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Dan Sorensen on Utah's resume building win over Houston, Preview of Saturday's game in Cincinnati + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: This is my recital. I think it's very vital.
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  Speaker 2: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
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  Speaker 2: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. Dan Sorensen.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: The brains, the brawn behind Ute Zone on a Ute
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  Speaker 3: them you heard about it on the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Dan Sorensen, welcome back to the program.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: How are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing well. How are you doing?
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing great, man. Good.
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  Speaker 3: Utah is 7-0 and passed the first big test of
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  Speaker 3: the season. There's plenty more still to come.
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  Speaker 1: Did it look the way you thought it would look
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  Speaker 1: against Houston?
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  Speaker 2: Speaker 3 0 No, actually look, I was expecting a,
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  Speaker 2: a shootout, a little bit akin to what Houston had
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  Speaker 2: when they played Oklahoma state. And so we got a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of that shootout in the third quarter, but,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, the, the, the defenses for both teams really
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  Speaker 2: showed up and showed out in the first half and,
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  Speaker 2: and they did some nice things in the second Utah's
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  Speaker 2: defense did more nice things. And, and really just watching
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  Speaker 2: Devin Dampier take over and making it the, the Devin
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  Speaker 2: Dampier show is, was the difference in the game. So
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  Speaker 2: I look, I expected Utah to squeak one out, but
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  Speaker 2: it did not come in, in the, in the form
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  Speaker 2: factor that I was expecting. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I also thought it'd be a high scoring game because
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  Speaker 3: they were the two highest scoring offenses in the conference,
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  Speaker 3: but tells you what I know about football. Uh, what
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  Speaker 3: do we learn about? I mean, the team is still
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  Speaker 3: learning about itself, obviously. What are we learning about Utah
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  Speaker 3: as not only did they beat a top 15 team
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  Speaker 3: and they did it with college game day in town.
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  Speaker 1: We'll get to that here in a second.
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  Speaker 3: But also, you did it in a way where you
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  Speaker 3: didn't score on the opening drive of the game this time,
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  Speaker 3: and you didn't score any points in the first half
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  Speaker 3: this time. And you needed to have a good third quarter,
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  Speaker 3: and that's been kind of a sleepy quarter for the
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  Speaker 3: team in every other game this year. When they're doing
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  Speaker 3: things for the first time halfway through a season, or
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  Speaker 3: they're doing things differently, what are we learning about this
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  Speaker 3: team as they win a game like this one?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think the biggest takeaway is that Morgan Scali,
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  Speaker 2: he harps all the time about the culture of the program,
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  Speaker 2: the RSMB culture, where if you live it on the
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  Speaker 2: practice field and in the film room and in your
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  Speaker 2: life off of the field, the results are going to
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  Speaker 2: show up. on the field. And I think that we're
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  Speaker 2: starting to see that the real manifestation of that look
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  Speaker 2: that the whole narrative before this game was that Utah
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  Speaker 2: hadn't played anybody. And it was true. They hadn't played
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  Speaker 2: anybody with a, a winning record and they'd had some
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  Speaker 2: lapses in certain games. And so a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: looking at the seat top team as, as a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of a paper tiger or certainly as untested. And
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  Speaker 2: I think that Against Houston, they showed that that narrative
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  Speaker 2: isn't necessarily the right narrative. And we saw a toughness
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  Speaker 2: against Houston that was really good to see and welcome.
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  Speaker 2: And on both sides of the ball, really, in terms
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  Speaker 2: of guys manning up and putting a hat on the
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  Speaker 2: guy across from them and owning their responsibilities and showing
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  Speaker 2: some physical dominance, especially in the trenches. we saw a
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  Speaker 2: team that, that had some adversity. Look, you, you look
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  Speaker 2: at that third quarter. So Utah goes down, you know, they're,
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  Speaker 2: they're down three, nothing at the half. They'd had the
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  Speaker 2: two minute drill and they missed the field goal. And
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  Speaker 2: so all of that momentum that they might have went away.
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  Speaker 2: They Houston goes in, they score on the first drive.
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  Speaker 2: And that first drive is usually really critical in, in
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  Speaker 2: setting the tone for the rest of the half. And
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  Speaker 2: so all all of a sudden you cause down 10
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  Speaker 2: points and they haven't touched the ball, you know, in
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  Speaker 2: 25 minutes of, of real time or 30 minutes of
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  Speaker 2: real time, because there was halftime and, and that eight
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  Speaker 2: minute drive that Houston had to open up the half
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  Speaker 2: and go up 10, nothing. And then Devin, Dan, Dan
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  Speaker 2: Pierce steps in and he makes it, he decides he's
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  Speaker 2: going to take this team and put them on his
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  Speaker 2: shoulders and do what needs to happen to, to, to
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  Speaker 2: go out and get the win. And so they drive
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  Speaker 2: the field and score that touchdown. That's arguably the most
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  Speaker 2: important drive of Devin vampire's career in showing what's what
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  Speaker 2: this team is made of, what he's made of as
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  Speaker 2: a leader. And then you just saw the youths continue
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  Speaker 2: to punch. So every time that they faced adversity or
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  Speaker 2: something went that wasn't going their way, a bad penalty,
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  Speaker 2: a missed tackle, a missed coverage, they were able to
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  Speaker 2: recover both offensively and defensively and do enough to, to
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  Speaker 2: take the lead and keep the lead. And then, you know,
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  Speaker 2: at the end of the game, you get, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the great teams, they make the right play at the
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  Speaker 2: right moment. And we saw that with Devin on the
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  Speaker 2: offense and leading them down to score the two touchdowns
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  Speaker 2: to put them ahead. And then of course the sack, right? Jackson, Benny,
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  Speaker 2: perfect blitz dial up, perfect execution on that. And you
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  Speaker 2: force that running back to make a choice in terms
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  Speaker 2: of who he's going to block. and Jackson comes home and, and,
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  Speaker 2: and is there to, to, to pick up the fumble
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  Speaker 2: and it's game over for all intents and purposes. So
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  Speaker 2: I love the resiliency. I love the toughness. Look, Utah
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  Speaker 2: may not go undefeated this year. They've got it. They've
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  Speaker 2: got a shot at it. Sure. But I have no
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  Speaker 2: doubt in my mind that this team Every single game,
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  Speaker 2: regardless of whether they're blowing the opponent out or they're
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  Speaker 2: facing adversity, that this team is going to man up,
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  Speaker 2: toughen up and show out and give their best. And
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  Speaker 2: I think that's what we saw against Houston.
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  Speaker 3: We've talked a lot about the timing and the perfect
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  Speaker 3: execution of that Jackson Benny blitz.
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  Speaker 1: That was the biggest play of the game.
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  Speaker 2: No doubt.
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  Speaker 3: But then Houston gets the ball back with two minutes
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  Speaker 3: to drive down. And, I mean, Connor Wegman is very
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  Speaker 3: capable of doing that. He's very capable of executing and
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  Speaker 3: getting a two-point conversion and setting the game into overtime
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  Speaker 3: if the defense can't get a stop. And Colton Swan
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  Speaker 3: on that ensuing Houston drive. stayed aggressive. What does that
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  Speaker 3: say about his belief in those pressures? What does it say, period?
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  Speaker 3: Because there's two schools of thought there that you can
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  Speaker 3: just say, all right, let my DBs do what they do.
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  Speaker 3: We'll rush four, or I can heat this quarterback up,
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  Speaker 3: knowing how experienced Wegman is and how he's good at
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  Speaker 3: handling some of those situations.
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  Speaker 1: What'd you think about Colton Swan's end of game scenario?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I love that he stayed aggressive. We've seen in
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  Speaker 2: past years Utah have the lead and go into more
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  Speaker 2: of a prevent look, don't let anything over the top.
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  Speaker 2: And there's the joke that the only thing that prevents
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  Speaker 2: defense wins is defense. is the, or is the game, right?
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  Speaker 2: It prevents the wind. But I look at that and
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  Speaker 2: that last drive and we went still had a couple
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  Speaker 2: of throws. There was that long throw over the top
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  Speaker 2: that got them down the field and into the twenties,
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  Speaker 2: I think the 23 year, the 26 where they had
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  Speaker 2: first and 10. and ample time to, to, to get
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  Speaker 2: in and score a touchdown and try to tie this
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  Speaker 2: thing up and that series. So once Houston gets the
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  Speaker 2: big play and they've got, they've got the ball relatively
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  Speaker 2: deep in Utah territory, Swan dials up for consecutive blitzes,
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  Speaker 2: bringing them from different parts of the field. And Houston
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  Speaker 2: doesn't complete anything on those. The last one, the fourth down,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the, the, the ball went into the end
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  Speaker 2: zone and it was, you know, two feet above the
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  Speaker 2: guy's head. And, and I just really love the gutsiness
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  Speaker 2: of Swan and what he did to dial up those
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  Speaker 2: blitzes to, to basically put it on his player's shoulders.
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  Speaker 2: I trust you. I trust you that you're going to
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  Speaker 2: go execute. Let's make this guy uncomfortable. Let's force this
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  Speaker 2: guy to make a perfect play to beat us. And
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  Speaker 2: he wasn't able to do it. Utah gets the ball
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  Speaker 2: back and they're able to kneel, kneel it out for
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the game. I thought it was, I
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  Speaker 2: loved the approach. I love the calls. I love the
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  Speaker 2: execution and I hope to see more of it.
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  Speaker 3: You got a double wham with triple whammy right now,
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  Speaker 3: got to travel to the Eastern time zone. You're coming
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  Speaker 3: off an emotional victory and it's a look ahead spot
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  Speaker 3: because the rivalry game is next week. How does Utah
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  Speaker 3: avoid that triple kiss of death against the Cincinnati team?
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  Speaker 1: That is also coming off a huge win.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, this is a much tougher matchup than we
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  Speaker 2: would have guessed before the season or even a couple
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  Speaker 2: of weeks ago, you know, Cincinnati, they've been a little
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  Speaker 2: bit up and down in conference play where, you know, they'll, yes,
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  Speaker 2: they had the big win over Texas tech who, you know, look, there,
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  Speaker 2: there are a lot of chinks in the armor for
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  Speaker 2: Texas tech, as much money as they're spending. And of
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  Speaker 2: course they've got their billionaire benefactor having meltdowns on social media,
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  Speaker 2: which is, If you're not a tech fan, it's probably
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  Speaker 2: pretty entertaining to watch, but, but it was a big
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  Speaker 2: win for Cincinnati. So they're going to come off in
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  Speaker 2: a emotional high there, but look, it's tough to travel.
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  Speaker 2: It's tough to win on the road. Cincinnati has been
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  Speaker 2: great at home, but most of their, their failures this
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  Speaker 2: season have come on the road. And so, and that
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  Speaker 2: stadium is not an easy place to play. They win
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  Speaker 2: a lot of games there. Scott Satterfield is a pretty
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  Speaker 2: strong coach. He knows that, you know, Cincinnati got their
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  Speaker 2: butts whooped last you're in Utah. And, and so there's
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  Speaker 2: going to be some motivation there. It's, it's going to
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  Speaker 2: be less than the source of these stuff, but, but
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  Speaker 2: there there'll be motivation to, to prove themselves. And, and
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  Speaker 2: they've got some really good playmakers. They've got a great backfield,
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  Speaker 2: a cold tab, you know, had a marvelous game against the,
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  Speaker 2: Texas tech. And he's one of the premier backs in
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  Speaker 2: the league. And, and Gibran pains, who's the other guy,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he's got, he's creeping up on 500 rushing yards,
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  Speaker 2: JC French, the quarterback, he can run it a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: And so it's going to be a run heavy offense.
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  Speaker 2: Utah's going to have to, to once again, stop the run,
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  Speaker 2: try to make them one dimensional, try to make JC
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  Speaker 2: French a beat them with his arm. And, and, and
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  Speaker 2: he's shown to be a capable quarterback. It's one of
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  Speaker 2: the more surprising things about the big 12 is there
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: are a lot of good quarterbacks in this league. And
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  Speaker 2: we didn't necessarily expect as many of them to step
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  Speaker 2: up as they have, but it's, The matchup is favorable
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  Speaker 2: enough for Utah. Look, Cincinnati's defense is, as the kids say, mid, right?
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  Speaker 2: And literally, like statistically in college football, they're middle of
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  Speaker 2: the road in pretty much everything that they do. They've
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  Speaker 2: got a couple of really nice players and guys that
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  Speaker 2: will hurt you if you're not careful. But by and large,
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  Speaker 2: this is a defense that you should be able to
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  Speaker 2: move the ball on. And, and they should be able
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  Speaker 2: to put up a lot of points Eastern time zone, notwithstanding,
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  Speaker 2: but this is a tough league to win on the
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  Speaker 2: road in. And this team, once again, they have to
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  Speaker 2: come in focus. They have to come in ready. They
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  Speaker 2: can't for a second, think about what's going to happen
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  Speaker 2: on November 7th, because if they lose this game, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the meaning of that game gets taken away
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  Speaker 2: and they want to stay in the driver's seat. So
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  Speaker 2: I think we're going to see once again, a focused
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  Speaker 2: team that's living its culture and, and, I expect them
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  Speaker 2: to come out with a win. I think it's going
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  Speaker 2: to probably be a little bit gnarly at times and, and,
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  Speaker 2: you know, people, fans on, on X or, or, or
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  Speaker 2: the Utah message boards are going to be freaking out
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  Speaker 2: a little bit, but this is Utah's a better team
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  Speaker 2: than Cincinnati is. The opportunity is right for them. And
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  Speaker 2: once again, it's another opportunity to show off that thesis
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  Speaker 2: that Morgan Scali has, that culture rules all. And if
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  Speaker 2: you have the right culture and the players are actually
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  Speaker 2: living it, that the results are going to speak for themselves.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, but this is by no means a gimme.
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  Speaker 1: I would be remiss if I didn't ask your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: on a 10 a.m. Holy war.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't love that, mostly because I don't like
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  Speaker 2: getting up early on Saturday morning. It limits my Friday
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  Speaker 2: night opportunities. Look, I get the fact that the conference
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  Speaker 2: would want to take the premier game in the league
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  Speaker 2: and put it at a noon Eastern time slot where
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  Speaker 2: everybody can see it. These are two teams that, assuming
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  Speaker 2: they both win this coming weekend, they're still in prime
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  Speaker 2: slots for the potentially making the college football playoff. The
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  Speaker 2: league wants to showcase what they're going to do. Um,
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  Speaker 2: day games. Yeah, they are different than night games. The
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  Speaker 2: atmosphere is different. Um, I don't know what Utah fans
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: need to, uh, to do to kind of get in
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: that night game state of mind, you know, extra coffee,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: extra Mountain Dew, extra diet Coke, like whatever your poison
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  Speaker 2: of choice is, you know, make sure you're loading up. Uh, uh, I,
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  Speaker 2: I do think that, uh, frankly, for my purposes, we
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  Speaker 2: cover so much recruiting. The 10 a.m. kickoff does screw
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  Speaker 2: up some of the recruiting efforts. Utah wanted to bring
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  Speaker 2: in a lot of guys from out of state, and
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  Speaker 2: these guys are playing on Friday nights, and so getting
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  Speaker 2: them into Salt Lake City in time for the game
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  Speaker 2: isn't necessarily in the cards, and so we're going to
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  Speaker 2: see that hurt a little bit on the recruiting front
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  Speaker 2: because you want to showcase your crowd in its best moments.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, they did that against Houston, and that was nice,
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  Speaker 2: and And, you know, and I know that the fans
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  Speaker 2: don't love the morning games, especially like we're in Utah,
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  Speaker 2: big families, everybody's playing, you know, some sort of a
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: little league soccer or, or little league football or something
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  Speaker 2: like that. So I look, there might be a lot of,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of forfeits in those, uh, in those little
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  Speaker 2: league games as, as people are coming to the game.
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  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, I do think
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  Speaker 2: that the crowd's going to show up. They're going to
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  Speaker 2: show out. This has the potential to be the biggest
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  Speaker 2: and most impactful from a national prestige and rankings and playoffs. standpoint,
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  Speaker 2: holy war game that we've ever seen. And there are
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  Speaker 2: two teams that match up pretty well against each other.
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  Speaker 2: So it should be a dog fight. And so I
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  Speaker 2: just think that Utah fans, especially right. Like what we
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  Speaker 2: know it sucks. You don't want to get there at 10.
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  Speaker 2: You'd rather spend the day getting hyped up, but get
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  Speaker 2: over it and bring your best self. Cause this team
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  Speaker 2: fuels off of what you do and how you cheer and, and,
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  Speaker 2: there's an opportunity right in front of them to really
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  Speaker 2: make a splash to, and to get back on the
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  Speaker 2: winning side of that rivalry, which is something that I
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: know that every Utah coach and player and fan desperately
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: wants to see happen.
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  Speaker 3: Looking forward to this weekend, looking forward to next weekend,
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  Speaker 3: even more Dan and appreciate you giving us time.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thanks for having me on. Have a great day, man.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: That is Dan Sorenson at youth zone. It's a youth
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: zone Wednesday here. on the Sean O'Connell show.