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Morgan Scalley Weekly Press Conference - Week 6 vs Kansas · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Goodbye week. Got a lot of work done.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Good early preparation for a very good Kansas squad.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Cleaned up some stuff from the Iowa State game. Very
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: proud of the guys for fighting adversity. Really good crowd there.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: First road game.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Pleased with the performance of both the offensive and defensive line.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: The challenge was for them to really step up and
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: set the tone physically. I like how we started the game, obviously,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: and then a couple long drives by them and some
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: stalls by us in the second half is what led
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: to the closer outcome, but they're a good football team
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: as you saw this past weekend with them playing West
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Virginia the way they played them, but very proud of
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: our guys for fighting adversity.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And finishing that thing off, so This is going to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: be a big one this week.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: We expect the Rice Eccles to be packed and a
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: wide out, so we're excited for that. And I'm sure
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a lot of stuff is going to be revealed in
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: terms of merchandise and gear and all that stuff, what
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: we're going to provide.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: For our fans.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: But it should be a pretty awesome environment for a
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Kansas team that is physical, They are ranked in the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: tops of the conference in both offensive and first total defense.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: First in total defense in the conference, second in total offense.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Second in rushing offense, so again another team that prides
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: itself in running the football. Very athletic quarterback in Marshall.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I have a lot of respect for Coach Leipold and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: what he's done with his crew there. Their defensive front,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: very stout. Very productive. You get in TFLs, they're pretty
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Aggressive defense. They run to the ball. You can tell they're.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Coached really well.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And so this is going to be a great opportunity
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: for us in front of a packed house.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: So, first question. Who's got it for my guy? Okay,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Justin's question. All right.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: It was a great win last game. In the third
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: quarter of last game, the offense looked a bit discombobulated.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Ooh.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Big word.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: That's a great word, discombobulated. That's a Bud Scali word.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Preventing it from happening against Kansas, especially coming off a
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: bye week?
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, there are things that go into a drive.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: And going back, Idaho, first drive, second half, touchdown.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Defense, first drive, three and out. Arkansas, first drive, second half, touchdown.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Defense, three and out. Utah State, first drive, second half.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: That's where you end up having a dropped pass, I think,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: on one of them. They get a fourth down stop.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: The second possession, some missed opportunities. And the third possession,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I think it was like nine plays or something like that, touchdown.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Defense, three and out. Iowa State's kind of the one time.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Where coming out of halftime, I thought, okay, we're not
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: as clean as we need to be. We took it
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: from the minus 25 to the plus 40. It's not
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: like they were three and out and not doing anything
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: in terms of flipping the field. Had the one first
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: down and then we had to pooch punt it. The
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: long drive by them. We get the ball to minus 34.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: We get a first down. Really, it was the third
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and fourth possessions that you can't go three and out.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: On The fourth possession, it was that, let's see, fourth possession,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I thought Way had a good run, incomplete RPO, and
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: then the way Sean got stuffed felt like we needed
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: to punt it at that time. So then fifth possession,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: seven plays, touchdown.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: So, again, I've mentioned this before, the burden of execution
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: is on the offense.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: You can have a guy wide open and it's a misread,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: or he drops the ball, and then penalties can also–
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: be a factor in that. So really, in my opinion,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: one game where you're saying, okay, we probably wasn't clean
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: enough coming out of the half. Other than that, it's
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: not time to panic there, Justin.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: And then, well, happy birthday.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Week, too.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, man.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: At my point, we don't celebrate getting older, you know
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: what I mean?
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: How do you guard against rust during this bye week?
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're going every week.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: You've got those four straight weeks, and now we've seen
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: teams coming off a bye that might not look as
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: sharp as they did, especially in the first half. What
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: did you do during the bye week to kind of
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: guard against that?
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, you can't just not practice, and
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: practices have to be physical. They have to be fast.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Certain guys that you kind of taper off on maybe
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: some of the workload based on where they are physically.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: At the same time, we got work to do. We
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: got stuff to improve upon, and those things were targeted
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: throughout the week. You know, in terms of you really
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: have to be, you're looking for self-motivated guys, self-starters. It's
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: part of the culture in the nasty acronym that S
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: stands for starts with me.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: So if you need someone else to motivate you, I mean.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: We've prepared and trained since January for this.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And you're going to fall asleep.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: It's like, no, this is an opportunity for us to
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: keep on going, keep on improving, and if you need
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: someone to motivate you to get you there, you're in
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the wrong business. So our guys understand what's at stake
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: and understand that all 12 guaranteed games matter. If you look, again,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: across college football, it's hard to win football games, and
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: you've got to show up every game prepared, every game hungry,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: and never take an opponent lightly. Credit our leadership for
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: really coming out. No lackluster practices in my opinion. I
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: thought they attacked it. We're ready to get going again today.
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: Morgan, Elder Rasband was with the team at Iowa State.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: What was it like having him around the team, flying
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: with you guys?
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: How did all that come to fruition? It was fantastic.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: All our guys, I educated them on who he was. Obviously,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: our LDS players know who he is. But just to
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: have his presence, and it was fun just catching up
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: with him. He's an Olympus high grad. He's a University
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: of Utah guy. So just a humble servant, and our
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: guys loved it. So how it came about, you'd have
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: to ask President Randall on that one. We were just
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: happy to have him on the trip.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: Morgan, recruiting has revolved over the last few years with NIL,
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: but how important and how valuable is it to still
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: get your coaches out on the road visiting prospects during
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: a bye week?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Very important.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: It's the lifeblood of your program. We have jobs as
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: coaches because of players. It's not the other way around.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Finding guys that fit your culture, getting out on the
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: road and showing your brand, your logo, but.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Finding guys that fit your culture....
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: It's such a huge part of what we do here
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: is bringing in the right guys. So, yeah, all of
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: our coaches were out on the road this weekend and,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: you know, also watching football.
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: Morgan, going back to that Iowa State game, at times
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: Bobo got flagged for a couple pass interferences. How much
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: is– where's the line for you and Sharif when it
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: comes to being physical but also not being so– like
• 8:06
  Speaker 6: not physical enough that things.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Can, you know, kind of spiral? Yeah, I would say
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: with Bobo, that was more of a technique thing.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: He had the one slant that he got the PI on,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: just keeping an inside leverage in that situation. He's also
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: been playing very well in coverage. You're going to get
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: those flags. The key is when you go to the sideline,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: it's okay, why did I get the flag? Now that
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: we have these tablets and can watch the film, it's
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: much easier for us to correct.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: And coach on the go. There's nothing really in his
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: play that's egregious.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: I think we're first in the league in pass defense efficiency.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: When you play as much man coverage as we do,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you're going to get those.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: It's a matter of how can we teach proper technique
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: so that we're not overdoing it.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: Bubak got his first start against Iowa State.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: What has he shown you this.
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: Year in practices and games to make you confident in
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: starting him there?
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Well, two things.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: He is very athletic. Eventually we see him moving out
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: to the tackle position. He's got the athleticism to be
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: able to do it. He's also very physical and aggressive.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: He's just going to get better and more confident with time.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: the reps that he's going to accumulate this season are
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: going to be huge for his growth going into his
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: second year. But this is a guy that he was
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: a highly touted recruit for a reason, and his combination
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: of athleticism and physicality are special.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Coach, a third of the way through the regular season now,
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: how do you feel about your coordinators?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: How would you grade their performance thus far?
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, very pleased, very pleased with our coordinator. and what's
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: going on. But, again, we're four games in. I still
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: think people are finding out who they are. I'm just
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: pleased with the culture and how they're holding their guys accountable,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: correcting things on the go. Not only the coordinators, it's
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: the position coaches as well. To have that loyalty and unity,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: that's big across the board. Those guys work so hard.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Just as you don't necessarily see the work that the
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: players put in, you definitely don't necessarily see the work
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: that the coaches put in and the sacrifice. It's a
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: grinder of a job. I'm very happy and grateful for
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: everything that they're doing.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: The Utah Players Association.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: A lot of former players have kind of come together
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: to build this community of former athletes, and you've been
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: kind of big on welcoming former players to the program.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: I'm just curious, what is your thoughts on that, I guess,
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: association and group of players coming together, and have you
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: partaken in anything in trying to help that come together?
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Well, that's, you know, there's a big reason why I
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: hired Bo Nagahi as our alumni relations, the director of
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: alumni relations.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: And Bo is is, I.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Mean, as good as they get at helping our guys
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: understand how valued they are. Uh, we want them coming back.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: We want them feeling welcome here. I wish we could, uh,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: give them everything. It just, you know, it is what
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: it is, but bottom line is if, if, you know,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: if you played here, Bo's going to find you, you know, he's,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: he's that dedicated and it means a lot. There's, Again,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: and I've said this, a sign of a healthy program
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: is when you see your players giving back. And you
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: go around this facility, and you look at the amount
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: of players that have given back. You look at the
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: guys playing on Sunday now, representing the University of Utah,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: the things that they're doing. It was good to see
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Devin Lloyd. It was Utah and Utah crime. It was
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Devin Lloyd tackling Sione Vahke yesterday. And it was good
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: to see Sione getting a bunch of reps. But all
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: those guys know how much we love them, how much
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: we appreciate them, the sacrifice they gave to the program.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So I credit Bo Nagahe really for getting a lot
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: of things going and making sure our players feel heard, valued,
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: and then welcomed back with all the different events that
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: we have.
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: Morgan, as you're evaluating the team during the bye week,
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: what was something maybe that you saw on film that
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: doesn't necessarily reflect what you see in the numbers and
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: in the stats, just something that stood out to you
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: when you're watching your team play?
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Again, playing clean football, I know we had the penalties
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: last week, but the amount of times where it would
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: be very easy to turn and throw an extra shot
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: at a guy or get upset. And, you know, the
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: second guy is always the one that's usually going to
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: get flagged. But I'm just really pleased with them understanding
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: what team football looks like.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: When you score.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Celebrate together because there are other guys doing their job
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: in order for you to score.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: You know, you look at the Iowa State game.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: And watch Larry Simmons on Weishan's last touchdown and the
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: effort he gives to get a block.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: And get in there.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: So playing team football, understanding it's not about you or
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: your personal battles. It's about the team, and it's showing
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: up in a bunch of different areas, the way our
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: guys block, block for each other, celebrate together, interact with
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: each other on the sideline when things aren't going great.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: And that's a credit to our leaders.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: How are you guys health-wise during this bye week? Were
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: you able to get some guys healthy that could use
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: that week off? And then I wanted to ask you
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: about Isaiah Marshall, a true dual-threat guy. You've faced guys
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: like that before, but what makes him unique?
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fairly healthy coming out of the bye week.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: And then in terms of the Marshall kid, he's a
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: guy– I would say he's probably the quickest that we've
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: faced thus far. Putting his foot in the ground, getting vertical,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: the ability to escape the pocket. There's a reason why
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: they're number one in the conference in rushing offense. He's
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: a big part of that. And he's not afraid of contact.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: He doesn't necessarily slide or avoid it. So when you've
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: got players like that that run the ball like a
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: running back, that's pretty difficult.
• 15:04
  Speaker 7: Last one kind of going back to steve's question we
• 15:07
  Speaker 7: talk a lot about grading systems with like pff and
• 15:10
  Speaker 7: all those other nfl style grading systems where is the
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: line between seeing what the grading system is is rating
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: some of these players specifically on the offensive line versus
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: your eyeball test and you as a coach knowing what
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: they need to.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Do um i i respect pff i don't know that
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: i've ever looked at a for our offensive line, or
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: for any of our players for that matter, it's all
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: about how we grade them. We're the ones that know
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: what their assignment is and what we're asking of them.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: PFF has a great staff of.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: The guys that have probably played the game and fairly
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: good at analyzing football and what coverage is, but at
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: the same time, they may not know some of the
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: tweaks of a defense or stuff that we're trying to
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: ask our offense to do.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: And so we just look at the grades of our
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: position coaches.