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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 9-28-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:12
Speaker 1: Thunder Thunder Thunder.
0:18
Speaker 2: Thunder Thunder Happy Monday, everybody. Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show.
0:46
Speaker 2: Happy to be with you once again here on ESPN
0:49
Speaker 2: 700 at 92.1 FM. A little bit of a gloomy,
0:53
Speaker 2: rainy day here in Salt Lake City, but that's all
0:56
Speaker 2: right because it's football weather and it's football season and
0:59
Speaker 2: we've got a lot of football to talk about. We've
1:03
Speaker 2: also got the start of a Utah Mammoth hockey season
1:05
Speaker 2: beginning this week. The UFC is in town this weekend,
1:09
Speaker 2: a perfect Saturday night activity in the stead of having
1:14
Speaker 2: a Utah football game this weekend. Bye week for the
1:19
Speaker 2: Utes means no Morgan Scali press conference today. But we
1:25
Speaker 2: will fill that spot with Alyssa Derrico. Sorry, Alyssa Derrico,
1:31
Speaker 2: the Utah volleyball head coach, as Utah volleyball says, in
1:35
Speaker 2: their season. Zach Moss still going to join us on
1:38
Speaker 2: the show today. And we'll have a little bit of fun.
1:41
Speaker 2: Ari Temkin from Big 12 Radio joins us in half
1:44
Speaker 2: an hour. Your Utah football team is undefeated. They are
1:50
Speaker 2: 4-0 on the season. They are the 13th ranked team
1:53
Speaker 2: in the country right now. And I think that they're
1:58
Speaker 2: actually pretty darn good. First road test was passed mostly
2:03
Speaker 2: with flying colors. There's a dynamic that's developing here with
2:08
Speaker 2: this team that I don't want to say is concerning,
2:13
Speaker 2: but it is kind of like it's noticeable. You know
2:17
Speaker 2: when you have a little, like, mole on your skin
2:21
Speaker 2: and you can't decide if it's concerning or it's noticeable?
2:24
Speaker 2: It's irregular around the margins, maybe. You're like, is it
2:28
Speaker 2: some kind of squamous carcinoma I need to worry about?
2:34
Speaker 2: It draws your attention. You're not sure if it's a
2:37
Speaker 2: problem or not. That's where this particular thing with Utah
2:41
Speaker 2: football is at this juncture in the season. And we'll
2:45
Speaker 2: get into some of it. It was a road test
2:49
Speaker 2: that Utah needed to pass and did very effectively. The
2:55
Speaker 2: offense once again came out, started things impressively, started things hot,
3:00
Speaker 2: and here we are. talking about a Utah football team
3:04
Speaker 2: that sits at 4-0, 1-0 in conference play, 31-17 victory
3:14
Speaker 2: over the Cyclones of Iowa State, and way Sean Parker
3:18
Speaker 2: with just an unbelievable game.
3:21
Speaker 3: I mean, I.
3:23
Speaker 2: Want to talk about him as the runner, the running back.
3:26
Speaker 2: We came off the Utah State matchup, and we even
3:29
Speaker 2: had Kevin McGivin on the show in coordinators corner last week,
3:33
Speaker 2: no coordinators corner this week, by the way, by weeks
3:37
Speaker 2: make it. So we don't get to talk to anybody.
3:40
Speaker 2: We get lonely. Nobody wants to talk to us during
3:42
Speaker 2: the bi-week, but during coordinators corner last week, Kevin McGiven,
3:47
Speaker 2: we mentioned, you know, like, Hey, do you have to
3:49
Speaker 2: get way Sean Parker more touches? And he talked about
3:53
Speaker 2: the sort of, for lack of a better word, justification.
3:57
Speaker 2: Why you, Way Sean had a relatively quiet game against
4:02
Speaker 2: Utah state, but he did mention that's something you got
4:04
Speaker 2: to figure out. That's something you kind of have to
4:06
Speaker 2: correct where you need to, to make sure that even
4:11
Speaker 2: when things are going well, that you're feeding the beast,
4:14
Speaker 2: that you're getting the right guy, the right touches. And
4:18
Speaker 2: that to me seemed like it was definitely going to
4:21
Speaker 2: be a point of emphasis in the game this week.
4:24
Speaker 2: And way Sean Parker got his touches against Iowa state.
4:29
Speaker 2: Way Sean Parker was the beast that they fed in
4:32
Speaker 2: this game, both in the passing game and in the
4:34
Speaker 2: run game, 18 carries for 174 yards. That is almost
4:39
Speaker 2: 10 yards of carry 9.7 yards of carry two touchdowns.
4:43
Speaker 2: He was also the leading receiver in this game, five
4:46
Speaker 2: catches for 65 yards and another touchdown way. Sean Parker
4:50
Speaker 2: so far in the 2026 season has matched his touchdown
4:55
Speaker 2: total from last year. We are at the, Four-game mark.
4:59
Speaker 2: We are a third of the way through this thing.
5:02
Speaker 2: And Way Sean Parker has already matched his touchdown total
5:06
Speaker 2: from last year. Speaking with Way Sean earlier in the offseason,
5:11
Speaker 2: most of you are aware that he was pretty adamant
5:13
Speaker 2: about he wants to attain that 1,000-yard rushing season. He
5:17
Speaker 2: wants to, obviously winning games is the most important thing
5:21
Speaker 2: for him, but he wants to get there. He wants
5:23
Speaker 2: to get to 1,000 yards. At the pace he was
5:26
Speaker 2: on last year, it would have taken him three more
5:28
Speaker 2: carries to get 1,000 yards. 6.6 yards a carry. Guess
5:34
Speaker 2: what Wayshon Parker is averaging through four games this season?
5:40
Speaker 2: I'll give you 100 James Peterson bonus points if you
5:44
Speaker 2: can text me, 877-353-0700, or you can off the top
5:46
Speaker 2: of your head just shout it out to me on
5:48
Speaker 2: the phone line, what way Sean Parker is averaging so
5:56
Speaker 2: far this year through 50 carries on the ground, a
6:00
Speaker 2: nice round figure for you with way Sean's 2026 production
6:04
Speaker 2: so far. If your guess is 6.6 yards to carry,
6:10
Speaker 2: which is identical to what he had last year over
6:14
Speaker 2: the course of the season. You get bonus points. 50 carries,
6:17
Speaker 2: 328 yards. The big difference right now, five touchdowns. He's
6:21
Speaker 2: way ahead of the pace he had last year. 6.6
6:24
Speaker 2: yards to carry. Now, it's interesting because 6.6 yards to carry,
6:30
Speaker 2: 50 carries. This is a guy, this is a guy
6:35
Speaker 2: who is right now on pace to basically do exactly
6:39
Speaker 2: what he did in 2025 from a rushing standpoint. He's
6:44
Speaker 2: got 50 carries so far. All right. He's averaging 6.6
6:48
Speaker 2: yards to carry a third of the way through the season.
6:52
Speaker 2: He's got 50 carries. Guess how many carries way? Sean
6:57
Speaker 2: Parker had total last year in a 12 game season.
7:02
Speaker 2: I guess it was a 13-game season. But Wayshon Parker
7:06
Speaker 2: had 149 carries last year. So right now, Wayshon is
7:10
Speaker 2: exactly three yards off the pace from last year. He's
7:13
Speaker 2: three yards ahead of his pace from last year.
7:15
Speaker 3: 50 carries.
7:18
Speaker 2: A third of the way through the season. He finished
7:20
Speaker 2: last year with 149. He is basically having the same
7:23
Speaker 2: year as a running back out of the backfield. The
7:26
Speaker 2: big difference is that he's been a much more active
7:28
Speaker 2: passer or excuse me, past catcher this year. Last year,
7:32
Speaker 2: he caught 13 balls the whole season. This year he's
7:35
Speaker 2: already caught 15 last year. He had three touchdown receptions
7:39
Speaker 2: this year. He's already got four touchdown receptions and we're
7:42
Speaker 2: just getting this thing started. I think that we were
7:45
Speaker 2: looking in the off season. for the best player on
7:49
Speaker 2: this team. Who's the best player on this team going
7:51
Speaker 2: to be? I always take the quarterback out because the quarterback,
7:54
Speaker 2: whether the best player or not is the most important player.
7:57
Speaker 2: I think we found our answer to who the best
7:59
Speaker 2: football player on this Utah team is. I think it's
8:02
Speaker 2: way Sean Parker. And I think he's going to literally
8:04
Speaker 2: and figuratively run away with that title. If he continues
8:07
Speaker 2: anything close to this pace, he is an absolute monster
8:12
Speaker 2: right now for the university of Utah. And as the
8:14
Speaker 2: schedule gets thick and tough and difficult, uh, way Sean
8:19
Speaker 2: Parker is your answer. I don't know if it's happening
8:22
Speaker 2: next week. I don't know if it's happening when you
8:24
Speaker 2: see Houston. I don't know if you, you don't really
8:26
Speaker 2: get pushed and tested and pulled until it's that BYU matchup,
8:30
Speaker 2: but way Sean is the guy that I'm leaning on
8:33
Speaker 2: to get me through all of it. If I'm this
8:36
Speaker 2: Utah football team, he is an absolute game wrecker. And
8:41
Speaker 2: it's not just when you hand him the ball and
8:43
Speaker 2: it's not just on a particular play. And it's not
8:46
Speaker 2: just between the tackles or just off the edge. It
8:49
Speaker 2: is everywhere. Catching the ball, blocking when he doesn't have
8:54
Speaker 2: the ball through four games. This is the best football
8:59
Speaker 2: player you have on your team. And it's not because
9:02
Speaker 2: other guys aren't good. It's not because other guys are underperforming.
9:06
Speaker 2: You're getting really nice stuff from Devin Dampier. You're getting
9:09
Speaker 2: excellent spot duties from Bird Ficklin. Brayden Pagan, we're probably
9:16
Speaker 2: going to talk about him at the end of this
9:18
Speaker 2: year as the wide receiver that Utah was pining for
9:22
Speaker 2: for so long. but way Sean Parker right now, buy
9:26
Speaker 2: your number one Jersey, buy your number one stock. This
9:30
Speaker 2: guy is going to cost you a lot of money
9:32
Speaker 2: to keep if he doesn't go to the NFL, but
9:36
Speaker 2: Holy moly, this team needs way. Sean Parker, like they
9:42
Speaker 2: need water and oxygen and everything. He is the best
9:46
Speaker 2: player on this team right now. I'm so happy that
9:49
Speaker 2: we get to watch him play like this. And by
9:51
Speaker 2: the way, I should have been having this same rant
9:55
Speaker 2: a week ago, even when he didn't have the ball
9:57
Speaker 2: in his hand a ton. And when his stat sheet
9:59
Speaker 2: wasn't full because what he was doing without the ball
10:01
Speaker 2: in his hand in that game was just as impressive.
10:04
Speaker 2: It's not as sexy, but it was just as impressive
10:07
Speaker 2: the way that he is a willing and eager blocker,
10:09
Speaker 2: the way that he is a great teammate, the way
10:11
Speaker 2: that he is a good voice on the sideline and
10:13
Speaker 2: in the locker room, but way Sean Parker, man, more,
10:19
Speaker 2: give him more 18 touches in the run game this week,
10:23
Speaker 2: give him 24 next time and see if we can
10:25
Speaker 2: get them over 200 yards. Love watching this kid play football.
10:28
Speaker 1: So Zach Moss, who we're going to have on at
10:30
Speaker 1: one o'clock today, obviously you'd sideline analysts, you running back legend.
10:36
Speaker 1: He told a story in the pregame show, which I
10:39
Speaker 1: believe we probably have heard secondhand before, or it was
10:45
Speaker 1: at least speculated about. He actually put all the rumors
10:48
Speaker 1: to bed and said, after the Washington game in 2018,
10:52
Speaker 1: you remember the regular season game that Utah lost to
10:55
Speaker 1: Washington the year they lost them in the Pac-12 championship game, OC?
10:58
Speaker 3: Uh-huh.
10:59
Speaker 1: I think he tells the story. He had like 11
11:02
Speaker 1: or 12 carries, and they lost 21-7. The offense was terrible.
11:06
Speaker 1: That was a really good Washington defense. Couldn't get anything
11:09
Speaker 1: going at home, right? One of their only losses for
11:13
Speaker 1: a long time at home in a conference game, right?
11:18
Speaker 2: And that was a night game, too.
11:19
Speaker 1: He says he was so mad after that game, being
11:24
Speaker 1: the feature back, being probably the best player, certainly on
11:27
Speaker 1: the offense that season, and just not being featured enough
11:32
Speaker 1: against the Huskies, that he went to Kyle Whittingham's office
11:36
Speaker 1: that week after practice or before, whatever, during game week preparation,
11:41
Speaker 1: and he let him know, like, hey, I need the
11:43
Speaker 1: ball more. I feel like we probably lost that game
11:46
Speaker 1: in part because I didn't get the ball enough. The
11:48
Speaker 1: next game, he got it like 30 times. And he
11:52
Speaker 1: had a game like way Sean Parker did against Iowa state.
11:55
Speaker 2: I don't know if that conversation happens with way Sean
12:00
Speaker 2: Parker and Kevin McGibbon. I don't, I don't think it
12:02
Speaker 2: needs to happen because he Kevin McGibbon came on this
12:05
Speaker 2: show and was just like, yeah, man, even in a
12:07
Speaker 2: 33 to zero victory, we needed to give way Sean
12:10
Speaker 2: more touches. So I think there's a realization that And
12:13
Speaker 2: I think that the player doesn't have to do it.
12:15
Speaker 2: Even if he did, the player doesn't have to do
12:17
Speaker 2: it because Morgan Scali is looking at that and going, man,
12:20
Speaker 2: we got to give our guy more touches. We got
12:22
Speaker 2: to give our guy more opportunities. That's what the touches are.
12:24
Speaker 2: They're opportunities. And way Sean took advantage of every one
12:28
Speaker 2: of those opportunities and the offensive line that we were
12:30
Speaker 2: so worried about. And we're questioning so much about this
12:34
Speaker 2: offensive line. They're not last year's group where it's just
12:37
Speaker 2: like draft pick after draft pick. And again, We've talked
12:40
Speaker 2: about the fact that all five of those guys have
12:42
Speaker 2: got at least their cup of coffee in the NFL.
12:44
Speaker 2: You're on a practice squad. You're on an active roster.
12:47
Speaker 2: Your first round draft pick, like the two tackles were
12:50
Speaker 2: this year's group. Zero way. Williams is starting to get conversation.
12:55
Speaker 2: Jeff Schwartz, our guy, Jeff Schwartz, text me. And, you know,
12:59
Speaker 2: he's on that Joe Moore award committee. He's on the,
13:04
Speaker 2: the sort of group of the group chat of the
13:07
Speaker 2: offensive lineman team. that are projecting guys from college football.
13:12
Speaker 2: They're still offensive linemen who played in the NFL and
13:15
Speaker 2: they love college football, right? So they're, their whole thing,
13:18
Speaker 2: their whole like group identity is let's find these guys
13:21
Speaker 2: who are going to be good at the next level.
13:23
Speaker 2: And they don't miss because it's a collective group that
13:27
Speaker 2: has played like 250 years of NFL football. And then
13:31
Speaker 2: it's a bunch of guys that are involved in coaching
13:34
Speaker 2: at the high school and the college level. And so
13:36
Speaker 2: they kind of know what they're supposed to be looking for.
13:39
Speaker 2: they started to put some respect on the name of
13:46
Speaker 2: Zaraway Williams, right? Which I want to express for all
13:52
Speaker 2: of you how difficult it is to be Zaraway Williams
13:56
Speaker 2: and to get guys like that talking about you. It's
13:59
Speaker 2: why you have to respect the analysts that are watching
14:02
Speaker 2: the film and not just reading what is aggregated. They're
14:06
Speaker 2: watching the film. And for Zaraway Williams, who was, by definition,
14:12
Speaker 2: a career backup, the bulk of his career was spent
14:15
Speaker 2: as a backup, not by any fault of his own,
14:18
Speaker 2: but because he was sitting behind first-round talents, right? But
14:23
Speaker 2: to be a career backup... and to have nobody talking
14:26
Speaker 2: about you in the preseason, nobody talking about you in
14:29
Speaker 2: the offseason, everybody questioning whether or not your offensive line,
14:33
Speaker 2: the unit that you are kind of one of the
14:35
Speaker 2: leaders of, maybe the leader of, they're not talking about
14:40
Speaker 2: you in a positive light. They're talking about you in
14:43
Speaker 2: an interrogative, in a question, in a, hey, are they
14:48
Speaker 2: going to be okay? And to already have shed that
14:53
Speaker 2: in this season, And to have people now saying, hey, wait,
14:57
Speaker 2: is this guy going to be someone we have to
14:59
Speaker 2: talk about in the draft? Look at his measurables. He's 6'8.
15:03
Speaker 2: Look at his footwork. Look at the nastiness that he's
15:05
Speaker 2: finishing with. We'll talk about it with Jeff Schwartz when
15:09
Speaker 2: he comes on this week. But the fact that Zaraway Williams...
15:13
Speaker 2: has played himself out of the questioning conversation and into
15:17
Speaker 2: the like, Hey, let's see what this guy is really about.
15:19
Speaker 2: And let's start talking about him in a positive light.
15:22
Speaker 2: And from an NFL draft standpoint, that is such a
15:25
Speaker 2: huge thing, not only for himself, but for this team
15:28
Speaker 2: and for way Sean Parker, it's, it's really, really interesting
15:33
Speaker 2: to see. And you have to trace credit back to
15:37
Speaker 2: the transition process that happened. This difficult. I don't know
15:40
Speaker 2: if we want to do this again, If we, even
15:42
Speaker 2: if we do want to do this, we don't want
15:43
Speaker 2: it to go the way that it went. And then
15:46
Speaker 2: for Morgan Scali and his staff that could have been
15:51
Speaker 2: smashed together, hastily assembled. And instead he made sure like the,
15:58
Speaker 2: the Jordan gross hire is a quite unconventional hire from
16:01
Speaker 2: every aspect, except for, we want to make sure that
16:04
Speaker 2: Kelvin robot stays committed to the university of Utah.
16:08
Speaker 4: Really?
16:08
Speaker 2: That was like the reason why, that everyone signed off
16:13
Speaker 2: on and said, okay, yeah, it makes sense from that standpoint.
16:16
Speaker 2: It's not all that common for a high school coach,
16:20
Speaker 2: even if it's someone who played in the program and
16:22
Speaker 2: then played in the NFL for high school coach to
16:25
Speaker 2: jump directly to position coach on a power for roster
16:31
Speaker 2: or a power for coaching staff. It's not like, It's
16:34
Speaker 2: not a leap that most people are capable of making.
16:37
Speaker 2: Jordan Gross is capable of making it because he's got
16:40
Speaker 2: a masterful mind when it comes to offensive line play.
16:43
Speaker 2: He's a good leader. He's a guy that the kids
16:45
Speaker 2: can connect to. He's someone that can speak the truth
16:49
Speaker 2: about how difficult it is to play the craft at
16:51
Speaker 2: the highest, highest, highest level. But Morgan Scali could have
16:58
Speaker 2: made the mistake of being like, no, that's not, that's
17:01
Speaker 2: not enough. You're my former teammate. I've got this love
17:05
Speaker 2: for you. But I'm worried about what other people are
17:08
Speaker 2: going to say about the hires that I make right now.
17:11
Speaker 2: And that hire looks like you're doing this just to
17:14
Speaker 2: keep one high school player committed and because he's your friend.
17:20
Speaker 2: That's not something that really flies in a lot of circles. Instead,
17:24
Speaker 2: you got a really good coach. who knows how to
17:28
Speaker 2: get these guys playing together in a very short time.
17:32
Speaker 2: And I'm not crowning this offensive line, and I'm not
17:34
Speaker 2: telling you that they're the best group that Utah's ever had.
17:39
Speaker 2: What we have seen, what we have observed through four games,
17:42
Speaker 2: is they are far from being a liability. And everything
17:47
Speaker 2: that we thought and everything that we said during this
17:49
Speaker 2: entire offseason was, well, if they're okay, this team has
17:53
Speaker 2: a chance to do some really good things because the
17:55
Speaker 2: skill guys are there. They're okay at the very least.
17:59
Speaker 2: They might be a lot more than okay as the
18:01
Speaker 2: season develops, and they're going to be tested in much
18:04
Speaker 2: tougher scenarios than this one. Houston is going to be tough.
18:08
Speaker 2: Arkansas actually had a couple really good guys on their
18:10
Speaker 2: front line, and Utah didn't blink. They didn't flinch when
18:14
Speaker 2: it came to that. BYU, that matchup is going to
18:16
Speaker 2: be really, really difficult. I think... Kansas might actually be
18:23
Speaker 2: a big step up from what Iowa state was able
18:25
Speaker 2: to do. But the point stands that what you have
18:28
Speaker 2: here is an offensive line and a running back who
18:32
Speaker 2: give you a chance to win. Oh, and guess what?
18:35
Speaker 2: Your quarterback play is awesome. Oh, and guess what? You
18:38
Speaker 2: actually have a wide receiving core this year. Guys, number
18:44
Speaker 2: 13 in the country and let the season play out.
18:50
Speaker 2: There will be a loss or two. There will be
18:52
Speaker 2: some times that I'm coming on a Monday and I'm saying, oh,
18:55
Speaker 2: my gosh, I can't believe that just happened. What are
18:57
Speaker 2: we doing? That was pathetic. That was terrible. I can't
19:00
Speaker 2: believe the ref said that. I can't believe this player
19:02
Speaker 2: dropped that. We will have that this year at some point.
19:07
Speaker 2: But you're not having it in these scenarios, in these games,
19:11
Speaker 2: where you knew your team should win. And you probably,
19:15
Speaker 2: if you're a confident enough fan out there, you probably
19:17
Speaker 2: knew your team would win. 8 7 7 3 5
19:20
Speaker 2: 3 0 700. Tell me your favorite. And if you
19:23
Speaker 2: want to your least favorite things from the game this weekend,
19:26
Speaker 2: got a couple of updates.
19:27
Speaker 1: I'll see you while you, while we were talking there,
19:30
Speaker 1: way Sean Parker, it's official has been named big 12
19:33
Speaker 1: offensive player of the week.
19:34
Speaker 2: All right.
19:34
Speaker 1: Love all the reasons that both of us gave you,
19:37
Speaker 1: you primarily gave, I mean, totally validates that one, uh,
19:42
Speaker 1: cool stat from the junk mail. Shout out to Keeler McJunkin,
19:46
Speaker 1: Two hundred thirty nine all purpose yards last week. That's
19:49
Speaker 1: the most since Britton Covey in the Rose Bowl against
19:52
Speaker 1: Ohio State. Yet over 250 all purpose yards there. So
19:56
Speaker 1: that's that's quite the mark by way, Sean, against Iowa State.
20:00
Speaker 1: Another update. We have a start time for the Kansas game.
20:03
Speaker 2: Okay. All right. Night game. 815 Mountain Time kickoff. Number 13,
20:10
Speaker 2: Utah taking on Kansas. Not this weekend. Next weekend. It'll
20:15
Speaker 2: be October 10th. Night game and a whiteout. Is that
20:21
Speaker 2: what it is?
20:22
Speaker 1: I think I saw that. That's a little backwards. They
20:24
Speaker 1: have to change that to a blackout, but we'll see.
20:27
Speaker 1: They'll probably stick with their original plan.
20:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Utah football, this is from 47 minutes ago.
20:33
Speaker 2: You ready for this? It's a whiteout. Go Utes, RSNB, whiteout, Saturday,
20:37
Speaker 2: October 10th, 815 Mountain Time. So, yeah, white under the
20:41
Speaker 2: lights instead of black under the lights, and that's fine.
20:44
Speaker 2: I am not a huge fan of blackout uniforms in general,
20:47
Speaker 2: so we'll take it. 877-353-0700. Yes, Richie. I wanted to
20:55
Speaker 2: at least make it 20 minutes into the show. Thank
20:57
Speaker 2: you for bringing this up. Can we talk about how
20:59
Speaker 2: bad the officiating was? Very bad. Not only was the
21:07
Speaker 2: officiating bad, the replay officiating was bad. That was nuts
21:12
Speaker 2: to me. Rabbit Evans was robbed of an interception that
21:16
Speaker 2: replay showed was an interception that even Tim Brando was
21:20
Speaker 2: just like, uh, partner, that doesn't make any sense. I
21:24
Speaker 2: thought he was going to get that interception. I thought
21:27
Speaker 2: that was going to be a turnover. We all watched
21:29
Speaker 2: the same replays. stripes, zebras, referees. We all saw it.
21:34
Speaker 2: And everyone was just like, I mean, even the folks at,
21:38
Speaker 2: at Jack tri stadium, we're watching it on the jumbotron. Oh,
21:42
Speaker 2: because they were like, yeah, that goes Utah's way. And
21:46
Speaker 2: then the refs was like, nah, yes. The officiating was
21:50
Speaker 2: insanely bad. I'll say this. I agree.
21:55
Speaker 1: There was enough on there for you to be able
21:58
Speaker 1: to see that the ball did not hit the ground.
22:01
Speaker 3: Right.
22:01
Speaker 1: I will say that it was not the most clear
22:06
Speaker 1: cut visual, but still like you're looking, there's a window
22:10
Speaker 1: there between the guys, between rabbit Evans elbow and the
22:14
Speaker 1: grass from almost every angle that we saw, which admittedly
22:17
Speaker 1: tough angles for that to determine that sort of thing.
22:20
Speaker 1: But there's enough of a window that, to see, you
22:23
Speaker 1: would have seen the ball touching grass.
22:25
Speaker 2: If that happened. Speaker 0 7, 08, 07, 08, 08.
22:26
Speaker 2: So that's the thing. It's just a process of elimination
22:29
Speaker 2: in that case. Like, okay, we, we know that there's,
22:33
Speaker 2: we know that there's an obscured viewpoint here. Is there
22:36
Speaker 2: any part of that leather ball touching the grass? Now,
22:39
Speaker 2: remember we've had, we've had plenty of of catches that
22:44
Speaker 2: are ruled catches or not catches where there's ball touching grass,
22:48
Speaker 2: but it's determined that, okay. That the, the very little
22:52
Speaker 2: like nose of the football did touch the grass, but
22:54
Speaker 2: he's controlling it and kind of rolling over on it. So, okay.
22:57
Speaker 2: That's still a catch. And oftentimes that's just, they're going
23:00
Speaker 2: with the call on the field. but this one was bad.
23:03
Speaker 2: And there were, there was plenty of situations in this game.
23:06
Speaker 2: And honestly, there have been plenty of situations in Utah
23:08
Speaker 2: games this year, really on both sides where the officiating
23:11
Speaker 2: has just been abysmal. And it's, it's low hanging fruit
23:15
Speaker 2: to just make fun of officials and to complain about officials.
23:19
Speaker 2: There's an official shortage. The high school officiating thing is tough.
23:23
Speaker 2: And the best high school officials are probably working these
23:26
Speaker 2: college games now. And like, I, There's a reverse trickle down,
23:30
Speaker 2: I believe happening, a trickle up effect where guys maybe
23:33
Speaker 2: that are a little underqualified are getting these jobs because
23:36
Speaker 2: there's just a bit of a shortage, but replay should
23:40
Speaker 2: be able to fix it. And in this game replay
23:43
Speaker 2: didn't end like, by the way, in the Idaho game
23:45
Speaker 2: replay didn't fix it. When you took that one worked
23:48
Speaker 2: out in Utah's favor, Monica, they got the ball back
23:53
Speaker 2: and look, that doesn't change the outcome. doesn't change the
23:56
Speaker 2: outcome of that game, but imagine, right? That's like a
23:59
Speaker 2: level of injustice that you're just raving and ranting against
24:03
Speaker 2: if it happens to your team. So good observation there
24:06
Speaker 2: on the text line.
24:07
Speaker 1: Did we like the, the other one that stood out
24:09
Speaker 1: to me was the third down or was that the
24:14
Speaker 1: fourth down conversion where the cyclones guy reaches and they
24:18
Speaker 1: determined that the nose of the ball got there. Like I,
24:23
Speaker 1: That looked, I mean, again, another one not so cut
24:26
Speaker 1: and dry, especially because the replay angle was like from
24:30
Speaker 1: the camera was here in Salt Lake City, basically.
24:32
Speaker 2: By the way, guys. It looked a little short. Everyone,
24:34
Speaker 2: every director, producer, every cameraman associated with anything close to
24:41
Speaker 2: sports broadcasting, college football and NFL football, especially. you can
24:46
Speaker 2: move your cameras all over the place. You could have
24:49
Speaker 2: a drone camera. You know what you could do? You
24:51
Speaker 2: know what you could easily do now with technology in America,
24:55
Speaker 2: that pylon cam that they put in the corner of
24:58
Speaker 2: an end zone or whatever, just go ahead and do
25:01
Speaker 2: that with the sticks, the way the NFL, let's just
25:04
Speaker 2: make sure that there's always a camera going right down
25:07
Speaker 2: the line to game.
25:08
Speaker 5: Yep.
25:09
Speaker 2: Let's just do that. And yes, that The pass that
25:14
Speaker 2: he reached out and got with Dominic Overby, right? It
25:17
Speaker 2: was Overby that the 6'5 guy and they were raving about.
25:21
Speaker 2: If he's 6'2, that doesn't happen. He reached far enough. Look, ultimately,
25:25
Speaker 2: it added a little drama to the game and added
25:28
Speaker 2: a little suspense to the affair and forced Utah to
25:32
Speaker 2: overcome some adversity as they had to, you know, bow up.
25:37
Speaker 2: and take the momentum in that game back. So I'm
25:39
Speaker 2: okay with it happening the way that it did. If
25:42
Speaker 2: that had somehow changed the outcome of the game, we'd
25:44
Speaker 2: be having a lot different discussion here about whether or
25:47
Speaker 2: not that effect, the effectiveness of that replay needs to
25:51
Speaker 2: be called into the question.
25:53
Speaker 1: Did you see also, I wrote this in the notes. Oh, see,
25:56
Speaker 1: I don't know if you caught this during the game,
26:00
Speaker 1: Brayden Pagan's interception. You know how rare that is? He
26:04
Speaker 1: caught a touchdown earlier in the game, and then he
26:07
Speaker 1: had it. interception as a defensive player on that hail
26:10
Speaker 1: Mary to end the half.
26:11
Speaker 3: Yeah.
26:11
Speaker 2: Which you love to see when you, you, you got
26:13
Speaker 2: those like tip drill kind of scenarios, go ahead and
26:15
Speaker 2: put a guy out there. Who's got height, who can jump,
26:18
Speaker 2: who's got ball skills and say, go get it. And
26:21
Speaker 2: brain pagan got it. That's great for him. He now
26:24
Speaker 2: that's like a, that's a fun little anecdote that he
26:27
Speaker 2: gets to tell people 15 years from now, when he's
26:29
Speaker 2: at the neighborhood barbecue, he said, I've, I didn't, I
26:32
Speaker 2: was as good as Travis Hunter. One game, I had
26:34
Speaker 2: an interception and I played wide receiver. People are going
26:36
Speaker 2: to be like, huh?
26:38
Speaker 1: First time an offensive player has caught a touchdown. And
26:42
Speaker 1: then as a defensive player got an interception in the
26:45
Speaker 1: same game for Utah since 1995.
26:48
Speaker 2: Now, wait, you're telling me that Eric Weddle never had
26:50
Speaker 2: a passing reception touchdown and an interception in the same game.
26:54
Speaker 1: According to Utah stats guy, extraordinary Dave Spada for no
26:59
Speaker 1: on the, on the youths broadcast.
27:01
Speaker 2: Now here's one thing I'll quibble with. And I guess
27:04
Speaker 2: this wasn't.
27:05
Speaker 1: Readily available, but bill never said who that player was
27:09
Speaker 1: in 1995. So I have no idea who it was
27:11
Speaker 1: that did that in that game or when it happened
27:14
Speaker 1: in 1995, but first player in over 30 years to
27:18
Speaker 1: do that for university.
27:20
Speaker 2: Eight, seven, seven, three, five, three, zero 700. If you
27:22
Speaker 2: are on that 1995, Ron McBride coached seven and four
27:28
Speaker 2: Utah football team still playing in the whack in those days. Uh,
27:33
Speaker 2: gotta be like, Must have been like a Henry Lusk situation.
27:41
Speaker 2: Who else could it have been? Maybe Kevin Dyson. Tyson
27:47
Speaker 2: here helping out. That's his guess. You know what would
27:50
Speaker 2: be amazing? Brandon Dart, if this was you. The father
27:54
Speaker 2: of Jackson Dart. And Diesel Dart. If it was you,
27:59
Speaker 2: bark twice if you're in Milwaukee.
28:00
Speaker 6: 877-353-0700.
28:00
Speaker 2: Who was it? Pretty great stuff. All right. We got
28:07
Speaker 2: to take a break here. I always go really long
28:09
Speaker 2: in my first rant of the week. So I want
28:12
Speaker 2: to try to stay closer to clock. Ari Temkin is
28:15
Speaker 2: going to join us. It wasn't just an interesting game
28:17
Speaker 2: for Utah. It was an interesting weekend around the conference
28:21
Speaker 2: in the Big 12, Kansas State, West Virginia, Oklahoma State.
28:27
Speaker 2: I mean, we're starting to get the power structure. It's
28:30
Speaker 2: starting to take shape in a real way, I think.
28:33
Speaker 2: Ari Temkin will help us round out our thoughts next
28:36
Speaker 2: on the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700, 92.1 FM. You're
28:39
Speaker 2: tuned to.
28:43
Speaker 7: The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of
28:47
Speaker 7: ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
28:54
Speaker 2: Eagles Bears tonight. Caleb Williams is out. Tyson Bajent. Shout
28:59
Speaker 2: out to Tyson Bajent. Speaker 2, starting at quarterback for
29:03
Speaker 2: the Chicago bears. We are efforting Ari Temkin from big
29:06
Speaker 2: 12 radio here in our second segment of the show.
29:10
Speaker 2: Interesting weekend of big 12 football, Texas tech beat up
29:18
Speaker 2: on Sam Houston. No surprises there. Tech is the 11th
29:21
Speaker 2: ranked team in the country.
29:22
Speaker 1: Now.
29:23
Speaker 2: Wait, no, that was last week's rankings, Texas tech victorious.
29:29
Speaker 2: They improved to four and O Utah. 31-17 over Iowa State.
29:33
Speaker 2: Houston got a big win over Georgia Southern. BYU, of course,
29:38
Speaker 2: on a bye. Baylor gets past Colorado, 23, 13 UCF
29:46
Speaker 2: over TCU. Who, who had that on their bingo card?
29:50
Speaker 2: Cincinnati knocks off Kansas state. I was a skeptic on
29:56
Speaker 2: Cincinnati and how legit they were. Maybe I, Should have
29:59
Speaker 2: put my confidence in Kansas State in the Bearcats instead.
30:03
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State versus West Virginia. I think Sneaky probably the
30:07
Speaker 2: best matchup of the conference on the weekend. And Oklahoma
30:11
Speaker 2: State gets the victory in that one. And then Arizona
30:14
Speaker 2: beat up on Washington State. Although maybe I shouldn't say
30:17
Speaker 2: beat up on. They had to come back in that one.
30:19
Speaker 2: But we'll get to most of these with our good
30:23
Speaker 2: friend from TuneIn Radio and Big 12 Today, Ari Temkin. Ari,
30:27
Speaker 2: welcome back to the show. How are you?
30:30
Speaker 8: I'm great, OC. How are you, buddy?
30:31
Speaker 2: I'm doing all right. Really interesting weekend, as I'm sure
30:34
Speaker 2: you just heard me spewing about here on the show.
30:37
Speaker 2: Let's start with Utah on the road. First road game
30:40
Speaker 2: of the year against Iowa State. Really, really strong first
30:44
Speaker 2: half for the Utes. Away Sean Parker coming out party.
30:48
Speaker 2: What were your thoughts on Utah's big win at Jack Trice?
30:52
Speaker 8: Well, yeah, I mean, I think, I don't know who
30:54
Speaker 8: the best running back is in the Big 12, but
30:57
Speaker 8: it's certainly a running back in the state of Utah.
30:59
Speaker 8: That I can tell you for sure. Parker was extremely impressive,
31:03
Speaker 8: you know, not just with the yardage, but it was
31:06
Speaker 8: more of the yards that he got after contact. And
31:09
Speaker 8: this isn't anything new with him, but, man, was he
31:12
Speaker 8: just absolutely fantastic. And it felt like there was a
31:15
Speaker 8: concerted effort on the part of Morgan Scali of Utah
31:18
Speaker 8: to maybe limit Devin Dampier's running a little bit. And
31:21
Speaker 8: it showed in this game. Now, look, I think leading
31:25
Speaker 8: 24-3 at halftime and then having them claw back into
31:27
Speaker 8: the game and be down a score with the Iowa
31:31
Speaker 8: State defense making some adjustments into the second half is
31:34
Speaker 8: certainly a cause for concern, but they closed the game
31:36
Speaker 8: out and looked really good in doing so. And Iowa
31:39
Speaker 8: State had not given up a 100-yard rushing game in
31:43
Speaker 8: the last four games, so they've been good at that.
31:46
Speaker 8: And obviously Parker completely exploded on them. So, look, I
31:50
Speaker 8: think Utah's done what they should have done. They've scored
31:52
Speaker 8: 30-plus points now in 10 straight games, which is hard
31:55
Speaker 8: to believe. And, you know, it moves on, but I
31:58
Speaker 8: think there's some obvious things to be concerned about.
32:01
Speaker 2: When we talk about those obvious things that we're concerned about,
32:04
Speaker 2: something that I've noticed, they're not good coming out of halftime.
32:08
Speaker 2: Utah's had kind of some substandard third quarters, and coaches
32:13
Speaker 2: talk all the time about winning that middle eight. You've
32:15
Speaker 2: got to close the half strong. You've got to start
32:17
Speaker 2: the second half strong. And for whatever reason, the third
32:21
Speaker 2: quarter has been unkind to the University of Utah, and
32:23
Speaker 2: we'll try to get to the bottom of this with coaches,
32:26
Speaker 2: but is there anything you're seeing that would explain it?
32:29
Speaker 8: It's a great question, and you're right. It's not just
32:32
Speaker 8: this game. It's been multiple games. I think we always
32:37
Speaker 8: talk so much, and sometimes it's probably a little bit
32:39
Speaker 8: overrated in terms of halftime adjustments, but it was obvious
32:43
Speaker 8: that what Utah was doing on the ground was working,
32:46
Speaker 8: and they weren't going to do anything to change it.
32:47
Speaker 8: Why would they? I think Iowa State did a few
32:49
Speaker 8: things to change it. especially when it came to some
32:54
Speaker 8: of that inside running that worked in the first half really,
32:56
Speaker 8: really well for Utah. But my concern is if you
33:01
Speaker 8: go up against a quarterback that's better than Jalen Rayner,
33:03
Speaker 8: there's going to be a pretty good grouping of quarterbacks
33:07
Speaker 8: that Utah's going to face that's better than Jalen Rayner.
33:09
Speaker 8: That's what I struggle with. I mean, he had those
33:11
Speaker 8: two touchdown drives in the second half. That was about
33:13
Speaker 8: as good as it got for him against this defense.
33:16
Speaker 8: So that's kind of my concern here is the pass
33:18
Speaker 8: offense and then what happens when you go up against
33:20
Speaker 8: a better quarterback that can make you pay.
33:22
Speaker 2: A lot to figure out. Heading into the bye week,
33:28
Speaker 2: Utah doesn't have a game this week. Thankfully, as far
33:31
Speaker 2: as we're aware, there's not a significant amount of bumps
33:34
Speaker 2: and bruises to heal and not any significant injuries to
33:38
Speaker 2: super important players as far as we're aware. But it's
33:42
Speaker 2: a good time to have a bye week before– Kansas
33:45
Speaker 2: and then tougher competition from there. If you're on that
33:49
Speaker 2: coaching staff, what do you think Morgan Scali and his
33:52
Speaker 2: crew are focusing on with this team in the bye week?
33:55
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a great question because we've seen some really
33:58
Speaker 8: interesting game planning offensively. Again, this week was a lot
34:03
Speaker 8: different than what we've been used to seeing from Utah
34:06
Speaker 8: in terms of getting Dampier and Ficklin involved. You know,
34:10
Speaker 8: they did a lot more of that wildcat snapping directly
34:12
Speaker 8: to way shot Parker when he had a 56-yard carry
34:15
Speaker 8: on the first play from, you know, that wildcat run.
34:19
Speaker 8: You turn on the game and it's like, whoa, it's
34:21
Speaker 8: 7-0 already? How did that happen? Do they even have
34:24
Speaker 8: the first touchdown on TV?
34:25
Speaker 7: I don't even know.
34:27
Speaker 8: So, you know, I think they've done a really good
34:30
Speaker 8: job of self-scouting, trying to stay ahead just in terms
34:33
Speaker 8: of their offense. But, I mean, for me, it's the
34:36
Speaker 8: passing game. There's probably nothing that Utah could have done
34:40
Speaker 8: the first four weeks of the season beyond this past
34:43
Speaker 8: week really showing some incredible competence in their passing game.
34:47
Speaker 8: But we think they're better in terms of their passing game,
34:50
Speaker 8: especially receiver. And there's certainly a lot of reasons to
34:53
Speaker 8: think so. But that's one of the things I'd love
34:55
Speaker 8: for them to do. really shore up when it comes
34:57
Speaker 8: to this bye week is not just self-scouting and figuring
35:00
Speaker 8: out how to keep your offense multiple and get teams guessing,
35:03
Speaker 8: but what are you going to do in the passing
35:07
Speaker 8: game when teams force you into that? I don't know
35:09
Speaker 8: that anybody can take Utah out of running the football.
35:12
Speaker 8: I mean, they're offensive line. It's kind of crazy how
35:14
Speaker 8: they've got to top ten picket left tackle and now
35:17
Speaker 8: that looks like a few years away from having another
35:19
Speaker 8: one and they're away williams who looks and it is
35:21
Speaker 8: good and every other left tackle that so just shows
35:24
Speaker 8: how good they are developing those guys up front uh...
35:26
Speaker 8: again i don't i don't think that teams can stop
35:29
Speaker 8: them from running it's more of the case of all
35:31
Speaker 8: right when when they played out a little bit like
35:34
Speaker 8: it in the second half of that game it can
35:36
Speaker 8: you explore the passing game Um, and, and survive that way.
35:39
Speaker 8: I think that's one of the biggest concerns I have
35:41
Speaker 8: about this team.
35:41
Speaker 2: Okay. Staying on that. Let me ask you a dumb
35:43
Speaker 2: question here. Should you pass the ball the way Sean
35:46
Speaker 2: Parker less? And I asked, like, he's obviously great out
35:50
Speaker 2: of the backfield and he's great in line. They line
35:53
Speaker 2: them up in the slot and he does a great
35:54
Speaker 2: job running routes there. But this is a year where
35:57
Speaker 2: you're supposed to have a deeper wide receiving core. And
36:00
Speaker 2: right now he has, he's second on the team in receptions.
36:04
Speaker 2: And like you're throwing to him more than you're throwing
36:07
Speaker 2: to everyone except for Braden Pagan. And this is the
36:10
Speaker 2: year where it's like, yeah, you finally have a group
36:12
Speaker 2: of guys that are weapons out on the edge. Why
36:15
Speaker 2: are we throwing away Sean Parker so much? I think
36:17
Speaker 2: I know the answer because you want the ball in
36:19
Speaker 2: his hands any way possible, but also could you just
36:24
Speaker 2: not do that?
36:26
Speaker 8: It's i mean it's a very important point you know
36:29
Speaker 8: i feel like you bet this happens a lot more
36:32
Speaker 8: in the kicking game but like you have a really
36:33
Speaker 8: good kicker i think it changes team strategy sometimes and
36:37
Speaker 8: i feel like sometimes that's a bad thing you know
36:39
Speaker 8: where it's like let's let's not pretend like we've got
36:41
Speaker 8: a kicker that can kick from 60 and and go
36:43
Speaker 8: on fourth down here you know um it's sort of
36:46
Speaker 8: the same dynamic where it's like let's not do the
36:48
Speaker 8: easy thing here let's make it you know, let's make
36:50
Speaker 8: it work a little bit more. You wonder, too, if
36:52
Speaker 8: part of this is what the coverages are seeing in
36:54
Speaker 8: the back end, and Dan Peer knows, I've got my
36:56
Speaker 8: outlet down there, you know, let's just get him. But
36:59
Speaker 8: like you said, he's lining up in the slot. It's
37:01
Speaker 8: not just underneath routes that he's winning, you know, and
37:04
Speaker 8: getting you yardage underneath. So it's a great question. And
37:10
Speaker 8: you wonder even if in a game where, you know,
37:12
Speaker 8: there's a team that's exploiting, like Oklahoma State's a good example,
37:14
Speaker 8: like that's a– That's a really good offense that's capable
37:17
Speaker 8: of forcing you to have to have to play with
37:20
Speaker 8: open field, downfield passing. Can they get away with keeping
37:23
Speaker 8: up with way Sean Parker doing what he's doing? Probably not,
37:27
Speaker 8: but you know, maybe, maybe he, maybe he just is
37:29
Speaker 8: that good.
37:30
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll see Ari Temkin is our guest here on
37:32
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell show, talking all things, Utah football and
37:35
Speaker 2: the big 12 conference at large. You just mentioned Oklahoma state.
37:39
Speaker 2: So we'll go to that game. I didn't have this
37:41
Speaker 2: one circled before the season began. I'll be honest. Ari
37:44
Speaker 2: is something I definitely need to watch Oklahoma state versus
37:47
Speaker 2: West Virginia. Didn't have high hopes for either of them,
37:50
Speaker 2: but then of course, both teams look pretty good in
37:52
Speaker 2: the first few weeks of the season and Oklahoma state hands,
37:57
Speaker 2: West Virginia, their first loss, uh, messed the maker with
38:01
Speaker 2: a 389 yard, three touchdown day. Uh, he, I don't
38:07
Speaker 2: know what happened in that first game. I mean, it just,
38:10
Speaker 2: the Tulsa loss is even more inexplicable after you see
38:13
Speaker 2: what they did to Oregon. And then you see what
38:14
Speaker 2: they did on the road at West Virginia, but it
38:17
Speaker 2: feels like this Oklahoma state team is what everyone who
38:21
Speaker 2: followed North Texas and hope they could bring that success
38:25
Speaker 2: hoped it would be.
38:27
Speaker 8: Well, and Rich Rod and Zach Alley had this really
38:30
Speaker 8: brilliant plan that they were going to kind of keep
38:32
Speaker 8: everything in front. They wanted to take away the big
38:34
Speaker 8: play for Mastemaker. They were very concerned about Mastemaker beating
38:37
Speaker 8: with his arm. And so they sat back and three
38:41
Speaker 8: high safeties most of the game. At times, they even
38:43
Speaker 8: brought in a fourth, basically, to really pay attention to that.
38:46
Speaker 8: And what do they do? Well, Caleb Hawkins, you've got
38:48
Speaker 8: a feature back that– now is running for a hundred
38:52
Speaker 8: plus yards. And then when you start to cheat those
38:54
Speaker 8: guys down low, all of a sudden now that's make
38:57
Speaker 8: a beach over the top with Wyatt young, who had,
39:00
Speaker 8: you know, basically 80% of his total yardage in the
39:03
Speaker 8: fourth quarter of that game, exactly in the moment when
39:07
Speaker 8: they started cheating up close. So, I mean, they, they
39:09
Speaker 8: put Zach Alley and rich rods defense on skates in
39:13
Speaker 8: that game, trying to figure out what they were doing.
39:15
Speaker 8: I mean, that's just hard to beat when you can
39:18
Speaker 8: run the ball and pass the ball that effectively. I mean, he,
39:21
Speaker 8: you start to really see the things that have NFL
39:24
Speaker 8: scouts elevating with him. I mean, some of these throws
39:26
Speaker 8: that he's making are just unconscionable, and you just can't
39:29
Speaker 8: even imagine. you know, like any other quarterback in college
39:33
Speaker 8: football making some of those throws. And, you know, they
39:36
Speaker 8: have this three-headed monster from North Texas. I mean, that's
39:39
Speaker 8: what we saw. And Ethan Waslowski, who's a fourth from
39:42
Speaker 8: North Texas, who's a linebacker, had 17 total tackles. In
39:46
Speaker 8: this game, too, their defense is probably the most surprising
39:50
Speaker 8: aspect of this entire start to their season because their
39:54
Speaker 8: linebacking core between Romney, who's a guy I know that
39:57
Speaker 8: BYU fans are familiar with, and Wislowski. Those two guys,
40:03
Speaker 8: if you get past the first level on their defense,
40:05
Speaker 8: you ain't getting past the second level because they're just
40:08
Speaker 8: shutting down any of those runs. And, yeah, I mean,
40:11
Speaker 8: it's funny. My coach this morning said something about, like, man,
40:14
Speaker 8: they're so close to being 4-0 if they didn't just
40:16
Speaker 8: lay that egg week one. And I feel like that's
40:18
Speaker 8: not the case here. Like, if they don't lose that game,
40:20
Speaker 8: it feels like that just gave them a greater focus
40:24
Speaker 8: for their season. Like, I guess what I'm saying is
40:26
Speaker 8: I'm not sure they beat Oregon if they lose to Tulsa,
40:28
Speaker 8: if they don't lose to Tulsa, because it felt like
40:31
Speaker 8: they really learned a lot about themselves that week, about
40:33
Speaker 8: Eric Morris, what he learned a lot that week. And
40:35
Speaker 8: it just feels like it's a big part of their
40:37
Speaker 8: success was losing that game. They are very much on
40:41
Speaker 8: schedule with what we expected. This was a big-time win
40:45
Speaker 8: against a very good West Virginia team. The problem is,
40:47
Speaker 8: and right now all we see, and we just wondered
40:50
Speaker 8: this about Utah, is how many teams are legitimately good
40:54
Speaker 8: in terms of being balanced on offense? Oklahoma State is
40:57
Speaker 8: definitely the best right now from what we've seen. We
41:00
Speaker 8: think BYU has it. We think Utah has it. I'm
41:03
Speaker 8: more confident in BYU simply because of the presence of Glasker,
41:06
Speaker 8: and maybe I'm wrong there, but West Virginia does not.
41:09
Speaker 8: They do not have a consistent enough passing attack to
41:11
Speaker 8: be able to withstand it, and they're going to have
41:13
Speaker 8: a really good running game. They run the ball exceedingly
41:15
Speaker 8: well in this game. The problem is if you run
41:18
Speaker 8: the ball controlling the clock, and now in the fourth
41:20
Speaker 8: quarter they're basically airing it out for 50 yards, Good luck.
41:24
Speaker 8: And that's exactly the issue with what they were faced
41:28
Speaker 8: with in this game.
41:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you can score against West Virginia and they've
41:31
Speaker 2: got to also score, Michael Hawkins Jr. just can't. It's
41:37
Speaker 2: such a silly thing to be like, well, make that
41:39
Speaker 2: quarterback throw to beat you and you'll be okay. But
41:43
Speaker 2: he has not yet proven to us that that's something
41:45
Speaker 2: against a decent defense he's going to be able to
41:48
Speaker 2: do with any real effectiveness. Although, as a Utah Observer fan, whatever,
41:53
Speaker 2: I'm not getting overly comfortable with it because they don't
41:55
Speaker 2: see West Virginia until the very end.
41:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
41:59
Speaker 8: Yeah, and look, West Virginia has some questions about their
42:02
Speaker 8: past defense, but there's times where they've, at this season,
42:04
Speaker 8: been very good defensively, especially against Virginia. So, you know,
42:09
Speaker 8: I just think that Oklahoma State went into Morgantown and
42:12
Speaker 8: just took it from them in a game where they
42:13
Speaker 8: were just impossible to stop defensively because of how difficult
42:17
Speaker 8: they are to game plan for. I mean, they thought
42:20
Speaker 8: they had a great game plan with bringing extra coverage,
42:23
Speaker 8: and Rich Rod said after the game, like, we didn't
42:25
Speaker 8: touch them at all. Like, that's a problem. You want
42:27
Speaker 8: to blitz them and bring some– you know, bring some
42:29
Speaker 8: extra guys, but then you're obviously leaving yourself susceptible to
42:32
Speaker 8: the backend. This is exactly, I think what we anticipated
42:35
Speaker 8: potentially seeing with Oklahoma state. It just was week one
42:38
Speaker 8: was weird and we didn't see it. And then all
42:40
Speaker 8: of a sudden that reset expectations.
42:44
Speaker 2: Oklahoma state jumps all the way into the rankings for
42:46
Speaker 2: being unranked all the way up to 19. Is that,
42:49
Speaker 2: is that a confirmation bias where people were like, you know,
42:52
Speaker 2: we thought they were going to be good. And then
42:54
Speaker 2: The Tulsa loss made us question, and now they've got
42:57
Speaker 2: three impressive wins and two of those against pretty darn
43:00
Speaker 2: good teams. So, okay, now they're who I thought they were,
43:02
Speaker 2: and we're going to overcorrect over our initial reaction to Tulsa.
43:07
Speaker 8: Which I'm here for, if that is the case, because
43:10
Speaker 8: the AP voters, it feels like the predominant members of
43:14
Speaker 8: them are a part of the SEC footprint. And if
43:18
Speaker 8: you beat an SEC-ranked team, you're automatically ranked.
43:21
Speaker 5: Just ask Kentucky, who's got basically.
43:23
Speaker 8: A horrible resume, and yet somehow they're in the top 45.
43:26
Speaker 8: And then Missouri. Missouri has spent 31 of the last
43:29
Speaker 8: 38 weeks in the top 25, despite 0-9 against AP
43:34
Speaker 8: top 45 teams when they played them, and 0-7 against
43:38
Speaker 8: AP top 45 teams at the end of the season.
43:40
Speaker 8: And their schedule, once again, does not necessitate being a
43:43
Speaker 8: top 25 team. So if it is a confirmation buy,
43:46
Speaker 8: I think I'm all for it, because... it feels like
43:49
Speaker 8: with the SEC, all you have to do is beat
43:51
Speaker 8: a ranked team, regardless of what you've done the rest
43:52
Speaker 8: of the season and you're ranked. And certainly the voters,
43:56
Speaker 8: many of them SEC in the SEC country are verifying that.
44:00
Speaker 2: All right. I was sure, I was sure that Kansas
44:04
Speaker 2: state was going to win against Cincinnati and another matchup
44:09
Speaker 2: and of, of, you know, somewhat surprising three and O
44:12
Speaker 2: big 12 teams. And then Cincinnati comes out on top
44:17
Speaker 2: of that one, 31-26. Two different rushers over 120 yards.
44:23
Speaker 2: Payne with 126, Coltab with 124. Eight yards and 11
44:28
Speaker 2: yards per carry, respectively, for those guys. And, you know,
44:33
Speaker 2: Avery Johnson and company were not able to keep pace.
44:37
Speaker 2: This one surprised me.
44:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, me too.
44:40
Speaker 8: I heard you talk a little bit before I came
44:42
Speaker 8: on about this, and Yeah, I thought Kansas State would
44:45
Speaker 8: go in there and cover. We thought Kansas State would
44:47
Speaker 8: be a surprise potential Big 12 contender. I'm not saying
44:52
Speaker 8: that they're not, but I think this was a majorly
44:56
Speaker 8: surprising win. We had Scott Satterfield on this morning. Look,
45:01
Speaker 8: I picked Cincinnati 16th in the preseason poll out of
45:04
Speaker 8: 16 teams. I'm not sure who the 16th team is
45:07
Speaker 8: in the Big 12. I can assure you it is
45:08
Speaker 8: not Cincinnati. And My biggest fault in picking them 16th
45:14
Speaker 8: and underestimating them is their offensive line. I mean, we
45:18
Speaker 8: knew going into the season they were going to have
45:19
Speaker 8: one of the best offensive lines in the Big 12.
45:21
Speaker 8: I guess I just was far too concerned about a
45:24
Speaker 8: G6 quarterback making the jump. And J.C. French, with this
45:29
Speaker 8: running game and offensive line, has been very good. He
45:32
Speaker 8: only attempted 13 passes in this game, but when you
45:35
Speaker 8: go back to the Miami-Ohio game, Second half, he had
45:37
Speaker 8: to throw the ball a ton, and they still won.
45:40
Speaker 8: When we talk about some of these teams being so
45:43
Speaker 8: good running the football and questioning whether or not if
45:46
Speaker 8: a team forces them to throw, if they'll be effective
45:49
Speaker 8: at it. There's nothing that I've seen from J.C. French
45:52
Speaker 8: that has me questioning his ability to throw the ball.
45:55
Speaker 8: They just do what they need to do. He's a
45:57
Speaker 8: very savvy veteran. There was a play in this game
45:59
Speaker 8: where he hard-counted Kansas State in the fourth down and
46:03
Speaker 8: got them offside. He's not fast, but in a few
46:06
Speaker 8: plays where he pulls it from the running back and
46:09
Speaker 8: runs out the back door and gets 15, he knows
46:12
Speaker 8: how to play the position. He knows what he needs
46:15
Speaker 8: to do for each play to be successful. He's not
46:17
Speaker 8: trying to create crazy big plays all the time. He's
46:21
Speaker 8: just doing what the defense gives him and takes it.
46:24
Speaker 8: So credit to Scott Satterfield for this 4-0 start. It's
46:27
Speaker 8: the first time they started 4-0 since Luke Fickle was
46:30
Speaker 8: the head coach at Cincinnati, and they were a playoff team.
46:33
Speaker 8: I think they have some dudes, Antoine Peek, their sort
46:37
Speaker 8: of safety linebacker hybrid is an absolute dog. He was
46:42
Speaker 8: tremendous in this game and has been for Cincinnati all
46:44
Speaker 8: year in terms of getting stops. This is as complete
46:47
Speaker 8: of a Cincinnati team as Scott Satterfield has had since
46:50
Speaker 8: he's been there. The problem is, go look at their schedule.
46:52
Speaker 8: I mean, my God, is it tough. They've got at
46:55
Speaker 8: Arizona this week, then they have a bye week, then
46:57
Speaker 8: they're at West Virginia. Those are two very tough road games.
47:00
Speaker 8: They're playing at 10 o'clock Central time on Saturday night,
47:04
Speaker 8: 11 o'clock local time for Cincinnati. That's when they kick
47:08
Speaker 8: against Arizona this week. And then coming out of the bye,
47:10
Speaker 8: they've got the West Virginia road game. I know they
47:13
Speaker 8: play Utah, Texas Tech. And BYU, I believe Utah and
47:18
Speaker 8: BYU are all on the road. Yeah, they've got a
47:20
Speaker 8: brutal schedule the rest of the way. But this is
47:23
Speaker 8: as good of a team in terms of offensive line,
47:26
Speaker 8: running game, quarterback, wide receivers, just being complete that I've
47:31
Speaker 8: seen Scott Satterfield have. And he should get a lot
47:33
Speaker 8: of credit for not only putting his team together but
47:35
Speaker 8: being a really good coach. I had major question marks
47:37
Speaker 8: about his ability as a coach this year heading into
47:39
Speaker 8: the season. I think he's been tremendous, and this team
47:42
Speaker 8: has been a reflection of that.
47:43
Speaker 2: Do we need to start paying closer attention to UCF,
47:47
Speaker 2: or did we just learn that TCU is a pretender?
47:51
Speaker 3: Man, man.
47:53
Speaker 8: I mean, I think a little bit of both. I
47:56
Speaker 8: would start with TCU. This is as disappointing as a
47:59
Speaker 8: loss in a season that's becoming horrendously disappointing for them.
48:04
Speaker 8: When you look at, they brought in Gordon Savage from
48:08
Speaker 8: UConn because they wanted to be better running the football
48:10
Speaker 8: and not turn the ball over, and all they've done
48:13
Speaker 8: now is turn the ball over and not be better
48:15
Speaker 8: running the football, and now they have less of an
48:17
Speaker 8: output in terms of their overall attack. My goodness, this
48:22
Speaker 8: is a bad combination. Craig, I think, has not been great,
48:28
Speaker 8: but they just have had no running game, and when
48:31
Speaker 8: your entire offense is built upon having some success in
48:35
Speaker 8: the run game, you can see why their passing game
48:37
Speaker 8: isn't really taking flight, why they don't have much of
48:39
Speaker 8: an explosive offense. They had 27 carries for 33 yards.
48:43
Speaker 8: They have not been able to run the ball, basically,
48:44
Speaker 8: since the first half of the North Carolina game. So, yeah,
48:47
Speaker 8: I mean, I definitely put a lot into TCU being disappointing. But, look,
48:52
Speaker 8: UCF is also really good defensively. This should not be
48:56
Speaker 8: a surprise. And, you know, maybe the bigger surprise is
48:59
Speaker 8: Lewis Carter– who was, you know, they're all everything linebacker
49:03
Speaker 8: missed this game, and they didn't really miss a beat.
49:05
Speaker 8: Jaden Bellamy is one of the best corners in the
49:07
Speaker 8: Big 12, and even without Alonzo Barnett, they ran the
49:11
Speaker 8: ball effectively, had a balanced offense. I thought Scott Frost called.
49:14
Speaker 3: A great game.
49:14
Speaker 8: Um, yeah, it, it looks like more of a mess
49:17
Speaker 8: for TCU than anything else.
49:21
Speaker 2: What's the most important game of the conference slate this weekend?
49:26
Speaker 8: It's a great question because it's sort of like last
49:29
Speaker 8: weekend where it's like, there's no just humongous games that
49:33
Speaker 8: jump off the page at you. I mean, I think
49:36
Speaker 8: there's no Friday night games this week. Um, But, I mean, UCF-Houston, right?
49:43
Speaker 8: You just asked the question, like, how much are we
49:45
Speaker 8: paying attention to UCF in terms of the title race? Well,
49:48
Speaker 8: if they win this game at Houston, you should start
49:50
Speaker 8: paying attention to them. Houston's pass defense has not been
49:53
Speaker 8: very good. I mean, they were just Southern. It was
49:56
Speaker 8: a homecoming of sorts for Willie Fritz and Statesboro, Georgia,
49:59
Speaker 8: and really gave up a ton of yards through the air,
50:01
Speaker 8: which is the same thing that happened to them against
50:03
Speaker 8: Oregon State. I'm extremely concerned about their pass defense. And
50:08
Speaker 8: then the other one that I'm paying attention to is
50:12
Speaker 8: Baylor-Arizona State. Arizona State is going to be hosting Baylor
50:16
Speaker 8: out of a bye. Baylor had a really impressive win
50:19
Speaker 8: against a Colorado team that is really down big. and
50:23
Speaker 8: this is more of like a how real are you
50:25
Speaker 8: kind of week for some of these teams. How real
50:27
Speaker 8: is Cincinnati when they go on the road and beat
50:29
Speaker 8: Arizona in a late-night game? How real is Baylor if
50:31
Speaker 8: they go on the road and get a win over
50:32
Speaker 8: Arizona State? In terms of like the Big 12 title race,
50:35
Speaker 8: I'm not sure what this week tells us, and maybe
50:37
Speaker 8: we'll look back in week 10 or 11 and be like, oh,
50:40
Speaker 8: this was a big week for that. But right now
50:41
Speaker 8: it just feels like separate the top for the mid-tier
50:44
Speaker 8: at this point for some of these games.
50:47
Speaker 2: Ari, you're the man. I appreciate your time, as always.
50:50
Speaker 2: Enjoy the games this weekend, and we'll chat again.
50:53
Speaker 8: Take care, OC. Be well, brother.
50:54
Speaker 2: Ari Temkin, one of the best in the business, talking
50:57
Speaker 2: all things Big 12. And yes, UCF Houston sneakily is
51:02
Speaker 2: probably the most informative game of this upcoming weekend. Utah,
51:09
Speaker 2: of course, on a bye. BYU's on the road at TCU.
51:13
Speaker 2: I think TCU is laying an egg for the season.
51:17
Speaker 2: Of course, if they look better against BYU, then we
51:21
Speaker 2: can change that, but They can't run the ball. 1.2
51:24
Speaker 2: yards of carry in this last weekend's matchup for the
51:27
Speaker 2: Horned Frogs. That's bad, guys. Texas Tech at Colorado. I
51:32
Speaker 2: do not expect Colorado to be up for that game
51:35
Speaker 2: because one thing about this group of guys, speed, talent,
51:43
Speaker 2: whatever that Colorado's got, no size, as we've discussed from
51:47
Speaker 2: the offseason to now. And also, they're just not.
51:53
Speaker 2: They're not guys that like are rallying together right now. Okay.
51:57
Speaker 2: It's the type of team that laughs in the tunnel
51:59
Speaker 2: and a couple of guys get kicked off and everyone
52:02
Speaker 2: starts looking for the next best thing. It's not a
52:05
Speaker 2: good culture right now at Colorado. And they, they didn't,
52:08
Speaker 2: they came up short again this past weekend against Baylor. Cincinnati, Arizona.
52:12
Speaker 2: So you start the day 10 a.m. UCF Houston. Sneaky
52:16
Speaker 2: good game. That's on ESPN2. You can finish the night
52:20
Speaker 2: on Fox. So you'll be watching from 10 a.m. till
52:23
Speaker 2: about midnight, 1 o'clock. Little Big 12 after dark with
52:28
Speaker 2: that Cincinnati, Arizona in the desert. I'm here for that
52:31
Speaker 2: on a Utah bye week. That's good stuff. All right.
52:36
Speaker 2: We got a short segment coming. I have to tell
52:40
Speaker 2: you how good The handicappers in Vegas are at their jobs.
52:43
Speaker 2: Some crazy, crazy numbers just from the picks I handed
52:46
Speaker 2: out this weekend. It's the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.
52:49
Speaker 2: You're listening to the.
52:50
Speaker 7: Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Hyundai Studio on ESPN
52:57
Speaker 7: 700 and 92.1 FM.
52:59
Speaker 2: Coach DeRico, Alyssa DeRico, is going to join us. Utah
53:07
Speaker 2: head volleyball coach in our noon hour. That's coming up
53:10
Speaker 2: in just a minute here. Uh, I I'm only bringing
53:13
Speaker 2: this up because I know that sports betting is something
53:16
Speaker 2: that a lot of people are engaged in these days. Everyone's,
53:19
Speaker 2: you know, uh, on an app somewhere and making their
53:22
Speaker 2: picks and that's great. I just, I'm sure all of
53:27
Speaker 2: you have had this happen. I hand out picks on
53:29
Speaker 2: Fridays just for the fun of it for entertainment purposes only.
53:32
Speaker 8: All right.
53:33
Speaker 2: Five and own week one, two and three last week
53:36
Speaker 2: and this past weekend, four and one and, uh, that's not,
53:40
Speaker 2: I'm not just saying this to say, well, listen to me.
53:43
Speaker 2: I'm a really good at giving picks because last year
53:45
Speaker 2: we had a losing record, but I was struck by
53:48
Speaker 2: just how accurate, just how good the lines were this week.
53:53
Speaker 2: Only on the games that I picked. I don't know if,
53:57
Speaker 2: if this held true across the entire spectrum, because obviously
54:00
Speaker 2: they do it for every single game in college football,
54:03
Speaker 2: but I put out these picks Ole Miss, Versus Florida.
54:06
Speaker 2: I was wrong on that one. I thought Ole Miss
54:08
Speaker 2: was going to be able to handle their business. They
54:09
Speaker 2: can't win at the swamp. I should have known. Baylor
54:13
Speaker 2: nine and a half, nine and a half point favorites
54:15
Speaker 2: against Colorado. They ended up winning that game by 10 points.
54:21
Speaker 2: Iowa versus Michigan over 38 and a half points. Guess
54:25
Speaker 2: how many points ended up being scored total in that game?
54:29
Speaker 2: 39 points. Troy versus Utah State, I took the under 47.5.
54:37
Speaker 2: That one wasn't all that close. Utah versus Iowa State.
54:41
Speaker 2: They set the line at 47.5. I said that you
54:44
Speaker 2: should take the over, again, for entertainment purposes only. How
54:48
Speaker 2: many points total were scored in the Utah versus Iowa
54:52
Speaker 2: State game? They are good, man. It is crazy. Three
55:02
Speaker 2: of the five... Just the games that I randomly select,
55:05
Speaker 2: there's no method or madness to it. Three of the
55:09
Speaker 2: five games that I decided I was going to issue
55:14
Speaker 2: a pick on, the line was decided by the half
55:20
Speaker 2: point either above or below what I said. That is
55:26
Speaker 2: wild to me. So use that however you will, but
55:30
Speaker 2: that is something... that we need to remember when we're
55:34
Speaker 2: talking about this sports gambling and all that, that Vegas
55:38
Speaker 2: eerily crazily scarily sometimes knows exactly what they're doing. I
55:43
Speaker 2: don't know what the mathematical odds are on something like that,
55:46
Speaker 2: that they're that close that many times on the same weekend,
55:50
Speaker 2: but that's how it played out. Just with the five
55:53
Speaker 2: that I decided I was going to play with over the, uh, Saturday,
55:58
Speaker 2: whatever that was, Saturday, the 26th of September. Crazy, crazy stuff. Baylor, Colorado,
56:07
Speaker 2: nine and a half, 10 point was the deciding margin. Michigan, Iowa,
56:14
Speaker 2: over under 38 and a half. 39 points ended up
56:18
Speaker 2: being scored in that game. Utah, Iowa state over under
56:22
Speaker 2: 47 and a half, 48 points scored in that game. Crazy, crazy,
56:27
Speaker 2: eerily accurate stuff. All right. Final break of the hour.
56:32
Speaker 2: We come back with the Utah volleyball head coach, Alyssa
56:35
Speaker 2: Dorico talking about her squad, low key, sneaky, really good
56:40
Speaker 2: team this year. knocking off a couple of ranked conference opponents.
56:45
Speaker 2: They got another one coming up in Lawrence, Kansas this weekend.
56:49
Speaker 2: We'll talk about all of it on the Sean O'Connell Show,
56:52
Speaker 2: ESPN 700, 92.1 FM. This is the.
56:57
Speaker 4: Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the best inside of
57:02
Speaker 4: your youth. Let's get back to OC from the Murdoch
57:05
Speaker 4: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
57:14
Speaker 2: Switching gears a little bit, talk a little Utah volleyball.
57:19
Speaker 2: Utah volleyball, 10-3 overall, coming off a nice hot streak
57:23
Speaker 2: right now, five in a row. They've got a tough
57:26
Speaker 2: ranked matchup against Kansas in Lawrence on Thursday. We'll get
57:30
Speaker 2: to all of it with the head coach. Kind enough
57:32
Speaker 2: to join us again, Alyssa DiRico. I think the second
57:35
Speaker 2: time now on the Sean O'Connell Show. Coach, welcome back.
57:37
Speaker 2: How are you?
57:40
Speaker 9: I'm good. How are you? Thanks for having me back.
57:42
Speaker 8: Yeah.
57:42
Speaker 2: Appreciate you giving us some time. Let's talk about the
57:45
Speaker 2: recent success and what has contributed to it. Air force, Denver,
57:51
Speaker 2: Northern Colorado, and then a ranked Colorado team, a ranked
57:55
Speaker 2: Baylor team, all falling to your Utes before you get
57:58
Speaker 2: ready to take on once again, a ranked conference opponent
58:02
Speaker 2: in Kansas. What has been the key in these last five?
58:06
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think the team has just really figured out
58:10
Speaker 9: how to be resilient through challenges and great opponents. I mean,
58:15
Speaker 9: the Big 12 has no shortage of great teams and
58:18
Speaker 9: great challenges for us. And so I think they're learning
58:21
Speaker 9: how to not have to be perfect and still win.
58:25
Speaker 9: I think at the beginning of the year, we had
58:26
Speaker 9: like this feeling of it's got to be perfect and
58:29
Speaker 9: feel really good in order for us to come out
58:32
Speaker 9: ahead against some good teams and just not the reality
58:35
Speaker 9: of high level volleyball. And so we talked about, can
58:38
Speaker 9: we win through the ugly a little bit more and,
58:41
Speaker 9: and feel, still feel good about it and still feel
58:43
Speaker 9: like we have those moments to take advantage of in matches.
58:47
Speaker 2: Okay. How do you, how do you find the balance
58:49
Speaker 2: there and coaching that sort of perfectionism out while still
58:53
Speaker 2: wanting to chase perfection? Because of course, You know, you're
58:56
Speaker 2: never going to achieve it, but you want to get
58:58
Speaker 2: as close as you can. You don't want to be
59:00
Speaker 2: hyper-focused on it to where you feel bad if you're
59:03
Speaker 2: not there. I mean, you've got to strike a balance,
59:05
Speaker 2: I imagine, as a coach. How did you find that?
59:07
Speaker 2: How did you and your staff find that?
59:09
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think for us, it's just about, you know,
59:11
Speaker 9: what are the process things that we want them to
59:14
Speaker 9: be focused on trying to perfect.
59:16
Speaker 5: I think when you get into, you know, sticky situations.
59:20
Speaker 9: With being, you know, perfect focused in terms of the results,
59:24
Speaker 9: that's where you get, you know, kind of into.
59:26
Speaker 5: The uncontrollable things.
59:28
Speaker 9: And so for us, it's, you know, really trying to
59:30
Speaker 9: make sure that our players know what.
59:31
Speaker 5: Are those process focuses for them that.
59:33
Speaker 9: Help them get the results that they want. And How
59:37
Speaker 9: can we really try and strive.
59:38
Speaker 5: To perfect those processes in practice? And if they make mistakes,
59:42
Speaker 5: you know, going after it.
59:43
Speaker 9: And have a great process, that's a part of growth
59:46
Speaker 9: and a part of the learning curve. But we just
59:49
Speaker 9: got to keep trying to dial in our process and
59:51
Speaker 9: get it as best as we possibly can, but let
59:54
Speaker 9: them have some freedom to fail and still feel like
59:57
Speaker 9: we can succeed after the results aren't exactly what they want.
1:00:02
Speaker 2: I think the last time we talked, it was still,
1:00:04
Speaker 2: you know, okay, let's figure out what this is going
1:00:07
Speaker 2: to be. And now that you've got a sample size,
1:00:10
Speaker 2: are there surprises? Is it looking the way, success and failure,
1:00:13
Speaker 2: is it looking the way that you thought that it would?
1:00:15
Speaker 2: Is your team strong in the areas you thought they
1:00:18
Speaker 2: would be strong? Are your hitters hitting the way that
1:00:21
Speaker 2: you thought they would? Has someone emerged? Like, is this
1:00:25
Speaker 2: shaping up the way that you thought that it might?
1:00:28
Speaker 9: Um, yeah, yeah, I, I think it is shaping up
1:00:30
Speaker 9: the way that, um, you know, our staff thought that
1:00:33
Speaker 9: it would, um, I think, um, the, the goal for
1:00:36
Speaker 9: us was to be really, really great, you know, serve
1:00:38
Speaker 9: pass wise. And I think, um, you know, we have
1:00:41
Speaker 9: been consistently one of the better teams in the serve
1:00:44
Speaker 9: pass side of the ball of, we're not giving up
1:00:46
Speaker 9: a lot of direct aces. Um, we're, we're passing really well,
1:00:49
Speaker 9: and we're also putting a lot of pressure on teams
1:00:51
Speaker 9: with our serve, um, And so I think we've really
1:00:54
Speaker 9: owned that and been consistent in that throughout the season.
1:00:58
Speaker 9: And then I think offensively, the system that we're running,
1:01:01
Speaker 9: we thought had the ability to be a really high
1:01:03
Speaker 9: producing offense with the arms and with the balance that
1:01:08
Speaker 9: our offense has.
1:01:09
Speaker 5: And, you know, even through our two matches to start.
1:01:12
Speaker 9: Big 12 against Michigan. you know, top 25 ranked teams.
1:01:16
Speaker 9: We earned close to 19 points a set and held
1:01:18
Speaker 9: our opponents to only earning 14 points a set. So
1:01:22
Speaker 9: I think a lot of the stuff that we thought
1:01:23
Speaker 9: was going to kind of play out with the system
1:01:26
Speaker 9: we're running and the roster that we have, we're starting
1:01:29
Speaker 9: to see come full circle, even against, you know, really
1:01:32
Speaker 9: good opponents across the net.
1:01:34
Speaker 2: Okay, so help me out as a volleyball ignoramus and
1:01:38
Speaker 2: novice at best. If you say, well, our offensive system
1:01:43
Speaker 2: in football or even basketball, I could probably get a sense.
1:01:48
Speaker 2: If someone is describing, if you are describing your offense,
1:01:51
Speaker 2: your offensive system, what is it? What separates you from
1:01:55
Speaker 2: the rest of volleyball?
1:01:57
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah. Our offensive system, so we are running what's
1:02:00
Speaker 9: called a 6-2, which means that we have two setters
1:02:04
Speaker 9: and we have six attackers. So our setters are only
1:02:09
Speaker 9: playing in the back row, which means that we always
1:02:12
Speaker 9: have three offensive options in the front row.
1:02:17
Speaker 5: So when teams are.
1:02:17
Speaker 9: Running a 5-1, it means that they have only one
1:02:19
Speaker 9: setter and that they have five attackers. And In three rotations,
1:02:25
Speaker 9: they only have.
1:02:26
Speaker 5: Two front row attackers.
1:02:27
Speaker 9: So their offense gets a little bit more predictable. I
1:02:31
Speaker 9: think for us, our setters are really similar.
1:02:35
Speaker 5: They're very consistent.
1:02:36
Speaker 9: And so they distribute the ball really evenly between all
1:02:40
Speaker 9: of those six front row players. And so it's pretty
1:02:44
Speaker 9: tough sometimes. tough to defend us and pick and choose
1:02:47
Speaker 9: your poison. Um, especially when we're passing as well as
1:02:50
Speaker 9: we are and we're in system as often as we are. Um,
1:02:54
Speaker 9: so yeah, a lot of teams, um, will be in
1:02:57
Speaker 9: five ones. Um, you know, Colorado was in a five one, um,
1:03:01
Speaker 9: Baylor was in a five one. Um, and so that's,
1:03:04
Speaker 9: It's a little bit easier to defend in the two
1:03:07
Speaker 9: hitter rotations versus ours. You know, we always have three
1:03:11
Speaker 9: and we have Cameron Gabadlo, who also is a very,
1:03:14
Speaker 9: very elite back row attacker, which gives us four attackers
1:03:17
Speaker 9: in some of those rotations as well.
1:03:20
Speaker 2: Utah volleyball head coach Alyssa Dorico is the one giving
1:03:24
Speaker 2: me stuff that's going way over my head here. on
1:03:27
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell show. No, I appreciate you doing that
1:03:30
Speaker 2: because it's, you know, it, it informs when, when you're
1:03:33
Speaker 2: able to watch it, it, I would like to know
1:03:36
Speaker 2: a little bit more of the method in the madness
1:03:38
Speaker 2: and that's, I'm, it's going to be a process coach,
1:03:40
Speaker 2: but I'll stick with it. I already mentioned this back-to-back
1:03:46
Speaker 2: wins over ranked opponents in, in, in conference play. The,
1:03:50
Speaker 2: the difference between like a couple, I guess it would have,
1:03:53
Speaker 2: you know, almost two weeks ago now, a Northern Colorado
1:03:56
Speaker 2: team in Greeley, you win that one, three, three, zero.
1:03:59
Speaker 2: And then Boulder, a ranked Colorado team that obviously is
1:04:03
Speaker 2: a big 12 opponent. You win that three zero. How
1:04:06
Speaker 2: does the difference in volleyball, how does the difference between
1:04:09
Speaker 2: the ranked competition, the elite power for competition, how does
1:04:13
Speaker 2: that manifest itself versus like, you know, a Northern Colorado
1:04:16
Speaker 2: or a mid-major or something like that? How does a
1:04:19
Speaker 2: Colorado team look different than a Northern Colorado team? How
1:04:23
Speaker 2: is a Kansas team going to look different than like
1:04:26
Speaker 2: a Weber state team or whatever?
1:04:29
Speaker 8: Yeah.
1:04:30
Speaker 9: Well, first, I think there's a ton of parity in
1:04:33
Speaker 9: college volleyball right now. And so I think across the board,
1:04:37
Speaker 9: you're seeing, you know, some of these really consistently good
1:04:40
Speaker 9: mid-majors compete with, you know, some of the power fours.
1:04:44
Speaker 9: And so right before we played, you know, UNC, they
1:04:48
Speaker 9: actually played Colorado and took them to five. Yeah. They
1:04:52
Speaker 9: played UC Davis and took them to five and UC
1:04:55
Speaker 9: Davis is the team that upset Arizona state. Um, and
1:04:58
Speaker 9: so I think if you're playing, you know, top mid-major teams, they're,
1:05:03
Speaker 9: they're really competitive and you can't overlook them and you
1:05:05
Speaker 9: got to go into the match, um, you know, with the.
1:05:08
Speaker 5: Same mindset and preparation that you can, because there's so many.
1:05:11
Speaker 9: People playing volleyball right now that those top mid-majors are
1:05:14
Speaker 9: still getting really good recruits and they're playing very good volleyball. Um,
1:05:18
Speaker 9: the power for when, when you get into some of those,
1:05:20
Speaker 9: you know, top 20, top 25 ranked teams, I think
1:05:23
Speaker 9: the biggest difference is they just have more weapons and
1:05:26
Speaker 9: more physicality that you have to defend. So for example,
1:05:30
Speaker 9: with Kansas, Taylor Stanley is a USA Pipeline kid and
1:05:35
Speaker 9: probably touching... 10, eight, 10.
1:05:38
Speaker 5: Nine, maybe it would be my guess.
1:05:40
Speaker 9: Um, and so for us, you know, it's thankfully something
1:05:44
Speaker 9: that we see in our own gym with Lauren Helgeson touching,
1:05:46
Speaker 9: you know, 10, seven and a half, 10, eight. So
1:05:49
Speaker 9: I think that there's just more weapons. Um, when you
1:05:52
Speaker 9: get to some of those top 25 power four level, um,
1:05:55
Speaker 9: programs that you have to defend a lot more options
1:05:59
Speaker 9: at once. And they're going to have multiple attackers that
1:06:02
Speaker 9: are able to be really physical and go up and
1:06:05
Speaker 9: take some really elite swings.
1:06:07
Speaker 5: But I do think that the.
1:06:09
Speaker 9: Parody in volleyball right now is elite and you're having,
1:06:12
Speaker 9: you know, top level teams, you know, go five and
1:06:15
Speaker 9: be in these, you know, grueling matches against very, very good,
1:06:19
Speaker 9: you know, mid-major teams or even, you know, conference opponents.
1:06:23
Speaker 9: We're seeing it in the big 12 right now with,
1:06:25
Speaker 9: you know, ASU and West Virginia went five and West
1:06:28
Speaker 9: Virginia upset them. And, you know, That West Virginia was
1:06:31
Speaker 9: picked preseason 13th and ASU was picked preseason number one.
1:06:35
Speaker 5: And so I think there's a ton of parity in
1:06:37
Speaker 5: the sport right now.
1:06:38
Speaker 2: Okay. I want to go back to when you're facing against,
1:06:41
Speaker 2: you know, you're facing someone who's, like you said, a
1:06:44
Speaker 2: Team USA pipeline, a potential Olympian level player, that kind
1:06:47
Speaker 2: of thing. What's the approach there? Do you change your approach?
1:06:51
Speaker 2: against a roster that has a player or two even
1:06:54
Speaker 2: like that. Can you play around someone like that? Or
1:06:57
Speaker 2: do you have to attack them and just hope for
1:06:59
Speaker 2: the best? I mean, how is that done again? It's,
1:07:03
Speaker 2: you know, I'm, I'm, I'm asking this question from a
1:07:05
Speaker 2: comparative standpoint, when we do this with basketball and football
1:07:08
Speaker 2: and baseball and everything, sometimes you just, you throw around
1:07:12
Speaker 2: a really good hitter. You just say, all right, I'm
1:07:13
Speaker 2: not going to pitch to you. Can you do that
1:07:15
Speaker 2: in volleyball?
1:07:18
Speaker 9: Uh, not really, unfortunately.
1:07:20
Speaker 5: Um, you know, they're, they get to control.
1:07:23
Speaker 9: Um, the amount of sets that really good, um, attackers
1:07:26
Speaker 9: get set on their side of the net. Um, so
1:07:28
Speaker 9: it's not like you can, you know, double team them
1:07:31
Speaker 9: or triple team them in basketball and, and stop them
1:07:33
Speaker 9: from actually getting the set opportunity. And, um, you know,
1:07:36
Speaker 9: you see that in, in matches, uh, we, we tried
1:07:39
Speaker 9: to triple block, um, the best player on Baylor to Senya, um,
1:07:45
Speaker 9: and she still got kills with us putting three blockers
1:07:48
Speaker 9: in front of her.
1:07:49
Speaker 5: Um, and so they, they can.
1:07:50
Speaker 9: Still set as many balls to their best player as
1:07:53
Speaker 9: they want to. Um, and a lot of the time, um,
1:07:56
Speaker 9: they're still going to go up and they're going to
1:07:57
Speaker 9: get killed, but we can try and make it.
1:07:59
Speaker 5: A little harder, um, with, you know, really dialing.
1:08:03
Speaker 9: In our back court defense and, um, trying to put
1:08:06
Speaker 9: as many physical blockers in front of them as we can. Um,
1:08:10
Speaker 9: But at the end of the day, most of the.
1:08:12
Speaker 5: Time, great attackers are still going to find ways to
1:08:14
Speaker 5: get killed.
1:08:15
Speaker 9: So we just got a game plan for what shots
1:08:18
Speaker 9: we're willing to give up and what shots we're saying
1:08:22
Speaker 9: we're going to take away with our floor defense and
1:08:24
Speaker 9: put people in.
1:08:25
Speaker 5: Those court spaces. Kind of like in basketball, if you
1:08:28
Speaker 5: know that somebody's.
1:08:29
Speaker 9: Best thing is, you know, driving the right side of
1:08:31
Speaker 9: the court, we're going to hopefully try and make them
1:08:33
Speaker 9: go to the left side of the court and make
1:08:35
Speaker 9: it a little harder for them. So can we take
1:08:37
Speaker 9: away some of those spaces and make them hit a
1:08:41
Speaker 9: shot that maybe isn't as comfortable for them?
1:08:44
Speaker 3: Okay.
1:08:46
Speaker 2: Coach, how many ranked teams do you have to beat
1:08:48
Speaker 2: before your team starts getting the respect that they deserve
1:08:51
Speaker 2: in this situation? Like, I'm looking at rankings right now,
1:08:55
Speaker 2: and I think these might be a little dated, but
1:08:58
Speaker 2: I don't know where to this is, it says through
1:08:59
Speaker 2: games through from last week, but where, where, where are
1:09:03
Speaker 2: your youths in these top 25 rankings?
1:09:06
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, I, to me, rankings are just a number.
1:09:11
Speaker 9: Do I think that we probably deserve some attention after
1:09:15
Speaker 9: the weekend that we just had? Heck yeah. But, you know,
1:09:19
Speaker 9: I think to me at the end of the season,
1:09:21
Speaker 9: I want to make a run at the end of
1:09:23
Speaker 9: the year. And right now, you know, it's still one
1:09:25
Speaker 9: week into conference play. And I would rather our team be,
1:09:30
Speaker 9: you know, continuing playing with a chip on their shoulder of,
1:09:32
Speaker 9: you know, Like we got to continue to work and
1:09:34
Speaker 9: continue to earn it.
1:09:36
Speaker 5: But I think, do I think we deserve some attention?
1:09:39
Speaker 8: For sure.
1:09:40
Speaker 9: Do I, do I think that, you know, we still
1:09:42
Speaker 9: need to play with a little bit of chip?
1:09:45
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
1:09:45
Speaker 9: And to me, the end of the season is what
1:09:47
Speaker 9: matters most. Not, not the first week of conference play
1:09:49
Speaker 9: right now.
1:09:50
Speaker 2: So we, we spent a lot of time on this
1:09:52
Speaker 2: last week, as I'm sure you're aware, Utah football is
1:09:55
Speaker 2: in a bye week. And that's in, you know, football,
1:09:59
Speaker 2: they use it to heal the bumps and bruises. And
1:10:01
Speaker 2: some coaches want you grinding and working hard and lifting
1:10:05
Speaker 2: through whatever those bumps and bruises are. And other coaches
1:10:08
Speaker 2: are like, you know what, let's maximize the rest. Let's
1:10:10
Speaker 2: get those bodies right. As you're in conference play now,
1:10:14
Speaker 2: and it is a long season and there's a lot
1:10:16
Speaker 2: of work to be done here. What is your philosophy?
1:10:20
Speaker 2: What is the rhythm like in, you know, redlining and
1:10:23
Speaker 2: pushing as hard as possible and, but also making sure
1:10:26
Speaker 2: that you keep these bodies healthy.
1:10:28
Speaker 5: Yeah. Um, I think after, you know, this weekend, uh,
1:10:32
Speaker 5: we have a quick turnaround to Kansas.
1:10:33
Speaker 9: So, um, we're, we're.
1:10:35
Speaker 5: Probably not gonna, not gonna push as much, um, this.
1:10:38
Speaker 9: Week with having practice today's an off day for them
1:10:41
Speaker 9: to get recovered. And then we have practice, um, tomorrow
1:10:44
Speaker 9: and then we leave on Wednesday to head to Kansas.
1:10:46
Speaker 3: So.
1:10:47
Speaker 9: Um, this is a shorter week than most, but I think, um,
1:10:51
Speaker 9: you know, there's moments that our sports science team here is, um, giving.
1:10:54
Speaker 5: Us the go ahead to, to push them.
1:10:56
Speaker 9: And I think next week with only having one match
1:10:59
Speaker 9: against West Virginia, um, we'll.
1:11:00
Speaker 5: Probably push them, you know, a little earlier in the week.
1:11:03
Speaker 9: Uh, and then they'll have a lot of time to
1:11:05
Speaker 9: recover after that and get reset. So, um, I lean
1:11:09
Speaker 9: into the sports science side of that, of, of when
1:11:12
Speaker 9: to push, when to pull back, um, you know, see,
1:11:15
Speaker 9: see where they are at with their fourth plate testing
1:11:17
Speaker 9: and how fresh their bodies are feeling and, um, try
1:11:20
Speaker 9: to make sure that they're as fresh and prepared as
1:11:22
Speaker 9: they can be for matches, but also, you know, getting
1:11:24
Speaker 9: better and getting the work that they need to as well.
1:11:28
Speaker 2: Coach, what, uh, what gym is the wildest, the loudest,
1:11:30
Speaker 2: the craziest, what's the best atmosphere in this big 12th?
1:11:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do think this weekend is going to be
1:11:37
Speaker 5: tough with Kansas and K-State.
1:11:39
Speaker 9: Their arenas are volleyball-only arenas that are a little bit smaller,
1:11:44
Speaker 9: and they.
1:11:45
Speaker 8: Sell them out.
1:11:46
Speaker 9: So it's going to be loud in there. It's going
1:11:48
Speaker 9: to be packed.
1:11:50
Speaker 5: Both times that we played there two years ago.
1:11:52
Speaker 9: It was great match environments, and really looking forward to that.
1:11:56
Speaker 9: And then I think just with the rivalry, going down
1:12:00
Speaker 9: to BYU is always a tough one. And I think
1:12:04
Speaker 9: them coming here, usually it turns out to be a
1:12:08
Speaker 9: pretty crazy match for us as well that we've broken
1:12:11
Speaker 9: the state attendance record the last two years when we've
1:12:14
Speaker 9: had them come here. So I think that there's a
1:12:17
Speaker 9: lot of great venues, but Kansas and K-State this weekend
1:12:20
Speaker 9: are really good volleyball venues and sell out and get
1:12:23
Speaker 9: loud and crazy. And obviously rivalries bring out the best
1:12:27
Speaker 9: in fans and lots of people show up. So the
1:12:30
Speaker 9: BYU game will be another one.
1:12:32
Speaker 2: Okay, apropos of nothing except the Utah Mammoth begin their
1:12:36
Speaker 2: season this week, and obviously that's still a relatively new
1:12:39
Speaker 2: pro sports commodity we have here in the market. I'm
1:12:42
Speaker 2: trying to get a sense of the other sports royalty,
1:12:45
Speaker 2: the coaches, the dignitaries, the sports people. Have you jumped
1:12:50
Speaker 2: on board the Mammoth bandwagon yet? Your season kind of
1:12:55
Speaker 2: makes it impossible until at least December, but have you
1:12:59
Speaker 2: jumped on the bandwagon yet?
1:13:02
Speaker 9: I am a huge hockey fan. So I actually grew
1:13:07
Speaker 9: up in Western New York and being a cold weather
1:13:13
Speaker 9: state with the Sabres close and we had an AHL
1:13:16
Speaker 9: team in Rochester close to where my hometown is that
1:13:20
Speaker 9: we would have family outings to go watch the Amherst
1:13:24
Speaker 9: play when I was younger. So I grew up going
1:13:27
Speaker 9: to hockey games. All of my extended family are hockey fans.
1:13:32
Speaker 9: And so when we got an NHL team here, I
1:13:34
Speaker 9: immediately was stoked. I think that NHL environments and just
1:13:39
Speaker 9: the fast paced play of hockey is super fun. So
1:13:42
Speaker 9: I have jumped on the bandwagon. I have some mammoth
1:13:46
Speaker 9: gear and Um, we, we have gone to, uh, a few,
1:13:49
Speaker 9: a few games and, and had some, you know, outings
1:13:52
Speaker 9: and stuff with Utah and with friends, um, that we've
1:13:55
Speaker 9: gotten a chance to go to some other games. So definitely, uh,
1:13:58
Speaker 9: definitely a hockey fan and love that we have the
1:14:00
Speaker 9: mammoth here in Salt Lake.
1:14:01
Speaker 2: All right. I just learned something that I did not
1:14:03
Speaker 2: expect to learn. I thought you'd be teaching me about volleyball.
1:14:06
Speaker 2: You guys called the Rochester Americans, the Amherst.
1:14:10
Speaker 9: That's what we did when I was growing up.
1:14:12
Speaker 4: Yep.
1:14:12
Speaker 5: Yep.
1:14:13
Speaker 9: Okay.
1:14:13
Speaker 2: Is there something, Are we supposed to be shortening American
1:14:18
Speaker 2: to Amherst in all cases or just with the hockey team?
1:14:22
Speaker 9: Just with the hockey team, just with the hockey team.
1:14:24
Speaker 4: Yeah.
1:14:24
Speaker 9: It was, uh, my, my aunt and uncle, um, were big, uh,
1:14:28
Speaker 9: Albany river rats fans and devils fans now because of
1:14:32
Speaker 9: that feeder program. Um, and my, my family was a big, uh,
1:14:38
Speaker 9: Rochester Amherst fans. Um, and so when the devils or
1:14:41
Speaker 9: when the river rats would play the Amherst, we, uh,
1:14:43
Speaker 9: we would always have, uh, some, some battles there, um,
1:14:46
Speaker 9: with my, my family, family lineage.
1:14:49
Speaker 8: Yeah.
1:14:50
Speaker 9: Coach.
1:14:50
Speaker 2: I love it. That's awesome. Well, I didn't mean to
1:14:54
Speaker 2: take you down that rabbit hole. Stay back to Utah volleyball.
1:14:58
Speaker 2: Good luck, obviously on the Kansas road trip. And we'll,
1:15:01
Speaker 2: we'll try to get some people out when you return
1:15:03
Speaker 2: to the Huntsman center in early October, keep up the
1:15:07
Speaker 2: good work. And hopefully next time we talk your teams
1:15:10
Speaker 2: in the rankings.
1:15:12
Speaker 9: I appreciate it. And always great to be on the show.
1:15:14
Speaker 9: And thank you for your time today.
1:15:16
Speaker 2: Speaker 2, Speaker 1, Alissa Dorico, Utah volleyball head coach,
1:15:19
Speaker 2: put some respect on the name of the volleyball Utes.
1:15:24
Speaker 2: I am, this is going to appear on Friday and
1:15:27
Speaker 2: the airing of grievances. I know it's a Monday. We
1:15:29
Speaker 2: try to keep things positive on Mondays, but 10 and
1:15:34
Speaker 2: three on the year, a back-to-back wins over ranked teams
1:15:38
Speaker 2: and still waiting to see a number next to their name.
1:15:42
Speaker 2: I don't like that. Obviously they can make a stronger
1:15:46
Speaker 2: case as Kansas and Kansas state are coming up on
1:15:50
Speaker 2: the docket, tough environments, like coach mentioned, big thanks to
1:15:53
Speaker 2: her for joining us. By the way, Tyson Ewing, the
1:15:57
Speaker 2: voice of the Grizzlies rest in peace to the Utah Grizzlies.
1:16:02
Speaker 2: When I asked that question about the Rochester Americans, the Amherst,
1:16:06
Speaker 2: you were nodding. This is something you already knew.
1:16:08
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's very much a common thing, the Rochester Amherst. However,
1:16:11
Speaker 6: they're an AHL team, which is one step below the NHL. However,
1:16:15
Speaker 6: the Allen Americans, who are in the ECHL, they're based
1:16:19
Speaker 6: out in the Dallas area. They don't go by the Amherst.
1:16:22
Speaker 6: They just go by the Americans. But yes, the Rochester
1:16:24
Speaker 6: Amherst is pretty much what they go with.
1:16:28
Speaker 2: I've never heard American... Shortened to Amherst in any other context.
1:16:33
Speaker 2: This is unique, I guess, to minor league hockey.
1:16:35
Speaker 4: Yes.
1:16:36
Speaker 6: It's very much a minor league hockey, but thing, but
1:16:38
Speaker 6: it's only the Rochester Americans as opposed to the Allen Americans.
1:16:43
Speaker 2: It's only one. It's it's people. We learned something from,
1:16:47
Speaker 2: from coach Dorico that people in Western New York are
1:16:51
Speaker 2: too lazy to say the full word American. They go Amherst.
1:16:55
Speaker 8: Amherst.
1:16:56
Speaker 2: It is. It's kind of cool. If I'm being honest.
1:16:59
Speaker 2: I'm going to start whenever I travel and people ask me,
1:17:03
Speaker 2: where are you from? You know, oftentimes they're like, oh,
1:17:07
Speaker 2: I'm American. Not anymore. Amherst. I'm going to see if
1:17:09
Speaker 2: they understand what I'm getting at. Don't say Yankee. Just
1:17:12
Speaker 2: say Amherst.
1:17:13
Speaker 3: Amherst.
1:17:14
Speaker 2: They'll be like, what? Where's that?
1:17:16
Speaker 3: Amherst.
1:17:17
Speaker 2: Can we mainstream this here on the Sean O'Connell Show?
1:17:20
Speaker 9: 877-353-0700.
1:17:20
Speaker 2: We're not proud Americans anymore. We're proud Amhersts. I love that. Rochester,
1:17:28
Speaker 2: you're wild, man. That is crazy stuff. All right, the
1:17:32
Speaker 2: Daily Dump is coming next. The Giants have a new quarterback.
1:17:38
Speaker 2: That's probably not anything to get excited about. Sean O'Connell's
1:17:41
Speaker 2: show is ESPN 700, 92.1 FM. Feeling out of the loop?
1:17:50
Speaker 10: Let's catch up on today's biggest headlines in the Daily
1:17:53
Speaker 10: News Dump, where we flush out the biggest stories of
1:17:56
Speaker 10: the day on the Sean O'Connell Show and Utah's number
1:17:59
Speaker 10: one sports talk, ESPN 792.1 FM, brought to you by
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Speaker 2: you a great deal. Tell them OC sent you. The
1:18:51
Speaker 2: Giants have traded for JJ McCarthy. The Vikings gave up
1:18:57
Speaker 2: on J.J. McCarthy. The Vikings said, no, thank you. J.J.
1:19:01
Speaker 2: McCarthy is not going to be our quarterback of the future, unfortunately.
1:19:04
Speaker 2: The Giants, with Jackson Dart going down and Jameis Winston
1:19:09
Speaker 2: being seemingly a relatively unserious individual, the Giants are like,
1:19:14
Speaker 2: you know what? We've got to get another quarterback in here,
1:19:16
Speaker 2: and they've traded for J.J. McCarthy. They will give Minnesota
1:19:21
Speaker 2: a fifth-round pick. That is not... The kind of compensation
1:19:25
Speaker 2: that we would have been talking about a year or
1:19:27
Speaker 2: two ago. But here we are.
1:19:29
Speaker 3: J.J.
1:19:29
Speaker 2: McCarthy to the Giants for a fifth-round pick. Maybe, it
1:19:34
Speaker 2: is possible, he could have a Sam Darnold, Geno Smith
1:19:38
Speaker 2: career renaissance pick. Baker Mayfield-esque, but I'm not really trusting
1:19:45
Speaker 2: that that's going to be his future.
1:19:46
Speaker 1: How about a reverse Daniel Jones effect? He goes to
1:19:49
Speaker 1: the Giants and has a career turnaround.
1:19:52
Speaker 2: All right, okay.
1:19:52
Speaker 7: I don't know.
1:19:55
Speaker 2: Unlikely, seemingly unlikely, but not impossible.
1:19:58
Speaker 1: Listen, everyone knows my Ohio State fandom at this point,
1:20:02
Speaker 1: so this is going to sound very biased. I thought
1:20:04
Speaker 1: he was completely overrated at Michigan, and he was good enough,
1:20:09
Speaker 1: to you know be a be a compliment to that
1:20:11
Speaker 1: great run game and offensive line and help him win
1:20:13
Speaker 1: a national championship well but top 10 nfl pick.
1:20:16
Speaker 2: To be good to be fair to you i felt
1:20:18
Speaker 2: the same way i felt that the um the michigan
1:20:23
Speaker 2: wolverines national championship success i won't say it was done
1:20:26
Speaker 2: in spite of him but it certainly wasn't because of
1:20:30
Speaker 2: him right there's he wasn't a problem but he wasn't
1:20:33
Speaker 2: a big reason why. And look, there, there are plenty
1:20:36
Speaker 2: of quarterbacks where that's all they are is they are
1:20:39
Speaker 2: just what their team is, right? They don't elevate the team.
1:20:42
Speaker 2: They don't hurt the team. They're just like, if you've
1:20:44
Speaker 2: got great running backs, good offensive line play, if you've
1:20:48
Speaker 2: got a good wide receiving core, then your quarterback is
1:20:50
Speaker 2: good enough to get the most out of that group.
1:20:53
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with being that kind of quarterback, except
1:20:56
Speaker 2: that kind of quarterback at the NFL level is a non-starter.
1:21:00
Speaker 2: He is a career backup. He's someone who that might
1:21:03
Speaker 2: wash out of the league in three to five years,
1:21:08
Speaker 2: we're talking about the best 32 guys at that one
1:21:13
Speaker 2: particular job on planet earth. And really only like 17
1:21:18
Speaker 2: of them are actually really, really, really, really good at it, right?
1:21:22
Speaker 2: The other ones are what we're talking about. They're a
1:21:25
Speaker 2: guy who's just going to be whatever the team around
1:21:27
Speaker 2: him is probably not hurt anything, probably not help anything either.
1:21:32
Speaker 2: I'm with you, James, and I'm not an Ohio state fan.
1:21:34
Speaker 2: So I don't have like an anti-Mason blue bias. I
1:21:37
Speaker 2: was never overly impressed with JJ McCarthy. I've been wrong
1:21:40
Speaker 2: about plenty of quarterbacks. I said this exact same thing
1:21:43
Speaker 2: about Patrick Mahomes when he came into the league. So
1:21:45
Speaker 2: I'm not pretending to be some quarterback guru, but with JJ,
1:21:48
Speaker 2: I was like, all right, that one doesn't make a
1:21:51
Speaker 2: ton of sense to me. And now the Giants are
1:21:53
Speaker 2: going to try to revitalize something that they may or
1:21:56
Speaker 2: may not get something out of.
1:21:57
Speaker 1: It's just weird, OC, that I think maybe starting with
1:22:01
Speaker 1: that draft or maybe a couple years before that, who knows,
1:22:06
Speaker 1: we stopped, teams stopped waiting for taking a guy at
1:22:11
Speaker 1: a good value at quarterback and said, no, man, if
1:22:14
Speaker 1: we think they're a starter, let's use them with our
1:22:16
Speaker 1: first-round draft pick. Ty Simpson, I think, is another example
1:22:19
Speaker 1: of this with the LA Rams, although he's.
1:22:22
Speaker 2: Going to have probably.
1:22:23
Speaker 1: a better chance at rising above his station because he
1:22:27
Speaker 1: gets to sit behind Matthew Stafford for at least a year.
1:22:31
Speaker 1: What happened to the, hey, let's see if he's available
1:22:34
Speaker 1: in the third round and we like him? No, let's
1:22:37
Speaker 1: use him with our 10th pick when he's probably a
1:22:39
Speaker 1: second or third round value guy. I mean, their scouts
1:22:42
Speaker 1: clearly thought differently, but I, it feels like those days
1:22:46
Speaker 1: are gone.
1:22:46
Speaker 2: Kate on the text line says, are the giants any
1:22:48
Speaker 2: better now with the new quarterback? No, they're not. I mean,
1:22:52
Speaker 2: they're better than Jameis Winston. Maybe that's the thing. Jameis.
1:23:00
Speaker 2: I don't say it in like an overly pejorative sense.
1:23:03
Speaker 2: When I say that Jameis appears to be a relatively
1:23:05
Speaker 2: unserious quarterback in person at this point, I think Jameis
1:23:09
Speaker 2: realizes what he got, what he did. Like Jameis is,
1:23:12
Speaker 2: he's now leaning into all the jokes. He knows that
1:23:15
Speaker 2: his future is in broadcasting. He's going to do a
1:23:17
Speaker 2: great job there. And he's just like, he's still good
1:23:20
Speaker 2: enough to be on a roster and, and taking that,
1:23:24
Speaker 2: three to $ 6 million charity donation that people are giving
1:23:28
Speaker 2: him to be a quarterback. That is not ever going
1:23:31
Speaker 2: to be the reason you win football games. Again, the
1:23:33
Speaker 2: giants can still win some football games. Although they got
1:23:37
Speaker 2: bad news about Brian Burns, who is now also going
1:23:40
Speaker 2: to be out with a season ending surgery. So the
1:23:44
Speaker 2: giants that, Hey, you got cam Scataboo. You got some
1:23:48
Speaker 2: really interesting wide receivers that are, You just have to
1:23:51
Speaker 2: shorten up those routes now.
1:23:52
Speaker 1: You appear to have a pretty good kicker because that's
1:23:55
Speaker 1: what won the game on Sunday, four field goals. They
1:23:58
Speaker 1: don't have nothing. They just need someone better at quarterback.
1:24:02
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a stretch to say that J.J.
1:24:05
Speaker 1: McCarthy is probably better than James Winston. Is he better
1:24:08
Speaker 1: enough to make them the team that a lot of
1:24:11
Speaker 1: people thought they could be after hiring John Harbaugh, Jackson Dart,
1:24:16
Speaker 1: young quarterback coming into the season?
1:24:19
Speaker 2: Maybe a playoff team. I don't know about that. This
1:24:22
Speaker 2: is more a television conversation than it is on radio
1:24:25
Speaker 2: because I can't give you the visual of it, but
1:24:28
Speaker 2: please tell me you saw PJ flex celebrating the Minnesota
1:24:32
Speaker 2: versus the Minnesota win versus who they play Arizona. No,
1:24:38
Speaker 2: not Arizona, Washington. Why did I say Arizona? Thank you, Tyson.
1:24:43
Speaker 2: Tyson Whiting, by the way, not Tyson Ewing. I got
1:24:46
Speaker 2: it wrong. I've I've made that mistake. Okay. Tyson play
1:24:52
Speaker 2: by play guys that we love. One of them, Tyson Whiting,
1:24:56
Speaker 2: former voice of the Grizzlies, the other former voice of
1:25:00
Speaker 2: Utah women's basketball. Okay. I that's my fault. Didn't mean
1:25:04
Speaker 2: to get the wires crossed. PJ Fleck. Did you see
1:25:07
Speaker 2: him celebrating his team's victory on the field? Minnesota over Washington,
1:25:13
Speaker 2: any big 10 win for Minnesota is a good thing.
1:25:16
Speaker 2: And PJ Fleck loves to row the boat and act
1:25:18
Speaker 2: crazy and go nuts. He went full BJ Penn. If
1:25:23
Speaker 2: you're a fight fan out there, you know what I mean?
1:25:26
Speaker 2: Player comes to him, bloody lip.
1:25:28
Speaker 4: All right.
1:25:30
Speaker 2: That happens in football. It's actually not that common for
1:25:33
Speaker 2: players to have blood coming from their face in football,
1:25:35
Speaker 2: but players got a bloody lip. He goes ahead and
1:25:38
Speaker 2: he grabs the a smear of the blood off of
1:25:43
Speaker 2: the player's face and war paints his own face with it.
1:25:47
Speaker 2: Wipes it, wipes somebody else's blood onto his own face.
1:25:51
Speaker 2: And then goes off to shake some more hands. PJ Fleck,
1:25:54
Speaker 2: you are nuts. Okay. That is not a normal thing
1:25:59
Speaker 2: for a football coach to do. That is not a
1:26:01
Speaker 2: normal thing for a CEO to do. That's when you're
1:26:05
Speaker 2: the head coach of a big 10 football team, you
1:26:08
Speaker 2: are the CEO of a multi multi-million dollar company. Corporation.
1:26:12
Speaker 8: All right.
1:26:13
Speaker 2: That is. And I appreciate you being a football guy,
1:26:16
Speaker 2: but that is a bizarre, bizarre celebration. I could see
1:26:21
Speaker 2: you doing that. Former fighter.
1:26:23
Speaker 1: I could see you getting fired up enough to put
1:26:26
Speaker 1: someone else's blood on your face.
1:26:27
Speaker 2: I will tell you this. I don't know if I
1:26:32
Speaker 2: want to tell people. Spoiler alert. You will not tell
1:26:35
Speaker 2: me this. I once had a fight at UVU. People
1:26:41
Speaker 2: still fight fans still will talk to me about it
1:26:44
Speaker 2: against a guy named Trevor Carlson. If you're out there listening, Trevor,
1:26:47
Speaker 2: I hope you're doing well in your life. And we,
1:26:51
Speaker 2: we smashed each other's faces for three rounds. Okay. Both
1:26:55
Speaker 2: of us were bleeding. He was bleeding a lot more
1:26:57
Speaker 2: than I was bleeding. There was one point in the
1:26:59
Speaker 2: fight where he was bleeding and he was on top
1:27:01
Speaker 2: of me and I was covered in his blood. Okay.
1:27:05
Speaker 2: We were, After this fight, I threw up somebody else's blood.
1:27:10
Speaker 2: Oh no, that is disgusting. Okay. It wasn't enough that
1:27:14
Speaker 2: it was mine. I had like a tiny trickle coming
1:27:17
Speaker 2: out of either one nostril or me. I think it
1:27:20
Speaker 2: was underneath my eye. It was not enough. I was
1:27:23
Speaker 2: just like, because I was like, oh man, that is
1:27:25
Speaker 2: so gross. And then I realized, wait, I didn't bleed enough.
1:27:29
Speaker 2: Cause sometimes, you know, if you've got a really bad
1:27:31
Speaker 2: bloody nose and and it drains back into your stomach.
1:27:33
Speaker 2: Like that's horrible. I'm sorry to be gross here, people,
1:27:36
Speaker 2: but that's really gross. And you know, no, that was,
1:27:40
Speaker 2: it was him. It was his, Oh no, that's disgusting.
1:27:44
Speaker 2: Now I didn't know the UFC went to UVU. That's
1:27:47
Speaker 2: big for you. BJ Penn, who's a former world champion
1:27:52
Speaker 2: in the UFC, a Hawaiian guy, like his, one of
1:27:54
Speaker 2: his signature celebrations is if it was a bloody fight,
1:27:58
Speaker 2: he would lick the opponent's blood off his own gloves
1:28:01
Speaker 2: while he was celebrating. That is bizarre. Even for a
1:28:04
Speaker 2: UFC fighter, even for somebody who's a little bit unhinged
1:28:08
Speaker 2: because that's, what you have to be in order to
1:28:11
Speaker 2: be competing at that level. This is a football coach.
1:28:14
Speaker 2: Can you imagine Morgan Scali and Morgan Scali is an
1:28:16
Speaker 2: intense dude, right? Like he is Morgan is nuts, but
1:28:21
Speaker 2: in a way that is pointed like in the right direction, PJ.
1:28:25
Speaker 1: Says, it's just crazy. He says, well, you were going
1:28:27
Speaker 1: to rip your face off. He doesn't rub someone else's
1:28:30
Speaker 1: blood on his face.
1:28:31
Speaker 2: And he does it with like kind of a ride
1:28:33
Speaker 2: grin on his face. Anyway, PJ Fleck, you're crazy, man,
1:28:37
Speaker 2: but maybe you need to be there kind of crazy.
1:28:40
Speaker 2: Maybe you could be on the staff at South Carolina
1:28:43
Speaker 2: and then their star edge rusher, Dylan Stewart would act right.
1:28:49
Speaker 2: South Carolina, Molly walked by Alabama over the weekend. He
1:28:53
Speaker 2: is ejected from the game for throwing a punch on
1:28:58
Speaker 2: an Alabama player. I don't know who number 40 is
1:29:02
Speaker 2: on Alabama. I haven't really watched much of them this year. Punch,
1:29:06
Speaker 2: and again, one of the ultimate genius moves that you
1:29:09
Speaker 2: can ever do on a football field is you can
1:29:12
Speaker 2: throw a punch on somebody else while they are still
1:29:15
Speaker 2: wearing a helmet. Great work, guys. Excellent work. He does that,
1:29:21
Speaker 2: and then, you know, the coaching staff is, as one
1:29:25
Speaker 2: would expect, letting them know how they feel about his
1:29:29
Speaker 2: personal foul penalty, and his ejection. And he is letting
1:29:34
Speaker 2: the coaching staff know how he feels about being told
1:29:37
Speaker 2: how they feel. This is something that is hard to do.
1:29:42
Speaker 2: It's hard to control when you're a testosterone-infused young male
1:29:47
Speaker 2: who's obviously heated and emotional over the fact that you've
1:29:50
Speaker 2: been embarrassed on national television by a lopsided victory, and
1:29:54
Speaker 2: you're even further embarrassed because you threw a punch that...
1:29:57
Speaker 2: Doesn't affect the guy that you punched in any kind
1:30:00
Speaker 2: of negative way. You didn't hurt him. It affects you
1:30:02
Speaker 2: and your team because you got a penalty. They're going
1:30:05
Speaker 2: to show that replay over and over. They're showing it
1:30:07
Speaker 2: in the stadium. Everyone's booing you. Everyone's like mad at you.
1:30:10
Speaker 2: Now your coaching staff comes and they yell at you
1:30:12
Speaker 2: and it makes it worse. You just have to eat this.
1:30:15
Speaker 2: You know what sandwich? It's just part of being a
1:30:18
Speaker 2: young idiot and a football player who's hot headed. You
1:30:21
Speaker 2: have to learn at some point. that you can only
1:30:24
Speaker 2: dig the hole deeper if you argue back, if you
1:30:28
Speaker 2: snap back, if you yell, if you whatever. And that's
1:30:31
Speaker 2: what this young man did. And South Carolina has now
1:30:34
Speaker 2: suspended him for conduct detrimental. What does this sound like?
1:30:40
Speaker 2: Colorado football, right?
1:30:41
Speaker 4: Yeah.
1:30:42
Speaker 2: He's going up like coaches have to do this. It's
1:30:45
Speaker 2: really unfortunate. If you're Shane Beamer, and you yell at
1:30:48
Speaker 2: a kid after he gets ejected, and his response is
1:30:51
Speaker 2: not to hang his head silently and go to the
1:30:55
Speaker 2: bench or go to the locker room, and his response
1:30:58
Speaker 2: is to now yell back at you, it's like prison
1:31:01
Speaker 2: yard rules. You can't allow yourself as a head coach
1:31:04
Speaker 2: to be disrespected by a player on the team. You can't.
1:31:08
Speaker 2: You can't let that message be sent to everyone else.
1:31:11
Speaker 2: You have to take action. You have to be like,
1:31:13
Speaker 2: all right, here's what we're going to do. Now, suspension
1:31:15
Speaker 2: is not the only way you can do it. And
1:31:18
Speaker 2: it doesn't have to be even something that we see
1:31:20
Speaker 2: or we know. If it's not, then it's part of
1:31:24
Speaker 2: a sports debate show on ESPN. Like, hey, they're not
1:31:27
Speaker 2: going to suspend this kid. They're not going to discipline
1:31:29
Speaker 2: this kid. You better, if that's the case, you better
1:31:31
Speaker 2: have something in your own building where you're just like, yeah,
1:31:33
Speaker 2: we made him run on the treadmill until he threw up. Like,
1:31:37
Speaker 2: that's a punishment that would be okay for something like this.
1:31:39
Speaker 2: But you have to do something. So Dylan Stewart put
1:31:43
Speaker 2: his coaching staff and his head coach in a position
1:31:46
Speaker 2: where his reaction to his own misbehavior and their disciplining
1:31:52
Speaker 2: him in the moment, his reaction to that was interpreted
1:31:57
Speaker 2: by everybody in the split second and now for two
1:31:59
Speaker 2: days afterwards as being kind of out of line. They
1:32:04
Speaker 2: have to do this. It's a really unfortunate situation. And
1:32:08
Speaker 2: the same thing happened At USC this weekend in a
1:32:12
Speaker 2: huge game against Oregon, Desmond Stevens, right? That's his name.
1:32:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
1:32:17
Speaker 2: Desmond Stevens linebacker hits a sliding Dante Moore starting quarterback
1:32:23
Speaker 2: for Oregon scrambles. He's clearly entering the stupid quarterback slide.
1:32:28
Speaker 2: He's giving himself up and USC linebacker downward dive shoulder
1:32:35
Speaker 2: to the helmet knocks him out.
1:32:36
Speaker 3: Okay.
1:32:38
Speaker 2: Dirty hit. Fans are mad. Players are mad. Little scuffle
1:32:44
Speaker 2: kerfuffle happens afterward because of it. And again, if you're
1:32:48
Speaker 2: an offensive lineman and someone does that to your quarterback,
1:32:51
Speaker 2: you have to take some action. And he does the
1:32:55
Speaker 2: thing where he kind of like puts his hands up. Oh,
1:32:57
Speaker 2: it wasn't me. I didn't do it. It was a
1:32:58
Speaker 2: dirty hit. It was crazy. It was going to be targeting.
1:33:01
Speaker 2: It was going to be an ejection. And then. And
1:33:06
Speaker 2: this is where, you know, being part of a prominent
1:33:09
Speaker 2: program on a nationally televised game comes back and hurts you.
1:33:13
Speaker 2: The cameras find this cat, and he's kind of laughing
1:33:17
Speaker 2: and smiling about the fact that they're stretchering Dante Moore
1:33:20
Speaker 2: off the field. And you know what? We actually don't
1:33:23
Speaker 2: know if that's what he's smiling and laughing about. but
1:33:26
Speaker 2: you have to affect an appropriate level of somber reaction
1:33:31
Speaker 2: when someone is being carted off a football field, especially
1:33:35
Speaker 2: when it's because of a hit you laid. And especially,
1:33:38
Speaker 2: especially when that hit was an illegal hit that was penalized.
1:33:42
Speaker 2: And we all saw 15 different angles of, and it
1:33:45
Speaker 2: was very clearly outside the normal rules and the normal
1:33:50
Speaker 2: engagement of an actual tackle. And the guy's like kind
1:33:55
Speaker 2: of not taking it seriously or giving off the appearance
1:33:58
Speaker 2: of he's not taking it seriously. And I think in
1:34:00
Speaker 2: his case, he really wasn't taking it seriously. And it
1:34:03
Speaker 2: was just a horrifically bad look for him, for USC football.
1:34:09
Speaker 2: And again, what does it do to Lincoln Riley? It
1:34:12
Speaker 2: paints him into a corner where he now has to say,
1:34:17
Speaker 2: we're suspending him. Not we're just like, he's going to
1:34:21
Speaker 2: sit out the second half or sit out the first
1:34:24
Speaker 2: half for targeting or whatever. It's we have to send
1:34:28
Speaker 2: a message. We are not a dirty football team. We
1:34:33
Speaker 2: want to do things the right way. I like if
1:34:39
Speaker 2: you're Lincoln Riley, you're already kind of like, oh crap,
1:34:43
Speaker 2: we needed to win that game so bad. And we
1:34:45
Speaker 2: didn't win that game. And everyone believed we were going
1:34:47
Speaker 2: to win that game. That's already bad enough. People are
1:34:50
Speaker 2: already questioning you because of your real job, which is
1:34:52
Speaker 2: to win football games, right? And the only thing that
1:34:55
Speaker 2: would allow people to forgive you losing that is if
1:34:59
Speaker 2: they still felt like your program was headed in the
1:35:02
Speaker 2: right direction, you were getting the guys to act the
1:35:04
Speaker 2: right way, you were doing the right things on and
1:35:06
Speaker 2: off the field, that it was USC football, a brand
1:35:09
Speaker 2: of USC football, that the generations of Trojan fans and,
1:35:15
Speaker 2: more importantly, Trojan players were That one championships, pretty much
1:35:19
Speaker 2: everyone from every era had at least some level of context.
1:35:22
Speaker 2: They touched some level of greatness at USC. And those
1:35:26
Speaker 2: guys expect more. And because of that, the alumni base...
1:35:32
Speaker 2: And the administration expect more. And if you're doing that,
1:35:35
Speaker 2: if you're losing, but also you're losing in a way that, oh,
1:35:39
Speaker 2: and by the way, this team uses classless, dirty players.
1:35:43
Speaker 2: You can't afford that. If you're Lincoln Riley, your job,
1:35:46
Speaker 2: your hot seat is already burning hot. Sorry, BYU football fans.
1:35:51
Speaker 2: Guess who's calling Kalani Satake this offseason? All right? Like
1:35:56
Speaker 2: Lincoln Riley has one more loss. before he he's gone.
1:36:03
Speaker 2: He's got one more loss to a team that they
1:36:05
Speaker 2: think they should beat before he is out. USC is
1:36:09
Speaker 2: not going to keep tolerating this. And especially if it
1:36:12
Speaker 2: looks like that. So Lincoln Riley has to be like,
1:36:14
Speaker 2: all right, you're suspended starting linebacker. You could say that
1:36:20
Speaker 2: hit was on Amherst. No, you can't call back Amherst
1:36:24
Speaker 2: because it's too obscure.
1:36:29
Speaker 1: .
1:36:46
Speaker 2: .
1:36:48
Speaker 1: .
1:36:51
Speaker 2: .
1:36:55
Speaker 1: .
1:36:57
Speaker 2: The.
1:36:59
Speaker 1: Other reason why he might not play again, OC is
1:37:01
Speaker 1: because Dylan Rayola looked completely like a completely different Dylan Rayola.
1:37:06
Speaker 2: I got it against USC. Then he did it at Nebraska.
1:37:10
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought that up because Dylan Rayola, I,
1:37:15
Speaker 2: I guess I owe you an apology. Dylan Rayola. It
1:37:17
Speaker 2: was so much fun and so easy to make fun
1:37:20
Speaker 2: of your very weird cosplaying as Patrick Mahomes. When he
1:37:26
Speaker 2: was at Nebraska, he was just copycatting everything Patrick Mahomes
1:37:30
Speaker 2: did like haircut number, weird accessories, same wristbands, same sleeves, same, everything,
1:37:39
Speaker 2: same exact warmup, like literally the exact same warmup routine.
1:37:44
Speaker 2: It's like you watched his favorite player and then decided
1:37:47
Speaker 2: I'm going to do everything the same way, like handshakes
1:37:50
Speaker 2: with my teammates and The little like yell thing that
1:37:54
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes does before games. He was doing all of
1:37:56
Speaker 2: the same stuff. Little hand twitch things that Mahomes, twitch
1:37:59
Speaker 2: thing that Mahomes does. Yes, when he's calling guys into
1:38:01
Speaker 2: the huddle, like the little like, come here, come here,
1:38:05
Speaker 2: come here, come here, come here. He was doing it all.
1:38:06
Speaker 2: He was just pantomiming.
1:38:08
Speaker 1: And Nebraska was red and white, just like Chiefs. I mean,
1:38:11
Speaker 1: there's no, Chiefs have yellow too.
1:38:12
Speaker 2: It was so bizarre. It was like the talented Mr.
1:38:16
Speaker 2: Ripley level of identity theft. Very creepy stuff. But, He
1:38:22
Speaker 2: decides to transfer, and I got to believe at some point,
1:38:25
Speaker 2: because his dad is a highly respected player in NFL. circles,
1:38:30
Speaker 2: his uncle, a highly respected guy in NFL circles. I
1:38:35
Speaker 2: got to believe that somebody came to him and was
1:38:37
Speaker 2: just like, look, I know that's your favorite player. Quit
1:38:40
Speaker 2: doing this. It's weird. And be your own person. Like
1:38:44
Speaker 2: people are making fun of you for it. Like just
1:38:46
Speaker 2: be done. And look, he made it is a relatively
1:38:48
Speaker 2: controversial decision to transfer to Oregon. He was transferring to
1:38:52
Speaker 2: be a backup. Nobody does that. Like, transferring to Oregon.
1:38:58
Speaker 2: Even if they drop a bag for you, you're not
1:39:01
Speaker 2: on the field. Dante Moore was always going to be
1:39:03
Speaker 2: the starter. I got to give the kid credit. He
1:39:05
Speaker 2: comes in unexpected, right? It is one of those bang, bang.
1:39:11
Speaker 2: You're always one hit away from being the starter. And
1:39:15
Speaker 2: he comes into the game and he plays really, really well.
1:39:19
Speaker 2: And he leads Oregon to a victory on the road
1:39:24
Speaker 2: against what we thought was perhaps a really, really good,
1:39:28
Speaker 2: really hard to beat USC team. You got to give
1:39:31
Speaker 2: the young man credit. And this could be the performance
1:39:35
Speaker 2: that gives him like his own sense of confidence and self.
1:39:39
Speaker 2: Like I don't have to be anything else. I just
1:39:42
Speaker 2: came in. There was a lot of people who had
1:39:43
Speaker 2: written me off. There's a lot of people who are
1:39:45
Speaker 2: making fun of me who didn't believe in me. If
1:39:47
Speaker 2: I'm Dan Lanning, I'm saying exactly this to him. Everything
1:39:51
Speaker 2: that happened before does not matter. That performance you gave
1:39:54
Speaker 2: us when you came in for an injured Dante Moore,
1:39:58
Speaker 2: that's what we believe in. That's what we want. That
1:40:00
Speaker 2: is who you are as a quarterback. That's what Dan
1:40:03
Speaker 2: landing should be doing. And he was going around and
1:40:05
Speaker 2: he was like, he was high five and everybody. I
1:40:08
Speaker 2: was in Southern California. My, my wife decided we needed
1:40:12
Speaker 2: to go to the beach this weekend. We went down
1:40:13
Speaker 2: to the beach this weekend. I saw a lot of
1:40:15
Speaker 2: Oregon duck fans at the airport. Also, breaking news, flew
1:40:22
Speaker 2: on the same plane home as Bear Bachmeier and Tiger Bachmeier.
1:40:28
Speaker 2: Fully clothed? Thankfully, yes. I did not have a conversation
1:40:32
Speaker 2: with him about family dinners. Interestingly enough, very fascinatingly, maybe
1:40:41
Speaker 2: somewhat obnoxiously, they are exactly as nice as the, that
1:40:45
Speaker 2: they're portrayed to be. It was a delayed flight. Everyone's grouchy.
1:40:49
Speaker 2: Everyone's grumpy. Everyone's just sitting there in the gate at
1:40:51
Speaker 2: the airport. And there was just some like middle-aged women
1:40:56
Speaker 2: who were also supposed to be on the flight. Well,
1:40:58
Speaker 2: I think probably asked him, why is it, why are
1:41:00
Speaker 2: a bunch of people coming up to take pictures with you?
1:41:03
Speaker 2: And I'm sure he answered or whatever they, they were
1:41:07
Speaker 2: sitting cross-legged on the floor of an airport playing cards.
1:41:10
Speaker 2: starting quarterback, kind of famous, kind of rich for a
1:41:16
Speaker 2: 19-year-old or however old he is right now, just sitting
1:41:18
Speaker 2: playing cards with, like, his mom's friends. Although I thought
1:41:23
Speaker 2: they were relatives. They weren't. I heard him explain who
1:41:25
Speaker 2: they were to other people. But people, Orange County Airport,
1:41:29
Speaker 2: a bunch of people walking by, oh, my gosh, that's
1:41:32
Speaker 2: Barry Bachmeier. Can we get a picture, dude? I was like,
1:41:34
Speaker 2: what the heck? I didn't think the celebrity would extend
1:41:37
Speaker 2: that far outside of the state of Utah, but it did.
1:41:42
Speaker 2: My own daughter, I was like, do you want to
1:41:47
Speaker 2: go get a picture with them? And she was just like, no,
1:41:49
Speaker 2: that's okay. And I was like, that's all right. We're
1:41:51
Speaker 2: Utes anyway. And she's like, well, can I say go Cougs?
1:41:54
Speaker 2: And I was like, don't you dare. He tried to
1:41:57
Speaker 2: do that. Well, we don't care anyway. And then she
1:42:01
Speaker 2: went and said, well, I kind of care. She was like,
1:42:04
Speaker 2: when he walks by, should I say go Cougs? I'm like,
1:42:06
Speaker 2: you can if you want. She's like, you do it.
1:42:08
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not
1:42:09
Speaker 2: saying go Cougs.
1:42:10
Speaker 1: I mean, out of the two of you, to be fair,
1:42:12
Speaker 1: she knows that you're the one with the BYU graduate degree.
1:42:17
Speaker 2: She's the one that knows. She's like, you're the one
1:42:19
Speaker 2: who has a degree from there. High-level trash talk from
1:42:23
Speaker 2: a seven-year-old. Anyway, all right, we've got Zach Moss joining
1:42:28
Speaker 2: us at the top of our number three. We'll do
1:42:30
Speaker 2: another short segment here. There is a sentimental thing that
1:42:38
Speaker 2: happens in sports when you get to watch someone do
1:42:42
Speaker 2: it for the last time. And we saw that this
1:42:45
Speaker 2: weekend twice with two really great baseball pitchers. At least
1:42:49
Speaker 2: I think we did. We'll talk about that next on
1:42:52
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
1:42:57
Speaker 7: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
1:42:59
Speaker 7: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. 1705 North
1:43:03
Speaker 7: Redwood Road.
1:43:12
Speaker 2: That's the location that you need to put in your phone,
1:43:15
Speaker 2: put in your maps, and drive there now. 1705 North
1:43:19
Speaker 2: Redwood Road, Saratoga Springs. Southern Steer Butcher, Dan and Aubrey
1:43:23
Speaker 2: have been so great to us. They'll do the same
1:43:25
Speaker 2: thing for you. You got a bye week, okay? So
1:43:28
Speaker 2: you can practice. Practice cooking the armadillo eggs. Get just
1:43:33
Speaker 2: the right bark on that brisket. You can figure out
1:43:37
Speaker 2: the perfection of the grill temperature for the steaks, whatever. Ribs, thighs, tenders, roasts,
1:43:44
Speaker 2: artisanal meats, cut to the size that you want them,
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Speaker 2: age the way that you want them, marinated in the
1:43:49
Speaker 2: vacuum marination machine, if that's what you're looking for, or
1:43:53
Speaker 2: just go grab the ready-to-eat steak tips. And it's a
1:43:56
Speaker 2: higher quality meat, not the same level of chemical and hormone. Free-range, American,
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Speaker 2: locally sourced, ethically raised beef, chicken, pork, exotics. It's a
1:44:10
Speaker 2: higher quality and healthier animal to feed to your family.
1:44:14
Speaker 2: And I know that oftentimes in this space there's a
1:44:17
Speaker 2: big tradeoff, right? When you're buying the high-quality product, you're
1:44:20
Speaker 2: paying a premium for it. But join the membership rewards
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Speaker 2: program at Southern Steer. Go in on a Wednesday when
1:44:28
Speaker 2: the right sales are happening. Go in on a Thursday
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Speaker 2: to stock up for the upcoming weekend for the hot
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Speaker 2: of some of the discounts they offer to their members,
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Speaker 2: and now you're cooking with gas. You're getting the right
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Speaker 2: kind of healthy meat for prices that are a lot
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Speaker 2: more comparable to what you're used to, and maybe better
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Speaker 2: than what you're used to, only it's such a healthier,
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Speaker 2: cleaner product. Tell them OC sent you. Tell them you
1:44:58
Speaker 2: want to try the hot honey chicken crack dip. Tell
1:45:01
Speaker 2: them you want to try one of those armadillo eggs.
1:45:05
Speaker 2: Tell them that you're thinking about cooking your first plate
1:45:08
Speaker 2: of dino ribs, I promise you they'll not only hook
1:45:11
Speaker 2: you up with a great cut of meat or cuts
1:45:13
Speaker 2: of meat, they'll also make sure you have a little
1:45:16
Speaker 2: bit of guidance on the best way to season and
1:45:19
Speaker 2: the temperature you should set that thing at, and maybe
1:45:21
Speaker 2: you want to age it and come back in a
1:45:22
Speaker 2: couple of weeks. Here's our dry aging locker. 1705 North
1:45:27
Speaker 2: Redwood Road, 801-895-3101. Telemocie sent you when you go to
1:45:29
Speaker 2: Southern Steer Butcher. We have to talk about something that
1:45:38
Speaker 2: happened in baseball this last weekend. Very possibly, and I
1:45:42
Speaker 2: think more probably, we saw the last of Justin Verlander.
1:45:46
Speaker 2: We saw the very last of Max Scherzer. And we
1:45:50
Speaker 2: saw kind of ceremonial send-offs in both of them being
1:45:54
Speaker 2: taken off the mound for the last time. Now, the
1:45:56
Speaker 2: Verlander one, that one got me. Scherzer, he's got two
1:46:04
Speaker 2: out in the 7th. And Skipper comes jogging out and says, hey,
1:46:08
Speaker 2: you want to keep going? And Scherzer kind of shakes
1:46:11
Speaker 2: his head, sends him back off, says, no, let me
1:46:13
Speaker 2: close out this inning. And then he throws 10 more pitches.
1:46:19
Speaker 2: He gets out of the inning. They'd send him out
1:46:21
Speaker 2: for the eighth inning. And then it was time. Then
1:46:24
Speaker 2: it was time to say, all right, let's do this.
1:46:27
Speaker 2: And got a nice standing ovation, a beautiful sendoff for
1:46:32
Speaker 2: Max Scherzer with his disconcerting loss. had a heterochromia with
1:46:37
Speaker 2: the two mismatched eyes, both eyes, different colors for Max Scherzer. Um,
1:46:42
Speaker 2: he's got a kind of like movie character look to him,
1:46:47
Speaker 2: but unbelievable career. Obviously the Verlander one got me for
1:46:52
Speaker 2: obvious reasons. I'm a dad. I have daughters and Verlander.
1:46:58
Speaker 2: He knew what was happening, right? They sent his daughter
1:47:00
Speaker 2: running out of the dugout to come get them off
1:47:03
Speaker 2: the mound. And he gave her a big hug and
1:47:05
Speaker 2: he started crying. And it was just a beautiful send-off.
1:47:08
Speaker 2: It was a beautiful thing. Everyone on their feet. Family affair.
1:47:13
Speaker 2: His daughter came out first. And then his wife, Kate Upton,
1:47:19
Speaker 2: and their, I believe, son, the baby, met him kind
1:47:23
Speaker 2: of as he's walking off. And you just, you know,
1:47:27
Speaker 2: it's sentimental when you've been watching this guy for a
1:47:29
Speaker 2: long time and you've seen him. some of the high
1:47:32
Speaker 2: moments of the career and every journey for an athlete
1:47:35
Speaker 2: comes to an end. And if you're lucky enough, and
1:47:37
Speaker 2: we are because we have this incredible technology and we're
1:47:41
Speaker 2: able to see these moments and we're able to catch
1:47:43
Speaker 2: the broadcast, even if you don't see them live, you
1:47:47
Speaker 2: get to see kind of the closing of a chapter,
1:47:49
Speaker 2: the end of an era. It's a sentimental thing, especially
1:47:52
Speaker 2: as you age, if you're out there in your twenties
1:47:54
Speaker 2: and you're listening, you're like, whatever, that's boring stuff. When
1:47:57
Speaker 2: you get to a point, Where those are your contemporaries,
1:48:01
Speaker 2: those are people your age, those are your peers, and
1:48:04
Speaker 2: they're the ones who are shutting it down. You get
1:48:07
Speaker 2: a sense of finality and, you know, it makes you
1:48:11
Speaker 2: consider your own mortality. And in Verlander's case, he was
1:48:14
Speaker 2: really emotional in the postgame and talked about, you know,
1:48:17
Speaker 2: he was asked about why'd you start crying and he
1:48:18
Speaker 2: was like, look, man, I.
1:48:19
Speaker 4: I.
1:48:21
Speaker 2: I've had to leave my daughter to go pitch and
1:48:25
Speaker 2: to pursue greatness and to try to be the best
1:48:27
Speaker 2: in the world at this. And it requires a level
1:48:29
Speaker 2: of commitment. And he was relieved that he doesn't have
1:48:33
Speaker 2: to do that anymore. He doesn't have to miss out.
1:48:35
Speaker 2: The phrase he used was, I get to make up
1:48:38
Speaker 2: for lost time. And that's wonderful because, you know, financially
1:48:41
Speaker 2: he's going to be fine. He doesn't have to have
1:48:43
Speaker 2: a job, although I'm sure he'll find something to do,
1:48:47
Speaker 2: but there's a sense of it. And actually we're going to,
1:48:49
Speaker 2: we're going to experience that this week locally for those
1:48:52
Speaker 2: of us in the combat sports world, a guy who's
1:48:54
Speaker 2: coming on the show tomorrow, court McGee, who's on the
1:48:58
Speaker 2: UFC card this weekend and, who's a locally grown product.
1:49:01
Speaker 2: He started it here. He gets to finish it here.
1:49:04
Speaker 2: I'm so happy for court that he gets to close
1:49:07
Speaker 2: the chapter with a retirement fight in salt Lake city.
1:49:11
Speaker 2: And for me watching that is it's going to be sentimental.
1:49:15
Speaker 2: It's going to be maybe even a little bit emotional
1:49:17
Speaker 2: because court and I came up at the same time
1:49:21
Speaker 2: and he's still doing it at the very, very top
1:49:23
Speaker 2: level in the UFC. And I hope he goes out
1:49:25
Speaker 2: with a win, but he's going to be with us
1:49:27
Speaker 2: on the show tomorrow. And I very much look forward
1:49:29
Speaker 2: to that conversation. And he's got great things set up
1:49:31
Speaker 2: for the future and we'll get a sense of all
1:49:32
Speaker 2: of it. But we saw it with Scherzer. We saw
1:49:35
Speaker 2: it with Verlander. And interestingly enough, if you're a hardcore
1:49:40
Speaker 2: baseball fan, you're a hardcore Verlander fan. You actually watched
1:49:43
Speaker 2: the whole, like you saw the beginning of his relationship
1:49:47
Speaker 2: with his wife. We all got to watch the meet
1:49:50
Speaker 2: cute at a game where his sports illustrated swimsuit edition, uh, model,
1:49:59
Speaker 2: like supermodel wife was sitting in the front row behind
1:50:03
Speaker 2: the dugout. You remember this? And he tossed her a ball.
1:50:06
Speaker 2: I think he wrote his phone number on a ball
1:50:08
Speaker 2: or something and tossed her a ball and the cameras
1:50:11
Speaker 2: caught it. We all saw it. He met his wife
1:50:16
Speaker 2: at a baseball game. They got married. We watched the
1:50:19
Speaker 2: moment when he was just like, Hey, nice to meet you.
1:50:23
Speaker 2: And they ended up married and they have kids. And
1:50:24
Speaker 2: now he gets to like, right off into the sunset
1:50:27
Speaker 2: to what we hope is a great life. We got
1:50:29
Speaker 2: to watch it. The whole thing. Kind of cool. Great
1:50:33
Speaker 2: job on both broadcasts by the broadcast team, letting the
1:50:35
Speaker 2: moments breathe. This coming from Darren on the text line.
1:50:41
Speaker 2: Those are one of my favorite things, when pitchers get
1:50:43
Speaker 2: to walk off the mound for the last time. Huge
1:50:46
Speaker 2: Dodger fan. Obviously paid attention to Clayton Kershaw's last year,
1:50:50
Speaker 2: last start in Seattle last year. In my opinion, these
1:50:54
Speaker 2: three pitchers, Clayton, Max, and Justin, should all be unanimous
1:50:58
Speaker 2: first ballot Hall of Fame recipients. Look, I think they're
1:51:01
Speaker 2: all going to get into the Hall of Fame. Baseball,
1:51:04
Speaker 2: more than any other sport, is absolutely insane about the
1:51:10
Speaker 2: gatekeeping and the unanimous and the first ballot stuff. I
1:51:14
Speaker 2: wouldn't count on any player, like, I wouldn't count on
1:51:18
Speaker 2: any player being a unanimous or a first ballot Hall
1:51:21
Speaker 2: of Famer, but these guys are going to find their
1:51:23
Speaker 2: place into the Hall of Fame at some point. And
1:51:26
Speaker 2: it is really cool to watch pitchers. Baseball lends itself
1:51:30
Speaker 2: to those moments more effectively than other sports, right? Because
1:51:34
Speaker 2: it's like a thing when a pitcher gets subbed out,
1:51:36
Speaker 2: we watch it. We're used to it. When a quarterback
1:51:41
Speaker 2: throws his last pass and gets pulled off the field,
1:51:44
Speaker 2: it's usually it's like, Oh, that's the end of the game.
1:51:47
Speaker 2: Good job. Have fun. Unless they go out like Elway did.
1:51:50
Speaker 2: We're not really talking about it much. All right, I'm
1:51:54
Speaker 2: a little over time. Zach Moss next. We'll talk about
1:51:57
Speaker 2: Utah's big win. We'll talk about Wayshon Parker and his
1:52:01
Speaker 2: massive performance and the shout-out he gave to Zach Moss
1:52:05
Speaker 2: in his post-game interview. Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
1:52:09
Speaker 2: Invisible airwaves crackle with light. Bright and tender, bristle at night.
1:52:21
Speaker 7: You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
1:52:24
Speaker 7: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 792.1 FM.
1:52:33
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. Welcome in the
1:52:35
Speaker 2: Utah football legend, sideline reporter on the official radio broadcast,
1:52:41
Speaker 2: NFL veteran Zach Moss. Kind enough to join us here
1:52:44
Speaker 2: on a Monday. Zach, welcome to the show. How are you?
1:52:47
Speaker 9: Speaker 2, good.
1:52:47
Speaker 3: How are you guys doing?
1:52:48
Speaker 2: All right, man. Another Utah victory four and O on
1:52:51
Speaker 2: the season. Now, as you are well aware, I'm way
1:52:56
Speaker 2: Sean Parker went absolutely bananas in this game against Iowa state.
1:53:02
Speaker 2: And that's after a relatively quiet week against the Aggies
1:53:05
Speaker 2: of Utah state. Do you think those two things are related?
1:53:09
Speaker 2: Was Way Sean playing with a chip on his shoulder
1:53:11
Speaker 2: because it was a quiet week against Utah State? Maybe
1:53:14
Speaker 2: the offense wanted to be a little bit more centered
1:53:16
Speaker 2: around him because he didn't get as many touches. Was
1:53:19
Speaker 2: the quiet week related to the explosive week?
1:53:25
Speaker 3: I think he wanted to get going. you know, they
1:53:29
Speaker 3: need to really, you know, obviously he's a big time competitor.
1:53:31
Speaker 3: You don't get to this stage if you're not. So
1:53:35
Speaker 3: I think he definitely wanted to get going from the
1:53:37
Speaker 3: competitive standpoint of things and prove who he was. And,
1:53:40
Speaker 3: you know, I talked about it a little bit on the,
1:53:43
Speaker 3: on our pregame show, you know, you had a, you
1:53:46
Speaker 3: had a, you know, another really good running back guy
1:53:48
Speaker 3: who was leading the big 12 in Russian as well.
1:53:50
Speaker 3: So you want to, you know, also get going and
1:53:53
Speaker 3: show what you can do right when you got another
1:53:56
Speaker 3: guy on the field that's having a pretty good year himself. So,
1:54:00
Speaker 3: you know, and it was the weather made a thousand
1:54:03
Speaker 3: percent sense on him to definitely, you know, have the
1:54:07
Speaker 3: opportunity to have a big day. And he did just that.
1:54:10
Speaker 3: He answered that call in a great fashion.
1:54:16
Speaker 2: Almost 10 yards of carry for, for way Sean in
1:54:19
Speaker 2: this one. When you're having a day like that, right,
1:54:22
Speaker 2: when you're, like, first play from scrimmage, you take it
1:54:25
Speaker 2: all the way to the house, and then, you know,
1:54:28
Speaker 2: the holes were being opened up successfully. You got to
1:54:31
Speaker 2: give credit to the offensive line, but, you know, he
1:54:33
Speaker 2: was also running after contact. He's making guys miss. He
1:54:37
Speaker 2: was in a flow state, it seemed like, from the
1:54:39
Speaker 2: very beginning. Mere mortals like us, Zach, we have not
1:54:43
Speaker 2: experienced this. You had a few games like this in
1:54:45
Speaker 2: a Utah uniform or even in the NFL. Give me
1:54:48
Speaker 2: a sense of what it feels like when it's all,
1:54:51
Speaker 2: it's just everything's hitting for you as a running back.
1:54:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely a flow state. You know, a lot
1:54:59
Speaker 3: of times you don't even hear the crowd. You know,
1:55:01
Speaker 3: everything just makes sense. It's like you can do no wrong.
1:55:05
Speaker 3: And he definitely was in definitely some type of a
1:55:08
Speaker 3: flow state on Saturday. But, you know, it was great
1:55:12
Speaker 3: to see him play like that. I think, you know,
1:55:15
Speaker 3: he obviously has the capabilities to do things like that
1:55:18
Speaker 3: on a regular day basis. So it was nice for
1:55:20
Speaker 3: them to, you know, give him the opportunities to do that.
1:55:24
Speaker 3: I mean, the first game, first play of the game,
1:55:26
Speaker 3: you know, he breaks a 55-yard touchdown. You know, that
1:55:30
Speaker 3: just set the tone for what type of day he
1:55:32
Speaker 3: wanted to have and what his mindset was. And then
1:55:34
Speaker 3: you know, obviously everything you heard about what he was doing,
1:55:38
Speaker 3: how he was talking in the post game and things
1:55:39
Speaker 3: of that nature. So, you know, looking for him to
1:55:42
Speaker 3: continue to build off this now, right. That's, that's the
1:55:45
Speaker 3: next step and, you know, where he wants to get
1:55:47
Speaker 3: to playing on Sunday. So, you know, as long as
1:55:49
Speaker 3: he can build off of that, he's going to have
1:55:51
Speaker 3: a real good season.
1:55:53
Speaker 2: Gave you a shout out in the post game on television.
1:55:55
Speaker 2: I'm sure you, you maybe didn't hear that live. Maybe
1:55:58
Speaker 2: you heard it afterwards. Someone probably sent it to you,
1:56:00
Speaker 2: but I have not given you space properly to like,
1:56:04
Speaker 2: Explain your relationship with way Sean and the, and the
1:56:07
Speaker 2: fact that, you know, he recognizes how much you helped him,
1:56:10
Speaker 2: encouraging him to stay over the summer and work on
1:56:13
Speaker 2: his craft and be fully committed to Utah football and
1:56:16
Speaker 2: things like that. So I want to give you that space, Zach,
1:56:19
Speaker 2: like what, what does this kid mean to you? What
1:56:21
Speaker 2: do you, what, what sense do you get of what
1:56:23
Speaker 2: you mean to him?
1:56:25
Speaker 3: Um, yeah, you know, I heard that he gave me
1:56:27
Speaker 3: a shout out. I haven't seen it or anything like that,
1:56:29
Speaker 3: but I heard, um, you know, it's been great to
1:56:32
Speaker 3: just be back around the program. Uh, first of all,
1:56:35
Speaker 3: just to be able to, you know, for these guys,
1:56:37
Speaker 3: I think that was a big thing. And I talked
1:56:40
Speaker 3: about a lot, um, you know, with the school, when
1:56:43
Speaker 3: it came to the alumni situation and stuff like that,
1:56:46
Speaker 3: you know, it was just, you know, I grew up
1:56:48
Speaker 3: in Miami, so, um, when players, no matter where they're from,
1:56:52
Speaker 3: when players get to see players from the past that
1:56:54
Speaker 3: they feel, you know, have been able to have some
1:56:57
Speaker 3: success or get to where they wanted to get to themselves, right?
1:57:01
Speaker 3: When they get a chance to see people like that
1:57:05
Speaker 3: right next to them, you know, it makes that dream
1:57:07
Speaker 3: feel more realistic. So, you know, I think I've meant
1:57:11
Speaker 3: that to him for sure from the standpoint of, you know,
1:57:14
Speaker 3: somebody who's who's done it, who's played at a high
1:57:17
Speaker 3: level in college and then, you know, obviously playing in
1:57:20
Speaker 3: the professional league as well on Sundays, right? That's always
1:57:23
Speaker 3: the goal no matter how you get there and how
1:57:25
Speaker 3: long you're there or anything like that. So, you know,
1:57:29
Speaker 3: it's just like a nice little way of being an
1:57:31
Speaker 3: actual physical representation of somebody who can motivate them. Um,
1:57:35
Speaker 3: you know, we've had a few words and things of
1:57:37
Speaker 3: that nature, uh, as well. And, you know, he's hungry.
1:57:41
Speaker 3: He's a, like I say, he's a real time, big
1:57:44
Speaker 3: competitor and he wants to continue to be really, really good. And,
1:57:47
Speaker 3: you know, etch his name into the program history books
1:57:51
Speaker 3: in different ways of that nature. You know, I think
1:57:53
Speaker 3: he's definitely going to do that this year with the
1:57:55
Speaker 3: touchdowns for sure. He's racking those up and no problem. So,
1:57:59
Speaker 3: you know, he's one of those guys, like I said, and,
1:58:01
Speaker 3: you know, it's always good to see the tradition of
1:58:04
Speaker 3: players that we have, especially at that running back position,
1:58:07
Speaker 3: the team to, you know, want to get better and
1:58:09
Speaker 3: lead the way.
1:58:11
Speaker 2: How do you win a bi-week if you're Morgan Scali
1:58:14
Speaker 2: and this Utah football team?
1:58:15
Speaker 3: Um, there's going to be interesting for him, obviously his
1:58:19
Speaker 3: first five by a week. And, you know, I think
1:58:23
Speaker 3: the way he's been coaching these guys, I've seen a
1:58:25
Speaker 3: lot of the, uh, In training camp, they've had a
1:58:30
Speaker 3: lot of downtime almost. They hadn't practiced traditionally really hard
1:58:37
Speaker 3: as a Utah football usually does in that time of
1:58:40
Speaker 3: the year. So I think it would be something similar
1:58:44
Speaker 3: to that as well. of how he does things like that.
1:58:48
Speaker 3: Make sure you guys get rest. You know, they have some,
1:58:50
Speaker 3: maybe they have any injuries and things like that. Make
1:58:53
Speaker 3: sure those guys get rest. But, you know, the game
1:58:55
Speaker 3: is very, very mental. So I think Coach Scali is
1:58:58
Speaker 3: going to be going to put those guys in a
1:59:00
Speaker 3: great situation to come back and get ready for that
1:59:03
Speaker 3: late kickoff that we just got here versus Kansas.
1:59:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, night game again at Rice Eccles Stadium, mid-October night game,
1:59:12
Speaker 2: which means could be beautiful, could be lovely, could be cold, raining,
1:59:16
Speaker 2: might even snow because that's just how things are around here.
1:59:20
Speaker 2: A whiteout for a night game. I don't know how
1:59:22
Speaker 2: many of those we've had. They announced a whiteout and
1:59:24
Speaker 2: they announced a night game kind of almost concurrently. So
1:59:27
Speaker 2: usually they go black when it's after dark, but I
1:59:31
Speaker 2: guess I'll get on board with a whiteout at a
1:59:33
Speaker 2: night game.
1:59:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, it got a chance to be really nice. I
1:59:38
Speaker 3: think it's cool. I think changing it up and doing
1:59:42
Speaker 3: different things is always important. You got to do that, right?
1:59:46
Speaker 3: So I like the fact that they're doing the whiteout.
1:59:50
Speaker 3: I think once the fans get in there and it's
1:59:54
Speaker 3: dark and there's nothing but just white shirts, white apparel,
1:59:58
Speaker 3: things of that nature, you guys are going to look good.
2:00:01
Speaker 3: It's another reason to go out there and play good.
2:00:03
Speaker 2: All right, on a more serious note, Zach, now that
2:00:06
Speaker 2: we're four games in, right, it's a sample size that
2:00:09
Speaker 2: you can really start to infer some things from. Competition
2:00:12
Speaker 2: is still a question, but how good do you feel
2:00:16
Speaker 2: about this Utah football team and what they might be
2:00:19
Speaker 2: able to accomplish this year based on what we have seen?
2:00:22
Speaker 2: They've looked really nice, even in times where the adversity
2:00:25
Speaker 2: has sort of reared its ugly head. They've found ways
2:00:28
Speaker 2: to figure it out. definitely tougher matchups down the road,
2:00:32
Speaker 2: but four games in, do you feel like this team
2:00:35
Speaker 2: is ahead of pace on pace, maybe more capable of
2:00:38
Speaker 2: winning the championship than you initially thought? Give me your thoughts.
2:00:42
Speaker 3: I think they are on pace. I think they are
2:00:45
Speaker 3: on pace. I think obviously the first three games was
2:00:48
Speaker 3: hard to tell exactly what type of team they were
2:00:50
Speaker 3: going to be. But now obviously them being able to So,
2:00:56
Speaker 3: you know, through adversity, right, the play call and showing
2:00:59
Speaker 3: up in the adversity, right, these guys having a little
2:01:02
Speaker 3: battle test on the road in a pretty decent environment, honestly,
2:01:06
Speaker 3: and playing against a school that's, you know, they've been
2:01:12
Speaker 3: doing some good things as well. He had a, they
2:01:14
Speaker 3: had a three point loss to Iowa at Iowa, right? So,
2:01:17
Speaker 3: you know, this team had done a lot of good
2:01:19
Speaker 3: things so far through the first few weeks themselves. So,
2:01:22
Speaker 3: you know, I got a lot of confidence coming out
2:01:24
Speaker 3: of that game of, you know, exactly what they can do,
2:01:27
Speaker 3: who they can be and things of that nature. So
2:01:29
Speaker 3: it was nice to see that. I think obviously, you know,
2:01:33
Speaker 3: I think they don't pay just because, you know, you
2:01:35
Speaker 3: got to get a little deeper into the big 12
2:01:36
Speaker 3: season and those types of opponents on a regular basis
2:01:41
Speaker 3: here coming up. So, you know, but I like where
2:01:43
Speaker 3: they are. I like what the offense has been going,
2:01:45
Speaker 3: where they have been and where they get a chance
2:01:47
Speaker 3: to continue to go.
2:01:49
Speaker 2: Zach Moss for another couple of minutes here on the
2:01:51
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell show, talking all things at Utah football. So
2:01:56
Speaker 2: pro football focus. I'm not sure, you know, how much
2:01:59
Speaker 2: you lean on these analytics and things like that, but
2:02:02
Speaker 2: I think they have them graded as the highest ranked
2:02:06
Speaker 2: secondary in the nation right now for Utah. Top five
2:02:09
Speaker 2: offensive line in terms of the PFF scores, things like that.
2:02:14
Speaker 2: This is a top 25 defense, a top 25 offense
2:02:18
Speaker 2: from just like the meaningful national numbers. When we talk
2:02:22
Speaker 2: about those units specifically, especially the offensive line, being such
2:02:26
Speaker 2: a question. coming into the year and the way that
2:02:29
Speaker 2: they have performed so far, so admirably, even while rotating players,
2:02:35
Speaker 2: you know, and they're again, pro football focus you take
2:02:38
Speaker 2: with a grain of salt, but to be top five,
2:02:41
Speaker 2: to be top 10, to be top 25, having replaced
2:02:44
Speaker 2: all five starters really tells me that Morgan Scali, Jordan
2:02:48
Speaker 2: gross and company, they've got some things figured out with
2:02:50
Speaker 2: getting this new group integrated.
2:02:53
Speaker 9: Oh yeah.
2:02:53
Speaker 3: They've done a great job in, you know, building the culture.
2:02:56
Speaker 3: These guys, you know, having missed the beat from last year,
2:02:59
Speaker 3: I think it was really good that he obviously had
2:03:01
Speaker 3: that chance last year in that bowl game to, you know,
2:03:05
Speaker 3: kind of these guys to kind of see what type
2:03:07
Speaker 3: of style he was going to come with and the energy,
2:03:10
Speaker 3: you know, everyone loves him already, you know, from before
2:03:13
Speaker 3: he was the head coach, these guys had been around
2:03:15
Speaker 3: him and he had a big part on of on
2:03:18
Speaker 3: this team and how this team ran last year before
2:03:20
Speaker 3: he took over the job um so it's been you
2:03:23
Speaker 3: know pretty seamless in the sense of how he's been
2:03:27
Speaker 3: able to continue to get better with these guys and
2:03:30
Speaker 3: guys have taken so much on when it comes to
2:03:33
Speaker 3: you know believing in the system and understanding what he
2:03:36
Speaker 3: wants to get done and things of that nature so
2:03:38
Speaker 3: you know it's been a perfect marriage of guys who
2:03:40
Speaker 3: are buying into the system there's not a lot of
2:03:42
Speaker 3: guys that uh you know he's And, you know, it's
2:03:46
Speaker 3: kind of new, kind of like, you know, an Iowa
2:03:48
Speaker 3: State in a sense, right, where you have to build
2:03:51
Speaker 3: over an entirely new culture. You got 80 new faces,
2:03:54
Speaker 3: you know, a whole bunch of starters are leaving and
2:03:56
Speaker 3: things of that nature. A lot of these guys played
2:03:59
Speaker 3: here last year were big time contributors to that and
2:04:01
Speaker 3: everything like that. So, you know, they know exactly where
2:04:04
Speaker 3: they want to get to. And that's to that Big
2:04:07
Speaker 3: 12 championship game because they have the ability and they
2:04:09
Speaker 3: have the talent to do that.
2:04:12
Speaker 2: Speaker 2, Bengals within a close one against the Steelers
2:04:15
Speaker 2: this last weekend. Did you watch this game?
2:04:17
Speaker 3: Speaker 3 I did watch that game. I did watch
2:04:22
Speaker 3: that game. It was very good game. You know, great
2:04:27
Speaker 3: rivalry always. I loved what the bangles did. I loved
2:04:33
Speaker 3: what the Steelers did.
2:04:34
Speaker 8: Right.
2:04:34
Speaker 3: You know, that's always going to be a back and
2:04:36
Speaker 3: forth game. When you get into those divisional games, especially
2:04:39
Speaker 3: in the AFC North, which is stacking up to be
2:04:43
Speaker 3: a really, really, really talented division so far.
2:04:49
Speaker 2: So a lot of us were wondering if the Bengals
2:04:51
Speaker 2: were ever going to figure things out defensively. And this
2:04:54
Speaker 2: game is not the best example of it, but the
2:04:56
Speaker 2: defense is a heck of a lot better this year
2:04:57
Speaker 2: than they've been recently. And now it's like, well, what
2:05:01
Speaker 2: about the run game? Can they put together a run
2:05:04
Speaker 2: game that can at least be complimentary for Joe Burrow,
2:05:07
Speaker 2: who's obviously one of the best pure passers in the
2:05:09
Speaker 2: game right now? They're making... making any phone calls to
2:05:12
Speaker 2: Zach Moss?
2:05:15
Speaker 3: Oh no. You know, that team is based off of
2:05:18
Speaker 3: Joe burrows arm so much that, you know, the run
2:05:23
Speaker 3: game is really hard to get it going on a
2:05:25
Speaker 3: consistent level. That's just my opinion. But you know, chase
2:05:30
Speaker 3: Brown is very, very capable of doing those things, you know,
2:05:33
Speaker 3: but it's hard to get into the rhythm sometimes when,
2:05:36
Speaker 3: you know, you have you know, two really, really good,
2:05:39
Speaker 3: talented outside receivers in Higgins and Chase, right? So that's
2:05:45
Speaker 3: really hard to do. But, you know, I think he definitely,
2:05:49
Speaker 3: they definitely got the opportunity to continue to get better.
2:05:52
Speaker 3: You know, it's only going into week four now and,
2:05:54
Speaker 3: you know, Chase Brown has done a lot of good
2:05:57
Speaker 3: things as well. And, you know, usually the last two years,
2:06:00
Speaker 3: I want to say, if I'm not mistaken, you know,
2:06:02
Speaker 3: he's kind of gotten going in the back end of
2:06:04
Speaker 3: the year, right? So, you know, got some time still
2:06:08
Speaker 3: based off of what the history has shown so far
2:06:10
Speaker 3: for how that run game kind of gets going for
2:06:12
Speaker 3: the Bengals.
2:06:14
Speaker 2: What are the Zach Moss plans for a bye week?
2:06:16
Speaker 2: You don't have to be on the sidelines this weekend.
2:06:18
Speaker 2: Next one, of course, will be a night game, a
2:06:20
Speaker 2: home game. So what will you do with your bye week?
2:06:24
Speaker 3: Speaker 2, I will be coaching high school football on
2:06:29
Speaker 3: Friday night. Summit Academy. We played judge Memorial right down
2:06:35
Speaker 3: there in Salt Lake. I believe that's where that location is.
2:06:38
Speaker 3: I'm not mistaken, but I'll be, so I'll be doing
2:06:40
Speaker 3: a little bit of that. And then, you know, probably Saturday,
2:06:43
Speaker 3: catch some of these games that's going on around the
2:06:46
Speaker 3: country as well. Hopefully some really good games. So that's
2:06:50
Speaker 3: my plan.
2:06:51
Speaker 2: Did you ever play with somebody who was so much
2:06:57
Speaker 2: of a wild card that you were worried, like a
2:07:00
Speaker 2: really talented player, but so much of a wild card
2:07:02
Speaker 2: that you or other leadership on the team or whoever
2:07:06
Speaker 2: it was felt like you had to do something in
2:07:08
Speaker 2: order to make sure that they would stay on the field.
2:07:10
Speaker 2: We saw a couple of situations this past weekend. USC
2:07:15
Speaker 2: had to suspend a linebacker for a dirty hit on
2:07:17
Speaker 2: Dante Moore. Texas got penalized for a vulgar gesture on
2:07:24
Speaker 2: the field, which I don't think is going to lead
2:07:26
Speaker 2: to anything more significant than that. South Carolina's best pass
2:07:30
Speaker 2: rusher goes off in the game, punches an Alabama player,
2:07:34
Speaker 2: and then starts arguing with coaches and things like that.
2:07:36
Speaker 2: Did you ever have one of these guys on the
2:07:38
Speaker 2: team that you were like, man, if you could just...
2:07:41
Speaker 2: not act crazy. We can get some more out of you.
2:07:43
Speaker 9: .
2:07:44
Speaker 3: done some things this
2:07:51
Speaker 3: past weekend. Never had any guys that you just were just,
2:07:55
Speaker 3: you know, truly, truly, truly worried about each and every
2:07:59
Speaker 3: game or, you know, having to make sure they don't
2:08:01
Speaker 3: do anything idiotic on the field to put you in
2:08:04
Speaker 3: a bad situation. Had some hotheads, right, where it comes to,
2:08:06
Speaker 3: you know, you know, late hit when it comes to
2:08:10
Speaker 3: just being competitive, right, or saying too much and things
2:08:13
Speaker 3: of that nature. But nothing where, you know, guys are
2:08:16
Speaker 3: just intentionally being, you know, physical for no apparent reason.
2:08:23
Speaker 2: Last thing before I let you go, the Utah mammoth
2:08:26
Speaker 2: season begins this week. Have you jumped on the hockey
2:08:29
Speaker 2: bandwagon yet?
2:08:31
Speaker 3: Not yet. I'm looking forward to getting to some of
2:08:36
Speaker 3: those games, but haven't got on to that bandwagon yet,
2:08:39
Speaker 3: but it looks good for these guys so far. You know,
2:08:41
Speaker 3: I love to see the new arena, get some more
2:08:44
Speaker 3: seats and things in there for these guys, stuff like that. So, um,
2:08:48
Speaker 3: haven't jumped onto that bandwagon yet, but we'll see.
2:08:50
Speaker 6: Yeah.
2:08:51
Speaker 2: We'll have to get you out to a game or two.
2:08:52
Speaker 2: It's awesome. It's fun. And I think that, you know, you're,
2:08:55
Speaker 2: you're a sports guy, so you'll get caught up in it.
2:08:57
Speaker 2: Like the rest of us.
2:08:59
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
2:09:00
Speaker 2: Never know. Zach, you're the man. Appreciate your time. Let's
2:09:03
Speaker 2: talk again soon. Okay.
2:09:05
Speaker 3: My man appreciates you. Thank you. Have a good week.
2:09:08
Speaker 2: That is Zach Moss, Utah football legend. And look, way.
2:09:16
Speaker 2: Sean Parker did give Zach a little shout out after
2:09:19
Speaker 2: the game in his television interview. He had the grill.
2:09:23
Speaker 2: He was looking great. He's coming off a huge performance. And, uh,
2:09:27
Speaker 2: he mentioned the, you know, the former Cincinnati Bengal, Buffalo bill,
2:09:34
Speaker 2: Utah Ute said like, he was a big part of
2:09:37
Speaker 2: my career. He was, or sorry, he was a big
2:09:39
Speaker 2: part of my development this summer. That's awesome. So got
2:09:43
Speaker 2: to feel good when you're a, an alumni, uh, especially
2:09:46
Speaker 2: having played the position to hear that. All right. The
2:09:49
Speaker 2: text line is open, 877-353-0700. Your favorite thing you saw
2:09:54
Speaker 2: from the youths this weekend, the thing that gives you
2:09:56
Speaker 2: the most concern. And we had a really good question
2:10:01
Speaker 2: come in on the text line that I want to address.
2:10:04
Speaker 2: This is from Spencer Cobb. I hope you're still listening.
2:10:08
Speaker 2: He posed a thought exercise for us that I want
2:10:12
Speaker 2: to spend a little bit of time on. If you've
2:10:16
Speaker 2: got anything, send it to me, 877-353-0700. Sean O'Connell Show
2:10:20
Speaker 2: on Utah's number one sports talk, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
2:10:23
Speaker 7: You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source for
2:10:28
Speaker 7: the best youth football coverage. Here's O.C. from the Murdoch
2:10:32
Speaker 7: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
2:10:48
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show, 877-353-0700. 7361 says,
2:11:03
Speaker 2: we were at the game among a sea of white.
2:11:05
Speaker 2: It was a whiteout at Iowa State. That's why Utah
2:11:07
Speaker 2: was wearing red on the road. I don't know what.
2:11:15
Speaker 2: The next part of your text is referencing. Can you
2:11:17
Speaker 2: recap what you thought the pre-cancer may be? What pre-cancer?
2:11:20
Speaker 2: Did I say something about that? I don't remember. I
2:11:25
Speaker 2: say a lot.
2:11:27
Speaker 4: 877-353-0700.
2:11:27
Speaker 2: 5968. Hey, I'm not a big text to radio guy,
2:11:32
Speaker 2: but thank you for having the volleyball coach on today.
2:11:35
Speaker 2: Taking my family to a couple games this year. They're
2:11:37
Speaker 2: really fun. It was great to hear her break down
2:11:38
Speaker 2: their team a little bit. even though you don't understand
2:11:41
Speaker 2: things again and keep bringing her on piece. Look, I,
2:11:44
Speaker 2: one thing that I'm not going to do, I like
2:11:46
Speaker 2: watching volleyball. I understand the scoring of volleyball, right? I
2:11:50
Speaker 2: understand like most of the flow of the game. I'm
2:11:53
Speaker 2: not going to pretend like I've got a good sense
2:11:56
Speaker 2: of what a volleyball offense looks like or the right
2:12:00
Speaker 2: way to coach these women up. So I always love
2:12:02
Speaker 2: having our, our non-revenue sports on. I like talking gymnastics.
2:12:07
Speaker 2: I like talking volleyball. I like when we get, a
2:12:10
Speaker 2: volleyball player or a softball player or a softball coach
2:12:16
Speaker 2: or whatever. I want to talk more soccer on the show,
2:12:19
Speaker 2: but it's just one of those things. You've got to
2:12:22
Speaker 2: play the hits, man. It's football season, and these Utes
2:12:25
Speaker 2: are really, really good. They're 4-0, but thanks for listening.
2:12:28
Speaker 2: Shout out to... coach Alyssa Dorico for joining us on
2:12:31
Speaker 2: the show. And if you can, right, like it's not,
2:12:35
Speaker 2: it's no longer easy to get up to football games.
2:12:37
Speaker 2: It's worth the sacrifice. It's no longer easy. It's pretty
2:12:40
Speaker 2: easy still to get up to volleyball and women's basketball
2:12:44
Speaker 2: and men's basketball right now for that matter. So it's
2:12:48
Speaker 2: a great thing to do with your team, with your team,
2:12:51
Speaker 2: with your family, take them up to watch the teams.
2:12:54
Speaker 2: All right, Morgan. on the text line. Best thing I
2:12:57
Speaker 2: love the offense showed they can score when we need
2:12:59
Speaker 2: a big drive, scared about the defense going kind of
2:13:02
Speaker 2: cold in the third, they buckled down and got the
2:13:04
Speaker 2: stops when we needed them most. We're going to talk
2:13:06
Speaker 2: about this on the show tomorrow. I got a whole
2:13:08
Speaker 2: show planned around this tomorrow. Okay. This, this is a
2:13:12
Speaker 2: really interesting trend that I think needs to be addressed
2:13:15
Speaker 2: and we'll, we'll discuss this a little bit. But yes, the,
2:13:19
Speaker 2: the encouraging thing was Utah needed Needed to seize the
2:13:25
Speaker 2: momentum in that game back after the long review on,
2:13:31
Speaker 2: is that a first down on the reception? Good tackle,
2:13:34
Speaker 2: but on the reception where the tall receiver, you know,
2:13:38
Speaker 2: reaches out and extends it to the pylon or pass
2:13:41
Speaker 2: the pylon. that was a big moment in the game.
2:13:45
Speaker 2: And you heard, it was almost like wishful thinking by
2:13:47
Speaker 2: the broadcast team. Like this, the game could go different
2:13:50
Speaker 2: here based on the result of this measurement. They almost
2:13:53
Speaker 2: wanted it. Cause obviously it's going to be a closer game.
2:13:55
Speaker 2: It's obviously, you know, it's a bigger deal for a broadcast.
2:13:59
Speaker 2: If there's a comeback and promise you Tim Brando and
2:14:03
Speaker 2: who's a, who's the Michigan, former Michigan quarterback that was
2:14:08
Speaker 2: on the call with them. Gardner.
2:14:11
Speaker 8: Gardner.
2:14:11
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:14:12
Speaker 4: Yeah.
2:14:12
Speaker 2: It wasn't there. They're not like, they're not Utah fans.
2:14:14
Speaker 2: They're not rooting for Utah to win. So they want
2:14:17
Speaker 2: there to be a comeback there. And it very, very
2:14:19
Speaker 2: well could have been, but credit to Colton Swan, credit
2:14:23
Speaker 2: to Sharif Shaw, credit to this defense for figuring it
2:14:27
Speaker 2: out and getting the stops when they needed to. And
2:14:29
Speaker 2: to Kevin McGibbon for realizing, all right, like we have
2:14:33
Speaker 2: a lead, we have the ball back. Let's milk some clock.
2:14:37
Speaker 2: Let's get way Sean Parker going. And he obviously had
2:14:40
Speaker 2: a monster monster game and they weren't going to let
2:14:43
Speaker 2: one reception by Dominic over be changed the whole landscape
2:14:47
Speaker 2: of the game. And that was perfect.
2:14:53
Speaker 8: Ah, aha.
2:14:53
Speaker 2: Okay. Uh, earliest morning, you said there might be some
2:14:58
Speaker 2: signs for what might consider a mole or a blemish
2:15:01
Speaker 2: that could turn into something cancerous with Utah football.
2:15:04
Speaker 8: Yes.
2:15:04
Speaker 5: Okay.
2:15:04
Speaker 2: That's what the pre. Okay. So pre-cancer. Yes. Now we
2:15:08
Speaker 2: get it. Thank you. What I was referencing was there is,
2:15:13
Speaker 2: and we're going to spend a lot of time on
2:15:14
Speaker 2: the show tomorrow. There is a, there's a lull from
2:15:18
Speaker 2: Utah football after they take a lead of a certain size.
2:15:22
Speaker 2: After they exit the field for halftime, there's a, there's
2:15:26
Speaker 2: a lull. There's a, an easing of the foot on
2:15:30
Speaker 2: the gas pedal that you have to get away from.
2:15:34
Speaker 2: And you have to figure out, and I don't know
2:15:36
Speaker 2: if you can during the bye week, honestly, because there's
2:15:39
Speaker 2: no game to play here, but you, you need to
2:15:41
Speaker 2: have it figured out against Kansas because Houston's good enough
2:15:46
Speaker 2: to make you pay. And the meat of the schedule
2:15:50
Speaker 2: gets a little bit thicker. And obviously you can't make
2:15:53
Speaker 2: any mistakes, November 7th. So you need everything to be
2:15:56
Speaker 2: figured out before that game happens. So we'll talk about
2:15:59
Speaker 2: that on the show, but there is a, That's what
2:16:02
Speaker 2: I was talking about. There's like, you see some things
2:16:04
Speaker 2: where you're just like, all right, this is a healthy body.
2:16:06
Speaker 2: This is a good, well-rounded football team. Why is that happening?
2:16:12
Speaker 2: Why is that little wart there? I don't that. Why,
2:16:17
Speaker 2: why is that? Don't you can't allow that to grow.
2:16:19
Speaker 2: That's what I was referencing. Thanks for the question. I
2:16:22
Speaker 2: do like the clever. He turned it into pre-cancer.
2:16:25
Speaker 8: Yes.
2:16:26
Speaker 5: Yes.
2:16:26
Speaker 2: Because of, because of the analogy you use.
2:16:28
Speaker 1: Good job there.
2:16:30
Speaker 2: Text her. Okay. 34 77. Spencer says I've noticed Morgan
2:16:34
Speaker 2: is more likely to switch the game plan, cater the
2:16:37
Speaker 2: plant each week, depending on who they will play or
2:16:41
Speaker 2: how the game is going. While wit will pretty much
2:16:43
Speaker 2: never change the way he wants to play regardless of
2:16:45
Speaker 2: what happens. So which type of coach do you prefer coach?
2:16:48
Speaker 2: You'd never change his styles. If it's done right, wins
2:16:51
Speaker 2: galore could be frustrating. If it's not working or a
2:16:53
Speaker 2: coach who changes based on opponent or situation, not as
2:16:57
Speaker 2: solid of an identity, but when you want to fall
2:16:59
Speaker 2: back on something reliable might help you gain an advantage.
2:17:03
Speaker 2: Feels like these styles might even explain where college football
2:17:07
Speaker 2: is headed, might need an adaptive coach to handle the
2:17:09
Speaker 2: constant change of rosters and everything else. That last paragraph
2:17:13
Speaker 2: is the most important statement you made. You have to
2:17:15
Speaker 2: be adaptable now. Like Kyle Whittingham is going to learn
2:17:21
Speaker 2: this at Michigan with his way of doing things, right?
2:17:25
Speaker 2: very successful above reproach for a lot of people and
2:17:30
Speaker 2: the reason he was hired at michigan because they're trying
2:17:34
Speaker 2: to get out of hey we cheated to win a
2:17:36
Speaker 2: national championship conversation hey our coach just went completely nuts
2:17:42
Speaker 2: and had an extramarital affair that turned into something nearly
2:17:45
Speaker 2: tragic and embarrassed our program they're trying to get away
2:17:48
Speaker 2: from that okay They want something that is vanilla ice
2:17:53
Speaker 2: cream with maybe just maybe like a a little bit
2:17:57
Speaker 2: of hot fudge on it, but something that is predictable
2:18:00
Speaker 2: and always delivers. That's why they hired Kyle Whittingham. It
2:18:03
Speaker 2: made perfect sense. There's not going to be as much
2:18:07
Speaker 2: coloring outside the lines with a coach like him. And
2:18:10
Speaker 2: he's not the only one, right? There are guys that
2:18:12
Speaker 2: they're going to do it their way. Dabo Swinney is
2:18:15
Speaker 2: one of these guys, right? And Dabo Swinney is just like, no,
2:18:18
Speaker 2: we have to do it this way. It is my
2:18:21
Speaker 2: way or the highway. Come hell or high water, I
2:18:24
Speaker 2: am going to run this program how I know how
2:18:26
Speaker 2: to run it. It's not a coincidence that I'm talking
2:18:29
Speaker 2: about two guys who've been in those positions for a
2:18:31
Speaker 2: very long time, right? You do have to be adaptable, though,
2:18:35
Speaker 2: and Dabo had to figure it out. Kyle Whittingham had
2:18:39
Speaker 2: to figure it out to some extent with the NIL
2:18:41
Speaker 2: stuff and the re-recruiting your own player stuff. He hates it.
2:18:44
Speaker 2: He loathes it. He doesn't want these kids to have
2:18:47
Speaker 2: a damn dime. but he understands that in order to,
2:18:51
Speaker 2: to win, you got to keep playing this game. And,
2:18:55
Speaker 2: That was the wrong way to say it. I'm sure
2:18:56
Speaker 2: he's happy that the kids are being compensated. He doesn't
2:18:58
Speaker 2: want people coming into his office and saying, give me
2:19:01
Speaker 2: more money than what they agreed to bugging him about, Hey,
2:19:05
Speaker 2: I don't have enough. Yeah. That's the kind of thing
2:19:07
Speaker 2: that drives people like that. Crazy Morgan Scali. That's I mean,
2:19:11
Speaker 2: it's going to drive him crazy at some point too,
2:19:13
Speaker 2: but Morgan Scali and some of these younger coaches, I
2:19:15
Speaker 2: think are better at adjusting to what's in front of them,
2:19:19
Speaker 2: adjusting to the changes that are happening. And we see
2:19:22
Speaker 2: that big picture with all the NIL stuff. More importantly, though,
2:19:25
Speaker 2: in a game plan, Morgan Scali is in a really
2:19:28
Speaker 2: nice spot now where he learned as a player under
2:19:35
Speaker 2: Urban Meyer what a dynamic offense does for a team
2:19:41
Speaker 2: that is defensively reliable. The defense that Morgan captained was
2:19:49
Speaker 2: unremarkable schematically. It was Kyle Whittingham playing man, playing relatively
2:20:00
Speaker 2: aggressive sometimes out of the base package with blitzes and pressures,
2:20:05
Speaker 2: but mostly with stunts from a really talented defensive line.
2:20:10
Speaker 2: And they didn't have to bring guys off the edge
2:20:13
Speaker 2: all that often. They didn't have to send blitzers all
2:20:16
Speaker 2: that often because it was just a really, really well-executed,
2:20:20
Speaker 2: solid defense. aggressive in ball hawking, running to the ball.
2:20:26
Speaker 2: Why do you think Morgan Scali decided to choose RSNB, right?
2:20:31
Speaker 2: He wants everyone to be a ball hawk. His idea
2:20:35
Speaker 2: of what a player is supposed to be, see ball,
2:20:37
Speaker 2: get ball, run to it, but know where you're supposed
2:20:40
Speaker 2: to be. Don't, you know, break, contain, all these kinds
2:20:44
Speaker 2: of things. Morgan Scali as a player learned, because he
2:20:49
Speaker 2: was already part of a talented team.
2:20:52
Speaker 4: Right?
2:20:53
Speaker 2: Urban Meyer didn't bring in a bunch of Newtown. It
2:20:55
Speaker 2: was already a very talented team. It was already a
2:20:57
Speaker 2: very physical team, a very tough team under Ron McBride.
2:21:01
Speaker 2: And then Urban Meyer brought in a dynamic offense. And
2:21:05
Speaker 2: Morgan Scali as a player was just like, oh, wow.
2:21:09
Speaker 2: We're running the same defense and our offense is dynamic
2:21:13
Speaker 2: and our offense is changing things and our offense is
2:21:16
Speaker 2: doing things that people are not accustomed to. People have
2:21:18
Speaker 2: not seen. So I think that He's getting a lot
2:21:22
Speaker 2: of credit right now for being like innovative and crazy.
2:21:25
Speaker 2: He's not, he's not innovative and crazy. He's just the
2:21:28
Speaker 2: guy who realizes if I keep one thing constant, I
2:21:32
Speaker 2: play fundamentally sound, hard tackling, hard hitting run to the
2:21:37
Speaker 2: ball defense. My offense gets to play and paint outside
2:21:42
Speaker 2: the lines and be crazy and do things that like
2:21:46
Speaker 2: we actually have not seen. Now that's partially dictated by personnel.
2:21:50
Speaker 2: You're not always going to have, But that is where
2:21:52
Speaker 2: the adaptability comes from. If your defense is good enough,
2:21:57
Speaker 2: and they are right now, your offense can experiment. If
2:22:01
Speaker 2: you can't trust your defense to get the ball back,
2:22:04
Speaker 2: if you can't trust your defense to get stops, what
2:22:06
Speaker 2: do you need to do? You need to hold the ball.
2:22:09
Speaker 2: You need to control the ball game. Kyle Whittingham never
2:22:14
Speaker 2: mastered quarterback development. Kyle Whittingham never mastered defense. Dynamic passing attacks.
2:22:25
Speaker 2: When Andy Ludwig was there, he trusted Andy Ludwig to
2:22:29
Speaker 2: do those things. And it worked. Every other voice from
2:22:34
Speaker 2: every other offensive coordinator not named Andy Ludwig, he did
2:22:38
Speaker 2: not trust fully. Until Jason Beck. And then when Jason
2:22:43
Speaker 2: Beck came, he was just like, I think Kyle Whittingham realized,
2:22:47
Speaker 2: you know what? I have to do this. I just...
2:22:51
Speaker 2: sacrifice my good friend, Andy Ludwig. He was the sacrificial lamb.
2:22:56
Speaker 2: Ludwig was not the problem with that team. It was injuries,
2:23:00
Speaker 2: but something had to be done to appease the powers
2:23:03
Speaker 2: that be the boosters, the fan base, whatever. I'm going
2:23:05
Speaker 2: to sacrifice this lamb. Somebody I love somebody who's given
2:23:08
Speaker 2: me the best years of my career. I am not
2:23:11
Speaker 2: going to bring in some other offensive coordinator and put
2:23:13
Speaker 2: my thumb on him. And so they brought it, but
2:23:18
Speaker 2: also Jason Beck was giving you what? an incredible rushing
2:23:22
Speaker 2: attack behind one of the best offensive lines in college football.
2:23:25
Speaker 2: The past, it wasn't exactly a crazy dynamic passing offense
2:23:29
Speaker 2: under Jason Beck either. Morgan Scali is just leaning on
2:23:33
Speaker 2: what he knows. He knows that if I have a
2:23:37
Speaker 2: great defense, a good quarterback and an offensive coordinator, who's
2:23:44
Speaker 2: willing to let that breathe and good things will happen.
2:23:49
Speaker 2: You know why Morgan Scali knows that as a player,
2:23:51
Speaker 2: that's what he had those final two years of his
2:23:54
Speaker 2: career with urban Meyer. He was there front row seat.
2:23:58
Speaker 2: When finally Andy Ludwig broke through for that sugar bowl offense,
2:24:03
Speaker 2: then Andy Ludwig left. And what did we do for
2:24:05
Speaker 2: 10 years? What the crap is wrong with this offense?
2:24:09
Speaker 2: What is wrong with this quarterback? Why don't you have this?
2:24:12
Speaker 2: Where are the wide receivers? And then guess what happened?
2:24:14
Speaker 2: Andy Ludwig came back and lo and behold, Tyler Huntley,
2:24:18
Speaker 2: who was a pretty underwhelming performer for two years, suddenly
2:24:22
Speaker 2: becomes an NFL quarterback cam rising and Dalton Kinkade and
2:24:30
Speaker 2: Brandt Keithy and Again, great offensive line and great running backs.
2:24:35
Speaker 2: Morgan was there for all of this. Morgan watched it
2:24:37
Speaker 2: all happen. I bet Morgan was screaming on his drive
2:24:41
Speaker 2: home every night in the years between. Being like, our
2:24:45
Speaker 2: defense is so good. All we need is a quarterback
2:24:49
Speaker 2: who can throw. Excuse me. Choking on my own spit.
2:24:56
Speaker 2: I'm so passionate.
2:24:59
Speaker 1: And you're not even Morgan. You're just trying to simulate
2:25:01
Speaker 1: Morgan on the show here.
2:25:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, that.
2:25:04
Speaker 1: I mean, I think every Utah football fan listening had
2:25:09
Speaker 1: those exact same thoughts, OC. They went, hey, what was
2:25:13
Speaker 1: different when Urban was here? What was different in the
2:25:16
Speaker 1: Sugar Bowl year? What was different again with Cam Rising?
2:25:20
Speaker 1: It's not just that Andy Ludwig was there both times.
2:25:23
Speaker 1: It was the fact that Andy Ludwig was trusted by
2:25:26
Speaker 1: Kyle Whittingham.
2:25:27
Speaker 2: Yes.
2:25:27
Speaker 8: And he.
2:25:29
Speaker 2: Did have that creativity.
2:25:31
Speaker 1: He had that offensive mastermind kind of that he put
2:25:36
Speaker 1: into his offensive scheme. But it's the trust from the
2:25:39
Speaker 1: head coach that makes it all happen.
2:25:40
Speaker 2: You know what? I don't read like I don't read
2:25:43
Speaker 2: books from coaches because like the self aggrandizing autobiographical crap.
2:25:49
Speaker 2: I don't like that. Andy Ludwig, please write a book.
2:25:53
Speaker 2: Please put a book out.
2:25:54
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a self aggrandizing bone in his body. So,
2:25:57
Speaker 1: you know, it would just be about, Hey, this is
2:25:59
Speaker 1: what I've learned about what makes great offensive football.
2:26:02
Speaker 2: I want Andy Ludwig to write the book. And I
2:26:05
Speaker 2: want there to be about 15 chapters of like stories.
2:26:10
Speaker 2: When he told Kyle Whittingham, he's probably one of the
2:26:12
Speaker 2: five people on the planet who can tell Kyle Whittingham
2:26:14
Speaker 2: to shut up. I really believe that about Andy Ludwig.
2:26:18
Speaker 2: Like I think coach's wife can do it. I think
2:26:21
Speaker 2: coach's mom can do it. His brothers could probably get
2:26:24
Speaker 2: away with it. And Andy Ludwig. And I don't think
2:26:26
Speaker 2: there's anybody else who can get away with it. I
2:26:30
Speaker 2: Chris Hill didn't get away with it. That's true. Mark
2:26:32
Speaker 2: Harlan didn't get away with it. I think that there's
2:26:34
Speaker 2: probably a very, very short list. And I think Andy
2:26:37
Speaker 2: Ludwig is one of them and it worked. Okay. And
2:26:40
Speaker 2: we lose sight of that, but Morgan Scali does not
2:26:44
Speaker 2: Morgan Scali does That's where his adaptability comes in. Morgan
2:26:47
Speaker 2: Scali is like the master of delegation of knowing what
2:26:52
Speaker 2: he is good at, knowing what he needs help with
2:26:55
Speaker 2: and trusting somebody else to be excellent at their job.
2:27:00
Speaker 4: Yeah.
2:27:00
Speaker 1: And he also, one thing that he said quite a
2:27:03
Speaker 1: bit as when people asked him, why was Mac G
2:27:07
Speaker 1: the guy, even before the game started, right?
2:27:10
Speaker 2: What did he say all the time?
2:27:11
Speaker 1: Oh, see, he said, I knew that what he did
2:27:16
Speaker 1: offensively was confusing and really tough to defend. And he
2:27:21
Speaker 1: leaned in, even in that way, he leaned into what
2:27:23
Speaker 1: he knows, which is the defensive side of the ball,
2:27:26
Speaker 1: particularly as a, as a defensive back. So he knew
2:27:31
Speaker 1: that when you have a dynamic passing game, when you
2:27:34
Speaker 1: have a passing game that puts pressure on the defense
2:27:37
Speaker 1: as a defensive back, he knows just how hard that
2:27:41
Speaker 1: can be to defend, especially in this modern age of
2:27:43
Speaker 1: college football. And just like you said, even in that way,
2:27:47
Speaker 1: he was not trying to color too far outside the
2:27:51
Speaker 1: lines and be like, yeah, well, okay, because I was
2:27:54
Speaker 1: a great defender and a great defensive coach, I know
2:27:57
Speaker 1: this about offense. No, he said, I know this about
2:28:00
Speaker 1: defense and that's hard to defend. Mac G teach me how,
2:28:05
Speaker 1: teach us why that's hard to defend and do your thing.
2:28:09
Speaker 2: It's, it's been really cool to watch. And I think
2:28:11
Speaker 2: we're just at the very beginning of it. And yes,
2:28:13
Speaker 2: there will be times right where that, that learning curve
2:28:17
Speaker 2: manifests itself. But I'm telling you the reason why a
2:28:22
Speaker 2: lot of people close to this program were like, Hey,
2:28:25
Speaker 2: when Morgan Scali takes over, it's going to be a
2:28:28
Speaker 2: good thing. And I, I didn't want it to go
2:28:31
Speaker 2: down the way that it went down because I respect
2:28:35
Speaker 2: Kyle Whittingham. It was never about, oh, I don't want
2:28:38
Speaker 2: Morgan beat. He's not ready yet. There's never been a
2:28:41
Speaker 2: question about that. It's can you not screw up this succession?
2:28:46
Speaker 2: Can you not screw up the timeline on this? But look,
2:28:49
Speaker 2: this is a four and oh football team. They're ranked
2:28:51
Speaker 2: 13th in the country. They still have a few things
2:28:55
Speaker 2: to figure out. We'll talk about some of those on
2:28:56
Speaker 2: the show tomorrow. But the adaptability of your head coach
2:29:00
Speaker 2: and your offensive coordinator, for that matter, to take what
2:29:03
Speaker 2: a defense gives you That is so much easier to
2:29:08
Speaker 2: do when you're like, you know what is going to
2:29:11
Speaker 2: be constant, though? Death taxes and Utah football. They're talking
2:29:15
Speaker 2: about death taxes and Utah defense. They're talking about death
2:29:19
Speaker 2: taxes and Utah physicality. They're talking about death taxes and
2:29:23
Speaker 2: Utah playing the ball the right way. That's what Joel
2:29:26
Speaker 2: Klatt is talking to. He's not saying death taxes and
2:29:30
Speaker 2: the two quarterback system, death taxes and tight ends, death
2:29:34
Speaker 2: taxes and way Sean Parker. He's talking about Utah defense.
2:29:39
Speaker 2: And who knows that better than Morgan Scali? Nobody on
2:29:42
Speaker 2: the planet.
2:29:42
Speaker 8: Nobody.
2:29:44
Speaker 2: That's where the adaptability comes from. It's a great conversation.
2:29:48
Speaker 2: Thank you, Spencer, for making that happen.
2:29:51
Speaker 3: All right.
2:29:52
Speaker 2: Going to take our last break. We're going to come
2:29:54
Speaker 2: back a little cross talk with Spence check.
2:29:56
Speaker 3: It's and.
2:29:57
Speaker 2: You know that song? I think it's a Tim McGraw.
2:30:01
Speaker 2: Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.
2:30:04
Speaker 3: Garth Brooks.
2:30:04
Speaker 2: Is that Garth Brooks? Very close. Did I say Tim McGraw? Yeah.
2:30:07
Speaker 2: It's Garth Brooks. Both great 90s country's legends, okay? I
2:30:13
Speaker 2: want to remind Utah football fans that that manifests itself
2:30:17
Speaker 2: in this season because remember when you wanted John Mateer?
2:30:22
Speaker 2: Be glad you have Devin Dampier instead. It's the Sean
2:30:25
Speaker 2: O'Connell Show on ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
2:30:31
Speaker 7: You're listening to the sean o'connell show from the murdoch
2:30:35
Speaker 7: hyundai studio of espn 792 1fm closing.
2:30:42
Speaker 2: Things out here on the sean o'connell show final segment
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Speaker 2: is always brought to you by our friends over at
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2:31:16
Speaker 2: So make a phone call, 801-850-9100. 9,100. We don't have
2:31:25
Speaker 2: the Garth Brooks song queued up, but that some of
2:31:27
Speaker 2: God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. There was a time
2:31:30
Speaker 2: when you wanted Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer to be
2:31:33
Speaker 2: the package deal that came to the university of Utah.
2:31:39
Speaker 2: And look, I was, I was right there with you.
2:31:43
Speaker 2: It was one of those things where you're like, Oh
2:31:45
Speaker 2: my gosh, This is a young quarterback. This is a
2:31:50
Speaker 2: young offensive coordinator. These are the future, the energy that
2:31:53
Speaker 2: you need from a place like Washington State. Give them
2:31:56
Speaker 2: a better landing spot, a better infrastructure to build off of.
2:32:03
Speaker 2: Oklahoma looks rough right now. And John Mateer is developing
2:32:12
Speaker 2: a case of the yips, if we're being honest. Oklahoma
2:32:15
Speaker 2: falls the 2-2 lead. getting destroyed by Georgia after also
2:32:21
Speaker 2: losing to Michigan. They beat New Mexico 14-6. The only
2:32:28
Speaker 2: team they've looked good against this year was UTEP in
2:32:30
Speaker 2: a 51-0 victory at the beginning of the year, but
2:32:35
Speaker 2: I'll give you a dollar if you can guess how
2:32:36
Speaker 2: many games UTEP has won. Oklahoma looks really, really bad
2:32:40
Speaker 2: right now, and John Mateer is a big part of that,
2:32:43
Speaker 2: and Ben Arbuckle is not a good enough coordinator either.
2:32:46
Speaker 2: to fix anything when your quarterback is playing wrong. By
2:32:50
Speaker 2: the way, for Oklahoma, the next slate, the rest of
2:32:54
Speaker 2: this month, or is, excuse me, the rest of October
2:32:57
Speaker 2: looks like number one Texas after a bye, number one Texas,
2:33:02
Speaker 2: number four Kentucky, number 16 Mississippi State. Halloween, they play
2:33:07
Speaker 2: South Carolina, a brief reprieve, and then it is Florida,
2:33:12
Speaker 2: Ole Miss, both top 10 teams currently, Texas A & M,
2:33:15
Speaker 2: And they'll close it out against Missouri in a rivalry game.
2:33:20
Speaker 2: Missouri right now is a ranked team. So, yikes. Let's
2:33:25
Speaker 2: just point out the fact we're happy to have Devin Dampier.
2:33:29
Speaker 2: And it worked out well for one season with Jason Beck.
2:33:32
Speaker 2: It's now working out great so far with Kevin McGiven.
2:33:36
Speaker 2: It's not always what you expect it to be. The
2:33:39
Speaker 2: Drive and Spence Check-Its are next. Spence is here in
2:33:42
Speaker 2: our studios looking at me right now.
2:33:44
Speaker 3: Hi.
2:33:44
Speaker 2: Hello, Sean. Looks like you played a little golf over
2:33:47
Speaker 2: the weekend. I like that. I did not do that.
2:33:50
Speaker 2: I did go to the beach. It was great. Which beach?
2:33:53
Speaker 2: Where were you? San Juan Capitano Beach. Oh, very nice. Yeah,
2:33:57
Speaker 2: we went down and spent a little Southern California time.
2:34:01
Speaker 2: Flew back on the same plane as Bear Bachmeier last night. So,
2:34:05
Speaker 2: you know, he didn't invite me to dinner. I was sad.
2:34:07
Speaker 2: Was he clothed? He was fully clothed. Yawn. Come on, Bear.
2:34:12
Speaker 2: I think that that was a strange and inaccurate description
2:34:19
Speaker 2: of Bachmeier family dinners, I hope.
2:34:21
Speaker 11: Well, okay, not that we need to wade in these
2:34:24
Speaker 11: waters any more than we did last week, but RG3
2:34:26
Speaker 11: just said the women were not involved. That's all he said.
2:34:31
Speaker 11: I never implied that the women are involved. Okay, so
2:34:35
Speaker 11: like what, sausage fest?
2:34:36
Speaker 2: What are we doing? Doesn't help.
2:34:38
Speaker 11: It's is that there's there's no clarification and it doesn't
2:34:40
Speaker 11: help i suppose it's a tiny bit better if the
2:34:43
Speaker 11: mom and sister were to the table but still what
2:34:45
Speaker 11: is it the brothers in the dad just hanging out
2:34:48
Speaker 11: doesn't help i agree uh... heard you on the way
2:34:52
Speaker 11: in some good stuff for use sean thanks the the
2:34:57
Speaker 11: point about waiting quarterbacks is such an interesting thing to
2:35:00
Speaker 11: consider because like you i have tremendous respect for the
2:35:05
Speaker 11: man always will. I say it on my show all
2:35:07
Speaker 11: the time. If you're looking for anti-wit stuff, I'm the
2:35:10
Speaker 11: wrong guy, but there, there did. And I, it may
2:35:14
Speaker 11: have been you who I heard say this, like for
2:35:17
Speaker 11: all the, for all the, you know, the narrative that
2:35:19
Speaker 11: Morgan is a lot like Kyle, as far as what
2:35:22
Speaker 11: they believe in to win football games. There are a
2:35:24
Speaker 11: lot of people that believe Morgan is as much urban
2:35:28
Speaker 11: as he is. Kyle, maybe more so might've been you
2:35:31
Speaker 11: said that because obviously he, You know, a couple of
2:35:35
Speaker 11: years here where Morgan was playing for him.
2:35:37
Speaker 2: I'm sure that was very influential.
2:35:39
Speaker 11: And I don't want to do the thing where we
2:35:41
Speaker 11: just compare these two throughout the course of the rest
2:35:44
Speaker 11: of their careers. But it's pretty undeniable that this team
2:35:48
Speaker 11: is as fun to watch as any team Kyle had.
2:35:52
Speaker 11: And look, it's only four games, five if you include
2:35:54
Speaker 11: the bowl, right? How much of it is what Morgan
2:35:57
Speaker 11: is trying to do? How much of it is a
2:35:59
Speaker 11: quarterback who's a year older? How much of it is
2:36:01
Speaker 11: Kevin McGiven? And look, Jason had an incredible offense a
2:36:04
Speaker 11: year ago. But if you do the comparative thing, just
2:36:08
Speaker 11: from an entertainment standpoint, this team is really fun to
2:36:11
Speaker 11: watch in a way that very few of Kyle's teams were.
2:36:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, there were really good years where
2:36:18
Speaker 2: those Rose Bowl teams were a lot of fun to watch.
2:36:21
Speaker 2: The Sugar Bowl team was a lot of fun to watch.
2:36:23
Speaker 2: Any winning team is a lot of fun to watch.
2:36:26
Speaker 2: And the creativity of this offense is a lot of
2:36:31
Speaker 2: fun because it's working. You're going to hate it if
2:36:34
Speaker 2: it doesn't work against Houston or if it doesn't work
2:36:37
Speaker 2: against BYU. You're going to be like, just run the
2:36:39
Speaker 2: damn ball. But the thing is, we're seeing now that
2:36:42
Speaker 2: it has all those capabilities, or we think it has
2:36:45
Speaker 2: all those capabilities. And the offensive line is maturing into
2:36:49
Speaker 2: a nice little surprise for the season, in my opinion.
2:36:53
Speaker 11: You just said something that I'm going to push back
2:36:55
Speaker 11: on a little bit. we all want our teams to win.
2:36:57
Speaker 8: Right.
2:36:58
Speaker 11: But there were some years under wit where they'd win
2:37:00
Speaker 11: eight or nine games and you're kind of like, all right,
2:37:04
Speaker 11: can we open it up a little bit more?
2:37:05
Speaker 2: You know, can we, can we score some more points?
2:37:08
Speaker 2: The feeling was that if we can, cause the defense
2:37:11
Speaker 2: was always a constant, it was, you had a top
2:37:13
Speaker 2: 25 defense every year.
2:37:14
Speaker 6: Right.
2:37:15
Speaker 2: So people that have a problem with it being, you know,
2:37:17
Speaker 2: a boring offense, they thought if we have just like
2:37:21
Speaker 2: a little bit more of a throw game, then this
2:37:24
Speaker 2: will be a 10 win team instead of an eight
2:37:26
Speaker 2: win team.
2:37:27
Speaker 9: Yeah.
2:37:27
Speaker 2: That's people thought that the fix was always like, well,
2:37:31
Speaker 2: open this offense up a little bit more. And honestly,
2:37:34
Speaker 2: there were plenty of years where you just didn't have
2:37:36
Speaker 2: the quarterback for that.
2:37:37
Speaker 8: Right.
2:37:38
Speaker 2: And that, that was a big problem, which it's not
2:37:41
Speaker 2: to give an excuse, but like when you have an
2:37:44
Speaker 2: elite or close to elite defense, best in your conference
2:37:48
Speaker 2: at least, and top 25 in the country, and you
2:37:50
Speaker 2: have like a top 80 quarterback, those two things mismatch.
2:37:54
Speaker 2: And it's not supposed to be that way. Yeah, and
2:37:57
Speaker 2: certainly you'd rather watch your team. Excuse me. That one
2:38:03
Speaker 2: scared me.
2:38:04
Speaker 11: I have to do that once or twice a show.
2:38:06
Speaker 11: I just turned the mic down. You'd rather watch your
2:38:09
Speaker 11: team win 17-14 than lose 54-50.
2:38:13
Speaker 4: Yes.
2:38:13
Speaker 2: You know, no doubt about that.
2:38:15
Speaker 11: But I think throughout the course, like Gordon Monson used
2:38:19
Speaker 11: to write the piece like every single year. Referring to
2:38:22
Speaker 11: Wade as a dark overlord. Because he was lurking over
2:38:26
Speaker 11: his offensive coordinator, coordinator, making sure like, hey, you know
2:38:29
Speaker 11: what we do here, right? We run the football. We
2:38:31
Speaker 11: play good defense. And that's the formula for winning games.
2:38:35
Speaker 11: And to your point, and I'm not diminishing the careers
2:38:39
Speaker 11: of any of these players, but Travis Wilson, Jordan Wynn.
2:38:43
Speaker 2: You know, there's some years where obviously John Hayes problem, Spence,
2:38:46
Speaker 2: you want to say something? John Hayes is my guy.
2:38:49
Speaker 6: Okay.
2:38:49
Speaker 2: Let's be clear.
2:38:49
Speaker 11: John Hayes is my guy, but you made a good
2:38:52
Speaker 11: point about Tyler Huntley where the first couple of years
2:38:54
Speaker 11: it was like, okay, this kid's got a little potential.
2:38:56
Speaker 11: And then Ludd comes in and Tyler's still in the NFL.
2:39:00
Speaker 11: He's going to have a pension. He's going to be
2:39:01
Speaker 11: a seven, eight year NFL quarterback and live the rest
2:39:04
Speaker 11: of his life without ever having to work. Nobody saw
2:39:06
Speaker 11: that coming. And when Cameron was healthy, Let's be very clear.
2:39:10
Speaker 11: Some of the best Utah football we have ever seen
2:39:12
Speaker 11: played in the history of the program. So I'm not
2:39:14
Speaker 11: diminishing anything he did. There's just something about what's going
2:39:17
Speaker 11: on now. They're way better than I thought they were
2:39:20
Speaker 11: going to be.
2:39:20
Speaker 2: Way better.
2:39:22
Speaker 11: And it's time to say that they're good. I don't
2:39:24
Speaker 11: think we need to see anything else. Now, last year
2:39:27
Speaker 11: they trounced everybody besides Tech and BYU, right? For the
2:39:30
Speaker 11: most part, you know, the K-State thing was weird. Kansas
2:39:33
Speaker 11: got weird. So now we wait to see what it
2:39:37
Speaker 11: looks like against BYU. That's the game we're already looking at.
2:39:40
Speaker 11: But every test that's been thrown at them. And honestly, Sean,
2:39:44
Speaker 11: I like that Iowa State came back. And they had
2:39:47
Speaker 11: the ball with a chance to tie. I wanted to
2:39:50
Speaker 11: see something like that. I never felt like that game
2:39:52
Speaker 11: was in doubt, if I'm honest. But there were some
2:39:55
Speaker 11: moments of consternation. Morgan talked about this after the game.
2:39:57
Speaker 11: Now they're a little bit more battle-tested. They went on
2:39:59
Speaker 11: the road. And Way Sean Parker is an absolute beast.
2:40:04
Speaker 11: He's an NFL back, man. I don't know that I
2:40:06
Speaker 11: felt that way last year. Because last year was like,
2:40:08
Speaker 11: is he good or is this offensive line?
2:40:10
Speaker 8: Awesome.
2:40:11
Speaker 2: Both can be true.
2:40:13
Speaker 11: And maybe both are true this year, but he's for
2:40:15
Speaker 11: the growth that Devin has had way.
2:40:16
Speaker 2: Sean's a different, he's a different cat this year, man,
2:40:18
Speaker 2: for sure. I wondered who we were going to talk
2:40:22
Speaker 2: about as the best player on the team this year,
2:40:25
Speaker 2: because you've had plenty of years, like your quarterback's always
2:40:28
Speaker 2: the most important player on your team, right? Last year,
2:40:32
Speaker 2: beginning of the season, everyone's like, well, Spencer Fano is
2:40:34
Speaker 2: the best football player on this team.
2:40:36
Speaker 8: Right.
2:40:36
Speaker 2: And it doesn't matter what position he's the best. And
2:40:38
Speaker 2: then a lot of people raise their hand and was like, well,
2:40:40
Speaker 2: Caleb Lomo is the second best player on this team.
2:40:44
Speaker 2: And then John Henry Daly ended up putting himself in
2:40:46
Speaker 2: that conversation.
2:40:47
Speaker 3: Right.
2:40:47
Speaker 2: And you were like, oh, cool. You got like three
2:40:50
Speaker 2: or four guys. You're debating who the best player on
2:40:52
Speaker 2: the team is right now.
2:40:54
Speaker 5: Way.
2:40:54
Speaker 2: Sean Parker is the best football player on this team.
2:40:56
Speaker 2: Jackson Benny deserves to be in the conversation. And Maybe
2:41:02
Speaker 2: pagan deserves to be in the conversation a little bit,
2:41:05
Speaker 2: but right now, like way, Sean Parker is proving that
2:41:08
Speaker 2: he is the best football player on this team. And
2:41:11
Speaker 2: you could probably trust him to be the quarterback if
2:41:13
Speaker 2: you needed him.
2:41:14
Speaker 11: And I loved, I don't know if it was the second,
2:41:16
Speaker 11: I think it was the second touchdown on the sweep
2:41:19
Speaker 11: where he could have outran the defender and like hit
2:41:21
Speaker 11: the pile on. And he just ran him over. He
2:41:24
Speaker 11: just says, I'm lowering my shoulder. I'm going to run
2:41:26
Speaker 11: this dude over. Did you see a lot of dirty
2:41:28
Speaker 11: play from Iowa state? Cause it seemed like some of
2:41:30
Speaker 11: the comments from the players, Utah players after the game,
2:41:33
Speaker 11: way Sean specifically indicated that they were doing some things
2:41:37
Speaker 11: that may not have been above board.
2:41:38
Speaker 2: There was a couple of like Gator roll tackles. Way
2:41:41
Speaker 2: Sean got really mad about one in the first quarter.
2:41:44
Speaker 2: I saw that.
2:41:44
Speaker 4: Yeah.
2:41:44
Speaker 2: Where it was like, he felt like they were, you know,
2:41:48
Speaker 2: trying to twist his arm or twist his, twist his leg.
2:41:51
Speaker 2: But look, it's, It's a physical game. There, there is a,
2:41:56
Speaker 2: there is a borderline between what is acceptable and what
2:41:59
Speaker 2: is not like anything that happens, even as the whistle,
2:42:03
Speaker 2: the echo of the whistle, right? That's cool. But that
2:42:06
Speaker 2: twisting around stuff that gets really, really dangerous. And you
2:42:09
Speaker 2: never want to see guys getting hurt. And I think way,
2:42:12
Speaker 2: actually you can watch it. You watch it. We watch
2:42:15
Speaker 2: maturity from a player. He wanted to go fight that guy.
2:42:18
Speaker 5: Yeah.
2:42:19
Speaker 2: Like he jumped up. went after the dude, said something,
2:42:24
Speaker 2: and then it stopped because he knew, like, this is
2:42:28
Speaker 2: not the time. We saw somebody in South Carolina do
2:42:32
Speaker 2: the opposite of that this week, right? Like, it's just,
2:42:35
Speaker 2: that's the kind of maturity that you need from your
2:42:37
Speaker 2: best players and from the players that you need on
2:42:39
Speaker 2: the field, and it was good to have that from Weishan.
2:42:42
Speaker 11: And when he went truck button on that TD, he
2:42:46
Speaker 11: instantly let the guy know.
2:42:47
Speaker 2: I mean, he was standing over him, you know. So
2:42:49
Speaker 2: I was trying to.
2:42:51
Speaker 11: I went back because some of the comments the players
2:42:53
Speaker 11: made and some of the stuff I saw on social,
2:42:55
Speaker 11: I went back and kind of looked at a few
2:42:57
Speaker 11: things here and there. James just referenced Pagan getting slammed
2:43:00
Speaker 11: on the pick. But it's football at the end of
2:43:03
Speaker 11: the day. And I'll say, man, I think Jimmy Rogers
2:43:05
Speaker 11: is doing a good job. I think that program is
2:43:07
Speaker 11: in good hands and probably ahead of schedule. They made
2:43:09
Speaker 11: some really good adjustments at halftime.
2:43:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll talk about the third quarter problems that Utah
2:43:14
Speaker 2: is having on the show tomorrow. It's going to drive
2:43:16
Speaker 2: a lot of our conversation. It should be a fun one.
2:43:20
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for The Drive with Spence Chekits. Thanks for
2:43:22
Speaker 2: listening to The Sean O'Connell Show. Thanks to everyone who's
2:43:24
Speaker 2: texting and calling. We're getting some real fan interaction now,
2:43:28
Speaker 2: and I love it so much. Thank you. We'll do
2:43:32
Speaker 2: it again tomorrow. ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.