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November 3, 2025 • 13 mins

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Over fifteen thousand total yards the way sixteen NFL seasons.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Have you see that?

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Nice? Not me?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
La School, five Pro Bowls, and countless memories.

Speaker 4 (00:12):
When a dog gets an X ray, they've got that
Steve Smith inside their rib game.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Steve Smith is on wfn Z h suf Son.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Well he is back, and our producer Evan Smoke Ludwig
truly is a consummate professional and one of the friendliest
guys you'll ever meet. I mean that, and every week
when he calls Steve Smith, he says, Hey, Steve, how
you doing this week? And then he proceeds to ask
if he's ready to go.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
On the air.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
And I hear Smoke asking him that a minute ago,
and I think you don't need to ask him that
this week. I know exactly how the hell Steve Smith's doing.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
This week.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
The Panthers won in Green Bay, the Dodgers are World
Series champions, and his Utah Utes beat US snot out
of Cincinnati on Saturday with College.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Game Day in town.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
So I'd imagine aged eighty nine is in a pretty
good mood here on a Monday afternoon. What's going on, Smitty?
How are you feeling?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Man? I just finished my workout. Bro, I'm really great.
I'm over here trying to get heyy boys, got me
trying to get my play awight right now?

Speaker 4 (01:09):
God, what a great way. I've had such a great
sports weekend. It's unbelievable how good this sports weekend was.
I'm smiling ear to ear now. I will say real quick,
I said before the break the last thirty minutes of
Game seven Saturday night, I had three strokes, two heart attacks,
and I think I peed my pants a little bit,
and then I threw out my shoulder fist pumping when
Mickey hit that home run in the top of the
ninth inning. Congrats to our Dodger Smithy to me, greatest

(01:32):
World Series of my lifetime.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
It was amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Man, it was unbelievable. It's unfortunate with the effort that
there were Toronto Blue Jays got they got a you know,
they got the l the loss for that. But man,
you look at you watch the game and it was
literally like a soap opera. Yeah right, it was a thriller.
It's suspense. It kept and it kept you holding on

(01:59):
trying to figure out out. I mean I could have
I stayed up late watching it and I could have,
like I didn't go to bed till like two or
three o'clock just because I had so much adrenaline. So,
you know, so much invested in it emotionally. But shrew
man bro it was. It was great. Now obviously my
Utah us, that's the first time since we have been

(02:23):
on college game day or when one of these big
shows come to Utah that we actually want to gain, right,
And we were on the other side of rowdy and
soone versus getting robbed. When I was down there a
couple of years ago for Oregon. We got ran through,
Texas Tech got ran through right. But man, it was

(02:48):
just it was fantastic, man. And I know, you know
those guys up there in Utah, they're working hard, you know,
with the nil and all that stuff. Man, it's it's
it's a grind, but they you know, they're doing it
and hopefully they can keep it up well again.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
An amazing sports weekend capped off by a big win
yesterday in Green Bay. Last time Panthers won there, you
were part of it. You had a big catch back
in oh eight.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Late d Angelo people.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Williams.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, for the.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
Folks that don't remember, late D'Angelo Williams touchdown secured the win.
It was a shootout, thirty five thirty one, hell of
a game, and so yesterday they finally go back up
there and get a win. We use the phrase statement
win sometimes in sports, Steve, and sometimes it means something,
sometimes it doesn't. I'm going to argue that yesterday was
the epitome of a statement win for this organization.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
What do you say.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
I think it's a great win, and I believe that
what they accomplish and how they accomplished it right. Defense.
You know, defense has been an achilles heel for us
at times. But basically if it's week the week, you
gotta look at the Achilles hill for the in the
Buffalo Bills game, and then it come out and I
keep saying that, you know, the the PC answer is,

(03:59):
you know, we got two we got two guys. I'm
not I'm not necessarily sure you got two feature backs.
I think you have a feature back of Rico, and
I think you have a guy who could fill in,
but he just doesn't have He doesn't run the ball
with the same amount of juice. Rico is a tone center,

(04:19):
and I think that's that's it's being showing you know,
I think I saw him. You know, a lot of
guys are kind of what's the world. I'm moving forward,
just kind of getting gimpy because I think it was
the first game they played in the cold with the
weather changes, so you know, you kind of underestimate how
much layers you need to wear, how thorough you need

(04:41):
to warm up. Speaking of that, because in that game,
I think it was the first five plays Jonathan Stewart
breaks out in that game in O eight and he
comes up gimping because he didn't properly warm up and
had this big run. And I remember talking to him

(05:02):
in the hudder, I'm like, how did you not warm up?
He said it was too cold to come outside, right, So,
you know, those little things in football. A lot of
times when I'm sitting here talking on the radio, man,
a lot of the things that I'm saying, I know
I could say them differently, but it is what it is, right.

(05:22):
I know some of the things because of experience of
other players, experiences that I know that I went through right,
the negative and the positive. And I really try to
put myself in in a position when I say, hey,
when a receiver isn't catching the ball with his hands.
That's because he's not comfortable or confident. Man. That's just

(05:44):
something that I did when I was a player. So
either you don't, you're saying that what I'm saying is incorrect.
We that's and that could be possible, But then that
draws a conclusion your ass can't catch. Then if you
got to catch with your with your chest in so
of course, and then that tells me without you admitting it,

(06:04):
you don't have confidence in your hands. So you know,
that's just kind of how it goes. And but it
was a great win. Defense played well. I did watch
something that was very interesting. Derek Brown was getting double
teamed literally almost every play and sometimes triple team like
they had to guard. He was lined up over the

(06:25):
center or lined up over the guard. They did a
you know, I had little floor in that offense. They
do a lot of movement shifting, so that shifts the
defensive front to the strength or to the weakness, and
a lot of times it doesn't matter. Derek Brown is
the strength. So they had a guard center and then
they had a true a freaking tidy end coming down

(06:46):
if the other guard was pulling. They just had a
lot of different things and how to attack them, and
luckily they were guys stepping up a Sean Robinson was bawling.
He did an outstanding job. Doesn't get a lot of credit,
but man was it was a really good football game
to watch twice for me to be able to pick

(07:07):
out some things that were good and then obviously some
things are bad. You know they're gonna coach that. They've
already coached that up, and you know they meet a
two one o'clock team meeting two o'clock, so they've already
coached it up and they're moving on getting prepared for
next week.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
It's a week to week league. You and I know it.
We've talked about it quite a bit. Buffalo was ugly,
this one was a lot of fun. We don't know
what the future holds, and so it's been a real
roller coaster ride so far this year. But one constant
for the most part has been offensive line plays. So
far in nine weeks, they've started seven different combinations along
the offensive line. Yesterday, Jake Kurhan, a guy they picked
up off the Cardinals practice squad a couple of weeks ago,

(07:44):
came in and was huge for them. Again, I know
that we crowned some guys one week and want to
fire them the next. I mean, that's the nature of
the business sometimes. But Joe Gilbert offensive line coach, I
don't know if it's him, it's Dave Canalys's scheme, you
can tell me. But like, who deserves the most credit
for those guys week in week out, you know, regardless
of who's out there more or less getting the job done.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, let's give it where it deserves first, which is
the actual players who play right. Obviously, the old line coach,
he does a great job. He's very detailed with those guys.
But then you got to give coach give kudos to
coach Canalis for calling the right place, calling plays that
benefit this offensive line that's had a lot of different

(08:23):
rotate rotation in it, And that's just part of the business.
Injuries are part of the business. You don't really realize
it if it hits your team, right, But I also
have been on teams where it's been eighteen, nineteen, twenty ten,
twelve guys on IR. And this is back in the

(08:45):
day when you couldn't designate guys to come back from IR.
When you are IR, you a Donzoe for the for
the year. So it's been great to watch the Carolina
Panthers play well, and it's also been nice to see
the fans supporting them. Right. I was on the flight,
I think I was heading after Sunday. I had I

(09:08):
had to head somewhere after the game, and man, I
was on the flight and there were some people on
the flight. There was a woman she said something to
the guy that was sitting two rows behind me. He
had the Panthers had a sweatshirt on it, and this
is what she said, and I just thought it was interesting.

(09:29):
She said, I'm surprised you even are wearing a shirt
like that based off how they played. And I was like,
and she was, and she was a Panthers fan, and
I said, boy, oh boy, that speaks a lot to
some of these folks.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Passing game real quick.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Well, here's the reason I'm stating that. I'm stating because people.
There have been people that I walked up to me
and said, Steve, A what you said, I agree, or Steve, hey,
I disagree, whether you agree to disagree. I'm not pulling
this out of there there. I'm not grabbing stuff and
making it up. I'm just I've been in this city
for a very long time. Still in this city. Pull

(10:15):
up if you want to, if you want to go
see the Lord, so pull up. But if I see
it in the city a lot of times, man, it's
various things that have happened that I just wish that
it didn't or wouldn't come across that way. So, I mean,
you know, it is what it is. But passing game,
you know, they got a little choppy. Wasn't a fact.

(10:38):
It was consistent, effective, but it wasn't jaw dropping and
again a pass rush, hesitating feet looking down at their
looking down at the rush instead of looking at the receivers. Man,
it just got to be a little bit better. And
it's starting to happen more and more often. And every

(10:59):
year every football player has a new habit to break,
because you're going to get people who are gonna cause
you to do things that you don't want to do.
They're not gonna line up and say, hey, I'm running
to the right. They're gonna line up on the left,
look safe, right, go left. So you got to be
able to control the bad habits and not allow those

(11:23):
things to stall. Drives.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, I hear you.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
Last thing, I'll let you go you know, I brought
up the playoff word earlier today and I had some
people saying.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh, okay, don't ask me.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
No, I know, I know, I get it, But I
also I'll ask you from this angle, right. You know,
you're a competitive guy. I'm a competitive guy, and so
to me, you know, unless you're clearly blowing things up
and it's a clear rebuild, you're trying to make the
playoffs every single year when you're five and four at
the past the midway point, to me, you should be
thinking playoffs, right, Yeah, you should.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Be thinking playoffs. And I get it. But it's also
one of those where I don't know, going to the
playoffs the way this team or just in the past,
going to the playoffs barely squeaking in or knowing that
you have some clear deficiencies that that is going to
get you in trouble in the playoffs. Yeah, it's like

(12:14):
saying we're gonna go to Disney World. We get in
the car, we all packed up, and ain't no gas man.
You just you just let down some folks. I just
I don't know if I'm comfortable really enjoying. I know
the players would, but really does that set it up

(12:35):
for an opportunity for people to complain and and and say,
you know, I hate this team and all that stuff.
So that's that's kind of where I'm you know, let's
just stay into the victory Monday to day, before we start,
before we start doing the Rose Parade out down in Pasadena.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
It's all about perspective, man, It's all about perspective. I
appreciate you as always, hope you enjoyed the week.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Man.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
We'll talk to you next Monday.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
Next Monday, I will be on the flight back from Berlin.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So we're good.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
I got good service, but my service ain't that good.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
That's true, all right, We'll see you in two Mondays.
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