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Transcript

Sean O'Connell Show w/Bill Riley - Full POD 7-17-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You've got pay freaking I'm here now, going on right now.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Brown Rob.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Here, he goes to the outside. Britt Tubby up the sideline.
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  Speaker 1: Fifty forty five.
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  Speaker 3: Forty very girls, twenty ten five touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, Tritt Tubby,
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  Speaker 3: seventy eight.
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  Speaker 4: Girls, Gipson swings and a fly ballad Bright fail.
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  Speaker 5: This ha gotten me all unbelievable, all on and forgets it.
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  Speaker 3: I don't believe what I just talk. I don't believe
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: what I touch.
• 0:39
  Speaker 6: Shop Russell will get down at half court.
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  Speaker 3: Stuck to him, on to dream god s Stocktor sends
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: the Utah Jessy Indeed Finals.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Robbie Russell now with a chance to send RSL home
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: as Cup champions. Sunda's on his line. Russell approaches.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: July two thousand, Uscott Champions, Got Zampion?
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Jim this Lake Say.
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  Speaker 5: This is a special edition of the Sean O'Connell Show,
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  Speaker 5: hosted by Bill Riley on Utah's number one sports talk
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  Speaker 5: and your Home of the Utes ESPN seven hundred and
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  Speaker 5: ninety two one FM. No Here's three time Utah Sports
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  Speaker 5: Broadcaster of the Year and Voice of the Utes, Bill Riley.
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  Speaker 1: Hey there, good morning, and welcome in to a Friday,
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  Speaker 1: mid July edition of The Shat o'connall Show. Bill Riley
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  Speaker 1: sitting in for Sean today in the air chair once
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  Speaker 1: again at the Broadway Media Studios here at the heart
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  Speaker 1: of downtown Salt Lake City. So good to be with
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  Speaker 1: you on this Friday. Oh man, we are the dog
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  Speaker 1: days of summer. But man, it's okay because as we
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  Speaker 1: sit here today, we're inside of seven weeks. We are
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  Speaker 1: forty eight days away from kickoff, and Utah football is
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  Speaker 1: just around the corner. Plus we've got the British Open
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  Speaker 1: going on. Plus we've got a World Cup weekend third
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  Speaker 1: place game tomorrow between France and England, a game frankly,
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  Speaker 1: nobody wants to play in. Let's be very fair. Who
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  Speaker 1: wants to play in a third place game? Nobody, But
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  Speaker 1: they'll be playing it nonetheless tomorrow in Miami. I believe
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: that's where it's a It's in Miami. And then on
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  Speaker 1: Sunday the game to decide the best soccer playing country
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  Speaker 1: in the world between Spain and Argentina. The Spanish side,
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  Speaker 1: which is just the epitome of a team Jason Chris
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  Speaker 1: with love the Spanish. They have stars, yes, but they
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  Speaker 1: don't have a megastar. They simply have a team it's
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  Speaker 1: very hard to score on. Then on the other side
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  Speaker 1: you have the defending World Cup champions, the Argentinians. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: the Argentinians. They're tough, they're feisty, they're gritty, and of
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  Speaker 1: course they've got the greatest player to ever do it
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  Speaker 1: in the history of soccer, Leidel Messi. That'll be coming
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  Speaker 1: your way on Sunday. So, yes, it is the dog
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  Speaker 1: days of summer. Yes it's hot outside, Yes I get it,
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  Speaker 1: but football is on the horizon. We've got football to
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  Speaker 1: play Catis this weekend and before you know it, we
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  Speaker 1: will be talking Big twelve football, which we will do
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  Speaker 1: on the program today here on the shatt O'condo Show
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  Speaker 1: with yours truly, Bill Riley and as always, and here's
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  Speaker 1: the deal. I miss not being able to talk to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you guys on a daily basis.
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  Speaker 5: I do.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I get to talk to you on my weekly podcast,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: The Crimson Corner, which dropped. Yes, I had the great
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Phil Steel on there talking college football. I love doing
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the podcast and I get to interact with you guys,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: But it's not like this. It's not like the daily
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  Speaker 1: show that I did for so very long. So when
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  Speaker 1: I get the opportunity to fill in for Sean and
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  Speaker 1: sit here in the air chair, I love it and
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  Speaker 1: I want to interact with you guys today. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't schedule a guest in the first hour of
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the show today because I want us to interact. I
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  Speaker 1: want to hear from you guys. As the great Lee
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Hamilton the Hacksaw used to say, I want to talk
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: sports with you, So hit me up with the text
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  Speaker 1: line today eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: That's eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.
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  Speaker 1: Say hello, reach out, just say hey, want to talk
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  Speaker 1: some football, You want to talk some World Cup. We
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: can do any of that stuff today with you. You
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: want to talk a little jazz basketball, We're gonna do
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: some of that today as well. Summer League is rolling
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and the season ahead, and for the first time in
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a long time, it at least seems like forever the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Jazz have some hope. And I don't think this hope's
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  Speaker 1: going to kill you like you did England the other day.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I'll go back to the old Andy Dufrain. Hope is
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: a good thing. Maybe it's the best of things, and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: no good thing ever dies. So the Jazz have hope.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Darren Peterson looks great. The Jazz well, they're not a
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: complete product yet, no, there's none of that. But they're
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: not going to be trying to tank this year and
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: they're not going to be a laughing stock, and that
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: is good. In fact, I think they should probably be
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: a playoff game. We'll talk about that on the program
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: today as well. But again, I want to hear from
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: you guys. I miss you. Reach out and say hello,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: ask me a question, fire something off whatever it might
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: happen to be, and I'll have something I want to
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: talk to you guys about in a bit too, So
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: hang on for that. We'll get to that coming up
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  Speaker 1: in just a bit here on ESPN seven hundred and
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: ninety two to one FM. If you're watching on YouTube today,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for tuning in on YouTube today.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Love it, Thank you so very much. It's the ESPN
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: seven hundred YouTube channel. If you're listening in on the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand watch blow Torch and it is or our
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: FM affiliate, Thank you so much for doing that. Or
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: if you're listening in online from around the city, around
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: the state, or around the country today on the app
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: or on the website. Thank you for doing that as well.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: We love it. We thank you for doing that, and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: it's great to have you part of the day today.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I've got a few guests on the show. I didn't
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: schedule anybody in the first hour of the show today
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: because I just wanted to have a little US time today.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I wanted to kind of get back in touch with
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: you guys. I've had some time to talk to a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: lot of Utah football coaches this summer. In fact, I've
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: got a podcast series called Under the Headset, which will
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: be dropping beginning, I believe next Thursday, the twenty third.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I'll lead it off with Utah offensive coordinator Kevin mcgiven.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I sit down and catch up with a ton of
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the new staff members for Utah Football and we talk
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: a little bit about them their journey and coming to
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Utah and what brought them to Utah and what has
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: them excited about this Utah football team this year. So
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I've had a really good chance and working in the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: department gives me a great opportunity to see coaches and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: players on a pretty regular basis and talk to them.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And you guys have heard me say this as I
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: filled in for Sean over the last several months. I
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: am very bullish on this Utah football team this year.
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  Speaker 1: I know a lot of people on the outside, you know,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: are taking await and see approach it, and that's fine,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with that. It was a changing of
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: leadership and changing of the guard, and they lost some
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  Speaker 1: key players too. I get all that. And the beautiful
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: part of sports is you go nobody's deciding this anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Sports writers aren't voting on poles to send you to
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  Speaker 1: the postseason. It's not a computer spitting things out. It's
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  Speaker 1: a real life. But really, in a power for league,
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  Speaker 1: you get to determine your own fate, and Utah will
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  Speaker 1: get to do that. I think they're a very good
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  Speaker 1: football team, and I'll give you some of my thoughts why,
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  Speaker 1: and I'd love to hear from you guys today as well.
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  Speaker 1: I think BYU is a very good football team and
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  Speaker 1: they're gonna be right in the mix of the Big
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  Speaker 1: twelve again. As well. I think Texas Tech is a
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  Speaker 1: very good football team despite all the noise around that program.
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  Speaker 1: If Will Hammond comes back and plays to the level
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  Speaker 1: they think he can play this year, to the level
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  Speaker 1: that he played against Utah at Rice Ecle Stadium last year.
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  Speaker 1: I think that the Texas Tech is gonna be really good.
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  Speaker 1: I do believe it's a three team race. But we'll
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  Speaker 1: get into all that stuff, and I think there's some
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  Speaker 1: teams that can play spoiler. I don't think there's anybody
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  Speaker 1: outside of Utah, BYU or Texas Tech that can win
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  Speaker 1: the Big twelve this year. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe I'm
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  Speaker 1: proven wrong. Maybe Arizona steps up with Noah Fafeedam, Maybe
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Houston and Willie Fritz and Connor Wegman step up. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe it's TCU Sonny Dykes gets it done.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, but I really feel like there's some
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  Speaker 1: teams that are good to I think the league's gonna
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  Speaker 1: be good, and I think there's some teams that can
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  Speaker 1: play spoiler. But I think the CONF champion comes from
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  Speaker 1: one of three schools. I think it's Tech, it's Utah,
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  Speaker 1: or it's BYU. And we'll get into some of that
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  Speaker 1: stuff today here on the program with you. I've got
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: a Utah legend coming on with us today who was
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: just recently inducted or he'll be inducted later this year.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: It was the announce that he is going into the
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Crimson Club Hall of Fame. It's the pride of Hillcrest
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: High School, a Zane Beatles, the great offensive lineman of Denver,
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  Speaker 1: Bronco of Jacksonville, Jaguar of San Francisco forty nine or fame.
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  Speaker 1: Gonna talk to Zaine today about the honor of going
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: in the Crimson Club Hall of Fame at his alma mater.
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  Speaker 1: But also I want to talk to Zayin about Jordan
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  Speaker 1: Gross becoming the new offensive one of his own. A
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: former great University of Utah player, Jordan's may be the
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  Speaker 1: best offensive lineman to have ever played at Utah and
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  Speaker 1: gone on to have a better pro, even a better
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: pro career. There have been a lot of good ones.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know that anybody's had a better overall career
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: than Jordan Gross. He's now coaching offensive line. We'll talk
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  Speaker 1: to Zane Beatles about that, the team, and of course
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: what he's up to these days. We're gonna talk some
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: big picture college football today. My old buddy Brett Siancia
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: picked six previews. I downloaded his book yesterday. It's great
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: as always. We'll talk some Utah football, some big twelve football,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: some national football coming up with Brett Siancia in about
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: twelve thirty. Then my friend Sarah Todd's coming by. I've
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: seen Sarah, but I haven't talked to Sarah on the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: show because obviously I don't do the show on a
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: regular basis anymore. But haven't had a chance to talk
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: to Jazz basketball with Sarah. She's been at Summer League
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and doing stuff. So we'll talk to her a little
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: bit about what she's seen from the Utah Jazz and
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the season ahead, and i'll give you my little World
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Cup preview for Saturday or for Sunday as well. And
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I have no idea who's gonna win the game tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: between England and France. It's kind of like a bowl
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  Speaker 1: game when you didn't make the college football playoff and
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: you thought you were gonna make the college football playoff
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden you didn't and you're
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: having to play, and you know, the Greater greens Burrow
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Goodwill Tire Bowl, and you just don't want to be there.
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  Speaker 1: I think I think we'll know very early on, and
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  Speaker 1: maybe we'll get a little bit more out of this
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  Speaker 1: game because France and England are natural rivals, So maybe
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  Speaker 1: that will that will add a little bit more something
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  Speaker 1: something to the game tomorrow. But I'll give you my
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  Speaker 1: preview on the game on Sunday between Spain and Argentina,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and if you want to weigh in on that, you
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: can do so today. Again, the text line's wide open
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to you and we'll get to some of your text
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  Speaker 1: messages coming up. Like I said, no guests here in
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the first hour, so we'll read some text messages talk
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: from Utah football. If you want to mix in some jazz,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: some World Cup, any of it, I feel fe to
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  Speaker 1: bring it on board. At eight seven seven three five
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  Speaker 1: three zero seven hundred here on the Shan O'Connell Show,
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  Speaker 1: Bill Riley sitting in today for oc here on Utah's
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  Speaker 1: number one sports talk ESPN seven hundred. I haven't talked
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  Speaker 1: to you since I was at Big twelve Media Days. Now.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I went on with Sean and Spence when they were
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: down a Big twelve Media Days and kind of pontificated
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on some of the things I saw down there. But
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I thought i'd give you a few of those things
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: before I throw at you my question of the day
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: today and kind of go from there. It was good
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  Speaker 1: it was relatively uneventful. You know, the first day there
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: was a lot of Texas tech chatter because it was
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the first time the assembled media had gotten a chance
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to talk to Brett Yormark, and I didn't think the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Commission necessarily handled the tech stuff, maybe as well as
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: he could have, but that's okay. It's an old story now,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: but they're still an ongoing lawsuit. Stuff like that doesn't
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: really matter Brendan Sorez who he's not playing for them.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And then Joey McGuire came up, and I actually did
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: think Joey McGuire did a pretty good job talking about that.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: But that was kind of the big day story. And
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: then of course the Monster Energy sponsorship that was announced
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: as well. But outside of that, there wasn't a lot
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: of football news. And one of the reasons there's not
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of football news at the Big Twelve football
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: meetings is they don't do a preseason poll. The preseason
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: poll in the old days at the Mountain West or
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: at the Big Twelve or the Pac twel Over, whatever
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: it was, would give us some fodder to talk to
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: coaches and players about, Hey, what do you think your
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: team was picked? Seventh? In the league. Is that disrespect?
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Is that a motivator? There's none of that Because the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Big twelve two years ago did away with preseason poll
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: after the Arizona State being picked sixteenth in the first
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: year and then winning the league again. I don't know
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: why they don't do it. It doesn't have any impact whatsoever.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: But and it's a media poll, not a coaches poll.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: So anyway, and by the way, i'll give you later
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: in the show, I'll give you my power rankings, my
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: preseason and it's a little bit of right now, and
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit of projection too. It's very much
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: a Bill Riley conjuring up. But it's my informed opinion,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: especially now that I've been to Big twelve Football media days,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: seeing coaches talk to coaches, talk to players, talk to
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: other media members. It's a much more informed poll. So
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: i'll give you that coming up a little bit later
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: on the show today. Anyway, there was a lot of
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: respect from Morgan Scoalley in the program down a Big
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: twelve Football media Day. A lot of questions know that
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: about it, but there was a lot of respect for
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the program and Morgan because it's not as if Morgan's
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: an unknown commodity. He's been coordinating the defense at Utah
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: for ten years and everybody knows him, and I think
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: he caught some people off guard with his energy. And
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I had a bunch of people say is that is
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: he always that energetic? I'm like, yeah, that's who he is.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: So there was a lot of respect. But there's a
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: lot of people and like I said, I get this,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: they're kind of taking a wait and see approach with
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Utah football. Yeah, new head coach after twenty one years
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: of Kyle Whittingham. Understandable. A lot of the staff members gone,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a lot of the key players from last year's team.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Some good players have left the program. So I get that.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: But I'm privy to being around the program, and I'm
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: privy to see how tight knit this group is this offseason,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: how much buy in there has been on the player's
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: side and on the coaching side, and how much this
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: thing has really come together in a short period of time.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: So there wasn't a lot of buzz to be very
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: fair about Utah as a championship contender. Most people were saying, hey,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: we're not counting the utes out. There's a lot of
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: history in the program and Scalley's been there, and there's
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: still some good talent. I think having Devon Dampier and
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Wasshon Parker and Bird Ficklin and those guys back, when
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: you have a starting quarterback, especially the caliber of Devon,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and a running back the caliber of Wasshn Parker, it
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: eases some of that and gives people the reason to
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: kind of say, Okay, they might be pretty good. There
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: was actually a little bit more buzz about Houston and
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Arizona as kind of teams that could jump up, and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: obviously Texas Tech and BYU as kind of the favorites
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: in the Lincoln And again there's nothing wrong with that.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: They have earned that. Texas Tech earned it to what's
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the old saying, my guy Rick Flair used to say,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: to be the man, you've got to beat the man.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: In Texas Tech's the man. They won the league last year.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: They were the most convincing and dominant team of the
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Big Twelve, so they deserve that. And BYU, they beat
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Utah and did what they needed to do to get
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: to the Big Twelve championship game. Now, they didn't look
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: great twice against Texas Tech, but Tech did that to people.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: But again Utah flying under the radar is not a
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: bad thing. It just simply isn't because again, this isn't
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the days of being in a non power conference where
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you really had to earn your way and you really
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: had to you had to punch above your weight all
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the time and then hope some breaks went. No, they're
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: in a power conference, and they've got a good schedule
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: to power conference, and the schedule, to be very fair
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: early especially is very favorable to Utah. I've said this
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: before and I'll say it again. I think there's a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: very good chance Utah could be eight and oh if
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: they stay healthy going into the BYU game, and to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: be very fair too, BYU's toughest game outside of Utah's
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame, and that's not a conference game. So that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: game that Holy War games they like to say, coming
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: up on November the seventh at Rice Ecle Stadium could
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: be more than just a big twelve caliber game. It
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: could be potentially, again a lot of football to be
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: played between now and then. Health is a big part
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of it, but it could be as big as any
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: that we've seen in recent years or maybe all time.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: But I'll back off on that just a little bit
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: right now. Bottom line is coming out of Big twelve
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Media Days, you tak kind of flying under the radar
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: a little bit. And again that's just I don't think
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that's a bad thing whatsoever. But it was fun. It
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: was fun. I got to spend a lot of time
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: catching up with people. I did my Crimson Quarter podcast
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: down there. I had my old friend JB. Long and
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: his buddy Mike Golig Junior sitting on either side of me,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and I did a podcast with those guys. By the way,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: you could find the Crimson Quarter podcast and when I
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: do every week this week's edition with Phil Steele. Anywhere
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: you find podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, you can go to
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: utah Utes dot com, any of the social channels and
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: it's there. And that one, in particular, the one for
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Big twelve Media Days, had a video component to it,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and we'll have kind of like we do now where
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: you can watch this show, the Shot o'condle show or
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the Spence Check and show the drive on YouTube as well.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: We're gonna be adding that component hopefully very soon as
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: well to the Crimson Corner. So anyway, it was a
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: good time down in Frisco. That brings me to my
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: question of the day for you guys, And you don't
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: have to answer right away. You can think about it.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here all day, but we're gonna spend
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: this hour kind of talking about this and some other things.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: It's a very simple question for you guys. Does Utah
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: play in the Big twelve title game this year? They
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: just missed A year ago they had. It was probably
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the quietest ten and two regular season or eleven and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: two overall season you could have. They were ranked just
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: outside the playoff picture. They were a content. They lost
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: two games, one at home, one on the road. They
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: were their own worst enemy on the road, and they
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: got beat after playing Texas Tech, the conference champion, to
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to toe for three quarters, but they didn't make it.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And when you're a program like Utah, you're a program
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: like BYU, you're a program like Texas Tech, I think
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: your expectation is every year you're gonna play for a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: conference championship, and that should absolutely Morgan Scalley would tell
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: you the same thing. Everybody on his staff would tell
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: you the same thing. Our expectation is to play for
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a conference championship, and this year should be no exception,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: because this is gonna be a good Utah football team.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: So my question for you guys today, and you can
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: hit me up on the text line at eight seven
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: seven three zero seven hundred, is simple, does Utah play
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: in the Big twelfth Championship Game in Dallas this year?
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Do they find their way to play in the Big
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: twelfth Championship Game this year? Maybe it's against BYU, Probably not,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and I'll get to that in a minute. Maybe it's
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: against Texas Tech likely and I'll get to that as well.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Or it could be another team. It could be in Arizona,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: could be a Houston, maybe it's a TCU. I don't
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: know k State. But just a simple question for you today,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: does Utah play in the Big twelfth Title Game this year?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Text line is open eight seven seven three five three
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: zero seven hundred. That's eight seven seven three five three
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: zero seven hundred. To get you on board today, here
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: are the Bill Riley Show on Utah's number one sports
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: talk ESPN seven huns guy, I said to Bill Riley Show,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: old habits die hard even though it's been two years.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: The Sean O'Connell Show with Bill Riley filling in a
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: couple of other thoughts I would tell you, and I'll
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: get to your text messages after this. We've got the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: whole hour to do this. I don't have a guest
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: coming up till noontime today. The biggest questions I think
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: about Utah, and they're valid questions, I get it, But again,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: because I'm around it a lot, I have a little
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: bit more insight than maybe the average reporter and or
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: fan does. I think the biggest questions about this Utah
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: football team aside from new coaching staff and how the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: scally doing stuff like that, which I think will be
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: just fine. It's not like you went out and hired
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: a bunch of guys that have never coached football before
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: or been around the game. But I think the biggest
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: questions around the program are the lines of scrimmage, offensive line,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: which has to replace five starters, and defensive line, which
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: lost some key guys to the portal. To be very fair, though,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: these are areas where Utah has always thrived. Utah has
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: always been good building and developing both offensive and defensive lines,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: and I don't think this year is going to be
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: any different. As I've said a couple of times already today,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I've spent a ton of time this summer talking to
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: coaches and players and staff. And I had some of
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: those questions too in the spring. You know, Jordan Gross
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: is coming in new offensive line coach, having to find
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: out what he's got here, what does he have in
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: these guys. But the more I've talked to these guys
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of months, and especially in the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. And I bumped into Alex Harrison
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: the other day, one of the veteran offensive linemen who
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: had been in the Pro. Alex had been in the PROGRAMMA.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's like on the Briton Covey pat He's
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: been around a long time. I just feel so much
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: better about where they are. And I bumped into Scaley.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: He did a little walk and talk with him down
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: in Frisco at Big twelve Football Media Days, and he
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: told me, I didn't even bring it up. He told
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: me because I really like our offensive and defensive lines.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I talked to Luther Ellis to coach defensive tackles a
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. He likes the group as well.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: They added some really nice pieces in the portal. They
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: had some really nice young pieces coming back like Carson
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Kafusi and Poop poo Sepolona. Here's what I'll say about
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the offensive line group. It may take them a game
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: or two to gel together, but the talent is there.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: They've got really good talent. Is it going to be
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: last year's offensive line? Probably not, because you had two
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: NFL first round draft choices and three other guys that
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: are likely to be on NFL rosters this year. But
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: it has a chance, I think, to be good and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: there's talent there. But again, that's where the preseason schedule
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I think sets up well for Utah Idaho to begin things.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: One double A program, Arkansas coming in. Now that's an
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: SEC program, but it's an SEC program in a rebuilding mode.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: They kind of bottomed out last year. They fired their
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: head coach, Sam Pittman, new staff, tons of new players,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: and then you've got Utah State three home games, all
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: against opponents that would be considered lesser than Utah right now.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: So I think that's a great way for the offensive
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: line to take a game or two to gel I
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: think they're gonna get better and better as the eear
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: goes along. And I'll say the same thing about the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: defensive line. Too. I think there's a ton of depth
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: on that defensive line, and I think you're gonna see
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: them get better and better as the year goes along
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: as well. You're mixing some new guys in that were transfers,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: but they've played a bunch getting used to the new system.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: And then and you've got young guys who have been
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: in the system that are going to be a year
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: older two guys I mentioned a minute ago. So I
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: think that group gets better and better as the year
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: goes along as well. And again, I think that's where
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the non conference schedule is going to help Utah a
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: great deal. So, like I said, I think the questions
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: are certainly valid. When you have to replace an entire
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: offensive line, that's a valid question. Defensive line, probably you're
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: having to replace some good players that left to go
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: of the places both ends and tackles. But again, Utah's
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: very rarely, if ever, had trouble developing and plugging and
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: playing guys in that system, and I think this year
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: will be pretty similar as well. So those are my
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: two cents worth on all of this stuff. I'd love
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to hear from you guys. Now, anything's fair game, it's
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: a free for all Friday, but I do have that
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: football question at least for now in front of you.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about some other things too simple question today,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: does Utah play in the Big twelve title game this year?
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred eight
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: seven seven three five three zero seven hundred To get
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: you on board of the text line here on the
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell Show today, As I mentioned, guests coming up
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: in the program today, Zame Beatles now Crimson Club Hall
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: of Famer and NFL great catch up with Zame today,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: congratulate him on his honor going in the Crimson Club
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Brett Siancia picked six Previews, one of
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the great preseason college football preview guides. I downloaded mine yesterday.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I've got mine in my hand right now. We'll talk
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: to Brett and then Sarah Todd will talk some jazz
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: with us a little bit later on. We'll keep you
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: updated on the British Open that's going on right now
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: at Royal Barkdale, so we'll get to that as well,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: and anything else that may pop up today too. By
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: the way, do you know there's always something happening up
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: at Brighton right now twenty twenty six United States Women's
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Disc Golf Championships going on this weekend. ESPN seven hundred
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: ninety two one FM has passes for you, so tune
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: into see Spencer's show this afternoon around four thirty for
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: your chance to win in details or on the app
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: at ESPN seven hundred app at ESPN seven hundred sports
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: dot Com your text messages when we get back on
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the other side. It's great to be in on a Friday.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I'll try my best to entertain you for the next
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: two and a half hours. Bill Riley in for Shaan
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: O'Connell ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to one FM.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Use your two to the Sean.
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: hundred at ninety two to one FM.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Ryle's sitting in thro ce today. He's out, so I'm
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: glad to be back in the aired chair, Glad to
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: interact with if you guys too. The text line is
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: popping today, so we'll get to some of those text messages.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. I'll
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: give you a full leaderboard update on the second round
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of the Open Championship. But somebody named Lucas Herbert who
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know it all, but he shot a sixty
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: two today. He's got a two shot lead right now
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: over Cameron Young and Jackson Suber, who I didn't know either.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I've never heard of Jackson Suber. Deshambo's still on the
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: course playing well, as is Ryan Girard and Sam Byrns
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: shot a sixty two today too. He didn't have a
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: good first round, but he went lights out today. He's
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: at five under in the clubhouse. So we'll keep you
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: updated on that and we'll give you a full leaderboard
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: update coming up in just a bit. Here on the
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Sean o'conddle show. Text line text question for you today
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: here in the first hour, because I wanted to open
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: it up and just give you a pretty straightforward question,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: And the question today is pretty simple. Does Utah play
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: in the Big twelve Championship Game this year? Not asking
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: you if they win it. If you want to throw
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: that in, it's fine, but I'm just simply asking does
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Utah play in the Big twelve Championship Game this year?
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. But
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: because it's a free for all Friday, and we don't
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: get to talk as often as we used to. Feel
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: free to throw anything else at me as well. Forty
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: eight days away from kickoff, Jazz Summer League World Cup Final,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: you name it, NFL's just around the corner. Yes, I'm
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: still a Chiefs fan that has not changed, and I
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: think it'll be a bounce back year for the Chiefs,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: though I gotta say I'm not overly thrilled with their
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: wide receiver room, but healthy Mahomes makes all the difference.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: We'll see how it goes anyway. Eight seven seven three
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: five three zero seven hundred. To get on the Shot
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: O'Connell show today, Bill Riley said again, Austin says, hey,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: good to hear your voice again. Bill gave me a
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: thumbs up. Thumbs up to you two. Austin appreciate it.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening in today. Jared says, Hey, other than quarterback,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: what position group do you feel most confident about heading
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: into the season, other than the old line? What position
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: group makes has the most question marks? Good question, Jared.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: A quarterback is locked and loaded. I feel great, I do.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I feel great about running back, I feel great about
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: wide receiver, this wide receiver and again. I know a
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: lot of it's unproven in the Utah system, but they
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: have guys that have played now you know again, Braden
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Pagan had a really nice year last year at Utah State.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Kyrie Sholes had a really nice year last year at
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: San Jose Satan. Both those guys are familiar with Kevin
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: mcgivern's offense, but given recruited shoals to San Jose State.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Larry Simmons had a really good end of the season.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: He's back this year. Creed I almost say Creed Humphrey.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: That's my Chiefs fan coming out. Creed win a Moore.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Once Ryan Davis got hurt last year, Winnemore slid into
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: that slot wide receiver and he was really good the
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: last couple of games. That's four wide receivers there. We
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: haven't even gotten to Dandrin Zipperer. Another guy I'm going
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: to tell you guys to keep an eye on is
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Ricky Johnson. Ricky Johnson was a freshman last year at
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Mississippi State. He only had three catches as freshmen, but
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: he played for Chad Bumpus. Chad Bumpus's wide receiver coach
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: is now the wide receiver coach at Utah. I think again,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: just another name to file West. So I think those
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: two position groups that's why I feel really good about
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the offense this year. I do question marks this year.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I still think there's a little bit of a question
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: at corner, just a little bit, just because you've got
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Scooby Davis on one side. Who's going to be the
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: guy that plays opposite of him, who's going to play
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the slot. I think the safeties are great, Jackson Benny
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and Nate Tillman, Nate, Richie, Rabbit Evans should be back.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: They'll be good at safety. But again I'm not concerned
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: about it. But there's some questions just until we see
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: who they tied to slot in. But I know they
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: like James Chnault a lot, and I know they like
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Rock Caldwell a lot too. So hope that helps you
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: out a little bit.
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: JA.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you for the text message. Eight seven seven three
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: five three zero seven hundred is the text line to
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: get on board today here on the ESPN seven hundred
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: text in from Derek Hey. Derek says, hey, Bill, it's
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: clear that the media is counting out the utes because
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: of the question marks everywhere. If you did not know
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: about the coaching change and only saw the players in
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the schedule. What do you believe the most realistic record
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: is this year? Well, I do know those things. Though
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I have said this to people, and I may sound foolish.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'll look foolish in November saying this. I think
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the low water mark, again, assuming you don't get decimated
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: with injuries. Everybody suffers injuries, I get it. But assuming
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: you don't get decimated by injuries, I think Utah on
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: the low end is a nine to three team and
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: on the high end could be an eleven and one team.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: You guys that have listened to me for years know
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: my rules. I never pick anybody to go undefeated. It's silly,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: it's insane. Does it happen, Yeah, it can see Indiana,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: but it's rare, even though Utah has done it twice
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: in the last twenty years. But anyway, I digress. That's
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: what I believe, and here's what I will say. I
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: don't know that anybody's counting Utah out. Like I said
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: down at Big twelve Football media days, there's a lot
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: of respect for the program, and Scalley's got a lot
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: of respect, but he's not been a head coach before,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and he's not run a program, and I think that's
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: where people are just pausing a little bit.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: That's all.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: So if you're outside of it and you don't see it,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything wrong. Again, if they did
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: a preseason media poll, I firmly believe Tech was one
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: BYU two. I think Utah would have been picked three.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I do, with Houston just behind him, Arizona and TCU
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: just behind him. I think K State could be a
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: surprising team this year. Anyway, Derek, thank you. I appreciate it.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Michael says, Hey, Bill, Oh, how I missed that introduction.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: On a daily basis, the history of the enthusiasm is awesome.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: I love your energy at the mike. It's simply the
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: best miss hearing you on a daily basis, my friend.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Best to you always. Hey Michael, thanks that was kind
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: of you. I appreciate it. Darren Swan says, Hey, Bill,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: glad to hear the pipes. I still hope to meet
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: you and Scott sometime at a football game, but I
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: realize the odds are not in my favor. Well, if
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: you come to the Smith's tailgate tent, you should be okay.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Figure your way in there, Darren, So I'd love to
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: meet you. Come by and say if you get a chance,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: come by and say hi. Sli'll be in there too.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Text message hey. Bill Hart says, we make it, but
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: my head says no, okay, it's not a lock. I
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: mean it's not a shoe in. I don't think that
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Tech is on paper the best team. But they've got
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: questions and how much did this offseason stuff impact that team?
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Probably not a lot. But they've got a question at quarterback,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: and that's the help of will. Will Hammond. There's a
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: difference between and he blew his knee out win it
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: was what late October. I think there's a difference between
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: coming back to play and playing at a high level,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: especially when you're a guy that doesn't have a lot
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: of experience. So they've got a big question. B why
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: you lost some key players too, playmakers on the outside,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: defensive coordinator. There's questions there. Utah obviously has questions. So
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: there's certainly questions. But if you're saying no, that's that's
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: a fair answer, I will disagree with it, and I'll
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: give you my answer why in a minute, But it's fair.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Will Healy says, Yes, the Utes play in the title game. Okay.
• 35:55
  Speaker 8: Oh.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: He also says Bill, our friend group has spread between
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Salt Lake and southern California. When that every one of
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: us here here's you're on. We spread the word. Oh,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: thank you. It's always great to hear your voice, go Yutes.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Thanks well, appreciate that and to the friend group as well.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Matt Rigby says, I think the winner of the Holy
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Ward goes to the Conference Championship, which will make that
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: game super hot. I agree. If you want my answer
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: right now, and I'm happy to give it to you,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I think yet, Yes, Utah plays in the conference championship
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: game this year. And you want to know the greatest
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: reason why I think they play in the Conference championship
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: game because that game is it Rice Cycle Stadium. And
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I just can't see a world where Utah loses back
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: to back games at Rice Cycle Stadium against BYU. It
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: hasn't happened in more than thirty years. But I do
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: believe the winner of that game will play Texas Tech
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: in the championship game. Texas tech schedule is easy, It
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: is so easy. All their tough games are at home,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and Tech doesn't get this. Tech doesn't have to play Utah.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Tech doesn't have to play BYU. I don't think Tech
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: has to play Kansas State either. I think they're two
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: toughest conference games are Houston and Arizona, and I think
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: both those games are in Lubbock. So techcot a Tech
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Scott of the favorites. And I think there's four or
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: five potential teams. I really think there's three. But they
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: certainly have the most friendly schedule, if that makes sense.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Text message from Spencer today, No, this one's from I'm
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: sorry Texter twenty eighty six. Hey Bill. If I had
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the guess, I would say no for now, but for
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: years that Utah has played better when they were overlooked
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: and have a chip on their shoulder. If the offensive
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: a defensive line come together and play good, then Utah
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: has got a good chance to play in the conference
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: championship game. Also, having most of the toughest games at
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: home is a plus. Yeah, I would say it's split
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: for Utah. On their toughest games, they have Houston and
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: BYU at home, and those are two games and basically
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: a three week span. Those are tough games. But after
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: they play BYU at home, they've got to go on
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: the road for back to back games against Arizona and TCU.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Those will not be easy games, especially that Arizona game.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And I say that not because Arizona's some juggernaut one.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Tucson has always been a tough place for Utah to
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: play for whatever reason. Brent Brennan's a good coach. They
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: surprised people winning ten games last year. Noah Fafida has
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: had huge games against Utah. I talked to Noah. I
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: talked to him when we were down a big twelve
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: football media days. He is a great kid. My friend
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Steve Fafita's nephew, great kid. But Noah Flafite's got a
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: little chip on his shoulder when it comes to Utah
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: because he grew up a Utah fan in southern California
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: because of his uncle Steve, and Utah didn't really recruit
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: him very hard. That's what he told me, and so
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: he's always played a little bit better and a little
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: bit harder against the Utes. By the way, Noah Fafiita
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: is about as big as Brittain Covey was. That guy
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: is small. He even had his pads on him. They
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: were doing a photo shoot or something down there at
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Big twelve, so he had his pads on and Cleat's on.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: But he is a small dude, which makes it even
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: more impressive what he's able to do on the football field.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. Spencer
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Cobb ask does the Big twelve seam deeper this year.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I think it's about the same Spencer. I don't think
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: it's any deeper when it comes to title contenders, but
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: I think I think there's probably eight good programs Texas Tech,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Utah BYU, Houston, Kansas State, Arizona TCU, Arizona State, and
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I think there's some Okay, I think there's some like
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma State, I think is going to be much better
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: this year, but I don't think that they're a I
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: don't know that they're yet a good program. I know
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: they've got a lot of influx of talent and Eric
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Morris is a good coach, but they were terrible. I mean,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: they were awful the last really two years. So I
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: think there's eight good teams, and then I think there's
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: a handful of kind of average teams, average and maybe
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: slightly below average teams. And then I think there's a
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: couple of bad teams. I'll give you my preseason Big
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Twelve Power poll coming up in just a bit. Here
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: on the Sean O'Connell show, Texter sixty one ninety seven says,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: good morning, Bill. I'm putting my trust in the Utes.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: They will play in the Big twelve playoffs this year.
• 41:21
  Speaker 7: Go Utes.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: In the Big twelve. You mean the Big Twelve championship
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: game and the playoffs, one step at a time. Thank
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: you for that text message eight seven seven three five
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: three zero seven hundred. A couple more text messages, then
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: we'll grab a break.
• 41:40
  Speaker 9: Here.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: We'll be joined by Zane Beatles at the top of
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: the hour, recently named to the Crimson Club Hall of Fame,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: one of the great Utah offensive alignment of all time.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: Texas ninety seven seventy ninety seven twenty seven says, no
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: too many changes. I really think they'll be lucky to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: be seventh or eighth in the Big Twelve. Well, you
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: and I. If you're gonna say they won't make it,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: that's fine, But seventh or eighth in the Big Twelve
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: would mean something catastrophic happened this year. There's too much
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: talent in that program for them to find seventh or
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: eighth would mean they finished like seven and five, six
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: and six, and with the schedule that they've got, I
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: just I don't see that. My buddy Albert says, shout
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: out to you, Bill, we miss you well. Albert will
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: see you in about forty eight days. Thank you. This
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: text comes in from Rob. Mister Riley, the only thing
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I want to see in college football is Utah against
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: Michigan for the National Championship. Well, from your lips, Rob
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: to the football god's ears, I would love to I
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: would even just say this, if we could get a
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Utah versus Michigan playoff matchup in whatever, I would be
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: all in for that. But dream the impossible dream in
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: say national Championship. The storylines in that game would be
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: off the charts. All one more text and will grab
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: a break come back with a leaderboard update. This one
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: comes in from zero six two six says Hey, Bill,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: great to hear from you as a lifelong Utah fan
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: in Utah. Alum, The short answer is, I just don't know. Well,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: this isn't like I'm not holding any of you to this.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be tracking you down on the
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: text line to rub it in your face. If they
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: do or don't make it. The fan in me would
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: love to say, yes, Utah will be in the Big
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: twelve Championship game this year, but I just don't know.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: As you mentioned, Utah went eleven and two this year,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Utah fans should be as excited as we've ever been
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: going into a season. But there's a noticeable lull in
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: the air. There's a noticeable hesitation and nervousness in the air.
• 43:53
  Speaker 8: Is there.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: There's not at the football facility, I'll tell you that much.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: If there's a noticeable lull, maybe in the national media.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Like I said, that's understandable. There's been change. Those guys
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: aren't around the program. They kind of look at depth
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: charts and kind of make projections, and that's fine, we
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: all do that. But I would say I haven't met
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: anybody that's nervous that's a Utah fan. I think that
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: they're unsure, kind of like you are. I haven't noticed
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: any lull or nervousness, maybe a hesitation to pull the
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: trigger and guarantee they'd be in. But we're not curing
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: cancer or splitting the atom here. We're just talking ball
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: on the program. So make a prediction. But no, I
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: understand being unsure, but we're sitting here forty eight days
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: from kickoff. Just pick aside one way or another and
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: we'll see who's right. Come November eight seven seven three
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: five three zero seven. To get you in and on
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: board today, could do a little British Open update brought
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: to you by you went to golf on the other
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: side as they play at Royal Barkdale today, and then
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Zane Beatles will join us in just a bit as well.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Friday shat O'Connell show. Bill Riley sitting in on the
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Home of the Utes ESPN seven hundred ninety two one FM.
• 45:19
  Speaker 6: She was listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
• 45:26
  Speaker 6: to one FM.
• 45:28
  Speaker 8: So meet game.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Ryle's inbro Seed today live for the Broadway Media Studios
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: here in downtown Salt Lake ESPN seven hundred and ninety
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: two to one FM. Open Championship going on as we speak.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Our leaderboard updates of the Open Championship brought to you
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: by our friends that you went to golf and by
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: Worldwide Golf. Visit a ND store for a free custom
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: fitting it you went to golf for shoppamonline at Worldwide
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: golf dot com. Here is your leaderboard at Royal Barkdale,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: the one hundred and fifty fourth Open Championship and the
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: second round. Lucas Herbert is your leader. He was even
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: par heading into the day today and he was oh
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: so close to karting a sixty one, which would have
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: been historic. Instead he cart it at sixty two, which
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: is still damn good. Eight under par. He is eight
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: under for the tournament and he's got a two shot
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: lead over a couple of Americans, Super and Young. They're
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: both six under par Super today, one under Young three
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: under both in the clubhouse. Bryce and D. Chambeau is
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: still out on the course and he's playing well. E
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Chambeau right now at five under two hundred for the day.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: He's on fourteen I think as we speak, and three
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: shots back. Gerard is also out there in an American
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: he's two under through eleven to day five hundred for
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: the tournament. Another American Samba. The Americans are dominating at
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: the top of the leader board right now for the
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: top six spots. Five of the top six spots are American.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Sam Burns was also five under today and I'm sorry,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: eight under today, five under for the tournament, so he's
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: in the clubhouse in good shape. Mullinary had a good
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: round today minus one, four under for the tournament. Wallace
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: at four under. McIntyre Fitzpatrick both at four under par
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: as well as they play. It's getting a little late
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: in the day today, it's approaching I believe about seven
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: o'clock in the evening. It'll be light there till like
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: ten o'clock tonight, so they won't have any trouble getting
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: these rounds in Scotti. Scheffler continues to struggle a bit.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: He's not had a great year this year by his standards,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: and if most of you probably know that are golf fans,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: that Tony Fenal has had just an awful year this year.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: He has missed every major championship this year. Just not
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: been informed this year, Tony, and so he's not playing
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: at the Open Championship right now. So that leaderboard update
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: brought to you by you went to Golf and Worldwide Golf.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: They'll sponsor the leaderboard updates throughout the rest of the
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: day today here on the Shot O'Connell show and again
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: with Spence Check its as well. Been asking the question
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: today here the first hour of the show. Since we're
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: forty eight days away from kickoff, I just kept it
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: pretty simple today, but it's a question worth asking because
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: it's by no means a lock. Does Utah play in
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: the Big twelve championship game this year? Everybody feels, and
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: I'm probably in that camp too, that Texas Tech has
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: a pretty good and easy path from Lubbock to Dallas.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: And then is it gonna be Utah? Is it gonna
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: be BYU? Could it be one of the other upstarts
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: like in Arizona, a Kansas State, maybe a Houston. I
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: don't think so. I think those teams could play spoiler.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I think, and I said this earlier, I think there's
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: a really good chance that Utah comes in to the
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: rivalry game. Eight. No, their early season schedule sets up
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: really well, especially for the lines of scrimmage to begin
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: to gel. Utah season, for the most part, begins with
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Houston on October twenty fourth. They go to Cincinnati the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: next week, and then it's BYU, Arizona TCU in three
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: successive weeks. And I really do believe that's kind of
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: where the season is going to kind of begin to
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: play out. I think Utah's got a great chance to
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: be eight to zer. Looking at BYU schedule, I think
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: they might be seven and one. I think the only
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: game I think BYU drops early might be that Notre
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Dame game. Notre Dame, by the way, is we'll talk
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: to brit Siancy pick six previews about Notre Dame, but
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: they are loaded. A lot of people have them preseason
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: number one. I think Brett in his publication had them fourth.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: I think he had Oregon one, Ohio State to Miami three.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Not sold on my I think Miami's gonna be good again.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: They'll give me they might be the best team in
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: the ACC. But we'll see if Darien Mensa is good enough.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: He played a Duke. He put up good numbers at Duke,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't like Duke was a world beater. Now
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: he'll have a lot better talent around him at Miami,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: so we'll see. And then he's got I think Notre
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: Dame fourth. So we'll talk to Ciancia coming up in
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: just a bit here on the program. Eight seven seven
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: three five three zero seven out of this text line,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: thank you guys. He has absolutely exploded today. I've got
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: so many text messages to get to here. Text message
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Texter twenty one to thirty six. I would love to
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: see the utes in that game, and I don't think
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: they're far off. But the O line dictates quarterback play,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: and we're too green. I bet we'll still be damn
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: good on the line, better than we should be, but
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: not at the level of a conference champion. Thanks Billy,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: Always good to hear you again, as always, John, Well,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: thank you, John. Here's the thing they're not. I'm just
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: gonna say this, They're not necessarily green on the offensive line.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: Starting wise, Yes, Zaraway Williams is likely your starting left tackle.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: Started three or four games last year toward the end,
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: or two or three games toward the end, and has
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: been to the program six years. He's played a lot
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: of football, just not starting football. Alex Harrison has been
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: to the program like seven years it has been around.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Has not started a bunch of games. He started a handful,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: but he's played a lot. Remember these guys come in
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: when Utah's blowing teams out and play. Cedric Jefferson was
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: the starting right tackle last year or left tackle. He
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: might play on the right side this year. For the
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: national champion Montana State.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: Bobcats.
• 51:57
  Speaker 7: Is that right?
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Popcats?
• 51:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: ONEA champions last year. Again, the real issue isn't going
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: to be their ability to play. It's going to be
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: their ability to gel quickly, because on an offensive line,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: you've got to geil pretty quickly. We'll talk to Zamee
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Beatles about that. He's going to join us coming up.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: He played a little bit of offensive line in his time.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm not worried about the talent, just
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: having talked to enough coaches and seen it. It's getting
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: those five guys on the you know. And again I
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: don't know if they've got the five guys locked in
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: yet or it might take a week or two of
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: camp to get there. But the sooner they do it,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: the better. So John, thank you. One more than we'll break.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: We'll get some more text messages in a bit. This
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: one comes in from Leslie. Leslie says, Bill, I've missed
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: your interviews with Phil Steele these last few years. Loved
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: your podcast with him this week. Thanks for listening to
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: the pod. He's so knowledgeable. I love how he seems
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: to have a personal connection with each team. Great interview. Well,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: thank you he does, Bill does his homework. He talks.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I know he talked to Morgan Scalley.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: He talks to every single head coach. It's a lot
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: of talking. Anyway, grab a break. Hour one is done,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: flew by. Lots more to do today, busy hour this
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: hour with some guests, so we'll get to some stuff.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Go get some more of your text messages coming up
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: in just a bit. On the other side, just announced
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: he's going into the Crimson Club Hall of Fame. One
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: of the great offensive linemen in Utah football histories, Ame
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Beatles joins us. Next, You're on the Shatt O'Connell Show,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Bill Riley in Today on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: two to one FM. This is by Sean.
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: O'Connell's show, you were Home of the best Inside of
• 53:42
  Speaker 5: your uths.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Let's get back to oc.
• 53:45
  Speaker 5: From the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of DESPN seven hundred and
• 53:49
  Speaker 5: ninety two to one.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: A f AM hour two on a Friday, riles in
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: for Sean Today. Great to be with you. Rat Ciancia
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: picked six previews in about a half hour to talk
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: twelve and Utah football. We'll also talk to Sarah Todd
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: des Rett news about the jazz summer and what's been
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: going on with the jazz and her thoughts on Darren
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: Peterson and what looks forward to this year. Our next guest, though,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: it is perfect timing for him today as we talk
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: a little bit about questions about Utah's offensive line, but
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: timing even better because yesterday it was announced he was
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: going into the Crimson Club Hall of Fame this fall
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: with a great offensive linemen in Utah football history. Of course,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: some know him as a Hillcrest High School legend, many
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: know him more as a Utah legends. Ame Beatles joining
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: us from the great state of Florida, right smack dab
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: in the middle where it's hot and huet. I'm sure
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: today in Orlando, what's up, Zame.
• 54:42
  Speaker 8: It is hot and humid, that's for sure, But I
• 54:45
  Speaker 8: just started driving through our afternoon thunderstorms, so that'll help
• 54:49
  Speaker 8: cool things off.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, doing well? How you doing, Bill, I'm doing fantastic.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: Congratulations by the way on getting named too, and you'll
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: be inducted later this year with another good class to
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: the Some Club Hall of Fame.
• 55:01
  Speaker 8: Yeah, thank you very much, huge, huge honor. You know
• 55:06
  Speaker 8: when when Mark Carlan called me the other day and
• 55:09
  Speaker 8: let me know, you know, something that I've always thought about,
• 55:12
  Speaker 8: kind of dreamed about, and and for it to be
• 55:15
  Speaker 8: here and becoming to fruition, I'm really excited about it.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: It's it's an honor that kind of puts you. It's
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: put you in in great, great company with the other
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: greats that have played at your alma mater as well.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: But could you have ever thought when you went back
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: to those early days of the Kyle Whittingham era and
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: playing a little offensive line with some of those fellows,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: that this would be the end result.
• 55:38
  Speaker 7: Absolutely not.
• 55:40
  Speaker 8: I distinctly remember my true freshman year coming into training
• 55:44
  Speaker 8: cam getting into the season, you know, being on the
• 55:46
  Speaker 8: scout team.
• 55:47
  Speaker 7: I red shirted that year and you know I needed
• 55:49
  Speaker 7: some time to develop.
• 55:50
  Speaker 8: But I remember calling my dad telling him that I'm
• 55:55
  Speaker 8: never going to play here.
• 55:56
  Speaker 7: These guys are way too big and strong.
• 55:59
  Speaker 8: I'm just not good at enough and uh but you know,
• 56:02
  Speaker 8: kept my head down, kept working hard and and got
• 56:05
  Speaker 8: better and here we are.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: When did you have when did the light bulb go on? Zane?
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: When was that time where you thought, you know, were
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: that those doubts that you had in your head when
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: you were talking to your dad. When did it kind
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: of change? When did you say, like, Okay, I'm okay,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: I can play with these guys.
• 56:20
  Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, I mean the next year, you know,
• 56:22
  Speaker 8: I kind of got thrust into a position and the
• 56:25
  Speaker 8: expectation was like, hey, we want you to compete for
• 56:28
  Speaker 8: a spot here, you know, my red shirt freshman year.
• 56:30
  Speaker 8: And you know, I've kind of always just been that
• 56:33
  Speaker 8: way where I just you know, I throw myself into
• 56:36
  Speaker 8: the situation and I do the best that I can
• 56:38
  Speaker 8: do and that's all I can worry about and we'll
• 56:40
  Speaker 8: see what comes out the other side. And I did that,
• 56:43
  Speaker 8: and you know, going into the opener that year on
• 56:47
  Speaker 8: the road in the Rose bul against UCLA, it was
• 56:49
  Speaker 8: my first start and you know, just kind of never
• 56:52
  Speaker 8: looked back from there.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: All about West second team is a sophomore, but that
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: that what everybody remembers is the eight team and how
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: special that team was. You guys had a bunch of
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: dudes that have played together. A lot of you guys
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: had played together for quite a while. Up front that year,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: I always asked the four guys because they were you know,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: they were they had that great year before at eleven
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: and two year where Alex took over and coming in
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: they had the the you know, the confidence of Urban Meyer.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: I don't remember that same buzz coming into that eight season.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: You guys knew you were going to be pretty good.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: When did you know you were really good?
• 57:29
  Speaker 8: I think we kind I don't know that we knew
• 57:32
  Speaker 8: for certain going into that season. And to your point,
• 57:35
  Speaker 8: you know, the seven season wasn't like you know, it
• 57:38
  Speaker 8: wasn't like the three season, that's for sure, But you know,
• 57:42
  Speaker 8: I think the team had kind of gone through a
• 57:44
  Speaker 8: transition from Urban to to Kyle and uh, you know,
• 57:48
  Speaker 8: started to take on his kind of you know, his
• 57:53
  Speaker 8: type of program and his attitude and uh, different things
• 57:57
  Speaker 8: you know were progressing. But I think internally, you know,
• 57:59
  Speaker 8: we we knew we had a chance. We knew we
• 58:01
  Speaker 8: had something special.
• 58:02
  Speaker 7: We had a good group that played together and a
• 58:04
  Speaker 7: lot of great leaders on that eight team.
• 58:06
  Speaker 8: So I think internally we expected to be very good
• 58:09
  Speaker 8: that season. And then you know, I think early in
• 58:12
  Speaker 8: that season, the way that we were playing and you know,
• 58:15
  Speaker 8: go on the road to Michigan and win that game,
• 58:17
  Speaker 8: it was like, all right, here we go.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Great teams and teams that have great seasons. As you know,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: sometimes have to gut wins out. Sometimes they're not always pretty.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: That's why there's no style points. It's just about wins
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: and losses on the scoreboard. You guys had some of
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: those games, not everything again, like the four team where
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: they blew the doors off of everybody. You guys had
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: to win some close games. That TCU games one of
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: it everybody always points to, but you had some other
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: ones too.
• 58:46
  Speaker 7: Yeah, we did New Mexico.
• 58:47
  Speaker 8: It's one that pops out for me that year, you know,
• 58:50
  Speaker 8: kind of similar and I think it was the exact
• 58:52
  Speaker 8: exact same score that TCU game, if I remember correctly.
• 58:56
  Speaker 8: But yeah, to your point, I mean even the Michigan game, right,
• 58:58
  Speaker 8: I think that was the funnel. There was like twenty
• 59:00
  Speaker 8: five to twenty three.
• 59:01
  Speaker 7: Or something like that. You know, the close, close games,
• 59:03
  Speaker 7: and uh, you know we were able to be on.
• 59:06
  Speaker 8: The right side of those games throughout that whole season.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Zan Beatles our guest here on ESPN seven. I don't
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: know the shat o'condo show. Bill Riley sitting in today
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: for Sean. He's going into the Crimson Club Hall of Fame.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you about the rest of the class coming
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: up in just a bit here, How did Utah football
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: prepare you for the next level?
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: Zaying?
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: How how prepared were you when the Broncos took you
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: and you began your career in Denver and obviously played
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: nine great years. We hear from people all the time,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: especially in the trenches and sometimes at the defensive backspot too,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: that when NFL guys draft Utah players, they know what
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: they're getting. What was it that Kyle and his staff
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: did that got you ready for the next level?
• 59:48
  Speaker 9: Yeah?
• 59:48
  Speaker 8: Well, well, first of all, you know, I've said this
• 59:51
  Speaker 8: all along and firmly believe it and will continue to
• 59:53
  Speaker 8: say it. Had I gotten to any other program, you know,
• 59:56
  Speaker 8: I don't think I would have gone on to play
• 59:57
  Speaker 8: professionally and had the career that I had in the
• 59:59
  Speaker 8: NF fell So, you know, I owe a lot to
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 8: that coaching staff and and the way that they developed
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 8: me and developed players and and not you know, not
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 8: only physically, but mentally and and just preparation wise in general.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 7: So I just want to make that comment. You know,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 7: the way that Kyle you know.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 8: Ran the program, and and Doug Elisiah in the in
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 8: the you know, the the weight room, and it was
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 8: just very you know, you you knew exactly what the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 8: expectation was, and you knew that if you didn't meet
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 8: the expectation, you weren't going to see the field and
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 8: it was up to you, right and and very much
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 8: treated you like young men, and you know, until you
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 8: proved that you couldn't be treated that way. And you know,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 8: that's the way that the NFL is, right, if you
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 8: can't perform on the field, they're going to go find
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 8: somebody else that can. And so just kind of having
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 8: that attitude and having that kind of expectation just prepares
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 8: you well for the next level, you know. And then
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 8: the physicality and the hard work and the toughness and
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 8: just the things that the programs throughout instills and guys.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 7: You know, just translates very well to the next level.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: So you and I talked about this when you were
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: a guest on my podcast a few months back on
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: the Crimson Corner, But maybe a lot of the people
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: listening in today didn't catch that episode. One of the
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: big questions this year, and rightfully so, about Utah, is
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: they've got to replace five offensive line, five starters. Now
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: they have a bunch of guys that have played Zane,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: they didn't they weren't starters, but they have played over
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: four or five years of football. With Utah and some
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: other talented guys coming in. What's the biggest challenge Jordan
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Gross has in getting five new starters together? Even if
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: they've played, they haven't necessarily played together. What's Jordan's biggest
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: challenge there over the next you know, forty eight days
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: before the opener, you.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 7: Just said it right there.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 8: It's getting them to play together right a line unlike
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 8: any other position on the football field, truly is for
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 8: any one of those guys to be successful, all five.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 7: Need to be working together, right. That's just the nature
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 7: of the.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 8: Position and being able to you know, put the right
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 8: guys in the right spots, have them, you know, get
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 8: reps with each other and gel with each other and
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 8: communicate well with each other. That that may be one
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 8: of the biggest factors, is that communication factor, But it is.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 7: It's it's just you know, relentless effort.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 8: In getting that unit to play as one and play
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 8: together and you know, no know the strengths and weaknesses
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 8: and and you know, be able to be in a
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 8: position to be successful as.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 7: An entire unit.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: How much can practice help or do you really have
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: to have game reps to really get together?
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 8: Well, practice absolutely can help. I mean, you know game reps.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 8: There's no substitution for game reps. But I know, uh,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 8: you know, coach Scally and the coaching staff is going
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 8: to be.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 7: Hyper focused and always has been and always will be on.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 8: Trying to replic replicate the game as much as possible
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 8: in practice, right and and but it's it's got to
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 8: be a mindset from the players too, Right. They need
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 8: to go out there and say, you know what, I'm
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 8: treating this as a game. Every rep that I go
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 8: out there, I'm playing absolutely full speed, you know, against
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 8: a good defense.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 7: And and uh, you know, the expectation.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 8: Across the board, across the team should be like, hey,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 8: we're going to play as hard as we can and
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 8: try to simulate games as much as we possibly can
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 8: so we can all make each other better.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know that they're completely set, but I think
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: coming out of spring they have a pretty good idea.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: If you were in Jordan's shoes and Kevin mcgiven the
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: offensive coordinator shoes, how far into full if you weren't
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: starting on day one of fall camp with your five.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: How quickly would you like to have your five together
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: a weekend?
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 7: I mean as quickly as possible.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 8: It takes what it takes at the end of the day, right,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 8: and if it's not right, you know, you think you
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 8: got to a lineup going.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 9: Into it and it just doesn't feel right, or you
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 9: need to make a tweak.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 7: Here there, that's what you got to do.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 8: But the quicker that you can kind of get that
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 8: that group settled in, I mean, the more reps they're
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 8: going to be able to get together, the more they're
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 8: going to kind of understand like, hey, you know, the
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 8: focus is on preparing as a unit here, not you know,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 8: individual competition. Now, there's always going to be individual competition,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 8: you know, I don't.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 7: Want to shy away from that. But but the more
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 7: that you can be in the mindset of like, hey,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 7: this is this is where we're going to be, you know,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 7: along the line.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 8: And here's how we're going to work together, and you know,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 8: let's focus on refining and fine tuning that. The more
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 8: reps you can get with with that, the better.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: I asked a couple of months ago, I'll ask for
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: this audience here that may not have caught the podcast.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: What do you what do you make of the hiring
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: of Jordan Gross to be the new offensive line coach?
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 8: And I think it's awesome that, you know, I don't
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 8: know Jordan that well, but my senior year I was
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 8: able to connect with him and a few times throughout
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 8: my senior season and get some advice.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 7: You know, on that transition and going to the next level.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 7: And obviously you know.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 8: Watching him on the field and and the way that
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 8: he went about his business and the type of player
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 8: that he was, you know, very intelligent player, and and
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 8: you know, maximize his ability, and you know, excited to
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 8: see him as a coach now and and pass on
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 8: uh not only the knowledge but the mindset and the
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 8: attitude and and the things that he played with UH
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 8: onto to his group is exciting.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know if last things, I know you've got
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: a run. I don't know if I've ever asked you,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: do you identify as a Bronco, a Jaguar, a Niner,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: or a Falcon. Probably not a Falcon because you only
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: spent them one year there, but you had good, good
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: stops in all those places. But if you're if if
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: someday they want to, they want to put you into Canton.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: That's the next Hall of Fame you've got to get into.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: Which hat are you wearing, Zane? Are you wearing the Broncos,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: the Jaguars, are the Niners hat?
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 8: Well, I don't think we're gonna have to worry about
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 8: that because I don't think that's that that piece of
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 8: things is never gonna happen.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 8: But you know, I I am very much a mutt
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 8: in that sense, I guess you would say. But you know,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 8: I was in Denver the longest, uh, you know, by
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 8: by one hundred percent. You know, it's four years there,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 8: two years than any other location. Had the most personal
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 8: success and team success there in Denver, so you know,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 8: if there had to be one, it'd definitely be a Bronco.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Well, that hurts me to my soul. Just a little
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: bit is a long time in a lifelong Chiefs fan.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: But as I told Garrett Bowles, I can root for
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: my team but still root for people that I like
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: a lot, and I rooted for you when you were
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: a Bronco. So I'm glad you had that success. I
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: know you spent some time in Jacksonville where I covered
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: that team too, But more than anything else, I'm just
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: happy that I'm going to get to see you in
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: September for the for the Hall of Fame induction class.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: Congratulations again, Zane. I'll talk to you soon.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 7: Absolutely.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Thanks Bill there all right, Zane Beatles with us member
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: of the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame class for twenty
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: twenty six, first Team All American and by the Football
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: Writers Association of America College Football News, and my guy
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: Phil Steele back in two thousand and nine was second
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: Team All American by Si Walter Camp Sporting News. First
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: of all, he is a great person, and Zane's always
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: been a great person, and uh and a Utah guy
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: and a Hillcris High School Salt Lake City guy. But
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: so happy for him. And it's a really really good
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: class that's going in. Delon Wright, one are the great
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: point guards in Utah basketball history, is going in as
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: part of this class. Delon just kind of I think
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: he's I'm going to try and talk to Delan soon,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure he's done with basketball, but we'll
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: find out. He had a good ten year runs, so
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with that. Daria b who was a gymnast
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: in the mid two thousands. Eight time All America also
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: competed in the Olympics for Germany back in two thousand
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: and eight. Jerry Pim, one of the great basketball coaches,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: Running Utes coach from seventy four to eighty three, was
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: an assistant coach for thirteen years with Jack Gardner and
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: Bill Foster. So I've met Coach Pim a number of
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: times when he's come back. I know his grandson, Dustin
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: very well, who's a local golf pro and helps out
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: with the Utah golf team. So happy for Jerry that
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: he's going in. Katrine Smigen, who's a Smigen who's women's
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: skier in the early two thousands, is going in as well.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: She was the Ski Racer of the Year for Ski
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Magazine in two thousand and three. Two time Olympian for Estonia.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: So that's really cool. Two time All American as well.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: And then they always honor a team too, and they're
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: gonna honor the two nineteen ninety one Utah softball team.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: They were Whack champions in ninety one regular season and tournament,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: coached by somebody that I've gotten to know the last
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: few years. Was able to broadcast the softball World Series
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: with Joe Evans. Charmel Green, who is fantastic and of
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: course deputy rector of Athletics, was an All American on
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: that team. And I'm pretty sure I gotta double check this,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure Amy Hoage, the current head coach,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: was a freshman on that team, freshman or sophomore. So
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: they also were part of a NC Double A record
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: double header. They played a fifty six inning double header.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: The first game was thirty one innings. They lost that game,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: but they came back and beat Creyton in the second game,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: which went twenty five innings. They played through the night.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: They began at like six in the evening and played
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: till six in the morning. It was insane. Still the
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: longest record of softball in NC DOUBLEA history. So that
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: is this ye twenty twenty six Crimson Club Hall of
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: Fame class and I'm gonna be lucky enough to MC
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: that ceremony coming up in September.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 7: So there you go.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: More more information on that class at utah Utes dot com.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. I'm
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: gonna give you in about a half hour my preseason
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: Big twelve power pole. This is the Bill Riley where
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: they are now with a little bit of projection too,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: power pole for the Big Twelve that'll be coming up
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: in just a bit. I've asked a question today. Do
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: you think Big the Utes appear in the Big twelve
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: title game this year? Ethan Barne or Easton Barney says, Hey, Bill,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: good to have you back on the radio. Tay, your
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: intro still gives me chills, so many great calls.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: Here's my question. Who do you think will be a
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: standout play this year that is flying under the radar?
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: M flying under the radar? Well, I I he's not.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: None of these guys are necessarily under my radar. I
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: think Jackson Benny is going to have an All conference
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: here this year. He was not picked first team All
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: Conference in the Big Twelve. He wasn't. I think Jackson
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Benny is going to have a huge year for Utah football.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: I think he has that next great Utah safety season.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: He had a really good year last year. I think
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Jackson has himself a really, really good year coming up
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: this year. I'll give you another guy to keep an
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: eye on that I think could pop this year a
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: little bit for Utah. Carson Kafusi. Yes, yet another Kafusie
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: at the University of Utah. Carson Sky High School product
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: had a really solid freshman year, was part of that
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: defensive tackle rotation. I'm gonna tell you to keep an
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: eye on Carson Kaufusi this year. Carson is one of
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: those rare breeds at defensive tackle that has the ability
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: to not only be a run stopper but also get
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: upfield too. So those are two guys are both defensive players,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: but two guys to keep an eye on. They could
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: be flying a little bit under the radar this year.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: Text message, Hey Bill, my Inner Mountain Crew and I
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: are excited whenever you're filling in on air. Definitely make
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: all of our workdays better. Suber schubertson one of my
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: all time favorites right there, Suber, thank you and the
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: Inner Mountain Crew, the IH crew for listening in today.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. Always
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: love to be able to step behind the mic and
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: entertain you guys in the midday. Love that for you, Shubert.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: This one comes in from David Today. David says, does
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: Utah come out in the opener and hit the throttle
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: or do they do just enough to win? Anything less
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: than forty eight points will be disappointing. Hey, coach, show
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: us what you have. In the past, all we've heard
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: was we don't want to show our hand. While they
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: held a jack Hi hand, they had nothing. They scared.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: That scared anyone. If you really hold a straight flush
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: show it. No more coach speak, all gas, no breaks,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: break that scoreboard. Okay, fair enough? Eight seven seven three
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: five three zero seven hundred. Welcome back bill, says Jordan Meyer.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: What is Utah's hardest game outside of BYU Arizona Houston TCU?
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: Also a random question? If Utah gets an MLB team,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: what happens to the Bees? Do the Angels get a
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: new feeder team? Or do we good question, We'll start
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: with the other one. Arizona's the hardest game. Arizona's good.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: That game's on the road, and it's the week after
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: the BYU game. BYU will tell you, Utah will tell
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: you the BYU. The rivalry game is like two games.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: You're putting so much into that game, physically, emotionally, all
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: of it. So I don't think there's any doubt that
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: it's Probably it's the Arizona game. Ask for your other question.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: That's a good question. I don't know what happens to
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: the Bes. My guess would be and James just whispered
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: in my ear that Tony Parks, who knows a whole
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: lot more about it than I do. They would likely
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: become the Triple A team for the major League Baseball
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: team here, and then the Angels would just find another
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: affiliate with the Miller ownership there and everything like that,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: and the Millers would obviously be a big part of
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: what they do on the major league side too. One
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: more text and we'll welcome in. Brett Siancia Curtis says Bill,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: good to hear you. I'm a little nervous about two things.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Our defensive line with the issues we had stopping the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: run last season, and the tight end room. I'm actually
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: not too worried about the offensive line. They're good hands
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: with coach Gross and we have some experience as seen
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: in the Bowl game. Yeah, I think that's right now. Again,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: five News started to give them a little time. That's
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: why I think the schedule being friendly early on will
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: help that team to gel a little bit. I wouldn't
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: be wildly concerned earned about the defensive line. Yeah, they
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: didn't look great. The k State game was awful. Morgan
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: Scalley would tell you that, and Kansas had some success
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: run the football team Nebraska a little bit. I think
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: those were fixable errors, and I think the defensive line
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: room should be good, but I would hope to think
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: that you could fix those issues in an offseason. Tight
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: end room, it's gonna be an interesting room because they
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: they've got a variety of different kinds of tight ends.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: They've got kind of smaller pass catching playing tight ends
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: guys like Hunter Andrews and Jackson Benny. Then you've got
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: the rhino guys that are big. I'm just really cure.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: I think the tight end room's gonna be good. It
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: may not be utilized the same way that it was,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: say under a guy like Andy Ludwig, but I'm gonna
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: be really curious to see how Kevin mcgiven and the
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: offense utilize those tight ends. I talked to Luke Wells
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago tight ends coach. He's really
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: excited and he's a good guy, and he's coached tight
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: ends and receivers and stuff at other schools. So we'll
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: see how it goes shoot me a text eight seven
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: seven three five three zero seven hundred eight seven seven
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: three five three zero seven hundred to get you on board.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: Today here on the Bill Riley filling in for Shan
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: O'Connell on the Shan O'Connell Show Today on the ESPN
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: seven hundred. You see I caught myself there. We're gonna
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: talk some Utah football, some Big twelve football, some national
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: football with our buddy Brett Siancia of Pick six Previews.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: Next here on ESPN seven hundred.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 5: If you are listening to a Sean O'Connell show, it's
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 5: your source for the best youth football coverage. Here's OC
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 5: from the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: Two to one a half am. Uh no OC today.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: Ryle's in OC on fight duty. By the way, you
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: can win the Ultimate Eighties get Away Weekend. Get ready
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: to relive the great latest decade of music. The eighties
• 1:18:02
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• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: tickets to thirty eight Special, two VIP tickets to Taylor,
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  Speaker 1: all of it right there and at two night State
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: at the beautiful Grand Summit Lodge at Canyons Village, ended
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: a win at ESPN seven Other Sports dot Com. Now
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: for the eighties Escape giveaway. We are forty eight days
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: away from Utah opening its season against the Idaho Vandals
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: on September the third at Reichs ecl Stadium. Since we
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: are inside of fifty days, my prep has begun for
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: the season, and no prep for my college football season
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: would be complete without the latest copy of the Pick
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: six Previews. Downloaded mine yesterday, printed it out, and I've
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: been pouring over it since. All sixty eight Power four teams,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: conference predictions, game Greater Formula twelve team Playoff Era and more.
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: The author and producer of the Pick six Previews, friend
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: of my old program, and friend of ESPN seven hundred
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: kind of enough join me today, Brett Ciancia. Brett, how
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: are you, hey?
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 7: Bill?
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 9: Thanks for having me on. It's a really busy time
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 9: of the year, but the best time of the year
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 9: with the Preview magazine published and now the hard copies
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 9: are coming off the printing press and we're shipping them
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 9: out across the country, so it cannot.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 7: Be more excited.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 9: I think it was the most wide open coaching caris
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 9: that we've ever seen, all the coaches moving around the
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 9: country and then you got two thousand players moving around
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 9: with a transfer portal. So this is your best way
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 9: to get caught off for the season. Pick Sixpreviews dot Com.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you don't want to wait to have it
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: shipped to you, you can literally have it in the
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: next five minutes. If you go to pick sixpreviews dot
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: Com order it, then you could download it print it off.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: Now you'll kill a few trees and probably have to
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: replace your color toner in your printer at home, but
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: you'll you can have it like right now, can't you. Brett.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 9: Yeah, we have this digital option right away for an
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 9: instant download. We have the HARDI but if you order
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 9: the hard copy you also get to digital too, so
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 9: for those couple of days where it's being shipped to you,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 9: you get access either way. So yeah, we got samples
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 9: on there. Testimonials. You heard Bill's words, they're very gracious.
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 9: I want to thank you, Bill, because you're one of
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 9: the first ones to really pick up Pick six Previews
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 9: in the media circuit probably about ten years ago by now,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 9: but here we are in twenty twenty six and it's
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 9: really grown.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 7: And want to thank you.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 9: You one of the first ones to include me and
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 9: have me on the show, and I'm just really excited
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 9: with how it's taken off.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: Well, great to have you back. I'm glad I'm filling
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: in today so we could talk a little bit about
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: this and we'll get to Utah in a minute and
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: the Big twelve in a minute. I don't know, Brett,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: if we have a definitive great team this year. It
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: feels to me like nationally you could make a case
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: for seven or eight teams maybe a few more to
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: play for a national championship this year. Is there a
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: definitive one or two for you or is it pretty
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: wide open?
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 9: Well, I've got a clear national champion pick this year
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 9: and I'm going with Oregon. And actually in last year's
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 9: copy the twenty twenty five preview, I wrote in there
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 9: that I thought that Oregon would be my twenty twenty
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 9: sixth national champion. So from twelve months ago I called
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 9: my shot and here I'm sticking with it now here
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 9: that we're in twenty twenty six. They blew me away
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 9: last year as a young, too deep, a young roster,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 9: they played really well. They made it all the way
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 9: to what the semifinals, smoked Texas Tech, and I was impressed.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 9: And they had Dante Moore return. He was projected to
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 9: be a first round quarterback. He's back. Just the five
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 9: stars that they've accumulated at Oregon really stands out. So
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 9: they're my national champion pick. I think that'll make it
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 9: four straight years of a Big Ten team, four different
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 9: Big Ten teams to win the national title. And from
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 9: there you have a couple more serious champion contenders with me.
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 9: I've got Ohio State, Miami what they showed last year
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 9: on their run, and an upgraded quarterback with Darian Mensa,
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 9: and then Notre Dame. I mean, if you're one of
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 9: those that you love returning starters, this is your team
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 9: this year because they've got like nineteen starters back. The
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 9: only ones missing are the running backs, and they've done
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 9: a really nice job with recruiting. So I see really
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 9: a clear top four for me, and ironically not a
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 9: single ost DC team in that pack. But outside of
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 9: that top four, you open it up and I've got
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 9: eight of the next twelve contenders r SEC, so a
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 9: lot of playoff contenders, maybe not so many national title
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 9: contenders from the Southeastern Conference.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I like Notre Dame. Running backs are
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: easier to replace in some other places. And I was
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: a big twelve med Days and I had my friend JB.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: Long and Mike Golick Junior on my podcast down there.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: And Golic is not a raw raw wave the pom
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: Poms always for Notre Dame. As much as some people
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: think he's really in on this team. He loves their trenches,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: car at quarterback, skill, position, secondary, the whole thing. So
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: I think nationally right now, if I'm picking a national
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: champion today, I might lean toward Notre Dame.
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I see nothing wrong with that. And you know,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 9: like I said, if you like returning starters, this is
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 9: your pick. But also if you like recruiting, I mean,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 9: they're a top five on average recruiter now under Marcus Freeman.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 9: If you like NFL draft picks, I also include in
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 9: the magazine every team's mock NFL.
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: Selections and Notre Dame number one in the country.
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 9: In twenty twenty seven mock NFL draft picks. I know
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 9: we're early on that, but still a good indicator of
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 9: the pro talent they've got in there. If you like
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 9: returning cornerback, they got that. CJ. Carr was top five
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 9: in QB rating last year. So really, no matter what
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 9: category that you like as a predictor or as a fan,
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 9: they've got it all covered. Even schedule, and you look
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 9: at the schedules really favorable. Only three top twenty five opponents.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 9: You got Miami SMU and a road trip to Provo
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 9: for BYU. Otherwise it's the four worst ACC teams and
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 9: the two worst Big ten teams, So they're really a
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 9: draw on a nice schedule. They even get a mulligan
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 9: now that we're in that twelve team playoffs, so they're
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 9: a surefire pick for the playoff and they're going to
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 9: be motivated to make a nice run after last year
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 9: what happened.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about easy schedules in the Big twelve in
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: just a minute. So at what point in time do
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: we say Lincoln Riley can't coach big games, big teams.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: I feel like every year he gets the benefit of
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: the doubt and every year he comes up short. He
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: did it in the Pac twelve he's done it recently.
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: I think you've got him at what eleven, ten, eleven,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: somewhere in that range. Tell me why you like, why
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: this is going to be the year where Lincoln Riley
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: actually does something at USC.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 7: Yeah, well, I'm glad you brought.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 9: Up those old Pack twelve days because that's really where
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 9: I found a liking to Utah's program, because the whole
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 9: national media was picking USC and that Pack twelve division
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 9: every year, and I was going Utah and the youths
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 9: proved me right several years in a row. And so
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 9: that's just a little background on Pick six previews. That
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 9: was great times. But now I think it's a little
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 9: bit different here with USC. I do have them in
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 9: my playoff bracket. I think that's a somewhat of a
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 9: surprising pick if you look across the landscape. Yeah, but
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 9: I've got them in the playoffs because they we know
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 9: we have the Lincoln Riley off. They bring back Jade
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 9: My Ava, a lot of great running backs and receivers,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 9: big o line, four starters back. But really the difference
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 9: to me is the defense I think has finally been upgraded,
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 9: specifically the defensive line, because they just signed the number
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 9: one high school recruiting class in the country signed a
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 9: couple five stars last cycle, two all in that defensive line.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 9: So it is star power. It's experienced transfer starters coming
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 9: in on the d line, and then a guy Gary Patterson,
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 9: you remember this, Mister TCU himself is now taking over
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 9: the USC defense, and he even said in his press
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 9: conference he's never seen a defense this talented or this
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 9: this big and size wise. So I like USC the
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 9: complete package this year to be the fourth Big Ten selection.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna take just because I've seen this before. Ah,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: we're loaded with transfers. This I know. Mayava is a
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: good quarterback. I just he's gonna have to show me
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: he can do it. To me, what he did at
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma was all on the coattails of what Bob Stoops did.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: They were always loaded offensively, struggled defensively. It's been the
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: same thing at USC. Maybe this is the year, I guess.
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: I guess I've just got to see it.
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I understand that, and in a similar sense, I'm
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 9: kind of wait to see it to believe it. For Texas,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 9: this is another team that's getting a lot of preseason steam.
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 9: I've seen them as high as number one overall again,
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 9: and you know everyone's got him as a lot for
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 9: the playoff. I do have them in my bracket, but
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 9: I've got them down at seventh and I don't have
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 9: them playing for the SEC title. So I guess relatively
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 9: to my peers that that's kind of selling Texas. I
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 9: need to see it from them because every year we
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 9: hear about top transfers. Arch Manning hype every season, and
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 9: I will give him credit. He did improve his play
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 9: down the stretch. First four games were pretty brutal for him,
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 9: but over the back half of the season he impressed
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 9: and improved. But still with a team like Texas, I
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 9: want to see it before I sign up for a
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 9: national title pick down there. I like the more guaranteed
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 9: picks of Georgia with that defense. Oklahoma also with their defense.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 9: That's why I have playing for the.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: SEC title game at Ciancia. Pick six previews with us
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: here on the Sean O'Connell show. Bill Riley filling in today.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: All right, let's dive into the Big twelve. Utah made
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: a coaching change in Morgan Scalley. After years of being
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: a player at a coach at a high level. Here
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: and has been coaching waiting takes over. You had them
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: third in your preseason Big twelve, which and I think
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: twenty first or twenty second overall in your preseason overall.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: Give me your big picture view, what you like and
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: what's your question right now about Utah.
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 9: Well, the big big picture is the end of the
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 9: winningham era, and congrats the coach went, it was an
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 9: incredible tenure. I mean though almost twenty years worth of
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 9: football up there, brought them from the Mountain West up
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 9: to the Pac twelve. It's so hard to transition up
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 9: like that, and he did it, went back to back
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 9: Pac twelve titles and again got I'm rolling here in
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 9: the Big twelve. So great tenure there. And when I
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 9: cover I cover sixty eight teams here, and when I
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 9: see coaching changes, a lot of times it's like night
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 9: and day. It's like a completely different program on the
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 9: other side of a higher But here Utah. I put
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 9: this in the preview, I said, simply, Utah is still Utah.
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 9: I mean, you have Morgan Scalley from within. It's the
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 9: same culture, the same nasty, tough defense. I love their defense.
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 9: I call him pick six to U with that big
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 9: streak of interception touchdowns, but I think you're still getting
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 9: your normal Utah look and it's a stout defense. I
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 9: know the offensive line will reload despite sending two guys
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 9: to the first round. It's just one of those things.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 9: Every year you just know that Utah is going to
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 9: be tough in the trenches. So I think that all
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 9: continues here and then specifically for twenty twenty six. I
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 9: love the quarterback running back duo. Devin Dan Pierre came in.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 9: He stepped up from the Mountain West and remained just
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 9: as elusive as he was there. Just so hard to
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 9: lay a finger on this guy. Pass rush can't get
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 9: to him. Great scrambler can score really from any point
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 9: of the field.
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: He can run it way.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 9: Shaun Parker I think will go for a thousand. He
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 9: was close last year. I know it was one of
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 9: his goals last year. He got real close. And then
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 9: even Bert Ficklin, I know, talking backup quarterback, but he
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 9: is incredible as an athlete too, and I think they're
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 9: going to get him some packages and they don't mind
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 9: sharing their quarterback. So all that to say, I want
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 9: to throw in Also, the receiver room impress me. I
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 9: think that's an upgrade this year, and I think you'll
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 9: see some more vertical shots. So all that to say,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 9: I know it's a coaching transition. I know you lose
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 9: what all nine linemen line D line combined, but still
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 9: Utah's track record keeps them within the top twenty five
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 9: and really head to head against BUYU away from a
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 9: big twelve title appearance.
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, we were talking about this earlier. Yeah,
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: they do lose quite a bit there, but they had
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: so much depth in the program. They've got guys that
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: have played defensive line, they've always rolled guys through so there,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: and then a lot of the offensive linemen that have
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: returned played for the program, they just weren't starters for
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: the program. So that's certainly an area to figure out.
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: The good news for them is, you know, the non
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: conference schedule is all at home and it's pretty friendly
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: to Utah, so they'll have a little bit of time to.
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 9: Jem absolutely, and like I said, it's one of the
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 9: programs and position groups that you just don't doubt. I mean,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 9: this happens almost every year where we say, oh Utah
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 9: lost x amount of linemen, they seem to reload it
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 9: perfectly every time, and I'll trust them there. Schedule wise,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 9: you couldn't ask for a better front half of the
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 9: schedule to get this team up to speed, this transitional line,
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 9: O line, D line, and an offensive coordinator because yeah, Idaho,
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 9: Utah State from the nine a qwter level, and then
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 9: Arkansas they're going through a coaching change themselves. I've got
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 9: them picked dead last in the SEC, and that's in
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 9: Salt Lake City. So I like that three and oh start,
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 9: and then you draw my bottom three from the big
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 9: twelve the whole conference. I've got it with Iowa State
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 9: dead last, Colorado fifteenth, Kansas fourteenth. That's your first three
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 9: league games. So I see a six and oh starting,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 9: no matter how you slice it. And then Houston comes
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 9: to town in a pretty big matchup, and I'm you know,
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 9: you can see there on the cover of my magazine.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 9: I'm selling Houston. I don't really understand all the Houston
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 9: buzz this year. It was a nice nine win team
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 9: last year, six and one and one score games. That
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 9: tends the FL year to year. That you know, that
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 9: doesn't really prove dominance to me. So I'm going to
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 9: take Utah on that one we're talking seven and zero
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 9: and getting ahead of myself. But I'm looking here at Cincinnati,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 9: another team I've got at the bottom of the conference,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 9: so I don't want to jump too far ahead, but
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 9: I see a clear path to eight to oh when
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 9: Utah brings BYU to town.
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: I said this earlier and I'll say it again. I've
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: said in some other places. I really you know, we
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: circle that game with BYU every year. It's at Rice
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: Cycles this year. But I really believe that there's a
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: case that could be made that, you know, the winner
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: of that game probably sees Tech in Dallas.
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 9: Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's definitely the case. I've got
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 9: it Texas Tech as my clear champion pick right now,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 9: and then BYU two just because of all the roster retention.
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 9: You know, other teams like Tech, they were great in
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 9: the portal again BYU, they were more about keeping their
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 9: starters in house. They put a lot of their funds
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 9: towards roster retention. They had twelve returning starters that could
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 9: have gone pro or could have gone elsewhere, All twelve
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 9: returned to BYU. You just don't see that in this
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 9: modern era. You see starters moving around all the time.
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 9: So roster retention and so of their key stars are back.
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 9: So I have the number two right now and Utah three.
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 9: And you know this also, people are all talking about
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 9: a twenty four team playoff and expanding it. Here's your
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 9: playoff right here. It's called November, right and Utah versus
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 9: b YU. That's kind of a play into the playing game.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 9: I mean, that's that's your twenty four teamer right there.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 9: So that has playoff state right there on November seventh
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 9: in Salt Lake.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: City, Texas Tech. They don't have to play Utah, they
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: don't have to play BYU and then all their tough
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: games are at home. I think they've got Houston at home.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: They might have Arizona at home. So the schedule sets
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: up well for them. Is there a hole in this
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: Tech team? Obviously the quarterback position with ham and not
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: quite sure where he is. I mean they say he's
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: going to play, but at what level does he play?
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: And when is he back to being himself? But outside
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: of the quarterback, do you see any holes with Texas Tech?
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 9: Yeah? I feel okay, a quarterback with Will Hammond, it's
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 9: really I guess injury based. I can't forecast an injury,
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 9: but I liked what I saw from him in game
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 9: action last year. In fact, it was the Utah game
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 9: where Baron Morton got knocked out. It was a close game,
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 9: it might have been tied there in the fourth quarter,
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 9: and Hammond leads four straight scoring drives against a tough
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 9: Utah defense. So he impressed me in a small sample size.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 9: So I like quarterback for them. My question would be
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 9: defensive line, and this last year I think was arguably
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 9: the best defensive line in the country. Multiple All Americans,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 9: multiple draft picks. I think the whole starting four were
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 9: all Big twelve for sure, and they're all gone, so
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 9: and I know they backloaded pretty well from the portal
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 9: on paper, but there is always a worry with transfers
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 9: like that, do they all click? Are they really as
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 9: good as advertised? And the way that Joey McGuire quoted it,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 9: he said, yeah, we lost four draft picks, but we
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 9: signed four future draft picks from the portal, And you know,
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 9: I like that. You know, I think they grayed out
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 9: pretty well. But until I see it together, that's a
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 9: kind of a question mark for me, because that was
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 9: the strength of team last year and that's gone.
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, trick Wright and Raboga are coming in from Miami
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: of Ohio, San Diego State, and Wake Forest respectively. The
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: one guy I do really like that. I think we
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: won't have a problem with Austin Romind coming in from
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: k State.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 9: Oh yeah, you're talking a two time All Big twelve guy.
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 9: I think he made my All American. So, you know,
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 9: it's funny nowadays twenty twenty six, I have an All
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 9: American and All Big Twelve, and then I have an
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 9: All Transfer team just because there's so much movement. And
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 9: I think I had Romain on my All Transfer team
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 9: along with BYU's linebacker cade U Lave coming up from
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 9: cal So. Yeah, they signed arguably the top linebacker in
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 9: the portal. That position's fine. They've got Ben Roberts back,
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 9: who was Jacob Rodriguez's co star at the linebackers. So
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 9: I like the rest of this Tech roster. And I'll
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 9: put it in perspective this way, and you look at
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 9: transfer portal, Texas Tech signed twenty four star transfers the
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 9: last two cycles combined, twenty of them.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 7: The average Big twelve.
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 9: Team signed two, so you've got twenty to two. There's
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 9: you know, the recruiting rankings all that's more right than wrong.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 9: So I know they have pro talent there and I
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 9: think they'll be back in Dallas for the Big twelve
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 9: title game.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: Who's the sleeper team for you? In the Big Twelve.
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 9: Sleeper team for me, I think would be TCU. Now,
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 9: after the Tech BYU Utah tier, you got like a
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 9: six way logjam of teams that you could argue for fourth,
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 9: and I emerged with TCU. And it might not be
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 9: the sexiest pick because you don't see them really in
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 9: a transfer portal bringing in known players. But I look
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 9: at the high school recruiting trail for TCU and they're
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 9: number one along with Texas Tech over the last four
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 9: year average in high school recruiting a lot of four stars,
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 9: more than you find at most Big twelve spots. And
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 9: you know, talking to Sunny Dikes, his main thing was
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 9: roster retention. He wanted to keep those guys in house
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 9: because he likes what he's got. I think they only
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 9: signed eight transfers.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: Question for them.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 9: As a quarterback, they brought in a Harvard quarterback, Jayden Craig.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 9: He grated out, well, but you just never know what
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 9: that cs to the Big Twelve transition. But I like
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 9: TCU just on sheer recruiting, firepower and their retention. Of course,
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 9: you have other candidates. You've got the Arizona teams, Kansas
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 9: State coaching transition with Colin Klein, and then the real
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 9: wildcards Oklahoma State. We're bringing up that whole North Texas offense,
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 9: Eric Morris. So that's the kind of your wildcard. But yeah,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 9: I'll go TCU as the dark horse sleeper to make
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 9: it to Dallas.
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: Helm her to get the magazine or the book, Brett,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: thanks so much.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 9: Yeah, it's only available on Pick sixpreviews dot com. That's
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 9: all spelled out Pick six Previews. You had the digital option,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 9: the hard copy which comes with the digital, and then
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 9: the end season product too. If you like this stuff,
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 9: you want to get my picks every week, my projections
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 9: against the Spread stuff that's every Tuesday. It's called Pick
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 9: six Plus and you'll find that on the website as well.
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and by the way, if you go with that
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: digital copy like I did, you'll have it immediately. If
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: you want to get the hard copy too, you get
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: the digital copy with it. It's a great deal. And
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: as always, he's done his homework and it's great information
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: and great prep for the season, which we're forty eight
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: days away from. Great catching up with him, Thanks, Bill,
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: appreciate it any time. Red Santy with us here on
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: the Shan O'Connell Show. Bill Riley sitting in. Today we'll
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: come back and uh my daily dump today will be
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: my preseason Big twelve Power Poll. That'll be next Shan
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: O'Connell Show, Bill Riley sitting in ESPN seven hundred nine
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: one FM. Feeling out of the loop.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 5: Let's catch up on today's biggest headlines and the Daily
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 5: News Dump, where we flush out the biggest stories of
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 5: the day on the Sean O'Connell Show at Utah's number
• 1:37:38
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• 1:37:42
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• 1:37:45
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• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: The duck all right. This will be a quick dump
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: today on the Daily Dump to give you my preseason
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: Big twelve Power Poll today. Now it includes kind of
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: the now and a little bit of a projection too.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna start for the bottom and work my way up.
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: I think the bottom is pretty easy right now. Iowa
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: stayed at number sixteen again this can change, and this
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: is just one man's opinion. But they've got a new
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: coaching staff and almost a completely new roster, and Ames
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: Utah will see him the Big twelve opener names in
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: late September, Iowa stayed at number sixteen. I've got Colorado
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: at number fifteen. Coach Prime doesn't have the best all
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: around player in college football. He hasn't for a couple
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: of years. Doesn't have his son at quarterback, his other
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: son at safety. Colorado's bit of a mess. I've got
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: them at number fifteen. Cincinnati I've got at number fourteen
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: heading into the season. Now, they've got very good line play,
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: but they've got a lot of questions in other places.
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: They lost most of the receiving crew. They're quarterback and more.
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: I've got Cincinnati at number fourteen of my preseason Big
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: twelve power Pole at number thirteen. I just I don't
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: know what to make of Scott Frost and UCF in
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: year number two in his return, I think the Golden
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: Knights might have some chances to be okay. But I've
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: got him at number thirteen of the preseason. I like
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: Rich Rodriguez a lot. Rich rod is great. I had
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: a chance to catch up with talk with him down
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: at Big Twelve Football media days. He's gonna be better
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: this year. He inherited a lot of not much last year,
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: didn't have a quarterback, didn't have a running back. He's
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: got one of each of those this year. In fact,
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: I've got Cam Cook his running back as the newcomer
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: of the Year of the Big Twelve. This year, I
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: think he's gonna be really good. I've got West Virginia
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: at number twelve. At number eleven, another team, I'm just
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: not sure what to do with dave A Randa and Baylor.
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: What do we make DJ Logway is their new quarterback.
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: He was a one of the best quarterbacks in the
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: country coming out of high school. Didn't succeed at Florida.
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: Coming back home to Texas, we'll see they lost a
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: lot too. Again, I just don't know where to put Baylor,
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: so I put him at number eleven. Kansas, my alma mater,
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: at number ten, new quarterback this year, replacing quite a
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: bit that's gone on the offensive side of the football.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: I think Lance lfe Pold's a good coach. He brings
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: back his offensive coordinator that had left him for Penn State.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: Gonna stick Kansas at number ten. Here's the team that
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: everybody loves. They're kind of the darling of the preseason.
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be a lot better than they
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: were last year, because they couldn't be a lot worse
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: than they were when they fired Mike Gundy in season.
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: I think Oklahoma State makes a big jump this year
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: with Eric Morris. Came from the green of North Texas,
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: brought his quarterback, brought his running back, brought his receiver.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: Not the only guy he didn't bring with him was
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: Ethan Day, the defensive end who is now at Utah.
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: But I think Oklahoma State makes a big jump this year.
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to contend for the title,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: but they could upset the apple cart with somebody and
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: pull an upset. They're at number nine. At number eight,
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: I felt bad putting them here because I really like
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: their head coach. I think Kenny Dillingham is terrific. But
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: they're having a play quite a bit. Their quarterback, running back,
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: some key players on defense, their star wide receiver. I've
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: got Arizona State at number eight. At number seven, I'm
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: not quite as bullish on them as Brett Siansia is,
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: but I think they could be pretty good Utah season
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: late in the year. I've got TCU at number seven.
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: At number six, the Arizona Wildcats know if if he
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: is the real deal. I like Brent Brennan as a coach.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: They could be Utah's toughest game this year outside of
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: the YU game. At number five, I like Colin Klein,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: I do. I think that's a good higher. That's a
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: very Morgan Scalley like hire. He was a star quarterback
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: at k State. He was the offensive coordinator last year
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: at Texas A and M. They went to the playoffs.
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: I have them at number five this year. At number four,
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: I've got the Houston Cougars. I think Willie Fritz is
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: a good coach. I think Connor Wegman's a good quarterback.
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: They add a good running back out of the portal,
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: and their defense has been lights out the last couple
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: of years. Their schedule is going to be tougher this
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: year though than was last year. At number three BYU Cougars,
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to be very good again. But
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: they've got trips to Utah and TCU, and they've got
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame at home. Klane's team is going to be good.
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: I've got them number three in my preseason powerpole, number
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: two University of Utah. This team is much better than
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: those on the outside. No, I think they could be
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: eight to no heading into BYU at home. Then they've
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: got TCU and Arizona on the road. I think it's
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: going to be a really good year. And preseason powerpol
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: Texas Tech. Somebody once said, I believe that was my guy,
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: Rick Flair. To be the man, you've got to beat
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: the man. They're the man in the conference. They are
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: the champs. They are loaded again talent wise, they don't
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: have to play Utah, they don't have to play BYU,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: and all their toughest games are at home. Texas Tech
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: is my preseason number one in my Big twelve power pole,
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: Texas Tech, Utah, BYU, Houston, Kansas State, Arizona six, TCU seven,
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: ASU eight, Oklahoma State nine, Kansas ten, Baalor eleven, West
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: Virginia twelve, UCF thirteen, Cincinnati fourteen, Colorado fifteen, Iowa State
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: at number sixteen. And as always, this poll is one
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: man's opinion, that man being me, But it may not
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: mean anything. In fact, I could tell you. It doesn't
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: mean anything, but it's fun to do. So there you go.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: Daily Dump brought to you by Valley Plumbing, Heating and Air.
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: All right, just a reminder, Zach Bryan cover the Rice
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: Ecle Stadium August to seventh. ESPN seven hundred ninety two
• 1:43:41
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• 1:43:43
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• 1:43:46
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• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: a pair of tickets. More details at ESPN seven hundred
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: sports dot Com. Two hours down, one hour to go.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: On this Friday, my friend Sarah Todd, jazz insider from
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: the d News, will join us. We'll talk a little
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: bit about Summer League and the season ahead with Sarah.
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: Next here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM.
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 6: You tune to the Sean o'connells Show for the Murdoch
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 6: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred.
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 2: At ninety two one FF.
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: Got a three ways I for second place at the
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: Open Championship. Right now, Lucas Herbert continues to lead. He
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: went sixty two today. He's eight under for the tournament.
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: Rice in d Chambeau has got one hole to play.
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: He just pulled it to six under par. He Cam
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: Young and Suber at six under, Sam Burns at five under.
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: Gerard also on the on the course, still five under
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: through fifteen. Scottie Scheffler heading to eighteen. He's at minus four.
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: Tommy Fleetwood still out. There is daylight still popping at
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: Royal Birkdale and we'll keep you updated on that. We'll
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: give you one more leaderboard update before we get out
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: of here today, final hour of the program. I'll give
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: you my World Cup preview for the final coming up
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: on Sunday. Spain and Argentina coming up in just a bit.
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: Sarah Tot's gonna join us here in just a moment
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: or so as well. Got a couple of other text
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: messages here from you guys today eight seven seven three
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: five three zero seven hundred. This one comes in from
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: Spencer Spencer McKay Hey, Spencer, Hey, bial great to have
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: you back on the blowtorch. Here's a question. What do
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: you think are the odds of Utah or the Big
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the Big twelve getting two teams into the playoffs.
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: What would have to happen for that to take place?
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: I think let's let's just put it this way. I
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: think Texas Tech is likely to be there only because
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: their schedules pretty easy. I could see them maybe one loss,
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: hitting the Big Twelve championship game, maybe even undefeated going
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: into that. So I think they probably are there. Utah
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: or by You have a chance to get in. You
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: just if you want to assure yourself of getting into playoff.
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: Have they have one loss. You could be a two
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: loss team to get in. If BYU were to beat
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame in the regular season, but then maybe have
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: two losses in the Big Twelve, they would still be
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: in pretty good shape. Utah doesn't have a great non
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: conference schedule, but let's say the Utes went eleven and
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: one of the regular season but then lost in the
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: Big Twelve championship game. I think they'd have a chance
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: to get in there as well. So it's it's not
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: a lock by any means, but I think they'll have
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: a chance this year. But BYU having that Notre Dame
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: non conference game can really help their cause. This one
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: comes in from Jason's Bill. Always great to hear from you.
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: I'm very excited. Forty eight days to go, Go Utes.
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: Well thanks, Jay, I'm excited to eight seven seven three
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: five three zero seven hundred gets you in and on board.
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: Today here on the Sean O'Connell Show, Bill Riley filling
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: in for Sean today, we'll talk some jazz coming up
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: momentarily here with Sarah Todd of the d News. This
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: text from Texters zero seven to five to two. Hey, Bill,
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: great to hear your voice. You mentioned Andy Ludwig in
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: passing a little while ago. I still feel bad for
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: the way he left the program. He was so successful here.
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: He led our offense to two Pac twelve championships. We
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: kicked USC's ass three times in a row. He also
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: led that offense and beat Nick Saban in Alabama. I'm
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: a little bit baffled about how a guy who is
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: so great suddenly loses his touch. Did Ludwig lose his
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: game or was the offense so bad because of a
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: massive number of injuries. Did he just take one for
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: the team because somebody needed to be fired. No, Andy
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: did not lose his touch. Andy was a great offensive coordinator,
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: not just at Utah but other stops as well. Andy's
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: undoing was his starting quarterback. Cam Rising was not able
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: to stay healthy at the end of his career, and
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: because because of the ever moving nature of college football
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: today where players don't stay in a program for a
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: long time, Andy's offense was very challenging. It was Brian
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: Johnson was in the program for a long time and
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: thrived in Andy's offense when he was healthy. Cam Rising
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: was in the Utah program a long time and thrived
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: in Andy's offense. To be very fair, Bryson Barnes was
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: in Utah's offense or in Utah's program for a long time,
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: and while Bryson was a little bit more limited physically,
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: he led Utah to an eight and four season. Remember
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: that because he knew Andy's offense inside and out. Utah
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: struggled when a guy like Isaac Wilson, who was a
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: true freshman, didn't know, didn't have an extensive knowledge. Andy's
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: offense was very intricate, very complicated, and Kyle decided to
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: make a move to an offense that was a little
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: bit more malleable, a little bit more plug and play.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: So it was nothing happen. It wasn't massive injuries. It
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: was one injury in particular, and that was at the
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: quarterback position. So but Andy was I mean, he was
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: the offense for Utah in their best years under Kyle Whittingham,
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: the Sugar Bowl year, even that very if you go
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: back in time and look at the numbers that Brian
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: Johnson put up before he got injured at the end
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: of that first year, they were very prolific numbers. When
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: Andy Ludwig had a healthy quarterback and a quarterback that
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: had been in his system for a little while, his
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: offense is hummed. So that was kind of the story
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: on Andy. But no, he did not lose his touch suddenly.
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: He just ran a very complicated and intricate offense that
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: required you having been in the program for some time,
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: and college football today guys just don't stay in programs
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: long enough. They don't want to sit back and learn
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: as much. They want to go someplace and play. So
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred gets
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: you in and on board today here on Utah's number
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: one sports talk and the Shan O'Connell Show, ESPN seven hundred.
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: Just a couple of other reminders for you. We'll have
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: a leader board update coming up here momentarily, and we'll
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: catch up with Spence when he comes in as well.
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: I heard Spence had JJ Watt on the show the
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: other day. We'll get the backstory on that coming up
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: in just a bit. Front of the program. Friend of
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: mine and a tremendous NBA writer and insider from the
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: Deseret News, joins The Shan O'Connell Show, Sarah Todd in
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: right now, how are you?
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 10: I'm doing great? Bill, How are you?
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: I'm doing fantastic. Did you survive the heat of Las Vegas?
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 10: Yeah? I mean I should say I'm doing great despite
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 10: the fact that I spent seven days is in Las
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 10: Vegas in July. That's the caveat here.
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: It almost feels like a punishment in some ways to
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: have to go to Vegas one for seven days. But
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: also in the middle of July.
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 10: I realized that, like I really shouldn't complain, right, Like
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 10: I get I get paid to watch basketball, and like
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 10: I get to go to Summer League. There's a lot
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 10: of people that would really really love to do that,
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 10: but man, Las Vegas is just not it, you know,
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 10: Like there's there's a whole lot of plays. Let's move it,
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 10: let's let's have let's have NBA Summer League in San Diego,
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 10: right like just somewhere where the temperature is not just
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 10: the depths of Hell and where there's a nice breeze,
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 10: Like it's just anywhere else other than the place where
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 10: it could be the hottest and most depressing during the daytime.
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, at least the games aren't being played outside. At
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: least you're inside for those games. But San Diego play
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: them up on the MESA and vie Has Arena or
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: Downtown Field Sports Arena at the Convention Center. Oh that
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: would be bad.
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 10: Yeah bad, So it would be so great. I bet
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 10: there's a lot of people I think that don't go
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 10: to Las Vegas during Summer League because they've gotten to
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 10: the point where they're just like, oh, I can't do
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 10: it anymore. I think that even more of the NBA
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 10: world would show up if they had it somewhere where
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 10: the weather was a little bit more temperate.
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: I'm lucky in a fact, I missed doing this show sometimes,
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: and I love being able to fill in for Sean.
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: I don't miss tuning in to watch the hot take
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: shows every morning, where every play and every move of
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: every game, even Summer League games, are analyzed, and all
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: of a sudden we're having to nitpick Darren Peterson in
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: real time in summer League, which is insane, But I
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: would like your opinion is one that has watched him
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: play throughout summer league here in Salt Lake and down
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: in Vegas. Give me the Sarah Todd report card on
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: on Darren Peterson.
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 10: Yeah, my report card is I tried really hard not to,
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 10: you know, get overblown or overreact to anything. I have
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 10: to like really tell myself to be intentional about that
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 10: every year, right, Like, you know, Darren Peterson has a
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 10: game with nine turnovers in Summer League, and I have
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 10: to I have to tell myself, like it doesn't matter,
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 10: it's summer league, Like, don't think about it. You know,
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 10: let's talk about a turnover issue. When Darren Peterson is
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 10: actually in the NBA and that happens you know, five six,
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 10: seven games in a row or something, This is not
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 10: the time to worry about turnovers, right, And then also,
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 10: like just be realistic about what the situation is and
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 10: who's around Darren Peterson. So, you know, everyone went into
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 10: the summer really looking forward to seeing Darren along with
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 10: Ace Bailey and see how Cody Williams looked. But the
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 10: reality of the situation is that Ace Bailey's dealing with
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 10: some backspasms, which is something I'm a little bit concerned about.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 10: You know, that's a side conversation. And Cody Williams, honestly,
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 10: he in my estimation, didn't really look that much different
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 10: and didn't really look that great in some of the
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 10: games that he played. And so you've got the number
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 10: two pick who was, in many people's eyes, could have
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 10: been the number one pick, and a bunch of guys
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 10: playing around him that were probably never going to sniff
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 10: NBA minutes, and everyone wants to make him look bad.
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: And even though they.
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 10: Wanted to make him look bad in his Summer League games,
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 10: he still managed to score like twenty five points, twenty
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 10: eight points, twenty points, and then sixteen points in the
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 10: last game they played, Like that is pretty good. I mean,
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 10: he was double team triple teamed. They were blitzing him
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 10: on basically every play, which is you know, that's the
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 10: kind of par for the course. In Summer League, defenses
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 10: are really really aggressive because they're just trying. Some of
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 10: these guys want to play defense in Summer League just
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 10: because they want that breakaway dunk, right, and some guys
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 10: want to do it because they want to look better
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 10: than the number one or number two pick, and so
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 10: they're just they're scratching, clawing their you know, fouling guys
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 10: left and right. And so the way that I saw is,
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 10: no matter what you think about Darren Peterson, the fact
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 10: that he was basically getting double or triple teams on
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 10: every play and he still managed to look like the
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 10: best player on the floor on most possessions. There's something
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 10: really special about that, considering that he's nineteen.
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: Again, small sample size, But what you've seen of him
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: this summer playing with guys that he won't likely play
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: with this season, when he plays next to Kiante George
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: and Larry Markin and Jaren Jackson, what skill set or
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: what part of his game kind of gives you the
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: most helpe or should give jazz fans the most helpe
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: of Again, small sample size.
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 10: Sarah, Yeah, And I mean I've watched so much of
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 10: his films from this and then also film from before
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 10: that too, and he just has there's two things that
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 10: really really excite me. It's just his feel for the
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 10: right moment to shoot and the fact that he's so
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 10: fluid and he just everything always looks like it's going
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 10: to go in because he has such great touch, and
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 10: so that's whether he's at the basket or a little
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 10: short like floater shot. He's got mid range jumpers. The
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 10: way that he pulls up from three, just every single
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 10: time that he goes up for a shot, it feels
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 10: like the right decision, the right shot, and he's got
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 10: such great touch from everywhere. So it's just he's a
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 10: walking bucket. That's exciting. But I think the thing that
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 10: most excites me is that at nineteen especially, like have
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 10: to remember that this guy is a literal teenager, that
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 10: he he doesn't get sped up, and that like when
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 10: he's pressured, he really understands how to draw contact, and
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 10: he really understands like great ways to move and get
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 10: off the ball, and he knows how to change speeds,
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 10: like he knows how to speed up physically, but doesn't
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 10: get sped up mentally.
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 9: And it's just not.
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 10: Often that you see that in a nineteen year old.
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 10: He is so so smart with the basketball in his hands.
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 10: And that makes me really excited because he's not going
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 10: to have to go through like the learning curve of
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 10: how to draw contact to get off the ball when
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 10: he is double teamed. Like those small things that rookies
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 10: have to deal with. It just looks like he already
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 10: knows how.
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 8: To do them.
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: Sir Todd with us from the Deseret News. We'll talk
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: a little bit about Jess Summer League. It's funny you
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: mentioned all those things. I'm lucky enough to work with
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: Alex Jensen, who's got a little bit of experience in
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: pro basketball. And we were talking about Darren Peterson. We
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: saw him this year when Utah played Kansas, and I
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: asked Al about him, and he just said, hey, he
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: just makes it look easy. And this was, you know,
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: back in February. He said, he's a pro and he
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: just makes it look, as you said, fluid and easy.
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: And this was Alex talking about him when he was
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: playing at Kansas dealing with injuries and stuff. And I said,
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: and he said, he's he's going to be a good pro.
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: And that was back then. And Al's got a pretty good.
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 7: Eye for those things.
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 10: I mean, I've you know, talking to like Steve Rosharowski,
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 10: the Jazz assistant coach who was their head coach during
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 10: during summer league. He he was you know, head coach
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 10: at Marquette for many many years and he you know,
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 10: he was an assistant Duke, like he's seen guys go
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 10: through the college system. He knows what players look like
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 10: when they're that age, when they're Darren Peterson's age, And
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 10: he was like, you know, I've seen a lot of
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 10: great players in my day. And like the fact that
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 10: he does that, that he makes it look easy, that
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 10: he is so smart, and that he doesn't you know
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 10: he does he deals with pressure within the game so well,
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 10: like that is unique to people his age, and so
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 10: it and I've heard what Alex said, he makes it
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 10: look easy. That phrase comes up every time you talk
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 10: to scouts or executives just across the league about Darren.
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 10: It's they say it over and over again. He makes
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 10: it look easy. And if someone is making it look
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 10: that easy at nineteen years old, like I guess it's
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 10: you know, you can get you can get away. We
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 10: get ahead of yourself thinking about the potential of what
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 10: he might look like when he's twenty three, twenty four,
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 10: twenty five, you know, when he starts to hit his
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 10: NBA prime, it just it does really feel like the
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 10: sky is the limit for somebody like him.
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: Hard to grade Bailey, because, as you said, the backspasms
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: are jazz people you've talked to concerned at all about
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: the backspasms or is this something they will pass.
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean there is a little there is a
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 10: little bit of concern about it. Again, when I asked
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 10: will Jo about it, he was like, Yeah, it's concerning.
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 10: And I think that the reason that it's concerning is
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 10: because it's not like he went like straight into these
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 10: games cold. You know, like the young guys have been
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 10: in Salt Lake. They've been working out, they've been lifting,
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 10: they've been you know, playing pick up against each other
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 10: for weeks, and so it's not like he just went
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 10: in off of not working out and you know, started
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 10: having like backspasms because he was doing something different. So
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 10: I wonder if it has to do with just how
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 10: much strength he's been gaining already, because he does look
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 10: like he's bulked up quite a bit over the summer already.
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 10: And you know, we have to remember there's a huge
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 10: portion of the off season still remaining, so it's it's
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 10: only been you know, about two months since the season ended,
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 10: and so I just think that that that is a
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 10: little bit concerning, and so I'm you know, it's in
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 10: the back of my mind thinking about it, but there's
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 10: so much time remaining in the off season and so
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 10: they probably are going to have this under control and
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 10: like it shouldn't be an issue as we go into
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 10: the regular season. But like I said, outside of that,
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 10: what's really as exciting about Ace is that he does
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 10: look like he's like put on some really good NBA
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 10: weight already and that it's a successful off season as
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 10: far as strength goes for him, and he still looks
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 10: like he's going to be so so good and having
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 10: that strength, it could be really excited about what kind
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 10: of a defender he can be because he's got such
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 10: good lengths and such good instincts from the ball on defense.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 10: And so that's what I'm most excited about him and
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 10: like seeing it at the beginning of next season. But yeah,
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 10: I am thinking about that. I mean, he's a really
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 10: young kid who you know, has been working out regularly
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 10: and he's dealing with backspats and to the point that
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 10: you know, they put him into a game and then
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 10: at halftime it was like, no, we got to shut
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 10: him down. He's still not feeling good.
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's yeah, nineteen twenty year olds generally don't or
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be dealing with back problems as old people or
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: guys that have been around the league a little bit
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: or that have been seriously injured.
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 10: Those are Sarah Toad issues.
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: Bill Riley issues too. Since you and I haven't talked,
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: and this is probably maybe ground you've covered with Spencer
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: or Sean, but in your in your informed opinion, how
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: much better are they now than they were when the
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: season ended than they were a year ago at this time.
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've seen some often the offseason editions, the Hayes,
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 1: yet Kog, the re signing of Nurkic, you know, the
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: rookies that are getting a year older of Peterson. Clearly,
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: how much better do you think they are right now?
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it's a weird question because I think that the
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 10: thing that we have to say is that we didn't
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 10: actually know how good they were last year. Like, we
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 10: have not seen this team. We've not seen Lowry unleashed
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 10: for three years, right, we haven't seen will Hardy really
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 10: be able to coach a team without thinking about, you know,
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 10: what kind of rotation should he have on the floor
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 10: in the fourth quarter in order to kind of maximize
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 10: the potential of young players versus maximize the potential of
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 10: winning a game, and so we don't know what that
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 10: looks like when you know Jaren is on the court,
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 10: with Lowry, with Keyante, with someone like Darren Peterson. We
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 10: don't know what any of that really looks like. We
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 10: have seen tiny little snippets, we've seen small groups that
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 10: have played together. We've seen just a little bit of
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 10: it to where we think we know what it could
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 10: look like. But we don't even know before the offseason editions,
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 10: before any of it. We don't even know what this
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 10: team was before. And I think that you know, probably
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 10: most people would agree with me that the Jazz were
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 10: better than we ever saw them already. And so that
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 10: was already like a good team that was playing everyone
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 10: is playing with one arm behind their back, and Will
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 10: Hardy was coaching with one arm behind his back, And
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 10: so I think the Jazz were so much better than
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 10: we saw and that they're going to be so much
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 10: better this coming season. Like that's why you've got so
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 10: many people around the NBA, myself included, thinking like this
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 10: really should be a playing team at the very worst,
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 10: like this, if they didn't make the postseason at the
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 10: end of this season, like that's probably going to feel
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 10: like a disappointment for everyone. The expectations are so high
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 10: for this team after so many years of tanking, because
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 10: this team is better than what they actually should on
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 10: the court.
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: All right, last thing I'll make you make an educated guess,
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: where's Lebron end up?
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 10: I mean, I think that conventional wisdom and like the
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 10: right thing to say and assume is probably Cleveland, you know,
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 10: like have this be the retirement tour, closed it out
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 10: where it all began, like the narrative fits right, But selfishly,
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 10: I think that I want it to be Golden State,
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 10: just because I would like to watch the Steph and
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 10: Lebron tour in what could be his final year, right,
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 10: Like we've seen how much fun they have playing during
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 10: the Olympics. And that's not to say that it's going
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 10: to really work or that either of them can you know,
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 10: get a team to the finals, right, but it would
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 10: be so much fun. Like these are two of the
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 10: greatest players of this generation. Lebron I think probably you know,
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 10: it's nearly unanimous that he's the greatest player of this generation,
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 10: and Steph would be right there in the conversation for that.
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 10: And man to watch them play together, like I think
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 10: that it's what basketball deserves, so selfishly, I just think
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 10: that that would be the most fun answer.
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: Well, apparently pat Riley has made his pitch to Rich Paul,
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: and so we'll see if he ends up in Miami.
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean that wouldn't surprise me too, Like Lebron
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 10: playing with Giannis, right, Like Lebron pairing with any of
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 10: these guys, Right, Lebron going to play with Donovan and
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 10: James Harden closing it out where it all began. Lebron
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 10: going back to Miami and trying to bring one more
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 10: championship while playing with you know, Bam and Giannis. Or
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 10: Lebron going to Golden State and finally finally pairing up
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 10: with Steph Curry and also playing with Jimmy Butler when
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 10: he gets back at some point, Like, all of those
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 10: answers are fun and they make sense, and I'm I'm
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 10: with everyone else, like I'm just holding her breath and
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 10: waiting until we find out what's actually gonna happen.
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: Hey, Sarah, thanks for doing this. Great catching up. We'll
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: talk to you soon.
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 10: Absolutely no problem. Talk to you soon, though.
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: Sarah Todd Dees ret News Jazz Insider, NBA insider, terrific
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: writer and read her stuff at does newsdes retnews dot
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: com or down stright deserett dot com. It changed the
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: link to that website like eight million times Deseret dot com,
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: and she's got stuff up there. Road piece yesterday on
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: the Jazz two Way Players and uh piece a couple
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: of days ago on Darren Peterson as well. So catch
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: that where you will and uh make of it what
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: you will, as well as the Utah Jazz. I think
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: I agree with Sarah, and I think I've talked to
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: Gordy about this too.
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 7: Uh.
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: If they're not at least a play in team, I
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: think it's been a something's either gone cataclysmically wrong or
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: or it's been a major disappointment because there's just enough
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: talent they're held as even before they started tanking or play.
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, when they finally decided they were going to stink,
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: then they stunk. But even when they weren't quite talented
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, they were competing and winning games.
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: There's talent on that roster now, and I think I'm
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: really excited. I was not a Kyante George fan. You
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: guys remember this, When I was sitting in this Shair
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: on a full time basis. I thought Kyante George was
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: a bust. I thought where they drafted him and what
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: he did the first couple of years, I just I
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: didn't think it. He is developed, and that, by the way,
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: just goes to show you. He was nineteen when they
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: brought him in here, he's like twenty three, almost twenty
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: four years old now and he's finally hitting his prime.
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes people a minute to get there, which
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: is why a guy like Darren Peterson, if he has
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: some struggles out of the gates, don't Again, the greatest
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: thief of joy is comparison. Don't compare him to Cam Boozer.
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: Don't compare him to Caleb Wilson, don't compare him to
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: aj De Bonsa, because everybody's situation is different. Darren, frankly
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: might have a chance to be better than all of
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: the be on a better team, but maybe not put
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: up quite the numbers those guys do. Because I think
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: the Jazz should be better than the Grizzlies and probably
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: should be better for sure than the Bulls this year.
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure about Washington. There's like some weird hope
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: in Washington that they may be like a middle of
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 1: the pack Eastern Conference team. I'm not sure if they're
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: that good, but anyway, everybody's situation is different. But I'm
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: really excited to see that pairing of keyante George Darren
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: Peterson in the background. You bring a guy like Isaiah
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: Collier off the bench, Ace Bailey on the wing, or
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: maybe super sub off the bench Lowry Markin and Jaron Jackson.
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: I think they're weak at center. I do Nurkicchen Hayes
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: don't really excite me, but the other four have a
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: real chance to do it, so I think it could
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: be a much improved year with a pretty bright future
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: for the Utah Jazz down the line. I am disappointed
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: in Cody Williams though, He's just he's not shun be
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: better in his second year in Summer League and I'm
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: just not seeing it right now, and Sarah kind of
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: backed that up too. Anyhow, Just grab a break, we'll
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: come back on the other side. I'll give you a
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: leader board update. It's getting interesting at Royal Birkdale, and
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: I'll give you my prediction and preview of the World
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: Cup Final, which is Sunday. All that coming up here
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: at the Shan O'Connell show, Bill Riley in Today on
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: a Friday on the ESPN s of a.
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 6: Night you were listening to a Sean O'Connell show from
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 6: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 6: two to one, af AM.
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: Big thank you to Sarah Todd for coming on today.
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: Big thank you to Sean and Jackie and James and
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: everybody for having me back here again. I'll be back
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: again before football starts, so I'll be back in the
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: air chair probably. I'm sure Sean's got a someplace he's
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: got to go away too, so I'll be back at
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: least one more time, if not a few before football
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: season begins, which by the way is forty eight days
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: from today. So yeah, I appreciate them let me do this.
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: I appreciate my bosses up at UTAH for cutting me
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: a little slack and let me come down and do
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: this as well. Thank you guys for interacting. The text
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: interaction today has been awesome. Eight seven seven three five
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: three zero seven hundred is the text line to get
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: you in and on board today. If you want to
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: shoot me a quick text here thoughts on and my
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: question of the day to day was a pretty simple one.
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: Does Utah play in the Big twelve Championship Game this year?
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: I said, yes, I think that the key swing is
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: obviously begins well, I'm gonna say it begins with Houston
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: at home. But I'm I'm like Brett Cianci, I'm not
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: going crazy over Houston. I think the stretch of BYU,
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: Arizona and TCU is where Utah season is made. And
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: with what BYU being at home, I think that gives
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: him a little bit of a leg up. So yes,
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: I do think Utah will play in the Big twelve
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: Championship Game this year. And you can make yourself for
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: a text line open eight seven seven three five three
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: zero seven hundred. It's gotten interesting at Royal Birkdale. They
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: are still playing, by the way, the round, second round
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: is still underway. It's not quite dark in Scotland just yet,
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: but they are just about I think there's a couple
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: of golfers left on the course today and one of them,
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: the American, is well. He just tapped in a birdie.
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: He is now six under par as he heads to eighteen.
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: The Americans right now dominating the leader board. They don't
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: have the overall lead. That's Lucas Herbert. He shot an
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: eight under today. He was even coming into the day today.
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: He shot an eight under, so he's eight under for
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: the tournament. He's got a one shot lead over Bryson
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: d Chambeau, who just finished a minute ago. De Chambeau
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: was terrific down the stretch, ended up carting a sixty
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: six today. He's one shot back at seven under par.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: And now you've got young garar car Super all at
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: six under par. You've got Sam Burns at five under par.
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: Seywu Kim is going to eighteen right now, he's five
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: under par. Scotti Scheffler and John Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: are all at four under par. So it's setting up
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: to be a really, really really good weekend at Royal
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: Birkdale at the one hundred and fifty fourth Open Championship.
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens. I don't know what the
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: forecast is for the weekend. You know, when you're playing
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: at the Open Championship and link style golf and weather
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: is always playing in. But right now it's setting up
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: to be a pretty darn good weekend at Leaderboard update
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: brought to you by You went to Golf and Worldwide
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: Golf visit them at the indoor in store for free
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: custom fitting at you went to Golf, or shop them
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: online at Worldwide Golf dot com. So we'll be keeping
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: an eye on the Open Championship third Round Cup. It's
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're gonna have to. The good news is
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: you don't have to get up like I think tomorrow
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: morning coverage begins at like five am or maybe three
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: am Mountain time. It's nuts. But the good news is
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: the leaders, the guy that Matt, the guys that matter,
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: will probably be teeing off about the time you wake
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: up tomorrow, So that part of it's good. But you've
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: got that coming up Saturday and Sunday, and then tomorrow
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: you've got the World Cup third place game, which again
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know how excited France and England they're gonna
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: be to be playing in this World Cup third and
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: fourth place game, but at least it's a traditional rivalry
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: France and England. I Bape, Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, all
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: those guys. We'll see what happens there. But the game
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: that matters is the game coming up on Sunday one
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: o'clock Mountain time from MetLife Stadium in New York City,
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: technically in New Jersey, but New York City metro area.
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: Spain in Argentina. Spain has conceded one goal, one goal
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: the entire tournament, and they're the twenty ten champs. They've
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: won one World Cup. It's hard to win World Cups, Argentina.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: They are looking to become the first back to back
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: champion since Brazil did it. You talk about it's tough
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: to repeat, like the NFL or the NBA. They haven't
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: had a repeat World Cup champion since Brazil in fifty
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: eight and sixty two. It ain't easy. They've also got
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: Messi and they're gritty Argentina. They did you watch the
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: England game the other day? It was going on about
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: this time the other day. Goodness, England's got a one
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: goal lead. Then they bunker, they park the bus, they
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: do all of that stuff, and Argentina just throws the
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: kitchen sink at him. They get the two goals late
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: and they win. They've there's just something about them. Messi,
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: he's thirty nine. Is he the best player in the world? Still? No,
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: He's probably not the best. He's the goat, but he's
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: not the best player in the world today. Still, he's
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: still very good. But he's got great players around him,
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: and they've got great grit. Spain, they are a team
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: to the nth degree. La min Na mal. He's eighteen,
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: he's not had a great World Cup. Watch him have
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: like a brace tomorrow or this weekend or something. But
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with the team that's got the championship pedigree,
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: that won the last World Cup, that has the greatest
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: of all time, and they have just figured out how
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: to win games. They just figure out how to get
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: it done. I'm going with the rgis and the goat
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: and the championship DNA. I think Argentina wins to one
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: in regular time, no extra time, no pks. I think
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: the Rg's get it done to one. I don't know
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: if it's gonna be a pretty game. I don't know
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: if it's gonna be an ugly game. Spain to be
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: very fair, kind of boring. They're effective, they get the
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: job done. They're kind of boring. Argentina has not played
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: a wildly exciting World Cup. They don't have a ton
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: of star power on that team, but they've got the
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: greatest of all time and a bunch of guys that
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: know how to play with him. So my prediction for Sunday.
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: And by the way, take nothing of this prediction because
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: I predicted England in France would win the semi final matchups.
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: So clearly I know nothing, but I am going to
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: pick Argentina to to one in regular time Sunday afternoon
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: from New York City. If you've got a thought on it,
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: would like to shoot it my way quick tech. Certainly
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: welcome here. Eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred.
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: I have thoroughly enjoyed it. You guys know I've got
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: a background in soccer. I was lucky to be the
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: voice of Rayale salt Lake for eighteen years. So I
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: love this. I love the fact that it's been in
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: the United States on our time frame and I haven't
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 1: had to get up in the middle of the night
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: or stay up super late at night to watch. I
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: would anyway, But I think it's everything you wanted. The
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: United States was good and exciting until they got bumped
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: by Belgium. Was a disappointing, yes, but it wasn't unheard of.
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: You've had upsets in some early rounds. You had some
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: big names knocked out early. But it's a little bit
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: like March madness, right. We all talk about how we
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: want the Cinderellas to do well, but when it gets
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: down to the final four, what do we want. We
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: don't mind having blue bloods and we want great soccer.
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: That's what we have here. You had the best four
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: teams in the world squaring off, and now you've got
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: Spain in Argentina. I'm not sure there's much to Yeah,
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: the media likes to look and try to create controversies
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 1: where there aren't any. Was the Balligan red cart a
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: big deal? Well? Eh? In the end, the United States
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: didn't advance, so it really didn't matter. I've not seen
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: logistically any issues in any of these Cup games. They've
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: been full stadiums. The cities that have hosted these games
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: have gone crazy. I've talked to my friends in Kansas City,
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 1: where Argentina, England, Algeria and the Netherlands were housed. They
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: said it was fantastic. I don't know. I just think
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: it's been terrific. It's gonna make more money than it
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: ever has. Extra teams certainly add to that, but the
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 1: full stadiums. Logistically, the United States, I think has done
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: in Mexico and Canada. North America has done a fantastic
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: job with this. I wish the United States could. The
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: United States, by the way, is always the fallback. It's
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: the contingency play forever because of our infrastructure, our ability
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: to pull it together. I wish we could get it
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: more than every thirty four years, but I understand, or
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: thirty two years, yeah, thirty two years. Anyway, I think
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: it's been great and I don't really care who wins
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: the game on Sunday. I just hope we get a
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 1: great game, and I think we probably will. I'd love
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: to see you four to three, but it's probably more
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: likely a two to one in favor of Argentina. At
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: least that's my pick. We'll see how it goes. And again,
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: forty eight days from today, you've got Utah football against
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: the Idaho Vandals. By the way, catch my Crimson Court
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: of podcast this week wherever you get your favorite podcast,
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: the Crimson Corner. I talked this week to college football
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 1: guru Phil Steele. If you're not listening, please add it
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: to your podcast rotation. And my podcast series with the
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: Utah football coaches will begin dropping next Thursday, Kevin mcgiven
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: will be our first under the headset interview and it
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: will have a video component, so you cannot just listen,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: but you can watch on YouTube on the Utah Athletics
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel, or listen to iTunes, Spotify, any of those
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: great places you get your podcasts. More content coming this fall,
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: I promise, So we'll grab a time out, we'll come
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: back on the other side. I think Spence may join
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: us for a little cross talk. If not, we'll give
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: you one last look at the leaderboard and wrap it
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: up next Ton O'Connell Show. Bill Riley sitting in on
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: a Friday right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: two one FM. This is by Sean O'Connell's show. You
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: are home of the best Inside of your hutes.
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 5: Let's get back to OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 5: of the ESPN seven hundred ninety two one AM.
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: Well, you'll get back to OC on Monday. He's out today.
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 1: I've been lucky enough to fill in today for him.
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: Bill Riley in for Shan O'Connell today on the Shan
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 1: O'Connell Show. Thank you guys for making my visit a
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: good one.
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 7: Today.
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: Text line's been popping today. I've been asking the question today,
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 1: does Utah playing the Big twelve Championship Game? I said yes,
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: and many of you have said yes, some of you
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: have been I'm not quite so sure. That's all fair.
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: A lot of unknown this year. And you know there's
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 1: two good teams that are right there in the mixed
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 1: with them, with Texas Tech and BYU. But I think
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 1: they play at the Big twelve Championship Game. And the
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: season begins forty eight days from today. This text message
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: in from Texter twenty seven seventy eight said, yes, the
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: Youut's go to the Big twelve Championship Game. So thank
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: you for that. Spencing the driver coming up straight ahead.
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: Just to update you on the second round of the
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: Open Championship. It's now complete. Lucas Herbert is your leader.
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 1: Lucas Herbert eight under par, shot a sixty two today,
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: has a one shot lead over Bryson D. Shambeau, who
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: shot a sixty six. He is seven under today. Young
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: Gerard Suber All six under par. All Americans Sam Burns
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 1: a sixty two as well today. He's at five under
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 1: for the tournament. Say Wu Kim is at five under
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: par as well. Now you've got Scotty Scheffler and John
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood who are all at eight or
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry at four hunder par. Four shots back of
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: the eight under from Lucas Herbert who shot an eight
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: under today. So that's your leaderboard update, brought to you
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: by our friends at you went to golf at the
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty fourth Open at Royal Birkdale. Just
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: a couple of other reminders for you. Utahs fall camp
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: will begin first week of August. Don't have the exact
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: date yet, but that will be coming out. If you
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: missed anything from to day's show, you should be able
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: to find it at ESPN seven hundred sports dot com
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: or as well on the app, so find out I
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: find out any of those interviews or anything and any
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 1: bit of the content you need in those spots. And
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: again you can find my podcast, the Crimson Corner Podcast
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: where you get your podcasts. And we'll also have the
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: Under the Headset podcast coming your way very soon as well,
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: dropping next Thursday, where I sit down with the Utah
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: football coaching staff talk a little bit about their journeys
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: and the season ahead as well. So those are those
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: will be where you find your podcast that will have
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: a video component to you to it as well, so
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: you can watch those as well as listen to them.
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: This show and The Drive also have a video component
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: to them. So you've watched me for the last three hours.
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: You can watch Spence on the ESPN seven underd YouTube
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: channel and he joins us right now. He looks like
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: he just comes fresh from the TV studio. At hey,
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: U TV? Is that makeup I see on you?
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 2: This is see skin.
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 4: You look like you've hydrated. Well, my friend, I've got
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 4: a new skincare routine.
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 8: You real.
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 2: Have you ever done this before?
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 10: No?
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 4: So it's kind of wild. Okay, there's this trend going around.
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 4: Are you have you leaned into AI at all?
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 2: Are you using it?
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: I use it to check fact check some stuff. The
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: problem I find is sometimes AI is not reliable.
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's very bad at historical sports questions. Is I
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 4: don't know if you've noticed this, I asked, Uh, So,
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 4: I've been using Claude a little more than chat ept. Okay,
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 4: because I'm convinced by the young people in my life, like,
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 4: if you're not familiar with this, then it's gonna come
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 4: get you in a few years. I don't know if
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 4: that's true. I think it's gonna come get us either way. Yeah,
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 4: we're probably screwed. In fact, I'm starting to question like
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 4: whether or not people are AI. I'm dead serious. I
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 4: have a standing appointment with a certain situation that I
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 4: have to like make every couple of weeks.
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: And the situations no shout out though to my final
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 1: year by the way of the Jersey Shore.
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 2: Oh it's not.
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 4: They're gonna keep doing that until they die. They've got
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 4: nothing else to do but shout out, Mike. The situation
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 4: might be running for mayor Do you still GTL every
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 4: now and again? I will No, that's a daily thing.
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 4: That's a way of life. Though we talked yes, of course,
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 4: it doesn't have to be said out loud, I say, GTL.
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 2: You know what the deal is, I do. It is
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 2: the situation.
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 1: So you're the pauly d of esp and seven hundred doss.
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 2: I'll take that. I'll lean into that because you would
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 2: be the situation forever.
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 4: There's no doubt you're this weird hybrid of the situation
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 4: in Snookie somehow, the situation just with the way that
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 4: you live your life and your behavior is snookie. Like
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 4: I didn't even know they were still on the air.
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 4: I saw on MTV there was one last go around
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 4: the Jersey Shore. But like you said, no, yeah, they're
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 4: not going to money is Ronnie is DJ? Now that's Polly,
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 4: Although that's Polly d Ronnie's the the steroid guy. He's
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 4: the meaththead who hated Sammy, the sweetheart. Well samby a
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 4: soccer player.
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 2: I think she claimed to be.
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 1: I think she played like collegiate soccer.
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 4: Let's blot the rundown and just talked to Jersey Shore.
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 4: How did you get connected with with JJ watt?
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 7: Oh?
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: I heard the teaser JJ was. I didn't. I didn't.
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 4: He didn't show the other day and I didn't realize
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 4: he was on with you. Yeah, it's like most things
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 4: in my life. My dad's on the board of Burnley.
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 4: Oh you know, it's like, Dad, make this happen, and
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 4: that's how you that's how you make your way through life.
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 4: He is an investor in Burnley FC, and Burnley of
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 4: course was in town to play.
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 2: RSL and.
• 2:26:37
  Speaker 1: I saw them training. I was down at the UH
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: practice facility in Harriman. The other day doing a feature
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: on a Utah Royals player, Yeah, who used to play
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: at Utah and Burnley was out training.
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so you know, we do this weekly talking RSL
• 2:26:51
  Speaker 4: show on KU TV Thursday Night's shameless plug Donny will
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 4: finally be back next week, and I couldn't do it yesterday.
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 4: So the thought was Dave Fox didn't have to do
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 4: any work at all, go to the stadium and recurt interviews,
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 4: so Dave could just intro the show and be like,
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 4: hey we're not here's Spence with two interviews.
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 2: So I don't have to do any work tonight.
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 4: So I sat down with JJ Watt and then had
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 4: like a good ten minutes with Garth or Buddy Garth
• 2:27:16
  Speaker 4: logaway in town. So but Jj, of course his wife
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 4: Kaalia was an awesome soccer player at Alta High.
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 2: She won four state championships. And they come here a lot,
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 2: because that's I.
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 1: Don't know, because I heard him talking to you about,
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah we can grocery shop and Bill everybody leaves us alone.
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, maybe they have a home here.
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they probably have the financial means to
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 4: have a home here if they wanted one. But yeah,
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 4: he's in England all the time for board meetings for
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 4: Burnley and then they just made him the head of
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 4: the sporting board for the soccer club they have in Spain. Okay,
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 4: so yeah, he was here and we arranged it through
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 4: Gerald Fitzgerald the Third better known as Trey to get
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 4: you know, a good eight minutes with him.
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 2: He couldn't have been nicer. I don't know that he
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 2: loved that he was doing media with his family around,
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 2: but he could not have been nicer.
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 8: Was fun?
• 2:28:04
  Speaker 1: Is Garth doing something with Burnley or was he just
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: in town?
• 2:28:07
  Speaker 2: He is not doing something with Burnley. He was just
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 2: in town.
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 4: I haven't seen Garth since his days in Seattle, so yeah,
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 4: he is his health, He looks good, sounds good, which
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 4: is the most important thing. And I think the exit
• 2:28:22
  Speaker 4: from Atlanta allowed him a little bit of a runway
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 4: to decide what he wants to do next. And so
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 4: he's not sure what he wants to do next, so
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 4: we'll see what happens.
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 1: Very good. Who do you get on Sunday? Well, and
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the Open Championship, which got really
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: interesting today. I'm talking about the World Cup.
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 4: I thought you were talking about the season finale of
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 4: the Jersey I thought you were talking about the season
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 4: finale of the Jersey Shore on Sunday. I will say
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 4: I have Argentina and more than two and a.
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 2: Half goals scored.
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, right overall, catch my drift, Okay, I see what
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: you're saying.
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think Spain's the best.
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 4: Look, they've allowed one goal all tournament, right, and prior
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 4: to the goal they allowed two games ago, they had
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 4: allowed five shots on goal all tournament long. I didn't
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 4: realize that they were such a stout defensive soccer team.
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 2: They're they're complete.
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 4: They're the favorite to win, and it's actually not that
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 4: close if you look at prediction markets in Vegas and such.
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: But there's something about Argentina. They're pretty. Yeah, they're they're
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 1: the championship. Dna. Messi's not the best player in the
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: world today, but he's the greatest of all time and
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: he's still among the best players in the world. Yeah,
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: and those guys know how to play together. Yeah, and
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: they've got some dudes. They're just they're tough.
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to be in a street fight with
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: those guys because they looked like they'd shank you.
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Like, honestly, they're not very likable. No outside. I
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 4: mean it's hard to not like MESSI. You don't have
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 4: to know soccer to know greatness. And you see it
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 4: with him even at thirty nine, Like the assist the
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 4: cross he made was with us right that's his less
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 4: preferred right foot, and it was right on the dude's set.
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 4: All you had to do was tap it. In Argentina
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 4: feels like they have something right now. I feel like
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 4: Spain's the better team, but I'll take Argentina because they've
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 4: scored eleven goals after the seventy fifth minutes in a
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 4: World Cup. It's a record by far. So I don't know, man,
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 4: I heard you coming when I was rolling in. I
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 4: heard you talking about the tournament. I think it's been
• 2:30:24
  Speaker 4: so fun. I think it's just been great. And for
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 4: all of the handwringing about what it may look like
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 4: here in the United States, like you see all the
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 4: videos of Europeans that are like, why do people talk
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 4: crap on this country?
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 2: It's awesome.
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing we know that sometimes the media,
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 1: whether it's ours or other places, look for the faults
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: and deficiencies. The big picture of this tournament is there
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: haven't been any major gaffs. The logistics have gone well,
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: the stadiums have looked fantastic, and the soccer has been terrific. Yeah,
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: that's all that really matters at the end of the day.
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 4: And yeah, I mean, of course, look, no World Cup
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 4: tournament is going to go off perfectly. There are going
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 4: to be things that happen here or there. But we
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 4: have like Europeans trying to smuggle ranch dressing now because
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 4: they'd never had ranch dressing before.
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: You notice in the airport coming back from Dallas, because
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: Dallas was one of the World Cup cities, they were
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: selling ranch at at the gift shops on the other
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: side of security. I didn't see they had of ranch
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: at the different like because they were they were confiscating
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 1: it in security wild so people were able to buy
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: they had you know, hidden valley ranch in the gift shops.
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 4: Like there's a video of Lemin Jamal in a Walmart
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 4: and he's looking around. He's like wait what, Like you're
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 4: you're the biggest soccer star of your generation and you're
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 4: blown away by Walmart. You know, like we probably had
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 4: times don't do a good enough job. And I say
• 2:31:48
  Speaker 4: this all the time. I love visiting other countries. I
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 4: really love coming home, Like it's great to leave, but
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 4: it's so good to get back.
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: I always tell people traveling abroad is the greatest reinforcer
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 1: of how good we have it here.
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and certainly I love see it like I love London.
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 4: There are plenty of international cities that I absolutely love,
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 4: but I really love when I step back on American soil.
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 4: It's a great, great country, it's a great place to live,
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 4: but it's such a great tournament. I don't know that
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 4: I buy into this whole thing that every World Cup
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 4: cycle we all do the thing where it's like, all right,
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 4: now MLS is going to go like this because pardon
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 4: me wonders if people who have never watched like World
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 4: Cup soccer before, when you see it played like that,
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 4: you're like, oh, it is awesome.
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 2: And then you turn on a Columbus Crew San Jose
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 2: earthquake game and you're like, yeah, it's not the same.
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: But I will say, because you and I were part
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: of it for eighteen twenty years and been around it
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 1: after every World Cup, the good news is the level
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: of play of MLS has been better and better. So
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: the level of the league now is better than it
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: was four years ago and better than it was before
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: that and before that. I will say this, I just
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: I think the Apple deals terrible for MLS because the
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 1: average fan can't turn on TV and watch an MLS game.
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 1: You just don't. I mean, you're you can turn on
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: Fox and watch the World Cup and Telemundo or whatever
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 1: it might be, you don't have And again, straight I
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 1: understand what streaming is, but no games are available. You can't.
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 1: There's not a random Fox or ESPN or whatever it
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: might be, primetime game on a Sunday night. Everything's on Apple.
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 1: And I know the league did that for reasons, but
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: I think for the average fan that's been able just
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: to turn on their TV and watch World Cup, they
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: can't turn on the TV and watch Rail Salt Lake
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 1: and the Columbus Crew or the Austin and Cincinnati or
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: whatever it might be.
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 4: Well, it also takes away our ability to storytell on
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 4: a local level. Apple gives RSL a little bit of that,
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 4: but the old TV deal, and I know not every
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 4: team in every market had the same deal that RSL had.
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 4: We had like a twenty five minute pregame show where Okay,
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 4: go sit down with Kyle Beckerman, go interview Javier Morales go, Like,
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 4: let's let the community get to know our players. Apple's
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 4: kind of taking that away. Their production has been pretty good.
• 2:33:56
  Speaker 4: I think their talent's fine. But the list of the
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 4: three replacements for Don Garber was released today. I saw that,
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 4: and I will share a little insight. One of those
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 4: three gentlemen was in the suite for the Messy game
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 4: when Messi was here and I had a chance to
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 4: talk with him, just real briefly, just introduce myself, and
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 4: he alluded to.
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 2: The TV thing needing to change.
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 4: The contract expires in twenty nine, and I think that
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 4: will coincide maybe with Messi's retirement, but with the way
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 4: he's playing, maybe he keeps playing. The understanding in the
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 4: league is the Apple deal was directly tied to the
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 4: Messi tenure, So if he retires in twenty nine, Apple
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 4: might be like, hey, we're good because you don't have
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 4: that guy anymore. And I think that will be good
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 4: for the league because hopefully it gets some local control back.
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's nothing wrong with partnering up with streamers. The
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 1: nfls to everybody's done it. But when it's all in
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: and nothing else, that's where I think it limits the
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: access for the average fan that might want to watch
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: your team.
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 4: Well said, before I let you get out of here,
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 4: I want to see if you read Big twelve Media
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 4: Day is the same way I did.
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 1: Feel free.
• 2:35:03
  Speaker 2: I keep saying there was some like real Regina George
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 2: mean girl, you can't sit with us energy.
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 4: It feels like everybody hates tech, Tech hates the league
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 4: like Vegas and prediction markets are telling all of us.
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 4: Tech is the heavy favorite coaches vote BYU. I don't
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 4: think it's an anti Joey Maguire thing. In fact, I
• 2:35:22
  Speaker 4: think most coaches feel bad for him. Yeah, news is
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 4: leaked that the day before Ken Paxton files his lawsuit,
• 2:35:29
  Speaker 4: Cody Campbell pledged two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 4: to his Senate bid. Did you sense like and it
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 4: really does feel like it's a tech thing. I don't
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 4: think it's everybody else, But did you sense that in Frisco?
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 2: A little bit?
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 9: Oh?
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I not just I think the media picked up
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 1: on it just a little bit, and I think the
• 2:35:48
  Speaker 1: league too, because of what they did. And I think
• 2:35:52
  Speaker 1: Tech is now leaning into wearing the black hat. Yeah,
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: the bad guy had the heel. Very curious to see.
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: Their schedule is very easy and tough games at home.
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: But does this have any impact the whole off season
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 1: on the team. And you know Will Hammond, he's a
• 2:36:12
  Speaker 1: very good quarterback. Soresby wouldn't have even been in the
• 2:36:15
  Speaker 1: picture if Hammond didn't hurt his knee last year. They
• 2:36:17
  Speaker 1: love him, but how soon is he back to being
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 1: Will Hammond? What kind of an impact does that have?
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: And if there is some adversity, how do they deal
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 1: with it? If there's some on field adversity? I just
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: think it's really interesting. Plus are they the favorite? Okay, yes,
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 1: but I don't think that they're head and shoulders better
• 2:36:35
  Speaker 1: than both Utah and BYU. I think Uton BYU are
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 1: right behind them. And I still think I don't think Arizona,
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: Houston or TCU can win the league. But I think
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: they're good enough on a given day to spoil somebody's season.
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: One of the what are the top three team seasons?
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 4: And Utah has that stretch in November right where BYU, Arizona.
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 2: TCU that might determine the entire thing.
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I wonder what effect it has if you're like
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 4: a eighteen, nineteen twenty year old kid playing for Texas
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 4: Tech and you feel like the rest of your league does.
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 7: Not like you.
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 1: I don't think it bothers them now, But when they
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 1: go on the road, how does that impact them? When
• 2:37:17
  Speaker 1: they go on that you're only there for a day,
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: but how does that impact them walking into these stadiums
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: and things they hear and if they deal with some adversity,
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: how does that turn them? They're in a bubble in
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: love it. Yeah, everything's great there, but when they do
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: have to go on the road, how does it impact them? Yeah?
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it'll be inter I mean it does add a
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 4: layer of like intrigue and drama to the entire thing.
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, obviously, when the season gets here, it'll be
• 2:37:39
  Speaker 4: good to talk football. But the off season in college football,
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 4: Texas Tech has done us all a real favor because
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 4: a lot of really interesting storylines just regarding you know,
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 4: like Cody Campbell's comment with that Ross Dellinger. God, that
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 4: essentially was like you need to be rich, Like I
• 2:37:54
  Speaker 4: am right, Like all right, dude, everyone's trying to keep
• 2:37:57
  Speaker 4: up and part of me, actually he doesn't mind the
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 4: approach and then a little bit of a hey, yeah,
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 4: got you do have to keep up with us because
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 4: it does motivate the other schools.
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 2: To be better.
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: Well, then Coe and the tech folks tried to play
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 1: the victim after sores By was It's like, come on, yeah,
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 1: you can't have it both ways. You're either the big,
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 1: bad bully or you're the victim, but it can't be
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 1: both of those things.
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 4: Well, especially now we know it was back room, shady
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 4: political deals and probably finding a judge in the right
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 4: jurisdiction that will give you what you wanted, and hiring
• 2:38:30
  Speaker 4: Jeffrey Kessler, who is as cutthroat as it gets. And
• 2:38:35
  Speaker 4: it was a blueprint that they found that I think
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 4: a lot of people are following, which is we're just
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 4: going to shop our case to judges, and when we
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 4: find one in the right jurisdiction, maybe there's a donation
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 4: to a charity that this judge likes, and then suddenly
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 4: my guy can play like It all felt rather gross,
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 4: and I do think the right thing happened, and hopefully
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 4: Brendan Soresby finds a good life for himself, but he should.
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 2: Not been allowed to play this year. You get on
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 2: your show today.
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 4: We are busy on the program today, we're going to
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 4: talk more college football offseason.
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 2: Did you say forty eight days? Did I hear that?
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: Are forty eight days to kickoff?
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 4: Andy Larson is going to join us today Banded McMahon.
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 4: Tim McMahon stops by for a little NBA Daily Assist.
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 4: We'll talk a little jazz basketball.
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 2: We haven't talked. Have you talked to Tim since the
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 2: Walker Kessel trade? I'm not sure.
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 4: And then we'll do some golf with Paul Pugmyer. Of course,
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 4: Open Championship going on, So a little bit of everything
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 4: on the show. I had a good chat today with
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 4: Zane Beatles, who's going to the Hall of Fame. Great dude.
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 4: And Sarah Todd joined me too. Sarah had some good
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 4: insight on the Darren I just I hate the instant
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 4: analyzing of every play, every possession of rookie league, of
• 2:39:44
  Speaker 4: Summer league, rookie basketball.
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: Darren Peterson's gonna be good. Yeah, You're gonna be just fine.
• 2:39:48
  Speaker 1: We don't need to analyze guys who are trying to
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 1: make a team, who are picking him up ninety four
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: feet and you get ten fouls. In summer leagues, so
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 1: you can just hack the hell out of the second
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: overall pickrook can you make his life harder? Right?
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 4: The only I say this every year, the only bad
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 4: sign in summer league is if your veteran players and
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 4: high picks don't play well.
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 2: It's good competition.
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 4: They're all you know, pros, but half of them are
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 4: going to be in China, you know, seventy five percent
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 4: of them will be in Europe.
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 2: Some of them will never hear from again.
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 4: We all have summer league anecdotes, namely Greg Oster tag
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 4: clearly out playing Tim Duncan in ninety seven. We're all
• 2:40:25
  Speaker 4: watching like, oh, the Jazz finally found a center. Those
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 4: two careers went a little a little differently. And every
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 4: year there's this dude no one's heard of that's awesome
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 4: in the summer league that we never hear from again.
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 4: But like, if Darren wasn't looking like this is your
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 4: number two overall pick, you'd have a problem.
• 2:40:40
  Speaker 2: But as it is, he's look really well.
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 1: It's the same thing we say with spring football, right,
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 1: some guy has a crazy four touchdown spring football game
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 1: and then he never sees the field in the fall, Right,
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: So let's let's not overanalyze it. GTL and apsentsert soon daily.
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 2: That's my life.
• 2:40:55
  Speaker 1: Let's get together.
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 2: Love it, buddy.
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: So wish that Zephyr was still over there. Don't break
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: my heart.
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 6: I know.
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: Miss the Zephyr. Good to see you, Bell you too.
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: As Spence check its, He's coming up next with The Drive.
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: His producer and Tim Reim doppelganger will be producing. That's
• 2:41:09
  Speaker 1: Porter Larson. That'll be next right here on ESPN seven
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety two one FM