Hour 1- August 27, Barrett Baker

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Fox Sports fourteenth fifth Day, powered by Nova Insurance Services.
In sure your most prized possessionets.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good afternoon, everyone, Welcome to Eye on the Ball with
Steve Rivera. Who's going to be coming on soon, Mehito
Lindo here on a Wednesday, Juan Serrano for those who
don't know Mehito Lindou. But we're welcome to Eye on
the Ball on a Wednesday. We got a good show
once Steve arrives and here he's here, but he's not here,
but he is here. Now I'm here.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
We're trying to get ready for this Saturday show and
it's been crazy. My heart rate has gone crazy and
Honey brothers are driven me crazy and it air is
a little bit more gray. Yes, very much, so well welcome,
Thank you one for starting the show. Of course, we
got Blake Eager coming in at some point like usual.
I think he's eagerly waiting. I think he yeah, eagerly waiting.

(00:58):
You should get a T shirt for that. I think
he's just like you know, the pomp and circumstances. Thinks
that we're gonna have trumpets waiting for him.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
The red carpet one day we will one day we will,
or no carpet at all, no carpet, no trumpets, no,
no carpet trumpets. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, well he's not running, say a light job. He'll
quit the team before he starts running. So yeah, I
agree with you. We're gonna have a pretty good show
today at at the first hour.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Did you see what we're having, yes, Barrett Baker, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm already see. I so flustered that.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, Berrett's one one of our great guests. Former you
have a captain back in the day, uh in the
late nineties, is part of the festival team or no, no, no, no,
just missed out. Just yeah, I think he's the late
night Yeah right, and then we're gonna have like a
special guest here on the other side of the four
o'clock hour, uh Benji Medlock. She's with the the New

(01:58):
Legacy Foundation. There's gonna be some some events this weekend
and she'll talk more about it when she gets on.
Honoring the Polynesian group of players and Polynesians here in town.
So that'll be fun for them to celebrate.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Polynesian culture is a big part of the Arizona football program,
and they've made that clear through not only Jedi Fish
in his time here, but Brett Brannon's continued that obviously
Hawaii is a recognition game for culture. Yeah. Please, do
you know when the team practice is today? I'm not
sure it's a Wednesday. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure because

(02:36):
we have Brandon tomorrow, but that's it until Saturday. Yeah, okay,
because somebody text me. That's why I ask. Okay, So yeah,
it'll be should be a different show, good show today,
different than yesterday, for sure. Would you have fun? A
little funn yesterday? A lot of fun. I think I
didn't hear a lot, but you know heard in the studio. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
The guys are good guys. That's why I think that
Saturday show is going to be very good. And Reggie
Geary was in here, so that helped out with the levity.
They're all they're all buddies. They all hang out together.
I don't know my buddies is a relative word.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
My mother pressure is already up because of these guys,
especially with Chris, and then I see Steve in the hallway.
I'm thinking, oh no, he get your stuff together. I'm
trying to get him together. Have you ever tried to
heard cats? Yes, that's what this is about. Come on here,
come on, don't worry.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Like in Rocky always chasing that chicken. Yeah no, that's
exactly how it feels. Yeah, okay, well again early here
at a Wednesday, halfway through the week. There No, we
still had two more days of shows and then another
one on Saturday. By the way, the show on Saturday
will be at four o'clock the Hunley Huddle. Be sure
to listen in. We might have a special guest or two.

(03:50):
But we're getting ready for that with Ricky and Lamont
coming on board with some great, great sponsors, so that'll
be a lot of fun. If you're interested, let me
know about being a sponsor on my show and that
show it's gonna be uh well, listened to on Saturday.
Another relative word? Well listened to? Relative relative word? What

(04:11):
does that mean? Maybe it will, maybe it won't. You
know this well, because those dudes are on Those dudes
are on it. And if you listen to the show
before with them, the first show two three weeks ago
was a lot of fun. I think Gray was here, right,
I believe, And then you were here for the second
show and it was kind of like that all the way,
just kind of giving each other grief back and forth.
Ricky kind of does that.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I mean trying to give it back, but I'm not
at my resume is not like kids. It's just different
in a give back crap.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah. Wait, not afraid of him, not afraid, but because
he can't respect what happened. What happened about that gazelle
and lions. Yeah you talk about right right, it's gotta
be fast calling me yeho and all that.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
I'll give you a little leeway until it don't. So
we'll see what happens up again. Anybody want to any
want call, I'm already speaking way too fast. Just call
us five to two, four, one, six, seventy four forty.
It'll be good.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Some Arizona football still, yeah, throughout the week, all throughout
the week.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yeah right, I'm not sure who I'm gonna get on
tomorrow and then Friday.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Jay's back with me with our picks. Oh that's why
I gotta make my pick today. Okay, because you're not
on tomorrow. I'm now on Thursday or Friday. Yeah right, okay,
Uh for for which pick, I'm not sure the game.
It's just a random pick, right, random Arizona pick. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Best.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
My best pick last year was that Georgia Tech upset
over Miami, and I'm gonna stick to that. Okay, you
canna stick? I went over five hundred last this season
against the spread, uh, just overall over all my predictions.
I guess that's good against the spread? Is when you
get your money? Yeah yeah, I don't know. I feel
pretty rich right now.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, because you don't have any money, but you're just
a happy life.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, that's how you gotta live life, Steve right down.
Unfortunate right that, so I can keep it in my back.
You want your numbers too, you buy numbers? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
please fift. I don't know if we should do the
show on Saturday, but no, it should be an exciting
game seven thirty, first game on tn T for the
big twelve yea and then of course Brennan's second year.

(06:13):
Expectations are relatively low. Yeah, relatively, I asked. I asked
this of Brian Peterson yesterday. Are you were here?

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Expectations, expectations on the vibe outside of the field and
the u A, what do you think?

Speaker 5 (06:30):
Well?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
So asy doesert swarmed in a pole on our website,
the fans did predict that Arizona gets back to a
Bowl game this year, like right at the six, right
at the six and six. Yeah, that's you're the one.
That's what most of our staff predicted. Outside of myself.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
You're the only optimistic one like that. I mean, seven
and five is okay, maybe that could happen.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Eight and four, well, seven and five is a is
a pretty good record.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, especially after last year. So we'll see. Eight four
is you gotta win all their home.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Games, all the home games and in state games. A
couple of upsets here and there. Maybe, Okay, we'll see.
We'll see what happens. So seven a lot of time,
he's ely waiting. Still eagerly you are waiting. We got
to get him a T shirt. Eagerly waiting or not
waiting at all. I think if we asked Troy a

(07:24):
little bit about this on Monday, maybe I don't know
if you have an opinion on this, but is there
a player that you're excited to see It's a good
question on Saturday or no season, not named Noah, not
named Genesis Smith.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Oh, I was gonna say his name, go ahead. I
don't know I'm not excited to see, but you know
how to see the results the kicker, because they were
spoiled the last couple of years with Loop and previously
to him, now he was solid. Did he make a
roster I don't believe.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
So he usually goes in mid season when when the
kicker goes down and they just need someone. Yeah, maybe
the kicker, uh, the running backs, anybody like that. Last year,
that's what they lacked. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Have they had that guy, the Bill cost Yeah? Yeah, Bill,
they would have been better. I think they would have
won another one or two games.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, not only lose uh cost Mara, but you lose
speed Luke. Yeah, Luke goes down I think with an
injury and then just the red shirt and he's at
Fresno State, I believe. Yeah, we got to see what
he's doing.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
And what what the other guy's Vegas guy?

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Not sure, special teams guy. Oh, just to flow, just
to flow because you know here everyone everyone talks about
him coming in from Oregon. Yeah, we get this guy.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
A heck of a specimen, but but just not wrong place,
wrong time places. You know, like this guy, wrong place,
wrong time, a little late to make sure you were
I just heard you. Yeah did you?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Guys? Wait, can we start the show now? Yeah, it's
gonna start with you. Yeah, you're late. It's right her place,
right here. Maybe you can kind of run up the
mountain and back.

Speaker 6 (09:04):
I also you want me to do some last I
did run on Monday for the first time in a
long time. I ran a mile and you're still like,
quads and hammies are killing me. And I was like,
I was a professional athlete. Are you Are you sure
you walked or just kind of I mean red or
I kept a steady pace. How about that?

Speaker 2 (09:20):
It was above It was above walking the toll toll
like the Olympics.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
Well I made I told Sarah d from Garman that
I would run a ten k in the Garment Marathon,
which omitted myself to that.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Man, you know this whole trying to live longer things
really bite me. Why would you do that? Because I'm
not smart? I said that numerous times on the show.
I'm not a smart person. Do you like those hats
with the bills like that? I don't like cats like that?
You don't like the hole only because I got one
and just have a small hit. So it makes me
look like a what size? What size? What size of nogging?

(09:56):
Do you have? Small? Small? Medium? I've got a huge
You feel about that hat? You feel out that you
wouldn't my guy here? You guys have big nuggets, very big. Yes,
my cowboy hat custom fit at the rodeo last year.
Did you earlier? This year? You bought it purposely?

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Okay, I'm like, come on, no, Steve, You're what exactly
about I can't hear that. What are you talking about this?
I'm plugged in. I can't hear anything about volume? The volume.

Speaker 6 (10:26):
Yeah, I tried the volume like three times. Nobody wants
to listen to each other. Okay, let's just move on.
I can hear you because somebody somebody at the door.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Oh special gas there we go, go ahead. What do
you want to say anything before you leave? Oh, you're
taking a picture of us with this protection program? Living
proof that Steve Vera works. Yeah, in the house's o

(10:56):
Walt That the guy you were talking to earlier. That's
the guy you need to ask. Are you guys doing
the show in studio here? Yeah? It's perfect, he's yeah.
I just told my heart with you guys, they're killing
you said cholesterol. It's no I was like everything at

(11:18):
this point, it might be a bit of everything. Oh,
you're asking me questions. I don't know about this. So
we're talking about a too. I'm not gonna jump sir. Actually,
you have three blank TVs in here?

Speaker 4 (11:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, these are right? Should we try somebody? Maybe it'll work. Yeah,
people at home are gonna love this. Are you guys
watching this? Oh wait, we're on the radio. Yeah right, Sorry,
So you guys are talking about predictions for you a
football predictions? Uh uh? Players are excited to watch this
season outside of someone named Noah Fafid. Yeah that's what

(11:56):
you said. I listen. I'm gonna be a little bit
of a homer and just say, say, think seven wins.
Seven wins, Yeah, seven wins, that's a that's a back
to a bowl game. I thinks, yeah, it's back to
a bowl game.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
I think that's a good that's a good starting mark, right,
given the four and eight season last year, I would think.
So are they gonna do?

Speaker 6 (12:14):
Is Dusk going to participate in the They have.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
The pregame shows pre tailgate tailgate show. I'm not sure. No,
we can hear us now he can hear It's good
technology never escape this guy. It was it was the
did escape me? Yeah, what happened? There was the big
big plug in.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Oh yeah, so it was taken from these smell Yeah,
that plugs too big.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Get that out of here. I need a little plug. Okay,
that's good, break all right, that'll be the best thing
from that one.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
Wait, can we get like thirty secs before we go? Okay,
because I was hearing this and I do want to
just reiterate this and I know that we have a
personal relationship and you call it friendship. I call it
an extremely good bond between the two people. But if
you're a sponsor, you're you're probably sits from a sponsorship
standpoint or substantially lower for what you get to. That
ROI is so high. I think everybody takes that opportunity

(13:07):
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Speaker 2 (13:08):
Show you. I totally And if you need it, contact one,
contact you too, Contact one. Contact me? Yeah, no, contact one.
There you go, that's how you can reach me. Yeah.
Just get on your roadary and make it keeps duncing back. Okay, Yeah, thanks,
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Speaker 1 (17:41):
Streaming live on the iHeartRadio AB. This is I on
the Ball with Steve Roverra on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Hey, welcome back to RYE on the Ball hero Fox
Sports fourteen fifty Oh Steve.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Rivera, you're who I don't know. I'm here, lank Eger,
you got it and you got one the controls here.
And now we have Barrett Baker, former U of A
football player, late nineties, right.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
Ninety seven and ninety eight, And I always got to
shout out my teammates, Steve, you know, twelve and one,
number four in the country. We're going to get a
little feedback from that. But that's the best team we
ever put together.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, No, I think that's a good argument. Arguably the best.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
But yeah, I agree, it's going to argument.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
It was.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
It was just unfortunate circumstances that didn't get you passed
into the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah, I mean a few four bad minutes of football though,
and so we didn't control our own destiny. But that
being said, a great team and looking forward to Arizona
football getting back to that.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, tell me, tell me. I was asking Juan yesterday
today and Brian Peterson what's the buzz? Well, they go
to the practices now that and we see a buzz,
But what what do you think it is outside of
the u of a area.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Well, I love the fact that we're picked last or
near the bottom when you take a look at the
preseason media polls and all of that aspect of things.
Why wouldn't we be though correct? I mean, we had
a disappointing season last year. The beauty of that, though,
is that the backs are against the wall and the
pressure is on the team to come out and do

(19:18):
much better than what we did last year. And there's
no reason that we can't. I mean, I think we
still have a group of players that played probably too
early last year in some cases due to injuries and
this and that. But you've also got Ken and Noah
and some senior leaders and then transfers that came in
from elsewhere that had played winning football as well. And

(19:41):
then the last component to that, I just really liked
the coaching staff that they have brought in in some
of those positions. So I think when you take all
of that together, last year is truly that. And we
always say, right, a rearview mirror small and a windshield's big.
So whatever happened last year, you learned from it, you
put it back there. But the future is where you're looking,

(20:03):
and that stuff starts on Saturday night.

Speaker 6 (20:06):
Barrett, when you play, do you still have a group
chat with some of your former players?

Speaker 2 (20:11):
I'm sure you do. How many do you do? You have?

Speaker 6 (20:13):
One, two, three? How many do you have group chats
with with former players that you played with or teammates?

Speaker 4 (20:18):
I mean there's probably five guys that we can talk
football about. And then Brandon Sanders has done a great
job of also kind of keeping guys together when it
comes to the alumni group, and so every month we
get a group together. That's the u of a lumps
and everybody's on the same page and you're trying to
just make sure that everybody stays connected. So you know, again,

(20:42):
the beauty of football is you've got one hundred guys
a year, and then from there it's one hundred guys
the next year and one hundred guys the next year,
so you really are talking thousands of Wildcats that bleed
red and blue. And I think the cool thing is
that if I played ninety seven and ninety eight, you know,
coach Brannan has a little bit of an obviously familiarity
being a graduate assistant. He's got that open door policy

(21:04):
to a lums, and so I can I and many
others are able to go to practice and stay connected,
and then we can share that with the other groups.
Being a local kid, uh and then having you know,
my best friend Jimmy Heinrich on the team with me.
We work together. Scooter spot is still here, Kelvin Ethon.
So I think it's it's incumbent upon us to make

(21:26):
sure that we stay connected to the program because we
are a Tucson and then kind of you know, be
ambassadors for it. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (21:33):
So with that being said, how what's your what's your
involvement during the season? Do you guys? Do you guys
do go do you come to tailgates? Do you you talk?
Do you communicate? Do you go behind the scenes? Like
from a fan standpoint, because you have that group of people,
especially the people that are here, how involved are you
into the actual football team from a season standpoint?

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Well, I think it's I mean a couple of things
you can do. We have to be ambassadors for the program,
so we have to do things like this, right. We
have to get out in the public, so to speak,
and talk about the good things that are happening, you know,
on the field, off the field, the impact that our
current team is having in giving back to the community,
and why they're going to be successful in life. Season tickets.

(22:17):
I mean, I think I've had season tickets now for sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen years, something along those lines. So we have to
support the team that way. You've got your alumni programs,
golf tournaments in the spring, and then again you know,
alumni weekend, homecoming weekend. There's always a big festivity when
it comes to bringing guys back and making them feel

(22:38):
part of the program. And that's where coach Brannan's obviously
done a great job with Brandon Sanders, Bobby Wade, Joe Saliva,
you know some of the guys, Chuck Cecil, Ricky Hunley.
It does mean a little bit more. And there's a
lot of fans that say it shouldn't matter, we don't
need a lums, but it does matter from that emotional
level when you've worn the red and blue. It does

(22:59):
mean so I think that there's again a little bit
more of a vested interest, but really just we've again
I'm probably too optimistic, and that's okay because at the
end of the day, I look at it this way.
I'm going to support my own kids one hundred percent
of the time, and I'm going to tell them they're
going to do great in life every single day that

(23:19):
they go out because they need support. And our Wildcats
are the same way. These kids are seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
twenty years old, and that's my job is to be
a Wildcat parent and make sure that they're supported. We
got to pack the house, like coach Brannon always talks about,
make sure it's a true home field advantage, but you know,
supporting the kids off the field a little bit as
well and mentoring them and understanding. You know, Soriyer Anderson's

(23:44):
a red shirt or excuse me, a true red shirt
freshman from Texas. You know, going out, he plays quarterback.
My son plays quarterback. You know, his four years or
five years is going to go by in the blink
of an eye. And if you can connect with some
kids that are currently in the program and kind of
help them navigate the highs and the lows and what
that's like to go from a superstar high school player

(24:05):
to being a red shirt freshman where you're not really contributing,
or you're traveling versus not traveling. It still takes one
hundred and five guys rowing in the right direction through
the course of twelve years to make it magical. And
I think that's again, that's where that alumni component can
come in and help out a little bit.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
So you're a former captain back in the day of
that time, you're a player. Obviously, my guy here, Blake,
is a former player baseball player, pro guy. I've covered
a lot of teams, I've played a little in my past.
I think some of the Number one I say that
because I think that one of the top things that
probably you can't identify until you know is the chemistry,

(24:42):
how the team plays, and you know when diversity hits
or not diversity, when trouble hits, and when trouble hits,
and then the buy in. I want to talk about
the buy in. Can you talk about how important that
was back in the day for you? And I think
if anything, if anything, it's the buy in the kids
have for their coach. He's here for the second year,

(25:02):
they retained him, he's back. Now they have to prove
that they want to play for him.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Great call, that's a I mean, there's so much complexity
to this question, but we can start breaking it down
in this regard. Last year, the focus was truly roster retention.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah, because at the end.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
Of the day, he got hired late and so the
portal has changed everything. And I think coach Brennan was
very upfront about this. There was so much focus on
keeping players here and keeping them happy. And when you
keep them happy, maybe you have to not coach him
quite as hard as you normally would because you can
take a look at our cornerback that was literally in

(25:42):
the transfer portal the entire time during the spring. Now
he ended up staying with the team, But was he
really all in? And that's not to throw shade at him,
but you know, the kids that are on the roster
this year are all in for this staff. And I
think that that's critical because coach told me every year
it was stay together. The next year was work together. Right,

(26:05):
It's the team, the team, the team, and there's one
hundred and five guys. Twenty two of them are going
to be really happy because they're the starters, and there's
going to be eighty that are I wouldn't say unhappy,
but you got to realize, you know, what is your
role in the team and why are you important if
you are a scout team member? Why are you important
if you're just red shirting? Because if you're not giving

(26:26):
the team a great look during the week to where
they can go out and dominate on a Saturday, then
that's where the chinks in the armor sometimes show up.
And so I think that's just so important to realize
that it really is from Noah Fafida all the way
down to the last walk on on the roster it
gets to dress out, they're all important. And so that's

(26:47):
where the coaching staff really has the obligation slash duty
to make sure that you're empowering one hundred and five
guys and letting them know how important they are to
the team. So, again of football is this, it doesn't
matter if you're black, white, Polynesian, Native American, whatever it is.
There's no color in a locker room. The color is

(27:08):
red and blue. And when you get that tightly knit
team where you truly are brothers. And to your point,
if I know that it was Reggie Hardy's birthday three
days ago and I haven't talked to him for twenty years,
but I can give him a message and he's going
to shout right back to me because we did something
together for a couple of years and those those relationships

(27:29):
last you forever. So I think you're you know, that's
a long answer, but that chemistry is so important, and
some teams haven't and some teams don't. And in this case,
they've been through something that was nasty last year. But
when you've got Trade and Stukes and Genesis and Dalton
and Noah and some of those kids that are you know,
have been around, they've been through the ups, they've been

(27:51):
through the downs. They started with the downs and then
they went all the way to the up and then
they went back down. And you know, so they've been
through the ringer and they know what winning football is
and they know what losing football is. And the hope
this year, you know, with the infusion of hopefully little
depth and a little bit of talent, is that they
can get things righted. And I'm hoping, obviously for you

(28:13):
know everything to work out the way we want. And
again it starts on Saturday night with a solid test
against Hawaii, who already beat Stanford, and so we're gonna
have our work cut out for us.

Speaker 6 (28:23):
I'm going to ask a question because we've we've asked
this question a couple of times, but what is your
expectation for this team this year? Both from a wins
and losses and excitement fact.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Well, maybe realistically and otherwise, Yes.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
Homer, Again, my head and my heart conflict on these things,
and I that's always the case as a fan. If
I'm impartial and I'm not an alum, then you're always wanting,
you know, winning football. So I think that means that
you have to be seven and five and we can
do that. I really believe that we can do that.

(28:56):
I love the coordinators that we brought in. I think
coach day he is something that we're going to really
appreciate our time with him and hope that we get
him for a long period of time. You know, he's
got a bright future in the coaching profession. Coach Gonzalez
has been a wizard of a defensive coordinator in his
previous stops, and he's got the rains this year. So

(29:19):
I have a lot of expectations that I have to
temper with the reality of, like do we have the
talent to actually, you know, put that and compete in
the Big twelve against some of these teams that they
really do have established programs. Kansas State, to me, is
a really really big game. We played him tough for
a half last year on the road early in the season,

(29:41):
you know, a couple of turnovers, and then all of
a sudden the second half it went pretty south, or
it went south pretty quick. What do we have this year?
And so I think early in the season, you know,
I'm expecting fully to be two and oh going into
that season, and that's where we got to pack the
house and make it nasty for them for a road
game for them a strong home field advantage. But the

(30:02):
second part of that, if you get that seven and
five type of season, now there's a belief and nay
sayers are quieted down, and I think then you see,
you know, when it comes to some of the freshmen
that we've recruited, some of the transfers that we've recruited,
kay into the Combra starting at center for US this week,
you know, Riley's going to have a big year. Riley Wilson,

(30:25):
some of those transfers and young freshmen. Do we have
the building blocks to keep moving this thing forward? And
Coach Brennan had a struggle at San Jose State for
the first two years there, and I mean struggle is
in like two or three wins total, and then all
of a sudden they started winning. And so I think
that we have the ability to do that here when
you flip that culture and we can say whatever we

(30:48):
want about x's and those, but people do gravitate towards
Coach Brennan as a coaching staff, as a community, and
now he's just got to put the wins on the
scoreboard to make sure that we get into that third
year with some real.

Speaker 6 (31:00):
Menum Berry, you said it earlier about packing the house,
and this is a conversation we've had as well. You know,
if the expectation is, let's say five hundred or maybe
even seven wins, what do you what's the u of
a or you're as a former player, expectation of the
community from an attendance standpoint, are you thinking, can you

(31:20):
throw out a number of Okay, if we're going to
be five hundred.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
The expectation should be thirty thousand per game.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
And you're native, and you're a native, there's a longer Yeah,
there's a longer winded question here, and when I'm.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
Going to get to it, Okay, No, I think it's
a fair question. And at the end of the day,
anybody in regardless of what sport, gravitates towards winners. And
so I'm on the boat. I've been in the boat
for eighteen years through five different coaches. So that's my
job is to go to that stadium on Saturday night
and to support the team from the first quarter through

(31:52):
the last whistle. And they make it tough sometimes, and
I say they meaning with the TV agreements and the
start times and the long games, and that's challenging. It's
a lot to ask families to go to a football
game if it starts at eight o'clock on Saturday night
for a three and a half hour game, when you're
not going to get home until twelve thirty. That wipes

(32:14):
out Sundays. But the importance of it to the one
hundred kids on the team and the coaching staff and
their families, because at the end of the day, you
guys have been around the program long enough. When it's
Iowa in the fourth quarter and Ricky Elmore sacks the
quarterback three times in a row, what did that do
to that environment? What did that do to the game?

(32:36):
And there is something absolutely infectious about an entire stadium
that is rocking in the fourth quarter and when it
is third down or fourth down in the games on
the line, and that offense is struggling because of the
fact they can't hear their snap count. That's a competitive
advantage we've had it. It's not consistent. It's their job
to win. It's our job to support them when they win.

(32:58):
And there's twelve opportunities out of an entire year to
go support them, so you know, and that's over the
course of the season. If you got seven or eight
games out of a season to be at home, then
just do it. I mean that's the ask, right, do
it make memories. I've been taking my kids that are
now twenty one, eighteen and fifteen. Their lifetime is about

(33:19):
memories at Arizona Football Stadium and I love that about it,
and I just hope that more people do it.

Speaker 6 (33:24):
So, just to back this up a little bit, I
think you're right in I have memories of going to
the games as I was a kid with my dad
and who I most likely just fall asleep at halftime
just because I couldn't stay awack sometimes.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Because it was late games, right like you said.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Earlier, But yeah, it's outrageous.

Speaker 6 (33:39):
As a community member yourself, what can you of a
football do more of to draw a bigger found a
fan base or a larger fan base to the games
and take away the winning side of it just a
community effort in your mind? What could we do more
of for our community that we represent.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
That's a complex one. I think that it starts with
the team and understanding that when we advertise the team,
which I think they're doing a really good job of
this year, there's one hundred kids that have stories, and
when you can latch on to those kids individually and
make get a little bit of an emotional investment in them,
then I think that has a big deal. I mean

(34:18):
basketball has that advantage because there's twelve guys on the team.
Everyone knows who those five kids are and if they
go out, you know, to grocery shop and then they're
going to be recognized. Well, we need to harness those
relationships as to who is on our team and why
do they need our support over the course of the season.
I think our new athletic director has been very aggressive
and the way she has come in and tried to,

(34:41):
you know, blanket the number of surveys that are out
there about the game day experience, and there's the rub.
I think they really are trying to make sure that
for families that they're getting something out of it. So
the wildcat Walk, the concerts beforehand, you know, whether it's
a DJ or a concert or whatever that means, be
to try to get people down there on a Saturday afternoon.

(35:04):
And then the second part is, you know, again the
winning football. We got to keep them there until the
fourth quarter, which means we've got to be in the
games and we've got to win. So I think it's
just multi pronged. Again, the competitive fee. No one likes that.
That's just the nature of college athletics today when it
comes to money into it, and as a traditionalist, that

(35:24):
makes me sick. But if you can't beat them, to
join them, because if we don't do that, then we
will be left behind. So I think those components are
between a rock and a hard place A little bit
but trying to make ticket sales reasonable, selling the tickets
in three game blocks and this and that's that's also
the marketing specialists to take care of. But they are

(35:46):
attacking it and they're trying to do as much as
they can to ensure that, you know, it's fan friendly.
And then I keep going back to it, but we
just got to win. If we win, it's like the
old field of dreams, right if you build it, they
will come. And that's kind of the job of the
football team right now.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
I totally agree with you, Bert, Thanks a much for
joining us. We'll probably talk to you later this year.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
See you Saturday guys, Beardown and yeah, I enjoyed the
time Beardown for life and let's do it on Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Great. Good to talk to you, Thanks Berret. Let's take
a quick break and come back.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
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Speaker 1 (40:16):
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth fifding.
Want to take part in the show call out Steve
now went five to two oh four one six seventy
four for d.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Hey, welcome back to Wayia and the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve rivera blake eagre with
me today. You got one of controls, perfect time to
give us a quick call five two zero four one
six seventy four forty. It's good to listen to Barrett.
He's you can tell he's a fan, but he's also practical.
And I think your questions to him fans attendance all
that stuff, very very good questions, good PC responses. Yeah

(40:54):
you expect that, right, Yeah, of course.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
For I think my.

Speaker 6 (41:00):
My reasoning for asking that light last line of communication
and questioning was because he lives in our community, right,
so he and you and I keep trying to figure
out the answer of like, what's going to get people there?

Speaker 2 (41:12):
What's an expected number. I've been here almost forty years. Yeah,
and I don't have an answer. It's one of the
more fickle towns in the country.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Yeah, it's a college town, but it's not because it's
a lot of people are not from here and they
have allegiances to other teams. Iowa was in the Wisconsin's
and the Chicago area schools.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
And you by okay, maybe and if we decided we'll
walk in, well you knows by the taking to walk
in last week, Well you didn't go. I'm sorry to
say this publicly, but you didn't go to the indoor.
The biggest question is how many people really going to
have without a team?

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Cheer One went, I went, Ray went, Dave Silver went,
and it was disappointing. I have Yeah, I know, I
know the official numbers that it's.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
The announce thirty two. I think the announce thirty two
said one. I think yeah, And I don't think that.
I don't think there were thirty two, but I'll leave
it at that. Yeah, I listen.

Speaker 6 (42:11):
It's it's an event we can grow af I was
telling uh, I was telling one that I'm trying to
get that group together to brief on Tuesday because I
think there could have been a better community outreach, right we.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
We you and I, You and I don't know anything
about it. Well two three months ago you were saying,
I didn't have a clue. What are you here? Yeah?
I again nothing, Yeah, you know.

Speaker 6 (42:31):
So, I mean, I think we need to fix these
problems because people walked away from that going and one
you said it when I went in and you go,
it's Tucson, it's not too that's not Tucson's fault.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Like Tucson didn't know about it. We didn't.

Speaker 6 (42:43):
I mean, there was a little blurb here. We could
have we could have done a much better job of
marketing who's the week?

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Who's the week? I think you and I in general,
I'm in twoson ins going to the game, but I
think we could have done a better job of marketing
that if we were brought into the circle to say, hey, guys,
we have a once in a lifetime you go.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
So there you go, cause I think that was really
we talked about this. We talked about this all the time,
just when you and I are together, how the community
can come together and bring the people involved for everything, yeah,
and say how can we make you better? Well, okay,
that's for you, and then for me, and then for
somebody else, and then this is how we do it
community wise.

Speaker 6 (43:16):
That's here's what we're doing with Arizona Fall League, right,
I mean again, I'm gonna hit this. I don't think
people fully understand that we have all six teams from
the Arizona Fall League coming down here to play a
triple I don't know that's representation from all thirty teams.
You're right, right, and just got announced a week and
a half for sure, Right, this is every single All Star, MVP,

(43:37):
Hall of Famer comes out of the Arizona Fall League.
We have a chance to see them before their next
year is All Stars or Rookie Years or Rookie of
the Years. But the way I pitched it was like, Okay,
what are we gonna do or we're gonna do another
press conference.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Which we've had two really really good press conferences.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Right.

Speaker 6 (43:52):
The two baseball team press conference is amazing. The World
Baseball Classic was amazing, great press conferences. I suggested this,
and I talked to you. I talked to Anthony Jamino
about it. I talked to Michael Love about it. We're
gonna do like a press junket. So we'll do like
a small little conference, just saying, Hi, this is what
we're doing.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
We're excited.

Speaker 6 (44:09):
But then after that, every member of the media that's
there gets their own room and gets five to seven,
seven to ten men's with the people involved. Because Steve,
we need you to understand what the community is doing
and to promote it, but we also need your insight
on how to market correctly. You've been in this community
for so long. Your your voice is a is a
voice of reason.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
That's so funny because the people you probably have to
offend are coming from the inside your area, right Because
there we're gonna blake shut out.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
We know what we're doing. Yeah, we wanted to do it.
Oh good, then let's see how you do it. Yeah,
and then if you screw it up you didn't know
what you're doing. Yeah. I think that's a great idea.
At least that's the start of saying, Okay, what should
we do? Because let's let's face facts, the radio is
limited the newspapers are limited. The other things are limited.
But if you get a lot of limited, yeah, it's
a big pie of a lot of limited. But what

(44:59):
does it do is it starts having the conversation we've
been having on how to centralize that media and then
that information to work and streamline to our community. Well
here's another issue, and this is you might like me
or not like me. So we've been waiting for the announcement.
It came out maybe ten days ago, two weeks ago,
whatever it was. It was like their hiding a secret. Yeah,
it was like the hiding the secret. Now as we

(45:20):
get closer.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
No scream from the tops and say this is who
we are and this is what we're doing. In fact,
i'll say this real quick. The person you put me
in touch with, Yeah, I haven't heard that all. And
whose fault is that? Yeah, that's from people coming from
inside the room. Yeah, the call is not coming from
inside the room. You're right, I mean she is overseeing
the whole league. But you'red percent. But I'm not listen.

(45:41):
I'm not making excuses. She's been phenomenal.

Speaker 6 (45:43):
I'm so happy for Donna to be in this, in
this environment, in this community, but you're.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Right, they need to help themselves.

Speaker 6 (45:51):
Yeah, And I think the more information you can gather,
the better suited you are to make decisions, right, I mean,
I think that's a solid plan. When we keep people
out opposed to bringing them in who are experts in
that area, we're only hurting ourselves, no question, right. I
mean that's why I like you.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
You think beyond the box, and that's what you have
to do, especially if you want people to come and
enjoy what you have to offer. Yeah, I mean we
should all have a chance to enjoy that.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
Right.

Speaker 6 (46:17):
Well, it's only gonna uplift our I guess A long
winded way of saying this is that we draw more
fans to U of A Football games by being more
popular in sports in general. Right, So if we can
elevate everybody, why wouldn't we There's crossover marketing opportunities all
over the place. I will say that two other things though,
going through this, and one you probably know this growing

(46:38):
up here, and Steve, you understand this for being in
this community so long.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
I don't think we do a.

Speaker 6 (46:43):
Great job of community outreach with our youth in our
school programs. That's why I was asking do we have
is u of a on the ground once a week
in different schools. It doesn't matter which. They don't care
what sports team you're from.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
I mean, honestly, they just want to see I just
met a collegiate athlete, technically a professional athlete in some
of these stances. Right. And then the second one is
who's reaching out to our older adult community. I mean,
we're this hoshpage of everything in Tucson.

Speaker 6 (47:13):
Right, We've got a college, we've got college, we've got
older adults, we've got young guys like who's reaching out
to our older adults to make them feel included in that?

Speaker 3 (47:21):
So I just got a text one of my buddies
who listens to the show, and it's pretty bright as
a big, big time company radio shows, radio stations need
to give out tickets when they give out too. The
winner buys one, you get some more than the station
promotes the event.

Speaker 6 (47:37):
Sure, I have. They got to give them to us. Yeah,
I mean that's where it has to come from, an
internal thing where you go. I mean, we did it
with we did it with CTR, we did it with
a bunch of places for the WBC. He's absolutely right. Yeah,
I also think if I'm going to lose money on
a game by selling out by camping tickets for all
these kids and older adults or military to come to
the game, you're going to retain fifteen to twenty percent

(47:58):
of them for the rest of the season. So you
might lose up front on costs, we're gonna make it
up in food and beverage, and you're gonna retain at
least fifteen to twenty percent of them as why. Okay,
so we're talking about this freely.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
We got all the solutions for all the world's problems.
But what if not not that? What if it doesn't
work because you got to try something right, you blow
it up and start all over and you know they're
trying something. Yeah, and it's just not working because we
see it all the time. Yeah it's or or was
the indoor game just not appealing to people?

Speaker 2 (48:30):
What about it? Yeah? No, was it not appealing? Was
it not appealing to just okay, the indoor who cares?
Because it's not a hour. I'm not gonna say it's
not appealing. It's just kind of a well what else
is there outside of was? What else is happening on
a Saturday night in Tucson, they're gonna go somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Well, I'll let me tell you something. This weekend is
a football game, right, So was a big concert at
del Soo. Yeah, there's maybe not the exact audience, but
there's some audience that's gonna mingle. Yeah, that they're gonna
conflict with it. Those some of those people could come
to the game or vice versa. So there's a lot
of things that's gonna start happening now in the fall
in Tucson summer. I get it, it's hot, you want
to go outside, but still there's a lot of conflicting

(49:11):
type of things and the money doesn't last all that long.
If you want to buy ticket here, we can't go there.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Yeah, because you know, listen, you've got two million people
within an hour, right Yeah, Pema County is one point
five million people, so you know you killed the number.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
You've got population that should be able to support these
things where it's not you're not asking for astronomical numbers
as in you know, Phoenix or Maricopa County. We're asking
for That's why I was trying to get to what
is your realistic expectations from a from a from an
attendance standpoint, Well, football games is thirty five thousand.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
I was just gonna say, give me a number. I
was gonna say forty thousand. I was gonna answer that
the realistic number. First game weekend. I know people are
gonna be going home. The new freshmen are going to
be homestick already. They're gonna go YadA YadA. But but
forty is twelve less than the capacity. I think that's
fair first look at the team. If it doesn't get

(50:04):
to that, who knows sweet too, because we're not playing anybody.

Speaker 6 (50:08):
I'm gonna play Devil's advocate a little because I think
you're absolutely right on my standpoint. So now you're let's
say it's forty thousand, right. So let's say it's forty thousand.
Let's say Tucson baseball team has a game the same
night as a football team right at Kino Stadium. Okay,
your expectations hopefully are six thousand there, six to eight.
I would like it to be eight. I think you're
having the third largest league in the country. We need that.
We need to average six to eight. Right, Let's say

(50:29):
it's eight thousand. Let's say let's say there's a Roadrunners
game the same night. Let's say all three are happening.
Realistic expectation for a Roadrunners game forty five hundred right, Okay, now.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Do that math, that's twelve ten thousand.

Speaker 6 (50:42):
Yeah, So that's fifty thousand people, right for three events
to make it a success. It's not a lot, no,
And from a cost standpoint, you can't get that kind
of entertainment and high level sports anywhere close to here
for that price.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
So I'm just trying to put it in perspective.

Speaker 6 (50:58):
What we're asking the community to do fifty thousand people
is to support three teams at the same time. There's more,
but I'm just saying from a a but you also.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Kind of if you have that pie and you says, okay,
people who just don't care twenty five percent?

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Yeah, said, how do you get those people to the game?
I don't know about people who don't care because they
don't care. If I'm going to a Winter League game.
I don't know if you've experienced that yet or not,
But like, I don't really care what's going on in
the field because it's an a wild time. It's so
much fun, the food's unbelievable, it's crazy there's a party atmosphere,
they've played, they've got a DJ, they've got a band going.

(51:33):
Let me let me say this.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
I think your idea, which I think is a fantastic idea,
is getting all the powers at peak from the individual
sports and saying that's pow wow for a day or two, yeah,
and say, how can we help each other be better
at what we do.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Let's do a sport summit. That's we've been talking about
that for a while.

Speaker 6 (51:50):
And let's do it in twos on the first year,
and then we'll do it an Lpass and we'll do
an Albuquerque. We'll move around those three cities because we
can learn from each other and all those communities, and
we're not taking away any of their population or fan
base because nobody from here is Movingdale Pass.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
I'm just joking, but I think it's it's a start.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
It's a start, and maybe they've done it behind the scenes,
but if they have, it's really haven't heard of it
and it's not really working.

Speaker 6 (52:12):
If you and I, if we haven't heard of it,
I wouldn't assume they haven't. I don't think there's a
lot of cross Everybody wants to protect their own and
that's how you kill your own Yes, right, you don't
let it breathe, you don't let it go out, and
you know, figure out life on it.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
So let me ask you. You had some I almost oh,
we got to go with it one minute. You have
some obstacles WBC whether yeah, yeah, whether. I don't know
about word of mouth, that's on whatever it is. Yeah,
I mean if you had one or two wishes, what
you would you have done better?

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Uh? I'm sure that the people the tennis was not
what you wanted. No, attennis was good, Okay, yeah, I
mean paid at tennis wasn't great. But I mean that's listen.

Speaker 6 (52:49):
We blew out the rest of the competition from a
World Baseball Classic site qualifier standpoint. The only thing that
we didn't. The problem for US is they just had
their one in Chinese type base so Taiwan was participating
in that one. So they drew three hundred thousand fans
because they sold out a fifty thousand seed dome arena.
Every single were pleased with it. I was pleased with it.
I was pleased with it for a couple of different reasons.

(53:10):
I was upset with it. And this is my own
personal thing. Is that we brought majorly. There was Major
League Baseball players on the field for the first time
in spring since twenty eleven. I think we could have
done better than twenty five hundred fans a game, right.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Because people didn't know about it. I don't know.

Speaker 6 (53:24):
I would love that feedback. I mean we I mean
there was a pretty high level marketing. It probably could
have done a little bit better there. Obviously, I would
have stuck to the original schedule, and the original schedule
conflicted with the cooler guard, so we moved the whole
event because of it. Right, But I mean, a Sunday,
Monday Tuesday is not going to draw great crowds. We
had Friday, Saturday, Sunday originally, that's what it would Yeah,

(53:46):
because our Sunday numbers were good.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Okay, let's go and come back. Talk more about this later.