Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sammy Mora on Utah FB, Things need to be different under Morgan Scalley, Anticipating position battles in camp + more

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Sammy Mora on Utah FB, Things need to be different under Morgan Scalley, Anticipating position battles in camp + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: Nay, scuse from my hand to nothing.
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Speaker 2: Listen, you are touge about Sean O'Connell show from the
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Speaker 2: Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two
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Speaker 2: one afm.
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Speaker 1: Our number two on the Shot O'Connell Show. We're gonna
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Speaker 1: talk a little.
0:57
Speaker 3: Utah football here. Camp begins on well, not this next Monday,
1:04
Speaker 3: but the Monday after August third. We're less than two
1:08
Speaker 3: weeks away now from the beginning, excuse me, the beginning
1:12
Speaker 3: of Morgan Scalley's first camp as head football coach. We'll
1:21
Speaker 3: ask Sammy Moore when she joins us this same question.
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Speaker 3: But eight seven seven three five three zero, seven hundred,
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Speaker 3: I want to hear from you as well.
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Speaker 1: What what do you need to see changed?
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Speaker 3: I'm not talking about like, oh, I want to see
1:38
Speaker 3: more access to the team. I want to see more
1:42
Speaker 3: interesting interviews from the head coach. We know that this
1:46
Speaker 3: is a different era in Utah football. What's the biggest
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Speaker 3: change you need to see. I'm talking about from a
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Speaker 3: tactical standpoint. I'm talking about what would have been the
1:58
Speaker 3: thing that got Utah over the hump last year. They
2:02
Speaker 3: were a really good team last year. Ten regular season
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Speaker 3: wins eleven wins after the bowl game, which, of course,
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Speaker 3: Morgan Scalley coached as the headman in his first real
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Speaker 3: game as head football coach, Kyle Whittingham leaving for Michigan
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Speaker 3: prior to that. Right, So, what is the thing that
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Speaker 3: you want to see change? What is the change you
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Speaker 3: want to see? Is a better way to phrase that.
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Speaker 3: We know there's going to be changes, but I'm not
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Speaker 3: asking what you think. I think they're going to pass
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Speaker 3: more this year. What do you want to see be
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Speaker 3: the change? Morgan Scalley calls you as a fan and said, look, man,
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Speaker 3: it's a clean slate. I get to do whatever I
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Speaker 3: want to do. I get to make this my product.
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Speaker 3: The Utah football team this year is going to look different.
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Speaker 3: How do you want it to look different? We know
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Speaker 3: all the ways we want it to be the same.
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Speaker 3: All of us are just like, yeah, you better play
3:00
Speaker 3: great defense, you better be able to run the ball.
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Speaker 3: What's the change you want to see? I got a
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Speaker 3: couple ideas myself I want to hear from you. Eight
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Speaker 3: seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. The change
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Speaker 3: that you have to see in U tough football. The
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Speaker 3: change that you think is absolutely necessary for them to
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Speaker 3: achieve what they can achieve, what they should achieve, what
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Speaker 3: they want to achieve this coming season eight seven seven
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Speaker 3: three five three zero seven hundred. Sammy Mora kind enough
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Speaker 3: to join us UT's insider friend of the program.
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Speaker 1: Hi, Sammy, Hey, how are you? I'm all right.
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Speaker 3: I'm gonna ask you that exact same question I just
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Speaker 3: threw out there for our text line. We know it's
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Speaker 3: gonna look different somehow. We don't know all the ways
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Speaker 3: that it's gonna look different. We don't know all the
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Speaker 3: ways that it's gonna look the same. But Morgan scally,
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Speaker 3: he gets you on the phone and he says, look, Sammy,
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Speaker 3: it's it's a fresh start.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 3: We got vanilla ice cream here? What toppings are you
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Speaker 3: putting on this thing? You know, the ice cream is good,
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Speaker 3: you tough football by itself is good. But what is
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Speaker 3: something you want to be part of this program that
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Speaker 3: maybe wasn't last year? And it could be as specific,
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Speaker 3: it could be as tactical as you want it to be.
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Speaker 3: What is something a change that Sammy Moore demands to
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Speaker 3: see needs to see in Utah football under a new
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Speaker 3: head coach.
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Speaker 4: I think it's twofold. For me, I think the defensive
4:23
Speaker 4: tackle room you want to I want to see them
4:25
Speaker 4: get back to the defensive tackle rooms of the past,
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Speaker 4: like you know, like the Starlo Twolele, that era of
4:32
Speaker 4: Utah football. Defensive tackles just guys that are absolute game
4:36
Speaker 4: changers on the interior of that defensive line. I think
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Speaker 4: that the defensive tackle room this season I have a
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Speaker 4: lot more confidence in than I did last season. From
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Speaker 4: a size perspective alone, There's a lot bigger bodies. There's
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Speaker 4: a lot of guys who you know are going to
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Speaker 4: make their money on stopping the run, which is something
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Speaker 4: that you struggled with last season, especially in the back
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Speaker 4: half of the year. So I think that is the
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Speaker 4: first one that I want to see, and the second
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Speaker 4: one is I want to see a truly balanced offense.
5:04
Speaker 4: I know that Kyle Whittingham talked a lot about having
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Speaker 4: a balanced offense, and you know, you run to open
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Speaker 4: the pass and all those types of things. But if
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Speaker 4: you look back at like statistics specifically last year, like
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Speaker 4: Utah the run game blew the passing game out of
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Speaker 4: the water. You know, Devin had like the passing game
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Speaker 4: had twenty eight hundred yards to the rushing thirty four hundred.
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Speaker 4: That's not balanced. As much as people want to claim
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Speaker 4: it's balanced, it's not. I want to see a more
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Speaker 4: balanced offense. I want to see Utah be in contention
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Speaker 4: with some high level receivers, whether it be high school kids,
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Speaker 4: portal kids. I want kids to be, you know, want
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Speaker 4: to join Utah because they're willing to air it out
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Speaker 4: as well as throwed as well as run the ball.
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Speaker 4: So I think those are the two big things for me.
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Speaker 4: But the offensive identity of this this program needs to
5:50
Speaker 4: change because you know, teams know that Utah is going
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Speaker 4: to run the ball, and it's time for that to change.
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Speaker 1: I like that.
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Speaker 3: We've already got that answer a couple of times. So
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Speaker 3: there's other Utah fans that feel the same way. And
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Speaker 3: you know, we have talked about that. We talked about
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Speaker 3: it through springball, We've talked about it kind of at
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Speaker 3: Big twelve media days. Morgan Scally has said, you know,
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Speaker 3: all the praiseworthy things for this wide receiving corps, and
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Speaker 3: it one thing is like I could make demands of
6:21
Speaker 3: this Utah football program and just be like, well, I
6:23
Speaker 3: need you to have the best defensive back in the
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Speaker 3: entire country, and it might be possible, it might not be.
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Speaker 3: It feels like with the bodies they have in the
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Speaker 3: wide receiver room and what the quarterback room looks like,
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Speaker 3: that this year might be the right year to put
6:39
Speaker 3: that on paper, to put that out there, to put
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Speaker 3: that on film and show people that this is not
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Speaker 3: a three yards in a cloud of dust offense, not
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Speaker 3: exclusively anymore. Is this wide receiving corps ready for that
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Speaker 3: duty if indeed the coaching staff puts it on them.
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Speaker 4: I think so. And like we've talked a lot about,
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Speaker 4: you know, the wider serier room over on Zone going
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Speaker 4: back to before spring ball started on and I'm still
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Speaker 4: in the camp that on paper, this is probably one
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Speaker 4: of the more deep wide receiver rooms Utah has had
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Speaker 4: in recent memory. I mean, Creed wit them more. If
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Speaker 4: you take him for example, he was probably wide receiver three,
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Speaker 4: maybe four last year when everything was said and done.
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Speaker 4: But this year, with just this year depth they have,
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Speaker 4: Creed might be wide receiver six. Like it's just there's
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Speaker 4: so many different guys that can do so many different things,
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Speaker 4: and you know a lot of it's projection. Like you know,
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Speaker 4: Brandon Pagan, he had nine hundred yards as a receiver
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Speaker 4: last year in the same offense. Can he do the
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Speaker 4: same thing this year. It's it's projection right now, but
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Speaker 4: until if they can put it on the field, then yeah,
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Speaker 4: I think that you should expect that change from the
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Speaker 4: wide receiver room. But until then, it's kind of one
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Speaker 4: of those things where it's like, well, the projections are
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Speaker 4: saying this, can they actually do it? When you know
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Speaker 4: the stadium lights are on and the TV cameras are
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Speaker 4: rolling and things like that.
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Speaker 3: You also mentioned the defensive tackle room, and this is
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Speaker 3: one This is the thing that I talked about with
8:01
Speaker 3: the access we got at spring football. I'm very much like, Okay,
8:07
Speaker 3: I'm hearing the same names from guys and they like,
8:10
Speaker 3: like Ji moy is the guy whose name came out
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Speaker 3: of everyone's mouth, and I'm like, cool, I love that.
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Speaker 3: That's great. He's small right now. That's fine. You can
8:21
Speaker 3: be small and be successful as a defensive tackle. Maybe
8:24
Speaker 3: the best interior defensive line in the history of the
8:27
Speaker 3: NFL is a guy who's forty pounds later than everyone
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Speaker 3: around him. Steve Fafita was one of the best to
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Speaker 3: ever do it. At the University of Utah. He was well,
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Speaker 3: not height wise, he was small. Wait wise, he wasn't small,
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Speaker 3: And that's kind of where GI fits in from a
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Speaker 3: physical profile standpoint. And you mentioned, hey, there's you know,
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Speaker 3: there's some bodies in this room that make you feel
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Speaker 3: confident that we could get back to this being a
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Speaker 3: Utah D line that people are really excited about.
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Speaker 1: Who are they?
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Speaker 3: Because you lost a couple you know, jon Ola is
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Speaker 3: someone that you did not want to lose out.
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Speaker 1: Of the room.
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Speaker 3: So who are the names that you're looking at and
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Speaker 3: saying like, yes, this is why the D line can
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Speaker 3: get back to where it was.
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Speaker 4: I think the two for me, like you mentioned Gi,
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Speaker 4: Gi is going to be He's going to do what
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Speaker 4: he needs to do, and I think he's going to
9:13
Speaker 4: have some big place for you taught this fall like
9:15
Speaker 4: like size is not an issue with him, like he's
9:18
Speaker 4: told many people that you know, he uses that size
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Speaker 4: as his you know, superpower, Like he's like, I know
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Speaker 4: that I'm small, and I want to prove people that
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Speaker 4: just because you're six foot you can still play defensive
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Speaker 4: task at a high level. And you know if you
9:30
Speaker 4: have offensive linemen ite Utah, who are you know six
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Speaker 4: seven inches taller than him that are saying like, yeah,
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Speaker 4: Gie's hard to defend. I mean that's something to you know, accept.
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Speaker 4: But I think from outside of him, the two that
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Speaker 4: are the biggest for me literally and like in terms
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Speaker 4: of like what they're going to produce hopefully is Krson
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Speaker 4: Kafusi and Lucas Amsula. Carson six six three oh five
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Speaker 4: and then Lucas is six four to three oh six.
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Speaker 4: Like those are some big guys in the interior of
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Speaker 4: that defensive line. And Lucas even told us during spring, like,
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Speaker 4: you know, I want to stop the run. That is
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Speaker 4: what I'm here to do, Like, I don't want people
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Speaker 4: to be able to run the ball on me. So
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Speaker 4: I think that's really encouraging when you have someone who
10:08
Speaker 4: that's literally all you want to do is stop the run.
10:11
Speaker 4: And Carson is someone that that we you know, we
10:13
Speaker 4: thought in at spring he looked completely different than he
10:16
Speaker 4: did last fall. He has reworked his body. You know,
10:19
Speaker 4: people talk about that man's strength. The kids get, you know,
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Speaker 4: around their second year. Carson has fully has fully gotten
10:25
Speaker 4: that he looks just like a mountain of a man.
10:28
Speaker 4: And he had some in spring. I you and I
10:31
Speaker 4: said next to each other, we watch the defensive tackle
10:33
Speaker 4: was like a couple of times he had some big
10:35
Speaker 4: plays like he was getting off that off the offensive
10:37
Speaker 4: lineman really quickly. So I think those are probably the
10:40
Speaker 4: two biggest ones that I you know, I'm circling. Jamal Wallace,
10:44
Speaker 4: I think is going to be someone that you know,
10:46
Speaker 4: fans kind of said are sleeping on right now. But
10:48
Speaker 4: I think he might have a couple of good moments
10:49
Speaker 4: this fall. And then obviously poop po Ceppalona. You know,
10:52
Speaker 4: he's he came in as like a high four star
10:54
Speaker 4: and I think that you know, last season was rough,
10:57
Speaker 4: uh but you know, true freshman. He wasn't here for spring,
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Speaker 4: so it's going to be interesting to see how he
11:02
Speaker 4: has reacted to, you know, a full off season with Utah.
11:05
Speaker 3: So camp less than two weeks away, and we don't
11:09
Speaker 3: know we did the whole Camp Kyle thing for twenty
11:11
Speaker 3: one years, right, we don't know what bent or flavor
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Speaker 3: Morgan's going to put on it. There's there's going to
11:17
Speaker 3: be more similarities than differences in my opinion, and we'll
11:21
Speaker 3: see what level of access we get during actual fall
11:24
Speaker 3: camp versus spring ball, which it was a little bit
11:27
Speaker 3: more open than we are accustomed to. But for what
11:30
Speaker 3: conversations you've had and just kind of what we know
11:33
Speaker 3: of the vibe, do you think fall camp is significantly
11:38
Speaker 3: different for this team in any way?
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Speaker 4: Well, I think the big thing is that outside of
11:44
Speaker 4: you know, a small handful of you know, position battles
11:48
Speaker 4: where it bes backup or stuff like that, like we
11:51
Speaker 4: kind of have an idea of who the starting eleven
11:54
Speaker 4: are going to be on both sides of football. And
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Speaker 4: I think that, at least from my vantage point, that
11:58
Speaker 4: takes a lot of pressure off because it feels really good,
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Speaker 4: specifically at quarterback, that this is what we're not heading
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Speaker 4: into this fall camp with like some sort of quarterback
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Speaker 4: battle hanging over our head. Like we know who, we
12:10
Speaker 4: know Devin's a starter, we know Birds is backup. Like
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Speaker 4: that's cut and dry. And I think that it benefits
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Speaker 4: that you're not every week like, oh, well, how's this
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Speaker 4: battle going, how's that battle going, how's this doing, how's
12:20
Speaker 4: that going? Because now you can actually focus in on
12:24
Speaker 4: locking in those finer details, you know, getting ready to
12:27
Speaker 4: actually play a game against someone who's not wearing the
12:29
Speaker 4: same jersey as you. Game installation, game preparation, preparing for
12:35
Speaker 4: your opponents all sorts of things like that, and I
12:37
Speaker 4: think that's the big thing and it helps. Like obviously
12:40
Speaker 4: offensive line, there's still some things that I got to
12:42
Speaker 4: figure out there. The outside corner spot opposite Scooby still
12:46
Speaker 4: needs to be figured out. What the true rotation looks
12:49
Speaker 4: like at defensive end and defensive tackle. But you know
12:51
Speaker 4: the names that are going to be involved. It's not
12:53
Speaker 4: like you still don't know who's going to be in
12:56
Speaker 4: contention for those roles. Like it's just solidifying things fall,
13:00
Speaker 4: which I think is going to help. It's just it's
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Speaker 4: going to take things off of Morgan.
13:03
Speaker 1: You know.
13:04
Speaker 4: That's as a first year head coach, there's a lot
13:06
Speaker 4: that's thrown at you and there's a lot you have
13:07
Speaker 4: to get used to. And I think not having eighty
13:10
Speaker 4: four billion position battles as something that should, you know,
13:13
Speaker 4: make things a little bit easier this fall.
13:16
Speaker 3: Sammy Moore is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
13:18
Speaker 3: Schotalk in Utah Football, who begins fall camp on August third.
13:21
Speaker 1: That is less than two weeks away. We are almost there. People.
13:25
Speaker 3: Football season is right around the corner. I think the
13:30
Speaker 3: early enroll, the prevalence of early enroll leies for top
13:34
Speaker 3: recruits especially has kind of taken a little bit of
13:36
Speaker 3: the fun out of this. But every year that I
13:41
Speaker 3: can remember, you know, either being part of Utah football
13:44
Speaker 3: or being close to watching Utah football, there's always like
13:47
Speaker 3: a guy who shows up, whether he's you know, a
13:49
Speaker 3: random juco dude, or he's a freshman coming out of
13:52
Speaker 3: high school, or he's a transfer that maybe he didn't
13:56
Speaker 3: get on everyone's radar, who starts to pop in fall camp.
14:00
Speaker 3: It's the smell of the grass, it's the whatever that
14:03
Speaker 3: just like wakes something up in these people and they
14:07
Speaker 3: become suddenly an unexpected part of the present plans for
14:12
Speaker 3: Utah football. Like I said, early enrollies kind of like
14:16
Speaker 3: take a little guesswork out of this because you get
14:19
Speaker 3: the best players on campus in January for the most part.
14:22
Speaker 3: But is there anyone that is going to start off
14:26
Speaker 3: in fall camp in two weeks that you're like, this
14:28
Speaker 3: person might actually see the field when we get to
14:31
Speaker 3: September third.
14:33
Speaker 4: I think there's there's two that might, but they're both,
14:37
Speaker 4: you know, in that category of early enrollies and stuff.
14:40
Speaker 4: I think Bear Fish or the tight End, and I
14:42
Speaker 4: think Nick Brown, the corner are two that you know
14:45
Speaker 4: might see some time. I'm not going to say they're
14:46
Speaker 4: going to start, but they probably will trot out the
14:49
Speaker 4: field in you know, garbage time situations things like that.
14:53
Speaker 4: And you know with the new five or five, you
14:55
Speaker 4: know that that's going to allow a lot of these
14:56
Speaker 4: kids to see this field, you know, maybe a little
14:58
Speaker 4: bit sooner, just because you know, red shirt not a
15:00
Speaker 4: thing anymore so in garbage time. You're not like, oh, well,
15:03
Speaker 4: I can't play this guy in garbage time because we've
15:05
Speaker 4: already played him, you know, three and a half games,
15:08
Speaker 4: and if we play him again, he's gonna lose his
15:10
Speaker 4: red shirt type of thing. But I think bear at
15:13
Speaker 4: tight end tight ends are those positions. It feels slightly
15:16
Speaker 4: weird to me right now. Like we know that we
15:18
Speaker 4: know that Noah Benny is, you know, he's all reports
15:22
Speaker 4: coming out of spring ball was that he was making
15:24
Speaker 4: big time plays, that he it looks to be another
15:26
Speaker 4: option in the passing game, all of those things that
15:29
Speaker 4: Utah needs from a tight end After him, it gets
15:32
Speaker 4: kind of questionable. I mean, I'm not going to include
15:34
Speaker 4: Hunter Andrews in this argument. I'm not going to include
15:36
Speaker 4: Semi and in this argument because those three play a
15:39
Speaker 4: very very different role than what the traditional tight end
15:42
Speaker 4: role that Utah has plays. So it's outside of is
15:46
Speaker 4: outside of Noah? Who is that you know tight end too?
15:49
Speaker 4: Is it Will Moni or is it Bear Fisher? Or
15:51
Speaker 4: is it a combination of the two. Will played a lot,
15:55
Speaker 4: He's played a lot of football. He played at Utah State,
15:57
Speaker 4: he played at Oklahoma State, He's played at multiple different
15:59
Speaker 4: school rules. But does he have what it takes to
16:03
Speaker 4: get into that second tight end role or does Bear
16:06
Speaker 4: make that jump? Because Bear had some really really really
16:09
Speaker 4: impressive catches this spring, Like I remember seeing him make
16:12
Speaker 4: some one handed grabs that I was like, Okay, this kid,
16:16
Speaker 4: this kid has it. And he came into the program
16:18
Speaker 4: already a good weight, so you're not worried about putting
16:20
Speaker 4: weight on him. So that's one that I've I've kind
16:23
Speaker 4: of circled. Nick Brown is the other one, you know,
16:25
Speaker 4: came in a little bit undersize. He is like I
16:28
Speaker 4: think he's at like one sixty I want to say
16:30
Speaker 4: on the roster right now, in terms of weight, one seventy.
16:32
Speaker 4: Actually like he looked small, he looked skinny. Did he
16:36
Speaker 4: put on the weight necessary this summer to be the
16:39
Speaker 4: backup Nickel because Drey Schatt talked about him a lot,
16:42
Speaker 4: especially in the back half of camp, and that how
16:45
Speaker 4: Nichol's one of the hardest positions you have to play
16:47
Speaker 4: on this Utah defense, and Nick rose to the challenge
16:51
Speaker 4: and rose the opportunity to play nickel at this level.
16:54
Speaker 4: Can he you know, did he do what he needed
16:56
Speaker 4: to do this offseason to put himself in a position
16:58
Speaker 4: to possibly back up Rock called thee let Nickel and
17:01
Speaker 4: see some time on the field.
17:05
Speaker 3: You mentioned Noah Benny. Jackson. Benny is a guy that
17:08
Speaker 3: like it's like, Okay, this dude's going to be an
17:10
Speaker 3: all conference level performer, but where doing what?
17:15
Speaker 1: What is it actually going to look like?
17:16
Speaker 3: His versatility I think actually ended up like hurting him
17:21
Speaker 3: as an individual a little bit last year because they're like,
17:24
Speaker 3: all right, you got to be a receiver today, you
17:26
Speaker 3: got to be a nickel today. You know what, You're
17:29
Speaker 3: a safety now. Is there a more articulated plan you
17:34
Speaker 3: think getting into twenty twenty six for Jackson Benny?
17:37
Speaker 4: Well, I think you're going to see him at safety.
17:39
Speaker 4: I think that's the big thing for him. The reason
17:42
Speaker 4: why you saw him moving around so much last year
17:44
Speaker 4: is because of one, lack of depth at wide receiver
17:47
Speaker 4: and lack of you know, experience there, and two you
17:50
Speaker 4: had him playing nickel for half the season because they
17:53
Speaker 4: didn't know who because Smith was playing on the outside,
17:56
Speaker 4: and then you moved people around, and then you have
17:59
Speaker 4: Jackson go back to safety when Rabbit gets goes down,
18:02
Speaker 4: and it was just he'd never truly settled into one position,
18:06
Speaker 4: it felt like. And I think that if you have
18:08
Speaker 4: him focus on just one position, and I personally think
18:11
Speaker 4: it should be safety. Jackson's he has to be all conference.
18:15
Speaker 4: You know, he's already on a bunch of pre twenty
18:18
Speaker 4: twenty seven draft boards as one of the best safeties
18:20
Speaker 4: in the nation. So I think you're gonna see him
18:22
Speaker 4: more at safety because you don't need him to play nickel.
18:25
Speaker 4: You have Rock, you have potentially Nick Brown, you have
18:28
Speaker 4: James Channel, you have a bunch of different guys that
18:30
Speaker 4: can play that nickel if need be. But safety is
18:33
Speaker 4: where Jackson should be. Center field, you know, blitzing occasionally
18:38
Speaker 4: in run support, occasionally dropping him into coverage. That's where
18:41
Speaker 4: he needs to be. He had the team high four
18:43
Speaker 4: interceptions last season. I honestly think he could match that
18:46
Speaker 4: or maybe even do more if he's playing safety full
18:48
Speaker 4: time this fall. So I think safety is where he
18:51
Speaker 4: needs to be. I think that's where you're going to
18:53
Speaker 4: see a majority of the season. And you know, let him,
18:56
Speaker 4: let him just play, like, let the kid go. He's
18:58
Speaker 4: so dynamic and he's such a playmaker that if you
19:01
Speaker 4: just let him, let him roam around the field and
19:04
Speaker 4: do what he needs to do, Jackson's gonna come up
19:06
Speaker 4: with the play. He's always around the ball, and I
19:08
Speaker 4: think that's where he needs to be.
19:12
Speaker 3: We got an email the other day about the Hall
19:15
Speaker 3: of Fame inductees Zaane Beatles, Delon Right, Daria B. Jack
19:19
Speaker 3: the nineteen ninety one softball team. We're gonna interview Amy Hoague,
19:23
Speaker 3: who was part of that softball team, coming up here
19:26
Speaker 3: on the show today.
19:29
Speaker 1: And you know, it's a it's a it's a great list.
19:34
Speaker 3: Your thoughts on the inductees to this Hall of Fame class.
19:40
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, it makes you feel kind of
19:42
Speaker 4: like weird that like now we're at that point of
19:44
Speaker 4: like Hall of Fame people that I remember watching when
19:46
Speaker 4: I was little and growing up, Like I remember watching
19:49
Speaker 4: delonn write when I was in high school. I remember,
19:52
Speaker 4: like I have a photo of me and my little
19:55
Speaker 4: brother was Zane Beatles, Sammy.
19:57
Speaker 3: I was a full blown old man by the time
20:00
Speaker 3: Delon Wright was coming through this program.
20:02
Speaker 1: So imagine how it makes me feel. But I'm glad.
20:04
Speaker 3: I'm glad You've got this recognition. Yeah.
20:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, see now it's like it's like one of those
20:08
Speaker 4: things about like you know, you're finally an adult when
20:11
Speaker 4: moment it's some one of those like Eureka moments for me,
20:13
Speaker 4: I feel like, but you know, it's it's it's a
20:15
Speaker 4: cool it's a good class, you know. I like Delan
20:18
Speaker 4: is like, you know, one of those players that ever,
20:20
Speaker 4: well every year people are like, well, why can't we
20:22
Speaker 4: have another Delon right type on the basketball team? Why
20:25
Speaker 4: can't we have we miss Delawn? Like Delan would have
20:27
Speaker 4: been great on this team. Like he's one of those
20:29
Speaker 4: guys that everyone just everyone loves and and he's such
20:32
Speaker 4: a he was such a great player for Utah. Same
20:35
Speaker 4: was saying, like Zane Beetles is like one of those
20:36
Speaker 4: other guys that you when you think of like good
20:40
Speaker 4: really great offensive lineman for Utah and that that time period,
20:43
Speaker 4: it's like Jordan gross Zane Beatles like those are two
20:46
Speaker 4: of the biggest ones you think of. But it's exciting,
20:49
Speaker 4: you know, it's always a fun time when you see
20:51
Speaker 4: who gets inducted into these Hall of fames because they
20:53
Speaker 4: go through a lot to get into these positions. And
20:55
Speaker 4: you know, like Mark Carlin said in his little video,
20:58
Speaker 4: like only one or two percent of student athletes from
21:01
Speaker 4: Utah get inducted into this Hall of Fame. So it's
21:03
Speaker 4: honestly like just a massive honor for them, and it's
21:06
Speaker 4: always exciting to see who it is. Like every year,
21:08
Speaker 4: it's just like a like a like not Russian roulette,
21:10
Speaker 4: but it's like spin the wheel of who who could
21:12
Speaker 4: it be now? Because there's just historically across every sport,
21:15
Speaker 4: there's so many, so many athletes that thrived doing what
21:19
Speaker 4: they did.
21:20
Speaker 3: Okay, I've got a couple of unfair questions for you
21:22
Speaker 3: to finish things off. We'll start with the one that
21:25
Speaker 3: is less unfair, but it's predictive. So the toughest game
21:30
Speaker 3: on Utah's schedule this year is.
21:33
Speaker 4: What, Oh god, Arizona. You're on the road. You're in Tucson.
21:42
Speaker 4: Tucson's never been you know, the greatest place for Utah.
21:45
Speaker 4: Noah Fafida is is Noah Fafida. He's an elite quarterback
21:49
Speaker 4: in this conference and in this league. And I think
21:52
Speaker 4: that game that games, it's in a weird position on
21:55
Speaker 4: a schedule. I think Arizona's probably the hardest.
21:56
Speaker 1: I know.
21:57
Speaker 4: People are like, Sammy, why didn't you say BUYU? You know,
22:01
Speaker 4: Morgan Scalley played in this game. He grew up around
22:03
Speaker 4: this game for a long time. I think he's going
22:04
Speaker 4: to bring a different edge to this game than there
22:06
Speaker 4: were the previously was. And I'm not saying that that
22:08
Speaker 4: it's going to get like even more vitual and vile
22:11
Speaker 4: than it has. And I think that Morgan knows how
22:14
Speaker 4: like not to say Kyle didn't know how important the
22:16
Speaker 4: game was, but Morgan truly knows how important this game is,
22:19
Speaker 4: you know, as someone who's lived at his entire life.
22:22
Speaker 4: So I think having Morgan in charge of that, having
22:24
Speaker 4: bou at home, I think that that one's like a
22:27
Speaker 4: very close second. But I'm going to go with Arizona
22:29
Speaker 4: as the toughest game on the schedule.
22:31
Speaker 3: I thought you were going to say that, and I
22:32
Speaker 3: don't disagree with you at all, because, yeah, I mean
22:35
Speaker 3: the low hanging fruit is of course BYU the rivalry game.
22:39
Speaker 3: Probably you could circle that every single year, But that
22:42
Speaker 3: Arizona game looms large for me as well. And I
22:45
Speaker 3: heard I think it was Joel Klatt said he thinks
22:47
Speaker 3: the winner of that game ends up as one half
22:50
Speaker 3: of the Big twelve championship games.
22:52
Speaker 1: So I don't I don't know that he's far off
22:55
Speaker 1: in his prediction if I have that right.
22:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, that game is just there's just so many conference
23:00
Speaker 4: implications that are hanging over on that game, specifically because BA,
23:03
Speaker 4: you and Arizona meet very early in the season, so
23:06
Speaker 4: their head to head matchup will be done like by
23:09
Speaker 4: the time conference play starts, if I remember correctly, that's right.
23:12
Speaker 1: Their week their week two.
23:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so it's like you'll know what, like that's
23:17
Speaker 4: going to be a key a key game for the
23:19
Speaker 4: conference that week. And I think that you know, you
23:21
Speaker 4: kind of learned a lot about both teams that weekend.
23:24
Speaker 4: So I still think, you know, if whoever wins that
23:27
Speaker 4: game is sitting pretty in the conference standings. But then
23:30
Speaker 4: that that Utah Arizona game is is just even more massive.
23:33
Speaker 3: Okay, now this this next question, this will be my
23:36
Speaker 3: last question, and it's completely irresponsible to even ask, but
23:40
Speaker 3: that's who I am, so I guess you could deal
23:42
Speaker 3: with it. Pete Thamill reported from SEC Media Days yesterday
23:47
Speaker 3: that you know, going through the fine print and talking
23:50
Speaker 3: about to Protect College Sports Act, and one of the
23:52
Speaker 3: things that is really causing an issue for the SEC
23:56
Speaker 3: getting on board and some other some other programs getting
23:59
Speaker 3: on board is that there's a clause in there that says,
24:05
Speaker 3: if conference realignment happens, if you're a Power four team
24:08
Speaker 3: that wants to go to a different conference, you would
24:11
Speaker 3: first have to be an independent for five years in
24:16
Speaker 3: college football. And I had a good laugh about this yesterday,
24:20
Speaker 3: but just for the sake of conversation, knowing full well
24:24
Speaker 3: that it's not a reality at this moment, would it
24:27
Speaker 3: be worth it for Utah Athletics if like the Big
24:32
Speaker 3: Ten came a column and said, hey, we want you
24:35
Speaker 3: as soon as we can get you, but that rule
24:39
Speaker 3: is in place, would it be worth it for Utah
24:41
Speaker 3: Athletics to be independent for five years to get into
24:45
Speaker 3: the Big Ten? And I guess the extension of that
24:48
Speaker 3: question is could you survive those five years if you
24:51
Speaker 3: had to?
24:52
Speaker 4: Well, I think that that's like one of those things
24:55
Speaker 4: that you know, I've been thinking about since that came
24:57
Speaker 4: out yesterday as well. But like, I think one of
24:59
Speaker 4: the things that it depends on is who else is
25:02
Speaker 4: in that situation, because there's no I don't think there's
25:05
Speaker 4: a way in which, like I understand the nineteen teams
25:10
Speaker 4: thing is like still on the table too, But like
25:13
Speaker 4: if the SEC also goes like after teams, there's gonna
25:17
Speaker 4: be a bunch of teams that have to be independent
25:19
Speaker 4: for those five years. So who are those other five
25:21
Speaker 4: who are the other teams that are independent?
25:23
Speaker 1: Okay, let's do this together.
25:25
Speaker 3: So let's say the nineteen teen thing goes away, right,
25:29
Speaker 3: and the SEC is just like, we're gonna add Texas Tech,
25:35
Speaker 3: and we're gonna add Miami and North Carolina and Florida
25:40
Speaker 3: State just for the sake of the conversation, right, And
25:43
Speaker 3: the Big ten is just like, okay, fine, we're gonna
25:45
Speaker 3: grab Utah and BYU and Colorado and whoever else you
25:51
Speaker 3: want to put in there. Right, So it's it's a
25:55
Speaker 3: it's another mass round of realignments, so to speak. You're
25:58
Speaker 3: not doing it just by you. But not everyone is
26:02
Speaker 3: in the same financial situation. Not everyone is in the
26:05
Speaker 3: same situation from a competitive standpoint, like, uh, some teams
26:10
Speaker 3: like Colorado is gonna they're already a mess, right, They're
26:13
Speaker 3: already digging themselves this insane hole. I don't know that
26:16
Speaker 3: they would make it the five years at their current
26:19
Speaker 3: rate of spending. Uh, if you're not getting television revenue
26:23
Speaker 3: or whatever. So like, if you extend it out to
26:26
Speaker 3: that level of hypothetical, I'll leave the.
26:28
Speaker 1: Floor to you.
26:30
Speaker 4: I think it again, I think it's still it kind
26:32
Speaker 4: of depends, like what is Crimson Brand Partners doing? Is
26:36
Speaker 4: there enough of a nest egg for you t how
26:38
Speaker 4: to keep themselves afloat for all those years, because I like,
26:43
Speaker 4: I don't think scheduling would be an issue, especially if
26:45
Speaker 4: if there's a large number of teams that you know,
26:47
Speaker 4: go at the same time, because then you just schedule
26:49
Speaker 4: each other. That's the way you get around like scheduling
26:51
Speaker 4: and stuff. But like, I like, financially, I think that's
26:55
Speaker 4: the biggest thing, and I think, you know, Crimson Brand
26:58
Speaker 4: Partners is the biggest part of it, Like, is are
26:59
Speaker 4: they doing what they need to do in terms of
27:01
Speaker 4: helping UTAH max out the revenue that they can possibly
27:04
Speaker 4: generate Because If they are, then I think Utah is
27:06
Speaker 4: probably in a better position to be able to stay
27:10
Speaker 4: afloat for those five years. But if they're not, then yeah,
27:13
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's worth it. Like I know,
27:15
Speaker 4: UTA fans are probably like screaming at their their radios
27:17
Speaker 4: or computers or whatever they're listening to this on right
27:19
Speaker 4: now and being like, but we but the Big Ten.
27:21
Speaker 4: I understand that. But at the same time, like the
27:23
Speaker 4: long term, the long term goal shouldn't be outweighed by
27:27
Speaker 4: a short term gain. I think that's the big thing
27:29
Speaker 4: is like short term, like yeah, in that moment the
27:32
Speaker 4: Big ten offers and says, hey, like we want you
27:34
Speaker 4: to come up five years, you have to wait. Are
27:36
Speaker 4: you going to be able to stay afloat for those
27:38
Speaker 4: five years? That's the biggest thing financially, because you know,
27:40
Speaker 4: you're seeing teams across the country or athletic departments across
27:43
Speaker 4: the country start cutting and cutting out those Olympic sports,
27:46
Speaker 4: like the Olympic sports matter at Utah. Utah takes a
27:48
Speaker 4: lot of pride in producing Olympians no matter what sport
27:51
Speaker 4: it is, and if you start cutting Olympic sports, you know,
27:54
Speaker 4: that's a short term solution, but it's still going to
27:57
Speaker 4: be a long term problem. So that was kind of
27:59
Speaker 4: a round about answer to say, I you know, who knows.
28:02
Speaker 4: I think a lot of it's just depend on Crimson
28:04
Speaker 4: Brand partners and where Utah that financially. But I also
28:08
Speaker 4: just I just have a hard time believing the Big
28:10
Speaker 4: ten and the SEC are going to sign off on
28:11
Speaker 4: this thing and if they don't, like it's just going
28:15
Speaker 4: to create chaos, like like, just be prepared for ultimate
28:19
Speaker 4: chaos and college athletics again. Oh yeah, no again again,
28:25
Speaker 4: But like I feel like it's gonna be like a
28:27
Speaker 4: million times worse this time because you're just gonna see
28:29
Speaker 4: like any team with a pulse trying to bid their
28:33
Speaker 4: get into their like the good graces of the Big
28:35
Speaker 4: ten in the SEC. Like you're just going to see it.
28:37
Speaker 4: Like obviously Utah, I think Stanford and col would probably
28:40
Speaker 4: throw their hat in the rings as well. I wouldn't
28:42
Speaker 4: be shocked to see the Arizona schools, you know, Kansas,
28:45
Speaker 4: the schools that you know have these have one or
28:48
Speaker 4: two sports that would prove you know, big value to
28:51
Speaker 4: these conferences and stuff like obviously San Francisco is a
28:55
Speaker 4: massive media market, which might you know turn the tides
28:57
Speaker 4: for those two schools. Kansas has basketball, Arizona has basting
29:00
Speaker 4: football seems to be on the up. Arizona state football
29:03
Speaker 4: like it's gonna be insane, it's gonna be chaotic. I
29:06
Speaker 4: am slightly interested in it, but also like slightly not
29:10
Speaker 4: interested in it at the same time because I know
29:12
Speaker 4: of just how chaotic the last time of realignment was,
29:15
Speaker 4: so you know, we'll see. I just I have a
29:18
Speaker 4: hard time believing that this bill is going to pass,
29:20
Speaker 4: just because you know, the SEC and the Big ten
29:22
Speaker 4: are just digging themselves, digging their heels and in stuff,
29:25
Speaker 4: and yeah, it's just not it's not fun. But at
29:28
Speaker 4: the same time, I'm glad I'm not in those rooms,
29:30
Speaker 4: in those conversations.
29:31
Speaker 3: Same Sammy, you're the best. Look forward to seeing you
29:35
Speaker 3: up there at practices and such with media availability.
29:38
Speaker 1: And thanks for jumping on today.
29:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks for having me Oca. I appreciate coming on again.
29:44
Speaker 3: It's Sammy mora Utes insider, a friend of the program.
29:51
Speaker 3: They're doing really good work over there at Ute Zone,
29:54
Speaker 3: so get on board. It's now on three by the way,
30:00
Speaker 3: way