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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 8-27-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sean O'Connell show. Glad to have you
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: with us. Big football day. Eric Weddle is going to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: join us at noon. We've got dishing with dev at
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: one o'clock today. And James figured out something new on
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the YouTube, so you could actually... It's like premiering. It's
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: like a big deal. We've made it into a premiered
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: instant of some sort. Yeah, it's called Instant Premiere.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, I had it backwards.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: So in past years, I was just scheduling the video
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: to go public half hour after, usually 1230. Today, 130. Today,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, we can make this an Instant Premiere.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: You can actually... I tweeted out the link, OC. People
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: can actually... Click on the link, have it up in
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: time for 1.30, and then you're not able to play
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: it until 1.30. Nice little countdown clock for you, too,
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: a couple minutes before. So it just looks bigger. So
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: it'll just feel bigger when you watch it, guys. Okay.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I like that. 877-353-0700. Call us today. Text us today.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about, and over under, we're going
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to do our predictions on a stat that I think
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: is– Perhaps, aside from points scored, it's going to be
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: one of the most important stats for Utah football this year.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And we're still getting into the minutia a little bit,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: but we're going to get into that one. It's already
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: up on Twitter. The over-under question is already up on Twitter,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: at RealOCSports.com. It was a weakness from last year's defense.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: It was a weakness from last year's team, and it's
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: not something we're accustomed to having to say that about.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Rushing defense. Will the Utes surrender over or under 125.5
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: rush yards per game? I'll tell you how I got
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to that number here in just a little bit, but
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: go to at RealOCsports on Twitter. Text us at 877-353-0700
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and tell me whether or not it's going to be
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: over or under 125-ish yards a game given up by
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: this Utah rushing defense. I'd love to hear from you
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: if you want to call in and talk about it
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: 877-353-0700.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: At the risk of being overly redundant, because I've started
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the show the last two days with this conversation about
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: boomerang players and rollback players and bounce back players and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: whatever else in football and how it's affecting the decision-making process.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: It's affecting the voting process. It's affecting the revenue process potentially.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: if people continue to explore that now rules violation in
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: different conferences. Well, the Big 12 was always going to
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: be more important to hear from for Utah fans, for
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: BYU fans, because, of course, that is the conference that
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: our local teams play in. The Big 12 conference unanimously
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: voted to ban former professional athletes from returning to compete,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and here's the caveat, in any conference-sponsored college sport. So
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: they made the clarification that is not just football.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: It is not just basketball.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: There's not a huge amount of pro opportunities in softball
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and in gymnastics, baseball.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: This does come into play, I guess, at some point.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: So the ban applies to all sports.
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And again, unanimous vote from everyone in the conference against
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: To ban professional athletes or former professional athletes in every sport.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: As far as I know on the football front, this
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: is not going to affect anyone in the Big 12.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I guess Texas Tech, who added Tommy Castellanos in the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: transfer portal yesterday as a second quarterback.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: This would apply to now the Texas tech red Raiders,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: but they're a week away from kicking off. Anyway, there
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to be a quarterback battle. That was a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: depth proposition. And look, it's a high quality depth proposition
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: for Texas tech that now they're potentially getting chastised and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: reprimanded and, and told no on, on two quarterbacks in
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the same off season, the source be one a lot
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: more high profile for obvious reasons, but this one coming
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in could be, I guess, considered a casualty of the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: new rule announced. Now, what defines a former professional athlete?
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: That is going to be a lot more important, and
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: that's what's going to play into, again, what affected Utah
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: basketball and potentially what affects BYU basketball, who is celebrating
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: right now because Jackson Kohler was given the green light
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to come back to college basketball and end up at BYU.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: He was exploring his NBA opportunities and in the transfer
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: portal at the same time. He was one of the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: many players who said, wait, I exhausted my eligibility under
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: an old rule set that's no longer real.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: I should have one more year of eligibility. We talked
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: about this a lot on the show yesterday.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: He spent four years at one of the premier basketball
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: programs in the country, and now BYU makes sense for him.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: But Will it actually happen?
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: To be ruled a former professional athlete, an athlete is
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: ineligible if they signed a professional contract, if they were
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: listed on a pro league roster, or if they declared
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: for a professional draft and did not withdraw their name
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: in a timely manner before the deadline, which, again, in
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the NBA, there has been an allowance to go explore,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: talk to agents, figure things out, get some feedback from scouts,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: maybe do a combine, and then if it's not going
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: to work out for you, you withdraw your name from
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the draft, you go through a formal process to do that,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and when you withdraw your name from the draft, you
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: are eligible again to play in college basketball.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: That's been going on for five years.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: This is a new thing, and specific to Jackson Kohler
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: at BYU, It is particularly intriguing because apparently there is
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: some dispute as to whether or not he actually ever
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: signed his 10-day contract with the Utah Jazz.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, so that.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Exhibit 10 Summer League, he may not have actually put
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: pen to paper?
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Which doesn't seem likely.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: That could just be, and I'll be fair to all
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: of you out there listening, that could just mean being
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: regurgitating cougar board nonsense. But there is something out there,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: some dispute. I think it came from a relative, a dad, whatever,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of Jackson Kohler.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Like, hold on a second. We never signed that contract.
• 7:35
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: I don't know how you play in summer league without
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: signing the contract.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, pro.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: Front offices, they've got teams of people in charge of
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: that stuff.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Like, they.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: They're usually pretty on top of that stuff. By the way,
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: maybe Exhibit 10 contracts are not, maybe they don't pay
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: as much attention to those.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I'd be surprised if they didn't.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: But you remember there's been, every year there's been at
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: least one player, Jazz have had this going back, the
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: first one I can remember is Trey Lyles going back
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: 10 years now, where he didn't play the first few
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Summer League games because he hadn't officially signed his rookie
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: contract yet. Now that's not an exhibit 10 contract. That's
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: a standard NBA rookie contract, a bigger deal. So I
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: guess there's a chance that teams just don't pay that
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: close attention to, to exhibit 10. They're like, whatever you sign,
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: when you sign, you're not really gonna make the team anyway.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: So, so go ahead and play with it.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: So according to the, according to the Deseret news, he
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: never signed. He never officially put pen to paper on
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: his exhibit 10 contract.
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: So that would represent an incredible amount of foresight for
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Jackson Kohler to say, let's not sign this.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Let's play anyway.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And maybe that foresight wasn't related to potentially bouncing back
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: into college basketball.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Maybe it was him.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Not trying to lock himself down with a particular franchise
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: or whatever. We'd have to talk to Jackson and his
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: representation to know exactly why he would be hesitant to
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: signing a contract instead of just agreeing to terms on
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: a contract, which is what is reported. He agreed to terms,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: was allowed to play, but never actually signed the paperwork.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Again, that feels crazy to me.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: It feels like it wouldn't be allowed, but maybe there's not,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: maybe the rules around exhibit 10 contracts are not, very strict.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: And if it's, if there is going to be any
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: playing it fast and loose at all, when it comes
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: to the NBA, it's going to be summer league stuff.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: It's going to be those contracts.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: It's going to be the G league and the summer league.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: And like, there's a little bit more gray area here.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: If it's an NBA contract, you're not going to be
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: allowed to, I actually, I don't know how even in
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the summer league, you'd be allowed to play because there's
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: gotta be some crazy liability situation. What happens if he
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: got injured? And he's just out there as like a
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: voluntary participant. Does that mean that he has to foot
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: his own medical bill that the team doesn't have to
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: pay for his care? I mean, there's gotta be a
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: lot of different things that go into this, but I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: am not a legal expert on that. So let me,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: let me stay focused on the stuff that I, I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: think I actually know a thing or two about. And
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: that is of course fresh because we didn't know about
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: this big 12 ruling until literally hours ago.
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: So does Jackson Kohler BYU basketball player, at least for
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: now fit the definition, according to the big 12 of
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: a professional athlete or a former professional athlete.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: If he signed the contracts, I think he, Probably does
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: because it's the third point there. He signed a contract
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: with any professional sports league to provide athletic services.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Let's say he didn't sign the contract. Probably not.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: So now he doesn't check that box, which is impossible
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: to argue.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: If you sign the contract, if your signature exists on
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a contract somewhere, then.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Under the Big 12's new rules, you are out.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: But maybe this loophole remains open because he didn't sign
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the contract. Okay, what other boxes would he have to check?
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Because it's not an and. You have to sign a
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: professional contract and appear in a contest.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: And it's or. It's one of these things. Yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Disqualifies you. So number two. been listed on the roster
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: roster of a professional sports league.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: So does a, does a summer league roster count is
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: now going to be the point in the Jackson Kohler
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: eligibility case. It is going to be the number one
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: point of dispute about how meaningful your appearance on a
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: summer league roster is. And the legal team is going
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: to go back and they're going to look at everybody
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: in 2025 who was on a G League roster at
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: some point, who then got to go back to college basketball,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and they're going to say, well, hold on a minute.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: This kid was on a summer league roster at one point,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and then he was on a G League roster at
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: some point, and he was still allowed to play, right?
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: They're going to argue all these things. This new rule
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: set only matters if it's enforceable. And without a doubt...
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Jackson Kohler appeared on a printout or an internet post
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: or a whatever because we saw him in that jazz jersey.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: He was listed on a roster somewhere. How formal was it?
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: How official was it?
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: How powerful of.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: A legal standing does that listing of your name on
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: a roster have?
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: I really have no idea. Well, and so here's another thing.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: It's easily verified by people like us, OC, because the
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: jazz PR sends out the summer league roster. So I'm
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: pulling that up to see if he was, he had
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: to have been listed on it because like all those
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: things you said, but I'm just going to pull up
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: and verify whether he was on the jazz summer league roster.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: And I'll let you know when I have that pulled up.
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: So here's another thing. Here's another box that you either
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: check or you don't check. So I think he, Probably
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: gets disqualified because he appeared on a summer league roster.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: That is professional sport.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Even if he didn't sign the contract, which again, I
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: don't know how he got away with not signing the contract,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: but here we are. The other part of it is
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: if you declare for a professional draft and you do
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: not withdraw your name in time, he did not declare
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: for the draft. Because when you're a four-year graduate, when
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: you're a senior.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: No, you don't have to. You don't have to declare
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: for the draft. You're just draft eligible. That's a good point.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: And that's the same for Noam Yakov, by the way.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: He didn't have to declare for the draft because he
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: was over the age of.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: He was over the eligibility age and he'd spent four
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: years out of high school.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: So if you don't have to.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: declare yourself eligible because you have remaining college eligibility. Sorry,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: if you don't have to declare yourself eligible for the
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: draft because you have remaining college eligibility, there was no
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: formal declaration or withdrawal process because when he went to
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the draft, he'd had no option of going back to
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: college basketball.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: It wasn't a thing. That rule change came after.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: And then that fifth year being added on for all
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of his younger peers had Jackson Kohler and many other players,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: to be fair to BYU and to be fair to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Jackson Kohler, had many other people.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Wait a second.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to stick in the NBA. Can I
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: go back and play for a couple hundred grand, a million,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: whatever I can get? And, of course, they're trying to
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: do that. We've been talking about this for a week now.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: So the ultimate determining factor here on whether or not
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: we see an already talented BYU basketball team have another
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: guy who's a perfect fit for them, a perfect fit
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: for the system, makes perfect sense for everything they're trying
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: to do down there. Does he actually get to play
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: for them? It'll be his appearance on a roster. Unless
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: someone can find me a copy of a contract that
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: has his signature on it.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: And all due respect, I'm not sure how much we
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: can just trust the Deseret News' word.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: On this.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: They are owned by the place that owns the school.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Hold on a second.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Are you saying that the Deseret News is not giving
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: you unbiased reporting on something where... saying BYU might be
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: in the crosshairs of a, of an investigation that could
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: go the other way, could go against their favor.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Are you saying that the Deseret news is not the
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: right outlet?
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: I'm saying that it's fair to question that when it
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: comes to BYU news, all due respect to our friends
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: at Deseret news. I would never say that about their
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: jazz coverage. Shout out to Sarah Todd from the Deseret news,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: but I mean, there's a, The church owns both of them, O.C.,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: so it doesn't really behoove them to put out that
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: much negative stuff about the church. They're not independent, I
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: guess is the way I'll say that.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: And you know what?
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Come at me if you want, Cougars fans, Deseret News people.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: You know that's true.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, so.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: More reporting will be done. More investigation will be done. BYU,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: I think, is going to bear a burden of proof
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: that he did not sign a contract and he did
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: not appear on a Jazz Summer League roster or any
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: other Summer League roster. Or, failing that and him appearing
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: on a roster, someone is going to have to prove
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to the Big 12 Conference that appearing on a Summer
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: League roster is not the same as appearing on a
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: regular season roster or anything like that.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: So I've got possibly a little bit of a conspiracy
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: going on OC, or maybe my, maybe my email's just
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: not loading well, but I found the roster email, but
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: the image that actually shows the roster refuses to load.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Oh no.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Is someone calling right now to is Jackson Kohler calling
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: in right now to tell us possible. Let me check
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: whether or not he actually signed the contract. If I
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: just look up the Utah Jazz Summer League roster, here
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: I am at Basketball Real GM, and Jackson Kohler is
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: on that. But that's not the official Utah Jazz Summer
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: League roster, as far as I can tell. So does
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: his appearance on a website called Real GM, does that count?
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's see here.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: This is from.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Utah Jazz Vegas Summer League roster now official and Jackson
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Kohler's name does appear above Cody Williams and Darren Peterson
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and Besm Bang and a bunch of these guys. So
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: that is going to be the question for BYU.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Did you.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: You being Jackson Kohler, did you sign your Exhibit 10 contract?
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: There is some dispute as to whether or not that happened. Again,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you get away with not signing
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a contract and still being on the Summer League roster,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: but here we are. Also, what level of appearance on
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: a roster is enough for the Big 12 Conference to say, yeah,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: you can't play basketball? And another thing that I think
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: is worth questioning here, the ruling as of August 27th,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: when nobody's really thinking much about basketball probably will change
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: or be altered or twist a little bit before we
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: get to a point where his presence on the BYU
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: roster actually matters.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: That would be my guess. That's all I'll say about
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: that for now.
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: I'll see. I have to tell this story.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: Okay, so he didn't have anything he wanted to bring
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: to the air, but that was Bill from Little Rock, Arkansas,
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Razorbacks fan, asking about the tailgate. I told him, listen,
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to say it compares to anything they
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: do in Fayetteville or anywhere in SEC country, but we're
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: pretty proud of our Utes tailgate here.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I think you'll have a good time. All right. So
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: we got.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: we got, we have become a reference point for visiting fans.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: We got bill from Arkansas is going to come in.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Did he have a good Southern accent? He had a
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: fantastic Southern accent.
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: Oh, my gosh.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Why didn't you put him on air? Well, I tried.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: I said, do you want to talk some smack about
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: your hogs? You got questions you.
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: Want for our host.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Here, Sean O'Connell? And he's like, no, I don't want
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: to come on. I got no smack for the hogs
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: this year.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I love that. Well, Bill, thanks for calling in. I'm
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: glad you did that. 877-353-0700.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: If there's anyone else in Arkansas who wants to talk,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: and I don't know if Bill's ever been to Salt
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Lake City before or to our beautiful home state before,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: but I've been to Arkansas, and there's some natural beauty there.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: The natural beauty in Arkansas is less related to the
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: impressive nature mountains that we've got, like we've got, I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: should say.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: The Ozarks there, right? Obviously a lot smaller, a different,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: a different breed of mountain.
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And I think that is going to be like when
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: people from North Carolina or from people from Tennessee or
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: people from Arkansas or people from really anywhere east of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the Rockies, but from a mountain region, from a mountain region,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: when they see these mountains, it's kind of like, Oh,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like how we, you know.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: What I didn't know about your mountains.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: We all enjoy a beach down at Sand Hollow. We
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: all enjoy a beach at Pine View Reservoir.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Bear Lake.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Lake Powell when there's water. Yeah.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: We all enjoy Paradise Beach Resort.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Lake Mead when there's water. And then you go to
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: like the real beach. You're on the North Shore. And
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh, not all beaches are created equal. That's
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: what the Arkansas folks are going to experience with the mountains.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Great Salt Lake when there's water. Sorry, do you want
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: me to keep doing this bit?
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: No, stop doing the when there's water thing. We're going
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to get, by the way, we're going to get a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: wet winter. I'm calling it right now. Well, El Nino,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Super El Nino all around the world, OC. We're in
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a spot where, you know, equal chances we could have
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: dry weather winter equal chances.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: We could have a wet winter from what I've seen.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: So let's, let's have the wet winter. How about that?
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Derek texted in this.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I love when our listeners get conspiratorial on the sports front.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: One could assume that if Kohler didn't sign the 10
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: day only to end up at BYU, It could sound
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: like tampering from the owner and donor.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: That's Derek the mailman, by the way. That's the other Derek.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: Derek H. is our daily texter. We also love to
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: hear from Derek the mailman. Shout out to you.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I genuinely love when people put on the tinfoil hat
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: and they're just like, well, I cannot imagine.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: A situation where... Kevin Young.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Or any of the angels or, uh, Ryan Smith had
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: that level of, Hey, wait, I like this guy so
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: much that I'm going to let him skirt the rules
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and play on my professional summer league team without signing
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: a contract.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: .
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: .
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: .
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: I guess Summer League may have still been going. Was
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: it mid-July that we knew? But after games had already started,
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Maybe if we knew mid-July, at least
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: the Protect College Sports Act or Save College Sports Act,
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: whatever it's called, had the 5-for-5 provision in there, then
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: there could be a chance with that kind of conspiracy.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Okay, hold on.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: The five-year age-based eligibility model was implemented June 23rd, 2026.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: That was pre summer league folks. If you're keeping track
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: at home.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Derek, the mailman, you've really sniffed this out for us.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: This is, this is, this is quite the conspiracy.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: By the way, I'm not, I'm not saying that I
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: think it's true, but it's quite the theory.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: If Ryan Smith has this level of bandwidth, Where he
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: is at the top of a multi-billion dollar sports empire
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: and is also like, wait a minute, could we get
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: another year out of a B-plus power forward for BYU?
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: One of the best big men in.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Maybe the best basketball conference in the nation last year.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: I say maybe. Obviously, the SEC and Big 12 country
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: was really good, too. So, look, I love it.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: But.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: The eligibility model as it exists right now in college football,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the Big 12 is saying, and there's another caveat that
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: separates the Big 12 from.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: A lot of these other, it's every single sport.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: You cannot come back and play in any sport because
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: they know, the Big 12 knows that while bounce back
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: guys from the NFL are probably going Big 10 and SEC,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the best basketball conference in the land is the Big 12.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: So bounce back NBA guys want to play big 12 basketball.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And they're going to have to have something in place
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to manage the basketball rollbacks more than the football rollbacks.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: But like the big 10, like the sec, the big
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: 12 put out official language yesterday saying, no, you can't
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: come out of the pros. If you were on a roster,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: if you signed a contract, if you declared for a
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: draft and did not withdraw in a timely manner, you
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: cannot play in the big 12. And the caveat that
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I love is, I don't know how enforceable it's going
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: to be. They said, regardless of what the NCAA says
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: about your eligibility, we say you can't play here. The
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: big 12 is saying our ruling on this supersedes the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: NCAA ruling on this. The power for conferences is, have
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: not separated their rule set from the NCAA's rule set
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: in print on purpose. This is Brett Yormark doing a
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: thing that even his Big Ten and SEC predecessors, or
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't call them predecessors, counterparts, are not always willing
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: to do. So that's an interesting little tidbit to add
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: to the Big 12's language. even if the NCAA says
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Jackson Kohler is eligible because they have, because he's got
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: five years now instead of four, the big 12 is
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: allowing themselves the room. And again, enforceability is a major question,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: allowing themselves the room to say, well, hold on a minute.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Our rules, my rules in this house, your appearance on
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that jazz summer league roster means you cannot play at BYU.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Even if the NCAA says you have another year, You're
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: going to have to go explore that other year somewhere else.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Have fun in the Sun Belt.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: I can finally confirm that Jackson Kohler was on the
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: official Summer League. Okay, so again. But does that, like
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: you said, then the question becomes, is it in? NBA
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: regular season roster that counts or a pro regular season
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: roster that counts for this or just any pro roster.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: It doesn't say that in the big 12 language. It
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: doesn't say that in the sec or the big 10 either,
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: because we're not talking about regular season rosters. We're talking
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: about preseason players and jazz summer league or NBA summer
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: league is kind of the equivalent to the NFL preseason.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: Some will say it's not as significant. Some will say
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: it's equal. Some will say it's, I don't think anyone's
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: going to say it's more significant.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I will say this.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: If they make an exception for summer league rosters, I
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: won't be mad. I don't, I don't, I think that's
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: a reasonable exception to be made if they, if that's
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: what the ruling ends up being. But I also think
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: that If you're just going to go by what you
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: wrote out for everybody by the letter of that, that's
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: probably the best thing to do. And what that is,
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: is any pro roster. The reason I don't want Summer
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: League exception or.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: you know, physically unable to perform in the preseason exception
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: or anything like that is because that is a wildly
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: slippery slope. And we, by the way, in college sports,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: we are already tobogganing at breakneck speed down the slippery
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: slope that we warned about five, six, seven years ago.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: We said, when you start paying these players and allowing
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: open transfer, it's going to be kind of a slippery slope.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: We tipped ourselves over the edge of the slippery slope
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: years ago. If you start doing that with, Hey, well,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: summer league rosters don't count. Then there's going to be
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: a football player who raises his hand and said, well,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: if NBA summer league rosters don't count, then neither do
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: NFL pre-season rosters.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: They're the same thing.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Training camp rosters, OTA, whatever they're going to say, don't count.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: These are equivalent experiences in our respective professions. Pre-season is
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: not though, but the will make that argument. It kind
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: of is because OTAs like NBA summer league, right? Is
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: where you're in a professional uniform competing against people in
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: other professional uniforms.
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: That's what NFL preseason is. OTAs don't have that. That's true.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Training camp does, but it's practices. It's joint practices.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: The NBA summer league is your goal between it is
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: your middle ground between a regular season roster where you're
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: competing against somebody else in an opposing team's uniform. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: college ball. It's the place where you do that. In
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the NFL, that is the NFL preseason. You're on a
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: roster with the New England Patriots for two games, playing
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: against the Cleveland Browns one week and playing against the
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans the other week. And if you don't make it,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: they send you off, and now you can go try
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: it in the UFL, or someone else will claim you
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: off waivers, and then you're going to be wearing a
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Seahawks uniform, playing against someone in a Broncos uniform. And
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: if that works, great. If it doesn't, all right, now
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I'm exploring things again. The NBA Summer League is that.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Well, see, this is why I would argue that NFL
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: preseason is vastly different from NBA Summer League, because NBA
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: also has a preseason that's exactly like The NFL preseason.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: And we all know that the NBA preseason roster, while
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: guys get cut from that and don't end up making
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: the regular season roster all the time every year, just
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: like in the NFL, we all know that that is
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: real NBA basketball stuff. like that compared to summer league,
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: summer league is, is practice NBA basketball with G leaguers
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: and guys who couldn't even make the G league.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Like the NFL preseason.
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: True.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: But, but so what you just said is that the
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: NFL preseason is NBA preseason. And the, no, and then
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the NBA preseason is real basketball where you're, if you're
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: on the preseason roster, you're probably going to make the roster.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: You're, you're a lot more likely, but it's also true.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: It's also way higher level than summer league. You can't
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: NFL preseasons way, way higher level than NBA summer league
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: is when, if you're going to cross compare two leagues,
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: they don't have a, a summer league. That's why I
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: say like training camp roster, I think is probably the
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: equivalent to summer league, not preseason. Before we make that assertion,
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: let's watch the final preseason games in the NFL.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: It's college ball at best because it's Nope. To be fair.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: I don't watch NFL preseason. So I probably don't know what.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: None of the guys that are actually going to make
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the roster are playing in the final preseason game for
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: the most part. It's like the last ditch efforts. So
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the last game, not one starter is out there.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: So the last game of NFL preseason, that roster is
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: summer league did is what you're saying.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Who played for the Utah jazz in summer league?
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Did their number one draft pick play in the summer
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: league game?
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: In summer league games?
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 32:48
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Darren Peterson played in plenty.
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: Did Cody Williams play in the summer league?
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: He was on the roster, right? I mean, these are
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: real NBA players.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: He's arguably more of a G league player than an
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: NBA player, but I digress.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, if there are
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: equivalents between the NBA and the NFL, if you're going
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: to be the lawyer who has to argue that the
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: summer league is not real basketball.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to argue against that. And if you're the
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: NFL guy who says, well, hold on a minute. I
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: played in an NFL preseason game. That's not the equivalent
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: of summer league basketball. I'm also going to argue against that.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say, yes, it is because. Like, the
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: veterans don't play in the preseason. The guys at the
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Hall of Famers, the future Hall of Famers, they're taking, like,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: four snaps, maybe. But isn't there plenty of guys who
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: are in the rotation, if not starters, who play multiple
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: preseason games?
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: There are.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: There's, like, maybe two on any NBA Summer League roster.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: And they play maybe a quarter of the games. The
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: biggest difference with the NBA Summer League is the age thing.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Like, in the.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: in the NBA summer league, it's all young guys. There's
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: no veterans there.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: It's first, second year players, sometimes third year.
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: So that would be the major difference.
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: But to bring it back to the original conversation here,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: what it is is it's a question about whether or
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: not that is pro basketball. And I don't know how
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: you make an argument that it's not pro basketball.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: It is technically pro basketball, which is why I'm like
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: the best thing to do is for them is for
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: the big 12 and all these other conferences to To
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: go by the letter of the law that they're laying
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: out right now and not get in the weeds like
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: we've started to do on this show. What's real basketball?
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: What's real not?
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the weeds are where the lawyers live.
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: It's true.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Where the injunctions live and where the temporary restraining orders live.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: And so you have to anticipate those arguments. And they're
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: going to be there. By the way, BYU is not
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: going to take this lying down.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: If Jackson Kohler is deemed ineligible, which by these rules
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: he is, I doubt that BYU just says, okay.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: You know what they're going to do, OC?
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: If that's the case, they're going to print out the
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Big 12's tweet of this, and they're going to flush
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: it down their Kohler toilets.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: I see what you did there. I'm mad that that's
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: what you did, but I see what you did.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: All right, we have some sound from practice for you.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: We're going to give you Way Sean Parker. If there's time,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: we might hear from Semi Talanga as well. We're just
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: getting rolling here on the Sean O'Connell Show. It's ESPN
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: 700 and 92.1 FM. Don't stop believing.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: Hold on to.
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: That feeling.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: Streetlight.
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: You're tuned to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Utah football coverage through camp and all in this preseason.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by Cenexel, JBR, Beer Bar, Citra Cooperman,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Big O Tires, Sound Warehouse, Your Utah, Toyota Dealers, and more.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Right here on your home of the Utes.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: We've got an archive on the ESPN 700 app now
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: of Camp Sound.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: And we got more. James was up there, what was that, Tuesday, Monday?
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Tuesday afternoon, they moved them to afternoons. OC, we're in
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: game prep, so that means you and I can actually
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: show our faces.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: Around there, which is great.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: School is happening, so players have class during the days,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: which means we'll get a little bit more of this.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Way Sean Parker addressed the media.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Running back number one.
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: You were voted a captain.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Just what does it mean to be wearing the seat
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: this fall.
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: For the team?
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: All I got to say is.
• 36:49
  Speaker 6: Thank you to God.
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: He put me here for a reason and.
• 36:52
  Speaker 9: All I can do is just show what he put
• 36:54
  Speaker 9: me on the earth for. To show people that I'm
• 36:56
  Speaker 9: right behind him and I can do it when.
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: He's on the field.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: And I don't have to worry about him.
• 37:01
  Speaker 8: Where have you seen that growth in yourself to own
• 37:04
  Speaker 8: this leadership role like you already are?
• 37:06
  Speaker 9: I mean, growing up, I've been mature of my age.
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: Like, I'm only 20.
• 37:10
  Speaker 9: I've been playing with older people. My dad really taught.
• 37:15
  Speaker 10: Me how to play.
• 37:19
  Speaker 9: But coming here and just really getting to show what
• 37:23
  Speaker 9: I learned and how I can teach other people.
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: Let me get two claps for the team. Come here.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: Two claps for the team.
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: Yes!
• 37:34
  Speaker 8: Oh, my goodness. Just how excited are you to take
• 37:37
  Speaker 8: the field with this group of guys that are all
• 37:40
  Speaker 8: supporting you and.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: Hollering for you?
• 37:42
  Speaker 7: I mean, it feels great.
• 37:43
  Speaker 9: I mean, knowing that people got trust in me and
• 37:45
  Speaker 9: I got trust in them, we really just go out.
• 37:47
  Speaker 7: And have fun together.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Matsuyaki is a name that Kuchichi I talked about making
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: big strides this fall. Just what have you seen from
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: him as he makes him from linebacker to running back?
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: A lot.
• 37:57
  Speaker 7: Since last year, him coming to our.
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: Room, that's definitely a difference.
• 38:01
  Speaker 7: Now they got to worry about a lot of people,
• 38:03
  Speaker 7: not just me. He adds a lot to the table.
• 38:05
  Speaker 7: So when he gets in that field, people don't have.
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: To worry about him too. So I've seen him progress
• 38:10
  Speaker 6: a lot.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: How have you seen the offensive line develop since you're
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: going to be working behind him.
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: A lot this year?
• 38:17
  Speaker 7: Seeing them come together is a good thing.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: Since the spring, the communication.
• 38:21
  Speaker 11: That they have with each other and the chip that
• 38:23
  Speaker 11: they got on their.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: Shoulder to prove to people that they can do what
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: they do.
• 38:28
  Speaker 8: Did you feel a different energy now that school started
• 38:32
  Speaker 8: and fall camp's over and it's afternoon practices?
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: Did you guys feel more hyper?
• 38:36
  Speaker 7: Out there, how has the energy changed?
• 38:39
  Speaker 9: I mean, the energy hasn't really changed. I mean, it's
• 38:41
  Speaker 9: just that the week's getting closer, so everybody's getting more hype.
• 38:44
  Speaker 7: We try to play against each other.
• 38:45
  Speaker 9: We want to go show other teams what we can
• 38:47
  Speaker 9: do and show other people what we can do.
• 38:48
  Speaker 7: So when it comes down to that.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: It just, we're there. How exciting for you to be
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: back in the resume?
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: Oh, my God.
• 38:55
  Speaker 12: It's just been on my board.
• 38:57
  Speaker 7: I've been thinking about it every day.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Every day.
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: What do you think, Sean?
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: You guys got that rhino position sometimes with Sammy. What's
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: it like having him lead the way for you?
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: I mean, send me an instant on that.
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: It's true.
• 39:06
  Speaker 7: When we go out there, we're going to have a ball.
• 39:07
  Speaker 7: I mean, they always tell.
• 39:09
  Speaker 6: Me, just follow me.
• 39:10
  Speaker 7: I got you. And I just do what they tell me.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: Is it crazy to see the speed those guys have
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: at that size?
• 39:16
  Speaker 7: Yes, it is.
• 39:17
  Speaker 6: It is.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: It's surprising.
• 39:18
  Speaker 9: So when they get on the full burst and nobody
• 39:21
  Speaker 9: can catch them, it's going to be.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I've seen that in practice.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: Are people sleeping on Sione, I think, cause I think
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: everyone knows semi, but yeah.
• 39:29
  Speaker 9: People are sleeping on Sione a ton. I mean, once
• 39:31
  Speaker 9: he get his shine and when he, when his number
• 39:33
  Speaker 9: get caught, he going to show up. I trust him.
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: Way.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Sean Parker is one of the players. I think I'm
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: most excited to see play this year. Not because not
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: only because he was excellent last year and he had
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: five and a half yards of carry and, When you
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: hear his teammates talk about the amount of work that
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: he put in, when you hear his coaches talk about
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: the amount of work that he put in, it's cliche,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: but it pays off, right?
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: If you were ever in any.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Kind of athletic scenario and you had a teammate who
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: went above and beyond the already demanding schedule that you're
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: being asked to, you know, the running schedule, the lifting schedule,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the training table, if you have any bumps or bruises,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: It's a lot, and it's mentally exhausting sometimes. It's certainly
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: physically exhausting, and there are a lot of guys who
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: that's the end of it, and that's totally fine. You
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: do what is required because what is required is already insane.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: There's always three or four guys, though, that stay after practice,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: that do a little bit of extra lifting, that do
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: a little bit of extra stretching, and everyone we have
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: talked to about Weishan has said that that is him
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: this year.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: That is encouraging for me.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: At the end of that conversation, he was asked about
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: everyone's favorite topic of discussion, the rhinos.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: And one of those guys, Semital Longa, also spoke with
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: the media.
• 41:06
  Speaker 8: All right, the last time I at least talked to you,
• 41:09
  Speaker 8: you were trying to just take on, you kind of
• 41:11
  Speaker 8: made that big appearance on the football field and everybody
• 41:13
  Speaker 8: noticed you. And now you're in this system for another year.
• 41:16
  Speaker 8: Just how are you feeling when it comes to owning your.
• 41:19
  Speaker 7: Role with this football team?
• 41:20
  Speaker 12: I think that's... something coach galley kind of embeds within
• 41:24
  Speaker 12: our culture is only 20 square feet um as far
• 41:28
  Speaker 12: as i feel i mean he's nothing new just kind
• 41:31
  Speaker 12: of attacking the problem every day going out there to
• 41:33
  Speaker 12: the field with my guys and just 110 every day
• 41:35
  Speaker 12: just working trying to approach the goal you know just big.
• 41:39
  Speaker 13: 12 championship and just national championships.
• 41:42
  Speaker 8: Coach talked about uh your willingness to switch positions and
• 41:45
  Speaker 8: just be a team first guy and he even admitted
• 41:47
  Speaker 8: that's something that he wouldn't do when he was back
• 41:49
  Speaker 8: in his playing days. What does that say about your
• 41:52
  Speaker 8: willingness to do anything.
• 41:53
  Speaker 6: For the team?
• 41:53
  Speaker 12: I think that's a big compliment coming from Coach Scali.
• 41:56
  Speaker 13: It's funny because I'm scared of Coach Scali, but.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: It's a big compliment coming from him. You were announced
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: the leader of the Millie this year.
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: What does it mean to be able.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: To lead the team in that? um it's a big
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: uh honor most definitely.
• 42:10
  Speaker 13: I didn't think i was gonna have ability or not
• 42:12
  Speaker 13: ability to be the one to lead the movie but
• 42:15
  Speaker 13: i'm taking part in it and taking part in my
• 42:17
  Speaker 13: culture and uh just.
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: Leaving the team so i mean not too long ago
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: you kind of went viral barcelona sports picked it out
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: what was it like to be like oh my gosh
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: they're talking about.
• 42:26
  Speaker 13: Me that it was shocking was definitely um I wasn't
• 42:30
  Speaker 13: trying to.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Get too over my head.
• 42:31
  Speaker 7: I mean, it was just practice.
• 42:32
  Speaker 13: Just trying to get a look at what our defense,
• 42:34
  Speaker 13: but definitely seeing Barstow posting kind of made me feel like, okay,
• 42:38
  Speaker 13: this is definitely bigger than what it is, but yeah.
• 42:41
  Speaker 6: Coach Scali just said that people are sleeping on Sione.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: What does he bring to this final room, and do
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: you think people are sleeping on him?
• 42:46
  Speaker 13: I'm actually so glad you brought that up. A lot
• 42:48
  Speaker 13: of people don't know about Sione. I'm excited to see
• 42:51
  Speaker 13: what he's going to showcase this year.
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: I won't say too much, but soon it's going to be.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: One of those guys. Send me one of the more
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: unique capabilities, I think. A guy your size can move
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: your speed. What's it like going up against guys and
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: potentially like small DBs where you're like, hey, I'm going
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: to overpower you here?
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: I kind of hope we kind of get those looks.
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: You know, just me and the DB.
• 43:14
  Speaker 12: I'm just excited to see what's going to happen.
• 43:18
  Speaker 8: Can you take me through what it's like playing alongside
• 43:20
  Speaker 8: Wayshawn Parker and how you two make each other better
• 43:23
  Speaker 8: when you guys are challenging each other?
• 43:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah, me and Wayshawn, I play, so I'm the right
• 43:27
  Speaker 7: of position, of course. Wayshawn has that trust.
• 43:30
  Speaker 11: In me and Fiona, just laid blocking for him. And
• 43:33
  Speaker 11: just off the field, you know, he's been inviting me,
• 43:35
  Speaker 11: taking care of me. He's kind of like the older
• 43:37
  Speaker 11: brother to me. So, yeah, I just love being with Sean. Yeah,
• 43:41
  Speaker 11: excited to see both of us kind of just putting
• 43:42
  Speaker 11: work out there together this year.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: How has Luke Wells helped you kind of raise your game?
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: Luke Wells is a great coach.
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: I love Luke Wells.
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: Kind of iffy at the beginning because, you know, new.
• 43:50
  Speaker 7: Coaching staff and everything.
• 43:51
  Speaker 13: But over the time, he kind of just grew on me.
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: And I 100% and 200% trust him.
• 43:56
  Speaker 13: As a coach and what he's working with our tight end.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: We're going to get some more catches this year.
• 44:01
  Speaker 6: I hope to.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: Do you have a goal for how many?
• 44:04
  Speaker 13: My goal for myself is at least like four touchdowns.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: Four touchdowns. Sammy wants four tutties.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: He was asked about catches because of course that's where
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: we've seen him deployed as a ball carrier. But multiple
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: coaches have said that, you know, you might see us
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: handing off to those guys as well out of those
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Rhino packages.
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: That's like, Jerome Bettis refrigerator, Perry type stuff. I want
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: a little, a good old fashioned, like triple I formation.
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: Am I handing it to the first guy? The second guy,
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: maybe some wishbone action. How about triple rifle formation? Triple Rhino.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: Am I taking it myself? Am I handing off the semi?
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: Am I handing off the Sione? Hunter Andrews taking the snap.
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: What are we doing here? Wildcat direct snap, a wild Rhino,
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: wild Rhino.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: Just like, good luck defense.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: I think technically it's just the two guys that are Rhino,
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: but you, you incorporate Hunter Andrews. If that were the case,
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: do you have, do you have to, if you're an
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: opposing defense and you like both Sione, Motua, Plaka and
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: semi tell long are defensive linemen by build.
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: So do you just, if they're on the field, you're like,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: all right, crap, we got to add another D lineman.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: You just have to put another D lineman because you
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: can't play action and go because you can't trust that
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: a linebacker or a DB is going to bring those
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: guys down.
• 45:40
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: If even if they're just lead blockers, you're like, well,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: we need somebody that's equal, somewhat equal in equivalent size
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: in order to stop their forward momentum.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: I just hope OC that the way that semi and Sione, uh,
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: are implemented in the Rhino this year is as fun
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: as my imagination is picturing. It will be. I, that's
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: all I, I, if it's not as effective, fine, figure
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: out how to do something else, but I just want
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: it to be as fun as it, as it seems
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: like it will be because I am picturing and semi
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: said it there. He he's, when he sees a DB
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: for the first time, he can't wait to try to
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: run them over. Like I'm picturing that stuff. I'm picturing
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: some of the stuff we saw in the BYU game,
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: which was a lot of fun from him and handoffs
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: to giant defensive lineman size guys. Like that's just, that's
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: just feels like it's going to be a lot of
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: fun to watch.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Fingers crossed. It goes as smoothly as we think it does.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Again, Camp Sound and Practice Sound brought to you by
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: our great sponsors, Cenex LJBR, Beer Bar, Citroen Cooperman, Big
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: O Tire, Sound Warehouse, and your Utah Toyota dealers right
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: here on your home of the Utes. All right, a
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: PGA Tour leaderboard update is coming. Eric Weddle joins us
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: in nine minutes. It's the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: 700 and 92 on FM.
• 47:16
  Speaker 7: Back to Arkansas.
• 47:21
  Speaker 6: Now those Ozark mountains.
• 47:26
  Speaker 9: Didn't seem so tall.
• 47:30
  Speaker 7: You're listening to the Sean.
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN 792.1 FM.
• 47:36
  Speaker 5: Shout out to Texter0303.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Gave us the recommendation on this song about people coming
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: out west and then returning back to Arkansas and realizing
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: the Ozarks aren't that impressive as mountains. That's what's going
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: to happen to every Arkansas fan that comes to Rice
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: Eccles on the weekend of September 12th.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: Including Bill from Little Rock, who called in. Shout out
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: to you.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: Shout out, Bill. No disrespect to the Ozarks. And your
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: half-sized mountains.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no disrespect to the Ozarks, but our mountains are
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: a lot bigger.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: That's all we'll say.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: To be fair, there has never been a great television
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: show named Wasatch.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: So the Ozarks have that on us, even though that's
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: after Lake of the Ozarks and not the Ozark Mountains necessarily.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: That's what I was just going to ask.
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: I haven't checked out Ozark yet, but it's not about
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: the Ozark Mountains?
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's about... about Arkansas.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Well, it's about stuff happening at Lake of the Ozarks,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: which is derivative of the Ozark mountain. So it's, you know,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: by extension tied to it somehow anyway, before we get
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: to Eric Weddle, we have a PGA tour leaderboard update
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: coming at you from the tour championship. You went to
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: golf by worldwide golf is asking you right now, take
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: advantage of a 50% trade in on all new inline
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: golf clubs. You can browse hundreds of new inline drivers, fairways, irons, wedges,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: and putters get 50% bonus in trade in value right
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: now at you went to golf all up and down
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the Wasatch front.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: What's the leaderboard look like James? All right. Victor Hovland
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: is your leader. This is the tour championship.
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: This is, I believe if I, I understood our guy
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: Paul Pugmire right, talking about this with Spence on the
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: drive last week, I believe the winner of this tournament,
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: it's not the entire point system like the other parts
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: of the FedExCup playoffs. It's whoever wins this tournament is
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: the FedExCup champion. You can correct me if you want
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: on the text line or send me an email like
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: some of you like to do when I get golf
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: things wrong.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: Go for it.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: Victor Hovland, five under. He's not through his first round yet.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: He's just through 12. He's one shot up on second
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: place Minwoo Lee. Ryan Fox and Adam Scott, Robert McIntyre
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: are tied for third at three under, two shots off
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: the lead. And to round out the top 10, you
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: got Guys like Tom Kim, Alex Smalley, Patrick Cantlay, Gary Woodland.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: Shout out to you, my guy. What a great story
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: he's been. Three shots off the lead, tied for sixth.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: And that's your PGA Tour leaderboard update from the Tour Championship,
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: championship leg of the FedEx Cup, brought to you by UN2Golf.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: I definitely understand everything about these teams.
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: PGA golf championships and tour championships and why, which events
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: matter more than the other ones.
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: I definitely don't need clarification on any of that. Absolutely not.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: Cause I have it.
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: Down and dialed already courtesy of you went to golf
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: by worldwide golf.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: All right. We'll take a quick one here.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: We'll come back with the Utah football legend and head
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: coach of the Rancho Bernardo Broncos, Eric.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: Well, that's next on ESPN, 700 and 92 on FM.
• 51:01
  Speaker 5: This is the Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the
• 51:04
  Speaker 5: best inside of your Utes. Let's get back to OC
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 51:12
  Speaker 10: Our next guest is a Utah football legend, I believe
• 51:22
  Speaker 10: a future NFL Hall of Famer, but most importantly, he
• 51:26
  Speaker 10: is the head coach of the Rancho Bernardo Broncos.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: In sunny San Diego.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: They are 1-0 with a contest against Brawley, the hated
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Brawley Wildcats, coming up this Friday at 7.15 Pacific time.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Eric Weddle, kind enough to join us.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: Coach, how are you?
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: Murph, a.k.a. the real O.C., a.k.a. Sean O'Connell, my brother.
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: What's going on?
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: You tell me. What's the best thing about being 1-0?
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: The best part is the chance to go 2-0, baby.
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: So we've got the Brawley Wildcats coming to town. You know,
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: they're going to be mighty. They're going to be fierce.
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: They're going to be accustomed to the heat that we're
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: experiencing down here. I'm not sure how it is up
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: there in the Great Salt Lake, but, man, hitting 100
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: digits out here is kind of very seldom. So... They're
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: going to come out here from out in El Centro,
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: and they're going to come and bring it. So we've
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: got to match it and take it to them.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: Close game in week one, right, against St. Augustine, 28-24.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: How did it play out?
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: Holy smokes. Yes, we had to score 21 in the
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: fourth to pull it out. And honestly, like, you know,
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: we're honest on the show, and– For one, Gage did
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: not play quarterback very well for about three quarters. And
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: I don't like to make excuses. Others do, but wasn't
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: seeing it, wasn't processing well, was playing more of a
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: running back than he was a quarterback, which we've been
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: trying to work on for two and a half years now.
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: But when his best was needed... We got it. And
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: on that, you know, the last three scoring drives, he
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: was five for five on the last drive and ran
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: and threw the game-winning touchdown and really, like, settled himself
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: down when we needed it. And it shows a lot
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: of character and grit. He's playing both ways and was
• 53:47
  Speaker 4: cramping and separated his shoulder and this and that. But
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: dude's a warrior. Our team staying together, staying connected, not–
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: not collapsing and pointing fingers, just stay in the course.
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: And so didn't play our best, but we found a
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: way to win. And on the flip side, I got
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: to give a shout out to Paul Amalu's son. It was, Sean,
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: it was the single best performance I've ever seen a
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: high school kid player have, like watching it live. He
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: played running back. The team had 230 total yards. He
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: had every yard of it. He had two rushing touchdowns.
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: He ran for 180. He had 40 yards receiving. He
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: played defense. He probably had eight to 10 tackles. He
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: had a sack force fumble. He had two PBUs and
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: he had a par return for a touchdown. So this
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: guy single-handedly, uh, which I told going into the game,
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: there's a reason he's a Stanford commit and a legit
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: football player on all fronts. Uh, But again, we've got
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: to give our props, got to give our kudos, but
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, the Broncos won, and
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: it was closer than it should have been, but those
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: type of games will help us in the long run.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: That's a wild thing. I mean, I love our Utah
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: high school football.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: There's not a lot of occasions where you're going to
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: be able to go to a random game on a
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Friday night, and Eric Weddle's on one sideline coaching his son,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: and Troy Polamalu is on the other sideline coaching And
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: both the sons are on the field. That's pretty bananas,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: what Southern California provides on that front.
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: It was very surreal. You know, I saw Troy after
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: the game, and we visited. Just an amazing, I've looked
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: up to him. And to have our boys basically going
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: back and forth, like Gage is like, you know, Gage
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: played well, didn't play his best, but he ran for
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: 150 yards and two touchdowns, like had a a pick
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: on defense and eight tackles. Like, he did his thing
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: and kept us in it. And then Troy on the
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: other side, it was like, Troy with the carry, tackled
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: by Weddle. Then it was like, Weddle running the ball,
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: tackled by Pogba. It was really insane, if I'm being honest.
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: And then to have come full circle and have our
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: boys after the game and talking to Troy and just reminding, like,
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: what we're trying to do with the community and kids.
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: And then obviously helping out our own kids, trying to
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: be their very best.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: I also, I love that story. What I don't like
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: is the standard, right? When you're like, I didn't play
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: that well. And then you rattle off stat line. That
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: would be anyone else's career game.
• 56:39
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: So like, like flag on you for saying that, but
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: here we are. It's all.
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: We're just honest. You know, like we, we tell how
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: it is and we coach it up and we improve.
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: And I expect him. to play better this week, which
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: you will.
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: All right. Love it. Let's move on. Let's talk a
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: little bit of Utah football.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: So all reports coming out of camp, both publicly and
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: in private conversation, that they were really happy with the
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: way that things kind of came together, the pace at
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: which things were coming together. what were you hearing from
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: the guys you talked to and what do you think
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: of what you know, obviously not having been able to
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: watch a ton of it about, you know, a new
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: coaching staff, some important remaking on the roster and things
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: like that, but a successful camp in Morgan Scali's first year.
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I'm talking to the guys. I think
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: I talked to Morgan maybe once a week, just checking in, just,
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: Seeing how he's doing, how the guys, how he and
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: his family are doing, just being a friend to him,
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: I know he probably doesn't get that a whole lot
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: and just someone to vent to and bounce ideas off.
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: But I know he loves this team. He loves the players.
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: He loves the direction that they're going. He loves the connection.
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: He loves the physical nature that they are becoming from
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: winter workouts to spring to summer. And now at camp,
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: he's confident, a silent confidence. He likes that they're being overlooked,
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: like most of us over the course of our careers,
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: and using that as motivation and inspiring the guys. And then,
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: you know, talking with position coaches, and they're pumped, man.
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: They're excited. They like where they're at. And they're ready to,
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, honestly, they're ready to, to shock the world
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: and remind everyone who we are, but also what our
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: aspirations are, and that's national championship.
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: So when you're going into a camp where there are questions, right?
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: You did it at every level.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: How do you make sure, right, when the question is
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: not about you, because it never was about Eric Weddle, right?
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: It's like, in this case, it's about the offensive line,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: the defensive line.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: What are you doing as.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: as a teammate to help get those questions answered even
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: if it's not something that you and your position room
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: directly control.
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: Well yeah you like you do it in a way
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: where you're highlighting those question marks per se as a
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: team like the inexperience at this position group how are
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: they going to handle the adversity on the road, the
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: first game. And it's like, well, yeah, that's what leadership's for.
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: That's what myself or the older guys or the coaching staff,
• 59:38
  Speaker 4: like there are things that you don't put a burden
• 59:42
  Speaker 4: on those players or position groups or the young guys
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: and you put it more on yourself. So you try
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: to highlight that and try to keep it positive, keep
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: it moving. And also I felt like when you get
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: to a certain point in your career, you understand the
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: big picture, right? You understand that it's not about me.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: And you try to instill that early on, especially like
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: high school and then college. You're always trying to be
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: the best player individually. But it comes to a point
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: where you're just like, man, I got to make sure
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 4: everyone else around me can be their best so we
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: can win and have the best shot at winning. And
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: so I feel like as a player, a lot of
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: those guys, like case in point with Fano and, uh, verse, right?
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: Like that is a perfect example of iron sharpening iron,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: good on good, getting each other better. Like an older guy,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: not really that old, like you're three or four for verse,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: but prepping and preparing his teammate to go out and
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: play great on Sundays. Like, I feel like that's how
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: Utah is, how we compete, but also how we pick
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: each other up and push each other. And so I
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: feel like as a team, that's, that is our identity.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: That's how, why this team feels so close and so
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 4: connected because it is about the team and always be
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: about the team, but also they're there for each other.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: I don't want to curse anything.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: So I'm knocking on wood as I say this, but
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: Morgan made the point of, Hey, we came out of
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: camp pretty healthy.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: There are some bumps and bruises, but there's nothing season
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: ending there's nothing catastrophic that has happened from an injury
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: standpoint and obviously that's deliberate you know there's some part
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: of the injury situation you can't control but it's also
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: good nutrition smart practicing uh the proper movement in the
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: weight room and things like that and everybody edub that
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: we talked to everybody we talked to from the player
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: standpoint said that their bodies feel great and that they
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: felt a big difference because of a guy that you
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: recommended getting elevated to be the head strength and conditioning coach.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: And I, I feel like I have to say it
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: every time because I love Argus and the caveat that
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: you never want to see somebody, you know, get pushed
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: out in order for other things to happen. But you
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: also have to give credit where it's due. And I
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to interview coach Saunders yet, but
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: the players themselves are volunteering that without being talked to
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: without being asked saying, Hey man, This has been really
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: good for my body. I've changed my body composition.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: I feel healthy. I feel flexible. I feel strong.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: And I know that's why you were passionate about this
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: in the first place, but I feel like it's something
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: that we have to be talking about as this team
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: gets ready to actually play real football.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm glad you recognize that and people
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: are understanding the difference Steve has made in such a
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 4: short amount of time. And there's just, When it comes
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 4: down to it, there's good and then there's great. There's
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 4: levels to every profession. In coaching, if you're only around
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: one system and you never allow yourself to learn new
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 4: ideas or learn new concepts or coaching strategies or leadership,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 4: if you're never growing and adapting, then you don't really know.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: I think over time, what we've done here is good,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: but it could be improved. We were lucky to get
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: Steve on staff as an assistant, and then Morgan felt
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 4: a change needed to happen, and the change happened. We've
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: just improved and continued to build from really it's Coach
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: Scali's vision of what he wants his players to be,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: and then Steve implementing it and and having the ability
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: to do that. Right. And so, uh, I was out
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: there in the summer watching them work and every, I mean,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: it brought back flashbacks to when I was in Baltimore, not, uh,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 4: loving what we were doing, but it's not supposed to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 4: be easy, right? It's not supposed to be easy. It's
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: supposed to be hard. You're supposed to feel sore and
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 4: tired and worn out after you work out, lift and run.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: Like that's the point because you're preparing your body to,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 4: For football, you're not preparing your body for anything else
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: other than doing what is needed on Saturdays. And, no,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: I think that has been a philosophical change on how
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 4: we've worked these guys. And the guys are showing it.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 4: And I think it is a direct correlation. Like, you're
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: going to have injuries that are just freak injuries. But
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 4: I believe wholeheartedly, because I know it, because it did
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: it to me in my career, that you're going to
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: see a physical explosive bunch, which they've already said to
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 4: a man. And you're going to see that. And you're
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 4: going to also see it in November and December when
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: teams are falling off. You're going to see us continuing
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: to climb that mountain because of the work and the
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 4: program Steve is putting together.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: Eric Weddle is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: talking all things Utah football as we are a week
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: away from the season kicking off. Seven days from today,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: Utah versus Idaho. on a Thursday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 5: Good?
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: You fall out of your truck or something?
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 6: What just happened?
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 4: I'm right here. I'm right here. Got a little excited,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 4: that's all. Got a little excited.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: So I'm putting out these predictive numbers on, like, over-unders,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: stat targets I think this team needs to try to hit,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: things like that. One of the big question marks that
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: we found last year was what happened to the run defense?
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: Utah's always been so good defensively.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: At stopping the run last year when the season was
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: over utah ranked 110th in rush defense in the country
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: that's bananas so yeah don't throw up it's gonna be
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: okay uh so i set the i set the over
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: under at 125.5 and that is a that is a
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: five-year average of utah's run defense If you hit the under,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: you're top 25-ish in the country, anything more than that,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: and now you're having to find stops elsewhere in the
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: run game. So, first of all, are they going to
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: hit the under or the over on that? More importantly,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: talk to me about how crucial improvement of this year's
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: run defense is, because last year you were still a
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: really good team. You won 11 football games. If you
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: had been better at stopping the run, you probably win
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: a few more.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you can't win a championship if you
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: don't stop the run and run the football or at
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 4: least control the line of scrimmage. And you look at
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 4: the past, I don't know, handful of national championships, they're
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 4: usually top 10 in run defense or at least yards
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 4: per carry, and they're able to be efficient running the ball.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: They still could air it out, but when they're running
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 4: the ball yards per carry, it's up there at least
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: top 20. And I think I heard this from Coach
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: Smart at at Georgia talking about why they do things
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: and how they play football. And it just reminds me
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 4: of Utah. And so the over under, I a thousand
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: percent believe it's under, uh, we'll be under, not just
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: because of the improvements and the focus and how we
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: practice and whatnot, but also I feel like we're going
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 4: to be up in a lot of games and they're
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 4: going to have to be throwing the ball.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: When you say we're going to be up in a
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: lot of games, what gives you that confidence?
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: Well, the quarterback play, I see improvement. I saw work.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 4: I saw footwork and just timing. And I think the
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 4: offensive creativity and just a little bit of, you know,
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 4: like I think Coach Beck is a really good coach.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 4: And I think a little bit last year, I think
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 4: the limitations of just a drawback passing game was maybe
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: correlated to– Devin and not being comfortable in that aspect
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 4: so I think a year better and him understanding and
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 4: and seeing the field and just process like I just
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 4: see a huge jump and he was really good last
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 4: year but I see a huge jump as the quarterback
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 4: throwing the ball uh for the youths and so I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 4: see that I see the skills on the perimeter being
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: a a huge asset I see our our running backs
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 4: with way Sean and those guys. So I see a
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 4: talent that maybe not necessarily we've had over the, over
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 4: the years. I don't know. Like it's not a flight.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 4: It's just reality. Like you gotta get some studs on
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 4: the perimeter. And so, and I think our offensive line
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: is going to surprise everybody because I know the work,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: not just in the weight room, like with Steve, Steve's
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 4: had those guys since spring and, He was identified to
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 4: get the O-line, D-line guys going. So I know the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: work that he's had on them for four months. five months.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 4: I think they're just a good group of guys with
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 4: Jordan getting them right. I believe in that. I believe
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 4: in work. I believe in a group sticking together and
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 4: playing for each other. I think that matters. I believe
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: that they're going to be a strong unit and only
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 4: going to get better as the weeks progress. Watch out.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: A lot of the conversation about position battles has been
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: about that offensive line. that drew the bulk of the
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: focus for obvious reasons, but you have an interesting situation
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: also in the safety room. And I think it's a
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: good problem to have, but how would you as a
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: coach solve this problem? Because there's four guys that have
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: been starters at one point or been tabbed as potential
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: starters or, you know, the future or whatever. And then
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of guys kind of around them that
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: also probably good enough to play and be quality backups.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: When you've got four dudes that, do you rotate them through?
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: Do you want one guy on the field or two
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: guys on the.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: Field, the bulk of the reps, because you got to
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: get into kind of a, a rhythm and a communication
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: sort of, you know, comfort. How do you handle that
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: at a position, you know, better than anyone?
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's, it comes back to, I mean, it
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: doesn't come back to, but I feel like if a
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 4: guy has been warranted playing time, then they deserve playing time. That,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 4: through spring ball through the past uh through camp like
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 4: if no one's really separated themselves then hey the everyone's
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 4: gonna play and then it'll work itself out so on
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: the flip side i would like a little continuity i
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 4: would like more continuity like the communication factor and just
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 4: those those two guys rotate you know being on the
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 4: field and understand the game but i know like Rabbit
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 4: and Jackson can move the nickel and can cover and
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 4: do multiple things. So does one stay at safety so
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 4: there's a foundation there and the other one moves the
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 4: nickel or star, whatever that is, and then another guy
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: comes in at safety? I don't know how they're going
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 4: to move those guys around, but at the end of
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 4: the day, the best play, and if you're an impact
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 4: player and you need to be around the ball, you've
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 4: got to do that. it'll be exciting to see how
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 4: that unfolds and then who rises up and takes hold
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: of that group and leads them, which I think they
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: already are, but I'm just on the field. We'll see.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Eric Weddle for another minute or two here on the
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell Show. I think I already know how you're
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: going to answer this question, but one of the big
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: storylines of the week has been– Big Ten, SEC, now
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: Big 12 having to make eligibility rules about guys that
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: are trying to roll back out of NFL training camps
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: and into college football.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 4: It's literally, you know, so I get it. I get
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: it from the players' perspective. I wasn't. I allowed to
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: have a fifth year. They came down with this. But
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 4: my point is like, you've been, you've been in the
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 4: NFL spring, you know, OTAs here in camp. And now
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 4: you're realizing like, I'm not going to make the team.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 4: So I'm going to go back to college for one
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: more year. One last effort. It's like, listen here, man,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 4: your time's up. Your time's up. And on the flip side, it's,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 4: It's even more alarming that a school would take a
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: kid that hasn't been part of your program for six
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 4: months instead of believing and trusting the guys that you've
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 4: been coaching for six months. Like, if that was a
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: program that was recruiting gauge, I'd immediately X them out. Like,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: not it. Sorry. Because it's not who I believe, like,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 4: culturally and how you– develop and trust the players and
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 4: trust your coaches to coach those guys, then it's their opportunity.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 4: If you have a clip at some point where they
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 4: ask Coach Smart about it, he said it perfectly. What's
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 4: the point of us pouring into these guys if I'm
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 4: just going to replace them with someone perceived to be better?
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 4: It doesn't make any sense. I don't agree, nor think
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 4: it's the right, and I love that these conferences voted
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 4: on it unanimously to not allow it. And so hopefully
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 4: it stays true, like endless other things with college football
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 4: right now with stuff being backwards. Hopefully this isn't allowed.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 4: And then on the flip side, I think, I don't
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 4: know if you read, but the NFL passed that If
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: you go back, now you're not allowed to come back
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 4: and re-sign in the NFL, nor can you go into
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 4: the draft of the 2027 draft.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you could sign next year as an undrafted free agent,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: but you are not draft eligible if you try to roll.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's nice that we're putting our foot
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 4: down and saying, hey, no, this is not okay. The
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: dream is to get to the NFL. and make it
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 4: right and earn it. And if you're just not good enough,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 4: then it's time to move forward. Move.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 6: I mean, the.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: Dream for most people is not even within reach for
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: these guys that get so close. I mean, I do
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: feel like some level of sympathy that, Oh yeah, dang,
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: that sucks that you almost made it onto the roster,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: but just, abandoning the possibility of practice squad and every
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: other thing because there are mechanisms to kind of hang
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: around the league and maybe you make the roster next year, right?
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: And then to say, no, I'm going to go back
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: because Lane Kiffin's offering me 500 grand or whatever.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 3: I think you made a lot of good points there.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 3: And sorry, LSU, you can't have Gage Weddle now.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it just doesn't make sense. okay, I didn't make it.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 4: There's a practice squad. Hey, there's the UFL. There's Canadian football. Hey,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 4: there's the onus of, I need to improve and get better,
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 4: not go back to college. Like, no, that's, that's not
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 4: the way to do it. You, you go the avenues
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 4: that everyone has done before you, not since it's allotted.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 4: Now you're going to go back and take another kid's
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 4: spot because you weren't good enough. No, that's, that's just not,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 4: that's not logical. It doesn't make sense. And Again, I
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 4: don't think it's the kids' fault. I think they're just
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: the realization, hey, I was supposed to get another year.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 4: If I was awarded this, maybe I wouldn't have came out.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 4: Maybe I would have. I don't know. I get that,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 4: but let's put our foot down, baby. Let's continue to
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 4: move forward on this.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: I'm asking you this question now as dad, as Gage
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: Weddle's dad, because he's going to have five years of
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: college eligibility. He can have five years to play five
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: instead of five years to play four. What are your
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: thoughts on that? Because it's, I mean, it's an extra
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: year of NIL if that's a possibility. It's an extra
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: year of physical maturity and development. It's also another year
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: delaying a potential NFL future if that's, you know, his goal.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: So what are your thoughts on five years to play five?
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: Because your son's going to be at that level soon.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: Well, if, you know, everything that goes into it, there's
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 4: a lot that goes into it. But let's just say,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 4: The goal is, right, if you're really like a guy
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 4: that sees, looks ahead, the goal is to be somewhere
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 4: where you're going to be one of the best in
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 4: the country at your position by your third year. Right? Now,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 4: what does that look like? Where does it look like? This, that,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 4: and the other. But really, like, you don't have to
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 4: play as a true freshman.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 5: You do.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 4: You want to. But ultimately, by your third year in college,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 4: you want to be the guy. And then you want
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: to be out. You don't want to continue playing college
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 4: and add more years to your NFL career. Because your
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 4: big picture thinking, you're thinking of a 10-plus year NFL career.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 4: That is the goal. Yes, it's less than 1% of 1%,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 4: but that's really what you want to do. So in
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 4: my opinion, in my mind, if you're waiting on your
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 4: fifth year, you're probably not good enough to make it
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 4: in the NFL, if I'm being honest. at certain positions.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 4: And so if you're not the guy at Gage's position
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 4: by your third year and a starter a year or
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 4: two before that, then you're probably not an NFL-type guy.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 4: So I would tell them either go to the NFL
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 4: or stay as long as in college because you're probably not.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 8: Going to be in the NFL.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 4: If that makes sense. I don't know. Am I talking
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 4: two sides?
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 6: No, no, no.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 5: It does.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: It does make sense.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's, I don't think it's quite
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: as binary as that when it comes to the, like,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: I think there's plenty of guys that stay that fifth
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: year and then, but you're right. I don't think those
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: are like the high draft pick day one NFL type
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: starter type guys.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 4: I think at the end of the day, like you're just,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 4: you've already made that decision for your fifth year, you know,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 4: like you're not going back on it. you're either saying,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 4: all right, I'm playing my fifth year out and not
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 4: entering in the draft, so it's not even a conversation,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 4: or you're leaving, and you're saying, hey, thanks, University of Utah,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 4: for all you did, and I'm out. You know, like,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 4: if you make that decision, decision is all i'm kind
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 4: of saying well the.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Other crazy part about it and i don't know if
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: you've looked at those numbers yet but the like for
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: a safety i don't know where it's at but like
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: for a quarterback right if you're if you're a quarterback
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: who has an opportunity to come back for another year
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: and play at like michigan or miami or notre dame
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: or a place like that or you can be a
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: fourth or fifth round pick in the nfl oh for
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: sure then you gotta come back and play college even
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: if you think you're good enough to play in the
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: nfl you're not going to get that money next year.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 4: It's wild yeah it's it's it's a whole different conversation
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 4: for quarterbacks like they're they're not they're not the same
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 4: and also they like you can you can kind of
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 4: i don't know like Furthermore, the shambles kid, I only
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 4: bring him up because he's an unbelievable college football player.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 4: Do I see an NFL future? I don't. So for him,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 4: it's like, yeah, it makes sense to go back. If
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 4: you're going to get paid $ 5 million, where you're going
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 4: to probably go undrafted in the NFL, yeah, that makes
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 4: sense for the rest of your life. You could start
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 4: your life with that. But for other positions, you're not
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 4: getting that money, that type of money. I don't know.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 4: I'm not really keen on it. who's getting paid what positions,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 4: but it's like, all right, I need to make my
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 4: jump and go see if I can prove myself in
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 4: the league because money isn't really what I'm thinking about.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 4: It's my career and what I want my.
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: Career to be.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 2: That's the Utah football legend, Eric Weddle.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: Make sure that you subscribe to whatever you have to
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: so you can watch his Rancho Bernardo Broncos demolish the
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: Brawley Wildcats tomorrow night.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 8: Right?
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 4: You know it. I hope, but we just win by
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 4: any means necessary, baby.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 2: Great talking to you. We'll chat again next week. Thanks, man.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 4: You got it, bro.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: That's Eric Weddle. What a legend.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: One of the funny things about having those types of
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: conversations with somebody, like the lens is just a heck
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: of a lot different if you're Eric Weddle than if
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: you're a regular person. who didn't achieve, you know, a
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: dozen years in the NFL. That's a, that's a real,
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: that's a reality for him and potentially for his son.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: So he's talking about making decisions that for other people
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: are dreams. They are aspirational, unlikely targets. It's funny to
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: hear that perspective.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: The daily dump is coming next and it is jam packed.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: We've got a lot of random stories we need to
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: get to. The Sean O'Connell Show on Utah's number one
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: sports talk, ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 5: Feeling out of the loop? Let's catch up on today's
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 5: biggest headlines in the Daily News Dump, where we flush
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 5: out the biggest stories of the day on the Sean
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 5: O'Connell Show and Utah's number one sports talk, ESPN 700
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 5: and 92.1 FM. Brought to you by Valley Plumbing, Heating,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 5: and Cooling. Just look for the truck with the duck.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 3: Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Also, Excavation Plumbing.
• 1:22:12
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• 1:22:29
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• 1:22:33
  Speaker 4: All right, this.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: We got like three stories here about things that are
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: going away that we need to bring back. Or maybe
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: we don't need to bring back. But at least one
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: of them we need to bring back. By the way,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: Devin Dampier in 21 minutes. Edition with Dev in 21 minutes.
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: You can schedule that on your YouTube, apparently. James has
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: created some kind of link that you can follow.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an instant premiere.
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 3: So if you go to ESPN 700 on at ESPN
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 3: 700 on Twitter, you can find the link and you
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 3: can set a reminder for one 30 when the video
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 3: comes out and stay tuned to hear the audio version
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 3: here at one o'clock.
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, James, I'm going to give you an opportunity to
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: resurrect one of the three following things that are all
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: going away in sports.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: Apparently thing.
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: Number one, Michael Jordan as special contributor on NBA coverage
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: that ultimately it was this huge announcement last off season.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: And it boiled down to one, a sit down interview
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: with Mike Tirico that they then chopped up into multiple
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: small segments and played over time. The special contributor role
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: that Michael Jordan played effectively was one interview. So think
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: about that one and how badly you want, Michael Jordan
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: back as a special contributor.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: Also going away, being put out of its misery, the
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: NFL pro bowl, or now it's the pro bowl games.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: The league has just said, you know what? We're not
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: doing this anymore. We will still give players pro bowl recognition.
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: And there are some folks who have contract escalators that
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: are based on the pro bowl. All pro has always
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: been the more interesting one, but Since 1951, there's been
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: some recognition of a Pro Bowl, some version of the
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: Pro Bowl. And it is the NFL's all-star game that
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: never really caught on the way that the NBA all-star
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: game or Major League Baseball all-star weekend or anything like
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: that has. But now it's going away. There will be
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: no alternates named because your Pro Bowler is still in
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: the playoff. It's just, hey, you're a Pro Bowler, whatever
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: that means. Yeah, it's like the All-Pro or.
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 3: All-NBA teams where you just get named as an honor.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 3: You're not expected to play anything, hence why there's no
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 3: need for alternates.
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: Can I tell you the idea that I had? The
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: original CEO of the PFL was a guy named Pete Murray,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: who is now, after being pushed out at the PFL,
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: he is now working for the PBA, the Pro Bowlers Association.
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: And I, I told him, I told him like, are
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: you telling me that the casual viewer NFL fan in
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: that two week in that, that weekend between AFC NFC
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: championship weekend and the, the super bowl, are you telling
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: me that they would not tune in to watch pro
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: bowlers be pro bowlers, get it football, pro bowlers play
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: some games of bowling.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 3: Maybe with, you know, I love this, you know, I'm,
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 3: I'm eating this up. This, this idea, you know, this
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 3: is right down my alley. It's a, it's down your alley.
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: It's a pun based idea, but wouldn't that be kind
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: of like you'd fly them out.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: You have them go with that guy that who do
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 2: you think you are? I am Pete Weber. I believe
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 2: shout out legend.
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 3: You have him bowling next to like Zeke Elliott or somebody.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 2: Be fun.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 3: Mookie bats, not an NFL player. Mookie bets has bowled
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: on the PR on the PBA before. So there's gotta be,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: there's gotta be NFL players who are also, you know,
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 3: closet good bowlers.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: You do the whole thing like tongue in cheek. You're
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: just like, Hey, you're a pro bowler this year. And
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: you get to go do some bowling tournament. You still
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: get a free trip out of it.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 3: What you do is you don't tell them that they're
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 3: actually going to be bowling though.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: That's even better. And then you get their reaction. I
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: called on NFL pro. I just saved your pro bowl
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: thing and PBA. I just gave you more publicity than
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: you've ever had for anything. What a great collaboration.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 2: This could be, it's.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: Now a trip back to Hawaii because that was the
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: only thing they liked about it.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 2: You used to get to go to Hawaii.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: They definitely do on now you fly them out to
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: Hawaii and they play in the pro bowl, but.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 2: It's pro bowling. It's just, it's bowling.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 3: Do you create a special outdoor on the beach? bowling
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 3: alley for this specific event. I would be worried about
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 3: sand getting on the... You need the smooth, perfectly oiled
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 3: wood on the lanes. It's true.
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 2: Sand is going to screw that up.
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 3: I forgot that I was talking to a bowling aficionado
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: when I said that.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 2: You make a good point, though. You know, my mom
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 2: was in a bowling league when I.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 3: Was growing up. Tuesday nights.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: See you later, Mom. We had year-round school as an
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: elementary student. So we were like the track-based system.
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: And so when I was off track, we'd have to
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: go to the bowling alley with my mom. Shout out
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: to my mom, whose name is Stephanie, and her bowling partner,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: also Stephanie.
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 2: Steph and Steph.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 2: And they were pretty good.
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 3: They were wrecking some people in that bowling league down
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 3: at Sandy Brunswick Lanes. Arguably the greatest athletes named Steph.
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 3: Both of your mom and her friend Steph. With respect
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: to Steffi Graf and Steph Curry. Sorry, but those two.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 3: And Stephon Marbury. Those two ladies from Sandy. They're better
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 3: than you. They got you. They got you with their
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 3: bowling prowess.
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 2: Shout out.
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: Anyway, so they're killing the Pro Bowl, even though I
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: gave them a better idea than killing it.
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 3: It's actually a fun idea. And it like PBA, no
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 3: brainer yet collaboration with the NFL, where do we sign NFL.
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 2: You're going to have to do some more convincing on there.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 3: But you just tell the players, look, you're a pro bowler.
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 3: So you get a $ 30, 000 bonus or a $ 50, 000 bonus
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 3: or whatever.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: And you get to fly to Hawaii. It's a vacation
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: after the season. Everyone would be on board with bowling.
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 3: The reason they didn't want to play football is because
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: they spent 16, 17, 18 weeks playing football.
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: They don't mind bowling and, you know, competitive kind of
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: a situation anyway. So it was a good idea and
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: no one listened to me and maybe we should launch
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: it and make it our own thing. But You can
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: bring back the pro bowl or some level of the
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: pro bowl, James, or also going away. You know, the
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: little ticker at the bottom of your screen on ESPN,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: when you're watching college football games, I.
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 3: Saw this on the rundown, did not see the news
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: where this was announced. They're apparently talking about getting rid
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 3: of the score ticker on the bottom of the screen
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 3: during ESPN football broadcasts during the games. Like it'll still
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 3: be on, on their shows and stuff, but not during games.
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 6: Weird.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: So while you're watching a Utah game, one of the
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: nice things is that the sports ticker, it's gone. They're
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: officially removing the bottom line sports ticker from regular season
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: college football broadcasts.
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 2: It's always been the way.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 11: Now, I.
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 3: I see why they feel like they might not need
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 3: it because we can just pull up scoreboards on our phones.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 2: And Google scores.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 3: But like, that's always been the way for you to
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 3: just glance down and see, oh, that's the score of
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 3: the other game that's going on.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 3: You're getting me more attached to my phone. Now I
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 3: have to have it while I'm playing, while I'm watching
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 3: a football game. Are we going back to the nineties?
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 3: Are we going to take out the score bug that
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 3: always shows up at the bottom of the screen too? Oh, well,
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: people are, people need to see the 30 yard line
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 3: when they're on the other teams.
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 2: 30, like, come on.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: ESPN's justification is they wanted to give fans a cleaner,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: less cluttered viewing presentation by all means, give me cleaner
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: and less cluttered.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 3: Give me the score ticker though. That's not, that's not
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 3: in the way. I don't, I don't get it. It's unnecessary.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 3: And maybe you and I are just from a.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 2: Bygone era.
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 3: An increasingly bygone era. And we're like, we want to see,
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 3: we don't want to be updated by our phone. We
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 3: want to see it on the TV screen. This just
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 3: means you're clicking back and forth to the other games
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 3: far more often.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 3: Or you're like you said, you're looking down at your
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 3: phone far too often.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 2: I don't like this. I don't like this one bit.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 2: So are those all the options then?
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 2: You get to bring one back.
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 3: So Michael Jordan interview ticker.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 2: Special contributor, especially, excuse me. You're right. don't just call it.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 2: It's not one inner.
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 3: It is one interview, but special contributor.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 6: I forgot.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 3: So that, or the scoreboard ticker pro bowl. And then
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 3: what was the, what was the last one?
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 2: Or was it more ticker? Michael Jordan pro bowl. Oh,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 2: it was just the three. Okay. I'm very good at,
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 2: at paying attention.
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 3: I am going to go with the scoreboard ticker and that's,
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 3: it's pretty easy. That's the correct answer. It's pretty easy
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 3: for me. I've never been interested in the pro bowl.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 3: I don't, I am interested in all-star games in general,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 3: baseball and basketball in particular. I'm on, I'm on board with,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 3: let's always make those. Let's get to a point where
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 3: those are always good again, or they're never been always good,
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 3: but good more times than not. Again, don't get rid
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 3: of those. If you're baseball and basketball, but they've needed
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 3: to get rid of the pro bowl for decades. Oh,
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 3: see like what, what was the point of holding on
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 3: as long as they did?
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: I've, I've been telling people for years, the pro bowl
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: was actually awesome. If you made it to the, you went,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: if you went to the game, yeah, which is usually
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: the case for any sporting event.
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 2: It's awesome. If you're there as a television viewing experience,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: it was abysmal.
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: Uh, but, Just getting rid of it and naming the all-stars,
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: it feels you're waving the white flag a little too hard, NFL.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: You should have done my bowling idea, but that's the thing.
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: I have been in favor of, like, people.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 3: The players across sports care about being named all-stars or
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 3: pro bowlers. They didn't care about playing in the game
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 3: or participating in the events.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 4: So.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 3: for football for a long time, I've, I've absolutely been like,
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 3: just name, just name a pro bowl. It's like you
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 3: do all pros because that's all the players care about anyway.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 3: And there's been an argument to do that in the NBA.
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 3: I'm against that because I just, I loved when the,
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 3: when the NBA all-star game was awesome every time.
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 2: And I want it to be back to that point.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: I think we'll have to see what happens with this
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: younger generation of player because, you know, Victor women, Yama
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: trying hard, made everyone else try hard.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: Uh, the LeBron James generation of player, they wanted to
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: be on vacation instead of in an all-star game, the
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: Michael Jordan generation, those guys kind of hated each other
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: and were happy to be competing again.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 3: So there was something else to the, even in the nineties,
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 3: you just didn't fans just didn't get to see the
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 3: best players play every night. Like we can now. And
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 3: so the all-star game The all-star game represented a way
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 3: to see the best players all on the same court
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 3: and all on the same night. You can do that
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 3: just by subscribing to NBA League Pass Now.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: I will say.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: Preview of a grievance I can air tomorrow, but in
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of the articles about the Pro Bowl going away,
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: Tyler Huntley is mentioned as a reason why we've jumped
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: the shark on this thing.
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 2: And I disapprove of that. I don't like that.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: He's just one of many weird pro bowl. There's plenty
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: of weird pro bowl alternates. I don't know why people
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: are just like Tyler Huntley.
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 2: Really? It's like, come on. That's our guy.
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 3: Snoop was awesome. Yeah. He was one of the best
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 3: backup quarterbacks in the league that year. How dare you?
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 3: How dare you?
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 2: Shador Sanders is my favorite joke. for that.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 3: Shador made it as an alternate last year and now
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 3: it's a year later, it's going away. So everyone's going
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 3: to Shador killed the pro bowl. That one I approve of.
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 3: He's an alternate for the Cleveland Browns also.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 2: So it makes sense.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 3: Mr.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: Alternate star.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: That's your daily dump brought to you by Valley plumbing, heating,
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: and cooling. I want to take a closer look at
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: today's over under proposition and then Nine and a half
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: minutes from now, eight and a half minutes from now,
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: we have the Devin Dampier edition with Dev.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 2: Interview for this week.
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: It's the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN 700 and 92
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: on FM.
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 5: It's time to talk to Utah quarterback Devin Dampier. This
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 5: is Dishing with Devin on the Sean O'Connell Show. Brought
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 5: to you by Colligan Water, Salt Lake City, America First
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 5: Credit Union, and Valley Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. Now here's
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 5: OC with Ute Star signal caller Devin Dampier on your
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 5: home of the Utes and your home for football. ESPN 792.1 FM.
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: Utah football one week from today. The season kicks off
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: in seven days.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 3: And on Thursdays, we talk with QB number one, Devin Dampier,
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 3: Dishing with.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 2: Dev, brought to you by Culligan, by.
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, and by America First Credit Union.
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 2: Dev in studio with us.
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 6: Hello, sir.
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 2: Good to see you.
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 6: Hey, good to be back up in here.
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: Football season is upon us. Now, let's talk about camp first.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: Camp is now in the rearview mirror. Morgan Scali's first
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: camp is the head coach. Camp is never fun. Camp
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: is never easy. But give me your description of what
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: this first camp under Morgan Scali was from the player perspective.
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I thought it was a success. Like, right after
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 6: our last practice, I made sure I went up to
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 6: Coach Scali and just let him know. I thought he handled,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 6: you know, being a head coach his first fall camp
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 6: was very successful. The way he went about camp was
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 6: to get as much done at a high speed When
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 6: we do our workouts, it needs to be 100%. There
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 6: needs to be no letdown. But then he's also putting
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 6: in analytics of how much we're running, making sure we're
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 6: hitting our top speeds every week just to make sure
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 6: no one's pulling hammies. Just the small things like that,
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 6: you could tell that he was taking everything into consideration
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 6: and just trying to make it best healthy-wise and also
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 6: being able to develop.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: It seems like, talking to different people about this, that
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: it was intense work. He values that intense work, but
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be long.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 6: Is that fair? Yeah, yeah, that's the right way to
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 6: put it. That's what I mean by the 100%. When
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 6: we're out there, it's straight go. It's straight go. No
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 6: time to waste, but it makes it better for us.
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 6: It feels like we have more off time.
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: More or less, you're a quarterback, so contact on quarterbacks.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: But more or less contact than what you've experienced recently
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: at other places like when you were at New Mexico
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: and even last year.
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say he kept that kind of the same.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 6: He gets on the defense if they get like a
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 6: foot away from me. He makes sure, do not get
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 6: near Devin at all, no matter what the circumstances.
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 3: What about if I'm asking Wayshawn this question, if I'm
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 3: asking Daniel Bray this question, was it more physical, equally
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 3: as physical?
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, because one of the big things, and you're
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: probably already aware of this, year by year, right? We
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: examine what the tackling looks like in the first few
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: games of the season. And then you go back to
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: the coaching staff in the media. We do at least
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: and say, what's with all the missed tackles or looks
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: like no missed tackles this year. Did you, tackle more
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: in camp or hey there's a couple more injuries at
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: campus here were you being too physical in camp right
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: and it's impossible to win if you're the head coach
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: but that's why i'm asking the question is you want
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: guys to hit the ground running and be ready week
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: one against idaho but also you want to make sure
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: that you're not beating up the bodies too much so
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: was it not for the quarterback but was it a
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: physical camp um i would say it was a physical
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: camp uh O-line and D-line for sure.
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 6: I mean, they're blocking each other every single play. I
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 6: would say there was a little bit of, again, the analytics.
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 6: He was putting in how many times he thinks it
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 6: would be useful to start tackling, and we did some
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 6: of that near the middle slash end of camp just
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 6: so tackling feels more familiar for, again, game one situation.
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 6: I think it was handled well, though.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 2: I think....
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 6: It was never like the whole entire day is this tackle.
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 6: There was periods where we made a tackle. Then there
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 6: was periods where we let it be easy, thud tempo.
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 6: So I thought it was good. I thought asking the guys,
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 6: no one was ever complaining about, oh, it's a tackle
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 6: day and things like that.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 2: For you, obviously, when the lights come on next Thursday.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 3: They're trying to tackle you.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 2: Everyone's trying to tackle you.
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: The right thing to do for a coaching staff is
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: don't touch the quarterback in practice.
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere near him. Don't roll onto his ankle.
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 3: Don't swat his hand when he's throwing a pass and
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 3: dislocate his finger, whatever.
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: So you're supposed to bubble wrap your quarterback. You're capable of,
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: of absorbing impact. You can spin away from stuff. You've
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: got the quicks, right? But like, how do you practice that?
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: Your evasiveness, your, your breaking of tackles when it's not
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: happening in practice, you know.
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 3: Because I imagine there's a challenge to it, right? Yeah.
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 3: Because the first time you really get hit this season
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 3: is going to be in live game reps.
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: And that might be crazy. I mean, I'm thinking of
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: like from the combat sports perspective, right? Like when you're fighting,
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: you got to put in hard sparring rounds during camp.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: If you don't, you're going to go crazy the first
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: time you get hit hard in the actual fight.
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 2: You're not allowed a hard sparring round. They don't take
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 2: that risk.
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 2: So the first time you get punched.
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 6: It's game one.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 3: It's game one.
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 2: How do you handle it?
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 6: I guess it's something I've grown up to be now.
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 6: Now that I'm in this position of my fourth year
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 6: in college, I guess I just happen to get used
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 6: to it. But that first hit, definitely, I feel it.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 6: It's like, okay, I'm back in football mode. Your body's like,
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 6: all right, yep, that's what that feels like.
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 2: We hope it's from like a corner.
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 6: Yeah, hopefully.
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 3: Instead of a DN.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 6: Someone push me out of bounds. Just give me a
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 6: little love, Tal.
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's amazing. All right.
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: So for the fans who maybe have not ever been
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: part of the transition from camp practices to game prep
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: to install type practices, school year starts, schedule changes a
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: little bit. Describe that transition and maybe the major differences
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: in how practices and workouts are conducted now that it's
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: not camp.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so again, camp is more about, I mean, obviously
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 6: we're going against each other. We're trying to put in
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 6: plays that we feel really confident about to bring into
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 6: the season, and so is defense. They're trying to figure
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 6: out what ways they like to line up against certain
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 6: formations and stuff like that. So the biggest difference is
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 6: now we have scout teams. Players have been assigned to
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 6: have their scout roles now, and now we're trying to
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 6: give the best look that, Whoever we're going to play
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 6: against that week, we want to be able to practice
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 6: our plays against that type of look, what we think
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 6: we're going to get. There's more preparation for sure. This
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 6: is where the film gets, I guess you could say,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 6: more serious for me where I do clock in those hours,
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 6: just try to see the little tendencies, what a defense
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 6: can do and stuff like that.
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 3: As a guy who unfortunately spent way too much time
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 3: on the scout team, Do you have good looks?
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 2: I know the coaching staff, right?
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: They do their best to put guys in a position
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: to where they can give you an approximation of what
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: you're going to see in game. But there's a reason
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: scout team guys are scout team guys, right? And the
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: speed can be a little bit different. The size is
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: certainly going to be a little bit different. obviously contact.
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 3: They're not letting scout players, especially come and hit the
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 3: quarterback and things like that. But there's also the question
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 3: of depth on teams now because of the transfer portal.
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: And because it used to be right. Scout team guys
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: could be a future all American. He's just a freshman
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: red shirting right now. There's less of that in modern
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: day college football.
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 3: So are you getting good looks from, from an athleticism
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 3: perspective from the scouts?
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 6: You know, coach, coach Galley was a scout team player for,
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 6: more than two years, so he embodies that into our
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 6: scout players that, like, when you're out there, like, take
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 6: advantage of what's happening for you. You're able to, like,
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 6: for the scout defense, they're able to go against the
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 6: one offense. They're able to get to see talent going
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 6: against them every single day, so it's good for them
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 6: to take those reps, and same for our offense going
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 6: against their defense. I mean, they get one's defense playing
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 6: against them, and they can just perfect their craft, so,
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 6: you know, Coach Galley is... big on embodying that role
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 6: of um if you are a scout player you know
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 6: do it do what you do um try to be
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 6: as much much into it as you can.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: This is what they're brought to you by culligan water
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: valley plumbing heating and cooling and america first credit union
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: here on the sean o'connell show uh so the end
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: of camp also a lot of times signifies really the
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: end of some of these position battles that have been
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: happening in camp And we talked last week, and I
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: was like, who would the starting offensive line be?
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 3: And you're like, I don't know. Is there any more clarity?
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 3: And no one's going to tell me who those starting
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 3: five are. I don't expect you to. But do you
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 3: feel like now that camp is closed, the clarity there
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 3: has been established?
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 6: I would say maybe three. Three of the spots are.
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 6: But again, we're still, I guess. Certain players do certain
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 6: things better.
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 2: Which three spots?
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 6: But, yeah, certain players have, you know, their own skill
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 6: set on what they do. So I guess kind of
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 6: depending on the vibe. But, you know, I'm glad we
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 6: have depth. I'm glad that we have this problem where
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 6: we're trying to figure out who goes in because that
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 6: just means the next guy is able to play.
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: Could you see a situation where, I mean, almost always
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: in football, the starting five is the starting five. And
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: unless someone gets hurt or whatever, it's that starting five.
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: given some of the flexibility or the differentiation and skillset
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: or things like that, could you see a situation where
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: this year's offensive line is handled a little bit more
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: like other position groups are where there is like regular
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: substitution or Jordan grows, Kevin McGiven, do they want to
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: make sure it is a starting five by the time
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: you roll out an actual game plan?
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 6: For the most part, I think, I think you want
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 6: a starting five, but I could imagine, you know, the
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 6: first game we, just dinkle around just probably show those
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 6: different different groups of guys that that's up there in
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 6: that front five and just kind of see how they
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 6: work in a real game situation.
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 3: Last year the starting five was obviously fantastic but then
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 3: there there was a lot of big body packages there's
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 3: jumbo stuff right so it was like you had like
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 3: the starting five but then also like the starting six
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 3: sometimes and now you got these rhino packages and stuff
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 3: so it's like We're talking about potentially six or seven
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 3: big body blockers that they're going to be using.
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 6: Yeah, for sure. We make it real stressful for the defense.
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 6: You've got to prepare for every single thing when you're
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 6: a D.C. going against us.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 3: Last week when we talked, we touched on Weishan a lot.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 3: We talked about your wide receiving core.
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: I don't think we had a good conversation about Hunter
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: Andrews and what role he could play in this offense.
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: And obviously we saw some flashes from him last year,
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: this time of the year, last year, and then an
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: injury kind of washed all that away. Uh, the coaching
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: staff at that point, wasn't a hundred percent sure what
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: they wanted to do with them.
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 2: Is he a running back? Is he a tight end?
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 2: Is he a hybrid of those things?
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: What sort of description would you give to his role
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: in this year's offense?
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 2: If you could characterize it?
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 6: Um, I guess, man, the, I think he's like a
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 6: true playmaker when you talk about like, if you could
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 6: build someone like on Madden to like be able to
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 6: play every skill position, it would be Hunter.
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 2: Like, okay.
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 6: He's, he's tall enough. He's big enough to play tight end.
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 6: He's physical enough to actually block. Uh, if a linebacker
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 6: wants to come in and, you know, he's able to
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 6: add himself in protection. And then he's also faster than
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 6: the linebackers. He's also able to take a handoff and,
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 6: make positive yards out of that. So Hunter, he literally
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 6: does everything. He finds value in just being able to
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 6: be on the field. We can trust him to be
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 6: in any position, and he's going to go ball out.
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: Utah fans aren't going to like this comparison, but Taysom Hill,
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: what he was in the NFL, obviously a little bit
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: more quarterback situation for him, but like, I see Mac
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: G using Hunter Andrews in that kind of a role where,
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: like you said earlier with the blocking schemes, like a
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: defense is just going to be like, what the hell,
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: what are they doing with this guy now?
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 2: And you've got to stay prepared for all of it.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he causes a lot of stress. So, you know,
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 6: I'm happy he's on my team.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: That's nice for you and for everyone. cheering for these
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: Utes in the 2026 campaign. Some big picture stuff here.
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: I know you focus on Idaho. You focus on week one.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: But as the game plan comes together, the playbook really
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: comes together because some of camp is experimentation with what's
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: working and what's not working and all that stuff. Are you,
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: I won't say satisfied, are you happy with the progression
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: of the offense from the first day of install back
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: in the spring to now?
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah, for sure. I think just having the amount of meetings,
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 6: us and the receivers together, just having those type of
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 6: meetings and even me stopping by in the O-line meetings
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 6: every once in a while just talking about stuff, I
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 6: feel like we've created offense. It's our offense now. And
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 6: Mac G, he gives us that authority to make the
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 6: offense ours. We started making checks and stuff that that
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 6: hasn't really necessarily been taught to us. Just small things
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 6: like that where we're making offense us, where it feels
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 6: like we embodied it.
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: I think you're probably not this type of guy, but
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: you also have friends and family that are going to
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: be sending you links and showing you where you appear.
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: You know you're on the Davey O'Brien watch list. You
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: know that ESPN is like, this is the top 15
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: quarterback in the nation, whatever.
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 2: How do you react to.
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: the external expectation that these random publications and award watch
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: lists and stuff like that, like, how do you think
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: about those things as you go about your daily business?
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah. Um, man, I try to, I try to stay
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 6: off the internet when season starts scrolling up. I'm just,
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 6: I'm not big into seeing myself. I'd be telling my
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 6: mom and dad, don't be sending me nothing during the season.
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 6: I don't want to see it. I'm okay.
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 6: Like I'm okay. I'm a, Just let me keep going
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 6: week by week. Let me keep balling. Sorry, Mom and Dad.
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 3: I just ruined all that. I just told Deb where
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 3: he is on all the watch lists.
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 6: But, you know, I'm so happy that they get excited
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 6: about those things. They're so involved in my whole entire
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 6: football journey. So I know it's so exciting for them,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 6: but I'm like, keep it away from me. Let me
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 6: lock in. Let me do what I got to do
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 6: because none of it matters to the end.
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: I think I understand that mentality, but articulate it for me.
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: Why do you not want to know where the athletic
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: says you belong ranking with all the other quarterbacks?
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 2: And why do you not want to pay attention to
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 2: that stuff?
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think there's, I think the normal things I
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 6: get is like, oh, and maybe he runs too much.
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 6: I don't know. People come up with like the craziest
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 6: narratives I've ever heard of.
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 3: It's the blurb. It's the verb that bothers you?
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 6: Yeah, or like, oh, this guy threw for more yards
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 6: than him. Stuff that would make me start to question
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 6: my gameplay and how I'd want to go about things.
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 6: I never want other people to tell me how I
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 6: should play football. I was able to get myself in
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 6: this position of all the great coaches that's got me
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 6: here and things like that. I just want to continue
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 6: to trust in my game, play how I play, not
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 6: letting others dictate it.
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 2: That does make sense with respect to that narrative, right?
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: To dependent on the legs or his arm is this,
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: or it's that I feel like what we saw from
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: you last year was excellent quarterback play where you could
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: do it all. That the asterix, if there is one was,
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: we don't really know because of the health problem, what
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: the ceiling of that looks like.
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 2: Is that fair?
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: Where it's like, when you watch last year's film, uh,
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: even in games where you played great, maybe you didn't
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: feel great. So I look at some of those numbers,
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: that's a hell of a game from Dev, but would
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: it have been even better if both of his legs
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: worked properly?
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 6: For sure.
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: Is that the right way for us to be viewing
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: our expectations of you for this year?
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 6: Yeah, no. I mean, even out of myself, I'm expecting
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 6: myself to... I would say this is the first fall
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 6: camp where I felt like it was... Playing out there
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 6: never got too fast for me. I felt like I'd
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 6: been here before the games really slowed down where it
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 6: didn't slow down during camp. I got in there and
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 6: I was already prepared. So I feel like I'm at
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 6: a level where I should be able to be at
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 6: my best every single game.
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 3: We already talked about last week the sort of chemistry
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 3: with your receivers and that kind of thing.
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 2: What about throwing motion, footwork?
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: The mechanics of being a passer, do you have to
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: tweak things like that? Because you were adjusting again to some,
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: like a lack of a base last year, your arm
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: angle probably had to be a little bit different, or
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: you were throwing more with your shoulder than with your
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: hips because you had all these injuries and stuff like that.
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: Was there an adjustment period of getting back to throwing
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: like a healthy person?
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say, you know, that's, that started as
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 6: soon as I could throw a ball, it took It
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 6: took about six, eight weeks for me to be able
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 6: to throw a football again after my surgery. And, you know,
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 6: that was about kind of spring coming in. So I
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 6: was able to get in Arizona, get back with my
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 6: QB trainer, just hitting those types of things. But, man,
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 6: in game, it's so rare that you get the exact
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 6: clean pocket, like when there's no movement where you don't
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 6: have to make arm angle throws. And, you know, that's
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 6: something my coaches like about me that I'm able to,
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 6: change my arm angle at times to be able to
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 6: get the ball through the D-line and stuff like that.
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 6: So there's a little bit of things going into it,
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 6: just the way we call plays, the way we read
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 6: through things that obviously change the way my foot steps work. But, man, ultimately,
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 6: you know, I feel like I'm in a good spot
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 6: where I can make any throw.
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: Devin damp here for a couple more minutes here on
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell show edition with Deb brought to you
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: by Culligan water Valley plumbing, heating and cooling and America
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: first credit union.
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 3: Uh, you are more popular than you were last year.
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 3: You're more established than you were last year.
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: You are thought of highly, not only locally, but nationally
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: as a quarterback with that comes opportunities and IL opportunities
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: who knows what else, right? Um, Part of being a
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: modern-day college football player, especially quarterback, is you also have
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: to be a good businessman. Have you been able to
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: put that in the proper box as the season approaches,
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: as these interviews like this more common, et cetera, et cetera?
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: How has the extracurricular football stuff been now that you're
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: a more firmly established starter as the season approaches?
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's been a lot more me. Now,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 6: you know, I think I came in a little bit
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 6: more on the like nervous side of last year, just
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 6: not fully expressing who I was. I guess you could
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 6: say in a way. But man, this year, you know,
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 6: just the amount of respect people are allowing me to have. And,
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 6: you know, just it's allowed me to feel like, you know,
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 6: I could be myself at all times. And that's just
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 6: something I've kind of told myself I want to do
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 6: this year. You know, I want to be myself no
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 6: matter the situation. And That just goes into my leadership also.
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 6: That translates on the field. I don't want to be
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 6: the guy where if they score first and then we
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 6: don't score, I'm being pouty on the sideline. I want
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 6: to be the same guy. I never want to switch
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 6: up for any situation. I think it's honestly something people
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 6: have been enjoying. I've been getting feedback about it. They're like, man,
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 6: I've never had an interview like you. You're very uplifting
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 6: and very yourself. That's just something I want to give off.
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: Speaking of leadership, um, the way that the leadership dynamic
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: on a slightly remade roster has developed through camp. And
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: in the first week of, you know, installing things like that,
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: any surprises for you? Is it the guys that you
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: thought were going to be those guys?
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 6: For the most.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 6: Cause I don't know. There's this guy, you can tell
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 6: the other guys in the locker room too, that have
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 6: influence on others. They're able to say stuff and, you know,
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 6: you see guys turn their head and they really listen. So, um,
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 6: We already had our leadership council group, and you could
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 6: tell those guys were– you could tell they're all taking
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 6: steps in their own leadership role as well going through
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 6: fall camp.
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 3: There's different types of leadership on football teams, right? Like
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 3: Morgan Scali, your head coach now, he was the great
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 3: player who was also a great vocal leader, and the
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 3: other two best players on the team on that year's team,
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 3: Offensive lineman who never said a word.
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: Chris came away to scariest guy on the planet. Never
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: said a dang thing. Alex Smith was the best quarterback
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: in the country. Didn't really say a lot in the
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: locker room. So who fills those roles? Who's like the,
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: the strong silent type. And who's the one that, you know,
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: is going to say the right thing at the right time.
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah. I would say me, me and Lance are probably
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 6: the most like, Both-sided leaders, I would say, if that
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 6: makes sense. Like, I feel like I can go to
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 6: the defense and say something and, you know, they will
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 6: respect my opinion. And I think Lance is that defensive
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 6: guy that can come over and say something to offense and,
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 6: you know, respect what he says.
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 2: How has Lance become that?
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 6: Because.
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 2: With respect to Lance, and I.
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: Know there's a lot of factors that play into this,
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: his on-field resume does not yet say he is undeniably that.
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: Because sometimes it takes production. You've got to be a
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: guy coming off an all-conference season and things like that.
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: And I have no doubt his capabilities, and I'm crazy
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: impressed with him, but it's not like he's coming off
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: an All-American year last year. So how has he established
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: himself to that level, even with an offense, when his
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: on-field production maybe hasn't met that just yet?
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's his compelling. You know, he's, like, again,
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 6: he talks to the offense just as much as he
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 6: talks to his side of the ball. Like, to put
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 6: that type of effort into, you know, trying to make
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 6: the whole team, trying to be a compelling guy to
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 6: anybody on the team, you know, that's something he does
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 6: very well. You know, he makes sure he's, like, Lance
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 6: is everywhere just because we all feel comfortable in him
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 6: by him, just because he's made it where, Um, that's
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 6: something he put work into. He put work into making
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 6: guys feel welcome when he's around.
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: Do you, what do you think of the stuff that's
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: happening in college football right now? Where like dudes who
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: were on NFL rosters last week are coming back to
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: college football. Guys who were in the NBA last week
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: are coming back to college basketball.
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 2: And this was unthinkable.
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: Ten years ago, even five years ago when NIL and
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: all that stuff started to happen, we didn't think of
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: this being a possibility. And now, I mean, you're going
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: to have your own decision to make at some point
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: about a fifth year of eligibility and all that, but.
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 3: This is, for me, really, really hard to swallow and crazy.
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 3: What's it like for someone who's actively in the game
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 3: right now?
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, no, I mean, you know, if the opportunity makes sense,
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 6: you know, I hope people are able to get that opportunity,
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 6: but Yeah, it was a little crazy. Somebody broke down
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 6: something like someone actually played in a preseason game and
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 6: got paid for it and then came back. To me,
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 6: that's insane.
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 2: That's bananas.
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 6: To actually compete in a game, get paid for NFL,
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 6: be in the NFL, and then come back to college.
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 6: It does sound a little crazy to me.
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's guys who have signed NBA contracts.
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 2: They're just like, nah, just kidding. I played for BYU.
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 4: What?
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 13: No.
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 6: I'm coming back.
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 3: No, you're not. That's not... It's like we all had
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 3: that dream, right? You woke up one morning and you're
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 3: just like, I had a dream last night that I
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 3: went back and played another game for my high school.
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 2: And it's just like you laugh at yourself about it.
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 3: That's what they're doing now in college.
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 5: Football.
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, there's something about college may have a better life
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 6: than NFL right now. Yeah. Well, we got to find
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 6: a way. There's got to be some type of balance where, like,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 6: we still want people to go to the NFL.
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 2: Do you watch Hard Knocks? Have you seen any of
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 2: the Hard Knocks?
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 6: Uh-uh.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 3: Okay, so this was hilarious because I think it was
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 3: from this year's Hard Knocks. They do the thing where
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 3: a rookie stands up, introduces himself, and says what his
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 3: signing bonus was, right? And if you're a first-rounder and
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 3: you got some crazy huge signing bonus, everyone's hooting and hollering.
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 3: Most people are just like, ah, you know, fifth-round pick,
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 3: seventh-round pick. $ 15, 000.
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 2: Signing bonus or whatever.
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 3: And one guy was just like, $ 15, 000 signing bonus.
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: Made $ 700, 000 last year in NIL. And all these old
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: guys in the league, it's like, what?
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 2: What are you doing here then?
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 7: Yeah, right.
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 6: Because you don't want to stay another year.
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because those guys are like, we made $ 0 when
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 3: we were in college. And, you know, that's crazy because
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 3: you're talking about a guy who was an unbelievable college player,
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 3: got compensated for it, maybe there's some doubts if he'll
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 3: be a good NFL player.
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 2: So they're just like, yeah, you can have.
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 3: A $ 10, 000.
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 2: Signing bonus or whatever.
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: So it's just like, that's gotta be a hard learning curve.
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: If you're in that category, if you're like, if you're
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: a bubble guy on an NFL roster, but you were
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: like Diego Pavi is the best example I can think of.
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 12: Right.
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 3: Heisman trophy finalist at Vanderbilt making millions at Vanderbilt.
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 2: The NFL doesn't want him. You're probably like, let me
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 2: go back to Vanderbilt.
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 6: Right. Like that, Yeah, it's crazy to me. It's crazy
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 6: to me that, like, you just hear people say, like,
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 6: I'd rather stay in college. And then it's like, that
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 6: shouldn't be the case, but it is. It is the case.
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 2: We're going to wait.
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 3: But you and I are going to have this conversation
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 3: at some point when we get close to the end
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 3: of the year because these are things that are going to,
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 3: you know, going to rear their head for everybody.
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah, right.
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 2: Crazy. A week away. A week away from playing the
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 2: first game. What is the.
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: nervousness, the feeling, the anticipation when you got seven more
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: days before football season is actually for real here.
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, man, I don't, the nervousness has not hit me
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 6: this year. I don't know. I don't think, I don't
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 6: think I'm nervous at all. Honestly, I think like this is,
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 6: this is my fourth year of college.
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: They're like, if you were playing Arkansas in week one
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: instead of Idaho, would that be different?
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 6: No. Okay. I think like, Just my self-confidence, my self-belief,
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 6: and how far I've been able to see myself come
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 6: up as a football player. Man, my confidence is through
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 6: the roof. I'm just like, this is everything. I work
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 6: to be at this situation. I work to be here
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 6: and feel like I'm getting to my complete self. I'm
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 6: very confident just going into this situation.
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: That's QB1 Devin Dampier for Dishing with Dev. Culligan Water,
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, and America First Credit Union
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: are your sponsors making this interview possible every single week. Also,
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: Dev's here in studio, so all you folks that last
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: week were like, where's the YouTube? Because you want to
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: see Dev's pretty face.
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 3: It's here. ESPN700Sports. com. The YouTube link is there on the page.
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 3: So you can go watch it, and it'll be available
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 3: on the app and all that stuff.
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 2: Dev, it's great to see you.
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 6: Good to see you, too. It's always fun.
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 3: We'll be doing this every single week. Good luck with
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 3: game prep. And then, obviously, the next time we have
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 3: this conversation, it's for real, for real.
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 6: It's for real, for real. Game week.
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: That's Devin Dampier. Lots more to get to on the
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700, 92.1 FM. I'm going up
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: the rails on a crazy train.
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 5: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 5: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 2: All right, go to Twitter, at RealOCSports.
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: Tell me whether you think Utah's defense holds opponents on
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: average to under 125.5 yards a game or over. It's
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: one of the most important stats that this Utah football
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: program can improve upon heading into this season. I had
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: a whole thing lined up about, you know, I'm going
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: to ask this question, we're going to give this answer,
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: we're going to illustrate the point this way. Utah's rush
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: defense last year, by the way, at the end of
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: the year, ranked 110 out of 136 in the country.
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: That is terrifying for a program that usually has a
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: very stout run defense. Interestingly enough, ranked number 111 Utah
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: State last year.
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 2: So I have a whole.
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: Soapbox to get on about this, but some breaking news
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: at a BYU that we'll spend two seconds on here.
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 2: Breaking news.
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: Announced in the Deseret News and other places, BYU has
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: restructured its athletic department. So school vice president Keith Vorkink
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: will now oversee the football program. Kalani Satake will not
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: report to the athletic director at all. The school vice
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: president will oversee football. Football will be handled independently of
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: Brian Santiago and his staff. If I'm being fully transparent,
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: I had heard that this was already part of Kalani's
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: extension discussion after he decided not to leave for Penn State.
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: I thought that this was already in place at BYU
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: where Kalani did not report to Brian Santiago, but This
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: is making it public and official that he does not.
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it's a new thing.
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: Because, like I said, people close to the program told
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: me already that Kalani and Brian Santiago don't really see
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: eye to eye on a lot of things. Obviously, in
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: the last 15 or so days, that has become much
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: more clear. And we are nine days away from BYU
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: kicking off its football season. And their administration has said,
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: all right, We're going to eliminate this as a storyline.
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: Kalani Satake no longer reports to Brian Santiago. It is
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: effectively a demotion for an athletic director to not oversee
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: their football program.
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 2: That is the flagship. BYU basketball is.
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: As prominent nationally as BYU football is, but there is
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: no place that plays both sports that leans into it
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: on both fronts where basketball is more important than football.
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: So I can't imagine that this is sitting well with Santiago.
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: That doesn't matter. I've told you a dozen times on
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: the air. If you're trying to pick a fight over
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: anything right now at BYU, you do not want to
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: be on the opposite side of whatever argument that is
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: from Kalani Satake. He is one of the most beloved
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: people down there on campus. He's one of the most
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 1: beloved people in Provo. He's one of the most beloved
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: and respected people in the state of Utah. So hopefully
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: this works out better for him. I guess if you're
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: a Utah fan, you're like, no, keep the tension going
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: so Kalani leaves next year. This is an interesting piece
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: of breaking news because I remember you and I think
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: other people, Spence probably too, talking about how they had
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: found out that the contracts already had this in place,
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: that he did not technically report to Brian Santiago. So
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: maybe this is just we're going to make it public
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: for the first time so that people understand that it's
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: not– as big a deal as it seems like it
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: is that he disagrees with the ad.
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that's what this is.
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: I also think that now this is maybe a public
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: acknowledgement to their vice president, Keith for kink.
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 2: Like, Hey, uh, the budget and everything is going to
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 2: move under your umbrella.
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 2: This isn't just a line on the contract.
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: This is not Kalani doesn't have to respond to Brian
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: Santiago's emails or answer his phone calls. This is football
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: is now moved into a separate bucket from the rest
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: of the athletic department.
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 3: And what's the name of the Kentucky associate, the former
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 3: Kentucky associate AD who's who ran Kentucky football. I wonder
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 3: if he'll hallmark something.
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 3: I wonder if the VP is going to be working
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 3: or if he's going to be working very closely with
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 3: the VP in this process as well, because he does
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 3: not have a tainted relationship with the colonies of talk.
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 2: As of yet, probably won't.
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: It would honestly make a whole lot of sense where again,
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: the optics are important. So you don't want to like,
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: if you're not going to fire Brian Santiago, which they're
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: not doing, and they don't have interest in doing, he's
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: done an incredible job with basketball. If you're not going
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: to fire him, you don't want to elevate an associate
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: athletic director above him.
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 2: In terms of public title.
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: You don't want to say his assistant is now in
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: charge of football, which is the most important program we have.
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: So you're probably right, James. I imagine that that guy
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: comes in and is now Vorkink's right-hand man, where everything
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: publicly filters through the VP's office, the actual day-to-day, the
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: practicality of it.
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 3: And this is where it's tougher and tougher.
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 2: At BYU, right?
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: Because when you're... a vice president of the school and
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: not directly in the athletic department. Like most schools do
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: a really good job of keeping their academics and their
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: athletics kind of separate because in a lot of cases,
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 1: they're conflicting interests, really your educational departments, your hospital, your research.
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 2: Whatever they want money.
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: And you don't want to be seen funneling money to
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: athletics or giving investment or donor or whatever to athletics
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: because when there are bigger fish to fry on the
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: academic front. So I imagine your guess is pretty accurate.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: I hadn't thought of that just till we started talking
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 2: Okay. Mark Hill.
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 3: I hadn't thought of it till we just started talking
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 3: about it here a few minutes ago in this segment,
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 3: but that makes the most sense to me. And like
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 3: you said, because they're not a public university, they don't
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 3: necessarily have to tell anyone that they didn't have to
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 3: tell anyone this, but, If this is all they want
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 3: to say is, okay, VP Vorkink is going to be
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 3: over football, they don't necessarily want to reveal that, oh, well,
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 3: the guy we just hired is going to play a
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 3: big role in that too.
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 2: Hired away from Kentucky.
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: It would make sense because of his level of experience
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: that he would at least lean on his expertise, whether
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: there's any title to it or not. And why would
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: you have just hired him if you weren't going to
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: do that too?
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 2: Look, at the end of the day.
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: This looks like Kalani getting more of what he wants,
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: peace being made. The head football coach, who's done an
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: incredible job over the last couple years especially, and is
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: a wonderful representative of the university, the athletic department, the faith,
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: and all things.
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 2: Take care of that guy. BYU ain't stupid.
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: And like I said before, you're not choosing anyone else's
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: side to in an argument other than Kalani Satake, if
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: you can avoid it. So this is what they're doing
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: as reported by the Des news and multiple outlets. And
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: of course they get kind of exclusive access to some
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: of the information. I want to bring up some points
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: about my over under before we hit the final segment
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: of the show, because one 25.5, I came up with
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: that number. That's the five-year average for Utah football on
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: their rush yards surrendered. 125.5 in last year's season would
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: have made you top 33 in the country. Washington State
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: was 33rd at 125.15. So I'm not even asking for
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: the world with Utah football. And again, this is an
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: average yards per game surrendered. But when you look at
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: last year's season, they were not good against the run.
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: They were not good at stopping the run. Thankfully, they
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: were really good at scoring points last year at the
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: university of Utah. Had they not been, we would have
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: been complaining. We would have been crying. We've been talking
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: about a totally different, the whole tune over the exit
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: of Kyle Whittingham and where he ended up would have
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: been very, very different. Had they not scored a bunch
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: of points last year under Jason Beck in that offense, James,
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: How many times do you think in a, in a
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: 13 game season, how many times do you think Utah
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: held opponents under 125.
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 2: Yards rushing last season? Last season. It was that the,
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 2: that was the average. That's the average.
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 3: That's that's your over under last year's average was 181.
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 2: Okay. So no, that'd actually be a vast improvement.
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 6: Under 125.
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 2: The average was one 80. I'm going to say Five games,
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 2: six games.
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: Four games. And only one of those was against the
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: power for opponent. That was the Colorado game.
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 4: Oh, wow.
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 3: So notoriously under Dion Sanders doesn't run the ball.
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 2: They don't run the ball. They, they ran for like
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 2: 36 yards in that game.
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: Every other game that Utah played with the exception of
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: your preseason tune-up games, You gave up more than 125
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: yards rushing. So what was it like over 400 against
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: Kansas state alone? The Kansas state game is like one
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: of those shall not be mentioned occurrences.
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 3: My bad for mentioning it guys. But that was a crazy,
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 3: crazy lack of rush.
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: The reason, the reason I went back and looked at
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: the actual game by game breakdown was because of that game.
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: I was like, well, Yeah, they gave up 181 yards average,
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: but when you give up 500 in a game, how
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: much did that skew the average on a game-by-game basis?
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: Were they really around that 125, but that game pushed
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: them way up over?
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 5: No.
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: It was you gave up 200 yards against Houston. You
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: gave up 200 yards against Texas Tech. You gave up
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: 200 yards against Cincinnati. You're having these repeated problems in
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: the run defense, which is not supposed to be a
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: problem for Utah football and never was in years past.
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 2: It's so crazy. Oh, see, sorry. Cut you off.
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 3: It's crazy that other than the Kansas state game, it,
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 3: unless you're hardcore fan watching every little detail or your
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 3: former player, and you've got that keen eye for things.
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 3: it wasn't that noticeable that the rush defense was so
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 3: bad gaming and game out other than for me, other
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 3: than the Kansas state game. But you say, but you
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 3: look at it and you're like, Oh yeah, 200 here,
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 3: 200 there.
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 2: Like that's not good rush defense.
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 3: I think it's just because they were blowing people out
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 3: despite being that leaky as a rush defense. Utah ranked
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 3: 110th in the country in rush defense in 2025. In 2024,
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 3: they were 35th, and they gave up 129 yards, so
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 3: just barely over the over-under that I'm asking for right now.
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 3: In 2023, Utah gave up 82.
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: Yards a game on the ground. They were number four
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: in the country in rush defense. In 2022, Utah gave
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: up 111 yards a game on the ground. That's 18th
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: in the country. In 2021... Utah gave up 121 yards
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: a game. They were 19th in the country. The 2020
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: season doesn't really count, but Utah was 11th in the
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: country that year as well with 107 yards a game
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: surrendered in the run game. The reason I'm giving you
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: all of these is because top 25 is the norm
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: for Utah when it comes to rush defense. Last year
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: was an extreme outlier, and it has to be fixed.
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 2: This coming season.
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 1: I think I'm being generous and only asking for a
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: 60 yard per game improvement to get you back in
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: that top 25, top 30 range for the 2025, excuse me,
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: for the 2026 season. You don't have the same offensive
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: line this year, no matter how well things work out.
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's reasonable for people to say, yes,
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: Utah will have just as potent of an offense this
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: year as they had last year. Perhaps it's more, perhaps
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: it's better, in which case it alleviates all this pressure
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: that is on your defensive front, especially your run defense
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: to improve. But over under 125.5 at real OC sports
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: or 877-353-0700. Uh, Caden says over we've had, we've seen
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: deficiencies over the last few years, coaching changes, loss and
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: additions of players.
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 2: We'll keep those deficiencies up. Hope I'm wrong.
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 3: 44 46 says I'm going to take the over going
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 3: to be good enough.
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: Most of the season, I have a feeling they're going
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: to have a game or two. They just get ran over.
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: It's going to throw that average over the top. This
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 1: is probably the third most important statistic for Utah football
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: heading into the season. Is your run defense back in
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: the realm of normality for Utah football? Or are you
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: last year ranked 110th and run defense? giving up 180
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: yards a game. I don't think you overcome that in
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: the 2026 campaign the way you did in 2025.
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 2: Not to.
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 3: Completely quibble with Caden's text, but you just laid out
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 3: that it's not been over the last few years.
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 2: It was really just last year. It was last year.
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, you went from.
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: like fourth in the country to 18th in the country, 13th,
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: but like you're a top 25 run defense every year.
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. In your best years, you're better than that.
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 3: So that gives me hope that even though there's been
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 3: some losses on the defensive line and, and, and whatever
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 3: new coaching staff, whatever, that gives me hope that maybe
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 3: last year could be an outlier, but we won't know
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 3: until the game starts.
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: In 2024, remember how bad that season was? Remember how
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: all of us wanted to wash it out of the
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: mouths of every Utah fan ever?
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 3: You were still 35th in the country in run defense.
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 3: It wasn't the defense that was bad, despite all the injuries.
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 3: It was the other side of the ball that really struggled.
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: We'll give away some Utah State Fair tickets next on
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 2: ESPN 700, 92.1 FM. I can feel it coming, yeah.
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 5: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 5: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 1: I got a family four-pack of Utah State Fair tickets.
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: State Fair, of course, is out at the Fair Park
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: September 10th through the 20th.
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 4: 877-353-0700.
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: Utah football, the over-under today, 125.5 rushing yards surrendered. Will
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: they average more or less than that, over or under that?
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: At Real OC Sports, respond on the Twitter poll, 877-353-0700,
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: on the text line for the answer to this. Of course,
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: stopping the run means tackling and better tackling. So who
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: was Utah's leading tackler last season?
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 4: 877-353-0700.
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 2: On the text line, we're getting a couple answers. Way under.
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: The problem has been tackling, and Morgan is tackling in camp.
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: Taylor on the text line says, I'm feeling 140 yards
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: per game average.
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 2: Not good enough.
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: Honestly, you'd be like 45th in the country at 140
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 1: yards a game in rush defense.
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 2: You better be.
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 3: Putting up big numbers offensively, if that's the case. The
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 3: drive with Spence Checkets is next right here on ESPN 700.
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 3: And if you can believe it, Spence is here in
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 3: our Broadway studios.
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 7: I'm a 48-year-old man eating Welch's fruit snacks today.
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 2: That's a big bag.
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 7: Have you ever had these?
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 7: Reminded me of my childhood. Oh, yeah.
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 6: $ 2.
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 7: 99 at Maverick right now.
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 2: Can I tell you something?
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 6: You may.
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 7: We're talking. So, yes, go ahead.
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: Captain America himself, the UFC Hall of Famer and legend
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: Randy Couture.
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 3: Smashes Welch's fruit snacks like he's a toddler.
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 8: I do, too.
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 2: It's his only weakness in life, apparently.
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 7: That's interesting. I mean, I do as well. There's no
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 7: way they're good for you. They say, like, fruits are
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 7: our main ingredient. 22 carbs. Does that say 72 grams
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 7: of sugar?
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 2: Probably in the whole bag.
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 7: Yeah, but they say whole fruit is our main ingredient.
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 7: This is candy. This is not healthy. There's no way.
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 2: No, it's fine.
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 7: If I held you to one candy bar, candy option,
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 7: is there one option?
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm really into these days?
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 6: What's that?
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 2: Those Nerds Clusters. Are those good?
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 7: I've seen those a couple of times.
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 6: They're so good.
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 7: I'll have to try that.
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 2: They're so ridiculously good.
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I try to limit my sugar intake. I try
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 7: to watch what I eat because we're old now. I'm
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 7: much older than you are. But I like a good
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 7: Snickers occasionally. Snickers is a meal, so you can justify it.
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 7: Why wait, huh?
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're hungry.
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 7: Although, hot take, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, greatest candy of
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 7: all time. All time.
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 2: Not my favorite.
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 7: James got me.
• 2:23:43
  Speaker 2: They're okay.
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 7: Give me peanut butter and chocolate anything. For some reason,
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 7: I love it. James, you're with me, yeah?
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 3: Always been my favorite candy. I love basically everything Reese's.
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. Can I tell you guys, can I
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 2: offer a suggestion to both of you?
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 7: Once again, we're having a conversation, so yes.
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 2: Actually, no, I don't want to hear it.
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 7: It's how talking works.
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 7: You don't need permission. It's still your show.
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 3: Never mind.
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 2: You can tell Spence, but please don't tell me.
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 7: You have 45 seconds left in your show. You can
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 7: do whatever you want.
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 3: If you are a big Reese's fan, I want you
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 3: to go to Trader Joe's, and I want you to
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 3: get the miniature Trader Joe's cups.
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 7: Preach into the choir, brother.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 2: They're better than Reese's.
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 7: They're not, but they're so good.
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 2: They're better than Reese's.
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 6: It's amazing.
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 7: It's a more pure option.
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 2: It's closer to real food than Reese's is.
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 7: That is correct.
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 2: No one's arguing that.
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 7: As far as strictly taste, oh, come on. Like a
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 7: little melted Reese's peanut butter cup stuff. Also, I would
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 7: like to know what.
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 1: Witchcraft and voodoo they're working on their Reese's peanut butter
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: cup when they turn them into a different shape. for
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 1: Easter or for the pumpkin at Halloween.
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 2: Time, it's better. It tastes better.
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 7: No, than the actual cup?
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 3: You're crazy.
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 2: I actually agree with OC on this one.
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 7: The cup is the best.
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 6: No.
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 7: Give me the cup over all of it. I want
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 7: the cup.
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 2: The cup is like the, I don't know. The cup
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 2: is elite.
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: It's like Wonder Bread. It's like, you know it's not
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: going to do you wrong, but you can get better bread.
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 7: But tell me a nice piece of white bread, Wonder Bread,
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 7: doesn't hit the spot.
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 3: No, it does.
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 7: That's what I mean.
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 2: It's like, okay.
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 1: When you get a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, you know, okay,
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 1: this is going to be good. This isn't 88 miles
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: an hour right down the middle.
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's fair.
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 7: Of all the things that I've done in my life
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 7: to disappoint my parents with the church stuff, eating the
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 7: Wonder Bread and not having enough bread for sacrament one Sunday,
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 7: that almost got me kicked out of the house when
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 7: I was like 12.
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 3: You ate the loaf of bread?
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 7: Well, I mean, I thought we had allocated enough for
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 7: the masses. You know, something about fish to multitudes and such.
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 7: So I thought everything was good to go in the
• 2:25:48
  Speaker 7: sacrament tray. And I'm like, there are like three pieces
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 7: of Wonder Bread. And it was Fast Sunday, so you
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 7: know the deal. You can't eat. I'm like 12 and
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 7: I'm not allowed to eat, which is insanity. So I'm like,
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 7: I'm smashing this bread. And suddenly the deacons are passing
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 7: the sacrament and all of them come walking back. They're like, dude,
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 7: We don't have any more bread.
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 2: We're out of bread.
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 7: Mike, I wonder what happened. Where'd all the bread go? Oh, man.
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, God, that's great.
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 7: So half of our congregation was not blessed that day
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 7: by being able to take the sacrament because your boy
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 7: over here ate all the bread.
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 3: I did not know that is where Reese's peanut butter
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 3: cups were going to get us.
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 7: But here we are from favorite candy to me, potentially
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 7: ruining the lives of members of the church because I
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 7: ate too much bread.
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 1: From Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to the sins of a
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: young Spence check.
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 7: And that's a long show.
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 2: Right here.
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 7: We can do four hours on that if you'd like.
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 2: On your home of the Utes.
• 2:26:37
  Speaker 7: Did you say Utah's rushing defense was 110th last year?
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 5: 110th.
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 7: It was, what, eighth in the Big 12? Eighth or ninth?
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 7: I mean, I knew it was an uncharacteristically bad year,
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 7: but that's lower than I would have guessed.
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they gave up.
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 1: And, you know, it's all average and heavily skewed by
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: that Kansas State game, they gave up 181 yards a
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: game last year. They gave up 4.83 yards per carry
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: to their opponents last year. Now, lucky enough for Utah,
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: they averaged 5.5 yards a carry. So it was like
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 1: it all came out in the wash and they had
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: a great season. I don't want to say anything other
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 1: than they had a great season last year. But conversely,
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: Texas Tech gave up 68 yards a game last year.
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 7: What was that in their country?
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 2: Number one.
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 7: I was going to say it's got to be close
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 7: to the top.
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 1: 2.2 yards per carry to opponents. Indiana, your eventual national champions,
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 1: were right behind them 77 yards a game. Miami, the
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 1: runner up was sixth nationally in run defense at 89
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: yards per game. And that honestly, that that's where you
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 1: want to see Utah anywhere from, you know, that top
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 1: one down into the top 25, top 30.
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 2: That's where BYU was at last year.
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: Like you can, as long as your offense is humming,
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 1: you can get away with giving up a hundred plus
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 1: yards a game, but one 25 ish, Kind of the
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: line of demarcation if you want to be a dominant team.
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 7: Have you done a show on how many yards per
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 7: carry you think Utah will average this year?
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 6: I have.
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I did it on Weishan's average because he was
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 1: way up there. A lot of people think he's going
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 1: to be more of a bell cow this year, get
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: more carries, and that usually does bring your average down.
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 7: Because, as you alluded to, the only reason Utah was
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 7: able to survive having a pretty porous run defense is
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 7: because of what they were able to do on the
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 7: other side. And it just continues to be the number
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 7: one question. So if the run defense remains pretty stagnant,
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 7: there's a lot of pressure on a lot of guys
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 7: that have never done this before to, I don't think
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 7: it's fair to say replicate. I don't think you're going
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 7: to be the second best Russian team in the country. Again,
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 7: you're probably not going to be the best Russian team
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 7: in the league again.
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 2: Spence doesn't believe in you guys.
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 7: I mean, I don't think they're going to win our
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 7: game this year.
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 2: Breaking news. Spence check. It's thanks.
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 3: Utah will stink because he doesn't believe you can be
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 3: the number two rushing offense.
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 7: No, let me be clear. I'm I don't think I
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 7: don't see a win on the schedule. I don't see one.
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 7: I think we're looking at a winless football team and
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 7: everybody panic. It's going to be cold. It's going to
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 7: be cold nights next Thursday against Idaho. I've been grinding
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 7: Idaho tape, man. Those guys are ready to come in here.
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 7: So shock the world. So you think Utah will be
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 7: the number two rushing team in the country?
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 6: I do not.
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 7: So Sean hates the Utes. Sean hates Morgan.
• 2:29:17
  Speaker 1: I think they will be the number three rushing team
• 2:29:20
  Speaker 1: and the number one passing team, but.
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 2: That's just me.
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 7: The number one passing team.
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 3: That's Kevin McGibbon's more of a passing guy.
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 7: Oh, okay. All right. I would like to see that.
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 7: Mid-tier both is where I'll land. By the way, have
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 7: you noticed that everybody suddenly is in love with Oklahoma State?
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that me.
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 7: I mean, that kid can sling it. There's no doubt
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 7: about that. But they've got a lot of players that
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 7: have never even played P4 football before. Klatt has them
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 7: in his top 25. They have 66 new players.
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 7: I mean, look, proof of concept, lower level.
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 2: I get all that.
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 7: And I get the Houston stuff. I think I kind
• 2:29:59
  Speaker 7: of get the Arizona stuff as well. But there's been
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 7: this groundswell of, like, there are a couple of Big
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 7: 12-centric podcasts I like to try to catch every once
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 7: in a while. And I listened to two this morning
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 7: that both, their sleeper team, Oklahoma State, to potentially compete
• 2:30:14
  Speaker 7: for the league.
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 7: Don't know that I'm there yet.
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not there. But, you know, it would be cool.
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 1: It'd be good for the league if Oklahoma State was
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: back in the conversation. I don't think that It happens
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: in year one, maybe two, three years from now. That's
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: exactly what's going on there.
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 2: They don't. The player personnel is the problem, right?
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 3: Because the reason why a lot of people are still
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 3: talking about Utah, despite the relative of unknown of Morgan
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 3: Scali as a head coach is because they look at
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 3: the quarterback. They look at the running back. They look
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 3: at the wide receiver production at other schools that they're
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 3: bringing in. They say you can plug and play with
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 3: wide receivers and they're like, okay, they should still be
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 3: able to put up some numbers.
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 1: We believe in some things here. Oklahoma State, you're just like,
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 1: all right, you have a great quarterback. So did Colorado
• 2:31:03
  Speaker 1: with Shador Sanders. What is it going to do for you?
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I've just been kind of caught off guard because,
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 7: I mean, I feel like they made the move to
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 7: get rid of Gundy to try to reset things. But
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 7: if you think what Utah is going through is new
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 7: with people in new positions, I mean, Oklahoma State is
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 7: at times 10. How many games... before you feel like you're,
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 7: cause I continue to say curiosity, not conclusion. I don't
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 7: know what we're going to learn against Idaho. How many
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 7: games do you want to see before you feel like
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 7: you'll have an idea of what this is going to
• 2:31:35
  Speaker 7: look like this year?
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 6: Five.
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 7: So three non-con two con two conference games.
• 2:31:41
  Speaker 1: Before I'm like, okay, now you can either be by
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: BYU or you can't be.
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 7: Before you can be like, all right, I know what
• 2:31:48
  Speaker 7: Kevin believes in conceptually. I've, I think we all know
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 7: what the defense is going to look like because Colton
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 7: comes from the tree. But before you feel like you
• 2:31:56
  Speaker 7: understand personnel depth, the style that we're going to see,
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 7: because look, the walking line is Morgan believes in the
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 7: same football concepts that Kyle does.
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 7: But it doesn't mean that it's going to look the same.
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 7: I think we'll see some similarities, but I'd like to
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 7: move from, I should say, just kind of being curious
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 7: to conclusion sooner rather than later. Cause I've, I couldn't
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 7: even tab how many wins I think they're going to
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 7: get this year. I'm not there yet.
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 2: We'll do that on an over-under one of these days.
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: Idaho, Arkansas, Utah State, Iowa State, Kansas are your first five.
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 1: If it were instead of Arkansas, if we were talking
• 2:32:35
  Speaker 1: about Ole Miss coming in, now we have a better
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 1: litmus test. I think Utah State is actually a good
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: test for you. If your first conference game was Houston
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: instead of Iowa State, who again has an entirely new roster,
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: I think the downside, and it's a tiny one, of
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: having a softer schedule is that you don't learn about
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 1: your team as quickly.
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 7: I kind of like that because you get the three non-con,
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 7: then you get a road conference game and a home
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 7: conference game. And then after Kansas, it starts to get real.
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 7: I mean, there's a five-game stretch that I think is
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 7: going to make or break the whole thing.
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 2: Houston, Cincinnati, BYU, Arizona, TCU. There it is.
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 5: Yikes.
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah, there it is.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 7: And Arizona, TCU on the road. It's good to get
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 7: Houston and BYU at home, but that's the five-game stretch
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 7: that is going to make or break the whole thing.
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 7: So we'll see. One week, baby.
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 1: A week from today. Stay tuned for The Drive with
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: Spence Check. It's thanks for listening to The Sean O'Connell Show.
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: We'll do it again tomorrow on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.