Latest / ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM | Utah's #1 Sports Talk / Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 10-19-26

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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 10-19-26 · ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM | Utah's #1 Sports Talk

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Every Monday, everybody, welcome to the Sean O'Connell
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Show on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. Glad to be
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: back with you after a weekend in Chicago, calling fights.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: What a weekend it was in the world of college
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: football and in sports in general. We got a lot
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to talk about with two massive games involving in-state teams, including,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of course.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: BYU's win over Notre Dame, Utah's survival of the Colorado
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Buffaloes on the road, college football game day coming to
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the state of Utah two weeks in a row. They
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: were here last week for that BYU Notre Dame game.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: They're coming for Utah versus Houston. We've got to talk
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: 877-353-0700.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: You know what we do on Mondays. Tell me what
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: you love. Tell me what you hated. about the game
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: in Colorado. And I know that there were a lot
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of things to dislike in this one.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about all of it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Morgan Scali is going to have probably a little bit
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: of an uncomfortable press conference at noon.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: We'll, we'll give you that live.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Ari Temkin is going to join us here in 30
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: minutes to talk about the landscape of the big 12 conference.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Obviously the BYU game overshadowed a lot of other things,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: but Houston, Oklahoma state was a really fascinating contest over
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the weekend.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: And we'll get to all of it. Zach Moss also
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: going to join us.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: And Alex Jensen, who's running Utes, get their season started
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: in early November. They've got exhibition play happening already. They're
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: one and one so far in the exhibition matches. UNLV
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: in Nevada. They've got an Oregon preseason contest coming up
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: this week at the Huntsman Center. eight, seven, seven, three, five, three,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: zero 700. It's almost like a, it's similar feel. I
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: think similar vibe to the airing of grievances. You're going
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to have to get out what you want to get
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: out about this Utah versus Colorado game, because man, you
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: showed some warts in this one.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: And I love being right.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't like being right about the fact that, uh,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: you know, there were going to be some growing pains
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and there was going to be some instances, hopefully instance
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: this year where Utah football didn't look as good as
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: they have looked through the first five weeks of the season.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: But the prevailing over important point here is that Utah
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: somehow survived against Colorado. They are six and oh, this
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is an undefeated football team that is ranked number 10
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: in the country. If that Colorado game had happened in
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Last week, or it happened in week three. I think
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of us would have been like, all right, ugly,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: but you got the wind. Let's get it out of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the way. I think that it feels worse because you
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: probably spent a good portion of your Saturday watching BYU
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame and the.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Cougs survive that one.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And obviously it's a, it's a program defining victory. It's
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a big, it's a big one for the big 12 conference.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: And then, you know, the follow-up is, is watching Utah
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: struggle against a really underwhelming Colorado team and watching Utah
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: struggle defensively to create any havoc plays, to create any push,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to create, again, any sacks, to create real pressure on
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: a guy that you know will struggle if you pressure him.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: So my real feeling, and I'm not just saying this
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: because we're the home of the Utes, my real feeling
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: on this one is that human nature took over a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: little bit here and that this university of Utah football
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: team started to maybe feel themselves a little too much.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: They started to look down on Colorado a little too much.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: They maybe started to look ahead to the Houston matchup
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit too much, maybe even keeping one eye
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: on what's going on in Provo and saying like, that's
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: what really matters November 7th. And that you, that's a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: fatal flaw, potentially fatal flaw. If you keep doing it, Thankfully,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: it didn't kill them this time. They improve to 6-0.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: They get the win in Colorado, 27-24. And thank goodness
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: for Creed Whittemore. He made two huge catches at two crucial,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: important moments. Thank goodness for Braden Pagan. Thank goodness for
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Devin Dampier. You know, throwing those balls and hitting his
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: receivers and making the right read in a timely fashion.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I think that I wish we had coordinator's corner with
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Kevin McGiven this.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Week, although I'm glad we have with Colton Swan also because.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: You know, the third quarter continues to be a problem
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: for the University of Utah.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: You saw the graphic on the broadcast.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: If you were watching on TV, the point differential for
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Utah in the first quarter is like plus 77 going
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: into that game.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: In the second quarter, they're like plus 34.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: They're my, they were minus one and now they're another
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: minus 11 or excuse me.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: They're another minus 10.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Cause they got outscored 17 to seven in the third
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: quarter of the Colorado game. So they've got negative point
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: differential in the third quarter and you're halfway into the season.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Now you can't say that it's a fluke. You can't
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: say that it's not a characteristic of the team. You
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: have to figure out why that is the case. And
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I think if you're Kevin McGiven, you're probably chastising yourself
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: because there were a couple of drives in that third
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: quarter and where they forgot once again that way sean
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: parker was on the football team tried to go for
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a big pass on first down got behind the sticks
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: because it was incomplete tried to make it up on
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: second down and now you're in third and long and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you can't run way sean parker because it's third and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: long although you probably can because that's how good he
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: is and it just was a A bad scenario in Colorado.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: However, you got the win.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Let's stay focused on the fact that this Utah team,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: in a performance that was not winning football, did not
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: play well, as poorly as I think we're going to
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: see this team play this year, they somehow escaped with
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: a victory. I'm curious to know what the prognosis on
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Kelvin Obat is.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: He did not put any weight on his ankle.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: They were waiting more... Pictures and tests. I'm not feeling
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: optimistic about that one. Just the defensive calls coming in
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: a little bit late. This coming in from Michael Dawson.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: That cost you a touchdown, right? Where Bobo Chenault was
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: literally on the goal line, standing there going like, what's
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the play?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: You have to be able to win ugly when you're
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a good team. You shouldn't have to win ugly over
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: bad teams.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: But you survived it. You survived in advance.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: And now you've got a redemptive opportunity with a really
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: good Houston team coming into Salt Lake City. You have
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: not beat Houston in the history of this program. Now
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: is the time to do it. And then if you
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: take care of business on the road at Cincinnati, we
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: are looking at The biggest rivalry game ever. But there's
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of if and a lot of maybe before
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: you get to that point. So I'm going to do
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: my best to not even look that far forward. 877-353-0700.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Tell me what you think. Tell me how you feel,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: what you love, what you hated about Utah's performance against
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the University of Colorado. And I want to hear from
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: all of you about the BYU result. I know that
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: most of you were not rooting for BYU to win.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I told you all last week that the best interest
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: of Utah is that they beat the number two team
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: in the country. If that's where BYU is still sitting
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: when the rivalry game comes, comes around. I don't expect
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you to ever root for BYU. I don't think a
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: lot of people here root for Notre Dame. I grew
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: up rooting for Notre Dame. So that was kind of
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: a weird game to watch, but the win for BYU,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: not without controversy at the end, really controversial. end of
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: half scenarios where CJ car tried to spike the ball.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: You didn't have control of it. Ended up being ruled
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a fumble. Notre Dame probably gets at least a couple
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of points. They probably at least get three points there.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Maybe they score a touchdown.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: There changes.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: The complexion of the game didn't happen. And by the way,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I think that fumble was the correct call. Then if
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: you're into the deep cuts, BYU defensive tackle, Justin Kirkland
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: admitted that he actually called, he faked the center into
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: snapping that ball by, by calling hut, which is a delay,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: a game penalty that the referees didn't hear is probably
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: too loud.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: I don't begrudge the referees not hearing it.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: More importantly, the final play of the game wasn't supposed
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to be the final play of the game.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: There was one second left.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Defensive back mugs the receiver a little bit, but they
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: were both being physical.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: So I put out a poll question.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: And we'll get to the Utah stuff. I just want
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: your answers on this as well. I put out a
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: poll question at Real OC Sports. The correct football outcome
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: for BYU versus Notre Dame is, as is, the Cougs win.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: A pass interference call should have been made there.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Or.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Regardless of the PI, there was one second left. The
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Big 12 has come out and said, yeah, there was
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: one second left in the game scenario. that the second
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: time in the same year, we have dispute over whether
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a game is actually over or not.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: That is horrible for.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Officiating in the game of football. So tell me how
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you feel about Utah. Tell me whether, The BYU win
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: is the correct football outcome. There should have been a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: pass interference call. There should have been one more play
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: because there was one second left. I think I know
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: where most Utah fans are going to answer on this,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: but I want.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: To hear from you. 877-353-0700.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: You can always tweet at me at RealOCSports. James, you
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: said it's Michael in Harriman.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Michael, welcome. How are you?
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: I'm good. How are you doing?
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I'm doing all right. What'd you love?
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: What'd you hate about that Utah victory in Colorado?
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: It's here's my, here's my point right now is the
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: last three games we've got, it seems to have got.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Worse and worse on defense.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I think we were lucky to win that football game
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: the other night.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I think that.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: Until we can get some pressure on quarterbacks, they're going
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: to continue to carve us up and I'll leave it
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: at that. And you can comment. Thank you.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I think you're absolutely right.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: If there is not a significant alteration of the defensive
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: game plan against Houston, Connor Wegman is going to make
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: you look bad. I'm sorry, but Paul Fitzgerald, Cash Dillon,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: with a couple of really dumb penalties in this last game,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: by the way, Lance Holtzclaw and Ethan Day have not
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: demonstrated an ability to win their one-on-one matchups and create
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: meaningful moments play altering pressure on the quarterback, which means
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: you've got to heat the quarterback up.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: You either have to play somebody else at defensive end.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: And I don't think they have plenty plans on doing that,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: or they have to run different stunts along the defensive front.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: They have to bring Cyrus Polo on blitzes. They have
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: to get Elijah Ellis out there. They got to send
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Trey Reynolds in the a gap, whatever it is. And
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: that creates vulnerabilities in your past coverage. This is something
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that Utah has to accept. Colton Swan has to deal
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: with and find a way around. Because if there's no
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: pressure and you're playing man, your man, no matter how
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: good he is, and I think Bobo Chenault and Scooby
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Davis and Rabbit Evans, I think these guys are really,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: really good in coverage. Jackson Benny is excellent in coverage.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: They are not going to win in coverage for five
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and a half seconds. They just are not. You're not
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: even supposed to.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Be able to.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So you have to find a way to get pressure,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: especially because you're going to be facing Connor Wegman coming
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: up this week.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: He's an excellent quarterback.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: You've got Bear Bachmeier, who is now a Heisman Trophy candidate,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: whether you like it or not, Utah fans.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: He scored.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Two rushing touchdowns, a passing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: in the biggest game potentially ever at Lavelle Edwards Stadium.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And he's not the.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Best quarterback in the country by a long stretch, but
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: he is the number one weapon on a BYU football
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: team that is very, very formidable. So he's going to
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: be in that conversation as long as they continue to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: play well. you've got to face that guy. And even
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: when you do get pressure on that guy, he breaks tackles.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: He steps out of it. He keeps his eyes downfield.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Like this is problematic. You have to fix this problem
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and you don't have a bye week to do so.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: You got to do it now. Good phone call.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: 78 49 says 74 89 says what is better?
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: An ugly win or an emotional win?
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Which is what BYU and their fans have claimed for
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: years when they lose. Look, ugly wins are better than losses.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: There's no such thing as a good loss.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: All right?
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame probably hates that loss in Provo more than
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: most teams like their wins. It's just not something that
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: feels good, especially when you should have had another second
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: on the clock, especially when, if you don't shoot yourself
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: in the foot with your best pass rusher being ejected
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: in the first three plays of the game and your quarterback.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: doesn't fumble the ball going into score before the end
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of the half. I mean, there's a lot of things,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: but BYU made the necessary plays and they got an
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: emotional victory. They got a huge victory. They got an
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: important program defining victory. And now Utah football fans, the
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: only thing that derails the train for BYU is Utah
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: beating them in the Holy war. That is it. They're
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: not going to lose to UCF. They're not going to
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: lose any other game except maybe this Utah game, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: then we'll see what happens at a Big 12 championship,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: whoever ends up being there. BYU, barring any major disasters,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: is now a college football playoff frontrunner. Whether they win
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the Big 12 or not, get your mind right with
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: that concept, okay?
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Utah has to beat BYU. It was already incredibly urgent.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: That win over Notre Dame just made it tenfold more
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: urgent for Utah to get the win in the Holy war.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: This is interesting from 81 93 on a schedule note.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: The team was off school last week. That's right. It
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: was fall break. So change of routine.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Look, I'm not blaming anything except for like everyone was
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: off their game. They all were right. Coaches weren't at
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: their best players weren't at their best. And I think
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: there's a human nature component to that. Colorado is not good.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: And this Utah football team knows Colorado is not good.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: And most of the guys on this Utah football team
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: probably looked at Isaac Wilson as the starting quarterback and said, look,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: we know that that guy's not great.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: So we're going to beat him.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: And there was an underestimation happening. There was also like
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: whatever random voodoo was going on around all of college football.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: How many top 10 teams lost last week?
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: The lull, the.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Accidental exhale that everyone was letting out this past weekend
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: really came back and bit a lot of teams and
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: could have very came, came very close to biting Utah.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Thankfully they survived. 59 26 says football needs to do
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: what basketball does.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: They need install bright lights on the goalposts like basketball
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: has on the backboard.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: The game isn't over until those lights go on. That's interesting.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Find a way to make it clear to everyone trying
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: to rush the field, whether the game is actually over
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: or not. Alex on the text line, we can recap
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: top 10 teams that lost are still not being punished
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: enough because they're sec and big 10 and Notre Dame.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: They'll always be favored by voters. That's right.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Utah, without any pressure from our defensive ends, makes us
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: one-dimensional on pressure. We can't bring down the QB. Play
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: like we did against Colorado, and you lose to Houston, BYU,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and Arizona.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: And Cincinnati.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: You play that way against anyone who's not Colorado, you
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: will lose.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: You're 6-0 right now.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: If you play like you did against Colorado, you will
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: be 6-6 at the end of the year. However, I
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: have faith in this team and in this coaching staff
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: to not let that repeat itself.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: I really do.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Alex also says, BYU's win is huge for them. Outcome
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: is the outcome. I just hate how I constantly have
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: to see in my timeline so many BYU saves from
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: no calls, miracle catches, or refs giving them calls. You
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: can probably think of all the games I'm talking about. Look,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: as a Utah fan, you're going to hate that result.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: You're going to hate the way that it happened. You're
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: going to hate the fact that you know, BYU does
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: get a call on defensive holding when it's Utah ending
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the game with a stop and they don't get the
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: call against them when it's pretty obvious pass interference that then, uh,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: officials like officiating experts have gone back and they've looked
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: at the tape and they've said, that's a, that's a PI.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Kirk Herbstreit said it on the broadcast. That's a PI. Oh,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: also there's one second left and.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: There's always going to be a response.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: There's always going to be a rebuttal from BYU because
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: this is what you do as a fan. You say, well, yeah,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: but They weren't calling it that way all game, or
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: we didn't, you know, that's a makeup, no call from
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: earlier in the game when we got a call, we
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: And again, that's how refereeing goes. Oh, well, there wasn't, there.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Was only one second left on the clock because they
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: were favoring Notre Dame with the clock management all game.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: You want, you look at the play and the play
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: actually took four seconds, but only three of them ticked
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: off the clock, whatever. It's the same conversation we're having
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: with the, the Michigan's the Michigan versus Western Michigan thing, right?
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, if all of the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: officiating experts come back and they say, sorry, Notre Dame, we.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Did you wrong.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: It doesn't actually mean anything. The result of the game stands.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: BYU is the number two team in the country. They
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: won the game. And I would make an argument that
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: they earned that win. You know why guys, they were
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: playing without their best overall player in LJ Martin. He
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: was not in the game, and BYU still won. That
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: is an alarm bell to everyone else in the Big 12,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and to Utah especially. If they can beat Notre Dame without...
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: their best player, how good is that BYU team really?
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: It's scary.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Spencer on the text line. So strange for us fans
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: to be concerned about the trenches. D-line has been horrible.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: If we're being honest with ourselves, our own line has
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: only been average. We need better play from the trenches
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: in order to beat Houston.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: And BYU.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Look, yes, I think that the offensive line has been
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: pleasantly surprising. And I think you saw some.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Regression, some.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Lack of communication, some lack of seriousness, maybe some shock
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: that Kelvin Obot left that game when he did whatever
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: it is, they They did not play well against Colorado. 69,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: 28 says, can they stop giving the team value at halftime?
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's what it is, but something is
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: going on. Darren says, Hi, guys. As you can imagine,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I am happy with the win. I want to frame
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: my comment around absolutely how embarrassing the officiating was. Yes,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: as a BYU fan, I'm super happy for the win.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: The last play should have been pass interference.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Last play should have done one second left.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Let's not forget Notre Dame receivers literally threw our defenders
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: off at least two plays that didn't get called and
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: one that got called for defensive pass interference. Just so
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: absolutely embarrassing for the Big 12 officiating crew.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Abysmal bad. BYU gets the win.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: There's no revisionist history that is ever going to change that.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame has to get used to it. BYU has
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: got to continue to celebrate it. Utah fans, you've got
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to get used to it. And, and don't, don't do
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: this when you're at the office today.
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: When a BYU fan comes in gloating because his or
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: her team is number two in the country right now,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and they just beat Notre Dame and you struggled with
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Colorado and Don't do.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Anything except face the reality.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to play a lot better or we're
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: not going to have a good year in the second half.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: And regardless of whatever officiating gaffes happen, you guys got
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the win.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: You can't argue. Well, you should have had pass interference
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: on that last play. They didn't call it, right? And
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: BYU made plays all up and down. And Bear Bachmeier
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: continues to be reliable in incredibly stressful situations. So don't
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: be the fan. Don't do what the BYU fans do. Well, actually, well, actually, no,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: just say, yeah, that was a great win. We'll see
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: you guys November 7th. Try not to be a Utah homer.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: This is $ 59. 95, but definitely having competed in sports a
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: big chunk of my life, human nature definitely can kick in.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Some of the worst games were when I looked at
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: my opponent and thought they were just a bunch of duds.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: They lit me up. Yeah, I mean.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: I really believe that that was the biggest problem for
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Utah and Morgan Scali. Unfortunately, I don't think he can
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: go on the press conference. That's going to happen in
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: about half an hour. I don't think he can say
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: that he can't offer that as an excuse because he
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: can't offer any excuses, but also because you can't allow
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: that to be something like, oh yeah, well, our guys
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: just kind of took their eye off the ball. It
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: opens up criticism for you and your assistant coaches if
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: you allow that to happen. I do believe, though, that's
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: why it went down the way it did. I don't
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: think that Colorado suddenly got much better, and I don't
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: think that Utah suddenly got much worse. I think that
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Colorado was well-coached enough that they started to exploit Utah's
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: sort of lackadaisical approach, and it ain't good. Utah also
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: had red zone turnovers, which hasn't been a problem this year.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: They're kind of freakish.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: The reason you run that little Utah pass with the
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: tight end or the running back or the receiver motioning
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: across in front of the quarterback and getting the pitch
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: forward is because in that condensed space, it is low risk.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: If you drop that pitch, it is supposed to be
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: an incomplete pass. Instead, we saw the freak happenstance where
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: it was Noah, Benny, right?
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Noah, Benny baubles the ball.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: And it stays in the air and a defensive lineman
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: intercepts it.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: It's not a real interception. It's not.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: And Devin, he's got to account for the ones that
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: he does throw that are that poor.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: That one is like, it's a pitch. It's a forward pitch.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: The worst case scenario in that is supposed to be
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: it's dropped as an incomplete pass and you live and
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you play the next down. That was bad, and all
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of that fed Colorado and hurt Utah, and I'm not
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: giving excuses because they looked awful and were just relieved
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: that they got the win. Jordan says, I have a
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: big concern on the inability to reach the QB. Shout
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: out to the Cougs for repping the conference. Should have
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: put money on it, but I can't anymore. Okay, well,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: at least you're listening, I guess. There was a great
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: sign on game day, by the way. Did you see
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: that one that said, don't bet on it? It was
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: like Notre Dame. Don't bet on it. And it was,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: who was it? D Todd Christofferson, who was just like
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a cutout of him folding his arms. Don't bet on it.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic. Nice little double entendre there.
• 25:12
  Speaker 7: By the way, Any chance Pat McAfee is not betting
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: now that he's just been in that great environment, all
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: the great vibes? Did you hear Ryan Smith on with
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: him on his show Friday? You were working Friday in Chicago.
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: It was very cheesy. This is such a special place.
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: And Pat going, you know, I can feel it. Maybe
• 25:36
  Speaker 7: you can Pat.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Pat leans in, man. He knows where to butter his bread.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: He wore a tie this time. He was like, he's
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: like kind of mocking the whole like BYU thing while
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: also not doing so in such an egregious way that
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: people are offended by it. He also said derfing live
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: on television and was pointing at people like, And everyone
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: in the world is like, I don't know what that is,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: so I'm not going to be offended by it, but
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: it's crazy what that guy pushes and gets away with.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: It just cracks me up.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: A couple more texts, then we'll take a break. Sean,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: it was a gritty win, one that wasn't fun to watch.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: I love our receivers. Our defense was caught flat-footed against
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: some tempo, looking at the sidelines. D is not getting pressure.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: If you can fix those things, it'll be so much better.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Strange offensive play call on third and long. Look, there's
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: a lot to work on. There's a lot to fix
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: for this Utah football team. Don't even think about BYU
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: right now, although it's hard because they're at the center
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of the college football conversation.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: You've got to beat Houston, and Houston is good.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Houston is coming off a really tough test, and they
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: passed it against Oklahoma State. Jay says, what's going on
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: with this team at halftime? Third quarters are always a
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: crap shoot. If the youths keep this up, they'll fall
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: to Houston, BYU, and possibly more. There goes any Big
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: 12 championship and playoff hopes. We'll get to more of these,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: but right now we're going to take a break, and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Ari Temkin joins us on the other side. It was
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: a big weekend for BYU. It was a big weekend
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: for the Big 12. It was a big weekend for
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Utah to survive that ugly performance and remain undefeated. You're
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: a top 10 team in the country. You are number
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: 10 right now. If you keep winning, there's nowhere to
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: go but up. And especially if you can win on
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: November 7th, if you beat BYU, you'll be a top
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: three or four team in the country at that point.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: But man, you got to get there first. Lots left
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: to talk about. Keep the text coming, 877-353-0700. Ari Temkin
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: next on the Sean O'Connell Show. Utah's number one sports talk,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. You're tuned to the.
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN
• 28:01
  Speaker 8: 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell show.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome in our good friend from big 12 radio on
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: tune in Ari Temkin, big 12 insider, who he's been
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: watching these games even closer than most of us have Ari.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Welcome.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: How are you?
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: Oh, see what's up, buddy. Huge weekend for the big 12.
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: Great weekend for the big 12.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: My friend, massive, massive weekend.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Look, we got Utah football to talk about obviously, but
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to bury the lead here. BYU gets
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the win over Notre Dame in Provo. Big stage, college
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: game day, the whole thing, and the BYU Cougars improve 6-0.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, Bear Bachmeier with an incredible game. The defense
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: played great.
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: Tell me your take away. Yeah, I mean, look, it
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: was not a perfect game. And I think that is
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: probably the most important part of this win for BYU
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: is historically the Big 12 in those types of games
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: have needed to play near perfectly in order to win. And,
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: you know, I mean, look, there's a muffed punt. There's a,
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: you know, really puzzling call to go for it from
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: Kalani that... you know, in, in, in previous iterations of
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: that type of matchup, a top two matchup like that,
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: top two, top 10 teams, the big 12 historically has
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: just struggled in and, you know, bear Bachmeier when the
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: chips were down, the defense for Notre Dame, one of
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: the best in the country, if not the best, in
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: the country had held them to 36 total yards, the
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: entire second half, they needed to drive. They got the drive.
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: I think it's not just about the win itself, but
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: how the win went down. And that's, I think, in
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: many ways, what makes it monumental for this conference. This
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: was not a fluky win. These were two really good
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: teams playing a very high-level football game. And honestly, OC,
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: we saw the same thing between Oklahoma State and Houston. And,
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: you know, it feels like the Big 12 should start
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: getting a little bit more respect, especially this season, because
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: this conference has a major strength at the top of
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: the league right now.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Of course, the final play of the game ended up
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: being determined it shouldn't have been the final play of
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the game. And there's a debate whether or not that
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: was egregious past interference. And look, I'm not going to
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: re-adjudicate what referees should have figured out. But this is
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: now the second time in the same college football season.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: where we have either played an extra play when there
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't a second on the game clock, or you have
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: not given even a blue blood, the blue blood like
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame, you have not given them another crack with
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: one second left when you should have. This is something
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: that has to be figured out. Every official and officiating
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: experts has talked about what a bad look it is.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: And it probably, I mean, the way BYU played probably
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: doesn't change the outcome if they get another play, but
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: it is something that hangs over this a little bit.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: Will there be changes?
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: Let me ask you this. Did you, after the game ended,
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: think for a second that the clock was wrong?
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Not until they showed the little screenshot, no.
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: I wonder if the Big 12 got out in front
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: of this to release a statement to take away from
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: what very well could have been defensive pass interference in
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: the last play of the game. Not to say that
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: they didn't see that there should have been a second left,
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: but as soon as that play happened, I thought the
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: game was over. And I certainly wondered why they didn't
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: throw a flag there because there was a ton of contact. And,
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: you know, I'm not trying to create any conspiracy theories
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: about the Big 12 here, but it was curious to
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: me that almost like they said that in order to over,
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: you know, overshadow what could have very well been defensive
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: pass interference. At the end of the day though, OC,
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: I mean, you're right from the standpoint of this second
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: game where we're talking about a second, whether it should
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: have been put on the clock or not. Now the
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: proof has been the pudding with Michigan as they've looked,
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: you know, very average since that game anyways. But, you know,
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: I always say this and I know you, you know,
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: I'm sure you feel similar and played, but You've got
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: to decide the game on the field with the players
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: you have, and you can't leave it up to officials
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: to have to decide the game for you. And I
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: go back to two possessions Notre Dame had in plus territory,
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: the muffed punt, and then the inexplicable fake punt. And
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: BYU's defense dominated and turned them away for only six
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: points in those two possessions. If Notre Dame wants to
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: win that game, they should have cashed in one of
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: those for a touchdown with a guy that presumably has
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: been you know, one of the best quarterbacks of the
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: country this year and CJ Carr, but Bachmeier to me
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: was the better quarterback. And, you know, again, like one
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: quarterback who had not done anything with an offense had
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: not done anything for the entire second half, led their
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: team down the field for a drive to win the game.
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: And CJ Carr did not, but, but I think, you know,
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: if Notre Dame fans want to complain, I think six
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: points off of those two opportunities there in plus territory,
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: the muffed punt and the inexplicable going for the fake
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: punt there is, I think that's what BYU's defense won
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: this game for them.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: They certainly did.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: And by the way, they did it without LJ Martin
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: in the lineup for BYU, and he is probably their
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: best overall football player, if it's not Bear Bachmeier. So
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: that is another reason why I think the Cougs can
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: feel pretty good about where they are at this season.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: And they're the number two ranked team in the country
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: because of this result and everything else that they have done.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: You also alluded to the Houston-Oklahoma State game. That was
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: a really fun one to watch. And obviously it sets
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: up another college football game day in the state of Utah.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: This one will be up here in Salt Lake city,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: number 14 ranked Houston versus number 10 ranked university of Utah.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: We're going to get to our U tier because we'll
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: in Boulder, but Houston versus Oklahoma state, they earned this win.
• 33:58
  Speaker 9: Ari.
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean, as impressive as it gets, because I mean,
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: Drew Estimaker was, was incredible and Connor Whiteman was better.
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: And I, I think Drew Mastemaker right now is on
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: NFL radars, is at this point the number one quarterback
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: in the upcoming draft. But I think Wegman should have
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: at least put himself on NFL radars with his performance because... look,
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: he's like bear, you know, he's going to get the
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: dirty yards, but what he did through the year is
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: the differentiator, certainly in this game. And I think that's
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: a huge difference OC between Conor Wigman this year and
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: Conor Wigman last year. I mean, last week he threw
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: four touchdown passes to their tight end over Meyer this
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: week over Meyer was pretty much a non-factor. He did
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: have a touchdown catch, but I mean, Kobe young, who's,
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: who's been incredible in terms of like being the one
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: guy to give you an explosive play in the passing offense.
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: He had a 48 yard touchdown here that kind of
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: decided the game. I'm already Thomas, the leading receiver from
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: the big 12 last year. I mean, he's starting to
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: look like it in these last two weeks that they
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: added Trent Walker, who reminds me a little bit of
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: Kyler Casper for BYU. So I just think, you know,
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: this is a past attack. to compliment this rushing attack
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: that makes them very tough to beat. Whereas last year,
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: like they, they need to run the ball in order
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: to beat you. This is a game where every time
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: Oklahoma state came up with an answer, like can Houston
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: do it? They responded and came up with the answer.
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: So it was an extremely impressive performance. Wegman out dueled mastermaker.
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: I don't think there was any question about that. And
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: that doesn't take anything away from how good mastermaker is,
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: but a Wegman, you know, again, like he's a guy
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: that probably won't get the same NFL love certainly, but
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: a guy that I think could end up getting drafted
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: and actually be a productive NFL pastor, because he looks
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: really impressive in this game and throughout the season, man,
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: I mean, he's been so good all year. And I just,
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: I had major question marks about him. We did our
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: top five lists for quarterbacks had to go this year.
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: He wasn't there. And, you know, I questioned his ability
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: to consistently be able to throw the ball and compete downfield.
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: And he's been really good in downfield passing this year.
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: They take a lot of shots. They've got the weapons
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: to do it. And he's winning. I put a lot
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: of that on him.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Utah survived and not much else against Colorado. It was
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: ugly really throughout, but especially in that third quarter, which
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: has now six games in has proven itself to be
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: a problem. pretty much every week for this University of
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Utah football team. 27-24, you escape. Morgan Scali said after
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the game, I'm not sure we deserve to win that
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: football game, and I can't find anything that makes me
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: disagree with him. But ultimately, they do improve to 6-0.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: They climb one spot in the rankings, giving all the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: chaos in the top 10. And now they've got to
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: welcome this Houston team coming off a massive but emotional
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: victory against Oklahoma State into Salt Lake City.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: What do you make of it?
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, life comes at you fast, certainly, with
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: that game this weekend, but glad that Utah gets an
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: opponent that will really give them a test. Yeah, look,
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: a week ago, it looked like Utah was easily the
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: best team in the Big 12. BYU had not been
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: very impressive.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: Texas Tech had not been very impressive.
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: And then BYU goes and beats Notre Dame, and Texas Tech...
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: absolutely destroyed Arizona state. I think it shows you how
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: week to week this league can be.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: Here's the thing.
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: I know there are three teams at the top, Texas tech,
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: BYU and Utah.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Then Houston's right there, but Houston does.
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: Have a loss of Texas tech. And then you've got
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: Arizona and Oklahoma state, but those three teams at the
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: top are very good. In fact, I would take those
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: three teams at the top over the top three teams
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: in any other conference right now. And I'm not kidding
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: over the secs, top three teams over the big 10,
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: top three teams. And, and look, I mean, yeah, this
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: was an ugly game against a really bad team, but
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: I got to say, going back to this big 12 thing,
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: like this is a year where big 12 teams at
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: the top are figuring out how to win these types
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: of games. And in years past, we've seen top-level Big
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: 12 teams fall in these types of games, whereas that's
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: exactly what's happening in the SEC. Auburn is not a good...
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: Auburn is a mid-SEC football team. I mean, they barely
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: beat Baylor, and Baylor's a mid-level Big 12 team. And
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: they beat Georgia, right? So the SEC right now is
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: very much a league of parity. The Big 12 is not.
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: Its strength is at the top, and... I mean, it
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: was not a good look. There's plenty of things to
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: nitpick there. Short yardage rushing was terrible. I think this
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: was certainly a thing, you know, coming into this game
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: that you figured they would be able to win and
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: short yardage win on the ground and, you know, credit Colorado, man,
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: their defense has been really good all year as bad
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: as they are like for team, for, for, for Utah
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: fans that had just seen Colorado for the first time,
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: like They've got all kinds of flaws, certainly, you know,
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: going to their second quarterback and not being very good
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: on offense is a huge part of it, but their
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: defense is really good. And I think this conference though,
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: it has a clear delineation between the top middle and bottom.
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: Like they're going to test you in different ways. West
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: Virginia and Cincinnati don't have much defense, but they've got
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: explosive offenses. You know, Arizona state, I'm not really sure
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: what to make of them. Kansas, you know, at times looks,
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: looks competent and times doesn't, but I mean, Colorado is
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: really good. TCU is really good defensively. I mean, TCU
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: maybe has the best defense in the Big 12, right?
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: So I think it just shows Baylor's really good defensively.
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: It just shows kind of the variety of teams and
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: styles within this conference. They're still really good offenses. They're
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: still really good defenses, and the three teams at the
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: top had both of those. In this case, though, I
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: think Utah ran into a really good Colorado defense, and
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: their game plan wasn't up to it. And to appear,
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: we need to see them perform better, but it's nothing
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: to me other than just keep winning your games, and
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: that's what BYU had been doing until opportunities like Saturday
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: present themselves, and we're going to find out a lot
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: about Utah on Saturday.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: Do they win against Houston?
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: I think so.
• 39:41
  Speaker 9: I do.
• 39:44
  Speaker 5: I just think the defense... against this Houston offense, we'll
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: be able to win out again, given how good the
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: Houston offense is not just being able to win on
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: the ground. Like they, they could not win games last
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: year where they did not get their ground game going
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: and they can clearly do that this year. So they're
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: very multifaceted and hard to beat, but you know, they,
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: they barely lost attack again. I think Utah BYU and, and,
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: and tech clue, the top team is the big 12.
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: And I think they'll show that on Saturday.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Ari, I know you've got to let you get on
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: a plane. Enjoy Big 12 basketball media days, and we'll
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: chat again next week.
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: See you, buddy.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: Take care.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Ari Temkin, one of the best in the business. Big
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: thanks to him for joining us every single Monday. He
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: thinks that Utah still gets over on Houston, and that
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: obviously washes off any concern you have from the Colorado game.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: You've got to take it week by week.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: We're 15 minutes away from Morgan Scali answering some questions
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: in his press conference.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: The hot lunch is coming next. That's right, the hot lunch.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Is Texas actually going to bench Arch Manning? We'll discuss
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 40:57
  Speaker 8: You're listening to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 41:00
  Speaker 8: Hyundai Studio on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Hot Lunch brought to you by Zao Asian Cafe. Modern
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Asian cuisine. Multiple locations here in the state of Utah.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Rice bowls, noodle bowls, salads, Asian tacos, the banh mi wraps.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: And some delicious drinks, exotic drinks they've got as well.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: When you stop by Zao, sign up for the rewards program.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Tell them OC sent you. And that you heard about
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: it on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. We're going to
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: do our best to start giving away a little bit
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: of Zao swag slash hopefully a couple free lunches here
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: and there. In a world of college football where a
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: lot of teams, a lot of the top teams in
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the country fell this last weekend, which Utah's sixth game
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: week seven in college football, Ohio.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: State beat Indiana.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: So number five goes down, but if you know, five
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: going down to four, that's probably to be predicted at
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: some point, Tennessee beat Alabama.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Number six goes down.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Number seven, Texas gets beat by an unranked Florida team, 27-24.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Arch Manning, 14-20, 173 yards and a touchdown in this one.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: A week after Steve Sarkeesian said he was defending Arch
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Manning and said, look, man, if his name was Joe Smith,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: we'd be praising him for the way that he's playing quarterback.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: A week after that, Steve Sarkeesian is changing his tune
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: a little bit and saying, hey, we're going to go
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: ahead and give the backup some more reps. The exact
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: quote was, Arch is still our starter, but I need
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: a better version of Arch Manning. Number one, Georgia goes
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: down to unranked Auburn this week. I mean, it was
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: a bloodbath, not only in the top 25, but in
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: the top 10. Ole Miss was able to survive. They
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: beat number 13, Missouri 31 to three. So they're a
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: top team, top 10 team that stayed alive. Obviously number
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: two ranked Notre Dame lost to BYU and BYU is
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: now the number two ranks team in the country. Houston
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: beat Oklahoma state. They're up to number 14 after being
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: 20 last week. I mean, it is a, it is
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: a fascinating time in college football with you hear different
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: people have different takes on it that, Parody is now
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: real because NIL has leveled the playing field.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: We watched, we looked at.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: The NIL thing with that athletic article that did, I mean,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: that was a comprehensive and aggressive campaign by the athletic
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: to get to the bottom of the spending in college
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: football and try to figure out who's got 40 million
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: dollar rosters and who's approaching a 50 million dollar roster
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: and how many teams are you know even in that
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: 30 million dollar range and they did really really good
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: work and the results are what you kind of thought
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: they would be Georgia lost though Georgia spends in that
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: 35 40 plus million dollar range and they lost to
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Auburn who can't compete at that level Notre Dame is
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: way up there and they lost to BYU who's got
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: apparently a $ 10 million payroll deficit compared to Notre Dame.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Miami won. Miami's spending big money. Alabama's spending huge money.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Tennessee was able to beat them. Texas might be.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: The biggest spenders in all of college football, and they lost.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: And it's not because Florida pays as much money as
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Texas does. Oregon is a crap team right now.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: Oregon.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Oregon is the biggest spender on the West coast.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: The money is important, but the money is far from
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: being the only thing that matters. And I, when people say, well, yeah, the,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the reason these top 10 teams loss is because NIL
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: has leveled the playing field.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: That's not it. NIL has not leveled the playing field.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: What NIL has done has stopped the, the stockpiling of talent.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: It is, it hasn't leveled the playing field because not
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: everyone is spending the money, the money that they're spending.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: That's what a level playing field is.
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: It's everyone.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: It's a salary cap. That's not what has happened here.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Depth has distributed itself more evenly across college football. And
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the backup quarterback at Texas is still a five-star by
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the way. The backup quarterback at Ohio State who can't
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: see the field is still a five-star athlete, by the way.
• 46:11
  Speaker 7: He's going to see plenty of the field going forward.
• 46:15
  Speaker 7: Julian Sane announced several weeks. I don't know if you
• 46:17
  Speaker 7: saw that.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: That's rough for your Ohio State Buckeyes.
• 46:20
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, it would be rough if Julian Sane
• 46:23
  Speaker 7: was actually a top quarterback, but we shall see.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: Luke Fahey, is that who we're talking about here? Yeah,
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: that's who ended the game. The freshman from Mission Viejo, California.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll see what the Ohio State Buckeyes do
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: on this. So, look, you get one of these kind
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: of like bloodbath weeks every year in college football, it seems.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: This one happened to be all in the same week,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: and it was all top 10 teams, not just top
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: 25 teams. And that creates a lot of interesting scenarios
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: for the Big 12 Conference specifically. if this is not
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: a multiple year or a multi-bid year for the big
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: 12 conference, when it comes to the college football playoff,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: then you never had hope in a 12 team playoff
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: that there would be now you have plenty of hope
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: because we haven't got to, I haven't got to talk
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: about this enough. Uh, you got 24 team college football
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: playoff that nobody asked for coming next year. And what
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: that does to scheduling and what that does to recruiting
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: and what that does to the Big 12 versus the SEC,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the ACC, it's ESPN grabbing more money and everyone else
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: just being along for the ride.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: And that's just the way things are going to be.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: And it stinks.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: And 12 might not even be the right number, but
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: 24 almost certainly isn't. I know that James, when he
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: was filling in this last weekend or the last couple
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: of days of last week, mentioned that Utah would have
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: been a multiple-time playoff team if it were a 2014 playoff.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing, and this might be an unpopular opinion.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: I don't want Utah making the playoff because the playoff
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: is bigger. I want Utah making the playoff because they're
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: a better team. I don't want BYU being in the
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: college football playoff because it's the NCAA tournament and 64
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: people or 64 squads are there. I don't want my
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: kid on the honor roll because now the bar for
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: honor roll is 3.0 instead of 3.5. I want my
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: kid to have the 3.5. Reducing the barrier to entry
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: does not then create a better scenario for your team.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: It doesn't make them better. Oh, now we're a college
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: football playoff team. I don't care about that. I want
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: a Big 12 championship. And then if that comes with
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: the Big 12, comes with a playoff bid, wonderful. I'm
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: not going to start this rant now because we have
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: to take a break and we have to get to
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: the Morgan Scali Weekly Press Conference. That's starting next on
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: That will be in Georgia in November, so congrats to Sarah.
• 49:16
  Speaker 10: Obviously, it's a big weekend for all of the University
• 49:18
  Speaker 10: of Utah as well. College Game Day is coming to host.
• 49:21
  Speaker 10: I believe this is the seventh time they will be
• 49:25
  Speaker 10: coming to campus. Present Circle is going to be hopping.
• 49:28
  Speaker 11: We know that our fans and our students are going
• 49:30
  Speaker 11: to be great in representing. And you know when the.
• 49:34
  Speaker 10: First time was that they hosted College Game Day here
• 49:38
  Speaker 10: in Salt Lake City? February.
• 49:39
  Speaker 11: 2004, brother. My senior year.
• 49:45
  Speaker 10: And if you want to know who the first Rhino was,
• 49:50
  Speaker 10: it was Steve Fafita. He scored a touchdown in that
• 49:53
  Speaker 10: game as they hand the ball off to him. So
• 49:55
  Speaker 10: that was a pretty cool experience.
• 49:57
  Speaker 11: But excited. Saturday's game obviously.
• 50:03
  Speaker 10: Would mark the 100th sellout at Rice-Eccles Stadium. So that's
• 50:07
  Speaker 10: pretty cool. In terms of the game... that we just
• 50:11
  Speaker 10: played at Colorado.
• 50:12
  Speaker 11: Again, can't say.
• 50:13
  Speaker 10: Enough great things about what that staff did there with Colorado.
• 50:17
  Speaker 11: They had defense, played lights out.
• 50:20
  Speaker 10: Very physical game. We obviously did enough to stub our
• 50:23
  Speaker 10: toe and make it a game.
• 50:26
  Speaker 11: Thought, you know, with two.
• 50:27
  Speaker 10: Minutes, 30-something seconds left in the first half, that could
• 50:33
  Speaker 10: have been a 17-0 game and then another opportunity.
• 50:35
  Speaker 11: Three chances in the red zone.
• 50:37
  Speaker 10: Come up with six points as opposed to 24-0 going
• 50:40
  Speaker 10: into halftime really allowed them to stay in it. First possession,
• 50:46
  Speaker 10: second half, we give up a long touchdown coming off coverage.
• 50:53
  Speaker 11: Start off on offense with a penalty.
• 50:55
  Speaker 10: So again, self-inflicted stuff that really didn't allow us to
• 50:59
  Speaker 10: get things going. I thought the defense did a really
• 51:01
  Speaker 10: nice job on Devin's turnover of keeping.
• 51:06
  Speaker 11: That to a field goal.
• 51:08
  Speaker 10: And that stemmed the tide, and defense from then on out,
• 51:12
  Speaker 10: you know, stop, stop.
• 51:14
  Speaker 11: Offense started to click, and we were able to finish
• 51:17
  Speaker 11: the game.
• 51:17
  Speaker 10: You know, I mentioned the performances of Creed Widmore.
• 51:23
  Speaker 11: And Bobo Chenault.
• 51:25
  Speaker 10: Also, I think Hunter Andrews, I was really pleased with
• 51:28
  Speaker 10: the reps that he got, not only running the football
• 51:31
  Speaker 10: but blocking.
• 51:32
  Speaker 11: That guy is a consistent player for us.
• 51:35
  Speaker 10: So some really good things from that game. Also, some, obviously,
• 51:39
  Speaker 10: things that we need to clean up. But, you know,
• 51:44
  Speaker 10: a win is a win, and we'll take it. With that,
• 51:49
  Speaker 10: a little bit more of a preview on Houston. Coach Fritz,
• 51:54
  Speaker 10: so much respect for him, and he's had success wherever
• 51:58
  Speaker 10: he's been. And you see what they're doing, very veteran group,
• 52:03
  Speaker 10: 6-1 right now on the season. top 25 team that
• 52:07
  Speaker 10: we're going to be hosting. Very good offense and a
• 52:12
  Speaker 10: defense that ranks, I believe, second in the top 10
• 52:15
  Speaker 10: in the country in rush defense. So 10th in total offense,
• 52:18
  Speaker 10: 12th in scoring offense. They're putting up 39 points a game.
• 52:21
  Speaker 10: 6th in pass efficiency, which you know is a big
• 52:25
  Speaker 10: stat of mine.
• 52:26
  Speaker 11: And then their first and third down conversions.
• 52:28
  Speaker 10: So they're sustaining drives by converting on third down and
• 52:34
  Speaker 10: Sixth in the country, sixth in the country in rush defense.
• 52:36
  Speaker 10: So doing it on both sides of the ball, this
• 52:38
  Speaker 10: would be a great challenge for us, and we are.
• 52:42
  Speaker 11: Excited for this opportunity. So, Justin, who's got your question
• 52:47
  Speaker 11: for me right now?
• 52:48
  Speaker 12: Hey, over here.
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: Corey, what does it say to have college game day
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: highlight the state of Utah twice in the last two weeks,
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: and how do you prepare for the most prolific passing
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: offense you will.
• 52:57
  Speaker 11: Face all year? You're calling it already. The most prolific
• 53:02
  Speaker 11: offense we'll face all year. Passing offense. All right. You're
• 53:05
  Speaker 11: calling it out.
• 53:06
  Speaker 10: I think it's awesome that game day is coming. How
• 53:10
  Speaker 10: many teams are left undefeated in the country?
• 53:12
  Speaker 11: Six.
• 53:13
  Speaker 10: And two of them are sitting right here within 30
• 53:16
  Speaker 10: minutes of each other.
• 53:16
  Speaker 11: That's pretty awesome.
• 53:18
  Speaker 10: So, yeah, any time we get to show off our
• 53:24
  Speaker 10: campus and our student body and everything that's great about
• 53:29
  Speaker 10: Salt Lake City and the University of Utah, I.
• 53:31
  Speaker 11: Think it's fantastic for the nation to see.
• 53:33
  Speaker 10: And in terms of how are we preparing for this offense,
• 53:38
  Speaker 10: the same way we prepare every week, and that is,
• 53:42
  Speaker 10: you know, what are they great at?
• 53:45
  Speaker 11: Obviously, they're moving the ball. They're sustaining drives.
• 53:47
  Speaker 10: They've got playmakers both at the wide receiver spot, at
• 53:50
  Speaker 10: the running back spot as well.
• 53:53
  Speaker 11: Good speed. The quarterback... he does not make a living
• 53:59
  Speaker 11: running the ball, but man is he effective when he does.
• 54:01
  Speaker 11: He's a competitor.
• 54:04
  Speaker 10: We've got our hands full for sure, but I also
• 54:06
  Speaker 10: believe in our coaching staff and we'll put a good
• 54:09
  Speaker 10: game plan together.
• 54:11
  Speaker 13: You talked about how games like Saturday can help your
• 54:14
  Speaker 13: team develop and do that. Speaking to you specifically in
• 54:17
  Speaker 13: the coaching staff, how does that help you as a coach,
• 54:19
  Speaker 13: especially in your first year as a head coach trying
• 54:21
  Speaker 13: to call all the shots in.
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: Games like that?
• 54:24
  Speaker 10: Well, I think first and foremost, you just need to
• 54:28
  Speaker 10: know with the communication that goes on, okay, what are
• 54:31
  Speaker 10: the issues?
• 54:33
  Speaker 11: Legitimately, what are the issues? How do we fix them?
• 54:38
  Speaker 11: Can we fix them?
• 54:40
  Speaker 10: Is it just an athleticism issue, which it wasn't in
• 54:43
  Speaker 10: this game. It was simply some of it was assignments.
• 54:47
  Speaker 10: Some of it was them scheming a little bit of
• 54:50
  Speaker 10: what we were doing and Us being able to respond,
• 54:53
  Speaker 10: Colton did a really nice job responding to the defensive side. Offensively,
• 55:00
  Speaker 10: going back and looking at that film, the saying goes,
• 55:05
  Speaker 10: it seems never as bad as it seems. It was
• 55:07
  Speaker 10: definitely not as bad as it seemed. There were definitely
• 55:10
  Speaker 10: options there that we just missed on. The end of
• 55:13
  Speaker 10: the game, third down, clock's got to be running, don't
• 55:22
  Speaker 10: throw that ball. That is completely on us as a
• 55:26
  Speaker 10: coaching staff, making sure that's clear.
• 55:29
  Speaker 11: And so that's one of those as well.
• 55:33
  Speaker 10: But, yeah, it's definitely important that the communication is such that, okay,
• 55:40
  Speaker 10: you know what the problem is and you know how
• 55:41
  Speaker 10: to fix it and we can go forward.
• 55:46
  Speaker 13: Morgan, Colorado seemed to load up on Wayshon Parker, a
• 55:50
  Speaker 13: lot of heavy man boxes. How do you counter against that?
• 55:54
  Speaker 13: It seemed like Hunter Andrews was a good option. Why
• 55:57
  Speaker 13: go away from that Hunter Andrews triple option stuff?
• 56:00
  Speaker 11: Oh, I don't know that we went away from it necessarily.
• 56:05
  Speaker 11: Usually when teams load.
• 56:06
  Speaker 10: Up like that, you have your quick RPO hits, which
• 56:10
  Speaker 10: I think Devin did a nice job of. you can
• 56:12
  Speaker 10: escape the pocket, which I think he did a nice
• 56:14
  Speaker 10: job of, and some sprint outs and stuff like that.
• 56:16
  Speaker 10: And those were a couple where we thought we may
• 56:18
  Speaker 10: have missed some options that were open in those situations.
• 56:23
  Speaker 10: And then we got some completed on those as well. So,
• 56:28
  Speaker 10: you know, the triple comes in different ways, and you
• 56:34
  Speaker 10: can see sometimes it's hunters that pitch man, sometimes it's bray,
• 56:37
  Speaker 10: sometimes it's bird. So, I don't think we went away
• 56:41
  Speaker 10: from the triple. It may not have been the one
• 56:44
  Speaker 10: that you saw with Hunter, but a lot of the
• 56:49
  Speaker 10: plays that really stifled us were more interior stunts than anything.
• 56:55
  Speaker 10: Like I said, I was very pleased. The offensive line,
• 57:01
  Speaker 10: Kelvin goes down, Toa comes up, I thought he did
• 57:04
  Speaker 10: a nice job, and then Roger Alderman comes in, I
• 57:07
  Speaker 10: thought he did a nice job.
• 57:08
  Speaker 11: There were some really good things on the offensive line
• 57:10
  Speaker 11: that I saw.
• 57:11
  Speaker 10: Definitely things have to be cleaned up, but a lot
• 57:16
  Speaker 10: of promise in the film that I saw.
• 57:18
  Speaker 14: Morgan, I'm curious about the pass coverage.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: You said after the game there were some.
• 57:23
  Speaker 11: Breakdowns that you saw that you wanted to look at
• 57:25
  Speaker 11: the tape. What did you see?
• 57:27
  Speaker 14: Is it more of just man coverage being man coverage
• 57:30
  Speaker 14: or the quarterback having too much time in the pocket
• 57:32
  Speaker 14: or a little bit of both of those things?
• 57:33
  Speaker 10: A lot of times in man coverage when your coverage
• 57:39
  Speaker 10: may stop running their route.
• 57:42
  Speaker 11: And you may lose eyes and think, oh, okay, what's
• 57:44
  Speaker 11: going on? And, oh, potentially there's a sack there. But
• 57:48
  Speaker 11: then he escapes and you've already lost eyes on your coverage.
• 57:51
  Speaker 11: That's kind of what happened. Yeah, twice, twice in a row.
• 57:56
  Speaker 6: Morgan, you said you've dealt with game day here many
• 57:58
  Speaker 6: times before. A lot of these players have, at least
• 58:00
  Speaker 6: in the last year. How do you kind of deal
• 58:03
  Speaker 6: with the distractions that it could bring, but also embrace...
• 58:07
  Speaker 6: what it means to this university and have fun with
• 58:10
  Speaker 6: it and actually use.
• 58:11
  Speaker 11: It as motivation?
• 58:13
  Speaker 10: Well, I think the biggest recruiting tool you have is
• 58:17
  Speaker 10: winning games.
• 58:19
  Speaker 11: That's the biggest recruiting tool you have.
• 58:21
  Speaker 10: And so our players understand that it's all about game
• 58:25
  Speaker 10: day and what they do on the field. And the
• 58:29
  Speaker 10: best thing they can do to maximize the game day,
• 58:33
  Speaker 10: the college game day experience is to win. And so
• 58:37
  Speaker 10: we're putting all our efforts into that. And, yes, we're
• 58:39
  Speaker 10: going to put our best foot forward and make sure
• 58:41
  Speaker 10: that they understand what's important to us and hope the
• 58:45
  Speaker 10: country understands what's important to us. And, yes, it can
• 58:50
  Speaker 10: be a lot of fun. But ultimately, at the end
• 58:52
  Speaker 10: of the day, it's only fun if you win that game.
• 58:55
  Speaker 10: And so our guys are prepared for that. And ESPN
• 58:59
  Speaker 10: College Game does a great job of making sure that
• 59:02
  Speaker 10: they don't interfere with the week's preparation. They want to
• 59:06
  Speaker 10: be there to highlight us, highlight our university and what's
• 59:09
  Speaker 10: great about. us, but also prep the entire country for
• 59:13
  Speaker 10: all of game day and all the different games that
• 59:16
  Speaker 10: are going on.
• 59:18
  Speaker 14: Last week you were talking about there were different issues
• 59:21
  Speaker 14: in the past defense and one of them was somebody
• 59:24
  Speaker 14: being misaligned at the snap and then you had it
• 59:26
  Speaker 14: happen in the end zone in this game.
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: What do you do to clean that up? What is
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: the process?
• 59:32
  Speaker 11: Oh, man.
• 59:34
  Speaker 10: Well, in that particular instance, it was simply a matter
• 59:38
  Speaker 10: of him not getting the signal, and that's on us.
• 59:44
  Speaker 11: Whereas the previous game, signals were being received. We didn't
• 59:50
  Speaker 11: have enough urgency to get lined up.
• 59:52
  Speaker 15: You talked a lot about Weishon and his play on
• 59:57
  Speaker 15: the field. What has he meant to this team as
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 15: a leader and a locker room presence this season?
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 10: Oh, Wayshon's been fantastic. And what you don't see is
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 10: the stuff in practice, right? His energy in practice, his.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 11: Work ethic in practice. And he's not the only one. But, man,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 11: does he bring so much energy.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 10: And, you know, he's willing to have uncomfortable conversations with people,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 10: letting them know, hey, what you're giving is not enough
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 10: and we need.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 11: More out of you.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 10: He's definitely compelling. So the more you have of those guys,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 10: the better your team's.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 8: Going to be.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 4: With college game day coming to town, Nick Saban, is
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: there anything from.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 6: Him you've ever taken as a head coach yourself now
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 6: to try to implement with your team and your program
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 6: now as obsessed like he did?
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 11: Yes.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 10: I mean, he's one of the best to ever do it.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 10: And so I had the opportunity to visit Alabama.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 11: I can't remember when that was. It would have been.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 11: Maybe it was 2018. But anyway, they were– we did
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 11: some development. Alabama then went to Georgia.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 10: But the number one thing that I think– he always
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 10: understood that it was about the player, and he was
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 10: so good at recruiting.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 11: That guy recruited every day.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 10: And I read his– one of his books, and just
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 10: he was all about the player. I think– Also, with
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 10: the game evolving and recruiting evolving, he was able to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 10: evolve with the times.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 11: And, you know, so much respect for him.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 10: And he was here last year, came to one of
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 10: our walkthroughs, and just all class and all business. So,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 10: I mean, he did it the right way, but it
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 10: was all about recruiting and recruiting the right people.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 4: Morgan, when a team like Houston is so proficient in
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 4: converting third downs and making a chance on that down,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: What does your team have to do as a defense
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: to kind of make that down more uncomfortable and more challenging?
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 10: Well, I think we're doing a pretty good job on
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 10: the defensive side at third downs as well. I think
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 10: we're top 20 in the country at third down stop rate.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 10: And so it'll be good versus good. And, you know,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 10: situational football shows up in a lot of different areas.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 11: Third down is just one of them.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 10: And so it's just understanding who an offense is and
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 10: how to attack it. I think Coach Swan and that
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 10: crew is doing a really good job of identifying throughout
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 10: the week how they think that teams are going to
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 10: attack us.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 13: Coach, Connor Wegman has been great against the Blitz this year.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: What does it take to.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 8: Make a guy like that uncomfortable?
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 9: Oh.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 10: What does it take to make him uncomfortable?
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 11: You may not make him uncomfortable. Just You may just
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 11: need to.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 10: Force him into bad things, bad throws, throws that he
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 10: doesn't want to make. And a lot of that comes
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 10: with pre-snap disguises and stuff like that. But he's a
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 10: veteran that's seen a lot and been through a lot.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 10: So I have a lot of respect for that young man,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 10: how competitive he is.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 12: Morgan, after the game on Saturday, Devin made it clear
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 12: that it was a win, but they were not happy
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 12: and they were not pleased as a unit, as players.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 12: Just early in the week, how have you seen maybe
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 12: the morale of this team? Has there been a newfound
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 12: determination to kind of get the ship back on track
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 12: for this week?
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 10: Yeah, they'll watch the film today with the coaching staff.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 10: I'm sure they've already watched it themselves. But there was
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 10: a lot that we left out there and a lot
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 10: to clean up. And if you're a competitor, that's exactly
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 10: how you should feel. And do you celebrate the wins?
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 10: You bet, because they're hard to come by. But we
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 10: understand that that type of performance is probably not going
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 10: to be good enough going forward.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 13: Coach, what can be done to develop a pass rush
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 13: on an individual basis? What can be done over the
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 13: course of a season to develop a pass rush?
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 11: Oh, man, if that hadn't been developed... you're going to
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 11: have a tough time. So the good thing, I think
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 11: we have good pass rushers.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 10: I mean, take a look at the last three games,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 10: and I know you don't get the film that we get,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 10: but so how long does it take on average to.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 11: Get a sack? Two and a half, three seconds. 2.7
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 11: to 3.4, okay?
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: And so....
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 10: The majority of passes that we have faced in the
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 10: last three games are under 2.7. I mean, the quarterback's
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 10: getting it out, and maybe because they know that we pressure, right?
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 10: And so either that or RPOs, right? RPOs are going
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 10: to be a lot quicker, right? And so what you're
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 10: looking for as a defense is are we being disruptive?
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 10: Are we causing, you know, are we batting balls down?
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 10: We have a number of pass breakups at the line
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 10: of scrimmage. And you saw some at Colorado, you know,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 10: with Benny being one of them coming off the edge
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 10: on a pressure. And then the other thing is, are
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 10: you forcing the.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 11: Quarterback to throw the ball before he wants to throw it? Yes,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 11: we're getting hurries. Now, if there was a large bulk
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 11: of plays where.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 10: We've got a four-man rush and he's got longer than 3.4
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 10: seconds to throw the ball, those are the plays we
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 10: need to identify and say what is the issue? Why
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 10: are we not getting home? And the good thing is
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 10: there's just not a lot of those. So with the
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 10: pressure that we are creating, we're forcing them to throw
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 10: the ball sooner than they'd like and we're batting down balls,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 10: we're getting interceptions so again I believe in the country
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 10: we're still in the top 10 in pass efficiency defense
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 10: which is where we want to be.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 14: Jason orton you talked a lot about just getting the
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 14: ball out quick from devin's hands he took a few
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 14: sacks against colorado just is there anything offensively that you
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 14: guys can do from a route perspective or just an
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 14: efficiency perspective to get the ball quicker out of his hands.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 10: Uh no it's a decision making deal it's just see
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 10: it get rid of it yeah and then there are
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 10: those options there and And like I said, we need
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 10: to do a better job of making that.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 11: Easier for him.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 10: You know, maybe it's we're giving him too much of
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 10: a progression when, you know, with the pressure that they're bringing,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 10: two's enough.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 11: And we just need to maybe be a little bit quicker.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 11: But Devin's doing it. I mean, Devin is fantastic. And
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 11: that guy, for him to.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 10: lead this team and own up to mistakes. I just,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 10: I can't say enough about him and he's just done.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 11: He's our guy. You got it.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: That's the Morgan Scali press conference. He is measured on
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: the sideline.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: He is measured in the press conference, not allowing any
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: real alarm bells to continue ringing. the measured approach of
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: a coach who knows whose job it is to get
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: things corrected. Utah absolutely did leave a lot out on
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: the field. That's something that you can lose sight of
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: when you're demanding more from this team. By the way,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: you should demand more from this team than what they
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: got against the University of Colorado. But When you make
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: a slightly different decision as a quarterback on a pass
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: play where, you know, you got a guy running open
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: and you miss him, that's different than not having anybody open, right?
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: Where a penalty brings a play back that maybe you needed,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: that's slightly different than you not being able to make
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: the play. Now, you got to give Colorado its credit,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: and you still have to be critical of this Utah
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: team because, again, You absolutely cannot continue to play that
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: poorly moving forward, but I think that for Morgan Scali,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: the correct approach is to do it how he's doing it,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: that we're going to watch the film with these guys.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: They've already watched it themselves, but we're going to get
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: this cleaned up. You have to have that mentality because
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: if you don't think you can be better than what
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: you were against Colorado, then you're not going to be
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: able to convey that to your team. The other thing
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: is we've seen five games of them being better than
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: they were against Colorado. And then we saw the Colorado
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: game and you want to be like, okay, is this
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: who this team is? The answer to that is no.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: Or more likely the answer to that is no. I'm
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: hoping he did not mention Kelvin Obot, right? So I'm
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: hoping that what you have with Kelvin Obot is not season-ending.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: Borgen said he should be fine. Hopefully it's not the
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: high ankle sprain. High ankle sprains can be a little
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: bit finicky on trying to get those things healed up
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: and fixed. I think that he's the guy you want
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: to put back in the lineup as soon as possible,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: not only for his long-term future at the University of Utah,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: but there's a reason why Jordan Gross and company decided
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: they wanted to start him at left guard. And this
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: offensive line got plenty of work in the first three,
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: four weeks, especially with the multiple combinations. It's not in
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: the best interest of the team to continue doing that,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: to continue playing three or four different combinations. We'll get
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: a chance, I think, to talk with Devin Dampier this week.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: And I'm curious, you know, Morgan, Morgan gave him credit
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: at the end of that conversation there for the way
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: that he's taking accountability. And it was far from Devin's
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: best game. He just, he threw two interceptions. One of
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: those is more of a, just as much of a
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: Noah Benny fumble as it is a Devin Dampier interception,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: not to throw Noah Benny under the bus, but you
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: gotta be fair to a quarterback and not let the
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: box score tell the whole story.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: On that little Utah pass that the.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: Pitch forward, if the ball's mishandled and maybe he threw
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: it too hard, or maybe he could have put it
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: like in a slightly better spot.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but you get two hands on the ball.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: You're supposed to catch the ball in any case, ended
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: up being an interception for him. He did score the
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: three touchdowns through the three touchdown passes. And while you
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: and I have mentioned many times that there's just this
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: sort of like puzzling thing, this Jekyll and Hyde version
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: of his deep throws, I would make an argument that
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: two of the most important throws of the season for
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Devin Dampier so far this year were the two big
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: plays to Creed Whittemore down the sideline that got them
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: out of third down and long trouble and helped them
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: set up scores that you absolutely needed to score. And
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: he struggled, it seemed like, earlier in the game on
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: the deep throw, but it was that 43-yarder, was that
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: third quarter OC, 43-yarder to Whittemore that seemed to correct
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: him on Saturday at least. Hopefully that's something that we'll
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: look back at that as the beginning of Devin being
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: a lot more consistent on the deep throw. But that
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: was such a huge play by Devin to Whittemore in
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: that third quarter when Colorado had taken the lead.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: If you don't.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: Dig yourself out of that hole there, then, I mean,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: the momentum was firmly, you're on the road already. The
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: momentum is firmly in the hands of Colorado. If you
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: don't put a drive together and score in a situation
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: like that, you probably lose the football game. So when
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: your quarterback needed to make the big plays, he made
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: the big plays. There were plenty of other plays where
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: you wish you would have done something different.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: I think there was a way.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: Sean Parker run that the read looked like maybe he
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: should have pulled it and taken off.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: Is a little bit of a counteraction.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: So way Sean took the ball and went left and
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: ran into the clutches of Colorado defenders where there's a
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: bunch of green grass in front of Devin.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: Who knows?
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: I'm not, I don't know every assignment that he's got
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: on the, but it looked like there were a couple
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: of decisions that, you know, he probably would like to
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: have back and do a different way. But, Ultimately, Devin
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: Dampier made the plays that this team needed in order
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: to get the win. The defense was really starting to
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: screw things up, not making big plays. The pass rush
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: wasn't getting home. You were allowing Colorado to get chunk yardage,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: and you can't do that. But Devin Dampier rallied back,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: so good for him. Also, I don't know if we've
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: talked about this. I don't think we have. So Gideon Lampard,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: number 44 for Colorado, he had an incredible game for
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: the Buffs. Made some really timely plays, got a big sack,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: had two and a half tackles for loss, which is
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: better than the entire Utah team had against Colorado.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: Gideon Lampard, do you know what his middle name is?
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 3: No.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: So if you go to.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: The player bios on ESPN.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: There's nobody in the country that tells you what their
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: middle name is. Yeah, but it's on, but it's there
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: on ESPN.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: I'm going to click on way. Sean Parker. It just
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: says way. Sean Parker.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know if he has a middle name, but
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: it doesn't tell you Hunter Andrews. I bet his middle
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: name is Brian. I'm not sure, but I bet it is.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: Brian Andrews.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: It doesn't say anything.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: Hmm.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: Gideon Lampard's middle name is listed on, on ESPN's website.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: You want to know why? Was it like bullet or something?
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 2: His middle name is ESPN. It's ESPN.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 7: I see what you did there. It's on ESPN because
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 7: it's there. Because it's ESPN.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: They're putting it on there because it's free marketing.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: It's their free marketing.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: He has one brother named Gabe and his middle name
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: is ESPN. His parents, Marty and Jennifer Lampron gave him
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: the name Gabriel or sorry, Gideon ESPN Lampron.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: So wait, is the brother also ESPN?
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 8: I don't know.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 7: You don't know?
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: Let me find out.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 2: The brother is worldwide leader. What if the brother is TNT? NBC.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: Let's see here.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 3: Fox.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 2: The brother is FS1 specifically. His brother is a hockey player.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 2: NHL player? Yeah. Let's see. Not quite there yet.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Born in 1994, so that makes him, what, 32 years old? Oh,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: so he's a lot older brother. Wait, that can't be right,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: can it? But it's from the same town in Ohio.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe big family. Comes from big family, maybe.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: They only mention the one. Oh, interesting. Morgan on the
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: text line says, I work with a kid named ESPN.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 2: They probably... I mean, I don't know.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 7: Maybe he pronounces it ESPN, but you remember that there
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 7: was like an outside-the-line story or some E60 story where
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 7: they talked about how many people have named their kids ESPN,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 7: and a lot of them pronounced it Espen.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: Could be that.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: I bet we could get some people texting. We've done
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: it before, I think. People texting in weird names.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: This is an interesting text from Michael Morgan, not being
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: concerned about the pass rush is concerning.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: I don't care what the numbers say. What's happening. Looks bad.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: Here's, here's where I have difficulty with Morgan's response to
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: that because I don't doubt. I mean, he's, he's giving
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: you statistically accurate information. Takes 2.7 plus seconds to get
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: a sack. In most cases, most of the time, the
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: ball is coming out between 10, you know, 1.5 and 2.7 seconds,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: and that's why he's not getting the sacks that he wants. However,
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: we can now go back and look at a six-game
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: sample size where even when the ball is not out
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: at 2.7 seconds, and this is really what matters, okay?
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: Utah and every other team in the country, based on
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: what Morgan says, gets a pass on anything that comes
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: out before 2.7 seconds. If an opposing quarterback is reliably
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: getting the ball out that quickly, I don't want to
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: hear anyone talking about how there's no pressure. That becomes
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: an issue for your defensive backs, your linebackers, your coverage, okay?
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: I guess the defensive line getting the hands up is important,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: and he gave them credit for that. The six-game sample
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: size that I am worried about, and I'm sure there's
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: an analytics company that can do this for us. I'm
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: sure that there's somebody out there with enough time to
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: do all the film study I want to know what
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: the win rate for Utah's pass rush is on plays
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: that don't fall under that 2.7 second mark that Morgan
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: Scali has identified for us as being kind of the threshold.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: If it takes longer than 2.7, let's just round it up.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: I want to know what Utah's pass rush win rate
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: is on balls held by a quarterback for three seconds
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: or longer. And I don't think it's great. I don't
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: think it's particularly good. Sounds like something that PFF might have.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: Does it not? It does sound like something that they
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: would have.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe we could find it. But what is the win rate?
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: Coaches don't care about PFF. I don't want him to
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: care about PFF. I want them to be doing their
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: own research and their own film analysis.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: And clearly they do.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's why he's trying to tell us, hey,
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: don't worry about it.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: Maybe their win rate is.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Excellent on balls held for three seconds or longer. That
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: wasn't the case against Colorado.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: We know that. But there's been other games, right?
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's why your defensive tackles are getting sacks
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: instead of your defensive ends because When you can corral
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: those guys and when you maintain your lane integrity, your
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: gap integrity, and you funnel people into the center of
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: the pocket as they're holding it instead of trying to
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: leak out, maybe that's what we're talking about here. Maybe
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: that's what Morgan Scali is alluding to. Look, you've got
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: to trust the coach on some level. And if he's
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: not concerned about it, his job is attached to it.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: The team's success, which he cares about a heck of
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: a lot more than you and I do, is attached
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: to it.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: So if he says... our guys are doing what they're
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 2: supposed to do.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to look the way we want it
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: to look, but I think that it needs to be
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: looked at from every single angle, including, and maybe most importantly,
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: based on his information, how many times is Lance holds
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: claw hurrying a quarterback, pressuring a quarterback or hitting a
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: quarterback when he holds the ball for three seconds or longer.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: And I don't mean to single you out Lance holds claw,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: but There's just not that many examples I can think of.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: Pass rush has got to be better. Everything about this
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: team has got to be better if you're going to
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: beat Houston in a game day opportunity. Which, by the way,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: you haven't beaten Houston ever in the history of the program,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: and your game day performances haven't been particularly spectacular as
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: of late either.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: They won the last one.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 7: Remember, we were talking about tongue-in-cheek game day curse, game
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 7: day big noon kickoff curse. They won the last one
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 7: big against Cincinnati, so maybe the bad juju's gone.
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 2: Hopefully that washed it up. All right, we'll take a
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: break here.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: We're going to come back with the Daily Dump, brought
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: to you by Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: Lots to get to. It's ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 2: Feeling out of the loop?
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 8: Let's catch up on today's biggest headlines in the Daily
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 8: News Dump, where we flush out the biggest stories of
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 8: the day on the Sean O'Connell Show and Utah's number
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 8: one sports talk, ESPN 792.1 FM. Brought to you by
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 8: Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Just look for the truck
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 8: with the duck.
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: The truck with the duck can handle it all for you.
• 1:21:21
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• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: even have to pick up the phone to make your appointment.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: Official junk mail update here on the show. Cincinnati kickoff
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: time has been announced. This is actually low-key kind of
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: a big deal because... That Cincinnati football game, road game
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: for the University of Utah after this weekend's game day
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: experience against Houston, that's a Halloween game. If that's a
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: nighttime kickoff, that could be problematic for those of us
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: who have young children who expect to be taken about
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: for some trick-or-treating. And it seems like every Utah game
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: so far this year has been a night game, including
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: the Houston kickoff, despite the fact that it's college game day.
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 2: It is an eight 15 kickoff again.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 7: And despite the fact that there's only two ranks on
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 7: ranked matchups that day, and this is like cumulatively the
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 7: best one is in you. Average of the two rankings
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 7: is the best one.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 2: 10 versus 14.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 7: You got Ole miss Texas, which last week going into
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 7: last week looked like a top 10 matchup. Then Texas,
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 7: you know, what's the bed against Florida, uh, And so
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 7: that's seven versus 19, a lot less lucrative one, but
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 7: we all know the deal here. ESPN values their, their
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 7: contract with the sec a lot more than they do
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 7: the big 12. They, they send game day to town,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 7: but they put it at eight 15. It's weird that
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 7: this wasn't at least a one 30 matchup OC, but
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 7: I digress.
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: I know that there's probably a lot of people who
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: are like, Oh man, it'll be warmer.
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: It'll be sunny.
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: The, by the way, the weather forecast for this weekend is,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: is that it will be sunny and clear but chilly,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: like a high in the 50s. So by the time
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: you get to 815, now we're talking winter temperatures. It's
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: going to be down in the 30s, 40s potentially. Here's
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: the thing. I like these night games. I think it's
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: good for the atmosphere. I think it's good for Utah football.
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: It's great for those of us who can put the
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: kids to bed and just worry about watching the game.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: If you want to take your kids to the game,
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: it becomes a little bit more problematic, I guess.
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 2: Here's the deal.
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of weird juju around the fact that
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: college game day is coming for this game in particular.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: Given how climactic the experience was in Provo last week
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: and given the fact that Utah was far from themselves
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: against Colorado. unpopular opinion. I actually kind of hate that
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: this is a game day game.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, I.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: Understand why, and it's great to have the showcase opportunity
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: for the program.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 2: I don't like the timing of it one bit. And
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: you're not talking about the kickoff time. You just, the other.
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: Talking about the fact, yeah, I'm talking about the, where
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: this falls and the fact that now it's like a
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: super spotlight on a game that, I mean, no matter what, right.
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: No matter what happens here, it's not going to be
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: as consequential for the big 12 for, well, I guess
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: in the big 12 standings, it is more consequential, but
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 2: I just don't like the vibe.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 7: National spotlight wise, even though this is two teams in
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 7: the top 15, it's not going to compare to what
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 7: happened Saturday in Provo.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 2: That makes sense. I like the vibe around it.
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: And it's cool that the state of Utah gets back
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: to back college game day games.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 2: That, that is a good thing. That's wonderful. I'm just
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: feeling not superstitious, but stitious. A little stitious. How about this?
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 7: Somewhat stitious. How about this for more bad juju around it?
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 7: How about the fact that Houston are also the Cougars?
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: There is that.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way, what a terrible mascot for a
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: university in Houston.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 7: Cougars are mountain lions, right? Are there mountain lions where
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 7: there are no mountains in Houston?
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: Maybe. I don't know.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: They are not established or commonly found living in or
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: around the immediate.
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: Vicinity of Houston. In Texas, at least, somewhere?
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: There's plenty in West Texas, in the South Texas brushlands,
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: and in the hill country.
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 2: They are very, very rare east of I-35. Interesting.
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 7: But you dislike the name Cougars, I guess. So you
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 7: go with it, all right?
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: I don't like it.
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: By the way, remember how I updated you on the bear,
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: the bear of the avenues a couple weeks ago?
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: You have a new update? Now there's some avenues bobcats
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: that are being dealt with.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: Got a video sent from a neighbor the other day
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: that a mama bobcat has given.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: Birth to four kits. In the avenues? Just in someone's backyard.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 2: So we got at least five. Well, dangerous.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: We could presume that there are at least six because
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: mama didn't get pregnant by herself.
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 2: Someone's there's another one roaming around. All right.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe probably the most problematic of them roaming around in a,
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: we would imagine the same vicinity at which this may
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: or may not James.
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: Come at the same time that two of our pet
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: bunnies went missing.
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 3: Oh no.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 2: Oh no. We have no, we have no evidence one
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 2: way or another.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: If the bunnies were victimized in some way, but they
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: ain't where they're supposed to be.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you that.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 7: Oh, did we have a Sean Kemp, Bob, Bobcat father
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 7: walking around the avenues that you're saying?
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know what's going on, man, but we got
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 2: some wildlife happening or much deeper cut Antonio Cromartie. Bobcat.
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 2: Do you remember that way back in the day on
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 2: hard knocks?
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 4: Oh yes.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: So Cincinnati kickoff on Halloween, you'll get to do, you
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: get to watch the game and then you get to go.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 7: Trick or treating with the kids. There's time to do that.
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 7: This is, this is a win for that reason.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: If you're going to a daytime trunk or treat that
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: then now this is problematic.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 2: So can't make everyone happy. You know what? In the
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 2: T or this is in Cincinnati.
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 3: Nevermind.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 7: I was going to say, why not do a daytime
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 7: chunk or treat in the tailgate of guardsmen's way, but
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 7: it's a road game.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you something.
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: This is actually a massive story in the NFL, and
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: it's going to be much bigger before it's all said
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: and done. Jalen Hurts has been ruled out for the
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: season because of blood clots. Now, the first blood clot
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: was found in a calf muscle, and it turns out
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: he has a clotting issue. He has blood clots in
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: his lungs. Not only does he have blood clots in
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: his lungs that are preventing him from continuing to play,
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: but the Eagles and the NFL and everyone involved seemingly
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: mismanaged this situation in a way that is malpractice of
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: the highest order. That is totally negligent and thankfully did
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: not prove to be as far as we can tell,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: like life-threatening to Jalen Hurts, which of course the potential
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: of blood clots in your lungs end up being.
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 2: Life-threatening.
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: Jalen Hurts, according to multiple reports, was in London with
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: the team. They found out that he had some blood
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: clots in his lungs. They informed him that sleep was
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: a risk when you have blood clots in your lungs.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: And until they had the right medication balance and they
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: could figure out exactly what was going on, it was
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: not advisable for Jalen Hurts, the starting quarterback for a
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: two-time Super Bowl winning franchise, that he probably should not
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: go to sleep. So he reportedly stayed up for 36 hours.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: and then started the game while sleep deprived. Part of
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: those 36 hours may have been on that really long
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: flight to London too, right?
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 2: Is bananas.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: So like, I get it. You find out something is wrong.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: You tell the guy, Hey man, it's risky for you
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: to sleep right now. Let's assign a couple of people
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: to you, help you stay up. You can watch movies.
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: We'll play loud music. We'll do whatever we got to
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: do to help you stay awake until we can get
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: this thing figured out. We probably got to get you
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: on some blood thinners or whatever, right? They let him
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: start the game. They let him play the game. He
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: is now ruled out for the season because of the
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: condition that they found, but they allowed him to play
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: the game. This is like, Hey, uh, you got a,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: you got a really bad concussion. So we're going to
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: let you play the game, but then we're going to
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: rule you out after the game for that concussion.
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, thank goodness.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: Jalen hurts did not have a negative, a significantly negative
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: health outcome here. And if things could have been much,
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: much worse, if this is the end of his career,
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: And people have talked about that being a possibility because
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: this is internal medicine. This is a blood clot. This
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: is life-threatening stuff if it goes the wrong way. And
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: hopefully it won't, and hopefully they will figure it out,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: and they'll just, like, put him on some medication. And,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: you know, like, Victor Wimbanyama had a blood clot situation
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: last year, right? And it seems to not be affecting
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: him negatively at this point. But if this ends up
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: being as bad as it can be for Jalen hurts
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: from a football perspective and knock on wood and hope
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: that that is not the case and his career is over.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: And the last thing that happened was the team went
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: ahead and trotted him out there for a Sunday game.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: When he had something that was effectively career ending, there
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: will be lawyers. This story will be like the player
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: safety thing that the NFL has been pushing and talking about.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: And we make these rule changes. The kickoff looks different
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: now because player safety is what matters. And then you're
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: letting one of the more high profile players in the league,
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: a big time quarterback, a Superbowl winning quarterback. You're letting
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: him go out there in a crazy, crazy risky scenario.
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 2: That is bananas, man.
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: It makes zero sense to me that this was allowed
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: to happen.
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 7: Yeah. I, I did not know that part of the
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 7: story until you brought it up, OC. I just saw
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 7: what everyone saw, the breaking news that he's out for
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 7: the season because of blood clots. We saw that he
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 7: missed last week's game before being ruled out for the
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 7: season with blood clots. I guess last week as in yesterday.
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 7: That's the extent that I knew. This is beyond problematic
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 7: if this is the end of his career, and you're
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 7: absolutely right. Even if it's not the end of his career,
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 7: he's going to miss– Like the rest of this, the
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 7: rest of this season. And maybe it, maybe it's a
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 7: problem going into next season. Even if he does play, like,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 7: I would think that he's talking to his representatives and
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 7: be like, Hey, he's talking to the union and being.
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 2: Like, Hey, what can we do about this?
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 7: Because listen, worst case scenarios with the blood clot, he
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 7: could have died after they decided, yeah, go ahead and
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 7: play through this. even though it's serious enough that we
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 7: shouldn't let you sleep.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: So Victor, when Manama had to miss time because there
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: was a blood clot in his leg, right? Because they
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: don't want you to throw the clot and have it
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: go into where your brain, heart, lungs, right?
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 2: Your organs. Those are the.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: Things where you don't want the blood clots to get stuck, right?
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: These blood clots are in his lungs. I am not
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: a medical expert. I am not a doctor, but this is,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: it just feels like feels wrong. And by the way,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: take the blood clots out of it. If you're a
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: starting quarterback comes to you on game day and says, Hey,
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: I haven't slept in 36 hours.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 2: Are you being like, all right, just go ahead and start,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 2: have fun. Or are you going, what's what?
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: Maybe we should, maybe we should see how bad we
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: need you because that is not a good scenario for
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: which you'd be in, which you should be playing an
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: NFL football game.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 7: I mean, how, how much do they not believe in
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 7: Tanner McKee? which of course you're going to believe in
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 7: your starter more than your backup, but still my goodness.
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 2: Too bad.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 7: Terrible to see for, look, I hope he gets to
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 7: play again. He's not, I mean, he's got lots of
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 7: problems as a player. He's not the perfect quarterback, but
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 7: they've done a lot of winning with him. And so
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 7: I hope he gets to play again. This would be
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 7: bad for the Eagles. If he's not just done for
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 7: the season, you're right into the career.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: So, Jalen Hurts is going to be one of those
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: guys that gets talked about as, you know, now he's
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: got a couple of Super Bowl rings. And when the
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: time comes, we're going to have a debate about whether
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: or not he is Hall of Fame worthy as a
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: quarterback because his numbers say he's not Hall of Fame
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: worthy as a quarterback. His winning says he's probably Hall
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: of Fame worthy as a quarterback because we've done this
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: where we've created a narrative that Super Bowl wins are
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: a quarterback stat.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 2: And he performed incredibly.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: Well in the playoff runs and in the Super Bowls
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: that got them Super Bowl victories.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 7: He just has the one Super Bowl win. They lost
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 7: the other one. They lost the other one. But that
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 7: year that they got to the Super Bowl and lost
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 7: to the Chiefs, he actually did look really good as
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 7: a thrower and all those things.
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 2: That was the first year with A.J.
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 3: Brown.
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 7: It's been since then that maybe the league has caught
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 7: up to him.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 7: Maybe it's been offensive coordinators not putting him in positions
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 7: the best positions, but he's not been as good a
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 7: player individually as he was in that first Super Bowl run,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 7: and they lost that game. But still, he's a Super
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 7: Bowl champion. They've won probably over 70% of their games
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 7: or something like that. I don't know off the top
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 7: of my head, but they've done a lot of winning
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 7: in the regular season, gotten to two Super Bowls.
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 2: You're right.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 7: As a winner, there's going to be a debate as
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 7: to whether that's enough for him to be a Hall
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 7: of Famer.
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: The prognosis on the particular clots we're talking about is
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: that very treatable, and he will undergo treatment that involves
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: blood thinners, but that will sideline him for at least
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: three months. So rest of the season, crazy that they
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: did this, and the union's going to be looking at it,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: and like I said.
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 2: There will be lawyers.
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 7: And bottom line, Hope, there's a good outcome for him health-wise.
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 7: But yeah, I mean, I don't see how there will
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 7: not be some kind of litigation involved here.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: Keep your texts coming in today, 877-353-0700. Read a couple
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: of those next. And a Monday night football preview. It
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: is the undefeated San Francisco 49ers. Taking on the lowly
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: Washington Commanders. You love saying that, don't you? Undefeated San
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: Francisco 49ers. Look, it's been a really interesting year for
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: me football-wise. We have two of the remaining six undefeated
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: teams in college football right here in our state, including we,
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: the flagship home of the Utes, two top ten teams
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: here in.
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 2: The state, and my favorite NFL team, undefeated. So, yeah.
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, by the way, the Utah Mammoth are second in
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: the West right now. And they play tonight against the Penguins.
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: And the Utah Jazz are still undefeated.
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 2: That's also technically true.
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell Show, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 8: This is the Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 8: best inside of your Utes. Let's get back to OC
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 8: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: Zach Moss will join us coming up here in about
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: five minutes on the Sean O'Connell Show. Quick Monday night
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: football preview. Niners versus Commanders on the docket for tonight.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: The San Francisco 49ers, of course, sitting atop the NFC West.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: The Washington Commanders, they've had some growing pains. They're trying
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: to figure some things out this year, as is seemingly
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: always the case in Washington.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 2: But this one is at.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, the Niners are 7.5-point favorites.
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: The Washington Commanders are, of course, holding on to that elusive...
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: record where you have a tie. One win, three losses,
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: and one tie because they were unable to get a
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: game-winning field goal off against the Giants. And now you
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: turn things around as you're... Now, to give.
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 2: Credit to Washington... The one win.
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: That they do have this year is against the defending
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl champs in the Seattle Seahawks. And Marcus Mariota
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: dusted off some of his old Heisman form for that one.
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 2: But kind of an odd scenario for.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: Washington to be coming off a 27-27 tie to a
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: New York Giants team that has tragically benched Cam Scadaboo,
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: even though John Harbaugh won't admit it. And they're, of course,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: playing their backup quarterback after the injury. Jackson darts. But this,
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: this feels like one of those games where we're, we're
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: going to find out the difference between professional football players
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: and college football players from a human nature standpoint. I'm
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: going to be looking at this, like San Francisco is
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: probably looking at Washington the way that Utah looked at Colorado.
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: The difference being, this is a home game for San
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: Francisco where Utah was a road game in Colorado on
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: paper and everyone's conversation. according to the matchup predictor, you
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: got a 90% chance of winning this game. This is
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: the game where you consciously or not, you roll your
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: helmet out there and you feel like you can get
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: yourself a win. The commanders are desperate right now. They're
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: looking to save people's jobs. They are trying to prove
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: that they are not a crap team. They're still have,
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: you know, slim playoff hopes alive, all these things. And
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: the San Francisco 49ers, this is, it would be a
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: classic sort of overlooking type spot for San Francisco.
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 2: But of course, as professionals, you're not supposed to do that.
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: Even though there's a lot more wiggle room built in
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: to an NFL schedule than there is to a college
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: football schedule. Niners have commanders, Falcons, Raiders, Cowboys before a
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: tough back to back with the Vikings and and the
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: Seahawks at the end of November. So I'm hoping they
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: don't start to show bad habits tonight. I don't think
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: they will, but it is one of those spots where
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: you might look at it and raise your eyebrow. Now,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: this is sneakily a big opportunity for San Francisco. If
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: you look at the NFC West standings, you lose this game.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: The Rams just lost a game to the Cardinals inexplicably.
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: They're now two and four. The Seahawks are 3-3, if
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken. You lose this game, you keep Seattle
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: still in the mix. It's still early, but everyone's still
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: in the mix technically. But you keep their hopes of
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: still being able to win this division very much alive.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: You keep the Rams' hopes, even though they're 2-4, somewhat
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: alive in that regard. You win this game, you start
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: to really separate yourself at the top of the division
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: if you're the Niners. So this is sneakily a big
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: opportunity for them. to put a stranglehold early on the division.
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: Seahawks lost in overtime to the Denver Broncos. So they
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: are 3-3, like James mentioned. All right, we'll take a
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: quick one here. We'll come back with Zach Moss. Maybe
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: the Utah football legend can explain what the bleep happened
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: in Colorado. Zach Moss in three minutes. It's the Sean
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: O'Connell Show on ESPN 700. Oh, and at 1.30, Alex Jensen,
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: Utah head basketball coach. So set your alarm for that one.
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: ESPN 700, 92.1 FM. On my wayward son, there'll be peace.
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 2: When you are done.
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 8: You are listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 8: for the best youth football coverage. Here's O.C. from the
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 8: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 3: Welcome to.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 2: Hour number three on a Monday. It's the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: We welcome Zach Moss, the Utah football legend, radio analyst,
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: on the broadcast alongside Bill Riley and Stevenson Sylvester. He
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: was in Boulder. This conversation brought to you by Mountain
• 1:42:40
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• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: you right now.
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 2: Zach Moss, welcome back to the show. How are you, sir?
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 13: Good.
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 3: How are you guys doing?
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 2: Man, you know, I'm not going to lie.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: It was a tense Saturday night watching Utah on the
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: road against Colorado in what I thought was going to
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: be kind of a gimme game for the Utes. And
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: I know they can't have that mentality. I can as
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: just an observer. And ultimately, the Buffs gave Utah a
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: lot to think about. You were up there watching it
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: in person, close. What happened with Utah? Why was this
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: game so close?
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 3: You know, I think I give a lot of credit
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 3: to Colorado, honestly. When you talk about a team coming
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 3: off of a bye week, they have a lot of
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 3: time to self-scout, look at things internally on themselves, and
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 3: also at the same time have a lot of time
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 3: to just study what we like to do, what we
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 3: struggled with, and things of that nature on both sides
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 3: of the ball. You know, and this team, they've been
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 3: in some tight games. Obviously, they won their first two
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 3: games of the year. You know, they've been in some
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 3: situations where they've been in some tight games, some one-score games,
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 3: and they just seem to have lost them late in
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 3: the fourth quarter. So this team was, you know, really competitive.
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 3: And you give a team like that some more time
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 3: kind of a bye week. They were ready to go.
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 3: It was at home. You know, everything was in their favor.
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 3: You know, but, you know, we also didn't come out
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 3: really sharp at all on either side of the ball
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 3: almost for a lot of that game. So that was
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 3: a tricky game, but the main thing is that we
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 3: got a win and we were able to get out
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 3: of Boulder.
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: And I do want to stay focused on that. This
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: is the top 10 team in the country. They are
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: still undefeated. Got a lot to look forward to, but
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: there were times in this game, and again, the third
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: quarter has proven to be a bit of an issue
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: for this university of Utah football team. They're outscored 17
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: to seven, 17 of those were unanswered points for Colorado
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: after the half.
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 2: And then Utah got one late in the quarter.
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's, it's just, it's the only quarter
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: that Utah has been outscored in.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 2: Obviously they're undefeated.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: And we talked about it a couple of weeks ago,
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: heading into the bi-week and we got to talk about
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: it again. There's just, there's something about the way this
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: team comes out of the half that leaves something, to
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: be desired. Is it fixable if we're halfway through a
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: season and they haven't fixed it already?
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 3: It's a little worrisome. I would say, you know, some
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 3: reason seems like all of our best football is played
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 3: in the first half. Um, and really good team, great
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 3: teams are able to put four quarters of ball together, uh,
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 3: and not just, you know, two quarters or two and
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 3: a half or three quarters. And, you know, we, we, we,
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 3: we find ourselves in this spot already a lot of
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 3: times this, this season. Um, so it's not a, it's
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 3: not something that I'm, Panicking on, I would say, but
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 3: it is something that I wouldn't say is a bit
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 3: worrisome because, you know, the schedule, especially in the right
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 3: now with these next three weeks, essentially, we've got some
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 3: real teams and got some battles that, you know, you'll
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 3: get punished for not being able to play full, full quarters.
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: Way Sean stays his reliable self, but no big explosive
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: run play. In this one, no big, like breakout 90 yarder,
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: which of course you can't expect every single week, just
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: more steady work from way Sean Parker in the run game.
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: And there was, there were stretches in the game where
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: it felt like maybe they forgot about him a little bit.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: His longest carry was only 14 yards. And I shouldn't
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: say only cause he, he almost had a hundred, one
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: more carry. He would have eclipsed that 100 mark a
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: really good day, but more of a workman like performance. What,
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: what separates the, The days where you have the big 30, 40,
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: 50 yarder and the days that go more like this
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: one where it's more just dink and dunk and plugging
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: away to get the yardage?
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 3: Well, I think the main thing is he was keyed
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 3: on a lot. Uh, first Colorado, right. That's why I
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 3: said coming up a bi-week, right. They know exactly what
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 3: you want to do. Um, and things of that nature. Um,
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 3: and I mean, they, they, they blitz the run a ton, um,
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 3: on Saturday, um, And, you know, that makes it really
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 3: hard for a back. I think he had, you know,
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 3: a little bit over 20, maybe 22, 23 carries or
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 3: something like that for 98 yards. And that's just an
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 3: absolute result of a team selling out and run busing
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 3: you and trying to take him away because he's when
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 3: he's able to make those big explosive runs and things
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 3: of that nature that puts the defense on his heels,
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 3: that opens up so many different things for a passing
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 3: game and things of that nature. So they were able to,
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 3: wouldn't say they bottled him up, right? I think, you know,
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 3: 23 carries, 98 yards, still a pretty good outing, especially
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 3: when you get a win. And, you know, they did
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 3: all they could to take him out of the offense
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 3: and to limit his explosiveness. But that's where the games were.
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 3: You know, now our passing game has to step up
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 3: and be a real threat. And part of the reason
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 3: we struggled versus Colorado was we just didn't really get
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 3: the passing game right. When we, at least the big shots,
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 3: the explosives in the passing game that we were missing
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 3: because we didn't get them in the run game this week.
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: I know that you're, you know, you played the running
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: back position, but you diagnosed a lot of defenses in
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: order to make your own career more successful. This was
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: a quiet game from the Utah defense. Now it hasn't
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: been star player driven, right? They've kind of like divided
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: up the explosive plays on defense to have it plays
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: on defense. almost evenly across the board, but there were
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: none against Colorado. And I know that we've got to
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: give respect to this Colorado football team for showing up
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: and competing, but they had nine tackles for loss and
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: three sacks and a bunch of PBUs. They had nine,
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: in fact, passes defended. And this was just a silent
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: day from the Utah defense. Did you see anything on
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: that side of the ball that had you scratching your head?
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 2: Or maybe you figured it out. What was wrong?
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 3: I think the main thing that a lot of people
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 3: are saying they're not worried about or it's not a
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 3: big deal, but this school has had a long list
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 3: of guys who were able to get to the quarterback.
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter if those guys were guys that were
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 3: specifically really good just at the collegiate level or also
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 3: were able to go and make a career or become
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 3: even better at that next level. But we've had guys
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 3: been able to get to the passer, I mean, to
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 3: the quarterback. And this year, we don't. We just absolutely don't.
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 3: You know, obviously losing a guy like, I think it
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 3: was John Daly to Michigan last year, right? That's a
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 3: lot of sacks, and no one has stepped up to
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 3: that plate. You know, it's alarming to me because, you know, essentially...
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 3: we haven't played any real threat teams, right? So the
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 3: number of sacks you would think would be a lot higher, right?
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 3: When you're not playing, you know, Utah State and the
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 3: Idaho's and the Arkansas's and things of that nature, especially
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 3: when you look at the score of those games and
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 3: the Kansas game, right? You look at the score of
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 3: those games and understand that these teams have to pass
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 3: the ball and we're not getting to the quarterback, no
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 3: matter if we're winning, no matter if we're playing really
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 3: good against the run and things of that nature, right.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 3: At some point, not being able to get to the
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 3: quarterback does come back and bite you in your backside.
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 3: And with a Houston team coming in with a high
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 3: power offense, you know, the first couple of weeks it's like, okay, okay.
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 3: But now it's, this thing is, you know, right here
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 3: in these, not being able to get these sacks and
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 3: get pressure consistently and move the quarterback off the pocket
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 3: is something that continues to show up. And, you know,
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 3: that's why, you know, young kid Wilson was able to
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 3: do some things in the passing game again. And, you know,
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 3: he's kind of had our defense on the hills, but
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 3: I guess also at the same time, our secondary is
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 3: pretty good. But our secondary without the pass rush has been,
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 3: you know, been able to hold up really well so
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 3: far throughout the year. So hopefully we get some pass
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 3: rush out of nowhere, right? Because it would be like
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 3: a shot in the arm right now. So we need it.
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 3: Like I said, you know, this Houston team coming in
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 3: does every single thing you want our offense to do. And,
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 3: you know, they're not scared of a team who can't
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 3: get to the quarterback.
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that. Houston coming in. It's a night
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: game again, but it is also college game day, right?
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: Big atmosphere, a lot of attention. Top 15 matchup, Utah's 10,
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: Houston is 14. And we don't only take last week
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: as the example, but Houston played a really tough game
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: against a ranked opponent. Outlasted Oklahoma State. Utah had their
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: struggles against Colorado. And obviously Utah is the undefeated squad,
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: so we should give them credit where it's due. But,
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: you know, it feels like an interesting time to have
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: the Houston Cougars coming in. What do you make of
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: the matchup, and what's your biggest, I guess, worry about
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: where Utah's at compared to where Houston's at coming off
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: of last week?
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I said it a few weeks ago in one
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 3: of our pregame shows with Bill and Sly, you know,
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 3: that I really like this Houston team because of the
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 3: game at the Tech. I think that was week two
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 3: or week three, somewhere around that. But, you know, they
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 3: had the two point loss to Tech and Tech was
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 3: at home. So that tells you a lot about who
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 3: this team is, their DNA and things of that nature.
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 11: And, you know.
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 3: They knew they were going to be a team to
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 3: be reckoned with. Their offense is high power, man. That's
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 3: the main thing for me. The defense is really good
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 3: as well. Not, you know, their strong point is deep
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 3: inside of the ball. It's not a strong point. Obviously
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 3: you saw a little bit of that in the Oklahoma
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 3: state game, but Oklahoma state also has a really good
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 3: offense and quarterback who can deal the ball and push
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 3: the ball down the field. But, you know, In these
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 3: type of games, you know, the things that come down
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 3: to it, you know, our run game is everything that
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 3: we want to happen, right? You know, everybody loves the
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 3: formations and things of that nature. But at the same time,
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 3: you got to ask yourself, why do we have all
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 3: these formations, right? Like, why do we have all these formations?
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 3: Why do we have to... Use three, four, five different guys.
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 3: Why do we have to use two quarterbacks on the
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 3: field at the same time? Right. You got to start
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 3: looking at it and really dive into these questions. And
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 3: it's because we lack the explosiveness down the field. Right.
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 3: The teams that are able to go and play in
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 3: January and February. Right. Get into the CFP. These teams
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 3: are able to put up 30, 35 points and have
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 3: these essentially shoot out games to some degree that you've
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 3: got to have. Um, sometimes, right. We just don't have
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 3: the explosiveness on the wide receiver outside yet. Right. We
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 3: talked about all year, this, the depth of the receiver
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 3: room and things of that nature, but we haven't really
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 3: seen that depth actually show up. Obviously Pagan has been
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 3: the most consistent guy there, but he's also mainly the
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 3: focal point, um, at the receiver spot, but we don't
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 3: push the ball down the field to take some pressure
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 3: off of our, our run game and things of that nature. Now,
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 3: some of those formations half the time, um, I just
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 3: need to start to see some of that because that
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 3: was scares me because that's not something that you can
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 3: turn on and turn off, right? It's either you can
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 3: do it or you can't do it. And that was
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 3: some of the same situations when you look back at
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 3: the team last year, right? With a lot of the
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 3: same players, essentially, when it comes to the skill position
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 3: standpoint of things, right? The tech game, we couldn't move
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 3: the ball, right? Because it just played man coverage and
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 3: he brought the safety down low into the box. and
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 3: made it really hard, and we couldn't win one-on-ones. Colorado
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 3: essentially did the same thing Saturday night, where it was
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 3: just all blitz, run blitzes, add another guy, add another hat,
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 3: and playing man-to-man coverage, and we missed so many deep shots. Like,
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 3: that's the formula that is out there right now that,
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 3: you know... You want to make Utah beat you, essentially,
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 3: by having to throw the ball, and that's where Devin
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 3: Dampier has to step up and make these games. He
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 3: has to go win these games, right? When he goes
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 3: to play Houston, I'm not sure the kid's name at
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 3: Houston right now, but that's going to be a one-on-one matchup, right?
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 3: And then obviously you don't want to look by anybody,
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 3: but obviously the Cincinnati game, but then the BYU game, right?
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 3: Their formula is there, right? The two games we lost
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 3: last year, both teams played the same style of defense
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 3: against us, which was man coverage, stack the box, press
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 3: coverage outside, make him have to beat you with his arm. And,
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 3: you know, Colorado did that a lot on Saturday night. Thankfully,
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 3: we just got up to a fast start on Colorado
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 3: and they don't have much of a explosive offense themselves.
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: Zach Moss, our guest for another couple of minutes here
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: on the Sean O'Connell Show. Bird Ficklin, we haven't had
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: to ask many questions about him because I've liked the
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: way that they use him.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 2: You're not forcing anything.
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: It's not too much, but he's definitely getting out there
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: and he's been making plays. He disappeared against Colorado.
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 2: He had one run for two yards.
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: They passed the ball to him three times for 13 yards,
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: including they targeted him on a long third down that
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: you absolutely had to have. And it just felt like
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: he was maybe underused in this one. Four touches for
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: Bird Ficklin.
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 2: Is that enough?
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not... I'm not one of the people,
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 3: I would say, that is a huge fan of using
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 3: the two quarterbacks, especially, I think, the way we've been
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 3: using him. You know, I want to see him throw
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 3: the ball a bit more, right? If that's a guy,
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 3: if you know he can throw the ball as well,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 3: I think, for me, I'm not a huge fan of
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 3: the way he uses them and trying to get in
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 3: his space and have him make people miss and things
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 3: of that nature. I don't think that's truly... His best
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 3: skill set, right, is being in space and getting people
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 3: to miss. I don't think that's his true skill set.
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 3: I think we've got to take a little bit more
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 3: advantage of him being on the field and getting him
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 3: to some situations where he can throw the ball, right?
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 3: the way we can be a little bit more dynamic
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 3: and maybe push the ball down the field I think
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 3: me personally I think he has a little bit better
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 3: of a throwing mechanics than, say, Devin Dampier, and see
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 3: if we can get some shots down the field and
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 3: open some things up with him that way versus just
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 3: kind of throwing them swing routes and, you know, a
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 3: few catches. Because that's taken away from some of the
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 3: guy's who have a better skill set in making people
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 3: miss in the open space, right? Kyrie Shoals or Ricky
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 3: Johnson or some of these guys in the receiving room
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 3: that we talked about so much depth, but we don't
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 3: use them in those spaces or shoot, even giving away
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 3: Sean the ball in some of those instances where we've
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 3: seen him make people miss in space. So for me,
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 3: I love that he's on the field. But I think,
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 3: you know, now it's time through the first six weeks to,
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 3: you know, evolve his involvement on the field when it
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 3: comes to what is he actually doing on the field?
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: Zach, where is Kyrie Scholes? One catch for 11 yards
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: this year.
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, he has, I mean, I haven't played
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 3: for the Utes in some years now, and he got
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 3: one more catch than me, right? That's pretty alarming, but
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 3: that's what I mean when you talk about you know,
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 3: so many miles to feed, right? But, you know, he's
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 3: the guy that can push the field, push the ball
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 3: down the field and things of that nature, be a threat.
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 3: But our offense right now, everyone is so enamored, right,
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 3: with these different formations. But if you really look at
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 3: the formations, these formations are just putting people in some
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 3: different spots, but you're running the same stuff, dives and
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 3: counters and getting to the edges with some sweeps and
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 3: things of that nature, right? At some point, right, there's
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 3: only so many formations and how many plays you can
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 3: run out of these formations because of the personnel that
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 3: you're using in these formations. And our receivers are absolutely
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 3: not being a threat at all, right? They're absolutely not
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 3: a threat at all. No one is really looking for
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 3: our receivers. And, you know, when you don't throw the
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 3: ball down the field a lot, right? You can do
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 3: it all day in practice, but when you get to
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 3: the game and you got to make these throws and
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 3: you got to make these catches, right? We're not, these
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 3: guys aren't even, you know, essentially warmed up enough to
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 3: go out there and just turn that light switch on
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 3: and go make these plays when they haven't been able
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 3: to do it or been asked to do it at
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 3: a high level all year. So, you know, hopefully, you know,
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 3: these guys keep stepping up with Cree Whittemore stepped up
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 3: and made some, some, uh, some nice graphs for us
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 3: on Saturday and things of that nature. But, you know,
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 3: it has to be a group effort because yes, this
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 3: ring game was awesome.
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 8: Yes.
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 3: The formation is awesome, but that only can carry you
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 3: to about eight, eight, eight wins. If you ask me, um,
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 3: and it doesn't get you to where you want to
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 3: get to. And you got two teams, um, in these
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 3: next three weeks, right. They're absolutely, um, going to test
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 3: every single thing about this team.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 2: You played a lot of football.
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: Did you ever play a football game where there was
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: one second left on the clock and the game was
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: over or like going all the way back to the
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: beginning of the season where the game was over and
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: they put one second back on the clock? This is
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: now twice in the same season where big time games
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: have ended with a clock dispute.
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, these one seconds are popping up everywhere in college
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 3: football right now. No, never been in a situation where
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 3: there was time put back on and you lose or
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 3: time wasn't put back on and you still lose. And
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 3: they don't give you a chance to probably win. But
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 3: it's been, I mean, this is why you love football, right?
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 3: It's It's an imperfect game, right? These people, referees and
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 3: the guys upstairs with all the technical stuff and the
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 3: cameras and things of that nature, right? They're never always
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 3: going to get it right. It sucks to see that,
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 3: especially if you're on one side of the fence or not. But,
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 3: you know, that's why I always have been taught and,
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 3: you know, that's why I've always leaned on. You don't
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 3: leave the game in the referee's hands, right? You go out,
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 3: you do your job at a high level, you execute, right?
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 3: And you make this thing a game where, you know,
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 3: you don't need to worry about somebody else, right. Making
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 3: that call for you, right. The Colorado game and Wilson
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 3: makes that, um, that illegal pass. But if he just,
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 3: if the kid is a little bit behind them, they're
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 3: in field goal range. And we're potentially talking about being
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 3: in an overtime game at Colorado. And then now anything
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 3: can happen. Right. But he made it illegal pass, but
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 3: they could have messed that call up. Right. And, um,
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 3: they don't make that call and now they're in field
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 3: goal range and everybody's on sidelines worried about, Hey, this
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 3: should have been this, but we also shouldn't even put
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 3: ourselves into that position. But yeah, it's, it's been a while.
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 3: Hopefully we don't have to deal with any of those
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 3: one second issues at all.
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: I actually don't like that game day is coming for
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: this game. I mean, I know it's like a special
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: occasion and it's always great to showcase a program I'm
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: just a little superstitious.
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: There's something wrong with me. I don't like the timing
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: of it. I don't like that Utah's coming off a
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: bad game, and this is when it's being played, and
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: you got the BYU game looming. I hate that it's
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: game day week, and I'm supposed to be excited about it.
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: Should I feel that way? Talk me out of it.
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 3: I definitely see why you would feel the way you feel.
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 3: You're not the first person I've seen I've heard her
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 3: say that so far, and obviously it's just been announced.
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 3: You know, it is a lot of stuff going on
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 3: because the team has a lot of stuff to figure out.
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 3: And you've got a Houston team coming in here that's
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 3: kind of riding pretty hot. They just had a big
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 3: win themselves over Oklahoma State. And, you know, obviously with
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 3: game day coming in, it's a whole extra bunch of
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 3: extra hoopla. the guys are going to feel that absolutely, right?
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 3: It's going to fill in the energy and the air. But,
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 3: you know, for me, I always have to think that,
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 3: you know, great teams, right, which we think this team
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 3: can be, right? They've shown a lot of flashes so
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 3: far throughout the year. They rise to the occasion, right?
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 3: This is what better way to you know, go beat
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 3: his Houston team that, you know, is riding hot. Coming
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 3: into your house, right, and game day is coming to...
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 3: put on a performance, right. It's no better opportunity to
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 3: rise to the occasion. And that has to be the
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 3: message that has to be the vibe and the energy
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 3: throughout the locker room, knowing you didn't play, you know,
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 3: your best game on either side of the ball, realistically, right.
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 3: Even though the defense held up pretty decently, they ended
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 3: up pulling up in the second half, but they played
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 3: outstanding in the first half. what better opportunity on a
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 3: national broadcast game even though it's super late to go
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 3: out there and rise to the occasion so for me
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 3: that has to be the energy for these guys to
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 3: go out there and play well no.
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: Doubt they're all going to want to go out and
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: play better than they did and it's important as I'm
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: sitting kind of a negative tone they are undefeated they
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: are the number 10 team in the country right now
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: they won the game it just didn't look the way
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: we wanted it to look but Another chance coming up
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: on Saturday. Zach Moss will be there on the sidelines
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: for Utah versus Houston.
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 2: Appreciate your time again, Zach. Thank you.
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, guys. Appreciate it.
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: Utah football running back legend Zach Moss, NFL veteran, and
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: now part of the radio broadcast right here on your
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: Home of the Utes. We'll be joined by Alex Jensen next.
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: CSPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 2: You're tuned to.
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 8: The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 8: ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 2: All right, welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: We are deep in football season, but it's also time
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: to start turning an eye towards the running utes and
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: basketball season, a regular season right around the corner. Of course,
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: exhibition matches already happening up there at the Huntsman Center.
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: And joining us now to talk about this running Utes
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: team and the outlook for 2026-2027 is the head man,
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: Alex Jensen.
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Coach.
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 5: How are you?
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 3: I'm doing good, Sean. How are you?
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 2: You know, doing great.
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: It's a really fascinating time in the sports landscape here
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: in our state. You've got an awesome hockey team, a
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 1: great outlook for the Utah Jazz, I think, to start
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: getting a lot better. Your team, getting some things put together,
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: good football being played right now. And, you know, you
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: and I grew up in a similar era, at least
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: at the University of Utah. You were there a little
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: bit before me.
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 2: And it just feels like, you know, everything is coming.
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: Up Utah right now. It's a big, big time in
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: the sports landscape of our state. Do you get to
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: feel that when you're so focused on everything that's happening
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: with your program?
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, no, no, you do.
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 3: I mean, fall's a great time, right?
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 9: Football's Getting into full gear. Basketball is about to start.
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 9: You have the baseball playoffs, but yeah, great great day
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 9: of football yesterday for the state of Utah. So no, no, you,
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 9: you feel it. It's it's it's you know, like I
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 9: grew up the same era, but it's a fun time.
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 3: It's exciting. Speaker 0 7, All right.
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: Before we get into any like X's and O stuff
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: right now, I want to talk to you about the
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: off season and what you're coming out of where, you know,
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: you have to, Continue to shape the direction of the
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: program and the roster construction stuff for everybody this past
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: offseason was really interesting because of the sort of hanging
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: question about whether or not a fifth year of eligibility
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: was going to be granted to certain players and guys
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: that may be flirted with the pros, whether they were
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: going to be able to come back. And, you know,
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: I know that there's all these landscape changes that we've
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: been dealing with for years and years now. But was
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: this past offseason particularly strange or hard to navigate because
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: of some of those questions and the answers coming from
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: courts and lawsuits and temporary restraining orders and things like that?
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was difficult. I mean, we face the same
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 3: thing everybody else is facing.
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 9: You ask a lot of questions that there just aren't
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 9: answers to. And, uh, you kind of not, not sure,
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 9: not sure who's in charge. So hopefully they can get
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 9: a couple of guardrails.
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 3: To make it easy. I mean, this seems like there's
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 3: a few simple ones they could, they could, uh, put
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 3: in place that would make it easy for everybody, you know,
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 3: but I will say as hard as that was, it
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 3: was a little.
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 9: Easier, I think for me and my staff, because having
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 9: been here a year and kind of had a year
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 9: to prepare for it helped, but yeah, no, it's, it's, uh,
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 9: you know, it'd be nice if the powers that be
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 9: would get out ahead of it instead of trying to
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 9: play catch up. Cause that makes it really hard and
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 9: brings more questions than answers.
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: You may be partially answered my next question. How much
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: difference does a year make? Because obviously this time last year,
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: everything was still pretty new and pretty fresh. And you're,
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: you're just bringing people in to get them settled down
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: in their jobs and things like that while you're also
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: preparing for a basketball season. And now you've had, you know,
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: a little more continuity. How much of a difference does
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: that make?
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's huge.
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 9: I mean, not, not just for the, the players, but
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 9: the staff, you know, most people, most, uh, the guys
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 9: on my staff and women, uh, I knew him before,
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 9: but that takes a while with continuity still underrated. So,
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 9: but no, we're not much better. I play somewhere a
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 9: year ago and it takes time. And then, you know,
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 9: the other thing is, is, uh, you know, the big
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 9: 12 is, is a monster, you know, and you know,
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 9: you watch it, you hear about it, but until you,
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 9: you go through it, it's hard to replicate.
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's, it's a, it's a tough league.
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: And you knew that intuitively and intellectually, right? There was
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: an understanding of that when you see this team preparing
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: for a big 12 slate. And when you're getting ready
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: to coach it and knowing, all right, there's going to
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: be a bunch of NBA guys on these other rosters. And,
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: but was there a difference between your expectation and what
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: it actually was having been around basketball for as long
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: as you have?
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 9: You know, I think it was, like I said, going
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 9: through it and seeing it and living it like it's,
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 9: I mean, the coaches in the league are phenomenal, like
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 9: established coaches that have won for years. And, you know,
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 9: it's changed since the last time in college leagues are bigger,
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 9: the travels, the, You know, it's not like in a
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 9: particular region, but no, it's unforgiving. There's not a, at
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 9: least for us last year, there wasn't a, you know, there.
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 3: Wasn't an easy game, which is hard over a, you know,
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 3: a conference, you know, an 18 game conference season.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like, you know, you and your coaches
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: and the players that remain, um, that there's a better
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: understanding now of exactly, you know, what it's like to
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: have to keep swimming, no breath of fresh air, no, like,
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: all right, we can take our foot off the gas
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: pedal for this one.
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 2: Cause I just mentioned, there's no easy game.
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: Uh, does it inform the way that practices are happening
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: even right now, well ahead of when you're getting into
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: the big 12 slate?
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 9: Yeah, no, we say we talk about all the time.
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 9: Like you can't, uh, You know, you can't in college basketball,
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 9: you can't have a couple of bad weeks and recover.
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 9: I mean, the season's as short as it is, but no,
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 9: I think, I think that's the same thing we did
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 9: last year. This year we'll do in the future.
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 3: It's like, you know, there's only so many days.
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 9: And every, every, every practice, like you can't turn it
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 9: on in the game, every practice, it's kind of like
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 9: an every possession thing. We don't look past the next,
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 9: you know, the next game in front of.
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 3: You, you know, easier said than done.
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 9: And everybody says it, but I think we've done a
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 9: pretty good job of that. And, you know, just think
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 9: about what lies directly ahead of you instead of looking
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 9: for too far down the road.
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: So you've, you've had a couple of exhibition matches, mixed
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: results in those. And obviously another one coming up this
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: Wednesday against Oregon. What is the main goal? If I
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: walk into your office right now and I look at
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 1: the whiteboard and there's a list, a hierarchy of needs,
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 1: we have to get this accomplished in these preseason games.
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: Give me a sense of what those things are. What
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: are you looking to accomplish most in this exhibition season?
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 9: You know, hopefully in the future, we won't have as
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 9: much turnover on the rosters we do.
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 3: And I think the number one thing that I'd like to.
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 9: Accomplish is just having a game with each other, right?
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 9: Most of these guys haven't played together. So that's a
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 9: huge part of it. And just kind of setting a
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 9: base for the program, like things you can do every night.
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 3: And the one thing.
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 9: That stuck out after these last two games is For guys,
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 9: you can't go out there and do your own thing.
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 9: How do I fit into the picture? What's my role?
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 9: How do the pieces of the puzzle come together?
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 3: I think the exhibitions are a great idea. They've been
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 3: very helpful to us.
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: How different in your mind is the player experience now
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: because of some of what you just mentioned? Constant roster turnover,
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: having to integrate yourself maybe multiple times during your career
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: to a new coaching staff, a new program, a new.
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 2: Locale, whatever it is. And you've got to hit the
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 2: ground running.
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: There's less of a grace period for all these players
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: because of expectations and the expectations attached with NIL and
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. How different is the player
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: experience from what you experienced when you were, of course,
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: running it yourself?
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 9: Oh, it's huge.
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 3: Big difference.
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 9: And I think the players are kind of the losers
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 9: with everything that's going on. I mean, you could say
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 9: that they get paid, but I look back to my
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 9: college experience, the best part was you have your you
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 9: kind of grow, become a man with your teammates and
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 9: you just relationships. I always say that in basketball, the relationship,
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 9: winning in relationships are what makes it worth it. You know, and,
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 9: you know, and I feel, you know.
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 3: At some point, most of these guys, 99% of them, they're, uh, you.
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 9: Know, they're probably not going to play after college. And, uh,
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 9: It's kind of unfortunate. You know, like you go to two, three,
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 9: four different schools. Who knows how far you are away
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 9: from your degree? And it's kind of unfortunate because there's
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 9: so much to college other than making money. So hopefully,
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 9: you know, that legislation passes. And, you know, they put
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 9: in the five from five, and I think that'll help
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 9: kids out.
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 1: So how do you accelerate the chemistry, the team-building process
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: with a roster like this one where guys have to
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: come together and they have to gel quickly? And, you know,
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: there's some guys that you look at them, you say, oh,
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: that's an Alex Jensen guy. That's a Utah guy. That's
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: someone who, you know, pull your bootstraps kind of guy.
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: And then other ones, it's like, okay, let's see how
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: he's going to fit in. How do you accelerate that
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: process to get ready faster?
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 3: Well, I think it starts in the portal and recruiting,
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 3: you know, it seems like a simple phrase and, but,
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 3: but we try to get players that want to be here.
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 9: That makes sense. It's kind of, you know, you recruit them,
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 9: you talk to them.
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 3: And, uh, they like it, you like them.
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 9: And then the money tends to work out instead of
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 9: like a bidding war. I think it starts there with
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 9: putting your roster together. You get that type of person and, uh,
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 9: You know, and obviously I think, you know, it was
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 9: interesting for me. I realized recruiting this last year, you.
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 3: Know, kids, I think this is, you know, kids.
• 2:17:08
  Speaker 9: Don't remember Utah basketball being good, which is probably the
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 9: first time that's happened in a long time.
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 3: But, you know, just getting.
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 9: The right kid that wants to be here on the
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 9: front end. And I think that'll help on the back
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 9: and try to, you.
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 3: Know, keep them and have them come back. And winning
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 3: secure promotes me.
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: Isn't it interesting how, you know, we complain about everything
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: until the winning happens and then the world is great.
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: Alex Jensen is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: And there's that chicken and the egg argument that we
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 1: have to have with college sports now.
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 2: You know, uh you win and then the money comes
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 2: or the money comes and then.
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: You win and that's obviously reductive and oversimplifies probably both
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: ends of it but do we know which is more
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: important the chicken or the egg in that case.
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 3: Uh you know i think uh You know, I think
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 3: when I got here, I think Kyle Whittingham said it,
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 3: you know, the top 25, I think it's the same
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 3: in football and basketball for the most part, are going
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 3: to represent the teams that invest the most. And, you know,
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 3: but I think.
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 9: It's not all about that.
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it definitely is.
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 9: Very, very important to be competitive there. You don't have
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 9: to have the most money, but, you know, the teams
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 9: that spend... you know, top spenders that involves a lot
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 9: of issues and problems too. You know, it's hard to
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 9: pay a kid. I don't know however many millions and
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 9: then not playing, you know, it's kind of like an
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 9: NBA thing. You know, if you max out a player,
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 9: it's really hard to sit him. So, but no, I
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 9: think if you have a, you'd be in the middle
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 9: of the pack, I think you can be competitive.
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: What have you learned in these first few weeks with
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: these guys? You know, seen them in live competition. Now
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: it's not official stuff that counts, but I thought that
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: what we saw from your squad against UNLV was pretty encouraging.
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you had, you know, a couple of things
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: that you want to fix after the Nevada contest, et cetera.
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: What have you learned in the early goings about your players,
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: maybe individually or as a unit?
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 9: Well, first that we have a long way to go
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 9: as a unit and individually. And the nice part is,
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 9: is we have practice and other exhibition to talk about it.
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 9: But now again, just kind of, you know, what's, what's
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 9: your role, but, but I'm actually at the same time
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 9: encouraged because I think it's, I think we'll be as
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 9: the weeks and months go by, I think we'll get,
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 9: we'll get better individually and collectively as a unit.
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 3: So like, that's the exciting thing.
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 9: A lot, a lot to do a lot of buy-in and,
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 9: you know, there's going to be, it's not going to
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 9: be easy, you know, season, there's always going to be
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 9: the ups and downs, but I think we'll get a
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 9: lot of, a lot better as the months and months
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 9: go on.
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: When, when guys are learning their role, How often are
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: you also learning their role right alongside them? Because I'm
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 1: sure you have a vision and your staff has a
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: vision of where you want a certain player and his
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: size and his talent to fit in. And then, of course,
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: the competition kind of weeds itself out or allows people
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: to weed themselves in or out of a lineup or
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: more minutes, fewer minutes, whatever it is. So how concurrent
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: is the learning for you and your coaching staff alongside
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: the players adopting the right mindset around their roles?
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 9: You know, it's, you know, it's big for me and
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 9: my staff and just, you know, how we can help them,
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 9: you know, whether it's, whether it's, you know, rotations who
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 9: they play with. A lot of our guys, even some
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 9: of the older ones, I mean, they're going to have
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 9: to change their game. Like they're going to have, we're
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 9: asking them to do stuff that maybe they haven't been
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 9: counted on to do. So, you know, it's got to
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 9: get out of your comfort zone, but I think they're
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 9: very capable of it, but it's no, just how all
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 9: the pieces fit together.
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 3: But you're right.
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 9: Like, you know, a great Majerus line was coaches don't
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 9: choose who plays players do. So it's kind of the
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 9: message that we've given to them. Like, if you want
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 9: to play like this is what it's going to take. And,
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 9: you know, the best thing for a coach is in
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 9: a good, it can be good and bad, but you know,
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 9: who to play and who not to play.
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 2: Can you give me an example of a, of a
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 2: player or a role.
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: That, you know, maybe they haven't been asked to do
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: this and you're going to ask them to do that. Uh,
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: like just give me an example of one of those,
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: if you don't mind.
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 9: Um, you know, a lot of, uh, you know, I
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 9: hate to use the word leadership. We have a lot
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 9: of guys, um, you know, from Trey Campbell, our fifth
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 9: year kid from Northern Iowa, Alec and Abada from, from Germany. Um,
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 9: you know, they play real roles, but like we're going
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 9: to have to lean on them like more. And that
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 9: doesn't necessarily mean scoring, but just kind of, you know,
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 9: it's funny how if you have one guy that blocks
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 9: out or runs hard, then two, then three, and then
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 9: before you know it, hopefully, you know, nobody wants to
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 9: be the guy not doing it, if that makes sense.
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 3: So that's more of a leadership.
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 9: And it doesn't necessarily mean talking, but just kind of
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 9: propelling the group forward you know and it's something I
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 9: don't think they've had to do as much where they've
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 9: been so it's definitely I think they're very capable of
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 9: it but just getting out of their comfort zone and doing.
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: It I've probably asked you some version of this question
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: before in previous conversations but how coachable is that when
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: you need somebody to be maybe you do need someone
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: to be more of a vocal leader you need someone
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: to let their work ethic kind of set the example
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: or whatever it is, especially when there's a lot of
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 1: turnover and there's fresh faces, new bodies. Guys don't know
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: each other quite as well as they would in a
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: more traditional, old-school type of program.
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 2: Can you pull a.
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: Guy into the office and say, hey, Trey, look, I
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 1: know that it wasn't part of your role before, but
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: I need you to yell at these young guys. I
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: need you to be the one that is an extension
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: of our coaching staff.
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 2: Is that a coachable thing?
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 3: I think it's a, I think you have to keep
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 3: it simple, you know, starting with one or two things.
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 9: And then I think at the same time, you have
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 9: to be honest. You can't ask players to be something
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 9: that they're not necessarily not. Then you just get negative returns.
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 9: But I think you just keep it simple at first
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 9: and you pick one or two things that you can
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 9: do every day, which we try to do.
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 3: With all of them.
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 9: And then I think it kind of grows from there.
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 9: And it takes time and a lot, a lot of instances.
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 9: But just I think the simplicity of it for each
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 9: guy and collectively as a group, like things you can
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 9: control every game. You know, you're not going to shoot
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 9: well probably every night. You can't control the rest. But
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 9: you know what? You can talk on defense. You can
• 2:24:16
  Speaker 9: space on offense. So just kind of keep it simple
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 9: at first, I think. And then, you know, you don't
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 9: want to– you've got to be sure that what you're
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 9: asking is from a player that they're capable of it.
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 1: Alex Jensen, Utah head basketball coach for another couple minutes
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: here on the Sean O'Connell Show. Talking all things running Utes.
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: What does progress look like for you this year, Coach?
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: In your mind's eye, what is the correct step forward? Obviously,
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 1: all of us want you to win 20 games, but
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 1: I think we're going to be realistic and say that
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: progress does take time. What is a milestone or a
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: step forward look like for you?
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, it's, uh, you know, another thing I
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 3: was blessed by, by.
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 9: My, my mentor, um, coach Majerus was, you know, what,
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 9: like progress is, is to be better when we play
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 9: Oregon here on the exhibition game. And, and I truly,
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 9: I feel this way. I think it, it's not a line,
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 9: but like literally it's, I think progress is, um, You know,
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 9: one week at a time, obviously winning is the best
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 9: way to show it, win more games than last year.
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 3: And I think.
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 9: Progress is, you know, I think ultimately which is tied
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 9: into winning is getting more people in the Onsen Center,
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 9: getting it closer to what it used to be.
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: Is there a way that an undefeated football team and
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 1: college game day coming to town this week can be
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: beneficial and helpful to you on the basketball front?
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think it's great.
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 9: What Morgan's done, phenomenal year. I think it creates a buzz,
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 9: and I think hopefully we'll try to replicate it in
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 9: our way and kind of build from it, but I
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 9: think it's great for us, and it has been.
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 1: Well, Coach, I know it's a very, very busy time
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: of year, and we've got high hopes for a big
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: step forward for you and your Utes, and appreciate you
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 1: giving us some time today We'll see you around very soon.
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you again.
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Sean. My pleasure.
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 1: Alex Jensen, head coach for Utah men's basketball, giving us
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: some time today here on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 2: Look, there is a lot of turnover. Yes, there is.
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 1: You're playing in a very, very difficult Big 12 conference,
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: but I know he believes, I believe, This process, while
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to take some time, is headed in the
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: right direction. And Utah men's basketball is, I think, in
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 1: the very near future, going to be back where, closer
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 1: to where we need it to be. Back to where,
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: you know, he experienced it as a player, where the
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: husband is full. And we can control what we can
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: control on that. And what we can control as a
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 1: collective public is getting up there and showing these guys something.
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 1: that they chose the right program and they're going to
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: get fan support and things like that. So it'll be
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: Wednesday against Oregon for exhibition and we'll keep you abreast
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 1: of anything important and newsworthy in Utah men's basketball.
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 2: Moving forward from there. Big thanks to Alex Jensen for
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 2: joining us.
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 1: A little crosstalk wrapping things up next on the Sean
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: O'Connell show ESPN 700 and 92 on FM. You're listening
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: to the Sean O'Connell show from the Murdoch Hyundai studio
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 1: of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 2: What the hell is on Joey's head? Can we ever
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 2: find out? Sean O'Connell Show wrapping up.
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: We have Nickelback tickets to give away.
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 3: It sucks.
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 2: Speaker 1, Speaker 2, Speaker 3, Speaker 4, Speaker 5,
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 2: Speaker 6.
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 1: Topical trivia, two tickets to Nickelback coming April 22nd to
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: the Delta center. Everyone's going to pretend they don't like them.
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: They're going to sell out the Delta center. 8 7
• 2:28:07
  Speaker 1: 7 3 5 3 0 700 Utah's leading wide receiver
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 1: against Colorado was fill in the blank 8.
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 2: 7 7 3 5 3 0 700 27 24 victory.
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: Utah remains undefeated. Houston coming to Salt Lake City this weekend.
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: College game day will accompany them. Number 14 versus number 10.
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: Questions to be answered. Lots to talk about this week.
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: Spence Checketts will be talking about the game and much
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 1: more on his show today.
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 2: Hi, Spence.
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 16: Is the answer to your trivia question also a horrifically
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 16: untalented group of musicians?
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 1: I would dispute that comparison, but maybe the word would
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: make sense.
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 16: Um, how did you digest that Utah Colorado performance?
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 2: Uh, indigestion. It was ugly.
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 1: It was terrible, but you got the wind and there's
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: something I've said this many, many times in many, many
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: different ways on the show. If you can play horribly
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: and still win, I think it means you're a good team.
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: You showed some things in that game that are concerning
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: that certainly need to be worked on. That's been the
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: case in multiple other games. And I think that's been
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 1: the case with Every team in the Big 12, probably
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 1: every team in the country at this point. The timing
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: of that performance right before your schedule gets really hard
• 2:29:35
  Speaker 1: is somewhat concerning.
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 2: But it also might just be human nature.
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: It also might just be nobody in that Utah locker
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: room believed Colorado had anything for them. And no matter
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 1: how hard Morgan Scali and the coaching staff tried to
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 1: convince them, like, no, you got to show up, right?
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 2: They're still college kids. Also, I don't think the coaches
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 2: had their best week.
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: So if everyone laid an egg and did so collectively
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 1: in Boulder and you still got to win, probably not
• 2:29:59
  Speaker 1: too much to complain about.
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 16: So the hope is this is what New Mexico 2008
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 16: turned out to be for that team.
• 2:30:07
  Speaker 17: You remember that game, right?
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 16: 2008, one of the best Utah football teams of all time.
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 16: Coming into that year, we all thought, all right, they've
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 16: got a shot to be really, really good. They beat
• 2:30:18
  Speaker 16: New Mexico 13 to 10.
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 2: You remember that, right?
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 16: And then the next week, I think they ran TCU
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 16: off the field. So they responded to that game in
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 16: a way that allowed them to run the table and
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 16: beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, right? So look, to
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 16: your point, every team that does something special has one
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 16: or two of those weeks where it just doesn't necessarily click.
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 16: And during those weeks, if you can actually survive and
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 16: get the win... you look back and hopefully say okay
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 16: that was a wake-up call now the reality sean is
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 16: for them to beat houston they're gonna have to be
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 16: not just better than they were against colorado they're gonna
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 16: have to be better than they were against kansas like
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 16: the past couple of games quite frankly have led me
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 16: to the space where you know we we've if we're
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 16: honest we've all been waiting for this week right when
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 16: the schedule came out we saw houston we saw b
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 16: y u maybe Arizona, mount back in the top 25,
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 16: is kind of the three games where you feel like
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 16: they're going to handle their business against everybody else. We
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 16: didn't know much about Arkansas. It turns out that they're
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 16: just horrible. It doesn't matter.
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 17: They're an SEC team.
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 16: So this is the week where the measuring stick will
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 16: feel real for the first time all year. I don't
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 16: think Iowa State's horrible. And look, we talked about this
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 16: last week. I don't think Georgia Tech's very good, but
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 16: if you watched Colorado's opening game, you said, all right,
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 16: Deion's got a defense that he hasn't had in his
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 16: three-plus years as Colorado's head coach. So I wasn't stunned
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 16: to see Colorado's defense play the way they played. I mean,
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 16: they were leading Texas Tech at halftime, right? We've just
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 16: seen Utah at some point all year long respond in
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 16: a way that they just didn't. On Saturday night, your
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 16: point about the coaches and Morgan wore this after the game.
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 17: We have to be better. Why are you throwing the
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 17: football there?
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 16: And if you're going to throw the football there, make
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 16: sure you complete the pass, as Morgan said after the game.
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 16: Don't give Colorado extra life. I thought Isaac showed up
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 16: and played some good football. I was happy for the kid.
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 16: You know, those Wilson boys can throw the football, there's
• 2:32:30
  Speaker 16: no doubt. They'll put it in bad spots, as Isaac
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 16: did a couple of times. But to your point, if
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 16: that's as bad as it's going to be for Utah,
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 16: and they still come out on the right side, we
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 16: might look back on colorado the way we look back
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 16: on new mexico in 2008 hopefully.
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: Remember texas tech lost arizona state last year yeah it
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 1: was just like a blip on the radar it happens
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 1: it's it this game stunk you can't do it back
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 1: to back if you play anything close to this to
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: the point you just made houston's gonna beat you and
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: now you're a top 20 team instead of a top
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 1: 10 team you got to go on the road at
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: cincinnati and fix that and you got to take on
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: A BYU team that is the number two ranked team
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 1: in the country, and I believe justifies that ranking wholeheartedly.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: They just beat Notre Dame without their best player available.
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: And Bear Bachmeier is in a Heisman Trophy conversation. He's
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: not going to win it, but he's in that conversation
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 1: right now, and that is such a wild thing to
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: be happening in Provo. Before I turn things over to you,
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 1: I put the poll question out this weekend. The correct
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: football outcome for that Notre Dame-BYU game On the last play,
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: as is, game's over, BYU with a huge win. Pass
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: interference call because there was a mugging. No PI, but
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 1: you get another play because there's one second left on
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: the clock, which the official Big 12 conference statement is, yeah, there.
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 2: Was one second left and they should have been able
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 2: to play another play.
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 1: The best football outcome, the correct football outcome, is which
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 1: of those three options?
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 16: That's a layered good question because I tried to exist
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 16: in the space during my show of acknowledging a bunch
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 16: of different truths.
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 17: It was absolutely pass interference. Full stop.
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 16: I would hope even the most blue-goggled BYU fan would
• 2:34:26
  Speaker 16: at least say.
• 2:34:26
  Speaker 2: That out loud. They're not. They won't.
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 17: Well, then they're lying, okay?
• 2:34:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's fine.
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 16: I don't know if you saw the angle I saw
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 16: on television, but when the ball hit the ground, I
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 16: looked right at the clock and there was a second left.
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 17: Absolutely. To your point, the Big 12 came out.
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 2: And said that.
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 16: Now, look, we don't have to relitigate Michigan, Western Michigan,
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 16: but the fact of the matter is, yes, Michigan probably
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 16: should not have received the opportunity to make that final play,
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 16: but they did. And then it was a miracle that
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 16: JJ caught that pass. I mean, it was, so Michigan
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 16: gets credit for the Hail Mary on the final play
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 16: that they should not have been able to execute.
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 8: Yes.
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 16: And we can't sit here and say, if Notre Dame
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 16: got one more play, they would have scored. Now, pass interference,
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 16: you put the ball next to the goal line and
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 16: there's a good shot. They, they punch it in. If
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 16: I'm a Notre Dame fan, I'm incredibly pissed off. And
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 16: if I'm a BYU fan, I'll give a rip.
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 16: I mean, all of those things probably exist on a
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 16: crazy day like today.
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: The statement can come out. NCAA can make the same statement.
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: It doesn't change the result. BYU wins the football game.
• 2:35:29
  Speaker 2: That's it. They won.
• 2:35:31
  Speaker 17: Bottom line.
• 2:35:34
  Speaker 2: Maybe there's a bunch of like.
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 1: extra seconds on a clock somewhere in NCAA headquarters that
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 1: only blue bloods are allowed to have. And Michigan took
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame's. So they're like, oh, sorry, Michigan already used
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: that extra second. And Notre Dame, you get one taken
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 1: away from you, Provo.
• 2:35:52
  Speaker 16: Yeah, look, I have long, and I've been on this
• 2:35:55
  Speaker 16: in the NBA for years. The way that we allow
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 16: these officials to operate in this clandestine cloak has always
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 16: baffled me. And in a way, in the NBA, it
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 16: led directly to what Tim Donahue did by fixing games
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 16: because he was more or less anonymous.
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 17: All these officials exit.
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 16: The arena, and instead of facing questions about how bad
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 16: they are at their jobs, they just hop in an
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 16: Uber and fly home. And if a coach is going
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 16: to mishandle a game or a 19-year-old sophomore quarterback is
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 16: going to throw a bad pick and they have to
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 16: sit there and answer questions as to why, Officials should
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 16: be made available to the media.
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 17: They also should be held accountable.
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 16: For egregious things like this because you get 12 or
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 16: 13 games all year long. A botched play, a botched call,
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 16: whether it's procedural, whether it's a procedural call or a
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 16: judgment call, directly leads to coaches getting fired. Like, you
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 16: can talk about how, oh, the call's even out. And look,
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 16: if you're a coach, you probably just have to believe
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 16: in your head that at some point it's getting evened out,
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 16: they get some, we get some, and so you just
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 16: don't drive yourself crazy. But when calls are made that
• 2:37:11
  Speaker 16: directly affect the outcome of a game that could... Look,
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 16: Notre Dame, their backs are up against the wall now.
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 16: I don't think Marcus Freeman's in danger of losing his job.
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 16: But if they lose to Miami, I don't give a
• 2:37:24
  Speaker 16: rip if they beat SMU. If they lose to Miami,
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 16: they're probably going to be in the same situation they
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 16: were a year ago, losing their two toughest games and
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 16: therefore being out of the CFP. Marcus Freeman alluded gently
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 16: after the game to him being frustrated, but I would
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 16: imagine after watching the replays, he feels like he straight
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 16: got jobbed and I've long believed Notre Dame should join
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 16: a conference. They get all these crazy concessions as this independent,
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 16: but one of the things they have to deal with
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 16: as an independent is you get the refs from the
• 2:37:54
  Speaker 16: league of the team you're playing against. And that leads
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 16: to all these conspiracy theories about Big 12 refs wanted BYU.
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 16: Like I said, if you're a BYU fan, you don't
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 16: give a rip. And I agree with you.
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 17: Do I think they're the second best team in America?
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 17: I don't know. Do I think they've earned... They're ranking
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 17: at two.
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 16: And you can make a case, Sean, that they should
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 16: be the number one team in the country after Miami
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 16: needed a miracle to beat a really bad Florida State team.
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 2: Rivalry game. I get all that.
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 16: So you can complain about it all you want. BYU
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 16: deserves to be where they're at today.
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 2: They have ranked win in Arizona, who's now ranked. That
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 2: was always a good win. It's even better now.
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: And they have a ranked win against number two at
• 2:38:35
  Speaker 1: the time, Notre Dame. Last thing before I let you go.
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 1: BYU is going to be favored in every game for
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 1: the rest of the year except the Utah game. If
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 1: things go chalk, they lose to Utah, they win every
• 2:38:51
  Speaker 1: other game. Are they a college football playoff team because
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 1: of that win over Notre Dame?
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 17: Yeah, and the win over Arizona.
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 16: Now, if Utah beats them 55-10 and they struggle against,
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 16: I don't know, Arizona State or whatever, then maybe we
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 16: have a different conversation about But, yes, if BYU loses
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 16: to Utah and, therefore, isn't able to play in the
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 16: Big 12 championship game, I still think they're in.
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 2: I agree. Stay tuned for The Drive with Spence Checkers.
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. We'll do the Sean O'Connell show again
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 2: tomorrow on ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.