Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Coordinator's Corner with Kevin McGiven - 10-16-26

Transcript

Coordinator's Corner with Kevin McGiven - 10-16-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's dive into this week's matchup in the coordinator's corner
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of the Sean O'Connell Show. OC chats with the coordinators
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: every week of the Utah football season. On your home
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of the Utes and your home for football, ESPN 792.1 FM.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: All right, it is that time of the week again
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: here on the Sean O'Connell Show coordinator's corner. We go
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: back and forth between offense and defense. This week, we're
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: lucky enough to catch up once again with the with
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: offensive coordinator for your Utah football team, Kevin McGiven, more
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: affectionately referred to as Mac G.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Coach, welcome back to the show. How are you?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Doing good. I appreciate it.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Your Utes are 5-0. You are a top-ranked offense in
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: multiple categories, and you're on the road this week at
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: the University of Colorado. We'll take a look back at Kansas,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: take a look ahead to Colorado. But overall, when you're
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: going back and you're studying tape, and we haven't spoken
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: to you since the bye week, grade out your overall
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: offense and your overall feeling on how this has come
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: together relatively quickly.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was talking to the offense on Monday as
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: we were reviewing the game, and there's obviously been a
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: lot of positives, a lot of really good things that
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: we can lean into, but a lot of things I
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: think we can get a lot better at, a lot
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: cleaner executionally, and I think I still think this team
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: has a bunch of potential that we, that we haven't
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: reached yet and show some examples of that, the guys
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: of things, things that we left out there, but, but
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: a lot of really good positives that have shown up
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: over the first five weeks with, you know, situational areas
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: with third down efficiency with, you know, how we've been
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: in the red zone, getting into some backup situations, you know, and,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: and some of those, you know, came on the hills
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: of defensive stops that were awesome, but, so punching it
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: out of backup situations. And then I feel like we've
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: been pretty effective with our, with our balance and distribution.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: When you talk about the things that you're able to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: highlight and say, Hey guys, this there's meat left on
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: the bone. We can get better at this. Can you
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: give me an example or two of what those things
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: are in your mind?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: You know, those are always things we go through with,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: with dev every week, you know, maybe it's a situation
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: where he kind of touches the runs, but some, some
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: things in the past game where we've, we've left some
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: things out there with, with open guys or, or everything
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: is getting a little bit, you know, disconnected in terms
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: of where a guy needs to be, or if he's,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: if he's got a concept where he's reading on the
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: run and, and, you know, doesn't make a right decision,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: you know, there's just, just kind of little things, little
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: nuances like that all over the place that we can,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: that I think we can really clean up and get
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: better as, as we move forward. You know, I've been
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: effective with the, with the run game, you know, but
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: times when we can sustain better, communicate better, you know, we're,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: you know, targeting maybe a little bit off and we
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: can fix some of those things as well to even,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: to even clean that up and make that, make that better.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: A moment ago, you alluded to your, your team showing
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: the ability to get themselves out of the backed up situations.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: We saw that against Kansas after a great defensive stop,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: right on the goal line. You know, what third play
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: of the series was, and way Sean takes it 90
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: yards and, and shifts the momentum in the game. What
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: makes you so good at getting out of those backed
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: up situations? And maybe more importantly, how much does that
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: affect your play calling when you're in that condensed in
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: your own end zone effectively?
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you really kind of shrink down to a menu of,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: you know, maybe, seven or eight calls in, in, in
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: that situation, you know, because especially with a lot of
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: the things we do offensively, that may be a little
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: more intricate in terms of ball handling and, um, you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: meshing with our option game or, or, or whatever it
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: may be. There's, um, a lot of things going on there. So,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: you know, it can make you a little bit more
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: vanilla when you, when you get down there a little
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: bit more direct in the run game in terms of
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: just making sure you're trying to be downhill and, and
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: getting bodies accounted for, not, not cutting guys loose in
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: the backfield, but you know, but those plans are generated
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: throughout the week, just based on how we see teams playing.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: If they're playing a little more aggressively or conservatively, then
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: that'll kind of dictate the menus as well with, with
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: some things you can do, but I think that the
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: kids have done a good job, you know, in practicing
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: those situations, understanding, um, situation football and being, being smart and, um,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: and capitalize, you know, in terms of punching us out there.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: So we've got to give the credit to them and
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: their execution.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Uh, that play where way Sean took it all the
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: way to the house was obviously a massive momentum swing
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: in the game when it had gotten a little bit tight.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: And there were several of those in this contest against
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: a Kansas team that I thought was, they performed pretty
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: well against you guys in a way that maybe surprised me,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: especially with Isaiah Marshall on their offensive side of things.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: When you're looking at momentum swings in a game, obviously
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: you're so enwrapped in game plan and calling the next
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: right play. Do you have to factor in who's got
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: the momentum? Do you have to consider any of that
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: when you're calling the play down?
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that's something that um, that I
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: need to get a better beat on even, um, just,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: you know, kind of playing the hot hand if you,
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: if you will. Um, you know, there's, cause I think, uh, both,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: both of the last two games in Iowa state, it
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: kind of came in the, in the third quarter and in,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: in this last game came in the, in the second
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: quarter where, um, you know, where there, there were some
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: momentum shifts in those games after a good early started Kansas,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: a good first half against, um, against Iowa state. And again, there,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: you know, I think there were things there, you know, and, but,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: but I think it's just us maintaining our focus and
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: really understanding because, because we are pretty explosive on offense.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: We're able to generate explosive plays that we can swing
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: momentum really quickly if we're just dialed in and, and
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: focused and we don't let things compound, you know, and even,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: even some of those in terms of momentum is, is just,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: you know, it's, It's a killer to momentum when you
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: go out there and you're three and out or it's
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: a one plate and a turnover or something like that.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: But just even, you know, I'm not ignorant to the
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: fact that you're not, you know, not going to score
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: on every single possession, but you can still momentum back
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: just by being methodical as well and just maintaining a
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: drive even if it doesn't result in a score. you know,
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: where it keeps the defense off the field a little bit. And, and,
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: and usually, you know, when we're able to get a
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: couple of first downs in the drive and even if
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: it starts out methodically like that, because we have been
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: pretty explosive, those usually generate scores.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Kevin McGiven is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: show coordinators corner on a Friday. You mentioned turnovers. Team
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: has been really good at taking care of the ball
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: against Kansas. There were a couple of turnovers, a, an
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: interception that was ultimately ruled a fumble that I thought
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: was a fumble in the first place, but they called
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: an interception on the broadcast and then an actual regular interception. What,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: what happened on those two plays when you go back and.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Look at them? Yeah. Um, you know, so one came
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: on a, one came on a third down, um, you know, and, and,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: Kelvin was kind of in protection. The guy that he
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: was on, he ended up kind of on Devin's right
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: side trying to kind of wash that by. And Dev
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: was just trying to make a move sliding to his
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: left and then about to step up into the pocket.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: And the guy was just able to barely get a
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: hand on his on his Jersey, you know, so I think,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: you know, Kelvin was trying to wash him by and
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: then it kind of hooked, hooked down. He, but he
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: was getting ready to step up and throw the BP
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: on a, on a shallow that would have had a
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: chance for a conversion right there. But, um, you know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: obviously didn't, didn't go our way there. Um, and then,
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: and then the other one, you know, we've kind of
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: gotten to it, um, a two minute situation at the
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: end of the half and, you know, probably, probably a
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: little bit aggressive with the play call, but there was,
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: there was some things we saw with in our two
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: minute study with their, with their boundary coverage and a
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: way we wanted to, a way we wanted to attack that.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: And so I, you know, I immediately went to a
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: pretty aggressive call. It was, it was a double post
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: into the, into the boundary. We had a kind of
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: a smash concept to the field and you know, Dev
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: got a little bit locked into kind of holding the
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: quarter safety to the field. And then, And then maybe
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: a little bit late to get back to BP where
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: it was a little bit underthrown. And then trying to
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: make an adjustment to the ball. And the defender came
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: back and made a really nice play on it. But
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: I think the concept was appropriate. What we would call
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: a premier look for that play based on what we
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: were seeing. But again, just didn't execute and capitalize in
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: that situation.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I get confused when I see the underthrown deep balls
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: from Dev because then... in the same game, we'll see
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: a bunch go the way that they're supposed to go. And,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: you know, I, I'm not enough of a quarterback guru
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: to be able to explain it one way or another.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's an arm strength issue. I don't
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: know if it's a footwork issue, if it's maybe a
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: late read and trying to rush the throw or whatever,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: but it seems like maybe there's maybe one or two
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: each game where he floats it a little bit or
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: he under throws it a little bit. And then most
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: of the time it goes where it's supposed to go.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: How do you approach that? How are you guys coaching that?
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think a couple of things, um,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: you know, Dev's a really innate football player and, you know,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: and so I, I think there's times when, when he
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: tries to play balls based off leverage that he sees, um,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: you know, even in that situation, he saw the corner
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: of kind of on the high side of BP and
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: probably could have used a little bit more of the
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: field to kind of throw him across the field a
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: little bit. But I think he was kind of trying
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: to bring BP back inside, away from the corner, just
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: left a little bit short. And then I think also
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: sometimes you get off platform a little bit and maybe
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: your feet aren't underneath you and So you kind of
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: lose that power source a little bit. But Dev's got
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: the arm talent to make all those throws when he's
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: got his feet underneath him, and he's just letting it ride.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Was there a concerted effort? Was there a desire in
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: your offensive coordinator heart that you wanted to see Sammy
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Talonga get into the end zone finally?
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: And, of course, we did. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know,
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: there wasn't– Yeah, that was, I think a fourth and
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: two situation, probably a pretty pivotal moment in the game. And,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: you know, there wasn't any hesitation on my part when I,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: when I made the initial call and then I kind
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: of put my talk up and I was like, well, crap,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: what did I just do? But no, but something again that,
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: you know, we've been practicing that for a while and
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: it's like, you know, if we have, if we have
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: an opportunity and, you know, the correct hash and the
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: correct style of defense and, um, you know, we're, we're
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: able to manipulate that the right way, then, you know,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: then we were looking for opportunities that we could call that. So, um,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: you know, so I wouldn't say it was knee jerk.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: There was preparation that went into it. I felt like
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: we had, um, we were going to get a good
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: look for it and, um, you know, and, but it
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: was really cool to, to see that and get him
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: involved in that way.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Uh, does Dev have the option to give on that
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: play or is that just a play action look?
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: He does.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: He does have the option to give, you know, and, and,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: you know, uh, it looked like the way it's sorted
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: out the way Sean could have buried that in there
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: for a touchdown as well. But, um, yeah, but it's
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: kind of, you know, when we sent, when we sent
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Ricky in motion from that side, um, So we kind
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: of created that stack look, and basically Dev's looking to
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: see how the defense adjusts on it so that if
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: he sees someone travel or there's enough of a reaction
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: where BP's going to be able to go pin a
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: man player on the, you know, it would be the
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: man player on semi in that situation able to pin
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: him because that's really designed more screen to throw behind
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: the line of scrimmage. But yeah, I definitely saw the
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: appropriate look on that and decided to throw that. And
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: did a good job sneaking those guys inside even further
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: with the action.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was great. And actually, I don't know
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: if you heard the radio call. Bill Riley, voice of
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the Utes, called it as a way Sean Parker touchdown.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: He got faked. and thought way Sean had gotten the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: ball and, but ended up being semi either way. It's
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: a touchdown, which is of course the result that you're
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: looking for in, like you said, a very pivotal moment
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: of the game. You mentioned Ricky also Ricky Johnson, five catches,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: 104 yards and a touchdown. Great to see him have
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a breakout game. And at the
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: beginning of this conversation, you mentioned that there's maybe still
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: some untapped potential of this offense. And I wonder how
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: much of that lies in, you know, just guys that
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: haven't had as many touches or have had the opportunity
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: for those breakout games. When you're saying something like, Oh,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: there's still more here. We got gas left in the tank.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: How much of that is there's three more Ricky Johnson's
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: potentially who could have this type of a breakout game.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's, you know, just, just kind of
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: the way I break it down, I guess, going into a,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: going into a game, I think there's, there's like always your,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: your top guys that you want to make sure getting opportunities.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Obviously way Sean has been a huge contributor offensively and, and,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: you know, manufacturers, a lot of our, a lot of
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: our total offense, every game, it's getting Devin involved certain ways.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: It's getting bird involved certain ways. It's getting Daniel Bray
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: involved certain ways, making sure BP gets his targets, but
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: you know, the, the rest of those guys, you kind
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: of just leave it up to the quarterback to distribute
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: accordingly based on, based on what he sees. And so you,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: you never know who could have a breakout game, you know,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: just when there's a lot of different options within calls,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, I think Arkansas game where Noah
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Benny had it kind of like coming out in, in
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: that game. And it was, it's not necessarily that you're,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: you're calling things any differently. It's just who the ball
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: is finding and, in those situations based on, based on
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: the looks and the decisions that making. And so any
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: guy at any time could have a breakout game like that. And,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: you know, so I think that's the, that's the cool
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: part of it is there's a lot of guys out
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: there that we trust. You trust the distribution of the
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: quarterback and, and, you know, you know, whoever the, whoever
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: the ball finds, you trust that they're going to, they're
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: going to make plays and make good on their opportunities.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Kevin McGibbon for another minute or two here on the
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show, Coordinator's Corner. We're talking Utah offense as
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: they get ready for a road trip to Boulder, Colorado.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I saw something this morning that you guys have trailed
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: for something like four and a half minutes so far
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: this season. And you're five for five in all five games,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: scoring a touchdown on the first possession. Who gets the
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: credit for that besides you? I mean, of course you do, but...
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: this is an incredibly efficient offense, especially the first time
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: it touches the ball in a game.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a, obviously any, anytime you can, you put
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: yourself in that situation, you know, whether, whether you have
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: the ball first or, or whether you're getting, you know,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: our defense has done a good job when we haven't
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: gotten first, usually making stops. And so, you know, it's,
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: it's been nice that we've been able to play with
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: a lead even in games that have gotten close. But
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: we spend time on those openers, you know, throughout the week.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: And it's usually kind of picking from a list of
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: things that we have worked on up until the point
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: where we get to like a Thursday or Friday. So
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: then you got Thursday practice, you know, Friday walkthroughs, Saturday
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: walkthroughs where that's your– pretty much your main focal point
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: are those things that you're going to open up with.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: And so you have the ability to get a fast start.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: So those are usually things in the plan that, you know, that,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: get a little bit more attention than some of the
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: rest of the things. And so you're really working through
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: the details. And so the kids have done a great
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: job owning that. And then even with a lot of
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: those thoughts, we do something as a staff where I
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: have the staff members pick their top 10 plays. And,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: you know, so it's kind of fun as we get
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: to the back end of the week, seeing what the
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: staff likes and if that's, similar to the thoughts that
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I have going in as well, and so incorporate all
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: their thoughts into those openers as well. It usually ends
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: up being kind of similar things that everybody is like, yeah,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: let's get this going earlier. This can be later because
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: it complements this or whatever it is, but we kind
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: of build those out together, and then the kids do
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: a great job owning it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: It's obviously been great, and the results have been fantastic
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: as Utah sits 5-0 headed to Boulder, but do you
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: have to like mentally practice or at least script things or,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: or get yourself ready for a scenario in which you
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: might have to play from behind this year? Will that
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: alter your play calling? If you have to play from
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: behind a couple of scores, heaven forbid.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, I think just, you know, situation by situation,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, we've, we've shown that, you know,
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: that we can, you know, and, and, and even in
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: this last game, maybe a little bit more extended drives than,
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: than some we've had. A lot of drives have been,
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: been pretty fast scoring but you know I think the
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: ability that um that we can be pretty explosive that
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: we can be methodical and put drives together um you
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: know I don't think it have to have to see
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: when we get in that situation and what exactly the
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: situation is you know in terms of where in the
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: game and things like that that could maybe dictate play
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: calling or you know how aggressive or you know whatever
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: the sequencing of the calls may be but um but
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: yeah I don't you know, hopefully not a situation that
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: we would be, you know, and, and I think Coach
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Scali does a really good job, you know, even in
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: situations where we've had a lead, but we didn't have
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: momentum and, you know, we're facing a little bit of adversity,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: but just how we're responding in those situations. And so
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: it's something that we're talking about with the guys all
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: the time that, yeah, we're going to be in the
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: situation sooner or later and you just got to strap
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: it up and play the next play.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: What do you expect from the Colorado Buffaloes defense, Coach?
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Really, overall, probably as athletic or more than anybody we've
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: seen this year. They play a lot of man coverage,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: so they trust their back-end guys to be able to
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: do that. They trust their guys. on that front to
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: be able to get home bringing four or maybe adding
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: in a fifth. And so they've got an athletic group
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: that moves around a lot. A little bit light up front,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: but very switchy and very disruptive. I think they lead
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: the Big 12 in TFLs. And so they've been really
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: disrupted that way, and they've got guys that can match
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: you on the back end. And so I would expect
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: them to have confidence in what they've been doing and
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: come out and try to do that.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Is your, like... voicemail inbox or your text messages or emails,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: whatever it is, are you getting extra traffic now? Because
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: I'm starting to see after week four, week five, more
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: national pundits, more of these college football sort of, uh,
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: sickos are, are doing tape study on your mastermind stuff,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: on the weird formations and the weird personnel packages. It
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: took a couple of weeks, but people are really noticing
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: the unique nature of this offense, and they're talking about
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: it on national shows, on TV, on podcasts everywhere. Has
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: that increased Kevin McGibbon's traffic in the messages at all?
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Well, so I... I guess, truthfully, I wouldn't know too
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: much because I've gotten off of social media and all
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: that stuff. I always felt like that was a distraction.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: I think the biggest focus for me is that there
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: are so many people involved in this thing from... Coach
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Scali giving us autonomy and giving us creative freedom and
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: the things that the guys on the offensive staff are
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: coming up with every week. And the players owning it
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: and buying into it and even having thoughts and ideas
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: of their own where this is a team effort and
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: it's got to remain that way. So this is not
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: about me by any stretch. And so just... stay away
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: from the noise.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I acknowledge that. We don't dispute that, that it
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: is very much a team effort, but it is a
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: little bit, it does have a little bit to do
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: with you, Coach, because you're calling some great plays and
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: this offense is humming.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: We hope it stays that way and always appreciate you
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: giving us some time. I know I've taken up too
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: much of it here today. Good luck in Boulder. We'll
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: chat again in a couple of weeks. Thanks for your time.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Sounds good. I appreciate it.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Kevin McGiven, that's Mac G. On a Friday here for
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Coordinator's Corner. Brought to you by Mountain Home Services. The
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: airing of grievances is next. CSPN 700 and 92 on FM.