Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Kevin McGiven on the joining the Utes staff as the new OC, 2 QB's mean you don't have 1 (?), OL's progression + more

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Kevin McGiven on the joining the Utes staff as the new OC, 2 QB's mean you don't have 1 (?), OL's progression + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Please.
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  Speaker 2: Based on Sean O'Connell show, you were home of the
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  Speaker 2: best side of yours us. Let's get back to WOC
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  Speaker 2: from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven ninety two
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  Speaker 2: one am.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connor Show.
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  Speaker 4: Welcome in New Utah offensive coordinator Kevin mcgiven, coach, Welcome
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  Speaker 4: to the show for the first time.
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  Speaker 3: How are you, sir?
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm doing good, doing good, Just getting ready
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  Speaker 1: for another practice here coming up tomorrow. So things going well.
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  Speaker 4: When is the last time you talked with Ian Pizarro
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  Speaker 4: who was our who was our quarterback at Weber State,
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  Speaker 4: my lone year on the roster up there while you
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  Speaker 4: were calling things.
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  Speaker 1: Oh geez, it's been a it's been a minute since
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  Speaker 1: I ran into to Ian. But great, dude, I had
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  Speaker 1: a lot of fun coaching. But probably need to reconnect
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  Speaker 1: here at some point.
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  Speaker 4: I haven't. I haven't talked to him in years either.
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  Speaker 4: I was just wondering if you stayed in touch.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I ran into a few years back somewhere.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's been a little while.
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  Speaker 3: All Right, to the Utah Football Questions.
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  Speaker 4: So you show up and it's right into business here
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  Speaker 4: in the spring, with a roster that is in a
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  Speaker 4: lot of ways turning over new offensive line because you
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  Speaker 4: lost a bunch of talented starters from last season. You
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  Speaker 4: bring in a bunch of talent in the wide receiver room,
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  Speaker 4: your top tight ends are gone hopefully off to the NFL,
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  Speaker 4: and you've got to integrate some people there.
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  Speaker 3: How are they.
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  Speaker 4: Gelling so far from your perspective, from your vantage as
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  Speaker 4: a guy who's got to get the most out of
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  Speaker 4: this offense.
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  Speaker 3: How quickly is it coming together? Coach?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they've made a lot of a lot
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  Speaker 1: of progress this spring. There's been a there's been a
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  Speaker 1: lot of focus on culture, a lot of just how
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  Speaker 1: we're playing, you know, the effort we're giving, you know,
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  Speaker 1: Coach Galley, you know culturally, culturally it's the r n B.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, are we playing playing with relentless effort,
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  Speaker 1: with relentless preparation? You know? Are we playing smart football?
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  Speaker 1: Are we being nasty when appropriate? You know, there's that's
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  Speaker 1: been a big focal point in just you know, showing
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  Speaker 1: culture eclips of that stuff showing up on a day
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  Speaker 1: to day basis. Are we living it?
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  Speaker 3: You know?
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  Speaker 1: And then outside of that just like you mentioned, a
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  Speaker 1: new roster with you know, a lot of personnel identifications
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  Speaker 1: in terms of who we can use, packages that we
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  Speaker 1: can put together, putting people in the appropriate places, and
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  Speaker 1: so there's been a lot of that stuff going on.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I would say progress being made. You know that,
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  Speaker 1: I think a little ways to go still in the
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  Speaker 1: in the total chemistry that we would want.
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  Speaker 4: There's an old adage, and admittedly it's probably a stupid
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  Speaker 4: one if you've got two quarterbacks and means you don't
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  Speaker 4: have one. And I think that Utah this season stands
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  Speaker 4: in defiance of that, ever being true. Devin Dampier incredibly talented,
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  Speaker 4: very capable as a big time starter. What we have
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  Speaker 4: seen a bird Fickland suggests that he is exactly the
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  Speaker 4: same and as a bunch of arm talent, beautiful instincts
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  Speaker 4: when he's got the ball in his hand in the
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  Speaker 4: run game, Coach, how do you use both guys?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that, just like you mentioned, that's a really interesting scenario.
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  Speaker 1: It's a it's a good problem to have, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you know, getting getting one of them to stay, let
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  Speaker 1: let alone the boat and and then trying to formulate
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  Speaker 1: a plan in terms of what that looks like and
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  Speaker 1: make sure that they both have an opportunity to impact you.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Devin has really displayed you know, really really
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  Speaker 1: early on and just getting better and better with his
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  Speaker 1: command of the of the system overall. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: would probably say, you know, bring back to your previous
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  Speaker 1: question in terms of the opportunities he's had to develop
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  Speaker 1: the can mystry continuity with some of the pieces around them,
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  Speaker 1: maybe a little bit more than can Burn at this point,
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  Speaker 1: just in terms of the rep a lot, you know.
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  Speaker 1: But but then kind of in that personal identification role,
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  Speaker 1: you know, all the things that he is capable of doing,
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  Speaker 1: not just from the quarterback position, you know, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: being able to do some different spots on the field.
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  Speaker 1: And and then what if that looks like in terms
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  Speaker 1: of having them on the field together or you know,
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  Speaker 1: on a on a little bit of a rotational basis,
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  Speaker 1: so very very similar in terms of their skill sets.
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  Speaker 1: It's not really like you have to package different differently
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  Speaker 1: for them as quarterbacks, you know, outside at this point,
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  Speaker 1: just you know, what is their overall command with with
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  Speaker 1: certain concepts and certain certain things that you are doing
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  Speaker 1: that would maybe dictate the menu.
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  Speaker 4: How often will we see both guys on the field
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  Speaker 4: at once. It's a it's a dynamic that almost no
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  Speaker 4: team can do and have it like anything be other
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  Speaker 4: than a decoy. Right, But both of these guys are
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  Speaker 4: athletic enough that you know you could run some two
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  Speaker 4: quarterback things. You don't want to get too crazy, too fancy,
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  Speaker 4: too weird.
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  Speaker 3: Will we see it.
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  Speaker 1: We'll just say it could possibly get it can possibly
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  Speaker 1: get a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: Weird, all right. I like that.
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  Speaker 4: Kevin mcgiven, Utah offensive coordinator, is our guest here on
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  Speaker 4: the Sean O'Connell Show.
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  Speaker 3: He's not afraid of making it a little bit weird.
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  Speaker 4: So you've probably known this, having you know, been Utah
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  Speaker 4: football adjacent for a while and having to prepare against
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  Speaker 4: teams like this or be on staffs that we're praying
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  Speaker 4: against teams like Utah. There's been a there's been a time,
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  Speaker 4: well there's been a lot a couple of decades now
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  Speaker 4: that we've been every single year asking man, what about
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  Speaker 4: the wide receiver room at Utah? Do they have something
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  Speaker 4: special this year? And weirdly, even though we don't know
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  Speaker 4: these guys as well, they haven't produced necessarily in a
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  Speaker 4: Utah football uniform. The sentiment out there among the fan
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  Speaker 4: base and even folks in the media is that this
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  Speaker 4: might be the deepest and perhaps best wide receiver room
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  Speaker 4: that Utah football has had in a long while. Are
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  Speaker 4: you seeing that at practice? Is that what this group
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  Speaker 4: is potentially capable of?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I you know, there is definitely the there's definitely
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  Speaker 1: the playmaking ability out there, and I think that we're
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  Speaker 1: establishing death. I'm seeing probably six guys out there that
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  Speaker 1: you can rotate through, and all of them, you know, definitely,
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  Speaker 1: you know, trustworthy to you know, not only be in
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  Speaker 1: the right spots at the right times, but where it's
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  Speaker 1: like picking shoes where you want to go, where you
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  Speaker 1: want the ball to go to. And so maybe you
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  Speaker 1: would try to isolate certain guys in certain situations, but
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  Speaker 1: at this point, with what I'm seeing those guys capable of,
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  Speaker 1: it's like you just call it and you let dev
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  Speaker 1: make the decisions and distribute the ball wherever it needs
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  Speaker 1: to go, and you're gonna have somewhere and someone in
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  Speaker 1: a spot somewhere that can make a play for you,
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  Speaker 1: you know. And so the way that that's coming together,
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  Speaker 1: like I said, maybe need more time, investment and more
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  Speaker 1: volume of repetition in terms of getting the overall chemistry
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  Speaker 1: and never really learning those guys so it can be
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  Speaker 1: as effective as we need it to be and want
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  Speaker 1: it to be. But I really like how that's taking
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  Speaker 1: shape and being able to utilize those guys in some
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  Speaker 1: different ways. You know, I think there's a there's been
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  Speaker 1: that cultural element to the Utah football and the stigma
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  Speaker 1: of what they've been and you know, we don't it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have to be a departure from that to get
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  Speaker 1: those to get these wide receivers invloved. Well.
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  Speaker 4: I'm glad to hear you say that, because having a
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  Speaker 4: good run game in a good pass game are not
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  Speaker 4: mutually exclusive, and we sometimes treat them like they are.
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  Speaker 4: I think because where you tell football fans and it's
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  Speaker 4: just like, well, you know what, you're going to be
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  Speaker 4: great in the run, so that means you've got to
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  Speaker 4: give up something in the past game where championship caliber
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  Speaker 4: teams can do both pretty well. So in the ideal
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  Speaker 4: Kevin mcgiven world, what does run pass production, how that
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  Speaker 4: how that's divided up look like? I mean, would you
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  Speaker 4: rather be sixty forty fifty fifty fifty five forty five
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  Speaker 4: again in a perfect world. We know that you can
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  Speaker 4: take what the defense gives you, but if you had
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  Speaker 4: to make a formula, what would it look like?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you said, you know, that'll that'll always
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  Speaker 1: dictate a lot of it. But I think more appropriately
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  Speaker 1: is that I want to be able to control and
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  Speaker 1: dominate a game, take over a game with the run game.
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  Speaker 1: I want to be able to have the ability to
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  Speaker 1: do that. But I kind of really do balance more
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  Speaker 1: as your ability to attack the a gap to the
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  Speaker 1: sideline and the line of scrimmage to the end line,
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  Speaker 1: like you know, and that involves run game, That involves
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  Speaker 1: throw game on the pimeter, That involves your quick your intermediates,
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  Speaker 1: your vertical shots, you know. And so as long as
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  Speaker 1: the ball is being distributed correctly and we're taking advantage
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  Speaker 1: of what Dee has given you with light boxes or
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  Speaker 1: potential rpio is playing options football, you know, then that's
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  Speaker 1: what I would view more as balance as opposed to
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  Speaker 1: run past ratio, as the ability to attack any point
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  Speaker 1: on the field at any time.
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  Speaker 4: Do you like a bell cow back or do you
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  Speaker 4: think we could see something by committee?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I think there's I think way Sean Parker
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  Speaker 1: has established himself as the bell cow back that you know,
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  Speaker 1: he's he's a three down back and he has the
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  Speaker 1: skill set that I like to see at the position
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  Speaker 1: in terms of his versatility doing some different things out
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  Speaker 1: of the backfield. You know. But really, Daniel Bray has
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  Speaker 1: had a really strong spring ball and you know, he's
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  Speaker 1: starting to put on some weight, you know, starting to
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  Speaker 1: do some things where he's running between the tackles. But
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  Speaker 1: it gives you, you know a little bit more of
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  Speaker 1: that scat guy, that dynamic element in terms of getting
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  Speaker 1: him involved in some different ways and and you know,
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  Speaker 1: makes it fun in terms of what we can do
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  Speaker 1: with the with the personnel groupings, with those guys on
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  Speaker 1: the field, both on the field.
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  Speaker 4: The lowest hanging fruit when people ask about, hey, what's
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  Speaker 4: this utel football going to be, and they're like, what
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  Speaker 4: are the questions? The lowest hanging fruit is, well, what
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  Speaker 4: does the offensive line look like? You lose two guys
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  Speaker 4: that might be first round draft picks. The three that
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  Speaker 4: played in between them, I think should at least get
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  Speaker 4: their cup of.
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  Speaker 3: Coffee in the NFL as well.
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  Speaker 4: And it's hard to replace a line with that level
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  Speaker 4: of size, experience, talent. If you had to start a
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  Speaker 4: group of five tomorrow. Do you have a good idea
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  Speaker 4: of who those five would be?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I think at this point, I think there's
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  Speaker 1: three guys that have really solidified themselves, you know, a
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  Speaker 1: couple a couple positions where there's still some competition going on,
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  Speaker 1: but probably far and away the most improved group from
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  Speaker 1: the start of spring until now. You know, what I
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  Speaker 1: may have considered was going to be a weakness going in,
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  Speaker 1: I'm starting to really lean on being one of our strengths.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the things that they've been able to handle
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  Speaker 1: from our defense, the progress that they've made from a
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  Speaker 1: fundamental and textical standpoint, their ability to apply, you know,
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  Speaker 1: scheme to scheme has been really really impressive. You know,
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  Speaker 1: and so but you know, the what Zarawai Williams has
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  Speaker 1: given us at the left tackle position. He he is
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  Speaker 1: a bona fide guy there and is doing awesome. We've
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  Speaker 1: we've really been able to solidify Alex Harrison at the
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  Speaker 1: center spot. He's done a great job just with identification, directing,
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  Speaker 1: traffic and his leadership up there. Keith Olton has been
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  Speaker 1: an anchor at the right guard spot. You know, he's
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  Speaker 1: working on some things fundamentally, but has been really stout
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  Speaker 1: on the inside and been really strong there. And then
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  Speaker 1: we're getting some some good competition at right tackle with
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  Speaker 1: sed with Jefferson and night Garcia, you know, and then
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  Speaker 1: with you know, a at the guard spots with with
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  Speaker 1: Telmi and Kelvin. Obot is a freshman that is like
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  Speaker 1: kind of in there and swimming a little bit at times,
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  Speaker 1: but holy cal is he athletic and he's gonna he's
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  Speaker 1: gonna carve out his role and and be a big
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  Speaker 1: time teacher guy for us.
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  Speaker 4: I always am cautious with freshman offensive lineman, especially you
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  Speaker 4: guys are supposed to still be in high school. But
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  Speaker 4: then he walked by the other day after practice, and
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  Speaker 4: I was like, maybe I should adjust my expectations.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you watch a couple of clips of that guy,
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  Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, let's rethink this a little bit.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, how is How is it having Jordan Gross and
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  Speaker 4: Alex Kirky working together on that group on that offensive line.
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  Speaker 4: Gross he's never been a college coach before, and I
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  Speaker 4: don't know how it differs from being a high school coach.
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  Speaker 4: You could tell me a lot more about that, but
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  Speaker 4: you know, it's a demanding job. It's a different job,
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  Speaker 4: I'm sure at the college level. And then you got
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  Speaker 4: a guy in Girk who's like, he's probably a little
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  Speaker 4: different now, but when I knew him was as insane,
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  Speaker 4: an old school as an as abrasive as a coach
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  Speaker 4: can be.
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  Speaker 3: Now they're working together.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's been an awesome pairing and awesome for
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  Speaker 1: our offensive staff and and those and I think appropriate
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  Speaker 1: for the for the group that we're working with with
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  Speaker 1: with the young talent. We've gotten Gurky to keep his
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  Speaker 1: shirt on during practice. That's been a huge, a huge plus.
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  Speaker 1: But no, you know where where I maybe thought that
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  Speaker 1: some of Jordan's deficiencies coming in just may have been
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  Speaker 1: in the in the schematic element, and it's you know
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  Speaker 1: how you know, just helping him grow there with uh,
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  Speaker 1: with what we wanted to do in our system. But
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  Speaker 1: knew that he was going to be a technician that
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  Speaker 1: showed up early on doing it at a very high
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  Speaker 1: level against some of the best athletes in the world,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, and so so getting those guys to
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  Speaker 1: a technical standpoint, I think where Turkey has aided him is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, really Turkey does a great job in terms
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  Speaker 1: of establishing a culture of toughness and keeping things very
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  Speaker 1: simple for those guys. And and so you know, you
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  Speaker 1: get young guys in there with a lot of experience,
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  Speaker 1: and there can be a lot going on there. They
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  Speaker 1: can be swimming, but you know, done a great job
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  Speaker 1: keeping it simple, done a great job developing their technique.
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  Speaker 1: And then the scheme understanding is you know, you know,
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  Speaker 1: taking huge steps during during the spring. And so you
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  Speaker 1: know that combination of those guys has been really impressive
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  Speaker 1: to watch.
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  Speaker 4: Right before I let you go, we had Bryson Barnes
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  Speaker 4: on the station last week and he called you mac G.
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  Speaker 4: He called you mac g, He called your Maverick. He
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  Speaker 4: didn't ever say coach mcgiven. What are the guys call
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  Speaker 4: you up there on the hill right now?
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  Speaker 1: So so I think mac G is uh, you know.
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  Speaker 1: They he used to call me Maverick because I was
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  Speaker 1: always showing like top gun clips for motivation, and so
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  Speaker 1: you know, it was like a combination between Jean mac
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  Speaker 1: G and Maverick and mav G and you know, but
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  Speaker 1: so I think mac G is stuck. But I don't
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  Speaker 1: remember what my first name is.
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  Speaker 4: That's fair, coach, appreciate your time, Good luck, with the
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  Speaker 4: rest of spring camp and obviously an off season program.
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  Speaker 4: Very much looking forward to what this offense becomes under
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  Speaker 4: your tutelage.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for your.
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  Speaker 1: Time today, Absolutely thank you.
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  Speaker 4: That is your new Utah offensive coordinator, Kevin mcgiven.