Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sammy Mora reacts to Morgan Scalley's introductory press conference, Devon and Byrd really coming back (?)

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Sammy Mora reacts to Morgan Scalley's introductory press conference, Devon and Byrd really coming back (?) · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:02
Speaker 1: God.
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Speaker 2: You tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
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Speaker 2: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one AFM.
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Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
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Speaker 1: one a FM. It's a Wednesday. We welcome Sammy Moore
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Speaker 1: Utah Insider. Wow the second time in like eight days.
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Speaker 3: Sammy, Welcome back to the show. How are you.
0:37
Speaker 4: I'm good?
0:39
Speaker 3: What a great pleasure to have you on again.
0:42
Speaker 1: Saw you up at the press conference because you're one
0:44
Speaker 1: of the hard working folks who are close to all
0:47
Speaker 1: things Utah. For Morgan scally to sit down, unscripted give
0:52
Speaker 1: us fifteen minutes of very heartfelt, off the cuff comments.
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Speaker 1: What was the thing that that stuck out most for you?
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Speaker 1: Or you walked away from that press conference and could
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Speaker 1: stop thinking.
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Speaker 4: About I think just with the way that Morgan approached everything,
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Speaker 4: I know, like he even said, like the reason why
1:11
Speaker 4: he didn't have a pre written speech is because of
1:13
Speaker 4: everything that's been going on, you know, building an entire
1:17
Speaker 4: coaching stuff out in what for five four or five
1:20
Speaker 4: days for him, he put in work in the transfer
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Speaker 4: portal that morning there were three commitments that came down
1:26
Speaker 4: roster attention. You know, I think the I think the
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Speaker 4: biggest thing for me is I think, you know, Utah
1:31
Speaker 4: fans should be happy and should be excited to have
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Speaker 4: someone who has dreamed about this his entire life to
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Speaker 4: be the head coach at Utah to finally be in
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Speaker 4: that role. I mean, you know, the way the passion
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Speaker 4: that he spoke about, you know, his daze growing up
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Speaker 4: at Rice Stadium, and the way that he talks about
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Speaker 4: you know, working with Urban, playing, working with Kyle, playing
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Speaker 4: under all of them, all those types of things, Like,
1:55
Speaker 4: I think that's the big thing for me. And I
1:57
Speaker 4: even said on on U zone dot Com, I said
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Speaker 4: that there was so many things that Morgan that I
2:02
Speaker 4: could have written about from that press conference, but the
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Speaker 4: three that stood out to me the most were physicality, innovation,
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Speaker 4: and family. I think that's the three things that I
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Speaker 4: came away with, plus the iconic quote of I'm a baby,
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Speaker 4: but our team's gonna rip your face off, or however
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Speaker 4: he phrased it. Like, I think that there was just
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Speaker 4: so much that you could take for Morgan's press conference.
2:21
Speaker 4: I feel like there was something for almost every single
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Speaker 4: Utah fan in that presser.
2:26
Speaker 1: So we're gonna We've decided we're gonna give Wit the
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Speaker 1: Voldemort treatment on this show after today because we talk
2:32
Speaker 1: about him too much and he gone, so we just
2:34
Speaker 1: need to let him be gone. But I think part
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Speaker 1: of the reason why that felt so interesting was how
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Speaker 1: different it was from when Kyle Whittingham sat down in
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Speaker 1: front of a microphone and talked like Morgan. It was
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Speaker 1: I mean, he kept going, he would volunteer information that
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Speaker 1: nobody asked for, and I know that that won't stay
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Speaker 1: forever as he's the head coach, but he was completely
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Speaker 1: unfiltered and unguarded in that situation. And unfortunately, that communication
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Speaker 1: style was the trademark of Kyle Whittingham. He wasn't going
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Speaker 1: to give you anything more than you absolutely ripped out
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Speaker 1: of him. So is that part of the reason why
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Speaker 1: it felt like such a breath of fresh air in
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Speaker 1: your mind?
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Speaker 4: Well, I think that's exactly it, because again I even
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Speaker 4: said on our message board, I said that there was
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Speaker 4: just so much that I could write from and it
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Speaker 4: was a delightful change, is how I phrased it. Because
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Speaker 4: it's like sometimes with Kyle's presser, I would be you know,
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Speaker 4: trying to scrape together four hundred words on what I
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Speaker 4: could what I could say about it, But with Morgan,
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Speaker 4: I wrote eight hundred words no problem talking about this
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Speaker 4: press conference, and I like, like you said, like things
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Speaker 4: can change and stuff, but I think that, you know,
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Speaker 4: it really does show that there's there's a new there's
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Speaker 4: a new command on the hill and there's a new
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Speaker 4: commander in chief. Is how I'm going to put it.
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Speaker 4: And you know, I think that things are going to
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Speaker 4: be different. It's going to be interesting to see how
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Speaker 4: things happened. I did. I did get a little smile
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Speaker 4: and chuckle out of Bill Riley at the end, saying, Okay, Morgan,
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Speaker 4: open up Spring practices. We'd love to see you, because
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Speaker 4: I think that's something else that like a lot of
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Speaker 4: fans have been asking and I think that, you know,
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Speaker 4: it's going to be interesting to see how things go.
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Speaker 4: But you know, it was really it was. It did
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Speaker 4: feel like a breath of fresh air. And I left
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Speaker 4: feeling like I was going to run through a wall
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Speaker 4: for Morgan. And I have never put on a pair
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Speaker 4: of pads in my life, and I have no intention
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Speaker 4: to because I am five to two.
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Speaker 1: So hey, you know what, there there's there's a spot
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Speaker 1: for everyone. You could kick I'm sure, uh, Sam.
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Speaker 4: I played solocker. I can punt a football. I've punted
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Speaker 4: stuff like that.
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Speaker 1: That's something I can't do. So you're you're ahead of
4:36
Speaker 1: the game, all right. So trying to get into more
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Speaker 1: of the details of, you know, besides just the overall
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Speaker 1: sentiment and the feeling which he won everybody in that
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Speaker 1: room over, even if they were all there to support him,
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Speaker 1: any anyone who is kind of like on the fence
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Speaker 1: no longer can be after you know, his h his statements,
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Speaker 1: But then open it up to questions and people were
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Speaker 1: I think some of the right things about like well,
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Speaker 1: what about these transfer portal situations, and what about the
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Speaker 1: actual ex'es and o's what about your team identity? Did
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Speaker 1: anything stand out for you there? You already said the innovation,
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Speaker 1: What do you think that really looks like?
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Speaker 4: Well, I think that, you know, the thing that stood
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Speaker 4: out was you know, I know there was a lot
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Speaker 4: of concern and question about Kevin mcgiven when he got
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Speaker 4: hired on what was it, Saturday? I know there were
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Speaker 4: people like, well, he's from Utah State, Like what the heck,
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Speaker 4: why are we doing this like this isn't a home
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Speaker 4: run higher all these things, but Morgan saying, like, if
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Speaker 4: you actually watch the film, like and if you actually
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Speaker 4: understand football, you'll see that what Kevin does is very
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Speaker 4: very innovative and it's very hard for defenses to scheme against.
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Speaker 4: And the thing is is I think that I know
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Speaker 4: this is like a sweeping statement, but like the fact
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Speaker 4: that Morgan also said that he had a hand in
5:51
Speaker 4: Jason beck Hire and confirm that, I think is also
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Speaker 4: really really important because it shows that like Morgan knows
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Speaker 4: as a former defensive course, Morgan knows what is hard
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Speaker 4: to scheme against for an offense, Like like he sitting
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Speaker 4: in the practice in like the in the coach's room,
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Speaker 4: he watches Jason's bets offense and you see all the
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Speaker 4: motions and you see everything that's moving. You don't know
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Speaker 4: what you need to focus on defending because of how
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Speaker 4: complicated it is. And I think that him saying that
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Speaker 4: mcgiven's kind of the same way, I think should be
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Speaker 4: very encouraging for Utah fans. And I think that was
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Speaker 4: it was really great to hear more than just his
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Speaker 4: statement that we had in his presser, is in his
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Speaker 4: press release about it that we actually heard him say
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Speaker 4: about how innovative mcgiven is and how different his offense is,
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Speaker 4: but how similar it's going to be to what we
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Speaker 4: saw last year.
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Speaker 1: Another interesting thing for me, and I think Morgan alluded
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Speaker 1: to this, but players that were in attendance and some
6:44
Speaker 1: of the other people that were around there was a
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Speaker 1: conversation about how involved everyone stayed through this transition. How
6:53
Speaker 1: you know, Morgan's not the type of guy that needs
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Speaker 1: to ask permission for anything, but how many folks he
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Speaker 1: bent their ear and he asked what they thought about
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Speaker 1: this particular thing. You know, like players included, Hey what
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Speaker 1: do you think of this guy? Hey what do you
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Speaker 1: think of running this type of system? Hey do you
7:13
Speaker 1: want somebody who's like back? Do you want somebody who's
7:16
Speaker 1: totally different? It just I don't know how much you
7:20
Speaker 1: can continue to put that into practice when you're in
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Speaker 1: charge of every decision. But the fact that he's crowdsourcing
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Speaker 1: some of those important things, even in such a hectic time,
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Speaker 1: I thought was really interesting.
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Speaker 4: Well, also, I think that this I've heard a lot
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Speaker 4: that Morgan is going to be a player's coach, and
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Speaker 4: I think that, you know, bouncing things off of everybody
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Speaker 4: like we heard yesterday. I think that that's proving that
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Speaker 4: he is a player's coach, you know, in today's world
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Speaker 4: of college football and how things can change on a
7:50
Speaker 4: dime with the Portland stuff like that, I think you
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Speaker 4: need to have a coach who is willing to, you know,
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Speaker 4: hear feedback from his players. I know, I know that's
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Speaker 4: probably not a pop their opinion, but I think it's
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Speaker 4: important to a certain extent, you know. And so I
8:03
Speaker 4: think that having you know, he talks about dev, he
8:07
Speaker 4: talked about Bird, he talked about JJ, he talked about Wayshawn,
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Speaker 4: he talks about Bray like you talked about all of
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Speaker 4: these key pieces on the offense. I think that that's,
8:13
Speaker 4: you know, important because at the end of the day,
8:17
Speaker 4: what is a signal caller if they don't have players
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Speaker 4: that can fill the roles that they need, and it's
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Speaker 4: Utah has those players. And so I think that that
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Speaker 4: was a big thing, is that it's I think it's
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Speaker 4: further insinuating that Morgan is a player's coach, and I
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Speaker 4: think that there's going to be a whole different vibe
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Speaker 4: on the hill.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 4: I'm mixed. I think it's safe to say the amount
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Speaker 4: of former players and former coaches and former everything that
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Speaker 4: was at that press conference tomorrow or yesterday. I think
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Speaker 4: there's going to be a lot more people on the
8:42
Speaker 4: Hill that we might not have seen in the last
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Speaker 4: few years. So I think that's also something that needs
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Speaker 4: to be acknowledged that Morgan's going to bring, like he's
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Speaker 4: reinvigorating that family culture of once a ute, always a ute.
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Speaker 1: The fact that Morgan mentioned Devin Damn Pier and Bird
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Speaker 1: Fickland by name in his introductory press conference could be
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Speaker 1: seen a lot of different ways. Is there anything that
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Speaker 1: you read into that.
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Speaker 4: I mean, it's hard. Like the thing is is like
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Speaker 4: we've all heard certain things about both of them, and
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Speaker 4: I think that he's you know, planning to have I mean,
9:21
Speaker 4: Bird already signed his deal, and I know with the
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Speaker 4: whole demon Williams saying, now people are like, see, kids
9:26
Speaker 4: can get out of their contracts and stuff. But like,
9:29
Speaker 4: you know, Bird's doing a meet and greet on Saturday.
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Speaker 4: I don't see him doing a meet and greet and
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Speaker 4: then like meeting a bunch of Utah fans and helping
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Speaker 4: build that Utah culture and then immediately going into the
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Speaker 4: portal Devin, you know, he's been a little bit quiet,
9:43
Speaker 4: but I know that, you know, Morgan said postgame, I
9:45
Speaker 4: think it was with Bill that Devin has been dealing
9:48
Speaker 4: with a groin injury, like it's probably recovering from that
9:50
Speaker 4: and stuff. So there's a lot of things. There's a
9:51
Speaker 4: lot of reasons why we haven't heard from guys, But
9:54
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, I'm not I'm not
9:56
Speaker 4: putting too much stock into anything right now in terms
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Speaker 4: of of guys leaving and stuff, because my thing is,
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Speaker 4: if they really weren't happy with the hires that were
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Speaker 4: in place, why didn't they hit the portal this second
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Speaker 4: that the hires were announced, or.
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Speaker 1: Even before if they saw writing on the wall. I mean,
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Speaker 1: a lot of people were making their intentions known before
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Speaker 1: the transfer portal was immediately open. And I'm with you,
10:19
Speaker 1: and I suggested that on the show yesterday, like, hey,
10:22
Speaker 1: I mean all of this uncertainty that we think that
10:27
Speaker 1: you're dealing with with new coaches, somewhat unproven coaches in
10:30
Speaker 1: certain spots that the people most affected by that, the
10:34
Speaker 1: players seem their actions make it look like they're pretty
10:38
Speaker 1: confident it's all going to work out well.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, And like literally, as we're having this conversation with
10:44
Speaker 4: Sean Parker just announced on his Instagram that he resigned
10:46
Speaker 4: with UTAH. So there's one thing that's been one looming
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Speaker 4: decision that has been checked off the checklist for Morgan.
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Speaker 4: And you know, getting way back is massive. You know,
10:57
Speaker 4: he's twelve yards away from a thousand yard season. Him
11:01
Speaker 4: and Atuaya are so close, and that's important. That's an
11:05
Speaker 4: important relationship that doesn't get talked about enough. And so
11:07
Speaker 4: you know, locking and running back one, you know, that
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Speaker 4: kind of means that you know, more dominoes should be
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Speaker 4: falling soon. But it's going to be really interesting and
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Speaker 4: I'm excited. I'm excited to see how things are going
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Speaker 4: to transfer out, are not transfer out, but translate in
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Speaker 4: the next couple of days. Plus you know, Utah's already
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Speaker 4: doing work in the portal. So I think that you
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Speaker 4: know Morgan has is it's going to be another thing
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Speaker 4: of reloading, of reloading, not rebuilding. I think that's the
11:30
Speaker 4: big thing that I have been telling our subs on
11:33
Speaker 4: Ute Zone. It's it's it's a reload, not a rebuild.
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Speaker 4: And and that's what it looks like, you know, and
11:39
Speaker 4: that's always what U Tug's been so we'll see how
11:41
Speaker 4: things shake out.
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Speaker 3: You alluded to.
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Speaker 1: This the guys what it was three commitments from the
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Speaker 1: transfer portal yesterday. The Wyoming de tackle really like what
11:50
Speaker 1: I've seen from him. You got a guy from North Texas.
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Speaker 1: Who are you most intrigued by? From the three new
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Speaker 1: editions out of the portal yesterday.
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Speaker 4: I'm gonna go. I'm gonna get Oh see, it's me
12:04
Speaker 4: and my clop out answers. I'm gonna go with both
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Speaker 4: Ethan Day, the defensive end from North Texas and Lucas Lamsula,
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Speaker 4: the defensive tackle from Wyoming. Day really broke out last
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Speaker 4: year from North Texas and we all know North Texas
12:17
Speaker 4: was you know, right in those conversations for playoffs, he
12:20
Speaker 4: broke out. He looks to be a replacement for someone
12:23
Speaker 4: like Gahd or even so, someone who can push guys
12:26
Speaker 4: like lamsfoltzklaw On Cash Dylan to hit that next that
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Speaker 4: next level of their game. So I'm excited for him.
12:33
Speaker 4: And then Sam Sula also, we've we've been missing big
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Speaker 4: bodies in that defensive tackle room. He's six four, three
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Speaker 4: oh six. That's another that's a big space eater. He
12:42
Speaker 4: didn't have a lot of stats this year at Wyoming,
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Speaker 4: but if you go back and watch the Utah and
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Speaker 4: Wyoming game last year, like he has a very, very
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Speaker 4: very high motor, and I think that that's what this
12:53
Speaker 4: defensive tackle the room needed. You needed someone who was
12:56
Speaker 4: gonna eat up space, and you needed somebody who was
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Speaker 4: going to have that high motor on the on the tackle,
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Speaker 4: kind of kind of like a leaky. A Leaky had
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Speaker 4: that high motor and he also was eating up space
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Speaker 4: and he was eating up blocks. So it's gonna I
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Speaker 4: think those two are really great. Wimberley obviously, Marcus Wimberley,
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Speaker 4: the Oklahoma transfer. He's a true freshman or rettro freshman,
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Speaker 4: so he has a couple of years to to, you know,
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Speaker 4: settle into things. But pro Morgan Scalley recruited him out
13:18
Speaker 4: of high school for a reason. He's a hard hitting safety.
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Speaker 4: He's very much cut from that cloth of you know,
13:26
Speaker 4: scaley safety's hard hitting knows for the ball, sound tackler,
13:31
Speaker 4: those types of things. But you know, it's gonna be interesting,
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Speaker 4: it's gonna be exciting. I think that there's there's a
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Speaker 4: lot more movement that's gonna happen in the portal that's
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Speaker 4: gonna go Utah's way, and I think fans are going
13:41
Speaker 4: to be excited with some of the additions that could
13:43
Speaker 4: possibly come to Salt Lake.
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Speaker 1: Will we get to watch more of practice now that
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Speaker 1: Morgan Scalley is the head coach.
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Speaker 4: I hope so oh see, I really really really hope.
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Speaker 4: So I miss the days of watching practice to be fair.
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Speaker 4: When I first started cover Utah, I was twenty nineteen
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Speaker 4: and I was a student up at the U, so
14:02
Speaker 4: there still wasn't a lot of access. But you know,
14:07
Speaker 4: I'm born and raised here. I've went to many a
14:10
Speaker 4: fair share of Utah practices when I was little back
14:13
Speaker 4: in you know, the Jordan winn Era. I remember going
14:16
Speaker 4: to practice on Saturdays, going to scrimmages during spring. So
14:19
Speaker 4: it's like there's a lot of good in it. And like,
14:22
Speaker 4: even if you want to turn it into a you know,
14:25
Speaker 4: nil rev share type thing, charge fans five bucks that
14:29
Speaker 4: come watch a scrimmage, there are so many football ciccos
14:31
Speaker 4: out here in Utah that would spend the five dollars
14:34
Speaker 4: to go watch the scrimmage on a random Saturday in April.
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Speaker 1: I have been saying the same thing for years. You
14:40
Speaker 1: want to limit your access, but maximize your revenue. Fine,
14:43
Speaker 1: put up a paywall and let people watch practice.
14:47
Speaker 3: Like you're not giving away any secrets. You're not. I'm sorry.
14:51
Speaker 1: The every NFL practice is open to the public, their
14:54
Speaker 1: whole training camp. You can go watch. You're not gonna
14:57
Speaker 1: give away any secrets. There are no secrets in the business.
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Speaker 1: They're watching your film.
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Speaker 3: Okay.
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Speaker 1: Anyway, I think we do get more access. I'm keeping
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Speaker 1: my fingers crossed for it. I will be seeing you around,
15:07
Speaker 1: I will be seeing you soon. We'll be calling you
15:09
Speaker 1: again after the transfer portal closes and we have a
15:12
Speaker 1: real picture what the roster looks like heading into spring.
15:14
Speaker 4: All right, all right, thanks Lucie.
15:17
Speaker 3: Sammi Mora managing editor over at you Zone.
15:20
Speaker 1: She's great at the job, as are most of the
15:23
Speaker 1: folks on that Utah beat.
15:24
Speaker 2: Saw.
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Speaker 3: I'm up there at the presser yesterday