Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Antonio Morales on his list of top CFB programs of the last 50 years, Can Utah reach the heights they did in the Pac-12 (?), Boomerang pl...

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Antonio Morales on his list of top CFB programs of the last 50 years, Can Utah reach the heights they did in the Pac-12 (?), Boomerang pl... · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: Born in the U.S.A.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: This is the Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the
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  Speaker 2: best inside of your youths. Let's get back to OC
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 792.1 FM. Welcome
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: back to the.
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  Speaker 3: Sean O'Connell Show. Welcome in Antonio.
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  Speaker 4: Morales, National College Football Insider over at The Athletic. We
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  Speaker 4: got about 25 minutes on the show out of a
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  Speaker 4: great article he put out about the best programs of
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  Speaker 4: college football's last 50 years who have not been able
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  Speaker 4: to get over the hump and win a national championship. Utah,
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  Speaker 4: as a program, came in ninth on that list in
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  Speaker 4: the scoring criteria. Excited to talk to Antonio about that
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  Speaker 4: and much more.
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  Speaker 3: Antonio, welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 1: How are you? Hey, doing well. Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Just getting ready for the season to start on Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be a fun week zero slate that'll
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  Speaker 1: take us into week one. I'm looking forward to it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're looking forward to it as well.
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  Speaker 4: Interesting Big 12 matchup, or I shouldn't say Big 12 matchup.
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  Speaker 4: Big 12 showcase opportunity, TCU and North Carolina in Dublin,
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  Speaker 4: and obviously here in the Big 12 and Big 12 country,
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  Speaker 4: there's this kind of like trepidation.
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  Speaker 3: There's this, hey, are we.
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  Speaker 4: Are we the third-best conference in the country? Are we
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  Speaker 4: the fourth-best conference in the country? Can we sneak in
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  Speaker 4: there in the top two?
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  Speaker 3: Probably not. But how important is that game from the
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  Speaker 3: Big 12's perspective.
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  Speaker 4: In your mind?
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  Speaker 1: I think you want– especially it's against an ACC school.
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  Speaker 1: So it's one of the worst probably ACC programs in
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  Speaker 1: North Carolina right now. If you're the Big 12, and
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of decent buzz about TCU this year
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  Speaker 1: and dating Craig, the Harvard transfer they have at quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: So if you want to kind of prove yourself and
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  Speaker 1: assert yourself as the third best conference, you don't want
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  Speaker 1: to lose a game to one of the lower half
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  Speaker 1: of the ACC-type programs. So I don't think TCU will lose,
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  Speaker 1: but it's certainly a game you want to win.
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  Speaker 4: I want to pick your brain a little bit about
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  Speaker 4: the article that came out in The Athletic, and obviously
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  Speaker 4: you were the mastermind behind where You did grade out
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  Speaker 4: kind of the top programs that have not won a
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  Speaker 4: national championship in the last 50 years.
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  Speaker 3: What sparked this as an idea? Why did you want
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  Speaker 3: to do this piece?
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  Speaker 1: I think it was just interesting. Last year, Indiana, obviously
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  Speaker 1: one of the most losingest programs in the history of
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  Speaker 1: college football. And they came in and won the national title.
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  Speaker 1: But I was just thinking about how many... how many
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  Speaker 1: programs they skipped kind of in line that had been
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  Speaker 1: competitive for the national title over the past 20, 30 years,
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  Speaker 1: like Wisconsin, Oregon, other schools like that, Virginia Tech, TCU,
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  Speaker 1: schools that haven't won a national title in recent history
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  Speaker 1: that have just been on the cusp but never quite
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  Speaker 1: got there. And Indiana just kind of raced by them.
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  Speaker 1: And so that was one reason. And so some national
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  Speaker 1: title claims that were happening in the spring that I
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  Speaker 1: found pretty funny. It kind of made me want to
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  Speaker 1: look at national championships, who's won them, who hasn't, and
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  Speaker 1: kind of rank who the best programs without them are.
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  Speaker 4: So Oregon came in number one on that list. And
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  Speaker 4: Oregon is a team that we're very familiar with here
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  Speaker 4: in Salt Lake City. Utah and Oregon developed a nice
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  Speaker 4: little back and forth in some championship games and some
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  Speaker 4: big time games when they were both members of the
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  Speaker 4: PAC 12 conference. I did radio for six years with
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  Speaker 4: a former Oregon duck, right? So Oregon's been kind of
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  Speaker 4: part of the Utah football fabric for.
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  Speaker 3: A little bit of time here.
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  Speaker 4: And it's fascinating to watch this team with all those
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  Speaker 4: financial resources and and all this great track record in
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  Speaker 4: recruiting still chasing, right? And I think that's kind of
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  Speaker 4: the point of why they're number one on your list.
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  Speaker 4: They have not yet won that national title, but they've
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  Speaker 4: been oh so close. And in that conversation for really
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  Speaker 4: a couple of decades now, when you look at what
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  Speaker 4: Dan Lanning's got on his roster this year, on his
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  Speaker 4: coaching staff this year, Uncle Phil, Phil Knight is getting
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  Speaker 4: older and spending more and more to try to see
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  Speaker 4: his ducks achieve greatness before he's done. Is this a
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  Speaker 4: year that you could see Oregon finally getting off of
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  Speaker 4: your list and finally taking home a national championship?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if they will, but I think
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  Speaker 1: they're certainly capable of it. I feel like I believe
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  Speaker 1: in Oregon more now than I did during the Chip Kelly,
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  Speaker 1: Mario Cristobal years. I just, Chip Kelly years, I just
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  Speaker 1: didn't believe they had enough along the line of scrimmage
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  Speaker 1: to get it done. And the Mario Cristobal years, I just,
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  Speaker 1: I think Mario Cristobal is a better coach now, a
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  Speaker 1: better head coach now than he was at Oregon. We
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  Speaker 1: saw him go into Utah. I remember 2021 where they
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  Speaker 1: played Utah twice and got creamed both games. They got
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  Speaker 1: smashed pretty good in both times. So I didn't think
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  Speaker 1: the staff was there for them to win the national
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  Speaker 1: title yet. I just, I think Dan Lanning's put pretty
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  Speaker 1: much everything together except winning the national title. Obviously they're
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  Speaker 1: the number one seed and ran into a juggernaut Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State team two years ago. And last year they had
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  Speaker 1: two losses and they're both the national championship team in Indiana.
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  Speaker 1: So I think they have the recipe this year, quarterback, receivers,
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  Speaker 1: running backs, defensive line, the back end of the defense.
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  Speaker 1: I think the one question I do have is the
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  Speaker 1: offensive line. I believe they lost three starters last from
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  Speaker 1: that group last year. And we've seen that take down
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: preseason teams, preseason, like top 10 teams over the past
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  Speaker 1: few years where people kind of overlook the offensive line.
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  Speaker 1: We saw that with Texas last year where they had issues.
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  Speaker 1: So that's one area I kind of want to keep
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  Speaker 1: an eye on. But I think overall, it's probably the
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  Speaker 1: best roster that Dan Lanning's had since he's been at Oregon.
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  Speaker 4: So our Utes were the home flagship home of Utah football.
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  Speaker 4: Our Utes come in at number nine on the list
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  Speaker 4: and a lot of the cruel of points in your
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  Speaker 4: system has happened over the last, you know, 10, 15 years,
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  Speaker 4: I guess, 20 years for the university of Utah. And
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  Speaker 4: I know you pay a lot of attention to roster construction,
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  Speaker 4: and that's something that matters so much in today's era
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  Speaker 4: of college football based on what, you know, on your
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  Speaker 4: store scoring criteria and how these Utah teams were able
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  Speaker 4: to kind of like place themselves at number nine on
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  Speaker 4: your list. And again, knowing what they're up against now
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  Speaker 4: with BYU spending the way they're spending Texas tech, spending
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  Speaker 4: the way they're spending the big 10, the.
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  Speaker 3: Sec, et cetera. Can Utah stay kind of where they're at?
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  Speaker 4: One of these perennially respected top 25 level teams, or
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  Speaker 4: are they in trouble when it comes to, you know,
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  Speaker 4: making sure that they have the player personnel necessary to
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  Speaker 4: keep themselves in that conversation? Because before they were always
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  Speaker 4: a player development team, they'd get these two-star athletes and
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  Speaker 4: turn them into four or five-star producers, NFL draft picks.
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  Speaker 4: Now you've got to pay those guys, even if you
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  Speaker 4: are the one that develops them, and they don't have
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  Speaker 4: the resources that some of these other teams do. So
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  Speaker 4: do you think Utah can stay where they're at nationally?
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  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be more difficult. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: saying they can't do it, but I just think it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be harder for the reasons you said. In
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  Speaker 1: the past, in the Pac-12, it's not like Utah was
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  Speaker 1: the most resourced school in In the league, they're always
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  Speaker 1: fighting an uphill climb against the likes of USC, Oregon, Washington,
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  Speaker 1: schools like that, but like you said, they're able to
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  Speaker 1: keep their players for three or four years, and by
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  Speaker 1: the time they matured, they're able to beat those programs
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  Speaker 1: and give them a run for their money. Obviously, they
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  Speaker 1: won the Pac-12 twice, and that's just more difficult to
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  Speaker 1: do in today's day and age when you have basically
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  Speaker 1: free agency every season, and then also you have Schools
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  Speaker 1: like Texas Tech who are spending an enormous amount of
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  Speaker 1: money every year on their roster. And BYU is obviously
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  Speaker 1: spending a lot. So I think it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: more difficult. Coaching stability helps Utah a lot of the time.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll see what Morgan Scali does. I think when
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  Speaker 1: I was writing that story, it was just like, man,
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  Speaker 1: Urban Meyer obviously bolted over that two-year stint. kind of
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  Speaker 1: laid the foundation, and then Kyle Whittingham really took it
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  Speaker 1: over and sustained that excellence. So it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on Morgan Scali to try to
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  Speaker 1: do that. I'm interested to see how it goes this
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  Speaker 1: first year with the coaching staff and the quarterback situation
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  Speaker 1: and all that they have going on. I know there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot to replace on the offensive line, but I
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  Speaker 1: feel like the DNA of the program is still there.
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  Speaker 1: I'm kind of curious to see. how Morgan Scali approaches it.
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  Speaker 1: He's obviously somebody who was on that. Oh, for a
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  Speaker 1: fiesta bowl team. So he knows what it takes. I'm
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  Speaker 1: just curious to see how he executes.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Antonio Morales is our guest here on the shot.
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  Speaker 4: O'Connell show national college football reporter over at the athletic.
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  Speaker 4: Of course, the biggest story in college football this week
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  Speaker 4: has not been a week.
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  Speaker 3: Zero games are coming up.
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  Speaker 4: Thankfully we will have those to talk about soon enough,
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  Speaker 4: but it's been these boomerang bounce back players that, trying
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  Speaker 4: to get off of an NFL roster out of an
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  Speaker 4: NFL mini camp or training camp and back onto a
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  Speaker 4: college football roster. Uh, what are your thoughts on this mess?
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  Speaker 4: And you know, the big 10 and the sec have
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  Speaker 4: already come down with their decisions. Uh, it's expected that
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  Speaker 4: we get similar announcements from the ACC and the big
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  Speaker 4: 12 any minute now, but your thoughts on, uh, the
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  Speaker 4: latest drama in roster construction in college football.
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  Speaker 1: Uh, I found the, uh, Being on a preseason NFL
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  Speaker 1: roster and being in the transfer portal at the same time,
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  Speaker 1: I just found it incredibly lame. And, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: wasn't a... a fan of it at all. I think
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  Speaker 1: I compared it to some uncle Rico's trying to come
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  Speaker 1: in and play college football. So, you know, definitely not
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  Speaker 1: a fan of that. I just think once you leave
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  Speaker 1: college and declare for the NFL and you're on an
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  Speaker 1: NFL roster, your college playing days are done. And it's
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: just funny that it's always Lane Kiffin. It seems like,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I think all the taboos that go along with college football.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: He's been involved, like he's been involved in trying to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: like reject them or expose them or exploit them. This
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: off season, you have a coach who left during a
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: playoff run, the tampering stuff with the modern Williams at Washington,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: where everyone assumed LSU is pretty involved in. And then
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: now you have NFL players coming back to play college football.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: So there's all these things where like, oh, there's no
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: way that'll happen. they've all been pretty well connected to
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Lane Kiffin. And so he's managed a way to kind
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: of try to find that gray area to do all
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  Speaker 1: this stuff. And this is another kind of eye roll
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  Speaker 1: example of it. And the SEC and Big Ten came
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: out pretty hard with their rules against that stuff yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll see what the next step is of it.
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  Speaker 1: But it's obviously not a fun thing to have to
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: focus on as games are approaching.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: And obviously it becomes these super boring conversations about like
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: injunctions and temporary restraining orders and district judges and all
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: that kind of thing. And of course, the proposed solution
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: to all of this has been, you know, federal legislation
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: has been a protect college sports act or some equivalent
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: thereof that now it seems like even the big boys
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: and even the powers that be in college football are
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: behind getting something done here.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think we ever do?
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  Speaker 4: Or because, you know, you're dealing with really four major conferences,
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: two that are more powerful than the others. Notre Dame
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: has something to say there. And American politics are obviously
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: a mess all the time. Do we ever get federal
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: intervention on this? Are we going to keep having more
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: of these stories to talk about?
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  Speaker 1: I think for a couple of years, we're going to
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: have a few more of these stories to talk about.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I think the obvious end point is, like, We'll see
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  Speaker 1: what happens when these TV deals expire for these conferences
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: around the early 2030s and kind of see what happens
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: there in terms of maybe a potential breakaway and these
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: guys form their own leagues or anything. And I think
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: that's obviously the next kind of realignment wave for that
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: we'll see, and maybe they'll just make their own rules
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and break away from the NCAA. So it's fascinating to
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: watch unfold. All the legislation stuff kind of bores me.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I don't want to read about it or hear about
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it until something is done. I'm not really into the
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: minutia of, oh, but this is going to happen on
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Friday and this deadline, and then nothing comes of it.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm kind of waiting to see, you know, when
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: something actually happens instead of all this talk and all
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: this bluster about something potentially happening.
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  Speaker 4: This is pulling an old headline out. It wasn't that
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: long ago, but it feels like it was two years
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: ago because of how fast the news cycles move these days.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: But what do you think happens with Brendan Sorsby's football career? Obviously,
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: he couldn't play Texas Tech this year. The NFL said
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: no thank you on a supplemental draft. He's eligible to
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: go into next year's draft. What do you think happens
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: with Brendan Sorsby?
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  Speaker 1: Obviously, next year's draft will be a hot topic next year. Um, but, uh,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: me and Sam Khan, my colleague at the athletic, we had, uh,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: we have this project every summer. This is the second
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: year we've done it where we have to rank all 138.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: FBS starting quarterbacks. And so, uh, there's a lot of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: film watching from May to July for me this year.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And we're watching Brendan stores be, I watched a few
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: games of Brendan stores be this past year. One of
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: them was Arizona. And I watched that game and I
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: thought Noah Fafita was the better quarterback when I watched
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the two play. Noah Fafita didn't get anywhere near the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: hype that Brendan Sorsby did. But you just hear about
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: like the traits and all this other stuff. And with
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Brendan Sorsby, it's like, okay, that's great. But you want
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: to see that translate onto the football field. I think
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: he's still a very raw player. And what I'm worried
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: about now for him, aside from the off the field issues,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: what I'm worried about now for him, for him as
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a football player is, When you don't play for a
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: year and you're really raw, that's just basically a lost
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: period because he needs the reps and he needs that experience.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: He's not going to get that this year. He's probably
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: not going to get it next year in the NFL draft.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know where he'd go. I don't see a
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: team sending a first-round pick on him. Second-round picks aren't
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: going to be for sure starters. It's going to be
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a while before he gets the reps and the experience
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and the snaps that he needs. I think that's going
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: to be a detriment to him going forward.
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: Utah had a weird offseason right at the end of
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: the season, obviously, with Kyle Whittingham making a retirement decision,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: deciding he didn't want to retire. The university effectively saying,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: we need you to retire. He ends up at Michigan,
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: and he takes coaches and players with him. And it
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: ended up being a pretty ugly divorce situation. instead of
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: a ride off into the sunsets and you're our hero
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: kind of an ending to Kyle Whittingham's tenure.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: And I'm still bummed about that.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Now, a lot of my listeners get mad when I
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: mentioned his name, but I'm a glutton for punishment. So
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: I'm curious about what the Michigan product looks like with
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: Kyle Whittingham. What do you think the Wolverines can achieve
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: in his first year in Ann Arbor?
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I think the floor is extremely high. obviously throwing more
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: stuff was a mess last year at Michigan, right? He
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: was doing whatever he was doing in DMs and talking
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to other females and stuff like that. That got him
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: in trouble. And Michigan still won nine games, and they
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: were in the playoff mix until the final week of
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the regular season. So that was with a dysfunctional coaching
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: staff or head coaching situation. I think, obviously, Kyle Whittingham
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: will bring a baseline level of competence to that coaching situation,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: to that program. And I think the floor is really
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: high for them, but obviously a lot is going to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: depend on what they get out of Bryce Underwood, who's
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: their five-star phenom quarterback who came in last year, but
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: kind of underwhelmed and disappointed. So I think there's a
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: lot of pressure on Jason Beck and what he can
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: do with Underwood if he can unlock him. We saw
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: what he did with Devin Dampier last year. And, uh, and, and, uh,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Bert Franklin. So I'm kind of curious to see what
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: he does with Bryce Underwood and how he tries to
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: unlock that five-star potential because it was kind of underwhelming
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: last year and disappointing considering I think Bryce Underwood, I
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: think the rumor was he was getting around $ 10 million, um,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: over the course of his career for, um, his time
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: at Michigan NIL slash rev share wise. We didn't really
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: see that five-star potential. There was a little bit of flash,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't truly there. So I think that's the
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: main thing that will kind of determine the trajectory of
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Cal Whittingham's first season at Michigan. But I think the
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: floor should be really high. Obviously, he brought John Henry
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Daly and Smith Snowden to kind of bolster that roster
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: and some of the defensive– personnel that they've had. So
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of curious to see kind of how it goes.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: And I think the coaching staff should be great. Uh,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Jay Hill at the, the coordinator, um, the schedule is hard,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: but they have Oregon and Ohio state, um, this year
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: in Penn state. So, um, I think it'll be really interesting,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: really fascinating to see how that one goes.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: Is the big 12, uh, a one bid league in
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: a 12 team college football playoff.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Do we just have to get used to that?
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I think it depends. BYU has the big opportunity this year, right,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: to play Notre Dame and say they go 11-1 and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: they have a win against Notre Dame. I think that's
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: a big feather in their cap in terms of non-conference
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: win that they didn't necessarily have last year. So I
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: think it really depends on how the schedule plays out
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and who beats who and what happens in the other leagues.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: The SEC is in the nine-game conference schedule now. So
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: if a team goes 9-3, will they be left out over, say,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: an 11-2 Big 12 team that maybe lost? One of
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: those two losses came in the Big 12 title game.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that will happen. So I think
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: it really depends on what plays out elsewhere across the country.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: A lot of these heavyweights in the Big 10 this year, too,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: are playing each other. I know Indiana plays Ohio State.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: And Oregon plays Ohio state as well. So you're going
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to feel like a lot of crossover that we haven't
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: seen in the past couple of years. So I think
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: we'll see more losses than usual from some of these juggernauts.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: And I think that could open the door for, for
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: a second bid to the big 12.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: Last thing before I let you go and maybe we'll
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: have you on mid season and your answer would be
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: revised at that point. But just because we're about to
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: start this whole thing off, who is going to win
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: the national championship?
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I think I'll go with Georgia right now. I know
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the SEC, it's been a while since they won a
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: national title. I think they'll be due at some point.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: And I just trust Kirby Smart. I know they haven't
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: had the best playoff luck, the best playoff fortune in
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the past few years. Their starting quarterback, Carson Beck, got
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: hurt two years ago before the playoffs. And last year
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: they ran into like a generational trend at Chambliss performance.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: But I think they'll have things break right this year
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: and they'll end the SEC's drought of national championships.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: Antonio, appreciate you giving us some time today, sir. Keep
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: up all the great work at The Athletic. We use
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: your stuff for material on the show all the time.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: So thank you. All right.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Antonio Morales. Go follow him on Twitter at Antonio C.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Morales.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: National college football insider over at the athletic. So I,
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: I realized that summer is coming to a close and
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: I have not spent really any time boating, fishing, golfing
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: with my old buddies, with the old crew.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: Like the high school friends, the elementary school friends, the
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: college buddies.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: I've done a terrible job of it this year. I
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: have a solution though. Right? I'm not a great golfer.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: I'm actually a really terrible golfer. And it's hard to
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: get people together.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: But if I send out an invitation and say that
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: I want to golf, it's such a rare thing that
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: I know my friends are going to show up. And
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: that's how I'm going to fix this problem. I'm going
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: to call them. I'm going to say, hey, I got
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: us some tee times at Stansbury Park Golf Course.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Let's go golf. And boom, problem solved.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Because.
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: Golfing with me, they all get a great laugh. If
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: you're actually a good golfer, you're still going to enjoy
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: the course. And the best thing about it is no crowds.
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: Pace of play is perfect. You're not stuck behind two
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: foursomes that are drinking too much and going too slow
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: and talking too much crap. Great greens, great rates. They
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: really have it all out there at Stansbury Park. And
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: it's surprisingly quick to get to. Hop on the I-80,
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: head out west to Tooele County, and play yourself around.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: During the weekdays, it's $ 45 for 18 holes. On the weekends,
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: it's only $ 50 for 18 holes. Stansburypark.gov slash golfcourse to
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: book your tee time. That is stansburypark.gov slash golfcourse to
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: book your tee time. Call the old high school buddies.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: Call your college roommates. You haven't seen them in a while.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: You don't know what happened with Joe's divorce. You don't
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: know what happened with John's job. Get out there on
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: the golf course. Break some bread. Have some fun. And
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: hopefully your round will go better than mine because I'll
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: be spraying balls all over the place.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: But that's because I'm a bad golfer. You're not.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: So go enjoy Stansbury Park Golf Course and explore Tooele County.