably going to choose Sean Payton, but that's okay
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 4: with me.
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: That's probably right.
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 4: I'm surprised you didn't see this. I got more text
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 4: about this than I did about the birth of my kids.
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 3: No.
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 4: I didn't know he tweeted me. So what I do is,
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 4: you know, whenever a tweet goes on, I just mute
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 4: the tweet immediately, right? So I don't see any replies.
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 4: It's the only way to do social media. And so
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 4: they put this Broncos clip out. I muted it immediately.
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 4: So I didn't see any notification. I didn't see any
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 4: comments on it. And then I started getting like, hey, man,
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 4: hang in there, text messages. I was like, what? because
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 4: I talked about the Broncos. Like, hang in there. What
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 4: do you mean? Someone DMed me stats to back up
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 4: my argument.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I know.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 4: I know what I said. What are these stats for?
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 4: And they're like, hang in there. I'm like, what is happening?
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 4: And then someone screenshot and sent me the Sean Payton thing.
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 4: I had no idea for probably at least an hour.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 4: No idea. He tweeted at me.
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 5: Wow. Yeah.
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: Why do you hate Bo Nix?
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 4: The question on the show was, Will he get better
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 4: or worse? Those are my two options. I chose worse. Okay.
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 4: It goes fair.
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: I do think he is just what he is at
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: this point.
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 4: That's what I said.
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: Looks like the same quarterback he was in college. He's consistent.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: He's not going to make mistakes, but he's not going
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: to push the ball down.
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 4: You just copy what I'm saying now.
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: I'm quoting you directly.
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, I know. That's what I said.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: That's what you said on first things first.
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 4: The only thing that I misspoke on. was I meant
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 4: to say he needs to be more accurate throwing the
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 4: ball down the field. And instead I said, he needs
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 4: to just push a ball down the field. And I got,
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 4: you know, everyone got angry at me because he has,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 4: he does throw the ball down the field, but he's
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 4: not accurate at it. And I understand people will say,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 4: he's got 19 passes of over 20 plus yards. He'll
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 4: be 17th in completion percentage of balls over 20 yards.
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 4: Like that's okay. That doesn't mean he's, he's necessarily good
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 4: at it. Um, So Broncos fans are not happy with me.
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: And apparently neither is Sean Payton. I love that.
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 2: That's good to, you know, you get on the radar
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 2: for an NFL head coach.
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: It can't be bad. There's no such thing as bad
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: attention in this business.
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 4: I hope Fox pays me a million dollars now to
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 4: do TV. We'll see what happens. I'll keep you updated.
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: All right, overrated, underrated, appropriately rated.
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 2: Garrett Bowles as the 37th best overall player in the
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 2: NFL Top 100.
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 4: That's very high. 37th best player in the NFL?
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 37th.
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 2: Last year, he was ranked number 98. Last year was
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 2: his first ever first-team All-Pro nod. He finished with the
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 2: highest pass block win rate of his career, which was
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 2: 94% top 10 in the NFL.
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 4: I think that's still high. The Broncos' line is really good.
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 4: They're really fun to watch. They've really grown over the years.
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 4: Garrett Bowles has grown. Quinn Miners has gotten a lot better. Obviously,
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 4: he's an all-pro now, right guard. That still feels high.
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 4: I guess... The thing about this thing is not every
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 4: quarterback can be 1-30, right? That's why it feels like
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 4: 37 feels a little high for him. But he did
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 4: great here last year. It's not the worst spot I've
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 4: seen someone rate.
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: Fred Warner at 20. Feels about right. Okay. Panay Sewell,
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: your guy, at 13 overall. No, sorry, 12 overall.
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 4: Is there any offensive lineman ahead of him? He's probably
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 4: number one, right?
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 2: He is the highest rated offensive lineman on the list.
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 4: That's fair. Twelve? Okay.
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: Twelve.
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: The blurb says... I think he's a.
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 4: I think Dwayne Johnson's better, but that's just my opinion on...
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 4: I think that we.
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 4: One thing in the offensive line community that we do...
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 4: I think, to a fault is we love run blocking, right?
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 4: We love the cool run blocking. We love the cool pancakes.
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 4: We do not take into consideration pass protection, and Lane
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 4: Johnson is significantly better than Panay Su with that, and
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 4: that's a tougher job. Pass protection is tougher to do
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 4: than run blocking, and Lane gets no help. I just
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 4: think Lane's a better pass protector. That, to me, weights
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 4: the offense alignment differently, and I know people might not
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 4: agree with that. I get that, but I think Lane
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 4: is the best right tackle in the NFL. I know
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 4: Panay's going to the left.
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 2: Panay's going to left tackle. What do you think that
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 2: looks like? How steep is that learning curve?
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 4: Well, remember, he won that one trophy in college at
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 4: left tackle. Yeah, that's good. That's pretty good, right, I think.
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 4: And if you recall, he played left tackle for, I think,
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 4: the first six weeks in Detroit. Remember, he had a
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 4: really tough preseason at right tackle, and Taylor Decker got hurt.
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 4: And he went into left tackle and played really, really well.
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 4: And then went back out to right tackle when Decker
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 4: came back. So I have the utmost faith in him.
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 4: I really do. I don't think that's going to be
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 4: a problem.
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 2: Puka Nakua rated number six best player overall in the league.
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 2: Only one receiver higher than him.
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: Do you agree? Properly rated, overrated, underrated?
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 4: Who's higher than him? JSN?
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: No. Jamar Chase.
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, that's fair. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. I mean,
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 4: Pukunuku has got to deal with some of this off-field stuff,
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 4: but I think that he's as talented as any one
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 4: receiver in the NFL.
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: The number one overall player in the league, Miles Garrett.
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fair.
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: And now it's official. We've talked about this.
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 2: We both thought it was going to happen, and it
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 2: is happening. Aaron Donald, Miles Garrett, officially together on that
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 2: defensive line for the Rams.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Who, buddy? Good luck. I don't know. I don't know.
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 4: I just talked to my brother on my podcast. New podcast, always.
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 4: Schwartz Football Show. Mitch and I are doing a show
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 4: now together.
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: When do I get to be a guest?
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 4: Today. I'm going to re-record, actually, for you to come on.
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 4: We were talking about this. I don't even know how
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 4: do you stop this. There's no great way to stop
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 4: both of them on the left side of the line
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 4: of scrimmage.
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: You know what's amazing?
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 2: You and I spent all those years together on Pac-12 Radio,
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 2: and there were some awesome linebackers that came through. Nate
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 2: Landman is a guy that I really liked because of
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 2: his background. Omar Spates, we talked about him a lot
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 2: when he was at Oregon State. Those guys are going
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 2: to be playing behind this defensive line. Nate Landman was
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 2: already a tackling machine. Nate Landman is now just unblocked
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 2: on every down, basically.
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 4: It's just going to be A free fall for everyone.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, even the other side of the line of scrimmage, right?
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 4: You have to worry about Miles and Donald. How about
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 4: the other defensive linemen? They're going to have such a
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 4: fun time this season not getting double teamed ever. I
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 4: think Donald will work his way in. I don't think
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 4: right away he's going to play. I'm not even sure
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 4: he plays in Australia. That's a long fight for an
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 4: old guy to have to endure and then go play football.
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 4: He hasn't played in three years. But I do think
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 4: that he's going to be good. I don't think Aaron
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 4: Donald will come back. Will he be 100% of himself?
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 4: Probably not. But he's definitely not going to come back
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 4: if he thinks he's going to stink.
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 2: Speaking of that Australia game, Sean McVay said that they're
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 2: arriving in Melbourne 24 hours before the game, like a
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 2: normal road trip.
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: What do you think of that? I mean, that feels crazy.
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know how many people have traveled that far,
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 2: have gone to New Zealand or Australia. It is one
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 2: of the toughest... trips you're going to make from a
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 2: body clock standpoint. So I don't know how they manage that.
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 2: The Niners are going out a week early. The Rams
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 2: are showing up a day early.
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 4: So I think their thought is about recovery, that this
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 4: keeps them on the same, close enough to the same
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 4: time zone calendar, you know, not time zone, just time
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 4: zone they would be on. uh back home like i
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 4: just keep some more uniform for when they return sean
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 4: and that's what i think their thought process is here
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 4: it's just that you know we have less on the
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 4: way back we have less to worry about than we
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 4: do going there and we could suck it up to
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 4: go there but that coming back we want to be
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 4: as close as possible to our time.
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 2: Zone Right now, as we are speaking, it is 519
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 2: in the morning on Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia.
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: So it's a big time difference.
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it is. But I think they're hoping on the
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 4: way back that there's less of an adjustment period coming
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 4: home if they just are there for 24 hours.
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, fair.
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 4: That's my guess.
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 2: This is a fun fact. It's apropos of nothing. But
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 2: if you look it up right now, you can confirm.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 2: Right now it's 5 19 a.m yeah wednesday morning in
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 2: melbourne australia which is close to the it's like the
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 2: east coast of australia right the middle of australia south
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 2: australia adelaide where i fought one time is a half
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 2: hour different it's a half hour time zone change interesting
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 2: do you win that fight i did isn't that but
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 2: isn't that such a weird thing It's the half-hour difference
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 2: time zone.
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 4: How'd you win that fight? What was the decision? How'd
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 4: it happen?
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 2: I knocked out the guy in like 45 seconds or something.
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 4: Good for you. What a waste of a trip. 45-second knockout?
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was awesome, though, because the fight, when they
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 2: take you like super far away sometimes, you fight at
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 2: a super strange time locally so that it's on television
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 2: in the U.S.
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: At like a normal time.
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 2: So we fought at like, noon on a Sunday so
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 2: that it would be on at like whatever it was,
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 2: 10 p.m.
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: On a Saturday.
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 2: And so walked out of the arena after fighting, and
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 2: it's like the middle of the day, and we just
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 2: went to an Aussie Rules football game later and just
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 2: hung out.
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 5: Nice.
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, it was cool.
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 4: No swelling, no bruising for you. I like it.
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 2: TCU North Carolina played at the Aviva Stadium Dublin kickoff, whatever.
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 2: The Aer Lingus kickoff classic. And TCU stunk. They looked terrible.
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 2: They looked undisciplined. They looked sloppy. I know first game
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 2: of the season, you kind of expect a little bit
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 2: of this. I didn't expect them to be so bad,
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 2: especially offensively because Sonny Dykes kind of butters his bread there.
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: Should I be overreacting the way that I am?
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 4: So I think that the general rule of thumb is
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 4: that you're never as good or bad as your first game, right?
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 4: Like it's your first game. It takes time to work
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 4: into what you want to be as a team. But
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 4: I will say, Sean, I've kind of been hardened by
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 4: this over the years. I'm going to steal this a
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 4: little bit from Dan Rubenstein, who does solid verbal, a
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 4: good friend of mine, and we've had him on many
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 4: times when we used to do radio. It's like the
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 4: FCS transfer from FCS to power four ball at quarterback,
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 4: not very good a lot of times. We love to
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 4: talk about him. in a way that like is grand,
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 4: but this was a, a Harvard kid making his first
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 4: start against a real actual like defense, you know, like
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 4: it's just, it's, it's just, it's hard. And we do
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 4: this all the time where we just look at these
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 4: FCS quarterbacks. Like, yeah, they could just do it. They're
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 4: moving up. How cool is this? The best quarterback at
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 4: UC Davis is now playing for Oregon state and It's hard, dude.
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 4: I think that we overlook that every single time. This
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 4: is another situation where you had the same situation pop
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 4: up where this Harvard kid just wasn't ready to play
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 4: against North Carolina yet. And he might be ready in
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 4: three weeks to play better, but he just wasn't ready
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 4: yet offensively. Okay.
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 2: I'm now scratching off TCU as a threat in the
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 2: Big 12 Conference.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 4: I don't think it's great. Northern Ireland didn't play well either.
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 4: Both teams tried to lose this game. They didn't, but
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 4: they both tried.
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 2: The Week 1 slate is pretty lackluster, actually. The Week
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 2: 1 slate. What games have your attention? I know it's
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 2: not really Utah-Idaho.
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 4: Is that Thursday, too?
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: Thursday night, yeah. Colorado-Georgia Tech also, same night.
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 4: I took Colorado plus seven. I hate it, but I
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 4: think Georgia Tech lost a lot last season from last season. Quarterback, OC.
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 4: The thing about it is that I think seven points
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 4: allows me to at least push on any sort of
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 4: Deion Sanders coach management issues in the game. You know
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 4: what I mean? Like, He can, let's say they're up three.
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 4: He does a dumb clock management and they lose by four.
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 4: I'm good. I'm set. Game's tied. They lose by seven
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 4: or three. I feel like I'm set with seven to avoid.
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 4: I do not like betting on coaches I don't think
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 4: are good. And Deion has shown game management is not
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 4: his strong suit. But I think Juju Lewis is interesting quarterback.
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 4: The first game with a brand new offense that really
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 4: Georgia Tech won't be prepared for it. They won't have
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 4: seen this go-go in the flesh. I think Colorado covers
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 4: that game. What are the games on the weekend? Of course, LSU, Clemson,
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 4: Ole Miss, Louisville. I've got to do some more on that.
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 4: I've done a lot of the West Coast schools already
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 4: and prepped for them. I'd be pretty upset if Oregon
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 4: did not cover 24.5 against Boise State. I think we're
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 4: much better than that Boise, and we should be able
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 4: to handle business there. I think USC-Fresno State is going
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 4: to be over. I do really think that they're going
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 4: to score a lot in that game. Look, I know
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 4: USC fans that didn't show up for the game on Saturday,
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 4: but I got them covered with the film review. Sean,
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 4: if I told you that USC played San Jose State,
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 4: who defense returned like 24% of production from their bad
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 4: defense last year, And they had zero explosive plays on
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 4: offense the entire game. Do you think that's odd, right?
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: It's not great.
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 4: People think it's weird when I say that. That's the
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 4: truth of it. They didn't know explosive plays.
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 2: What is an explosive run in the NFL, Jeff Schwartz definition?
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 4: I think it's different in college NFL because it's harder
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 4: to get players. But I think explosive plays in college,
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 4: I've got a running account that's 15 yards in college football.
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 2: Okay. Explosive run play college football.
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 4: I'm looking right now. Yeah, a rushing play of 10
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 4: or more. They had a couple rushes of 11 and
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 4: one of 16 in this game. But it went down
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 4: as no explosive plays on the website. So I don't know.
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, even if you only have, I mean, you
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: had fewer than San Jose State did.
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: In that game, if you're USC.
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 4: The two starting running backs for USC, the longest rush
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 4: was 9-11. That's tough. In the first half, they rushed
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 4: for like 111 yards, and 56 of that were on
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 4: the first drive.
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 2: You and I have talked over the years a lot
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 2: about UCLA. We were covering the conference when they hired
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 2: Martin Jarmond, who was supposed to be this wunderkind 39-year-old guy.
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 2: Save Everything athletic director. Your parents are UCLA alum, if
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken. They just fired the guy. He's $ 220
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 2: million in the hole over the last five years, despite
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 2: the fact that they joined the Big Ten, which is
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 2: supposed to be the thing that solves your problems. What
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 2: do you make of UCLA's leadership problem?
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know how you get out of $ 260
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 4: million in debt and still be competitive in sports, right, Sean?
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 4: It feels like impossible to do.
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like.
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 2: Unless you have a mega-billionaire donor that can wipe out
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 2: that debt and hit a reset button for you, which
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 2: I don't even know if that's allowed.
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what you do.
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, wasn't the change to the Big Ten supposed
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 4: to alleviate some of this?
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, and it hasn't.
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 4: You know what's funny? It's the only school that really
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 4: has benefited from that is Oregon. I'm not sure USC
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 4: can claim they benefited from being the Big Ten or
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 4: UCLA or Washington. Oregon's the only one that seems to have, like,
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 4: actually benefited from this move.
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: Have they?
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 4: I think we have. We're still out. The $ 35 million
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 4: that Oregon doesn't get because we get a half share
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 4: is really impactful for other sports. Oregon had, I think,
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 4: two freshman All-American baseball players leave for the SEC this
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 4: past year, this past quarter, like in June. And the
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 4: reason why, they just can't pay as much. And part
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 4: of that is they can't pay as much because I
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 4: see schools make more money than they get.
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 2: We could do a whole segment on whether or not
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 2: Oregon actually benefited from going to the Big Ten.
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 4: Are we saying that if USC and UCLA stayed out west,
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 4: I would have said stay in the Pac-12. Once they left,
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 4: you had to leave. Sure.
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: You had to leave. I just don't know that... I.
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 2: Don't know that... Is Oregon better off from a national
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 2: perception standpoint?
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 4: I think so.
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 4: Winning the Big Ten, obviously, just feels more impactful than
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 4: winning the Big 12. You're on Fox.
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 2: I don't think winning the conference matters like it used
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 2: to because of the expanded college football playoff.
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: That's what we judge you on. Like Texas Tech.
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 2: Won the Big 12 last year, but everyone's looking at
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 2: them through the lens of you got mollywhopped in your
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 2: playoff opportunity. Winning a conference championship is great on the
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 2: conference level, But Oregon is now playing in the national
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 2: waters and has been for years.
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 4: Sure, but you're not getting a second. Even if you
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 4: have one upset in the Pac-12, you're out of the
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 4: playoff berth, right? That's not going to happen in the
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 4: Big Ten.
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: That's fair.
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 4: And so that's, I think, a big difference for Oregon.
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: Buddy Stevens got fired at East Mississippi. Are you okay?
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 4: Thank you for asking. There are things in life you
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 4: just can't explain your pain from, and this is one
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 4: of them. I've been in a bad mood all day.
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 4: Meredith called me. I'm like, I'm heartbroken. It just was, man,
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 4: it's so sad. There are a lot of Saturday Stupids
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 4: we have not been able to do recently, including the
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 4: homeboy who decided to be a fake 49er.
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: I love that so much.
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 4: Kurt Herbstre explaining his method for getting boys. I'm like,
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 4: do you really have to– is that really necessary to
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 4: talk about that?
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 1: Well, some of us don't have a son, so I
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: need to be paying attention.
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 4: You should pay attention to that. Can we– I think
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 4: the dog thing has got to– we've got to be
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 4: over that pretty soon, right? Like the dog thing. People
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 4: don't find that cute anymore, do they?
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 2: They do, and he got his own NIL deal this year,
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 2: so you're not going to get less of him.
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: You're going to get more.
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 4: I realize that he replaced the dead dog with a
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 4: new dog within like four days.
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: Well, he never just had one dog, though.
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 4: He has four dogs. But the new one, the new Pete,
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 4: he was on the road with him within three days.
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 4: There was just a transition right immediately to the new dog.
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 4: No mourning period whatsoever for the old dog.
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. It's tough.
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 4: But yeah, the fake 49er guy is incredible.
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 2: I'm sad I didn't come up with the idea and
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 2: scam my way into some success.
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 4: Did you watch him running routes in the sand? Just
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 4: incredibly funny.
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 2: I'm so like, I thought that catfish, the television show
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 2: and catfish, the documentary made it. So you can't catch,
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 2: you can't catfish people anymore, but you still can. Folks
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 2: don't realize like you don't learn from other people's mistakes.
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 4: Apparently it blows my mind. He left a voice memo
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 4: on one of these girls phones. It was like to
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 4: clear waivers, the NFL, they have to use a clear emotionally, uh, well, mentally, physically,
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 4: and emotionally. And I only cleared one of the three.
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 4: So funny, dude.
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 2: All right, we're overclocked because that's what I do every
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 2: single time.
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 4: Oh, Dan Lynch is texting us. Hello, Dan.
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 2: No, he's not listening right now, but he's texting me.
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 2: He would never actually listen to my show, our former producer,
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 2: Dan Lynch.
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 4: No, he never would.
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you, dude. Enjoy the games this weekend. We'll chat
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: next week.
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 4: I'm going to Eugene, by the way. It should be fun.
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, you are?
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 4: For the Boise game?
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 7: Yeah. Nice.
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 4: Should be fun.
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: Bring in the kids.
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 4: Bring in the kids.
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: By the way, we got the save the date invitation thing.
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 4: Sure. Whatever Meredith is doing.
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 2: And my wife, she doesn't get excited about anything that
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 2: involves my life ever. But I showed her that, and she, like,
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 2: jumped up and down.
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: Celebrate. She's like, yes, I've always wanted to go to
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: a bar mitzvah.
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 4: Can I tell you? how this is being framed, I think.
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 4: So Merritt did not get a wedding in Charlotte. Her
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 4: wedding was in Los Angeles. It was mostly my friends.
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 4: This is her, like, get back. This is, like, her, like...
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 4: She's like, we're inviting 400 people.
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 4: That's what she claims.
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 4: And then instead of... So she was texting everyone the
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 4: exact information. I was like, can you just create a
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 4: link for people to, like, look at? Like, you don't
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 4: have to text everyone the same exact text. Send them, like,
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 4: a link with all the information.
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 5: So.
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 4: I've told you about where we're doing this party, right?
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 4: Don't repeat it. It's going to be incredible. We're the
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 4: only one who's doing it like this.
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: It's not going to be public information, but it is
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: going to be awesome.
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 4: It's a great idea.
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: It's a wonderful idea.
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 4: We're going to hire a band. I think we looked
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 4: at some bands recently. Yeah. All my son wants is wings.
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 4: That's what he said. To eat.
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: He wants just wings?
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 4: He's like, you better have wings there. I was like, okay, sure.
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 4: Whatever you want, man. The greatest.
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: I also showed my wife the video of him prepping
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: to go to the bat mitzvah.
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: It was awesome.
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 4: He went to a second one this week. He's so
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 4: much cooler than me. He just runs into all his friends.
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 4: I didn't have friends. Good for him.
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: Well, now you got one. It's me.
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 4: Who, foe?
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: No, it's me.
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 6: Oh, you.
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 4: Okay, sorry. I guess not.
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: All right. Thanks, dude.
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 4: All right. Bye, buddy. Talk to you guys later.
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: Jeff Schwartz. I love that we can just go anywhere
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: when we talk with Jeff.
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 2: Has Oregon benefited from being in the Big Ten like markedly?
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 2: I guess he made a really good point there that
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 2: winning a Big Ten championship probably carries more weight, but
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 2: they're not any closer to a national championship than they
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 2: were when they were in the Pac-12.
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 2: They at least went to two national championship games in Pac-10,
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 2: Pac-12 era, right?
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: They had a Heisman Trophy winner there.
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, closest they've been was the semifinals of the CFP
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 2: in these few years in the Big Ten last season.
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right about that. I do think that there's
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of weight to.
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 2: you just have more of a safety net when you
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 2: lose games in the Big Ten than if the Pac-12
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 2: had stayed together or if they had went to the
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 2: Big 12 with the four-corner schools, so to speak. They
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 2: just wouldn't have the same safety net as they do now.
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 2: So I think that that does.
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: Hold a lot of weight. But you're not wrong.
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 2: They're actually farther away from the national championships than they
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 2: were in their Pac-10, Pac-12 years. All right, we caught
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 2: some player sound post-practice yesterday. I think Big Al Harrison
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 2: was probably the best one. We're going to play that
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 2: for you next on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 2: and 92.1 FM.
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: Carry on my wayward.
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 7: Son There'll be peace when you are done Lay your
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 7: weary head You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 7: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 7: Text FOOTBALL to 33986 for your chance to win ESPN 700.
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 2: Tailgate passes. Season opener is Thursday night. Tailgate opens at
• 2:14:10
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• 2:14:14
  Speaker 2: Warehouse Budweiser bringing you the ESPN 700 tailgate. Those passes
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• 2:14:21
  Speaker 2: enjoy the tailgate pregame by texting football to 33986 for
• 2:14:25
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• 2:14:34
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• 2:14:35
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• 2:14:39
  Speaker 2: Spence Checkets is up next right here on ESPN 700. Spence,
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 2: over or under 20.5 points per game surrendered by the
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 2: Utah defense this year. New coordinator, new defensive line, new
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 2: defensive ends coach.
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: Is it Sack Lake City? Is it Snack Lake City?
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 8: That's a lot of info right off the top.
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 4: Snack Lake City? Is that a new thing?
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know why. It's pretty good. 20.5 points per
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 2: game is the five-year average.
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 2: Of the Utah football defense. It's good for depending on
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 2: the year. Like if you're at the top of that,
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 2: you're a top 25 type defense. If you're, if you're underneath,
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 2: if you're that 19 ish, that's like, you know, you
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 2: can flirt with top 20.
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 8: I'm going to say barely over, but not by much.
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 8: That's a really good line. 21, 22 feels about right. Um, man,
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 8: I think that's about the range. Last year, they were
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 8: 17th in the country. They gave up 18.9 points per game.
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 8: And as we continue to discuss, lost quite a bit,
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 8: rebuilding the front, lost some of the back.
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, they gave up 18.9 points per game while
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 2: being the 110th ranked rush defense in the land.
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: Very strange.
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 8: Yeah, the wild part was the pass defense, I think,
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 8: was second in the Big 12 last year, right?
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 4: And 14th.
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 8: As far as the rush defense goes, and certainly inflated
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 8: with a couple of really bad performances. So, you know,
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 8: what are we going to potentially learn about them on Thursday?
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 8: Probably not a lot. And I also want to see
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 8: more Big 12 football before I can actually make an
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 8: assertion here. It's a good number. I'm going to say
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 8: slightly over. Over, but not by much.
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 2: If you take the five-year average for BYU football, whose
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 2: defense is supposed to be formidable this year, but same question.
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: Great personnel. What about the coordinator? Jay Hill is no
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: longer there.
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 2: Kelly Papinga has been there as an assistant forever, getting
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 2: his first real opportunity with BYU to coordinate this defense.
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 1: Their five-year average is 24.5.
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 2: So they have not been as potent historically as Utah has,
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 2: but in the last couple of years, obviously they've brought
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 2: that average down.
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 4: Well, I think the loss of Jay Hill... It's going
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 4: to be interesting.
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 8: Look, I know Kelly's been down there forever, and it
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 8: is just another continuation of like-thinking defensive coaches.
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 4: Just like it is up here, it's the same thing
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 4: down there.
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 8: It's the personnel with BYU, though, that I think makes
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 8: me inclined to believe they're going to be able to
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 8: improve on that number. It's based off the players that
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 8: we've seen, and that's why I continue just to be
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 8: more curious than anything else about Utah, as far as
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 8: some of the guys that we don't know about and
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 8: how they're going to be able to acclimate and adjust.
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 8: And again, a lot of this does come down to
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 8: how potent the offenses are in the Big 12. And
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 8: until we get, you know, at least two or three
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 8: league games, let alone non-conference games, it's kind of hard to.
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 4: Understand exactly what that's going to look like.
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 8: So it's intriguing for a couple of different reasons for
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 8: both programs, just the coaches that you have to replace.
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 8: And I know, you know, BYU only lost two, but
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 8: a lot of people, and you tell me what you think.
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 8: A lot of people, I've heard people say that they
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 8: think Jay Hill was the best coach in the state.
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 8: And that included Kalani and Kyle and Morgan and everybody else.
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 4: And he's in Michigan now.
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 2: Well, when you look at BYU's last couple of years defensively,
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 2: In points surrendered.
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 2: 19.6 points per game given up in 2024. 19.1 points
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 2: per game in 2025. You go back to 2023. Those,
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 2: by the way, both top 20 numbers for BYU. You
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 2: go back to 2023 and they're 99th in the country
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 2: in points surrendered. 29.8 points per game. When did Jay
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 2: Hill take over that BYU defense?
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 4: The next year.
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was a huge, huge improvement. Right, right.
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 2: And Jay's an awesome coach, and Jay, someday soon, is
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 2: again going to be a great head coach. But he
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 2: is a big loss for BYU football. Kyle Whittingham's a
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 2: big loss for Utah football. Lewis Powell's a big loss
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 2: for Utah football. Jim Harding's a big loss for Utah football.
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 2: The reason that people are more confident is because there
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 2: are fewer questions to answer with the BYU thing. But
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 2: as far as that goes, I think that every– step
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 2: of this process, Utah has done as well as you
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 2: can in, in answering the questions as they come up, right? Like, well,
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 2: who are you going to replace him with? Well, Jordan
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 2: gross is a pretty darn good option, right? Especially because
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 2: he keeps Kelvin Obot in the fold and things like that.
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 2: Morgan's taking over as a head coach. Well, who are
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 2: you going to have coordinate this defense then? Because that's
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 2: a loss in and of itself. He's now taking his
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 2: eye off the ball defensively. Well, Colton Swan did a
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 2: great job coordinating the, great Weber State defenses while he
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 2: was with Jay Hill up there. So there's just, you know,
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 2: like you, you got to be curious. You got to
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 2: be even skeptical in what Utah can actually do with this.
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 2: But when it comes to controlling the things that they've
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 2: been able to control, not a lot left to be desired.
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 8: I think the most impressive part of the way Morgan
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 8: has handled all of this is how quickly he's acted
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 8: to replace the guys that left. And when he joined
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 8: the show pretty early on, It was like the first
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 8: week of spring ball. I asked him about that dynamic.
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 8: And he didn't give me a timeline, but my guess
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 8: would be about... I think Morgan started to get the
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 8: sense that he was next in line five years ago.
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 4: Do you think that's fair? Five, six years ago?
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: I think it was well before that.
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 8: So whatever that timeline looks like, Morgan walked me through
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 8: his process of keeping just a spreadsheet of coaches that he's...
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 8: of coaches that he's met over the years during his time, uh,
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 8: all the way back when he first took the job
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 8: as defensive coordinator. And, you know, you're on the recruiting trail,
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 8: you go to coaches clinics, you're playing golf, you're in
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 8: these meetings.
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 4: And Morgan had this running.
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 8: List over the course of, we'll call it six or
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 8: seven years of coaches. He wanted to coach with and coaches.
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 8: He wanted to work for him. And so it was
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 8: almost like the guesswork was taken out of it. Jason
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 8: Beck leaves. He, knew that Kevin McGiven was the guy.
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 8: Whit leaves, he moves over a seat. He wasted no
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 8: time to promote Colton Swan. Jim Harding takes off. Yeah,
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 8: Jordan Gross is the guy. It would be a lot
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 8: more concerning and problematic if this was a process that
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 8: played itself out over the course of several days and weeks.
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 8: But these hires were made within 24 to 48 hours.
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 8: Morgan's been prepared for a long, long time. And it
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 8: puts him in a position as a first-year head coach...
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 8: to succeed in a way that i don't think a
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 8: lot of first-year head coaches the you know uh... even
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 8: at least have the opportunity to do because of our
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 8: organized and prepared he's been for this.
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 2: And now we are two days away from seeing what
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 2: that actually looks like at least to some extent idaho's
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 2: back at the all that's the protest that on it.
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 8: Well it at least it will give us something to
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 8: go off of and certainly with games like this there's
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 8: some concerning elements For me, it's just health.
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 4: Just get out of there healthy.
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 8: I don't think the final score is going to be
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 8: anything we're going to be sweating about. I think it's
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 8: going to be a little bit concerning if it's like
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 8: a one-score game in the third quarter. You know that
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 8: Bryce Echols Stadium will feel very nervous if that's the case.
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 8: This isn't a game where you just want to get
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 8: the win. I mean, we talked about this on the
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 8: show yesterday. Like it or not, admit it or not,
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 8: style points matter in this sport. And there are way
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 8: too many people that do not watch games and look
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 8: at a final score and look at a final box
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 8: score and make wild assumptions. The USC San Jose state
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 8: game is a perfect example. SC smoked them through three quarters.
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 8: And then in the fourth quarter, Lincoln Riley sat all
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 8: of the starters played as like threes and fours in
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 8: San Jose state hung 23 points on their third and
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 8: fourth string defense. And I'm listening to college football podcasts
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 8: and watching shows over the weekend and through Monday morning.
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 8: Everyone's like, what's wrong with SC? I'm like, they looked
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 8: awesome for three quarters.
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 2: Well, they didn't look awesome is the problem. They grinded
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 2: out that victory because they had better players.
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 8: I thought they looked different, though. Like, Gary Patterson's their DC.
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 8: I thought they looked like a different football team through
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 8: three quarters.
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 2: The problem was is they didn't have explosive plays, and
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 2: you're expected to have explosive plays when you're USC, and
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 2: you're expected to have explosive plays against San Jose State.
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: And they didn't. And the standard is ridiculously high down there.
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 2: So that's that's going to be the cloud that hangs
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 2: over Lincoln Riley's program forever. And it's going to be
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 2: the same thing for every new head coach. And it's
• 2:23:43
  Speaker 2: going to be the same for Morgan Scali. We're going
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 2: to watch Utah football this year and we're going to
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 2: compare Utah football this year. to what we have seen
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 2: the last 21 years. And he's going to come out
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 2: favorably in some of those comparisons. And when he doesn't,
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 2: people are going to cry and Nash their teeth about
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 2: it because that's what college sports fans do. Right. But
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 2: where it's at right now is sunshine, rainbows, optimism, and
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 2: a schedule that allows you, I think, to be six
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 2: and one potentially and feeling really, really good about things.
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 8: Potentially undefeated heading into the BYU game. I mean, the
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 8: potential for that is there. Brett Ciancia picked six previews.
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 8: That's his prediction. I think BYU might be 7-1. I
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 8: don't know that they're going to beat Notre Dame, and
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 8: Utah could be 8-0. But the issue with Thursday is
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 8: if you beat Idaho 23-21, People are going to look
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 8: at you differently. You got, you have to go, you
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 8: got to beat them by 30, 35 points. And if
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 8: you have an opportunity, you probably want to put it
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 8: on a little bit. So people around the country are
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 8: going to wait. What's up with Utah? They beat Idaho
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 8: by seven. They gave up 500 yards to Cal Poly.
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 4: Yes, they did.
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 2: So if you don't get 700, people are going to
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 2: be like, what's wrong with you?
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 4: That's the issue with a game like this.
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 2: So you just got to go out, do your thing,
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 2: play hard. And, you know, we've already recorded our Devin
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 2: Dampier interview. They've got an offensive game plan.
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 4: Nice.
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 2: There's some things that I think will be interesting for
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 2: the fan base. And that's all you can do, man.
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 2: You play the games in front of you. You do
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 2: your best with those. And we're almost there.
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 4: Enjoy the moment. We wait for this all year and blink,
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 4: and it's over.
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 6: Okay?
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 4: So I'm juiced for Thursday. I think it's going to
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 4: be a good time, no matter what.
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 2: Stay tuned for The Drive. We'll do the Sean O'Connell
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 2: show again tomorrow. Thanks for listening. It's ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.