Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Andy Phillips on the Olympic Skiing, Competing on a torn ACL as crazy as it sounds (?), Morgan Scalley era beginning + more

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Andy Phillips on the Olympic Skiing, Competing on a torn ACL as crazy as it sounds (?), Morgan Scalley era beginning + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: Another one.
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  Speaker 2: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
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  Speaker 2: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two one
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  Speaker 2: alf M another one.
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  Speaker 1: We welcome back to the Sean O'Connell show. Welcome in
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  Speaker 1: my friend, former Utah American kicker uh and a guy
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  Speaker 1: that the Venn diagram of being an elite skier and
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  Speaker 1: an elite football player. I imagine it's probably very small,
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  Speaker 1: but Andy Phillips checks all those boxes, which means he's
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  Speaker 1: the right guy to bring on a head of spring
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  Speaker 1: ball and during the Winter Olympics.
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  Speaker 2: Andy Phillips, Welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 3: How are you hey, Thanks Joseie. I appreciate that introduction,
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  Speaker 3: and I think I should I should let you fans
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  Speaker 3: know the skiing sucks in Michigan. So if there's anybody
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  Speaker 3: else that comes through that's the skier that wants to
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  Speaker 3: play football, I think we have a pretty good shot
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  Speaker 3: at We got.
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  Speaker 1: The market cornered on people who want to be playing
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  Speaker 1: big football and skiing on world class slopes, so I'm
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  Speaker 1: not worried about losing those people to Michigan. Andy, Let's
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  Speaker 1: talk Olympics before we get into anything. Football related, all
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  Speaker 1: of us become experts on something you're actually an expert
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  Speaker 1: on for about two weeks every four years, and that
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  Speaker 1: includes every winter sport and big time downhill skiing is
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  Speaker 1: one of the most exciting things that we see at
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  Speaker 1: these games, and already it's given us maybe the biggest
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  Speaker 1: story from the American standpoint at least of these games,
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  Speaker 1: with Lindsey Vaughn looking like, oh, she was probably not
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  Speaker 1: gonna compete because of the crash nine days before the games,
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  Speaker 1: and then she decides to compete, and then thirteen seconds
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  Speaker 1: into a run, she falls and breaks her leg first
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  Speaker 1: of all, deciding to make the effort to compete with
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  Speaker 1: a torn ACL, with a ruptured ACL, with a knee
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  Speaker 1: that it was injured a week ago. What kind of
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  Speaker 1: decision making process, what kind of medical evaluation process does
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  Speaker 1: a high level skier go through just to get to
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  Speaker 1: the point where it's like, yeah, okay, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: give this a try.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question, And I would argue, you
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  Speaker 3: know that our fan base here in Utah is probably
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  Speaker 3: more educated than your normal American watching these Winter Olympics.
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  Speaker 3: But with that being said, there's a lot that goes
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  Speaker 3: on behind the scenes that I think a lot of
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  Speaker 3: people aren't aware of. I mean, Lindsay, while yeah, she's
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  Speaker 3: on the US ski team, technically, she's got her her
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  Speaker 3: own staff. She's got a staff of a lot of doctors,
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  Speaker 3: you know, a lot of trainers, coaches. In fact, her
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  Speaker 3: head coach is Norwegian Akslouon Sindhal, and he is one
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  Speaker 3: of the most decorated Norwegian downhillers, and so he knows
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  Speaker 3: what he's talking about when it comes to leading Lindsay
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  Speaker 3: Vaughn making suggestions, line suggestian's inspecting the course. He knows
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  Speaker 3: many of these courses that she's raced throughout the season
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  Speaker 3: as well as she does. And so when when she
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  Speaker 3: retour her a cl it, you know, you you can
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  Speaker 3: most definitely get away with continuing to ski, and especially
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  Speaker 3: if you throw a knee brace on there, you can
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  Speaker 3: continue to ski. However, you know you're not going to
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  Speaker 3: be quite as strong. You're going to compensate or or
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  Speaker 3: start to use your other leg a little bit more.
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  Speaker 3: And we saw that in her training runs this this Olympics.
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  Speaker 3: You know she she started to kind of land a
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  Speaker 3: couple of these airrors on on her I believe it's
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  Speaker 3: her right leg versus her left, and and so you
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  Speaker 3: just it's a different all of a sudden, you have
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  Speaker 3: to approach the ski race differently when it comes to
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  Speaker 3: your tactics. The other thing I think a lot of
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  Speaker 3: people don't understand is downhill especially. You know, you have
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  Speaker 3: training runs so that you can get a few for
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  Speaker 3: the snow, you can get a feel for the course,
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  Speaker 3: the terrain, and a lot of these women have have
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  Speaker 3: run this this Bormeo course, you know, multiple times in
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  Speaker 3: their life, so they know what it's like. But what
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  Speaker 3: you can never really truly account for in ski racing
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  Speaker 3: are the variables the snow conditions, the weather, the wind,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, the temperature, and so what you what
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  Speaker 3: you don't see is you're like, hey, Lindsay ran this track,
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  Speaker 3: you know, twice a couple of days before. Now all
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  Speaker 3: of a sudden, she jumps into the downhill race and she's,
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  Speaker 3: you know, five or ten inches offline. How does that happen?
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  Speaker 3: And what you don't understand is there's you know, sixty
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  Speaker 3: or so women have run this track now for two days,
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  Speaker 3: and so the terrain is varied, the snow is varied.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's probably running a little bit faster, so
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  Speaker 3: she's a couple miles an hour quicker, and just accounting
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  Speaker 3: for all those things on a torn acl while nerves
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  Speaker 3: are running through your body and at forty two years
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  Speaker 3: old like that's there's so many variables, and unfortunately for her,
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  Speaker 3: she was a little bit offline, hooked her arm in
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  Speaker 3: a gate, and you saw what happen. It's your spun
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  Speaker 3: her in the air. And then when you have two
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  Speaker 3: hundred and ten centimeter you know, two hundred and ten
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  Speaker 3: plus centimeter skis on your feet and you're rolling around
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  Speaker 3: on ice, you know things are gonna break and twist.
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  Speaker 3: And that's what happened to her.
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  Speaker 1: The she she put out that statement that you know,
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  Speaker 1: her line was whatever five or six inches too tight
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  Speaker 1: and that's why her arm goes through that gate. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: if you can give me a description of how that
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  Speaker 1: happens about, you know, when you're going that fast and
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  Speaker 1: when you've practiced on the course or you haven't or whatever,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the margin for error and how you could
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  Speaker 1: avoided or how you can't in a situation like that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of it. It's it's it comes down
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  Speaker 3: to composure and understanding, you know, understanding those variables, Like
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  Speaker 3: if I were to align it with an experience that
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  Speaker 3: I had, I was when I was seventeen years old.
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  Speaker 3: I was in Fort McGall, Spain, running a downhill, and
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  Speaker 3: I during the race, I came over an air and
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  Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I had a tailwind of about
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  Speaker 3: ten miles an hour that I hadn't had in the
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  Speaker 3: earlier training runs, and so I didn't adjust my line
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  Speaker 3: as I came off to jump, and I flew straight
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  Speaker 3: into the panel, whereas earlier I had been going a
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  Speaker 3: little bit slower off of that jump and could land
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  Speaker 3: and make an adjustment on the snow. And so yeah,
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  Speaker 3: she's you know, the track was likely running a little
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  Speaker 3: bit quicker. Again, she has nurse, so maybe some adrenaline
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  Speaker 3: forced her to put a little bit more pressure on
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  Speaker 3: her ski, which which started her turn a little bit earlier,
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  Speaker 3: and then she just hooked her arm. It happens, And
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  Speaker 3: you know, those are pretty unforgiving conditions when you're going
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  Speaker 3: sixty seventy miles an hour. It's it's a degree a
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  Speaker 3: degree of direction, and you could be through the panel
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  Speaker 3: or you could be flying on to the next gate.
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  Speaker 3: It's just the margin of error is super low, and
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  Speaker 3: that's what makes it so thrilling. I mean, that's why
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  Speaker 3: I love the ski race, because you know, those that
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  Speaker 3: are composed, those that can really control their emotions and
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  Speaker 3: stick to their game plan are often the most successful.
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  Speaker 3: And honestly, I think that's a big reason why when
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  Speaker 3: I started playing football, it was like, oh, yeah, I
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  Speaker 3: can run out and kick a football in front of
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  Speaker 3: some people cheering. It's not life or death. I'm not
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  Speaker 3: going to you know, break my leg doing it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense.
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  Speaker 1: Andy Phillips is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
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  Speaker 1: speaking of that, you know, emotional regulation. Breezy Johnson ends
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  Speaker 1: up winning the gold medal after watching a teammate, you know,
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  Speaker 1: have her career ended on a catastrophic mistake and crash.
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  Speaker 1: What's it like watching a teammate or even just a
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  Speaker 1: fellow competitor on that same course go down like that
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  Speaker 1: and then having to perform still yourself.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Breeze's in a unique position because she actually had
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  Speaker 3: crashed earlier in her career on that same track, and
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  Speaker 3: so she, you know, again knowing that somebody in front
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  Speaker 3: of you is crashed, and then having to sit in
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  Speaker 3: the start gate for an extra fifteen twenty thirty minutes.
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  Speaker 3: You watch the helicopter, you know, carrying off whoever just
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  Speaker 3: went down. You know it's not a good situation. And
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  Speaker 3: then of course it's a teammate. So she Breezy had
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  Speaker 3: to control some serious emotion there and composure. But she
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  Speaker 3: also knows what it's like to go down on that track,
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  Speaker 3: and so for her there was some redemption. And she
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  Speaker 3: had been fast in the training round. I believe she
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  Speaker 3: had won both of the training runs, and so she
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  Speaker 3: knew what she was doing. She's a competitor, she's an athlete,
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  Speaker 3: she's she lives here in Salt Lake. In fact, she
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  Speaker 3: when she skied at Romark Ski Academy, they were they
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  Speaker 3: were one day running stadium stairs and of course the
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  Speaker 3: specialists come trotting over in the golf cart and we're
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  Speaker 3: kicking some field goals and so I got to chat
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  Speaker 3: with her for a little bit, which was which was
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  Speaker 3: really cool, And she knew me from my ski racing days,
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  Speaker 3: not necessarily from my football days, and just I'm so
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  Speaker 3: excited for her, I thought, you know, for her to
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  Speaker 3: overcome that not only Lindsay crashing in front of her,
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  Speaker 3: but but then also kind of personally overcoming of course
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  Speaker 3: that she had been injured on a few years prior
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  Speaker 3: and coming back and being victorious and best in the world.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, what an accomplishment.
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  Speaker 1: I do want to pick your brand about at least
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  Speaker 1: one football question before I let you go. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: there's been a lot of conversation about coach Witt moving
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  Speaker 1: on to Michigan and what he took with him, and
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  Speaker 1: player and coaching personnel now not being part of a
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  Speaker 1: Utah program under Morgan in his first year as a
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  Speaker 1: full time head coach. I still believe that Morgan's going
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  Speaker 1: to get it figured out. I don't think it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be instantaneous, But I just I'm impressed with Morgan Scalley.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of similarities between him and Kyle Whittingham.
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  Speaker 1: But from your perspective, what do you think is going
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  Speaker 1: to be the biggest difference about Utah football under Morgan
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  Speaker 1: Scalley versus with coach Witt?
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  Speaker 3: Oh Man, if we want to talk off the field,
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  Speaker 3: I think the biggest hire for for us, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in the alumni world is Bonagahe how about that?
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  Speaker 2: Bonagah The alumni coordinator. Really cool to see.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm stoked. I think that's been a
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  Speaker 3: huge weak spot in Utah football, is pulling in the
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  Speaker 3: alumni and you know, being one now for close to
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  Speaker 3: ten years, it's like, man, we got to step our
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  Speaker 3: game up. We can't let other schools and stay outshine us.
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  Speaker 3: And so I think Bo will do a great job
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  Speaker 3: and really excited to have him in that position. From
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  Speaker 3: from an on field or I guess it's more of
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  Speaker 3: a coaching perspective, like coach with his own guy and
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  Speaker 3: not as personable as coach Scalley, not as emotional, and
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  Speaker 3: I think we all saw from Coach s Galley's press
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  Speaker 3: conference the kind of leader that he is and the
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  Speaker 3: kind of energy that he brings to the room and attracts.
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  Speaker 3: And so having a Utah football program both on the
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  Speaker 3: field with the players and also on the coaching staff
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  Speaker 3: that he's put together, that that kind of you know,
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  Speaker 3: mesh with that style and with that leadership, with that personability,
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  Speaker 3: with that just just that energy is going to be
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  Speaker 3: I mean, as media members, I expect you guys that
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  Speaker 3: practice to feel a lot a lot more valued, but
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  Speaker 3: also be able to feel just an energy shift and
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  Speaker 3: so whether that's you know, whether that produces success on
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  Speaker 3: the field or not. I think from a uh you know,
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  Speaker 3: as a player, that's what you want you you want
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  Speaker 3: to you want to be able to feel that energy
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  Speaker 3: and and see that from your coach. And of course,
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  Speaker 3: you know, Morgan's twenty years younger or so from than
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  Speaker 3: than Kyle, but like he he he is a player's coach,
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  Speaker 3: and I think that the staff he put around him
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  Speaker 3: is also of that same you know, cut from that
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  Speaker 3: same stone. So that's my biggest you know, that's my
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  Speaker 3: biggest prediction is it's just gonna it's gonna be a
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  Speaker 3: different feel, and it's gonna be awesome, and it's gonna
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  Speaker 3: be high energy. Uh and and I think a lot
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  Speaker 3: of success will come from it.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a weird winter. How much skiing are you?
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  Speaker 1: Have you been able to do? How is this skiing?
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  Speaker 1: I haven't not been up. I'm not in the snow
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  Speaker 1: sports like you like. It's been dry. But how's it been?
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  Speaker 2: It?
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  Speaker 3: Has it has? You know? I'm in the ski racing
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  Speaker 3: world still. I coach at Snowbird with Snowbird Ski Education Foundation.
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  Speaker 3: I've got all my kids in that program. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: the last two days we've had we've hosted a couple
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  Speaker 3: of races up there for our Olympic hopeful here in
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  Speaker 3: Salt Lake. So it's the under fourteen, under twelve, under
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  Speaker 3: ten racers from all around the Inner Mountain region. And
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  Speaker 3: I will tell you this, while the powder skiing has
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  Speaker 3: been you know, it hurts the soul. There hasn't been
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  Speaker 3: much if any this year from a racing perspective. The
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  Speaker 3: kids have had to really work on fundamentals on the
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  Speaker 3: groomers and you know, stay on the hill and not go,
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  Speaker 3: not go hit cliffs and ski powder. So that's been
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  Speaker 3: that's been a big positive for for the skiing. Now,
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  Speaker 3: with that being said, I heard a rumor that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we'll get about twelve inches or so between today and
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  Speaker 3: tomorrow and then next week for four feet or so.
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  Speaker 3: So with that said, like, hey, we've we've got a
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  Speaker 3: guy on the right with the last with with with
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  Speaker 3: the name of Bird, or at least the nickname of Bird.
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  Speaker 3: And I think Snowbird would would benefit from getting Bird
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  Speaker 3: Fickland up on the hill. And so I'm I'm gonna
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  Speaker 3: try and make that happen. I haven't talked to anybody about
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  Speaker 3: it yet, but I want to make that happen.
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  Speaker 1: I want to support you just because I like the idea,
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  Speaker 1: but also I don't want Bird Fickland to hurt himself
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  Speaker 1: skiing or snowboarding. So like Bird, go up on the hill,
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  Speaker 1: but stay on the bunny hill. All right, Let's let's
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  Speaker 1: keep it between the beacons.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, I'll take good care of me, all right.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Andy, you're the man. Appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Yeah, thanks so see. Appreciate you, guys.
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  Speaker 2: Andy Phillips.
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  Speaker 1: The only probably I'm gonna go out on a limb here,
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  Speaker 1: the only former All Americans level kicker, All Conference level kicker,
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  Speaker 1: or football player at any position that could come on
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  Speaker 1: and give you that detailed and knowledgeable of a downhill
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  Speaker 1: skiing breakdown. And I don't just mean from the University
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  Speaker 1: of Utah, I mean probably from any school