Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Riley Nelson previews the college football season in the state of Utah

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Riley Nelson previews the college football season in the state of Utah · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:04
Speaker 1: You were listening to a Sean O'Connell show from the
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Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
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Speaker 1: to one. A f m oht, he's out today, kind
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Speaker 1: enough to let me sit in the air chair. Scratch that.
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Speaker 1: It's just a little bit final half hour on this
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Speaker 1: Friday as we sit thirteen days out for the Utah
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Speaker 1: opener against Idaho State EYU and Utah State also opening
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Speaker 1: up very soon as well. I thought we'd talk in
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Speaker 1: state ball with the guy that loves in state ball.
0:38
Speaker 1: Used to talk to me on a regular basis on
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Speaker 1: my show, and I'd love to talk to him because
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Speaker 1: he just likes football and talks about all of it.
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Speaker 1: Former Aggie quarterback, former Cougar quarterback, former Cougar color analyst,
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Speaker 1: now just a guy who watches football on Saturdays. Riley
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Speaker 1: Nelson with us here on the Shad O'Connell Show.
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Speaker 2: What's up? Riley. Great to be with you, Bill I
0:59
Speaker 2: and listen. You know we've had our little hiatus, so
1:02
Speaker 2: I'll forgive it. But in the in the intros and titles,
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Speaker 2: you forgot littlely you Conference Scout Little League football head coach.
1:10
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's what's occupy on Saturdays? Yeah, my oldest
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Speaker 2: is my oldest is into tackle now and we got
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Speaker 2: that going on. So first games we got. We're up
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Speaker 2: in woods Cross, first game tomorrow against the Alta Hawks,
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Speaker 2: so we're getting ready for it.
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Speaker 1: Well, maybe the most important title of those that I
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Speaker 1: mentioned that you held.
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Speaker 2: Then that's right.
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Speaker 1: You are influencing young football players. The future of perhaps
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Speaker 1: Utah BYU and Utah State football is in your hands. Riley,
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Speaker 1: don't mess.
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Speaker 2: It up, all right, I'll try not to.
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Speaker 1: So what has you most excited about the upcoming season
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Speaker 1: here in the state of Utah with those three programs
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Speaker 1: that you follow.
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Speaker 2: A couple of different things. Well, I think the possibility
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Speaker 2: so as you go to the three, I think the
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Speaker 2: intrigue going to BYU is And I know we're not
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Speaker 2: supposed to talk about it and all that, but like
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Speaker 2: I quite a few distractions in the off season, and
2:00
Speaker 2: it seems as b WHYU continues the success. They can't
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Speaker 2: get out of their own way. One might say, like, oh,
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Speaker 2: you know, maybe the media's after our controversy. We all
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Speaker 2: know the media environment around BYU tends to skip Well,
2:11
Speaker 2: well there are you know, they're not without their critics,
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Speaker 2: it tends to skeep pretty positive. I think. I think
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Speaker 2: most people obviously, Desert News and some of those things
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Speaker 2: really help kind of keep it that. But boy, whether
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Speaker 2: it's some offseason issues of some of the players to
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Speaker 2: you know, kind of now this most recent little dust
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Speaker 2: up right before a fall camp about you know, is
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Speaker 2: the athletic department in alignment with the flagship program despite
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Speaker 2: the you know, number one draft picks and everything and
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Speaker 2: all that's going all the excitement's gone on around BYU basketball,
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Speaker 2: Let's not forget where the bread is buttered and the
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Speaker 2: flagship program at that university is football. And so to
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Speaker 2: kind of have some of these things get to a
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Speaker 2: point where it leaks out into the media that they're
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Speaker 2: being addressed and discussed. As far as the alignment between
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Speaker 2: the athletic department leadership and the in the football program,
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Speaker 2: all of that can they can BYU do what big
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Speaker 2: programs do, because big programs are not without their controversy,
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Speaker 2: but they seem to from year to year be able
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Speaker 2: to compartmentalize that and continue their levels of success. As
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Speaker 2: you look at across you know, the top programs of
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Speaker 2: any conference. That's what they're able to do. Is turn
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Speaker 2: down the static noise of distractions and keep the performance high. So,
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Speaker 2: you know, coming off a conference game appearance last year
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Speaker 2: and Conference Offensive Player of the Year, returning some very
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Speaker 2: key pieces on defense, you know, can be why, can
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Speaker 2: be why you show that they're going to be a
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Speaker 2: perennial p for top of the conference contender. And then
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Speaker 2: of course, you know Morgan Scalley, he and I share
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Speaker 2: I share a kinship with him. We're both you know,
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Speaker 2: Utah mister football is and I am a big proponent
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Speaker 2: whether they're wearing red or royal blue or navy blue.
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Speaker 2: That you know, the foot guys who prepped in football
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Speaker 2: kind of have to stick together and support one another.
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Speaker 2: So I am cheering for him in the biggest way
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Speaker 2: to be able to handle the passing of the mantle.
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Speaker 2: I think he will. I think he'll do a great job,
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Speaker 2: but there's always that unknown. It remains to be. And
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Speaker 2: I was listening to your show prior to joining with
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Speaker 2: you and listening to the floor and ceiling. It sounds
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Speaker 2: like he's coming in from some pretty high expectations from
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Speaker 2: the fan base, So really be interesting to see how
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Speaker 2: Morgan does there. And then of course men in hall
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Speaker 2: I want to, you know, can he do this a
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Speaker 2: third or a fourth time if you count New Mexico?
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Speaker 2: And what I mean by that comes in takes over
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Speaker 2: BYU first year rough year, but sure enough, marching upward
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Speaker 2: and onward. Same thing at Virginia when he left there,
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Speaker 2: he was getting going up New Mexico before he changed directions,
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Speaker 2: decided to do that at Utah State. So after that
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Speaker 2: introductory year and facing you know, a pretty tough Mountain
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Speaker 2: West schedule, I think the Aggies, you know, especially the
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Speaker 2: murder's role of their non conference in their first games,
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Speaker 2: are really tough. Can they weather early storm and can
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Speaker 2: men in hall you know, do what He's done for
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Speaker 2: the past twenty years, and that's take programs from relative
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Speaker 2: mediocrity to you know, excelling and competing for conference championships.
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Speaker 2: So intrigue abounds.
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Speaker 1: All right, Riley, I'm gonna ask you about the questions.
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Speaker 1: The big question for each at least Utah and BYU
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Speaker 1: for sure. I haven't dug as much into the Aggies,
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Speaker 1: but if you want to make a comment there big
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Speaker 1: question around Utah is the offensive line. Aside from Morgan
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Speaker 1: being a first year head coach and stuff. If we're
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Speaker 1: just talking about football on the field. Five guys all
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Speaker 1: on NFL rosters, right, or I should say four of
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Speaker 1: the five on NFL rosters. Replace having to replace those
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Speaker 1: five guys. Now, A bunch of those guys were in
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Speaker 1: the program, played snaps, had been there. They were just
5:32
Speaker 1: playing behind guys like Fano and Lomu. The last couple
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Speaker 1: of years brought some other guys in, including a five
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Speaker 1: star guy, brought in a guy that won a national
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Speaker 1: championship at Montana. These are all guys, they've been there.
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Speaker 1: But you tell me, give me your thought on that
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Speaker 1: offensive line and Jordan Gross coaching those guys up and
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Speaker 1: the question that's kind of the big one that everybody
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Speaker 1: points at with Utah.
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Speaker 2: Well, I gotta tell you I think extremely everything I've
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Speaker 2: seen from coach, and of course he's from Mayer of playing.
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Speaker 2: He's a little bit older than me, but you know
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Speaker 2: he was. He was a high profile guy there and
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Speaker 2: you really respect the way that he played. Obviously goes
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Speaker 2: on to have a tremendous NFL career. Now he's back,
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Speaker 2: and everything that I've seen from as a coach is
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Speaker 2: media availability and all those things. He seems like a
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Speaker 2: guy that I would love coaching up my hogs up front.
6:18
Speaker 2: I think one thing that should give you a little bit,
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Speaker 2: whether or not you had returners or not. You've got
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Speaker 2: a new uh, you've got a new offensive coordinator in mcgiven.
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Speaker 2: So no matter who they are, they're kind of they're
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Speaker 2: going to kind of be learning a new system, coming
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Speaker 2: at it with the fresh set of eyes. So to me,
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Speaker 2: I don't know that I'd have as much concern because you're,
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Speaker 2: for everyone's free from expectations, you're free from ingrained some
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Speaker 2: of the Some sometimes when you have a long time
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Speaker 2: coordinator and a long time system that's been really successful,
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Speaker 2: you kind of anchor to that and maybe your personality
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Speaker 2: or sorry, your personnel set. You don't have the same
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Speaker 2: skill set from year to year. But sometimes it's like, well,
6:53
Speaker 2: this has always worked for us, and we've done that. Well,
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Speaker 2: these guys don't particularly run that scheme very well, you know,
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Speaker 2: these guys are These guys are more of a of
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Speaker 2: a man blocking power type, you know, offensive line, where
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Speaker 2: the previous offensive line were maybe good zone zone scheme
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Speaker 2: guys or whatever. When you get a new coordinator, it
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Speaker 2: wipes the slate clean. And so to have a new coordinator.
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Speaker 2: Also when you're bringing in a brand new set of talent, actually,
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Speaker 2: I think is a pretty good scenario to be in.
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Speaker 2: So Utah obviously, no lack for resources, no lack for reputation.
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Speaker 2: That offensive the production of the offensive line as far
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Speaker 2: as putting it into the NFL is one of the
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Speaker 2: tops in the conference. And so I gotta believe, well,
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Speaker 2: you know, I haven't seen these guys play on Saturday.
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Speaker 2: I got to believe the guys they got in the building,
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Speaker 2: the guys competing for those those jobs or no slouches.
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Speaker 2: And so it always hurts to see big, well known,
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Speaker 2: you know, long multi year starter talent exit into the NFL.
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Speaker 2: But as a fan, you gotta hold on hope and
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Speaker 2: trust that the program, especially one that has the track
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Speaker 2: record and sustained successive Utah, is going to be able
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Speaker 2: to reload well.
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Speaker 1: And to that point, I don't know what's going to happen,
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Speaker 1: but Utah, as you know, does have a pretty good
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Speaker 1: track record of developing offensive and defensive lineman.
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Speaker 2: Without a doubt, that has been their calling card in
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Speaker 2: their hallmark. In fact, the winningham area arrow I think
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Speaker 2: was more. Obviously we remember the Brian Johnson's and hunt
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Speaker 2: Lee's and Ostiata's and all of the many wonderful players.
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Speaker 2: Of course, I know that's a very short list. We
8:26
Speaker 2: could go on and on about that, about this cool guys,
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Speaker 2: but I really do think like with and he never
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Speaker 2: said this, but I think he did want like that
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Speaker 2: faceless star program that was just built on being so
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Speaker 2: physical and so consistent from you to ear. And the
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Speaker 2: only way you build a program that way is with
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Speaker 2: the dudes up front, the front five on the offensive line,
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Speaker 2: in the front set four or seven really the front
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Speaker 2: seven on the defensive because those guys they don't sell,
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Speaker 2: you know, lineman jerseys don't sell, but they sure do win.
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Speaker 2: And that was one of the hallmarks of Whitningham. And
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Speaker 2: I think that's something of course Scaley. I mean every
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Speaker 2: college football coach knows that. I don't think it's anything
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Speaker 2: Scaley's being abandoned anytime soon. All Right.
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Speaker 1: The big question to b yu are one of the
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Speaker 1: questions of BYU is you know, not the quarterback. He
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Speaker 1: was good as a freshman, although I'll ask you about
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Speaker 1: him in a minute. Offensive line, very good running back,
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Speaker 1: back loaded to but who are the weapons on the
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Speaker 1: outside because most of the guys that caught the balls
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Speaker 1: last year are gone now, so your thoughts on weaponry
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Speaker 1: at least of the pass game for Beer Blackmeyer.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Giant question Mark and if you look at you know,
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Speaker 2: obviously they only had two losses last year, both to
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Speaker 2: Texas Tech, and what do they do even with no
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Speaker 2: commandies like Chase Roberts and Parker Kingston that were highly
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Speaker 2: productive outside of that Texas Tech. Anybody who watched either
9:41
Speaker 2: of those two games is like, all right, we're gonna
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Speaker 2: mat him up. We're going to commit commit an extra
9:45
Speaker 2: guy to the box because we don't trust that these
9:47
Speaker 2: guys can create separations. So there you had established multi
9:50
Speaker 2: year starters, multi year players, multi your contributors that still
9:53
Speaker 2: couldn't be successful. And granted, I know Texas Tech put
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Speaker 2: a lot of guys into the league and they got
9:58
Speaker 2: a new look there, but it's not I mean, let's
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Speaker 2: not get so fixated on Texas Tech. Who might it
10:02
Speaker 2: be this year? Right in today's transfer portal era, it's
10:05
Speaker 2: if it's not Texas Tech, it's going to be another brand.
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Speaker 2: Heck it might even you know, it's probably gonna be Utah.
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Speaker 2: After a couple of years of dealing with some injuries
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Speaker 2: and some other things there. I can only imagine they're
10:15
Speaker 2: anxious to get back to their days of having shut
10:18
Speaker 2: down corners and just absolute stranglehold defenses. But no built
10:23
Speaker 2: to your point, they're not. My only hope is and
10:26
Speaker 2: with the way that their schedules laid out, my only
10:28
Speaker 2: hope is that they can use the first two to
10:30
Speaker 2: three weeks where they should be able to now. I
10:33
Speaker 2: think that defense is going to be good, so that
10:34
Speaker 2: defense is going to buy them a wider Martin margin
10:37
Speaker 2: of air error. I think their offensive line is going
10:39
Speaker 2: to be good again, and of course you returning LJ. Martin.
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Speaker 2: So between them and the fact that well, the tight
10:45
Speaker 2: ends and lines and that they're asking to produce are
10:48
Speaker 2: new to the program, but they're not without snaps across
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Speaker 2: college football. So my only hope for this offense is
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Speaker 2: that offensive line and run game combined with a play
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Speaker 2: action passing game that is kind of more geared to
11:00
Speaker 2: going to the tight ends at the beginning. We'll give
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Speaker 2: enough breezing room for them to give opportunity to this
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Speaker 2: young core of wide receivers, for someone to emerge with
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Speaker 2: someone or some two to emerge his threats on the outside.
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Speaker 2: But going into the season, it's going to be a
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Speaker 2: giant question. Mark, I mean, Bill, My biggest the single
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Speaker 2: biggest thing I want to see is BYU because it's
11:21
Speaker 2: the biggest unknown to me is on their first third
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Speaker 2: and eleven, what do they do right? And I think
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Speaker 2: will be telling because Roderick, you can tell me he's
11:28
Speaker 2: got a conference on that third and eleven. Do they
11:30
Speaker 2: go ahead and call draw? They if they call quarterback,
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Speaker 2: draw and take what they can get and hopefully he
11:35
Speaker 2: gets decreased, but if not, they're content to just punt
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Speaker 2: the football away. It's like, Okay, this staff and this
11:40
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator is signaling to us that this receiving corp
11:44
Speaker 2: ain't ready and it's going to be a long it's
11:46
Speaker 2: going to be a long road to hoe for BYU
11:48
Speaker 2: as far as producing on the outside. But if they
11:50
Speaker 2: come out and those first couple of third and lungs
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Speaker 2: they they're able to get, they give a couple guys
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Speaker 2: a chance. I'm like, Okay, this staff believes that they
11:58
Speaker 2: have a potential guy guys in it, and they're giving
12:01
Speaker 2: them an opportunity to emerge. So yeah, I wish I
12:05
Speaker 2: had an answer for you or for BYU on the outside.
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Speaker 2: But for me, that's the biggest question mark and the
12:11
Speaker 2: game really, the play calling in the first couple of
12:14
Speaker 2: games will be indicative to me of whether or not
12:16
Speaker 2: BYU's covered as bear or they feel like they've got
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Speaker 2: some potential.
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Speaker 1: Coach Riley Nelson with us here on the Shan O'Connell
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Speaker 1: show today, I want to ask you about the two
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Speaker 1: big quarterbacks. I mentioned Bachmeyer a minute ago. Obviously, Devin
12:28
Speaker 1: dan peer back. We found out a lot about Devin.
12:30
Speaker 1: We knew Devin was battling some injuries last year. We
12:33
Speaker 1: didn't quite known till after the year and some of
12:35
Speaker 1: the reporting the trip and the athletic have done that
12:37
Speaker 1: they were pretty serious. He was playing with some pretty
12:39
Speaker 1: serious injuries all year. They still managed to go eleven
12:42
Speaker 1: and two healthy. Devin dan Pier second year at Utah,
12:47
Speaker 1: third year, really is a starter in college football. New offense,
12:51
Speaker 1: but maybe more weapons than he's ever had. What do
12:54
Speaker 1: you want to see cut down on his intercept? He
12:55
Speaker 1: had a huge year last year. The two games he
12:57
Speaker 1: didn't perform great in he was really pretty big up
13:00
Speaker 1: against BYU and against Texas Tech. But that said, good
13:04
Speaker 1: year for Devin dam Pier. What would Riley Nelson like
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Speaker 1: to see as the next step for Devon dam Pier
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Speaker 1: this year?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I and I may be biased because you know,
13:14
Speaker 2: I was talking about the Mister Football fraternity with coach Scaley.
13:18
Speaker 2: Obviously I've got the BYU quarterback fraternity with Jason Beck.
13:22
Speaker 2: I truly do believe that Jason Beck is probably a
13:24
Speaker 2: top five, top seven play caller oc offensive mind in
13:29
Speaker 2: college football. And I'm not saying that to rub Derr.
13:32
Speaker 2: I think mcgiven is good too, But from what I've
13:34
Speaker 2: seen with Beck and his ability from his time at
13:36
Speaker 2: Virginia all the way to last year at Utah, like
13:39
Speaker 2: his ability to be innovative and creative and honestly his
13:42
Speaker 2: biggest thing is like he just highlights the strength of
13:44
Speaker 2: his personnel, so incredibly good. Anyway, what I was gonna
13:48
Speaker 2: say is, well, I think mcgiven's good. Jerry still out
13:54
Speaker 2: for me if he's as good as Beck. So what
13:55
Speaker 2: does that mean. It means a quarterback going into his
13:57
Speaker 2: third year as a starter has to shoulder more of
13:59
Speaker 2: that responsibility together with the coordinator. So maybe he's got
14:03
Speaker 2: a little less contribution coming from the coordinator. Well, he's
14:06
Speaker 2: going to make up for that contribution with his maturity
14:08
Speaker 2: and increased gameplay. The biggest thing, and this is going
14:11
Speaker 2: to lead into because I'm sure your next question will
14:13
Speaker 2: be about Barry Bachmeyer, but the biggest thing second year
14:16
Speaker 2: starters do is they try and do too much. And
14:19
Speaker 2: I saw that at times with Dan Pierre. I think
14:21
Speaker 2: it led and contributed to his injuries and to your point,
14:24
Speaker 2: in those two big games, in the two losses, which
14:26
Speaker 2: were the big games, he was ampered and there was
14:27
Speaker 2: physical but also you just saw him press. You just
14:30
Speaker 2: saw him do too much. And that happens That happened
14:32
Speaker 2: with I mean, mine weren't linear because I had a
14:35
Speaker 2: year starting pre mission and then post mission, so there
14:38
Speaker 2: was time between there. But I still felt that I
14:40
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, I'm not green. People aren't giving me
14:42
Speaker 2: the benefit of the doubt. I can't make these mistakes.
14:45
Speaker 2: But you also have to realize that you're not The
14:48
Speaker 2: difference between you as a second year starter that started
14:52
Speaker 2: you know, ten or twelve or whatever games and is
14:54
Speaker 2: starting games in their teams versus a guy who's in
14:57
Speaker 2: his third or fourth year it has twenty starts under
14:59
Speaker 2: his belt. That is a much wider margin than you're
15:02
Speaker 2: willing to admit. And so my biggest thing with Dan
15:05
Speaker 2: Pierre is okay, now that he's got twenty plus starts
15:08
Speaker 2: under his belt or however many, it is that they're
15:11
Speaker 2: trying to do too much and putting the football unnecessarily
15:14
Speaker 2: at risk and him putting himself unnecessarily at risk. I
15:17
Speaker 2: want to see that go away to me. I don't
15:19
Speaker 2: know that Dan Pierre, if we talk about signal to
15:22
Speaker 2: noise like a radio frequency, I don't know if he
15:24
Speaker 2: needs to turn down I think I don't know that
15:26
Speaker 2: if he needs to turn up his signal more right,
15:29
Speaker 2: like I don't think that the music needs to be louder.
15:31
Speaker 2: I think his biggest thing is can he keep that
15:33
Speaker 2: static and that noise as low as possible? And if
15:36
Speaker 2: he does, Utah fans are going to see a market
15:38
Speaker 2: improvement from him.
15:39
Speaker 1: Quick thought on Bachmeier and where you want to see
15:41
Speaker 1: him in your.
15:42
Speaker 2: Two Yeah, that's my biggest concern. Big physical dude has
15:45
Speaker 2: success on the grounds he's lost. Is he going to
15:48
Speaker 2: try and make up for their question marks on the
15:50
Speaker 2: outside and the lack of a security blanket through his
15:53
Speaker 2: own moxie and grit and determination And even though the
15:55
Speaker 2: dude's two forty five or two fifty. You know, you
15:58
Speaker 2: still guess what. Those d linemen are big, fast and
16:02
Speaker 2: hit hard too. I just I don't want him, I
16:04
Speaker 2: want I'm fine. In fact with Balkmar, I'll say this,
16:07
Speaker 2: I'm fine because I'm yet to find someone in their
16:10
Speaker 2: sophomore season and their second year as a starter not
16:13
Speaker 2: try and do too much. I'm fine if he tries
16:15
Speaker 2: to do too much, maybe by taking unnecessary risk in
16:17
Speaker 2: the past game, or maybe he's doing a little bit.
16:21
Speaker 2: Roderick doesn't give a ton of leash to his quarterbacks
16:25
Speaker 2: to do much pre snap. But I'd rather see him like, oh,
16:27
Speaker 2: you know, he's doing too much with his pre snap
16:29
Speaker 2: checks or audibles or you know back there he probably
16:34
Speaker 2: you know it took an unnecessary risk in the past game.
16:37
Speaker 2: I'm okay if he does too much in those areas.
16:39
Speaker 2: What I'm concerned about though, because he is a big,
16:41
Speaker 2: physical player and whose contributions on the ground were so
16:45
Speaker 2: vital to be why he's success that he tried to
16:47
Speaker 2: make up for you know him in his second year.
16:51
Speaker 2: Trying to do too much happens in the run game,
16:53
Speaker 2: because when you do that in the run game, it
16:54
Speaker 2: opens up, it exposes and I know they have some
16:56
Speaker 2: experience and some guys that they think are serviceable behind him,
17:00
Speaker 2: But I mean we're talking a dude that came in
17:02
Speaker 2: as a you know, in his first starting starting snaps
17:05
Speaker 2: and let a let a team to a P four
17:07
Speaker 2: Conference championship game appearance, and so he really is special.
17:11
Speaker 2: I don't think you can just say like, oh, next
17:13
Speaker 2: man up with a guy like that. So my biggest
17:15
Speaker 2: thing for him is having maturity and lisdom beyond his ears.
17:21
Speaker 2: Still take risks, but don't take them with yourself. Take
17:24
Speaker 2: them within the scheme and such of the offense, and
17:29
Speaker 2: keep yourself on the field to give your team the
17:30
Speaker 2: best chance for long term success of the course of
17:32
Speaker 2: the season.
17:33
Speaker 1: I think there's a good chance that Utah could be
17:36
Speaker 1: eight to no and b Yu could be seven and
17:37
Speaker 1: one when they meet on November seventh. Would that be
17:41
Speaker 1: the biggest game in your thought from a just from
17:44
Speaker 1: a pure football standpoint that you can remember if those
17:46
Speaker 1: two teams are eight no and seven to one respectively,
17:49
Speaker 1: or maybe eighth and eight no respectively.
17:53
Speaker 2: Absolutely that's the single biggest game. And I could look
17:56
Speaker 2: and that's not I know there are some battles in
17:58
Speaker 2: the Whack, and I know there's some battles in the
18:00
Speaker 2: out West, and of course the independence it was hard
18:02
Speaker 2: to bring more relevance. While those were some of the
18:03
Speaker 2: nastier games, at the end of the day, they didn't
18:05
Speaker 2: really mean much as far as you know. Utah's ultimate
18:09
Speaker 2: goal was chasing the PAC twelve championship, and by us
18:12
Speaker 2: was you know, trying to do their best to keep
18:15
Speaker 2: relevancy while being independent. So yes, I mean we're talking
18:18
Speaker 2: two and a few. We're talking both on a P
18:19
Speaker 2: four scale. We're talking about on a collision course, you know,
18:22
Speaker 2: the one potentially has the chance to knock the other
18:25
Speaker 2: out of off course of you know, an appearance in
18:29
Speaker 2: a conference championship game and in the college football playoffs.
18:32
Speaker 2: And Bill, I like, I don't know what the odds
18:35
Speaker 2: are on that. I don't know if I'm pod Market
18:36
Speaker 2: or any of these betting sites that you could like
18:38
Speaker 2: plug that in and see. But I do think that's
18:41
Speaker 2: more likely than not because I look at these schedules
18:43
Speaker 2: and I think they they line up pretty nicely obviously,
18:47
Speaker 2: barring you know, unforeseen injury or injury to keep player.
18:51
Speaker 2: But like I think, to your point to have. I'd
18:54
Speaker 2: be surprised if there are more than two losses between them.
18:58
Speaker 2: So I think at that point we're talking to you point,
19:00
Speaker 2: but potentially undefeated's maybe one loss either side. I think
19:03
Speaker 2: worst case scenario is they both have a loss, and
19:05
Speaker 2: even at that we got seven to one, seven and
19:07
Speaker 2: one top of the Big Twelve standings. A clash in
19:10
Speaker 2: the Holy War, yeah, I mean, unquestionably the single biggest
19:14
Speaker 2: game in the history of the rivalry.
19:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be the play in game for the
19:16
Speaker 1: Big Twelve championship, just because truly, texts schedule is pretty soft.
19:21
Speaker 1: But I mean, but who knows, But who knows, who
19:23
Speaker 1: knows what happens with you know, if if Hammond isn't healthy,
19:26
Speaker 1: they can have some issues at quarterback.
19:28
Speaker 2: I mean, we've seen that. I'm trying to remember I
19:30
Speaker 2: got a quarterback in my mind. Anyway, they tried to
19:33
Speaker 2: rush him back and he played. This would have been
19:36
Speaker 2: this was years ago. This was five or six years
19:37
Speaker 2: ago anyway, But like he played, and it was obviously
19:40
Speaker 2: his knee was not ready. He tried to do the
19:41
Speaker 2: nine month recovery kind of like they're doing Hammond. The
19:43
Speaker 2: thing is with scores be gone they've got, like Hammond's
19:46
Speaker 2: their only shot, so now the pressure to come back
19:49
Speaker 2: is even more. We know he's not ready because of
19:51
Speaker 2: how late he hurt his knee, and like they they're
19:54
Speaker 2: I think there's a I don't think Texas as much
19:55
Speaker 2: as a shoe in as the national media is making.
19:57
Speaker 2: I honestly, I think that's lazy journalism because as you
20:00
Speaker 2: look at some of these dynamics. First of all, yeah,
20:02
Speaker 2: I think they relow with talent. But I think that
20:04
Speaker 2: and I'm forgetting his last name, was it Martinez who
20:06
Speaker 2: was a good linebacker for them? Yeah, Jacob Martinez, Yeah,
20:09
Speaker 2: Jacob Martinez. Yeah. I think his leadership is going to
20:12
Speaker 2: leave a huge void there. They might have guys that
20:14
Speaker 2: are just as talented as him, but you saw the
20:16
Speaker 2: way that that dude rallied and controlled them, was a
20:18
Speaker 2: true quarterback of that defense. So I think they're gonna well,
20:21
Speaker 2: they might, I don't know that they'll have much of
20:23
Speaker 2: a dip talent wise. I think you're going to have
20:25
Speaker 2: a leadership boid on that defense, and then this offense
20:28
Speaker 2: sitting there waiting for him and to get back. It's
20:31
Speaker 2: almost a surety that they're going to force he's going
20:34
Speaker 2: to want to and they will probably allow him to
20:37
Speaker 2: come back before he's ready. And boy, is that a
20:39
Speaker 2: tremendous role of the die. So to bring that back
20:41
Speaker 2: to the Holy War, yeah, I mean they've never there
20:45
Speaker 2: were some implications again back in the Whack of Mountain
20:47
Speaker 2: West days. But we're talking about a berth in the
20:50
Speaker 2: conference championship game and or a berth in the National
20:54
Speaker 2: College Football playoffs, all hanging in the balance in a
20:57
Speaker 2: Holy War. It will be badly, Bill. I can't I
21:01
Speaker 2: can't wait.
21:01
Speaker 1: I think it'll be great. Hey, thanks for doing this.
21:03
Speaker 1: It's great to catch up with you. Catch those coach
21:05
Speaker 1: those boys up tomorrow morning. You bet.
21:07
Speaker 2: Always a pleasure, Bill, Thank you, Thank you.
21:09
Speaker 1: Riley Riley Nelson with us. Always love talking ball with
21:12
Speaker 1: him