August 8, 2025 • 41 mins
Executive Producer of the Down and Dirty, Martin Kelly and Zach Robinson, filling in for Brice and Bianucci, talking Utah Mammoth Lawsuit, Recap Thursday's NFL Preseason Games, talk Utah and BYU football fall camps, and they were joined by Executive Producer of Cougar Sports Ron Weaver III and BIG 12 Radio Ari Temkin!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You were listening to Bryson bia Nucci on one O, three,
nine and ninety eight three ESPN the Fan. Download the
Bryson bia Nucci podcast wherever you get your podcast today.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh yeah, I a the tirer.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
That's how we old him a third hour year on
Bryce and Being Nucci. Obviously, you guys are wondering, Wait
a minute, that's not Brice, that's not Jordan.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Who is that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I'm Martin Kelly, the executive producer for They're Down and
Dirty with Scott Mitchell every day on ESPN seven hundred
from ten to eleven and on ESPN the Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
One to two.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Right in the middle of it all, Baby, that's right
on the street. Oh yeah, that's I just had to
get that grouled in.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We've been hitting it with the music all morning.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Bro.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
We had Gentleman, we had kin Kutob Ken Lamar, and
yet I had the Tiger about the survivors. Oh yeah,
let's talk about some college football here, Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It was in the news yesterday.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We were talking about this on The Down and Dirty
with Scott Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Scott gave his opinion on this, and I had to
give my opinion. I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I couldn't help this, Okay. I had to give my
opinion on this topic right here. Arch Many Okay is
projected to stay in college after this season. His grandfather,
Archie Manny has come out and said, no, no, he's
not leaving Texas. Don't worry about that. He's staying at Texas.
Steve Sarkezi and is gonna convince him to stay at
(01:36):
Texas no matter what happens this season, He's staying at Texas. Now,
another voice we have on this program for on this
whole entire radio station. It's Colin Cowhert. He talks from
eleven to one on this program excuse me ten to
one every day from on ESPN the fan here, and
(01:57):
he brought up a very interesting point to me. If
we Zach, if you can find that the sound will
play it. If not, don't worry about it. I brought
that up just and the as I'm thinking about it here,
Colin had this to say. He says, wait a minute,
what's the point of having him stay another season in
college football after what possibly could be a national championship
(02:19):
type season for him this year with Texas. Last year
he only had three games. He didn't play many pretty
good games. He didn't play in the bowl games. He
played in the game where they benched quinn Ewers versus
Georgia and he got his butt kicked. We saw him
against Alabama earlier in the year. Then we saw in
one of those games earlier in the season where it
was against a nobody like We saw him in three games.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Two of those he was legitimate.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
One of those games he got kicked by one of
the best defenses in college football and had no chance
to come back in that game to win. Okay, and
Archie Manny's saying, well, he's on a Heisman Trophy candidate
after only three starts.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Are you crazy? The dude should not leave Texas. He's
going to stay there.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
My grandson is not entering the NFL drafts Now, here's
two things with this, as we talk about this on
the Bryson bon Ucci Show, there's two There's two ideas
to go with this. Number one is he hasn't had
enough starts. He's been sitting at Texas for three seasons
and he and he has not talked too much. Let's
listen to Coln calnd Let's really hear what he had
(03:23):
to say. About that, Zach, will you ever get a chance?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So I saw this headline from Archie Manning and he
says arch will not turn pro next season, He'll be
at Texas for the next to two years.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, that's what you have to say.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
If he beats Ohio State in Columbus, wins the Heisman
or dozen, and gets into the national championship game, it
would be really bad business to stay in college. And
I know almost every Manning pretty well. They're good at business,
and they say they're right thing when they have to
(04:02):
college sports for truly gifted athletes, like like a Cooper Flag.
It's like that first really cool apartment you live in
when you make a little money and you're like, I'm never.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Leaving this place.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
And then eventually you get a real job with a
VP and the title and you don't want to share
walls or the pool, and you you forget about it
really quickly. Arch Manning made six point five million last
year at Texas nil. Reportedly, cam Ward made forty eight
point seven guaranteed number one pick. Archs Can I can
(04:37):
I interest you in a.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Forty two million dollar loan?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Hook?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
What?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
This is the classic Manning's saying the right thing, and
a lot of times in society. I mean, I think
the term is true, but I get tired of it.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Woke.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Well, you're just not being honest, you know, when you're
really important sometimes JD.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Vance should not.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Talk about ever being a president. Keep it to yourself.
Lebron Manning's Mahomes, Brady. I've seen Mahomes step to the
microphone and just say the right thing, not necessarily the
most honest, authentic thing.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That's what happens.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And the Manning family is American football royalty. All right.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
That's Colin cow here talking about Arch Manning. And that's
the point I wanted to bring up. I don't think
this is about money. What Scott Mitchell brought up on
our program yesterday was the fact that he does not
have enough starts, and I agree with that. Okay, being
a Chicago Bears fan. Guess what in that same draft
that Patrick Mahomes was in that draft. Guess what the
guy with the less experience was the second overall pig,
(05:48):
Mitchell Trubisky. You had two guys with multiple starts that
had more starts than him. That was Deshaun Watson and
Patrick Mahons. Deshaun Watson competing in two National championships.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Patrick Mahomes was at Texas Tech for four years. He
started for three of those years.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Like the guys that had more experience went on to
have better careers.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Obviously Deshaun Watsons, Deshaun Watson, we all know that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But Patrick is the guy that had the great experience,
the best experience, and went on to do something with it. Okay,
Mitchell Trubisky was a great one season wonder, but he
didn't have enough starts. I think arch Many needs more starts.
He needs to be in that offense. He needs to
be in that system. What other system in college football
are you gonna get that's more professionally NFL ready than
(06:34):
Steve Sarkisian. Steve Sarkisian was not great in Atlanta, but
he brings that professionalism, He brings that NFL experience, that
offense that he saw and developed in Alabama before going
back to being a head coach. Heck, he was the
OC against Deshaun Watson in one of those National championship games.
(06:54):
Like that is the level of experience you have at
Texas at the very moment with Sarkisian, I would not
want to leave that Yes, he got paid seven million
dollars to be there, and yes there's a possibility of
a forty million dollar plus to go to the NFL
and be the number one overall pick.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
But let's look at that draft for a second.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The number one overall pick could be New Orleans, and
I think that's why Archie Manny said no to him
going into the draft. He doesn't want to go to
the eighth and had to experience that over and over again.
But that would be a different situation. He wouldn't be
going to an organization trying to get good. He would
be going to an organization that doesn't have a quarterback.
(07:33):
They have a Super Bowl oc winning coach now is
their head coach in New Orleans. They have an idea
what they want to do defensively, they need to get
better offensively.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
They just need a quarterback who knows.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Chuck out of Louisville might be the guy, and then
they don't need to draft a quarterback who knows who
would be number one. It could be Cleveland. That'd be
a tough situation to compete with Deshaun Watson if he
comes back healthy and have arch Manning be the guy
that could replace him. That would ugly. Okay, it could
be Indianapolis, who knows what that's gonna be? Like him
going to Indianapolis, that wouldn't be a bad situation. Payton
(08:07):
Manny was there. It could be the Giants, who knows
about that one. It could be a litany of teams. Okay,
it really could. But to me, arch Man needs to
stay for another season because he needs more experience. The
more experience you are, the better you're going to be.
And that's not a bad thing in that situation with
arch he has not had enough great starts. He had
(08:28):
one team he beat up on. He had the win
over Alabama, very impressive, but he got his butt kicked
versus Georgia.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And he came into that game as a relief. He
wasn't the starter.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
He had to replace Quinn Yours in that game, who
looked terrible in that game as well. We don't know
what arch is really. We need to see a full
season from him. We're gonna see that this year, but
I want to see that back to back seasons. If
he has to wait until the twenty seven draft, wait
until the twenty seven draft. But I don't think this
is about money. I don't think this should be about money.
This should be about experience.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
Zach.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Let me bring you on this like It's simple, isn't
it to just think about, Okay, we he needs more starts.
Over to the fact that he needs money, he's a
many they already had money.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I agree with you.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
My my take on this is that you know a
lot of teams have Arch pretty high on their list
for this upcoming draft twenty twenty six. I've seen the
Rams have him high and starts with Stafford getting a
little bit older on the older side, possibly considering retirement
the next year or two, and I mean sitting behind
Matthew Stafford first of all, would be be amazing for
(09:33):
Arch learning from Stafford. Stafford is definitely a great mentor.
I'm sure he's mentoring Stentson Bennett, Jimmy Garoppolo, and I
might I might even ask sorry about that upcoming upcoming
here in a couple of minutes. But it's I don't
know how smart it is. I mean, Arch did play
a lot last year leaving quinn Ewers as yours was
(09:53):
hurt a lot last year, and I think getting these
starts under his belt and then making a decision just
playing to season will be the smart move.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I one hundred percent agree there. All right, we're gonna
take a break, we'll come back just like Zach said.
We got Arty Tenkin on the other side to talk
about Big twelve, talk about the La Rams. Let's get
all that dost into the show here on the third
hour of the Bryson, b and Nucci Show here on
ESPN one on three nine and ninety eight three the Fan.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
We'll be right back with Rity ten Kin, a.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Big house to the Bounce House, from Lovell Edwards Stadium
to rice Eco Stadium. It's time to talk Cottage football
with Rice and Da Nucci in the morning on one
O three nine at ninety eight tween the Fan, part
of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Ooh, I like that little drum line. That is cool.
That's a good way to open up this segment.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
College football segment here on Bryce and Bia Nucci, ESPN
one on three nine, ninety eighty three The Fan.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I am Martin Kelly.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I'm the executive producer for The Down and Dirty with
Scott Mitchell every single day from ten to eleven here
on ESPN seven hundred and one to two on ESPN
A fan so too. In about a half an hour,
we're gonna have the show with Scott Mitchell later todate.
We got a great guest on the line here to
talk about some Big twelve college football and some possibly
La Ram stuff. We're gonna talk about him with that
(11:11):
a little bit. Ari Tempkin from the tune in Big Twelve. Ari,
how you doing, I'm great?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Thanks? How are you not too bad? Not too bad?
I know you're wondering. Wait a minute. I usually talked
to Bryce or Jordan.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Who is this guy who let this executive producer run
the show for a day. I appreciate you talking to
me and taking some time out of your day. It's
an honor for me to talk to anybody who's associated
with the Big Twelve. I gotta hear you with this
one quick. Ario was reading your Twitter page. I'm wondering,
how did you become a Chicago Bears and White Sox fan?
Because I'm also from Chicago. And if you're from Chicago,
(11:42):
where are you from?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Dude? What side of the city are you from?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (11:46):
I grew up in the northern suburbs and yeah, I've
been in Texas for about.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Fifteen years, so you know, it's rough this time of year.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
In Texas, but in the winter. Yeah, obviously prefer Texas
to Chicago. But yeah, a huge White Sox and Bears fan.
And you know, my career being able to cover a
lot of different teams, you know a lot of different leagues,
and you know, I had I did the pre and
post for Cowboys for five years, and you know, so
when I did that, I wasn't really able to watch
the Bears. So it's good to I guess kind of
good you're able to watch them now on a consistent basis.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Hey, you know what, the Bears are going to be
fun this year. The White size are the white size.
Maybe one day Jerry Ryan Star will realize he'll just
let us free and have an actual fun ownership. Who
knows about that one day. But anyway, all right, we're
bringing you on to talk about Big twelve. I want
to hit you with this one real quick. The preseason
college Poles came out, they had five big twell teams
into it. I want to ask you this is when
the season comes to an end, before we get to
(12:37):
the college football, you know, actual playoffs and all that,
how many big tall teams will we see in the
top twenty five when the final polls come out at
the end of the season, versus what we've seen already.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
Yeah, you know, it's hard to get a sense of
that because you know, I mean, this is certainly close
to what we saw last year the preseason poll. And
you know, I don't ever put much stock at all
into the coaches poll, but at least it gives us
an indication of most likely what the AP pole will
look like, which obviously plays a much larger role in
(13:11):
the playoff and everything else. But you know, look, I
think this league is really difficult to predict year in
and year out, and until that changes, I think the
perception of the Big twelve is not going to be
great in terms of winning national championships. And you know,
maybe that changes this year. Maybe we do see some
more consistency at the top with Aerzoa State, maybe you know,
(13:33):
Texas Tech, whose preseason expectations are very high. You know,
maybe maybe they are part of it. I know, you know,
pretty consistently BYU is undervalued when it comes to preseason polls,
and you know, the majority of times that that BYU
has finished a season in the AP pole. You know,
they started this season outside of the top twenty five,
(13:55):
So you know, five is probably a good number. You know,
I know it's not a great as are in terms
of what this will look like at the end of
the season. But you know, these other conferences, it's really
easy to predict what they're going to look like top
to bottom, and you know there might be a few
changes here or there, but we can pretty much pencil
in with the top five in the preseason AP pole
(14:19):
is going to be in twenty twenty six, and that's
of course before even the AP preseason pool has been
released in twenty twenty five. So the other leagues don't
have as much parody as the Big Twelve does, and
hopefully the Big Twelve changes that because I think from
an entertainment standpoint, parody is great, but you know, from
a consistent state of perception standpoint, parody is not great.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, parody is not great when it comes to when
you're trying to convince a college football committee on why
you should have a certain amount of teams in the
college football playoffs. That's always really you know, a play
in and that's probably one of the reasons why the
Big Twelve was left out of so many years in
the winning was just the four teams because there was
so much parody in the conference that you just couldn't
pick one team. Going into this season, there are other
(14:57):
teams besides Texas Tech and Arizona State who projected to
win this conference. You know, TCU, Baylor, Texas, I mentioned
Texas Tech, but Iowa State, Utah, BYU, They're all going
to be in the mix. Is there a sense of
that the top six of this conference is really really
good and it could be really hard to predict who
could be in the Big Twelve championship?
Speaker 6 (15:19):
Yeah? I mean, and again, I think that's kind of
part of the issue from a perception standpoint. I mean,
I definitely thought BYU being left out of the conversation
last year for the playoff was you know, kind of
an attestament to that. You know, obviously certainly had a
resume that should have put them in that discussion. And
you know the fact that there's so much of a
difference between what happened to the regular season and preseason
(15:42):
expectations works against the Big Twelve. So yeah, I mean, again,
I think we have a pretty good idea of what
the top five will look like, and you know, For me,
I think Kansas State, Texas Tech, you know, Arizona State.
You know, those three teams should be in the mix.
Baylor is a team that I picked win the Big Twelve,
So you know, I think certainly from Texas Tech and
(16:04):
Arizona State and k State standpoint, those are the from
an expectation standpoint, and even Utah from a preseason standpoint,
the teams that are expected to be there. So we'll see,
We'll see how it shakes out. But you know, it's
one of those things like this league has been a
league of parody and then still proven otherwise, you have
to expect that it's going to continue to be.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Let's bring up Baylor here for a second.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
You brought him up. Dave Randa. He revived that program
out of nowhere. He was on the hot seat. He
was a coach that looked like he could not get
that program out of the mud that he got himself into.
They competed for a Big Tall championship. Now they're again
in the conversation, what has Dave Randa done to that
program to revive it out of nowhere after him being
on the hot seat almost a season ago.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Yeah, I mean, you know, It's kind of funny because
they were a completely different team at the end of
the season than where they started. And so I think
last year's team even surprised Dave Randa, you know, as
much as we want to give him credit for the turnaround,
and certainly we should do a degree like he thought.
Day Kwon Finn was their their best starter from day one,
(17:04):
and you know, the transfer from Toledo, who is an
All MAC performer of the year before, did not look
good out of the gate. And then Bryce and Washington
is a guy that really took over as their lead back.
And even you know, first four or five weeks of
the season, there was just not much in terms of
carries for him. So you know, in some ways they've
sort of found their right footing on accident and Sawyer
(17:26):
Robertson steps into lineup. You know, Finn wasn't performing Robertson,
who you know, there wasn't much of an indication in
previous years that he was the guy, but I mean
he stepped into the role and you know, and then
a few weeks after that, Bryce Washington really emerged as
their lead back. If they were trying to figure some
things out, and you know, it took off from there.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
So it is again kind of interesting.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
That maybe Dave Randa couldn't even have predicted what happened
because of where they started the season. But the reason
I'm picking them to win the Big Twelve this year is,
you know, because they in terms of what they returned,
this was one of the best rushing offenses in college
football last year. They were dominated at the point of
attack and up front, and you know, they bring back
basically that entire team on offense and then defensively, their
(18:09):
biggest flaw was you know that they hit some issues
at the big play, and I mean, you can certainly
make the case that that will be an issue against
them this year. Or you know, you go back to
Dave Randa's bread and butter, which is defensive football. And
I trust that Randa is you know, he leads and
presides over this defense and calls plays for the defense,
will figure some things out in order to make them
(18:30):
a little bit more effective on defense. So for a
team that doesn't have much holes, the one hole they
have plays with the strings of the head coach. And
that's why I like them a lot this year.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
A team that has to turn their offseason quickly around
is BYU obviously with the situation with them losing their quarterback,
take retslav having to leave the program. Now at Tulane
competing for the job. They have a three men race
in that program right now. Trason Board Gay, Yeah, Casey,
case Middlestead and excuse me, bar Bachmeyer. They're all con
(18:58):
being for the QB one job for by you Who
do you expect to be the QB one for b YU?
And could b YU repeat anything of what they did
last season regardless of them losing their quarterback?
Speaker 6 (19:11):
Yeah, you know, I mean it's it's really interesting because
while I think, you know, Retslof at the end of
the year was not nearly as effective as he was
at the beginning of the year. You know, I look
at that Kansas game in particular, is a game that
you know, BYU probably needs to win or to get
in the conversation for the playoffs, and they probably win
(19:33):
that game if Retsloft is able to make some throws.
I mean, they had four trips into the red zone
and Chuma with zero points in that game. You know,
some of the luck that BYU had gotten, you know,
from a special team standpoint worked against them in that game.
So you know, I start there in terms of like
they definitely they definitely could have used an upgrade from
Jake Retzloff. Now the thing is, do they have one
(19:54):
of those three as an upgrade? You know, I'm I'm
big into the Barret Bachmeyer camp. I mean for a
guy that you know, spent spring and at Stanford, then
came in late to BUYU and according to Aaron Roderick
has really done a good job in picking up the
offense in such a short period of time. I mean,
he's got the size you want, six two. I mean
(20:15):
the biggest question with him is, you know, the inexperienced factor.
And I think that's why a lot of people believe
that McKay Hillstad will be the starter, just based on
again that experience that he has within this Roderick offense
and a year more than Bachmeyer. But I mean McKay Hillstad's.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Five to nine, and you know, so I think you're limited.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
There in terms of his ability to throw over a
mountain of an offensive line here and find receivers. Now,
it helps that you've got a guy like Trace Roberts
out wide who's led BYU and receiving the last two years,
but they lost some important pieces on special teams considered,
you know, considering Kilan Marion. You know, I'd like to
see Barry Bachmeyer start, but I think, you know, I
(20:55):
think we'll see McKay Hillstadt start the season. But my
guess is at some point we will see bar Buyer
unless you know, McKay Hillstad picks it up and is
really good. In terms of, you know, can they be
as good as they were last year? I mean, look,
I think I love I think Klade is to talk
and talking him a big twel many days. He loves
where they are right now in terms of being under
the radar, even after such a successful season last year.
(21:18):
But I think you look at some of those year
over year indicators of success, winning close games, you know,
and turnovers. Those were major pieces for BYU success last year.
And while I think this will still be a disruptive defense,
you know, are the turnovers that they had that they
turned into points sustainable? Are the special teams touchdowns they
had sustainable? Is that something that you can count on
(21:39):
year every year? So you know, where their offense probably
takes a little bit of a step backwards in terms
of the inexperienced at quarterback and the unknowns at quarterback.
You know, how much can they rely on the special
teams and defensive.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
Touchdowns they were able to get last year.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I have no doubt there's still gonna be a team
that's going to be disruptive. I think Jay Hill last year,
you know, his defense really shined and they were You're
really good at their linebacking corp. They're gonna be really
good at their linebacking corp again with Glasker and Kelly Back.
So I mean, there's pieces there for sure, But I
just think ultimately when you look at some of the
ways that they were successful last year, you know, tendencies,
(22:13):
those kinds of things tend to even out year over year.
So I think I picked them, you know, middle of
the pack in the Big Twelve, but you know, certainly
can see a road where they are another surprise team
again this year in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I said, Casey Middlestad, I don't know where that came from.
I meant to say, McKay Hillstad, I apologize about that.
Let me get you on this one too. Obviously, Utah,
from what happened last year, they're losing their starting quarterback
to them going to Isaac Wilson to them losing their
offensive coordinator halfway through the season, a new offensive coordinator,
they bring in Jason Bek, They bring in Devin dan Peter,
They have.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
A new identity on offense.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
They don't have the wide receiver experience they had last year,
but they still have a lot of good guys in
that room. Can Utah fixed what they had go wrong
last year and produce an actual what a Kyle Whitningham
type offense and seeing they should expect?
Speaker 6 (23:03):
Yeah, I mean, look, I'm probably higher on Utah than BYU,
but not by much. I mean, I think you can
start with the quarterback position, which should you know, be
a dramatic upgrade, which doesn't say much because they were
so ineffective at the quarterback position last year. But anytime
you go with Devin dan Pier and his offensive coordinator
and what they're able to do last year, Jason Beck
and dam Pier at New Mexico, I mean, this was
(23:25):
one of the most prolific rushing attacks in college football
last year, one of the best offense in college football,
and so this is the Kyle Whittingham bread and butter, right,
I mean, an elite defense with a really good offense
that is effective at running the football, a ground and
pound type team. I think there's a few things though,
to look at with that. You know, number one would
be I'm not sure if it's a good thing or
(23:46):
a bad thing. That it's kind of a zig with
the rest of the Big twelve zagging as a pass
happy league. I mean, this is a league that is,
you know, for the most part, defined by being really
effective at quarterback. I mean it is top to bottom
one of the best quarterback league. It is probably the
best quarterback league in the country. And so I mean,
this is gonna be a league with a lot of
really good passing offenses. And you know, Utah's is not
(24:08):
one of those. You know Utah's you know, they're gonna
be a very effective rushing attack. I really like the
Jason's back offense. You know, it's sort of a you know,
a motion pre snap, motion, pre snap movement, window dressing
kind of offense. You know, almost you call it an
option attack, but it's like not a traditional option attack.
(24:28):
And so you know, I'm a big believer in it,
and I think they're going to be good. But what
it's good mean, does that mean competing towards the top
of the Big Twelve. I'm not convinced because I think
you're going to need to be balanced. You can't just
have a really effective running attack and not be able
to throw the football consistently to win in this league
because you're going to go up against teams that can
throw the football consistently, and it's tough to make up,
you know, how quickly you could score through the air
(24:50):
versus on the ground. So like ultimately for me, for
Utah to win a Big Twelve championship, they're going to
have to pass the ball. And I think it's some
you know, at points in time they're gonna go up
against defense, they're going to force the pass. And the
question is and remains to be seen if they have
the hosses to do it, not just with Dan Pierre
in his twelve touchdowns for twelve picks last year, but
I mean, what do they have out wide?
Speaker 5 (25:10):
I mean they lost.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Basically their most effective wide receiver in the spring, a
guy that Winningham called their wide receiver one who bolted
for USC following spring, So they didn't have much depth
and much talent at the wide receiver position before he left,
and now you know it's Tobias Merriweather, who's a big
receiver over the top. Other than that, though, I think
there's a lot of questions in terms of guys ability
to get open. So I think this will be very
(25:31):
much the type of Utah teams we've seen before. They're
going to be elite on defense, despite a lot of
the losses they have. I think there's enough credibility for
this defense to know that they're going to rebound and
be fine. It's the rushing attack. I think that will
also be effective. But to me, I mean, what's going
to take them over the top is you know, can
Devin Dampier be a consistent passer? And you know, obviously
(25:52):
from what we're seeing, you know, from what he's shown
last year as a year one starter in Jason Beck's offense,
he needs to be way better at it.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
All right, Tim, can our guest here on Bryce Mbo Nucci?
All right, I want to transition to the NFL in
the Rams, because we are home of the Rams here
in Utah. On one O three, nine ninety eight three ESPN,
the Fan Rams play their first preseason game tonight versus
a Dallas Cowboy. What are some of the expectations we
could see from this first preseason game.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
Yeah, you know. I mean, look, preseason football is not
the greatest, most aesthetically pleasing stuff. I mean, I look,
the NFL is the Golden Goose of sports, and so
no matter what it does, people pay attention to it.
And you know, obviously we're in the dol drums of
the dead period of sports, and so we're starving for sports,
in particular football. You know, I always find it funny
(26:43):
in my years in covering the Cowboys. I mean, look,
most NFL rosters are are pretty much set right now.
I mean with the most with basically like two, three, four,
five roster spots upper grabs. But when you look at
a fifty three man roster in the NFL, I mean
they're set. I mean you're looking at few positions potentially
down the depth chart that are still up in the air.
(27:04):
And like, even when those guys that are fighting for
these spots make the team, like they're not going to
see the field. If they do, it's on special teams.
So it's funny how and look, I mean I fall
victim to this too and watching these battles, But like
people get so wrapped up and you know, preseason stats
and battles and and then like once you're into like
week three, week four, you're like, oh, yeah, I remember
that guy, whatever happened to him? You know, you totally
(27:26):
forget about it. So you know, there's there's really no
correlation between like success or foul, you know, lack of
success in preseason and success in regular season. Like sometimes
good guys have good preseasons and don't don't do anything
in the regular season. Sometimes guys have bad preseasons and
have bad regular seasons, and sometimes guys have bad preseasons
and have good regular seasons and vice versa. So there's
(27:48):
literally no correlation whatsoever. I think it's just fun to
watch football again. And you know, the Rams are loaded
this year. I think they're going to be one of
the best teams in the NFC again. I mean, they've
been a playoff team, been to multiple Super Bowls in
the last five seasons, so they're probably quietly one of
the most consistent franchises in sports. And obviously with the
Puka Nakula connection and Britain Cuby coming in, you know,
(28:11):
there's some some really good Utah love and you know
what other NFL team you're gonna like in Utah with
the Rams being as consistent of a winner as they are,
and those two guys.
Speaker 7 (28:22):
For sure, there is a QB two battle kind of
going on a little bit with Stentson Bennett and Jimmy Garoppolo.
I mean, sence of Ben's looks pretty good in camp
does does how's that battle been looking? Do you think
Stenton Ben's gonna take QB two.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
I'd be very surprised. I mean, you know, I think
when it comes down to some of those battles, you know,
you have to look at contracts, expectations, and I know,
you know, Bennett came as an undrafted free agent and
has been on the roster, has kind of hung around
enough to consistently be relevant, and I know Sean McVay
thinks very highly of him. But I just feel like
with what Jimmy Garoppolo from an experience standpoint, brings to
(28:59):
the table, you know, like you're and if you cut
either of them, most likely Garppolo is to be picked up. So,
like what I'm saying is Bennett has to really outperform
Garoppolo to really take that job. You know, they're not
It's not like it's an even battle and if if
Bennett just plays a little bit better than you know,
(29:20):
then they're gonna go with Bennett. I think Bennett's got
to blow them away in order to get that job
based on you know, Garoppolo's experience in history, and if
you lose a guy like Stafford, you want to have
Garoppolo in the fold. And look, I mean maybe there's
a higher ceiling potentially with Steps and Bennett because you
probably have already seen the best of Jimmy Groppolo. I
think there's more of a steady hand and like just
don't screw it up sort of approach with a Garoppolo
(29:40):
where you've got the right wide out. It's like you've
got great receivers, you've got a great running game. Like
there's just a lot of pieces here where you just
need a guy to kind of put it, you know,
in drive and.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Go all right, we will get you out on this.
Who's a standout player we should watch for or listen
to for tomorrow night for the Rams?
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Oh man, I mean I'm so neat. E'ven Big twelve football.
You know I'm not gonna lie. I'm you know, I
can't get that deep on preseason rosters for the Rams.
I apologize about that.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
It's all good. It's all good.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Let's get you on this last one here with the
Big Twelve. Obviously, we talked earlier about who could be
one of the top five teams competing for a Big
Twelve title.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
From the middle of the pack with.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
In West Virginia, with an Oklahoma State, with some teams
a little bit lower at the bottom. Are there any
of those type of teams that could could surprise the
Big Twelve and make a competive, competitive run for the
Big Twelve title? Are there any teams we're sleeping on
that were not paying attention to because of how top
heavy this conference is?
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Yeah, I mean, I certainly wouldn't put it out of
the realm of possibility. The BYU could be that team,
you know. I mean, they've got probably the best linebacking
coren in the Big Twelve, which says a lot. And
I think they're going to be good upfront on defense,
maybe even better than they were last year with the
additions of Toddavasa from Utah and Justin Kirkland from Oklahoma State.
You know, a tea. I mean, I think Baylor in
(31:01):
some respects could be a sleeper considering you know, I
haven't seen very many picks them to win the Big
Twelve or compete towards the top of the conference, but certainly,
you know, should be thought of in the top four.
And then a team that's sort of off the board would
be Cincinnati. You know, I thought Breton Sooresby they started
off five to oh last year before taking an absolute
nose dive, and at Big Twelve Media Days they sort
of attributed that nose dive to you know, wideouts and
(31:24):
just not being able to create separation. Well, they've got
a guy at tight end and Joe Royer who last
year broke Travis Kelcey's single season catch record at Cincinnati,
plus they've added a ton at wide out in terms
of speed. So and then another team it's in the
conversation with the best linebackers in the Big Twelve should
be Cincinnati as well, which I think is why, Like
(31:46):
I talked about this with Sean O'Connell on his show yesterday,
But like that's a team when you look at Utah's
schedule late that could really surprise them because they've got
one of the best front sevens in the Big twelve
with Dante Corleone is one of the best interior defensive
linemen and then their linebacking. So like that's a team
where like if you're Utah and you haven't proven through
the previous weeks that you can consistently be two dimensional
(32:06):
multi dimensional on offense, like you're not gonna suck their
linebackers in, You're not gonna, you know, get their linebackers
in the position of of you know, of conflict, and
so you know, Cincinnati is a team I think in
terms of sores b being a really underrated quarterback, in
terms of adding the weapons at wide receiver and what
they have at tight end, plus their defense, that's a
team that could certainly be a surprise team in the
(32:28):
Big twelve this year.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Arety Tienkin tune in Big twelve here on the Bryson
B and New two show one O three nine ninety
three ESPN A fan are I thank you so much
for tuning joining in on us, tuning in and talking
to us about the Big twelve and La Rams thank
you so much.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
You have yourself a good day.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
You bet have a great weekend, guys, take care too,
all right, ARETI Timkin telling us all the great things
that we need to know about the Big Twelve.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
There.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
I'm glad you touched on like Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, teams
like those because I agree with him, you know, Baylor.
To me, the Big Twelve is always looked at as
possibly a too much of a top heavy conference with
teams that compete at the highest level. That was the
exact same thing we said for years with Oklahoma and
Texas because they dominated the conference for so long that
(33:14):
there was no teams from a bottom that could come
up and take that thrown away from them. We saw
Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Baylor do that on some years,
but consistently they never kept that up for many years.
We saw that with West Virginia from a couple times,
but again never consistently year in a year out for
four or five years, versus what Oklahoma did and Texas
did with dominating that whole entire conference for forty years.
(33:36):
I'm glad he talked a little bit of some of
the underdog teams that could possibly surprise some of these
Big Twelve teams, because Zach, we never know, like honestly,
one thing I wish I would ask them, but we
never got a chance. It's just how physically dominant this
conference is from top to bottom. I heard it from
Utah from their first sessions of media sound. They talked
about how much stronger they have to get, how much
(33:58):
bigger they have to get, how much more physical they
have to get yet, because this conference will kick you
in the teeth and remind you that they're not just
the Pac twelve with all bunch of pass happy offenses.
They are a meats and potato, kick you in the
teeth physical type football teams.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:13):
I said this when I started here last year, back
in September, when I was producing for Sean O'Connell our
sisters station USB at seven hundred. Is that the Big
twelve is a very physical league, and Utah obviously is
not used that physicality that BYU is used to. That's
why BYU kind of had a great year. Arizona State,
Arizona were a little bit of surprise. Arizona State especially
(34:34):
was a surprise last year winning the Big Twelve championship
making the playoffs. Obviously not have that deep of a
playoff run, but Utah definitely had to get bigger. It's
a bigger league. You're playing teams on the East Coast
and Middle and like Central Coast. It's it's it's a
really physical league. Sorry, not league conference, league conference, same thing,
I would say, same thing.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Yeah, I would, I would say the same thing. But
it's just it's such a physical conference. And I love
the fact that we brought up this is such a
parody conference because that is what's kind of hurt the
Big Twelve. They have not gotten into the top four
and were respected in that sense. They always picked Notre Dame,
or they picked a second Pack twelve team, or a
second SEC team, or a second Big Ten team. They
(35:15):
always left out the Big Twelve. They always said, well,
Oklahoma didn't play anybody. There was nobody there to play.
It was just a bunch of fun teams. Now BYU Utah,
you know, you got Kansas State, you got Baylor, have
Arizona State. You have some legitimate teams at the top
of the conference that can create some good parody, not
(35:35):
just parody in the sense of feeding other teams their
own sense.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
This is going to be a fun conference.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Towards the end of the season, we'll see who competes
for a Big twelve title game. I cannot wait. I'm
betting on Arizona I'm betting on a repeat from last year,
Arizona State, Iowa State.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I want to see who can knock off those two teams.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Those are my top two picks when it comes to
a Big twelve championship game. We'll see what happens with that.
Who knows, but I'm picking a repeat Arizona State, Iowa.
All right, we're gonna take one final time out. When
we come back, we're gonna give you a look into
what is going on in the weekend with the NFL schedule,
all the preseason games, and much more here on the
Bryson B and Ucci Show one O three nine and
(36:11):
ninety eight three esp.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Dude, you're listening to Bryson Bia Nucci on one O
three nine and ninety three ESPN. The band download the
Bryson b A Nucci Podcast wherever you get your podcast today.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
It's Bryson B and Ucci in the morning. As we
wrap up the program and send you over to the herd,
You're like, wait a second. I was hearing Martin Kelly
all morning, but who is this. It's Zach Robinson, the producer.
I was still in it all week and at the
production side for Jordan as he's out of town and
Bryce out of town as well. Martin's Martin's getting ready
(36:54):
for the down and dirty over at ESPN seven hundred
first hour, So I'm gonna wrap it up for him.
But guess what, guys, Football season is here and the
Utah ESPN Radio Network is getting you ready with thirty
one Days of Football presented by Baskin Robbins. Tuned in
for tuned in daily for the best coverage of NFL
college and Utah area high school. It's the thirty one
(37:18):
Days of Football presented by Baskin Robbins on your home
for football ESPN the Fan. It's gonna give you a
little look ahead for the weekend. As you know, NFL
preseason is kicking off today. We got Detroit at Atlanta
at five o'clock. See of Detroit can rally back from
the game they had last week against the Chargers. Man,
I was I was a little ugly, and especially with
(37:39):
the new coordinators over there in Detroit. We got Cleveland
at Carolina at five on NFL Network. Shador Sanders making
the start tonight for Cleveland. Really interesting situation over there
in Cleveland with six quarterbacks on the roster. Even though
Deshaun Watson is entered, there's still six quarterbacks on that roster.
Crazy Washington a new in at five thirty and that's
(38:01):
the rest of that slate for the day. I'm curious
how this Newigan offense is gonna look with Mike Rabel
taking over as the head coach and what kind of
season Drake made is gonna have this year. Tomorrow we
got a big slate of games. The New York Giants
at Buffalo at n at eleven on NFL Network. What
we'll see like a few draftsman Jackson Dart and what
are those expectations for that Giants offense and some of
(38:21):
the weapons they acquired over the offseason and in the draft.
Houston at Minnesota at two on NFL Network. While JJ
McCarthy play a few drives coming off of jury from
last preseason, did not play at all this season and
Sam Darnold took that job. We know the rest the
rest is history. Dallas at the Rams, Dallas Cowboys at
the Rams at five. We are at the home of
(38:42):
the Rams here in you saw on one on three,
nine ninety eight three ESPN the fan You can't watch
the game, but you want to listen to the game,
Tune in at four for pregame and then kickoff at
five as JB. Long and Maurice Jones drew or on
the call. Pittsburgh at Jacksonville at five.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Not a lot of.
Speaker 7 (38:57):
Expectation, just to see what guys can make the roster
for Pittsburgh and Jacksonville. Curious to see how that game
is going to go. Tennessee at Tampa Bay at five
to thirty, camp Ward potentially playing a few drives, kind
of see what he looks like under Tennessee's system. The
New York Jets at Green Bay at sixth NFL Network.
I'm curious how this Aaron Glenn offense is going to
operate with Justin Fields, Garrett Wilson coming off a great year.
(39:20):
No Aaron Rodgers though, So that's gonna be an interesting
kind of game to look at, and even look at
Matthew Golden and the Green Bay Packers see how he
does in what quarterback and Shaan Clifford as well, coming
off the second year, second quarterback on the roster. So
that's gonna be interesting as well. Kansas City at Arizona.
Not a lot of expectation here, Kansas City obviously set
(39:40):
with Mahomes as a starting quarterback. May see some rookies
out there for Kansas City and even Arizona, so that's
gonna be an interesting game as well. Denver at San
Francisco at six thirty bo Knicks coming off a great
year last year in the race for Rookie of the Year,
obviously Jayden Daniels winning that award last year, but they'd
leave Denver to the first playoff appearance. It's winning the
Super Bowl back in twenty sixteen, twenty fifteen to twenty
(40:03):
sixteen seven season, if you want to call it that
super Bowl fifty and San Francisco's new look defense, you know,
losing Dray Green Law Tall no Whu Funga to the Broncos.
Deebo Samuel obviously trades the Washington Commanders, Ricky Piersall coming
back for year two, Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey, brock Pertty
has a lot of questions for the San Francisco forty
nine ers. It's gonna be interesting to see how this
(40:23):
game goes for preseason. Obviously, a lot of the second
string guys, third stream guys are going to be playing,
but you will see maybe some starters. We'll see Sunday
Miami at Chicago. We're gonna get a look at this
Ben Johnson offense. First look at dis Ben Johnson office.
I don't think that Chicago will play some starters. They may,
I don't know. We'll see about that. In Miami, Quinn
(40:44):
ere is possibly getting some drives in as well as
we kind of get a look at him in a
Miami uniform. We've got the Saints at the Chargers. This
is the last preseason game of the week through a
QB battle in New Orleans, NOLA with Tyler Shag, Spencer Ratler,
who started some games last year for Derek Carr who
was injured most of the year, and then Jake Hayner.
I'm curious who's gonna win this battle and who's gonna
be the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints and then
(41:06):
Chargers coming off a great win last week against the Lions.
As I mentioned before, Trey Lance looking really good. I
said this on the program as well this week is
I think Trey Lance can be a starter in this
league at one point. So we'll see and then Real
Salt Lake is an action on Sunday at New York
Red Bulls kickoff at four and then the Roys are
in action tonight hosting Kansas City. Current Ali nor is
(41:28):
back in Utah after Casey buying her out of her contract.
But that's gonna do it for Bryson b and Ucci.
Bryce and Jordan will be back on Monday as they
will bring you all the news and notes and nooks
and crannies from the weekend camp of Utah and BYU.
But enjoy your weekend, be safe and obviously enjoy this weather.
It's It's Bryson, B and Nucci on one oh three
(41:51):
nine ninety eight three ESPN
You were listening to Bryson bia Nucci on one O, three,
nine and ninety eight three ESPN the Fan. Download the
Bryson bia Nucci podcast wherever you get your podcast today.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh yeah, I a the tirer.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
That's how we old him a third hour year on
Bryce and Being Nucci. Obviously, you guys are wondering, Wait
a minute, that's not Brice, that's not Jordan.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Who is that.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I'm Martin Kelly, the executive producer for They're Down and
Dirty with Scott Mitchell every day on ESPN seven hundred
from ten to eleven and on ESPN the Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
One to two.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Right in the middle of it all, Baby, that's right
on the street. Oh yeah, that's I just had to
get that grouled in.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We've been hitting it with the music all morning.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Bro.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
We had Gentleman, we had kin Kutob Ken Lamar, and
yet I had the Tiger about the survivors. Oh yeah,
let's talk about some college football here, Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It was in the news yesterday.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We were talking about this on The Down and Dirty
with Scott Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Scott gave his opinion on this, and I had to
give my opinion. I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I couldn't help this, Okay. I had to give my
opinion on this topic right here. Arch Many Okay is
projected to stay in college after this season. His grandfather,
Archie Manny has come out and said, no, no, he's
not leaving Texas. Don't worry about that. He's staying at Texas.
Steve Sarkezi and is gonna convince him to stay at
(01:36):
Texas no matter what happens this season, He's staying at Texas. Now,
another voice we have on this program for on this
whole entire radio station. It's Colin Cowhert. He talks from
eleven to one on this program excuse me ten to
one every day from on ESPN the fan here, and
(01:57):
he brought up a very interesting point to me. If
we Zach, if you can find that the sound will
play it. If not, don't worry about it. I brought
that up just and the as I'm thinking about it here,
Colin had this to say. He says, wait a minute,
what's the point of having him stay another season in
college football after what possibly could be a national championship
(02:19):
type season for him this year with Texas. Last year
he only had three games. He didn't play many pretty
good games. He didn't play in the bowl games. He
played in the game where they benched quinn Ewers versus
Georgia and he got his butt kicked. We saw him
against Alabama earlier in the year. Then we saw in
one of those games earlier in the season where it
was against a nobody like We saw him in three games.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Two of those he was legitimate.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
One of those games he got kicked by one of
the best defenses in college football and had no chance
to come back in that game to win. Okay, and
Archie Manny's saying, well, he's on a Heisman Trophy candidate
after only three starts.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Are you crazy? The dude should not leave Texas. He's
going to stay there.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
My grandson is not entering the NFL drafts Now, here's
two things with this, as we talk about this on
the Bryson bon Ucci Show, there's two There's two ideas
to go with this. Number one is he hasn't had
enough starts. He's been sitting at Texas for three seasons
and he and he has not talked too much. Let's
listen to Coln calnd Let's really hear what he had
(03:23):
to say. About that, Zach, will you ever get a chance?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So I saw this headline from Archie Manning and he
says arch will not turn pro next season, He'll be
at Texas for the next to two years.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, that's what you have to say.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
If he beats Ohio State in Columbus, wins the Heisman
or dozen, and gets into the national championship game, it
would be really bad business to stay in college. And
I know almost every Manning pretty well. They're good at business,
and they say they're right thing when they have to
(04:02):
college sports for truly gifted athletes, like like a Cooper Flag.
It's like that first really cool apartment you live in
when you make a little money and you're like, I'm never.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Leaving this place.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
And then eventually you get a real job with a
VP and the title and you don't want to share
walls or the pool, and you you forget about it
really quickly. Arch Manning made six point five million last
year at Texas nil. Reportedly, cam Ward made forty eight
point seven guaranteed number one pick. Archs Can I can
(04:37):
I interest you in a.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Forty two million dollar loan?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Hook?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
What?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
This is the classic Manning's saying the right thing, and
a lot of times in society. I mean, I think
the term is true, but I get tired of it.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Woke.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Well, you're just not being honest, you know, when you're
really important sometimes JD.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Vance should not.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Talk about ever being a president. Keep it to yourself.
Lebron Manning's Mahomes, Brady. I've seen Mahomes step to the
microphone and just say the right thing, not necessarily the
most honest, authentic thing.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That's what happens.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And the Manning family is American football royalty. All right.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
That's Colin cow here talking about Arch Manning. And that's
the point I wanted to bring up. I don't think
this is about money. What Scott Mitchell brought up on
our program yesterday was the fact that he does not
have enough starts, and I agree with that. Okay, being
a Chicago Bears fan. Guess what in that same draft
that Patrick Mahomes was in that draft. Guess what the
guy with the less experience was the second overall pig,
(05:48):
Mitchell Trubisky. You had two guys with multiple starts that
had more starts than him. That was Deshaun Watson and
Patrick Mahons. Deshaun Watson competing in two National championships.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Patrick Mahomes was at Texas Tech for four years. He
started for three of those years.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Like the guys that had more experience went on to
have better careers.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Obviously Deshaun Watsons, Deshaun Watson, we all know that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But Patrick is the guy that had the great experience,
the best experience, and went on to do something with it. Okay,
Mitchell Trubisky was a great one season wonder, but he
didn't have enough starts. I think arch Many needs more starts.
He needs to be in that offense. He needs to
be in that system. What other system in college football
are you gonna get that's more professionally NFL ready than
(06:34):
Steve Sarkisian. Steve Sarkisian was not great in Atlanta, but
he brings that professionalism, He brings that NFL experience, that
offense that he saw and developed in Alabama before going
back to being a head coach. Heck, he was the
OC against Deshaun Watson in one of those National championship games.
(06:54):
Like that is the level of experience you have at
Texas at the very moment with Sarkisian, I would not
want to leave that Yes, he got paid seven million
dollars to be there, and yes there's a possibility of
a forty million dollar plus to go to the NFL
and be the number one overall pick.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
But let's look at that draft for a second.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The number one overall pick could be New Orleans, and
I think that's why Archie Manny said no to him
going into the draft. He doesn't want to go to
the eighth and had to experience that over and over again.
But that would be a different situation. He wouldn't be
going to an organization trying to get good. He would
be going to an organization that doesn't have a quarterback.
(07:33):
They have a Super Bowl oc winning coach now is
their head coach in New Orleans. They have an idea
what they want to do defensively, they need to get
better offensively.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
They just need a quarterback who knows.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Chuck out of Louisville might be the guy, and then
they don't need to draft a quarterback who knows who
would be number one. It could be Cleveland. That'd be
a tough situation to compete with Deshaun Watson if he
comes back healthy and have arch Manning be the guy
that could replace him. That would ugly. Okay, it could
be Indianapolis, who knows what that's gonna be? Like him
going to Indianapolis, that wouldn't be a bad situation. Payton
(08:07):
Manny was there. It could be the Giants, who knows
about that one. It could be a litany of teams. Okay,
it really could. But to me, arch Man needs to
stay for another season because he needs more experience. The
more experience you are, the better you're going to be.
And that's not a bad thing in that situation with
arch he has not had enough great starts. He had
(08:28):
one team he beat up on. He had the win
over Alabama, very impressive, but he got his butt kicked
versus Georgia.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And he came into that game as a relief. He
wasn't the starter.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
He had to replace Quinn Yours in that game, who
looked terrible in that game as well. We don't know
what arch is really. We need to see a full
season from him. We're gonna see that this year, but
I want to see that back to back seasons. If
he has to wait until the twenty seven draft, wait
until the twenty seven draft. But I don't think this
is about money. I don't think this should be about money.
This should be about experience.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
Zach.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Let me bring you on this like It's simple, isn't
it to just think about, Okay, we he needs more starts.
Over to the fact that he needs money, he's a
many they already had money.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I agree with you.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
My my take on this is that you know a
lot of teams have Arch pretty high on their list
for this upcoming draft twenty twenty six. I've seen the
Rams have him high and starts with Stafford getting a
little bit older on the older side, possibly considering retirement
the next year or two, and I mean sitting behind
Matthew Stafford first of all, would be be amazing for
(09:33):
Arch learning from Stafford. Stafford is definitely a great mentor.
I'm sure he's mentoring Stentson Bennett, Jimmy Garoppolo, and I
might I might even ask sorry about that upcoming upcoming
here in a couple of minutes. But it's I don't
know how smart it is. I mean, Arch did play
a lot last year leaving quinn Ewers as yours was
(09:53):
hurt a lot last year, and I think getting these
starts under his belt and then making a decision just
playing to season will be the smart move.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I one hundred percent agree there. All right, we're gonna
take a break, we'll come back just like Zach said.
We got Arty Tenkin on the other side to talk
about Big twelve, talk about the La Rams. Let's get
all that dost into the show here on the third
hour of the Bryson, b and Nucci Show here on
ESPN one on three nine and ninety eight three the Fan.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
We'll be right back with Rity ten Kin, a.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Big house to the Bounce House, from Lovell Edwards Stadium
to rice Eco Stadium. It's time to talk Cottage football
with Rice and Da Nucci in the morning on one
O three nine at ninety eight tween the Fan, part
of Utah's ESPN Radio Network.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Ooh, I like that little drum line. That is cool.
That's a good way to open up this segment.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
College football segment here on Bryce and Bia Nucci, ESPN
one on three nine, ninety eighty three The Fan.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I am Martin Kelly.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I'm the executive producer for The Down and Dirty with
Scott Mitchell every single day from ten to eleven here
on ESPN seven hundred and one to two on ESPN
A fan so too. In about a half an hour,
we're gonna have the show with Scott Mitchell later todate.
We got a great guest on the line here to
talk about some Big twelve college football and some possibly
La Ram stuff. We're gonna talk about him with that
(11:11):
a little bit. Ari Tempkin from the tune in Big Twelve. Ari,
how you doing, I'm great?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Thanks? How are you not too bad? Not too bad?
I know you're wondering. Wait a minute. I usually talked
to Bryce or Jordan.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Who is this guy who let this executive producer run
the show for a day. I appreciate you talking to
me and taking some time out of your day. It's
an honor for me to talk to anybody who's associated
with the Big Twelve. I gotta hear you with this
one quick. Ario was reading your Twitter page. I'm wondering,
how did you become a Chicago Bears and White Sox fan?
Because I'm also from Chicago. And if you're from Chicago,
(11:42):
where are you from?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Dude? What side of the city are you from?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (11:46):
I grew up in the northern suburbs and yeah, I've
been in Texas for about.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Fifteen years, so you know, it's rough this time of year.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
In Texas, but in the winter. Yeah, obviously prefer Texas
to Chicago. But yeah, a huge White Sox and Bears fan.
And you know, my career being able to cover a
lot of different teams, you know a lot of different leagues,
and you know, I had I did the pre and
post for Cowboys for five years, and you know, so
when I did that, I wasn't really able to watch
the Bears. So it's good to I guess kind of
good you're able to watch them now on a consistent basis.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Hey, you know what, the Bears are going to be
fun this year. The White size are the white size.
Maybe one day Jerry Ryan Star will realize he'll just
let us free and have an actual fun ownership. Who
knows about that one day. But anyway, all right, we're
bringing you on to talk about Big twelve. I want
to hit you with this one real quick. The preseason
college Poles came out, they had five big twell teams
into it. I want to ask you this is when
the season comes to an end, before we get to
(12:37):
the college football, you know, actual playoffs and all that,
how many big tall teams will we see in the
top twenty five when the final polls come out at
the end of the season, versus what we've seen already.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
Yeah, you know, it's hard to get a sense of
that because you know, I mean, this is certainly close
to what we saw last year the preseason poll. And
you know, I don't ever put much stock at all
into the coaches poll, but at least it gives us
an indication of most likely what the AP pole will
look like, which obviously plays a much larger role in
(13:11):
the playoff and everything else. But you know, look, I
think this league is really difficult to predict year in
and year out, and until that changes, I think the
perception of the Big twelve is not going to be
great in terms of winning national championships. And you know,
maybe that changes this year. Maybe we do see some
more consistency at the top with Aerzoa State, maybe you know,
(13:33):
Texas Tech, whose preseason expectations are very high. You know,
maybe maybe they are part of it. I know, you know,
pretty consistently BYU is undervalued when it comes to preseason polls,
and you know, the majority of times that that BYU
has finished a season in the AP pole. You know,
they started this season outside of the top twenty five,
(13:55):
So you know, five is probably a good number. You know,
I know it's not a great as are in terms
of what this will look like at the end of
the season. But you know, these other conferences, it's really
easy to predict what they're going to look like top
to bottom, and you know there might be a few
changes here or there, but we can pretty much pencil
in with the top five in the preseason AP pole
(14:19):
is going to be in twenty twenty six, and that's
of course before even the AP preseason pool has been
released in twenty twenty five. So the other leagues don't
have as much parody as the Big Twelve does, and
hopefully the Big Twelve changes that because I think from
an entertainment standpoint, parody is great, but you know, from
a consistent state of perception standpoint, parody is not great.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, parody is not great when it comes to when
you're trying to convince a college football committee on why
you should have a certain amount of teams in the
college football playoffs. That's always really you know, a play
in and that's probably one of the reasons why the
Big Twelve was left out of so many years in
the winning was just the four teams because there was
so much parody in the conference that you just couldn't
pick one team. Going into this season, there are other
(14:57):
teams besides Texas Tech and Arizona State who projected to
win this conference. You know, TCU, Baylor, Texas, I mentioned
Texas Tech, but Iowa State, Utah, BYU, They're all going
to be in the mix. Is there a sense of
that the top six of this conference is really really
good and it could be really hard to predict who
could be in the Big Twelve championship?
Speaker 6 (15:19):
Yeah? I mean, and again, I think that's kind of
part of the issue from a perception standpoint. I mean,
I definitely thought BYU being left out of the conversation
last year for the playoff was you know, kind of
an attestament to that. You know, obviously certainly had a
resume that should have put them in that discussion. And
you know the fact that there's so much of a
difference between what happened to the regular season and preseason
(15:42):
expectations works against the Big Twelve. So yeah, I mean, again,
I think we have a pretty good idea of what
the top five will look like, and you know, For me,
I think Kansas State, Texas Tech, you know, Arizona State.
You know, those three teams should be in the mix.
Baylor is a team that I picked win the Big Twelve,
So you know, I think certainly from Texas Tech and
(16:04):
Arizona State and k State standpoint, those are the from
an expectation standpoint, and even Utah from a preseason standpoint,
the teams that are expected to be there. So we'll see,
We'll see how it shakes out. But you know, it's
one of those things like this league has been a
league of parody and then still proven otherwise, you have
to expect that it's going to continue to be.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Let's bring up Baylor here for a second.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
You brought him up. Dave Randa. He revived that program
out of nowhere. He was on the hot seat. He
was a coach that looked like he could not get
that program out of the mud that he got himself into.
They competed for a Big Tall championship. Now they're again
in the conversation, what has Dave Randa done to that
program to revive it out of nowhere after him being
on the hot seat almost a season ago.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Yeah, I mean, you know, It's kind of funny because
they were a completely different team at the end of
the season than where they started. And so I think
last year's team even surprised Dave Randa, you know, as
much as we want to give him credit for the turnaround,
and certainly we should do a degree like he thought.
Day Kwon Finn was their their best starter from day one,
(17:04):
and you know, the transfer from Toledo, who is an
All MAC performer of the year before, did not look
good out of the gate. And then Bryce and Washington
is a guy that really took over as their lead back.
And even you know, first four or five weeks of
the season, there was just not much in terms of
carries for him. So you know, in some ways they've
sort of found their right footing on accident and Sawyer
(17:26):
Robertson steps into lineup. You know, Finn wasn't performing Robertson,
who you know, there wasn't much of an indication in
previous years that he was the guy, but I mean
he stepped into the role and you know, and then
a few weeks after that, Bryce Washington really emerged as
their lead back. If they were trying to figure some
things out, and you know, it took off from there.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
So it is again kind of interesting.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
That maybe Dave Randa couldn't even have predicted what happened
because of where they started the season. But the reason
I'm picking them to win the Big Twelve this year is,
you know, because they in terms of what they returned,
this was one of the best rushing offenses in college
football last year. They were dominated at the point of
attack and up front, and you know, they bring back
basically that entire team on offense and then defensively, their
(18:09):
biggest flaw was you know that they hit some issues
at the big play, and I mean, you can certainly
make the case that that will be an issue against
them this year. Or you know, you go back to
Dave Randa's bread and butter, which is defensive football. And
I trust that Randa is you know, he leads and
presides over this defense and calls plays for the defense,
will figure some things out in order to make them
(18:30):
a little bit more effective on defense. So for a
team that doesn't have much holes, the one hole they
have plays with the strings of the head coach. And
that's why I like them a lot this year.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
A team that has to turn their offseason quickly around
is BYU obviously with the situation with them losing their quarterback,
take retslav having to leave the program. Now at Tulane
competing for the job. They have a three men race
in that program right now. Trason Board Gay, Yeah, Casey,
case Middlestead and excuse me, bar Bachmeyer. They're all con
(18:58):
being for the QB one job for by you Who
do you expect to be the QB one for b YU?
And could b YU repeat anything of what they did
last season regardless of them losing their quarterback?
Speaker 6 (19:11):
Yeah, you know, I mean it's it's really interesting because
while I think, you know, Retslof at the end of
the year was not nearly as effective as he was
at the beginning of the year. You know, I look
at that Kansas game in particular, is a game that
you know, BYU probably needs to win or to get
in the conversation for the playoffs, and they probably win
(19:33):
that game if Retsloft is able to make some throws.
I mean, they had four trips into the red zone
and Chuma with zero points in that game. You know,
some of the luck that BYU had gotten, you know,
from a special team standpoint worked against them in that game.
So you know, I start there in terms of like
they definitely they definitely could have used an upgrade from
Jake Retzloff. Now the thing is, do they have one
(19:54):
of those three as an upgrade? You know, I'm I'm
big into the Barret Bachmeyer camp. I mean for a
guy that you know, spent spring and at Stanford, then
came in late to BUYU and according to Aaron Roderick
has really done a good job in picking up the
offense in such a short period of time. I mean,
he's got the size you want, six two. I mean
(20:15):
the biggest question with him is, you know, the inexperienced factor.
And I think that's why a lot of people believe
that McKay Hillstad will be the starter, just based on
again that experience that he has within this Roderick offense
and a year more than Bachmeyer. But I mean McKay Hillstad's.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Five to nine, and you know, so I think you're limited.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
There in terms of his ability to throw over a
mountain of an offensive line here and find receivers. Now,
it helps that you've got a guy like Trace Roberts
out wide who's led BYU and receiving the last two years,
but they lost some important pieces on special teams considered,
you know, considering Kilan Marion. You know, I'd like to
see Barry Bachmeyer start, but I think, you know, I
(20:55):
think we'll see McKay Hillstadt start the season. But my
guess is at some point we will see bar Buyer
unless you know, McKay Hillstad picks it up and is
really good. In terms of, you know, can they be
as good as they were last year? I mean, look,
I think I love I think Klade is to talk
and talking him a big twel many days. He loves
where they are right now in terms of being under
the radar, even after such a successful season last year.
(21:18):
But I think you look at some of those year
over year indicators of success, winning close games, you know,
and turnovers. Those were major pieces for BYU success last year.
And while I think this will still be a disruptive defense,
you know, are the turnovers that they had that they
turned into points sustainable? Are the special teams touchdowns they
had sustainable? Is that something that you can count on
(21:39):
year every year? So you know, where their offense probably
takes a little bit of a step backwards in terms
of the inexperienced at quarterback and the unknowns at quarterback.
You know, how much can they rely on the special
teams and defensive.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
Touchdowns they were able to get last year.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I have no doubt there's still gonna be a team
that's going to be disruptive. I think Jay Hill last year,
you know, his defense really shined and they were You're
really good at their linebacking corp. They're gonna be really
good at their linebacking corp again with Glasker and Kelly Back.
So I mean, there's pieces there for sure, But I
just think ultimately when you look at some of the
ways that they were successful last year, you know, tendencies,
(22:13):
those kinds of things tend to even out year over year.
So I think I picked them, you know, middle of
the pack in the Big Twelve, but you know, certainly
can see a road where they are another surprise team
again this year in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I said, Casey Middlestad, I don't know where that came from.
I meant to say, McKay Hillstad, I apologize about that.
Let me get you on this one too. Obviously, Utah,
from what happened last year, they're losing their starting quarterback
to them going to Isaac Wilson to them losing their
offensive coordinator halfway through the season, a new offensive coordinator,
they bring in Jason Bek, They bring in Devin dan Peter,
They have.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
A new identity on offense.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
They don't have the wide receiver experience they had last year,
but they still have a lot of good guys in
that room. Can Utah fixed what they had go wrong
last year and produce an actual what a Kyle Whitningham
type offense and seeing they should expect?
Speaker 6 (23:03):
Yeah, I mean, look, I'm probably higher on Utah than BYU,
but not by much. I mean, I think you can
start with the quarterback position, which should you know, be
a dramatic upgrade, which doesn't say much because they were
so ineffective at the quarterback position last year. But anytime
you go with Devin dan Pier and his offensive coordinator
and what they're able to do last year, Jason Beck
and dam Pier at New Mexico, I mean, this was
(23:25):
one of the most prolific rushing attacks in college football
last year, one of the best offense in college football,
and so this is the Kyle Whittingham bread and butter, right,
I mean, an elite defense with a really good offense
that is effective at running the football, a ground and
pound type team. I think there's a few things though,
to look at with that. You know, number one would
be I'm not sure if it's a good thing or
(23:46):
a bad thing. That it's kind of a zig with
the rest of the Big twelve zagging as a pass
happy league. I mean, this is a league that is,
you know, for the most part, defined by being really
effective at quarterback. I mean it is top to bottom
one of the best quarterback league. It is probably the
best quarterback league in the country. And so I mean,
this is gonna be a league with a lot of
really good passing offenses. And you know, Utah's is not
(24:08):
one of those. You know Utah's you know, they're gonna
be a very effective rushing attack. I really like the
Jason's back offense. You know, it's sort of a you know,
a motion pre snap, motion, pre snap movement, window dressing
kind of offense. You know, almost you call it an
option attack, but it's like not a traditional option attack.
(24:28):
And so you know, I'm a big believer in it,
and I think they're going to be good. But what
it's good mean, does that mean competing towards the top
of the Big Twelve. I'm not convinced because I think
you're going to need to be balanced. You can't just
have a really effective running attack and not be able
to throw the football consistently to win in this league
because you're going to go up against teams that can
throw the football consistently, and it's tough to make up,
you know, how quickly you could score through the air
(24:50):
versus on the ground. So like ultimately for me, for
Utah to win a Big Twelve championship, they're going to
have to pass the ball. And I think it's some
you know, at points in time they're gonna go up
against defense, they're going to force the pass. And the
question is and remains to be seen if they have
the hosses to do it, not just with Dan Pierre
in his twelve touchdowns for twelve picks last year, but
I mean, what do they have out wide?
Speaker 5 (25:10):
I mean they lost.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Basically their most effective wide receiver in the spring, a
guy that Winningham called their wide receiver one who bolted
for USC following spring, So they didn't have much depth
and much talent at the wide receiver position before he left,
and now you know it's Tobias Merriweather, who's a big
receiver over the top. Other than that, though, I think
there's a lot of questions in terms of guys ability
to get open. So I think this will be very
(25:31):
much the type of Utah teams we've seen before. They're
going to be elite on defense, despite a lot of
the losses they have. I think there's enough credibility for
this defense to know that they're going to rebound and
be fine. It's the rushing attack. I think that will
also be effective. But to me, I mean, what's going
to take them over the top is you know, can
Devin Dampier be a consistent passer? And you know, obviously
(25:52):
from what we're seeing, you know, from what he's shown
last year as a year one starter in Jason Beck's offense,
he needs to be way better at it.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
All right, Tim, can our guest here on Bryce Mbo Nucci?
All right, I want to transition to the NFL in
the Rams, because we are home of the Rams here
in Utah. On one O three, nine ninety eight three ESPN,
the Fan Rams play their first preseason game tonight versus
a Dallas Cowboy. What are some of the expectations we
could see from this first preseason game.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
Yeah, you know. I mean, look, preseason football is not
the greatest, most aesthetically pleasing stuff. I mean, I look,
the NFL is the Golden Goose of sports, and so
no matter what it does, people pay attention to it.
And you know, obviously we're in the dol drums of
the dead period of sports, and so we're starving for sports,
in particular football. You know, I always find it funny
(26:43):
in my years in covering the Cowboys. I mean, look,
most NFL rosters are are pretty much set right now.
I mean with the most with basically like two, three, four,
five roster spots upper grabs. But when you look at
a fifty three man roster in the NFL, I mean
they're set. I mean you're looking at few positions potentially
down the depth chart that are still up in the air.
(27:04):
And like, even when those guys that are fighting for
these spots make the team, like they're not going to
see the field. If they do, it's on special teams.
So it's funny how and look, I mean I fall
victim to this too and watching these battles, But like
people get so wrapped up and you know, preseason stats
and battles and and then like once you're into like
week three, week four, you're like, oh, yeah, I remember
that guy, whatever happened to him? You know, you totally
(27:26):
forget about it. So you know, there's there's really no
correlation between like success or foul, you know, lack of
success in preseason and success in regular season. Like sometimes
good guys have good preseasons and don't don't do anything
in the regular season. Sometimes guys have bad preseasons and
have bad regular seasons, and sometimes guys have bad preseasons
and have good regular seasons and vice versa. So there's
(27:48):
literally no correlation whatsoever. I think it's just fun to
watch football again. And you know, the Rams are loaded
this year. I think they're going to be one of
the best teams in the NFC again. I mean, they've
been a playoff team, been to multiple Super Bowls in
the last five seasons, so they're probably quietly one of
the most consistent franchises in sports. And obviously with the
Puka Nakula connection and Britain Cuby coming in, you know,
(28:11):
there's some some really good Utah love and you know
what other NFL team you're gonna like in Utah with
the Rams being as consistent of a winner as they are,
and those two guys.
Speaker 7 (28:22):
For sure, there is a QB two battle kind of
going on a little bit with Stentson Bennett and Jimmy Garoppolo.
I mean, sence of Ben's looks pretty good in camp
does does how's that battle been looking? Do you think
Stenton Ben's gonna take QB two.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
I'd be very surprised. I mean, you know, I think
when it comes down to some of those battles, you know,
you have to look at contracts, expectations, and I know,
you know, Bennett came as an undrafted free agent and
has been on the roster, has kind of hung around
enough to consistently be relevant, and I know Sean McVay
thinks very highly of him. But I just feel like
with what Jimmy Garoppolo from an experience standpoint, brings to
(28:59):
the table, you know, like you're and if you cut
either of them, most likely Garppolo is to be picked up. So,
like what I'm saying is Bennett has to really outperform
Garoppolo to really take that job. You know, they're not
It's not like it's an even battle and if if
Bennett just plays a little bit better than you know,
(29:20):
then they're gonna go with Bennett. I think Bennett's got
to blow them away in order to get that job
based on you know, Garoppolo's experience in history, and if
you lose a guy like Stafford, you want to have
Garoppolo in the fold. And look, I mean maybe there's
a higher ceiling potentially with Steps and Bennett because you
probably have already seen the best of Jimmy Groppolo. I
think there's more of a steady hand and like just
don't screw it up sort of approach with a Garoppolo
(29:40):
where you've got the right wide out. It's like you've
got great receivers, you've got a great running game. Like
there's just a lot of pieces here where you just
need a guy to kind of put it, you know,
in drive and.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Go all right, we will get you out on this.
Who's a standout player we should watch for or listen
to for tomorrow night for the Rams?
Speaker 6 (30:02):
Oh man, I mean I'm so neat. E'ven Big twelve football.
You know I'm not gonna lie. I'm you know, I
can't get that deep on preseason rosters for the Rams.
I apologize about that.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
It's all good. It's all good.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Let's get you on this last one here with the
Big Twelve. Obviously, we talked earlier about who could be
one of the top five teams competing for a Big
Twelve title.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
From the middle of the pack with.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
In West Virginia, with an Oklahoma State, with some teams
a little bit lower at the bottom. Are there any
of those type of teams that could could surprise the
Big Twelve and make a competive, competitive run for the
Big Twelve title? Are there any teams we're sleeping on
that were not paying attention to because of how top
heavy this conference is?
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Yeah, I mean, I certainly wouldn't put it out of
the realm of possibility. The BYU could be that team,
you know. I mean, they've got probably the best linebacking
coren in the Big Twelve, which says a lot. And
I think they're going to be good upfront on defense,
maybe even better than they were last year with the
additions of Toddavasa from Utah and Justin Kirkland from Oklahoma State.
You know, a tea. I mean, I think Baylor in
(31:01):
some respects could be a sleeper considering you know, I
haven't seen very many picks them to win the Big
Twelve or compete towards the top of the conference, but certainly,
you know, should be thought of in the top four.
And then a team that's sort of off the board would
be Cincinnati. You know, I thought Breton Sooresby they started
off five to oh last year before taking an absolute
nose dive, and at Big Twelve Media Days they sort
of attributed that nose dive to you know, wideouts and
(31:24):
just not being able to create separation. Well, they've got
a guy at tight end and Joe Royer who last
year broke Travis Kelcey's single season catch record at Cincinnati,
plus they've added a ton at wide out in terms
of speed. So and then another team it's in the
conversation with the best linebackers in the Big Twelve should
be Cincinnati as well, which I think is why, Like
(31:46):
I talked about this with Sean O'Connell on his show yesterday,
But like that's a team when you look at Utah's
schedule late that could really surprise them because they've got
one of the best front sevens in the Big twelve
with Dante Corleone is one of the best interior defensive
linemen and then their linebacking. So like that's a team
where like if you're Utah and you haven't proven through
the previous weeks that you can consistently be two dimensional
(32:06):
multi dimensional on offense, like you're not gonna suck their
linebackers in, You're not gonna, you know, get their linebackers
in the position of of you know, of conflict, and
so you know, Cincinnati is a team I think in
terms of sores b being a really underrated quarterback, in
terms of adding the weapons at wide receiver and what
they have at tight end, plus their defense, that's a
team that could certainly be a surprise team in the
(32:28):
Big twelve this year.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Arety Tienkin tune in Big twelve here on the Bryson
B and New two show one O three nine ninety
three ESPN A fan are I thank you so much
for tuning joining in on us, tuning in and talking
to us about the Big twelve and La Rams thank
you so much.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
You have yourself a good day.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
You bet have a great weekend, guys, take care too,
all right, ARETI Timkin telling us all the great things
that we need to know about the Big Twelve.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
There.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
I'm glad you touched on like Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, teams
like those because I agree with him, you know, Baylor.
To me, the Big Twelve is always looked at as
possibly a too much of a top heavy conference with
teams that compete at the highest level. That was the
exact same thing we said for years with Oklahoma and
Texas because they dominated the conference for so long that
(33:14):
there was no teams from a bottom that could come
up and take that thrown away from them. We saw
Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Baylor do that on some years,
but consistently they never kept that up for many years.
We saw that with West Virginia from a couple times,
but again never consistently year in a year out for
four or five years, versus what Oklahoma did and Texas
did with dominating that whole entire conference for forty years.
(33:36):
I'm glad he talked a little bit of some of
the underdog teams that could possibly surprise some of these
Big Twelve teams, because Zach, we never know, like honestly,
one thing I wish I would ask them, but we
never got a chance. It's just how physically dominant this
conference is from top to bottom. I heard it from
Utah from their first sessions of media sound. They talked
about how much stronger they have to get, how much
(33:58):
bigger they have to get, how much more physical they
have to get yet, because this conference will kick you
in the teeth and remind you that they're not just
the Pac twelve with all bunch of pass happy offenses.
They are a meats and potato, kick you in the
teeth physical type football teams.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:13):
I said this when I started here last year, back
in September, when I was producing for Sean O'Connell our
sisters station USB at seven hundred. Is that the Big
twelve is a very physical league, and Utah obviously is
not used that physicality that BYU is used to. That's
why BYU kind of had a great year. Arizona State,
Arizona were a little bit of surprise. Arizona State especially
(34:34):
was a surprise last year winning the Big Twelve championship
making the playoffs. Obviously not have that deep of a
playoff run, but Utah definitely had to get bigger. It's
a bigger league. You're playing teams on the East Coast
and Middle and like Central Coast. It's it's it's a
really physical league. Sorry, not league conference, league conference, same thing,
I would say, same thing.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Yeah, I would, I would say the same thing. But
it's just it's such a physical conference. And I love
the fact that we brought up this is such a
parody conference because that is what's kind of hurt the
Big Twelve. They have not gotten into the top four
and were respected in that sense. They always picked Notre Dame,
or they picked a second Pack twelve team, or a
second SEC team, or a second Big Ten team. They
(35:15):
always left out the Big Twelve. They always said, well,
Oklahoma didn't play anybody. There was nobody there to play.
It was just a bunch of fun teams. Now BYU Utah,
you know, you got Kansas State, you got Baylor, have
Arizona State. You have some legitimate teams at the top
of the conference that can create some good parody, not
(35:35):
just parody in the sense of feeding other teams their
own sense.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
This is going to be a fun conference.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Towards the end of the season, we'll see who competes
for a Big twelve title game. I cannot wait. I'm
betting on Arizona I'm betting on a repeat from last year,
Arizona State, Iowa State.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I want to see who can knock off those two teams.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Those are my top two picks when it comes to
a Big twelve championship game. We'll see what happens with that.
Who knows, but I'm picking a repeat Arizona State, Iowa.
All right, we're gonna take one final time out. When
we come back, we're gonna give you a look into
what is going on in the weekend with the NFL schedule,
all the preseason games, and much more here on the
Bryson B and Ucci Show one O three nine and
(36:11):
ninety eight three esp.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Dude, you're listening to Bryson Bia Nucci on one O
three nine and ninety three ESPN. The band download the
Bryson b A Nucci Podcast wherever you get your podcast today.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
It's Bryson B and Ucci in the morning. As we
wrap up the program and send you over to the herd,
You're like, wait a second. I was hearing Martin Kelly
all morning, but who is this. It's Zach Robinson, the producer.
I was still in it all week and at the
production side for Jordan as he's out of town and
Bryce out of town as well. Martin's Martin's getting ready
(36:54):
for the down and dirty over at ESPN seven hundred
first hour, So I'm gonna wrap it up for him.
But guess what, guys, Football season is here and the
Utah ESPN Radio Network is getting you ready with thirty
one Days of Football presented by Baskin Robbins. Tuned in
for tuned in daily for the best coverage of NFL
college and Utah area high school. It's the thirty one
(37:18):
Days of Football presented by Baskin Robbins on your home
for football ESPN the Fan. It's gonna give you a
little look ahead for the weekend. As you know, NFL
preseason is kicking off today. We got Detroit at Atlanta
at five o'clock. See of Detroit can rally back from
the game they had last week against the Chargers. Man,
I was I was a little ugly, and especially with
(37:39):
the new coordinators over there in Detroit. We got Cleveland
at Carolina at five on NFL Network. Shador Sanders making
the start tonight for Cleveland. Really interesting situation over there
in Cleveland with six quarterbacks on the roster. Even though
Deshaun Watson is entered, there's still six quarterbacks on that roster.
Crazy Washington a new in at five thirty and that's
(38:01):
the rest of that slate for the day. I'm curious
how this Newigan offense is gonna look with Mike Rabel
taking over as the head coach and what kind of
season Drake made is gonna have this year. Tomorrow we
got a big slate of games. The New York Giants
at Buffalo at n at eleven on NFL Network. What
we'll see like a few draftsman Jackson Dart and what
are those expectations for that Giants offense and some of
(38:21):
the weapons they acquired over the offseason and in the draft.
Houston at Minnesota at two on NFL Network. While JJ
McCarthy play a few drives coming off of jury from
last preseason, did not play at all this season and
Sam Darnold took that job. We know the rest the
rest is history. Dallas at the Rams, Dallas Cowboys at
the Rams at five. We are at the home of
(38:42):
the Rams here in you saw on one on three,
nine ninety eight three ESPN the fan You can't watch
the game, but you want to listen to the game,
Tune in at four for pregame and then kickoff at
five as JB. Long and Maurice Jones drew or on
the call. Pittsburgh at Jacksonville at five.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Not a lot of.
Speaker 7 (38:57):
Expectation, just to see what guys can make the roster
for Pittsburgh and Jacksonville. Curious to see how that game
is going to go. Tennessee at Tampa Bay at five
to thirty, camp Ward potentially playing a few drives, kind
of see what he looks like under Tennessee's system. The
New York Jets at Green Bay at sixth NFL Network.
I'm curious how this Aaron Glenn offense is going to
operate with Justin Fields, Garrett Wilson coming off a great year.
(39:20):
No Aaron Rodgers though, So that's gonna be an interesting
kind of game to look at, and even look at
Matthew Golden and the Green Bay Packers see how he
does in what quarterback and Shaan Clifford as well, coming
off the second year, second quarterback on the roster. So
that's gonna be interesting as well. Kansas City at Arizona.
Not a lot of expectation here, Kansas City obviously set
(39:40):
with Mahomes as a starting quarterback. May see some rookies
out there for Kansas City and even Arizona, so that's
gonna be an interesting game as well. Denver at San
Francisco at six thirty bo Knicks coming off a great
year last year in the race for Rookie of the Year,
obviously Jayden Daniels winning that award last year, but they'd
leave Denver to the first playoff appearance. It's winning the
Super Bowl back in twenty sixteen, twenty fifteen to twenty
(40:03):
sixteen seven season, if you want to call it that
super Bowl fifty and San Francisco's new look defense, you know,
losing Dray Green Law Tall no Whu Funga to the Broncos.
Deebo Samuel obviously trades the Washington Commanders, Ricky Piersall coming
back for year two, Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey, brock Pertty
has a lot of questions for the San Francisco forty
nine ers. It's gonna be interesting to see how this
(40:23):
game goes for preseason. Obviously, a lot of the second
string guys, third stream guys are going to be playing,
but you will see maybe some starters. We'll see Sunday
Miami at Chicago. We're gonna get a look at this
Ben Johnson offense. First look at dis Ben Johnson office.
I don't think that Chicago will play some starters. They may,
I don't know. We'll see about that. In Miami, Quinn
(40:44):
ere is possibly getting some drives in as well as
we kind of get a look at him in a
Miami uniform. We've got the Saints at the Chargers. This
is the last preseason game of the week through a
QB battle in New Orleans, NOLA with Tyler Shag, Spencer Ratler,
who started some games last year for Derek Carr who
was injured most of the year, and then Jake Hayner.
I'm curious who's gonna win this battle and who's gonna
be the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints and then
(41:06):
Chargers coming off a great win last week against the Lions.
As I mentioned before, Trey Lance looking really good. I
said this on the program as well this week is
I think Trey Lance can be a starter in this
league at one point. So we'll see and then Real
Salt Lake is an action on Sunday at New York
Red Bulls kickoff at four and then the Roys are
in action tonight hosting Kansas City. Current Ali nor is
(41:28):
back in Utah after Casey buying her out of her contract.
But that's gonna do it for Bryson b and Ucci.
Bryce and Jordan will be back on Monday as they
will bring you all the news and notes and nooks
and crannies from the weekend camp of Utah and BYU.
But enjoy your weekend, be safe and obviously enjoy this weather.
It's It's Bryson, B and Nucci on one oh three
(41:51):
nine ninety eight three ESPN
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