Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Zack Moss on Utah's 21-13 win over Houston Saturday night, Holy War 10am kickoff November 7, Saturday at Cincinnati + more

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Zack Moss on Utah's 21-13 win over Houston Saturday night, Holy War 10am kickoff November 7, Saturday at Cincinnati + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: That's me in the corner.
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Speaker 2: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
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Speaker 2: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. Our number
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Speaker 2: three on a Monday. And we start with Zach Moss,
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Speaker 2: the Utah football legend, NFL veteran. Handling the sideline duties
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Speaker 2: on Utah Football Radio broadcast now.
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Speaker 1: Zach Moss, welcome back to the show. How are you, sir?
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Speaker 3: Good, good. Doing good.
0:33
Speaker 1: How are you? Doing great.
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Speaker 2: A wild night at Rice Echo Stadium on Saturday. Obviously,
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Speaker 2: you were there on the sidelines. And let's talk about
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Speaker 2: the atmosphere first. Blackout game, night game, Morgan Scali's first blackout.
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Speaker 2: And an undefeated team welcoming a top 15 Houston squad tonight.
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Speaker 2: The must showed out. The rest of the stadium was full.
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Speaker 2: It was loud, was crazy. You were a player for
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Speaker 2: some big moments and some big noise at Rice Echo Stadium.
1:00
Speaker 2: How did Saturday night compare to the best of those?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was definitely up there. That was an absolute
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Speaker 3: spectacular environment. The game warranted it for sure. So it
1:17
Speaker 3: was awesome to be inside there on ground level, getting
1:21
Speaker 3: to experience it all. Those are the type of games
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Speaker 3: that you know, as players, you never forget and things
1:27
Speaker 3: of that nature. So happy that the fans were able
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Speaker 3: to make that an impactful game, a lot of different
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Speaker 3: ways for us. So going to need that in about
1:35
Speaker 3: two weeks as well.
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Speaker 2: We will, that'll be a 10 AM kickoff. We were
1:40
Speaker 2: just talking about that. The Holy war announced as a
1:43
Speaker 2: 10 AM local time kickoff.
1:45
Speaker 1: What do you think of that?
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Speaker 3: Early, real early kick, you know, but A lot of
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Speaker 3: people were, you know, kind of 50-50 on it because
1:59
Speaker 3: of already having the super late games and we get
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Speaker 3: the super early one right after about four straight late ones. But,
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Speaker 3: you know, at the end of the day, you know,
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Speaker 3: it's a lot of really good games going on that
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Speaker 3: same week, that same weekend. And we're in a really
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Speaker 3: good spot with that at the end of the day.
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Speaker 3: I know it's super early, but we pretty much get
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Speaker 3: to start the day off, get the Saturday off early.
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Speaker 3: and put us in a really prime situation so everybody
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Speaker 3: on both sides of the coast can see what Utah
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Speaker 3: football is about, continue to see what this rivalry has
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Speaker 3: been over the years and things of that nature as well.
2:36
Speaker 3: So early, so get your coffee and things of that nature,
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Speaker 3: but it's a really good spot at the end of
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Speaker 3: the day. to showcase what we are able to do
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Speaker 3: on this field right now, what we've been doing over
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Speaker 3: the last couple weeks here. So I'm happy about it.
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Speaker 1: So let's get back to this Houston game.
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Speaker 2: First one of the season where Utah doesn't take possession
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Speaker 2: and march down and score a touchdown on the first
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Speaker 2: offensive drive. Houston has all season long been really good defensively,
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Speaker 2: especially against the run. And they were able to stymie
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Speaker 2: Utah's efforts in that first drive, that first scoring drive. So,
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Speaker 2: you know, it's a different feeling for that offense than
3:19
Speaker 2: they've had in any game. It's a different feeling on
3:21
Speaker 2: the sideline than anyone's had in any game. What were
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Speaker 2: your thoughts when this game started out in a way,
3:28
Speaker 2: you know, not the hot start we were used to
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Speaker 2: from Utah?
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Speaker 3: You know, it makes sense why it wasn't the super
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Speaker 3: hot start that we were expecting, you know. Houston team
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Speaker 3: is really good, especially in the ring game. They were really,
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Speaker 3: really good in that aspect of it. But they haven't
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Speaker 3: played a team yet like ours that has so many
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Speaker 3: different weapons when it comes to the ground game. So,
3:56
Speaker 3: you know, Vampir, how good of a night he had,
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Speaker 3: you know, that was what was going to break the
4:01
Speaker 3: game and push us over the top in exactly what
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Speaker 3: he was able to give us. That's what we were
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Speaker 3: going to need. Houston was really good. getting into different
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Speaker 3: fronts and things of that nature. And Devin was able to,
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Speaker 3: you know, hurt them in the run game when it
4:18
Speaker 3: came down to being able to call pass plays and
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Speaker 3: making 10, 15, 12 yard runs and things like that.
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Speaker 3: So that was awesome to see that. But nothing that was,
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Speaker 3: you know, obviously when you get shut out, naturally everybody
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Speaker 3: kind of has a lot of question marks around that
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Speaker 3: in that first half, but the boys responded, they showed
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Speaker 3: the type of offense that we've been able to see.
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Speaker 3: They now ended up being a little later in the game. But,
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Speaker 3: you know, they know they can't have those type of
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Speaker 3: issues each and every week, especially these next few weeks.
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Speaker 3: So I'm sure they'll get all that kind of corrected
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Speaker 3: and watch the film and get better from that. And,
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Speaker 3: you know, that was a very physical game for those
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Speaker 3: guys as well. So I'm not super worried about it. But,
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Speaker 3: you know, they did show a lot of different things
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Speaker 3: when it came to adversity that they hadn't even been
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Speaker 3: in all year in that one single game.
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Speaker 2: We've talked about this with way Sean Parker before, but
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Speaker 2: this was another game where he had to affect the
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Speaker 2: game a little bit more without the ball in his hand.
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Speaker 2: It was quiet for him from a production standpoint. Houston,
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Speaker 2: I think came in with a game plan. Don't let
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Speaker 2: him beat you. Make Devin Dampier beat us. And thankfully,
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Speaker 2: Devin's capable of doing that, and we'll get to him
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Speaker 2: here in a second. But you played the running back position,
5:35
Speaker 2: and when a team keys on you as effectively as
5:39
Speaker 2: Houston seemed to key on Weishan, how do you make
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Speaker 2: yourself effective still and help your team?
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Speaker 3: You know, some games, you're just not going to have...
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Speaker 3: the gaudy numbers that you would want each and every
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Speaker 3: week as a competitor. I think, you know, he still
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Speaker 3: impacted the game a lot when it came to him
6:01
Speaker 3: being on the field, where he was aligned, you know,
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Speaker 3: people accounts for him, eyes on him, things like that,
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Speaker 3: which allow certain things to open up in the past again,
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Speaker 3: when we did throw it and you know, certain things for,
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Speaker 3: for Devin to, you know, exploit as well. So, you know,
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Speaker 3: even when you're not, you know, having the ball in
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Speaker 3: your hand is what you're able to do when you
6:23
Speaker 3: don't have the ball in your hand, right? You know,
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Speaker 3: the type of effort he's still giving, the type of,
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Speaker 3: he has some bullets, pickups in that game as well.
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Speaker 3: He caught a guy on the other side of the
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Speaker 3: line of scrimmage and literally ran through the A-gap, knew
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Speaker 3: the guy was blitzing and got all the way to
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Speaker 3: him on the other side of the line of scrimmage. So,
6:39
Speaker 3: you know, he was still being him, you know, without
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Speaker 3: having to be able to touch the ball every single play.
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Speaker 3: So that's the type of stuff that shows up on film. that,
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Speaker 3: you know, scouts and things at the next level pay
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Speaker 3: attention to as well.
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Speaker 2: It also bodes well because the last time we talked
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Speaker 2: about this, about Weishan not getting as many touches, then
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Speaker 2: the next week he went off, I think, for three touchdowns.
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Speaker 2: So now I'm expecting that against Cincinnati because Weishan's not
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Speaker 2: going to be relatively quiet two weeks in a row, Zach.
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Speaker 3: No, he shouldn't be. Obviously, we shouldn't also expect that.
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Speaker 3: I know he doesn't think that's going to happen again.
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Speaker 3: They find the end zone still Saturday night. But this
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Speaker 3: Cincinnati team is going to present some challenges. They're riding
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Speaker 3: high with some momentum and things like that on the road.
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Speaker 3: So this team can't sleep. They can't start slow and
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Speaker 3: things like that. I'm sure he's going to have a
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Speaker 3: big part in the game in getting him going early
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Speaker 3: and trying to establish that run game early versus the
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Speaker 3: Cincinnati team.
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Speaker 2: Devin damp here, 18 to 26, 204 yards. He did
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Speaker 2: not throw any touchdown passes. He scored two on the ground,
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Speaker 2: 15 for one 50. And he ran in for a
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Speaker 2: couple of touchdowns. He did throw the two interceptions. I
7:54
Speaker 2: want to stay focused on the positive here for one
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Speaker 2: second though. It seemed like he was playing a little
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Speaker 2: bit more free when the pocket would start to break
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Speaker 2: down or he couldn't find the open man. I think
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Speaker 2: in recent games, maybe all this year, he's been a
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Speaker 2: lot more careful about immediately taking off and running. In
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Speaker 2: your mind, what was different about his willingness or ability
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Speaker 2: to run when those seams opened up against Houston versus
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Speaker 2: the first six games of the year?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I mentioned it in our conversation and
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Speaker 3: our pregame show with Bill Sly, you know, he hadn't
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Speaker 3: really been asked really. I mentioned it last week versus
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Speaker 3: the Colorado game is which way I thought he would
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Speaker 3: have another big night on the ground as well. But,
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Speaker 3: you know, he hadn't been asked really to, we hadn't
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Speaker 3: really drawn up a lot of QB runs as much
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Speaker 3: as we did last year, how effective he was, especially
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Speaker 3: early in the year until he had that ankle injury
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Speaker 3: last year. You know, in the passing game, he really
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Speaker 3: hadn't been looking to scramble as well. And, you know,
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Speaker 3: credit to him because he put a lot of work
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Speaker 3: in in the offseason of becoming more of a better
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Speaker 3: pocket passer and staying in there and trusting those guys
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Speaker 3: up front. Which those guys up front have done an
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Speaker 3: absolute great job of making sure he's been able to
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Speaker 3: be clean for the most part of the year. But,
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Speaker 3: you know, I was able to talk to him Saturday
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Speaker 3: night after the game and, you know, ask him essentially
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Speaker 3: the same thing. what kind of started clicking in the
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Speaker 3: run game for him and why he was able to
9:24
Speaker 3: put the numbers he was able to. And, you know,
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Speaker 3: pretty much he just said that that was something that
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Speaker 3: they realized that going into this week, you know, Houston
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Speaker 3: was going to give him some rushing lanes. And, you know,
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Speaker 3: you could tell it was something that the coaches and
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Speaker 3: things like that talked about going into the week because,
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Speaker 3: you know, it wasn't any, oh, should I run, kind
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Speaker 3: of hesitant, jumping around in the pocket. You know, when
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Speaker 3: he saw something that he liked, he took it, right?
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Speaker 3: It was right away. It didn't matter if it was two,
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Speaker 3: three straight plays in a row. No matter what was called,
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Speaker 3: he was going to call his own number on some
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Speaker 3: of those runs. And it paid dividends, getting a lot
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Speaker 3: of momentum. going into that second half to close out
10:01
Speaker 3: that first half. So, yeah, he was pretty much just,
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Speaker 3: you know, they talked about some things, and, you know,
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Speaker 3: Houston kept giving it to him, and he just took
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Speaker 3: advantage of it, and, you know, that was huge.
10:11
Speaker 2: Zach Moss is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
10:13
Speaker 2: Show talking Utah's big win over Houston, 21-13, top 15 matchup.
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Speaker 1: At Rice Echo Stadium this last Saturday night.
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Speaker 2: Daniel Bray, Morgan Scali just shouted him out in the
10:26
Speaker 2: press conference not so long ago. Daniel Bray only got
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Speaker 2: three carries in this game, but he made them count.
10:31
Speaker 2: The timing of those carries, his production on those carries.
10:34
Speaker 2: I mean, it's clear that this young man has a
10:38
Speaker 2: really extreme, crazy high upside for this Utah football team.
10:43
Speaker 2: But as we've talked about all year, there's only so
10:46
Speaker 2: many touches to.
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Speaker 1: Go around How did they get Daniel Bray more involved?
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Speaker 3: Speaker 4 05,0 Yeah. I mean, he's a dynamic weapon.
10:53
Speaker 3: I mean, Sly is always calling for him to touch
10:56
Speaker 3: the ball in any way, shape or form, because you know,
10:59
Speaker 3: he's one of those players that, you know, he doesn't
11:02
Speaker 3: need the ball a ton of times to end the
11:05
Speaker 3: game with, you know, he can have a game where
11:06
Speaker 3: it's five carries 80, 85 total yards, touchdown, two touchdowns,
11:11
Speaker 3: you know, you get up in space. He had a run.
11:14
Speaker 3: Saturday night that he was real close to breaking. He
11:17
Speaker 3: got to the second level and he just got tripped
11:19
Speaker 3: up a little bit. And the guys were able to
11:21
Speaker 3: corral and get to him. But, you know, he's explosive.
11:26
Speaker 3: He's one of those players that you really got to
11:29
Speaker 3: figure out a way to give him the ball and
11:30
Speaker 3: that comes down to the coaching right and putting him
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Speaker 3: in the right spots in the right timing and calling
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Speaker 3: his number because you know when he walks on the
11:38
Speaker 3: field you know defenses are key to to him right
11:42
Speaker 3: because he's not on the field you know 50 60
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Speaker 3: play 50 snaps or whatever it may be he's not
11:47
Speaker 3: that guy doing that As of right now, he's being
11:50
Speaker 3: asked to come in, you know, maybe 10 to 20 plays.
11:53
Speaker 3: And when he's on the field, you know, he's a
11:55
Speaker 3: high alert guy to get the ball and what type
11:57
Speaker 3: of plays that they like to run with him. Right.
12:00
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of film on him and it's
12:02
Speaker 3: really hard to get him into space sometimes. But, you know,
12:05
Speaker 3: that's one of the coaches to keep trying to figure
12:08
Speaker 3: out different ways to get him on lock so that
12:09
Speaker 3: they can continue to create explosives. And, you know, this
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Speaker 3: team doesn't have to go on 10, 15 play drives.
12:17
Speaker 3: a lot of different times.
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Speaker 2: I want to talk about the blitz that Jackson Benny
12:22
Speaker 2: hit Connor Wegman and ended up coughing up the ball.
12:25
Speaker 2: John Moyes able to get the fumble and Utah then
12:29
Speaker 2: takes it in on the very next play. The Houston
12:32
Speaker 2: running back, I don't remember who was in. I think
12:35
Speaker 2: it might have been Rashawn Sanford that was in uh,
12:38
Speaker 2: having to block on that, but he can't be right
12:41
Speaker 2: in that situation.
12:41
Speaker 1: I watched that blitz.
12:42
Speaker 2: I talked to one of my, my buddies who was
12:44
Speaker 2: an NFL lineman for a long time. He, that running back,
12:47
Speaker 2: that blitz is designed. So he can't be right. Cause
12:50
Speaker 2: he's either got to try to block the first body,
12:52
Speaker 2: which I think you're supposed to do. You could tell
12:54
Speaker 2: me what, and that Cyrus Polu and that allows Benny
12:57
Speaker 2: to come through or he, he, sees Benny come and
13:00
Speaker 2: he goes and blocks Benny. And now the linebacker is
13:02
Speaker 2: on your quarterback. You played the position. I'm sure you've
13:06
Speaker 2: been put in that situation a time or two. Tell
13:09
Speaker 2: me what it's like. Tell me what that running back
13:10
Speaker 2: is seeing as that blitz is coming.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. That's a hard blitz for back because, you know, and,
13:20
Speaker 3: and the center, right. Cause he's the one usually, you
13:23
Speaker 3: you know, turning the protection to certain places and things
13:27
Speaker 3: like that. And, you know, that's why they coach Scali
13:30
Speaker 3: called it the unblockable blitz, right? It's hard. It's not,
13:35
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't do a lot of blitz pickups
13:39
Speaker 3: in my time. And it's very rare that it got
13:42
Speaker 3: beat on the schematic part of it. But yeah, it's
13:47
Speaker 3: a really hard one. I mean, we even literally looked
13:49
Speaker 3: that way first and then kind of just started going
13:52
Speaker 3: into his progression. Just absolute perfect timing on Benny's part,
13:58
Speaker 3: because that's that's really the part that is that you
14:02
Speaker 3: got to hit perfectly right. Because if he's already in
14:04
Speaker 3: the gap, we stand up. in the gap before the
14:07
Speaker 3: play is snapped, right? Like that's an easy pick a
14:10
Speaker 3: blitz pickup. If he's too far off from that nickel
14:13
Speaker 3: spot and he's not already kind of lean and things
14:16
Speaker 3: of that nature, right. The timing part, he won't get there. Right.
14:20
Speaker 3: Thankfully the guys back in, We were able to hold
14:23
Speaker 3: up for a few little ticks more to get him,
14:27
Speaker 3: you know, home on that blitz. So everything was literally
14:30
Speaker 3: perfect on that blitz call. Just the execution from Jackson
14:33
Speaker 3: going inside the C-gap, the defensive end, taking the tackle
14:37
Speaker 3: out and then buying the guard's eyes. You know, that's
14:40
Speaker 3: literally how you draw it up and it's literally how
14:43
Speaker 3: it played out on that field. And I mean, absolutely
14:45
Speaker 3: the best play and the biggest play so far of
14:49
Speaker 3: the season.
14:51
Speaker 2: The ensuing offensive possession, Dev scores on the very first play.
14:56
Speaker 2: And there's still more than two minutes left, so you've
14:59
Speaker 2: got the two-minute timeout coming. Houston, I think at that point,
15:02
Speaker 2: had one timeout left maybe. And there's a school of
15:05
Speaker 2: thought that you try to milk a little bit more
15:08
Speaker 2: clock off there. Utah scored immediately. You could also go
15:12
Speaker 2: for two, go up nine, make the game truly out
15:15
Speaker 2: of reach. They kick the extra point. They go up
15:18
Speaker 2: by eight. We'll start with the clock management. Were you
15:22
Speaker 2: surprised to see them score quickly there?
15:24
Speaker 1: Did you think that.
15:25
Speaker 2: Maybe you might see a couple of runs, even if
15:28
Speaker 2: you have to kneel it down on the goal line
15:29
Speaker 2: to get an extra snap.
15:30
Speaker 1: Out of it?
15:32
Speaker 3: No, I think you want to take points where you
15:33
Speaker 3: can get them. credit to our defense. They had played
15:38
Speaker 3: absolutely outstanding on defense side of the ball, especially in
15:45
Speaker 3: the red zones. Many times Houston got into the red
15:47
Speaker 3: zone and they came out of there with, you know,
15:51
Speaker 3: essentially nothing, right. They got one phantom PI call that
15:57
Speaker 3: got them points on the board late in the game
15:59
Speaker 3: as well. So, you know, You got to go with
16:03
Speaker 3: the points. You got to take the points so you
16:05
Speaker 3: can get them. Trust in your defense. Your defense had
16:07
Speaker 3: absolutely been balling out all night long. So, you know,
16:11
Speaker 3: what was going to change in the last few minutes
16:13
Speaker 3: of that game? Probably nothing. You know, they had banged
16:16
Speaker 3: up Wegman pretty good as well. So, you know, they
16:18
Speaker 3: were feeling really good. So it was perfect to see
16:22
Speaker 3: them do that the way they did it. Because sometimes
16:24
Speaker 3: you want to take a few more time off the clock.
16:27
Speaker 3: want to do little certain things, right? There's not always
16:31
Speaker 3: going in your favor, right? I think if you look
16:32
Speaker 3: at the UCF and BYU game, you know, that was...
16:39
Speaker 3: A game where, you know, you kick the field goal
16:44
Speaker 3: with 11, 12 seconds, whatever it was on the clock
16:46
Speaker 3: when they had to fall on the first down, right?
16:48
Speaker 3: And that's, in my opinion, as a player, that's what
16:51
Speaker 3: I would have done because then you get in a
16:52
Speaker 3: scenario where, you know, you snap the ball, you spike it,
16:56
Speaker 3: then you have another play where you throw out a bounce.
16:58
Speaker 3: You're pretty much icing your own kicker, having to waste
17:02
Speaker 3: two or three plays. And then, you know, you go
17:04
Speaker 3: out there and you get the kick blocked, right? So,
17:07
Speaker 3: you know, when you've got the opportunity and you got
17:09
Speaker 3: a strike, when is the right time? And, you know,
17:12
Speaker 3: that's what they were able to do and it paid dividends.
17:16
Speaker 2: So how do you avoid the pitfalls that Cincinnati potentially
17:21
Speaker 2: presents here? First of all, they're a good football team,
17:24
Speaker 2: good enough to beat top 10 Texas Tech just this
17:26
Speaker 2: last weekend. It's sandwiched between your first emotional win of
17:30
Speaker 2: the year and what is certainly going to be a
17:32
Speaker 2: very emotional game against BYU and you got Arizona right
17:36
Speaker 2: after that. So Cincinnati doesn't have the ranking next to
17:39
Speaker 2: their name. They're not, uh, you know, a traditional opponent.
17:42
Speaker 2: You don't have history built up. I mean, it's, it's
17:45
Speaker 2: very easily the type of game that human nature can
17:48
Speaker 2: take over. Like we saw with BYU after beating Notre Dame,
17:51
Speaker 2: they go on the road. They lose to a team
17:54
Speaker 2: like UCF that they're better than. Utah's better than Cincinnati,
17:58
Speaker 2: should beat Cincinnati, but you still have to be your
18:00
Speaker 2: best in order to do so. How does Utah make
18:03
Speaker 2: sure that Cincinnati doesn't bite them, doesn't surprise them?
18:10
Speaker 3: I think... It was an emotional win for sure, but
18:14
Speaker 3: I think that it was being able to be down
18:18
Speaker 3: there after the game and talk to some of the
18:20
Speaker 3: guys and just the energy and the vibes I picked
18:24
Speaker 3: up on. It was emotional, but it's not something that
18:27
Speaker 3: they were surprised that they won that game. It wasn't like, oh,
18:31
Speaker 3: kind of shocked to get a win and things of
18:34
Speaker 3: that nature. They were more so just someone focused and
18:38
Speaker 3: hungry just to get back to work this week to
18:42
Speaker 3: start fixing those things that, you know, allowed them to
18:44
Speaker 3: come out into, especially in the office at a ball
18:47
Speaker 3: and start slow and things like that. That really wasn't,
18:50
Speaker 3: you know, obviously what they had been accustomed to and
18:52
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So, you know, they understand what Cincinnati is. Um,
18:58
Speaker 3: you know, it's, it's doing right now what they were
19:01
Speaker 3: able to do last week, obviously going on the road
19:04
Speaker 3: after a physical game, like they got their big time game,
19:07
Speaker 3: late game, college game. They all the extra hoopla and
19:10
Speaker 3: stuff like that. Um, you know, I think these guys
19:12
Speaker 3: will be ready. Um, you know, stuff like that comes
19:15
Speaker 3: down to coaching. You know, the players will be players
19:19
Speaker 3: and do player things, but the coaching staff has to
19:22
Speaker 3: make sure that these guys are absolutely locked in because
19:25
Speaker 3: this is what you call a trap game, right? Look
19:27
Speaker 3: at BYU, right? a big super big win versus Notre
19:33
Speaker 3: Dame but you know those you could tell there was
19:36
Speaker 3: a lot of emotion on the field from the players
19:38
Speaker 3: and stuff like that and you know that carries into
19:41
Speaker 3: the week right that's why coaches are so strict on
19:45
Speaker 3: having 24, 48 hours to enjoy this win and then
19:48
Speaker 3: wipe it away, right? If you lose, you got X
19:51
Speaker 3: amount of time to just wipe it away because That
19:55
Speaker 3: win or loss from the previous game doesn't help you
19:58
Speaker 3: going into the next week at all. It doesn't really matter, right? Because,
20:02
Speaker 3: you know, whatever interception or tackle or missed tackle or
20:07
Speaker 3: missed block or touchdown that may have occurred on either
20:11
Speaker 3: side of the ball for us, positive or negative, isn't
20:14
Speaker 3: going to help you going into that next week. So,
20:17
Speaker 3: you know, these guys are ready for that. They understand everything.
20:20
Speaker 3: what's out in front of them and where they want
20:21
Speaker 3: to go what they want to do and that they
20:24
Speaker 3: have everything in front of them right now so i
20:26
Speaker 3: don't expect this to be a trap game um but
20:30
Speaker 3: i expect cincinnati to definitely not lay down um because
20:33
Speaker 3: they have every right to try to go ahead and
20:36
Speaker 3: knock off um two of the better teams in the
20:39
Speaker 3: big 12 back-to-back weeks.
20:42
Speaker 2: There's a lot of conversation about the general vibes and
20:46
Speaker 2: and we've certainly talked about it plenty on the show
20:49
Speaker 2: but The vibes are always good when you're winning. People
20:53
Speaker 2: want to say this is a Morgan Scali thing. This
20:56
Speaker 2: team wouldn't be this way. They wouldn't have this much
20:59
Speaker 2: fun if it was anybody else. Certainly not if it
21:01
Speaker 2: was Kyle Whittingham. I think we still need to be
21:04
Speaker 2: fair to Kyle Whittingham, even if you don't like what
21:06
Speaker 2: he did and how he left, whatever. But you're right there.
21:11
Speaker 2: And you were in this locker room as a player.
21:12
Speaker 2: You've been around this program. How pronounced is the difference
21:16
Speaker 2: in vibes, for lack of a better term, under Morgan Scali?
21:20
Speaker 2: especially when, you know, your quarterback throws an interception or
21:23
Speaker 2: there's a, you know, you're trailing like you were against Houston?
21:31
Speaker 3: You know, Coach Scali has done an amazing job with
21:35
Speaker 3: the culture. You hear that word a lot. Devin Dampier,
21:40
Speaker 3: Saturday night, used that word a ton, right? Guys buying
21:46
Speaker 3: in since the beginning of the season, since the offseason, and,
21:51
Speaker 3: you know, the guys that he's been able to, that's
21:54
Speaker 3: been on leadership council and stuff like that. Right. When
21:57
Speaker 3: they walked out of halftime of that game, right. Trailing
22:01
Speaker 3: after you just missed the field goal, right. As well,
22:04
Speaker 3: trailing and you, then you go come out and you
22:06
Speaker 3: go down 10, zero. Um, and, and Cincinnati's had the
22:10
Speaker 3: ball forever. Um, in the third quarter, you could tell,
22:14
Speaker 3: I could tell, you know, just sitting there, I'm eating
22:17
Speaker 3: a cookie as the guys are walking out of that time. Um,
22:21
Speaker 3: and they're, Their confidence level is high, right? You would
22:25
Speaker 3: have thought this was the beginning of the game. You know,
22:27
Speaker 3: how much talking and how much hyping each other up
22:31
Speaker 3: there still was, right? Even after a very low moment
22:34
Speaker 3: in the game, right? I mean, you missed a kick.
22:36
Speaker 3: You don't really have much offensive success in the first half,
22:39
Speaker 3: all that type of stuff. You can come out flat, right?
22:42
Speaker 3: You can come out a little bit like, ah, this
22:46
Speaker 3: game can be over, right?
22:47
Speaker 1: That's all it takes.
22:48
Speaker 3: It only takes one guy. to think like that, to
22:51
Speaker 3: feel like that, right? And then they react like that
22:54
Speaker 3: on the field, and it becomes reality. So, you know,
22:58
Speaker 3: these guys truly, truly, truly, truly believe in everything Coach
23:02
Speaker 3: Scali has been preaching, everything he's been doing. The culture
23:05
Speaker 3: is so strong within these group of guys. They truly do,
23:09
Speaker 3: you know, love each other and care about each other,
23:11
Speaker 3: and they play for each other, which is amazing. you know,
23:15
Speaker 3: really hard to do in any level of football. And
23:19
Speaker 3: I can only imagine probably how hard it has been
23:22
Speaker 3: as well. And a challenge, I should say, when you,
23:25
Speaker 3: you throw in, you know, different guys making different types
23:28
Speaker 3: of income when it comes to NIL and stuff like that,
23:31
Speaker 3: because sometimes you get guys that just think about themselves
23:34
Speaker 3: and all right, well, we're down 10, zero. Let me
23:36
Speaker 3: figure out how I can just keep making my tackles.
23:38
Speaker 3: Or maybe I don't need to communicate as much. I
23:40
Speaker 3: may need to all the little things that you can,
23:43
Speaker 3: pop up because we're all human. So, I mean, the
23:46
Speaker 3: coaching staff, the weight room staff, the trainers, you know,
23:51
Speaker 3: literally every single person inside of that building deserves a
23:53
Speaker 3: lot of credit because, you know, it takes an entire
23:56
Speaker 3: family group effort to live the culture that allows you
24:01
Speaker 3: to come back versus a very, very good Houston team
24:04
Speaker 3: at home.
24:08
Speaker 1: Do they win in Cincinnati, Zach?
24:12
Speaker 3: I believe so. I don't see why they don't. I think,
24:16
Speaker 3: you know, I think they get back to a little
24:18
Speaker 3: bit of who they are offensively. I think the defense
24:22
Speaker 3: takes another step forward, you know, as well, because, you know,
24:28
Speaker 3: that's what good teams do. That's what championship caliber teams
24:32
Speaker 3: do to keep finding a way to win and keep
24:34
Speaker 3: finding ways to get better. They don't get complacent in
24:37
Speaker 3: the things that they've done in the past, right? They
24:40
Speaker 3: don't rely on those things. They keep trying to figure out, okay,
24:43
Speaker 3: how can we get better? How can we get better?
24:45
Speaker 3: And they have a coaching staff that is also thinking
24:49
Speaker 3: and believing the same things as well. So I think,
24:51
Speaker 3: you know, a big challenge. There's going to be a
24:55
Speaker 3: big challenge, the biggest challenge on the road so far
24:59
Speaker 3: with a Cincinnati team playing with a lot of confidence,
25:02
Speaker 3: knocking off a tech team in a dominant fashion, I
25:06
Speaker 3: should say. Not a knockoff, walk-off field goal or anything,
25:08
Speaker 3: in a very dominant fashion. So Cincinnati is definitely not
25:11
Speaker 3: a team to be slept on, and it's going to
25:14
Speaker 3: be a very, very good game out there in Cincinnati.
25:19
Speaker 2: That is Zach Moss, the Utah football legend, NFL veteran,
25:22
Speaker 2: and voice on the sidelines for the Utah football radio broadcast.
25:26
Speaker 1: Enjoy the trip.
25:27
Speaker 2: Have some skyline chili for us or whatever. I guess
25:31
Speaker 2: you know that place well, though, so it's not exotic
25:35
Speaker 2: for you to go and have Cincinnati food.
25:38
Speaker 3: No, I would not be trying any skyline chili again.
25:41
Speaker 3: That time of my life has passed.
25:43
Speaker 1: All right, Zach, appreciate you. Thanks, man. All right, my man.
25:48
Speaker 3: Take care.
25:49
Speaker 1: Zach Moss here on the Sean O'Connell show.