Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Dan Sorensen on Wayshawn Parker's incredible start, Utah a top 40 CFB program in the nation (?) + more

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Dan Sorensen on Wayshawn Parker's incredible start, Utah a top 40 CFB program in the nation (?) + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: This is my recital. I think it's very vital to rock.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell show for the Murdoch
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Chevrolet studio of ESPN, 700 and 92, one FN.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Dan Sorensen joining us here in just a second. Sean
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: O'Connell show on a youth zone Wednesday. We're talking about
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: this hypothetical during a Utah football bye week of You know,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: protect college sports act wants to cap conference expansion at
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: 20 teams a piece. I guess we should be fair
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: to Brett your mark. And, you know, we keep talking
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: about it's everyone wanting to get into the big 10,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: the sec, the, the big 12 could expand and add
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: some value could steal somebody from somewhere. I don't know
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: if that, I don't, I do know. I do know
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: that doesn't, changed the power dynamic in college football. If
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: you go to a 20 team league that now includes
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Boise state and Tulane and North Texas and whatever else,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: but you know, it's interesting to think about. And the several,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: you brought up the promotion and relegation possibility, Spencer on
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the text line, think about Florida state in 2023, they
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: went to intent. Can you imagine them being relegated? And
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: that's a perfect example of, of why the powers that
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: be will never agree to promotion and relegation because Florida
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: state will look back in its own recent history and
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: just be like, wait, in this scenario, that year would
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: have bumped us down to conference USA or the sunbelt
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: or whatever. They're going to be like, absolutely bleep it.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Not we're not doing that. Anyway, good conversation happening on
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: the protect college sports act. And on the idea of
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: potential realignment that it somewhat protects against, but not fully.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Dan Sorensen, Utes Insider. The brains and brawn behind the
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Ute Zone operation. Brought to you by Mountain Home Services.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Dan Sorensen, welcome.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: How are you, sir? I'm doing well. How are you doing?
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I'm doing all right.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: This was an accidental topic that we stumbled upon, which
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: honestly probably makes it better than anything I can think up.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: But....
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  Speaker 2: The protect college sports act caps conference expansion at 20 teams.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Big tens already got 18. SCC has already got 16.
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  Speaker 2: That leaves six more teams. If we went to like,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: all right, a 40 team power mega league, does Utah
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: and or BYU make the cut? If you burn it
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: all down and you say there's going to be 40
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: big teams in college football, Look, there.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Are two answers to that question. Should they make the cut? Yes.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Are they going to make the cut? Probably not.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, that's where I came out on it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Should?
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Will?
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Tough. I don't trust anybody to do the right thing.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Good for you, Rutgers. You invented college football, but you
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: haven't done anything in 100 years. You get invited to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the party when others far more deserving get left out.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: That's the way life is sometimes, I guess.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Well, thankfully, we don't have to worry about it just yet.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: We do have to worry about whether the Protect College
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Sports Act does pass as currently constructed. Do you support
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: this thing as currently constructed, Dan? Because there are some
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: parts of it that I think are really good for
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  Speaker 2: teams like Utah. There are other parts of it. like
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the capping college conference expansion, that maybe down the road
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: aren't so good for the Utahs of the world. So
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: do you support the Protect College Sports Act as currently constructed?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: As it is currently constructed and written, not by a
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: long shot. And here's the deal. Something needs to happen.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: What's happening right now in college athletics is untenable. Every
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: single college athletic.
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  Speaker 3: Department across the country, no matter how big or small,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: is running in a deficit. There's a yet another there.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: You look back in the.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Early 2000s, there was the arms race for facilities and
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: who could put the most smoothie machines in the locker
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: rooms and things like that. And And look, this is
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: an industry that's been run by stupid for far too long.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And something has to change or they're going to kill
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the golden goose. And it's the SEC and the Big
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Ten's fault. They're just going to kill the golden goose
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: out of trying to protect their turf and trying to
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: get too greedy. And something's got to happen. Something's got
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to change. And so there's a lot of things in
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  Speaker 1: the act that I do support and I do agree
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that Things have to change in terms of how player compensation.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Works out, how agents for players work out. But restricting
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: conference expansion is pure political BS. And yeah, there's a
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: lot of problematic.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Stuff in it. And frankly, the fact that Cody Campbell
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and Ted Cruz have been the ones spearheading this thing
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: tells me everything that I need to know that it
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: is not. I mean, this is a bill that is
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: designed to protect Texas Tech and nobody else. And I
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: do not like it the way that it is.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: And I hope it doesn't pass. I don't have a
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  Speaker 3: lot of faith in the elected leadership of the United States, especially.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: When it comes to senators and the House of Representatives.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: But something's got to change. The bill that they've got
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: is bad, and it doesn't solve a lot of the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: fundamental problems. It just locks in a system that's already
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  Speaker 1: fundamentally broken.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: The one that bothers me most, I think, is it
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: kind of snuck in, right? Because they know what they're doing.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: They're shouting about and they're waving the... the, the banner for, Hey,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: we're going to calm down this transfer stuff. It's going
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: to be one transfer from here on out. And then
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: they're like, also, we're going to increase the salary cap
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: to $ 49 million. And it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: There are most teams, most programs can't play in those waters. But,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: of course, Ohio State and Texas and Alabama can. So
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: they're the ones who are just like, yeah, yeah, put
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: it there, and everyone will be fine with it. That's
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: not good for Utah. That's not good for BYU. We
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: looked at the numbers after the Arkansas game. That's really
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: bad for Arkansas. They can't play in that world.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: No. And yeah, it's just it's locking in the status
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: quo for the few powerful ones. And even look, even
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: with that, it's not a sustainable thing because you still
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: got to be going to donors and to be able
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to fund a lot of this stuff. And it's that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: is not an unlimited resource that can be tapped. Somebody
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: is going to get sick of it. You know, where
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: you see it with With, you know, the big BYU
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and Utah donors, you know, what happens when dad, who
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: is a big fan of whatever program passes away and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the kids don't want to be given their money to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the university?
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Like it's, it's, yeah, it's. It's hugely problematic. And there
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: are smart people that can figure this out. The problem
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: is none of those smart people that can figure this
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: out are actually involved in the creation of the rules.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: So I don't know how it's going to pan out.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I don't know which way it's going to go. My
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: hope is that it doesn't pass, but yeah, I, and
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: then I hope that they come back to the table
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  Speaker 3: in good faith with, with people that can really come
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: in and fix this thing so that this can be
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: sustainable for, for the ages, because there are so many things.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: In place where this could be the golden age of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: college football, the best that we've ever seen across the board.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: When you've got a program like Indiana that can win
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: a national championship, the, that's a world I want to
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: live in. And so if we can fix some of
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: these fundamental things, get the spending under control, make it
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: so that, you know, you're starting quarterback at Texas tech,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: isn't making more than half of the NFL quarterbacks that
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: are starting. I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a
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  Speaker 1: big start for me. All right.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Let's focus on the youths because this is a really
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: interesting team right now. 13th ranked in the ranked number
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: 13 in the country is the proper way to say that.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: 4-0 so far. And look, we've talked plenty about the
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: level of competition that they have faced, but they have
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: passed every test and they've done so, I think, with
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: flying colors. How do they win this bye week, Dan?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: What's the most important thing for them to figure out
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: in this off week?
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Well, job number one for the players is rest up.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: And like Morgan Scully says, live the culture. So make
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: sure that you're going to treatment, that you're taking care
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: of your body, that you're getting your sleep in. Get
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: your mind right. Get your mind ready. This next stretch...
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: is going to be hugely important. And frankly, a couple
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: of these games are tougher tests than they look like
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season, you know, at Cincinnati isn't,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think Utah wins that game still, but
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know that it's necessarily the gimme that I
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: thought it was preseason, but there's a, there's a big
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: stretch before the next bi-week. So you get your, your body, right?
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: You get in, you work on the mistakes, you work
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: on the film study, offensive line, you're, you're getting.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: You're, starting to get locked in, those types of things.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: That's job number one.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: For those guys. And then for the staff, it's all
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: about the recruiting. Look, they're not done with the class
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of 2027. We're going to see a little bit of
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: shifting in there, probably three or four additions by the
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: time things are said and done. And so they're still
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: recruiting for 27. They're absolutely trying to lay the foundation
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  Speaker 1: for 2028. And so it's making.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Sure that uh that they're building for the future and
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: then that staff is working.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: On that so it's it's even though there's.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: No game it's still a critically important week it's a
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: big part of of the schedule and the plan and
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: and everybody's got to do their part and own.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Their space like they would on any game.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Week Let's let's be silly here. And you get to
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: wave a magic wand and you can change anything. You
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: can fix anything. You can alter anything about this Utah
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: team so that when they come out of the bi-week,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: they're prepared to make a really significant run and win
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: a conference championship. And the, the playoff spot that comes
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: with that, what are you using that magic on?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Oh man. That is a really great question. Yeah. Probably
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the first, I think that the first thing I do.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Is, you know, I just point it right at Lance
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: holds claw and say 10 sacks before the season's done.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: If that happens, look, this defense is a really good defense.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: I love what we're seeing as a secondary. I love
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: what we're seeing out of the defensive line. Look, They're
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: getting pressures from the defensive end spots. Yes, people are
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: talking about sacks and no sacks. But the thing that
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: I love the most is we've only seen it this
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: season a couple of times where a quarterback has broken.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Containment and run for big yardage. So even though the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: defensive ends aren't getting sacks, they're still getting pressures. And
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: they're holding their lanes, their lane discipline, and they're holding
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: their edge has been so good this year. And frankly,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: it's one of the reasons why Utah has made life
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: so tough on quarterbacks, even though it's not the ends
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: that are, that are getting, getting the sack. So there
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: are good things happening. If they can finish on top
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: of that and everybody else is doing their same rate,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: like this defense is just going to be tough to
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: go against for anybody. And, and frankly, I just, I
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: love the offense. Yes. The offensive line is still coming together.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I think their best football is still ahead of them
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: this season. They're going to continue to gel. I think
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that the starting lineup that we saw against Iowa state
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: is probably the lineup that we'll see barring, you know,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: anything weird, like injuries, the lineup that we're going to
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: see moving forward, which is exciting to me, especially because
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Kelvin Obach is going to get those, those reps. And
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I think that he's getting better every week anyway, but,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot to like about this team. And
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I think that it can go really far as long
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: as they stay injury free, which they have so far.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: And as long as they stay focused and go in
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and are able to really win the physicality war on
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: both the offensive line and defensive line.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Way Sean Parker has been massively impressive through these first
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: four weeks. Even against Utah State, where he had a
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: relatively quiet game in terms of stat sheet and production,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: he played a great game. And without the ball in
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: his hands, he affected the game. And then he gets
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: rewarded with the Iowa State performance, and holy cow. It's
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: early still, but we know a lot about Wayshon Parker now.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: And his teammates have been raving about him. His coaches
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: have been raving about.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Him.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Who is the equivalent of Wayshon Parker in Utah football history?
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Are we going to talk about him? like a Zach Moss,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: are we going to be saying like this guy is,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: you know, as good, maybe he's better than Devante Booker. What,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: what are we going to be saying at the end
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: of this year about way Sean's year?
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that if he continues to have this,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: this year, if he puts up touchdowns and rushing yards,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and receiving yards at the pace that he is, A,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: he's going.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: To break the all-time season touchdown record at Utah, and
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: it's well within striking distance for him.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: He's going to go for over 1,000 yards. He's going
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to go for over 500 yards receiving, and if he
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: has that year and then decides to head off into
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the NFL, I still think that he's going to be
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: in the pantheon of great backs in Utah football. He'll
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: be on that Mount Rushmore. I don't know if he'll
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: surpass Zach Moss, but look, when I look at his game,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: he reminds me of a combination.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Of Zach Moss and Joe Williams. And there's a lot
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: to like about that. And Utah's had a you know,
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: countless amazing backs go through the program over the last
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: 30 years. And he is right up there with the
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: best of them. I'm astounded at some.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Of the things that he does. His balance is as
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: good as any I've ever seen in terms of being
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: able to, to keep his feet, to move the, what
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the work that he did to, to lose the bad weight,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: to put on good weight over the off season, to
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: get stronger. He's just running stronger through tackles. We saw
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: that against Iowa state and And, and, and really it's,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it's fun to watch him, especially when he's running angry.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: That last touchdown he scored where he went right through
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: the Iowa state defender. And, you know, they were pulling
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: nonsense after plays and, you know, gator rolls and twisting
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: his ankles. And, and, you know, they found out what
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: happens when you piss off Dwayne Parker. And it was
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: really fun to watch. I cannot wait to see what
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: he does over the course of the rest of the season.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: There are teams that are going to be scheming to
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: stop him and, and he'll take what he can get,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't matter. Like you said, if he's receiving,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: if he's rushing, if he doesn't have the ball in
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: his hand, he's going to put guys on their butts. And,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and he's just a joy to watch. It's go back
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: and like, I encourage Utah fans, like go back and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: watch the Utah state game and the, the Iowa state
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: games and just watch way Sean don't even watch the ball.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He's so fun to, to see what he does regardless
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: of how he impacts the game. And, and he's tough
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: as nails. And then you talk to him after practice
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and he's a good dude. Like he's happy, go lucky.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And he's fun. I, I, it's, It's rare to see
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: a player that is that talented, that gets those kinds
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: of results and is that likable. And so he's an
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: easy guy to cheer for. And I hope that he
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: just crushes it the rest of the year.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Dan Sorenson from youth zone for another couple of minutes
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: here on the Sean O'Connell show quarterback, Devin, Dan peers
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: on pace to be better in every meaningful passing category
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: than he was last year. Uh, his, his rushing has
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: slowed down pace wise, uh, averaging less than he did
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: last year. He's off his pace for rushing touchdowns, for
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: total carries, for yardage, all those things. I don't necessarily
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: think that's fully a bad thing, especially when you're trying
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: to keep him healthy for a stretch run and hopefully
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: a conference championship and maybe a college football playoff and
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: all those things. Is this team getting exactly what they
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: need from Devin Dampier right now in both his passing
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: game and his run game?
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, 100%. Look, if Weishan is the heart of this team,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Devin is definitely the brain. And he's the guy that
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: makes things go. To your point, every meaningful passing stat,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: he's improved. And he had great improvement from his New
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Mexico season the last year.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: But his completion percentage is up. He's got a great
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: touchdown to interception ratio. And frankly, the only pick that
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: he's thrown is the one where he got hit by.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: And the ball sailed on him in the middle of
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the field. He's making great decisions, and he's making great
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: decisions in the option game in terms of when to
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: pull it and run, when not to. He's still a
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: tough runner in between the tackles. We haven't seen him
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: really break out, but I love the fact that that
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: they're using. I think that they're using bird a lot
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: more for some of those, the big runs and, and,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and the explosive runs that they're, they're, they're looking to
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: accomplish through the quarterback run game. But, but wait, but
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Dev is still doing the things he needs to do
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to move the chains, to rally his team. He's calm
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and cool under pressure. And yeah, yeah. They had the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: two drives. in the third quarter against Iowa State that
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: stalled out. One of them, there was a ball that
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Pagan could have caught that would have changed Dev's stat
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: line pretty dramatically had he caught that. Both of those drives,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: even though they stalled out, they still got first downs.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: One of them, they crossed midfield. It's not like they're
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: doing three and outs. Dev is a big reason for that.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: He's got a high degree of trust from his coaches.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: You can see the work that he put in in
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the offseason and that it's paying off.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: And he, and once again, he's another guy, I think
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: his best football is ahead of him. He's not going
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: to be the dynamic rusher that we saw at New Mexico.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: And I don't, and Utah doesn't want him or need
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: him to be that. He just needs to be the
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: guy that makes smart decisions, takes care of the football
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: and moves those sticks. And he's been absolutely incredible at
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: that this season.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Through four games. Who's Utah's best defensive player.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Oh man. That's a tough one. Rabbit Evans would be
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: my vote. Or Nate Ritchie, both of them. Look, they
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: both had the big injuries last year. Nate, you know,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years, he's really struggled with tackles.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: He hasn't missed a single tackle through four games. He
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: is playing inspired, tough tackles. And he's a leader. And
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: I am so impressed with the growth that we've seen
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: from him. Rabbit, kind of the same thing. You know,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: he's playing that free safety spot and center field. He
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: got absolutely robbed of the interception against Iowa State, but
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: he had the amazing one-hander against Iowa. Utah state that,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: that prevented a touchdown and, and, and rabbit is, uh,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: you know, another guy, you.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Talk about good guys that are easy to cheer for, uh,
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: you know, rabbit.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: And his story and his family story, he's overcome so
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: much adversity in life. And, uh, he's got such.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: A great attitude and a, just a great air about him.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: He's showing leadership and man, is he playing good football? He's, the,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: when you look at like pastoral ratings against each of
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: the Utah's defensive backs, they're all pretty low across the board,
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: but rabbit's the lowest that he's, he's, he's tough in
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: the past game. He's been an amazing tackler. He's got
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: a couple of sacks under his belt. He's starting to
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: force turnovers and I've been just highly, highly impressed by
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: with how he and, and, and, and, and Nate Richie
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: had been playing.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Speaker 0 7, Dan, always great to hear from you.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: We won't have a game to talk to each other
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: that this week. So I will see you next week
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: against Kansas.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: You absolutely will. Thanks for having me on and yeah,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: have a great week.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: That is Dan Sorenson, Utah insider managing director over at
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: youth zone. Utah Wednesdays are brought to you by our
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: friends at Mountain Home Services.