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Sean O'Connell Show - Full POD 9-23-26 · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Happy Hope Day!
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Welcome, everybody, to the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN 700
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: at 92.1 FM. Happy to be here with you as
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: is always the case. Very much looking forward to a
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: fun show today as we push toward a weekend where
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Utah plays its first road game of the season in Ames, Iowa.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Shout out to any of you who decided that this
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: is the road game you're going to attend this year.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: One of the road games you're going to attend this year.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I think Ames might end up being kind of lower
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: on my list of big 12 destination cities. Because I've
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: spent a lot of time in the state of Iowa
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and I will tell you that there's a certain bucolic
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: peacefulness to it, but not exactly as sexy as some
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: of the locales you were used to traveling to when
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: this team played in the Pac-12 conference.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I know that that's an old complaint.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I know that that's not a fun thing to bring
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: up again, but Shout out to any of you who
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: are going to experience the mid-60s weather and a 75%
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: chance of precipitation in Ames, Iowa on Saturday.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, you said, did you say eucolic peacefulness? Bucolic.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Bucolic peacefulness. I mean, it is, they do wonder if
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: it's heaven. over there in Iowa. So that makes sense.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Bucolic of course means.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: An adjective that describes the pleasant, peaceful and rustic qualities
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: of the countryside.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Love that. We got a lot of bucolic areas in our,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: in Utah as well. You know, I don't think it's
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the same. Probably not. There's not. So we do have
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of like agricultural areas, rural areas.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: But Ours have more of a wild West element to
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: them rather than that sort of pastoral greenery that we
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: associate with the rolling Hills of endless cornfields.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense? Yeah, I see what you're saying.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, am I alone here? 8 7 7 3
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: 5 3 0 700. When I think of rural Utah,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I think of the West. I think of like, you know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: even though even when there are green fields, I'm like,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: we've forced those green fields to be here. in the
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Midwest irrigation to, to ensure that they would in the Midwest,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you're just like, man, they turned that what was already
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: going to be a green field into a green cornfield,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: but it was always going to be a green field.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: I don't even know if that's true. It's just the
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: sense you get when you're in Iowa. And if you
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: ever go make sure you hit up the field of dreams.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: It's great. How far it was great.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: How far from Ames is that Ames to Dyersville? That's
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: a good question. Ames to Dyersville. is two hours and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: 31 minutes.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: So maybe if you're there for a few days you
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: can you can make that.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Two and a two and a half hours uh if
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: you're into antiquing if you like going and picking up
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: old barn finds iowa is really great for that in
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: fact the american pickers they that started their first storefront
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: was in iowa those guys are iowans yeah so yeah
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: iowa is i mean it fits a lot of the
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: stereotypes nice people a lot of corn relaxed and beautiful
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: beautiful and and yes 100 you will find antique stores
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: on the side of every highway that's cool that's that's
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: actually really cool uh by the way just to continue
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: this feel the dreams ask tangent we're on i i
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: recently found out that Michael Schur, he started production on
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: a Field of Dreams series for Peacock a number of
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: years ago. Didn't end up getting canceled, but as part
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: of that work that he did, he and his team did,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: they actually built a baseball field in a cornfield in Iowa.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: They leased.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the property as they do as location scouts do and
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: whatever movies and TV shows will lease the property from
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: homeowners or whatever property owners to do whatever they need
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: to do on a movie. In this case, they leased
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the property to plow under a cornfield, a real cornfield
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: in Iowa and build a field of dreams, baseball park,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: baseball diamond for this, uh, This series that didn't end
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: up happening.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Isn't that wild? It didn't end up happening? Didn't end
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: up happening.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: They went through all that effort and didn't end up happening. No,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: apparently the field is still there. The lease agreement has expired.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: The owners are keeping the field. And everyone's hoping that
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: it gets rebooted at some point. But isn't that a
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: crazy story? I remember so distinctly. when I was, I
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: think I was seven years old when we went to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: the field of dreams and actually played baseball on the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: field of dreams from the movie in.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Dyersville, Iowa. And I remember still living in Minnesota.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: And I remember so distinctly, there was like this little box,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: like a cash box, you know, like a wooden box
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: with a slot in the top hanging on like a
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: post that had this little placard that said like, help
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: save the field of dreams because the farmer was who
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: owned the cornfield was like, this thing actually makes me
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: lose money because the baseball field takes up whatever, like
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: three acres.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: It was a real life. It was the real life.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: What Ray Kinsella and his family were and his neighbors
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: were concerned about in the movie. Like dude, you're, you're,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: you're killing your crop. You're killing your livelihood. That guy's
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: actually had the same concern. It was exactly that. Now,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: since then they built like this big sports complex there
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: and it's like its whole thing. But back in those
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: that I remember distinctly, like my dad dropping a fiber
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: in there or whatever. And me being like, what's that about?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: They're going to get rid of the field of dreams.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: And my parents had to explain to me like, Oh, well,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: this is somebody's real farm. Like see that corn growing
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: right there. That's how they make money. So if they
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: were able to plant corn on all of this and nowadays,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: right nowadays, you just charge admission to whatever roadside attraction
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: back then they weren't, you literally could just drive, park
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: your car, run around on the field, like play a
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: baseball game on the bleachers.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Do whatever you wanted. We did that.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: We spent a whole day there when I was a
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: little kid. It's a great memory anyway. So if you
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: get a chance to go to Iowa, I endorse if
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: you're looking for a perfect road game to go to,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: this might not be it, but take your raincoat and
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Utah first road game. I expect there to be some
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: communication issues, some growing pains with the offense. We'll talk
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: with Devin Dampier about that. When he joins us in
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: addition with dev, we'll talk with Kevin McGiven and coordinators corner.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: about these things. It's just going to be part of
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: the situation. I don't think that Utah right now, I
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: didn't look this morning, but Utah, I think about a
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: seven and a half point favorite in this game. They're
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: expected to go to Ames and get the victory. This
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: is not a slouch of an Iowa State Cyclones team.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: They played Iowa very tough. Iowa is always a good team.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I don't think they're quite as good as Utah is.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I think they've got almost nothing going for them in
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: the passing game. They're going to try to play ball
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: control in this thing, and Utah is going to have
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: to find some explosives, and they're going to have to
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: hopefully play out to a lead because Iowa State cannot
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: play catch-up. They are just not equipped for that. after
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: they lost Rocco Becht and company to Penn State. We'll
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: talk about that more as the show progresses and as
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: the week progresses. We have a fun news day today.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Pro football is coming to the state of Utah. We'll
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: get into that a little bit. Sammy Mora is going
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: to join us in 20 minutes or so. A conversation
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: I've been very much looking forward to having. Steve Saunders
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: is The new strength and conditioning coach, the director of
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: football sports performance at the University of Utah is the
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: official title. I've been really looking forward to having him
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: on and getting to pick his brain about his philosophy
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: and how he's getting results in his training program. I
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: will say with the caveat every single time. I love
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: the Doug Ellis, SIA. He went to Michigan. I loved
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Greg Argus, who was promoted in lieu of that Doug Ellis,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: SIA staff. And unfortunately whatever vision that Morgan and, and
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Argus had didn't quite a hundred percent match up, but
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: fortunately Steve Saunders and what Morgan had in mind that
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: gelled and the results seem to be speaking for themselves.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Knock on wood.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: This team, has had a lot of improvements in its
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: explosiveness and the speed that you're seeing is something that
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: it's certainly not lacking, right? And Saunders doesn't get 100%
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: of the credit for that. Players obviously did the work themselves,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: but we just haven't had a chance to talk to
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: him yet, and we get a chance to talk to
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: him today.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: That'll be at noon.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: And then at one o'clock, Sarah Todd, a little farewell
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: interview as Sarah Todd gets ready to take her new
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: gig in Minneapolis and depart the market, the Utah jazz.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: There's some, you know, there's a season's right around the corner.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: There's some interesting things going on with Utah jazz. We'll
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: talk about Darren Peterson's odds to win rookie of the
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: year and how they compare to some of the other
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: trough top draft picks in the class. And, you know,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: maybe we'll get like an unvarnished view of things from
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Sarah because she doesn't have to, well, parting shot, just
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: like tell everything that say everything that she knows, all
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: the stuff you were worried about not saying, because you
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: didn't want to like burn bridges and you don't want
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: access taken away. Like maybe we can get the gossipy
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: version of Sarah Todd.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: That would be great.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I will say this. Minnesota is a division opponent, so
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: they'll play him four times. So she might, she might
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: still have some of those notions like, okay, I still
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: need to keep some kind of relationship with jazz PR.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Sarah just accidentally burns down the bridge. And then she's like, okay,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I'm coming back. We're going to be, Tim worlds are
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: going to be, we'll have to pay for tickets. No
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: access to the locker room. No, we'll, we'll pick Sarah's brain.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Should we, should we.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Do what we did with Danny Larson? Play a little
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: vitamin C.
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Or you could do Time of Your Life by Green Day. Okay.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Any of those departing melancholy songs.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe we'll switch it up to Green Day. I'll just
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: say this. It's bittersweet. It's always sweet and great to
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: have Sarah on the show. And it's great that she's
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: found a great job after losing her job at Deseret
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: News and Great landing spot there in Minnesota. But this
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: is the third time we've had a longtime jazz writer
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: leave the market in the last couple years. First, it
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: was Tony Jones getting reassigned to the Sixers in Philadelphia.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Andy Larson reassignment. No longer technically a sports writer at
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Salt Lake Tribune. And now Sarah Todd. A lot of
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: change in the jazz beat. So it's tough because you
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: want your favorite writers, your favorite media people to stick
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: around all the time. Um, but it's a opportunity for
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: new voices. Like Shreyas Lada is the new solid tribune writer.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: We're going to get him on. We're going to have
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to get him on.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Cause that season's about to start. So, uh, bad news.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: If you're a staunch supporter of the corner Canyon chargers
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: and all of their alum Jackson dart after some optimism
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: immediately post game, uh, Jackson dart is expected to have
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: season ending knee surgery. According to the NFL networks, Ian,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Ian Rappaport and Mike Garofalo, his ACL is intact, but
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: he has damage to his meniscus and his MCL. And
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: that's going to require surgery. So it's PCL damage to
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: also PCL damage. So all the other ligaments here, here's
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: why that is important.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Because We do this thing where we assume that knee
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: surgeries have become so common that the repair is routine.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: And we did this.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: We made this mistake recently with Utah football and with
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: the Cam Rising situation, right? Oh, he's going to the
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: best doctor in the business, and he's going to get
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: this surgery.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Who no doubt.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: And he's going to be fine. Everything's going to be okay. And,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: you know, these are like when you have... damage to
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: multiple parts of the knee. I'm not trying to doom
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: and gloom this thing. Obviously the hope is that Jackson dart,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: he's a young player, so he probably heals faster than
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: most of his peers in the NFL. And now that
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: there's Wolverine stack peptides, you know, you accept, expect people
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: to get back quicker than they ever did.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: However, I just don't want us to gloss over. Oh yeah,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: that sucks.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: He's having knee surgery and assume that everything's going to
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: be back to what it was instantaneously, right? It's a
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: long road sometimes, and you hope that it's not. You
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: knock on wood, but this sucks for Jackson Dart. This
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: sucks for the Dart family. This stinks for the Giants,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: which I don't really care about. And it's a bummer
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: for fans of the overall football sphere that have some
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: interest in our homegrown prospects because Jackson Dart and that
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Giants team seemed like They were finally in a good
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: situation with John Harbaugh as the head coach.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Had this weird, this weird, like Batman. And you can't
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: even call him Robin.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: It's like Batman and Batman's mentally compromised alter ego, Cam
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Scataboo or whatever. Bizarro Batman, right? You had like this
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: kind of cool dynamic happening and it felt like they
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: were just on like Jackson dart was on the precipice
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: of like mega, mega stardom. if he could do what
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: we think he's capable of doing in that New York
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: market with the Giants team, that honestly like an eight-win
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: season would be just a miracle for them. A nine-win
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: season and everyone would be like, this kid's the next
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: best thing on Broadway. So you hate to see it
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: get pushed back down. You hate to see it get delayed.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: And that's just the reality of football. It wasn't even
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: like a planted foot. which a lot of times guys
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: get rolled up on or they get hit while their
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: cleats are stuck in that grass or stuck in that
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: turf and the knee bends backwards. And you're just like, ah, well,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: you've got like counteracting forces and you're effectively airborne. What
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: a weird way to injure your knee. It was a
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: strange throw by him. The fact that he went in
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: the air to make that deep throw. And I think
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: that that also left him compromised to, uh, getting hit
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: where he got hit, unfortunately. The second guy hitting him,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: hitting him in the knee area there. But yeah, strange
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: situation altogether and just unfortunate result. I put a question
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: out on the Twitter here, and I want your thoughts
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: on it.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: 877-353-0700.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: We've seen now the beginning of a football season in
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: both the NFL and in college football where already some
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: surprising storylines are taking shape.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: This is not the.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Continuation of an injury conversation because, unfortunately, injuries are not
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: surprising in football at any level. Like, you look at
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the NFL right now, you look at the standings around
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: college football right now, and we've talked about this a
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: little bit on the show, but there are teams in
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the Big 12 Conference that are sitting at 3-0 that
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: were like, oh, okay, I did not have expectations of
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Bearcats, the Kansas State Wildcats. the West Virginia Mountaineers,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: and maybe we don't need to have expectations for these teams.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Maybe these, it's all going to come out in the wash,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: but I am at least mildly surprised that Kansas state
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: and West Virginia have looked as good as they have looked.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: I think Tulane's a pretty solid team. Kansas state's got
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: a win over Tulane. I think Washington state is in
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: a state of flux, but Kansas state beat them and
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: look decent doing so. And you're only judging based on
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: what these teams have played so far, and stiffer tests
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: are yet to come. West Virginia got a win over
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: a ranked ACC opponent that quietly went under the radar
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: for all of us. Nobody really talked about the fact
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: that West Virginia... And Michael Hawkins Jr., their quarterback, knocked
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: off a No. 25-ranked Virginia Cavalier squad, 38-27, in the
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Duke's Mayo Classic. Why were we sleeping on that? What
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: do you have against Duke's Mayo, people? Michael Hawkins Jr.,
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: by the way, accounted for basically the entire offense. 190
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: yards passing, 123 yards rushing offensively. He himself was responsible
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: for five touchdowns in this game. And guess how many
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: they scored? Five touchdowns. So even if it's not West
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Virginia that surprises you, Michael Hawkins Jr. should be a
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: thing that surprises you. 18 for 123 on the ground,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: three touchdowns. 10 of 17 for 190 through the air.
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: Eh, okay.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: It's a good average completion. but also two touchdowns and
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: no interceptions. And most importantly, in a non-conference win against
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: a ranked opponent. Now it is incumbent upon all big
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: 12 interests to root for the Virginia Cavaliers to end
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: up having a great season as they get ready to
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: take on Delaware, Florida state Syracuse, SMU Duke, wake forest,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Cal North Carolina, and Virginia tech. Conveniently, there is no
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Miami as an opponent there. So that's nice. Another surprising
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: storyline here. Do you remember who won the ACC conference
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: last year?
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: It wasn't Miami.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: It was kind of a weird tiebreaker situation. Duke ended
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: up winning the ACC, right? Duke is 3-0 as a
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: returning conference champion. and is somehow unranked. So people are
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: kind of hating on and sleeping on the Duke Blue Devils.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: You wouldn't see that anywhere else. Can you imagine if
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: the SEC champion from last year was 3-0 and was unranked?
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Or if the Big Ten champion from last year, if
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Indiana or Oregon from last year were 3-0 and unranked?
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: If Texas Tech, Big 12 champion from last year, was
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: 3-0 and was sitting unranked? all of us would be like, what?
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: We don't care because it's Duke. They've got wins over Tulane,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Illinois and Stanford. So you're not even hating too much
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: on the preseason schedule here. Illinois is a two and
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: one big 10 team. I don't think they're going to
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: do much in the conference. We'll find out more about
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: them this weekend. They take on Ohio state on the road.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Is that the big, no, it's not the big noon game.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Is it? They're going to lose. Don't even worry about it.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: So tell me your biggest surprise of the season so far.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: And I want to extend it. It's not just teams
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: and it could be the NFL. It could be college football,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: also players, right? I am mildly surprised that, and some
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: things that we've seen from Utah football and from BYU
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: and from Colorado, things that we've seen people do, and
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: also things that we are still waiting to see happen.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of us, it is the.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Big new kickoff game, Illinois versus Ohio state, by the way,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of us thought that Hunter Andrews would have
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: had kind of a breakout performance so far. I think
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: that we're finding one of the side effects of the
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: excessive weaponry at the disposal of Kevin McGiven in this
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Utah offense is that we might have to wait a
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: little bit longer for certain guys to get their moment
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: in the sun. Really as of yet, the only two
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: offensive players that have had like, well, it's kind of
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: four offensive players because bird and Devin as the two
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: quarterbacks that both had really great games and garnered a
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: lot of attention. Bird was kind of quiet against Utah state.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: I expect that, especially if the weather is inclement out
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: there in Ames, I expect that we'll see more of
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Bird and the design QB run packages. Way Sean has
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: had a big game, big breakout. Holy cow, look what
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: this guy does. I guess you got to give credit
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: to Noah Benny for having that game as a tight
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: end as well. And then Braden Pagan had it against
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: his former school in Utah State this past week. So
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: I'm being... probably unrealistic and unreasonable. Am I expecting the
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Hunter Andrews? It should have happened already. It should have
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: been done now, but it hasn't been done yet. And
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: that's mildly surprising to me. So what's the biggest surprise
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: of your season so far? Uh, 77 41 says biggest
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: surprise so far is the chargers. Where's that explosive offense
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: from Mike McDaniel? That is a really good question. Uh,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: people are using the chargers as an example of of
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: really everything right now. They're dunking on McDaniel. They're dunking
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: on Harbaugh. They're dunking on Justin Herbert mostly because the
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: LA chargers, I still want to call them the San
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Diego chargers.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: The Los Angeles chargers are sitting at Owen two right now.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And they've scored 14 points in both losses. They they've
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: lost to the Cardinals and the Raiders. I promise you
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: there is not a chargers fan on the planet. who
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: didn't have those penciled in as automatic victories. Every single
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Chargers follower and fan had week three against the Bills circled.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: As the first game. Okay, wait a second. We got
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: a phone call.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: At 877-353-0700 from the Weber State football legend, the Fremont
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: High School monster himself, Dave Hale.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Is Dave Hale really on the line right now, James?
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: David Hale. Come on. Welcome to the show. I love you.
• 23:40
  Speaker 7: I love you.
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: I've been waiting to call for so long since you
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: came back on, and I finally got the guts to
• 23:45
  Speaker 8: do it as I'm driving down the campus of the
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: University of Utah. First off, I'm so excited that you
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: two are on the airwaves for me to listen to.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: I feel like Dan, Patrick, and Dibble of old.
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: So I'm going to go ahead and say it. 6'6, 275.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Hit me with the bell. Let's go.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: 275, that's below playing weight.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: That means you headed the right direction after you were done.
• 24:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah, that's down from 330 at my highest, 333, so
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: we're in the right direction. Soft, soft, soft 275.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Nope, I don't believe that one bit, David Hale.
• 24:26
  Speaker 7: I'm going to jack up your segment. My biggest surprise
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: is that the L.A. Superchargers are 0-2 with my man,
• 24:32
  Speaker 7: Jim Harbaugh.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I was just talking about this. How are you 0-2 with.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Two games against the Cardinals and the Raiders. Those are
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: the teams that you say, all right, warm-up game, warm-up game,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: and then we're on the road at Bills, at Seahawks.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: You and every other Chargers fan were like, we'll be 2-0,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: and then we got to probably prepare ourselves for some
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: tough games on the road against Josh Allen and company
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: and the defending Super Bowl champions.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: What's going on?
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: Well, I'll tell you right now, and this is near
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: and dear, if you look up how many sacks they
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: have on Herbert over the past 94 games, your mind
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: will be blown.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Do you have that number off the top of your head?
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: It's as much as, and this is the CTE kicking in,
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: but it's as much as who was the quarterback for
• 25:24
  Speaker 7: the Colts that retired.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Out of nowhere from Stanford.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Andrew Luck?
• 25:29
  Speaker 7: It's as much as Andrew Luck through the same amount
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: of games.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: How many times has Justin Herbert been sacked?
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: 94, 95 games in his career so far.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: 99 career games, it says.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: He's been sacked 241 times.
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: There's your problem.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Get back in shape, dude. Have him give you a
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: phone call.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: I've got one three-step drop pass play left in me.
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: That's what I tell everyone. And I'm just going to
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: show the hands and cut the outside leg and walk
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: off the field.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 26:11
  Speaker 7: Hey, I just wanted to call. As you know, we
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: got Coach Kevin McGiven near and dear to our hearts
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: because he's a Weber Stater. But you also have the
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: Alex Gerke running the offensive line. As you know, stories
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: for days.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: Swanee.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 26:31
  Speaker 7: Coach Kukas.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 26:32
  Speaker 7: I mean, it's, it's Weber state South.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 26:35
  Speaker 7: And I love it. And I, I don't know how
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: you prepare the defense to go against our youth. Um,
• 26:42
  Speaker 7: and I can't wait to see the success that they, uh,
• 26:45
  Speaker 7: they bring in the, uh, in the love, hate relationship
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: that you and Gerky shared.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Uh, is it, is it back to love at present day?
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: It was never hate. That's what people get misconstrued in
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: the locker room. I don't know if you were there
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: for maybe the greatest moment in Weber State athletic history
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: when we had a little scuffle pregame.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, of course I was there. You scuffled into my locker, David.
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: Hey, he and I are brothers. We have not stopped
• 27:18
  Speaker 7: talking over the years. We actually, before he took this...
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: Coaching job, we'd break bread probably once a week. We'd
• 27:24
  Speaker 7: get together for lunch.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: He's my man, will always be my man, and when
• 27:28
  Speaker 7: he told me that things might work out at Utah,
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: I almost started crying because that's where he belongs.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: That's really fantastic. And that's what.
• 27:35
  Speaker 7: Utah needs on the offensive line. So maybe one day
• 27:40
  Speaker 7: we can get down and share that moment on the air.
• 27:44
  Speaker 7: I don't know if we can or not or if
• 27:46
  Speaker 7: he'd get in trouble, but.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Well, there's got to be a statute of limitations. We'll
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: have to talk about it.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: I'd love to have you and Gerke here in studio
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: for a little story time.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 27:57
  Speaker 7: You set that up and I'm there.
• 27:58
  Speaker 9: Anytime.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I hope you're doing well, bud.
• 28:01
  Speaker 7: You're one of the greatest. Above everything, you're one of
• 28:04
  Speaker 7: the greatest teammates I ever had. I hope you know that.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I love you, dude. Thanks so much for calling. It's
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: great to hear from you.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: See you, brother.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: David Hale, the Weber State legend. The 2006 Weber state
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: football team was not great in terms of team success.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: We were a 500 team. They didn't make the playoff
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: in FCS. It was a, it was a bum year.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Ron McBride had things trending in the right direction. And
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: obviously Weber state went on to do a bunch of
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: really great things. There were three NFL guys on that roster.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: David Hale is one of them. Marcus Miley is the
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: other one. There was a guy named Bo Smith who
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: transferred from Kentucky to And ended up at Weber State
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: and was one of the freakiest athletes you're ever going
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: to find. Goes down a couple levels, but still makes
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: it to the league. That's amazing. And he got his
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: cup of coffee. And, man, wait, I lied. Tim Toon
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: was Mr. Irrelevant in, I think, the 2008 or the
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: 2009 NFL draft. And he was also on that roster,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: I think, as a freshman or redshirt freshman that year.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: So more than three. I have to, I have to
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: tell you a little inside baseball. So Dave calls and
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I do my, Hey, who do I got on the line?
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: And he's like, tell Murph, it's Dave Hale. I went,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, he dropped the Murph. This is a
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: former teammate. So that was incredible. Thank you, Dave, for
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: calling it. David Hale is an absolute monster of a man.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: And he, I really do want to get, I do
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: really do want to get him and Gerky down here
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: so they can tell that story. It is not my
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: story to tell. I think I've alluded to it in
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: the past on the air, but I'm glad I called
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: it a love-hate relationship.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: He clarified.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: They had an intense relationship. We'll say that as close friends.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: And obviously, Gerke was the offensive line coach up there.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: And now he's the assistant offensive line coach under Jordan
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Gross at the University of Utah. And he's a character
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: in his own right. And he's an old school guy. Man,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: that really makes my day hearing from David Hale. And yes,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: the Shockers....
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Of the season.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: One of the shockers of the NFL season is that
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: the Los Angeles chargers are Owen two against really what
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: we thought would be subpar competition Raiders though. Maybe they're
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: surprising people. They're two and Oh, nobody believed that was
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: going to happen. Fernando Mendoza and his family, the most
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: positive rays of sunshine. You're going to find, didn't believe
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: that the Raiders were going to be two and Oh,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: at this point in the season, but they are.
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: 877-353-0700.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: If you have any surprises of the Utah football season,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: a Big 12 football season, an NFL football season, we'd
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: love to hear from you. At Real OC Sports on
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: the Tweet Machine as well. It's a Ute Zone Wednesday.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: We'll have Sammy Mora talking Utes next on ESPN 700
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: and 92.1 FM.
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. Welcome in on
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: a Ute Zone Wednesday.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Sammy Mora, managing editor over at Ute Zone, UteZone.com. Follow
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Sammy on Twitter at S underscore Mora on three.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Sammy, welcome back to the show. How are you?
• 31:42
  Speaker 9: I'm doing great. Sean, how are you?
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I'm awesome.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Had a fun day up there at Rice Eccles Stadium
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: on Saturday.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: 33-0 victory for the Utes over Utah State.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I think we learned a couple of things about this
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: team again as we head into Big 12 play. What
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: was your biggest takeaway from the blanking.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Of the Aggies?
• 32:05
  Speaker 9: I think just the defensive performance is something that really
• 32:09
  Speaker 9: stood out to me, especially the play of rabbit Evans
• 32:12
  Speaker 9: and Nate Richie. The two of them were playing at
• 32:14
  Speaker 9: such an insanely high level on Saturday. It was, it
• 32:17
  Speaker 9: was really impressive. Um, I know that Utah State's offensive
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: line is not something to write home about. There's a
• 32:24
  Speaker 9: lot that's left to be desired on that line. But
• 32:27
  Speaker 9: Utah did a really great job at stopping the run,
• 32:30
  Speaker 9: getting pressure. I know they didn't come away with many sacks,
• 32:33
  Speaker 9: but they got pressure. And that's something that Morgan has
• 32:37
  Speaker 9: talked a lot about. He would rather see the pressures
• 32:39
  Speaker 9: and QB hits than total sacks. So defensively, I think
• 32:43
  Speaker 9: we learned a little bit more about this team than
• 32:45
  Speaker 9: we did offensively. I think we all know that things
• 32:48
  Speaker 9: kind of got a little bit, vanilla, a little bit
• 32:53
  Speaker 9: tight in the second half. And so there's still slight
• 32:57
  Speaker 9: questions with the offense, in my opinion, but overall, I
• 33:00
  Speaker 9: think if I gained a lot more confidence in the
• 33:03
  Speaker 9: defense after last weekend.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about like some of that offensive questioning here,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: because it was a hot start, right?
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: What was it? 26 points in the first half.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: And then you, you saw it kind of bogged down
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: a little bit and you, Part of that was the
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: run game for me. I knew that Utah State was
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: going to be solid against the run. I thought that
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: it was important that Utah established their ability to run
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: between the tackles, to push guys off their spot, things
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: like that. And you broke a couple of big ones.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: One came back on a penalty. Broke a couple of
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: big ones that helped improve the average to 5.3 yards
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: per carry or so in this game. But there were
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of two and three yard runs as well,
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: as I know you're aware, Sammy. do you attribute that
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: to the offensive line combinations being switched up a lack
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: of physicality? Is there something that you could point to
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: that we could point to and say that has to
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: improve before the big 12 play?
• 34:02
  Speaker 9: I think part of it Morgan addressed is that there
• 34:05
  Speaker 9: was some errors with IDing just defensive run fit, like
• 34:09
  Speaker 9: run gaps and what Utah State was doing. We knew
• 34:12
  Speaker 9: that Bronco was going to sell out for the run.
• 34:14
  Speaker 9: That's what his defenses do. He has a really good
• 34:17
  Speaker 9: front seven. That front seven of Utah State is very solid.
• 34:21
  Speaker 9: It's probably, in my opinion, that front seven is probably
• 34:23
  Speaker 9: the best thing that Utah State has overall heading into
• 34:27
  Speaker 9: their stretch of Pac-12 play. But Run fits is the
• 34:31
  Speaker 9: big thing. I'm trying to give this offensive line grace
• 34:37
  Speaker 9: to a certain extent because we still haven't seen Keith
• 34:39
  Speaker 9: Olsen out there with the ones. And I truly believe
• 34:42
  Speaker 9: that Keith Olsen is one of the best guards probably
• 34:46
  Speaker 9: in the Big 12. And I think that once you
• 34:48
  Speaker 9: get him out there, it just adds to this line
• 34:51
  Speaker 9: as a whole. I've been really impressed with what Cedric
• 34:53
  Speaker 9: Jefferson and Zaraway Williams have done at both the tackle spots.
• 34:57
  Speaker 9: Toa Moeai is Toa Moeai. We know what to expect
• 35:00
  Speaker 9: from him. And Alex Harrison took a step forward. So
• 35:02
  Speaker 9: I think it's mainly run. It was like misidentifications and
• 35:06
  Speaker 9: run game. Um, I'm not like, if that is something
• 35:09
  Speaker 9: that continues, I think that, yeah, it's something that is
• 35:13
  Speaker 9: a big issue, but Utah was still able to move
• 35:15
  Speaker 9: the ball yet. Like 286 passing yards from Devin and
• 35:19
  Speaker 9: bird combined 194 rushing yards. And like you said, if
• 35:22
  Speaker 9: way Sean's doesn't get taken back, you're pushing 200, you're
• 35:25
  Speaker 9: over 200 rushing yards on the night as well. So
• 35:28
  Speaker 9: I think that the thing it's there, I think we
• 35:30
  Speaker 9: just need to, uh, I'm still going to be a
• 35:33
  Speaker 9: little bit cautious, especially until we can get Keith out there.
• 35:36
  Speaker 9: Once Keith gets out there, if things still look this way,
• 35:38
  Speaker 9: then yeah, we might have an issue. But as of
• 35:40
  Speaker 9: right now, I'm not like slamming the panic button.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: Way.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Sean Parker was not featured in the offense this week.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: And I know that, you know, a lot of us
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: have kind of like projected our own desires for this
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: offense onto what Kevin McGiven is able to do.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: And you can't complain when you win.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: And when it's 33 to zero, but way Sean Parker getting,
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: you know, 12 or 15 touches in a game feels
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: like under utilization. And maybe that's okay against a team
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: like Utah state. Do we need more of way? Sean,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: do we get more of way? Sean against Iowa state?
• 36:17
  Speaker 9: I think we do need more way, Sean, but at
• 36:19
  Speaker 9: to a certain extent, I think it kind of goes
• 36:21
  Speaker 9: back to everything. Like the offense was working. It's not
• 36:25
  Speaker 9: like it felt very different than, than previous years, because
• 36:30
  Speaker 9: it felt like in previous years, if way Sean wasn't
• 36:32
  Speaker 9: getting the run, like under Kyle Whittingham, they would continue
• 36:36
  Speaker 9: to just try and force it and like force it
• 36:38
  Speaker 9: until it worked. Where McGiven tried it a couple of times,
• 36:41
  Speaker 9: it didn't work and he went somewhere else and it worked.
• 36:44
  Speaker 9: And so I think that shows just McGiven's ability to
• 36:47
  Speaker 9: adapt to what is being shown and what's being thrown
• 36:50
  Speaker 9: at his offense. I think we should see more of Wayshawn.
• 36:55
  Speaker 9: I expect we'll see more of Wayshawn going forward. I
• 36:57
  Speaker 9: just think that this was probably one of those weird
• 36:59
  Speaker 9: one-off games where McGiven wasn't trying to force something that
• 37:03
  Speaker 9: wasn't there. And I know that it pissed a lot
• 37:05
  Speaker 9: of Utah fans off that Wayshawn wasn't having 150 rushing
• 37:09
  Speaker 9: yards or whatever, but they still won the game. plays
• 37:14
  Speaker 9: were made on, on the offensive side of the ball.
• 37:16
  Speaker 9: You know, Utah already has 200 yard receivers and looking at,
• 37:19
  Speaker 9: you know, historically Utah had 200 yard receivers all of
• 37:23
  Speaker 9: last year combined. And one of them was, was during
• 37:26
  Speaker 9: the bowl game. So I don't even want to categorize
• 37:27
  Speaker 9: that as, you know, Whittingham led team at that point. But,
• 37:33
  Speaker 9: I'm not concerned. It's kind of like, I'm not concerned
• 37:35
  Speaker 9: with the offensive line. Like way Sean will get his,
• 37:37
  Speaker 9: he's going to have a big game. I think we're
• 37:40
  Speaker 9: all just kind of waiting for it, but you know,
• 37:43
  Speaker 9: as long as the offense was moving down the field
• 37:44
  Speaker 9: and scoring, I don't really think it's a big issue
• 37:47
  Speaker 9: that way Sean didn't have, you know, another six touchdown
• 37:51
  Speaker 9: game or whatever.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Is it time for us.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: To have a bigger conversation about Cyrus Polo and the
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: role that he's emerging into?
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: In this season.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: The kid is an absolute freak. He's an adept blitzer.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: He is a big time hitter. And I feel like
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: maybe we're going to get more and more Cyrus Polu,
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: whether it's for the specialties of, you know, blitzing or
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: whether it's just every down linebacker play. I feel like
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: the kid is really earning a spot here in Colton
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Swan's defense.
• 38:25
  Speaker 9: I personally have been very high on Cyrus going back to,
• 38:28
  Speaker 9: you know, I want to say around this time last
• 38:31
  Speaker 9: year in special teams because there was a couple times
• 38:34
  Speaker 9: on special teams where he would just, like, destroy somebody
• 38:38
  Speaker 9: on punt coverage or kickoff coverage. I believe that this
• 38:42
  Speaker 9: kid has the potential to be a star for a
• 38:44
  Speaker 9: long time. I'm glad we're finally seeing it. I think
• 38:48
  Speaker 9: that he... is such like, obviously there's areas of his game.
• 38:52
  Speaker 9: He still needs to improve on. He's only a true sophomore.
• 38:54
  Speaker 9: Like he has a few years to go, but from
• 38:58
  Speaker 9: a sheer standpoint right now, I'm very impressed with what
• 39:00
  Speaker 9: he does. I think he has. I know everyone, Jono
• 39:04
  Speaker 9: has NFL potential. Trey is showing he has NFL potential
• 39:07
  Speaker 9: as well. I, honest to God, think Cyrus has a
• 39:10
  Speaker 9: higher ceiling than Jono. And I think Jono is probably
• 39:13
  Speaker 9: the best linebacker in this room right now. But I
• 39:16
  Speaker 9: love what Trey does. And it's fun because they're not
• 39:19
  Speaker 9: just sending him on blitz. It's not like teams know
• 39:22
  Speaker 9: that as soon as Cyrus comes in that they're going
• 39:23
  Speaker 9: to blitz. He has a high blitz rate this season,
• 39:26
  Speaker 9: but he's also been dropping into coverage. He's been out
• 39:28
  Speaker 9: there and run situations. So I'm, I'm impressed with what
• 39:32
  Speaker 9: he's doing and I wouldn't be shocked to see his
• 39:34
  Speaker 9: role kind of continue to expand. And maybe he ends
• 39:37
  Speaker 9: up being that linebacker three and he kind of, he
• 39:39
  Speaker 9: kind of takes that role from Elijah Ellis, but yeah,
• 39:42
  Speaker 9: I think the future is extremely bright with Paul and
• 39:44
  Speaker 9: Ellis back there in that linebacker room.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: I was going to mention Elijah Ellis as well. We've
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: seen him, you know, and I guess we should grow
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: to expect this. He's got three older brothers who are
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: starters in the NFL. So anything less than contribution would
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: be somewhat disappointing, I suppose. But, you know, he's playing
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: in the brace right now and still finding ways to
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: be productive in this defense. And look, Trey had a
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: beautiful game and John was a little bit quieter on
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: the stat sheet, but I think played well as well here.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Is this kind of like a true four linebacker rotation,
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: regardless of the opponent?
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Are we going to see these guys even when it really,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: really matters?
• 40:22
  Speaker 9: I think so. I mean, Scooby Davis told us, I
• 40:25
  Speaker 9: want to say it was last week during his little
• 40:27
  Speaker 9: media scrub and that we're seeing that they're using a
• 40:29
  Speaker 9: lot more NASCAR packages, meaning, you know, three linebackers out there.
• 40:33
  Speaker 9: And I think that not only like, represents Colton as
• 40:38
  Speaker 9: a coach because we know that these linebackers like that's
• 40:40
  Speaker 9: that this is he's recruited almost every single one of
• 40:43
  Speaker 9: these linebackers into the program he actually has recruited all
• 40:45
  Speaker 9: of them now that I actually like think So he
• 40:48
  Speaker 9: knows what all of these guys' potential is, and he
• 40:51
  Speaker 9: knows what they can do, and he knows how they
• 40:52
  Speaker 9: can help impact his team. It's kind of like how
• 40:55
  Speaker 9: you're seeing more of those three safety looks. Even though
• 40:58
  Speaker 9: Benny's been playing a lot of nickel, you still are
• 41:00
  Speaker 9: technically having three safeties out there with him, Richie, and Rabbit.
• 41:04
  Speaker 9: And so I think it's just adapting to the personnel,
• 41:07
  Speaker 9: kind of like what we're seeing on the offense of
• 41:08
  Speaker 9: putting the best 11 out there. We're seeing the best
• 41:11
  Speaker 9: 11 out there on defense as well. I personally, I
• 41:15
  Speaker 9: like it. There's some different packages, some different personnel, some
• 41:19
  Speaker 9: different things we've seen already this season that have been
• 41:23
  Speaker 9: a lot different than years past. I keep coming back
• 41:26
  Speaker 9: to that package that they ran versus Idaho where they
• 41:29
  Speaker 9: moved Lance Holtzclaw and Ethan Day to the interior of
• 41:33
  Speaker 9: the defensive line, and they put Ellis and Paul on
• 41:36
  Speaker 9: the edge, and they sent them on blitzes. And that
• 41:39
  Speaker 9: blitz from Cyrus led to Trey's interception. So the versatility
• 41:44
  Speaker 9: that's in this defense is something that people don't talk about.
• 41:47
  Speaker 9: They're always talking about the versatility of the offense, but
• 41:50
  Speaker 9: the versatility of the defense is really there. And those
• 41:52
  Speaker 9: four linebackers are a big part of it. You're seeing
• 41:55
  Speaker 9: them drop into coverage a lot more, run defense, all
• 41:57
  Speaker 9: sorts of things. And it's really encouraging, and it's fun
• 41:59
  Speaker 9: to watch, honestly.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: We saw a little bit more Lucas Sam Sula actually
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: had a nice little flash in this game. And I
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: bring him up because I think that we still need
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: a little bit more depth of the rotation at the
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: defensive tackle spot. We've seen obviously great things from Jai
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Moya and from Carson Kalfusi, but it can't just be
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: those two, right? That the nature of that position means
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: that you have to have three, four, five, maybe six guys.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: If you're lucky. that you can rely on. And yeah,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: there's always going to be your headliners.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: And I think we know who those people are, but
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: is Sam Sula showing this coaching staff that maybe he
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: can be trusted a little bit more and given more
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: time and more reps on game day.
• 42:40
  Speaker 9: I honestly think he is like his reps have steadily
• 42:43
  Speaker 9: increased over the last three weeks. And I did a
• 42:46
  Speaker 9: PFF like grades breakdown earlier in the week. And I
• 42:49
  Speaker 9: know PFF grades are not the end all be all,
• 42:51
  Speaker 9: but they at least tell a little bit of the story.
• 42:53
  Speaker 9: Like he had a run defense grade of 62.4, which
• 42:57
  Speaker 9: was higher than Carson. Actually, it was five less reps,
• 43:00
  Speaker 9: but he was successful on the five reps that he
• 43:03
  Speaker 9: was in there. And If you can get Lucas out
• 43:06
  Speaker 9: there in specifically run defense situations, like I think that's
• 43:12
  Speaker 9: a great place for him to be. And I think
• 43:13
  Speaker 9: that's a great role for him to be. He's not
• 43:15
  Speaker 9: going to be someone who's going to get up, feel
• 43:16
  Speaker 9: very quickly. He's a big guy, big guy, but he
• 43:20
  Speaker 9: back in, I think it was in spring. He said
• 43:22
  Speaker 9: that he prides himself on stopping the run. That's what
• 43:25
  Speaker 9: he wants to do. That's what he wants to make
• 43:26
  Speaker 9: his money on. So if he can show that he
• 43:28
  Speaker 9: is highly effective in those run stuff situations, he's going
• 43:33
  Speaker 9: to get more time.
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: On the field.
• 43:34
  Speaker 9: I honestly was a little bit shocked that you saw
• 43:37
  Speaker 9: Mike Cacioli playing a lot more in the first two
• 43:39
  Speaker 9: games than you saw Lucas. I think a lot of
• 43:42
  Speaker 9: it is situational. I think they're trying to keep guys,
• 43:45
  Speaker 9: the load management's been a big thing for Morgan and
• 43:48
  Speaker 9: he's talking about how to handle that so that guys
• 43:51
  Speaker 9: stay healthy for longer. It's interesting to see how that's evolving.
• 43:55
  Speaker 9: I think The defensive tackle rotation is growing, whereas the
• 43:59
  Speaker 9: defensive end rotation is shrinking. We're really starting to see
• 44:02
  Speaker 9: that the four guys that have the most trust in
• 44:05
  Speaker 9: the staff are Holtzclaw, Day. dylan and fitzgerald like you're
• 44:09
  Speaker 9: not seeing many reps go out outside of those four
• 44:12
  Speaker 9: so i'm okay with it i'm excited to see how
• 44:15
  Speaker 9: lucas continues to settle in because i think he has
• 44:17
  Speaker 9: the potential to be a really really high level defensive
• 44:20
  Speaker 9: tackle it's just a matter of him just getting his
• 44:23
  Speaker 9: feet underneath him and getting you know back up to
• 44:25
  Speaker 9: that that pace of speed and of the game.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Sammy Mora is our guest here on a youth zone Wednesday,
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: talking all things, Utah football, first road game of the
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: season coming this weekend in Ames, Iowa.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: It's a day game.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: It's supposed to be maybe potentially rainy. Last I looked,
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: it was 75% chance of rain in Ames. And look,
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: this is an Iowa state team that like everyone else
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: is still feeling out the process of a 2026 season, but.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: They had a hard-fought game against a ranked Iowa squad.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: They're coming off a massive win against Bowling Green, and
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: I don't think that tells you much. They also beat
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: Southeast Missouri. And so, you know, it's like a quality
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: of opponent thing. They have an advantage here. They have
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: faced a ranked team. They faced a tough team. They
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: came away with a loss, but it was a very
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: close loss. What does Utah walk it into in Ames?
• 45:17
  Speaker 9: I think when you go back to that Iowa game,
• 45:20
  Speaker 9: I think the Cy Hawk game is very similar to
• 45:23
  Speaker 9: the Holy War. No matter where a team is ranked
• 45:26
  Speaker 9: or what their record is, that's going to be one
• 45:29
  Speaker 9: of those low-scoring games that whoever wins only wins by
• 45:33
  Speaker 9: three or less, I think. You're walking into a physical team.
• 45:39
  Speaker 9: That's what Iowa State is. It's Midwest football. Aiden Flora,
• 45:45
  Speaker 9: they're running back. I think he accounted for over 250
• 45:47
  Speaker 9: all-purpose yards last week versus Bowling Green, which, again, not
• 45:53
  Speaker 9: a great level of competition, but still, you kind of
• 45:57
  Speaker 9: have to acknowledge that that was a big game for him.
• 46:00
  Speaker 9: Jalen Raynor, their quarterback, a dual-threat guy, but... He has
• 46:05
  Speaker 9: had some accuracy issues so far this season, so it's
• 46:08
  Speaker 9: going to be interesting to see how much pressure Colton
• 46:11
  Speaker 9: Swan brings and if they can get him off schedule,
• 46:15
  Speaker 9: what it can lead to. If you can get him
• 46:18
  Speaker 9: into these situations where they can't just run the ball,
• 46:20
  Speaker 9: where they force him to throw it, can the Utah
• 46:22
  Speaker 9: secondary or even linebackers to that extent make some plays
• 46:26
  Speaker 9: and force some turnovers? Defensively, I... I'm still doing my
• 46:31
  Speaker 9: defensive dive on Iowa state just to be completely transparent
• 46:35
  Speaker 9: with you. But from what I've seen, like they're, they're
• 46:37
  Speaker 9: a solid defense, obviously big upfront. They're going to try
• 46:41
  Speaker 9: and stuff the run. So if the offensive line can
• 46:44
  Speaker 9: actually get some push this week, we'll actually know if
• 46:46
  Speaker 9: this offensive line is good and run protection. We know
• 46:49
  Speaker 9: they're good in path blocking. You know, you limit back
• 46:53
  Speaker 9: to that Arkansas game. You limit an NFL draft pick
• 46:56
  Speaker 9: to just one pressure and one sack in that entire game.
• 46:58
  Speaker 9: Like that's, That's pretty, pretty impressive for this group. But
• 47:03
  Speaker 9: I'm interested to see how this game goes because Utah
• 47:06
  Speaker 9: has been in a situation before where it's been like
• 47:08
  Speaker 9: a rainy condition. That West Virginia game last year was
• 47:10
  Speaker 9: kind of same projection. And yeah, Utah ran the ball
• 47:14
  Speaker 9: majority of the time, but they also, there was a
• 47:16
  Speaker 9: couple of times. where they where they aired it out
• 47:18
  Speaker 9: so it's going to be interesting to see what given
• 47:21
  Speaker 9: you know game plan is in this situation because on
• 47:23
  Speaker 9: one hand i can see them just trying to run
• 47:26
  Speaker 9: and get guys in space and do that but also
• 47:28
  Speaker 9: i wouldn't be shocked if if it's not windy if
• 47:30
  Speaker 9: it's not too bad just see if they can air
• 47:32
  Speaker 9: it out a little bit and take advantage of iowa
• 47:34
  Speaker 9: state maybe selling out for the run because they think
• 47:37
  Speaker 9: of it i think it's going to be that way
• 47:38
  Speaker 9: because of the conditions.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Who's the most surprising team in the big 12 right now?
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: I know we're focused mostly on the Utes. I'm not
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: surprised that the Utes are sitting at three at all.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: I'm mildly surprised. At least the Kansas state is more
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: so that West Virginia is Cincinnati. I didn't have high
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: expectations for who's the most surprising team on, I guess
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: the positive or the negative side of things.
• 48:05
  Speaker 9: I think positive, I would say probably Kansas state or
• 48:09
  Speaker 9: West Virginia. Like I didn't have, especially West Virginia. I
• 48:13
  Speaker 9: didn't have high expectations for them this year. You know,
• 48:16
  Speaker 9: rich rod continues to, I think have like 80 plus
• 48:19
  Speaker 9: transfers out 80 plus transfers in every, like in his
• 48:22
  Speaker 9: second year. So there wasn't a lot of roster continuity
• 48:25
  Speaker 9: from last year to this year. So West Virginia is
• 48:27
  Speaker 9: one of those ones, but I honestly, I've said it
• 48:29
  Speaker 9: a couple of times. I think that Kansas state is
• 48:32
  Speaker 9: going to be one of those games. Let's look back
• 48:33
  Speaker 9: upon is West. Wow, thank gosh Utah missed them. I
• 48:36
  Speaker 9: think that's something that's very... They look good. I don't
• 48:40
  Speaker 9: know if Avery Johnson, if it's just who they played non-con,
• 48:44
  Speaker 9: but I think that if anyone was going to get
• 48:47
  Speaker 9: Avery Johnson to play at a high level, I think
• 48:49
  Speaker 9: it was going to be Colin Klein. He knows what
• 48:51
  Speaker 9: it takes to be a quarterback at Kansas State. He
• 48:54
  Speaker 9: knows what it takes to be an elite guy. And
• 48:56
  Speaker 9: so I'm interested to see how Kansas State continues to develop. Negatively...
• 49:02
  Speaker 9: I kind of want to say like Arizona, there were
• 49:07
  Speaker 9: some things that popped up in their game versus BYU
• 49:10
  Speaker 9: that kind of gave me a little bit of pause.
• 49:12
  Speaker 9: TCU is one that I haven't been high on since
• 49:17
  Speaker 9: they played in Ireland and they really haven't done anything together.
• 49:20
  Speaker 9: my confidence back. And then Houston and TCU both look
• 49:24
  Speaker 9: very beatable. Like I think as of right now, There's
• 49:28
  Speaker 9: no team in this conference, I think, that's like 100% perfect.
• 49:33
  Speaker 9: And there's no glaring deficiencies with that team. But that's
• 49:39
  Speaker 9: kind of where I'm at. Obviously, we've only had like, what,
• 49:41
  Speaker 9: two conference games? You had BYU-Arizona and you had Texas Tech-Houston.
• 49:45
  Speaker 9: So a lot still left to be learned. But as
• 49:48
  Speaker 9: of right now, it feels like it's kind of a
• 49:52
  Speaker 9: wide-open conference right now.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: What's the most interesting game this weekend? BYU's on a buy.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: Texas Tech has Sam Houston, so on that one. Colorado Baylor,
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: TCU UCF, Houston Georgia Southern, another stinker I would expect.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Kansas State Cincinnati, surprise 3-0 teams. Oklahoma State West Virginia,
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: obviously the Cowboys with the big upset over Oregon, and
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: they're at 2-1 right now. And then Arizona's got Washington State. So,
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: of course it's Utah first, but What other game captures
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: your attention most?
• 50:29
  Speaker 9: Probably the Oklahoma state West Virginia game. I honestly don't
• 50:36
  Speaker 9: think Cincinnati, like Cincinnati, that they, that Miami of Ohio game,
• 50:40
  Speaker 9: like Wolf, that game was rough. They only won by
• 50:44
  Speaker 9: four in a game that I think they are favored
• 50:46
  Speaker 9: by like 14 in. I don't believe that Cincinnati is
• 50:51
  Speaker 9: going to win many games in conference. It feels like
• 50:56
  Speaker 9: a team that lost all of their identity from last year.
• 51:01
  Speaker 9: But again, that's just my projection based on three games.
• 51:04
  Speaker 9: I have the right to change that opinion once I
• 51:06
  Speaker 9: see them play against conference opponents. But that Oklahoma State
• 51:10
  Speaker 9: game versus West Virginia is something that I'm really intrigued about. Obviously,
• 51:13
  Speaker 9: Oklahoma State beat Oregon, but then lost to Tulsa yesterday.
• 51:17
  Speaker 9: And then you have West Virginia that came from behind
• 51:20
  Speaker 9: and beat Virginia. So I'm interested to see how those
• 51:23
  Speaker 9: two teams stack up. I still have questions about both
• 51:26
  Speaker 9: of them. Like I previously said, I think that it's
• 51:28
  Speaker 9: going to be interesting to see how they play against
• 51:31
  Speaker 9: each other. And if one of them has to be fraudulent,
• 51:34
  Speaker 9: in my opinion, and I just don't know which one
• 51:36
  Speaker 9: is right now. And so it's going to be interesting
• 51:38
  Speaker 9: to see how that game shakes out. The rest of
• 51:40
  Speaker 9: the conference late this week, it's kind of bleh. Not
• 51:43
  Speaker 9: going to lie. It's not the greatest.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: We have five ranked versus ranked games, I think it is,
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: on the overall slate this weekend. And so if you
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: look outside the confines of the conference, and it's Texas, Tennessee,
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: you've got Notre Dame's playing Purdue.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: That one doesn't count.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: Ole Miss, Florida, Iowa versus Michigan. Any of those games
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: really jumping out for you?
• 52:08
  Speaker 9: Ole Miss, Florida is kind of intriguing because I don't
• 52:13
  Speaker 9: know if... Florida is as good as I think they are. Like, again,
• 52:18
  Speaker 9: they played Auburn. They beat Auburn. It was a good game.
• 52:21
  Speaker 9: I just, I want to see how they stack up
• 52:24
  Speaker 9: versus a team that doesn't have a lot of, like...
• 52:27
  Speaker 9: another first, not another first year, like, well, Golding's a
• 52:30
  Speaker 9: first year head coach, but he maintained majority of his
• 52:32
  Speaker 9: roster kind of like Morgan did to a certain extent.
• 52:35
  Speaker 9: So I want to see how Ole Miss and Florida,
• 52:37
  Speaker 9: how that game goes. And then obviously like Iowa, Michigan
• 52:41
  Speaker 9: is also one that's kind of interesting because it feels
• 52:43
  Speaker 9: like it has the making of like a, like a true, like,
• 52:48
  Speaker 9: you know, those, like those Utah games where it would
• 52:50
  Speaker 9: be like 10 to 10 to nine or 10 to 13. Like,
• 52:53
  Speaker 9: it feels like it's going to be that direction and,
• 52:56
  Speaker 9: I don't have trust in either of those quarterbacks. I
• 53:00
  Speaker 9: just think it's going to be a low scoring game.
• 53:02
  Speaker 9: I'm interested to see how it plays out because I,
• 53:05
  Speaker 9: I still have a lot of questions about Michigan's offense
• 53:07
  Speaker 9: as well, but we'll have to see how that one
• 53:09
  Speaker 9: shakes out.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Sammy. I always appreciate your time and your insight.
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on a youth zone Wednesday.
• 53:17
  Speaker 9: Thanks, Sean. Thanks for having me.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: That's Sammy Mora. One of our great friends from youth zone.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: We catch up with her. Every other week. And it's
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: always great when she and Dan Sorensen give us their
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: time on these Ute Zone Wednesdays.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: You've heard me preaching the gospel of advanced windows for
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: a couple of years now on this show. And I
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: really don't know what else I need to tell you.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: 801-850-9100 for $ 2, 500 off windows. Ten windows or more. Look, also,
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: they've instituted a buy now, pay later thing where you
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: can get 60 months interest free and you can stack
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: that on top of the big discount. So it's not
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: like one offer cancels out the other offer. They want
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: you to get the discount and they also want you
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: to go 60 months interest free. Improve the energy efficiency
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: of your home, the beauty of your home. They'll do
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: window coverings for you. Ask them about doors as well.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: They've kind of quietly started carving out more of a
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: presence in the glass patio doors and the French doors.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: A big thing for me as a proud pet lover,
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: they have pet doors. They can put a pet door
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: into any door, even right in the middle of the
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: glass window. On your patio doors or your French doors.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: They know the business and they keep getting.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Better at it.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: Everyone else is trying to reduce costs for themselves, reduce
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: manufacturing costs, and you compromise on quality when you do that.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: We've sat down with Nate Orchard and Jake Weber and
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: we know... that they are constantly pushing their product to
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: be better. Even if it costs the business a little more,
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: what they're striving for is customer satisfaction and repeat customers.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: So you buy advanced windows, and they're good for the
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: life of your home, right? So they know you're not
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: going to get windows again from them, but you're going
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: to tell your daughter, you're going to tell your son,
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: you're going to tell your neighbor, you're going to tell
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: your mom, your dad, you're going to tell everybody at work. Man,
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: this experience was so great. They rely so much on
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: that and on the reputation of a business that has
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: decades of success, not only installing great windows that are
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: manufactured right here in Salt Lake City, but on taking
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: care of the customers and warranting those windows forever. When
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: you give them a call at 801-850-9100, tell them OC
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: sent you. Go to advancewindows.com. Make your home a better,
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: more energy efficient, more curb appeal home. higher resale value
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: type of place with brand new windows. All right, hour two,
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: we will have, what a treat, Steve Saunders, the director
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: of football sports performance at the University of Utah, the
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: new Utah strength coach. At long last, joins us next
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: on the Sean O'Connell Show. It's ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 56:14
  Speaker 5: You're listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: We are lucky enough to welcome in a guy I've
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: been wanting to talk to since he was promoted to
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: the director of football sports performance, Steve Saunders, kind enough
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: to give us a few minutes here on a Wednesday,
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: getting ready for big 12 play with the university of
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: Utah football team, coach Saunders.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: I'm doing great. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: So, uh, I'm not just gassing you up.
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: I've been wanting to talk to you for a very
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: long time, partially because we have a mutual friend who
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: speaks incredibly highly of you. Eric Weddle and I were
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: on the team together back in the day and have
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: maintained a good friendship.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: And he, I mean.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: you know, Eric, like I do, it's not easy to
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: impress that guy and you impressed him and continue to apparently.
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: And he, he was the first person when we heard
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: about you being promoted that I reached out to, because
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: I knew you guys had a relationship and he sang
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: your praises. And I just want to start this conversation
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: with a conversation about him and about your relationship with
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: a Utah football legend and a guy you met in
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: the NFL circles. And obviously he's part of what brought
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: you to the university of Utah. Just, you know, you
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: watched him like we did inducted into the ring of honor.
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: Tell me your experience with Eric Weddle.
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Eric's probably, you know, one of the best human
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: beings that I know is a father, a husband, a coach,
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: a player, just an incredible human being and incredibly disciplined
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: athlete who gives us all, whether he's playing, whether he's coaching, uh,
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: I really can talk for the next hour about Eric
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: and my thoughts on him. And, and as we all know,
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: Eric's an opinion, any guy, and he's not afraid to
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: share it for better or for worse. So I'm certainly
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: glad he had good things to say. And I'll say
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: from the beginning with the Ravens, this is a guy
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: who he came in and signs a free agent. And
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: literally we crossed paths for five minutes and I had
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: just started and I said to him and just, well,
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: what time are you flying out tomorrow? And it was
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: some fairly early flight. I want to say 9 00 AM.
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: And I was like, Hey, do you want to grab,
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: do you want to grab a workout before you go
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: fully expecting him to say, no, I'm going, I'm doing
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: whatever he didn't have the time. He looks at me
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: and goes, sure. Let's do it. What time? So, Hey,
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: I'm here at 5.00 AM. That guy from West coast
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: time just signed less than 24 hours ago is there
• 59:16
  Speaker 3: at 5.00 AM. We passed coach horrible on the parking lot.
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: And he goes, what the hell are you guys doing?
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: And I said, well, we're going in for a workout.
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: And that's day one with Eric. And that's how he
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: wants to be great. He wants to be better than
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: anybody else. And that just speaks to his work ethic
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: and what type of person he is.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: Now let's talk a little bit about you and about,
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: you know, your impact on this university of Utah football team,
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: everyone to a man that we talked to post-summer in camp,
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: offensive linemen, defensive backs, wide receivers, whether it was solicited
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: or not, everybody was mentioned, you know what, my body
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: feels great. I've put on good weight or I've taken
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: off bad weight or whatever it is. And, you know,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: you had to do a lot of work in a
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: short amount of time. And I'm sure that you've got
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: plans when, you know, you're a little bit more settled
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: in and you get an entire, you know, full season
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: than an off season program and things like that. But
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: just if you can give me your philosophy and the
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: work that you'd put in and in a relatively short
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: time to get this team ready for this season.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really, with the whole team, had eight weeks
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: in training camp, heading into training camp, then training camp
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: to get them ready. And I really looked at, I
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: wanted specificity and I wanted individualization. And these Utah football
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: players have always worked hard, and that's well known. But
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: I really looked at them and I wanted to stop
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: just having them lift weights, and I wanted to start
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: training them as football players by position, by individual structural needs.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: And really I'm so fortunate to Matt, the coach Scali's
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: vision matches up with mine and everything we do should
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: have a why behind it. Everything we do should transfer
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: the field. And although it was a content time and
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: we laid the foundation, we got the guys strong, explosive, fast,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: feeling great heading into training camp. And really it just
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: carried over from there. And we're still building, you know,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: we're going to keep building through the entire season. The
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: goal never changes. we want to be stronger and faster,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: more physical in January than we were in September. And,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: you know, this whole thing's just a process to me
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: and working with these kids who just the best kids ever.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: So a big narrative around Utah football in, in recent
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: years has been injuries, injury prevention. maybe a lack of
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: injury prevention. We don't know where, you know, the observer,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: the fan, it's just like, hey, what's going on? Why
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: are all these things happening? Some of it obviously has
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: to be bad luck, but how much of the injury
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: and injury prevention component shapes your program, your individual workouts,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: the specificity you're talking about by position group and by individual,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: because obviously a healthy football player and available football player
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: is the kind that you need.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't really know it. I don't know if
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: I ever used the term injury prevention. I mean, I
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 3: think we're trying to prepare the guys from the field
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: as best we can. I usually found that the newest
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: injury has a root in the oldest injury that really
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: wasn't rehabbed or taken care of as well as it
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: should have, or the athletes still compensating for it. So
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: I think that's a factor and you have to look
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: at that stuff and take it into account. And that's
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: where we get into the individualization of the program. But,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: you know, this is, you can't take injuries out of football.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, gosh, you look at the injury report for
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: the NFL or college on any, after any given weekend,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: and it's just a controlled car wrecks on every single play.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: So all we can do, these guys are race cars
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: and we're just trying to build them up, get them
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: as prepared as they can to just absorb the game
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: and the season. And I think a big part of that,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 3: those in-season workouts, you can never take your foot off
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: the gas. And I think it's, what stands out differently from,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: from my program here. And I think a lot of
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: other programs is just this mentality of this goal is
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: not changing. This isn't an end season maintenance stronger. We
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: are continuously getting better and you will be stronger and
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 3: faster in January than you are now. And, And that
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: evidence is itself every day. I mean, we had two
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: players last week that hit PRs in speed in practice
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: on the GPS system. So two guys, you know, say
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: Wayshawn Parker and Hunter Andrews, who ran faster in practice
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: than they ever had before, offseason, in-season, anything. And that's
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: pretty impressive. And that's really what we're working towards every day.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: Steve Saunders is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: the director of football sports performance, more commonly referred to
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: as the strength coach at the University of Utah. Obviously,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: you came from an NFL background. How much adjustment in there?
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: How different is it working with an 18-year-old body versus
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: a 32-year-old body like you did in the NFL?
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: How much do you have to change things?
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: And referring back to that specificity component, when some of
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: these guys are coming in with, you know, that great
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: Dane puppy body and you got to add 30, 40
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: pounds to them before they're ready to play.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: I imagine that's a challenge in and of itself.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: There are upsides and downsides to both. Certainly. I mean,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: you're getting, you know, you get a 32 year old
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: in the NFL. I mean, he already might've had quite
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 3: a few injuries, joint issues, things you're working around and
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 3: you have the same in college for the same time
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: you get a, a Kelvin Obot who comes in here
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: at 17 years old. And you're like, my God, this
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: kid's just a, a piece of clay. We can, we
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: can mold them, get them better. And, you know, Kelvin's
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 3: put on 20 plus pounds and just, you know, continuously
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: amazes me how he's getting stronger and better every single workout.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: So I think you have that aspect. And then you
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: have the mental aspect of these guys are hungry. And although,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 3: you know, they're, they're getting paid and it's a different
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: universe than it used to be. they're still young, hungry, driven.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: And it's, and it's fantastic to work with somebody who
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 3: comes to work like that every day in the NFL,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: you know, the guys can, you know, the belly can
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: get a little full sometimes. And I don't see that here.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: Every one of these kids to a T is just
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: working hard every day. And it's a pleasure to be with.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: How, how much data driven stuff is there in your program? Uh,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: It's been 20 years since I was in a college
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: football weight training program, and the weight rooms look different.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: The machines look different.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: Thank goodness people like me never had to put a
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: GPS on and learn how slow they actually were. But
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: everything now is plugged into a computer, and you spit
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: out all these formulas and things like that. You can
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: use that. in the media, we can use it. Or
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: you can just say, ah, the analytics don't mean anything.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: Where do you stand on? I guess the numbers game
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: and the analytical component of getting these guys stronger, more explosive,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: more prepared.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: Speaker 4 05,0 Yeah, everything, all that matters. I mean,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: you can be, you should be David data supported, but
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: it's culture driven. So the data you're just gathering that
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: and it's a little snapshots of what they're doing, where
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: they are, which way you're trending. And there's so much
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: to report, and we embrace all of that. But the
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: culture is of this working hard, getting better every day,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: this RSMB. It's just what we preach and what we
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 3: practice here. So they really go hand in hand. I mean,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: if you want to make yourself feel old, go get
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 3: a dex of body fat screening somewhere. which is basically
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 3: an x-ray machine for a fat that these kids have
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 3: to do today that you and I never had to do.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 3: And wow, there's nothing to hide on that thing. I
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: assure you nobody, no male over 41 set decks report.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: I assure you. Yeah.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: I'm going to, I'm going to steer clear of the
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: decks if you don't mind, coach, not something that's going
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: to flatter me at this point. This might, might be
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: a dumb question, but is there a, Is there a
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: lift that you're like, no, we don't do that? Is
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: there something where it's, you know, because again, these programs
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: have evolved so much. And, you know, even back in
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: the day, there were some coaches who were like, we're
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: not power cleaning anymore. That's an injury waiting to happen.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: I heard about coaches that didn't want you under a
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: heavy squat, things like that. Is there some, is there
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: a lift that maybe the, the layman is aware of?
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: And is that gold's gym, you know, pumping out that
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: you're like, that does not help a football player.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't really look at it like lifts. I mean,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 3: all of our programs change every three or four weeks.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: We're just wrapping up a program. We're changing strength programs
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: next week during the bi-week. And again, whatever lifts I'm
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: looking to put in a position or an individual's workout,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: there's a specific why behind it. And we break all
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 3: the guys into small groups. This isn't the whole team
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 3: doing the same thing. So everything, our strength coaches are
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 3: on top of the guy's form, the technique, what they're doing.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: So there's no lift that I'm afraid of as long
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: as it's done in the correct context and it's done
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: for the right person. You know, we certainly don't need,
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: in my opinion, our quarterbacks power cleaning or power snatching.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: There's other stuff they can be doing for rotational work,
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: for shoulder stability, for all those things that make them quarterback.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 3: So again, it's not this, you know, there's not bad lifts.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 3: There's bad coaches that give certain athletes lift, I guess,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: but there's nothing on wholesale against. I'll say that.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: How much does flexibility come into play in, in your program?
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: And just, I guess in general, that's, that's something that,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: you know, it was never a strength of some of
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: the myself or some of the guys I was around.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: And now you see even like these elite, elite, elite,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: big time, muscle bound athletes who seem to have a
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: ton of flexibility.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Is that a point of emphasis?
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 3: It's a point of emphasis in a different way. I
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: think flexibility is a bad word. I think flexibility, Guys
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: who are hyperflexible can end up being hurt in that
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: they can get themselves into ranges of motion that they're
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: not strong in. So what I like to say is
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: I don't want to have any mobility without stability. So
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 3: for us, we work on increasing ranges of motions by
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 3: increasing strength. it's not just stretching the crap out of something.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 3: So if I can only lift my arm so far
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 3: up over my head, my shoulder can control that range
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: of motion. I could hang on a power rack and
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: I could stretch the crap out of my shoulder, probably
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: get a couple more inches range of motion, but my
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: muscles aren't strong enough to control that range of motion.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: So that's probably a complicated answer to your question. So
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 3: we really work on getting strong and stable ranges of
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: motion for these guys. So for offensive lineman, we want
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: them to be able to sit deep and be able
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: to sit strong and have great hips. And, and Z
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 3: is a great example of that as a six foot eight,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 3: nine offensive lineman. We made a conscious effort to get
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 3: him stronger in a deep range of motion, to be
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 3: able to play offensive tackle better. And that's just one
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: example of how we believe in ranges of motion versus flexibility.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: As you're staying at the head of the curve, Coach,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: how much study is there with your job? I know
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: that you've got, obviously, your time with the team and
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: your analysis of the data that comes out of the
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: workouts and you're out there at practice and you're observing
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: and you're there on the sideline during the games. How
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: much of your individual work, your quiet time, is just
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: staying up with what's new and what's best in the field?
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 3: You have to. I think you have to have your
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 3: core foundation of what you do. And then I think
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: you have to throw stones at everything that you do.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 3: And I think it's a philosophy Coach Scali shares of,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 3: are we getting better? Are we doing everything that we
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 3: possibly could? And I think so. I spend a lot
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 3: of time looking at stuff and look at a filter of,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 3: is this just social media crap? Does this fit into
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: the context of a team? Does this fit into the
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 3: context of a person or a position? And you're saying, okay...
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 3: how can I make the program better? And that's a
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 3: constant process. I think guys that do the same thing
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: year after year think, Hey, I got a great program.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 3: I never need to change it. And that doesn't exist
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 3: for me. Although we had the guys this eight weeks,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: the summer, and for some of the guys earlier than that,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: they will never do the same program again with me.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: It is always an evolving thing.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: I want to make sure I phrase this correctly, but, um,
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: the attrition element, the just make it suck element to
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: a strength program. Is there, is there still a place
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: for that in college football, the mental fortitude training that
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: comes with, we used to have FUBAR Fridays and you
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: were just, you know, they were trying to make you
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: hurt and quit and feel the burn and understand that
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: your body has a different threshold and you can push
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: beyond it. I found value in those things. I was
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: not a Ferrari. I was not a Ducati. I was,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: you know, a plow horse. And so, like, it made
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: sense for me. I don't know if that still exists
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: or if that still has a place in a Utah
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: football program or any Utah football or any football program,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: I should say. And I'm really curious your thoughts on,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: you know, the making it hard for the sake of
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: it being hard and the guys being used to that.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: Is there still a place for it?
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I actually think everything should be hard. I think
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 3: there's an intensity to a lifting or running, you know,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: with the lifting, everything we do has a rep range
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: to it. And we're training to acceptable failure. If I
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 3: give the guy weight, I'd say it's six to eight.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: If he gets a, the max number, he has to
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: go up and wait for the next set. If he
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 3: doesn't get at least six, then we're going to drop
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 3: down slightly so we can fit within that rep range.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 3: And that's sort of our safety guide rails of lifting.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: So we are looking for acceptable failure on every single
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 3: set the guys do in the weight room. And there's
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 3: an intensity, there's a hardness, a toughness with that. And
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 3: the same goes for the run. The run may only
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 3: be six seconds. However, when a lineman has to push
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: 700 pounds for that six seconds and barely get to
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: the finish line or not get there or just get
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: across in that six seconds, it's exactly the effect you're
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 3: talking about except that it has a why. And every
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: single week we're building on the time, we're building on
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 3: the intensity, we're building on the endurance if that's what
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 3: we're working. So I think it's something you should be
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 3: striving for in everything that you do. However, I don't
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 3: think you beat guys just for the sake of beating them.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: And that's a difference between programs. To me, everything should
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: still have a why behind it.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: A couple more minutes here with Steve Saunders, the director
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: of football performance at, excuse me, football sports performance at
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: the University of Utah, the new strength coach. And so
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 2: now this team heads into the, big 12 play and you,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: you start to get, you know, into the meat of
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: the season. And obviously you've been through many of these
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: now at all levels of football. And I think you
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: may have already answered this question. You know, you're still
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: lifting hard. You're still improving performance and things like that.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: You're still getting these guys that go as fast. as
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 2: they have gone, how do you read and adjust based
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: on the bumps and the bruises that accumulate over a season?
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: How much, you know, do you just say, all right,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: lift through that injury or lift through that bump, that bruise?
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: And how much do you say, all right, now it's
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: time to rest. Is that more of that acceptable range
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: of failure thing you were just talking about?
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 5: It is.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 3: It's acceptable failure. And look, you're always working around that
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 3: stuff in football and we never just plow through an
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: exercise for the sake of an exercise. You know, if
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: a guy's got jacked up elbows, you're changing it from
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 3: one thing to something where you're getting a similar training effect,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: but it's much elbow friendlier for that. So we're training
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 3: around those aches and pains and things that they have
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 3: on a daily and weekly basis. And that's where not
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 3: using a cookie cutter approach and really the specificity and
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 3: the individualization that we're doing with these guys is it
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 3: makes a huge difference because you're going to be doing
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 3: that all season long, but no matter what, it's still,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 3: the goal is to have them improve and be better
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 3: at the end of the season and stronger and faster
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: than they were in the beginning, despite everything that they're
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 3: dealing with. And, you know, it's a long, long season.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: So you really, I think, you know, teams that don't
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 3: do that, you end up feeling weak and frail, you know,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 3: late October, November, and that's not going to be us.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you're aware every year in the preseason, our
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: friend Bruce Feldman puts out the freaks list in The
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: Athletic where he talks about the guys in college football
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: that are just the outliers from the outliers, the absolute
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: alien bodies that are capable of jumping and running and
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: lifting more than human beings are supposed to be able
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: to lift.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: Who are those guys in the Utah football program right now, Coach?
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, a freak's a whole different category to me.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's local Ray Lewis could have worked out
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 3: with a fly swatter for his entire career. And he
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 3: still would have been Ray Lewis, still a freak. And you,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: you certainly have those guys. You look at a Calais
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 3: Campbell is six, nine playing at 40 years old. And
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 3: while there's just so many guys like that, this is
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: different here. I mean, we get you're not getting a
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: lot of five-star guys, you know, that might be that
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: freak high school athlete. We're getting blue collar, mature, hardworking kids.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, if I had to pick one, I would
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 3: say Jackson Benny's one of the twitchiest guys I've ever seen.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 3: He's extremely fast twitch. Every NFL scout that sits in
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 3: my office, I'm like, this guy's going to blow your
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 3: doors off. And look, Jackson's, You know, he's still going
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: to put some weight on. He's still going to get stronger,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 3: still going to get faster. And you run into him
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: on the street, you're not going to be able to tell.
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 3: But this guy's just bobbled lightning waiting to bust out
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 3: at any second to me. And I would definitely put
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 3: him on my freak scale for that.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: And maybe a more important question than anything I've asked
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: you so far.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: You're not a state of Utah.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: Guy.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: This is not, you know, where you were raised, right?
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: This is not like, this is not the home homegrown
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: stuff here for you. How have you and the family,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: which I know is very important to you. How have
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: you and the family found Salt Lake city and integration
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: here into this kind of quirky culture of ours?
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's certainly not what I expected. I mean,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: I came out in January, I was expecting mountains and
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 3: snowfall and, you know, an occasional rain. And I was
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 3: lied to. Nobody told me I was moving to the desert.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, I haven't seen, I've seen less than an
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 3: inch of snow since I've been here and hardly any rain,
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 3: but it has been an amazing, I mean, for my wife,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 3: my kids, this whole area has you know, it's just
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: really just blown our doors off. And we are having
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 3: such a great time loving it. I have a young son.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 3: He's my offensive lineman. He's a monster in eighth grade
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 3: down in Corning Canyon playing for their youth team. And
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: he's just couldn't be more positive about the experience. And
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: really we just feel so blessed to be here. I
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 3: feel so blessed to be with, to fit the lottery
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 3: and somehow landed with coach Scali. And yeah, just the
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 3: human being that he is and the other people who
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 3: were here, it's, I really couldn't ask for anything more.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, part of the reason I asked that question
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: and I, and I asked it of Eric Weddle when,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: when you were announced as the new guy, I said, well,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: is this a place he can make his home or
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: is he going to take the first phone call he
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: gets from the NFL? And now you're replacing somebody again,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: does it feel like this could be a long-term home
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: for you?
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 9: Okay.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 3: I'd be very happy if this was my last job and, and,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 3: I was the one that implemented Coach Scali's vision for
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 3: this team and the players. We're winning playoff games. We're
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 3: winning the national championship. I would be very happy here
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 3: for the rest of my ride, whatever that is, with
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 3: the type of kids they're getting here and how they work,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 3: the respect that they have for the program and the work.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 3: There's not enough positive I can say about it.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 2: You're on the first road game. So the routine changes
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 2: a little bit, the sleep schedule, the hotel stuff. What
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: is your role in making sure the team is prepared
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: to roll out there and maybe a rainy game against
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 2: Iowa state?
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 3: You know what? We do our pregame stuff with the guys.
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 3: So we'll do some work on the guys the night
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 3: before the game, the morning and day of the game.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 3: I have a pregame routine that I've done with my
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 3: NFL guys, my private clients and with the team as well.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 3: They've done the last 20 years, just getting guys, the
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 3: nervous system ramped up, getting them ready to play. So
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 3: it's not enough just in the weight room. We want
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 3: to have an impact on game day as well. And
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 3: that's been so well received with the players. So it's
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 3: a look, my biggest concern on Saturday is where to
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 3: do this to the guys. I understand our locker room
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 3: is pretty small. We might have to be in the
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 3: field or in the hallway or somewhere doing whatever we
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 3: do to get these guys ready. So we just sort
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 3: of have to figure it out once we get to Ames, Iowa,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 3: I guess.
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 2: Coach, I wish you luck in this game and obviously
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 2: throughout the rest of the season. I hope we get
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 2: a chance to chat again soon, but I cannot tell
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 2: you how much I appreciate you coming on, giving us
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: so much time. I've been wanting to have this conversation
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 2: for weeks and weeks and weeks.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you for jumping on.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me. Really appreciate it.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: That is Steve Saunders, the director of football sports performance,
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: the strength coach for Morgan Scali and your Utes daily
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 2: dump is coming next. It's the Sean O'Connell show on ESPN,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 2: 700 and 92 on FM.
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: Feeling out of the loop?
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 5: Let's catch up on today's biggest headlines in the Daily
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 5: News Dump, where we flush out the biggest stories of
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 5: the day on the Sean O'Connell Show and Utah's number
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 5: one sports talk, ESPN 792.1 FM. Brought to you by
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 5: Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Just look for the truck
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• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: The truck with the duck can handle all of your plumbing, heating,
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  Speaker 2: and cooling needs. This time of year, you need heating
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  Speaker 2: and cooling potentially in the same day. So make sure
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  Speaker 2: your furnace is running properly. Your air conditioner is tuned
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  Speaker 2: and Cooling. All right, we're getting professional football in the
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 2: state of Utah. That's great news. The downside is you've
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: got to wait until 2028 as part of the UFL expansion.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: We'll increase the size of the league. bring a team
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: here to salt Lake city. Actually, there'll be playing in Sandy.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: As James has mentioned in his updates, it'll be a
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 2: 10 team league by 2028. So Colorado's getting a franchise
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: and road Island is getting a franchise in 2027. They
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 2: got Oklahoma city joining Utah.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty eight.
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 2: So four new teams going to go from six to
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: ten teams in a couple of years here.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: Rhode Island.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: I wonder how many professional sports franchises have ever existed.
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 2: I can tell you there's at least two. OK, so
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: there's the USL team, right? They have a soccer team. Yeah,
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 2: that place that replaced the Pawtucket Red Sox, who are
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 2: now in Worcester, Massachusetts.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: So there's at least those two.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 2: Rhode Island FC is, for anyone like me, fan of
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 2: Pablo Torre finds out, that was kind of a side
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 2: investigation that didn't end up having anything to do with
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: salary cap circumvention with Kawhi Leonard, but might have had
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 2: something to do with that. So that's, the RIFC is
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: the one they have now, the USLT. Okay, so Rhode
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: Island currently has two active professional sports teams, the Providence
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: Bruins in the AHL, so hockey, and the Rhode Island
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 2: FC USL Champions League. Then they just announced, of course,
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 2: that the UFL will be putting a team there as well.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: Smallest state in the union.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: But effectively, it's Boston adjacent. So it's not like Rhode
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 2: Island doesn't have stuff. One of the people from Jersey
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: Shore is actually from Rhode Island, if I'm not mistaken.
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: How about this for a pro sports history in Rhode Island?
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: From 1878 to 1885, they had the Providence Grays as
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 2: a professional baseball team. They won the 1884 World Series.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: Shout out.
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 2: The Providence steamroller from 1925 to 1931 won the 1928
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: NFL championship Providence steamroller NFL champions obviously predated the super
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 2: bowl era by about 30 years, but 1925 to 1931,
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 2: Rhode Island had an NFL team. So they, so they
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 2: have a world series before the modern world series. And
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: they have an NFL championship pre-Super Bowl era. I mean,
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 2: I don't know how many states can, especially that small,
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 2: can claim that. Like, that's pretty good sports history. In 1988,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 2: they had one season of the New England Steamrollers playing
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 2: football in the AFL, like the old arena football league.
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: They only played one season. And you already mentioned the
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: Pawtucket Red Sox team. Also, the Providence Reds were a
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: minor league hockey team. All right, Rhode Island getting another
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 2: pro sports franchise. You'll love to see it. But more importantly,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 2: Utah will have another one. James recorded some of the
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 2: press conference for you. We'll play that, I think, a
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 2: little bit later, not here in the Daily Dump. But
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 2: it's another opportunity for the budget-friendly sports experience, pro sports experience.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: It's similar.
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 2: To, you know, like a minor league baseball game. In
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 2: a lot of cases, these UFL games, they, and it's
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 2: in the spring. So it's not going to interfere with
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 2: your BYU or Utah football watching.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: It's going to be the.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 2: UFL February to like, not that it would anyway, because
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 2: you're not going to watch UFL over any of the
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 2: major sports products. So that's why they put their, their
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 2: season where they put their season. But you know, this
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 2: is potentially a good opportunity for the tweener type player, the,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 2: the individual that exits college football and wants.
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: To pursue some professional opportunities.
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I'm really curious to see how long the UFL
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 2: can sustain itself for multiple reasons, because we have not
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 2: yet had like a developmental professional league in football stick.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 2: The developmental professional league in football is college football. And
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 2: now it truly is a professional developmental league. The tough
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 2: thing for me, like the UFL, not only ticket sales
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: and broadcast partnerships and things like that, making sure that
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: they produce enough revenue. I think that the UFL is
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 2: going to have a hard time maintaining consistent rosters because
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 2: the league minimum in the UFL is $ 64, 000 for a
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 2: 10 game season. And I'm sure by 2028, when Utah
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 2: has a team, it'll be slightly higher than that. You
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 2: got to believe that most people that are trying to
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 2: make these rosters are borderline NFL guys. And if you're
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 2: a borderline NFL guy, you're going to have come out
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 2: of college football, in most cases, making more for your
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 2: college football team than you're going to make for your
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 2: UFL team.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: That's going to be a tough sell.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 2: That's going to be a hard thing for these UFL
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 2: teams to get these guys.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: To want to keep playing.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 3: Because.
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: There was a time when everyone played for free. And
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 2: then there was a time when everyone played for scholarships.
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 2: And then there was a time where everyone played for
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 2: scholarships and money. And if you're just getting, you know,
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 2: 20% of what you got in college, you're going to
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 2: have to figure out how much you love the game
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 2: and how much you as a 24, 25, 26, 27
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: year old want to keep pursuing football or you want to,
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 2: move on with your life and try to achieve some,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 2: say some sort of gainful employment that allows you to
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: earn more than that. By the way, a 10 game season,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 2: 10 weeks for, you know, 60, 70, 80 grand. That's
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 2: not a bad pay rate by any stretch of the imagination.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 2: It just probably precludes you from having a regular job.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 2: So we've got, you know, another college level or high
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 2: college level player opportunity here where the guys like the
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 2: Bryson Barnes's of the world, hopefully don't have to go
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 2: to Canada and can come play. And somebody like that's
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 2: probably an excellent candidate because somebody like that doesn't have
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 2: to take a league minimum. If he's playing for a
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 2: Utah franchise, he could probably negotiate for a little bit better.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 2: So kind of cool with it being a spring league
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 2: to talking about the UFL. If Bryson Barnes, for example,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 2: still under contracts, if, if the contract allows him to
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 2: play different time of the year too, of course he could,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 2: he could do both. He could play spring football here,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 2: possibly play in the fall in the CFL. Many players, uh,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 2: Many UFL players have played both the UFL season and
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 2: the NFL season in the same calendar year.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: That's obviously a lot of wear and tear on your.
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 2: Body, but it allows you, with it being in the spring,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 2: it allows these players to continue to pursue other opportunities
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 2: in the fall and get to showcase their skills earlier
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 2: in the year in the spring. So maybe we'll see
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of that former Utes, former Cougs, former Aggies
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 2: players and others continue.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Weber State, of course. What's that?
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 2: Utah's Weber State South now? That's what David Hale told
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 2: us earlier on in the show, yeah. Those kind of
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 2: players have an opportunity to stay in state and possibly
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 2: continue their aspirations to play pro football in the fall,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 2: whether it's up in Canada or NFL. I'm looking up
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 2: the highest paid CFL players of this current season. Seeing
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 2: if we can find our guy Bryson Barnes on the list.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 2: The league minimum in the Canadian Football League is $ 70, 000
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 2: per season.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: Do we have to convert it from Canadian currency?
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is Canadian dollars, which means that it's about
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 2: $ 86 US dollars, if I'm not mistaken.
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: Let's see here. It's like yen. It sounds like a lot,
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: but it's really not in America.
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 2: It doesn't look like Bryson Barnes is on the list
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 2: of the top paid players in the league, but the
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: highest paid guys in the, in the league are making
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 2: decent money. If you can, if you can climb your
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 2: way to the top of the salary pool in Canadian football,
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: let's see. Nathan Rourke of the BC lions is making
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 2: 685 grand. So let's see how it breaks down. $ 275, 000
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 2: base salary, $ 210, 000 off-season roster bonus, $ 160, 000 in marketing, $ 14, 700
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 2: in housing, and a $ 10, 000 training allowance. That's Nathan Rourke
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 2: of the BC Lions. Chad Kelly of the Toronto Argonauts
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 2: is just underneath that.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: So, all right, you know what?
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 2: You can make a super solid living, especially being a
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 2: big star player in Canada. Well, hopefully the UFL can
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 2: get to that level. I don't know that we... ever
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: see it up in quite that stratosphere. But what you
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 2: would like to see is those players making enough money
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 2: to where they can have that be a, I won't
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 2: say primary job because it doesn't take up enough of
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 2: your year, but, but enough of a job that you
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 2: can prioritize it over joining the general workforce, right?
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: Because a lot of these guys right now, right?
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 2: Well, Probably a lot of these guys now they have
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 2: to make a choice between like, do I want to
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 2: go work and, you know, be a pharmaceutical salesman or
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 2: an insurance guy or whatever, where I can cap my
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 2: earnings at, you know, like something pretty healthy. Or do
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 2: I keep chasing this dream for less than a hundred grand? That's,
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: that's a tough sell. But I applaud the UFL for
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 2: expansion and trying to carve out another niche here in
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 2: the state of Utah. A new NFL rule that is
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 2: in response to technology. There's now a new NFL rule
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 2: about what can or cannot be shown on stadium video
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 2: boards during field goals and extra points. This comes from
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 2: a response to a social media post where if you
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 2: put up the all 22 angle, like the big, this
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 2: is what we're watching for film study. angle of, of
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 2: a football game, you put up the all 22 angle.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: Of course, there's goalposts that appear in that, right?
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 2: And if you change that angle and that's, what's on
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 2: the big screen behind the actual goalposts, now you're able
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 2: to create an optical illusion for kickers where they see
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 2: the real goalposts, but then those are kind of superimposed
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 2: over digital goalposts in the background. So one of the
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 2: uprights is in the middle of It looks like it's
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 2: right in the middle of the actual uprights. And you can,
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 2: you can change the angle on the camera or the
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 2: sky camera, whatever to make it. So it's like, okay,
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 2: well the real uprights are here. And now instead of
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 2: being in the middle, it's kind of off to one side,
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 2: or you could do the second set of uprights, kind.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: Of small inside of the major uprights.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 2: So anyway, whatever obviously can use various activity that the
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 2: stadium video board operators were trying to engage in and
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 2: being clever about, icing a kicker visually, hazing a kicker visually,
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 2: the NFL is nipping this in the bud. And you
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 2: can no longer create optical illusions on PATs and on
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 2: field goals. If you want to do something on the screen,
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 2: it has to be a static image, which someone is
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 2: going to figure out how to do a static image
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 2: of just like repeating goalposts.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: Or something like that. It's also.
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 2: This is in response to something that they've done at
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 2: Gillette Stadium.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: Surprise, surprise.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 2: Bill Belichick's no longer there, but I'm sure they did
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 2: this during Bill Belichick's era to try to confuse opposing kickers.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 2: And they only showed this reverse. It was a reverse
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 2: angle of the all 22. They only did this during
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 2: times when opposing kickers were kicking extra points or field goals.
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: Surprise, surprise.
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 2: They did not have this same angle. on the video
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 2: board if they have a video board on the other
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 2: end of the stadium when the Pats were kicking field goals.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 2: So this rule is saying you've got to have the
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 2: same All-22 video or a static image on the board
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 2: for both teams that are kicking. You can't have different
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 2: things depending on which team is kicking, which just sounds
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 2: like a no-brainer.
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 2: Colorado stays in the headlines even when nothing interesting is
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 2: happening with Colorado. This is the Deion Sanders effect that
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 2: has not worn off completely as of yet in college football.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 2: The University of Colorado went viral because somebody filmed their
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 2: players standing and preparing to run out onto the field
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 2: of contest for their Nebraska, not Nebraska, Northwestern game. And
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 2: the player in question who I think was a safety
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 2: on the team was firing himself up, firing his teammates
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 2: up and being like, Oh.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: It sounds like a library in here. There's a little stadium.
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: This place sucks. You know, insulting.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 2: The, the home field of the mighty Northwestern wildcats. And
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 2: for some reason, the internet decided they wanted to pretend
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 2: to care about this. Like, Oh, this kid, how dare
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 2: he say something before a football game? That's unkind to
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 2: the other fans in the building that they're cheering in,
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 2: which again, this is a Colorado thing. Very stupid for
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 2: people to film it and post it and act like
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 2: it's something we should Right.
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 3: I'm sure.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 2: There have been many instances where Utes walked out into,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 2: you know, a stadium in Laramie. I know this to
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 2: be a fact. Oh, this place sucks because it does, right?
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 2: There's plenty of times when you're playing at a spot
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 2: and you're just like, man, this place is terrible. This,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: this stadium is awful and that's fine. You can say
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 2: that as a visiting player. Now, um, you know, whatever
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 2: the fans wanted to dunk on the Colorado players for
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 2: saying that, and then going out and getting demolished 41
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 2: to seven against Northwestern.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: All right, whatever. If it makes you feel good, I
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: don't care. Post game.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 2: There were players walking back into the locker room, walking
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 2: back off of the field in the tunnel, Colorado players.
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 2: And again, people pay extra close attention because the Dion
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 2: Sanders postgame, One of the side effects of the Deion
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 2: Sanders phenomenon at the University of Colorado, his brazenness, his
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 2: brash manner of speaking, it draws attention to the type
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 2: of player he's recruited, the type of player he has
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 2: in his program, to the behavior of those people. Obviously,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 2: his own kids having weird run-ins with the law and
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 2: run-ins with... Media and things like that have made it
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 2: so people put a microscope and magnifying glass on the
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 2: way that Colorado players act pregame, postgame, etc. Postgame, after
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 2: a 41-point drubbing by Northwestern, there were guys laughing their
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 2: way back into the locker room. And no coach likes
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 2: to see that. There's a lot of teammates that are
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 2: going to be upset about that. The game had been
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 2: decided about Thursday. an hour earlier. So I'm sure these
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 2: guys had already processed the negative emotions of getting there.
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: You know, what's kicked in Illinois.
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day there, it's a
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 2: bad look to be giggling your way off a field.
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 2: When your team just got smashed again, it is not unique.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 2: This is not something that we have yet to see
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 2: in college football, right? Like coaches want a certain amount
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 2: of decorum in whatever situation and Dion is probably lowest
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 2: on the ladder among people who care about things like decorum,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 2: but I digress. A lot of Colorado fans were up
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 2: in arms about that. The coaching staff was up in
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 2: arms about that. Apparently Dion was up in arms about that.
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 2: And he didn't specify if these things were related or not,
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 2: but there was a situation, a confrontation, a little.
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, don't be laughing. What are you laughing about? Kind
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: of a situation.
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 2: And he made the announcement that three guys have been
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 2: removed from the Colorado football team.
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: I won't say mid season.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 2: So we're not to the middle of the season yet,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 2: but in season, he's kicked off three players from the team.
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: Didn't specify the names. We'll find that out.
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 2: I assume this week when, you know, you look at
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 2: the roster and you look at the sideline and you
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 2: see who's there and who's not playing for Colorado. And
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 2: he mentioned in the press conference also that, you know what,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 2: we'll see what happens.
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: It's three now.
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if we wake up tomorrow and
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 2: it's two, meaning he's kind of left the door open
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 2: for a return. And it's a headline again, because it
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 2: is Deion Sanders. if he kicked these guys off the
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 2: team because they were giggling or because he called it
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 2: conduct detrimental to the team, that was the reason that
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 2: these players were separated from the team. We don't know
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 2: what rules violation was committed. We don't know if it
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 2: was exactly this. We don't know if it's guys talking
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 2: smack to a pony opposing fans that got them kicked
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 2: off the team.
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: I don't care. I continue to be fascinated by the idea.
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 2: That Deion Sanders and every action, every decision he makes
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 2: as a coach is headline worthy for people around the
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 2: college football world. Do we actually like ask yourself, do
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 2: you actually have any kind of concern or care over what,
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 2: unless it's their starting quarterback and their two best skill players,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 2: do you really care about which players are, being kicked
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 2: off the Colorado football team? The answer is almost certainly no.
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 2: They've got a game against Baylor this week and it's
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 2: a two in one team. They beat Weber state. They
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 2: beat Georgia tech. They got smashed by Northwestern. They've got
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 2: a tough slate coming up Baylor on the road, Texas
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 2: tech and Utah back-to-back weeks at home. Then on the
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 2: road at Oklahoma state, then they come back home to
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 2: Boulder and take on Kansas state. That is an unfriendly
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 2: October game. for this Colorado football team. And Dion Sanders
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 2: has dismissed players for detrimental conduct. Other players on the
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 2: team said, look, it sucks, but if it's what it
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 2: takes for us to win, then you got to understand it.
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 2: Coach prime stays in the headlines and we'll get further
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 2: explanation and more reasoning and more details about which players
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 2: have been removed and for what, but it's just something
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 2: that if Morgan Scali kicked off three players on the
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 2: team at this juncture of the season. It's only on
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 2: the front page of ESPN's college football coverage. If it's
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 2: Devin Dampier, Braden Pagan, and Jackson Benny, if it's, I mean,
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 2: I guess if it was any starters, it might be newsworthy,
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 2: but this is just fascinating to me that a guy
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 2: trying to sort of, you know, police his own roster is.
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: Is being, I won't say nitpick. He's being.
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 2: Maybe even criticizes the wrong word. He's being brought into
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 2: focus again.
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: He's getting the spotlight for it.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 2: And the, I mean, there were a bunch of Colorado
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 2: fans are like, Hey, it's time to fire him. What, what,
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 2: what if, what if, what if getting rid of these
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 2: players is the right thing to do? What if the
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 2: conduct detrimental to the team is, is something very serious.
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 2: What if it's an issue that we don't actually know about,
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 2: and this is actually the right decision for Deion Sanders?
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not here to cape for him all the time,
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 2: but he's a character.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: He's an interesting one. Maybe this is the right thing
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: for Colorado football.
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 2: Sometimes there is addition by subtraction on college football rosters,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 2: on professional football rosters, on basketball, baseball, whatever, hockey rosters, everything.
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: What if this is the right move?
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 2: And what if he's just sending a message to these
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 2: guys like, Hey, that's bad.
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: And they're going to be brought back.
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 2: Eventually the reaction to this has been really fascinating to me.
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 2: If it's meaningful players, we will get, I looked it
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 2: up today. I couldn't find if it's guys who have stats,
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 2: if it's guys who like even the Colorado insiders seem
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 2: to be a little bit at a loss as to
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 2: which players.
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: This affects, right?
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, just an example, it's not players, but you
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 2: had a couple of guys involved in North Carolina football
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 2: that were just removed, and the reports are that's been
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 2: nothing but positive for the program. Now, we haven't seen
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 2: enough of a sample size to see if it's going
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 2: to be positive as far as wins and losses go,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 2: but that's defensive coordinator, son of Bill Belichick, Steve Belichick.
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 2: He's been... He's been dismissed from the team, resigned. Mike Lombardi,
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 2: the former GM, he's gone. And they're saying that it's
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 2: actually a lot better feeling in the facility around the program,
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 2: and this has been a positive thing in that regard.
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 2: Those were much serious things than what maybe these players
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 2: were dismissed for. Colorado, we don't know. But still, you
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 2: talk about addition by subtraction. being a real thing. We
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 2: have a tangible example of it already in college football
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 2: this year from.
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: This week or from last week. Yes, James, it's a
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: great point.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 2: And I don't know, like I said, far be it
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 2: for me to defend everything that Deon Sanders says or does.
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 2: But one thing that you have to do as a
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 2: college football fan is you got to let coaches live
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 2: or die by their own sort. They, you have, they
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 2: have to be allowed to do things their way. And
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 2: then to deal with the consequences of that.
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: If it comes out that the three.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 2: Players dismissed are the most productive players on Colorado's roster,
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 2: he's going to end up fired over this. If it
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 2: turns out that these guys were distractions and idiots and maybe.
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: Pick fights with players, maybe like roster.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 2: Texas, TCU dismissed a player who punched his teammate in
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 2: the locker room.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: Another great example.
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 2: This was maybe that was the right thing to do.
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 2: No one's, no one's writing headlines about whether or not
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 2: that was the right decision that happened in August.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: By the way, By the way, I was.
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 2: Wondering if that was the right decision to make because
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 2: we didn't know how severe the injury in the assault was.
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: Anyway, that was pretty crazy stuff.
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 2: So, Dion, it's got to be exhausting and also interesting
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 2: to have everything you do be picked apart and microanalyzed
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 2: the way that it is. I'm on the college football
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 2: Reddit for the University of Colorado right now, and they
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 2: don't even know what players these are.
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: I promise you this.
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 2: If it were the best players, if it were the
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 2: biggest players, if it were the most important players on
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 2: this roster, the names would be out there.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: We'd know. Yeah. And here's a little rumor mill stuff.
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: I love message boards for this. There are rumors.
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 2: A few players were seen at the liquor store the
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 2: night before the Weber state game. Not surprised that came
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 2: to this guys. If you think Dion Sanders is kicking
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 2: a good player off a team because they went to
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 2: a liquor store the night before Weber state, you are
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 2: outside of your mind. Now, That's not ideal conduct. That's
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 2: certainly conduct detrimental to the team, but in the grand
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 2: scheme of college football team mistakes, it is pretty far
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 2: down the list of things that could get you kicked off.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: A college kid went to a liquor store. I mean, that's.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately like I, we had road trips. where guys, right,
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 2: you get paired up, you have a roommate on the road, right?
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 2: You're hiding stuff for teammates. You're making sure that during
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 2: bed check, coaches don't know that that guy's drunk in
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 2: the bathroom, right?
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: Like, this is part of college football.
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 2: It's a gross part of college football.
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: It's an unfortunate part of college football. But it's not the.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 2: Reason that Deion Sanders, who was a pretty darn good
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 2: college football player himself and then spent a lot of
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 2: years in the NFL where guys weren't exactly Boy Scouts,
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 2: It's not what we're talking about here.
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 2: Anyway, uh, Dion might say Dern good, by the way,
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 2: Dern good college. He was a Dern good college football player.
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 2: We do like the way that he talks. I mean,
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 2: let me ask anyone who, anyone who doesn't think that
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 2: the addition by subtraction thing might work for Colorado. Like,
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, did we think that when you're watching, remember,
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 2: remember the Titans when they kicked off a player? I mean,
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 2: that ended up being incredible thing by the captain, the Duke,
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 2: Gary Bertier.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: All right. So, left side, strong side. Yeah.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 2: Our injury updates on the Sean O'Connell show are brought
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 2: to you by the advocates injury returning attorneys. If you've
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 2: been injured in an accident, an auto accident, a biking accident,
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 2: a slip and fall accident. Hey, how the heck did
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 2: that even happen to me? Type of accident. You might
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 2: have a case. Call the advocates, 801-355-5550. They've been working
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 2: with and sometimes against insurance companies to make sure that
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 2: you get the compensation you deserve. You did not deserve
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 2: to get hurt, but you do deserve an advocate.
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: 801-355-5550.
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 2: This is a results-based company, meaning you do not pay
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 2: up front. You pay if they win the case for you.
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 2: That is the sole purpose and the sole focus of
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 2: the advocates. utahadvocates.com, 801-355-5550. You deserve an advocate. Hour three next,
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 2: it's the Sean O'Connell Show on ESPN 700.
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 5: This is the Sean O'Connell Show, your home of the
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 5: best inside of your Utes. Let's get back to OC
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 5: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 2: Little would you rather for you here on the Sean
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 2: O'Connell show.
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: Welcome to our number three.
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 2: Would you rather have an incredible Monday night football performance
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 2: where you score multiple touchdowns? You got, I don't know,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 2: a couple, almost a couple hundred yards receiving and Or
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 2: would you rather have an unlimited Taco Bell for life?
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: Purple card. Oh, Devante Adams. Would you rather Devante Adams? He's,
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's got both.
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 2: He doesn't need, he doesn't have to do the, would
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 2: you rather he actually doesn't need the card? Cause he's
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 2: got a Taco Bell in his living room, right?
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: According to the commercial.
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 2: Uh, he's got apparently Devante Adams has a Taco Bell,
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 2: purple card that gives him unlimited Taco Bell for life.
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: Are you a big Taco Bell fan? No, I am
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: a Del Taco loyalist.
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: I actually. I like Taco Bell fine.
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Taco Bell if you want to sponsor
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 2: the show. I have not eaten Taco Bell in probably
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 2: a decade.
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: And you will change loyalties if they put their name
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: on the show.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 3: 100%.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. You can be bought.
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 2: So the last time I had Taco Bell is when
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 2: they very, very, very first launched the Doritos Locos.
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: You tried one. So I was like, oh, man. I
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: got to try one of those. And I was disappointed.
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: It was okay.
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 2: And then I was like, nevermind. I don't need to
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 2: eat this ever again. And I went back to my
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 2: Del Taco loyalty.
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 2: So if Del Taco wants to eat further, cement your loyalty,
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 2: you can, you can become a sponsor of the show too.
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 2: And then you will never say a good thing about
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 2: Taco Bell ever again. By the way, you want a
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 2: little life hack, wink, wink, order a cheeseburger at Del Taco.
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: Blow your mind.
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: They're good. I haven't tried. Anyway. Uh, if you were
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: going to get, an.
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 2: Unlimited card for any fast food outlet, what would you
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 2: decide to go with? It ain't Taco Bell. Yeah, I
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 2: wouldn't go with Taco Bell. I like it fine, but
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't... That's not what I would choose. I'd have
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 2: to think on that.
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: I would go... Not for my... Because I'm an altruist, okay?
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 2: Because I'm such a generous person.
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: Which I'm not. But because....
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 2: If I had my own druthers on eating that much
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 2: fast food, it would be very, very, very bad for me.
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: Instead, I would go with.
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 2: Chick-fil-A because it would save me $ 4, 000 a year.
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: Cause I could just give it to my wife and
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: be like, there you go.
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 2: Cause it's your wife's favorite. My wife and my kids
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 2: love Chick-fil-A. I, I like it. I'm neither here nor there.
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 2: I could take it or leave it. It's like if
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 2: that's what you got, that's what you got. Occasionally, I
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 2: get sucked into the new menu items. I think right
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 2: now they have that chicken waffle sandwich that I want
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 2: to try. Is it a breakfast item? I don't know
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 2: if it's a breakfast item or if it's always on
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 2: the menu.
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 3: 877-353-0700.
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: But Chick-fil-A would be my go-to because.
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: Because the family loves it. Because the family loves it.
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 2: And if I have unlimited Del Taco in my pocket
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 2: every day, you guys are going to watch on the
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 2: YouTube as I gradually balloon up to 400 pounds.
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: I might go In-N-Out. Okay. Or Wingstop. Those have been
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: kind of my favorites recently.
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 2: 10 13 on the text line says as someone in
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 2: a taco bell parking lot, eating lunch, give me that
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 2: purple card.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: You got to go get it from Davante Adams. Apparently
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: there's only two.
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 2: How about this facilities manager for all Utah and Dell
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 2: tacos and in Mesquite, send me info for being a sponsor.
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 2: Let me know what I can swing by. Let's go.
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 2: All right, Josh, we're going to, we're going to, Give
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 2: your info to our sales team.
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 2: No, I'm going to, I'm not going to give it
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 2: to the sales team. I'm going to, you're just going
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 2: to get the car. I'm going to handle this one directly.
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: Okay. Give OC the commission commission. Let's go.
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 2: The Sean O'Connell show brought to you by Utah and
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 2: Mesquite del tacos has a.
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: Ring to it. You know what I mean? Shout out
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: to Mesquite chicken, soft tacos, a revelation. Incredible. My mom, mom,
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: My mom grew up in Mesquite. Grandma still lives there. Okay.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: Shout out to the Bulldogs, Virgin Valley High School. You
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: know what? Mesquite, underrated. It's a good spot. It's a
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: great spot. Mesquite is awesome.
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 2: I once stayed in Mesquite when I had a fight
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 2: in St.
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 3: George.
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah? Third professional fight of my career. Virgin River?
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 2: And we found out the hard way why the low-level
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 2: promoter got the great group rate.
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 2: At the hotel because the air conditioning wasn't working.
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: Summertime? It was like springtime. Okay, but still really hot.
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: It was hot.
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 2: It was like May, and it was just like, oh, no.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 2: So May in southern Utah, Mesquite, Vegas, that whole area
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 2: is like summertime here as far as temperature goes. Especially
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 2: probably back then when you were fighting. It was probably
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 2: even hotter back then. But hotter in May than it
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 2: is now. Yeah, that's... Where'd you stay?
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 3: Do you remember?
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: I think it was the... Virgin River? Was it the
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: Virgin River? I believe. I don't know. Shout out to Mosquito.
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 2: And shout out to anyone who's sitting in a Del
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 2: Taco parking lot right there.
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 3: Wanting.
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 2: He's in the Taco Bell parking lot. He wants that
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 2: purple card. 1013 says, I'm with OC, though. The Double
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 2: Del Cheeseburger is amazing. It's like, if you go to
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 2: a pizza spot... and they end up having incredible wings.
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: You're like, wow. Okay.
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 2: I have just, I have gained a great victory for
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 2: humanity here by having excellent pizza and awesome wings. That's
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 2: what Del Taco does for you with their cheeseburgers. So
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 2: congratulations to Del Taco. And congratulations to all these companies
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 2: that are getting free advertising on the Sean O'Connell show today.
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: It's fine. It's fine. All right. This is, this is
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: news coming out of Oklahoma. and this bothers me. Okay.
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 2: As a former scout team player, I'm going to, we're
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 2: going to have to call my guy, Adam Rittenberg, because
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 2: the report is that Oklahoma, they've got a star defensive tackle.
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 2: The former number four recruit in the country is named
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 2: David stone and he injured his knee at practice. The
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 2: reason I'm even bringing this up, cause you don't care
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 2: about Oklahoma stuff. The report says David stone injured in
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 2: collision with Oklahoma scout team player.
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Oh,
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: this is personal for you now.
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: Okay. Say David stone injured at practice. Never. Do you
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: get any kind of specific report?
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 2: On who hit who, when an injury happened to practice it,
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 2: you don't get it. Maybe in the NFL, you get
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 2: it in college football. So-and-so got hurt in practice, injured
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 2: on a tackle in practice. They don't say, they don't
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 2: say bear Bachmeier was hurt when Isaiah Glasker tackled him
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 2: at practice so that everyone's got to decide whether they're
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 2: mad at Isaiah Glasker. This is just Adam Rittenberg. What
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 2: have you done this? You've effectively docs this poor scout
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 2: team player. Now everyone at Oklahoma is just like, who's
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 2: the loser scout teamer that ran into David stone, our
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 2: Herculean hero that we don't even need. We don't even
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 2: need a scout team player. I could be a scout
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 2: team player.
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right. This is mad about this.
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 2: Don't do that to the scout teamers. By the way,
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I've even... Maybe there's been. Maybe
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not thinking. Maybe I can't think of it. I
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 2: don't know if I've heard of an NFL injury in
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 2: practice being reported that a practice squad player did this.
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 2: Even at the NFL level.
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 3: So, yeah.
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: This is unusual. And I can tell you're really mad
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I am.
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: Now, there might be... There might be.
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 2: some justification here because apparently the injury happened during what
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 2: is called by Oklahoma, a jog through, which means it
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 2: was a walkthrough practice, which often is the case on Mondays.
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 2: They're reporting that this happened at a Monday practice. Monday
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 2: practices are usually helmets, right? And then you get into
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 2: things again from a more physical standpoint on Tuesdays and
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 2: Wednesdays and starts to taper off again on Thursdays. So
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 2: there is a possibility that we have a scout team
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 2: hero situation on our hands. A guy going a little
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 2: bit too hard and an important starter for a team
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 2: potentially catching a stray, but that is still no reason
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 2: to have some poor, like 19 year old kid dragged
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 2: across the bow of every Sooners fan. Probably his, his
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 2: dreams is pro have probably already been dashed is like,
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 2: he thought coming in, he's like, I'm going to, I'm
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 2: going to be a college football player.
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: Maybe already been dashed. Like, Hey, you're never actually going
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: to play.
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 2: And so now, and now he's got to take this
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 2: blame here for injuring a starter like that.
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: That's, that's a bummer.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 2: Also you make a good point or you alluded to
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 2: something about college football fans versus fans of professional teams.
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 2: There's a lot more passion, right? With the college football
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 2: fan base. you're inviting them to try to find out vigorously,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 2: try to find out who this is and maybe do
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 2: some kind of harassment situation with this player.
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: That is just not fair to the player.
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 2: The only good thing here is that the anonymity of
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 2: being a scout team player just means you're harder to find.
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Right.
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 2: Because people are just like, we don't even know who
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 2: the scout team guys are. I can tell you who
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 2: they are. I want you to look down on the sideline,
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 2: every home game. And it's the dude who's wearing like
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 2: a super random number that doesn't look like it fits
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 2: his body type.
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: And he's got a very clean uniform. That's a scout
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: team player.
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 2: And they, they love the team even more than you do.
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: They're part of it. Okay, so knock it off, Adam Rittenberg.
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: And you know what?
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 2: The starters couldn't possibly play as well as they do
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 2: without them playing so hard at practice and giving them
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 2: such a good look.
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: That's correct. Thank you, James. You're absolutely right.
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 2: I started the show today and we talked about some
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 2: of the bigger surprises that have happened so far in
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 2: the NFL season. Our guy David Hale called and he said,
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 2: what about the Chargers? The Chargers are an unpleasant surprise
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 2: for a lot of NFL teams right now. Or I
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 2: should say a lot of NFL fans right now. I
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 2: think they're a pleasant surprise for teams. Like if you're
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 2: a Broncos fan, you're like, oh, cool. I thought the
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 2: Chargers were going to be a problem. Turns out they stink.
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 2: I think the Kansas City Chiefs, to some extent, are
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 2: surprising on the positive side of the ledger. Not because
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 2: I didn't expect them to be 2-0. It's always okay
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 2: to think that the Chiefs are going to win football games.
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 2: But the fact that you're getting these performances from guys
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 2: that are supposed to be a little bit long in
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 2: the tooth, I could say the same thing about my
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 2: San Francisco 49ers. It it's not overly surprising that that
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 2: team is great when healthy. It is overly surprising that
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 2: that team has somehow been healthy because it hasn't been
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 2: the case for the last three, four years in the
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 2: big 12 conference, which is a lot more relevant to
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 2: what we're talking about with the university of Utah. Utes
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 2: are not a surprise at three. I know Texas tech
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 2: is not a surprise. BYU is not a surprise. We
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 2: talked about Kansas State and the fact that the Wildcats
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 2: sitting at 3-0 with still no crazy wins, not any
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 2: big statement wins.
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: This is a team that.
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 2: You kind of slept on a little bit. I slept
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 2: on a little bit in the offseason. Utah does not
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 2: have to play Kansas State. I don't think Kansas State
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 2: is going to be in the conversation for a conference championship,
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 2: even though they're accounting well for themselves right now, Oklahoma
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 2: state has been, they're not undefeated at they're not a
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 2: three and O team, Oklahoma state.
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: We've talked about them plenty.
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 2: They're one of the big surprises for me because of
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 2: the win over Oregon, but also if you're capable of
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 2: beating Oregon, why are you in the same token, able
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 2: to lose the first game of the season to Tulsa
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 2: and no disrespect to Tulsa, but that's not a Tulsa
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 2: golden hurricane squad that I think is going to factor
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 2: into any major discussions. They are undefeated themselves, 24, 10
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 2: against Oklahoma state, 23, 17 against Sam Houston. And then
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 2: they demolished east Texas a and M also Maybe I
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 2: need to put more respect on Tulsa's name.
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: Guess where they go. Guess what?
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 2: SEC team. They get to go potentially victimized this weekend.
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: They play in Oklahoma. They're playing Arkansas, Arkansas.
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 2: So Tulsa might sneak their way into the also receiving
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 2: votes or maybe, maybe we'll get to number 25.
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: Cause you're going to, you're going to probably see them
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: beat Arkansas, Arkansas, bad, bad.
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: They could, they could be a four and O team.
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 2: Two of those against power, four teams that, I mean,
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden they're, Jumping into the, you know,
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 2: like you said, also receiving votes almost in the upper
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 2: echelon of college football all of a sudden. Yeah, but
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 2: going back to the surprise of Oklahoma State and the
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 2: weirdness of Oklahoma State, Tulsa's a better team than Utah
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 2: State is, but they're from the state of Oklahoma. That
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 2: would be like Utah losing to Utah State this weekend
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 2: and then going and beating, I Like it's like, what,
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 2: what's going on there. That's what Oklahoma state has done
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 2: so far this season. Although Tulsa looks to be a
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 2: better team than Utah state. One of the, one of
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 2: the surprises, and we'll talk about this a lot more
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 2: on the show tomorrow and on Friday, one of the
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 2: surprises of the big 12 season so far, not necessarily
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 2: from a steam, a team standpoint, but from an individual
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 2: standpoint is a guy that Utah is going to have
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 2: to deal with this weekend and And he is the
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 2: Cyclones running back, Aiden Flora. This kid is currently in
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 2: three-game sample size, so you take that with a grain
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 2: of salt.
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: He is currently leading.
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 2: The Big 12 Conference in rushing. He's a 6-foot, 195-pound
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 2: running back from Adele, Iowa.
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: Let's see what the population of Adele, Iowa is, shall we? Hello, Adele, Iowa.
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 3: Ooh.
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 2: Adele, Iowa, 7,284 people. It is of course the County
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 2: seat of Dallas County in the state of Iowa. So
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 2: a small town boy from Iowa and Aiden Flora currently
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 2: has 38 carries for 328 yards on the season.
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 2: This kid is crazy. doing some things in this early
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 2: part of the season.
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: He had.
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 2: A monster, monster, monster game against a hold on my
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 2: computer's freezing here. He had a monster game against the
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 2: lesser competition, right? But what is he, what did Aiden
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 2: Flora do against Iowa is what I'm trying to figure
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 2: out here. That's probably more of an equivalent to what
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 2: you're going to see from him as he takes on
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 2: a Utah defensive front.
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: But this dude is like, he's a.
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 2: Small ish white kid from Iowa who got no other offers.
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 2: He was, it was either go to Dartmouth or go
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 2: or go to Iowa state.
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 9: Wow.
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: Like a turn down the Ivy league education. Interesting.
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 2: 38 carries 328 yards. If you're doing math at home,
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 2: that's eight and a half yards a carry.
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: That's almost nine yards per carry. Is that good?
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, he's outpacing last year's offensive player of the year
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 2: in the conference, LJ Martin by nearly a yard per carry.
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 2: He's got the same amount of yards on four fewer carries.
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 2: And by the way, LJ Martin is coming off a
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 2: dang near 200 yard game in his last outing. I mean,
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 2: Aiden Flora, is one of the surprises of the season
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 2: so far.
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: And Utah has got to take him on.
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 2: He's got to, they've got to figure out a way
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 2: to stop what looks like the most potent weapon for
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 2: Iowa state. Iowa state is not necessarily the most potent
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 2: passing attack that Utah is going to face this year.
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 2: But when you're talking about a team leaning on its,
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 2: its skillset, let's see, 12 carries 194 yards against bowling green.
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 2: That's what, helped Aiden floors. Numbers look the way that
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 2: they look.
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: That is a big game.
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 2: 12 carries almost 200 yards. Like that's not that many
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 2: carries OC, but he had 89 yards. He had almost
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 2: a hundred yards against Iowa. He went just under five
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 2: yards of carry against Iowa. And that's something you got
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 2: to pay a lot closer attention to also really getting
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 2: ready for this game. This that's coming up this weekend,
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 2: especially if it is Inclement weather, if it's a little
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 2: bit rainy, now we're talking about both teams probably indexing
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 2: a little bit closer to the ground attack, right? I
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 2: think we're confident that Utah will do okay there. You
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 2: want the run blocking to get cleaner and more efficient.
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 2: I say I think we'll feel good about Utah because
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 2: Wayshawn Parker is now due for another breakout. He had
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 2: a quiet game last game, at least in the stat sheet.
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 2: So Kevin McGiven is going to be like, he's going
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 2: to Kevin McGiven. I promise you is looking at the
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 2: film from the Utah state game and evaluating touch distribution
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 2: and saying, we actually didn't get way Sean the ball enough. Now,
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 2: you can, that's, that stuff can fall through the cracks
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 2: a little bit, especially when you're running option plays when you're,
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 2: when like you have, cause in your script, it's like, okay,
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 2: that is potentially a touch for way Sean here.
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: He is maybe right.
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 2: Wide receiver number one, or he's a pitch man, or
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 2: he's the first read for the quarterback. And if, that
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 2: doesn't end up actually being a touch because the quarterback
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 2: keeps or the pass goes to somebody else because of
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 2: coverage or anything else. Now, what you thought was going
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 2: to be a 20 to 25 touch game for way
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 2: Sean Parker ends up being a 13.
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: Touch game for way Sean Parker.
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 2: And even in a win, when you get to be nitpicky,
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 2: you look back at that and you say, well, It's cool.
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 2: We got Daniel Bray lose and we, we may be,
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 2: especially after he had a 90 plus yard or taken back,
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 2: we maybe should have leaned on way Sean a little
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 2: bit more.
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: We should have gone back to way Sean.
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 2: That's going to happen, especially if it's rainy weather at
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 2: Iowa state, if they're at, if they're in Ames and
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 2: the game's soggy and a little bit ugly, you're probably
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 2: going to be like, okay, way, get out there. Um,
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 2: I think it's also important to note that the forecast
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 2: is calling for rain rather than thunderstorms. I am not
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 2: a meteorologist, but that feels like an important distinction for
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 2: me because the worst thing, the most obnoxious thing, the
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 2: most terrible thing in what is an otherwise harmonious and
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 2: wonderful time of year with college football season and having
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 2: games on is when those games get delayed by the lightning.
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 2: It's 30 minutes per lightning strike if they're close enough.
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: And it's just insane.
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 2: Absolutely a game wrecker, not just for the fan experience,
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 2: but it's a momentum shift. It's a potential. It's another
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 2: like Okay. We got to go back in the locker room.
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 2: We got to handle that right now. We got to
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 2: get warm again and we got to get our minds
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 2: right again. And if it happens multiple times in a
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 2: game or you've got your routine and you're ready to
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 2: go and then kickoff is supposed to be at one
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 2: 30 mountain time. You end up kicking off at three
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 2: 30 mountain time. Everything gets thrown off and it's all
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 2: bizarre and weird. So I, my hope is as I
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 2: knock on wood that even at this game is ugly,
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 2: which I kind of like, I'm kind of okay with
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 2: a weather wise.
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: No time delays. Yeah, no delays.
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 2: And this should be a good test, as you've outlined,
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 2: for Utah's run game on both sides of the ball then.
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 2: They might have to lean on a guy like Wayshon
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 2: Parker or Daniel Bray in the running game on offense
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 2: if the weather makes things sloppy. And, I mean, Aiden
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 2: Flora sounds like he's been awesome for Iowa State.
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: Should be a good test for Utah's run defense, too.
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 2: So Aiden Flora in the games that he's played so
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 2: far has gone 6.7 yards to carry 4.7 yards to
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 2: carry and about 13,000 yards to carry. So 12 carries
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 2: for almost 200 yards.
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: Decent average.
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 2: By the way, do you think Aiden, when he was
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 2: being recruited out of high school, do you think he
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 2: said he was from Dallas?
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 3: No.
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: He's from Dallas County.
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 3: No.
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: You think to try to just raise the profile?
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 2: So there are some places where they go like counties that,
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 2: they identify with the County that they're from, you know,
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 2: like in West Virginia, they do that.
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: They talk about, you know, we're bone County.
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, Northern California, you hear people say San Mateo
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 2: County all the time, right. Instead of the city they're
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 2: from the, you don't, you don't hear that as often
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 2: like here in Utah, you hear it.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 2: If you're from San Pete County, you're telling everybody you're
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 2: from San Pete County. You're a Washington County guy.
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: I always, I feel like down there, it's just St.
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 3: George.
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 2: I think if you're in a certain part of Utah,
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 2: you're saying there's Utah County, there's Utah County, Davis County,
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 2: even to, even though those, those cities are bigger, those
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 2: towns are bigger.
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, Are we a county? Are we a county state?
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 3: 877-353-0700.
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: Are we county identifiers?
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 2: I don't hear that much with Salt Lake County. You
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 2: may hear people say I'm from Salt Lake Valley, but
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 2: usually you hear the city. Can I say something that's
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 2: going to get me in trouble with a certain contingent
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 2: of our listeners? I think if you are a county identifier,
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 2: I think you're a little podunk.
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: I think it's a sign of.
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 2: Unrealized potential oh wow yeah i'll let you say that
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 2: the views expressed here on the sean o'connell show are
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 2: not those of espn 792 they're just my views yeah
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 2: and i got i'm speaking very specifically to a couple
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 2: of my san pete county buddies okay yeah i was
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 2: gonna say we might have some People just north of
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 2: us a little mad at that. People just south of
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 2: us a little mad at that. Well, the Utah County thing, like,
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 2: I don't think Utah County people identify with Utah County.
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: I think all of us point and say, oh, that's
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 1: a Utah County. Yeah, you might, like, I don't know.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 2: You can clarify Texas, 877-353-0700 if you're from, like, Lehigh
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 2: or Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain. I feel like those kind
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 2: of cities, Springville, maybe a lot of those cities People,
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 2: when they're talking to people outside of Utah County, maybe
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 2: they say, I'm from Utah County.
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever heard that. Obviously, Provo, Orem,
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 2: you're going to say Provo or.
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 3: Orem. 877-353-0700.
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 2: Help me get to the bottom of this. Are we
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 2: here in Utah? Are we county identifiers? Do we identify
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 2: by our counties? Because there are some states where you
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 2: do this. Iowa, in my experience, and I have a
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 2: lot of it with Iowa because my parents are both
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 2: from there. Grandparents are still there. Lots of aunts, uncles,
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 2: and cousins. They don't talk about county. When you're like, oh, yeah,
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 2: where are you from? Or where's that person from?
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: Or where are you going? They say the city.
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 2: The city or town, yeah. They're like, they're from Waterloo.
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 2: They're from Dubuque. They're from Ames. They're from Iowa City.
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 2: They don't talk about the county. They're from Adele, Iowa.
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 2: They don't say Dallas County.
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: He's from Dyersville. If you build it, he will come.
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: Anyone from Dyersville, if you build it, they will come.
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: 877-353- Zero seven hundred.
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 2: If you county identify in Utah, you aren't from Utah,
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 2: says 1013.
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: I think that. Carbon County people, they might identify by county.
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: Summit County, perhaps. Oh, maybe you just say Park City, though.
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: Is that guy Porter? He's a Summit County guy.
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: We'll have to ask him.
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: We're over time. Sean O'Connell show on ESPN 700.
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 3: 92 on FM.
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 5: You're listening to The Sean O'Connell Show, your source for
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 5: the best youth football coverage. Here's O.C. from the Murdoch
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 5: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM. All right,
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 5: here's the deal.
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: 1705 North Redwood.
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 2: Road, Southern Steer. down in Saratoga Springs. It is worth
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 2: the trip from Salt Lake City. Dan and Aubrey have
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 2: set up an old-school neighborhood butcher shop. with a modern
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 2: twist where you can get your rubs, your seasonings, your marinades,
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 2: your pre-made sides, your easy-made meals. You can take advantage
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 2: of the discounts at the food club where they've got something,
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 2: a different deal running each day. But the reason I
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 2: say you need to get down there today, 1705 North
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 2: Redwood Road.
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: Is because.
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 2: You're not going to Ames this weekend, which means you
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 2: need something.
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: You need.
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 2: A fresh-pressed patty, high-end meats. Maybe you need your steaks two,
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 2: three fingers thick. By the way, you get to decide
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 2: how thick the cuts are, how long that thing is dry-aged.
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 2: It's a higher-quality meat without the chemicals, the processing of
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 2: the stuff that you're going to find in the grocery store.
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 2: That goes for the chicken, the pork, the beef. For
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 2: the exotics, if you want some venison, some elk, some
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 2: wild boar. They also have seafood in the freezer, so
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 2: you can surf and turf it. Get a steak from
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 2: the butcher counter. Head over to the little refrigerator on
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 2: the side. Grab a couple of lobster tails. But you
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 2: got to get down there. You're not going to Ames.
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 2: You need a game day menu. And Southern Steer has
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 2: all of it for you. Tell them OC sent you.
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 2: I promise they're going to give you a little special hookup.
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 2: 1705 North Redwood Road. Give them a try. And you
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 2: will be happy you made the trip. You will realize, man,
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 2: I got to every game week, especially when it's not
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 2: a home game. I'm going to have to get down
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 2: here and make sure that my game day menu is sorted.
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 2: By the way, on home games, you should get down
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 2: there too because that's when you need the perfect meats,
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 2: the sausages, the brats, the steak tips, the marinated steak tips,
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 2: all for the tailgate party. 1705 North Redwood Road in
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 2: Saratoga Springs.
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: Tell them OC sent you.
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 2: All right, we made the announcement for you that the
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 2: UFL is coming to Salt Lake City or coming to Utah.
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 2: We've got to wait until 2028, but they had their
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 2: introductory press conference today. James was able to clip about three,
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 2: four minutes of that thing. This is what it sounded like,
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 2: the introduction of a new professional franchise in Utah.
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 6: Can you tell us what attracted you to the Utah market?
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 6: Why do you think it's going to succeed here?
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 4: Well, a lot of things, Dana. Nice to meet you.
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 4: A lot of things attract us to Salt Lake. Number one,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 4: it's about the right market, the right venue, and and
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 4: passionate fan base. The venue is absolutely beautiful, American First Field.
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 4: We knew that going in, and then having the opportunity
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 4: to spend a lot of time with John Kimball and
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 4: Justin Nelson sealed the deal for us. Everything that's happening
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 4: with the venue there, with the renovations and things along
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 4: those lines. And listen, Salt Lake is an incredible area,
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 4: a growing marketplace.
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: Great football culture.
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 4: You know when you look at BYU and Utah and
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 4: Utah State and it's all about building something special and
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 4: we feel that we can do that in Salt Lake City.
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 6: Russ how are the the teams distributed is there like
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 6: a giant tryout and then how does the league determine
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 6: which players go to which teams?
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 4: Dana, there's a bunch of people in that room over
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 4: there working on that as we speak, looking at a
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 4: lot of different iterations. So last year, with all the
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 4: newness and Mike coming on board and everything, we went
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 4: through a complete overhaul with our draft process. We're working
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 4: on that now. We in how everything, all the moving
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 4: pieces are, that's all coming together. But, you know, our
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 4: goal is obviously as we build teams is also build
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 4: those athletes in that community and have them a part
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 4: of that community as we move forward. So a lot
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 4: of information will be coming out over the next few
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 4: weeks is what the profile of rosters will look like.
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 4: But obviously, we'd like to have connectivity to the cities
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 4: in some of the colleges I mentioned earlier. That's a
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 4: big part of our plan. and also long-term continuity with
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 4: players and coaches in that market as well.
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 6: So then Utah, BYU, Utah State players, if they do
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 6: try out and are good enough, they would probably come
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 6: to the Utah team? Is that what you mean by connectivity?
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 3: Yes. Okay. Yeah.
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 4: And we have so there's a lot of different ways
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 4: to get here. Dana is a player. You know, most
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 4: of our players, as I mentioned, have NFL experience. So
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 4: we're dealing with agents and players on on the daily
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 4: relative to, you know, players that that don't make the
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 4: NFL are still looking to play. We also have showcases
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 4: throughout the country. And this year we have 10 of those.
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 4: We had 35 players, I believe, last year signed out
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 4: of showcases, but 25 players rostered out of showcases, including
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 4: our United Bowl winning quarterback Chandler Rogers. So it's another
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 4: opportunity for us to get eyes on players and, you know,
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 4: everyone gets there in a different way.
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 3: But we have.
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 4: Really seen our improvement in our roster make up over
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 4: the last three years and really proud of what we
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 4: built on that side of our operation.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: Do you have a timetable as far as when coaches
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: in front office will be named or hired?
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we're working right now, Barry, on the next steps
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 4: with Colorado Springs and Rhode Island just on that question.
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 4: And then after that, we will focus on Salt Lake
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 4: and Oklahoma City. So as it comes to our coaches
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 4: and our business staff, we will have full time staffs
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 4: in every market that represent Salt Lake and Oklahoma City.
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 4: When it comes to marketing and ticket sales and sponsorship,
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 4: so on and so forth, they will be we are
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 4: working on that. organizational design as we speak. But in
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 4: the short term, we will be naming coaches in Colorado
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 4: Springs and in Rhode Island very shortly.
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 2: A new professional team in Utah, obviously the thing I'm
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 2: most excited about here. So 2028, we're going to get
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 2: another opportunity to potentially name and brand a new team.
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 1: And then hopefully, On a similar timeline.
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 2: Maybe a little before, probably a little after, we get
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 2: to do it again with Major League Baseball.
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: That's the good stuff right there, people.
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 2: Again, the UFL is a unique animal and is something
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 2: that I hope continues to grow to provide player opportunities.
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 2: They occupy a really, really weird space where with the
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 2: modern era of college football and how much guys are
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 2: getting paid while they're in college taking pay cuts to
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 2: then participate in the UFL is going to be jarring
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 2: and create sort of a sticker shock for some of
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 2: these guys, but we will welcome a new franchise when
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 2: they land coming up to the end of the show here.
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 2: We'll have a little quick conversation with Spence check. It's
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 2: maybe another preliminary look at Iowa state hosting the university
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 2: of Utah. Wrapping up the show next on Utah's number
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 2: one sports talk in your home of the Utes, ESPN 700,
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 2: 92 on FM.