Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Ari Temkin on TCU's loss to UNC in week 0, Utah's season opener Thursday, Opportunity for Big 12 in non-con games vs P4 teams + more

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Ari Temkin on TCU's loss to UNC in week 0, Utah's season opener Thursday, Opportunity for Big 12 in non-con games vs P4 teams + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
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  Speaker 1: game in the second half and do whatever. Three, three, nine, eight,
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  Speaker 1: six texts football to three, three, nine, eight, six. It
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  Speaker 1: is a game week Thursday night against Idaho. We'll talk
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  Speaker 1: vandals here in just a little bit. Right now we
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  Speaker 1: bring in Ari Temkin. Big 12 Radio on TuneIn, a
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  Speaker 1: friend of the program to talk all things Big 12 football.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Ari, how are you? I'm great, OC. How are you, buddy? Man,
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  Speaker 2: I could not be better.
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  Speaker 1: College football is back. Fun slate of Week 0 games,
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  Speaker 1: and now, of course, we get into it in earnest
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  Speaker 1: with Week 1.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know why we have to talk about TCU.
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  Speaker 2: We should instead just point and laugh at USC, should
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  Speaker 2: we not?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I would feel a lot better about pointing and
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  Speaker 1: laughing at USC, but... USC won their football game and
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  Speaker 1: TCU had an opportunity Ari and they squandered it with
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  Speaker 1: an abysmal offensive performance over the final three quarters against
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  Speaker 1: North Carolina. This was, I thought this was kind of
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  Speaker 1: like a, uh, you know, 27 yard field goal for the,
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  Speaker 1: for the horn frogs that may be underestimated bill Belichick's
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  Speaker 1: coaching ability and improvement ability from year one to year two.
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  Speaker 1: But I felt like a lot of this was more
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  Speaker 1: about Sonny Dykes, his team underperforming than North Carolina doing
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  Speaker 1: anything to be world beaters.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think you're a hundred percent right there because,
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  Speaker 2: you know, while I think both things can be true,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, there was a valiant defensive effort
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  Speaker 2: on the part of North Carolina, the Tar Heels let,
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  Speaker 2: left the door open, you know, for the majority of
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  Speaker 2: this game, TCU just refused to walk through it. And, and, Look,
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  Speaker 2: there was a ton of extracurricular on TCU in the
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  Speaker 2: lead-up to this game.
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  Speaker 3: There was, of course, the situation.
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  Speaker 2: With one of their players punching out another player and
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  Speaker 2: getting charged with aggravated assault, which is a fairly heinous crime.
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  Speaker 2: And then you also have the subplot to that with
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  Speaker 2: the newspaper disallowing coverage of the team's Rather, TC disallowing
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  Speaker 2: coverage of the team from the newspaper that most often
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  Speaker 2: covers them. So then they go and play the game
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  Speaker 2: and look completely undisciplined, completely not ready to play a
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  Speaker 2: football game. And that's more than anything what I attribute
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  Speaker 2: this loss to. I mean, Jaden Craig wasn't great. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you could certainly... you know, pick through many of the
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  Speaker 2: mistakes that Craig made throughout this game. And yet, despite
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  Speaker 2: all of the mistakes, they still had an opportunity on
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  Speaker 2: the stretch to win it. And yet Craig couldn't do
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  Speaker 2: it on a fourth and two from the 10 yard line. So,
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  Speaker 2: but I just, I think there were far too many mistakes.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you, you have a really bad unsportsmanlike conduct
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  Speaker 2: penalty for pointing out a first down by a running back,
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  Speaker 2: Jeremy Payne, when he's rolling in the first half and
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  Speaker 2: you know, it might've been a bad call.
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  Speaker 3: But if that's an emphasis from officials, that's.
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  Speaker 2: On the head coach to emphasize that to his team,
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  Speaker 2: that that's an emphasis this year. And I bet you
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  Speaker 2: across college football, every single coach will be showing film
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  Speaker 2: of that to their team to make sure that none
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  Speaker 2: of them are doing that to cost them 15 yards.
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  Speaker 2: You also had another horrible penalty where you had a
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  Speaker 2: free sack, the quarterback falls to the ground. And one
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  Speaker 2: of your best pass rushers doesn't understand what's happening there
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  Speaker 2: on your wallet. And Now he gets another 15, which
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  Speaker 2: extends the drive when it could have been third down,
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  Speaker 2: and he might have been able to get off the field.
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  Speaker 2: And once again, they pan to Sonny Dykes, and he's
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  Speaker 2: screaming at the officials. It ain't the officials' fault that
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  Speaker 2: your team doesn't know the rules. So it was a
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  Speaker 2: horribly undisciplined game. The 15 was 103rd in penalties per
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  Speaker 2: game last year with seven. Well, they surpassed that in
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  Speaker 2: this one with 11 penalties. And that, to me, is
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  Speaker 2: the game. This was an undisciplined, poorly coached football team,
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  Speaker 2: and that's what we saw.
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  Speaker 1: Highlighted by that, that final offsides penalty where you're just like,
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  Speaker 1: come on, man.
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  Speaker 2: Like that. Oh, it was perfectly emblematic of the whole game. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, even I'll tell you the fourth
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  Speaker 2: and two from the 10 yard line, you know, where
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  Speaker 2: some people are wondering if, if Craig would have had
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  Speaker 2: the corner, but I just think that tentativeness, that the
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  Speaker 2: nerves that was pretty evident throughout the game with Craig,
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  Speaker 2: he just didn't have a good feel for the offense. And,
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  Speaker 2: I think there were probably points within this game where
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  Speaker 2: TCU could have made everybody forget about the fact that
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  Speaker 2: Jordan Dwyer was not available, and yet their two outside
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  Speaker 2: receivers were not available, and it just didn't happen. And
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  Speaker 2: one more thing I'll say on this, because I'm probably
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  Speaker 2: the minority, even before they went for it on fourth
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  Speaker 2: and one earlier in the game, I'm usually very aggressive.
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  Speaker 2: I like the aggressive calls. I think in that situation
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  Speaker 2: where points are a premium in a low-scoring game where
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  Speaker 2: you've just gotten a turnover in plus territory, you need
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  Speaker 2: the points. We can bellyache about the call. The call
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  Speaker 2: was dreadful, calling a dive on a fourth and one
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  Speaker 2: against Bill Belichick's defense. Not, I mean, just not advised,
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  Speaker 2: but like, even, even if they had put the right call, which,
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  Speaker 2: you know, run some motion, maybe spread, spread the formation
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  Speaker 2: out and then run between the tackles. I still kick
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  Speaker 2: the field goal there. I really do because I need
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  Speaker 2: points in that situation. I cannot come up empty. I
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  Speaker 2: think it was demoralizing to the team. And look, if
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  Speaker 2: they kick the field goal there and make it, now
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  Speaker 2: it's not a given they would have made it, but
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  Speaker 2: if they kick the field goal there and make it,
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  Speaker 2: it's 15-13. And now that final drive on the fourth
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  Speaker 2: and two, you're trying to set up for the game
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  Speaker 2: go-ahead field goal as opposed to needing it all at
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  Speaker 2: that point of time.
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  Speaker 1: How much will we be talking about this loss by
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  Speaker 1: a Big 12 team to an ACC team in, you know,
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  Speaker 1: week 10.
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  Speaker 2: Man, I hope not. You know, I mean, you and
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  Speaker 2: I spent a lot of this off season talking about
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  Speaker 2: the importance of these games. And this was certainly one
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  Speaker 2: of the quote unquote must wins. I think you've got
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  Speaker 2: to flip some of the other ones now. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: if Colorado can get a win over Georgia tech in
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  Speaker 2: Atlanta on Thursday night, that would be huge. Um, you know, if,
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  Speaker 2: if Baylor get a win over Auburn on Saturday night,
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  Speaker 2: that would be huge. So, yeah, I mean, this is
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  Speaker 2: one that you needed just from a perception standpoint, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it remains to be seen how good North Carolina will be.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think Billy Edwards, their quarterback, like he
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  Speaker 2: missed a lot of throws in this game too. I mean, there,
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  Speaker 2: there was a point, I think after they, after TCU
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  Speaker 2: missed the, uh, the, the fourth and one, uh, They
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  Speaker 2: had a great drive. North Carolina had a great driver.
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  Speaker 2: They took a ton of time off the clock. And
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  Speaker 2: then on a third down, Billy Edwards missed a guy
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  Speaker 2: wide open. And had he hit that, you'd probably go
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  Speaker 2: up by touchdown and put the game to rest. Instead,
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  Speaker 2: he missed him. They missed the field goal, and that
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  Speaker 2: keeps TCU in the ballgame. So I'm not sure that
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  Speaker 2: time will vindicate this win in terms of what North
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  Speaker 2: Carolina does. But, yeah, it's a bad loss. And I
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  Speaker 2: think it says a lot more about TCU than it
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  Speaker 2: probably does about the Big 12.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Ari Temkin here on the Sean O'Connell show talking all things,
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  Speaker 1: big 12 and college football, because the season is back
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  Speaker 1: and we're lucky as Utah fans. We don't have to
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  Speaker 1: wait all the way until Saturday to get the first
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  Speaker 1: glimpse at this Morgan Scali team, which of course is
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  Speaker 1: a brand new era of Utah football, Idaho. We did
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  Speaker 1: get to see some of Idaho. They gave up, you know,
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  Speaker 1: 500 yards of offense to Cal Poly. So it's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you don't get to, Compare apples and oranges. You're not
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  Speaker 1: supposed to do that. But, I mean, given what we
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  Speaker 1: saw from Idaho giving up a comeback victory to Cal
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  Speaker 1: Poly and the numbers that the Mustangs were able to
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  Speaker 1: put up, I think this should be a nice little
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  Speaker 1: ease-it-in type game for the Utes on Thursday night. What
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  Speaker 1: did you see? Did you have a chance, I guess,
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  Speaker 1: to see anything of Idaho?
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  Speaker 2: No, I mean, but, you know, look, aside from what
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  Speaker 2: we've seen from them last year and really to start
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  Speaker 2: this season, like this has been a pretty consistent program,
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  Speaker 2: you know, at a lesser level. But I think to
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  Speaker 2: your point, really good entry point into the season. Is
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  Speaker 2: it Arkansas week two? Yes. The Arkansas game week? Yes. So,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think kind of the perfect– you know,
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  Speaker 2: Morgan Scali debut, Kevin McGiven debut. Let's see what this
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  Speaker 2: offense is capable of. And my assumption would be you
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  Speaker 2: could win this game fairly easily without having to show
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  Speaker 2: much on film to Arkansas within what you're doing. So
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  Speaker 2: that's the hope, right?
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  Speaker 3: Because The less you give Arkansas.
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  Speaker 2: To prepare for, the better off you're going to be
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  Speaker 2: because this is, for all intents and purposes, an offense
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  Speaker 2: that nobody's ever seen before with McGiven. I'm excited to
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  Speaker 2: see the first data points of this team. I'm expecting
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  Speaker 2: a dominant performance, especially on the ground game. I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: they could play it pretty basic, pretty vanilla on the
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  Speaker 2: ground game and still win going away. Really good opportunity
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  Speaker 2: here week one for the Utes on Thursday night.
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  Speaker 1: You and I have talked a lot about what this
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  Speaker 1: offensive line is going to be replacing all five starters
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  Speaker 1: and just driving home exactly what they're replacing as of
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  Speaker 1: final cut day yesterday, which there's still movement that happens.
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  Speaker 1: Four of last year's starting five offensive linemen are either, well,
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  Speaker 1: one of them is on a practice squad and three
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  Speaker 1: are on 53 man rosters. So you're not just replacing
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  Speaker 1: five starters. You're replacing that level. of starters that are
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  Speaker 1: all getting at least their cup of coffee in the NFL.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, two of them were first round draft picks.
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  Speaker 1: So they'll get much more than that. Uh, That highlights
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  Speaker 1: to me the importance of this position room, this position
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  Speaker 1: group catching up and catching up quick.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's so well said, O.C., and like
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  Speaker 2: the one thing every year that is, should be a
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  Speaker 2: really good reminder for everybody, especially college football players is
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  Speaker 2: how freaking hard it is to make an NFL roster.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I mean, we think and watch some of
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  Speaker 2: these guys play in the big 12 and think like, Oh,
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  Speaker 2: that guy's for sure an NFL player. And they don't
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  Speaker 2: even get a chance to sniff a 53 man roster.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's other guys, you know, in the same vein,
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  Speaker 2: you think the same thing of, and You know, look,
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  Speaker 2: last year, Utah's offensive line, I think Texas Tech's defensive line.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you look at how many guys, three, I
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  Speaker 2: think three guys from that defensive, four guys from that
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  Speaker 2: defensive line off the top of my head. Certainly four
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  Speaker 2: from their front seven are on NFL rosters. And of course,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: David Bailey was the second overall pick. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in comparison to other conferences, like that's fairly normal to
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  Speaker 2: see a group of maybe not three on the same team,
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  Speaker 2: but at least one every year, one or two guys
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  Speaker 2: that are high-level draft picks. And that's the difference. Even
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  Speaker 2: Texas Tech saw that when they went up against Oregon. Hey,
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  Speaker 2: that's a defensive front. That is an NFL defensive front, right?
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  Speaker 2: Like some teams have really good offensive lines or really
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  Speaker 2: good defensive lines, but fewer teams have NFL-level offensive and
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  Speaker 2: defensive lines. And so to your point, like three guys
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  Speaker 2: from Utah, three guys on the defensive line from Texas.
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  Speaker 3: Tech, And that's not even to count the.
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  Speaker 2: Front seven, like that just shows the level of talent
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  Speaker 2: within this conference and why Texas Tech was so hard
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  Speaker 2: to beat last year, because we saw, you know, in
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  Speaker 2: one of the few matchups that Utah aligned up against
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  Speaker 2: that Texas Tech defensive front, it was not a great
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  Speaker 2: day for them. And yet, despite that, they still had
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  Speaker 2: one of the best offensive lines in college football and
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  Speaker 2: three guys that are pros. So it just goes to
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  Speaker 2: show one, how hard it is. And two, like when
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  Speaker 2: we think about like really good elite positional groups in
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  Speaker 2: this conference, you know, how much they compare to like
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  Speaker 2: NFL type players. And we saw that again with Texas
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  Speaker 2: Tech and Utah. All right.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: The full slate of Big 12 games this weekend, starting
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  Speaker 1: with the Thursday night affair for the University of Utah,
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  Speaker 1: which admittedly is not the most compelling or appealing of
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  Speaker 1: the matchups involving Utah. big 12 teams. I shouldn't say
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  Speaker 1: starting with it because Colorado and UCF, I guess both
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  Speaker 1: kick off on Thursday night before Utah does, but which
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: of these big 12 games in a, in a full
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: slate has your attention primarily like first and foremost, if
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  Speaker 1: he had to, to put them in order.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think the two would be Colorado,
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  Speaker 2: Georgia tech. You mentioned that game in Atlanta and Georgia
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  Speaker 2: Tech beat Colorado last year, but they have a ton
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  Speaker 2: of turnover this year, including a quarterback and a huge
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: difference maker for them. And with Colorado, I think they're
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  Speaker 2: a major surprise team in the Big 12. This is
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  Speaker 2: a game they probably need because their schedule is really
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: tough within conference. They're going to be a bowl team
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  Speaker 2: and get to six wins. This is certainly one of them,
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  Speaker 2: and it's going to be tough. They're going to be
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  Speaker 2: underdogs on the road, but I'm excited to see what
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  Speaker 2: Brennan Marion and that new go-go offense has for Colorado.
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  Speaker 2: And then Auburn and Baylor, you know, this was a
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  Speaker 2: big game last year. Auburn ran all over Baylor, and
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  Speaker 2: we thought that it might be a tell for what
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: was to come for Auburn season. And as it turns out,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: they were not very good, fired their coach, and now
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  Speaker 2: Alex Golesh is in there. So this can be a
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  Speaker 2: tough spot for Baylor. You know, obviously the Bears need
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: some wins here in order to keep Dave Aranda's job. D.J.
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  Speaker 2: Lagway is, you know, certainly from his standpoint and position
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  Speaker 2: to try to you know, solidify himself as a potential
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  Speaker 2: draft pick here. There've been very few, if any, I
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  Speaker 2: think we looked at this number where it was, you know,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: quarterbacks that transfer after being, you know, I think it
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: was like the 24, seven sports, like top 100 or
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: top top 50 quarterbacks to transfer once have a chance
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  Speaker 2: to get drafted, but quarterbacks to transfer twice after that
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  Speaker 2: have zero chance to get drafted. It just, in terms
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  Speaker 2: of the history on it, where they, those guys just
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  Speaker 2: end up falling through the cracks. So he's sort of
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  Speaker 2: at his last stop in terms of is he an
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  Speaker 2: NFL-type prospect. So that's another one. I think there's some
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: under-the-radar games. I'm really excited to see Coastal Carolina and
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: West Virginia. That is the Bobby Petrino family team now.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Coastal Carolina has... Their head coach, Ryan Beard, is married
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: to Bobby Petrino's daughter. Their offensive coordinator is Nick Petrino,
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  Speaker 2: Bobby's son. And then their defensive coordinator is L.D. Scott,
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  Speaker 2: who is married to Bobby Petrino's other daughter. That's not
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: a joke. That is literally the entire family of Bobby
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  Speaker 2: Petrino now at Coastal Carolina.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: The craziest thing about that is having two brothers-in-law. You
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: hire your two brothers-in-law?
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  Speaker 2: Come on, man.
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  Speaker 1: You're asking for trouble.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's insane. And it's funny because I was
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: looking it up and I was like, oh, that's Bobby
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  Speaker 2: Petrito's son is the offensive coordinator. And then you look
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  Speaker 2: and they're all from Missouri State. They were all with
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  Speaker 2: Bobby when he was at Missouri State. When Ryan Beard
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  Speaker 2: left Missouri State, you know, it's Nick Petrito that takes
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  Speaker 2: over as the interim coach. Then they all bolt for Coastal.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, all of them working together. What could possibly
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  Speaker 2: go wrong? And then the funniest part about the cherry
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  Speaker 2: on top of it is, of course, how good of
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: a family man we know Bobby Petrito to be historically.
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  Speaker 1: There is that.
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  Speaker 2: There's that as well. Hey, we've all been caught on motorcycles, right?
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Yes. Not in that exact circumstance, but definitely. I own
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a motorcycle. So, yeah, you could catch me on a motorcycle.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Not doing Bobby Petrino stuff. Ari, enjoy the weekend, man.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, as always, for joining us. And
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: we'll be chatting again on Monday with a full slate
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of Big 12 to digest.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Can't wait, buddy. Thursday, man. Three games. It's going to
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: be a lot of fun. Be well. Take care.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Ari Temkin does a great job covering this conference and
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: really all of college football and now also doing some
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: work on the Dallas Cowboys.