Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Bill Riley previews Utah vs Utah St Saturday at RES, Chance to emphasize the running game (?), Chiefs blowing out the Broncos + more
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: You're tuned to the sean o'connell show from the murdoch
- 0:08Speaker 1: chevrolet studio of espn 792 1fm so Welcome back to
- 0:30Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell Show. Coming at you from Smith's in
- 0:33Speaker 1: Woods Cross. This is the Smith's Marketplace. 614 West, 2600
- 0:38Speaker 1: South in Woods Cross. We have tailgate passes to give away,
- 0:42Speaker 1: Smith's gift cards to give away. And if you come
- 0:44Speaker 1: up and you stock up for the weekend on some
- 0:47Speaker 1: Pepsi products, $ 35 or more in Pepsi product purchases, show
- 0:51Speaker 1: me the receipt. We'll have a pair of tickets to
- 0:54Speaker 1: give away.
- 0:54Speaker 2: We actually have two.
- 0:55Speaker 1: Separate pairs of tickets. We'll only give you one. with
- 0:57Speaker 1: the thirty five dollar purchase but that means two people
- 1:02Speaker 1: can come in and buy some pepsi or pepsi products
- 1:05Speaker 1: and get themselves some utah state versus utah tickets our
- 1:09Speaker 1: next guest will be calling the game in the booth
- 1:13Speaker 1: at rice echoes stadium bill riley the voice of the
- 1:15Speaker 1: youths joins us.
- 1:16Speaker 2: Bill how are you john i'm great how are you
- 1:19Speaker 2: i'm doing.
- 1:20Speaker 1: Awesome and it's uh... it's another great weekend another great
- 1:23Speaker 1: weekend of football coming up had a fun Thursday night
- 1:27Speaker 1: game for once in the NFL. Nothing to complain about.
- 1:31Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out how scared we should be.
- 1:36Speaker 1: Scared is the wrong term. But how worried we should
- 1:38Speaker 1: be about the Utah State Aggies because they looked awful
- 1:42Speaker 1: in week one. They looked better in week two, ultimately
- 1:44Speaker 1: in a losing effort to Washington. And obviously, you know,
- 1:47Speaker 1: there's some, like, it's the Battle of the Brothers for
- 1:49Speaker 1: a reason. And there's some familiarity between coaching staffs. And
- 1:53Speaker 1: the Utah State guys, a lot of them wish they
- 1:55Speaker 1: were at Utah, so they give it the best shot
- 1:56Speaker 1: every year. So, like, if we want to rate this
- 2:00Speaker 1: thing in terms of difficulty, what is the correct place
- 2:02Speaker 1: to put Utah State as a test for these Utes?
- 2:06Speaker 2: Well, I think it'll be their best test of the
- 2:08Speaker 2: year so far. I don't think Utah State's more talented
- 2:12Speaker 2: than Arkansas. But I think they're better coached. I think
- 2:15Speaker 2: there's a culture in place, and I think they'll play hard.
- 2:19Speaker 2: I didn't get the sense Arkansas played very hard last week.
- 2:22Speaker 2: So I think this will be, of the three games
- 2:25Speaker 2: we've seen to this point, it will be an opponent
- 2:29Speaker 2: that plays hardest and is probably best organized. What that
- 2:33Speaker 2: means over four quarters I don't think necessarily is going
- 2:37Speaker 2: to bode well for the Aggies. I think Utah's the
- 2:39Speaker 2: better team by a long shot. but I think that
- 2:42Speaker 2: this game will be more competitive for longer than the
- 2:46Speaker 2: first two were. I asked yesterday, based on a two-game
- 2:50Speaker 2: sample size, if people felt like, and of course it's
- 2:54Speaker 2: still a guessing game, but if people felt like this
- 2:56Speaker 2: year's team had shown us that they are better than
- 2:59Speaker 2: last year's squad, kind of equivalent to, or maybe not
- 3:02Speaker 2: quite as good as last year's team, because you had
- 3:06Speaker 2: very similar matchups. You had kind of a lower end
- 3:09Speaker 2: of a major power conference opponent, Last year it was UCLA,
- 3:12Speaker 2: this year it was Arkansas. The final score was the
- 3:15Speaker 2: exact same in those two games. You had a big
- 3:17Speaker 2: sky opponent, very similar scores and very similar production in
- 3:20Speaker 2: those things.
- 3:21Speaker 1: So it's kind of an eyeball test, but if I
- 3:24Speaker 1: ask you to answer that question, do you come out
- 3:27Speaker 1: on they're better than last year, they're not quite as
- 3:30Speaker 1: good as last year, or they're probably a rough equivalent?
- 3:34Speaker 2: It's funny you say that because I was sitting here
- 3:36Speaker 2: having breakfast with my Uncle Patrick this morning, and he
- 3:40Speaker 2: asked me the exact same question. He's like, is this
- 3:43Speaker 2: team better than last year's team? And I said, I
- 3:46Speaker 2: don't know. It seems pretty similar right now. I feel
- 3:51Speaker 2: like their offensive ceiling is much higher for some reason
- 3:55Speaker 2: this year, Sean. I think second year of Dampier, more
- 3:59Speaker 2: offensive weapons, maybe a little bit more creativity in the
- 4:03Speaker 2: play calling. I feel like the offensive ceiling is higher,
- 4:06Speaker 2: but I don't think they've hit that ceiling yet. And
- 4:08Speaker 2: remember last year they were really good against UCLA in
- 4:11Speaker 2: the opener and really pretty good in the second game too. Defensively,
- 4:15Speaker 2: I still think they're kind of figuring some things out,
- 4:18Speaker 2: but I think it's about the same. I don't know
- 4:20Speaker 2: that they're better or worse yet than last year, but
- 4:24Speaker 2: I feel like at least on one side of the ball,
- 4:26Speaker 2: especially on the offensive side of the ball, I think
- 4:28Speaker 2: they've got a higher ceiling potentially than they did last year.
- 4:31Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
- 4:32Speaker 1: It makes sense, and actually, again, it's only a two-game
- 4:35Speaker 1: sample size, but the numbers kind of tell the same
- 4:38Speaker 1: story that maybe– This year could be even more offensively potent.
- 4:42Speaker 1: I think the passing game is definitely going to be
- 4:45Speaker 1: better than it was last year. We'll find out. And
- 4:47Speaker 1: I think this weekend is important to find out how
- 4:49Speaker 1: good the run game will end up being because if
- 4:52Speaker 1: the Aggies are good at anything right now, what they're
- 4:54Speaker 1: good at is stopping the run. They're giving up three,
- 4:57Speaker 1: four yards a carry to teams like Washington and, of course,
- 5:01Speaker 1: Idaho State. And I was ranting in the first segment
- 5:04Speaker 1: about how I would like to see Utah, if you
- 5:06Speaker 1: can get a couple of scores on the board, Just
- 5:09Speaker 1: go out there and establish the run. Prove that point.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Do what you've got to do to push around the Aggies.
- 5:16Speaker 1: I know that I don't think about games the same
- 5:18Speaker 1: way that Kevin McGiven and Morgan Scali do, but is
- 5:21Speaker 1: this a game where you can kind of silence some
- 5:23Speaker 1: doubt or answer some questions you might have in your
- 5:26Speaker 1: own building about how potent the run game and the
- 5:29Speaker 1: run blocking is because the Aggies are good in that
- 5:32Speaker 1: part of this game.
- 5:34Speaker 2: Yeah, they are. They're number one in the new Pac-12
- 5:37Speaker 2: against the run. They've only given up, I think, about
- 5:39Speaker 2: 95 yards a game right now. Again, I'm not sure
- 5:43Speaker 2: what that means. I know they did pretty well last
- 5:45Speaker 2: week against a good Washington team and bottled up DeMond
- 5:47Speaker 2: Williams pretty good. But, yeah, if you want to test
- 5:49Speaker 2: your run game through three games, this is probably the
- 5:52Speaker 2: team to do it against. And you know Bronco Mendenhall
- 5:54Speaker 2: teams are always going to be well-organized. You know they're
- 5:57Speaker 2: going to play hard, run to the ball. And so
- 6:00Speaker 2: far through two games, they've done well against the run.
- 6:03Speaker 2: So if you want to test that offensive line after
- 6:05Speaker 2: three games, which should be close to having their five
- 6:08Speaker 2: guys together, you want to see what Wayshon Parker can
- 6:12Speaker 2: do and Daniel Bray can do and Steven Chavez-Soto and
- 6:15Speaker 2: Bird Ficklin and Devin Dampier on the ground, this might
- 6:19Speaker 2: be a pretty good test. But again, here's what I'll say.
- 6:22Speaker 2: when I've talked to Kevin McGibbon a bunch this year,
- 6:24Speaker 2: and even Morgan Scali, too, they've not been committal to,
- 6:28Speaker 2: we're going to run it 55% of the time and
- 6:30Speaker 2: pass it here. They're going to be like, we're going
- 6:32Speaker 2: to do what the defense gives us. And if the
- 6:35Speaker 2: defense is soft against the pass, and we feel like
- 6:37Speaker 2: we can air it out, we're going to air it out.
- 6:40Speaker 2: And maybe we see them really run it in the
- 6:42Speaker 2: second half if they get a good lead. But your
- 6:44Speaker 2: point is good if you really want to test your–
- 6:47Speaker 2: your run game out against what's probably the best run
- 6:50Speaker 2: defense you've seen so far, tomorrow will be the chance
- 6:52Speaker 2: to do it.
- 6:53Speaker 1: Did we learn anything about Utah against Arkansas that we
- 6:56Speaker 1: didn't already think or know based on what we saw
- 7:00Speaker 1: from Idaho?
- 7:02Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think what we did see, though,
- 7:04Speaker 2: is both the offensive and defensive fronts took another step.
- 7:07Speaker 2: Hard to measure yourself against a 1AA team that's middle
- 7:10Speaker 2: of the pack in their conference. But Arkansas was big
- 7:13Speaker 2: up front, offensively and defensively. And I thought Utah did
- 7:17Speaker 2: a good job both running the football when they had to,
- 7:19Speaker 2: but also pass protecting too and getting after it. I
- 7:23Speaker 2: thought last week they were better up front, you know,
- 7:26Speaker 2: getting after, you know, K.J. Jackson in that Arkansas offense
- 7:29Speaker 2: than they were the week before. So I don't know
- 7:32Speaker 2: that we learned anything more, but I do think we
- 7:34Speaker 2: saw both the offensive and defensive line take another step.
- 7:37Speaker 1: I've asked Kevin McGiven and Devin Dampier how deep in
- 7:42Speaker 1: the bag this offense is going so far because we're
- 7:45Speaker 1: seeing some really insane creativity, stuff that other programs would
- 7:51Speaker 1: run as maybe like a once-in-a-season gadget play. We've seen
- 7:55Speaker 1: like four or five of those already in two games against,
- 7:58Speaker 1: let's face it, opponents that you don't necessarily need to
- 8:01Speaker 1: empty the clip against. And in both cases, both Coach
- 8:05Speaker 1: McGiven and Devin Dampier kind of laughed and said, oh, like,
- 8:09Speaker 1: we're not even deep in the bag yet. I mean,
- 8:12Speaker 1: they're 200-plus plays into a playbook, and we've only run
- 8:16Speaker 1: 60 of them so far. So I don't know if
- 8:21Speaker 1: we can expect it to get even more unorthodox, even
- 8:23Speaker 1: more insane, even more creative. But it seems like there's
- 8:27Speaker 1: a possibility that, you know, the mad science can continue.
- 8:32Speaker 2: Yeah, McGiven just seems to always have a smile on
- 8:35Speaker 2: his face these days. And I think that he knows
- 8:39Speaker 2: that he's got a lot of great weapons at his
- 8:42Speaker 2: disposal and he can get creative with formations. And when
- 8:45Speaker 2: you've got two quarterbacks that have the ability to do
- 8:48Speaker 2: what Ficklin and Dampier do and to be able to
- 8:50Speaker 2: line them up together and use them both as weapons
- 8:53Speaker 2: in both the pass game and the run game, that
- 8:56Speaker 2: gives you a lot of options. And the other thing is, too,
- 8:59Speaker 2: they're not reliant on one particular guy, one particular player
- 9:04Speaker 2: to really lean on it. They're not reliant on Ray
- 9:06Speaker 2: Sean Parker to have 25 carries a game. They can
- 9:10Speaker 2: spread those around. What's always interesting to me is, at
- 9:12Speaker 2: least through two games, who's the guy today? Like week one,
- 9:15Speaker 2: Brayden Pagan had a huge game. He had the catches.
- 9:19Speaker 2: They ran the ball. And last week, he didn't have
- 9:22Speaker 2: a lot. Maybe it's Hunter Andrews. Maybe it's Daniel Bray.
- 9:26Speaker 2: Maybe we see a breakout game from Kyrie Scholes or
- 9:29Speaker 2: Ricky Johnson. I just think there's a lot of different
- 9:31Speaker 2: ways that McGiven can go. We know that it's going
- 9:35Speaker 2: to be Dampier and probably Ficklin and Parker in that
- 9:38Speaker 2: run game, but in the pass game and in the
- 9:40Speaker 2: gadget game, he's got a lot of different ways he
- 9:42Speaker 2: can go.
- 9:45Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned Way, Sean. We had a really
- 9:47Speaker 1: productive game again last week, but it was on 15 touches,
- 9:51Speaker 1: and Ten of those came in the run game. Are
- 9:55Speaker 1: we going to get to a point where we he's
- 9:57Speaker 1: treated like a bell cow back when it comes to
- 9:59Speaker 1: you know we're going to hand the ball to you
- 10:01Speaker 1: or we're going to pitch the ball to you a
- 10:04Speaker 1: couple dozen times a game do you think that what
- 10:07Speaker 1: we're seeing from way sean is kind of the workload
- 10:10Speaker 1: in the game plan that we should expect almost all
- 10:13Speaker 1: year from way sean.
- 10:15Speaker 2: I think Weishan's number is probably going to be somewhere
- 10:18Speaker 2: in the neighborhood of 17 to 20 touches a game.
- 10:22Speaker 2: Maybe that's going to be 15 rushes and 5 catches,
- 10:26Speaker 2: or maybe it's going to be... 17 rushes and three catches,
- 10:30Speaker 2: or maybe it's going to be six catches. But I
- 10:32Speaker 2: think somewhere, I just, again, go back to it so often, John.
- 10:35Speaker 2: He is running back one, there's no doubt about it.
- 10:37Speaker 2: But because there's so many other guys that they're going
- 10:40Speaker 2: to have the ability to get the ball to, I
- 10:42Speaker 2: don't know that we're going to see consistently 25 touches.
- 10:46Speaker 2: Maybe there's a game where we have that. But I
- 10:49Speaker 2: think that number for him, and he'll be the leading guy.
- 10:53Speaker 2: Nobody else will get more touches, I don't think, than
- 10:54Speaker 2: him per game. but I think probably in that 17
- 10:57Speaker 2: to 20 touch per game range for him, if that
- 11:01Speaker 2: makes sense.
- 11:03Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder if they're ever going to get to
- 11:06Speaker 1: a point where they feel like they need more out
- 11:08Speaker 1: of him. We're not there yet, and it's great if
- 11:11Speaker 1: you can keep a workload a little bit lighter for
- 11:13Speaker 1: someone who's that important. I will ask you a similar
- 11:17Speaker 1: question about touch distribution, opportunity distribution. between Devin Dampier and
- 11:23Speaker 1: Bird Ficklin? Assuming full health as we do, I'll knock
- 11:25Speaker 1: on wood when I say it, for both guys, is
- 11:29Speaker 1: this mix of like they're on the field together, ten
- 11:32Speaker 1: snaps a game, and one of them is off on
- 11:35Speaker 1: the sideline and the other is on, you know, maybe
- 11:38Speaker 1: Bird is there by himself, five snaps a game. More
- 11:41Speaker 1: or less of Bird, I guess, do you anticipate as
- 11:44Speaker 1: the season rolls on?
- 11:47Speaker 2: I think we're going to kind of see what we've seen.
- 11:49Speaker 2: I just think he's too good a weapon, Sean, not
- 11:52Speaker 2: to utilize him. And he wants to play football, too.
- 11:57Speaker 2: He doesn't want to stand on the sideline and wait
- 11:59Speaker 2: for something to happen. Anyway, I think you're going to
- 12:06Speaker 2: see him utilized. Now, he's going to be a decoy sometimes, too.
- 12:09Speaker 2: He's going to be a guy that you have to
- 12:10Speaker 2: account for because he's so good. But I think you're
- 12:13Speaker 2: going to see him out there on the field sometimes
- 12:16Speaker 2: in that same range where he's been out there most
- 12:19Speaker 2: of the year. And if he's effective with it, maybe
- 12:21Speaker 2: he's out there a little bit more. I think this
- 12:23Speaker 2: team right now is about winning football games. I think
- 12:26Speaker 2: having Bird Ficklin on the field, in whatever role that
- 12:29Speaker 2: might happen to be, helps them win football games.
- 12:34Speaker 1: Bill Riley for another minute or two here on the
- 12:36Speaker 1: Sean O'Connell Show. Our weekly conversation with Bill is brought
- 12:39Speaker 1: to you by Handy and Handy, HandyLawUtah.com, personal injury attorneys.
- 12:44Speaker 1: Big firm experience, small firm attention. Should we feel any
- 12:50Speaker 1: type of concern at all that the defensive ends are
- 12:53Speaker 1: not putting up sack numbers yet?
- 12:57Speaker 2: No, I don't think so yet because they did a
- 12:59Speaker 2: good job last week getting pressures, batting down passes. K.J.
- 13:03Speaker 2: Jackson was doing a lot of three-step out of the
- 13:05Speaker 2: shotgun last week. But at some point in time, you
- 13:09Speaker 2: want to see Cash Dillon and Ethan Day and Lance
- 13:12Speaker 2: Holtzclaw and Paul Fitzgerald get home. I mean, your sacks
- 13:16Speaker 2: right now, your defensive tackles in Carson Kapusi and Jai
- 13:20Speaker 2: Mo have more sacks than your defensive ends do right now.
- 13:23Speaker 2: So I think that's probably not sustainable over the course
- 13:26Speaker 2: of a season. So you'd probably like to see those
- 13:28Speaker 2: guys get on board. But when I've talked to Scali
- 13:30Speaker 2: a little bit about it, he's felt good about the
- 13:32Speaker 2: pressures they've been able to get from defensive end. But
- 13:34Speaker 2: I think maybe this would be a week you'd like
- 13:36Speaker 2: to see one of those guys get home and get
- 13:40Speaker 2: a quarterback down to the ground.
- 13:43Speaker 1: I don't know how many almost interceptions you called in
- 13:46Speaker 1: the game last week. I think I counted three that
- 13:49Speaker 1: should have been caught by you. Obviously, Jackson Benny got
- 13:52Speaker 1: the one. There's probably not even a real question here
- 13:56Speaker 1: because you just have to make that play when it's
- 13:58Speaker 1: available to you. Benny has kind of established himself as
- 14:02Speaker 1: a guy that is more than likely going to come
- 14:04Speaker 1: up with those balls, although he dropped one last year.
- 14:07Speaker 1: Who else, Bill, can you see becoming that guy that
- 14:10Speaker 1: is the sort of havoc player, is the Gianni Paul,
- 14:14Speaker 1: the Chase Hanson, the home run hitter?
- 14:17Speaker 2: Well, Havoc player, I think John O'Hall has a really
- 14:21Speaker 2: good chance to be that guy. He's just so athletic
- 14:24Speaker 2: and he's so around it all the time. Benny, obviously,
- 14:27Speaker 2: as you mentioned, could be that guy. And another guy
- 14:29Speaker 2: for me, and I think I told you we were
- 14:30Speaker 2: talking about breakout players this year, I think Rabbit Evans.
- 14:33Speaker 2: has a great chance to be that Havoc-type guy too
- 14:37Speaker 2: because he's really good at coming downhill and making plays.
- 14:41Speaker 2: I thought Nate Ritchie may have had his best game
- 14:43Speaker 2: as a Ute last weekend. I think you can take
- 14:45Speaker 2: your pick of anybody in that safety room of being
- 14:50Speaker 2: those guys. I'm still kind of waiting to see. which
- 14:54Speaker 2: of the defensive ends he emerges because you'd like to
- 14:56Speaker 2: have one of those guys be a havoc guy for you.
- 14:58Speaker 2: You'd like to have one guy on each level, right?
- 15:01Speaker 2: You'd like to have a defensive end and or tackle.
- 15:04Speaker 2: You'd like to have one of your backers and one
- 15:07Speaker 2: of your safeties or corners. Well, we know the safety room,
- 15:09Speaker 2: any one of those guys could be that guy. Maybe
- 15:13Speaker 2: it's John O'Hall, maybe it's Trey Reynolds, but I want
- 15:15Speaker 2: to see which one of those DNs Or maybe it's
- 15:19Speaker 2: Carson Kapusi plays the role that Starlo Tulele used to play,
- 15:23Speaker 2: being a havoc player from the middle of that defense.
- 15:26Speaker 2: But for me right now, I think Paul and Evans
- 15:29Speaker 2: are two guys, along with Benny, who could emerge in
- 15:31Speaker 2: that position.
- 15:35Speaker 1: You like what you saw from your Chiefs the other night?
- 15:38Speaker 2: Not a bad effort, Sean. I like the idea of
- 15:41Speaker 2: running the football and taking a little load off of
- 15:43Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes while he's working his way back off that ACL.
- 15:47Speaker 2: What I really like, though, that young defense. You know,
- 15:51Speaker 2: they traded away McDuffie. They let Watson walk. They had
- 15:55Speaker 2: another good draft. It looks like Peter Woods, the.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Tackle, R.
- 15:58Speaker 2: Mason Thomas, the end, Mansour Delane, who made an interception
- 16:03Speaker 2: on the third play of the game. Thank you, Bo Nix.
- 16:06Speaker 2: I'm impressed. I think they've got a chance to be
- 16:11Speaker 2: in a pretty wide open AFC. I think they've got
- 16:13Speaker 2: a chance to maybe get back there as Kenneth Walker
- 16:16Speaker 2: runs it a little bit and Mahomes knocks off the rust.
- 16:21Speaker 1: What do our listeners need to know about Handy and
- 16:23Speaker 1: Handy from Bill Reilly?
- 16:25Speaker 2: Well, they're good guys. They're just good people who are
- 16:29Speaker 2: good attorneys as well who will take really good care
- 16:31Speaker 2: of you. If you or somebody you know or love
- 16:34Speaker 2: has been in an accident or been in a workplace incident,
- 16:37Speaker 2: let Preston and Garrett Handy take good care of you
- 16:39Speaker 2: at HandyLawUtah.com and let them, more than anything else, take
- 16:44Speaker 2: care of you and your family because they know how
- 16:46Speaker 2: to work the system with insurance companies and all that
- 16:49Speaker 2: stuff because that's not something you're probably keenly aware of.
- 16:52Speaker 2: Let the experts do it, and that's what Handy and
- 16:54Speaker 2: Handy can do.
- 16:56Speaker 1: HandylawUtah.com. Preston and Garrett and company treat us very well.
- 17:00Speaker 1: They'll take care of you also. And they bring our
- 17:03Speaker 1: conversation with Bill Riley every single week to the airwaves.
- 17:07Speaker 1: So we appreciate them for that. See you up there tomorrow, Bill.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Appreciate you giving us time today.
- 17:13Speaker 2: Come by and say hi, Sean. See you then.
- 17:15Speaker 1: Bill Riley, voice of the Utes, here on the home
- 17:18Speaker 1: of the Utes, ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. Pre-game starts
- 17:22Speaker 1: early tomorrow here. We've got, of course.
- 17:27Speaker 1: The full game itself, and when you're driving home, you'll
- 17:30Speaker 1: catch the post game as well on ESPN 700.