Latest / ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM | Utah's #1 Sports Talk / Eric Weddle on No. 6 Utah visiting Cincinnati on Saturday, Jackson Bennee's strip sack vs Houston, Busy trade season for the NFL + more

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Eric Weddle on No. 6 Utah visiting Cincinnati on Saturday, Jackson Bennee's strip sack vs Houston, Busy trade season for the NFL + more · ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM | Utah's #1 Sports Talk

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 792.1 FM.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Noon on a Thursday means we're talking football with the
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Utah legend.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: The NFL veteran, the Super Bowl champion, the head coach
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of the Rancho Bernardo Broncos, my friend, your friend, Eric Weddle.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: Doing good, my friend.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: Doing good.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: Another week. Another chance to be great, especially for our Utes.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: And a great opportunity to beat our rival for the
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: Broncos for sole possession of league champions. We haven't done
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: it in 10 years, so a lot to be excited about.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: You got one more regular season game before the playoffs start.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Is that right?
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Against Poway? Ugh, Poway, no thanks.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: No thanks. You know, we unfortunately dropped a tough one
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: last week against the mighty Grizzlies of Mission Hills, home
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: of Chris Alave and Fred Warner. And, you know, really
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: proud of the boys. We got down early, didn't start
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: very well, 21-0 on Madden. You would have to give
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: us a six at that point. But we fought back
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: slowly but surely, got it to 28-21 in the fourth quarter.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: It was about six minutes to go, and we didn't
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: get the ball back after that. And we're really proud
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: of our bunch. You know, in the past, we probably
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: would have got blown out by 50 and showing the
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: development and the belief that we can play with the
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: big boys. And when you look at the game, man,
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: a couple plays go our way or maybe– our players
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: do a little bit better in certain situations, we can
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: pull that game out. So should have some confidence leading
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: into playoffs in a couple weeks.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: The ability to play well or to continue to strive
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: at least to play well when you're down big is,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's something that we expect from professionals and
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: we expect it from college players, especially at the level
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: where Utah's at right now.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: It's against human nature.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It's a hard thing to coach, I imagine, and you're
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: instilling that with these high school boys now, but it's
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: something that mattered to you, right, for your entire football career.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: If you can, articulate for me just how difficult it
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: is to go out, play hard, execute, be who you're
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: supposed to be when you're looking at the scoreboard and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you're like, good hell, this is a bad night for us.
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah, man, it's... It's really like as much as a
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: coach can try to express, right, like I believe in you,
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: keep fighting, keep battling, like especially for young kids and
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: especially like at the high school level, like Mission Hills.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: Is kind of like a premier program down here. It
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: would kind of be like Corner Canyon over the years or,
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: you know, like Mountain Ridge, like those schools that are like,
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: really top-notch and you have like a a low 6a
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: team or or 5a and you get into this game
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  Speaker 4: and you're like gosh i don't know like they're so
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: good and then it's like the team's waiting for a
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: spark and for us like everyone kind of like waits
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: around for gauge to kind of like make something happen
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: whether it's on defense or offense and then they're like
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: okay we can play now you know well Why does
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: it have to take that down 21-0 for us to
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  Speaker 4: do that and have a collective unit to believe that, hey,
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: we can actually play with these guys relying on someone
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: else when you should just believe it yourself, you know?
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: And it's like a– it's a culture, it's a vision,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: it's a belief, it's a how you structure, you know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: your offseason and really like– instilling the confidence in each
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  Speaker 4: individual so they're not relying on someone else to turn
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  Speaker 4: the tide that they're going to turn the tide.
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  Speaker 5: If that makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: We saw a little bit of that from Utah in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the Houston game, and I don't think that dynamic exists
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  Speaker 1: so strongly where anyone's waiting around for someone else to
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  Speaker 1: make a play, but it's always great to see one
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  Speaker 1: of your leaders step up and make a play or two.
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  Speaker 1: And they come out of halftime, and Devin Dampier basically
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: on that drive was like, all right, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: have to make this happen. And he used his arm
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but mostly he used his legs and
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  Speaker 1: got the job done, got him a score, woke the
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  Speaker 1: stadium up, and it's a game at that point. And,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a good thing to see from a
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: guy at the quarterback position especially. But it wasn't all
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: scripted stuff. Some of that was scrambling. And when you
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: have a quarterback who can do that, I mean, how
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: much does it change the game and the offense?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, that was big last week. And we
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: were kind of, you know, having success. We were moving
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  Speaker 4: the ball, you know, up and down for the most
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: part and then kind of bogged down with some mistakes
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: or unfortunate turnover in the high red zone. But luckily
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: and fortunate enough that our defense was holding pat and
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: not giving up touchdowns in the red zone and really
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: was the key of the game, the one for three
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: in the red zone for Houston. And then really you
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: just need that spark and really hearing the comments and
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: talking with guys, just the difference at halftime, right? It wasn't...
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: It wasn't a yell fest. It wasn't a pointing fingers.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: It wasn't we don't have answers.
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  Speaker 5: It was very calm.
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  Speaker 4: It was very direct.
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  Speaker 5: There was a plan.
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  Speaker 4: You know, Coach Scali talked about that. And then you
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: had the players igniting the team, right? The leaders, right? expressing, like,
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: I got you, and we're going to figure this out,
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: and keep believing, keep staying connected, keep staying together. And
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: that's what takes teams to a championship, right? Like, the
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: belief and the connection, and you saw that, you heard
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: that from players, you heard that from Coach Scali at
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: halftime when they were talking offensive.
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  Speaker 6: Changes and making adjustments.
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  Speaker 4: Like, everyone can call a play. Everyone can have a plan.
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  Speaker 4: And then when a plan stinks or isn't working, can
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  Speaker 4: you adapt and find– find answers to what they're doing
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: in a timely fashion. Like those are the great coaches.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: Those are the great staff. And Coach Scali alluded to
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: that of how they feel they have an amazing staff
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  Speaker 4: and ones that don't point fingers. They're going to find solutions.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: And you saw that in the second half.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: We had, I mean, the most iconic play of the
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: game was that blitz that Jackson Benny comes through well-timed.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Running back has to pick up the linebacker coming through.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Benny is basically in his pocket, separates the quarterback from
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the ball. D-tackle has already beat his man, so he's
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: able to fall on the fumble. And I imagine you've
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: executed that exact blitz a couple of times in your life.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Tell me what Jackson Benny was seeing.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: My goodness, when I saw the blitz, I knew exactly.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: I can't for the life of me remember the name,
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: and it's still irritating me. We call it nacho. That's
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: what we called it when I was in San Diego
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: for my first couple years in the league. It's basically
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: four strong with the nickel and the mic with the
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: tackle cross-facing the center. And as long as you get
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: the idea of the center away from the nickel, it's
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: a free runner. And that's why it's nice, Gally. Gally
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: said after the game when Coach Wood said the unblockable
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: blitz because if it is run and executed correctly, it
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: is because We basically have four on three. And I
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: saw it happen right away, and I'm like, oh, my goodness,
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: what a perfectly timed call in a great situation, a
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: great moment. I know they were setting it up earlier.
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: They talked about that.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: And, man, a huge moment. Honestly, it reminded me, I
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: don't like to bring it upon myself, but like the
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: Oregon game where I sacked, Came off the edge and
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: sacked the quarterback, forced fumble, and we recovered it.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: And it really, like, was one of the bigger plays
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: in that game.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: And monumental game, momentum, and then we scored the next
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: play in the crowd and the blackout game. Just really
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: incredible moment, proud, seeing all the videos, made me wish
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: I was there, but also just, couldn't be more happy
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: and happy and proud of the university and just the
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: fans and the excitement. Just having national attention on our
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: school is something that we don't get often, but when
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: we do, we make the most of it. So really
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: just an incredible moment.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Colton Swan is my guy.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: He was up at Weber when I transferred up to Weber,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: and I know you've gotten to know him probably a
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: little bit, and he's awesome. But the difficulty of making
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a decision to be aggressive in some of the situations like,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe right there with them kind of backed up, yeah,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: go ahead and be aggressive. When they have another possession
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: after that, he still decided we're going to heat up Wegman.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: We're going to keep– the game is still on the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: line there, right? You've got an eight-point lead now, so
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: there's a cushion. But a lot of teams just go conservative,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: and as long as they don't score, we're going to
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: be fine. So let's put a bunch of guys 30
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: yards off the line of scrimmage and keep everything in
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: front of us. And he decided to stay aggressive and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to heat it up. And I know that's something that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Morgan allows and Morgan maybe even probably encourages. I don't
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: know whether that's a new dynamic or that's something that
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: we would have seen with Kyle Whittingham and Morgan Scali.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I want to be fair to all that, but it
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: just feels like like everyone in this program, coaches, players, assistants,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: everyone is kind of allowed to do what they're supposed
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: to do. They are trusted to do their job, and
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I think that's why they're 7-0.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think there's definitely some truth to that.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: I would.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: The amount, the amount of zero that Swan does is
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: definitely pretty wild. I'm not going to, I'm not going
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: to see, I'm not going to see a sugarcoat it
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: when he ran cover zero at the minus 35, 40
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: in a two minute situation, they get a 46 yard completion.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: I would have went, I would have went out of
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: my mind if I was Scali, I might've took play
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: calling duties. If I was him for, for calling that
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: in that situation. Now, I'm not in there. I'm not
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: doing it, but I just know that I wouldn't have never,
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: ever called that coverage in that situation where time is
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: on our side. Now we get down in the red
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: zone inside the 20, inside the 15, 10, like it
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: becomes who you are, right? What is your identity? What
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: do you stand on? What do you practice? What are
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: your players comfortable with? And When I was in Baltimore,
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: any fourth down or third down got to have it.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: We were bringing overload cover zero. We knew it. We
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: practiced it. We were confident in it. We knew we'd
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: get home. I'm all about situational cover zero, but I'm
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: not in other situations or throughout that game. I was like,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: holy smokes, can we mix in some other coverages to
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: help out? Because we were getting schemed up in that
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: first half.
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: I'm sure the.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: You know, they understand that. And watching it, you could
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: see it. And then you saw in the second half, like,
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: they went into that bunch set. They ran a man-beater.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: And what'd they do? They went cover two to that side,
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: and it was locked up.
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: And I think we got a.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: Sack or a throwaway. So that was, you know, we're
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: talking about adjustments. We're talking about being ahead of the
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: opponent and adapting.
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: And so it.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: Was, overall, it was an incredible defensive performance. I just
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: fear at times a little too much zero will hurt us.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: against better competition.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: How much of that is trying to compensate and maybe
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: overcompensate for, you know, you don't win with a four-man rush?
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think like at times throughout the game,
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: you could be, you can kind of press like that.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: That nickel blitz is just a five-man rush with zone
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: behind it with six guys dropping. So it's not like,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: a crazy time blitz. The timing was amazing, but the
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: structure of the defense, you're still protected, if that makes sense.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: You're not so shorthanded against a big play, and I
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: think situationally, there should just be like, you should just
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: trust that you can play coverage, you can mix and
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: match coverage looks to make them check the ball down,
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: drive and tackle, and the clock keeps ticking. You're going
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: against the clock now so much. the offense at that
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: point but you do when you're not producing sacks of
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: the four-man rush and you gotta remember like when i
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: speak a lot of times i'm speaking from more of
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: an nfl game where the d-line and the quarterbacks and
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: the offenses is much different it's a totally different game
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: so you don't have the quarterbacks they're going to run
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: around you don't have it is a timely fashion like
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: it's One, two, three, ball out. If it's not, it's
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: immediately the check down, right, because the quarterbacks don't want
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: to get hit, and you can't afford to lose your quarterback.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: So it's just like a regimen game, and you've got
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: D-line that are paying big bucks to win one-on-one battles,
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: where at college it's different. You just don't have those
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: type of guys. So you have to do different things
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: defensively to manufacture pass rush, especially situationally. So I get it.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: And so like, take my, take my thoughts with a
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: grain of salt at times. Like it's, it's not, I'm
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: not in there and I don't really know what's going
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: on personnel. So when I talk, I'm speaking more of
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: like how I was in the NFL and what, how
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: our scheme was compared to college.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Eric Weddle is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell show.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: So now Utah, one of the three final undefeated teams
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in power for football, number six ranked team in the country.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: And you've got the Holy War coming.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: You've got a quality Cincinnati opponent where you've got to
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: go to their place and avoid the pitfalls of both
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the downturn after an emotional win like you had against
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Houston and the look-ahead spot, knowing that your rival is
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: next week. How does Utah manage Cincinnati, who is capable
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: of beating you, as they proved to Texas Tech, if
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: you don't show up and do what you're supposed to do?
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't see that with this team. I don't
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: see it with the head coach. I don't see it
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: with the leadership. It's very week-to-week. You see all the
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: guys talking about it. Yeah, it was a big win,
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: but it wasn't a win that we didn't expect and
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: not a win that we didn't work hard for and earn.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: So I think it's just about business. It's really about resetting, right?
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: Resetting good, better, and different. We reset.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: We get back to.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: the routine of the week. I would be more inclined
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: that Cincinnati will have a, not so much a letdown,
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: but maybe, maybe out of whack for, for a little
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: bit of time, just coming off that emotional win at
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: home and the crowd rushing the field. So I don't see,
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: I don't see it being a problem. Ironically, I talked
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: to Morgan a couple of nights ago. He, he randomly
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: calls me throughout the season and every so often, you know, we,
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: we talk and, And I brought that up and he
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: just says, I don't, I trust the players. I trust
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: our plan. I trust how we do things and the
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: importance of week to week, like every week is our championship.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: And when you really talk about it and mentally approach it,
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: like this is our season every week, then you're not,
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: you're not looking ahead. You're not looking behind. You're just
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: focused on where you're at right then and there focusing
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: on the plan and trying to do your best. So
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: I don't, I don't see a letdown. I don't see
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: us looking ahead. This is a really good opponent, obviously,
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: on paper. I think some of the things that they're
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: good at, we can negate a little bit. And what
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: they struggle with, like stopping the run and defensively as
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: a whole, presents a lot of problems for them. And
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: when you look at it, I think we're the better team.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: I thought Houston, we were pretty evenly matched. I don't
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: see that with Cincinnati. So I think if we go
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: out and play well and do what we got to do,
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: it'll be a two-score game for us. So we got
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: to see what happens.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: You mentioned Cincinnati, their defense. I mean, they do some
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: nice things on offense. They run the ball very well.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: That tab kid is one of the better running backs,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: more productive running backs in the conference, but Utah looked
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: good in stopping the run against Houston.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: Hopefully they can do the same thing against Cincinnati.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: When we're talking complimentary football a lot with this Utah
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: football team this year, because we all grew so used
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: to for many years, it's like, all right, your defense
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: has got to win this game. How do you put
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: up points? It doesn't matter because your defense is not
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: going to give up points. This feels like one. You
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: never want to let it be that way in the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: locker room. This feels like one where your offense should
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: give you some cushion here, right? At least on paper,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: this is a vulnerable Cincinnati team. Devin Dampier and Kevin
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: McGibbon and everyone should be in their bag, and Utah
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: should score like 40.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Am I wrong?
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, the expectation is to... play at that level.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: And especially when you look at matchups and what the
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: opponent likes to do, what, what they're not very good
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: at when you punch in the numbers and then you
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: talk about the scheme and then your game plan, it's like,
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: all right, we should be confident going into this game,
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: but we still have to execute, right? We still have
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: to do what's necessary to win games. You gotta, you
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: gotta not turn the ball over. You gotta score in
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: the red zone. You gotta, you gotta win on third downs.
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: You gotta always stop the run. And so what they're
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: good at, right? They got a good running back, good
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: running game.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: The quarterback can run around like, Well, we just faced that,
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: which was more potent, and we shut that down. So
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: we know win games, you've got to win the line
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: of scrimmage, you've got to stop the run, and you've
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: got to run the football offensively. It's time-tested, whether it's
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: Pop Warner football in first grade or in the NFL.
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: You win the line of scrimmage and you're able to
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: run the football and you stop the run, you're going
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: to win most games. So that is what it looks like.
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: I think as a team, I think just the different
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: dynamics of the team, of the leadership, of the vision,
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: of how it's being ran is complementary football and team football.
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: We're going to go win the game. We're not going
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: to rely on one side or the other to save us.
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: That's historically been what it's been at Utah with the
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: defense always trying to stay face and win the game
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: for us.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Would you call your boy Pat McAfee and tell him
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: to keep Utah's name out of his mouth?
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's very interesting. How, uh, all that came about, uh,
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: you know, I don't know. Is the, is the, is
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: he really not doing game day this week?
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: I don't think I have no idea what's going on.
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: Uh, he's, I don't know what's, I don't know what's
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: true or not in social media anymore. So, uh, I
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: kind of just like hold my comments back unless it's
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: something I visually see and have, you know, a strong
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: opinion about it as we know. But, uh, i don't
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: know like if he really felt that way or it
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: just it was just odd like a video like i
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: get it probably felt a little sideways that the university
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: put it out there but it wasn't it was just
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: you know i don't know like as much as much
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: uh people talk negatively about him and this, that, and
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: the other, like we all do that. You're going to
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: like now put your foot down and make a, make
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: us think about it. So I don't know. I hope he,
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: I hope they like reconcile because he's great at what
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: he does. And we have an amazing university. So I
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: would hate for him to feel that way over the
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: course of time. But Hey, it is what it is.
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: If you don't want to ever come back, we're going
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: to be all right.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: 10 a.m. Kickoff announced for the Holy war. Everyone's up
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: in arms about it. Um, I, I get it. A
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: night game's great, but the school doesn't want to play
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: any more night games this year.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Uh, a five kind of ironic that Mark puts that
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: out there and then boom. Okay. You don't want a
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: night game. We're going to give you the earliest kickoff
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: you can have.
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: So 10 AM, what do you think?
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: Uh, I mean, obviously it's, you know, We're going to
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: be there, AJ and I, hopefully Chanel, and we're going
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: to be there. It's just like, you look at the
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: landscape of college football, yeah, there's a lot of great games.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: There's not a better game than that.
• 21:22
  Speaker 7: With two ranked teams, college football playoff implications, league title
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: to get to implications, and you're not.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: Going to at least put it in the 5 o'clock window, right?
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: It's just like, It goes back to, like, you know,
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: it's the SEC. It's whatever they want. And we're just
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: kind of living in their world. And that's okay. Like,
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: it's still prime time. It's an early kickoff. At least
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: we get an early kickoff this week to prepare us
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: for next week. So that's kind of good with the 12-45.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: I think it's even 11-45 or 12-45. I don't really
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: know what Cincinnati is. But anyway.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Cincinnati is Eastern time zone. Yeah.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: So.
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: At the end of the day, yeah, I guess it's
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: not necessarily 1245 my time. So, yeah, it's not an
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: early kickoff. We're going to go and we're going to
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: fight and not make excuses. It just sucks for the fans. Like,
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: you're going to have to tailgate at 7 a.m. Like,
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: that's not very fun. People are still going to be
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: half asleep. Is the stadium even going to get filled by, like,
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: mid-first quarter? I don't know. Like, I expect it to
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: be rocking. But it should be in primetime. It is
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: in primetime theoretically, but... It should be a five o'clock
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: or seven o'clock or four o'clock primetime best game of
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: the year, because that's what it is.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: So would you rather have, because if you put it
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: in that like five 30 window, Miami and Notre Dame
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: are playing there on NBC, of course. And so you're
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: splitting viewership with Miami and Notre.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: Dame, which I don't care about that.
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: I care about the game deserves to be. It's almost
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: like the Rose bowl. The Rose bowl starts at three
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: 30 and starts at when it's lit, and then it
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: goes into night, and you watch the transformation of just
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: how that game goes and the electricity. The game deserves
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: to be in the afternoon and nighttime because that's what
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: it is. It's the best game of the year. Not
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: just because it's our rivalry, but the two teams are
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: one of the best teams in the country. I don't
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: really care about that. I care about being an afternoon
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: night and playing under lights because that good game deserves
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: to be under lights.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Our last thing, this is an NFL question.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: There's some big-name guys moving before the trade deadline. Quinn
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Nelson's now a Seahawk. DeForest Buckner is back with the
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: San Francisco 49ers. Simmons traded to the Bears in kind
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of a blockbuster deal. These teams are like, you know,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: they're shoring up, especially their defenses, but in the Seahawks' case,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the offensive line. Any of these trades or movement, the
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: player movement, sparking anything for you? You think that one
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: of these guys helps, like, does Simmons help the Bears
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: win a Super Bowl? Does DeForest Buckner help the 49ers
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: stop the bleeding?
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: I think the biggest move for me would be the
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: Seahawks getting Nelson.
• 24:20
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: Because of the running game, obviously the pass pro and
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: getting Sam more comfortable and Listen, if you give Sam
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: Darnold time, like, he'll carve up defenses. And so they
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: obviously understood that they wouldn't have made the trade that
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: they need to help him out and know when he
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: gets hot, like, he can lead him to a Super
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: Bowl like he did last year. So I think the
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: other two, I don't think it sways much. The Niners
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: are always going to come down to if Purdy can
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: lead them against a really good defense, which he struggled
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: the last two weeks. And I know they're banged up
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: and injured, but that's always going to be the case
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: with the Niners. Like, Shanahan's going to scheme it up
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: and do the best he can, but at some point,
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: can Purdy make the throws against a really top-five defense? Like,
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: that's what's going to happen. If he does it, they'll win.
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: If not, then they won't. So I don't think Buckner
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: makes a huge difference. Their defense is good. And then Chicago,
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: that's interesting that they went and got him. I think
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: it makes a big impact. Obviously, the Bears can score. But, yeah,
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: I mean, of the three, I think Seattle and the
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: Bears maybe have the biggest impact over the course of
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: the rest of the season. And with the Niners, I
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: think it's a good addition, but I don't think it
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: sways much.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: What's your final prediction for Utah-Cincinnati?
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: I think it's going to be 37-21.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: 37-21, Utah wins, improves to 8-0, goes into the Holy
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: War undefeated. Yeah, we'll sign up for that. That sounds good.
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: Well, we like that. We like that. I mean, hey, 35-17, 35-20,
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: we'll take that. We'll take all of that. We'll take
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: all of that and more, and then we get in
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: Friday at around 12 o'clock. Probably go up to the U,
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: want to go to the bookstore, get some gear for
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: the game. Say what's up to the students as I'm
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: walking through. You know, get my mind right because, you know,
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: I may just pull an all-nighter. I may just pull
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: an all-nighter.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Let's go, baby.
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: Let's go. Get the guys together and say, hey, come
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: on over to the Guadalcasa. We'll have some grub. We'll
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: maybe go to the movies. Hance, Shark, we'll get those
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: guys maybe. And we'll just have a good time, and
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: we'll just lead right into tailgating. 7 a.m., I'll drop
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: Gage off at the recruiting tent, let him go do
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: his thing, and I'll just go back to eating breakfast
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: burritos and whatnot. Yeah. And then go watch the greatest
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: game of the year.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: Life is good, right?
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: That's the new game plan.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: All you Utah fans who don't want to wake up early,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Eric Weddle just solved it for you.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Don't wake up early. Just don't go to bed. Perfect.
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: Don't go to bed, man. Why not? Let's be great.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Let's go.
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: We'll talk next week. Thank you, my friend. Good luck
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: to you guys on Friday.
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir. League champs. Let's go.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: League champs for the Rancho Bernardo Broncos. We're putting that
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: out into the world. That's our guy, Eric Weddle. Wonderful
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: as always to talk to him, the Utah football legend.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: Nobody does it better really on any front.